23 Chapter 22

Darek is enjoying this, he lives next door again! I am so glad I'm staying with Lilia in the lab, for now. "You know with this situation we can have dinner together and your mother will feel more inclined to come home now, we might even bring the kids into the schools sooner with me living here." Darek babbled on as I break down the last box. Tucker was laying on the floor, as Ryan had his head on the table, Darek was really annoying.

I took a seat on the couch as I wish I could bang my head on the wall, "Alright boys, thanks for helping me unpack." He hands us each a hundred-dollar bill, "This is for helping me move and listen to my old withered lonely heart gush over your mother." I look at the money as Tucker and Ryan shove theirs down their pocket, "No taking it back, or needing us to repay you right?" Tucker asked waiting for an answer, "Nah, and think of it as a late four-month allowance." Ryan looked at the bill, "You're not dating Dr. Kellie—" Tucker smacked his hand over Ryan's mouth, "Alright no taking it back." I was dragged out of the apartment, "Man that guy really gave us $100 each!" Tucker whistled as we pasted the dojo in time to notice, Yukii was home, "I didn't know Yukii was returning?" I said as Tucker shrugged, "She could be getting something, or packing more clothes." Tucker said as we back up to the bakery, "I guess Yukii wasn't the only one to return home for something." I said to point to Violet who was sitting in the lobby of the bakery talking to her parents.

Ryan smiles and keeps walking, "Most likely telling her parents it's safer at the compound." I begin to feel something different, "I don't think so, I think the girls went back home." Tucker and Ryan shook their heads, "No way, I'm sure when we arrive back to the compound Dr. Kellie will comfier our thoughts."

I roll my eyes as we walk towards the school, and fly to the compound. I open the hatch and fly down. When I arrived at the main room, Dr. Kellie was sitting at her computer papers were printing and she was editing files from the Hero League, "Fix that, delete this, who knows, and no these kids are in the hands of their families." I pick up the papers at the printer, I saw Lilia's name on the top, all of her information, heck it even had listed, her pet goldfishes name from before she was affected by the hormone. "There now I'll give the real flies to Diana, and Stone-head won't have any good evidence on her that he can't justify his actions."

I walk up to her, "Wow! This is dark even for you Dr. Kellie." She jumps as she finally notices me, "Gosh, Heath doesn't do that you gave me a heart attack." I laugh as I hand her the papers, "I'm shocked you didn't hear, the other two; fly through." She smiles, "I did, but I thought you three were racing." I nod and sit down, "Are you done helping Darek?" I hummed, "Yeah, he even paid us, for helping him move and for listening to him talk about what he could do know that he was living here next to our apartment." Dr. Killie giggled, "I'm sure he was, which reminds me, I thought about it, and I think I'll be giving him a try. I haven't dated since Flint and think it's time to know that I'm 36 years old."

I widen my eyes, "What, are you sure, I mean don't you think he's weird?" Dr. Kellie looks at her screen, "I sure if Lilia had kids with someone else and you two started to date now, they would say the same thing about you." I give her a snarky laugh, "Fine you win, now off to see Lilia." I smile to think about her waiting in our room, or training gets my heart pumping harder. Dr. Kellie doesn't move, "The girls returned home, yes, even Lilia, they left a few hours ago." I stop, "What why didn't she text me?" she points to her phone I tore apart from the other day that is sitting on the counter, "She told me to tell you, that once her new phone is active, she'll text you."

I was fuming and worried, I flew off to our room and found a note on a box of Dr. Staff's condoms, 'Heath, I'm returning home, and I'm glad to tell you that we can begin our peaceful courtship. My grandparents are wanting to invite you to our next toy design meeting, I think grandma is ready to enter superhero toys. XOXO Lilia.' I throw the paper away and open all the drawers and find she left a pair of nightclothes in her with a sticky note that reads, 'just in case'.

I smile to look at how neatly it's placed in the drawer, I decide it's time to return home too, or I'll go crazy without Lilia. I grab my backpack and put my clothes that were neatly folded on the bed, I walk out of the room as the guys looked disappointed, "Man, the text I just received was harsh." Tucker said as he read over his text again, "Yukii said it was time to return home." Ryan nodded, "Same, but in a much nicer way from Vee."

