Mine...Yours Pt. 05

She tried one, popping it into her mouth, and froze stock-still. Her eyes got this far away wistful look in them and she began to chew slowly and methodically. I swear she almost looked teary eyed. She took a handful and set the rest aside for the cookies. Slowly, one at a time she ate them seeming to savor the flavor like it was a fine wine, or scotch.

"Something you want to tell me?" I asked, while washing out the mixing bowl. I had the first batch in the oven. She didn't appear to hear me.

"Lucretia?" I asked louder.

"Hmmm...what?"

"Something you want to tell me?" I motioned to the dates clutched in her grey hand.

She gazed down at them and smiled, "They taste, I don't know, like home to me!" I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"You folks have dates, in your Plane they have that kind of fruit?" I asked incredulously.

"No, I never tried them before, but...they taste like home. I don't know why."

Well that was some food for thought! Get it, food for...never mind.

I had the first batch out after about fifteen minutes or so, and had them on the cookie towels to cool when the doorbell rang.

"Hey, Lucretia, get your game face on, and get the door for me will you?" I called.

"Sure thing Greg." Her human form trotted past me in the same clothes that she wore last night, sans boots and hoody. I could hear the front door open and voices speaking.

"Hi! I'm Lucretia, who are you?"

Huh? Lucretia should know my neighbors on sight after meeting them the way she did last night. I looked at the clock; it was a little after two. It's too early for the Gatewatch, so who could be at the door?

"Gregory?" a mature woman's voice called out I heard a male voice say something and Lucretia suddenly darted back into the kitchen. "Greg...it's your parents. They are here, what do I do?"

"Well, invite them in, and uh, bring them back here to the kitchen." I said, falteringly. Oh, crap. How are they going to, what am I going to, why did this have to...

Sigh.

My mom came in with a bowl of fruit salad in one hand and my father holding her other hand. He had to duck his head a little to come through the doorway. They both wore glasses and had typical features one would expect of a married couple at the ages of fifty to sixty years. Happy, content and loving. At least that is how I hope most people look when they reach that age of life.

My mom smiled and hugged me immediately and dad shook my hand. He gave an appraising look at Lucretia, with a hint of suspicion. Honestly, after everything that happened to me with Dawn and the legal system I think my parents were almost hit harder than I was. You see my parents are real down to earth honest to god Christians. They believed that you do what is right, follow God's law and everything is fine. Then this all happened to me. Their faith in the legal system was shattered and they found out that the police don't protect the civilians, they protect the law. Look it up in their oaths, you'll see I am right. So they had a paradigm shift that happened after all their lives believing something, then found out it was false. They have also heard the threats, and I made sure to let them know about the specific threats made to them because of me. That way they could defend themselves. Yeah, bunches of laughs all the way around.

Lucretia looked more closely at my dad and cocked her head to the side. Mother looked at her and asked,

"Gregory, who is your friend?"

"Ah...um...mom, dad, this is Lucretia. She's my new roommate." I walked over and put my arm around her shoulder.

"Lucretia, this is my mom and dad, Mr. And Mrs. Brooks." I gave her a little tap on the shoulder and she seemed to wake up out of whatever she was thinking. She quickly walked up to my dad and shook his hand saying, "It's very nice to meet you Mr. Brooks." He engulfed her hand in his, but shook gently. His lips turned up at the corners in a wry smile.

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Lucretia." He returned. He watched her carefully and shot me a look as Lucretia moved in front of my mom. I just nodded my head. His eyes widened and we waited to see what would happen next.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Brooks." Lucretia held out her hand to shake but mom didn't take it. She moved closer and asked, "Are you one of Greg's, gobliny, friends?" Lucretia seemed confused, I could see her mouthing "gobliny" as if trying to understand it.

"I think I understand. You're asking if I am human...or not?" she replied after some hesitation.

"That's right dear." Mom said with a smile. Lucretia looked to me for guidance and I waved her on.

"I'm not human, I am...gobliny?" Lucretia said it like a question.

"Did you make me well?" Mom asked, her eyes were smiling but her voice trembled.

"No, that was Mother...my mother." Lucretia said.

