#spac1

Andy started at the wall of monitors that sat before her. It would be impossible to expect any one person to be able to keep a proper beat on all of them, which is why they normally had no less than three people working the room, but as it stood, three of the overnight crew had fallen ill and she thought it a better use of current resources out on the grounds and around the building. Besides, Andy wasn’t just any one person. If anyone was capable of keeping command from the monitoring room alone, it was her. After all, she had the job for a reason...among many others.

A glance at the clock let her know that it was nearing three in the morning. “The witching hour,” she whispered to herself, a wry chuckle following. It had been so long since Andy had last placed any thought to anything even remotely relating to witchcraft, she was honestly surprised she still remembered tings like this at all. Not only did it feel like a lifetime away, it now was an entirely different life. One that was legitimately dead and buried, she had no one to blame but herself...

The usual sounds of a dinner between the families filtered in and out along with Andy’s own attention to what was going on around her. She had deliberately made it to the table mid-way through everyone getting seated to avoid being noticed too much and was thus far able to just sit there and occasionally move her food around to give the impression she was eating. It helped that her brother’s dog Charly was there to provide a helping ‘stomach’, if you will. She was honestly glad it was her mother’s turn to host, because there was zero chance she’d get away with this if it was Matteo’s cooking.

Inevitably, however, she her grandfather’s voice began to break through, his usual thinly veiled digs at her uncles’ ‘lifestyle’ causing her hands to still. She kept her eyes down on her plate, but when it became obvious that, once again, absolutely no one was going to say anything against the Cruz Patriarch -even though it was no secret that very few people at this table agreed with his antiquated views- Andy took it as her queue to be the spokesperson.

Setting down her cutlery, she placed her elbows on either side of her plate, and laced her fingers in the middle, setting her chip to rest atop so she could angle her head and offer her grandfather the proudest smile she could muster. Seeing the perfect opportunity, she spoke. “You know, Abué1, that’s exactly what I love about you. How you’ve always told us there is no bond that compares to that of a witch and their guardian. I mean, they have our back, we have theirs.” She could practically feel her parents’ eyes boring into her, but the quick glance at Apollo’s barely restrained smirk was all the encouragement she needed. “When facing threats, there has to be a very specific symbiotic trust, right? We have to trust that our guardian will ensure our lives, and in return they have to trust that we won’t let fear distract us from doing that which we need to do for the greater good.”

The white-haired man actually beamed at her words. “That’s very well said, Andromeda. It looks like a mistake may not have been made after all in allowing you to take this generation’s guardian.” Andy’s face remained the same in spite of the man’s words. Not like they were necessarily original. “Yeah, you know, I also remember how you always used to drive the point home, when talking to me and Apollo, about how the only drawback to being a charge is feeling like you’re sometimes split in two between because your spouse will never understand your relationship with your guardian, and vice versa. So in that respect, I suppose Uncle Ric and Uncle Kai have won the jackpot,” she exclaimed, turning to grin and wink at her uncles knowing full well what would follow.

“¡Niña insolente!2”

It would be another fifteen minutes of an increasingly red-faced old man spewing all sorts of lovely words, some she of which she had no idea what they meant as her Spanish was good but not ‘motherland’ good, before he finally took a break to breath and her mother suggested she retire to the family room instead - which Andy was not about to argue with, because she hadn’t wanted to be a part of the dinner to begin with. Not today.

The first one to come and join her had been her Uncle Ric. He had entered the room with a neutral look, but it had slowly been beat out by a smirk at the sight of the one she was sending his way. “¿Sabés que no tenias que hacer eso, verdad?3“ he spoke as he took a seat on the coffee table in front of her. “Kai and I are more than capable of dealing with Papí4 on our own. We have been for years now. We’re big boys-” “I never want to hear you utter that phrase again,” she cut in. “-and there was no need,” Ric continued after a quick eyeroll, “for you to have had all of that directed at you instead. Whether you like it or not, you’re still the baby.”

