Chapter the Twenty-ninth
In which a Deception is ended
Before he saw his father, Alexander went into the kitchen where he was greeted with a hug from Cecile.
"Now I know I'm home when I'm about to enjoy one of your meals. Whatever's for breakfast, I'll take three plates of it." He sat at the table.
"I hope you like pig's feet because that's what you're getting."
"You're not eating pig's feet." He checked out the bacon, hashbrowns and fruit salad on his sister's plate.
She smiled innocently at him. "I'm Sweetpea and Sweetpea doesn't have to eat pig's feet."
Cecile put down Alexander's plate, which was loaded with eggs, bacon, ham, hashbrowns and she added a side-plate full of toast. "I don't see any pig's feet here, Delia."
She shrugged. "Maybe she's saving it for later."
Alexander only had a chance to put a few forkfuls of food into his mouth when the kitchen door opened and Damien walked in. He got up and went to his father and they embraced and after receiving a few hearty thumps on the back from his father, they came back to the table.
"What can I get for you, Mr. Thorn?"
"Some of everything, please, Cecile, I'm famished."
Cecile and Delia exchanged looks. Even though Damien had been in the kitchen for less than a minute, it hadn't taken long for the two women to notice the marked changed in his mood, not to mention that yesterday and the day before, he had consumed only coffee and toast at breakfast. Both shook their heads, thinking the same thing...men.
Delia ate and listened to the conversation between her father and brother. Alexander gave Damien a much more detailed account of the skiing trip, which was why she had not pressed her brother about how he had spent his time: she knew she'd end up hearing it twice.
Once Alexander had given his father a rundown of his trip, the conversation turned to a different topic. "How are things at the office?"
"Hectic. Just give me a couple more days and things will be back to normal. I'm planning to take an extra long weekend soon, so we can do something, Delia, since your brother has already had his vacation."
"Sure."
"Let's not start tossing the v-word around. I went on a school trip for purely educational purposes. Don't you two be taking off to God knows where, leaving me behind."
"Educational purposes, huh?" Damien grinned at him and continued eating.
Once breakfast was done, Damien went to the bathroom and when he came out, Alexander was waiting with his father's coat in hand.
"Thank-you, son. I'm happy your back home. Have a good day at school and, I won't be home until late again, so don't wait up."
"Will do and won't do, D-Man."
"Delia, would you walk me to the car, please?"
She threw on a pair of boots and a coat and walked with her father out to the car. Thomas would be at the house soon to take Delia and Alexander to school. Even though they were going on seventeen, Damien still only let members of his inner circle drive his children anywhere.
Once at the car, Damien threw a glance to the driver, who stepped away to give father and daughter some privacy.
"Do you have something to say to me?" Delia crossed her arms over her chest, pretending to be more peeved than she actually was.
"I was short with you when there was not call for it."
She put her arms around her father. "I know you missed him. I can't be mad at you for that."
"You must have missed him, too."
Delia kept control of her emotions. "Yes, I'm very glad he's home."
"Your birthday is coming up. Maybe I can find a more concrete way of making up my shortness with you." Damien waved over the driver.
"Well, if you insist; who am I to argue with Damien Thorn?"
"Have patience with all this shit at work and apart from everyone on the board of directors, you'll be the first one to know everything that's going on. Deal?"
Delia's eyes lit up. "Deal!"
"I love you. You have a good day at school." Damien hugged her.
"I love you back, D-Man and you have a good day at work." She returned the hug and then watched as he got into the car and drove away.
Inside the house, Alexander was sitting on the steps waiting for her. They hadn't said anything to Damien about setting aside time to talk about things. There was far too much going on and they didn't want him to worry.
They looked at each other. Even without bringing up the topic, they had felt uncomfortable in their father's presence: this was going to be harder than they imagined.
...666...
Alexander had returned on a Monday and while things at Thorn had calmed down by Thursday, they waited until the end of the week to tell Damien that there was something they wanted to discuss with him after work. Damien agreed and told him that he would see them later and then left. After he was gone, both of them took off upstairs to Delia's room.
"Are we doing this?" It felt unreal to him.
