IEHBD – MY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
CHAPTER 2
AUTHOR: Lady F. , TowandaBR
DISCLAIMER: All of the characters of the series "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" are property of John Landis, Telescene, Coote/Hayes, DirecTV, New Line Television, Space, Action Adventure Network, Goodman/Rosen Productions, and Richmel Productions.
Called by Challenger, Veronica left Ned and Tommy before they woke up. With the scientist and Summerllee's care, the woman had gotten significantly better, as well as the child, but they still needed to rest and the blond had performed her helper task very well in the previous day. She wished to stay besides Tommy, specilly after the episode of the previous hours, but at the same time she couldn't refuse to help. For the first time, her boy would have to wait.
Holding the child's hand, Malone left the cottage, but soon he was surrounded by the children who wanted to hear more of his stories. The small kid was immediately irritated and, releasing the journalist's hand, ran towards Marguerite, some meters ahead.
Tommy sat down besides the heiress, who while peeling fresh vegetables of the vegetable garden ate tasty fruits from a very colorful basket. Her glance denounced that she was either very irritated or very bored. From the corner of her kin eye, she noticed her new companion, but continued eating, and chopping.
From his turn, the concentrated boy looked at her, shaking his head back and forth, seeming to want to be noticed. Then his look went down to the delicious basket. Slowly he extended his tinny hand and when he would take a big mango...
"Hey!" - the brunette slapped his hand lightly and he quickly flinched. - "Where I come from, borrowing something without asking is called robbery!"
Tommy sigh heavily, and groaned heartly.
"Ite."
"Yes, I know, little brat. Even a person your age deserves some fun."
Marguerite continued eating and cutting, and Tommy remained there, very quiet, still observing her and scrubbing the tiny hand that stung a little bit.
After some minutes, she put two and two together. She looked at him, and he made the same to her - "Do you want to make a deal?"
Tommy continued to observe, willing to hear her - "I share my snack with you, but only if you promise not to tell the others what I will do afterwards."
The child frowned, he didn't understand what she said, but the sounds of the words seemed interesting to him.
"Yeaaaah."
"It's simple, you only have to keep your mouth shout!" - Marguerite looked around, checking if nobody watched her. She caught the big pan where there were the to-be-cut vegetables and threw them in the forest, behind the place where they were.
She returned fast, with an open smile, and sat down, cleaning the hands one in the other. - "All set."
Tommy had his mouth watering, with a cheerful expression, as soon as he noticed Marguerite cutting several slices of a big mango, with which he was fascinated. She then extended the pan to the boy, who busied his two hands with the hugiest pieces he could find.
"Gluttonous." - the heiress laughed.
While they ate, Marguerite finally observed a thing that she still hadn't noticed. Why was he there, and not with Veronica or Ned?
"Hey, little brat." - Tommy looked at her very cheerful, with his mouth dirty of mango. - "Where is Ned?"
The boy rested the slice in the plate on her lap, and looked at the middle of the village. He seemed to be sad. Marguerite thought it strange. - "And Veronica? Where is she?"
He sighed heavily.
"Alright." - she said, seeming to understand, but she didn't want to talk about it. It was rare what was happening in that moment: Tommy, without Ned or Veronica around him.
"Let's change the subject" - she saw that the boy seemed to become sad little by little - "Now, what are we going to eat?" – she asked, opening wide eyes, very entertaining for the boy who laughed at her - "We can eat all what we want, there is nobody watching us." - she whispered, and he, as always, paid attention to each word.
"BOO!" - She startled him and they both laughed heartily.
"Then we'll do the following. If somebody asks, I'll say that I cannot do anything today because I'm taking care of you - eye for an eye. But don't you dare to make me run behind you or ask for lap. You know that the only reason for me to do that is to be away from the tasks that are not appropriate to a lady like me, understood?"
"Ood." – he accomplished with what the lady had said while nodding his head vigorously.
And stretching out her hand for the boy, they went to seek something funny to do, what wasn't difficult when they saw...
"Lord John Roxton!" - the heiress smiled when seeing the sweat man, shirtless, trying to lift a trunk with the help of two natives.
"Silence, Marguerite..." - he muttered -"...this is heavy."
"See, little brat? You must concentrate in cerebral activities, things that will make you a gentleman and not a fool as a certain lord that we knew."
"Ox."
