Liam escaped the dining room after hurrying through his lunch and ducked into his office. He'd taken a long walk around the pond with Ben after breakfast and had hardly gotten a word in edgewise. It was as though the boy wanted to make up for almost a decade of living right now, immediately. The weird shadows cast by the leafless branches on the path ahead of them fascinated him, the geese and ducks in the pond delighted him, a quick shower they'd waited out in the gazebo made him laugh. Ben wanted to go to school like the others, he wanted to learn to ride, he wanted one of Sara's puppies. He was curious about everything, wanted to talk about everything, try everything, do everything... and Liam was exhausted.
He flopped down onto the sofa and pulled out his com. He punched in a number, muttering to himself that if Christian wasn't awake yet it was damn well time he got up. Liam didn't want to hear about tired just now.
Christian was sitting on his couch, his second cup of coffee in his hand when his com began to buzz. He reached over and picked it up, smiling grimly when he saw who was calling. He'd begged off work today, expecting this call and wanting his wits about him when it came. Anything less, with Liam, meant wading up to his neck in shit! Besides, he still felt a little woozy and strange as last night's attack of nerves hadn't quite left him until early this morning. He rested the com against his knees, thumbed the button and said, "Hey, Liam."
"Good morning. Sleep well?"
"Nope. Not at all well. I stayed home today because of it. Though I expected you'd call. How is he?"
Liam rolled his eyes. "Let's put it this way -- you found the on/off switch. I'll grovel at your feet in gratitude if you can locate the volume knob for me."
"Oh?" Christian was genuinely surprised. His foray around inside Ben's head hadn't been of the 'reading his mind' variety and he'd no clue how the lad would act given the chance. "He turned out noisy?"
Liam closed his eyes and groaned. "Let's just say he's making up for lost time. I spent the morning keeping up with him and I'm ready for bed. The boy has no brakes!" Liam opened the minifridge from a distance and floated a bottle of milk into his hand. "In all seriousness, though, what you did was miraculous. I was almost certain I was going to lose this one, and I know this has been hurting Hal. I really loathe pulling those kinds of balancing acts but when it's the only option.... But that's past. Now, I haven't had a chance to talk to Johnny in private, so tell me what you did. And I hope you know you now have a slot in my arsenal."
Christian groaned loud enough for Liam to hear him. "Better be a damned small slot, Liam, considering how I feel. Only reason I even tried it was because Johnny told me how close you all were to losing the kid. And by trying, I don't mean I haven't done it before, just mean making the attempt really takes it out of me." He sipped his coffee. "He was this massive ball of fear," he said. "You must have felt it too, and it was paralysing him. I... took it away."
"Yes, that much Johnny managed to communicate, that doing whatever you did wiped you out. I appreciate that, Christian, seriously. And I know you're busy with other things. I don't get stuck like this often, but when I do I'll be giving you a call." Liam took a sip of his milk, then said, "And yes, that's it exactly. He's not afraid anymore -- it's like he's been bound and gagged and blindfolded, and now he's not. Everything in the world around him is new and wonderful and he wants to experience it all. It's...." He paused, searching for words. "All griping aside, it's amazing to see. We'll have to chase him around for a while, keep him from trying to pet any tigers, but he's... he's alive again."
"Good." His conscience was still attacking him from all sides and Christian was immensely grateful for the reassurance. "If I could do it easily, I'd do it more often. Truth is, I'm not sure what it is and how it works. It's just something I stumbled over when I really began working hard with my Healing Gift in the army." He paused for a moment to choose his words. "I think it's some strange combination of the Healing and the Telepathy, Liam, but really I can't be certain. All I know is, I found this overwhelming fear in Ben's mind and made it... dissipate, like smoke. Once it was gone, I didn't touch anything else."
Liam frowned and his eyes unfocused for a moment. "Yes, that would... that'd describe it rather well. You know, there have to be at least a few others in the medical community who have Telepathy as well as Healing. If we could duplicate this with other patients we could bring an entire group that's been huddling in the dark back to their lives, and leave you to your princing, both."
