"It's good to be home," Spencer said.
"I've missed my babies," Safina said.
"Me too, as I never imagined I'd have children to lavish my affection on," Spencer agreed, as he kissed his wife on the temple. "But you know meeting my Aunt Molly was important."
"Yeah, it was," Safina agreed calmly. "I'm certainly glad that we sent your father away with a flea in his ear. I suspect he probably received a warning from the Council about committing anything else underhanded."
"You're likely right," Spencer agreed. "I wouldn't be surprised if your brother recorded the entire confrontation, then sent the tape to the Council. Powerful businessmen tape important meetings all the time just to remind themselves of what is said or sometimes in case there is bad blood between two powerful businesspeople. As it was his office, it was perfectly legal for Aaron to record the conversation between himself and my father. It wasn't even a legal requirement for Aaron to inform my father that he was being recorded, so it wouldn't be Aaron's fault, if dad, said something that got him in trouble with the Council. I have no doubt, that it didn't even occur to my dad to watch what he said. Even if you believe you're alone that doesn't mean that there isn't a listening device, even a simple tape recorder, one that comes on when there are voices or a certain level of sound."
"That's true," Safina agreed. "Such things have been around for several decades."
"Welcome home," their nanny Mandy greeted them.
"Thank you," Safina said. "It's good to be home."
"It definitely is," Spencer agreed.
"How was your trip?" Mandy asked.
"It went well and I met my Aunt Molly along with her husband Malcolm," Spencer said. "I took an extra week so we had time to get to know each other and they should be coming for a visit sometime over the next few months."
"Yes, I like his Aunt Molly and Malcolm who is technically, his uncle a great deal," Safina said.
"I only wish we had met years ago," Spencer admitted.
"I can't blame you," Mandy sympathized.
Mandy had been told just a little about why Safina and Spencer were taking such a trip. It had been explained that he had never realized that he had an aunt until he started looking into his family tree, as his father had never mentioned her, as they were estranged. Mandy had understood that the couple wanted to take this time away to perhaps meet Spencer's aunt and uncle that he had never known about until recently.
"How are the children?" Safina asked.
"They're just fine and asleep right now," Mandy said. "They were little angels while you were gone."
"Taking care of three small children isn't easy though, especially by yourself," Spencer said.
"I wasn't entirely alone," Mandy said. "You're brother often came by Ms. Safina, along with his mate Miss Penelope. They helped out as often as they could so that took some of the pressure off me."
"So Aaron finally asked Penny to mate," Spencer said pleased.
"It was about time he did," Safina said, though it was clear she was happy as well.
"I'm very happy for them," Spencer said, even as he started to move their luggage towards the stairs. "I know Garcia has been wanting children for several years, maybe even longer."
"She could've just had some out of wedlock," Safina suggested.
"She could have," Spencer agreed calmly, "but as a technical analyst she doesn't make as much as a profiler, even though she puts in just as many hours. She might have been able to afford one child, maybe two, but that was it. Even just two would've been a considerable strain on finances."
Spencer headed upstairs with the luggage in tow and headed to the master bedroom. Safina followed him, considering her mate's words and found out she agreed with them, which wasn't a surprise really.
You might want children, but finances played a part on whether you had them or not, particularly if you were going to be a single parent, with no helpmate. She for one could understand Garcia's decision to not go through with the idea of having children, because their kind nearly always had at least twins. With the way Garcia's body was shaped as she was considerably more hefty than most women it was quite possible, she'd have at least quadruplets. She could see that quite easily actually.
It didn't help that Aaron was a very powerful Alpha and not only in personality, but biologically as well and that would carry across to his seed. She thought that the only reason his former mate had only had twins was that she had trouble carrying them to term and it was quite possible that it had started out as triplets at least. Of course, it also had to do with how many of the woman's eggs were released as well Safina knew, but with their kind that was usually at least 2 or 3 sometimes more. They were usually always over fertile, but that didn't mean that the woman could carry them until the end of the pregnancy. Haley had just been unlucky that there was something that made her keep having miscarriages. It happened that way sometimes, even if there was no medical explanation. The same thing happened to Spencer's former girlfriend Maranda, more than a decade ago after all. It wasn't fair or right, but it happened and sometimes there was no answer for why it did.
Safina knew that she had been lucky. She had carried their children all the way until the end quite easily and there had been no danger of a miscarriage like had happened to Spencer's former girlfriend so long ago. Hopefully, the same thing would happen when they decided to have more in a few years.
