A/N 1 As promised to those of you who read my last story…. fluff. If you stopped at Chapter 1 of "A Mother's Love" you may be surprised but just trust me when it comes to Chapter 2….

It was early one Saturday morning in September and Davina Bat and her girlfriend Elizabeth Gimlet had already been up and about for hours. They had wandered down to the river banks where they sat and watched the sunrise together before making their way home. Both were completely in love and were enjoying every moment they could spend together.

On the way back they passed Imogen beginning her morning run.

"How many weeks pregnant is she now?"

Davina considered the question. "I believe around twenty one, not that anyone would really know. She's hardly showing is she? They haven't even told the students yet. Oh it's just so exciting, another little baby on the way. I'm so happy we're here to see it."

Elizabeth clutched her girlfriend's hand. She had left Cackle's two years beforehand having realised that teaching was no longer for her, a decision she had never regretted. She now felt so much more balanced and at ease in her life which had allowed recent events to happen. Her friendship with Davina had meant that she always had a link to the school where she worked for over twenty years. With their new romantic relationship they split their time between the castle and her home. This weekend it was her turn to make the broomstick ride to spend time with her partner and her former colleagues who had now become true friends. She was also very much enjoying being an honorary Auntie to two little girls she had also fallen in love with and was looking forward to meeting their little sister in a few months time.

They made their way into the staffroom where Davina popped the kettle on and was getting some peppermint tea out of the cupboard. As much as she preferred the more traditional witches drinks fermented pond scum wasn't very conducive to kissing, something she was hoping to do a lot more of that day.

"Do you hear that?"

There was a noise coming from somewhere within the room. It sounded like sobbing. After a couple of seconds they traced the source.

"Abby? What's the matter lovely?"

There, in the very corner of Davina's stationery cupboard was Constance and Imogen's eldest daughter. She was holding a certain black tabby close as her shoulders shook with sobs. Eventually she spoke.

"Nothing, I'm sorry. Do you want your cupboard?"

Davina shook her head and reached out to stroke the curly brown hair. "No, we want you to tell us what's wrong. Is someone picking on you again? Because if they are we'll hex them to the moon."

Everyone knew how much Abby loved school but they were also conscious that she had been bullied earlier in the year and nobody wanted her to go through that again.

"No. It's just, just… The new girls are getting their cats on Monday and that means I'll have to give Pixie away. I love her loads and I don't want her to live with someone else. Morgana is her Mama and I'm her best friend. She needs us."

Elizabeth had climbed in and was crouched next to the crying girl and her cat. "Oh sweetie, why don't you have a chat to your mothers? They won't want you to be so upset. Will we get them?"

After a minute Abby nodded. "I'd like to talk to my Mama please."

While Elizabeth stayed behind Davina raced off to find the parent in question. She knocked on the Drill's living room door and on being invited in found Constance playing pretend tea parties with Ava while Imogen was still out running.

"What? She's crying. Oh goodness, come on Ava, your sister needs us."

Two minutes later she too was at the cupboard feeling her heart break at the sadness she was seeing.

"Why don't you come outside and we can have a talk? We'll have some tea and unless I'm very much mistaken there is still some banana bread left. Please come out. Ava is even more cuddly than usual today, she's been looking for you and I know she wants to cheer you up."

It took a minute but Abby got up and carrying Pixie, stepped out of the cupboard. Elizabeth had exited when Constance arrived and the tea was already made.

"We'll leave you to it. We're just upstairs if you need us."

"Thank you both for looking after her. I'll take it from here." Constance smiled at them as she sat next to Abby, carefully placing Ava at her sister's other side. The toddler's emphatic abilities meant that she was very sensitive to others being upset but her Mama reasoned that she would also offer some much needed comfort.

Once the tea was poured Constance sat back and put her arm around her girls. "Now then, tell me what this is all about?"

"I know we can't keep all of Morgana's kittens but this one is so special to me. I don't want her to go, I love her so much. I've been really doing my best to look after all of them, helping you to clean up and feed them but she still has to go to one of the first years. Jamie and Sarah have already taken Scout with them but that's ok, I'll still see her, but I don't want Pixie to go. I know Mummy said no but I was really hoping you'd both change your minds but now its too late and she needs to leave me."

With that the sobs that had subsided came back in full force, except this time they were in stereo.

