“She isn’t family! I want her removed!”

Zaira heard a familiar voice say as she stepped into the lobby of the hospital. She had gone to the nearest fast-food joint and gotten breakfast for everyone save Ryan. Walking a bit further into the lobby she spotted Arthur speaking to a couple of members of the hospital security.

“I’m sorry sir. Even if she isn’t family, the file has been changed to ‘open’. As long as she isn’t causing trouble, she is allowed to be there.”

“Well then, change it back! She is trouble!”

“Why don’t you ask your mother what she wants?” Arthur jumped at the sound of her voice and even looked nervous as he watched her approach them. She continued speaking when she was uncomfortably close to the boy. “You may not like me, but I care for your parents. And I will continue to help them until they decide to cut their ties with me.” Arthur opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off. “Now. Here is breakfast.” She handed him the bag with his food. “Your mother said it was your favorite. I will undoubtedly see you later.”

With that, she walked off toward Ryan’s room. He didn’t yell after her nor did she hear him continue to argue with the security guards. She hoped that would be the end of that.

Zaira made a quick stop in the room she had hidden in the previous night. The elderly man was still there. A younger couple was present with a toddler sitting on the bed in the arms of the elder man. She had bought the man a couple of cookies. One chocolate chip and one oatmeal raisin, to account for taste. She thanked him for keeping her secret and he thanked her for the cookies. He took the oatmeal one and gave the chocolate chip one to the toddler who was introduced to her as his little grandson.

Back in Ryan’s room, she found Hannah and Callie playing with the stuffies she had pulled out of her ever-bag when Callie had woken up for the day. It seems Calliope had been a welcome distraction for Hannah this morning.

Zaira knocked gently before entering.

“I have breakfast.”

“Oh, thank you, dear.”

Zaira took out their food, handing one package to Hannah and opening hers and Callie’s on the table.

“Where’s Arthur’s?”

“I gave it to him already. I saw him at the reception.”

Hannah nodded. “How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it. Eat. Come here, Callie.”

The toddler moved into her momma’s arms and onto her lap. The baby only glanced at the disassembled breakfast sandwich before tapping on her momma’s chest, asking for some milk.

“Not right now, Callie.” She’d already nursed the girl at dawn. She turned the girl towards the table, picked up a bit of egg, and brought it to the girl’s mouth. Calliope wasn’t having it though. She whined and pushed the hand away from her face. She tried turning around but Zaira held firm. “No Callie. Have some eggs, you like eggs.” Zaira brought the eggs close to Callie’s mouth.

Callie listened this time, but she caught her mother’s fingers between her teeth and seemed to bite down harder than what could be considered a normal accident.

“Really? Really?”

Zaira squished the tubby cheeks between her fingers rapidly. Callie giggled, and so did Hannah. The next bit of eggs was less painful for both mom and baby. Callie ate half her allotted amount of eggs before choosing to suck on a piece of toast. This feeding was considered a success.

Zaira’s eyes circled back to Ryan. Overnight the doctor had come in and changed the medication attached to his IV. She was pleased to see he had already regained quite a bit of color and was breathing easier since the switch.

“Did the doctor come in this morning?” Zaira asked.

“Yes. They said they might be able to move him to a transitional care room this afternoon.”

Zaira was happy to hear that, he was stabilizing.

“Did they say what they think is making him sick?”

“No.” Hannah deflated. “They haven’t said. They gave him meds that are helping him. How can they do that if they don’t know what’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know Hannah. I only know some medications target symptoms and others the problem.” Zaira shrugged sadly. “I can’t explain what they are doing, but we can trust that they are doing their best.” She had addressed this to herself as much as Hannah.

“Could you search the medication?”

“What?”

“You know, what you young ones do with your computers.”

“I don’t have a phone or a computer. I could go to the library. But wouldn’t it be best to just ask the doctor?”

“Right. Ok.” Hannah readjusted herself and turned her focus back to the baby.

Arthur came to join them a little later that morning.

“Have you called Julian yet?” He asked as he sat on a folding chair he had brought with him.

“I suppose I should try again.” Hannah handed Callie to Zaira. “I’ll be right back.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Zaira kissed her little girl.

“What was the fight about?”

Zaira looked up. Arthur was glaring at her again.

“A difference of opinion.” Zaira shrugged. “It wasn’t really important.”

“Mother seemed upset about it.”

“Yeah, she really doesn’t like conflict.”

“Voicemail again,” Hannah announced as she walked back into the room.

She walked to her husband’s side and fussed a little over his blankets, making sure he was tucked in properly. She had just sat down when a doctor walked in.

