Young Guardian Trilogy by Lady Adellandra Dratianos (the lemonade war series .TXT) 📖

you can’t cut it this time. Not in a cesarian.”
“That’s okay.” Derrick tried to joke. “I had twin sons three years ago, so I had my share.”
The doctor laughed, but cut it short. The next I knew, voices murmured around me.
I squeezed my husband’s hand to get his attention. “What’s going on? What are they saying? Please, tell me.”
Derrick hesitated as his eyes watched them work. “I don’t know how to say this, love, but when they smacked her to see if she cried, she didn’t.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong?”
“Remember when the twins were born? The doctors then sucked all the mucus from the boys’ noses, to get them to breathe oxygen. Remember?” Derrick tried to explain. I stared, oblivious but trying to understand. “They tried the same with our daughter just now, only it didn’t work.”
I was devastated. “Then she’s...”
I didn’t want to think about our precious baby girl, dead before she could live.
Derrick seemed to read into my thoughts. “Not that, thank goodness. Our baby is alive and breathing, I can tell you that.”
“Then what’s wrong?” I whispered, tears racing down my cheeks onto the make-shift pillow. “Love, answer me.”
“It’s strange.” He told me. “She didn’t cry, not like normal babies. I guess her voice didn’t kick in or something. I’ll ask them while you’re resting.”
My eyes drooped, so I allowed myself to sleep.
When I woke up again, I was in a room with a pastel picture hanging in front of me. As before, I was hooked up to many monitors. The IV line stung in my arm as it fed me fluids. My head ached, telling me the medicine they gave me in the delivery room was wearing off. I turned my head to see my husband sleeping beside the bed with Andrew curled in his arms, sleeping with his thumb in his mouth. Behind him on the other bed was my daughter Kelly, an arm wrapped around Mark Antony as they, too, slept. Bradley Allen, my step-adopted son, had fallen asleep in a chair beside that bed.
They looked so peaceful, so perfect. My little family.
I heard a knock on the door, turning to see a friendly nurse smiling at me. “Good, you’re awake. Shall I bring the baby in now?”
I turned to my sleeping family, who were slowly waking up. I nodded with a small smile, telling her yes.
Derrick tried to stand but found Andrew was still asleep. “Bradley, will you take him for a moment?”
Bradley nodded, lifting Andrew from his father’s lap. That’s when he woke up, looking around. Andrew debated whether to cry and decided against it when he saw the baby being wheeled in the room. Bradley let him down so he could investigate.
Kelly stood with Mark, who wanted to see what his brother was doing. When he saw the basinet, he pointed, telling his sister. “Baby?”
Kelly nodded.
“Now, now, one at a time, children.” The nurse warned. “Let your mother hold her first, okay?”
Obeying, my children stood back, watching as she set their new baby sister in my arms.
I couldn’t help staring at her, nor could she help staring at me. She was so beautiful, with her full head of reddish-blond hair and big silver-blue eyes.
“Have you picked out a name yet, Mrs. Reading?” The nurse asked, standing above me.
I looked to my husband, who nodded. “I believe we have.” He looked at me when he said the name. “Melody Elizabeth Reading.”
The third Melody was truly my little girl, wriggling in my arms and laughing with her eyes.
“Welcome to the family, Melody Elizabeth!” Kelly took one of her younger sister’s tiny hands and kissed a cheek.
The nurse let us visit for a few minutes more before she took the baby from my arms. She and Derrick both saw I was growing weary again. It didn’t help that I yawned.
“Alright, everybody but Dad out.” The nurse playfully pushed my other three children and Bradley out of the room. “Go tell the family about the new addition.”
With that, they raced out of my sight. I laughed with my husband, who gave me a kiss on the lips.
When the nurse left us alone, he sat on the bed beside me.
“I found out why she didn’t cry.” He told me. “Or the jests of it at least.”
“Well, tell me.”
“They think she’s deaf.”
“Deaf? No, I don’t believe it.” I sat up, only to yawn and lay down again. “Remember Charles, the Parker’s butler?” He nodded so I continued. “Anyway, Charles told me a lot about his boyhood and the deaf. He told me all the times he used to run home crying from the kids teasing him. He had tears and all. Deafness wouldn’t explain why she didn’t cry or make a sound when she was born. Even the deaf can make some sounds, even if they can’t hear it themselves.”
“I get your point.” Derrick said, in his detective mode. This meant he was staring into space, pondering my words. “We’ll find a specialist as soon as you feel up to it.”
Even though I didn’t want my baby daughter to be exposed to so much poking and prodding in the first weeks of life, I nodded, agreeing with him.
That’s when he kissed my lips. He kissed my eyelids as the shut, my mind being taken away to the Dream Realm once again.
I never heard him leave.
Epilogue:
The Mystic Oath: Happily Ever After

That was all three years ago.
Derrick and I took our daughter Melody Elizabeth to the best specialists money could buy. No one could figure out why she never cried a tear or uttered a sound. Other than that, our Melody was a happy, healthy baby. She quickly learned the telepathy and telekinesis parts of her power, as expected, always willing to outwit her twin brothers. I didn’t mind her silence, for she always used telepathy to talk to us.
