“As serious as it gets I suppose.”
“Wow...” Julie pondered, “Growing up so soon!”
“Geez Jules!” Margaret groaned, “I'm NOT geriatric now or something!”
“I know,” she replied, “But I mean like, all that housewife and homemaker shit - ”
“Shush!” Marge said, “Lower your tone!” looking around, “People are listening to this shit!”
Ep 19, Chapter 2
As Margaret drove out the ramp of the underground garage to get up on the street, suddenly a woman came scurrying up from the corner saying something into a microphone and then suddenly pointed the microphone at Margaret.
At first her eyes bugged at the shocked realization that this crazy person was pointing a microphone at her from the sidewalk, then she looked and sure enough, not one, but two men were behind her holding cameras.
Then, with a quick sweep of her eyes, she noticed a man on the other side of the street aiming a camera at her as well.
“Oh fuuuuuuuuuuu-” she was heard to say as she rolled the window up and make a fool-hearty dive into traffic, making two cars brake and swerve, honking their horns at her.
“Shit shit shit shit shit!” she spat as she floored the poor van as if it were her Corvette “Goddamned I have no fucking privacy any more!”
She sped up the ramp to the 405 south and merged with traffic, grateful to be free and without these people able to tailgate her to Bunny's house.
“Are you okay Margie?” Jacqueline asked, worried.
“I don't know...” she groaned, “Maybe its just being pregnant, I don't even know that yet, but right now, I'm really not a happy camper because of this media shit”
“When we get home,” Jacqueline offered, “I'll have Anna give you a massage.”
“Thank you sweetie,” she smiled in gratitude, “That would be nice.”
Ep 19, Chapter 3
After unloading the moving van, however, the first thing they had to do was take the moving van back to the rental office.
As they drew near, however, sure enough, somebody had already anticipated this move, and there were even more reporters waiting there for her.
As she saw them in the distance, she simply drove on by as if she were going some other place.
The people in some of the news vans were already scrambling to get on the road and follow them, when unexpectedly, a certain pristine black Mercedes Benz seemed to blow its motor right in front of them, leaving a massive trail of oil and a cloud of thick white smoke.
By the time traffic cleared for this, the van AND the exploding car had vanished.
A few blocks down, however, they had masterfully made a quick slip into a parking lot, locked the van and left discretely.
The Mercedes had gone all the way around the following corner on the side street, and Anna popped the electric locks to let Bunny and Marge in the back of the car where the windows were all darkly tinted.
Driving down the back street and into a private driveway, they waited while news vans prowled all up and down the main drag, one even spotted the van and soon it was swarmed like ants to a drop of honey.
“Damn.” Margaret grumbled, “Its a cul-de-sac,” looking behind the store to see where the service alley ended in a loading dock, and a large east to west directed, concrete lined, chainlink fenced off 'creek bed' blocked all northward progress, “We would have to drive back past them to get out of here.”
“Well,” Anna said, “That leaves only one other way of escape,” and she dialed Yan's office.
Ep 19, Chapter 4
“What?” Mr. Bodenheimer whispered furiously over the phone, trying to keep his words unheard from the sectary in the other room, “You aren't SATISFIED with what you have on me YET?” he was sweating.
“Its not some big deal,” Yan said in his softer, more womanly voice, “Just have some squad cars and a couple of fire trucks and the bomb squad, go to this address and inspect a suspicious looking moving van for a possible bomb,” he said cheerfully, “and be sure to take everybody's names and question them all there at the scene while you are at it ok?”
“And you expect the citizens of Los Angeles to pay for this fiasco?” he asked.
“Oh no,” Yan said softly and sweetly, “I expect YOU to.”
Ep 19, Chapter 5
Later that evening, after dinner, Anna finally did give Margaret the massage Jacqueline promised her, and she fell asleep on the couch while she was being massaged.
After Anna was done, she just took a blanket and draped it over the sleeping teenager.
Jacqueline who had sat patiently watching the whole event from the couch on the other side of the coffee table, simply waited until Anna went into the other room, went around the coffee table, and climbed under the blanket next to Margaret and lay there squeezed up against her fiance listening to her breathe deeply in her sleep.
After a few minutes, Anna came back through the living room, taking laundry to the wash room and asked, “You should just go up to your room and go to sleep.”
“I want to sleep with Maggie!” she protested sullenly.
“I see that.” Anna replied with a sigh, then as she walked on her way, “Suit your self, but don't blame me if you fall off in the floor.”
As she left the room, Jacqueline whispered, “You don't know my sticking powers, do you Anna-san?”
