Chapter 11: Only a Dream
"Daddy, wake uh-up." sang a small voice. Frank could feel a warm breath on his face and a little nose brushed his own.
"No, too early." Frank protested, eyes still closed, but smiled as he said it. He pulled the covers up closer around his shoulders. He heard small feet pad down to the end of the bed and felt the slight bounce of the small body climbing up on all fours between Frank and Phil.
"Tatty, wake up." the child whispered into his husband's ear. Phil made a muffled, grumbling sound and rolled from his back to his side, facing the small girl.
"It's still dark baby doll."
"I can't sleep." Frank rolled over to face the middle of the bed, Allison was sitting on her knees looking between her two fathers.
"Allison, want to snuggle between me and Tatty?" She nodded and got under the covers. She backed up against Frank's chest and her Daddy draped a protective arm around her. Her Tatty let her wrap her tiny hand around his fingers. Phil used the pad of his thumb to stroke the baby-soft skin of the back of her hand.
"Love you Tatty." The tiny girl said sleepily, yawing mid-sentence.
"Love you too baby doll."
"Love you Daddy."
"Love you too Allison."
"Come 'ere! Help meh move 'im."
"He didn't hit his head too hard did he?"
"Don tink so. Ach! E's too heavy. Go get yer sister!"
"Why do he smile when he sleepin'?" Allison asked as she looked on at her newborn brother sleeping in Frank's arms.
"He's dreaming. Must be a nice dream, huh?"
"Tatty says its gas." The little girl giggled and pinched her nose.
"Allison? C'mon baby doll, got your bathwater ready." Phil called from the bathroom.
"Do you want to help me put David to bed?" asked Frank as he stood from the nursery's glider-rocker.
"Yes!" The girl whispered. Frank held Allison's hand with his free hand as they crossed the room to the crib. She climbed up on the rail as Frank lowered the sleeping infant into the bed.
"Night night baby." Allison waved to her brother and then flit out of the room.
"Sweet dreams David." Frank whispered, and leaned in to kiss his son's soft round head.
"Oh my G-d Bridge! What did you do this time?"
"I forgot! I forgot not to use the iron nail! I should have gone with the galvanized. Especially since…"
"Shhh… Keep yer voices don!"
Frank could hear the witches bustling about the room.
"Did you at least complete the spell for G-d's sake?"
"Aye, we were on the last bit when things went to shite."
"So it's done. They're good?"
"Oh, I'd like to see the furry bastard try an' get past the front gate!" Riona cleared her throat and addressed her younger daughter. "Bridget, you go on with Keeva and start helping in the front yard. I'll watch over the lad til he wakes, make sure he's steady."
Frank could hear two sets of feet pad out of the front of the house. He cracked an eye open to see the reddened face of Mrs. Magee hovering over him.
"Oh good! You're alright. I have to say you gave us quite a fright falling out like that!" the woman said cheerfully.
"What the heck happened? And what did Bridget mean about using the wrong nail in the spell?"
Riona hesitated, shaking her head dismissively. But she could see the determined look on the young man's face. This was a fellow who would not stand for flimsy excuses.
"First let me ask you, who's Allison and David? Do they live here?"
"Who?"
"Allison and David. You called out their names when you were passed out." Riona was concerned, if there were other people in the household she was going to have to do the spell over to include them.
"I have no idea what you're talking about Mrs. Magee. I don't know an Allison or a David."
"You're sure?" Riona asked. Frank thought back as far as he could. He'd known an Allison in grade school, a David in high school, but other than that, he could come up with nothing.
"Positive. Your turn, what was Bridget going on about?"
"There was something about your aura that indicated that you're sensitive to iron. Bridget and I have done the protection spell for so long that we forgot to switch out the traditional iron nail for a galvanized one."
"Sensitive to iron?" the skeptical look Frank shot her warranted further explanation. Riona rifled through her tote bag and extracted an iron and a galvanized nail. Frank sat up from his reclined position on the sofa.
"Hold out your weaker hand." So Frank held out his left hand and the iron nail was placed in it. "Now hold up your dominate hand and try to resist me." Riona pushed against Frank's right hand, and the brunette strained to keep the older woman from budging it. Satisfied, Riona removed the iron nail and placed the shining galvanized one in his hand. This time, even with the same amount of pressure, Frank had no problem at all holding his hand out against Riona's.
"See? It just happens sometimes. Right up there with being left handed, or having one brown eyebrow and one blonde one." The witch dropped the nails back into her bag and stood up quickly.
"Okay…" Frank rubbed the back of his head, feeling the slight knot where his head obviously made contact with the floor.
"Would you like an ice pack for your head lad?"
"No thank you. I'm going to call into the office and tell Dad that I'm running late."