Mom swept Lucretia into her arms and held her tight! My succubus let out a little "oomph" of surprise, but then allowed herself to be loved on, as only a mom knows how to do. My dad's eyebrows were raised and he looked a little tense, I stepped next to him and we watched as Lucretia carefully returned the hug.

"She is...what, Greg?" Dad asked quietly.

"If I tell you, do you promise not to freak out and let me explain?" I returned. He seemed to think a moment.

"Is my wife in any danger?" He asked.

"Not today. Certainly not from Lucretia." I answered as honestly as I could. He nodded.

"Lucretia is a succubus." I said quickly. Hearing this mom froze for a second, then she leaned back just enough to look into my roommate's face.

"Lucretia, sweetie? What does that mean?" My mom is a people master, not sure if that is a title, but it's a good description. She has such a huge and thoughtful heart she does things that most people don't think to do. When mom goes to another person's house to visit, she brings a gift. If someone gave her a pack of chewing gum that person would get a thank you card in the mail. If you are talking about someone who is there, as if they aren't there, she will bring them into the conversation. Like she just did now.

Lucretia looked trapped. Sure it was just my gentle mother holding her, but she had a look on her face of being cunningly snared! She glanced at my dad, looked to me, almost pleadingly.

"It's okay, she's my mom, you can tell her." I said gently.

Lucretia gulped, "I am an Outsider, from a different world. I um...a succubus seduces men and women and drains them of energy. I am not very good at seducing so Gregory is teaching me how to do that." She looked down, and away to the side. My mom, bless her heart, did not let go of my roommate. She moved her pleasant face closer to Lucretia's.

"Are you going to harm my son?" she asked. I could see Lucretia trying to figure out how to answer that.

"Not on purpose, everything is so different here, but...no, I don't think I want to." She said finally.

My mom thought about this for a moment, then moved her hand to gently bring Lucretia's head to face her again.

"He is my son, and I love him..." Mom's voice broke and she cleared her throat. "I love him so much. I don't know all the ins-and-outs of how you came to be together, but please take good care of him and he will take good care of you." Mom stopped speaking and looked deep into my roommate's eyes, then smiled faintly. She must have been pleased with whatever she saw there. Mom leaned closer, gently bumping her forehead against hers. I heard her talking and saw Lucretia get a startled expression. I could guess that mom said something to her, I just wasn't sure what.

Then they separated and mom patted Lucretia's cheek before turning to face us. "I think the next batch of cookies is ready to come out of the oven." Mom declared.

The next fifteen minutes I started bringing everyone up to speed on how Lucretia came to be in my life. I didn't spend too much time on all the occurrences that happened in my head. I know dad would have understood, he and I having some father/son conversations about how I was doing with my thoughts and feelings. I just didn't feel like airing that stuff out yet. They both noticed that I was warmer emotionally. I would laugh more as we joked and talked. I also really TALKED with them. For the past several years I had become more and more withdrawn, even to my parents. Funny how that happens when a tragic event happens. They just seemed so happy that I was acting more like the son I had been before.

I explained the Gatewatch to them, and the problems that we had run into. Most people would probably never tell their parents any of this stuff. I have found that has led to many problems in those people's lives. Think about it. If your parents love you, and are not abusive or insane, you have a tremendous resource at your disposal. Kind of cold and calculating to put it like that but there it is. You have someone, and if you're lucky, two someone's who want what's best for you. They have sacrificed and loved for you all their lives. They have much more life experience than you have, and you can pump them for information.

It is foolish not to use other people's experiences to learn from, since in all likelihood you will have to learn it yourself either from making mistakes or poor choices. I won't even tell you about the time I thought I could change the oil in my car by myself and didn't need my dad to help me. Let's just say it was an embarrassing...yeah; let's leave it alone.

I told them how the Gatewatch would be there at 3:30pm, and they told me they wanted to be there for it. I was surprised but pleased. Nice to have two people in my corner already, especially when mom told us we needed more than cookies and fruit salad. She took over the kitchen, roping Lucretia into helping her. My poor little succubus was in the middle of a whirlwind of activity first setting out plates (all mismatched) and cups (half of which were chipped so had to be replaced) along with silverware on the kitchen table.

