Hard Enough

Hard Enough - Chapter 304 - Family drama

There were a lot of good things about flying into Indigo in a private jet.

You didn’t really have to go through customs when you were obviously rich enough to waive such concerns. Well, not really, but they were much more polite and welcoming than they were to those flying coach or even first class on a commercial airline.

If you could afford a private jet, you would be treated as the VIP of all VIPs.

Sadly, we didn’t own our private jet, so the flight, comfortable and luxurious as it had been, was not as idyllic as it could have been.

There were too many places we didn’t dare tread or cupboards we knew shouldn’t be opened.

When we exited the plane, we were met by an extremely polite security official who performed an extremely perfunctory check of our identities before waving us through.

A bevy of text messages began chirping out over my Xtransciver and I glanced at it to find it was ten messages from Rachel apologising for not recognising Lola.

Another mentioned punishing herself for being a useless lesbian. While another detailed how Cynthia of all people had been there when Lola tried to enter the house.

Surprisingly Flint had apparently initially barred her entrance only for Cynthia’s presence to force his hand for politeness’s sake. At least that’s what Rachel’s take was.

I sent her a quick message back thanking her and telling her to relax.

I shot Trixie a quick message stating that I was back in Indigo and Rachel’s job was secure.

I took a moment to pause and look back at the jet. There was a serious temptation to ask the pilot to step outside so Sabrina and I could ‘discover’ a fault that would result in the plane’s spontaneous destruction.

I considered it for a moment before turning away.

“We need to buy a jet,” I said instead to Sabrina who merely nodded.

“It will be done,” she said, lacing her arm through mine and walking through a set of doors where a limousine was waiting for us with a smiling chauffeur.

I waved a hand. “Not needed,” I said.

The man had barely a moment to give us a confused look before Sabrina hit the threshold of where the dark emitters worked and we vanished in a Teleport.

We reappeared in my room.

I looked around for some sign that things had changed and thankfully, there was nothing immediate. No signs that she’d been in my room or that anything had changed.

I relaxed slightly, only for laughter to ring through the house.

It was higher pitched and evoked memories I hadn’t touched in years.

Lola was in the house.

I clenched my fists and grit my teeth as I eyed the door.

“What is your plan going to be?” Sabrina asked.

“I have no idea,” I said honestly as Lola laughed again. I felt myself tense up further. It was weird how much hearing someone’s laugh of all things would cause this sort of reaction.

“I kind of want to just kick her out,” I stated firmly. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. “I think I need to confront her… as well as ask the others why my wishes about her not entering the house weren’t stuck to.” I waved a hand towards the door. “I think I have a good idea why, but…” I flapped my hand helplessly.

“You want them to confirm it instead of merely assuming the worst of your family?” Sabrina prompted.

I grunted an affirmative before squaring my shoulders and marching through my door and down the hallway to the kitchen and lounge area of the house.

When I entered, I stood in the doorway taking everything in.

Lola was sitting on the couch.

Looking like nothing at all was wrong with her being there. She had the youngest twins, Tilly and Billy in her lap. Both of them were staring at her, uncertain about this strange and yet familiar woman.

I’d never gone out of my way to set up pictures of Lola throughout the house. We had pictures of our family as it was for those who were present.

Flint himself had only just started to feature in a few with some notable moments being him watching Cindy’s pokeflute recital, and being part of the cheer squad for my Ace tournament victory.

There was another of him working alongside a bunch of miners in one of the Megarock INC dig sites that he’d taken Salvadore to. The picture showed him lifting up some evolutionary stones and smiling widely.

All of this was to say that Lola, as a concept, was known to them, but as a person they had no idea who she was. They continued to stare and sometimes smiled along with her but there was a hesitance to their actions that should have been a sign to Lola.

She didn’t even seem to notice, with how her attention bounced from child to child.

She smiled freely at all of the kids until the point that her gaze swivelled and landed upon me.

She fucking had the audacity to brighten up like her day had just been made.

She shifted Tilly and Billy off her lap and launched herself at me.

Instinct flashed through me as I started to close my fist, clenching through my core as I pivoted with my legs, allowing power to transfer into my swinging pun— I caught myself before I could strike her across the jaw.

