CHAPTER 230: DODO AND DA DA

There were two Genmen couples waiting on pins and needles for agent Angela Torres to arrive at the Z1—she had precious cargo for them.

Clayton hung on to Roman tight as he nervously waited. Shepherd wasn’t much better; would his child recognize him even though they had never touched? Maybe his scent would mean something.

At the rate that genman children aged, Shepherd’s child would be approximately 18 ½ months old and Clayton’s child would be almost 6 years of age in human years. The six-year-old might have a little more problems adapting to everything, also the fact that there was a one-month-old to deal with. But at 18 ½ months of age this child would be walking, talking, and starting to make sentences if he had been worked with by anyone, which could not be guaranteed.

Everyone heard the speeder pull up out front, the opening and closing of the door and then another door. As Angela walked up the sidewalk, every echo of her footsteps could be heard in the house. She knocked at the door and Zack opened it to show her in.

On her left hip was a young boy with bright copper hair, her other hand pulled slightly backwards as the child hid behind her. Angela leaned over and put the toddler on the floor standing. It was at that time everyone got a glimpse of a white blonde child with bright blue eyes. He quickly hid behind her again.

"As promised, I have the children, Mr. Z. Ace is a little shy but Seven doesn’t know any better and he’s a little more adventurous." She handed Zack two files. "The top file is Ace’s file—it has all the information that we know about him including the certification of DNA match up. He’s a little protective of Seven because he was given this child himself to help guide. Since the young one is so unknowing, we could actually convert the name into Steven and it wouldn’t be that much of an adjustment for him."

"Thank you, Angela. You can go home to your children and we can let these children here get use to their parents," Zack remarked. "But if you want to hang around as a comfort to them, I can understand."

"I would like to stay, Sir. For the comfort of the children and their parents, I want to see my job through."

Seven was already walking around looking—he wanted to discover this new place. Seven walked up to Shepherd and placed his hand up on his knee. He patted his kneecap, looked at Shepherd, and said, "Da, Da." Then the child lay his head on Shepard’s leg and patted it.

Seven looked at Eleck who was sitting next to Shepherd with his arm around him and yelled out, "Dodo!" and laid his head up on his leg.

"What does he mean by Dodo?" Eleck asked Ace.

"That’s just what he calls someone who he thinks might be his father. He hasn’t been saying it long but he’s very insistent that there’s a Da, Da and a Dodo in his life. A young man’s gotta have some kind of hope that his parents were out in the world and they loved him."

Eleck reached down and picked up Seven, placing him on his right leg between Shepherd and himself. Shepherd was a little surprised by the move and sat there motionless.

Seven leaned over and placed his head up on Shepard’s chest. "Yum Yum," he said.

Once again Ace came to the rescue. "He knows that you have nectar and he’s hungry—it’s his feeding time. He’s your son, go ahead and do what you’re supposed to."

Shepherd cautiously raised his shirt to expose his left gland and nipple. Seven latched on to it in a millisecond, causing Shepherd to gasp. Suddenly all of the feelings and emotions that should be shared between dad and child were there as the young tyke decided to make a meal of it. It didn’t take him long to finish off the first gland and he was looking for the other one.

The bonding between the two had started. As the young child explored his dad, he rubbed his hand on his stomach. Turning loose from the nipple, he looked up at Shepherd and clearly said, "Dodo’s baby." There was no doubt Seven had found his parents and his little brother to be.

Ace was a little bit more wary of his circumstances. He cautiously walked away from Angela and looked around the room. He stopped in front of Homer and looked him up and down. Next, he walked over to Clayton who was holding Roman. Ace cocked his head to the right.

"Is that my brother and are you my dad?"

Clayton looked his son directly in the face. "Yes, this is your baby brother Roman and I am your dad. Homer here is your father."

"Why did you not keep me? Why was I made to live in the white rooms while my brother stayed here with our parents?"

Homer cleared his throat. "Your dad didn’t always live here—he was at another ranch. He got away from the bad people of the white room and came here and birthed your brother. Until recently he did not know that he had other children because the bad people at the white room gave him medicines that made him forget birthing you.

"He had to get better and away from the bad medicines so that he could remember that there was a child out there for him that he had never seen. He never doubted his love for you, but to him you were lost for a time. But recently we discovered the white rooms location, and this lady and the organization that she works for rescued you and other children. When they put the white thing on your arm it took a reading of you from the inside and matched you up with your dad. And now they have brought you and Seven to your parents.

"That being said, we’re new with this and we’re going to make mistakes—no parent is perfect. But I can guarantee you we will always love you and we will fight against anyone that tries to take you away or hurts you, as long as you live."

Ace walked over to Homer and gently hugged his neck. "Thank you, father, for having the nice lady bring me home to both of you. I’m kinda hungry—is there any food here?"

A very jubilant Homer stood up, swept Ace off of his feet, and remarked, "Let me take you to the kitchen—we’ve got all you want to eat!" He walked into the other room proudly carrying his new son Ace.

Clayton was overcome by emotion and tears flowed down his cheeks as he watched Homer bonding with their son Ace.

"Well, it’s time I need to get back to my family. The boys might be wondering where I’m at," Angela spoke up. "I’m glad everything is going to work out. There might be a few bumps here and there, but for the most part I feel very confident in this rejoining of these families."

"I believe it’s time for a block party and family feast welcoming these two young men home," Celeste looked at Zack. "What do you think about that? You think we can pull that off this afternoon on such short notice?"

Zack chuckled. "I have a good feeling that is going to be one big party, not only on this block but every block. If it’s one thing that Genmen love to do, it’s celebrate family. And with these two families coming together side-by-side, I have no doubt they are going to be just fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some notifying to do."

With that, Zach walked out the front door and down the sidewalk.

Zach’s communicator went off and it was Lex. He answered, "Go ahead."

"Grandfather, we had an attempted security breach over here in section 47 in the labs. It seems that a young genman that was a recent arrival for breeding decided to attempt to break into the file systems, accessing really nothing because the file that he went after was triple secured and there’s only three of us that know it’s there. There’s a leak somewhere—either here on the Z1, the Hawthorne Corporation, or the GBI. The only thing that I can get out of this young genman is that he is one of three, and the other two shall not fail to get their quarry."