Splitting Heirs

Tale Spin Fan Fic

by Katie Sullivan

Chapter 11

16 Oct 1945 -- 10:47 A.M.

There was a knock on the door of Scarlet's quarters, but before she could shout "come in", Katarina stuck her head into the room. "Sis! Guess what?" she burst out in excitement.

Scarlet looked up from the album of wedding photos. "What?"

Without allowing Katarina to elaborate, Don Karnage pushed past her into the room. "Scarlet!" Before she could stand, he dropped to his knees and seized her in a tight embrace.

She stammered in tounge-tied bewilderment, unable to form coherent words. Instead she clung to him like a drowning swimmer , fighting tears of joy.

"Dios mio, querida, it is so marvelous to see you safely and soundly!"

"F-Felipe?" she managed to stutter. "Where...? How...? What...?" She blinked her vision clear and looked up to find Don Gonzalo, Doņa Lorita, Dolores, Joaquim and Miguel standing with Katarina. "Who...? How...?

"The government of Cuba knows better than to muddle with the great Karnage family," Karnage said.

"Meddle," she corrected automatically.

"Whatever." He held her at arm's length and soaked in her stunned smile.

"We have...influence," Don Gonzalo said quietly, an expression of smug confidence on his gray face.

"They just let you go?" Scarlet asked.

"No, no. They released me into the custardy of the, uh...Cuban officials." He gave a wolfish grin and gestured at his relatives.

Scarlet's smile got even wider. "Why, you..." She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. "I love you."

"I love you, too, querida. And I see you are still in the familiar way. What happened?"

"Family way. Apparently it was just a false alarm, brought on by the excitement."

"I see." He leaned over to speak directly to her stomach. "Very good, little one. Your timing is not so horrible as we thought."

Dona Lorita stepped forward. "Do not worry, child, when your time comes I will be here to help you along," she said in Spanish. "I have been the unofficial midwife for Cabo Orgulloso for some years, now."

Scarlet took a second to translate, then nodded appreciatively. "Gracias."

"Now let us sit and get all catched up. I think there is much more explaining for everyone to be doing, yes-no?"

18 Oct 1945 -- 1:19 P.M.

Don Karnage stood in the treasury, admiring the mountains of fresh plunder. Will stood behind him, reading off the latest inventory. The end may have been less than perfect, but the latest round of pillaging had produced far more loot than the Lightning Gun attack.

Will went down the list as his Captain surveyed the treasury. "...forty-six books, nineteen gold bracelets, twelve pairs of diamond earrings, twenty-four Persian rugs, five sets of china, one very soggy crate of Frosty Pep ice cream, six boxes of crystal, nine antique vases, and--"

"--a partridge in a pear tree," Katarina interrupted from the doorway.

"No, a wench in a treasure-y," he said with a laugh.

"Cute," she said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, 'Captain', Scarlet wanted me to tell you...she thinks she's in labor for real this time. Might want to go and--"

*CRASH!*

"Correction, eight antique vases..." Will mumbled, writing in his clipboard as Karnage dashed from the room, leaving a pile of broken glass. "Kat, you really shouldn't give him news like that when he's holding something breakable."

"He'll never miss it." She looked greedily around the treasury. "Speaking of which..." Her hands strayed toward a crate of gold pieces, but Will grabbed her wrist.

"Oh, no, you don't! If the Captain finds out, it'll be both our kneecaps!"

"Aw, you're no fun."

"Wanna bet?" He gave a sly smile and put an arm around her waist.

She grinned mischieveously. "Later. Right now I've got a sister to take care of."

"Is that a promise?"

"More like a threat. See ya, accountant-boy." Katarina tweaked his nose and sauntered out of the room.

18 Oct 1945 -- 9:42 P.M.

Don Karnage had paced the length of his office so many times he was getting dizzy, but every time he tried to sit his nervous feet protested. How long did it take for a baby to be born, anyway? He took back everything he had said about it having good timing.

He had planned on staying close by his wife at this critical moment in their lives, but between her screams of pain and screamed insults, it was obvious he was better off elsewhere. She had never said such awful things to him before, but his mother assured him it was normal.

There was a knock at the door, and he raced to open it, nearly tripping on his own feet. It was Katarina. He had never been so glad to see her. "Yes?"

"Doņa Lorita said it'll be another half-hour or so."