Shortly after her birth, I received a surprise visitor. Mrs. Gertrude came over, wishing us love and luck. The surprise? She was smiling, and told me why. Mother helped Mrs. Gertrude with the bookies, and now they’re in jail. Mrs. Gertrude has the orphanage back, on different terms. Have Uncle Stephen the bookkeeper watch over her and her books. After three years so-called ‘probation’ from my mother, Mrs. Gertrude’s books were in such good order, Uncle Stephen agreed to have the ragged old Hill Crest Orphanage remodeled for her. By then, the orphanage only housed fifteen children. My entire family, forgetting our hurtful past thoughts of her, took all but one of the children in temporarily. Aimee took a little girl by the name of Angel Hope. After the initial four months, my almost-sister and the six-year-old grew so close, Aimee adopted her. Bradley was glad to have a little sister, Aaron thinks she’s adorable, and the rest of us think she fits in just fine with our children.
All the way in California was our cousin Shannon at the System. She hadn’t kept in touch for the last few years, and I found out why. She and Nick had gotten married the very month Melody was born. We were all invited to the wedding: Aaron, Aimee, Bradley, Angel, Derrick, Mark Antony, Andrew, Melody, Kelly, Shane, Luna, Caleb, Meredith, and I. Of course, knowing Shannon, she had a hidden agenda. The Crusaders would keep an eye on the System for two weeks while Shannon and Nick were on their honeymoon.
We didn’t know what to expect until horror struck. To make a long story short, disaster in the form of an earthquake crashed Nick’s agency, the Network, making it crumble to the ground. We decided to let the Network agents move in until the bosses could get back. Allison Dubois, the second-in-command of the Network, didn’t like to beg anyone for anything. She was used to getting what she wanted. When she went to us for help, it turned the Network around.
The happiness wouldn’t last. On tough times, someone played a prank on their rival agency. We never found out who, and soon, the rivals were playing pranks on each other. It took a while, but we made them make up and get along, or the Network agents would have no place to go. It seemed to work, but after Shannon’s phone call a month after we returned home, I wasn’t so sure. She told me the now System-Network agents were out of control. After her wedding, Shannon had a son, naming him Martin Joel McNathaniels. (What a mouthful!) They named him after Nick’s late grandfather, Martin. She’s still cautious around her husband Nick whenever the Magic is mentioned. She hasn’t practiced in nearly four years of marriage!
Shannon told us Julie left shortly after our weddings, saying it wasn’t working out. Shannon tried her best to be a sister-mother figure to her twin, teaching her how to control the wild magic a little, but I guess Julie didn’t like it. Julie did come back to see her own twin sister get married, only to find an agent interested in her. Jamie “Jammins” Stewart talked her into staying at the System-Network, if only for his love and support. She agreed and is now engaged to the handsome electronics engineer. Julie told Jammins she wanted to find her own lost daughter, Tamara Jane, so he’s helping her with that. Not even Shannon knows how that’s going; she’s too busy with the System-Network. They’ve done a lot of hiring new young agents to replace those who were growing up.
Back home in Hill View, another happy surprise came to our close-nit family last year. Luna had another baby, a boy, naming him Logan Matthew. I don’t know where she got the name Logan from, but was sure where Matthew fit in. Melody Crawford’s twin brother.
We’ve grown closer as an extended family. The Crusaders have grown intellectually as well. Both twins Aaron and Aimee went back to school. Aaron claims he wanted to be an engineer for Reading Industries, so the company’s paying for his classes. Aimee is learning to be a day-care teacher by working with them up at the Elementary School. Derrick and Shane are both Senior Detectives at the Hill View Police Department. Luna has to stay home with her three children, a now six-year-old Caleb Ryan, four-year-old Meredith Jane and one-year-old Logan Matthew. She helps me with my four children, plus six-year-old Angel and fourteen-year-old Bradley once I’m at school for my teaching degree. It’s a wonder she doesn’t burst!
Caroline Parker has grown up in the past few years. She’s not counting on me, or my advice as much now as she was back then. That’s how I know she can handle being a single mom. She works as a Store Manager for one of the clothing stores in the mall, Where the Wild Things Are. She’s finally forgiven herself for her ails and trouble she’s caused. As for her mulatto twins, Kymm and Carrie, the secret was out (to me at least). Two years ago, Michelle Lambert-Sheridan, another adopted sister of mine, moved into the Parker Mansion. The only catch: she was still the twins’ cousin. Michelle didn’t think the girls were ready to learn who their real parents were.
The last and most important thing of all, Kelly, Luna and I are to take our Mystic Oaths together. I was long overdue (try 13 years), and it was Kelly’s time to take it anyway, so the Mystic Sisters allowed the entire family, including Katherine, Kitten’s Claw, and their families, to take part in witnessing the miraculous event. Since Gramma Dixie died shortly before Luna could take the Oath, my twin took it with us.
The Mystic