Heart to Hart - a Chenry Fanfic

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Henry

He had only known Rachael for all of an hour, yet he felt like he could tell her anything.

There was something so sweet about her, like what he imagined having an older sister would feel like. A human always ready to help you up when you were down.

They were sitting together in the man cave, Rachael and Ray on one side of the couch, Henry and Charlotte on the other. It felt good to be with her again, knowing that he didn't have to fill the time with an awkward silence, or an even more awkward conversation.

This talk was all about Rachael.

"So you used to live in Swellview, with Ray?" Charlotte asked their guest.

"I did, for the first fifteen years of my life" Rachael began. "It was us against the world."

Ray seemed happy beside his sister, happier than he had ever really seen him be. It was nice to know that there was a deeper part of Ray, a part that he didn't know of. He couldn't wait to learn more about where he had come from.

"When Ray moved out of the house at 18, I was only a child. I don't remember much of it. But then our parents split when I was eight, and life really wasn't what I thought it would be. Nothing was fun anymore. So our dad decided that it might be best if I went to live with Ray."

Henry was confused. Why would a parent send their child away from them, especially when they were so young?

"Your parents sent you away?" Charlotte asked, clearly as confused as he was.

"Part of me thought they didn't want me" Rachael continued, "If I was such a surprise as Ray said I was, I must have thrown a wrench in how they thought the rest of their lives were going to go. So when they had the opportunity to send me away, they jumped at it."

Henry couldn't help to see the sadness in her eyes. He couldn't imagine not being wanted by your own parents.

"It worked out though" Ray said, "That allowed us to spend more time together, which then led to us forming the bond we have today."

Rachael smiled at him, placing her hand on his.

"That's right, it allowed us to get closer, and allowed you someone to talk to, especially when you were deciding how you wanted to live your life."

"You mean as Captain Man, right?" Charlotte asked.

Ray nodded. "I knew I was indestructible, so I thought, why not? I already had this incredible super power, why let it go to waste. The only thing I didn't want, was to put Rachael in any harm."

"So he shipped me off to Europe" Rachael said, taking her hand away. Henry noticed her face change, realized that the topic was a tough thing for her to remember.

"Rach" Ray said, his voice soft and soothing, the voice of a protector. "You know I had no choice. You could have gotten hurt."

Rachael sat still, holding her own hand. She looked at the ground.

"What do you mean she could have gotten hurt?" Charlotte asked them.

Ray looked at his sister, who continued to look away.

"At first I thought Rachael could live with me, stay in my house still. She was in high school, old enough to take care of herself if I was gone most of the time. It sounded like it would work out perfectly. Except it didn't."

Henry could sense the pain in Ray's voice. Something bad had happened, and it seemed like neither he nor Rachael had fully moved on from it.

"The first criminal I was apprehending, he got the best of me. One night I was out canvassing our neighbourhood, trying to find where he might be hiding. Eventually I gave up, and went home. Little did I know he was following me the whole time. He found out where we lived. He came back the next day, when he knew I was out. He thought I lived alone."

Henry could feel his heart beating faster in his chest. He felt Charlotte move in the seat beside him. He could tell that just like him, she was afraid to hear what came next.

"I came home that night and Rachael was gone. Instead of finding her, I found a note, addressed to Captain Man, informing me of my mistakes, and leading me to where she had been taken to. I had never felt like such a failure in my entire life."

Ray closed his eyes, the memory too painful for him. Rachael, who had been avoiding her brother the whole time, reached out and took his hand again.

"I failed not only as a super hero, but as a brother; as her guardian, her protector. I let someone into our home, I let him take her. I would have never forgiven myself had something happened to her. I almost quit being Captain Man." Ray said. His voice was flat.

"But I begged him not to." Rachael finished. Her voice was shaky, and when she looked up at them again, she had tears in her eyes. "I didn't want him to give up his dreams because of me."

"I thought for a while on who she could live with, someone that she could be safe around. I eventually thought of our Aunt Jenny, our dads sister. She had two kids around Rachael's age, so she wouldn't be growing up alone. It seemed perfect, except for one thing."

"They lived half way across the world" Rachael said, wiping at one of the tears that had fallen down her cheek. "In Europe."

"I hated to leave her, knowing that we wouldn't be able to see each other for years, but I knew I had to do it, to keep her safe. So we said our goodbyes, and she was off to London. That was eight years ago."

Henry was silent. He was so shocked, so amazed that Ray had such an emotional story that he had kept to himself all these years. How alone he must have felt.

"You've been apart for eight years?" Charlotte asked, "How did you manage to not fall apart? I can't imagine being away from someone I love for that long. I can't even be away from Henry for a day without feeling sad."

Henry looked at her. If a day away from him made her sad, what had the past week done to her? Was she just as alone as he felt?

"It took everything in me not to jump on a plane and come home, believe me." Rachael answered her. "But when you love someone, and you know that doing something you hate is better for them, you do it, without hesitating. It was like that with Ray and I. I knew this job made him happy, so no matter how sad or alone I was, I worked through it. Because his happiness was more important to me than how I was feeling."

Henry felt a catch in his heart. He had been selfish, worrying just about him and not about Charlotte, or how his decision was affecting her. Why couldn't he see that she needed him just as much as he needed her?

All of a sudden, Henry felt the walls closing in around him. It felt harder to breathe, harder to concentrate on anything. He had to get out of there.

He stood up, mid thought, and ran for the elevator. He could hear voices calling after him, but his mind was drowning in his thoughts, so caught up in them that he couldn't answer.

He just ran. And he didn't stop running until the voices had cleared, and he was outside, surrounded by trees and completely alone.

It was then that he sat down on the ground, and allowed himself to cry.