After lunch, Rob came back to Dan's cubicle. This time, Dan wasn't a blubbering mess.

  “Hey, you alright this time?” He asked as he took the extra seat. Dan was just putting his peanut butter up and turned to face him.

  “I am more than all right, man. I might be able to see my family. Or some of them.”

  Rob smiled and clapped his hands together.

  “Well that IS great! Got a question for you though.”

  Dan arched an eyebrow. “Nothing bad, I hope?”

  “Nope. I want to get Mitzi writing more for us. Paid this time. If she’s interested.”

  “Paid? How’s that going to work?” Dan asked. The rules for mobs were strict and highly unfair, which he knew from first-hand experience.

  Rob raised a hand to forestall any further questions.

  “I’ll worry about that. You just worry about seeing if she’s interested.”

  Dan gave him a thumbs up.

  “Sure. Shouldn’t be too hard. When she’s not reading lately, she’s on my laptop writing. Shit. I should get her a laptop.”

  Dan wasn't used to this much good news at once. First, Howie, then Mitzi getting a writing gig. After months of disasters, having two good things in one day felt like he was tempting fate. Then his phone buzzed. An email. He stared at the sender.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Rob leaned over to try and see the screen. Dan looked at him.

  “Rob, I’m glad you’re here. This is an email from the bank. One way or the other I may need you to call me an ambulance because it HAS to be about my loan.”

  Rob was suddenly on the edge of his seat. “I swear to God, if you don’t read it while I’m in here I’m going to hook Bandy up with one of the guys in Sports.”

  Dan looked up.

  “You wouldn’t.”

  Rob was suddenly texting.

  “That's true. Not before I get your “Saturday Night Thing” here to witness.”

  “You, uh, you don’t have to do that. This could be embarrassing.”

  Rob finished his text and looked back up at Dan.

  “If it’s good news, we’re all going to want to share it. If it’s bad news, we want to share it.”

  Dan nodded. Rob was right. Before he could agree verbally, Shelly was suddenly there. She never ran and she always seemed to get where she was going before anyone else.

  “God, I’m glad you didn’t try to get me into a relationship.” He told her. “You remind me of Pepe Le’Pew.”

  “Because I’m persistent and swift?” She asked, fully aware he was setting her up.

  “No, because you’re like a French sexual predator. Ah. Here’s Hank and Danielle.” He said with a smile, and Shelly chuckled.

  “Danathan.” Henry said with a nod. Dan had finally convinced the man that he hadn’t been joking about his name and the man took every opportunity to use it now in private.

  Danielle was hopping on her toes.

  “The tarot said to expect something great for someone!” She said.

  “That's vague.” Shelly asked.

  “The cards are incredibly mysterious.”

  “Incredibly vague.” Shelly mumbled. “Anyway. Dan, what’s this email Rob is going crazy over?”

  Dan swallowed. “We’re about to find out if I can buy a house.”

  Henry looked at him curiously.

  “Didn't you do that backwards?”

  “Well, I wanted to make sure I could get approved before my hopes were up.”

  He looked at his phone and tapped the notification.

  He looked up at them. They all looked so excited. Particularly Danielle and Rob.

  “Well, there’s always other banks.” He said, setting his phone down.

  Rob reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “You gonna be ok?” He asked.

  Dan nodded. “I will be. I mean, I did get my brother back, so Danielle was right on the good news front.”

  Dan found he had to explain the situation with Howie to them, which he was glad to. It cheered them all up immensely after the loan. As everyone left, Shelly lingered. She seemed to always wait until everyone else was gone when she was going to be open with him. She took the seat vacated by Rob.

  “Do you need help?” She asked seriously.

  “What, with the house?” He was shocked. She couldn’t be offering him money.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “You know my family is old money here. If you need it, I can buy a house for you. We can consider the rent to be you paying me back.”

  Dan just stared at her.

  “You’d do that? For me?” He said very quietly.

  She reached out and put a hand on his knee.

  “You mean the world to me, Dan. Me and Rob. I know I don’t show it in ways most people do, but I mean it. I love you. In as much as I can love someone.”

  Dan sniffed. “I... I love you too, Shelly.”

  “You deserve better, Dan. The things that have happened to you aren’t fair.”

  He wiped his eyes.

  “I appreciate you saying so. I can’t accept a house from you though, Shelly, no matter how much I appreciate the offer.”

  She looked at him sadly.

  “Not yet, anyway.” He amended. “I need to do this myself. Or TRY to do this myself. If it doesn’t work, well, we can talk about it.”

  “Ok.” She said, and squeezed his knee tightly, a small smile on her face. As she stood, her normal put-upon expression returned. The regular Shelly looked down at him.

  “One word of this to Danielle and I let your goblin nail your ears to something. I’ll hold your head in place while she does it.”

  Dan laughed. “Is that how they pierced your ears at Clare’s?”

  She laughed before leaving, and Dan just sat there. She’d offered to buy him a damned house.

  He focused on the bond and felt Mitzi’s curiosity. He had so much to catch her up on that night.

  Dan had discovered several things over the month he’d been at Goblin House. The first being that privacy was at a premium. There were several missed showers, a couple of missed meals, and definitely very little alone time with Mitzi without going to the car. He loved the tribe, but Mitzi had a point. They needed "us" time.

  The second, was that all the goblins wanted a chance to try painting. He’d very patiently allowed all of them a chance at the easel and found that Daga, Bandy, Lexi, and Runt of all people showed the most aptitude. They’d all banged out some fun paintings that now adorned the walls of the house. Viv’s paintings he promised himself would come with him to where ever he ended up in the end.

