Chapter the Fifth
In which our young Hero and Heroine are introduced and wherein our young Heroine learns Something new
Damien had gotten up early with the intention of helping Delia and Alexander get dressed. It had been a hectic week at Thorn and he had been gone before the children were awake, so he wanted to spend some time with them before he left this morning. However, he no sooner got out into the hall when Teresa was coming out of Delia's room.
"Good morning, Mr. Thorn."
"Good morning, Teresa, is she already dressed?" His eyes went to Delia's door.
"Yes, I'm sorry, did you want to see to Delia this morning?"
Damien smiled. "It's okay. Maybe I can get to Alexander before Louise does."
"Louise is already in there, but perhaps she hasn't started dressing him yet. Would you like to see to Delia tomorrow morning?"
"I'd call that a plan. I'll see you downstairs, Teresa."
Teresa laughed, "Very good, Mr. Thorn."
Damien went into his son's room and sure enough, there was Alexander already dressed for the day and sitting on Louise's lap.
Of course, when the relatively new father said that he wanted to see to the children in the morning, it was assumed that their diapers were removed and that they had, with help from Teresa and Louise, used the toilet. Most of the other parents Damien knew had very little to do with the raising of their own children, he had seen more than a few crying children running to their nannies rather than their parents, and while he had no interest in completely handing over his children to be raised by someone else, he had drawn the line at changing diapers and wiping asses. The nannies whom he had chosen were picked because they had consented to care for the children the way that Damien demanded and that meant, among other things, early toilet training, so Delia had been trained by the time she was two-years-old and Alexander by the time he was two-and-a-half and both only wore diapers to bed.
"It looks like I have to get up pretty early in this house to get my children dressed."
"Daddy!" Alexander scrambled down off Louise's lap and ran over to Damien, who scooped up his son and gave him a hug. He held Alexander over the bed and he began giggling. "Here comes the bomb!" Damien lifted him higher and then let him fall. Alexander bounced on the bed, laughed, rolled off and came over to his father. "Again, daddy!" Though in his excitement, he could barely get out the words. Damien did as he was instructed and let him fall a second time.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Thorn, I didn't..."
"It's alright, but I'll see to him tomorrow morning. How did he do?" Damien had dropped Alexander a third time, who by now was laughing too hard to even ask, he had simply held out his arms to his father.
Louise smiled. "It's to be expected. It can be more difficult for boys to make it through the night, but there's always tomorrow. I'll see you downstairs, Alexander."
"Bye, Lulu," he batted his eyes at her and gave her a shy smile that wasn't fooling anybody.
Louise smiled back at him. "He's such a flirt." She closed the door behind her, leaving father and son alone.
Damien knew better; his son was not just being flirtatious or extroverted. Damien could feel something more from him; he could feel that supernatural ability to connect empathetically with people. That had been the big reason that he had decided to take more of an active role in raising his children, so that he could watch for signs that either one of them was beginning to connect with their true natures. However, he had discovered that he liked taking care of the children, especially now that they were interesting and could talk more. Damien looked at Alexander and hoped that his...flirtatiousness was the limit of things for now, three was too young to have to be explaining things to his son.
A rumbling issued forth from Alexander and he grabbed his belly and laughed.
"I think you have a bear in there." Damien poked Alexander's stomach. "Are you hungry?"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
"What are you going to eat?"
"Toast."
"And?"
"Milk."
"And?"
"Juice."
"And?"
"Bacon."
"And?"
"Banas...and..."
Damien got up, grabbed the brush, sat on the bed and brushed Alexander's hair. "And more? Your stomach will explode, and more what?"
"Bacon!"
Damien laughed. "You and your sister like your bacon." He gave Alexander the once over and considered his son presentable enough to go downstairs.
However, in mentioning Delia, Damien had said magic words and the sunny skies over Alexander's head turned dark. "Daddy, Deedle is mad and sad." In learning to say her own name, Delia had inadvertently provided a nickname for herself, but it was only used by Damien and Alexander.
Damien did not bother asking how his son knew that Delia was mad. Besides Alexander being "flirtatious," both he and Delia were aware that they could feel what the other one felt. Damien always made sure to comment that being twins made them special, able to feel things that other brothers and sisters couldn't and so far neither child questioned Damien's proffered explanation. He reached out and indeed, he could feel Delia's upset emotional state. "Why is Deedle mad and sad?"
Alexander looked at his father. "'Dee-lee-lee-ah, say Day-may-me-in.'"
