Slade

by Simpson, Serena

  “Settle down,” Lisa tried to catch him. “Thanksgiving is still a week away.”

  “What is this turkey?” Sela asked.

  “It's a bigger meaner chicken,” David screamed as he ran around with his arms out like he was an airplane.

  “I’m still too sick for this,” Lisa declared falling on the couch. Her phone rang, and she pounced on it. “Troy,” she answered.

  “Troy,” David ran over making kissy faces at her.

  “Ugh! Little brothers are the worse. Wait a minute Troy.” She jumped up and stomped out.

  “You made her leave,” Sela told him diving on the couch. “I wanted to know what they talk about.”

  “Gross things. Oh Troy, that shirt you wore brought out the color in your eyes. I miss you too Troy. Of course, I’ll sit with you at lunch. Are you sure you want to ask my dad to take me out? He’s the crazy kind who will clean his gun in front of you. Don’t worry I’ll protect you. And then her voice gets really low. I want to kiss you too. That’s all whispered. Come on if we take the steps, we can sneak up on her.”

  “Let’s go.” They ran for the stairwell off the kitchen.

  “I swear I’m going to master this,” Mila told Slade. He was teaching her how to disappear into her surroundings. “Well we know Lisa is not having sex yet, that should calm Brandi for a while. I swear, if she leaves one more condom around just in case, I’m going to start using them.”

  Rylee and Piper walked in laughing. “I swear God in heaven is laughing at us when we have to give kids the safety talk. My favorite part about it is when they say I know that my friends told me. Yes, because your friends know more than me, your mother.” Piper threw her hands in the air and flopped on the couch.

  “I still don’t know how this happened. I haven’t been mated long enough to have children.”

  Mila gave them; her I’m superior smile.

  “How did Mila get away with not having a cat?” Piper asked.

  “She has a hellhound that creeps around the house and sets me on edge,” Rylee replied.

  “He won’t hurt you. Me’akal is the sweetest.”

  Rylee grunted but softened her response with a smile. Me’akal came to the doorway. Mila leaned over to kiss Slade before she went to see what he wanted.

  They walked outside. There was a chill in the air that didn’t have anything to do with the weather.

  “I think we should prepare for a siege. That is one of Trogon’s preferred methods. Since the house is isolated, it wouldn’t be an issue.”

  “I’ll tell Slade. Mack,” he smiled when he heard her nickname for him. “I know whether we win or lose you won’t be staying. You have somewhere to be. I want to say thank you for giving up years of your life to baby sit a brat.”

  “I prefer to think of them as training the daughter of my heart to become a Ky Zo Mol master.”

  “Yeah, that too.” She threw her arms around him. “All I’m saying is that I love you. Don’t forget about me.” She went back into the house before the waterworks started.

  *~*~*~*

  What was happening to her? When she wasn’t snarky, she was weepy. Slade was hanging up the picture they bought in the living room. It complemented the furniture they bought beautifully. She woke a few days ago and decided they needed to make their place looked like a house. The furniture was nice, but nothing matched because Slade didn’t care.

  She went into a shopping frenzy. Now she wanted to bite Slade’s head off about how he was hanging the picture while crying about how beautiful the picture looked. She was starting to hate herself. Then to top it all off her stomach rebelled at the smell of bacon earlier. What?

  Slade stepped back from the picture with a nod of his head before turning to catch Mila wiping a tear.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, it’s just so beautiful.” She sobbed as he took her in his arms.

  “What’s wrong, little warrior.”

  She wiped her eyes on his shirt. “I think it’s the waiting. Trogon is winning. He’s driving me crazy with the silent warfare. I’m having a mental breakdown.”

  “Maybe. Why don’t we go see Mekhi?”

  “Does he treat crazy people?”

  “He treats me.”

  “Then maybe he can help me too.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She gave him a weak smile before they entered the elevator.

  Mekhi kept his office in the basement. He was waiting for them when they got there.

