The pool room smelt heavily of chlorine which alone was bad enough to make anyone a little sick aside from apparently Hamish and the two boys. There was a hot tub and sauna though granted neither of them were things Vera could really enjoy right now. She sat down on one of the chairs reading over a murder mystery book while Hamish swam around with his two nephews. The older boy Gavin was more graceful in the water and Lucas the little 3 year old boy had to wear a lifejacket and wasn't happy about it. Gavin was enjoying making Hamish throw him into the deep end before he popped back up laughing and swam back to the edge of the pool so he could jump back into the deep end.

It wasn't normal to see Hamish outside of his nice clothes and tailored vests but she did enjoy that view of him in his swim trunks. He wasn't a horribly over built male which was for the best, instead he was sleek and well built with great pecs and amazing abs. It was not all that uncommon to Vera and wasn't she the lucky one for that. Still there was something very sweet about watching Hamish swim around with and play with his nephews. Eventually Lucas got out of the pool running over to his mother, Hamish's oldest sister who was sitting at one of the poolside tables with a drink and keeping her eyes on the two kids just in case. She was a tall leggy blonde, very beautiful which wasn't a surprise if you saw Hamish. Clearly the three kids all had inherited the best of everything from their parents.

Lucas still soaking wet crawled into his mother's lap to her protest since like Vera she hadn't been too keen on getting wet today. "Lucas." She sighed and grabbed his towel off the table before wrapping him up in it. The little boy cuddled up with her leaving Emma with a soaking wet lap. Vera shook her head and laughed a little as Emma looked her way. "Oh just you wait Vera, kids love to come and cuddle you when it's at the most inconvenient to you." Case in point with Lucas rubbing his head into his mother's shoulder while chewing on the strap to his lifejacket. "Why don't you come over here." Vera was almost halfway to the other side of the pool room which was pretty unnecessary.

It took her longer than usual to get up since she was off balance from the extra weight she was carrying these days. She walked over to the table with the soggy boy and pulled out another chair across from Emma before having a seat. "I didn't think Hamish was someone who could handle kids that well. He's a bit too…" Vera had paused a moment.

"Serious?"

"No I was going to say he's intimidating to a lot of outsiders."

"He's that too but I'm sure as you have found he's absolutely sweet."

She wasn't wrong about that, Hamish was a complete teddy bear or in this situation a teddy wolf. "He's going to be a great dad." Watching him now with Lucas and Gavin made her feel so much more confident about that statement. "You know he reads the baby a bedtime story almost every night."

"What a softie." Emma laughed about it. "He was always great with our younger sister too." Emma took a sip of her drink while her younger son started drifting off to sleep in her lap. "So you are the chancellor at Belgrave University? You look very young for that job." For a moment Vera prepared to defend herself but Emma just smiled. "Good for you. I'll be honest, Hamish is a great guy but when he first told me about you I wondered how he'd actually managed to get a woman like you." She laughed, a typical sister she always saw her brother as a little dork who had annoyed her and followed her most of their childhood. "Then I actually saw pictures of you and I really tried to figure out how he managed to get you."

"He's an attractive sweetheart." She was honest though the attractive part had come first, then it was the very good in bed aspect. That one had sunk the deal until Hamish had developed feelings for her and actually started looking after her and caring for her.

"That's one way to put it but I can't say anything about him being attractive. He's a lanky little weirdo." Emma laughed knowing she would forever see her brother as the awkward kid. "Vera if you ever need anything by the way please feel free to contact me. I know my parents can be rough when welcoming new people into the family. Trust me, George couldn't stand my mother for the first year. She can really talk down to you but just know I'm really happy Hamish found someone like you." She paused a moment. "He went through a really hard time after Cassie died. I sort of worried he would give up on everything. Then he met you and a part of my old brother came back." She smiled at Hamish helping Gavin up on a floating raft so he could be the 'shark'. A game Gavin always forced his father to play with him. "And I'm excited I won't be the only one in the family with kids now. Sorry but not sorry, my mom is going to constantly try to find excuses to stay with you so she can judge your parenting skills and be concerned you are going to ruin her grandchild."

Great, that sounded magnificent especially since Vera was actually really set in her ways on how they were going to bring up Theo. Vera and Hamish had discussed it a lot to make sure they were always on the same page and backed up with actual child psychology and doctors advice. "Also I can share all of his embarrassing childhood stories to use as ammunition against him like the fact he's afraid of ventriloquist dolls."

"Emma, don't plot against me." Hamish shouted from the pool as his big sister smirked at him.

"I'll do what I want, I'm older than you." She shouted back at him and stood up. "Come on, I'm going to go make you guys some drinks and order a pizza for the boys. Do you want some?"

"You are mixing the drinks? Emma, that's dangerous, you should really let me do that."

"Why so you can make it super strong and knock my husband out again?"

"Emma it was one drink, he needs to learn how to hold his alcohol."

Vera sat back listening to the two siblings bicker as Hamsih got back out of the pool and threw a towel over his shoulders. "My god, even when your hair is wet it still does that thing."

"What thing?" Hamish asked, running his hand through his hair.

"Yeah his little suave bangs, it's annoying right? Our younger sister has that too. She tried short hair once but people mistook her for Hamish so she grew it back out. It was hilarious."

Vera groaned at that realization, "Great, is our baby going to have that too? It bothers me so much." That would be even more annoying trying to style her hair too.

"I don't want to lie to you Vera but more than likely. I'm sorry, just count yourself lucky they don't have my husband's curls because try to brush a toddlers hair when they are moving and their curls get matted constantly. It's why I keep their hair short now."

"Well, Theo is going to have some pretty thick slick hair like your's Vera." She had pretty hair, if Hamish was a girl he'd be jealous of it. In fact he wasn't a girl and he was still jealous. Not to mention her hair was so soft too. "And your cute nose." He touched her nose lightly. They got to see one of those better 3D ultrasounds and make out a lot of Theo's features. She certainly looked a lot like him right now but she certainly had Vera's nose and lips. "Tomorrow's party is all about you Theo, you should be so excited." He put a hand on Vera's stomach not really feeling any kicking or movement. "I guess not, she's really not that excited."

Vera laughed at him, "She's probably sleeping."

"Well good, then we can have some pizza and go to bed and maybe you'll actually get some rest tonight." If only, that would be such a blessing but it was so unlikely.