I smiled at him placing a kiss on his head. “I like spending time with you too!”
“Did you know the most venomous jellyfish in the world is named the Irukandji and is smaller than your fingernail?” Micah asked as he came into the kitchen.
“He’s been fascinated by biology,” Tanya explained as she grabbed a plate and sat at the bar. “Thanks for lunch.”
“No, thank you for your help with Micah, he’s improved greatly already. I figured we needed something heavier today, since it’s chilly outside.” I smiled. “Alex and I are running out shortly. Noah should be home before you leave for the day.”
Micah frowned. “Can I go with you? I’ve taken all of my tests today.”
I looked over at Tanya and she smiled with a nod.
I nodded. “I don’t see why not. Maybe you can keep an eye on Alex while I help Gavin and Jace. Looks like you have the afternoon off,” I smiled at Tanya.
“Can we borrow Ella’s Wii U?” Micah asked hopefully.
“Sure,” I answered. We had agreed to restrict screen time during the week, so the kids hadn’t played on any game systems since Sunday night.
“Chip will let me borrow his,” Alex piped up.
I nodded. “That’s fine. We can do that.”
Remy came walking in the door not too long afterwards. He kissed me on my head and ran a suggestive hand on my butt.
I blinked up in surprise. He was affectionate when it came to embracing me, playing with my hair, or wanting me to sit on his lap, but he never initiated any intimate contact to that degree since I returned. I was left wondering if he was trying to tell me something. Was he tired of waiting for us to reconnect on a more intimate level?
He pretended like it hadn’t happened as he grabbed a plate and sat down next to Alex. He reached over and held the back of his hand to his forehead. “How do you feel?” he asked.
Alex, for some reason, showed apprehension around the big guys Terrance and Remy. I don’t know if it was because his father had been a big man, or that they were the size of mountains. “Good,” he responded before he took another bite of his food.
“Blake said we can go with you,” Micah said excitedly.
“Awesome, man,” Remy reached over and fist bumped Micah.
“I’m going to grab the game systems and maybe pack some snacks and drinks for the boys,” I jumped up and grabbed a lunch box out of one of the cabinets.
“I heard there were some boys with birthdays coming up, and so is Christmas,” Remy said with a sly grin. “Maybe sharing won’t be necessary soon.”
“Mine is in two weeks!” Micah said excitedly. His birthday was close to my original birthday.
“Mine is after Christmas, and Christmas is such a looooong time away,” Alex said dramatically. Willing to forget his fear of Remy in that moment.
To their credit, Remy and Terrance made it a mission to draw Alex to them. They gave him extra attention in hopes that he would be comfortable around them.
“Well maybe if your report card comes back with good grades…” Remy trailed off.
“You guys need to stop spoiling the children,” I said with mock sternness. I was torn about the whole situation, honestly. One part of me believed that they deserved to get spoiled, but the other part of me didn’t want them to become materialistic. I didn’t want them to take the trivial things for granted. I didn’t want them to believe everything should just be given to them and not earned.
“I’m really smart,” Alex said confidently.
“Well, smart boy, hurry up and finish eating so we can go,” I ruffled his dark curls and ran upstairs to get the game systems.
The drive to the facility wasn’t a far one. We took the children to Cora’s office. She rarely used it; she spent most of her time in the lab. It was a spacious office complete with a desk, oversized chair behind it, two winged-back chairs in front of it, a little sitting area with a large leather couch, a television, and a unique looking coffee table with matching end tables on either side of the couch. She had some animated movie playing on her television and cookies sitting on the coffee table.
The boys seemed to like this treat to come along with us and hang out at the clinic. They had animatedly talked the whole time there. I wanted to question Remy about his caress earlier, but with their constant chatter and their presence, I really couldn’t.
We made sure the boys were settled, and then I headed towards the wing where we kept the woman we had brought in. It was busy in here today. Healers were buzzing around everywhere. Remy gave my hand a little squeeze before heading to the elevators. I knew he was helping Will down in the lab.
Gavin came out of one of the rooms looking harried and drained. “I don’t know what he did to them, but it was a number.”
We had a team of techies and scientists still trying to dissect the implants that the women had, but we weren’t any closer to figuring out what they were made of, the long-term effects of them or how to remove them without harming the patients. Most of the females still acted like they were in a comatose state. They mechanically ate and used the bathroom. They wouldn’t communicate with anyone and seemed like they existed in a world of their own. The only female that was able to resist the implant, didn’t have too many recollections. She did say she felt out of it and trapped in her own body when it had worked, but that’s all she could tell us. She had volunteered to stick around and let us draw her blood for testing.
Ashley Foles had admitted that she was a teenage runaway after she had come into her gift and her parents had kicked her out. She had gone through a downward spiral of sex, drugs, and alcohol. She told us she heard rumors of a facility that gave money for testing drugs for a pharmaceutical company. She hadn’t realized what she had signed up for. The girls she had gone with were never to be seen again, but she had been forced to get clean, then injected with the implant. She had woken in the facility, her mind clear of the drugs she had been hooked on, and pregnant. She was street smart, so she had played the game. She had observed everything.
Every day they were ‘woken’ up, fed breakfast, taken on walks in the yard or on the treadmill, seen by a doctor, fed lunch, went on another walk, rested in their beds, fed dinner, taken on a walk, showered, and then put to bed. Ashley told us that she didn’t know how she got pregnant or by whom. She said she had seen a few females leave when they went into labor, but they never returned.
Every female that we had rescued from that facility had been pregnant. They were in various stages of their pregnancy. All of them seemed to be progressing along nicely up until this point. With the behavior they were exhibiting now, I was assuming that the implants didn’t last long.
“Blake,” Gavin said again. He must have called my name more than once, but I had been lost in my own thoughts.