Chapter 3: Peach's Circus

August 2040

My Peach was four years old, her second birthday in our care, though the first was after less than a month of being with us and was marked only with a special family dinner. Now her fourth birthday was being looked upon by the Uley-Varn family as the event of the year.

Mark, who had the tendency of taking things a bit overboard, was abuzz. Not that Eli, who was the most attentive older brother, or I, the worst example of a love-struck father, was much better. Though in the days leading up to the event, even I realized it was getting a tad bit extreme.

Annabelle's party planning company had been hired for this particular shindig, and the party went from a small family get-together to a reservation wide festival. Helium tanks, more balloons in various shades of green than I had ever seen in my life, a mountain of sweets and pastries from Jared, a bouncy fun house, magicians, a petting zoo, Soli as our DJ, and well the list went on so that it could no longer be held at our cabin.

Mark, now working for the council, had taken the initiative to rent the community center and the adjoining Quileute ceremony grounds. Annabelle, being family, gave us decorations and services at cost, but that didn't prevent the final bill coming to well over three thousand dollars. Not that I was complaining, as long as my little girl was happy, I couldn't care much about dollar bills, though even as an obsessed father, I was rational enough to realize a four year old could have been easily pleased with a handful of balloons and Neapolitan ice cream.

"We haven't gotten her a present yet," Mark said running in the room so that he had to skid to a stop. Hazel was staying with my brother and his wife Anna, leaving the men to prepare for the next day's last minute planning.

"The party is her present, Marcus." Eli ran in after him, throwing himself on our bed with a loud thud, I pulled him in, kissing his signature puff ball of hair. He was getting bigger, ten on the verge of eleven and growing like a gangly weed.

"Pa, love you," he said sweetly. He rarely spoke, so I knew this was probably a ploy. Eli had partial hearing in his left ear, he could speak and read lips, so when in comparison to my nephew Levi, he was a highly functional deaf boy, but he didn't often choose to speak and when he did it was usually to outsiders, to catch our attention or when he or Mark really wanted something, the two of them together were a devilish duo.

'I love you too, Eli,' I signed looking between the two of them suspiciously. Mark mouthed something, though didn't say it out loud, and though I was a fluent signer, that conversation went entirely over my head. I reached out to Mark, pulling him on the bed with us so that Eli was sandwiched between us, giggling at whatever their plans were.

Mark laughed, the cutest, most endearing laugh, but Eli, still looking at me, didn't notice. It pained me sometimes, the things that Eli missed because he was deaf. Eli was a very proud member of the deaf community and when they called it a community, it was really a community, though a quickly dwindling one. With the increasing use of cochlear implants, sign language was actually starting to die out, which is why Eli was so adamant about not getting one.

His birth parents were teenagers, unemployed, not even finished with high school, they had no way of affording the costly operation, and the adoption agency, while caring and well meaning, were far from well funded enough to provide that "luxury" to him. Upon adoption one of the main factors for us being awarded the chance to adopt him, besides our ability to sign, was that we were financially secure enough to fund his surgery. We had gotten private insurance just for the purpose of the operation on his right ear, which would restore his hearing back to almost 70%, but he assured us he didn't need or want them at an early age and we wouldn't force it. The money and the insurance were still there, but at eleven he was still holding out.

"Oh, come on, Jordan, don't be a fuddy-duddy, we want to go shopping," Mark wailed dramatically, signing above his head so Eli could follow, but then he turned, leaning in to whisper in a way only a wolf would catch. "And with all the attention on Hazel, it's the least we could do."

'Where do you want to go?' I signed to them and Eli's face broke into the most brilliant smile I'd ever seen on his youthful face.

'O-L-Y-M-P-I-A,' he replied, but by the time he got to Y, I was already up grabbing a shirt to finish off my outfit. Mark grabbed me, kissing me passionately when Eli ran to get ready.

"Lock the door," he instructed and using my full speed to close and lock the door, I was back to him before he even had time to unbutton his pants, which I did for him. We didn't discuss it, and really nothing overtly sexual had happened, but there was a need there and as soon as his pants were down, I took him in my mouth, savoring the delicacy of his vanilla tinted skin. He grabbed my head, tightly lacing his fingers through my hair and urging me forward, something he didn't do often, but made my stomach clench with the need to please him; he was still and would always be, my Alpha.

"Pa! Da!" Eli called from the living room where he had smartly read the locked door as a sign to wait, though with the prospect of shopping for presents, no kid could wait patiently. I sucked harder, taking him in farther until I felt I would gag on the swollen head of his stiffness and when he released a few minutes later, I licked him dry, allowing him to gain his composure enough to finish getting ready.

We dressed alike, the three of us, entirely unplanned, but it happened a lot, all clad in blue t-shirts and jeans. Marcus and Eli sat in the back, which they did whenever it was the three of us, having rapid conversations I could only catch glimpses of. Today they were talking about a girl, which I hoped was Ava, though my son seemed to be oblivious to the charms of the adorable girl he called his best friend. Whoever he was talking about, he was smitten and Mark took the opportunity to advise him, though I wasn't sure Mark was the best source for lady advice. He was gorgeous, that was not the problem, Mark just didn't know the first thing about having a girlfriend.

"Where are we going exactly?" I called back and I could see through the rearview Mark translating.

"He wants to go to Target," Mark interpreted.

"Target? I thought he wanted—okay, Target it is," I announced changing course towards the Target near Port Angeles.

Every Target in every city that I have ever been in is arranged in the same exact way, so I led the parade exactly to our favorite department: electronics. Eli and I went directly to the entertainment part of it, movies and music and Mark almost ran to the computers.

