"It is so good to be home," Lochlan sighed as he, Landon and Grey entered the house where the twins had grown-up. "Finally our last year at Hogwarts is over and all we have to do is wait for our N.E.W.T. results."
"Which should be here in about a month, according to Uncle Harry," said Grey. Grey had been happy when Harry had told him to call him the same thing that the twins did. He had said that Grey was going to be family once he married Landon so it was only right. What made Grey really happy was that Harry hadn't seemed to care that he and Lan were both men and had supported both of them from the first just like Landon's dad and uncle. It was so nice to have people that truly loved you and supported you no matter what, unlike his own parents, which if he never saw again would be too soon.
"Welcome home," Sara said as she came into the living room from the kitchen and hugging each of them. "I just finished baking some brownies as I knew you lot would be hungry when you got home."
"Yay!" all three young men cheered.
"You're the best, Sara," Lochlan added as he stayed long to kiss her cheek in thanks.
"Flatterer," Sara called to Lochlan's retreating back as he followed his brother and friend.
Once they were gone Sara's expression changed to sad, for she knew that all her boys were now grown and she included Grey in that as she had known him ever since he had started spending part of the summers here when he was 13 and she had kind of adopted him. Jack was away at college and it wouldn't be long before Landon and Grey got married and also Lochlan and Michelle. At least Landon and Grey had finally decided to move to the States, although it was still undecided where they were moving to so she would probably get to see them occasionally, but not Lochlan and Michelle since they had decided to live in England.
Sara came into the kitchen and Landon asked as soon as he saw her, "So where are dad and Uncle Aaron?"
"I'm sorry boys but your uncle was called away on a case and your father decided to go with him just so they could spend some time together. He knew you were coming home today, but he thought he'd be home in a few days. He knew that you lot were perfectly capable of taking care of yourselves and that you were all of age now," Sara explained. "Your father realizes that you all have your own lives now, although they both hope that you'll come and visit often along with Michelle of course."
"Of course we'll come to visit!" Lochlan exclaimed. "We love them and expect them to be there when their first grandchild is born and you too."
"Just because we'll have our own lives doesn't mean that our family isn't important to us, because it is," Landon added, "so expect us to visit often, although we'll always make sure to call first to make sure Uncle Aaron and dad are here."
"So what will you do now that you don't have any children to look after?" asked Grey curiously. "Will you retire?"
"Oh no," Sara protested. "I'll stay here and look after Spencer and Aaron as they need somebody to cook and clean for them, especially since Aaron at least is hardly ever here."
"Yeah ,dad would never force you to retire," Lochlan said. "You are part of the family and have been since we were six months old."
"You should be able to slow down at least, now that all of us are grown," Landon said. "You don't even have Jack to look after anymore."
"That's not quite true is Jack will be home the one the summers from college," Sara said.
"True, but you taught all of us good housekeeping skills and how to wash our own clothes and things that we needed to know for when we were out our own so I very much doubt that Jack will need your help much."
"Except perhaps to cook for him since he has no talent for it."
Everybody laughed at that for they had all seen what a poor cook Jack was even though Sara had tried her best to teach all of them so that they didn't have to eat out all the time when they were out of their own before they got married.
"So when do you think dad and Uncle Aaron will be home?" asked Landon. "We need to finish making wedding plans."
"I'm not really sure," Sara admitted. "I haven't heard from either of them since yesterday and they were still deeply involved in trying to catch their current criminal, but it will more than likely be at least a week or so. Besides you don't have to worry as I've got the wedding plans under control. I kept it simple like you two wanted and there will only be about 30 guests. All you really need to do is find whatever wizarding official is authorized to marry a couple and buy suits."
"Is marriage between two men even legal in the American wizarding world?" asked Grey curiously.
"Oh didn't I tell you?" Landon said. "My father and Uncle Aaron checked that out for us and yes it is legal at least here in America."
"How did they do that?" asked Grey in surprise. "Since neither one of them has magic? How did they even find the wizarding section of the city?"
"Both of them wear medallions around their necks that are charmed so they can see wizarding buildings that are usually invisible to everybody except magical folks," Lochlan explained. "Uncle Harry gave them to dad, Uncle Aaron and Jack so that they could see places like the Leaky Cauldron that are invisible to muggle eyes."
"That's really neat," Grey said, "but how in the world did they even get wizarding folks to even talk to them and not question why they were there in the first place?"
"Apparently the wizarding population here in America is for the most part is a lot more liberal about muggles knowing about them," Landon said. "They don't seem to hate and loathe muggle-borns and half-bloods like a lot of those wizarding families in England do. I'm not saying there isn't some prejudice, but it isn't as ingrained or as widespread as it is in England."
"Well, England has been around a lot longer than America so that's probably part of it," Sara pointed out.
"Probably," Lochlan agreed and the other two boys nodded.
"Besides the English tend to be uptight and conservative," Sara added at the moment, "so that's probably part of it as well."
"And we also must consider the fact that the purebloods over there have taken interbreeding to the extreme, which leads to all kinds of mental health problems among other things," Grey said.
"That's a good point," Sara said. "So what do you three intend to do for the rest of the day since Spencer and Aaron aren't here?"
"Well," Landon said, "there's really no need for Grey and I to unpack since we really won't be here very long, probably not more than a few months at best. I don't see why the two of us can't live out of our trunks for that amount of time. Besides we need to start looking for places to live."
"Have you decided what kind of place you're looking for?" asked Lochlan looking Interested as he hadn't heard about these particular plans before.
"Well," Grey said entering the conversation, "Landon and I have discussed this at great length and we decided that we want something about this size so that we have plenty of room and don't feel crowded. Besides that way we'll always have plenty of room for guests like you and Michelle when you decide to come for a visit."
"We thought somewhere out in the country or outside a small town," Landon added. "We haven't really decided if we are going to go to a wizarding real estate agent or a muggle one. Both have certain advantages and disadvantages."
"What are the advantages and disadvantages?" asked Sara with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, if we go to a muggle real estate agent we'll have electricity so that we can have things like TVs, computers and other things that work with that. The only problem is that magic tends to disrupt electricity, especially if it's a large amount, so we wouldn't be able to say clean by magic."
"I see," Sara said who did see the point Landon was trying to make. "Haven't you wizarding guys ever thought of creating some kind of shield for the electronics so that they will still work even with a lot of magic being used?"
All three young men looked astonished at that this for they had never even thought about trying to create some kind of barrier to shield the electronics from large uses of magic.
"That's absolutely brilliant, Sara!" Landon told her as he hugged her and kissed her cheek which caused the older lady to blush a bright red.
"It really is a great idea," Grey agreed with a grin as he to hugged the older lady that had come to mean so much to him in such a short amount of time.
"I wonder why no other magical folks else have ever thought of that?" asked Lochlan.
"Perhaps someone has," Sara pointed out. "You told me that the English were conservative or at least that the pureblooded minority were and since they're the ones that run the English wizarding community..."
"… But things are different here," Lochlan said finishing Sara's thought without difficulty. "From what we've seen they don't abhor muggle technology like the English wizarding community does, so whose to say that such a spell doesn't already exist?"
"Exactly," said Sara.
"You're the best, Sara," Landon said as he finished off his brownie that he had been consuming as they talked.
