Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Richy was so happy to be away from the Mann's—it was confusing at times but he was glad too that he was being called by the right name. He'd been Cody Mann with them. Now, he was Richard Stonehouse.

He hadn't ever realized that he'd been kidnapped by them until last year. Richy had been searching for some food or something that he could steal so he could get him something to eat when he ran across the article in an old newspaper. The idiots, that he knew was true to this day, had actually written at the bottom, ‘We did this.'

Thinking even then that he wasn't like them, but that never stopped them from carting him around to all the places, and when they got into trouble, he was there to plead for someone to take care of him. He hated that as well. A couple of weeks ago, he'd been recused by Mr. J, Jeremiah Tate, when his kidnappers had come to the place he'd been hiding in the school and tried to take him again. Lucky for everyone around, Mr. J had been able to shift into his other half and had saved him from being hurt again. He'd been staying with the man and his family ever since. He found Grandpa J, Jeremiah's dad, in the kitchen when he went for something to snack on.

"Mr. J said that he'd be coming to get me after the people left to go to their house. Do you know if they showed up or not?" He really liked the women of this family, but he loved Grandpa Joseph, Mr. J's dad, the most. He'd already taken to telling people that he was his grandson, and that suited him just fine. Richy had been staying at Mr. J's house since the arrest, and Grandpa J was there every day when he was ready to go out and about.

"Well, now, I do know the answer to that query, young man. They showed up about an hour ago. Jeremiah is showing them around and telling them they can use the company card to fill out their rooms. Gonna be right nice having a father-daughter team in the school, don't you think?" Richy is what he went by now told the older man that he didn't care if they were elephants so long as they were going to keep him safe. "Elephants, huh? No matter, I believe they will. You know that my boy, he carries a gun while he's at school now. Got some special permission to do so as the principal. Some scary stuff going on around the school and he didn't want anyone to get hurt anymore. It's been a bad year for the elementary school around here."

He'd heard about it all since running away and nearly getting caught. It had been a terrible few months around here. And he was glad that most of it was taken care of. He didn't want to end up having to run again. It was wearing on a kid to be on the lookout for not just his next meal but not being hurt was even better.

The two of them walked to the school. It was all that far, not really, and the views were surely pretty with the trees turning and people being so friendly to him no matter where he was going. Saying hi to the six new bus drivers, he was able to get aboard one of them and have a look around. Not that he was going to be riding a bus, he lived too close to the school for that to happen. He would be able to hitch a ride from Mr. J if they didn't find any of his members of the family who would take him in. So far, everyone wasn't around anymore. He hoped that they'd find nobody because living with Mr. J had been the most stable and friendly place he'd ever been in. Having clean clothing that fit as well as food in his belly all the time helped a great deal as well.

By the time they were at the school, he was sure that he'd die of thirst. He'd been having trouble with drinking enough fluids without getting sick. The doctor that he'd been taken to see said that he was severely dehydrated and needed to have a drink on him drinking it at all times. Or he'd end up in the hospital. He didn't want that, so he tried to remember to have a drink all the time. Mr. J had one in his hand for him as soon as they entered the school building.

"Slow down, Richy. There are more bottles in my office. Just don't drink it down too fast, or it'll come back up." He asked him if there were always a lot of rules for just drinking some water. "Not usually, but you've been without for too long, so it's affecting you hard. Did you meet the new teachers?"

"No. Do I need to?" Mr. J told him it was the polite thing to do. "I guess so, but I'm no dummy who has to repeat that grade, am I? I didn't go to school much with them, we were forever moving around but you said that I had to take a test and I did it. I'm worried, Mr. J. I don't want to be in the little kids' rooms. They're nice and all but I don't want to be made fun of."

"I got your back, Richy. Don't worry about that. We should get your test scores in the morning or even later tonight. We'll look it over together and see what your best options are. Okay?" Richy nodded, thinking once again that the test wasn't all that difficult so long as you read it all the way through first. Just as Mr. J had told him to do. "All right. I'm going to go and properly meet the Turners. I've met the man, but his daughter was dragged down the hall by Caitlynn and the other women before I got a chance to talk to her."

