A/N: This is back after about three and a half weeks. In hindsight I should have realised how it would look, what with what that Stormcloak was saying, and I probably shouldn't have left that hanging for so long. Anyway, in this chapter, people get released from the dungeons, things get difficult, and Ria has a somewhat awkward conversation with Lucia.

Review reponses.

Guest: Ever heard of the friendzone? That is Ram-Ku for you. You are completely correct in that he has feelings for her and about the 'not my type' speech. He loves Ria, but she just doesn't feel the same way about him. What I meant when I said there was a Dragonborn is that I would not be introducing a new character specifically to be the Dragonborn because I already have a character who, in my mind, is quite definitely the Dragonborn in the universe that this is set. Don't worry, the interactions between Ria and the other members of the Companions, including Ram-Ku, will remain the focus of this story.

Kai(C18): Don't worry, Falin is not going to be raped. That was never my intention and it will never be my intention, I'm sorry for making you think that it might be. The teasing between Falin and Aela is based on the relationship a couple of my friends have, I see them together a lot, so I have plenty of material to use. Yes, Ria will become a werewolf, but not for a couple of chapters yet because there are number of things that I want to that will be virtually impossible post-werewolf. Also, 'scary-looking were-lizard' made me laugh, I hadn't thought about it that way.

Kai(C17): Never underestimate the fearsome power of an angry woman with a broom. Also, Daedra-worship will have a role in this story at a later point, but not involving Dagon or Bal.

TheGreatJabberyJamie: Not all the Stormcloaks are racist, just the ones that Falin encounters, which is very unfortunate for her, even more so for the Stormcloaks. I think you will like what else happens to those Stormcloaks.

Worrying for Falin's safety after what that one Stormcloak had said he would do to her, I immediately went to Kodlak and informed him that half the circle had been arrested by the Stormcloaks, and that I feared for Falin if she was left with the Stormcloaks for too long. He nodded and retrieved the coin purse that the Companions kept specifically for this purpose, everyone contributing a small amount of their pay from each job to the communal fund. I explained that there had been three assaults, one for each party. Kodlak recommended that I should take additional funds, just in case the Stormcloaks attempted to charge extra. All told, the coin purse I took with me to Dragonsreach contained two hundred and fifty septims, enough to pay all the bounties twice over, and then some.

This was the second time that I had had to bail Ram-Ku out of the Dragonsreach dungeon, and once again, it was for assault, this time however, it had been perpetrated against a guard, rather than an irritating bard. I wasn't sure if Falin or Aela had ever been arrested before, not in the time that I had known them anyway. I made my way to the corner of the main hall, only being stopped once by a guard who had demanded to know my reasoning for being in the keep. I had pulled out the coin purse and explained that I was here to pay bail money. The guard nodded, and pointed, unnecessarily in my case, towards the jail entrance.

Once inside the dungeons, I was accosted by the jailer. "What do you want, Imperial?"

I reined my temper in at the tone of the last word. "I'm here to pay some bounties," I explained, making sure that the coin-purse was in full view.

The Stormcloak nodded, "Who are you paying for?"

I briefly considered naming my friends, but decided that the Stormcloak probably wouldn't know them. "The Dark Elf female, the big Argonian and the red headed Nord."

The man consulted his ledger, did some mental maths before telling me, "Alright then, that'll be one thousand, two hundred forty septims for the lot of them."

"One thousand, two hundred and forty septims?" I spluttered, "How did you get to that amount?"

The jailer consulted his ledger again, "Lemme see, it's eighty septims for the lizard, one hundred sixty for the greyskin and a thousand for the Nord."

I was shocked at the amounts, with my admittedly vague knowledge of bounties and their values, that would equate to two assaults, four assaults and a murder respectively. I put this theory to the jailer, and that I was fairly sure that each of my friends had only committed a single assault each. He just laughed, "Fairly close Imperial. See, we've decided that non-Nords have to pay double for their bounties in order to discourage them from criminal activities see. The elf lashed out at one of the guards that was delivering food, and your Nord friend killed that guard she kicked in the face, snapped his neck with her foot."

I knew that I only had enough money to release Ram-Ku and Falin, but I was unsure as whether to leave Aela alone. I asked the guard if I could talk to my friends. He shrugged, "You'll have to leave your sword here, but as long as you've got one of the guards with you at all times it should be fine." He turned away from me and called into the dungeon, "Hey, Harald, we've got a visitor for some of the prisoners." Then back to me, "Sword please." I handed over my weapon before following the blue-coated soldier into the dungeons.

