The Siblings and The Baby

The morning after his visit to Skylar's home and the discovery of the evidence they needed, Thad woke up to find Wes sitting on his bed. He smiled at the still half asleep man in the bed, and said, "This might seem an unusual greeting first thing in the morning, but you did ensure that the memory stick was safe? I ask merely because we need to turn it over to the police as soon as we can, given the fact that someone might have broken into Skylar's place last night…"

That made Thad wake right up, sitting upright in bed, guilt stricken. "Don't panic, my little one! Unfortunately for them, someone spotted them in the garden before they could get in; it is one of the advantages of having an attentive guardian angel. Seth alerted the rest of us to what was going on, and we had the chair moved to a hiding place, and Skylar awake before they even got to the door! Skylar was able to call 911 before they were in the house. You see, they had to get in, but we didn't let them get very far; angels, like small boys left home alone, can very effectively booby trap a house…"

Wes said that with such an innocent look on his face that Thad knew what had happened next would have been as hilarious as that Christmas film to which he had eluded. "So, before you ask, it was the lawyer from the video. He was caught as he limped out of the door, clutching a memory stick; he was charged for the break in, and as for the memory stick, well the images on that were not pleasant at all. Nothing illegal, but the kind of pornography that no respectable lawyer would want to be caught carrying around. He ended up squealing, and telling them everything. Skylar was able to show the police the footage from the Cloud, but to make it a case, they need the actual memory stick. We have a copy of the contents anyway, so it's no issue…"

"Of course we do… I will call Skylar, then arrange to get the memory stick to the police as soon as I can. So, in your opinion, will this change everything in our favour?"

"Yes, I think that it will, and there is an added bonus. Barnaby and Hilary arrived home first thing this morning; they will be there to see the moment that the police come and arrest their parents for fraud…"

Skylar had taken the day off to deal with the aftermath of the break in, although there was very little damage to the house. The only casualty had been a lamp that neither he or Julia particularly liked, but they had been obliged to keep it on prominent display as it had been a gift from one of her family. Somehow its flex had become wrapped around the intruder's legs, effectively hobbling him, and as he had fallen forward, the lamp had been dragged off the table; due to the length of the flex, it had smashed onto the back of his head. He had still been trying to untangle himself when Skylar had switched on the overhead light as he entered the room, and informed him that the police were on their way…

Julia had slept through all of it, her body exhausted by the child that she would hopefully not be carrying too much longer, and the news that they had been burgled was a shock. Skylar had let her stay in bed; he brought her breakfast, then spent the morning tidying up the house, including installing the chair back in its normal spot, and dismantling several ingenious looking booby traps under angelic supervision. That done, he had made a light lunch for himself and his wife, taking her a tray in bed.

Now he sat in his study and watched the video feed of the moment that the police had arrived at the door of Seth's parents to arrest them. Only his mother was at home, and as the police cuffed her and removed her to their vehicle, she screamed for her son, and asked him to call their lawyer. Her face fell slightly when the arresting officer told her that there was no point in calling their usual one, as he had already been arrested on the same charges of fraud as she and her husband were being…

He smiled, knowing from a certain angel, albeit unofficially as yet, that she had lost all of her bravado the moment they had shown her the footage from the hidden camera; worse, she had then been told that their lawyer had not only admitted everything, but, as part of a plea bargain, had also handed over transcripts and secret recordings of all the planning meetings they had had during the creation of the fake will. Admitting what she had done now would do her no good either. The state had also moved remarkably quickly in declaring the will invalid, and the previous will had been reinstated. That meant that all of their wealth would need to be channelled into ensuring that the beneficiaries of the original will were paid out in full; they would also lose their home to her brother, as per the first will. Of course, one of those beneficiaries was the estate of Seth Kennedy…

The knock on the door that came then was a surprise to Seth, as he was not expecting visitors. That meant it could be only one of three things in his mind. One, his boss had come to check in with him - or was that up on him? Two, the police had come back to update him officially on what was happening. Three, Thad or Mrs Carmichael had decided to drop over on a whim…

What he found when he opened the door was none of the above. He found a smartly dressed couple on the doorstep, a little younger than himself. The neatness of their attire made him suspect that they were religious missionaries of some kind, but neither of them was wearing one of those name badges that identified them as Brother, Sister, or Elder, so they weren't Latter Day Saints. That made him at once think of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and he had actually opened the door, which was worse!

"Hello, we are looking to speak to a Mr Skylar Willetts - would I be correct in assuming that would be yourself?" said the young lady sweetly, with a smile.

