Cremation was a complicated process in France at least when compared to how it was handled in the States. It had to be requested in writing, and a doctor needed to certify the cause of death before it could be undertaken. Caine had seen to the former when he had arrived at his father's home, after making certain it was still what he wanted. Martin had made the arrangements for the doctor's documentation. It was several days before the bureaucrats were convinced that the Is were dotted and the Ts were crossed and all the appropriate fees were paid.
Priests and monks had begun to arrive in St Adele within 24 hours of Leanne locating and contacting the Temple Caine had remembered from his youth. They had in turn contacted others. By the time Matthew's body had been released to them, and Peter and his father began the funerary rites in the cottage, there were 50 priests and monks in attendance along with the locals who had known him wandering through to show their respect. They came forward with fruit and flowers to lay in the casket around him. Incense and candles were lit and placed around the home.
When the prayers and chants were done, the casket was closed and sealed. Several priests carried the casket out of the home and placed it in the hearse that was waiting outside. Caine, Martin, and Peter followed to the crematorium, where they watched in silence as William's casket was placed in the cremation chamber and they stayed as long as the staff allowed.
Peter worried about his father. Kwai Chang Caine was one well-meaning platitude away from losing it as far as Peter could tell. His features were stiff, and while he was gracious it was clear that he wanted to bolt. So when they had returned to the cottage and the reception within, Peter put a hand on his father's shoulder. "Come walk with me." He said. "Leanne and Martin have this under control. They won't be upset if we take a walk around the block."
Caine nodded and let his son lead him away from his father's home. He let him put his arm around his shoulder as they walked in silence. He was so grateful for the silence and his son's presence. Slowly he began to draw in deeper breaths and let the tension ease from his shoulders.
"I am glad you are here with me." He said eventually.
"So am I," Peter said. "Do you want me to run interference when we get back to the house?"
Caine smiled sadly "No. They will leave soon enough." He said. "How are you? Now that you know who you once were?"
"I'm alright, Father. I don't have his memories. I just know that I was once him. I'm okay."
"There were times I think his voice spoke alongside yours. It pleased my father to hear it. He had been hoping to see his father again."
"I am beginning to think that the souls of the men named Caine are intertwined forever. We'll see each other again." Peter said. "Are you coming home after all of this?"
"I do not know." He said honestly. "I feel I should keep looking for your mother, we both need answers from her."
"I don't need anything from her, Pop," Peter answered. "What difference will it make? She left both of us. What could she possibly say that could make that right?"
"Her reasons may explain all," Caine said. "Perhaps she left to protect us."
"Sometimes reasons don't matter," Peter said. "Either she is dead, or she hasn't wanted anything to do with us for a long time. No matter how you slice it, there is nothing but sorrow at the end of that quest. It's time to let her go, Father. Maybe you were meant to follow her path here to Grandfather, but that path's come to an end. Come home with us."
"I will consider it," Caine said, very much concerned with the anger his son was feeling toward his mother. Was his absence making that worse? Was he right? Was it time to finally lay her ghost to rest and let her go?
"I'm sorry, Pop. This wasn't the time to get into the 'Mom debate', I didn't mean to stir things up." Peter said. He had carefully avoided the topic since he had arrived. It wasn't appropriate under the circumstances and now on the day of the funeral, he was shoving his foot into his mouth. Way to go, Peter, he thought.
"Do not be sorry for speaking of what is heavy on your heart, my son."
"It could have waited a day or two," Peter said as the rounded the last corner of the block. "We can talk about it later. Are you ready to face the crowd again?" He asked.
"Yes," Caine said simply.
Neither of the Caines noticed the motorcycle that had been following them at a distance. Julian Navarro had decided to come to the source to get information. He was young and impetuous. He had left Blaisdell and started his trek from Madrid to St Adele. but the thought of invading a funeral reception was not something he was willing to do. So he waited and watched.
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Laura rose from her chair and advanced on Yulong Yeoh. "What have you done with my son." She growled.
" You summon me here for this? I have done nothing to Peter Caine. He is quite willingly keeping his ancestor's promise to me. I have no need to rip the soul from his body to feed my pets."
"Julian. What have you done with Julian? He is just a boy, barely nineteen." She said stepping closer still. "I don't know how or why Kwai Chang Caine decided to seek me out, or why Peter's foster father showed up on my doorstep. I have done nothing to cause this and you had no reason to take him away from me."
