by Gini Koch
Jeff chuckled, took his hand, then pulled the kid in for a hug. “We hug family here, son.” They did the manly back patting thing, and Jeff let go. But I could tell Wasim felt better.
Which was good. Had no idea how demonstrative his family normally was, but he was going to have to get used to a lot of Public Displays of Affection from all of us.
Jeff shook Naveed’s hand, picked Jamie up and handed her to me, put one arm around me and Jamie and one around Lizzie, then we all headed upstairs. The rest of the adults, other than Chef and P-Chef, helped us wrangle all the kids, who were all more interested in the desserts they’d made than the healthy dinners waiting for them.
We’d already planned for all of the kids and their parents to have dinner together the night before the first day of school, so we rolled up to our private dining room across the hall from our bedroom.
All the parents and guardians who hadn’t been baking were there already other than Serene, Joe, and Randy, who were still on Bot Duty. Noted that their sons all looked a little disappointed and felt a pang—Jamie and Charlie probably felt this way a lot, because it seemed like Jeff and I were always being pulled in a million different directions. Having to bake like crazy suddenly seemed like the best possible use of my afternoon ever.
Abigail and Mahin tried to excuse themselves, as did Naveed. But the kids were having none of it. They’d baked together, and that meant everyone who’d walked upstairs was staying. Fortunately, this room was good-sized and we had the space.
Jamie got out of my arms so she could hang onto Mahin with one hand and Abigail with the other. I was fine with that, because Denise and Kevin were here and they’d brought Charlie. My son was ten months old and basically adorable. But he still wasn’t talking. For human children this wasn’t slow at all. However, for A-Cs, and by his older sister’s measure, Charlie was way behind.
By the measure of the other hybrid boys, all of whom were over four but still under five, he was behind. Ezra was the youngest of our “first wave” of Embassy kids, and he was heading to Early-Starters Kindergarten because, frankly, all of these kids were advanced, mentally and physically, and Ezra was no exception. Jamie was leading the pack, but Serene’s son, Patrick, wasn’t far behind, and Lorraine and Claudia’s sons, Ross and Sean, weren’t slackers, either. I could see why A-Cs finished their college-level schooling by the time they were eighteen—it was a kindness to humans that A-Cs tended to school separately, not the other way around.
Except when it came to my son. Continued to try not to worry about him, but it was difficult. In Bizarro World, Cosmic Moi had had three kids—two boys and Jamie. The Jamie there was at least borderline autistic, though much of that was because she was seeing into all the other universes where she existed. And she existed in a lot. But I didn’t know what Charlie might be seeing, if he was autistic, if there was a developmental problem no one had identified, or if he was just fine and would catch up.
Then again, when it came to telekinesis, Charlie was number one with a bullet. And he proved it the moment I saw him, because he grinned his father’s grin and lifted me into the air. High up in the air. Up to the ceiling up in the air.
Fortunately, Jeff was there, because while Charlie was great with the lifting, for the heavier items, like a full-grown woman such as myself, he wasn’t always sticking the landings. Sure enough, he lost control and I dropped like a stone.
Right into Jeff’s arms. “It’s nice of our son to keep on giving us these nostalgic moments,” Jeff said as he hugged me, hearts pounding. “At least I didn’t really have to run to catch you this time.”
“Go team.” Checked out Wasim and Naveed. Their mouths were both hanging open. “Welcome to our world.”
Was going to go over to Denise but Jamie stopped me. “Wait, Mommy.”
“For what, sweetie?”
Denise smiled at me. “For this.” She looked at Jamie. “Ready?”
Jamie nodded. “Mommy, I wanted to wait until you and Daddy were both with us. Miss Denise and I have something exciting to tell you! And show you!”
With that, Denise put Charlie down. As soon as his feet hit the floor, she let go.
“Mommy, Daddy . . . Charlie walked today!” Jamie sounded exceptionally proud, as if she’d trained him to do it. Possibly she had.
He’d been waiting for her cue, that was for sure, because the moment she stopped speaking he walked right to me and put his arms up.
