Cataclysm (Alternate Earth Series, Book One) (2 page)

I walk over to the stove and watch Brynlee flip the egg she’s cooking with her father’s help.

“That looks so yummy, baby,” I tell her.

“This one is yours, Mommy,” she declares, leaning over to give me a kiss on the cheek.

“I helped make the bacon,” Max tells me proudly as he comes to stand with us.

I ruffle his shaggy head of dirty blonde hair, which makes him smile.

“Stop growing up so fast,” I tell him, meaning it and not meaning it at the same time.

As I look at my children, I can’t believe that they’re already six and five-years- old. It seems like only yesterday that I was pregnant with Max at Caylin’s fifteenth birthday party. Now, Caylin and Aiden are married and have a child of their own, Baby Kate. Time was escaping me with no way to anchor it into place.

“What was that big sigh for?” Mason asks me.

“Did I sigh?” I reply, his question breaking my silent reverie. I didn’t even realize that I had sighed aloud. “I was just thinking how quickly the last few years have gone by. Max will start first grade in August, and Brynlee will move up to PK5. It doesn’t feel as though it was that long ago that we were teaching them how to walk.”

“That’s what happens when you live a happy life,” Mason tells me. “It goes by quickly.”

“Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?”

Mason shrugs. “It’s better than living an unhappy one for thousands of years. I know that better than most people do. My real life didn’t start until I met you.”

I hear Zack yelp from his chair beside Faison at the table.

“What was that for?” Zack asks her.

“You need to take notes from Mason on how to be romantic,” she informs him.

“I haven’t lived as long as he has, so I’m pretty sure that line isn’t going to work for me.”

“No,” I agree, “it most certainly won’t.”

Because there is only one Mason
, I think to myself as I look back at my husband, the father of my children,
and he’s all mine
.

After breakfast, Mama Lynn offers to wash the dishes, and enlists George as her indentured servant.

“I need to get to the hospital,” Faison tells us as she pushes herself out of her chair.

“Today is your last day at work, right?” I ask.

“Yeah; I’m going to miss them, but they said I could come back when I’m ready.”

“Still planning to take a year off?”

Faison nods. “I think so. I really want to spend some time with the baby. At least I think I do,” she laughs. “Who knows, maybe I’ll get stir crazy and want to go back to work sooner than I expect.”

“I get dibs on babysitting!” Mama Lynn calls out. “I’ll be retired by then, so I’ll have plenty of time.”

“You know there isn’t anyone else I would let take care of my child,” Faison tells Mama Lynn.

“I still don’t know why you insist on waiting until the baby is born to learn if it’s a boy or a girl,” Mama Lynn complains for about the one-hundredth time, if my counting is correct.

“I want it to be a surprise,” Faison says in a patient voice. “There are very few true surprises left in the world, but I’m making one. Just have a little more patience, Mama Lynn. We’ll know if it’s a boy or a girl soon enough.”

“I know,” Mama Lynn sighs in complete resignation. “It just makes buying things so much harder, not knowing the sex.”

Mason’s cell phone rings. He pulls it out of the back pocket of the blue slacks he’s wearing. When he looks at the screen, he smiles and swipes the surface to answer it.

“Hey, college girl,” Mason says, “are you ready to come home?” Mason’s smile broadens. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be there to help you.”

“Was that Leah?” Mama Lynn asks as Mason puts his phone back in his pocket.

“Yes, she’s all packed,” Mason replies. “I’ll phase over to her apartment and help her put things into storage. Then I’ll bring her home.”

“
Jess
,” I hear a familiar voice say to me. I look over by the kitchen table, and see Michael standing there. “
Maybe this would be a good time for us to go see Lilly
.”

I nod my head. “Yes, I think it would be.” I look back over at Mason and say, “Could you drop me off at Lilly’s before you go help Leah?”

“Of course,” Mason says, holding out his hand for me to take.

