Ch 26:
Chloe followed Carlos through the simple oak door, her hand clenching Motley's leash in an attempt to remain completely calm. She wasn't very nervous, but this conversation had the capacity to make her so if she wasn't careful.
Jay followed the twins into Ben's office, closing the door behind him. Mal and Evie were already waiting for them in the office with Ben. Ben was sitting in his desk chair, which was turned a bit to face where Mal was leaning back against his desk and Evie was sitting on the cushioned window seat behind the desk. All three turned as the last three entered the room.
"Perfect timing, guys." Ben grinned, sitting up a bit more in his chair. "Just have a seat anywhere."
Chloe and Jay each sat in the large brown leather armchairs, and Carlos perched himself on the arm of Chloe's chair. Chloe ordered Motley to tuck herself behind Chloe's feet, in front of the chair. Chloe reached down and petted her ears for a moment as reward, smiling slightly at her vest. Evie had decorated Motley's vest a bit in the past couple weeks. Apparently without all the orders to finish for cotillion Evie felt she had too much time on her hands. She'd embroidered 'Motley De Vil' on one of the sides of the vest, and she added Carlos' black and white crossed bones image on the top of the vest behind the handle. Chloe thought it was a nice touch.
"Okay." Ben scooted his chair away from his desk a bit so his back wasn't facing Evie, forming a sort of circle. "I've finally made some headway with the Council, I just wanted to go over this list of potential kids for the next group with you guys first before I bring it to them. Then it should just be another meeting and a matter of time before they can be brought over."
"What was eventually decided with the Council?" Mal asked curiously.
Ben sighed, rolling his eyes slightly. "After almost a dozen meetings, it was decided that whenever we bring more kids over they want to revisit the issue every couple months or so to keep tabs on how the kids are adjusting. They want to make sure each group is properly adjusted before bringing another group over. So we probably won't be bringing over more than one group every five or six months, at least at first."
"That's fair." Evie agreed.
"It was also decided that, since Chloe's arrival made the numbers uneven, the first group will be five kids to even up the numbers again. Three boys and two girls. After the first group it'll be groups of four again."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"So, who did you choose for the first group?" Jay asked.
"Well, I went over both the list Evie helped me put together, as well as the names you all suggested to me. For the boys, we're bringing over Diego De Vil, and Harry and Jace Badun, and for the girls we're bringing Dizzy Tremaine and Freddie Facilier. Does that sound good to everyone?"
Everyone nodded, glancing among themselves.
"What made you think of Freddie?" Jay asked curiously.
"I suggested her." Mal answered for Ben. "For one, she's a member of the Anti-Heroes, and honestly, I think she could use Fairy Godmother's Goodness class." Mal admitted with a small smirk, making the others chuckle. "Plus, if we bring her over first, then we can bring her sister Celia over in one of the next groups. Having her older sister here might help her adjust better."
"That's a good point." Carlos agreed, to which everyone nodded, but Chloe was too busy thinking.
"Isn't she the girl who threatened to shrink my head or torture me with voodoo magic?" Chloe checked, glancing up at where Carlos was sitting next to her.
Chuckles went up around the room.
"Yeah, that was her." Carlos agreed. "But she's gotten better. Like Mal mentioned, she joined the Anti-Heroes. And she helped us that time we went to the Isle to stop our parents."
Chloe nodded, conceding that he had a point. She hadn't seen Freddie in nearly six months, so she had no idea how much she'd changed. "That's true. So-"
A ringing came from Chloe's bag, making her jump. She pulled it into her lap and started digging through it. "Sorry, sorry." she mumbled in embarrassment, pulling her phone out.
"That's fine." Ben assured her, smiling in understanding.
"It's Jane." Chloe announced, slightly confused. Jane had never really called her before, only texted. She answered the phone and put it to her ear. "Hey, Jane. What's up?"
"Um, I just got back to the dorm. I think Beelzebub's having her kittens. I didn't want to bother her so I just glanced into the box. She was moving around a bit, but I think I saw a little kitten in the box with her." Jane explained on the phone.
Chloe eyes widened. "Oh. Um, okay. I'm on my way. Just…I think the vet said to give her privacy, but I'll call her on my way back to the dorm. Thanks." Chloe hung up the phone, standing from the chair and staring at Carlos with wide eyes. "It sounds like Bee might be having her kittens now. I'm going-I have to-" she jerked her thumb toward the door, looking toward Ben apologetically.
Ben waved her off. "It's fine. Go ahead, we were pretty much done. Unless anyone has any objections to the five kids selected?"
Everyone shook their heads, silently agreeing to the chosen kids for the next group.
"I'll join you in a bit. I'll probably want to move both dogs to mine and Jay's dorm until Bee's done. She won't like the dogs being in the room while having the kittens."