Tucker and Ryan look at my bag, "You're leaving, that means boss-lady returned too?" I nod as Tucker sighs, "Not gonna lie I enjoyed living with her." I smirked, "Let's go and return tomorrow for training." The guys nodded when Dr. Kellie joins us, "I think tonight I need to sleep outside of the lab." Tucker groans, "Man where is she going to sleep? Do I have to give up my bed?" Ryan scoffs, "Who'd want to sleep in our bed, you haven't cleaned your room once since we moved in." I roll my eyes as we exit the compound, I lift Dr. Kellie up as we fly to the apartment.

Once we lab in a safe place we walk up the stairs and to our apartment, I opened the door hoping the one they were alone they hadn't trashed the place. Surprisingly it was clean, but as we begin to walk in, Darek walks out. "Oh, Grace are you here for the evening?" Dr. Kellie and Darek stop to talk, maybe she really did need a companion, and not three teen boys two preteen boys, and a little girl in her life to keep her sane, and her friends Dr. Staff and Dr. Icy are busy with their families or helping watch the others that they are less like friends but colleagues.

I walk in and begin making the couch one of us was sleeping here, but Dr. Kellie seems to have brought Darek in, "So, this is where you live when you don't work?" I looked at Dr. Kellie then to Darek and started folding the sheets, "No the boys live here, I'm kind of used to living and working in the same place." Darek seemed worried, "Maybe that should change it's not very healthy for you, let's make it so that you come to the apartment every Friday." I rolled my eyes as Tucker sat on the couch, and Ryan turned the game system on. I sit down when my phone goes off and Lilia texted me with a new number. I smirk and feel; an itch to leave the room.

I turn to Tucker who seems occupied with Ryan, Darek, and Dr. Kellie are in the kitchen I go to my room where I throw my bag down and start texting Lilia. She seems to be doing fine and has been working out her feeling and thoughts with her grandmother. I smile one less thing to worry about. I sigh as we text and work through some techniques for fighting the enemy. When by the time we finished the sun had started to set, "Heath diner!" I leave my phone at the table and walk into the kitchen, Dr. Kellie and Darek had some pasta and rolls out with some salad.

I look at them as Tucker and Ryan looked weirded out just as much as I felt. "Let's eat." Dr. Kellie said as I fork my food Tucker usually cracks a joke by now, but this tension is keeping his mouth shut. "So, we have something to tell you, boys." Darek said as Dr. Kellie shyly smiles as well, "We've thought it out and decided to start dating." I nearly dropped my fork, Tucker coughed his food up, and Ryan spat his drink out.

I set my fork down and Tucker coughed out, "Dating, Dr. Kellie you must have some sort of screw loose to want to date him, he's so weird, he's like never dated, and—" Dr. Kellie held her hand up, "Calm down dating mean we just want to try nothing serious, and besides you, boys are dating." Ryan scoffed, "Yeah, but we're doing it with people we have known all our lives." Darek stopped him, "I read and heard the stories you boys knew about them but the girls knew nothing about you boys, I think it'll be great. You boys and I can play some sports and we can have family trips I have a five-bedroom condo in Florida. We can bring the girls and go visit all the amusement parks while we're there."

Darek keeps rambling about them dating, Lilia was right though Darek isn't a bad guy he's just different from our family of four. "Alright," I say sipping on my water, "But if, Dr. Kellie wants to end it, then walk out of all of our lives. The toy company as well they have a good retirement set up as well." Darek's face turned sour, but his aura was starting to match my dominance. "Alright, but if we enter a courtship, I want you three to start calling her at least Grace, if we get married call her mom, you don't have to call me dad, but I do expect you to respect your mother." That word wasn't exactly what I would call Dr. Kellie, she was about a 6/10 aunt but about a 2/10 mom.

Dr. Kellie looked nervous, "Of course, with me here now I sure all of your relationships will become stronger and yes, even yours Grace, I know you never wanted to replace their real mothers, but it's time to step up." After dinner it was a lecture on new rules and structure, "From now on you, boys worry about passing your school and if you want to go to college start looking for them, if you want to learn a skill then work harder so you can get into trade school it if you are unsure then start looking. Being a hero is a great job, but you need to do something else, with your time."

