Natalie paced, looking around her room. It was still the same room that she had when she was a teenager, and not that much different from how it looked when she was a child. Natalie looked at her watch for the twenty seventh time in less than an hour. Her gaze lingered in each poster in the room, remembering the why, the when, and the how of obtaining each one. Anything to fill in time. Eventually Natalie reached the collection of old necklaces next to the door, and checked her watch again. "Close enough!", she mumbled quietly to herself, and left the room.
"So what did the doctor say?", asked Eric after work that day. He had given her a foot massage as soon as he got home, even before removing his uniform. Natalie had grimaced and placed a hand on her back when she rose from the chair, so Eric insisted that a massage was next, after he'd gotten changed.
"We are fine, everything is good.", Natalie told her husband, "Although the doctor nearly fell off the chair in shock, when I told him we didn't want to know if we were having a boy or a girl, or even twins or triplets!",
Natalie laughed.
Angelita had taken to reading the local paper, the 'Elba Independent Inquirer' from front to back, on a daily basis. "There is an interesting article in here about teen pranksters stealing garden gnomes and redistributing them around town.", Angel mentioned casually as Eric walked past. She had become good friends with Lilli, and even Natalie engaged in casual conversation with her on a regular basis. Eric never spoke to her unless she spoke to him first.
Angel considered pushing him. It was easy enough to get him to think about her, or maybe read his mind, find things that he was interested in to get him to open up. She resisted the urge to use force to control the situation. Being a normal person, with a normal life was so much harder than she had anticipated. It made the giving up of flowing blood and the urge to solve all of her problems with violence seem easy.
"Yeah, I'm hardly ever here, and I've spotted a few random gnomes.", Eric said as he past in the other direction. 'Non mono syllabic answer, maybe I am making progress.' Angel mused.
Maggie watched curiously as Eric did two laps of the building before slipping inside. What was her brother-in-law up to? She placed the deep fried peanut butter sandwich on to the table in front of her customer, flashed a standard waitress smile, and rushed back behind the counter for her phone. Maggie picked up the menu and continued to watch Eric. The building was more or less between the diner and the army base, but it was a den of thieves, Sally had warned her before she taken over the shift not to be overly friendly, or to trust anyone she had seen enter or leave the old warehouse. It was a hive of scum and villainy!
Maggie flipped through her contacts list and pressed the entry labeled 'NAT!!!'. Her sister-in-law needed to know what was going on.
After the ....", Eric grimaced as a pain shot through his head. "After I went away for a month the first time, my Dad discovered that someone Arrrghhh", he grunted as another bolt of lightning bounce around inside his skull. Eric had learned he could partially bypass the secrecy mage block that his security clearance had placed upon him as long as he was vague and didn't go into specifics.
"There are things missing.", Eric stated, relieved that the zinging in his head had ceased. "I am doing good things. You don't need to worry about my work. Margarita saw my disguise. You need to call her and tell her to tell no one else. It would be hard for me to explain to her.", Eric attempted to reassure his wife. Natalie nodded her head.
Natalie and Lilli had been discussing the benefits of property ownership over the last few weeks, and Lil had put aside a few hundred thousand simoleons for Nat to invest. Natalie's first investment was the Vault of Antiquity, which was located on the same property as the fortune telling site license. Then after some careful investigation, she acquired the Sharma Day Spa, and the Landgraab Science Facility.
The Landgraabs had fallen on hard times, even going so far as to let go several maids and butlers, and firing several key scientists, not that they were willing to admit any hardship in public.
Natalie was a social butterfly and quickly learned that The Landgraab's firings at the facility had actually lessened it's effectiveness and profitability. Rather than reverse their decision, and admit their mistake, the Landgraab's where keen to liquidate.
Nat was just listing the new family assets, and her logic for acquire the to Lil. Lil was loading some collected donated goods into her old ute to distribute to the charity shops. Nat looked down at her baby bump as she ran her hands around her belly. "Wow Lil, Simbie dolls, they're so cute. Can I take them? I'll donate my radio gear!", Natalie half squealed in excitement.
"Sure sprout, you can take anything you like, the portable radio station is worth more than anything else here, are you sure you want to get rid of it?", Lil asked. "Definitely, I have used it once since uni!", Nat smiled as she slowly bent down and scooped up the few items that had caught her attention.
Natalie took the items up to the boys old room, she was planning a room swap. She and Eric where going to move in here, and set her old room up as a nursery. A million and one thoughts tumbled around in her head. Jazz's ringtone pulled Nat from her dream state.
"Heya Fatty!", Maggie and Jazz chorused and giggled. "Oh the jealousy, I can feel it from here, Bitches!", Natalie fired back with a grin.
"Hey, that's aunty bitches!", Jazz laughed. Maggie insisted, "So spill the beans girl, boys?, girls?, twins?, triplets? Or are Jazz and I going to thumb wrestle for first aunt hug rights?"
"I asked the doctor not to tell me anything, unless there was a problem", Natalie said , moving the dolls around the dresser as she spoke. "Seriously, how can you not want to know!", gasped Maggie voice at the other end.
