September had eventually come to the Southeast too.
Eighteen had been so worried that she wouldn't be able to give Marron a normal birthday, her first moreover.
Instead little miss Marron had ended up getting spoiled and pampered twice: she had shoved her face and hands in another cake and other gifts, as soon as she had returned to the Kame House with mum and dad.
Eighteen had never fully appreciated her roommates, who irritated her with their presence alone. Now, however, she understood that they were part of her family: they loved Marron, they had been present in her life from day one.
Now an important appointment awaited Marron: she had turned one and the first day of nursery was upon her.
Krillin had booked her in at the Bright Skies nursery in Satan City a month before she was born: that was the way in large, densely populated cities, on the form to fill nurseries even asked the due date.
A turtle-decorated backpack and new shoes had appeared next to the coat hanger earlier that month; they aroused a certain anxiety, a certain rush, but Eighteen had not yet told anyone about how much she wanted to be with her daughter for as long as she could.
Even though the cyborg mama had a huge advantage in terms of time and energy, sometimes she still felt frustrated by how demanding Marron was. Those times Eighteen thought she acted mechanical, a little dry: even Marron must have felt frustrated, Eighteen could not blame her irritability.
Other mothers said it was normal.
"Sometimes, in moments of despair, I even regretted that you two were born," Kate had confessed to her.
Kate, the near-perfect.
Learning this from her had encouraged Eighteen to accept her low spirits: she had internalized that her weaknesses didn't make her a bad mother, and that she could no longer imagine a life without Marron.
Eighteen used every second of those pre-nursery days to feel lucky to have her daughter with her.
Every simple gesture -preparing her meals, tying her hair- had taken on a bit of magic. Nothing was taken for granted.
"Do you want me to feed her?" Chiaotzu asked, amazed at not perceiving tension in the air even when Marron took an hour to eat.
During that hour Eighteen wouldn't think of her boredom, of the clock hands that almost didn't move: she used that time to observe the way in which Marron preferred to be fed, to realise the beauty of the sun on the already luminous hair that she had given her.
The little nose still looked almost absent, but it looked so darn cute when Marron raised her chin.
Those were all precious details that everyday (and normal) frustration had almost hidden from her.
It was on the weekend before the fateful day that mother and daughter made a sort of peace: the mother became more relaxed and smiling, the child immediately felt the benefits and acted accordingly.
/
The nurserylooked like nothing special from the outside. It was a boring modern building, cheered up only by other folks like the three of them: families walking small children through the door.
Eighteen kept telling herself that it wasn't that hard: she had killed her deadly enemy, heck, leaving Marron was nothing!
Krillin watched their little girl walk to her own rhythm, holding hands with him and her mother.
"I guess you're excited and nervous too, Marron."
How could Krillin be so jovial?
The nursery was an idea born to relieve Eighteen from the position of full-time mother, when motherhood was still a theoretical thing ... and now to Eighteen it felt like a waste of money.
The room in which Marron would spend three days a week for the next few months looked welcoming, safe, designed for her well-being: yet her mother wanted to feel irreplaceable, her mood unconsciously blinded her to her daughter's excitement.
An educator, a girl perhaps younger than Eighteen, welcomed the parents and showed the children where to store their shoes and backpack.
Krillin's eyes filled with pride and nostalgia as he saw Marron's name printed on a locker: it would be her first space entirely to herself.
"Marron of Turtle Island!"
The teacher was savvily friendly.
"Will you make new friends today?"
Marron didn't speak, but her smile was an unmistakable answer.
Eighteen shivered to hear a stranger call her full name. The surname had been a choice she and Krillin had thought about for a long time. The day they registered her birth in Satan City, they had opted to give her the surname Krillin identified with.
Eighteen had gone to great lengths to keep her own surname, Lang, out of the game. It was weird enough to use it for herself.
"Did you give a hug?"
The educator knew that the first day of nursery could be much harder for parents than for children.
Eighteen wanted to hold her Marron as tight as she could, forgetting that she was not allowed to hold tight. She felt a piece of her heart drift away as Marron moved past the sad farewells and began to explore that new territory.
/
Only a week had passed since that first day, yet it was always sad and hard to leave Marron there. When the time to separate came, Eighteen always thought "a little more", she didn't want her arms to let her go.
She didn't know if it would have been like that, without the last Gero and Cell misadventure.
Krillin was busy with his training, often the task of bringing Marron to the Bright Skies fell on Eighteen.
One morning the cyborg girl hadn't been able to return to the Kame House: she had sat outside the building, waiting for 4pm.
Eighteen hadn't even realised that she was looking down, until a non-extraneous voice had invited her to tilt her head.
"I can't believe it! It's you!"
Eighteen immediately recognised the blue eyes and hair, the cheerful demeanour.
