Fiona watched in wordless awe as the rain and the storm clouds vanished into nothingness while the destroyed cars flew back into their places, returned into their original state, and the supermarket customers, whom she had seen running around and screaming in fear swarmed the glass sliding doors again, unfased and unafraid, as if nothing had passed. It seemed to her that a part of a movie she had been watching had been erased and rewound, rather than a part of the people lives, her life... 

The two of them walked back toward her flat the moment Peregrine was satisfied with his magical intervention, up the high road, fast, his arm still wrapped around her waist from behind as if he was afraid that she would faint the instant she properly realised what had happened. 

They didn't talk; the sound of their feet landing upon the cobblestones joined the rhythm of their hearts, their racing thoughts, they did not see nor hear anything else but each other. What had just happened united them somehow, set them apart from the rest of the world that knew nothing of Highlanders, dragon fights, and the fragility of life. Fiona wrapped her arm around Peregrine's waist too when she realised that it could have been him who had turned into dust, that she could have been walking home alone now... and she hadn't even gotten to know him well enough yet. 

Peregrine decided to wait for the questions she was bound to start asking when she was ready. He wouldn't tell her anything regarding this side of him-- the dark side that was an inseparable part of his existence even though he hadn't chosen it, and would happily trade having to kill others of his own kind to survive for anything else-- until then. The only important thing right now was that she understood that they needed to leave without a delay; they were not safe here, none of them.

After this fight, she was marked as someone who sides with a Highlander. There was no way of telling who of the others witnessed the fight, who knew that Peregrine was in London but hadn't come forward to challenge him. The others would look for her to kill her now if he left her behind; his scent was all over her and her flat... They would find her son, an untrained cub, so easy to eliminate before he grew into a threat. There was no way he was going to leave either of them here now. He would fly her to her father on his back if he had to.

He let her unlock the entrance to the house when they reached it, ushered her inside, then paused in the road, inhaling the scents the wind carried towards him for threats. But there was nothing, not yet, only the hint of the ashes of the Highlander who had died today...

She was waiting for him under the stairs, hiding in the dark, ready to ask questions faster than he had expected. 

"You... just killed... a man," she accused, her voice faltering with doubts and questions as if she was trying to understand whether it had really happened.

"I did. He would have killed me, and then you, if I didn't," Peregrine said in a voice as free of emotions as he could muster. He needed her to make her own opinion on this alone, without his persuation. This was a part of him he did not like but could not change. He was a Highlander. As long as there were others like him, this wouldn't stop. Just like any of them, he could die in the next duel. Unless he killed another man.

"You are really a Highlander," she said as if she could hear his thoughts, as if it made sense to her. "You hunt each other down until only one remains," she muttered, making him incline his head in surprise. How did she know that? "How many me... dragons have you... killed?" she whispered, looking up at him, and he hated the gloomy distance between them.

He rushed towards her and enveloped her face in his hands. She stared into his eyes, waiting for him to reply, and he pushed her glasses higher up the bridge of her nose, feeling elated because she wasn't running away from him.

"He is the second Highlander I killed. The first was the one who killed my sister's father, and the third will be the man who killed my parents, unless any of the others will attack me. I don't care about the legends, I'm not hunting anyone down." He sighed, closing his eyes, pressing his forehead against hers, before he added in a half whisper. "I'm sorry, Bella. It's all my fault. I've been followed. And now I had to use my magic and more of them will find me, it's only a question of time. They'll find you and Freddie too. We must leave. We all must leave-- you, Freddie, your mother... You'll be safer in Silmarea at your father's court."

Fiona felt so shocked that she couldn't reply immediately. Her free will, her decisions had been stolen from her. She didn't have a choice but to oblige him now. But she couldn't blame Peregrine. At the bottom of things, it was her father who should be blamed for sending his people after her and thus destroying her normal life.

Nothing of what had happened was Peregrine's fault. She laced her arms around his neck, pulling him down, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek before she walked up the stairs in front of him, tugging him behind her by his hand, feeling happy, somewhere deep deep inside of her being, that she didn't have a choice and must follow him, and stay with him.

"And Gollum. He's coming wherever I go, I'm not leaving him behind. But first, I need to look at your wounds," she said after a while filled with silence, surprising him. That wasn't what he was expecting her to say.

He stared at the confusion of flame-red curls covering her head as he followed her up the dimly lit staircase, his fingers intertwined with hers feeling blissfully comfortable. She was in shock, he was sure; she wouldn't accept all that he had had just told her so easily if she wasn't. He had to make the best of her mood while it lasted, before the reality would dawn on her undiluted by the adrenalin still running through her veins. He would even sit patiently for her to check his injuries, if that was what she needed to grab at something that was normal for her in the otherwise nightmarish situation, although he had never allowed anyone to touch his wounds before. Peregrine only needed to send Gilderoy and Leodhais to guard Freddie's school immediately even though no Highlander could know about him this soon, and get Alexandra to check the train timetables and double check the bags she had packed, so they could all go to pick the boy up from school and leave for the station from there. 

Their appearing hand in hand in the doorway of the flat a few moments later caused an avalanche of questions from those left inside. 

"What happened?" Gilderoy asked even as the door closed behind the two, rushing towards them from the sofa where he had been busy repacking his bag.

"You make sure to finish with that bag and get Leodhais to do the same. I need you to stand guard in front of the boy's school. Carry your bags with you; you won't be coming back here," Peregrine instructed in lieu of an answer. 

