Because of You - Part 3

Part 1 here - Part 2 here

August 25, 2013

Rebecca was so hard at work with the Animus code that she didn't even notice Desmond come in until he startled her by tapping her on the shoulder.

"Gah!" She jerked in surprise, hitting some keys by accident, then growled in frustration and backspaced the error away. "You should learn to turn off your stealth sometimes, Des."

"Hey, I wasn't trying to sneak up on you, honest."

She turned her chair around to face him, and also Andrew, whom he was carrying in his arms. "You need something?"

"I just wanted to see how that Animus stuff is coming along."

"You know, it's really not as tough as I'd thought it'd be," Rebecca said, turning back to the keyboard quickly to save her work. "Reliving someone else's ancestors is a major paradigm shift, but the coding changes actually aren't too radical. Already commented out the functions that check user DNA against the source file, and now I'm finishing up with adjustments to the sync algorithms and stimulus event handlers."

"Uh-huh," Desmond said, putting up a pretense that he'd understood her technical jargon.

"Then I'm gonna run a final debug. Should have it up and running by tomorrow morning." She turned to face Desmond again. "Who d'ya think should be the first guinea pig on this new setup?"

He thought for a brief moment before answering. "Dad, I guess. He's the only other one of us who's ever even been in an Animus before. I mean, it was a hell of a shock to the system the first time I used the thing. So, he'll at least be kinda used to it? Maybe?"

"Hmm. Good idea," Rebecca said, "but that wouldn't be a proper test of allogenetic syncing."

"Of what now?" Oops, there went the pretense of understanding.

"Allogenetic syncing," she repeated. "Reliving memories from someone else's genes. The Kenways are on Bill's side of your family tree, so him being able to relive those memories wouldn't tell me anything about whether this new functionality works."

"Oh. Right, derr." Desmond scuffed his shoe idly along one of the floor tiles. "Well, I dunno, then. I would say you should go in, 'cause you know how everything works, but you probly wanna be the one monitoring whoever it is, so. Eh."

Rebecca shrugged. "We'll just go in alphabetical order then. That makes Colin first."

Just then, Andrew sneezed, the involuntary motion jerking his whole head forward and back.

"Aw, how cuuuute!" Rebecca squealed. She got up from her chair to observe the cuteness more closely. "Where's his carrier?"

"In his room- fff- I mean in our room. I just..." Desmond broke eye contact with her, looking down at his little boy. "I dunno, I like to actually hold him sometimes. The carrier's nice and all, for when I need to use my hands, but, y'know, actually holding him... It's a whole 'nother feeling. It's like we're more connected this way, y'know?" Then he smirked. "Geez. I'm getting all sentimental and crap. Promise me something, Becca?"

"What?"

"If you hear me using baby talk, slap me upside the head, all right?"

"Whaaat?"

"You heard me. All the hugging and holding stuff is one thing, but baby talk, y'know, 'ohh you're such a wuvey widdle babykins, wet's changey your diapey', that sort of nonsense...." He trailed off and shook his head. "Fucking stupid."

Rebecca shrugged. "Whatever you say, Dadmond."

Before he could protest the nickname, Andrew sneezed again, and Desmond's mood shifted to concern. "Aw, geez. All day he's been doing that. Sneezing at random times. I better take him to Stacey, get this checked out."

"I think his nostrils were just a bit clogged," Stacey said. "Nothing to worry about."

Desmond furrowed his brow at this. "You think."

Stacey passed Andrew back to him. "Well, it might be a very mild cold. He doesn't have any other symptoms, though, so I doubt it."

"Well... You're sure it's not asthma or something chronic like that?" Desmond thought of little sickly Petrucchio Auditore.

"I don't think so?" Stacey said, sounding way too unsure for Desmond's comfort. "At his age, diagnosing something like that would be hard."

He sighed and looked down at Andrew. "Well, if he's asthmatic or whatever, I guess there's nothing I can do about it, huh? Serves me right, I probly caused it."

"Caused it? How would you have caused it?"

Desmond's mouth pulled tight into an almost-frown. "You know. From, like, something I did before he was born. Probly the drinking."

"You had one beer, okay? I don't think one beer-"

"It wasn't just one beer!" he cut in. "We went to some bar in São Paulo, and I had a couple of those lime green deals, those caiper-whatevers."

"Oh. Well, that was before you knew you were pregnant."

"No duh, but I still was."

"Relax, Desmond," she said with a smile. "Andrew seems perfectly healthy, so there's no point in beating yourself up about what you drank before he was born."

Desmond was silent a moment, gently bobbing his arms up and down, eliciting burbles of amusement from Andrew. "Well... maybe we'll be lucky and the booze won't have affected him.... Or maybe we won't be lucky and he'll turn out autistic or something."

She shrugged. "It's possible, but I don't think prenatal alcohol exposure causes autism. I think it's genetic."

"Argh. Of course it is. Everything's about genes, isn't it. Genes, genes, genes, the cause of every problem in my life. Well, thanks for your time. See you at his one-month checkup. " Desmond got up and started to leave.

"I'm glad you decided to love him, Desmond."

He paused in the doorway. "I didn't really decide that, Stacey. Sure, I decided to keep him and take care of him... But the 'love' part..." He turned around, revealing a smile budding across his face. "That just happened spontaneously."

August 26, 2013

The first trial of the allogenetic syncing function drew an anxious audience that nearly filled the Animus workroom. This would be the first time Desmond saw the Animus in action from this side of things. He eyed Rebecca's multi-monitor setup with newfound fascination. One screen displayed a jumble of code alongside a DNA timeline, which looked different than any of the ones he'd navigated, but was still recognizable as such. A second screen was blank save for the words "NO MEMORY IN PROGRESS", and a third screen had a program running to monitor Colin's vital signs.

