Absent But Not Forgotten [IC]

[Electra]

Erin wasn't in much of a mood to talk about holiday plans, especially holiday plans she'd just made up to get Mrs. Faretti to stop being mad at her, but she figured she was stuck for it now. "Um, I haven't exactly lined things up yet," she said. "The school does a sort of Thanksgiving and holiday meal for students who don't go home, but no winter formal or thing like that. They pretty much just leave that up to prom in the spring. I think I'm just going to take a few days off and do stuff, catch up on things and watch TV. I can probably babysit if you need me to," she admitted.

[alderwitch]

"Hopefully, we won't... did you see that?" Taylor asked as she rolled up to a sitting position, holding the baby against her chest as she shaded her eyes and squinted across the park. She'd felt it more than seen anything as she'd been laying down but her mystical sense had started tingling and she squinted her eyes. "Over there."

She pointed and the shadows seemed to ripple and bend before settling back down into normal shadows. It was just a blink and you'll miss it moment of weirdness but it was enough, very likely, to set both women alert.

[Electra]

Erin narrowed her eyes as she looked towards the little ripple. Reaching again into the diaper bag, she withdrew her bat, collapsed into a slender tube no longer than one of JJ's diapers. "Maybe you should take JJ and get out of here," she suggested. "I'll check it out, whatever it is." Magic wasn't Erin's strong suit, but it was surprising how many bad guys, magical or no, just straight-up charged you the second you went looking for them. "Can you see it?"

[alderwitch]

Taylor had taken the time to cast her detection spell while Erin grabbed her bat, her arms going protectively around her son. She went to curl her legs up under her, her eyes glowing white as she scanned the park reflexively, looking for the source of the signature. By the time that she'd turned her attention back to Erin, the shadows were rippling behind them. Taylor looked more annoyed than frightened. "I can sense it. It's..."

Before she could provide her usual mystic exposition, a shadowy figure stepped out and tossed back his cloak in dramatic flair. "Chosen of Heshem... I challenge you--"

"It's okay, Wander, you can just hit him." Taylor muttered as the man started to pontificate and gesture.

[Electra]

"Okay," Erin agreed. Before the man could do so much as focus on her, she executed a neat flip that took her behind his back, then executed a very fast series of deft sucker-punches. It was over so fast that he was unconscious for a few seconds before his body realized it was time to fall down. "Why are people challenging you in the middle of the park?" she asked curiously. "They don't want your job, do they?"

[alderwitch]

Taylor got to her feet to examine the man, shushing the baby who was always excited when they took down really anyone. Taylor sometimes worried about those predatory instincts as anyone looking over at the hissing infant would see sharp little fangs and glowing red eyes. He settled down with a few more chortles that sounded downright smugly gleeful when Taylor's sneaker nudged the man's thigh and he didn't move an inch. He was quite out. "It would be nice if they wanted to do anything so useful. No, I'm afraid it's just bragging rights for the young necromancer. Idiot. Now the question is, where do we put him... No, you have no idea where he's been."

The last was to JJ who was making definite 'feed-me-now' noises. Ah, the care and raising of young dhampyr.

[Electra]

"We could take him home and give him to Mr. Faretti," Erin suggested with a shrug, looking down at the thoroughly defeated thug. "He could probably figure out something to do with the guy. Or at least find out where he's been." She shot the baby a quick grin, but was ignored because JJ was still busy licking his lips and watching the infirm prey on the ground. "You've got that, whatever, that pocket thingy, right? You could put him there anyway, I guess, just to get him out of the way."

[alderwitch]

"Hrmmm," Taylor agreed with a thoughtful noise. She held JJ out to Erin since she didn't want to try to keep the baby from snacking while stuffing the would be necromancer into the Void. Once her hands were free, she knelt down and put a hand on the man's pant leg and phased him into the realms beyond. "There, shall we all travel home together then?"

[Electra]

"All right," Erin agreed easily, buckling JJ securely back into his travel system and smearing a bit more sunscreen on him for good measure. "Um, Mr. Faretti said he'll be back around four, I don't know if you got a chance to talk to him already or not. I was planning on staying till then, but I can head out whenever you want me to after we get back." It was much harder, she realized, to deal with Phantom than with Avenger, mostly because Avenger just let her do whatever she felt like she ought to with the baby and didn't say much about it. Phantom, she was pretty sure, had a lot more of her own ideas.