He swore in Spanish. "I cannot take this waiting! Er...are they okay? Scarlet and the baby?"

"So far, so good. But believe me, you do not want to get near her. I didn't know she had so many swear words in her vocabulary..."

He wrung his hands and resumed pacing. Katarina left, closing the door behind her. Five minutes later, there was a second knock. Again, he quickly yanked the door open.

"Padre," he breathed in surprise.

Don Gonzalo gave him a "may I come in?" look, and Karnage stepped aside. The old wolf took a seat by the desk, and his son forced himself to sit.

"You may not believe this," he began in his deep, calm voice, "but when you children were born I was every bit as nervous as you are now. A birth is always a time of worry, especially when it is your first-born. But trust me, son, you'll get through it."

Karnage nodded and studied the wood grain on his desk. His father continued, speaking entirely in Spanish.

"And from what I hear, Scarlet is a saint compared to what your mother said to me when she was in labor. Ah, she won't even remember it when it's all over."

"Good...Abuelo Gonzalo." Karnage managed an impish grin. [Abuelo=grandfather]

"Don't start," he said with a sigh. "I feel old enough already. Look at me...I'm completely gray!"

Karnage laughed nervously and fidgeted with a ballpoint pen. When was the last time his father had joked with him? Talked man-to-man? So long ago he couldn't remember...

"You have been gray since the day you were born, padre," he said. "And I imagine Abuelo Andres was as nervous then as I am now."

"Of course. It's just the way things are. But don't worry, your wife's in the best of hands. Your mother has delivered nearly every child born on Cabo Orgulloso in the last twenty-five years. She's as skilled a midwife as she is a pirate." Gonzalo folded his arms on his broad chest. "And don't worry about yourself, either. I have a feeling you're going to be a fine father."

Karnage's eyes widened in surprise, and, finally, he smiled. Few people felt the need or the courage to boost his self-confidence. It was, after all, an area that usually needed no encouragement. Today, however was a different story.

A few moments of silence passed, but it was not the awkward sort that had marked their last few meetings. Instead it was a calmer silence brought about not because they couldn't think of anything to say, but because they didn't need to.

Eventually, without a word, Gonzalo stood, put a firm hand on his son's shoulder, smiled with his eyes only, and left.

18 Oct 1945 -- 10:23 P.M.

Too exhausted to pace any more, Karnage sat with his feet up on his desk, anxiously twisting and untwisting the cap on his favorite pen. When another knock on the door came, he jumped from his chair, knocking it over, and sent the pen flying across the room. He scrambled to open the door and found a pale but happy-looking Katarina. He grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her forward.

"Well?!"

She squirmed indignantly out of his grasp but remaining smiling. "Congratulations. You're the father of a perfectly healthy--but sticky--baby boy."

He sighed in relief, cheered in joy and spontaneously gave her a giant hug.

"Hey, I had nothing to do with it," she teased.

"Yes, yes, of course," he said, pushing her aside in a headlong dash toward the sick bay.

18 Oct 1945 -- 10:26 P.M.

Karnage skidded to a stop at the door and knocked urgently. A very long moment later, his mother opened it. She was drying her hands with a towel, beaming with satisfaction. "Come in and meet your son, Felipe." She snatched a brief hug before letting him pass into the room. The lights were dimmed, and the only other people there were Scarlet...and his child. After all the rushing around in panic, he suddenly found himself walking slowly, approaching his wife's bed with an almost reverential air.

Scarlet looked like she'd been though Hell and back, but she was smiling as he had never seen her smile before. And inside the bundle of blankets in her arms, fixed in her adoring gaze...

He leaned over to see.

"Our son," Scarlet said quietly. "Juan."

Karnage froze, riveted by the tiny figure. Two jet black eyes peered out from within the folds of the white blanket, curious but not quite focused. His fur coloring more closely matched Scarlet's, but there was something about him, something in his eyes, that marked him as 100% Karnage.

His father reached out slowly, as if he would disappear like a soap bubble upon being touched, and placed a hand on his damp head. He squirmed and smacked his lips.

His mother stroked his soft, round cheek. "Isn't he just...amazing?" she said, turning to her husband.

Karnage nodded, finding no words in any language to describe what he felt. Instead, he tenderly kissed his wife, then the newborn's forehead.

They had become a family.


On to the Epilogue
Back to main Pirate Island page