Page 129 of Sidhe
“Good.” Dave nodded, taking yet another bite of pie, and talking around his mouthful. “Gets things wrong a lot of the time anyway. Why do you think you’re so perfect for this, Nathan? A religious fanatic would miss the point. A complete deviant wouldn’t care. It’s the everybody elses that understand what it means to be human. I s’ppose the Christian Bible got a few things right, but shit poor knowledge or not,” he smirked, “I’m guessing you have at least heard of The Four Horsemen.”
Nathan blanched. “You mean the song?” he decided to joke, not sure where Dave was going with this.
Dave’s smile quirked wider. He pushed Nathan’s plate closer to him again as if to remind him that there was still a lot of pieleft. “Not quite. See, the horsemen are a real part of the game here, Nathan: four chosen people depending on how things play out. If you had honestly chosen Malak and led his army, you would have been able to summon worthy horsemen from any of the dark fae under your command. Only, in the end, you’ve chosen a different path.
“These horsemen are the gift I’m giving you, or well…weapons for each of them that will allow for use of their namesakes. Not War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death, but the very opposite.” Dave didn’t say anything more, just took a gulp of his coffee and another bite of pie, grinning widely.
Nathan had to wonder what the opposite of each of those familiar horsemen would be, some more easily assumed than others. “Wait…I don’t get a weapon?”
“Theyareyour weapons.”
Nathan gauged Dave’s face for any hidden meaning, but then how was he supposed to readGodthe same way he read the guys he swindled in pool and poker? “So you’re giving me weapons for these horsemen to help in the battle? Something for…Jim, Sasha, Walt, I figure, and…Al?”
“You know your crew well.”
“So which one is which?”
Ignoring Nathan’s question for the moment, Dave made a sudden play for the slice of pie instead of the rest in the pan, a ploy, Nathan realized, to get him to keep eating his. It worked. Nathan picked up the plate to keep it away from Dave and shoveled in a fresh mouthful.
“The weapons are already waiting for you inside the Gatehouse. The horsemen will know what to do with them. I think Oberon’s right that you have at least until tomorrow before Malak’s ready to attack. Take this time. Not just for prep, though I know you’re already thinking some things, and that’s good,but…take this time for other things too. Any more?” He tilted up the pie tin that basically had its center eaten out.
“You drug this pie or something?” Nathan said, finishing his last bite and managing to wave off the offer for more. “Make me all compliant and less bitchy? I got plenty of bones I could pick with you, pal.”
“Well then, go ahead and hit me with ‘em.” Dave smiled as warmly as ever.
“Uhh…well…” Nathan thought for a minute. Then he thought for another minute. There were several questions he could ask, but they all felt sort of silly or, well, rude somehow, which usually wouldn’t bother him but did in this instance. Any complaints he had were shot down by common sense, because he was starting to get that the whole ‘why do bad things happen to good people’ thing wasn’t actually a hard question to answer.
People. People were the answer. The one great gift God gave the world wasn’t always used the way it should—free will—and bad decisions led to bad consequences. It wasn’t fair; it was just humanity. God could only be blamed for that if humanity preferred being mindless drones.
As for Nathan, he would take his heartaches if it meant he got to behim, here, in this life, with all those he loved, no matter how short the time or tough the road. That sounded a bit like enlightenment. Maybe there was an extra ingredient in that pie after all.
“Not everyone understands, Nathan,” Dave said with a softer, sadder expression, taking Nathan’s plate and the remaining pie away and setting it under the counter, “but when they do, it’s something they come to all on their own. I’m giving you a free one, alright?” He brightened, leaning close to Nathan across the counter, so close that Nathan could see every line, crease, and human part of his face. “Any question. Go ahead. What do you want to know?”
There was so much Nathan wanted to ask, but only one question came to mind. “Why this?” He gestured at Dave’s handsome and fit but humble, evendomesticform. “Why all this?” He extended his question to the diner, with its jukebox now playing “Stairway to Heaven,” which Nathan was pretty sure was a joke. “Do you always look like this when you talk to people?”
Dave’s smile stretched on one side, almost a smirk, and yet the expression was entirely kind. “It’s different for everyone, Nathan. This is just what you needed. But I’m surprised. I think you already know the real answer.”
Like someone had suddenly put a TV in front of his face, Nathan began to see images and flashes like real-time. He saw Dad, and Walter, even Jim, and clips of Johnny Cash, and this diner, just as it was, only…only it was years ago, a decade, and he and Jim were grabbing lunch all on their own, and even though they were too young, the nice old owner had fed them on the house, refusing to take their crumpled up bills.
“You say I’m not what you expected, Nathan, but this is what you wanted. What your heart tells me. And because of that, this is what I am. Not a parlor trick, or a game, just truth through your eyes. Maybe it’s a hard thing to understand, but this is me, every paternal memory that made you feel safe and comfortable wrapped up into one thing. Granted with pie, and fries, and coffee, which could arguably be more on the motherly side, but…that’s neither here nor there with me. I am what I am, Nathan. And I am for you.”
The images were just as quickly gone, Nathan left staring into Dave’s blue eyes like those of that old man’s from his memory, with something rugged and handsome like Dad, and old Country like Johnny, and firm but loving care like Walter, and…and so much else Nathan wasn’t sure he could name.
Dave grinned. “Now get your ass away from my counter, son, and go do your job,” he said, pushing up to stand tall again. “They’re waitin’ for ya.”
There was the strongest flush of love that filled Nathan just looking at Dave, love and peace and…yeah, Nathan felt safe, strong, like he could doanything. For a moment that remaining darkness from Malak was dulled to almost nothing.
The pie had been delicious, but Nathan was contentedly full from it. He took a swig of coffee to wash the remains down, smiled maybe a little crookedly because he honestly didn’t know if there was a right thing to say or do right now. Which was probably why Dave appeared as a man like the men Nathan most admired, them at their best, meeting in a place Nathan felt comfortable in because it was where he had grown up, in similar places all across the country. Nathan supposed if Jim and Sasha were here, and the others, then…yeah, this wouldn’t be so bad a Heaven.
“I can do this,” Nathan said, not sure if he was asking or telling, but needing to say it.
Dave nodded, smiled, moved the cups under the counter, and started wiping it down.
Nathan moved for the door, wondering if he would ever get the chance to be in this diner again, with Dave, coffee and comfort food made just for him, but he figured that’s not really what mattered. He didn’t need to look back before pushing open the door and stepping out into the light. Somewhere, Dave was always looking him in the eyes.
The light was blinding, almost agonizing, or maybe that was just because Nathan had stepped into it, through it, only to come out on the other side of Dave’s diner back to darkness. Malak’s blotting out of the sun still reined here, the battle still looming ahead. Nathan was standing before the Gatehouse doors, his hands gripping the handles but not yet having pulled.
Sasha’s hand came up and squeezed Nathan’s shoulder. “Nathan, are you okay?”
