"Now we have something serious discuss with you Derek," Dave began as soon as the desert had been eaten.

"What's going on?" Derek wondered looking over at Marla who was expressionless, but he could see worry in her gray eyes, as he knew Marla's expressions intimately by now.

"You see Derek," Dave began while the others stayed silent as Dave started to tell Derek all about immortality and magic.

Derek was staring at them as if they were crazy, even though he had seen a lot of strange things in his job as a detective on the force.

"We can demonstrate it for you," Shonda said, even as she flicked her wrist and a globe of light formed.

Marla made sure Derek saw that her hands were empty before she did the same thing her godmother had done.

"What?!" Derek exclaimed staring at Marla and then is Shonda.

"I know we shocked to Derek," Marla said soberly. "There is a reason that magic users around the world don't want most people to know that they're different. If you think about it the answer will become obvious. After all, you're a cop and you know what happens to people who are different."

"That's true," Derek said seeming to get over his shock relatively quickly.

"There are magic users everywhere, in every town and city in the world unless you're a really small town like the one Shonda and I grew up in," Jazz said.

"Moonlight Gorge was originally built as a haven for magic users of every stripe," Shonda added. "By the time Jazz and I were born however, there was only a few families left that had magic, because they'd either moved away or married normal people often enough that the magic in those families became dormant. The Lincolns and the Walters were two of those families that still had magic."

"I met Dave first," Jazz added. "I owned a bakery then to and had only been in business for a few years. It was called Jazz's Stupendous Delights."

Everybody went on, taking turns in telling Derek the rest of the story, which was really just a short version of their history.

"A witch light is the simplest of magic," Marla explained after everybody was done explaining their history. "It doesn't take much power to produce one, so there's no drain on that person's energy."

"It's basically a flashlight, except formed by magic," Shonda added. "No batteries required."

"As for our immortality we'll be happy to demonstrate that too," Dave offered.

"Before you do that, I want to know exactly why you told me," Derek said having obviously been thinking. "I mean, I'm a cop and if what you say is true, if I went and blabbed that could be dangerous for you."

"That's true," Marla said. "There is a reason we told you though Derek. We were all well aware that you could be dangerous to us because of your profession. We knew you could tell our secret to people like the mayor or other people in power. While you might not be believed some people believe in supernatural forces and other things that go bump in the night. We're well aware that it would be our faults if we stuck our hand in that hornet's nest and got stung.

"The reason that my family was willing to tell a cop what we are is because every immortal has what we call a mate, which basically means soulmate. Once that immortal meets their mate they'll never be happy again without them. When I looked into your face back when you answered the police scanner about my donut shop being broken into it was like being struck by lightning or hit over the head with a hard blow meant to incapacitate."

"Your eyes widened, as if you were shocked at something when you did," Derek remembered.

"I was, so I tried my best to contain my reaction, but I'm not surprised you noticed since you are really observant," Marla said. "I shouldn't have been so shocked as it happened multiple times in my family."

"But you said none of your siblings were married," Derek said missing the point Marla was trying to make.

"I didn't lie to you about that," Marla said, "but that's only for my generation. My family and my aunt and uncle have had multiple children over their many centuries and it is some of those that have met their mates."

"True," Aaron said smiling, as he thought about his children.

"Us immortals never get to old to have children," Jazz added. "Every few decades we have a few more once our current batch have grown up and are out on their own."

"Are you ready for that demonstration?" Dave asked Derek calmly.

"What exactly do you intend on doing to demonstrate?" Derek asked.

"It's fairly simple," Aaron responded. "We simply cut ourselves deep enough that it would take some time to heal, even with using a healing wand. It will of course, heal in just a few seconds."

"Since we know you probably don't want Marla to hurt herself until you're sure she'll heal, just as fast as all of us do I'm willing to do the demonstration this time," Jazz offered.

Derek did not protest because two women in the room including his girlfriend had produced what they called a witch light out of thin air. It could be some kind of illusion he supposed, but then he touched the blue globe that was over Marla's shoulder and realized that his finger felt it so it couldn't be an illusion or a hologram as those weren't solid and he didn't feel the static or disrupt the image breaking up at least temporarily, which would've happened, if the witch light had been a hologram.

He watched avidly as Marla's mother Jazz took the knife she had brought and he had wondered why she had, as the trifle wasn't the type of dessert that needed it and as a spoon was enough to put it into bowls, to break up the semisolid layers.

