fandom_muses: Topic 32 - Letter

From a letter buried in a drawer of Alva's desk, shuffled in with miscellaneous paperwork...

Paul,

I’m well aware of the fact that the tensions between you and I have never truly ceased, not since the incident with Chad Goodwell. Were it not for the unfortunate situation with Matty, I wonder if either one of us would have ever been willing to step back from the line we’d each drawn in the sand as far as sharing information.

I know you still remain unconvinced as to my motives, Paul, but there’s something you must understand: until I’d actually met you, you were nothing but a puzzle piece to me. You were another fragment of the hemography enigma I’d yet to completely unravel, a stepping stone on the way to the ultimate answer that I was...that I *am* pursuing.

Then I found out you existed, and you became not a puzzle piece, but an enigma all your own. Then I met you...and you became a man. It was when I got to know you a bit that you became a human being...I’ll be the first to confess, I have a habit of intellectualizing a great deal of things in my life, a fact you’ve become more than a little aware of in the time we’ve worked together, I’m sure. However, your friend Father Calero changed a great deal of that when he brought Deborah Olson’s case to our attention.

For a great deal of my life, all I’ve had is my work. You and Evelyn, you have your own reasons for coming here, and your own reasons for staying here, working for me...I need you to know that I had reasons for bringing you here, but my reasons for keeping you here...they stopped being about the work a long time ago.

I may be a stubborn, rather self-absorbed man, Paul, but I’m not a fool. I know a valued friend when I see one, and that is what you are...not a human being, but a *friend.* And everything I have ever done, including withholding the truth, has been out of nothing less than an honest and sincere desire to help and protect you.

Fondest regards,
Alva

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: Miracles
Words: 355