CH34
It is now one month later: (Late September)
Natalie and Kate are both sitting in the living room, resting on the sofa trying to catch a quick cat nap while they both keep an eye on the baby monitor. Not that Lucile isn't keeping an eye on both babies; it just makes them feel better.
"Where's Rick this morning?" Natalie asks, knowing sleep just wasn't going to come.
"Writing, he's fallen behind a little what with the false alarm and staying by my side through the entire labor, plus everything he has done since we got home." Kate answers her question.
"You're sure my being here isn't a burden." Natalie didn't want to make herself a burden. Kate opens her mouth to respond when Lucile shows herself. "You're staying here Natalie. You both need someone to watch over you and watch over two of the most beautiful baby girls I've ever seen."
"Didn't you say that when Jenn and L were born?" Kate questions. Lucile scrunches her face and looks like she's searching her memory. "I plead the 5th." Lucile disappears in an instant and shows up next to both of the cribs in the nursery so she could look in on both of them, doing her best to try and not melt in place.
It leaves both Kate and Natalie chuckling. "She is right though, you're both staying here until your maternity leave is over. And before you say it, Jim can stay here too and likely will once he thinks it over." Kate tells her.
Natalie keeps silent knowing it's a fight she's going to lose, not that it's one she wants to win anyway. It's going to feel good to have help around her 24 hours a day, so she just leans back and tries to get some sleep.
Both Kate and Natalie are asleep. "MOM!?" Alexis comes charging up the stairs after getting off work. "Hey mom, can I, ….?" Alexis stops next to the sofa when she sees both Kate and Natalie sleeping with the baby monitor not far away, which is thankfully silent.
"Alexis?" Lucile shows up and asks quietly. "Hi Lucile, I was going to ask mom if I could borrow the car. I have something I want to shop for and New York seems like the perfect place to do it." Alexis talks softly.
"Anything I can help you with?" Lucile could look for anything. Alexis shakes her head. "This is a personal thing, I want to go shopping for a ring."
Alexis watches Lucile dance in place and suddenly ends up going through her body when she tries to go in for a hug. "Damn!" Lucile curses. "The spare keys for Rick's car are in the kitchen drawer. Provided that you show me what you purchase, I'll even plug in some of the best little known jewelry stores with the best prices if you promise." Lucile promises since she is now dying to see what Alexis gets Amanda.
"Deal, I'll be back in a few hours." Alexis tells Lucile and after a stop in the kitchen she's on her way down to the garage.
Lucile dances silently in the dining room watching as Alexis drives away on the way to her first stop. Lucile has already helped them select the perfect beach, find a store that they could get bikinis and covers from, the small amount of flowers that the two want, and all of the invitations are presently being printed by a separate company.
A photographer has been selected and a caterer has also been selected who is willing to set up on the same beach and for a small fee, police the beach after everything is over.
Almost everything is ready. Rick and Kate are making it easy for any of their friends, mostly from where they work, to being able to afford to fly out and stay for 2 nights in a local hotel.
SANDY LANE HOTEL, BARBADOS.
It was only a little south of Holestown which in turn was just south of their house. Each suite was 7,360 sq. ft. of space. Each has a master bedroom with 3 more bedrooms. Four full bathroom's and one half bath off the living room, with the living room having your own indoor pool, bar area, dining room and a full large kitchen to cook your own meals if so inclined. There was even a large outdoor patio that had doors that would open it to the living room. Bringing the outdoors, indoors.
They already have reservations for 2 of the Sandy Lane Suites. Jenn and L and their families can choose between staying at the two if they chose. It also gives the boys their own room.
Lucile is checking in on the invitations. "MOM!?" Amanda comes flying up the stairs, finding Lucile at the top of the stairs. Lucile put her finger to her lips. "Kate and Natalie are trying to get in a nap before the next feeding." Lucile tells Amanda. "Sorry!" Amanda whispers. "How are the babies? Aren't they the cutest little babies you have ever seen?" Amanda has seen them several times now and is falling in love with both of them.
