helios

“Okay. Good,” Sofia nodded with a relieved sigh. She hated the idea of having to get her son registered. Her little boy. Her innocent little boy who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Why on earth would he need to be registered as if he was a criminal they needed to keep an eye on? She smiled softly as he insisted she wouldn’t be a painful reminder for her family. “Maybe I should give them a call.” Part of her felt bad for having to pull Mateo out of LA and the distance that created between him and Joaquin’s family as well as hers. “Uhm,” she took in a deep breath as she tried to formulate an answer for his question. Did she even really know how she was dealing with it? She’d never moved to a new state before. Let alone had to arrange a whole new life in a new country.  “Fine. I mean, I’ve settled in at work. And Mateo seems to be handling it okay. Which makes things easier. But I do miss our family and friends.” She offered him a small smile. “But I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you. On the run. Having to keep everyone in the dark. It can’t have been easy.” Having had the kind of childhood Sofia had, it was difficult to imagine being completely separated from those she loved. 

Joaquin gave her a small smile and took her hands in his. “I think my mother would like that. She always loved Mateo...gave her a second chance at taking care of a child and she loved to spoil him,” he said with a light laugh. He closed his mouth, waiting, making sure Mateo didn’t hear and crawl out of bed to find out what that noise was. His mother always resented allowing his father to have so much of an influence on him and his siblings. It pulled them apart and by the time their mother noticed, it was too late. “I’m sure you do. I’m so sorry this has happened, but I’m glad you’re adjusting well. Hopefully making friends...both you and Mateo.” Joaquin let go of one of Sofia’s hands and ran his fingers through his hair. “You’re right. It hasn’t been easy. But to protect you, I’d do anything.” He paused for a beat. “You get used to being alone a lot faster than you think and I thought I’d be alone for much longer. It was such a surprise to see that you moved here.” He smiled again, trying to focus on something happier. “Did you get the spyglass and stained glass piece I sent?”

“Okay,” she whispered with a nod. “Yeah. I get it. I don’t want them getting a hands on Mateo. I just hope things don’t escalate further. I don’t…I can’t imagine how I could possibly explain to him why some people think he’s dangerous. He’s just a kid.” She sighed, her gaze dropping momentarily. She’d moved so far away to keep Mateo safe. To give him a normal childhood. And now that very thing was under threat. At the mention of his family, she shook her head. “Only your mother. I-I try not to intrude. I can only imagine what happened hurt them a million times more than it did me. I wouldn’t want to be a painful reminder of that.” She offered him a sad smile. “Do they…Do they know you’re still alive, or?” She hadn’t gotten the chance to learn about the logistics of his fake death since learning Joaquin was still alive. 

For the longest time, he’d considered pulling Mateo out of school and having him be homeschooled, but Joaquin knew that wouldn’t be fair on any of them, especially their son. A part of him understood his father’s ideology. He’d hated for Silvers to live in hiding all the time, forced to live in the shadows to avoid being experimented on or arrested or worse. Joaquin took Sofia’s hands and gave them a squeeze. “It’s not mandatory here, so we have some time to figure things out,” he said. “I don’t think you’d be a painful reminder. If anything, I think you’d be a sign of hope.” He gave her a small smile. His mother wasn’t thrilled with him or his father and their work, but she did love Sofia and Mateo, even if they reminded her of her wayward son and husband. “None of them know. I hadn’t spoken to Johanna and Tommy in weeks before everything happened. How are you dealing with the move from America?” The two had done some traveling before, but they’d never considered moving away from the States.

“He’s upstairs in bed.” Sofia was about to ask why he’d come to check on him when Joaquin mentioned the disappearances of four more Silvers. Her hand moved to cup her mouth in shock. “Oh. Wow. That’s terrible. No, no. I’ve made sure he doesn’t. Of course, he’s not too happy with it. But I think he understands why. Are you okay, though? Are you being careful? I don’t want anything happening to you either? I mean…you being here is already pretty risky. Not that I’m not happy to see you.” She reached forward to cup his face. “I just don’t want to lose you again. The first time was hard enough.” The pain of not really knowing what happened was the hardest part. So if he were to disappear again…it would be like reliving her worst nightmare.