'What is your favorite movie?' Eli asked holding a copy of a Paulie Shore movie that outdated even me.

'You have never seen it,' I signed leaning into him to read the back cover.

'What is it?'

"Robin Hood Men in Tights," Mark announced from behind me, signing to my son before he pulled me to his firm form from behind.

"That's not my favorite," I argued, but he knew me too well.

'Can we watch it tonight?' Eli signed running down the aisle to find it.

"There goes our romantic night of delirious love making," Mark joked leading us down the aisle still holding me round the middle.

"Well, we can still get to that once he's tucked in," I promised and he kissed my neck causing an elderly couple to hiss as they passed us, Mark responded with a sexy growl.

'What should we get Hazel?' Eli asked once a handful of movies were chosen to fill our home library.

'What do you want to get her?' I asked him and he nearly skipped towards the toys humming a bizarre little tune as he went.

We spent the next hour talking Eli out of trying to get Hazel half the aisle of dolls with the saved allowance he brought along in a sandwich bag. He loved his little sister immensely, in a way that made him glow whenever he played with her or really even just talked about her.

"DA! PA! Here!" Eli called from the end of the aisle inappropriately loud, though no one seemed to notice, seeing that the aisle was filled with screaming children.

Playschool Customizable Doll House. The box was huge, double the size of my little Peach, and much too heavy for Eli to pick up though he held the edges as if it was the greatest treasure in all the land.

"Its ninety dollars," I whispered over Eli's shoulder.

"We can't let him spend all of his allowance on it," Mark hissed.

"Mark, what kind of lesson would that teach him about spending and money management?"

"I got it," Eli said clearly. He was reading our lips and to prove his point he waved the clear sandwich bag in front of his face.

'It's a little expensive, son. Why don't you pick out something cheaper?' I suggested, but he shook his head pointing to the box frantically. Mark picked it up, kissing my cheek softly before he led the way to the registers.

We wrapped her present in green polka-dotted wrapping paper, in the living room, watching Robin Hood with subtitles and eating kettle corn. And when Eli was pooped out, we retreated to the bedroom, spending the night in a mass of sweaty limbs.

The party was even bigger than I imagined; more colorful and livelier than the circus. Annabelle had done a fantastic job with the decorations and entertainment. Looking at it, you would never guess it was a community center. It literally looked like a carnival. Though Hazel was not enrolled in school yet, being home-schooled with me since I didn't have a job at the moment, the entire pre-school, who would soon be her classmates were invited. The parents of the happy kids all thanked us, individually making play dates with Hazel, who to be honest, could use the social interaction, having spent most of her life among people more than double her age.

The entire pack, even Trisha, showed up, which was a surprise to us all considering the epic argument Mark and Rachel had over the "Sammy Incident" as we had deemed it, followed by an even more vicious war of words between him and Trisha.

"I can't believe she's showing her face here," Mark breathed, Soli nodding furiously at his side.

"It's her niece's party," I said carefully, hoping to defuse the situation.

"Yeah and when was the last time we were invited to absolutely anything of my nieces, Jordan? In fact I think I can name at least ten events we were specifically not invited to!" He spat, his eyes on fire.

"True, but how about this, after the party you can write her a letter... if you want to be petty, but right now let's try not to ruin the party we spent a few thousand dollars on, and which our daughter is enjoying immensely I might add," I pointed out, shifting his attention to Hazel, snuggled in Helen's arms watching a magic show performed by a tall black man and his tiny red headed assistant.

Hazel was squealing and her hands were balled into happy little fists, which she clapped together whenever a trick was performed. Mark's face softened, watching our daughter's infectious joy.

"Sorry, you're right, and no letters," he chuckled pulling me into a tender kiss. "Am I a scrooge?" He asked as he pulled me towards Hazel.

"To be honest... yeah," I laughed kissing him again. "But I prefer to look at it as passionate and protective."

"I'll try to be better, pinky swear." He held his finger out offering it to me, I twisted mine around his, kissing the union with a smile.

"Daddy look!" Hazel cheered when the magician's assistant pulled the floppy eared rabbit out of her hat. We made our way to her side, Helen handing her over as soon as we were close enough to reach.

"Are you happy?" Mark asked after the magician finally finished the show, making way for the cake, which was being rolled out by Jared, eyes crinkled in a smile.

"Vewy," she assured us, standing on my thighs so she could give us both big lip smacking kisses on the cheek or in Mark's case the chin.

Hazel's pile of presents was at least 10 times her size and 100 times her body weight and with the excitement of the day, Hazel hadn't gotten her daily nap, so when it came time to open them, even struggling through yawns and heavy eyelids she only got through a few. Her handmade fancy dresses with ornate details and monogrammed bodices from Kim and Jared, a beautiful tree swing from Emily and Sam. David looked around before he carried Sammy over to hand Hazel her present, a baseball glove, and the final piece she reached before slumber finally claimed her, Eli's dollhouse.

The box was bigger than her so she had to be carried to it, and she feverishly tore at the paper, which made a small green mound on the ground when she was finished.

"Eli! Eli!" She used her last reserves of energy to circle the box twice, inspecting the pictures on both sides of the box before throwing herself in her brother's arms.

"You like?" Eli asked carefully.

"Love you!" She howled, kissing his forehead as he held her.

"Aww," the watching crowd broke into a chorus and I turned to Mark ready to say something about it, but the glossy state of his eyes was enough. I wiped the single tear on the corner of his eye with my thumb, dragging him into my arms, which earned us yet another collective sigh.

"Love you," he mimicked Hazel with a grin and as if no one was watching I kissed my husband, who had filled my life with more joy than I ever thought imaginable.