Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Chapter Nineteen: Expecting

Nausea.

Weight gain.

Missed period.

The symptoms had all lined up.  My diagnosis was textbook-simple.

I stared at myself in the mirror.  The flutters in my stomach could be the last remnants of morning sickness, or nerves.  I tried to  gauge  what I was feeling. 
 Happy?  No.  Worried?  No.

There should be a word for being both delirious with joy and terrified beyond reason.

I flopped back down on the bed.  Reece slept on, as he did every morning, breathing a slow steady rhythm that I had memorized.
"Reece…” I said, stroking his cheek.

Reece stirred, a smile tugging the corners of his lips. “Mmm…”

“Reece, love.” I repeated, glancing at the clock out of the corner of my eye.  My class would begin in just under an hour.  Though class was the farthest thing from my mind at the moment, I did not wish to be late.

"Five more minutes…” Reece mumbled, turning over to put his face into the pillow.

I frowned and tugged his arm. “Reece, we must speak.”

Reece’s eyes shot open and his head snapped up.  “What?”
“I am pregnant.” I said.

Reece blinked twice, and his mouth dropped open.  “You… you what?”

I sighed and pushed myself up off the bed.  “Hale was right… perhaps I have ruined all my chances of ever graduating.”
Reece seemed oblivious to my mutterings.  He stared at the wall, his eyes still wide.  “You’re pregnant?

“And even if I am able to graduate… it will be difficult to find employment.  I shall have an infant to care for!”  I continued, pacing the floor.

You’re pregnant…” Reece whispered.  A small twinkle appeared in his eyes.
 “Am I even ready to be a mother?”  I whirled around to face Reece as he rose from the bed.  “My own mother was absent so often during my childhood.  I do not wish to become her… but oh how I wish she were here!  She would have warned me against acting so rashly...”
Reece silenced me with a peck to the lips.

“Stop that.” he said.  “Look… we might not have planned it this way, but that doesn’t mean we can’t handle it.”  He frowned.  “And Hale is never right.”

I let out a nervous laugh and nodded my head.  Reece wrapped his arms around me and I lay my head against his chest.  “But I worry…”

“Don’t.”  Reece said, shaking his head.  “We can figure this out.  Somehow.”  He rubbed slow circles into my back, and the small twinkle was back in his eyes.  “I bet she’ll have your eyes.”

I pursed my lips together and ran a hand over my stomach.  “What makes you believe it will be a ‘she’?”
“My wizard’s intuition.”  Reece said, wiggling his eyebrows.

I giggled, my fears momentarily forgotten.
But such fears cannot be forgotten forever.  For the first month, I grew ecstatic with anticipation.  My mind filled to the bursting with dreams and I grew drunk from all the congratulations and well-wishes.  Other than the spats of morning sickness, I felt as strong and healthy as ever.  I even dared to hope that I could carry my child to term with no interruption to my education.
Then the stretch marks appeared and the backaches began.  My feet swelled, my head ached, and my emotions went on a wild rampage.  I missed deadlines, was late for my internship, and spent the majority of my class time running to the bathroom.  Some of my professors were sympathetic, but others were not.  My grades suffered.
Daria and Nirina visited one evening just before finals, and I was a tearful horror to behold.

“I think it would be best if you took next semester off.”  Daria advised me.  “You can’t take a full credit load all the way into your third trimester.”
Oh, what did she know of trimesters?  Her child was taking root in the backyard!

“But then I will not be able to graduate in the spring!”  I sniffled.  “I wanted to walk the stage with Nirina...”
Nirina shook her head and squeezed my hand.  “Awww… no.  That tickles my scales, really.  But you’d just make me feel bad for taking so reaping long.”
I held out hope until my finals were in and I officially failed two classes.  Defeated, I told my advisor that I would not return until the following fall and went on official leave from my internship.

All winter long I sat on the couch and ate whatever I craved while reading Harlequin novels and watching soap operas.  By the time January arrived and the academic year carried on without me, I was feeling marginally better about my decision. 
Daria’s baby sprouted at the first sign of spring.  And what an adorable little sapling she was!  Daria and Lief named her Yasmin.

But her arrival only served to compound my own fears.  Holding her squirming, squalling body both kindled my heart and put my nerves on edge.  I worried that I would do something incorrectly like hold her too tight or feed her too much, and inadvertently hurt her.