“Good morning.” He nodded to all of them and went to check Ryan’s monitors.

“How is he?”

The doctor looked at Hannah. “He is doing much better.” The doctor gave her a smile. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he woke up today.”

“Oh! Wonderful!” Hannah straightened in her seat with a large smile, then frowned. “Do you know what was wrong?”

“You’ll be getting a visit later today with more details.”

He left before the confused group could ask him what he had meant.

Hannah looked at Zaira. Zaira shook her head. Hannah looked to Arthur, who shrugged his shoulders.

Hannah sighed and looked down at Ryan. She took her husband’s hand in hers and rubbed her thumb along the back of it. “I hope he wakes up soon. I want to tell him how much I love him.”

Zaira smiled. “I’m sure he knows.”

“Maybe,” Hannah wiped at some tears. “I haven’t told him in a bit. Since…”

The fight.

Zaira stood and wrapped her arms around Hannah. “Thank you.” She whispered.

Hannah returned the hug with her unoccupied hand.

“Since what?”

“It’s ok love, it’s all resolved now. Oh, Zaira? I made a list of things. Could you go pick them up at the house?”

“Of course.”

“I can go Mother.”

“Thank you dear, but Zaira knows the house better than you.”

“Do you need anything, Arthur?”

“No,” He thumped back unto the wall, “Thank you.”

Zaira took Callie with her to give Hannah some alone time with her boys. Callie wasn’t as good in the car as she had been on the flight there.

Zaira frowned as she turned onto their road. There were two cop cars parked outside the Rosses’ home. She parked on the road behind them and walked up to the front door. The door was ajar. She knocked on the door.

“Hello?”

Four police officers appeared in the hallway from different rooms.

She took a step inside the house, holding up the hand not holding Callie. “Can I help you?”

“And you are?”

“Zaira. The neighbor. Hannah sent me to grab some things for the hospital.”

“Ah, Zaira.” The officer speaking with her took out a pad and waived to one of the men. The two other officers returned to the rooms they had come out of. “We’d like to ask you a couple of questions.”

“Of course.” Zaira walked to the kitchen and pulled a chair out. “Could I offer you anything to drink?”

“This isn’t your house.”

“No, but Hannah would approve of the hospitality.”

“Thank you, but we don’t want anyone to touch anything unnecessarily.”

“Ok…” Zaira sat across from the two officers, baby on her lap.

Callie looked between the two officers and babbled.

Their professional composure broke a bit as they greeted the baby.

“Hello, sweetie” The second officer smiled widely at Callie.

The first officer spoke again. “I am Detective Miller; this is Detective Constable Brown. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“What can I do for you Detectives?”

Detective Brown had pulled out a notepad, and Detective Miller had a pensive look.

“Zaira.” He said. “I apologize but I didn’t get your last name?”

“Um, it's Lawley.” She grimaced. It had been her husband’s name. She’d not had one previously, which wasn’t uncommon in non-human circles. She’d panicked when the humans had asked her for one and she’d been too lazy to change it since then.

“Yet you told the hospital that it was Ross,” Brown stated.

“Yeah, I didn’t know if the hospital would let me see him last night. The Rosses have been like a family to me, and I really wanted to see them. I was worried.”

“Do come here often?”

“Yes. Weekly suppers. I help Hannah with the chores she has a tougher time doing every month or so. She also forces Ryan to accept my help with his projects from time to time. Hannah is often at my place too.”

“Hannah, not Ryan?”

Zaira shrugged. “He’s a bit more introverted. Hannah’s a chatterbox.”

“Do you do anything in the garage?”

“Sometimes.”

“Anything recently?”

“Yeah, Hannah had us clean it out recently in the hope of getting the car in. It didn’t work out, but Ryan was happy to rediscover some of his old belongings.”

“Any work with the car?”

“It’s a new car. We haven’t fiddled with it.”

The officers took a moment to finish scribbling on their notepads.

She asked; “Officers? May I ask what this is all about?”

“Ethylene glycol was found in Mr. Ross’ system.”

“What’s that?”

“A compound found in windshield wiper fluid. Tastes sweet, but very toxic.”

Zaira felt faint. She leaned back. Her claws dug into her palms. She was seething. Someone had tried to kill Ryan.

Her eyes closed tightly. It had to be Arthur… She felt bad that that was the first person to cross her mind but – something was off about him. Why on Earth would he try to kill his father? His parents were some of the nicest humans she had ever met.

She forced out; “If you are asking if I would have any reason to touch the wiper fluid. Yes. I co-signed on the car, and I do use it. We just cleaned the garage. I have definitely touched the box of wiper fluid.”

