Sanctuary

Calypso panicked as she threw the blankets onto the floor. Griffin had been seen only thirty minutes ago when she had left him to play while she showered. After she searched under the crib and through the dwarfed linen closet in vain, she stopped to breathe, combing her fingers through her hair to pull it out of her face. Her mind raced, trying to figure out where he could be; she had looked everywhere and he was only two. He could not have gotten far.

Calypso sat at her kitchen table pushing her oatmeal around in the bowl. She stared at nothing in particular, thinking of nothing in particular. Her concentration broken when her phone began chiming. She put her breakfast in the sink and collected her keys, bag, and phone and left for work. She worked for a lawyer in town and was the first to arrive, as usual. The firm was small, the town was small, so the only lawyer was Jeffrey Whitlock. Jeffrey liked to start his day at 10 am but Calypso liked to start her day at 8 am. She enjoyed the silence and solitude. Ever since Griff disappeared just shy of twenty years ago everyone in town treated her differently. At the firm she was just Callie, the paralegal. She could disappear and forget, which was a nice change of pace. There had never been any leads where he went and they had really only questioned one person, her ex-husband. He had been abusive to her for most of their marriage and when she found found bruises on Griffin, she started planning their escape. He was a good candidate but he died in a drunken car accident only a couple months after Griff had disappeared and there were no signs he knew anything about his whereabouts. She hoped he hadn't because if he was the one who took Griff, there was almost no chance that Griffin could have survived after his death. It would be the twenty year anniversary in a few weeks and the weight of that was suffocating.

Jeffrey shouted "Good Morning!" as he came into the office and placed a coffee and cinnamon bun on her desk. They had known each other in high school; Jeffrey being a senior while she was a sophomore. He was friends with her older brother so they saw each other at parties and sleepovers but did not become close until long after they had retired from the Mighty Titans clan. Now, Jeffrey was middle-aged and a little more grey but just as charismatic and friendly as he was in hallways of Rockwell High; the same boy she had loved from afar when she was only fourteen. He stood about 5 foot ten with a slender build and brown hair slowly fading to gray. He started to grow a beard during his teen years and Callie was pretty sure he had not shaved clean since. "How are you today, Callie?" He asked with his signature crooked smile.

"I'm doing just fine, thanks." She replied, not fooling either one of them. He didn't call her on it though, he never did. He just nodded and said, "That's good to hear, Bug." He had come up with the nickname when she was six and had been bothering Russel and him to let her join them on their adventures. They were already ten, so the answer was always no. Jeffrey called her a bug once and the nickname had stuck ever since.

The day went on as usual; she briefed him on the emails and phone calls received, the information she had collected for his open files, as well her thoughts. He often teased her about doing his job for her when she would hand in the documents typed, cited, and summarized to him, telling her she should go back to law school and finally become a real attorney. She appreciated the praise but it saddened her all at the same time. She dropped out of school when she had become a mother; mostly because her husband at the time told her she should. In the moment it seemed like he was doing it for their child and her well-being but as time went on it became clear it was all about control. Control of her finances. It wasn't until she had left and become completely independent again that she realized how abusive her had been their entire relationship. She had ignored all the emotional and verbal abuse, concluding that all couples fought and that is was expected to see your friends less after you were in a committed relationship. She even found a way to explain the hitting, until she saw her son was a victim too. Now all of it felt like she was still dealing with the side effects of his abuse. She never got her degree, she was renting an old apartment instead of owning her own home, and had few friends. Being a paralegal was a reminder of where she was when she lost her life.

After the day was done, she got in her car to go home but found she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was tired of spending her nights at home alone, living vicariously through sitcoms and movies. She started the car and drove aimlessly, finding herself at the wildlife reserve on the far side of town. She parked and turned off the engine, staring at the park from her front seat. Griffin used to love it here; they would visit every weekend. They had all kinds of species, from elves to hippogriffs, but more than anything else, Griff loved the dragons. For the first time in almost two decades, she entered the park and walked around, marveling at the beauty of it all. The dragons were found in the back with the nixies. She slowly made her way there, stopping to read all the signs as she went. Going through the gate to the dragon sanctuary took her back to one Sunday morning, holding Griff's hand, only for him to pull it away as he ran towards their home. She walked around, letting herself enjoy the view like Griffin would want her to and scanned the whole arena. She watched as a man, as happy as Griff would be, pet and brushed one of the long-haired dragons. As she watched, he finished up and turned around, she caught her breath.

Nuri was his favourite. He had actually planned the rescue just three months ago, but she had made such good progress in such a small amount of time. He walked up to her cave to check on food and water supply. He had set this arena up with an irrigation system of sorts a few years back so they would have fresh running water accessible at all times, but he liked his routine. He has developed it as a child when his parents first started letting him help out with the larger animals that posed more of a threat and it all began with making sure they had all food and water they needed to survive. He like the morning and night checks. He bonded with the animals more and that really helped when it came time to make them do something unsavory, like taking medicines or grooming them. You needed trust for that and that was not earned easily. He couldn't remember a time without dragons being a part of it and he didn't want to. His parents knew he was the son for them when they took him to the reserve and he ran straight for the dragons. They agreed to adopt him on the spot.

He made his way around, checking each cave and eventually made it back to the office to put in today's orders when his staff came in to tell him that they had called for an ambulance. They walked quickly to the viewing deck of the dragon arena where it had been reported that a woman had fainted. He came around the corner at the same time she was being assisted onto a gurney. She was insisting she was fine, telling them she just needed to eat, as the EMT's tried to convince her that she needed to lay down. He approached one of the EMTs who was on the side writing out a report. "Hey, I am the manager of this park." He stated, getting her attention. "Is she going to be okay? What happened?"