"If there's one thing I'm going to miss it's your cooking," Grey said closing his eyes as he savored the rich chocolaty taste of the brownie. Somehow Sara's cooking always seemed better then anywhere he had eaten before except maybe at Hogwarts, especially the sweets, but perhaps it had to do with the fact that he hadn't been used to eating much until he went to Hogwarts. The house-elf that had worked for his parents, well, before his father had killed her when he was 10 in a fit of rage, had always snuck him food when his parents weren't around. House-elves loved children anyway and they couldn't stand to see them so mistreated, but they couldn't go directly against their masters either. Luckily his parents had never thought about ordering Gabby to not feed him when they thought he had been bad, which was practically all the time. Actually he had known for a long time that his parents had never intended to have any children at all, but that his mother had forgotten to take her contraception potion and he had been created as a result, although why she just hadn't had an operation from the beginning escaped him as that would have prevented his mother from ever conceiving at all.
Of course Gabby couldn't afford to feed him every meal that his parents forgot as that would have gotten them both in trouble and probably beaten, so it had been just on the sly, but it had been at least once a day and Grey would always be grateful to her, although he was sorry that she had lost her life due to one of his father's rages.
At least his parents had clothed him and also taught him how to read and write and other things a young wizard needed to know in order to enter Hogwarts even if they forgot to feed him more than half the time not that those lessons had been any fun since both were very stern and demanding taskmasters and used a stinging hex on some part of his body if he didn't learn fast enough. He supposed he should be grateful that they hadn't used the Cruciatus curse on him. Actually it was kind of surprising that they hadn't considering how cruel they had been to a young boy who didn't know what he had done to deserve such treatment.
"You'll just have to come and visit often and have lunch or dinner with us," Sara said pulling Grey out of his rather morbid thoughts.
"We'll have to do that," Landon said and the other two young men nodded in agreement. "It isn't like we can't Apparate anywhere we want since we have taken the test and so long as we don't move to a different time zone I don't know why we can't come for dinner on a regular basis. I know that a lot of the muggle-borns in England cut off all contact with the world they were born into except their parents, but I certainly don't intend on doing that. Yes, I realize that the wizarding world is a separate community and they have different customs, but I still don't see why, muggle-borns should be forced to give up technology and other things and just live in one world or the other. If I have my way we're going to be part of both worlds. We'll both learn how to drive a car for example and get our licenses, we'll go to movies occasionally, we'll have telephones, TV, a computer and both the wizarding wireless and a regular radio."
"Sounds like heaven," Grey said and Lochlan nodded in agreement. Grey had experienced a lot of the things that Landon had mentioned just in the summers he had spent with his family. He had loved going to movies and Landon had patiently taught him how to use the computer, although that had been quite a chore since he had never even known they existed, but now he was just about as good at using one as Landon was.
"That sounds like an excellent goal to work towards," Lochlan said, "and if you do figure out how to get electronics to work around a lot of magic you'll make a fortune if you decide to sell the spell. I intend on using that spell myself as I really didn't want to have to give up computers, TVs, DVD players, and all those other things that make life so much more pleasant, especially since the wizarding world doesn't really have much in the way of entertainment, such as games, except wizarding chess, Gobstones and Exploding Snap at least in England, although it might be different here in America."
"Well, I'm going to have to do some research first to make sure such a spell hasn't already been created," Landon said. "I'm sure there's a wizarding a library somewhere, just like in England, I've just got to find out where, so I can begin my research."
"So when are you going to start house hunting?" asked Sara.
"Well, first we've got to find a realtor," Landon said. "It might just be easier to have our own place built to our specifications, although I realize that won't be cheap."
"We'll try finding a house first and if that doesn't pan out we'll do it the other way," Grey said.
"Why don't you just rent an apartment?" asked Lochlan who had been wondering this for sometime.
"That would probably be a good idea for the short term," Landon said, "but not for the long term."
"Why not?" asked Lochlan. "It's not like you can have children."
"Actually yes we can," Landon told his brother with a grin at Lochlan's shocked look.
"What do you mean?" asked Lochlan in surprise. "It's not like either of you can get pregnant."
"Ever heard of IVF or in vitro fertilization?" asked Landon and watched as comprehension slowly came upon his brother.
"So you're going to have a baby that way, although I hope you realize that's very expensive."
"We have the money you know," Landon answered, "so cost doesn't really matter. Really I'd like to have a whole houseful of kids that look like Grey."
"I'd rather have them look like you," Grey said not seeming at all surprised at the current turn of conversation and that was because Landon had taken the time to explain about muggle technology and how two men could have a child or even several.
"Will you check to see if the resident magical hospital here has the equivalent before you use muggle means?" asked Lochlan.
"Yes," Landon said. "Grey and I both want children, although not for a few years of course as that will give us time to settle into life here in America. We also need to find a female willing to carry the embryo or embryos in her womb for the entire nine months."
"So how many children do you two want?" asked Sara looking forward to having grandchildren to spoil even though she knew that technically she wouldn't be related to them not that it mattered to her.
"Oh Landon and I wouldn't mind a whole gang of kids," Grey said with a grin at the thought, "and they will certainly be treated better than my own parents did me. I was often lonely as a child because I never had any playmates, but I also realize that if my parents had had another one he or she might've turned out like them so it's probably just as well. Ever since I met Landon I've been thinking about the fact that I would love to have children with him, although I thought that wasn't going to be possible until he explained to me about muggle technology and how people have come up with a method to give childless couples children of their own if they don't want to adopt."
"So at least five or six," Sara guessed and both Landon and Grey nodded.
"With at least one set of twins in there," Landon added.
"Don't you think that five or six is a few too many? I mean just think of Uncle Harry, and how he has eight children, which I always considered way to many," asked Lochlan of his brother and Landon shook his head negatively.
"I'm a lot like Uncle Harry in the respect that I adore children as you should know," Landon said, "so if I had a dozen with Grey I wouldn't object, especially since we can afford them and the procedures that they will be created by. I know you love children to, although not as much as I do so how many do you eventually want with Michelle?"
"Michelle and I discussed having at least three, maybe four, but no more than that," Lochlan admitted.
"So has the wedding date been set yet for you two?" asked Sara who knew that Lochlan had proposed to his girlfriend just before they graduated about a month ago.
"It will probably be sometime next year," Lochlan said, "since we have careers to get started and other preparations to make. Unlike my brother here Michelle wants a fairly big wedding as she has a lot of family and friends she wants to invite, which includes you, dad, Uncle Aaron, Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny and their children."
"At least you probably won't have to look for a place to live, since Michelle comes from a fairly old family and most of them have lots of houses in their portfolios," Grey said. "I'll be very surprised if they don't give you one of them as your home so that you and Michelle won't have to find a house."
"The only problem with that is it won't be wired for electricity," Lochlan said, "and I really don't want to have to give up my electronics if at all possible."
"You and Michelle will just have to work that out for yourselves," Landon told his brother with just a little sympathy.
"Well, her parents are very accommodating and extremely nice so I'm sure it won't be much of a problem," Lochlan said. Lochlan and had met Michelle's parents and also her aunt on several occasions and liked all of them and they were just as impressed with him and didn't care that he was muggle-born.
"Why don't you three go upstairs now so I can get dinner started in peace," Sara said shooing them out of the kitchen.
"Yes, Sara," all three young men said with grins on their faces in unison.
"Scat," Sara told them fondly.
"Yes, ma'am," all three responded again at the same time and then hurried out of the kitchen before Sara could respond.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
"So how do you think the kids are doing?" Spencer asked his lover as the two of them shared lunch in a small cafe in Los Angeles where they were helping the police catch a serial killer.
