Chapter 7

"Hey Pops? Where are you?" Emma hadn't bothered knocking on the old man's front door since she was seven years old and had started living with him when things became too much at home. She followed the cursing that led her to the kitchen. "What's happened here?"

"That granddaughter." Emma knew just who he was talking about. Poppy, Pop's only grandchild, had been to see him. "She decided that I wasn't eating healthy enough. How the hell would she know? I've not seen her since Christmas, that was nearly eleven months ago, and she comes barging in here thinking to cook me…who uses flour to make oatmeal, I ask you. Or, for that matter, seventeen pots and bowls? No one, that's who. It's going to take me a week to get all this flour out of the walls and curtains. Someone should have beaten her more as a child."

"You don't mean that." He just glared at her. "Go sit down, and I'll finish your meal for you. Also, clean up. Why is there milk in the trash can?"

"She said that it was cow's milk. What the hell does that mean? Where did she think that stuff comes from? Heaven?" She told him what she knew. "Almond milk? Christ love a duck, Emma. How the hell does one go about milking an almond? They don't have teets, do they? How would that even be a thing?"

"I don't know, but I'll have to get you some more groceries. She must have gone through all your cabinets and tossed things out. It looks like she poured out your coffee, too. I'll make a list." He was still grumbling about the teets on almonds when she put a large bowl of oatmeal in front of him. When he asked where the honey was, she only had to point to the trash can to know. "I'm going to bar her from coming here again if she can't keep her hands and thoughts about my eating habits to herself. I've been around for nearly a hundred years, by golly and I never heard of such a thing as eating healthy that didn't cause indigestion. I need my oats every day, or I don't poop. I have to poop, or I die. Don't she know that?"

"Pops, there are times that I wish I didn't know as much about you as I do. Now eat, and I'll clean up the kitchen. You didn't let her in the pantry, did you?" He said that he didn't think she knew that he had one. "More than likely not."

It took Emma an hour to set the kitchen to rights and make a good grocery list. He'd insist on going with her, and she didn't mind that, but he wasn't going to be driving one of the carts around. She was sure that ninety percent of the bruises she had last time she left here were from his driving. And he purposely liked to accidentally run into people still dressed in what he assumed were their night clothes.

He never spoke to her while she was driving. Fearful of her losing her concentration and killing him, his fear since his wife had been killed in an accident by a distracted driver, she had plenty of time to think about the relationship that she had with his family. It wasn't a good one, not even close, but she never stepped foot in the big house again after turning sixteen.

Emma had been born without a name. No first, and no sir name. Her mother, or father, she didn't know, had dropped her off at the firehouse when she'd been a newborn. Not even having her cord fall off, she was estimated to be only a few hours old. Then, she was sent to stay with a family that worked in some indirect way for the system.

After three months, she was taken to the Gregory household. From the very beginning, she'd not been welcome. She'd been taken in so that the wife, who had already had Poppy, could get pregnant. Their thinking was, and it turned out to be not true, that when you adopted a child, meaning her, then you'd finally get pregnant.

For sixteen long years, Mrs. Gregory, Poppy's mother, and granddaughter to Pop, would tell her every week that she wasn't her daughter, but their plan was going to make sure she had another child. And as soon as she was with child—a term that she'd come to learn the hard way, Emma, what they had named her would go right back to the children's home and not be heard from again.

Every single week, she'd go to the doctor to be tested, and every week when she returned home, Emma would be punished—she didn't have all that much—by having her things taken from her, including supper for a week.

As soon as she was sixteen years old, long past the time that Mrs. Gregory could become with child, she was ordered to move in with Pop Marshall and his wife to become their servant.

It, of course, never was like that between them. And before long, she'd been adopted by Pop and his wife so that she'd be able to have a last name, he'd told her. No one in the big house knew about that. To them, she was still Emma, the girl who didn't belong.

"Whatcha thinking about, there, Emma? Some planning going on in that head of yours?" She told him that she was thinking of the things that she might need at her home while she was here. "I'm not paying for it. You know that, don't you? If'n I do, that daughter of mine will take away my ability to get around again."

"I know that, Pop. I have the money to pay for my things and yours if it comes to that." He said that he might have to owe her, as Poppy had taken the cash he had for her gasoline. "Figures. They have more money than sense, and they're stealing from the man who created their way of living."