"Seems she just light headed and fainted but we still need to check her out to make sure she didn't hit her head to hard or anything like that."

"Okay, good." He exhaled, unaware he had been been holding his breath. The responsibilty was new and he couldn't handle someone being hurt here while he was in charge. "Do you mind if I speak to her once you guys are done? I just want to make sure she is okay."

"Sure, that would be fine. It looks like she wants to talk to you anyways." She said, nodding in the womans direction. He turned to see what she meant and noticed that she was staring at him. She looked away when he caught her, embarrassed. He recognized her; she worked at the law firm that his family had used to assess their risk. He tried to remember her name but failed. Though to be fair, he hadn't actually gone into the building. He had gone to lunch with his friends during the meeting and saw her through the door when his parents were leaving. She was handing them a larger envelope, explaining the contents as she did so while he got inside the vehicle. After a couple minutes there was only one EMT attending to her head so he approached.

"How are you doing?" He asked, standing awkwardly with his hands in his pockets, pulling them out when he realized how unprofessional and inmature it made him look. She stared, not saying a word so he tried again. "Miss, are you alright?" This time she replied but so quietly he almost didn't catch it. "I'm sorry?" He asked, leaning in closer.

"What is your name?" She said, looking him in the eyes. After a second he realized she must be asking because he looked familiar.

"Oh, right! My parents own this sanctuary. I think you may have helped us at your work." Extending his hand, he continued,"I'm Charlie."

She stared at his hand in front of her, still in shock, but caught herself a moment later. "Oh!" Clearing her throat and grabbing his hand, "I'm, uh,,," she shook her head, "Callie. I'm, uh, Callie." Clearing her throat once more. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had found him; that this was her son. He looked about the right age, familiar features, his dad's height. Even so, she felt insane. This must be because of the anniversary coming up, this was not Griffin. He chuckled nervously and that's when she noticed she hadn't let go of his hand yet. "Sorry." She mumbled, letting go like she felt she had so many times before in this very arena.

He turned to one of the men who had gotten her on the gurney. "Is she going to be alright or do you need to take her to the hospital."

"I think she will be okay. No signs of a concussion, maybe a little shock, but I think as long as she gets something to eat, she will a-okay." He said, turning his attention to Callie.

"We have a cafeteria, she can eat there!" Said Gri-Charlie. Charlie. "Let me take you to lunch?" He asked. She nodded, unable to say no, no matter how much she thought she should. The EMT's helped her stand up and the two of them made their way to the cafeteria.

They ate for about a half hour, where she asked all kinds of questions about himself. From what she could tell he was brought up in a loving family and had basically been raised in the reserve. By the end of their meal, she felt sane again. This was not her son. It was just the impending date that made her lose her mind. She was fine. She was fine. They stood up from the lunch table and were going to go to the front desk for a free day admission pass, courtesy of Charlie, when an employee came up and asked to talk to him privately. Without really thinking, she wrapped up his fork in a napkin and put it in her pocket. Charlie turned, almost catching her in the act, and ushered to the front door, "After you."

She got in her car and quickly left the parking lot. She hadn't done anything wrong and didn't have any nefarious plan, but she still felt like she needed to flee. When she got home, she put the fork in a plastic bag and placed on the counter, staring at it. What now? she thought. She continued to stare, nervously chewing her lip, not sure what to do next. She had a lot of energy and was feeling restless, so she pulled her hair back and started to clean. We will deal with this tomorrow, she thought. This is tomorrows problem.

By morning she hadn't slept one minute but had done an extensive search on where she could get a DNA test done in the area. She decided she should probably go to the next town over, where she doesn't know anyone, to avoid any gossip or prying eyes. She felt like she needed to be really careful despite the fact no one knew about any of it. Suddenly her alarm went off and she realized how late it was. "Shit!"

Quickly getting changed and out the door, she drove to work still completely distracted. When she arrived at the office it was already nine and she felt overwhelmed by it all. Racing around to catch up, she lost track of time all over again.

"Callie?" She heard Jeffrey call from the front door.

"Oh! I'm-fuck! I'm back here!" She said, stumbling out of the closet by the copy machine. "Sorry, I just got caught back there. Needed some more toner." She said, holding the toner cartridge in the air."

Laughing, he said, "Okay, just wondering where you were. Not a big enough office to get lost in." Gesturing around the office. There were no seperate offices or rooms, just an open space big enough for their desks and the copy machine. He looked at her, no completely out of the closet with some concern. "Are you okay? You seem a little off today?" He held up his hand when she tried to proceed with the usual response. "Be honest, please." She wasn't sure if was because they had known each other for so long or because she needed to make sure she was losing her sanity, but she told him everything. About spotting him, the fainting, the lunch, and most importantly, the fork.

"Huh." He said, grabbing the bagged fork. "This is his DNA?" She nodded, wringing her hands in her lap. "Okay, let's test it." He said, surprising Callie.

"You think it could be him?"

Shuffling awkwardly in his seat, "Honestly? No. But," He continued, making sure he had eye contact, "It will always bug you if you don't confirm it. It will let you move on instead of obsessing."

She nodded, playing with the fork. "Yeah, you're right. I won't be able to move on." She placed the fork back onto the table, "So, where do you think I should go?"

"I think I know a place. Got any lunch plans?"

By two o'clock they were at the clinic and Callie had a swab in her mouth. "So we will compare your sample with this one and you should have your tests in less than two weeks. Soon you will know if he is your biological brother." She said, smiling at Callie. They had told them the sample was Russell's and that their mother had been unfaithful. "However, if you ask me, you guys were raised together and shared experiences siblings can only share. Positive results or not, he is still your brother." She tried to reassure her, unaware of how much that not apply.