"Sure hope this works," Spencer said. "Don't want to have to go break into Abstergo again."

Desmond looked at him quizzically. "Huh? Why would we hafta do that?"

Rebecca answered for him. "We thought we'd have to steal those blood samples, because your DNA might not have Edward's memories anymore since Juno fucked around with it, but actually I was able to sidestep that whole issue." She tapped a finger on the timeline screen to point out the words "MilesDesmond.ddna" near the top. "I pulled the backup file from when you were reliving Ezio, which is built off your pre-pregnant DNA, so we're using that as the source."

"Nifty." Desmond shifted in his seat and adjusted Andrew in his arms. "What's the extra D for?"

Rebecca shrugged. "I didn't invent the extension. You'd have to ask Vidic."

"But he's dead now," Colin said cheerily from the Animus chair. "So I guess we'll never know the secret of the extra D."

"Enough talk," William said. "Every minute we waste is another minute Abstergo's getting ahead of us."

"Let's get to it, then," Rebecca said. "Right, Col, keep your head still, I'll make sure the system has a good connection."

Colin gulped quietly and stared at the ceiling. Desmond watched a bead of sweat run down his face. Then his eyes went unfocused and an image loaded on the previously-blank monitor.

"Everything seems to be in order. How d'ya feel?" Rebecca asked.

Onscreen, Colin's avatar looked around the white room, then down at his hands. Meanwhile, in the real world, his body remained motionless, except his mouth, which said, "This is bizarre."

"You get used to it," Desmond said, then chuckled when Colin's avatar looked up into the "sky" in a vain attempt to locate the speaker. "You get used to hearing voices outta nowhere too."

"Just so long as you don't start hearing voices after you exit the thing," Spencer said.

"He shouldn't," said William. "None of us should, as long as we stick to the three-hour limit. And need I remind you, that's a firm limit. No exceptions, do you hear me, Miss Crane?"

"Not gonna happen, I promise," Rebecca said, crossing her fingers over her heart. "Okay, let's start you off with a training sequence so you can get your bearings before we jump into Edward."

The white void onscreen was replaced by silvery walls. Desmond recognized this as the same thing he'd gone through before the first memory of Haytham.

"Make your way to the marker... okay, now try climbing these objects... whoops, no prob, Col, just try it again," she said with a smile when he lost his grip and fell.

"C'mon, dude, you know how to climb!" Desmond mock-taunted him.

"I know, but in here it's... it's not the same... it's bizarre!"

Colin eventually got past the climbing portion and the freerunning portion. "Next up, we got some enemies to assassinate," said Rebecca as two foppish-looking guards in tricorn hats materialized a short distance away from him.

Colin gulped again. "Oh boy."

"It's just like in real life, Col," Desmond said.

"I've never done it in real life!"

Desmond blinked. "Well... there's a first time for everything, isn't there, Andrew?"

Spencer gave Desmond an odd look. "Why you asking him?"

"'Cause talking to your baby helps him learn to talk faster," Desmond said, as if it should have been obvious.

William snapped his fingers impatiently. "Let's focus, please. Mr. McCorquodale, you've got a Hidden Blade in there, correct?"

Colin's avatar looked down at his wrist. "Oh. So I do. Was that there before?"

"Who cares, you've got it now," Desmond said. "Just use those sneaky sneaking skills of yours and stab those dudes before they even know you're there."

Colin flexed his wrist to test the mechanism, seemingly surprised when it worked and the blade actually shot out. "Well, here I go." Without retracting the blade, he slowly sidled up to one of the virtual guards, held his breath, and thrust his arm out, slicing through the dirty yellow uniform and staining it with red.

"Way to go, Col!" hooted Rebecca.

Both Colin's avatar and his actual body smiled ecstatically as the guard fell limply to the floor, then dematerialized.

Andrew made a small gurgling sound and a brief thought flitted through Desmond's mind about whether it was appropriate for a baby to witness people being killed, even virtually. "I, uh... I'm gonna go put Andrew down for a nap."

"Don't go!" shouted Colin. "I might need more of your Animus Expert advice!"

"You'll be fine," Desmond assured him. "But here's one last tip: Your yelling just alerted that other guard."

Colin spun around and put up his arm just in time to deflect a sword with the bracer of his Hidden Blade. "Fuck! Help!"

"He's left his gut exposed, get 'im there!" Spencer said, jabbing a finger on the screen.

"Hands off the hardware!" Rebecca yanked Spencer's arm away as Colin socked the guard in the stomach. The punch was weak, but in this practice program, the foes were weak too, and he staggered backward hyperbolically, affording Colin the opportunity to land another fatal blow with his Hidden Blade.

Desmond covered Andrew's innocent blue eyes and pulled himself away from the Animus room with a touch of regret. "C'mon kiddo, let's go do something more age-appropriate," he said quietly. "How about more Alice in Wonderland, huh? What weird hijinks is she gonna get up to next?"

     'If everybody minded their own business,' the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, 'the world would go round a deal faster than it does.'

     'Which would not be an advantage,' said Alice, who felt very glad to get an opportunity of showing off a little of her knowledge. 'Just think of what work it would make with the day and night! You see the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis—'

     'Talking of axes,' said the Duchess, 'chop off her head!'

"Woah," Desmond said with a start. "I forgot this story gets a little violent at times." He chewed his tongue for a moment, contemplating. "Well, I guess reading you acts of literary violence is a bit more palatable than having you see acts of visual violence. An' I'll give you a little spoiler here, kiddo." He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial stage whisper. "Alice doesn't get her head chopped off."