  “What seems to be the problem he asked when they took a seat in his office.”

  “I’m going crazy. It’s the silent warfare. I was trained to fight, not sit on my behind and do nothing.” He went to say something, but she cut him off. “As soon as Trogon is dead everything will be back to normal. So what, I’ve been a little weepy and snarky. You would be too if you’ve spent your whole life gearing up for one moment in history. Great talk Mekhi, you’re right all I have to do is fright and everything will be better.”

  Mekhi looked at her and laughed. “Why would I expect you to be a better patient than Slade? Go into exam room one, put on a gown, pee in the cup, and I’ll be in soon.”

  “I hate doctors,” she muttered loud enough for him to hear.

  “Do you really think this is necessary,” she asked Slade as she came out with a cup of urine. “At least it’s light yellow and not some nasty color indicating infection.”

  Mekhi knocked on the door before he entered. He took the cup and left the room saying he’d be right back.

  “Seriously? What is he going to find in urine?” Mila bit her lip. She was nervous and didn’t know why. It felt like her insides were trying to leave her body. Then she threw up. That was the moment she was done with the world. She wanted to jog through town, tell everyone that aliens were real. One was coming to destroy the world if they didn’t prepare themselves. It was a healthy dose of fear that kept her from doing it. Not that she feared the aliens, no, she feared her own people. Humans did crazy shit when they were scared.

  “Alright let me examine you.” Mekhi entered the room. He put his stethoscope on and took her heart rate. “Blood pressure a little elevated. I think cutting back on caffeine will take care of that.”

  “I think I’m just sick. Lisa had the mother of all colds last week I probably caught it from her. Some cough drops, and medicine should make me all better.”

  “What school did you go to? Lay down please.” She gave Slade the evil eye before she laid down.

  Mekhi listened to her heart and lungs at rest. Then he pressed on her belly all the while making a non-committal sound that was driving her crazy.

  “You’re doing that on purpose,” she accused.

  “Guilty, if only you could see your face.”

  “Mekhi!” Slade barked out.

  “Sorry, I know what’s wrong with you and what’s not wrong. You don’t have a cold. Fortunately, Lisa is no longer contagious although her cough is lingering.”

  They sat there in silence until Mila realized Mekhi was not going to volunteer the information. “Well, I can’t be crazy although after all those noises, I could be wrong.”

  “You’re not crazy.”

  “Mekhi Broken if you do not tell me what is going on. I’m going to remove your spleen or whatever is in its place with a spoon.”

  “Bloodthirsty, you might want to be careful brother.”

  Slade’s arm slid around her when she tried to jump off the table.

  “Now Mekhi.”

  “Alright but hold her back so she doesn’t hurt herself. You’re pregnant.”

  Slade lost all color in his face. Mila laughed. She wiped her eyes and then laughed harder.

  “Mekhi you had me scared. I thought I was dying. What’s really wrong?”

  “You’re pregnant.”

  “Impossible, Slade told me he couldn’t get me pregnant.”

  “You told her that?”

  “No! Yes! Wait I couldn’t get her pregnant
we weren’t mated.”

  “What does being mated have to do with it?” She looked at Slade with suspicion.

  “The scientists didn’t want to take the chance of us procreating. They designed our DNA so that we could not impregnate outside of a mate bond. You know how we bond. They felt no one would be willing to do a blood exchange with us.”

  Mila stood up not caring about the fact that she was still wearing a paper gown. “Are you telling me that you bit me and then got me pregnant?”

  “Are you mad?”

  “Slade I’m going to…” He turned and ran for the door.

  “Don’t you dare,” she screamed behind him. The last thing she heard was Mekhi losing his ever-loving mind as she chased Slade up the stairs.

  She found Slade in the bedroom she first used. She also noticed she was still wearing the paper gown. For his sake, she hoped he didn’t comment.

  “What are you doing?” She asked cautiously stepping into the room.

  “I was trying to picture this as a nursery.”

