Heart On Fire | Sean Anderson

| Chapter 2 |

The taxi ride was weird, to say the least. Sean and Natasha were talking quietly whilst Trevor obsessed over the book he'd pulled out of Max's things. He then led them through a university and into a rather small office of kinds.

"So, it couldn't wait for tomorrow?" Sean asked tiredly, taking a seat just behind the man. Natasha slumped against his back, arms dangling over his shoulders.

"Your dad used to say, 'tectonophysics is the science of now, not tomorrow.'" Trevor tapped a few things into the keyboard. "It's about seismic events that occur in an instant. Here, look at this." Sean leans in by his uncle's side and Natasha naturally went with him. "You got Hawaii—" he pointed to the text on the screen, "—Bolivia.. Mongolia. And the conditions today are almost exactly what they were in July '97."

"What's the big deal about July '97?" Sean's question made Trevor's shoulders slump a little, Natasha picking up on this pretty quick. She'd felt that kind of atmosphere that day already, when they were talking about her best friend's dad.

"Sean, that was the year that your dad went missing," Trevor said softly, turning to face his nephew. It was quiet for a moment, the red-head resting her head gently against his. The boy sunk more into her hold, nodding slightly for Trevor to continue. "Now, look," the man flipped to a different page of the book in his hands, showing the two teens the pencilled table. "You see this column of numbers here? If the 753, right here," he pointed to a number on the screen, "was a 752, then it would be.." he trailed off, staring at the screen. The number he'd been talking about had changed into the same number scribbled down in the book.

"Exactly the same," Natasha said, eyes flickering between the page and the screen. Trevor nodded absently in response, trying to drink in the information presented to him.

"What do these little blips mean?" Sean asked, having turned to a different monitor that was in front of him but behind his uncle.

"Hmm? Don't touch anything. Those little blips are my life's work." Sean scoffs in disbelief, sharing a look with his best friend. He then cleared his throat and forced his attention back to the blips, he'd forgotten just how close that look would get their faces.

"These four little blips are your entire life's work?" He diverted the attention away from the warmth in his cheeks.

"Three," Trevor corrected, "Three little blips."

"Um.." Sean twisted the screen for his uncle to see though the man remained facing the screen with all the numbers. "One, two, three.." the teens took turns tapping each pulsing red dot, "four." Trevor quickly turned his head to look at their finding, the red-head swearing she could hear his neck snap from speed.

"Iceland."

After that one word, the trio found themselves travelling back to Trevor's place. You would think that having spent almost the entire trip down sleeping that the red-head would be wide awake. The teen, however, was clung to Sean's back like a koala, snoozing.

"This makes sense," Trevor said, unlocking the door for them. He dropped his keys on the side whilst Sean released Natasha's legs to let her down.

"How?" Suddenly she was filled with energy. "You said Iceland and now you've.. what? Discovered the Fountain of Youth?" Sean chuckled at her sarcasm despite being really confused himself. The man, however, seemed to have either not heard the girl or just ignored her quip altogether and continued digging around in his cupboard.

"Max saw the reading ten years ago, and he took off to investigate. Now, if the readings are the same today as they were then, this might be my only chance to find out what happened," Trevor rambled unintelligibly, pulling out a hiking backpack. "I'm gonna need your passports."

"For what?"

"I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to get you two to Canada a little earlier than we planned." Natasha's brow furrowed as she shared yet another confused glance with her best friend. She was starting to think that Sean had caused some permanent damage when he'd broken that model.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about this—" he held out the book he'd been obsessing over since he pulled it from the box "—A Journey to the Centre of the Earth." He tossed the book into Sean's chest. "It's all set in Iceland, which is where he must've gone."

The teen was quiet as he softly flipped through the pages, a sad look taking over his features. Natasha hovered over his shoulder, her own pushed gently into his to reassure him of her presence. "These are all my dad's notes?" He asked quietly. Trevor blinked, realising the weight that just descended on the boy's shoulders. This was the most he'd heard about his dad in a long time.

"Look," he started, dragging a chair over to sit before them. "Max and I.. Your dad and I, were talking about the possibility of volcanic tubes existing that went down past the mantle towards the centre of the Earth."

"And.." The red-head spoke, her voice void of its usual sarcasm. "You think that's what he went looking for?" With a sombre smile, Trevor nodded in agreement.

"I'm sorry, but I gotta put you two on a flight to Ottawa in the morning." He reached over the teens' shoulders to grab the house phone from its dock. Sean, who had remained silent throughout this started to protest. "And I'm calling Icelandair." As the man started tapping buttons, the brunet boy had grabbed hold of the phone's holder with the intention of yanking out the cable. "Hey!"

"We just got here, okay? You're not gonna go and ditch us." He shared a look with his best friend, the teen quickly standing up beside him. "Besides, I was the person who found your life's work fourth little blip thingy in the first place."

"Oh. This is my brother we're talking about here," Trevor argued.

"Well it's my dad."

"We don't have to be in Ottawa for ten days," the red-head cut in, wanting the tension between them to fizzle out. That, and for the first time in a while, she was excited to be going somewhere to do something. Which should have been her first hint that something was going to go wrong.

"We're going with you," Sean said, the finality of it unwavering.

"Do you know how much it costs to book a last minute flight to Reykjavik?" Trevor was still in a state of shock and yet, despite his reluctance to take them, he was impressed at their determination. Maybe he could teach them a thing or two along the way.

Sean gestured to the containers behind them filled to the brim with coins. "Something tells me you got it covered."