  Lastly, he discovered that Viv wasn’t just disassembling every piece of electronics she found. She was putting them back together as well. Before Dan had a chance to buy a new blu-ray player, Viv had taken it apart while he was at work and managed to not only clean the smoke damage, but get it work again. The girl was a savant with electronics. Dan was going to have to help her with that because it was amazing. So that was why Dan ordered several STEM sets for kids, along with a special something, and had them delivered to the office. They’d arrived before he left that Friday and brought them back to Goblin House with him that night.

  He walked in, sat down on the couch setting the boxes next to him, and as always, Viv ran up to give him a hug.

  “Hey, June-Bug.” He said. He wasn’t sure why he’d started calling her that, but it was something that made her smile so he kept doing it.

  “Wuzzat?” She asked, looking at the boxes after she’d let go. Dan grinned. He hadn’t really been as generous as he’d wanted to be lately, and he wanted to make up for that.

  “These, Viv, are some projects I got for you. I know you like messing with electronics.”

  Her eyes, which were already large, got wider. Dan pulled out a pocket knife and started opening the delivery boxes and set each kit on the couch. There was a radio, a robot hand, two sets of walkie-talkies, and a mechanical robot claw machine.

  The last one he opened and held it in his hands. Viv turned from the small stack to look at the one he held.

  “You like my computer?” Dan asked, and Viv nodded.

  “So this is called a Raspberry Pi. It’s a computer. You build it yourself and we can hook it up to the TV. I’ve got a spare keyboard and mouse you can use with it.”

  Viv just stared at him, unblinking.

  “You ok?” he asked.

  For the first time in Dan's short time with the tribe, Viv’s eyes watered up and she sniffed. She closed her eyes and shook her head. He got the impression it was her trying to deny the tears. He just picked her up, sat her in his lap and held her.

  “It’s ok, Viv. You can cry if you want to. Sometimes we cry when it doesn’t seem like it makes sense.”

  She grabbed him in a death grip and cried. She probably couldn’t explain to him why she was crying, and he honestly didn’t think it mattered. Everyone said she hadn’t cried when she’d lost her broodmates. She hadn’t cried during the starvation times. She hadn’t cried when the house had been on fire. Something in this finally made her break down. Dan just held her and let her finally do so, stroking her hair and humming to her.

  Daga and Mat checked on her, and Dan quietly mouthed that she’d be ok. It was a while before she sputtered out. Dan rocked her quietly and when she spoke it felt like a knife in his chest.

  “Yer moving out, aren’t you?”

  He looked down at the top of her head.

  “Not yet, but eventually.” He wasn’t about to start lying to her.

  “I don’t want you to go.”

  Dan squeezed his eyes closed. Damn it. He’d been worried about when this was going to happen. He honestly didn’t want to leave her. The whole idea of adopting her from her family was weird to him, and the legalities of adopting a goblin? He had no idea. But it was Viv. He wanted to take care of her.

  “Whatever happens, Viv, I promise I won’t be gone for good. I’ll see you a lot. But we can worry about that when it happens.”

  She didn’t seem inclined to move, and Dan wasn’t inclined to move her.

  “Love you, Dan.”

  “I love you too, Viv.”

  He just held her for a long time and let himself cry this time. He was going to have to take her with him. That was just a given now. If Runt and Geraldine would allow it, that is.

  The rest of the night was spent finding a good place for her to work on her new projects while Dan worked on a racy commission for a new client. The guy had this weird alien abduction fetish and Dan had to make sure Viv was completely distracted. He started her on the walkie-talkies since there were four of them. After they were assembled, the kids ran around the neighborhood talking to each other and pretending to be on a secret mission. Dan put Viv in charge of them and got down to work.

  At bedtime, Viv wouldn’t go to her bed. She insisted on staying with Dan. He wasn’t really surprised. She'd been sneaking to the couch most nights and sleeping with him and Mitzi anyway. Daga tried to coax her, but Dan just turned the couch down, dimmed the lights, and put her to bed there.

  “You’re sure you’re ok with that?” Daga asked.

  “Yeah. She’d just get up in the night and come in here anyway.” He told Daga with a smile. She put her hands on her hips and gave Dan an appraising look.

  “Gonna take her when you move out?”

  Dan just stared at her.

  “First off, does everyone know?! Second, how is everyone in the house just ok with that?”

  Daga took Dan by the wrist and sat him at the dining room table. She sat across from him and clasped her hands together. It had the look of a job performance appraisal of all things.

  “Dan,” Daga said, continuing the managerial mood, “I know Mitzi has probably already explained that broods raise kids as a group. Well, broodlings have their favorites, and caretakers have their favorites. There’s nothing in our ways that says you can’t take responsibility for her.”

  Dan blinked at that.

  “Now, if a human just came in here and tried to take Viv, we’d fight him. We’d argue. We might have to find somewhere convenient to hide the body.”

  Dan opened his mouth to remind Daga that he was human, but she held up a hand.

  “You aren’t human to us, Dan. You ARE the tribe. You’re not stealing her from us. She’s still with us.”

  Something in Dan’s understanding of the situation finally rotated and snapped into place.

  “I’d like her to come with me when I go then.” Dan said.

  “Good. She seems better when she’s with you. AND you’ll need someone to keep an eye on her when you’re at work.”

  Dan nodded.

  “It’s still really weird in human terms.”

  Daga pointed a finger at him and gave him a grin he could only describe as goblinish.

  “See, you have got to stop thinking in those. They don't suit you.”

  Dan smiled. “That’s fair.”

  Daga hopped up, patted his shoulder, and went to check on the other broodlings. There was a hell of a lot of noise in the other room. Dan spent the time before Mitzi got home watching over Viv.