"You too, Tommy?"
Suddenly Roxton loosened the trunk, and the natives screamed at the same time they falled to the ground. Marguerite and Tommy rolled of laughing of the scene, mainly of the embarrassed man who was furious, running towards they both. He stopped in front of them with the hands by his waist, angry.
"What are you laughing at? Don't you have anything to do? Because I do!".
Marguerite made an effort to stop laughing.
"Of course we have, we are making it right now!" – And again she started laughing.
Roxton was very embarassed, the people stopped over there and they looked at them without understanding.
In a few of seconds, John helped again the two poor fellows with the trunk, but without success, that laughter was distracting him.
"It was all I needed..." – He thought.
Marguerite spoke something that the hunter didn't understand in the Zanga's language, and people around began to laugh also, looking at John and laughing, like Marguerite and Tommy.
"What the hell is that?" - He released the trunk and the two native fell again. - "What did you said to them?"
Marguerite made an effort to stop laughing - "I said that if they imitated us, you would get to lift the trunk easier."
In less than one minute, a crowd gathered in turn of Roxton, the trunk and the two natives, helping the men to finish the work while Marguerite took Tommy, and they ran away.
&&&
The heiress and the kid rested below an enormous and secular fig tree. Its shadow gave them an immense relief in the scalding summer on the plateau.
"Did you see his face, little brat? And all those people!"
Tommy laughed. He seemed to remind.
"But the best was when he was there, and those natives arriving, and laughing too, and so..."
"NOW YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME, DAMN YOU!" – they didn't know where from, but John Roxton suddenly appeared coming from nowhere.
"RUN!" - Marguerite rose and ran, followed by Tommy.
The two ran desperately. Marguerite didn't know if she laughed or if she stopped to help the child that little by little was falling behind.
Roxton went running as fast as his tired body allowed in that moment. He was almost reaching Tommy when a branch appeared.
"I got you!" - Roxton stretched out his arms and then bent down, almost touching the boy's underware, when he tripped, falling heavily in the ground.
"Come back here, Tommy!"
Roxton looked at the panted boy running, laughing, and looking back. But there is not only one branch in the jungle.
The hunter only had time to see the small legs swung in the air, and the cloud of dust arising slowly.
Roxton began to laugh sarcastically. - "Well done!"
Marguerite saw the two tumbles, and reduced her speed, but continued running. But, as we said before, in the jungle there are not only two branches. There are always one more. And the third one was exactly there and it was Marguerite's turn to fall down.
"Talk to me, little rascal."
Tommy opened his eyes slowly, and heard the hunter and Marguerite discussing. They were very concerned. The man seemed to want to cry, and the heiress was not too different.
"He woke up, you fool, now we'll see the consequences!"
Tommy saw them by his side, and wanted to get up, but he wasn't able to.
"Let's help him." - the man said.
"No! He may have broken something!"
"But how will we know it?" - he whined.
"Talk to me, little brat, does it hurt here?" - Marguerite touched his arm and Tommy didn't move, he just observed. She repeated the same procedure with his legs, feet, belly, head, and all his body. Roxton enjoyed to see a new doctor being born in the jungle.
Therefore they began a new discussion. In a few seconds, Tommy rose slowly and cleaned the dust of his aching small body. There was silence.
"Now, get ready..." - Roxton was already shrinking and covering his ears waiting for Tommy's cry.
Marguerite would make the same, but Tommy was faster and gave her a very tight hug. As always, he flinched the maximum that he could, and hid the face in her chest. He shivered.
The heiress was surprised, not knowing what to do. Roxton signaled for her to hug Tommy in return, and was obeyed.
"Everything is fine, little brat, everything will be fine..." - She rocked him in her arms, concerned, while Roxton breathed diminished.
"At least he didn't cry."
Marguerite laughed a little nervous.
During the day Tommy still played with his new children friends, but now he refused to get away from the brunette. Whenever she threatened leaving him, the boy would run catching her skirt.
Veronica got closer with the small lunch plate for him. Since a while she had been trying to make him to feed himself alone, just observing him while he was, among other things, making a great mess. It was a way to make him a little bit more independent and he seemed to enjoy the mess, but that day she would prefer to feed him in the mouth. He was starving and ate quickly, but never gave up in admitting how much he had been wishing for that moment he just kept a frowned expression. The blond still tried to play and talk a little with him, but after he was done, he just run away towards Marguerite. Veronica started to go after him, but felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
"Challenger needs you, dear." - Summerllee smiled - "She will take care of him very well."
