The Unicorn's Forest

Scott sat down at the table and sighed. Jackie was at her usual spot at the table, drinking a mug of tea. He had just made sure that both of their daughters had gone to bed, so now they could talk without worrying about either of them overhearing them.

"So, we've ruled out her going out with someone. What does that leave?" he asked his wife.

Jackie put her tea down before looking at Scott. "I'm not really sure what else it could be. However, since Charlie had been without friends for so long, it could just be how she would have been if she'd made friends when she was younger," she replied, noting Scott's worried expression.

"Maybe, but it feels like there's something more. Almost like there's something she's hiding from us and whatever it is involves her new friends as well," Scott said, putting his head in his hands, his forearms resting against the corner of the table.

"If there is something that she's hiding, what do you propose we do to try and learn what that is?" Jackie asked. "I mean, unless we get all 'Big Brother' on her, I don't think we'll be as likely to learn what it is."

"Have you taken a look inside that bush we have out near Charlie's garden?" Scott asked suddenly. "I think she and her friends spend a good amount of time in there, so it's possible that if we look there, we might find something that can let us know if she's gotten involved in something that's more than she can handle."

"I'll look at that Monday when the girls are in school and you're at work," Jackie replied. "Though, keep in mind that if she is involved in something, they might not leave any evidence in a place like that, so we might not find anything, even then."

"I understand, but we still need to take a look. Especially since we don't know what we're looking for. I mean, if it was drugs, we could just look for the signs of that, but other than her spending so much time away, and even neglecting her garden like she has been, she doesn't seem that different than she had been before," Scott remarked.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything going on. One of the biggest signs is when a person loses interest in something that they used to love doing. Or something like that. And Charlie loved spending time in her garden, but now she weeds it maybe once a week. So, I would say that would be something that fits that category," Jackie returned.

"How about this, if we can't find anything going on with her, but this continues on like this, we should confront her about it in March," Scott suggests. "That way we can have plenty of time to try and learn what there is to know about our daughter and what she's been up to, but not so long that it has a greater chance to hurt her in the long run."

"Alright, but we still need to keep an eye on her in case it becomes clear she's in over her head and floundering with whatever it is she's been doing," Jackie said.

"Let's hope that whatever she's involved in isn't going to hurt her before she's done with it," Scott said, his expression showing Jackie just how worried he is about their daughter. The one they never had to worry about in this way until recently.

_

"So, how'd the dinner go?" Beth asked Charlie again as they left Petals' forest and entered Arachii's world.

"My mom was clearly thinking that Alex and I were going out," Charlie finally said. She'd been trying to avoid answering Beth since they first started out, but was getting rather annoyed by her continually asking her by now.

"That had to be awkward," Beth remarked, the amusement Charlie heard in Beth's voice merely adding to her annoyance.

"It was, then afterwards that my mom told me to show Alex to my room," Charlie continued, trying to not react to Beth's remark.

Beth fully interrupted Charlie now, laughing. "I wish I could have seen that," Beth said. "I can only imagine how Alex reacted to that."

Charlie sighed. "Well, we got as far as the door to my room before she asked me to show here somewhere else rather than my room. So, she had me show her to the family room," Charlie said, trying get her annoyance under control, pausing to take her shoes and socks off before starting to cross the stream with Beth following suit.

"So, what'd you do in the family room?" Beth asked, after they crossed the stream.

"We just talked," Charlie replied, hoping Beth wouldn't press the question. While she liked kissing Alex, she wasn't yet sure if she wanted others to know about that, let alone what Alex might want others to know at the moment.

"By the way, what was asking Tim for a number between one and three about?" Beth asked, after a minute of quiet between the two as they walked towards the gate to Heathcliff's.

"I needed help making a decision," Charlie replied, hoping Beth wouldn't push for more details.

"What kind of decision?" Beth asked, dispelling Charlie's hope that Beth would let it go.

"Nothing much, it was in regards to me getting ready for the dinner," Charlie answered, hoping Beth would let it go this time.

Instead, Beth started laughing as they started to walk through the gate. "You couldn't decide to wear, could you?"

Charlie scowled at Beth as they walked through the gate to Heathcliff's basement. "I just wasn't sure which to pick," Charlie protested, knowing full well her protest was weak, but not able to think of anything else to say at that moment.