Chloe nodded in agreement. "Good idea. See you in a bit." she called, waving goodbye to the others as she hurried from the room, Motley at her side. Along the way she called her vet to update her. The vet replied that Beelzebub should be fine on her own, but told Chloe to keep an eye on her and the vet would stop by in about an hour or so to make sure everything was going smoothly.
Chloe reached her room in record time, quietly opening the door and stepping inside. Jane looked up from where she was sitting on her bed closest to the door. She smiled and pointed slightly toward the box across the room.
Chloe unclipped Motley's leash and vest, quietly ordering her to get in her bed, which was a red and black checkered dog pillow between Chloe and Jane's beds. Motley flopped down on it with her favorite chew toy, perfectly happy to be there.
Chloe toed off her shoes and silently crept across the room to look into the small cardboard box near the wall on the far side of the room. She could see Beelzebub sitting up in the box bent over something. Tiny little mewls were coming from the box, but Chloe couldn't see anything apart from her fluffy black cat.
"Hi, Bee." Chloe whispered, kneeling down carefully, not wanting to disturb the first time mother. Beelzebub lifted her head to look up at her, and that's when Chloe got her first glimpse of the babies. Tucked under Bee's belly were two tiny, wet balls of fluff. One was a fluffy orange kitten, curled up in a ball. The other was a coloring Chloe had never seen before, with different patches of white, orange, and black.
"They're so cute." Chloe whispered, trying not to squeal and disturb them. Beelzebub stopped licking the two kittens and laid down on her side. A few days ago Chloe had moved the newspapers to be on top of the blankets for this messy part, and planned to throw them out once the kittens were all born. She just didn't want them all laying on gross, bloody blankets. Or whatever else unspeakable liquids there would be.
Chloe settled down next to the box, glancing over at Jane across the room. "One of the kittens is white, orange, and black. I've never seen that before." she noted curiously.
"Oh, that's called calico. There's also a similar coloring called tortoiseshell, but I don't think tortoiseshell coloring has any white in it. My pen pal Hitomi Hamada has a calico cat named Neko. They're almost always girls, something about the chromosomes." Jane looked up thoughtfully, trying to remember the details. "I think it's because females have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y, but the coloring for either black or orange are only on X chromosomes."
"So, males usually can't have both black and orange, because it requires two X chromosomes." Chloe finished, trying to understand. Jane always seemed to have random facts stored away in her brain.
"Yeah, something like that." Jane agreed.
"How do you know all this?" Chloe asked, curious and amused.
Jane shrugged. "Part of it is from Hitomi, part of it is because I started researching when you told us Beelzebub was having kittens. I fell down the rabbit hole." she admitted sheepishly. Chloe bit her lip to muffle her laughter as the door creaked open. They looked up to see Carlos peaking in.
"Hey, how's it going?" he asked quietly, entering the room with Jay slipping in behind him, closing the door to muffle the sounds of people in the hallway.
"Good, I think." Chloe answered, looking back into the box. Bee was flopped over on her side now, the kittens blindly crawling about the box. A small ripple passed over Bee's side, Chloe guessed it was contractions. "She's had two so far, and it looks like there's another one coming."
"And the vet's coming?" Carlos checked, standing next to Chloe and peaking into the box.
"She said Bee should be fine, but she'll stop by in about an hour to check on her."
"Hey," Jay called quietly, "if you want, I could take Motley and Dude for a walk for a while, maybe play catch or something to keep them both out of the way."
Chloe and Carlos both nodded, Chloe smiling gratefully. "That'd be great. Thanks, Jay."
"Will Lonnie be joining you?" Carlos asked with a smirk.
Jay narrowed his eyes at him. "Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. What's it to you?"
Carlos shrugged, still smirking. "Just wondering. Turnabout is fair play, after all."
"Except I don't blush like you do." Jay retorted. "Come on, Motley. Let's go for a walk." he called, grabbing her leash. Motley eagerly went with Jay, who was by far her favorite playmate where playing catch was concerned.
"Do you guys need me to do anything?" Jane offered, still sitting on her bed to give them all space.
Chloe glanced curiously up at Carlos who shrugged. "I don't think there's much we can do. I think I might get her some fresh water." Carlos decided, picking up Bee's nearly-empty water dish.
"Probably clean it while you're at it." Chloe suggested before he'd taken more than a few steps. "I know sometimes Motley and Dude drink from Bee's bowl."
Carlos nodded. "Good point. I doubt she'll want water that tastes like Dude's butt."
Chloe and Jane both wrinkled their noses. "Grooooss." they both groaned, though they couldn't help laughing at the same time. Chloe shook her head at her brother, turning back around to look into the box. Bee was curling in on herself a bit, then stretching out only to curl up again, yowling a bit in pain. Chloe hesitantly reached in and gently stroked Bee on the head. The vet had warned that some cats don't like to be touched during this process, but not every cat is the same, either. At the contact Bee blinked open wide, green eyes, staring up into Chloe's very soul. She almost looked like the tiny, innocent kitten Chloe had cuddled with as a child.