No matter how much I desired to lay her out.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t or didn’t want to, it was that I shouldn’t.

My brothers and sisters were watching.

Laying out Lola as the first thing I did wasn’t going to heal old wounds and would instead terrify them.

I halted my momentum and opened my hand so my palm was extended.

I had a moment where I caught Lola’s confusion at my actions right before she slammed face-first into my palm with her full weight.

Heh, she’d slammed into my palm like a bug into a windscreen.

“Owwie!” she whined, flailing in my grip. “My little man is being mean to me Flint! Come here Brock! Let your mother give you a hug!” She tried scrambling out of my block, but I closed my fingers tightly and denied her.

“Ouch! Brock dearest, you’re hurting Mummy!” she said.

Part of me was pleased to hear it, but that part of me lamented the fact that our reunion was occurring in front of my siblings. Oh she was lucky.

Flint stood and coughed. “Uhm, Brock you should… let Lola down,” he said, eying me carefully.

Yolanda and Salvadore had stood in shock. The others were all also watching me with wide eyes. Like little sponges they were soaking up everything going on around them.

I exhaled and lightly pushed Lola back to give myself room.

“Don’t try that again. I’m not letting you hug me,” I stated clearly, locking eyes with her.

Lola blinked. Then she tilted her head and blinked again. “Brock dear, you’re being silly. I get that you’re all grown up now, but I’m your mother,” she said with a slightly scolding tone.

My lips twitched at her presumption, and behind her Yolanda winced.

Flint started flapping his hands about in front of Lola. “Dear, maybe you should just let this drop! Brock’s tired from—”

“No,” I stated. My voice resonated through the room, filling it with the intensity of the emotions I was repressing. It wasn’t loud, but it got the message across.

I locked eyes with Lola. “It’s not because I’m tired. It’s because I don’t want you to hug me.” I worked my jaw back and forth before continuing. “And so we’re clear from the start, I don’t see you as my mother.”

Lola blinked. “Brock, you’re not making any sense. You’re my baby boy. My first baby boy and I’m your mother.”

“No,” I repeated. “You lost that right when you left. Not once, but multiple times.”

Lola blinked.

Then she twitched in a manner that almost looked like she was glitching.

“Oh, you’re just sad that I haven’t given you enough hugs!”

I bared my teeth as she raised her hands again. This woman!

How was she being so dense? She was obviously hearing my words but she was still discarding them!

When she took a step towards me with her arms outstretched once more, I raised my hand, more than prepared to block her.

She frowned. “Brock this isn’t how you greet a family member that’s been away. You’re being very rude!”

“You don’t have any legs to stand on about what’s rude and what’s not!” I snapped.

Lola blinked. “What I did was for the family.”

“Like hell it was! It was for you to validate yourself!” I snapped only to regret it when I heard a few little gasps of shock.

“Brock said a bad word!” chimed Suzie and Timmy causing me to huff.

Lola nodded along. “He did, perhaps someone needs to go to their room and think—”

“No. This is my house, along with my Gym. If anyone needs to leave, it’s you,” I said, laying down my line in the sand. I was starting to get an idea of how this was going to go for me though.

Lola just blinked at me blankly. “Brock, families stay together,” she said like she was talking to an unruly child.

I inhaled hot air and felt about ready to growl at this woman. A burning feeling was building within my chest the longer this was going on.

She turned to Flint. “Hubby, our son is being rude!”

Flint shifted. “Ah… well you see Lola my love… you uhmmm… you shouldn’t have left, and it hurt the children.” Flint shuffled for a moment before straightening out slightly. “It hurt me as well that you left us.”

“That’s not true! I didn’t leave. I went on an expedition! Silly man, you knew I was coming back!” Lola said, waving her hand dismissively at Flint.

I felt an odd sense of comradery as I saw a flash of hurt spring into Flint’s eyes.

I found my estimation of him, which now that I stopped to consider him, had been slowly building up was solidifying. Flint was actually trying.

Lola stepped in and lent her body into Flint’s and he wrapped his arms around her. He shuddered slightly and lent on her as she put her head to his chest. “I’ve always been with you. You’re the only man in my life. My one true love. No distance gets in the way of our love.”

