Terran Knights 2: Chapter 3

“Hand me that when your done handsome.”

“Yeah just one second.”

Scrubbing away at the dish with his rag he stared at the plate for a moment longer then handed it off to Sarah to line and slot it into the dish washer. It was very full at this point and she was carefully jengaing in the last few dishes to make sure they could get it as full as possible.

“You know we can run multiple loads,” Sarah glanced at Jack’s mother, a greying woman with laugh lines to compliment her aging face. She had a mug on a coaster in front of her and laughed. “No need to force it all at once.”

“I know but I’m more than positive that we can do it that way,”

Jack’s mother had moved out to the west coast after the invasion. It was something she had loosely been thinking of doing but aliens descending from the sky was definitely a cause for concern. And luckily this vacation house was spacious enough for an older woman and a few cats to live permanently with guest rooms from the visits of her sons and their partners.

“You could have gone to the beach with the boys. ThoughI appreciate you two staying behind to help me clean up,” she said after taking another sip from her coffee. “Makes life a lot easier on me.”

“You know I’m happy to do it,” Marco replied turning around and leaning against the counter and flashing a small smile.

“Me too. Plus I actually like being around you. It’s nice.”

“The feeling’s very mutual. You’re a wonderful young woman Sarah.” She blushed looking away and held a hand against her face to cover it up. “You know I have to be honest.  When Jack told me about you three, I have to say that I wasn’t too sure about this.”

Marco and Sarah exchanged glances confused, “What do you mean?”

She motioned with her hand and they followed her, leaving the kitchen going through an archway to the living room. She sat in a reclining chair and the pair took spots next to each other on the loveseat. Jack’s mother sipped from the mug slowly collecting her thoughts before speaking.

“When Jason told me about his poly relationship with those two girls I was beyond skeptical of it then. I mean seeing two people at once. I know I’m old fashioned but I try to stay up to date with my kids and that was something very new for me. When I talked to him he said he wasn’t looking for something serious back then and I let it go. I raised him to be smart and I know my husband would have wanted him to have his own experiences for good or for ill.

“And then Jack sits me down and tells me about you two and I just wasn’t really sure of anything at that point,” she laughed to herself and smiled warmly at them. “Jack and Jason are twins and a pair of trouble makers to the extreme but they’re very different people. Jack was very serious about you three being together and he wanted my approval. I knew that much.”

“He was the slowest to come around to things,” Marco said softly. “Though once he got comfortable with the relationship he was the most supportive one of us.”

“We were all new to it,” Sarah added. “We’ve come a really long way.”

“Yes, you have. I can see it in just how you all act with one another,” she set the mug down. “I’m glad he found you two.”

“I’ve been his friend for years. Who would have thought that all we needed was this one to bring it all together?”

He rested a hand on her head lightly, stroking his fingers through her hair and Sarah smiled glancing down. “I’m just glad that we managed to survive everything up until this point.”

“How much longer are you two staying out here?” she asked.

“I think we’ll be here a few more days,” Marco told her. “Me and Jack have the rest of the week off but I know we’d want to have some time to rest before jumping back into work.”

“Smart thinking as always Marco.”

Silence settled on them and Marco got his phone out checking through his notifications. It vibrated in his hand and with a text from Jack. Opening it up he saw a picture of who he assumed was Jason buried, at least his torso, and a sun hat over his face. The caption was simply, ‘Your boyfriend lost a bet’.

Covering his mouth, he resisted the urge to laugh and showed it to Sarah who also burst out into giggles. “Serves him right.”

She reached toward his neck and touched his necklace tracing the red stone and smiled lightly. Her bracelet nudged against her chest, her yellow stone catching the light through his own letting an almost orange glow on them both.

“Can I ask you two a serious question?”

The pair looked up and suddenly and when they looked at Jack’s mother, her gaze was very intense. She stared at the two of them closely stroking her jaw lightly. Suddenly they were children being caught doing something naughty. Both of them almost squirmed under the weight of her gaze but managed to at least meet it.

Finally Marco nodded, “What is it?”

“Last year was hectic. The terrorist attack, invasion or gas leak. Whatever happened. Everyone has their own theory. Lord knows Jack won’t really talk about it,” she leaned back in her recliner and sighed. “I know you three are adults and I trust you all and your judgement. You two are family to me at this point and Jack is my son. I love all three of you. Is there anything that happened that I should know about? Are you three safe, in the city?”

The two fought hard to not look at one another or even glance at each other. Things had been quiet, peaceful since the invasion it was easier to believe that it was in the past.  A strange few months that had no repercussions. Sarah’s hand found it’s way to Marco’s thigh as she swallowed and finally shook her head.

“No. Nothing to tell. We’ve been trying to recover from the invasion and it brought us closer together,” Sarah said, finally able to breath and smile because it was the truth. “We made some new friends along the way.”

Marco nodded in affirmation, “Yeah we wouldn’t keep something from you.”

That made her laugh which eased the tension from the room by more than a few notches, “Come on now. I’m old not dumb. Any people dating and being serious with my son knows how to keep a least a couple of secrets. But as long as he has you I know he’ll at least not go get himself killed”