Jalin woke up from his nap only to see his family there. They all had surprised looks on their faces. He wondered why. He looked to his right and saw that Salvia was sleeping right beside him. He smiled shyly and faced his family. Blu walked up to Jalin.
"Wow, Jalin. You work fast."
Jalin knew what he meant and blushed.
"Dad, we didn't do that!"
Salvia lazily opened his eyes due to the commotion she heard. She saw Blu and looked to her side to see how close she was to Jalin. She remembered them cuddling, which made them go to sleep. She blushed faintly and stood up.
"Oh, it's not what you think."
She looked towards the entrance of the den and saw three other blue macaws. She recognized Jewel, but the other two were strangers. They looked like Blu and Jewel, meaning that they were most likely Jalin's siblings. She approached them and introduced herself.
"Hi. My name's Salvia. You must be Jalin's siblings."
Elena smiled and walked up to her.
"Hello. My name is Elena."
Leoncio smiled at her.
"The name's Leoncio."
"Nice to meet both of you."
Leoncio looked at Jalin and grinned. Jalin knew why he was grinning and sighed. Why did Leoncio inherit his father's perverted personality?
"We didn't do that."
Salvia stiffened and blushed as his words traveled through the air. Jalin realized that she heard it and shyly looked down. Blu couldn't help but chuckle at his son's actions. He and Jewel walked up to Jalin.
"You and Salvia are getting quite acquainted," whispered Jewel. "I'm guessing you took my advice."
"Well, I took both. She wanted to go to the club, so I took her there. Just one song made us dance and then I got punched out by a Hyacinth Macaw."
"A Hyacinth Macaw? Mejo, are you okay?"
"Yeah. You should thank Salvia for taking care of me."
"So, I'm guessing you're not leaving now," brought up Blu.
"Well, no. Salvia and I are dating."
Blu and Jewel warmly smiled.
"Well, history does repeat itself. It reminds me the first day I met your mom. One day turned into forever, and I would never take it back."
Jewel looked at her mate with dreamy eyes.
"Oh, Blu."
Jewel came in for a kiss. As his parents shared a passionate kiss, he walked over to Salvia. Elena and she were chuckling about something. Leoncio walked up to him and smiled at his brother.
"Well, Brother. All I can say is that I'm grateful for you. You found yourself a pretty bird for you, and I have my mate."
"Yeah," Jalin breathed before he finally registered the last part of what Leoncio said. "Wait, mate?"
"Well, Elena and I are official. We wanted to invite you to the dinner our parents suggested. It's tomorrow. Think you can come?"
Jalin smiled.
"Of course. After all, it's my baby brother's dinner."
"Don't push me, Jalin," said Leoncio in a semi-serious tone.
Jalin laughed a bit. Leoncio shook his head and patted his brother's back painfully. Jalin stopped with a slight pain in his eyes.
"Okay, okay," said Jalin. "Geez, Brother. Can't you take a joke?"
"You know I don't like it when you call me that. Besides, that's not the only reason why we're here."
"What do-"
"Damn, Jalin. You should've made your den closer to the ground."
The birds looked towards the outside of the den to see Abe, well, Abe's face for the most part. He smiled at them. Jalin approached the man who saved his family so many years ago.
"Jalin, I need you to come back to the sanctuary."
Jalin looked at Abe curiously.
"It's because I need to run another blood test."
Jalin shivered a bit. The needle stung like a bee's sting. Sucking out his blood made him drowsy, and he would've passed out if Abe hadn't fed him. He scooted towards Salvia.
"C'mon, Jalin. I need you to be brave. The test is important to all of us."
Salvia saw that Jalin was nervous. She understood how painful the needle was. She was there with Jalin. Salvia wrapped her wing around one of Jalin's wing. He looked down and lifted his head towards Salvia. She gave a heartwarming smile to Jalin. The way Salvia smiled gave him the confidence to confront Abe. He walked over to Abe, still holding Salvia's wing.
"I had a feeling Salvia was with you. Angelica had been worrying about you all day."
Salvia's eyes widened. Of course, she had forgotten. She had been too content with Jalin that Angelica was the last thing on her mind. She felt horrible for making Angelica worry about her. Salvia released Jalin's wing and walked outside. She looked down from the branch. Abe chuckled.
"She's back at the bird sanctuary with my daughter, Salvia," explained Abe.
Salvia looked back at Jalin and walked to him.
