Chapter 196: Once Cassius’s insurance.
Hades and Sunshine playfully slapped their hands on the table simultaneously, getting into a rhythm that they had agreed on.
"Stop shouting and tell us about Leo." Sunshine told them. "Did you make friends with him?"
Castiel looked at his brothers with triumph in his eyes. "Mommy and I are right. See...he is called Leo."
Sunshine pinched his ear gently, not causing any pain. "He will choose what he wants to be called. It is not a competition champ."
She fed him a spoon of porridge to keep him from responding. Meanwhile, Hades encouraged Ariel to tell them about Leo.
"He’s quiet, but he’s okay I guess." Ariel answered with a slight shrug.
Sunshine and Hades traded gazes, Ariel was talking more these days which amused them. Old Ariel would have stopped at "he’s quiet."
"He likes books too, like me." Earl jumped in eagerly to share what information he had.
Sunshine turned to Castiel. "And you champ, what did you learn?"
Castiel scrunched his nose, pretending to think. "I like him.....he also told me that he misses his mommy. I told him I can share mine with him sometimes."
Hades almost dropped the spoon in his hands. Ariel the serial Sunshine hogger who got jealous when his own brothers spent too much time with his mother, was willing to share her!!
Since when was he generous?
"Oh! Aren’t you sweet!" Sunshine exclaimed, she expected the opposite from him.
Sunshine’s chest warmed at his words, she had worried about the boys not liking Leo. The poor kid was all alone and he needed to feel loved. If they never found his family, maybe he would become Leo Quinn.
The kid did not know his surname. Nurse Cole who was still in prison on the base also didn’t know it. Apparently, Leo’s parents never mentioned their family name.
Sunshine knew that the odds of finding Leo’s parents alive were slim. Nurse Cole could not even remember where the basement was. The acid rain had eaten all street signs.
All he knew was that the place where they hid was near a factory that survived.
Breakfast rolled on, filled with small victories and complaints. Ariel was praised for being a fast learner during the shooting training. Earl was praised for his steady hands while giving first aid.
Castiel was praised for being cute and little.
Normally, this would give him cause to smile but today, it made him sulk. "I do not like being the cutest and littlest." He muttered, crossing his arms. "I am good at things too mommy, lots of things."
"Of course, there are things that you are good at my sweet champ." Sunshine reassured him, ruffling his hair. "For example, finishing your porridge, you can beat your brothers to that."
Castiel raised the bowl to his lips and only put it down when it was empty. "See! I am the best eater, like mommy." He declared.
His words had them bubbling over with laughter while Sunshine drowned in embarrassment. This was not how she saw the praise party going.
After breakfast, all of them went to the vet clinic to visit White. They passed through a waiting room with people that had brought sick pets for checkups or vaccinations.
It amazed Sunshine how they still had time and love for their pets, despite the apocalypse. Was it because they had a safe base?
Gemini took them straight to the recovery room where White and two dogs were resting in separate areas.
White was inside the pod. He was still bound to an IV whose tubes had been passed through a hole on the side of the pod. He was fast asleep, snoring softly, just as he had done when he was in Sunshine’s arms.
Soraya stood at his side, exhaustion etched across her face but determination bright in her eyes. "He is strong, very strong," she told Sunshine. "Healing faster than expected, wherever you got those those croast leaves....make sure they never run out because I am putting them on the required meds for my clinic."
"We should leave now, so as not to disturb him." Sunshine suggested.
Soraya agreed.
"Get well soon, White." The children whispered to the pod.
Sunshine dropped the boys off at their individual classes and then she went off to the gardens where she found Nimo who was waiting for her by the orange trees.
"You are late." She called out.
"I have three children, give me a break." Sunshine replied.
Nimo laughed. Those were not words she thought that she would ever hear from her friend. Not at the age of twenty-four anyway. It was amazing how smoothly Sunshine had taken to motherhood. "I just saw your interesting pet." Nimo mentioned. "Where did you find it?"
"Veldek." Sunshine replied.
A smile tugged on Nimo’s lips. From the time Suni told her friend about this green filled world, she longed to follow her there and explore it as well.
Nimo stamped her foot on the ground. "Damn it, I really wanted to go with you on another trip." She pouted her lips, imagining all the adventure that she missed.
Sunshine beckoned her to follow. "Follow me to see what else I brought back other than White."
They both entered deeper in the garden, passing by aisles of green and other colors until they found a bench which was usually reserved for workers.
Sunshine waved her hand and brought out the croast plants, red fang flowers and trees of coconut beans.
Nimo was charmed immediately by the beauty of the dangling red fang flowers. "These ones are pretty and shaped like a crown. What makes them special?"
Sunshine told her all about them and how Cassius used them to enrich himself.
Nimo slapped her forehead. "Every time I think that it cannot get any worse, it does."
Sunshine shook her head. "Me too. I was really nice to Cassius, and I will never understand why he treated me the way he did."
"He was probably afraid that if you knew about the bracelet and its greatness, you would take it back from him." She answered.
"But he didn’t need the bracelet anymore." Sunshine answered in a confused voice. "He already had the space."
"Maybe he did not figure that out." Nimo told her as she cracked open a coconut bean. "I used to wonder why he stuck with you even after he got the abilities of the bracelet and I think it was out of fear.
You told him it was a family heirloom. Maybe he thought it would fail to work if he was away from you for long because he was not a Raine. That is why he kept you nearby, so that you could fix it and feed it some blood or something if it stopped working one day." She placed her hand on Sunshine’s arm, looking at her with pity. "You were insurance, my dear Suni."
Sunshine blinked. When out that way, it made sense.
"He probably killed you when he finally realized that he did not need you for the space to work." Nimo suggested. "Or maybe he figured you and Moon were both Raine’s. She was new insurance policy because she was your family. The bracelet was a family heirloom to her as well."
Sunshine slapped the bench. "That makes more sense because he killed me when I asked for the bracelet back. He probably never figured out that the space would work even without the bracelet. It makes sense why he included Moon in his harem."
"A fool is a fool." Nimo shrugged, raising the coconut bean as though as she was toasting. "To your great escape Suni. And to never loving fools."