"Two of a Kind...Almost"
Author's Note: I usually don't like to post chapter stories, but I already have this one down on paper, and I've gotten a couple emails asking when the next story would be posted. Enjoy!
The entire Kingdom of Caring was buzzing with activity, and with very good reason.
"Did you hear!" Cheer Bear was calling to everyone she saw, "It's twins! Two girls! Did you hear?"
"Twins!" exclaimed Grams Bear, while Hugs and Tugs jumped up and down, "How wonderful!"
The word spread like wildfire; Regal Heart Lioness and her husband, Stellar Heart Tiger, were the proud parents of two little girl cubs.
"Yaaa-hoo!" Brave Heart whooped, sending up fireworks from his tummy symbol to announce the arrival of the two newest members of the Care Bear Family. All eyes turned to the sky as the red, green, and yellow fireworks turned pink, and a cheer began to go up. But Brave Heart wasn't finished. One huge rocket went up and exploded, and hanging in the sky above the Kingdom of Caring was a huge '2'. The resulting cheer was deafening, and in no time Take Care's waiting room was swamped with Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins who wanted to see the cubs.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the red bear waved her paws, and the group quieted down, but not by much. "It'll be way too stressful for those babies if everyone sees them right away, and all at once!" she told them, laughing a bit.
"Awww..." everyone groaned.
Brave Heart laughed, and held up two Polaroids. "Relax guys, I got pictures!"
"Ooh, gimme!" Playful Heart snatched the pictures from him before he could react.
"Huh?" Brave Heart looked at his empty paws with a rather puzzled expression.
"Let me see!" begged Cheer Bear, jumping up and down and trying to grab them as Playful held them out of reach. The group made so much noise that the cubs heard them and became frightened. Take Care whistled loudly, and the group was surprised into silence. Now that they were paying attention, they could hear the cubs crying in distress. Brave Heart grimaced a little, and the others looked ashamed.
"Keep it down, okay?" Take Care scolded gently, "Just pass the pictures down the line. You'll all get a turn."
Stellar Heart entered the room, looking annoyed. "What's all the racket?"
Brave Heart dusted himself off and replied, "Sorry about that...everyone got over-excited."
"Yeah, sorry." Playful Heart grinned, passing on the pictures.
The cubs' names were written on the white spaces at the bottom of each picture. The picture with 'Hopeful Heart (Hope) Liger' written at the bottom featured a very calm-looking cub. She was looking up at the camera with that slightly-unfocused look that all newborns have, and she was even smiling a little. The picture with 'Contrary Heart (Connie) Liger' at the bottom, however, showed a very angry cub. She had her little paws curled into fists, and she was screaming with a red face and a wide-open mouth. Both cubs were about the same color as Regal Heart, but they had brown stripes that were very similar in pattern to their father's black stripes. Each cub had a furry lion tuft at the end of her tail. Everyone noticed that they had yet to receive their tummy symbols, which was interesting; since they had been born Care Bear Cousins, it was assumed that they would be born with their symbols as well.
"Boy, does she look upset!" remarked Grumpy Bear, pointing to Connie's picture. He smirked a little and asked Stellar Heart, "So, what made you pick the name 'Contrary Heart'?"
The tiger laughed, and said, "Because that's how she was being. First Take Care said she didn't cry at all when she was born, but she started the minute I held her and then she wouldn't stop." he pointed to the picture, "There she's having a fit because Brave Heart took her pacifier out so he could get a better shot of her face."
"I gave it right back..." Brave Heart laughed. "They were gonna call her 'Mellow Heart', but I don't think that woulda worked!"
"Wow..." Funshine breathed, "They're so small..."
"Yep." said Brave Heart, "No bigger than eight-week-old kittens."
Bright Heart Raccoon had the pictures now, and he was frowning a bit. "You do realize that technically they're tigons, not ligers..."
Stellar Heart nodded. "Yes...we just prefer the sound of 'liger', that's all." he shrugged.
"What's the dif?" asked Playful Heart.
"Well," began Bright Heart, preparing for a lengthy explanation until he saw the looks they were giving him. He decided that the 'condensed version' would be best. "Um...well, with tigons, the father is a tiger and the mother is a lioness. With ligers the father is a lion and the mother is a tigress."
