Chapter 29

Woohoo! finally Ch29! Sorry for the delay! Outside of writing, I'm always busy but i will always come back to y'all! Thanks for reading, leave a review-favorite-follow!

Also: please don't post any spoilers in the reviews! Thanks guys, y'all are amazing 3

Disclaimer: yup, another lemon.

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I sigh. "Alright, alright. I guess it wont hurt to add one more to the fa-" is all I got out before Aella launched herself at me. Her arms went around my neck and she was squealing with joy. Evie was fluttering over to us, so I held my hand out and she gently landed in it, smiling.

"Does this mean I go home with you, Aella?" I heard her tiny voice ask. They both look up at me, so I nod, but my face is still serious.

"Yea. Yea it does. But first we need to find out everything we need for you…" I say out loud.

She's suddenly floating, she slowly gets closer and closer to my face until she can reach out and touch my nose. She plants a tiny kiss on my nose and flutters to Aella's shoulder, grabbing handfuls of the cotton t-shirt to hang on.

"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to go see the fairy gardens today?" Aella asked.

"Yea we need to, especially if we want to know how to take care of Evie so she doesn't turn into a pest. We've gotta lay out some guidelines so nobody steps on anyone's toes or makes this more stressful than it already is." I tell them both, Aella nodding.

Alais left but Evie stayed with us while we got dressed for the day and headed out to the gardens. There was a certain path to follow to the gardens. Along every path were color coded lanterns directing guests along. There were no signs to pollute the views. When we came to a split in the trails, we followed the trail with the purple lanterns. I hear Evie's voice from behind me…

"The lights look a lot better at night when the sun is gone." she says, pointing.

I notice the foliage getting thicker as we follow the purple lantern path. I heard Evie's buzzing wings go past me and she's fluttering in front of us, looking at a tree in full bloom that had low branches blocking the rest of the path. She stops in front of it and turns around to look at us.

"We're here. Please be mindful of where you step, and don't move too fast. There isn't any malicious fairies here, this sanctuary spot is full of healing fairies, and none one them are contagious." She says, smiling and looking at me with the last part. I nod, feeling better about Aella being in here.

She floats back to Aella's shoulder and we keep going, pulling the leaves and small branches to the side so Aella can walk in.

This garden looks a lot similar to the gardens in between the suites: trees, and bushes of flowers everywhere…only this was much much bigger. The main thing that made this garden different was all the things that were used by fairies to make a tiny home for themselves. Bushes, trees, the flower beds, old flower pots, mounds of rocks, and leaves that had been combined together. There were birdbaths everywhere, but you could tell they've been there awhile by the amount of moss completely covering them, making a soft "carpet" for fairies to sit while they drink. There were beds of all kinds of flowers, with random bushes of thick shrubs. It looked out of place at first until you notice fairies have burrowed inside and made a home from the shrubs.

In the center of the garden is an area full of flowers with a small fence around it, people and fairies coming in and out of there.

"That's the fruit garden. It's where the resort grows fruits, vegetables, and herbs for us to eat so we don't have to go hunting for them unless we want to," Evie says.

We make our way to a little section of grass, and we sit down. I'm looking around at everything, until I hear several buzzing fairies behind me. I turn and see Aella holding several fairies in her hand, looking at them with awe. Most of these fairies were larger than Evie… More would come and land on her hand, looking at her intently. Some would flutter in front of her, look her over, and then fly away. Some brought her bits of food as an offering. Evie looked over at me and she floats to my shoulder and sits.

"Overwhelmed?" I ask her.

"No…" her tiny voice says. "…But if I sit with you, other fairies will know to trust you." she finishes.

I hadn't thought about the fairies not trusting me. But sure enough after she said that, a few fairies came to me. One walked along my arm, looking at the blue lines. I held my arms up and for some reason, all kinds of fairies flew to me and landed on my arms, completely filling them. I froze, not knowing what to do, nor wanting to hurt them.

"Uh….Aella….help?" I said calmly. Some were walking along my arm, a few were picking at me and smelling me, most were picking at themselves or looking me over. Aella looks over at me, and busts out laughing. She nods her head at me, and I realize why she's laughing. They were also completely surrounding Aella. She had a few sitting in her hair, some were on her shoulders, most were on her legs as she sat in the grass. All of them listening to her, smelling her, cuddling her.

"Aellaaa.…." I say, now covered in fairies.

"Sit down, let them explore. They won't hurt you. I can feel every single one of them." Aella says with a smile on her face. I slowly sit down and a few more fairies land in front of me in the grass.

"I'll be right back, I know something that will help." I hear Evie's tiny voice in my ear. She flutters away and another fairy flutters over and lands in the spot she was at. Aella stretches out and slowly lays down in the grass on her side. As I watched her, I realized why she laid down. Fairies were walking up to her in the grass and she wanted to make it easier to meet them. A few minutes later, Evie is fluttering back holding something. She lands on the grass in front of my legs and I see she's holding a grape. She sets it down and takes a bite from it like an apple. Other fairies come over and take turns getting a bite from the grape.

