By the middle of her pregnancy, Tris was feeling pretty good. Dr. Hoxha reduced the dosage on her anti-nausea medication, and though she felt queasy now and then, she didn't have any significant issues.

Tris' birthday came in May, and she was feeling well enough that they traveled to Scotland to see Lauren and Eric. It was the first time they'd traveled in a while, and Tris especially loved being able to do that again. She loved the rugged, wild look of the Scottish countryside where the Coulters lived. Lauren gave Tris a thick Scottish wool sweater as a birthday gift, and Eric convinced Tobias to wear a kilt to dinner on his wife's birthday.

A month later, the couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary in Paris. They had pizza, of course. As silly as it was, having pizza everywhere they traveled was important to them. They couldn't skip that any more than they could skip seeing the Eiffel Tower. They also went to the Louvre, and out to Versailles for a tour. On the night of their actual anniversary they had an elaborate dinner at the famous Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower. They agreed not to buy each other gifts for their anniversaries, but instead planned to have an experience traveling together each year, and make a donation to a charity in their travel destination.

The builders hired by the decorator had the nursery structurally finished by late June, when Tris was twenty weeks along. The room featured a dressing room that connected to the master dressing room so Tris and Tobias could easily hear and get to their children in the night. The nursery dressing room also connected to the nursery bathroom. Structurally, everything was set up thoughtfully to make raising twin babies as comfortable as possible. The dressing room had twin changing stations, and the bathroom had a tub-shower combo for the future and a removable infant tub at counter height for the present. The water closet had both a regular toilet and a small toilet. The contractor rigged it in a way that could be removed later on without requiring another full bathroom renovation.

The bathroom was tiled in natural stone and ivory ceramic, and the fixtures matched. The shower tile was a beautiful ivory arabesque design that would be repeated in the neutral tone-on-tone brocade wallpaper the decorators were putting up in the nursery itself. They'd ordered a large, thick rug to cover the nursery's dark hardwood floors, and two black cribs that looked like wrought iron. Everything for the room was neutral shades of pale ivory with touches of black iron here and there, and the overall effect was going to be decadent, soft, and neutral.

Tris was involved in every decision about the nursery, and she kept her family and friends back in America in the loop as well. Christina had an eye for design, and Natalie had raised two kids that were very close in age, so they both had good insights. More than that, Tris just enjoyed sharing her experience with them.

Pregnancy hormones caused more than just morning sickness. Tris also struggled with homesickness. She loved Tobias, her home in Albania, and the people in her life there, but as she progressed in her pregnancy, she really missed the people she'd left behind - especially her mom, and the realization that she would soon be banned from traveling made them feel farther away than ever. Though she tried not to let Tobias see it, she cried nearly every day.

.

Tris' twenty week doctor appointment was a big one. It was the day they hoped to find out the sex of their babies. Since the twins were fraternal, there was a fifty-fifty chance that they would be boy-girl, and a twenty-five percent chance that they would be boy-boy or girl-girl. Tris fervently hoped that the odds would be on their side. She wanted to have one of each and never have to be pregnant again. Though they were young and could always change their minds, she knew that if the twins were both boys she would probably never have a daughter. If they were both girls, they would probably try again to have Tobias the fifth. Boys or girls, they would raise their children as equals, but there was just something compelling about the tradition of the family name, so Tris knew the liklihood was good they they would try again if they didn't get a son this time.

Tris woke on the morning of her appointment before the alarm even went off. When she rolled her pregnant belly toward Tobias, she found him already awake as well. He smiled, and she giggled at seeing how excited he was.

"How are Lilliana and Five this morning?" Tobias asked in his sleepy voice. They'd taken to calling the babies by the names they picked out, and had refused to even consider other names. If they found out that they were having two babies of the same gender, they had plenty of time to come up with names before they were born.

"Awake, I think," Tris said. "I can feel them stirring a bit in there."

"I can't wait until I can feel it too," Tobias sighed, putting his large hand on Tris' volleyball-sized bump.

Tris moved her husband's hand to where she could feel the babies' fluttering movements. "Baby A is more active than Baby B," she explained. "It's always that way. I feel more on this side. Sometimes I think it's strong enough that you could feel it, but it's so brief I can't be sure. Keep your hand right here as much as you can today. Maybe you'll get to feel some baby kicks."

Tobias grinned. "I have the whole day off today. We're having lunch in Tirana before your doctor appointment, and I'm all yours all day."

"I love that," Tris said as her eyes filled with tears.

"What's wrong?" Tobias asked in alarm.

"Hormones," Tris replied. "Don't worry about it. I should go get in the shower."

Tobias leaned in close to his wife's ear. "Since I'm trying to feel our babies move, I have to keep a hand on you. I think I should join you in the shower."