"But aren't the cubs the same either way?" asked Share Bear.
"Surprisingly, no." Bright Heart leaned forward and began to elaborate, unable to resist the temptation. "Ligers are huge; they're prone to gigantism. And tigons are at the other end of the spectrum. They tend to be smaller than either of their parents when they're fully grown, and they're prone to dwarfism. Of course, those rules don't necessarily apply to Care Bear Cousins."
"I'm not sure I understood all that, but I'll take your word for it." chuckled Stellar.
"What's in a name, huh?" Brave Heart winked.
"Syllables?" Playful Heart promptly answered, which was followed by groans of disgust.
"Well, I better..." Stellar Heart jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "Um...yeah."
He turned and went back through the door as the others calling their blessings and good wishes after him. He couldn't seem to wipe the proud smile off his face. True Heart and Noble Heart arrived just as Stellar Heart disappeared.
"There's the proud uncle!" True Heart pointed, and hugged Brave Heart. "How is she?"
"Regal? She's fine. Stellar Heart's the one you should be askin' about." he replied.
"Oh?" asked Noble Heart, "Why?"
"Cuz he bawled like a baby when he found out he was a dad!" Brave Heart laughed.
"Aw, he's just sensitive." Take Care waved off Brave Heart's remark. "He just became a father for the first time. Plenty of human fathers do the same thing."
"Aw, I wasn't makin' fun. It's just that you never see him looking so happy."
Secret Bear whispered something in Friend Bear's ear, and Friend Bear nodded. "You're right...Secret Bear says that we shouldn't be talking about your brother-in-law behind his back."
Brave Heart shrugged, and said, "I told him so to his face a while ago. He just laughed and told me as long as we don't start saying things about him that ain't true, we can say what we like."
"All the same, Secret Bear's right." said Noble Heart, effectively ending the conversation.
When Stellar Heart got back to his little family, Regal Heart was sitting up in bed. The twins were in a cradle nearby, and Regal was rocking it slowly with one paw. "So, what was all the noise?" she asked.
"Oh, they were all arguing about who got to see the pictures first." he grinned, pulling up a chair.
"I see..." she smiled, settling back against the sit-up pillow. Connie began to wail again, asking to be held, and Hope began to cry because her sister was crying.
Stellar Heart lifted Connie in his arms while Regal took care of Hope. He rocked her gently, looking mildly distressed. "No, no, no...it's all right...Daddy's here..." To his surprise, Connie quieted right down. She stared up into his face, and he could have sworn it was a look of recognition. He slowly straightened up and walked around the bed so that he could sit beside his wife. "I still can't believe it..." he told her, looking in wonder at their daughters. His daughters. It was like some beautiful dream, but it was real. They were really there!
Regal Heart smiled up at him as he slipped an arm around her shoulders. "You happy?" she asked.
He sniffled sharply, and nodded. "Mm-hmm..."
"Are you okay?" she asked, blinking as a tear dripped from his chin to her face.
"Yes, it's just...I keep expecting them to disappear or something, like good things sometimes do in a dream." he said. He wasn't quite satisfied with the way he had put it, but it was the only way he could think of to describe how it felt to finally see his children. It was almost too wonderful to be true.
Regal Heart smiled, and nestled closer. "Just because good things were taken from you, or kept from you in the past, doesn't mean that'll happen now. That life is over, remember?"
"With you as a reminder, it's hard to believe I almost forget sometimes." He pressed his striped forehead against her tawny one. "I love you so much..." he whispered, shutting his eyes tight.
"I love you too..." she whispered back, putting her free paw to the back of his head.
"Careful!" Regal Heart suddenly reached out, catching Stellar's head just as it neared his plate.
"Huh?" he blinked owlishly up at her, trying to clear the sleep fog from his brain.
"You almost did a faceplant in your scrambled eggs." she laughed.
He sighed, and got to his feet. "I'm going to take a..."
Before he could say the word 'nap', Connie began to cry. Hope woke up and did the same, and Stellar Heart buried his face in his paws. "Ohhh..."