"I think so, though ask me again when we get home from school. My gut is so clenched, I don't think I'm going to be able to eat for the rest of the day."
Alexander drew her to him and kissed her. Both of them knew that they would have to get through the school day without letting this affect them too much. If they came to talk to their father full of fear and anxiety, he would be less likely to think that they could hide what they were doing. They let go of each other, composed themselves and then went downstairs to wait for Thomas.
...666...
It was three-thirty when Delia and Alexander made it home from school. Delia went right upstairs to her room, and Alexander went to talk to Cecile and see her to the door and then he came up to his sister.
"Damien will be home in an hour and a half or so."
"I feel like a condemned prisoner awaiting execution." Delia wrapped her arms around herself.
"It's still not too late to back out of this. When he comes home, we can tell him that we've changed our mind about speaking with him." Alexander sat on her bed.
"That is so tempting. It would make everything so much easier."
"I just hate...Delia, all of this, explaining it all to him is going to be putting our relationship under a microscope and making us feel like like we've done something wrong." He pulled her down so that she was sitting beside him. He smiled and reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I still remember the day we kissed for the first time. I didn't feel shame then, I don't feel it now. I want you to know that even though I might be feeling uncomfortable through..." but her mouth on his stopped him. They kissed, taking each other's hands in their own.
Finally, she pulled away and licked her lips. "You were saying?"
"Come." Alexander held out his hand and she took it and they went up to the chapel.
Once inside, as always, they gave thanks to God for their lives and for their father. They sat, leaning against the wall farthest away from the door. Their heads were bent and each prayed. They prayed not only for God to give them the strength to get them through all of this, but to help their father understand their need and desire to be with each other.
...666...
Damien got home at just after five. He looked at the empty staircase. There had been a time when they were always there waiting for him when he got home from work, but he knew they were here and he told them he was now home. They had told him that they had wanted to talk to him about something, and while Damien wasn't sure what the something was, he had an idea that it wasn't anything good.
"Hello." He smiled at them as they made to the bottom of the stairs, but they did not smile back.
"Hello, how was work?" Delia looked at him.
"Much better. I was going to suggest, Delia, we sit down and I can show you everything, but I don't think that's happening." He looked from his daughter to his son.
"Maybe later."
"Can we talk to you now?"
"Of course, Xander. I know I don't know what this is about, but you know that no matter what you say to me, you're my children and I'll always love you." Damien, however, was not met with the usual chorus of we know. "Do you want to talk in the study?"
"Yes, please." Delia and Alexander followed Damien and once inside, they sat at the chairs across from desk: the Thorn family signal that whatever was going to be discussed would be uncomfortable for everyone.
Damien took his seat and looked across the desk at his children.
There was silence and then after a few moments, Delia cleared her throat. "Um, Alexander and I decided that it was best if I started off, but now, looking at you, I really don't want to do this, or have this conversation."
"You know that you can tell me anything."
"I really hope that's the case." The silence was deafening and the tension that existed in the room became something concrete. Delia cleared her throat again. "Since Alexander and I were twelve, things have been happening between us...things of a sexual nature..."
But Delia didn't get the chance to continue as Damien put up his right hand to stop her. "Delia, you will go and wait in the kitchen."
"I don't understand."
"Go and wait in the kitchen."
Delia turned to look at her brother, when out of the corner of her eye she saw father get up and his open hand come down on the desk with such force, it made her and Alexander jump.
"Now!"
Delia got up, but she couldn't move. For the first time in her life, her loyalties were divided. Listening to her father meant leaving her brother in a situation which might possibly endanger him; choosing to stay and make sure that Damien didn't hurt Alexander put her at odds with her father. She stood there, not being deliberately disobedient, but too confused to move.
Damien was furious, until Delia's confusion and fear came at him like a wall.
"I am not going to hurt Alexander. Something's been going on? Fine, then I will get to the bottom of it my way, not the way that you and your brother have decided that things will go. Am I understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Go wait in the kitchen and I will call you when I want to speak with you. And if you both know what's good for you, you'll keep your thoughts and feelings to yourselves."
Delia turned and left the study, closing the door behind her.
