A/N: I know where this is going, don’t quite know how I’m getting there. I’ve been out of writing for a while. Spoilers for, well, in this part, “Ariel”, and a little from “Safe”

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“You want me to do what?” Ten years Anna Faun had known Gabriel Tam, this was the first time she had ever questioned him. “Teach me,” he replied as if he were speaking about a garden. “Teach you what?” She knew what, she just had to hear him say it again. “Teach me everything you know about tracking people. All your tricks.” “Why?” “I have to find them. I have to do it myself.” “Do what now?” “I have to, Anna.” Anna leaned back in her plush chair and surveyed her old friend. She knew he was a good, trust worthy man, that wasn’t the point. Gabriel not only had money, it was all he had ever known. He had grown up w/ servants to acquiesce to his every demand, rich food always on the table, people gravitated to him for social standing, nobody had ever told him “no”. Even she rarely did. Gabriel Tam had never walked in dirt, let alone work it. He wouldn’t last a week doing what he was planning on doing. “Gabriel, you don’t quite understand what you’re asking. You don’t know what the border worlds are like.” “I’ve heard-” “Hearing and experiencing are two vastly different things. Basic things like good food, clothing, or even baths in some places, are expensive, and draw attention. You do not want attention drawn to you. You will be required to interact with people that could get you arrested for mere association. You cannot be Gabriel Tam, you must become somebody you, yourself would never, ever associate with. It is not remotely easy.” “I have to, Anna.” “Why do you have to do it yourself? There’s plenty of people who would go looking for them.” “They would go looking for the reward.” “You don’t want them brought in?” “I want to be sure before they are.” “Gabriel, Simon was paranoid. What do you want to be sure of?” He was quiet for such a long time, she thought maybe she’d asked the wrong question. “I want to be sure that he wasn’t right. That we didn’t send our daughter to be tortured and experimented on.” “You didn’t send her for experimentation, Gabriel. You sent her to learn. What they did there, if anything, was not your fault.” He continued as though she hadn’t said a word. “I tried…I tried to contact one of the guards from St. Lucy’s.” “You did what?” Anna sprung to her feet, that wasn’t good. “Don’t worry. I used a few tricks I picked up form you. I think I did pretty well myself. Anyway, I didn’t get the chance. He’s dead.” Anna kept silent and slipped back into the seat. “I know.” “You knew?” “You think I haven’t been keeping a close eye on Simon’s case?” It appeared to finally occurred to the older Tam, that he was sitting across from an investigator and occasional bounty hunter. His jaw slackened, and he threw his hands up. “Why haven’t you been looking for them then?” Anna was silent for a few moments before deciding the truth would be best. “I was afraid to.” Gabriel’s eyes narrowed and darkened as he rose. “Afraid to? Jien tah-duh guay!” “Gabriel, there are some powerful people looking for your children. That guard that died, he wasn’t the only one. All of them, all of the feds that took Simon and River on Ariel are dead. Not in a bullet in the head kinda way. They bled out from every nook ‘n cranny. The report says that every blood vessel in their bodies burst and they drowned in their own blood and nobody knows how. So don’ get all superior on me for backin’ down after I heard that. River didn’ do it and no way in seven hells did Simon, so that just leaves the folks they was turnin’ them over to.” Tam aged ten years during her rant. He slid back into his seat and took several deep breaths, calming whatever fears had struck him by what she just revealed. She took the time to reign in her temper, when she was emotional she lost control of how she spoke, and few people in the core respected anybody who came from the “backwater” worlds. “So that’s why you won’t help me now? Because you are scared?” “I’m not helping you because you don’t seem to realize you should be! This is a very dangerous undertaking, I don’t mean money, I mean lives, yours and possibly anybody you end up caught up with. Are you willing to have somebody die because they know you? Are you willing to deal with somebody betraying you for money? Are you willing to live on a ship for weeks at a time with no food but basic protein? Are you willing to crawl through dirt and mud? Learn to shoot people? Willing to leave behind everything, your home, you bed, your friends, Regan? Because you will have to do that and more. This isn’t a simple trace, you will have to live a whole new life, for months, maybe even a year or longer, and you’d have to do it w/out anybody finding out who you are and what you’re really after. Especially the government.” Gabriel’s face had lowered into his hands, the silence you couldn’t cut with a hacksaw. She watched him to see if the fear had seeped into him yet. This was not something someone just picked up and decided to do, Gabriel had to know that. He also had to know, what he was giving up if he did this. He had to decide if finding his absolution was worth it. “I told my son that I would not be there for him. That our family name and appearance were more important. That I would not support him in doing what even I realized needed to be done. I knew something was wrong. I didn’t know River as well as Simon did, but I knew her well enough. Something was wrong and I couldn’t…I was afraid to do anything. Pulling her out wasn’t an option. If they were hurting her for no reason, then what would they do to her if they found out she had gotten a message out? They would punish her, and maybe us. Maybe kill us if they needed to. But then Simon found a way and I was afraid I would lose him too. And I could not have that. Could not risk it. In the end…Regan left me last night, seems I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stand my presence. In the end, I lost it all anyway. I didn’t take a risk and I lost everything. “I have to find them, to make sure they’re all right. I will not let a little thing like fear stop me from doing what a good father, a good person would do.” Anna slouched in her chair, mulling over everything he’d just admitted. Gabriel felt guilty, he felt he needed redemption. He needed to find Simon and River to make sure everything had turned out fine. He needed to find his family and beg their forgiveness face to face. So many would just continue with their lives, content that they tried to stop their children’s path, that it was their making and not their parents. Even if they had to live the rest of their lives without a mirror in the house. Not Gabriel Tam. Seemed he wanted to take the hard path. “Come on, Gabe,” she stood. “I’ll buy you dinner.” “Anna?” “Enjoy every bite for the next two months. That’s how long I need to set things up and give you the basics.” He let out one long breath, and she idily wondered how long he’d been holding it. “Thank you.” “Don’t thank me yet. This is going to take all your strength; of will, of mind and of body. It may not work in the end, but you will not give up on me. Dong ma?” His jaw was set. “I fail you, I fail my children, I will not do that again.” “Good. I'm not facing Regan with your corpse.”