Josie locked her hands together as she leaned back in her chair. She wondered if she

could turn it into a semi-recliner. She looked at her oldest wards and wondered if she

was acting like her mother.

“I don’t see why you want to meet my fiancé,” said Beatrice. “We don’t know what

we’re going to do about the future yet.”

“Don’t get stubborn now,” said Laura. “You know why. It’s because you have been

keeping it secret when you know someone other than you can get hurt.”

“Also I would like to know how serious this adventurer is about you, Beatrice,” said

Josie. “If he just wants to date and move on, that’s fine. If he wants to build a life,

we’ll have to expand our coverage to include him.”

“Adventuring is not conducive for a long life,” said Elaine.

“We haven’t got beyond kissing,” said Beatrice. “I don’t want to drop all of this on

him out of the blue.”

“You can invite him to dinner to meet Jack tomorrow,” said Josie. “Jack is usually

good with others.”

“Jack will scare him off faster than you,” said Beatrice.

“I don’t think that’s true,” said Josie. Didn’t she used to be the scary one of their

partnership. How did that switch happen?

“Just bring him, Bea,” said Laura. “We want to meet him too. How is he going to get

along with us as your sisters if you don’t let him meet us?”

“But you’re not,” said Beatrice. “I have been on my own a lot longer than I have

known you.”

“And I have been on my own since before you were born,” said Josie. “Don’t go in

that direction, Beatrice. It’s not Laura’s fault. She’s the next eldest, and I don’t want

to hunt her boyfriend down too. So I’m including her in this, so she knows.”

“I just want to keep this one thing to myself,” said Beatrice. “Is that so bad?”

“No,” said Josie. “It’s not so bad. Maybe you’re right. You know all about having

children, so it’s no big deal there.”

“I haven’t even seen him naked yet,” said Beatrice. She covered her face. “Please let

this end.”

“Do you really know about having children?,” asked Laura.

“What do you think the horizontal mambo is for?,” asked Beatrice. “Have you never

seen animals mating?”

“Not really,” said Laura. “The men here was my first experience with that. And Josie

killed the man with me before he could get all the way undressed.”

“If you do have a child, Beatrice,” said Josie. “It will be your responsibility. Are you

ready for that? Some people say they are, but they aren’t on the inside.”

“I might need some help,” conceded Beatrice. “I don’t want a baby, but if I have one,

I will do the best I can.”

“I’m not happy,” said Josie. “But if you are responsible, and look after things

yourself, I will do what I can for you if something happens.”

“Then I won’t have to bring him to meet you?,” asked Beatrice.

“No,” said Josie. “I’ll just find him and ask him what I want to know directly. It’ll be

a lot easier for the three of us.”

“You can’t do that,” said Beatrice.

“But I can,” said Josie. “Part of this is looking out for each other. If I have to look out

for this unknown, I want to know if he is worth it.”

“Fine,” said Beatrice. “I will ask him to come to dinner tomorrow.”

“Ask him to come early so he can help with the cooking,” said Josie.

“Ohh,” said Beatrice. “Fine. Can I be excused?”

“Yes,” said Josie. “I will see you in the morning.”

Beatrice got up and stomped out of the office. She didn’t keep the surly look off her

face.

“Is this really necessary?,” asked Laura.

“Maybe,” said Josie. “This might be a case of too good to be true. If it is, Beatrice

will be hurt by this guy. I know life does that, but I don’t want it to if I can help it.”

“You are mother ducking her, when she wants to swim on her own,” said Laura. “Me

also, but I don’t have anything to worry about yet.”

“I am trying to do better than my own mother,” said Josie. “I don’t know if I am

succeeding as far as that goes.”

“I suppose that is fine,” said Laura. “I will be sure to bring my fiancé around for you

to meet to avoid all of this awkwardness.”

“The baby thing applies to you too,” said Josie. “If you have one, be ready to do the

major lifting on getting it to adulthood and taking care of itself.”

“If I am an adventurer, I don’t think I will have children,” said Laura.

“Most people think that,” said Josie. “And then the unexpected happens, and you

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have to leave your kid with your mother, or grandmother, while you work two jobs,

go to school to find a better job, and deal with all of that because you didn’t protect

yourself from some smooth talker who got up your skirts.”

“And that’s what you think is happening with Beatrice?,” said Laura.

“No, but I would rather be ready than wait for Beatrice to swell up like a balloon and

have nowhere to go because she’s stuck out in the middle of nowhere and can’t call

for help because her boyfriend is unreliable,” said Josie.

“Meeting Jack might not be the test of character you want,” said Elaine. “I doubt he

will do anything to this adventurer unless the man is stupider than most.”

“We’ll see,” said Josie. “Sometimes meeting Jack is exactly the test of character you

want to put someone through.”

“Do you mind if I go?,” asked Laura. “Please don’t find this man and squeeze him.

Beatrice won’t like it, and she won’t stay if she thinks she can’t trust anyone.”

“All right,” said Josie. “Good night, Laura.”

The Duckling walked out of the room.

“I don’t think I’m cut out for this parenting stuff,” said Josie.

“No one is perfect,” said Elaine. “I’m going to get ready for tomorrow myself. I will

talk to Jack in the morning about Beatrice’s beau. I think that is the kind of thing that

would appeal to him.”

