How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi was on the bed, her throat clenched as she was desperately trying not to cry: she wasn't sad, she was angry, and she couldn't help that she was an angry crier. But she'd certainly try to help it. The twins coming in didn't make it any easier, because she knew she wanted to greet them, but also knew if she spoke, she would not be able to hold her ground and stay serious and mad. Dark, meanwhile, was standing against the wall, very grateful for his stone face, because otherwise he would have had to be fighting for his life not to grin. He never wanted Daizi to jump in to defend him, but he couldn't deny it felt good anytime she did and Saladin had to be confronted with the fact she did love him, and would choose him every time. He stared hard at the ground, though, just in case.

All of the aunts were silent, Fadia was holding Ivy, and Saladin stood completely still, staring daggers at Dark. It took a few moments before anyone spoke, and it was Zeinab who first said, "Hello there, my dears! Another long day of school? Saladin, they look like they've had such a long day, you should hurry down to the Cafeteria and bring us all back those cookies. Qadira is lovely, really, she's been doing well today!"

Cautiously, Dark said, "She is back at her birth weight."
 
Xander frowned, pretending as though he'd only just now realized he'd walked into something. "That's good," he agreed. "It was a pretty long day." Subtly, he indicated for Alec to come forward.

Understanding his cue, Alec took a breath, pushed aside his concerns, and bounced forward with a bright smile. "Is she? That's wonderful!" Dark was closer, so he went to Dark first, giving him the one-armed abbreviated hug he'd started doing to try to reach a compromise between his desire to hug and Dark's desire for limited touch. "She's going to end up taller than you." He moved on to Daizi, giving her the full hug. "How are you?"
 
Saladin clearly did not want to leave the room, knowing absolutely that Zeinab was kicking him out for the moment, and he found it ridiculous, but he also knew if he refused to listen to her, it would cause more problems. So, annoyed as he was, he walked out.

"It would be something if she ended up taller than me," Dark agreed, lightly pressing into the hug, his part of the compromise.

Daizi hugged Alec tightly, briefly hiding her face in his hair. Her back shuddered once, and it took a minute or two before she pulled herself together, and lifting her head said, "I'm okay. I'm tired."
 
"Would you like if I brushed your hair and put it up?" Alec offered. It was the first thing he thought of. It seemed like Daizi liked having her hair played with, and it was one thing he was getting rather good at. Then again, perhaps she wanted something less touchy and intimate. He sat next to her, waiting for her to tell him what she wanted.

Xander carefully swung around, following Saladin out. He lengthened his stride to walk next to the older man but didn't say anything. He didn't even look at the man. Not at first.
 
"If you'd like to," She said, knowing Dark normally did it, but also enjoying the sensation regardless. And she didn't know if she should mention the fight at all, she guessed he probably heard it, and that was why Alec was offering, but she didn't know what they heard or what they understood. Some parts of it, she guessed. With Saladin gone, though, Dark also came to sit by Daizi, and gently took her hand.

Out in the hall, Saladin didn't immediately notice Xander beside him, but eventually he did look down and jumped a little, "Do you always sneak up on people like that? It is a good thing we are in a hospital, because you might have given me a heart attack."
 
Alec fetched the brush and started brushing out Daizi's hair. As he did so, he chattered to Daizi and the aunts about school. He told the aunts all the school gossip as well as the latest rumors that Dark's wife wasn't really real but was some kind of an excuse for him to get out of school. Some said he was an agent for CIA, FBI, or one of the foreign goverments, possibly even a double agent. Depending upon who you asked, he was either on the American side or against it. Thankfully, most seemed to think he was for the American side. Some of the stories the school hallways had concocted were quite ridiculous, like the fact that Dark was the only one who could break up a camel-smuggling ring.

Xander shrugged one shoulder. "Don't have to sneak. Most people don't seem to notice anything until it's right in their face."
 
The aunts, as well as Dark and Daizi laughed at the wild conspiracies. He did feel a bit uncomfortable with the 'working for the CIA' one, but the camel smuggling ring was so absurd he couldn't help but laugh about it.

Saladin squinted down, "That sounds pointed."
 
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"Good. It was meant to be," Xander said bluntly. He sped up enough to get in front of Saladin and turned to block his path down the hallway. It was empty, for now, and as good a spot as any to talk. "Look, I get that you're sore at Dark for a lot of good reasons. He wasn't the good bloodlined, well-established businessman you approved of, and what they did probably insulted and embarrassed you in front of a bunch of people. That hurts. Not to mention, you seem like an okay-dad, meaning you'd be scared for Daizi. I get it. It sucks. You still hate him." He glared at right at Saladin, meeting his eye. "Big friggin' whoop. That was a thousand years ago. You can keep on hating him if you want, but grow some balls and do it with good manners, yeah? That baby in there is half Dark, as gross as that is to think about, so if you hate on him, you're hating on half of her. Daizi aint' going to allow that, and Dark's not going to tolerate nothing that hurts his baby. Nothing."

He held up a hand to make another point. "That man took us in when he didn't have to. He's dealt with more shit than you'd believe when it comes to us. He's never once let us down even when we've let him down. He never talks bad about anyone, he never fights back when it's just about him, and he's never once said a bad word against you, not once. I think you and I can both agree you've earned some smack-talk, but he won't say anything but that you don't like him. Meanwhile, you sit on your soap-box throne knowing he won't and can't do nothing against you while you snipe away. It's like watching a guy kick another guy while he's tied to the floor. That makes him a million times the man you are. You don't get to treat people like that. None of us are going to let you do it. Daizi doesn't want to say it because she loves you in spite of the fact that you act like a high school bitch and wants you in her life and her daughter's life. So upon my honor as the person who owes Dark his life, if you say one more bad thing about him when I can hear it, I got no choice but to call you out. Understand? I don't care if you're a hundred years old, you talk like that to him or Daizi again, I will kick your ass or die trying."
 
