"I am not wearing this." Marshall hissed from inside of the closet.
"But we look so cute when we match." She giggled where she sat on her bed. Now properly made because it was bugging her.
"What if the press finds out about this..." He glowered as he stepped from inside the closet and out into her full view.
Fiona laughed, a little because first of all, he did look ridiculous. He was wearing a pair of her pink flannel pants which did not even reach his ankles and a too-small t-shirt that only just scraped the top of his belly button. Second of all, she didn't think the paparazzi would be beating down her door for a minor band member.
As if on cue, someone knocked on the front door.
"Who could that be?" Fiona mused as she made her way down the hallway. Was Finn back from his Icey duties? She doubted it. They spent more time together than they did apart these days.
"I can get it!" Marshall yelled and zoomed past her down the hallway and towards the door.
"No, you can't!" She said as she grabbed on to the back of his borrowed shirt and pulled him down so he fell flat on his stomach. She jumped over him and barrelled towards the door. Her hand was around the base of the knob when she felt a hand around her foot pulling her down to the ground.
"oof" she yelped as her knee hit the hardwood floor and she rolled on to her back.
"Sorry bunny," Marshall grinned as he leaned over her and pulled open the door a crack. She looked up at him and his face paled as he took in whoever was waiting on the other side of the door for them.
"Hambo..." He breathed. His one and only confidant of the Methusela Clan as waiting outside of the door. He was pretty beaten up from what he could see that wasn't covered. Hambo's normally crisp, black suit, now crumpled and stained in darker areas with what Marshall knew could only be blood.
"Master Marshall," Hambo began and fell to his knees in the hallway. Marshall's stomach turned a bit at this. He hated it when Hambo called him by anything except just Marshall. What had they done to him? This had to be all because of him, because of his little shenanigans where he gave them the slip. "Your mother is very angry that you left without telling us where you went. I have been sent to retrieve you."
"Please Hambo, come inside," Marshall said softly and opened up the door wider. Hambo reluctantly stood up with a quiet groan from his kneeling position and limped inside the apartment.
"Who did this to you?" Marshall asked as his eyes grew dark and cloudy. "Tell me their names and I will have worse done to them than they did to you. I will make them wish that they were never born."
Hambo shook his head. "No Master Marshall, please do not retaliate against them. They could have killed me. I am lucky this is all they did to me." He gestured to his bloodied body and face.
"Once you tell me who they are, I will make sure they wish they were dead." He insisted.
Fiona led Hambo over to the plush white loveseat in the sitting room before he answered. "It was the Aranea Brothers."
"I see..." Marshall breathed before heading to Fiona's bedroom to grab his cellphone. "Fi, would you mind tending to Ham while I take a quick phone call?" He called to her as he made his way out to the balcony and closed the door behind him.
Fiona looked at Hambo and gave him a small smile. He smiled back at her as much as he could and winced at the pain the smile created. "I better go get some bandages and antiseptic." She continued as she looked toward the balcony. Hambo nodded back at her and closed his eyes, resting his head on the back of the chair as she got up and headed down the hallway to the bathroom.
After finding lots of cotton pads, bandaids, and a whole tackle box full of First Aid supplies, she hobbled back out to the sitting room and dropped them at his feet and let out a breath. Hambo startled awake at the sudden noise. She glanced back at the balcony. Marshall was pacing and starting to shout, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.
"You know, I am pretty used to doing this on myself, but I don't have a lot of experience taking care of other people." She confessed as she held up a cotton pad with some antiseptic to a particularly nasty gash above his left eye. Hambo grimaced in pain but held still as she worked her way around his face, trying her best to clean and mend the gashes and scrapes to his face and then moved on to his cracked and bloody hands and fingernails.
"You don't seem like someone who is mean enough to get into situations where you would look like I do," Hambo said to her as she pressed a cold compress to a swollen eye that was beginning to bruise. She smiled back at him and looked again out at the balcony. Marshall leaned against the railing looking out at the city, the phone still held to his ear.
