100 reviews! This story just reached over 100 reviews! How amazing is that?!

And in thanks, I give you all this chapter... though I have to admit I found it somewhat agonizing to write, since I find Original Character children to be rather irritatingly twee when they show up in fanfic. But it's the nature of the beast that if you write about two people who live Happily Ever After, you must read about their offspring. So I've done my best to deal with the result without making them into horribly saccharine little moppets. Here's hoping that their antics come out to be at least a *little* entertaining!

Title: 20 Different Ways to Leap Through the Minuet, Part 14/20
Fandom: Little Women
Series: 20 Different Ways to Leap Through the Minuet
Characters/Pairings: Jo/Laurie, Cast
Rating: R for allusions to sexual content
Summary: He has always know that she would be his downfall one of these days; he simply hadn't understood how deeply strange would be the attending circumstances. 20 different looks into Jo, Laurie, and the marriage that could have been.

14.

They have three little ones in the space of five years, two with Laurie's hair, two with Jo's clumsy hands, one with his father's musical talents and two regrettably very much without-- albeit still being stubborn in finding it. For a little over two decades, their house rings with laughter and the sounds of growing children, their eldest daughter blithe and brave, their only son sincere and sensitive, and their youngest daughter mischievous enough that even a mansion full of nannies might not be enough to contain her bursts of temperament.

Given that they are the result of his loins and her toiling, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that their children, sweet as they are, often set new heights in madness. And yet, every time he and Jo come back to home and heart from a hard day's work, only to find the place figuratively (and once, literally) set on fire, it still manages to surprise them.

One day, a decade-and-a-half into marital harmony, they sit together on their front steps and stare at the kitchen of their grand old house, which had seen far better days. Their faces are as long as the day in the summer, and it takes him quite a while before he can bring himself to nudge the shell-shocked beloved beside him.

"Is it just me," he says, when he finally feels capable of speech, "or did our tiny darlings fully inherit our lunacy? Though the scope of what just happened is... almost inspiring. Even for them."

She nudges back, tilting her head against his shoulder slightly. "I'd be proud if I wasn't so busy thinking of horrible punishments from the Middle Ages. And what do you mean by our lunacy, dearest?"

Even past his immense annoyance, he has to laugh. "Oh, forgive me. I keep forgetting that in our past years, you were the very model of circumspection."

She nudges again, smiling softly, and it's enough to make his heart lift a little in his furious chest. "Oh, certainly. I know I certainly never got up to scrapes this terrible, which means that this must be part of your inheritance."

He decides not to mention several cooking experiments of years past and smiles. "Then it's only logical to conclude the pyromania was part of the Laurence legacy to them?"

Her head topples onto his shoulder, heavy and reassuring. "And don't you forget it. Incidentally, which one of our trouble-makers started it?"

"Certainly not James," he murmurs, mulling over the possibilities. "I think he was almost traumatized over the sheer mess after we managed to drag him away from it."

"I still think he might be a changeling," Jo murmurs just as affectionately against his shoulder. "That or he was switched at birth with one of Amy's children."

"He does sort of have the soul of a brooding artiste mingled with that of an accountant, doesn't he?" Laurie mused.

"Hah. Now that is a combination for the ages!"

"But it makes sense," he says, letting a familiar and warm skirmish with Jo at least temporarily lighten his mood. "I mean, think about it. There's Amy's perfectionism on your side and my grandfather's, well, perfectionism on mine. Put those together, germinate between our loins in one night of unforgettable passion--"

"...You can still remember the exact circumstances he was brought to this world in?"

"No, and now you've broken my flow. As I was saying, put those together, germinate between our loins in what I'm almost sure is one night of very real, if forgettable, passion, allow to grow within you for nine months and a little more and... voila! The perfect combination of your sister and my grandfather emerges."

"That," he wife says, shooting him a look caught between amusement and amazement, "is a visual I could have lived my whole life without needing to ponder on."

He smiles and throws an arm around her. "I do love providing you with teachable moments, pet. But then, I think that might be my grandfather peeking through again."

Jo nudges him in the shoulder. "In any case, I truly doubt it would be James! God bless but he'd never put up with so much a mess. Who then? Lizzy or Annie? Annie or Lizzie! It must be one if not both that got up to this mischief!"

It's a good question to ask and an even more difficult one to answer. Lizzy did have a certain tendency to act first and think later, and might well have started off a minor conflagration in her efforts never to be shown up by a younger member of her family, she managing the role of eldest child with a jealous fervor. But Annie wasn't exactly a paragon of stability either and in her more artistic moods, could certainly have thought herself capable of corralling fire...

Jo looks at him as he thinks it over and smiles the sort of smile that would send terror into the hearts of children the world over.

"Are you now thinking what I'm thinking?"

The smile he gives as an answer to that is not particularly civilized either. "Finding incredibly painful yet subtle methods of retribution for our sweet darlings until they give the culprit up and learn not to make their own meals without heavy adult supervision?"

He rather likes her resulting cackle, though he knows that the children would tremble with fear to hear it. "Oh, Mister Laurence, how dearly do I enjoy the fruits of your imagination!"

"Good," he says briskly, and then helps her to her feet so that they can strive forward as twin juggernauts of judgment and fury. "Let's just hope the fruits of our loins survive it!"

Author's Note: As always, reviews are much appreciated! Also, I can't lie... Anne pretty much *is* the same as the one from Green Gables and James is possibly the only sane one in the entire family. I just hope they didn't come off as being too horribly cutesy. Laurie and Amy's daughter "Bess" in the original universe was already enough of a tooth-ache to read!

Additionally although I have not been updating so much as of late, I promise you that I'll put up something *special* during this April's Fool day... Think of this as a giant, giant thank-you to all my readers who have given me over 100 reviews for this series. Thank you so much for helping me reach this milestone!