Skylar was about to tell them that his name was Barry Allen, and he had to run, when he looked properly at the face of the young man next to her. It was uncanny, and unlike with Matthew, the family resemblance was all too obvious and clear… Taking a breath, he said, "Yes, I'm Skylar Willetts, and if I'm not mistaken, you would be Hilary and Barnaby Loomis. I am sorry that we have to meet under the current circumstances. Would you like to come in?"

They nodded, and stepped inside. He took their jackets, and showed them through to the living room, offering them both a glass of iced tea, which they accepted. He headed to the kitchen, and returned carrying a tray with the pitcher, three classes, and a plate of cookies, to find the brother and sister staring at the chair.

"I have a vivid memory of our parents arguing about this chair when we moved into grandmother's house," said Barnaby. "They always had an idea as to who had taken it, but couldn't prove it. Of course, we were never told who, and had we heard the name Seth, we'd not have known who that was in any case."

"It was taken from the house and immediately placed in storage, only removed when he moved to New York. There was no room for it in his dorm room at Dalton, which was just as well, as they came there looking for it," replied Skylar.

"I still am finding it hard to cope with the fact that we had an older brother that they hid from us right now," said Hilary softly. "That he actually lived with our grandmother is an even greater shock. Whenever we went to visit, we went for the whole day, and we never came across him, or indeed, any trace! I would love to know what she did with him!"

"Well, he wasn't locked up in the cellar or the attic if that is what you are worried about. Seth used to talk about the days when his grandmother's housekeeper would be given the day off, and she would take him home with her," explained Skylar.

"What they did was unforgivable in my eyes," said Barnaby with anger in his voice. "They were always so pious, so critical of others, and all the time… My best friend at school was banned from my life when his older sister fell pregnant to her boyfriend, to the extent that they had him moved out of my classes. All the time, those two hypocrites had done something similar! Even now all they worry about is the scandal, and how it will affect their reputation as a couple."

"The reason we came was to say that we have no intention of contesting the real will, and that we will back you and the others if our parents are stupid enough to try and dispute it even now. We have already spoken to our Uncle Richard, and he is quite happy for the two of us to stay in the house just now. Once the proper will is approved, he intends to sell it, as he says it is tainted now," continued Hilary.

"The other more important reason for our visit is that we were hoping that you could tell us more about our big brother. We haven't even seen a photograph of him," admitted Barnaby.

Skylar smiled, got up from his seat, and picked up the wedding photograph. He handed it to the brother and sister, and they studied it intently, smiles appearing on their faces. Finally, Hilary spoke. "He looks quite a lot like Barnaby, and that's no real shock, given that my male cousins all have similar features; you can tell that they are all related. That will be the main reason that they were so anxious to keep him well away from us. The family connection would have been immediately apparent to all three of us."

Skylar nodded, and then taking his seat again, he began to tell them all about his best friend, their older sibling… In the end, Seth's brother and sister would stay for several hours, and came as quite a surprise to Julia when she woke up from a very long but necessary nap. She invited them to stay for dinner, but they declined.

"It is very kind of you to offer, and we would love to join you another time, but we have taken up more than enough of your time today as it is," said Hilary. "You must be due very soon as well, which has to have you exhausted…"

"Any day, and in all honesty, the sooner the better now," replied Julia. "I am looking forward to having some energy again, and to being able to see my toes when I look down!"

"I think that your child will be really fortunate in having such loving parents," added Barnaby with a wry smile.

"With Skylar being a Warbler, they will also get enough Uncles to start a store," teased Julia, and Skylar nodded.

"I wish that we had that sort of circle of friends ourselves," admitted Barnaby. "We were both schooled on the East Coast from our high school days onwards, so we didn't have a chance to bond with people here in Ohio. Most vacations we spent at the school or with classmates, and on the few holidays we were allowed to come back here, we found the house empty."

"That sounds remarkably like Seth's experience too," replied Skylar. "Might I make a suggestion? You have the chance to start over now, so take it and move somewhere that you will be close to the friends that you do have. You will have the finances to do so, as the previous will actually saw you inherit much more."

"It is certainly something we are actively considering. We will always be their children here, so we lose that tag as well by going away," answered Hilary.

"There is one other thing, and that is that the Carmichaels at Dalton would probably be happy to meet you both. They were as good as surrogate parents to Seth after your grandmother died, and honestly, they are close to the hearts of every boy that ever attended Dalton in their time. I can see if I can arrange something, if you would like," continued Skylar.

"We wouldn't want to put you out, or cause anyone upset," said Barnaby.