She remembered her name perfectly too, but it was more satisfying to feign carelessness and send her away.
"Sorry, I don't know you."
Maron pointed to the wedding ring on Eighteen's finger and her smile grew even wider.
"I remember, you're Krillin's wife. What are you doing here?"
Eighteen raised an eyebrow, she could have asked the same question.
The ex was persistent, "Ohhhh! Do you have a little one now? "
How could one be so excited about a stranger's spawn?
"I just dropped mine, man ... sometimes I think I can't make it."
Maron sat astride the low wall next to Eighteen, in a flash the smile was gone.
"I know. One day it will pass. "
The supermodel never spoke much, but those few words made Maron understand that maybe they were in the same boat.
"My little one is so loving, you should see the way she looks at Chet or me every time we leave her. It breaks my heart. "
She pulled down her short skirt, tried not to cry.
Eighteen shrugged, "Mine likes nursery. "
"You find it hard to leave her, don't you?"
"...Maybe."
Throughout that conversation, Eighteen had kept her gaze straight ahead, unconsciously rejecting the pain she shared with her husband's ex. Rejecting comfort, too.
Maron jumped to her feet, again hiding everything behind a dazzling grin.
"If you're not busy, let's have coffee! So we don't think about it anymore. "
Coffee with a stupid ex, or with another mother in pain? It was a good dilemma.
Eighteen gave her only a hint of a smile," I don't know. Maybe another time. "
Maron accepted that possibility and went on with her day; Eighteen was left alone outside Bright Skies again.
Ex or not ex, Maron had given her some hope.
The pain, even the senseless pain of not separating well from one's daughter was not a burden to carry all alone: there was always someone in the world to share feelings with.
And for better or for worse, that Maron woman understood her perfectly.
/
With Krillin's wish, pylons and demolished roofs had risen, the sand had withdrawn from Verny and compacted into an ever thicker and higher mass: Mount Severny had reappeared in its place in the valley, the snow had also grown back on its summit.
No one could explain that event, nor the return of the casualties, but the governor of the North had called a ceremony for everyone: civilians, rangers, military.
Anyone could witness what the radio station Antenna Verny had anticipated two years earlier, the awarding of a medal to John Dubochet.
The chief ranger's eyes had reddened, both from the medal and from the knowledge that someone else would receive the same treatment: an exceptional ranger who had bought precious time and went back in the midst of the worst fire in Northern history to save some invisible campers. Someone who had defied Mother Nature.
Not everyone present in that room knew the chronology of the events, much less their cause, but everyone imagined who the governor was talking about.
It was glaring, it couldn't be otherwise.
Lillian was sitting right next to him, ready to applaud him as soon as he would step up on stage to get decorated. He deserved it, after all.
Lillian didn't listen to the governor calling him, she wanted to distract herself.
However, the governor had called another name and then stopped speaking, as if waiting for someone who had not shown up.
Brent was the first to encourage her, but Lillian still wasn't listening.
She was trying to understand why Seventeen was still there, looking at her too.
"It's Lillian…"
The campers rescued by her with the help of Fabien, Fabien himself and all the other rangers were staring at her.
"Lillian Ingrid Dahl?" The governor called again.
The top ranger looked around with a bewildered gaze; the growing buzz of an entire room urged her to get up.
"She's my girlfriend!"
The proud Viking stood up and gave way to a roar of applause.
"Who, me?"
Lillian couldn't believe it.
"Yes, you, stupid."
The former top ranger winked at her: if within three seconds she hadn't lifted that skinny butt of hers from the chair, he would have taken her medal.
Lillian ran on stage, driven by the applause of all and the cheering of her boyfriend.
It was a nearly surreal feeling.
"For your extraordinary worth, and exceptional service to the community." The governor passed the medal around her neck.
Bowing under that great little weight, Lillian met John's conscious gaze.
She wanted to give a speech, but she could only laugh and cry at the same time. Her young face, graceful and reddened by tears of joy conveyed incredible peace.
Lillian looked at that audience now hers, taking in the admiration of her colleagues and of the civilians who had come there for her; she saw her bestie applaud her, she finally saw a real smile, not a smirk, on her nemesis's face.
There was no hint of provocation in his grin.
That would be the second time -in that timeline- that Seventeen saw Lillian cry.
For her, Seventeen's recognition mattered perhaps more than any award.
And finally Lillian saw her mother; her mother who did not applaud, but who looked at her as only a proud and grateful mother can.
The campers told everything about their rescue, but Lillian could hear nothing but her heart thumping with joy.
The next day, the top ranger's name and photo were all over the media.
/
"Ta-da!"
In that video call, Carly was delighted to show Anna her already framed diploma.
"Was this the news? Congratulations!"
Anna was trying to be spirited, Carly deserved it, but there was something she had to tell her.
"...I have news of Robin."
