Old Dogs

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own the Iron Fey series; all I own is my claymore… and a few other sharp objects.

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Over the course of the many years that I've been alive, I have sired more than a few children. Those children have always been of a half-mortal descent.

I never figured out why, but I've never been able to sire children among my own kind. My wife is completely unable to have children from any lineage; that's probably how our marriage started to deteriorate. We were happy once upon a time, but when we discovered she was barren, as Mab had her first child, it all began to fall apart.

To my displeasure, even though I could have children among the mortals, they always had come out too mortal, or just too weak. I was a powerful faery, but great power put into a weak frame never ends well. The balance that had to be achieved between the powerful fey blood and the weak mortal blood was delicate. The fact that half-bloods never really fit into mortal society, and they are looked down upon in fey society did not help matters. Perhaps one of the most inconsequential details was that they never looked like me, not a single one.

Meghan was different though.

She had all my features, and her human mothers blue eyes. When her mother came home with her newborn all bundled up, her husband fussing over her, I was there waiting to see her. I wasn't expecting much, no more than I had expected for any other child that I had sired, but it had been so long since the last one, and I was curious.

She was tiny, and pink. They had set her carrier on the couch while they prepared everything for her, and it allowed me to get a closer look at my child. Human glamour had covered her already in an unconscious effort to protect her, but I could see right through it.

Tiny pointed ears stuck out at nearly right angles, rosy red at the tips. The eyes were far too large to be human, but it would give her an endearing look when she got older. The miraculous thing about the child was her hair; a stunning silver, identical to my own. The only thing that she seemed to have gotten from her mother was her blue eyes, a color that complemented her silver hair.

When she grew older, she would be stunning. I could already sense the glamour in her would be strong. From the way her eyes seemed to focus directly on where I was seemed to suggest that she could even see me through my own strong masking glamour; she was not the first child to be able to do so, but she was the first to do it this young. I had resolved never to meddle in the affair of my children unless absolutely necessary, but for her I think I may make an exception.

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I couldn't do much for her, but I did have someone who could; Puck.

He was the only one I could send that would keep their mouth shut and be able to protect her from just about any danger that may find her. Being that he was drifting in and out of the court irregularly to begin with, no one would think any more of it than an extended absence, or that I sent him away in anger. The only reason he was to come back was if something serious happened to her, or she died; and with Puck around neither of those things were likely to happen.

Titiana knew about Meghan, but she also knew better than to mess with either Meghan or her mother. With these measures, they were able to live undisturbed by the fey for almost two years, but there are some things that even I cannot prevent, or even take cautionary measures against.

I never thought to factor in cars to the equation. Humans ride their cars everywhere, even for the shortest of trips, and although humans don't feel the burn of the iron, they certainly can be hurt by it.

It was supposed to be a trip to the supermarket, no more than a five minute drive, the humans tried to go forward the same time a truck went to their side. The humans took the brunt of the damage and died almost instantly; Meghan, by some miracle, was hardly scratched. I don't think Pucks ever ran that fast in his life.

According to the humans Meghan was now an orphan, soon to be put into foster care if the next of kin was unable to care for her, and that would continue until she was 18 and then she would be thrown out on the street to fend for herself. A half-blood in foster care would be dead by the time she was five, and if she was adopted that may prove to be no better for her.

I knew that I couldn't bring her to Arcadia that would be like throwing her to the wolves; however, there was another option…

She was too young to determine whether she would truly be able to one day go to my realm, and she needed to at least have one parent figure to rear her. I never had this inclination before, and I found it strange to feel. She was my daughter now, with no humans to miss her should I steal her away; by all rights she was mine without any dispute now. Now I felt as though I could understand Titiana's desire to take the children and raise them, even if their lives were fleeting and they caused more problems than they solved.

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It was child's play to throw on a human disguise and plea my case to the humans who had Meghan. They had no desire to send a young child like her into foster care when there was someone from her own family ready to take her. They never second guessed my story that I was Meghan's biological father who had an affair with her mother; it was the true story after all. With a touch of glamour, I faked a few legal documents and by the end of the tedious hour they had gone to fetch her to bring her to me.

She looked like a little doll, a few bandages on her arms and legs, but still utterly perfect. She paused to look up at me for a minute before looking back to the nurse that had brought her in.

"That's my new daddy?" she whispered to the nurse.

"Yes dear. He's going to take care of you from now on." The nurse tried to reassure her, smiling charmingly at Meghan. "Go ahead darling; go say hello." The nurse turned her towards me and gave her a slight push.

"Hi." She looked shyly down at her shoes as she spoke, bringing her arms up to hug herself tightly. I knelt down to her level and was taken by surprise when she threw herself at me sobbing

"She's been holding that in for a while now" the nurse informed me. "When we told her that her parents were gone, she was devastated, this is the first time she spoke to anyone in days." I inwardly winced when I felt her pull at my hair roughly.

I rose up to my feet, holding her tightly in my arms, rocking her softly as I had seen other parents do to console their upset children.

"It's going to be fine Meghan, daddy's here now." Slowly her cries stopped and I left the human building with her safely tucked into my arms.

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Hey everyone, I know the story may seem a bit odd, but there's a method behind my madness.

I wanted to make a story with the plotline of Oberon actually being a father to Meghan. This chapter sets up the backstory behind the rest of the idea. I wanted to explore the idea of an Oberon who took an active part in his daughter's life. Puck will definitely be a recurring character, and they may get together later, but the focus of the story is on Oberon and Meghan as Meghan grows up.

If you want to get a feel for the fatherly Oberon, you can read my story, "A Father's Love" that has a fatherly Oberon, just a different plotline that fits the Iron Fey universe better.

If you have any ideas for this please share them, and as always read and review.

-Valkyrie