They wrote that down too.

“Where have you been in the last 48 hours?”

“I just came back from Europe. I spent three days with a friend there. My taxi brought us back here last night just as Ryan was being loaded in the ambulance”

“Can we see your plane tickets?”

She shook her head. “I tossed them out at the airport. I didn’t think I’d need them. But I can give you my friend’s number.”

Detective Miller slid her his notepad and she jotted down Rushka’s cellphone number. He tore the page from his pad and handed it to Detective Brown who took the page and left the room. Presumably to call Rushka before she could let them know the police would call.

“Have you noticed anything different with the Rosses’ lately?” Detective Miller continued.

Zaira took a moment to think.

“Yes.” Honesty would be best. She hoped her suspicions were wrong, for the Rosses’ sake.

“Yes?”

“Their son has been coming over to visit.”

The officer raised a brow.

She explained; “Arthur showed up for the first time in years just a couple months ago. Hannah told me that both the boys hadn’t come to visit in years. Julian occasionally calls or sends pictures of the grandchildren, but nothing from Arthur. I was their only guest for the holidays, they weren’t invited to their children’s homes. They were so happy when Arthur finally showed up over the winter…”

She trailed off.

“Has he been behaving oddly?”

Zaira shrugged. “Not really. A little distant, but I suppose that’s normal when you haven’t seen your parents in years. I can’t explain why he gives me the ick.”

“Do you know of any reason why Arthur would want his father dead?”

“No sir.”

“Then why point the finger at him?”

“Because only three people have been around Ryan lately. Hannah adores her husband. I know I didn’t do it. That leaves Arthur.”

Zaira shrugged as Detective Miller narrowed his eyes at her. She understood the predicament she was in. Though the humans’ crime-solving skills had gotten much better in the last century, so hopefully, she could trust that they would figure out she hadn’t done it.

“Do you know why Arthur showed up unexpectedly?”

“Something about his life changing and wanting to share it with his parents? I’m not sure, he was very reserved when I was around. He talks about his business a lot. Doesn’t like me much, the feeling is mutual.”

“You point the finger at him… He pointed the finger at you when we interviewed him this morning.”

Zaira frowned. When had he been interviewed?

“He told us you had recently had a fight with the Rosses.”

“A disagreement with Ryan… His Christian values and my own non-Christian values had clashed a little. Hannah was trying to mediate. Nothing anywhere serious enough for me to kill him.”

Detective Brown re-entered the room. “She wasn’t in the country.”

Detective Miller looked at his partner and nodded. “Thank you, Zaira.” Detective Miller stood. “That will be all for now.”

“Am I good to continue to visit the Rosses?”

“We can’t stop you.”

Zaira nodded. “Can I get the items I came here to get?”

“Detective Brown will follow you.”

“Thank you.”

The items Hannah had asked for were easy to collect. Toiletries, a couple changes of clothes for Hanna, one for Ryan to come home in. Detective Brown didn’t stop her from collecting any of it. He also seemed quite taken with Callie. Cooing at her every chance he got.

It wasn’t long before she was back at the hospital.

Hannah was sitting by Ryan’s side, holding his hand. To Zaira’s horror, Ryan was much paler than the last time she had seen him.

“Oh!” Hannah exclaimed when she saw Zaira. She got up and quickly made her way to the demon, wrapping her arms around Zaira and once again sobbing into her shoulder.

Callie whined at the tightness of the hug and Zaira shifted to accommodate both of them.

“What happened?”

“The cops came not long after you left. They – they asked who had fed Ryan. They said – They said he had been poisoned!”

“They were at your home too. Collecting evidence. I spoke to them.”

“Oh!” Hannah sobbed. “The worst – the worst part… While you were gone, I went to the washroom and, and the machines started beeping! So many nurses came in… Ryan…” She hiccupped. “He’s not doing well…”

Zaira squeezed Hannah a little tighter. “I’m sorry.”

Hannah pulled away just enough to look Zaira in the eye. “Arthur, he was alone with Ryan. They – they took him down to the station. You, you don’t think he did it do you?”

Zaira pinched her lips together. “I don’t know Hannah, but…”

“But he was alone with Ryan when he got sicker…”

Zaira pulled Hannah back into a hug.

“He was the only other person at dinner last night,” Hannah whispered.

Zaira didn’t bother to answer. She wouldn’t speculate with Hannah. She just held her a little tighter. She stayed with the Rosses throughout the rest of the day. She also hid in the hospital room that night. She wouldn’t leave them until she was sure they were going to be ok.