Soft white flakes drifted from a mass of swirling black clouds, coating the streets and rooftops of Haven City with a fine powder. Citizens milled about dressed in heavy coats and scarves, their heads down to prevent the wind from nipping at the raw skin of their faces. Despite the less-than-pleasant temperature, however, a general sense of merriment hung in the air, a result of the knowledge of the approaching holiday. Everyone could feel it, from the seedy characters that gathered in local pubs to the high-ranking residents of the palace.
Christmas was upon Haven at last.
It was the most beloved time of year for the townsfolk, and the evidence of that fact was everywhere. Not a single door was missing a sweet-smelling wreath, and sparkling lights of numerous colors were strung from any and all surfaces imaginable. Several residential yards housed handmade snowmen, and in the Palace Square, a massive Christmas tree towered over the buildings, twinkling brightly against its metallic surroundings.
In the New Haven sector of the city, the Mar household was certainly no exception to the festive atmosphere. While living in an apartment didn't necessarily allow for much outside decorating, the interior design was nothing short of extravagant. Gold, red, and green garland had been tied around anything suitable for it, and a wicker sleigh had been placed near the fireplace, complete with empty boxes wrapped as presents. A two-foot-tall Santa stood beside it, waving warmly at the vacant room thanks to the power cord the twins had neglected to unplug.
Across the hearth of the fireplace, four brightly colored stockings had been hung on hooks that spelled out the word "Noel", one for each of the siblings and one for Keira. The she-elf had recently moved in with her boyfriend, — much to the twins' disdain — seeing as how they would be starting a family much sooner than they'd originally planned.
Around the coffee table in the living room, a miniature train circled the tracks that had been constructed, its cars overflowing with tiny gifts. In the hallway leading to the bedrooms, a long cabinet had been cleared off to allow space for the little snow-covered village that occupied it now. And, dominating one corner of the front room, an elegant Christmas tree completed the whole holiday feel, its bare branches just pleading to be decorated.
Inside one of the bedrooms, Christella and Aleighna Mar were nestled in their respective beds, fast asleep. They'd even opted to change their bedding to fit the spirit of the season, Chris having chosen a dark blue blanket with snowflakes on it, while Aleighna settled for pine green covers with reindeer.
As if on cue, both sisters smiled while still dosing, each exploring the wonders of dreamland. Aleighna was dreaming about Santa and the North Pole, as she simply had Christmas on the brain. Chris, meanwhile, was having a glorious vision of stuffing one of Ashelin Praxis' bras with raw yakow meat.
A low creak broke the peaceful quiet of the room as Jak entered, running a hand through his tousled blonde/green hair. He smiled in the soft gloom at the forms of his unconscious sisters for a moment, and then promptly flipped on the overhead light, causing both of them to jolt awake with simultaneous groans.
"Do you mind?" Aleighna grumbled, pulling the covers up over her face to protect her eyes from the sudden brightness. "I know there's no hope for your mug, Jakky-boy, but some of us actually need beauty sleep, you know."
"I was just about to sick a hungry crocadog on her!" Chris complained, her mind still engorged in her dream that had been so rudely interrupted.
"You had the meat dream again?" Aleighna guessed, smirking at her disgruntled twin. Chris nodded once, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at their elder sibling for waking her.
Jak arched a dark green eyebrow at his younger sisters, and then shrugged, deciding he'd probably be better off not knowing. "I just came in to tell you two that I'm leaving for my dance class in a little bit, so Keira will be in charge."
"You're leaving your pregnant girlfriend in charge of us?" Chris gasped, staring at the Eco-infused elf as if he'd just spontaneously transformed into an ottsel. "Are you trying to kill your child?"
"Of course not!" Jak retorted, rolling his eyes at her. "Because I know you two will behave yourselves while I'm gone, right?"
The twins exchanged a knowing grin, and then turned back to their brother, their expressions radiating innocence.
"Whatever you say, Jak," they answered simultaneously, looking as if two golden halos would pop up above their heads at any moment.
