Chaos Hotel O’Connell
New York, NY
Wednesday Night
It’s been a long night at the home of Malachi and Bella, as they have found themselves with their hands full. Elise and Patrick Russow found themselves being taken care of by their aunt and uncle after Jack ended up in the ICU. Alanah had only dropped them off an hour ago, Mal and Bella meeting her outside, making sure they had everything she had for them before she took off like a bat out of hell.
It was only just a couple of weeks ago that she had announced that she was pregnant and now all this going on with Jack couldn’t have been good for her but that wasn’t able to be brought up before she left them in the dust.
Bella shifted Patrick on her hip, looking at Mal who has Elise and giant bag slung over his shoulder, “I really hope she’ll be ok.”
“Lanah is a big strong girl. Let’s get these kids in before the skies open back up.”
“I know she is, but she barely let us know what was going on or anything that we needed to know about the kids,” Bella’s voice sounded a little worried.
Mal smiles sadly as Elise reaches up and touches his beard. He playfully nips at her little hand and she giggles, before turning and escorts his wife and nephew inside, “Love, she’s frantic and wants to get to Jack. Let's give it about 30 minutes, if these two start screaming, we’ll feed them.”
“Might have to look into getting some seats and a toddler bed. We have absolutely nothing here for them.”
“We’ll make due and if desperate times call for desperate measures then there are always the delivery options.”
Once they both ascended the stairs they both stopped at the same time and looked down, noticing that they were not prepared for this at all. Exposed stairs, no seats for toddlers and that pesky no bed. Mal sighs and drops the bag, grabs his phone.
“Ok, you’re the expert. What do we need?”
After about an hour of waiting for a delivery of booster seats, temporary foldout kids couches that would double as the twins beds for the night and a few gates to cut off all escape routes, the twins ran off the energy of a new place by giving Luka a run for her high energy and a game of tag. Luka would find herself running for her life for a moment from Patrick and Elise before she would turn around and chase them back for a moment, to a bout of giggles from the twins.
Not for anything said for her past history in watching Jack’s twin brother and sister, it made her almost a natural for their niece and nephew. Malachi however...well lets just say there was a learning curve but after a while he got a handle on everything but it did lead to everyone wearing a little something from dinner including poor Luka.
“How do you know how to do all of this?” Mal asked as he washed a bit of squash out of his beard. He’d look at the reflection as Bella sat on the floor watching the kids splash around the tub, cleaned but still full of energy.
“Charlie and Rosie.” Bella said with a smile as she splash the little ones a bit, “I did a lot of babysitting of those two when they were almost the same age. Of course, I don’t remember them being quite this energetic but it makes for a good workout.”
Mal squatted down next to her, “That it does. I could wrestle 3 matches and not even be this close to being exhausted as I am right now.”
She smiled as Mal yawned and tried to shake the cobwebs loose. She would splash him a little bit to get a fit of giggles again from the twins, “Well wake up, big boy. We still gotta get them dressed and down for the night. Alanah said they’ve never had a night over anywhere else, so this may get interesting.”
“Lovely.” he just deadpanned.
And Bella nailed it right on the head, after their baths they introduced the twins to the guest room where they had a few of their toys that was sent with them. Mal watched in awe as Bella would sit down with them on each side as she read to them from one of her favorite books. Patrick would sit still and listen, while it was obvious that Elise was not really having it. Before long though, Patrick was out like a light and Bella would bring his sister out with her and try and sooth her, to no avail.
Elise would whimper and whine even with her favorite blanket and binkie as Bella would walk her back and forth around the house as Mal finished getting everything cleaned up.
Everyone once in a while she’d cry out for her mama, clearly battling sleep.
“I know sweetie, I wish mama could be here too. But she’s gotta be with daddy right now and we will see them in the morning, okay?” Bella would try to reason with the 14 month old but Elise would just rub her sleepy eyes and continue on whining, “I don’t know what else to do. I can’t lay her back down with Patrick, she’ll wake him up on purpose and then all hell would really break loose.”
Mal could see Bella was getting frustrated as well as exhausted, and walked over to them rubbing his niece on her back, “Why don’t you hand her over to me and rest a bit? I can tell she’s feeding off your frustration right now. I got a trick up my sleeve.”
“Really?”
