by Amy Reece
Jack appeared at that moment, shirtless and hair mussed. “Should I be worried?” he asked, not sounding the least bit upset as he reached around us for the coffee pot.
“Not in the slightest,” Rémy chuckled as he hugged me again and then let me go. “I just came over to borrow crackers for my pregnant wife. Oh, God, my wife is pregnant.” He reached blindly for a chair, noticeably pale. “How did this happen?”
I met Jack’s amused gaze as I helped Rémy sit in a chair before he passed out. “The usual way, I’m pretty sure. Here, drink this.” I set the cup of coffee that Jack handed me in front of Rémy. “You’re going to be a great dad. Congratulations.” I kissed the top of his head and then ruffled his hair.
I managed to get him to drink half a cup before he took the crackers and rushed back to Mina, promising to return later to help us figure out what our next steps were in regard to Kai. In spite of the craziness of the day before, or maybe because of it, I was determined to make this as normal a morning as possible. I fixed pancakes while Jack fried bacon, the smell of which drew the two children to the kitchen. Kai was quiet during breakfast, but easier around us than he had ever been. I had many questions for him, but decided they could wait as we enjoyed our first breakfast together as a family.
We left Megan with Mina later that morning while Jack, Rémy, and I drove Kai to the house he had lived in with Luc and the nanny. The two men left us in the car while they approached the house cautiously, unsure of what or whom they would find. Jack appeared at the car a few minutes later.
“It’s empty. Looks like someone left in a hurry. Bring Kai.”
We followed the boy into what had been his bedroom. It and the entire house looked like it had been hastily furnished by a service of some sort; there were absolutely no personal touches anywhere. Kai said nothing as he emptied the drawers and closet of the pitifully few clothing items provided for him. It nearly broke my heart to see the only personal decorative items in the entire house sitting on his dresser—the ceramic cat and the saltshaker shaped like a fox missing from my kitchen.
“I stole those. I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I just wanted—” He broke off and shrugged. He held his hand out toward them and the cat flew across the room and into his palm. He held the other hand out and pulled the saltshaker across the room, as well. I had seen this power of his the night before when he took the gun away from Rémy’s captor, but it still amazed me. What in the world was Kai? What else could he do? But these questions would need to wait; right now we had a lonely, scared little boy on our hands.
I crossed the room and crouched in front of him. He placed the two items in my hands. I bit my lip and looked at Jack, who also shrugged. “Here.” I handed him the cat figurine. “How about a compromise? You keep the cat, but we really need our salt shaker back.” I smiled as I said it.
He looked at me with his brilliant green eyes brimming over. He carefully took the cat out of my hand and then threw his arms around me.
***
“Do you have any idea whether or not you have a birth certificate?” Rémy asked. We were seated around our kitchen table, trying to figure out the legalities—or ways around them—of having Kai live with us.
Kai shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I hadn’t been at the orphanage long before Luc showed up.”
“How did you get to the orphanage? What happened to your parents, sweetie?” I asked, reaching out to place my hand over his. I was glad that he seemed not to mind being touched now that we all knew about his powers.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t remember them, except for some vague memories. My mother was beautiful. I think she’s dead,” he whispered. “I lived with some people but they were pretty mean to me, so I ran away and lived in an alley, in a cardboard box for a while.” He stopped at my gasp, but shrugged off the horrors of his childhood in his usual stoic manner. “Anyway, I was picked up by the police for stealing food and ended up at the orphanage. I had a bunch of foster parents, but they never lasted long. Stone isn’t my real last name. It’s just the name of the last family I lived with. I don’t remember my real last name.” He reached into his shirt and pulled out a ring of some sort hanging from a long chain. “This is the only thing I have left from my parents.” He handed it to me.
I examined the heavy gold ring. It appeared to be a man’s ring with a dark red stone in the middle and some sort of markings on the band. I handed it to Rémy. “Well, you’re with us now. Are you okay with that?” I asked.
He nodded. “I want to be with Megan. I’ll try not to be too much trouble. I promise I won’t steal any more.”
And my heart melted the rest of the way. I pulled the little boy onto my lap and hugged him. After a moment he relaxed in my arms. “Hey, for whatever reason, you’re part of our family now. We may not be the best parents in the world, but we’d like to be yours.”
