TOMMY - TWO MONTHS LATER

I sigh heavily and wipe the sweat off my face. I still look like hell, but then again, I rarely have any time to work out to try and get back into shape lately. Between helping all the kids with their homework, doing my own homework, taking care of the twins - even with everyone's help - I'm still amazed I have time to sleep, much less anything else. Dylan and Megan are dealing with Earth schoolwork - long distance, of course. Jacob is doing both Earth and Eltar schooling. Now I'm rather glad that we didn't advance him, instead keeping him with his peers, agewise. He's able to breeze through the Earth work and then focus on Eltar work.

I check on the babies quickly before I move to start my next set of exercises. My thoughts turn to my eldest as I begin. Something isn't going well for her. She - with a bit of debate with Zedd and me - decided to continue her schooling here. She goes to school, comes home and we don't see her again until dinner. She disappears again afterword and she reappears just in time to say good night. I've asked her, but she swears that the work isn't too hard or too much, but she's definitely not happy.

Sighing again, I finish up my workout. If I hurry, I can get my shower before she gets home. I am going to pin that child down to some definite answers.

Gina's watching Sullivan and Grace for me, as I absolutely refused to have a nanny. I do enjoy sitting on the front porch - wish I had more time for it actually - but today I'm on a mission. Jacob's already home and inside, probably chattering to Pina about some animal or another. I see my daughter trudging up the driveway, backpack full as usual as well as an armload of books. I study her for a minute before alerting her to my presence.

"Hi, sweetheart."

She jumps slightly before returning my greeting. "Hi, Daddy. What's up?"

"Good question. Along with - are we going to get to see you for more than half an hour tonight?" She avoids my gaze and shrugs. "Mara Jane, I'm getting really worried about you. Please talk to me."

"I'm fine, Daddy."

"Well then, how is it that we never get to see you?"

"Mostly because I'm actually having to work at these classes. Plus there's a few things that I'm finding out Earth has no clue about so I'm having to catch up in science classes a bit." While my own classes are science based, it's a very different branch and I'm finding them fascinating. Mara Jane continues, "I imagine it's no different than moving to another school on Earth, Daddy. Some things I'm ahead on and some I'm a bit behind, so I'm trying to get caught up on what I'm behind on and stay ahead on the other stuff, that's all."

I really don't feel like that's all, but I don't know if she's glossing things over for sure or not, so I let it go, resolving to talk to Zedd and maybe have him talk to the school. I just have to make sure that he doesn't threaten or bribe them to get things figured out. "Promise me you'll let me know if you're having problems?"

She nods firmly. "Promise, Daddy." I feel slightly better and give her a quick hug before we go inside.

I swing by the kitchen to see what the new cook has planned for dinner. She's one of the daughters of Mara and Kerch's cook and has inherited every bit of her mother's talent. She has a bit of an attitude - she's very territorial about 'her' kitchen - but she's been worth every credit so far.

As far as the rest of the help, there's only three or four others, but we've already had to let a few go since they refused to deal with Gina. That was a bit stressful, since I was healing from having the twins and they'd always come to me or Zedd for confirmation of her instructions. Zedd got tired of it really quickly, making sure that word got around that if people couldn't take instructions from her, they didn't need to apply for work with us.

I step into the kitchen to hear the cook, Avista, tearing into the gardener, who had apparently tracked dirt into her kitchen. "Now I have to clean that up and that's going to delay dinner! The lords will not be pleased!"

"Calm down, Avista. I'm certain Trebor meant no harm." I look to the young man. "What did you need?"

He bows deeply. "Apologies, I was looking for Gina or Lord Zedd. Preferably his lordship, as I doubt Gina will be familiar enough with this particular problem to make a decision. No offense."

"What's the problem?" He explains and I realize that he's right - odds are, Gina would have no idea. I hold up a hand to stop him. "If I'm understanding the problem correctly, Lord Zedd would probably like to look at it for himself." I call Zedd on the intercom, telling him that he needs to talk to the young Eltarian outside.

Once he agrees, I gently herd Trebor outside and help Avista clean up the mess so that she can carry on with dinner. After that, I head up to my bedroom so that I can work on my own homework as well as tend to the twins. Fortunately, they're still napping when I get there. I thank Gina and settle in. I quickly get my things organized and get started.

In spite of the fact that I no longer need them, I often wear my glasses when I'm studying. I've found that they help me focus and therefore retain the information better, a throwback to when I had to have them when I studied in college. I haven't let Zedd know that I'm doing it since I have no doubt that he'd show up to 'help' me study. I'm deep in my work when the door opens unexpectedly.

"Thomas, have you seen my..." His voice trails off and I can feel the surge of lust from him, as well as hear him swallow hard.

Sighing inside, I pull the glasses off and toss them on the table. "Seen your what, Zedd?"

"Um - my, my, oh right. My notes from the Calabri contract."

I turn back to my own notes. "Living room. End table by the armchair."

