When she came to she recognized the soft interior of the car under her, someone had obviously carried her all the way there when she’d fainted. She was more than a little embarrassed, though she wasn’t really sure why, any sane person would have been overwhelmed with the whole situation. Perhaps it was just that she had fainted that she found so embarrassing, she thought people only did that in fiction and the fact that she’d done it, in reality, was the part that embarrassed her. There was a warm smell about her, which she discovered to be a blanket that must have belonged to Dalex. There was no telltale sign of the car moving, nor were there any signs of anybody being there with her so she took an extra minute to close her eyes to the light of the day and sink below the blanket again in the passenger seat.

“Who is supposed to be out here with Jack?” Dalex’s voice came from somewhere near the phone, he sounded like he was seconds from crawling through the phone and ripping someone’s head off and she felt she would share in that sentiment in his position. “I don’t care what protocol is, who the fuck was supposed to be out here with Jack?” There was a pause and she thought she could hear him kicking the tire of the SUV. “Benny? You’re telling me Benny fucking bailed out again?” Olive turned her head slightly and caught sight of Dalex as he leaned his ass against the hood, he looked like he was someone’s washing they left on the line until it rained. “Well, you fucking tell Benny that he has to get his ass out here, hungover or not. There was a forest giant and Jack nearly died, there would have been a breach and that is all on Bennithan’s head.” There was something that left Olive a little breathless when he ran his hand through his hair and the dark locks slicked back with rain, he looked ferocious in a way she found oddly attractive. Perhaps it was the way he was reaming someone out on behalf of the teenager.

“And you tell Bennithan that I will be coming back later tonight and he will have to answer to me.” He was obviously trying to calm himself down, measuring his breathing. “If you’re going to act like that then the kid no longer works for you.” She was surprised by how forward he was with the person on the other side of the phone, at first she had thought maybe it was a simple dispatcher but she was starting to think it was some sort of supervisor. “Al. No Al. You listen to me, Benny will be out here, and I will be having a word with him. Al, you know you can’t afford to lose me. Exactly. Now get his ass out here or else no one will be guarding position 8. No, he is near death, he will not be staying here. He needs a hot meal and some rest, if he’s coming back it won't be for a few weeks and I am taking off till then. Yes Al, No Al.” She had to wonder a little if Dalex had some sort of relationship with the man on the other line with the way the man in front of her was speaking. “Thank you, Al, you need a vacation after this too. Alright, We’ll talk later. Alright. Bye.”

Dalex looked like he was going to throw the phone when he finally hung up and Olive took that as her cue to finally slip out of the car, carefully hopping to the ground below. “Everything okay?” While she had been out it had gotten chilly, or maybe it had always been chilly, but the warmth that had lived under her skin seemed to be drained now and she huddled a little against the vehicle against the breeze.

The man carefully removed his own coat to wrap it around her shoulders, pulling her in to rub her arms through the coat. “Yeah, just the bureaucracy of it all, I’m surprised I haven’t quit at this point honestly.” He said with a little sigh, searching her face for a long moment. “And how are you feeling, you took a nasty spill back there.”

For a moment she thought maybe she’d hit her head and imagined it all, but the unnatural warmth coming off his hands only reinforced his use of magic. “I barely remember what happened… It was all so much and Jack was in danger, oh god is he okay?”

“Thanks to you he is going to be just fine, but I think I’m going to be in trouble with Mor.” He said with a small awkward laugh. “She told me that if I outed our world to you I was dead meat, so you might have to take my kid.” It was a joke, and he laughed, but she couldn’t help but wonder who exactly her friend was and why she was keeping such a secret from her.

Olive took a deep breath, trying to clear her swimming thoughts, righting them before she spoke. “Your daughter, right, who is a dragon… and you are?”

Dalex gave her such a gentle and sympathetic smile that it really helped ground her. “I’m a Magi, a magic-user, a witch in your world, or a warlock, whatever you want to call me, but we go by Magi. There’s a whole council and all that, it's even more bureaucracy than my job.” It was obviously meant to be a joke and this time she laughed a little with him.

“And Mor? Why wouldn’t she want me to know?” She had so many questions, she actively had to fight herself to keep from letting them all spill out at once.

He took a deep breath and shook his head slowly, looking lost for words as he gave up on trying to rub her arms and just let her lean against his chest. “I honestly have no idea, I wish I did, but you would have to talk to her about that. I’m not exactly kept in the loop, she works in the personal protection side of the organization I work for. They’re for important people, high profile, monarchs and that… I have no idea why she would be watching out for you.” Dalex truly wore his heart on his sleeve, it was obvious in his face that he wished he could give her all the answers she wanted.

“Jack can’t go back to working this job… if I hadn’t been able to…. If I couldn’t…” His arms tightened around her, a soft comfort that she was surprised to find herself indulging in. She turned towards him and pressed her face into his chest, she could unpack all these feelings later, for now, she just needed the feeling of safety she got from his arms. “Please help me convince him, he has every right to a childhood.”

Dalex nodded a little, resting his chin on top of her head, letting her take whatever comfort she could glean from his embrace. “Okay.”

She pulled away in surprise to examine his face, searching it for some sort of catch. “Really?”

“Yes.” He conceded, looking down to her with a gentle seriousness and he found himself opening up to her in a way he hadn’t expected to with anyone after Mar. “I started this job because I needed something more stable than… well, my life has not always been glamorous, when I found Fi she was an egg in a forest on a spiritual pilgrimage that Magi in older families still take. I chose to leave my family to raise her, which was not easy, I’d always been rich and I didn’t know the first thing about working, so I did the only thing I did know how to do; only I charged for it. It wasn’t the safest and I have a lot of trauma from that time, I followed this career path because it felt like a more stable choice… I don’t want to see Jack end up with the same traumas… I guess I had just become numb to the dangers of this job. For kids like him and like I was, this seems like such a good life, I never really questioned it until you did.” He found himself laughing a little, shaking his head, he expected her to pull away from him at this revelation, but she wasn’t. “I guess I just needed an outside perspective.”

“I have never struggled quite like that, I’ve always had my family and they supported me when I needed it, but I’ve made mistakes too. I don’t work with Mor anymore because I lost my job, I got attached to this girl, Georgie, who meant the world to me and I just wanted to give her a better life. Maybe that’s why I latched onto Jack so hard, maybe I shouldn’t have meddled, but I’m glad I did. I just miss Georgie, I wish I knew she was okay… I don’t want Jack to be as lost as she was” It was hard to open up about it, she’d felt so ashamed for so long about her own stupidity and how it had cost her her job, but Dalex had opened up to her, it was only fair to return that gift.

He nodded through her whole story, taking it in, in a way no one else had in a long time. “If you ever wanted to find her again, just not know, I’d help.” He was not the first one to offer her such help, but he was the first one she believed actually meant it.

“Thank you… I don’t know that she will want to talk to me, but I would like to know she’s okay, you know?” It felt stupid to say, she knew that Georgie was grown up now, and hopefully moved on with her life, but she desperately wished for that closure.

He smiled a little again, and he was an open book to her, one that she felt like she’d read so many times she could trace the words in her sleep. “Speaking of teenagers you need to talk to, why don’t we go round up the kids and head back to the city?” Somehow, Dalex was really good at making her feel a little saner even when she was pretty sure she was being wildly crazy.