Chapter 3: The Religious Hero and The Uncaring Queen
Suggested Track: Rainbow Connection – Sarah Mclachlan
The restaurant wasn't packed like it usually was. It's current occupants were just the few regulars and, arriving one by one, the group of friends.
"Well, look who finally showed up!" Heath teased as Duece walked in the door with Cleo not far behind.
Cleo raised an eyebrow in annoyance. "You're too old for your games, Heath. Set a good example for your boy."
At this moment, Duece and Cleo's twin girls (who were about the age of three) came trotting up, stopping to take in their surroundings. Viper, the bolder one, adjusted her dark glasses and looked around the place, smiling with approval. Dusa, on the other hand, was not so brave, and she clung to her father's pant leg right away.
"How now?" Cleo cooed, stooping down and patting Dusa's head. "Don't hide from our friends, my sweet gem."
Duece bent down and pried Dusa off his leg, picking her up and saying, "Look, there are paintings on the wall. Wanna go look at them?"
Dusa, who was very fond of art, nodded and wrapped her arms around her father's neck as he started towards the paintings. Before he did, he said to Cleo, "We're going over there."
Cleo nodded. "Of course, I'll tell you when there's a waiter, my darling," she took Viper's hand and led her to the booth, taking a seat. Heath and Abbey had already been seated, along with Jackson and Frankie and their infant son, Johnathan.
Frankie grinned when she saw Cleo, and reached out to shake Viper's little hand. "Why, hello! Hi, Viper! How are you?"
Viper smiled, returning the handshake. "I am good today," she then focused her attention to the newborn in the baby carrier, touching his palm gently and watching his hand wrap around her finger.
"How old is he, now?" Heath asked Jackson, who simply gazed at the way little Viper interacted with Jonathan.
"About five weeks old," Jackson said after a moment, affectionately rubbing his son's cheek. "It's hard to believe, really. I mean, think about it: nine months ago, he didn't even exist! It's weird to think about, isn't it?"
Heath nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess I never thought about that," he looked over at Icer, who had both his hands on the table and was looking around at the door.
"Valentina's still not here!" Icer whined anxiously, chewing on his lip.
"She'll be here soon, buddy," Heath assured, patting his son's back. "Can't you look at the kid's menu and see what you wanna eat?"
Icer pouted, sinking down in the chair. "I guess,"
The door opened, and Abbey tapped her son's shoulder. "Mal'chik, look! Here now, she comes."
In through the door walked Draculaura, Clawd, Howleen, Valentine and, much to Icer's delight, Valentina.
When Icer saw his friend, he leapt out of the booth immediately and tried to run to her, but Abbey grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Hey! Come on, now, naughty boy!"
Abbey took Icer by the hand and went to greet her friends, and Duece took this moment to approach Clawd and Valentine.
"Hey, there!" Duece greeted, shaking Clawd's hand while balancing Dusa in the crook of his arm. "It's great to be here, right?"
Clawd nodded. "Yeah, it is. Man, I haven't seen you in a while," he took notice of Dusa, and his voice dropped a bit quieter. "Which one is that, again?"
"This is Dusa," Duece clarified, feeling somewhat irritated. "You'll know Viper because she wears glasses and Dusa doesn't need to,"
"Daddy," Dusa said in a voice so quiet it was nearly a breath. "Daddy, I'm hungry."
It took Duece a moment to understand what she had said, and when he did, he answered, "I know, we'll eat in a minute, sweetie."
Valentine glanced around a bit, raising an eyebrow at Clawd. "Wasn't Dodger with us?"
"What do you mean?" Clawd asked, somewhat confused.
"He came with us, didn't he?"
Clawd looked behind him, and then began to look around frantically. "What the-?! Oh, no!" he tapped Draculaura. "Where's Dodger!?"
Draculaura's face fell. "He's not with you?!"
At this moment, Clawd's ears picked up the sound of giggling, and he turned to a nearby potted plant. Angered, he stalked over to the plant, reached behind it and pulled out five year old Dodger.
"Ah! Daddy!" Dodger squealed, kicking his little feet and squirming from his father's grip. "Daddy, I wanted to jump out and scare you!"
"You scared me enough!" Clawd scolded, handing the child over to his mother. "Now, let's go sit down, okay?"
As everybody settled down at the booth, Heath got Jackson's attention by lightly poking his shoulder.
"So, what were you gonna tell me about that little girl you saw at the hospital?"
Jackson nodded, taking a sip of his water. "Oh, yeah. There's a little vampire girl, probably about five years old based on the size of her fangs. Somebody found her at a gas station near the city. She doesn't talk, but she seems to understand English."
"No idea where she came from?" Heath inquired. Jackson shook his head, sighing.
"No idea. She could be a victim of human trafficking or even child prostitution, which…" Jackson glanced around to make sure no children were eavesdropping, then went back to the conversation. "I think the second one is true. She has some…injuries that could've only been inflicted by sexual abuse. It's terrible. And if her parents weren't her abusers, then they're probably worried sick about her."
Heath looked over at Icer, who was just a short distance away with Valentina near the jukebox. "I can't imagine being separated from Icer like that," Heath sighed, resting his head in his hand. "I would just feel so scared, and I know Abbey would, too."
