How Green Becomes Wood

"Right," Zeinab nodded, "and speaking of, you've held her long enough, Saladin. It's my turn to hold her."

"Eh? You've got a mountain of your own grandchildren. This is the only one I've got. Or, well," He looked awkwardly at the twins, "I don't know, I apologize, you are my daughter's foster children, so you are her family, and Mohammed was adopted, so I don't want to seem like I do not accept those bonds, but I've never heard of a foster grandchild, so I do not know how to describe you to my friends. I hope I don't offend you."

"Baba, it's okay," Daizi murmured, folding her hands in her lap, "There's a lot of people meeting each other for the first time, nobody is expecting anyone to say the right thing."
 
"It's alright," Alec assured him with a smile. "A lot of people don't do 'foster grandchildren' and things like that, and since we're not officially adopted, it can make things confusing. We ate honored you would consider us at all and take no offense."
 
"Why aren't you officially adopted?" Fadia asked, making both Dark and Daizi freeze.

"Well that's a very complicated question," Daizi said, "and very personal."

At the same time, Dark said, "Adoption is not like a relationship, it is not like asking, 'why are you not married yet,' there are a lot of factors at play."

"Marriage is that easy and you still lived unmarried with my daughter for years," Saladin commented under his breath, still looking down. Knowing it wouldn't be witnessed, Dark dared to roll his eyes at this comment.
 
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"Why don't-" Xander started to say when Alec tromped on his foot.

"It's complicated, and today isn't supposed to be about us. We'll have time to talk about that later," Alec said pleasantly. "Today is Ivy's day. She sleeps a lot, but when she's awake, she's very strong and feisty! I think she likes leg peddles the best. Maybe she'll be a runner or a cyclist when she's older."

"Or a kick boxer," Xander muttered.
 
"It only makes sense that she's strong," Neha murmured. She was certainly the quietest of the four, but unlike Fadia, she had a friendly face behind big, owl-like glasses, "I'm glad you had a girl, Daizi."

"I am too. And so is Dark, even before we found out, he was really hoping... But I've said all that already." Daizi replied, and moved closer to Saladin, lightly touching his arm, "He's a really good father, Baba."

A shadow crossed over his face, making it really obvious he wanted to say something about it, but at the same time, he had traveled a long distance to see his child and grandchild, and he didn't want to upset her, despite his firm belief she was very deluded by this man.

Ivy, then, maybe sensing whoever was holding her hated her dad, but more likely waking up for no particular reason, began to stir. At first she cried normally, but when she realized that whoever was holding her was not one of the few familiar people in her life, she began to cry as loudly as her weak little lungs could manage. She was too young to have true awareness of strangers compared to known people, but old enough to recognize her parents' scent and heartbeats, and waking up in the arms of a scent she didn't recognize was startling. She could not be soothed until she was back in familiar arms: Daizi took her first and then passed her to Dark, since it had been a few hours since he last got to hold his daughter.
 
"Don't worry, sir," Alec said to Saladin. "She will learn who you are soon enough and learn that you are a person capable of being kind to whom you choose." His smile was one of absolute innocence.

Xander carefully looked away.
 
He waved his hand, "No, don't worry. I had two kids, and I've been around plenty of other babies. I know it can take them a little while to be a good judge of character."

Zeinab inhaled, softly clapping her hands, "Saladin, can you believe you daughter gave birth a week ago? Doesn't she look great? And happy? And Qadira is eating well, right habibti?"

"Oh yeah, that's not a problem for her," Daizi replied, grateful her favourite aunt was there to keep things cool.

"Good. Good! You deserve a break, after everything. I bet once you get to go home, it'll be nothing but smooth sailing. But!" She went to sit by her niece, hugging her close, "if it's stressful on those calm seas, you call me. I'll sneak into the United States, I don't care. There's not a jury who would convict me."
 
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Xander started inching backward toward the door. Alec followed, the pair of them moving slowly and carefully as they tried to walk backward out the door without alerting anyone. They didn't want to be rude, but Xander was getting tired of biting his tongue, and Alec was just feeling a bit overstimulated and crowded. There were too many people crowded in the room, but Daizi looked so happy! Neither of them wanted to ruin things for her.
 