"Trust me, it wouldn't put them out or upset them at all. Mrs Carmichael is never happier than when she has a house full of young people. Why don't I give them a call whilst you are here, and see what they say?" Without waiting for a response, Skylar made the call…

An hour later, Skylar and Julia sat down to their evening meal, a simple stir fry that he had prepared, based on a simple recipe that Mike had shown all of the housemates in that West Village home on their first days there. As he ate, he observed his wife carefully. She was eating, but slowly, and she looked very pale, and exceptionally tired. He wondered if he should call her obstetrician for advice, for as much as he trusted his wife's judgement on all matters medical, it was always a good idea to have a second opinion when a medic was treating themselves. Of course, he would never actually say that in front of his wife, and if he did make the call it would be without her knowledge…

It therefore surprised him when he heard Julia say, "I think that we might be better calling someone to come and check me over, Sky. I am getting rather worried about how tired and listless I am feeling. I am not thinking that there is anything wrong with the baby, far from it, but I should not be feeling so constantly exhausted."

"Well, if you are sure that is what you want to do, then I will call someone right away," replied Skylar. "To be honest, I was considering doing that in any case when I got a chance…"

"And that is exactly why I love you, and am not even thinking that at least 50% of my current state is down to something that you did, my love…" said Julia with a smile. The words were delivered with such sweetness and sincerity that Skylar could only smile back, but then he started to chuckle, as he realised that there might have been more than a hint of sarcasm in her statement, and that made her start giggling too. And it was as she laughed that she felt, and they both suddenly heard, that most obvious of indicators that a new life was coming into the world…

Skylar would later confess that he would probably have acted exactly as Flint had done when Izzy had been about to give birth to Aaron had it not been for a sudden draught and his best friend's soothing voice in his ear at that moment. "Breathe. This is normal, and you need to stay calm and cool. Julia is very nervous about this moment, not that she would ever admit it, because it is one thing knowing all of the procedures and processes, and another to have them happening to yourself. Follow her instructions, but use your own common sense as well."

"Was that what I think it was?" Skylar said casually as he looked at his wife.

"It was, and whilst I am more than ready for this moment…"

"You wish that our child could have held on until after we had had dessert? Fortunately it is apple pie, and that will keep. Right, so I will go and call the hospital, and let them know that things have started. You should go and get changed, as in all probability that dress won't be looking great, and we don't want you turning up all stained, do we? Whilst you do that I will clean the floor up, put the plates and cutlery in the dishwasher, and get the washer ready for that dress to get a good wash. Then we can decide if we go to the hospital right now, or you want to hold off for a little bit."

Julia stared at her husband for a moment, then said, "To be honest, I was expecting mild panic, but it seems that state has entirely reserved its intentions for me! Do you think you can keep up being the voice of sanity until we have our child delivered and in our arms?"

"No promises, but I will try. Do you need me to help you along to the bedroom?" Julia shook her head, then slowly got to her feet. Taking a moment to kiss her husband, she moved slowly out of the room to get prepared.

As soon as she was out of earshot, the promise was broken. "Oh my God, Seth! What do I do now?" hissed Skylar.

"Phone the hospital. Fetch a mop and bucket and clean the floor. Meanwhile, I can stack the dishwasher for you. It is one of the advantages of having angels that are corporeal around; as long as we are unobserved, I can help you out with simple chores…"

Julia would never admit it to her husband in so many words, but the prospect of giving birth to her first child scared her. She was normally a level-headed and rational person, to whom such things were nothing, but there was a danger in having a good medical training;; she knew exactly what could go wrong in what seemed to be the most routine and uneventful of labours. She tried to dismiss such notions as she cleaned herself and changed into new clothes, hearing the voice of her husband talking to the hospital. She had kept a specific dress ready for the trip to the hospital, and it took her no time to slip it on.

She was soon on her way back to the kitchen, her hospital case already sitting by the front door. She could hear the sound of the mop pail clanging, as she had insisted that they have a more environmentally conscious metal one, but to her surprise she could also hear the sound of the dishes being stacked in the dishwasher, and that should not be possible…

She crept to the kitchen door as quietly as she could, and peered in round the door jamb; a moment later and she swiftly drew her head back, feeling dizzy. She decided there and then that if hallucination were going to be part of pregnancy, then this might well be the only child she and Skylar ever had… If she had not known better, she could have sworn that two serving dishes had just hovered off of the table and into the air between it and the dishwasher…

