CHAPTER 18 - "The Unexpected"

As Jenks had said, I found Bis on the roof. Fortunately, he was right beside the attic window so if I leaned out the window and twisted around, I could see him. His eyes were closed and he was unmoving. He looked like a statue, albeit one that was quite out of place perched there all alone on the non-gothic architecture of our little church.

I reached over and placed my hand on his back. His skin was hard and cold. He even felt like stone and I felt my already overwhelmed heart throb with pain anew at the possibility of not getting him back. Jenks seemed to think he would wake now that I had returned. I hoped that was true. I was trying to be strong and carry on because everyone needed me to, especially Trent, but I needed at least one good thing to happen right now. I needed to not lose any one else tonight.

"Bis?" I whispered, stroking his hard, pebbly back and folded wings tenderly. "Bis, please wake up. It's me ... I'm back Bis. You were right; I wasn't dead, so you can't be gone either, okay? Come on, Bis ..." I pleaded when I got no response.

Turning backwards, I pulled myself up to sit on the open window sill so the upper part of my body was outside and I could more easily reach the young gargoyle. Reaching out, I tapped a line and pulled it into my chi. For a moment, I just reveled in the fact that I could. I had missed this feeling so much more than I could explain. With the line thrumming in me, I reached out again and touched Bis, my hands cupping either side of his still, stony face.

It was still daylight. I knew I should wait and try this at night. Bis wasn't even supposed to be able to be up during the day at his age. Of course, Bis was, all the time lately, but I told myself that if I couldn't wake him, I mustn't fear the worst until I'd tried again after nightfall. The admonishment fell flat. I really needed him to wake up now. I couldn't live with this fear until nightfall, I was already too emotionally wrecked. I felt tears warming my eyes again as I looked at him. "Please, Bis. Please be okay."

For a long moment, I thought nothing was happening, but then, slowly, his dark eyes blinked open. A confused and groggy look crossed his endearingly ugly face. He shifted his wings uncertainly, wincing as flecks of stone and dirt slid from his skin when it started acting like skin again. "M-Ms. Morgan?" his raspy voice was hesitant and seemed more gravely than usual. Then his eyes brightened as his head seemed to clear.

"Ms. Morgan!" he said, much more joyously. He lurched towards me, his movements less graceful than normal because of his long hibernation. He hit me square in the chest and I had to quickly grab hold of the window frame to keep from falling. Holding the sill with one hand and clutching Bis to me with the other, I wriggled my way back inside the attic and to a slightly safer position while the adolescent gargoyle hugged me enthusiastically, his tail wrapping around my waist. "Ms. Morgan, you're alive! ... Or I'm dead," he amended quickly. "Am I dead? I don't feel dead."

The first genuine smile in what felt like forever tugged the corners of my mouth upward. I was so relieved. "No, Bis, you're not dead and you were right, neither was I!"

Bis suddenly seemed to realize how he'd been crawling all over me and quickly pulled back, his rough skin flushing in the way it did when he was embarrassed. But he was still smiling. "I knew you couldn't be dead!" he said happily. "But I couldn't find you, where were you?"

"I was kind of in another dimension ... reality ... something like that. I'll tell you all about it later, okay?" I stroked his tufted ears fondly and he leaned into my touch like a cat.

"I'm so glad you're back," he said happily, his innocent joy warming me and yet making the hollowness in my chest somehow even more pronounced. Always sensitive to my feelings, Bis tilted his head to the side, looking at me. "Is everything okay?"

I smiled at him and gave his head another pat before rising to my feet. "Not everything, no. You've been out and I've been gone for around two weeks, Bis. A lot has happened, some of it not so good. But I'm really glad to see you again, and that you're okay." I couldn't bring myself to tell him about Lucy and Ray, not yet. One of us should be happy for a while longer, and at this point I honestly couldn't bear to deal with it anymore. I needed an escape from the pain, even if only temporarily.

Thankfully, Bis accepted this. Perhaps because he sensed how much I needed him to. "Two weeks?" he said in surprise as he crawled up the wall, following me back down out of the attic. "I slept a really long time, huh?"

"Yup," I agreed. "Etude came to check on you, I hear. You're probably going to want to fly over to the Basilica after it gets dark and let them all know you're okay. You can tell them I'm okay too, but ask them not to talk about it to anybody else just yet. Not until tomorrow, anyway." I knew Trent wasn't going to delay any longer than that, so beyond that point it wouldn't matter.

