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Thomas smiled as he looked out over the sea. These days, his mornings had a different light to them than the ones he had the past twenty years. When Atlanna had been gone, he went out every morning to wait for her return and on days such his Arthur’s birthdays and his own, he used to doubly hope that he would find Atlanna waiting at the end of the dock.
Now, he went out to greet the morning out of habit and to send his thanks out into the universe for his wife’s return, his son’s health, and the health of his step-son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, as well as Salty, his loyal dog. It was a far nicer reason to be up in the morning, and it did not make him feel quite so old as waiting with his eyes unable to find Atlanna.
“Tom?”
He smiled, before turning back to the house, seeing his beautiful wife coming down the stairs. Today was a special day, and as such, Atlanna had dressed up. Not in the finery of a Queen of Atlantis, but in a lovely blue cotton dress that complimented her eyes and billowed a bit in the seaside breeze.
“Any sign of them?”
The ‘them’ in question would be their son and his family, Mera, Arthur Junior, and little Kiwa.
“Not yet. They’ll come.”
Atlanna smiled fondly at him.
“Of course.”
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
She nodded, still smiling.
“I’ll start another pot of coffee. I can make sure to put on that blend Mera has a taste for.”
“Good idea. I got some cookies yesterday, when I picked up the cake. The little seashell shaped ones that Kiwa likes.”
“The little soft ones?”
He nodded, and Atlanna’s smile widened. Kiwa was not much for cake, as they discovered a few weeks ago at her second birthday party, but she loved the fresh made cookies from the local shop. Tom had gotten them, thinking Mera and Atlanna would like them. They were soft like good ginger bread, but flavored in strawberry, lemon, and orange, leaving them in pastels of pink, yellow, and orange.
Tom found that he enjoyed being a grandfather. Every few weeks, Arthur and Mera would bring the kids up to the lighthouse to stay for several days. Sometimes, they brought them up for a shorter trip, or Mera would bring them if she and Arthur needed to be somewhere due to their jobs as Queen and King. They both said they preferred the kids have time with their grandparents, than be with tutors and nannies while their parents were away. Tom and Atlanna loved it.
When little Junior came along, Tom had been so happy to have a little grandson, so be able to cart a baby around, watching the world anew in his bright eyes. Then, being with Arthur as they saw he had inherited at least some of Arthur’s unique gifts, had been a treasure in of itself. Getting to watch Atlanna with a baby on her hip, singing to him, playing with him, telling him great stories of kings past, had been like stepping back in time nearly 40 years.
Then, a surprise two years later. Little Kiwa. Mera had stayed with them for the last month of her pregnancy, due to a threat to Atlantis that Arthur, with Orm’s aid, had dealt with.
Those weeks, Mera asked many questions of Tom’s family, since she knew the history of Atlanna’s as well as she knew her own. She wanted to know all about Tom’s parents, grandparents, if he had siblings, cousins, and the like. He told her that he had been an only child, his mother had no siblings, and his father’s two brothers had no children of their own, so Tom was pretty much the last of them till Arthur and Junior had come along.
Atlanna had nearly needed to hold him up, when Mera and Arthur informed him, the morning after Kiwa’s birth, that they had decided to name her for Tom’s late mother. He had mentioned, when answering all Mera’s questions, that his mother had been named for her grandmother who had in turn, been name for her great-grandmother, Kiwa. Mera said it was a way for the tradition to continue, for she and Arthur to give their daughter an old family name, something of the surface to signify her being a bridge, just as Arthur and Junior were.
When she explained it to him, you could have knocked him over with a feather. He had been honored and overjoyed, nearly having his knees buckle. Atlanna had even teared up at the gesture.
A loud splashing sound brought Tom’s attention back to the present. Turning back to the sea, he found his beloved son, Arthur, with little Junior trailing him and baby Kiwa in Arthur’s arms. Arthur was in a tank top and slacks without shoes, Junior in shorts and a shirt, little Kiwa was in long pants and a shirt, her little arms already reaching for Tom. It was no secret she was Granddaddy’s Girl.