Inside the room, as he had moved those dishes, Seth had suddenly caught sight of her face at the side of the door, and he had almost dropped both of them. He did not, just freezing and breathing hard, as he waited to be struck down by some bolt from heaven for breaching a rule, the disapproval of those above him being shown loud and clear by it. However, nothing happened, and that in a way was all the more concerning…

"They aren't going to stack themselves," he heard Skylar say, and he felt the dishes being taken from his hands as he remained stock still…

It was at that moment that Julia walked in again, and the relief on her face was obvious as she saw the dishes that she had thought were floating in mid air were firmly in the hands of her husband. For his part, Skylar looked a little startled at her arrival. "You were a lot quicker and indeed quieter than I imagined," he said, realising now that Seth's apparent paralysis might well be down to his wife's silent return. Had she arrived before, had she seen something…

"Are you about done in here, because I have decided that we need to go to the hospital right now, just to see that everything is okay?" she said. Skylar nodded, quickly putting the two serving dishes in the washer, then after checking nothing had been left out, shuting the door and starting the cleaning program. He grabbed the mop and bucket and headed to the utility/laundry room. He saw his wife's stained dress was in the machine, so he started it too. He was about to wash out the mop when he heard her groan, and suddenly that was unimportant; it could be cleaned later. For now, his only priority was getting the woman that he loved to the hospital…

Seth watched from the porch as they headed off, then headed back into the house. He went to the kitchen first, where he switched the dishwasher off again, glad it had not started, as it allowed him to remove the paper napkin that was stuck under one of the serving dishes, put in the cleaning products, and then actually switch it on at the mains; Skylar of course would never need to know that he had not done so. He then headed to the utility room, and filled the mop pail with a mixture of hot water and bleach, then placed the mop in it. He did not need to come home to discover a ruined mop and a house that smelt…

That was when he saw Finn standing in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, but fortunately, he did not look too angry. "Lesson one here is that you need to be fully aware of what everyone in the house is doing if you wish to help out and there are those present that cannot see us. Luckily she is putting the fact that she saw floating dishes down to a brief mental aberration brought on by the stress of labour; if she hadn't…" Seth nodded, his eyes downcast. "We are all allowed a few mistakes when we are just starting out, so don't worry about it. No harm was done, apart from the fact that Julia is now sitting in the car, looking at Skylar, and wondering if there is any truth in the whole Gay Hogwarts thing that Puck started all those years ago; that she is the muggle bride of a wizard husband…"

Seth couldn't help but laugh at that, but then he stopped, and said, "Maybe I should stay away from the hospital then, in case I slip up again…"

"I'm afraid that is the very last thing you can do; although he doesn't know it, Skylar needs you there to hold his hand. Just do not pick anything up, or occupy his attention too much. The best thing is to stand silently where he can see you, and just reassure him that way…"

"I can do that. Are you absolutely certain that is okay?"

"More than! Now go, because if you aren't waiting for him when he gets to the hospital, he might have a bit of a breakdown….

Seth would be waiting at the hospital doors as the couple walked through them, and he kept himself in the background as much as possible after that. He sat with Skylar, a hand on his, as the staff examined his wife, and listened to her concerns about what she was feeling. When she mentioned seeing things, namely floating crockery, Skylar's eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open, but then he quickly recovered. As for the doctor, she just laughed, and told Julia that she would not be the first woman to have imagined that she was seeing things that were out of the ordinary once labour had begun…

It would turn out to be a long night for the young couple; things seemed to have slowed down, and it would not be until nearly 5am that the whole process began to speed up, and then it did so at such a pace that the mother-to-be was quite shocked. The nurses had seen it all before though, and the one in charge spoke frankly.

"They might be a little later in finally arriving than we expected, or indeed would have liked, but the fact is that it is down to them. Now they have decided they want to join us, and they are not waiting around. I think that now we will have a swift labour, which is no hardship for you, Julia. Now, Mr Willetts, if you are staying I need you to slip into some scrubs, and you can join us in the delivery suite."

Skylar did as he was asked, tempted to take a selfie to send to an aunt that had always thought he should be a doctor, but there was a more pressing matter. In the delivery suite, he did his best to recall all that he had been told at the ante-natal group. He made sure that his wife was comfortable, he pampered her, he breathed with her. As for Julia, now that the moment was here, she felt calm and serene. The pain was not as severe as she had expected, as if someone out there in the cosmos was looking out for her and her soon to be born child. Then came the climactic moment, and after hearing so many horror stories, it was no harder than the act of making a bed…

If Skylar had been asked to say what he thought the birth of his first child would be like, he would have said that his expectations had been coloured by the experiences of his friends, and what he had seen on television. The process looked terrible for woman in general when they were on the screen, although he readily admitted that might well be because those births that were uneventful and run of the mill did not make quite such good television, and would be less likely to pull in the viewers. Even the much loved Call the Midwife, which did not have the complications take place as often as some shows, did show the woman as red-faced, howling and cursing. True, times had moved on, and the range of pain relief available was much greater, but still, it looked traumatic….