Soon we had little appetizer snacks of ham wrapped pickles and those little cheese, cherry, pineapple toothpick snacks. This along with some chips and salsa and the salad mom brought and my cookies...looked like we were having a party!

While Mom and Lucretia were in the kitchen putting the final touches on the food, Dad pulled me aside into the living room.

"Son...are you alright?" he asked softly.

I nodded.

"I remember talking to you about your neighbors. You really liked them a lot."

"I still do Dad." I was wondering where he was going with this.

He put his hands on his hips and looked at the ceiling for a second then seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Have you decided what to do if the...Gatewatch...choose to not let you keep Lucretia?"

Oh...hadn't thought of that.

I knew that I hadn't broken any of the rules. I hadn't summoned my succubus. There was no Veil tearing ritual to get upset about. She had been bound to me, legally...and I was still alive. To me, nothing was wrong. This had all just been a misunderstanding on their parts. Then it hit, their job description was to stop this from happening in the first place. Probably like how law enforcement personnel view medical marijuana growers. They are so used to stopping the growth and usage of weed, that to have a legal grow operation in their town must make their heads hurt! Well, that does kind of put things in a different perspective. I may have done nothing wrong, but I still have an Outsider living in my house! Good question, what would I do? The answer was simple.

"I made a promise Dad. I am not going to abandon Lucretia. I made a deal with her mother, and I promised her that I would stick with this." I said firmly.

Dad smiled and gave me a man-hug. "That's my boy!"

Then the doorbell rang and I heard a voice say, "When did he get his doorbell fixed?"

Chapter 17: Cards

I took a deep breath and saw dad give me a nod. Okay...After wiping my hands on my pants I opened the door to see Gwen, Hilda, and Jemima waiting on the front porch.

"Hey guys, come on in!" I said cheerily. They all three exchanged incredulous glances and followed me into the living room. Gwen saw my dad, and turned her head at the sounds in the kitchen. "I thought it was just going to be us, talking..." she ventured.

"I figured I would explain everything to both you and my parents at the same time." I said. Hilda cast a shocked glance to my dad who just smiled and nodded. Jemima looked around and asked. "So where's the succubus?"

As if on cue Lucretia came from the kitchen holding a bunch of glasses in her arms and handed them out to everyone, my dad first. After my friends saw my dad take the glass with no hesitation they took theirs. Mom came out of the kitchen with a pitcher of iced tea. I don't own any tea!

"How did...?" I began before mom smiled knowingly and answered before I finished. "Lucretia made it! I can't believe how handy she is in the kitchen." My roommate must have magicked up some of that stuff but how did she know how to replicate it my first sip told me, mom always carries a water bottle of tea with her. Probably gave her a taste and then she made more of it. Makes sense...oh...wow! I will never have to buy Mountain Dew again!

After we all had our drinks we meandered into the kitchen and started serving ourselves some food. The Gatewatch looked a little peeved. They probably figured Lucretia and I would be huddled together and fearful of them coming over. Or maybe we would put up a bold face and be argumentative. I hoped they didn't think they were walking into a trap and we would be lying in wait for them. These women were my friends. I don't do that to my friends. I snickered to myself at a sudden thought I had. Lucretia looked up, as did some of the others at the sound.

"I was just thinking," I said to my roommate. "...I spent so many years avoiding women after Dawn, and now look at me!" I waved a hand taking everyone in. "Three of my best friends are women, and just a few days ago I got another friend, who is also female!" I shook my head with another chuckle. "We all try to make plans and try to control our lives and Fate just has to put his fingers in and stir things up. Damn, why do I even try?"

I put a cookie in my mouth to make room for the fruit salad on my plate. Gwen was giving me a strange look, and Hilda and Jemima seemed contemplative. Lucretia was giving me a smile, and when she walked by me she paused for a moment.

"Say it again?" She asked me.

"Say what?" I wondered.

"That I am your friend." She supplied.

"If I do, will you stop eating my eggs like bon-bon's?" I kidded her.

"That depends on what a bon-bon is."