Picked him up and gave him a hug. “Wow! Look at you!” Felt a huge wave of relief. He wasn’t as behind as I’d feared. Gave him another hug. “Mommy’s missed you tons, and I’m so disappointed Daddy and I didn’t see your first steps, but I’m so happy that your sister did. But, Charlie sweetie, I’d really appreciate you not lifting me up unless it’s really necessary. If Daddy hadn’t been here Mommy could have gotten hurt. Though I love you no matter what, my little man.”
He grinned at me again, definitely his father’s grin, without looking even remotely remorseful. Had a feeling it was because he wasn’t the least bit repentant. Also noticed something. “Um . . .”
“Do you see what I see?” Jeff asked.
“Um . . . yeah . . .”
Charlie grinned even wider. “I love you, Mommy. I love you, too, Daddy.”
Jeff and I gaped. In addition to Charlie speaking and, apparently, walking, he had a full set of teeth. “Um . . . when did Charlie’s teeth come in?”
“Oh,” Jamie said nonchalantly, “today. I didn’t want Charlie’s teeth to hurt you, Daddy. So I made sure that he didn’t hurt so you couldn’t feel it.”
A-C teeth tended to come in all at once. Considering that Jamie’s teething experience had been so hard on Jeff empathically that she and I had had to go down to his parents’ home in Florida to allow him to get through it, I couldn’t blame Jamie for not wanting Charlie’s teething to hurt her father. But this was beyond anything I’d expected.
For Jamie, “all at once” had meant weeks of teething agony. Apparently for Charlie “all at once” meant a couple of hours of Jamie doing whatever she’d done.
“Um, sweetie, did you, um, make Charlie’s teeth wait and come in all at one time?”
Jamie nodded. “I’ve been practicing.”
The room got quiet. “Practicing on who, sweetie?” I asked carefully.
Jamie gave me her “Mommy, you see but you do not observe” look. “My friends.” She said this as if it was obvious. Probably was, if we’d been paying attention, which, based on the expressions on the faces of the adults, none of us had been.
Looked at the four hybrid boys. Come to think of it, their teeth had come in with a lot less pain than Jamie’s. In fact, I couldn’t remember if Jeff had been affected by the boys’ teething or not, but if he had been, it had been mild enough that he hadn’t mentioned it.
“Ezra only had teething issues for a week,” Doreen said slowly. “And I remember thinking that Ross and Sean had had an easier time than Jamie, and that Patrick’s teething had been even easier . . .”
“Jamie-Kat, are you sure that you didn’t hurt yourself in order to help the others?” Jeff asked worriedly.
“I’m sure, Daddy,” she replied cheerfully. “I know to be careful.”
“She has a great career in dentistry ahead of her if she wants it,” Denise said with a little laugh. “I was there with them both this morning. Jamie told me what she was doing, she didn’t overstrain herself, and Charlie didn’t suffer at all. I’d have contacted you immediately if it had been different. And I’d have called you both over to see Charlie’s teeth and then have him walk for you but, well, you were a little busy.”
“That’s putting it mildly. When did he start talking?”
Denise shrugged. “Just now. You two got his first, well, sentences.” She grinned and hugged me and Charlie both. “I told you he’d catch up.”
“Wi
th a vengeance, apparently.”
“I made Mister Keith promise not to tell you,” Jamie said, looking up at him.
Keith nodded, looking slightly worried. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
Jeff laughed as he took Charlie from me and hugged and kissed him. “Yeah, it was.”
Chuckie arrived. “You wanted me, Jeff?”
“Yeah. Charlie, let’s show your Uncle Chuck what you did today.”
Jeff put Charlie down and he trotted right over to Chuckie, and put his arms up. “I love you, Uncle Chuckie.”
Chuckie gaped for a moment, then laughed and picked Charlie up. “I love you, too, kiddo.” He examined Charlie’s mouth. “All the teeth, too?”
Jamie shared her Magical Manipulation of her brother’s developmental stages. Chuckie asked serious questions, which she answered more than Denise did. Chuckie seemed pleased with all that Jamie had done. “I’m so proud of you,” he said seriously. “That was very well done and exceptional even for you, Jamie.”