“Ah, my little angel.”, he cued as Arthur handed her over.
Kiwa leaned, giving his forehead a big kiss as her little hands held his cheeks. At two, she was a little tall for her age, but she was a bright little thing to Tom. Junior came rushing around, Arthur catching him before he could take Tom’s legs out from under him. The lad was still learning to adjust to Grandpa being fully human.
With Junior in his arms, Arthur stepped forward to let Junior give Tom a hug, Tom’s one arm moving around the kid to hug him back. Junior took more after Mera and Atlanna in appearance, with dark reddish-blond hair, bright blue eyes, and their fairer skintone with bright pink in his cheeks when he was happy. Kiwa had Tom’s dark brown eyes, Arthur’s long black-brown wavy hair, with a darker skintone that already matched Arthur’s, and her eyes almost disappeared when she smiled just as Arthur’s did when he was a chubby cheeked child. Tom could not have loved them more.
“Your mom has laid in the supplies for your arrival.”, he looked over his grandson’s shoulder, “But it seems we are missing a member of our party.”
Salty, all 60 pounds of him, danced around their feet, eagerly trying to get to Junior and Kiwa. The old boy loved the children dearly and they were his biggest fans.
“Mera can’t make it this time, Pops. Sorry.”
All too quickly, Arthur was pulling his son up in the air, making airplane noises, and running towards the house. Tom arched an eyebrow. Something was up. Arthur was a terrible liar who tended to avoid topics with Tom rather than trying to lie.
“Pap-baw?”
He loved his granddaughter’s way of speaking, and knew he would miss these days when she was old enough not to say things like ‘pweeze’ when she meant ‘please’.
“Yes, angel?”
“Where Gran?”
He reached, catching his granddaughter’s little hand, “She’s inside getting everything ready. We’ve been excited to see you all day.”
“Reawe?”
“Really.”
The little girl giggled all over herself. Indeed, Tom much preferred his mornings now. And he loved being a grandfather.
`~*`~*`~*`~*
Atlanna looked over at her son, as he brought Kiwa in from changing her diaper. She reminded Atlanna so much of Arthur when he had been a baby. So far, she had shown no ability to speak to the animals of the sea as Arthur and Junior did, though Atlanna suspected the girl may have inherited her mother’s gift instead. Only time would tell, and no matter what, Atlanna loved the little girl with her whole heart.
“Hello, my little starfish.”
Kiwa giggled at the name.
“Would you like to go play in the water for a little while?”
It would be a while before their early dinner, allowing time for cake, ice cream, and cookies, before the kids took a nap and the adults visited a spell. The plan was for them all to spend the night, so Arthur and Mera weren’t trying to drag two tired children all the way back to Atlantis. Atlanna assumed, with Arthur being solo today, that the overnight stay was still the plan.
“Ah, you want daddy to get your little swim suit, so you, Junior, and Grandma can play in the water?”
Kiwa nodded very enthusiastically.
“Alright, we’ll be right back. I’ll get the kids in the swim trunks and get this one her little floaty.”
Both children were half Zebellian and a quarter Atlantian, yet still, Atlanna and Arthur preferred they wore the little floaties till they were at least out of diapers and able to truly swim on their own. Junior had only recently graduated to being allowed to swim in just swim trunks with a neon reflective band on his wrist. Tom claimed they worried too much, though he never stopped them from taking precautions with the grandchildren.
Moments later, Arthur came down, a kid in each arm with Salty trailing behind him. Atlanna chuckled at the sight. She would never tire of seeing her son happy, nor of her grandchildren’s joy.
“Alright, you little monsters, we’re going swimming.”
Junior waved both arms, a wide smile on his handsome little face. Kiwa was already trying to swim, while held in Arthur’s arm.