"Are you two all right?" came William's voice softly from the bedroom door.

Desmond turned to face him. "Yeah, we're good. He's asleep. Or nearly asleep. I mean, it's a little hard to tell, but either way, he's all calm and quiet."

"You left rather abruptly."

"Well sorry, but I thought babies shouldn't see people getting killed," Desmond said, a little snidely. "Might give him nightmares or something."

"Ah, all right." William rubbed his neck stiffly.

Desmond marked where he'd stopped in the book and then set it back on the shelf. "Did the new code work? Was Colin able to get into my ancestor's memories?"

"Miss Crane said the, ah, neural refresh rate is a little slower than usual, but other than that, yes, it's working properly."

Desmond cracked a slight smile. "You don't know what the neural refresh rate even is, do you?"

"Not really, nor do I need to," was the brusque reply.

"It's the rate of how fast the system is tracking the user's brain activity. A faster NR rate makes the memory seem more real," Desmond explained.

"Hm," William said, sounding impressed. "I didn't know you were so knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the Animus."

"I know some of the basics, at least. Rebecca was teaching me, remember? Earlier this year, before... y'know." Desmond's posture sagged a little. "Before I got sidetracked with poking around Andrew's DNA to find out his other dad." He turned his head and looked back at the sleeping child. "An' after that, I was too busy getting all prepared for..." he paused heavily before saying the momentous word, "fatherhood."

William took his shoulder gently. "Let's talk in the hall, so we don't wake him."

Desmond nodded and they left the room. "I dunno why I was so obsessed with finding out whose he is. Now that I know... It's like..." He rubbed a hand over his forehead, at a loss for words.

William went ahead and stated the obvious. "You're not thrilled about it being Kaczmarek."

Desmond pursed his lips and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well, it's not like I'm mad that it turned out to be Clay, it's just... I never expected it. I always was thinking it was gonna be Lucy, Becca, or Shaun, 'cause they were actually there. Honestly, I was hoping for one of the girls. It'd be, I dunno... less gay that way." He chuckled ruefully. "Yeah, how's that for irony? The man with a vagina, worried about things being gay."

William had no ready response to this, other than to tap his fingers uneasily against his pant leg.

Desmond sighed. "But really, I think I'm actually okay with Clay being his dad. As long as that's all he is." He paused a few beats. "I mean, there are worse alternatives. Until that test Stacey did proved he was human, I seriously thought I had Juno's baby inside'a me. And that, I would have been really mad about."

"We're all glad it didn't turn out that way, Desmond."

"Yeah." He snapped his fingers. "Oh, I got some more diapers outside soaking in the wash. You promised you'd help me wash 'em. Come on."

"Where do you think she is right now?"

William looked up from the diaper he was fretting across the scrub board, giving Desmond a perplexed look.

"Juno, I mean," he clarified. "You heard any chatter on where she might be hiding out?"

William shook his head. "We haven't a clue. Not a peep from her- or any other Precursors, for that matter- since last year. Mr. Vermaak and I visited the Grand Temple in July and she didn't seem to be there anymore." He held out a sopping wet diaper.

Desmond took it and wrung it out, then hung it on the line. "Hm. My saving the planet was supposed to let her loose into the world, and she sounded like she was planning to fuck humanity's shit over the second she got out... But then again, saving the planet was supposed to kill me, too."

William frowned at the icky wash water and scrubbed harder on a particularly set-in stain.

"And that obviously didn't happen either. It just burned the shit outta my skin." Desmond held up his right arm to illustrate the point. "One scarred up arm. Billions of lives saved. And, apparently, zero ancient evils unleashed. It feels... not right, y'know? I'm kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"Mm. Perhaps Andrew has something to do with it," William said. "He could be another wrinkle in the prophecy."

Desmond pulled another wet diaper from the tub and hung it up. "Well, maybe. I hope not. But then again... That encoded file from Clay..."

"Hm?"

"He said a lot of bizarre things in there. Things that only made sense in hindsight. Like, 'She is not who you think she is'. Turns out that meant Lucy was a Templar. And 'Find me in the darkness' was about him planning to help me outta my coma."

"Hm."

"Another thing he said was, 'The sun. Your son.' So... the sun in the sky, that almost killed the planet," Desmond pointed upwards unnecessarily, "and my son," here he pointed to his abdomen, "the kid I was days away from being knocked up with."

"You think there's some connection."

"That what it sounds like to me. But fuck if I know the details of it. I woulda liked to ask him what all that shit meant, but the stupid Animus deleted him before I had the chance." Desmond shrugged. "Guess it doesn't matter now. There's not gonna be another solar flare like that for another majillion years, right?"

"It was no mere 'solar flare', Desmond," William said. "Solar flares happen on a daily basis with no ill effects to the planet. The event was something of far greater magnitude than-"

"Whatever!" Desmond spat. "What was it then?"

"...I'm not sure there's actually a defined term."

"Well then I'm gonna say 'solar flare', 'cause that's hella lot easier than saying 'big explodey space thing that could kill 98% of the human race.'"

There was silence for a long while after that, save for the soft splashing of water in the washtub and the intermittent sounds of ambient nature.

"Tell me something, Desmond... Is it true that you forget about the labor pain when you, ah, meet your child?"

"Ba-ha-hahaa!" Desmond cackled, not even caring that his hand was still wet as he slapped his knee in amusement. "Where the hell'd you get that idea?"

"A doctor at the School. She's delivered children, and she's had children of her own, so I went to her for a little advice while I was there."

"Well, either she's lying through her teeth, or I'm an exception to the rule, because I definitely remember that shit."