She straightened up and preened. “Thank you, Uncle Chuckie. I’m glad you’re not mad at me.” Realized we hadn’t given her the Atta Girls that she not only deserved but clearly wanted. Felt like I was, again, winning The Worst Mother in the World Award.
He chucked her under her chin. “I promise, no one’s mad at you. You’re just amazing and it throws the rest of us sometimes. And parents worry the most. Your mother and father are just as proud of you as I am—they’re still adjusting to what’s happened, that’s all.”
“Chuck,” Jeff said, “not that we’re not thrilled about the rest of this, but Charlie also lifted, then dropped, Kitty.”
Chuckie gave Charlie a stern look. “You know you’re not supposed to be doing anything dangerous like that. You’d feel very badly if your mommy got hurt.”
“Hmmm, why do I get the feeling that you and Jamie and Charlie have had conversations Jeff and I are unaware of?”
He shrugged. “Because we have. I got in touch with Boz on Beta Eight, thanks to Emperor Alexander and King Benny. Boz agrees that the waterfruit you, Christopher, and I ate is why Charlie’s telekinetic and why Amy didn’t mutate like you did. The waterfruit fixed Christopher’s issues, at least some of them. And it enhanced things in you, Kitty, which you then passed on.”
“Enhanced what?”
This time everyone gave me the “really?” look. Chuckie sighed. “This question from the girl who talks to the animals?”
“Oh. OH! Yeah, I guess that’s a form of telepathy, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Missus Martini,” White said, coming into the room with Christopher, Amy, and Baby Becky in tow. “So I believe we may be able to expect telepathic talents from Charlie as well. Jeffrey tells us that our young man here has things to share with the family.”
Chuckie put Charlie down and he did a repeat, walking far more than toddling over to each one of them, telling them he loved them, showing off his new choppers, and then moving on to the next. He did this with every adult.
“Why isn’t Charlie talking to the other kids?” Jeff asked quietly.
“Oh, he’s talked to us plenty, Daddy,” Jamie said casually. “We all talk to each other in our minds already.”
At this everyone looked stunned and at each other, though Chuckie looked like this had confirmed his suspicions. I, however, looked at Lizzie. “Are they talking to you, too?”
She shook her head. “Not in the same way as they talk to each other. I think it’s a hybrid thing, honestly. I mean, Jamie can reach me if she really needs to, and so can the other kids, but it takes a lot more concentration.”
Looked at Raymond and Rachel. “But you two, no problems?”
Raymond nodded and looked guilty. Rachel didn’t. She stood up tall. “Yes. And we can talk to Cassidy and Chase, too.” The Maurer kids looked like Raymond—guilty.
Pondered why. “You know, it’s not like it’s a bad thing that you can do this.”
Cassidy, who was a year older than Raymond nodded. “We know. It’s harder for Lizzie because she’s already gone through . . . through . . .” He looked to Denise.
“Puberty,” she supplied. “And before anyone asks, no, I didn’t know, but I’ve suspected.”
Turned to Chuckie. “Okay, none of them ate the waterfruit. So, what’s your theory now?”
He walked over to Jamie and picked her up. She hugged him. Then he handed her to me. “There’s a reason why,” he said calmly. “I know you know. Stop pretending that you don’t. She’s exceptional. The most exceptional of a race of amazingly exceptional people, with DNA combined in from another exceptional person.”
“That’s sweet and all, but, seriously, it can’t just be Jamie.”
“It’s not.” Chuckie heaved a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. “I think you need to consider how evolution on this and all the Alpha Centauri planets happened. And I mean really think about it.”
CHAPTER 35
“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?” Jeff asked in a low voice.
My brain decided to join the party and do some heavy lifting. The Anciannas had meddled on this planet. A lot. And Wruck had told me when he and I had first met that his people looked like us—all of us. I’d seen him and others in their natural forms—they did look like all of humanity in one.
“We’ve got Anciannas blood in us, somewhere. Not all of us, but some of us. Chuckie and me, for sure.”
“You for sure,” Chuckie said. “Me, I don’t know.”
“Your intellect would indicate it.”
