Post Librarians 4.06 "…and the Grave of Time." A family dinner turns to serious conversation.

L ~ L ~ L

Eliot Spencer set the last knife at the last place setting on his table. Three place settings tonight, as it was the first Friday of every month, assuming neither he nor his twin, Jake Stone, nor his many-times-great-grandfather, currently known as Jenkins, was working on a case.

They were family, so there was no real need to go to a lot of trouble - or so Jake and Jenkins both said - but Eliot found he liked setting a proper table for them, even if dinner was only the takeout Jake sometimes brought.

Tonight wasn't a takeout night, though. Tonight was filet mignon to mark the anniversary of his and Jake's reunion, and the proper table setting added to the celebration.

Eliot could admit it was a celebration, that he was glad he and Jake found each other again. He'd never regret leaving home to join the Army when he did. He'd always regret staying distant from his twin as long as he had.

A knock at his door made him grin. Not too distant at the moment.

He turned as the door opened, and his smile dropped as he saw the somber face of his twin and neutral face of his ancestor.

"Somebody die?" he asked.

"Not yet," Jake answered, his tone as dark as his expression.

"And likely not for many years yet," Jenkins added. "Certainly not tonight, unless Mr. Spencer's cooking has suddenly taken an unexpected turn toward the deadly."

Eliot glanced from one to the other. "Y'gonna fill me in, or do I have to guess?"

"Of course we'll tell you," Jenkins said, adding before Jake could respond, "but serious talk is for after the meal, and preferably over an excellent brandy."

"I guess that depends," Eliot said, "on whether or not you brought an excellent brandy."

"A 1789 Courvoisier & Curlier." Jenkins produced a bottle from beneath the coat draped over his arm. "If it is as good as the last time I had it, it is most excellent indeed."

"Lookin' forward to it." Eliot took the older man's coat and hung it on the coat rack inside the door to his apartment. "Have a seat. Dinner's about ready."

L ~ L ~ L

Later, after steak and red velvet cake for dessert, Eliot sat forward. Both Jake and Jenkins had been more quiet than usual during dinner, even if they had shared stories of their recent adventures - and really, a time-traveling Librarian from 1888? Eliot wasn't certain whether to be glad or sorry that he hadn't met that Librarian - and now Eliot wanted answers.

"So what's got you all mopey, Jake?"

"I'm not moping," his twin shot back.

"Really?" Eliot countered. "That's what Maggie called it."

"Maggie?" Jake frowned at him.

"She called earlier, said you'd been mopey all week. Asked if I had any idea what's wrong."

"There is nothing wrong," Jenkins said firmly. "It's … a change, yes, but not a wrong."

"Depends on how you look at it," Jake said.

"Look at what?" Eliot demanded. "Maybe this conversation calls for beer, not brandy."

"No," Jenkins said. "I brought the brandy to share. If you'll show me where the glasses are, I'll pour while Mr. Stone begins the tale."

"Y'could use our given names," Eliot reminded him for the dozenth time. "Glasses are in the cabinet left of the stove."

"I'll try to remember," Jenkins said. "But formality is a hard habit to break. Mr. Stone, if you will."

Eliot focused his attention on his twin, who snorted and shook his head. "Where do I even start?"

"Begin at the beginning," Eliot quipped. "Go on to the end, and then stop."

Jake glared at him. "Thank you, Lewis Carroll."

"You might start when we realized Colonel Baird was gone," Jenkins suggested.

Jake considered that suggestion, then nodded, and Eliot found himself listening to the tale of a returned immortal Guardian, and the immortal enemy she'd fallen to in combat, and …

…and Jenkins - Galahad, purest knight who ever lived - sacrificing his immortality to save her.

"So no one's dying yet," Jake concluded. "But it's only a matter of time."

"As it is for you, and Mr. Spencer, and everyone else." Jenkins brought snifters to the table, offered one to Eliot, one to Jake, and then sat with a third, his expression reverent.

Eliot inhaled the aroma of the brandy - earthy and syrupy sweet - before taking the tiniest of sips and letting the liquid roll over his tongue and settle around his taste buds. This was to be savored, not least because of its age and rarity, but also because it was simply exquisite.

"1789," Jenkins murmured. "The French Revolution."

Eliot let the last of his sip of brandy slide down his throat before saying, "Washington becomes the first President of the United States."

"Lavoisier wrote his Elementary Treatise of Chemistry," Jake added.

"The mutiny on the Bounty," Eliot said, then grinned at his twin. "What? It was a great movie."

Jake grinned and shook his head. "The first Thanksgiving."

"And this most excellent brandy. All in all, not the best of years nor the worst of years." Jenkins' tone carried only reflection, Eliot thought, no regrets.

"So." Eliot set his brandy snifter on the table, allowing the flavor of his first sip to evaporate before he took another. "What are you going to do with your life, now that you're as mortal as the rest of us?"

For the first time since Eliot had met him, Jenkins looked lost. "I don't know."

"Tell me you're not leaving the Library," Jake said. "Not after Flynn -"

His twin's voice broke, and Eliot could only clap a hand on Jake's shoulder. He'd never particularly liked nor respected Flynn Carsen, but Jake had, and Flynn's departure hurt Jake as much as Jenkins' - Galahad's - now-inevitable death would.

"I've no intention of abandoning my duty while I am still capable of performing it," Jenkins retorted like that soldier, the warrior, he was. Eliot knew he wasn't imaging the relief in his twin's expression.

Jenkins' own expression turned thoughtful. "Yet I find myself reflecting on Nicole Noone's words, too - that for better or for worse, she'd been tied to the Library a very long time."

"No reason you can't take a vacation from the Library," Eliot observed. "All soldiers get leave, and from what you've said, you haven't taken any in a while."

"No," Jenkins agreed. "I haven't. And perhaps that's clouded my judgment - perhaps that's made me less willing to consider new things, or, perhaps, to see old things with new eyes."

"That's why you wouldn't consider that Nicole might be telling the truth," Jake said slowly, as though testing the idea as he spoke it.

"Among other things," Jenkins agreed, and something in his tone suggested that those other things were best left alone for now.

Jake caught the implication, too, because he fell silent. Before the silence could grow uncomfortable, Eliot met Jenkins' eyes.

"More reason for you to take some downtime. Nothing changes the way you look at things more than a change of scenery."

"Perhaps you're right." Jenkins took another sip of his brandy, and Jake and Eliot in turn followed suit.

When the last of that sip had faded, Jenkins spoke again. "Perhaps I'll visit some places I used to know, see how they've changed, and consider whether they've changed or, perhaps, I have."

"Likely both," Jake said, and Eliot nodded his agreement. After a moment, Jake spoke again, his voice tentative. "Mind some company?"

"Pardon?" Jenkins said.

Jake shrugged, and it was only Eliot's familiarity with his twin let him see the tentative nature of the movement and his expression with it.

"I figure a lot of the places you want to go are on my bucket list," Jake said. "And it would be cool to see them through your eyes, too."

Jenkins looked interested, but reluctant, so Eliot said, "Can't argue with that. Mind if I tag along, too?"

Where Jenkins looked … surprised, as though the thought that someone might want to accompany him had never occurred to him, Jake blinked as though he'd been slapped. "You can get time off from whatever you do?"

"I can if you can," Eliot told him, and was rewarded with a roll of his twin's eyes. Then he looked at the older man once again. "How about it, Jenkins? Road trip?"

After a long moment, Jenkins nodded. "Road trip."