Pixie's Honor by: Elsbeth Matthew learns even the littlest of fairies value honor above all

Chapter 8

While holding Matt’s hand, Poppy could tell, that her old body had very little time left. And for reasons unknown, her healing magic couldn’t touch him. The Fae magic just seemed to fade away. Upon entering the room, she had a difficult choice; to heal her old body or not, now that choice had been firmly taken away from her. Perhaps it was for the best.

When Elaine passed away, there had been little left to live for. Through their entire marriage, her joy was his, and when she died Matt had nothing. Going through the motions most of last year, even the move to Skogshaven; seemed nothing more than Matt moving one step closer towards his own welcomed oblivion.

Strange that the deep sadness didn’t follow her into the Fae, instead it brought a new understanding. Even the whole change of gender thing, which seemed rather odd, had become comfortable. Being in Matt’s body, Poppy knew that such a transformation would have been unwelcome. As a Pixie, it just seemed so normal. Of course having people around her like Laurel, Syringa, Morgan, Xera, supporting her, loving her, made it much easier.

Poppy loved Elaine and would until the ends of days but she would have wanted Matt to move on, to grab this new life with both hands and live it to the fullest. Poppy decided that would be a monument to their love.

Still lost in her old memories, the young Pixie jumped when warm comforting arms surrounded her. Slowly opening her eyes, Poppy found the Keeper holding her close.

“Xera.” She said softly, leaning back into the embrace. Poppy now felt safe, protected and over all loved.

“You didn’t think we would allow you to be alone for long at a time like this?” Poppy looked around, dozens of her sisters now sat around the room, all of them with eyes full of concern. Except for Xera, Pixies had no real concept for growing old and dying but every one of them could feel her pain.

Rubbing the tears away, Poppy smiled giving her friends a small girly wave. “Thanks.”

“Xera said we had to give you a moment alone.” Laurel said in a huff, landing on Poppy’s shoulder to give her friend a fierce hug.

“So this is Matt.” Syringa stood on her other shoulder, looking down. Turning her head, she glanced at Poppy then back again. “Strange even for the Fae.”

Before Poppy could say anything, someone knocked on the door before slowly opening it. “Doctor Sully, Oh excuse me; I didn’t realize someone else had come into the room.”

Poppy turned around to find Doctor Abasi entering, along with another doctor she had not met before.

“You must be Doctor Dumas.” Poppy stood up, stepping forward to shake his hand.

Even with the rumors of a young Doctor with green hair in town, Alexander Dumas hadn’t expected her to be such a beautiful woman. Standing there with his mouth wide open, the doctor flushed with embarrassment, realizing he had been staring the whole time. “Sorry…err, hello. Please call me Alex.”

“Hello Alex, my name is Xera.” The Keeper said with an amused tone noticing the doctor’s reaction to her as well.

Poppy tried to keep herself from giggling. Although most Pixies looked like young teenage girls, Xera now dressed in black slacks and a white silk blouse, gave the appearance of a successful and very attractive adult woman.

“Are you two related….”

“Yes.”

“I see.” Doctor Dumas, although enamored with both women, wanted to make sure that he understood exactly what was going on. Originally, his patient information and police reports noted no family, only a friend who worked in the hospital.

The doctor felt that he would be doing a disservice to the man in the bed, if he simply took these two women at face value. It should have been easy enough to check, all of it seemed rather odd. Also other than some rumors, was the young woman in front of him really even a Doctor? She didn’t even look like she was old enough to have attended medical school.

“I’m sorry, I know you spoke with Doctor St. Hill, but how are both of you related to my patient.” Alex looking down while flipping through the chart, then frowned. “I don’t see any information here. Poppy, you are aware that we really cannot allow you to have access…”

“Alex, I don’t believe that will be an issue, will it?” Xera smiled warmly. “Please be sure to note in your records, that we have been verified as relatives and have permission to make all decisions for the mortal lying in the bed behind us.”

The two doctors stared dumbly at the Keeper for a moment, and then simply nodded. Suddenly, as if nothing had been said, Doctor Dumas gave a warm smile motioning everyone out of the room. “Please follow me; we can go over the results of some of the more recent tests.”

Leading the group down the hall, the two doctors brought Poppy and Xera into a small conference room. Inside they found another doctor, an older but still very handsome African American man who greeted both Pixies with a nervous smile.

“Hello, I’m Doctor St. Hill.”

Poppy liked the sound of his island accent, reminding her of the time she spent on Martinique with Elaine. With introductions out of the way, the three hospital doctors began to go over in detail what exactly happened to Matt.

“Here are the most recent test results for your father.”

