Sunday morning breaks bright and clear, it's a perfect day for flying. Maggie lies in bed wide awake and staring at the ceiling. In fact, she hasn't slept most of the night despite Abe's best efforts to relax her. Not that she objected to him distracting her, but it seemed like no sooner was she about to drop off to sleep then something else that needs to be done before her parents arrival pops into her brain and wakes her right back up.
With a sigh, she rolls over and tries to get some sleep only to have the sounds of waking babies reach her ears. With a groan, she rolls out of bed and staggers over to the crib in the near darkness. She changes the diapers with only one eye open thanking the heavens that they're only wet this time.
By the time she's finished, Abe has arrived and is standing beside her. He carries the twins back to the bed for her and she gets ready for them. As soon as she and the kids are situated, Abe sits down next to his wife and wraps an arm around her shoulders.
"You need more sleep," he states without preamble.
"Tell that to my brain," she yawns as she leans against him. "It seems every time I get close to falling asleep, I think of something else that needs to be done around the house and then I have this urge to go and take care of it."
"Repainting the outside trim is not a good idea in the middle of the night," he points out, trying to hide his smile.
"I didn't say it was logical stuff, just things I thought about," she replies while leaning her head back against his shoulder as she closes her eyes. "And you can stop smiling."
"How do you know I'm smiling?" he asks. "You're facing away from me and your eyes are closed."
"I can hear you," she answers.
"You can't hear a smile," he replies.
"Your voice changes in pitch slightly when you're smiling," she responds. "It's especially noticeable when you try to hide it."
"Ah," he chuckles as he places a kiss on top of her head.
About ten minutes later, the twins are sated, burped and put back to bed. As Abe lays the last child in the crib, he hears the sound of the breast pump going. Turning, he sees that she's expressing the last of her milk out.
"Why are you doing that?" he asks.
"I want to make sure they have enough milk while I'm gone," she answers.
"You're not going to be gone that long," he tells her.
"Ever been caught in rush hour traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge?" she asks. "It's a parking lot. Besides, there's going to be reporters at the airport. They're going to slow us down plenty, not to mention I don't want to make it too obvious that I'm a nursing mother now. A little weight gain can be explained away by a prolonged illness or just plain laziness, but bigger breasts means either a boob job or breast feeding. I'd rather give the tabloids as little to play with as possible."
"I see your point," he responds. "Do you need help with anything?"
"No, I'm just about finished," she replies.
A few minutes later, she turns off the pump and breaks the suction on her breasts. After carefully capping the now full bottle of warm milk, she disassembles the device so it can be cleaned. Abe takes the parts that need to be washed and sterilized and the full bottle down to the kitchen while she goes into the bathroom to rinse out the pump.
When she's done, she puts it off to the side and heads for the door. Before she can leave the bedroom, Abe returns, blocking her exit.
"Where are you going?" he asks, his head cocked to the side and shutting the door behind him.
"I've still got a ton of things to do before they get here," she responds. "It's not going to do itself."
"You need rest," he reminds her as he steps up to her and starts to rub her arms with his hands. "You don't want to look like a zombie when you meet your parents."
"I've seen zombies," she states. "I don't look that bad, do I?"
"You will if you don't get some sleep," he says as he starts to push her back towards the bed.
"But I just can't do it," she gripes. "Every time I try to fall asleep, I just wake up again. I think I'm going to lose my mind."
"I'll help you," he offers.
"No offence, honey, but I don't think that's going to work," she replies, sadly shaking her head. "Not that the massage didn't feel wonderful and the sex wasn't mind blowingly great, but I still couldn't sleep after them."
"Something different this time, I swear," he responds. "Trust me."
With a sigh and a nod, she crawls back into bed and lies down. A moment later he joins her sans top and gloves and he pulls her towards him. She gladly cuddles up to him, laying her head on his chest and listening to his heartbeat as he pulls the covers over both of them. He gently strokes her hair, waiting for her to get comfortable.
