'If today was anything to go by she'll need someone like that to keep her in line. She clearly has your penchant for throwing tantrums.' Melissa glowered at a flustered Leanne.
Leanne's mouth sprang open in shock, recalling every agonizing day of Melissa's pregnancy, and all the tantrums she'd thrown along the way. She suspected that, just like everything else, Megan had inherited her temperament from her brunette mother. Before Leanne could say as much, Dillon joined them in the living room.
'Have you decided yet?' he asked. He'd been the one to open the door for each applicant. He'd already chosen his favorite, but he doubted that his judgment mattered.
'What did you think of Daisy, the English lady?' Leanne questioned. She remained neutral when she spoke, so as not to inadvertently influence his opinion. Daisy Coppins was her favorite.
Dillon shrugged. 'She was nice, I guess.'
'And what did you think of Bea, the Jamaican lady?' asked Melissa.
Dillon looked horrified. 'She's scary! She told me my hair was messy, and that I was too tall for my age!'
Leanne shot a gloating smirk Melissa's way. 'That's 3–1 against; I'm putting her in the No pile.'
'You don't get a say in this,' Melissa said sternly, to both Leanne and Dillon. She wasn't one to sulk when she didn't get her own way, she simply made sure that she always got her own way, even if that meant screwing everyone over. Especially if that meant screwing everyone over!
'Stop being such a royal... b-i-t-c-h!' Leanne said furiously, remembering to spell out the word, as there were children present.
'You know I'm thirteen, right?' Dillon said, rather amused. He'd learned how to spell that particular word when he was eight, but he didn't bother telling them that.
'I meant, erm, witch...'
'You see? This is precisely why I didn't want you and your potty mouth around my children all the time,' Melissa said, matching Leanne's fury. 'I knew it was a bad idea you living here...' She only said this as a power play, as a reminder to Leanne that she called the shots. Because although she'd thought it a bad idea in the beginning, now she couldn't imagine Leanne not living with them, mainly because she was accustomed to having a personal gofer at her beck and call.
Leanne shot to her feet. 'You want me to go? Fine, I'll go.'
She grabbed her keys off the coffee table and stalked out of the room, mumbling under her breath. Seconds later, seeing that her blonde mother was gone, Megan started bawling, and not quietly, either.
'Typical of you to leave me to clean up your mess,' Melissa shouted after her, over her daughter's screaming. She heard the front door slam.
***
Thankfully she'd always had her parents' place nearby to use as a safe haven. The lesser of two evils, in her opinion. She'd kept her key in case a situation like this ever arose. Situations like this arose every day, but she rarely drove back there, and if she did it was never for longer than a couple of hours to clear her head and calm down. This time she intended to stay away for a couple of days to show Melissa that they were equally dependent on one another.
When she climbed into her car she was still fuming. When she turned the key in the ignition she was still fuming. When the car wouldn't start she was still fuming. And after several attempts to start the car, realizing that the battery was flat, she climbed out and headed back to the mansion, her fury almost a thing of the past.
It usually transpired this way; she'd come to her senses and realize that, no matter how much she wanted to strangle Melissa, she wanted to be with her kids more.
'My car's dead,' she announced sullenly, when she plodded back into the living-room. Upon seeing her Megan promptly stopped crying.
Seizing the baby from Melissa's unresisting hands, Leanne began whizzing her about in the air, eliciting a series of laughs from her daughter. 'I don't think this little one wanted me to go.'
'Well, she's the only one...' said Melissa impertinently, just to save face.
'We're going with Daisy.' Something in Leanne's voice told Melissa to yield on the matter. She could sense that this wasn't a battle she would win, or even one she wanted to fight. Daisy was the better option, she knew that, and Megan had warmed to her.
'Fine,' Melissa said quietly. 'But you'll have to fund her tea-drinking habit!' Giving in was a new concept to her, one which left a bad taste in her mouth.
'Thank you.'
Dillon had grown quiet as he watched Leanne playing with Megan. He looked at the baby suspiciously. He'd been doing so for a month, convinced that his baby sister had magical powers.
'Why is your car dead? You used it this morning,' he asked dubiously.
'That's a good question,' Leanne replied.
'You said Megan didn't want you to go. What if she did something to your car?'
It always sounded crazy when he said it out loud, and the look his mothers gave him didn't make him feel any less crazy for saying it. He'd broached the subject several times and each time they'd dismissed it as nonsense.
Melissa sighed. 'Not this again.'
Their stubborn refusal to even consider the possibility that their daughter might have powers infuriated him every time. So he stormed off and retired to his room.
After a few moments Leanne stopped flying Megan through the air, and stared at her curiously. 'It's impossible, right? She can't have powers, can she?'
'It's never happened before...' said Melissa thoughtfully. Six months ago she would have laughed at the idea (in fact, six months ago she had laughed at the idea), but now she'd begun to doubt her own knowledge. 'I'm sure whatever is happening is merely coincidental.'
'You don't have any powers, do you?' Leanne asked Megan, in a baby voice.
The laugh that escaped her daughter's lips seemed to come as a reply. It sounded almost as sinister as Melissa's cackle.
