Parole (Hypernaturals 7)

My Secret Lover, James

I love it when a plan comes together. Danny and Lori are fully on board with having the girls over. Diana is never a problem, and while Rachel is a handful, she behaves better for Grandma, Grandpa, Danny, and Lori. Rachel minds Morgan. Mostly. When she is in the mood, she ignores Helen, Jessica, and I. For her name donor, she seems confused and spends a great deal of time looking in her face trying to figure it out. I am guessing it is that they have the same name? Who knows.

Of course, Rachel is a mostly non-verbal baby still, so we hope she is going to be less of a hellion later. As it is, she crawls around chattering in baby-speak and takes the safety plugs out of the wall sockets all the time. I finally was forced to create a locking cover for them, or I would have a crispy daughter. Not pretty, but it takes a special tool to get the cover plates off now, and I keep that where Rachel cannot get to it.

That does not stop her from trying to pry off the new plates with any flat object that falls to baby-hands. Car keys are her favorite tool.

I did not expect Rachel to be like Diana. I had no idea how much easier Diana was going to be. I am having to re-learn how to be a Dad.

Dinner is its usual loud and happy affair, as it always is, especially when my parents are with us and the kids can vie for their attention.

When Lori cooks, it is usually something easy and fast and scales up well. Hamburgers, Hotdogs, and a couple of veggie sides. Minimal starches, healthy oils. Etc. Simple can be good too, so we are all diving in.

My Mom is worried about her daughters' dad. All it takes for my Mom to start asking medical questions.

"Can you tell me what this scent is like? Compare it to anything?" Mom probed.

Trying to explain a scent to someone that is NOT a sensually (In the meaning of senses, not sex) overamped Vampire is hard. Morgan considered my Mom's question and I know she has already thought about that exact question. "It is very subtle. As sort of sour scent, not too far from lactic acid? Overtones of dry rot? A bit of day-old fish? Not gone off from the heat but will get there soon? Like all those things, mixed, and far away in the background, with his normal scents in the foreground. Like he is standing in a landfill that they only put old cheese in? So hard to explain...."

Mom nodded along as Morgan struggled with the description. "I understand. This gives me some ideas about where to start. Did you observe any instabilities in balance? Was he slower to stand, or use more bracing objects like the arms of chairs than he normally does?"

Morgan thought back, rubbed her chin. "It is hard to know what of that is that Dad is getting older. I do not think he is less spry than ever, but Dad has never been a willing athlete. He was always proud of me back when I was a cop for how hard I worked out. He went to the gym every other day, but he hated every minute of it. When Angel worked for him, she made sure his workout times were cleared out, no meetings or calls, and Dad both liked and disliked that about her. He figured out the absolute minimum level of work to do to stay healthy. Dad would rather work than work out. I always told him I feel the same way. I never really liked it, but I understood for my job, it was required. A female cop has to be able to take down much larger and heavier men. Outrun them. I did not have my current Vampiric advantages. The only reason I like working out NOW is that I spar with Adrian, and afterward, we get in the lovely shower you and Ben designed."

"I am with you on that. ALL of that. Shower especially." Mom assured her. "If I had to guess, based on what you are saying, his body is becoming less efficient at 'trash collection'. Could be kidneys or lymphatic. Diabetes. A cancer getting started. Leukemia or a similar blood disease. Hard to know without running some tests. Gives me some places to start looking."