“Relax!” Daria said, taking Yasmin back after I had voiced my concerns.  “You were doing just fine.  You shouldn’t worry too much.”
But I did worry.  Her words of reassurance did not comfort me, though they were precisely the words I wanted to hear. 

Only, I did not want to hear them from Daria.  I wanted to hear them from someone else.  Someone who was not present, and whose absence I was beginning to feel more and more each day.



“Monte Vista.”  Orland hissed, his finger crushing into the disconnect button on his cordless phone.  “The bastard liquidated his assets and moved to Monte Vista.

“It’s not all bad, dear.  At least we know where he went.”  Eldora patted him on the back.
Orland grunted an acknowledgement and dialed a number into the phone.  “Small blessings.  Pack your bags… we’ll take the first plane out of Dragon Valley tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”  I exchanged a worried look with Reece.
Reece stood up, shaking his head.  “You can’t leave!  You’ve been home less than a year, and it’s the longest you’ve stayed in one place since I was in high school!  Sophia’s about to give birth!  Don’t you want to see your grandkid?”
At the mention of my child, Eldora’s eyes seemed to dim with sadness.  Orland sighed, and hung his head, but pressed the phone to his ear.

“If we don’t act now, while we have a solid lead, then we give him time to slip away from us.”  Orland said, his voice low.

“But is it really that important?”  Reece’s hand clenched where it rested on the table.  “Gaia and Constantine are locked up!  Whatever Thane might have or might not have been doing for them is kind of a moot point now… isn’t it?”

“Someone who dismantles a multi-million dollar company and then flees the country has something to hide.”   Orland said firmly.  He pressed a hand to the receiver and shook his head.  “I’m sorry son.”  He put his hand down and turned from the dining room table.  “I need to book a flight to Monte Vista….”
I put my hand over Reece’s and his fingers relaxed.  He glanced down and flashed me a weak smile.  I tried to smile back, but my own heart was quickly sinking.  My weekend with my beloved in-laws was already over before it had really begun.

I waddled around the master bedroom, helping Eldora pack.  When at last her suitcase was full, she patted my protruding stomach with a few coos. 

“I expect to meet you when I get home.  A little one needs her grandmother.” Eldora lifted her head and winked at me.
“Grandmother.”  I repeated, my expression growing blank.

Reece went out to stand on the sidewalk and wave to them as they drove away, but I shuffled into the bedroom and plopped down on the bed.  After a few minutes Reece peeked his head in the doorway.

“Sophia, are you okay?” he asked.  I did not reply.  He slid into the chair by the bedside and scooted closer. “I’m pretty angry at them myself, and they’ve been doing this to me since I was a kid…”
“Not them.”  I said, shaking my head.

Reece stopped, pursing his lips together.  He scooted closer and wound his fingers through mine.  “Then, what’s the matter?”

I turned over to face him, and found myself fighting back tears as I spoke. “It’s just… it’s all overwhelming and I want… I need…”  I closed my eyes and shook my head, the tears running freely down my face.  “Oh, pestilence and murder!  I tire of aches, the fears, the constant desire to turn to her!  One of the most important experiences in my life and she should be here!  And she isn’t!
“She…?”  Reece blinked, and then his voice dropped lower.  “Oh.  Your mother.”

I breathed out and brushed at the tears at the corners of my eyes. "Yes.”

"Sophia…” Reece sighed, squeezing my hand.

I sat straight up. “I miss her. I think about her sometimes and I wonder... if she wanders the Netherworld as I did. Maybe she lay down centuries ago… and let her soul waste away into oblivion.” 
Reece’s eyes widened and he shook his head. He reached out to touch my forehead. “Oblivion? No… Sophia... she’s in a better place.”

I flinched away.  “What better place?  The Netherworld?”

Reece’s hand dropped back down to his side.  His voice lowered to little more than a whisper.  “I don’t believe that the Netherworld is all there is.”

I clenched my teeth and struggled to push myself up off the bed, swatting Reece’s hands away when he reached out to assist me.  “And what basis do you have for this belief?  Have you died?”

He watched me stride across the room to the door with a helpless expression on his face.  “It can’t be all there is, Sophia.  It just can’t be how it all ends.”
I clenched my teeth, and threw the door open.  It slammed into the wall with a thunderous bang that made Reece flinch.  “Believe it!  The Netherworld is where the soul goes to die.”
Sophia!”  Reece shouted after me, but I quickened my pace.
“Leave me alone.”  I whispered, grasping the car keys by the front door and racing out to that dreadful Jalopy by the front curb.