August 28, 2013

"Good morning Desmond! Good morning Andrew!"

Desmond winced at Rebecca's sing-song greeting, an artificially high-pitched chirp that grated on his ears. "Can you just talk normal, please? I kinda got a headache."

She frowned. "Oooh, poor widdle head. Did you not sleep good or something?"

"Of course I didn't sleep good, didn't you hear all this guy's stupid crying?" He gestured to Andrew in the carrier, who was still making intermittent whiny squeals.

"Hey, don't call your kid stupid."

"I called his crying stupid, not him," Desmond retorted, grabbing a can of powder and a bottle from the cupboard as the baby's cries increased in volume. "Shut up, okay, I know you're hungry, look, I'm making your breakfast now!" He hastily mixed up a batch of formula, spilling a little on the counter by accident, then thrust the bottle in Andrew's mouth, but he just spat out the nipple and kept crying.

Desmond sighed. "Shit, sorry, I forgot you don't like breakfast cold." He set about heating the bottle in a saucepan of water on the stove.

"Microwave would be faster," Rebecca suggested.

"Microwave isn't baby-safe," Desmond answered instantly, rubbing Andrew's back in an attempt to soothe him. "It'd get too hot and burn up his mouth. Plus the bottle would melt or leak or degrade or some shit."

"Oh. Huh."

"Parenting isn't easy, there's all sorts of little things like that you gotta know," Desmond continued, pouring himself a bowl of cereal with his free hand. "Like, you're not supposed to let him sleep with a blanket until he's one, 'cause he could suffocate. And you gotta be careful of overfeeding him, 'cause his stomach's super tiny. But underfeeding is a danger, too, 'cause his metabolism's super fast at this age. Parenting isn't easy at all," he reiterated. "It's a miracle humanity ever survived this long."

"Well, even though it's not easy, you're doing an awesome job at it," Rebecca said with a smile.

Desmond shrugged. "Thanks, I guess. I'm really just doing what the book says, honestly."

"So, does the book say when he's gonna start talking?" she asked, an eager glint in her eyes.

"Heh, not for a long time. Like around one year or so, probably."

"Aw."

The conversation trailed off, leaving the kitchen silent except for Andrew's sad sounds, the slight bubbling of stovetop water, and the clinking of plates and silverware as the adults ate. After a few minutes, Desmond removed the bottle from the pan and tested the temperature of a drop on his wrist. Satisfied that it was neither too hot nor too cold, he removed his son from the carrier and began to feed him. Andrew accepted the bottle this time, greedily sucking down the contents.

"What's going on with my ancestor? Anywhere close to finding out where that crystal skull is?"

"Doesn't seem like it," answered Rebecca, standing up to clear away her dishes. "Edward's on a quest to find the Observatory and profit from it somehow, but he keeps getting sidetracked with pirate shenanigans. Last memory we synced was him assassinating this French Templar, Julien du Casse." She chuckled slightly. "Although I dunno if you can really call it 'assassinating', since Edward's not an Assassin yet. He just killed the guy to steal his ship and save his own ass."

"Hold up, you say he wants to sell the Observatory?"

"Yeah. Getting rich is kind of his thing. That's why he took a vacation from his wife to go pirating."

"Mmph," Desmond grunted. "Sounds like a swell dude. But you say he does eventually shape up and join the Brotherhood?"

"Yeah, well, even being an Assassin doesn't prevent you from being a dick. Case in point: Altaïr."

One of Desmond's eyes twitched. "Hey, I'm sure you've got lots of asshole ancestors, too! And Altaïr became cool later on!"

"All right, all right, sheesh."

Andrew finished the bottle and Desmond put him back in the carrier as Rebecca finished cleaning up her meal. "You need anything before I head off to set up the Animus for Spencer's sesh?"

"Well, how about you tell me when my 'sesh' is scheduled? We're all taking turns, right?"

Rebecca shook her head. "I had to really twist Bill's arm to let you take all that extra Animus time for your paternity search, but now that that's over, he's cracking down. Says he doesn't want you in it ever again."

"What the fuck, why?"

"Isn't it obvious? You've racked up well over a thousand hours in there and he's worried about your brain."

"My brain is fine!" Desmond seethed. "I haven't had a Bleeding Effect in forever! Not since your crazy Poland update, and that doesn't count!"

"Doesn't count?" Rebecca smirked. "When did we decide that?"

"It's obvious that one doesn't count! 'Cause it was your fault!" Seemingly sensitive to his father's upset mood, Andrew started to whine again, so Desmond patted his back some more and forced his voice to calm down again. "It only happened 'cause you screwed up the code and made the memories go too fast."

Rebecca winced. "Okay, yeah, it was my fault, sorry. But even if we discount that one, it still hasn't been 'forever'. Remember you slipped into Italian during labor?"

"That shouldn't count either. I..." Desmond's mouth curled in a deep frown, trying to think of a rationale. "I... It's like Stacey said, I was stressed. I must have been remembering Ezio's birth."

"Sorry, bud, I think that one still counts." Rebecca gave him an apologetic smile. "Anyway, it's not up to me. Your dad's calling the shots."

"Worst. Dad. Ever," Desmond spat. "I told him I wanna keep being helpful, keep being an Assassin, but no! I'm not allowed on missions anymore and neither am I allowed in the Animus, even though I'm probably way better at it than any of you guys."

"Come on, you know he's just looking out for you." Rebecca patted Desmond's shoulder. "You don't wanna end up like Sixteen."

Desmond stood up and away from her touch. "He has a name."

"I thought you didn't want us to mention his name around Andrew."