“Well, it looks like somebody’s excited.”
Arthur chortled at her teasing. His sense of humor was a lot like Tom’s but more boisterous. In truth, he had not been exactly what Atlanna expected when he washed up on the shore almost ten years ago. She had half expected him to be as quiet and reserved as Tom, with Tom’s sneaky sense of humor, and his steady presence. Arthur was a little more wild, far louder, and a defiance to him. In short, he carried more of Atlanna’s personality than she had figured he would, given how quiet he had been as a baby.
Her heart clenched at the missed years. She reached, taking Junior in her arms. He was tall and broad, like Arthur had been as a child, and she had no doubt he would grow just as tall and strong in adulthood. She intended to enjoy the childhoods of her grandchildren in a way she had not been able to for her sons.
Together, they walked down to the little inlet where Atlanna taught Arthur to swim so many years ago. Tom, once they learned they were to have Arthur, had gotten the most unexpected, odd items at the store the next time they were in town. Atlanna had expected toys, clothes, and other things all parents got for new babies, be they Human or Atlantian. Tom had been different.
He purchased a Polaroid camera, a video camera, boxes of blank tapes, and film for the Polaroid. He had needed to explain what each item was to Atlanna at the time, as she had no familiarity with them. Tom said he wanted to have the scrapbooks of their child’s growing up, for them to enjoy when they were old, surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Her whole pregnancy, Tom was snapping pictures. Then, when Arthur was born, it was photos and videos. One video, in particular, was from the day Atlanna taught Arthur to swim in the little inlet.
After her return, Tom had showed all the videos to her that he took while she was gone. He pulled out all the scrapbooks, letting her view the moments she missed. He had even apologized for how he could not let her relive those moments for real, and she thanked him for making the record he made. Painstakingly chronicling their son’s childhood so that Atlanna could see so much of it when she did return. It had showed how much faith Tom had that she would come back to them.
Shortly after her return, there had been a delivery to the lighthouse. It had come from Bruce Wayne’s butler, Mr.Pennyworth. Atlanna had yet to meet the man, but Arthur explained that the man knew everything, and that he often went around helping out the members of the League in his own quiet way. The delivery had been of a machine to transfer VHS tapes onto DVD, as well as a stack of blank DVDs, and the instruction booklet to allow them to take all the tapes Tom had made over the years, and put them onto DVD so they would last far longer.
“Here we are!”, Atlanna announced as they reached the little cove where she could sit baby Kiwa in her floating ring and Junior could paddle around in the calmer waters around them as Atlanna supervised.
Junior ran, leaping into the water, as he cried out, “CANON BALL!”
She heard Arthur chuckling while Kiwa was almost vibrating with excitement. Kiwa let Atlanna slide her into the pool floaty, then started kicking her long little legs, to maneuver about in what amounted to a small pond. Atlanna sat on the edge, from the hips down being in the water, in a pair of swim trunks and a swim top as she played with her grandbabies, beside Salty who kept a watchful eye on Junior and Kiwa. Life did not get much better than this.
`~*`~*`~*`~*`~*
“Here.”, Tom handed his son an ale.
“Thanks.”
They clinked the edges of their bottles, each taking a long drink from the bottle.
“Are you ever going to tell me what kept my daughter-in-law away? You didn’t have a fight, or something?”
He doubted Mera would refuse to attend a family event over a fight, but he also knew making his son think he was worried, tended to loosen Arthur’s lips.
“No, dad, nothing like that. Nothing stupid or dangerous, I promise.”
“Good.”
“It’s just hard for her to swim such distances, and deal with being up on the surface for hours at a time, right now.”
Tom turned, having a sneaking suspicion but waiting for it to be confirmed or dispelled. Arthur’s grin had him pretty sure of the answer.
“Morning sickness is hitting her harder this time than it did with Junior or Kiwa.”
Tom reached, taking his son’s elbow, “For real?”
