Once Upon a Steamy Night

"What? Impossible!"

Claire nodded her head In agreement to Scot's outburst, hiding the small smile that formed on her lips. The Captain and his two minions were standing in her sitting room and there was no trace of ice on their skin. "Didn't you say they were frozen, kid?" Adam designed to point out.

"They were," Scot replied, his face mirroring the expression of someone sure of something and still confused.

"Just a moment, the town too," he said running out of her house.

"I believe you didn't call me to entertain me with these nonsense stories, Ms. Ryes!"

Claire's eyes widened as she stared at the Captain's grim face.

"You were about to..." she trailed off when she saw the look Adam gave her.

He doesn't remember why he's here, Claire, Adam's voice sounded in her mind.

"Yes?" He prompted.

"I wanted you and child protection services to meet my uncle, Adam. He's responsible for me now," Claire replied.

Captain Jones regarded Adam suspiciously and chuckled.

"You expect me to believe that Nora had a brother?"

"No, not my mom. This is my dad's younger brother," Claire stressed.

"I and Ethan go way back from college before he came to this town and he doesn't have any brother!" Captain Jones snapped.

Claire shot Adam a panicked look as the Captain and her minors glared at them suspiciously.

"Well? I need an explanation!" Captain Jones roared.

Adam took a step towards him and he took two steps back, gulping quietly.

"I am Ethan's younger brother, remember. The one that got away, I'm a musician and now I'm here to take custody of Claire till she becomes an adult and decide to move out." Claire felt goosebumps at his eerily calm voice and saw his eyes glow slightly as the Captain and his minions nodded in agreement.

What did he just do? She wondered.

"What is going on here?"

Everyone looked up to face Scot who still looked dumbstruck.

"Oh, hello Scot. Have you met Adam, Claire's uncle?" Jones asked, beaming at him.

Scot eyed him. "A while ago you said Ethan didn't have a brother just before Adam's eyes glowed and suddenly you agree." Everyone in the room chuckled.

"Silly boy. It's been a while, so I forgot about Adam. Besides, contacts don't glow," Jones said.

"My point exactly, Captain, and you told me that a police officer's memory had to be sharper than steel," Scot replied.

"Are you saying I'm not good at my job?" Jones asked his face tinted red as he glared at Scot.

"No, Captain..."

"Let's go talk, boy."

Claire waved Adam goodbye as Jones ushered him out followed by his minions. She heaved a sigh of relief when they left.

"Finally! I'm not going to any foster home."

"That's an impressive feat thanks to your lying tongue," Adam said dryly.

"Hey! You lied too."

"You roped me into it. I didn't have much of a choice," Adam shrugged.

"Well, since I was able to get myself an 'uncle' then I'll be able to find my parents' murderer and clear my name," Claire said smiling smugly.

"The bigger picture here is that you froze and unfroze an entire town!" Adam exclaimed.

"I didn't do that, Adam. It's probably you because I saw what you did to Jones and his minions," Claire said.

Adam shook his head. "That magic came from you deny it all you want, Claire. You're a faerie."

"Faerie?" Claire asked, chortling.

"What's funny?"

"Well because I know faeries are those tiny creatures with wings and you don't look like them," Claire replied.

"Those are fairies. We are descendants of Tuatha Dé Danann from the Celtic realm," Adam explained.

Claire yawned not bothering to hide the bored expression on her face.

"You sound like my history teacher, Mr. Davis."

The mention of her history class reminded her of the green-eyed boy who mysteriously appeared and disappeared. "Who did you see?"

"Privacy, Adam!" She snapped.

"Sorry, I won't intrude. You can tell me when you feel like it," he apologized.

Claire nodded but kept quiet. A lot of things were happening that she couldn't wrap her head around and it didn't help that deep down she had felt the burst of energy when she froze the town, zapped Adam, and unfroze them. But she was in denial because accepting that she has powers will make her question her identity and her late parents and she wasn't ready to face that yet not after all the major changes going on in her life right now.

"I'll give you time to adjust and accept things at your pace, Claire but we don't have much time," Adam said softly.

Claire nodded sadly. "Same here, Adam. I'll be thrown into prison by December."

"Not if we can find the killer first," Adam said.

"Why don't you convince the entire town that I didn't do it? Just like how you convinced Captain that you're my uncle."