"Delia's upset because she can't say my name?" Alexander's head went up and down. "Maybe if she listened to me say my name and not you, we'd get somewhere. Alright Xandman, let's go get your sister." Damien lead Alexander over to the door that separated their bedrooms. Normally, Alexander's dog would have been trailing after them, but Louise had sent the dog downstairs.
Alexander looked up at his father. "Daddy, Deedle is mad." The tone was one of warning.
"Well, Delia can be anything see wants to be, but if the spitting or throwing things starts, I'm going to be mad, and she'll end up with a sore behind." Damien worked through Delia's temper with her and tolerated nearly any unpleasant behaviour...except for spitting or throwing things.
Alexander knocked on the door. "Dee-lee-lee-ah, are Anander and daddy, please." Damien smiled; even he had to admit that at times, Alexander could be downright adorable. He knocked again. "Dee-lee-lee-ah, are Anander and daddy, open?" He put his two hands on the knob and turned, opening the door, but he looked up at his father; Damien was teaching his children to knock first before entering a room.
"It's okay," and they headed into the storm front.
Damien and Alexander came over to the bed. There were two lumps under the covers and the larger of the two lumps raised his head when the master of the house had come into the room. The dog worked his way from under the covers, jumped onto the floor and sat, waiting for his young mistress to come out. Damien looked down and noticed a small pile of clothing on the floor. They wouldn't have been from yesterday, Teresa would have put those in the laundry hamper. Clearly, Teresa had dressed Delia, but no sooner had Teresa left then Delia had taken off her clothes, put her pyjamas back on, grabbed the dog, got into bed and pulled the covers up over her head.
"Delia, are you under there?"
"No."
"So, who's under there?"
"Me."
Damien tried not to smile. "Delia, come out, please, I want to talk to you."
"No."
"Delia..."
"No."
"I want to go downstairs and eat breakfast with you and your brother and I can't do that if you're up here."
"No."
"Delia, if I have to take those blankets off you..." but Damien felt a tug on his hand.
Alexander climbed up onto his sister's bed and put his hand on the lump, "Daddy sad and I sad, out, please."
Damien wasn't sure it would work, but Alexander patiently sat with his hand on the lump until a pair of brown eyes and dark hair appeared over the top of the blankets and then her whole head came out and she eventually she sat up.
"Good morning, Miss Thorn," Damien smiled at his daughter and he could feel frustration begin to rise off of her like smoke from a fire, but he shook his head. "It's okay, you can just say daddy."
"Hi, hi, daddy," Alexander smiled at Damien.
"See? It's daddy all 'round, so let's stow the temper for now, okay?" Delia came over to her father and he put her in his lap.
"Hi, hi, daddy," but Damien didn't have to be empathetic to know she was still sad.
Alexander came closer and locked eyes with his sister, "Deedle." Delia looked at her brother and Damien could feel her mood grudgingly begin to lift. Alexander did not stop looking her, "Deedle."
Delia smiled, but hid her face in Damien's chest. Apparently, she would make her brother work for her good mood.
"Deedle."
Delia turned around and looked at her brother, "Nander."
"Deedle, Deedle."
"Nander, Nander," Delia was now sitting up straight, her bad mood mostly gone.
"Deedle, Deedle, Deedle."
"Nander, Nander, Nander," Delia had gotten off Damien's lap and was standing in front of her brother.
"Deedle, Deedle, Deedle, Deedle," but Alexander's chant was drowned out by Delia saying her brother's name and soon, the pair of them were too overcome with giggling to say much more of anything. They put their foreheads together and calmed down.
Damien shook his head. Much of the interaction between his children was proving to be a mystery to him, but he didn't question it, Delia was fine...for now.
"Daddy, drop me, please!"
Damien stood and picked up Delia as he had done with his son. "Here comes bomb number two!" He let go of her and she landed on the bed with a bounce and she howled with laughter. She rolled off the bed and stood in front of her father. "Though with that temper of yours, I think you should be bomb number one." Damien kissed her on the forehead.
"Milo and me are hungry," she took off her pyjamas and began to dress herself. Alexander could dress himself, too, but needed more help since he tended to get distracted. The two of them had also named all of the dogs in the house Milo, but neither one of them understood that when they called their dogs, the dogs were responding to the children without the need for a name.
"'Milo and I are hungry.' Well, once we get you dressed, again, we can all go downstairs to eat."