He tried hard to keep the relief out of his voice and thought he was mostly successful. If Liam 'heard' anything at all it was the relief of a guy who was pleased he'd not be called upon to strain himself over his limits. "I wish I could be more helpful," he said. "Even just with the 'how', but I'm stuffed if I know." He shrugged. "Just... happened." Picking up his near-cold coffee, Christian sipped pulling a face. "So how'd everyone take it?" he asked. "Was he really that different?"
Liam just stared out the window for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to explain without resorting to superlatives. "Let me give you an example. In all the months he's been with me, I've never before heard his normal speaking voice. He's always been either whispering or shrieking, and rather more of the latter than the former, while never very much of either. This morning as soon as he was done with breakfast he started babbling and didn't stop until lunch."
"Oh." Christian could feel the impact of this purely in Liam's voice and immediately felt guilty again. Not because of what he'd done but because Liam's words pleased him. Pride in what he'd done was not something he'd expected, or looked for. "If it's good then I'm glad I did it," he said quietly. "Was hard, but...." He let the words fade away, his meaning entirely different from how Liam would interpret them.
"You did well, lad. Even if you can never help me again, you have my gratitude for this. Nothing I'd tried had helped, and I was close to having to remove the boy's last prop. I'm sure we could've kept him under supervision close enough to prevent suicide, but with a case like this, eventually, in the dark of the night when you're lying in bed contemplating all your failures, you start wondering why. You saved his life, Christian, in every meaningful sense of the word."
"Christ, Liam, shut up!" Christian ran his fingers through his hair, guilt for the lie gnawing at him. "You'll give me a swelled head."
"You could use it," Liam retorted. "You have the tiniest head I've ever run into, boy. Maybe when you've recovered from Ben, you can use that combination of Gifts and eliminate some of that excessive modesty of yours."
Christian grinned even though Liam couldn't see it. "You concentrate on fixing the broken ones, okay? Leave us shy folk alone in our modesty. All I did was remove the block, the rest is your bailiwick."
"Oh, I can handle the rest of it. Although by the time I'm done I might pull a Harry in reverse and come visit you for some R&R. The bed in your old room was quite comfortable -- I might show up on your doorstep in a few months ready to fall into it."
"I'll keep you to that," Christian promised. "But you're staying with me, no question. My guest room is even more comfortable with the added advantage of not having to listen to Harry's snoring coming through the vents like a cold Northerly."
Liam barked out a laugh. "It's a deal!"
"Talk to you later, Liam," Christian signed off. "Glad it all worked out and tell Johnny I'll talk to him tonight."
"I will, and thanks again."
Liam started to set the com back down, then stopped. Ben wanted to go to school but didn't know what he wanted to focus on. That was fine; the lad had missed all his secondary schooling after his father died and his stepmother sold him "into Service" when he was thirteen. He had plenty of catching up to do, and a lot of breadth to cover before it'd be time to specialize.
He punched up the Community Education site. They had a satellite in Hettlesfield where he could go for labs and exams. They had day classes, too, and he considered sending him, at least for one class, then decided against it. The socializing would be good for him in theory, now that he was up to it, but he'd be considerably older than the other students in his classes and that would add undesirable stress. Maybe later, after the trials, they could look at a special interest club or a sports league. For that matter, it wouldn't be a bad idea for all of them -- they needed to socialize outside their group, and once the trials were over they should all be ready for it. He crossed a set of mental fingers for Linus.
Fine, then -- online. Liam punched up the registration form and enrolled Ben as a secondary student. Ben would have to come in and take a battery of placement tests -- his last schooling had been years ago and he'd had essentially no intellectual stimulation at all in that time -- but he could do that... well, if Liam went and found him he'd probably bounce right in and do it now.
Liam wrapped up and signed off. He'd find Ben, have him take his tests, or at least a few of them, and have Samuel get a desktop com set up in Ben's room.
There. The milk bottle floated itself to the trash and Liam headed out to look for Ben. This was going to be a very good day.
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