Dragon's Tears

The Outing

We had hot dogs and soup for dinner that night. They were the only things Kali didn't immediately turn up her nose at. I promised that we would all go to the market the next day, but even this met with a less-than-pleased expression from her. Teecie was quite contented with the hot dogs, though she made quite a mess of the soup. Afterwards, we finished off the rest of the Twinkies, and then the girls settled onto the sleeping bags in their nightgowns.

I made one last-ditch attempt to reach Kali by telling the story of one of my matches with Potter. Teecie was less than enthused and fell asleep halfway through, but I caught Kali getting lost in my story a few times. Maybe she was finally starting to see me in another light? Once my story was finished, I tucked in Teecie as Reni did the same for Kali, then walked to the door. Reni was a step behind me. I glared at her, but she just smiled and stepped past me and hurried to the bed. I shook my head and followed her. This was obviously an argument I wasn't going to win.

For the first night since we had arrived, I slept through the night. Without a shower, I couldn't really feel refreshed, but I felt much better than I had in days, possibly weeks. I shook Reni awake and told her to help her sisters, then got dressed myself. Since we were going into town anyway, I figured we might as well make a day of it. I knew there was a small park the girls would enjoy, that we could go to for a bit after we had breakfast at the diner where I'd gotten us breakfast the first morning we'd been here, and then we could visit the market and find things that Kali would be more willing to eat.

Once all three girls were dressed, we piled into the car, much more calmly than our last time getting into it, and I drove over to the next town. I pulled into the diner's car park, and led the girls to the front door, Teecie holding my hand, and Kali holding Reni's. We were seated quickly, as it was after nine, and a work day, so most people had already come through.

I read the menu to Teecie and Kali, and Teecie was quick to put in her order. "I want pamcakes wif stawbewwys, Dorco."

I nodded. "What do you want, Kali?"

She frowned at me. "There's nothing good on here."

I sighed. "There's nothing there you want?"

"They don't have what I want."

"But is there anything you like?"

She glared at me. "I suppose I could get cottage cheese and fruit."

"That's not very filling, Kali. Is it going to be enough?"

She crossed her arms. "I want cottage cheese and fruit, or I won't eat anything."

"Fine. What about you, Reni?"

"I'm going to get an omelet," she grinned.

"Sounds good." The waitress came by at that moment, and I ordered for Kali and Teecie and eggs benedict for myself, but Reni insisted on ordering her own. She ordered a huge omelet with ham, cheese, mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. "Are you going to be able to eat that all?" I asked her.

"Of course." She grinned at me and handed the waitress her menu.

I took a deep breath, then looked back at the waitress. "And three glasses of orange juice, please."

The waitress nodded and left, and it took almost no time at all before our breakfast was in front of us. Teecie and Reni dug right in, but Kali looked at hers like she felt it had been poisoned. "Come on, eat up. I want to take you guys to a park I know about before lunch, and then we can go to the store."

She made a face at me, but picked up her spoon and began to nibble at her fruit. I sighed, and focused on my food. Teecie needed help with cutting up her ‘pamcakes,' and once they were cut into bite-sized pieces, managed to spill syrup all down her front. Nothing a little surreptitious spell couldn't fix, but annoying nonetheless. I tried to steal a bite, but Teecie moved the plate away from my fork. "Mine, Dorco, no yours. Mine." Then she proceeded to block the plate from view with whatever was available: salt and pepper shakers, the napkin dispenser, and even an extra menu that had been left at the table.

None of the girls finished, though Teecie insisted on trying bites of both my breakfast and Reni's. I was quite concerned to see how little Kali had eaten. I offered to buy her some toast or something, but she shook her head. I declined boxes for the remainders, and led the girls back to the car. They climbed in, and we were off again.

The park was only a few blocks away. I pulled up to the curb, and the girls got out and ran to the swing set right near the car. Teecie needed help getting onto the swing, but Kali and Reni were already pumping away, swinging higher and higher. I pushed Teecie's swing, laughing at her peals of laughter as I made a special point of pushing her so high that I could run underneath a couple of times. Kali was soon bored with swinging, and I watched her carefully as she made her way to the slide. I put Reni in charge of Teecie, and followed Kali, sitting by the slide, watching as she slid down it again and again.

Reni's arms had obviously become tired and I watched as she unbuckled Teecie from her swing and led her over to the teeter-totter. Unfortunately, she soon decided it would be more fun to torture her sister, and made sure to keep the contraption stuck in the air so that Teecie could not get down. Teecie was shrieking her head off, so, and hoping to head off more trouble, I made my way over to rescue her, but this turned out to be a huge mistake. The moment my back was turned, Kali was off and running…to an officer that had just passed by.

"That man's not our daddy! He stole us! Help!" I winced as I heard this. This was not good.

I glared at Reni, who had the intelligence to look abashed. She hurried to her sister's side. She smiled at the officer. "Don't pay attention to her. That's just our uncle Jack. Mum wanted him to watch us for the day, and Kali's just upset at mum ‘cause she promised to take us to see a movie today and uncle Jack won't do it."

I picked up Teecie, who was still a bit traumatized from the teeter-totter and walked over to the policeman. "Can I help you, officer?"

The man looked at me, and how Teecie was clinging to me, then down to Kali, who was still looking up at him. He smiled at her. "Well, young lady, your sisters don't seem to be afraid of this man. Are you sure you aren't making up a story?"

