Lee was very uneasy about bringing Alice into the city. Especially after their trip to the zoo, and the Haywire scare they had had there, Lee did not want her daughter around many people. The fewer, the better, and even better than that, people that Lee knew.

But Alice was so excited about this art class, and Lee didn't exactly have any real reason to not let her go beyond her worry - it was for school, after all - that she didn't exactly have a choice but to bring Alice to Pax Academy. Had no choice, in part, because Tarin was stuck at the school teaching classes of his own that day.

By the time they reached the doors into Pax Academy, Alice was practically bouncing. It was only Lee's grip on her daughter's hand that kept the six year old from running ahead.

"Relax, sweetie," Lee said as she reached out to pull the door open for them. "They're not going to start class early if you run there."

"But mummy, I have to get everything ready!" Alice claimed, pulling on her mother's hand slightly as she made her way in the door, much too slow for her liking.

Raina was just coming in from her doctor's appointment with the good news that her pregnancy was going along exactly as it would for a human. She'd have to go in for more tests more frequently than most women but so far so good and she was elated about telling Rupert.

When she got in the door and headed toward the main office - binders in hand for her meetings- she passed a familiar woman and a familiar little girl. "Alice!" she spun around to face the pair with an apologetic look on her face for passing them by int he first place. "Lee!" she exclaimed. "I completley forgot! Rupert told me you two were likely to come in today!"

She was seriously glowing here and though an average person might miss it a woman who'd already had a child might not. She grinned from ear to ear excited to see the two- she hadn't seen Alice in a while and rarely saw Lee. She always tried to give Rupert and Alice their special space but when she thought she'd never be able to have children Raina really loved having Alice come to visit.

"How are you both feeling today?" she asked. "Someone looks excited!"

Lee tensed slightly when she heard her daughter's name being called. She didn't recognize the voice, and it didn't sound like another child calling, and Lee also didn't recognize anyone's energy around them other than Alice herself, so who could it be calling to the six-year-old?

The tenseness eased when Lee turned and saw Raina moving toward them, a happy grin on her face. The woman was the wife of Alice's godfather, Rupert Kelley, and also a mutant, and there were times when Lee couldn't help but wonder if it had been Alice's very existence that had brought Rupert and Raina together. Yet another miracle of the young girl.

Now wasn't the time to be wondering about that, though. But before Lee could answer any of Raina's questions, Alice was for them.

"We're having art class today!" Alice exclaimed, bouncing even more if possible while remaining in her mother's hand.

"And of course, no one would let me hear the end of it if I let her miss such a special art class," Lee explained with a slight roll of her eyes, referring to not only the child, but both of their husbands as well.

But as she was speaking, Lee noticed that Raina was grinning, much more than she normally did, more than Lee thought she had ever seen the other woman smile, as if the happiness was simply radiating out from her. Was that what everyone had expected her to look like, rather than the fear and terror that had been an almost constant through her pregnancy with Alice?

Cocking her head to the side for a moment, Lee looked at Raina before turning to look down at her daughter. "Why don't you run along?" Lee asked Alice. "I want to talk to Raina for a bit, and we don't want you to be late, now do we? I'll be there in a bit to see your picture, ok?"

"We're sculpting today," Alice said, as if that explained everything about why she was so excited. But despite her apparent annoyance with her mother, Alice was already pulling her hand free and heading down the hallway quickly.

"She's growing up too fast," Lee sighed before she turned back to Raina. "So what's the big news if you don't mind me prying?"

Raina gave a laugh as Alice explained about her day. "And how is Tarin?" she asked. "I hope well. I hadn't heard anything from Rupert latley but to be honest I hadn't been feeling well myself and a little pre-occupied." When Alice seemed to not be able to wait any longer and a curious look seem to appear on Lee's face, Lee sent Alice along- a bold move for a woman protective of her child the way Lee was.

Raina stared after Alice as she lead the way to her classroom and turned her attention to Lee who had obviously not wanted little ears to pry.

