1 x 1 with It.Will.Rain

[Boomer]

Alessa followed behind Jake as he spoke to Mary. She sat on the couch with him, wondering what was going on.

"Maria's stable..." said Mary quietly, looking to her sleeping sister, "The hysterectomy was a success." She was sitting at her bedside, holding her paw. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you maybe come up for a little while?" she asked, "If not, I understand. I was wanting to talk about a few things with you."

[it.will.rain]

"Yes I can come up. I will talk to my friend and see if they will stay with the pups. She works at the daycare so it should not be a problem for her to watch them. I will call her and then come over. I may have to bring Alessa though. I am not sure she would be comfortable with my friend. The pups are going to bed now. I will be there as soon as I can. Goodbye." He said. He looked at Alessa. "Maria is going to be okay but Mary really needs me to come over. You can come if you are not comfortable staying with Clara but she is our neighbor and she is really nice but I understand if you are not comfortable. I want you to be happy okay?" He said and called Clara. Clara said she would be right over and he went and told the other pups what was happening. He opened the door for Clara so she could walk in. She was in her pajamas. "Hey Jake. How long do you think it will be?" She asked. Jake looked at her. "I don't know but I will pay you for your time." He said. "Alessa, this is Clara." He said to her.

[Boomer]

Mary listened to Jake and flicked her tail as he mentioned bringing Alessa along. "It's sort of private." she said quietly, "But if you have to bring her, then I understand..." As Jake hung up, Mary looked to Maria as she was starting to wake up. Mary was relieved that Maria was waking up.
~~
Alessa pinned her ears back as Jake said that he'd have to leave. Both men and women made Alessa uncomfortable. As Clara came to the house, Alessa hung back as she clung to Jake's arm. The little pups had just finished brushing their teeth as they came downstairs to meet Clara. Alessa wouldn't look Clara in the eye. Alessa didn't want to stay at home, but she felt like she'd be a bother if tagged along. "I-I'll j-just go to bed." said Alessa quietly, releasing her grip on him. Alessa raced upstairs to get ready for bed.

[it.will.rain]

"Okay. I will be home when you wake up in the morning." He said to her. He let her go upstairs. He knew she was not happy about this at all. He wished there was something he could do but Mary had wanted it to be private. He introduced each of the pups to Clara and smiled at the pups. "I will be back but you be especially good for Clara okay? You three go get some sleep." He said. He told them goodnight and then ran to the hospital. He got in the elevator and was glad when he got to the sixth floor pretty quickly. He walked into the room and walked over to Mary. He was worried about her. He really liked her. "Hello." He said quietly to the two. He looked at Mary. "What is it?" He asked her gently. He was a really god guy and he was worried that it had to do with something really bad after all that had happened.

[Boomer]

The little pups were quiet during the conversation. They gave a little wave as Jake left, then went upstairs. Cybil and Cynthia went to their room, while Vincent stood outside of his room. Normally he didn't have a problem sleeping by himself, something Mary was very thankful for, but he wasn't happy that Mary wasn't in the house with him. He hung around the doorway before sneaking into his sisters' room. "Guys?" he whispered, sneaking inside. "What do you want, Egg- Vincent?" mumbled Cybil, realizing that she shouldn't be mean to her brother right now. Vincent wandered closer to the bed, then sat on the edge of it. "I'm worried about Aunt Maria and Mother." he said quietly. "Me too..." said Cynthia, sitting up and looking to him. Cybil sighed as she soon sat up. "I am too." she muttered, "But we gotta stay here. You can sleep at the foot of the bed." Vincent took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Do you really think the pups are okay?" he asked, "I mean, you were sick for a long time." Cybil shrugged as she looked out the window. "It's not like we can just go there..." she said, then looked to her siblings. "Cybil..." said Cynthia lowly. "What?" asked Cybil, "We'll just sneak out, go see the pups, say hi to Mom, then come back!" "But how will we know when Jake leaves?" asked Vincent. "We'll just ask Jerry!" said Cybil, "C'mon, you gotta live a little!" "Cybil." repeated Cynthia. Cybil got out of bed and changed into her clean clothes. "Are you all a bunch of sissies?" asked Cybil, "C'mon!" Vincent left the room to change; normally he would object, but he wanted to see Mary. Cynthia narrowed her eyes as she climbed out of bed. "This is a bad idea." she muttered, getting dressed.
~~
Mary looked to Jake as he came into the room. "Hello..." she said quietly. Maria had fallen back asleep. "I was wanting to talk to you about the daycare." said Mary, "Things will be a bit stressful for a while with Maria and her pups. I need to be with her. I was hoping... could you, perhaps, watch them for a few weeks? I know this is sudden and I know it'll be stressful for you. I can pay you for overtime. I just... I just think Maria needs me to help her with everything. The pups being premature, her procedure... it's going to be traumatic for her. I don't want her to worry about my pups too."