'Oh my God, did you just see that?' said a spooked Leanne.
'She laughed... Babies have been known to do that.'
'What if she really does have powers?' Leanne asked gravely.
'Then God help us!'
The Magic Baby
Melissa hadn't warned her clueless blonde baby mother about all the trials and tribulations of motherhood; she'd decided early on that she'd let Leanne figure it all out on her own, just as she herself had done with Dillon. Leanne suspected these omissions were Melissa's way of punishing her.
Thus, with each milestone that Megan reached, Leanne was pleasantly surprised. She'd missed everything the first time around with her son, and was grateful to get a second chance with her daughter. This type of thinking was short lived, however, when Megan reached her seventh month, and a couple of troublesome teeth decided to show up, creating havoc in her mouth and in the Rowe-Evans household...
'Where the hell is your mom?' Leanne shouted at Dillon, over a screaming, red-faced Megan. She'd tried bouncing the baby on her knee, walking her around the living-room, singing her favorite lullaby, but the kid continued to bawl.
'In the garage, I think,' he responded, covering his ears with his hands.
'I should have known,' Leanne said irritably. Ever since the teething had begun she'd noticed Melissa's trips to the garage increasing in frequency, timing her disappearance almost perfectly, only moments before the crying started. 'Right, take your sister, I'll be back in a minute.'
Leanne had already left the room before Dillon could protest.
***
Leanne had taken to sneaking into the garage in the hope that she'd catch Melissa getting up to no good. But that never happened. Whenever she crept in she always found her doing the same thing.
It was Leanne's fault, really; she'd bought the treadmill shortly after Megan was born. It had been a gift for Melissa, to stop her whining about losing all the baby weight (she barely had).
“You'll never catch me using one of those!” she'd said, with folded arms, looking at the equipment as though it would bite her.
Yet here she was, seven months on, sprinting under the dim garage
light, in one of Leanne's sweatsuits, which Melissa had stolen and claimed as her own (the same sweatsuit that she despised because she said it “made her look common!”). Only, she had discarded the top half of the suit and ran in a black sports bra.
'Can't you do that when our daughter's asleep?' Leanne asked from the door. This came quite a while after she'd stepped in, after she'd had a nice, long look. It was one thing to see Melissa in a sweatsuit, but quite another to see her in a sports bra, with sweat dripping down her bare back, glistening on her olive skin.
Melissa stopped the treadmill and stepped off. She grabbed a towel and wiped her face. 'Why should I? I left her with you. Was I wrong to do that?'
Leanne tutted. She was in no mood for Melissa's condescension. 'You know what to do with her when she's like this. I don't.'
'Honestly, I don't know why I keep you around.'
Leanne should have been insulted by that, but she was too busy looking the woman up and down, too busy focusing on that tantalizing black bra and what was inside it...
When Melissa stopped wiping sweat from her arms and chest, she looked up and caught Leanne gawking at her.
'Really?' she said, shaking her head, completely amused by the ravenous look in the blonde woman's eyes.
Leanne grunted and turned away in frustration, furious at being caught, furious that Melissa was now laughing at her, but most of all furious that she had been staring in the first place.
Sixteen long months had gone by without any bedroom action, and to make matters worse, the last person she'd lain with was standing right in front of her, looking as delectable as she had done sixteen months ago. Whatever baby weight she'd gained was long gone and had been replaced with muscle. Leanne couldn't work out whether sex deprivation was the cause of her lust, or the fact that Melissa looked so good with sweat cascading down her chest.
'I'd better put this on,' Melissa said, reaching for her top. 'I don't want you getting any ideas.'
***
Five minutes tops, that's how long Leanne had been in the garage...
When she and Melissa walked into the living-room the last thing they expected to find was everything smashed, broken and turned over. As they peered across the room at the mess, a deafening silence engulfed them. They exchanged confused looks, until their eyes fell on Dillon, who held baby Megan in his arms. He looked at them as though he was just as shocked as they were.
'She did it!' he said, but even before it came out he knew they wouldn't believe him.
***
“We both love you, Dillon.”
“We know why you did it, and we're not mad.”
“You'll never be replaced. You just have to share us with your sister now.”
That was how the conversation went when Melissa and Leanne sat their son down later that evening, after they'd cleaned up the living-room. He'd scowled through the whole conversation, not bothering to interrupt them by telling them that, no, he wasn't jealous that Megan had come from both of them, and no, he didn't wreck the living-room. He'd let them speak then demanded that they leave him alone, shoving them out of his room.
'That went well!' said Leanne to Melissa, once they'd been banished to the hallway. 'I hope he doesn't keep up this behavior, because we'll have no furniture left.'
***
Leanne had gotten rid of her dildos before she'd moved in with Melissa. She didn't trust Melissa not to go rummaging through her things and uncovering them. She knew she'd never live it down if that happened. The trouble was, she was no good at self pleasure without them, and always felt uneasy doing it under Melissa's roof, knowing that Melissa had a habit of walking in on her without giving her a heads up. So she'd gone without for months, and the lack of sex was beginning to corrupt her mind and affect her judgment. So much so that, after they'd put their children to bed and retired to their rooms, Leanne wasted no time climbing into bed and getting down to business.
