A Dragon's Tale Ch. 18

"You can come to the station with us so we can get started on that sketch." Selene replied.

Hailey stood up, then hesitated as she glanced at Jason and Melinda.

"Can we come?" Jason asked. "We just got Hailey back and don't want to lose her again."

"Absolutely." Mason replied. "We'll be downstairs to escort you in."

Selene followed Mason's cue as he said goodbye and left. She thought it was rather abrupt, but waited until they were back in the car to ask about it.

"Good work with that "hypothetical' stuff." Mason grunted. "Almost makes up for you forgetting to ask Miss Oswald down to the station."

"Thank you." She replied. "Why did we leave so quickly?"

"There's more to this story and I didn't want to spook that Ethan guy." Mason narrowed his eyes and started stroking the stubble on his chin. "There's something off about him."

"No kidding." Selene agreed.

She briefly considered showing him the photo on her phone, but decided against it. She felt completely nuts just thinking about it, and the last thing she needed was her boss thinking she was nuts too. The only person she could think of who wouldn't think she was nuts was her dad.

She was half tempted to give him a call when she got a moment.

* * *

Ethan let out a deep breath after the FBI Agents left. That had been close and he didn't like it. No good would come from getting involved with the FBI; not as a dragon married to a wood elf traveling with a mage. The last thing he wanted was to be on their radar. Sadly, his rotten luck seemed to be holding.

Jason had grabbed his car keys from the bedroom and Melinda had grabbed her purse.

"You sure you want to do this?" Jason asked Hailey. "You don't need to if you aren't up to it."

"Oh, I'm up to it." She said vehemently.

With that they walked to the door and opened it, but Hailey didn't move. She hesitated for a moment, bit her lip, and then threw her arms around both Ethan and Alana, hugging them tightly.

"Thank you so much." She said as her voice cracked. "I wouldn't be here without you and..." She sniffled.

"You're welcome." Ethan said.

"We were happy to help." Alana added. "And if you ever need anything, come find us and we'll do what I can."

Hailey let them go and nodded. "No offense, but I hope I'll never see the Ten Kingdoms again."

"Understood." Ethan chuckled.

"Thanks again, and I guess this is goodbye." The willowy woman said.

"Take care of yourself Hailey." He replied.

"You too, all of you." She said, and went to join Jason and Melinda.

"Wait." Ethan said as he remembered. "Do you know anyone who can help us with our blood transfusion problem?"

Hailey looked at Melinda, who shook her head. "Not anymore, not in the area. I used to know a couple nurses who worked at the hospital in town, but they moved away a couple years ago. I'm sorry, I know you wanted to help your wife."

"Damn, back to square one." Ethan sighed. "Okay, thanks anyway."

"Sorry I couldn't be more help." Melinda replied.

Jason turned to Ethan and company. "Do you guys have a place to stay?"

"No, and I had been hoping to leave tonight, but without a source of blood..." He shook his head. "I guess we might need to find a motel or something."

Jason grinned. "Don't bother, there's a vacant apartment that's between tenants on the other side of the building. It isn't large, but you're welcome to use it."

"Really?" He asked.

"Absolutely, and I have a key because the building's owner said he'd knock off some of our rent for getting it ready for new tenants." He went back into his bedroom and came out with a key, which he handed to Ethan. "It's number three on the other side. If I don't see you again, you can just slide the key under our door when you're done using it. There's even a couple mattresses the previous tenants left when they moved out, and I haven't thrown them away yet. Apparently, they bought new ones and conveniently 'forgot' to dispose of the old ones." He looked annoyed at that.

"Thank you." He said with a wide smile.

"You're welcome." He replied. "You brought Hailey back; it's the least I could do. I'd show you around myself, but I'm sure you'd rather those FBI Agents didn't see you entering."

"Again, thank you."

"No problem." He glanced at Hailey. "I owe you a great debt, this doesn't make us square but I gotta start somewhere."

"We appreciate it." Alana said.

Ethan, Alana, and Rachel followed Jason, Melinda, and Hailey out of the apartment, and Jason locked it.

"If it's okay, we're going to follow you down and start walking in another direction to make those FBI Agents think we've left." Ethan said.

Jason grinned at him. "You're a crafty sort, aren't you?"

He shrugged. "I try."

