Page 8 of Dyson

She burst into tears, and he was wide awake then. Letting her talk, trying to make out what she was saying, he willed himself to his own home. While he had no idea what she was saying, he knew that it was serious. As he made his way out to his car, he finally got her to talk to him.

“They said that I tried to kill my grandfather. I’d never do that. He’s all I have in the world.” He told her that he knew that, too. “He’s in the hospital, and they won’t let me see him. Then, while I was trying to get in, I was arrested for attempted murder. I’d rather die myself than harm him. I think they’re just pissed off because he moved out of the house and into a nursing home where they can’t get to him.”

He didn’t know what that meant either, as she was babbling again. When she told him that her time was up with talking to him, he told her that he was leaving his place. It was the longest twenty-minute drive he’d ever driven.

When he got to the station house, since he knew nearly everyone there, Sidney was taken back to see Emma. She was a mess and it looked like someone had taken a few pops to her face. While she cried, not really saying anything, he was able to hold her. Her trembling body told him what her words didn’t. She was very upset.

“His daughter is Mrs. Darling Gregory. You remember me talking about her, right?” He knew the story, and it pissed him off every time he heard her name. “Well, she told the police that I hit her. Then, I held Pops in front of me while she tried to defend herself. Which is in no way true. I would never let him take a blow for me. But she hit me like she did when I was younger.”

Once she was put into a room where he could talk to her, he got more of the information from her. When he paid her bail, a great deal more than he thought it should have been for having the shit beat out of her, Sidney took her to the hospital. She was going to need stitches if he didn’t miss his bet, and he wanted her to see if she had a concussion.

Calling his dad when he needed help with the hospital, he was glad that he’d brought Mom with him. There was some major shit going down here, and he, for one, was glad that his parents weren’t the pushover type. As soon as he introduced them to Emma, Mom seemed to take her under her wing and guided her to not just the emergency room but also got someone to see her right away.

“The power of love.” He asked her if she loved him or the drama. “The drama, of course. And I do like this girl. She’s upset now, but I bet she has a fire under her.”

“I don’t know that I’d call it fire, but she has been mistreated all her life. Even from infancy. We met in high school.” He told his mom what had happened to Emma when she’d been born, with Emma interjecting in places something that she would remember. By the time the film had been read about her, she did indeed have a concussion. She was given a room, and food set up for her and Mom not leaving her side.

It was more than he could have hoped for. Going down the long hall to the elevators, he made his way to see Pops Marshall. He loved the old man like he did Emma and was sorry that the elderly man had gone through so much. As soon as he saw him, Pops begged him for information about his darling, and Sidney was glad to be able to give it to him. It was going to be a very long night, but he didn’t really care. They were both safe.

Chapter 2

Emitte Marshall, better known as Pops, watched the nurses go in and out of the room. He’d been back at the nursing home, Little Bit of Sunshine, for a week now and he was finally figuring out the way things were supposed to be going. He thought that getting the lay of the land, so to speak, was the only way he was going to fit into the place. And he liked it.

“Mr. Marshall, did you get yourself any lunch yet?” He said that his granddaughter and adopted daughter, Emma, was coming to eat with him. “Oh, how nice. Is she doing all right now, too? I heard that she had to spend a couple of days in the hospital after the last time you were here.”

“Yes. Got herself a concussion. She’s doing better now that my daughter and other granddaughter have to stay away from the two of us.” He’d nipped that in the bud right fast. He’d called his attorney when he’d gotten out of the hospital, pressed charges against his family, got control back of all his money, and then bought Little Bit so that he could change the rules to suit himself. They weren’t going to be bothering them again, by doggies. “She’ll be in here soon enough, I’m thinking.”

There she was, coming through the door like she was supposed to. Glancing at the clock over her head he was thrilled that she knew how much he hated when people couldn’t show up on time for meetings and the like. She was two minutes early. And durned if she didn’t bring that friend of hers, Sidney Walsh.

“I bought you some company, Pops.” She was the only one who called him that. His family thought that it was just too undignified for a grown man to be called Pop like he was a soft drink or something. “Sidney has been brushing up on his chess, too, so that you can have someone else to beat. And I brought hamburgers too. I know you love them.”

They didn’t talk while they were eating. He was all right with the quiet, too. It gave him the worst kind of heartburn when someone wanted him to think while he ate. So he appreciated Emma telling Sidney the same rules. After they were finished up, Emma cleaned up the mess and he and Sidney got down to some serious chess moves.

“I heard from your attorney, Mr. Marshall. He said to tell you that everything is just the way that you want it to be here and with Emma. You’re back to full control of everything.” He was glad that Sidney was discrete about what he said and spoke when Emma was out of the room. “He also said to tell you that the big house is going to be cleaned from top to bottom. Were you going to sell it off?”