Flashback
Chloe gasped, lurching up in bed and staring blankly with wide eyes. Instantly, tears streamed down her cheeks and she wrapped her arms around herself, sobs wracked her tiny frame, which she tried to smother to keep from waking her twin.
She needn't have bothered, because Carlos sat up almost instantly, hugging his tiny sister and trying to calm her down. He didn't do much, just held her, but it made all the difference. Chloe turned and snuggled into her twin, both lying back down on their mattress. Chloe cried into a five year old Carlos' chest while he patted her on the back, trying to sooth her. He wouldn't ask what her nightmare was about, it would only upset her and he was already sure he knew.
After a while, Chloe's sobs quieted to hiccups, and eventually to sniffles. Finally, she pulled up her tiny hands to scrub the tears from her eyes and snot from her nose. Scooting away from her brother, she curled up and buried her face in the mattress in embarrassment. Carlos ignored her embarrassment, rolling over to pat her on the shoulder.
After a moment, Carlos' hand disappeared only for something to start poking through Chloe's hair. Sniffling again, Chloe peaked hesitantly out from under her hair only to see curious, piercing green eyes staring back at her between the strands. Chloe brushed her hair out of the way to fully see the small face of fluffy, black fur.
Beelzebub mewed quietly, her head tilted slightly as she pawed at a strand of Chloe's hair. She then leaned down and sniffed at Chloe's face with her cold, pink nose, before her tiny, rough tongue poked out to lick Chloe on the cheek. Chloe couldn't help smiling. Reaching out, Chloe gently pulled the eight month old kitten into her chest, cuddling her close and rubbing her face into the top of Bee's head. Small purrs rumbled from Bee's small body right into Chloe chest, soothing her back to sleep.
End of Flashback
Renewed mewling brought Chloe blinking back to the present time and she looked down into the box. The first two kittens were tucked together under one of Bee's front legs, while Bee was sitting up and vigorously licking a tiny, loud, bundle of black fur.
Chloe instantly shifted up onto her knees, her smile growing as she watched the newest addition go from a slimy, alien-like creature to an adorable, fluffy kitten. Bee's licking caused the kitten to roll onto it's back, it's tiny paws stretched toward the air with thrown-sharp claws spread out. It was black with a white belly and white toes. Apart from the white belly, it looked like Beelzebub.
Carlos returned in that moment, carrying Bee's clean water bowl in one hand.
"She had another one." Chloe whispered. Carlos set down the bowl and looked into the box, smiling.
They backed off a bit, giving Beelzebub some privacy as the vet suggested. By the time the vet arrived, shown to the dorm by Jane who went to meet her at the front door, Beelzebub had given birth to a fourth kitten, another calico.
Chloe and Carlos crouched off to the side, close enough to the box to see the small family, while the vet crouched over the box to check that everything was okay.
"All the kittens seem to be healthy." the vet announced after lifting each kitten to check them. "You can touch or pick up the kittens as long as it doesn't bother the mother, but I would avoid doing so too much unless necessary, at least until they open their eyes." The vet then ran a hand over Bee's flank. "And it feels like she's done. So it's just the four. The two calicos are girls, and the black and orange ones are both boys."
"Thank you." Carlos told her sincerely.
"Happy to help. Feel free to give me a call if you have any questions or concerns. Particularly in a few weeks or so, when the mother typically starts weaning them off milk. I can give you further instructions on that when the time comes."
Chloe and Carlos agreed, thanking her once more before she left. Once she was gone, Chloe sat on the floor by the box once more, smiling down at Beelzebub's new little family. Reaching down, she lightly stroked Bee's head where she was half-asleep, purring almost too quietly to hear. Bee was laying on her side, her babies nestling into the long fur of her belly as they nursed, all four snuggled in close to each other as they fought for milk.
Chloe vaguely remembered how small Beelzebub had been as a kitten. Not this small, of course, because she'd been about two months old when Chloe and Carlos got her at Evie's birthday party. But she'd always been a bit on the skinny side. Cruella had refused to get any proper cat food, so the twins, only four at the time, had tried to feed Bee anything they could find, even giving her scraps from their plates. It was a relief when Beelzebub learned how to properly hunt within a couple months, so she could help feed herself.
Looking at the tiny, helpless, blind kittens searching instinctively for their mother's milk and warmth, Chloe was relieved they would never know the hardships of life on the Isle of the Lost.
AN: I suppose now would be a good time to point out that I'm deviating a bit from the events of the Descendants movies and books. I found it weird that it took them at least a year(between the 2nd and 3rd movies) to bring over the next group of VKs. So, I've changed it so they'll be bringing over a few groups before the events of the 3rd movie. I'll still be bringing over Dizzy, Celia, and Squeaky and Squirmy, but they won't all be in the same group. I've pretty much figured out who I'm bringing over, but if there's any VK in particular you want to see brought over, let me know in the reviews.