"Don't worry about it," Beth assured Charlie. "Even when it's not someone who you're interested in, or they're interested in you, or both, picking what to wear can be difficult for anyone. Especially when you want to make the right impression or impress someone, the right outfit can be a pain to find."

Charlie wasn't sure why, but what Beth said actually made her feel a little better about how she couldn't decide what to wear and the embarrassment she felt about it was lessened. However, she still felt that she shouldn't accept that statement in full, given how she wasn't interested in Alex nor was she when she couldn't decide what to wear, even though she thought that she might become interested in Alex now, after she had talked with Alex. Charlie wanted to say kissing Alex didn't have anything to do with that, but she wasn't sure herself.

"Wow, what else happened?" Beth asked. "Your face has gone completely red."

Charlie pushed all thoughts of Alex and the night before out of her mind. "Nothing, just was thinking of something," Charlie said, trying to focus on their surroundings as well as the reasons they were there in order to push all thoughts of what she didn't want to discuss with Beth out off her mind.

"Sure about that?" Beth asked, her tone indicating she picked up more than Charlie would have liked. "It looked like you might have been thinking about something that would make some juicy gossip."

_

"What do I owe this pleasure?" Heathcliff said cheerfully as Charlie and Beth entered his office.

"You know what this is about," Beth replied. "It's about what you had Shirley do to Charlie during our hiking trip over last weekend."

Heathcliff looked at Beth thoughtfully for a minute. "What makes you think that I had anything to do with what my niece chose to do herself?" He asked calmly after not saying anything during that time.

"If that's the case, they I'm sure you wouldn't mind putting Shirley under my direct control, like you did with Emily, only this time it won't remain for such a short period as your camp did," Charlie replied, conversationally.

Heathcliff sighed. "What is it you want?"

"First we want to know why," Beth said. "Why did you have Shirley assault Charlie like that?"

Charlie kept her gaze on Heathcliff's face, trying to not let her confusion show on her face. She wanted to look at Beth to see her expression, but felt that would affect them negatively in this conversation.

Heathcliff sighed. "As I said, I had nothing to do with that. I'm sorry if you feel that way, but again, I'm not responsible for my niece's actions," he said, though Charlie had a feeling he was hiding more than just acknowledging his involvement in whatever Shirley had done to her. So, Charlie carefully pulled on her magic to send a strand out to try and see what Heathcliff was thinking, but was aggravated to find that it essentially hit a glass wall, preventing her from being able to hear what he was thinking.

Charlie was about to say something, at that time, but Heathcliff held up a hand to stop her. "That said, I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to have authority over my niece. Not only is it because she's not mine to tell her what to do, but also because I'd have to answer to my sister if I did that."

Charlie cracked a smile at that last comment. "Well, regardless of whether you had anything to do with Shirley's choices, you still are the head of whatever organization you have, so the responsibility still falls to you," Charlie said, trying to remember exactly what points to touch on that everyone had drilled into her when they last discussed this issue.

"Then, what, aside from what you've mentioned so far, are you saying?" Heathcliff asked, his tone making Charlie nervous with how unconcerned he seemed.

"That rather than just looking for a opportunity for my dad's security company, you'll offer him a contract to put a security system and anything else need to protect gates. If his company doesn't have the capacity or whatever to do what's needed for that, then you will help them until they have what they need," Charlie said calmly.

"That's a big ask," Heathcliff commented. "Anything else?"

"You'll help us learn what you already know about magic and not expect us to share what we know," Beth added. "We can work out a schedule to do this, since we can't just move in or come over every weekend, for example. Though, it may take less time than we expect, depending on how much of what we already know overlaps with what you know about magic."

"We could probably work that out anyway, even without you resorting to these tactics," Heathcliff replied.

"Maybe, but if you really didn't have anything to do with what, as you said, 'Shirley chose to do,' then given what your people did to Petals' forest, then that says to me about how little control you really have with your people," Beth replied. "Which means that we would need to rethink our alliance with you and your organization. After all, we certainly don't need a chance for another wild card from your people to 'do something on their own' while we're in another world searching for the world with that griffin canyon on it."

Heathcliff nodded. "Yes, I see. I can certainly see that concern of yours," Heathcliff nodded, and Charlie got the sense that he was actually more tense than he had been when they first started talking. She felt a little confused about it in relation to 'why,' but decided that it was to their benefit in the end.