“I’d get to live here from now on? And Megan would be my sister?”
“Technically, since she’s my sister,” Jack said as he handed Kai’s ring back to him, “She would be your aunt.”
Both Megan and Kai found this hilarious. We sent them off to play while we hashed out the details with Rémy. They were still laughing and Kai was calling her ‘Auntie Meg.’ I didn’t care why; I was thrilled to hear the too-serious little boy laughing.
“Is there any way to make this happen?” Jack asked. “The kid doesn’t even have a birth certificate.”
“Of course it’s possible,” Rémy said. “The first hurdle will be the birth certificate. Then we will acquire adoption papers. It should be done within a month or two at the most.”
“I don’t suppose there’s any normal, legal way to do it?” I asked.
“It will be perfectly legal, but normal would be extremely problematic.” Rémy shook his head. “You and Jack are not nearly old enough to legally adopt anyone, much less a ten year old child, if that’s even his real age. For that and many other reasons, I think it will be much better to do it quietly. Once I have the papers, I will have an attorney deliver copies to the school.”
“How much will this cost us?” Jack asked, a worried look on his face.
Rémy brushed his question away while he packed away the notes he had been taking. “It will be taken care of. He is a Seer and part of our world.”
“But what else is he?” I asked. “He’s so much more than a Seer.”
“That I don’t know, cherié. Time will tell, I suppose. For now, a lonely little boy has a good home.”
So Kai settled into life with the Ruizes. It was a surprisingly smooth transition, probably because he was ridiculously eager to please us. He never complained about doing homework or chores, often completing Megan’s chores as well as his own. I tried to talk to him about this, but he continued to try and make her life as easy as possible, even though she swore she never asked him to. In return, I noticed she made him frequent treats, maybe trying to fatten him up a bit. He finally started to fill out slightly, the result of three good meals a day and a lot less stress in his life. He was still an extremely quiet child, however, seeming to need more time alone than most kids his age. He enjoyed reading and devoured nearly all the books on Megan’s shelves, with the exception of the ones he labeled as ‘too girly.’ He loved our weekly trips to the public library. He also loved Sodapop, spending hours throwing sticks for him in the backyard and taking him for long, daily rambles. I worried about him, wondering if we should get him into counseling, but Grams and Jack advised simply giving him some time to acclimate to living with a normal—if we could be considered anything near normal—family for a while. My side of our extended family, as well as Mat and Tara, helped us with the story we created for Jack’s side of the family: Kai was the son of a distant cousin of Grams’ from England whose parents had been killed in a car accident. He and Megan had immediately bonded, and Jack and I decided it would be better for him to live with us.
“Well, I’m not sure that’s a good idea,
” Trina worried when she first found out. “You and Ally are so young and just starting married life. You’ve already taken on a huge responsibility with Megan. Can’t he live with Ally’s mother?”
Jack assured her we wanted him with us. We tried to convince Kai himself of the same thing.
We finally got a chance to sit him down and ask about his powers. We had wanted to make sure he felt comfortable before we grilled him, so it was several weeks into our new family arrangement.
“So, how long have you known about your abilities?” I asked. “Did they come gradually?”
He shrugged in his quiet way. “I’ve always had them, I guess. I can’t remember not having them.”
“What about the healing? How did you know about that?” I continued to prod.
“I figured it out when I was about five. Any time I hurt myself, like a scrape or a cut, it healed really fast. I didn’t know I could do it to other people until Megan. I’d never tried before.” I remembered how fast his black eye had healed after the fight at school.
“But it exhausts you, doesn’t it?” I rubbed the back of his hand, still amazed by the amount of power I could detect flowing through him.
He nodded.
“Tell me about the dreams, Kai.”
“I don’t know. I just think about a person while they’re sleeping and I’m in their dreams. Luc made me go into Megan’s dreams and become friends with her to spy on you. But she was nice to me. I didn’t want to spy on you. I’m so sorry, Ally.”
“Oh, Kai. I know. Please don’t worry about that anymore. Do you have any idea why you were older when you invaded my dreams and that time in the vision?”
He shook his head. He looked miserable and I wished we could bring this conversation to a halt, but I didn’t want to revisit it any time soon, so I plowed forward.
