Bottle It Up

“Elijah Crum?” Calvin asked as he began scribbling the words that Reid had suggested he start his letter with in bright orange. The color screamed up at Calvin’s eyes from the piece of paper – but he took this as a sign that the letter was beginning to look as it should. Bright colors would cheer Chase up, and that was the sole reason for writing her a letter. “Do you think that Elijah helped Khaat steal the children?” Calvin asked Reid, looking up from his work once more.

When Calvin had learned of the pain that Elijah had inflicted upon Chase, Calvin had imagined him as an incredibly frightening figure with a malicious smile and bottomless eyes. Calvin’s version of Elijah may as well have been the Joker; a fictional villain whom Calvin had been terrified of from the moment he’d learned of him. “Do you think it would help – you know, if we visited him?” Calvin asked, making it quite evident that he was frightened of Elijah.

The young man returned his eyes – which had become rather red – to the letter, and began to write once more, adding another two lines to the sheet of paper.

Dear Chase,
Reid gave me your letter. Are you O.K, Chase? I want to help, but I don’t know where you are. Did you find a home yet, Chase? Can I send you a drawing some time?

It was certainly not a finished product, but Calvin felt that with the help of several other colored crayons- and Reid - that it would soon be a masterpiece.

Reid knew it would be best to just explain everything to Calvin, the way it was, so Calvin would not assume things were simpler or harder than they were, better or worse. At Calvin's question, Reid shrugged. "I know as much as you do, Calvin." He paused. "But what I can guess is that Elijah wanted the kids- Chase said he would. He probably told the Ministry and Khaat happened to be the one they sent. That's what I'm thinking, anyway."

He watched Calvin scribble for awhile, amazed that he still had the gentility to use crayons. Typically, when Reid tried, he snapped the crayons in half. He smiled slightly, sympathetically, at Calvin's expression when he considered speaking to Elijah. "Calvin.. Elijah is only sixteen years old. You know how sad you felt when you found out that you might not be seeing Thierry and Fauve because someone had taken them from you? Well, Elijah knew them longer, and they were taken from him. So don't be afraid of him, feel bad for him. Of course, that doesn't justify him stealing them either, without warning."

He nodded, picking up a cyan colored crayon and picking at the paper around it with his thumbnail, getting little bits of blue wax wedged under his nail. "I think it would help to. We should wait for Chase though." He held out the blue crayon, sure that Calvin was already getting tired of the orange one.

“Are you scared of him, Reid?” Calvin asked as he took hold of the new, blue crayon that he’d been offered; despite what Reid told him of Elijah, Calvin could not seem to shrug off that feeling of fear that he felt towards the mysterious man. Calvin had allowed his imagination to run wild, and when Calvin was afraid of something, it often took a good deal of effort for him to rid himself of that negative feeling. Perhaps if Reid were not afraid of Elijah, however, Calvin could follow in his friend’s footsteps – all the way to Elijah himself in order to meet him, apologize for the irrational fear that he’d once felt towards him, and to ask him about the children.

Calvin dropped to the next line of the letter, continuing on with his writing. The two colors that he had chosen clashed in a rather horrific way, but Calvin's point of view was quite far from reality. He was much like the young artist; though his work could potentially blind anyone other than himself, in his eyes it was the best thing in the world. I need to do my very best to cheer up Chase, Calvin reminded himself, for that was the true reason behind the effort that he was putting into the letter.

For a moment, Calvin went silent as he scribbled; despite the fact that he’d managed to gain control over his tears and his sniffling, Calvin still could not seem to put on his signature smile. There was still a terrible feeling within his stomach, which he could not seem to rid himself of, and at that moment his inner turmoil became visible.

Calvin wanted to know where Chase was. He wanted to make her smile, and to comfort her – but most of all, Calvin wanted his family back.

"'Course not, Cal. He's only a kid." Reid often acted tough when the subject of confrontation came up, just as he had in his Hogwarts years. But whenever actual confrontation came up, he would often resort to 'your mother' jokes, and if that did not work, he was very skilled at just turning his tail and running like mad. But talk, he was good at. "We're older than him. He's probably scared of us."

Reid watched his friend and knew that this would not all be solved with crayons and Yoshis. There were only two things that would help Calvin- either to understand, or to have everyone back together. And Reid did not know that he could help with either of them. He could do his best, but honestly, he found that there was only one solution for the two ideas.

Chase.

Either she could come back and make them a family again, or she could explain. She was probably the only one that could set poor Calvin's little head and heart at ease. Reid needed to contact her. He would need to write her another letter later, explaining, begging. But for now, he could only do one thing. "Hey Cal..." He paused. "Everything is going to be alright, okay?"

“Scared of us?” Calvin asked, “Oh bother - I hope not; I don’t want to scare anyone!” The very notion of inflicting negative emotions upon someone didn’t sit well with Calvin – even if Reid’s words had been nothing but false reassurance. Calvin shifted where he sat, appearing as though he was feeling guilty for having frightened Elijah, despite the fact that there was no proof of the matter. "Should we say sorry?" he asked innocently.

Calvin had begun fingering through his small supply of crayons once more, rolling each one forward so that he could read their titles. The way in which he was searching through his rainbow of colors seemed rather absentminded, however; it seemed as though Calvin could not focus his mind on one particular activity or conversation for long before his thoughts of Chase returned like a storm cloud, taking up every bit of space within his skull.

