A/N 12-15-03: This end of this chapter is now found in Ch. 15 in order to comply with the requirements that all chapters contain story content.  Breaking the chapter allows me to comply with the changes without losing reviews.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

A/N: Thanks for reviews on Ch. 13 to Taith Ant, Tanny, Jessica, indigo, and Casey Toh. Further author's notes and acknowledgements follow in Ch. 15.



Ch. 14: Going Home

The man who answered the door was none other than Joe. On seeing Renée, he pushed past Pete and grabbed her arm and started pulling her into the house. Pete had been pretty levelheaded up to then, but he grabbed Joe's arm with his left hand and drew back his right fist and punched the bigger man in the temple, knocking him out in one blow. After making sure Renée was alright, he continued on in. Calador stayed behind and made sure the man wasn't moving.

We entered the living room. A man lay passed out on the sofa, and a woman sat in a chair not far from him. She flinched when we walked in, seemingly scared of Joe coming back. It was obvious she had been beaten. One eye was swollen shut, and there were bruises on her arms and face. When she saw Renée, she hurried to her. From the way she moved, I guessed the beating had left her vision somewhat blurred, and I don't think she realized our clothes weren't simply costumes. She recognized Renée easily enough, but her mind wasn't clear enough to realize the strangeness of our party.

"Renée, you've got to get out of here. Joe just left, but I think he'll be back, and Mike will wake up any minute." Looking at the rest of us, she added, "I don't know who you all are, but I need you to leave. Renée, can you go with them?"

"Amanda, they're my friends. Joe isn't going anywhere any time soon." Renée tried to convince the other woman, but Amanda was still unsure.

I didn't want to get caught by the police, or any of Mike's thugs, so time was of the essence. Not wanting to take time to try to convince her, I simply told her in Sindarin that we had a portal, that we could all go, but she needed to come with us. She stared at us a moment, confused, before nodding her assent. She was stunned, but gathered her senses quickly, then ran back to her room and returned with a book, probably a diary. We started to leave, but when Amanda saw Calador standing over the unconscious Joe, her jaw dropped. He grabbed her elbow and guided her as gently as he could out of the house.

"Come on people, let's go," Pete said. "We should probably camp out at my house for the night and try to go back in the morning once the drunks have gone to bed." He led us back to the nursing home. He went inside and came back a moment later with the keys. "Why didn't I think to grab the keys earlier?" He asked, before answering himself. "Because it would have been too easy. Every trip into that building makes this whole escapade even more delightful, not to mention precarious."