Connie was suffering from colic, just like her Uncle Brave Heart had several years before. She and Hope were two weeks old now, and their parents were exhausted. "You go take a nap. I'll take care of them." said Regal Heart, getting to her feet. She smiled wearily and wagged her finger, playfully chiding him. "You know, you shouldn't have let me sleep last night."
"You've been getting less sleep than I have, Regal. I figured it wouldn't kill me to take a turn." he said with a yawn, getting up to follow her, but at that moment there was a knock at the door.
Stellar Heart sighed, and went to answer it. For the past two weeks they had been getting daily visits from several members of the family. Though it was appreciated, he was beginning to get tired of tuna noodle casseroles and jello molds, not to mention the many games of 'pass the baby'. He put his paw on the doorknob, took a deep breath to steel himself, and opened the door.
It was Brave Heart. "Hey, buddy! Wow...you look terrible!"
Stellar Heart scowled. "Thank you."
"Sorry. You okay?" asked Brave Heart.
"Oh, yeah..." he sighed, letting Brave Heart in, "I just had a long night."
"So I hear." remarked Brave Heart, wincing as Connie gave a particularly loud scream.
"You know, Hope's a perfectly nice, quiet cub, but then Connie gets her all riled up, and it's..." he threw up his paws, and sat down. "Between the two of them, we don't sleep."
Regal Heart came out with the twins, saying, "Stellar, can you help..." then she noticed Brave Heart. "Oh, hey Bro."
"Hey." Brave Heart gave his sister a peck on the cheek, and gently took Connie from her. "Heard you were having some problems." he winced as Connie screamed in his ear, flailing out her tiny fists and accidentally bopping him on the nose.
Regal sighed, rocking Hopeful Heart without even thinking about it. "Not problems, exactly, but yeah...The medication we got for her colic isn't working, and Take Care doesn't want to give her anything stronger. So poor Hope sleeps about as much as we do."
"Aww..." Brave Heart rocked Connie a bit. "Are you makin' trouble? Huh?"
Connie must have heard the sympathy in his voice, because her cries became even more pitiful than before.
"Poor kid...you can't help it, can ya? Nooo...you gotta tummy ache, don't you?" Brave Heart cooed as his sister and her husband tried not to laugh. Responding to the sound and feel of the words as her uncle spoke, Connie turned her head towards him and grabbed a fistful of his chest fur. "Ow!" he gently pried her fingers loose, and gave her his thumb to squeeze instead. "Good grip..."
"Yeah, tell me about it..." laughed Regal Heart. "She does that to us too."
Stellar Heart suddenly began to snore; he had lost the battle to stay awake, and had finally dozed off sitting up.
"Poor guy..." Regal Heart reached over and stroked the back of his head just behind his left ear. Stellar Heart began to purr in his sleep, and Brave Heart snickered.
"Sis, I think you married a giant tabby cat!"
Stellar Heart snorted, and quickly sat up straight. "Huh?"
"Nothing." Brave Heart shook his head, still laughing. "Tell you what, why don't you let me cub-sit today while the two of you get some sleep?"
"Well..." Regal hesitated, "It won't be like watching Hugs and Tugs...They're still very small."
"Relax. If I have any trouble, I'll just call True Heart. She's been dyin' to spend some more time with these two." he said.
"Well..." Regal looked at Connie, who now seemed to be fascinated by her own toes. "All right. I'll get their things." She handed Hope over to Stellar Heart, who looked more than a little nervous about this cub-sitting arrangement.
"We're trusting you, Brave Heart." he said quietly.
"Aw, don't worry. I'll shave my mane off before I let anything hurt these two."
Stellar had to laugh at the thought of Brave Heart with a shaved head. Regal Heart brought out the new carriage they had recieved about a month before at her baby shower, and began showing Brave Heart what was in it.
"Okay, here are their blankets...make sure they're buckled in securely." she told him, "Here, I wrote out the directions for preparing their bottles, as well as the feeding pattern they seem to be sticking to. The diapers and baby wipes are in here...that's about it."
"Pacifiers too." Stellar Heart reminded her, and she slapped her forehead with her paw and left the room again. She came back with the pacifiers, and gave them to the cubs. Hope accepted hers, but Connie spat hers back out and sucked her thumb instead.