I open my mouth, "Heath I know very well that you're already being trained by my boss, so don't rub it in your brothers' faces." I clamp my mouth shut as he continues, "Then if the girls come over, they need to leave by 8p.m. you three are not so cute or innocent my apartment is next door, you don't want me to hear you three having a sleepover." I glance at Ryan who turned red, "Then lastly, please wear a condom, I'm sure your mother isn't ready for any more kids then what she's got downstairs. Alright, that's all I think it's time for a movie." I groan as an older movie was popped into the DVD player as Darek and Dr. Kellie sit close to each other in the beginning, but in the end, they were cuddling.

Tucker fell asleep and Ryan was crying over the ending of the movie, "How sweet," Dr. Kellie said as she sits up and stretches, I yawn and begin to sit up, "Where do you want to sleep?" She yawned this time, "Darek said he has a spare bed at his apartment, so I'll sleep there." I nod and ignore Darek's smile as I walk back to my room. My phone only had two messages, one from an old friend of mine from St. Louis and the other is Lilia.

I open Lilia's and read the text that reads: 'I miss you.' My throat clenches as I find it hard to breathe, I cough out a sob: 'Me too I miss you too.' I get ready for bed and lie down. Hopefully; tomorrow is a better day.

I wake up with the bathroom mirror being rummaged through, I walk out half-naked as Dr. Kellie was frantically looking for something, she looked over and saw me, "Oh thank goodness Heath, where are the pain pills?" I cocked my head to the side, "We don't have any, we don't experience pain like normal humans or supers." I yawn as she holds her head, "Why?" I ask her, "My head is killing me, and Darek only had two last night which was enough to get me to sleep. But now my head is pounding."

I nod and open Ryan's door, "Hey go to Violet's house and ask for some pain pills, Ryan groans, "You do it I'm sleeping." I scowl, "Violet is your girlfriend, you go to her house and ask." Ryan sighs loudly and puts a hoodie on and his slip-on shoes. "Alright, I'll be back." I follow him to the door and watch him walk across the street to the only place with its lights on at 6:45 a.m., about 15mins later he walks out with a bag in his hand and a bottle in the other. He flies up the stairs and hands me the bottle. "For you, and this is for me." He states as he kicks his shoes off and pulls a muffin out of the bag.

I take the half-empty bottle to Dr. Kellie and watch her choke down two. She sighs lightly, and crawls over to the couch, she passes out sitting upright. I sigh and call Lilia, her voice was groggy, "What?" I hummed at Lilia's harsher tone, "Cupcake, do you have strong pain relief or migraine medicine?" she was quiet on her end, but I could hear her walking towards her bathroom, there was a moment of rummaging before she speaks, "Yes, we have a bottle, but it's old and it's from when my mother still living in the house." I look at the time, "Do you know where I can get some of it, or is it prescribed?" She sighed, "Any drug store will have this one, but I don't think it'll work on us."

I chuckle a little, "Not for me, Dr. Kellie is having a horrible migraine." Lilia sits back on her fluffy bed; I can hear the sheets move under her leg. "I see I'll bring some in a bit okay," I whisper sweet nothings to her before waking Tucker up.

Once at the compound Dr. Icy's husband Hank was teaching us the ends and outs as Dr. Kellie rested, I haven't really noticed anyone else in class except for Lilia so this was the first time I noticed how Yukii and Violet acted in 'class'. "Alright that's it for; lecture, let's head down to the simulators and begin training." Hank is a pretty nice guy until it comes to training. All afternoon we fought in groups of three in odd situations, but we're used to it now. Hank also likes to talk about his hero training when he was younger. The girls went to the showers as I was stuck with Ryan and Tucker listening to Hank talk about superior male heroes.

Oh; my goodness this guy needs to shut up. Finally, we were released and sent to the showers just when finishing up Dr. Kellie's room was crowded with the kids and Dr. Icy and her daughter. Lilia and the girls stood further back, "It seems that Dr. Kellie is getting worse." Yukii said as Violet nods, "We can't do much with her down so tomorrow is a self-training day we need to each work in groups of three and train for an hour then we're good for the day tomorrow." Lilia said as I wrap my arm around her waist, "Can we pick our teams of three?" Lilia shook her head, "No, it's normal girls with girls and boys with boys training." I sigh, "Right, hopefully, next time?" she smiled, "Yeah."