Who: Hamlin and Garage
Where: Hamlin's house
When: Sunday night
What: Garage confronts Hamlin

The knocking on his front door was low and insistent, as if the knocker didn't want anyone to know that they were coming. Hamlin was only a little bit thankful that Ganymede had decided to go home early in the evening, instead of spending the night as she had been doing frequently of late. His heart jumped when the idea that it could be Samra occurred to him. It was a strangely conflicted thought, torn between the joy at her possible arrival and the awful feeling that she was still married and anything they might do would destroy that.

As he opened the door his breath caught in his throat. He looked down to his feet, as if to make sure that he was awake and standing at his open door. Hamlin looked up at Garage Chance, more than a little concerned.

"Look, don't say anything," Garage said before Hamlin could utter a word. There was a crazy look in his eyes, an edge in his tone that demanded the other mage's full attention. "Just don't say a word until I've figure out what I need to say."

Hamlin backed up a step and nodded, his mouth firmly shut. He didn't want to aggravate the husband of the woman he loved.

Garage sighed, scratched his head. "I don't know what it is that I'm going to do to fuck this up, but I don't want it to end up that way."

Hamlin wanted to ask what way, but he merely looked on quietly. There were a thousand thoughts going on in his head, not the least of which was wondering what Samra might have told him to have him reacting so erratically. He wasn't sure if he should let him in while the man was in this state of mind.

Garage didn't allow him a say in the matter as he brushed past the man he once called a friend. "I don't get it," he said as he paced the floor of the entryway. "I don't get why I'm going to be the one to fuck this up when clearly you've been aiming for this end result all along."

There was no doubt now what Garage was talking about, but Hamlin was still confused. He crossed his arms over his chest watching the angry pacing from a careful distance.

"What did you say to her?" he asked, suddenly rounding on Hamlin with all the anger hanging around him rushing forward, almost palpable.

The order to remain silent had been lifted by the question, but Hamlin wouldn't have the chance to ask any of his own questions. At least not for the moment. "I told her the truth," he answered as calmly as he could manage under the circumstances.

"I knew this would happen!" Garage yelled, his hands rising up in a frustrated flail. "I knew you would try and steal her away. I knew you loved her and I married her anyway. Why? Because I'm an idiot and I got sucked in. I genuinely believed she loved me more than she loved you."

"She did," Hamlin interjected, his own frustrations seeping through. "She still does."

"How do you know?"

"Because she told me." Hamlin scratched at his forehead as if the clear answer were right below the surface. "If she didn't your thread would have broken already." He walked from the room, to sit glumly at the kitchen table, conflicted by his emotions. He had always liked Garage Wells, the peculiar quiet and edgy character he could prove to be. His only complaint with the man was that he had married his best friend and the woman he was slowly falling in love with. Head in his hands he heard the drag of a chair and the distinct plop of a body filling it.

"I hate you," Garage said, and his tone suggested that he really hated himself more than Hamlin.

"Join the club," Hamlin said. "Everyone but Ganymede hates me lately."

Garage snorted. "As if anyone could hate the wonderful Hamlin Graves. You're lucky you're related to the one that did all the hard work you seem to benefit from."

This wasn't the first time Hamlin had heard such scoffing at the expense of his lie. He ignored it, as he always did. To rise to the occasion would only increase the chances that someone would inquire into it further and find out the truth. "What did you mean when you said you were going to fuck it up?" he asked, deferring the conversation from himself and bringing it back to matter at hand.

Garage laughed, a cold, hard sound. "I have no idea. It's what the cards say. She'll be true to the last and I'll be the one to break the marriage thread."

Hamlin regarded his old friend with an analytical eye, his emotions detached and far from the very real situation sitting in his kitchen. "I'm curious how you knew I loved her before I did," he said then, changing tact for the second time this evening.

His friend, who didn't want to be considered a friend anymore shook his head. "That was in the cards too Hamlin." He sighed and shook his head, looking anywhere in the kitchen except for its other occupant. "I didn't see the end of the marriage, but I wasn't looking for it when I read them. Now that I'm looking it's all I can see."

"I'm sorry," Hamlin offered weakly. "I didn't think it would come to this. I didn't think she'd have to chose between us."

Another laugh, this time not as cold. "She always had to chose. She almost didn't marry me, but it wasn't because of you," he added, just to clarify. "She was afraid of the iron, which she should be. Not that I'd use it against her, but if anyone else knew she was fae they'd use it on her. I know that why she never told me her fae name. I suppose you know it."

Hamlin bit his lip. He did know, had been there when it was given to her. That felt like another lifetime when he was still an old man with arthritis, living in a town named after him. "She didn't tell me," Hamlin said quietly. "I found out another way. And not by looking," he added quickly. "I wouldn't know it if I weren't trusted."

"Oh I know you're trusted," Garage said pointedly, more sour than he had perhaps intended. "You're trusted more than anyone else in her life because you've been friends forever." In fact, they'd been friends longer than Garage properly knew.

His head hung low for a moment and he eyed the table cloth. Now it was his turn to look at everything except the other person in the room. "I didn't realize that I was falling for her and damned me for not being able to keep it to myself. I'm sorry Garage, really, truly sorry. I didn't mean to fall in love with your wife."

"Don't sweat it," Garage replied snappily. "It's not like she's going to leave me for you."

Hamlin looked up then, reached across the table and laid his hand over Garage's arm. The only thing they had in common anymore was the woman they both loved.

"Just do me a favor and take care of her once I'm out of the picture," he said, pulling away from Hamlin's delicate touch and pushing his chair back hastily. He was halfway to the door before Hamlin mustered the will to speak.

"I..." Hamlin began, but Garage turned around and stifled him with a look.

"I know it's going to happen and when it does you'll be the only person she has to take care of her. I know you'll do it anyway, but I feel better knowing I asked." He turned back around, tears in his eyes. He wasn't sure he could cry about this anymore and took a steadying breath before he stepped forward. It was breaking his heart to admit that his marriage was going to end and that Samra was going to end up in the arms of this man that he had once considered a very good friend, despite knowing where his feelings lay.

Hamlin watched Garage go wordlessly, sat defeated at his kitchen table as the night drew on and his mind scrambled for some kind of footing in this strange new territory. His friendship with Garage was probably over and he didn't have time to mourn it before the strange happiness filled him. Sooner than later he'd be able to have Samra and it wouldn't cost her dearly to be with him. Not so costly because Garage would be the one to break the thread, not so dearly because she would surely mourn the loss of her marriage.