"Oh my gosh. I feel horrible. We should've left a note or something."
"Well, let's go to the bird sanctuary. Abe said that she's waiting there."
"Okay."
Jalin looked at Abe and nodded. Abe smiled and looked down. He didn't realize how high he was. He began to position himself for his descent down, but he accidentally lost balance. He fell off the tree, hitting a couple of branches on the way down. A prickling bush cushioned his fall. Dianna, Tulio, and Alex had just made it to the tree where Jalin's den was. Dianna had seen her husband land face-first in the bushes. She walked up to him.
"Climbing trees again?" she sighed.
Abe stood up from the bush and brushed his clothes with his hands.
"You know me, Dear."
Dianna smiled.
"Yep. Youth never seems to fade away from you."
"And neither from you."
Dianna came closer to him and gave him a kiss. After two seconds, they parted from the kiss, each with smiling faces.
"Not in public. Yuck. How embarrassing."
They looked down and saw their son.
"Alex, we're miles away from civilization," explained Abe. "How is it embarrassing?"
"I know, but anyone can be here. It's still open to the public."
"Well, no," said Tuilo. "This is all private due to the EPA and other organizations."
"Oh," Alex simply said. "But still, it's just icky. Trading each other's spit."
Abe chuckled.
"When you fall in love, you'll understand."
The humans started walking back to the sanctuary as the birds guided through the jungle.
"Where are they?" Kassandra asked Angelica.
Both girls were waiting for Abe and the others at the sanctuary. Kassandra was at Angelica's side as she mended a bird's broken wing.
"They'll be here," she answered as she finished wrapping a new bandage around the parakeet.
The green parakeet chirped. Angelica smiled. Kassandra looked at the bird.
"Will it be okay?"
"In a few more days," answered Angelica. "Then it can go back living in the jungle."
"So you work here now? You not running the pet shop?"
Angelica smiled.
"The pet shop is the job I like. I could never quit working at the shop. I'm just helping Tulio as he's out."
"Oh, good. You the only one I trust if Princess breaks."
Angelica smiled.
"How is Princess?"
"She great," smiled Kassandra, but it faded slowly away into a wondering look. "Daddy seems to not like her. We went to the beach and took Princess. She ran to the water and did number one. Daddy got a paper from the officer and started saying naughty words Mommy said we should never say, but I don't understand. I go number one in the water, and no one gets mad."
The door opened. Angelica and Kassandra watched Abe, Dianna, Tulio, and Alex enter the room. Angelica looked at the lightly scratched Abe.
"What happened?"
"I fell off a tree."
"What were you doing climbing a tree?"
"Getting Jalin."
The blue macaws flew through the opened door and landed on the long, metallic table that had Salvia's cage on it. Salvia smiled at the first sight of Angelica and flew towards her. She landed on her shoulder and rubbed her head against Angelica's cheek. Angelica smiled.
"I missed you, Salvia. You had me worried."
Leoncio watched Salvia and faced Jalin. He walked up to him and whispered.
"Wow. She's more of that human's bitch than yours. Just like Papa is with Linda."
"Shut up, Leoncio," said Jalin.
"What was that about me?"
Leoncio looked back and looked at Blu, who stood a few inches away from them.
"Nothing," Leoncio smiled.
"Boy, I may be old, but I'm not deaf."
Abe walked up to Jalin.
"Jalin, are you ready for this?"
Jalin nodded. Abe picked him up and walked to the back door to the lab. Abe smiled at him.
"Jalin, thanks for being brave. I honestly thought you were going to put up a fight, because I could've also used your siblings' bloods for testing."
Jalin had a dumbstruck look. Abe was right. Since they were all related, the blood test would have the same result if Leoncio or Elena did it. He squawked as the door closed behind him. Salvia flew down and confronted Blu and Jewel.
"Um, did I hear that correctly?"
Blu nodded.
"I didn't know he cussed that extreme," said Salvia. "I thought it would go only as far as damn or asshole. I never imagined him saying the f-word."
"Yeah," Jewel sighed. "Jalin's almost like his father in every way."
Blu faced Jewel.
"The way you make it sound is like a bad thing. Remember, I'm the bird you mated with, and you love it."
Jewel smiled while she blushed.
"Well, yeah. You've been good to me, Blu, and I wouldn't have picked any other bird."