Poppy hesitated for a second, father? How in the world did that happen? Reaching for the chart, she began to page through the numerous documents. Noting a few things, Poppy turned to ask Doctor St. Hill about trauma procedures in the hospital. Soon it developed into a very technical conversation, as Poppy went through all of the test results.

Alexander Dumas, stunned at the young woman’s knowledge, looked over her appreciably once more. “From what I hear, you went to John Hopkins.”

Lost in thought, Poppy nodded absently as she continued to study the documents in front of her. She might have done a few things differently, but she found no fault with the doctors. Her healing senses told her the truth, and the doctors in the room verified it. Matt’s prognosis was not good.

While Doctor Sully spoke, Alex quickly took notes, amazed at her knowledge. “It’s a shame that you couldn’t come and work for us, Poppy. We sure could use another trauma specialist.”

Xera smiled. “Unfortunately that won’t be possible; she has quite a number of other obligations.”

“True.” Poppy nodded, as Matt, she had planned on spending the rest of her career working at the hospital. Now, although tempting, the green haired Pixie found herself instead enjoying the time spent with her ‘sisters’ and travelling with Princess Morgan, who she now considered a close friend.

“As it seems you’re already offering aid to those in town, which we all appreciate, perhaps as a consultant?” Doctor St. Hill asked hopefully.

Poppy gave a half sad smile, closing the folder that contained all of Matt’s records. “Perhaps we can speak of this later.”

Doctor St. Hill agreed, still a little confused, even after speaking with Princess Morgan at one of the Were Council meetings. Could the man lying in the hospital bed in the other room actually be the young
woman who sat in front of him? Didn’t matter, she was correct. Until the fate of Doctor Matt Dobson had been determined, he wouldn’t press the issue.

Poppy tried to sit as still as a hamadryad proceeded to braid her hair. After turning into a Pixie, one wouldn’t have expected meeting a dryad to be too surprising.

“So you like mushrooms, right?” Sapphira leaned over.

“On what?”

“Pizza of course.” The hamadryad rolled her eyes, then went back to braid Poppy’s hair.

“Oh sure mushrooms are good, perhaps some olives, some nice Italian sausage and extra cheese of course.”

“Olives are fine but obviously they don’t belong on a pizza.”

Poppy laughed. “I guess so; does this mean we are having pizza for lunch?”

“Mushroom with double cheese, if they know what’s good for them.” The four hundred year old hamadryad giggled. “Now stand up and turn around.”

Sapphira frowned. “Are you going to be wearing that?”

Poppy looked down. She wore a pair of hip hugging jeans and a black lace blouse that matched well with her hair. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Your meeting a Queen, something a little dressier would be appropriate.”

Poppy frowned; she had never been introduced to a mortal Queen before much less a Fae Warrior Queen. “What do you suggest?”

Moments later, Princess Morgan, Lord Alexander Hastings, and an Aos Sidhe she met the other day, called Caitrin, walked across the commons bearing a handful of pizza boxes.

“Sorry we’re late.” Morgan looked over at her friend then smiled. “You look nice.”

“What’s up with the outfit Poppy?” Standing there in faded jeans, a WWII bomber jacket and a Boston University sweatshirt, the Aos Sidhe lord set down the pizzas without ceremony. Noticing that Morgan’s friend did look nice; he opened the first pizza box and started chewing on a slice.

“Be quiet you, she just wants to make a good impression.” Sapphire took Poppy over to the side. “Ignore him.”

Although the green haired Pixie had a sneaking suspicion the hamadryad was having a little too much fun, Poppy liked the look of the black kirtle with the white chemise. Not something to be worn outside of a Renaissance festival, the outfit seemed appropriate when meeting a Fae Queen. “The front, though, is a little tight; maybe I’ll let it out some.”

“No don’t do that, it looks good.” Sapphira smiled. ‘It enhances your assets as it were.”

“Great, just what I want to do. Flaunt my assets in front of a Queen.” Poppy said sarcastically.

“You look lovely, Poppy.” Morgan giggled. Moments later all three turned around as a fifth person arrived from the Fae Woods in front of the Skogshaven Library.

“Mom!” Morgan yelled excitedly, as she ran across the commons to embrace the tall woman.

Poppy sat uncomfortably while nibbling on a piece of pizza, not really tasting it. Meeting Morgan’s mother had been a little nerve wracking to begin with. Now, to suddenly have these unexpected feelings for this beautiful woman, she seemed to have trouble dealing with.

Ignoring the fact that Queen Mab happened to be a Queen and her friend’s mom, the Pixie healer couldn't quite grasp, intellectually at least, the idea of having romantic feelings for another woman. Poppy was a girl right, wasn't she supposed to like men? Then again, Matt most definitely wasn't attracted to guys. But she wasn't Matt anymore, and Lord Alexander did look rather scrumptious. Wait, she didn't really think that, the green haired Pixie closed her eyes in confusion.