Lola looked up at him with shining eyes. “Flint, I left so that you could soar. The Gym would have gotten huge amounts of funding and prestige.”

Lola giggled to herself and a slightly hysterical sob escaped her. “Imagine my confusion when I returned. I came home and our house had moved, and now we have a big fancy house and gym.”

Then she turned to me and smiled playfully. “But then Brock comes home late and is acting all grumpy!”

She gave a fake-sounding sniff and quivered. My eyebrow began to twitch. I was starting to sense a pattern here that I really didn’t care for.

Flint shifted his hands so they were no longer wrapped around her waist but instead on her shoulders lightly. I noticed that despite the tender touch Lola still tensed up.

“Lola my love you’re right, and that I never doubted you for a second, I knew you would return one day, but the same can’t be said of the kids. They’re too young to understand or old enough to see it as nothing but you abandoning them.” He stared into her eyes. “I know it wasn’t though and I know that you’re hurting. I… I’ve started seeing a therapist and I think you could—”

Lola stepped back out of his grasp. “I don’t need some silly man in a lab coat prodding me asking me if I feel or don’t feel something! I feel perfectly fine, thank you!” she snapped.

Lola put her hands on Flint’s chest. “Now while I was looking for another region to secure us a payout you were supposed to stay at home and look after the children. I needed to fix things that had gotten all broken from the war. Remember we spoke of this?”

Flint blinked and shook his head. “No? I don’t believe we—”

“I distinctly remember it!” she shook her head. “Oh Flint sometimes you just don’t listen do you?”

Flint twitched and his jaw clenched only for Lola to perk up. “Well! None of that matters now! Now everything is all fixed thanks to me! Our family is back together and healthy and happy! We have a trade route with three more regions, which will be great for everyone! And there is going to be a big parade for me!” she said happily.

I sniffed. “We’d already found evidence that Team Rocket were scouting Sinnoh.” I said as I started refuting her words only for her to shake her head.

“No! That doesn’t matter!” she said childishly.

Lola shook her head. “That’s nothing against a proven route. I got to Sinnoh, and then was able to bring a much larger vessel back. Other ships will be arriving in a day or two,” she said casually.

I blinked, the implications of more ships arriving during potentially tense negotiations flashing across my mind. “Did you mention that to any of the League Officials when they detained you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe? They asked so many questions and didn’t give me anywhere near enough answers!” Lola offered up a playful shrug. “I was home and I wasn't going to wait a moment longer, so I broke out of their evil hideout and came right here!” she said with a twirl while slashing her fingers in a sideways V across her eyes.

She grinned at my younger siblings. “Pretty smooth huh? When you’re older I’ll teach you how to break out of a police cell!”

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I facepalmed, “Don’t teach them that.” I turned to the kids. “Also kids, don’t listen to her, that’s what villains do alright?”

The kids mostly stared back at me blankly, but I could see some thoughts bouncing around in Cindy and Tommy’s heads. Salvadore made a note of something in his research journal and I grimaced. Sabrina floated past me to check what he was writing and he was so absorbed he didn’t even notice.

With that addressed I returned to Lola and locked her in place with a glare as she tensed up in another attempt to hug me. “Lola! No means no,” I growled annoyed at her antics. What did I need to do? Get a spray bottle or Titan’s paper fan out to discipline her? “Go back a bit. You didn’t stick around and you didn’t tell the authorities about the other ships. But you also didn’t stay for long, meaning you escaped a quarantine area, am I right?”

Lola waved her hand. “I feel fine!”

I twitched. In my past life, I’d lived through multiple lockdowns from a global pandemic.

To have a woman wave it off so shamelessly was one thing, but for her to potentially endanger the rest of my family. There was probably less risks due to pokemon world healthcare but that wasn’t the point!

“Lola, that was extremely irresponsible of you. You might have just carried another region’s illnesses with you,” I said through clenched teeth. I’d circle back to the point about more ships following after the first vessel later. That or I’d send Lance a warning, and he could deal with it.

I rubbed at my temples as a headache built from the stress of dealing with Lola for all of… ten minutes, if that.

