The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Strike Two

Morgan joined me in the kitchen to help me cook. It is super early in the morning in China, but lunchtime here.

I could have done this in the little kitchen that is part of the Crew office, but I wanted to cook comfort food in my house and near my family. Have a semblance of normality during all this super-spy stuff. When we built the office building that houses both 'Olsen and Sagan' and the HQ for the Crew, we designed and built it with all the comforts of home, except: it's the office still. It feels like the office. It has a kitchen and a fairly nice shower and places for sleep for Crew on long-running missions, but it's the office.

I want to be home. My life these days is upside-down compared to my old human one, but this is my Vampire life, with my loved ones. All of them. In the office, I am super Mr. Responsible Guy, striking blows for Vampire kind. Here I am Dad. Husband. Goofball. In the office, people have to listen to me because I'm a CouncilCritter. Here, I have to listen to things like being told I am not allowed to use the myriad of professional-grade tools in the big garage without supervision from Jessica, Morgan, or Nakoma.

This is why I have my own tools in the house. But I like that. I like that little taste of rebellion that comes from getting out my tools and fixing something without adult supervision. There was a time when this house and everything in it and near it were just mine. That stopped the moment Jessica came home with me, and I cleverly seduced her into staying because I am a poor helpless male that needs to be taken care of.

Well: Maybe the big shower helped with the seduction. It has a way of speaking to one's inner hedonist. Jessica is nothing if not a hedonist. Part of why we work so well together.

I do not miss those days for a minute.

In the office, I am someone else. The weight of the Vampire world, or some human client of our agency at the front of my mind and behavior. Here, I run the kitchen. This is my domain. I feed my kids. My entire family. It's still kind of adult, but it's also different.

Denise came to the house with me and brought her computer. She sat at the kitchen table and watched mission operations status as Morgan and I danced around making food. I did not resent the intrusion of there in here. Denise lives between the two worlds too: Same as I do. If she had a choice in the matter, she'd shuck it all for a back rub in the shower. Her sense of duty and responsibility stops that from happening.

"Hey Dad!" Nakoma greeted me as she came to see what is up.

"Hey, darling. How was school today?" I asked.

I never worry about why my daughter is home in the middle of a school day. Nakoma is an honors pre-med student years ahead of her classmates because at home she has two of the best Doctors around in my Mom and Jessica, and access to both a bioengineering lab that developed the tech to turn humans into Vampires and a Vampire fertility clinic. If she is home it is because she only had morning classes, already did the work, or can do that work from here.

"We did not blow up anything. Seems I should be asking you about your day." Nakoma replied.

"I only blew up some boats." I said. "So far."

"Actually, I did that." Denise said. "He is taking credit for me hitting the right keys on the computer."

"I only watched Denise blow up some boats." I amended. "It was not even spectacular. Icons changed on the wall. That was it."

"Never going to make a movie out of that." Nakoma told me.

"Oddly, a thing I can live with." I told her.

Angel and Vera came in with the babies and sat down at the table. Angel must have closed up 'Olsen and Sagan' for lunch. Vera runs 'The Firehouse' and sets her own schedule, based at the moment around baby requirements. She has taken Ben and Catori to work to show them off to her fellow Sirens (former Siren, in Vera's case, but they don't know that), but does not take them often. She is afraid they will abscond with them.