The second Delia left the room, Alexander registered a rise in his father's anger and he knew he was standing, both literally and figuratively, in a place where others had stood and had not lived long after to tell the tale. Logically, he knew his life wasn't in danger, but that wasn't doing much to stem the tide of fear coursing through him and that fear increased because the next thing Alexander could feel was his father inside his mind.
"I'm going to ask you some questions and I want to the truth; I'll know if you are telling the truth. I will ask the same questions of Delia. If you lie, or if she is covering up for you, things are going to get unpleasant. Am I understood?" Damien's tone was cold, flat and deadly.
"Yes, sir."
Damien hesitated. "Have you ever forced my daughter to do anything that she didn't want to do? And I am talking about things of a sexual nature."
"No."
"Have you ever manipulated Delia into doing anything that she didn't want to do? I know how good you are at getting people to do things that they might not ordinarily want to do."
"No."
"Have you ever threatened my daughter. Told her that you would hurt her if she didn't do what you wanted?"
"No."
"Have you ever used your position of authority, or future position of authority, to get my daughter to do something that she didn't want to do? Threatening to bar her from her rightful place in the afterlife, which, for your information, you don't have the authority to do?"
"No."
Each time Damien asked a question, he pressed Alexander a little harder, the symbolism of which was not lost on him, and each time, Alexander's voice got smaller and tinier, as if he were disappearing.
Damien took two steps towards his son, closing the distance between the two of them and now his face was inches away from Alexander's. "Have you ever tried to, or ever actually raped my daughter?"
Alexander was shaking and it was taking everything he had not to burst into tears and fall to his knees and beg Damien to stop. He looked his father in the eyes and with all the courage he could muster he answered, "No."
But Damien did not break his gaze with his son and moments later, the door to Damien's study opened and Delia stood there.
"You will go and wait in the kitchen until I call you and as before, you will keep what you are thinking and feeling to yourself."
Almost falling over, Alexander briskly walked out of Damien's study not looking at his sister as he left.
She fought her urge to go after him, especially since she knew that his first step would be going to the bathroom to throw up before he made it to the kitchen, if he made it there at all.
"Delia, look at me."
She turned to her father only after Alexander had left the study. "What did you do to him?"
"What I wanted to do to him and nothing that was any of your business."
"You said you weren't going to hurt him."
"I didn't hurt him. If I had, he wouldn't have left the study under his own power. I did what had to be done in order to find out the truth, which is what I will do with you." As gently as he could, while still letting Delia know that he was serious, he put himself into his daughter's mind. "I don't want to hurt you, but I can't have you protecting your brother. I want to know the truth and this way I know that I'll get it. Do you understand me?"
"Yes."
"I asked Alexander the same questions and if I think that you are protecting your brother when he has been hurting you, things will get bad. Am I making myself clear?"
"Yes."
"Has Alexander ever made you do something that you didn't want to do?"
"Like what?"
Anger rose in Damien. "You know what I mean. I'm not talking about stealing cookies for your brother when you were six. Has Alexander ever forced himself on you?"
"No."
"Has he ever manipulated you into doing something that you didn't want to do? Have you found yourself somewhere that you didn't know how you got there?"
"No."
"Has he ever threatened you?"
"No."
"Has he ever used his authority, or the authority he will have one day, to get you to do something that normally you wouldn't have done? Including threatening your ability to get into Heaven, which he doesn't have the authority to do."
"No."
"Has Alexander ever tried to..." but Damien couldn't look his daughter in the face and ask her that, not when it came to his son.
"No! He's never laid a hand on me against my will. You didn't ask him that, did you?" Delia was white as newly fallen snow.
"I need to know what's been going on. I needed to make sure that Alexander hadn't hurt you." He took himself out of Delia's mind.
"Father, I would never let him...whose daughter do you think I am!? I would have defended myself and would have come to you to tell you." Like her brother, Delia was doing her best to not break down in front of her father.
The door to the study opened and Alexander walked in, looking like death.
"That wasn't an enjoyable experience for me either, but I wanted to make sure that whatever has happened, hasn't happened under duress. This isn't over, but we are done talking about this for today. First, whatever has been going on will stop. Second, I need space to deal with all of this, so I want to be left alone. Third, we all be downstairs for breakfast Monday morning and Cecile will not be given any reason to think that there is anything out of the ordinary going on in this house."
