The Remembering

Chapters 28 thru 32

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Of course, he's with someone else." Danyka vented to Fiona as she paced the kitchen floor. Fiona was fixing dinner while the twins played with their toys on the floor. "I'm happy for him though. I hope he's happy..."

Fiona stirred the stew as she let Danyka ramble on. Fiona was a quiet woman. She didn't say much. Where Danyka was always full of energy and always bursting with emotion. Not as much as when she first met her, but when it was just them, Danyka let the emotions flow. Fiona didn't mind. She loved Danyka. She thought she was beautiful and wise and so brave. When she discovered that she was pregnant with the twins, she still insisted on leading an army to war. Many humans would have left a long time ago. And although Danyka wasn't exactly human, she was raised by humans.

"But what do I do? Should I still tell him about them?" She said gesturing to the twins. She tried speaking quietly. She figured out quickly that little ears heard big things. "Or will that ruin things with his new woman? Should I let him move on like he clearly has? What about his parents and his sister? Should I tell them and ask for them to not tell?" Danyka sat at the bar and stared down at her hands that she kept clasped in her lap.

Fiona put the stew on simmer and went to Danyka. She put her hands over Danyka's and waited for her eyes to meet hers. "You need to take the kids and go for a walk. That will help. You already know what you need to do. You always do. You just need to get your thoughts together."

Danyka nodded and sighed. "You're right, Fi. I'll do that." She got up and got the twins hyped up for a nature walk. They always enjoyed being outside. Danyka needed to check the process of the training grounds and the makeshift barracks that she charged Evander and Vidarr with. She made sure that it was a walk from the house to the training and barracks. She wanted the twins to have as much normalcy as possible. She looked down at them. One on each side of her holding her hands as they toddled alongside her. She felt her heart swell at the sight of them. Then it ached as she thought of Liam. What was she going to do, she thought. She thought that he would love these children, but now that he was with someone else, would they be a burden? That thought hurt and angered her more than anything. Her children were not burdens. She wouldn't let anyone think of them as such. She let them run ahead of her as she watched them. She squared her shoulders and held her head high. She would tell Liam of the children. She would give him options and let him see them from a distance. She wouldn't let him near them until she was certain he had their best interest at heart. Her children were made with love. She would make sure that they were loved every day.

She ran up behind them and scooped them up into her arms, which was becoming harder every day, and snuggled them closer as they squealed with delight. She set them down and gave chase and played with them a while before continuing on her duties.

***

Danyka spent the rest of the week setting up for the meeting with the humans. The makeshift barracks, which were mostly tents, one big tent for community eating. Another two big tents, one for medical and the other was for community showers. There were several other dozen tents for living quarters that held four people to a tent. It would be close quarters, she thought, couldn't be much different from a rig.

She also spent the week trying to get in touch with Liam. He seemed to be everywhere. She couldn't seem to catch up to him. She had left messages and had gone to Tanner and Abigail's when she thought that he might be off work. No such luck. The more she tried the more she felt like he was avoiding her. That hurt of course, but this wasn't about them. She needed him to know about their children. She was bursting to tell his parents and Cora about them, but she had to tell Liam first. The week was almost up. All the humans that she could recruit would be here tomorrow night. That meant Liam would or should be here, too. His parents and Cora would be here. It would be hard to keep from telling them about the twins with them a few hundred feet away.