“Is there anything else you can do? Anything we don’t know about?” I asked gently.
He sighed and reached his hand out toward the hallway. Within seconds, one of his notebooks appeared. He tore a piece of paper out and handed it to me. I stared at it blankly, wondering what he was trying to show me. Then words started to appear on the paper. They were in his childish handwriting:
I guess you could consider this as another power. Kind of useless, huh?
“Oh, my God, Kai!” I exclaimed.
“Holy shit!” muttered Jack.
“I think it’s cool!” Megan staunchly defended him.
“Of course it’s cool,” I said as I gave Jack a dirty look. “It just surprised us, that’s all. I’m sure there’s a purpose for it. Grams always says power is given to help others. But you are not to use it to help Megan on a test, is that clear?”
The children exchanged guilty glances, so I assumed I had guessed correctly. As they left the room together I could hear Megan muttering to him. “You had to show her, didn’t you? You could have kept that last one a secret.” Kai smiled and shook his head.
Rémy was as good as his word and in just over a month, right before the Christmas holidays, we had paperwork—which he assured us would hold up to the closest scrutiny—declaring Kai to be our son. We kept it secret until that evening. I helped Jack prepare Kai’s favorite meal so far, spaghetti with meatballs, and his favorite dessert, chocolate ice cream with colorful sprinkles.
“Oh, boy! Spaghetti and meatballs! My favorite! Thanks! What’s this?” He gestured to the beautifully wrapped gift next to his plate.
“Open it,” I said, barely able to contain my own excitement.
He reached for the gift hesitantly. I realized he probably hadn’t opened very many gifts in his life. He carefully slit the tape on one end and began unfolding the paper.
“Just rip it!” Megan exclaimed, bouncing in her seat. She was in on the surprise, but had sworn to keep the secret.
“Let him be, brat. He can open his presents any way he wants,” Jack said, laughing.
Kai finally finished unwrapping, opened the box, and folded back the tissue paper. He picked up the small silver key chain with our house key and examined it. “Kai Stone-Ruiz,” he read on the engraved surface. Although he had said Stone was not his real last name, we felt it was important to keep some part of his past intact. He clutched it as he pulled the orange and blue jersey out of the box. It had Stone-Ruiz across the back shoulders. Kai loved American football, and much to Jack’s dismay, was a huge Broncos fan. Jack hated the Broncos. He looked up at us, concern written across his features. “The papers came?”
“The papers came,” Jack agreed. “You’re officially part of this family. As officially as we can make it, anyway. But Kai, it’s real to us. You need to know that.”
“Wow,” Kai whispered. “You’re my parents now.”
“Yeah, we are,” Jack said. “And you’re our son.”
Kai carefully set the keychain and jersey down and walked around to Jack’s chair. “Can I call you Dad?” he asked, whispering.
Jack met my eyes, his own suddenly wet. “I’d sure like that.” He pulled our son into his arms.
I, of course, started bawling.
“I think your mom could use a hug,” Jack said.
Few things in my life had ever been as sweet as holding my new son in my arms. “I love you, Kai. I’m so glad you’re my son,” I whispered against his hair.
“I love you too, Mum. I don’t think I’ve ever said that before,” he admitted. “Either part: the love or the Mum.”
I laughed and held him tighter. “Well, I hope you say it a lot.”
Later that night, Jack and I stood in the doorway of our son’s bedroom and watched him sleep. Megan was, of course, curled up at the foot of the bed. I had spoken to her, but she still couldn’t bear to let him out of her sight for an entire night, so we let it go for now.
“Our kids are beautiful, Jack,” I said, curling my hand into his.
“Yeah,” he said. “I never thought I’d have two kids by the time I was 22.”
“At least we don’t have to change their diapers.”
“That would be awkward.” He laughed softly.
“Jack,” I drew him across the hall to our own bedroom and shut the door. “Four years ago, you pulled me out of my seat in our English class and dragged me to the girl’s bathroom.” I pulled his face down and kissed him. “I walked out of that bathroom and saw you leaning against the wall, looking so handsome and sexy I could have died. I never dreamed I would be with you, like this, in our bedroom with our two kids across the hall. I’m so incredibly happy. I love you so much.”
