I do not own any fablehaven characters. feel free to leave comments and constructive critism
Kendra rolled her eyes at the sound of a motorcycle coming up the driveway. The sound cut through the morning fog like a knife through butter. She watched as Seth swerved onto the gravel and put the bike in neutral. He killed the ignition and kicked the kickstand into place before swinging his leg over his motorcycle, taking his helmet off, and untying his military rucksack from the back. Then he flashed a mischievous grin that meant he knew exactly how cool he looked riding the cruiser.
The rucksack was Seth's more adult version of his cereal box adventure kit. It usually contained a few courage potion doses, a gaseous potion, a utility knife, repealing gear, the odd magical weapon for emergencies, an extra change of clothes, and walrus butter.
Unfortunately, Kendra supposed that the rucksack wouldn't carry any nausea medication. That's the one thing that she needed right now.
Kendra had been feeling only a little sick for the last week, starting two days ago, her morning sickness had come in full force. She had spent most of the early morning haunched over a toilet puking her guts out while Bracken held her hair back.
The plane that they were all supposed to take to Alaska was scheduled for later in the afternoon. Still, with at least an hour-long car ride, the group had decided to meet up early so they wouldn't risk being late.
The rest of the group gathered, with Seth being the last to arrive.
The drive to the airport was relatively uneventful. It had been fortunate that Kendra was sitting in front to curb any motion sickness that still lingered.
At one point, Seth, who was sitting next to Bracken in the second seat, leaned over to look at what Bracken was reading on his tablet.
"Whatcha got there?" Seth pointed. "Is it any good?"
Bracken looked up casually and shut off the tablet. Earlier that morning, he had downloaded several pregnancy information books, including What to Expect when your Expecting and We're Pregnant: The First Time Dad's Handbook to Pregnancy. Bracken had been casually reading throughout the trip. Unfortunately, he had yet to find a chapter that included anything about immortality or tips on what to do when your husband is a unicorn. If he got through this, maybe he should write the book on magical interspecies pregnancies.
"Bracken looked up at Seth, "It's more of a self-help book," he stated calmly.
Seth snorted, " what do you need help with? As far as everyone in the family are concerned, you and Kendra are both perfect and infallible."
"That's not true," Bracken disputed.
"Really?" Seth countered. "Name one thing that you are genuinely bad at."
"Easy," Bracken said, "pop culture trivia. I am terrible at telling the difference between all the different Chris actors."
"That doesn't count. You were locked in a dungeon for three hundred years."
"Okay, I am awful at talking to new people. I also tend to be spontaneous, and that can get me into trouble."
"yeah, but compared to me, you are downright safe and boring," Seth smirked.
"Compared to you, Patton Burgess was safe and boring." Bracken insisted.
Seth puffed his chest a little at that. "True."
"You and Kendra are still the legendary ones." Seth gave a defeated sigh.
Kendra turned around at hearing her name again. She smiled. "I guess we just can't help but be legends." She said, flashing him a wide grin and flipping her hair.
The rest of the car ride went smoothly, with Seth sitting dejected in the second seat after Kendra shut him down. Even though it was his own fault to bring up her flawless reputation among the magical community.
The flight to Alaska stopped had a nearly three-hour layover in Chicago and a shorter layover in Seattle. It was supposed to be a long day of travel.
The first flight was similar to every other flight Seth had been on, except for Kendra stuffing her face with Cinnabon from the airport after racing to the nearest bathroom and chugging a grande peppermint and licorice tea from Starbucks. Something that Seth found to be a bit weird. She had never liked cinnamon before.
During the layover, Seth started watching them closely. Bracken seemed to be doting on Kendra more than usual. And every once in a while, Kendra's hand would drift down to her stomach subconsciously. What was going on? was she sick?
Then there had been that weird instance a couple days ago where Kendra had just walked out of the meeting with Bracken, followed by mom. He had heard what sounded like an excited squeal, and when all three returned, it looked like all three had been crying. Was something wrong?
