Chapter Eleven: The Riddle of the Gryphon

He was going to murder his brother and Onasi, too, just as soon as he got past them and got Greg out of that interview room. His Sergeant was crying and not just crying, but sobbing and Ed did not intend to let the two dead-men-walking in his way stay there. Ed punched Roy, sending him sprawling into Giles, then yanked both of them away from the door and sent them spinning into the other door with a snarl. He pulled the door to the interview room open and started to reach for his Sergeant when an alarmed skreee! came from the vicinity of Greg's chest.

"Ed, stop," Roy called from outside, fighting to get disentangled from Giles, his words and voice desperate and panicked.

Ed ignored his brother's order; his eyes narrowed as he spotted the animal clinging to his friend and he reached for it instead of Greg. Greg reacted at once, curling protectively around the frightened creature and casting Ed a positively venomous glare. The venom was a bit dilated by the tears still falling, but the message was unmistakable: Touch him and die. Ed unconsciously took a step back at that look, caught off guard by the sudden life in Greg's eyes, despite the tears and the shock on his face.

With Lane cowed, Greg's attention returned to the small creature huddled against his chest. "Easy there," Greg murmured, his free hand running over the animal's fur. "It's just Eddie; he's been a bit overprotective lately. That's it, you're okay; no one's going to hurt you."

The constable got out of the way as Greg pushed himself upright and stalked out of the interview room, shaking with a rage Ed didn't understand. "Boss?" he asked, unsure how to deal with the rising anger.

Greg didn't even turn. "Who did this?" he demanded, every word drenched in fury and a desire for revenge – Ed blanched at that; Greg Parker didn't do revenge…at least, that was what he'd always thought. Greg's eyes landed on the interview room door that Ed had shoved his brother and Giles into. "Are they in there?"

It took a brave – or suicidal – man to get in Sergeant Greg Parker's way when he was in an absolute towering rage, but Auror Giles Onasi did it anyway. "It's not worth it," he grated out, planting himself with a stubborn look of his own. "Believe me, it's not; focus on him, we'll handle her."

"But…" Greg started.

Giles cut him off, though his voice turned gentle and understanding at the half-wild look in Parker's eyes. "It's not permanent, Sergeant. If it's the stuff I found in her bag, it'll take a couple of days to wear off, but the de-aging's not permanent." His gaze flicked down to the animal Greg was cradling protectively and he sighed. "I can force him to change back, but I wouldn't recommend it…that spell's meant for Animagi who are stuck or who refuse to change back when ordered to by law enforcement. It-it's not gentle…it would hurt him and that's the last thing we want right now."

Animagi? Greg was holding an Animagus? Ed froze, realizing there was really only one Animagus who would get this kind of reaction from his boss. After a few seconds of stunned shock, the sniper forced himself to move so he could get a good look at the animal. He moved slower than he had before, suspecting his speed was what had frightened the little creature.

Sure enough, as soon as the animal got a good look at him, he squeaked in clear delight and squirmed out of Greg's grasp. The next thing Ed knew, he was being circled by a small enthusiastic ball of fur and feathers. Illishar landed on his shoulder, squrr-ing as he rubbed his beak against Lane's neck, affection laced throughout the sound. Awkward and painfully careful, Ed pulled the gryphon cub off his shoulder, almost automatically avoiding putting any pressure at all on the hatchling's wings. Illishar squawked at the change of position, then curled up a bit, his eagle talons closing gently around Ed's hand without applying pressure and his paws flexing tiny lion claws out for an instant before they retracted. The little gryphon's head leaned against Ed's chest, right above his heart; small wings fluffed, then settled.

"How?" he managed, staring from Illishar, to his boss, and then to his brother and Onasi.

"Ummm." Roy was eloquent as always.

Giles rolled his eyes and smacked his partner's shoulder. "Here is not the best," he opined. "SRU Headquarters would be better…it's a bit of a long story."

Ed did not miss how his boss's eyes turned a touch desperate when the cub looked to be content with his spot in Ed's grip; the team leader offered the gryphon back to his friend without a lick of hesitation. Greg scooped Illishar up, his expression relaxing as the gryphlet purred and snuggled in, right above Greg's heart. The feathered tail flicked a little as the cub curled tighter and went to sleep.

Of course, getting the baby gryphon out of the airport without said gryphon being spotted was a bit of a trick, especially with the hatchling napping and squrr-ing ever so often in his sleep. Ed finally opted for the trick they'd tried with the Peter Wilkins escort job and moved the SRU truck to a loading area close to the interview rooms. Roy ended up coming along with Greg and his small passenger as well; Ed winced, realizing he'd have to apologize for the black eye his brother was going to have in the morning.

