There’s always a moment of stillness, a peace that comes after a victory or a job well done. Fleeting though these moments may be, we must learn to find them and savor them. Enjoy them and immerse ourselves in the calm and the chance to catch our breath.
Because the next task is always just over the horizon.
The Bell Tree was quiet, but then again, ten in the morning was too late for your business breakfasters and still a bit early for the people who wanted to find lunch. I pulled into the private parking lot in the back and parked the Pontiac next to Suzu’s Miata. He regarded the little teal ragtop with an amused look and jerked his thumb at it. “Wow, that’s a hell of car.”
A Miata wasn’t anything that I considered to be a ‘hell of a car’, but I had to remember that Tristan had spent most of his life in an area of Ireland where a Geo Storm would have been considered an executive sport car. “Well, I will grant you that it is owned by a hell of a woman. Come on, let’s get inside and introduce you.”
Inside the Bell Tree was as quiet as the outside. I led Tristan through the back door and through the elevator lobby, towards the bar, and he made a soft sound of surprise at the décor. “Yeah, it does remind me of home, but that’s not by design. She bought it this way, about two months ago.” Never mind that I hadn’t known she was planning to leave me for that long. “Hey, Suzu… you in the kitchen?” I knew better than to head through that swinging door, mind.
That was, in all honesty, a stupid question. She was usually in the kitchen, and she came out through the swinging door with a dishtowel in her hands and looked over to smile to me. “Oh, hello, Teimhean…” When her gaze fell on Tristan, she came to a stop and looked back to me. “Oh, sweetheart.” The dishrag was dropped on the bar, and Suzu approached my son with open arms. “Hello, Tristan. I am so glad to finally meet you.”
Bewildered, my son stepped into her embrace and looked at me over her shoulder. “It’s good to meet you too…?” He was trying not to sound terribly bewildered and failing, so when she stepped back and looked to him in surprise, he flickered a glance back my way. Which told her everything that she needed to know, and she turned to me in petite agitation. “Teimhean, you didn’t! You brought him here without a clue who I was. Oh, good heavens, Teimhean!” Suddenly I was on the receiving end of a very reproachful look.
“Saints above, Da… she’s made you blush,” Tristan grinned. “Oh, I could like you, Madame Suzu. Any woman who has the power to make my Da blush with but a handful of words is a marvelous woman in my book.” And just like that, Suzu and Tristan had won each other over. My son and the woman who knew me the best in the world under the same roof. No, my life would never be the same again.
“Please, call me Suzu, Tristan. The last time anyone called me a Madame… oh, suffice it to say that it was both a very long time ago and a totally different environment.” I’d always thought that Suzu would have made a very well-paid courtesan, and that simply confirmed it. Well, she’d not said that she was well paid, but just look at her. That face, those curves, those legs… she was staring daggers at me and with damned good reason.
I grinned at her and tore my thoughts away from things that I knew better than to think about, and I pointed to my son. “My son needs some assistance, Suzu, and I was hoping that you might be willing to guide him.” That was, after all, the true reason I had brought him. If it hadn’t been for her skill with thought magic, I’d have put this meeting off for a while longer. “I’m afraid it’s matters beyond my capabilities.”
She turned to look curiously to my son, and then a look of understanding washed over her face. “Well, well,” she murmured, clearly for me to hear. “I do believe this is going to be the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Come on, Tristan; let us discuss things while I make breakfast.” And then the most complex woman in the world led my son into the kitchen while I stood and watched in a mix of pleased horror. What in the world had I just done?
A hand landed on my shoulder and for a moment, I was certain that Death had finally decided to pay me my long overdue visit. My heart skipped several beats, and then raced to catch up with itself, thudding violently in my chest as it attempted to squeeze all the missed pulses into as short a period as it could. I turned, adrenaline dumping into my bloodstream, instinct sending me into a defensive move which was abruptly arrested when I met my brother’s clear gaze. “Christ, Xelander. If I were capable of dying, I think I might have.”
“Lucky for us, you aren’t. And while that is an excellent topic for discussion, it is something we will speak more of later. As for now, I see that your son is fitting in nicely.” If by ‘fitting in nicely’ Xelander meant allowed in Suzu’s domain, then yes, to my vague discomfort, he was. “I confess to being pleased at that. Family is something of which you and I possess entirely too little.” To my knowledge, Tristan was the only blood relation I had. And Xelander? Not even that.
I nodded, looking towards the kitchen door. “I don’t know if he’s staying; we haven’t had a lot of time to discuss it. I’d like him to, but I’d imagine that he has his own life in Ireland. And that reminds me… thank you, Xelander.” At the query in his eyes, I shook my head. “You were a better father figure to him than I was in the years past, and though it shames me, I appreciate what you did.”