""So what's the big news if you don't mind me prying?"

Raina blushed a little. "Rupe always said I could be read like a book," she laughed musically. "Well, I just had a really good doctors appointment, much better than I thought it would be... and actually... welll..." she couldn't stop the little qwiver in her voice and being the emotional woman that she was hearing herself qwiver made her face get red and the tears start to well up again. "Rupert and I found out this morning, and the doctor just confirmed it... that despite all odds and in the healthiest way.. we are indeed 9 weeks pregnant."

She seemed to drift away to another planet for just a second as her brain filled with ideas and images of the future. She pulled her hands to her cheeks. "Sorry, I don't know if it's the extra hormones making me like this or if this is just me." she sniffled a little along with a laugh.

"No news is good news, I guess?" Lee asked with a slight shrug when Raina mentioned that she hadn't heard anything from Rupert about Tarin in a while. "But he's good. Trying to convince me to take a vacation."

But once Raina started speaking after Alice had run off to class, Lee stared at her, she couldn't help it. The happiness in her voice, on her face, the tears creeping into her eyes there at the end... That was how a woman was supposed to react, at least at some point, to being pregnant, not with the worry and fear that had fill her while she had been pregnant. That, at least in part, had to be why DocProf had given her such a hard time about relaxing.

As Raina finished, apologizing for how she was acting, Lee smiled at her. "Don't worry, it must be the hormones. I think Tarin thought I'd gone a little crazy when I was pregnant with Alice." That, depending on the day, was a bit of an understatement, and Lee thought she recalled a conversation with Rupert she'd overhead that included the words 'completely insane'.

"But congratulations, Raina!" Lee said, a smile on her face as she reached out to give the other woman a hug. Lee had gotten over at least most of her touching issues years earlier. "That's wonderful!"

After ending the hug, Lee took a quick look around, and turned back to Raina with a grin on her face. "Don't tell him I actually said this, but Rup will make a great father. He's done wonderful as Alice's godfather."

Raina was surprised when Lee hugged her but she happily accepted. She thought Lee was one of the bravest women she'd known in how she dealt with Alice's birth and made a face when she'd heard Tarin possibly may have said she was crazy.
"It's still absolutley scary!" she admitted. "We don't know the baby's gender, if it's a mutant, or not- But I'm thinking he or she may not be because statistically it's stronger when both parents are mutants or if the Father is because he's the one who's got the gene. SO long as Rupe doesn't have any fuzzy white ears or something of the sort I suppose I'll be fine."

She smiled when Lee said he'd be a great father. 'Just seeing the way he is with the youth here will make me agree." she said with a smile. "I admit I'd be worried if he was still out there as a cop, but working with these kids I can handle."

She looked to the clock "Oh, Lee, I've got to make some meetings with some parents..." she added. "I'm excited but I've still got responsabilities while this one stays all warm in there." she patted her belly. "You're the first person I've told- aside from Rupe!" she grinned with obvious love for her husband. "Please tell Tarin for us " She gave the woman a sincere smile

Though she said it was scary, Raina appeared to be rambling like crazy in excitement, going on about how they didn't know whether it was a boy or girl, human or mutant.

That seemed to be the end of it, though. Raina was here to work, after all, she was one of the teachers at the school, and apparently had some meetings to head off to.

"Again, congratulations," Lee said with a smile. Despite how worried she had been about her own pregnancy years earlier, she was still very happy for Raina and Rupert. "And I'll tell Tarin. I'm sure he'll be thrilled for you, too."

Waiting for the other woman to head toward her office, Lee continued down the hall following the direction her daughter had gone. Now that she had solved the mystery of Raina's expression, she was impatient to get Alice back in her sight again; other than around the mansion when she was playing with some of the other children, Lee rarely let her daughter out of her sight if she wasn't with Tarin or Rupert. Her heels clicking on the floor, Lee reached the door to the Art room and slipped in quietly.