“Thanks, Elaine,” said Josie. “I think I’m going to think about these quests and see

what kind of plan I can come up with to get them done. Maybe Lorelei and Bob will

have some kind of clue on where their dragon will be coming from so we can deal

with that the easiest.”

“I think a gift for the girls will be good so they can better protect themselves, but you

have years before they are out of the house and off doing their own work,” said

Elaine. “Patience will serve you well is what my mother always used to say. I never

knew how true that was before I came to Hawk Ridge.”

“It would be so much easier if I could see the future and plan accordingly,” said Josie.

“Good night, Elaine. I will see you when I get back from Cairn.”

“I will make sure to leave a spot for you if you get done earlier and can get home soon

enough,” said Elaine. She stepped out of the office.

Jo sat back in the chair and closed her eyes. It occurred to her that she did have a

persona who could look at the future. Did she want to do that? How liquid was time?

Would the future change just because she was trying to take advantage?

She didn’t think she should mess with it at the moment. Maybe when she was

desperate and everything was extremely wrecked, she could try to trawl for a future

to make things better.

She decided the best thing she could do was see if she could remote a view to Cairn.

If she could do that, she could find Emily before they left in the morning. The rest

would be just going out there and getting her.

The saved time would allow her to get back so Jack and Elaine could go on their date

without worrying about who was going to keep the kids from burning the place to the

ground.

It was a win-win as far as she could see. How did she make things where she could

remote view on the other side of the continent? Maybe she could automatically write

something. Would her range be affected by something like that? Her letters reached

across vast gulfs of space. Maybe a drawing would do the same.

Then she could use that to figure out where Emily was when they got close enough.

A scry bird would also be there, marking the adventurer. All she had to do was get

close enough to drop one from the air.

Why hadn’t Beatrice brought her boyfriend around? That kind of bothered her. She

looked at the reasons why it did before putting the thing back in a box. She had more

important things to worry about than why her ward had decided not to allow them to

talk to someone who might be able to get her away from the Hole in the Wall.

They had seen a certain amount of corruption in the city so far. What happened if this

guy was just another example that needed to be taken care by them? What would

Beatrice think of them?

There was nothing she could do about that. Beatrice knew they were doing jobs for

some higher power. If her boyfriend got in the way, he would have to go.

Maybe a talk with Jack was just what the doctor ordered.

She checked her watch as she called on Zatanna. She sent out a scry bird as she sat

at her desk. How much time would it need to create a drawing for her on a random

piece of paper? She felt the process work on the paper. Once it was done, she looked

at the picture. She thought she could find the place.

She copied over what she had got from Poat and decided to read that until she felt like

going to bed. She smiled at Jack creating a wormhole just to move back and forth

instead of flying to where the ship rested.

She thought she had the controls down, but she did have a persona she could call on

to help if she needed it. Hans von Hammer might be just the thing she needed to get

the airship out of the city and out east, and then back.

She wondered if Jack had an ace he could call on to fly the quinjet when he needed

it. Maybe he planned to use Mister Fantastic if he was forced to fly dangerously.

The copied material pointed her at several nodes close to Hawk Ridge. She didn’t

know how many names in the material was still relevant. She used Zatanna to mark

out anyone who had died.

She painted a map around Hawk Ridge. The camps stood out close to the road but in

the forests. She nodded at the x over the camp she had raided with Fass’s boys.

Could she wreck another one before she left town?

She could do it as soon as her watch recharged. She looked at the closest camp on her

map. She could reach out with Zatanna and blast them up into the night sky. Secret

raids in the night might be better than explosions in the day time.

Josie decided to think about it and look into the camps when she got home. She could

raid them and transport any captives home if she had a way to carry them where they

belonged.

Maybe she needed to get Jack to make a train for them.

She also needed to check on the Galls to make sure Mrs. Gall was getting the help she

needed. She was glad that she hadn’t killed Officer Gall, but his inability to do his job

had got on her nerves.

How many other guards would she have to put the Josie Curse before they got the

message?

She needed to check on the guards marked with the Makeover. They needed to be put

down before they caused problems with her corruption fighting schemes.

She had so much to do. She could feel the edge of a quest forming. She sat back

and looked around. She calmed down. The last thing she wanted was a quest to

get everything organized.

That would take forever if she knew herself.

The quest dissipated before it could force her to make a list to go through and check

off.

Josie sighed. She looked at her desk. She had a model of the town of Cairn on one

side, and a model of Hawk Ridge on the other. She wondered what she could do if she

could open a gate to the real places represented by the constructions.

She decided to keep that in her pocket until she needed to use it. She put together

a table to hold the models and pushed it against the wall. She could see Jack making

some comments on the things.

He could probably use his stargate through the models to reach anywhere in town.

Josie noticed a spark floating over the model of Cairn. It resembled one of her scry

birds. She smiled. The model showed the effects of her magic. This could be better

than she thought.

Magic was great. She hoped the spell was still running when she got up to fly out

there. She nodded. She could use this if she needed it.

She would have to pack the town of Cairn up and take it with her. She could use that

while flying to find Emily.

Josie snuffed the lanterns and decided to get some sleep. She would deal with

Beatrice in the morning. She hated leaving town when she didn’t have that sorted out

the way she wanted.

She got ready for bed and set an alarm. Tomorrow would be busy.