Part 2

Several years later

"How's my gorgeous wife today?" Dave asked, kissing her on the lips. Dave put his arms around her very pregnant stomach.

They'd been married for nearly 2 years now and they were just about to welcome a new bundle of joy into the world, a girl. When Dave had learned that he had been absolutely thrilled. Beatrix of course, had asked him why. Dave had then explained that by the time his sister was born he was already grown up. I am the oldest of my brothers and I was already in my early twenties when Jocelyn was born. While I love my sister we're so far apart in age that we don't have much in common. That doesn't mean we don't get along or that Jocelyn doesn't know that I will protect her if necessary, its just that when I decided when I met my mate and we married, that I wanted a little girl to love. I didn't really expect to get one on our very first try, though.

That honest explanation had warmed Beatrix down to her toes. It was clear that Dave was really looking forward to being a father to the little girl she was carrying now. She also knew that her parents were looking forward to spoiling her and Dave's daughter rotten, just like they spoiled Wesley's son. Her parents wouldn't be around forever Beatrix knew, so she wanted any children she had to get to know them before they weren't around anymore.

Their wedding had been quite large and followed not long after Wesley's and Alice's. The older Cranstons had been ecstatic that they'd gotten two of their children married off within a year. Now that only left Jeff as the only unmarried Cranston. Wesley and Alice had already had a baby, a little boy that they had named Lamont the Second.

The grandfather of Lamont the Second was pleased as punch to have his grandchild named after him, because after all Wesley had nearly ended up with his name, but he and Margo had decided against it in the end. Alice had gotten pregnant only a few months after the wedding and while she and Wesley would've liked to have waited awhile to have a child it just hadn't happened that way.

Beatrix on the other hand, hadn't got pregnant until over a year after she and Dave had married, so apparently she wasn't quite as fertile as her brother's wife was.

"Well, luckily this baby will be here soon," Beatrix told Dave, smiling at him.

"Just another month," Dave said with a smile. "I can hardly wait and I know that Margo and Lamont can't wait either."

"Well, this is their first grandchild from me," Beatrix pointed out. "So far they only have one from Wesley. I think that my brother and Alice are planning to have one next year, but after that I don't know if they plan on having anymore. Two might be enough for Alice in particular, since she's the one that has to bear them."

"You could ask her if she's intending to have anymore," Dave suggested.

"I might just do that as we are pretty close, though I know it helps we're close in age. Really, Alice is young enough to be my sister biologically and not just my sister-in-law," Beatrix said. "So I never did ask how many children you wanted? We got married when I was only 23, so I have plenty of time to have half a dozen if that's what we want."

"Half a dozen would be great," Dave said grinning at the thought. "I know your parents will be for thrilled with half a dozen grandchildren from their daughter."

"I want to stop by the time I'm 40, preferably several years before that," Beatrix said. "That means if we're going to have half a dozen we can space them at least a year apart, since I'm only 25."

"Once you're immortal you're not going to die in childbirth," Dave said.

"Yes, I know, but the only reason my mother got pregnant when she was over 40 is because she didn't marry my father until late in her life. As for me however, I married you when I was 23, much younger than my mother married, dad. We have to remember that the upper class is going to think it's rather strange if I get pregnant at over 40 when I already have half a dozen children. I'm sure they'll be surprised if I don't stop at three or four. On the other hand, the contraceptive methods aren't all that reliable, because it's still a relatively new way to stop a woman from conceiving."

"So you're saying that if people are curious you're going to say that your contraceptive failed," Dave said catching on.

"It's something they'll believe, because it was only approved by the FDA in 1960, which was less then a decade ago. I know very well that people always have to work out the bugs of anything new. They'll probably improve on such things as contraceptives over the next few years," Beatrix said.

"Yes, science is discovering new things every year," Dave agreed. "I'm sure you're right that such things will improve over the next few decades. It's really nobodies business how many children we have, but yes, I know some will be rather curious, particularly those in your social set."

"That'll be too polite to ask directly though or at least most of them will," Beatrix said. "Besides, my father is no pushover and neither are you. We can hem them in so many lawsuits they won't know how to deal with it. Mental aggravation is merely a tip of the proverbial iceberg. Dad won't let anybody start rumors about his family."

"That's actually a really good thing considering," Dave said.