As she put her hands to his face, Joaquin placed his hands over hers. “I’m okay,” he reassured her. “I’m staying under the radar. Sticking to my job at the bar. I’ve been working with Emilia Freygard. She’s a Silver in the police department. Forensic scientist. She’s got the same powers as Mateo, but she doesn’t use them very often,” he added. “Just make sure Mateo doesn’t use his powers and he doesn’t get hurt. If they see his blood and see it’s Silver...” He didn’t even want to talk about what could potentially happen. “Here they have a strict system of registering Silvers if they find them. I know they had a system in the US, but it was corrupt and far easier to fly under the radar. Here, it’s different. I don’t want Mateo to have to register and be watched his whole life.” Joaquin couldn’t imagine what it must be like for Sofia these last few months of having to pretend like he was dead. “Have you talked to my mother or my brother and sister?” He wondered what they were doing after he and his father “died.”

With Mateo safely tucked in bed, Sofia had gone back downstairs to make herself some tea. The initial taps against the window weren’t quite loud enough to be heard over the sound of the electric kettle. But when the rapping started again, she jumped at the sound. Her gaze was immediately drawn to her window where, to her shock, she saw Joaquin’s face peering inside. Rushing to the back door, she quickly opened it. “Joaquin! What are you doing here,” she whispered, gesturing for him to come inside. She wrapped her cardigan tightly around her, shivering at the cold evening air. “Is everything okay?”

"I wanted to make sure Mateo was safe,” Joaquin said. He cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck. He’d absorbed some sunlight earlier in the day and started to burn off some of the energy, making it warmer in the house. He glowed slightly as the light was released. “At least four more Silvers have disappeared and one of them might be dead. Their deaths are different than how the other woman died. They were different ages, races, genders...no relation other than them being Silvers. I think there’s a Silver hunter in town. Has Mateo been using his powers?” Of course, Joaquin’s concern for Mateo also extended towards Sofia as he couldn’t bear it if something happened to her, especially if she was protecting Mateo.

Joaquin snuck around the back Sofia’s house. He didn’t want to go in the front and have people see him. Most importantly, he didn’t want Mateo to see him. He still wasn’t entirely sure whether he should tell his son he was alive. For now, he’d keep one foot in front of the other and focus on the issue at hand. He crept up to the back door that was by the kitchen and tapped softly on the window when he saw Sofia walking by. It was pretty late, so hopefully, Mateo would be in bed and asleep. Although, he did have a penchant for snooping around at night. “Sofia,” Joaquin whispered, rapping against the window again.

Emma started to throw all her hesitation to jump to conclusions about what Joaquin used to do before coming to Kingsholm as soon as he started listing really good points. The way he spoke made it clear he was confident about what he was saying so either he had some experience or was really into cop shows. But most of all, her curiousity had been piqued and she didn’t want to hold back on her questions anymore.

As soon as Joaquin admitted to having worked with investigations, Emma jumped at the chance to inquire. She smiled, now feeling good about him trusting her enough to respond honestly to that. “Really?” Her head tilted slightly. “You weren’t a bartender before coming to Kingsholm, were you?” Excited, her smile widened and her shoulders clenched, coming higher above her shoulders like a shrug. “I knew it.” She relaxed and took a deep inhale. Emma tried to control her smile by biting at the bottom of her lips and then attempting to explain the sudden enthusiasm. 

“Sorry,” She said with a breathy laugh. “It’s just- you were kinda sketchy from the beginning. I’m not a detective, but I’ve worked with law enforcement and forensic investigation long enough to draw my own conclusions about you. Were you a government official? Law enforcement? Private investigator? All very exciting.”

Joaquin took a half step back at Emilia’s sudden burst of energy. He wondered how much time she spent speculating who he was and what he did before coming here. Usually, during undercover work, Joaquin was like a chameleon, but being here pretending to be some other version of himself, he just couldn’t seem to turn the cop version of him off. It was probably because he desperately missed his job and life back home and he was searching for something, anything, that resembled his life from before. Investigating a murder seemed like the go to way to do that. 

“Sketchy?” He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her. Joaquin took a moment and then let out a sigh. She certainly was too smart for her own good. He hoped that him telling her all of this about himself wasn’t going to come back and bite him in the ass. And that it wasn’t going to put Emilia in any more danger than they’re already in. “Homicide detective.” He leaned back against one of the tables again and crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t go around poking in someone else’s business too much now that we have a theory that someone inside the police is behind all of this. We don’t know who’s doing all of this, which gives them an advantage over us. I should go before everyone else gets back from lunch.”