Not All Wishes…

It had been a month since the night he commuted home with her and Tyr was still frustrated with his lady. She hadn't made him take the bus home with her since that one night. She no longer went to the bus stop at all after her evening shifts. She simply followed him to his car and let him drive her home. But that was all she did. She still didn't talk to him on the unit or during their rides. Mostly she crocheted or hummed along to the music on the radio before falling asleep. He wanted more from their relationship, a relationship she refused to acknowledge that they had.

He was still putting subtle pressure on her to move into his basement for her safety and for her sanity. That little brat had come up with many more cruel pranks to pull on his poor coworker. She'd even tried the Home Alone style scalding doorknob trick. Abhaya was diligent in recording these incidents, reporting them in real time to the exhausted mother and sending written summaries to her with her monthly checks. It was during one of these nightly runs that she saw the fire trucks.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Lila cried, wrapping the stunned girl in a relieved hug. "I wasn't sure if you worked tonight! I-"

"What the heck is going on?" Abhaya said, barely able to hear anything over the ringing in her ears. "Why is the fire department here?"

"Ma'am, are you the resident from the downstairs apartment?" a police officer asked calmly as one of the firefighters walked by carrying an ax. She nodded, still stunned.

"Well, ma'am-"

"Abbie, please," she said numbly, her gut in knots.

"Well, Abbie, it's safe to go downstairs now. The fire is out. Unfortunately, there wasn't much left in the way of possessions. We've determined that it was a faulty wire on that dryer in the laundry room that started the blaze. It's a good thing that your landlady's daughter called us about it when she did or the whole house could have gone up. As it is, we're still testing to see if-"

"You did this," she spat vehemently at her landlady suddenly. "You destroyed - oh God, my things!" No longer listening to the officer, she ran to her apartment, pushing past the fire fighters. The scorch marks on the walls were enough to bring her back to reality. The girl looked around the ruins of her apartment and started to weep. Everything was gone. All of her things… She basically just had the clothes on her back and the things in her backpack now. All the… all the commissions she'd been about to mail. They were gone. Her DVDs were twisted hunks of plastic. Her evidence that her landlady was a bad one was gone.

Or was it?

Heading to the bedroom like a guided missile, she stopped dead on seeing her college yearbook half burnt on the floor. Somebody had stepped on it, there was a perfect imprint of a boot on what was left of the front cover. She didn't realize that she was sobbing until a pair of strong arms wrapped her in a hug. The now homeless woman sobbed into his chest for a long while.

"These were… They were precious memories. The best years of my life," she choked on the words, feeling hatred for the first time in her short life. Black and poisonous, it bubbled up out of her gut. She'd never had anything to lose before. She'd never… Allowed herself to have anything worth losing because where she came from those were the things her evil parents went to first. Now she knew why she'd never allowed herself to care back then. Her heart was breaking and all she wanted was for the woman responsible for her devastation to pay.

Spying her computer in a relatively unscathed part of the room, she pulled away from her comforter and went straight to it. The monitor was burned to a crisp and useless, but the actual computer…

"I have to get this… I need to extract-"

"Abbie, you need to calm down."

"Abbie, I'm so sorry. I-"

"I am going to sue you for everything you are worth," she shouted in her father's boardroom voice. "Everything I had… This place was my world, and you burned it. You knew that dryer sparked; I mentioned it in every letter with my rent checks for the past two and a half years! And are we sure this wasn't some prank gone wrong from that awful daughter of yours? Where do I go now! Who's going to help me out at one in the morning? I don't have family to take me in; I'm on my own in this city! Everything I owned was here; I only have the clothes on my back and whatever I happened to take to work with me today to live off of! I-"

"Ma'am, if you plan to pursue legal action against this woman, I would suggest that you document everything that you have lost. Attach a monetary value to it and try to find a way to verify that amount. The investigation is still ongoing; we haven't ruled out arson yet. And I would suggest that you find those letters you sent to her. Even if it was an accident, you'll have a pretty strong case in Small Claims Court."

"I think those letters burned in the fire," the older woman said desperately. "Abhaya, this is nobody's fault. It was just an act of God. Please calm down. We can work something out if we just-"

"So you can do this to some other poor sap? I haven't had heat in here since I moved in! Now all my clothes are gone and it is the middle of frigging winter! There will be no deals. I will see you pay for this! You're going to pay for all of it!" The enraged woman stormed out of the ruined basement apartment, almost stumbling under the weight of the few things she still owned. All of her clothes, even her graduation robe, was cinders on her closet floor. Her space heaters were so much scrap. All her books were ashes. In fact, the only things left relatively unscathed were her computer and the fireproof box she'd bought when she first moved to this country. Thank God she hadn't lost those documents and materials. Her current identity hinged on them.

Clutching them to herself awkwardly, she contemplated where the hell she was going to go with these things. The only thing she could think of was 'sleep', but she stubbornly pushed her exhaustion aside to rack her brain. Chris was a night owl. And he'd been the one to put her computer system together in the first place. If anyone could save her data, it would be him. But did he work tonight? The girl pulled out her cell phone, still clutching her things to her. But before she could dial her oldest friend, the phone was out of her hand. Tyr glared at her as he deliberately turned the phone off.

"Who do you think you're calling at this time of night?"

"I have to… Chris is the only one that can possibly-"

"And it'll keep until morning. Come on, let's get you to my place." He tried to grab the black box from her precariously stacked belongings and blinked when she almost let the computer fall just to hold onto it.