"They're hardly kids anymore as every one of them is over 18, which means that they are now considered grown up," Hotch said by way of reply. "I know what you mean though as I still think of them as kids too and probably always will. To answer your question through, Sara would have called if there were any problems, so they're probably happy and healthy, although I'm sure they miss you."
"And you," Spencer said wondering why his mate hadn't included himself in that statement.
"Grey hardly knows me at all considering I'm barely ever home," Hotch pointed out.
"You can correct that you know by spending some time with him and the twins once this case is finished. I'm sure Sara has already invited them to come for dinner anytime they want for example."
"You're right, especially now that he is going to be part of our family once he and Landon get married. From what I have observed of him he seems a nice young man and I really do like him a lot."
"Yes, me too," Spencer agreed with a nod. "I have to say that Landon has good taste in men, but then again like father like son." Spencer fell silent for a minute and Hotch noticed that his expression seemed a little faraway and sad, but finally Spencer spoke again and said, "You know I'll bet you that the twins at least were surprised that I wasn't there to meet them when they arrived home."
"You didn't have to come with me you know," Hotch pointed out with a half a smile now knowing the reason for his lover's faraway and sad expression.
"This was my way of telling the twins that I know they're all grown up now and that they don't need someone looking over their shoulders all the time," Spencer answered. "All parents have to cut the apron strings sometime and let their children grow up and now was a good a time as any."
"You raised them well so I'm sure they'll be back to visit frequently," Hotch said.
"You helped raise them too," Spencer said.
"Well, yes, but I really was gone a lot, probably what amounted to at least four or five months every year, so it was more you them me," said Hotch.
"You spent as much time with them as you could and Jack and the twins were smart enough to understand that you were with them as much as you could be," Spencer said giving his lover's hand a squeeze. "They all love you and you know it. It doesn't matter to any of them that you were gone so much just so that when you were home you paid attention to them and didn't just ignore them like some parents do. You took the time to listen to what they were up to and you asked them about their day. Some parents don't do that as you know and therefore don't have a close bond with their kids. Children pick up on the intent of a person and the emotions quite easily you know and they might not have been consciously aware of it but deep down they knew you loved and cared and that would've made all the difference."
"You're right," Hotch said his melancholy fading a little. "It just seems like the time has flown and then they grew up way too fast on both of us."
"It does," Spencer agreed. "The years did seem to fly by, but I try to look on the positive side of things, even if I too am a little sad that there are all grown up now. We both knew it would happen one day and that day has come."
"And what is the positive side?" asked Hotch with a smile already knowing the answer.
"No kids in the house and with only Sara there besides us, that means much more time for you and me. I'm sure all four of our kids will be by to visit frequently, but for the most part we'll be alone as Sara knows how to stay out of the way."
"Four?" asked Hotch with a smile knowing that Spencer was counting Grey among the kids since both their hearts had gone out to the boy when they had heard the full story behind his abuse.
"I'm counting Grey and you know that," Spencer said with a smile. "Or I suppose you could say five if you include Michelle too."
"Well, while I really like Michelle a lot she has a family of her own that cares about her, so it isn't quite the same thing, although I realize that she will be our daughter-in-law, sometime in the next couple of years. I just don't feel as close to her as I do to Grey probably because we share similar pasts."
Spencer nodded for he felt the same way for he to shared a similar past with both Hotch and Grey and also Harry. "Yes, I know exactly what you mean," Spencer agreed. "So how long do you think it will be before all three of them move out? I'm sure that Lochlan at least wants to get back to England and be with Michelle."
"I wouldn't expect Lochlan to stay much past the end of the summer. I know I wouldn't stick around if I had a fiancée in another country just waiting for me to come back," Hotch said, "so I'm sure once he gets his final test results he'll be moving permanently to England. As for Landon and Grey I'm sure they'll start looking for a place to live probably in a couple of weeks once they have time to recover from their exams and then they'll move out too."
"Well at least Lochlan's not going to have to worry about hiring movers," Spencer said with a smile. "Whatever he wants to take with him he just has to shrink down using magic and carry it in one trunk and then re-enlarge and that will certainly save a ton of money since shipping things overseas isn't exactly cheap."
"With things like the furniture, books, and clothes that's true," Hotch agreed, "but I'm not sure you can do that to the electronics and then expect them to work afterwards."
"I hadn't thought of that, but you're more than likely correct," Spencer said. "Miniaturizing any electronics probably isn't a good idea or at least it's not for a computer. I'm not sure if the same principal applies for things like TV, DVD players and things of that nature. Really there's not as much sensitive technology in things like that, that there is in a computer so it might be okay to shrink something like that down."
"I would still ask somebody who knows the answer before they try it though just in case," Hotch commented. "You don't want wreck a perfectly good TV or any other electronics by shrinking it down if it will make them stop working."
The two men finished lunch talking amicably and all to soon they knew it was time for Hotch to get back to work at least.
"I'll see you back at the hotel, although I'm not sure exactly what time that's going to be," Hotch said.
"Just call me if you going to be really late," Spencer requested and Hotch nodded.
"I will," Hotch agreed. "Hopefully we won't be done for the day too late and we can go out to dinner somewhere, although I can't guarantee that."
"If you need any help with this case all you have to do is call me and I'll be glad to come help you with it," Spencer said and Hotch nodded.
"I will if it looks like it's something that's right up your alley," Hotch promised. "Right now the case isn't looking too complicated and we should catch our bad guy hopefully in a few days."
"Just expect me to start traveling with you more on cases now that the boys have their own lives," Spencer told him as Hotch paid the bill.
"I don't mind that at all," Hotch assured him with a smirk. "I like you traveling with the team on cases since it gives us more time together then we would get otherwise and it also means that you are immediately available to help with a case if you need to instead of you having to fly out on short notice."
"Yep, which is one of the reasons I'm going to start doing it. Besides it will stop me from being too bored while you're gone even if I have to see some of the city while you're working. Besides that means we'll be together at night and at least some meals."
"It was nice of the team to tell us to go out to lunch without them," Hotch said.
"Yes, it was," Spencer agreed. "They probably felt we deserved some time alone without them around and I'm going to have to find a way to thank them since I more than likely wouldn't have seen you until you finished for the night if they hadn't."
"We'll have dinner with the rest of the team more than likely," Hotch said, "after all we have to eat, although the team has been known to skip meals if our unsub is moving quickly as you know."
Spencer nodded for he know that very well since he had had to do it with the team more than once when an unsub was killing multiple times within hours instead of days.
"You call me if you want me to meet you somewhere for dinner instead of you coming back to the hotel," Spencer said as Hotch dropped him off at the hotel entrance.
"I will," Hotch promised before driving towards the police station to continue working the case with the rest of the team.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
Landon and Grey, age 21
Landon and Grey had decided that it was time to start their family now that they were both settled into a very small town in Idaho called Castleford. Both had decided to just have a house built after not finding anything that they both liked and so that was what they had done. For one thing they had visited each of the towns as they had wanted to check out the residents to see if they would be against same-sex couples as they weren't about to settle down somewhere that such things were loathed and hated, even of they weren't seen around town much. They wanted neighbors that were friendly, but didn't ask to many questions about their lives, what they did for a living and so forth and they had found that in the very small town of Castleford Idaho. Spencer had protested that he didn't want them moving so far away, but Landon had pointed out that they could Floo when they wanted to see them or Apparate or even drive. Spencer and Hotch now had the Floo set up in the fireplace in the study and not many people were allowed in there that weren't members of the family. They also had a Floo connection in the living room as well, but it was set up in such a way that if somebody's head appeared in the Floo they wouldn't be visible except to Hotch, Spencer, Sara, Jack or another witch or wizard. In fact to anybody else the fireplace would look just the same as when the Floo wasn't active.
