"Up, Mama." Destiny raised her arms to her mother demanding to be lifted into her arms. Ebony looked down at her daughter and couldn't help smiling. Destiny's peremptory attitude reminded her so much of herself as she used to be. The little girl did not walk, she strutted; she did not ask, she demanded and she never spoke when she could yell or scream. She was willful and stubborn, such a handful to deal with, and Ebony loved her more than she had ever thought possible.
It was this love and this awareness of herself in her daughter that kept her from lifting the toddler up. Well that, and her occupation in other activities that needed her attention. Fortunately, a standoff was prevented when Brady came into the room, distracting Destiny. The little girl shrieked the name of her older 'cousin', running on chubby legs to throw herself at Brady. "Bwady, play wif me."
Brady eyed the toddler, then her mother. "Aunt Ebby, is okay if I take Destiny to play with me?"
Ebony smiled back. "I would appreciate it very much, Brady. It would make it easier for me to get the kitchen done."
The blonde girl nodded and gripping Destiny's hand tightly led her from the room. "C'mon Destiny; we can go play with the dollies Uncle Pride made for us."
Ebony watched them depart and then turned back to what she was doing when her daughter ran into the room: cleaning the kitchen, starting with re-doing the pantry. If Destiny had gotten into the cans, what was a relatively easy task would have turned into an all day affair. Infinitely grateful for Brady's timely appearance, she returned to re-organizing the contents. Although time-consuming, the job didn't require much conscious thought, and her mind began to wander aimlessly, following her mood from inanity to contemplative. Before she knew it, she was in heavy territory, thinking of changes that time had wrought for them all: her friends, the City, herself.
Her lip curled up into a fond smile as she thought of the children, although some of them were not so childish any more. Mouse was quite the little lady now, at twelve. In her mind, she was on the cusp of womanhood, and delighted in testing her wiles on Sammy, who was mostly oblivious. In the last three years, he had gone through several changes himself, puberty laying the physical groundwork for the man he would become. Along with added height and a body whose shoulders seemed to be broadening before their very eyes, Sammy's burgeoning libido was a subject of covert fun for the grown ups.
It all started not too long after Amber and Java's relationship had been revealed to the tribe. They had been doing a mostly credible job of concealing their connection, yet still speculation had cropped up in the months before. It had been a gradual process, a touch that lasted just a shade too long, a brush of hands that was more caress than anything else, until on one memorable afternoon, the pair had engaged in a kiss as the pair forgot themselves in front of their friends.
After first teasing Amber and Java over the 'ultimate male fantasy moment', Lex had moved on to joking that the youth had come into puberty right then and there. Sammy had colored up and run awkwardly from the room, while the others had done their best not to laugh—well at least until he was out of earshot, anyway. Even now, any encounter between the two women could reduce the youth to slack-jawed incoherence, which resulted in much rolling eyes and huffing from Mouse, and continued teasing from Lex.
One would have thought that everyone else would have been all over the sheriff for his behavior, but to be honest, his ribbing of Sammy was mostly innocent, and if he stepped too far over the line, Siva was quick to call him on it and call him to task, be it figuratively or literally, amusing the others, who never tired of seeing the strong, forceful man backed up by his diminutive wife. Well, amusement and a bit of poignancy too, as this scenario could so easily have been lost to them forever.
In the days following the coup, Lex had cared nothing for his own laundry-list of injuries, his only concern for Siva's well-being. The physical danger from her fall had passed, but she still lay on the bed, a listless shell of the woman they knew her to be. Unresponsive to appeals from the medical staff, the tribe members and Lex himself, she refused to eat or bathe or even to leave the bed, except for when she had to relieve herself. She was wasting away before there very eyes, her grief for the loss of her child was so extreme.
But Lex refused to give up on her and refused to allow her to give up on herself. He sat by her bedside for hours on end, only leaving when one of the others forced him to, to eat or shower. He even slept in the room with her, at first in an uncomfortable chair, then in a cot when Pride and Jay dragged one into the room, insisting that if he was going to sleep there, he could be more comfortable. It had all boiled down to one critical day, when Siva had almost crossed that irreversible line. Ebony had been about to enter, to check on her sister's lack of progress, but she paused in the doorway, bearing witness to a touchingly poignant moment between Siva and Lex.
Lex kneeled wearily before Siva, halfway smiling as he tenderly brushed a hair out of her face. She whimpered slightly, curling back into herself then, recognizing his touch relaxed slightly, looking into his reassuring face.
"Siv?"
