“Are you ready to track, or what?” She asked. Her tone was all soldier again.
“Yeah, give me one minute to scan before you punch it.” Alik gave Farrow a sideways glance, still trying to understand the best way to help the sparrow with a broken heart.
Chapter 52 Bitter Sweet Moments
Margo’s mind was racing on two entirely different planes of thought: her missing family members and the responsibility of taking care of Danny.
On one hand, she couldn’t stop thinking about her children being taken by some madman who made Williams’ evil seem tame.
What was happening to them right now? Had they already watched the video explaining that they cannot be near one another? What is Arkdone doing with them? Why is he even involving himself? Margo sighed deeply.
Ever since they’d come home to an empty house and Meg’s pool of blood by the front door, Margo had been fighting to stay sane, stay in the present and think logically. Truth be told, all she wanted to do was curl up under the covers of her big bed and sob for her family, for her legs, for all that she had that was now gone.
But she had a little boy to take care of and knowing he depended on her made Margo find strength she never knew she had.
Margo hadn’t held a baby since her children had grown up. To feel Danny’s warm body heavy in her arms made her heart sing. She knew she should call Theo in to help her lay the baby down for the night, but she couldn’t let him go. Something about holding him helped calm her nerves and gave her a feeling of overall peace—completely unexpected considering what she was going through.
Danny had loved eating the pizza so much he had managed to get sauce all over his face and in his blond hair.
Theo had run the bath for the little guy. He added bubbles, which fascinated Danny to no end. The baby hadn’t even noticed when it was time to wash his hair; he was so fascinated with the iridescent spheres. He burst into laughter as he’d wrapped his arms around a big pile only to see them slip away or pop.
Danny’s laughter was very much like the bubbles in his bath. They seemed to gurgle from deep in his belly and come bubbling up his little throat to his grinning mouth where it sounded as melodic as chimes in the wind.
Finally clean and skin very puckered, Theo let the water drain and lifted the slippery little body that was their newest son out of the tub to dry him with a towel. Danny loved being clean. He squealed with joy, bolting from Theo’s efforts to dress him and ran around buck-naked! The baby seemed to love playing the clean-streaker game almost as much as playing with the bubbles that helped get him there.
Margo was so charmed by the little boy; she just couldn’t help but giggle at a very wet Theo chasing Danny’s screeching, naked body streaking around the house. Theo was laughing so hard and was so out of breath, by the time he caught Danny and slipped on his little cartoon covered tighty-whities, they flopped across Margo and Theo’s king-sized bed, exhausted.
Margo’s mind was so torn. She waffled between fretting over her missing children and enjoying the caregiving of the little metahuman who came into their lives.
Now, as she held the little boy with both arms, she felt a wave of love that hurt just as much as gave her heart wings.
Since she could no longer rock in a rocking chair, all she had left to offer the baby was gentle, rhythmic pats on the back and her voice. So she hummed and sang to him the same lullabies her mother sang to her, and that she sang to Meg, Alik and Evan when they were little. Something about singing them made her feel connected to her family and though they’d been gone for years now, when Danny was in her arms breathing his sweet, warm baby’s breath on her neck, she felt her family near.
She softly nuzzled the little tow-headed baby and kissed his velvet cheek. Margo felt a wave of love curl as tightly around her heart as one of Danny’s blond ringlets would wrap around her finger. She knew she would do anything to protect the baby in her arms. Then she smiled to herself thinking how amazing it was that God gave mothers the ability to love so deeply. When a new child came into her life, her love didn’t get spread thin, but grew deeper and wider.
Thank You for the love of my children. I know You will protect them, She prayed in her mind. Thank You for my hands and my mind. I know Your will has been done. Thank You most of all for my love and devotion to You, God.
The woman whose life had been so tested, whose children were in a monster’s lair, whose body had been broken, sat in her wheelchair holding a baby who had been left to die, humming “Amazing Grace.”
Chapter 53 The Deadly Sins
The weighty silver spheres went flying across the room, shattering a crystal vase against the ornate granite wall behind it.
“How dare he!” Williams screamed at the room.