Chapter 14

She snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Or there could have been a horrible accident with bleach and food coloring. Tragic." He grinned.

Pandora relaxed a touch once Tandi stopped being quite so hostile. "We don't have to figure it out right away. There's still almost two weeks before they get back. And it might be a while before she notices, even then."

Gabriel said, slowly, "True. Except ... your sister."

She bit her lip. "Yeah. But ... I try to avoid her anyway. She won't see anything strange about that. I don't intend to be here most of those two weeks." She looked up at him uncertainly. "Unless ... that's a problem for you?"

Gabriel smiled. "Not as far as I'm concerned."

"You mean you're staying gone the whole time?" Tandi asked indignantly. "That wasn't part of the plan!"

Gabriel looked at Pandora. "As far as I'm concerned, she's welcome to come over anytime, if you're okay with that."

Pandora blushed. "I, um ... when do you go to work?"

"Well, not for a while, remember? If nothing else, I need to get used to hiding things." He sat back down on his heels. "Why?"

"Oh, right. I wasn't thinking." The blush deepened, and Tandi looked at her and laughed.

"She figures she's going to be taking every chance that comes along to jump you, and the presence of a little sister could be inhibiting, that's why," she said, grinning wickedly.

Then she added, "I don't see why ... she's used to photographers and people watching her ... why should I be any different?"

Pandora screeched indignantly and leaped at her sister, and they rolled around in the floor, with Tandi laughing ... and carefully not doing anything that would scratch or bruise her sister's white skin.

Gabriel shook his head. "Well, if she doesn't object, I guess I really don't have any room to."

"I bloody well DO object!" Pandora snarled. "And it's not funny! Ooohhh ... you little ... you asked for it!" At which point, Tandi's tone changed.

"C'mon Dora ... a joke, hey? Just a--no! No, don't you dare! Yeeeee!" She squealed and collapsed into helpless giggles as Pandora began to mercilessly tickle her.

Pandora was intent on punishment, though, and merciless ... for all of about thirty seconds. Then she stood up, looking rather delightfully rumpled, and plopped down on the bed. "Bad sister. No cookie."

Tandi stuck her tongue out. She was still panting, and laying in the floor. "As if you could bake any."

She looked offended. "I might could."

"Ha."

"How hard could it be? Flour and water and ... um ... sugar and stuff. Maybe some ... um ... cornstarch, or whatever to make them, y'know, fluff up?"

Tandi winced and looked at Gabriel with sympathy for the first time. "Hope you like delivery."

Gabriel gave a wry laugh. "Well, it's what I've been eating for the last two years. Lissa could cook. I... " He shook his head. "I once ruined a pan boiling water." He shook his head again. "It's a shame. Lissa built us a really nice kitchen."

She looked at him in disgust. "That's ... pitiful. Even Dora could boil water, if she'd been allowed to."

Gabriel shrugged. "Well ... Lissa liked to cook, so I let her." He sighed. "It's a shame she's haunting the -- not the kitchen."

"Um. 'Haunting'? You want my sister to stay in a haunted house?" The emphasis on 'my' was slight, but noticeable, and grated along his nerves as it tweaked his possessive instincts. "Haunted by your ex wife? Who, you know, might not be so happy about her? Are you crazy? No way!"

"Actually, Lissa likes her. It was a ... surreal conversation." He hesitated. "Um. I'm guessing you don't know the story."

Pandora said, "Um ... I didn't know everything. Remember?"

"Right." He nodded. "Okay. It's a long story, but to make it short: Lissa realized she was a lesbian, went to divorce me, and her parents went nuts and blamed me. She ended up killing herself to stop them. We were really good friends, even after we decided to get a divorce."

Tandi looked shocked. "Whoa. That's ... not the way I pictured things," she said quietly.

Pandora stood up and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around him comfortingly.

Gabriel nodded. "Yeah. It was ... rough. Really rough. I have your sister to thank for making it."

Pandora frowned, looking up at him, and shook her head. "No. You did that part on your own. I wasn't there."

Gabriel shook his head in return. "You were. Siren was."

She looked away. "Not like I should have been. I knew where you lived, knew it was close."

"But you didn't know how bad it is. I never let anyone know." He sighed. "I probably should have. I just... " He shook his head, not having words.

She hugged him tightly. "I knew it was bad. You're the type ... well, you're the type who, if you say anything at all about something, that means that it's really, really bad. Bad like would have anyone else screaming and hysterical. I always knew that. And ... I wanted to. But I was 13. And I didn't think you'd want comfort from a kid like me. And I didn't know what to say to make it better. I still don't."