“Yup. You’re going to be a grandpa again, Grandpa.”
Tom set his drink aside so he could wrap his son in a bear hug. Arthur, mindful of Tom’s being merely human, hugged back tightly. Another grandchild! Tom could not have been more excited.
Stepping back, he looked up at Arthur, “How long have you known?”
“We found out right after we got back from our last visit. She was tripping more often, said her balance was off the whole time we were visiting, and smells really bothered her more so than usual. She had the physicians confirm it for her the day after we returned to Atlantis.”
Tom noticed his son still did not refer to the Kingdom he reigned over as ‘home’. Not even with Mera and the children there. When he said ‘home’, he was always referring to the light house.
“Is she alright? Healthy? The baby?”
Arthur nodded, and Tom could see the love and joy in his son’s golden-amber eyes.
“She’s healthy as a kraken, as she puts it, and the physicians assure her the baby is just as healthy as Mera is.”
“That is good.”
Arthur nudged him, “Happy Birthday, Grandpa.”
Tom thought his face might split from his smile, he was so happy.
“A new grandbaby.”
Arthur nodded, giving Tom’s shoulder a squeeze.
“I’ve gotta tell your mom.”
“Go for it.”
Tom took off from the porch, rushing down the stairs two at a time, in his haste to get to his wife. Once he hit the sand, he pivoted, turning down towards the inlet cove where she liked to help the children learn to swim. He saw her there, her back to him, little Kiwa happily bobbing in her green and orange floaty, Junior paddling around just within Atlanna’s reach.
“Atlanna!”, he called.
She spun quickly to face him, Salty instantly going on guard as well, and only then did he realize he probably spooked her into thinking something to be wrong. She seemed to relax at seeing Tom’s smile.
“We’re going to have another grandbaby, ‘Lana!”
His wife positively beamed at the news.
“Really?”
He nodded, “Arthur just told me.”
As if on a cue, Arthur stepped down off the dock, holding his own and Tom’s drinks.
“Surprise.”, he said, almost sheepishly.
Atlanna narrowed her eyes even as she smiled.
“So that is why my daughter-in-law does not come to the surface. Morning sickness does make keeping one’s balance a bit tricky, especially on the surface.”
“I’m just waiting for the odd cravings to kick in. With Junior, all Mera wanted was oysters with that green paste you Atlantians think is a delicacy. With Kiwa, she wanted salt & vinegar potato chips.”
Tom chuckled, “Your mother wanted briny pickles and oranges.”
Atlanna shrugged, “Carrying a half-human child, I swore everything I craved seemed odd to me.”
“The process of elimination, to determine what you were craving, was fun. I remember you sipping all sorts of things in the kitchen and walking around the grocery store, with your nose in the air, trying to sniff out the thing you wanted.”
Atlanna shook her head, her cheeks pinkening above her smile.
“The surface world was still so new to me, I had no idea what I was wanting, only that I wanted it badly.”
She looked up to Arthur with a fond expression, “Your father was very patient about it.”
“As I said, it was amusing. Besides, you had me trying foods and drinks even I had never had before, and I’ve lived on the surface my whole life.”
Tom had enjoyed those odd weeks, in the first trimester, when Atlanna had a devil of a time figuring out that Oranges had been one of the things she was craving. There had been an older woman in town, a widow with several grandchildren, who had advised Tom in the grocery store one day to get a selection of fruits and vegetables, particularly ones he did not generally keep around the house. He was always fond of strawberries and apples, so he always had those on hand, just as he usually had onions, tomatoes, and potatoes around for different dishes her cooked.
Based on the widow’s advice, he had bought oranges, a couple pears, granny smith apples, bananas, celery, spinach, some peppers, and a few other items he had been able to lay hand to at the grocery store. The Widow explained to him, that sometimes cravings were the body’s way of telling you there was a particular nutrient it needed, and for pregnant women, it might have been something they were struggling to produce enough for themselves and the growing child. When Atlanna went wild for the oranges, he decided it was probably vitamin C. For Mera wanting oysters, he figured it was one of the omegas found in fish, though he could never figure why she wanted potato chips with such a strong flavor when she carried Kiwa.