Mal just motioned and Bella willfully and carefully hands Elise over, “Hey there lil one, let’s give Aunt Bella a break.”
He’d give his wife a kiss on her forehead and send her off to a shower as he battled the exhausted little girl in his arms.
10 minutes later, Bella would come back out to check on them to find Mal swaying with Elise now passed out in his arms and singing a lullaby in Irish:
Suantraí sí, a linbhín
Luasc go mall sa chliabhán
Lú lá luí, a linbhín
Dún do shúil, a naíonáin
Seoithín seoithín seoithín seó
Seoithín seoithín seoithín seó
Seoithín seoithín seoithín seó
Suantraí sí, a linbhín,
A thaiscidh, a stór
Luí go socair, luí go ciúin
Codladh sámh, a ghrághil
Fan id' shuan, a thaiscidh buan
Go n-éirí tú ar maidin
And all Bella could do was melt against the wall and watch with her eyes tearing up and her hand on her stomach. It was only a matter of time until she could have this in her life forever, right?
But Until That Happens...
Paging Ms. Candy, Paging Ms. Robertson
“Your sassy little hellion has arrived to give you a rude awakening!!!!”
Bella stands inside of Wolfslair, dressed in business attire with her long blonde hair hanging down. She places her hands on her hips and smirks.
“I cannot put into words the greeting from the fans I got 2 weeks ago when I stepped through that curtain and back into the six-sided ring. It was like a giant welcome home that I didn’t know how much I missed until that moment. Char Kwan, nothing against you sweets, you tried your best but it just wasn’t good enough.”
“NOW, I need to make things clear. When I came back I made it known to Mark and Christian that I wasn’t back to walk right into a championship match. There has been plenty of other Bombshells that were here busting their fucking asses while I had to have my head put back together again.” Bella holds her hands up to her chest and takes a deep breath in, “I wanted to work my way back into a division whether it’d be Roulette or Internet and get there by my own fruition. And here we are, just a few short weeks after my return and I find myself in this triple threat match to determine who is going to be pretty much a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter of my own stablemate, Kayla Richards in just a few short weeks.”
“First we got the ever colorful and glittery Candy. And my girl, what the hell can be said about you that hasn’t? You have known me over half of my life and honestly, it’s still amazing to me that even after all this time you are still that amazing bubbly personality that I met way back in the day. I feel though like there are times that you have one foot out the door and I know you have your hands full with your daughter and everything now. You have your hands full. But I also know that this kind of opportunity will not pass you by.” she blinks slowly because well, she’s trying to put another bad thought in but just lets it out, “You have never been the one to give up a chance this big. You are a former Roulette Champion and I just can’t ignore that. You’ve beaten me, I’ve beaten you. But we have another factor in this match.”
“Georgie Robertson.” Bella sighs, “Apparently I somehow missed your whole debut and I apologize for the most part. But when I finally got the chance between family drama, working my ass off in training to make sure that I was actually really ready to come back...I had to say I was rather....let’s just say this: I have seen this before. I mean, at least it seems that way every time I turn on the BBC.”
She laughs and waves her hands around, “I have been sitting for hours upon hours of trying to come up with something scathing to say about you when the fact remains, I couldn’t. ...hell now that I think about it, I couldn’t even come up with something positive to say about you. While yeah, I’ve been out on injury, you came in here and might as well have been painting the Bombshells’ locker room beige, like the whole color of your personality and sat and watched the paint dry because that would have been a better time than setting through anything I found about you.”
Putting her head in her hands she growls with a bit of frustration, “And I hate that. I hate being that bitch but it’s absolutely 100% on the nose. You are the definition of “mid”, whereas when it comes to me, it’s ONLY a matter of time. Either one of two things happens, I finally get that brass ring...or in this case the Internet Championship or I end up a mom and out for a little while again while I bring life into this fucked up world that we all live in.”
“The facts are I am out to make this time that I have here a whole lot more special than the rest. I’m finally starting to see the bigger picture. But for me, a win or a loss won’t make or break me. I’m already made, here in Sin City. Everyone know exactly what Bella Madison is capable of, all that matters now is finally making it stick. So come at me, bitches.”
Bella flips her hair and turns on her heels, and before she walks out the door you hear, “I’m out to show you all exactly what you were missing without me around.”
