Page 71 of Chaos has a Name
He’d been a perpetual burden on his parents. When Naomi had passed, his world fell apart. Oh, he knew how Ethan felt when he lost Catherine.
He’d felt the same when he lost his own mother. That devastation of losing a parent—specifically the one who loved him the most—broke something in him.
And he’d not been as strong as Ethan to overcome it.
That haunted him that he’d done the same thing to his son that had happened to him.
He broke Ethan with his behaviors, and then Callen with his bad choices.
“Don’t even think that, Wyler. Callen James was a blessing, and I’m grateful that you made that choice to sleep with his mother. I wish we both would have gotten him away from her so much earlier. I can see that it only made him the man he is today. Ethan too.”
It was a little unnerving that Timothy was in his head.
“You called me here. That’s your burden to bear.”
Yes, yes, it was.
“Why are you disappointed, Dad?” he asked. “I made amends. I fixed all my mistakes, and I even found love again. I was able to get my sons to forgive me, and have had a good ten years.”
Timothy stopped.
When he turned, the forest grew silent. Even after death, Timothy Blackhawk was one not to mess with on the reservation.
He was a force of nature.
Because he went there, Timothy would too.
“I’m disappointed, Wyler, because you’re selfish.”
He blinked.
Okay, he wasn’t expecting that.
“For not wanting to suffer? For not wanting to make my family watch me be sick from the chemo? That makes me selfish?”
Timothy focused on the man, and he was honest with his son.
“It makes you selfish because you lured them here. You brought them here when their time in other places was important.”
Wyler said nothing.
So, his father continued.
“I can watch you all from the Happy Hunting Grounds. I can check in on all of you. I follow the Raven to make sure she’s safe. What makes this selfish of you is that it endangers your family. I understand not wanting to suffer, but they are suffering in your place. They are carrying the burden that is yours to carry.”
He stood there.
“You left DC and came here, which is your right, but how you did it, Wyler…of course, she’d follow. The Raven is trying to keep you around so your grandchildren can have you. You’re the last of the fathers in her life. She’s trying to keep a grandfather here for the kids. Someone has to show them how to hunt, and be Native—even the ones who don’t have a drop of our blood in them. Their lives in the future will depend on what they learn now.”
Wyler did feel guilty about that.
“They need your wisdom, passed down from me from my father. They need more than FBI rules and regulations. What they need is guidance. With each time you sit and make them cookies, you share the stories that will help them become who they are meant to be.”
Timothy waved his hand, and the branches of the tree swayed to make room for them.
“Charlie will take over for her mother one day. When Elizabeth is no longer saving the world, she will have to carry that burden.”
His eyes got huge.
