Jack smiled as Elaine pulled back. She didn’t often break her reserve. She almost

glowed.

“What is that?,” asked Melanie.

“It’s a promise ring,” said Jack. “Talking with Case made me think I should do the

same.”

“Thank you, Jack,” said Elaine.

“It looks nice,” said Laura. “You could be a jeweler if the Society ever lets you retire

like Mister Warner.”

“Shiny,” said Alicia.

“It’s about time you gave her a token of your love,” said Aviras. “She is the better

part of you.”

“He has been giving her tokens of his love,” said Bea. She smiled as Elaine flushed.

“We still have work to do,” said Josie. She smiled like a big cat at her end of the

table. “It looks like your mother will get the perfect daughter she always wanted,

June. Let’s clean up so we can go. The King has to get back to the castle, and we have

to find June and Boim a new place to stay.”

“I’ll get the clean up,” said Jack. “I have to check back in with Jane to make sure the

elixir I came up with is working right, and I’m thinking about changing the Hangar

into something more suitable for a guest.”

“Can you supervise him, Elaine?,” asked Josie. “We’ll have the Enterprise so he can’t

shoot phasers down into the street, but I want the city to still be here when I get back

and I don’t want this guest house to be some kind of Fate’s Tower.”

“Fate’s Tower?,” asked Matilda.

“I’ll explain while we are looking around for a new house,” said Josie.

“I promise that I will not fold space and time for a guest house,” said Jack.

“The promise is I will not fold space and time ever,” said Josie. “And I expect you to

hold to that.”

“Yes, mom,” said Jack. He grinned at her.

She gave him a look of annoyance, but he just eased back in his chair and held

Elaine’s hand.

“One day when you least expect it, I will get my revenge,” she said.

“That’s why I am avoiding stairs,” said Jack. He waved his hand at her. “Go on. I

want to take advantage of the quiet, and of my beloved.”

“I would like to talk about the possibility of grandchildren,” said Lois. “Could that

happen?

“It’s not my business, and not my problem,” said Josie. “Caroline and Case will have

to work that out if they get that far. I’m not going to show them how that works. I

have six kids of my own that I need to worry about more.”

“I’m not a kid,” said Beatrice. “And neither is Laura.”

“You’ll always be a kid,” said June. “That’s how things work out.”

June grabbed her bag, handing a notebook to Jack. Boim stood with her bag in hand.

“What’s this?,” said Jack.

“The writeup for the Door of Tern,” said June.

“I’ll put it upstairs,” said Jack.

“Don’t forget the write up for the book thing,” said Josie.

“I will add it to the archive,” said Jack. Then in a lower voice, “Eventually.”

Josie gave him a look which he took to mean he had heard him and disapproved. But

she was leaving, and he was going to have some time with Elaine, so he didn’t care.

“Enterprise,” said Josie into her com band. “I need you to beam up myself, the

Ducklings, June, Boim, and the Royals. We also need to take the dragon boat outside

aboard too. Put it in the cargo bay.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine. It energized the transporter and the eleven of them

vanished in a cloud of blue sparks.

“Finally alone,” said Jack. “Now we can do some things without worry of being

interrupted.”

“Is that so?,” said Elaine. She hugged him again. He hugged back.

“I have been working on my stamina,” said Jack.

“I think I can give you five minutes,” said Elaine. “After that, we have to get back to

work.”

“Five minutes?,” said Jack. He frowned. “Really?”

“To be young and carefree is not for us,” said Elaine. “It is for children and

layabouts.”

“I can layabout with the best of them,” said Jack.

“Really?,” said Elaine. She smiled.

“I’ll show you,” said Jack. He grabbed her hand. He swept her in a spinning hug, and

then carried her into their bedroom. “I’ll show you five minutes, woman.”

It was one of the best hours of Jack’s life, and if he didn’t have his beloved swatting

his butt to get him moving, he would stayed in bed for the rest of the day.

“You have been working on your stamina,” said Elaine. She smiled as she worked to

make herself presentable.

“You’re worth working for,” said Jack, starting on putting his clothes back on. “I

guess I should clean the dishes and then check on the Hangar. Maybe we can do

something to make it more usable by guests which I admit I never thought we would

have.”

“What do you plan to do?,” asked Elaine.

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “Want to come along and point out the flaws in my

thinking?”

“Yes,” said Elaine. “Let’s clean up first. We can’t have the others think we were

playing when we should have been working.”

“They will never let it go,” said Jack. He grinned. “You two should wait until after

the table is clear before you start fooling around.”

“Does Josie know you can imitate her?,” asked Elaine. She smiled.

“Maybe,” said Jack. “I don’t know.”

“I think you should show her,” said Elaine.

“I don’t think so,” said Jack. “I like my ears right where they are.”

Elaine smiled. They came out of the bedroom. The mob hadn’t come home yet. That

was good.