"Are you thinking that she's your mate, Mr. J? I'm betting if she is, there isn't any way that she'd going to want to let you keep me around." He told Richy that they were a team on this, and she'd not take one without the other. "Yes, but she'll be the one lovey-dovey at you all the time. I'm just a pest who asks a lot of questions." They both laughed, but he was serious about this. He'd been tossed aside enough for several lifetimes for a nine-year-old.

The room with his name on it was the fifth grade. While he knew that when he was on the run, he'd not had much chance in the way of studying, but he did read everything that he could get his hands on. The people that had taken him never read and he hadn't ever been sure that they knew how. Just to get to read an entire book now was the best thing that he'd gotten from all this.

"Ms. Lexy Turner?" She turned toward them and fell backward when the ladder she'd been standing on slipped. Barely catching her, nearly dropping her when she scrambled away from Mr. J, Richy told her that she was safe. Mr. J just kept holding her even after she told him three times to let her down. She was fine. Finally he did and just looked at him like he wasn't sure what had just happened. When she was steady on her feet, she and Mr. J seemed to stand really close to each other like he'd never seen a person of the opposite sex before. Then it hit him.

"Ah, crapola. She is your mate, isn't she?" They both turned to him, looking at him oddly. "You two are going to be a great couple, and I know that I'll be moving on soon, I guess."

"No." Mr. J cleared his throat, having sounded like a little girl had startled Richy. "What I mean is, no, we're not mates. Right?" Mr. J looked at Ms. T, and she nodded, then shook her head. "There is nothing to suggest that we're mates, Richy. Just that she's…she's a very beautiful woman, and I was just startled by that."

"Thank you." Ms. L's face turned a pinkish color, and he hid a smile. She was cute, he supposed she'd be called because she was embarrassed about being a pretty woman. Who knew about the heads of females. He certainly didn't.

A large man came into the room with them, and he hid behind Mr. J. The man looked deranged a little, and his face was covered in blue paint. They'd only been here an hour, he thought. How could he have gotten so messy in a little time?

"What's the meaning of this? Mr. Tate, I won't have you manhandling my daughter. Nor will I tell you again to let her go. Now, see here. You keep holding onto her like that I'm—" Ms. Lexy told her dad the news about how lovely she had been to Mr. Jeremiah. That she was his employee, nothing more. "Employee, you say? Well, of course, he is. He's mine, too. You're a wolf, right?" Mr. J said that he was. "Well, Lexy and I are elephants. White ones, as a matter of fact.

Richy couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. They were all staring at him again, but he just couldn't contain himself enough from laughing. He did manage to say that he'd been talking to Grandpa J earlier and about how he didn't care what they were so long as he was taken care of. Grandpa J had to finish the story as he was still trying his best to not giggle every time he thought of elephants.

When Ms. L backed into the corner, she talked like she was just emptying her head—like she was babbling, that was the word. That other woman, the one that had kidnapped him, talked like that too. But she did it because she needed a fix or something. He knew that meant drugs, but he wasn't sure that Ms. L was taking them. She just looked nervous.

"Hey, why don't we get some dinner together?" Richy asked Mr. J if the Turners were going with them. "Of course. They'll be teaching here, and it would be good for them to get to know us a little better. Don't you think?"

"Mr. J, I don't think she has all her marbles," he whispered to his new friend. "Just listen to her talking a mile a minute." She stopped talking then and shut her mouth hard. He just stared at her for several minutes before speaking again. "Are you big enough to squash me, ma'am? I don't want to be mashed up if you'd not mind it."

"I don't believe that I'd squash a child, no. But if you're going to be someone who talks about me, then you'd better get it right. And ask me first before saying something like that." He told her that he was powerful sorry, but he'd not met so many shifters in his life until this week. "Well then, we'll have to have some lessons on what to say when you meet a stranger. That should have been taught to you when you were just a child. But I'm to understand that you didn't have a good upbringing. How about you and I work on that together?"