"Alrighty, well I'll be heading on. Keeva and Bridget have the truck to get home on." Frank stood and held out his hand.
"Thank you, Mrs. Magee for all your help. If there's anything we can do…"
"Think not of it, Mr. Hardy. You just keep getting healed up from that gimpy leg you so can get back out there and keep us all safe." She shook his hand and winked again. Frank followed her out to the front porch.
Keeva was pressing dirt down around the base of a sapling in the right corner of the yard. Bridget was running a tiller along the picket fence on one side of the front gate, the beginnings of a flower bed taking shape. Keeva stood and wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her work gloves. She walked over to the porch where Frank was standing.
"We've got Hawthorne going in the corners, Elder bushes going in the flower bed, and we'll do the same in the back. How attached are you to those hydrangeas?"
"Phil likes them I."
"Crap. Alright, I'll just work around them." Keeva huffed and walked to the back of her truck. She picked up another sapling like it weighed nothing and began cutting off the burlap that covered the root bundle.
"Strong girl." Frank commented to Mrs. Magee. The matron smiled proudly.
"Takes after her father that way, G-d rest his soul."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Frank politely sympathized. Riona smiled impishly, her eyes looking somewhere in the past.
"I'm not."
…
Joe gave a low whistle when he saw the cane Frank was using when his older brother finally came to the office later that morning.
"New hardware?" he asked. Frank looked to see if their father was in his office. Finding it vacant he turned to his younger brother.
"A gift from Amy."
"Nice gift." Joe commented as he followed Frank into his office.
"How's Van this morning?"
"She was throwing up her toenails at five thirty this morning, but after she took that medicine the doctor prescribed it stopped. Of course, it knocked her out. So she was sleeping when I left for work. I'll call her in a little while to see if she's feeling better." Joe sat down in Frank's guest chair.
"So, has it sunk in yet, Daddy?" Frank teased his little brother.
"It just… blows my mind Frank. That she and I, together… there's going to be a walking, talking…"
"And pooping."
"Ha, yeah. And a "pooping" piece of ourselves." Joe smiled.
"It's a big responsibility…"
"No kidding. Mom and Dad made it look so easy."
"And they didn't have Aunt Gertie to help out until after we started school." Frank added. "But you and Van will have more than enough help with Andrea, Mom and Aunt Gertie pitching in. Not to mention two doting uncles."
"This is going to be one spoiled kid." Joe laughed and Frank joined in heartily.
"So when are you going to break the news to the rest of the gang?"
"Dunno, whatcha doing this weekend? Maybe we'll have a cookout, us guys can do the cooking to give Van a break."
"Haven't planned ahead that far." Frank said as he pressed the power button on his computer.
"You know, not to change the subject, but I wonder why Biff hadn't mentioned he was going with you to New Orleans when we made the rounds last night."
"You went vampire hunting last night?" surprise was clear on the older Hardy's face.
"Well, yeah."
"Don't you think you ought to stick closer to home, now that you're going to have a family?" If Frank was going to bring up the subject with his brother, now was as good a time as any.
"What? Has Van said something to you?"
"No, not a word. I've been thinking about talking to you for about a month. I'd just hate to see you spread too thin. What you and Vanessa have is rare and wonderful and…
"I think I need to be out there more than ever! I mean, vampires are out there killing or recruiting. Now I hear about lone wolves that don't run with the local pack sniffing round here. What else is out there Frank? Witches? Evil leprechauns? G-d I hope it's not evil leprechauns."
"And who's going to protect Van? Surely you don't expect her to stay at home all alone, vulnerable and pregnant while you're out there hunting with Biff?" Frank knew he was pushing his brother's buttons, but sometimes he needed to do that to get through the impetuous boy's head. Joe's face was beginning to redden as his brother's probing became more intrusive.
"She can stay with Andrea on the nights I'm out with Biff. Look, I know you're worried about me big brother, but …" he defended.
"Yes I am, I'm worried about you. Van and the baby, Mom, Dad, Gertie, Phil! But you just got married, you're going to be a father. You need to stay safe too so you can be there for them… I mean, our job is dangerous enough at times. Just, will you think about it, please? Put yourself in Van's or Mom's shoes for a minute. Alright?"
"Alright Frank, alright." The younger Hardy stood and started for his office. "And if we're going to point fingers, you're late by the way."
"Brat." Frank muttered as he logged into his email.
…
"Frank?"
The voice was tremulous, yet familiar. There were notes of fear and panic. Frank pushed on through a darkness so black he could not see his hands in front of his face, looking for the voice's owner.
"Frank! Help me!"
"I can't see! It's too dark, keep talking!" Frank yelled out to the darkness. He felt around, trying to find a wall, a light switch, anything.
