Thursday, August 15, 2013

“Our baby will be the world’s first half Lokoti and half European Werewolf.”


 (Small Fry Chapter 1)


            We exchanged surprised glances before we departed the room to find our medical practitioner, his scanner and his ‘medicine bundle,’ were gone.

            “Oh.” I said taken aback. “I guess he thought the emergency was over.”

            “That and I think he’s gone to Caesar to have a talk about us.”  He frowned.

            “Why?” I asked in alarm.  “You did let go, eventually.”

            “Well B, let me put it this way," he casually leaned against the wall. "The tribe’s first female Lokoti Werewolf turns the last European Werewolf who is her mate, into another Circulator.  For over 250 years, everyone thinks she’s barren and then bingo!  Her handsome husband does the 'manly thing' by knocking her up.  Our baby will be the world’s first half Lokoti and half European Werewolf.”

            I smiled on his dry sense of humor, “I like your little explanations, they’re like little stories in themselves.”

            “Thanks.”  He chuckled back. “So, what does the pregnant woman crave; bacon and eggs, or sausages and eggs, or even pancakes?”

            “Um, how about all of the above?” I shrugged.

            “I love my wife!”  He guffawed. “Man, are we going to have fun over the next nine months.”

            “Man, are we going to have an interesting next ninety years.” I corrected.

            Declan pulled back to give an incredulous look, “Ninety years?!”

            “There’s kids and then there’s grandkids.” I reminded.

            “Oh yeah.” He frowned as he returned to the kitchen to cook.  “By the time we make it to the space time continuum; we really will be like a pair of 70 year old humans, moving to Florida to retire.”

            “Yup.”  I moved to sit up on the bench to talk, while he made breakfast.  “In a couple of years, you could have a daughter sitting here instead of me.”

            He passed a funny look as he passed me the ingredients from the fridge.  “Why? Where will you be?”

            “I don’t know, away lecturing or writing my papers?” I shrugged again.

            “So because I’m the cook, I’m gonna turn into the 'house husband'?”  He raised his eyebrows unimpressed. 

            “Well, you are retired.” I reminded.

            “Hmm.”  He frowned as he paused in his food preparation.  “I guess you're right.  After working at the Garage for over 250 years, I’m in no hurry to return.  Our ‘rug rat’ is going to need money for food.”

            “The way you constantly shove food down my throat, I doubt our kid will ever go hungry."  I said dryly.  "It’s a good thing we’re having Werewolf young.  With their supernatural metabolism, we won’t have to worry about our child becoming obese.”

            Out of the blue, Declan picked me up off the bench and swung me around in his arms! 

            “Damn straight!”  He merrily laughed.  “I’m going to be a father!  Ladies and Gentlemen, I finally knocked up Bianca Sabre!  I knocked up the unknockable woman!  And she WANTS my child!”

            At first I squealed in fright then in laughter, "We’re going to have a baby!”

            “We’re going to have a baby!"  He chanted.  "We’re going to have a baby!”

            “Declan!” I cupped his face.  “Do you know how good it feels when I get to give the man I love, a child?”

            He gently returned me to my feet before leaning in closely. 

            “About as good as it does for me, to know that I’ve finally given you the one thing that you always wanted?”  He tenderly rubbed his nose against mine.

            “I've always wanted you and I have that.” I stroked his cheek.  “And now baby makes three!”

            “Baby makes three.” He hugged me tightly.  “My baby B and I are having a baby girl!”

            “A one-of-a-kind, just like her parents.”  I sighed happily.

            “A beautiful girl, just like her beautiful mother.”  He mumbled as his lips smothered mine.  

            I allowed this kiss although a part of me was still on guard.  There was a tiny part of my brain that was murmuring, ‘careful’.  My instincts didn’t entirely trust his turn around, all because his progeny would be female.

 
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Friday, August 2, 2013

“I've been trained not to think of myself as a father.”


  (Small Fry Chapter 1)

 

            Declan grinned like an idiot – a tearful idiot – but an idiot nonetheless.

            “Since you said ‘daughters’ and not ‘daughter’, it means I’m let out of the doghouse sometime.” He tried to joke.

            “Lucky me.”  I said flatly, as I turned back towards the window.

            Just then he laughed loudly as he leant on the kitchen sink.  He seemed to be laughing in pure relief!  He was guffawing like a man who had just been granted parole, in the face of a death sentence.

            He wiped his eyes on the back of his hands, “I can almost picture her now.  She’s going to be tall and she’s going to make all of the boys work hard, by beating them in school and in sport.”

            "Why do you say that?"

            Declan continued, “She’s going to be half of you and half of me.  I’m gonna teach her how to repair her hover-car if it breaks down.  You’re gonna teach her soccer and help her with her homework.  When she's not studying with you, she’ll be in the kitchen helping me cook.”

            “Maybe we shouldn’t be placing all these expectations on her yet.” I said warily.  “I mean, your last expectation was that she was going to kill her mother!”

            I thought these words would have wounded him, but they did the exact opposite.  Instead, Declan stood closely to smile down as his large hands moved to sit on my hips.  His bright blue eyes fixated on my dark blue ones, before he lowered his face to gently bump foreheads.  His spiky, dark blonde hair mixed in with my long, black layers.

            “B, ever since I was 14 years old, I've been trained not to think of myself as a father.”  He confessed with his eyes closed.  “It was the age when the Lokoti Werewolves told me that I could never take a human woman for a mate, for risk of harming her or turning her.  I thought if they’re scared of me changing her, then they probably wouldn’t want me to have kids that were like me, either."  

            That gave me pause, as his words and the emotion behind them hurt my heart.  I watched him speak with his eyes closed as I felt his hot breath on my face.  Although I was still furious with him, I didn't pull out of our embrace.

            He continued, "I fell in love with you when I was 17 years old but remember, I had to wait until I was nearly 21 until I could have you, when you changed at the age of 18.  Then you were married off to Grant and I had to wait five years before we were reunited.  This only compounded the idea that the pack thought the risk of me breeding with you was far too great.  Then it came out you were so-called barren and you couldn’t give Grant kids?  I thought, 'she was meant to be mine all along!'  Then for 273 years, I got to enjoy the marriage bed, without worrying the world about what the marriage could produce.  Now a baby makes three?  I’m sorry I didn’t run out and buy a bottle of champagne and a cigar.  For nearly 300 years I was taught and self-taught that I wasn’t father material, because I could plant rotten seed.”

            My eyes widened in further alarm, as I never knew his self-hatred was buried so deep, it was thoroughly rooted in his psyche.

 

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