A/N: Welcome to chapter 4, in which several loose ends will be tied…

Chapter 4

MICK

The Cleaner didn't like working during the day, but was willing to make an exception for Josef Kostan. Cleaning up the neighbor's house just had to be done. The three bodies were taken away, the basement sanitized. The final step was Simone typing Felicia's letter of resignation, which she left in their kitchen, along with a forwarding address that was one of Josef's post office boxes in LA. We'd know if someone was looking for her. Simone had come up with some story about a dying relative, an inheritance, and the need for haste. Hopefully, there would be no further inquiries.

The tough part was taking Lily back to her house. She'd known her parents were hurt, had heard their screams, but telling a four-year-old her parents were dead would not be an easy matter. I wondered if Josef was up to it. After the cleanup at the neighbors' house, Josef carried the little girl back to his house, and he found a quiet place by the indoor swimming pool.

"You want us to leave you two alone?" I asked my friend, who was still holding a clinging Lily. She hadn't left his side since we'd rescued her.

He looked around at Simone, Beth, and I and made his decision. "No. Stay. I might need some help here." He gave a half-hearted grin and hugged Lily more tightly for a minute before setting her down on a poolside chair.

"Remember how I told you a vampire sometimes faces some really tough shi—uh—stuff in this world?" Josef began. I hid my smirk of amusement. Only Josef would tell a little girl this. "Well, your gonna have to be really, really tough now, okay?"

"Why?" asked Lily. Her little lower lip was quivering. She knew it was bad news.

"Because, my little koala…" and he looked at us all, his eyes appealing to us to make this stop. But none of us could do anything, and she had to be told. I nodded in encouragement. His gaze turned a little watery, and he blinked rapidly.

"Are you crying, Uncle Josef?" asked Lily, reaching out to touch Josef's cheek. He closed his eyes, and took her little hand in his. Hold it together, buddy, I thought, wishing I had Carrie's ability to send the thought to his brain.

"No, sweetheart. There's no easy way to say this though. Your mommy and daddy are dead. That bad woman you ate and those two goons of hers killed them. But we got them back, didn't we? And they'll never hurt you or anyone else again. You're safe now. You understand?"

Lily was oddly calm; it was Josef having the hard time. "I know, Uncle Josef," she said in her sweet voice. She looked and sounded four, but I realized this little girl was older than me—nearly one hundred years old. She'd seen a lot of things. And while her brain would never develop beyond four, she was as wise and as intelligent as a four-year-old could possibly be.

"You know? How?" asked Josef in surprise.

"I heard fighting and daddy getting hurt. My mommy yelled to me in vampire to hide. And I smelled their blood and then she didn't talk to me anymore. I'm glad you killed that mean woman, Uncle Josef. Are you going to be my daddy now?"

Josef ran a hand over his face, and I heard the sniffles of the women, imagining like I was the horror Lily must have gone through, hearing her parents being butchered in the next room. And Diana's last thoughts too were for her little girl's safety. It was a hard situation, and I felt the beginnings of my own unshed tears. I squeezed Beth's hand in mine, and glanced at her face. She'd been through her own trauma at Lily's age. She could be a big part of helping Lily deal with this.

Josef cleared his throat. "I can never be your daddy, koala. He was a much better daddy than I could ever be. But I'll always be your Uncle Josef, and I'll always take care of you. And now you have Aunt Simone too. She'll love and protect you as much as I will." Simone came over and sat by Josef and Lily in a nearby pool chair.

"And you also have Aunt Beth and Uncle Mick too," Beth said, drawing me by the hand to stand beside them. Beth and I had only met Lily once before, but Josef had known her nearly her entire long life, and if he needed us to help take care of her, we were in, no question.

"Your hair is blonde like mine," said Lily to Beth.

"Yes," said Beth, smiling through her tears. "But yours is so much prettier." She reached out and touched the girl's soft curls. "Will you let me braid it sometime?"

"Sure!" said Lily excitedly. "You wanna see my room?"

Beth looked to Josef, and he nodded. Lily took Beth's hand and practically dragged her from the pool room. We could hear Lily's lighthearted chatter all the way through the house.

Josef wiped his eyes with the handkerchief from his pocket. "I wish adults could be as damned resilient as four-year-olds," he said ironically.

Simone was still looking at the door Lily and Beth had just exited through. "She might seem alright now, Josef, but she's going to miss them, and it's going to come up at the worst times. Bedtime, mainly, I bet, or when we do things in a different way than her parents did. Or…when we leave this house."

"Dammit!" Josef spat, getting to his feet, beginning the Josef Pace of Frustration. "What the hell am I gonna do with a kid? I can barely take care of myself sometimes."

It wasn't the time to point out just how true that statement was.

"Hey, so far, so good," I said. "I know I couldn't have told her any better than you did."