“No, I’ve not decided just yet. Emma said she can’t afford the place what with the furnace bills being in the triple digits. She don’t know that I left everything to her yet. She’ll be able to afford it without any trouble then.” Sidney nodded and moved his rook. “I say there, you don’t love Emma enough to marry her, do you? It would do my heart a bit of good to see her married off and someone to take care of her. My family, they ain’t gonna like her getting everything when I pass on. No sir. They’re going to be fit to be tied.”

“No, sir. She’s not my mate. I have other brothers, three of them that haven’t met her yet but that might be a bust too. Melbourne, Edgar, and Dyson aren’t mated yet, but they’re very set in their ways. I’m the only one that is a free spirit.” They both laughed. Emmitte thought that the young man was charming and smart and told him so. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate that coming from you.” The game was forgotten when the young man told him of his family and what they were.

“I knew that you and that family of yours had been around a good long time but I had no idea that you were dragons too. I would imagine that your parents are ancient, too.” He told him how his dad was a vampire and his mom a dragon. And that all six of his brothers were dragons with some vampire traits. “Good to know. Wouldn’t it be good to have our Emma hooked up with a dragon? They’d surely protect her better than I can, that’s for sure. I worry for her, you know. Once I’m gone,they’ll take everything out on her. My wife Sally, rest her soul, raised her as our own, even going so far as to adopt her so she’d have our last name. Darling, my daughter, she didn’t want a thing to do with her other than to adopt her, thinking that she’d get in the family way so she could take her back to the system that they got her from.”

“That’s sad. I know that it hurt Emma when she told me about it. My heart broke for her when she was just a kid.” He asked him how long he’d known his Emma. “Oh, about ten years. I knew her from high school, and she was hanging around the college campus when I was going there. I don’t think that she actually took any classes then but sat through them so that when she could afford it, she could do better in the classes. She did well from what I’m to understand when she finally got to go.”

“Yes, sir, she did better than all right. Got her self graduating at the top of her class she did. Smart as she can be, too.” Emmitte moved his piece only to have it captured. “I guess she was right in telling me that you were good at chess. How about another game?”

“I’d love that.” Emma joined them a few minutes later with a grocery list in her hand. The girl was forever taking good care of him, and when she said she’d be back, it was hard for him to let her go out alone. One of them durn kids of his would get at her, and they might not stop at giving her a terrible headache. “She’ll be all right, Mr. Marshall. I’ve sent a faerie with her. He’ll keep her safe from any harm and he has an entire pip to—” He had him explain what a pip was. “Oh, a group of faeries. They’ll keep her safe from any and all harm. I promise you that they might be small, but they’re very dangerous when they need to be.”

They were just finishing up their third game when Emma came back. She was happy, her face just bright with smiles. After telling him that she’d gotten him some ice cream, they all shared a dish of the treat, and then it was time for them to go home. Sidney told him before he left that he’d run her by his brothers on the off chance that she was their mate. After they left, Emitte went to the sunroom to take a little nap. He was glad for the new games that had been provided with his purchasing of the home, as well as a few more televisions in the place.

Startling awake, he took a few minutes to figure out where he was and what was going on. There was a little bit of a fuss about what to watch on television, but he didn’t think that it was going to amount to much. Getting up, making sure that his cane was close by, he made his way to his room to catch up on some of the things that Sidney had brought him to look over.

Unlike most of the older people in Little Bit, he knew how to make a computer work for him. He could look things up and get into his email account without any trouble. All thanks to Emma.

She’d been good for him and Sally when she’d been living with them. She was smart, articulate, and had a good heart. He could sit and talk to her for hours on end and not be bored. And as far as his multibillion-dollar businesses, she knew a lot about them, too. He’d taught her everything that he’d known, and she’d been brilliant at it. She was going to fit right in when he passed on and he couldn’t have been happier about leaving his money and businesses to anyone but her.

Pulling out some of the things that she’d gotten him at the store, he had him a large bowl of soup beans. It wasn’t as good as his Sally’s, but it was a good enough substitute. After dinner was over in the dining room, he made his way there to watch a little TV. He had one in his room, but he liked to watch Jeopardy with some of the others around him. He’d been watching it in the big room since he’d been here.

At bedtime, around nine o’clock, he was set up to sleep until the breakfast bell rang. He’d have his bath finished up and dressed for the day by the time his bowl of oatmeal was on the table. It was nice being able to eat what he wanted, too. He was nearly one hundred years old and he thought that if he’d made it that far, people should leave him alone about what he should and shouldn’t be eating. His durned granddaughter wanted him to eat healthy. He told her to blow it out of her butt.

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