I was watching this for a while until I hear a silence come from where Aella was sitting. She was focused on one of the fairies in the grass. She held her hand out and a very small, very pregnant fairy slowly waddled into her hand. She sits down and holds onto one of Aella's fingers. She gently brought her up closer so she could see the fairy. Her tiny hand laid on her belly, and she was breathing hard. A few fairies were floating by Aella's hand, watching over the pregnant fairy. She brought her second hand up for safety and put her hands close to her face. The fairy in her hands touched Aella's face and whispered something to her.

Aella gently put her down and she looked over at me, smiling. Her day had been made.

We were there almost an hour when we both realized we were hungry. After waiting for Aella return goodbyes to literally almost all of them that came to see her.

As we were coming up the stairs to our suite, two of the workers from the main house were knocking on our door.

"Oh! We're right here…coming back from the gardens.." I tell them, as they turn and we see them delivering containers of food from the main kitchen.

"They brought us lunch? How did they know we were hungry?" Aella asks. Evie, who's resting on her shoulders, stands up and leans towards her ear to tell her something. Aella nods, realization in her eyes. She looks up at me, her eyes bright.

"Apparently I'm not the only fairy who can feel what others feel. Once one of them felt that we were hungry, a lot of them felt it, and it spread. Which makes sense as to why the food is arriving before we are.." she says, her last words on a giggle.

I nod, processing what she told me as I take the food containers from the staff. As we walk back into cool inside air, there was a collective sigh…one of them tiny, causing me to laugh.

"That's gonna take me a while to get used to…" I said, chuckling.

I set the food containers on the kitchen counter reminding Aella that she still had last night's food in the fridge. She opened the lid of the food they just brought over, and she instantly decided to eat this one over the leftovers. She doesn't waste any time, she grabs a fork and starts eating. She didn't eat dinner last night and didn't each much of a breakfast. Evie flutters from her shoulder to the counter, peeking into the container at the food Aella is eating. I pulled out a bar stool next to Aella but she doesn't take it. She's devouring her container of food.

Evie walks over to me and looks into my untouched container, and as I pull out a stool for me to sit on I hear her ask…

"Is it alright if I have that mint leaf there?" she says, looking at me and pointing into my dish with pleading eyes. At first I was uncomfortable that she was looking into our plates, but I quickly realized Evie and I eat many of the same things with the difference being that her meal will be much much smaller. I nod at her, and she flutters over my plate towards my salad. She slowly and gently picks up one, careful not to touch the other leaves. She flutters back over to where she was standing and set the leaf down. She sat down next to it and tore pieces from it to eat.

"Is that all you'll eat?" I ask her, making sure she's got enough.

She smiles and nods, "oh yes, this will last me all day, thank you" she says, her mouth full. She looks over at Aella, who's taking her last few bites.

"Aella, you ate that really fast babe…." I said, sliding my hand across her back. She nods and covers her mouth.

"I was starving, I'm sorry.." I hear come from behind her hands.

I go to the fridge and grab her a water bottle to drink, and then I remembered Evie. I look over at her and shes tearing another piece from the mint.

"Evie what do you drink?….or rather, how much do you drink?" I ask her, suddenly curious of everything. She flutters over to me, landing on my shoulder close to my ear. I hear the remnants of a giggle as she lands and walks closer to my ear.

"I drink water when there's nothing else available but I mostly drink the juices from fruits or vegetables. If you've got something small, you can just pour some water in it for me." she says.

".…..How will you drink it?" I ask her, confused.

Aella is chewing her last bite of food, looking at us. I put the water bottle in front of Aella and start looking around for a very small bowl or container to hold clean water for Evie.

"Our hands are very small, so we can pick up a drop of water from a larger body. You can't see them, but we have very small fibers on the palm of our hands. Separate from giving us the ability to climb things, this helps water stay beaded up on our hands so we can drink from it." She says. She pats my ear and flutters back over to her mint leaf.

I grab a water bottle for myself and walk back over to where I was going to sit and eat next to Aella. As I sat down, Aella lays down the cap of her bottle and slowly pours a little bit in there. Evie flutters over quickly, and peeks in. She dips her hand into the water and pulls it back out, holding a drop of water. She brings the drop of water to her mouth and it gets smaller as she drinks it. She smiles at Aella and sighs.

"Thank you" she says, and flutters back to her mint leaf.

I'm a few bites into my food when my phone rings, and I see Ward's name light up the screen.

"Jakoby….." I answer.

"Hey, I know y'all are on vacation and I didn't want to bother but this couldn't wait. Word on the street is they're gonna shut down the sanctuary where Tikka stays. I don't know why, nobody's talking so I was checking to see if she reached out to you yet…" Ward says.

"No, I haven't heard from Tikka in a while…but uh, I can reach out to her and find out what's going on.." I reply. Evie is standing, looking at me. I look over at Aella and she's looking at me too, her plate empty. I nod as Ward gives me other unimportant information and we end the call.