Gilderoy nodded, then let his eyes drop to Fiona, hoping to get the answer from her.

"He just... killed a dragon. He's injured, I must clean and dress his wounds. And then," she added, looking up at Peregrine with a frown as if she still wasn't entirely convinced, "we will be leaving. Right after school."

You better make this adventure worth it, that's how Peregrine interpreted that look, and despite everything, he smiled even as an excited squeal reached them from the kitchen.

"I need you to check the train timetables, Alexandra. We need a train from Paddington to Liskeard this afternoon," Peregrine spoke in the direction from where the sound had come.

"Who... was he?" Leodhais asked as he exited the kitchen, his moss green stare lingering on Fiona and Peregrine's joined hands a moment too long, making her blush. But she wasn't going to drop the Highlander's hand. She had never cared about what other people thought about her actions; she wasn't going to start now.

Peregrine tightened his hold on her hand, as he replied, feeling elated that she didn't drop his hand following the elf's surprised look. 

"Lingwir the Blue," Peregrine muttered, and Fiona stepped closer to him when she perceived the grief in his voice. He was affected deeper by what had happened than she was.

"There aren't many of you left now..." Gilderoy muttered, his sadness filled eyes reflecting Peregrine's mood. "It's really a shame that you must hunt..."

"I can't change that," Peregrine replied. "Our children might have more luck if they can influence their father's minds once their existence is acknowledged..."

"You told her?" Leodhais and Gilderoy asked in unison, their eyes shifting between Peregrine and Fiona unbelievingly. Just like him, they apparently considered it a miracle that she was still standing there, her hand enveloped in his, after everything that she had seen and heard since the three of them entered her life less then forty eight hours ago. She was one of her kind...

"Told her what?" Alexandra demanded as she finally appeared in the door leading into the kitchen. 

"I'll tell you later, mum," Fiona said even as Peregrine looked at her, not sure whether she wanted him to tell her mother about Freddie. "Can you get me my first aid kit, please? The big one I keep under my bed? You, Leodhais, would you bring us a chair from the kitchen? And you, Gilderoy, would you pack some of Gollum's food for the journey?"

She didn't have to repeat anything. Everyone scattered to fulfil her instructions. For someone so small she had a great effect on people, everyone seemed to want to please her...

"Sit," she instructed Peregrine the moment Leodhais returned with a chair, scattering his thoughts. "And strip. Down to the waist." 

The dragon shifter's clothes were perfect again but she clearly remembered having seen a few slashes across his torso and arms, apart from the one on his cheek, which now looked like a several days old wound. His magic would probably heal him easily without her intervention, she mused as she looked closely at the closed wounds on his chest, arms and back, circling around him slowly as he sat, patient and statue still on the chair for her, his face towards the chair's high back so she could see better. He was doing this for her, she realised as she ran her examining fingers down his warm, olive skin crisscrossed by old, silvery, hair thin scars lightly, tracing the wide expanse of rock hard muscle with bated breath and racing heart, and she admired him even more because of it.

"We are good here," she said, clearing her voice, looking at her mother and Leodhais, only now remembering that they were still there. "Thank you," she added. She took the large first aid valise from the older woman, setting it on the sofa, opening it, hiding her blushing face inside it.

"Thank you," Peregrine repeated as the two didn't move, looking at them in his turn. "Alexandra, please make sure that you packed everything you consider necessary. And you, Leodhais, get Gilderoy, grab your bags, and go. We'll meet you by the school in an hour or so. It's just across the road from the park."

Leodhais nodded, his eyes intent on Fiona's fingers, now applying a liquid drenched piece of white material to Peregrine's already closed wounds with impossible gentleness. He exited the room, disappeared into the kitchen to look for Gilderoy while Alexandra headed in the opposite direction, into Fiona's bedroom. 

There wasn't much for Fiona to do to help Peregrine heal. She finished by cleaning the cut on his cheek, even as the other two men passed by and left the flat to wait for the rest of them by the school. 

"You have many scars," she muttered, referring to the multitude of faint silvery lines adorning his back as he stood up and pulled his clothes back on.

He nodded. "They are from my first fight. I wasn't as skilled as I'm now back then. Emrys, your father's wizard helped me... clean up after, and saved me from the police," he said. "That's why I'm here..." he added, inching closer to her where she stood by the sofa, the first aid kit in her hand. "I owed you father a favour, and he decided to call it now."

"So... I really have to come with you..." she said, tilting her face up as he towered above her, so close that she could feel his warmth enveloping her body, making her bite her lower lip while her eyes lingered on his full lips, even as she recalled that she still hadn't received the kiss... "Are you sure... that we can't just... stay here..." she muttered, leaning on her tiptoes as his head dipped towards her.

"Fiona Isabella Murphy!" her mother's voice reaching them from her bedroom made them spring from each other. She must have been eavesdropping, and she was apparently afraid that her daughter's stubbornness would make Peregrine change his mind. "He already told you that it's for the best, didn't he? Now come over here and finish packing your bag, will you?"

Sighing, Fiona closed her eyes, smiling to herself when Peregrine drew her in an embrace and bestowed a kiss on top of her head. He wasn't pushing her to follow her mother's order. He was trying to make her feel like she still had a choice to refuse his world, and she appreciated that. 

"I'm coming, mum," she said finally, stepping away from him, leaving him to pack his own bag.