Matt had been open minded for the most part, usually never giving it much thought. What people did behind closed doors was none of his business. She also knew that quite a number of Pixies were sexually intimate with one another, especially after couple of sips of Moon Mead. It’s just that she didn’t think it would ever happen to her. The green haired Pixie had actually tried not to think about sex in her new body, putting it out of her mind. That was until she met Mab.

Was Poppy concerned her wife wouldn't approve, that couldn't be the issue. Elaine wouldn't want her to remain celibate. As a Fae, Poppy didn’t have any issues with being attracted to either gender. Fae as she understood were notoriously bi-sexual. Perhaps it wasn't even the girl with a girl thing. Maybe it was just the last bit of Matt inside her trying to hold onto the past.

What was even stranger, anytime she looked up, Poppy found Mab smiling at her. Most likely the hamadryad had set her up, now feeling quite over dressed as Morgan’s mother walked out of the forest looking more like a college student from Berkeley than a Fairy Queen but the Sapphira didn't intend for this to happen. Did she?

“Poppy, are you alright?” Morgan asked before taking another slice of pizza.

Startled, the green haired Pixie nodded. “Sorry, just lost in thought.”

Queen Mab smiled as their two eyes met, and then as if forcing herself she turned towards Caitrin. “So as I was saying, you won’t have to worry about the compulsion anymore. That particular enchantment was not difficult to remove.”

“I hear a but.” Morgan said.

The Warrior Queen nodded, before passing an ancient looking blade to the tall blonde haired Aos Sidhe. From what Poppy gathered, she had been sealed away in the blade for a number of centuries and had just been recovered over the summer.

“Unfortunately, the spells that bind you to the Athame, I dislike what might happen to you if I remove them. Vile magic, your spirit is so entwined with the blade, child, that I’m afraid if we break the enchantment, it will be fatal to you.”

Caitrin, who had remained standing behind Morgan, curtsied. “Your Majesty, you have done more than I have ever hoped.” Turning to Princess Morgan she smiled. “Your Highness, will you please continue to keep the blade in your possession.”

“Of course, Caitrin.” Morgan took the blade sadly. “Mom, there must be more we can do.”

The Queen of the Fae sighed. “I will think on it but at least for now, she won’t be a slave to whoever holds the blade.”

Morgan nodded sliding the Athame into her boot. “You of course may do as you wish, Caitrin.”

“Then I wish to remain in your service.” The Aos Sidhe said.

“Wait…what…but you’re free. You can go anyplace you like. Why remain here?”

“Yes that may be true Your Highness; however I am only free because of you. As you know, we Aos Sidhe always pay our debts.”

Going down into a deep curtsey, her head almost touching the ground the Aos Sidhe said. "I Caitrin, promise by Ash, Oak and Hawthorne that I will in the future be ever faithful to your Highness, never cause you harm and will observe my homage to you completely, protecting your person with my own body if needed against all persons without deceit."

Morgan looked at her mom for a moment, who only nodded. Rising from the ground, she said. “And I Morgan, Daughter of Mab, Princess of the Summer Court willingly accept your homage by Ash, Oak and Hawthorne into my Troupe. I will from this day forward until the ending of the world, or until you wish to be released from such vows, honor your loyalty, and your service.”

Lord Alexander clapped his hands. “Welcome to our little but ever expanding Troupe, Caitrin.”

“Thank you my lord.” She said happily as both Poppy and Samphire gave her a hug.

“Well, I’m happy that’s taken care of for now.” Queen Mab said, and then smiled sadly. “However my beloved daughter, I have to go.”

“Really, I thought you might be able to stay for a little while longer.” Morgan pouted a little before reaching over to hug her mom. The two of them held one another for a moment.

“Perhaps when school is out, you and I will go on a real vacation.” The Warrior Queen brushed the hair from Morgan’s face.

Poppy smiled at that. She knew that Morgan really wanted to spend time with her mother to get to know her better.

“Poppy, come speak with me for a moment.” Leaning over the Queen of the Fae kissed her daughter’s forehead. “I will talk to you tonight.”

“OK.” Morgan sniffled.

Surprisingly, Mab took Poppy by the hand and led her off towards the woods.

“I wonder what that’s all about.” Morgan frowned then turned to Samphire.

“Don’t look at me; I only suggested the outfit.”

Caitlin took one look at the hamadryad then the two Fae broke out in giggles. Alex opened his mouth to say something but instead grinned.

Poppy returned a few minutes later as Queen Mab disappeared into the forest.

“So Poppy, what did my mother want?” Morgan asked.

The green haired Pixie, look a little dazed. “She asked me on a date.”

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading!

-Elsbeth