“George and I will take the kids over to my house while you’re visiting,” Mama Lynn tells me.

“Thanks. I won’t be gone too long.”

Mason phases me to the front porch of Lilly’s Colorado home. She and her family always spend the summers in the house Malcolm built for her. Since school just let out the week before, I knew they would all be here.

“Do you want me to stay with you for a little while?” Mason asks.

“You don’t have to. We just wanted to have a talk with Lilly before tonight.”

“Sometimes I forget you and Michael are so connected. I’m glad you finally found a way to make him an active part of your life. For a while there, I wasn’t sure you would.”

“It wasn’t easy, but after watching everyone else interacting with their Archangels, we found a way to make it more natural for the both of us.”

Mason pulls me in closer to him until our bodies are pressed against one another.

“I’ll let you worry about dealing with Michael,” he murmurs. “I would rather not think about his connection to you, especially when I’m making love to you.”

I let out a half-laugh. “Don’t worry. He makes himself scarce in those moments. We’re completely alone during our playtime.”

Mason chuckles. “You make it sound like were a couple of kids playing.”

“And
you
are my favorite playground,” I inform him, wrapping my arms around his neck and bringing his head closer to mine for a kiss.

It doesn’t matter that we’ve kissed a thousand times before. Each kiss is a gift, and I never take any of them for granted. Until Mason entered my life, I always assumed I would live a lonely existence, with only Mama Lynn and Faison to call family. Now, I have a husband who adores me and does everything within his power to make each day of our life together memorable, and I have two children of my own who mean everything in the world to me. My life is blessed, and I would never take a moment of it for granted.

Reluctantly, I pull my lips away from Mason’s, causing him to sigh in disappointment.

“I guess I’ve still got it, even if I’m old now,” I tell Mason.

He laughs. “Twenty-nine is not old, Jess.”

The reminder of my exact age also brings to mind something else.

“Today was supposed to be the day you became human,” I say, feeling sad and a bit guilty that Mason won’t be able to keep to our original plan.

“I can’t do that
and
go to alternate Earth,” he shrugs. “But don’t let that make you sad, Jess. I
will
be growing old with you. You have my promise.”

“Then let me make a promise to you,” I tell him, deciding to voice something I’ve been mulling over for a long time now. “If we don’t find a way back there before my next birthday, I promise we’ll stop trying.”

“Jess…”

“No,” I say firmly. “That is my promise to you, and I plan to keep it. It’s not only for you, Mason. It’s for me, too. I can’t keep trying and failing. It’s taking too much out of me. I can’t sleep. I can barely eat. And I think all of the stress is affecting my ability to conceive. There is nothing I want more in this world than to have another child with you. I’ve put my life on hold for too long because of this. Enough is enough.”

“I’ll do whatever you want to do,” Mason tells me. “You know that.”

“And I know how much you want to be human and officially hand the leadership of the Watchers over to Malcolm. I know how much what Aiden did at his wedding to Caylin affected you.”

Mason looks confused. “I never said anything to you about that.”

“You didn’t have to,” I tell him, leaning in to give him a small kiss. “I know you too well, Mason Collier. I saw the look on your face when he asked God to make him human.”

“Did I look jealous?”

“No. You looked sad.”

“I guess I was both,” he admits, the sad look I saw on his face that day returning. “You and the kids are everything to me, Jess. I just want to live out a normal life with all of you. With every year that passes, I see you all getting older, and I’m just sort of stuck where I am.”

“Then don’t try to talk me out of my promise to you. If we don’t find a way back by this time next year, we’ll give up. It’ll mean it just wasn’t meant to be, and we’ll both know we tried our best.”

Mason hesitates but finally nods his agreement.

“Ok. One more year and we give up, knowing we did everything we could.”

“Now, kiss me before you have to leave me,” I order playfully. “You know I can’t stand it when we’re apart.”

Mason does as ordered, making me wish I had asked him for matches instead.