They all walked down the stairs and then headed in opposite directions. Ethan stared after them for a moment, not envying Jason for the dilemma he was about to be in. Melinda and Hailey were both clearly smitten with him, and he with them. Hailey had been gone a long time and Melinda was pregnant, both of which complicated matters a great deal.

He realized again how lucky he had been that Alana and Taloni got along so well. In the beginning, Beth and Alana hadn't gotten along as well. He'd initially feared that would be the case with multiple wives, but fortunately it had been quite the opposite.

But for Jason, Hailey, and Melinda...

Shaking his head, he led Rachel and Alana deeper into town for a block or two before circling back around to the building. On the opposite side of the building from the entrance to Jason and Melinda's apartment was another door leading up a mirror image set of steps to a mirror image landing.

"This will work." He said with a smile once he'd unlocked it and they'd entered.

The apartment was small, the living room and kitchen area being only as wide as the Argo's weather deck and only a little longer. There were two doors leading into what looked like bedrooms and a small bathroom was on one side. It would be a great first apartment for a single person, or even a young couple on a budget.

"Beth, are you here?" He asked.

Tap, tap.

"Good, now we just need to figure out how to get you some blood." He said, fighting back the urge to make a vampire joke.

* * *

Taloni breathed a sigh of relief as she felt her mana finally become full. It had taken most of the afternoon, but she was finally done. She stood and joined Anthiel by the ship's wheel.

"Now, what did you learn?" The gorgeous high elf asked.

"Um, nothing?"

"Nothing at all?"

"Well." The Fey teen thought for a moment. "I learned that absorbing mana in concert with my breathing is a lot faster and more effective."

"Good, what else?"

"Nothing."

"Let me ask you a question: what if Ethan contacted you and told you that he needed us to open the portal right now."

"We'd just do it."

Anthiel nodded. "But what if you hadn't spent the last several hours replenishing your mana?"

"Then I couldn't." She frowned. "Or I could use some deep mana but..." She shook her head. "I would do that for Ethan, but wouldn't be good."

"Correct. Now, what does that have to do with piloting an airship?"

"I have no idea." Taloni admitted after thinking about it for a moment.

"Well, you have plenty of time to think about it." Anthiel said with a slightly amused smile. "Let me know when you have a guess." Then she turned back to the ship's wheel, pulled out a small musical instrument, and began to play.

The Fey teen let her shoulders slump and wandered over to the railing on the quarterdeck. She really had no clue how the two were related. Sure, it took a tiny bit of mana to operate the ballast logs which caused the ship to rise or allowed it to fall, but that was miniscule amount of mana. It certainly wasn't enough to worry about meditating to restore it.

She looked out toward the slaver's camp and remembered seeing the men talking and pointing at the Argo.

"What they were planning?" She thought. She really had no clue about that, or Anthiel's question.

She was at a complete loss.

* * *

Ethan was at a complete loss.

He knew they needed to get some blood for Beth, but he had no idea where to get it. Further, he had no clue how to properly do a transfusion, so they also needed someone with the medical training to do it. He had been hoping that Melinda would've known someone, but that hadn't panned out.

Now he felt stuck.

He had paced around the borrowed apartment for a couple hours trying to think of a solution, but none had presented itself. Rachel and Alana had tried to help, but their limited knowledge of the world meant there wasn't much they could do.

And they were getting hungry.

It was mid-afternoon and he was ready to find a pawn shop for some of the silver coins Rachel had brought from the Argo's treasury when there was a knock on the door.

"It's Jason." A voice came from the entryway.

Ethan flicked the deadbolt open and pulled the door, revealing Jason's tall, dark, and handsome mug. He was carry several bags of McDonalds.

"I figured you would be hungry and might not have much money on you." He said as he held up the bags of food."

"Oh thank Illuminar." Alana said as she jumped up from the floor.

"Amen." Rachel agreed starting towards the food.

"Who's Illuminar?" Jason asked.

The two ladies stared at him open-mouthed.

"It's basically God on their world." Ethan explained.

"On any world." The two ladies both said at the same time, then glanced at each other and grinned.

"Okay." Jason shrugged and offered the bags, which the ladies took with interest. Ethan took one, pulled out the burger and only stopped long enough to savor the aroma before tearing off the wrapper and taking a huge bite. The ladies did likewise, stopping only to say thank you before they too were chewing Earth's most ubiquitous fast food.