She opened her mouth and then grimaced in pain, her throat dry and her tongue swollen. She swallowed painfully then tried again, croaking out, "Lex?"
"Yeah Siv, it's me. I'm here with you and—" He raised her hand, a frail, delicate thing and brushed the back of her hand against his cheek, weeping at the sensation of the papery thin skin over bones.
She curled her fingers slowly, and it was as if even this effort cost her. "Don't cry, please don't."
"But what else can I do? I'm losing you; every day I watch you fade a little more. Nothing I do seems to make a difference, so what do I have left? All I have are these tears and I will shed them if I want to."
Tugging on her hand, Siva tried to turn away from him.
"No, don't hide from me. It's about time that you faced what your selfish actions are doing."
"Selfish?" She flinched as her throat protested her attempt to shout. "My baby died, horribly crushed within this body. You don't know what that feels like: the pain, the loss, and the blood. Seeing an ocean of red and hoping that surely with there being so much of it, that it will be enough to wash me away as well. "
"That's exactly what I mean Siva; exactly what I'm talking about. No, I can't ever fully know what you've gone through, but neither have you stopped to consider what I've gone through. You didn't make that baby by yourself and you didn't lose it by yourself either! You're not the only one suffering here; I'm hurting too. And what makes it worse is that the only other person who could understand, the only person who I could talk to in hopes of getting through this, I can't, because she's more concerned with her own pain than with the loss of our child."
He collapsed then, his head falling heavily onto Siva's hip. When spoke again, his voice came out thick and muffled. "I can't—I can't do this anymore Siv, not by myself. So if you're going to give up, I am too."
Silence met his words and Ebony was about to enter the room when Siva spoke. "Lex, you can't; you're not a quitter."
He raised his head, eyes bloodshot and glistening. "I could say the same for you."
She huffed. "That's not the point."
"That's exactly the point Siv. If you're gone, what do I have left? I need a reason. Will you be my reason?"
He extended his hand to her and waited. After a few moments, she placed a quivering hand in his and he clasped it, holding firmly but not tightly.
"Thank you."
There was so much more he could have said in that moment, but those two words were enough.
Funnily enough, with all the changes, there were some things that had remained the same, or seemingly had done. Salene and Pride remained the heart and backbone of the tribe, working together to build a better future for them and the City as a whole. She had stepped down from her role of City Leader, the position now held by a member of the Gulls. Instead, Salene now focused on issues closer to her heart: schooling for the City and an orphanage/adoption agency for the children left parentless by the ravages to the City.
Surprising their friends, the couple had not adopted one of the children for their own, preferring to bring different children home with them on a rotating basis to get a feel for life with a family again. They explained that with adoption, they could make a family for only one child, while what they were doing now made a difference for many. There were a few raised eyebrows at these statements, but no one came out and said anything, though it had been speculated that Salene had become gun shy after Siva's loss, it reminding her of her own lost child.
In either case, she now served as mother for several dozen children at a time, whether she would admit it or not, with Pride by her side to make things easier.
Meanwhile, in stark contrast, May and Q were still 'just having fun'. Refusing to even define their relationship and referring to Q as her special friend, May enjoyed a carefree relationship, as she explained, not bogged down with outdated notions of definitions or limitations or strictures of any kind. That being said, she would in a heartbeat verbally and/or physically attack any female she found within five feet of her 'special friend'.
Q did not say much on the matter, rather smiling enigmatically when asked and soothing May's ruffled feathers when she reacted to any perceived straying on his part. He had long ago committed himself to May and knew that she was committed to him in turn. If her pretense allowed her to better cope with their connection, then he was more than willing to indulge her. That is up to but not including the advent of a child. In such a blessed case, he fully planned on putting his foot down, despite any protests on her part. He might be willing to humor her on the subject, but any child of theirs would only know their parents in a binding relationship.
The other Mallrats knew this about Q and there were standing bets as to how long it would be before May did in fact become pregnant, and how many tantrums she would throw when she realized that Q was not budging on this one subject. In each of the three years since the beginning of their relationship, the pot had grown, so that now whoever did win would walk away with a substantial bit of cash in their pockets.
Cash in their pockets. Not an error. That was one of the things the former Technos, under Mega's guidance, had established: a monetary system. Jay kidded him that he had made money because he needed a way to support all of his children. After Mega had eagerly accepted Trudy's proposal, the couple had quickly married and settled into marital bliss. Or as much marital bliss as one could have with four children under the age of ten. The twins had been a surprise, to Mega anyway. Trudy had admitted to him that she was pregnant on their wedding day, but she had never told him that she felt more than the expected number of limbs for a single child. She had even gone so far as to threaten the Techno medic if he so much as breathed a word.
