Choosing Life

Chapter Sixty Nine

It had been late one Saturday night when Estelle came frantically charging into Mal's room. Okay granted it was also Ben's room but the Cerberus didn't quite care for semantics with how he was racing to Mal.

"Whoa! Estelle, what's wrong?" Mal asked as Estelle started gently pulling on the sleeve of the robe she'd thrown on when Estelle came bounding into the room. "Is it one of the kids? Do they need us?"

Estelle shook his left head, his middle one still pulling on Mal's sleeve while the right one looked over at Ben as if to ask him to talk sense into Mal.

"Mal, darling, I don't think it's our kids who need us," Ben said gently and Mal's eyes went wide as she realized what Ben meant. See weeks ago, they had been worried about Nyx as she hadn't been eating and even had trouble keeping food down on occasion.

It had been quite the discovery for both Ben and Mal to learn that dogs could have morning sickness similar to humans. However they quickly got over their shock and got to work making sure Nyx was as comfortable as she could be during her pregnancy.

The kids, believe it or not, were quite ecstatic at the news that there would soon be puppies roaming the castle. Then again, they were Ben's children so maybe their enthusiasm wasn't as surprising as one might have thought.

"Okay boy, okay, I'm coming," Mal said as Estelle continued to gently yet urgently pull on Mal's sleeve.

"I'll call Carlos," Ben said as he got out of bed.

"Ben, it's the middle of the night. He's probably asleep." Mal said. "Plus you'll wake up Jane and the kids."

"You know Carlos would want to know his favorite client's giving birth," Ben said. "Plus, you know, there's the fact that Carlos is our vet?"

Mal shook her head in slight amusement and then said "Fine...but let me go and get him. Something tells me time is of the essence here and it's not like Carlos lives right next door."

"Alright, but I'm calling Carlos first," Ben said as he grabbed his phone. "Last thing we want is for you to teleport into his house and he falls off the bed in fright."

"Aww, but that would be hilarious!"

Ben snorted in amusement as Mal faked a pout and Ben quickly dialed Carlos' number as to not waste any more time.

"...Hello?" Jane's sleep filled voice answered.

"Sorry Jane, didn't mean to wake you, I thought I was calling Carlos," Ben said, the apology audible in his voice.

"You were," Jane said as she sat up, or at least that's what Ben surmised by the noise on her end of the phone. "Carlos must have left his phone on my bed side table. What's going on Ben?"

"Nyx is in labor, we need Carlos," Ben said.

There was a pause and then a thump that Ben could only assume was Jane throwing a pillow at her husband since the next sound was Carlos' sleep addled voice saying "I checked on Caleb last night, it's your turn Jane."

"Believe it or not, I'm aware of who's turn it is to check on our youngest child who believes his terrible two's means he should never sleep," Jane told him. "It's Ben, he says Nyx is in labor?"

That seemed to remove any of the remaining sleep from Carlos as Ben could hear him begin to scurry around in the background.

"Jane, tell Carlos that Mal's going to come and get him," Ben said. "Since we really can't afford to waste time having Carlos drive."

"On it Ben," Jane said. Ben looked over at Mal and gave a small nod as Jane relayed the information to Carlos. Mal disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke and Ben looked down to see Estelle tugging at his clothing now.