"I can't- I can't lose this," she said a little wild eyed.

"And you won't," he soothed, prying the computer from her instead. "You need to call the unit and tell them that you won't be around for a while. You have to fill out forms and give a statement and shop for a new everything. In fact, that's who you should call now. Call and tell them you won't be in tomorrow and that you need to make arrangements with the boss for an extended leave so you can put your life back together. You've never taken a vacation day in the two and a half years I've known you. Hell, you barely take sick days. We can make arrangements for this emergency situation."

"I… I don't have a home anymore," she sobbed suddenly, dropping to her knees. "I don't have anything anymore. I've never… I promised myself that I would never have just nothing again."

"You have me," the muscular man said quietly. "You have your life. You have these possessions. It's not much, but you have these things." He pulled the crying woman up off the pavement and held her tight. "You're not left with absolutely nothing. Lila is going to be made to pay for her negligence, and in the meantime, you will be living with me in my fully furnished basement apartment. We'll work on getting you a new array of stuff to call your very own." He handed the phone back to her and smiled disarmingly. "Make the call." The emotionally and physically exhausted nurse called the unit to take a personal day. Spying a camera crew pulling up to the scene, she turned away in a panic and dove into Tyr's car. That was all she needed, her face in the news and romantically linked to Alberta's second most eligible bachelor. Tyr didn't seem to want the attention either, putting the computer in the trunk with her other things and driving away quickly before the reporter could get her crew together to interview him.

Tyr was furious with Abbie's landlady. How could she let this happen? How could she let a fire get so out of control that it consumed his woman's life like this? What was she doing while Abbie's life went up in smoke? Fanning the flames? Growling in frustration, he made a note to talk to his family's lawyer and see if there was a way to expedite the Small Claims process. Little Abbie didn't have years to wait for this to go through.

"Are you hungry?" he asked as they passed an A&W restaurant. Abbie looked at him with such contempt that he turned away.

"I just lost everything and you think I want to eat?" she said softly. Tyr felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at that deceptively gentle voice.

"I'm sorry, Abbie. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. I don't exactly know how to react."

"No, no. It's fine. I'm just… I feel so lost right now. And I shouldn't be taking it out on you. You've been nothing but nice and helpful these last few weeks. I'm sorry."

"I want you to get mad, Abbie. For God's sake, someone took your home away from you! It's okay to be angry about that."

"But it's not okay to be angry at you, Tyr! The person responsible for my misery is half a city away and probably doing her best to discredit me so that she doesn't have to pay for ruining my life. You warned me again and again that it wasn't safe in that place. Now I have nothing. It's- oh my God, is it three in the morning? It's three in the morning and if I hadn't happened to have accepted a ride from you tonight, I would have walked up to find my life destroyed and likely have taken a swing at that woman and ruined my chance for a nice, clean court case. No, it's not you I'm angry at! It's- why are you smiling at me?"

"You said my name," he said with a sexy smirk at her while they were stopped at a stop light. She mentally replayed the last few sentences in her mind and cringed when it turned out that she had said his name, something she had promised herself that she would never do. Damn Lila! If not for this disaster, she'd be home in bed, dreaming of this wonderful man that she couldn't have. How the hell was she going to survive living with him on a daily basis?

"I… I didn't mean-"

"No take backs," he laughed, peeling down the street as the light turned green. The two made it to Tyr's house in record time. Fortunately, there were no cops around on the way. While they were on the road, Tyr called out of work, taking a regular sick day to do it. He was exhausted. He also called to cancel movie night with his sister, fully anticipating a day of shopping and receipt-saving. He would likely have to bring her to this 'Chris' character to recover her files and then talk her out of staying with him instead. Ugh… it was going to be a long day.

Thankful that it was Esperanza's day off, he parked his Jag in the garage after using the automatic garage opener and made his way into his house. He was so tired that he didn't notice that there was no gasp at the extravagance of his car collection. The girl simply seemed to accept it as she made her way tiredly into the mansion Tyr called his home.

Once inside, the man gathered toiletries for his guest. She looked over the house with an artist's eye and was mildly impressed. She'd grown up in the lap of opulence after all. Not that he needed to know that. Accepting the small bundle, she followed him to a walk-in closet that housed his towels and washcloths. He handed her a set and moved on to his room to get her something to sleep in. She stayed at the closet door and waited for him to come back from his room with the clothes, not wanting to know what his private sanctum looked like. She could already imagine it. The home had an architectural design reminiscent of the Roman Era of decadence. It was lavish and she didn't want to see what that decadence would translate to in his private rooms.

Tyr didn't seem to notice her inner turmoil this late at night. Instead, he came to her frozen form with a pair of flannel pajamas and led her to the basement suite he'd been bragging to her about all this time. The place was HUGE! And it was furnished, something the girl could appreciate this late at night. She didn't bother to explore her new digs, just found the bedroom - which was blessedly warm - changed into the clothes provided, folding her scrubs carefully as they were the only clothes she had left, and climbed into bed. Tyr went to ask her something about her phone chargers, but she was already asleep. Smiling softly at the sleeping woman, he turned and headed back to his own rooms, falling asleep almost immediately. It may not be the ideal situation, but it seemed he was going to get that closer relationship with her after all.

Damn! That sure escalated quickly! And it's gonna get worse before it gets better. See y'all next chapter. :D