Begin!

~Beatrice's POV

"Can I take off the blindfold yet?"

"No, just a few more steps!"

I sighed and continued letting Bertrand lead me through our new house. We had Quinten and Karen downstairs with the guys helping us move in, but Bertie said he had something to show me upstairs first. He won't tell me what it is and the suspense was driving me crazy!

I felt him stop. "Ok, now!"

I took the blindfold off and gasped. He had brought me to the room we had chosen to be the baby's room, only it was fully decorated already. Since we weren't sure what we were having, the color for the room was cyan. I could see that Bertie had been busy with this room. He had set up everything already. The crib was in the corner of the room and there was a soft armchair beside it. (For if one of us needed to tend to the baby.) There was a dresser in the other corner, a chest full of toys, a reading lamp, and a bookshelf in the back for storing books to teach them to read. It was comfortable and warm.

"Oh Bertrand, did you do all this yourself?"

"I had Quinten help me build some of this stuff…" He replied sheepishly. "That's why he disappeared on you the first hour into us starting to move in..."

"So what that means is this crib will fall apart if I put anything in it?"

He laughed, "No! We made sure it's sturdy! Do you like it?"

"Of course I do, honey. It's perfect!"

"Well, it's not finished yet." He stepped behind the door and dragged a box out of hiding. He reached inside and pulled out some giant, painted, wood letters. "Once we know which name we're using I'm gonna hang these up on the wall behind the crib to spell it out, and I got some smaller ones to hang on the door so everyone knows this is the kid's room. I got a whole alphabet set to make sure we don't run out of whatever letters we need."

I was smiling so big at his thoughtful gesture. "You've thought of everything, haven't you?"

"Just about, now I just need to finish baby-proofing the backyard-"

"Bertrand!"

"What?"

"You can't baby-proof nature," I said, giggling uncontrollably.

"Sure I can! We just need to cut the thorns on all those roses and trim the bushes…" I ignored the rest as he went on a ramble about how he was going to do this.

I patted my stomach, "Daddy's being silly, isn't he?"

Apparently, Bertie heard that through his rant. "I am not! I'm being responsible!"

I rolled my eyes. "Well Mr. Responsible if you need me I'll be downstairs with Karrie."

Upon finding Karrie, I told her about the new baby's room and she said she'd look at it later once we're finished with everything else. I was thankful to have plenty of cooperative people helping us with all the things we just bought for the house. Most of the rooms were filled at this point, and there wasn't much left to do.

"You know Bea, I was just thinking…"

"Uh oh, that's a dangerous habit," I joked.

Karrie gave me a grumpy pout, "I'm serious, I have an idea!"

"Then tell me your great idea."

Karrie dragged me over to one of our many windows by the arm. "You have a beautiful garden now, and it's very large and spacious. Even with those cherry blossom trees scattered around…"

I gave her a curious glance. "Where are you going with this?"

"Do you want to have the wedding in your garden?"

I gaped at her. That sounded absolutely… brilliant. I could picture everything as I stared outside. It would be so simple, and we wouldn't have to book another location. It was perfect!

"That's genius Karrie!"

"When are you going to realize that all my ideas are good ones," Karrie giggled.

"Did you ask Quinten yet?"

"No but we can ask the boys together."

I agreed to do that later. We still had many things to plan before that happened. I estimate that the wedding will occur a couple months after the baby gets here. That'll give us time to prepare and give me time to heal afterwards. (Sammie told me my body will never feel the same after my first kid, so I had to be ready for that.)

"So when are Lemony and Moxie coming to visit?"

"I told them to come on Thursday for dinner. I hope they aren't too shocked about the news…"

Karrie waved her hand dismissively. "I'm sure they'll take it well!"

"...Speaking of which, when I sent you that telegram about me coming home you didn't respond right away… What were you doing?"

Karrie blushed and didn't answer me.

Once Thursday rolled around, we had settled comfortably into our new home. And it only took four hours to fill the library to the brim with books on every subject we could find. (I sent out a call to the organization to have people chip in by sending us secondary copies of books they owned so we could fill it faster.) Bertrand and Quinten were on board with the idea of having our future double wedding in the garden out back. I don't think they wanted to say no when we were clearly so excited about it. At the moment I was lounging on the couch in our living room, reading a book and waiting for our friends to show up. Bertrand was in the kitchen ensuring we had plenty of root beer; which is damn near the only thing Lemony drinks to be honest.

When I heard the doorbell ring Bertie came running past and said he'd get it. I giggled at his enthusiasm. But it's also obvious that he wanted to keep the surprise for just a moment longer. (Not that I had a problem with that.)