“I am now doubly happy that I didn’t let you hug me,” I said aloud. “You are going to the hospital and getting some blood work done.”

“Ieee! Needles! Anything but needles!” Lola said scampering behind Flint. “Needles are scary! Cause they always say they’re not going to hurt, but then they bring out gigantic ones with really sharp tips!” She glanced at the kids. “They hurt so bad!”

I felt another twitch work itself through me. I had spent years teaching the kids how to handle needles and to be tough. About the necessity of them and such and where Lola was, one day back and undermining that.

“Flint,” I growled. “Get her to the hospital.”

Flint nodded. “Lola, we need to do this. Come now, I’ll be with you the whole way. We can go to that cafe you love on the way back!”

“Oh thank goodness they’re still open! So much else has changed!” Lola sighed. She smiled and turned towards the younger kids. “Alright kiddies. Mummy is going to get her jabs! I won’t be long and when I come back I’ll have ice cream!”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into another argument with her over ice cream of all things and potentially delaying her departure. Thankfully with Lola’s back turned Flint was able to tap his transceiver and give me a firm nod.

I gave him a nod back before waving him off. Dealing with Lola was tiring me out emotionally. We’d have to talk privately later but for now I’d settle for an excuse to get her out of here.

Lola skipped off with Flint in tow. I watched them go in silence, my mind working over everything that had just happened.

Then a thought occurred to me. “Let’s lock the doors,” I said.

Yeah, that was a good plan. Just lock the doors and not let them back in.

Yolanda shot to her feet. “Brock! That’s uhmm…” her eyes flickered to the others present. “Not funny,” she said with a forced smile.

I seriously considered saying that I wasn’t joking to force the issue. Instead, I sniffed. “We need to decontaminate the places she’s been sitting on and watch for any coughs, rashes, or weird feelings,” I said instead.

Cindy tilted her head. “Did Mum do bad?”

I nodded for lack of a better response that wasn’t a full-blown rant about Lola's many faults.

Sabrina tapped her pokeball and Alakazam once more appeared. He glanced around before sighing and drawing out a spray bottle and a disposable cloth.

Nanny Grav rolled in from the kitchen and eyed the room before huffing in a pleased manner. She set about helping Alakazam and I frowned at her reaction.

“Did Lola do something to Nanny Grav?” I asked, noting her odd reaction.

“She mentioned that we shouldn’t keep our pokemon in the house like that,” Suzie said, clutching at Togepi. “But then she said it was fine if they were cute!” she said grinning innocently.

I grimaced and shot a look towards Eevee, Terra, Nanny Grav, and Munchlax. Then I blinked. “She kicked the Growlithe pack outside, didn’t she?”

“She said something about dog fur, but they don’t even shed!” Timmy whined.

I hummed and nodded. That decision I wasn’t as fussed about as they were supposed to be security pokemon, but then again, their primary duty was to defend the family more than the reserve, so being close at hand wasn’t too much of an issue.

I smirked as I shot Timmy and Salvadore a look. “So Sirius and Hephy are hiding in your rooms I take it?”

Both nodded happily before adopting false contrite expressions that drew a snort from me. I waved off their false contrition as I took a seat.

So… Lola was back.

I sat there for a moment and tried to process how weird that thought was. I’d literally gone years now without her in my life.

I suppose it wasn’t all that different from Flint coming back if I was being honest… except it sort of was.

I think the worst part was that she completely failed to see herself as having done anything wrong. This… was exactly what I’d worried she’d be like.

I was kind of… weirded out to be dead on the money with my expectations for her.

Lola was a shit Mother.

I knew that to be a gross oversimplification as she had lots of mental hang ups from the war and what she’d had to do but… well damn she needed to work through some of those cause I wasn’t going to just let her flounce around here like this.

I rubbed my chin in thought. I might have to dust off some old plans I’d considered enacting when I’d had the Gym built, starting with adding another house either for just her and Flint or for whoever wanted to live with her.

I flicked my eyes over my siblings and wondered how many of them would want to make that move.

I wasn’t sure I wanted that, but I also didn’t think it was in any way healthy to have her and me butting heads.

I sighed again, knowing that I’d done that a lot in the last few minutes. I felt a bit drained, having dealt with Lola for the moment.

