Chapter Text
Elena looks down at her phone, and there's no message from her mom there. Nothing. No word from her at all, which is weird because she's here . And Elena can't remember the last time her mom came to visit without telling her ahead of time that she'll be there—even if it's just a quick text while she's pulling in, she always tells Elena when she's on her way.
Not this time, and that tells Elena that there has to be something wrong. So she hovers by the doorway of the room where her mom is meeting with Shay—probably templar business, so Elena knows she'll be in a lot of trouble if she's caught eavesdropping.
But it's her mom, and Elena is worried. Right now, she's not a nearly-fully-trained assassin spying on templars, she's just concerned because her mom is acting extremely out of character.
She hears Grace come creeping downstairs, but doesn't turn around until the younger girl says, "What are you doing?"
"Nothing," Elena says.
"Looks like something."
Elena sighs. "I think something's wrong with my mom," she says. "She came back here all of a sudden and I just… I don't know, I'm worried."
"Was my dad with her?" Grace asks.
"No. Was he supposed to be?"
Grace hesitates. "I'm not supposed to tell assassins what he's doing when he goes away."
But Elena just raises her eyebrows and gives Grace the best older sister look she can muster (and never mind that she's not Grace's sister, because they'd grown up in the same house and shared a bedroom and anyway Elena would fight to protect Grace the same as she would James). Grace lasts an impressive five seconds before caving.
"Dad told me he was going on a mission with your mom," she says. "They've already been gone longer than they were supposed to, and… if she came back by herself…"
Something inside Elena falters, but she manages to stick a smile on her face. "Let's not jump to conclusions," she says. "I'm sure he's fine."
Judging by the look on her face, Grace is not at all sure. But to be fair, Elena isn't at all sure, either. "Should we ask her?" Grace asks.
"No," Elena says. "Um—you stay here, okay?"
"Where are you going?"
"Upstairs," Elena says, and hurries away. They've been in this safe house about six months, which is more than enough time for her to have figured out all the best ways to listen in on conversations—for example, the room her mom and Shay are in lies right under the upstairs bathroom, and the sound carries straight up through the vent. Elena hurries there now, locks the door behind her, and crouches over the vent.
The room is small enough that the conversation echoes, and Elena doesn't have to try very hard to pick up on what's going on.
"…let him go in by himself in the first place?" Shay is saying. His voice shakes, and Elena frowns—it's impossible to tell if that's just a weird effect of the vents, or if he's horribly upset.
"Have you ever tried to stop him from doing something he wanted to do?" Elena's mom asks. "He's a stubborn man—and on top of that he's the grand master. He said he was going in, I wasn't about to argue."
"You should have!"
"Well I didn't know they'd capture him, did I?"
This last bit is so loud Elena thinks she could have heard it, even without the vent—she leans back, away from it, eyes wide and hands clasped over her mouth, as if trying to distance herself from the news. No . That's—no, that's her grandpa.
"We can fix this," Shay says, after a very long pause.
"They were waiting for us," Lucy says. "Someone was sloppy, they leaked information, or turned traitor, or… I don't know, but the point is they knew we would be there and they shouldn't have. They'll have him well guarded, and I used to work at Abstergo. I know how well they can guard a person when they don't want them to escape."
"Did it seem like they know who he is?" Shay asks.
"No," Lucy says. "I overheard some of what the guards were saying. They know we've been targeting them, and they're starting to figure out we're probably not assassins."
Shay curses.
"But I don't think they've figured out the whole story." She sighs. "Or—they hadn't then. I don't know—"
"Haytham won't tell them anything," Shay says. "He won't."
After this, the two of them launch into a discussion of… of how long he'll be able to hold out under torture, and Elena leaves the bathroom when she can't stand to listen to it any longer. Technically, she knows, this is templar business. She's not supposed to know about it, much less do anything to help, but fuck that , he's her grandpa. This is more important than assassins and templars.
She ticks through a mental checklist of all the people that are at the safe house right now, trying to figure out which one would be the best to take this news to. Not her dad, he'll be upset and he won't react quickly enough. Not Aveline for the same reason. Not Connor, he's got such a weird relationship with his dad, he'd probably just freeze up. Ezio's out with Edward—
Elena runs into Altair before she can get to the end of her list, and rolls her eyes because really, he should have been right at the top. He'll probably be mad at her for listening, but he'll also do everything he can to get Elena's grandpa back. And he'll be able to make everyone else listen , and then get them moving quickly.
He listens as she blurts out the whole story, and to Elena's surprise doesn't say anything at all about how she's not supposed to be eavesdropping on templar conversations. Or not templar conversations that take place inside the safe house, because it's not going to stay a safe house for long if they can't even trust each other, is it?
"Thank you for bringing this to me," he says, giving Elena a little squeeze on the shoulder.
"We're going to help mom and Shay get him back," Elena says. "Aren't we?"
He gives her a look that's all flint and hard edges. Coming from anyone else (although Elena can't quite imagine a look like this coming from anyone but Altair) it might have scared Elena. She's not scared now, she's actually calm. Because in that look, she sees the absolute certainty that the people that took Haytham are going to give him back. "Of course we will,” he says.