"What about dinner tonight?"
"Delia, food is the last thing on my mind right now. I'll get something for myself later, if I'm so inclined." Both of his children looked like they had been put through the ringer; Damien guessed that he didn't look much better. "I love the both of you. You've kept this from me...okay, and for whatever reason, you've decided to come forward now. That being said, I need space and you will give it to me. I also suggest that if you want to use the chapel, you do it now."
Both Delia and Alexander nodded to their father and walked out of the study. They wanted to run up the stairs to get to the chapel, but neither had the energy. They made it upstairs and once inside the room, both of them slide down the walls, to tired and weak to stand up any longer.
"I knew it would be bad, but..." Xander closed his eyes, even now fighting the urge to be sick again. "I never thought I'd ever have to tell my own father that I didn't rape my sister."
Delia put her hands over her ears. "Please don't. Please don't ever say that again. I'm so sorry he asked you that."
He opened his eyes and took a deep breath. "It's done. It's done and he knows and now we deal with the consequences. At least he didn't kick us out."
"Yet." Her voice was full of fear and worry.
"Deedle, that was me trying to lighten the mood. He loves us and he won't kick us out. We knew that this could happen, that he'd push us away."
It was always harder on Delia when Damien distanced himself from his children, for in her heart, she feared that her father would realize that he neither loved nor needed her.
Delia was silent for a long time, but then she turned to him and smiled. "You barfed."
"Yeah, not very romantic, I know."
She reached for one of his hands and held it and Delia could feel him give her hand a squeeze. "Considering you suffered through father's interrogation because of your feelings for me, that was the most amatory puking in the history of romance. It's done and he knows and we move on from here." She began giggling and then laughing.
"I certainly can use a good laugh. What's so funny?"
"You." She shook her head. "What were you thinking telling me you liked me? Do you realize that I could've gone running to Damien telling him that you hit on me? Or worse, I could have kicked the crap out of you?"
"I can't help it; I'm a Thorn and when I see what I want, I go after it."
"Well, I'm a Thorn, too and I see what I want and he's right in front of me. You went first last time, so I'll go first now; Alexander Thorn, I'm in love with you."
He had drawn his legs up to his chest and his head had been resting on his arms on his knees. At Delia's admission, he had lifted up his head and looked at his sister.
"I don't want anyone else because I'd only choose you. You're kind, sweet, generous, smart, funny and loving." Delia's eyes went to the door of the chapel. "If we had done this, even last year, I'm not sure I'd be able to stand this freeze out. I'd be at his door, clawing at it until my finger nails came off, but, you're my world, Xander. I can live without father; I can't live without you."
Alexander just stared at her. All the crap that had happened downstairs suddenly didn't matter; she was in love with him. He reached out and took her hands and she moved closer to him. "Delia, if it were possible, I'd spend the rest of my life with you and in case I haven't got the message across, I'm in love with you too." They leaned into each other and kissed somewhat chastely considering the location and their father's demand.
"He told us to stop."
"I know. I'm hoping that he means only for now. And the plan still is that if he says we can't be together, we leave. I said this once and I'll say it again: I can pretend in front of him that we are just brother and sister; but when I'm alone, I can't pretend that I don't love you as more than that. You're hungry."
She put a hand on her rumbling stomach. "Maybe if we eat, father will too."
Delia and Alexander stopped at the door to the chapel; they didn't want to leave the tranquillity of the room. Inside the chapel they could forget the turmoil that they had stirred up. Inside the room, they could forget that if their father told them to stop for good, they would leave this room and the home they loved. With that, they turned and left.
...666...
It was a week later that Damien called his children into the study. He had heard their side of things, how things had happened, and had waited until the weekend to address the topic further.
When the entered the room, they found him leaning against the window frame, arms across his chest, looking out across the expansive back lawn towards the woods.
They sat in the seats across the from the desk, barely breathing, not doing or thinking anything that would look like they were trying to rush their father. And for how long they sat like that they didn't know, but eventually Damien took a deep breath and turned around.