Anna's tone put Carly on alert; it was the first time Anna had contacted her to talk about him, not even with chickenpox the educator had been so tense.
"He went to visit his mother."
Robbie's mother lived in a rehab facility. Anna had been allowed to take the child to see her, for his fifth birthday.
"I've been there the whole time, the mother ... she's not responding well to the treatments. If she wasn't living there, she'd still be using."
For Robbie, the prospect of reuniting with family grew more and more distant.
Carly didn't know what to say.
She had thought the worst about her mother since she left, hadn't even wanted her to know she had started a family and graduated.
But maybe a drug addict mother who didn't really intend to change was worse than an absent one.
"It felt like seeing Robbie was a duty for her; it was his birthday, she didn't even give him something symbolic. He was so upset that he didn't tell anyone about it."
Seventeen hadn't participated in the discussion, but had listened to everything.
And when he showed Carly his cell phone, Carly called Anna back.
"A surprise? You didn't have to, but thanks."
"It was Seventeen's idea ..."
Carly was almost shocked by that gesture coming spontaneously from him.
The plan was to invite Anna and Robbie to the chalet for a special delivery: Anna believed that the group home policy allowed that, but it needed to be discussed with the headmistress.
The next day Carly and Seventeen arrived at the group home, amazing everyone with the news that they hadn't entrusted to Skype.
"How wonderful!"
Anna refrained from caressing Carly. "So when we saw you in May ...?"
"Eh yeah."
The children were even more amazed. They shouted, gaped at the young lady, gathering round her like she had just opened a bag of candy.
"Look at all the food she ate!"
"Why do you eat so much?"
Educator Teresa invited them to order, and revealed the mystery.
"The young lady looks like that because she's having a baby."
Robbie was flabbergasted: could a creature as ethereal as Carly have babies, like any other grown-ups?
"Sometimes it's like a little fish." Carly stroked Robbie's curls, took his little hand. "Do you want to feel?"
Robbie and other children felt and saw something move inside Carly, under their hands.
And then Carly was hit by a barrage of questions.
"Is it a fish baby or a human baby?"
"Will you explode?"
"Does it come out of your mouth?"
"Can I see the baby every day when it's here?"
"How did a baby get in the belly?"
The young lady answered all of them, except that last one.
/
Anna had told the headmistress that Carly and Seventeen were worth talking to. The couple had agreed to meet that confident and capable-looking woman who made them sit in two armchairs.
"Don't worry, this is not a pop quiz."
Given the age of the boy, especially, that analogy was still relevant.
"For obvious reasons, what I always do is meet people who become relevant in the children's life."
"Of course," Carly smiled, as open to dialogue as possible.
"You two know Robin because you're friends with Anna?"
Carly told of their first meeting, in Viey.
The headmistress relaxed, "Do you plan on having Robin in foster care, one day?"
"No." Seventeen cut short.
Carly would have liked to say yes.
"Not for now. We just wanted to ask you permission to give him-"
"Yes, Anna filled me in: if you want to please Robin, go ahead. "
The elder woman had no problem with strangers visiting the kids, even if they were not educators, animators or teachers. It was enough that they were good people.
Not even this time was an exception: she remained observant of that couple for the entire time they stayed at the group home, not missing out on any of their gestures, any hopeful and affectionate glance Robin reserved for them.
/
A few days later, Seventeen had taken a day off just to be present for the fateful delivery.
"Do you have any idea how many zeni I paid for that stuff? That cup face didn't have anything to say about it, better for her. "
Lapis was crazy, he had something for everyone. Carly didn't know how he could do it, he even got it right.
"A face so oblong and sagging, it doesn't make you think of a cup?"
"True." Carly couldn't help but laugh. "I wonder what Cup Face thinks of your teeth."
"...Low blow."
Seventeen had time only for half a grimace: the bell rang on time.
The parcel Pencil cat walked on was bigger than Robbie, the child walked timidly into the kitchen and unwrapped it.
"This is for me..."
"Gifted by Carly and Seventeen," Anna assured him.
As a mega track / garage emerged from the gift paper, Robbie's breath got shorter and shorter.
"Hot Wheels?"
Robbie let out a long puppy howl, tearing up: what he was feeling totally overwhelmed his little heart.
"Is it really for me?"
It wasn't true that grown-ups were all traitors: Robbie was finally able to throw himself into the arms of the two grown-ups he loved the most in the world.
/
Seventeen assembled the track quickly and Robbie hurried to book time with him.
"Do you want to play Hot Wheels with me?"
"Are you kidding?"
The cyborg couldn't resist Hot Wheels, nor that beautiful track full of spring-loaded lifts, levers, orange plastic hairpins.
Robbie put a toy car under his nose, "What's this?"
Seventeen didn't need to look up the name. " '69 Camaro."
