Allie finally knocked on the door with two mugs of coffee in her hands. “I threw together a vegetarian pot pie. It’s hot. I wasn’t sure what the girls would eat.”

“Besides greasy pizza?” I drank deeply of the coffee, grateful for the caffeine hit, hoping it would clear the increasing number of cobwebs in my brain.

“Yeah. I figured we should start introducing them to normal food and clothes. Oh, Tess, they have nothing. Not even toothbrushes.”

“I guess we need to raid the nearest discount store. As soon as we’ve eaten.” I stepped toward the doorway.

Can we go to the mall? Scrap popped in right in front of me. After beer and OJ.

“You do look a little peckish. What have you been up to?” I eyed him suspiciously. His transparent green had faded to fairly ugly khaki and he had none of the glow he usually carried after a visit to Gingko.

We settled at the kitchen bar. I didn’t want the girls to get in the habit of carrying their plates into the far corners of the condo. I was bad enough about that.

“Card table and chairs are on the list,” Allie hissed at me as we dug into the casserole. Allie knew how to cook hearty for New England winters. Rich in turnip and barley, along with tomatoes and cauliflower, she’d topped the dish with two inches of mashed potatoes and a garnish of sharp cheddar cheese.

Salal and Blackberry practically inhaled it—after some basic instruction on how to use a fork and a napkin instead of fingers and tongues.

“I cooked, you clean up, share the chores,” Allie insisted as the girls pushed their plates aside.

“Of course. Father always insisted on chores before fun. May we watch TV?” They looked too eager.

I eyed the last portion of pot pie. I didn’t really need it, no matter how good it tasted. It would make a nice lunch for one person.

“We need to take you shopping,” I said instead. “Clothes and toiletries before TV. We should get going if we’re going to be back before Dr. Connolly gets here.”

“Doctor?” Blackberry reared back, suddenly suspicious.

“Yes. My friend is a physician.”

“We don’t need a physician.” Blackberry backed up, hands in front of her as if warding off something unpleasant.

“He’s a friend. This is not a professional visit.” I glared back at both girls. “Why do you fear doctors?”

“Nothing.” They shrugged and took the dirty plates and cutlery to the sink.

Another sticky topic to be approached carefully. Slowly. After we’d built some emotional trust.

“Father says that physicians are money sucking leeches who don’t know anything,” Salal whispered on her way past me.

I arched my back and scanned the room, assessing what we needed to make the place habitable for two extra people. Bed, eating table and chairs, more seating in the living room. Everything!

A tentative knock on the door sent my heart into my throat. It couldn’t be Sean. Not three hours early!

If anything, I’d expect a doctor to be late.

Go ahead and answer it, dahling, Scrap commanded. His dinner of beer and OJ had revived him enough to send him bouncing from wine rack to TV to coatrack to top of the fridge and back again. This is a good one. It really, really is. I promise. You’ll thank me later.

That made me stop short with my hand almost on the doorknob. “Why don’t I believe you, Scrap?”

“There was the time you forgot to tell me about Donovan being a gargoyle. There was the time you spent so much time painting iodine on your cat scratches that you forgot to follow WindScribe ...

“If you say so.” For the first time in a year and a half I regretted not moving the spy hole from six feet up to my eye level. With Scrap around I didn’t need it. Until now.

“You’d better be right, Scrap, or you are toast. Remember who buys your beer and OJ.” With that I yanked the door open and moved into a defensive stance.

All the blood rushed from my head and feet to my heart. Blackness crowded my vision.

Gollum stood there holding a single red rose and looking extremely sheepish.

“Don’t pass out on me, Tess,” he said, grabbing me around the waist, while managing to keep the rose undamaged.

“Um ...” Not the most intelligent thing to say. It was all I could manage.

“Okay, girls, you and I are going shopping,” Allie sang out.

“But the dishes ...” Salal protested.

“... Will still be there when we get back.” Allie herded them out the door.

“Is that her boyfriend?” Salal whispered as she passed us.

“Will they have sex?” Blackberry continued in the same tone of voice.

I didn’t hear Allie’s reply over the rushing of blood in my ears that accompanied my blush.

“What was that about?” Gollum finally asked as he set me firmly on my own two feet, balanced and semi-coherent. “Did your email refer to those girls?”

