“Seamus, stop that!”

“Seamus, get down from there!”

“Seamus, no! Don’t touch that!”

CRASH!

By the time the rest of the crew arrived to the mess hall, TJ and Seth were slumped in their chairs, obviously exhausted. Seamus ran around the room as energetic as ever, playing tag with the Gizbot.

“I’m just saying, it’ll be a good opportunity for us all to get some ‘alone time’,” Harlan commented to Bova.

“What will, Harlan?” Seth asked, not even bothering to hide his yawn.

“He wants us to take some shore-leave.” Bova dialed up two small mountains of food onto two separate trays and handed one to Rosie as he sat down. “You know that planet we’re coming up on? Mainly a trading community. Pretty peaceful, too.”

“Peaceful?” TJ repeated, jerking her head up the table. She caught Seth’s arm and said in a strained voice, “I want peaceful.”

Seth barely glanced at his yelling son before nodding. “Yeah, me too. What do the rest of you think? Shore-leave for a couple of days?”

Rosie grinned. “Sure! It’ll be fun to see a new planet!”

“And to get off the Christa for a while,” Cat added with a smile.

“Seamus, no!” TJ snapped. The small boy pouted at her, but stopped playing with the foodwheel. The machine sputtered a few extra times, made a coughing noise, and covered Seamus with colored powder.

Seth stared for a moment before turning to the others. “So, uh… who wants to watch Seamus for us?”

Rosie brightened, turning on Bova expectantly. The Uranusian made a face at her. “Do you really want him to be around me for several days?”

“Oh, Bova!”

“Harlan and I would, guys, but we’d like to savor our last few months of freedom,” Cat said apologetically. At 5 months pregnant, her belly had grown considerably and she had an amount of food on her tray to rival Bova’s largest meal.

“Loki and I will take him,” Radu offered amiably as he sat next to Harlan to eat.

TJ reached across the table to grab his gloved hand. “Bless you, Radu,” she said in a choked tone, tears in her eyes.

Radu flushed brightly as Seth shrugged. “She’s been doing most of the late nights with Seamus,” he explained quietly as TJ put her head back onto her arms.

Lokaia patted TJ’s arm as she walked past her to sit by Rosie. “Don’t worry about anything, TJ. We’ll watch him for you.”

“Dear girl, you are a Godsend.”

“See you guys later!” Harlan called, as he and Cat seperated from the group. The others waved goodbye, and the human and Saturnian set off.

“We don’t need anything, do we?” Cat asked, glancing over the shops and carts that littered the street. “For the baby, I mean.”

Harlan grinned at her. “The boy.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Yes, your boy. Your darling boy, your unborn boy. Will you answer the question now?”

“No, we don’t need anything,” Harlan answered after a laugh. “Radu, Rosie and I found a bunch of stuff in the storage room. You know. For the boy.”

Cat hit him as he laughed again. “You are being so annoying about that. So the boy comes first. If you think I’m going to stop at one child you’re crazy. I want a girl, too.”

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Head, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to have a girl,” Harlan said, a cocky grin on his face.

“Oh, shut up. I bet you’ve already picked out a name for your boy, too, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I have.”

“Care to share?” Cat asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harlan met her gaze evenly. “Ellison.”

Cat stared at him. Then she smiled kindly and slipped her arm into the crook of his. “It’s a wonderful name,” she told him.

He smiled back. “Yeah, it is.” He paused and put his arm around her waist. “Don’t worry. Little Alexis will show up sometime.”

“Yeah, but not for a while,” Cat said with a sigh.

“Why not?” Harlan asked, concerned.

Cat arched an eyebrow at him. “I’m sorry. Did someone lie to you and tell you pregnancy was easy?” She frowned at his laughter. “Fine, then. You can be pregnant next time. It’s not like labor is going to be much fun either.”

Harlan kissed her cheek. “You’ll be great. If anyone could make pregnancy easy, it’s you.”

“And if I don’t make it easy?”

“Then my pity for the female race grows.” Harlan ducked as his wife swung at him.

“Well, they’re gone,” Seth announced as he came into the team room. TJ was lying on the couch with a compupad in her hand. “What are you doing?”

“Just curious as to the history of this planet, that’s all,” she answered. TJ hid a yawn behind her hand and continued to read.

Seth moved to sit beside her and gently took the compupad from her. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Teej, what do you say we do that thing we always used to do before Seamus was born?” he suggested easily.

Her eyes widened and she stared at him. “Here? Now?”

“Here. Now,” Seth agreed with a nod.

TJ blushed. “Oh, I don’t know. It would be wildly inappropriate…”

“Who would know?” he asked, lying down.

