Chapter the Second
In which in our intrepid Hero finally receives much anticipated News
Damien slept until nine the next morning and woke up feeling better than he had in weeks. He showered, dressed, made his first trek into Kate's room to find her still not pregnant and then went downstairs and found the first floor deserted. Damien was making his breakfast when Anna came back from a jog, she then went upstairs to shower and he was eating when Thomas returned, and Thomas didn't return alone.
"For starters, I thought that you could use a friend." Damien's dog trotted into the room, came over to his master, turned around and lay down at his feet. Damien reached down and gave the dog a few hearty yet playful thumps on his rump.
"Next, I've brought appropriate clothing for funeral attending. The service will be tomorrow at ten in the morning in one of the chapels at the cemetery and yes, I already called Kate's boss and told him. I've also brought you reading material." Thomas dropped a stack of reports on the table. "These have all been signed, and you can't sign anything anyway considering that you're not officially back." On top of the stack of files was a thick book filled with baby names. Damien looked up. "It's a lot harder than you think." Thomas winked at him.
When Anna came downstairs from her shower, she was dressed in business attire. "I'm taking us over to the London office. Why don't you come with? You've been cooped up since you got here." Thomas held out Anna's coat for her.
"I'll get out of the house tomorrow for the service. What about Kate's passport?"
"Everything is good. We'll be gone for most of the day and I'll bring back Chinese so I don't have to cook. The one thing this place needs is a BBQ. I'll have to do my chicken in the oven, not the same but, it'll do. I'll buy the chicken today so it marinates overnight."
"Your BBQ is the best, Mr. Chambers." Like Damien and her uncle, Anna had been over many times to one of Thomas' BBQs that had quickly become both a summer and winter tradition.
Thomas shook his head. "Work for the largest multinational corporation on the face of the planet, finagle some of the best mergers in the history of corporate America…and the Black guy gets a thumbs up for his chicken."
Anna's face had turned the color of chalk, but Thomas laughed. "Anna, I'm kidding. I see she also inherited her uncle's sense of humor, or lack thereof." Damien laughed, finished eating and saw Thomas and Anna to the door.
"At least go sit in the backyard or something, okay?" Damien agreed and then watched Thomas and Anna leave and except for the three nurses and Kate, he was alone in the house.
Damien went outside, but the weather was too cold for his liking so he came back in and turned on the television, but there was nothing on, then decided now would be a good time to call the President and explain what was going on, which Damien did, asking him to hold off on any press release until tomorrow after Peter's funeral. For now, the Deputy Ambassador would be handling all the duties that would have normally fallen to Damien. They made small talk about the President's wife and kids, and Damien ended the conversation by promising to come and visit once he got back to the States. After the call, he grabbed the stack of files, which included the baby name book, and once he checked on Kate, went into his room intending to spend the day reading reports. It was noon, and Damien had gotten through the majority of the files, when he gave into temptation and picked up the book.
When first faced with the prospect of having children, Damien had been easily able to think of a name for a son, it had been Robert's alternative name if he had not gone with Damien, but a daughter...While he had spent more time thinking about having a girl, since she would have been the first one born, he had not given much thought to picking out a name for her. Damien could not think off hand of any suitable names for girls, he would never name her after Kate, so he was stymied as to what to call his daughter, should he have one. Damien made a trip to Kate's room, came back, turned to the middle of the book where the names for girls started and began with the A's...
At three in the afternoon, Damien decided to go downstairs and have a light lunch, he was now in the B's not having found a name in the A's that he liked, and after he ate, he went back upstairs and made his perfunctory mental examination of Kate. He reached out with his mind and while he wanted to find something, he expected this time to be like all the others and almost hastily moved on, but then Damien let out a nearly inaudible gasp. "Go downstairs and wait for Thomas." Knowing that he was not speaking to Kate, the three nurses left him alone.
Damien looked behind him; the door was shut. He got down on one knee, to anyone who came in it would have looked like he was proposing to Kate, and since he couldn't think of a better place, put his hand just below her navel. He was hesitant to try again, wondering if he had imagined what he had felt moments earlier, but he took a breath and reached out; it was still there.