It didn't taste very good; not like he remembered. He didn't let his displeasure show in his face and wolfed down another bite, hungry as he was. The ladies chewed it with confused looks on their faces.

"That's very..." Alana cocked her head to one side.

"...different." Rachel finished, then added hastily. "Not bad different, just different."

"Speaking of different." Jason said as he turned to Ethan and indicated one of the bedrooms. "Could I talk to you for a minute? I want to get an opinion on something."

"Sure." He said wolfing down the rest of his burger. It was amazing how much faster he could eat with a dragon's mouth.

Then went into the bedroom and Jason closed the door behind them. He looked rather unsure of himself. For some reason, that seemed very out of character for the fellow. He struck Ethan as someone who normally was calm, confident, and collected.

"What's up?" Ethan asked.

"What the hell do I do about Hailey and Melinda?" He said bluntly. "Hailey didn't know this, but I was ring shopping when she was kidnapped. I had been planning to propose to her a couple weeks later. Melinda doesn't know this, but I've been ring shopping that last couple weeks. And now that Hailey's back..."

"I have no idea man." Ethan replied. "I mean, you heard the abbreviated version of our story, but I left out how--"

He stopped, cocked his head to one side as a thought struck him, then said aloud to the room. "Beth, are you in here?"

Nothing.

"Who're you talking to?" Jason asked.

"Beth, I know you're curious. But if you are in here, I'm asking you to go into the other room and let us talk." There was a long pause, then:

Tap. Tap.

It was longer and slower than normal, which he assumed meant she was rather reluctant.

Jason looked at him like he was crazy.

"Beth, could you tap Jason's shoulder before you go?"

A moment later, Jason clapped his hand to his shoulder. His jaw dropped as comprehension dawned. "That's your first wife right? Yourdead first wife? She's on that whole Astral Plane thing?"

He nodded.

"Oh my God." He shook his head. "This has been the strangest day of my entire life; no exceptions."

"Yup. It's pretty weird, even by my standards." Ethan agreed. "But to answer your question, I have no idea what to do. I'm flying by the seat of my pants most of the time."

Jason nodded, then in a remarkably good impression of Indiana Jones said. "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go."

Ethan laughed. "I haven't seen Raiders of the Lost Ark in ages."

"If only life were as simply as fighting the guys with the swastikas on their uniforms." The other man agreed. "That's why I was hoping for some input."

"I'm happy to help, but don't you have other friends who know all three of you better that might be more qualified to help?"

"Yes, but this is rather a unique situation and you bring a unique perspective to it."

"Oh?"

Jason nodded. "You know what Hailey went through; no one else does."

"Not the full extent, but yeah it was pretty awful."

"See there's the thing." Jason said as he ran his hand through is hair. "I still love her. But I love Melinda too and she's carrying my kid. Do you know what that's like?"

"Only kind of." Ethan replied, and a broad smile broke out on his face. "One of my wives is expecting my first."

Jason grinned back. "Which one, the brunette or the redhead?"

"The brunette; Alana." He said with a confused look. "Rachel and I aren't involved at all."

"Oh, that's right." Jason nodded. "It was a Fey girl. Still, after seeing you and tht redhead together I would've sworn there was something going on. I stand corrected."

Ethan thought that was strange, but let it go.

The other man sighed. "I love them both, but in the end I gotta take care of my kid right?" Jason didn't look happy about the prospect of losing Hailey. "That's the other reason I asked you. How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Wives; plural." Jason replied. "I'm not a horndog and I'm not trying to have my cake and eat it too... okay, well I guess I am. But I don't want to lose either of them. I just worried that if I try to hang onto both, I lose both."

"I'm afraid I won't be much help." Ethan replied with a sigh. "There's some magic working in my wives that I really don't understand."

"Oh?"

"It's the bonding." He explained. "When I bond to them, they change very slightly. It's subtle, but it seems to make them not mind sharing me. There are benefits to being a dragon."

"Apparently." Jason sighed. "Unfortunately, I don't have that advantage."

"And I don't think I fully appreciated it until now."

"Yeah." Jason ran his hands through his hair. "I guess I'll just need to figure it out."

