Chapter Twenty-one #2
By the time she got out, dried off her hair enough to put it in a loose braid, and dressed, she could smell finished dinner.
Katarina followed it down into the kitchen.
Nik was sitting at the table with Isabella on his lap, she was talking a million miles an hour until she saw Katarina. “Momma! Dinner!”
“I smell it,” Katarina chuckled, sliding into the chair next to Nik. Jessie put a plate in front of her with a drink before sliding in across from her, Rex next to him. “Bella, why don’t you sit with Momma so Nik can eat his dinner?”
“What? Fluffy?” Isabella glanced up at Nik who snorted.
“I’ve got long arms.” He shrugged with a non-committal hum.
Katarina spared him a ‘if you change your mind, say the word’ look, but he didn’t.
Rex talked about opening the shop and some goofy customer nonsense.
Jessie told Titan about Pierre showing up then the Enforcers, leaving out the juicier details while Isabella was paying attention.
He also didn’t mention that Katarina told Aravis to arrest Pierre.
Then Lailee talked about the Healer’s Hut.
Katarina let herself just absorb the cozy sensation of being surrounded by family.
Ah, so this is how it’s supposed to look.
And she wasn’t completely fooled, there was definitely a little stink eye going from Titan to Jessie about the Enforcers.
Lailee was definitely ‘mom-ing’ Rex harder than Jessie.
Not to mention Rex and Jessie got into a small spat about what was an important delivery and what was ‘pertinent’ information.
But, despite that, she could see the love and connection between all of them.
Their auras, though faint as she wasn’t feeding nor was she looking too hard, were all mixed around the edges.
Things like that only happen through deep connection.
Jessie and the boys eventually climbed to their feet.
They spared Titan a hand to his broad shoulders and a kiss to Lailee’s cheek.
All three of them stopped by Isabella who was fighting a food coma.
Rex ruffled her hair affectionately, but Jessie and Nik gave her cheek the same kiss they gave Mrs. Bonesaw.
Jessie tapped Katarina on the shoulder and nodded at the back door.
She slipped away from the table and walked them out.
“We’ll be back by morning,” Jessie reiterated. He closed the door leading to the kitchen behind them, caging her back against the hard wood. His voice was soft as he spared a kiss to her temple. “If we’re not back in time to take the kiddo to school, Ma should be off tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry about us, we’ve got Sera in my back pocket.” She waved off their concern with a flap of her hand.
Jessie caught that hand and brought it to his lips. “Sweet dreams, baby girl.”
Just as he slipped away, Nik winked at her, “Be good.”
“Never,” Katarina snorted.
Nik chuckled the whole way to the driveway, Rex sparing her a wave before they headed for the sidewalk.
She imagined they were headed back to the shop, or going back to the house.
Damn, I should have asked for Barnibus…Bella’s gonna be sad not to sleep with that damn platypus.
Ducking back inside, Katarina slid up beside Lailee.
“Hey, do we have a ridiculously adorable stuffed animal for Isabella to sleep with? The boys have been spoiling her with Barnibus, and I don’t have it with us. ”
Mrs. Bonesaw smirked. “You want me to find Jessie’s old stuffy?”
Katarina snickered, “You still have it?”
“Captain Goobers will report for duty after I get these dishes cleaned up.” Lailee giggled with wicked glee.
Normally, Katarina would interject, as Lailee cooked.
However, she glanced at Isabella, covered in cheese sauce, and grimaced.
Excusing the pair of them upstairs, she scoped out a t-shirt for Bella to snuggle in while her child peeled layers of school crud off her body.
It took a quick dip and lots of encouragement that she could, in fact, bathe without rubber duckies and bubbles, but Katarina got her squeaky clean.
Isabella sat on the counter, brushing her teeth lazily while Katarina worked her hair into a loose braid like her own.
Isabella blurted out, mouth full of foam. “We live with Fluffy and Jessie now?”
“Yeah, we do, Bug. How do you feel about that?” Katarina cocked her head, inspecting her work.
“Like Fluffy and Jessie.” Isabella shrugged, twisting to spit into the sink. Katarina handed her the pre-prepped cup of water to swish. After a second spit, she grinned up to Katarina to prove her squeaky-clean chompers.
“Good job,” Katarina laughed, finishing off the braid with a tie. Thankfully, there was a basket of them under the sink as well as spare toothbrushes. Katarina stood up, hands to her hips in a pensive power pose. “How do you feel about Momma with Jessie and Fluffy?”