“What email?” I moved back, putting distance and safety between us. The strength of his arm holding me up had felt so good, so right, like the other half of me had come home. I couldn’t allow that.

“Ah, I suspect Scrap had a hand in that communication.”

See ya, babe. I’m off to the mall with the girls. Think I can get a new boa, or maybe a hat with a veil out of this? He popped out with an audible displacement of air.

I stepped into the kitchen and tackled the few dirty dishes left. The girls had done a good job of cleaning up, unlike most teenagers I’d known.

Gollum, being Gollum, picked up the dish towel and began drying the clean pieces.

“So, why did I get a rather imperative summons from your imp?” he finally asked when the silence between us ceased to be companionable and grew uncomfortable.

“I’m adopting the two Nörglein girls.”

“Have you thought through the consequences?”

“Not entirely. But I have to get them away from their father. He’s abusive, both physically and emotionally, and ... and sexually exploiting them, turning them into little more than prostitutes just to get more Kajiri babies,” I blurted out.

“Okay. What do we need to do?”

“Too much. Everything. I need to make it look legal. Probably forge some birth certificates to begin with. I presume Allie will help them select a few clothes and toiletries.”

“What else? Schools? Money?”

“A bigger house real soon. And the housing market has gone belly up. I can’t afford to buy something new until I sell this place, probably for a lot less than I bought it for. I can’t afford to move!”

“Slow down and breathe. We’ll make lists, prioritize. What else?”

“I need to assess their schooling so I know how much intensive tutoring they need before I can put them in public school.”

“Home schooling is a viable option. I can get you curriculums and study aids.”

“I can’t seem to get the damn book written so I can have the money to do all this.”

Suddenly, the enormity of it all overwhelmed me. I just stood there at the sink with my hands in rapidly cooling soapy water. More than a few tears fell.

“You aren’t alone, Tess. Allie is helping. I’ll do what I can. You don’t have to do it alone. You never did, but you are so stubborn you can’t see that.”

“What can you do?” Suddenly I wanted to shove all of my problems onto his shoulders. I didn’t want to live my life without him, or his help.

But I had to.

“I’ll call Donovan if you like. Surely he has experience in integrating barely civilized Kajiri into the system.”

“I already tried. His price is too high.” Memory of his demands sent my blood boiling. Anger gave me strength to wipe my tears, and dump the dishwater.

“Okay. What’s the first chore?”

“Birth certificates. Forged. With me listed as birth mother, father unknown.”

He cocked an eyebrow at me.

“It’s the only way, Gollum. Otherwise, I’d have to involve social services and formal adoption procedures. It could take years just to get me certified as a foster parent before actually beginning legal paperwork.” I yanked the towel away from him to dry my hands. Then I avoided more words—and looking at him—by folding it neatly and draping it over the oven handle.

“Okay. Where’s your computer and printer? Got a fax machine?”

“In there.” I pointed toward the office. “Why the fax?”

“To make it look like the real birth certificates, which will be my creation, were faxed to you while the originals are still on file somewhere else.” He grinned oddly. “Do you want to be a part of this, or would you rather not know how I manage?”

“I think I’ll leave it to you. Can you do it and be out of here by nine?” I checked the clock on the microwave with a little trepidation. Six-thirty.

His glasses slid down and he peered at me over the tops.

“I have a date,” I said firmly.

Even though Sean looked pale and ordinary in comparison.

“That’s fair. I should get home in an hour or so anyway. Pat will be going to work about then.”

Without another word, or argument, or condemnation, or hint of jealousy, he set about doing what he had to do.

“Oh, and can I access your bank account from here?”

“What!”

“I need to transfer some money from the trust fund to you. I think taking two children away from an abusive dark elf counts as Warrior business. I’ll set it up as a monthly allowance. If the IRS asks, it’s child support from the unnamed father who really doesn’t want the world to know he got a sixteen-year-old girl pregnant.” Again, that quirky grin.

“Thank you. Don’t make it too extravagant. I intend to take care of my girls on my own as soon as I finish the book and get back on my feet financially.”

“Understood.” He bent his head over my computer and logged on to the Internet.

I scooped up my laptop and retired to the living room with my flash drive, oddly content and ready to work.