He gave me a look of disbelief. "I was just wingin' it there, Mick. This whole damn thing will be by the seat of my pants. That's no life for her."

"Josef," Simone said, reaching for his hand as he paced beside her. He stopped, looking down at his wife in anguish. "You're not in this alone, you know. And all new parents have to make things up as they go. Diana and John had to. You told me they didn't know the first thing about kids—either one of them—when they first got Lily. They had nearly a century to perfect this. You've had maybe five minutes of parenting. Give yourself a break."

Josef glanced at me. "What she said," I told him with a small smile.

He sighed and gave a half-hearted grin in return. "I'm not a patient fellow—you two should know that more than anyone."

I refrained from wholeheartedly agreeing.

Simone rose and took him into her arms. It was my cue to leave and I did so, walking past the embracing couple to look for Beth and Lily.

I never dreamed there would be a child in my life again. Sounds creepy, but there had only been Beth back when she had been a blonde angel, just like Lily. The fact I that I was sleeping with the former child I saved once upon a time still had the power to mess with my head when I thought about it, so I pushed it resolutely aside. Two years ago, when I thought I might have inadvertently fathered a child, it had seemed miraculous, and I had allowed myself to hope—only briefly—that I could be a part of his life and that of my grandson's. When it had turned out not to be, I had been surprised at my disappointment, my sense of loss. Now, with Lily, there would be a child around. I couldn't believe I was going to be a part of her life. Uncle Mick. Never thought I'd be anyone's uncle either. I suppose miracles still can happen.

But I didn't envy Josef's upcoming struggle. He was so selfish and childish himself in so many ways, and I knew this would be the greatest challenge of his four-plus centuries. God knows, he'd need all the help he could get. From the bottom of the stairs, I could hear Lily's laughter and Beth's soft tones in reply. I grinned and bounded up the stairs to join them.

JOSEF

I allowed myself to become lost in Simone's kisses, clinging to her and running by hands up and down her straight back, trying to forget for just a few minutes the horrors of the last twelve hours. Eventually, I pulled gently away, framing her face with my hands.

"I didn't ask you, did I? If this was okay with you. Keeping Lily, I mean."

She smiled, and pressed her lips briefly to mine again. "You didn't have to."

"But I want you to know you have a choice—we have a choice. There are other vamps out there that might be willing to take her."

She put her finger to my lips. "Hush. You are the only other family she knows. We'll deal, okay?"

Actually, I wasn't sure it would be okay, didn't really want to have to find out, to tell you the truth. This was too much responsibility. Too much—

"Mr. Kostan! Please! Let me out!"

Antonia. Shit. She was still locked in the safe room.

"What are you planning to do with her, Josef?"

I dropped my hands from Simone's lovely face and looked in the direction of the pleading voice. This was the woman who'd allowed Felicia to kidnap and kill my friends. There was no doubt in my mind what I was going to do.

"Show her mercy, Josef," said my wife. "She's an old woman. I can tell she feels bad about her part in this. And hasn't Lily lost enough people in her life? How would we explain what happened to Antonia too?"

I closed my eyes against Simone's appealing eyes. "Okay," I said finally. "Please, just go be with Lily while I figure out how to handle this."

She kissed my cheek. "I know you'll do the right thing."

"Don't worry, baby, I will."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I used the key to open the safe room, staying on the alert as I opened the door. Antonia was sitting in a folding chair that had been left in there. The Deerlings had apparently used the room for storage. Paper towels, toilet paper rolls, and other non-food pantry supplies lined the shelves on the walls. Antonia stood up, hope lighting her eyes.

"Thank you! I'm a little claustrophobic. Being in here was starting to get to me. But tell me, is Lily alright?"

"She will be," I said coldly.

"Will you be sending me for trial before the Council?" she asked, and I could hear the fear in her voice.

"No," I reassured her. "There'll be no Council. I think we can handle this privately, don't you?"

"Yes, of course, Mr. Kostan. I'll do anything to make this up to you. What can I do?"

"You can die, bitch," I said pleasantly, swinging the machete I'd held discreetly behind my back. Her body fell to the floor in two parts, the head rolling to stop at my feet. I looked down at her face, staring up at me with the same look of abject terror I'd seen on the faces of my friends.

"Well, I feel a whole lot better," I said aloud, fishing out the handkerchief I'd used earlier to wipe my tears. With it, I wiped the blade clean, then dropped the soiled linen to cover the traitor's face. I left the safe room and pulled out my phone, hitting redial.

"Say," I said when the Cleaner's voice answered. "You guys give volume discounts?"

A/N: I know, this is shorter than usual, but this story is by no means over yet. Just seemed a good place to stop. My next chapter will be longer, I promise. In lieu of chocolate, please submit reviews ;) Thanks!