 Reece raced after me until he was a tiny speck in the rear-view mirror, and when he disappeared my phone rang again and again in my front pocket.  I drove aimlessly, and finally stopped at the center of town.  When I tired of driving, I parked the Jalopy and heaved myself out of the car.

My phone rang again.  I pulled it out of my pocket and shut it off with an oath.  For the moment, I just wanted to be alone.

I wandered through the plaza, and found myself trudging down the pathway to town square.  With the sun dipping low on the horizon, the park was quickly emptying of people.  A couple brushed past me, hand in hand.  Behind them, a young girl clasped the corner of the woman’s skirt.

“Mommy!  Look!” she shouted.
The sound of her sweet, innocent voice sent a stab of pain surging through my heart.  I ducked my head down.

I stopped in front of the towering golden statue.  My eyes stayed fixed on the ground, on the golden plaque inscribed at the warrior’s feet.

Sophia Carol, Heroine of Dragon Valley.
Heroine.  I sniffled and dabbed at the corners of my eyes.  Where was my mother's statue?  She had been a warrior too.  She had slain dozens of the beasts before she too tragically perished by fire.  She deserved recognition more than I.

I turned around, winding my arms around my swollen midsection.  A lone figure sitting at one of the picnic tables on the far side of the square caught my eye, and I started.

She was looking back at me.
I glanced back behind me, and then turned to face her again.  Her eyes remained fixed on me, her expression unreadable.  I took a deep breath, and took a few cautious steps in her direction.  Her eyes stayed on me, moving up as I walked closer.  My palms began to sweat.  I stopped just in front of her, and opened my mouth to speak, but said nothing.  I bit down on my lip.  What should I say?

She stared back at me, unblinking.
“Um... hello.”  I said at last, shifting uncomfortably on my feet.  “This might sound strange... but... have we... have we ever met before?”
 She was silent for a long moment.  I shifted back, biting my lip.

“So you do remember.”  she said, a dry smirk curling at the corners of her lips.
A chill crept up my spine.  Was it really possible?

“Who... who are you?” I asked.

Her smile vanished.  “I guess it was too much to hope that you would also remember my name.”

She rose to her feet, her black hair shifting over her shoulders as she did.  “But I knew you the instant I first saw you.  It was here... in this park.  Almost four years ago now.  My, my... it's miraculous how much you've accomplished in such a short amount of time.  An almost full university education, wed...”  Her eyes drifted down my form.  “... pregnant even.  Remarkable.  For a dead woman.”
My hands suddenly felt ice cold and goosebumps prickled over my arms.  I draped my arms protectively around my womb and took a step back.  Now that I looked her straight in the eye, I could see even more of the subtle differences between her and Kitsune.  Her jawline was stronger, her expressions were somehow harder.  Her face reminded me of someone else, though I could not think of who...

“Who are you?”  I asked again.  “You look like Kitsune, the prophetess of the Valley, but you are not.”
She laughed then, the corners of her lips turning up again.  “It's been so long since anyone's pointed out the resemblance to my grandmother.  I'd forgotten.”
“Grandmother?”  I repeated, my brow furrowing.  No, that was still impossible.  It had been too long.  All of Kitsune's grandchildren must have surely perished by now.
“I don't expect you to remember me.  We met so briefly.  And I was only a girl.  But I never forgot your face.  You are a difficult person to forget, Sophia Carol.  My father said so too, the first time he recognized you.”
Father.  I swallowed down a sudden surge of bile in my throat.  Who could her father have been? 
I shifted through my memories, struggling to remember the faces and the names of Kitsune's granddaughters.  Gwenivere?  No, that young woman had borne Kitsune’s famous amber eyes, I was certain of it.  Hwin?  But that little urchin had possessed red hair...  
There was only one dark-haired granddaughter of Kitsune that I could recall.  Her name had been… Tessla?  Tessa?  It was so long ago, and the memories flickered in and out of focus.
I shook my head.  “It's not possible... any granddaughters of Kitsune would be.... should be...”
She laughed again.  “Long dead.  As should you.”  She smiled then, and held out her hand.  “Why don't you come back to my apartment with me?  I can explain everything.”

I looked down at her outstretched hand.  Unease fluttered in the depth of my stomach.  Or was it my child moving?  I could no longer tell.  My instincts screamed that I could not trust this woman.  Still...  I craved answers more than anything else.