  “We’re going to have a baby.” Her momentary anger fled like the fog in the face of the sun. Her hand went to rest on her belly. Soon her child would grow there. “We don’t know what we’ll have.”

  “A boy. The scientists wanted warriors.”

  “They are manipulative bastards. I swear if I ever meet one, I will kill him, them, or it.”

  “There’s a long line for that honor.”

  “I think this room will be a nice nursery. We can go shopping after we kill Trogon.” She dropped the name casually and waited for the other shoe to fall.

  “Is this where we’re supposed to argue. You tell me that you’re still going to fight, and I insist that you stay safe?”

  “Yeah. Then I’ll say some things filled with curse words because I’m upset, and we’ll go to bed mad with each other.”

  “At least we know the script. Thing is I think we already had this fight.”

  “I wasn’t pregnant then.”

  “I know, what has changed?”

  “Nothing, everything. I need to free us so our child will be safe. Right now, he’s some divided cells, but eventually, he’ll have eyes and toes, a heart and soul.”

  Slade didn’t have the heart to tell her that the created didn’t have souls. She was human enough to give their son a soul.

  “You’re really not going to go all crazy about this?”

  He wanted to, but he already made peace with the fact if they had a chance of winning, she would have to fight. Trogon spent years learning the created and their fighting style. They would be an even match. What he wasn’t expecting was Mila. No matter how he ran the scenario through his head, they lost every time without her. They only lost half the time with her.

  “Make sure Me’akal knows. When do you want to tell everyone else?”

  “Tomorrow, it’s Thanksgiving the perfect time to tell our family.”

  *~*~*~*

  Mila reached for the phone going off in her ear. “Hello? Her voice was groggy. Slade kept her up late last night, not that she was complaining.

  “Happy Thanksgiving.” A smile spread across her face.

  “Rena, Happy Thanksgiving.”

  “Mila are you still in bed?”

  “Yes?”

  “Get up there is food to be made and goodies to eat.”

  “Don’t I know it. Are you sitting down?”

  “I’m in the kitchen.”

  “You need to sit down I have something to tell you.”

  “Ok wait a minute.”

  Mila grinned while she listened to the background noise at Rena’s house.

  “I’m in the dining room, if I go too far, they’ll start sampling. What’s up?”

  “I’m pregnant.” She took the phone away from her ear as Rena started shouting.

  “My baby sister, I can’t wait. When are you due? Its Slade’s, right? When did you get mated? You’re having a baby. Did they tell you it’s a boy? They are always boys; that's okay because every single one of them is as cute as a button.”

  “Every single one?”

  “Yeah, I had a boy his name is Alexei. Ash had a girl, but he adopted her. Her name is Amber. She mated with Alexei, that was interesting, but they are still in love. All of my nephews are still single. Then Ash met his mate Brook in the future, and they had a son. He’s all grown and single.”

  “You have a son?”

  “Keep up Mila. His name is Alexei, and he’s married to Amber. They don’t have any children yet. Now that Ash has a child everyone is looking at me to have another one. I’ll be telling them about you, so they can leave me alone.”

  “Wait. How do you have a child that’s grown and married? You’re a couple of years older than me.”

  “I think it has something to do with the dual timelines. We lived this timeline where I had a son and then there was war, with Yaksim leading the way.”

  “Wait, that was Brie’s mate.”

  “How do you know about Brie?”

  “She was the female Slade was in love with, then she died.”

  “Girl we have got to get together. Anyway, there was war and then we were living in the future, and Ash met his mate and had a son. Then Dante and his brothers started meeting mates, then they came back to this time. After that, Aran met Slade. Slade came back, but I don’t think it was on purpose. Then Aran decided to come back, and here we are and Dante said the earth is running a dual timeline, then you showed up.”

  Mila watched as Slade slid out of the bed and walked to the bathroom. “I know all that made sense to you, but I’m stuck at you have a married son. Oh, and war. But it’s not the war I’m about to fight in.”

