David was beyond grateful to Brandon for buying out his contract, and couldn’t believe his luck. He’d find a way to repay the favor if he could. After the call from Brandon, he was elated, and left his crappy motel room to go hunt for an apartment, managing to find a ground level one bedroom that was wheelchair accessible, just incase his son came by for a visit. He put down a year’s worth of rent at once and later that day began the process of setting up utilities for his new place. While not ready yet, it would be soon, he’d been promised.
He was tiring of the crappy motel, and sincerely looking forward to having his own place. All he needed to do now was head back to Boston and go through what was there, to see if he was keeping anything or just buying brand new. New would be easier, but there were some sentimental things he wanted. The next step, he decided, was getting a ticket to fly back to Boston in order to get things in, well, order. Before he left the next day for the airport, however, he called his son to let him know.
“Hello?”
“Hey Chance, it’s Dad.”
“Yea I know. Your picture popped up. What’s up?”
“I wanted to let you know that my contract has been bought out, so I don’t have to work anymore. Additionally, I’ve got a place lined up, and if you ever decided to visit, it’s wheelchair accessible.”
“Alright. Cool. When’s your move-in date?”
“Not for at least another week. Depends on how long it takes them to get the place ready for me. In the meantime, I’m heading back to the place in Boston to go through things, and will probably drive back with a U-Haul. I haven’t decided how much I’m going to keep, since Brandon gave me enough to buy brand-new if I want. Anything you want me to look out for for you?”
“Nothing comes to mind. I took my computer with me when I left, same with my camera. Umm…if you can find my camera accessories, bring those back please. Oh, and my clothes. I’ve bought some since, but having some of my favorite stuff would be nice. Don’t have books or anything like that, and I don’t need any of the furniture.”
“Alright. I’ll let you know when I leave Boston, ok?”
“Okay.”
“If anything comes up in the meantime, call me, and I’ll see what I can do from wherever I’m at, ok?”
“Okay. Hope everything goes well Dad.”
“Thanks kiddo. Talk to you later.:
“Bye.”
He hung up with a smile. He’d been enjoying the more civil conversations with his son lately, and really thought their relationship was repairing, if slowly. His next step was to leave a message for Charles letting him know he wouldn’t be attending therapy for a while, and explained why, but promised to line something up as soon as he got back.
With that, he packed up what he had in the hotel and waited for the following morning, when he would head to the airport and catch his flight. There were some other calls he had to make – former colleagues and such, to let the word get out that he was retired.
Once he arrived in Boston, he rented a vehicle and headed toward the house he’d bought when he initially moved out this way with Chance. Not much had been unpacked, since he’d been working and trying to find his son over the past several months. It took time to go though everything, and he was two days in before Alice stopped by.
“I heard you were in town. You couldn’t even call me?” she pushed him. “I’ve barely heard from you since you left! What the hell, David!” she pushed him again, and he stumbled back slightly.
“Sorry Alice. I found my son, I’ve been working on my relationship with him. I’ve been so focused on that, that I didn’t think to do anything else. I’m sorry, hon.”
“Don’t ‘hon’ me.” she huffed, folding her arms over her chest and turning her back to him. He sighed, walking up and putting his arms around her from behind.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Forgive me?”
“Well….I suppose. I know your son is important. I’m sorry for overreacting.” she turned around and gave him a kiss.
“Have you mentioned me to him yet?” David shook his head. “I wanted to work on just getting him to talk to me first. We’ve actually been undergoing counseling.”
“You? Counseling?” she snorted. “Never thought I’d see that.”
“I’d do anything for my son, and right now we’re doing alright.”
“So what’s this I hear about you retiring and relocating?”
“My contract was bought out.”
“By who?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“One Brandon Decacious.”
“No, really.”
“Really. He knows my son, moreover is friends of a sort with my son’s girlfriend, and wanted to make sure I’d be able to fix things with my son.”
“So you’re moving?”
“Yea. I came back here to see what I wanted to keep. I’ll probably get rid of almost everything, and I need to find a realtor to list the house.”
“I can help with that.” she sad, though she seemed sad.