Bis nodded his happy agreement and hopped off the wall, settling on my shoulder with his tail wrapped around my neck as he liked to do while I picked up the kitchen phone and dialed my mother. Bis obviously just wanted to be close to me for a while, and that was fine with me. The truth was I liked it too. The whole bonding thing went both ways it seemed. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed being in the same reality as Bis until I was back with him, his touch on my shoulder filling me with the glorious humming of every lay line in reach. Damn, I had missed this.

My mother answered the phone on the third ring. "Ivy?" she said, obviously having seen our number on the caller ID.

"Hey, Mom," I said with forced brightness, not entirely looking forward to this conversation. "Guess who isn't dead?"

All things considered, the call with my mother went better than I'd expected. Takata had apparently been with her the whole time since she got the news and I think that had helped. There had been tears and happiness, and a few choice words about the trouble I was always in, but she claimed - true or not, that she'd never entirely believed it, not after the last time. In fact, she declared she was never going to ever believe I was dead again unless she personally saw my body, and probably not even then. So, she told me, I was just going to live forever, and she was glad she could stop worrying about that.

Robby was apparently giving her enough to worry about. Some kind of marital issues between he and his wife that I honestly couldn't care less about, but listened to her go on about in detail for almost a half hour anyway. I suppose that was the price I paid for scaring her so all the time. It was a pretty small price, really. She asked me if I wanted to talk to Takata at the end, but I wasn't ready for that yet. My heart was still much too knotted up on the painful subject of fathers just at the moment so I begged off, asking her to say hi to him for me and to tell him I'd call and talk more later.

Hanging up with a sigh, I finally nudged Bis off my shoulder and went over to retrieve my scrying mirror from under the counter. I didn't think my next call was going to go so well. Al was going to be royally pissed that he'd yet again thought I was dead when I wasn't. It wasn't my fault this time, but I was a little worried about what kind of mood I'd find him in. He'd been weirdly wrecked after Ceri died. Our relationship was different, but I got the feeling he didn't want to lose me either, and not entirely just because I was profitable. Honestly, I'd pretty much bankrupted him as often as I'd been beneficial for him in the past few years. Weird as it was, I was pretty sure Al kind of liked having me around and after seeing how he'd been after Ceri, I now understood better why he'd tried to take Trent apart the last time he thought I was dead and the elf was to blame.

Trent. Oh god. I couldn't even think of him without pain. I wondered what I was letting myself in for, planning on involving myself so heavily in his life when just being near him hurt. Pushing the mostly selfish thoughts aside, I settled my scrying mirror on the counter and pressed my hands over the glyphs.

"Rachel, calling Algaliarept ... hello Algaliarept, come in Al ..." I thought as I sought to make the connection. It was daytime and therefore it was possible that Al was sleeping. I hoped I wasn't going to walk into another one of his dreams because that was always a little awkward.

Al wasn't sleeping, but his mental voice did seem strangely tired when it was suddenly sharing the same space as mine.

"What in the ... Rachel? Mother puss bucket! Is this a joke, or are you really not dead - again?"

Oh yeah. Al was pissed.

"No joke, it's me," I replied quickly, remember what had happened the last time when he'd almost broken my scying mirror thinking I was some other demon mocking him by pretending to be me. "And nope, not dead - but Al, it was totally not my fault this time," I added when I felt the rising swell of his irritation, even mingled as it was with obvious relief. I didn't bother speaking aloud since this was more or less a private call and the only one in the room was Bis. I knew he wouldn't mind.

"I thought the bloody elves exiled your soul. You have got to stop playing with those nasty little creatures, love, they really are no good for your health," Al said, still sounding grumpy, but the faint hint of warmth I could feel creeping around the edges of our connection told me that he was glad to hear from me and glad I was still alive.

"They did try," I admitted. "But Trent and I fought them back with wild magic and it just kind of went wrong instead. We were exiled, but it was a body-and-soul deal. We got sent to this - this other world that was like ours in some ways and completely different in others ..." I stopped when I felt Al's attention unexpectedly pull away from me in distraction, as if something else had momentarily claimed his attention.

"Al?" I inquired, wondering how exactly news like that didn't hold someone's interest.

"Yes, yes," Al returned, still sounding distracted, strangely weary and more than a little peeved. "Sorry about that, love. You and Trenton were exiled to one of the mirror worlds, were you? Fascinating!" His attention wavered again sharply and I got the feeling he was moving around.

"I should have thought of that," he said, grunting as if he were picking up something slippery or difficult to deal with. "But then, there's supposed to be no way to travel between the mirror worlds, so why would I? Oh yes! Because it's you, Rachel Mariana Morgan, and you do enjoy breaking every rule in the books, don't you?"

I blinked in shock. "M-mirror worlds? You know about that? You knew there were other versions of earth? Why didn't you ever tell me?!"