Adam regarded her carefully and smiled. "I could do that with time and patience, but you won't like that, and I know that deep down you want to find your parents' killer."

Claire beamed at him. "Maybe you're not so bad after all."

"Wow! I just got complimented by my daughter!" He smirked.

Claire rolled her eyes. "There's still a lot of things I don't understand. The fact that my phone called the police officers and the note."

"You were framed, Claire. There's a lot of things you don't know but with time you'll be surprised at how much you'll find out."

"You said it, Adam, we don't have time," she stressed.

"Even you need to learn to be patient. I'm going to meditate now, I think you should get some rest, you need to go to school early so we can plead for the detention you got." "How did you know I got detention?"

"I know a lot of things, Claire."

"That's good to know at least you would know when we're in danger," she teased.

"Speaking of danger, stay away from Scot."

She frowned as she watched him go upstairs. What does Scot have to do with danger? She wondered.

****

"I hope you never question my judgment again!"

Scot turned away from Captain Jones and nodded. He waited until the Captain left before he brought out his notepad and pencil.

He won't be deterred by whatever Jones said because he was sure something weird had happened today.

It had started with everyone in town getting frozen except him, Claire, and her mysterious uncle.

He cringed at the sound of the crowded pub where Jones had brought him to. This was the only tavern in Rutherford town and a lot of underage kids spent their time here.

Of course, it wasn't legal, but they had their ways. That's why this made it the perfect place to start his investigation.

"Hey lad, looks like you got on the Captain's nerve."

He glanced at the bartender and the owner of the bar, Mr. Lukas Holden grinning at him.

"I just asked a question, Sir," he replied.

"Call me Lukas. What will you drink?"

He shook his head. "I don't drink."

Lukas chuckled. "It's on the house and you're not working right now."

Scot eyed him suspiciously but finally, he accepted an apple cider drink.

"You look like you're trying to interrogate everyone here," Lukas said.

"I'm just thinking about what happened today," Scot sighed.

"Yeah the news of Adam being back in town," Lukas replied.

Scot's curiosity was piqued as he stared at her. "What do you know about Adam?"

Lukas shrugged. "Nobody knows anything about him. It's just like he appeared out of nowhere but that would be impossible right because he's been around for a while before he left." Scot wrote down his phrase. It's just like he appeared out of nowhere.

"Thanks for sharing, Lukas," he smiled at him.

"Enjoy your drink, kiddo."

"Just a sec, Lukas. Did you notice anything out of the ordinary happen today?"

Lukas chuckled. "With Adam back In town, I don't think anything weird beats that."

Scot nodded as he sipped his drink while Lukas walked away to attend to other customers.

"I knew someone was talking about me here."

Scot almost dropped his drink at the sound of Adam's voice behind him.

"Easy, kid. It's just me."

Adam chuckled as he plopped down on the stool beside Scot.

"Hello, Mr. Ryes," he gave him a tight-lipped smile.

Adam smiled. "Call me Adam."

"Adam," Scot echoed.

"I didn't take you as the kind of kid who spends his evenings in a bar," Adam teased.

Scot chuckled. "I'm just doing a bit of research on the bizarre event that happened today."

Adam smiled. "You still believe that story of ice?"

"It's not a story. It happened and you know it," Scot insisted.

"I didn't see anything and neither did Claire."

"Well, I'll find proof," he snapped.

"The time you're using to waste on stupid petty things you could put those efforts into finding out who killed Claire's parents. You're the only one in this miserable town she could rely on and it would be a big disappointment if she finds out that you're not helping."

Adam felt a prick in his conscience, and he sighed.

"I guess you're right."

"I'm always right, kiddo."

He talked about random things with Adam and he finally felt at ease with him before Adam left. Scot decided to have an early night so he could start conducting a secret investigation on Claire's parents' murder. "Hey, Lukas. I'm leaving, thanks."

"Good night, kiddo. I saw you talking to Adam earlier."

"Yeah, he's cool."

Scot smiled sheepishly at the thought that Claire trusted him when he overheard a bunch of teenagers arguing.

"Are you trying to tell me you didn't notice how everyone turned to ice?!"

Scot's eyes widened slightly when he heard the words. He hadn't been the only one who had noticed what happened. Could it be that there were others who weren't frozen that had noticed what happened?