Sighing wearily, Jak spun around and exited their room, sending a silent prayer to the Precursors that his mischievous siblings would spare his poor girlfriend any unnecessary stress.
As he trudged back down the hall, Jak paused outside his own bedroom and cautiously opened the door, stepping quietly inside. He could just make out the sleeping silhouette of Keira atop the bed they shared, her pale skin illuminated by the soft morning glow filtering through the window.
Smiling to himself, Jak crossed the room and leaned over the side of the mattress, pressing a gentle kiss to the young mechanic's forehead.
Keira stirred in her sleep, her eyelids lifting groggily to reveal her bright emerald irises. Her bleary gaze focused on his face, and the corners of her lips twitched upwards in a smile.
"You leaving?" she inquired, remembering that he had a lesson today. Ever since the two of them had uncovered the old video of Jak dancing, he'd picked it up again, and now taught his own class in a studio not too far from their apartment.
"Yeah, so you're stuck with the Demolition Duo for a while," he informed her, grinning apologetically.
"Don't worry, I'll keep them in line," Keira assured him, smirking teasingly. "A wrench is good for more than just fixing cars, you know."
Both she and Jak laughed lightly, the latter just managing to resist the urge to grimace. He knew all-too-well how creative Keira could be with her wrench's usefulness, and he's had the bruised skull to prove it.
After a moment, the mirth in Keira's expression faded; worry taking its place and dragging the edges of her mouth into a frown.
"You will be back in time for the ultrasound, won't you?" she fretted, propping herself up on her elbow while her other hand rested unconsciously on her abdomen.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Jak soothed her, laying one hand over the top of hers on her swollen stomach.
The pregnant she-elf visibly relaxed, her shoulders sagging and a relieved sigh escaping her throat. Today was her first ultrasound, after all, and she wanted Jak to be there to see their growing child.
Chuckling, Jak bent closer to her and claimed her lips with his own in a brief, fiery kiss.
"Ugh, that is not something I wanted to see this early in the morning," a voice complained from the doorway. Jak and Keira reluctantly broke apart to see the twins standing just beyond the threshold, both their visages looking rather disturbed.
"Well, you'd better get used to it, sis," Aleighna sighed, slinging her arm casually around Chris' shoulders and stumbling when the latter slipped out from under it. "I'm sure we'll have plenty more, uh, 'rude awakenings' now that Keira's living here."
"Was there a reason you interrupted us?" Jak grumbled, cutting off his sisters before they had the chance to go off on a tangent.
"Oh, yeah," Chris replied, returning her gaze to her elder sibling. "Hate to break up your little moment, bro, but we thought you'd like to know that your class starts in five minutes."
"Damn, I'm gonna be late!" Jak groaned, leaping to his feet. He dashed over to a nearby chair and grabbed his dance bag, slinging it over his shoulder and bending down to slip on his tennis shoes in the same movement.
"Uh, Jak?" Keira asked hesitantly, sitting up so that the blankets fell away from her torso, revealing her loose nightgown and the baby bump that was just distinguishable beneath the light fabric. "Did you plan on teaching your class in your pajamas?"
For indeed, Jak was still dressed in the clothes he'd slept in the previous night — namely a white sleeveless shirt and black sweatpants.
"It's dance class, not church!" Jak snorted, straightening up and striding quickly across the room. The twins parted to allow him to take his leave, but he paused out in the hallway, casting an affectionate glance in Keira's direction. "Love you, Keira. I'll see you this afternoon."
"Love you, too," Keira replied, beaming fondly at him.
"Hey, forget someone?" Aleighna complained just as Jak was about to dash off again.
"Oh yeah, stay out of trouble, you two," her older brother responded, fixing both of the twins with a stern gaze, and then disappearing into the living room.
"Gee, love you too, bro!" Chris yelled sarcastically right as the front door clicked shut somewhere out of sight.
A beat of silence passed between the three remaining she-elves, and then Keira swung her legs over the side of the bed and hauled herself to her feet, stretching drowsily.