“Momma’s happy.” Isabella swayed from side to side. Then, she furrowed her brows, a confused frown forming on her lips. “Daddy’s still gone.”
“Well, we’re not together anymore, Bug. Daddy and Momma aren’t a couple anymore,” Katarina grimaced, realizing that this conversation was always impending.
Isabella frowned harder. “Daddy can’t come with us? Live with Fluffy and Jessie?”
“No, Bug, Daddy can’t live with us.” Katarina didn’t want to mention that, if she had anything to do about it, that Gill would never see her again.
As hard as it would be for her to understand, it wasn’t safe.
Even if Gill loved her, even if Gill never purposely put a hand on Isabella…
Katarina couldn’t risk him trying to use her to get back at his ex-wife.
If he so much as whispered a mean comment into her child’s ear, she might explode.
Isabella was too vulnerable at this age, too fragile.
I won’t let him poison you like he poisoned me.
“Why not?” Isabella whimpered, tears welling in her eyes.
“Daddy made bad choices. Bad choices that hurt Momma. When you make bad choices, you have to face consequences. And, remember, you said I’m happy now, and I am.
” Katarina scooped her child off the counter and hoped beyond hope that she wouldn’t ask why again.
Please, I know it’s a lot to expect from you when the world is still so big and so many things don’t make sense, but please know I’m doing this to protect you.
“Where is he?” She looked away, sniffling hard.
Katarina cringed as she clutched her child close.
I can’t lie to you, it’ll only hurt you.
Katarina thought about what would happen if she let Bella hate Gill.
But there was an awful pit in her stomach that rolled around like limestone, sizzling and burning away her stomach lining at the thought.
Gill would…but I can’t? She hated it so much that she settled on the easy, factual truth. “Bella…Daddy is in jail.”
“Why?” Isabella clung to Katarina’s shirt.
“Because Daddy did something he wasn’t supposed to, something very bad and mean, and he hurt Momma.
When you do those things, you go to jail.
You remember what he did to the car?” Her daughter nodded softly before she stuffed her face into Katarina’s collarbone.
Katarina hummed a soft lullaby in hopes of soothing the pain.
I won’t poison you against him, but I won’t let him hurt you.
I will bear this burden because you’re too small.
You’re still too soft, my little ladybug.
Isabella rubbed her nose into Katarina’s shirt, soft sniffles filling the hallway as they walked into Jessie’s old room again.
It was a small, cozy four walls with a queen-sized bed, a singular dresser, and a wall of old car posters taped up.
There were even twice as many polaroid photos of cars at the shop like he was keeping trophies of cars he worked on.
She did, however, see on the dresser a bunch of other photos taped down to the top like a collage.
Images of Nik and Jessie at the shop growing up, of Elliot at the field, of Rex on crutches, and so many lopsided photos of a minotaur at the bottom of the frame and someone awkwardly standing behind them.
It warmed her chest to see the kind of childhood Jessie had… despite the whole crime family part.
When she glanced around for some sort of change of topic, she saw the large stuffed orc, in some sort of paladin dress blues, sat on the bed with a giant captain’s hat on his head. “Captain Goobers, I presume.”
“Captain goob…ers?” Isabella picked up her head from Katarina’s shoulder and gasped. “Captain!”
“Yeah, you wanna sleep with Captain tonight?”
“Where Barnibus?” Isabella glanced around. Think fast. Katarina chuckled, setting her kid on the comforter.
“Barnibus is protecting our house while the boys are out working and we’re having a sleep over.” Katarina pulled back the blanket, letting Isabella roll underneath. She took up Captain Goober with her, only to hold him up above her with a broad smile.
“Captain protects this house,” she giggled, snuggling down into the bed.
Katarina went about her routine of turning out the lights, closing the door, checking her phone, and then convincing herself to lie down.
Only, after a minute, out of sheer curiosity, she pulled open the browser on her phone.
She typed in Captain Goober and snickered to herself when she saw the headline.
Captain Good Bear, the main character in a popular King’s Fall afterschool television show. An orc Paladin who swore an oath to protect all the citizens of the magical kingdom of Finkleberg and saves the day with the power of friendship.
She glanced at Isabella, then took a screenshot of what she found. I’m gonna give him so much shit for this.