Witchy Days 25: A Gardening Present

Summer vacation vibes.

The trip is moving towards the end, so a bunch of Wickhams are at a seaside lounge.

Spending some time away from the older crowd and checking out the lower floor of the restaurant.

“Do you think they’re really going to join the group?” Matthew asked, referring to the Talon-Striker bunch. “She seemed really hesitant.”

“She’s not really into it. Rafael and Camilla are, though,” Christopher gave his assessment of that family’s situation. “I don’t know. Is it really any use having them in the group if Jessica doesn’t even want to be part of it?”

“I have a feeling it’s something,” Terra told him. “At the very least, her side of the story majorly undermines Elvira. And as a mother, she has all the reasons to make the hunt after her family stop.”

“Then why didn’t she?” Chris asked.

“If she had to fake her own death to get out, I’m guessing she was really over it all. I do wonder about that,” he mused. “If she was their leader for such a long time, why would she get so fed up at this particular point? I wonder if someone inside the Coven had created an environment specifically designed to make her want to leave – you know, can’t beat her through strength, so you beat her through scheming.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case,” Terra agreed. “Especially if Jessica is the direct, drill sergeant type of leader, and Elvira wasn’t strong enough to directly fight her.”

“We should tell her this idea,” Chris suggested.

Tell Mom what?” Camilla joined them. “She and Dad are upstairs, by the way. They’ve been mulling everything over and we’ve convinced her to really join your crew.”

“That’s great!” Terra told her. “You have our phone numbers?”

“Totally. We won’t lose them. Are you leaving soon?”

“In another day or two,” Terra shrugged.

“Let’s party it up, then. Don’t worry, this place is safe,” Camilla told her.

It seems Dahlia and Camilla are really getting along.

“Camilla’s totally into her,” Matt told Terra once they all came back from the lounge.

“I’ve noticed. I think Chris did too.”

“Now that’s a development!”

“Actually, I’ve noticed Lila checking them out too. Although, I’m not sure which one of them she was checking out,” Terra told him.

“This is getting fascinating. Want to take bets on who’s going to end up with who?” he joked.

“Not really – Dahlia’s as straight as they come, so I doubt she can reciprocate for them as more than friends. I hope those girls don’t get their hopes up.”

“Sad when that happens.“

“Yeah, but enough about them…”

---

In Moonlight Falls, Xander and Laurel have been fully enjoying their stay away from the elders. Getting to live on their own and feel like adults was a fun experience and they hoped Terra and Matthew will be going on many trips from now on. And if they didn’t want to, maybe they could take Bristol and Lakeisha into taking a vacation?

Of course, if they left Anthony for them to babysit, they would rather not have it that way…

“Can you imagine what it’s going to be like when we’re older and can get our own place?” Laurel asked. “No rules, no homework, no one to tell us we’re doing something wrong.”

“Sounds like a dream,” he agreed, overtaking her on-screen car. “Not having to garden to earn our stay in someone’s home.”

“Well, we might still garden. It could be fun to have a small garden. Maybe a couple of farm animals too,” she supposed. “Cows are kind of cute, don’t you think?”

“Aren’t you the one who said animals are a lot of responsibility?” he asked.

“Yeah, but cows are pretty useful. Fresh milk is a strong argument. And goats are freaking neat – did you know they have four stomachs? And can eat freaking elm trees? If that isn’t rad, I don’t know what is.”

“Alright, it is. Well, this game’s done. Let’s finish up with the garden?”

“Are those the plasma fruit plants Matthew mentioned?” Xander asked. “Looks like they’re all ripe now.”

“Yeah, looks that way. Creepy things, but one can’t argue they are really useful for those in the vampire community who don’t want human blood.”

“Like Dahlia? I’ve overheard her telling Terra she literally can’t have real human blood – it makes her sick or something,” he told her. “Sounds pretty inconvenient for a vampire, if you ask me.”

“Agreed. I guess that’s why the alchemists have created this plant – for people like her. Unfortunately, the bushes only produce fruit once. Here’s to hoping they can deal with this at some point and create a sturdier variety,” Laurel recalled everything her mother and grandmother told her about these things. “And those are some good lemons. Is there sugar in the house? We should really make lemonade at some point. It’s certainly hot enough for some.”

“Yeah, way too hot to be outside and gardening,” he grumbled.

“Oh, shush you. It’s only 8 in the morning and you’re getting to stay away from the parents and free produce from this.”

“I know, I just don’t know anything about this. Plants are kind of weird to me.”

“Well, without plants you wouldn’t have all those paints you like so much,” she told him. “Let’s finish up with the weeding and we can chill.”

“Is this a weed or a normal plant?” he asked, observing a strange sprout.

“Uh… I’m not sure,” Laurel scratched her head. “Kind of looks like a weed to me.”

