When among Dragons... Chapter 1 Home again

by Machara and Chryos Stormwing

Special thanks to
my love Chryos who creates this with me,
Gabe as my editor and friend
as well as Sammi for ideas

Garrus had arrived. His worn-down coupe was crammed so far with his stuff, beyond what would be considered safe limits, that it was impossible to see out of the back. He had stuffed everything he could manage from his former apartment.
Now he was standing in front of the door of his mother's house, having rung the bell after a moment of hesitation.
As he was waiting, he looked around and noticed just how quiet it was. This sleepy little village had not changed one bit. He noticed the outline of the alps in the distance and there was no hint of the bigger town that he came from, the buzz of which seemed to linger on within him.
Hera opened the door, caught his sight, smiled and held open her arms. Being left with no other option, he accepted her embrace, although somewhat shamefacedly.

“Nice to have you back. I have missed you.” Hera soothed.

Garrus was left with an odd feeling, caused by both the less than smooth circumstances when he moved out of here a few years ago - mostly attributed by his father – and the unaccustomed warm welcome back. After a short moment that he still thought courteous he ended the embrace.

“Is it really ok that I stay here for now?” Garrus asked.

“Of course, it is. To be honest, I actually think it well timed…
But first, come in - I just cooked. We can eat, then we can talk.”

Hera moved to the side to let Garrus in. He looked at her in bewilderment but followed her to the kitchen and as he looked around, recognized much was just the same as when he left, except that many of the shelves and walls were now empty, and there were many stacked boxes sitting off in a corner.
Garrus sat himself at the same old table but saw a new refrigerator. Hera placed a plate with steak and potato wedges in front of him, causing his mouth to water. Garrus never managed Steak quite as good as her’s, not for lack of trying.

“I hope you like it…”

Hera sat herself at her own plate and studied Garrus with wakeful eyes, curious, but also somewhat pensive.

After a few minutes of eating with gusto, Garrus slowed his chewing and swept the room and the hall beyond with his eyes, both the boxes and empty areas coming to his attention again.

“Well timed? What is going on here? I read your emails. You have separated from him… but that was about a month ago, just when my issues started. What are you up to?”

Hera sighed.

“Where should I start? Hmm.
It all began with a phone call. A woman from Canada. She asked me if I knew a man in his late forties named Horst…
Well, we started chatting and it turned out that that it was my… well, not anymore now, I guess … Horst. He lived a double life.
You know how he gets to travel around the world due to his job, and his company has a bigger office situated in Vancouver?
It turns out he spent far more time there than I thought and had another family there and it was his other wife – Marian – I was talking to.”

Hera paused with a dark look in her eyes, yet Garrus also thought he saw a glimmer of something else in it.

“He doesn't anymore, mind you.
After hours of conversation, I flew to her to plan my divorce.
Marian wanted to marry him, but he told her that this would not work, leaving them to be ‘just’ life-partners. Now we know why, I guess… and Marian does not know whether she should be glad or frustrated about it.
We did what I went there for, and the divorce went well, even though it’s not fully over yet. We’ll get the majority out of the marriage. Whether he can retain his job, remains to be seen.
Thankfully Marian owns the House in Vancouver, and Drew, her son, still gets child benefits from his father even though he’s already over 19, but still lives at home.”

Garrus seemed to stop paying attention to the finer details after a while and just stared absently into the void. Having cleared his plate, he reclined and looked at her pensively, unsure of what to say.

“… I understand. I guess that he gets to keep his job. Of course, I do not know Canadian law and don’t know where the company resides in. Anyway… do you still have contact with her?”

“Yes, and here we come to the second part of the story…
It seems that I have something left for women, or at least I have for her.
We have fallen in love. Since I visited her in Canada, we’ve been living in a relationship.
There is nothing that holds me here anymore. I just went through the motions in my job lately and I feel like a change of scenery. I might have a good chance of finding something in the legal sector, Marian tells me there is demand there.
I am moving to Vancouver, to her house. You are welcome to come too, by both of us…”

Hera looked at Garrus with an inviting smile.

Garrus just stared at her, stunned. He took a while to process all of this.

“To tell the truth… no, thanks. I never had much love nor respect for my father. Maybe I have seen something of what I just learned in him before. But as you describe it, you want to leave him bleeding for what he did, even though he managed to feed two families.
As little as I like him, nothing of that agrees with my moral compass. I want to get an explanation from you, or this will be the last time you see me.”

Garrus’ stunned stare was now mixed with anger and disappointment and even some fear. Either his mother was dumb enough to be duped by a deceitful man – something that did not throw a good light on the genetic material he had received from her side, or his father was dumb enough to get involved with the wrong, apparently conspiratorial women, something that challenged the heading of the moral compass that was conveyed to him as he grew up.

Hera paused in her seat, astounded. Her initial spiteful reaction returning to patient motherly tone.

