Chapter 39: Adult Life

They'd spent years finding and meeting strange supposedly fictional characters, but this was the first time they had come across someone who knew something about it. Doctor Deaton had given them some answers about why they kept meeting supernatural, mythological, and (in general) fictional people. Now that they knew this, Elise and Marie were determined to find out more about it. They also wanted to see if there were more Erudites out there.

However the first thing they had to do was start their adult life. They made it to Portland around three in the afternoon and went straight into the offices of J&G Publishing. Stepping into the air conditioned building, they were greeted by a receptionist then shown to a meeting room where they met Cam Jackson and Amelia Garcia (the J and G of J&G Publishing). They were also introduced to their manager, Adaeze Carter. The three women were glad to finally meet their new employees and began working out a contract right away. A lawyer sat in the room as well giving suggestions and writing down notes to make the contract official later.

When all was said and done, Elise and Marie were officially travel journalists allowed to travel wherever need be on company expense in order to get their story. Their focus while traveling would be to cover stories about culture and tourist hotspots versus off-the-beaten-path wonders. They still had to get travel and story ideas approved, and they would have deadlines to abide by, but overall they were very pleased with how the negotiations went.

They finished up with J&G Publishing by seven o'clock, and went to find food. Apizza Scholls made an excellent first dinner in their new home. The two women then found a hotel with a vacancy and turned in for the night.

# # #

The next two weeks were quiet on the supernatural front, but very much active on the adult life front. Elise and Marie managed to find a three bedroom house available to rent in the Grant Park neighborhood, and quickly snatched it up before someone else took it. Moving in was a difficult task considering majority of their stuff was still back in Minnesota, but they were used to living out of a suitcase. They were just debating on where to go furniture shopping when Elise's phone rang. "Hello?"

"Elise! It's Sarah!"

"Oh my god! Sarah! It's been forever!"

"No kidding! So I heard you and Marie were back from your world tour. Where are you staying? Cuz I'm back in San Francisco visiting Piper, Phoebe, and Paige again."

"We just happen to be in Portland. Just signed a lease together to rent a house."

"What? You're setting down roots?! You get a job there or something?"

"Yeah and you'll never believe it! We got the job, Sarah. Travel journalism with freedom to travel pretty much wherever we want!"

"That's so awesome! Congratulations! And Marie?"

"She's my photographer. I'm the writer." Elise was excitedly pacing through the living room and kitchen as she spoke while Marie rolled her eyes and kept unpacking her books that would go on the bookcase in the living room.

"That's great! And hey! I'm actually headed up that way for a job interview with a local TV station in a couple of days!"

"You should stay with us! We've got an extra bedroom! There's no bed in it as yet, but I've got an air mattress you can use."

"That would be awesome! Thanks!"

Elise finished up with Sarah, telling her their new address and confirming when she would be there before hanging up and turning to Marie. "We're gonna have a house guest!" she announced.

"Yeah, I noticed," Marie commented, pausing in her alphabetizing of authors. "When will she be here?"

"This Thursday sometime in the afternoon!"

"Great! That leave us plenty of time to unpack. Now get over here and hand me all of the books that have authors whose last name starts with G."

# # #

The week passed quickly and Sarah Williams arrived around five o'clock on Thursday evening. The three spent the evening eating take-out Chinese, drinking cheap wine, and catching up with each other. Friday morning, Sarah went to her interview to be a communications specialist at a local news station and returned feeling really good about the whole ordeal. Sarah stayed with them for the rest of the weekend. There was still much unpacking, moving, and setting up of things to do making the third woman greatly appreciated.

After unpacking all day on Friday and Saturday, the three women decided a night out was in order. They slipped into some clean clothes after a shower each and headed out to the Pearl District and the Bridgeport Brew Pub. Sarah, Elise, and Marie sat at the bar next to a tall lean black man and a short blond woman who looked like they were a couple. They placed their drink orders (a 7 and 7 for Elise, Kinky Martini for Marie, and a Manhattan for Sarah) and couldn't help overhear the blond next to Elise say to her date, "Everyone should know how to pick a lock. It should be part of a basic skill set."

"Not everyone plans on breaking into places for a living," the man countered.

"No, but you may need to one day and if you don't know how…" she trailed off and shrugged before taking a sip from the bottle of beer in front of her.

"I agree," Marie piped up. "I mean, you never know when you'll need to get yourself out of something or into something quick and lockpicking is the only way."

The blond turned to look at Marie with a smile. "See, Hardison! Told you!"

The man let his head hang as he shook it before looking back up at the three women now paying attention to him. "Parker, I'm just saying it's not something that would be a standard need."

"Elise!" Marie whispered excitedly. "That's Parker and Hardison!"

"Yeah, I picked that up all by myself actually," Elise rolled her eyes but was still grinning.

Both women had thought about the possibility of meeting the Leverage team while living in Portland. In fact that was why they chose the Brew Pub that night, but they never thought they'd meet them this soon! "Sorry," Hardison smiled at the three women. "My name's Alec Hardison, and this is Parker. Nice to meet you."