Ep 19, Chapter 6
When Margaret awoke, it was 2:13 am, and she had completely forgotten where she was and thought she was on her own couch at the apartment, so when she woke up to Jacqueline's slow steady breathing, she almost screamed in startlement.
“Jules?” she whispered in the darkness, but then she looked around and realized where she was and felt terribly embarrassed that she had called out Julie's name right in front of Jacqueline, “Oops...”
Then she realized she really had to go to the bathroom and Jacqueline was right in the way.
“Bunny...I gotta get up and go pee.” she said softly.
“Mummummm..” Jacqueline mumbled in her sleep.
“Bunny, wake up...” she said invitingly.
Again, nonsensical noises came from the sleeping child.
“How about a kiss?” she said as an experiment.
Without saying a word, Jacqueline puckered up her lips and began kissing...clearly she was dreaming.
“Oh poor baby,” Marge chuckled, “You're dead to the world, and right in the way.”
Pushing herself to a slightly seated position, Margaret swung her long legs over the top of Jacqueline, then, with a contorted twist, she braced against the back of the couch and got onto her feet and stood up without either squishing Bunny or knocking her off into the floor.
She began to gently walk toward the stairs in the dark, being careful not to stub her toes on anything, when suddenly she jumped as a hand grabbed her by her night shirt.
“Eek!' she squealed in surprise, turning to look and bumping into Jacqueline who was now trialling her, rubbing her eyes.
“I didn't know I woke you.” Marge began to apologize.
“Its fine,” Jacqueline yawned, “Now we can sleep in my bed.”
“Oh.” Margaret replied, “I'm not sure that is what they had planned,” as she kept heading slowly for the stairs in the dark.
“Did you think you were going to sleep on the couch in the living room?” Jacqueline asked simply, trailing the teenager up the stairs.
“Well no,” she replied, “But those other rooms -”
“They're packed full to the ceiling with research junk.” Jacqueline said, “They have been since we came here.”
“But did they really expect us to sleep together?” Margaret asked in disbelief.
“They already think you're pregnant,” Jacqueline yawned as they made it to the tow doorways, “I'll see you when you are done.” and she kissed Margret’s arm before going into her bedroom.
“Wow...” Margaret pondered as she went into the bathroom, “These are some liberal
parents she has!”
Ep 19, Chapter 7
Waking up to breakfast was really an alien concept to Margaret.
So when on a bright sunny Monday morning she was roused by a rambunctious Jacqueline who quickly and impolitely crawled right over Margaret making her say “Ohohohohfff!” and doubling up.
“Sorry,” Jacqueline apologized as she pushed the holoscreen television out of the way to her closet, “Oh,” Jacqueline commented, “Anna already hung up your clothes.” as she pulled down a nice flowery summer dress, returning to the middle of the room where she proceeded to take off her pajamas.
“Where?” Margaret got up bleary eyed, looking at the clock seeing it was only 6 am.
“In there.” Jacqueline said, reaching in her drawer for a pair of panties and a brassiere.
Suddenly Margaret was stricken with the realization that Jacqueline was completely naked and she reflexively turned away.
“Do you -” she began but then realized it was a stupid question and stopped.
“Do I what?” Jacqueline turned while stepping into her panties, not even thinking.
“Do you plan to be naked in front of me all the time?” Marge asked while looking away, making her way to the closet.
“Why not?” Jacqueline asked, as she pulled up her panties, then slipped her small arms into the brassiere which with a quick clip cradled her immense lusciously formed breasts.
“Oh, ummm...well...ummm...” Margaret stumbled around.
“You don't want me to?” Bunny asked nonchalantly while pulling her bright lemon yellow dress over her head.
“That's the problem!” Margaret moaned, “I do!”
“Why is that a problem?” Bunny casually squeaked while going into the closet to pick out matching shoes.
“Ohhhhh....” Margaret groaned, “You're making this hard on me...” as she got up and went into the closet with Jacqueline to see where her clothes were.
Ep 19, Chapter 8
As they went downstairs to the kitchen table, the smell of eggs, sausages, fried potatoes, toast, jelly and orange juice all assailed Margret’s nose.
“Wow” Margaret marveled, “I don't think I have ever had breakfast in my life.”
“You did one time at school with me,” Jacqueline said, “Don't you remember?”
“Oh.” Margaret replied, “Yeah.” then as she sat down, “But like, that was, what, 9am?”
“What difference does it make?” Jacqueline asked.
“Well,” Margaret yawned, “I dunno...” as she stabbed into the flat gray and brown sausage with a fork and sliced a chunk off as juices flowed from it.
