The Guard To My Sanctuary - Chapter 29: Chapter 29

Marco
Moving from the kitchen as the sound of Elm's brother and his wife's car leaving the driveway started to fade. Cartier started to look around, b"Mama, Dada," Cartier said. She must have realized that they were really gone as she looked around not seeing them.
"You're going to stay with Uncle Elm and Marco for the night and your parents will come to pick you up tomorrow. How about I get you a popsicle," Elm said walking back into the kitchen and grabbing one of the sugarless neon yellow banana flavored popsicles from the freezer and unwrapped it to hand to Cartier who had her little pudgy arms out to grab. The moment it was secured in her little palms she began munching on it ferociously.
"How about you run her a small bath then we can put her to sleep and you can get some rest," I told Elm who nodded and went upstairs. Cartier kept munching on the popsicle till it was all gone then looked at me for our next move.
"How about a bath now you're all sticky," I said as I began to walk to the stairs. I carried her up one step at a time until I was at the top and walking to her room which doubled as the guest room. I walked into the bathroom where Elm was testing the water testing the water with his elbow.
"Is it good," I asked. Cartier was already falling asleep in my arms.
"Yeah," he said and held his arms out for me to hand him Cartier who was babbling incoherently. I handed him his niece and he took off her clothes and placed her in the tub. She started playing with the water and laughing. Seeing Elm being so caring and even more gentle than he was with me was heartwarming. Her cleaned her off quickly and let her play for a moment to tire herself out.
"Go get her a onesie and some underwear," Elm turned and said to me. I nodded and walked into the room and started looking through some of the drawers and found a pink onesie and some underwear and took them to Elm who already had her dried off and was playing peek-a-boo with her.
"Here you go," I said handing him the clothing in my hands. He smiled at me before taking them and putting them on her. She looked quite tuckered out. Elm picked her up and I cleaned everything up before we left out of her room and went into Elms. It was freezing cold inside because Elm had started having hot flashes in his sleep. Elm pulled the covers back before climbing to the side near the wall and placing Cartier between him and the wall. I turned the light off and climbed in behind him. It was only eleven something but I was tired since I had been up at five. I spooned Elm while he held onto Cartier who was already falling asleep. It wasn't long before she was fully asleep and Elm turned in my arms to face me.
"That wasn't so bad getting her to sleep," he said. I kissed his forehead, I couldn't help it, he looked so cute and had this glow to him and he smelled different. It was this good unexplainable natural scent that just made me want to hold him even more than usual. I was happy that out of all the people in the world he was the one carrying my children.
"Famous last words," I said knowing that tomorrow could be totally different.
"I hope not," he said turning back around. I felt myself getting tired before he did and I gave in...
"SSSSAAAUUUSSSSAAA," Cartier screamed causing me to raise up from my slumber. I looked over to see her standing in the bed her warm undertones now rosy while she screamed.
"What baby girl? what's wrong," I asked. Elm was asleep or pretending to be asleep. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was six in the morning so either could be true for him since he tended to sleep in these days.
"I want saussa," she said aggressively at me giving me the stink eye.
"Okay baby girl, hush now your Uncle is sleeping he needs all the sleep he can get so your baby cousins can grow big and strong," I told her while reaching over to pick her up.
"Babies grow big and strong in his belly," she asked me her eyes wide with childlike wonder.
"Yep big and strong, then you get to boss them around because you're going to be older than all of them," I told her and she smiled. I quickly got her out of the room and shut the door. We walked down the stairs quietly. Elm's Dad had already left apparently since his door was wide open and I saw a note on his bed as we were walking in the hallway to the stairs. I placed Cartier on the couch and turned on Nick Jr for her to watch and made my way to the kitchen. I searched through the refrigerator for the microwaveable breakfast sausage and found them. I quickly unpackaged them and placed them on a plate and turned the microwave on. I walked into the living room and saw her watching Dora and was working on repeating the words that she had learned. I then heard the beep of the microwave signaling the sausages were ready.
"Aane kha-kha sausages kiya jaata hai," I tried my best to remember sausages in Hindi but couldn't put my finger on it. Alder said once that he already taught her a lot of the language so she was probably more fluent than I was since I had only been learning the language for less than three months. I really worked on it after Elm told me it was important to him that the kids spoke Hindi in order to carry on his mother's memory. He even took up Spanish classes so that half of my culture along with us both being black could be passed on to our sons. She hopped off the couch and ran to the stools and tried her best to climb up before looking back at me with her arms outstretched. I smiled and helped her onto the stool and pushed it to the counter.
"Thank you, Uncle Marco," she said getting out a coherent sentence.
"Your welcome," I said and made her a plate of sausages. I ate a few myself waiting for her to finish her two.
"How about we go brush our teeth and wash our faces," I said with a smile and an enthusiastic tone trying to sell her on the hygiene activities.
"Okay," she said and I helped her off of the stool then we walked upstairs. I stopped at her room and found a toothbrush under the sink for her and she started brushing.
"I'll be right back," I said and dashed to Elm's where he was still sleeping I quickly change into some sweats, new underwear and a new t-shirt then washed my face and grabbed my toothbrush and was back to her where she was on the toilet.
"I had to go potty, turn around you can't see my privacy you a boy," she said as she continued to pee.
"Okay," I said and turned my head and chuckled. I did my best to reach for the sink to add water and toothpaste to my brush and started scrubbing my teeth.
I heard the toilet flush and I turned around, " Did you wipe," I asked her.
"Yes," she said stepping to the sink with her step stool and washing her hands. When she was done I spit out the month saliva and rinsed off my brush.
"I wanna play," she said looking at me.
"What do you want to play baby girl," I asked her.