Andy groaned at the reminder of what most of her family saw  her as. Whether they did because she was youngest or because they believed she need the most care, she’d rather not ask. “I’m going to be having him direct all of that at me soon anyway, Títo,” she pointed out. Before she continue, though, he broke out in a grin and made a show of silently celebrating. “Oh my god, could you please not make all my work in there null by being such a stereotype right now,” she grumbled as she wrestled his hands back down. He looked at her and simply said, “Sorry, sorry. Just got a little excited. Does this mean you’re going to finally talk to Thyra?”

How she managed to keep her composure at the question, even Andy wasn’t sure. Instead she just let out a slight scoff and said, “No. That’s definitely not happening any time soon-” Or ever, she thought, “-but that doesn’t meant I’m going to continue to live a lie. I’m also going to tell them I no longer wish to be a charge. I’ve already spoken with the Avrahams and I know that they’d be more than happy to have a Cruz-Lazcurain on their roster of supernatural hunters- Yes, I know you’re not exactly keen on that idea yourself, but all these years of sneaking into the guardian training classes? I just feel like there’s so much more that I could be doing.”

Andy could see the counter-argument already being prepared by Ric, but he was forced to hold off as both Apollo and Kai made their way into the room. “Well, that was one of the most eventful dinners we’ve had in quite some time,” Apollo said with a grin. “Yeah, shame my niece had to miss it,” Mordechai followed, before turning to Andy. “Where did you say she was off to again?” “Picking up some additional supplies for me from a known witch a few towns over. Want to make sure I’m well stocked before we have to go to the safe-house tomorrow.”

It was a comment that held a double-edged reminder for Andy, though it still managed to somber the mood of her uncles as they finally bid their fare well and left.

No sooner had the front door sounded, then Apollo waived a hand -Andy figured he setting soundproof charm to the room- and then took Ric’s place in sitting before her. “Stop looking at me like that,” she said, her own eyes fixed out the window instead of facing her brother. “Like what?” “Like I’m some wounded puppy in an ASPCA commercial,” Andy said as she turned to look at him. A grin was on his face as he said, “I’m sorry. It’s not my fault I can practically hear Sarah McLachlan every time I look at your face now.” Andy glared at him and said, “Isn’t thirty-five cutting it a bit close to be making these kinds of jokes?” “Nah, I’m just a teen dad, and now they’re just ‘dad jokes’ instead of ‘bad jokes’.”

She groaned, but did nothing to fight him off when he came to sit on the couch with her and sidled up to her, very much playing the part of the concerned father. Which for al intents and purposes, the male witch had been more of a father to her than their actual father so... “Come on, something’s been weighing on you all day and I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact we have to go into hiding tomorrow until the Avraham Security team gives the all clear, because this is nowhere near the first time we’ve done this.”

Andy turned to look at him, a serious expression on her face. “You’re right, it’s not the first time we’ve had to do it, but doesn’t it ever- I don’t know- bother you? The fact that our family picks all these fights, and then we go off to a ‘safe-house’ while perfect strangers go out and fight our battles?” He had a look on his face that let her know that he was genuinely considering this for maybe the first time in his life. Then he shook his head and said, “You’re deflecting.”

He was only half-right. Though it had been a means to deflect from answering his initial question, it had been unintentional and her point was valid. She would’ve told him as much if hadn’t just opted to be direct and ask, “Where’s Thyra? I mean, really where is she? Because we share inventory of our supplies and last I checked, we were all packed on that front already.”

The younger witch sighed and rubbed at her temple before just admitting. “I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I don’t know. I genuinely do not have that knowledge.”

There was a silence around them for a moment before he asked, “What happened?”

“I overheard as dad and the others were setting the final details for tomorrow into place. Manoach and Kai were set to join the Avraham tactical team on the frontline, as they are wont to do, but this time-” she stopped, a familiar lump forming in her throat at the mere memory of it all, “-this time, dad was insistent that Thyra be out there with them. He claimed that he felt she was ready to gain more first-hand experience, and then let slip that he also felt she and I could do with some time apart...”

Andy turned a far-away gaze out in front of her, looking at nothing in particular as she continued. “I already knew that Thyra wasn’t happy with the idea of being a guardian, I mean come on the girl would like be bested by a six year-old in judo. She wouldn’t have stood a chance out there...so I told her. To keep this form becoming a three hour conversation, I’ll skip to the part where I said if she couldn’t think of one good enough reason to stay, she should go, and then how I woke up in the middle of the night to her back walking out the front door.”