Kendra was supposed to be immortal. She was an eternal. Not in the traditional sense that she was a lock on the demon prison, and people would try to hunt her down. But she would be an eternal protector of the magical world.
Yet something was off.
Seth pulled up the Web MD symptom checker. Age: twenty-nine. Or was it twenty-one immortality made age challenging to determine. Gender: female. He began typing in symptoms. Cravings. Crying. He didn't know what else to type. Acting weird and secretive wasn't on the list of symptoms. He clicked the continue button. He read. What symptom is bothering you the most? Heck, he had no clue. He was just trying to figure out what was wrong with his sister. Next question. Could you be pregnant? Kendra couldn't be pregnant. Could she? It would explain a lot.
Seth looked at Bracken's tablet sitting in his backpack. He had left it behind while he went to one of the tiny airport convenience stores near the gate. Bracken had been totally avoiding the subject when Seth had asked him what he was reading. He double-checked to make sure no one was watching, then carefully grabbed the tablet and punched in the six number pin 0-5-1-2-1-2. Seth had figured out the password ages ago. It was their wedding date. Seth looked up again to make sure that Bracken and Kendra weren't coming back yet.
Seth opened Bracken's reading app, there in the queue showed several books on being pregnant.
A random sound spooked Seth so that he quickly shut off the tablet and stuffed it back into Bracken's backpack, and hastily closed the zipper.
He looked up to see Kendra and Bracken walking back to where everyone else was sitting.
Seth sat back and tried to look like he had been on his cell phone. But for all his fake nonchalance, he couldn't stop his foot from nervously bouncing. Kendra was pregnant. He scanned Kendra as if there were any chance that she was already showing. The concept of it was so weird. The thought that he would be an uncle. He couldn't help but smile a tiny bit.
At the same time, he was infuriated. What the heck was Kendra thinking about coming on this mission. His smile turned as he scowled as he scrolled through his phone, not really paying any attention to any of the pictures or news.
Kendra and Bracken walked hand in hand as they searched for a place to eat. The group had decided to split up for lunch since there were quite a few airport options. Since the airport layover was supposed to be three hours, they had plenty of time before meeting up with the rest of the team.
As she and Bracken passed a bar, she noticed two men sitting at the counter the looked vaguely familiar. They were in their late thirties early forties. One of the men saw her. His eyes widened in shock, and he nudged the other man and motioned with his head in Kendra's direction.
The second man looked up. This time the man waved and started shouting her name.
"Kendra! Kendra! It's us, Cody and Haden!" The man yelled.
It took a second for Kendra to register the names in her brain.
Then it clicked. It was Cody and Haden from Torina's house where she was kidnapped.
Kendra gasped, her hands covering her mouth. She couldn't believe it. They were both young and healthy.
She walked up to them, Bracken following dutifully behind her.
"Oh my gosh, you guys are young!"
"Yeah, one day almost fifteen years ago, we were minding our own business."
"I was still a prisoner in Torina's home," the man who must have been Hayden said.
"And I was living in an old folks group home in Naperville." Cut in the man, who was apparently Cody. "When in the blink of an eye, we were young again. Just like that," Cody said, snapping his fingers in emphasis. "I went back to find Hayden, and to my surprise, he was free. Torina was gone for good, apparently."
"Anyway, after that, we looked you up to see if you ever made it back to your family. Figured something like that would make headlines. Only to find that you had died." said Hayden.
"Yet here you are, only you stayed young, barely in your twenties if I had to guess."
"You're not like her now?" Said Hayden referring to Torina.
"No, I don't suck the youth from people," Kendra laughed. "I just don't age."
Both men nodded. It was always hard to explain her life to people who didn't understand the beauty and danger in the world of magical preserves. Hayden and Cody were dragged into the world of magic against their will; at this point, the less they knew, the better.
"How about you? How have you been? Cody asked.
"So," Kendra said. "This is my husband, Bracken.
Bracken held out his hand and shook both Cody's and Hayden's hands in greeting. He offered a rather solemn "sup" to each of the guys. He is the one responsible for Torina's ultimate demise," Kendra said as she smiled up at him.