It was hard to balance a ten year old, a toddler and a small cat but somehow Constance managed it. "Shhh, all of you. It's going to be alright. I agree, you've done a marvellous job in looking after the kittens. You've been very grown up about the whole thing."

Abby sniffed and moved closer to her Mama. "Do you want to keep one? Sometimes I think you do, I know you love Morgana so you must love her babies too."

Constance sighed, this was awkward. Yes, she wanted to keep one of the kittens but Imogen had been quite clear on her views when she found out they were coming. And that was before they knew of their own impending arrival. The last thing she wanted to do was cause any upset or arguments.

"Yes, I love Morgana and of course I care for the kittens. I would like another cat.." She saw the blue eyes light up. "But, I also know that we have a baby on the way and because of that we have to be especially considerate of Mummy's feelings. I don't want you to be upset but I also don't want to cause her any anger or stress."

"I don't either, honestly. The baby is more important. Yes, I was maybe dropping some sneaky hints but I don't want her to think I'm being manip, manipul…"

"Manipulative? No dear, I think we both knew that you wanted to keep a kitten and we probably let things drag out a bit too long but that wasn't to cause you any pain or worry. We've just been so busy since we came back from holidays with the house and school things. I'm truly sorry about that and I know Mummy will be as well. How about this. Once she's back from her run I'll have a chat to her and we'll tell you today exactly what's going on. Is that acceptable?"

Two little faces looked up and her and nodded in unison.

"Good, now drink your tea and eat your bread. Then we'll see if maybe you can do something with Davina and Elizabeth while I talk to Mummy alright?" She held both girls close, choosing to ignore the crumbs that were being dropped on her skirt, it was worth it. She just had one question.

"Pixie?"

"Yes, she looks like a little pixie doesn't she Ava?"

"Mmmm.. Yea." Ava didn't understand the question, she just recognised her name. But she knew her big sister was a bit happier, that was all she cared about.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Thirty minutes later Constance had taken Abby and Ava to Davina's room where she was hoping to take the relatively new couple up on their offer.

"Of course we don't, we didn't have any real plans. It's a lovely afternoon, we'll take them for a picnic if that's okay with you?"

Constance was pleased with that, she knew she could trust them to look after the girls. "Thank you." Seeing that Elizabeth was already busy with Ava who, due to her love of long hair was fascinated with the flowing reddish brown locks, she lowered her voice to speak to Davina. "Things are going well I see."

"Very, thank you." Miss Bat was quite literally beaming from ear to ear.

"I'm very pleased. I notice your bedroom is a lot tidier as well, this relationship is clearly good for you."

"Oh yes. We had a clear out. Amazing what you find when you do that. There was me thinking my didgeridoo was gone forever but lo and behold it was under my bed. I wonder how it got there? Anyway, we'll be back later."

"Drat." Apparently Constance had not been as clever as she had thought with her hiding of the annoying instrument her father in law had brought back from Australia. Before she could dwell too much on it Abby came running out.

"I love you Mama, even if we don't get to keep the kitten I'll still love you. And Mummy"

"And we love you too dear. No promises but I'll try my best."

After a kiss she made her way back to her own room where she found a freshly showed Imogen eating some fruit.

"Hi Sweetheart. I was going to come looking for you when I got dressed. Where are the girls?"

"They're with Davina and Elizabeth. Did you have a nice run?" Constance dropped a kiss on the damp blonde hair as she ran her hands over the still tiny bump. This was a different pregnancy to her own and she knew Imogen was a little disappointed not to be showing more, that was why she hadn't wanted to tell the students yet. Dr. Ravenscroft had assured them that all was well with their little girl, it was likely that she was lying quite far back and that Imogen's strong stomach muscles were holding the bump in for now. However they both knew she was in there and although there had been no kicks just yet the little flutters had already started which was hugely exciting.

"Hmm, it was okay. I felt a bit sluggish to be honest. Not really from the baby but I was having weird dreams again last night and kept waking."

Constance was instantly on the alert. Recently Imogen had had a rather nasty dream and the nightmare had affected her wife for a number of days afterwards.

"No, nothing like that. I was dreaming that I was in labour and in the end I gave birth to a tiny little drill."

"Well, that's what you will give birth to Darling."

Imogen shook her head. "No, you don't understand. It was a tiny little power tool, like one of Abby's Lego things. And you told me that we needed to love it anyway even if it hadn't been what we were expecting. Hey, stop laughing. It's not that funny."

"Well, at least it was small."

