Kalos had noticed a few things were… different lately. Especially where Becca was concerned. The little gorgon watched from the floor of her room as Becca ran into the room joined to Kalos’ and threw up in the bathroom.

It wasn’t the first time. It was the first time she’d had a disembodied and floating hand that followed her.

The day before it was satyr legs.

As much as she had hoped that Becca might spontaneously join the gorgon, that seemed unlikely. It was far more likely that she was dying.

Kalos went back to drawing her picture. There was a Mansion and a Becca and a very, very large Gawain. A little Beau and a Chase and a dot of pink that represented herself. A perfect family.

She scribbled a little black hole that grew larger and larger until it started to swallow the Mansion.

She would miss Becca.

Knowing she was carrying her and Gawain’s baby might have single-handedly topped the amazing feelings Becca had experienced in her life. It was the feeling that made the randomized mutations and the morning sickness worth dealing with.

That said, throwing up still sucked.

Fortunately, the mutation du jour was a freckled, disembodied hand that seemed to respond to Rebecca’s intentions… more or less. Right now, it was dutifully holding Becca’s hair out of her face. She’d had worse.

Initially, the couple was keeping the news of their impending arrival quiet until they were confident things were safe and healthy. Unfortunately, due to a recent snafu with Serena, the news had sort of made it to the internet. Despite Becca deleting the saved stream, the rumor and clip were making the grounds. Gossip was fast.

And so, after a challenging confession to Gawain, they got ahead of the news and told the people who mattered. Close friends and family. All but one now.

They were dancing around this one because Kalos had… hangups. About sex, about babies, and about the idea of being replaced. They needed to handle this delicately, but also talk to her before she heard about the pregnancy elsewhere. As she transitioned from the toilet to the sink and her third hand tried to grab the mouthwash, she wondered how long they could wait.

The free hand tried to pour a small dose of mouthwash into a cup and spilled a quarter of the bottle on Becca. Sighing, she accepted this as her punishment for considering further procrastination. She used her trustworthy hands to finish up, leaving the spare hand on her shoulder in time-out.

Returning to the bedroom, Becca pulled off her damp shirt and dug through a drawer for a t-shirt. Putting it on, she stared at Gawain. ”Ah think it’s time, Gawain. We got tae tell her. Ah hae nae classes today, yer nae workin’ and this is only gang tae gie harder tae explain.”

Gawain was still half asleep when he sensed Becca getting up and bolting for the bathroom. Morning sickness was a common occurrence these days. Gawain rolled over, still groggy from after-midnight sleep; ever since baby started manifesting random mutations, they both stayed up every night for the midnight shifting, to avoid uncomfortable surprises. Today... what was it again?... Gawain blinked, and untangled himself from the covers by the time Becca emerged from the bathroom again.

Right. Floating hand.

>>”Ah think it’s time, Gawain. We got tae tell her. Ah hae nae classes today, yer nae workin’ and this is only gang tae gie harder tae explain.”

Gawain sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed, combing hair out if his eyes. "You're probably right."

Kalos was the last of the important people to find out about this. Well... the important people within reach. Mirror's mom was off the radar again, but they planned to tell her as soon as she resurfaced.

Gawain reached out, grabbing Becca's hips to pull her closer.

"Good morning, kiddo" he smirked, talking to her belly "A toddler with an extra floating hand is gonna be a babyproofing nightmare. Well done."

It was still kinda surreal that he had a baby in there.

"Alright, let's do this" he said finally, getting up and stretching, looking for a clean shirt to put on before they headed to Kalos' room. She was in there, working on a drawing of some sort. Gawain knocked on the door frame.

"Hey, Kalos? Can we talk to you about something?..."

She heard Becca's stilted accent, but not the words. She and Gawain spoke quietly. Privately. Kalos drew a fish in the sky of the Mansion.

She wasn't included in every adult conversation, but they were clearly gearing up to talk to her. Working up their courage to tell her goodbye probably. Her orange crayon snapped and she abandoned it.

> "Hey, Kalos? Can we talk to you about something?..."

Kalos did not realize how hard her heart had been beating since she'd realized Becca's illness. They obviously wanted to talk about it, but Kalos did not. Gawain had said they wouldn't make her do what she didn't want to do here.

"No."

She abandoned her picture and went for the door to her room. Hopefully with them trying to come in the shared door, she could get out the front door without issue.

Rebecca let herself be pulled in, because this was going to be a challenging talk and she would not mind a little fluff before dealing with it. Gawain spoke to her belly and Rebecca gasped. "Noo hey, we dinnae know fer certain the baby'll manifest these powers. Maybe we'll be lucky. Positive Thouchts." Because they were known for their stellar luck.