"I want you to listen to my voice," he quietly tells her, his voice reverberating through his chest and into her ear. "I don't want you to think about anything else but what I tell you."
"But…," she starts, lifting her head up.
"Shhh," he interrupts, stopping his petting to put a finger on her lips. "Concentrate to my voice and do as I say. Ok?"
"Ok," she reluctantly agrees.
"Good," he replies and goes back to running his hand over her tresses.
She squirms around a bit until she finds a comfortable position and then she finally closes her eyes. He's not sure how having her one of her legs thrown over both of his and an arm draped over his middle while his chest acts as her pillow is comfortable, but what does he know, he's been sleeping in a bathtub.
"Take a deep breath and then relax as you exhale," he quietly intones, listening as she takes a deep breath and then feels her body relax against him as she exhales. "Let the tension go, nothing else matters but the sound of my voice. You can feel yourself floating on a cloud as you drift away…"
He continues talking in a soft, almost monotone manner for several minutes, finally stopping when he notices her even breathing and she seems to have suddenly gained weight when she fell asleep. But she's asleep and that's all that matters as he closes both sets of eyelids to rest for a while. A second later, his eyes pop open when he hears the bedroom door open. Susan and Peg both come staggering in, looking a bit worse for wear as if they too had trouble sleeping. The women briefly glance at the bed and are startled to see Abe staring back at them.
Maggie fed them less than an hour ago, he silently tells them and their eyes become wider, surprised by hearing his voice in their heads instead of with their ears. She didn't sleep well last night; I'm hoping to get her a few more hours. There are five bottles of milk in the refrigerator should you need them.
Susan and Peg nod before turning back towards the crib. They scoop up the babies and quietly leave the room. As soon as the door clicks shut, Abe closes his eyes again and leans against his pillow. Despite his best intentions to stay awake and the fact that he still has his respirator on, within a few moments he is also asleep.
Abe wakes to the feeling of a warm, soft hand caressing his chest and stomach. A finger tip gently traces his stripes down his side until it reaches the top of his shorts. Then fingernails are lightly dragged up his stomach and over his chest to his respirator. He lets out a moan that starts somewhere in the vicinity of his toes and works its way up through his chest. He can hear and feel her quietly laughing beside him.
"That's a good way to get into trouble," he playfully growls as he grabs the hand before it can do any more mischief.
"Oh really?" she purrs as she shifts around and moves more of her body weight onto him so she can look down onto his face. "What kind of trouble are we talking about?"
"The kind where I throw you onto your back and completely ravage you," he replies, finally opening his eyes to stare back into lust filled hazel ones.
"Swear?" she snickers just before lowering her head and licking one of his pectoral muscles.
She follows it with a quick, gentle nip and a kiss. She manages to repeat the process several times, working her way down, before he growls and flips her onto her back. He attacks her lips with his own which cause her to whimper with need. She wraps her arms and legs around his body and pulls him even closer as the kiss deepens and hands begin to grope.
Within a matter of moments everything but her bra is gone. And as frustrating as that is for him, he understands that without it on she would be leaking all over the bed. A bit more fondling and kissing and surprisingly he finds himself on his back and her leaning over him working on his shorts. With a smile, he lifts his hips as she peels the foam neoprene from his body for which he's grateful considering it was getting very uncomfortable.
Starting at his feet, she slowly works her way back up his body, nipping, kissing and stroking his body with her teeth, lips and hands. He lets out a frustrated groan and reaches for her, but she slides back down just out of reach. With a snarl he quickly sits up, grabs her upper arms and drags her on top of him.
A low evil chuckle escapes her throat as she attacks his lips with her own and then starts to systematically remove his respirator by feel alone. A minute later and his gills are freed from the device and she kisses her way down to his neck, sliding her body down his as she does, her knees resting on the bed on either side of his body. As if having her gently torturing his sanity by kissing and licking his gills wasn't enough, he can feel her hot core barely touching the tip of his manhood.