[alderwitch]

They shimmered back to the house and Taylor started to look around for the clock, "Why? What time is it?"

She set JJ down on the carpet of the living room, moving to step away only to stop as the baby latched onto her leg with surprisingly strong little arms. "I'm just going to the kitchen. Here, play with Erin..."

Taylor leaned down to try and unwrap the fingers from her pant leg. Of course, JJ couldn't understand that she wasn't stepping off for another long absence. To him, it was never a good sign when his mother set him down in the living room and went to leave. Taylor suppressed another guilty sigh and smoothed her hand over his fuzzy head.

[Electra]

"I think it's about two now. It's okay!" Erin added encouragingly, going to the toybox and rummaging through it. "She'll be right back, honest. And look what I've got!" She produced a stuffed duck from the toybox, one that had already been mangled a bit by chewing. "It's the duck! It's gonna get you! Quackquackquackquackquack!" She crawled across the floor, menacing JJ with the duck, which had the intended effect of distracting him from Taylor's leg long enough to let go and drop off. Most of Erin's friends would've been startled to see her acting this way, but JJ certainly seemed to like it.

[alderwitch]

JJ was succesfully distracted as he micro focused on the toy animal and went unnaturally still to target it, only his gleaming bright eyes moving to follow it. His mother took advantage to sneak off while he launched himself at the duck and sank his teeth into it with a hiss of satisfaction. It had very little grace, although JJ was above average on his reflexes, he was still an infant.

Taylor was back in short order, bottle in hand. JJ was breastfed but even when home Taylor often used a bottle due to his unusual latch. Taylor wasn't sure how much blood he needed but she tried to keep his intake of that fluid low.

"And, back as promised," For once. Taylor dropped down onto the couch to watch them play. "You're very good with him."

[Electra]

"He's a good baby," Erin said, even as she pinned JJ down with one hand on his tummy and waved the duck over his head while he flailed at it. "He's really happy most of the time, even if he's kind of... unusual. And he's really smart. Okay, get it!" she called, taking her hand off JJ's tummy. He instantly popped to a sitting position and grabbed the duck, shoving its fuzzy neck into his mouth again. "Good job! You got that mean old duck. And I think your mommy has your reward. Do you want the b-o-t-t-l-e?" JJ brightened instantly at even the spelling of the word, dropping the duck and looking around for the promised sustenance.

[alderwitch]

Taylor beamed with a mother's pride and she slipped the bottle into his chubby hands. JJ latched on with an audible pop as his fangs tore into the nipple which always made Taylor wince. "He is clever. Jack says he gets that from me. He's got a lot of both of us... I have no idea where we'll take him for pre K. The more mobile he gets... The more important socialization gets. I was thinking of taking him to Gymboree but I never get free for the infant classes."

[Electra]

Erin thought about offering to take JJ to a class, but quickly thought better of it. That might make Mrs. Faretti start getting defensive again because she was too busy. More importantly, the idea of trying to wrangle JJ like a normal baby in a roomful of adult women with their own babies was too horrific to try and contemplate. "Um... maybe you could like take him to the baby playground or the playland in the mall instead?" she suggested diffidently. "No schedule for that, and there's lots of babies and little kids there most of the time. And it's free, too."

[alderwitch]

"Oh, that's an idea. Have you taken him there or just to the park?" Taylor asked, realizing uncomfortably that she didn't know where the baby sitter had been taking JJ during the days she'd had him. She reached down to help JJ reposition the bottle when he started snarling as his fang was stuck and tweaked. "Usually, I've been pretty house bound but after his birth, I think that's probably just a bit overcautious. We do tend towards that in this family as you've probably noticed."

[Electra]

"I've taken him to the mall a couple of times too," Erin reported, folding her legs crosswise to sit next to JJ. "But it's sort of hard, he gets a little more aggressive. Sometimes he hisses at the other babies, and I've had to go grab him up once or twice. He's pretty good at the park, I think it's maybe something about the sun. Even with the glasses and the sunscreen on, it's like he's a little bit less vampire-y when he's out in the sunlight," she told Taylor thoughtfully.

"We don't stay out too long, but he actually plays near other babies and is okay with that. Plus he really likes the merry go round, so that's fun. I hold him on the horse, and we both ride for one ticket. He could do that two or three times in a row. You should take him sometime," she encouraged. "Today was the first time I had any trouble at all, there haven't even been muggers or panhandlers."