Finally Spencer had stopped protesting because he knew that Landon and Grey were both adults and could make their own decisions. Besides he couldn't really protest about them moving so far away when Lochlan was moving to England, which was even farther.
Several years ago both Landon and Grey had visited the wizarding hospital in Virginia to see if they had a procedure to help a gay couple have children and it turned out that they healers did indeed have such a procedure.
In fact they wouldn't even need to find a female to carry the fetus as the American healers had perfected what was still a theoretical device to muggles known as an artificial uterus. The artificial uterus would grow a baby without the need for a human female. It would still take the donation of a female egg and male sperm in order to create the embryo though, but the healers had solved that too. The artificial uterus would not only feed nutrients to the embryo, but get rid of waste and feed antibiotics and other potions that would later prevent disease into the growing baby or babies. Landon and Grey had both been shocked as well as thrilled to discover that they wouldn't need to find a female to carry a baby for nine months and that it all could be taken care of in the artificial womb, which was good because it would have been difficult to find either a muggle female or a witch that they trusted to carry the baby to term.
Spencer and Hotch had known about it of course because they had visited the wizarding hospital that was in Virginia several years ago just to investigate if they had the technology to give a gay couple children.
"We have an announcement," Landon said as he and Grey came into the living room of the Reid/Hotchner home, the house they had grown up in.
Both boys were now 21 and had been married for just under three years. They had settled into life in America relatively easily although Grey was still learning about the Muggle world a little at a time. Also now that Landon was 21 he had gotten control of his trust fund which had increased in value since he had told Grey about it when they were in their 7th year at Hogwarts. Landon's trust fund was now worth about 30 million instead of 25 and so was Lochlan's of course.
Grey and Landon had talked about having children while they had been doing there last year at school and now that day had finally come.
All three adults that lived in the house paid attention to Landon's words even though they all knew what was coming. Hotch, Spencer and Sara had all been anticipating Landon and Grey finally announcing that they were ready to have children because Lochlan and Michelle had already had one just last year a boy they had named Samuel.
"I'm sure you all know what I'm about to say," Landon joked as he saw the looks of excited anticipation on all three faces, "but I'll just plow ahead. Grey and I have finally decided that we're ready to start our own family and we have an appointment at Alchemia's Hospital next week."
"Oh I'm so excited," Sara exclaimed as she rushed forward and hugged Landon kissing his cheek and then did the same to Grey.
"Don't get too excited yet Sara, there is still quite a long process we have to go through and even after we complete that it will be nine months before the baby is born."
"So I have you decided if you're just going to have one or two?" asked Spencer.
"Well, since Grey and I want more than just two or three children if we do decide not to have twins this time we'll still have another chance," Landon said and Grey nodded.
"We probably will request twins," Grey said quietly, "although we haven't been fully decided because we know that one baby is a lot a work and two is double that."
"I can help you with that," Sara offered. "I can babysit for you whenever you need me to."
"And so can I," added Spencer. "I raised you, didn't I? After all I didn't meet Aaron until you guys were four."
"Thanks that will help a lot," Grey said gratefully and Landon nodded in agreement.
"You're welcome," Spencer and Sara said together.
"You know I will do what I can," Hotch said, "but I don't know when I'll be able to watch them considering I'm gone so much."
"Whatever you can do will be fine," Landon assured his uncle. "Lochlan and I always appreciated whatever time you could spend with us and we never resented you having to be gone so much because we knew you loved your job and doing what you do. You were always the best uncle to us, one that showed he loved and cared about us when he was home and that was all Lochlan and I needed."
"Thanks," Hotch said with genuine smile, relaxing.
"I'm sure that our children will be smart enough to recognize that you're going to have to be gone sometimes and I'm sure they won't love you any less," Grey said.
"Why don't you stay for dinner?" Sara asked. "We hardly ever see you anymore."
"We do visit at least a couple times a week for a few hours," Landon pointed out.
"Yes you do, but I suppose I'm still used to having you around all day every day, although it hasn't been that way in ten years."
"All right, we'd be fools to turn down one of your dinners and one thing we aren't, is fools," said Grey after looking at Landon who nodded.
"I had better get started on that," said Sara looking at her watch and noticing that it was just after five.
"So are you excited about being parents pretty soon?" asked Hotch.
"Very," Landon answered immediately, "although we're both worried that this method won't work like it should even though it's been done with witches and wizards before."
"These worries are only natural, especially since the artificial uterus is still only a theoretical concept for us muggles," Spencer said. "When I saw it for the first time I was amazed that they had refined it and gotten it to actually work."
"Magic can do many wondrous things that muggle technology cannot, but on the other hand the reverse is also true," Grey said. "The magical community in England could learn a lot from muggles if they would only open themselves to the possibilities and yet they think that they can't learn a thing from anybody without magic and so they don't even bother to try or at least a large percentage of them don't."
"Magical folks aren't any different from ordinary ones," Hotch told Grey kindly. "People are people magical or not. Yes, magical folks have abilities that normal people can only dream about, but they're still human and not better than anybody else no matter what some of them think, but the reverse is also true and muggles aren't better then magical folks either."
"We could learn a lot from each other if only muggles and magical folks were willing to try and not let their fears hold them back from learning new and amazing things," Spencer added. "It is the threat of the unknown that holds both groups back from really exploring all the possibilities."
"I think I see what you're saying," Grey said slowly. "You're saying that if we would get to know each other we wouldn't fear the muggles and the muggles wouldn't fear us."
"Exactly," Spencer agreed. "I know there are a lot of unscrupulous people on both sides, but it is still possible if we would only learn to trust each other."
The conversation was cut off abruptly as Sara called them all to dinner and so the subject was dropped for the moment to be taken up at a later date.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
"So ready to go?" Landon asked Grey as the two young men finished getting dressed. "We don't want to be late for our appointment at Alchemia's Hospital."
"Yes, I'm ready," Grey said finally as he finished tucking in his dress shirt into his slacks.
"Then we had better head out," Landon said and Grey nodded looking a little nervous. Both young men looked very dapper in dress shirts, slacks and dress shoes. The only reason they had gotten dressed up was that they wanted to look nice for their appointment at Alchemia's Hospital and make a good impression.
"Did I mention that you look very handsome and delectable in that outfit," Landon as his eyes roved up-and-down Grey's body and he was mentally undressing his mate in his mind. It was very true that Grey looked absolutely delectable in his gray dress shirt that was the exact same shade as his eyes and made of some kind of shimmery material that almost seemed to change color in certain lights and black slacks. Grey was a very handsome young man and whenever they went out somewhere Landon noticed that the females always drooled and tried to get his attention. Grey had slightly shaggy blonde hair with red highlights that was slightly long like Landon's, but unlike his lover's he had bangs that kept constantly falling into his eyes unless he had it tied back in a ponytail, with light gray eyes that looked almost silver at times depending on the lighting. Actually Grey's eyes tended to change according to his mood as they could turn to a stormy gray when he was angry or upset and it was almost like storm clouds rolling in, or they could appear much brighter then they actually were if he was really happy because it seemed like his eyes lit up from within, which turned them a very light gray that was nearly colorless. Grey's normal color though was somewhere in between a dark gray and a light gray, which was kind of a medium gray. Landon could literally get lost in Grey's eyes without much trouble as he found the way they could change color in a split second absolutely riveting. Grey was short for man at 5'8', but had broad shoulders that led down to a tapered waist, narrow hips and long legs. He was also fairly muscular and thanks to his broad shoulders his muscles were much more noticeable then Landon, unless he was wearing short sleeves.
