A Christmas Tail (8 page)

“You’re just loving this, aren’t you?” Davis laughed as Betsy dragged him down the aisle to the front of the plane. Barry couldn’t help but follow.

“So what song do you want us to sing at your wedding?” Davis asked as he leaned down and kissed the top of Betsy’s head.

“She actually picked a song I knew,
You’re The Inspiration
by Chicago. Do you know it?” Betsy teased and Davis laughed.

“I know it, but we have no music...” Davis was about to say as Sally held up a guitar and Barry laughed.

“This isn’t funny, Barry,” Betsy glanced around seeing everyone waiting, but Davis lifted her up and sat down across from Sally with Betsy in his lap.

“Just do what you did in the car, baby,” Davis said to her and nodded to Sally, who started to play the song.

At first the only one who sang was Davis, but within a few minutes, Betsy’s voice joined his. Even the pilot turned, listening to Davis and Betsy sing. By the time the song was done, Lacey had tears rolling down her cheeks and Dan was holding on to her.

“Davis, I owe you an apology. Anyone with a voice like yours, just wow, and Betsy darling, you can sing at all of our events. Wait until mom hears her. She’s going to flip.” Dan said.

“I did hear and you’re right, they both need to sing at our family events. Thomas, Eric bring that right up there in front for Betsy. She can go through it while we fly.” Dorothy Edwards said from the back of the plane and stepping aside as Dan’s father and brother came in carrying a pine box.

“You shouldn’t be here!” Dan stood placing Lacey on the seat he was just in.

“Nonsense! I’m going to help Lacey buy her dress and other stuff. We also need to pick a lovely dress for her sister, because if I’m correct, she’ll be getting married very soon too?” Dan’s mother turned straight to him and gave him one of those looks mothers always do. The whole place started to laugh and he grinned.

“Already planned on it when the time is right.” Barry bowed his head to the lady, admiring her spunk and reminding him of his own mother. “I think you and my mother will get along just great.”

“I look forward to meeting her. Us girls will have lots to do while you men are busy searching for those bastards.” Dorothy moved up to where Betsy sat with Davis.

“Dorothy Edwards!” Thomas, Dan’s father, spun around and glared at his wife. “What were you told about your language?”

She waved her hand in the air. “You’re lucky I didn’t drop the F bomb, now move out of the way... Ouch! What did you do that for?” Dorothy rubbed her backside where Thomas had smacked her butt.

“There will be more of that if I ever hear those words come out of your mouth. You know I won’t tolerate it.” Thomas grumbled and moved out of the way, but not before placing a small kiss on her lips. “Behave.”

Barry glanced over at Dan and saw him shaking his head, his cheeks were pink and Lacey had a hand over her mouth trying to stifle the laugh.

Even Betsy had her face buried into Davis’ shoulder, watching the scene play out.

But she was once more the center of attention.

“Betsy dear, this box is for you,” Dorothy said, kneeling down in front of her. “I know your momma died young, so over the years I have been collecting and saving. Your sister got one and now you’ll have one. It’s filled with stuff for your house. It’s called a hope chest.”

At first Betsy didn’t say a word, but the way Davis was rubbing her arms and whispering to her, Barry knew she was having a problem with this. Slowly, she got down on the floor next to Dorothy and opened the chest.

“My husband, Thomas is the one who made the jewelry box. He made one for each of you,” Dorothy said as Betsy ran her hand over it, but what she picked up next had him moving closer to her.

“I made that. In our world it’s customary to document our children’s experiences. Since your children are older, I made a special book for each one. I thought you could work with them on each book, sort of like a scrapbook/baby book.”

Barry knelt down behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder, squeezing. Her emotions were all over the place, but nothing showed on her face as she stood and raced by him and Dorothy to the bathroom.

“Did I do something wrong?” Dorothy looked up at him as he stood helping her.

“No, but we must remember she’s never had anything for so long. I’m afraid she doesn’t know how to react when others give her something. If you’ll excuse me,” Barry moved down the aisle, but Lacey put her hand on his arm, stopping.

“She’s scared. I can go if you want me to?” Lacey glanced at Isaac, who nodded.