The two of them sat in their cozy parlor side-by-side, with Beatrix laying her head on her husband's shoulder. She had been so happy for the last couple years, really, since she had met Dave. It wasn't even that she had been happy growing up just that this was on a different level.

~~~Dave and Beatrix~~~

"Welcome to the family sweetie," Lamont crooned over his newest grandchild, kissing her tiny forehead.

"So what have you decided name this beautiful little girl?" Margo asked her daughter and her husband.

"Well, we talked about it quite extensively," Dave said. "We thought Margot. Named after the woman who raised Bea so well."

"There's only one letter difference after all," Beatrix told her mother. "We did consider Margo, but since they are no known nicknames for it we decided on this instead."

"You didn't have to name have after me," Margo said with tears of happiness in her eyes. "Not that I'm not happy about it."

"Just like I was happy when Wesley named his son Lamont the Second," Lamont told his wife. "Though at least they could shorten it to Monty."

"Which is why we decided on something close to Margo," Beatrix told her parents. "Margot seemed perfect."

"She's just perfect," Margo said taking her new granddaughter out of her grandfather's arms. "It's my turn now," Margo told her husband. "She's just the cutest baby."

"I bet you said that same thing about your grandson," Dave said amused.

"So what if I did?" Margo shot back with a mock glare. "I can't help it if I adore children, especially since they're my own grandchildren. It's not like I'm going to be around until they're fully grown."

"You might be," Beatrix said.

"So planning on anymore," Lamont asked hopefully.

"In a couple years," Dave said. "Of course, at thirty I'm going to turn her immortal and then she'll never die in childbirth."

"Which is a great relief to me," Margo said. "Childbirth is still dangerous, especially for an older woman."

"I'm hardly old yet mom as I'm only 25," Beatrix reminded her mother.

"Still, things can and do go wrong," Lamont told his daughter pointedly. "Just because this pregnancy went fine doesn't mean the next one will. I think your mother and I will both be very happy when you can't die in childbirth anymore."

Beatrix had nothing to add to what her father had said because he was right. Even though medical technology had improved in leaps and bounds, since her father was born, things did go wrong with a woman's pregnancy sometimes, things the doctor couldn't do anything about.

"Don't worry I'm not about to let anything happen to her," Dave said. "It's taken me centuries to find the woman I can be happy with for the rest of my very long life. Bea has time to have at least one more child before I turn her immortal, possibly two more but that's it."

"So you plan on having three then," Lamont asked.

"No, we agreed on half a dozen," Beatrix told the father. "Its just that I'll be able to have three before Dave turns me immortal."

"It's not that we wouldn't like a few more, but by then she'll likely be 36 or 37 and we don't want people wondering why we're having so many," Dave shrugged.

"That's true as both your mother and I are only children," Lamont said. "In my parents case, it wasn't about lack of money or some kind of medical problem, that stopped them from having anymore. I think it was more lack of interest. They'd gotten the son that they wanted, a son to carry on the Cranston name and I'm sure they felt that was more than enough. Never mind the fact that there was so many diseases that had no cures back when I was born. I would have thought they'd want at least one more just in case something happened to their heir, like some kind of medical issue, like diptheria or pneumonia, flu, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal. Those were the diseases that caused numerous deaths back when I was born."

"In my mother's case, she had trouble giving birth to me and so they decided not to try to have another, which was probably a good thing since we moved around so much," Margo said. "It might have been nice to have a brother or sister though, considering that we moved from place to place about every year when I was growing up because my father was a research scientist. I made friends only to have to leave them when we moved to another town."

"That would be hard on any child. It's really no different than being in the military. The father has to move where he's assigned and of course, his family comes with him." Dave said. "Military kids also have to make new friends every time their family moved because of their father's job."

"Still, I'm certainly glad we came to New York and stayed. I wouldn't have met Lamont otherwise or learned about the immense power inside my head. I'm sure I would've died of a stroke or a heart attack like my mother by the time I was 50 If I had never met Lamont Cranston.

"People die all the time as they never fully awaken, much less learn to control it. Most people don't even know such powers exist and just put any headaches down to stress," Lamont said. "And then they have a cerebral episode, a stroke or a heart attack, when they're still relatively young late 40s or early 50s. They certainly don't live as long as they could have if not for all that energy spilling over their barriers."