Grey blushed and instantly wished that they had time to fuck each other senseless but he know if they did they'd be late for their appointment and he wasn't about to make a bad impression on their healer.
"You look very handsome too," Grey said and his mouth almost literally watered as he to let his gaze sweep up and down Landon's taller frame.
Landon like his father Spencer was tall, although Landon was a couple inches taller at 6'3' with narrow shoulders, slimly muscular, especially in the arms and legs, slim waist and hips and very long legs. Landon also had black hair like his Uncle Aaron except fairly curly with his father's golden brown eyes. Landon to was wearing a dress shirt except a green so dark it looked nearly black with a pair of beige slacks. Both shirts had open collars that showed their throats and a little bit of their chests, making both young men even more attractive and mouth watering to look at, especially since their clothes fit them to perfection.
Landon and Grey walked outside and as soon as they had closed and locked the door to their house they both Apparated to the entrance of Alchemia's Hospital that was located in the wizarding section of Norfolk. Norfolk was one of the largest cities in Virginia and therefore it was relatively easy to hide a fairly large wizarding section where there were shops, a hospital, the Ministry of America and anything else the magical folks could want. There were spells all over the wizarding section of course to where a muggle would just walk by it without noticing it at all unless you either had someone who was a witch or wizard lead you in or were like Spencer and Hotch and wore special medallions that allowed you to not only see buildings and other things that were normally hidden from muggle eyes, but also ignore those little urges that told you, you needed to be elsewhere.
"May I help you?" asked the witch at the reception counter.
"Yes, we have an appointment with Healer Howard Keyes at 10 o'clock," Grey answered confidently.
"Maternity, fifth floor. You can ask someone up there if you need directions to his office," the receptionist said pointing at the row of elevators.
"Thank you," Landon told the receptionist politely he and Grey heading towards the elevators not looking back so that they didn't see the young witch behind the reception desk stare at their retreating forms almost drooling as she thought about what she would like to do with those two handsome young men who were only a little younger then her.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
"So from what I understand from what you're telling me the two of you want to have a child or even several eventually," Healer Keyes said summarizing what Landon and Grey had just told him.
"That's right," Landon told the healer. "We could've done this the muggle way, but then we would've had to find a female to carry the embryo. We know a lot of women, but we're not close enough to any of them to ask such a thing, except perhaps for Michelle and she's married to my twin brother."
"Besides if we had done it the muggle way there would be no guarantee that any child we had would have magic and we want them to if at all possible, although if they didn't we would have been happy even if they hadn't had the family talents so to speak."
"I can tell from your accent that you're from England what are you doing in America?" asked Howard a little curiously.
Landon and Grey looked at each other and then Grey said, "Landon and me along with Landon's brother Lochlan went to Hogwarts together and that's where we became a couple. Before we graduated we decided that we were going to move to America since two men in a relationship isn't really accepted over there in either the muggle or wizarding worlds."
"Besides I like the American wizarding world as they are much more relaxed and less uptight about some things," Landon added. "Not to mention your medical technology is much more advanced in certain ways than it is in England and your purebloods are not so interbred to agree that there are defects showing up, like mental instability, which is partly what caused the whole wizarding war in the first place."
"And this way we can go visit Landon's family anytime we like so long as we call ahead to make sure they're home of course," Grey added.
"In fact now that I know that you American witches and wizards have been successful doing blood transfusions of a werewolf that make him like everybody else I'm going to suggest that Remus Lupin come here and have it done. He's a friend of our uncle's who is English and has been a werewolf since he was six," Landon added.
"The British don't have the equivalent?" asked Howard in surprise.
"No, in fact a certain faction do their best to deny werewolves the opportunity to find work at all, although that's improved a lot since the end of the wizarding war, but some of the old more conservative purebloods are fighting Kingsley Shacklebolt the Minister Magic tooth and nail and so certain needed changes are coming very slowly."
"Well, that's very fascinating, but let's get back to the reason for your appointment," Howard suggested and two young men nodded. "This process is very expensive since it's still a relatively new and difficult thing to do. We check all the eggs that female witches donate and then we cryofreeze them so that they are always fresh until they're ready to be used. All the females must have a thorough medical examination to make sure they don't have any diseases or other medical problems before the egg or eggs is extracted. We have almost 1000 eggs to choose from and will let you choose the donor egg.
"Well that's not something either one of us expected," Grey said looking surprised.
"We are very modern here," Howard replied with a smile. "What each female looked like, their height, weight hair color, musculature, eye color, how strong their magical ability is and other characterizations are written down and put with the appropriate egg. Once you choose what egg or eggs you want to use, it will be combined with one of your sperms or even both if you want uneven twins and then put into the artificial uterus and in nine months you will have your child."
"Wow!" Landon said looking impressed. "You sure have simplified the process."
"We did our best so that it would be easy on both the person who wanted to have a baby this way and also the healer in charge," Howard answered with a smile. "No point in making it complicated if it doesn't have to be. So now that we've got that out-of-the-way why don't you tell me exactly what you're looking for in a child."
"Well," Grey answered, "Landon and I discussed this and decided that we wanted twins since he and his brother are identical twins."
Howard looked interested so Landon continued, "It doesn't really matter what female eggs you use so long as we are sure that the woman in question was healthy and didn't have any medical problems and since you told us that all the females undergo thorough medical exams that means we don't have to worry about our children having any serious medical problems unless they develop something later after they are grown."
"Good you are certainly a lot more accommodating than some of the other witches and gay couples I've done this for," Howard said relieved. "Now before we begin we need to give both of you a thorough medical exam just like we did for those women that donated the eggs and make sure you are both healthy, without any hidden problems."
"We expected something of the sort," Grey admitted looking at Landon who nodded.
"The exam will take a couple of hours apiece and once that is done and your results come back, we should be able to go and choose two eggs."
"From the same female," Landon requested and Howard nodded.
"We do have a few women that donated multiple eggs. Now my next question is do you want uneven twins where both of you donate sperm or is just one of you going to do that so you have a good chance of having identical twins."
"Both of us," Grey said immediately and Landon nodded in agreement.
"It sure will make them easier to tell apart unlike when my brother and I were growing up," Landon agreed. "Our father finally had to start dressing each of us in different colored outfits so that it was easier to tell us apart until we grew up enough that we had our own separate personalities."
"Nowadays it's easier with both of you grown up," Grey said.
Howard looked curious and Landon explained, "My brother has kept his hair short while mine is long and so while we may still look exactly alike that's the way you tell us apart."
"Let's get the two of you into an examination room," Howard said and the two young men nodded. Howard stood up out from behind his desk and led Grey and Landon in to a free examination room and then left them there while he went to do a few things before he started their exams.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
"Well, that went well," Grey said as the two of them sat down side-by-side on the metal examination bed that was in the room.
"So far," Landon said.
"You sound skeptical that they're going to give us what we both want so bad," Grey said looking at Landon a question in his eyes.
"Not skeptical precisely just worried that they'll find something wrong with one of us that's all. Call it last-minute jitters. I try not to worry about situations like this, but then again I don't think I've ever encountered something that I want so much that I'm afraid is going to be denied me for some reason."