"Everything okay with Tikka?" Aella asks me. Evie's eyes looking from Aella to me, wide with worry.

"I'm not sure. Ward says they might be shutting down the sanctuary where Tikka stays." I tell her.

"Oh no.." she groans. She's thinking for a few seconds and then her eyes go wide.

"Babe..call Dorghu. He might know what's going on, and if he doesn't then he'll get some guys to go over there. Dorghu likes Tikka, he'll take care of her." Aella says. I nod and start looking for Dorghu's number when a strange scent wafts over my nose. I look at Aella and she's got beads of sweat on her forehead, and her breathing is heavier than normal.

"I'll get ahold of Dorghu, head on upstairs and relax a bit. It'll be alright baby." I tell her.

She nods and goes upstairs, Evie fluttering behind her.

I was the phone with Dorghu for a little over 30 minutes, pacing at first but then deciding to sit out on the porch. Dorghu was giving me some information about the sanctuary when Evie was suddenly floating in my face, darting back and forth.

"Nick!…Nick!….Nick!…It's Aella!…." Evie was shrieking, but it wasn't loud because of how small she was.

I stand and sprint into the house, dropping the phone. I charged up the stairs, using my nose as a guide, leading directly to Aella. She was sitting on the floor in the bathroom, next to the toilet. Both toilet seats were up, and the toilet was cycling back clean water from just being flushed. Aella's face had a gray-ish tint, and she was sweating more, her eyes glazed over. I had a flashback from when I found her sick the first time. I remembered the way I felt, finding her like this and not being able to do a damn thing to help. I pick her up bride-style and take her to the bed. Evie came fluttering into the room, out of breath.

"Goddammit I wanted this to work. They told me she would be fine..." I said, thinking out loud. I set Aella into the bed, and she smiled up at me.

"What nonsense are you talking about now?" Aella says, catching me off guard.

"I…the time I found you, sick..." I stammer. "Are…are you feeling okay?" I asked her as I pushed hair from her face.

"Yea I"m fine, I think I ate that food too fast. I feel fine, I just got nauseous from walking up those stairs after eating." She says, grinning at me with a sleepy smile.

I feel her forehead and she feels normal. "Alright then. Get some rest since you're already in bed and look sleepy."

She sits up on her elbows, looking towards the door. "Where's Evie?"

"I'm right here…just…out of breath" Evie says from the foot of the bed, her tiny labored voice. She came walking across the blankets on the bed towards Aella's hand. She flops herself into it sighing. Aella tucks her against her chest as she situates herself into bed. When they're comfortable, they start talking in very low voices. I lean down to kiss Aella's head before I leave the room. I head downstairs and back to the kitchen where I warm up the food I should have eaten an hour ago.

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The next few days at the resort went well. We talked to Alais and she happily helped us through the process of adopting Evie. Dorghu had eventually called back saying he hadn't heard anything about the sanctuary being shut down, but as Aella called it he had a few of his guys go and stay there to make sure the rumors stay false. Surprisingly, everyone got along very well with Poppy. On the way back home Aella received a call from the Chief, congratulating her on her promotion to work with Kandomere on the Magic Task Force.

Currently, we were standing near the conveyor belt of incoming luggage at the airport. Aella explaining to Evie how the belts bring the suitcases to the baggage claim, not realizing that many of our 'normal' things are horrifying to teeny tiny beings, like fairies. (Imagine being a fairy getting caught in a conveyor belt?)

I grabbed Aella's bag from the belt and then I heard distant barking. Aella froze, and spun around to face the direction the of the barking. She leaned and looked around people, searching for the barking. I came over to Aella and she puts her index finger up, telling me to wait. Because I knew what was about to happen, I drop the bags and reach over and grab Evie from Aella's shoulder. Aella's eyes go wide as she sees Dorghu walking our direction, holding a wagging Poppy in his arms. I open my palm and let her float. She watches Aella with worried eyes. Aella starts quickly walking towards Dorghu, when they're feet from each other Dorghu sets Poppy down who runs directly to Aella, tackling her with puppy licks and nips.

I felt a very faint buzzing on my shoulder and I look over at Evie. Her hands covered her mouth in adoration as she watched Aella and Poppy. I remember hearing Aella's voice when we arrived at the suite: I can feel her loving me!

She comes back to us with a huge smile on her face, Poppy in her arms. Dorghu comes over to greet us.

"Whoa..what the fuck is that thing doing here?" Dorghu says, his eyes on my shoulder.

"Oh…this is Evie, we adopted her at the resort." I tell him.

"You didn't have enough shit with the first fairy, you gotta get another one?" Dorghu asks Aella.

Aella glares at him sarcastically. Dorghu picks up some of the bags and we head to his truck that's parked right outside the doors.