Whatever it was felt separate from Kate…something foreign inside of her…like it didn't belong. Damien was sure that it felt like him, but he didn't want to project himself onto whatever it was that he could feel. He thought of it like a tiny blip on a radar screen sending out a signal, but he had no idea whether that tiny blip was aware that someone was listening to it. That signal hadn't been there before and felt like something alien inside of Kate…and…female. At first, Damien had thought that the gender had been Kate, but it was definitely coming from that blip. He smiled and let himself believe; nine months from now, Damien Thorn was going to be a father. He closed his eyes. "Oh Satan, from whom all true blessings flow, thank-you for my child."
Damien knew that the tiny life could not hear him, but like most parents, he left logic at the door and spoke. "Hello, daughter; I'm your father. I'm not going to tell you my name yet because you don't have one, but I promise you that the next time we talk, you will. I love you; your father loves you more than he can ever tell you with words. I'm going to go now, but I'll be back and when I do, you'll have a name." He left Kate, went back to his room, picked up the book and turned to the names beginning with D. Since he had been intent on giving his son the alternative to Damien, then his daughter would get a name that began with the same initial as her father. He didn't find anything in the Da's and moved on and then…there it was. He liked the sound of it: strong, powerful, graceful and feminine, and once he read the meaning of the name, he knew that that it would belong to his daughter.
Damien had decided, once he had come upstairs from lunch, to switch tact and try reading something else, but that wasn't going to happen now, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on much of anything so he brought half a dozen reports with him and returned to Kate's room. The dog followed his master, but once they entered the room, the dog stopped, looked up at Damien and and went over to Kate and nudged her stomach with his head. He then sat and thumped his tiny tail on the floor. Damien placed the files on the table that faced the garden out back and then pulled up a chair beside Kate and sat. He smiled, reached over and scratched the dog behind his ear. "So you're my pregnancy test, are you? Do you approve of the newest addition to my family?" The dog gave a quiet bark, as if not to disturb the new being inside of Kate and then curled up at Damien's feet and closed his eyes.
Damien reached out again to that little blip inside of Kate. "I told you that when I came back you'd have a name. Hello, Delia, I'm your father, Damien. We won't be properly introduced to each other for nearly a year, but I can feel you and I will be here for you…not just now, but always." He moved the chair closer to the window and began to read, but every now and then, he reached out to his daughter.
He was in Kate's room for two hours before Thomas returned to Oscar and was told that something was up. Thomas opened the door and one look at Damien told him all he needed to know. "I'll understand if you want to talk to Paul first."
Damien grinned. "She's pregnant."
"Yes, I know. Allow me to be the first to congratulate you, daddy." Thomas slapped Damien on the back. "However, if the look on your face hadn't given it away, he might have." A black dog, slightly smaller and younger than Damien's dog, entered the room. The new dog came over to Kate, sat beside her and looked up at Damien, whose puzzled expression was enough to prompt Thomas' question. "This is new?"
Damien, who had gotten up at this point, shook his head. "I guess so, it looks like I have a new dog, or my child does. Thanks for the felicitations." They shook hands. "I can feel her, but I don't know if she can feel me."
"She…it's a girl?"
"Nine months from now, I'm going to have a daughter."
"A girl...what about the next Antichrist?"
Damien shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she's supposed to carry the next Antichrist, eventually. But, for whatever reason, I have a girl."
"Did you pick a name?"
"Delia, it means visible. I can't think of a more apt name to give my daughter; both my life and hers proof of Satan's power in the world."
"A man with a child...now the women really won't be able to keep their hands off you. Fatherhood suits you…champagne! There's champagne in the fridge. Come on, you can eat and celebrate at the same time." Damien and Thomas went downstairs and brought the dogs with them, while the three nurses took their food, along with food for Kate, upstairs. "Anna, meet our new father."
She came over and held out her hand; Damien took it, "Congratulations! Boy or Girl?"
"Girl, I picked the name Delia."
"Oh, that's too cute, Damien and Delia."
