A Time to Heal

[ibn_al_xuff]

It is difficult to spiritually cleanse a room where so many souls have passed through; some have suffered before passing the veil. He pours the fresh water into his silver bowl and mixes the salt until it becomes diluted and the water clears. This is not ordinary table salt. It was mined in a very sacred place in India. It will soak in the

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[caleb_z]

Caleb wakes up on a smooth, hard surface. He sits up, holding his head and trying to overcome a vague disorientation. Sounds begin to catch his attention. Footsteps, talking. He opens his eyes and looks around him, noting hundreds of people moving about the hallways. Not just people, but kids. More precisely, teenagers.

On closer inspection, the faces of the kids are familiar to him. The halls, too. These are his old classmates, and this is the Academy. He stands, immediately noticing the weight from the backpack slung over his left shoulder. He looks down, and sees himself dressed as he was. His eyes shift from the bag to his arm, which he moves around and examines some.

“Interesting,” he notes, entranced by the sight of his eighteen year old form. Soon thereafter he looks around him for Amelia’s absent form.

“Richie,” he calls to an old friend, but he just walks on. “Richie? Ri -- Amy! Amy have you seen … Amelia…” His voice trails off as the girl walks by, either unwilling or unable to acknowledge his presence

[caleb_z]

Caleb follows her in, and also finds himself in his father's garage. Bird's glare is hard to miss, but there's nothing new in that.

He steps around her, and proceeds to the mini-fridge under the workbench on the far wall. He slides the soda out of his way, and pulls out a cinnamon pop tart, and a granny smith.

He sinks his teeth into the granny smith, but the pop tart is presented to Amelia.

[amelia_z]

Amelia kicks one of her all-too-familiar over-turned milk crates over to the other end of the garage and hunkers down with the foil wrapper.

She's mumbling to herself as she unwraps it. "Could've stopped me at some point," she says, snippety, before a bite.

Cinnamon makes a lot better.

[caleb_z]

"I seem to recall telling you that we were fifteen years late for class," he says softly. That had to have been difficult for her to...

An arm finds a counter, and helps to balance him.

[amelia_z]

Serves him right, Amelia hopes he hits his fool head on something on the way down.

No, really, she doesn't. She's sulking just now and would appreciate not getting hassled for doing so. Plus this is the first pop-tart she's been able to keep down in months, even though she knows she's not really eating one right now.

So it's just them, huh?

"You know I get what you're doing. Taking care of me. That you always have, always kept the heat off of me." Amelia glances over at him before she moves on to her next pastry. "I do get it."

[caleb_z]

He smiles some before nodding, and taking another bite of his apple. Something about the shape of his eyes isn't quite right, with red beginning to supplant the green.

"[What else is family for,]" he answers her in Russian. "[Besides, given how everything happened ... It.... It was the least I could do. Well, save nothing, obviously]" He lowers his eyes for a moment, but when his line of sight crosses the apple, he seems to forget that he was sad about something. He has another bite, and savors the taste.

[amelia_z]

'What else is family for'; he doesn't want her to answer that. Amelia doesn't have much faith in family, Braat is just special. "It's not your fault. None of it. Not like you're ever going to believe that, except, well--"

She gestures at him. At least when he's demonic he doesn't seem to care about any of his perceived trespasses. Then, she smirks. "That was a good line, though. Y'know, about you and guilt and the bloated soul and all."

[caleb_z]

The evil eye is convincing for almost two full seconds before the chuckling wins out. He pats her on the shoulder as it continues unrestrained.

"It's obvious to see how hard all this has been on you. I just ... I can't watch you struggle to come to terms with all this without thinking that I'm the reason you even have anything to adjust to. I ...." He shrugs, and has another bite of apple.

"I try not to hate myself. Some days it's easier than others."

[amelia_z]

"Look--"

Amelia's ready to give him an earful, and then something in her peters out. It'd be wasted, anyway. Haven't they spent two years enough arguing between them? She sighs, pulling her hair away from her face.

"The whole thing-- growing up-- look, it was 50/50. We were both--" She shakes her hands, flustered, and starts again.

This time all Caleb gets from Amelia is some weird gestures that seem to be gearing her up for it. "Okay!" she says finally with a clap. "You always took the heat for me, right?"

[caleb_z]

Is she flustered?

He shrugs. "You always looked out for me, too. It's not like you were taking advantage, or some such."

[amelia_z]

"But you always let dad take it out on you!" That wasn't meant to come out like that. She actually recoils a little. After a second, she sends an overturned milk crate sliding across the floor to him with her foot.

"This really dumb, pointless thing happens, and so you spend your life dodging and taking punches in my name. When I woke up, I couldn't ask that of you, Caleb. You would've said yes without blinking and unconsciously resented me for the rest of your life. And with Corrine, it all looked like some-- [I don't know]-- masochistic guilt complex

[caleb_z]

Caleb plants himself on the carton, and attentively listens to everything she has to say. It's an insight into Bird that he's lacked for years now, and it helps things to fall into place in his head.

He rubs his hand through his hair, a familiar nervous tick indicative of deep thought.

He smiles mischievously, and gives her a coy 'come here' gesture.

[amelia_z]

"Uh-uh! Nyet! That's the 'I'm going to smack you, bird' look."

[caleb_z]

He theatrically presses his hand into his chest, feigning insult. After a moment of such theatrics he nods in acceptance of her conclusion, and lets it go.

He continues with a tone akin to pride in the accomplishment: "You know, that, uh ... The way you took Tefe out back on the island. That was brilliant. It took me a bit to catch up to your logic there, but wow. Resourceful."

That has to be the most heartfelt smile he's worn in a long, long time. "I never said that, of course. I don't think they'd understand."