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Mandy watched her uncle as he laid on the bed with all kinds of tubes in him.

He’d been found outside on his steps to his apartment covered in vomit and blood.

It had taken them two days to figure out who he was, and by then, there had been a police report on him about him being missing.

Not from anyone in the family, but the police were looking for him.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?” She got up and shook her mom awake when Tommy—she didn’t like him enough to call him uncle anymore, but now that he was awake, her mom could deal with him. “I asked you a question. What are you doing in m—where the hell am I?”

“Hospital. You’ve been here for four days now.” Her mom stood up and smiled at her. “Honey, if you want to go to the cafeteria now, I think that Edgar is coming, and he’ll take you there.”

“Thanks, Mom.” She glared at Tommy. “You’re not a nice person, are you? I thought you were, but you’re just as mean as those boys that I go to school with. A mean person is all you are.”

As soon as Edgar came into the room, she asked him to take her to get something to eat. After kissing Mom, he took her hand into his much larger one, and they made their way out again. It made her slightly sick to be around Tommy, and she didn’t much care for hospitals either.

“What is it you wish to eat?” She couldn’t help it, she burst into tears, and Edgar picked her up in his arms and found them a table way in the back of the room. “Oh honey, you’re all right. He can’t hurt you anymore. I promise you that I’ll take care of him if he so much as looks at you funny.”

“It’s not just him. It’s Levi, too.” He asked her who that was.

“When Mom and I were in Tennessee, this man moved into our house without Mom knowing about it. He would beat her up daily when she wouldn’t just turn over her car keys to him and her money.

Then he started on me, and we came up with this plan.

” She sat in the chair across from Edgar and didn’t look at him while she finished.

“Mom was so worried about me because he was getting worse all the time, but she couldn’t get him out of the house.

So…she really didn’t want to do it, but I told her that it would be all right.

And it was. She pushed me down the stairs. ”

“I’m sorry, what?” Mandy told Edgar that she had to do it to get her out of the unsafe house. “She pushed you down the stairs?”

“I had on this bike helmet and wrist braces on my arms. Even my legs were covered in this heavy moving material that we had when we moved into our house. She cried more than I did when the fall broke my leg. But once the ambulance got there, she was better. Not great, but better, and she went to the hospital with me. We never told anyone, but your brothers’ wives figured it out and had Levi arrested for trespassing.

As soon as he was in jail, Mom looked so much better.

I don’t want her brother to hurt me again, Edgar.

If he does, I know that my mom will kill him, and she’ll end up in prison. ”

He held her while she cried. It had been so long since anyone had held her like he was that she felt herself relaxing more and more. But when she sat up to finish her tale, he looked like he was upset. She asked him not to be mad at her mom.

“I’m not. I was just thinking how desperate she must have been to harm you. I’m very proud of her for thinking of things that would get you out of the house and away from that stranger. I’m going to talk to my sisters and ask them about it, too. The man needs to be dealt with, too.”

“Don’t go to prison. Please, just let him be.

” He said that he couldn’t do that, but he’d not go to prison.

“Sure you will. You’re this great big dragon, and you’ll kill him by chomping him up, and I don’t want you to go to prison, either.

He’s out of our lives, and that’s all that matters, right?

Promise me that you’ll let him go unless he comes around again. ”

“If he comes around again, I’m not going to hold back that much, I can promise you, love.

” He lifted up her chin with his finger and looked into her eyes.

“You must be very proud of your mother for what she did with you. I am, as well. And I promise you that unless he comes around again, I will not kill him. Unless he does something to either of you again. Okay?”

“Yes, all right. I trust you, too.” He kissed her on the cheek and asked her what she wanted to eat. “Just a piece of pie, if you don’t mind. I’ve had the food here, and it’s not all that great, is it?”

“No. And that’s something that I have to talk to my dad about.

The hospital is making things very difficult for the patients around here in not just the food but the meds as well.

” She watched him as he went to get her some pie, and when he came back, she was glad to see that he had a slice of his own.