As we went further along the corridor, I became aware of a constant torrent of curses, taunts, insults and things that I didn't understand in languages that varied from common through the various Dunmeri dialects that I had learnt from Athis, to Yokudan, with what sounded like Hist thrown in for good measure. The guard nodded at my reaction. "He's been like that since we brought him in. We only understand some of it, and some of it just doesn't make any sense."

As we drew even closer I began to make out individual words.

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries!"

Another guard roared back, "For Talos' sake lizard, that doesn't make any sense!"

"May Sheogorath curse you with insanity!"

Harald interrupted the conversation before it could get any more out of hand.

"That's enough! Try being civil for once, Argonian, you and your friends have got yourselves a visitor!"

"Who?" I heard Aela's voice ask.

"Some Imperial woman."

"Ria?"

"Yes, its me."

"Thank the Divines, someone sensible, I can't spend another minute listening to Ram-Ku's insults."

"Yeah, listen, I'm not going to be able to get all of you out." I winced, dreading the huntress' reaction when she found out she wouldn't be going free.

"What do you mean Ria?" Ram-Ku enquired.

"Well, I can't afford the amounts on all of your heads."

"Why so? Four assaults isn't that expensive." He actually sounded perplexed.

"Ram-Ku, don't even start with that line of thinking, it'll have you justifying beating up people that irritate you just because you can just pay to make the problems go away, and that's not the example I want you setting for our daughter." I was vaguely aware of one of the Stormcloaks behind me spitting out his mead at that statement.

"It's not like I'd do it in front of Lucia. Unless you've brought her with you here?" He started panicking a little bit at this point.
"Lucia doesn't even know you've been arrested, I left her with Kodlak while I came to get you three."

"But what did you mean that you couldn't afford to get us all out?" Aela demanded, "I disagree with his logic, but surely he's right in that four assaults isn't that expensive?"

I sighed, this was not going to go down well, "It is when three of them receive double bounty for not being Nords and the fourth one's a murder."

Silence as the two of them tried to work out what I meant, "You mean I killed the one I kicked in the face?" Aela asked.

"Yes, snapped his neck."

"Good," and quite frankly, that was not the reaction I was expecting, I was quite taken aback by the venom in her tone, "That bastard deserved it."
Ram-Ku was nodding his agreement.

"But it means I can only afford to get Ram-Ku and Falin out, speaking of which, where is Falin?" I asked, suddenly worried about the elf's well-being.

"At the back of the cell," Aela reassured me, "As far away from the Stormcloaks as she can possibly get." She moved to the side, allowing me a better view of the inside of the cell, I could quite clearly see Falin, curled up in one corner, surrounded by a cloak of fire. Returning my attention to Aela, I asked,

"Is she okay?" The huntress suddenly looked depressed.

"Physically she's fine, mentally I don't know, she's not communicating with us, she won't even let me near her." She looked downcast at this, "I want to help her but I don't know what to do." Then looking back up at me, "Get her out of here Ria, leave me if you have to, but please, get Falin out."

I nodded grimly, turning to me guide, I asked to be led back to the jailer.

Once I had handed over the required amount of money, I followed the jailer back to the cell, watching as he sorted through the keys on his ring, looking for the correct one. He found it just as we arrived at the cell. "Alright, lady, back away from the door, you're not coming out. You two, on the other hand," He indicated Falin and Ram-Ku, "come and get your stuff, you're leaving."

"About bloody time." Ram-Ku hissed, then turning back into the cell and speaking more softly, "Falin, come on, it's time to leave, time to get away from the Stormcloaks."

Falin made no move to respond to that, rather she curled up into herself even more, taking up as little space as possible, whilst simultaneously pouring more power into her flame cloak so that I could feel the heat pouring off her without even entering the room. I stepped forward and pulled Ram-Ku out of the way.

"Falin," I said, "Falin, it's me, Ria. I've come to take you out of here, take you back to Jorrvaskr where you'll be safe, where no-one can hurt you. But I can't protect you if you won't trust me." I reached out with my hand until it got to the point where it was almost unbearably hot. My friend finally looked up at me and I could see tears coursing down her face, she was absolutely terrified. The flames surrounding her flickered and died as she reached out to take hold of my hand. I helped her to her feet and with Ram-Ku on her other side to create a barrier between her and the Stormcloaks, we vacated the cell, leaving Aela behind us.