It was therefore a great relief to him to see that in the case of his wife, the process was relatively straightforward, and she had not wanted to crush the bones of every finger in his hand. Indeed, the nurse in charge went so far as to remark that what she had just seen was the kind of birth every mother and nurse dreamed of.

Skylar also had to admit that the whole thing had passed by in a bit of a daze for him, given the time; then there was the fact that the nurses spoke in medical terms to his wife, things that he did not understand, but obviously Julia did. That went right over his head, and for his own comfort, he decided that he really did not wish to know how many inches his wife was dilated… All that he did think was that she was beautiful, and he was the luckiest man on earth to have her. She seemed to positively glow as she went through the process of giving them both that most precious and special of gifts; bring a new life into the world as woman had done forever. The way that she did that was proof in his eyes that woman were not the weaker of the sexes; if anything, the exact opposite was true…

The nurses were known to Julia, colleagues at the same hospital, and as such, she had been able to make a request to them quietly whilst Skylar was changing into the scrubs; it was a strange one to them, but they understood the circumstances, and they had agreed. So it was that after the child had been delivered, the cord cut, and its first cries had filled the air, they were able to turn to the two expectant parents, and to Skylar in particular, and say, "Congratulations! You have a healthy Seth!"

Skylar had frozen for a moment, then looked at his wife in shock at first, and then in understanding. It was no secret that he had hoped that they would have a son, and that if they did, even less of a secret that he wanted to name him after his best friend. Julia had known this from the moment it was confirmed she was expecting, if not before, and she saw no reason not to agree. It was abundantly clear to him that his wife had spoken to the nurses about that, and had asked them to dispense with the talk of sexes when the son she had known for a few weeks she was expecting was born. There would be no negotiation on the new born boy's name; it was already set in stone.

To say that Skylar's heart was swelling with love for both his wife and son at that moment would not have been a lie. He leant down first to kiss his wife, the beautiful goddess that had given him all that he could ever need as a wife, and now the mother of his son, a boy that he knew he would love unconditionally forever.

The nurses had finished their first checks on the newborn now, and having cleaned him up they swaddled him, before heading back over in the direction of his mother. She smiled, but gently shook her head, indicating that he should go to his father at first. Skylar thus found himself hustled into the chair at the bedside, and then, with his arms instinctively moving into the correct position to hold their precious cargo safely, his son was placed into his hold. It took one glance at the face of the boy in his arms to confirm that he loved him. As they and all parents hoped, their son was perfect in every way, and although Skylar did not notice it, his mother would later tell Julia that her new grandson looked exactly as his father had done at the same age. Then, two small eyes opened, and they met their father's gaze, and a smile appeared on the newborn's face. Skylar said nothing, just stared back, knowing that the hole in his heart that had been left by the death of his best friend was going to be partially filled by the namesake that he now cradled…

Julia had taken the chance whilst father and son had bonded to clean herself up a little, but now she felt the maternal bonding need growing within her. She looked pointedly at her husband for a moment, and he felt her gaze. He smiled, then rose carefully from the chair, transferring his son into his mother's waiting arms. "This is your mom, Seth. She is the greatest woman in the world, without whom none of this would be possible; she is the main reason that I did not fall to pieces when your Uncle Seth died. I do know that he will be up there, somewhere, watching us, and he would be so pleased to see you arrive, so proud we named you after him. I just wish that he could have been here to meet you in person…"

Julia smiled at her husband's words, and somehow she felt then that Seth was with them in the room, not above at all. In that, she was, of course, correct. Seth had been standing in the room for the whole process, not budging but staying out of the way.

Had she been able to see him, she would have seen that he was now standing right beside her husband, an arm on his shoulders, grinning from ear to ear. At that point, it was still uncertain if Skylar's son would be able to see angels like his father, although most of the children of their little circle could. Seth hoped that his namesake would indeed be so blessed. Even if that was not the case, Seth would still be there to watch over and protect his best friend's son for the rest of his days. He knew that the little boy would be the centre of the couple's life now, and that would help them get over his death; he hoped that his namesake would have siblings in time too. The thought of that made him happy. He needed them to move on from his departure, and get back to a more normal life. He would never be forgotten, but life went on…