"It's like a Hershey Candy bar, but better. Sometimes they...ah. Yeah, it's a type of chocolate." I didn't want to go into the intricacies of different types of confections right then so I just gave up. Then I gave her what she wanted. I looked into her eyes, smiled, and said it.

"You, Lucretia, are my friend."

If her smile got any brighter, I would need sunglasses! I saw the Gatewatch...well, watching, our interactions. Dad was smiling at us, and mom was being mom and walked by us giving Lucretia an affectionate rub on the shoulder and bussing my cheek with a quick kiss. "You two are cute!" Mom said as she snagged two more cookies. I almost said something about watching her sugar intake then remembered, mom was all healed up. I looked more closely at her plate and saw she had five more cookies on there! She saw my expression and laughed.

"I don't have to worry about glucose levels anymore Greg! Just have to worry about getting fat!" She told me around a mouthful of cookie. I could see Gwen wanted to ask, but was trying to be polite. I decided to explain.

"Lucretia's mother offered me my choice of...uh...compensation for teaching her daughter how to act like a human. One of the things I asked for was healing my mom so that she wasn't a diabetic anymore." Gwen's eyes got really wide.

"What else did you ask for?" Hilda asked, she was holding her plate with one hand and the other arm was across her stomach. She had her head cocked to the side and her expression was, hard to describe. I'll say this to you all...I hate it that women are so inscrutable. When a woman wants to be, they can turn on the mystery and you can't get even an inkling of what's going on in their heads! Of course they want you to figure it out so I cheated. I turned on my Sight and looked more closely at my friend.

Her body was relaxed, but her animal self, looked like it had lost its best friend. Kind of an interesting way to put it I guess. I glanced at the other two and I could see the same thing, sorrow and heart ache. They truly thought I was trapped in a bad situation and Lucretia was going to kill me! Well, that may be true, but I wasn't prepared to see the guilt that was lurking like a dark cloud over all three of them. It made sense as I thought about it. I was a loner and because of circumstances in my life I kept people at a distance. They pushed me into becoming social, and then I sort of fell into having friends. I started to have a life again.

I had gone to their party, gotten attacked by something that had been coming for them, and gotten injured. I don't see it as their fault, but they do, they...see this whole affair as their responsibility. They see me as trying to make the best out of this situation to survive. That was it, they are all overwhelmed with shame, and guilt, and a desire to see this whole thing put right. That's why Gwen told me that she was sorry and that it had to be done last night when we were attacked.

Hilda, no...I can think of her as Hildy now. Her animal specter was looking between Lucretia and I with sorrow. I had never really Looked at her very closely before, except for the first time when she moved in. Hildy never seemed to hide all that much. She was open, honest and you could take everything she said at face value. On closer inspection though, what was all that sorrow about? Her specter turned to see me staring and I got the surprise of my life. Yes, I have had a lot of surprises until now, but this is the first time THIS ever happened.

Her specter noticed me watching, and looked back at me!

Doesn't sound like much to you, but my power just always let me observe; now it was interacting. Her specter was looking directly into my eyes and there was a sense of loss, of losing something, of...hard to describe. It felt like knowing you were going to get a Christmas present then it got lost in the mail. You don't know what it was, but you knew it was something cool. Now your going to be calling your rich uncle who sent it to let him know it was lost. You know he is going to tell you what it was and that will make you feel terrible because now you actually have a value to put to the present.

I was feeling really confused until Hildy noticed I was staring at her and met my eyes as well. With both her and her specter staring at me I realized what it was that she was feeling and my heart did a belly flop in my stomach.

She really liked me! Not just liked me as "Hey, Greg's a great neighbor! You all should have a cool neighbor like Greg who makes badass cookies!" No, this was. "I think I like Greg, and I really want to get to know him better. I think, he could make it so I don't feel so lonely either. I am never going to get the chance now, because if that succubus doesn't kill him then he is going to fall for her and I am never going to get the chance to get to know him the way I want to! I am going to have to live next door to him knowing that she is trying to seduce him when I wanted him for myself! I finally find someone who doesn't care that I am...!"

I shut down my sight and closed my eyes at the same time. The feelings and the information were getting a little too intense. I opened them to see Hildy staring at me, puzzled.