Blueblood 5: Exposed The Secrets about V5H Revealed - 26. Matchmaking

Having breakfast with the people who were members and people that were not exactly members...people that worked closely with us are bound to pick up on the things that were odd. Vlad and Gaius were odd at times. Ellis and Kev were odd at times. Amasis? Odd. They each had been out of the modern world, thrust back into it and that was just odd. We were all odd in some way.

Dr. William Canaday, the Navy Commander, and two assistants went to take over that daylight hours in the lab. Not because of the venom or vampire thing, but to keep the lab working twenty-four hours a day. I hate to admit it, but…they didn’t do much more than observe and report, that I knew of. George had lab technicians and he had more than capable people to run every test. The military presence was more so the President was informed. I think Bill knew it. He was smart but had no way of competing with George or Kev. George had degrees on degrees and Kev had more than a century of experience. I worried that Bill could feel less necessary and therefore, not important. Before Colin and I went to continue our evening as we were leaving the table. I stopped George and Kev.

“I need to ask you two something,” I said cautiously. “What is Bill doing here at the VUN?”

George looked puzzled by the question. “What do you mean? He’s a scientist. I assume he’s working.”

“Most of the time, I see you two in conversation.” I pointed out. “Never the three of you. Commander Canaday, Bill, is a doctor and scientist, too.”

Kev understood almost. “Why? He’s intelligent, but we have to bring him up to even understand what he’s looking at.” He looked at us more carefully. “Do we just give him busy work?”

“Would you appreciate busy work?” I asked a little annoyed. “What are his credentials? What I was told, he was the top of his class. He is supposed to be a genius, too.”

Colin nodded understanding my concern. “Given time, could he catch up?”

“I suppose, but we should stop what we’re doing to get him up to speed?” George asked.

“Yes!” I said instantly. “If you want hard feelings, keep him out of the loop.”

Kev frowned. “He’s a grown man. He can ask.”

“He has been the star of the show for a decade or more,” Colin said firmly. “He is a human being who worked hard to get to where he is and if you offend him…and you will if you don’t utilize him more. So, he takes a while to catch up with what you, George, have been doing for seventy years!?” He pointed at Kev. “And you for a hundred years! Professional jealousy,” he looked at Kev,” and you know full well that happens, we do not need. He may not know what to ask about. Embarrass him and he will be offended. It will happen.”

“Take the time, please?” I urged them both.

Colin moved closer to George. “I know you have a tendency to get so involved in what you’re doing, you don’t remember or think about things like this.” He looked at George firmly. “You can not let him become jealous or feel like an idiot. You can not let this happen in the slightest form.” He was right in George’s face. “Do you understand?” George nodded but didn’t say anything. Colin shook his head. “George! Do you understand? This is so important. Say it back. Tell me what you understand.”

“I’m not a child, Colin,” George said a little offended.

“No, George, you’re not.” Colin agreed touching our friend. “I’m sorry, but you do tend to get caught up. You know that. I want to make sure you understand. This is so important.”

George looked surprised but nodded. “Keep Dr. Canaday doing work and have him contribute.”

Kev nodded. “We do need to get him appraised at what he’s doing and why.” He shrugged and looked at George. “You are teaching me about some findings, we need to make sure he’s in on that when you do.”

George nodded with a sheepish chuckle. “I guess we do tune a lot out. Including Dr. Canaday. I’ll make sure he’s included.”

Wayne came over, followed by Amasis. “I’m sorry about that...what happened.” He thumbed to the table where we’d sat. “I should watch what I say.”

Colin’s eyes widened. “Absolutely not, Wayne.” He threw an arm over Wayne’s shoulder. “What did you say?” He shrugged. “You expressed affection to Devon. You called him Dad. Nothing was said that would harm anyone.”

Wayne nodded. “But it started questions.”

I smiled at Wayne. “There will be questions,” I said helplessly. “We are what we are. They know that. They also can’t tell who is and who isn’t a vampire. They know I am and you are. Don’t govern what you say.” I chuckled at Colin. “However, Bill’s giving the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was interesting. He knows.”

Back in Colin’s and my bedroom, after a few...I wasn’t sure how long, Colin and I collapsed, spent after making love. Rolling us over so Colin was on top of me again as I liked his weight on me, he smiled at me as he ran his lips over my jaw. He held me tighter as he caught his breath. “I love you, Devon.”

I smiled at him and softly replied. “I know. I love you.”

Colin nodded as he kissed me more directly. “I know.” He shook his head. “I say it again since we got together, things have really come into focus for me.”