“Ally,” he sighed against my lips. “You are my life, querida. I thank God every day that I had the good sense to drag you to that bathroom. I fell in love with you when you walked into physics class the first day of our junior year. Don’t laugh! It’s true. I knew you were the one for me, but I was never going to talk to you.”
“That would have been a damn shame,” I said as I unbuttoned his shirt. I pushed the shirt off his shoulders and leaned in to kiss his chest. “What changed your mind?” At his confused look, I continued. “Why did you decide to talk to me, after all those months of sitting behind me, giving me the silent treatment?” We both laughed and I kissed him again.
“You want to know why?” He scooped me up in his arms as I nodded. “Because you needed me. I never would have talked to you if you hadn’t needed me.”
“Oh, Jack. I did need you. I still do. I always will. Especially right now.” We both laughed softly. “But more than that, I want you, every day, in my life. I love you, Jack Ruiz.”
“And I love you, Ally Moran-Ruiz.” He kissed me as he set me down on the bed.
Epilogue
“Leave me to my own absurdity.”
―Sophocles, Antigone
5 Years Later
“Come on, Ally! Push! You can do it, babe!”
“Jackson Ruiz, if you tell me to push one more time, I’m going to make you wish—”
“Okay, sorry! I’m teasing. Come over here and hold the baby
. I’ll be happy to take over! You’re the one who insisted on mowing the lawn all by yourself.”
“Ugh!” I screamed and gave up on the cantankerous lawnmower, which had died as I tried to push it through a patch of especially long grass. “Tell me again why we can’t get an electric lawnmower?”
“Because I don’t want to make it too easy for you to mow the lawn, querida. Kai and I can handle this one. You have enough to do without yard work.”
“Okay, fine, but I just wanted to prove that I’m more than the Jersey cow I sometimes feel like.” I stalked across the lawn to take our three-month old daughter out of Jack’s arms. “Come here, angel.” I kissed her sweet-smelling head as she nuzzled close, smelling my milk.
“You don’t begin to resemble a Jersey cow,” Jack said as he kissed the top of my head and then the baby’s. “But I love how big your—”
“Jack!” I threatened.
“Sorry,” he said, laughing and not sounding sorry at all. “Ah, saved by the bell.” Kai and Megan arrived home from school just then. “Kai, your mom was trying to mow the lawn. I told her to wait until you got home, but she just wouldn’t listen.”
“Oh, and what’s wrong with you?” Megan laughed and jumped on Jack’s back. “Did you break your arm?”
“Oof!” he groaned. “No. Your niece is keeping me up most of the night. I thought I’d take a nice little nap while Kai mows the lawn.”
“I got it, Dad,” said Kai as he started the mower on the first try, damn him.
“Kai! I’m kidding! I just wanted to see how far your mom would take it. I’ll mow the lawn.” Jack detached Megan from his back and walked across the lawn. I could see my husband and son arguing good-naturedly over who would finish the chore.
“Come inside, Ally,” Megan said. “Olivia needs her afternoon snack. I’ll get you some juice. Then I may take a nap, because that baby is keeping all of us awake. I saw Mina on the way over. She said you invited them to dinner and she said she’s bringing dessert. It’ll be nice to spend some time with the twins and Océane.” Rémy and Mina had augmented their family with twin sons almost a year ago. Their adorable daughter was nearly four years old and Megan loved her. Rémy had taken his place as the new Oracle, but was determined to do things his own way. He had declared that it was far past time for the two Seer groups to reunite and begin working together, making sure nothing like Luc and Les Dépaysés ever had the chance to gain power again. He had also decided that the new Oracle should live in America and was working to create an American Seer Council, headed by none other than Cassie, my former mentor. I hadn’t seen much of her since I graduated from high school and looked forward to spending time with her on council issues. He and Mina still lived across the street from us, although I knew they could well afford a much nicer house. Somehow the three of us—Rémy, Mina, and I—felt more comfortable living in close proximity. He and Mina traveled frequently to France and Ireland, or at least they had until the twins were born. Kate continued to thrive, although she was starting to slow down some, but her prophecies had ground to a halt within a year of Rémy’s ascension. She assured us she was happy with this development and it was really like being retired.
