-Wednesday, November 7, 2:18 pm / Maple Valley Medical Center-

Katrina: 17 months, 3 weeks old

Casey: 2 years, 3 months old

Rose: 14 weeks along
Roxy: 4 weeks along

Rose nervously followed Kanaya up the steps to the medical building. She had another ultrasound today, and they had the possibility of finding out what the baby was. It wasn't really that she was nervous about, though; she was more nervous about the ultrasound itself. An ultrasound would make the whole "baby" idea seem more real than it already did, and that scared her a bit.

"Rose, come on," persuaded Kanaya, grabbing her wife's hand and leading her inside. "You're going to have to check yourself in to make things less...awkward. Even though we live in the most LGBT-friendly state in the United States…"

"Fine…" The blonde motioned for Kanaya to go ahead and sit down in the waiting area while she went up to the front desk to confirm her presence.

A woman at the front desk looked up from the computer. "Good afternoon," she said with a smile, "how may I help you?"

"I have an appointment with Dr. Johnson," Rose told the secretary, trying to avoid eye contact.

The secretary looked back at the computer. "Are you...Roseline?" she carefully asked.

Rose nodded. "Roseline Lalonde, yes."

"Alright, I'll just need you to fill out some paperwork...hold on while I get that printed for you."

The woman began to print out the paperwork and began to make small talk when she realized it might take a while. "How far along are you?" she asked Rose after double-checking to make sure it was the obstetrician she was seeing.

The blonde nervously smiled and glanced down at her stomach. "Almost four months," she told the secretary as the last sheet of paperwork printed.

The secretary looked really surprised, but didn't say anything as she knew that would be rude. "Well, I'll just need you to fill this out," she told Rose, handing her a pen and a clipboard with the freshly printed papers. "Good luck."

"Thank you."

Rose sat down next to Kanaya and began to fill out the paperwork as they waited. After about five minutes of waiting, a nurse entered the waiting area. "Roseline?" he asked, scanning the chairs for the patient he was to retrieve.

Kanaya grabbed both her and Rose's purses and followed her wife back into the hallway. The wives and the nurse exchanged a normal "how are you" conversation before being led into an exam room.

The nurse left the couple in the room to talk for several minutes before Dr. Johnson came to give the monthly checkup and ultrasound. "Kanaya," Rose quietly asked, "do you have a preference on what the...baby is?"

Kanaya rolled her eyes. "Of course not, Rose! I just want it to be happy and healthy once it's born. I could care less what the sex is."

After a few more minutes of awkward waiting in silence, the doctor finally came in. "Hello, Ms. Lalonde," she said to Rose, then turned to Kanaya. "Ms. Maryam."

"Hi," the couple said to her in response.

Dr. Johnson pulled out a stool and sat on it before clicking her pen, preparing to take notes. "Now, tell me: how have you been feeling lately?"

After going through the normal routine of asking questions, making recommendations, and feeling the baby, Dr. Johnson told Rose it was time for the ultrasound. She told the Lalonde-Maryams that she would grab a nurse to give the ultrasound, and that she would see her next time.

"I'm happy Dr. Johnson said everything was okay," Kanaya told her wife.

Rose scoffed. "She said I'm bigger than normal, Kanaya. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

"Don't go Vriska on me, alright?" the jade-blood sighed. "I know you are self-conscious about your appearance, but please don't do anything to hurt our baby, Rose. Please."

"Alright," Rose nodded just as a nurse came in.

"Hi," the nurse smiled, closing the door behind her. "Dr. Johnson has to get to another patient, so I'll be doing the ultrasound today, alright?" She put a spearmint-colored vinyl glove on each hand before preparing the machine to do its job.

Rose flinched as the cold gel was squirted onto her stomach and spread around with the wand. The nurse hit a button on the monitor that made the sonogram appear on the screen, and then continued to move the wand around until she found what she was looking for.

"Okay, here we have the head…" The nurse pointed to the monitor and waited for the couple to get a good look before continuing. "...and this is a foot…" She paused and furrowed her brow before moving the wand a bit and pressing down a little harder. "It looks like I can tell the sex," she said with a smile. "Since you're still so early it might not be accurate, but would you still like to know what it looks like right now?"

Rose and Kanaya looked at each other.

