~*T*~

"Anyone home?"

"Two people, no CommBeetles," Taylor said.

Amy glanced left and right before following Taylor, but Lisa just hopped over the wall.

Taylor knocked, then stepped back, and Amy stepped forward.

The curtain over the fanlight twitched, and a male voice called, "Jim!"

A moment later the door opened to reveal a familiar man, looking pale and wan, almost painfully thin.

"Hello, Mister Mercury," Amy said, holding out her hand for a shake.

He gave her the gentle squeeze of someone who shakes too many hands, "Hello. Can I help you?"

Amy shook his hand a couple times more than normal, but eventually released him, glancing down, a tiny flush on her cheeks.

"Amy wanted to shake your hand, but I was hoping for an autograph?" Taylor held out the album and a sharpie marker.

He smiled, "Sure, why not," already less drawn, something softening about his eyes.

Taylor stepped back, stuffing the sharpie in her pocket and holding her signed album cover.

"Thank you," Lisa gave him a one-armed hug, "Have a great evening."

"You too," he said, an almost involuntary smile on his face. He stood and watched as the girls hopped back over the wall.

"What was that?"

"We need a higher wall," he said, "We've got little girls jumping the current one."

~*i*~

Taylor relayed that.

Amy smiled, "Have I told you recently that I love being a supervillain?"

"No," Lisa answered.

"I LOVE BEING A SUPERVILLAIN!" Amy yelled into the Kensington night. She grabbed Taylor and Lisa's hands, "Let's go home."

~*i*~

"Maiah," Taylor heard, even as she woke, rocked her butt back against Lisa.

"Leiah," Lisa gasped.

Amy stirred, pressed close, smiling, eyes closed, "Yeah, those are pretty baby names."

"Fuck!" Taylor yelled.

Amy's eyes snapped open. She blinked once, twice, then poked Lisa hard in the shoulder, "Wake up!"

"What?" She blinked a few times, "Oh shit," she said, then, "Don't think of babies."

Taylor groaned, "Pink elephants."

"A perfect baby-doll exoskeleton for the paranoid," Amy said, sitting up, "With frizzy hair like Taylor."

Lisa smiled, "and soft, baby-soft, skin, with a few freckles."

"And perfect amber eyes like Amy."

"It's a baby doll, eyes like you, and me, and Amy, whichever she wants."

Dark, frizzy hair shrouded pale pink skin, slowly growing more opaque, "Perfectly articulated, adjustable, so she can be a baby or a kid, as she wants, or needs, strong," Taylor said.

"Self-healing, tough, unkillable."

"Power armor," the paranoid said, in ASL, "With the ability to speak."

Taylor and Amy nodded.

"Feel, and be cuddled," Lisa said.

The exoskeleton dropped to the bed. The paranoid starts looking it over.

"Did we redirect quick enough?"

"I think so," Lisa said.

Amy grabbed Lisa and Taylor's hands, "No zygotes in either of you."

"Do you have a tricorder?"

"Distracted myself. I'll make one later."

The paranoid crawled over in its new doll exoskeleton, "Cuddles?"

Amy gathered her in her arms, and the paranoid blinked pretty green baby-eyes up at her. "I was dreaming about heteropaternal twins," she smiled at her wives, "One with each of you."

"We're going to the hospital wing," Lisa said, "Get some clothes on."

~*i*~

"We need a book on contraceptive wards," Lisa told Ms. Pince, the librarian.

She looked over the three girls, and the baby doll waved from the tallest girl's arms.

"What a cute baby," she said.

The baby smiled back, her grin showing teeth, "Thank you."

She blinked.

"Yeah, we've decided no real babies until we're all 17, so contraceptive wards, please."

~*i*~

Lisa carved the last rune onto Parvati's bed, fed it a little power, smiled when it glowed faintly a moment. She stood up, stretched, yawned, "Done here."

Taylor flopped back from Lisa's dusty bed, stretched her arms along the floor over her head, then yawned, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "That's our room, we can do more of them tomorrow."

~*i*~

"You've noticed our precocious firsties' new doll," Severus starts.

Minerva nodded.

"Precocious is the right word," Poppy laughed, "I normally don't have pregnancy scares before third year."

"So no extraordinary procedures were needed?" Albus asked.

"No, no one was pregnant. Did you know that Muggles still can't even transplant a zygote, much less an embryo that has started to form a placenta?"

"I'd heard talk of muggle surrogate mothers, so I thought they'd managed something," Severus said.

"That's only possible, apparently, if they fertilize the zygote ex vivo, then implant it," Poppy sighed, "They have a dearth of family of childbearing age, like most of the current students, but I'm sure we could have found someone."

"You sound like they could have been pregnant."

"If they'd been awake," Poppy looked down, shook her head, "They totally would have overpowered the contraceptive ward."

"They warded every bed in Gryffindor tower," Minerva laughed, "I thought they were being excessive."

"Hopefully that'll be enough," Poppy said

"And the creepy baby doll?" Minerva asked.

"I have no idea."

~*i*~

The paranoid smiled at Sirius, "Hello, grandpa!"

Sirius sputtered, "What?"

Taylor laughed at him, "She's," she paused, turned to the paranoid, "Do you have a preferred gender? You probably need a name, too."

The paranoid nodded, smiled, "Sarah, after the girl from Labyrinth."

"OK, sounds good," Taylor smiled, "Sarah's a friend of ours, but her doll-body's new."

"I've never seen anything like her," Sirius said.

"You wouldn't have," Taylor agreed.

"So how did you make her?"

"Amy made her," Taylor smiled, "Amy's awesome."

"I can tell you're smitten," Sirius agreed.

"Totally," Taylor agreed, "But her body," she shrugged, "Fuck puberty. We've carved supplemental contraceptive wards on all the beds in Gryffindor tower now, but we're still worried."

"Yeah," Sirius said, "I can get you some books from our library," he sighed, "We fell asleep on a couch together."

Taylor nodded, gave his hand a squeeze, "Can I hug you?"

~*T*~