Safe

It was early evening and Nel and Bogdan Sidorov were preparing dinner while Elsinore practiced violin, Seamus drew, and Olga and Simon built a castle out of blocks.
 
Bogdan was fussing at Nel to stop trying to use her injured paw and she at him to sit down and rest his hip. All in all it felt quiet, normal, and safe.
 
Suddenly there were heavy footsteps on the stairs and raised voices on the floor above them, where they'd lived until a week ago, then heavy footsteps back down the stairs and a pounding at the door.
 
Nel went to the door and sighed, recognizing three enforcers from Khemma's branch of the Syndicate through the window. She knew they'd just break the door down if she didn't open it, so she did, but stood in the doorway, blocking their entrance.
 
"What do you want?" she growled low, but calm.
 
"We're here for your sister and her druid girlfriend. She ain't showed up for work and the boss wants to know why."
 
'They left." She said simply, not moving.
 
"We're going to have a look for ourselves. Sure you understand," said Janusz, half-troll in a bowler hat with an unpleasant smile.
 
"It's just me, four young children, and an old man here," she said evenly. "And I don't give you permission to come in."
 
"Then I'm sure you wouldn't want them to see us make you let us in, hmm?" Janusz's smile widened.
 
Nel growled again, but stepped aside, looking between Bogdan, who was holding a kitchen knife and the children who'd gathered around him, frightened.
 
"Bodgan," she said, summoning every ounce of calm she possesses into her voice and expression, even smiling a little, "would you please take the children to the park while I have a talk with these nice gentlemen?"
 
Before Bogan could protest, Janusz shook his head. "Nobody leaves."
 
Nel shook her own head. "That ain't how this is going to work," she said, keeping her voice calm but firm. "You know the code as well as I do. These are young children and an old man. The very definition of innocents."
 
Janusz paused a moment, the other two, an orc and an elf, shrugged at him, and he grunted "Fine. Go." He pointed to the door, nodding to the children and Bogdan.
 
Nel saw Bogdan about to argue again, and just shook her head and nodded to the door as well. "It'll be fine. I just need to have a little talk. Go on. Have fun at the park. Bring your violin, love," she said to Elsinore."
 
Bogan scowled, then put on a smile for the children, and led them out.
 
Nel sighed with relief once they were gone and turned to face the three men. "Have a look for yourselves. Khemma ain't here. Neither is the druid."
 
The three men looked in the sole closet and under the beds. There wasn't really anywhere else to search. "Where did she go?"
 
"She's gone. Left Eisen. I don't know where to."
 
"Boss don't like it that she ran off. Someone's got to pay for it. She leave you any money behind?" Janusz seemsed to be the talker of the group.
 
"No," she said, honestly. "Leaving the country ain't cheap."
 
"Shame," said Janusz, and nodded to the other two, one of whom knocked the pot of stew off the stove, spilling its contents on the floor. The other took cups, plates, and bowls off the shelf and started breaking them.
 
"You sure?" asked Janusz. "If she left, say, 200 gold, maybe her boss would consider her square."
 
"Stop it," she growls, her voice low and dangerous.
 
"Or what?" Janusz laughed, shoving her back against a wall and breaking a chair. The orc started shattering jam jars and throwing eggs on the ground. The elf shredded blankets and mattresses with a knife with emotionless efficiency.
 
She staresd at them, shaking with anger. Janusz reached past Nel and took Bogan's painted plate he'd taken with him from Ruskovich and hung on the wall, holding it high.
 
"Wait! Wait, stop," she said "Khemma didn't leave nothing, but I got a little squirreled away." *She moved to a loose floorboard and lifts it, taking out ten sacks of gold, twenty in each. The men follow, one reaching in and taking three more bags stored down there.
 
"That wasn't so hard, wasn't it?" Janusz said with a shit-eating grin.
 
"You got what you came for, yeah? Now get out and don't come back!" she growled.
 
Janusz raised an eyebrow, his grin widening, and let the plate drop. It shattered into tiny pieces as Nel looked on in horror.
 
Then the three enforcers turned and left, $260 of her adventuring gold with them.
 
Nel stood in place shaking and just focusing on breathing for a moment, taking in the damage to the beds and mattresses, all of their cups and dishes broken, the stew, eggs, jam, and bread all ruined, and, worst of all, one of the very few things Bodgan treasured in pieces on the floor.
 
She cleaned up everything else first, hurriedly mending blankets and mattresses, mopping up food and sweeping up the broken dishes, picking up pieces of the shattered chair, working up the courage to look at the broken plate, then finally, reverently, picking up the shards and setting them on the table. It was then that the tears came. She let herself cry as she picked it up and set it on the table, the tension, fear, and anger coming out in big gasping sobs.
 
After a few minutes she dried her eyes, grabbing another pouch of money from a hiding place and putting it in her coat pocket, before taking the broken things out of the flat so that the children wouldn't see it -- except for Bogdan's plate, which stayed in its place on the table.
 
She hurried off to the park, where she found Bogdan and the children in the twilight. Elsinore was playing violin and the other three were chasing fireflies, but it seemed rather half-hearted. They all shouted joyfully to see Nel and she saw Bogdan's shoulders relax in relief.
 
Nel hugged them all. "Guess what, my loves? We're not having stew tonight after all! We're celebrating tonight and eating supper out at the Skybound! You can order anything you like." She smiled widely and the children's vague fears started to give way to excitement.
 
"Go let your fireless go and pack up your violin, yeah?"
 
She turned to Bogdan and explained what had happened in whispers as the children got ready. Her voice caught as she told him about the plate, afraid that she would start to cry again.
 
He patted her good paw. "Lapachka, (Rus term on endearment, "Little Paw") what is this foolishness? Why do you talk of a plate? You are unhurt, yes? Good. So are the children. So am I. Stop this nonsense right now. We are celebrating. This will be a good night for the little ones."
 
She swallowed hard and smiled gratefully, pushing back tears.
 
"There we go, Lapachka. Come, children. Don't keep an old man hungry! I may get grumpy and eat you up!" The children laughed, and they all made their way to the warm, safe, inn for supper.