"Maggie," he pleads. "Need you now."
"Really?" she teases as she rubs herself against him.
With another growl, he flips her onto her back and pushes himself into that delightful heat. They both let out low moans as he sets a slow, nearly torturous pace. Nothing else matters to them right now but the feeling of loving each other. All too soon it seems, he starts going faster and she can feel herself racing towards the edge. In a matter of moments she's flying over the precipice, barely managing not to scream his name as his memories flood her mind.
A minute later and they're back in their usual post coital position with only a sheet over them. With a sigh, she starts to drift off again and he gently strokes her shoulder length hair. A question that's been sitting at the back of his mind finally comes forward and he feels the need to ask it.
"Why did you cut your hair so short?"
She buries her face into his chest as she remembers her first stop during her trip out to California so many months ago.
It's been three days since she's left the bureau and her home. It's been three days since she left him. She's now wandering around The Great Mall of America in the Twin Cities. She's not sure what possessed her to go to Minnesota in the middle of January, but here she is.
The second day on the train and she had no choice but to use the shower in her cabin. A normal sized person would have trouble with the tiny closet they expect you to use to get washed in, but for a woman six months pregnant with twins, it's nearly impossible. As if that wasn't bad enough, it seemed to take forever to get all of the shampoo washed out of her hair with the nearly non existent water pressure in the showerhead.
So now she's in The Mall looking for something. After getting turned around more than once and getting lost at least twice she finally finds it. She walks into a hair salon and luckily gets an appointment right away. There are some advantages of getting there just when they open. She sits in the chair and the hair stylist starts to play with her hair.
"So what would you like?" Lars asks.
"I definitely want it shorter and maybe a perm or change the color or something," she answers. "I'm not sure, I just want something different."
"Not to be nosey, sugar, but are you pregnant?" he inquires, staring at her in the mirror.
"Yes," she replies. "Why?"
"Well, I can give you the hair cut with no problem, but there's no way I'm giving you a perm or coloring your hair," he responds as he puts his fist on his hip and shifts his weight to that same leg. "The chemicals that I'd have to use could hurt the baby."
"Oh, I didn't know that," she quietly responds as she rubs her hand over her large belly. "I guess I'll just have a cut then."
"How much of it?" he questions as he goes back to playing with her tresses.
"All of it," she quickly commands.
"Are you sure about that?" he asks, an eyebrow rising towards his hairline. "What about your husband? Does he want it short?"
"My husband likes…liked it long," she responds bitterly, tears starting to sting the back of her eyes.
"Liked?" he questions.
"He died," she whispers as a lone tear tracks its way down her cheek.
"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry," he gasps. "Let me get you some tissues and let you pull yourself together. I'll go get some books and you can look at some styles and see what you like."
With that he disappears for a few moments and then quickly returns with a box of facial tissues before disappearing again. She takes a couple of tissues and spends a few minutes regaining her composure. She feels kind of bad that she didn't tell Lars the whole truth, but how do you explain that your husband made a miraculous recovery and is now obsessed over finding something. To top it off, how do you explain that your husband has another wife that he previously didn't remember? But none of that matters since he told her to leave and so she did.
With a sigh, she wipes away the tears, blows her nose and puts the box on the little table in front of the mirror. She looks up and sees Lars coming towards her with a stack of books in his arms. They spend about twenty minutes going over different styles before she picks one they both can agree on.
"You know, it's my hair, I should be the one making the choice," she points out to him.
"And it's my styling skills that you are going out into the world with and I refuse to let you ruin my good name by picking a style that will look absolutely horrible on you," he retorts.
She just smiles and shakes her head as he leads her over to the washing bowl. After she's been washed and conditioned, she waddles back to his station and settles back into the chair. After towel drying her hair as best he can, he start to comb it out.
