I will

rise up

in spite of the ache

The rain had kept him inside. It was an unfortunate thing that the weather could control Henry as it did, forcing him to stay longer on the boat that he was supposed to call his home. The new Ark was anything but, at least to him. This place brought up memories and feelings that Henry hated. It made him feel inadequate and terrified, as if what happened on the last yacht he was on would happen in this one. Henry, although he had much more control over himself now, still didn't completely trust himself. He still didn't believe that he would be able to force the feral cat into submission. He feared for himself and he feared for his pack.

He lay on the bed, staring at a book while he tried to read. If he were being honest with himself, he had skimmed the same page at least three or four times. Not a single word was read and understood. Instead he just stared down at them as if they had been written in some sort of foreign language like Cantonese or Latin. He sighed, giving up completely on reading. Maybe he would just go out on a walk. Perhaps it would help him to clear his head and help him to be able to do something productive a little later.

Closing the book and placing a business card with the information side to the side he was reading, he closed the book and set it quietly on the nightstand beside him. Sitting up with a huge sigh, he leaned over and began to tie his shoes. He could have gone walking without them, but going without shoes made him feel naked for some reason. It did not take him long to tie the shoes and soon, he sat up with another sigh. This time, he was willing himself to stand.

And as he sat there contemplating if he really wanted to get off the bed, a child came wandering into his room. The toddler was moving at speeds faster than a grown man could run (at least that's what it appeared to do). Henry knew the boy was pack...a product of Raven and Tobias, but he couldn't say he had ever done much with the child. He kept his distance from everyone, the child included.

As the kid settled at his feet, pulling at his freshly tied shoes, Henry groaned softly. He looked to Tobias, completely trusting that the man would grab his own offspring. And yet, Tobias just stood there, watching. Henry wasn't even going to comment on the half-human, half-cat look he was going for.

And just when he was about to ask Tobi to command his child to leave them alone, he spoke, telling him that he doesn't like shoes. Henry knew that. In fact, Henry couldn't remember the last time he had ever seen Tobi with any sort of clothing on his feet. It was always barefoot. When he made the connection that Henry had shoes and Rhett liked shoes and somehow that made the baby Rhett, Henry looked at him with a quizzical look. Rhett? Was that the child's name? Jesus. Where had he been? He couldn't place ever knowing the toddler's name but then again, he'd been severely distant lately. "Can you tell him not to eat my shoes?" They were just a pair of sneakers, nothing fancy, but Henry didn't exactly like the idea of his shoes covered in drool and teeth marks.

When asked if the baby would die eating his shoes, he shook his head. "No. He won't...but my shoes might." He reached down, pulling the shoelaces from the infant's teeth (gently, of course) before he tied them once more. His face crimpled and contorted as his hands came into contact with the drool and sharp edges of plastic that held the end of the shoelaces in place.

No doubt this would upset the child. Babies tended to get so bent out of shape over the strangest of things. So instead of allowing Rhett to pull the same shoelaces and place them once again into his mouth, he quickly handed the boy a small stuffed bear that had somehow gotten into his room. He wasn't sure who's it was or where it had come from because it certainly wasn't his. "He's getting big." He motioned to the boy who was probably upset that Henry had taken his shoelaces away. He couldn't remember the last time he had really sat and had a conversation with anyone, let alone Tobi and his son.

Henry Tudor

I will rise a thousand times again