FicWad

Mutual sight, Mutual sound
Mutual struggle, for shared ground
It's safe, to say, they'll try to take from me
I'm just another one for them to break down

Celldweller

"Daddy Tru!" Charlie's scream filled the little bedroom. Instantly he ran up the stairs and towards the room. He lived in the constant fear that one day he would hear her voice for the last time. "Daddy!" He ran faster and opened the door to her bedroom

Charlie stood on the bed her little feet dancing over the My Little Pony bed-sheets. The teddy she had been given gripped in her tiny hands. Tru looked at the object of her fear. The spider looked back. Tru smiled and lifted her into his arms.

"It's just a spider. It is as scared of you as you are of it. Besides it cannot hurt you." He told her.

"Daddy!" She was insistent that the evil cause of petrified fear was not any less scary because he was there. She started to cry.

"Charlie really it's just a spider." He laughed and put her on the bed again so that he could gather the poor creature into his hands and put it outside. He headed to the bathroom and opened the window placing the enemy on the sill outside. "Right no more attacking defenceless children okay?"

The spider accepted graceful defeat and scurried off. Tru headed back to the bedroom to look for Charlie and tuck her back in when Shanemah appeared in front of him. Tru instantly looked for signs of where he came from and moved towards the room Charlie was still stood in. She dived towards him anyway and into his arms.

"Forgive the intrusion." Shanemah said bowing and Tru gripped the little girl tightly. "I thought you might be interested in a new revelation."

"Speak." Tru said his voice deep, resounding over the hall and echoing in his chest. He didn't realise how harsh he could sound when he was wary. "Please explain." He said more gently his shoulders dropping a little.

"You look very different without that coat and your hat you know." Shanemah said with a smile. He wandered down the stairs casually and Tru stopped Charlie from trying to pull his long brown hair as they followed. Shanemah settled on a chair leaving the sofa for the other two.

Tru's eyes followed him as he moved. He sat on the sofa his tail idly falling to one side and Charlie caught it in her hands. He wore an open white shirt and black loose trousers. Charlie had no concept of how strange her surrogate father was and she smiled at the man as she dropped the teddy in favour for Hellion's additional limb.

"What is the news?" Tru asked finally.

"There has been someone assigned to investigate you. An agent of the FBI from America." He told him. "It is a woman. Her name is Lucy Fielding."

"I am English." He stated immediately. "I am nothing to do with the United States. I travel but my parents were English and so am I."

"They are using a series of murders to do with organised crime to get to you." Shanemah explained softly. He smiled at Charlie who looked at him and with a big cheeky face smiled back. "In actual fact whilst they are discussing the potential of murders and you being in this organised crime faction what they are actually doing is looking for a reason to bring you to the US to be tested on."

"I see and when will she likely arrive?" He asked holding the child in his arms. Life was so precious and even more so wrapped in such a small bundle. He risked so much that it seemed he might well be the one to cause her pain as well. He sighed and brought her to sit on his knee properly.

"I would give it a month or so. Naturally it takes time to get hold of your information." He stood up and gave Charlie a pat on the head before he let himself out.

When Charlie went to bed and to sleep finally he afforded a small luxury. He poured a whisky and sat on the sofa to think about things. He had tried to push away the problems. He had tried to bring both of them a normal life, as normal as could be afforded. He wanted no part of organised underworlds or of fighting against countries who wanted to take him. He looked at the drink, the liquid flowed around the ice cubes.

Without warning the lightning came on and the winds picked up. It followed with a roll of thunder and then the sound of heavy rain on the windows. Tru thought of the spider for a moment. Would it survive or be washed away with the sudden appearance of the storm? What a fleeting life the spider had and yet comparably so were many humans. He sighed again and finished his whisky.

"They are going to come." Charlie said in her sleep as he pulled her blanket around her shoulders. "They are going to want both of you. Don't go on the train Hellion." She whispered. His hand snapped back away from her and he watched her go back to sucking her thumb. He knelt down and watched her for some time wondering what train and where that had even come from.

The lightning struck again and lit the room. Tru went to the window and looked over at the night sky and the buildings around them. He watched the rain for what seemed an eternity. The lights outside distorted in the weather. If you were outside in this then you would be soaked and battling nature itself. The lights dimmed. The lightning struck again and Tru felt a hand on his back.

