Fiona gets out of bed and stretches her limbs. She looks down at her large stomach, grabs the stethoscope and lays the cold drum down to listen.
"How is our little fighter?" Alaya asks as she comes next to Fiona.
"She is doing her best." Fiona hands over the stethoscope and remains still as her wife moves the drum around.
"They are still together." Alaya looks up to her wife, "I am amazed at our daughters. I can't wait to meet them."
"You will have to wait just a few more months." Fiona looks to Alaya, "I start my pathology module today."
"I know. You will wear a mask if you work with chemical?"
"I will." Fiona cups her wife's face. "When I am finished with school I have been thinking that I would like to be on the late shift and be at the hospitals. That way we can have the same work schedule. "
"I will enjoy that. We just need to communicate that to the rest of the family." Alaya leans over, taps the lopsided bulging womb and says, "Do you hear that girls, we all will be working through the night. We shall spend our days together and sleeping after we have our tea time. Are you ready?"
Fiona seizes her wife arm, moans and holds back tears, "The ... they ... are shifting."
Alaya hands over the stethoscope. She watches her wife struggle, listening to her future offspring and hold back her screams. Fiona drops back and hands the stethoscope over. "They have settled. Please check our girls."
Alaya lays the drum down and hears the two heartbeats. "They are there." She leans over and talk to her daughters, "Girls. This is your mother Alaya. I would appreciate if you kept the movement to a minimum or somehow give your mother a warning. Also, while she is working you must, this is imperative, remain still. Please."
"They are still." Fiona gasps out as she pulls her wife close. "In a just a month they shall be here."
"You hungry?"
Fiona nods, "Please help me up.'
Alaya assists her wife up from the bed and they head down to the kitchen for some food.
They walk into the kitchen and find Jenny and Vastra leaning on each other sleeping while holding a child.
Alaya taps her mother Jenny's nose, "We can hold them. Why don't you both get some sleep."
Fiona wakes Vastra, "Mother, let me hold Odea. You get some sleep."
The two exhausted mothers hand over their tiny children and scuttle to their bedroom.
"We better switch before they wake up." Fiona takes Mirum and places her in her the wrap, making sure she is nice and warm.
Alaya places Odea in the baby wrap but doesn't swaddle her allowing the baby to enjoy the coolness.
"What would you like for breakfast?"
Fiona comes in from her long day at medical school, this time she walks into the entrance and sits down next to the coat rack. She waits until Miss Shaw gets off the phone.
Miss Shaw comes over, "Fiona. Are you feeling well?"
"I just need to rest. My body is protesting any further movements."
"One moment." Miss Shaw leaves Fiona and can be heard talking to Miss Gardner, "It seems our Alaya needs assistance going upstairs."
Miss Shaw returns as Miss Gardner knocks on the Alaya's office door. A dark haired woman enters the business entryway, "Hello dear. Would you like assistance?"
Fiona looks up as see her Alaya's brown eyes, "Please, carry me?"
"I am sorry, there isn't the privacy we need. You can choose to wait until everyone has left the business or you can lean on me."
"I want to take off my shoes and lounge in the most unfeminine position."
Alaya helps her wife stand and casually puts her arm around her wife's waist and guides Fiona up to the second floor. As soon as the two pass the investigation and research offices Alaya swoops her wife up and carries her the rest of the way to the drawing-room chaise lounge. "I will return as soon as I am finished with the client." She takes off her wife's shoe, covers her with a blanket and heads back down to her office.
Mother Jenny comes into the drawing room with two crying babies in her arms. She notices a sleeping Fiona. "Fiona dear,"
Fiona opens her eyes.
"Please take Mirum and keep her warm."
Fiona moves over and places Mirum against her own warmth under the covers. Mirum coos.
"That is one down, now I just have to cool Odea." Mother Jenny looks around.
"Place her on the fireplace hearth, it should be cool enough. I find it is my source in the hot summers."
"I will try it," As soon as Jenny places Odea on the cool hearth she stops crying instantly. "Finally." Jenny lays down next to Odea and falls asleep at once.