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Back at Aella's house, we get everything from the truck to the house and Aella flops onto the couch, exhausted. Poppy sprints around the house, Evie is still sitting on my shoulder. Dorghu leaves soon after we arrive and I walk around to the couch where Aella was. She dozed off and was now softly snoring. I slide my arms under her and carry her to her bed, noticing her scent is stronger than it normally is. Poppy was standing on her two hind feet against the bed, wanting up. I put her on the bed, who comes over and flops down on her legs. Evie flutters over to Aella and kissed her cheek, although it was so tiny Aella wouldn't feel it.

"Come on, we'll let her rest." I tell Evie, who nods in agreement and comes fluttering back to my shoulder.

I walk from the bedroom to the kitchen for a drink when I get a call from Ward. Evie flutters from my shoulder and starts floating around the house, looking at everything. I keep an eye on her while talking to Ward.

He wants me to meet him at his house and go see Tikka. The rumor made him uncomfortable enough to want to go check on her and thought I'd like to go see her too. I agreed with him, and wrote a note for Aella for when she wakes up. I showed Evie all the basics around the house, turned on Netflix for her, filled a very small bowl with water and peeled an orange. She was elated with everything I was doing. She fluttered to me "hugged" my nose.

"Thank you for everything Nick" she said. I still wasn't used to how frail her voice was.

"Not a problem. If you need anything, don't be afraid to wake up Aella or uh….well, that's really all you can do for now. We'll work on getting the things you need to be able to get ahold of us if you need to." I tell her. She lands on the counter in the kitchen next to the peeled orange.

She nods and waves me off as I leave the house.

I happened to come back from vacation on our shift's off day, realizing then why Ward had urgency to go see Tikka. Just over an hour later, we arrive at the sanctuary where Tikka lived. I didn't see any orcs in orange when we walked in. The older elf woman at the desk knew exactly who we were and she didn't even turn around to look at us. She stayed watering the plants behind their purchase counter and said,

"I'll take you back to see Tikka in just a few seconds, these babies back here haven't been fed yet this morning…" causing Ward to look at me with an impatient face.

"Yes ma'am, take your time" I tell her, glaring at Ward.

After a few seconds she sets down her watering can and wipes her hand on a towel hanging from her apron. She smiles at us, "follow me." she says as she motions for us to come along.

As we're walking through the waist high plants towards the back where the potted trees blend into the natural trees, I ask her:

"Is it true that this place is getting shut down?"

"I don't know, I really hope not. I've been threatened my whole life, but this is the only one that worries me. I promised the guy that's seeing her now that I'd give them a few minutes…so I did. But I don't trust him so I'm not giving them very long before I run his ass out of here. He can take his threats and shove them up his ass" she says, stunning both Ward and I into silence.

She's got a serious face on so I explain it to her, hoping it will help.

"Ma'am, with all due respect, the orc that's watching over Tikka isn't gonna hurt her, he's looking ou-" but she didn't let me finish. She stopped and turned around immediately.

"What?…There isn't an orc with her. The orcs left because they didn't want to go to prison. That blue-haired snake of a federal agent is in there with her...and it's about time they're done." she said as she started walking again. I gently grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Did you say a blue haired fed is in there?" I ask her, Ward's wide eyes looking over at me.

She nods and we tell her to stay put here and we'll go. Tikka wasn't exactly hiding from the feds, but she wanted peace. It shouldn't have surprised me that he figured out where she was. Ward and I walk on, now in the natural trees and bushes. I recognize the familiar low hanging willow tree and we stop in front of it to gather ourselves before rushing into somewhere without knowing the situation. Ward was about to walk through the brush but I stop him. We listen for something that's caught my attention. On the other side of the willow vine curtain, is mostly the natural sounds of the pond, birds, and outdoor noises…but just breaking the sounds of that is the slight noise of someone's heavy breathing and occasional low groaning. Ward and I crouch down and move some vines out of the way to peek through without being seen.

At the water's edge is Kandomere, who's removed his shirt and is in the pond, his arms stretched out along the grass edge to keep him steady. His head was tilted back and was the source of the heavy breathing and occasional groans. Once I realized what was going on, I looked for Tikka. I couldn't see her anywhere. I didn't realize I had started growling until Ward put his hand on my shoulder, getting my attention.

"Look…" he said. "Whoever is blowing this dude is underwater. Can elves breathe underwater?"

I shake my head, gladly ridding my head of that disturbing image. I look back at Kandomere and wonder who's under the water.

"I bet it's one of those damn mermaids…" Ward whispers.

Suddenly a head of wet opal hair rises from the water, and her face turns to look in our direction. She smiles and does the "come here" symbol with her finger. I freeze, and Ward looks at me.

"Does she see us?" Ward whispers.

A fairy who was suddenly floating there silently whispered: "Yes. Varina sees and hears everything."

I look back at the mermaid, who's still smiling at us. Kandomere's head is still tilted back like he's asleep. The mermaid says something in a different language, motioning for us to come to her. The fairy, who was till floating near us says: "She said to go see her. There's something she wants to show you both."

Ward looks up at the fairy with confusion and disgust.

"Okay can you go away now? We didn't call you…" Ward whispers to the fairy, shooing him away.