  “Different war. When all this is over, we’ll get together and break it down.”

  “I’m holding you to that.”

  “I can see you, step away from the stuffing. Dee loves stuffing, but only when it’s homemade.”

  “Is that mom’s recipe?”

  “It is.”

  “I want some.” Her voice was whiny, and she didn’t care.

  “I’ll make you your own pan for Christmas; I promise.”

  “You better.”

  “I will. I love you, sis.”

  “I love you too.” She hung up the phone holding it against her chest.

  “How’s Rena?” Slade asked coming out of the bathroom.

  “She’s good.”

  “You better take a shower, so we can go help with dinner.”

  There was a loud knock at the door. “Who is it?” Mila called.

  “Mom said if you want to eat you have to come help with dinner,” Lisa said.

  “Tell Brandi, she’s being a bit militant,” Mila replied.

  “Ohh, I’m telling Aunt Brandi.” A male voice called out.

  “Elfin?” she asked Slade in a whisper. He nodded.

  “Wait till I get you Elfin. Tia and Sela are you there?” Girlish laughter met her ears.

  “Downstairs the lot of you.” More laughter then the sound of feet running to the stairwell.

  “That’s what we have to look forward to.”

  “That doesn’t bother me. It’s a baby the size of my hand and diapers. Lots of dirty diapers. Who is going to change them?”

  “Don’t worry you’ll be a pro in no time,” she called over her shoulder as she went into the bathroom.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Mila stopped between the living room and the kitchen. The heat and the smells from the kitchen reminded her of when she was young. She expected to see her mom with an apron around her waist as she smacked her father’s hands away from the stuffing. The television would be on with some pregame commentator whom he swore he was watching. Really, he’d rather be in the kitchen with mom. Rena would be sitting at the table waiting for her to come in so they could set it and sneak cookie's mom baked from scratch.

  She blinked remembering that was a different time, maybe a different timeline.

  “Look who fina
lly got up,” Quinn called.

  “And I’m hungry. How much longer do we have on the turkey?”

  “It’s only been in there an hour. Come get some cereal,” Brandi told her.

  “Milk eww,” Mila made a choking sound.

  “You like milk,” Quinn turned to look at her.

  “I used to past tense?” Mila grimaced and held out hope that Quinn would be distracted.

  “Nope, no way. What’s going on? Do you need Mekhi to examine you? Are you sick?”

  “You got all the from me not wanting milk?”

  “You’ve been crying. Mila you never cry. Then you’ve been snarky. True that’s not new, but never to this degree. You were complaining about your stomach, and you didn’t eat your bacon yesterday. You ran to the bathroom. I’ve got ears I heard you throwing…” Quinn went pale.

  “Mila?”

  “Surprise, I’m pregnant!”

  “Congratulations!” They surrounded her talking over each other in their joy.

  “Oh hell,” Akron spoke for all of them. “Who’s next?” They all turned to look at Phoenix.

  “Not happening,” he protested as his body slid to the floor.

  The females looked over at them. “I never knew males could be such drama queens,” Mila said.

  “Here, here,” they said picking up glasses of eggnog from the table.

  The room was filled with laughter and the setting of the table. They fed Mila tea and crackers so her stomach would be ready for their Thanksgiving meal. The smell of turkey, stuffing, greens, and other sides made her stomach growl with hunger. The piece of resistance was the smell of pumpkin pie. She couldn’t wait to taste everything. Quinn suggested without giving them an out that they go around and say one thing they were thankful for. It amazed her that every child at the table cat-child or human was thankful for parents. She blinked thinking of her parents; she was thankful for them too.

  Then as Slade started cutting the turkey, a Christmas song came on.

  “Uh huh no! Who put on the Christmas music?” Serenity asked crossing her arms.

  “What’s wrong with Christmas music?” Lisa asked.

  “It’s not done, heck it's almost sacrilegious. It’s like playing Peter Cottontail when cupid is trying to do his thing.”