After getting him set up in one of the electric carts with the promise of not hitting anything or anyone, they did their shopping. When she noticed him look longingly at something, like a new flavor of tea or some ice cream, she'd put it in her cart to give him when they got back to his place.

"How about when we get back to the house, we have us a nice cookout? The weather is gonna turn soon, and we might as well enjoy it while we can." She agreed with him and asked him what he wanted. "Can you do me that salmon that I love so much? The one with the rice with it? Oh, that's my favorite."

She ended up paying for the salmon as it was out of his budget the family had him on. He only gave in when she told him that she'd used the leftovers in her lunch for the following week. As soon as they were back to his home, she set him up to take his evening nap, put the groceries away that she'd gotten with his, and started dinner.

The two of them had become best of friends over the years. She literally didn't have anyone else and he pretended like he didn't either. The man had run a multibillion dollar company for nearly all his life right from the ground up, and when he'd turned eighty-five, he was retired by his son. He came into the kitchen just as she was setting up the table for the two of them.

"I got me an idea. I want you to tell me what you think about it. Now, don't be thinking with your heart, child, but your head." She told him that he owned all her heart, so she didn't know how that was going to work. "Ain't you the sweetest thing. All right. Then try to listen to me before you tell me no. I don't want to live here anymore." She was afraid that he meant to move into the house with his daughter and granddaughter, and she'd never be allowed to see him again.

"Where did you want to go? You know that I would follow you to the moon and back, don't you? You're my hero." He took her hand into his and held it to his face while he cried a little. "I'm sorry, Pop. I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't. I was just thinking hard about the fact that I don't have my blood family saying such things to me, and it broke my heart for a minute. But I won't be moving into the big house. I lived there with my Sally, and I don't think I'd last a day being there again. Besides, I think they'd kill me off. No, I want to look into some nursing homes for me. The kind that lets you get out and about sometimes. It would be nice too if I could cook me some meals, you know I need oatmeal every day and they won't be tossing out my things because they don't like it. Will you help me out with that?"

"You know that I'd do anything for you. But they're not going to like that. I believe you've said this before, they enjoy having you here where they can keep an eye on you. They still don't know that I come here every day, do they?" He told her that he'd not want them to know, that he'd already fixed it up with his own attorney. "All right. Good job in getting ahead of them. When do you want to go? I'm assuming that you have a place all picked out."

"Yes. I do at that. I'm going to stay at the Little Bit of Sunshine home, the one next to your place." She said they'd have a fit. "Honey, they don't know that you're still around, much less helping me out daily. I can't imagine what they think was supposed to happen to me with them leaving me all by my lonesome. Not even once a month do they come here and bother with me. Unless they need something from me. And we both know that they're not needing any advice from an old man like me."

"Are we leaving in the darkness of the night? Packing you up and leaving like you've not paid the rent or something." He laughed, just as she hoped that he would. "When do you want this to happen?"

"Tomorrow. I've been sending things out by my attorney for the last couple of weeks. You've no idea how terrified I've been thinking that you'd tell me that I'm better off here. With this move, I can see you every day without you having to travel here. I can go to your house too. I asked. You'd be my second in command if anything should need to be talked about. I mean my death, so's you know."

"I don't want to talk about that part, but yes, I know." They'd made a promise, the two of them. When it came time for either of them to die, they would go on with life as if nothing had happened. Like that was ever going to happen, she thought. But they had promised.

As she was piling his clothing in the back of the rented van, she thought of all the things that could go wrong with this. He could fall, break a hip, and she'd be in trouble again. But he was happy with this move, happier than he'd been in a while, and she was going to do it for him if it was the last thing he ever asked of her. Damn it, he deserved so much better than he had right now.

~*~

Sidney didn't know what was going on with the family, but he wasn't going to be suckered into anything right now. Not that they'd make him be a part of something when he didn't want to, but he had things going on, a purchase that he'd been waiting for since he'd been a young hatchling. With this buy, he was going to be able to expand things in the south end area just the way that he wanted it. No more malls. Not only that, but he was going to be putting small one and two-bedroom apartments that would be furnished for the homeless. He'd been without a home once when he'd been out on his own for a while, and it hadn't been anything that he wanted to happen to anyone. Not even some stranger that he met on the street.