"Thank you." Instead of hearing him leave, he comes up behind me and puts his arms around me, making me flinch slightly. "You know, the twins are still sleeping, there's still two hours to dinner and the contract can wait" he purrs in my ear.

"Not right now, mate."

"But I miss you." I can hear the pout in his voice.

"Tonight, Zedd. You can wait that long."

I can feel how unhappy he is, but he backs off. "I'll hold you to that, Thomas."

I flash him a quick smile. "You do that."

After dinner, I head up to try and talk to Mara Jane again, hoping I can get more information out of her. Just as I'm about to knock on the door, I hear Megan.

"Why don't you tell your dads?"

Hearing Mara Jane sigh miserably, her response, I have to admit leaves me a tad hurt, but honestly more concerned for her than anything. "Because there's nothing they can actually do, and what they'd very likely try to do is Daddy telling me that I just need to be patient and give things time to settle, be myself, blah, blah, blah, or Papa going down there and threatening to demolish the place which would just look so good and helpful in making me not look like a crybaby psychopath. Seriously, if this is what Jacob had to put up with on Earth and I had known about it I honestly would have destroyed every damn one of those kids in his grade level, consequences be damned."

"Hm, how does Jacob seem to be doing by the way?" Megan questions in worry now herself it seems.

"Better here than on Earth I think. I saw him talking with some other half breeds yesterday. There's two around his age that I think are part Phaedosian and have the same connection to animals that he does. So at the very least he has that."

"And the human thing?"

"I don't think I need to worry about that like I thought I would in the beginning. It seems who Papa is trumps the fact he's part human and I've yet to see anyone be outright rude or mean to him."

"But at the same time, you can't get anyone to even speak to you" Megan states, making me suddenly want to take the approach she assumed Zedd would and go down to more or less cause a good deal of damage to the institution.

"Only the one or two jerks that have clearly been pushed to do so by their parents and only then most likely in an effort to social climb" Mara Jane responds in clear disgust.

"Okay, well clearly you don't need to deal with those idiots. Okay, well what about your cousins? Don't you have like a ton of cousins? I swear in the last two months I've seen more relatives of yours drop by than I can count. Some of them have to go there, right?"

"Not really. Some of them go to boarding schools, a lot have private instructors, most, while looking my age, aren't actually my age due to being full Eltarian and have their own things going on, and like you said there are so many I even lose track of who's who at times."

"Wish I could be there to help. I told you I'd go to that formal dance thing with you as your escort, or you as my escort, or whatever the hell it is that a date is here when not engaged or courting."

"I wish you could be there too. As for the dance, you know I'd actually really like to take you, but again, chances are someone would say something completely stupid to you and I'd end up killing them, and once more we have psycho status."

"If it makes you feel better I like psycho Mara Jane" Megan teases, at least pulling a slight laugh from my child.

"Thanks, but I think you're about the only one."

I walk away, thinking about what I've heard. I go to find Zedd, knowing that he knows this planet and behaviors better than I do. He's in his office staring at some papers and seems rather grateful for the interruption. I fill him in on my talk with her this afternoon and her conversation with Megan. I'm rather surprised when he takes it rather calmly.

"It's really not all that surprising, Thomas. Quite frankly, I've been expecting this. Many of her classmates are going to assume that, having been raised on Earth, she's - well - stupid. Once they see the quality of work that she's capable of, many of them will warm to her."

"Kiss up, you mean."

He shrugs. "It sounds like she can already tell who's talking to her because they want to and who isn't. At least then they'll be kissing up for help instead of because of who I am."

"And you're okay with it?"

"There's really not a choice right now, is there? As Mara Jane said, me going to the school and making threats or throwing power around isn't going to get the results she wants. Besides, she could just do that herself and get much the same results."

I blink at him for a minute. "Okay - who are you and what have you done with the real Zedd? How is it that I'm more upset about this than you are?"

"It's how things are here and I know this and you don't. Eltarians may be more advanced in many ways, Thomas, but sometimes we can be more childish than humans." Left with nothing to say to this, I shake my head and leave his office, returning to the twins.

Some hours later, we finally have the twins asleep, we're both showered and getting in bed. I turn off all the lights before I get in and wrap myself around my husband. We trade several kisses before he pulls off the shirt that I've taken to wearing to bed since the twins were born. I feel him shift and I'm guessing he's reaching for the light. Softly, I say, "Leave it off, please, mate."

He hesitates. "Why, Thomas?"

"Because - when you take away one sense the others become stronger" I finish lamely.

"And what's the real reason?" he challenges without missing a beat.

Embarrassed at being caught out, I blurt out, "Because my body is still an unholy mess and I couldn't handle it if you turned away from me."

"Thomas, love, you've barely just healed from carrying two children at once. As much as I know you'd prefer otherwise, it's going to take a bit of time. I'm not going to not want you because you just had our children - a miracle, by the way - and your poor, abused body hasn't recovered yet. In another hundred years, maybe, but not now." He laughs, low and sensuous. He whispers, "Besides, you know that I like all manner of things unholy."