Blu and Jewel came in together for a kiss. Salvia looked at the door Jalin disappeared through. She smiled. Love will have it flaws, but it was those flaws that made love stronger. Now, all they had to do was wait.
An hour of waiting had passed. Leoncio and Elena had cuddled next to each other to go to sleep. Dianna had taken the kids out to get some lunch. They were going to bring back some tacos for Angelica, Tulio, and Abe. Blu and Jewel lied down in a relaxed position. In front of them was a standing Salvia. Her eyes stared at the lab door.
"It's all déjà vu to me," said Jewel. "Didn't we do this a couple of days ago?"
"I feel that days repeat themselves sometimes," said Blu. "It's like the same stories, but they are told in different perspectives. It's Disney all over again."
"I like the Disney stories. Reading them to the kids was always fun."
"Yeah, but it's the same thing, well most. There're always two people from different worlds or lifestyles, usually the opposite sex, and then at the end, they fall in love with each other. It's just the plot is different. The backbone idea is the same, but it's just a different view of it: "Aladdin", "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", "Wall-E", "Lady and the Tramp"…"
"All those stories seem similar to our life but just told differently," Jewel mentioned.
"How could it be? Those are just fantasy stories. This is real life."
Jewel smiled and looked at Salvia.
"Salvia, why don't you relax a bit? Abe will finish with Jalin when he finishes with Jalin."
"I know, but-"
The door of the lab finally opened. Jalin flew through the door and landed next to the group of Blu, Jewel, and Salvia. Abe came marching through the door with some papers in his hands. Salvia hugged Jalin, which caused him to smile.
"I didn't know you would miss me so much," he smirked.
Salvia let go of the embrace and looked at Jalin.
"What kept you so long?"
"Well, I guess Abe took and little too much blood from me, and I passed out. I woke up fifteen minutes ago with some food and water in front of me. I was eating the whole time as Abe finished the testing."
"So, what did Abe conclude?" asked Blu.
"I don't know. He just got the results and walked to open the door."
Leoncio woke up, hearing his brother's voice. He saw Jalin and woke up Elena. She yawned and opened her eyes to see her brother. They walked to him.
"Hey, Jalin," greeted Leoncio. "That took longer than expected."
"How do you know? It seemed that you two were sleeping."
"Well, we didn't get enough sleep last night," said Elena.
"Well, of course. You guys became mates."
The young couple blushed. Jalin smiled and looked up at Abe. The other birds also turned their attention towards Abe. Abe looked from the results and faced Angelica.
"Why did you do it?"
The eyes fell on Angelica. She stood confused.
"W-what are you talking about?"
"The first time we took the test, Jalin's blood sample was tainted before the intern got them."
"You have no proof to accuse me of it."
"Yes, I don't, but that doesn't mean you're not guilty of it. I just want to know why."
Angelica looked at Abe's face and sighed.
"Listen, it wasn't my fault."
Everyone's eyes, except Abe's eyes, widened. Angelica looked down.
"When I set Jalin's blood on the counter, a shelf above the vial had some chloroform above it. Something, like a rat, moved along that shelf and dropped the glass containing the chemical. The glass cracked on the shelf, because a puddle was formed on the shelf. Some drops leaked down and splashed into the conical vial that had the cap missing. When I came back with Salvia's blood, I saw the mess. I looked back at Tulio. He was making sure the birds were alright. I was going to tell him, but Jalin looked like he couldn't survive another blood test. I thought that the intern would figure it out and filter the blood out, but I guess I was wrong. I cleaned up the mess before Tulio saw it."
Abe faced the shocked Tulio.
"Wow, Tulio. I know you're underfunded, but I didn't know it was to the point to where you don't have caps for conical vials."
"But we could've waited until Jalin was better," said Tulio. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"It wasn't her fault," defended Abe, "but she concluded that chloroform spilled into Jalin's blood, which had a probability of its own. It could have spilled in, but at the same time, it could have not. There is no reliable proof that said a doctor did it, but having rats in the lab could. It explained the rat droppings I found in the corner of the lab."
"Wait. I got rats. Dang, I need to call the exterminator."
Tulio got out his cellphone and was about to dial for the exterminator.
"Wait," said Abe. "You may want to hear the results before you dial that exterminator."
Tulio nodded and dropped his hand. Abe looked at the paper and extended his hand out for Tulio and Angelica to see the paper closer. Abe smiled as the doctors looked at him with surprised faces.
"They are related."