By that stage they were both sniggering. Deciding to take advantage of the humorous moment Constance pulled her wife to sit on the couch with her.

"Even if it's a silly dream I want you to wake me. I know what it's like to be pregnant remember? Even if you just need a kiss and a hug, wake me. And I promise you, our human baby is going to be absolutely beautiful, just like her Mummy."

She opened Imogen's robe slightly and kissed the spot where the baby was lying. "Now little one, we've talked about this already. You need to give Mummy nice dreams, ones where we're holding and kissing you. Mama needs to hear about nice pregnancy symptoms that I can write about in your baby book. Can you do that for me?"

"If the students could see you now? You'd lose every scary witch point for being such a softie. We do love you though, don't we sweetpea?"

They shared a kiss that was quickly interrupted by a certain kitten who had followed Constance back from Davina's room.

"I can't even have a Saturday morning snog with my gorgeous wife without a cat jumping on us."

The fact that she was gently stroking the cat in questions head gave Constance the encouragement she needed to bring up the topic she had discussed with Abby.

"Darling, there's something I need to talk to you about." She explained the situation quickly.

"Oh no."

"Now just hear me out. I think Abby is old enough to take on the responsibility of a kitten and I think that we…"

"No baby, I meant 'oh no' that she'd gotten herself so worked up. I know I said no originally but I've seen how well she's looked after the kittens and how much she loves this one. I already asked Amelia to increase the numbers of the students' cats by one. I was going to talk to you and thought we could tell her on Monday, kind of give her her own presentation but I never wanted her to get this upset. I feel awful, I'm such a bad mother."

"You most certainly are not. You are a wonderful mother to our three girls, we've just had a lot going on. Which is what I told her. Can we really keep Pixie?"

"Of course we can, just this one mind. She is a little cutie though. Wait, Pixie?

"Yes. The girls named her. Well, Abby did. It suits her really, look she has a little Pixie face. Although on reflection she better not take after that infernal Tabby cat that fathered her. Well, hopefully Morgana's genes will override that."

Imogen giggled, mainly at the name that her love was allowing to be bestowed on the newest family member. "Okay but I do feel bad that I caused the girls, and you, any unnecessary upset. What can I do to make up for it?"

"I think the idea of giving Abby her own presentation is a very good one, we can do that today. Ava will be happy as long as Abby is and I know she loves Pixie as well. Let them enjoy their time with Davina and Elizabeth and when they come back we'll do something. As for me, well I have an idea if you're willing to do a bit of work?"

"Mmmm, suddenly I don't feel so sluggish."

Constance was already stripping off her grey jumper. "Oh good. Now Pixie, this isn't suitable for your eyes so I suggest you go find your own Mama and we'll see you later."

As the black tabby streaked off Imogen was pulling off her robe and climbing onto her wife's lap, determined to make up for any undue upset.

Two hours later Imogen had achieved her goal and after the couple had redressed they met with Tom, Amelia and Stephen who was paying a visit to discuss the plan.

"Okay so we'll get her into the hall when they come back. I just hope she's not upset with me.

Amelia patted her step-daughters arm. "If it's possible she's going to love you even more after this. It's a pity Gabrielle isn't here but it is her weekend off. Now, let me just get my robes, we'll make it really official for her."

Constance had been keeping an eye out the window and saw her daughters coming back with Davina and Elizabeth. "They're on the way, I'll go down and hold them off for a minute while you get to the hall." With that she vanished.

"That's never not going to be weird." His sister-in-law's abilities were still a bit hard for Stephen to comprehend at times.

"Oh." Ava's face broke into a big smile as her Mama appeared in front of her.

"Oh to you too. Can Mama have a kiss please little one?" She scooped her out of the buggy and kissed the already pursed lips. "Did you have a lovely time?"

"Yes. Did you…" Abby was cut off by her mother.

"We'll talk later. Let's put these things away. Davina, Elizabeth, Amelia wanted to talk to you for a second. She's in the hall."

Feeling slightly confused the two witches walked towards the hall while Abby followed her Mama to the kitchens.

"What did Mummy say? She said no didn't she? "

It took every bit of Constance's control not to tell Abby how wrong she was but she wanted to give her this special moment.

"We'll both talk to you soon. Just remember, Mummy loves you very much okay?"

Abby was heartbroken but tried not to show it. "Yeah."

Once everything had been put away Constance lead her daughters out of the pantry. "I must ask Granny something. Come to the hall with me for a minute please."

