Page 151 of Omega's Flight
"Yeah. I didn't have to do anything inside his head, but just trying to read him was exhausting." And as he spoke, I watched a green tinge bleed into the white around his mouth. "I think I'm going to lie down."
Prudently, Bax left a garbage can by the head of the bed and covered Holland over with a blanket he took from the closet. "Everything's still exactly where I left it," he said, amused. "Anything else you want?"
"No, I'll be fine. Wake me up when you get back?"
"Sure." Bax stroked the hair away from his face, but he'd already fallen asleep. With a concerned look, Bax stood up and turned to me. "Let's go track down your pups."
It was dark now, and late, far past the pups' bedtimes. I promised myself I would only peep in on them, but when we walked up onto what used to be my porch, I heard their voices in the living room.
Fighting.
I sighed and Bax laughed, and then I pushed the door open and walked into the living room. "What are you guys doing out of bed?"
"Papa!" Pip shrieked and scrambled over her little brother to throw herself into my arms.
"Pip, your brother!" I exclaimed, but Henry was a tough little pup and he just rolled up onto his hands and knees to see what was going on. His eyes widened and he raced over to me, and then Ann was there and I was covered in sticky, dirty puppies who were way past their bedtimes, but I was the happiest I'd been in a long time. "Oh, you three," I said, ignoring the stickiness of the kisses and laughing as they did their best to crush the air out of me. "Where's your Da?"
"He's fixing the toilet," Pip told me in an off-hand tone. "Henry tried to flush his panther down it."
"He can swim!" Henry announced proudly.
"He's a cat, dumbo," Pip said. "Cats don't swim."
"Panthers do. We learned about it in story time!" Henry pushed Pip and I had to intervene to keep another fight from breaking out.
When I'd finally separated my little barbarians, I looked up to see Bax moving quietly around the room, picking things up and finding places for them, setting the loose toys in the corner beside the couch to get them out from underfoot. "Thanks," I said gratefully. "I need to get these three cleaned up and get them to bed." I ignored the chorus of disappointed nos and took my two youngest firmly by the hands. "Come on, pups. Let's go see how Da's getting along with the toilet."
Bax followed behind with Ann. I stopped on the way to grab a clean towel—the last one—from the closet and turned into the bathroom to find a scene straight out of a disaster movie. If a disaster movie involved various porcelain pieces of a toilet and a scattering of tools on the floor around a frustrated alpha swearing in increasingly loud tones as he fought to extract a plastic panther from the pipes beneath the house.
Looking around the room, perhaps it was a disaster movie. At the very least, it was a disaster. "I'm just coming in to get some soap. I'll wash up the pups in the kitchen."
Degan jerked and fell back, his arm still caught in the hole in the floor. "Raleigh!" He looked down at the mess, then back up at me. "You came back."
I shook my head. "Don't get ahead of yourself. I'm only here for one night." I glanced over at the sink. "I suppose you have the water turned off."
"Henry flushed his panther," Degan confessed. "I've almost got it." He had a clothes hanger, unbent, in one hand, the end disappearing into the darkness of the opening in the floor.
"Maybe we can get some water next door?" Bax suggested. "Unless you'd rather not?" he asked me.
"No, I think that's a good idea." It would start rumors, but I could make sure they were the right rumors. "Okay, pups, let’s go find a jug to get some water in."
It took us nearly twenty minutes. Not that it took that long to find some containers, or to find a neighbor who was still up to fill them. No, I was getting filled in on Degan's adventures since we'd split, and letting it be known how well I was doing at Mercy Hills. And when we got back, Degan was putting the toilet back into place, and the panther sat in the sink waiting to be washed. Henry cheered up when he saw his toy, but I quickly steered him back to the kitchen, where Bax had started some of the water heating on the stove, having figured out the switch that turned on the power.
"Just to take the chill off it," he said and turned back to Ann. "But we'll wash your hands first so you can go find your pajamas, then we'll clean you up so you can put them on."
"Are we going home with you, Papa?" Pip asked as I scrubbed at the dirt between her fingers.
"I hope so, baby," I told her. "I need to talk to Da first, but I'd like to have you home."
"I think Da wants to come home, too. But Granna is sad and mad and then he says he has to stay here."
"Granna has other pups to help look after her, and a mate. She doesn't need your Da. I'll talk to him, and to her." This was hopeful—maybe it wouldn't be so difficult to get Degan to move after all.
"I hope the boys didn't find our hideout," she said sunnily as I moved on to her arms. "Marylin and me worked really hard on it. It's so secret, sometimes we can't even find it."
Bax muffled a snort of laughter and turned Henry around so he could work at the back of his neck. "At least we know they weren't cooped up inside the whole time," he offered.
"No." I set my rag down on the edge of the bowl of warm water. "I suppose I'll have to wash those sheets tomorrow."