“Thank you Lacey, and if it was any other time, I’d let you, but she must learn to turn to us now. I’ll call you though, if I think she needs her big sister, I promise.” Barry offered, and she nodded.

“Thank you. She means the world to me and I feel as if I’ve let her down somehow.” Lacey looked down at the ground as Isaac stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her.

“There is nothing you could have done, baby. All we can do now is continue to support her in all that she does, showing her how much she means to us. But Barry is right. He needs to take care of this. Come, sit down. You haven’t slept well the last two nights. I’ll even have a Christmas movie put on, if you’d like?” he asked, and Lacey grinned, looking at him.

“Betsy’s favorite Christmas move used to be
Home Alone
. She loved them all the first, second and third ones. Do you think we could watch them?”

“Come on, let’s go see if we can find them?” Isaac laughed pulling Lacey toward the side of the plane where Barry knew Isaac had placed the movies.

He turned his attention to his kitten. She was crying and trying to hide her pain. Barry shook his head and headed to the bathroom, tapping on the door. “Kitten, I’m coming in,” he warned her before opening the door and sliding inside. Curled up in a ball in the garden tub, Betsy had her head resting on her knees, tears flowing down her cheeks.

“I’m so scared, Barry. It’s hard enough for me to get up every morning and survive, but to have my children with me... What if I do something wrong? I could hurt them. What if they don’t want me?” Her big blue eyes focused on him and such sorrow tore his heart up.

Not being able to see her tears without holding her, Barry scooped her up into his arms and held her tight, sitting down on the floor next to the tub. “No one is perfect, kitten. All we can do is try our hardest, but know you will not be alone. You have the three of us, my family, Davis’ family, Orion’s family, but I’d be careful of listening to some of those men.” He tried to tease and she smiled up at him.

“We’ll make it, kitten. With all the people who love us and who are willing to help us, we will have a very full life. I myself want at least twelve children.” He rubbed his chin on the top of her head.

“I especially can’t wait to see our little girl. If she looks like her mother, we might have a problem,” he growled, not even liking the idea of boys being...  “I think we need to write down some rules and boys will be the number one rule. There will be none sniffing around her.”

Barry was so focused on ways to protect Mandy, he didn’t notice Betsy laughing until she slapped his chest. He grabbed her hand and frowned at her. “Don’t do that kitten, you could hurt yourself.” He inspected her hand and kissed the palm of it. “And what’s so funny?”

“My hand is fine and you started growling every time you said the word ‘boys.’ You reminded me of a pit bull it was so cute,” she teased. “Tell me, are you going to be that over-protective father that I’ve heard of?”

“We all are,” Orion said, opening the door with Davis behind him. “And we are very jealous men, so be warned, there will be no flirting with others. Now Lacey has searched for the past ten minutes finding your favorite Christmas movies. The pilot wants us all in our seats so he can take off.” He held out his hand and she sighed before getting up.

“For the record, I don’t flirt, never have and never will. It’s hard enough trying to figure out you three,” she grumbled.

“There is nothing to figure out about us. Just be yourself, kitten, and never hold anything back. We’re part of you now as you are part of us. I’m sure there will be mistakes, but that is what life is about, learning and changing with the times.” He jumped up and leaned down, kissing her lips softly as she turned to him. “Believe me, living as long as we do, everyone must learn to adjust to the times.”

They led her out of the bathroom. Even though her eyes were swollen from crying, Betsy held her head up and walked right to Dorothy, who hugged her.

“Thank you for your gift. I will cherish everything in it. Maybe you would help me when the time comes to fill that albums out?” Betsy back and Dorothy smiled.

“I’d be honored. Now you better get seated so we can take off. I understand your sister has your favorite movie ready to start.”

Betsy squeezed Dorothy’s hands and moved up to where her sister sat with her men curled up in a blanket on the right side of the plane. On the left, Barry patted the seat in between   him and Orion while Davis sat on Barry’s other side.

“Come on kitten, let’s get you all strapped in and we’ll start the movie. I can’t wait to see this
Home Alone
,” Barry said while buckling her safety belt.

“What? You’ve never seen it?” she stared at him for a few seconds before looking at Orion.