"Don't go to the train station. Something will happen wanting to draw you there." Tru turned around and saw Charlie there. Her head bowed low and her blond hair hanging limply down. She was five years old and yet here she was gripping the back of his shirt like a lover begging him not to leave. He turned to her. "They'll take us both if you go. I know it." She collapsed on the ground and he picked her up gently.

"Charlie." He whispered and looked at her as she slept soundly again. "What do you know that I don't?" He kissed her forehead and gently put her into bed again. He stayed for a good hour listening to her soft breathing and to the storm outside.

When he finally found sleep it was a restless one. He dressed that morning and resolved to try and find another place to move too. Charlie's bedroom wasn't decorated yet anyway and she probably needed a bigger place to grow up. He could get away with moving for their benefit and then he'd need to contact the bigger players in his life. He'd avoided it for ten years and now it seemed that it could not be escaped. Charlie was unaware of the night's speech and came downstairs with her teddy in one hand before getting to the toilet on her own.

"Charlie what would you like for breakfast?"

"Sweets!" She shouted back with a giggle.

"No! Proper breakfast." He smiled. "We need to go out today. We're going to see the Cathedral."

"Okay daddy." She wandered out. He made sure she washed her hands before she got her orange and cereal. "It rained."

"I think it still is baby." He said as he packed his coat up and got ready as she munched through her cereals. Charlie flicked a marshmallow star in his direction as he picked out her clothes. He found her raincoat just in case. "There was a pretty big storm last night you slept through it."

"Okay daddy." She nodded unaware of what he was actually talking about but smiling all the same.

They went to St Paul's in the centre of London and stepped through the doors. It felt like he violated the essence of humanity every time he stepped in through the doors. His heavy booted steps walking over pristine floors that had with the centuries seen thousands of visitors. Tru looked at the stained glass windows. The light that reflected bringing an array of colours to the floors around them.

In the vaults of St Paul's famous people lay amidst a new coffee shop. He wondered if he had thought too much about his damnation or if people now thought too little. He set Charlie down and she took his hand. He knew the doors marked 'Staff Only' meant just that but he wasn't here to talk employment. He needed to see someone important.

The door was not an obstacle but Tru waited until the area quietened and Charlie was looking impatient. He leant down hiding their faces as the shadows claimed them both. They appeared in the corridor the other side. The dark oak panelling on the walls and the deep blood red carpet a stark contrast to the pale stones outside. They walked towards the large oak double doors at the end. The golden handle and lock a sign that its occupant could shut himself away when he needed too.

He didn't knock on the door instead he walked in and put Charlie on the seat in front of the large desk. Father Michael looked up at him and rested his pen back on the desk. He wondered what had brought Tru to him and then looked at the child and back to him again.

"She is an orphan I am the guardian of." He said. He didn't sit down. "Father."

"Hellion." He closed the book. "It has been too long. I expected you to come to me or one of us sooner."

"I left the Vatican and all of this for a reason but someone has been poking around in my business. Would you tell me why?" Charlie grabbed Tru's coat and looked at him nervously. "Only a select few people know the truth. Why are the FBI opening an investigation. Don't lie either."

"Hellion, there is nothing to lie about." He removed his glasses and set them carefully on the side. "Your file is with the Vatican as always if someone knows about you then the files in the Vatican have been accessed by someone who knew about you. That means they are either one of the six guardians or they are working with them. What more can I tell you?"

"You pin me down as the son of some saintly woman, you tell me that I am a gift from God and yet here I am chased and hounded like a beast." He said angrily. His lips curled and his teeth showed. Charlie gripped his coat tighter. "Why do they want to test me?"

"You are unique Hellion." He said and poured a glass of water for the young lady. "You have amazing gifts and people want to know why you and not them. They are scared of you. You are a miracle in your own right."

"Yet I am a devil to all those who see me." He said bluntly. "I want you to look after Charlie for me. She won't be any trouble but I need you to do that until you can locate another house for us. The one I have is not safe but I want to stay in it until we are moved or they take me as bait."

When he left only ten minutes later he unclenched his fists. He soothed the anger with deep breaths and then stepped into the storm and towards his car. The storm finally opened with a heavy sigh and then a deep rolling roar of thunder. Tru looked over the sky and pulled his hat further down. Some days it just didn't pay to think too much.

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Authors note: I haven't put a lot of action in here because the plot needed a jump start and some more background. I will be getting on to the mchunkier fights I promise. I hope that you like it all the same :-) Thank you to those of you who have kindly helped me out with suggestions and feedback.