Mismatched Pair

by J. L. Ray

  When Tony walked into the pen area, she kept to the back wall, out of sight of the cage containing Baz. Azeem and Bergfrid stood in front of that cage, both of them speaking to the giant Bear. Phil was nearby, waiting to say his part. Tony had a feeling it’d be best if Baz didn’t see her as well.

  In the cage nearest Tony, her sister paced the bars, a steady lope around the edges. O’Toole sat on a visitor’s bench just out of reach of any extended paws and watched Berry, his face scrunched up in misery.

  Tony walked over to O’Toole to talk to him, keeping an eye on Baz’s cage as she did. She saw Azeem speak and watched as Baz’s bear form jerked and flailed, parts sliding into human form but then back to bear.

  “I order you to change, Detective. Now!” Azeem spoke loudly enough that Tony and O’Toole could hear him from across the room.

  Baz changed. He slumped on the floor, exhausted from both the expenditure of energy from Changing and from the emotions he felt. He rolled over and saw Bergfrid and frowned. He pushed back, away from her and further into the cage, turning his face away from her.

  “I have nothing to say to that woman,” he said, so quietly that Tony only knew his words because she could see his lips. He barely registered the sight of his former temporary partner, for which Tony was glad. No need for him to cry “Witch!” and go ballistic again.

  Phil moved over to the cell and began to speak in a low voice at a furious rate, pouring words into Baz’s unwelcoming ears. Tony sat down by O’Toole to watch.

  “I wonder what he’s saying?” Tooley murmured to her.

  “I think he’s clearing up some old misunderstandings. I hope it works. The bear and the psycho blond over there have got a kid on the way.” Tony tilted her head at Bergfrid.

  Tooley nodded, then looked at Berry who was still pacing, a rumbling growl rolling over the floor as she moved.

  “O’Toole, my parents are coming in to meet their daughter.”

  He gulped.

  “Yeah. I don’t know what to say, other than they mean well, and I hope Berry will give them a chance to help her.”

  “You’ll be here?”

  Tony shook her head. “I need some sleep. And I might muddy the issue for them all.” She gave Tooley a half-hearted grin, her expression rueful. “I don’t want to leave her, but I think she ought to get some time with our parents without any siblings around, at least this time.” She put a hand on his arm. “Y’know, Mama had no choice. She didn’t make that contract with Caridwen. But it might be hard for...for Berry to accept that.”

  Tooley nodded, not so much convinced as realizing that Berry’s sister wanted his approval, which felt odd and good all at the same time.

  At that point, Cal walked into the room and came over to Tony and O’Toole. “Hiya, gorgeous. Need a lift home?”

  “I’m going to take my chances with the demon,” she said. When both Beings turned to give her a look, she added with a grin, “His driving is a little risky, but we need to talk.”

  Cal pulled her to one side. “Talk? Or...y’know, talk?” He drew the last word out and waggled his unibrow.

  She slapped his arm. “Eww! TMI for you, Cal. You’ll have to talk to B later.”

  Cal spoke fluent chick, so he slapped two large hands together in glee. “Yes!” His shout got everyone’s attention and he pulled his massive neck down between his shoulder blades trying to look smaller. “Okay, night-night everyone. Baz, give your Lady a chance! Trust me when I say, you’ll be a great Dad.” He looked at Azeem. “Sir, I’ve just left my report on your f-light. Call me if you need to, but I’ll be back tomorrow at 9 a.m. to finalize the details with Phil.” He turned back to Tony, “Going home to the wife and spawn. It feels like a year since I saw Newman!” He gave her a light pat on the back. “It’s gonna be okay, kid.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yeah! We’ll make sure of it.”

  Tony walked him out of the holding pens.

  “See you in the morning, Cal.”

  “Yeah, we got some planning to do. You’ll be coming back with Phil, am I right?” Cal grinned.

  Tony rolled her eyes and grinned as well. “Go on, ya big ogre.”

  He waved at her and headed out the door, a little jig in his step.