"I can honestly say there have been few times in my adult life that I have been at a loss for words; this is one of those times. That this went on under my roof and I didn't know about it..." Damien could only let the silence hang there until he took another steadying breath. "Alexander, in the past three years, you've had two girlfriends."
"My beards, I'm afraid." There was no pride in his voice as he came clean.
"Clever. I'd never ask why Delia didn't have a boyfriend. I taught my children well and now it has appeared to have backfired."
Both Delia and Alexander stifled their desire to speak. So far, apart from giving a bare-bones account of what had happened, neither had been allowed to plead their case to their father, or feel bad for how their father was now feeling. Both recognized that Damien had the floor and he would keep it until he felt his children should explain anything...if that opportunity came at all.
"I needed to make sure that what happened didn't happen under duress and I know that now, that what ever happened was consensual. Given the time frame of when this happened, just after Alexander found out who he was, I also know that it wasn't just the two of you and that how you have always been with each other, how you are, might have been orchestrated in order for you to..."
The children nodded, understanding what their father was saying.
"However, that being said, if I thought that you had hurt my daughter, or had forced yourself on her, I would have disobeyed my Father and put an end to all of this. I haven't allowed you two to say much. I'll give you the opportunity now, but with the same warning as before: I do not want detail of any kind. So whatever, you want to tell me, go ahead."
Her father had no more gotten the words out of his mouth when Delia nearly jumped out of her seat. "Please, please believe us when we tell you that at no time were we happy or proud that we hid this from you. We did it out of necessity, not out of some kind of game; please believe me."
"I do."
Alexander jumped in. "If we would have come to you when were twelve and told you what was happening, you would have told us to stop; but if we could show you that we could keep it secret, then you would see that we could do it and you would be less likely to ask us to stop."
"You know how Xander and I are; we have very different social lives. We've cultivated our different interests over the past few years so that we could happily spend time apart from each other and not moon over each other in public. That won't change. We will be going off the school where we'll have different friends, different classes and spend little time with each other."
"We also didn't tell you because at first, we weren't sure how long this would last. If it was nothing, then you didn't ever have to know."
Damien locked eyes with his son. "Why did you tell me? Because in case you're wondering, I could have gone my whole life without ever knowing this."
"I will get married, no hesitation and no questions. I feel it, like a spot that gets bigger and brighter everyday, and one day, it'll be big and bright enough and I'll know that it's time for me to find a wife. I'll go to the altar a happy man...or so everyone will think. On that day, neither Delia nor I will be able to pretend that what is happening isn't ripping our world apart and on that day, there would have been no pretending, or hiding what we'd be feeling and you'd have known and that would have been a horrible time for you to find out."
Damien was silent, letting the message behind what his son was telling him, or not telling him, sink in.
"Do you hate us?"
For a moment, Damien was confused. The sound had come from his son, but it was the kind of question normally asked by his daughter. He came around from the desk and stood in front of his children. "Nothing either of you do could make me hate you. Even when I'm angry at you, which I'm not angry at you, I don't hate you. This is huge. It's monumentally awkward for me right now and it's going to take a long time for me to have selective amnesia about all of this."
"Are you going to kick us out?"
"No, Delia, I'm not going to kick you out. A father who loves his children doesn't cast them away just because they do something that he doesn't approve of. Also, I want you close to me so that I can keep an eye on things, at least until you both go off to school. If it were up to me, this would be done, now, but it's not only up to me and I will admit that you've done a good job hiding from me and from everyone. You will continue to keep that up; however, if I've reason to believe that your public behaviour is problematic, we will talk again. While you are still in my home..."
"We'll continue to behave as we always have." Delia chimed in and Alexander nodded in agreement.
"Good. We'll talk again before you leave for school and..." Damien stopped to look at his daughter.
Delia sat there with her hand over her mouth. "The house! I completely forgot about it! What if he's gone ahead and sold it?"
Damien shook his head. "I'm lost."
"Delia, you call him and I'll fill Damien in on what's going on."
She ran off to use the phone in the kitchen, leaving Xander to explain things to their father.
