Page 73 of The Beta: Part Three
By the time the manor is cleared of people, corpses, and debris it's early afternoon and we're all exhausted. It took both Devon and I, but we finally convinced Jasper to go lay in the bed on the other side of Nathan and coaxed him and Talia to sleep with some intense purring. Talia and Jasper are perfect and beautiful, but when they're overly fatigued they both get deep, dark circles around their eyes and they're even paler than they usually are. Right now they both look like they could be sick with a plague. I hope they can sleep until dinner, which we will be making from the stores in the freezer. Trent suggested that he and Alex could go pick up pizza or any other take-out, but Talia handed him his ass and informed him that leaving the manor was just as unacceptable as having unknown and unexpected people here for the foreseeable future. Jasper agreed, and now we'll never have pizza again.
I get a call from Obi just as the sun is going down. He sounds pinched and thin. “Listen, I didn't want to alarm Talia, but you all need to be careful. She's only a few weeks away from delivery, and she'll likely go early because she's carrying multiples. No more excitement. None. Not even a scary movie, including the shit ones Jasper puts on. She won't do complete bed rest, you know she won't, and I don't have enough of a reason to justify it other than I'm scared to death. Don't tell her that. Just keep her as calm as possible for the next four weeks or so. I told her to keep calm and relaxed, and all she was worried about was whether or not she was still allowed to have sex. I don't have a medical reason to say she can't, but I'm telling you and you can tell the others. Nothing intense, nothing rough. Tell Alex to contain himself for the time being. If she wants and needs it, give it to her, whatever it is, just keep the rougher acrobatics to a minimum. After everything that happened last night I half expect her to go into labor any second. I'm well past tempted to sleep on your couch until it's time.”
“You can if you want. Jamison might not be happy about it, but he'll understand.” It's a genuine offer. I wouldn't mind at all if Obi took up temporary residence here until the babies are born. Trent would also be overjoyed, he'd give up his room.
“I might actually do it when we're down to the last two weeks. How are Nathan and Kaleb? They were well enough when I left earlier, but since I'm on the phone I might as well ask after them.”
“When I last checked on Nathan this afternoon he was sleeping soundly between Talia and Jasper. I'll just go look in on Kaleb now. Dinner is almost finished anyway, and he won't want to miss that.” I step over the board in front of my room that squeaks and make my way to Kaleb's room. He's laying on his bed staring at the ceiling. He looks horrible, but nothing's broken. He's just terribly bruised and swollen. “Kaleb. Obi is on the phone. How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Dinner will be out soon, would you like me to bring it up to you.”
He lets out a breath and turns toward me. His face looks even more battered than it did earlier. Talia is going to have such a reaction. Kaleb may not be allowed to leave his bed until he looks a little better. “Thank you, but no. I'll be down. Tell Obi to worry about Nathan.”
Obi clicks his tongue but I'm the only one to hear it. “How does he look?”
“Like a car crash survivor.”
“I do not look like a car crash victim,” Kaleb argues and rises into a sitting position with a wince. “I do feel like one, though.”
“Unfortunately, Kaleb, you do look like you caught the wrong end of a lot of things. You look worse than you did this afternoon. Can you see out of that eye?” I don't know how he could, I can barely make out a sliver of space between his upper and lower eyelid; not mentioning how swollen his brow and cheek is.
“A little bit. I'll be alright in a couple days.”
Obi clicks his tongue again. “Is it swollen shut?”
“Nearly completely. You're sure nothing's broken? It looks terrible.” I watched both Obi and Trent finger Kaleb's cheekbone, brow bone, nose, and jaw and neither of them felt anything that felt like a break. Looking at him now, however, is making me question it.
“Just keep ice on it. And the ribs. Devon, too. He's probably a beauty queen right about now, too. I'm going to get back to work now, if I can get this paperwork done then I can get out of here. I'll check in again in the morning. If Talia so much as twitches in the wrong direction, call me, alright?”
“I will, Obi. Thank you.” I end the call and turn my attention back on Kaleb. “Talia is going to lose her mind when she sees you. Prepare yourself.”
“It can't be that bad.” He gets to his feet and crosses to the mirror over his dresser. “Shit.”
I slowly nod. “Yes.”
Kaleb sighs. “She's still in there with Nathan and Jasper?” I give him another nod. “I'm going to go get some ice. Maybe it'll help it look better before she and Jasper come down.”
I don't have the heart to tell him that there's no way in hell he's going to look like anything but a ruined punching bag. Devon looked half as bad as Kaleb when I looked in on him. Trent and Alex are a little roughed up, but honestly they were worse for wear after Talia's heat; so I'm not overly worried about them. Reid isn't wounded at all, but he's too good of a shot to have been wasted on hand to hand fighting. He argued when I made the call to put him up high so he could eliminate problems before they got to us, but it was the right thing to do. He's in the kitchen right now eating himself up with guilt because he didn't anticipate the number of intruders that would come from the far fields or the back line and there's nothing any of us can say to comfort him.
“I'll come down with you. Obi gave me a bit of news to share.”
Reid is pulling a baking dish out of the oven when Kaleb and I come into the kitchen. I texted everyone but Talia, Jasper, and Nathan to meet us for a quick discussion and they come straggling in as I'm setting the table. I'll take three plates up to my room after I inform everyone we need to convince Talia that she might not need to be having the amount and types of sex she likes so much. I laugh to myself as I anticipate complete success.
“What's funny?” Alex asks when he comes in from the garage with Devon. “I like to laugh.”
“You won't think this is funny. Let's wait for everyone else.”
Once everyone is gathered and leaning against their counter of choice I drop the proverbial bomb. “Obi called. Talia is fine, that isn't the issue. Obi would be much more comfortable with the remainder of her pregnancy if she was on complete bed rest.”
Trent snorts. “Yeah. That'll definitely happen.”
“I had the same response. He amended his professional advice to encouraging her to engage in less intensely physical sexual activities; and for Alex, specifically, to contain himself. He says to keep her as calm as possible.”
“Well what are we supposed to do when she drags us to the nearest flat surface by the dick with a list of demands?” Alex asks. I'd laugh at him if she hadn't done almost exactly that on more than a few occasions.
I shrug. “Our best, I suppose. Obi will probably want to stay here for the last few weeks until the birth.”
“He can have my room. I'll bunk with Nathan,” Trent says, just as I thought he would.
Devon sighs and glances at Kaleb. “You look like you were hit in the face with a shovel.”