"Ward, shut up and focus. Do you think we should go over there?" I whispered at him.

He nods. "Yea. I want to see the look on Kandomere's face when we catch him doing the dirty.."

I glare at him again, and shake my head at his nonsense.

"Let's go" I tell him, and we stand and walk through the willow vine curtain towards the pond.

Varina smiling at us the whole time. I look around, but don't see Tikka anywhere. When we reach the pond, Kandomere is awake but his eyes are glazed over like he's drifted off into a daydream.

Varina stays floating in front of him, but watches us silently.

She started talking, speaking a different language. Ward sighs and looks at me.

"I don't speak mermaid either…" he says.

"Yea me either..." I say, rubbing my face.

I look at Varina, who's pointing at something behind us. We turn and there's a few fairies sitting on the tree branches several feet behind us. I go over slowly and as soon as they saw me, they tried to fly away but Varina called out something sweetly to them in her mermaid language. Most of them still flew away but one of them stayed, breathing hard from being terrified. He was looking back and forth at me and Varina, nodding at her.

He fluttered over to her shoulder and sat down, and she whispered something to him. Ward was crouched down, looking at Kandomere.

"Hey, what's wrong with him? Did you drug him?" Ward asks Varina, his eyebrows raised. She giggles, and whispers something to the fairy.

"She said no, he isn't drugged." he said to us. Varina kept whispering to him, and he translated everything she said.

"She says the blue haired man came to see Tikka, and he was trying to take her with him but Tikka said no. So Varina… uh…she seduced him with her singing, and so he asked her to …." he was saying.

"OKAY" I said out loud, interrupting the fairy. I did not want to hear the rest of whatever they were doing. I look over at Ward who's looking at her with a confused but curious face.

"You can do that underwater?" he asks.

Varina smiles up at him and she dips back underwater, forcing the fairy to flutter away. After a few seconds Kandomere's moaning resumes. Ward is smiling and nodding, then looks at me. He sees my face of indifference and he loses his smile. I look for the fairy that was on Varina's shoulder but couldn't find him anywhere. I didn't want to stand here while Kandomere was getting special attention so I was about to turn around and go back when I heard Varina come back up. She started talking and pointed to a tree on the other side of the water. It was wide and was embedded into a small cottage that was wedged between two growing trees.

"Tikka." She said. Ward and I both looked at her in unison, and then looked at the little hidden cottage she pointed to. I start walking off towards the cottage when I realize Ward wasn't beside me. I look back and he's kneeling down face to face with Varina.

"Ward! Stop!…" I tell him as I run back over to him. He stands and looks at me confused.

"Man, what?! I was just talking to the mermaid…." he says.

"Ward you don't speak mermaid…and she has the ability to lure you into her spell. Stop looking at her and let's go get Tikka!" I said, turning back towards the cottage.

Ward's mouth slowly falls open and he looks back down at Varina with shock. She smiled and immediately went back underwater. Kandomere stayed where he was, laid about, completely in her trance.

"He wont remember anything, Ward." I tell him as he catches up to me.

When we get to the cottage, we knocked on the door frame. There wasn't a door, but instead there were a few tattered curtains hung up to cover the entrance. Tikka was hiding behind her bed, but when she saw it was us, ran out and jumped into Ward's arms. After a few seconds of hugging, she springs down and then comes to me, kissing my forehead.

"Are we going, now?" She says, looking at both of us.

Ward was looking at her confused, but I nodded at her and said, "Yes. Are you ready?"

She nods, but before as we done to leave, she stops us.

"Wait!" She whispers. "Is the blue hair man stil-.."

"Uh…" Ward interrupts her. "Kandomere is still out there but you don't need to worry about him. That mermaid friend of yours is uh..taking care of him for you. You're safe to leave with us." he says to her. Her eyes soften and she smiles, flashing her set of perfectly white sharp teeth.

On the way out, we pass Varina and she still has Kandomere under her spell. Her entire torso is out of the water, and her face is against Kandomere's face. His eyes are open but completely white. Ward stops and he's staring at them. Varina's eyes were a soft purple, as the light hit them when she looked up at Ward. Her wet pastel hair flowed from her head down her back, and down her chest covering her breasts.

"Ward…" I call him. I'm holding Tikka's hand and I stopped to bring Ward along and prevent him from falling into a spell that has the potential to ruin his life.

He looks back at me, and I signal 'lets-go'. He nods and walks, catching up to us.

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"I gotta come back and visit her…" he says, as we get into my truck.

"Ward that's a terrible idea. She can do whatever she wants with you and you cannot object or stop her when you are under her spell." I try to explain to him.

"Mmmm. That doesn't sound too bad right now.." he mumbled, staring out the passenger window. Tikka sat in the back and wedged herself into a corner and buckled in.

As we drive back, Ward notices that we're headed towards his house.

"Whoa, why are we going to my place?" he says.

"Where else are we gonna take her? I don't have room at my place, and I was assuming you'd take her in since you were urgent in wanting to go get her…" I tell him. Ward sighs.

