CHAPTER 49 - ARRIVAL AND ANOTHER REVELATION...
MAYO CLINIC, ROCHESTER - TWO HOURS LATER
MEL’S ROOM
TED
I can’t see for crying! He is utterly perfect! I beam at Blake, who is crying too, “I-I-I can’t tha-thank you en-enough!” I blubber at Mel, whilst Leda hands me tissues. “Look at him!”
“Uncle Ted, for the last time! Sister outranks godfather!” Jenny holds out her arms and taps her foot. “Give me my brother, you’ve been hogging him for twenty minutes now.”
“Alright.” I slowly shuffle around on the seat. “Come closer. No, closer, you don’t want to drop him.”
“Would you rather I sat in your lap?” She teases once there’s less than a hair’s breadth between us.
“Don’t tempt him!” Mel laughs; when I cut my eye she shrugs. “However, it’s his first godchild, so indulge him a little. You get him 24/7, he can have the first hour or so.”
“Suppose.” Jenny concedes before leaning against my shoulder. “He’s utterly adorbs! Not sure how much time I’m going to get with Lil Miss Impatient...speaking of whom!” She giggles, we all start to smile at the very insistent and imperious tones of Taylor, demanding that we open the door right the heck now!
All eyes settle on Jenny, who ducks her head. “At least she says heck in front of you guys...um, I’ll ground myself for a week!”
“You’re in the middle of exams, so you’re not going anywhere anyway. No Grampa visit for the next two weeks.” Leda declares, Jenny looks appalled. “She’s said worse in front of you, and you’ve not corrected her, now you reap the consequences of that inaction.”
“But that’s two months!” She protests looking around for support. The silence says she has none. “Can someone at least record them?!” She pleads as she opens the door, Taylor is by my side in a flash, clutching a teddy bear.
“Of course we will.” Blake reassures her.
“He’s so tiny!” Taylor breathes as she strokes his face. “Can he sleep in my room, Dad?”
“No, we’ve discussed this, Taylor, he’s got to stay with Aunt Mel and Aunt Leda.”
“Someone has to record every minute of every day, it’s only fair!” She asserts firmly.
“She is spending far too much time with you!” Blake teases a proud looking Jenny.
“Taylor, where’s everyone else?” Mel asks, and we all go quiet.
“In the room with Aunt Zee. Her tummy was hurting, so she and Uncle Faal went to speak to their doctor.” She replies, still looking at Olivier. “Said they would come straight here.”
I hand Olivier gently back to Leda and head out. I don’t get far when Jenny calls for me to wait. “You don’t think anything's wrong, do you?” She asks, worriedly clutching my arm.
“No, honey, I’m sure it’s fine.” I reply, although I’m not feeling as confident, as a few days back, Zee had to go and lie down as she was feeling so ill. The fact that Zeus has been staying at the Treehouse along with Brian and Justin is also a concern.
“Why do they look like that?!” Jenny demands, pulling me to a halt.
I was so in my thoughts, I hadn’t seen them approaching; Zee and Faal both look pale.
“When we’re all together.” Zee orders. “Brian and Justin are getting supplies.”
“Where?” I demand.
“Liquor store.” Faal replies.
MEL’S ROOM - AN HOUR LATER
FAAL
I can’t help it, I am so freaking smug! And relieved! Mel and Zee exchange looks from the bed, one of the benefits of this place is that the beds are doubles, not singles, which affords both parents cuddles with or without their baby. I know for a fact that Brian and Justin would’ve taken advantage of this if Mel hadn’t delivered so quickly and Zee hadn’t puked. But in this case, this is a queen size bed...Blake took one look at the room, yes they came for pre-birth inspections and upgraded them stating that they may as well start as they mean to go on!
“Say that again?” Emmett takes his head from between his knees. “You’re…”
“Expecting twins.” I repeat.
“Can we have them?!” Steve asks excitedly.
“Have who for what?” I frown.
“The twins for godchildren!” Steve beams.
“Excuse me! They are our godchildren!” Drew states firmly. “We were rudely bumped out of duties by Brian and Justin, we’re not missing out again!”
“Do we get a say in this?” I ask, then regret it at the pained expression on Ems’s face. “I’m sorry, guys, but these two go to Emmett and Drew, You’ve got Taylor and Jenny, after all.” I’m about to chastise Zee as she gets out of bed, but one look stops me.
She makes her way to Ems, and wraps herself around him. “We’re sorry to have hurt you like that, we just didn’t think; got caught up in the moment of it all.”
“I understand, just, but I don’t care where we are, nobody is godfathering but us, you promise.”
“You have our word.” We all jumped at Brian’s voice as we hadn’t heard the door open. “And we’re sorry too, we shouldn’t have taken over like we did.” He hands the champagne to Drew, who starts to open it. “Get back into...”
“Ahem! Our godchildren, so either mine or Drewsie’s orders!” Ems declares whilst shuffling Zee into bed. “No more taking over from this point on, Mr Mayor.”
“No more.” Justin agrees, handing Ems a glass of champagne, then Zee! “Oh, come on, it’s one glass! She went into battle with Vance carrying them, one glass is not going to hurt, surely?”