I glanced towards Yolanda, deciding I needed to get a better picture of things. “So, Lola is back,” I said aloud.

Yolanda nodded. “We tried to stop her coming into the house like you wanted but…” Yolanda coughed and hung her head. “She brought her friend from the television. You know? Cynthia, the Champion from Sinnoh.”

I blinked at that. “Cynthia… is she still here?” I said, glancing around for the blonde only for Yolanda to shake her head. I’d honestly not thought about her till now.

“No! No, the government sent some people to collect her a few hours ago now. She uhmmm, kind of got dragged here by Mum and with her on our doorstep, it was…” Yolanda fidgetted. “We couldn’t really keep her out with that, you know?” Yolanda said.

I huffed. I mean I probably could and would have, but I could see how it would have been a lot to ask for Yolanda. Flint… Flint had surprised me. He’d actually made an attempt and backed me up occasionally. He was trying.

And it wasn’t just Yolanda saying this, Rachel had said much the same in her earlier messages.

I had honestly expected that he would have seen Lola and gone weak at the knees. But he hadn’t. That was a good sign.

Yolanda dropped her head further. “Sorry Brock.”

“No, don’t say that. ” I said.

Yolanda looked up from the floor in surprise.

“No,” I repeated. “You did good. Better than I honestly think you could have, considering the circumstances.”

I offered Yolanda a heartfelt smile. Thank you,” I said looking right into Yolanda’s worried eyes. “It means a lot that you were ready to stop her just flouncing in. It sounds like you at least tried before things got too crazy.”

Yolanda offered back a weak smile. “It’s been something else; she’s… not how I remember her to be,” Yolanda offered. “She just seems so… scatterbrained. She says some things and then shifts topics so quickly.”

I offered a shrug. “Can’t say I know what to make of that considering…” I offered a hand. Sabrina stepped up to me. One of the topics we covered was how limited I actually was in dealing with Lola in face to face interactions.

I’d had a short period upon coming into this life before she’d fled, delaying my originally planned Journey before racing off a year and a half later.

I glanced around, taking in everyone’s body language as much as what they were doing or saying to each other.

The youngest twins seemed pretty happy to have Lola back even if they were confused about what was going on.

Tilly and Billy were happily playing without a care in the world. I suspected that if Lola was to disappear once more they’d be the least affected out of all my family, they were probably the only ones that had less actual time spent with Lola than I did.

Suzie and Timmy were playing with Togepi, but watching the older kids for cues, I could tell.

Everyone else had a solid year with Lola at least.

I noted Cindy and Tommy were very quiet. I moved over to them and smiled. “Hey, are you both doing alright?”

They nodded hesitantly with Tommy shooting me furtive looks before asking, “Why are you so mad at Mum Brock?”

I’d expected this question… Well, actually, my therapist had postulated this as being a question I was highly likely to be asked.

It was kind of nice having an answer ready for them, though, one that I felt was right for me at least.

“Because she’s done some things that aren’t right.” I sat forward in my seat. “She’s also not acknowledging that she did the wrong things or apologising for doing them.”

Salvadore, who was next to Tommy, shifted in his seat. “You’re talking about how she left, aren’t you?”.

I nodded seriously.

Salvadore shifted again and his pen moved a little on his journal. “Is she going to stick around?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I’m not sure buddy. I think so?”

Cindy tilted her head. “You said leaving is bad right? But you and Forrest both left for your Journeys. How is that any different than what she did?” she asked childishly.

I hummed. This was yet another potential question we’d discussed in my therapy sessions. Man, they were really proving their worth. It certainly helped that a lot of potentially triggering questions like this had already been approached in a safe manner instead of being sprung on me.

“Our journeys are things that we planned for, and we left knowing that you all were well looked after. We didn’t simply dump and run,” I said, even though I knew I could have added the point that as children ourselves it shouldn’t be up to us to look after other kids. That wasn’t the reality of our situation so I didn’t say it out loud.

But I thought it, and judging by Yolanda’s frown, she caught the implication of my words.

Tommy frowned. “You mean like Susan’s dad did?”

I grimaced. “Susan is one of the kids in your class at school?” I asked, which earned me a nod. “How is she going?”

