Chapter 13

Lexi stood on the porch holding onto the post “ya lush Cad, come on outta the tree before ya fall out” Lexi giggle, Priss rolled her eye’s “you’re both lush’s tonight” Lexi laughed “but we’re ohhhhhh soooooo entertaining” going to walk down the steps she missed the step and holding onto the post went swinging around and landed on her bottom with an ohhhfffff. Cad up in the tree raaaaarrrrred a giggle, Lexi giggled then stopped seeing her Mother and Father standing a few feet away, using the steps to get in an up right position she took two steps back for every step she tried to take up the steps, finally grabbing the porch post she got up on the porch “figured Con would tell ya that I was here, come have a drink, I’m not gunna let ya run me off this time, hell I might just stay till hell freezes over” she giggled a bottle in her hand “what am I saying, it’s winter and it’s damn frozen out, so hell must of froze or is that freezed, oh ya its freezes, what do you say Priss?” bending over the railing looking at Priss she went tumbling over it, Priss with a loud hiss scrambled out of the way. Allora her hands on her hips rolled her eye’s and walked over “you’re potted kiddo” Lexi laying in the flower bed shook her head “uh uh, Cad’s potted not m.”

Lexi started laughing like crazy as Cad in slow motion slid out of the tree landing on the ground with a muffled roar and a thud, he got up and stumbled over with a silly cat grin on his face. “Boy are you two in trouble” Priss hissed at Lexi and Cad, they just giggled, Lexi grinned widely at her mother “you look much better then the last time I saw you, crawling around in the tunnels under the house the girls had dug, trying to find them while they sat in the tree watching, it was really naughty of Mal to have told them there was buried treasure under Montcliff, if it had been me I would of screamed rat and watched them start running around like little loons, they really are sissy’s.”

Lexi stood up weaving all over, she grabbed Cad by the tail and started dragging him to the steps “ya know Father Breeton, I bet before you had children you smiled and laughed a lot, way I hear it you were actually a likeable guy, hell once upon a time let’s call it the prior to Tibitron time, you were really an understanding type person, back then you even knew how to hug and care for a lunatic daughter.”

Connor sighed “I still do” he said quietly as she tripped over Cad and fell, Allora sat down on the step with Lexi, she hugged her tight “your father cares very much, kiddo, we both do but the way you disappeared blaming us for everything, hurt very badly, we never knew where you were or if you were alive or dead, that’s a terrible thing to do to people who love you, to lay awake in the middle of the night wondering if your child is hungry or cold, lonely, lost, ill, those are horrible thoughts to live with.”

Lexi looked at her Mother and Father “you see way back then in fairy tale land, I was so sure that everything would go back to being all right if only Tommy loved me, but I was wrong there was no fairy tale land, so I came home and was so angry, so cold inside, so hurt that I wasn’t really what Tommy wanted, well there was someone who did want me Tibitron, while you were all being angry and hurtful and not understanding, I learned something very important, I was a strong person, I wasn’t going to let myself be used all up, I was so proud of myself for realizing that and for standing up for myself and sending him away, oddly enough I thought you would all understand that and would be proud of me too, maybe if you had asked me instead of looking at me with those condemning looks I could of explained it too you, hell I even got on my knee’s and begged Kat and Zara not to keep the children away from me, but it was too late you had all thought I had turned into a female Tibitron. Yes, I did leave blaming all of you for everything, it took me many years to learn that I was just as wrong because I didn’t try and explain what was happening, I had kept it all inside so you had no way of knowing.”

Connor reached out and took the bottle and made it disappear, Cad who had been lapping at the contents as it dripped out growled then moaned resting his head on his paws, Lexi giggled and put an ice bag on his head, Cad sighed. Connor sat down on the other side of Lexi and hugged her, “it’s not easy for a parent to sit back and watch a child engage in destructive behavior, knowing that no matter what they say it won’t be heard, you wanted acceptance for your behavior with Tibitron, we couldn’t give it, that only fueled your anger at us and at yourself, it’s also a parent’s responsibility to protect the younger children from being around what they consider to be a dangerous situation, it may not have been handled in the best way, but it was done out of concern and love, we never stopped loving you Lexi.”

Lexi let out a squeal as she suddenly found herself over her father’s knee’s having her bottom paddled “and if you ever disappear putting us through anything like that again this is only a sample of what you’ll get young lady” Connor told her then sat her back down on the step with a plop. Allora smiled as father and daughter hugged tightly, “now I think that drunk cat of yours and you need to go to bed and sleep it off” Allora grinned at Connor “I’ll take Lexi, Breeton you bring the cat” Connor gave Allora a you’ll pay for that look and got up staring down at Cadence, while Allora pulled Lexi to her feet and pushed, pulled, dragged her up the stairs to her room, Connor reached down and slung Cad over his shoulder groaning “not only do you need to dry out, you need to go on a diet, get your claws out of my butt or you’ll be the next one getting a spanking” Priss snickered loudly as she followed Connor up the stairs. Gideon chuckled as Nedra purred “now we move the ohhh sooo regretful Tommy’s pawn.”

Lexi woke up with a moan, she quickly shut her eye’s again and sighed “I can’t believe I did that, I rarely drink let alone get drunk” Priss snorted “yes you do, remember the Cossacks in St. Petersburg, you and Cad were drunk for a week” Lexi groaned sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed “that was year’s ago and you’ve never let me forget it” Priss just grinned “Cad is outside upchucking and moaning, you going to join him?” Lexi gave Priss a dirty look and got up, she got rid of her hangover with a so there look for Priss and went to find Cad. Lexi sat out on the porch sipping her tea, watching the sun come up, she looked around with a feeling of contentment at finally being home, Lexi smiled watching the young man and his huge dog walking through the tree’s. Crispin came to a stop with a look of surprise on his face then he smiled widely “Lexi!” a moment later she found herself in a crushing hug as Hellhound howled loudly bouncing around wagging his tail.