"Roy, I…"

"It's okay," Roy replied before Ed could finish. "I knew I was gonna get a reaction from you…coulda been worse, huh?"

That didn't make it better, but Ed was content to let it rest if Roy was. "So…" he drawled, "Anything you can tell us now?"

Roy considered, his gaze thoughtful. "I think whoever did the forensics on the Impala needs to have their degree revoked," he finally observed bluntly, " 'Cause that entire report was garbage…right down to that bogus 'cremation' theory."

Greg twisted in his seat to meet Roy's gaze, his eyes still haunted, but slowly getting better the longer the little gryphon napped against his chest. "That's what made you start looking?" he questioned.

Roy shrugged. "That was the start," he admitted, "But I'd rather only tell it once."

"Fair enough," Greg breathed.

SRU Headquarters was another hurdle…they were liable to frighten the poor gryphlet half to death if they dragged him into the center of Team One, but doing the introductions one-by-one would leave most of his teammates feeling slighted. Ed nibbled his lip, debated between a few different ideas, and finally decided on a course of action; as he climbed out of the truck, he cast his boss a 'don't interfere' look before he told Roy to give him five minutes, then bring Greg and his guest in. Roy tossed his big brother a mock salute and Ed shook his head as he headed into the station.

Ed was unsurprised to find the whole of his team in the workout room, catching up on the workouts they'd skipped to help their Sergeant through his own personal tragedy; Ed was forced to bite back a wide grin at how the tragedy had been resolved…it hadn't sunk in yet, but it would and when it did…oh, boy, there was going to be one heck of a party.

"Briefing room," he barked, keeping his face straight with an effort. "Let's go."

Team One was used to dropping their workouts at a moment's notice and they quickly streamed into the briefing room. Curious looks were cast in his direction, all of them wondering if this was another team meeting on how to help their sergeant. There certainly had been quite a few of those lately, Ed knew.

Ed waited until all movement stopped, pacing back and forth at the head of the table. "Ground rules," he began, not looking at his teammates. "No yelling, no cheers, and Mr. Scarlatti," he pinned Spike with a mock-glare, "No whoops from you, understand?"

"Ed?" Wordy questioned, a perplexed look on his face.

Ed shook his head slowly, not looking at any of them in particular. "You scare the little guy and it won't be me after you, it'll be Sarge…and he's ticked right now."

"Ticked about what?" Sam asked before anyone else could.

"And what little guy?" Jules followed up.

"Ed, you ready?" Roy asked, poking his head in.

Ed turned, one brow going up. "What happened to five minutes?" He glanced at his watch, confirming that, yes, it had only been three.

Roy fidgeted, then sighed. "The kid woke up…and you were gone…"

Oh…that's just great…what's next, a team sleepover? Ed didn't get a chance to respond beyond a tired facepalm as anxious cheeping came from behind Roy, overlaid with his boss's frantic attempts to calm the little gryphlet down. "Okay, get them in here," he sighed. "At least I got the ground rules done."

Confusion rose exponentially in the briefing room as their boss carried a small brunet gryphon into the room and more than a few worried looks were exchanged…had their Sergeant gone off the deep end?

When the cub saw Ed, he squerr-ed in delight and took flight, flying straight to Ed and landing on his shoulder, just like he had at the airport. Then the hatchling spotted the rest of Team One, every last one of them gawping at him, and he ducked behind Ed as best he could, tucking his wings to make himself even smaller.

After a second or two, the little gryphon poked his head back out and zeroed in on Wordy. The cub took flight again, accidently flicking his tail into Ed's eyes, but the team leader didn't mind at all; he smirked at the look on Wordy's face as the gryphlet plowed into him, squeaking excitedly. The brunet constable didn't get to keep the gryphon long; he flitted to Spike almost before Wordy could register the cub's weight, then bounced over to Sam, still squeaking delightedly. Jules and Lou had a bit more warning then the rest of their teammates had had, but not much as tiny wings swept the hatchling over to them; he curled briefly around Jules' shoulders before literally leaping from her to Lou. Lou caught the cub, to the gryphlet's clear pleasure, but after a second, the cub squirmed free and flew back to Greg, landing on the Sergeant's chest and doing his best to curl up right there. Greg chuckled as he brought his left arm up to support the gryphon cub; his tail curled around Greg's elbow and he settled onto the arm, churr-ing to himself as wide blue eagle eyes regarded the stunned team.

"What the?" Wordy started, then stopped, not sure how to continue. Where had the little gryphon come from and why was Sarge suddenly so much more alive?

When he woke up, Uncle was still there, but the tall, bald man whose name he couldn't remember wasn't. Worry prompted his anxious squeaking; had mean Mummy woman taken tall, bald man away? But then Uncle followed Roy to a room he knew, even if he didn't remember, though he had a flash of being much bigger with baby sister, watching a man trapped by waking nightmares. And, oh, oh! His magic purred, recognizing all of those inside and telling him that he was home. He was confused, this didn't look like home, even if it felt like home. And where was baby sister?