CHAPTER TWO

Once Mason leaves, I ring the doorbell, since my arrival is unexpected. If I had forewarned them of my visit, I would have just walked inside without going through the formality. After so many years of sharing our lives with one another, I now consider Lilly’s family an extension of my own. We are all so ingrained in each other’s lives that walking into each another’s homes is natural. But today is different. I’m not sure what Lilly and her family have planned to prepare for her possible departure, and I don’t want to overstep my bounds by intruding on something meant only for the immediate family.

Brand answers the door, dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. He graces me with one of his warm, welcoming smiles.

“Hey, Jess,” he says. “I thought it might be you.”

“I didn’t realize I was that predictable,” I reply, wondering if I’ve lost a bit of my ‘woman of mystery’ mojo, if I ever had any.

“Your
caring
is predictable,” Brand assures me, letting me know it isn’t a bad thing.

I feel my cheeks grow warm from his compliment.

“Come on in,” he tells me, taking a step back from the doorway. “Caylin and Aiden just got here, so the girls are busy with Kate.”

I walk into the house and hear Tara say, “Come on, baby girl. I know you can do it. Push yourself up. Come on.”

When Brand and I walk into the living room, I find Lilly and Tara sitting on the floor with the latest additions to the Cole family, Xavier and Ariana, sitting in between them. Caylin sits a few feet in front of them, with Baby Kate lying stomach-down on a pink blanket. Kate gurgles as she looks ahead at her aunt, grandmother, and cousins a few feet away. Caylin is trying to help her daughter bend her knees beneath her body and lift her upper torso with her arms.

“Come on, sweetie,” Caylin croons. “Show grandma and Aunt Tara what you showed me and Daddy last night.”

“Da-da,” Kate says happily, turning a wobbly head in the direction of her father, who is sitting on the raised stone hearth in front of the unlit fireplace.

Aiden smiles at his daughter encouragingly.

“Show them what you can do, Katie girl,” Aiden says as he winks at his daughter, causing her to gurgle happily once again.

With what seems to be a new determination, Kate pushes herself up onto her hands and knees, and maintains that position for a few seconds before slowly falling ungracefully face-first onto the floor.

“Oh, baby,” Caylin says, only laughing slightly at the sight of her daughter’s failed attempt to crawl. She picks Kate up and holds her close to her chest while kissing her forehead. “You’ll be crawling around before you know it, and giving me small heart attacks in no time with your little explorations.”

“Hey, Jess,” Aiden says to me, not in greeting but to gain my attention, “watch this.” Aiden looks back at Kate and says, “Katie, come to Daddy.”

Kate hears her father’s call and phases over to Aiden, landing squarely on his chest. Aiden quickly wraps his arms around her before she has a chance to slide off. He might not be a War Angel anymore, but centuries of muscle memory still allow Aiden to maintain his quick reflexes.

“Good job, Kate!” I praise.

Aiden smiles proudly at his daughter, looking like the happiest and most contented man in the world, before kissing one of her chubby little cheeks.

Lilly stands up and walks over to greet me.

“Happy birthday, Jess,” Lilly says, giving me a hug. “Brand thought we might be seeing you this morning.”

“We just wanted to have a talk with you before tonight,” I say, not having to explain why I was saying ‘we’ instead of ‘I’.

“Of course,” Lilly replies, completely understanding my motivation. “Why don’t we go outside? I don’t want to upset the kids.”

I nod in agreement. Even though Xavier and Ariana are only two and a half years old, they are extremely observant about the things that happen around them. For instance, they would easily sense if their mother became upset about something.

“I’ll be right back,” Lilly tells Brand, kissing him on the lips. She shakes her head at him. “And stop worrying.”

“I can’t help it,” he replies, looking at her as though it might be for the last time. “I will always worry about you if I think you’re in danger.”

“Stop it,” she orders again, but not harshly. “Nothing is going to happen to me.”