Yeoh raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I don't have your boy. It is not your blood that is useful to me, it is Caine's blood I require. If you have misplaced your child do not blame me."
She stood nose to nose with the immortal. "You will not harm either of my sons." She said firmly.
He laughed. "You think you can protect him from me? You should have thought of that before you abandoned the boy to me."
"I didn't. I gave him to his father, not you." She said. "You will not harm him."
Yeoh placed his hand on her chest, pushing only slightly against her but the energy in that touch felt electric. He smiled as she began to gasp for breath, feeling her own energy (What Caine would have called her qi) leaving her body. "You think you can stand against me?" He said. "Everything you have, I gave to you. Starting with your life. I can just as easily take it all away, woman." He removed his hand and Laura collapsed to her knees.
She drew in several deep breaths assuring herself that the cancer had not returned and that she could still breathe.
Yulong Yeoh knelt beside her and cupped her chin in his hand. "Peter Caine will be the heir to all that is mine. I have manipulated his life from the day he was born, through you, through Master Dao, even those who ran the orphanage he was sent to by that fool calling himself Ping Hai were manipulated by me." Unfortunately, he had not been able to manipulate Blaisdell so easily. "I have fed his loneliness and his anger. His feelings of abandonment. He will crumble at my feet just as you have time and again." He said and then stood upright. "Take comfort in the power and family that you still have. But feel free to contact him any time you wish now. It will only serve to feed his anger and give him more fully to me." He turned his back on her and walked away, fading into the shadows, leaving her there, crying.
Javier Navarro watched. He waited. He had been patient with his wife knowing that whatever her secrets she was faithful to him. Now those secrets were affecting his children. He was through waiting. He stepped forward and waited for Laura to look up.
"I think it's time you were honest with me." He said and offered his hand to her to help her up.
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Lo Si had found Yulong Yeoh's laboratory. The old sorcerer was far more unstable than anyone had ever realized. His experiments were depraved and inhumane. The Ancient carefully packed up the man's books and papers. Eventually, they would have to be destroyed but there were things he needed to know before he did so.
He took his pack out into the courtyard and opened it, removing the carefully wrapped pagoda statue and canted the incantation written on it. The statue grew to the size of a large gazebo. He pulled up one of the floorboards and began to put the papers within the cavity.
Wukong approached "Do you know where to find him?" He asked hopefully.
"Not as yet. I fear he has returned to my world but I do not know that he will stay there. I am taking his papers in the hopes of slowing down whatever it is that he is working on."
Wukong nodded and went into the laboratory and began bringing out papers and plants and bottles and jars setting them on the pagoda. When everything was out of the room save for the furniture he set it on fire.
Lo Si packed the floor boards full with all that Wukong brought out, then read the incantation once more and it shrank again into the small cinnabar statue. He wrapped it up carefully and put it in his pack.
"Will he take my brothers to your world?"
"I do not know. I will keep my promise Wukong I will help you find them." Lo Si said.
Monkey nodded. "I will take you to my home on the mountain of flowers and fruit. This place must be destroyed and is no place for a holy priest."
Lo Si smiled a little sadly. "I would like to see your home very much." After what he had been reading Lo Si didn't feel exactly holy. He was even more worried about Peter and Leanne. So very worried.
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Peter closed the door and locked it as the last guest left his grandfather's cottage. He began to blow out the candles and collect the spent incense sticks while Leanne put away the leftover food from the reception. It was a strange mix of French cuisine and Chinese food, and it left the refrigerator and freezer full.
Martin poured two cups of coffee and carried them into the master bedroom where his brother sat in silence. He handed one of the cups to Caine and then leaned against the small dresser. "Are you okay?" He asked.
Caine drew in a deep breath and sighed. "Yes." He said eventually. "There are decisions to make that I can no longer ignore." His brief conversation with Peter earlier had driven that home.
"About your wife?" Martin asked.
Caine nodded.
"You want answers, to find out the truth. That's normal enough."
"Peter-"
"Is a grown man," Martin said gently. "A grown man who is about to have a wife of his own. You're allowed to make decisions that don't include his opinion."
Caine sighed. "He makes valid points." He shook his head. "Maybe I am clinging too tightly to a woman who has been gone for almost 30 years. By choice."