Lucile starts melting on the spot. "They are!" Lucile loses herself for a moment. "Can I help you with something Amanda?"
"I want to barrow one of the cars, I want to go shopping and since my car isn't in Montreal anymore, I thought I would go shopping here. Though I could go shopping somewhere else, couldn't I." Amanda has forgotten about her bracer.
"May I suggest a place in Sydney, Australia then? They have a very nice mall you could visit and I know just the place for you to arrive at unseen and use to get back." Lucile offers. "Perfect! You're the best Lucile." Amanda goes back down the stairs and through the transmat wall that Lucile opened for her.
Lucile starts spinning in place. "My girls are shopping for rings at the same time." Lucile disappears and shows up next to the cribs waiting until one of them woke up and wanted attention. One wakes which gets the other one awake and she promptly starts crying. Lucile managed to disappear just as Kate and Natalie come running into the nursery, having heard their girls crying over the baby monitor.
Kate and Natalie have just finished feeding their new girls and are just sitting in their chairs rocking gently while holding both of them close. "Hi mom." James and Levi walk into the spare master bedroom.
"Boys." Kate greets them wondering what they want. Both James and Levi come up real close to get a good look. "Were we ever this small?" James asks curious. "Actually since you are twins you were actually smaller than this." By close to 2 pounds if Kate remembers correctly, and the delivery of the two of them was also harder...not that she was going to tell them that.
"When do we eat?" Levi gets to the point of this visit.
"We've already fed them, if you two want to eat, you have to go talk to your father." Kate tells them. They both look around. "You didn't make any for us or save us some?" Levi is bummed.
"Babies only drink milk at this age honey, just like you two did when you were babies." Kate points out.
"Milk?" The boys start looking around for the glasses or pitchers of milk. "Where?"
"Just go bother your father if you two want lunch." Kate isn't ready to explain where the milk comes from.
"Fine." They both moan and go looking for their father.
"Not ready to tell them where milk comes from I see." Natalie grins. "Shut up girlfriend." Kate sticks her tongue out at Natalie. "And no I'm not ready to drop my top, show them my boobs, and let them watch their new sister drink. You better not be either." All Kate got for an answer was listening to Natalie laughing.
It took Alexis a little time but she was soon back having found one that she liked at the second place that Lucile had directed her to.
"Let me see, let me see." Lucile is all over Alexis. It's a 5.25 Ct. Round Diamond Solitaire Ring, D, I3, White Gold, 6 prong setting, round brilliant full cut. "It's simple and yet gorgeous…and big! It's going to look huge on her little fingers." Lucile offers her opinion.
"I want people who see it know that Amanda is loved and has someone in her life." Alexis explains.
"I'm happy for you Alexis, you two deserve each other, and I want to be there when you present it to her as compensation for helping you. May I suggest you go home and fix a romantic meal for tonight? Something made fresh." Lucile offers.
"You're the best Lucile." Alexis wishes she could hug Lucile one more time. She opened a transmat wall and goes home. She grabs the car and drives to the fish market to find something fresh.
"This feels so much better than Ray. Maybe that should have been our first clue, not nearly as much love in that one as this one." Lucile pops into the kitchen to check on Rick and the boys.
"Was that Alexis?" Rick asks while just finishing putting some lunch together. It's just something simple – soup and sandwiches.
"Alexis went shopping and is headed home to start shopping for dinner tonight." Lucile explains. "Which reminds me." Lucile disappears and shows up just outside of the spare master bedroom.
Lucile walks in to find Kate and Natalie asleep still in their rockers with their arms holding the babies close who were also sleeping. Lucile did her best to kiss both babies. "It'll wait." And Lucile disappears.
It is almost dinnertime when Amanda finally shows up. Lucile intercepts her before she can leave the foyer area. "How did it go?" Lucile was dying to see what Amanda found. It's a 4.20 Ct. Diamond Round Engagement Ring, 18k White Gold, H1 in color, S12-I1 in clarity.