I follow the matriarch of the Cole family onto the front porch. Lilly walks over to the swing and we both sit down.

“We wanted to give you another opportunity to back out of tonight,” I tell Lilly, voicing something Michael and I discussed the night before. “If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to.”

“We’ve already been over this, Jess,” Lilly says, sounding slightly exasperated. “I’m the last person you have left to try. If it’s meant for me to go, then I need to go. It’s that simple.”

“But I hate putting you and Brand through this,” I confess. “I know I wouldn’t want to be separated from Mason for God knows how long.”

Unexpectedly, Lilly laughs. “You know, I think Brand is more worried about me coming face to face with a younger version of himself than anything else.”

“Why?” I ask, flabbergasted. “To be honest with you, I think he looks better now than in the pictures I’ve seen of him when the two of you got married.”

“I know!” Lilly agrees whole-heartedly. “He’s one of those men who just gets better-looking with age but, for some reason, he doesn’t see it. I swear, I thought it was supposed to be we women who worried about the small wrinkles around the eyes and graying hair.”

“Well, I can assure you both that the Brand I met on alternate Earth is totally different. Maybe not in the way he looks, but in the way he acts. He struck me as being someone who isn’t very patient, and a bit more aggressive.”

“There’s only one Brand for me,” Lilly says without a shred of doubt, “and he’s the father of my children and the caretaker of my heart. He should know that by now. I’m not sure why he’s letting his insecurities get the better of him.”

“Men are funny creatures. Even the toughest ones have soft spots you wouldn’t expect them to have.”

“
Jess…
”

I look over by the porch railing and see Michael standing there with a pleading look on his face. I know he wants to talk to Lilly directly without him having to give voice to his request.

“Your father wants to speak with you,” I warn Lilly. “Are you ok with that?”

Lilly nods. “Of course.”

I allow Michael to take control of my body so he can talk to his daughter without me having to act as a go-between. It’s a strange sensation when it occurs, but one I’ve become accustomed to over the years. When it happens, I’m still a part of the scene, yet distant from it, acting as a participating observer. It used to frighten me, but there have been times when Michael wanted to physically interact with his family. I saw no reason to deny him those few precious moments with his loved ones.

“Lilly,” Michael says, his deep concern for her naked in his voice, “are you sure you don’t want to back out of tonight? No one will think any less of you, and I dare say a lot of people would be relieved if you did, including me.”

“No, I want to try, Dad,” Lilly tells him. I feel Michael’s heart drop at her statement. I know he hoped Lilly would take the out we were offering her, but he also should have known that she wouldn’t run away from danger. She was his daughter, after all. “I want to help if I can. Honestly, to my way of thinking, it’s God’s choice on whether or not I’m supposed to go there, not mine. Don’t you agree?”

Michael hesitates but begrudgingly nods his head.

“But I’m your father, Lilly. I don’t relish placing you in a dangerous situation unnecessarily.”

Lilly reaches out her hand and grabs ours.

“I’ll have you and Jess there to help protect me. I’m not frightened of what might happen. You shouldn’t be either.”

Michael tries to smile reassuringly, but the attempt is a miserable failure.

“If it’s all right with Jess, why don’t you come inside and spend a few minutes alone holding your great-granddaughter.”

Michael’s mood instantly perks up, and he stands from the swing.

“Let’s go.”

Michael’s joy as he holds Baby Kate in his arms warms my heart. When he finally does decide to give me back control, I get to love on her for a little while too. I miss the sensation of cradling a baby close to my chest. It’s pleasant enough to hold the children of others, but it just doesn’t compare to holding a child of your own. Perhaps, as a parent, you feel an added joy and responsibility for the little one in your arms. You know it’s your responsibility to nurture and prepare them to venture out on their own one day. I’m not sure what the difference is exactly, and it doesn’t really matter. All I do know is that I want to experience it again soon.