"I'm never going to say no to that," Tris purred in response.

.

Tobias was true to his word, and kept a hand on Tris' belly as much as was physically possible. She told him when she felt the small movements, but the babies refused to get active enough for their daddy to feel them.

"I think they like to tease me," Tobias said as he sipped his morning coffee at breakfast. "They're just like their mother that way."

Tris took a sip of her juice, then stole Tobias' coffee and took a big gulp before he could stop her.

"You know you're not supposed to have caffeine," he scolded.

"It'll get the babies moving," Tris defended. "And I didn't have much."

She continued sipping her juice in the hopes that the sugar would also help. Sure enough, a few minutes later the babies became more active.

"Wha.. Was that…" Tobias exclaimed, pressing his hand more firmly to Tris' belly.

Tris just nodded as her eyes filled with tears again.

"Our babies," Tobias said, his soft voice filled with wonder and unshed tears. He dropped to one knee right there on the patio and pressed his face to where he felt the movement. "Hello in there," he cooed. "I'm your daddy. Can you move for me again?"

Tobias pressed soft kisses to the baby bump and continued talking in both English and Albanian, telling his unborn children that he loved them and couldn't wait to meet them. Tris wiped away tears more than once as she watched her husband interact with their babies.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "That was a bigger kick. You're right, Tris, the baby on this side is more active. I hope you're being nice to your twin, Little One, and don't give Mommy too much trouble, either."

Amar arrived, and smiled warmly to see Tobias on his knees talking to Tris' stomach.

"They're active," she explained, "and they're finally big enough to be felt from the outside now and then."

"I felt them move," Tobias said, grinning up at his assistant. "This one is a busy little guy. His sibling is more calm."

"Or her," Tris corrected. "We'll find out in a few hours now."

"Not soon enough," Tobias said with a grin.

.

An hour later the couple was situated comfortably in the estate's SUV, and Amar was driving them to Tirana.

"What do we need to do before the appointment?" Tris asked. They weren't due at the clinic for quite a while, but Tobias had insisted on some errand running and lunch while they were in the city.

"We need to pick something up," Tobias said. "After that is lunch, then the appointment. Later we're going to stop at the decorator's. She has those cribs and some color samples and things for you to look at. They thought it would be easier if we could just stop by rather than lugging them all out to the estate."

"Sounds good," Tris agreed as she settled comfortably against her husband's side and dozed off.

Though Tobias had felt the babies move already, he craved more. All the way to Tirana he kept a hand on Tris' baby bump, but the twins were as relaxed as their mom by the car ride.

Seeing through the rear-view mirror that Tris was asleep, Amar spoke to Tobias in a low voice. "Ishte më lehtë të fliste privatisht kur ajo nuk fliste shqip," (It was easier to speak privately when she didn't speak Albanian,) the driver quipped.

Tobias chuckled, but Tris didn't stir. Though she'd been feeling pretty good, being pregnant with twins wore her out, and she was prone to a lot of little naps. "Megjithatë jam i lumtur që ajo mësoi. Nëna ime nuk e bëri kurrë, dhe kjo e bëri atë të mjerueshme."
(I'm glad she learned, though. My mother never did, and that made her miserable.)

Amar smiled. "Nëna juaj kishte mjaft arsye për të qenë e mjerë. Mësimi i shqipes mund të ketë ndihmuar, por ajo ishte ende e martuar me Marcus."
(Your mother had plenty of reasons to be miserable. Learning Albanian may have helped, but she was still married to Marcus.)
"Tris mësoi shqip sepse ajo është investuar në ndërtimin e një jete me ju. Ajo të do ty."
(Tris learned Albanian because she is invested in building a life with you. She loves you.)

"E di," (I know) Tobias said fondly, smiling down on his sleeping wife. "A është gjithçka në kohë me paketën që po marrim?"
(Is everything on time with the "package" we are picking up?)

"Po," Amar assured him with a mischievous grin. "Ne nuk do të jemi në gjendje të befasojmë Trips si kjo më vonë gjatë shtatzënisë së saj. Ne nuk do të donim ta bënim atë të lindte shumë shpejt."
(We will not be able to surprise Tris like this later in her pregnancy. We would not want to make her give birth too soon.)

Tobias' eyes widened in alarm. "A eshte ne rregull? A kemi bërë një gabim?" (Is this okay? Did we make a mistake?)

Amar shushed his boss, reminding him that his wife was sleeping on his arm. "Jam i sigurt që Tris do të jetë mirë. Thjesht duhet të kemi kujdes më vonë."
(I am sure that Tris will be fine. We just need to be careful later on.) He assured the younger man.