Much to his shame, the stoic man had nearly passed out when he had received the two squirming bundles into his arms. He had done much better after the next birth, and the fellow males had had no cause to mock him, as he handled himself with quiet efficiency, saving his exuberance for the end when he grinned broadly at his son. He had presented the baby to Trudy, who radiant in the face of her exertions, had promptly declared herself out of the baby-making business.
She now divided her time between caring for the children and working at the Hotel, doing public relations for the current incarnation of the Technos. She was now the public face of the organization, as well as a more reluctant Mega, who liked to keep his private life private, but Trudy kept telling him that he needed to show and reinforce to the City that the Technos had fully integrated with the tribes, no longer the invaders, but rather compatriots.
To this end, she worked constantly with Ellie, giving her interviews or simply leads for stories for The Amulet. Under the Mallrat journalist's leadership, the once newsletter was an actual newspaper. Although issues only came out once a week, it had growing subscription base and a steady newsstand clientele. City residents were clamoring to know about changes that were being made for them, in the form of education, medical care and the economy. They also awaited eagerly the social pages, which heavily featured the Mallrats, who were the Who's Who of the City, as well as a gossip column.
Ellie despaired of this less journalistic turn for the paper, but was helpless to fight the desires of the masses which ate it up. She did, however, vow never to write one of these features herself, leaving them to her staff to produce. In particular, one fashion forward young girl's column was popular with girls of a similar age and mindset. Gel inevitably caused Ellie to roll her eyes and breathe slowly, counting to ten whenever they interacted for more than five minutes at a time, but the vapid girl's column sold newspapers, so Ellie was loathe to fire her, as she felt like doing quite often.
Of course, there was more than one reason why Ellie wished to get rid of the girl. The major part centered on the girl herself and her seemingly antiquated views when it came to male/female relations. The other part involved Jack. That's not to say that Ellie had any designs on the first resident of the Mall, she didn't. That being said, it did not mean that she had no opinion on Jack's liaison with the girl. She had given him a piece of her mind, delivering blistering criticism to him for being so, in her opinion, "bloody thick." Jay had had a time of it, keeping her from physically attacking Jack, she had been so livid. Although well-versed in matters of combat and defusing explosive situations in his re-instated position as general, he typically did not interfere when his wife was on a tear, knowing that it would only end in discontent and with him in the doghouse. However, he felt he had to step in in this case, feeling that it would be better for all of them in the long run.
Ebony had not been there, but she had heard about it after the fact. She had been very careful to school her features in a blank mask, refusing to reveal how hurt she had been by his affair. It was true that she had still been stone-walling him over the situation with Amber, but she had needed time to sort through what she was feeling. She needed time to forgive and forget. Instead, she had gotten Gel, which if Jack was looking for the most devastating way to hurt her, he couldn't have picked better.
Gel was the antithesis of Ebony. Naïve, gauche, her conversation inane, centering on what to wear and whom was sleeping with whom; she epitomized shallow. She seemed to be waging a battle to turn back the clock on female independence and she liked pink.
Much tears had been shed on the subject of Gel, on the parts of both Ebony and Jack, when he had come crawling back to Ebony. But it was too little too late. The breach was irreparable and now the pair communicated only about the care of Destiny, a name that had brought hope to Ebony, for a resolution for them, but now seemed like the greatest mockery. Or perhaps the name was more significant than any of them had ever thought; letting them know that even in the stars, some things are destined not to be.
It was as simple and as complicated as that. Jack tended to blame their breakup on coming back to the Mall. Ebony on the other hand, felt that it was as things should be. They had been battling for their relationship to work from the very first, in the camps, at the Mall. They had fought overwhelming odds to try and make things work, but in the end it had not been enough. They had to be perfect one hundred percent of the time; any outside influence only had to succeed once, to bring their house of cards tumbling down, which it did. The others tried to run interference for them, tried to get them to reconcile, but Ebony would not budge. She had taken second place or 'good enough' too many times in the past, she was done.
She did not stop loving, and so the pain never disappeared completely, but she refused to look back. Their world was all about moving forward now, and she was moving with it. Ebony likened herself to the City as a whole, both having endured and been the cause of so much pain and suffering, both having been under assault by others wishing them nothing but ill, and both coming through on the other side stronger than any could have hoped. And she intended to keep it that way; there was hope for the future of the City now, hope for them all. Perhaps not the way either had planned, or even imagined, but now more than ever, the future held endless possibilities.