The Secrets of the Aorta Ruins

Chapter Twenty Three

Becca was awoken earlier than she would have liked by the sound of familiar voices in the hallway; Dare and Gwen. It only took her a few seconds to notice the weight as light as it was of something, or rather someone, cuddled up on her chest. She smiled instead of being annoyed at the toddler, surprised the conversation in the hallway hadn't yet woke her with how light a sleeper Dare had told her she was.

"Yeah, I'll wake the girls today, you continue with the rest of your morning rounds with the kids. Including Dora in about a minute," Dare said laughing.

"You sure?" Gwen asked surprised.

"Yeah I'm sure. I wake Becca up all the time at school. And I've learned how to without making her grumpy. Trust me," Becca heard him answer. She almost laughed but didn't want to wake Dora up sooner than Dare was about to.

"With the coffee?" Gwen questioned.

"Exactly," he said tapping on the door. That was all it took for little Dora's head to pop up off of Becca as the door swung open.

"Awww look at you two," Dare teased letting himself in holding the cup of coffee. Becca was not awake enough to endure his teasing yet and it was very lucky for him he had the cup in his hand already. Dora bounced up quickly, already wide awake from the looks of things.

"Morning Dare!" she said happily bouncing over to him at the edge of the temporary bed they ended up sharing for a hug. Becca sat up, rescuing the cup of coffee from him as Dora almost knocked it out of his hand with her bouncing.

"Morning sleepy heads," Dare laughed at her excitement, which was equally matched by Becca's sleepiness.

"Yeah...well we were up late," Becca said, giving Dora a look.

"Oops..." she giggled.

"I thought you said they were in bed when you came downstairs. Is that why you never came back last night?" Dare asked.

"Yup. Came back in here just for my sketchpad and Dora was still awake bouncing all over," Becca explained, starting to sip down her coffee, remembering she hadn't thanked him for bringing it yet, "Thanks Dare."

"No problem. That explains a lot. Don't worry, there's more downstairs," he said laughing again.

"Good. We're going to need it. We have a lot of work to do," Dora said, very matter of fact like.

"No!" Becca and Dare both shouted at her at once. If there was one thing that girl did not need, it was definitely coffee.

"Awww why do grownups get to have all the fun?" she asked. Becca laughed that she considered them to be grownups.

"Because they're grownups," Becca explained, still half asleep. She finished up the cup of coffee before looking at Dare herself, "She is right though, we do have a lot of work to do today."

"What about our date?" Dare asked confused.

"Yeah, exactly," Becca said smiling, getting up at last and they all headed into the hallway. Becca headed down into the kitchen, and much to her surprise everyone else was already there.

"Morning kids," Kris answered cheerfully as they reached the bottom of the stairs. He was just excusing himself from the table when they had reached the bottom. He gave Gwen a quick kiss before talking to the kids again, "Alright, daddy has to go to work. Come give me a hug guys," The kids began to swarm him much like they had the night before with hugs but begging him not to go along with it this time. Dare simply gave him a hug before releasing him, unlike the younger ones.

"Have a good day Kris," he answered happily.

"You too, kiddo," Kris answered winking at Dare, a gesture Becca was sure she was meant to miss. Kris unburied himself from the kids and made his way out the door and everyone made their way back to the table to finish their breakfast.