Well, it was a nice moment, but now it was time to be adults. They could do this; Becca followed Gawain into the room, bracing herself.

> "Hey, Kalos? Can we talk to you about something?..."

> "No."

Oh, if only it were that easy. Watching Kalos get up and move toward the other door, Rebecca flicked her wrist to push the doorknob, closing the door so she could hold the knob in place. Was the wrist flick necessary? Probably not, but she liked telegraphing her powers for Kalos's benefit so she knew what was happening. The girl was not big on surprises.

Another reason this was going to be challenging. "Ah'm sorry Kalos, bit Ah think we hae tae talk anyway. We hae big news we want ye tae know—good news.” She figured she should clarify that early. Frame this in a positive light.

>> "Noo hey, we dinnae know fer certain the baby'll manifest these powers. Maybe we'll be lucky. Positive Thouchts."

"We are already lucky" Gawain grinned. Despite the looming task of breaking the baby news to Kalos, he was feeling happy about the whole thing. As usual.

Kalos, on the other hand, definitely wasn't. She bolted for the door as soon as they wanted to talk. Becca blocked the way of escape, and Gawain walked in, taking a seat to keep from looming over the small kid.

>>"Ah'm sorry Kalos, bit Ah think we hae tae talk anyway. We hae big news we want ye tae know—good news.”

"You are not in trouble, kid." Gawain smiled, motioning for Kalos to walk back to them "We just want to share... um. Something exciting with you."

The hand closed her door. Becca was over there. The hand was over here. That was so unexpected that Kalos stood and stared at it for a full, precious second. A second totally wasted on not escaping in another way. She pivoted toward the window as Becca claimed good news.

They had promised she wouldn't have to, now they were saying she had to.

Gawain was there sinking into a sit and assuring her, like he always did, that she was not in trouble. She had her hands in the curtains because she still didn't believe them. Kalos glowered between Becca, who had an extra hand today and was the focus of this new problem, and Gawain who was as Gawain as he always was. If this was some stupid 'silver-lining' pep talk she was going to start throwing things.

"How can this be good news if you are both here and you won't just say it? People start with good news. This is a ambush." She flinched at the harshness of her own tone. She hadn't meant for it to come out like that, but if Becca was going to die why would any of them be happy about that?

Gawain was on board with the plan to convince Kalos the pregnancy was a good thing, but Kalos was skeptical. Rebecca felt for her, because Kalos spent most of her life with nothing but bad news and misfortune. She knew Gawain and Becca cared about her, but it seemed she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Many of the gorgons wondered if the Mansion was too good to be true, and that hurt to watch.

And so, they wanted to tread lightly and keep her from worrying. They were, unsurprisingly, failing. "It's guid news, we promise. It's jist... very unexpected news, sae we wanted tae share it wi' ye and help ye understand it."

Standing there watching as the coral girl protected herself with curtains, Becca softened. They should have rehearsed this; maybe even scripted it. "Sae ye know Gawain and Ah loove each aither. And as Gawain told me, ye know we dae... things people who loove each aither dae." She had heard how swimingly that talk went, so they would gloss over that topic. "And when people are in loove, they start makin' big decisions abit life together."

She would let Gawain take things from there, because she was struggling to think of the right way to break their news.

Kalos moved away from the door, and towards the window. Gawain was ready to use the reflection to stop her from climbing out if necessary. She stopped at the curtains, thankfully, but did not look the least bit convinced.

>>"How can this be good news if you are both here and you won't just say it? People start with good news. This is a ambush."

It really was. They should have planned this better. Gawain looked at Becca.

>>"Sae ye know Gawain and Ah loove each aither. And as Gawain told me, ye know we dae... things people who loove each aither dae. And when people are in loove, they start makin' big decisions abit life together."

Well, this was... going in a direction. Some direction. Gawain watched Kalos closely, in case she decided to flee anyway, and looking for signs of what she was thinking, hearing all that. She had a mild look of disgust at the mention of the previous talk. She probably did not want to be reminded of that.

"Kalos knows how babies are made" he noted with a small smile. They had player around enough. "Kalos... Becca's pregnant. We are going to have a baby."

Kalos sometimes got a bit lost when Becca was talking. It was more than the accent, though she thought herself quite clever for understanding the accent at all. It was the fact that Becca sometimes got lost when she talked. She never just got to the point, she always had a justification or a story. Kalos was sure that she'd gotten lost this time. Love was great and all, and they could do their love all by themselves— they certainly didn't need Kalos' approval for that or even to talk about it any further. She already knew. But... big decisions? How did that factor...?