"Don't worry, everything is going to turn out fine," Grey said with confidence leaning his head on Landon's shoulder in a gesture of comfort, although on the inside he was worried too. They both wanted a family so badly and had considered adopting, but if they had done that the child wouldn't have magic and the muggle IVF treatment was just as bad considering they would have to find a female that they trusted that would be willing to carry the embryos for nine months, even if it was just a surrogate.
"I hope you're right," Landon said, but Grey didn't have a chance to respond as the Healer came back just then.
"Ready to get started?" Howard asked and both young man nodded. "There's no reason to be nervous I'm sure my exam will find that you are both in perfect health."
"We certainly hope so," Grey told the healer with a half smile.
"We can't help, but worry though," Landon added. "Once the exam is finished and you tell us the results I'm sure we'll stop, but until then…"
Howard laughed and then said, "Alright let's get started so that the two of you can quit worrying yourselves to death."
The two young man nodded and then did as Howard instructed them to do.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
Once Landon and Grey got home from their appointment at the hospital they immediately headed up to their bedroom for they'd had trouble keeping their hands off each other until the examination was completed and both of them were all hot and bothered and the only thing that was going to relieve them of the feeling, well besides a cold shower, was to fuck each other senseless. Why bother to take a cold shower though when you could just make love, multiple times until both their libidos were finally sated?
They entered the bedroom and immediately began to strip throwing their clothes into the hamper before turning down the bed on both sides.
The bed was king sized with a wooden headboard that had some kind of fancy design carved into it. Both Grey and Landon had liked it immediately when they had seen it in the store and so they had bought it for their bedroom, along with a matching dresser and chest for their clothes.
"Do you know I've been wanting you even before we left the house for our appointment?" asked Landon conversationally as he salivated at Grey's naked body for the other man was very muscled and toned with a slight tan. "You looked so handsome in that shirt almost the same color as your eyes, that showcased the muscles in your arms and chest perfectly, with those tightfitting slacks. All I wanted to do was throw you down on the bed and fuck you senseless."
"Well then, why don't you do that?" asked Grey who was also having trouble controlling himself as looking at his mate's naked body was doing the same things to him that it had done to Landon, when his lover looked at his body. "I've been wanting you to you know and I had a hard time resisting just taking you at the hospital. How I managed to behave myself, I have no idea."
What Grey said was true for his cock was already more than half hard just as Landon's was.
"Well then," Landon said huskily, "since we both want the same thing…"
With those words Landon attacked Grey and both of them landed on the bed with a slight bounce.
"I love you, I love you, I love you," Landon said over and over again, even as he kissed, nipped and licked every part of Grey's chest, finally sticking his tongue into his lover's belly button causing Grey to groan and almost come off the bed as intense pleasure surged through his body just from that little gesture alone.
"I love you too," Grey told Landon his voice strained with desire and passion as the feelings in his belly started to build rapidly.
"Thank you for agreeing to spend the rest of your life with me," Landon said even as he continued to lick Grey's nipples avoiding the area where he knew his lover needed him the most for the moment.
"I couldn't do anything else," Grey assured his partner pulling Landon's head down and giving him a gentle, tender, passionate kiss on the lips, pouring every ounce of feeling he had into it even as his tongue was demanding entrance to Landon's mouth, which was granted. "I love you and have since we met at 11 years old. I know I would have spent the rest of my life alone if you hadn't felt the same way that I did."
They continued to kiss even as their tongues battled each other as they explored every nook and cranny of the other mouths and when they finally broke apart what seemed minutes later, but when they looked at the clock it had been over half an hour.
"Wow!" both men breathed unable to believe they had been kissing for half an hour. How time flew when you were having fun!
"I love you," Landon told Grey taking his head in both his hands and tenderly placing a kiss on his forehead, his nose and both cheeks before finally claiming his lips for his very own.
"I love you too," Grey assured him overwhelmed by the love and tenderness he saw in his partner's eyes. He had never been loved in his whole life, before he had met Landon, his brother Lochlan, Art, Michelle and Lily. They were the best friends he had ever had, which wasn't surprising since really they were the only friends he had ever had since his parents had never allowed him out of the house much. He had been surprised when his feelings for Landon had developed into something more then the deep friendship that he shared with the other four and he had been surprised that he always knew which twin was which as in those days Landon and Lochlan looked exactly the same, with the same length and color to their hair, same eye color and facial bone structure. They were even the same height!
Somehow he had always known which one was Landon and which one was Lochlan and he wasn't sure how he did just that telling them apart was as easy for him, well as telling nonidentical siblings apart. For others though that hadn't been the case as the other students were always getting them confused and calling Lochlan, Landon and Landon, Lochlan.
Landon continued kissing him, but this time on Grey's inner thigh sucking a little on the skin.
Grey groaned, pleaded and begged as he withered beneath his lover for Landon had known for sometime that his thighs, especially the inner ones, near his cock, were very sensitive to sensation and sucking on it was almost enough to make him come right then.
"Landon! Please!" Grey begged his lover his voice breathless.
"Do you want me to stop?" asked Landon with a wicked smirk as he stopped what he was doing causing Grey to look up at him pleadingly.
"No! Please! Don't stop!" Grey begged shamelessly gripping Landon by the shoulders trying to pull him closer, but Landon refused to budge.
"Alright if you're sure that's what you want," Landon teased him stroking his lover's inner left thigh gently with just a couple of fingers as Grey looked up at him pleadingly. "Landon!" Grey begged. "Get on with it!"
"Alright," Landon finally agreed unable to resist taking Grey any longer since he was absolutely irresistible laying there on his back with his legs spread apart, pillow under his hips, totally and completely naked, his cock standing at attention, hard as a rock, standing up straight like a flag, for all to see, although he was the only one who was allowed to see his lover in his undressed state, "so long as you promise to return the favor."
"You know I will," Grey promised his lover and with those words Landon continued licking and nipping his partner's inner thigh, except the right one this time and Grey let out a long continuous groans and purrs as the feelings that had been coiling within his belly, got stronger and stronger until finally his cock, which had steadily been dripping semen exploded and sprayed all over Landon just as Landon's did the same, except spraying all over Grey and the sheets instead.
Landon collapsed on top of Grey knowing from experience that he was light enough not to hurt his lover and lay there silently for some time except for his panting as he tried to get his breath back after such an intense, earthshattering climax.
While Landon was doing that Grey was doing the same thing as his climax had been just as earthshattering as his lover's had been.
"Wow! Our climaxes just keep getting more intense the more we practice," Landon said finally after he had gotten his breath back, rolled off Grey's chest and onto his side of the bed not even minding that the sheets were soaked with his and Grey's semen.
"Well, you know what they say," Grey said with a smirk, "the more you practice the better you'll get at something and in the case of us fucking each other senseless I intend to practice a lot."
"Isn't that what we've been doing for the last three years?" asked Landon in an amused tone with a raised eyebrow.
"Actually it's more like four years since we've been having sex since we were 17," Grey corrected and Landon nodded.
"I was counting from when we were actually legally married, but you're right it's been four years since we started fucking each other regularly and yes, I agree that we've gotten much better at it since then, but instead of talking why don't we continue what we were just doing unless you're to tired," Landon said kissing and licking the side of Grey's neck for despite his words his body was ready for another round and so was his cock, perhaps even a third or fourth, before they finally went to sleep, but then unlike his father and uncle both him and Grey were young and could fuck each other for hours at a time, before finally succumbing to sleep.