"Really? Well, in that case, let us buy you two a drink." Cody said, waving over the bartender.
"You really don't have to do that," said Kendra.
"Nonsense, It's the least we could do!" Insists Hayden.
"I can't have alcohol," Kendra admits, her hand subconsciously drifting down to her stomach.
"And I don't drink," Bracken says in a tone that was final but not at all harsh.
"Well, if you're ever in Chicago and you need anything, just give us a call," Cody stated as he handed Kendra his business card for a publishing company.
"Thanks, will do!" Said Kendra looking at the card.
As they walked away, Kendra couldn't help but feel a slight pride swell in her chest. It was almost nonexistent that the efforts to keep the magical preserves running were acknowledged. It was a little nice to be recognized and thanked every once in and while.
Kendra was relieved to finally know the fate of Cody and Hayden.
Seth sat tapping the tray in front of him nervously. It was just his luck that he was sitting on the same row as Kendra and Bracken for the rest of the trip. He wanted to bring up what he had found out but couldn't find a way to do it without incriminating himself.
Kendra had fallen asleep against Bracken's shoulder while he continued to read pregnancy guides.
Seth tried to distract himself, but his mind kept wandering back to Kendra. He had to talk to them. When Kendra woke up, that's when he would do it. Seth promised himself.
There was a jolt of turbulence on the plane, and Kendra woke with a start, accidentally hitting Bracken's head against her own.
"Sorry," Kendra muttered.
Seth looked up. It was now or never.
"So," said Seth casually, "when were you guys going to tell everyone that Kendra is pregnant?"
Bracken and Kendra looked at Seth.
"Did Tanu tell you?"
"No. Wait, Tanu knows. Seriously! And you didn't tell Me," Seth said, his voice steadily rising so that it attracted the attention of the other passengers on the plane.
"Seth, calm down. Lower your voice; otherwise, the whole plane will know."
Seth seemed to calm down a bit, but he still glared at his sister and her husband.
"So," Seth said, still demanding an answer.
"We were going to wait until after the mission was completed to tell everyone." Said Bracken.
"We didn't want to worry you until then." Kendra tried to reason. "Besides, we only found out ourselves a few days ago, and yesterday we had our first ultrasound."
"Well, you failed at not making me worried!" Seth whisper yelled. He folded his arms and pouted in his seat.
"Would you like to see the pictures from the ultrasound?" Kendra offered.
Seth perked his head up. "Really?"
"Of course," Bracken said as he pulled out his tablet again. He pulled up the photos app. Dr. Benador had sent him a few pictures of the ultrasound after the appointment last night. Bracken handed the tablet to Seth.
Seth just stared. "Is that?" He couldn't seem to get the rest of the sentence out of his mouth as he pointed to the two little blobs on the screen.
Bracken beamed. "Twins." The word itself had a sense of awe attached to it. "Kendra is two and a half months pregnant." He said as he took Kendra's hand, threading his fingers through hers, and kissed the back of it.
"Is that very far?" Seth asked, pulling his eyes away from the pictures.
"Almost one-third of the way through," Kendra answered. "The babies are about the size of strawberries."
Seth's eyes drifted down to Kendra's abdomen. He looked at Kendra.
"That's why you walked out of the meeting." A statement, not a question.
Kendra nodded. Her eyes darkening. A clear contrast to the light that they usually held.
"If Addanc finds out..." Seth couldn't even finish what he was going to say. The prospects were too horrible to utter out loud.
"You can see why we were hesitant to tell anyone," Bracken said.
"I get it," Seth said somberly. Seth looked at the pair sitting before him. They represented a future that, while he may not have known it at the time, he had always been fighting for.
"I promise I will do everything I can to make sure that Addanc never has the chance to harm your family," Seth said solemnly. "You have always been there to get me out of any trouble I get myself into. It's time I repay the favor."
Kendra's eyes start to water, but she quickly wipes away the tears. "Thanks, that means a lot."
It was late and below freezing when the final flight Touched down in Anchorage. So the group decided to get a few hotel rooms and make their way to the preserve in the morning.