“Alright, let’s deal with this,” Xander bent down to pull on it. “It’s a stubborn one, a little help here?”

“Let me try,” she grabbed from the other side. “You’re right, it is a stubborn one. Together, on the count of three? One, two, three, pull!!!”

That worked and the “weed” was pulled out.

“Xander, what the fuck!?” Laurel’s eyes grew huge. “A baby? A baby that grew in the garden? How?!!”

“I haven’t got the slightest clue…” he stammered out in shock.

“What has your sister been planting here?” she asked.

“I don’t know, she never mentioned this!”

“Waaah!” the baby continued to wail.

“I think we need to call Mom,” he decided.

Sylvia and Barron were entertaining Leanna at their house and she was just happily telling them that she and Vladimir have made another contact with their kids and one or more of them would come to Moonlight Falls as soon as possible.

It seemed like a safer place for them to be, with Coven activity high in Bridgeport.

Sylvia was just about to chime in with a few idea of her own when her phone rang.

“Mom, please come here, Laurel and I have a baby here!” Xander started rambling.

“What? Did you forget what your father and I taught you about safe sex? You got her pregnant?!” Sylvia barked at him.

“No, Mom, no one is pregnant – we have a baby, now! Here. From the garden. Please come, we have no idea what to do!”

“What’s going on, son?” Sylvia arrived in record time. “What’s all the fuss about? A baby from the garden? Did someone’s kid crawl away?”

“I don’t think so. This one’s kind of a plant. Just come inside, please.”

“Hi, Mrs. Sylvia,” Laurel greeted them. “She’s kind of cute, isn’t she? At least I think it’s a she.”

“…..” For the first time in her life, Sylvia was truly at a loss for words. She could accept that the supernatural existed, that her friends were witches, werewolves and vampires. She could accept that her children grew up learning magic spells and that her father was one of the most infamous names in the magical world. But a plant baby from the garden was a really difficult concept to wrap her head around.

“Want to hold her?” Laurel asked Xander, who took the baby from her without complaint.

“So you were just gardening and grew a baby?” Sylvia finally asked.

“Seems so. We thought that strange plant was a weed, but I guess not,” the girl shrugged. “She seems sweet though.”

“I wonder who her parents are,” Xander wondered. “She had to be created somehow, right? Unless she’s a different sort of creature altogether?”

“Oh yeah, she probably has parents,” Laurel nodded, somewhat sadly. “We can try to look for them. But we need to take care of her for now.”

“Why don’t you come home with me for now?” Sylvia offered. “We’ll try to figure all this out.”

With all the talking happening in the house, Bartholomew finally woke up from his morning nap.

Now, without the plasma fruit plants’ smell covering it up, he could smell the plant baby.

And it was already born and in the house.

“Terra is going to kill me for not warning her,” he thought.

“Well, what would you know, they really did grow a baby in the garden!” was all Barron could say when they arrived at the house.

“They did,” Sylvia told him. “Can you call Sage? I want to ring Terra and have a word with her.”

“Sure thing. Kids, you can put the little one in whichever crib is unoccupied upstairs for now,” Barron told them. I’ll go see how much baby food we’ve got left.”

“Woah, where did you get a baby?!” Jamel exclaimed when he saw Xander carrying the little one.

“In the garden, man, in the garden,” Xander shrugged and continued on.

Sylvia planned to be nice when she called her daughter, but the first words that came out of her mouth when she heard Terra’s “Hi Mom” were “What the hell have you been doing in that garden of yours, Terra?!”

“Mom? What are you talking about? Did something happen?”

“You grew a freaking baby in your garden! That’s what happened. And your brother ‘harvested’ it!”

“What?!!!!”

“Don’t tell me you had no idea,” Sylvia told her.

“But I really didn’t…” Terra looked at Matthew who was confused, after only hearing her side of the conversation. “I still don’t understand.”

“Just get back as soon as you can, ok?” Sylvia told her.

“Yeah, our tickets are for tomorrow, we’ll be back anyways. See you, I guess?”

It was their last day in this city and they were currently recovering from a 3 hour long lecture from Liam on the history of Roaring Heights. While the lecture was highly informative, that was far too much information to take in during the morning hours and their brains now craved some relaxation. Instead, Terra was getting an angry phone call for something she didn’t even understand.

“She’s saying my brother harvested a baby in our garden. How is this even possible?” Terra asked him.

“Maybe we’ve picked up some strange seeds in the woods?” he thought of it. “We’ve been getting lots of seeds from wild plants lately.”

“Yeah, and the wild mandrake and wolfsbane strains are so much better than the kind you buy at the store,” she nodded.

“Looks like we’ve picked something extra along the way,” he shrugged. “Not much we can do about it now.”

“Except look forward to my mother being really angry at me.”

“At us. We’ve both done the seed-picking. We’ll deal with it.