Charlie sighed. This was the other 'big' concession they wanted from Heathcliff and couldn't be sure if he'd have an excuse to try and side step it like he had most of their other demands. "Then there's how the world is becoming aware of gates. So, we want you to come forward with all the documents you have publicly. You can use whatever excuse you want, but put those documents out for the world to see," Charlie said.

"What would you gain from that?" Heathcliff asked suspiciously, which Charlie and Beth fully expected.

"Well, we'll be able to look at the documents ourselves then, once they're fully public, then it might help with dealing with the centaurs that live on the other side of the gate in front of the state capitol," Charlie replied. "In addition to that, once the government can communicate with the centaurs, then we might be able to start interacting with them. We have no idea what they know, especially about magic, gates, or even unicorn forests."

Heathcliff nodded. "How would you propose I do this?" he asked. "I mean, why would the public believe I just have this information?"

"Too simple," Beth replied. "You make it out that you had the documents, but never really believed they were factual. You thought that they were a kind of mythology and kept them for their collectible value, with how old they are."

Heathcliff nodded again. "Yes, I can see that. Though, what would I gain out of such an action?"

"You really need me to spell it out for you?" Beth asked, annoyance clearly in her voice.

"Humor me."

Beth sighed. "You could become someone in charge of how to handle these gates. You could be the closest thing to an expert on the matter that they would have. Who knows what else might happen as a result of it that goes in your favor," Beth replied, her voice thick with exasperation. "You could easily become the only person in this country that could decide how to handle any gates that get found." Beth paused, which made Charlie look at her. The expression she had told Charlie she just thought of something. "You know, you could easily get all the information of any gates that get found that way."

Heathcliff looked at Beth levelly. He didn't say anything for a minute, making Charlie wonder what was going on in his mind and wishing she could figure out what it was that kept her from being able to see his thoughts, especially since she remembered Carl was the same when she'd tried that one time before.

Finally Heathcliff sighed. "Alright, you have a good point there. The information I get from that could certainly be worth the loss of the anonymity I've enjoyed up to this point," Heathcliff said, and Charlie couldn't tell if he was talking to them at the moment or to himself. "Some of your other points I can't say I'll be able to agree to, like what I mentioned with Shirley, but I'll let you know when I come to a decision about it."

"Oh," Charlie said, just remembering one last thing. "The last item is that everything in our previous agreement that we hadn't said we wanted something different will remain the same."

"What does that mean to you?" Heathcliff asked, looking at Charlie with such intensity that Charlie would like nothing more than to hide behind Beth, but instead forced herself to remain where she was.

"It means that you will still help us with supplies for our own expedition and that we'll share information, such as maps, about other worlds we encounter. As well as whatever you said about being able to use magic wo we'd be able to return to our lives when we return, regardless of how long we're gone for," Charlie replied, struggling to have her voice louder than a whisper. "Plus, either you agree to what we have listed or we'll need to consider our agreement over."

"Are you sure you want to cross that line?" Heathcliff asked.

"If you don't want our cooperation, then we don't have to offer it," Charlie said, wondering herself where she was going with this. "However, the two points we would need your agreement on now would be about my dad's company and helping us learn about our magic. I'm sure you'll do what we suggested about the gates on your own, because you see the benefits to yourself already, so that's not a big issue for us. The other two are."

Heathcliff regarded Charlie and she tried to not show any of the discomfort she felt about his scrutiny. Then after a minute, he sighed. "Very well, I'll accept the terms you just laid out. Keep in mind that I'm doing this so we can still try to work together. Next time, if you can't provide proof of my involvement in whatever you may be accusing me of, I'll have to terminate our arrangements myself. I'm hoping we can put this unfortunate incident behind us."

Charlie wasn't sure how to respond, but nodded as a way of responding without saying anything.

"I'm glad we were able to make this a productive meeting," Beth said, her tone indicating to Charlie that she didn't think this was over.

"Let me know when you'd like to work on learning magic. That way I can assign tutors for each of you and your friends. Otherwise I can't guarantee I'll have anyone who can help you present," Heathcliff said as he stood up and started walking towards the door of his office.

"Thanks," Charlie finally was able to get out. "We'll let you know," she replied, as she stood up and started to head to leave.

"I think we should be able to get something in before too long," Beth said. "Maybe in a week or two." Beth began following Charlie as she left the office first.