“You don’t seem to have much of an idea about my life and that of your father, do you?
No, he was not the sole provider… In regards to money, it was half and half. I had my Job, Marian has hers and Horst has his. Horst gets most of the liquid assets, and I get the house. Overall, he gets about 40% of the total, based on an estimation of the worth of the house and some investments.
So, I don’t think we will leave him bleeding, but we want what’s left of our family and he needs to leave our lives. What he gets is adequate and I think, quite fair. Aside from that, he earned a lot more than he told me. I think that’s how he could do his part in regards to both families.
Besides him living a double life and that he seemed more distant and cold in the recent years, he was not a bad man. I think he loved us both and was fair in his own strange though hurtful way. I suppose he could not decide between the two of us…
I guess it was the frequent travels involved in his job that allowed him to separate his two lives.

Is that the explanation you wanted?”

Garrus still watched Hera uncertainly. Most of his anger was gone, but it left a void. He had never been confronted with such a situation and did not know what to say. He looked at her forlornly again for a moment and left the room almost silently, heading for his old room, not even knowing if it still existed.

“I need time to think… sorry.”

Hera looked at him sadly, supporting herself with her arms on the table, holding her face in her hands.

“I’m sorry…”

Two days later, Garrus finally returned from his room, bleary-eyed, knackered and somewhat aimless. In the living room, he looked around aimlessly and, for a start, sat himself on the couch.

Hera dropped off another box in the adjacent room and then headed towards Garrus, sitting down beside him. She turned towards him more closely, with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Among the living, again?”

She just sat there looking at him, waiting for an answer, patiently.

“Depends on how you take it.”

He remained sitting there, deciding not to look at her.

“I have decided to come with you if you still want me.
What have you been doing in the last couple of days? I just heard loud noises.”

“I have packed and gotten rid of some furniture. Most of it was either sold – some of it to an antique store – thrown or given away. I’m only keeping a few pieces.”

She stopped for a few moments, looking at him sadly.

“Listen, Garrus… I am sorry, I know this is much to take in, all at once. Your own fate does not make it easier, either. It just happened, and I do not want to force you into anything.
If you want to stay, you can. I am keeping the house here and you can live in either the upper or the lower floor. I would support you as far as leaving it to you, rent free, but I plan to rent out at least half of the house.
However, I would like to see you at my side. We did not meet again under the happiest of circumstances, but I hope to make the best of it, and get to know you again.”

Garrus nodded, and after a pensive pause sighed loudly.

“I understand, but no. Staying here in this house is also not something I would particularly like.
And Canada does not sound so bad. Maybe a bit cold, though…”

He tried a smile, but it came across as lackluster and tired.

“If there is something I could do to help, I’d be glad.”

Hera picked up at that, smiling.

“I’m certain we’ll find something.
Tell me about yourself, please. I just know about your job and girlfriend, but not how it happened.”

For the first minute, Garrus looked at the floor embarrassed, but pensive. With his hands folded before his head, he pondered the past weeks and months.

“It began half a year ago. I should have gotten promoted, but that never happened. I never got an explanation as to why, and I had to press to find out the reason I was passed over. Two months later I found out I had been bugged and evidently spied upon by someone as I rummaged my equipment. It took a few weeks to find out that my girlfriend had accused me of rape and that I was under surveillance. This went so far that I was finally dismissed, apparently without reason. To top it all off, when I asked for an explanation from my girlfriend, she said she had done it to create a situation so that an ex-boyfriend would want to take her back from the claws of a rapist. For that, she denounced and slandered me! I was neither put on a proper trial nor was the real reason for my dismissal explained to me.
She of course then left me, also because I set an ultimatum for her to move out. I am back here again because I lack the financial means to support myself, anymore.”

Hera sighed.

“Our family seems to be cursed by bad luck. What a bitch; and she had made such a good impression, initially.”

She moved closer to Garrus and took him in her arms.

“I understand your chances of a good job with your knowledge are not the best?”

While appreciating her affection, her son freed himself from her embrace and laughed bitterly.

“What did you expect? Currently, my chances are miserable. Until my case is through with my current lawyer, something that I expect might take months, I can’t get a job in the police force. I checked on private security organizations, but they currently only look for younger and cheaper people.”

“Maybe you will have a better chance in Canada. Even if not, we have a room for you in Marian’s house and I can imagine some change might do Drew some good, too. I think you’ll like him.”

Pausing and looking around the much emptier room, Hera changed the subject.

“There shouldn’t be much more to do here. Maybe you can help me with some of the bigger furniture remaining. I plan to leave some of these for use by future tenants. I can show you around the house to describe what I have in mind, and you can share your opinion…
I want to move some of the bigger pieces I cherish for storage in the cellar. You can put some of yours there too. I thought to only bring the most necessary stuff with us to Canada. If we decide we want more of it later, I can ask my sister to send them over. She will take care of the occasional business of the house. Since her kids are old enough now, she has more time and doesn’t mind a little secondary income.”

Garrus nodded and stood up, reconsidered the past, present and possible future and straightened himself up, already looking different – more determined, with more perspective and a goal before his eyes. He decided to let his past rest and maybe even dispel it.

“That sounds very good. If you keep the house it does make sense to rent it out. I guess it would make life easier when it comes to paying the bills and you would not be so hard pressed to find a new job. Where to in Canada are we going?”

“We will live in Vancouver. I like the area around Marian's house, it is not in the center of the city and somewhat suburbian, but still not too far away from downtown. The road is called Sparbrook Crescent. Some parks are nearby, too, Everett Crowley Park is the nearest one. I’ll show you some photos, later.”