"Tea party," she said with a big smile running into her room her hair bouncing behind her. The next thing I knew I was sitting at the little table with a tiara on my head and a yellow dress pulled up to my forearms surrounded by stuffed animals and all of the Disney princesses. Cartier had filled her little teacups with water and had her pinky out as she conversed with her plush princesses in between sips of tea.
"Aww," I heard from behind me along with the sound of a picture snapping. I turned to see Elm looking freshly bathed and wearing a fleece Heather gray onesie. His hair was covered by a beanie and he still had that glow.
"I hope we have at least one daughter so I can see more of this," Elm said smiling at me.
"We just might, but I have a gut feeling that I only make boys," I told him with a smirk.
"We will see in not much longer," he said walking over to me and kissing my cheek.
"Hey princess how are the girls," he said to Cartier who beamed.
"We are having a tea party," she said smiling and handed him a small cup and poured him some water from the pink plastic kettle.
"Why thank you, your Majesty," he said and drank the sip of water in the cup.
"How about I make you guys some chimi burgers for lunch," he said.
"You remembered and what time is it," I asked. Chimi burgers were my favorite thing my Mom used to make before the drugs. The sweet burger was one of me and my brother Tyler's favorite foods because it meant my mom was clean enough to remember how to make them or even feed us.
"It's two," he said. I hadn't even noticed the time fly by playing with Cartier. I had to admit having a daughter would be nice but the idea of three sons just seemed more real to me. If the doctor told me that we were having one or all girls I'd love them just the same it would just take some getting used to.
"How do you know how to make them," I asked.
"I found a recipe on a Dominican website when I looked it up on Wikipedia," he responded. Elm stayed on Wikipedia it was his way of catching up on the things he missed out on learning growing up. He could start on one page about sales tax and then end up learning the history of Laos.
"Alright well do your thing we'll be right here discussing how we're going to put a basketball court on the castle grounds," I said turning back to Cartier who was having a heated imaginary discussion with Moana.
"Off with their heads," she screamed knocking a teddy bear over.
"Look at you, you're such a little tyrant," I said as she directed the toys on going to war with the bears. I knew she'd be a leader at that moment and wouldn't be lacking in confidence. I hoped I could raise all my children to be just as strong, smart, and confident as she was. We played for another thirty or so minutes before Elm called us downstairs. Cartier took off leaving me to clean up the mess. When I was finally done putting things back as they were I made my way down the steps to see Elm and Cartier on the couch watching Doc McStuffins.
"This is riveting television, they deserve an Oscar," Elm said barely looking at me.
"It's a cartoon," I responded making my way to the kitchen where my food was already prepared. I took a bite out of the burger and fell more in love with Elm. It was just a simple burger but it tasted just like the ones I used to have at the uneven wooden table in my parent's house. I walked over to the couch and sat down to watch the show. I was fully engrossed ten minutes in on the drama.  We sat there for hours, Elm periodically going to use the restroom since his bladder had a smaller capacity now and days. By the time the sound of the door unlocking appeared I was having so much fun just listening to Cartier's ad-libs on the show I didn't want her to leave.
"Hey guys, hey Mama's baby you had a good day," Thalia said walking in wearing the standard college ' I'm done giving a fuck's attire. She was wearing a hoodie that was tied up and baggy sweats along with Nike slides.
"Mommy," Cartier jumped up and ran to hug her mother. A smile on her face and her little teeth showing Thalia picked her up and kissed all on her face.
"Hey Thalia," Elm said turning in the chair.
"Hey boo, she didn't give you too much trouble did she," she asked.
"Oh no, it was fun. I gave her a bath last night and she was out. Then Marco took her in the morning to feed her and had a tea party with her for most of the morning till I cooked and they came down to watch TV," Elm recounted our day.
"I told you she shouldn't be too much trouble. You're mama's good girl aren't you," Thalia said kissing her daughter's cheek.
"Here," Elm said showing her a picture of me at the tea party.
"Aww, I wonder if he wants a girl now. You'd be good with girls, all girls like their dads."
"Daddy," she smiled and looked around.
"See," Thalia laughed.
"Nah I'm still sure we are having boys."
"What if one of them ends up identifying as a girl," Thalia posed her question and Elm looked at me.
"Well, then I guess I'd be doing a lot more tea parties and get to show the boys she brings home just how serious I am about protecting her. And that might happen even if we have a son who's more feminine too I guess," I said.
"Hmmm, it's going to be interesting seeing you guys parent," she said then yawned.
"There's more food in the kitchen if you want to take that along with you since you're going to the airport. I know you probably don't feel like cooking," Elm said getting up. I saw him wince and knew he was dealing with a cramp.
"That would be wonderful, your brother eats enough for two bodybuilder's," she said. Elm fixed her food and a few minutes later she was on her way with Cartier who gave us hugs and kisses before leaving.
"That was nice. If she would have started freaking out my confidence would have been shot," Elm said sitting on my lap. I wrapped an arm around him taking in that strangely enticing pregnancy smell. I looked it up earlier and was informed it was pheromones trying to make me more attracted to him.
"Yeah, that was nice. It made me more anxious to have them here. But not too fast boys and the alleged possibility of girls. I want you all to take your time and grow all strong and none of you go absorbing any of your siblings" I said to Elm's tummy and kissed him.
"I love you, and from what I've seen today I know you're going to make a great father," Elm said which made me smile.
"And you're going to make a great father/mother," I said.
"What are you going to have them call you," I asked.
"Probably whatever they want but to start off I'd choose to be called Daddy," he said and sunk into my arms and looked at the cartoon.
"Well you're going to be a great Daddy," I said kissing his cheek.