"Well, I am not exactly from this world, if you can believe it." She confessed.
Hambo wheezed "I know what you mean, I was born in a trailer park 2,000 miles away from this city, but it could just as easily be on another planet. I was taken in by a low-rent gang that was eventually absorbed by the Methusela Syndicate because of its criminal affiliations. I was offered a job working for the big boss looking after her snot-nosed brat 10 years ago, and I never looked back. So needless to say, I get it."
Not exactly what she meant, but she appreciated his honesty. Goodness knows she needed more of that in her life right now.
The door to the balcony slid open and Marshall walked in and slid a hand through his disheveled hair. "Crisis averted." He smiled.
"What does that mean?" Hambo grumbled, knowing too well that crisis adverted to the Methusela Clan heir was a lot different than it was to anyone else.
"It means, dear Ham old pal, that you, Ms. Fiona and I will be taking a quick trip home, just to make sure that everything is sorted." He winked at Fiona. "Pack your overnight bag bunny, you are gonna go meet the in-laws... well, in-law more like since I only have one."
***
The drive to the Methuselah Clan headquarters was longer than she had expected. After packing an overnight bag, she sent Finn a quick text.
Fiona: Heading out for the night, can you cover for me if Cake asks?
Finn: Are you ok?
Fiona: Yes, fine. But I need you to tell Cake if she asks that I spent the night with you.
Finn: Is something going on with you and Marshall.
Not a question... a statement.
Fiona: Yes...
Finn: ...
Fiona: I just need your help right now, I will explain later.
Finn: k.
K... Just k... Oh, glob I am going to have to do a bunch of groveling after this. She thought to herself.
Fiona looked up from her phone and around the inside of the car Hambo was now driving. She looked over at Marshall and thought, how did all of this happen? She was just trying to get home, and now she had become unbelievably entangled with the people of this world. Marshall reached across the backseat of the car for her hand. He held his hand out, palm up as an offering to her. She took it and entwined her fingers with his. He squeezed tightly.
"I am sorry you have to deal with all of this now." He apologized.
"Well, sometimes it is just the way it is you know dude? We can't help the way things turn out, but you have to protect the ones who are important to you. I had a friend... from a while back. She was always pulling my butt out of stuff. She was my ride or die."
"I would like to meet this friend sometime if I could." He grinned.
"Yeah," she said looking down sadly at her fingers intertwined with his "I would like that as well."
***
The headquarters were not what she expected. Although she wasn't sure what she had expected. "You live here?" She said in awe.
The massive structure that surrounded them put Bernabon's estate to shame.
"Well, yes, but it is basically like a lab rat living on a research compound. This doesn't all belong to me." He confessed. Stepping out of the car door Hambo held open for him and then offering his hand to Fiona. She gave him a playful punch as she stepped out.
"You know what I meant. Also, if you are the heir apparent, doesn't it all belong to you?"
This only received a small shrug from him. Trying to play it off no doubt.
The massive modern structure that stood in front of her and all around was made of metal and glass. It was like a massive skyscraper that had been turned on its side and bent into the shape of a "c". Lush greenery could be seen from almost every front-facing window of the compound as if the giant structure concealed an even larger forest inside.
"Which one is your room?" She teased, taking it all in.
"Oh ready for another round bunny?"He whispered as he pulled her tightly against him.
"Woah bud, hands-off." She whispered to him under her breath as she attempted to wiggle out of his iron grasp as they passed a line of hulking suited guards stationed on every other sandstone step leading to the front entrance.
"Unfortunately for you, bunny, these people are more, shoot first, ask questions later... And I don't want anything happening to you." He winked.
What have I gotten myself into... She thought to herself.
****
AUTHOR NOTES:
TWO UPDATES??? IN A WEEK?!
Thank you for all of your support and kind words after returning from such a long hiatus. I never stopped thinking about this series, I just lost all creativity for a while.
Now that I have it back, I want to see this series through.
What do you think is going to happen next???