I lifted my hand and reached for hers.  Her lips curled up into a smile.  Our fingers were inches from touching.
“Sophia!”  I heard Reece's voice behind me.

I pulled my hand back and turned.  Reece raced towards me, his expression one of relief.  I smiled when I saw him, and I stepped in his direction.  Though I had run to avoid him, seeing him running towards me soothed my wayward heart.
The woman beside me let out an oath and jerked backwards.  At that moment, Reece's eyes shifted from me to her.

His eyes widened in terror.  He jerked his wand out of his tunic, light bursting from the tip.

“Sophia, get away from her!” he shouted in a panic.
“Why... what...?”  I stammered, stumbling backwards.

When I turned my head to glance back at her, the woman had a wand in her hand.  Her eyes were narrowed, and she crouched into a fighting stance.  In one lightning quick motion, she seized me by the arm.  I let out a scream, and she pressed the point of her wand into my neck.

“Take one more step, and I'll send her back to the Netherworld!”  she hissed.
“Let her go...”  Reece said, his voice shaking.

“I don't think so!  I'm the better spellcaster and you know it.  I can take off her head in less time than it takes you to cast a deflection!”

She dragged me backwards as she spoke.  My heart was pounding, my fingers clawing at her hands.  All the while my mind was reeling as I stared back at my husband with wide-eyed terror. 

Reece knew her?  How was that possible?
“I said let her go!”  Reece repeated, the end of his wand glowing molten hot.
“She's coming with me.”  The woman shouted.  A spark snapped at the end of her wand and I let out a cry of pain.  Reece flinched, his eyes widening as he stared back at me.  “So drop the wand, you sniveling little thief and I might let her live a little while longer!”

Thief.  The word ignited a flash of memory in my mind.
Quintessa.  That had been the name of Kitsune's dark-haired granddaughter.
Memories snapped into focus.  A tall, ebony haired man with ice-blue eyes who scavenged the corpses of dragons with a rusted iron sword.
When he looked at me, I felt as though a shudder ran through my soul.  His gaze had always been cold, empty.  I believed they served as a window to his black conscious.   He was the kind of man who would stroke the cheek of his child with hot dragon blood still dripping from his fingers.
 I do not believe I had ever known his name, but that did not matter.  I knew it now.  Constantine.  He had been the husband of Kitsune’s eldest daughter.  What had happened to Kitsune’s eldest and when Gaia had entered the picture to become his wife, I did not know.
But the fate of the dark haired little girl who lingered in his shadow was clear.  She had taken the youth elixir with him, and survived.  She had followed his lead as he raged a cold war against the other clans.  She had been the woman Reece had stolen the Philospher's Stone from.
“You're... Quintessa Lucian!”  I gasped out loud.

She clasped her hand over my mouth.

“Shut up!” she hissed.

Her ice blue eyes were narrowed at me.  Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, Reece surged forward, icy vapor flooding from the tip of his wand.

You shut up!”   he snapped.
Quintessa screamed, flinching backwards and letting me go.  The vapor poured over her face and icicles formed on her teeth and eyelashes.
She took off racing towards the street.  Reece bolted after her, muttering a string of curses.
At that moment, I felt as though two iron hands clenched themselves around my womb.  I doubled over, crying out.
“Reece!”  I cried.  My knees grew weak beneath me and I fell forward, my hands slamming into the pavement.  “Reece!”  I cried again, frantic.
I clenched my hands into fists on the walkway, breathing heavily.  A second surge of pain coursed from my back to the center of my stomach, and I whimpered.  All of the blood seemed to drain from my limbs, leaving me quaking with cold, uncontrollable fear.

I heard Reece’s and Quintessa’s footsteps pounding farther and farther away.  My eyes watered from pain, and dread.  I crumpled against the ground.
“Reece… please…”  I gasped, my voice barely audible to my own ears.

Warm arms wrapped around me, and I felt his lips press into the base of my neck.

“Shhh!  It’s okay.  I’ve got you.”  he whispered in my ear as he lifted me up.


The ordeal lasted twenty-six agonizing hours.  It was early morning when I finally heard the cries of my newborn daughter.  She was early, and underweight, but otherwise healthy.

Daria managed to worm her way into the team of nurses who assisted me.  She cut the umbilical cord and cleaned my daughter up shortly after she entered this world.  Then, she wrapped her in a white blanket and gave her back to me.
“Told you she would have your eyes.”  Reece said, kissing my ear.