"Is that what you're doing? Clinging?"
He didn't want to think that he was, he liked to think he had progressed further on the path to enlightenment than that. Holding tightly to the desire to have what one could not have was a great source of sorrow in the world. He knew this. "Perhaps." He said eventually. "I feel that there is something I am meant to find that I will not find if I go back with Peter and Leanne. But it could be that I am deluding myself."
"What do you want to do?" Martin asked.
"I spent 15 years grieving my son, wandering in search of peace. He was in one place the entire time. I do not want to spend the next 15 years chasing shadows when I might never cross her path again."
"Okay." Martin said, "You do whatever you need to do to move on with your life."
"I would like to go home and be there as he prepares for his marriage. I would like to work with him in the community, to have those things my father and I never had because it was taken from us. I cannot do that if I am chasing Laura." He said a little sadly. He wanted to know the truth, but he wasn't willing to sacrifice the present to search for the past any longer."
"Do you want me to keep people looking for her?" Martin asked.
Caine thought about that for so long that Martin was almost ready to leave the room. "No." He said finally. "My wife is dead. Whoever she has become now…whether by choice or rebirth is no longer mine."
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Peter handed Leanne a cup of tea and then joined her on the bench in the cottage's front garden. "I think I put my foot in it earlier." He said, putting his free arm around her.
"When?"
"When I was walking with my Dad." He said. "I didn't mean to bring my mother up. I didn't. It just popped out of my mouth and it went from Please come home with us to Will you stop chasing after her already? Paraphrased of course."
"What did he say?"
"That he'd think about it," Peter said.
"If he says yes we can stay at my place while the apartment is built above the kwoon." They had planned to move there eventually anyway. "It shouldn't take long it's already got electricity and plumbing up there."
"And if he doesn't come home we move you into the brownstone until the apartment is built above the kwoon." He said with a nod. He didn't know what his father would decide. For all he knew he'd stay in the cottage and take over looking after the artifact in the church. He had learned the hard way that he just didn't understand how his father's mind worked. Just because they were close didn't mean they understood one another.
Leanne leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I like that idea."
"As you said, we never sleep apart anyway," Peter said. He kissed the top of her head and took a long drink of his tea. He sighed softly and let the tension ease from his body. He always felt more at ease when he talked with Leanne. Sure they argued like normal people. It wasn't like either of them held back when they were upset. It was that part of his nature that tended to drive his previous lovers away. He wasn't afraid of confrontation. Not with her, not with his fathers, and not with the bad guys. He knew she was the same way, and if he was honest so were all of his previous lovers. It was a trait that he found very attractive in a woman. The difference though, was that Leanne was willing to back up and talk about it once the storm had passed. Even when they were both boneheaded.
The motorcycle across the street caught Peter's attention. He had noticed it a bit earlier, but it was always in a different position on the street so he hadn't really paid attention as there had been a lot going on. Now it had his full attention, as did the rider. "I'll be right back." He said as he got to his feet and set the teacup on the bench.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Wait here." He said firmly. He strode across the street to where the motorcyclist waited. "Did you want to talk to us about something?" He asked the helmet as that was as close to a head that he could see. The Helmet didn't answer.
Peter sighed. "Look, we can either have a conversation or you can leave. I can't imagine you've been sitting around here all day because Buddhist funerals fascinate you. Do you need our help? Am I speaking the wrong language? Sorry I flunked French. I only speak English and Mandarin."
Still no answer. If the helmet wasn't facing his direction Peter would have no idea if the cyclist was even looking at him.
"Okay." He said taking a step back, then another. "If you don't want to talk, I suggest you move on before I call the police. This is a house of mourning. Next week is better for us with the whole stalking thing." He turned his back and started back across the street.
"Wait."
Peter turned back around to look at Julian who had now removed his helmet.
"I would like to talk."
Peter nodded "Why don't you park that in the driveway and come on up to the house." He turned around and walked back toward his fiance. "I think we're going to need more tea and probably some of those leftovers. The kid's been on that bike all day."
Leanne nodded and picked up Peter's cup as well as her own before going inside to start work on that. Leave it to Peter to find someone that needed help in the middle of the street. That thought made her smile.
Caine and Martin were seated in the living room when she went inside. "We have company. A young man on a motorcycle. Peter is bringing him in." She went to the kitchen and put on water to boil.
