Hiraeth [GxG]

Chapter 2

I parked in the parking lot and decided to get out and walk them to their classrooms. They put them in the same class, per my request. I wanted Aleksey and Alyx to be able to keep their eyes on each other. Especially their first year of school. I didn't want to take any chances. Alyx gave me a quick hug, and to my surprise, Aleksey grabbed and gave it a heartbeat squeeze. It's where we squeeze each other's hands quickly twice in a row. It was another way we told each other, "I love you." I heartbeat squeezed his hand back. We exchanged small smiles. He started walking to class to catch up with his sister when he paused and looked back at me.

"Don't worry, momma. I'll take care of us. I'll keep us safe." I was taken aback by what he just said.

"Okay, love. I'll see you at 2." My heart clenched, watching him walk the rest of the way into the room. I could see him take a seat right beside Alyx.

What I saw next made me want to cry. He grabbed his little sister's hand and again, a heartbeat squeeze. Physical touch twice in one day; this isn't usually like him. He's very observant. I know he picked up on my nerves and anxiety. Maybe Alyx was nervous too.

Heading back, I only let a few tears being shed, despite wanting to cry hysterically. My babies were growing up so fast, too fast. Luckily I planned ahead and scheduled a few photoshoots, so I'll be plenty distracted till it's time to pick up the kids.

Emma's POV:

"Have we made any progress?" I questioned Lance as soon as I saw him. He looked exhausted.

"Unfortunately, no." He sighed out. I muttered curses under my breath in response.

"Okay. Let's go to the lab." We walked to the elevator and made our way in. Once in, we hit the floor number and descended into the lower levels that "didn't exist."

As soon as I stepped off the elevator into the lab, I felt a surge of many emotions. Frantic, exhausted, fearful, anxious... The list goes on and on. He was making my head spin. I had to quickly shut everything off within myself to make it out of here a sane person.

"What all can you tell me?" I found a short girl with big-brimmed glasses. She looked up at me, and I found that her eyes were bloodshot. It takes a lot for a vampire to get to this point of exhaustion.

"Follow me." She took off towards what looked to be some large bubble. As we got closer, I found that there were about 5 beds in there, all occupied. I furrowed my eyebrows at her.

"These are infected patients. We have them quarantined from the rest of the population. We are trying to get a hold of everyone they've been in contact with to do some testing. So far, The ones we've tested have tested negative for the virus." I nodded.

I took a chance to look at all 5 patients. There were three females and two males. The last female at the end of the row broke me. This little girl couldn't be older than 10.

"I know it's heartbreaking. This is the first child I've seen infected. That's her mom. That's her dad, and the other two are her aunt and uncle. She's only 8." She looked at me, and I saw the emotion, only a flicker before she went back to being stoic, but I knew she wanted to cry. She was slowly breaking.

"How many cases?" She sighed and looked down at her phone. I saw some charts.

"Just here in the United States, we have a little over 10,000 confirmed cases. Between yesterday and today, the cases rose by 2,000. Overseas altogether 70,000." I let out a gasp.

"This isn't good. It went from 1 to a little over 80,000 in just a month!" She nodded almost solemnly.

"And that's just confirmed cases. Who knows how many others are infected and don't even know it." I looked at her incredulously. I had to swallow my panic.