Thomas returned from the kitchen with a bottle of champagne and after pouring three glasses and handing the first one to Damien, held up his glass. "To Damien, the new dad. Speaking from experience, fatherhood will be more joy, pain, heartache, mess and fun then you ever thought possible…congratulations!" Everyone took a sip from their glass. "And to God, without whom Damien would not be here to enjoy this moment." Everyone drank again. Thomas and Anna went into the kitchen and came out with the Chinese food. Thomas had also brought food for the dog, which had now turned into dogs, both of whom were eventually fed and let outside. They very quickly harkened to nature's call and came back, seemingly finding the frosty spring weather as distasteful as their master did.
Food was passed around and they ate and talked and spent the next hour and a half teasing Damien about having a girl, which he took in stride. They were enjoying more champagne, though Thomas made sure that Anna did not have more than two glasses, when she put the glass up to her mouth and then froze. "You were supposed to have a boy and a girl?"
"Yes," Damien took a sip from his glass.
"Twins?"
"Yes."
"I don't mean to point out the obvious, but you realize that male/female twins are fraternal, that means two eggs and two sperm. The likelihood of the fertilization of both eggs happening at the same time would be next to impossible." He simply looked at her. "I'm not saying that she is pregnant with twins, but if the plan was to have one boy and one girl, I wouldn't discount the possibility. Damien, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out or anything."
"Come on," Thomas lead him upstairs. Kate had eaten and two of the nurses were coming back down with all the empty plates and cutlery. He sent the other nurse out of the room and then reached out his mind to that little beacon and she was still there, but now, Damien could feel a second presence, it was male; it was his son.
Damien looked at Thomas, who smiled and left him alone with the newest addition to his growing family. "Hello, Alexander, I'm your father, Damien, and that other little presence you may feel is your sister, Delia; Delia that's your brother, Alexander. You two get to keep each other company for the next nine months. Alexander, I'm going to tell you what I told your sister; I will be here for you, not just for now, but for always and I love both of you more than I can tell you." Damien stood there, feeling those tiny lives that would live and breathe in the outside world nine months from now. Eventually, he opened the door and came out into the hall.
"Yeah, we're going to have to sedate you too tomorrow. Congratulations again, but I think you could do with some air." They came back downstairs and when they passed Anna, Thomas smiled at her. He left Damien outside and went back in and returned with a tumbler half filled with amber liquid. "They say don't mix the grain and the grape, but I don't think that counts for you." Thomas handed Damien the glass and he took a drink…whiskey. "So what are you going to do tomorrow?"
"What do you mean?"
"Damien, you've had a stupid grin on your face since you found out about your daughter, now you have a son…we could float you in the Macy's Parade. If this going to work, you're going to have to not be so happy." Thomas smiled at him.
"I will, but it's not tomorrow right now."
Thomas went back in and left Damien outside for as long as he was willing to put up with the cold, which wasn't very long. Damien returned to the dining room and found Thomas sitting at the table, drinking coffee. Anna came out from the kitchen, having put away all the leftovers. "Congratulations, again. What did you name this one?" Thomas looked up since he too wanted to know what Damien would call his son.
"Alexander...when Robert was trying to name me, it was apparently a toss-up between that and Damien, so I thought I'd give my son the alternative."
"Alexander and Delia…nice…good choices, so what's the plan now?" Thomas looked at him.
"We'll go to the service tomorrow and then you'll bring Kate back here. I'll go to the house and decide what stays and what comes with me. We'll leave day after tomorrow."
"Oscar is ready now, so we can go right there from the airport. What about the Presidency of the United Nations Youth Council?"
Damien smiled. "I'll have enough to do with my own children for now. I'll call the President tomorrow and finalize everything and call Paul and let him know."
Thomas nodded, "Anything else?"
"I don't think so."
All three of them went into the living room, turned on the television, found an old movie and relaxed until ten thirty, when everyone decided to turn in, but while Damien was tired, he found he wasn't quite ready for bed. He went into Kate's room, sent the nurses away, shut off the lights and sat on a chair beside Kate, who was in bed, sleeping. His children's dog was curled up at the foot of the bed.
Damien sat in the dark. He had endured the possession of their god and his son; he had survived the onslaught by DeCarlo and his band of merry men and, as his reward, had received the only things on the planet that could kill him. Now, he would be father to not one, but two children: life was good. He would have to get through the service tomorrow, but that was tomorrow, for now Damien reached out to those two small beings inside of Kate and let everything else go.