Vastra and Alaya discuss their new client, "It seems the war is profitable for us. We shall go to the hospital before visiting hours is over to interview this soldier's claim."
"We should leave directly." Alaya and Vastra's conversation is halted at the sight of their wives sleeping as they lay.
Alaya tell her mother, 'Fiona said she wanted lounge in the most unfeminine position, that is utterly hoydenish.'
'All she is missing is a cigar.' Vastra points at her own wife laying as if she is about to make snow angels and smiles, 'Jenny isn't fairing any better.'
'I am going to leave a note. We will not be long.'
Alaya places a pillow under her mother's head, kisses her wife on the cheek and depart 15 Savile Row.
Vastra and Alaya return home after an intensive interview to find nothing has changed; Fiona and Jenny have not moved a muscle and the children remain sleeping.
'They have not moved.'
'I am pleased that Mirum and Odea are finally quiet.'
'Come with me, once they wake each will be hungry or need changing.' Alaya pulls her mother into the kitchen, "Help me prepared dinner or keep me company. We have much to discuss. Do you believe the soldier is the son of the sixth Earl of Annesley?"
"The blood samples will eliminate the suspicion. His story is too clean, the details are too specific. I would not have any doubt about you being my daughter. I would know instantly by your scent."
"Humans do not have that specific Silurian gift. With his face in bandages and the wounds are cause question. Humans depend on collaboration and visual senses."
The partners discuss it further as Alaya makes dinner of potatoes, carrots, and pork. "Supper is almost ready. Shall we wake up our wives?"
Alaya turns down the burners, places lids on pans and joins her mother in the drawing-room. She takes Mirum in her arms and coaches her wife awake. "Fiona, are you hungry?"
"Oh yes. I will help you make dinner."
"No need. It is made."
Fiona gets up, stretches and see the note on the table. "You were gone?"
"You were completely out when we returned."
Mother Jenny is being helped us by Mother Vastra. Odea's is removed from the hearth and placed into Vastra's arms to keep her cool. "It was Fiona's idea to put her on the hearth."
"She is too young to regulate her body temperature. She will learn."
"I hope so," Mother Jenny smiles as she looks at Odea sleeping. "If not, her bed will be a marble slab."
"Which reminds me," Vastra speaks as the large family move into the kitchen. "We need assistance in raising our brood."
Alaya smiles, "Do you suppose my Strax is available?"
"Strax?" Fiona asks as she sits down to eat.
"Strax is a nurse that helped raise our Alaya. Do you mind if we hire him to raise the four new members?"
"A male nurse? How unconventional." Fiona smiles, "He must be quite elderly, are you sure you want to burden that man with four very different children? I assume he understands our unique family life."
Alaya sits as everyone begins to eat, especially her wife who still has not regained her feminine traits since waking from her nap. Fiona eats her food as if she has not had a meal in weeks.
"The twins are hungry." Fiona looks up as meat is hanging from her bottom lip. "Please forgive me."
Vastra leaves and returns with a camera, "Smile dear."
"Don't you dare!" Fiona screams.
It is too late, "Your hair is wild, you teeth have pieces of meat stuck and there is already food falling on your chest." Alaya laughs and consoles her wife, "That is one your mother will appreciate. She will enjoy this photo."
Fiona attempts a smile between bites, "She willf enjoy the pifures."
Mother Jenny refocuses the topic of help; help they desperately need, "Now about Strax. He currently resides in Glasgow."
Fiona stops eating, swallows her food and her face glows, "That is wonderful. I would love to have a Scottish nanny."
"Oh boy." Alaya sits back getting ready for the entertaining conversation.
Fiona looks at her wife and back to the mothers. "Tell me about this nanny named Strax."
"Strax is now forty years old and do not under any circumstances call him a nanny. He is a nurse." Mother Vastra interrupts Jenny.
Jenny gives a look to Vastra. Vastra immediately mouths 'i am sorry'. "About Strax he isn't exactly Scottish ..."