"Hey, did you want to get some dinner with me? Layla is…what's the matter with you? You look like you've been caught at having girly magazines in your room, and it was Dad that caught you." He told his brother Madison what he was doing. "I would have helped you with that. You know that Layla would have been on board, too."

"Everyone would have taken over. They still, even you, think of me as the baby, and that—" Madison pointed out that he was the baby. "I know that. I just want something of my own to work on. I have the money and the knowledge of what needs to be done. Stay out of—" Dyson took a deep breath and let it out slowly when he saw the look on his brother's face.

"All right now. Do you want to start over with that? I mean, I'm not mad. I still have my bouts of anger, too. But I was just asking you a simple question." He told him he was sorry and that he knew that. "But? What's going on?"

"Nothing and everything. I feel like I'm sneaking around in the dark doing this, like when I skipped school that one time. Remember that? I was sick for a week because I'd done it. Come to find out, I didn't skip at all because the school had been closed down due to the weather. Christ, I'm such a dork sometimes." Madison told him that he was a dork all the time. "Thanks. I knew that I could depend on you to real things out for me."

The two of them hugged then Sidney pulled out the planning sheets for his idea. After explaining a few things and answering a couple more questions, he could tell that Madison was finding fault. He asked him what he'd found wrong.

"No, I'm not. Just let me absorb, will you? You're worse than Kyle when it comes to letting people help you out." Madison looked over the plans again. He did ask some questions, good ones that he'd not thought of as he went through the blueprints, too. When he was finished with it, he told him that he liked it. "I don't know that I'd make them furnished. That would be difficult to make everyone happy even if you gave them golden beds or something like that. But I would go ahead and do what you said about the kitchens. Having them a part of the walls would make it less likely that stuff would be stolen. But it's a good, solid plan, Sid. You should be proud of yourself."

After making notes on the things that Madison had said, he and his brother went to dinner. Layla, his mate, was out doing things with their mom, so she'd be out for a while. Sidney loved his new sisters-in-law, but he was terrified of them both, including his mom too. But then he thought that everyone should have been terrified of their mom.

"Did I tell you about the dragons on us?" Sidney had told him that he'd only heard that they had them but not if they had any special meaning. "I didn't either, so I asked grandma. Mom wasn't sure of all the details, so she had me go to her. Did you know that mom is terrified of her mom? I didn't know that. Bares some thinking on, I believe. Anyway, they're there to protect us as humans. Even our mates. The reason that Fowler didn't get one is because he is now living in the other world with Mom. But when he's here, he'll have one on his body as well. I think that's fantastic. However, it's the talking part that I need to get used to with her."

"Her? You have a female dragon on your back? Cool Beans. So I guess that means that Layla has a male one." He said that they balanced each other. "I guess I can see that. What does it feel like when they move around. I think I meant to ask that of you before, but I forgot."

"It's kind of creepy if you ask me. Layla thinks it's like a warm blanket being pulled up and over her. I can understand that feeling, but I'm used to shifting and having a warm blanket, so to speak. But, as I said, she talks to me." Sidney laughed, asking him if she would talk to him about his sex with Layla. "I knew you'd ask me that. But no, she doesn't bother me in the bedroom. However, and this is the really strange part, she talks to Layla's dragon. And this is wonderful. If she's in real danger, like a house fire or flooding, I'm not sure what the circumstances might be, but he can lift her up and carry her to safety. We've not seen that yet, I don't know that I ever want to be in a situation where she's in that much danger, but it's wonderful to know that she can be safe."

"Will we all get them?" Madison told him that they would. "What if we find a dragon as our mate? I mean, that's still possible, right?"

"I will have to ask about that. I didn't think of…do you really think that's possible? To find a dragon mate?" Sidney didn't know, but it was something to think about. "At any given time, there are dragons around us. I don't know how many but I would say a few. Hiding in plan sight as we've been doing for centuries. Mom and Aunt Ember would know too. They have the most power of all the others around. Even grandma."

"It's scary to think of the power that mom has. I know that dad has a great deal with him being an old vampire but when I think of the length of time that mom and Aunt Ember has been around, it boggles the mind." Madison agreed just as their food was being brought to the two of them.