“Mera sent me with a little gift for you. She had the physicians record the baby’s heartbeat for her, and she said mom would know how to play it for you, so you could both listen to it.”
Tom smiled. Because Atlanna wasn’t human, they had not gone to a doctor during her pregnancy. She worried too much about being discovered, either by surface worlders who would not be as kind as the people in town had been about an odd woman just showing up at the lighthouse, or by her own people’s spies. As such, Tom had bought a stethoscope for them to listen to Arthur’s heartbeat and they had to hope he was healthy and that the delivery went smoothly. Tom had called in a friend, who had midwived in the past when she was a bit younger, to help Atlanna when it came closer to her time, though she had insisted he take her out to the sea so she could birth Arthur into the water as a proper Atlantian birth was supposed to happen.
When Junior and Kiwa were coming, it had been a bit different. Mera received her care in Atlantis from trained Atlantian physicians. Atlanna could swim down and be with her, sharing motherly wisdom and holding her hand while the doctors did whatever they did. Tom could not follow to be part of that. Arthur had been the one, when they were expecting Junior, who brought up the Atlantian equivalent of a sonogram when Mera was about seven months along with Junior, and again with Kiwa. Both of those were stored with the DVDs of Arthur’s childhood, along with the scrapbooks Tom made of Arthur’s growing up and the two he and Atlanna were making of Junior and Kiwa’s growing up. Tom supposed he would need to get a third scrapbook, so they could start the newest baby’s book.
“Thank you.”
Arthur smiled, “I asked Mera, if she minded me telling you. We figured if I didn’t, Junior would blab. I thought, at least this way, I could tell you on your birthday and give you an extra reason to celebrate.”
Tom reached, hugging his son around his back.
“My family are all healthy, and happy. I have all the reason in the world to celebrate.”
`~*`~*`~*`~*`~*
Gathered around the table, Tom looked at the bulk of his family. Junior sitting on a booster seat that was almost as old as Arthur, Kiwa with a cute bib of mermaids as she sat in Arthur’s old high chair, Salty staring at them from the sofa, with Arthur seated between them at the circular dining table, Atlanna between Kiwa and Tom, and an empty chair between Tom and Junior, where Mera usually sat when they all visited. He supposed he would need to find a bigger table soon. He smiled. A most happy problem to have, needing a larger table for family dinners.
On the table, sat the meal he and Atlanna had made the day before and heated back up as they knew they would be too busy spoiling grandchildren to be bothered to cook. A roast with vegetables, and gravy. It was one of Tom and Arthur’s favorite meals. One he often made for their respective birthdays over the years. Arthur had especially enjoyed the good leftovers it made.
Atlanna began making up a little plate for Kiwa while Arthur worked on getting the drinks for both children, and Tom started cutting the roast for the adults to have, a few smaller pieces would be cut for Junior to have as well, and some meat for Salty, while Kiwa would eat the chicken breast Tom cooked for her this morning, since she had trouble with red meat. He liked cooking for the kids.
“Do you and Mera know if we will have another little boy, or another little girl?”, Atlanna asked.
“Mera thought it was ‘charming’,” Arthur said with an intonation that made it clear he was quoting his wife, “that I did not want to know what we were having each time, until the Big Day. She told the nurses that she doesn’t want to know anything except if the baby is healthy and if there’s anything we needed to be worried about or mindful of. She wants the surprise, too.”
Atlanna nodded, knowing that back in Atlantis, a quick scan would determine the sex of a babe, as well as many of it’s characteristics. When she had carried Orm, Orvax ordered the scan done as soon as possible, then had been upset to learn that Orm would look nothing like him in all likelihood. That his scan suggested he would be fair like Atlanna and not as tall as Orvax was.