"Morgan Spalding is selling his house. Apparently Delia ran into him one day while you were busy with all the restructuring and she found out that he wanted to sell and told him to hold off until we could talk to you. Then all this happened and we forgot."
"What's he want for it?"
"Nearly ten. We have just over a million...that's all our money pooled together. Delia wasn't sure if she should put the family whammy on him, so she got him to wait."
They didn't have to ask what had happened since Delia came back visibly upset. Damien went to his phone and both of them stood there and watched their father not only get the man to back out of a real estate deal that was, for all intents and purposes, closed, but got him to drop the price by nearly two million dollars. It took all of twenty-five minutes and once Damien was done, he wished Morgan Spalding a good afternoon and hung up.
"I'm going to need a plan as to what's being done, but it's ours."
Delia went to the window that looked east and to the house that in a few months would no longer be standing.
"Well, while you're feeling generous and have bought your daughter some land, how's about reaching into those deep pockets of yours and finding something for your son."
"Such as?"
"I need a place to live once I get hitched. I can't live here."
Delia turned and smiled at her brother. "I don't need all that land. Why don't you just build your house there?"
"That's good enough for me, but not for any woman I'll end up marrying."
"Why not the Devereux place?"
Alexander almost informed his father that the only issue with buying up the Devereux's land was that the Devereux's still lived there.
"Do it, father. Whatever it is you want to do to get them out of there, do it. Think if it, Xander, we'll own all the property on this side of the road. The woods will be ours!"
"You can build a path from your house to mine so that your children can come visit their grandfather whenever they feel like it, perhaps with an escort or two when they're younger."
The dogs, realizing that they were part of some scheme to be hatched, sat up and thumped their tails on the carpet.
Once that issue had been resolved, tension once again descended on the Thorn house.
"I'll cook some dinner later and you can eat when you want." Alexander smiled at his father.
"Sounds like a plan."
Delia, unable to take feeling like she was an outsider in her own house any longer, came over to her father and put her arms around him. "I love you and I'll always need you." She looked up at him. "The best day of my life will be the day I get to walk into Thorn and work with you. You'll be sick of me, father."
"I highly doubt that. The day you show up to work will be the first day that I know shit will go right at that place. We'll get through this, like we get through everything. Things won't go back to being exactly the same, but it'll be the same where it matters. How about tomorrow I go through all this restructuring with you?
Delia's joy was tangible.
"Okay, I'll wait to get lunch."
"Sure." Alexander and Delia left the study, closing the door behind them. They made their way to the kitchen and Alexander made lunch for the both of them, and once they ate and cleaned up, Delia called her dog to her.
"If you don't mind, I just want some alone time."
"Yeah, I think we all could use some of that. Any requests for dinner?"
"No, whatever you want, but I'll be back to help. Come on, Milo." And she and the dog left to go out back.
...666...
All the Thorns spent the day separately, with Delia putting in an appearance to help with dinner, but after she ate, she went up to her room. It was well after midnight when there was a knock on the door.
She told Alexander to come in, but he didn't, so she got up to open the door. He was standing there with his pillows tucked under one arm, his toothbrush in the other hand and his pyjamas over his right shoulder. All Delia could do was stand and stare.
There was a smile on his face but it faded as he looked at his sister. "Delia, if this is too soon, I can go back to my room."
"No, come in." She stepped aside and let Alexander pass.
"Are you sure?"
"You wouldn't be in here if I weren't." She smiled at him, grabbed his pyjamas and threw them on the bed.
"So, what were you doing when I so rudely interrupted?" He tossed his pillows on the bed and dashed into the bathroom to leave his toothbrush on the counter.
"Well, I was working on the translation my teacher gave me and I'm about ready to punch him in his smug little face for making it so difficult, but then I switched to reading." Delia held up her book.
"Oh, don't even. What about what you gave to me? I'll be happy when Damien gets back to giving me work to do, it's less work." He sat on the bed and threw a pillow at his sister, who threw it back at him.
Delia put her book down; there would be no reading while they were together.
"I can feel the change in the house; it's a palpable thing. It's like there's a wall between him and us. I've never felt that before."