"No!" she cried. "He hurt Teecie! She has bruises. Look at her arm!"

I breathed a sigh of relief that Teecie had showed me the bruises I had caused. The officer looked at me once more. "Sorry, sir, but I'm afraid I'll have to look."

I nodded. "Teecie, can you show the man your arms?" She looked up at me with big eyes, then nodded and held out her arms to the man. He inspected them carefully, top and bottom, then turned back to Kali.

"Your sister's arms are fine, and I would be careful telling fibs like that in the future, young lady. You could get someone into trouble." He turned back to me. "Sorry to bother you, sir. Good luck with the babysitting." He winked, tipped his cap, and continued on his way.

The look Kali gave me then was pure venom. She kicked at me, and when Reni grabbed her arm, she hit at her sister. "I hate you both!" She struggled against her sister's grip, but was unable to break it. I led the way back to the car, and Reni pushed her inside. I strapped Teecie in, then started up the car before turning to deal with her. I needed those few extra minutes to catch my temper. "If you do that again, you will not like what happens, Kalare. I've been nice up to now, but I don't have to be. I don't want to threaten you, but if you do stuff like this when I'm being nice, why should I even try? I have not hurt you, nor do I intend to, but that doesn't mean that I won't find ways to punish you."

I turned around again, and pulled out into traffic. "We are going to the store now, but if you cause any more trouble, I will take you back, and come back on my own. Understood?"

There was silence in the back seat, then an "Ow!"

Followed by, "Answer him, brat!"

"Reni, you're not allowed to hurt your sisters, either. That's not why we're together. Apologize."

There was a grudging, "Sorry."

I heard Kali sniff, but nothing more.

I sighed. All I could do was hope that the warning took. I wasn't sure what I would do if she did do something at the store. I parked near the entrance. "Reni, I expect you to help me in there. One incident, and we leave, got it? Everyone'll just have to make do with what I choose when I come back tomorrow."

"Yes, Dragon," she replied.

I helped Teecie out of her seatbelt and into a nearby cart. Then I thought of something. "Kali, would you like to ride on the cart, too?" She looked at me suspiciously for a few moments, but finally nodded. I helped her into the cart, and she settled down in the front of the basket.

The shopping went well for several minutes, with all three girls pointing out things that they wanted. I nixed a few things as being too difficult to deal with as far as cooking went, but on the whole I indulged them. Unfortunately, my luck ran out as we approached the checkout. Kali decided that this was her chance, with the most people nearby, and began to scream bloody murder. I couldn't exactly use my wand with so many Muggles watching, so I gave Reni the car keys, and told her to take Kali to the car.

The cashier looked at me askance, but began to ring up the things in the cart as I tried desperately to see out to the car to make sure the girls had gotten in safely. If Kali had managed to escape her sister's grasp…No, I was going to trust Reni. She knew the girl better than I did. She had to be able to deal with her, right?

With the groceries paid for and placed back in the cart, I hurried out to the car to see Reni struggling to push a still-screaming Kali into the car. I put my hand on her shoulder. "Put the groceries in the back, Reni. I'll deal with her." Reni nodded and moved away. Kali's shrieks stopped abruptly. She looked up at mea with huge eyes. "Get in. Now. I'm not asking a second time." I could see her considering, but then she got in, and crossed her arms, glaring at me. I made sure she was buckled in, then pulled Teecie from the cart. She was obviously quite upset by what was going on, as she was sniffling, and fat tears crept down her face. "It's okay, Teecie, I'm not going to hurt her. I'm just upset. Let's get you buckled in, okay?"

Teecie just looked at me with huge eyes. "Want daddy."

I closed my eyes. Damn the girl. So much for trying to be nice. I buckled in Teecie, then glared back at Kali, who glared right back. I was so angry on the drive back that I nearly crashed several times. I sent Reni upstairs with the girls while I brought in the groceries. I had to calm myself. I just wouldn't let them out again until things were resolved. It was the only way to deal with the girl. She obviously wasn't just going to let go of this.

Well, we had food that she'd eat now, at least. And tomorrow I could try again. She was a kid. She'd come around. I just needed to back off a bit. When I reached their room again, Kali and Teecie were curled around each other, sobbing. I closed my eyes again, set the groceries down and went to my own room. Maybe a nap would help. At least it would pass time. And then we could have dinner, and maybe another story would help.

I woke to my alarms blaring. It took me a moment to realize what they meant. He was here. And there were two alarms going, so he hadn't come alone. He'd probably brought Snape along too. I hurried to the other room. Teecie and Kali were fast asleep, but Reni looked up, scared, when I entered. "What is it?"

"Don't worry. Whoever it is, I'll take care of them. Watch your sisters, okay?"

She swallowed, but nodded. I left the room and hurried to the room I had prepared for this. The girls would be fine. Knowing my father, he'd send Snape for the girls and come after me himself. And that was just what I wanted. I had been waiting for this for a long time. I should have known it wouldn't take Lucius long. After all, where else would I take them but Malfoy Manor?

Time to put phase three into action. I quickly went downstairs and moved to the room I had prepared for just such an eventuality. There was little furniture there, only a huge wood desk and a chair behind it. They were the only things in the room that were not layered with dust. I'd stocked the fireplace behind the desk with wood when I'd visited before, and now a single "Incendio" started a blaze going in it. I settled myself in the chair to wait.

I didn't have to wait long…