Reid spoke, and Calvin’s fingertips stopped on a vibrant, purple crayon. His eyes returned to those of the man before him, and he spoke quietly in reply, “Do you think so?” Calvin needed to know that, if he were to get his hopes up, he would not be crushed once more - but he didn't seem to realize how impossible it was for Reid to answer such a question. "Do you think we will be a family again, soon? I miss them already, Reid... I miss her."

Reid thought for a moment, thinking carefully on whether or not it would be pertinent for them to apologize to the Krum heir. "We didn't do anything wrong, Calvin." It was mostly pondering aloud, but he was also saying it in a reassuring way. They did no wrongs by Elijah, nor the children, nor Chase. The did everything right, he was sure. Some things just did not turn out the way they were supposed to.

"No, I do not think we need to apologize. You apologize when you've done something wrong, and neither of us have. We could possibly apologize for his situation or any miscommunications, but that's all." He paused and then nodded, pleased with his answer. The could not apologize for things out of their control, of things that were not their fault.

Reid flt another pang at Calvin's words. Reid had done the most complaining when Chase and the kids had lived there, because somehow his role became maid and nanny- Thierry had even cheekily taught Fauve to call Reid Nanny, which has not been appreciated. But in the chaos and frustration was a warm bliss... And Reid was afraid it might not come back. He responded quietly to his friend, "We can try, mate. We can try."

They would get Chase back; Reid had said so, and together, they were sure to find out a way to solve the problem that they’d been presented with. Calvin was determined to repair the damage that had been done by the odd relationship of Chase and Elijah – far more determined that he could remember being about anything else. He was Batman, after all; it was his job to put Chase’s life back together when things fell apart – he’d decided that it would be so the moment that he’d tripped over her outside of a muggle café just a year before.

Calvin nodded in agreement with Reid’s words, “OK. We’ll fix this, won’t we, Reid?” he replied with yet another question; it seemed as though Calvin’s decisions depended entirely on Reid’s answers. It was as though Calvin was asking for permission to act on his thoughts - and Reid just so happened to the guardian that was being forced into answering every one of these questions.

Focusing entirly on the sheet of paper before him for a moment, Calvin had begun to whisper to himself, speaking aloud the words that he was including in his letter to Chase. “Love, Calvin,” he concluded, signing his rainbow masterpiece. The sheet of paper appeared as though a unicorn had thrown up on it, spewing blinding colors all about it in the form of thick, child-like handwriting.

“All done!” Calvin shrieked, waving the letter about in the air above his head. He jumped to his feet, and for what had seemed like the hundredth time that afternoon, Calvin shouted at the top of his lungs, toooooooo the mailbox!” He extended his arms before him in the way the way that Superman had in every comic book including the hero that Calvin had ever read, and he sped towards the door…

…only to miss by several inches, and run into the wall with the sickening crunch of breaking bone.

Immediately, Calvin began to wail and writh in pain on the carpeted floors.

Reid nodded, reassuring his friend with the words, "Yes, Calvin. We always seem too, don't we, pal?" It was true- no matter what hell the two of them were going through, they always seemed to fix things and make them better. Mostly, that was just them lucking out and somehow scraping along and managing to survive somehow... Barely, on Calvin's part.

Calvin announced he was done and hopped up, turning and beginning to run at a breakneck speed, imitating Superman. Reid knew what was coming, he could feel an itch in his skin as he said, "Calvin! Slow down or you-" He flinched as Calvin hit the wall, and he cringed even more as he realized this was no ordinary injury. Calvin had outdone himself.

Reid had never been keen on Healing spells, but he had become very, very practiced at them. He hopped up immediately and cast a spell to mend broken bones. "Cal, calm down. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm OK," Calvin sniffled as the healing process began and the bone that had been snapped in two began to repair itself. It was always painful, Calvin had learned; no matter how many times someone had to have a particular bone healed, the popping, prickling, and snapping was always felt. He whimpered quietly and squirmed as the healing charm fulfilled its purpose.

"We need...." Calvin whispered,unintentionally sounding as though he was a dying character from a soap opera, "We need... we need to get this letter in the mail box!"

Calvin shifted, making certain that he was putting no weight on his mending arm, and examined the appendage with tear-filled eyes, "Owey," he whispered, but he was far too determined to deliver his letter to Chase to let a broken arm slow him down...

Reid wished everything was back to when they were kids, when the worst things that were in Reid and Calvin's lives were boring assignments and loud-mouthed, hard-fisted bullies. Those things faded. Things like wizarding wars, and heartbreak, and the loss of children, and emotional confusion and pain... Even when the immediate effects left, there were always marks.

Calvin was being his usual dramatic self which caused Reid to smile a bit. That meant his bone had been mended and his heart was on its way to healing. He could be at least a little better once he knew he was on his way to getting in contact with Chase. Reid considered writing his own letter to Chase, a more responsible one- preferably in ink- but he knew he wouldn't. It was Calvin that cared the world for her. Chase had become like a sister to Reid, but the real connection was between her and Calvin.

Reid paused. "Why don't we go to Diagon Alley? We can owl it to her, that's much quicker. And on the way back we can stop at that comic store we've been wanting to check out for awhile now. You know, the one like two blocks from the Leaky Cauldron?" He paused, hoping it was enough to get his friend to be happy again. "We can apparate and be there in a minute."