“She’s… sad?” Tommy replied slowly, and I nodded.

“Yeah, that makes sense. She’s probably hurting from it. Do you ask her to play much or ever sit with her?”

“No? We’re not friends,” Tommy said logically.

I hummed. “It might be nice if you did, alright? Just don’t push about it cause she might not know what she wants.”

“That doesn’t make much sense!” Tommy said with a slight scowl.

I shrugged. “Sometimes it’s like that, and trust me, as confusing as it is for you or I, it might be even more confusing for Susan, kay?” I said softly.

Tommy nodded and I nodded back with a smile before giving him a hug. When I turned to check on the others I noted that every set of eyes in the room was on me. Ah, that might have been a bit of a deeper lesson than I’d planned for it to be.

Damn, it was tough to remember that kids could soak up the darndest things.

“So if Mum had planned to leave, that would have been better?” Cindy asked, getting us back on topic.

I hummed. “A bit better,” I replied with a waggle of my hands.

I smiled at her as she scrunched her face up in confusion.

I chuckled. “Journeys are about going out and learning. You do it when you’re young and seeking new experiences. Being exposed helps you grow up in new ways. It also helps teach you responsibility.”

“Responsibility? How?” Cindy asked.

“Well, you have to take care of yourself and your pokemon right? That’s where it starts but it also extends to looking after the environment so you don’t damage it when you camp somewhere or move about.”

“Ooooooh,” Cindy said dramatically. She adopted a very serious expression of thinking, even going as far as squinting her eyes in determination to work through what we’d just discussed. “And Mum’s… departure was… not about that?”

“No, as far as I can tell her departure was… something else which I don’t know how to explain,” I stated.

“What was it?” Cindy asked, obviously put off by my admittance. “Come on, you should answer properly!”

I shrugged. “She says one thing but… well I’m not sure she’s telling the truth about why she ran away. She might be even lying to herself,” I said.

Confusion swept across most of my siblings’ faces while others gained thoughtful expressions.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Suzie said. “How can you lie to yourself?”

I hummed, considering how to word this to my younger siblings. "Imagine you think you did your homework, but then you look in your bag and realise you forgot it. Lying to yourself would be saying, 'I definitely did it' even though you know you didn't,” I said.

Suzie hummed while giving Togepi a thoughtful scratch on the carapace-like shell that made up her body earning Suzie a happy trill. “I don’t get it!” Suzie declared. “I like doing my homework cause it’s all colouring and having fun!” she stated seriously.

I snorted. “Alright, bad example. Are you scared of the dark?”

“Noooo?” Suzie said while her eyes shifted about guiltily.

“So if I turn the lights out in here and block the windows, you’ll be fine?”

“No,” admitted Suzie.

I nodded. “So earlier, you were lying to yourself. That’s an example of it anyway,” I said.

Suzie hummed again, processing this.

I look around for any more questions before deciding to address something else that would be best to raise while Lola and Flint weren’t here.

“So, there’s a new rule for our family that I want to raise,” I said, clapping my hands to gather the kid’s attention on me.

They all zeroed in dutifully and I nodded. “So, there’s going to be a lot of talking and… potential problems coming up with… Lola coming back,” I couldn’t bring myself to say Mum and I knew that was an issue for some of the kids as Lola obviously hadn’t introduced herself with her name but rather as Mum to them.

I swallowed. “If Lola says anything or does anything that makes you feel sad or angry, I think it is important that you talk to me or Flint about it.”

Sabrina leaned over the couch and smiled at the kids. “You can also talk to me about it if you want,” she suggested, and I shot her a thankful smile as some of the girls perked up a little at this.

Suzie tilted her head and hummed louder. “So, if I felt worried when you were growling at Mum should I tell her?” she asked.

I put my hands together and sighed. “No, you can talk to me about it. I’ll… try not to growl at her too much,” I said.

“Even though it’s wrong?” Suzie asked, prodding at the sore spot.

I nodded tightly. “Maybe. It depends. Remember how I talked about respecting personal space?” I said alluding to a small lesson we’d had when she was younger. “So, if I do it too much it might be wrong but if Lola isn’t respecting my personal space I can tell her no which might mean I need to growl.”

