The Ink Family Legacy: Generation 5 Chapter 4 Part 4
I'm normally done writing at this point, but I'm only a little more than halfway done. What is my life.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three
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It was a normal night at the Inks...ah, who am I kidding. It's never a normal night.
The same was true for this night, considering that Noah was on his way to bed at three in the morning and saw someone on their front porch.
A very familiar someone, it looked like. Noah rushed to the door and opened it, where he found a shaking Isis on the doorstep.
"Man it's cold out." she chattered. "Er, can I come in?"
"Of course - hurry up, it really is godawful cold out."
"This is unusual. You've never been to the house, have you?" Noah said as he escorted her in. "Are you always up at ungodly hours?"
Isis didn't respond, stopping before they reached the stairs and tugged at his sleeve.
"What's up?"
It made Isis guilty to see him smile like that when he didn't know what was going on, so she figured she should just get everything out in the open now.
"I need to move in with you. My parents ran me off the property and I have nowhere to stay."
"What?!" Noah said incredulously. "How could they - I thought you made it so they couldn't bother you?"
"I broke a rule. A pretty old, obscure rule."
"Which one?!"
"Er...vampire babies are frowned upon."
"...oh."
"Yeah."
"Shit."
"Pretty much."
"You're...you're pregnant?"
Isis threw herself into his arms, tears rolling down her face.
"I'm sorry! I-I must have messed up somehow. I don't really have to stay here if you don't want me to, I might be able to go back to Egypt..."
"Like hell you're taking our kid to Egypt!"
Isis startled, staring apprehensively at his angry expression. Noah closed his eyes, counted to ten (three times, since it didn't work the first two), and put on a tense smile.
"Isis, I'm not mad at you. I think this kid is screwed from day one with me as its father, so I'm more mad at myself. But I will be around to be this kid's dad. A father's really important to a kid."
He sighed, and his smile relaxed a bit. "And I do love you. But you knew that, of course."
Isis smiled hesitantly, and Noah caught a glimpse of her normal personality coming back. That was good.
Noah's eyes dropped to her belly, already showing. "Er..."
"Oh, you wanna poke the baby?" Isis said, sticking her belly out. "Go for it, I've been doing that all day."
"Geez Isis, how pregnant are you?"
"The doctor said ten weeks."
Noah counted back. "Right away?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Figures." Noah laughed. "Lucky trait my ass."
"Huh?"
"Nothing."
Noah managed to get Isis to bed, where she was out like a light in a few minutes. He couldn't sleep though, wandering down to the nursery in the early hours of the morning.
"Me, a father?" he whispered. "Huh."
Noah ran his fingers through his hair. That poor kid. He was irresponsible at best, unforgivably antisocial at his worst, and in no way the kind of person who could raise a kid. And Isis, poor Isis, having to raise that kid that might end up like him. How could he do this to her?
"Noah? Bro, I've been looking all over for you!" Abel called.
"Um, congrats." he offered sheepishly. "Isis woke up and tripped in the hallway, and her cursing kind of woke everyone up and we found out. So, er, yeah. Congrats man! Who would've thought you'd be the first, huh?"
"I can't tell if you're trying to tell me job well done or what." Noah muttered.
"It's good, right? Sure, timing's a little weird, but you love Isis and she loves you so it's fine. It'll be fun to have a baby around the house!"
"Hey, don't you think that will be good for Amy? I bet she'd love the idea of being an aunt! And now you and Isis can sigh up for those childbirth classes, ha! You're gonna like those." Abel babbled on.
Noah sighed - as usual, Abel was optimistic, thinking of things he wouldn't have. Abel would probably be a great father someday. But Noah? Not a chance.
"Maybe it'd be better to leave the kid with you, Abel."
"...What?!"
"Abe, face it. You're thinking it too, aren't you? That I'm unfit to be a father. Dad was great with us, and I still turned out like this! Any kid I raise would be even worse!"
"You better shut up right there, Noah." Abel snapped.
Noah flinched, falling silent but still looking tortured. Abel sighed and adopted a gentler look.
"Noah, hardly anyone is good at parenting right away. And yeah, we haven't had our dad around, and that makes it harder. But you learn by doing. You want to be a good dad, don't you?"
"Of course."
"Then you'll be fine." Abel smiled. "Bro, you're not nearly as bad as you think you are. As long as you give it 110%, you'll end up great. Plus, you're not alone, right?"
Noah chuckled faintly, looking away. "This is why you're my older brother, I suppose."
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And so, with Noah calmed down, Isis moved into the Inks' house! And, since Rhyme and Levi decided to extend their vacation in China for a few more months, there was plenty of room for everyone in the house as her pregnancy progressed.
Her mischievous personality didn't go anywhere, though.
*cue Jaws theme*
"Hmm. You know, I never noticed that we had a teapot clock in here. Where did that come from? And come to think of it-"
"RAAH!"
"HOLYMOTHEROFCHRIST!!"
"That was a good one, Kira~! They probably heard you across the street!"
"I swear to god Isis, when you pop out that baby in three months I will hunt you down!" Kira snapped.
"Aw, I was just having a bit of fun! Besides, you wouldn't hit a woman holding a baby, would you?"
"You'd have to put the baby down sometime."
Although, speaking of holding babies, Isis had never babysat in her life. So Sparrow arranged for Isis to spend an afternoon or two with Ryder's son, Kaleb.