“I eat here,” Jacqueline said, “And then some times I eat at school too.”
“I see.” Margaret remarked, biting into the juicy sausage and feeling all its flavor wash over her sleepy mouth, “Wow this IS good!” she marveled.
“Thank you.” Anna replied, “It is old Russian recipe.”
After breakfast, Margaret went upstairs to brush her teeth before school, and while she was in the bathroom, she unexpectedly had a sudden violent bout of vomiting.
Jacqueline rushed up the stairs hearing the sound, and this made Anna curious.
Wiping her hands on a towel by the sink, Anna cautiously went through the dining room and up the stairs, head cocked as she listened, and then she picked up the sounds of the retching.
At that point she picked up the pace and hurried up to see Jacqueline's arms wrapped around the rock star who was already flushing the toilet, but still heaving.
“Wow you get pregnant fast!” Anna declared, “Let me call the physician to see if we can get you some morning sickness medicine.”
Episode 20
“Assimilated Into The Family: A One Way Road”
Margaret was rushed to the Shunokoi's internal medical facility by way of Anna, so there was nobody to take Jacqueline to school at this time.
Consequently, she rode with Margaret and dutifully held a garbage bag for Margaret to retch into, so as to not get it on herself or the car.
“Oh god I think I'm dying...” Margaret moaned between heaves.
“This is very unusual for morning sickness.” Anna said in a worried tone, “You may miscarry if not treated well!”
They sped down some side roads instead of taking the clogged freeway, sticking mainly to Sepulveda, Boulevard.
It still took over fifty three agonizing minutes to reach the facility.
By then, the only thing coming from Margaret was a small trickle of blood.
EMT's rushed her inside, keeping her on one side as they ran to prevent her from aspirating any blood or bile.
As they wheeled her into the examination room, the nurse on duty pressed the safety releases on the entry to the surgical quarantine room.
They had Jacqueline and Anna wait in the reception area, seeing as her conditions were not acting like mere morning sickness at this point.
Yui had been in her office and came right away, and was there waiting for them in the reception area when they stepped through the double doors.
Jacqueline rushed up and embraced her mother.
Yan had been in an early morning international conference with a company in the UK but when the client understood that it was his future daughter in law and there was bleeding, they agreed to delay the rest of the meeting until a later date.
As Yan strode into the reception room, they could see Margaret was being put on a ventilator, IV and blood was being drawn.
They had stopped the vomiting with an injection of an anti-spasmodic.
Yan asked over the PA what they felt was going on and the doctor replied, “At this point its impossible to tell, but we can rule out morning sickness.”
Ep 20, Chapter 2
Yui called the school and informed them of the sudden developments, within the limitations of discretion, and obtained excused absences for both girls.
As Margaret rested, Jacqueline sat in the reception room alone and waited.
“Have I killed my Marige?” she worried to herself, “Maybe its not that bad. Maybe she just got sick from something she ate.”
Suddenly, she hopped up and pressed the PA button, which most of the time people would have stopped her from doing, but lately they had begin treating her as an adult.
“Margie? Can you hear me?” she squeaked up at the adult level PA which was over her head.
“Yeah,” Margaret groaned weakly.
“Are you allergic to any thing? Any foods?”
“Yeah, pork, why do yu-” she stopped, then after a moment to get another breath, she said, “That sausage, huh?”
Ep 20, Chapter 3
After a very uncomfortable intestinal flush and some antihistamines, Margaret was sleeping soundly.
Her blood test results came back clean against infection, and she tested as not pregnant, although the doctor pointed out that this early it would likely not read, and also, some times one can get a false negative, thus the recommended three tests after a week's time.
Yui accompanied Margaret and Jacqueline home, got her upstairs, undressed and into pajamas, and into bed. Then Anna escorted her back to work since she had left her car there.
“We're getting too many cars in here.” Anna commented, as she pulled out of the garage along side of the pink Corvette, which had its top up, making sure not to scrape the cars together as she backed out of the driveway.
“We'll just have to add to the garage,” Yui shrugged.
“What if Margaret is not pregnant?” Anna asked.
“Then we're thankful and hope they wait until they're married.” Yui said looking at the scenery.
“You going to let her go back to -?”
“No way.” Yui said, “She's staying right here.”
“You act like your mother Mrs. Shunokoi,” she said, “Do you expect Miss Cooper to take the family name like Yan did?”
“I don't see that Margaret will have any problem with it,” she replied watching the scen
ery, “Yan didn't and my father didn't. Its a good name after all, with centuries of tradition behind it”
Bunny Love ( Songs of Love Book 1) Page 18