Jack gathered all the dishes together and carried them to the sink he had created to go

along with the kitchen. He placed them all inside the sink. He pumped a bucket of

water from the well to pour into the sink. He called on Magik and used the water to

erase everything but the plates and spoons underneath. He shut off the spell to pull

the stack out and put the cups in. Then he did the same spell for the cups. He pulled

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

them out and put them upside down on the sideboard. Then he got rid of the water.

“Don’t let Melanie see you do that, or she will want you to wash dishes all the time

when you are home,” said Elaine. She dried off the plates with a towel and put them

in a rack to sit.

“Grandma Lee always said there are two types of people,” said Jack. “Hard workers

and lazy bums. Let’s go out to the Hangar and see what we can do.”

“What are you thinking?,” said Elaine.

“We need a better place than a hole in the ground for our guests,” said Jack. “But it

has to be next to the Hangar. I don’t want it over the jet storage unless we can move

the guest house out of the way, or I build a tunnel to exit from like Swat Kats.”

“Would a tunnel be better?,” asked Elaine.

“Only if we controlled the other end,” said Jack. “I could construct a stargate for the

quinjet to use. Right now, I don’t know if we want to house the jet down here, or keep

it on the Enterprise where it is safe from other people trying to use it.”

“But you can build a guest house?,” said Elaine.

“I could reconstruct the Duke’s whole mansion if we wanted to move out of the Hole

in the Wall,” said Jack. “I just don’t know if Josie will want a change that big. The

Hangar is a few miles from the wall, and then actual travel across the city would be

added on.”

“But you could change the Hangar into a living space, and keep the Hole in the Wall

as a foyer?,” said Elaine.

“Sure, I could do that,” said Jack. “I could probably do the same thing Josie did to

make the hospital.”

“So the actual house would be where the Hangar is now?,” asked Elaine.

“We probably don’t want an actual house,” said Jack. “That would make it too

easy to find. Maybe we should dig down like gophers and the Joes.”

“I don’t understand the Joes, but you are talking about making a warren under the

Hangar?,” said Elaine.

“Yep,” Jack grinned at her. “Josie and I talked about expanding down here in the

city. She didn’t want me creating other dimensions where the girls could be trapped,

but she did say she didn’t mind me adding floors going down. Maybe instead

of doing that here in the city, we could do that in the Hangar. Let the Hole in the Wall

become our public face.”

“Do you think that will be too big a change?,” asked Elaine.

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “What would you suggest?”

“I was thinking that maybe we should start small,” said Elaine. “Maybe we should

talk to the girls first. They might want rooms to themselves, but they might not want

to live underground.”

“Good point,” said Jack. “Let’s at least go out and look at it. Maybe we will come up

with a better idea. Anyway, you are going to need some practice on your new

abilities.”

“What new abilities?,” said Elaine. “What did you do?”

“I gave you something with the ring,” said Jack. “Come on.”

She looked at her hand, as he picked her up and carried her to the gate. He hit the pad

and took them through to the Hangar. He hit the lever to open the roof and carried her

up on the surface. He carried her to Alicia’s target dummy with the holes in the head.

“All right,” said Jack. “I felt like you needed to be able to defend yourself with

something more than your crossbow.”

“I can use swords, and know some hand to hand things,” said Elaine. “I learned at

the Temple.”

“Oh?,” said Jack.

“Kord is known as the shield of Karieda,” said Elaine. “Most of his acolytes are

taught some to defend themselves against harm.”

“You should be teaching the kids,” said Jack.

“I am a horrible teacher,” said Elaine. “I was much better as a student before I

left the Temple.”

“I know how that is,” said Jack. “I’m horrible too, but hopefully I can show you how

to use your inner power enough that if someone else comes to the Hole in the Wall

you won’t have to depend on Aviras setting them on fire.”

“He loves that,” said Elaine.

“I’m sure he does,” said Jack. He put on his imperial gruff voice. “Today was the day

your face was eaten, but for me it was Tuesday.”

“I don’t think you should do that around him, or he will give you a practical example

of his anger,” said Elaine. She smiled slightly.

“Let’s move on to the lesson,” said Jack. “The others will be back soon. How long

can it take to find a house?”

“All right,” said Elaine. “You said inner power.”

“Right,” said Jack. “Close your eyes. I want you to listen. What do you hear?”

“I can hear my heartbeat,” said Elaine. “I can hear your heartbeat. It’s much slower

than mine. I can hear the air moving in the trees and grass. There is some kind of

animal beyond the target dummy. I think it is small like a squirrel or rat, maybe a

rabbit.”

“What do you feel?,” asked Jack.

“I can feel my clothes,” said Elaine. “I can feel the air on my face, the sun but it is

moving toward the horizon, I can feel you standing there.”

“The target dummy is directly behind you,” said Jack. “I want you to concentrate on

moving the air with your hand. Then I want you to chop it. Straight up and down

motion with your arm.”

“All right,” said Elaine. She turned and closed her eyes, resetting the strange feeling

from listening earlier. She raised her arm, and brought it down like starting a race.

A surge went through the air, pushing the dummy on its post. She opened her eyes.

“What was that?”

