Bad Choices (Hypernaturals 8)

Angel

It was decided by the family council that only Morgan and I would tell Angel what is up. This is exactly as Morgan and I wanted it to be. Not only to explain the situation and the history Angel was not aware of, but now about the plan, or at least the start of one. 

We asked Nakoma to babysit the girls, and we went to the RV. Our Fiver is parked next to my parents' big rig, and it often acts as a conference area. Sometimes a private room when a couple just wants some alone time.

It is spotless after we loaned it out to Tommy, a guy that turned out to be a mass-murdering Vampire. Morgan and I had scrubbed this thing down until even she and I could not detect his scent in here. As she and I can scent in parts per trillion, that means he is erased. Gone. His body now gases from the smelter the Crew put him in, his detritus in here cleansed and disposed of. We did the same thing to Helen's car because she loaned it to him. Now there is not a human crime lab in existence that could prove Tommy was ever here.

Seated at the kitchen table, Angel looked expectantly at us. We made her wait. Now she would finally learn what happened with her Ex, and the father of her child. If only that were all we had to say.

Morgan told the tale and this time around it was a bit slower and more apologetic since it is a tale about how Angel had been misled and misused. It is never fun to tell someone that someone they thought they loved was just using her. There were some compensating distractions such as how she is of an ancient people and that her people have been at war of some sort with another people.

Angel admitted she had no idea about any of the things we uncovered. Predictably she focused in on Andrea. There is no way to make that any better.

"So. A beautiful man wants me, I fall for it, give him a baby, and he leaves us because he never wanted me or the baby to begin with. He was operating under orders. I never see any of it. I only see the pretty face. I am that shallow." Angel was beating herself up pretty hard.

"It is always easier to see other people's situations than your own." I said. "I could always see a bad relationship starting unless I was the one in it."

"Is that a Vera reference?" Angel asked, with a bitter edge.

I handed Angel a Tequila. Neat. She tossed it back.

"No, Angel. Not a Vera reference, although you would be correct to point out I had no read on her and I either, and for years. I was in the middle of it, and I could not see it. Whatever you and Vera have and wherever you two are going has nothing to do with Vera and I." I replied as I poured her next drink.

"Yes: Well, we are not really doing anything together, are we?" Angel still sounded a little bitter.

"Yet". I offered. I hated to hold out any real hope there, not only because Vera is a Siren and therefore never happy with being settled down, but also that Vera's gender preferences tend to run towards the opposite sex if history is any guide.

Morgan dived back into our tale with my color commentary and when we finished up the section about who and what the LCPF is, and what they want from children, I topped up her drink. Angel's hands were shaking. 

"I...I..." She could never finish. I considered getting a towel ready in case she threw up the way Morgan and I had.

"There is more." Morgan said.

That killed the freshened drink in one take, shaky hands and all.

We told her specifically what the plan for Nakoma had been, as related not only by Pierre but the sisters. We had held that part back from the LCPF part and put it together as a single reveal. Now we omitted the witch sisters and only related the plan as a whole. 

Angel started crying, Morgan held her.

When we circled back to Andrea's instructions and checking out his house to be sure he left, Angel said nothing negative about us sending Andrea away forever with no memory of her or Nakoma. 

She shrugged.

"Good riddance." Angel said. "I'm glad you didn't kill him. I guess."

When Morgan got to the part where I said I wanted to adopt Nakoma as my daughter whether she liked it or not, Angel cried again, and hugged me and cried some more.

When that all calmed down, we told her about the Voodoo sisters, Saint Sagis, and her pet Vampire, and that was the right ending because that got the laughs, and we each had a drink. I am a Scotch person, but this is a pretty solid tequila. Something Jessica found on a trip to her clinic in Mexico. We keep it in the RV for the small hot tub parties here: we retrofitted the bathroom with a hot tub. It barely fit and required moving walls to get it in.

"I do not know how to thank you."Angel said.

Morgan waved that away "You gave us a daughter. Thanks enough."

"Are we making that official? I mean are you really, in the human world, going to adopt her Adrian? Really truly?" Angel asked

"Really: If you will let me. Yes." I said.

"I will dance all the way to the courthouse. Yes. I am sure Nakoma will be happy about this. She loves you all, and she always talks about you, Adrian. How nice you are, and what a good cook you are. How much she likes to babysit your little girls. All of it."

"What will we say about Andrea?" I asked. "You did not say much when we told you what we did."

"Jack shit. He is dead to us." Angel said.

"Is Andrea listed on her birth certificate as her father?" I asked

"Yes." Angel grumbled

Morgan waved a dismissive hand. "I can get that fixed. No father. Easy."

"Or, just put him on it." Angel pointed at me.

"How do we explain that to Nakoma?" I asked. "Not against it, just wondering if she looks at that and goes 'huh'.

"Yeah. OK. Just blank it. Or put 'The entire US Army'. Whatever. Again, I owe you." Angel said.

"No, you don't. Stop that." Morgan told her. "I will have my pet Vampire get you if you don't."

"Fuck me to death?" Angel asked her, eyebrows raised.

"I said 'get you'. Not 'Fuck you.'. Besides, my pet is more of a make love, not war type, except when someone threatens his little girl, Nakoma. Then he turns into Batman."

"I'm OK with that. Vera would be pissed if I got Batman and she did not." Angel said.

"Batman does not kill." I pointed out.

Angel went sober. "You really are going after the LCPF perv's. They are all going to die?"

"Yes." Morgan said simply. "Unless you do not want us to."

"No. Dead is good. Really dead, not like Andrea. Good riddance. Let's go tell Nakoma she has a dad. I will leave out the part where she was a virgin birth." Angel sighed. "Pretty much is a virgin birth."

"Let's ask her if it's OK?" I requested. "She is going to be fifteen soon, and probably would like to have a choice. It changes nothing about what we will do as it pertains to the LCPF, but she doesn't know about that and hopefully never will."