It was steak night at the restaurant. All you could eat night. They would come here to get a couple of their really wonderful steaks but never eat their fill. The place would have to shut down afterwards if even one of them got enough to fill their dragon.

"Remember when we were younger when there were less people around? How we'd fly the skies like we owned them? I miss those days a great deal." Sidney told him that he didn't remember that period of time, he might have been too young. "Yeah, I guess so. But I do. We were so revered too. Families would raise cattle just for us to come and eat."

Sidney loved hearing about the stories from when they were younger. He didn't have as many, of course, things were different when he came along and they had to be hidden away. He did remember a time that was special to him and told his older brother about it.

"There were unicorns around when I was a hatchling. Mom would set me in a field and let them watch over me so that I'd not get into trouble. She would work, checking on me occasionally but they were more mischievous than I was then. They would steal whole pies from the kitchen and bring them out to share with me. Or entire gardens of flowers would be eaten by them." Madison said that Mom probably knew. "Yeah, Dad, too. He would come and get me before Mom would and get me cleaned up. I remember thinking at the time that I'd gotten away with something so grand. Those were the good times."

"You miss that? I don't. I know that you were never around when Grail was but he was terrifying. And then there was great grandma. I don't think that you had as much to do with her as we did, what with her being forced to retire. Some of the things that I could tell you would—"

"Tell me, Madison. Please when you think of something, tell me. I don't want to sound whiney but being the youngest I missed a lot with that. I'm not saying that I'm jealous of the things that you guys had to go through, I know from Dad it was scary but I would like to know about it. Please?" Madison told him that he would, that they all would get together sometimes and talk about the olden days. "Thanks. I know that some of it is painful for you guys. Like it still hurts grandma to think about losing her mate. I don't know that I could have taken it as well as she did."

"She didn't lose her mate, Sidney. He faded." Sidney said he was sure that someone told him he was no longer around. "No, he's not. He decided right after grandma took over the realm that he wasn't needed so he faded into a garden. No one talks about it of course. He wasn't…you'll have to have grandma tell you. He wasn't thrilled about being second best to Grandma. I mean, he wasn't a mean person, he didn't cause any trouble but he didn't care for when someone came to the castle to talk business, he was asked to leave. I might well have too but he was very jealous of the magic that they had."

"I didn't know that. See? This is why we have to talk about this stuff. I didn't know that my grandfather, not that I'd go and look him up but that he was still around ready to shoot the shit with me." They both laughed and when they were finished with dinner, the two of them walked around the town. It really wasn't much of a town here. But it did have about the best steak house he'd ever been to. "I'm going to have to look up the owner of this place. I bet I could talk them into having one closer to where we live. They have the best salmon filets that I've ever had."

"And their desserts are perfection. I'm going to have to bring Dad back here when he'd ready. He loves all things lemon and they're lemon blueberry bread is the best that has ever been…now I want some." They turned and headed back to the place when the lights went off. "Well damn it. Now that's all I can think about. I'll have to come buy some for Layla tomorrow. I'll make a list if you want me to pick some things up for you."

He did give his brother a list. All he could think about now was their crunchy loaves of bread. It was the best with soup. Sidney could eat an entire dozen of them while barely touching whatever else he was having for a meal. Laughing, they made their way home talking about how they would come back here for all major decisions as it was the best place to do that in.

Driving home, Sidney thought of himself having a mate. He really didn't mind finding her. He'd seen enough of the mistakes that his older brothers had made that he felt like he was going to be the perfect mate for her when she came along. At least that's what he kept telling himself.

Pulling into his driveway, he thought of his grandma. He missed her and decided that he was going to go and visit her right then. Gathering up the magic that would be needed to take him to her, he was so happy that she seemed to be expecting him. After several hugs and her telling him how welcome he was, they settled down in the garden to enjoy each other's company. It was her, oddly enough that brought up her mate.

"He has missed so much since he'd gone away. I think about him often but I don't want him to come to me just because I get lonely at times. With Fowler and Amy here all the time, the pain of being alone is lessened a great deal. And when one of you boys come here like this, it will make my entire week in just being around you. What do you have going on? Tell me everything."

