In the Closet

Disclaimer: The characters in question belong to Diane Duane. I own only the plot.

Author's Note: I made a little mistake at the end of last chapter, I'll explain it at the end of this one. I've been trying to respond to all the reviews; if you don't want me to send you messages back, mention it in your next review and I'll try to keep a list of who doesn't need their in-box clogged with mail from me. This is a pretty long chapter I think. I would have been done a while ago, but I had a lot of problems figuring out how I was ending the chapter and where to end it. Thanks to Kat Solo for giving me the info I needed.

Chapter 3: Irish Guests

Annie chuckled at Roshaun and Dairine and headed into the house. The second visitor had said nothing yet, and didn't look likely to say anything. It didn't take him long to realize what Roshaun and Dairine had been doing and decide he'd rather be inside with Annie and anyone who wasn't sucking face.

Annie found herself directly in the kitchen. She leaned casually against the counter next to the oven and asked, "Ed, could I get a cup of tea?"

Her brother, head in the fridge as he took out various ingredients to make a salad, tried to stand up too quickly and hit his head on the freezer above him. He bit off a swear word and spun around. "Annie?" He hadn't seen his sister in years.

She shrugged at him. "Hello, little brother. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"What are you doing here?" His mind was reeling. There were only two explanations. Either she had bought a ticket and hopped on a plane from Ireland and forgotten to mention she was coming, or…he remembered Tom's voice. Wizardry came from his side of the family. He stared at his sister. Had Nita known this and never told him? Why had Annie never told him? Because, until a couple of years ago, you would have said she was crazy if she told you something like this.

"I don't even get a 'hello'?" She hugged her brother. "I'm sorry I didn't give you any notice, and I'm sorry I never made it back for the funeral. I meant to be here, but I was off planet, and by the time I'd realized I missed it, it seemed too awkward to come by, especially since you didn't know about me…" She trailed off.

"Hello, and I'm glad to see you, but sit down. What are you doing here?" The "sit down" was more for his own benefit than hers; he felt like he needed to sit for a minute and get grasp on the fact that his big sister was standing in his kitchen when she ought to be 3000 some odd miles away. Sitting down at the table he caught sight of the young man already seated there. When had he arrived? He felt as though he ought to know him and couldn't quite place him. Definitely familiar though.

Annie sat down next to the boy and nudged him. "Introduce yourself." That boy was always so rude.

Looking as though he had clearly suffered too much already and introducing himself was really an imposition on his time, he stuck out a hand for Mr. Callahan to shake. "Ronan Nolan. We've met before, Mr. Callahan."

Ed nodded, running his fingers through his hair after the handshake. "I remember. You were the one they nursed back to health in Dairine's room." He turned his attention back to his sister. "Annie, what brings you all this way out here?"

Annie looked away for a moment. "That's a good question. Wanting to see my younger brother isn't cause enough?"

He couldn't help laughing. "Annie, you've wizarded, or spelled, or whatever yourself across an ocean to see me. I've a right to be little curious."

"Actually, as much as I've missed you, I didn't come back here to see you. Not specifically anyway. I—we—came for Nita and Kit."

"They're in school," Ed said, on the verge of snapping. Something was going on with enough seriousness that his sister and this young man had come across an ocean to talk to Nita and Kit rather than message or pick up the phone or drop an email. He couldn't sit here and let his sister whisk them away. They needed to go to school. There was only a month left. They couldn't miss anymore.

"I know, I know. They'll be out in about a month, right? The planning should be done by then."

Ed closed his eyes and counted to ten. This woman was making very little sense at this moment. "Yes, they've got about a month left. They have final exams left, and end of the term projects and papers and things due. And they've already missed two weeks this year."

Annie nodded. "I know, I read all about it."

He gave her a quizzical look.

"Wizards can get summaries of other wizards' work through the manual Nita has showed you. She did show you, right? I can't imagine you'd believe her if you hadn't seen it."

