ZEDD - A FEW DAYS LATER

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, Kira and Serena have sorted out their differences, the Ranger reunion was fun - as was the extra day that Thomas and I took for ourselves. I can't help but grin at the memories - and the fact that neither of us was walking quite right when we first got home. Definitely worth it though.

I sigh as I hear both the front door and the communication system go off at the same time. I already know who is at the door and head in that direction as Thomas calls out, "I'll get the call!"

I open the door and barely hold back a growl at the man on the doorstep. I had promised Thomas that I would behave and not instantly go for his throat when he arrived, with the agreement of course that if he did attack my mate again all bets were off. "Mike, Gina - come in."

Before I can say any more, Thomas comes in the room. "Come on in the kitchen. Zedd, the call is for you." On my way to the office, I make a quick detour to the children's rooms to remind them to stay upstairs until we call for them.

Fortunately, the issue is a minor one and handled quickly. I had heard the doorbell while on the call and I know that Dar and Pina are here as well. Thomas wanted Dar to look over the paperwork as well as himself, not to mention get their assessment of both Gina and Mike as future employees. Gina, I think they will agree should be able to manage all right as head of my household staff, Mike - well as long as he doesn't say anything too stupid, they might agree to the idea of making him a contact.

I head downstairs, but stop short of the kitchen as I hear Mike say, "It must be nice for Zedd to have a wife who likes to cook." And so much for not saying anything stupid.

I can hear the amusement in his voice, but suddenly all other movement in the room stops. "What do you mean by that?" Dar asks.

"Nothing, just I know how much Gina hated cooking-"

"That wasn't the part of the comment I was asking about" Dar clarifies, the note of anger clear in his tone, as he's well informed as to why Thomas and I were all right with taking Gina and the children, while leaving her ex-mate here.

"What? The wife thing?"

Head in hand, I listen as Dar with great restraint agrees. "Yes, the wife thing."

"Well, come on, one of them has to be the female, right?"

I can practically hear Thomas stop breathing as Dar responds, "So because he likes to cook and is good at it - unlike Zedd - that makes him female? Sorry, Pina, my love, apparently I'm a female as well."

Pina steps in, ignoring her mate's smart comment. "Mike, where we come from there are no such roles for mates - whether the same gender or not. Dar and I are wed and bonded the same as Tommy and Zedd and as my mate tactfully implied, he tends to do the cooking as, much like Zedd, I do not have a knack for it. We don't have set gender based roles like that. And Tommy and Zedd certainly don't."

"Sure they do. I remember one time that I stopped by to pick up Megan and Zedd was doing the yard work and Tommy was cleaning the house and doing laundry."

"And?"

"And, therefore, Tommy is-"

"Don't say it" Gina snaps. "Don't you dare, Michael."

"But-"

And I've had enough. I step into the room and remark, "See, now, it's comments like that that keep you from being able to go with us. And just for the record, he was the one that mated me into exhaustion last night, not the other way around."

Thomas exhales in aggravation, though I thankfully don't think it's directed at me. "Zedd, how many times have I told you not to discuss things like that with other people?"

"You mean this week?" He rolls his eyes at my attempt at humor. I return my attention to the human at the table, who is now blushing fiercely. "Look, where I'm from, there is no stigma attached to a relationship like ours. In fact, it's celebrated just the same as a male - female relationship. Yes, in some cases there is a more dominant partner, but many times there is a balance - much like in ours. Yes, Thomas does the cooking - mostly because I am absolutely horrible at it and rarely turn out anything edible. And as far as your remarks go about the division of the chores, had you been here the week before or the week after, those roles would have been reversed with Thomas doing the outside work and me attending to the inside."

Taking a moment to think on my next words I decided I have little lose. "And just so you know, I do see why your unenlightened brain is viewing me as the dominant male in our relationship. However you shouldn't mistake my temper and lack of restraint to mean I dominate Thomas. On the contrary he is very likely the only one who can manage to keep me on a leash and force me to watch my temper when it threatens to get out of control, which is truthfully why I didn't come kill you a few weeks back."