“Afraid none of us have seen them,” Orion stated.

“Neither has Isaac or Anthony, but Dan has at least.” Lacey said, shaking her head. “It’s sad, really. We’ll have to make sure they watch the others too. One of my favorite movies is
Sound of Music
or
Gone With the Wind
and they haven’t seen those either.”

“Sad, really sad, and here I thought I was out of the loop. Well it looks like I came just in time to change that. Roll them, Sis.” She kicked off her shoes and curled her feet up on the seat as Barry covered her with a blanket. Betsy had to admit it had been a long time since she’d seen
Home Alone
and couldn’t wait to enjoy it with her men. Wait, when did she start considering them hers?

“It doesn’t matter when, but it pleases us you consider us yours, because we are, as you are ours,” Barry leaned towards her, whispering in her ear and adjusting his pants.

“Thank you, all three of you. I know it’s not easy controlling your desires.” Betsy turned her head and kissed Barry’s lips softly. “Soon,” she whispered and leaned her head against Barry’s shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her.

The movie started and she peeked over at Lacey, who was smiling at her. “I’m proud to call you my sister.” She mouthed and Betsy felt the first twinge of the bond they had had so long ago.

Yes, these people surrounding her were slowly tearing the tall stone wall around her heart away, one piece at a time, and her men were right, there with sledge hammers. As soon as the plane was in the air, Davis moved from his seat to sit on the floor in front of her, leaning back against her seat.

For the next two hours they laughed and sang the Christmas songs and enjoyed the movie. Her sister jumping, growling at the bad guys and making her and everyone else laugh.

“What? What if that was one of our children?” She slapped Isaac and he snarled.

“First off it wouldn’t be our children because he would never be allowed to be alone and I would know where he was all the time. Second, the first time anyone threatened our children, they would die. You know this.” Isaac took the hand she had slapped him with and kissed each finger. “If you slap me one more time, I don’t care who is in this plane with us, I’m going to turn your ass over my knee and spank your butt. Understood?” he grasped her chin in his hands, making Lacey stare at him.

His voice low and controlled, had her squirming in her seat. Next to her, Orion grinned. “Do not worry, kitten. We already know it excites you. Slowly we will know all the right touches and words that heighten your sexual desire.” His hand slid under her blanket and into the top of her dress, squeezing her breast. “But for now, I believe we have lunch coming.” Orion removed his hand and instantly Betsy missed his touch.

“Shh, we’re right here, but we need to eat.” Barry squeezed her knee and reached over to take the basket Dorothy held out.

“I made twenty baskets so we should have plenty for all of us for lunch and a snack. I believe the plane is stocked for dinner, so we’ll all be fed. When we land it will be very late, London time. There is plenty of red meat in there to put some weight on you child. You’re too small.” Dorothy glanced at her and she smiled.

“You need to put on some weight so this strapping man has something to hold onto when... well you know when.” She winked and turned to her husband, who shook his head.

“Woman, what am I going to do with you?” he slapped her ass and she jumped, swatting at him, and earning a playful snarl in return.

Betsy looked at Barry, “Have they been brought over?” she whispered and he nodded.

“It seems the
Tetraheros
have granted them this since they have taken such good care of you females. They will always be part of our family.” He handed her a couple of sandwiches and a bag of her favorite Cheddar Chips, along with three dill pickles.

“How did you know?” she looked up at him and moaned, taking a bite of the garlic dill pickle. “God, these are heaven. I could sit and eat a whole jar by myself. In fact, I have done so.” She laughed.

Davis took a pickle and turned it around, staring at it, before taking a bite. “Not bad. Give me another one,” Davis said to Barry and she laughed as Orion groaned.

“How can you eat those? Now the sweet ones I can see, but the dill?” He shook his head and took out a small jar of sweet pickles and she laughed.

“Yep, your founders choose wisely. Dorothy is an amazing lady to learn and remember so many peoples’ likes and dislikes. Look at your brothers.” Betsy pointed to Orion’s brothers and they all laughed as Rhodes stuffed a devil egg into his mouth, shutting his eyes. “Do we have deviled eggs?” she asked and pulled the basket toward her and Barry laughed.