"Well, we knew this was coming," said Jazz's mother smiling. "Welcome to the family David."

"Thank you, but it's just Dave," Dave said grinning. "I can't think of a better family to be part of."

"I hope I'm present when Jorge explodes," said the voice of Jazz's younger brother Keith.

"Now Keith that's not very nice," scolded Anastasia.

"What makes you think I want to be nice when it comes to him mom?" Keith asked with an innocent expression. It was positively angelic. "I mean, seriously, you expect me to talk nice about him after all the crap he's spread and after what he has put Jazz through? He has no respect for anyone except himself, much less the brother of the girl he supposedly loves. I mean, hell! He doesn't even respect Jazz, the girl he supposedly cares for. If he does love my sister he has yet to prove it to anyone, much less her."

"I don't normally agree with Keith but in this case I do," Jazz told her mother amazed at her brother's insight, but then he was 23, so he had probably matured a lot since the last time she had seen him.

Keith couldn't help the smug smirk that came across his face at that. He and his older sister almost never agreed about anything, so that Jazz was agreeing with him was a rare and special event. It might not ever come again, so he was going to savor it while he could.

"What has being polite to him gotten me? He's been a major pain in the... butt," Jazz substituted instead of the word ass, "ever since he found out I was dating Dave and I've come this close to socking him one in the precious face he is so proud of." Jazz held her fingers less then inch of apart to let her mother know how close she had come to hitting Jorge Mason. "I've had it with him and he's going to get himself zapped in his butt if he makes one more comment. Frankly, I'm out of patience. Captain Bloodworth's talked to him, I've tried to dissuade him, tried to urge him to find someone else and even Brian has talked to him and really, what has that achieved? He's arrogant and has an ego the size of Los Angeles. If he really wanted to persuade me to love him he should've taken a different path then the one he chose. He's also shallow, thickheaded, and is too stupid to get the point when I say I'm not interested."

"Well, I suppose being rude this once is okay," Anastasia decided after her daughter finished having her say. "Just don't repeat it in front of him," She warned her youngest son.

"And why not? He deserves it," Keith protested. "He's got to be one of the most stubborn people in the world or he would've given up on Jazz long since. He took Jazz defending him back when he was 13 as a vow of eternal love and nothing any of us has said has convinced him otherwise."

"I hate to admit it, but Keith is right again," Jazz said with a grimace in her brother's direction, a brother who simply grinned smugly at her causing Jazz to roll her eyes. "Any person with a logical or reasonable bone in their body would have realized by now that they weren't going to get what they want. They would have either avoid the person they'd annoyed as much as they could or left town to avoid running into whoever it was completely. While I can appreciate Jorge believes that he's in love with me really, he's more obsessed with me. The natural crush he had on me when we were 13 and 14 didn't disappear like they normally do, once a person has a chance to mature and realize their feelings aren't real love.

"Dave believes that it could turn physical and so does Captain Bloodworth. The captain believes that Jorge needs to see a professional to get over his obsession with me but Jorge is too stupid or at least to stubborn to take good advice. Or possibly he's to proud. He literally doesn't believe he has a problem and thinks I belong to him."

"I didn't realize it was quite that bad," Anastasia said after a moment. "I knew he had been rather persistent and caused a few major scenes in public..."

"But you just realized he's not going to stop until he does something where he lands in jail," Dave said.

"Or gets amnesia," Anastasia said, "though I know that's rather unlikely. We're probably not going to be lucky enough that he bumps his head and loses his memory for at least the last four years when he started harassing my daughter. I know it's not very nice to wish ill on anyone..."

"Believe me, in this case, it's more than deserved," Dave told her with a serious expression. "Normally, I have monumental patience but he has acceded it. Not an easy thing to do. The way he insults Jazz and causes senseless arguments has nearly made me lose my temper more than once lately. I don't care what he says about me, but the woman I care for is a different matter entirely."

"You love her so of course it is," Anastasia said in understanding.

"The fact, that she's had to put up with his crap for years before I ever came into the picture is just another reason for me to at least heartily dislike him. Any sensible person would've taken the hint and given up, even if they still supposedly loved whoever it was. Besides, true love isn't selfish it's generous and kind. The traits that Jorge Mason is displaying hardly fit into the generous or kind category. From what I've seen for myself, he's selfish, possessive, and disrespectful to others. He doesn't care what he says or who feelings he hurts. He's lucky that someone has beaten him up and broken a few bones a long time ago."

"Or the very least popped him one," Keith added.