"All right, professor." - she became sad seeing the boy standing back with Marguerite.
At dusk...
Roxton had informed Ned and Veronica that Tommy would be with him and Marguerite. Even so, while he helped Tommy to pile up some wood stubs in the ground, the heiress seemed afflicted, looking to the entrance of the tent.
"Any sign of those two"?
"No. I informed them that they would not need to worry, since the kid would be with us."
She sat down in the chair, with the hands by her head.
"I have a terrible headache!"
"Do you wanna me to prepare something for you?"
She looked seriously at him. - "No! You just wonder about the origin of the headache, and the problem will be solved!"
"Marguerite..."
"Shut up Roxton, I am ill!"
"You are like this since I know you. Is it starting to get better?" - The last word, with emphasis, made Marguerite to look for Tommy, who had stopped what he was doing and looked at the couple.
"I'll take some herb to make a tea for you."
Roxton was already leaving when Veronica and Ned entered, almost colliding with the hunter.
"Oh, you're there."
"Finally you appeared." - Marguerite said getting up, with the hands by her waist. It appeared her tension had returned.
Ned and Veronica stared at each other.
"I'm sorry, Marguerite, I was with the children that occupied me all day, I didn't have a choice. And Veronica needed to assist the newborn child."
"Thank you for having taken care of him" - the blond said. She looked at Tommy who got up slowly. She smiled, kneeling down, extending her arms for him.
"Come on, sweetie."
Tommy turned his back to her, immediately holding on Marguerite's legs.
"But..." - Veronica got up - "What's happening, Tommy?"
"I think you have a problem." – Roxton concluded.
"What do you mean?"
"Dear Ned and Veronica, I think you don't need explanations, do you?"
They looked at each other discouraged. - "All right. When you finish to play, could you take Tommy to our hut?" - Veronica left slowly.
"Let's do as follows: leave him here with Marguerite tonight..."
"What?" - the heiress interrupted.
"Shut up, Marguerite." – the hunter whispered among his teeth. Then he continued. - "Tomorrow, early in the morning, we are going back home and I am sure that everything will be resolved."
"But..." - Veronica protested.
"Go with Ned, Veronica. Have a good night of sleep and let Tommy to calm down a little. Everything will be solved, my friend." - said him, winking at her warmly.
"Alright, then... Good night, swettie… Thank you two" - said the young woman, leaving crestfallen. Ned followed her.
"I'll take some diapers and clothes for him. It seems that he will spend the night with you..."
"With me?" – the heiress seemed shocked – "Why not with you?"
"Because I don't know if you noticed, miss Krux, it's you that he wants, and not me."
"...you know, you and I are very close these last days, this is not good... Look, you're imitating me in everything, you sing my music, eat what I eat, you irritate who I irritate, and... ok, leaving aside the fact of being stubborn... Soon in a while people will think we have some kind of relationship." – She told him, in a good mood.
"...When I was a child, I looked at those children that had the attention of everybody and I envied them... Of course, I couldn't do anything, not even my parents were with me..." - she averted her eyes. She didn't want to remember the past. - "Look. What I'm trying to show you is that you have everything in you hands, don't waste that, Tommy... they love you, and you love them. That's enough."
Marguerite had said everything in deep meditation, distracted, looking to nothing. In the end, she finally noticed that Tommy observed her very quiet, with his head leaned by her shoulder. The heiress blushed. - "Anyway, don't chat about this conversation with anyone."
Tommy stayed all night with Marguerite and she truly hated it. The kid had a restless sleep and whined a little. He held on to the heiress and she hardly could move.
Sometimes he would mutter - "Mama."
After sometime observing the child, she could feel what he was feeling, noticing his smart little eyes. Even in the dark, she could see them – and they were more active than ever.
Tommy extended his arm, whimpering something, and than rested his hand on the heiress chin. It was a new kind of caress, and Marguerite suspected it had originated from Tommy spying on her and Roxton when they were alone. She smiled involuntarily, nibbled lightly the boys hand, what tickeld the boy.
When he finally slept she sighed, her body aching a little, but finally found comfort again.
"...Tomorrow will be a long day…"
TO BE CONTINUED...