  Tony turned back to the pens and found Phil standing behind her. “Shit! Sneak up on a person!”

  Phil gave her a sweet smile. “You seem to be carrying an awful lot of tension. I think I can help you with that.”

  “You created a good chunk of that tension, so you better be ready to help.” She reached up and grabbed his red and pink designer silk tie and pulled his face down for a quick kiss. “C’mon. Drive me home and let’s talk.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Phil had his own car, so Tony was saved having to deal with Dindle or Windle and the expectations of their bets. The two drove in silence at first, but after a few minutes, Tony began to talk.

  “Y’know, I’ve never been much of a casual dater, at least not since high school. Dating has been kind of all or nothing for me.”

  Phil tried to keep still and quiet and let her talk. Three thousand years had given him more than a few skills, but patience was still not his most prominent characteristic.

  “I’ve dated about three guys pretty seriously. Well, two Natties and one naiad.” “Ah.” Phil managed to put a lot of meaning into one syllable.

  “The two Natties were sons of friends of my parents. Very...” She grimaced. “Very hoity-toity families. The kind of guys whose wives get MRS degrees in school.”

  “I am unfamiliar with that degree.”

  “Heard it from my mom. They get art history degrees or something like that—very cultured, very good for conversation, but limited job opportunities. The main point is to go to school and meet someone who has or will make a lot of money.”

  “Ah ha. The reference to the shortened version of mistress, used to indicate a married female, eventually.”

  “Uh, yeah, I guess. My mama said it was a 1950s term for women who just went to college to find a wealthy husband.”

  “Nothing wrong with that,” Phil said hesitantly, not sure if that was the right answer or not for her. For most of Mundanian history, a woman’s most important job had been to marry well, and her fate was tied to her husband’s fortune, so making a good choice meant everything. That had changed only in the last fifty years or so. That particular custom had been an extremely lucrative source for him and his deals until the Geas.

  “No, nothing wrong with it, if running a household and representing for an upscale family is what a person wants to do. But it wasn’t what I wanted. It never has been. So in college, when those boyfriends found out I wanted to be a police officer, well, Brad dumped me, and Parker tried to manipulate me into changing my major to law.” She shook her head. “That was the worst. He was in criminal law, planning to become a defense attorney. His dad already had a firm, and he figured he’d be a partner by thirty. My dad had asked me to quit seeing him because he became certain that Parker’s dad was mobbed up.”

  “I am sorry, I think you lost me.”

  “Mobbed up? Working for the Mafia?”

  “Ah! Yes. Several times I have...well, that is ancient history, is it not? And tonight is about you.”

  Tony was surprised into a snort-laugh, and Phil grinned back at her.

  They arrived at her apartment building, and Phil found a premium parking spot. Tony glanced at him suspiciously, certain he must have made that happen, but he smiled innocently as he parked, and she was too tired to push it. It wasn’t legal for civilians to magically manipulate parking as the SCIB did when necessary, but she decided to assume the best this time. It was conceivable that the primo spot had opened up in front of her building just as they drove up. After all, she’d seen the equivalent of a flying pig that night. They walked up two flights to her floor and went into the living room.

  Immediately, Tony got quiet, feeling a little shy and odd about knowing what she
wanted to happen, but not sure how to get there. Phil read her body language and helped.

  “So one old lover dismissed you when he realized you were not what he wanted you to be. The other tried to force you to be as he wanted.”

  “Yes. That sums it up.”

  “What about the third?”

  “We’ll need a beer for that one!” she told him and went to the fridge. “D.C. Brau? Oskar Blues? I’ve not got much variety right now.”

  “What in the world? Those are beers?”

  Tony shook her head. “Well, who knew? I guess there are some things I know more about than you, old man.”

  He groaned. Then he walked over to where she stood, staring into her fridge. He set his head on her shoulder to see better and said, “Pick out something for me that is sweet and dark.”