Ram-Ku collected his and Falin's gear, inspecting it for any signs that the Stormcloaks had mistreated it. He then disappeared around a corner and changed out of his prison rags and into his steel plate and werewolf fur armour. Meanwhile, I helped Falin dress herself in her mage robes, before leaving the dungeon through the side exit that would not require us to walk through the main hall of Dragonsreach, instead taking us straight out into the cloud district.

When we returned to Jorrvaskr, I took Falin downstairs and led her to Aela's room whilst Ram-Ku explained to Kodlak why Aela had not returned with us. I laid Falin down on the bed that she shared with Aela, where she quickly curled back up into a ball and fell asleep. Backing quietly out of the room, I closed the doors behind me and turned around, only to be confronted by the worried face of my daughter.

"Mama, what's wrong with aunt Falin?"

I sighed, unsure how to approach the topic with my daughter, Shor's testicles, I was unsure as to the answer to question. "I don't know Lucia, she's just very scared of the Stormcloaks I think, scared that they're going to hurt her."

Lucia nodded, "Mila's Mama's scared of the Stormcloaks as well, Mila says they want her to do things for them." She paused, "Mama, why was Papa arrested?"

I started, I had tried to keep that a secret from her, "How did you know that?" I asked.

"Mila saw the Stormcloaks dragging Papa, aunt Falin and Aela away to the dungeons."

I groaned, of course she had, the girl was always running around Whiterun, so of course she had been present to see my friends getting dragged off to Dragonsreach. I had to come with an explanation that would satisfy my daughter's curiosity. "He attacked a woman that was going to hurt Falin. That woman happened to be one of the guards."
Lucia nodded again, "Did the guards hurt her?"

"No, I don't think so."

Lucia smiled, "Well that's a good thing isn't it. I think I will leave her alone for a bit, she needs to sleep after all." Turning on her heel she skipped out of the living quarters, either to play with Mila or to pester her father. At least, that's what I thought she was going to do.

"Mama?" She poked her head back around the corner.

"Yes dear?"

"Mama, why aren't you and Papa married?"

"What?"

"It's just that my first Mama and Papa were married, Lars Battle-Born and Braith's parents are all married, and Mila says that her Mama and Papa were married before her Papa died, so why aren't you and Papa married?"

Of all the questions she could have asked me, why did it have to be that one, how to explain to her the fact that Ram-Ku and I were not in love with each other without her questioning why we had adopted her together, thereby leading to the explanation that we were inordinately drunk at the time.

"Well, you see Lucia," I stalled for time, before an idea popped into my head. "Ram-Ku and I are not married because we don't feel that way about each other. We're good friends but that's not enough to get married. Everyone else's parents were married because that's the way it's supposed to be if you want to have children, but your father and I didn't come by you in the traditional way, so we don't exactly have a traditional relationship." I stopped speaking and prayed to all the Divines, and then some, that Lucia would be satisfied with this explanation. She nodded slowly,

"So we are a very strange family then?"
I sighed with relief, "Yes, you could say that. We may be a strange family, but we are still a loving one."

"Okay, thank you Mama." She stood up on her tiptoes, kissed me, and skipped off again, singing to herself.

A/N: Okay, I think I may have slightly broken Falin, which is not a good thing. Aela has been left in the dungeons for two reasons; one, as I mentioned in my response to Kai's review at the start, I need to do somethings before Ria turns into a werewolf and temporarily removing Aela from the equation was the simplest way of achieving this, and two, that Stormcloak had to die so I had Aela snap his neck.

Monty Python quotations are always appropriate, you just have to find the right one. This one is actually quite offensive if you understand it. 'your mother was a hamster' is comparing your mother to rodents, which mate and breed alarmingly quickly, essentially calling your mother a whore. 'your father smelled of elderberries' refers to the fact that in medieval Britain (Where I'm from, Britain I mean, not medieval times), a particularly pungent, nasty, alcoholic beverage was made from elderberries, and smelling of elderberries was considered a sign of a particularly desperate drunkard.

Now where's that 'the more you know' gif when I need it.

Remember, please review to tell me what you think of this chapter. Thank you.