"Frank, you're finally here. Oh thank G-d! I thought I'd never see you again." The voice was closer now, so he must be heading in the right direction. He could feel the texture of wallpaper under his finger tips, it was old and peeling. Finally Frank's hand ran into something hard and round. There was a button in the middle. He pressed the button and the room filled with light from the lone incandescent bulb. Frank turned from the wall, eyes squinting as he adjusted to the glaring light. When he turned to see who was in the room with him, Frank threw himself against the wall, wishing he could claw his way through and get the hell out.
Eric sat there, huddled in the corner, naked. He looked like shit. Bloody, scarred, eyes black from hunger. He didn't move, except to reach out to Frank. He was loosely bound with a thin, silvery chain, but it was just enough to immobilize him.
"Frank, please…" Eric begged in a pained, gravelly voice.
"No, no I can't! I won't!" Frank shrank away, trying to put as much distance as he could between his former boyfriend, kidnapper, mental torturer, rapist…
"Please, please help me…"
"No! No no no! NO!"
"Baby? Frank? Shh… calm down, it was just a bad dream. What ever it was you're safe, you're right here with me." Phil turned on the bedside light. Frank was sitting up in bed, drenched in sweat and panting, gasping for air. The brunette clapped his hand over his mouth and gagged once, twice…
Frank raced to the bathroom and emptied his stomach of his dinner. Once he had calmed down, he could hear Phil's bare feet slapping on the bathroom floor. A cabinet open, water from the sink ran, then a cold damp wash cloth was presented to him in his blurry field of vision.
"Thanks." Frank whispered and wiped his face off.
"You haven't had a night terror that bad in months."
"The weird thing is this dream was different. I wasn't reliving the Hersher Estate. I was somewhere else, and Er…Eric was in trouble. He was calling out to me, for me to help him. But I was so scared, and at the same time, I refused to. I was mad, angry for what he'd done to me."
"You have every right to be."
"It just seemed so wrong."
"Would you like some water Babe?" At three thirty in the morning Phil just did not have the mental capacity to dig into a deep conversation about Eric Langhorne. His main concern was Frank's immediate physical wellbeing and getting back to bed.
"I'll get it, you go on back to bed." Frank said as he stood on wobbly legs.
"Are you sure? I don't mind…" Phil protested weakly, but Frank shook his head as he picked up his toothbrush and toothpaste and scrubbed the bitter taste of bile out of his mouth.
"Awm shua, gah on tah beb," Frank spat and rinsed. "I'm going to sit up for a while until my stomach eases." He kissed his fiancée's cheek. Phil seemed skeptical, but relented and went back to bed.
Frank limped to the kitchen, noticing that his limp didn't seem as bad as it had earlier that day. So maybe there was some merit to Chet's more gentle vampire serum regimen. However, Chet never mentioned what kind of effects antacid would have. He thought for a moment about texting Chet, Frank was pretty sure the nurse was still working this late, but thought better of it. Knowing Chet he'd ask a dozen questions and want him to come to the ER to be checked out. Forget it. Frank grabbed a tumbler of cold water and a pack of Alka-Seltzer then headed to the backyard to take in the cool night air.
"Mornin' Frank." Frank didn't even jump this time. He looked to see the kid sitting in one of their lawn chairs under the pergola reading a book.
"You mean Good Evening, don't you?" Frank smirked as he downed his stomach remedy.
"What's got you up so early?" The teen vampire asked.
"If you've been sitting there as long as I think you have, I have a feeling you already know." Frank answered waspishly.
"You know, that's something I don't miss from before... nightmares. Vampires don't dream when they sleep. When I was a little kid, I had nightmares all the time. I'd have bad dreams about my father, about how sick he got there at the end. Then I had ones about his funeral, seeing him laying in that casket. And it's wasn't the pretty sight it is now, we didn't have embalming." Ezekiel sat at the edge of his seat. "It got worse after Mama married my stepfather. He was such a rat-bastard. He made my waking hours a living hell, and then if I had one of my night terrors and called out for Mama during the night, he'd come in there and beat the shit out of me… No, I definitely don't miss dreaming."
"In that I envy you. I close my eyes every night and pray I don't see Eric's face. It had been getting better, but tonight…"
"Closure."
"Excuse me?"
"That's what Amy would say. You need closure." Ezekiel closed the book and stood up.
"I seriously doubt that's going to happen anytime soon." said Frank sullenly. His stomach was finally calming down and the cool breeze ruffled his hair.
"The sooner it does, the sooner you can get on with your life."
"Awfully intuitive for just a hundred and sixty four years old, aren't you?"
"One hundred and sixty five in just a few more months!" The vampire reminded him proudly.
…
Author's Note:
I happened to look at Some Nights' stats the other day and was overjoyed to see people were still reading and reviewing it. I hope everyone is still enjoying MoonRiver. The action will pick up soon, so bear with me.