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"Hello, Shana? It's Howard."

"Ah, hello Howard! How's it going?"

"It's going well, everyone's basically in good spirits. Spring break was actually very good for Kira, she's been much happier in the month or so since then than before then. Give my thanks again to Marcus and his friends for letting the younger ones come with them."

"I will! It certainly gave me a nice break as well, it's nice to have the house to yourself for a while, isn't it?"

"It is, it is; lets you focus on work a bit better without kids distracting you, too."

"Oh, definitely."

"Was actually calling to phone in a work-related favor, if I may."

"As long as it doesn't include Kira getting Zane pregnant!"

"Hehheh trust me, I don't think that'll be a problem! Anyway, I've had a temporary contract since the beginning of the year, and my clients-slash-bosses want me to travel to a meeting in Smallville on the 7th - business in the morning, a Dragons game in the evening, so I'm thinking the flight I take back to Hassenburg won't be until Friday midday. Keith and Kira can keep each other in line and feed themselves, so I was just hoping you could call in and check on them a few times. Kira will be missing company during the day, and it might be good to make sure Keith is up in time to get on the bus Friday morning."

"Ah... Well, I can definitely call, sure! If you're hoping to get someone on-call in case you want someone to come over, though, Marcus would be the better option since I've actually got travel plans myself two weeks from now."

"Oh... really?"

"Yeah... Officially it's a "company retreat", but it's essentially a girl's road trip as the four of us who started our little company have our pre-summer vacation - since all of us are busy dealing with our kids during summer itself, you know."

"Riiiight... I remember you mentioning that sort of thing in the past, now. Well, that makes things a little more difficult... But you said Marcus will be around in case Keith and Kira need something?"

"Yeah, as far as I know he doesn't have anything planned with his friends, and I can ask to make sure he keeps his schedule open. In fact, I think his finals start the following Wednesday, come to think of it, so he shouldn't be doing anything crazy anyway..."

"Okay... I'm just now thinking that neither of us being home might be an issue is case the kit comes early."

"Ooooo... How early would that be?"

"Uh, lemme think about that for a moment... Week thirty-three, I think? Thirty-five?"

"Hmm... Definitely early, but I guess not completely out of the picture. No point in worrying too much about it, though..."

"I guess... Well, thanks for talking, Shana! Hopefully everything works out as expected."

"I'm sure it will. Talk to you later, then!"

---

"Hi, Zane?"

"Hi Kira! What's up? You sound a little shaken."

"Just had another darn Braxton-Hicks episode. I know false labour is completely normal and rather irregular, but I'm really getting tired of it."

"Aw, sorry hun..."

"It does not help that I'm a little scared for this week."

"Ah, understandable..."

"I mean, I know Marcus will be fine for Thursday and Friday, but it still doesn't quite feel right to have neither of our parents in town at any point with me now a fair amount into my third trimester."

"I know it's impossible to tell, but do you feel at all, sixth sense or anything, that our kid is coming soon?"

"I... I honestly don't know. Fear says yes, both because I'm apparently likelier to deliver early just from being so young, and also because this false labour is really throwing me for a loop... You know how they say you can tell false labour from real labour partially because the contractions don't get more frequent? Well, for any single episode, that's been true for me, and the cramp-like feelings eventually fade, but the episodes themselves are becoming more frequent! They started coming less than once a week, then about once a week, and now I'm thinking they're starting twice a week now. It's just really unnerving, you know?"

"Well... To be completely honest, I don't know and can't know, but I understand what you're saying... I'm really sorry Kira, I wish I could help you feel better and get through this easily! Just don't let the fear get to you. I mean, how unlikely is it that our kid decides it wants out in the exact window our parents aren't there? It's not like either of us has bad karma coming our way."

"I guess..."

"I know there's not much I can help you with at this point, but do you want me to put my mom on to rant with? Or have you tried calling Laine? She's supposed to pop really soon, right? I'm sure you two could relax through commiseration."

"Oh! I hadn't thought of calling Laine... Yeah, she's supposed to be due Tuesday, if I remember correctly. I haven't heard announcements from her or Kenneth recently, so I'm wondering if she might actually be a little late. But that's a good idea, I should ask how she's doing. We can talk girl stuff!"

"Hehheh glad I could get you sounding like you're in a better mood!"

"Misery loves company!"

"Aw, don't say it like that! Love you."

"Love you too! Talk to ya later! Gonna go bother Laine now, heehee."

---

"Hello, Kira? This is Kent Clarke. I'm not disturbing anything, am I?"

"Oh! Hi Kent. Nothing major, I'm just out on an afternoon walk. What's up? Laine's usually the one to call me about random stuff."

"Yeah, I know she likes talking to you. Thanks for calling Saturday, by the way, she was so tickled. Anyway, since you two had talked so much about how you were doing, she thought it would be right for me to call you and let you know she's given birth!"

"Oh! Wow, congratulations! That's, what, right on time, isn't it?"

"Yeah! I know, right? Popped out right on May 5th, not a day sooner or later!"

"So was it an easy birth, then?"

"Well, pretty much, yeah! She yelled at me to get out of the delivery room when the pup started really coming out, so I didn't get to be there for the birth itself, but they called me back in from the labour room maybe ten minutes later."

"Oh wow, yeah that's pretty quick."

"Especially for a first-time mom, apparently... Laine did amazingly. For it being so quick, though, she lost more blood than they were expecting and might've pulled something, too, so they're going to keep her at least forty-eight hours instead of the more expected twenty-four to thirty-six."

"Oh, geez... She's okay though, right?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine, it's all minor stuff. She's a tough 'yena girl, too, she never stays down long. It works out nicely enough, actually, since the kid only got a middling Apgar score, so they're saying to think of keeping him a day longer than normal as well."

"Just for observation, I hope?"

"Yeah, just for observation, he seems like he's in perfect health as well, just a little slow getting up to speed coming out."

"Well, that's good. How does it feel being a new dad?"

"It hasn't sunk in yet at all! Gonna be weird taking care of the house by myself the next two or three days, getting all the last-minute preparations done."

"I bet. Oh, how long was the labour?"

"Like the birth itself, pretty short. Early labor was only about five hours, and the active labour another three. Laine didn't wake up much earlier than normal today."

"Oh, that's nice, I thought first-time moms usually were on the longer side."

"Me too, but don't tell Laine she had it easy! Maybe once she has her nap, she'll be better, but she did yell me out of the delivery room, after all, haha."

"I guess! So are you gonna celebrate at all?"

"One of the guys at Emiliano's said they're bringing me and Laine a "care package" on top of volunteering to cook for us once or twice in the next week or two, but that's about it. Laine said she hopes the care package includes some of her favorite hard cider. OHSHITWAIT did I say hard? I meant sparkling, yeah..."

"HAHA No worries, I'm not THAT impressionable - no rush to drink."

"Well, good to know... I forget how young you are sometimes. That's a compliment, by the way."

"Taken as such! Anyway, congrats on being a new dad! Anything else you wanted to chat about?"

"Nope, that's about it! Just thought you would enjoy the news."

"I do, thank you!"

"I'm sure Laine will want to call you herself sometime in the next several days, maybe when we finally get home on Friday."

"Okay! Tell her congrats from me as well."

"I will! Talk to you later."