Closing her eyes she tried to imagine the steamiest, sexiest scenario her mind could contrive, to help herself along. Unfortunately, as Melissa had been the last person she'd seen half naked, she was naturally the first person to enter her fantasy. Leanne realized then that she was truly lost, because when Melissa entered the fantasy, she didn't even try to get her out of it.
'You're thinking about me, aren't you?'
Wow, the fantasy-Melissa sure sounds like the real one, even down to the pitch of her voice, Leanne thought to herself, behind closed eyes. So deep into the act, she didn't realize that her door had opened and that the real Melissa had stepped into her room.
'You're so good!'
'I'll just wait here while you finish up, shall I?'
Leanne's eyes sprang open, and she finally saw Melissa standing beside her bed, illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the curtain.
'Damn it, Melissa! What the hell are you doing in here?'
She pulled the duvet over her exposed body, desperate to hide her shame. She couldn't see Melissa's laugh, but she certainly heard it.
'That's all it took, seeing me in my bra?'
'Get out of my room... pervert!' It was a stupid thing to say to her, but it seemed so fitting.
However, instead of leaving, Melissa closed the door.
'Look, we don't like each other,' she began. 'But we're both here and, well, we both have needs...'
Before Leanne knew it Melissa had pulled the duvet back and was shoving her over so she could climb into the bed. She smelt fresh, as though she'd just stepped out of the shower.
'Erm, do I need to remind you what happened the last time we did this? I think my fantasy is safer.'
Melissa whipped off her nightgown. 'The chances of that happening again are slim to none. Now, do you want this or not?'
It took all of two seconds for Leanne to decide that there was nothing she wanted more at that precise moment. 'All right, but you'd better not be tricking me into knocking you up again! There'd better not be another eclipse.'
For a few moments they fumbled around in the bed, trying to get into a position that both of them could work with. Unfortunately, neither wanted to be submissive, which resulted in a battle for dominion. Melissa yielded first, taking her place beneath Leanne. She'd give Leanne this round, as she'd won the first.
Leanne couldn't see what she was doing in the dark, and in her attempt at foreplay she reached out blindly and grabbed one of Melissa's breasts.
WHACK!
'Ow! What did you do that for?' Leanne sulked, rubbing the offending hand that Melissa had slapped.
'What are you trying to do, milk me?' Melissa growled. 'Don't be so rough.'
'Give me a break, all right, I haven't had sex in sixteen months.'
Luckily the rest of the night went a lot smoother; less awkward, more enjoyable. It wasn't as explosive as their first night together, but it came pretty close.
'You don't feel pregnant or anything, do you?' Leanne asked, once they'd finished.
Melissa switched on the lamp to aid her in her search for her nightgown and underwear. She glared at her blonde bedfellow sitting beside her, the afterglow of sex radiating from her.
'I mean, I love our daughter but I think I'm done having kids with you,' Leanne continued. She located her lover's missing panties tangled in the duvet, and dangled them from her finger with a smirk, until Melissa snatched them from her.
'If you think I'd be foolish enough to let you get me pregnant again–'
A crashing sound down the hall cut her off.
They hastily pulled on their clothes and crept out of the room to investigate.
'Stay behind me,' Leanne ordered, the cop in her taking over. She was surprised to find that Melissa didn't protest.
The noise came from Megan's room.
The first thing Leanne did when she pushed the door open and took in the scene was duck. A teddy bear came flying her way, followed by a pair of Megan's shoes. The former hit Melissa in the face.
'I think Dillon was telling the truth...' Lea
nne declared, as she got down on all fours and crawled into Megan's bedroom.
Above her, clothes, toys and books whirled around the room, dancing in the air as her daughter laughed fiendishly in her crib, admiring her work...
It's Your Fault!
How could this have happened?
That was the question on everyone's mind, on everyone's tongue. Babies aren't born with magic – it was a well known fact.
Except... Megan had been, and her mothers were none too pleased about it...
'How could this have happened?' Leanne shouted, as she paced back and forth in Melissa's room. It had been days since The Floating Toys Fiasco, and Leanne had finally come right out and asked.
She shot Melissa a menacing look, silently blaming her for everything. This gave her a bad case of deja vu; she'd reacted similarly when she'd found out about Melissa's pregnancy, once the initial shock of the impossibility had vanished. She knew that the blame lay with her. After all, she was a witch, she'd obviously passed on her powers to their daughter.
Melissa returned the look. Naturally, Leanne was to blame; what else could she expect from a street urchin with a questionable bloodline?
'That I can't say, but I'm willing to bet it was all your doing,' Melissa offered.
Leanne stopped pacing and glared at her. 'Hey, I had one child and he turned out just fine. Perfect, in fact. So this is clearly all your fault. You and your bewitched ovaries!'
Fighting with Melissa wasn't something Leanne enjoyed, but right then she welcomed the argument as a means of temporary relief from dealing with their little problem. But when Melissa didn't throw a rebuttal argument at her, she was taken aback.
Hocus Pocus Baby Page 2