Delia made good time getting dressed until the last part. "Daddy, do my buckles...please." She had been able to remove her overalls to get back into her pyjamas, but could not do them back up so her father snapped the straps; she was now dressed the same as her brother, except Delia's overalls were lilac and Alexander's were blue. Even their hair was similar, with both Thorn children sporting short hair, though Delia's was longer than Alexander's and both of their hair was only as short as their father deemed safe.
Damien got up and grabbed a brush to fix Delia's hair and then looked over at his son, who was sitting on the floor with Delia's dog telling him a story. He had been right when he had known that Alexander would not look like him. In fact, neither Delia nor Alexander really looked like Damien, or Kate, but when the children were with their father, people were convinced that the children had this or that feature that was the same as Damien's and with the exception of Alexander's blue eyes, people saw what they wanted to see and that suited father just fine.
Damien put the brush back on her dresser. "Now, I believe mademoiselle said that she was hungry?" Delia giggled and nodded enthusiastically. "Let's see what Anita has made us for breakfast." And with that, Damien took his children by the hands and brought them to breakfast, as Milo trailed behind them.
Once downstairs, Delia located Teresa and the two of them went off to the bathroom and when they returned, Damien put his daughter in the chair, placing her between him and her brother. The children had recently moved out of high chairs to booster seats and Teresa pushed in her chair so that Delia could easily reach the table and her plate.
During breakfast, like at every meal, the Thorns were fussed over by Anita, Teresa and Louise. Alexander loved it and couldn't get enough of the attention. He giggled and batted his eyes at anyone who would have it, it generally earned him an extra cookie or whatever else he happened to have his eye on, and at breakfast, that tended to be bacon. Damien was unruffled by the goings on, he was used to being the center of attention, but then there was Delia.
She was generally quieter than Alexander, though when they two of them were alone, they seemed to balance each other out, she spoke more around him and he spoke less with her, but at times like these, nothing, no threats, bribes nor sweet talk could get Delia to speak. She silently watched and if she wanted something, she asked for it by way of Alexander. Damien tolerated it only when there was this much activity going on. However, he couldn't be that bothered by her silence since as a child, he had hardly been one for conversation.
Damien leaned over and kissed his daughter on the head, feeling her uneasiness and she leaned against her father, putting a piece of bacon in her mouth. After some chewing, Delia turned to her brother and opened her mouth to show him the food that was in there. Alexander laughed and showed his sister the food that was in his mouth, which got a laugh from Delia.
"That's enough of that, thank-you," the tone which Damien used was familiar enough with both children to know that he meant business.
"Day-may-me-in, do you work?" Alexander looked over at his father.
"Yep, though I'd rather stay here and play with the both of you; you are much more fun and much smarter than most of the people at work." Damien reached over and tousled his son's hair.
The use of Damien's name had made Delia antsy again and added to her discomfort of having this many people around, she was back to being an unhappy camper.
"This for Deedle," Alexander took a piece of bacon off his plate and gave it to his sister, who smiled at him and promptly shoved the bacon in her mouth in case he changed his mind.
"That is being a very good brother."
"Help Deedle."
"Help with what?" Damien was done eating and was finishing up his coffee, but Alexander had gone back to eating, enjoying the banana that Anita had brought him. Damien let his son eat and took Delia to wash her hands, giving him a few minutes alone with his daughter.
With one notable exception, Damien had been surprised to discover that he had more in common with Delia than he did with Alexander. When she wasn't with her brother or father, she preferred solitary activities and when Alexander had his friends over to play and they would run screaming through the house like lunatics, Delia would sit quietly, building something or looking at books. She sometimes lost her temper when things didn't go right, but Damien realized it was because her reach exceeded her grasp and she wanted to do more than she was physically capable of doing. Lately, Damien had begun taking her on his longer walks and he found that even when they had walked for nearly an hour, hardly a word would pass between them. Damien had wanted intelligent children and had gotten them, both by genetics and work on his part, but she was the smarter of the two and he genuinely enjoyed keeping his daughter challenged.
"Are you okay?" Damien handed Delia a towel and helped her dry her hands.
Knowing that her father wanted words, she nodded her head and spoke, "Yes, father."
"When I was little like you, I didn't say a lot either and I still don't like a lot of people around at one time, but we'll work on that, like we work on your temper. Can I have a hug?"
Instead, Delia held out her hands and Damien took them and she walked up his legs until she had her legs around his waist and put her arms around him. "Who are you?" Damien narrowed his eyes at Delia, attempting to be intimidating, but she wasn't buying it and she laughed.