“That was you, Hon,” said Jack. “I built you something to control the elements. With

a little practice, you will be able to do more than create a wind push.”

“This is way too much,” said Elaine. “What would I do with this?”

“Most of the time, probably nothing,” said Jack. “This is for the times that you need

a shield and I can’t be there because I am settling the Society’s quests. Those are

dangerous enough on their own. I don’t want to leave you vulnerable to another Brant

sending people to try to grab you.”

“There was always a danger of that,” said Elaine.

“I know, and I should have come up with something sooner,” said Jack. “I just failed

on that part.”

“We have had something of a whirlwind romance,” said Elaine.

“I know,” said Jack. “I should have looked out better from the outset. I’m sorry that

I didn’t.”

She hugged him before he could do anything.

“I knew you were the right one,” said Elaine.

“You did, did you?,” said Jack. He smiled down at her. His heart was running a little

faster to her.

“Yes, I did,” said Elaine. “I didn’t trust my feeling about it, but you have shown

me thousands of proofs. I wish I had met you sooner.”

“I don’t think you would have liked me all that much when I was in,” said Jack. He

hugged her back. “Now let’s look at what we can do to fix the Hangar into our home,

and turn the Hole in the Wall into our guest house.”

“Are you sure about this?” said Elaine. “It will be a big change, and the girls might

not like it.”

“I am more worried about Josie not liking it,” said Jack. He grinned. “They don’t call

her the Ear Ripper for nothing.”

“She will get revenge for that one day,” said Elaine. “She is biding her time.”

“I’m not scared,” said Jack.

“I think you should be,” said Elaine. She took his hand and pulled him down to

sit with her in the grass. “What do you think we need for this project?”

“Obviously, we are going to need our room with a pool and a jacuzzi,” said Jack.

“Maybe a bar of some kind. I don’t know. Then the girls are probably going to want

to have their own rooms, especially Bea. She might want exclusive use of the Hole

in the Wall for any future boyfriends she might pick up. Work on his stamina without

us old fogies around. We are going to need a version of the office so we can keep

track of things. Maybe a connection to the Enterprise so we can use it to look around

outside of Hawk Ridge. We can remodel the Hole in the Wall to be more like an inn

for our guests.”

“Josie might want us to keep the Hole in the Wall, while she has your pool and

jacuzzi out here,” said Elaine. “We have the original place to ourselves, and she and

the Ducklings have this new place.”

“Either way, whomever gets stuck with the Hole in the Wall will have people moving

back and forth from out here to Hawk Ridge,” said Jack. “On the other hand, we

could always move up to the Enterprise, get some furniture for our quarters and not

have to worry about other people at all.”

“I don’t think that would be good for us,” said Elaine. “I think that we would start

fighting if we were around each other all the time with no chance to do other things,

talk to other people.”

“That’s a good point,” said Jack. “Cabin fever can be a real thing.”

“If you were to build on to the Hangar, what are your thoughts on how to do it right

now before you talk to the girls and Josie?,” asked Elaine. “How would you get

started?”

“I think I need a list of the rooms we need, any special features,” said Jack. “I almost

guarantee that Alicia will want a better archery range. Then I would need to create a

ring that would excavate the dirt out of the ground under the top level of the Hangar

where the Quinjet is supposed to sit. I think a elevator and stairs should go in about

where June’s room is so we can get up to the gate to get back to the Hole in the Wall.

On that end, we can brick up most of it so anyone breaking in would just have maybe

the guest room where the guests are staying and the other end of the stargate from the

Hangar.”

“We could shrink the Hole in the Wall down to three rooms, with the stargate being

in one of those rooms,” said Elaine.

“Yep,” said Jack. “The problem then becomes anybody who knows the security

number could come out here to the Hangar without any warning unless I put in a

noise maker to show the gate is in use. That’s something I should have thought of but

didn’t because I didn’t consider anyone figuring out what the gate does.”

“But now people outside of our realm of control know,” said Elaine.

“And if the girls want to sneak their future boyfriends in, then they will naturally tell

their boyfriends the code,” said Jack.

“Naturally,” agreed Elaine.

“I really don’t want to put a public house out here,” said Jack. “That would just let

people know we’re here and this is where we keep things.”

“And it would invite a certain amount of trouble,” said Elaine.

“So we have a discussion about what we can do with this,” said Jack. “And then

I do the altering.”

“Beatrice and Laura might want to split the Hole in the Wall for their own use,” said

Elaine.

“So we have to look forward to wild parties that go on all hours of the night?,” said

Jack.

“I think you are already doing that,” said Elaine. She kissed him.

“I can give you five more minutes,” said Jack.

“I think you will have to hold on until later tonight,” said Elaine. “We should be

getting ready for dinner, and the return of our charges.”

“All right,” said Jack. He levered himself up, then held out a hand for her to use to

stand. “I can’t wait to get rid of June even if it is a temporary thing. Then we can take

off and just relax until we get something else to do. We’re just waiting on Jane and

her crew at this point.”