don'ttouchmepeasant: I'm so happy you liked the last chapter, and the rest of the story as a whole! We get to see more of Barbara this chapter, and get to meet her sister Eugenia. I hope you like this chapter as much as you seemed to have liked the rest of the story.

Let me know if there is anything you liked, or want to see in the next few chapters!

I own nothing but the plot.

***Gideon P.O.V***

Since Barbara was born, I have been in an amazing mood, even with all the crying and lack of sleep. Sophie has been an amazing mother to her, seeing to her every need with a smile. The first time I saw my daughter wrapped up in all the blankets in her mother's arms I completely fell in love with her, and every day she gives me a new reason to fall in love with her. The first time she smiled at me (that wasn't the result of wind) made my heart melt. It was the sort of smile that was impossible to ignore and just put you in a better mood. I found myself getting distracted a lot whenever she smiled at me. One day, I found myself pulling faces at her to get one of her faces when I got something better: a giggle. I couldn't believe it at first, so pulled the face again to see if she would do it again, which she did. I picked her up and went to find Sophie.

When I found her, I burst out "Sophie look at this" then pulled a face. Sophie had expected one of Barbara's smiles, so had a look of confusion when I came charging in to pull a face at our daughter, but when she giggled, Sophie's face broke into a smile. "Is Daddy's face funny?" she asked, stocking Barbra's face with a finger, which she grabbed with one of her chubby hands. "I think it's funny too!" she added, getting a mock frown from me. We the continued to make her giggle until it was time to put her down for a nap. Once I had made sure she was asleep, I came back and hugged Sophie. "I think her laugh is the most beautiful sound in the entire world" I stated. Sophie nodded in agreement. "I think you've gotten soft since she was born" she responded with. It was true, I had done, but didn't regret it in the slightest. I wanted to be the opposite of Benedict. He had been hard, not only towards me, but to Gabriel and to a lesser extent Tatiana. We rarely felt loved by him, but I wanted my own daughter to know what it felt like to have a loving family.

Since Barbara's birth, Gabriel had been making frequent visits to see his niece. Sometimes he would come round under the presence he had matters to discuss with me, sometimes his excuse was a poor one "I was in the neighborhood" type of thing, and sometimes he just outright admitted he was just here to see her. It made me smile the fact he wanted to spend so much time with her. Once Gabriel had been reunited with Barbara, there was honestly no separating the pair, it was clear that Barbara was as fond of her Uncle as he was of her, meaning he got a lot of giggles when he came round. When she began to learn to speak, Gabriel was promptly knighted "Unkee Gabby" much to my amusement.

If I had one regret, I was that Tatiana was not around to develop a relationship with her niece as Gabriel was doing. When I voiced this to everyone, they told me I had nothing to regret. We had informed Tatiana of the existence of Barbara, informing her she was more than welcome to meet her, but she had declined the invitation. She was still stupid enough to blame Gabriel and I for the murder of Benedict, despite being told benedict had brought about his own death, and the demonic worm we had killed was not the man she had grown up viewing as her father. Some people, I guess were not to be told. However I had been close to my sister growing up so it pained me somewhat that she had turned had turned her back on me. I was grateful at least I was close with Gabriel.

***Sophie P.O.V***

Every challenge Barbara presented us, Gideon and I faced together, from the late night feeds, to constantly following her when she went on the move, to teaching her how to speak. We never saw it as a problem. For every task she presented us, she presented a hundred more reasons to love her, from smiling, to giggling to cuddles. She was a very lovable baby, meaning that whoever laid eyes on her just fell in love with her. I found myself falling in love with my little family every single day. Seeing the bond between Gabriel and Gideon, and Will and Cecily, I couldn't help but wish Barbara had that: a sibling to love and play with. Company from someone her own age she could unite with. I mentioned this to Gideon, who completely agreed with me. We made love that night, which resulted in the conception of our second child.

Having already done the pregnancy thing once, I thought I knew what was going to happen, but I was wrong. This pregnancy was so much worse than the first one. The morning sickness started earlier, and seemed to have returned with a vengeance. The bigger I got, the worse back ached. It had ached when I had been pregnant with Barbara, bit certainly not this bad. I would have waves of dizziness, which definitely hadn't been present the first time round. Sometimes I felt so bad that I simply stayed in bed. Barbara, despite her young age seemed to know something was wrong, and would often demand Gideon bring her in to see me for cuddles, which was nice. Things got so bad Gideon summoned one of the Silent Brothers to check me out. Thankfully it was Brother Zachariah (not that any of us called him that, we all insisted on calling him Jem much to the annoyance of the other brothers) who paid me a visit. Although there was nothing seriously wrong with me, he suggested that I rest and allow Gideon to look after me.

I thought Gideon had been protective the first time round, but he had certainly become more so this time round. I worked relentlessly, somehow balancing clave duties, being both a mother and father to Barbara and looking after me. Although I did help with looking after Barbara, Gideon took the bulk of the work. I once asked him if there was anything he wouldn't do, to which he responded with "para usted mi ángel que haría cualquier cosa para mantener a salvo" (for you my angel I'd do anything to keep you safe). Gideon had taught me enough Spanish by this point to work out what he had said. We'd agreed that he teach Barbara to speak Spanish, so I would often hear him talking to her in Spanish. Near the end of my pregnancy, when he hadn't wanted to leave me, he'd sit in our room cradling her singing Spanish lullabies when he thought I was asleep.

Like the first time round, we'd moved back to the institute just before I was due to give birth. I'd asked Charlotte if Gideon could be with me when I gave birth. Although it was not conventional to have a man present during labor, Charlotte had known of my difficult pregnancy so agreed. Gabriel and Cecily had agreed to look after Barbara so Gideon could look after me. That's what I loved about our family at the Institute: we looked after each other.

Barbara had been playing with us when the time came. Gideon had picked he up whispering "La mamá va a tener su pequeño hermano o hermana, te necesito para quedarse con el tío Gabriel ahora." (Mummy's going to have your little brother or sister, I need you to stay with Uncle Gabriel now.) Just before she left, she looked over Gideon's shoulder and blew me a kiss. I knew I was going to get through this, for her sake if not for anything else. Gideon returned with Charlotte, and together they helped me to the infirmary, where Tessa was waiting for us. I had a feeling this labor would be more like what I had been expecting my first labor to be like: slow, painful and tiring.

As it turned out, my gut instinct had been right as I had been in labor for 12 hours by the time I gave birth to our second daughter: Eugenia. She was the opposite to her sister in the sense she had my eyes and Gideon's hair, but she was just as beautiful. Once the after birth had been delivered, Gideon went to break the news to everyone and collect Gabriel and Barbara. As this labor had been longer than my first, we decided it be best to limit how many guests we had, and how long they were there for. Whilst Gideon was gone, I stared down at the baby in my arms. I was overwhelmed by how much I loved her already, and she had only been born a matter of minutes. I looked up as the door opened, and Gideon walked in, holding Barbara, with Gabriel following them. As they approached, Gideon whispered "Ven a conocer a su hermana pequeña" (Come meet your baby sister) then sat on the bed, with her on his lap. Gabriel pulled up a chair on the other side of me. Barbara looked at her sister, and we collectively sucked in our breath, wondering how she was going to react. She lent forward and gently kissed her sister on the cheek. To our relief she had accepted her, and seemed to love her as much her as much as we did.