I basically scrapped this entire chapter and rewrote it from scratch. The minichapters are gone - to everyone's relief - and most of the dialogue is completely different, to make it less OOC.

Alyss leaned over and kissed Will lightly on the cheek. He grinned at her.

"Finally," she said. "I can't wait to meet this Erak, if he's anything like Gundar."

"He is," Will assured her. "He is that."

Two days ago, Wolfwill had left the Araluen coast. Horace, Will, Alyss, and Halt were all on board. At first, the experienced sea traveler, Will, had worried about the Summer Gales, but now he was slowly letting himself slip away from the worry.

Alyss smiled at him, then gasped.

"What is it? Are you all right?" Will asked her immediately. She nodded, and then did what Will was least expecting her to do—she laughed.

"Will, come here. The baby's kicking." Smiling broadly, Will reached out his hand to her stomach, laughing when he felt their child's strong kicks. He was still for a moment, then frowned.

"It feels almost like there are two of them in there," he said nervously. Alyss smiled reassuringly.

"Then we might have twins." Will's face, it must be admitted, grew slightly panicked at the thought of dealing with two children at once. "Oh, Will, it's not so bad, we just could have another child!"

"Could we really handle two?" he asked. Alyss sighed.

"I think we could—at this rate, I think we had better be able to. But even if we can't—"

"It's still wonderful," Will said, smiling slightly. Alyss nodded.

"It's amazing." For several minutes they just stood in silence, holding hands.

"We should tell Halt," Alyss said softly. Will nodded his agreement.

"Yes, but let's wait. I don't want to leave yet."

"Neither do I."

"You always have made the best coffee," Horace said to Halt as he sipped his mug of the aforementioned drink appreciatively. Halt nodded, a rather self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"Yes, and the fact that Will isn't here to enjoy it makes it so much better," he said, smiling lightly. Horace snorted, knowing perhaps more than anyone that the older Ranger's apparent annoyance in his former apprentice was completely fake.

"Speaking of, where are those two?" he asked. "Alyss not being here, I can understand, but Will?"

"They're talking names," Halt responded. Horace frowned, confused.

"I thought they already decided on names," he said. Halt nodded.

"Yes, but something rather unexpected has come up." Before Horace could ask him what, he decided to just continue. "Alyss believes—and if anyone knows, it's her—that she and Will are having twins."

To say that Horace was shocked was an understatement.

"You might want to close your mouth sometime soon," Halt said mildly, and Horace did so immediately, not even having been aware that it was open.

"Twins!" he said, stunned. Halt raised an eyebrow.

"I believe that is what I said, yes."

"Halt, that's—that's wonderful!"

Horace's face was alight with joy for his best friends, and Halt found himself marveling at what an excellent man he had turned out to be.

"Yes, it is," he said finally, a slight grin coming onto his face. "Yes it is."

"How about if it's a girl, I get the final say, and if it's a boy, you get the final say," Alyss suggested. Will nodded.

"That sounds fair enough. Did you have any names in mind?"

His wife nodded, pausing to tuck a strand of long blonde hair behind her ear. "I like the names Stacy and Aubrielle—more as two separate names than one, I think."

"Do you want them to have middle names?" Will asked. Alyss looked up at him.

"Yes, I rather think I do. Why do you ask?"

"Well," Will began, "I was thinking that if we want to name them after people, we would use their middle names so we don't have two people running around with the same name."

"That makes sense," Alyss agreed. "What names were you thinking?"

Will stared up at the rough wooden ceiling pensively. "If it's a boy, I want to name if after my father," he said. Alyss allowed herself a small smile.

"Which one?" she asked. Will smiled back at her.

"Both," he said.

"Daniel Halt Treaty," Alyss mused. "It has a ring to it. And it solves our problem of having two people with the same name."

"And, of course, there's only one Halt," Will reflected.

"Of course," Alyss echoed thoughtfully. "Of course."

There ya have it! Another chapter re-completed! I really hope this is better than it was before.

Word count: 727