Esha Napoleon: Thank you! Souless666: He's angry and mostly just talking right now. He's never said anything remotely like that before but then again, he's never had Cooper trying to steal his spouse before, so he don't know how to react. This isn't something he knows how to deal with. Annabelle would definitely not approve and Mindy's trying to make it clear she don't like that talk at all and wants him to stop it. EternalxInsanity: The only upside is that Mindy's NOT his biological mother…but yeah, this is pretty twisted, considering he's doing all this lusting while calling her "Mom". That just takes it to a whole new level it shouldn't be at to begin with. NeroAnne: Cooper is uh…well he's no longer really thinking that clearly. James has become public enemy number one in the world according to Cooper Lawson. Will James disown him? That's something we'll get to in the near future.
…
James didn't exactly have an easy time sleeping that night. He kept flashing back to everything Caroline had made him do and it made it so that he spent the last couple of hours in bed just holding Mindy and Elizabeth and watching them sleep. That calmed him down somewhat, but then thoughts about Cooper drifted into his head and made him scowl. He didn't know what had gotten into his son but he wanted it to stop before it went any further. It was one thing to have Cooper hang all over here when it was obviously it was all innocent and shit. He liked that Cooper had someone who understood him so well and had someone to relate to. Mindy being his best friend had been a good thing. But now things were going too far. It would have been one thing for Cooper to just be in love with Mindy but now it was painfully obvious that it was his intent to steal her away and that was not going to fly with James. Mindy was his wife and he loved her and that was that. He wasn't about to let her get stolen from him. Cooper could kiss his ass if he thought that was going to happen.
Elizabeth opened her eyes and yawned, making him grin and kiss the top of her head gently. "Hey Lizzie Bear," he said gently. "Let's get you your bottle and Mommy her milkshake." He carefully got out of bed and placed her in her basinet so he could get dressed. As he was pulling on his clothes, he saw his knife and it about made him throw up. The thing had been used on Mindy. It had been used to hurt his Baby Doll; Caroline had made him RAPE his own fucking wife with it. With shaky hands he grabbed the weapon and threw it into the little trash can that was by their bed. He couldn't use it anymore. The weapon had been ruined for him. He was going to have to go buy a new hunting knife now and made sure it didn't look too much like this one.
"Let's make you all pretty for Mommy," James said as he changed Elizabeth into a cute little pink dress and white shoes, topping it all off with a little baby pink bow. Elizabeth cooed and waved her fists around the whole time and he chuckled as he picked her up and kissed her cheek. "You're a good little Lizzie Bear," he said as he carried her downstairs to the kitchen. He placed her in her chair and kissed the top of her head before going to the blender so he could start preparing Mindy's morning drink. Elizabeth grabbed the spoon that was sitting in front of her and she began banging it against her little tray on her high chair.
"What are you doing?" James asked incredulously.
Elizabeth just squealed and continued banging away and he laughed and finished preparing Mindy's milkshake and her bottle. When he was done, he balanced his creations in one hand and her in the other and carried her back upstairs, where Mindy was still sleeping. "Rise and shine Baby Doll," he said as he placed the milkshake down on the dresser next to the bed and sat down, feeding Elizabeth as he nudged Mindy gently. "I have a treat for you."
Mindy mumbled incoherently for a moment before opening her eyes. "Jamie?" she said, reaching out and placing her small little hand on his leg. "What are you doing up already?"
James shrugged. "I couldn't sleep anymore."
Mindy frowned and pursed her lips. "Did you have bad dreams?" she asked as she grabbed her milkshake and began to drink it. James had put one of those crazy twirly hot pink straws in it so she could drink it through that. The straws were just so her that he always kept so many of them on hand that he probably had more than the damn grocery store.
James didn't answer that and focused on feeding Elizabeth, which told Mindy all that she needed to know. "Oh Jamie…" She snuggled up to him and kissed his neck. "You should have woke me up."
James shook his head. "You needed your sleep."
"You need your sleep too."
"Yeah well mine isn't as important as yours."
"It is too," Mindy insisted stubbornly. She kissed his neck again before smiling at Elizabeth. "Tell him Lizzie Bear." She giggled as Elizabeth stared at her with wide eyes. "She's so beautiful."
"Yup," James agreed. "Our beautiful future lesbian-"
"Jamie!" Mindy said in exasperation. "We talked about that!"
"Baby Doll when I said no boys, I meant no boys," James said firmly. "I'm not being swayed on this."