"Have you ever heard of the Locks of Love?" he asks as he runs the comb through her hair.
"No, what's that?" she replies.
"Oh, honey, they're this wonderful non-profit organization that provides real hair wigs to kids who've lost their hair because of chemo or some type of disease," he excitedly responds.
"Let me guess, you'd like me to donate my hair," she smiles.
"You're hair would be perfect," he states. "You've taken such good care of it and I'd hate to see all of this lovely hair go into the garbage when it could bring a smile a child's face."
"Ok, ok, you've talked me into it," she chuckles. "It's not like I'm going to need it anyways. What do you need me to do?"
"Wait here, I'll be right back," he orders happily.
She chuckles and shakes her head as he practically skips off. A minute later he returns with a large re-sealable plastic bag, a rubber band and a padded envelope. He quickly blow dries her hair, pulls it back into a low pony tail when it's dry using the rubber band to hold it in place. When he's done, he grabs a pair of scissors and stands behind her, staring at her in the mirror.
"You ready?" he asks.
"Yes," she replies, for some strange reason feeling a little nervous.
A few seconds later and suddenly her head feels a lot lighter and Lars is holding her hair in his hand. She takes it from him and looks at it, feeling the soft silkiness of it in her hands. She quickly squashes down thoughts of him playing with it, knowing that he'll never touch it again. With a shaky breath, she hands it back to Lars and he quickly sticks it in the plastic bag which is then carefully put into the padded envelope. Once all that is completed, he quickly wets down her hair once more and styles it. Less an hour later, Lars has a sizable tip, Locks of Love has a monetary and hair donation and she's walking out of the mall towards a waiting taxi feeling a little bit better about life.
"I'm sorry," she whispers.
"I understand and I forgive you," he assures her. "Besides, I think I like it this length."
She lifts her head and looks at him with red rimmed confused eyes.
"It's much easier to get to your neck without your hair in the way," he teases, causing her eyes to narrow.
"Give me another hicky, buster, and I'll feed you to my grandmother," she growls threateningly pushing herself up onto her arms. "You're damn lucky that Steven thought it was funny that I married a sucker fish the other day before Grandmother had a chance to see that last hicky you gave me."
He chuckles as he pulls her towards him and kisses her gently. She gives a half hearted growl before lying back down next to him and cuddling with him. She's starting to drift back to sleep when the sound of someone gently knocking on the door rouses her. She scowls at the door for a second before responding.
"Yes, Steven, what is it?" she calls out.
"Stephanie, John, Jeff, Pat and the baby are here," Steven replies, his voice muffled by the door. "Sharon called and your parents are out of the hospital and they're on their way to the airport."
"Thank you!" she yells back.
She scrambles over Abe and out of the bed in her rush for the bathroom. She starts the shower and stands there bouncing on the balls of her feet impatiently waiting for the hot water to make the trip up to the showerhead. As soon as the water is warm enough, she jumps in, but before she can slide the door shut a blue hand gets in the way. She gives him look that promises problems if he tries anything funny before she lets him in.
After taking a shower in record time, she quickly dries off and dresses while Abe stays in the shower to get his skin wet again. By the time he finally gets out, she's already left with the bottle of expressed milk that she produced while he was sleeping and the dirty pieces of pump equipment.
He gets dressed and finally leaves the room. At the end of the hall is the top of the stairs and waiting there for him is one of the agents. He can see Agent Stone talking into his radio and he knows that security is tightening, not just because Maggie's family is starting to arrive, but Hellboy, Liz and Trevor are scheduled to arrive sometime in the afternoon. Abe stops and waits for Stone to finish receiving his orders.
"Secure the area, Blue is ready to come down," Stone speaks into the microphone in the cuff of his shirt sleeve.
A moment later, he's given the all clear and Stone leads Abe down to the office and Abe idly notes that it's nearly eleven o'clock.
"Someone will be bringing you breakfast shortly," Stone tells Abe just before closing the door and taking up his station out in the hall.