It wasn’t like her mom’s pie, but it was eatable.

“You should taste my mom’s apple pie. It’s the best there ever was.

She said that she puts some of her magic in it, but I don’t know.

We can’t get enough of it when she does have time to bake. ”

“My mom loves to cook, too. She is good at it, too, but lately, we’ve been eating on the go.

Just quick sandwiches that she can put together for the two of us to eat.

” Edgar said that he’d noticed that, too, that there wasn’t as much time for meals of late.

“When Grandpa and Grandma come in town, she’ll have the cook make a big meal, but we’re all so stressed out about Tommy that we don’t eat all that much. ”

“He’s going to be getting out of the hospital soon enough.

Then he’ll be back to his old tricks. You have to stay alert when you’re out by yourself.

He can still hurt you, and I’ll kill him for that.

” She said that she was staying close to home now that she knew there was magic around it.

“Good for you. I know that you know my parents well, so if you ever want to hang out with them, they’d love it.

They’ll take you to the other realm, too.

You can see unicorns and dragons there.”

“Mom told me that there are all kinds of magical creatures there that I’d not believe.

” He smiled and told her that there were gnomes, too, along with trolls as well.

“I know. I would love to go there. Did you know that Mom’s parents are my grandparents…

Silly question, of course you do. Does that make your mom and dad my grandparents, too?

I’d like to call them that. If you think it will be all right with them. ”

“You’d have to ask them, but I don’t see them having a problem with it.

You’re their first grandchild. They love you already.

” She said she’d talk to them the next time she saw them.

“I think they were hoping you’d come to the other realm and hang out with them for a few days while your grandparents are back home. They want to get to know you better.”

“I’d love that too.” She was so excited that she had to take three calming breaths before she felt she could talk again. “I’ve been hinting at calling your brothers and their wives aunt and uncle. I know they won’t mind either, will they?”

“No, they’ll love it too.” She thought of all his brothers and thought that Edgar was the nicest of them all.

She told him that. “Thank you for that, but Fowler is the smartest of all of us. He was born first and sort of tested the waters for us to go to college several times in our lifetime. My brothers and myself have been doctors and nurses, attorneys, as well as anything else you could think of. We’ve been around for a long time, so we’ve had plenty of time to study up on things that a normal person wouldn’t be able to do.

That’s why I love doing contracts so much, I’ve had a great deal of practice at it. ”

“I bet you have.” She looked at the doorway and saw her mom.

“She looks upset again. I wonder what Tommy said to her that had her crying.” She looked at him.

“Don’t kill him until you know for sure that she’s crying over him, all right?

I like having you around, and I won’t be able to visit you very much if you’re behind bars. ”

“I’ll keep that in mind when I ask her what happened.

” She sat down with the two of them and leaned her head on Edgar’s shoulder.

Getting up, she wrapped her arm around her mom, too, and sat there for however long she’d let herself be pampered.

Which turned out to be longer than she had expected.

Sitting back in her chair, it was Edgar who asked her what had happened.

“He’s pissed off because he’s not in a private room with his own nurses.

I don’t have any idea why he thinks he should be getting that sort of treatment, but then he is Tommy.

” She looked over at her and smiled. “Did you want to go home tonight? I’m ready to fly back right now if it gets me away from his temper.

Mom and Dad said they’d deal with him from now on. ”

“Did you at least get to tell him why he’s in the hospital for?” She nodded and said that he thinks she poisoned him. “How do you poison someone that has an ulcer? He’s just lucky someone found him before he bled to death. The moron. I don’t like him all that much. I know you don’t either.”

“I don’t. That’s why I want to go home. Just to have my own things around me and back to work.

” When she said it like that, Mandy was glad to be going home, too.

She wanted to be around her other uncles and hang out with the aunts.

They were funny, and they’d been helping her with her magic, too.

“We’ll leave on the first flight out, even if it’s midnight. I just want to be home.”