"Careful there, Keir," Chris cautioned, her cerulean eyes alight with amusement. "You wouldn't wanna stretch too far and pull something."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Keira demanded, placing her hands on her hips and piercing the younger girl with a warning stare that was usually only reserved for Jak.
"Nothing, nothing at all," Aleighna answered for her sister, grinning teasingly. "We just don't want you doing anything that could harm our niece or nephew. Are you sure you aren't too weighed-down in the front to walk?"
Unfortunately for the twins, in some cruel combination of tiredness from being woken by their brother and the relative shortness of their attention spans, they forgot the one golden rule that Jak had drilled into their heads the day Keira moved in: You ever heard the phrase "hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn"? Well, you'd better take that to heart, because let's just say that if you get a pregnant woman mad at you… you've just signed the bottom line of your death warrant.
Those exact words flashed through both Aleighna and Chris' minds in the same instant, panic freezing them in place as a rage-fueled fire began to simmer in Keira's emerald irises. Quicker than they would have thought possible for a woman in her current state, the teal-haired she-elf yanked open the top drawer of her nightstand and withdrew her trusty wrench. Aleighna yelped in fright and ducked as the tool went sailing barely two inches over the top of her head, and then she returned her frightened gaze to Keira, her hand over her chest to make sure her heart hadn't stopped.
"Are you calling me fat?" Keira hissed, her fingers curling into fists at her sides.
"Of course not!" Chris objected immediately as Aleighna cowered behind her. "It was just a joke, Keira!"
Whatever else she may have said died in her throat as Keira stormed over to the scared-out-of-their-pants sisters, halting when she was less than a foot away from them. They shrank under her burning gaze, saying their prayers to the Precursors and wishing they'd written out their wills while they'd had the chance.
"Please don't kill us…" Aleighna begged, hoping fervently that a hole would randomly appear in the floor that she could fall into.
Tense silence crackled between the three girls for several agonizing seconds, and then, without warning, Keira's terrifying expression softened into a warm smile.
"Why on earth would I do that? I love you girls," she giggled, patting them both on the head fondly and then brushing past them, humming to herself. "Now, anyone up for breakfast? I'm starving."
Both Mar sisters blinked in shock as their older friend disappeared the same way Jak had gone not five minutes ago. A moment later, they could hear her bustling about in the kitchen.
"What the hell was that?" Chris gasped, her eyes frozen wide and her jaw molding itself to the carpeted floor.
"Mood swings… oi vey…" Aleighna sighed, running a hand through her dark brown hair. "It's gonna be a long five months…"
"Come on, you two, we've got to go!" Keira exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration.
"But they just got to the North Pole!" Chris protested from where she lay on the couch, her elbow propped up on the arm while Aleighna lounged comfortably opposite her. The duo was currently watching The Santa Clause, as they had been for most of the morning for lack of anything better to do.
"I don't care," Keira growled, striding over to the TV and flicking it off, ignoring the irritated outbursts from the twins. "My ultrasound is in less than twenty minutes, and I'll be damned if I'm late for it!"
For a moment it appeared as if the two Mars were about to argue, and then they thought better of it, neither one willing to relive their less-than-pleasant experience from earlier.
"Good," Keira sang, her attitude shifting unpredictably. She flashed her friends a grin, and then promptly left the room, snagging her keys off the kitchen counter on her way to the front door. The twins exchanged baffled glances, and then swiftly followed the feminine mechanic out and down to where her zoomer had been parked.
"Um, Keira? Are you sure you're ok to drive?" Chris asked hesitantly, ready to use her sister as a human shield should she invoke the elder she-elf's temper.
"Please, Chris," Keira scoffed, rolling her eyes as she hopped into her vehicle and started the engine, beaming as it purred to life. "I'm pregnant, not crippled."
Biting her tongue to hold back the argument she wanted to make, Chris climbed uncertainly into the zoomer, Aleighna settling in beside her and looking far less than at ease. Keira barely gave them the chance to strap in before she floored it, her inner racer propelling her to speeds that nearly broke the sound barrier.