"I Deedla Forn," she put her index finger against her chest.
"And how old are you, Deedla Forn?"
"I am free."
"Who else is three?"
"Nander!"
"And who else?"
"Milo!"
"How old is daddy?"
Delia held out her arms as wide as they would go and Damien laughed. "That's pretty much how old I am."
"Je t'aime, papa," and Delia kissed her father on the mouth and with a loud smack, as Anna had shown her. Of course, anyone who actually spoke French would have been hard pressed to understand what she had just said.
"My daughter, the cosmopolitan girl, te amo, Deedle." Damien came out with her and put her down and Alexander came running over. Both children then watched as Damien put on his coat and boots. "While I'm at work, what work will you be doing?" Damien put his hands on his thighs and bent over, staring Alexander in the eyes.
"Alfalfabits!" Alexander began spinning and making invisible letters in the air. Though for Delia, that also included copying the first five letters of the Greek alphabet.
"Come here," he pulled his children closer, kissing them. "I love both of you. Be good for Teresa and Louise and Anita and I will see you both when I get home from work." More kisses and protestations of love were exchanged and Damien headed out into the frigid Chicago winter.
...oOo...
Damien was home at four, earlier than usual. The weather was nasty and was promising to get worse, so he had closed up shop early. However, when he walked through the front door, he found Delia and Alexander sitting on the steps waiting for him, their dogs stretched out on the marble floor. There wasn't anything unusual in that. At the children's insistence, someone in the house usually told them when to sit on the steps to wait for Damien, but he hadn't called home to tell anyone of his early arrival. He couldn't help wondering if they had somehow known he would be home before his usual time. He came over to them and Delia stood up. "Lift me, please, daddy." Damien picked her up and kissed her on the forehead. "So, Miss and Mr. Thorn, what adventures did you get up to today?"
"Day-min," Delia took her hands and squished his face.
He shook his head. "Wait...what...what did you say?"
"Day-min, Day-min, Day-min," and she mashed his face every time she said his name.
Damien was still holding Delia when he could feel Alexander. Damien looked at his son, who was beaming. "Alexander, did you do this?"
"I help Dee-lee-lee-ah, Day-me-in."
Teresa and Louise came to check on the children only to find Damien with them. "You're home early, Mr. Thorn. Is it that bad out there?"
Damien nodded. "They're talking about closing the roads. Anita can spend the night in one of guest rooms." Anita only did light housekeeping and cooking during the day and went home at night. Damien turned back to his children...something had gone on here today and he wanted to find out what. He smiled, "Good job, Xander. Why don't the two of you go into my study and color until I come and get you, okay?" Damien put down Delia and the two of them took off running, the dogs following closely behind. Teresa smiled and followed the children. Damien turned to Louise. "How did everything go today?"
"Fine, Delia and Alexander tried to lock us out of his room, but..." Louise smiled, took out her key, dangled it and then returned it to her pocket.
"What happened?"
"After you left, Alexander took Delia up to his room. We went up to check and make sure there weren't any washroom emergencies, and to bring them down to do their work, which I don't think they did, but the door was locked. I unlocked the door and they were sitting on the floor. We brought them down for a snack and Alexander tried to take Delia upstairs again, but we made them promise not to lock the door and they kept their promise; when we went to get them for lunch, and to put them down for a nap, the door was shut but not locked.
"Why were they waiting on the stairs?"
"We told them that you weren't going to be home until five, but they've been sitting like that for an hour. We'd take them to the bathroom, but when they were done, they'd come right back to the stairs. You're concerned. Would you have preferred that we called you?"
Damien thought about it; nothing bad had happened. He knew that if Teresa or Louise hadn't been able to open the door, they would have called the police and fire department and Damien. Clearly, the two of them had waited on the stairs because they were excited at Delia learning how to say his name. "No, Louise, it was fine. Can you please tell Anita that she's spending the night?"
"Of course," Louise went off to tell Anita about her temporary sleeping arrangements.
He brought his briefcase to the study and watched his children color. Damien had felt differently after he had found out who he was, but the birth of his children had provided him with an external frame of reference that allowed him to understand exactly how different from people they really were. It didn't change how Damien treated people and in regard to the children, it would become one more thing for which he would have to watch, when they would begin to realize that they were different from others.
