A Tribe United Again

Chapter 1

Marcy Chang walked through the mansion slowly. It was coming along and would be done soon.

Riley shrieked.

"What's up, Momma?"

The baby patted her mother's face gently.

Marcy smiled. "Thank you."

The contractor walked over to her. "Hey? We're still on schedule and even working a bit faster. I think you and your husband will be able to move your family in, in about two weeks."

Marcy loved the sound of that. "Cool. Thanks. I'll leave you all to your work and see you in a week."

He nodded and hit his hard hat.

She walked out and went to her Bugatti to strap her daughter in. She got in the front seat and drove carefully back to the family home.

She got out and went inside, not knowing who was at home. She went upstairs and put the now sleeping Riley in her crib before taking her books down from bookshelves so she could start packing them up.

Mal found her an hour later. "Hey? What are you doing?"

"Packing."

"Baby,-"

"Packing us."

He stopped sweating. "Where are we going?"

"We've got at least two weeks to pack up everything we own so we can move to the new house."

"Wait? The house is done?"

"Almost. It took nearly all summer but come September, we're outta here."

ATUA

Mercedes yawned. It'd been two days since Quinn's (actual) birthday but she was still tired from their joint party days before that.

She shuffled to the bathroom to use the toilet and found herself singing the song she'd heard in her dream.

She finished and washed up before getting ready for the day, singing the song over and over. It didn't really occur to her that she'd heard music in her dreams.

She went to her closet and found clothes to wear. She found herself licking her lips. That was strange. It was like she could taste something but what was it?

She hadn't eaten for at least 10 hours. Maybe it was her dream? She'd eaten Greek pasta salad. It had been dream!delicious.

Yeah, maybe that was it? She was still "tasting" the olives.

She finished getting ready and went to kiss Mike awake before going to the kids.

Cai awoke first and reached for his mother.

"Hi, my baby!" She whispered to keep the others asleep.

He squealed and laid his head on her abundant chest.

She laughed lowly. "That's my baby."

"Mama."

She gasped. He just spoke! He said his first word and it was "mama"! She wanted to wake up his brother and sister just to see if they'd do it, too.

"Mama." He sat up and looked her in the face.

"Yes, my baby?" She could cry.

"Baby?"

She wanted to celebrate his second word but it hit her like a brick in the face. "Am I pregnant?"

ATUA