"Sure."

"It looks like...this is a little boy!" the nurse smiled before pointing at what kind of looked like a penis. She then moved the wand up a little higher before stopping.

"I've already told you the baby is a boy," she started, but would you like to know something else?"

Rose looked confused. "Of course…?"

The nurse nervously laughed. "I hope the two of you like surprises, because Ms. Lalonde, you're having twins."

"I can't believe we're having twins," Rose groaned, slumping down in the front seat of the car. "Now we have to tell my mom!"

"You're overlooking the fact that we're having two babies, Rose," sighed Kanaya. "I understand you don't want to tell your mother, but she's going to find out about it at some point or another."

The blonde sighed and sat up. "Kanaya, you don't understand. Mom is going to find some way to draw attention to herself and take it away from me like she always does."

Before Kanaya could say anything, Rose's cell phone rang. She sighed before answering it through the car's bluetooth system.

"Hello?"

"Rosie!" sang Roxy on the other side of the line, her voice filling up the car. "You'd never guess what surprise I have for you!"

Rose rolled her eyes but answered anyway. "What, Mom?"

Ms. Lalonde (well, know Mrs. Egbert) laughed. "You're going to have to meet Joseph and I for dinner this Friday to find out!"

"Mom, can't you just tell me?"

"No, that wouldn't be fair," Roxy told her daughter. "John's already agreed to come."

Rose looked at Kanaya, who quickly answered before her wife could object. "We'd love to," she said to her mother-in-law with a smile. "In fact, we have a surprise for you as well."

"Kanaya!" scolded Rose through gritted teeth.

The jade-blood did nothing but laugh. "I guess Rose and I will see you this Friday."

Roxy and Kanaya exchanged their goodbyes before hanging up.

-Friday, November 9, 5:58 pm / Jameson Tavern-

Joseph craned his neck, looking for his son, stepdaughter, and her wife. "Are you sure you gave them the right time?" he asked his wife, double-checking the time on his wristwatch.

"It's just now six," Roxy sighed. She brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and looked up just as John sat down.

"Hi," the brunet said with a sigh, pulling out a chair and sitting down in it. "I saw Rose and Kanaya a couple of lights back, but I guess they got held up or something. They should be here soon."

"Oh, we're in no rush," Roxy reassured before a waiter came to get John's drink order.

About five minutes later and after John had received his drink, Rose and Kanaya finally walked in. "Where's Vriska?" Kanaya asked John as she sat down next to Rose.

"Well, we were going to go out for her fake birthday tonight," he told the jade-blood, "but the children's museum downtown is having 50% admission prices today and she wanted to take Casey there. She decided she'd rather go out next week, anyway."

"Oh, how is she?" Mr. Egbert asked. "Vriska, I mean. Has she been any better lately?"

John shook his head. "Still the same. She's been really mopey over The Larissa Thing, but both of us know we can't have another kid anytime soon."

Roxy poked in. "Well, what about a pet?"

"A...pet?"

"Yes, a pet," Roxy smiled. "Like...a cat. They don't do much and they can pretty much take care of themselves, but they do keep you company."

John thought for a moment. "I don't think Vriska would really like a cat, since cats are quiet and she's...not. But yeah, I'll think about it. Maybe it can be a late fake birthday gift or something."

The waiter came back to take Rose and Kanaya's drink orders. Meanwhile, everyone resumed chatting about what had been going on lately.

"So Dad," John asked the older man, "how are things coming along at the bakery?"

Joseph sat down his drink and coughed. "It's going well. Did I tell you I finally came up with a name for the bakery?" John shook his head. "It's going to be called—" He used hand gestures for added effects. "—'Bread, Ganache, and Beyond'."

"Can't...you get sued for copyright infringement?" the son asked with a confused expression.

"Well, I was able to obtain the business license, so I guess not."

The same waiter came back with Rose and Kanaya's drinks and pulled out his notepad. "Alright, does everyone know what they want?"

-6:14 pm / Maple Valley Children's Museum-

Surprisingly, the overall museum wasn't as crowded as Vriska had expected, but the amount of kids around Casey's age was far bigger than the amount of those older. This was especially a problem for the toddler area, as it was very congested.

"Okay, Casey," Vriska told her daughter, "you need to put the block right here."