"Alright fine…" he says, defeated. "..but hey. Me and Sherri are going through…like a rough patch, or whatever…her and Sophia are staying with her mom for now…and I'd appreciate it if you didn't say anything…" he says.

"Ward I'm not gonna say anything. I'm sorry you're having a rough time right now. You're always welcome to come hang out wi-" I try to tell him, but he cuts me off.

"Nahhh I'm fine, I just…I think she just wants a break from everything for a while." he explains, and now I'm second guessing this.

"Well are you sure it's a good idea to have Tikka there?" I ask him.

"Yea I have room for her. No one's gonna come looking for her at my house anyway." he settles.

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We get Tikka settled in at Ward's place and by the time I'm leaving Ward's house, the sun has dipped behind the horizon, but not all the light was gone yet. Halfway through the drive to Aella's house I realize I hadn't looked at my phone for a while, and wanted to check on Aella. I pull my phone from my back pocket and see a missed call from Aella. I call her back…

"Sorry baby, I was busy getting Tikka settled in with Ward and-" I'm telling her but she interrupts me.

"Nick, hurry home please. When I woke up from my nap earlier there was a pool of blood between my legs. I don't know what's going on but I want you here, can you-" she says.

"I'm on my way right now, ill be there in less than 10, don't go anywhere." I tell her while speeding up and ending the call.

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When I get home, I go straight to Aella's room, almost following the floating trail of honey. Poppy and Evie are on the bed, which has been stripped of its sheets. There's a movie on but both of them are looking at me. Poppy's tail was wagging and Evie floated over to me pointing to the bathroom.

"She's in there, Nick" Evie says in her tiny voice before I could ask where she was.

I walk into the bathroom and Aella's in the shower, filling the room with steam.

"Babe….are you okay?" I ask her.

She moves the curtain aside and looks out at me, her face worried. "Yea I'm fine. I think I just started my cycle early. It was just a lot more blood than I'm used to when I start." she explains.

"Well is there anything you need me to do?" I ask her as she goes back into the shower.

"No babe, I just want to lay in bed with you. And I'm starving." she says.

"Want me to order something?" I ask her, but I already knew the answer. I was about to suggest the usual Chinese take out but before I could say anything, she blurts out "babe I want a sandwich from Wexler's!…."

"oohhh I haven't had a sandwich from them in a while, that sounds good." I bounce, bringing up their menu on my phone. She turns the shower off and she pulls her towel in. She pushes the curtains to the side and steps out of the shower, immediately going to shut the door. She drops the towel from around her body and comes to me, bringing her arms around my neck. Her lips found mine and she leaned against me, her hand sliding down to rub my cock. She successfully distracted me, and I forgot I was ordering food. I slid my phone into my back pocket and pulled her against me. Her hands slid my shirt off and I brought my mouth to her neck. I pulled one of her legs up around me and pushed my cock against her. Her breathing started getting heavier, so I picked her up, turned her around and put her against the wall.

"Are you trying to start something? You just said you started…" I whisper.

"I don't care if you don't. I just know I really want you." she says, looking down to watch herself grind against me. I put my index finger against my lips, signaling her to stay quiet. She nods and I bring my mouth to hers.

I unbuttoned my pants and pull out my growing cock, sliding it against her wet folds. Her moans were quiet, but started to grow as my large head rubbed harder against her, wanting to push inside. I felt her hips shift angles and push down, forcing my cock to slide into her tight pussy, causing me to groan. My arms slid around her and I found my lips at her collar bone, leaving soft kisses to distract myself from how good being inside her feels. She lowered and adjusted herself, her breaths ragged from my cock completely filling her. Keeping my instinct urges under control was challenging, I wasn't used to not being in control.

Her hands are on my shoulders, balancing her so she can grind and rotate her hips. Her moans and breathing are deeper, and I start to feel a tug in my groin. I grip her ass and follow her grinds, a low growl growing in my chest. Her bouncing tits are in my face so I take one in my mouth, causing her to gasp. I pull her down onto my dick and I thrust up in tune with her rhythm, and her breath catches.

"I want it hard again…" she whispers while grinding on me. "I'm gonna come Nick…"

Without thinking about it, I grabbed her waist with both hands and lifted her up a bit, then roughly pulled her back down, over and over. Finally getting a glimpse of how I've craved to fuck her, my growl grew a little louder, but still wasn't covered over her climactic screams.

I feel her hot pussy gushing and pulsing on my cock…her body softens as I feel the tug from my groin getting stronger. Her arms tightened around my neck to hold herself up while I held her ass and kept pounding my cock into her. I look down to watch my shiny cock disappear in her pussy over and over, her shiny lips spread out, red and swollen.

"Ah fuck I'm gonna come…" I managed to get out between breaths. Her legs tightened around me and I feel her bite my neck while she's moaning.

I push my cock as deep as it'll go as I feel my explosion fills her, releasing a growl I didn't know I was holding. I set her butt on the counter by the sink, and gather myself. Her body is completely limp, her eyes relaxed. Her cheeks are flush and she has a gentle smile on her mouth.

