Chapter Eighteen: Tall Tales

Zale sat watching his little brother as Johnny paced across the floor. Grandpapa Ben was comforting the girls who didn't know why they'd been rushed out without saying goodbye to Daddy and Papa. Zada demanded answers so Zale told her what he'd seen, Daddy Daniel injured and in Papa's arms, so still and bleeding. Johnny saw the attack and tried to tell someone but Papa didn't know what he was trying to say. Zale hated to see his brother so distraught over something he felt was his fault, he should have screamed it out but his vocal chords froze up as always, his mental call couldn't be heard strongly by their magically void parents.

He could feel the voice of Xylander in the back of his mind, telling him to release the Magis then he could get to his Daddy and heal his injuries. Johnny could go with him so they could both see Daddy Daniel alive with color and destroy the disturbing image of their sweet loving Daddy covered in blood.

Zale walked over to Johnny and place a hand on his arm just as the phone rang, an abrupt noise that still made Zale and his siblings jump. Grandpapa lifted the phone from his cradle and answered, "Jack?" he paused, "How is he? -Okay well if that's what he needs don't worry about us —okay do you want to talk to the boys?"

Zale turned and took the phone when Grandpapa gestured to him, "Papa?"

"Hey Z-Man, how are you and Johnny doing?"

"Fine, and Daddy?"

"Doc Janet is taking good care of him, I am going to stay with him so that they can take pictures of his head with a special camera."

"Okay Papa, when you coming home with Daddy, Johnny would also like to know you are okay and Daddy also. He saw Daddy and he can't seem to stop pacing right now."

"Give him the phone son," Papa told him so Zale did and listened as their father did what he had to for Johnny to find calming words to give. Johnny nodded and grunted in answer before he handed the phone back to grandpapa. With the silence once again reclaimed in the room, so Johnny started pacing and Zale went back to watching him.

You can find it within to heal your Daddy; I would not lie to you again. Your fathers both love you very much and I would please ask your forgiveness in favor of freedom to speak to you once more.

Zale shrugged off the words, curious that he could hear them again so clearly. He knew he could access his powers without Xylander but it was easier to control each power with Xylander standing at his side, inside his mind to help him along in his journey. It would be necessary if he was to travel with Johnny as well.

"Zale?" Grandpapa called to him.

Zale focused on the older man, "Yes?"

"When you touched Johnny and then you ran for the doors where your Daddy went off with Henry…" Zale frowned when Ben stopped speaking as he was figuring something out that a slow child should have figured sooner.

"Yes?" Zale asked gently.

"You threw open the doors without touching them," Grandpapa answered even as he covered his mouth with a look of petrified devastation. "You heard him say something to you or showed you something in your mind."

Zale frowned innocently. Daddy and Papa did not approve of lying except in this one area, no one was to know about their powers. "I don't understand your meaning Grandpapa."

"Zale I know you are incredibly smart for your age, please don't treat me a fool. Your daddy is super protective of you not just because he's your father but because each of you have special abilities that don't belong in this world."

Zale shrugged, "Come out Xylander but behave yourself." Zale whispered the words and Grandpapa watched him in confusion as a light suffused Zale's body as full power was released to him.

"Zale no!" Zada shouted in her high-pitched voice.

"I have to do this Zada," Zale returned as he reached out and took Johnny's hand and wrapped the power of Xylander around himself as well as around Johnny and with a pop they were somewhere else.

Someone screamed in shock and Zale looked around, wondering why he hadn't gone straight to Daddy's side. "Xylander, I mean it! I will put you back in your box!"

Xylander heaved a mental sigh, a sound of prevailing annoyance at his station in life before he spoke into Zale's mind. Turn to the right, walk down to the end of the hall and your precious Daddy is in the door at the end.

Zale tugged Johnny along next to him even as adults moved quickly from their path. Zale was surprised to not find Papa as he opened the door and saw Daddy Daniel laying on the bed, on his side sleeping beneath a blanket. Zale stepped up close to the bed and looked at the array of white wraps around his face and head, parts of his shoulders were covered and a spot on his neck was covered. Zale reached out to touch Daddy Daniel, to release him from the pain he was feeling under the pallor of skin and shortness of breath when someone grabbed his hand. He turned with a frown, only to be met by his Papa's disapproving gaze.

"Zale what the hell are you doing here? Did you teleport here? Did anyone see you? Why is Johnny here?"

"I wanted to heal Daddy. Yes I did. A couple saw us and Johnny needed to know Daddy was okay."

"Dammit Zale, I told you he's going to be okay but you opened the box didn't you?"

Zale nodded, chastened under the force of his father's anger.

"You need to keep Xylander contained, this is not a good time or place to have supernatural abilities. People saw what you can do, they might call in someone to take you away from us and you didn't think of any of this while Daddy has been hurt!"

Zale shuffled his feet, realizing yet again that this was not the world where magic was explained as part of the normal state of affairs, here they could be hurt or taken for having them.

"I hate it here, we will never be who we were born to be," Zale snapped and Jack flinched.

He crouched down and brought Zale close to him, "I get that Z but that doesn't get you out of the trouble you're in right now. We never planned on getting back here but unless Greer figures out how to control his power, we can't start jumping through time, its too dangerous."

Zale nodded even as Xylander started talking smack about Papa again, "Knock it off Xylander, unless you want to end up in one of those special hospitals that you can't escape."

Xylander fell silent again and Zale heaved a sigh of relief. Then as he was curling into Papa's embrace, Papa pulled away, bringing Zale with him. Zale was confused until he saw hid Daddy's blue eyes staring at them from the bed but he was so still. Zale struggled to pull away from Papa so he could climb into the bed with Daddy but Jack pulled him back.

