Page 17 of The Lab: Rigg

Neither was I. I dropped to my knees and scooped a big handful of bricks into the bucket.

“No!” Lily was back and holding my hands in place. “Don’t break the volcano, Daddy Niles. It’s perfect.”

I rubbed my forehead and laughed. “Is it? Are you sure that’s what you were going for?”

Connor zipped around my legs and then between them with a little green Corvette in his hand. “You’re on the race track, Daddy. Move, please.”

“Fine.” I dropped to the couch and lay down, watching them from a safe distance. Safe for me to keep my soles from bleeding. “You win. Just…don’t get hurt.”

They mostly ignored me, talking amongst themselves. Their memories were starting to come back, and bits and pieces were shared when we least expected it.

“What else do you remember?” Rigg and I had made a game out of extracting the memories in a casual, fact-sharing way without focusing on the fact that they’d lived through unimaginable horrors. The lab Rigg suspected they came from was still active, and as much as it pained me to hear their little soundbytes of information, we needed to know as much as possible if we were going to take them down.

Lily tapped her chin like a little philosopher. “There were lots of tubes. The bad guys didn’t let us play with them, but when they weren’t looking, we sneaked them to make bubbles.”

“And no running,” Connor chimed in, nodding so hard he nearly lost his balance. “Boring rules!”

“Really boring,” I agreed. “I like our rules better.”

“No rules when Daddy Rigg is gone.” Connor cheered, and before I knew it, he was dumping the crayons over the table and onto the floor.

“Whoa, whoa.” I got up and grabbed the crayons before they got stepped on. No one liked to color with broken pieces. “We do have rules. They’re just…easier to follow when Daddy Rigg is gone.” I grinned at the fact that Rigg was gonna come back to a mess. But he loved the energy and chaos of having a messy house. I did too. A messy house was a fun and lived-in house.

Lily jumped in to help, but she stepped on as many as she picked up. “Oops. Broke it.”

I grabbed some paper and spread it across the coffee table. “How about you two make a picture for Daddy Rigg while I clean up?”

“We had these.” Lily scribbled a green triangle with her nose scrunched in concentration.

“Crayons?” I watched her make another shape.

She nodded. “And tests. And you know what?”

I put the crayons in the box between the two kids and sat back on my heels. “What?”

“We didn’t have nice daddies. We didn’t have any daddies.”

“That must have been awful.” It broke my heart to know they were ever mistreated or neglected, but they had us now. They had love and attention and all the toys they could play with. That was a lot more than I could say about my own childhood.

Maybe that was why I understood them so well and loved them so much. We were all just looking for a forever family. Luckily, we’d found it in each other.

“Now you have a rule, Daddy.” Connor beamed at me like he’d just found a magic loophole.

I groaned dramatically and grabbed at my chest. “No boring rules for me!”

“Yes!” He pointed a chubby finger at me. “You have to chase us!”

I sucked in my breath like I was too shocked to move. “Nope. I’m too tired.”

“Chase us!” Lily shouted.

“I’m too tired, but maybe my wolf can chase you.” I gave them a playful growl, the best wolf impression I could muster in my human form.

They squealed and scattered, running circles around the room until I caught them both and swept them off their feet. We ended up in a pile on the bed, and I was exhausted. “Is it bedtime yet?”

Lily climbed up next to me and patted my cheek. “Are you tired, Daddy?”

“A little bit.” I was panting from the exertion. I suddenly felt exhausted and a little dizzy, but they didn’t need to know that. “I just need a minute to catch my breath.”

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