Forging New Paths
Writers:
Canarycry /
FaithLeafCat
Genre: Trauma/Healing, Mystery, & Superpowers
Fun Facts:
Lone wolf detective Garrett and secretive information broker Evelyn work together to rescue a young man with a powerful gift from being used as a living weapon, to help him find healing and a normal life, and unexpectedly find themselves a patchwork family along the way.
[If you want to read more, the writers supplied a link to their story!
Forging New Paths
There was a little furrow in Luca's brow as they moved slowly away from shore, his eyes shifting between Garrett and Anthony, then back to Evelyn with something conflicted in his expression. He didn't normally like being surrounded, didn't like the memories that came with it of the people he'd been told to hurt, but Evelyn always kept him safe, and Garrett never told him to do bad things. It was okay, wasn't it? He could trust that they wouldn't ask him to do things that were bad.
Evelyn didn't push too far, keeping her eyes on him and her expression relaxed, and stopping when the water came up just high enough to touch her chin. It left Luca submerged only up to his chest, his shoulders still mostly above the water, so he didn't need to swim but could feel the way his own buoyancy began to pull at the way he stood. She wouldn't let go of his hand, not until he decided he needed both of his arms to help keep him up.
"You're all right," she soothed gently, her thumb running back and forth over his knuckles where their hands were submerged. "How does it feel? Familiar?"
The frown was getting worse, and she worried that the memories associated with swimming, with lakes, or just with water would make him upset, but he didn't try to get away. ". . . I don't know," he said finally, quiet and hesitant. "I think so. . . We can go deeper?"
Despite the fact that it would force her to take her feet off the ground, Evelyn only nodded and pulled him forward more, until she was treading water as gently as she could so as not to jar him, and the water was up to his chin. She hadn't really planned on getting her hair wet, but it would be all right. If it wasn't just hopeful thinking, she was sure some of the tension in his expression was beginning to relax behind the distant look in his eyes.
She stayed there, patient despite the effort of staying afloat while also staying still, until he finally moved closer again, following after her until he had to let go of her hand so he could use both of his arms to tread water next to her. His movements were a bit hesitant at first, but she sensed no panic from him, and if nothing else she thought perhaps the gentle sounds of the water moving around them might soothe him. He hadn't truly swam anywhere yet, but at least she knew now that she didn't have to worry about him drowning.
Garrett kept a close eye on Luca as he and Evelyn moved deeper and deeper into the water, but thankfully, although Luca seemed unsure, he didn't seem to be on the brink of a panic attack. Garrett was still at standing height when Evelyn began treading water, and when he noticed both her and Luca gently paddling, he nodded and relaxed a bit. So Luca could at least keep himself afloat, then.
"If anyone needs an arm, mine's here," he offered the pair gently. "I'm still touching bottom here a bit." The water was up to his chin, but his feet were still solidly on the mud lake floor.
Anthony smiled gently and began swimming in slow circles in front of the pair, making sure not to splash. "There you both go! Look at you paddling. You've got at least a survival level of swimming skills, then. That's great!"
Evelyn was busy feeling relieved that Luca was still okay, but spared enough attention to give a soft pff at Garrett's offer of his arm. "Not all of us are gifted with superior height," she said with a little smile and a shake of her head. "But maybe stay on standby."
Luca looked at Anthony, then Garrett, considering the fact that Garrett always kept him safe, and the fact that if he touched the man his Shadow would go away. He wasn't sure what it would even do for him in water, as it largely protected him against physical attacks and not things like heights or suffocation, but when he was uncertain he was always afraid to lose it. Besides, he liked the way it felt to move through water.
Evelyn was watching him, careful and considering, not taking Garrett's hand despite the faint guilt it incurred in her because she needed to know if her Insight would warn her of anything going wrong. "How do you feel? Do you want to go back?"
Luca shook his head slowly, peering down at the distorted images of their limbs in the water rather than looking at anyone's faces, then finally looked at her again. ". . . I want to go under." Was that okay? Was he allowed? He remembered something about it, about how it felt to be put his head beneath the surface, how it sounded. If he ducked down, he would remember it. He was sure of it.
A concerned furrow formed in her brow, but after a pause Evelyn nodded for him. "Let's move to shallower water, okay? So you can stand again if you want to." She didn't know what was going through his head, but she didn't want him to panic.
The detective was content just to stand near the group, making sure everyone was safe. And slowly but surely, he was feeling more relaxed about the situation. Luca seemed to be on the verge of something. Garrett wasn't sure what it was, but something in his gut told him it would be okay.