"A week" Dar says flatly. We all look at him. "I'd give him a week on Eltar before someone kills him or makes him a pet in retaliation for his insulting attitude and comments."

"We figured three days" I agree still fixing the man with a look of warning.

Gina looks like she wants to sink into the floor in embarrassment. "Tommy, Zedd - I am so sorry."

I stop her. "Don't apologize for him, Gina. First of all, it isn't your responsibility anymore. Second of all, you've never said anything of the kind, which is why I think you'll do fine on Eltar. Third of all, he's a man and an adult - he can apologize for himself. Which I'd highly recommend."

Still looking a bit lost and confused, he mumbles out an apology before pulling out some paperwork. "Here's the papers."

"Dar, would you look at them first?" Thomas asks. "I need to get this going if we're going to eat any time soon."

Dar starts looking them over with Pina looking over his shoulder. Mike starts telling Gina what's in it. I'm only half listening as I cross over to my husband and ask him softly, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I just have the feeling that if he went with us, he'd learn some other things to call me that would make one of us kill him before anyone else had the chance."

Feeling his upset through the bond and knowing the human's words hit him harder then he's letting on, I wrap my arms around his waist from behind and rest my chin on his shoulder. "You aren't a female in any way, Thomas. You are my equal and most definitely all male."

"I know, I just get aggravated hearing it. If it's not Annwyl, it's Jax. If not Jax, than his idiot business associates, throw in Calan and Essa-"

"And as a result one is a pet, the other out of favor with his family, the third in jail, and finally the fourth and fifth dead. Let's face it mate, anyone who underestimates you might as well just accept the fact they are going to either perish or live to regret their stupidity for the rest of their days."

"True."

"Why do you think I try so hard to stay on your good side?" At his look of doubt I continue. "I'm serious, love, I know what happens when you're mad. You scare the hell out of me and I'm Lord Zedd, damn it."

He flashes a quick smile at me. "I know. Thanks, kalleimat."

I give him a quick kiss before retrieving myself a cup of coffee. A glance around the room shows me that most of the cups are empty or nearly so. I fill Thomas' cup first before I do the others. I realize that Mike's watching me even as he continues to talk to Gina. For a moment, I'm tempted to comment on it but then I realize that perhaps he can learn from observing us interact - seeing that we really aren't all that different than he and Gina once were.

Before Dar has finished going over the papers, Mike returns his attention to us. "What I don't understand is how you're going to protect them besides taking them off the planet."

Thomas answers him. "Because Pina, Dar and Zedd are all trained warriors - something similar to soldiers here. I'm a trained martial artist. I hold several black belts. I've also been teaching Mara Jane and Jacob since they were about five."

"Oh." That'll give him something to think about. Perhaps he'll even begin to realize how lenient Thomas actually was the day that he went to talk to Mike about this whole thing.

Suddenly, Dar frowns. "Tommy, you need to come look at this. Some of this phrasing feels off to me."

Thomas goes to wash his hands as he asks, "How so?"

"I'm not quite sure. It just has the feeling of a one time thing to it."

"Well, in a way, it kind of is. The summer visit is just to see if they'd even like it there before a longer term plan is put together."

Exasperated, Dar responds, "I know that. It might just be the way that you humans word your documents."

Thomas takes the pages and reads them over. He sighs and grabs a pencil. "Mike, your attorney is an ass. Did you even read this over?"

"Of course I did! He said that it has to be worded that way for this specific trip and if we want to make changes in the future, we'll draw up new documents."

Thomas shakes his head and starts making changes. "No. Dar's right. The way this is worded, Gina and the kids would NEVER be able to go back to Eltar - even if you agreed to it."

Mike looks stunned. "But he said…" He falls silent. "That's not what I intended. I wanted to make sure that - if Gina and the kids do want or need to go - that we'd have to revisit the entire agreement before they went."

"You might want to have another talk with him then, when you take him these changes." Thomas makes several more changes. "Make sure he understands that they are going to be closely looked at to make sure that he's not playing any more games. I get that he's supposed to be looking out for your best interest, but is it really in your best interest if your children are unhappy? If every conversation you have to have with Gina about the kids has to have an attorney present because your attorney can't be trusted?"