Mindy rolled her eyes. "Girls are not any better. Most of them are spiteful and jealous little bitches who are very mean and stupid. Boys-"
"Are icky icky creatures," James finished. He held Elizabeth protectively and shook his head. Poor Elizabeth had no idea her parents were already determining who she could or could not date. Mindy had a vendetta against women so the lesbian thing probably wouldn't pan out too well and any guy she would bring home in the future was sure to be horribly murdered by James. At the rate this was going, they were going to try their hardest to turn her into an eternally single lady who was only going to have them for company.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Connor and Tryg yelled as they ran into the room. They jumped right into the bed even though James had told them to be more careful a thousand times before because of little Elizabeth.
"Babies!" Mindy said gleefully. She cupped both of their faces and gave them big kisses.
"We're hungry Mommy," Tryg informed her.
"Yeah!" Connor agreed. He grabbed Mindy's arm and tugged on it impatiently. "We want you to make pancakes Mommy!"
Mindy looked at James and grinned. "Pancakes sound good to you?"
"Anything you make sounds good to me," James replied.
"Ah…" Mindy kissed him on the lips.
"Ew!" Connor groaned with a shake of his head. "Not in front of Elizabeth Daddy!" He put his hand over her eyes and glared at James. "You're going to give her ideas!" That comment made James's jaw drop in horror and Mindy giggle uncontrollably for the next ten minutes straight.
…
"That smells GOOD Mommy!" Scarlett declared as she and Thorn sat down at the table. Connor, Tryg and James were already at the table and Oxa and Snoopy were chasing each other around through the kitchen and the living room. Amber and Cooper were the only ones missing. Amber wasn't in her room and James had a feeling she was in Cooper's room, but he couldn't find out for sure. Cooper's door was locked and when James had knocked, Metallica was blasted so loudly that it made the windows vibrate. That had irritated James but he was going to try not to pick a fight about it. He was going to have to talk to Amber alone and hope that Cooper hadn't seriously brainwashed her already. His hope wasn't high on that prospect though. Cooper had seriously lost it because of his thing with Mindy and there was no telling what lengths he would go to to get her.
"Thank you!" Mindy chirped. She set the stacks of pancakes in the middle of the table and then took Elizabeth from James and kissed her before setting her down in her high chair and plopping down on James's lap. "Thorn, can me and Daddy borrow Oxa for a little bit today?"
Thorn gave Mindy a curious look. "Why? What do you want with her?"
"Daddy and I are going shopping," Mindy said with a little smile. "And we need Oxa's opinion. We can't get it unless she likes it."
"Oh. Okay!" Thorn turned around in her seat. "Oxa! Come here Oxa!"
Oxa came trotting in a few seconds later, actually carrying Snoopy by the collar and inadvertently choking the puppy a little bit. "BAD KITTY!" Connor yelled. He snatched Snoopy out of Oxa's grasp and started checking him over. "BAD BAD KITTY!"
"Oxa wasn't being bad!" Thorn yelled defensively. She got out of her chair and hugged her cat defensively. "She was just giving Snoopy a ride!"
James took Snoopy from Connor and began checking him over. "It doesn't look like Oxa bit him," he assured his son.
"Well she's still MEAN!" Connor exclaimed. He took Snoopy back and cuddled him close. "Why does she have to be so mean? Snoopy never does anything!"
"Well Snoopy's not that smart," Scarlett pointed out. "Or that brave. Oxa is just trying to toughen him up and knock sense into him.
"I'm gonna knock sense into YOU!" Tryg exclaimed in retaliation.
"Nobody is knocking sense into anyone!" James said firmly. "You hear me?"
"Yes Daddy," all the kids except for Connor said dutifully. He was too busy fussing over Snoopy and having other things on his mind.
"Daddy? When you and Mommy leave, is Cooper going to babysit us when you go?"
James blinked and looked at Mindy, who shrugged. "I was going to ask him to do it," she said.
Connor made a face and shake his head. "Can we have Tiffany or Julie instead? I don't like Coopy when he's grouchy."
Thorn pouted her lips. "Julie just might make him grouchier though. They don't get along so well."
"It's stupid," Scarlett declared. "I like Julie. She said that after she cleans out some of the old stuff in her house, she would let me have some of the china dolls she has if I want them."
"But Cooper hates her," Thorn reminded her twin. "If he sees her here-"
"He won't come out of his room when he's like this," Connor said wisely. "Not until he's more awake and he can fawn over Mommy better."
Mindy buried her face into her hands at that while James just about bent his fork completely in half. Connor was noticing this shit. That was bad because Connor rarely noticed anything that didn't directly affect him. Yeah, this bullshit definitely has to end before it goes any further. I don't need it getting any more out of control.
…
James and Mindy walked hand in hand into the little petting zoo, James keeping a tight hold on Oxa's leash so the jungle cat wouldn't run off and eat one of the animals. Mindy was pushing Elizabeth in her stroller and she led the way to Jim, who was the one who was going to sell them the goat. "The boys are going to be so happy," she said with a nod.