The trio arrived at the hospital within ten minutes thanks to Keira's wild driving, and the oldest of the three instantly slid out of her vehicle and entered through the glass double-doors, Aleighna and Chris stumbling behind her and desperately trying to keep their lunches down where they belonged. They wobbled into the waiting room and collapsed into a pair of hard plastic chairs while Keira went to check in.
"I think Jak's been rubbing off on her," Aleighna grumbled, noting how remarkably similar the Eco-infused elf and his girlfriend were behind the wheel.
"I vote we walk everywhere from now on," Chris agreed irritably, putting her head between her knees in an effort to stop the room from spinning.
Keira joined them a few minutes later, flopping down in a seat beside Aleighna and resting her hands protectively on her abdomen.
"Jak better be here on time or I'm taking apart his morph-gun when we get home," she threatened, scowling at the bland off-white walls around her.
The teenagers beside her wisely decided to keep their comments to themselves, on the off chance that Keira had brought a spare wrench with her.
After what felt like hours of waiting — but in all actuality was really only a few minutes — a door in one corner of the room swung open to reveal a middle-aged nurse clad in a light pink uniform, clutching a clipboard in her gloved hands.
"Keira Hagai?" she called in a bright, slightly nasally voice, her gaze scanning the fifteen-or-so waiting patients.
"Coming, you two?" Keira asked her companions as she hauled herself to her feet, weaving through the rows of chairs and joining the nurse.
"Of course!" both sisters replied in unison, skipping after the sapphire-haired mechanic, excited at the prospect of seeing their developing niece or nephew for the first time.
"Right this way," the nurse greeted the trio, her thin lips curled upwards in a friendly smile. She led the three girls back the way she had come, the entrance to the waiting area clicking shut behind them as they strolled down a long, tiled hallway, passing door after door of what appeared to be examination rooms.
At the end of the hall, two automatic doors blocked their way. The nurse grabbed her hospital ID from where it hung around her neck and swiped it in a scanner attached to the wall, causing the doors to glide smoothly open and grant them passage.
"Sweet Precursors, it's harder to find your way through this place than it is the mess our bedroom," Chris complained as they followed their sterilized guide down several more corridors, losing track of how exactly they'd gotten to where they were in the first place.
Aleighna nodded in silent agreement, thinking fleetingly that it'd be easier to navigate through the open wasteland than this jumble of entrances and halls that passed as a hospital.
Finally, the four of them arrived at what Keira and the twins hoped was their destination: an empty room with some sort of monitor mechanism set up beside a plastic-wrapped gurney, somewhere in the maternity ward if they'd been reading the directorial signs correctly. A few semi-comfortable chairs stood up against one wall, and a rolling stool rested beside the strange machine.
"Alright, go ahead and have a seat, there, Keira," the nurse instructed, waving towards the gurney. Keira sat timidly on the edge, tucking a strand of blue/green hair behind her ear nervously. The nurse smiled encouragingly at her, and then shifted her attention to the Mar sisters, who were lingering uncertainly by the door. "And you two can pull up one of the extra chairs, if you'd like."
Chris and Aleighna visibly relaxed, scurrying eagerly over to the aforementioned seats and dragging them closer to their jittery-looking friend.
"Now, I'm just going to ask you a few general questions, Keira," the nurse continued, placing her clipboard on a pure white countertop lining one wall and pulling out a pen.
And so the inevitable interrogation began. Keira tried to contain her impatience as the nurse questioned her on anything and everything about how she'd been feeling recently. She answered the inquiries numbly, hardly aware that she was even speaking. Her mind was elsewhere, wondering where the hell Jak was, and debating whether or not to dismantle his Jetboard as well as the morph-gun when she got home.
All three women in the room exhaled in a relieved sigh when the nurse finally announced that she was done, and promptly left them alone, assuring that a doctor would be in to see them shortly.
"Damn it, where's Jak?" Keira growled as soon as the nurse was out of sight. Neither Chris nor Aleighna missed the anxiety that flashed in the young mechanic's emerald irises.
