Things seemed to be going well after the gender reveal party. Anita pushed her worries about the pregnancy far enough in the back of her mind that they could resurface at any given moment, but they didn't burden her 24/7. That would soon change...

One day, Anita was home in bed, waiting for Victor to come home from work. She hadn't been feeling well at all lately, not helped by the fact that Lily seemed to be draining all of her energy, practically sucking the life out of her. She tended to only get out of bed whenever the twins needed something from her or she needed to take care of her own needs. Victor initially wasn't too sure about leaving her that day, but Anita insisted she would be fine and he should just go to work and focus on taking down baddies with Delphine. She tried not to worry him, but she couldn't help but get that sinking feeling that something could be wrong with their baby, as she was experiencing lots of pain throughout the night and into the day. Remembering Dr. Pertwee telling her that she might be at risk for preeclampsia certainly did not help matters.

The pain tended to occur just above her navel, but it wasn't anything like menstrual cramps nor did it even come close to feeling like Braxton Hicks contractions. Braxton Hicks contractions could be uncomfortable, sure, but they weren't really all that painful in the grand scheme of things. In fact, she wasn't sure what kind of pain this was. All she knew was that it was just there and it was bothering her. Could it have been the preeclampsia at work that Dr. Pertwee warned her about? She'd read up on it right after the appointment that day, and belly pain had been described as one of the symptoms. She hadn't brought it up to Victor at the time. Now she was starting to wish she had. She still hadn't confided in him anything about what was going on today, but it didn't matter. She planned to tell him the moment he got home from work, and she was absolutely determined to give him as many details as she could.

For now, however, Anita lay in the fetal position in bed, trying to suppress cries of pain while she tightly clutched the sheets in her hands. Even if she tried to move just an inch away from where she was, she would seize up in pain and she would gasp apprehensively. None of the pain medications she'd tried had been effective. Nonetheless, if the twins needed her, she had to soldier through the pain for their sake.

Several hours later, just as stars were starting to make themselves known in the sky, Victor came home from work and started putting away his laser gun and other things from work so the kids wouldn't get into them.

"Hey, Anita, I'm home!" he called out to her. "Man, you would not believe the day I had. Delphine and I had to fly all the way over to Siberia to take care of some tanukis who wanted to terrorize the indigenous folks over by assaulting them with their giant testicles..." He stopped speaking once he pushed open the door and saw Anita crying into her pillow with her arm cradling her bump. "Anita? Are you okay?"

"It hurts, Victor!" Anita yelled despite her efforts. "It hurts!"

"What hurts, Anita? Tell me." Victor crawled onto the bed next to Anita and reached out to touch her belly, but Anita flinched away, knowing he would exacerbate the pain. "Nothing to do with Lily, does it?"

"I'm not sure, actually... but it hurts!" Shallow breathing took over. "I-I can't breathe! I-I-I feel like I-I'm dying." Anita tore up and looked up at Victor with weary eyes. "I don't want to die, Victor..."

"O-Okay..." Victor quickly got up off the bed and called his mother on the phone. "Hello, Mom? Yeah, uh, Anita's experiencing some belly pain. No, she's not going into labor. It shouldn't be for another three months, I don't think. Anyway, could you come over and watch the kids while I take Anita to the hospital? Okay, thanks. I appreciate it, bye." With that, he hung up. "Alright, Mom should be here in just a few minutes. Afterwards, we're going to the hospital to make sure nothing is seriously wrong."

"Can we at least call Dr. Pertwee and let him know what's up?" Anita asked despite the pain. "He's probably busy tending to another patient right now."

"Oh, sure," Victor replied. "That, too."

At the hospital, Victor and Anita met up with Dr. Pertwee after the latter had wrapped up his appointment with another patient. Dr. Pertwee led the couple into a room where he proceeded to do a full upper body ultrasound on Anita, only to find nothing at all.

"Hmph," Dr. Pertwee grunted. "Strange. What if I were to do a heart tones ultrasound for...?"

"Lily," Anita interrupted. "Like those flowers Victor and I have in our garden. That's what we decided to name her."

Dr. Pertwee gave a small chuckle. "Lovely. That's actually the name of one of my granddaughters. Guess great minds think alike. Anyway, let's get this show on the road."

Anita nodded and let Dr. Pertwee check on her daughter. She squeezed Victor's hand, waiting with bated breath to know if their Lily was going to be okay. Dr. Pertwee carried on with the ultrasound and smiled at the screen, which gave Anita the impression that things were fine aside from the pain.

"Well?" Victor asked anxiously.

"She's moving around a lot, so she's very active right now," Dr. Pertwee explained. "Her heartbeat is also perfectly normal, so it's probably just her position that's been responsible for those belly pains you're experiencing."

Victor breathed a sigh of relief.

Anita, on the other hand, just wrinkled her nose at this. "So what now? What can we do about this?"

"I would suggest trying a massage or a hot bath to relax your muscles and your mind, maybe with some lavender," Dr. Pertwee replied.

"That's it? Nothing's wrong?"

"Nope. Nothing whatsoever. As far as I can tell, she's healthy. She's just very hyper, is all."

Anita sighed. "Okay."

With that, she and Victor headed off for home. Not much later, she and Victor got ready for bed after they'd put the twins to sleep. While in bed, they talked for a bit about how they would handle the remainder of the pregnancy, how they would introduce the twins to their new sister, and what kind of birth plan they'd use for the big day.

"Wouldn't you rather just give birth the traditional way?" Victor was asking. "Like on a bed?"

Anita wrinkled her nose. "Eh, that just doesn't seem natural to me. I want to have a water birth. It's supposed to be more relaxing than a traditional birth."

"Aren't you worried people will find out you're a mermaid if you give birth that way?"

"What? No. I only turn into a mermaid when I come in contact with saltwater, remember?"

"Oh..." Victor blushed out of embarrassment. "Right."

"Besides," Anita continued. "When you have a water birth, you have it while surrounded only by the ones you love... and of course, the doctor."

"Eh, we can talk about this later. We shouldn't have to worry about her being born for another three months."

"I hope for your sake that you're right."

Victor chuckled. "Me too. I haven't been wrong in a while." Suddenly, he disappeared underneath the sheets and gave Anita a little kiss on the stomach. "Goodnight, Surprise Lily."

Anita smiled. "I have a good feeling she's going to love her father."

Victor resurfaced from underneath the sheets and smiled back at his wife. "Me too. Goodnight, Anita."

Anita began to lay down to sleep. "Goodnight, Victor."

Victor soon followed. Anita still worried about the pregnancy, even in her dreams. Even so, she hoped beyond hope that all of that worrying would ultimately have been for nothing. She hoped that the pain she'd experienced hours earlier really had come from Lily herself and not from any underlying problems. Hope was all she had, and it was the only thing to distract her from what could be her worst nightmare.