Cal had a policy for not turning his kids away when they asked him about something but there was such a thing as time and place. Owen was only six and he knew about how babies were born and how boys and girls had different private parts and how private parts were private. But he didn't need to really know the gory details about puberty or contraception yet so Cal waited until they got home before he suggested Lewis and he go into the other room to finish the conversation they had been having in the car about vasectomies. Not that Lewis needed to know about contraception or vasectomies at this point in his young life, but he had asked, and Cal would explain.

After getting home from school it was snack time and they were allowed to hang out for a bit to relax, before getting back into their duties. Owen didn't entirely do well with the idea of playing on his own. He was a younger brother and used to someone always being around to help entertain him, so Cal let him watch TV. Television was their last resort babysitter. Lewis was often at the mercy of his little brother. Quality time was frequently interrupted by Owen. So Cal felt this was a good excuse for TV babysitting; it would give him some uninterrupted one-on-one with his eldest son.

Lewis was an attentive listener. It had been easy telling Owen about babies because he seemed uninterested even though he sat through the book and conversation and then went on his way. He had come back for some follow up but Lewis, he was different, he thought about things. And he thought about things deeply so Cal knew he couldn't particularly gloss over. Luckily for him, his wife actually had a plan for imparting this kind of information. So Cal had a book, a prop, thank god, because he wasn't sure how else he would talk about it. Cal had figured out about puberty when he was older, after the fact, and could read books in the school library. To be fair, he and his friends hadn't really read the book but just giggled over the pictures of body parts and laughed about wet dreams when they were probably all experiencing them themselves.

Cal read the book to Lewis who leaned in close to see and was quiet. The book talked about how a boy's body would change during puberty, how a girl's body would change and what the changes were for. Lewis was ten and so he had not started to change, at least as far as Cal could tell. He still had the body of a little boy and perhaps it was a bit early to be thinking about him in this situation but Cal had seen some of the girls in his son's class and they were already maturing. And seeing as Lewis was asking about the mechanics of making a baby...

After the book was read Cal turned back to the pages that focussed on boys becoming men. "See now, goin' back to what you asked me in the car, about vasectomies," Cal went on smoothly. He pointed to the particular tube in the blown up image. "They make a cut through here with a lase-a and then burn the ends so..."

"So the sperm in there," Lewis pointed to the testicle that had been bisected to show the inner workings. "Travels up there," he traced the looping path with the tip of his finger. "And then goes nowhere." He finished flatly.

"Right," Cal agreed and yes, his balls were still prepared to take off at any moment and protect themselves, all this talk of cutting them. "They go back into your body."

"How do they burn the ends?"

"They take a little wand thing that's like a solderin' gun and singe the ends of the tube," Cal answered. He wanted to cross his legs. Seriously.

"What's a soldering gun?"

Cal quickly explained how two pieces of metal could be joined together by melting small ball bearings to form a metallic kind of glue, using a special kind of flame, that when cold again would be quite impressively strong.

"They put one of those inside you?" Lewis turned up his nose in shock.

Cal chuckled. "Not literally a big one that put together a computer processin' board a moment ago. A people one. They use them for lots of things. Burning off moles and stoppin' arteries from bleedin' and all sorts." 'Bleed' was a neat sign, like a blood splatter dripping down the chest.

"Oh," Lewis noted.

"So rememba I said there were otha ways to not have babies?" Cal prompted again. Lewis might not remember what he'd said in the car enough to ask his Dad about it but his Dad certainly did. And he would rather get it all out now than drag this conversation awkwardly out over several days. Lewis was bound to come back with follow up as it was. Just because Cal tried to talk about things didn't mean it was easy to do so.

"Do women have their... what's the tube thingy that the eggs come out of?"

"Falopian tubes," Cal supplied.

"Yeah those. Do they get them cut?" Lewis drew the index finger of his right hand over the black of his left hand, down, like his finger was a knife and he had just slashed at his other hand.

"Women have a simila procedure to stop the eggs from gettin' into the womb, but the tubes get tied or clamped, not cut and burnt."

"Oh," Lewis said again.

Cal gave him a moment to think about it.

"So then the egg just gets absorbed back into the body like the sperm does?"

"Um yeah sort of. The egg leaves the ovary but it just falls into the abdomen and then gets absorbed."

Interesting point: Lewis seemed to not be bothered at all by this conversation. He wasn't squeamish nor did he shy away from using the correct terminology. How refreshing. And kind of impressive. For a ten year old.

"So if you don't want babies you have to go get your doctor to do a operation?"

"No," Cal corrected. Good, Lewis brought it back up this time. "There are lots of different ways. Some are for boys and some are for girls." He told him about 'the pill', about condoms, about the somewhat persistent 'withdrawal' method and diaphragms. This side of the conversation was probably a wee bit premature for Lewis. He was only ten after all. But why not? Puberty was about the body changing to have babies, why not learn about that and how not to have babies at the same time? Lewis would get to an age where he would think of nothing but practicing making babies. Cal knew that. From personal experience. And as Gillian's 'talk to your kids about babies/sex' plan went, the more reinforcement the better. Introduce it now, mention it again, and then again until he got the point. Before they had a freaking accidental pregnancy on their hands.

"Then how come people want to cut their balls?"

"Really good question," Cal commended. "Because condoms and the pill are just one off types of birth control. You have to use condoms every time or take the pill every day. A vasectomy is pretty permanent."

"It's for married people who don't want any more kids?"

"Sure yeah, that's an option. But you know, everyone is different. Some men don't wanna have kid's eva so they get one done."

"Is that how come you have no more kids? After you were married to Zoe?"

"No," Cal gave him a slight nudge and an amused smile. "How did me and Mum have you if I had a vasectomy afta I was married to Zoe?"

"Oh," Lewis gave a little proud smile.

"You were very wanted Lew," Cal put an arm around his son's shoulders.

The boy's smile got a little broader.

"You, my darlin', were very wanted."