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Keir," Aleighna soothed her, leaning back in her chair while Chris eyed the remote for the gurney longingly, dying to test out the different buttons. "He promised he'd be here, and Jak's a man of his word… most of the time."
As if on cue, the heavy door burst open, revealing a very disheveled Jak, still dressed in his sweats and carrying his dance bag.
"Sorry I'm late!" he panted, dropping his bag unceremoniously on the floor. He sounded as if he'd run all the way there — which, considering how unpredictable Keira's temper was at the moment, he probably had. "Class went a little longer than expected, and then there was this one girl who tried to follow me home, and —"
"Jak Mar!" Keira interrupted furiously, placing her hands on her hips and fixing her out-of-breath boyfriend with a fiery glare. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? I thought you weren't gonna show up!"
"I told you I was!" Jak defended himself, raising his hands in surrender. He didn't dare approach the teal-haired she-elf for fear of earning himself a whack over the head with the nearest object she could reach.
Wow, way to be brave, Jak, he scolded himself, struggling not to flinch under Keira's unrelenting scowl. Ask me to take on hordes of Metal Heads and Dark Makers, sure, no problem. Ask me to stand up to my girlfriend, and I back down and hope she doesn't bite my head off. Some hero I am.
Keira rather abruptly hopped off the gurney, and Jak backed away as she neared, fearing her wrath. She took him by surprise, however, when instead of landing a right hook to his jaw, she threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"Never do that to me again," she grumbled, burying her face in the crook of his neck.
Jak released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in a loud gust, winding his arms around Keira's waist. "Trust me, I won't."
"Geez, you sure got lucky there, bro," Chris remarked, rolling her eyes at her elder sibling. "If it weren't for her mood swings, you would have ended up about a foot shorter."
The Eco-infused elf opened his mouth for a retort just as the entrance swung open again, and a doctor that appeared to be in her mid-thirties strolled inside, offering the three Mars and Keira a warm grin.
"Are you ready for the ultrasound, Miss Hagai?" she asked politely, showing no surprise to find said she-elf currently locked in an embrace with her world-saving boyfriend.
"Yes," Keira answered immediately, her voice much more confident now that Jak had arrived.
Beaming at her patient, the doctor told Keira to lie down on the gurney again and then moved to prepare the machinery beside it. Keira happily obliged, her gaze following Jak as he grabbed the last spare chair from its place against the wall and dropped it next to her, taking a seat and twining his fingers through hers.
All eyes turned to the doctor as she extracted a scanner-like object from the jumble of wires and then gently lifted the lower half of Keira's shirt with her free hand. A shiver rolled down Keira's spine as the elder woman spread some sort of gel on her exposed abdomen, and then flipped on the monitor of the confusing mechanism and roved the scanner over the young she-elf's pale skin.
Several seconds of anticipatory silence passed, and then an image materialized on the screen, causing an awed gasp to emit from the soon-to-be-parents.
"Is that…?" Keira whispered, staring at the shifting picture as if it were the most mesmerizing thing she'd ever seen.
"That's your baby, yes," the doctor informed her, smiling as both Jak and Keira's faces lit up.
"It looks kind of… squishy," Aleighna observed bluntly, tilting her head to the side to try to discern the shape of her brother's child more easily.
"Hey, I think it's got your head, Jak!" Chris added, noting the relative odd shape of the baby's skull, seeing as how it hadn't fully developed yet.
Jak shot both his sisters a warning glare, and then returned his focus to his unborn son or daughter, his expression radiating affection.
"He's beautiful, Keira," he murmured, pressing a tender kiss to Keira's forehead.
"You mean she's beautiful," Keira corrected, grinning teasingly at him. "I say it's a girl."
"I second that motion!" Aleighna piped up, earning an elbow in the ribs from her twin.
Before anyone had the chance to continue on the subject, the doctor removed the device from Keira's stomach and wiped the gel off her flesh. She then switched off the monitor and Keira swung her legs over the side of the gurney, dropping back down to the ground.