They cut short their conversation as Tris stirred a bit. Tobias decided that he should wake his wife and try to minimize her shock as they approached the first stop of their day - picking up a special delivery at the Tirana airport.

"Tris?" Tobias said gently. "Zemra ime, you need to wake up. We're almost there."

Tris yawned and tried to stretch. When her arms bumped into the seat in front of her, her eyes popped open.

"I fell asleep," she said, making the men chuckle.

"We're almost to our first stop," Tobias said. "We're picking up a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" Tris asked groggily. "Tobias, I don't need surprises. You spoil me."

"I love you," he corrected. "And this isn't just for you. We're picking up your surprise at the airport."

Tris gasped, and Tobias reflexively reached for her baby bump. He felt the twins move around as their mother's heart rate increased.

"Calm down," he said gently, stroking her belly to remind her of the precious cargo she was carrying.

"Wh...who?" Tris stammered.

"Let's let that be the surprise," Tobias said.

As they drove up to the private terminal, Tris was practically bouncing with excitement. She squeezed Tobias' hand and grinned at him when she saw their jet standing on the tarmac. Amar drove the SUV to the end of the blue carpet, and hurried to help Tris out of the vehicle.

"Stay calm," he reminded her as he helped her out.

Tris grinned and gave the driver a quick hug.

Suddenly, an ear-piercing squeal came from the open door of the jet, and Tris burst into happy tears when she saw Christina disembarking.

"Look at you!" Christina cried. "You're so cute!"

Seconds later the two best friends were hugging, laughing, and crying, all at the same time.

Christina put her hands on Tris' belly. "Hello there little niece and nephew," she said in a ridiculous baby voice. "I'm your auntie Christina. Yes I am."

"Chris, I'm having babies, not puppies," Tris teased.

Christina had craftily shifted Tris as they hugged so her friend's back was toward the jet. Someone tapped Tris on the shoulder, and she turned to find her mom standing behind her.

"Mama!" Tris cried out as her tears started flowing again.

"My sweet girl," Natalie sobbed.

The two women held each other for a long time. Christina greeted Tobias and went with Amar to oversee the luggage transfer and give the family a few minutes together.

"Tobias," Natalie said, pulling her son-in-law into the embrace. "Thank you so much for bringing Christina and I to see you. I know you did it for Tris, but it means so much to me that I can be here with my daughter."

"It means a lot to me, too," Tobias acknowledged. "After losing my mother all over again, I've longed to have Tris' family closer, too."

"I'm so sorry," Natalie said, rubbing his back in a motherly way. "That was a terrible shock for both of you. I wanted to come right over here, but Tris insisted that you were okay. I'm so glad you have a caring staff looking after you."

"And Tris," Tobias added. "She was wonderful walking through that with me. I don't know what I would have done without her."

Natalie smiled proudly.

Amar and Christina returned with the luggage, and loaded it into the SUV. Tobias helped his wife climb in the back seat. Her mother and friend got in and sat on either side of her while the men got in front.

They had lunch at the couple's favorite hilltop restaurant overlooking Tirana. Christina jabbered on about Will, their life in Philadelphia, and the flight to Albania. Natalie grinned the whole time and kept a hand on her daughter's belly, right where Tris told her she might get to feel the babies moving. Tobias smiled indulgently and enjoyed the joy radiating from his wife's face. The surprise had been a success, and he loved to see her so happy.

After lunch they went to Tris' appointment with Dr. Hoxha. Natalie and Christina waited in the waiting room while Tobias accompanied Tris to the exam room, where the doctor did his usual checkup on the twins. When it was time for the ultrasound, they invited their American visitors into the room and introduced them to the doctor.

"You came all the way from America?" Dr. Hoxha asked after greeting the two women. "That is so wonderful. What a lovely surprise for Mrs. Eaton. She has had a bad time with the morning sickness and carrying two babies."

"I'm feeling much better now," Tris said, downplaying her struggles.

"Yes, yes," the doctor agreed dismissively. "The second trimester is the best, and you are looking good and healthy, but the third trimester will be difficult for a little mama like you when these babies get big."

The doctor had warned Tris and Tobias that she might end up on bedrest toward the end of her pregnancy. It was a pretty common occurrence for women expecting twins, and he didn't want them to be surprised or alarmed if Tris needed to do the same.

"We will do whatever it takes to keep the babies healthy and safe," Tobias said seriously.

Tris scowled, but Natalie smiled at the way Tobias protected and cared for her daughter and grandbabies.

"Shall we see the little ones?" Dr. Hoxha asked, turning their attention back to what they were all looking forward to.

Tris eagerly agreed, and the ultrasound began.