"Hey Ry! I brought Isis."
"Just don't let her drop my only kid, okay?" Ryder laughed nervously.
"Okay, you can do this." Isis mumbled to herself. She imagined that babies were extremely squirmy and hard to hold onto, so she was a little bit nervous. Would she and Noah really be okay as parents?
And babies were so innocent. How could they be sure they didn't hurt it accidentally? How would they know what to teach it when?
Luckily Kaleb was a good baby, even helping Isis by clutching to her shirt.
"Um, what do I do with him now, Row?"
"Play with him! What games did you play when you were that age?"
"Hmm..."
"RAAAH! It's the river monster, come to eat your firstborn!"
"Er, Isis?"
"Uh oh Kaleb! You look like a tasty baby!"
Poor Kaleb's face was priceless.
"Omnomnomnom!"
"Eee~! Hee hee!"
"Hey, this is really fun!" Isis giggled.
Sparrow laughed - it was definitely different than she expected, but maybe Isis would be okay with kids after all?
"It's really weird, Row!" Isis enthused, her eyes bright. "I was playing with Kaleb and my baby kicked!"
"Well, you know they say that a baby learns it's mother's voice before it's even born! Maybe it's reacting to you being happy!" Sparrow replied.
Isis grinned. "It'd be nice if that were the case! I'll have to start laughing all the time!"
"Alright kid, I gotta return you to your parents now." Isis said as she set Kaleb on the floor. "Be good, okay? Maybe when you're bigger you can play with my baby!"
And yes, things were finally starting to look like it'd be okay. Sure, they were nowhere near prepared, and there'd be a lot of stumbling along the road, but they had help.
"Hey Noah?"
"Yeah?"
"I feel good about this baby."
Noah smiled. "Me too."
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It was another day that should have been normal.
Kira had gone to the library, as she usually did on Thursday evenings. Isis was so close to her due date that she was more or less couch ridden, so she pitched a fit until Kira agreed to bring her a new book.
"I can't wait until she just has the kid." Kira chuckled to herself. "Everyone's so nervous that it's freaking me out."
And then things went tumbling down.
"Out for a stroll, are you?"
Kira cursed, turning around hesitantly.
"That's enough, Kira." Reese said. "I gave you more than enough time to fool around. It's time to come back."
"I told you we were through, Reese!" Kira hissed. "I know you have some sick idea that you're only lending me out, but I'm through with you!"
"So why don't you get the hell out of here? I'm done talking." she finished.
"What, you're serious?" Reese said incredulously.
"Of course I am!" Kira yelled.
"You want to play house with the Inks? You know you don't belong in a house like that. They're not like you and me - they don't know that some parents are useless. That some families are better broken." he shot back.
"Maybe we were wrong to think that." Kira replied, her volume dropping off.
"You're really gonna say that after your mother-?"
"DON'T TALK ABOUT HER!!"
Kira regretted her outburst instantly, and it showed.
Reese blinked in shock. "You're kidding me. You still haven't told them yet? You acted like you gave a damn about family for that long and they never noticed? Never asked?"
"Reese, please."
"No, it's time for you stop playing games. If you don't tell them, I will."
"Please Reese! If you tell them, they won't let me be a part of their family anymore. God, can't you let me just be happy?" Kira begged.
"You're not my girlfriend anymore - I couldn't care less about your happiness."
"You didn't seem to give a damn even when I was!"
For a moment, Reese mulled over the situation. He had the advantage - how best to use it?
"I'll offer you this deal. I'll keep your secret and let you live your lie with those idiots. But when I call you, you have to drop everything and come to my side, doing as I say."
"And if you don't show up, you can be sure that your little secret will be personally delivered to Abel by me." Reese threatened.
"That's not much of a deal." Kira whispered.
Kira wanted that family life so badly. The eight months she had spent with them was easily the happiest time of her life, and to lose it now would devastate her. But was she willing to betray Abel, who she loved so much?
Kira had grown to cherish her life there so much. Enough to lie to them to keep it.
They could forgive her for the lie, she hoped. She couldn't hope the same for the truth.
"You're a bastard. A cold hearted, controlling son of a bitch who makes up for his insecurities by making others miserable." she spat.
Reese smirked. "So that's a yes to the deal then."
He nodded his head towards the street. "Alright, we're going to go now."
"Now?"
"We're going to work in the morning. Plus you and I have been apart for too long - we need to get reacquainted."
Kira felt sick.
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"Kira."
"What the hell's wrong with you?"
"I hate you." she mumbled through her tears. "I hate you so much. I want to burn off everywhere you've touched."
"There's a lighter in the nightstand if you're so inclined." Reese replied dryly.
"I don't know why you're being such a drama queen about this. You agreed to our deal, after all."
Kira didn't respond, so he sighed and gathered his clothes. "Just be in the studio at eight am sharp."
Kira couldn't live with herself like this.
Damn it, she was too good for a bastard like Reese.
But she was too bad for Abel.
Especially after this. She felt like she couldn't step foot in that house again.
Kira sighed and flopped back onto the bed.
"So in the end...neither? That's probably a fitting punishment for me."
Kira picked up the cheap hotel phone and dialed one of the few numbers she had memorized.
"Steven? Yeah, it's Kira. Listen, I've got to tell you something."
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Yep.
Part Five