"I like surprises, and we don't care if we have one baby or ten, if we have Werewolves or Witches, or even a Mermaid or a Vampire, as long as we have a healthy baby, or babies, that's all we care about!", Natalie explained patiently, as she wiped dust from the other object that had caught her eye from Lil's donation load. She had been fielding baby questions from everyone who had crossed her path, and she was getting a little tired of explaining.
"Why are you still here Vampire?", Eric asked Angel. This is the first time Eric had started a conversation with Angelita since she had arrived, many months ago. The fact that he didn't want to share a roof with one of the most notorious Vampire killing machines in history, did not surprise her.
Angel paused to consider the question, before answering as truthfully as she could. "I have lived for thousands of generations of your kind, and with the exception of the first and last few, each generation, I committed uncountable atrocities and evils in my father's name. All the while being told that what I was doing was good and right and necessary."
Angel looked directly into Eric's eyes. "I am still here Witch, because this is the last place in all of the kingdoms, were I am can attempt to redeem myself and try to be a better sim. I could live a thousand more, and never atone for what I have down, but does that mean I should not try?" Eric held her gaze for a few moments before looking away. Angel turned and walked away, She hadn't felt the hot sting of her own tears since she had uncovered her fathers lies.
Natalie hugged Lillie-bear gently, it was in amazing condition considering how long it had been in the family. Her own father had been presented with it at birth, and she had find memory's of wrestling it as a child, although she had always been extra careful not to use her claws. "You are about to meet a new generation of Jettstar's young bear, and I hope you bring them as much comfort as you did me.", Nat told the bear. "Ow, my bladder is not a drum kit", she added, talking to her baby bump, which at the moment was more like a lump. She put the bear back on her parents bed, and eased her way into the en suite.
'Definitely twins or triplets, I wasn't this big this morning!', Natalie groaned to herself, she hadn't been able to eat the blueberry pancakes that she'd made for lunch after craving them all day, but at least she had skipped the morning sickness that everybody dreaded. She ambled outside to soak up some sun, and look at the paintings that had been painted by some of the last three generations of Jettstars.
"No football practice until after the uniforms have been issued", she told her belly affectionately, as she eased into the relaxing bubbles, wearing a bra and knickers, as she had very little else that still fit. Her belly had kept growing and growing. She had four weeks to go, and felt like she was about to explode. The wolf within was dampened while she was pregnant, but that didn't stop her howling at the latest bursts of pain. "Its too soon!", she cried.
The taxi drivers eyes bulged when he saw how pregnant his passenger was. "Hospital. Yesterday!", Nat growled. Eric was still at work, Lil was out on another charity thing, Angel couldn't leave the house without starting a war prematurely, and she couldn't fit behind the wheel of her own car. Nat dragged her self onto the backseat.
The driver was about to make a comment when Natalie howled in pain, and deciding it was better to get the journey under way. The taxi driver pulled up in the 'Emergency Vehicles Only' spot directly in front of the doors and drove off as soon as Natalie had exited the vehicle without even collecting his fare. The receptionist, who had been in the toilet when the taxi arrived took one look at the gigantic Natalie waddling through the emergency doors and slapped the emergency buzzer, which brought every available doctor and nurse running.
Eric's personal smart phone buzzed silently in his pocket, only family had the number, and they knew he was only to be contacted in an emergency while he was at work. "Okay , its a deal then? You confirm with your boss and we will meet here again tomorrow night to sort out the rest of the details?", Eric asked the other figure in the shadows. "Done deal.", agreed the shadowy figure.
Eric slipped back onto the base and waited until he was inside before checking the missed call. He didn't recognize the number. Eric sighed in relief as he entered his office. He needed to file a report on tonight's activities, and dropping into his chair, put his feet on the desk, and dialed back.
"Mister Jettstar, this is Helaine from Elba Mercy General, we have your wife in surgery, and there has been some complications with her pregnancy..."
Authors Note:
No major issues to whine about, except a total loss of internet three lines into writing up the post. I did it all offline, and cut-pasted the text from wordpad, between the pictures that I'd already saved into the post.
The set up time for this post was phenomenal compared to any previous ones, including the Four Horsemen. Readers won't really see any of the prep work until the next chapter though.
So my personal traits, (especially in story telling mode) may include Absent-Minded, Excitable, Insane, Neurotic, Brooding, Diva (without the singing bonus), Dramatic (without the mechanical bull thing), Inappropriate, and (always when in story telling mode) Mean Spirited. :P
This chapter was a complicated multi chapter thing to plan and prepare for. I hate 'going to big, too soon', like the movie industry that spends millions to make a movie, and always has to go what they consider bigger and better each time for sequels. In the end this kills a franchise for.. reasons, but story telling wise, after the grand and epic reveal, it rarely leaves you anywhere interesting to go.. So this chapter is also like the magicians setup, before next chapter's epic reveal. I'm hoping that after this reveal, the stories intensity doesn't take a steep dive, but at the same time, I can't keep the intensity at the same level for the next eight generations. That'd be boring.
I know I don't have a lot of readers, (one of the chapter two posts has 10 views at present), but I would appreciate feedback from some of the other silent ones, as I use readers comments to add to the swirling chaos of my own ideas in the telling of this legacy. And to the few MTS people that have been commenting, and feeding my imagination, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