I hear the front door open. When I look over towards the entrance, I spy Malcolm walking in, dressed casually in a pair of khaki shorts and thin white shirt with the first few buttons undone.

“Will! Linc!” He calls up the staircase to the second floor, in a voice similar to that of a drill sergeant. “It’s time to go get the supplies!”

“Supplies for what?” I innocently ask Malcolm from my seat in the living room.

Malcolm quickly whips his head in my direction, surprised to see me. He saunters over to the chair I’m sitting in and begins to smile when he sees who is in my arms.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he says vaguely. “How did you get lucky enough to have some alone time with Kate?”

“Michael was granted the privilege,” I respond. “He just left so I could enjoy her for a little while, too.”

Malcolm beams with pride as he looks at the latest addition to the family, and leans over to kiss Kate on the forehead. Kate grabs at Malcolm’s hair, keeping him near. With Malcolm’s head so close to mine, I can’t help but take note of his expression as he gazes at Kate. There’s a longing there I never noticed before, which makes me ask, “Have you thought about having more children of your own one day, Malcolm?”

Malcolm’s eyes meet mine for a split-second before returning his full attention to Kate.

“It’s crossed my mind,” he admits, sounding reluctant to say as much. “But it won’t be anytime soon. I have too much to do right now.”

Malcolm gently pulls his hair out of Kate’s grasp and stands back up.

I hear heavy footfalls stomp down the stairs.

“Sorry, Uncle Malcolm,” Will apologizes, with Tara’s son, Linc, coming to stand by his side. “We were in the middle of playing a video game with some friends online.”

As I look at Will, I can’t shake the sensation that time is slipping through my fingers. He’s seventeen now and practically a man. He was blessed with his father’s good looks and easygoing personality. Linc, on the other hand, resembles his mother in the face. Both boys are handsome, just in their own unique ways.

“Happy birthday, Jess,” the boys say together when they see me.

“Thanks,” I tell them. I stand from my chair, feeling as though it’s probably time for me to join the other members of the family back in the kitchen.

“Well, come on, then,” Malcolm says to them. “We promised your mother we would go shopping for her today.”

“Uncle Malcolm!” I hear a sweet voice call out as two more sets of feet quickly make their way down the staircase. Mae and Tara’s daughter are soon standing by their brothers. “Can Ella and I come, too?”

I hear Malcolm sigh in defeat. “Like I can ever say no to you, Mae.” Malcolm turns to me and whispers, “Expect a lot of pink.”

I try to hide a laugh behind a smile.

“Go ask your mothers first, though,” Malcolm tells the girls. “I don’t need either of them yelling at me for taking you shopping without their permission.”

The girls make a mad dash towards the back of the house where Lilly and Tara are sure to be found in the kitchen. When they return, Lilly is right behind them.

The first thing Lilly says to Malcolm is, “No more stuffed animals. Mae’s room resembles the San Diego Zoo as it is.”

I hear Mae gasp in shocked horror at her mother’s one rule for her excursion with Malcolm.

“But they need homes, too, Mommy,” Mae tries to reason.

“And they’ll find them, Mae,” Lilly says gently. “It just won’t be in your bedroom.”

Mae looks crestfallen at her mother’s words. Ella puts a comforting arm around Mae’s shoulders.

“It’s ok, Mae Mae,” Ella says. “I can give them a home.”

Mae’s eyes light up with a newfound sense of purpose.

Both Mae and Ella grab one of Malcolm’s hands, to stand on either side of him.

“We’re ready, Uncle Malcolm,” Mae says, looking up at her uncle like the sun rises each day just for him. Yet, Mae has the unique ability to make anyone she’s around feel as though they’re special. Very few people possess such a God-given gift.

Malcolm phases the girls, and Will phases Linc. It’s obvious their destination was already predetermined.

“Come have some tea with us,” Lilly offers to me.

The front door opens again and Leah walks into the house, shortly followed by Mason.