09ers had plastic hearts.

It was something that Parker had heard from Wallace and Mac often over the first few months at Hearst. Especially after dealing with the administration, their lawyers and the late Sheriff Donald Lamb. It hadn't been something she had given much credence to until listening to her interloper roommate berate the receptionist on duty at Neptune Sacred Heart Medical centre pouting like the woman had just given her favourite puppy a mullet.

The snooty attitude steamrolled all over the poor woman until Parker had confiscated Gia's mobile phone and told her to sit down. This Gia had even declared that joining Hearst had been 'unplanned and it was unexpected to share space with a roommate but it sparked joy' so she was okay with invading their dorm and displacing Mac, and she'd insisted on accompanying them to the emergency room after Mac had fainted. If the Goodman's girl car hadn't been the quickest way to get her pregnant friend to medical care then Parker would have told her to disappear.

The dumb twit had actually suggested they Follow the trip up with a good chardonnay chaser and possibly scoop of ice cream or two.

It felt like an age since she had called Wallace and she did her best to supress a scream when yet another physician moved into the small room beyond reception and left without addressing either of them. Switching gears in her mental engine were harder than she'd thought, the walls surrounding her felt thicker. The reality that she would be alone at college without Mac had the pressure mounting. The selfish thought that it meant she'd broken her promise to have her back after everything whispered angrily through her head and she shoved it away.

"Thankfully the lazer treatments worked out and she looked more like a furry Julia Roberts and less like a werewolf but those few days waiting to see if my violin tutor's hypertrichosis was going to react favourably were so stressful. I mean, I quit after that summer when she began getting this horrid acne rash from constant regrowth but I almost ended up taking up Tap! Could you imagine? All those sequins and little canes?" Gia continued as Parker paced nervously.

"You're still talking?" Parker frowned turning back towards the reception.

Finally a short plump woman walked behind the large desk and nodded that they could proceed into the small room.

"Thankfully there is no immediate danger, you have no visible injuries and now we have your blood work back and I have seen the low sugar levels. It is obvious to me given your current condition that this is entirely treatable, some slight dehydration and we will get you something to eat but I would still like to perform an ultrasound just to check things out," a grey haired Doctor reassured her.

Parker had gripped tightly onto Mac's hand, careful not to disturb the tubing filling her body with much needed fluids as the older man ticked a few items on the assessment and forms.

She had been Mac's buffer from the fawning attentions of their chatty chauffeur on the drive over to Neptune Womens Free Clinic after the short brunette struggled to put her key into the lock of the drivers door with trembling hands.

She looked like she was about to vomit.

The lively hum of voices from the crowded emergency room almost drowned out the ultrasound technicians words.

'What?' Mac asked in hesitation, grey eyes scanning the grainy image on the small screen like every detail was important.

The kidney bean shaped space on the monitor felt like a blackhole sucking all the surrounding into an abyss where nothing was coherent and its percussion intensified the magnetic pull.

Parker felt her heart squeeze in sympathy, her former roommate was white faced with dark shadowy eyes, her small laugh took on an hysterical edge.

I want mom... but how could she face her parents now?

Her pants suddenly felt ridiculously uncomfortable. What had she been thinking wearing jeans? The technician repeated the statement and took some measurements, handing the paperwork to a nurse who came in moments later.

Parker squeezed her shaky hand. "You're sure its twins?"

"Can you tell the sex?" Gia asked excitedly and for the first time Mac felt irritation that the implosion of her life came with such a peppy witness as the other girl began suggesting they get a 3-D ultrasound appointment next.

"H-how? I had an ultrasound at the Neptune Women's Clinic a few days ago..." Mac stuttered as the sonogram tech handed her a print out of the ultrasound image.

"The clinic provides a preliminary evaluation but their equipment is not as sensitive as the machines we have here, but that would explain the terrible morning sickness which you have been having." the grey haired doctor interrupted as he re-entered the room. "Have you been taking your pregnancy vitamins?" he asked sternly.

Her shell-shocked nod seemed to offer up some reassurance to the aging physician. She wasn't sure she'd taken any of the multi-vitamins which Thalia had given her this morning in the haze of meeting with Professor Stevens and meeting with the Hearst Legal Advisory Service but her recent collapse and the bone-deep tiredness made her re-evaluate the herculean amount of work involved in growing another human.

Except she was growing two human beings... She was officially multi-tasking... She now a participant following a timetable that had existed as long as humanity itself.

At almost three months pregnant she had 6 months left before there were two new humans coming. She wanted to be alone, to have a cup of coffee and get her thoughts together but the Doctor continued giving Parker instructions like a military commander to ensure that Mac took proper care of herself.

"No quadruple back handspring, triple tuck roundoffs?" Mac muttered as he left with after repeating strict orders for her to take it easy over the next few days.

"Did you know that the babies already have eyelids, fingers and toes now?" Gia grinned leafing through the pamphlet for 3-D ultrasounds.

Why did she have to be here? It wouldn't take long before Gia got the news back to Dick if she hadn't posted selfies and live-streamed the entire update and prebooked them onto pregnancy yoga classes.

Nightmare scenarios of duo offspring chatting about boobs and pelvic floor exercises like the kid from Look Who's Talking and co-parenting with Dick filled her mind with all kinds of Pi Sigs Fraternity Bros horror stories. Parker was already furiously referring to Dick Casablancas as 'the sperm donor' after this morning.

"Where's your head at?" Parker asked gently.

"Contemplating Lysol?" Mac answered weakly, her grey eyes filling with tears.