"Papa, why can' someone else do it?" Remy asked. "It's not dat I don' wan' help Et, but surely someone else could go instead?"
"I t'ought we could keep it in de fam'ly, an' b'sides, I also t'ought you wouldn' mind helpin' out." Jean-Luc replied.
"Keep it in de fam'ly. What's wrong wit' Theo? Or Henri? Or even Emil?" Remy wanted to know.
Jean-Luc sighed. He didn't want to have to tell Remy the bad news he had. "Henri, Mercy and Theoren are busy right now, as I will be. We need to stay home at dis time. Remy, I need you to do dis. Under normal circumstances, someone else, prob'ly Theoren, would go along as Etienne's sponsor, but right now, none of us can be spared."
Remy frowned and traced the pattern on his bedspread with his finger. "Papa, what aren' you tellin' me? You've said why you an' de others can' go, but you haven' mentioned Emil…"
Jean-Luc crossed the room and sat down on the bed beside his fifteen-year-old son. He took Remy's hand in his, and sighed again. With his free hand, he reached up and tilted Remy's head, making sure his son was paying attention. "Remy, dere was an attack on our guild by de assassins early dis mornin'. Most of de t'ieves present were able to get away more or less unharmed, but Francois was killed."
With the bombshell dropped, Jean-Luc sat in silence, watching Remy closely as the information sank in. Remy's red-on-black eyes widened in horror. "Emil's father…"
"Oui, mon fils."
"Is Emil…?" Remy faltered. "I mean…"
Jean-Luc closed his brown eyes for a moment. "He's devastated, Remy. You know as well as I do how close dey were. Emil's mother died when Emil was two years old. Oui, de rest of us are deir fam'ly too, but when it comes down to it, dey were really all dey had."
Remy stood up and went to the window, looking out on the yard with a solemn expression. His face was unreadable. Jean-Luc sat in silence, waiting for his son to speak again. Finally, Remy turned away from the window and looked at his father, determination and resignation in his eyes.
"Papa, you an' de others stay here an' take care of Mil. I'll go wit' Etienne on his tillin'." He said.
Jean-Luc breathed a sigh of relief. "T'ank you, Remy. You an' Etienne will leave in a week."
"When can I see Emil?" Remy asked, his concern for his best friend evident in his voice. He knew he probably wouldn't be able to talk to Emil right away, but he wanted to know when he could.
"Give us a couple of days, Remy. We jus' told him what happened not even two hours ago."
After Jean-Luc left the room, Remy sat back down on his bed and thought. Remy had only been Jean-Luc's son for five years, and he knew how horrible he would feel if anything happened to Jean-Luc and he could imagine just how upset Emil must be. Emil had, after all, lost the only remaining member of his immediate family. Remy lay down and silently prayed that Emil would be okay.
Two days later, in mid-afternoon, Jean-Luc went to Remy's room and knocked on the door. His dark eyes were filled with a sad grief, and there were dark bags under his eyes. He had not slept in two days; he, Henri, Mercy, Theoren, and Tante Mattie had spent the days and nights attempting to comfort and console a grief-stricken Emil. Claude had stayed at the LeBeau mansion to keep Remy company, while Pierre and Genard took care of Etienne. The guild members were a family, and they always took care of each other in times of tragedy.
"C'min." Remy called when he heard the knock. He was lying on his bed reading a comic book. He looked up when his father entered the room and noticed immediately how tired and worn Jean-Luc looked.
"Would you like to go see Emil now?" Jean-Luc asked.
Remy's eyes lit up briefly before he grew calm again. He closed his comic book and got off his bed, joining his father at the door. "How is he, Papa?"
"He isn' well, Remy." Jean-Luc replied as he and his son walked down the stairs and out to the car. "He won' talk, he won' sleep, he hardly lets any of us near him. I have to admit, we're kinda hopin' seein' you will help him."
Tante Mattie met Jean-Luc and Remy at the front door of her house. She looked as tired and worried as Jean-Luc.
"Any change?" Jean-Luc asked her.