"Suit yourself." Regal shrugged, putting Connie's pacifier in a little plastic baggie and tucking it into the diaper bag. She turned to Brave Heart, and gave him a challenging smirk. "You sure you can handle it, Bro?"
He drew himself up to his full height of three-and-a-half feet and declared firmly, "I told you before; Brave Heart Lion can handle anything."
Connie picked that exact moment to spit up on herself...and on him. She screwed up her tiny face and belted out the loudest wail yet. "WAAAAAHAAAHAAA!"
Brave Heart groaned, wondering what he had just gotten himself into.
"Will you stop apologizing?" Brave Heart laughed as his sister helped the two of them get cleaned up. He feigned annoyance as she pawed at him with a baby wipe, and took it from her. "Gimme that...She's a baby. Babies do that."
"Okay." she seemed relieved that he wasn't really upset, and focused on wiping her baby's face. "We really appreciate this, Brave Heart. It's been kinda rough these past two weeks."
"That's okay. Glad to do it. If ya don't mind my sayin' so, you look like you've been running marathons." He finished with the baby wipe and threw it away.
"What's the matter?" Regal smirked, striking a pose as she stood in her nightshirt and bunny slippers, "You don't like my ensemble?"
Brave Heart wisely avoided responding to that, and said, "Well, anyone taking care of twins can use a break every now and then." He smirked down at Connie. "You got yer Momma and Daddy running all over the place, don't you?"
"Bahhh..." Connie grunted, sucking on her fist as Regal did her best to clean the squirming baby. The cub was trying to grab the baby wipe with her other paw, and she actually giggled when her mother began to look frustrated.
"I can see why you named this one 'Contrary Heart'!" said Brave Heart, laughing as Connie finally got a grip on it and refused to let go.
It was a bit of a fiasco, but Regal finally managed to get things together. And not a moment too soon. Stellar Heart had dozed off again, and was losing his grip on Hope. Regal's eyes widened, and she just barely managed to catch the baby before she rolled off the couch. "Stellar, be careful!"
"Huh?" he jumped, thrust into wakefulness once more. Then he saw how Regal was cuddling Hope, and he realized what had almost happened. He put a paw over his mouth. "Oh gosh...I...I'm so sorry..."
She sighed, knowing from her own experience just how tired he was. "No harm done...this time. Next time put her in the cradle when you feel it coming on."
Stellar Heart didn't answer. He was looking down at the floor in shame, still shocked by what could have been.
Regal and her brother got the twins bundled up in the carriage, and Regal followed her brother out. "You be sure and call us if you have any trouble, okay?"
"Relax." he grinned, giving her a goodbye hug. "I've watched cubs before. Maybe not this young, but I can handle it. I'll see you guys tonight."
"Okay. Oh, they like it when you sing to them." Regal called after him, though she immediately regretted it. Her brother didn't exactly have the best singing voice.
"Check." Brave Heart said without turning around.
Regal began to head back inside, but she suddenly turned and stuck her head out the door again. "Oh, and don't forget to burp them after feedings, especially Connie!"
"Okay."
"You'll call if you have any questions at all, right?" she called a bit louder, and he rolled his eyes.
"Yes."
"Oh, and here's what to do if they get the sniffles-" she began, and he finally stopped walking and turned around.
"Sis?"
She blinked. "Yeah?"
"Go to sleep. You need it. Trust me." he somehow managed to sound amused and exasperated at the same time, and she flinched sheepishly.
"Okay...good luck." she waved, and shut the door. Yawning, she turned to her husband to make a wisecrack about her brother's cub-sitting abilities. She stopped short when she saw that his face was buried in his paws. "You all right?"
"I...I almost hurt my baby..." he mumbled. He wasn't crying, but he clearly felt terrible. Regal went over and put her arms around him, and he heaved a deep sigh. He was just so tired. If it only took him two weeks to nearly injure one of them, what kind of father was he?
"It's okay, she's fine." Regal told him.
"But if you hadn't come in when you did..." he didn't finish his sentence, though. He didn't even want to think about it.
"But I did, and that's all that matters. You're just tired, Stellar. We both are." She moved back a bit and put a paw under his chin, forcing him to look up. "Nothing happened, and she's okay. Okay?"
