A/N: Yay! Chapter 10! To let you know, there will probably be about 2 more chapters left in this (maybe an epilogue…) so we are finally winding down. To people who are actually still reading this, thanks for sticking in here so long…you are amazing! This chapter turned out to have a lot more of the Tancred-centric stuff, which I didn't originally plan, but I feel like he's been kind of a side party to a lot of things going on…so now we finally get a glimpse into his psyche…I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Charlie Bone and all affiliated characters and terms belong to Jenny Nimmo; I also do not own ee cummings poetry

Chapter 10- In which Emma has an epiphany, Dagbert makes a new friend, Billy becomes a poet, Tancred needs to grow up, Gabriel makes a discovery, Fidelio finally explains himself, and Naren makes a choice

-x-

"So…you like this place?" Tancred asked, gesturing around at the dimly lit bistro. Emma sat stony faced in front of him, her plate untouched. She'd hardly said anything since he'd picked her up, and it was starting to irritate him.

"Emma," he used his best pleading voice and roguish smile. It had always worked in the past. Unfortunately, Emma didn't seem to be responding. He tried another tactic. "Do you know what I had to do to get us a spot here? Plus I rescheduled with Manfred Bloor just so we could have some time; just the two of us." She continued to stare at him accusingly, as though he was the one doing something wrong.

Finally, he gave up and snapped, "Look, Emma, I don't know what you want from me, okay? I've had a really rough couple of days, and I am just trying my best to have a nice evening out with my girlfriend who for no reason is acting like a total shrew!"

Emma raised her eyebrows disbelievingly. "No reason? Tancred, I've been a vegetarian for eleven years. Did you really think I'd like a place called Trattoria Carne?" When he shrugged, she gave him an incredulous look. "It's a meat bistro Tancred. Everything here has meat in it."

The only thing that really occurred to him to say was "I didn't know."

Then suddenly Emma was standing up, fumbling with her coat and leaving the restaurant, and Tancred watched dumbly until she disappeared outside. Looking around at the astonished patrons, he figured he should probably chase her.

-x-

"This is so stupid," Fidelio said, crossing his arms as Lysander picked up his phone to make another call.

"You're the one who initiated this whole superhero team up," Lysander said calmly. "If you want good results, you've got to be willing to put the time in. The irrational man from earlier was gone, and the old Lysander seemed to be back, a fact for which Fidelio was immensely grateful. He had managed to dodge all the questions about his and Olivia's 'relationship' but he wasn't sure how much longer he could last.

"So anyway," Lysander said, "You'd just flown into Prague, and met these people from the symphony and then formed that performance group…then what?"

Fidelio shrugged. "I don't really know. We just got too popular too quickly. I guess when you've grown up with a million siblings and hand me downs and then incredibly rich men and women are offering you brand new instruments and giving you invitations to parties…it's hard not to get caught up in it, you know?"

Lysander narrowed his eyes. "I wouldn't know."

There was an awkward silence.

"Anyway," Fidelio said, "We ended up getting this invitation from some people in New York to come and play at their daughter's debutante ball, and they paid us really well. Two of the people in the group wanted to stay on in New York permanently, and that's when it started to go bad."

"Bad?" Lysander repeated.

"Well, they didn't have the proper documentation for permanent residency, and when they were caught, they asked me to help them. I didn't have enough money at the time, so I…borrowed it from one of my patrons…a woman in Vienna, and told her I would pay it off in one year. I thought that once my friends were back, they would re-form the group and help to pay off their debt."

"Obviously that didn't happen," Lysander remarked dryly.

Fidelio shrugged. "You'd be surprised how one little debt leads to more debts, and before you know it, you owe everyone. It seemed safest at the time to just come back here and lie low until I could figure out how to pay off the rest of the money."

"So what happened to all the money you made before?" Lysander asked. "You just spent it?"

Fidelio fidgeted. "Umm…well…I had some of it converted into…more…organic material that I was planning to sell to some people once I got here. That didn't end up working out, and I lost almost everything."

"And your friends from the group?" Lysander asked.

"Gone," Fidelio said, "I don't even know where."

"Uh huh." Lysander leaned back into his chair. "That still doesn't explain why Olivia is gone."

"They may have thought she was some sort of patroness and taken her to see if she would pay off the money," Fidelio said.

"Oh, great," Lysander said, throwing up his hands. "Some crazy, cash-obsessed debt collectors are probably holding my broke fiancée for ransom and you just mention this now?"

Fidelio was spared having to respond by the ringing of the telephone. As Lysander moved to answer it, Fidelio felt inexplicably better, even though he knew the older man probably still hated him. Even in school, Lysander's side had always won, and Fidelio hoped that things would work out the same way this time.

