"I said I would go back to work, I didn't say I would work every day." Lauren bounced Ethan in her arms as they approached the dining room.
"I never said a word." Bo laughed.
"Even without your memories, I know how you think." Lauren smiled as she set Ethan in his high chair. "Mama will be right back."
Bo laughed as Lauren walked into the kitchen. It wasn't long before she heard the sounds of pots and pans clanking. She loves it. She loves that they are getting Lauren for breakfast. Yesterday, she ran out without eating more than a piece of toast.
"See, I'm back." Lauren almost skipped over to Ethan. Bo and Ethan both laughed at the sight.
Bo plated the food and returned to her family. "I wonder if mama can use your baby spit to determine what you are." Lauren smiled and wiped his mouth.
"If anyone can do that, you can." Bo smiled from across the table.
"I was only joking, mama won't poke and prod him even if his samples of DNA are given almost hourly and freely". Lauren cooed as she fed him another spoon of food.
Bo took a bite and couldn't get enough of being fed. The food and the sight of the doctor and their son in front of her. While she's glad Lauren is staying home for the day, she knows it is rare for her not to run tests on Ethan, yet. "We can learn as we go. We are doing that as it is." She spoke softly.
"I know! He's getting so big already." Lauren turned to Bo and back to Ethan. When she was finished feeding Ethan, she let him play and turned to eat her own food.
"It is probably cold babe, I can warm it up." Bo kicked herself for not putting a lid on Lauren's food.
"Got it." Lauren waved her hand above the plate.
"Ok!." Bo smiled.
"This is nice and all but what shall we do today?." Lauren asked.
"I planned on going out and looking for a job." Bo replied.
"If you are interested, I know a few facilities that are looking for security guards." Lauren smiled.
"No. No job with guns. My son will never see one of those in my hands." Bo shook her head. "I'm sorry if that sounded harsh."
"It did and didn't. It sounded like a mother and that is always good." Lauren reached across and squeezed her hand.
"I want him to be proud of me. Proud to be my son. Even when he grows up and learns we are not like the human population." Bo explained. "Not that there's anything wrong with being human. I just don't want him to think there is something wrong with him or that he's a freak."
"He won't think that. We won't let him. He will grow up to be proud of his mother and of himself." Lauren wiped her mouth.
"Speaking of which, I need to tell the gang that. I am not sure mom believes in guns, but that's a no-no if she is going to be one of his sitters. My mind is made up and hard-nosed about that." Bo took her last bite and set the fork on her plate. She took a deep breath and drank some orange juice.
"So, he's being raised in a G-rated life, anyone can understand that." Lauren nodded.
"That's exactly what I am saying." Bo stood and took their plates into the kitchen. Ethan laughed and kicked in his chair as Lauren cleaned the table. "Be a good boy, no throwing stuff while we clean." Lauren spoke softly.
"He is a fast learner. After what he did to Owen, I am sure he already knows what he is and is capable of." Bo was hand washing the dishes. There isn't much to wash. Lauren can make big meals in small pots and pans.
"I think he knows not to try any of that on us. I think when he warmed up in your arms, that's his way of letting us know he's about to use his powers. Not like that first night you noticed it." Lauren washed her hands and dried them.
"Yeah, he's teaching us. But we still need to be the teachers and not the pupils." Bo walked to his chair and kissed him.
"So, what kind of work are you looking for then?." Lauren asked.
"I don't know. I liked being in the private eye business but I wasn't a mother then. I have to consider my family first." Bo took a seat at the table as Lauren poured fresh juice.
"We will be fine with whatever you choose. In the meantime, I can spend time with the both of you while you decide. I see so many doctors not going home and being with little ones. I can't let that be me. I won't let that be me." Lauren reached for Ethan's hand and shook it.
"Lauren, you were probably born thinking. If we can help you not do that, we will be glad to do it. But don't ever feel bad when you do go to work." Bo stretched and looked at them. "What can we do?." She tapped her foot.
"Go for a drive? Go find a nice inside park? Take him shopping?." Lauren looked left to right trying to think of something.
"They have kiddie rides at the mall, but I know he's too small for that." Bo tapped her chin.
"Good idea but germs all over the place? No." Lauren laughed.
"I knew that was coming the minute the words left my mouth." Bo laughed and rubbed her head. "Lauren, why don't you take him? Go do something. I've had hours alone with him recently. Don't let me intrude on your time with him since he's yours too."
"Bo, my taking off wasn't just about making up missed time with him, it is about getting some time in with you and him, as a family. We both know how I can be. I will get so busy with work or some experiment that I will miss out on his first words or his first steps. That's how deep I can and could get lost in my work. This is my job too. Being a mate and a mother." Lauren pulled the woman to her and kissed her before pulling back again.