Natalie cried at the sound of the babies' heartbeats, which made Tris cry again too. Tobias and Christina just smiled at the emotional women.

Dr. Hoxha took measurements and looked at the babies. When he was done with the technical work, he told them it was time to find out the babies' genders.

"Let's see Baby A," the doctor said, moving the wand around.

"Baby A is the active one," Tris said.

"Well, Mr. Active is a boy," the doctor replied, stopping the wand in a way that they could all get a look at the evidence.

"Five," Tobias breathed, reaching toward his wife's belly, but stopping when he remembered the gel and wand that the doctor was using. He gripped Tris' hand instead, and they smiled at each other warmly.

The doctor moved to the other side. "And here is Baby B," he said. It took a few minutes, but eventually the baby cooperated. "A girl," Dr. Hoxha announced. "It looks like you're having one of each - a boy and a girl."

Tris laughed and sobbed at the same time. Tears rolled down Tobias' cheeks as he leaned in to kiss his wife.

"Tobias Marcus Eaton the fifth and Lilliana Natalie Eaton," Tris announced.

Natalie gasped when Tris announced that her granddaughter would share her name, and Christina hugged the excited grandmother-to-be.

.

They left the clinic overjoyed. The twins were healthy, and they were having both a daughter and a son. Tris insisted that she wanted to be the one to tell Amar, and since she was the one carrying the babies, no one argued. Tobias escorted his wife out to the waiting car and grinned at his assistant as Tris stepped forward to where Amar held open the door of the SUV.

She took his hands and placed one on either side of her swollen belly. "This," she said, patting Amar's hand on the left side of her stomach, "is Lilliana Natalie Eaton - Lilly. And this," she patted the hand on her right side, "is Tobias Marcus Eaton the fifth."

As if reacting to the introduction, baby Tobias shifted, and Amar's eyes widened as they filled with tears. He laughed as the tears rolled down his grinning cheeks.

"Baby Five is a bit bigger than his sister, and more active, too," Tris explained. "I feel him move a lot more. She moves too, but it's hard to feel from the outside."

"Will you call him Five?" Amar asked. "Like the number in English?"

"We don't know yet," Tobias answered. "Tris says he'd probably be called Toby in America, but we don't really like that. I'm certainly not going to call him Marcus. We're thinking we'll give him a nickname based on the number five, like 'Pesë' (Albanian for 'five'), 'Five,' or 'V' like the Roman numeral."

"I don't like 'Pesë,'" Tris said, wrinkling her nose. "It reminds me of fish."

"Fish?" Natalie asked with a laugh.

"It does sound a lot like the Italian word for fish," Tobias mused.

"I think of it every time someone says that word," Tris defended as she blushed. "Between the Italian translation and the fact that both my French and Albanian textbooks used images of cartoon fish in the charts teaching numbers, I can't get it out of my head."

"I like V," Christina said, expressing her blunt opinion to take the attention off Tris - a skill she'd used many times in their friendship. Blunt honesty was natural to Christina, and Tris hated to be the center of attention, so it was a behavior they'd taken to naturally. Whenever Tris got flustered by the attention of others, Christina would throw out her opinion to redirect the conversation.

"Me too," Tobias agreed.

"I'm torn," Tris said. "I like calling him Five, because it reminds me of how Tobias and I met. But there's a V in 'five,' so I guess we can do both, right?"

"Of course," Natalie assured her daughter as she waved her into the waiting vehicle.

.

Natalie and Christina stayed for less than a week, but Tobias made the most of the time they were there. As part of the surprise visit, he and Amar had scheduled a meeting with the decorator, a day of shopping in Rome, and a maternity photo shoot at the estate on their last full day together.

Christina got really into the photo shoot. She found inspiration online, and got Natalie excited about it, too. They spent their shopping day in Rome looking at dresses for Tris to wear, as well as baby items for props.

Tris was reluctant, as expected. She didn't like getting all dressed up for fancy pictures, especially when she was tired from carrying twins. But when Christina massaged her lower back, she got weak and gave in.

On the day of the shoot, Tris dressed in the dramatic, flowing purple dress that Christina insisted on. She let her best friend style her long, blonde hair, and do her makeup. The photographer posed Tris alone, with her mom, with her best friend, and finally with Tobias. As they stood on the cliff overlooking the Adriatic, Tobias leaned down to speak in a low voice just Tris could hear.

"This is becoming an annual tradition," he said. "Two years ago we stood here for engagement photos. Last summer we were here taking wedding pictures. Now we're doing maternity photos. Next summer the babies will be, what? Six months old? Seven? We'll have to do this again."

"Every summer?" Tris asked.

"It's a date," Tobias agreed. "Every summer, right here. We can chronicle our family growing up."