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[Savitar]

Gavin Finlay lay in bed on his right side, peacefully snuggled behind Pher, his knee comfortably placed between her thighs. His left arm was draped, haphazardly, across her body as he snored slightly.

Life had never been better. He was married to the woman that meant everything to him, and she had blessed him with a son that mean everything else. That sweet, 3-year-old, little boy was currently fast asleep in the room directly across from theirs.

That night as he and Pher had tucked little Trace into bed, Gavin had commented that their life was too good to be true. That nothing could spoil the bliss he felt.

He should've known better.

Gavin's snore caught in his throat, nearly choking him, as the sound of his cell phone scared him out of his sleep; he'd learned early after Trace was born to keep it on vibrate. Groggily, he rolled over and picked it up from the the bedside table. The display screen read 'Unknown Caller'. Since everyone that had the number, and that mattered, was in the address book of his phone, he assumed it would be a wrong number.

Chucking it back onto the table with a slight clatter, he rolled back over to bury his face in his wife's hair and return to sleep. Less than a moment later, the cell phone began blaring "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash.

"The hell?" he cursed as he snatched up the phone and glared at the display screen that, once again, read 'Unknown Caller'.

From across the hall, poor Trace Finlay was awake and demanding attention as payment for such a loud offense.

[Pher]

She groaned as Gavin stirred. "Baby..." she mumbled, opening her eyes halfway. "What's going on...?"

Her hair was slightly mussed from the sleep. She had warned him after he commented on their perfect life that something was going to go wrong sometime. Maybe she shouldn't have spoken.

Pher quickly slipped on a robe and walked into Trace's room. "It's okay, sweetie," she cooed, "Just daddy's phone, shh."

[Savitar]

Gavin swung his legs over the edge of the bed and placed his feet on the carpeted floor. If someone wasn't dead or dying, there was going to be hell to pay for calling him at 2 a.m. And how the hell had his phone come off vibrate?

"Sorry, love. I wasn' 'specting any calls. I don' know who this could be."

Finally, he answered the phone. "What the bloody-"

He was startled to find Acheron's voice cutting him off. "Ignoring a call from the Council, Finlay? Tsk, tsk."

Gavin rose from bed to follow Pher to Trace's bedroom. "The Council? Why would they be calling?"

"Job assignment, Irishman. What else? You're meeting Otto downstairs in 20. Pack for a long trip..." Acheron hesitated before continuing, "Don't forget your weapons."

"Weap-". Again, Gavin was cut off. This time by the line going dead. After several seconds, it set in. If he was meeting with Otto, and if he needed to pack weapons for a long trip, there was only one thing that this could be about.

A blood hunt. Somewhere, there was either a rogue Dark-Hunter or someone out exposing the truth of the Dark-Hunters. And Gavin had been one of the Blood Rites tasked to kill them.

It was never an easy task, but he'd been preparing himself for it since the day Acheron gave him the job. But things were different now. He hadn't prepared his wife and son for his leaving.

Slowly, he rose from the bed and set about packing his things. Without saying a single word to Pher. He'd put it off until the last minute if he could. Why? Because he was human. Weak and worrisome. And nothing scared him more than leaving his family.

[Pher]

She picked up Trace and walked back into their room, watching Gavin from the doorway.

"Sweetheart, what's going on...?" she asked, staring at the bed and all the things he was packing.

Now, Trace was a silent child for his nearly four years of life. He never said a word. It worried Pher, and she hoped he wasn't mute. If there was something wrong with him, she'd feel just about worthless.

He reached out for Gavin with a sad expression on his face. "Daddy, don't leave..." he whined. Pher's eyes glittered and she smiled.

[Savitar]

Gavin refused to look up until he heard the tiny voice of his baby boy. Tears poured from his eyes and his voice caught in his throat. Gently, he took Trace from his mother and hugged him close.

"It's alright, lad. I'll come home soon. I promise," Gavin soothed him. Though, it wasn't a promise he could guarantee. He hadn't the slightest clue what he was to face but, unless it was some ordinary human and not a Squire or Dark Hunter, he was sure the task wouldn't be an easy one.

He moved closer to Pher and wrapped one arm around her, embracing her as tightly as his son. "I'm being sent on a Blood Hunt," he whispered in her ear. It was as simple as that. No discussion necessary. If the council had ordered it, who was he to argue?

[Pher]

Trace snuggled his face into his daddy's neck. He repeated the sentence quietly, almost to himself as reassurance. "D-Daddy..." he whimpered, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Pher's body went rigid. "Why do they have to send you now?" she hissed, her eyes livid. "Don't they know you need to spend time with your new family? After everything that's happened, they owe this to you..." She placed her arms around Trace and hugged him while her hair hid her eyes. "Seriously, Gavin... I know this is your job, but I'm pretty damn sure that they can handle this. I mean, what in the world did they do before you came along?" She was outraged, obviously. It should have been a crime to take a father away from his son to possibly die.

