unexpected motherhood

Kathleen Gates was up in her room getting things cleaned. Normally, her servant Andre and maid Alexis would make it easy for her by simply cleaning the room for her, but she had given them the day off. After the recent event with Grace Meadows and the Fountain of Youth water that she had inadvertently taken, the room cleaning was actually a welcome distraction from the recent event.

She had almost finished cleaning, when she noticed on her desk the item that Alexis had gave her earlier: an Age Regression ray gun that Alexis had gone into a lab to acquire. Kathleen had originally intended to have herself aged down to an eight-year old girl so that she could compete in an "Alice in Wonderland" competition at an upcoming contest, but as the effects of the ray gun only lasted for an hour or so, she had ended up having her care-takers take her and them to the Everglades where the legendary Fountain of Youth was located. That water would have longer effects and make the chance of a sudden "aging-up" on stage in front of the audience non-existent.

Of course, her leaving the water out on the kitchen counter when she had gotten home was a mistake as Grace had dropped by – thirsty – and drank the water, causing her to regress down to a year-old toddler. After a day and a half of baby-hood, Andre and Alexis finally came up with an antidote that made Grace a seventeen-year old late teen. Now with Grace starting on her own baby-sitting gig, Kathleen was on her own for the day.

Suddenly, with an open of a door, Andre came in.

"Hi, Kathleen!" Andre said.

"I thought you and Alexis were over in LA enjoying your time off". Karen said in reply, surprised at his unexpected appearance.

"Well, Alexis decided to drop in and See Big Daddy, and Big Daddy kind of asked me to take a hike", Andre replied, "and since Mama Gaho is seeing Alexis's hotter twin sister Ami at Universal Studios, I kinda came back to see how you're doing".

Kathleen nodded, then said "Well then, while you're here, perhaps you can get rid of this ray gun", she suggested, "as I won't be needing it any more".

"No problem, consider it done", Andre said as he grabbed the gun and threw the age regression ray gun away.

Kathleen didn't realize that Andre was habitually lazy when it came to directions, and since Kathleen's instructions were rather vague, the ray gun simply was thrown outside Kathleen's house

"BULLSEYE!"shouted Andre as it landed inside a trash bin...

It was at this time that a middle-aged woman was walking up the street outside. The woman – Natalie Wood – a attractive lady dressed in a comfy tube top and jeans and she was heading home after her her babysiting job with Bridget for the babysitters club. Natalie donated her time and worked for the babysitters club and took an inordinate interest in her work. But her main line of work was being a currency trader known as a forex trader

Natalie – very unfortunately – could not bear children, and for her, working in Maternity was not only a source of pleasure as she loved tending babies, but it was also saddening as she could not bear one of her own. Being single, she could not adopt a child due to the laws of the state, and so far, every one of her past boyfriends had not shown an interest in marriage including Nappa. Being a very intelligent woman, Natalie was rather intimidating to men..

Natalie did enjoying walking to and from work as she lived not far from the hospital. She had previously lived in an apartment much further away, but she just bought a house of her own. The house was a beautiful two-story antebellum structure with lots of room – both inside and outside - and she also had a nursery she added so she can run a baby-sitting service.

As Natalie was passing outside Kathleen's house, she noticed something sitting on the outside of a trashbin – the trash guys had not yet arrived to pick up the stuff – and stopped to take a look.

"Hmmm" Natalie said to herself, "looks like a toy ray gun. It looks in pretty good condition too. Why it should be thrown out is beyond me".

Just then, she remembered that there was an upcoming convention in town: The Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con. She had been to conventions of this type before and saw that collectors had brought science-fiction based merchandise from free-lance sellers. She had some science fiction books from a bulk auction she had been to (she wanted a lamp that was in the lot she bid on and the books were part of it) and Natalie – who didn't read Science Fiction – was thinking about selling the books there. But this toy ray gun could also be something a collector could buy, and as it was sitting here – discarded - she decided to pick it up.

"What the heck", Natalie commented as she grabbed the gun, "If no one buys it at the convention, I'll put it with the toys in my kid kit".

With the gun tucked under her arm, she continued walking to her house.