He doesn't look happy. "I'll make sure to tell him."

"What's making you angry?" I ask. "Because your lawyer is trying to screw you over or because you tried to screw them over and got caught?"

"I'm not! Trying to screw them over, I mean! I came up with this vacation idea because I thought it would be good for everybody!"

"Easy, Mike" Thomas cautions. "Understand how this looks in light of your actions a couple of weeks ago."

Gina's eyes narrow. "What do you mean Tommy? And remember before you answer with your own clever double talk that this is the second time you all have mentioned something from a couple weeks back. First Zedd mentioned not killing him and now you with this." Well she's getting quite insightful isn't she now.

Thomas freezes for a minute, clearly having forgotten that she was here. Finally, he says, "When I went to talk to him like you asked me to, he got upset and had a bit of a tantrum."

She glares dangerously at Mike. "Seriously?"

Thomas, forgiving person that he is, decides to throw Mike a bone - in spite of his insults. "He misunderstood, Gina. Somehow he thought that I was part of the threat to you guys and it just took a bit of time to make it clear that that wasn't the case."

"Right. It was just a misunderstanding" Mike parrots quickly, shooting a grateful look at my mate.

Dar opens his mouth to comment, all too aware of what actually happened, but shuts it again quickly at my glare.

"You're too nice for your own good" Scorpina comments absently as she gets up, patting Tommy's arm as she walks by. "As for any misunderstandings, you'd best be aware that our family doesn't like such things Mike. Tommy and Zedd are taking Gina and the children with them despite them having no obligation to - don't press your luck when it comes to such generosity, especially when we have much more pressing things to deal with."

"I hate to say it, but she's right" I agree calmly. "As we've stated before Thomas and I are leaving to protect our own children, they're our priority, so to make this such a difficult matter when we are essentially doing your family a favor, well let's just say there's a reason I have Thomas deal with you rather than do it myself."

"Should let him see who he's dealing with" Dar mutters in Eltarian, shooting me a smirk. "I bet a month's pay he won't argue with you then."

"I really don't think Thomas would be pleased if I made him wet himself on the kitchen floor" I shoot back in the same manner.

Thomas' attention is still mostly focused on the document in front of him when he says mildly, "Manners, boys. Not all our guests speak Eltarian and it's rude of you to do so."

"Sorry." Not really, but still…

Pina laughs. "You beat me to it, Tommy."

"You'll get quicker off the mark once you and Dar have kids" he chuckles back. He passes the sheets back to Dar. "Look that over again, would you please?"

As he turns his attention to dinner and Dar to the papers, I look at Mike. "So, except for the legalities, it's settled, right? They can come with us for the summer?"

"Yeah, I guess so" he responds unhappily. "Why?"

"Because aside the fact we have things to tend to that this nonsense is cutting into our time for - as Pina has just pointed out, I also need to know so I can get their tokens made."

"Tokens? For what?"

I'm rather surprised when Gina steps in. "Where Zedd's from, he's nobility. The tokens are to show that we're under his protection so that nobody will mess with us."

"Among other things" I agree.

"Like what?" Mike asks.

"If we all went to the open market and got separated, they would be able to get back to the estate. With those tokens, they'd either be able to get public transport and we'd pay for it later or the authorities would be able to get them home" Thomas explains.

Pina speaks next. "Or if Gina was going by herself and Tommy or Zedd asked her to pick up something for them, she could use it as proof that she's acting with their authority and the merchants would bill Zedd later for it."

Mike frowns. "So what's to stop someone from just taking it from her or the kids? Or worse - someone forcing them to use it for them instead of for you?"

I really don't know how to begin to explain it to him, since it involves my magic and my reputation. I sigh. "I'm not sure how to answer that." Freaking unevolved planet.

Thomas turns away from the stove and the four of us - me, Thomas, Dar and Pina - exchange looks. Finally, Thomas says, "Look, Mike, we weren't really going to get into this, because, well frankly it's something we don't like to advertise here, however since you must know, Zedd is - well, the closest word we have for it in English is 'sorcerer'. He has power that he can use like magic."