He told her about the housing development that he was working on and she agreed with what Madison had said about the furniture. She told him that they'd not take care of it very well if they didn't have to work for it. He agreed with her and said that he would make the changes in his plans. When she cried a little, he went to her and hugged her, asking her what he'd done.

"Nothing. Not at all. It's just been a long time since I've had someone to agree with me and not do it because I'm their queen. Or I was at one time." He told her that he thought that everyone still thought of her as the queen. "Thank you, Sidney. You've no idea how much that means to me."

After talking well into the next morning, he decided to stay there in one of the rooms that was reserved for him. It was wonderful to be able to just relax and talk to someone without thought as to whether or not they were agreeing with him simply because he was a dragon. Or the grandson of the former queen.

"Your lordship? There is a phone call for you. It is very important, or I'd not have awakened you." Sidney sat up and looked around, unsure of where he was for several minutes. "Sir, it's a woman by the name of Emma Marshall. She said that you were acquainted with her from school."

"Yes. Yes. Just give me a second here." Wiping his face with his hand, he tried to remember how long it had been since he'd seen Emma, much less heard from her. Taking the phone, an odd-looking thing that he'd never used before, he said hello. "Emma, is everything all right?"

"I've been arrested." He could hear both anger and her being upset in her voice. "I don't know who else to call, Sidney. I have the money to bail me out, but they won't allow me to get into my house to get my cards. I'll pay you…I just realized how late it is. Listen, I'll call you tomorrow if I can't work something—"

"No, I'm awake, and I'm very happy that you called me. I'll be there…do you still live in Trinway?" She told him that she did and that she was sorry to have woke him up. "Honey, it's just fine. I promise you. I'll be there in about half an hour. I hope everything is all right. Is it?"

She burst into tears, and he was wide awake then. Letting her talk, trying to make out what she was saying, he willed himself to his own home. While he had no idea what she was saying, he knew that it was serious. As he made his way out to his car, he finally got her to talk to him.

"They said that I tried to kill my grandfather. I'd never do that. He's all I have in the world." He told her that he knew that, too. "He's in the hospital, and they won't let me see him. Then, while I was trying to get in, I was arrested for attempted murder. I'd rather die myself than harm him. I think they're just pissed off because he moved out of the house and into a nursing home where they can't get to him."

He didn't know what that meant either, as she was babbling again. When she told him that her time was up with talking to him, he told her that he was leaving his place. It was the longest twenty-minute drive he'd ever driven.

When he got to the station house, since he knew nearly everyone there, Sidney was taken back to see Emma. She was a mess and it looked like someone had taken a few pops to her face. While she cried, not really saying anything, he was able to hold her. Her trembling body told him what her words didn't. She was very upset.

"His granddaughter is Mrs. Darling Gregory. You remember me talking about her, right?" He knew the story, and it pissed him off every time he heard her name. "Well, she told the police that I hit her. Then, I held Pops in front of me while she tried to defend herself. Which is in no way true. I would never let him take a blow for me. But she hit me like she did when I was younger."

Once she was put into a room where he could talk to her, he got more of the information from her. When he paid her bail, a great deal more than he thought it should have been for having the shit beat out of her, Sidney took her to the hospital. She was going to need stitches if he didn't miss his bet, and he wanted her to see if she had a concussion.

Calling his dad when he needed help with the hospital, he was glad that he'd brought Mom with him. There was some major shit going down here, and he, for one, was glad that his parents weren't the pushover type. As soon as he introduced them to Emma, mom seemed to take her under her wing and guided her to not just the emergency room but also got someone to see her right away.

"The power of love." He asked her if she loved him or the drama. "The drama, of course. And I do like this girl. She's upset now, but I bet she has a fire under her."

"I don't know that I'd call it fire, but she has been mistreated all her life. Even from infancy. We met in high school." He told his mom what had happened to Emma when she'd been born, with Emma interjecting in places something that she would remember. By the time the film had been read about her, she did indeed have a concussion. She was given a room, and food set up for her and Mom not leaving her side.

It was more than he could have hoped for. Going down the long hall to the elevators, he made his way to see Pops Marshall. He loved the old man like he did Emma and was sorry that the elderly man had gone through so much. As soon as he saw him, Pops begged him for information about his darling, and Sidney was glad to be able to give it to him. It was going to be a very long night, but he didn't really care. They were both safe.