“True, and besides, Zeus is never going to leave until they are born anyway. He’s got to give a very smug Luther updates.”
“Oh, don’t!” Zee groans before savoring her sip. “Mmm, heaven!”
“Why is Luther smug?” Drew asks, tucking the blankets around both of them. “What? I wasn’t there when the plan was concoct...okay, the moment you said we could use guns, I lost my focus, so remind me!”
“Oh, Drewsie!” Ems kisses his cheek, “Right, so it was Archie’s idea. He remembered how nosy Vance was in jail, always trying to know people’s business, hovering about like a stench. Then he saw him checking into Albion just like he had to. He couldn’t resist the dig about how he taunted him about his sentence and look at him now, he’s a communal garden big-shit and not the big-shot he always thought he was. And…”
“Ems...” Drew warns. “...little ears.”
“She’s too Olivier focused to be listening. Can you move up, please, Zee?” Ems asks, then perches on the side of the bed. “One has to be comfortable for this kind of fable…” He strokes the sheets. “These aren’t hospital issue, are they, Teddy?”
“No, they’re most definitely not!” Ted looks insulted. “All of the bedding is hypoallergenic silk from Mulberry.”
“Hypo...Mulberry, as in the designer Mulberry?” Brian demands, and Ted nods. “Schmidt, I’m impressed!” He looks at Justin. “Now, surely I don’t have to tell...no I don’t!” He laughs as he is hopping towards the bed whilst taking off his shoe.
“Excuse me, but can the wives have the bed to themselves?!” Leda snorts, knowing the answer to that. We wait for Ems and Justin to get in on either side. “You two okay?”
“Hell yeah!” Justin wiggles. “And if I am, you can bet Ems is, right…” Ems beams and plumps up his pillow. “...oh, this is great, even through clothes, we’re definitely getting some of these for all beds!”
“That’s great, Sunshine, but she was talking to Mel and Zee.” Brian intones whilst bringing him the champagne.
“I knew that, I was answering on behalf of everyone!” Justin blusters into his glass.
“Yah sure?!” Jenny teases.
“Can easily make it three Grampa visits.” Justin hits back with a smirk.
“Schtumming!” Jenny squeaks before grinning, knowing that there’s no way Luther will allow that. “Speaking of grandparents, can’t wait for them to come back, now that everything is finally set up in Tuscany.”
“Yeah, gonna miss Vince and Daph. Yes, they’re a plane ride away, but that’s still half a day, even with Mac’s superlative flying skills.”
“I know, Sunshine.” Brian kisses the side of his head. “But you knew that Daph was also studying in epidemiology and once she saw the set up, it was an easy switch to make that her focus for the rest of her career.”
“But it’s the same set up in San Francisco, why couldn’t she go there?” He pouts.
“Because Vince finally got his way. His favourite country is Italy, where would you go?”
“Hmm, I guess. She’s very hard headed, so he’s taking the victories where he can.” He looks across at a tapping on her iPad Zee. “What’s that? That looks like a menu, I see venison…”
“Gus sent you the menu, and you didn’t say?!” Ems pouts.
“It was two minutes before throw up.” I advise as Zee waves her glass at me, I give her a bellini back. “It’s sugar cane and blueberry.” She blows me a kiss.
“So, back to Vance, how did Archie…”
“Oh yes, sorry, Drewsie. So the second time he saw him, he noticed how he looked at Zee, like real hate. Then he remembered how frustrated Zee was getting about Vance not doing anything, so he mentions this to Luther, as lil Miss Thingamamamma hadn’t. And, of course, Luther being the now observant man he is, once Archie casually mentioned that she’d been complaining about this bug she’d picked up, which was, and I quote, ‘fucking with her tastebuds’ because couldn’t eat much spice…”
“Yes!” I yell, startling Olivier and get baleful looks whilst being violently shushed. “Sorry, but that means another girl! So happy!” I hug myself, then roll my eyes. “When she was bubbling with Matt, he wouldn’t let her eat any spice, but DJ did, so that means at least one girl.”
“Anyhoo, if I could be allowed to continue, Dr Spock...marvellous. So, Luther had a hunch, and when he saw Vance visiting the same day as Zee and Faal, he casually mentioned it, and the rest is, as they say, idiotic but final history!”
“What happened to Iggy and Cody?” Justin asks as he gently moves Mel forward and puts his pillow behind her.
“Syracuse. Seems he has…”
“Guys, time for the mothers and son to have some privacy!” Leda states firmly as she approaches with Olivier.
“Neither of us are into boobs, so us staying in bed with them shouldn’t be an issue.” Justin states as he starts to get comfortable; he looks up at the silence. “I’ll be in the car.” He mutters, and quickly hurries out, shoeless and bright red.
“Never thought I would ever say this…” Ben snickers quietly. “...maybe you two need to have more sex!”
“What a great idea, Mr Press Secretary…” Brian says, strolling towards the door. “...the rest of you are going to have to share the other car. Yes, it will be a tight squeeze, but then again, he always is.” He ducks the pillow that Zee throws and closes the door on his smug laughter.