"Are you okay?" I ask her, and she nods, her smile growing.

I grab her towel from the floor and slowly pull out of her, cleaning any mess we made.

She grabs a different towel and wraps it around herself. She opens the door to the bathroom and that's when I realize that we weren't alone. I had completely forgotten that Evie was right in the next room, and had just heard everything. Aella walks into her room, the steam from the bathroom escaping with her. She closes the curtains, and turns on the tv and her bedside lamp. Poppy is sleeping soundly near Aella's pillow. Evie isn't in the room.

"Where's Evie?" She asks me as I walk from the bathroom.

I shrug, "I'm not sure, she was here when I came in…" I say as Aella walks past me out of her room, looking for Evie. I'm not ready to face Evie yet, so I don't follow.

I hear Aella having a conversation followed by laughter so I assume she's found her. I take my pants off and realize I need a shower as well before I get into bed.

"Yea you do…" Aella says casually, walking back into the room and straight into her closet. I freeze and process what just happened. Aella hasn't said anything yet. I shrug it off and walk into the bathroom to start my shower. Right before sliding my boxers off, I turn around to shut the door and Aella is standing there suddenly.

"Jesus!" I yell, startled. Her eyes are wide, and she's silent. "What's wrong babe.." I ask her.

"I….I just read your mind." she says, looking around, processing her realization. She looks at me. I'm nodding at her.

"Yea…I was wondering the same thing…." I tell her. "Did you pick up another power somewhere?"

She laughs, "I hope not…" and she walks back out.

Several hours later, we're laying in bed with Poppy and Evie. I'm the only one awake, listening intently to a late night talk show. I couldn't sleep so I had the volume low, even though Aella was a deep sleeper lately. Aella's foot jerked suddenly and gently knocked against my leg, catching attention away from the show. I notice her mumbling something, and she starts shivering. I slowly pull her against me and pull the comforter over her. She mumbles again, and starts whining. Her breaths are quick and her body starts twitching. Not wanting to wake her from a deep sleep, I hesitate on putting my hands on her to calm her from her dreams. Her body relaxes finally…but after a few seconds, I smell something sweet right as she starts crying. She's sobbing when I slide my arm under her and bring her to my chest.

"Aella.." I whisper..

She resists my arm and pulls back, gasping and sobbing louder. I let her go and get out of the bed.

"Baby…" I gently call her, trying to wake her. I reach over and pull the comforter from her and there's a pool of blood under her butt, the middle her pajama shorts are soaked in blood, as well as between her thighs. Stunned into silence, I instantly felt guilty. Her sobs woke her up, and she opened her eyes still crying. She sees me, and sits up looking at me confused. She follows my eyes and looks down. Her face goes pale when she notices the blood.

"Aella…are you o-" Aella's eyes rolled back and her body went limp, falling back onto the pillow.

"Fuck" I rush to her to get her out of the bed but Evie is suddenly floating directly in front of my face, between me and Aella.

"Nick, Wait! WAIT!" her little voice yells, her arms up. I step back, getting agitated.

"Evie I have to get her to the hospital, I think I accidentally hurt her..." I tell her. I was completely humiliated at confessing, but I needed the truth to be out there.

"I might have been a little too rough earlier bu-" I was trying to explain but she held her hands up.

"No need to explain, Nick. I understand, and I'm not judging either of you. I don't think it's you that's making her bleed. She smells different…" Evie said.

"What?…I haven't picked up any changes in her smell. But then…what's causing this?" I ask her.

Her face says she knows, but her face is also worried.

"I…I can't Nick. It isn't my place.." she says, slowly backing away from us.

"What?…Evie what the hell is going on?" I ask her, getting agitated again.

Her eyes are soft, but worried. "Nick, she's fine, just get her to the hospital." She says, before sitting back down on the corner of Aella's pillow.

I pick up Aella and wrap her in a clean blanket before taking her to my truck. I go lock everything up, almost having this routine down to a habit, except right before I shut the door, Evie comes and sits on my shoulder.

"I'd like to go, if that's alright…" She says, timidly.

"Yea that's fine, get to the truck…" I said through a sigh.

.

I carry Aella into the ER doors at the hospital and a few nurses recognize us and immediately run to me and look over Aella. I tell them what happened while they guide me into a little trauma room, where I set Aella on the bed. Evie floats above everyone to stay out of the way. A nurse holding a clipboard tilts her head, signaling me to follow her. I step around the corner with her.

"How's it going, officer Jakoby?" she asks with a maternal tone.

"I….we were uh…I-I didn't mean to hurt her…" I tell her, stammering, and not able to keep a straight thought. I couldn't focus on a single thing under the weight of the guilt and seeing her in pain. She nods her head and puts her hand up.

"Jakoby we all know you both very well here. We know you wouldn't think of harming her. We're gonna get her looked at and get to the bottom of what's going on, okay? You don't need to worry about a thing, she's gonna be okay. I highly doubt you had anything to do with this." she says, her hand on my arm. She tilts her head back towards the waiting room. I sigh, and follow her.