Daizi, jostled amongst her family, didn't notice the twins leave. Since Dark was standing somewhat away from the group to make sure Ivy wasn't overstimulated, and because, ultimately, his child was more important and interesting than his in-laws, he did see the twins exit. In response, he nodded understandingly and focused on his baby once more.

"Who are--woah, you two are twins." Alice was standing in the hall, her curiousity about the sounds she heard getting the better of her. It had been a day or two since she had seen Xander, because timing, and because they weren't technically friends, although she definitely had some boring days where she wanted to knock on their door, but thought it was probably not the right thing to do. But, in the days they had been there, she had never seen Alec before.
 
"How's it going, Wonderland?" Xander greeted her as he walked farther out into the hall and stretched in relief. Space!

Alec closed the door gently and turned to smile at the girl. "Hello, you must be Alice," he greeted her. He held out a hand. "I'm Alec. It's nice to finally meet you."
 
"Hey Xander," she smiled, walking up to join him, "I still don't have a good nickname for you. Hi Alec," she shook his hand, somewhat awkwardly, and then said, "I'm ten, you know, you don't gotta be formal with me. I'm just a kid. Who are all those people?"
 
"He's formal with everyone," Xander told her. "It's his thing."

Alec ignored him. "Our foster mother is from Egypt originally, and they have a special tradition where the family comes to visit the newborn baby on day seven. I'm not entirely certain about the details, but four of her aunts and her father have come to see little Ivy and celebrate her life."

"Should have left the father at home," Xander grumbled.
 
"Oh. That's cool. My grandma wants to get Dylan and Jaxson christened, but my step mom says it's indoctrination, but my dad says you don't have to mean it to do it, it'd make his mom happy, but my stepmom says it's the principle of the thing." She shrugged, trying her best to relate, "it's cool they're from Egypt though. I have a National Geographic about the pyramids if they'd like to read it. What's wrong with her dad?"
 
"Thank you, they might enjoy that," Alec smiled, nodding along. "For now, they're fussing over Ivy and her mother and really distracted, but I'll offer it to them when they calm down. Her dad is... fine."

"He's a jerk to our foster dad because of some old crap he refuses to let go of," Xander grumbled. "He deserves a- never mind. I'm trying to keep my cool so it won't stress out our foster mom."
 
Alice made a face, "I think dads are really good at being really unfair. I'm sorry. Your foster dad is scary, but he seems nice. He says hi to me in the hallway, and once he bought me a cookie in the cafeteria." She scratched behind her ear, "Is everyone else nice? My stepmom's family is pretty nice. I like them more than her."
 
"A couple of the aunts are grumpy, but it's been a really long plane flight, so I can't blame them for that," Alec told her. "The other two are really, really nice. They are looking forward to taking care of our foster mom, which is really great."

"It's pretty cool that they came, just loud and crowded," Xander grumbled.
 
"Yeah these rooms are really small. Anytime we have guests over, I have to stand the whole time, because it's not safe to sit on the floor, I guess." She shrugged, rocking on her toes, "How far away is Egypt? I know it's in Africa because of the National Geographic. But I don't know how far that is."
 
Alec rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, you could get a plane ride directly there to Cairo, it would take about... fifteen or sixteen hours, I believe, and planes go really, really fast."

"It's a bit complicated, though, because grown-ups have all sorts of rules about travel," Xander told her.
 
"I don't know why grown-ups make everything so hard. Sometimes things seem really easy and then they freak out over it, like it's the end of the world. And then they tell us to be big kids when we're upset," she scuffed her shoe, "You know how hotels have those big rooms for buisness people? Hospitals should have them so people aren't so cramped. And they should have playrooms like McDonalds so all the kids who aren't too sick, and their siblings, can go play instead of having to keep perfectly still and quiet all day."
 
"Dude, that would be the best," Xander sighed.

"Some hospitals have the play areas, but they are highly specialized hospitals, not general ones," Alec mused. "I guess the general ones don't have those because they can't afford to hire people to clean the play areas or keep an eye on the children. It sure would be nice, though, I agree."
 
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