He was all right with that and told her so. When they were leaving the school, she asked him if he knew any of the other children in town. He shook his head before answering her.

"I was taken as a baby, and I don't have any parents. They killed my real ones when they took me. I don't remember that, of course, but I read about it later." He told her how he'd found the big paste book with pictures in it that had been covered in the Manns being not arrested for things they'd done. "My last name is Richard Stonehouse the Forth. Everybody just calls me Richy. I've been staying with Mr. J since I got away."

The two of them sat in the back seat while her dad and Mr. J driving his car were in the front. As the day grew shorter, the nights were coming faster. He leaned back on the large seat and closed his eyes. It had been a long time since he'd felt secure enough to sleep when he was tired and he was taking advantage of it whenever the mood struck him. He was sleeping better at night, too, since living with Mr. J. Not every night, not yet. But he knew that it would be something that he could look forward to as he got more comfortable.

If she said anything to him after that, he didn't remember it. Exhaustion was keeping him on his toes all the time so that he didn't fall asleep falling into his cereal. He almost did that once, and that was enough for him to pay better attention. He also thought that he didn't have to be worried about being beaten for something that he'd not done and then having his meals taken from him.

When he was shaken awake, it was Mr. J who caught his fist before he hurt the woman who was seated next to him. It also took him a little bit longer to remember that people weren't out to get him all the time. Mr. J had been hit a time or two when he'd fallen asleep on the couch watching television with him, and he'd felt powerful bad about it. He told Ms. L that he was sorry, too.

"No need for that. I understand that you've had a rough life. And please call me Lexy and my dad Larry when we're not at school. I want us to be friends." He asked her if she wanted to be his friend to butter up to Mr. J. "You should really think before you speak, Richy. Your saying whatever you wish can and has hurt my feelings. I don't know if Mr. J or whatever it is that you call him is a part of my life, but then I've never been your friend before and perhaps it's better than I think. You need to think about what you're saying before you say it and think would this hurt my feelings if someone were to say it to me. All right?"

"I want to be a better talker. I remember the other people, the Manns. They said the f-word every other time they spoke. Called people that, too. But Mr. J is different and a nice man. He's a looker too. I didn't think that, but some of the women in town want to get on his good side because he has money, too." Lexy told him that she didn't care if he was going to be around other women. "Yeah? I can see that. But you're a big elephant so that will keep you from having to share him. That is if that's what you want to do with him. I'd recommend him to someone to date. He's clean and stuff." He laughed when she smiled at him.

They were getting out of the car when he realized where they were. A nice buffet, and if he didn't miss his bet, he'd say it was Chinese food. His all-time favorite when he could find it in the trash. As far as he was concerned, he could never eat a pizza ever again. That was mostly what he found to have as a meal when he was on the run. Although he'd never had one to be ordered just for him. So maybe…well, he'd try it but wouldn't take too big of a bite at first.

They were seated right away and given napkins and silverware. The first thing that he wanted was some hot sour soup. That was usually nasty by the time he got to it, and he wanted to see if it was tasty when it was fresh. He hoped so. He wanted to be able to come back here sometime and throwing up soup would be in bad taste. Richy thought it was wonderful and ate the entire bowlful before getting into the rest of the foods that had been laid out.

~*~

Jeremiah didn't get to talk to Lexy all that much. Richy, usually a quiet kid was going over all the details of his life since he'd been living with him was taking up every bit of her time. But he was able to get some information about her when her dad spoke to him.

After dinner, which was delicious, the four of them loaded back up in his car and drove to the mall in Columbus. There wasn't much going on in the place, but they were headed to the office supply store anyway. They, Lexy and Larry, had a credit card that they were to use, and he was happy to see that they knew just what they wanted. He even told them that they could have his schoolroom things if they wanted them.

"So long as they're not obvious that they'd been in your room." Jeremiah asked her why that would be. "I don't want them thinking that you're going to just pop in and take over because they know that it's all your things. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but Dad and I are going to be filling some large shoes, and I don't want to have to explain to them that it's my room. Understand?"

