"Ebony, Sweetie, are you okay? Do you need me to get you anything?" Jack turned back towards the prone girl, leaning over her and looking her over with worried eyes. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and directed emerald-green lasers over at Lex, still seated in the chair by the bed. "Did I hear correctly, Siva's pregnant…with your child?"
"That's right. I'm gonna be a dad." A momentary grimace tempered his satisfaction, a fleeting darkness in his eyes as his heart remembered another pregnancy, and another time when he was going to be a father. But, as quickly as it came it was gone, and he flashed pearly whites and dimples, grinning broadly. "Why, you got a problem with that?" He challenged, his manner hardening.
Ebony's eyes closed and she slid her elbows forward, lying down on her back again. She stared up at the ceiling and let the tears slip from the corners of her eyes. Jack leaned over her, concerned. "Ebs, honey, are you okay? Don't cry." He turned back to Lex, angry. "What's your problem, talking to her like that?"
Lex stood up abruptly, almost knocking over the chair. "Why don't you ask her? Have her tell you why I might be worried about how she's planning to treat my wife, her sister." He wheeled around, storming out of the room.
"Ebony and Jack?"
"May, how many times are you going to say it? We get it okay? Jack and Ebony; big shock." Amber sat, elbows on a table in the café, rubbing her fingers in circles at her temples, trying to relieve the tension headache brewing there. Jay rose from his seat, coming up behind her to rub her tense shoulders as well, causing her to look up and smile faintly, thanking him with relieved eyes.
"No Amber. Finding out that the Big G liked to dress in women's clothing and pretending he was the Queen of England would be shocking. Ebony and Jack as a couple is getting hit with 10,000 volts." May's eyes twinkled as she laughed at her joke.
"You stupid bitch! You don't know anything! Why don't you just shut up!" Ellie jumped up from her solitary seat at a table in the corner, running from the café.
"O…kay." May drawled out, visually following Ellie's path. "And I thought all the teen-aged temper tantrums ended when Cloe went missing."
An indrawn breath from Salene and a clenched jaw from Jay followed the tactless words. She turned misty eyes into Pride's chest. He rubbed a soothing arm up and down her back as he glared at the dark-haired girl over Salene's head. Jay also glared at May, thinking of his brother, who had gone missing not long after the young girl, whether to find her or because of Ram, they still did not know.
Amber's head rose from off her hands as she looked at May in disbelief. "Is there any connection at all between your mouth and your brain? Because you seem to be a pretty consistent sufferer of hoof-in-mouth disease." The blonde girl's words fell sharply against May's consciousness, all the more damaging for the conversational tone in which uttered Amber them. May sucked in a sharp breath, throwing out, "Fine, I'll just leave then," walking calmly out of the room.
For several moments, the only sounds in the room were the quiet sobs coming from Salene as she continued to cry against Pride's chest and Trudy, who was quietly cooing to Brady, trying to get her to fall asleep. Lex bounded in, walking across the room, opening and slamming shut cupboard doors as he found first a cup and tea bags, then went to the sink, to get some water.
"Lex, is that necessary? I have a splitting headache, and you're not helping. And there is some tea already brewed on that table there." She pointed to the table that was previously occupied by May. He stomped over and poured a cup, scowling at it and at the room in general, before clomping back up the stairs
"What's his problem?" Trudy looked up from a sleeping Brady, addressing the room. The only response she received was a shrug from Jay. She stood up saying "well I'm going up to bed before he comes back and wakes up Brady. It took forever to get her to sleep in the first place," before exiting the café.
Lex walked into his bedroom to see Siva sitting up in bed, eyes unfocused as she stared straight ahead. "Babe? You okay?" He walked over, sitting on the bed next to her, putting the cup of tea on the nightstand. He braced an arm on the other side of her legs as he placed his head in her field of vision, looking into her eyes.
Siva blinked, refocusing her gaze to his. "Did I see right? Ebony came back?" Her expression was worried. "What—what it…"
"What if I try to kill you again? Isn't that what you were going to ask?" Ebony asked from the doorway.