“What are you naming her?”  Daria asked, smiling at she stared down at the newborn baby.

I exchanged a knowing smile with Reece.
“Evangeline.  Evangeline Lewis.”  I whispered.  Then I kissed my daughter’s wrinkled forehead.

10 comments:

  1. Aww… Reece’s reaction to the news was adorable!

    Poor Sophia is having such a rough time! :(

    At first when you had said babies I thought you’d been surprised with twins, lol. But Daria’s little sprout has arrived! Yays! Yasmin’s so sweet! :)

    So they’ve tracked down Thane. But I don’t like the idea of the Lewis’s leaving right now...

    Uh-oh... No! Nononono! Don’t trust her Sophia! D:

    (So that woman is Constantine’s child and Kitsune’s granddaughter; it all makes sense now! Although I am wondering what happened to Quintessa’s mother...) Good shot Reece! Now stop chasing that psycho and go help your wife!

    Aww! Hello baby Evangeline! You’ve certainly made a dramatic entrance into the world! O.O And you got the Lewis hair! :D

    Another fantastic chapter Ally! I can’t wait to see Evangeline and Yasmin grow up together! ^.^ And looking forward to seeing what else is in store!

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    1. Glad you liked that bit! I had fun writing it. =D

      Nope, no twins this time. Though if somebody wants to surprise me later, I will accept the challenge. =) I must admit, I kind of "cheated" with Yasmin. I replaced the greenish Daria-clone that popped out of the ground with a sim that had been generated in Play With Genetics. I'm sure there's a mod to get more true-to-parentage PlantSim kids, but I didn't want to bother trying to find one. So Yasmin is a cheat baby. But she's a super cute cheat baby who looks like both her parents!

      Not sure I know what happened to Quintessa's mother myself. >.< Perhaps she refused to take the youth elixir and allowed nature to take its course. Or maybe Gaia slew her when she showed up. Dunno! lol

      Yes, she got the Lewis hair! I was so happy! I wanted at least one blue-haired baby! And I can't wait to see Yasmin and Evangeline grow up together too! I look forward to putting the two adorable lil toddlers in the same frame together! And of course, getting MOAR BABIES. I shall have an army. Mwahaha!

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    2. I think twallan allows plantsims to procreate the normal way, so you can just knock her up next time with whoohooer!

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    3. I did! It’s just so sweet when a daddy is excited about a nooboo on the way. <3

      Yasmin IS a super cute baby—cheats or not! And like Blythelyre mentioned, Twallan’s Woohooer does allow regular pregnancies to be enabled for PlantSims, so if Daria and Lief have more you could always go that route. Maybe a “scientific discovery” in the story makes that sort of pregnancy possible for PlantSims? Or, if you don’t want to show Daria pregnant and keep to the sprout garden idea, you could always use MasterController’s Instant Baby. :)

      Given Constantine and Gaia’s personalities, my first thought was that one or the other killed Quintessa’s mother—or maybe Quintessa herself was responsible!—but there are definitely a lot of other things that could’ve happened. And there have been quite a few things in my own story that I didn’t know about until MUCH later, lol. I imagine you’ll figure it out if it ever becomes relevant. Until then, I think it’s fun to speculate on what might have happened with her. I love digging into characters’ histories and trying to determine how things that happened in the past affect the present. Bet you already knew that though! xD

      Yays for blue-haired babies! And Evangeline (love that name, btw) and Yasmin playing together as toddlers will be so adorable; I can hardly wait! xD And yesss! MOAR BABIES will be awesome! Maybe even... QUADS?! :P

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    4. Thanks Taina! You would think after having Master Controller in my game all this time I would know that... but I don't. *blush* Heh...

      ... I also didn't know I could use it to get an instant-baby! Wow. I should go read the manual for that thing or something. I might try that route! Now would the baby come out green? That's my only concern. 0.0

      Ah, yes! Quintessa could also be responsible! lol, I also love digging into character histories, and I kinda figured you did too! Of course, I also might get sidetracked on a character's history... you ever do that?

      Omigosh I LURVE the name Evangeline. It's highlighted with a big star in my baby names book. lol I'm glad you love it too! There will be pictures of deh babies together! Though I don't think I'll dwell much on the toddler years (even though they're cute!), I'd like to keep things moving.

      Err... Quads? (0.0 <- horror face!) Heh heh... well maybe... if I lose my mind.