"You don't have to say anything," he said quietly. "You just have to be. I ... probably couldn't have taken what you offered. Not then. It was too raw still. But ... it's better. You've made it better, a lot better, and talking to Lissa this morning ... that helped."

"Whoa whoa waitaminute. Not that I don't appreciate the show ... I mean, I've got a sweet tooth, so I can handle the sugar ... but can we stop for a moment and elaborate on the 'talking to his dead wife' bit? Because ... no offense, but were I somebody's dead wife, I'd drop a bookcase on someone like Dora post haste," Tandi said bluntly.

Gabriel shook his head. "Lissa was ... Lissa was special. A law unto herself. And like I said, the conversation was ... surreal. I do think she was a little ticked that it'd taken all this time to get to talk to me, but she wasn't mad at Pandora. Quite the opposite, in fact."

Pandora added, testily, "And, in fact, it's none of your business. She's a ghost in the house, but she's not going to hurt me. That's all you need to know." She looked up at Gabriel. "Honey, you need to stop being so polite to my sister. When you're nice to her, she turns into a little bitch."

Gabriel looked at Tandi. "She doesn't seem like a bitch to me. She's just worried about you." He smiled. "I understand completely." He looked at Pandora. "You're right that it's none of her business, but she'd feel better if you explained."

Pandora sniffed. "If I went around trying to make Tandi happy all the time, I'd never go anywhere or do anything. She's worse than Mom, sometimes."

Tandi flushed slightly. "Okay, that was uncalled for. I just worry about you. I still helped you, didn't I?" she asked, sounding -- for the first time -- young and uncertain.

Pandora melted, releasing Gabriel to go embrace her little sister warmly. "I'm sorry. Yes, you did. And it was all perfect, too."

Tandi smiled, relieved, and hugged her back, hard. The embrace went on for a long moment, long enough to grate against the possessive instincts that Gabriel held under tight rein, before Pandora stepped back.

"You really liked it? I wasn't sure about the cake..."

"Tandi ... I might just trade you Gabriel for another cake. At least for as long as the cake lasts, anyway."

Tandi looked at Gabriel speculatively. "Hmmmm ... deal."

"Hey," Gabriel protested, as Pandora stared at her younger sister in shock. "Don't I get a say in this?"

Tandi shook her head. "Of course not. You're just the commodity. Now hush up and be picturesque."

Gabriel looked thoughtful. "I guess I could wear the pants."

"But you don't even LIKE men!" Recovering from her shock, she turned, wide-eyed, to stare up at Gabriel. "And no you will NOT wear the pants. Not in front of my little sister. Not ever!"

Tandi raised an eyebrow. "Pants? These sound like good pants." She grinned and held up her hand. "It's okay, sis. You don't have to disembowel me. I was just joking." Then her face sobered. "I was. But you shouldn't say things like that. He's Unseelie. Someone else ... well, they might want him so bad they don't care if they hurt you. So don't make that offer around a straight chick, not unless you're prepared to deal with the consequences."

Gabriel managed to conceal the sudden disappointment that shot through him. "We've ... discussed that."

Tandi gave him a quick, disgusted look, and muttered, "Unseelie, yeah."

Gabriel frowned. "What?"

She didn't say anything, just glared. Pandora reached for his hand and said, "That's not fair, Tandi. He's male. That sort of thing is normal. There's a different between thinking and doing, you know."

Gabriel sighed. "Is it? I never did it before." He shook his head. "And I'm not sure I like doing it now. Especially with someone as ... as young as you are, Tandi. No offense, but ... well, it makes me feel slimy."

"Yeah, well, it is slimy. And I mean offense, lots of it. Cause, see, I'm just special that way. An honest sorta girl."

Gabriel held up his hand. "Look, I swear to you, I've never been attracted to girls your age before." He stopped, a puzzled look on his face. "And ... I'm still not. You... please don't take this the wrong way, but you don't have the right, um, curves to be ... arousing. There was just this ... sudden disappointment." He sighed. "Shit. Yet another thing to dislike about this."

Tandi looked down at her body. "My god, he's right! I don't have any BOOBS! Call out the national guard!"

"Would you stop? Can't you see he feels bad enough?" Pandora wrapped her arms around Gabriel. "It's not your fault. And you wouldn't do anything about it. You would not hurt my little sister. Or me."

Gabriel nodded. "You're right. Mind you, you didn't exactly make it easier on me, you know. How am I supposed to turn her over to you to turn down if you already told her yes, hm?"

"B--but I was joking. You ... you knew that, right? I mean, you wouldn't really think that ... that you mean less to me than cake?" She looked up at him, the hurt clear on her face.