"I'm afraid that's very true mom," Jazz butted in. "I learned from Shonda not too long ago that Jorge made a nasty comment about how much junk food she ate to the bartender at Buzz's our favorite place to go and relax. She told me she felt as if she was under spell and started eating salads and other healthy foods and probably skipping meals too. While doing so isn't necessarily a bad thing she gave up all her favorite foods chocolate, pasta, pizza, french fries and hamburgers completely. Something she would normally never do on her own free will."

"But he is human," Anastasia said looking at Dave who simply winked at her letting her know that he knew all about magic.

"Dave and I were speculating awhile back whether he has some magicals in his family line," Jazz explained.

"So you think he actually has a talent for making someone believe what he says," said Anastasia.

"I think only those that have doubts if Shonda is any example. You know how much Shonda has always worried about her weight and so Jorge's comment to the bartender made her believe she needed to go on a diet. Luckily the spell was broken when she finally told me about it several months after the fact."

"So it's not permanent then?" Anastasia said with relief in her expression.

"We are not sure if it is or not. It's possible that if Jorge had made the comment directly to Shonda instead of supposedly behind her back that it might have been harder to break the spell, if that's what it is. Once I assured her that she wasn't fat and that I was worried about her because she had lost so much weight. She ate a whole plate of the leftover brownies I brought from the bakery once we closed for the day. I doubt Jorge knew that Shonda was anywhere in his close vicinity when he made his comment, as he is not known for being very observant. Just to prove a point Shonda had lost at least 40 pounds, much more then is good for her by the time I saw her for the first time in several months."

"That's not good," Keith said speaking for the first time in quite awhile, though he had been listening.

"No, it's not," Anastasia said absentmindedly seeming to be deep in thought. "I'll have to do some research, look into his family tree. It's very possible that there are some powerful magical users in his family or even some that don't have much talent, though that doesn't mean that the ability to persuade someone of something that they normally wouldn't believe can't possibly show up in a family that hasn't had magic users in at least the last few generations.

"As far as you know," Dave said and Anastasia nodded in acknowledgment

"True. It's possible they don't realize they have magic users in their family tree at all," said Anastasia looking to Dave with respect in her expression. "You sure have accepted that they're witches around the world rather easily."

"I already knew that magic was real before Jazz told me yesterday," Dave briefly explained. "I'm not going to go into the whole story of how I knew right now, as it would take too long to explain, but sometime soon, maybe after the Jorge Mason is dealt with, I can tell you the whole story."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Anastasia said with a curious expression obviously wondering what Dave's story was but knowing that there were more urgent matters to deal with at the moment.

"Well, if you are right and Jorge Mason does have such a talent he's dangerous," Anastasia said. "Luckily, he probably doesn't know how his words can affect someone or he'd likely be even more dangerous than he is presently."

"He was never taught to use his power responsibly. That's a lesson that's drilled into us when we are young," Keith commented.

"True," Jazz agreed with her brother yet again. Agreeing with Keith was becoming a habit and Jazz was sure that Keith would remind her of this sometime down the road. On the other hand, when her youngest brother was right, he was right and their was no point in denying it.

"Well, it's too late to teach him responsibility now. I've known that boy all his life and there's no way he's going to listen to anybody or take any lessons to heart. Unfortunately, his father was the same way, but he died years ago. I had hoped that Jorge would turn out differently, but apparently I was wrong." Anastasia sighed. "I'm going to have to tell the coven about this. We do try to keep track the families that have any kind of powers, to keep an eye on them, make sure they use whatever abilities they have responsibly, but some do slip through the cracks."

"Like in this case," Dave said.

"Exactly," Anastasia agreed. "They're not going to be happy with my report but something has to be done, before Jorge makes a careless comment about someone jumping off a cliff or shooting themselves in the foot and that person obeys, just because they've been… Hypnotized or whatever it is that happens."

"You know that kind of makes sense, as being hypnotized is similar to what happened to Shonda, at least from the way it was described to me," Dave said thoughtfully. "Some people aren't really able to be hypnotized. Their will is simply too strong and I'm sure having confidence in themselves helps."

"Unfortunately, it works on a lot of people, ones like Shonda," Jazz said. "Shonda isn't exactly gullible just has a lack of confidence in some areas, even if most people would never know it."

"Luckily, there's a coven meeting tonight," Anastasia said. "I'll make sure I bring it up when new business is announced."

"You'll also be announcing that I have finally found the one won't you mom?" Jazz said with a resigned expression.

"I don't know why you don't want me to sweetie, it's always very special when a witch has found their soulmate. It is always a joyous occasion. You know how rare it is. I was lucky when I met your father and we knew immediately that we were meant to be, but then we're both witches with different talents so knowing that we were meant to be together is not surprising."