His mental sarcasm was thick. "You never asked. It hardly seemed important. I know of them, but they're just stories really. As I said, there's no way to travel between them... well, no practical way. The fairy tale version goes that only gods and angels can span the chasm, and you don't exactly see many of those wondering around, do you? Put that down! Put it down right now!"

I started at his sharp and non-sensible command, but Al merely groaned at me. "Sorry love, wasn't talking to you. Anyway, if I'd known you were going to go and get yourself exiled to one of them one day, then perhaps I might have thought it relevant," he said tersely.

"Get that out of your mouth!" Al snapped and I jumped at the tone of command in his voice, automatically - if illogically - checking my mouth with my tongue as my brows furrowed. Damn, was he having some kind of breakdown? This was really weird.

"Al ... I don't have anything in my mouth," I said dryly. "You wanna tell me what's going on?"

"Wasn't talking to you, love," he said again with a very long suffering sigh. "But I must say I am rather glad to find you still on this side of the living breathing world, Rachel. Naturally, I missed you, couldn't live without you and all that," he said with snide sarcasm. "And of course I do want to hear all about however you got yourself out of your latest scrape. But now that you're back you can help me with these intractable ... No! No, don't!" His mental attention had obviously swerved away from me again, his words a bellow of annoyance. "How many times must I tell you not to ... no ... no ... come now, don't do that ..." the outburst started angrily but the tone quickly shifted to one of alarmed wheedling instead.

"Oh come on ..." Al groaned and I could feel frustration and weariness radiating from him. "Mother puss bucket! Stop crying. Come on, love, you're all right. Shh ... you're all right ..." It was totally weird hearing Al trying to be anything like consoling. He sucked at it, but it was really amusing.

"Ow!" he yelped and I got the odd impression that someone had just kicked his shin. "Why you little ...! Don't you look at me like that. Very well, you make your bloody sister stop crying, then. Can't you tell I'm trying to have a conversation?!"

Something strange, unformed and sharp around the edges like a raw blade made of hope, fear and disbelief stabbed though me. It wasn't possible, was it?

"Al!" I snapped, my mental voice loud and demanding in order to pull his attention back towards me. "Al, who is there with you? Who are you talking to?" It wasn't possible, it couldn't be; it made no sense...

"The two little minions from hell," he griped in exasperation. "And I should know about that, right? I swear Rachel, I had no idea what kind of trouble they would be or that two such small and innocent looking creatures could cause so much chaos! It's absolutely insidious is what it is. They're like one of those nasty little flowers that lures you in looking all pretty and sweet and then traps you until you drown. I ask you, Rachel, how on earth do you deal with something that isn't smart enough to be afraid of you?"

Hope was building in my chest as Al ranted, almost painful in its intensity. "Al!" I exploded, interrupting his tirade. "Are you telling me you have Ray and Lucy with you?" I almost screamed at him for the nerves jangling through me. I would just die if he said no, if I was somehow misreading this situation out of my own exhaustion and desperate need. None of it made any kind of sense, but hope was an insidious, dangerous thing that would not be denied.

I could feel Al's crisp irritation at my interruption and demanding tone. "No ... I've got two other little elven brats down here slobbering on everything they touch, drawing on every surface in reach and eating me out of house and home while complaining about the taste of every single thing," he said sarcastically.

"Al!"

"Yes, all right? Yes, they're here with me," he admitted in exasperation when he felt my intense mental pressure for a straight answer. "And I don't know if you've noticed, love, but I am not a babysitter. I do wish you would come and lend a hand before I decide that murder is a perfectly acceptable child rearing technique."

I felt the strong pull of Al's mind starting to draw me to him and realized he was about to pop me over. Naturally, it being daylight, he couldn't come to my side of the lines.

"W-wait!" I said urgently, pulling back against his grip and not letting him jump me. "Wait, Al, let me get Trent!" Trent needed to know, immediately.

"Oh, Trenton survived your little trip through the looking glass as well, did he? Marvelous! I guess I won't be needing you to mind the bratlings after all, then," Al drawled at me as he stopped trying to jump me through. "Although that's almost a pity. I do wish you had to put up with them a while so you can see what I've been dealing with."

"We thought they were dead, Al. We came back and Ivy and Jenks told Trent his daughters were dead." There was the husky rasp of raw emotion in my thoughts.

"Oh," Al said, sounding as if this was something he hadn't thought about. "Oh, yes, I suppose they would think that, given the circumstances. Well, go collect your elf and I'll pop you both over here for the touching reunion, then maybe I can get my bloody life back. Sound good, love?"

I gave a grunt of response and broke the connection, almost bolting to my feet and causing Bis to look at me in alarm. "Trent!" I shouted. My shoes slid on the kitchen floor, I was running so fast. "Trent!" I said again as I pounded down the hallway, drawing Jenks to me like a magnet.