"Well, everything seems a-ok in there," the doctor announced, beaming at the little group of friends and family. "I'll have the photos processed for you to take home, and then you're free to go."
"Thank you," Jak and Keira replied simultaneously, the latter already situating herself into the circle of the former's arms as the doctor stepped out into the hall once more.
Once the couple had received their images from the ultrasound, they and their younger companions emerged out into the corridor, glancing first one way, and then the other.
"Uh… anyone remember how to get out of here?" Jak asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he studied the blindingly white walls boxing them in.
"No clue," Chris replied, shrugging.
"Ditto," Aleighna agreed, desperately wracking her brains to try and uncover which way led back to the waiting room.
"Why don't you go ask someone?" Keira suggested, nudging Jak in the direction of a man dressed in a lab coat.
Nodding once, Jak towed Keira over to the person they hoped was someone who worked in the hospital, Chris and Aleighna a step behind.
Only when they were about two feet from the oddly short man did Jak notice there was something eerily familiar about him… Something about the log tied into his white hair and the green undertone of his complexion that reminded him of…
"Samos!" Jak gasped, horror crashing over him and sending all of his thought process into a train wreck, where they promptly exploded in a fiery inferno. Glancing around himself frantically, he shoved Keira through the first open door he saw, knowing that if Samos saw his daughter in her current state, he'd be a dead man.
"Huh?" the Green Sage spun around upon hearing his name, and his eyes widened with surprise when he spotted Jak standing before him, looking about ready to have a full-blown panic attack, and the blonde-haired elf's sisters behind him, both of them struggling to keep from roaring with laughter at their sibling's situation. "Jak? Girls? What are you three doing here?"
"Um — I, er — well, it's a funny story, actually —" Jak stuttered, his mind refusing to process a believable excuse as to why he'd be at the hospital, especially considering that it was near-impossible for him to be injured to begin with.
"Jak sprained his ankle at his dance class," Aleighna lied smoothly, cutting off her brother's pathetic babbling. She and Chris moved to either side of the horrified elf, Chris kicking him discreetly in the ankle as they did so.
"OW!" Jak yelled indignantly, clutching his bruised foot and glaring at the cerulean-eyed twin.
Samos arched a wispy eyebrow at the trio, but let it slide, probably deciding that whatever it was they were really up to, he didn't want to know.
"How come you're here, anyway, Samos?" Jak inquired, curious despite the throbbing pain in his ankle.
"I work here part-time," Samos answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "As it turns out, Green Eco is very useful in modern medicine."
"That's all fine and dandy, but we were just leaving, and we weren't sure how to get back to the main entrance," Chris cut in, wanting to escape the elderly Sage's scrutinizing gaze before Jak had a stroke.
"Sure, just take a left at the next hall, then a right, another right, a left, go through the double doors, take two rights, a left, and then the waiting room will be on your right," Samos responded easily, staring at the three Mars as if he were surprised they didn't know that already.
"Er… right…" Aleighna muttered, exchanging baffled looks with her siblings. "We'll just see you later then, Old Greenie."
The Sage-in-question huffed at the use of one of Daxter's nicknames for him, and then he merely thumped away, disappearing around the corner at the end of the corridor.
Keira emerged from the room Jak had pushed her into a second later, her hand pressed gingerly to the back of her head as if she'd hit it on something.
"I tripped and ran into a bed frame, so I hope you're happy, mister," she snapped at her boyfriend, her mouth twisted downwards in a scowl.
"Sorry, but if Samos had seen you, then you'd have to explain to our kid that his father was murdered by his grandfather," Jak explained, inhaling deeply to steady his rattled composure.
Shaking her head sadly, Keira wordlessly linked her arm through Jak's, and then the two of them began the wearisome trek through the maze of hallways, Aleighna and Chris following close behind.
The quartet arrived back at their apartment about half an hour later, their feet aching from traversing the confusing mess that was considered a hospital. Jak and Keira had only just killed the engines of their zoomers, however, when a highly familiar voice called out to them.
"Well, we were wondering when you four were going to show up!"