[it.will.rain]

Clara had heard a lot of talking coming from the pups rooms. She went up the stairs and knocked on the door. "Hey can you three open the door." She asked hearing them say that something was a bad idea. "You three really need to get to bed." She said to them. "It is late for young pups like you three." She said to them. "What were you planning on doing?" She asked seeing that the three pups were dressed. She was clearly not happy at all with them.

Jake looked at Mary as she spoke. "Mary. It really is not a problem. I will take care of your pups for a while. Don't worry about the overtime. You are a good friend of mine. But I know that they will miss you a lot but I will take care of them. It will be okay Mary." He said and gently put his paw on top of hers. "I will be here for you if you need it." He said to her gently. "pups are hard to take care of but they will be okay." He said.

[Boomer]

Cybil shot a glare at Cynthia. Cynthia shot a glare back at Cybil. As Vincent squeezed his way into the room, he cleared his throat. "We just remembered that those pajamas were dirty." he said, "So we wanted to change into our clean clothes. Mother is usually good about doing the laundry, but with Aunt Maria falling ill, she didn't have time to put out our clean pajamas." "Yeah, what Egg Head said!" said Cybil quickly. Cynthia untied her other hair ribbon, then placed it into her pocket. "We usually take a bath at night." she added, "And we get a story. So, we're just not tired because our schedules are mixed up." Cybil and Vincent nodded in unison. Cybil was trying to figure out how they'd be able to get out now with Clara being suspicious.
~~
Mary found herself feeling a mixture of emotions right now. As Jake put his paw on her's, she instinctively flinched; she wasn't used to a kind paw from a man. "S-sorry, I think I drank too much coffee." she lied, gesturing to the empty cup of coffee on the nightstand. She didn't like lying at all, but she wasn't about to tell about her failed marriage. Maria stirred awake and looked to them. "Aw, how sweet..." she mumbled, "You two are cute." "That must be the pain medicine talking." said Mary, shooting a glare at Maria. Maria grinned back at her sister before slowly sitting up. She winced in pain, then laid down. "How are the pups?" she mumbled. "They're fine." said Mary gently, "You've got three girls." "Three?" echoed Maria, "Jeez, I figured there'd be a boy in the mix. Poor Vincent."

[it.will.rain]

"Okay..." Clara said. She worked with kids a lot so she knew how they acted. "Since you are not tired, we can all watch some TV together. "Come on you three." She said. She was not going to leave them alone. That much was clear. She knew they wanted to sneak out to see their mom. "You three are not going anywhere tonight. I know you miss your mom and if you want to talk to her, I can call Jake and you can talk to her but I am not letting you three out of my sight." She said to them.

Jake looked at her and shook his head a little. "It's okay." He said to her. He had got a glimpse of her thoughts when he had touched her paw. He had not meant too but sometimes that happened. He knew about her marriage but there was no way that she would know that he knew. He looked over at Maria spoke. He chuckled a little at Mary's reaction. He looked at Mary after the two sisters had talked. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?" He asked putting his paw back to his side. He was trying hard not to read her thoughts worried he might accidentally do it again. It was clear something was on his mind but he could never tell her what.

[Boomer]

"Can I take my bath instead?" asked Cynthia, tilting her head some. Cybil and Vincent weren't interested in watching TV. "I don't miss her!" yapped Cybil, "I'm not a baby. Like Cyn said, we didn't get our bath and story. And Egg Head's right, our pajamas are from last night." Vincent glared at his sister and scowled. Cybil knew Clara would have to sleep eventually. "But I guess if we must watch TV, who am I to argue it?" asked Cybil.
~~
"I think that's it, for now." said Mary quietly, shaking her head, "Thank you for watching them. It'll be a long road for the pups." Maria looked out the window and out to the hallway. "Can I see them?" she asked. "I'll go check." said Mary softly, standing up. She then looked to Jake. "Actually... Jake, do you mind asking one of the nurses?" she asked. Mary wanted to tell Maria about what happened to her after the pups were delivered.

[it.will.rain]

"Yes you can take a bath instead. While one of you is in there, the others will stay with me." Clara said. She still was not buying it. She watched the pups. She did not want them running off. She would have to talk to Jake and see if he could do something about it and get their mom to come over so they would not be too worried about her and try to run off.

Jake nodded. "Yes of course." He said and went outside and asked one of the nurses. He was hoping that it would be okay for Maria to meet her pups. He knew that she needed that right now.