"I'd have to be dead to be too tired for that," Grey answered immediately as he felt the tender kisses and licks on the side of his neck and watched as his cock, which had been flaccid, immediately get hard again. "I believe though that it's my turn this time, so unless I'm mistaken you just had your way with my body."
"So it is," Landon agreed laughing as he conceded that Grey was 100 percent correct. "What position do you want me in? On my back? On my stomach? On my side? Or do you want me to hook my legs over your shoulders?"
They had discovered through trial and error that they could have sex in all these positions, although it was different for each one. The two young men were considered versatile partners as both didn't mind either the top and the bottom when having sex and enjoyed both positions. Neither Grey or Landon really considered themselves alpha males and therefore each enjoyed being penetrated by their partner's cock. If you were an alpha male like Uncle Aaron you preferred to be on top when having sex, although in Hotch's case he allowed Spencer to top him occasionally, even if being on the bottom was not what he preferred.
"On your stomach," Grey ordered his lover, "but before you do that get the cock rings and vibrator out of the bedside drawer." Both young men had discovered that having a few sexual toys around could increase both their pleasures and so they had such things as cock rings, butt plugs, and a vibrator that they both used on a regular basis as it intensified their lovemaking.
"Oh, feeling adventurous are we?" asked Landon with a grin as he did as ordered immediately and got the cock rings and vibrator out of the nightstand drawer, without even having to get out of bed.
"When it comes to you, yes I am," Grey told Landon with a grin of his own. "This will stop either one of us from coming until we're ready."
"And make our climaxes at least twice as explosive, if not three times more powerful," Landon added with a smirk looking forward to it.
"That too," Grey agreed with the smirk of his own. "I never knew such things existed before you introduced me to them, since such things don't exist in the wizarding world, so thank you for that."
"You're more than welcome," Landon assured him with a grin. "I enjoy it just as much as you do."
"Now back to business," Grey said as he took the two cock rings out of Landon's hand and placed one on his own erect cock before doing the same for his lover making sure they were as far down as they would go at the base of both penises. After that he watched as Landon flipped onto his stomach and Grey took the vibrator that was laying on the bed and turned it on before pushing it into Landon's anus and made sure it was far enough up to stimulate the prostrate. As soon as Grey had done that he released the vibrator and let it do its job as he took over and begin kissing and licking all up and down Landon's back and shoulders avoiding his butt entirely for the moment.
"Ahhh," Landon groaned as the vibrator did it's work as did the cock ring and his climax that was starting to coil in his belly began to intensify rapidly. Landon could feel all the blood rushing to his cock, but it couldn't release until the cock ring, which was a stretchable rubber, was removed.
As the sensations in Landon's stomach had been intensifying Grey had continued to kiss, nip, and lick all up-and-down his lover's shoulder blades, until finally moving to the back of Landon's legs, which he began to gently stroke very softly and tenderly.
"I love your legs and thighs do you know that?" asked Grey rhetorically already knowing that Landon was well aware that Grey's favorite part of his anatomy, besides his cock of course, was his legs and thighs.
Grey had never been sure what attracted him so much to Landon's legs and thighs, he just knew that they were very well muscled and the skin was extra soft or at least it seemed that way to his touch. Oh Grey loved every single part of his lover's body, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, it was just that he had a special fondness for his mate's legs and thighs and he couldn't seem to explain it to himself any better than that. Perhaps it was just that he was a leg man like a lot of men, except instead of loving a woman's long legs it was another man's in his case.
Grey continued kissing up-and-down both Landon's thighs starting with the right and once he was sure that one was thoroughly treated to his kisses, gentle nips and licks he went onto the left and started doing the same thing.
Landon let out a continuous series of groans, whimpers and purrs as Grey continued what he was doing, although Grey knew deep within his soul that he wouldn't last much longer as he felt as if he was going to explode pretty soon and he knew without having to ask that Landon felt the same.
Grey finally finished what he was doing to Landon's leg and thighs and also finally removing the vibrator from his lover's anus, causing Landon to groan almost in relief, as well as whimper at the loss since his prostrate was no longer being overstimulated by the vibrator.
"Well, you successively melted me into a puddle of goo so could you get on with it?" Landon groaned. "I feel as if I'm about to explode."
"Oh I'm only halfway done," Grey teased his mate, although he knew very well that he wouldn't last much longer himself.
Landon closed his golden brown eyes for a moment and when he opened them again he looked at Grey his expression filled with such love and tenderness that it made the other man's breath catch in his throat.
"Do whatever you want with me, for I am yours for the rest of our time on this earth and I will never need or want another," Landon told Grey, softly and tenderly his voice entirely sincere, unaware that he was echoing almost exactly the same words that Hotch had told his father many years ago.
"Neither will I," Grey assured the his mate just as softly and sincerely even as he flipped Landon over removed the cock ring from the base of both their penises with hard yanks and almost as if choreographed Landon smoothly lifted his legs up and hooked them over his lover's shoulders so that Grey would have no trouble reaching his hole and inserting his cock. Thanks to the vibrator that had been in his anus for so long he was already extremely wet without the need for any gel, which was a good thing as neither one of them had time to apply any before they both came. Grey shoved his cock into Landon's anus, not having time to be gentle since he was holding back his release through sheer force of will, where it immediately exploded violently and took a long, long time to finally quit spurting semen and lay flaccid.
As Grey's cock was doing this, Landon had also climaxed just as violently except all over his lover's stomach and it also took quite awhile for his cock to finally quit spurting out little streams of seed.
Both young men lay there silently for awhile just holding each other close not even caring that the bed was soaked wit their semen from their lovemaking.
"Another round?" asked Grey after awhile, although he did feel pretty tired, which was no wonder considering how violently they had both come, "or are we done for the moment?"
"Oh, I'd say we're done for right now," Landon said as he too was pretty tired after his rather violent climax the second one of the night.
"In that case I'm for sleep," Grey said cuddling into Landon.
"Me to. I love you," Landon said also curling up as close as he could get to Grey before both young man drifted off into dreamland extremely content after some of the best lovemaking they had ever had.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
A week later the results of the exams that Landon and Grey had undergone came back and inform them that they were both in perfect health and that the healer was ready any time for them to make an appointment for them to choose the eggs and give sperm so that they could get the process started.
Landon and Grey made an appointment for just a few days later as they were both eager to get this process over with, although they knew they would have to wait nine months for their babies to actually be born or maybe it was more accurate to say to be completely finished growing to leave the safety of the artificial womb. Really the artificial uterus was just like the real thing except that the waste was taken away magically and the fetuses fed and oxygen provided the same way.
The two young men followed Healer Keyes as he led them to where they kept the frozen female eggs.
"Wow! This is really impressive!" Grey said impressed despite himself while Landon just looked around not as impressed as he had seen freezer cases this big before at the muggle hospital, although they weren't used to keep a female's eggs, but for various samples that they were testing in the labs.
"I've seen such things before," Landon told Grey when the other man looked at him. "They have these kind of freezers at muggle hospitals that they use for samples when they're trying to discover what kind of disease someone has."
"We actually did get the idea from the muggles," Howard admitted. "The only difference is that all the samples are frozen by magic instead of using technology."
"Well, it's no wonder they don't have something like this in England for most of the magical folks over their loathe muggles and everything they represent, which of course includes muggle technology," Grey said. "Not everyone of course, but the ones that have a lot of power do and they still have a large influence on the magical community."
"There are some people like that here too, but they're not the ones in control," Howard said.
"Thank goodness for that," Landon said fervently, "or we would never be able to have a family unless we used muggle means and there would be no guarantee that our children would be magical."