"I do, as a matter of fact. Then I'd like to suggest too that the two of you overlap some of the things that I have. That way, they'll think that you and him aren't sharing what I have. That's a good point." She thanked him.

Jeremiah felt relaxed for a change. It had been his goal to retire in a few years and find something to do in the family foundation. But with him taking the rest of the term as principal, the last one had been an older man who just couldn't take it anymore after the Holt incident. They had, he and his wife, slipped out in the middle of the night with the help of the foundation. It was the best way for them not to be blamed for the shooting death of a teacher and student.

After loading up his car the best that he could, he stepped back when Lexy said that she had it. Not only did she get everything loaded in the trunk of his car, but there was room left over to hit up one more spot. He would never play tetras with her. She was just too good at it.

Laughing and thinking about how organized she was, he wondered what she'd think about his being a principal. Right now, it reminded him of a war zone trying to get things organized in his life.

Jeremiah was usually honest and harsh with himself when he was in the mood. And with his honesty came the idea that he wasn't too thrilled that Lexy wasn't his mate. He thought her to be beautiful and well-spoken, and she had a twinkle in her eye that made him want to tease her enough to have it sparkle again.

"What makes you think she's not your mate?" He stared at his brother Joel like he wasn't speaking English. "Jeremiah? Are you in there? What makes you think that Lexy isn't your mate? Did you try shifting? If you have your clothing back on when you shift, that'll tell you that she is. Also, do you want to jump her bones all the time? That's the best—"

"Will you knock it off?" They both laughed. "I caught her when she was falling off the ladder, and she told Richy that I wasn't. I don't remember having any feelings like I wanted her. It really was so quick. But she is very beautiful, isn't she?"

"Yes, I guess so." Laughing again when Joel told him that his wife was so much more beautiful had them laughing all the harder. "You should just go into your apartment, I'd not recommend the bathroom and shift. If you're dressed when you come back, then that's a sign."

"And what will I do if she's not my mate? Stand around naked waiting on one of you guys to—if you remember it recently, I've done that already. You let me sit naked in my classroom for an hour without getting me something to wear." And they'd only given him a towel to cover himself up. "I'll just let her tell me if we're mates or not. I like that idea better."

After dropping off all the things they'd picked up for their rooms, his family stayed to help them get it all organized and put on the shelves. The things that he'd had in his room had been picked through. It showed him how behind he was in things when some of the things were dated ten years ago. He should have kept up on that.

After they were all finished up, he yawned for the fifth time already. He was happy when his dad and Joel said that they'd make sure that Lexy and her dad got to the place they were staying. If they decided that they wanted to continue to work here, they'd have to find better arrangements. Staying at the bed and breakfast for an entire term would be too expensive.

Taking Richy up to his room when he got back to his apartment, he laid the little boy on the bed. He'd filled out a great deal since he'd been here, and Jeremiah was happy about that. Waking him up enough so that he could get on some jammies and brush his teeth, Jeremiah listened to him as he went on and on about how much he loved his night. And the food. He remembered how hungry he seemed to be all the time when he'd been about his age.

Going to his office, Jeremiah pulled up some of the things that he'd been working on. Before he knew it, not only was his computer closed down, but his printer had gone to sleep as well. Getting up, he decided to hit the gym, the one in the complex, but got sidetracked in making sure to save any work he might have done while seemingly sleeping on the job. He caught a house for sale that he'd not seen before.

Bringing up the pictures of the house, he was amazed that he'd never heard anyone talk about the place. Several years ago, about ten, he thought Jeremiah remembered the place being built. It had gone up slowly, he'd thought at the time but later found out that the house had a great many special features in it. He'd never been able to see what they'd been, but that's what the rumor was going around town. Then, the people left town while the construction was still going on, and they'd, as far as he knew, had never returned.

Setting up an appointment to see the house, just to see it, he told himself. He was thrilled that he'd be able to spend the day at the house on Sunday as it was going to be an open house setting. Reading the specs on the house, he wasn't the least bit surprised to find out that the kitchen was out of date as were the grounds were a mess. It didn't say that, of course but he could see the pictures and knew that it would take some work to get it back to the way he always thought that it should have been.