He now understood why Jazz had brought the knife, as she would've known that she would need it at some point. Not a single one of the family looked concerned about Jazz hurting herself to prove their immortality, not even Marla, Derek noticed.

Marla would be frantic he was sure if her mother was about to do something to hurt herself if she didn't know that she would heal within a few seconds. He was sure that Dave would have the same reaction, but both people mentioned looked calm and not worried in the slightest. Also, if Shonda and Aaron were friends with Jazz they would look worried too, but they didn't just like the two Rossis didn't.

Jazz cut the back of her hand without a word not able to hide the wince at the sharp pain. Derek who was watching saw the deep cut on the back of Jazz's hand and then saw the wound start the heal right before his eyes.

Nobody in the room said anything until Jazz put down the knife and grabbed some of the paper napkins that had been brought in order to wipe her hand before the blood could dry.

"I saw it, but I'm still trying to believe it," Derek said finally.

"I don't blame you for being shocked, Derek," Dave offered with a smile, even as Jazz balled up the paper napkin she had used to clean her hand of blood.

"We live quietly for a reason," Aaron added, even as Jazz put the knife in the the empty portion of the dish that still had some trifle in it. Jazz looked as calm as she had been all night. "True, we do."

"We move every few decades once our children are grown," Shonda added, "and we've lived in most of the cities in the US as well as overseas."

"To most people immortality, not to mention magic, is fantasy not real," Aaron added. "We've already given you the bare bones of our history so you should understand what I mean."

"I don't think I want to know how you get by in this very high tech society," Derek said. "You have to change your data don't you, even if you don't change your names. Update your history so it's current.

"Considering how much information we've been throwing at you I'm surprised you thought of that so soon," Dave said looking at his future son-in-law appraisingly, "but then again you're a cop so maybe it's not so surprising. You're absolutely right it's the only way we can live in this very high-tech society."

"You're showing me a lot of trust, which I do appreciate. I have to figure that this being the mate of Marla must be a powerful force, because I don't see you telling someone like me otherwise. I just don't see you taking the risk," Derek said. "If you've been around for centuries then you know the way the world works, how people can be greedy and evil and a lot of other things besides, not all of them good."

"You're right, we would never take the risk if you weren't my mate," Marla said. "Any immortal knows when they have met their mate, someone who at least has most of the same ethics and morals that they do and a lot of the same interests. Someone who knows how to keep a secret no matter the circumstances. When I realized you were my mate that is one reason I kept bringing you and your men donuts every few days. I wanted you to keep seeing me as often as possible. To keep me in the forefront of your mind. That the other cops, at the station you work at, also benefited, was just a side effect of bringing you constant donuts."

What Marla didn't say was they had also made Derek at least more suspectible to accepting her family's explanation when it came time for them to explain what they were. The free donuts would also have got Derek to ask her out on a date without thinking that it wasn't appropriate for them to date just because they met because her place of business had been broken into, even though he hadn't actually tried one before he had asked her out.

"And if that hadn't happened and I had ignored my feelings because I thought it inappropriate to get involved with you, even though you were a victim, not a suspect?" Derek said.

"Then I would've had to do something drastic and ask you out instead. I'm glad I didn't have to do that," Marla answered. "If you had said no to a date I would've kept pestering you until you had finally agreed. I can be a quite royal pain when I want to be as my parents can tell you."

Marla added this last sentence with a smile winking at her parents.

Both the parents in question snorted though they said nothing. Derek took that to mean that they agreed with their daughter's on her last statement but were too polite to say so out loud.

"Yes, she can be," Shonda said smiling at Marla.

"That was back when she was growing up though," Aaron added with a smile of his own.

"True," Dave said. "She has matured a lot since she was a kid, but then, I suppose, that's what all children do."

"So question, if Marla had been hurt doing that breaking at her donut shop what would've happened?" Derek asked.

"That would've depended," Marla answered before anyone else could.

"If anyone else hadn't seen me get hurt or killed and I woke up still alone then I just would have ignored it and still called the cops after I cleaned up the blood if there was any. We can be killed, but there's a certain method to it, which I'll explain at a later time, so I suppose it's kind of a limited immortality."

"Still, we're as close to immortal as anybody has ever come," Dave said, "which is why that's what we call ourselves. I was once as mortal as you are now, just so you know. I'll have to tell you the story sometime or Marla can, though she doesn't know all the details."

"I've just never thought about asking," Marla shrugged. "I never saw the point."

