Lance brought a blanket and draped it over his legs. “In case you get cold hun.” He turned to the little boys at were busy building sandcastles in the pit that Chris had dug out and filled with beach sand earlier that day. “Now you let poppa rest, if you need anything you call daddy, me or uncy okay.
“Okay uncle Lance, I’ll make them leave poppa alone.” Jovian busied himself with his little brothers. “How old is Jovian again?” JC asked Lance. Jovian looked up and rolled his eyes. “That’s the second time you asked that poppa.”
“Well honey you are such a big boy now I find it hard to remember, and your brothers are catching up with you too.”
Lance grinned “I’ll leave you to it, if you need anything just shout.”
“I’m not an invalid Lance, I’m sure I can manage.”
“Jovian make sure poppa stays on the swing if he puts as much as one foot on the ground you call me okay honey.”
“Okie dokie uncle Lance.”
JC mouthed “Okie dokie?” at the green-eyed alien who snickered and mouthed back “Chris”
“Oooh” With that one word Lance had explained an awful lot, JC made a mental note to keep his children as far away from his dark haired friend as possible.
“Owww.” Jaden slapped Jared and cuddled Jewel to him. The two watching adults suppressed a giggle when Jovian strode up to the three boys demanding to know who started the fight and ordering them to separate sides of the sand pit. “Well I think Jovie can handle the kids,” Lance grinned, “I’ll bring Sapphiee out when she wakes up ok, in the meantime get some rest and some sun.” The blond kissed JC’s head and left for the hospital and his studies. Them damned flowers were giving him headaches, he just couldn’t fathom out why they behaved the way they did. There seemed to be three phases, the dormant phase was when the flower was in bud, it was at this time that it behaved like a good flower should, phase two was when the blue cup opened, the sickly scent dampened physic abilities, that explained why JC couldn’t call for help, he was effectively gagged as well as being physically paralysed. Lance had deduced that it wasn’t just the contractions that had knocked the pregnant man from his feet. Both of the attributes could be used, medical supplies were in short supply anything that could be utilised would be. It was the third phase that he found disturbing, when the cup turned golden; the slightest contact with organic life seemed to trigger the change. He had a really uneasy feeling; his skin crawled whenever he saw the flower field, his instincts screamed out to him to keep the children away from the lovely unthreatening carpet. He had taken to pulling up the blooms that appeared to creep ever closer to the camp. Unable to explain his fears he had convinced Chris and Justin to pull on gloves and spend four hours clearing the perimeter. He peered into the microscope, zooming in watching ribbons twining and reproducing at an alarming rate, he moved his hand to zoom the lens in tighter, catching a blood sample that he had been testing earlier spilling it over the counter. A tiny spot of blood hit the slide. Immediately the ribbons attacked it absorbing it into themselves, the scientist jumped back terrified at what he had just witnessed. “Fuck” He gasped, “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He forced himself to step back to the bench and examine the specimen once more. Cautiously he dripped a single drop of blood onto the slide, again the ribbons attacked. “Oh my.” He backed away.
He stepped outside of the hospital building he scrutinised the surrounding area, accessing the situation; none of the blooms were in sight, yet. He took three deep breaths a chill seeping through his bones as he walked aimlessly towards the fenced compound. He was wrong he had to be. He got closer to the little white fence, his eyes rested on a small cluster of the blue bells just as a tiny hand reached out to pluck them. A scream strangled in his throat and he broke into a run.
Jewel sat building his sandcastle filling the little red bucket with damp sand with his red plastic spade when his little face broke into a smile, just outside of the fence he spotted a cluster of gold and blue flowers, he giggled happily as he reached his chubby hand through the fencing, plucking the blooms he carried the small bouquet across to his poppa.
“Poppa flowers for you.” JC opened his eyes “Oh baby thank you!” He reached out to take them only to have them smacked from his grasp sending them spilling onto the ground. Jewel looked up his eyes moist his little rosebud lips trembling. “LANCE!” JC yelled.
“Justin, Chris I need you.”
He swept the little boy into his arms as the two other men came sprinting across the courtyard. “Get rid of the flowers now, make sure you put on gloves don’t let them get in contact with your skin. They‘re poison, they feed on our blood, that’s why JC bled so much.” Lance began to run back to the hospital, Jewel held tightly in his arms.
“JEWEL!”
Lance ignored JC’s anguished cry as the little boys breath began to hitch in his chest as the spores sank into his skin and contaminated his blood stream. “Hold on baby please.” He choked. He burst into the hospital building placing Jewel in a cot. He shoved an IV line into the boys arm grabbing for a bag of plasma as the baby boy fell unconscious.