"Yes, I know, but I'll have people coming up to me in the bakery congratulating me and a lot of my customers are humans. The last thing I need is Jorge to make another major scene in front of my customers just because he learns of my engagement. I know that Jorge will find out eventually, I would just rather he discovered it when I'm not working."

"Yes, he caused quite a scene and it embarrassed everyone that was in the bakery at the time, including Jazz. I, to was embarrassed, but more for Jazz, then for myself," Dave said. "It happened after all in her place of business where Jorge Mason acted like a little boy pitching a fit when he saw how Jazz and I were interacting with each other."

"We weren't really doing anything wrong mom, just flirting a little," Jazz said with reddened cheeks.

"Of course you weren't," Anastasia said. "You have every right to flirt with whoever you please, especially the man you love and are going to marry. It's not like you were having sex behind the counter."

Even Dave sputtered at the comment and both Keith and Jazz flushed bright red at their mother's inappropriate comment.

"Mom!" both Keith and Jazz exclaimed profound embarrassment in their tones of voice.

"Really mother," Jazz added a few seconds later. "Must you make such embarrassing comments, especially in front of Dave? I'm sure he doesn't want to hear such things, especially from his future mother-in-law."

Jazz's brief glare in Dave's direction warned him not to contradict her or there would be serious consequences, so Dave kept his mouth shut.

"What?" Anastasia asked innocently. "What did I say?"

Neither of her children were fooled by the innocent act and simply glared at her for embarrassing them.

Anastasia winked at him and Dave nearly chuckled, as he realized what his soon-to-be mother-in-law had done. She had made that highly inappropriate comment on purpose just to embarrass her children. Something most mothers loved doing, especially on an occasion like this one. An occasion where one of them had just announced their engagement.

Finally, everybody started talking about a totally different subject and Jazz and Keith forgot about their former embarrassment. Everything was right with the world.

~~~Dave and Jazzlyn~~~

"Well, that was rather enlightening," Dave said once the two of them got back to Jazz's apartment above the bakery.

"Yeah, it was. That my mom doesn't know if Jorge has any witches in his family tree really says something, as she's good about keeping track of things like that," Jazz said, as she shed her coat, and laid it over the back of the couch.

"Well, it is easy to lose track of families you know," Dave said. "I lost track of the Ambrosius family after all, though to be fair it wasn't all that easy to keep track of families back then. It's quite possible that the family line has died out by now or they simply changed their name to something that wouldn't cause comment. Miller, or Jones or Smith, even Barker as all of them are very common."

"That's a very good point," Jazz admitted. "Women get married all the time and their last name changes when she does. Even if she keeps her last name the children usually take their father's. It's possible this is what happened to Jorge's family, as it wasn't until this century that a woman had the option of keeping her own surname once she wed. Of course, she can request that the second child born takes her maiden name."

"You don't have to change your last name if you don't want to once we get married," Dave said out of the blue.

"I don't mind, as I have two brothers to carry on the family name," Jazz said. "Even if I didn't I still wouldn't mind. It's not like my last name is from some famous family, Lincoln isn't exactly like Ambrosius."

"Alright, if that's what you want," Dave said with a pleased expression. His mate taking his last name once they married filled him with great joy and that there would soon be children also sporting his last name made him so happy he felt like he could float away due to the feelings inside him.

"It's definitely what I want once we do tie the knot. We are going to have to deal with Jorge first though, or he's sure to try to disrupt our wedding," Jazz said.

"Yeah, he would," Dave sighed in agreement. "He doesn't seem to understand that he's only digging an even deeper hole for himself."

"He's already dug a hole so deep he'll never get out of it in his lifetime," Jazz said with some heat. "If you haven't noticed by now he's not exactly the most popular person in this town."

"I would've had to be dead not to notice that," Dave snorted. "He has certainly made himself unlikable."

"That's the understatement of the decade, probably the century," Jazz said snorting her contempt for one Jorge Mason obvious.

The two fell silent sitting down on the couch where both puppies immediately joined them. Dave had basically moved in with Jazz several weeks ago and his puppy Amy of course, came with him.

"Let's stop talking about that idiot, as there are other things we could be doing," Dave suggested. "Things that are much more pleasant."

"That's true," Jazz agreed gratefully dropping the subject of Jorge Mason for the rest of the night. The two of them snuggled up together and started to watch a movie, while the two puppies were snuggled on their laps, looking quite content to remain where they were for the the rest of the night.

~~~Dave and Jazzlyn~~~