By the time he'd made breakfast for himself and Richy, they were out the door in plenty of time for them to wander around the grounds before they were set to go inside. Nearly giddy with excitement, Richy told him that he'd seen the pool from the driveway and was very excited to learn how to swim in the coming spring. The two of them had been making plans like that for the weeks he'd been at his home. He didn't want anything to mess with the plans as much as Richy didn't.

The Turners were there when they came back from the back of the house. It was a haven for things like spiders and ticks, so he didn't recommend the Turners traveling there. Lexy called her dad and him a wimp and went into the house.

"I've been meaning to get you alone, young man. The other day, you were asked if she was your mate. I know that Lexy said no, that you weren't, but I don't know that she took that question very seriously. She's been told before that she was someone's mate, and it turned out…well, badly for the other person. It seemed he wanted…other things from her other than a serious relationship." He laughed a little. "I actually called a couple of my friends back home to find out what they can remember—you'd think that was funny with us being elephants, wouldn't you? I don't remember what it was like to be mates. It's been so long. LeAnn and I didn't have what one would call a normal relationship when we first met, other than having Lexy. As an elephant, we don't have to be mates to have children. I think it's because of our size and the way a newborn, especially if both parents are elephants could be a long gestation period. That much I did remember being told. However…when I think back on it, I think we were both just lonely and bored, and that's how we ended up staying together for as long as we did."

"Are you saying that we could still be mates?" He shrugged and told him that he honestly wasn't sure how to tell. "There is a theory on how I know if I'm mated to Lexy. I can shift with my clothing coming back on me when I shift back. I've been meaning to ask my brothers about it, but…well, I just didn't get around to it."

The two of them entered the house. He could hear Richy talking to someone, but he couldn't tell if it was Lexy or not. When she laughed, however, he knew who she was right away. It matched her well, the sound of glasses being played in concert. Given free rein of the home, he made his way to the kitchen. That was a place that he loved more than any other room in the home. His domain.

The kitchen was outdated. Not only did it have older appliances but it was just simply out of date. Hardly any cabinets to speak of. The pantry was clear across the room from the stove and fridge. When Lexy joined him in the room, the two of them went over the things that they'd change. Apparently, she loved to cook as well. But she loved baking more.

"No one baked at our house. I mean, someone would pick up something like a frozen pizza, and we'd have it, but not like any cakes or cookies. Stuff a kid loves." He said that his mom couldn't cook, couldn't bake, nor could she make a cup of tea if her life depended on it. They both laughed and he told her the story about his mom making cookies for Joel for school. He still got a big laugh out of hearing that story.

"Your dad said that we should think about trying a different way to see if we're mates. I'd not mind that so much if you wouldn't." Lexy asked him what he'd do. "Shift. Not here, but someplace where I have clothing so that when I shift back, the way it works is that I'm fully dressed. In the same kind of clothing."

"I don't understand. Why wouldn't you have any clothing?" He explained to her about how if he were to shift in a hurry, his clothing would be shredded. "Oh. I guess…yes, I can see that. Like you did when Richy needed you to save him. All right. What's stopping you? Wait, you'd need clothing if it didn't work. See? I'm paying attention. I would, more than anything, like to know if you are my mate or not. I have no deep-seated need to have a mate or husband, whatever you call it, but I can see where one would come in handy." He laughed with her and was really enjoying himself as they walked through the house making notes.

"What do you think of this house? I mean, I don't want to move into it, find out that we're mates and you hate the place." She told him that she was going to make an offer on it if he didn't. "Okay. I'm going to call my brother, Joel. He's out and about today. Have him bring me something to wear then I'll go into the master bedroom and see if I can redress when I come back. How about that?"

Her grin was a look that he could get used to seeing. She seemed to be really happy that he was willing to do this. After contacting his brother, he and his dad showed up at the house, too. While Lexy was showing the two of them around, he slipped into the master bedroom and gave himself a good talking-to. Christ, he was going to be so disappointed if he couldn't get his clothing back when he became a man again.