Andy closed her eyes and didn’t even bother to turn back to Apollo before groaning out, “Stop looking at me like that.” “I’m sorry,” he said, before enveloping her in a tight embrace where they sat. He placed a kiss to her temple, and said, “I really am sorry, nena5. I won’t pour salt in the wound by going over everything about you two, but if it’s any consolation we’ve always know that there was really not a lot that girl could’ve possibly saved you from....well, except maybe yourself.”

Any response Andy may have had was left for her to dwell on as their mother came into the room, making quick work of taking down Apollo’s charm. She informed them they’d be leaving earlier than originally planned.

After arriving at the safe-house -which they’re mother called a cabin, and she and her brother called a rustic mansion- Andy spent a sleepless night, with nothing but time on her hands to think. By the time the witching hour was at hand, her mind was made up. The witch dressed appropriately and used every trick she knew to make sure she left that ‘cabin’ without being noticed.

Andy struck a quick deal with the leader of the tactical team, and made it absolutely clear there was no means of changing her mind. So she was assigned to a unit and briefed. No one would ever feel they had to die for her. Andy was going to be fighting her own battles from here on out.

With the breaking of dawn had come the first onslaught of hunters. How their home’s whereabouts had been compromised to this degree, she would only ever be able to guess. The witch had other supernaturals in her unit, but the hunters they were up against were particularly aggressive in their means.

It was on the third day that everything went to hell.

She had been holding her position for the better part of the morning, when she took note of an arrival at the main house. Andy didn’t need her binoculars to see who it was. She couldn’t use her magic to warn Apollo that he was a sitting duck in the house because that would give away her position and that of her entire unit, but she also couldn’t just let her brother wander right into the hunter’s hands.

So she dropped from the tree she was in, as quietly as she could manage, and made her way back up to the house. As soon as she set foot inside, she could feel it. They were both exposed. It dawned on her almost as soon as she laid eyes on Apollo that there was only reason he was still alive after being this out in the open for so long: he was bait.

He had turned at the sound of the door and immediate relief washed over his face as he began to say, “Andy! We’ve been looking ever-” His words were cut short by the arrow that now lodged itself in his neck. Witches weren’t invulnerable. Witches just had one natural active power. Apollo’s had been scrying. He always managed to find her...

Andy ran over to him, immediately dropping to her knees beside him, and cradling him as he gurgled out in an attempt to catch a breath. “No, no, no. You shouldn’t have come here. Why did you come here?” she managed between sobs. Focusing like she never had before, she held a hand over his wound in the hopes of using her telekinesis to stifle the bleeding. “Come on, stay with me. Stay with me, okay? I can stifle the bleeding and we can get you some help.” The look in his eyes was telling her more than any words ever could, but she refused to accept his wordless goodbye. “No, we can get you help. You can’t- you can’t leave me too,” she pleaded.

“Oh don’t worry sweetheart, you’ll be joining him soon enough.”

That was all she heard before everything went black

The click of the door opening behind her brought her back to the present. Without even turning she could tell it was Leo, with a cup of coffee. “You probably don’t need it, but I bet it can’t hurt,” her boss snarked. Turning to face the older woman she just smiled and took the cup. “I appreciate the gesture all the same,” she replied. She also appreciated the distraction. What would’ve followed on her trip down memory lane wasn’t something she cared to revisit. Especially when alone in a room with little distraction.

“Thank you,” Andy said. 

“It’s just coffee Cruz,” Leo snarked. “Yeah well, the thanks isn’t just for the coffee. I know I’d be considered a liability to another other organization, supernatural run or not, so I really do appreciate you giving me the opportunity to something to prove that wrong.”

“Don’t mention it.” Leo replied as she went to leave, but before she could fully exit the room, Andy called back out. “Oh! And Leo, you know damn well what the picture on Thyra’s desk was about because you sent a gift, since you couldn’t be there in person. So let the ‘fiancé’ thing go, yeah? Please?”

Leo just smirked as she left, and Andy knew she’d be feeling a migraine coming on if she could still get them.