WHO: Catherine and Ben Harper WHEN: Immediate following this WHERE: Catherine's office at the house SUMMARY: Catherine and Ben talk about Arthur and are generally the ultimate couple goals tbh WARNINGS: None STATUS: Complete
Ben drove home from the station feeling both strangely relieved and strangely anxious about the whole thing. Knowing he'd done the right thing didn't make it any less complicated, especially not after he'd talked to Maude. He checked on the kids when he got in and made his way up to Cath's work room, waiting until she seemed like she was taking a break to come in and hug her. He hadn't mentioned to her, or anyone, that he was knocking off early, so he was pretty sure that his presence was a surprise. "Hey," he said and came in to give her a big hug.
“Hi, honey,” Catherine smiled when Ben came in, grateful for an excuse to take a break, and nodded to the stool closest to her. After she shut her laptop - mentally separating herself from the endless stupid questions people managed to come up with, Catherine turned towards Ben and laced her fingers with his. “How was your day?”
Ben settled on the stool, glad she was sitting down at least. "Well, I had Maude over to the office to talk about some things. She wants to see us for dinner, maybe in the next week. I told her I'd talk to you. And, uh, you know I've been kind of itchy about some decisions I had to make? I made it. I, uh, got Excalibur from the Business Office. Which I'm not supposed to talk about, but California's a community property state so you own half my stupid decisions." He clutched her hand while he waited for the proverbial brown and stinky to hit the rotating blades.
She nodded at this; Thursday would probably work. That was one of the few nights no one had anything going on, no commitments or sports practice or meetings. This week, at least. Catherine had been about to tell Ben to ask Maude if that day worked, when he started getting that “I'm about to tell you something you won't like” look in his eyes, so she internally geared herself for what he was going to say. “Really, Ben?” She sighed, but squeezed his fingers back. Because they were a team and stupid decision or not, Ben was her husband and she would stand by him. And figure out how to deal with it. Even if Catherine necessarily like the fact that they had to at all.
"I promised I wouldn't say who, but Arthur showed up. And pleaded with me to get the sword because the person is afraid of the Business Office. And I'm registered. It's a kid, and the poor kid is starving and I don't think they have much in the way of family, and I don't think they're from Woodsbridge. Arthur needs to know to be secure; that's how he was, and how this one is. So I got it and gave it to them. And ... I could see the change. So it was the right thing. But Maude isn't happy--not that she's mad at me--and I know Siggy is going to throw a fit. And Jess is going to find out, and ... everything is about to get really complicated." The Arthurian Tales were generally friendly or at least cordial, even if they often ignored themselves. That only changed when something happened to set them off. Arthur's appearance, even without Ben's action, would have been enough to throw a bomb into the middle of them. Taking Excalibur put Ben squarely into the middle of it.
“I don't need to know who,” Catherine held up her free hand to make her point, but then waited until Ben took a breath to speak again. “Honey, I trust you, and I trust that you did what you thought was right.” She assured Ben, and reached up to stroke his cheek. “And I know you want to take care of your Arthur, that he's important to you, whoever he is in his life, but Ben. Is giving him Excalibur the best way to do it? He - or she, whatever - is a kid. And not only that, but what about your sword? What if you decide you do want it, later on, but you can't, because of this?” Catherine raised her eyebrows in concern. “We will deal with whatever happens. Obviously, we will. But am I wrong to be worried about how this could all turn out?”
Ben shook his head. "No, you're not. I thought about Galatine, but they don't have it and there's no guarantee they ever will. And I don't need it. I'm not a kid and I have no doubt about who and what I am. Not as Ben and not as Gawain. Sometimes the personal relationships are awkward--" which was an understatement "--but I'm all right. Arthur isn't. Arthur's not ready for the sword, but the sword will work its own alchemy on Arthur. I saw it happen. And I did warn Arthur about the risks, that someone might come looking for the sword.
"The Office doesn't have the sheath, as far as I know, but they've got the stone. Arthur's interested in the stone, was thinking about putting Excalibur in it for security. I'd advise against that because things don't work like that here, necessarily. But if they had the sheath? I might be worried. Because of the Carson girl." He'd been holding Catherine's hand more tightly as they talked, but here he squeezed it fiercely. His arm still wasn't fully healed from the break he'd suffered while looking for her.