“I wrote to him, Teimhean. That’s all. I did nothing that would be taken as parental nurturing, or guidance. I told him stories of our youth, sent him letters describing what I was seeing and doing. Sometimes he would write back, but mostly the letters and postcards were one-sided.” Xelander walked over to a table, and I followed him, sitting opposite and leaning back in the seat. “I did nothing worthy of thanks.”
“You were a positive male influence in his life,” I pointed out. “I was nothing more than an unhappy memory and the odd occasional large-sum deposit into a bank account.” Not at all what a father should have been, and I was all too aware of it. I had been then, too, but trapped into a lifestyle that couldn’t support a child. Amy approached as I spoke, and dropped off two glasses of water, and I smiled to her in thanks. She vanished into the kitchen, and I watched the door swing shut behind her.
A companionable silence stretched between me and Xelander until it was broken by the arrival of Amy with coffee, and this time it was Xelander who thanked her. He, like myself, took his black, and I closed my eyes and inhaled the aroma before I moved to drink from my mug. Suzu understood the difference between American and European coffee, and served both, though you had to know that the European style was available and ask for it. She had a marvelous tea as well, though I’d long ago switched to coffee out of self-defense.
“Yes, one of the decided perks of living here is Suzu’s culinary skill.” Xelander replied as he lowered his mug. “I believe I’ll have to join a gym, lest I gain weight from her cooking.” I nearly dropped my coffee and looked up to see that Xelander was almost smirking at me. I knew for a fact that he exercised, but the concept of my brother getting fat was so alien that I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. “I jest, Teimhean. Though, you should clearly be eating and sleeping more.”
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I’d wondered when he was going to get around to that. “I’d make some sort of retort about you not being my doctor, but I rather think you’ve assigned yourself quite happily to that role.” I took another sip of my coffee and then set the mug down. “Honestly, Xelander, it isn’t as if I don’t try. Nightmares plague my dreams, and let’s not go into my body’s reaction to food at the meal table, hmm?”
“You can’t exist on magic alone, Teimhean,” Xelander protested, but any further commentary was silenced by the arrival of Suzu and Tristan… complete with breakfast. She carried two plates, each laden with scrambled eggs, toast, and one plate had bacon on it. The other had a pile of potatoes on it, and this plate was placed in front of me. There was more food on it than I would eat in a day, and I looked at Suzu in protest. She put her eyebrows up at me, and I knew that I would have to eat more than I wanted to.
“I can damned well try,” I muttered to Xelander as I looked back to the contents of my plate. “Then again, I keep ending up with too much food on my plate.” Tristan chuckled as he settled at the table with his own plate, and Suzu took the fourth chair, without any food at all. “Suzu, dear woman, I fear you’ve given me your portion as well as my own. I understand the need to keep your figure, but you must share some of this with me.” Who says I couldn’t give as good as I got?
Once again that teal gaze was glittering at me with murderous intent, but she smiled thinly and waved Amy over. The waitress had a glass of water and a plate with a napkin-wrapped set of silver, all of which she brought to Suzu wordlessly. I obligingly moved my plate to the side and motioned for Suzu to help herself. Surprisingly, she did, portioning off about half onto her own plate and then moving my plate back to me. I hid my curiosity as to how much she’d eat and turned my attention to my meal.
Light conversation was made as we ate, and a distant part of my mind noted how… normal this felt. We ate and chatted, laughing and enjoying the meal. I ate my entire modified breakfast without even being aware of it. Suzu ate a reasonable amount of her own as well, to my badly hidden surprise. When she noticed me looking, she smiled disarmingly and patted me on the arm. “Don’t be surprised, Teimhean. Things are rarely as they seem.” Ah. Right.
And then my son turned to Suzu and pointed to the seemingly empty plate. “I’d wondered about that. Shall I clear the dishes? You cooked, after all.” Suzu’s startled glance to Tristan betrayed her, but Xelander was thanking Amy for the refresh of his coffee and missed it. I was relieved for that, at least. “Da… you done?” Tristan had picked up Suzu’s plate and placed it atop his own. I nodded, and offered the plate to him, and he tucked it up under the stack. Xelander was clearly still working on his food, and Tristan took the plates into the kitchen.
Suzu looked to me after Tristan entered the kitchen and nodded. “You’re right, Jedah… he does need my guidance, and I think perhaps he has more abilities than you and he know. Time alone will tell, and only if he is willing to remain here in Charleston and learn. If he’s planning to return to Ireland, I won’t be able to assist him.”
“It will be as it will be,” Xelander observed, moving the plate slightly to the side as he looked to Suzu. “If Tristan decides to make Charleston his home, it will be a welcome decision. Won’t it, Teimhean?” He looked at me as if to gauge my reaction, and I nodded to him. “See, even Teimhean thinks it would be a good thing if Tristan moved to Charleston.”
I had to wonder where he was going with this, but I did agree with him. “I’ll warrant that it would be a good thing to have my son here more often than not, but I’ll leave that entirely up to him. I’ll not pressure him one way or the other.” I sipped at my refreshed coffee and watched Xelander as he chewed on my comment. “I’ve been enough of a stress on my son over his years.”