"Elise Jirele."

"Marie Johnson."

"Sarah Williams."

They raised their newly acquired drinks in salute to each other before taking a sip. "That hits the spot," Marie smiled.

"It's been a long week," Elise explained to Parker and Alec.

Alec just chuckled and nodded. "Tell me about it."

The five of them continued chatting through two sets of drinks before finally leaving for home. Sarah, Elise, and Marie were all slightly achy from all the moving and unpacking and gratefully fell into bed.

It was on Sunday evening when they'd just finished eating dinner that there was a loud crash from the living room. The three women gave each other surprised looks before rushing into the room to find Jareth the Goblin King extricating himself from a pile of old textbooks that had been stacked haphazardly, but were now strewn across the floor. "Jareth!" Sarah exclaimed while Marie let out a groan.

"What are you doing in my house, Goblin King," Marie asked crossing her arms over her chest and trying (and succeeding) to look intimidating.

The Goblin King brushed himself off and gave the offending textbooks a glare before straightening up. "I have come because I could sense a disturbance in the Force… wait… wrong fandom," he quirked an eyebrow up and tapped the side of his jaw with one gloved finger. "I sensed that Sarah was entering a dangerous situation, and I had to make sure she was okay."

Marie's look of irritation dropped down to disbelief and a touch of anger. "You were spying on her and saw that she was staying with us. Didn't you?" Her voice was monotone.

"Marie, I'm sure that's not…" Elise started to say, but was cut off.

"No," the Goblin king replied, a smirk on his features. His arms were also loosely crossing his chest as he tapped one foot slowly. "No she's quite right."

"Jareth!" Sarah reprimanded. "I told you no more spying!"

"Ah!" he raised a finger to make his point. "You said no more flying around in owl form like a helicopter mom… whatever that is." He shifted his weight and moved towards them a couple of steps. "You never said anything about my crystals."

"I didn't know I had to make things that clear! For god's sake! I don't need you spying on me all the time! And you know Marie and Elise are perfectly safe! Elise was your scribe for crying out loud!" Sarah gestured toward the other two women.

Jareth took a moment to respond. "I know Elise is safe. I can't say the same for her though," he glared pointedly at Marie who stuck out her tongue at him.

"Oh my god," Elise rolled her eyes and moved forward to place herself between Jareth and Sarah. "Okay, here's the deal. This is our house now. We have final say on what goes on here. Jareth," she turned to look at him. "You will show up outside the house, knock, and wait for someone to let you in from now on. You are also not allowed to spy using any method on anyone in this house. Marie," she turned to look at her friend. "You will refrain from verbal and physical abuse against Jareth unless it is duly warranted."

"Who gets to decide if it's duly warranted?" Marie asked.

"Sarah or myself."

"But both of you are partial towards him!" her arms came down to her sides and her hands formed fists.

"No we're not. We just don't hate him like you do. That and we understand his nature better."

"That's bull," Marie grumbled.

"Marie… Jareth… do you agree to these terms?"

"I will if she does," Jareth spouted.

"Fine! But he's not allowed anywhere near my bedroom!" Jareth let out a loud scoff at that. "And I should warn you that I do a lot of the cooking around here, so I know how to use knives!"

Elise grimaced. "Yeah, she does actually. You may want to stay away from the kitchen when she's cooking."

Jareth frowned, but nodded. "Understood and terms accepted."

"Good, now would you like to sit down? Have some wine?" Elise asked.

"So long as she isn't allowed to handle my glass then yes. That would be nice," Jareth replied sitting on the futon lightly as though afraid it would bite him.

# # #

Monday came too soon, and with it, Sarah's departure. She was due back home in another day for her current job that she would be quitting as soon as she heard back from an interviewer. Elise, Marie, and Sarah were gathered by the door saying their goodbyes when Sarah's phone rang. "Sorry, gotta take this," she said turning away.

Marie and Elise gave her some space for her call and moved farther into the living room. However this might have been a bad idea since it only angered Marie. When Jareth had left the previous night, he'd seen fit to christen their new home with a fine dusting of glitter as he disappeared. Elise had made a mental note to tell him that he had to be outside of the house when he did that while Marie swore to the great goddess that she would kill the fae some day.

"It's going to take forever to get all the glitter out," Marie grumbled.

"I'd be willing to bet we'll be finding glitter for years to come," Elise agreed.

"Fricken fae," Marie muttered.

"GUYS!" Sarah shouted as she joined them. "I got the job! I'm moving to Portland!"

"Oh my god!"

"Congratulations!"

Both Elise and Marie's frowns turned to grins and they crowded forward to hug their friend. "You are so going to live with us!" Elise said excitedly as she moved back a little to give Sarah breathing room.

"What? Are you sure?" Sarah asked a huge grin still on her face.

"Absolutely!" Marie confirmed. "Unless you have other plans?"

"No! I mean, yes! I would love to live with you guys! It'll be just like college again!" Sarah laughed and hugged both Elise and Marie again. "This is going to be awesome!"