"Isn't that a pick-up truck?"
"Don't you dare..."
"My mom has a pick-up truck."
"Ugh ..."
Anna and Carly had watched them play together with surprise and pleasure, before leaving the kitchen.
"Are you practicing for when yours will be here?"
"Do you need anything?"
Seventeen paid no attention to them, intent on decorating the garage with its stickers. Even Robbie was too busy to cling to the young lady's skirts.
All went well until it was time for a snack.
"Feed me!"
Carly had made herself unavailable , it was up to Seventeen to take care of the imp tugging insistently at his jeans.
"Feed the child!"
Was there anything else to do?
A little later, a quantity of grilled cheese sandwiches that wasn't normally associated with the concept of a snack came out of the oven, to the delight of both boys: the girls should not have expected Seventeen to give Robbie organic biscuits or crudités.
The child imitated the young man and took a bite of toast, "Mmm, what is it?"
"It's called eat and shut up."
"Eat and shut up,..." Robbie muttered, dwelling on that delicacy.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, you little animal."
"Seventeen?"
"What's up?"
"Why are you talking with your mouth full?"
That's why Carly and that imp got on so well, they were obnoxious.
Not even with the snack Seventeen could get Robbie to knock it off: shortly after, the boy began to complain and jump on the spot with urgency.
"I have to go!"
The cyborg heard Carly and Anna slip out from behind the door, chuckling at him. Unbelievable.
Robbie had wanted Seventeen to guard the door. When all was done, the master of the house was pleased not to see pee everywhere.
"Flush it and wash your hands."
"Yes, sir!"
The small child waited for Seventeen to follow him.
"Shall we go back to playing?"
"No, now it's my turn."
Robbie watched him unbuckle his belt. "Can I stay here and see?"
The door closed gently on his nose.
/
Robbie had had Seventeen's attention for an hour already. Incredible.
"Luckily it's not evening, with all this chaos who would make him sleep?"
Anna looked at the number of empty cans and bottles that the boys had stacked in a kind of pyramid.
Robbie had aimed a piece of the track at it, when he launched a die-cast car and the cans toppled over he cheered.
"Did you see that? I want to knock it all down!"
He was so happy, he wanted Seventeen to watch him be happy.
"Man you're late to the party..."
"The party?"
"Yeah, destroying stuff is cool."
Robbie looked from beneath at Seventeen's shining eyes and long, narrow nostrils: he had managed to sit in his lap for a full ten seconds before being removed.
"Why can't I be close to you?"
"Because."
"But you're about to have a baby, aren't you? And when the baby wants to be near you?"
Still obnoxious; Robbie was making him uncomfortable.
Seventeen opened a can and gulped it down in one go, as he had done with all the others.
Robbie found it interesting.
"Ohhhhhhhh! How do you do it?"
For Seventeen the serious conversation was not over, "One thing at a time. The baby is mine, when it wants to be with me it'll just be with me."
By now Robbie couldn't even stay long in Carly's lap, Seventeen's baby pushed him away.
"Why can't I be with you?"
Why, why, why.
Seventeen had to control himself for a moment.
"Robin. You are here with me."
Carly and Anna peered from behind the door, breathless.
Robbie felt almost disappointed and in awe again, but he didn't dare show it to Seventeen: that moment of his own with the blue-eyed young man had been real and true, Robbie would always remember it.
In an ideal world, Carly and Seventeen could have been his opportunity, how he would have liked it...
By now Robbie was also falling in love with Seventeen, who was not the young lady: he was a real grown-up and he said 'No', he set limits. Robbie was not to forget.
Robbie couldn't afford to sit on Seventeen's lap and be soothed by his heartbeat, because he wasn't his.
That was a heavy thought to formulate in his little head and the child hadn't put it into words, but he had got the gist.
When Seventeen had hastily caressed him just before, Robbie had even had the urge to call him ... that D-word that was sadly foreign to him.
The cyborg noticed the disappointment.
"Don't be offended."
He said awkwardly, not looking at Robbie. He emptied another can.
Take offence? At five he was no longer a snot!
"No no! Now can you tell me how you do it?"
"I can teach you."
"Really?"
Eventually Robbie was almost forgetting about the cuddle the young man didn't feel ready for yet: learning something from him, even better.
The imp's admiration for something so stupid returned the smile to Seventeen.
"Yes, really. Go get a glass."
"Are there other things you can do?"
"You have no idea."
Seventeen made Robbie think he could do a lot of action movie stunts: car chases, smashing wooden planks with a fist, ...
Robbie was raving about how he would love to learn so many boyish things from him.
"Among all, from me?"
"They say you're wild."
Robbie's finger revealed that the women were still spying: Seventeen returned their gazes with a gesture and a sigh of relief, signaling the catastrophe that had just been thwarted.