He stood calmly in the water and only carefully observed.
Anthony, meanwhile, was delighted that Luca really seemed to like the water. "Underwater? Sure! I'll meet you down there in the shallows," he promised. He swam back a ways, and then dove under. Despite being a lake, the water was fairly clear, and he Gould see several feet out in front of him. He smiled and held his breath while he waited for Luca to join him.
"I'll stay above the surface, just in case," Garrett promised the group with a gentle smile. Things were working out to be better than he'd thought.
Evelyn looked over Luca's shoulder at Anthony when he spoke, nodding to him as she moved closer to shallower water. "Thank you." She said softly, but didn't say any more. She didn't want Luca to feel embarrassed that they were all watching over him, even if she wasn't sure he was capable of feeling that yet. But she didn't really want to put her face in the water if she didn't have to, so she was grateful for the way Anthony seemed willing to try and help.
When they were back to where Evelyn could just stand on her toes, the water coming most of the way up Luca's chest if he was still, she finally let go of his hand. "Don't stay under too long," she said softly, more a request than an instruction, brow furrowed still. "I'll worry. . ."
Luca nodded and took a slow, careful breath, then let his weight relax and pushed up a bit with his arms to drop his body down into the water, but the words didn't really hit him until he was there. He could hear movement under the water, from Anthony shifting around nearby, from his own hands, but everything was muted. Muffled. Like it came from a long distance away. When he dared to open his eyes he could still see the shapes and colors of Evelyn and Garrett's bodies, standing nearby, but the way light came through the water was so different.
He remembered being small and unable to touch the bottom of the deep end of the pool, trying to push himself down towards it while other children splashed about nearby. His mother had taken him to the pool at least twice a week during the summer, let him swim and play until he was tired, gave him watermelon as a snack, let him fall asleep in the car on the way home. For a moment he closed his eyes and covered his ears, tried to remember how she'd always told him to be careful, to have fun, how he would come out to see her leaning over the side of the pool to tell him it was time to go. He wanted to stay, to reach harder for her voice, for the sight of her face, to remember before she slipped through his fingers.
But his chest was starting to ache with the need to breathe, and he could hear Evelyn's voice more clearly. I'll worry. He didn't want her to worry.
Natural buoyancy was already pulling him up, so all Luca had to do was get his feet beneath him again and push himself up to his feet, until his head was above water and he could take a breath. He felt almost winded, just from staying under the one time, but he didn't want to let go of how it felt, unsure if the memories would start to hurt like the diner had or if they would stay muted and peaceful.
"I want to swim deeper. . ." He said when he'd brushed enough water away from his eyes to see properly again. ". . . I can go?"
Evelyn was worried still, keeping quiet and not trying to reach out and take his hand even though she wanted to. Making choices and showing initiative, as well as the ability to not only want things but to ask for them was a lot of progress from the voiceless robot he had been the first time they'd met. She didn't want to stop it, even though she was worried. "All right. Just be careful, and if you get tired or you just want to come back, let us know, okay?"
He nodded, waiting for her to nod back, to move a bit more out of the way and gesture for him to go so he knew it was okay. What she hadn't expected was for him to drop below the surface again and push off the bottom of the lake to swim away from them under water. It put an immediate, nauseating flutter in her stomach even though she knew in theory that he was not a child, that he was grown up and he apparently knew how to swim, and it was all probably fine.
While Luca was under the shallow water, Garrett could make out the vague outlines of both him and Anthony. He wouldn't tell Evelyn yet, but he trusted Anthony to let him know if Luca was in trouble. So he leaned back and let himself float in the waves a bit, casually watching the pair enjoy themselves below the waves.
Luca resurfaced at last. And he wasn't sure, but Garrett thought he could catch a somewhat different expression on the boy's face than he'd seen before. Something more present, more alive, even, than he'd been before.
Luca resurfaced when he needed air again, popping back up out of the water and breathing a bit heavily despite not having gone far. It was strange, doing things he hadn't done in a long, long time. He might have forgotten, but his body remembered. Swimming in the lake wasn't the same as the little brushes of memory that came to him of public pools, with dirt instead of cement, and no other children running around, swimming, and playing, but it still felt so familiar it was almost confusing. He liked the feeling of moving through water, even if it was more exercise than he'd had in years and he couldn't hold his breath for as long as he had when he was little.
He was allowed to have this, wasn't he? Even though the memories should have hurt, he could keep them, couldn't he? For the first time in years, he didn't want to let them go.