Ed looked quite levelly at his sister. "It took more than a book to convince Betsy and me, but yes, she showed us." He remembered quite clearly watching Kit levitate and not believing it, and then seeing his daughter walk on water. And then the moon! To this day that was one of the most breathtaking sights he'd ever seen.

"I know she's missed a lot of school this year, but there's a team forming and we'd like she and Kit to be on it." She paused and was almost hesitant before continuing. "Dairine too, if we can manage her, but things don't look as though that will work out. It's really a shame, she'd enjoy the project."

Ed tried to keep himself in check. "Project? Team? You're making this sound like a game."

"It's not a game, Ed, but don't get me wrong, wizardry can be fun."

There was silence, broken by the ringing of the buzzer that said his roast chicken was done. He turned the oven off, found his potholders, and took the chicken out of the oven and placed it on the stove.

"You want to take Nita away, don't you?" he asked quietly.

Annie nodded. "If she's interested, yes. Hopefully not until after school is over for the year. It would most likely only be for a few weeks, and she'd enjoy it."

Ed shook his head and got out the ready made salad he'd been attempting to grab when his sister had appeared. "So both my girls are going to be whisked away?"

Ronan looked curiously at Mr. Callahan. "Where's Dairine being 'whisked' to?" he asked, speaking for the first time since his introduction.

The female wizard looked curiously over at Ronan. "You didn't know?"

Ed began chopping up the head of lettuce, hoping it might relieve some tension. "She hasn't said it yet, but I'm fairly certain she's going to want to go spend her summer on that planet with that boy who's here. She says they've got business to take care of and that she can't really accomplish it here. She was there this weekend and only came back last night, was there two weeks ago, and there a month before that."

Ronan gave a low whistle. "That's a lot of energy used in transit."

Dairine coughed, making her presence, as well as Roshaun's known to the room at large. "We're trying to work on getting a world-gate of the sort used for the exchange program set up, but we're not sure if They'll allow that sort of energy allowance. We're planning to talk to my area Seniors tomorrow afternoon."

Annie looked at her niece, standing there with the tall, slender young man's arm around her shoulders. The young man matched Ronan's description of the haughty prince he and the others had been working with. "And you are…?"

He took a deep breath. "Roshaun ke Nelaid am Se—"

Dairine cut him off. "What he was about to take ten minutes to tell you is that he's the king of Wellakh…and my boyfriend."

"We are in the middle of two very important projects on Wellakh, neither of which we can fully accomplish from here, and both of which need to be completed with as much speed as possible," Roshaun explained, sending an irritated glance at Dairine for cutting him off.

Nita came into the kitchen then, "I was wondering what's for d—Aunt Annie!" She went up and hugged her silver haired aunt. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" She looked up and saw her father. "Dad, I guess you know now…"

"Yes, I've gathered as much from the conversation," he said, dryly. "Would you get the plates?"

Nita went to get the plates, wondering what had brought her aunt here out of Ireland. And Ronan. What was he doing here? It must be business. She took out seven plates. If something was going on, Kit would want to know about it. Kit? She waited a few seconds. Kit!

Ow, not so loud, Neets. What's up? I was just getting ready to sit down to dinner. He paused. You sound impatient. He finished setting the place settings at his own table.

Do you want to come over here for dinner instead? We haven't started yet. She placed the plates around the table, and went back for silverware.

Kit was puzzled. Any particular reason?

You remember my Aunt Annie?

Yeah. Of course I do.

Nita glanced at Annie and Ronan. She's here. She and Ronan are both here. I'm not sure why, yet, but I intend to find out.

Both of them? With no warning?

None, she replied firmly.

Give me five minutes to talk to Mama. I'm coming through the backyard; this sounds big. With that, he dissolved the mind connection quickly and went off to talk to his mother.

As Nita put knives, forks, and spoons at each place setting, she stopped at Ronan's (coming to it last), and tapped him on the shoulder. "No hello?"