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    5. With MC and Instant Baby, two PlantSims that you’ve edited to have different colored skins like Daria and Lief will produce instant babies with skins like their parents—not green—but the babies will be human. However, you can simply use MC to add the PlantSim occult type. The only thing is, you have to change the babies’ occult status to PlantSim while they are still infants; if you wait till after they age up to change their status, they will get the traditional green PlantSim skin and yellow eyes when they turn. That’s how it worked with my edited Plantsims anyway.

      Oh, I am easily sidetracked by many things, lol! But yeah, more often than not, I find myself getting sidetracked by a character’s history when writing. I end up editing out the nonessential details later, but knowing my characters’ histories makes it easier to predict what they would logically do in present circumstances, so I think it’s time well spent. And I try to make that tendency of mine work for me by revealing any pertinent history a bit at a time as a story progresses. For example, while I must move forward in the present with Maia having babies and raising her children in my BC, I can also weave a nonlinear narrative around the challenge by bringing up correlating past events via memories, dreams and flashbacks, which helps keep me from getting bored with something that would otherwise be very static and predictable. And getting sidetracked on a backstory can also produce useful material for other stories if it gets edited out of my current one—BONUS!

      I actually almost used the name Evangeline for one of Maia’s kids already, but she and Alexander had only the one girl and I thought Bronwyn sounded better with Blake. I’ve been going with more themed names since then, but once Maia ends up in Aurora Skies, I want to put Evangeline back in the rotation of potentials. It’s a beautiful name and it always brings Longfellow’s poem to mind.

      Well, you DID say you were going to have an army, lol. But yeah, quads are a handful, haha.

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    6. Wow, I need to try this route. I was hoping there would be a better way to get a PlantSim baby that looked like its parents. Thanks Star!

      I am in total agreement! Creative juices are never wasted. And I think your tendency to create character history and having the whole backstory and overarching plot is what makes your BC so great. Lots of baby challenges get dull pretty quick!

      Yeeees! You should put Evangeline back in the rotation in Aurora Skies! It will be a beautiful name for a Maia baby! Though I do love all the names you've been picking out so far. I think of Longfellow's poem too!

      Weeeellll when I said "army," I was thinking maybe an army I'd have one at a time.... lol I don't know how many kids I'll go for. Maybe I'll just use Risky Woohoo and see how many they make! =D

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    7. Welcomes! I hope it makes things a bit easier for you!

      Exactly! And thank you! :) Even so, I’ll admit it did take awhile for me to figure out where my challenge was going, but things flow better now that I know how most of the major things will come out. I still alter some plans as I go though. Originally, the Delling brothers were going to be part of Tessa’s scheme to get her hands on a vamp baby, until I decided that Tessa controlling Hamilton and having the Delling brothers conspiring against her worked better for the way I wanted the story to go. I also didn’t know that Tessa had ties with Kadru until a couple chapters before it happened, and Rin was just a random pet Maia picked up until I realized how I could give him an important role by warning her. I even altered some of the ending of Part 3 just last night while I was falling asleep, lol! Point is, I love playing “what if”, and although my preference is to stick to my pre-planned plots because it gives me direction, I also like surprises. I try to be flexible if I think something might work better another way and the characters could conceivably respond the way I’d need them to, based on what I know of their past histories. It keeps me entertained, and hopefully the written result does the same for my readership. I think BC’s are abandoned due to boredom more than any other reason, and I want to avoid that pitfall with mine as much as possible while still keeping to the challenge.

      I think I will! With the way I have AS imagined, I think some older, more classic names will be very suitable. I shall have to compile a new list, which means researching more names—YAYS! xD

      Lol, I can totally understand not wanting to be overwhelmed with quads! I noticed that the other BMTL’s I’ve read seem to mostly stick to the “heir and a spare” plan, so it’s cool that you may do things differently. I really like the Risky Woohoo idea! And I see you mentioned that you’ve aged Eva up! Excitings! I can’t wait to see her as an adorable toddler! :D

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  2. Everything starguru said!

    Sophia is so much stronger than she gives herself credit for! And baby Eva looks so darn cute!!!

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    1. Thanks Taina!

      She really is! I was pretty surprised by her traits given her backstory with the statue and all, but then I thought that it might make for a good reluctant hero dynamic. And YEEEEESSS! Baby Eva is super cute! I've aged her up to a toddler in game already and she's adorable beyond measure!

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