"Okay! Well, I'm out of ideas besides driving around the city." Bo looked around for a clue. "This is bad. We can't think of anything. We're sorry, Ethan." She smiled at him.
"We're in a rare situation, Fae with a baby." Lauren smiled as she gently nudged Bo.
"A growing baby Fae, too." Bo rubbed Ethan's chin. "You know I just thought of something."
"That is?." Lauren asked.
"How soon do you want to tell him who we are? Who we really are? I'm a succubus and you are a little bit of everything. Fae. A doctor." Bo took a seat.
"I think he's figuring out what he can do on his own. Now, as far as telling him what we are, preferably before he starts school, and the other kids learn about him." The doctor stood watching them.
"So, a human school?." Bo asked.
"That's how we both grew up, no reason our kids shouldn't. Unless you want to homeschool all of them." Lauren noticed Bo's face. "There's no rush with that decision either."
"I'm not in a rush. I just wanted to know what you thought and are planning with them." Bo smiled.
"I plan to raise them with you. You will have just as much input as I will. If you want something, say it. There's nothing you can't say to me about us or them that I will scold you about." Lauren bent down next to Bo.
"Then that's what we will do today. Be a family. So, Ethan, are you ready for your cartoons?." Bo smiled as she turned to him. Lauren laughed when he kicked in his chair. "You said the magic word."
"He does have a thing for Paw Patrol." Bo bounced him in her arms as she carried him to the living room and turned on the tv.
Lauren took a seat for a few minutes. She had never seen the cartoon and wondered what was so fascinating about it. "Police officers."
"Just a cartoon babe. I'm sure he will grow out of it. Not grow up wanting to be one." Bo finished setting Ethan up on the couch so that he wouldn't fall over. "He'll be sleeping soon."
"See, Bo. You are so good at this already." Lauren nearly cried watching Bo with Ethan.
"I'm learning as I go." Bo took a seat next to Lauren. "Come on, rest. I will watch him and the show." She pulled the woman into her arms.
"I love you, Bo." Lauren whispered as she settled into the woman's arms.
"I love you too." Bo kissed blonde hair and turned to check Ethan. His eyes were wide and glued to the tv. Soon, he will be asleep and his doctor mother more than likely. If she can get Lauren of all people to rest, she's doing her job from that standpoint too.
The Dal
"Hey, if you have something to say, say it now but you will not say it in front of my family." Aife spoke from across her table.
"It's just..". Lou Ann stalled.
"It's just what, sweetie?." Aife asked. "You know my patience is as thin as an ant dick. Spit it out."
"It is just since Ethan was born, I've thought about my own kids. The kids that were murdered." Lou Anna leaned back in her seat and rested her head.
"Lauren would cut his balls off, if I didn't get to him first. He's getting what he deserves. I have eyes on Vex too, so that he can't pull that same bullshit again." Aife swirled her drink in the glass.
"That brings me some comfort. Those damn Mesmers have always thought they were above the Fae. Even when Vex was angling to be the Morrigan. Now that he knows his father is still alive and out there, it kind of makes the pain stick." Lou Ann accepted her drink from the barmaid.
"I'm sorry your kids are gone, I really am but we are all protecting Ethan and other children from the same fate. Nobody and I do mean nobody will fuck with my grandson and or grandchildren. Rest your mind on that. You have known me long enough to know that I may find humor in a lot of deaths but child deaths? I don't screw around with that shit. I never would have dug him up had I known what he had done. The Fae that found him and brought him to my attention has been handled too. Wherever Lauren sent him he will stay there. Vex will fuck around and find out that the old Lauren that he thought was so soft is long gone. Shit, she makes me proud as if she were my own bloodline. But she's giving me a new bloodline. That's cool too." Aife downed her drink in one swallow. "Now, let's bust some balls on the pool table." The old Succubus stood and strolled over. When she took her first shot, Mason approached. "They are moving as we speak."
"Good. Good." Aife smiled.
Kenzi, Tamsin and Owen.
"This really sucks, Tamsin. You can't break down his defenses and we are eating like prisoners." Kenzi threw her fork down.
"Hey, it is not that bad. If you don't want yours, I will take it." Tamsin mouthed through a mouth full of food.
"You can have it. My lunch too if it turns out to be this disgusting." Kenzi slid her plate across the table. She turned to look at Owen who was staring directly at them. If he blinked, Kenzi missed it with her own. She has been around a lot of people during her life on the streets. But not anyone like this. He doesn't have a weakness. He doesn't have a personality. He's what she thought Lauren was when she met the doctor. Someone that dull would never interest Bo, turns out she did and does. "Are we allowed to ask for anything?."