"Bea's in the living room," I heard Bertie say as I went to bookmark my page.

I looked up to see Bertie walk in followed by Lemony and Moxie. As usual Moxie was wearing her hat; I briefly wondered if she ever took it off. I see Lemony also convinced her to leave the typewriter behind. (Though I'd later find out it was actually in their car.)

I stood up and smiled at them before giving the two hugs. "It's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you too Beatrice," Moxie said. One thing I especially liked is that with these two being married now, Moxie was less hostile towards me about Lemony.

"I'm happy to see you're alive…" Lemony commented. "Let's just say, the news of you being a ghost was a shock until we were told it wasn't actually true."

"You nearly broke him," Moxie added.

"I'm sorry about that Lemony, it was apparently necessary to get Olaf off our backs."

"Our sources tell us he's off the radar," Bertie added. "But they're on guard just in case."

"Ok so are we going to address the fact that you're pregnant, or was I supposed to ignore it," Moxie asked, snark dripping from her voice.

I started laughing; that was the best reaction I'd gotten yet. "That's kind of the surprise that we brought you here for!" I replied; Bertie was holding back his laughter next to me.

Lemony was in shock. Moxie looked happy for us. I didn't want to waste any time, since we wouldn't be able to have these meetings as often, so we brought the two of them over to sit with us. Now was the perfect time to ask.

"So, yes we're having a baby," I started, "And we called you over because of that. We'd like to ask you something special…"

The two gave me skeptical looks and let me continue.

"Lemony, Bertrand and I want you to be the baby's godfather." I smiled warmly at him. "And we don't yet know what we're having but if it's a boy we… were planning to name him after you."

Bertie and I watched as their eyes went wide from this news. I saw Lemony try to respond but he couldn't get the words out.

"Of course that'd make you the baby's godmother Moxie, if you're ok with that. It was my idea. I wanted to repay you for… that favor you did for me…"

Moxie smiled. "I'd be happy to; you know, if he wants to."

Lemony looked a tiny bit misty eyed now as he croaked out a reply. "You don't have to name your kid after me, even if it's a boy. But I'd be more than happy to be its godfather."

Bertie smiled, "But we already decided on the name."

"Choose your second place one, if needed," Lemony said. "Trust me when I say, growing up with the name 'Lemony' is not something that I'd wish on anyone… Even my own siblings barely let me hear the end of it as a kid. And if Olaf ever does come back. Well I don't think I need to tell you what might happen if he learns there's two of us out there."

He had a point, perhaps I was ignorant for not thinking as such. Or I was just so excited about having a baby it slipped my mind. I racked my brain for a moment before glancing at the novel I had been reading. In it, a particularly charming character named Klaus had become my favorite while reading the first several chapters. I rather liked the name too. Perhaps that'd be a good alternative. It'd keep with a common V.F.D. practice to name your children after book characters or relatives. And as for a middle name, many men I knew, Lemony and Bertrand, included, had their father's names for their middle name. It'd be keeping with that unspoken tradition and it would fit perfectly.

"Do you have a secondary choice," Moxie asked. "It's usually good to have a back-up."

"I think I do, but are you sure, Lemony? The chances of Olaf finding out would be slim."

"If I'm going to be this baby's godfather, then it would fall to me to protect it if something happened to you two. For the baby's sake, don't take the risk," Lemony replied.

Bertie smiled at me, "Guess he's standing his ground. What's your back-up idea, dear?"

"What about Klaus, after a character in my book, and his middle name would be Bertrand, after his father of course." I replied with a smile.

Bertie looked pleased with that idea. (Probably gave him an ego boost or something.) But with that matter settled, I suggested that we have a nice dinner to celebrate.

We spent the night talking about damn near everything. Moxie showed me a few pictures from her and Lemony's wedding, and pointed out people I hadn't met yet for me. We told them about our plans for a double wedding after the baby arrives and they were eager to see it happen. On a slightly somber note we talked about the apple project and how the sugar bowl was doing at the moment. (Which made Lemony happy to hear it was safe and ready to use.) I made sure they knew my due date was somewhere in April, and they promised they'd be in town for it so they could meet the baby as soon as possible.

It was a peaceful night between friends. My only regret was that I wouldn't be able to have them over as often for complicated reasons that I had to hide from my child in the future. For one thing Bertrand and I had not had the heart to discuss with anyone yet: was that we did intend to leave V.F.D.

"But only if we have a second child…"

~End of Chapter!