My Healer

"I don't think that's better," Keelan muttered.

"Shut up, Keelan." Aiden growled.

Meryn whacked him again. "Be nice to Keelan."

Rheia turned to Penny. "I'll let you keep half those snacks. You don't need that much sugar anyway." Rheia sipped her coffee. "So besides poker, what else did you do yesterday?"

"Wait, she plays poker? Did you teach her?" Colton asked, her his eyes sparkling.

"Nope, that's all Radek's doing. The guys used to babysit on nights I had to work the graveyard shift. They taught her how to play; evidently she has a knack for it. Marco plans to take her to Vegas on her twenty-first birthday."

Gavriel, Aiden, Keelan and Darian stared at Penny.

Gavriel shook his head. "She's the perfect little card shark."

Penny grinned and pointed to Aiden. Rheia looked up. "You did something with Aiden yesterday?"

Aiden frowned for a second then brightened. "I introduced her to my fish, his name is Jaws."

"What is he, a piranha?"

Meryn snorted. "No, he's a clownfish like on Finding Nemo."

"Did you know that clownfish are hermaphrodites? That movie, if based on science, would be about Nemo's father changing sexes to female, since the dominant female, Nemo's mother, was killed. He then, in turn, would try to reproduce with the only other male, which would have been Nemo," Rheia explained munching away on her cinnamon roll. When she noticed how quiet it had gotten she looked up; everyone was staring at her. "What? That's science."

Aiden looked horrified and actually had a fine sheen to his eyes. He stood and started to walk out of the room."

"Aiden, where are you going?" Meryn called after him.

He turned and held up a cell phone. "I'm ordering Jaws a girlfriend," he said, then walked away.

Ryuu clucked his tongue. "His day is not starting off well."

Beside her Colton began to choke. He quickly swallowed the cinnamon roll he'd been chewing and laughter burst from him like water from a dam.

"Oh Gods!" he wheezed.

Across the table, Meryn was giggling. "He loves that little fish," she cackled.

"Poor Aiden," Beth murmured, but Rheia could see the light of laughter in her eyes as well.

"I wonder if I should apologize," Rheia mused.

Gavriel shook his head. "He'll be fine. I think, maybe, Jaws was due a girlfriend anyway."

Colton collapsed against the back of his chair looking exhausted. "Okay, I'm done for the day. It won't get any better than this."

"Guess I'm not coming home for lunch then," Rheia teased.

Colton turned to look at her so quickly his neck popped. "What time?"

"I have a couple of physicals to do today and probably some more work on the slides, but I should be able to get back here by noon again."

Colton turned to Meryn and Beth giving them puppy dog eyes.

"Of course we'll watch Penny." Beth said smiling.

"You better hope Aiden lets us have lunch today, you know how he gets when he's in a bad mood," Darian reminded him.

Colton winced. "I'll talk him around; the men need lunch after all."

Rheia was about to respond when Aiden walked back in a serious look on his face.

Gavriel sat up straight in his chair. "What? What is it?"

"Rheia, I just got off the phone with my father. The Carmichaels, Penny's grandparents, they're petitioning the council for custody," he said gently.

"What!" Rheia stood knocking over her chair. She scooped her daughter up, who immediately wrapped her arms and legs around her in a death grip. "No! She's mine! I'm not giving her up!" Colton was at her side before she could blink. He pulled them close, giving her something solid to lean against. Penny stretched out a small hand and gripped his shirt tightly.

When Rheia turned to Colton, she was shocked at the simmering rage she saw in his eyes.

Colton turned to his childhood friend. "They can't break up my family," he growled.

Aiden held up his hands. "Colt, you know Father is doing everything he can to keep her here with us. But he said it will be difficult since neither you, nor Rheia have a blood tie to Penny, and they do," Aiden explained.

Rheia felt her world spinning out of control. When she felt hot tears on her neck, she knew she had to pull her shit together. Penny would always come before her own pain. She ran a hand over the girl's hair. "Shh, Pumpkin Dumpling, everything will be just fine. I'm sure when they see what a wonderful family me, you and Colton are, they will reconsider. I think that they are so happy to have a granddaughter, they want you all to themselves. They must care about you a lot," she said soothingly.

Penny pulled her head away from her shoulder and looked at her. Rheia could see the fear in her eyes. Colton rubbed Penny's back. "You're needed here, baby girl, someone needs to teach me how to play poker." Penny smiled at him sadly and nodded.

Rheia set her down. "Tell you what; we're not going to worry about this. We won't let this destroy all the fun we're going to have today, right Penny?" she said in an upbeat manner.  Until a decision was made, Rheia knew the best thing for Penny was to keep things as normal as possible, which meant she had to return to work at the clinic, despite not wanting to let her daughter out of her sight.

Colton knelt down in front of Penny. "I'm going to be hanging out with your mom today, but when we get home, we'll do something together," he promised.