She held Ava's arms as they walked slowly up the steps while Abby dragged her heels behind.

"Come along dear."

As her Mama held the heavy door open Abby looked up to the top of the room. "What's going on?"

There standing on the platform was her Granny, dressed in her black witches robe. Her granddad and Uncle Stephen were sat in the front row alongside Davina and Elizabeth while her Mummy also stood on the stage with a basket in her arms.

"Come closer honey."

Abby held her Mama's hand as she nervously walked towards the stage.

Amelia cleared her throat. "Now, as you all know every year we present the first year students with their cats. Well this year I am very pleased to do a different type of presentation to a different but to us, even more special girl. Abby, we have all seen how well you have looked after Morgana's kittens over the past few months and on behalf of your mothers, I would like to present you with your very own familiar."

"Mummy?"

Imogen nodded at her daughter, laughing as she ran towards the stage and took the kitten from her Granny.

"There's a note honey, why don't you read it?"

Abby sat on the chair with Pixie in her lap and unravelled the note.

"Dear Abby, Thank you for looking after me so well. I want to live with you forever if you'll have me? Lots of love, Pixie."

"Of course I'll have her. But she belongs to Ava too. And the new baby when she arrives. Oh thank you Mummy. I love you."

"You're welcome honey and I love you. I'm sorry you got so upset earlier. I just wanted to do something special."

"That's okay. This was extra special. Thanks everyone."

With that they all moved to the staffroom for a little afternoon tea to officially welcome Pixie to the Drill family. Morgana had also joined them and was happily licking her daughter, it was as though she sensed that she would get to keep her baby and both cats were softly purring with happiness.

"Now dear, we fully expect you to carry on as you have been. Remember, Mummy can't clean the litter box so you'll have to help me with that alright? I've had cats for a long time as have Granny, Davina and Elizabeth so you need to listen to us and to Uncle Stephen when it comes to caring for Pixie. Am I clear? It's not all purring and cuddles."

Davina and Elizabeth moved close together, both excited to have been given as an example. They also felt honoured that the same Constance Hardbroom who had dismissed them both as nitwits over the years trusted them with her children. Everyone had been so kind and supportive since they announced they were a couple which was important as both were in this for the long haul.

"I promise I'll do anything I need to." Abby could not stop smiling with joy.

Imogen ruffled her hair. "We know you will. But I will say this honey, two cats is enough so don't be getting any ideas. When you're older and have your own house you can have seventeen kittens running around and Mama can go and live with you but for now this is your lot." She looked up to find her wife and eldest daughter nodding at her. "Hey, I didn't actually mean you should leave me for a bunch of cats."

Tom was smiling as he watched the scene. "Even your cats are female. Stephen and I are totally outnumbered aren't we?"

Abby nodded frantically. "Yep, Drill girls and Drill cats and soon a new baby Drill. That's us and we love it, don't we Ava?"

"Yep."

Nobody could understand why Constance and Imogen were laughing so much but it didn't matter. Eventually they calmed down and went back to drinking their tea, still exchanging glances and giggles occasionally.

"So Abs- now that you have Pixie you can tell us. Is she what you wished for at Ava's birthday party?"

To Stephen's surprise his niece shook her head and thought for a minute before deciding it was okay to share her wish, it had already come true after all. She hopped off her chair and stepped over to stand next to Imogen again, placing her hand on the slightly more rounded stomach.

"Nope. What I wished for me and Ava is right here, growing in Mummy's tummy."

She was pulled into a tight embrace, not noticing that everyone in the room had melted a bit at her sincere words. Pixie was without a doubt a very lucky kitten and the baby who was on the way was an especially lucky little girl.

Tom, as always, was hugely proud of his granddaughter. Abby was cheeky and lively and undoubtedly stubborn and determined. However she was also kind, responsible and had a massive capacity to love. He couldn't help thinking that Imogen should have chosen her words a little bit more wisely though. He and Amelia had already discussed getting a dog when their cottage had been built and his daughter had only referenced kittens. Oh well, they would have plenty of room and it was another excuse to have the grandchildren to visit. Their mothers couldn't complain about that.

Not too much anyway.

A/N 2. I wasn't completely sure what to do with Sweetpea but I have direction now. In the meantime this interim story will centre on family life leading up to her arrival. Prompts, requests etc are, as always, welcome. Thank you for reading/ reviewing.