Julia's Pack.

Chapter 20 - Work, work, the whole day long.

Oliver stood on the boat's deck, gazing up, watching the plane slowly lift into the air. He had to admit it, he felt a lump in his throat too, he'd never liked this. His daughters and Julia were his whole world. He would have gladly sacrificed himself to kill Kale, to make sure they were safe from Kale, but it hadn't worked out that way.

Now he had to watch them leave. Watch them go too far away for him to protect. His red head twins, of course, but the two younger kids too. Oliver had raised those four with Julia and Levi. He loved them all like his own.

Randy didn't interrupt him until the plane was just a dot in the sky.

“Right.” Randy clapped his hands together and kicked a bucket of tools at Oliver. “First thing's first. You're cleaning up the boat. Clean out every cabin of sheets, pillowcases, the lot, throw them into that bag.” He pointed at a massive bag. “Leave them in there for now. Vacuum the cabins. Clean the windows and mirrors. Clean the toilets. Start with the bottom floor and work your way up. I want two floors cleaned and all sheets in the washing machine by lunch.”

“Lunch?”

“After lunch,” Randy continued, as if he hadn't heard Oliver, “We've got the problem of trash. Usually we take it to the mainland once a week as you know but now, with this boat out of order, we've got a problem. So you need to go into the storage room, vacuum it out, and sort the trash. Recyclables can be stored in the storage room of the boat. You're to make sure every recyclable item is clean of any food scraps. Then we'll move onto the trash itself. I'm not sure what we'll do with it yet. Try and reuse as much as possible.”

Oliver groaned softly. Shut his eyes. A kick made him hurry up, snatching up the bucket of random items, and he headed down the stairs to the bottom floor of the boat. Randy wasn't far behind with the sack for the dirty washing. He hesitated as he passed a door that was locked and an audible thumping behind it. Randy cleared his throat.

“That room's off limits.”

“That where the bastards are?” The ones that had nearly killed Levi. Oliver froze, gritting his teeth, anger starting to rise. Anyone who touched Julia's Levi was dead to Oliver. He wanted to go in there and throttle them. How dare they touch anything that she loved? “I should-”

“That room is off limits for now.” Randy corrected himself. He tugged Oliver along. “It's nearly six thirty. You've got a lot to do, Omega.”

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Julia wandered back along down the path, Levi's arm around her, leaning against him. She wasn't the only one like this though. No one felt secure right now.

She had to be the one to look confidant then. Even if no one felt it. Julia gently detached Levi's arm and stood straighter, willing every muscle to relax, for her stride to go more casual and relaxed. She had to look like she trusted the fighters. And she did, of course she did, but deep down she was always going to be nervous about her kids being so far from her.

'Levi, the Pack Hall needs a lot of cleaning.”

He stared at her, taking just a moment to get what she was doing, and nodded. Levi's posture changed too until he looked just as casual and carefree as she was trying to feel.

“It does. Omega's busy. So we'll need some volunteers. We'll need someone to milk the cow.”

“I think Anita and Serena are the ones in charge of that.” One of the women spoke up. She actually smiled a little then. Julia knew she had a daughter who was close to ten now, and a son who was just a few years younger. Jenny. “I can help with the Hall.”