Cal Chandler

Cal has been growing more and more restless since his encounter with Sherlock the other day. It's crept up on him a little at a time, something he can't shut out no matter how much he smokes.

("He promised."
"And do you believe him?")

Mother said he can't hide in his room forever.

("Reality hasn't got a whole lot going for it right now."
"But it is the only game in town.")

He hates Sherlock for a little while, for changing him just enough to make Mother right about that.

I just have to deal with it.

He emerges, eventually, for a few minutes a time here and there. Getting a snack, using the bathroom in the other wing. Going upstairs to his bedroom to get something. Making himself move around the house again, and face up to the fact that his room is not, in reality, any safer.

(When a person becomes a vampire, a demon takes up residence within the body. Something else to hate Sherlock for: the fact that he knows that at all.)

(But words on a screen isn't proof. Maybe Sherlock got that wrong.)

Cal doesn't run into his father on any of those little journeys. Cal can come to me when he's ready, he'd said. You know how he is, Violet, he always needs time. That promise is one he seems to be keeping; for a little while, maybe a day or so, it allows Cal to believe that this impossible equilibrium can hold. Maybe he has been overreacting. Maybe it's not as bad as it seems.

Then, for the first time since that surreal late-night family conference, he does see his father. Reed Chandler is stepping out of Uncle Grahame's study. He looks up as he does so, eyes meeting Cal's like he already knew Cal was there. Cal freezes, waiting, but his father just smiles down the hall at him -

- and just before he turns to walk in the other direction, away from Cal, he reaches up to wipe something away from the corner of his mouth.

1: in which Sherlock and Tony meet Cal somewhere unexpected
2: in which Cal meets Sherlock somewhere less unexpected, and shenanigans ensue
3: in which Sherlock stalks Peter Beardsley for perfectly logical reasons

4: in which Cal seeks independence
5: in which Sherlock pays Cal a visit

6: in which Obadiah Stane
7: in which Cal talks to Tony
8: in which Tony talks to Sherlock

9: in which Sherlock has a chance encounter

10: in which pizza

11: in which politics (and creepy, so much creepy)
12: in which friendship
13: in which Jarvis

14: in which Sherlock breaks into Cal's house just once more
15: in which Cal visits the Stark household

16: in which it is Cal's birthday
     i: out of your skull
     ii: grumpy and drunk
     iii: your security sucks

17: in which it isn't
18: in which it worked for Howard Stark
19: in which is it any wonder?

20: in which phone calls
21: in which school
22: in which vampires

23: in which Cal is disillusioned
24: in which Reed is impatient and Cal is sleepless, until he isn't
25: in which Cal calls Sherlock

26: in which Sherlock goes looking
27: in which Cal confronts his late father and compares scars with Sherlock
28: in which Sherlock visits New York and Jarvis calls Peter

29: in which Cal visits Tony and Peter calls Sherlock
30: in which Cal spends the day Tonysitting
31: in which Sherlock receives a call

32: in which that cannot possibly have happened
33: in which Sherlock returns
34: in which Sherlock calls Peter

35: in which Cal thinks
36: in which Tony visits him
37: in which Sherlock frets

38: in which dinner
39: in which Cal talks to Sherlock
40: in which Tony makes a speech
     (40a: interlude)
     (40b: diversion)

41: in which pizza, for real this time
42: in which Cal and Tina are d'aww

(intermission)

43: in which Sherlock is a bit of a creep
44: in which Cal and Tina watch movies and Cal's life sucks
45: in which Gracie means well

46: in which don't stalk my girlfriend!

47: graduation
48: celebration

49: in which James again
50: in which colleges are applied to and parents are discussed

51: in which Tina has an unfortunate encounter
52: in which Princess Tina makes her debut

53: in which Tina cancels a date
     53a: something is wrong
     53b: across the hallowed ground
     53c: understanding starts sinking in

54: in which a rational decision has been made

55: in which being a werewolf isn't the end of the world

56: in which Bella Swan's first day at Sunnydale High is very interesting indeed

57: in which Bella gives her new lab partner a ride home, and the rest of her afternoon turns up more questions than answers

58: in which Sherlock has a crush on a girl

(multiversal collision)

59: in which James is not a very good liar

60: in which hypothetical quandaries aren't

61: in which conclusions are inconclusive