"Hey love, how you feeling?" Papa asked gently, rubbing a gently hand through Daddy's hair in a gesture that Zale had been seeing between his fathers since he was a toddler. Daddy gave Papa a look to which Papa chuckled lightly about, "I know, stupid question. Lets get Janet in here to check you out."

Daddy shook his head gently and it occurred to Zale all of a sudden Daddy wasn't talking. There was never a time in Zale's life that he remembers Daddy not having something to say. Daddy and Papa could talk about their chosen fields and passions for days on end, neither of them did silence.

"I can check Daddy using my powers," Zale offered.

"No," Papa told him as gently as he could and Zale sat down and watched Papa continue talking to Daddy.

"Zale, come see that Daddy's going to be okay before I take you home," Papa said and Zale walked closer and took Daddy's hand gently in his. Zale listened to Daddy's emotions, finding a throbbing discomfort but also the knowledge that he was safe as long as Jack—Papa was there with him. Zale leaned forward and kissed Daniel's hand. Then when everyone was watching him be a good little 'normal' boy he slipped inside of Daddy and checked out why he wasn't speaking, finding no medical reason for the silence. That was very similar to Johnny, then he check over Daddy's bruises and cuts and quickly started healing the worst of them; the head injury which was inside as well as out. Zale kept up the healing power until Papa caught on to what he was doing and pulled him away from Daddy.

"I told you to not do that, dammit Zale. What am I going to do with you?"

Daniel shook his head wearily from the pillow but faded quickly from consciousness. So Jack grabbed each of the boys by a hand and marched them both out of the other room and took them down to the lobby, calling his dad to see if the man was interested in coming to get them from the hospital.

"Hey Pop, yes the boys are with me," Papa was saying, "Can you come get them please? Mom? Really? Are you sure that's a good idea? Okay."

Papa hung up the phone and sat both the boys down in the lobby, and then he sat down and pressed the heel of his hand into his eyeball hard. Zale sighed and ignored the snort of derision in his mind from Xylander as he touched Papa's hand, "Papa, when I saw Daddy, I didn't know if he was alive or dead. I needed to know, to see for myself that he was going to survive. I had never seen so much blood and it was all over my Daddy!" Zale whispered harshly. Papa gripped Zale's hand, pulling him close and kissing Zale's fingers in comfort, something he'd seen his Papa do to Daddy on more than one occasion.

"I know Zale, but you know how Daddy and I feel about you using magic before we came here, now we have to worry about people kidnapping you. There are bad people who would use your powers to their aid and hurt you in the process as well as us."

Zale nodded again and held onto Jack until Grandmother walked up to them and Jack immediately went into her arms as if the fights and the problems Zale knew they were having all just slipped away. "Thanks Mom for coming here and getting them. Pop has the girls at the hotel and is freaking out that they aren't with him there."

Grandmother looked down and Zale then Johnny, she stepped forward and touched Zale's cheek gently. Zale could feel her emotions and tried to maintain a clear facial expression. She was scared for Daddy and worried about Papa and how haggard he looked even after a day in the hospital and now Zale was making it worse not that she knew why. She leaned down and tugged him forward in his chair and maintained eye contact with Zale. "Your Daddy is going to be fine but you shouldn't be running away no matter the reason. Your Grandpapa almost had a heart attack when you went missing."

Zale nodded, "I'm sorry I worried him and you."

She smiled then and Zale could see the resemblance between his Papa and her in the shine of her eyes and the grin. "You are a handsome young man, you look a lot like your Daddy."

Zale nodded, "So I've been told."

"Maybe we should get you two back to Grandpapa before he spins out of control about losing you."

Zale nodded, and after a quick and quiet word with Johnny from Papa they both followed Grandmother outside and they all got into her vehicle which conveniently had those stupid car seats everyone made them sit in here. The trip back to the hotel was short and silent. When they arrived in front of the door and Grandpapa let them back inside he swooped Zale and Johnny both into his arms and Zale was surprised by the depth of emotion in him. There is love and relief that they were okay along with an extreme dose of confusion about how Zale and Johnny left in the first place. Zale couldn't do anything but return the hug and soak up the feelings before he pulled away and sent Zale and Johnny to their room. They went miserably but Zale kept listening behind him as the two parents of his Papa as they sat down in the living room and Grandmother watched the girls.

"They are all so beautiful Ben," Grandmother said as Zale listened at the slightly open door of the bedroom. Johnny was lying on the bed, arms wrapped around him; Zale was going to go to him when he was done listening to what they were saying.

"Are you going to accept them all, that they are all family?" Grandpapa asked her.

"God Ben, I didn't know how to let go of the past and the loss Jackie suffered. Looking at those kids and knowing the depth of emotion he feels for Daniel it almost makes what he felt for Sarah null and the death of Charlie as if it didn't happen. I was scared for him, for all the them but I was also scared of losing my daughter."

"Lauren, you know your son better than that. I can't imagine him asking you to give up Sarah he just can't be in love with her. He doesn't love her like he loves Daniel; we've seen the power of it when they are within touching distance of each other. He would choose Daniel and his children over us and you need to accept that. It's the only way we will ever see them."

"I know that now, I saw them at the wedding and I knew Daniel and these children are Jack's path now no matter what that means."

Grandpapa coughed, "There's something I need to tell you."

"What?" Grandmother asked, worry lacing her tone.

"I think Henry is the one who hurt Daniel at the wedding, Jack is going to kill him at worst and send him to jail at best. I think we should let him."

"What?" Grandmother cried and Zale covered his mouth to keep the gasp of surprise from escaping. Someone they didn't know hadn't hurt Daddy but someone Papa called family.