Howard asked them what their specifications were for a child and Grey and Landon said that it didn't really matter, although they did want him or her to look at least something like their fathers if it was possible to control something like that.
"Really we don't have any preferences just so long as they are healthy," Landon told the healer who nodded thinking that these two young men were certainly much easier to work with then some of his other patients who wanted what was almost designer babies, which was not only unethical and immoral, but illegal. The way they did it here at Alchemia's was preserve a female's eggs let the witch or wizard choose whose egg they wanted and then let nature take it's course, which was the moral and ethical way to do things.
"If you choose a female with black hair like yours for example there's almost a 100% chance that it will come out that color, although there have been some surprises when a child was born with a totally opposite hair or eye color from either of their parents, which is just a quark of genetics."
Landon nodded for he had been aware of this since it was just something that most everybody knew in the muggle world, although Grey looked fascinated.
"Black hair is the most dominant hair color," Landon explained to his lover, "and after that brown as both only take one gene apiece and only have to come from one parent instead of both. Both red and blonde hair take two genes one from each parent and only if the color is within three or four generations. This is how a child can end up with blond or red hair when neither parent has it or only one does, because somewhere in both parents family tree within just a few generations is the genetic code for that color."
Howard looked impressed at Landon's explanation, but immediately got back to business. "So you want a female that has blonde or black hair?"
"Blond," Landon answered immediately, "because that means at least one of them will probably come out with that color while the other one will more than likely have mine since black is the dominant color."
"Do you have any females with blond hair and gray eyes like mine?" asked Grey. "I would love to pass my gray eyes to my son or daughter since I know that, that color is really rare."
Howard shook his head apologetically and said, "I'm afraid not because as you said gray is a very rare eye color and it's also a recessive gene which both parents have to have the generic code for. Actually every single eye color, except brown is recessive. Your chances of getting gray eyes go up so long as your donor eggs eyes weren't brown since that is the dominant eye color."
"Alright then a female with blond hair and any eye color except brown," Grey said, "so that my chances of getting a child with gray eyes goes up."
"That we can do," Howard said with a nod, "of course you know there are no guarantees."
"I know," Grey agreed, "but at least this betters my chances. Besides even if one of them doesn't end up with my gray eyes Landon I do intend on having more after this once these are two or three years old."
"We want a large family," Landon explained to Howard who nodded. "I'm a lot like my Uncle Harry over in England as he loves children and has eight with his wife, but then two of those are twins and three are triplets so Ginny was only pregnant five times instead of eight."
"Neither of us will mind if we have a dozen," Grey added with a grin. "We have plenty of money, so it's not like having that many would put us in any difficulty financially."
"Of course if some female had to carry the babies for nine months I doubt we would have that many since I can't see any one female agreeing to carry a dozen children even if a couple of sets of those are twins," Landon said laughing at that scenario.
"Beside the only female we're close to that is still in her prime is Michelle and I can't see his brother letting his wife carry our children."
"No, I can't really see it either," Howard admitted, "so it's a good thing that we have this option for you."
"Yes, it is and you have our deepest appreciation since we weren't sure if we were going to be able to have children of our blood," Grey said.
"We had considered adopting and we might have done that if it had been necessary," Landon added.
"Let's see you said you wanted a female with blond hair and either green, blue or hazel eyes, so that you have a better chance of one of the babies having gray eyes and I believe we can accommodate you since we have several females with blond hair and either blue or hazel eyes," Howard said opening the freezer case.
"No green?" asked Grey curiously.
Landon explained before Howard could and said, "Green eyes goes mostly with red or black hair, with a few exceptions at least in this part of the world."
Howard emerged from the freezer holding several glass vials that Landon assumed had anti-breakage charms on them just in case they were dropped on accident.
"Here are your choices," Howard said holding a test tube rack with about half a dozen tubes with stoppers in it.
"We try to organize our eggs by similarities like blond hair and so forth and then each one goes into a separate test tube even if it's by the same donor."
"Your system is very well thought out and organized," Landon said approvingly.
"Well, we're not like the muggle labs that tend to get the different eggs mixed up sometimes," Howard said with a shrug, although he was inwardly pleased.
"Let's see," Grey said as he read the descriptions on each of the test tubes. "This one has light blonde hair, blue eyes, is 5'5', and has normal magical ability."
"What precisely does that mean?" asked Landon.
It was Grey that answered before Howard could. "All it means is that the woman that donated the egg magical ability is about average and not much weaker or stronger than what is normal. Every magic user has different strengths when it comes to magical ability some are weaker magically, while others are more powerful than normal."
"Alright, thank you for explaining it," Landon nodded, "as I didn't realize that, although I probably should have as I saw how some kids did really well in class and others didn't."
"Well, it's also partly a matter of concentration, focus and learning to use what power you do have," Howard added. "Magic like anything else takes practice."
As the healer had been talking Grey had carefully selected a test tube and carefully took it out of the rack it was in. The two test tubes he had chosen described the woman as having reddish blonde hair like his, was 5'9', had blue eyes with an average magical ability and had weighed 120 pounds at the time the eggs were taken. There was no names among the other details, but then again none of the other test tubes had names either as the donations were all anonymous.
"These two," Grey said holding out to test tubes that appeared to have come from the same female or at least the descriptions on the tabs were the same. "The descriptions on these test tubes are exactly the same so I'm assuming they come from the same female."
"Yes," Howard said as he examined to test tubes that Grey was holding. "I filled these out myself as that is my handwriting and I used the exact same wording on purpose to let everybody know that they came from the same woman."
"Maybe you should think about using different colored tags or something similar if they come from the same person just to make sure that no mistakes are made," Landon offered.
"That is a very good idea," Howard admitted wondering why he had never thought of it or any of the other healers either. "Now all we need from you are sperm samples," he added producing two plastic cups. "I'm sure you to know what these are and the bathroom is just down the hall that way."
Both boys groaned but had known this was coming and so complied heading down the hall towards the men's bathroom.
Both boys returned less than 10 minutes later with full cups as both had been holding their pee for over an hour.
"Well, that didn't take long," Howard said pleased that both young man had anticipated what they would need to do.
"I had to do such things before at my old muggle school when they were testing for drugs among the students when I was 9 and 10 and I warned Grey," Landon explained.
"Well, that really concludes our appointment, although you will be getting a letter in about a four months to where it will ask the two of you to come by the hospital and spend at least a little time every day talking to the artificial uterus so that the babies know your voices. It doesn't really matter what you talk about as just the babies hear the sound of your voice and know that you love them. At four months the fetuses are developed enough that they should be a able to understand your tone of voice even if not the words."
Grey and Landon nodded and then Grey said shaking the healer's hand, "Thank you so much for doing this for us. You have made both our dreams come true."
"You're more than welcome," Howard assured them with a smile. "It's one of the reasons I became a healer you know and that was to help people."
"Well, you're doing a good job," Landon said also shaking the older man's hand.
"Thank you, I'll see you again in four months unless there are any problems," Howard said. "I don't expect any, but there are enough variables in this kind of thing that it's more than possible. Once we get past those first couple of months though those variables of things going wrong will drop to almost nothing."
"We understand," Landon said. "It's still a relatively new technology and so they're are a lot of things that could still go wrong."
"Exactly," Howard agreed.
"I hope they don't," Grey said fervently "because I already love these children and they aren't even embryos at this point, much less fetuses."
With those words the appointment ended and both young men left had-in-hand leaving Howard to do his job.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~