"I know and it's tragic," Dave agreed. "So does this little girl, have her mother's receptive powers?"

"Oh, yes," Lamont said, as he looked inside his granddaughter's head. "I can't tell how powerful she's going to be yet, she's still a baby after all, but there is already a little power gathering. I have no doubt she'll probably be just as powerful as her mother."

"We'll have to make sure to take her to Frost Valley, when she starts to awaken," Beatrix said. "I awakened at 14. My family owns a resort out there in the Catskills. There's far less minds for someone who's awakening to hear."

"You don't want one of your children awakening in some place that's as mentally loud as a big city," Lamont told Dave. "I think I mentioned that we nearly lost Wesley because he awakened here. You need somewhere with as few people close by as you can manage. Awakenings aren't very gentle and in fact, they're one of the hardest things that anybody will ever have to go through. Awakening adepts have been known to go insane if they awaken somewhere like New York. I know I was very lucky that the Tulku discovered me and that I was in Tibet when I started to fully awaken."

"We'll just take them somewhere where that won't happen then," Dave said determinedly. "If a lot of my children are going to have their mother's receptive nature then we'll just have to go somewhere that doesn't have as many people. Of course, if they do have some kind of cerebral episode it's not going to be a permanent death, but still, it could happen somewhere very public."

"And also be really hard on our grandchild," Margo mentioned.

"We don't need to worry about it right this minute, but we do need to make preparations sometime in the next few years," Beatrix said.

"I've never known an adept to awaken before they're teenagers," Lamont said. "For all I know they could awaken in their late 20s like I did. I was 28 when I awakened in Tibet and if it wasn't for the Tulku I likely would have had a heart attack or a stroke. It then took me a year to learn everything the Tulku could teach me about controlling my mind. He taught me so many skills that I learned to use instinctively as the Shadow. Those same skills saved my life on more than one occasion."

"Well, we won't have to worry about saving any children Dave and I have from dying since they'll basically be immortal," Beatrix said.

"Also I doubt they'll take on the role as a Shadow," Dave said. "That's not to say, they won't use their talents sometimes."

"They'll have to in order to release the pressure inside their heads," Lamont said. "Even if that's just venting it off into the atmosphere. I hate doing that though. It's such a waste of energy that could be used for other things, but since I've retired I kind of have to, as I am no longer using my powers to fight criminals, so I have to release the energy some way or I'd have a constant headaches, that would lead to a cerebral episode. I want to be around to see my grandchildren grown if it all possible."

"That's what we all want dad," Beatrix told her father, holding her new daughter in her arms.

"I personally hope you're both around to see all your grandchildren grown," Dave said. "At least this current generation."

"You know I never thought about that," Margo said in startlement. "Just because they're only going to have half a dozen kids this time doesn't mean they can't have more in 50 or 60 years."

"Exactly," Dave agreed. "That's the way immortals do things. Have as many kids as they want at one time, even if that's only one or two and then wait decades to have anymore. Immortal females after all never get too old to have children, so long as they're either changed before they're too old or born one."

"So in a hundred years there will be numerous Cranstons," Lamont said pleased.

"And Dave and I will make sure that none of them are like your parents," Beatrix promised. "They'll be taught compassion, generosity and understanding for those that don't have as much as we do, just like my brothers and I were. I'm sure my brothers will do the same, though I don't think Jeffrey is interested in settling down anytime soon."

"Now that is a legacy that's worth something," Lamont said with a proud smile at his daughter. "I'm sure my parents wouldn't agree, but I don't really care what they would think. They've been dead for a very long time and good riddance. Hopefully, I'll never encounter them when I finally pass on."

Nobody had anything to say to that, as there was nothing they could really say that would be polite. Dave was suddenly glad he never met Lamont's parents, as he would've hated to see how they mistreated their son, particularly the father, especially since he considered Lamont a friend, even if technically he was also his father-in-law. Yes, technically he was much older, even if he didn't look it, but that didn't matter to him, just that what Lamont had gone through as a child and then a young man, hurt him deeply, even though it had happened decades ago. He'd often wished over the last couple of years he'd been around back then to prevent some of what Beatrix's father had gone through. Still, the adversity had turned Lamont into the man he was today so it was probably just as well he hadn't been around when Lamont was growing up.

Or at least that's what he told himself.

~~~Dave and Beatrix~~~