He gave a sort of soft snort, that might have been laughter, and even a half smile. "Hello, Nita." He looked around the room and noted the extra place setting. "Kit coming?"

"Yeah. I just invited him. I assume you both wouldn't have come all this way out here if you didn't have something important to say?"

Dairine and Roshaun settled themselves at the corner of the table where their notes from earlier were still stacked and they began to leaf threw them.

Ronan's reply was sarcastic. "Oh no, we just came by to say hello, we're leaving right after dinner."

Nita snorted and rolled her eyes, taking a seat next to him. "So, Aunt Annie, what brought you in?"

Annie got up to carry the salad her brother had just finished over to the table while he got the chicken. "I think we should wait a few minutes for Kit. If he's coming, it'd really be best if I told you all together."

"I'm here," Kit said, striding into the room quickly. "What'd I miss?" He plopped himself down in the seat next to Nita's, acknowledging Ronan with a nod and smiling at Annie. He said a quick hello to Mr. Callahan and made a gagging face at Roshaun and Dairine, going over their notes together.

Nita grinned. "Nothing yet." She remembered her manners a little belatedly. "What would everybody like to drink?" She stood up, and Kit stood with her, and they brought various drinks to the table as they were called for.

Finally, when everyone was settled with drinks in front of them and chicken and salad on their plates, Kit asked the question that was on most of their minds. He glanced at Mr. Callahan, who hadn't spoken since he came in, other than his greeting. "So what exactly brought you here?"

Annie looked at Ronan. "It was your idea to come, would you like to explain?"

Ronan took a sip of his water and put down his fork. "Right now, there's a team assembling for a fairly major project off-planet. It's still local, but we're trying to put together a decent sized group to investigate some life on Mars." He paused, waiting for the effect of his words. No one said anything, so he continued. "We're not sure how developed this life may or may not be, but we're looking at a few different options for this project. There haven't been any decisions as to where we need to base our project. Possibly here on Earth, possibly the moon, or maybe on Mars itself, though we won't want to spend the night there until we really know the situation."

"How advanced is the life you're talking about?" asked Dairine. She'd been dealing with the life on Jupiter's moon on her own. What could be going on on Mars that they'd need a team for?

"We aren't sure yet. We're getting mixed signals. At times we think they're little more than organisms with just a few cells a piece, at other times, we're wondering if there's more lurking below the surface. We sent a man out and he hasn't been back or sent any information back to the rest of us since his arrival, which we know was successful. We're thinking of planning for the next month or so, gathering teams, and then starting," he signified the end of his explanation by beginning to eat again.

Kit tried not to act overexcited. "Mars?"

Ronan nodded calmly.

Nita looked curiously at her aunt. There seemed to be an important factor Ronan wasn't explaining. "And why us? There are a lot of wizards out there. Do we get dibs on this because we're family?"

Annie smiled, knowing she was teasing Nita. "That's not strictly true. Kit's not family."

Nita began to blush. Yes, in many ways Kit was clearly not family; if he were she wouldn't be having the sorts of thoughts about him that she did.

Dairine inserted herself into what might otherwise have been an awkward and somewhat amusing place. She'd rather have her aunt get on with the explanation than have Nita and Kit squirm in discomfort. "I consider him like a brother, Aunt Annie. So why do you want us for this project?"

"Dairine, as much as we'd like to involve you, you seem to have your work cut out for you this summer. The same goes for you, Roshaun. However, I've heard Kit and Nita have been slacking off lately…"

"We have not." Then he looked over at Annie directly. "You've been talking to Tom and Carl, haven't you?"

"Just before coming over. We already had you in mind actually when we spoke with them. The biggest reason we thought of you actually is because you both have a fair amount of experience working off planet. You're well acquainted not only with the basic atmosphere bubble spells and the like, but you're also used to dealing with life on other planets."

Ed broke in before his sister could list any other reasons why his daughter should go gallivanting off to Mars with her and other wizards. "And just how long are you planning on taking my daughter away from me?"