"What, like David Copperfield? Sleight of hand and illusions and stuff like that?"

I'm offended by the comparison, but try to let it go. "While I can do many of those kind of parlor tricks, what I can do goes far beyond any of that. That's just children playing at magic. What I can do is the real thing." Thomas crosses over to a cabinet to get something and runs his hand down my arm as he passes, helping me calm somewhat.

"Uh huh. And what does that have to do with these tokens?"

"They'd be fastened on by my magic and won't come off unless Gina or the children actually want to take them off - which I wouldn't recommend they do at all while on Eltar."

"And why is that?"

Quickly, Pina fields this one. "Because they aren't in the habit of needing something like that so it would be far to easy to forget to put it on before they leave the house and then they wouldn't have it if they need it."

"That makes sense" he admits. "But - again - what's to stop someone from forcing them to use it to benefit someone else?"

Dar laughs. "Zedd's rank and reputation." My eyes widen, almost afraid of what he's going to say. "Well, that and my mate's. You see, while Zedd is an extremely high ranking lord, Pina is the niece of the king and everyone on the planet knows that we're like family."

Pina frowns at him. "Dar."

"I know you don't like bringing it up, my love, but the man needs reassurance that his family is going to be all right and-"

"I know." We all know that if we tell Mike exactly what my true reputation is, there's probably no chance in hell that he'd allow his family within a hundred yards of us.

Mike frowns again. "Well then, you'd be able to keep me safe too."

Oh hell. Seeing the corner he's backed us into, I look to Thomas for help. "Oh we could" Thomas responds calmly. "Until you insult or demean the wrong person and they demand you in compensation. And by the laws and rules of their society, they'd certainly be within their rights to take you and do whatever they see fit with you - be it make you a servant, slave, take your life or worse."

"What's worse than death?"

Softly, seriously Thomas answers, "You don't want to know."

"But you just said Zedd and her reputations-"

"Would demand I hand you over or kill you myself." At his suddenly startled look, I fix the man with a slight glare, growing tired of his attempts to manipulate his way into this. "Listen, no one will attack Gina and the children, because quite frankly I'm considered a very dangerous threat on that planet. To illustrate just how dangerous, the last time Thomas was attacked, while still carrying our son I might add, I didn't even have a chance to handle the attacker myself as he was killed while in custody by a very unlikely 'accident'. He had made a passing attempt at Thomas years before and knowing this the authorities of the planet wanted no chance of a repeat or me retaliating against the planet as a whole due to the attacker being a very high ranking official, which back in my days as a solider, or rather general, would have been the case."

"So to have you go with and throw about comments as you did only a few minutes ago here, implying Tommy is some subservient female or what have you, quite frankly if Zedd or one of us didn't kill you on the spot, everyone within earshot would very likely think he'd either gone completely soft, or completely insane" Dar adds seriously.

"Which puts our family in danger" Thomas agrees.

"Which is something I will not have."

"Wait a minute - Tommy carried Jacob?"

Oh for the love of- "Yes and I carried Mara Jane. So what?"

His voice holds nothing but curiosity. "How? Males aren't designed that way. Human males, at least."

Slightly amused, I answer, "Neither are we, but our medical sciences are far beyond what your species is even remotely capable of dreaming of, never mind achieving."

"Though your species would probably get there much sooner if it would take a minute to get its head out of its ass" Dar mutters, before giving Thomas a quick glance. "No offence, brat."

"None taken, jerk."

At Gina's curious look I elaborate. "He was born fully human before being made into a half breed."

Piping up again, Mike sounds somewhere between awed and jealous. "What's that like?"

"What? Being a half breed?" Glancing back at Thomas who simply shrugs, I give a similar gesture. "I don't know. I would imagine it's the same as being anything else. Though the process he went through to become genetically altered was highly unpleasant as I recall."

"No, not that" the man corrects. "Being able to carry the children."

"Oh, that."

Thomas and I exchange fond smiles. "There's nothing like it" Thomas says softly.