Tom reached, catching her hand to give her a small squeeze. She looked up to see that kind look in his beautiful dark eyes. The eyes their granddaughter shared.
Whenever her mind strayed to Orvax’s cruelty, or of the years she missed out on for Arthur or Orm, it always seemed Tom picked up on the change. Even when she thought she hid her sadness well, Tom still spotted it. She supposed it made sense. He was a lighthouse keeper, he had to have a keen eye.
“I suppose the Council will be delighted. They always want at least an heir and a spare, so now they will have the heir apparent and two children behind him.”
Arthur waggled his eyebrows, “I would happy to give them a ton of spares.”
Tom’s calm, firm tone broke in.
“That would Mera’s choice.”
Arthur’s mood sobered slightly as he nodded, “I told her that. Apparently, she thought I would insist on some particular number, since Atlantis sat so long with only one heir, then only one full Atlantian heir.”
Atlanna knew what her son meant. When she had been her late father’s only issue, thus the only possible heir since her father’s brothers all died before they had children of their own, and he had no cousins eligible for the throne. The Council under Orvax or Atlanna’s father, would never have allowed a half-Human to rule, which left Orm. Orvax’s only heir.
Once Orm had been born, and he was not what Orvax wanted, Orvax had consulted the physicians. They informed him that it was lucky he and Atlanna had a son, because their scans of Orvax suggested he was more likely to father daughters, than to father sons. Not wishing to have a line of ‘useless daughters’, he did not insist Atlanna ever lay with him again.
As glad as she was to be free of him, Atlanna had also ached for Orm. And for Arthur. They would not know each other, not grow up together as brothers should. They would be strangers to one another.
“I told Mera I was happy when it was just the pair of us. I was thrilled when Junior came along, and I told her that when he was born, and said if she only wanted us to be a family of three, I was happy and the Council could shove it up their”, Tom cleared his throat, to cut off any vulgar term their son might have used in front of the children.
Arthur gave his dad a nod, “She wanted another child, and we had Kiwa. I told her, mixing three biologies, we still had two, healthy, amazing kids. I was happy, and she was glad the Council were at least satisfied by having a spare, and not having to worry again about a small, direct line. But, shortly after Kiwa’s first birthday, Mera started talking about expanding the family a little more. That she thought three was a good number. That they would grow up together, with their unique mix of biology, being bridges between the land of the Surface dwellers, and the people of the Seas.”
Reaching, she held her son’s larger hand, running her thumb across the span between his forefinger and thumb. His hands were so much like Tom’s.
“I am sorry that you, and Orm, were not raised together as you should have been. I wish it had been so.”
Arthur returned his mom’s gesture, his hand so warm in her own. Atlanna, like Mera, Orm, and the others of the seas, ran cool to the touch due to the same biological changes that allowed them to exist in the depths of the ocean. Arthur ran warm, almost hot, like his father.
“I know, mom. I wish it too, that we could have grown up together, that he could have been a Curry, been part of the family.”
Tom sat straight, looking first at Arthur then Atlanna.
“Orm is family. Even if he does not carry my name, he is family. Part of my family.”, he smiled, “Part of our family.”
Atlanna reached with her other hand, taking Tom’s. Her sapphire eyes were as bright as stars.
“It’s my birthday, so what I say goes.”
Arthur chuckled, “Well, then say the word so we can eat!”
Tom and Atlanna both busted out in laughter, Kiwa joining as Junior yelled, “FOOD! FOOD!”
“Happy Birthday, Pops.”
Tom smiled. Today was his best birthday yet. And next year, he hoped to have two more members of the family at the table, as well as those who had been at his table last year. For Orm and the new grandchild, to be part of the family with Atlanna, Arthur, Mera, Junior, and Kiwa, at a larger table where they would all fit together.
“It is, son.”