  She reached in, dislodging him, and came out with a can of Old Chub. “Sweet, dark, and rich,” she added, holding it up triumphantly. Then she snagged two glasses. “We better split it or I’ll fall asleep on you.”

  “Oh, I have every hope that you will do exactly that this evening, eventually.” At his first real attempt at flirting since she had gotten so mad at him, her stomach jumped in anticipation and she grinned again.

  “Now, what is behind door number three? The naiad?”

  “Yeah, my friend Moria’s brother, Tylus, who turned out to be a total sleeze.” She looked over at Phil. “I dated him right after college, when I started at the police academy. I really thought he understood me. He didn’t smother me like the other two. Turns out, there was a good reason for that. I caught him with one of my other friends. I tried to explain it away until it became clear that while I was busy at various training camps, he was working his way through the student body of the class of 2004.” She shrugged. “Seeing how easily he lied to me made it hard for me to put myself out there again. After that, I just concentrated on the Academy, then getting into SCIB and making detective. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do with my life.”

  “I see.”

  “I think you do see.” She popped the top on the beer can and poured it evenly into two glasses, then handed one to Phil. “I don’t trust easily anymore. Not like this, anyway.” She shrugged. “Not relationships. Friends, yeah. Family, sure.” She grimaced and they both shrugged. Lately, family and trust had a bit of an issue. “Other things...not really.”

  He took the glass from her hand and sipped, his eyes narrowing with pleasure. He smiled at the beer. “That is lovely. Almost as lovely as you.” He took her hand and led her over to the sofa and they sat. “I know it is not easy for you to tell me these things. You see them as your own failures instead of recognizing the need for trial and error in life.”

  “Isn’t it a flaw in me if I picked them?” she asked, taking a sip of the beer to cover her distress.

  Phil shook his head. “You are so young. Youth is about making mistakes. As you grow older, you still make mistakes, but you learn to see what you could change or what you should correct in yourself. And you start to see when bad luck is simply that, bad luck.”

  She made a face. “It’s really annoying when older people tell you how young you are.”

  “And it is really hard to watch someone whose life has spanned so few years expect perfection from herself.” Phil looked over at her as he swirled his beer around and then took a sip. “What is the phrase you Natties use? You should cut yourself some slack.”

  Tony snorted and poked him in the shoulder. “My parents would use that.”

  “Ah. Well. It is still apropos.” He took a sip and then added, “In fact, I was rather hoping you might cut me some slack when I asked you to avoid Sebastian de Groot without giving you a full reason. May I explain now?”

  She set her glass down on the coffee table. “Are you able to explain?”

  He nodded and looked into her eyes. “I have been released from the compulsion spell to keep silent now that Bergfrid is freed from sleep by her true love. So I can tell you that I helped her, for a price, of course, but I did help her. I did not have sex with her.” He frowned. “She made some truly bad choices, but I did try to help her survive them.” He paused and added in full disclosure, “For a price, of course.” He shook his head. “Every time I was around de Groot, I wanted to shout at him! All he had to do was call her name, to want to talk to her, and the spell would end. But the standard compulsion for her sleep spell was in place and all I could do was hint. Since he thought he saw something else when he was Changed, he would not even begin to listen to me.”

  “So all that crap about staying away from Baz?”

  “I was afraid of what he might do to you because you were seeing me, but I could not tell you why I was afraid or how serious it was.” He laughed. “Obviously, I did not know how serious it was. I did not know that Bergfrid had conceived a child with Baz before he Changed.”

  Her mind spinning with the day’s events, she mused, “Could they have another child, y’know, now that he’s a Changeling?”

  Phil’s face grew sad and she realized he saw more to her question than even she had meant. “Oh wow. My twin will never make me an aunt, will she?”

  “No, my darling. The Changelings have better control in Mundania, but still, it is difficult to maintain one’s temper during a pregnancy, so she will not. Since Baz is a Changeling and Bergfrid is not, they might conceive again, but it is very rare, very rare indeed, for that to happen. This is likely their only child.”