"Yeah..." he nodded. The past two weeks of sleep deprivation had finally caught up with him, bringing his stress level to an undesirable high, but to his credit he hadn't lost his composure. Regal Heart was by far the strongest of the two of them, at least emotionally. Both had dealt with painful events in their lives, but hers had only lasted a day. His trials had lasted for three years, from the time he was born. Regal Heart usually dealt with her sadness by shutting down for a while, and Stellar was more likely to show it on the surface. It was an oddly backwards arrangement, to be sure, but being a Care Bear Cousin made it easier for a male to get away with this kind of thing. In many ways, she was his rock. And he didn't care who knew it.
"Come on," she took his paw, "let's get some sleep while we can."
"Amen to that..." he stood and followed her, then sat down gratefully on the edge of the bed. Regal set their clock radio for seven-thirty, and the two of them settled down for a well deserved nap. She fell asleep almost instantly, but even as tired as he was, it was several minutes before he was able to nod off.
It took Brave Heart about three times as long as it usually did to get home. Everyone who passed him made him stop so that they could fuss over the twins. Of course he was glad to show them off, and there was ample opportunity for him to do so.
"They're so soft!" marveled Cozy Heart Penguin, gently stroking Connie's cheek. Connie wasn't happy with this, however, and she turned her head in an attempt to bite. Of course she had no teeth yet, but Cozy moved her 'paw' away from the baby's face and looked surprised.
"Sorry 'bout that." Brave Heart told her, "I forgot she doesn't like havin' her face touched."
"Oh. How about this instead?" she asked, making a whistling sound at the 's' in the word 'instead', and tickling Connie's tummy. The baby immediately began to giggle, a high-pitched squeaking sound, and she squirmed playfully as the penguin stopped tickling her. The blanket slipped down at Connie's movements, and Cozy Heart noticed her tummy symbol. "Oh...I thought tummy symbols didn't repeat."
Connie's symbol was almost exactly like her father's. It was a spattering of red and gold stars in the shape of a pinwheel galaxy, and at first glance it looked just like Stellar's symbol.
"They don't. Hers is different." replied Brave Heart, "The galaxy shape spirals in the opposite direction."
"Oh." Cozy Heart nodded, thinking that it suited her. The galaxy shape spiraled in a direction that was contrary to her father's. The design wasn't completely unique, but it was her own. Cozy looked at Hopeful Heart next, and gently pulled back the blanket so that she could see the other twin's symbol. Hope gave a little shiver and began to whine, and Cozy Heart quickly tucked the blanket back around her. Hope's symbol was a red taper candle with a heart-shaped flame, which was set in a green holder with a handle on the left side of it. "Well, I better be going. See you, Brave Heart. Bye-bye, sweeties!"
"Bye." Brave Heart waved, and turned towards his cave. "Here we are, kiddoes." he told them, wheeling the carriage in and shutting the door. He winced as the door slammed; it had slipped out of his paw, and the twins immediately began to scream.
"Sorry..." he lifted them carefully, and sat with them on the couch. "I'm sorry...Uncle's sorry..."
It didn't take him long to calm them down, but a few minutes later Connie started right back up again.
"What's the matter?" he asked, as if she could answer. Connie made herself as small as possible, and looked like she was in pain. "Oh, I get it now..."
Hope was still fussing a bit, but it was only because her sister's cries were disturbing her. Brave Heart carefully laid Hope back in the carriage, and sat down with Connie. He remembered something that True Heart had once told him, and began to rub her tummy a bit. If anything, Connie screamed even louder.
"Man..." he stood up and began to pace back and forth with his niece, patting her on the back and making little shushing noises to calm her. It actually seemed to be working until Hope needed a new diaper, and let loose with a scream that put Connie's to shame. Brave Heart switched cubs long enough to change Hope, who was fine after that. Then he went back to Connie, who was protesting at being put down. "Okay, okay, I gotcha..." he picked her back up, and she curled into a ball again. "No wonder your parents ain't sleepin'." Almost as if in answer to that, Connie bopped him on the nose for the second time that day.
He decided that he needed help after all. Putting Connie over his shoulder, Brave Heart picked up his phone with his free paw and dialed a number with his thumb. He sighed as he waited for someone to pick up, and on the third ring there was a click.