Catherine sighed again, still not convinced, and she wasn't sure if Ben’s uncertainty was a comfort that they were on the same page, or that he'd gone and done it anyway. “You're going to have to explain something to me, then. If he's not ready for Excalibur, how is giving it to him going to help?” She asked finally, as she moved her hand to sweep a lock of hair out of Ben’s eyes.
Ben found himself struggling to find the right words. He slipped his good hand out of Catherine's to gesture a little as he worked out what he needed to say. "Arthur was acting a little crazy about it. I think--I think they might have been told their memories were fake, or they were crazy. You know? But with the sword in their hand, I could just see the desperation start to go away. Like there was a hole in them and the sword filled it somehow. And it makes sense, because that's part of the story. Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and finding out what it meant and it filling some of the hole in his heart. I was afraid Arthur was going to do something really stupid. I can at least deal with the consequences of all this. I don't know that Arthur, the person who's Arthur now, can."
“So you're trying to validate his identity?” She said slowly, trying to follow along. Whoever Arthur was must have had an incredibly rough time of things, from what Ben described. And her heart ached, as a mother, for whatever had been done to this poor child. “I guess my question is, how do you know he won't do anything stupid now that he has the sword?”
"I don't, for sure," Ben admitted. He took Cath's hand again, carefully, because it wasn't sundown yet. "But I'm in a better position to keep him from doing that now than I would have been if he got it on his own, without me. We don't take kids in like Wes and Suze and Alex do. But this is the same kind of thing for me, making sure this kid is okay."
Catherine looked at Ben apprehensively for a moment before nodding. That was logic she could understand. And she trusted Ben. Knew Ben would do what was right, that he wanted to do what was right, her noble knight. She smiled softly. “Okay, honey. Whoever he is, let him know he's welcome here anytime - and that I’d like to meet him, should he feel comfortable with that.” Not just because she loved having more people to mother, but because she would feel better after knowing who Arthur was, what he looked like. So she could help, too.
"I'll do that, when Arthur is ready." The corners of Ben's mouth had turned up a little when Cath had started smiling. When he and Cath had worked things out, it was always a little easier for him. "It may take a while, though. This one is pretty wild. And proud. But that comes with the turf."
“God.” Catherine’s smile was replaced with an exasperated expression. She wasn't mad, of course, but she should have know. “Typical.” But then her face grew worried again. “His parents made him think he was crazy, for being a Tale?” She asked, just to make sure she'd heard Ben correctly.
"Reading between the lines, I think so. He described himself as a 'gutter rat' so I get the feeling he was poor, too, and he's working three jobs to put himself through school. I'm pretty sure whatever family there is is out of the picture." Cath's family wasn't in Woodsbridge, but at least the family had stayed intact and loving even when the twins had moved to California. The shift in Ben's expression made clear what he thought of missing parents.
Catherine closed her eyes briefly and pressed a hand to her mouth. “Jesus, what is wrong with people. The poor boy.” The very idea of treating family so horribly was enough to make Catherine ready to demand his name and where he lived so she could hand deliver a week’s worth of food and some money to pay for his books or whatever he needed. “That's unacceptable.” She said with an air of finality. “And we need to do something besides just giving him a sword and hoping for the best.”
Ben nodded firmly in agreement with that. "I told him not to be a stranger. I don't intend to be. Someone's got to help him, and he picked me." He gestured by reflex with his injured right arm, and winced slightly as something somewhere slid into a configuration it wasn't quite supposed to. "But the first step was giving him the sword."
“What?” She glanced worriedly at Ben’s still-healing arm. “You did that. What's the second step?”
"It's okay! It just twinges occasionally." Ben looked down at the arm but there was nothing obvious to see, so he turned his attention back to Catherine. "I'm going to talk to a couple of people that I know are connected to him and get some insight into what would really help him. We can go from there."
Catherine frowned at Ben’s arm, as if her scolding would be enough to will it back into health. “Okay,” she nodded. “Keep me updated.” And with that, Catherine slid off her stool and smiled again, placing her hands on either side of his face before leaning forward for a quick kiss. “I love you,” she reminded him.
Beaming, Ben leaned into the kiss. "I love you too, Cath."