Saladin blinked, taking a step or two backwards, just to increase the space between them, visibly shocked to be spoken to like that. He opened his mouth to speak, but only managed to say, "You need to understand that--" before Xander kept talking. His mouth fell open slightly, struggling to think up a response to the teenager, before settling on simply asking, "Are you threatening me?"
 
"Nope," Xander said, feeling surprisingly calm. "Just informing you of the facts. You'd know it if I was threatening you. For now, I'm the guy warning you of the train wreck ahead if you keep to this course. It's all on you whether you get weekly updates on how your grandchild is doing, or if all you get is the cold, bleak sound of silence." He turned and started walking again. It went against his fiber to turn his back on someone, but he felt certain Saladin wasn't going to suddenly kick him in the back or something. He'd said his bit. If Saladin wanted to catch up and scold him for speaking badly, he could. Or he could take a minute to think about it.
 
Saladin felt extremely compelled to defend himself, and explain how, actually, he was justified, because he was so certain Dark wasn't this great guy everyone presumed him to be. He was pretty sure he would corrupt his granddaughter, and raise her up to believe the wrong things, just like how he had, in many ways, corrupted his daughter. But he also felt like he shouldn't have to explain himself to some kid who didn't know the full story, or only knew a biased account. And frankly, the way Xander had spoken to him seemed to confirm his beliefs about who Dark would raise.

But it was true that he wanted to be in his daughter's life, and his granddaughter's. And arguing with her foster-son in the hallway would probably negative affect that... And he supposed, when it came down to it, even though he wished Daizi would wake up (although, with a baby now involved, maybe it was better she didn't? He used to believe the shame of divorce was worth it, but now he wasn't certain), now wasn't the time to try to coax her up. She was sensitive, now, because of her, er, condition. And he didn't want to make it harder for her.

So he went, still annoyed, down to the Cafeteria to get the damn cookies, so Amty Zeinab didn't fuss at him.
 
Xander led the way down, nodding to the cafeteria worker - who he'd become quite familiar with, even if he didn't know her name - and helped Saladin pick out cookies with as little communication as possible. Cookies achieved, he headed back toward the hospital room. Mission accomplished.

Alec was in the middle of describing to Amty Zeinab something Sloan had said to someone else at school, drawing it out in a comedic fashion. He knew they didn't really Sloan, but it was fun describing his friend to them.
 
Even though she didn't know this girl, Zeinab enjoyed the story. It was a fun tale, and also, she did like Alec. Heck, she liked both twins. They were interesting people, and they were Daizi's family. Therefore, in her eyes, they were her family too. When Saladin made it back inside the room, gloomy and silent, she sat up and said, "Welcome back! Oh, Xander, you went with him. I was wondering-- That's good, Saladin has no sense of direction. We should keep him on a leash, he always gets lost."
 
"Familiar," Xander said, handing Alec a cookie.

Alec grinned. "I have no sense of direction whatsoever. I get lost inside the house sometimes. Isn't that right?"

Xander just snickered and moved back toward his corner. "Right enough. Right?" He glanced toward Dark, deliberately pulling him into the conversation.
 
Since he was not a dumb man, Dark could tell Xander was, for some reason, trying to pull him into the conversation, he said, "Once he ended up in my classroom at school because he could not find his English class, even though it was in the same classroom he was in the semester earlier," he said, "It was not his most impressive moment."

Daizi chuckled, lifting her head from Dark's shoulder now that her father was back in the room, although she very much wanted to stay exactly where she was, "Don't worry, habibi. I get lost sometimes too."

"You have a good excuse," Amira replied with a playful smirk, "But maybe Alec and Saladin are very distant relations, and it's somehow genetic."

"It's our side that has some English blood, not his, so it's very unlikely." Neha gently corrected.
 
"We're primarily Irish," Alec said cheerfully. "I don't think it's likely, but it's fun to think about, right, sir? Then we'd really be a part of the family on a blood level instead of a cosmic level."

"Cosmic?" Xander repeated curiously.

Alec shrugged. "Sounds good, doesn't it? Anyway, I've gotten better at not getting lost. In fact, I have even lost my cell phone for a while!"

As if the universe was listening and couldn't let an obvious opening pass, a phone began to ring in Ivy's bed down near her feet. Thankfully, it was turned down low enough it wouldn't frighten her, but it was quite obviously a ringtone.
 
"Blood family, bah! Mohammed was adopted!" Zeinab replied, waving her hands. Then when the phone rung, all heads turned towards the cot.

"Alec." Dark said, getting up and walking to the cot, "Why did... Of all places."
 
Alec blushed. "I put it in my shirt pocket at one point," he said, raising his hand to said pocket. "It must have fallen out when I leaned over. I'm sorry. I didn't realize I'd lost it."

Xander sniggered and moved over to gently shoulder bump his brother. "Not the weirdest place you've lost it, but definitely up there. Who's calling?"
 
"'Do not answer'" Dark replied, "so it is just a spam call. Do not worry, it was an accident. But probably double check her cot for foreign objects. Especially your phone, do not put anything fragile near a baby."

"How did none of you see that?" Daizi asked with a little laugh.
 
"Right," Alec said sheepishly as he retrieved his phone.

"Try putting it in a pants pocket instead," Xander told him and then watched to make sure he actually did it. "It usually stays in the pant pocket."

"Good thing the spam caller called when they did or else who knows when I'd have found it again," Alec said cheerfully.
 
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