-x-

"Well that was nearly an epic disaster," Asa remarked as he and Dagbert shoved the last of the speakers into the coffee shop's back closet. "What were you thinking?"

Dagbert shrugged, reaching over and locking the closet door. "It wasn't that bad."

"Wasn't that bad?" Asa gave him an incredulous look. "We were almost booed off the stage, not to mention that our lead guitarist nearly had a heart attack and ran away when he saw the bass player."

"Hey, I maintain that the Sweet Home Alabama cover was excellent. It totally saved the day."

"Only because no large crowd can resist the pull of Sweet Home Alabama," Asa said, his scowl morphing into a grin.

"So where's Gabe anyway? I thought he was going to stay and help break down," Dagbert said as they walked back into the nearly empty coffee house.

"I think he went home," Asa said. At Dagbert's look, he elaborated. "After the stunt you pulled? Calling Dorcas to come play the bass? Not exactly the most subtle move."

"Well he's been going on about how much he wanted to see her…" Dagbert started.

Asa shook his head. "You can't push him though. With Gabe, it's usually best to just let him do things at his own pace."

"Why?" Dagbert shot back, "so he'll never have a life?"

"No," Asa said, "so he's not scared of life when he finally gets one."

Dagbert shrugged. "I dunno. Sometimes people need to be pushed."

"Believe me," Asa said tersely, "being pushed is the last thing people need."

"Oookay," Dagbert said slowly, "I get the feeling that we've kinda veered away from Gabriel here…"

Asa's face abruptly shut down. "I don't want to talk about it. Especially not with you."

"Excuse me, but am I interrupting something?" A new voice broke into their conversation, and the two men turned to see a shorter dark-haired girl standing behind them.

"Oh," Dagbert said dismissively, "Poetry Usurper. What do you want?"

"Uh…okay," the girl said slowly, "I just wanted to say that you guys were pretty good tonight…at least at the end, and I liked your poem about the whale. But, I guess if you're busy…"

"Wait…" Dagbert said slowly, "You liked my poems?"

"Well, yeah," she said, "they weren't, you know, super deep or anything, but I liked how they rhymed and all."

"I'm Asa," Asa offered, feeling suddenly left out of the conversation.

"Bindi," she replied.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Dagbert interrupted. "So what were you saying about the loss of depth in my poems? Because I have to tell you that Mean Sea, Green Sea came from a really dark place in my life…"

Asa shook his head, pushing open the door of the coffee shop and leaving the two of them inside. It was funny, he thought, how two people could go from separate lives to togetherness almost in a minute. Or the opposite. Belatedly, he realized it was Thursday, and for the first time, not one person had gone to Pub Night.

-x-

Emma made it halfway down the sidewalk before Tancred caught up to her, his hair seeming more electrified than ever.

"Hey! What was that back there?" he asked, his voice teasing, although his eyes were serious.

Emma shrugged. Her thoughts seemed to be coming from all directions at once. "I just…I don't want…"

"It's okay, I mean, we can go somewhere else," Tancred said, smiling down at her.

It would be easy, Emma reflected, to just nod and go somewhere else. But something was different tonight, and Tancred seemed to sense it, his smile turning sober.

"Emma?" he asked, moving closer, and when she didn't respond he tilted her face to meet his. "What do you want?"

Although he meant it casually, Emma stopped. What did she want? She knew what she didn't want. She didn't want to field calls from the landlord and make up excuses while she struggled to cover her half of the rent. She didn't want to chase Mittens around the fire escape and stay up late doing someone else's work. What did she want?

"Emma, hey…don't freak out on me. I need you," his voice broke through her thoughts, and she cringed at the undercurrent of raw desperation in his voice. She realized that it was true; Tancred did need her. He needed her to support him, to not ask questions, to adore him unconditionally and be there whenever he felt like it. Feeling a sudden hollow ache in her chest, Emma Tolly realized that she didn't want to be needed. She wanted to be wanted. She wanted someone to cook dinner for her, to ask her about work, someone she didn't have to take care of all the time. She did want Tancred, but not in the way he wanted her. That was why, even though it was maybe the hardest thing she'd ever done, she stepped away from him, pulling her coat around her.

"Tancred," she said slowly, "You don't even know I'm a vegetarian. I hope you and Zelda will be very happy together."

-x-

Naren twisted her hands in her lap as she faced Charlie and Ben across the picnic table. The two men had scooted as far as they could to either end of the bench and were watching her with nearly identical expressions of wariness.

"Okay, well, thanks for agreeing to meet up," she began, "I just wanted to-,"

"You didn't say anything about him being here," Ben cut in, jerking a thumb toward Charlie. Charlie didn't reply, hunching his shoulders and keeping his gaze on Naren. His black eye had diminished somewhat, but Naren's stomach knotted in guilt every time she looked at it, so she focused back on Ben.

