13. Someday

Visitation started from the next day. Damon and Mariella visited themselves every other day, and others then came by too. It was kinda scary to see everyone since it has been seven years and counting and I could see how they loved to spend time with babies and are for them. Pack members kept themselves under control. There were quite a lot of emotions in their eyes. 

My boys were on it, I had at least one or several of my guardians with me every day, Wulfe and Murdock being most of the time. Mariella took her duty to speak with both of these and get to know them, too. She also made sure that every time she was around, these were eating as they should. She did not faze at Murdock's stony gaze at all but sank her fangs in his throat. Tasted his blood and brought food to him. I let everyone take care of the girls and slowly everyone got on a little better with their child care routine as I taught them what to do. 

My life was hectic as ever because even though I was not in the base, it did not stop Magnum from delivering to me a pile of paperwork to be done, and as I did not sleep, I had time at night to focus on them. I had my paperwork from our clinic as well and baby care as these grew astonishing rate, meaning more supervision was demanded too. 

Mariella's absolute favorite feeding victim was Magnum. Magnum had never really warmed up to her, and she was seeing here challenge, and I as bake, and Magnum ate whatever he wanted, well not anymore if she was around. 

I suspected that my defenders, my five, had warned the pack, more or less, of harming me or breaking my heart. They were loyal to me and it was wonderful. It was also scary that I still had so many who really cared for me. 

Damon was starting to show signs of jealousy, about me, and his babies too, when Murdock or Wulfe cared for them or bought things for them. Babies loved Magnum too, and Damon's expression was tight when little May giggled as she saw Magnum walking in. Babies had not warmed up to them so much. No one dared to touch me, or I was just good at moving away, so no touching, not so much.

When Colin came by, he got interrogated more or less. On many subjects, including my health and my four babies' test results and birth weight. They had now visited for a few weeks right about. 

Colin kept his mouth well shut, as this was nothing sure yet. To him, patient confidentiality was a big deal, and he was extremely protective of me. He had also led the pack out once and talked to them, and my guess was warning them some more.

It was kind of late and I had noticed that when Damon and Mariella, now they had Lepard and Demon with them, stayed every time longer. It was getting near girls' bath time. Magnum and Wulfe were in to house and they knew soon it was bath time and since girls were bigger, this was another messy thing to do, but they loved it. It was not so glorious or easy to be a mother, not always. 

I sighed in my mind, knowing that this would take again a lot of gentle patience to get these cleaned and sleeping or doing whatever. They did not like Damon threats about flanks and a few times after that they had to seek safety out of Magnum or Wulfe, making Salvatore stop threatening my babies telepathically.

Wulfe glanced at me, and said, "Shall I go and put bath stuff ready?"

I nodded wearily. It was time to do this job. I had quite a pile of paperwork waiting for me at night. 

Damon said, "What stuff, bath. Will you bathe the babies?"

Mariella said, "We never, we just wiped them or used energy. How do you bathe a baby?"

Wulfe said," With water, patience, and mess. "

Magnum looked at them and said, "Well, if you are up to it, let's see what will happen when you try to bathe these damn mermaids."

His voice was downright tired. He had been on missions for a little over a week now and he had some respite and living with these was not so peaceful. 

Mariella, Damon, and the boys stood up. Wulfe was grinning. He was not so keen on getting wet and soapy with the girls, so he had found good victims for girls to splash on. His victims did not know what was going to happen. Well, let's see if they learn. 

He took them into the bigger bathroom where girls' bathtubs were and he showed first every product, so Damon could see them through as his radar had activated for the girls and he was very keen to feed them. After every product had been checked out, Wulfe showed them how to draw a bath and check its temperature. Magnum and the Boys got the girls, and I followed. Lepard picked up May and Vivianne and Demon had Emmylee, and Magnum brought Lily. 

Lepard and Demon had been looking like they really missed me. They were skittish around me, little cats they are, they were on my territory, this was not pack's house and I was a darn strong alpha female. Damon had taken out his alpha power at one point, just to see my reaction. I did not react as I was no longer his female, no reason for me to challenge him. 

Bathing babies took little preparation. The first thing was to reserve towels or their bathrobes and nappies for them. Wulfe had fun as he just said what to do, and Damon obeyed. He leaned against the wall, looking like a bored teenager, just ordering these out. Then new clothes too. Next up was to keep the room shut so it would not be too cold and then everyone, Mariella, Damon, and the boys, started to undress their victim.

Of course, there was a dirty diaper, smelly too, so little pre-cleaning was ordered. After the victim was wiped, and the water had been checked, the victim would be lowered into the bath. This was where the fun started.