I know my eyebrows rose. “You have said it before, but why?” I saw his puzzled expression and kissed him quickly. “I should say, what do you mean?”

Colin shrugged. “Since you arrived, things have just gotten…better.” He grinned. “Cause and effect? Good luck? I’m just saying it may be because of you.”

I was noticing some other things. Chuck was a man that was pretty well satisfied with being on his own during the off hours. He’d read or find something for himself to do. I did, however, notice him speaking with Amanda often as we were spending more time at VUN in New York. I’m not too nosey usually, but Chuck was a friend and Amanda was one of the first vampires I’d seen right after she had been bitten and...she was walking down the corridor, dressed as an office professional, but I noticed it was now...a bit more dressy. Her blonde hair down and attractive. No power suit this time, but a nice lavender dress. As she was touching her large computer pad, I came up to her.

“Hi!” I greeted her as we were about to pass each other.

She looked up and smiled at me. “Hi, Devon! Is everything alright?”

I chastised myself for not speaking to her unless I needed something. “Fine! I’m meeting Colin in Vamps.” I answered readily. “How’s...what was his name again? Doug?”

She rolled her eyes and let out a disgusted grunt. “We aren’t exactly together anymore.” She confessed and frowned. “He needed space.” She said using air quotes on the word space. “He is so immature.”

I nodded. “I see. I’m sorry.” I shrugged. “He must have had some quality that you liked. You lived with him a while.” Okay, I was fishing to see if it was over and she was dressing like this for someone else. Someone, I hoped she was dressing for.

She nodded. “I suppose so, but...” she shook her head. “Right after I was bitten, he was in shock.” She laughed. “I was in shock! Then he started worrying about his aging and my lack of aging and I won’t necessarily die...suddenly he needed the space.”

“It is a difficult thing to accept,” I said hoping she understood that.

“I haven’t heard from him in over a year.” She said, but not too upset. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” She sighed, but it wasn’t a too disappointed sigh.

Okay, I wasn’t planting the idea, if the idea occurred to her…I could put fertilizer around the idea “There are men that can accept it, as you know.” I offered. “There are men here that have known for years now. It wouldn’t be a surprise for them.”

Amanda chuckled knowing what I was doing. “Matchmaking at the VUN?”

“Amanda,” I said in a low growl. “No one should be alone. Having someone to share life with is what we do. I know of a man...very smart and very good looking...very blonde...and very big! He knows what you are.”

She nodded. “Chuck.” She frowned again. “Is that fair? I can’t have children.”

“Does he even want children?” I asked. “Besides, that’s not exactly true. Gaius fathered a son; he’s a vampire. We both know George will figure it out. Who knows what the future has in store?”

She thought a moment more. “We haven’t discussed his plans for the future or even mentioned dating. I just don’t want to rob him of one.”

“You won’t be,” I said simply. “If he does want children, there are ways to do that. Adopt or even surrogates. You aren’t done. I’ve never thought of it, but can a female vampire be a surrogate? If you can, you could be pregnant, just not conceived by you. Of course, the venom and blood...you can talk to George about that when the time comes. Until you decide, you can enjoy his company. I’ve seen you two talking. There interest and there is a chemistry there. I see it.”

She looked back down the hall and I knew she was looking back to where Chuck had been. “You’re right.” She said and walked back the way she came.

That’s when I felt familiar hands come around me. “You are determined to have everyone married.” The deep voice I knew without looking rumbled as he had come from around the corner.

I pulled his arms tighter around me as I watched Amanda go down the corridor faster than she had before. “Of course!” I turned in Colin’s arms. “Being part of a pair is healthy for us as humans. Marriage is wonderful. Everyone deserves to be happy like we are.”

Colin nodded, kissing me gently. “I agree.” He embraced me tighter. “I am very happy.” He broke from me enough to kiss me again. “With you.”

The time with the boys was ongoing. I taught them about the Earth and time passing and what we called the different segments of time. Concepts again. An understanding was going to come, but they hadn’t quite gotten it yet. Emotions. How do you teach them that what they felt was what happened when they are happy? Sad? The various emotions we all had in between. Disappointment? Saying you feel good when happy and bad when sad, doesn’t really explain that.

Vlad also spent time with them as I worked with them. He even helped me with teaching them.

I made rounds. I circulated everywhere now. I would pop in the lab to see George, Kev and Bill Canaday in discussion now.

“...the identification of the venom...is there a genome for it? Can’t we extract that pairing?” Bill was asking.

George shook his head. “No. What it rewrites makes subtle changes that makes the person the creator of the venom. Finding that configuration is almost impossible! The pairing is extremely hard to find...”