"Anyway, I was hoping we could talk this over like adults," Naren continued. "Ben, I just wanted to tell you that Charlie and I never meant to hurt you in any way, and I just want you two to be friends again, whatever it takes."

"Whatever," Ben said, sounding suddenly weary. "To be honest, I don't really want to be mad at either of you." He sighed, looking carefully at Naren. "I just…want you to be happy…and if that's not with me then I guess I have to be okay with that." He turned to Charlie and said tightly, "I probably won't be at pub night for awhile." He stood, brushing off his jeans. "If you two will excuse me, the puppies haven't been exercised in awhile." Starting a few steps down the path, he turned back and called "I'll just drop whatever stuff you left at my place at your house sometime then."

Watching Ben disappear, Charlie turned to Naren, trying to catch her eyes. "I feel so…"

"Guilty," Naren finished for him. Although she'd gotten what she wanted, she had this crazy half-urge to run after Ben, tell him she was sorry and maybe adopt a puppy. "Charlie, I should probably go."

"Oh, of course. Right," he said. "I should go too. I'll see you later though, right?" he smiled at her, a little uncertainly.

"Sure," she said, still not looking at him. If she wasn't eaten by guilt first.

-x-

"Okay, so that was a miserable failure," Billy remarked in what he hoped was a casual tone (at least, as casual as he could fake considering they were sitting on the steps outside the hospital).

"You think?" Inez said dryly, handing him a bottle of water. "The doctors told me you have to take one of these every six hours for the next 48 hours to prevent relapse. You didn't think to mention your allergies before ambushing my sister at work?"

"I was sort of hoping she'd forgotten about them," Billy said sheepishly, swallowing one of the pills and trying not to make a face.

"Well, looks like she hasn't…and if the way she was waving that lavender is any indication, it looks like she's still angry." Inez pushed up her sleeves and then leaned back on her elbows on the cement. "So…any more genius plans?"

"Nope," Billy said, "I think I'll let you do the plan-making from now on."

"She did seem sort of sorry when your eyes got all watery and swollen though and you kept reciting the poem even though you couldn't stop sneezing. That's dedication." Inez propped herself back up on one side to face him.

"I'm a very dedicated man," Billy said, turning and smiling at her.

"It was a nice poem though," she said. "I liked the part about 'newfragile yellows' …I couldn't really understand the part at the end because of the sneezing."

"Oh," Billy said, "he says that 'And the coolness of your smile is, stirringofbirds between my arms;but, i should rather than anything, have(almost when hugeness will shut, quietly)almost,
your kiss,'" He realized belatedly that he was kind of staring into Inez's eyes and blurted, "Yeah…so, that's the end."

"Well," Inez said, equally quickly, standing up and nearly knocking into him, "Like I said, it's…umm…a great poem."

"Yeah," Billy said, somewhat awkwardly.

"So…I should…maybe go home and see if I can talk to Idith again?" Inez said, making the statement sound more like a question.

"Oh! Idith. Sure!" Billy said, standing up as well. "I should probably go home to…prevent more allergy attacks. You know…"

"Right. Well, Bye!" Inez called, practically sprinting away.

"Bye," Billy said, slipping his medicine in his pocket and deciding that maybe he would go and see Charlie. He was beginning to think that maybe he just wasn't cut out for romance.

-x-

Manfred slid into the booth across from Tancred, crossing his arms. "Can we make this quick? I have to be at a video conference call for my new game in half an hour."

Tancred stared pointedly into his drink. "Shouldn't you be doing some sort of victory dance about now? You won."

"I guess," Manfred said. "Woo."

"Well don't get too excited," Tancred said, rolling his eyes.

Manfred sighed loudly. "Don't you ever get tired of this?"

"What?"

"This." Manfred gestured between them. "These contests, I mean, we're not in school anymore…shouldn't we be moving on?"

"Says the guy who turned over a table last night," Tancred muttered.

"I'm just saying," Manfred said, "it's been what, seven or eight years since graduation? It's not like we're kids anymore."

"So…what're you saying?" Tancred propped his elbows on the table and began to build a castle with the creamers.

Manfred gave Tancred a long look. "I'm saying I'm out. For good."

-x-

After fifteen minutes of the continuous knocking, Gabriel decided enough was enough. He shuffled to his door and peered through the peephole, praying it wasn't Dorcas on the other side. To his surprise, he saw Dagbert Endless leaning against the door. Sighing, he opened the door (since he figured Dagbert would probably find a way in anyway).