"Yeah well they better take care of this thing," James said as he eyed Jim warily. Jim was about sixty years old or so and while he looked like an innocent little grandpa, his eyes lingered on Mindy just a little bit too long and in a little bit too pervy of a way for James's taste. "So Grandpa, we can just pick any one we want?" He made sure to place himself more in front of Mindy so the ancient eyes couldn't look at her too much.
Jim nodded. "Any one of them in the fence is yours for the taking."
"Sweet." James knelt down next to Oxa and pet her head. "What do you think girl? Are there any goats in here that you won't kill with your bare teeth?"
Oxa gave him an insulted look before hissing and growling at the goats who were already getting too close to her. They immediately ran off in fear and James was about to say that this probably was a horrible idea when he noticed that there was one goat in particular that hadn't run off on them. It was a small white one and it was blinking at Oxa stupidly. Oxa glared at it until it ran and head butted the fence so hard that it staggered back and fell on to it's side.
"What the hell?" Mindy exclaimed while James and Oxa tilted their heads in confusion.
"Yeah, that one is all sorts of stupid," Jim said with a nod. "I don't know what went wrong with him."
"Does he have a name?" James asked.
"Nah. We just call him 'dumbass'".
James watched as "Dumbass" got back up to all four hooves and made pathetic sounding goat sounds. "What do you think? You think you can not eat him?" he asked Oxa.
"Bring him out and let him be close to her," Mindy told Jim. "They can't get along through a fence."
Jim didn't exactly look eager to do that but he got the goat out anyway. "She eats it, you buy it," he warned.
James shook his head and kept his tight grip on Oxa's leash. Oxa sniffed the goat and it tried to scamper away, only to run into the fence yet again. James could have sworn that Oxa actually looked amused by the goat's shenanigans. "You like?" he asked.
Oxa stared at him and actually seemed to nod her head in agreement. This goat could come home because it amused her.
"Yay!" Mindy cheered. "Put a bow on him Mister Jim! "We're taking him home!"
…
When James and Mindy returned home, they took Oxa inside first and found that Julie, Chelsea, Thorn and Scarlett had a rather elaborate fort set up in the middle of the living room. "It's a castle Daddy!" Thorn announced. "Me and Scarlett are the princesses and Julie is the queen and Chelsea is…well she's not actually playing because she doesn't know how so she's just standing there and moving stuff for us.
"Daddy!" Chelsea said, immediately going over to James and holding up her good arm.
"Hey kiddo." James picked her up and kissed her cheek.
Mindy smiled and hugged both twins tightly. "Later on do you princesses want to get some princess fruit snacks?"
"Yeah!" Scarlett cheered.
"And can we make them into floats like you did with the aliens for Connor and Tryg?" Thorn asked. "Princesses should get their own special floats."
"They should," Mindy agreed. She looked over at Julie. "Where are the boys?"
"Basement," Julie replied. "They're playing infidels or something like that."
"Of course they are," James said with a shake of his head. He handed Oxa to Thorn and let Mindy take Elizabeth so he and Chelsea could go to the basement door and open it. "Boys! Come up here for a second!"
"We didn't do it!" Connor denied as he and Tryg ran upstairs.
"Yeah!" Tryg agreed! "It was the girls Daddy! It really was!"
James chuckled and shook his head. "You're not in trouble sillies. Mommy and I have a surprise for you."
"REALLY? YAY! Where is it?"
"Follow us," Mindy ordered. She and Elizabeth led the way while Connor and Tryg stayed right behind her and James and Chelsea brought up the rear. When they got outside James went up ahead and got Spike out of the backseat of the car, causing Connor and Tryg to whoop excitedly.
"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" Connor screamed at the top of his lungs, causing Julie, Thorn and Scarlett to come outside and even Cooper and Amber stuck their heads out Cooper's window to see what the commotion was about.
Mindy giggled as Tryg hugged the goat, who looked scared out of his mind. "You're welcome honey. What are you going to name it?"
Tryg and Connor exchanged looks. "Spike!" Connor decided. "His name is Spike!"
"You keep that thing away from my stuff!" Cooper yelled. "Or it's going to goat hell!"
Connor stuck out his tongue and flipped Cooper off. "It wouldn't touch your stupid stuff anyway!"
"Yeah!" Tryg agreed.
James nodded. "Spike here likes to avoid attempted wife stealers with Oedipus complexes," he said as loudly as possible.
Mindy and the kids frowned. "What?"
"James!" Julie said in exasperation.
Cooper just made a face before pulling Amber back inside and slamming the window shut. James knew he probably shouldn't have said that but he hadn't been able to help himself. He knew Cooper liked to throw barbs and all kinds of shit at people he was pissy with and the way he figured it, he might as well start throwing them too.