[Savitar]

Gavin sighed, tired with grief, and handed Trace back over to Pher. He turned to her before continuing on and opened the weapons' trunk in their walk in closet.

"'S not that simple, Pher. It's not jus' me tha's goin'." A crossbow was taken from the trunk and placed inside a black duffel bag. "Believe me, if I wouldna go if I didn't havta."

Gavin straightened up with a retractable sword in one hand and three throwing spikes in his other. "You know nothin' means more t'me than you an' tha' boy."

Frustrated and angry Gavin finished packing his weapons and snatched up the duffel bag. Dropping it on top of his suitcase, he pulled up the handle and began rolling it out of the room.

[Pher]

Finally, she sighed and shook her head. Quietly, she disappeared into Trace's room and placed the sleeping boy on his bed and tucked him in. She kissed him on the forehead and smiled.

Walking out to where Gavin was, she handed her husband the small panda bear plush that Trace had gotten for his first birthday.

"It's his favorite bear," she said reflectively, touching the ears with her fingertips, "I think you should take it with you, just as a reminder." Pher had already given up on trying to stop him; it was his job, after all. "And if you ever get lonely, you could sleep with it."

She giggled and then her face dropped into a saddened stare. "Promise me that you'll come back alive, baby."

[Savitar]

Gavin took the bear from her and held it close to his face; he inhaled the childish scent of it.

"I will, Pher. I'll come back to ya."

The cell phone rang again; this time though, it was back on vibrate. Otto Carvaletti's voice greeted Gavin from the other end.

"Yeah, Otto. I'll be right down," he replied. Just as he was about to hang up, a thought occured to him.

"Otto? Yeah. Where're we goin'?" He looked to Pher as he repeated the answer, "Greece. Alright. See ya inna bit."

Gavin put his phone in his pocket and, with his now free hand, cupped Pher's face to kiss her softly.

[Pher]

She kissed him back as the tears streamed down her face. She couldn't keep them from falling and she knew that he would be away for quite a chunk of time.

"I had to go so long without you, and now it's happening again..." she whispered. "I love you, Gavin... I love you so much."

[Savitar]

"Is tú mo ghrá," he said in Irish.*

Gavin's hand lingered on Pher's face for a moment as he gazed at her with longing. Finally, with more strength than the strongest warriors of the ages, he let his hand fall and walked out the front door. On the other side, he leaned his head back and whispered a prayer to bring him home safely.

Otto was waiting impatiently for him as he finally made it outside. "Took ya long enough. We're late."

"Can it." Gavin snapped as he tossed his duffel and suitcase into the back of the car and slammed the trunk. Trace's bear stayed with him, however, and sat in his lap in the car. Thankfully, Otto knew to make no further comment.

It wasn't long before the five men in the car - Otto, Gavin, and three other Blood Rites unknown to Gavin - were speeding to the airport.

Suddenly, a wave of relief sweapt through him. At least this battle wouldn't be fought here, near his family...like so many others had done.




* Pronounced 'Iss two muh guhraw'. Translation from: http://www.irish-sayings.com/cats/people/love/

[Pher]

Pher closed the door and slumped against it, cupping her hands over her face.

Trace had woken up and came into the living room. He spotted his mommy crying by the door and walked over to her, placing one small hand on her arm.

She looked up and instantly hugged him, burying her face into his shirt. "Daddy will be home soon, sweetie..." she said softly, mostly reassuring herself more than him.

[Savitar]

7 months later

Gavin had kept his cool well-enough that Otto let him drive all of them back to his place. Once in the car though, he drove like a man possessed. In a way, he was. Possessed with love and longing for his family.

With a swerve of the steering wheel, Gavin swooped in a parking place outside the house he was to raise his family in. Without bothering to shut off the engine or even get his things from the trunk, Gavin lept from the driver's seat and bolted to the front door. Otto shouted several curses at him that he ignored, unlike the neighbors who glared angrily and rushed their children back into the house.

The eager Irishman didn't slow down until he was standing on the front stoop. Nervously he raked his fingers through his eternaly shaggy hair, checked his breath, smelled under his arms, and slid his tongue over his teeth. Reassured that he looked decent, Gavin finally rang the doorbell.

[Pher]

Pher sighed as she finished washing the dishes. Trace played with his legos on the floor in the living room; he was busy building a pirate ship and he threw his captain figure as if he was blown up.

She laughed and told him to keep the noise down a little as she went to the door. Her hair had grown down to the middle of her back, but other than that, she looked the same.

Turning the lock and opening the door, she said, "Hel--? Baby...?" Her eyes immediately filled with tears of joy.

[Savitar]

He swooped her up in his arms and spun her around three times before he finally kissed her. Pulling back for a moment, he gently fingered her hair that had grown quite a bit since he last saw her.

"Aye. Told ya I'd come back didn' I?" he laughed with joy and the relief of seeing her again. But his heart still didn't feel whole.

"Where's muh boy?" Gavin peered around her into the house in search of his son.