Desmond facepalmed. "Fine, whatever. Okay, I don't wanna end up like him. But I still think it wouldn't hurt for me to take a turn in there along with all you guys. I mean, we're trying to find this Observatory as fast as we can, right? But each of us is only allowed three hours at a time, so the more people we have syncing Edward's life, the faster those three-hour sessions can get through it, right?"

"I suppose-" Rebecca began slowly, but Desmond cut her off.

"And I'm the 'Animus Expert' plus I'm his actual descendant so I can probably sync the guy a whole lot faster."

"Okay, I get the drift! Still, it's not up to me, man. You'll have to convince Bill." She smiled again. "And when you do, you might try not to sound so much like an Animus junkie craving another hit. 'Cause that's kinda the vibe you're giving me here."

"Heh." Desmond had to chuckle at that. "Thanks for the tip."

She looked at her watch. "Now I really gotta get a move on, Spencer's probably in the chair already waiting for me to load the memory."

"Oh hey," Desmond called, following her down the hall. "Do you have some way of printing photos off your computer?"

Rebecca turned back with a quizzical look.

"'Cause, uh, I got some from my phone I wanna put in that album."

"But it's... supposed to be a baby album?" Rebecca said, tilting her head at him.

"I know." Desmond smiled awkwardly and toyed with Andrew's hands. "He, uh. He's inside me in some of those pics. Even though I didn't know yet. Heh."

Rebecca snorted. "Oookay. Drop off your phone and tell me which files, then, and I'll see about printing 'em."

Not ten minutes later he came by the Animus room, grinning broadly, phone in hand. "Okie doke, the password's 1459 and the photos I want printed are any ones with me or Dad in 'em."

Without looking up from monitoring Spencer's session, Rebecca held out her hand to take the phone. "Why your dad?"

Desmond shrugged. "I figure I need a few pics of his grampa. I'm gonna ask Dad for pics of Mom too."

"Wow, you're going all out. Really getting into this whole album thing, huh?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "I'm thinkin' of putting little notes on each picture, too. From me to Andrew, y'know? Like, there's that selfie I took while I was on the skyscraper, I'm thinkin' something like 'Here's your badass Daddy, mere minutes before his faceoff against an insane Master Templar! PS: Now I know I wasn't dizzy from the height, it was from you messing with my hormones and stuff.'"

"You don't think it'll freak him out? All the dangerous stuff you did while he was a fetus?"

"Of course not," Desmond scoffed. "Because I was awesome enough to avoid any injury, so he was fine! I mean, his whole family's Assassins, so he's gotta get used to the idea of danger, right?" His voice wobbled a bit. "Shit, I just got this mental image of him out on some mission. Shiiit."

Rebecca smirked. "Don't get ahead of yourself, bud, he won't be going on any missions for a long, long time."

"Hah. Yeah. Of course." Desmond laughed nervously and looked down at the baby, almost-asleep in his carrier, and tried, for now at least, not to imagine him as a grown Assassin, with all that that entailed.

"Hey, Dad?"

"Mm?" William looked up from his computer to see his son and grandson, inseparable as always.

Desmond gave him an easygoing smile. "You busy?"

"Not particularly," the elder Assassin admitted, gesturing to the screen. "I was just perusing some memos from our people in Moscow."

Desmond was a teensy bit curious as to what sort of stuff the Russian wing of the Brotherhood was up to, especially now that they counted Edward Snowden among their ranks, but there was something else on his mind right now. "Um, I was wondering... What was I like as a baby?"

"Mm." William rubbed his knuckles across his beard as he considered the question. Finally he answered. "Unremarkable."

Desmond's face twitched. He slouched into the chair in front of William's desk. "So, you came back from whatever dumb mission you were on while I was being born, and Mom goes 'Here, Bill, meet our cute little baby boy' and you went 'Oh, he looks unremarkable'?"

William closed his eyes and grit his teeth for a long second before replying. "No. It wasn't like that." He rested the tips of his fingers on his forehead. "I only meant that, compared to everyone else's babies, you weren't especially fussy, nor especially quiet. You didn't hit any developmental milestones early or late. Your entire early childhood was uncannily average."

"Hmph." Desmond lightly bounced Andrew in his arms. "Well, this little guy's definitely very remarkable. He's one-of-a-kind. Fucking amazing. I love him." He laughed. "Weird, huh? Even though having him has turned my life upside down, turned my body into a freakshow, put all my Assassin-ing on hold..." He frowned for half a second, sniffed, then smiled again, albeit shakily. "But I love him and I think he's amazing. Just look at him." Desmond lifted the baby up a little higher. "His little nose and stuff, his tiny fingers and nails, his... everything. God, it's weird. I feel happy just being near him. Guess it's parental instinct or something."

A smile appeared on William's face now too. "It was the same with you."

"Yeah? Do tell."

"When I... " William clenched his hand on his knee. "When I got back to the Farm.... It was already late April. I knew Janet would have given birth while I was gone." His voice trembled a little on his wife's name. "I headed straight for our cabin. And there she was... and there you were." He looked into Desmond's eyes with a rare warmth. "We... we were very happy. Indescribably so."

Desmond smiled wider. "I bet you hadn't had any trouble with picking my name, huh? Or at least you probably had it picked way earlier than I did for Andrew. 'Cause you guys were actually trying for a kid."

"Well, for a time we considered the name 'Douglas'."

Without even thinking, Desmond stuck out his tongue and said, "Ech."

William chuckled. "But, yes, you're correct; we made our final decisions very early on. By the second month or so, we'd settled on Desmond Nicholas for a boy, or Helen Nicole for a girl."

"Helen Miles," Desmond said slowly, trying and failing to imagine himself as a girl. "Huh."