Delia drew her legs up to her chest and put her arms on her knees. "I know. I'm hoping that it's just temporary. We've had four years to come to grips with this; he's had a week. He needs to lick his wounds and things will be back to normalish...I hope."
"But we'll be leaving of school next year."
"Yeah."
"What? Usually that statements leads to more excitement than yeah."
"What's he going to do without us?"
"Way to bring it down, Deedledork." Alexander shook his head. "I don't know. I hate to think of him alone in this house."
"Xander, why didn't Satan make someone for Damien? Why does father have to be alone?"
"It doesn't seem very fair, does it?"
Delia was quiet for a moment. "If she didn't try to mother us, I'd be alright with father choosing a woman. There's Anna. We both like her. She's not annoying when it comes to being a disciple."
Alexander shrugged. "It's really up to Damien."
"Can you talk to him?"
Xander let out a snort of laughter. "That's not how it works. Before this, the only thing I would have been able to talk to him about was getting laid and I can't do that anymore, so if you want to know about all that touchy feely stuff..." he made a gun with his fingers and fired it at Delia.
"I see."
Alexander was quiet and then looked at her. "Can we go to bed?"
Delia frowned. "Are you tired?"
"Yes, but that's not really the point."
"Huh?"
Alexander sighed, got up, held out his hand to her and lead her to the bathroom. He began unravelling floss onto his finger.
"Oh, I get it." Delia did the same and in silence they prepared for bed, flossing and brushing their teeth and washing their hands and faces and soon they were back out in Delia's bedroom.
"I know we just went through a huge ordeal..."
Alexander smiled. "It's okay, that's why I brought my pyjamas. Besides, one in the morning is not when I want to be introduced to your special girl parts."
"And they are very special and well worth the wait so..." she had stripped down to her panties and made a twirling motion for Xander to turn around while she removed them and put on her pyjamas.
They didn't plan on doing anything, so after Xander changed into his pyjamas, he opened the door and his dog joined Delia's lying beside the bed. They climbed into bed and Delia reached over and shut off the light.
"Come here."
And she put her head on his chest and his right arm went around her and there was silence as each enjoyed the moment. Each had wanted this from the moment that they had begun being with each other and now...they could spend the night together and not have to worry about getting caught, or having to get up extra early for Alexander to have to go back to his room.
"I'll move my bedroom over here. This way, he doesn't have to avoid both parts of the house."
"Don't you wish we had a mother? And not Kate, but someone like us?"
"Yes, but probably not as much as you."
"She'd be beautiful. Dark hair, long and when I was little, I would have brushed it."
"I don't see her cooking."
Delia laughed. "You want Cecile's cooking, that's why."
"Can you blame me?"
"She'd be smart, too, maybe a lawyer, or doctor...or an English professor! She'd teach me all about Shakespeare."
"She'd be girlier than you."
Delia shrugged. "That's okay, but she'd understand me and never make me be someone I'm not."
Alexander started laughing. "Then we'd finally be the complete Addams family; Gomez would have his Morticia."
"That makes you Pugsley, you know."
"That's okay, Wednesday, I can deal with that."
Delia stifled a yawn. "But she'd like what we liked. She'd be down there with us when tortured people; she'd be proud of us."
"Then we'd really have to be on the other side of the house because we'd never get any sleep with all the noise coming from their room."
"That's okay. I'd prefer that than knowing that he's going to be alone when we're off at school."
"Does this perfect female have any flaws?"
"Bad temper."
Alexander could feel her smile as she said it and he smiled too. "Like mother, like daughter."
Delia closed her eyes. "I'm going to dream her for father, so he can be happy and he won't be alone."
Alexander kissed the top of her head. "I love you."
"I love you, too, annoying one." She kissed his neck.
It felt right and good to fall asleep with Delia's head on his chest; but a profound silence and sadness descended on him. "Things are going to be different from now on between us and him, aren't they?"
Delia felt it too, but she allowed herself to be swept up in her brother's emotional turmoil and she was silent before answering. "Yes."
The pair held each other tighter knowing that part of their childhood was over; that they had fundamentally altered their relationship with their father and never again could they go back to the way things used to be.