“I was going to ask if you’d come with me. I only just got in yesterday.”
“I don’t know, David. You may not be contracted any more, but I am.”
“Right. When does that run out?”
“In a few weeks. I’ve got a couple jobs lined up. After that though, I might. It’s about time in our relationship that we move in together. We’ve been together for almost three years now.”
“That’s right. We met when Chance was 15.”
“Chance? I thought your son’s name was Joseph?”
“My son’s nickname. His friends in Seattle gave it to him. ”
“Ah. So I tell you what…I’m willing to live out of a suitcase for a while. Why don’t I help you go through things here and then we can do the same at my apartment? You can take my stuff back with you.”
“Sounds good. There’s something I should tell you though.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s the job we do. You ever think that maybe…just maybe, we’re killing actual decent people?”
“They aren’t people, David. They’re monsters.”
“Not all of them.”
Alice studied him for a moment.
“Well, you aren’t under their control, so what would make you think this way?”
“I’ve met a few. They’re friends of my son, actually. And they aren’t all that bad. They just want to be left alone.”
“They kill when they feed.”
“No, they don’t. Think about it. If everyone a vampire fed from died, there’d be a hell of a lot more dead people in this world.”
“I suppose you’re right. I still don’t like it.”
“I know you don’t. But as long as we don’t get up in their business, they’ll leave us alone.”
“You sure about that?”
“Well, they won’t try to kill us, at any rate.”
“Hmm. That’ll be a nice change of pace. Alright, I’ll try to be accepting of it. But you have to tell Chance about me, ok?”
“I will, I promise.”
“Good.”
Alice then pushed up her sleeves and started helping David go through his things. They decided that all the furniture and kitchenware could be donated, only deciding to keep personal affects like clothes, books and mementos. They called a local charity to come pick up everything, and arranged for that to take place in two days. That night David stayed over at Alice’s place, and the next day they started going through her things, deciding much the same as they had for David’s place, just on a smaller scale, and arranged with the same charity group to come collect Alice’s things.
By Sunday, David was saying good bye to Alice and leaving Boston with a U-Haul full of their things, calling his son along the way to let him know he was on his way back, and that he’d like to talk to him later that night about something.
“What kind of something?”
“Nothing bad. At least, I hope not. I’m driving right now though, so I’ll call you when I get to my hotel tonight, ok?”
“Okay.” he sighed. His son sounded uncertain, but was being compliant.
“Love you.”
“You too.”
He concentrated on getting in as much driving as he could before getting a place for the night, and he waited until after he’d eaten before calling his son.
“Hey Dad.”
“Hey kiddo.”
“So what’d you want to talk about?”
“Something else I’ve been keeping from you.”
“More secrets? What the fuck, Dad.”
“I promise, I only have two left.”
“Two? Dad…”
“I know, I know. Trust issues. I get that, I really do. But here’s the first one, and it’s probably going to be difficult to believe.”
“Go on.”
“You know how I’m good with computers?”
“Yea?”
“Well, there’s more to it than that. I’m what I guess you would call a technopath. It’s like telepathy, but with electronics.”
“That’s…useful?”
“It is. It’s extremely useful with hacking.”
“Okay…so what’s the other one?”
“I have a girlfriend. We’ve been seeing each other for almost three years now.” he waited…the other end was strangely silent. “Chance?”
“I heard you. Why’d you keep it secret?”
“You were so mad at me already, I didn’t want to make things any worse. I wanted you to focus on your recovery.”
“I guess.”
“She’s going to be moving in with me in a few weeks. She has to wrap up some loose ends first.”
“What’s her name?”
“Alice.”
“Okay. I’ll meet her when she comes to town, ok?”
“Alright. Thank you.”
“Sure.”
“I’ll let you get some sleep now, kiddo.”
“Later Dad.”
“Night.”
David hung up, thankful the call had gone as well as it had. He’d honestly expected Chance to yell and hang up on him. He set the phone down and flopped back onto the bed, honestly grateful for the little things, and looking forward to seeing his son again, and having Alice move in with him. He even went so far as to think about proposing to Alice not long after she did move in. He drifted off that way, thinking happy thoughts about his future.