"I suppose it wasn't really our decision, though, was it?" William said with a soft sigh. "Your name was predestined."

"No," Desmond said abruptly and forcefully. "You coulda named me whatever, I'd still have the same ancestors, the same magic DNA. Minerva only told Ezio 'It's up to Desmond' 'cause they looked in the future and saw what name you'd pick."

William made a "hm" and then a slight acquiescing nod.

Desmond steered the conversation back away from Those Who Came Before. "So I was a good kid, huh? I mean, up until the whole teenage rebel runaway thing?"

"You were quite well-behaved for a while, yes. Far from perfect, of course, but far from terrible. As I said, uncannily average. ...We, ah, tried..." William was now staring dimly at his keyboard, grey eyes growing misty with remembrance. "Tried to have another child. A few years after you. But we-" He cleared his throat loudly, dislodging whatever emotions had been creeping into his voice, and when he spoke again, it was with his usual flat tone. "Well, as you already know, we didn't succeed."

"Oh. Uh." Desmond had no idea how to respond to this. "Sorry to hear that." I wonder how much different things woulda been if I had a little brother or sister? Would I have still run away? Left them behind with the Assassins, or maybe taken them with me? He blinked rapidly, shoving away such fruitless thoughts. Doesn't matter now. I don't have siblings and I never will. This somehow made him feel incredibly sad, and he drew in a deep breath through his nose before saying, "Speaking of Mom... Do you have any pictures of her?"

"A few."

"Can I have one? For the Andrew album. I wanna put his whole family in there." The word 'family' felt bittersweet as it left his lips.

William smiled fondly. "Of course, Desmond. Of course."

"Salvo Andrew, che ha il suo papino. E tutti fanno la nanna."

"Hey, man. Kiddo asleep?"

Desmond turned to the big man in the doorway. "Hey Spence. Yeah, he's out like a light. Has it been three hours already?"

"Yeah, it was a pretty interesting session." Spencer beckoned him out to the hallway so they could talk without having to whisper. "You ever heard of James Kidd?"

"Should I have?"

"He's an Assassin, and a really interesting fellow." Spencer leaned on the wall, arms crossed. "This last memory, he was explaining to Edward what Eagle Vision is."

"Oh really? A dude from hundreds of years ago figured out about First Civ DNA?"

Spencer waved his hand. "Heh, nah, man. But he did say it was possible for anyone to be able to sense 'the light of life, the residue of vitality' if they just try hard enough. You think that's true? You think anyone could get themselves Eagle Vision?"

Desmond rolled his eyes. "It's genetic, man, you either have it or you don't."

"Well, you used to not have it and now you do," Spencer pointed out.

"I've got the genes for it, though; the Bleeding Effect just activated them somehow."

"Maybe everyone has the genes. Maybe there's other ways to activate them."

"Umm." Desmond pondered this for a minute. "I'unno. Maybe? I mean, hell, if male pregnancy is possible, then who the fuck knows. But seriously, don't you think if Eagle Vision was gettable by normal people, we'd know it by now?"

Spencer gave him a troubled look. "Uh, 'normal people'? So you're, what, better than us 'normals'?"

Desmond facepalmed. "Sorry, bad choice of words."

"Sounds to me like somebody just wants to keep his special skill all to himself."

Desmond dropped his hand from his face and shot Spencer a mild glare. "Whatever, dude. You wanna try to train your eyes, then go for it. Keep in mind, though, it's not perfect. Lucy was blue. Al Mualim was blue. Tarik was red."

"Who's that last one?"

"Uh, some guy... One of Ezio's targets, but he was actually good." Desmond would have explained further, but decided that the intricacies of sixteenth-century Byzantine politics were too... well, Byzantine for him to sum up adequately.

"Whatever. How come that last bit doesn't rhyme? On that lullaby."

"Oh, uh." Desmond chuckled. "It's 'cause I changed the words. See, uh, originally it's 'Ognuno ha la sua mamma, e tutti fanno la nanna', which is, like, 'Everybody has their mommy, and everybody goes to sleep.' But, y'know, obviously he doesn't have a mommy." He fidgeted a bit, self-conscious about repeatedly saying the childish word 'mommy'.

Spencer nodded with a savvy half-smile.

"So I added a line in between, making it 'Everybody has their mommy, except Andrew who has his daddy.'"

"And then everyone goes to sleep. Cool. Hey, Rebecca's got your photos printed." Spencer shook his head. "I can't believe they let you use Instagram, or even keep using your cell phone at all, what with the security implications."

Desmond gave him a playful punch on the arm. "Hey, it's not like I was posting them to Facebook or something. I'm not a total idiot. And anyway Rebecca did some sorta mod to my phone hardware so it stopped even putting out any signals."

"Oh. Of course, yeah."

Desmond grinned. "I woulda gone insane if I couldn't get in a round of Jetpack Joyride now and then between Animus sessions and all the other shit. I bet that's why Clay lost his marbles, actually; he sure didn't have any smartphone on 'im at Abstergo."

Spencer's face turned sour. "Hey, he was a friend of mine. Don't joke about him like that."

But Desmond had already left to find Rebecca, and was too far away down the hall to hear this protestation.

 "So, this will be a short one, Dad.... uh, something to remember me by if things go south... if I don't make it out of the Temple today."

"What are you listening to?!" Desmond yell-yelped from the doorway, startling Rebecca. She didn't have a chance to respond before he continued shouting. "Motherfucker, I said 'print my photos', not 'go snooping in all my shit'!" By now he'd angrily strode over to her desk and jerked the phone from the USB cable.