"Okay Mommy!" the small brunette laughed, placing the oversized cardboard block exactly where her mother had told her to.

"Ahem." Someone coughed and Vriska poked her head out of the arrangement of blocks to see what was going on.

There was a line of about four or five moms and their kids waiting outside of the fort Vriska and Casey were making. "Um, excuse me," a mom said, her voice full of sass, "you're hogging all the blocks."

The troll raised an eyebrow. "We are building a fort," she simply told the lady.

"Well, we want to build forts, too."

"We're having mother-daughter bonding time." Vriska looked over at her daughter, who had just poked her head out of the fort as well to see what was going on.

"Well-" The lady looked behind her before continuing. "-some of us want to have mother-daughter bonding, too."

"Is everything alright?" A museum employee came up to the group to check out the situation. "Do I need to help anyone?"

Several of the moms crossed their arms. "We've been waiting to share the blocks for several minutes."

"Oh, well..." The employee looked down at Vriska and Casey. "I'm really sorry, but in order to minimize complaints, I'm going to have to ask you to share."

Casey jumped up and toddled over to the group of women who had complained and their children. "You assholes!" she shouted, pointing at them.

"Cassia Jane!" scolded Vriska, grabbing her daughter's hand and yanking her away. The two left without another word.

-6:22 pm / Jameson Tavern-

"So, uh, Mom." Rose nervously laughed and took a sip of her drink in attempt to try to make things less awkward. "Kanaya and I have something to tell you."

"Yes, Rosie?" Roxy attentively leaned on the table.

"Well..." The younger blonde paused and glanced at Kanaya. "...we found out what the baby might be. The technician said since it's so early it might not be right, but she tried the best she could."

"Well? What is it?"

Rose smiled, knowing that everyone was waiting for her. "It's a boy," she proudly announced, soaking in everyone's reactions.

"But," she added, "we still don't know what the other one is."

Everyone stared at her. "...What?!" Roxy exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes.

"Yes, Mom," Rose laughed, actually smiling. "Kanaya and I are having twins."

Roxy sniffed and laughed. "Rosie, I'm having a baby too," she simply said, but doing so at a rather inappropriate time.

Rose's face instantly fell, while Kanaya's and John's were shocked. "What?" the younger Lalonde squeaked, staring at her mother.

Roxy nodded again and smiled. "You and John are going to have a younger sibling," she restated.

Rose let out a puff of breath before getting up from the table and walking off.

Her mother bit her lip and nervously looked at those who remained at the table. "Too soon?"

Everyone nodded.

"Well, I'm going to go talk to her." Roxy got up from the table and went to see where Rose went.

After looking around for a couple of minutes, Roxy finally found her daughter sobbing in the bathroom. "Rose?" the woman gently asked as she knocked on the door.

Rose sniffed from inside the single-stall bathroom. "Go away, Mom," she cried.

"Rose." Roxy patiently waited for her daughter to open the door, which didn't happen. "Roseline Danielle, open the door."

Inside, Rose finally unlocked the door and opened it. "What do you want, Mom?" she sniffed, avoiding eye contact.

"I want to talk to you." Roxy squeezed inside the bathroom and locked the door behind her. "Look, I do not want you to be upset over having a little brother or sister who is so much younger than you are-"

"That's not what I'm upset about, Mom!" Rose wiped her eyes before continuing. "It seems every time I have some good news or I'm proud of something or something, you always manage to find some way to upstage me! I'm sick and tired of it, Mom!"

With a sympathetic look in her eyes, Roxy threw her arms around her daughter. "Oh, Rosie, I'm sorry! You should have told me how you felt! I'll try to do something about it, I really will!" She let go of Rose and looked her in the eye. "Joseph and I really didn't think this would happen, Rosie. We're both so old, it didn't seem like it could actually happen..."

"I...guess I understand..." Rose wiped her eyes again. "Look, Mom, we can talk about this later. I'm hungry."

Roxy laughed before hugging and kissing her daughter one last time for the night. "All right, Rosie. Let's go eat."

ugh this took so long

welp i hope you all liked it

Thanks to godlessAdversary, XellanxLarxene, i am the karkat, Oreoo, funny-tragic-mess, unrivaledAnomaly, and Sagittarius1214 for reviewing!