"Whoa, Rache, what happened? What's wrong?!" Jenks demanded. His sword was out and he was already swinging into full battle mode, obviously thinking there was some kind of imminent threat.

I shook my head, too full of wonder, joy, confusion and nervous energy to express myself very clearly. "No, nothing wrong, something right! Oh my God ... Trent!"

Trent appeared in the doorway to my bedroom, looking haggard and drawn and weirdly adorable with his hair a mess and one side of his face wrinkled with the pattern of the sheets he'd been laying on. He blinked puffy, red-rimmed eyes at me; obviously trying to force his mind clear enough to assess whatever new calamity had befallen us.

"Rachel, what is it?" He demanded with a frown. His swollen eyes must be aching because he rubbed at them with his palm, blinking owlishly.

I grabbed his arm and started bodily dragging him down the hall towards the kitchen. "Trent, they're alive. You were right, I don't know how or why but they're alive!"

Trent resisted, digging in his heels in confusion. "Rachel, what the devil are you talking about?" he demanded, clearly both pissed and groggy which was not a great combination.

"Lucy and Ray!" I exclaimed, aching at the grief that suddenly crashed down across his features at hearing their names, but at the same time feeling joyful because I knew I could actually do something now to take that pain away. My head was spinning, I felt as high as if I were on brimstone. "They're alive, Trent! They weren't killed in that explosion!"

"What?!" Jenks exploded in a cloud of dust. "No fairy farting way! Rache, are you sure?" he asked nervously, eyeing Trent with a wariness that said he knew what it would do to the elf to be given hope and then have it snatched away.

"Yes, I'm sure! They're with Al! I just talked to him. They're both okay. Come on, Trent!" I babbled, grabbing his arm again and dragging him the rest of the way down the hall. About a quarter of the way there the news finally seemed to sink into his reeling mind.

"They're alive?" he whispered in disbelieving shock. Then suddenly he was lurching forward, pushing past me in his mad need to get to the kitchen. He saw my scrying mirror out on the counter and made a beeline towards it. I jogged over to join him, shouldering him away when it looked like he might clap his hand down atop it. I didn't want Trent calling people on my mirror as a matter of principle and given the elf's state of mind, it was probably better to not subject him to the demon collective at the moment.

Trent stared at the mirror and then his head jerked up as he had finally caught up with everything I'd said and its implications. "Wait ... they're with Al?" he said in a mix of alarm and incredulity. "In the Ever After?!"

Yeah ... I was trying to wrap my head around that too. From the sound of things, they may very well have been there for the past few weeks. Given Trent's history with demons snatching his children, I could understand why that was worrisome to him. Heck, the idea of Al having anybody's kids for that long was making me positively twitchy.

I could see that that marvelously insidious thing called hope was working on Trent too though, because he almost immediately shook his head in response to his own question. "Never mind. That doesn't matter right now. I just need to see them. Call him, Rachel. Have him bring us over, I'll pay anything," he said raggedly.

Which was precisely why I didn't want Trent doing the talking. "I don't think we'll need to worry about that," I told him. "Al's already offered to jump us over, gratis. I don't know what's going on, but it really sounds like he's anxious to get the girls off his hands, so don't be all desperate in front of him and start giving him ideas," I warned.

Honestly, I wasn't too worried. Al was doubtless up to something and he'd want to be repaid for his troubles, but I didn't believe he would try to keep the girls. He knew I'd fight for them and besides, he'd seemed honestly relieved at the idea of ridding himself of them. Which made me wonder why on earth he'd taken them in the first place, not to mention how ... but there would be time enough to find all that out, I supposed.

"Al? I have Trent with me, you can bring us over now," I told him both in my mind and aloud once I'd made the connection. I could tell from the quick connect that he'd been waiting for me.

"Marvelous!" He said and at the same time I felt the jerk of him pulling me into the line, then reaching through me and grabbing Trent too.

Trent was so distracted that he didn't think to protect his thoughts as we plunged into the line and Al was expecting us to do it ourselves. I quickly snapped a bubble of protection around both our minds, keeping us whole as the lines took us.

A/N: Told you I'd fix it all up. :) Much as it might be fun to explore whether Trent would be able to survive and move on or not (I'm honestly not sure which way that would go) I don't think I could handle how long that would end up making this story. Besides, I'm a sucker for happy endings and I wouldn't really kill off Lucy and Ray ... I'm not completely evil. XD BTW, the reviewer who guessed this would be the case a couple of chapters ago? Kudos! LOL You scare me a little, are you psychic? ;D