The audio program stuttered to a stop, having lost access to the source file. "Hey, sorry!" Rebecca frantically tried to explain herself. "I just- It said 'Listen After December 21st' so I-"

"That's- Aaargh, obviously you're only supposed to listen to it if I'm dead! Goddammit, shoulda picked a better playlist title, but I couldn't figure out how to change it once I set it," Desmond grumbled as he swiped through the phone's menu. "With all the pregnancy shit going on, I forgot I even recorded these. Shoulda fucking deleted them right when we left the Temple."

"Hey, don't delete 'em, they're sweet!"

"Uuugh," Desmond groaned, fists clenched in rage. "That's the whole problem! They're too fucking sentimental."

"Says the guy who wants to add handwritten notes to his kid's baby album."

Desmond's face went red. "Goddammit. That's... that's not the same! Just gimme the pics you printed already." Rebecca held them up and he snatched them from her, then stomped away, muttering under his breath. Just before exiting the room, he turned back and declared, "All that stupid emotional crap I recorded, that was just the fucking preggo hormones, okay?!"

"You don't really love your parents or feel sorry for Connor or anything? All of that was the hormones talking?"

"Well, most of it! Some of it! Arrgh, leave me alone!" he yelled, at last retreating from her inquisition.

August 30, 2013

"M: The Master Assassin gives the novices their missions." Desmond held up the book so that Andrew could appreciate the illustration for a few seconds, then turned the page. "N: Every new Assassin starts as a novice. Heh." His smile sparkled at the baby boy relaxing on his chest. "I wonder if you count, kiddo. I mean, you're certainly 'new'." He ran a finger softly around one of Andrew's delicate ears, over the fresh fuzz of brown hair that was starting to replace the light beige he'd been born with. "But I'm pretty sure this here means, like, new recruits, not newborns. Anyway, next up is O: The Templar Order-"

"Ah-hgm."

At the sound of William's throat clearing, Desmond looked up from Alphabetical Initiation. "What's up, Dad?"

"Just letting you know I, ah, won't be here for the next two, three weeks."

"A mission?"

William couldn't fail to detect the eager interest in Desmond's voice. "Not as such. We do have a few things to monitor in DC. But I think it's really just Gavin wanting to touch base with me, and introduce me to some of his new recruits."

"Huh." Desmond had heard of this Gavin guy; he was one of the high-ranking Assassin muckity-mucks: just a step or two down the totem pole from William. "Well, uh, have fun, I guess. Spencer going with you again for protection?"

"No, Gavin's team is protection enough. They're coming round to collect me tomorrow."

Desmond blinked. "Oh. He... and his team... coming here? But, uh... Andrew." He sat up, mouth twitching nervously as he cradled the baby. "The whole... thing... with my uuu... you know." The word "uterus" felt strange and uncomfortable on his tongue, so he swapped it out. "Secret, remember?"

"Yes, Desmond," William said, a bit peeved, "I haven't forgotten. I don't like keeping secrets from my own people, but I'm willing to keep up the pretense of Alice de Rossi as his mother."

"But won't they notice she's kind of not here?"

William sighed. "They're only stopping by very briefly, Desmond, all right? They probably won't even come in the building, and if they do, they certainly won't be investigating the place too thoroughly."

"Good." Desmond gestured with his eyes around the bedroom. "One look at this hot mess and they'd know I'm a fuckin' bachelor."

August 31, 2013

"Christ on a cracker, Dad. You guys are like twins." Desmond's eyes flickered back and forth between the two men. Gavin Banks was nearly the spitting image of William Miles. Both faces had the same gunmetal gaze, the same time-worn creases, even the same pattern of hair, though Gavin's was a little longer and wasn't nearly as gray, but instead mostly a dull brown. On top of that, they both carried themselves in that same self-assured manner that screamed 'Look, I know what I'm doing here, don't question me'. The combined effect was as if Desmond was seeing two of his father standing before him, albeit one a bit younger.

"Yes, we do look a bit similar," William said offhandedly, as if the similarity was barely noticeable. "You're not the first to remark on it."

"Perhaps we're distantly related." Gavin gave the Mentor a slight smile. "Maybe I should give the Animus a whirl and investigate that sometime."

"Oh, speaking of which: Can I use the Animus while you're gone?" Desmond blurted.

William frowned and stepped closer to him, hands grasped together behind his back. "I thought we were clear on this, Desmond. It's not necessary anymore."

"Yeah, but if you're not gonna be here for weeks, then that'll slow down our progress with Edward," Desmond reasoned, the words spinning out of him boldly. "We gotta find that Observatory before the Templars, and I want to help."

"He's got a point there, Bill," Gavin said. "Why not let him-"

William flung a hand up to cut off his friend's sentence. "Because he's already used it for far too long, that's why not!"

"I can handle it, Dad, geez!"

"Can you, really?" William spat. "Don't think I've forgotten what happened during Andrew's birth."

Desmond ground his teeth, considering his response carefully. "That was just stress, okay? I was really stressed because Alice was having a tough time. And it was just a language bleed anyway, I was still me, not Ezio or anyone else."

William stared him down. Desmond got up from his chair to meet the stare as an equal. He was not a child anymore and he would not let himself be treated as such. "Look, I understand you're worried, but I know my limits, all right? I've been in there for days and I was barely affected, and this time I'll just be doing a few hours at a time."

"You did say you needed to finish those Kenway memories pronto," Gavin put in.

William wheeled about to face him and shot back, "We're getting through it fast enough, we don't need to risk Desmond's mental health."

"'Fast enough' might not be as fast as Abstergo's moving, Bill. How about some of my team stay here and join the sync effort?"