Peter waited for the bike to be parked "I'm Peter Caine." He said offering his hand.
"I'm Julian Navarro." His accent was what Peter would call continental. A hodgepodge of accents that merged into something not quite neutral.
"Come inside and you can tell us why you've been watching us all day. Don't worry, you're not in trouble."
"Who died?" He asked quietly.
"My grandfather," Peter said and led the way inside.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Peter closed the door once they were inside. "So, This is my father, Kwai Chang Caine, and my uncle Martin Bradshaw. The woman I was sitting with outside is my fiance Leanne Garret. Everyone, this is Julian Navarro. So why don't we go have a seat at the kitchen table and you can tell me why you're here."
"This was probably a mistake. I shouldn't have come." Julian said, even though he continued to follow Peter into the kitchen.
"Why don't you let me worry about that," Peter said, he smiled as his father joined them. He thought that it was because he too sensed that the boy needed help. But that wasn't the only reason. Caine saw what Peter had not. He saw the resemblance between the two of them.
Julian removed his jacket and gloves and sat down at the kitchen table. "A man came to my home yesterday." He had ridden through the night to get to St. Adele from Madrid. "He was asking my mother questions. He left the information for this house and this photograph." He fumbled for the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the engagement photo and set it on the table.
"His name wouldn't happen to be Paul Blaisdell would it?" Peter asked. Who else would have that photograph and a vested interest in solving the mystery of what happened to Laura Caine?
Julian nodded.
"He's my foster father." He supposed this was Paul's way of trying to make up for the nonsense with Leanne.
Julian nodded again. "Yes, that is what he said. I had tried to find out from my mother what he wanted, but she stonewalled me, so I sought him out at his hotel. He told me nothing other than I needed to get answers from my mother as it was her story to tell."
"When was this?" Peter asked.
"Yesterday. I drove here from Madrid to speak to you and find out what it was all about, but then I saw the funeral and I know I should have left but I thought if I did you would leave and I wouldn't know."
"Julian." Caine said, "Is your mother's name Laura?" He asked.
Julian nodded.
Peter took out his wallet and removed the photo he still carried of his mother and set it on the table. "Is this her?"
"It looks like her." He said, and took out his wallet and laid another photo on the table "These are my parents."
Peter swallowed hard. "It looks like we're brothers, Julian."
"It was what I thought." He said picking up his picture to put it in his wallet. Then looked at Peter quizzically when he pushed the other photo his way.
"You should have this one too," Peter said. "I can only imagine you're hungry." He got up when the microwave beeped and Leanne took the plate out. "I hope you like Chinese food, we have enough for an army." He took a slow deep breath, then another.
"I do," Julian said. "I was right, I shouldn't have come."
Peter shook his head "No. I'm glad you came." He made tea when the kettle whistled. "So ahm… how old are you?"
"Nineteen." He said, and then thanked Leanne as she put the plate of food in front of him.
"Do your parents know you're out of the country?" Martin asked.
Julian shook his head. "No. But I've only been gone overnight. They won't worry. I often stay over with my friends." He looked at Caine. "Were you and my mother married?"
Caine nodded. "A very long time ago." She had left him, left their son, and made another family without looking back. "You may call your parents if you wish. To let them know you are alright. Parents worry even when they do not say they are worrying."
Julian shook his head again. "No. I'll leave after I eat and go home."
Peter brought the teapot to the table and set several cups down as well. "You haven't slept since the night before last have you?"
Julian shook his head. "No."
"Then there is no way that you're going to leave here before you do. That's what? Another 10-plus hours on the road?" Peter shrugged "What can I say, once a cop always a cop. Even when I'm a priest. Besides, if you splatter yourself all over the road or someone else's car we'll never get the chance to know each other." It wasn't Julian's fault that their mother had left him after all. This was his kid brother. "I have two sisters… foster sisters not anyone that came from our mother…It's about time I had a brother."
Julian smiled at that, even if nervously. "Are you sure it's alright if I stay?" He asked, looking at Kwai Chang Caine.
Caine nodded "Yes." He had expected to be heartbroken by Laura's choice to abandon their family. He found that he wasn't. He was instead relieved that he now knew the truth. Or at least as much of it as he needed to know. He knew that Peter was wounded deeply, yet he still was reaching out to Julian. It made Caine even more proud of his son.