Huey couldn't sleep that night, which wasn't all that surprising, but not any less annoying. He stayed on one side of the bed, curled up around his cramping stomach, one arm wrapped around the bucket he was keeping close to him at all times. Periodically, he would sit up to vomit into it, but there wasn't much to get out. He hadn't eaten a decent meal in days, and most of what he'd eaten had already been forcefully ejected from his body.
Everything was making him sick. Every smell, no matter how subtle, was making him even more nauseous and uncomfortable. When Ladd got up that morning to make coffee, Huey thought that he was going to be even sicker, clutching the bucket tight as he leaned his head over it. There was nothing left in his stomach but bile, and he could only manage to dry heave a few times before collapsing onto the bed.
"I brought you breakfast." Huey was stirred out of his sick stupor by Ladd's voice. The other man had come in, apparently while Huey wasn't paying attention, and was now sitting on the edge of the bed close to him with something on his lap. When he turned to face him, Huey could see that it was a plate of toast, only lightly burnt, with nothing on it. Still, it made him gag a bit, which didn't go unnoticed.
"I'm not hungry," he said, trying to curl up a bit more. He couldn't understand why these two were wrecking so much havoc on his body; both Chane and Liza were relatively easy pregnancies. These children shared half of that DNA. But, then, they were also Ladd's children. Perhaps that was why he was suffering so much.
Despite Huey's insistence that he didn't want to eat, Ladd kept the food there, pushing it towards him.
"You need to eat," Ladd replied. "Look, I know you don't want to. I know you're sick. But you have to." He was right, but Huey wasn't about to go out and admit that. Instead, upon realizing that Ladd wasn't going anywhere, he tentatively took a slice of toast and started to chew on it, keeping the bucket within arm's reach.
"This couldn't be all you came in here to talk to me about," Huey said between bites. Ladd shifted next to him, moved so that he could wrap his arms around Huey's waist from behind. Still not quite used to all of the close contact he was suddenly getting, he stiffened at first, then slowly allowed his muscles to relax. Besides, if Ladd was in here to give him the third degree, the least he could do was be comfortable while it was happening.
Ladd let Huey finish off the first piece of toast before actually asking his question. "So, these kids – are they gonna be like Chane and Liza?" The question made Huey totally freeze up, entirely unsure of how to answer that.
When his daughters had been conceived, it was under the impression that they would be pawns, beings for Huey to use, just like his homunculi. But with the two inside of him, there was no clear plan for what they should be. They weren't supposed to be alive. He wasn't supposed to be keeping them. At the same time, a part of him knew that these children wouldn't grow up like his first two daughters had. They were trained to be killers and their father's protectors almost as soon as they could walk. Chane had given up her voice in favor of keeping her father's secret, at the tender age of eleven.
Trying to gather his thoughts, Huey finally replied, "Chane and Liza had to be taught to become what they are," he said tentatively. "Renee and I had both come to the agreement that I would be their sole caretaker, and their purpose was to be my protectors, and carriers of my knowledge – my experiments." Sliding a hand down to his stomach, Huey rested it there, then started to speak again. "But I doubt that these two are going to follow that path. Unless that's what you wanted."
Huey could feel Ladd's breath on the nape of his neck as he rested his head on his shoulder, slow and pensive. "No. I wouldn't want that for any kid, and sure as hell not my own." Huey felt his heart clench at Ladd's words, understanding the sentiment. Ladd wasn't like Renee at all. He'd proven that by sticking around, holding Huey while he sobbed for hours and hours after telling him he couldn't abort the twins.
"Then they won't." Even so, Huey had no idea how he was supposed to raise "normal" children, or really how to raise children at all. All he understood was manipulation. He couldn't – or rather, simply didn't want to – feel love. Or so he told himself. For an outsider looking in, they would say that love had spared the twins from death before they were even born, but Huey wouldn't say that. There was no way he was going to admit to that.
Admitting that he loved anything, or anyone, would mean changing who he was, and accepting the fact that he was human, which was something Huey was never going to do.