“Me getting growly is how I react when I am…” I floundered for the right word.

Sabrina metaphorically stepped in for me by speaking up. “When Brock is feeling hurt or worried he gets more growly. He doesn’t like some of the things your mother is trying to do and that she’s not apologising.”

Suzie nodded along at that, and I squeezed Sabrina’s hand on my shoulder.

Salvadore coughed. “Are we going to make Mum sleep somewhere else for now? If she is potentially sick…” he said with a worried trail off.

I leapt at the hesitation he was showing. “It might be a good idea. We’ll say she needs to stay at a motel for a night or two!” I declared.

It certainly stacked up better than trying to explain the tangle of emotions I had regarding Lola to the kids.

I fired off some messages and arranged a temporary stay while wording it as a ‘romantic getaway for Flint and Lola’. I paused after sending it.

Lola was too old to have any more kids… right?

I sent off another message after the other batch of messages to Flint, reminding him to get some protection.

Ten was more than enough children, after all. There, that would get me some breathing room. I just needed to work out how to approach this properly without blowing my top and punching her.

I sighed and sent my therapist a quick message.

That seemed like a good place to start. Sabrina squeezed my shoulder, moving away to give me some privacy as she sat with Suzie.

Hmmm, I was forgetting something. I couldn’t be sure of what though so I just shook my head and focussed on other matters.

Lola stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around her hair. She giggled when she caught sight of Flint.

He was laying where she’d left him, drained and exhausted after their lovemaking to the point that he’d passed out almost the instant she’d finished. She moved to tuck him in and pat him lovingly.

“I’ll be outside for a moment,” she said to him which drew a grumble but nothing else as he settled into a deeper slumber.

She moved out to the balcony that overlooked a large courtyard with small decorative art pieces strewn throughout it. Lola didn’t really think much of it but she supposed it must be nice to some people.

She sighed and drew out a cigarette.

It was nice of the kids to suggest her and Flint have some alone time like this! They were such good kids!

She drew the cigarette up to her lips, looking forward to the post-coital bliss that would come from being completely loosened up along with a cigarette. She’d held off in the field and around the kids, but when she was alone, she felt like she could indulge.

She drew in a breath, only for nothing to enter her lungs, causing her to frown. When had it gone out? Had her cigarettes gotten waterlogged? That didn’t make any sense.

Her eyes snapped to the side as Sabrina stepped towards her. “Cigarettes kill,” she said in a tone that Lola had heard all too many times before in her life.

It was the tone one used when they were considering murder.

Lola felt her heart stir as she began tracking her son’s girlfriend. She was wearing a sensible outfit that covered her whole body, and she had a strong body.

Her eyes glowed in the classic psychic threat display as a shovel rose behind Sabrina’s shoulder.

Lola glanced at it. The perfect weapon for an infantryman.

She’d seen them use it to deadly efficiency more than once before, and when it wasn't being wielded as a weapon, it was a dead useful tool.

Lola’s eyes continued to track everything as her pulse quickened.

Her eyes paused on a ring on Sabrina’s left hand. Oh?

Lola smiled. “I’m glad I have someone like you with my baby boy,” she said.

Sabrina blinked before frowning minutely.

Lola spoke before she could. “You get that as my first born’s daughter in law I’m going to have to test if you’re right for him before approving your marriage!” she declared as she drew out her daggers.

Sabrina had enough time for her eyes to widen in realisation before Lola was lunging at her with her daggers, punching towards Sabrina’s shoulder.

The shovel swung around and blocked the strike, but Lola had expected that. She flicked her wrist and hurled her other dagger while lowering herself into a tackle.

Sabrina swayed out of the way of the dagger, only for Lola to catch her around the legs and try to bring her to the ground.

Instead of being brought to the ground Sabrina teleported them both. They hit the ground and were thrown apart.

Lola scrambled to her feet, hands drawing another pair of daggers from her pouch as she activated her dark emitter.

A shimmer of energy washed over her, and Lola grinned at her boy’s girlfriend.

Lola and Sabrina locked eyes once more with both more than ready to throw down.

Lola couldn’t be happier!