“Oh, hardly, Da. It’s hard to get stressed over a man you barely know.” It was truth, and it wasn’t spoken unkindly, but it still stung to hear my son give voice to the words that had run though my mind after I’d said that. “But then again, as a result, you and I didn’t have the contentious type of relationship that I’ve seen with other fathers and sons. So, I figure we’re well ahead of the game.” Tristan said as he walked back from the kitchen. Leave it to my son to find a silver lining to the fact that I was a horrible father.
“Yeah, and we’ve plenty of time to do all that, haven’t we, Tristan?” I asked with a forced chuckle. “So does this mean that you’ll be moving in with me, then?” I could think of far worse things to happen, and if he lived in the townhouse, it wouldn’t affect my work life too terribly. “There’s plenty of room, and I’d do my best not to wake you during the night.”
Tristan looked uncomfortable as he settled back into his chair and cast a glance my way. “I wish I could, Da. But there’s other things going on too. Stuff you don’t know, stuff I’ve not told you. It’s really a discussion for later though. Right now, I want to just enjoy this moment and figure out what it is that I’m capable of. And I think Miss Suzu will be the best chance I have of that.”
Privately, I agreed. I’d let it be Suzu’s choice to tell Tristan all that she was capable of… in fact, I was reasonably certain that I wasn’t even aware of the full extent of her capabilities. She was a full-blooded elf, and a vampire to boot. She probably had abilities that fiction couldn’t even dream up. So yes, she’d be the perfect teacher for my son. I’d try not to let it get to me.
Suzu, understanding my mental ruminations, patted me on the arm and rose from her seat. “And I promise to be a horrible taskmistress and work you to the point of sheer exhaustion.” I knew how capable she was of that, too. She’d done it with me, though I had proved more than willing to walk away from her when I grew weary of her training sessions. I had no doubt that I’d have a higher class rating than I did now if I’d kept up with her instruction.
Xelander rose from the table, looking to Suzu and offering her his half-bow. “The meal was excellent; thank you. I must get ready for work now, so I shall leave you to your lesson plans.” He turned to look to me and inclined his head. “Teimhean.” Another nod, this one aimed to my son. “Tristan.” And with that, my brother further excused himself from the table and departed the dining area.
My son intercepted Suzu’s collection of Xelander’s plate and the smile he gave her was so like my own that she was momentarily flustered. I couldn’t help but laugh, which earned me yet another glare from the elfess. “Oh, he’s as bad as you are. If any of us are sane by the end of this, it will be a miracle.” Her smile was bright, though, and betrayed her words as she settled back into her chair.
I watched Tristan as he took the last of the dishes to the kitchen and shook my head. “I can’t claim a bit of it, other than blood. The same woman that raised me raised him, and she did a damned fine job of it. I remain in permanent debt to Auld Peg O’Malley of Chiarraíleigh village.” Tristan hadn’t taken my coffee, and I finished off the second serving as Amy approached with the coffee pot. “Bless you, Amy, if you fill this up again, I’m afraid I’ll have to sit here and drink it.” She just smirked at me as if to ask me why that was a problem and refilled the cup.
“There’s no use in arguing with Amy; she’ll just play deaf.” Suzu said in amusement as I regarded the coffee with a playfully resigned sigh. “Besides, what did you have planned today? You’ve got the time off; you defeated the demon and rescued the girl. The police owe you a debt, and everyone went home happy.”
“Did she? When I left, she was busy having a meltdown at her brother.” Mind you, I’d thought it mostly theatrics, given that she’d been the one to free herself from the chair. She’d been unnaturally calm and composed the entire time I’d interacted with her, so to see her fling herself into her brother’s arms in a fit of emotion had been downright odd. Unless that was what John Kelly expected out of her, and in that case, she’d delivered an Oscar worthy performance playing the distraught little sister, as they say, to the hilt.
“Oh, I’m certain that was for his benefit, Teimhean. No older brother wants to know that his sister is stronger than he is, at least not one who has dedicated his life to the police force.” Suzu replied, sipping her water. She put the glass down and pointed to the kitchen. “For example, would you want to know that your son was better at something than you were?”
“It is a parent’s desperate wish that their children exceed them,” I replied, cradling my coffee in my hands. “So, yes, I would want to know that Tristan was better at many things. And I would want to think that my siblings were better off than I. Xelander, I know, has his successes and failures, and as to Maggie…” I’d not given voice to her name in years, for it was a painful memory. “I hoped that one day she’d grow into a wise enough woman to forgive me.” I knew she hadn’t, just as I knew I’d never forgive myself. But I forgave her. I had, after all, broken her childhood heart.
When Tristan came back out of the kitchen, Suzu and I had fallen into a companionable silence. There wasn’t much she could have said after my observations anyway.