"The feeling of thinking you've lost your child is an awful one," Jackson said softly, looking to little Jonathan he lay snuggled in Frankie's arms. Frankie, who had been listening, delicately passed Jonathan over to his father and brushed Jackson's arm tenderly. Jackson planted a kiss on Jonathan's head, watching him yawn and stretch his arms. "I remember when he was born, he was just totally still and quiet. I was mortified because I thought he was just gone forever, that all the toys we'd bought him and the crib we'd prepared had all been for nothing. And then," Jackson lightly traced the stitches on the baby's neck with his finger, rubbing the bolts sticking out and feeling the tiny flicks of static. "Frankie suggested we give him these. Surprisingly, it worked, and when we added some electricity he just started coughing. We were both just so relieved," Jackson smiled fondly at the memory, thinking of how happy he'd been at the moment he realized that his son was going to live after all. His smile faded, and he looked over at Heath. "I feel for this girl's parents, if they are indeed worried about her."
"Jackson," Frankie spoke up, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I meant to ask when you told me about this earlier: do you think I could come talk to this girl?"
Jackson quirked an eyebrow. "You want to?"
Frankie nodded. "Yeah, maybe I can get her to say something. Is she open for visitors?"
"I'm not sure," Jackson admitted. "But, maybe I can arrange something."
"Do you think I could go, too?" Draculaura asked, and when Jackson looked at her in alarm, she grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear. It's just, I won't be doing anything tomorrow since Clawd and Dodger are going to the museum form the afternoon and my meeting cancelled. Since this girl is a vampire, she might feel better with another vampire."
Jackson nodded slowly, contemplating this. "Yes, of course, that might work. All right, I'll see if I can work something out, and you guys can meet her tomorrow afternoon, okay?"
Saturday afternoon, at the local hospital, Jackson led Frankie and Draculaura down the hall to a small but enjoyable room.
"She's in here," Jackson gestured to the door. "She's very skittish, so be careful not to upset her. If you need anything, call the nurse. I need to take care of something, and I'll be back in about half an hour."
"Jackson, wait!" Frankie grabbed Jackson's arm as he was about to leave and kissed his cheek. "What time did we tell the babysitter we'd be back?"
Jackson pecked her lips gently. "About an hour. Is that enough time?"
Frankie squeezed his hand, nodding. "I think so, yep."
Jackson smiled at her, kissing her hand once before disappearing down the hallway.
Very quietly, Draculaura and Frankie entered the room, careful not to scare the small child sitting in the bed watching TV. The girl didn't seem to notice them until Frankie gently knocked on the wall, making the little one jump and gasp.
"No, it's okay!" Frankie assured, reaching out and rubbing the girl's shoulder caringly. "Come on, sweetie, we're not gonna hurt you."
The girl relaxed a bit, though her eyes still showed fright. She stared at the strangers' faces through wide, brown eyes (an unusual color for a vampire), and she turned back to the TV. For a moment, no one spoke until Frankie sat on the bed and pulled out a small book from her bag.
"Can you read?" Frankie asked, showing her the book.
The girl looked down at the cover, then up at Frankie with a shrug, mouthing the words, 'a little'.
Frankie smiled, reading off the words printed on the cover. "'Famous Women Throughout History'. I'm going to show some of these women to you today to show you that you can do anything, all right?"
When the girl nodded, Frankie delightedly opened the book and flipped to a random page, grinning at the woman she found. "Ah! Here's a great example. This is Anne Hutchinson. She believed what she wanted to believe, and she tried to tell other people but they didn't want to listen to her. They put her on trial, and they even threw her out of town! But, today, some people call her a hero."
The little girl looked somewhat unimpressed, but she seemed to be staring very intently at the name printed across the top. After some silence, Frankie flipped through the book again. this time, the little girl suddenly pointed to a page, and Frankie halted.
"What?" she looked down, seeing the woman the girl had pointed out. "Oh, her? She's not a hero. Her name was Marie Antoinette, and she was not a very good queen. Her people were very poor, yet she did nothing to help them. Isn't that sad?"
Frankie's brow furrowed, seeing the girl had placed her thumb on the page as a sort of bookmark as she flipped back to the page on Anne Hutchinson, and she began flipping between the two pages. She glanced up at Frankie, and then pointed to the word, 'Anne' and on the other page 'Marie'. She pointed to the names a second time and pointed to herself.
It took Frankie a moment to realize what the girl was trying to tell her. "Your name is Anne Marie?" she said finally.
Anne Marie grinned, looking away shyly. Frankie simply smiled back, running a hand through the child's hair. "That's a pretty name."
Draculaura, however, suddenly felt a tingle in her brain, as if an overlooked memory tried to get her attention. Her eyes widened, and she remembered that 'Anne Marie' had been the name of Valentine's illegitimate daughter, the one the social workers took from him six years earlier. And, as Draculaura stared at this girl a bit more, she noticed the brown eyes matched Jared's eyes almost perfectly, and her jawline and ears synchronized seamlessly with those of Valentine's.
As Draculaura watched Anne Marie come out of her shell, she thought, This has to be her. It just has to be.
Hello, again! Wow, it's been awhile.
I thought I should just take a moment to say that I got the role of "Magdelena" in my upcoming show "The Craving", which should be very successful when it premieres on stage this fall! I'm very excited about that, as you can see!
So, thoughts on this chapter? What do you think of the OC babies? Cute or nah? Do you think that little girl is Valentine's daughter? How do you think she ended up where she did? Please give me your thoughts!
Until next chapter, fellow monsters!