“We come by a couple times a week to make sure your house is ok” Crispin told her, Lexi smiled thanking him, he looked so much like his mother with the tawny hair and the same gray eye’s, he was very tall which didn’t surprise her considering how tall his parent’s were, broad shoulders filled out his jacket, she knew from Mal that Crispin went over to Cairin regularly to sword practice with his Uncle Christopher, both boys having decided years earlier they were going to be adventurers out on the high sea’s were bent on being as fit and as strong as possible. She laughed to herself remembering Tabby saying she wasn’t going to be left out and had gone to Raimi for wrestling, fencing and sword fighting lessons, which had Mal pouting for awhile because Tabby was better at it then he was. Lexi laughed as Hellhound bounded back with a startled look as Cad snarled at him from the limb of his tree “don’t mind him, he has a hangover and is being surly, if he’d come down from his tree I would fix him up” Crispin laughed, Lexi gave him a mug of hot cocoa “sit down and tell me how you’ve been” she said, Crispin sat on the porch step with Lexi chatting for over an hour, he finally left giving her another big hug, saying his mother was calling him for breakfast. “If you’re alive and kicking, why don’t you join us for breakfast” her mother said silently, Lexi chuckled “last time I looked I was alive, thank you, I’ll be there shortly” she told her mother, “I’m going over to Montcliff if you want to come Cad you have to come out of your tree” she told the cat.

Lexi talked quietly with Riley for a few minutes about Henry and Molly’s trunks, then went into the dining room, Alana saw Lexi and rushed over giving her a hug “missed you” Lexi smiled and hugged her back “missed you too kiddo, I brought you some new picture books” Alana smiled holding Lexi’s hand as they walked over to the table, she smiled tentatively at Con and Bailey. Heather and Holly came flying in with much laughter they greeted Lexi “what have you two puffed down today? or did you let your humans get into the act?” she asked them fixing herself a plate of food, the girls looked at each then started giggling again, Holly whispered in Lexi’s ear, Lexi started laughing “and did you untie Strut after you were done playing wild Indian’s?” with an ohhhh they looked at each other and went rushing out of the dining room. Allora groaned “I’ll never hear the end of it from Strut, he will be hissing for weeks” Connor chuckled “until the next time they do something to him” Lexi sat down, Con blinked giving Cad a look “if I didn’t know better I would say that cat has blood shot eye’s” Lexi chuckled “he does and it’s his own fault, I ought to hang a cask around his neck like they do those big search dogs in the Alps.”

Allora took a drink of her coffee and said casually “so are you home to stay? I don’t think I heard a coherent answer last night” Lexi thought she could hear a pin drop on cotton it had gotten so quiet in the room, “yes I’m home to stay, I have some investment business to discuss with Neil and will probably just stay over night in London, then come back” Connor raised an eyebrow “what sort of investments?” Lexi set down her fork “I purchased several diamond mines in Africa and a sapphire mine in India, I think Neil would be wise to mention those sort of investments to the dragons that use Tetly’s, there is a company named DeBeer’s that is shoveling diamonds out of the ground as fast as they can, why should they have them all” she said with a grin. Con and Connor both looked at each other “tell Neil we’re interested in getting in on the ground floor” her father said as Heather and Holly came flying back in giggling wildly, Allora sighed “what?” Holly grinned “we used the wrong kind of paint on Strut, it won’t wash off and he is all red and yellow now and hissing like crazy” Connor groaned loudly, as the two girls started laughing at each other.

Connor sat in his study looking over the inventory paper’s “it was a good cargo this time but I agree with you, the storms this year out in the Atlantic are too severe, I can’t remember a winter when the storms were this frequent, might as well dry dock the Sea Dragon and give her a good going over, do any repairs or refitting now so she’s ready for the rest of the year” Tommy nodded “Mac said he’s going to be bringing in the Emerald Light for the same reason, he almost lost her several weeks ago during a really bad gale.” Heather and Holly came rushing in “hi Tommy” they giggled giving him hugs, “papa, we’re going over to Lexi’s, she’s redoing her house and is going to let us help her” Connor looked at the two closely “is going to let you help? or are you two just going to help anyway” two little heads shook at the same time “ohhh no she said she would even give us a room we could do all by ourselves, but we had to promise to wait until she redoes the house.”

Tommy felt his heart skip a beat then start pounding in his chest “Lexi’s home?” he asked trying to keep the eagerness out of his voice, the girls nodded in unison, Connor shuffling papers around on his desk not wanting to seem too interested in Tommy’s reaction nodded “she’s been back for a little over a month” the girls looked at each other and winked behind Tommy’s back, grabbing a hand in each paw they laughed “come on with us Tommy, you can help us decorate” Tommy shook his head “I better not, you girls go on” two sets of big wide eye’s looked at him “awe please, you can help us convince Lexi that she needs a watch tower, incase of robbers” Tommy laughed “robbers?” the girls nodded grinning “well, you never know it could happen, then she can stand at the window waving one of papa’s big hankies and yell out the window, save me! save me!” Connor and Tommy laughed “I think she needs someone to save her from you girls and your idea’s” their papa told them.