Delia snatched a green crayon out of her brother's hand and Alexander tried to get it back, but he was fighting a losing battle. Damien waded into the fray ahead of Teresa. "Delia, your brother had that first, don't grab things out of his hand." She returned the crayon to her brother.
"Is there anything else, Mr. Thorn?"
"No, thank-you, Teresa, but I'd appreciate a call to dinner." She nodded and left. Damien scooped up Alexander, hung him upside down and brought him over to the leather sofa and sat him on his lap. Delia came over, clambered up onto the sofa and came over to her father.
"I have the smartest children in the world." Damien kissed the top of Alexander's head. "But, locking the door today so that Teresa and Louise couldn't get in? I don't want you to do that anymore. You can shut the door and keep it all the way closed and like I teach you to knock on doors before you go inside, Teresa and Louise know to do that too, so they won't come in without knocking first. They were worried that you would hurt yourselves, so don't do it again, okay?" And both children nodded their heads in agreement with what Damien had said.
"Day-min, you work big bildin'?" She stood and held up her hand over the couch as high as it would go to show her father that she understood where he worked.
"That is a very big building and does Deedla Forn like going to the big building?"
"Yes, go." She jumped off the couch, but he reached out and grabbed her before she could make it to the door.
"Not now, but I can take you with me the day after tomorrow, okay, Junior?" Thomas had provided Delia's other nickname when Damien had taken her into work one day and father and daughter had been so engrossed in their individual tasks, that neither had heard Thomas come in. However, unlike Deedle, Junior made the rounds with both Paul and Anna, who had given Alexander his nickname, Xandman. "But, if you think the big building is fun, wait until the museum finishes getting rebuilt. There's going to be dinosaurs."
"Dine'saurs?" Alexander's eyes were the size of dinner plates.
"Lots of dinosaurs."
Delia squealed in a pitch that was only produced by dolphins and very excited children and put her fists up to her mouth and bounced on the balls of her feet. She said something to her brother, who answered back, but nothing that either said was comprehensible to Damien. Then she made claws with her hands and bared her teeth and roamed the room pretending to be a dinosaur. Not to be outdone, Alexander did the same and he came over to his sister, the two of them gnashing their teeth in each other's faces. But the two dinosaurs gave up terrorizing each other and turned on their father.
"Oh no, here come the scary dinosaurs." They pounced on Damien with the intention of gobbling him up. "Hey, if you eat me, there won't be any room for dinner. What if I told both of you that you weren't dinosaurs, but you were jackals, instead?"
"No, I a 'saur," Delia shook her head, adamant that she was a dinosaur.
"Well, we'll see." Damien could feel their excitement and realized that there would be no discussion about how Alexander had did what he had done and Damien realized that it didn't matter. Alexander had been beaming not with pride, but with happiness, pleased that his sister was no longer sad. When they were first born, Damien had been worried that the two would have an antagonistic relationship with each other, but that hadn't turned out to be the case. Damien disliked thinking about it, but part of Delia's role was that of protector, possibly having to give up her life for her brother should the need arise and that was already bad enough; them disliking each other would have made things worse. Of course, they still had disagreements and Damien watched as Alexander had grabbed Delia's hand and was slowly pulling it towards his waiting teeth. Delia was laughing, which if her fingers made it into her brother's mouth would shortly turn to crying for the both of them. "Alexander, do you want Delia to hit you?"
"No," the tone in Alexander's voice told Damien that being slugged by Delia would be a very bad thing to happen.
"Then, you might want to rethink putting her fingers in your mouth." To his credit, Alexander quickly dropped his sister's hand.
Damien sat on the floor with the children helping them do their letters. He didn't bother asking them if they had done their work, they had accomplished something else today, and as both Louise and Scarlett O'Hara had said, tomorrow was another day.
There was a knock on the study door. "As requested, Mr. Thorn, one call to dinner." Teresa called the dogs to her and then left with them so they could be fed and let outside.
Damien pulled his children closer and gave them a smile that would have frozen the blood of even the hardiest of souls, but it fazed neither Delia nor Alexander. "For right now, you're jackals and this daddy jackal is very, very hungry and if he gets to the table ahead of his pups, that's you and your sister, he's going to eat all the food."
"No, daddy jack-all eat the food!" Alexander grabbed Delia and the two of them went running for the dining room, afraid that their would be no dinner left for them.
Damien smiled and waited until he figured that Teresa and Louise would have caught them and took them off to use the bathroom and wash their hands and then he went and joined his children for dinner.