"Nothing in the universe" I agree. "Though I did throw a toaster at him."

"And I did perhaps imply he was big whore" Thomas adds casually.

"Which reminds me" Pina says, cutting off our teasing. "Have you decided what you want next?"

"Next?" Mike asks.

"We've decided to have another child" Thomas answers warily, waiting to see what the human's reaction will be to this piece of news.

Already seeing the next comment before it comes, Pina steps in. "I'm their physician for this and before you make another ignorant statement, there is no female. It's - what did you call it, Tommy?"

"Gene splicing."

"Right. It's gene splicing - taking genes from both of them, combining them, encouraging their growth to a viable state and then implanting it to begin the pregnancy."

"Wow." He sits quietly for several minutes, absorbing this before his curiosity prompts another question. "So who is going to carry this one?" Before we can answer, he holds up his hands. "No. Sorry. That's personal and none of my business."

Thomas sighs. "By this time next year, it'll be more than obvious so you might as well know. I will."

"Which is another reason for our move, if we go ahead with the plan we have laid out, I'd rather he carry the child while we're on a planet that we can reach help quickly should something happen." Because like hell if I will miss the fact something is wrong a second time.

Misunderstanding my statement however, Mike once again says exactly the wrong thing. "What, like you getting attacked?"

Freezing in his work at the counter, I can practically feel my mate forcefully shoving his fear back at the suggestion. "We're not going to be attacked there."

"And even if we were, which is highly doubtful, we'll be only a stone's throw away from help" I state, more to reassure Thomas than anything else now.

"Right." Returning to his meal preparation, I can see I'm going to have to talk with him later tonight, though truthfully I don't know what to say to reassure him past what I've already said over the last few months.

A few hours later, our guests are leaving. After dinner, we showed them some pictures and videos of Eltar to let them see where Gina and the kids will be living. Mike's been surprisingly quiet - not silent, but making far fewer comments than I would have anticipated. I'd caught him watching us a few times while Thomas was tucked against my side. Hopefully he'll get it through his thick head that they'll be safe with us. Not to mention perhaps he'll learn how ignorant his comments about us and our lifestyle are. Sighing heavily, I realize that I've been hanging around Thomas far too much. His forgiving nature and positive outlook are starting to rub off on me.

Looking over at me as he starts to clean the kitchen, Thomas raises a brow at me. "What's the heavy sigh for, mate?"

"You're a bad influence on me, you know" I inform him.

"Oh really? I rather thought it was the other way around. What did I do this time?"

"I find myself hoping that Mike has actually learned something as much as he was watching us tonight. That he might lose some of his preconceived ideas."

"Either way, he's not going with us this summer for sure. Quite frankly, I doubt that he'd change enough to make it possible for us to take him when we move."

I shake my head, amused. "Now you sound like me."

"There's worse things. I'd like to believe that he'll change, but I know human nature and it's very difficult to change beliefs that you've held all your life."

Quickly, we get the kitchen cleaned up, the children in bed and settle in the living room. I pull him onto my lap and kiss him gently. "You do know that we will be safe on Eltar, don't you?"

"As safe as we can be with who we are and who we've been" he agrees. "I mean, I know that Calan isn't an issue anymore and your father has Jax well in hand. I know that most of the residents on the planet wouldn't dare attack with your reputation, kalleimat. My concern falls more along the lines of old enemies deciding that we're vulnerable there."

"Well, as far as the Alliance is concerned, it would be going out of their way to come after us there - thus the reason we're leaving."

"I kind of wish we didn't have to" he admits softly. Not that I don't love our other homes, but we've kind of set up our lives here."

"Considering how reluctant you were to move here in the first place-"

"I've gotten over that - mostly." At my questioning look, he says, "I still wish I'd done things differently - maybe kept Mara Jane from having to fight."

"On the other hand, if that hadn't happened, we might have found out about her powers in a much worse way." I kiss him again. "It worked out for the best, love."

He smiles. "I suppose it did. I don't suppose you'd like to go to bed a bit early, would you?"

I can't help the wicked grin. "Hmm. Go to bed early but stay up late? I think I can handle that."