“Me. You. Probably Thelma.”

Seth laughed. “I won’t tell if you won’t, and I doubt Thelma would mention it.”

TJ thought for a moment before smiling. “Well… all right.”

“Great!” Seth cried joyously, and they both fell asleep.

“Eeeeeeeeeeee!”

“Radu, if you drop him, you’re the one who has to tell TJ!”

The Andromedan only laughed and swung the happy child into the air again, just to catch him easily as he came down. “He’s fine, Loki, don’t worry!”

“You’re going to give him brain damage.”

“He’s having fun!”

Lokaia couldn’t help but laugh, too, as Seamus did somersaults in the air. Her laughter was silenced about the time Radu caught Seamus again and the small boy threw up.

Hiding a smile, Lokaia retrieved a wipe and a bottle from the bag she carried, cleaning Seamus’ face and giving him something to drink. She gave Radu an ‘I told you so’ look which he thoroughly ignored and picked Seamus up, balancing him on her hip.

“Feel better?” Radu asked the little boy kindly.

Seamus nodded. “Go again?” he asked excitedly.

Lokaia laughed as Radu tousled Seamus’ hair. “Maybe later, okay, Shay?”

Seamus’ pouted until he realized who was holding him. “Auntie Kai! I fly?”

The Elvian smiled, about to lift him with her own telekinetic powers, but she looked around the busy station, suddenly aware that people had been watching them since Radu had thrown Seamus in the air. “Maybe when we get back to the Christa.”

The pout returned and to keep from giving in, Lokaia told Seamus to pick the next shop to explore. Unsurprisingly, the tiny human quickly located a toy store. As they walked in, Radu whispered to Lokaia, “I think he has some sort of radar for this.”

As Seamus dove into the stuffed animals, both Andromedan and Elvian looked around the rest of the store, keeping their hearing firmly centered on Seamus to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. Radu wandered through the aisles of baby clothes, baby supplies, baby accessories. He found Lokaia looking at the cribs. He smiled and came up behind her, hugging her waist. “Getting ideas?” he joked.

Lokaia was silent for a moment then shook her head. “No.”

Radu was surprised. “Really? None at all?”

Another pause before she shook her head again. “Uh-uh.”

Surprise turned to worry. “Loki… do you want kids?” She didn’t answer him. “Because, well… I think I do, and… I mean, I know how other Elvians feel about keeping their children, but I’m Andromedan! And I want--”

“Radu,” Lokaia interrupted quietly. “I wanted kids.”

“Then what’s the problem?” She didn’t answer him again. “Loki? What’s the problem? If it’s possible for us to have children--” He paused when her grip on his hands tightened. “Loki?” He turned her around slowly to face him. Her face was tear-streaked and she met his gaze with an expression of pain. Radu began to get afraid. “It is possible… isn’t it?”

Lokaia didn’t answer him. Radu was confused now. He knew he wasn’t sterile—Rosie had told him after his last physical. So that left…

He stared at his wife. The sonogram. Fighting the urge to cry himself, Radu pulled Lokaia into a tight embrace. “I’m sorry,” she whispered over and over again. Radu could only nod and hug her tighter in the middle of the crowded store.

“When are you going to tell everyone else?” Bova asked.

Rosie paused. “After Kaia tells her secret,” she answered confidently.

Bova actually smiled at her. “You’re going to quite an extreme to prove a point, Rose.”

Rosie’s bright look dimmed a little. “But it’s a good point, right? That I can keep a secret.”

“Yeah, sure, it’s a great point,” he answered slipping an arm around her waist. “You don’t need to worry about that. But they might kill you for keeping it in this long.”

Rosie grinned again. “I know! Even I’m surprised at how long I kept it in!”

“It’s probably just because you told me, though,” Bova said. He winced when Rosie looked at him. “Sorry. You know I’m working on the pessimism thing.”

Her grin returned and she kissed him. “I know, and I appreciate it so much, Bova!”

When they seperated, Bova patted her growing abdomen gently. “If you wait too long to tell them, they’re bound to get suspicious. You’re already four months along.”

“Oh, I know,” Rosie said with a smile. “But they haven’t noticed yet.”

Bova’s small smile was back. “Yeah, but I heard Suzee making fun of your new choice of clothing,” he said, fingering the extra-large t-shirt that Rosie wore. The fabric practically engulfed the petite Mercurian.

She only smiled. “They all agreed that I wouldn’t be able to keep in my own pregnancy for more than a few seconds. And four months is a lot longer than a few seconds!”

Bova laughed, short and more like a bark, but still a laugh. “Yeah, Rose, it is.”