"You can. Doesn't mean your request will be granted." Owen's voice was deep.
"Can we talk to Bo or Lauren?." Kenzi asked.
"I can tell them what you want to say but I doubt it will reach their ears. Young Ethan won't permit any bullshit around his family and he can't even spell the word shit, yet." Owen replied.
"Damn, is he not the male stuck up version of Lauren or what?." Kenzi whispered.
"You should have eaten that breakfast. For that remark, you won't be getting anything else to eat today as you have promised the Valkyrie your next meal and she isn't permitted to offer it back." Owen looked back and forth between the women.
"Just drink your water, Kenzi. Hurry before he yanks that away too." Tamsin shoved the glass to the woman and urged her to drink it all.
"Let's go to work." Kenzi set the glass down.
"We don't have jobs, yet." Tamsin looked confused.
"We can fill out applications. Go on interviews. Either way, we will be away from him. Possibly hours away from him." Kenzi pulled her jacket on. She didn't want to waste any swill from the food they were given on it. That is why she had taken it off.
"I'm your supervisor. I will watch you do everything but shit and bathe. To send you off to work means you would try and escape. I can't allow that to happen because I would be betraying them. The young prince can't talk but his hand left all his words on my chest. Keep the humans safe and that's all. No parties. No clubs. Nothing. Basically a library existence. Absolute silence." Owen sat staring at them with his palms down on his table.
"Ugh!." Kenzi screamed.
"Scream all that you like. Nobody will come to your aid. Nobody that wants to die, that is." Owen kept his straight face.
Lauren and Bo's.
Lauren smiled as she placed a blanket over Bo and Ethan. They both had fallen asleep minutes into his cartoon. Bo was holding him like the treasure Lauren knows that he is to the both of them.
Ethan. Their lives had turned into any and everything about him. He's them. The best and the worst. He's everything Lauren would be staring into microscopes trying to examine. Trying to learn everything that he is so that she can get a jump on being prepared for his next move. He already made his biggest move by thralling Owen. While that same doctor in her wants to experiment on him, she can't and she won't. It wouldn't be fair to Bo for Lauren to learn more about him than she knows. She sighed and walked into the kitchen. In a few hours it is going to be lunch time and she honestly doesn't know what she wants to cook. She had fallen asleep on Bo. She inhaled the succubus scent so hard that she dreamed about her. Then she noticed that Bo had fallen asleep. She checked Ethan, picked him up and put him in Bo's arms.
While she can't help wanting to be a doctor, she wants just as much to be a mother and mate. She has to protect them, at any cost. A cost Vex quickly learned once she had found out what his father did. The old Lauren would have looked for logic or given him a chance to explain his actions but there is no explaining that. Especially to new parents.
"Do you still have people on Sam?." She asked into her phone.
"I do." Aife replied.
"Get more. As many as you can or I can." Lauren replied.
"Are you sensing something?." Aife asked.
"Vex may be gone but his mouth could still be in these streets. He could get anyone to go after him since he's dear to us." Lauren explained.
"Shit, I didn't think of that. I will definitely get more people over there." Aife waved Mason over.
"What's wrong with Sam?." Bo whispered behind the doctor.
"Nothing that I know of. I just want more people to guard him and his house. Vex could have unsavory friends here wanting to retaliate on his behalf." Lauren explained.
"Lauren, if you think something is coming, then it's coming. We need to be ready." Bo turned to Ethan still asleep on the couch.
The women jumped back when green eyes met theirs. "Well, doctor. That's your first clue." Bo slowly walked towards him. "Good baby." He laughed when she picked him up.
"I don't. I don't want to do it." Lauren shook her head.
"You don't have to, sweetie. We can wait, can't we Ethan?." Bo rocked him from side to side.
Lauren walked over to them and he smiled at her too. No matter what she did, his eyes wouldn't go green again. He wasn't warm like in previous events. "You are mama's breathing science book." She smiled and walked the three of them back to the kitchen. "Lunch will be ready, shortly."
"I think he's dark." Bo whispered.
"I know he is but I am trying not to think about that. He needs to have good light hearted mothers to counteract that." Lauren spoke over her shoulder.
"I think I will be his preschool teacher." Bo paced back and forth with him.
"Bo? Are you going to school?." Lauren asked.
"Not that kind of teacher. I will be his Fae teacher. Who knows better than you or I about having dark feelings. I can teach him while you are at work and make videos of each lesson plan." Bo took a seat but didn't put him down.
"Grandma Aife can be your assistant." Lauren suggested.
"You are going to be so powerful and feared my boy." Bo kissed his cheek as he laughed. "The Fae doesn't know what's coming. You are going to be so good at being bad and good. Good for us. Bad for them."
TBC.