"I hadn't thought of that," Safina said, as she joined her husband in the master bedroom. "My father and I always had enough to live on, but then, it was just my brother and me. My full brother, not Aaron."
Spencer nodded, as he had met Safina's twin brother, during the wedding. His name was Cameron and he seemed like a nice enough guy. He was a Beta like Garcia and JJ. It was clear he loved his sister and so long as she was happy then he was happy for her. As for Aaron, he and Cameron weren't that close, but then, they had only met a few times, so it wasn't anything like dislike, they just needed to get to know each other better. Spencer suspected that part of the problem was that while Cameron was intelligent he was also a little lazy and so hadn't finished his college education as soon as his sister had.
Still, he did well when he applied himself, but it was applying himself that was the problem. Spencer was sure that Cameron just wanted to marry into the cream. Spencer suspected that Cameron didn't want to work and would rather be taken care of by an alpha and while there was nothing wrong with this attitude necessarily, he was heading for a long fall if he wasn't careful. Cameron didn't seem to have any ambitions at all or if he did they were very well hidden.
At the moment, Spencer knew his sister was mainly supporting him, as Aaron had set up a bank account for her and she was also paid well at her job. Spencer knew that Safina loved her brother and while he couldn't fault her for that, he just wished that Cameron would find himself a job or at least do something worthwhile with his life.
Aaron was not one to throw money away, so had not set up that same bank account for Cameron, because he was basically wasting his life. Safina had understood where Aaron was coming from and had agreed mostly with his actions.
Aaron wasn't totally heartless though and had paid for his college education, because the father was dead, though Spencer suspected that Cameron had partied more than a bit instead of studying. Partying was all well and good, but your education was important to your future. Spencer suspected that Cameron just needed some sort of direction in his life to get it back on track, but what that direction would be he had no idea. At least he had never gotten involved in illegal drugs, so that was something anyway.
"Aaron will be good for her, give her a reason to come home everyday," Spencer said. "Living alone can be a lonely business, especially for our kind."
"That's true," Safina agreed.
"Also Garcia is getting to the age that if she wants children she needs to have them right away, depending on how many she and Aaron want to have, as she is in her late 30s," Spencer explained. "It might be that she only wants to get pregnant once and she could have 2, 3 or even 4, as she certainly has the body to have that many at once. If she only wants to get pregnant once then they can afford to wait a little while to have children."
"Yes, I can see that," Safina said, as she started to throw the dirty clothes from the suitcases in the laundry hamper.
"Why don't you go see how the children are and I'll do that," Spencer said. "Chetna will wash it when she comes tomorrow."
Safina nodded, as she really wanted to check on the triplets and Spencer had known this, so she didn't argue with him.
Spencer finished emptying the suitcases, sorted clothes into a clean and dirty pile and then followed Safina into the nursery.
"They've grown so much while we've been gone," Safina said, sounding melancholy .
"That's what infants do," Spencer comforted his mate. "They'll grow a lot over the next few years."
"I know," Safina sighed. "Still, I'm so happy to finally have children of my own."
"We're both still young and you have plenty of time to have more," Spencer said. "We did tell Aaron that we we're going to have more in 4 to 6 years."
"And we will," Safina said. "There's no need for us to rush and have more with my next heat, when I'm still young. If I was older like Penny is, it would be different but I'm not."
"Exactly, we have plenty of time to have more," Spencer agreed. "I think Mandy has enough to do right now with three infants to take care of. By the time we have more, our triplets will be old enough to have some simple responsibilities. We'll pay them off course, sort of like, an allowance. Children at that age are always wanting to buy what interests them. One of them, might like to read like I did at that age."
Safina nodded, as what Spencer said made sense. One child might like music, so they'd buy the appropriate childish instrument ones that made a lot of sounds.
"I think at that age we'll just buy them whatever they want within reason instead of giving them money," Safina said. "Buy them whatever toy or book they want, so long as it's not too expensive, for doing chores around the house and helping look after their siblings."
"That's a really good idea," Spencer decided. "We'll save the more expensive toys for Christmas and birthdays."
The two of them simply looked down at the sleeping infants and thought they were incredibly lucky. Of course, they were sure they wouldn't think that by the time their children reached their terrible twos, but right now, they were just perfect.
~~~Aaron and Penelope~~~