“Maybe. But even so, it’s traces. Various things would bring a recessive trait to the fore, and some powers are created by high stress situations. I think it’s why hybrid females are always so powerful, even when their sire isn’t Ronald Yates.”
“So, what, you think Erika Gower also has Anciannas blood in her?”
“I do.” Chuckie shrugged. “They were here. We know it.”
“Kitty said the Ancients were the Bible’s version of angels,” Lorraine said. “And we’ve seen them and they definitely fit the descriptions.”
“We know some of them stayed and lived on Beta Twelve—it’s why the Amazons are shapeshifters, after all. Who’s to say that more of them didn’t hang around? I mean, the Z’porrah and Anciannas that came here at the end of Operation Immigration were hanging out in that solar system that had intelligent life forming. It sounds more like their MO than not.”
“So . . . we all have alien blood in us?” Brian asked, managing not to clutch Patrick to him, but only just. “Chuck, is that what you’re saying?”
“Probably not all of us,” Chuckie said soothingly. “But a lot. I think it’s safe to say that the races that had large population numbers in the Middle East and Africa during Biblical times would have the most likelihood. Kitty’s Jewish, Erika Gower is African-American . . .” He looked over at Mahin. “It might be why you don’t have double-hearts, even though you’re a hybrid.”
She nodded. “That makes a certain amount of sense.”
“So, how much of this is theory?” Jeff asked.
Chuckie shrugged. “A lot of it. However, the waterfruit? That’s confirmed. Boz and the other Katyhopper Matriarchs all feel that it’s affected me, Kitty, and Christopher. In positive ways, only, so there’s that.”
“If it protected Amy and Becky, then I’m great with it,” Christopher said.
“So, what do we do with this information?” Jeff asked.
Chuckie shot him a small smile. “Eat your dinner.” We all stared at him and he laughed. “This changes literally nothing. It’s the same thing as discovering you share genetics with Abraham, Mohammed, Jesus, or some guy in the middle of nowhere that no one’s ever heard of. It doesn’t change who anyone is as a person. At all.”
“Ah, okay,” Jeff said, sounding dazed and suspicious both. “Chuck, we have room f
or you. Why don’t you eat with us?”
Chuckie looked vaguely uncomfortable. “Jeff, is that a Presidential request, or just a friend request?”
Jeff opened his mouth, cocked his head, then shut his mouth. He shook his head. “Friend request only. If you already have plans, don’t let us keep you from them.”
Chuckie gave Jeff a half smile. “Thanks. I appreciate it. I do have plans for tonight.”
Jeff clapped him on the shoulder. “Good. And I mean that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Chuckie nodded then gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Relax,” he said quietly. “And talk to Wruck alone when you get a chance.”
Gave him a fast hug, then he sauntered off. Chose not to ask why Jeff had acted like he had. I’d ask later, in the hopes that it was because Chuckie had a date, versus a covert mission.
The room was set up with four tables of eight. Normally the Whites would have been seated with us, but under the circumstances, we had Siler, Lizzie, Wasim, and Naveed with us instead. Since Charlie was still in a high chair, we were able to have Mahin at our table, too.
Dinner conversation managed to stagger back onto the topic of the first day at a new school versus all the things Charlie was doing, Jamie had done, and the kids were all capable of. Everyone seemed much happier discussing Sidwell and all the positives it offered.
Dinner was Chef’s standard triumph of deliciousness, but I had so many things racing around in my mind I barely noticed my food. I mean, oh sure, I had seconds of almost everything, but still, I wasn’t really focused on the food.
Let Jamie, Lizzie, and Wasim do most of the talking, meaning the girls chattered to their fathers, telling them all about what they’d done, and Wasim added in when one of them gave him his cue to talk, which was usually them looking at him expectantly.
Serene, Joe, and Randy joined us as we were getting dessert. The three of them kissed their spouses, picked up their boys, and wolfed down their dinners with the kids on their laps. The kids all looked happy again, so maybe quality time did matter as much as quantity. To top it off, Charlie did them a solid and waited until they’d caught up to everyone else to show them his new achievements.