"I do have one thought." Ethan said. "Be honest. Just tell them both where you are, probably at the same time so you avoid having to tell one before the other. Then see what they say."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "You mean say something like: 'Melinda Honey, I know you're worried that I'm only dating you because Hailey disappeared, but now that she's back I want her also. I should say something like that?"

"Ouch." Ethan shook his head. "I didn't know she was struggling with that."

"Yup." He nodded. "And to Hailey it would be something like: 'I know we were very serious, but I got your best friend pregnant and I can't leave her, so I hope you don't mind sharing.' I don't see that going over well. "

"Oi vey. You have a point."

"Exactly."

"Talk to them; talk to them both." Ethan said after a momentary silence. "Tell them where your head's at, and most importantly tell them where your heart is at."

"Yeah, maybe..."

"I might turn out wonderfully, it might blow up in your face." Ethan admitted. "But that's true no matter how you handle it. Communication is important in any relationship, especially romantic ones, so being upfront and honest is probably the best route. But yeah, that might blow up. I just know I'd rather be hurt because someone was honest with me."

Jason nodded. "Yeah, me too."

"Unrelated question." Ethan cocked his head to one side. "Any ideas for how to find someone who know how to give my wife a transfusion?"

The other man frowned. "It'll be hard getting her into a hospital. I suppose you could find a doctor who's off duty and try to convince them?"

"Yeah, but then they'd need to get some blood, which could be hard to explain if they took it and I don't want to get anyone in trouble."

"True." Jason agreed. "How about an ambulance? The EMTs will know how to do it and you can get them to come to you. It might take some work to convince them, but it's worth a shot."

"You know, I think that's just the ticket." Ethan smiled. "I hate to ask, but could you spare some coin so I can get a burner phone? I don't want to call from anyplace that can be tracked."

"Sure." Jason reached into his wallet and pulled out some bills. "This should do it, and don't even think about paying me back. I'm still deep in your debt for bringing Hailey back."

"Even with all the trouble it'll cause?"

"Even with." Jason nodded. "Hailey is an amazing woman, and Melinda is the only woman I know who's her equal. They are both incredible women; neither is better than the other, they're just different."

Ethan smiled. "Tell them that. They might take it better than you'd think."

"I might. Thanks."

"Thank you."

They shook hands and headed out into the living room. Alana and Rachel had finished a couple of burgers each, and Rachel was folding the wrappers into intricate shapes.

"I didn't know the Ten Kingdoms had origami." Ethan observed.

"What's origami?" The redhead asked.

Jason and Ethan chuckled before the former said his goodbyes and left while the latter explained what origami was.

"We have another name for it." Rachel said. "What did Jason want?"

Ethan hesitated before replying, but figured he'd be fine if his answers were vague. Besides, the brilliant redhead probably had already guessed it anyway. She was so sharp.

"Dating advice, sort of. He wanted to know what to do about Melinda and Hailey."

"Ah." Rachel nodded like her suspicion had been confirmed and then went back to her paper folding. It really was incredible to see the complex shapes she could create with the paper. That woman was full of surprises. He occasionally found it hard to believe she was only nineteen.

*So what are Jason, Hailey, and Melinda going to do?" Alana asked telepathically. *I mean, if it's illegal here, then how could Jason marry Hailey too?"

*I don't think Jason and Melinda are married.* Ethan pointed out.

Alana looked shocked. *What? But don't they live together? Isn't she pregnant?*

*That doesn't mean they're married; not here.*

Alana's mouth fell open.

Ethan had to remind himself that she came from a very different world.

"However." He said aloud. "I think I finally figured out how to get what we need to finally give Beth that transfusion."

Rachel shuddered. "And you're sure that's necessary?"

"Yes, it is." He replied. "So we'll need to go back to the forest and have Taloni and Anthiel to open the portal to get Beth's body before we can begin."

"Okay, what's the plan?" Alana asked.

Ethan grinned as he started explaining.

* * *

"Raklan, if you aren't more careful with Beth's body, I swear I'll get Serif down here."

Taloni suppressed a chuckle as Anthiel told off the lumbering crewman who was at least twice her size, and possibly three times the slender high elf's weight. Raklan grumbled something that didn't sound fit for polite company as Taloni giggled.

The massive crewman more delicately laid Beth's body down on the ramp in front of the currently dormant portal. Anthiel was at the control panel glaring at him while Taloni was at her elbow, still wondering about mana and airships.