A noise in the corner catches Abe's attention and he notices that the twins are sleeping in their bassinette. He checks in on the babies just before he settles into the large executive chair behind the mahogany desk and looks around the sizable room while his stomach growls hungrily.
A fairly large nearly empty bookcase that's built into the wall lines an entire side of the room and a fireplace sits across from it. A couch bracketed by a couple end tables sits opposite the desk and a coffee table sits in front of the sofa. The bassinette and changing table are behind him with various baby items sitting nearby. Lying underneath all of the furniture is a very large oriental rug over the marble floor.
Before he can get up and check out what meager reading selection has been left for him, Stone opens the door to allow Maggie and Manning into the room, closing the door after they're in. Manning is carrying a cup of coffee from which he takes a sip while Maggie is carrying a rather large tray filled with bagels, lox, cream cheese, a pot of tea and a small covered bowl that he knows contains his rotten eggs. Abe quickly gets up and relieves his wife of her burden right after giving her a quick kiss.
"Thank you for bringing my breakfast," he says as he puts the tray down on the desk.
"You're welcome," she replies as she heads for the bassinette. "How are the twins doing?"
"They're still sleeping," he answers as he starts to spread cream cheese on the first bagel.
"They should be waking up soon," she tells him. "When they do, please tell the agent out in the hall and someone will let me know. I'm afraid you're going to be stuck in here for a while. Is there anything you need?"
"Are there any more books?" he asks as he finishes arranging the lox on his meal and takes a bite.
"I'll see what I can find," she replies as she comes up to him. "Hellboy will be here soon, so at least you'll have company."
"Do you know when he'll be here?" he asks around a mouthful of food.
"They'll be arriving around two this afternoon," Manning answers, speaking for the first time and not sounding the least bit pleased. "When they do, you, Hellboy and the kids will be confined to this room until your in-laws arrive and then you and your kids can meet them. After that, Hellboy, Liz and Trevor will be introduced to them. Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish will be then taken to the party where they will be reunited with their families. When everything calms down, you, Hellboy and all three kids will be introduced to that hoard your wife calls a family."
Maggie and Manning scowl at each other for several moments before he breaks eye contact and takes another sip of his coffee. Abe continues to eat, knowing that interfering with them will just make things harder for everyone. Before Maggie can berate Manning for calling her family a 'hoard,' the twins begin to stir. Abe puts down his breakfast and goes to help Maggie as she goes towards the babies.
A short time later, Maggie and the twins are situated on the couch and they're happily nursing away. Abe turns to back to his breakfast and finds that Manning beat a hasty retreat when Maggie sat down to feed the 'kids.' A while later, the twins and Abe are all fed and Maggie gets ready to go back out.
"I'll send Guillermo in with any books I can find," she states as she puts Morgan in her bouncy chair. "Is there anything else you need?"
"Bathroom?" he inquires.
"It's down the hall," she tells him. "Just let the agent know you need it, but don't expect them to be quick in letting you out."
"I've worked with these men longer then you, love," he gently reminds her as he pulls her into his arms. "I'm well aware how long it takes them to secure an area."
"I'm sorry," she replies remorsefully, laying her head against his chest. "I'm just a bit nervous right now."
"Perfectly understandable," he chuckles as he kisses the top of her head. "You better go back before someone comes looking for you."
"It's a circus out there," she sighs.
Reluctantly she pulls away from him, steals one last kiss and then heads back out into the melee.
Several hours later, there's a lot of commotion outside of the office and Abe briefly looks up, raises his bare hand and then goes back to his book long enough to memorize his place. Just as he's putting the book back on the shelf, the door opens and Hellboy, Liz and Trevor come trooping into the room. After Liz drops off Trevor's stuff, says, 'hi' to Abe and kisses her men goodbye, she leaves to go help. A short time later word comes down that Maggie and her grandmothers have left for the airport.