Lucile looks it over and except for Ct. size and shape, the two rings are almost identical. It almost has Lucile laughing. "Alexis is going to love, love, love it. You should go home now. I know for a fact that she is planning something." Lucile gives Amanda a hint. "What?" Amanda asks. "Shoo girl, find out for yourself." Lucile opens a transmat wall for Amanda to get home and watches her go through to her future. "These two are going to make me cry, I just know it." And Lucile disappears.
It's late and everyone is sitting at the dining room table, including the babies when Jim suddenly shows up flying up the stairs to kiss both of the women in his life. "How are things here?" Jim asks. "It's nice having someone around all day even if I did miss you." Natalie answers back as she strokes his cheek.
"Is there any of that left?" Jim is starving. "I'll get you a plate and service and you can help yourself." Rick is up in an instant and is in the kitchen.
"You were quiet all day, nothing happen at the base?" Natalie was curious.
"I am simply being careful. Don and Tom's next flight is tomorrow; hopefully there is a package waiting for them when they get there." Jim explains as he starts dishing out food onto his plate.
Lucile makes herself known. "This is the unknown part. I could only risk the one data burst just in case. I'm more and more inclined to believe that there is a new AI system on-line."
Jim stays the night next to his wife and has breakfast with everyone before heading for home to drive onto the base in preparation for his sons flight.
Jim is in their office after checking in with security to verify that his space along with others has been swept for bugs. "Are you two ready? You're going to really have to keep your eyes open if you expect to find this thing in the middle of nowhere." Jim calls out.
"Looking good over here, we good to go?" Don responds by calling out to Tom, which tells Jim that they are not alone. "All set, we need to finish these before the prototypes are complete. I'm dying to get my hands on one." Tom responds back.
They both know that Lucile's latest design change has pushed the first fighter prototype back a month so that its sister ship will be done at the same time. It means bringing on a bomber pilot a month earlier than planned.
Since the computer simulations for both the fighter and bomber are handled by Lucile, both of them are already in use. The first bomber pilot has started his training only a week ago. In fact he is already sitting in the trainer and will be going out with Tom and Don, using the feed their fighters sent back.
After a slingshot around the moon this time, they are both soon bobbing and weaving their way in and out of the rings of Saturn on the opposite side of where they both knew the Evergreen was hiding.
"This is Rambler One, first circuit around is complete, all lights are in the green." Don calls out.
"This is Rambler Two, all green." Tom calls out ready to make another pass, wanting to find Scout, since this will likely be their last chance.
Tom was starting his run when he caught a flash that is his signal. Tom gives Don two long clicks over the communication system. Then he reaches into his flight bag and causes a power surge into one of his thruster circuits that he has connected on his walk around. This causes him to brush up against a rock that makes up the rings of Saturn.
"This is Rambler Two, I've had a fault in one of the thrusters and have hit a rock. Except for the thruster fault all lights are green. Request EVA for a visual sighting for any damage." Tom calls out.
"Rambler Two, hold for clearance," is what Tom gets back. Don moves in close to look him over while never leaving his ship. "This is Rambler One. I'm seeing a cascade effect from his hit, we need to finish this soon." Don tries to push them along.
"Rambler Two, you are cleared for an EVA, make it fast," comes back the reply. "Rambler Two copies." Tom gets set up for exiting his ship while Don did the same. It took the two of them almost an hour while Tom searches his ship and Don searches the area around him. Once back in their seats they cancel the rest of the test and head home.
Tom leaves his ship with the maintenance people for them to look it over while he and Don go in for debriefing. It's hours before they were allowed to go home.
They both drop the bags at home and are dead tired; still they had one place left to go. They step out of their transmat wall one at a time and step into the foyer of the Crystal home, where they are soon overrun by four collies.
After petting all the dogs they find their wives at the top of the stairs waiting for them. Tom and Don are greeted by long kisses, since both Jenn and L were happy to have them back on the ground safe and sound.
"And!?" Lucile pops up behind the girls. Tom holds out the bag he is holding and places it on the floor. He opens it while watching everyone else gather round. In moments Scout walked out of the bag to an ovation of the Douglas and Crystal clan.
It only took minutes for all four dogs to get shots.