[alderwitch]

"He's a little lethargic in the sunlight. Or mellow. But, I think its also a self preservation instinct. When threatened, vampires have a natural tendency towards camouflage. They're strikers more than brute force hunters, especially the line that Jack and JJ are descended from. Which is fortunate. Most vampires can't stand sunlight at all, they burn. For them, though, its just depletes their preternatural abilities and causes mild discomfort."

Taylor smiled down at her son, her dimples flashing in her cheeks, "I will, I'll try and take him some time this week. I've... I've been missing out on a lot lately."

[Electra]

"He's really good," Erin mentioned, looking at the busily-eating JJ. "I mean, he's happy most of the time and doesn't just cry for the heck of it. I was only seven when my sister was born, but most of what I remember from her being a baby is that she had colic and cried forever. And some of the kids I used to babysit were really whiny, but he's only upset when he's hungry or too tired. Otherwise he'll just play and play. You guys are lucky."

[alderwitch]

"I don't really know who he gets that from. Neither Jack nor I have ever been accused of being easy going." Taylor admitted as she tucked her hair back behind one ear and leaned down once more to take the empty bottle from JJ. She unhooked it from his fangs with practiced ease and then rubbed her fingertip along the notches on the bottle thoughtfully. "You really are teething... here, let mommy take a look."

She knelt down to rub her finger along his gums. Unlike most babies, Jack happily opened his mouth for her probing finger and quickly snapped down onto her hand. Taylor had been expecting it but it still hurt. She winced and hissed slightly before she phased her hand free from his clenched jaws and examined the already healing bite mark on her fingertip, "Yup, both of those have just broken through, I think. Poor thing."

[Electra]

"Mr Faretti picked up some of that gel stuff for teething," Erin volunteered, wincing a little as JJ bit his mom. "It seems to help some when he's real fussy. And he likes the frozen teething ring pretty well, but he broke two of them already. There's a whole box of them in the freezer now."

She bounced her knees up and down with her hands a few times, thinking. "Um, I was wondering if it might be okay if sometime when I'm babysitting in the evening, I could have my boyfriend come over. We don't get a lot of time to hang out between homework and training and babysitting and all that. He's very responsible," she hastened to add, "he's a legacy hero and everything."

[alderwitch]

Taylor shook her hand slightly as the last dents of her finger filled in and stopped bleeding. Regeneration was the only way that JJ had been breastfed as long as he had been. She flexed her hand as she turned to look at Erin and thought for a moment or two. "I think that would be fine. We'd want to meet him first, not just to make sure that Jack and I are comfortable with his presence but also he'll need to be introduced to the wards and ghosts so that they recognize him as not a threat... He doesn't have any unfortunate history with monsters, does he? Vampires, ghosts, witches and all that?"

[Electra]

"Not as far as I know," Erin replied, "but I'll double-check with him before I bring him over, and with you before I do, so I can be sure that's okay." The idea of being able to have Trevor over pleased her, JJ was a bit of a night owl, but once he was asleep, it was pretty boring to just sit around, do homework and hang out with the ghosts. Even the ghosts tended to avoid her for some reason, maybe because she wasn't local, maybe because there was too much death in her aura for even ghosts to be comfortable with. Either way, she was just as glad. "Um, he'll probably be ready for a nap pretty soon," she suggested a little diffidently. "He had one this morning, but he's been playing hard since then."

[alderwitch]

"I think you're right. Why don't you head home, Erin? I'll take him up for another quick meal and get him settled in for a nap." Taylor offered as she leaned down to scoop up the baby and cuddle him close. She smiled as he grabbed onto her amulet and began playing with it. "I should have time until Jack gets home at least."

She stood up and nodded, "Just give us warning. You know how well Jack responds to surprise visitors and I don't want to risk a bad introduction."

When Taylor said 'bad introduction' she used it for polite euphemism of 'might need a blood transfusion', and it was more than a little clear from her tone that she wasn't worrying about something like simple dislike. Erin, however, was likely well aware that the hybrid family she dealt with did not have normal social interactions with the outside world.

[Electra]

"I will," Erin promised, approaching long enough to take JJ's tiny hand and give it a squeeze. "See you later, kiddo," she said affectionately. "Don't give your mom too much trouble about the nap, I know you're tired." She quickly gathered up her homework and tucked it and her bat into a worn blue knapsack. Hoisting it up, she headed for the door. "Just give me a call when you need me," she called back.