I was there too, looking at this, and tried to keep my expression neutral. It was hilarious and it would just get funnier as babies really started to have fun. I had to do a little work not to smirk. 

These four splashed and moved into the tub, so you had to keep your hands on them so they wouldn't drown, same time trying to actually wash them, and keep them calm. There had to be water enough so they would not get too chilled and you could wash them. Of course, Wulfe had been again a little mischievous, and somehow a little temperamental May was Damon's to wash. She tried to scream several times and Wulfe told Damon what to do.

There was a soap bubble bottle on the shelf, so Damon had blown bubbles for her to calm her down. Then they had quite long hair, and it had to be washed. But you had slippery, water-loving, quite able little things in your hands, and washing with both hands was difficult. 

I kept my expression neutral as a few dozen different curse words slipped from Salvatores's lips. He was descriptive enough. Lepard frowned and Mariella sighed, frustrated. Demon had his father's vocabulary when it came to swearing. Mariella was frustrated as Vivian was having too much fun, so Mariella had to keep both hands on her and she had not yet gotten her hair washed.

She said. "How on earth do you do this? This is impossible to do?"

Magnum stepped next to her and showed how he washed Vivianne's hair with relative ease. He had done it several times. His grips were firm, experienced, and effective as he knew how to grab her to keep her in place and wash her hair. He was like a born father and maybe someday he would have children of his own. That motivated them to do better.

When Wulfe whispered to Damon, "Use your magic to preoccupy young lady, so she is not trying to swim, it is easier."

Damon noticed Wulfe had not shared every tip, but they had been our entertainment. It was funny though, gotta say, hilarious. Girls were quite impossible to wash nowadays, and this had been a wonderful comedy. I had to suppress my laughter quite many times. I had spare clothes if they wanted to change their wet clothes off.

When they finally got everyone washed, Wulfe and Magnum showed them how to wrap them up and dry them, then carefully, put lotion or baby powder if needed. There might be some little redness here and there, but I said nothing, as my two tutors had things covered. Then it was time to eat or let them play with food again and Damon and Mariella did not stay, but they left and we fed the girls then. 

Mariella looked at Damon as he had said that they gotta go and they will be back. Something had clicked inside him again. Maybe this is for the better. When they get home, Damon took her into the bedroom, undressed her, and fucked her to bits. The next day Damon's 2,4,5 and nine went to see Mimi and the babies. Damon was still on Mariella full on and she knew that this would take time. 

A few hours later, Damon stopped and looked at Mariella with such pure desperation in his eyes that Mariella felt his pain.

Damon said. "I had to go away from there. I almost picked Mimi in my arms and I would want to carry her in bed, nest with her. Those babies, that bathing, I felt we were a family, and I wanted to throw Magnum and Wulfe out of there, but then again. I need to take this slowly. Mimi is not fine. She is so damn fragile. She is skittish, careful, afraid almost, and I am trying so hard to do this slowly."

Mariella stroked Damon. She felt his pain, his need to be Mimi's husband, her protector, to take away all the hurt that he inflicted on her during these seven years. Wulfe's story resonated deep in their souls. Pain that had driven Mimi to almost go through her plan. He had to get her back and at the same time, his impatient nature came to the surface too. He would have a hard time to control himself. 

Murdock had told them that Mimi had let him feel that pain and it had woken his soul up. So he could feel it now. He was not so stone-cold anymore, and those kids were very important to him. But if they ever put Butterfly through that kind of pain, he had special bullets reserved for them. So he warned them, too. All of those five had warned them not to do that again to Mimi. 

It took three days for to Damon get himself back under control to the extent that he could go to visit again. They had done some little trick with bath time, this time for Adam Charles and wolves. Somehow, Charles had been quite irritated after it and had not really gotten into the whole bathing thing. Mimosa told Mariella that Charles rarely takes care of babies. He talks with Mimi or men, but not so much tending to babies. Mimosa had told how wonderfully awful it had been a whole watery mess. 

Mariella got curious about this. Was there some trauma or terrible memory of Charles? When they went to breakfast, Bran had come by and Mariella mentioned this to him. Bran told a quick version about Samuel and Ariana's baby and Charles has never wanted so many babies. Cubs are a whole different thing, but babies, have too many terrible memories. Bran warned them not to delve too much into it as Charles' reaction might be violent. 

As Damon and Mariella kept their distance few days at least, I was thinking to myself that this was good to take this slowly so they could see that they just didn't want me, only babies, and when babies are not so easy to treat as they would have been just newborn, well, the novelty will go away fast. My life was not as perfect as they had thought, even though I had babies. 