"I see you bothered to knock this time instead of just breaking in," he said, crossing his arms. He knew he should probably be making an attempt to sound adult, but he was still mostly angry and a little embarrassed. He wasn't sure why he'd run away from Dorcas, but he preferred to brood about it alone.

Dagbert appeared unfazed. "Yeah, well…I'm trying to apologize, so I thought it would make a better impression if I knocked."

"Apologize?" Gabriel echoed. He was pretty sure he'd never heard Dagbert use the word in a sentence before, much less connected to him.

"Yes, apologize," Dagbert said, "it means to say you're sorry for hiring a bass player and freaking out your friend so much that he runs off the stage once he realizes who it is…even though it takes him a really long time to recognize her."

"Wait, did you say friend?" Gabriel asked.

"That's really all you got from that?" Dagbert said, raising an eyebrow. "You're hopeless." He paused, assessing Gabriel carefully. "I guess it's a good thing you have me."

Gabriel started to smile back, but something else occurred to him. He carefully reviewed the past few days in his mind and then slowly began to back away from the door while still maintaining eye contact with Dagbert.

"I'm confused," he said, choosing his words cautiously. "You always say mean things to me, but then you show up and break into my house, and make me get tattoos and do all this kinda nice stuff for me, like help me with Dorcas. I'm not like…I mean I like…girls…" He trailed off thinking that as awkward conversations went, this one probably scored in the top ten.

Dagbert's eyes suddenly widened and he took several steps backward. It was the first time Gabriel had ever seen the younger boy at a loss for words. "Whoa…umm…wait just a second… Okay…First of all, I'm already dating someone, so if you were looking to apply for the job, it's taken." He snorted, and then muttered. "As if I'd date someone who thinks starfish aren't fierce." Stepping forward again he continued, "Second, haven't you heard of Bromance? Sheesh!" He rolled his eyes and was suddenly back to the Dagbert Gabriel knew.

"Bromance?" Gabriel blinked.

"Yep," Dagbert nodded seriously. "Face it square, we aren't future lovers…we're BFFs." Then he grinned, pushed passed Gabriel and settled himself on the couch. "Now let's turn on some manly music and figure out how to get your girl back."

-x-

After the fifth phone call, Emma decided she should really invest in more girlfriends. After all, what was the point in having a really dramatic (traumatic) breakup when your two best friends (Olivia Vertigo and Naren Bloor, respectively) couldn't be bothered to pick up the telephone.

-x-

"My life has officially spun out of my control," Tancred announced, banging open the door to Lysander's apartment. To his surprise, Lysander and Fidelio Gunn were sitting at Lysander's kitchen table, a telephone and a pile of papers between them. "Umm…am I interrupting something?" Tancred asked.

"Not now Tanc," Lysander said wearily.

Tancred paused from helping himself to the contents of Lysander's fridge. (Olivia did make amazing scones) "Hey, if something's going on, you know you can tell me."

Lysander sighed, looking up from the papers. "I hate to break it to you Tanc, but while you've been chasing skirts, the rest of us have been moving on with our lives. Just go home, and I'll call you in a couple of days." His mobile phone chimed with an incoming text message, and he looked back down at the papers, indicating that the conversation was over.

Tancred was not willing to give up so easily. "I am moving on with my life! I'm trying to tell you that Emma broke up with me, I just lost a bet to Manfred and I think I'm really unhappy!"

Lysander looked up again. His voice held a frustrated edge that Tancred had heard occasionally directed at inanimate objects, but never at him. "Listen, could you just…go?"

"Go?" Tancred echoed dumbly. "What's going on?"

"Oh, so you suddenly care now?" Lysander stood up abruptly, nearly knocking over his chair. "Did you know that half the calls I've made today have been to you, because my fiancée is missing; maybe taken by insane criminals? I would have thought that my best friend would care. But no, my best friend is too busy making stupid bets with Manfred and taking out random girls and being jaded about true love to care!"

"Sander…I…" Tancred started.

"Forget it," Lysander slumped back down into his chair. "I don't know why I thought you'd care. When was the last time we even talked? I mean, you've changed since graduation. We all have. Maybe we just didn't want to admit it, because we had such a good thing back in school, but maybe things just can't stay the same forever, you know?" His phone rang again and he moved to answer it, leaving Tancred standing alone by the fridge.

When he heard Lysander on the phone again, Tancred moved to let himself out, giving Fidelio a half-hearted wave. As he was leaving, it crossed Tancred's mind how adult Lysander's apartment was; he hadn't redecorated his own since he'd first moved to the city. He wondered if maybe it was time to give away his Nirvana posters (he actually hadn't listened to them since Bloors), but a drink was sounding like an equally appealing possibility.

-x-

A/N: Billy's poem is ee cummings "i have found what you are like"

Also, as always, reviews are always welcomed, encouraged, etc...