Atomic Hawkmates + 8 or 50 or 58 (whatever you think is best) please and thank you 😊
50. Well, That Was Unexpected
“Someone get on line with the birds,” Rip says, more exasperated than surprised. “Tell them- I don't know, say someone is here to see them.”
“Oh,” the intruder says, her nose wrinkling in thought. Ray finds the gesture kind of familiar, finds all of her kind of familiar, but assumes it’s because, well-
She has those wings sticking out of her back. And Kendra’s mouth.
The girl gives Ray a quick once over, tilting her head. “She’s not- back yet? What year is it?”
“Two thousand and seventeen," Ray says, and wonders why he keeps looking at the color of her eyes. “Why?”
“Flip,” she says, and her wings fold into her back. “I'm like, three years early.”
“Yes, well," Rip says, holding up his hand to her, like he is both telling her to wait and to come here at once. “I’ll be on the line with your parents in no time, and then we'll all sort this out and you can go back to-“
“My parents?” she asks. Ray notes her freckles across the bridge of her nose, the dark curls of her hair.
“I mean, is anyone surprised that Kendra and Carter made a baby?” Jax asks, with that grin he has when something is implied to be kind of, sort of filthy. “It’s more surprising that only one of them's shown up. There's probably like, twelve of them.”
Ray bites back the envy that rises in his throat, that has been sitting firmly in his ribs since the girl arrived. He is happy for them, really, that they have a family, that Kendra did get to be a mom, that-
“Carter isn’t my dad,” the girl says, almost laughing, tucking her hair behind her ear. “That one is.”
It takes Ray twenty years to register that she is pointing at him, another thirty to realize that he’s been staring at her eyes because they are his.
He does not, however, register how to speak.
“Well, Mazel Tov,” Mick says, clapping Ray on the shoulder. “You get the girl after all. What happens to bird boy? Fire? Meat grinder? Bird girl chokes him to death in his sleep?”
“Wow, no,” she says, wrapping a lock of her hair around her finger. That’s his hair color, too. Kendra’s is lighter, catches the sunlight. Hers is as dark as his. “They both come back. Like… soon, I think. Maybe? I dunno, it’s unclear. If I was born in-“ She covers her mouth. “I sure was born, at a time, that I cannot tell you, right, of course.”
“You shouldn’t even be here,” Rip stresses, still holding the phone in one hand. That strange, antique phone that’s rigged up to Gideon. “I can only imagine what this will do to Carter and Kendra when they do show back up, now that-“ Rip gestures. “Now that you’ve told us!”
“What does happen to Carter,” Ray asks, softly, pressing his knuckles against his lips. “Why does she- Something has to have happened to him, right? And she comes back to me.”
His daughter runs her tongue against her gums for a moment, making inventory of her thoughts. “They both come back,” she says. “And nothing happens to Dad 2. Well, that’s not-“ She makes the nervous gesture Ray always makes, pushing her knuckles against her palms. “You happen to him.”
“I hurt him?” Ray asks, suddenly filled with dread.
“You uh-“ She cocks her head. “You love him.”
Something bursts in Ray’s chest all at once, something light and bathed in gold. “Oh,” he says, taking long, purposeful strides. “Oh, my baby girl, my little baby princess, my Josie-“
“Older-“ The girl interrupts, trying to find her footing as Ray embraces her, lifting her off the ground. “Josie is- What you and mom wanted to name your first kid and surprise, you do, but I’m uh- I’m Helen. And Aldus is in between us. And- No, nope, I’ve said too much.”
“Helen,” Ray says, eyes sparkling with tears. “My little Helen, my baby, oh we’re all going to be so happy-“
“So how many babies are the three of them going to churn out?” Jax asks, though he’s grinning like he finds this terribly amusing.
“Not just the three of them,” Helen says, still being lifted above the ground. “I mean like, there’s- You’re all pretty freaky for a bunch of old people.”
Rip lets out a noise of distress. “Gideon,” he says. “Sterilize the team.”
“I’m afraid that’s rather inhumane, Captain,” she says. “And I for one love babies.”
“God, I’m not even going to go into what ends up happening there,” Helen says, finally being set down. She’s got Kendra’s height, still tall, but not as tall as her father. “It’s- Good to see you like this,” she says. “Young.”
“Oh, but getting old sounds so much better now,” Ray says. “Carter and Kendra are going to love me, and all the babies-“
Helen turns to look at Rip. “This was a mistake, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, hugely,” Rip says. “You take after your parents that way.”