> "Kalos knows how babies are made"

Her lips parted, from grim and skeptical to surprised and vulnerable all in one breath.

Pregnant.

She had to sit down or risk accidentally ripping her curtains off the rod, so Kalos sat straight where she was.

"I- I-" No. She had been so sure that she'd had it figured out. And she'd already decided that she wouldn't cry when Becca died. But now Becca wasn't dying, it was worse. Her eyes felt like they were being pricked by little evil spirits and she had to open her eyes wide to keep the extra liquid they accrued from spilling over. "I thought you liked me. I thought... we... could be a fam-" a family.

Nope. Her ability to speak was stolen. She was officially being replaced.

Kalos sobbed.

Rebecca liked words. She was an English teacher. She made ViewTube videos where she sometimes talked at her camera for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. Occasionally, when she tried explaining something, she overexplained, obfuscated, and danced around the point. Fortunately, Gawain was always the more direct member of their coupling. He came clean to Kalos and it was out there.

And Kalos looked crestfallen. She was lost and upset, and when the words failed, replaced with sobs, Rebecca's heart broke.

The response was immediate. Rebecca took swift steps over to the girl of coral and wrapped her arms around the upset teen. "Kalos, we dae. Ye are part of our family. Me havin' a baby disnae change any ay 'at." The last thing Becca wanted Kalos to feel was abandoned, because this was her home. She found it with Gawain and then with Becca, and who would dare take that from her?

Kalos sat hard. At first Gawain thought it was just surprise, maybe even relief, but then he noticed the distress in her face, and the tears in her eyes.
Oh no.

>>"I- I- I thought you liked me. I thought... we... could be a fam-"

Oh. No.

Becca moved first, putting her arms around the coral girl. Poor Kalos. There was no good way to explain this to her, but they had to try anyway.

>>"Kalos, we dae. Ye are part of our family. Me havin' a baby disnae change any ay 'at."

Gawain moved to Kalos' other side, also putting an arm around her. She felt so small, all curled up and sad like that.

"Hey. Hey! We are a family, Kalos. That's why we are telling you. Because this baby is also going to be a part of the family. You are going to be like... a big sister? Or an aunt?"

She got hugs. She liked hugs, but hugs were as temporary a fix as their promises. "You can't know.” She protested from within the cocoon of arms and between messy sobs. She wasn’t struggling physically, but totally weighed down inside. Her arms rested over her knees and her forehead buried against her arms which left the back tufting curls of her hair to stick straight up.

"Everything changes. I’ve seen it. Babies change it all. The baby is your world."

And the very quiet, selfish part of her knew. Kalos was just extra.

There were no promises in this world. Nothing permanent, especially happiness. She knew that. She just hadn’t wanted to believe it.

At least Becca wasn’t dying. She sobbed anew just thinking about it.

Watching Kalos cry was the kind of sight that wounded your soul. Becca just wanted to see this girl happy, because she deserved it. They went straight to Kalos because they wanted her to know they were here for her. She may doubt it, but a new baby would not leave her cast out.

"Oh Kalos, honey. Babies dae change things, but it disnae change hoo we feel abit ye." Rebecca rested a hand on Kalos's shoulder. "Ye were part ay our family first. We loove ye, Kalos."

After moving into the Mansion, Kalos was just part of Becca's everyday life. She struggled to imagine that life without the pink child around to watch cartoons and play Pokemon with her. Kalos had come far from the girl trying to survive on the streets and Becca was lucky to be in her life. A baby would not change that. "And th' baby will loove ye, tay. Ye'll be who they look up tae."

They both held Kalos as she sobbed, trying to come to terms with the news that she did not see as happy at all. Gawain felt his heart drop, hearing her cry. He'd never wanted to cause pain to the little coral girl, who had been through so much loss already. Would she ever believe that she could have a happy family that won't abandon her?...

>>"You can't know. Everything changes. I’ve seen it. Babies change it all. The baby is your world."

Kalos had never had a good opinion on babies. And she was not wrong about all of that, exactly. Gawain bit his lips, and Becca reacted first.

>>"Oh Kalos, honey. Babies dae change things, but it disnae change hoo we feel abit ye. Ye were part ay our family first. We loove ye, Kalos."

"A lot of things will change for sure. But not us." Gawain nodded, rubbing his hand gently on Kalos' shoulder.

>>"And th' baby will loove ye, tay. Ye'll be who they look up tae."

"We don't want to do this without you, kid" Gawain added, hoping that Kalos was paying attention. If she didn't understand now, maybe the words would sink in later.