"No, Gavin, we need your team to stay focused on the situation in DC!"

"What's more important: preventing the shutdown or finding the Observatory?"

"They're both important, obviously! It doesn't have to be either-or!"

"All right, all right." Gavin held up his hands in defeat. "I get it, Bill, you're worried about your son. Maybe overly so, but I guess that's not unexpected after what happened last year."

"Yes," William stepped back to stand beside Desmond, put an arm around him and grasped his shoulder tightly, "and don't forget, he's got a son of his own to care for now."

Desmond stiffened at the touch but didn't pull away. "How many times do I have to tell you? I can be an Assassin and a dad at the same time. If you'd let me, that is," he added as a harsh coda.

"You're still an Assassin, no matter what, don't you forget it," William said, looking unflinchingly into Desmond's eyes.

"Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt," came Rebecca's voice from behind Gavin, "but Andrew's all fussy, I can't get him to chill out."

William and Gavin fell silent and spun to look at her as Desmond rushed over to take the squalling baby off her hands.

"Hey, kiddo, what's up, what's wrong?" he said, rocking him gently and prodding his butt to check his diaper.

"Spencer just changed him, so that's not it," Rebecca said.

"No," Desmond said with slight laughter in his voice, "I think that's exactly it." He laid Andrew down on the table and unsnapped his onsie, then nimbly adjusted something on the side of the diaper. His cries immediately changed timbre, becoming much mellower. "All better," Desmond said brightly, refastening the onesie and lifting Andrew back up to snuggle him over his shoulder.

"Huh?"

"Spencer did a shit job of diapering, Becca." Desmond switched flawlessly to a one-handed baby hold and used the other hand to mime stabbing a dagger into his own hip. "Frickin' safety pin came undone and was poking him right here."

Rebecca whistled. "Man, it's scary how fast you figured that out."

"Hard to believe he's a first-timer at parenting," Gavin said with a smile. "So, this is the baby I've been hearing about."

"Yeah. This is my little kiddo. The amazing Andrew Miles." He'd quieted down by now, and Desmond again felt that weird sense of warmth filling him as he looked at the boy's peaceful face. That's the love, dude, he reminded himself. You love your kid, same as any good parent.

"May I?" Gavin held out his hands.

Desmond hesitated. It wasn't that he didn't trust Gavin- he was, after all, an Assassin, and one of his father's oldest friends- but still, handing Andrew to a guy he'd just met didn't feel right. "Uh, I dunno. He doesn't let just anybody hold him. He's most comfortable with me... And Alice, of course," he added as soon as he remembered to.

"Oh." Gavin lowered his arms and looked around. "Where is Alice, anyway?"

"Showering," Rebecca answered, perhaps a little too quickly.

"Well, I'd like to meet her before we're off. Congratulate her on this fine little fellow."

"I'll pass along the congrats," Desmond said. "She takes really long showers. Like really long."

William nodded. "True, and we do need to get a move on soon, Gavin."

"Right you are, Bill. Well, it was nice to meet this guy, at least." Gavin patted Andrew's head lightly and turned to leave.

Desmond followed them wordlessly out the kitchen and down the hallway until they came to the front door of the building, then finally grabbed at his last chance. "Come on, Dad. I don't wanna be useless."

William turned back with a quizzical look. "Hm? Oh, the Animus issue still." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're not going to give up on this, are you?"

"Stubbornness must be a Miles family trait." Gavin smirked slightly and nudged William's arm. "Hey, think of it this way, Bill: maybe the effects clear out of your system after a period of abstinence. And Desmond hasn't been in it since December, so maybe there's nothing to worry about."

"No, he-" William began, but stopped.

Desmond knew he'd been about to disclose the month spent in search of Andrew's parentage, and he suppressed a grin. Can't tell him that, Dad, 'cause then the whole Alice story falls apart. What say you now?

"I... I don't..." William's face was tense as he struggled with his thoughts. "I just... I don't understand why. Why do you want this so much, Desmond?" His voice rose to fever pitch and he took hold of Desmond's shoulder again. "Is it some kind of game to you?! To see how much you can take before you snap?!"

"Of course not!" Desmond snarled.

"Then why? I thought you hated the Animus! And now you're begging to be put in there again!"

"Look, I don't want to go crazy any more than the next guy, but I also don't want the Templars to find out where we are!"

"But still, you don't have to-"

"But I want to!" Desmond cut in. "It's my fault they have my DNA in the first place, 'cause I was a stupid kid and ran away and got captured, and now they can see all my ancestors and that's bad enough, but if they find the Observatory then... Well, you know what'll happen then, I don't hafta say it." He frowned and unknowingly hugged Andrew tighter.

"Ah." Now William understood. The dynamics of the situation were all too familiar.

The father that would do anything to protect his son. Would risk his sanity to keep him safe. Would risk the world burning to keep him alive.

"All right." He patted Desmond's shoulder briefly. "I'll allow it."

Desmond's eyes lit up, almost unbelieving.

"But we'll limit your Animus time more strictly than that of the others," William added, wagging a stern finger. "One-hour sessions."

"One hour?" Desmond whined. "That's like nothing! Gimme two hours!"

William pursed his lips. "...Ninety minutes."

"Deal." Desmond again shifted Andrew to one arm and shook hands to seal their agreement.

"And if there's any sign of trouble, Miss Crane will cut you off, is that clear?" William lifted his eyes to shoot a pointed glance down the hall at Rebecca.

"Of course Dad, of course." Desmond smiled and poked at Andrew's nose playfully. "Hear that, kiddo? Daddy's gonna help find the crystal skull!"

Andrew responded to this by drooling happily and flailing one arm in the air.