He couldn't help it; when he saw the tall, bald man, he took flight and flew to him, his excitement spilling out. All the staring made him hide, but then his magic sang to him, telling him that he knew them and they knew him and why was he being so silly? So he flew to them as well, greeting them all, before going back to Uncle, who wasn't mad at him, like mean Mummy woman had been.

His magic laughed at him and nudged at him, telling him it was safe to go back to being human and that his humans would recognize him much easier if he was human again. He pouted a moment; he wanted to fly some more, but he wanted home and baby sister more than he wanted to fly, so he concentrated, just like he'd done the one time Daddy had found him like this, and felt his magic dance.

Greg took in his teammates' worried looks and restrained a sigh; he'd recognized Lance as soon as the little gryphon leapt at him, but apparently it wasn't quite as quick a recognition for the rest of his team. Then the gryphlet blurred and Greg only just managed to shift his grip before the four-year-old boy slid to the floor. A brown head craned back and Greg couldn't help his grin as Lance's sapphire blue eyes met his, before the four-year-old turned his attention to the now stunned, silent, and frozen Team One.

As brightly as only a four-year-old can manage, Lance chirped, "Hi, I'm Lance and I'm four!"

"Sarge?" Wordy sounded half-strangled, but he was doing better than everyone else except Ed; they were still stuck on bugged eyes and dropped jaws.

Greg drew breath, but Giles, sailing in and unconcerned over the four-year-old's reversion to his human form, announced, "It's definitely him, Sergeant Parker; Simmons was able to get our 'charming' lady witness to cooperate…she pulled him from the car before it went up."

With narrowed eyes, Ed demanded, "So why didn't she bring him to the hospital?"

Giles' sigh was heavy and he brought out a picture, offering it to the team leader first. "This is why." Greg moved so he could see the picture over Eddie's arm, automatically shifting the four-year-old up so curious blue eyes could peek at the mystery photo, too. A young man smiled up at them, so similar to his nephew that Greg was forced to look twice before he noticed the young man's eyes were green instead of blue.

Ed whistled low and passed the picture to Lou, who stood closest. "And who's that?"

"Daniel Smith," was the brisk reply; Lance hissed from his uncle's arms, earning a raised brow from said uncle. Giles bit his lip, then explained, "He died three years ago; from what Simmons just told me, he and his girlfriend's family got caught up in a case of mistaken address…a couple of techie drug dealers attacked the wrong house and murdered everyone there." With another sigh, Giles added, "Three months after that, his father Apparated in front of a car on his way home."

"Suicide?" Sam inquired cautiously; though the whole of Team One was appalled at the tragedies Daniel's family had endured, the hell their Sergeant, his niece, and they had been forced through overrode all of the team's usual sympathy.

A shrug. "Possible, but we'll never know; he'd had enough Firewhiskey to drop an Abraxan that night."

In other words, Greg filled in silently, drunk. He was still too angry over the situation to feel like a hypocrite, though his teammates likely would have vehemently disagreed with any misplaced guilt on their boss's part. "So," he remarked aloud, "What happened after the accident?" And how had his nephew ended up as a four-year-old?

Giles considered, then spoke carefully. "The witch who pulled him out is Helen Smith, Daniel's mother; from what little Simmons has been able to get from her so far, she used a basic Muggle-Repelling Charm to keep anyone from seeing her pull Lance out of the car and Apparate away with him."

"And she decided to just keep him?" Greg inquired, a deadly look in his eyes, his usual calm vanishing so fast that Lance looked a question up at him.

"She was calling him 'Daniel' at the airport," Roy put in. "When we got her in the interview room, she pulled her wand on Giles, screaming something about how we couldn't 'take her son away from her.' "

"She did what?" Ed growled…a wand on Giles meant his brother had been next.

Giles huffed a laugh. "Lance caught her off guard with his Animagus form," he remarked. "Got free and made her drop her wand at the same time." He rocked back on his heels, eyeing Lance a moment. "What else happened after the accident, Sergeant Parker, is the ten-thousand Galleon question," he mused, a tiny smile crossing his face. "And I think we can answer it with just one other question."

Greg arched a brow in clear invitation for Giles to elaborate.

The Auror leaned in, his focus on the four-year-old. "Lance?" The boy perked up, his eyes meeting Giles' and his head cocking to the side. "Can you tell us why the world is wrong?"

Author note: My profuse apologies for the late posting today. I had everything set up to post this morning...and then ran out the door 'cause I forgot all about it. So, sorry and I'll try to keep more on top of things.