Author's Notes: Thank you, thank you very much. I'm glad to hear that you still like it.

Oh, by the way, I got the information that Elaine reads out of her pregnancy book off of some website, so kudos to them!


One month later...

"Riccio! Are you done packing up your stuff yet?" Elaine called up the stairs. She waited a moment for an answer that never came. Typical Riccio.

Rolling her eyes, she turned to Prosper, whom, she had just realised, was standing next to her. "Oh, hi, Prosper, I didn't see you there. Are you ready to go?"

Prosper nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. I'll go get Riccio."

Elaine watched him go up the stairs and walked across the theatre, where Mosca was attempting to stuff a pile of clothes in a suitcase. "One second, Mosca," she said, and took the clothes from his hands. After managing to neatly put it away in his suitcase, Elaine sat down on one of the seats, by her own suitcase, and waited for everyone else to get their things together.

Finally, a few minutes later, everyone was standing around the Stella, bags packed and ready for the trip that was before them. As they left the Stella, they all lingered, even though they knew they were almost late for the boat they'd be taking to the train station. This would be the last time they'd see the Stella for a while. Elaine felt suddenly emotional; the Stella had been her home, her true home, and now she was leaving it. But, after a moment of looking at the old theatre in silence, she knew that what she would be going to would be just as much of the home as the Stella had been. So, somehow, she found herself able to turn away and walk alongside Scipio towards the boat station.

The boat they were on, the Grande Pesce, was full of people this warm, sunny morning: Elaine watched them all walk around, read, talk, look at their watches, or do whatever else they could do to keep themselves busy. She was reminded of a beehive.

As they traveled away from Venice, Bo waved back at the town and yelled loudly, "BYE!" They all laughed and watched Venice slowly shrink away from them, the morning breeze fresh on their faces.

Once the Grande Pesce had taken them all to the train station, they departed from it as quickly as possibly, trying to beat the huge crowd behind them, and clambered onto their train. Scipio, Hornet, and Elaine shared a compartment while Prosper, Riccio, Mosca, and Bo were in another a few compartments down.

The hours passed uneventfully. Finally, when Elaine couldn't handle her boredom any longer, she opened up "What To Expect When You're Expecting." After flipping through the pages, she found what she was looking for and said, "Scip, look at this." Scipio looked on the page she was pointing at as she read aloud, "During pregnancy week 7 your baby will grow tremendously, up to 13 mm in length. Your baby is quite close to the size of a large blueberry or small grape by 7 weeks pregnant." She trailed off, staring at the rest of the page. "Huh. The size of a small grape? That's actually pretty tiny."

"Yeah, it is," said Hornet, who had been listening to Elaine read. "Especially when it'll be baby-sized about seven or eight months from now."

Elaine looked down at her stomach. It was still flat, but over the past few weeks, tiny changes had already appeared on her body, something that you could barely notice, only if you knew her well. She imagined her stomach getting bigger and bigger as her pregnancy progressed, and said, "I am going to get so huge, it won't even be funny. Our house will be bursting at the seams!"

"It will not," said Scipio, putting his arms around her and giving her cheek a peck.

"Yes it will! I'm going to be the size of a blimp just a few months from now!" Elaine wasn't looking forward to being - and feeling - huge, but she had a smile on her face.

"And you'll be just as beautiful as ever!" said Scipio, laughing a bit as Elaine stuck her tongue out at him and continued to complain. Hornet watched them both and smiled. She knew they would make great parents, and, when that baby had joined them, an even better family.


"Wake up, Elaine! We're here, we're here, we're here!"

A groggy Elaine sat up in her seat and yawned, rubbing her eyes. When she opened them, she saw Bo standing up and looking at her, a huge grin on his face. Outside of the window, it was dark, and she could tell it was probably quite late.

"We're here! We're in London!" said Bo again, pulling on her arm and out to the hallway. Everyone was busy getting their bags, and Prosper handed Elaine hers.

"What time is it?" she asked Scipio when he suddenly appeared at her side. He looked at his watch and told her it was 11:32 P.M. Even so, she felt rested; she'd been asleep for the past few hours and the excitement of everything woke her up.

It was a bit of a hassle to get out of the train station, but sooner or later they all found themselves taking two cabs to the new house. Elaine looked out of the window at the city life: brightly lit buildings towered above the streets, citizens made their way down the sidewalks, venders tried to sell things to tourists. There were no canals, as Elaine had already known, but the absence of them was hard to get used to.

About ten or so minutes later, the cab stopped. After paying the driver the money, they clambered out of the taxi and were suddenly facing a big two-story house. Its walls were made of brick, and many windows showed them the empty rooms inside.

Wow, thought Elaine. Like Scipio had said, there was plenty of room for all of them and a baby. She looked over at him, and saw him smiling over at her.

"This is huge, Scipio. God. I'm gonna get lost in here," said Mosca from behind them.

"I know. Geez, you're going to have to send out a search party whenever I leave a room," said Prosper, staring up at the house in awe.

They walked up to the house with their things and went inside. There was no furniture besides the few matresses they'd bought with them; it would be a very long week of shopping for furniture. They headed up the wooden stairs to the second floor to have a look around. Upstairs, there were three rooms, which they decided would be two bedrooms and the nursery, while the rest of the bedrooms would be downstairs. Everyone but Elaine and Scipio headed back down the stairs to decide who would get what room. Elaine opened the curtains on the window in the room that Scipio and herself had decided would be their bedroom and was surprised to see that it had a beautiful view of London, showing each building in all its glory.

"Scip, you never cease to amaze me," she said, smiling as she looked at London. Her boyfriend smiled back and joined her at the window.

"I'm hoping that's a good thing," he said.

"Oh, yes, it is. A very good thing."

Elaine looked out of the window for a few more moments, and then turned to face Scipio. "Well, I can't believe we're really here. London. God, I'm going to miss Venice."

"I know. I'm going to miss Venice, too." Scipio wrapped his arms around her and said, "But in a way, I'm glad we're here. Venice was - and still is - a great place. But sometimes you've got to leave behind something good and go to something better, or what you think will be better, anyway. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah." Elaine looked at his face, away from the window, as he bent down slightly to kiss her. She put her head on his chest and looked out of the window again, holding him close. "I know."


Author's Notes: I don't really like this chapter, but meh. I hope you did. Yes, I know that things moved fast again, but like I said, I'm a very impatient person.

Review, please!