"I would think you'd be curious about how your parents became what they are," Derek said.

"You would think that wouldn't you? It just never really mattered to me," Marla said.

"So how do you keep from being bored considering I'm assuming you live forever unless you're killed?" Derek asked.

"I'm surprised you thought of that at least right now," Shonda said smiling, "as I know we've given you a lot of information."

"To answer your question we do what everybody does. All of us go into some profession we're passionate about. I'm passionate about baking. Always have been ever since I was about 13 when I helped my mother in the kitchen. It was a time for just the two of us to chat even as we baked. Mom would ask me if I was having any problems and I would tell her if I was."

"As for me, I'm passionate about antiques, as it's profession that my family has been in for many centuries, long before I was ever born, so it was already well established and successful, before I took over from my father. All I did was keep the business going. It was run very efficiently by dad and several generations before him. I promised dad before he died that I would keep it running for a very long time. He knew about Aaron and what I had become. He knew I would be alive for many centuries and so long as I was happy then he was very pleased. He lived just long enough to meet his first grandson that we named Michael after him and then he passed a year or so later."

"You know I run a donut shop and while I could have opened a bakery, as I told you at the time we met, I'm really good at coming up with my own recipes for different donuts other than the standards like Boston cream."

"We all have our ways to keep ourselves busy," Aaron said.

"True we do," Dave agreed. "When we don't have any children Jazz and I take a lot of long trips and she just leaves the bakery in hands of her employees for however, long we're gone."

"Or I turn it over to someone who has my talent with desserts, one of my children," Jazz added. "Our family is always willing to help each other out when necessary."

"It might be a bit boring sometimes, but that's true for regular humans as well," Aaron said. "We find ways to entertain ourselves."

"This has been rather an amazing night," Derek finally said. "I learned a lot of things I never expected."

"You accepted it better than I figured you would," Dave told him thinking that Marla's giving Derek free donuts and Jazz's trifle had done the trick to getting Derek to accept what they were.

"Yes, he did," Shonda agreed with Dave. "I, for one, am very glad."

"You took a big risk I understand that," Derek said. "I take it you've given this explanation before."

"Oh, yes, multiple times now," Jazz immediately agreed.

"The difference though is that none of those we told, because they were mates to one of our family, were in law enforcement so you are the first in that regard," Aaron said.

"And hopefully the last," Dave said with intense relief in his voice that the night had gone so well.

"And what will you do if it happens again to someone who is a mate to one of your children, is in some type of law-enforcement whether on the police force, FBI, CIA or any other government agency?" Derek asked.

"Do the same thing we did tonight with you," Shonda answered.

"Yes, it's a risk, but the thing is that once a mate is discovered that immortal will never be happy again without them," Jazz agreed. "We're well aware of what could happen and I know we've been lucky so far. Let's just hope that luck continues."

"I don't think it's luck at all," Marla spoke up. "Think about it, if someone is a mate to an immortal then it's unlikely they are going to betray us. I'm not even sure if it's possible."

"Marla does have a point," Dave said with pride in his eyes.

"Yes, she does," Shonda said smiling proudly

"I think that's enough for one night," Marla said looking at Derek. "I can fill in any gaps and if I can't I'll just ask one of you guys."

"You're welcome to come visit us anytime you want," Aaron told Derek. "With or without without Marla.

"You are now in on a secret and we know you won't do anything to hurt Marla like by blabbing," Jazz added.

"No, I wouldn't," Derek said looking outraged at that very thought. "I might not like the fact that you have to change your data every few decades to where it's current. However, since it's a victimless crime and you're not hurting anybody, I can live with it on my conscious."

Derek didn't ask how he was going to become immortal, but the others knew that Marla would tell him in a few days once he had absorbed what he's been told.

"Believe me, Dave and I especially miss the days where you could say your name was Wesley something or other and people would have to believe you, because they were no fast ways to communicate. Letters were not always reliable depending on distance and if that person had moved since you last knew where they lived that your mail never got to it's destination. It would take weeks to get an answer, sometimes longer," Aaron said.

"That's true, as they weren't even telegraphs back in those days much less instant communication," Dave agreed. "There weren't any electronics at, all just simple machines.

"It's hard for me to imagine that," Derek admitted.

"Of course, it is, as you were born in this modern century," Marla told him. "Even I wasn't alive back then. I was around when there were things like electronics, though they are more advanced than when I was born."

"Very true," Shonda agreed smiling at Derek and Marla.

~~~Derek and Marla~~