THE STORMS WITHIN

Past, present, and future...

Some say there is a Book of Revelations in everyone's life. A time to face the past, the present, and all possible futures. All of them. Because as true as one's fate is, the path of that fate lies in the decisions one makes. Right or wrong. Good or bad. At the base of all those decisions is the belief one holds truest to their heart. The belief that the next step to be made is the right one, and that it will turn out to be exactly that.

Can sat across from Bulut in the hospital cafeteria, not far from where their father rested in his room, still talking to Mihriban. Can looked at Bulut and wondered how he had come to feel the way he had about him. He had liked him from the beginning when they had first met. As odd as this made him feel, Bulut was one of only a very few people Can never bothered to keep at a distance. He did not feel any walls around his heart when it came to his half-brother. No guard. No gut feeling telling him to tread cautiously. He wondered if it was the year at sea when he was all alone that had changed him so much. Was it Sanem's love that taught him to trust more? Or was it something else altogether?

Looking at Bulut, he had no doubt that if someone saw them, they would not doubt that they were brothers. After all, they looked more alike than he and Emre did and not just in a physical sense. Though that had not escaped his keen observation. Can smiled, or rather smirked, at the idea that he was looking at his big brother. His big brother! Those words still tugged at his gut whenever he thought of them. If he were to judge Bulut's character, he gauged that Bulut's heart was in the right place. He was glad his memory had returned after the accident. He only vaguely remembered Bulut from the one time he saw him after the accident because Bulut had actually left the very next morning. But as Can's memory returned, he did remember Bulut's help and the growing friendship between them before the accident.

Can and Bulut both knew their conversation had to begin somewhere. They first talked briefly about Can and Sanem's honeymoon in the Galapagos. Bulut had to laugh at Can's description of Sanem's heightened state of emotion during her pregnancy. That one had to have been as entertaining as it was baffling because Sanem never hid her emotions, not in the least. To experience Sanem's emotions to the tenth power must have been even more fascinating than Can was able to describe. Bulut was also glad to hear that the day Can's memory returned, Sanem had stopped taking her medication. Although she used to take it to ease her pain after believing she had lost Can's love, she then took it to make sure she would stay calm until the day his love for her would return back into his heart.

Can and Bulut both recognized why they were here. To help them move past the obvious question that was bugging Can. So Bulut told him the story of how he found out that he was a Divit. Presuming Can would be interested in the story, Bulut did not realize Can would actually be touched emotionally by it. With visible signs of tears in his eyes, Can paused for several seconds before he could resume speaking. He was truly touched, beyond any words that could describe how he felt. From what he had found out and already knew, no one other than Bulut had offered to give blood to him after the accident. What Can did not know was that this giving of blood became the determining factor in Bulut's discovering who he was. Can was thankful to Bulut before, but now acknowledged Bulut's act of kindness even more. Can thought it was odd how life had turned out. He would not be sitting in the company of his half-brother if it was not for his accident. And if Bulut had not offered his blood for Can, Bulut would have never discovered just how close his real family was.

That is who they were. They were family. Bulut chuckled at the fact that he had gone from being a lonely man with no family to turn to, to being the member of a family that had even grown by three more a few days before. Now he was even a half-uncle. Can corrected him saying, "No. You are now a full uncle, times three." Damned if he would consider his own brother to be a half of anything. They were brothers and that was that. He told Bulut not to ever use the term "half" again. This made Bulut feel all the more like he finally belonged somewhere.