"I'm not sure, Ed. The assignment will take us as long as it takes. She'll be able to check in with you. And if Dairine manages to get that world-gate approved, Dairine can be home as often as you'd like her."

This idea alarmed Dairine slightly. She liked Wellakh. Granted, she wanted to be able to come home easily if she was needed, but she wanted to be on Wellakh with Roshaun, fixing all its problems. She sensed some uneasiness coming from Roshaun; he thought he would have her with him all summer. He didn't like it when things didn't go his way.

"How necessary is it for both of you to go away this summer?" he asked, directing his question at both daughters and no one else.

"Daddy, I don't feel as if I've been doing my part lately. After that last mess, They gave us a little break, but I need to know I'm doing my part. If there's something going on that's made us lose a wizard, then we have a serious problem and we need to do something about it as soon as possible."

Dairine added, not wanting to be stuck at home, "Wellakh's water shortage is getting worse and worse. We need to get the drought taken care of as soon as possible. Half the planet is charred and we need to keep water in the good half to keep people from dying. And the government," she looked at Roshaun, who essentially was the government, "is a mess. If we don't do something, Roshaun may be the next in an on and off line of assassinated kings. There's no heir. The planet would fall into unrest, and probably mob or military rule. There's no knowing what could result from the chaos. The government needs to be completely reorganized and with the amount of work involved, we'll be lucky to make a decent start working all summer. It's not something I can do going back and forward every other weekend."

He sighed. "So, that's it? My daughters are leaving."

Nita felt a pang for her father. He'd be stuck in the house, all alone while they went off on business all summer. All the same, the excitement of finding life on Mars was getting the better of her. "It's not like we're leaving yet, Daddy. And we may not even be gone that long. We've got a lot of details to work out. Right, Aunt Annie?"

"That's right," Annie said, taking a sip of her tea. "Nothing's been finalized yet. That's what the next month is about."

It was with uneasy silence, breached by small talk, that they finished dinner. Nita and Kit volunteered to do the dishes, not wanting to be sitting around if there was any sort of explosion. Dairine and Roshaun went upstairs to her room to look at their spell again with fresh eyes. Ronan sat uneasily at the table after having handed his plate and silverware to Kit.

Ed led his sister into the living room, grabbing the phone, probably to call Tom and Carl.

Ronan looked around the kitchen.

"So how've you been?" asked Kit.

"Not bad. It's been a little strange being the only one inside my head again, but good. Much quieter now."

"Things have calmed down then?" asked Nita, handing a plate to Kit to dry.

"It's Ireland. Things never really 'calm down.' I was working with a group trying to find a way to help clear up the overlay problem before this Mars assignment came up. The very nature of Ireland probably wouldn't really allow for a cure, but cleaning up the symptoms for a while couldn't hurt." He shook his head. "We weren't getting very far with it." He grimaced for a moment. "Johnny sends his best to both of you."

Nita nodded. That was one of several annoyances with working in Ireland, gorgeous though it was. The overlays were the first big problem. The next was not being able to just act on wizardry, but having to meet and discuss. And Ronan. That was one annoyance that wasn't as much of an annoyance anymore. He was still Ronan, and he'd always be Ronan, but he wasn't quite so disagreeable these days. Even he and Kit seemed to more or less get along now. She glanced at Kit next to her and Ronan behind her. Neither of them had told her what happened between them, but something had and they didn't look likely to explain it to her anytime soon. Stupid boys. Whatever it was had seemed to fix things between them though. "How's Shaun doing?"

"Johnny's not doing that well. The wizard who went to Mars and never came back was his nephew." Ronan was silent for a moment. "He was against our coming to get you or involving you in this Mars project, actually."

"Why? We can handle this just as well as you, or anyone else," Kit told him, a touch defensively as he almost dropped the plate Nita handed him to dry.