She shook her head, her long, colorful earrings dangling on either side of her head. "He started cryin' 'gain Jean-Luc. An' he keeps pushin' us away."
Jean-Luc sighed and led the way into the house. Remy followed him, his heart sinking as they entered the homey living room. Henri and Mercy were sitting on the couch, Mercy's head resting on her husband's shoulder. They both smiled sadly when they saw Remy, but said nothing. Theoren was kneeling on the floor a couple of feet from where Emil was sitting, talking quietly to the young thief. Remy noticed all this, along with the fact that Tante Mattie had candles and incense burning, but what he really paid attention to was Emil.
Emil was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall beside the unused fireplace. He had pulled his knees all the way up to his chest, and was hugging himself tightly. He looked paler than usual, and his normally bright blue eyes were dull and grief-stricken. Tears ran down his cheeks in continuous streams and Remy noticed that his cousin was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. It looked to him that Emil was hearing the things Theoren was saying, but not really paying attention.
Remy silently walked over and put a hand on Theoren's shoulder. Theoren had not realized that they had arrived, and he jumped slightly, then he smiled when he saw it was Remy. He stood up and spoke softly to Remy.
"Hey, kiddo. Don' let dis get you down, okay? He's gon' need all of us once he decides to let us help him. An' don' be upset if he pushes you away too. He's been doin' dat to de rest of us for two days now."
"T'anks Theo." Remy replied softly, going over and sitting down as close to Emil as he thought he could get without being pushed away, much like Theoren himself had been doing. He didn't speak to his cousin right away, instead sat there and waited to see if Emil would notice his presence.
It wasn't long before they got the answer. Sniffling, Emil wiped the tears off his face with the sleeve of his shirt and looked at his cousin. "Remy?" he whispered. The adults in the room all stared in shock. They had tried to get the teenager to speak for two days, and it had taken Remy two minutes of sitting in silence to do it.
"Oui, Emil?" Remy replied quietly.
"Remy…my dad's dead…an' I don' know what to do…I…I'm scared…" Emil whispered, looking at Remy with a sob, the tears welling up in his eyes again.
Remy scooted closer to Emil and put an arm around his cousin's shoulder. "Mil, listen. Dey've all been here for two days, dey wan' help you, an' so do I. You're not alone."
Emil closed his eyes briefly. He was very tired, very drained from the emotional strain of the last couple of days. "I know…" he whispered. He looked at the five adults, who had been watching and listening to the conversation quietly. "I'm sorry…for pushin' you guys away…I jus'…I don' know…"
"You got not'ing to be sorry for, kid." Henri said in reply as the others nodded.
Tante Mattie sat down in her rocking chair. "Come here, child."
Emil left his spot and obediently went over to the traiteur. The members of the thieves guild all took comfort in Tante Mattie's love for them, no matter what their age. She was the den mother, the closest thing to a real mother many of them had ever had. The old woman took the young thief into her warm, comforting arms and rocked him as she used to do when he was a small child and needed consoling after a nightmare or a skinned knee. He was asleep in mere minutes.
"We're gon' go get some rest," Jean-Luc said softly as he, Henri, Mercy and Theoren got up and started to leave. "Remy, are you comin' or would you like to stay for awhile?"
"Can I?"
"Of course you can. We'll be back in a few hours. Call if you need anyt'ing." Jean-Luc said, following the others out of the house.
Once outside, the four thieves stopped and talked for a moment before heading home. They couldn't get over what they had witnessed that afternoon.
"You know somet'ing?" Mercy asked.
The three men looked at her expectantly, although they had an idea what she was going to say.
"What?" Theoren replied.
"I t'ink we're gon' see dose two boys stickin' together t'rough t'ick an' t'in for as long as dey live."
"Agreed." Jean-Luc said. "I t'ink you're right."
If the four of them could have seen the future, they would have known that Mercy was in fact right. Remy and Emil were best friends who would end up going the distance in order to help each other out of tight situations. And the future for those boys was going to be full of tight situations.