Other Salvatores though enjoyed bathing them and four, ten, nine, and, eight were most inventive in distracting this horror four and getting them cleaned up. There was always some Salvatore tasting babies' food, making some teeth substance that they put into pure. Also, girls got fresh blood in their bottles and even little May was not at all nicer. They got used to her little tricks.

Wulfe had to keep me in check as there was often fresh blood smelling and oh my god, my self-restraint was thinning. So Wulfe went a little anywhere but kept me on a tight leash. 

Quite a lot of time went by daily, and there were always volunteers to walk them, supporting them, so their steps became more and more confident each day. Me, Wulfe and Magnum, Murdock weren't so excited about this as these were fast and active and once they had gotten feet under them, they stood up and used whatever support they could to stand up. There were now so many objects to grab and put in their mouths, and of course, as they were vampires, they had fangs. They loved to try to bite and compel as well. Wulfe nor I was not easy, but Murdock, Magnum, or Colin, might sit on the sofa, baby in his lap, his arm in her mouth as this naughty individual fed off. 

Mariella and Damon took Charles into a bedroom and unloaded him. It took flanks, a little sex, and telepathy to get Charles in the right mood to talk about it. He had an enormous pile of rot, just from that traumatic event with that half-fae baby, and it had festered there for decades, so they knocked Charles out and started to clean up his mind. The cavern was huge, but they got it healed fully and nothing bad was left.

Damon looked sleeping man, thinking how easy that had been, compared to what they always had to do with Mimi in the past. But he had realized how much Mimi had healed Charles in time. Teach him to love and then this happens. How much more rot there would be in Mimi's mind? Now, it seemed mission impossible sometimes and there were times when Damon was almost ready to let go, not have the energy to take it slow with Mimi and just let her live her life.

But then again those few expressions, rarely when Mimi had smiled for babies or even for them as those four made them work their asses off, made something warm lit up in his heart, in his chest and it gave him reason to push through. Carry on.

He swore to himself, "Someday, someway, together we will be, baby," like in the song by Michael Learns to Rock. Even an idea of karaoke with Mimi and Pack seemed a fantastic idea, yet there was so much to do until they would be at that point, or even close to that point.

What everyone had noticed was how miserable the little meals Mimi ate were. She ate mostly prepacked micro dishes that she warmed up to herself once babies were put to a nap or there were enough men to watch over them. She had put meals for them if they stayed for dinner, but still one meal she should have eaten five meals worth day. 

Mimi was thin, miserably so pale. Weak and she had very little of spunk that she used to have. Her attitude. Now Damon had tested and taken more of his alpha side out. Normally, once upon a time, Mimi would recite and well to him but now her reaction was very mild, and she kept herself tightly under control too. 

He wanted to wake that spark, make her recite, make her challenge him, be an alpha female. Be the leader, but no, not yet. She was mom and Damon remembered one nature document about certain octopus species, where a female lays her eggs and tends to them dying in hunger at the end, once little ones are hatched. It seemed that Mimi lived only now for her babies and cared for them. 

Damon noticed it was Wulfe who kept Mimi under control and as he watched for a while, he understood her vampire side was way too wild, Wulfe was more or less like sire and kept her from attacking to them as they had given blood to babies. Mimi must have had awful bloodlust. 

They kept on visiting. Damon had now gotten his attitude just right, and it seemed that the entire pack was holding his breath. Any time now, any time Damon would go to Mimi and take her back to pack and not give her much of a choice.

It was in talks that Mariella, Damon, 2, and 5 were going next and now Giselle and Hannah from the magic house would come along, just to see the babies and look them through and also show Mimi that there were places ready for them too.

Mariella had gotten Wulfe a little better at opening up to her so he would be ready to become an excellent ally for them and those witches, oh, poor Wulfe, would notice that living in the magic house is quite an experience, too. That one needed some serious feeding, as well as all of those four others, even Colin was way too thin, Murdock nor Magnum, and Dexter wasn't any more human but supernatural as they had been drinking Mimi's blood so long and it had given them quite a lot more stamina and power. Meaning better nutrition. 

We were having or planning to have breakfast when I was surprised as the doorbell rang. Normally our guests came at noon or just before it, but it was just seven o'clock in the morning and breakfast was usually the messiest feeding, and Wulfe, Magnum, and Dexter were all here. It had been the month for visits, meaning these were now about equivalent to at least 10-month-old by human standards and quite a handful.

Magnum went to open the door, Mariella, Damon, several of them, and a few witches came in too. Magnum told them we were having breakfast, and it was a very messy business, so this would take time. Damon, Mariella, and the witches came into the kitchen, to see as we were putting the babies' foods ready and they were sitting and fussing already, hungry.