Ronan put his hands up in a "Don't ask me" gesture and shrugged. "Annie and I know that. You've got interplanetary experience on your side, a good deal of it considering your age. Johnny knows it too. He's familiar with your background the last few years, and Annie and I agreed that it was a good idea. He was the one who first thought of bringing you two into the project, but after what happened to his nephew, he started having second thoughts. He doesn't want kids getting hurt."

Nita flushed, about ready to toss the mug in her hand at his head. She sputtered. "Kids? And what's that make you? A grandpa?"

"His words, not mine. He's fairly strongly against me being a part of it too. He'd love to forget the whole thing, but he knows he can't. It took plenty of convincing to get him to let me stay on the project, and more arguing on the part of Annie and some others and I to get him to agree to let us come speak with you even." He lowered his voice. "He also told us not to pursue Dairine too actively." He returned his voice to normal pitch. "She's younger and maybe even more hot tempered than you are." He gave Nita a look.

Nita could feel the look rather than see it and she turned around. If Kit had given her that look, she probably would have smacked or punched him, but Ronan was not Kit, so she settled for as steely a glare as she could manage. She could feel Kit next to her, doing his best not to laugh. She swatted him on the arm and hoped it smarted a little.

"We're both really relieved to see that Dairine's otherwise occupied. Interplanetary travels and studies seem to be Dairine's specialty, but something isn't sitting right on this trip, which is why, aside from were world aspects—like school—we're going slow and cautious with this. You need to know that before you decide if you're in or not." Ronan's voice was serious and he looked steadily at Kit and Nita while he spoke his final sentence.

Kit hung the dish towel on its hook and settled himself at the table. Nita joined him. "I'm in."

"Kit, don't jump into this. Read whatever your manual will tell you about it. Get your seniors to open up extra access if possible or necessary." Ronan's voice was sharp. "You may only want to be involved for the planning phase; no one would hold it against you if you decided not to make the trip."

Nita leaned back in her chair, rocking on two legs. "Ronan, what's the deal? What is going on out there? Wizards have never hesitated on a little local sighting seeing—"

"Except maybe in Ireland," Kit said, thinking of Ronan's never having been to the moon until Nita took him.

Nita jobbed him with her elbow. Now is not the time for wisecracks, Kit. "What I was saying is that I'm sure plenty of us have traveled there. Why is it so dangerous now?"

"I don't know." Ronan was finally beginning to sound frustrated. "The only one I know is missing is Shaun's nephew, but I'm sure there are others."

Kit was doing some quick calculations in his head. "We could go, just to have a look around…"

"I don't think that's a good idea Kit. We can't go rushing into this; people have probably already tried—and failed—or they would be so overprotective about the whole situation," Nita reasoned.

Ronan nodded. "That was my thought." He stood up. "I'm going to check on Dairine and make sure she doesn't find some way to come." Maybe he could arrange something with Roshaun.

"Ronan, I'm all for keeping Dairine out of this; I don't want to see her get hurt, but why is she singled out in all of this?"

That thought had been troubling Nita too and she looked to Ronan for an answer to Kit's question.

"I don't know. I don't have all or even most of the answers yet. All I can say is that I'm glad she's doing something else right now. The Powers around things for a reason. Maybe she'll be on the back up force that pulls our arses out of the fire. Or maybe something else entirely will come up. At any rate, Somebody passed the message on to keep her out. I got it from Johnny. I don't know where he got it, but I don't think he came up with it himself. I'm going upstairs to check on the two of them and see if I can offer any help."

"Good luck, they won't take it."

"Not from you maybe, but I'm neither the over protective big sister, nor the over protective big sister's best friend." He ducked out of the kitchen quickly and into the living room as unobtrusively as possible. The four adults were clearly engrossed in a conversation that looked as though it might become fairly heated very shortly. That in mind, he continued up the stairs and knocked on Dairine's door.

Author's Note: And I'm sure you've all figured out my mistake. I wanted to say "Irish accent" to throw people off—first assumption was usually Ronan, but I meant it to be Annie. I goofed because of course Annie doesn't have an Irish accent; she's American. I'll go back and edit that in the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed the latest installment.