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The police take Donnie home.  They knock on the door several times before his mother answers.  They explain the situation and then leave the two of them alone.  She walks to the kitchen and sits down at the table.  She stares silently att he bottle of gin and glass that are there.  "Is this what it will be like now?"  she says, "Policeman bringing you home, or worse, calling to tell me you're dead?"

"First time being brought home by a policeman and suddenly I am going to be dead? Something happened today, and I was there to help a friend. That is all"

Donne gets a bottled water and opens it sitting it on the table in front of him, much the same distance as his mother is from the gin bottle.

"I used to stand in the door to the kitchen, when I was little, and listen to this same conversation.  Dad always said he was where he needed to be, doing what he needed to do.  Mom would put her hand on his."  Suddenly Donnie's mother places her hand on his, giving it a squeeze, " And she'd say 'Don't make me a widow'.  I'm telling you, don't make me have to bury you."  She might have said something else, but tears began to roll down her cheeks.  It's several moments before she can wrestle her voice out of her emotions.  "I don't have her strength."

It took Donnie a few minutes to swallow past the lump in his throat. He gave a shuddering breath and says "Grandfather didn't have dragons to protect him. And you're stronger then you think."

Her free hand goes to the bottle of gin, stopping just before gripping it.  Her hand trembles, and her eyes blink furiously trying to shake all the tears out of them, but they keep falling.  "Not strong enough."  she says.  A second later she pulls herself from her chair and runs to her room, slamming the door behind her.

Donnie stares at the bottle, resisting the urge to dump it out into the sink. If he did that, she'd just likely get furious at him and go buy another one. He goes to the freezer in the garage and pulls out a filet mignon, putting intop the microwave to defrost. He leans against the stark white tiled countertop, arms wrapped around himself as the machine whirs. He had been scared, yes, but not really worried today. He had recovered from the blindness really fast, and his and Pip's actions had likely saved all of them, distracting Leland with Pip, lending Colin his energy, removing their blindness. He smirked. I wonder if Kel was annoyed that he was damn near useless.  

Smiling, he pulled the thawed and just slightly warm hunk of meat out of the microwave and went up to his room. Pip had toitally deserved this treat. He summoned the little dragon and cooed over his singed scales before revealing the steak. Pip had known, f course, his snakelike tongue darting in and out as he tasted the air.

Donnie had a strange moment, looking at the plate of raw meat. He had the oddest desire to take a big bite of it, and even his mouth filled with saliva. He shook himself and grabbed a coke from the fridge, logging onto his computer and ultra secure workstation to write out his notes on the reverse blinding spell.

Pip chewed noisily behind him, making happy chirping sounds.