My Reasons III: Babysitting

Chapter 8 – Conclusion

Seventeen Years Later…

Remy combed his silver hair and smirked at the mirror. "Still s'damn sexy."

"Daddy?" Andrea Lebeau, the youngest of his four children, knocked on the door. "I need money."

"For?" Remy asked.

"I'm going shopping with Becky and…Becky. Just Becky and I." She said.

Remy opened the door. "Is Becky da only person dat's goin'?"

"Of course." Andrea said. Remy knew she was lying.

"Papa gotta get a few t'ings, maybe he come wit' his filles?" Remy smirked as he saw her mouth the word 'Shit.' As she turned, he pick pocketed the cell phone from her jacket pocket. "Hey, y'got any toothpaste?"

"Yeah, in my top bathroom drawer." Andrea replied.

Essex was standing in the lab near the kitchen looking into a microscope when he heard Andrea talking to her older sister. "I swear, Daddy must be telepathic or something. He always knows when we're lying!" Sinister shook his head and smiled. Andrea was a boy-magnet of the worst kind; Sinister and Remy had actually devoted a sizeable amount of their recent years shielding the infamously gorgeous Lebeau girls from men. A tesseract opened in the kitchen and Becky flipped her cell phone shut as she headed toward her bedroom with a strange looking book under one arm.

Essex heard a huge crash and went to investigate, knowing long before he got to the living room that he was going to find the monsters wresting. Adam and Etienne, both 'adults,' (at least in terms of biology) had grown up to six-and-a-half feet tall, and fairly muscular. Arrogant, reckless, and crazy like their father, Sinister was never really sure they had the capability to grow up. As he opened the door, Adam toppled into him and knocked him to the floor.

He sighed and stood up. "Adam, you have all of the strength of your father and NONE of his grace."

Etienne chuckled. "Maybe it's a recessive gene he got from you, Gramps."

"Maybe." Essex said. "Anyway, you know how much I hate it when you destroy my home."

"You've told us a few times." Etienne said. "Hey, I hear mom!"

The ridiculously tall boys ran full-speed to their mother. Adam joking yelled "Mommy!" and grabbed Liz, hugging her so that she hung a foot from the floor.

Liz laughed as she stood on her own again and put a grocery bag down on the table. "How are my little monsters?"

"Little? Monsters?" Adam said. "Monsters, maybe. We've been taller than you since we were what, eleven?"

"Awww…you'll always be my little monsters." Liz said, laughing. "So, why are my boys acting so nervous?"

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Remy walked down the hallway, toothbrush in hand, listening to his daughters chatter. They were like night and day; Becky was sweet, always talking about positive things. And Andrea, she could be meaner than hell. But funny.

"I can't believe Scott actually made us do that!" Andrea said. "Danger Room? 6AM? What an ass!"

Remy chuckled.

Becky sighed. "It's not that bad after awhile, Andrea. Have you talked to the boys?" Remy narrowed his eyes. The telepath had found ways to mask her behavior from her father, but he knew something was up. Remy went into the bathroom that connected the two girls' rooms and scavenged through drawers for toothpaste. Tampons, eye shadow, perfume, face cream, and finally, a tube of toothpaste.

He watched them in the mirror as they kept talking about something Remy couldn't quite hear, then saw Becky hide the mysterious book. He stared off into space as he thought about what might be in the book, then spotted something in the trashcan, choked, and spat toothpaste all over the sink.

"Daddy, are you okay?" Andrea asked.

"Non! Err….Oui!" He yelled, slamming the bathroom door shut. Remy's stomach turned about a billion times as he took the pregnancy test out of the trashcan. "Merde." He considered his two possibilities. There was Becky, who was older, dating Scott Summer's kid, and then there was Andrea, who had been sneaking around with God only knows who. Plus, Andrea was only sixteen. "Calm down Remy, y'gonna have a heart attack." He said to himself as he tossed the test back in the trash, cleaned up his mess, and walked out. "Alright, who's ready t'go shoppin'?"

Nobody showed up at the mall, and Remy came home having lost six hours and over $1200. They left with the boys shortly after Remy brought them home, and Remy went to seek out answers. "Sinny!" He yelled. Sinister peered at him from the shadows. "Dere y'are. Whatcha doin'? Rememberin' y'good old days as a madman?"

"The children are keeping secrets from us." Sinister said.

Remy nodded. "One of my babies is pregnant." He said, angrily. "The book!"

A few minutes later, Sinister and Remy were sitting on the floor next to each other with the strange book. It was labeled 'Confessions: A History of the Real Fantastic Four.'

"Da truth is in dis book." Remy said.

"Yes." Sinister said.

"But dis is private, prolly just f'da kids." Remy said.

"Remy, as a mediocre man and a good father, it is your duty to invade their privacy." Essex told him. "We'll read it, then put it back. No one will ever know."

Remy looked up at his father-in-law, smiling. "Y t'ink Remy's a good papa?"

"Are you kidding?" Sinister said. "Anyone who can raise Adam and Etienne with any outcome that doesn't involve death or prison is a spectacular parent."

Remy chuckled. "Don' get y'hopes up. Dey might end up in jail yet."

Remy and Essex briefly grinned and then opened the book.

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THE END!

To my readers:

I still get a lot of hits for the My Reasons series, even this one. So, should it end here? I don't want to be like some Hollywood bastard that keeps adding stuff on until nobody cares. So, leave me a review, continue with part IV or end it here?

Special thanks to all of my faithful reviewers!