“SURPRISE!” screamed a chorus of voices as everyone popped up from behind furniture.
“Welcome to your baby Nessies’ baby shower,” Kieran gushed. “Theo, Norm and Fi planned the whole thing and they did a wonderful job didn’t they? I know I told you I was going to do it but then I had to go out with Brian on the boat when he planted the green diamond so Theo, Norm and Fi took over and I think it’s just perfecto, don’t you? I love the Nessie cake, don’t you, but you need to come over here and sit so you can open all of your presents.”
Glancing at Nessie who seemed to be in a state of shock, Reif grinned as he followed Kieran’s instructions, sitting down with his mate on the large sectional couch facing the huge stacks of presents. “Wow! Just wow!” exclaimed Reif.
David picked up a stack of five boxes, all tied together with wide green ribbon. “Here, these are from Zane and me,” he said, handing them to Brian.
“Thank ye,” Brian said, taking the gifts. Slowly unwrapping them, he chuckled when he opened the first one, finding five, white onesies, all sporting a picture of a sea dragon with the word ‘BELIEVE’ under it. “Where in the world did ye ever find these?”
“Zane found a picture of a sea dragon on the High Council website so he downloaded it and did something to it on his computer so I could have it printed on the onesies,” explained David. “Each of the boxes contains five onesies with the same picture except in different colors and sizes. Zane told me babies grow fast and I wanted to make sure you had enough for their first year.”
“Thank ye,” Brian said, passing the onesies to Reif who couldn’t stop running his fingers over the words.
“Macushla,” Kieran called to his mate,“let’s have some music!”
“Comin’ up,” replied Logan as he set up two portable speakers and punched in a playlist on his cellphone.
Gift after gift followed, astounding Reif with the efforts his friends had taken to find perfect gifts, from clothing to large, rocking, stuffed sea serpent toys. Unwrapping the last small gift Zane handed him, Reif wondered what it could be. Inside he found a phone…wait, my phone!Taking it out of the box, he turned it over in his hands, wondering what Zane was up to. Then he glanced at Nessie and saw he’d also received a phone.
“Brian, Reif, please turn on your phones,” Zane said, waiting until they had done so before continuing. “Do you see the sea dragon icon? Go ahead and open it.”
Tapping it, Reif’s eyes widened as he saw a live feed of their eggs upstairs. “Holy Fuck! Nessie do you see it too?”
Gripping his phone tightly, Brian’s eyes moistened as he stared at their babies. “Ay!” Finally tearing his glance away from the screen he asked, “How?”
“I wrote a program so you can check in on your babies no matter where you are. Right now, it shows all five of them, but if you tap the button at the bottom of the screen, a close-up of an egg comes into view; to see another, just tap it again and it’ll come up.”
“You did this for us?” asked Reif, not taking his eyes off the screen.
“Yeah, it was simple,” Zane said. “The hard part was finding and installing the right camera. Also, when the babies arrive, you can put another camera in the nursery to keep an eye on them, there.”
“I dinna know what to say,” Brian said, staring at the screen again.
“Nessie’s right, ‘thank you’ doesn’t seem to be enough,” Reif murmured.
“Zane,” Kieran said, grinning. “It’s going to make it so much easier for Reif and Brian tonight.”
“Tonight?” Reif asked. “Why?”
“You’ll see. But now I can’t wait to have a bite of the Nessie cake. Isn’t it amazing?” asked Kieran. “C’mon everyone, let’s eat.”
~/~/~/~/~
Walking into their bedroom after everyone had left, Brian found Reif sitting on their bed looking down at thephone he was twirling in his hands. “Is everythin’ all right?” he asked. “Did ye talk to yer parents?”
“Yeah,” answered Reif, “they’re coming here.”
“Guid. When?”
“Four days from now,” Reif replied.
“Were they surprised when ye told them about the eggs?” asked Brian.
“I didn’t tell them,” Reif said, looking at Nessie. “I decided to wait till they get here. Nor did I tell them who was behind our thousand years of misery because I’d rather do that in person.”
“Any reason why?” asked Brian.
“I’m not sure. Maybe it would raise too many questions that I’m not ready to answer yet because I’m still angry. Right now, all they know is that we are finally free…all of us.”