  They were sitting fairly close together on the sofa, which wasn’t a large one due to the limited space the apartment provided. The living room, dining room and kitchen were all crammed into what had been a third floor parlor. The old sofa, which had down-filled cushions, tended to roll those occupying it to the middle because its cushions had lost a lot of their down filling. As they had talked, they had simply settled in closer and closer. Now there was less than a foot between them, and because they were close to the same height, Tony and Phil were looking into each other’s eyes.

  “I’m sorry I overreacted to your ultimatum.”

  “I am sorry I could not think of a better way to convince you.”

  “To try to convince me. You didn’t actually convince me. I dumped you.” She corrected him with a grin that took the sting out of her words.

  Phil shook his head. “Yes, I know. I thought you were going to end up with Baz.”

  “Mr. Super-Intense? Yikes. Nah. Not my style. Every time he got pissed, I thought he was going to go feral on me.”

  “He could have.” Phil smiled and rubbed her shoulder through her jacket. Then he sighed. “I suppose I ought to go and let you get some sleep.”

  “No. You shouldn’t.”

  He raised his brows. “I should not?”

  “Seems like a waste of time for you to drive home,” she said decisively, and he decided not to point out that he lived only five blocks from her. “You might as well stay and drive back to the station with me tomorrow. I’ll be running surveillance for the operation. We’re not sure Baz will be...uhm...functional by then.”

  “I shall sleep on your couch, then?” Phil asked, moving in closer to her and sliding his hand around her waist.

  “Mmmm, probably not.” She shook her head and then leaned in to whisper in his ear, sending delightful frissons down his spine. “The couch isn’t big enough, and I think I need to get it re-stuffed. It’s definitely not built for the kind of action it would see tonight. Kinda feels like you’re gonna slide right off it all the time.”

  “Oh dear. That will not do for me. I am rather an old man.”

  She leaned back. “O-kay. You should probably not remind me of that too often.”

  “Really?” He looked at her sadly.

  “I’m still getting used to the idea that you predate English history, which is what I studied before I switched my major to Criminal Justice.”

  “Noted.”

  Worried that she’d upset him, she leaned in and put her forehead to his. “You look
like you’re my age. I think of you as my age, most of the time. I think I’ll have to come to terms with the rest of it. I hope you’re okay with that.” As she spoke, he unhooked her gun belt and set it to one side and then started working her shirt free of her pants.

  He tilted his head as he fiddled with her shirt. “I could see some potential problems in our relationship. For instance, if you decided that you wanted me to dress in off-the-rack jeans and footwear. Now that might be a problem. No, that definitely would be a problem. But keeping our apparent ages in sync? That is not a problem.” He had her shirt free and was working his way up the buttons.

  “So off-the-rack shirts and jackets might be a problem? No ready-to-wear at all? Because I saw the cutest ensemble at J. C. Penny’s...”

  He growled a little.

  “Good to know you’ve got your priorities straight,” she whispered, a hitch in her voice as his hand brushed across her suddenly sensitive breasts. She leaned back as he deftly slid her coat and button-down blouse off her shoulders in one go. “And your technique, also.”

  “Yes. I do try. I must say, I was hoping I would get a better look at this lovely undergarment.” He ran one finger along the top of the lace across the tops of her breasts. “I just got a glimpse of it in Fairie before you covered up at Naamah’s cottage. I don’t suppose you have the matching…”

  She leaned forward and kissed him, putting everything she had into it. When she pulled back, he looked breathless.

  “Anybody ever tell you that you talk too much?” she asked him. She stood up and undid the buttons on the front of her slacks, giving Phil a quick flash of white lace. Then she turned away and headed to the bedroom door. When he didn’t immediately follow, she turned back around and added, crooking one finger, “If you want to find out about the rest of my undergarments, you may want to walk this way.”

  Bemused, he followed and found that while Tony was not interested in latest trends or in matching items in most areas of fashion, she definitely made rather interesting exceptions when it came to undergarments.