I rolled my eyes. This was too deep for my little bit of medical understanding to follow. I was very happy that Bill was being included now in those discussions. So I then went to bother Stan. Coming up behind him, I grinned as I saw he was not working on anything for VUN or Holms' Laboratories. On the screen were two rings that rotated. Wedding rings! I looked at the two simple gold bands.

“Nah,” I said startling him and making him jump with a small yelp. “Those aren’t good enough...assuming they are for you and Mark.”

“Jeez!” Stan gasped as he tried to regulate his breath again. “You scared the shit out of me!” He swatted backward but never made contact. “Sneaking up on me!?”

Not bothered a bit I came up behind him closer. “You two need something nice, something that says Stan and Mark, Mark and Stan. Unique.”

Stan nodded waving at the two bands. “Mark just wants a simple band.” He shrugged and looked at me. “What do you think works better? Goddard-Martin or Martin-Goddard?”

I smiled at him bigger. “Combining your names? That’s great! Who cares whose name is first? If you both have it, that will be your name. I took Colin’s!”

Stan nodded and typed again quickly. “I helped Amasis and Wayne design a couple of rings.” He waved at the screen overhead again. The new rings turned on the three-dimensional screen so I could see them from all over. They were wide, darkened black gold, but alternating was the shinier yellow gold cross-like symbol I’d seen with the oval at the top...and the symbol I knew was the loop the sideways figure eight. “Both are symbols or eternity. The infinity symbol you know and perhaps you know the Ankh for Egyptian Eternity.” He shrugged. “That got me to thinking about ours.” He grinned. “I was searching for something to make them special.”

“You apparently want something special, so tell Mark that.” I reasoned simply and grinned at him. “He’d do it for you.”

Stan nodded. “He would.” He looked at me. “Since you and Colin are all of our Best Men, you’ll have all those rings!”

I grudged a nod. “I just want to keep them straight.” I sighed. “Ten rings...I just don’t want us to give Wayne’s to Mark by mistake. We will definitely jingle.”

Stan grinned. “It will be a different wedding than I’ve ever heard of.” He shrugged at me. “We may have to come up with something equally as different.”

I looked at Stan carefully. “You don’t mind that?”

“Mind?”

“It’s not the traditional wedding...even if you don’t consider the all-male aspect,” I said. “It isn’t a regular wedding.”

Stan shook his head. “I’m marrying Mark. That’s the most important thing. He’s marrying me. To say I do and then do it...is traditional. How we do it is not. I don’t want it to be traditional because Mark and I aren’t.”

I smiled again. “I knew the day you showed up here, you two were meant for each other.”

Stan nodded and being fair complexion, I saw his face pink up. “Some of us are slow learners.”

“But you got it finally,” I said and decided on another topic. “We made arrangements for Kev and Ellis, as they haven’t been out in the world to know what’s where, so we booked two islands, including the one Colin and I stayed on to send them each somewhere.” I chuckled imagining. “Ellis would probably be okay out there but might deck someone if they gave either of him of Kev trouble. Gaius and Vlad aren’t bothered about their relationship and I doubt anyone would give them trouble if they want to survive, but to be on the safe side...we're sending them to one of those islands. George and John, Wayne and Amasis and you two...we left the honeymoons to you. You and Mark chose somewhere?”

Stan looked at me uncertainly. “If we all do, won’t that leave you guys shorthanded?” He asked me. “George and John will be gone, as will Kev and Ellis, Vlad and Gaius, Wayne and Amasis...”

“We got along before you,” I said and saw his eyes grow alarmed and touched him quickly. “Not to demean anyone. You know how valued you all are here. We’ve gone a long way since all of you joined us, but...we’ll manage a couple of weeks without you. You each need time to just be a couple.”

Stan waved at the computer. “Well, what about Buddy?” He wasn’t joking.

I squeezed Stan on the shoulder. “I admit, no one knows Buddy better than you do, but we had someone here do this before. They won’t be anywhere near as good, but we’ll get by.”

Stan wasn’t convinced but nodded. “Mark wanted to scuba dive and all that. We’re going to Key West.”

I chuckled knowing the reputation there. “No problem there. You’ll be among quite a few men that are holding hands there.”

Wentworth had the rooms. We had those extra houses built for just such a thing! Guests that were not in the wedding were being housed in those outbuildings or a hotel. Gaius’ son, daughter-in-law, and children had one house. Wayne’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren in another. Stan’s and Mark’s family in others. Others were put in a hotel! We had five couples in the main house. It wasn’t long before the wedding day was about to arrive.