"I hate this goddamn waiting room." I tell her, as we walk in together.

She nods, understanding. "I'll have coffee and breakfast brought to you. Shall I let the little one know where you are?" she asks. I had already forgotten about Evie.

"Yea…yea, have her come in here. And thank you for the breakfast." I nod at her. She smiles and exits.

I'm pacing around the waiting room for over 40 minutes, eyes stinging from stress and lack of sleep. I hear the door and look over to someone holding the door open for her while she flutters over to me.

"Nick!" I hear her little voice yell out, waving at me.

I turn and hold out my hand so she can rest. She lands and immediately lays down, completely spent.

"Thank you" she says graciously, panting.

"Of course. When you catch your breath, let me know what they said. I'm about to lose my mind…"

She nods, laying her head on her arms. Her little chest is beating so rapidly. I turn and cover her with my other hand.

"I have an idea. Relax, I'm gonna cover you while we go to my truck. I've got a few dried Crocosmia in my glove box." I say out loud, walking out of the waiting room. I hear a tiny audible swoon from in my hands, and it makes me chuckle. Halfway through the parking lot I peek in at her, and she's laying on her tummy with her limbs spread out so she doesn't roll around as much. She smiles at me and her wings flicker. She's still panting so I cover her again and keep walking to my truck. I get into the drivers seat and gently set her onto the middle arm rest. She sits and rubs the soft fabric. I reach into my glove compartment and pull out a small folded cloth. I gently unfold it and reveal three Crocosmia flowers, still full of pollen. I set it down next to her and she gasps. She quickly moves over to it and puts her hands in the dust. Her panting slows, almost immediately. She breathes deep and puts a few of her covered fingers in her mouth. She falls back onto the arm rest, and her eyes are closed. Shes smiling and writhing around, her hands between her legs. When she starts lightly moaning, I look around to see if anyone else was around, and I just keep my gaze elsewhere. I feel awkward just sitting here while she does her thing, and I don't really care to watch. I hear her little whines get higher pitched and ragged over her breathing, and it reminds me of Aella. I can't help but glace over at her, and i accidentally watched her come. Her body tensed up and trembled, when suddenly she started lightly glowing and then "pop" like a spark of electricity hit her, causing some of her tiny glowing scales to fall off her. Her breathing slows and she looks up at me, timidly. She bends her legs in front of her, and hides her face behind them.

"I'm so sorry Nick…I forgot you were there once I got my hands into the flowers…..I've never done that in front of anyone…." she says softly.

"Hey, I don't even know what happened. Don't be ashamed about anything, you aren't hurting anyone. Are you feeling better?…" I ask her. She peeks over her little knees at me and nods.

"Alright…do you think you can take a few of these petals and give them to Aella?" I ask her.

She immediately stands, nodding.

"Yes, absolutely! Let's go!" She goes to the Crocosmia but I stop her, covering the flowers with my hand.

"Wait. These stay in my truck. I'll give you a few petals and carry you back into Aella's room, or as close to it as I can get. Deal?" I explain.

She nods, "Let's do this!" she says, smiling. I pick off three small petals and put them next to Evie. I fold up the cloth and put them back into the glove compartment. I look back over at Evie, who's stacked the petals into one pile so she can pick them up. She climbs into my hand holding the petals against her body. I walk through the bright lobby, past the waiting room and nurse station, and Evie guides me the rest of the way to the room they moved Aella to. We walk in and the room is empty, except for a sleeping Aella. The room was dimly lit with one light over the monitors. I stand next to the bed and set Evie down on Aella's chest. She walks over and I gently part Aella's lips, so Evie can tuck the petals into her gums. She does so, flawlessly and easily. She plants a small kiss on her cheek and flutters back over to my shoulder. She sighs and sits down, grabbing a handful of my shirt to hang on. I lean over and kiss her forehead.

As we're leaving the room and walking down the hallway, the nurse from earlier rounds a corner and smiles when she sees me. As she gets near she says, "Sweetheart, do you mind if I speak with officer Jakoby alone, please?" she asks Evie.

"Of course! I'll head over by the waiting room Nick" she says, and flutters off.

"I don't think you'll remember me specifically from her last visit, but I was one of the main nurses working on Aella's case. I'm glad to see you guys again…" she says.

"Yea, hopefully next time, it's under better circumstances…" I tell her.

I didn't mean to be sarcastic, but I was exhausted and she sounded like she had news about Aella.

"Here, let's go back into Aella's room. I don't feel comfortable talking about this in the open." she says, walking past me. I turn and follow her, stuck on her saying she wasn't comfortable talking about it. We enter Aella's room quietly and as soon as the door shuts, I ask her.

"What do you mean you aren't comfortable talking about this in the open? What's going on now?" I ask.

She smiles looking at Aella, but her eyes were full of worry. She looks over at me smiling and says,

"Officer Jakoby, Aella is approximately 8 weeks pregnant."