"Hello, True Heart speaking." came a clear, female voice from the other end.
"Hey, True Heart." said Brave Heart, raising his voice in order to be heard over the baby's shrieks. "I have a problem..."
"So I hear." replied True Heart, unknowingly using the phrase that Brave Heart himself had said about a half an hour before. "I'll be right over."
"Thanks."
True Heart arrived ten minutes later, and Brave Heart was never so glad to see her. With Connie screaming in his ear the entire time, he explained things to True Heart. "They looked like they were ready to drop, so I offered to cub-sit for the day. Now Connie won't stop cryin' because of her colic, and I can't handle her and Hope at the same time! I thought I could, but I can't...I don't know how they do it."
True Heart shook with silent laughter, and he gave her a hurt look.
"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying this!" he drawled, narrowing his eyes a bit.
"I'm sorry, this is just a familiar scene." True Heart held out her arms, and Brave Heart handed Connie over, mollified. True Heart continued, "You had colic as a cub. Do you know what helped more than anything else?"
"No, what?"
"A warm bath." she said. "Why don't you watch Hope, and I'll see if it helps with Connie."
"All right..." Brave Heart agreed, picking up Hope, who was fussing again. It took him a moment to figure out that she was hungry. He dug through the diaper bag and brought out his sister's instructions, then he began to read. "Let's see..."
Fortunately, he had no trouble with the bottles; Regal's instructions were very precise. He set Connie's bottle down on a nearby table, and sat in a chair with Hope nestled in the crook of his arm. "Here ya go, Munchkin..." he rocked her gently, holding the bottle for her. He was dimly aware that Connie had stopped crying completely. "Heh...sure, she quiets down for True Heart, and not her uncle..."
He caught Hope staring at him, and when he smiled down at her she smiled back, formula dribbling down her chin. "Aw, are you makin' a mess?" he chuckled, wiping her chin with a towel from the open diaper bag.
"Ahh..." she cooed, reaching up and patting his face, and he felt his heart turn over.
True Heart, who had just come back in, watched this with a wide smile on her face. "Ah, looks like she won somebody over."
Brave Heart blushed, and looked the other way for a moment until it faded. "How'd it go with Connie?"
"Very well, as you can see." said True Heart, nodding towards the cub in her arms. Connie was the calmest he'd seen her all day. As soon as she saw her uncle, she stretched out her tiny arms and gave a squeal of happy recognition.
"She knows me..." He said in awe.
"Well, of course! You're her uncle, and she's seen you almost every day since she was born." chuckled True Heart.
"Yeah, but she's only two weeks old."
True Heart shrugged, and replied, "Babies know more than you think."
Connie reached for Brave Heart again, frustrated that she couldn't get to him under her own power. "Ah, ah, ah!" she grunted insistantly.
Brave Heart held out an arm for his niece, and he and True Heart traded cubs. As soon as Brave Heart had her, Connie buried her face in his furry chest.
True Heart had left soon after taking care of Connie's little problem, so Brave Heart had the twins for the rest of the day. When he brought them home at eight-thirty that night, he looked a bit frayed around the edges. Regal and Stellar were just putting the finishing touches on a light supper when the doorbell rang.
"I got it." Stellar Heart dried his paws, and opened the door to find Brave Heart standing on the doorstep with a fresh spit-up spot on his shoulder. The tiger looked him up and down, and couldn't resest a wry chuckle. "Wow," he quipped, "You look terrible!"
"Ha ha, it is to laugh." Brave Heart smirked, pushing the carriage ahead of him as he entered their home. "You guys enjoy your nap?"
"There they are!" Regal said as she came into the room. She walked right past Brave Heart as the lion attempted to hug her, and picked up the cubs, kissing them. "Mommy missed you!"
Stellar answered Brave Heart's question. "Yes we did, but the house was way too quiet when we woke up. It's funny...I can't believe I'm saying that after the past two weeks, but it's true!"
Remembering her manners, Regal Heart kissed her brother's cheek since her arms were full. "Stay for dinner," she offered as she left to put the twins to bed, "you've earned it."
Brave Heart didn't have to be told twice.
To be continued...