Chapter Seventy Five

As Dory's pregnancy progressed, she spent a lot of time pottering quietly around the garden.  She enjoyed spending the time outdoors but was happy to stay close to home while she was expecting.

One day, after she'd finished out in the garden, she had a telephone call from the local cafe/grocery shop.  They had some seeds they thought she might be interested in and would be happy to exchange them for some produce.  When she got there, Dory realised these were seeds to some of the more exotic plants her grandfather used to grow and made them promise to let her know if they got any more in stock.

Mira received an invitation to a party from her old friend Quynh and left Dory and Pete to their own devices while she reconnected.

The two of them spent a quiet night in, Dory enjoyed relaxing in the rocking chair, it seemed to soothe the baby she was carrying, while Pete had to concentrate on some of his medical journals.

After a while, Dory stopped rocking and joined her husband on the settee, while he studied for work, she read some parenting books on her tablet.

Neither of them noticed the odd visitor outside, and whoever she was she made no attempt to get into the house or indeed disturb anyone at all.

Although Dory had been tending the small beehive for a while, Pete refused to allow her to do so while she was pregnant as he was concerned at the effect a bee sting might have on her in her condition.   Instead he took over that duty and soon found himself regretting it somewhat.

When he had recovered from the bee attack, he joined Dory on the bench outside and they both spent time reading up on childcare and pregnancy.

Unfortunately, while Dory's work was freelance and she could put it on hold during her pregnancy, Pete was still required to go into work.  He wasn't entirely happy when one of the jobs he was given was to go over to an abandoned shack and give medical treatment to a number of very shady looking characters.  He was even less happy when he thought he caught a fleeting glimpse of someone who looked familiar, but he couldn't quite identify them.

Mira was still working, and she arranged to meet her youngest son in one of the local bars one afternoon after she finished work.  They started off playing a quick game of shuffleboard, but Dyan soon called a stop to that when he realised his mother could still beat him.

They then spent some time catching up on news.  The relationship between Dory and Dyan was so noneexistent that, depsite them being twins, she hadn't bothered to let him know she was pregnant.  Dyan did have some exciting news for his mother too.  He had been dating Joey McKinley and they were pretty serious.

"You're going to be a grandma several times over Mum, what with Kariny's kid over in Shang Simla, the baby you tell me Dory's expecting and Joey's expecting my child too.  We've been to see the doctors at the hospital and she's going to have a baby girl - we're planning on calling her Jenny."

Mira was thrilled to hear about another coming grandchild and immediately showered Dyan with gifts for the baby, before demanding to know when he and Joey would be getting married.

"Well, I know you want another big wedding, but honestly, neither of us are in any rush to actually get married.  We're quite happy as we are and we've not managed to find anywhere to live together yet."

Mira swallowed her disappointment at the news and turned the conversation to different topics.  Her job had been going well and she was a well known in her profession for her ability to analyse DNA, but she was getting older and was considering retiring.

She did however grill Dyan on whether he'd had any strange occurrances happening around him or Joey, but he wasn't able to give her any more information that Nia had.  Mira made careful notes but didn't share her growing suspicions with her son.

Especially not since she could feel the inevitability of age creeping up on her as they talked.  Soon the birthday sparkles enveloped her, Dyan did his best to hide how uncomfortable it made him to see his mother growing old and cheered as hard as he could for her birthday.

When it was over and Mira had aged gracefully, he expressed his sadness that it had been such a quiet affair without the rest of the family there to share but Mira hushed him saying that she didn't want a big fuss over her at this point in her life.

At home, life went on quietly through Dory's pregnancy.  She had been watching the cookery channel on the TV as a distraction from all the things that were harder to do now and she had learned how to make a delicious mushroom omelette.

Pete had become almost obsessive about pregnancy and parenting books and would read them constantly in his spare time while keeping a close eye on Dory, he'd seen too many complications from pregnancies in the hospital to feel entirely confident about her condition.

Fortunately for Dory he did have to go out to work still and so he couldn't constantly hover over her.  While he was out she spent a lot of time playing with the cats and generally relaxing around the home.

Rascal and Merlin were far better company for her at this point anyway, Pete's over-anxious hovering whenever he was home was close to driving her mad and since he was a doctor she couldn't even suggest he didn't know what he was talking about!

She also found that being pregnant made her want to take care of the cats all the more, and the two of them had never been as well brushed or had as much attention.

Finally however the time came, Dory woke Pete up in the middle of the night (wonder of wonders he was actually home and hadn't been called into hospital for an emergency!) as her contractions began.

He wouldn't hear of her attempting a home birth, despite the fact she and all her siblings had been born at home, and insisted that they get dressed quickly and head over to the hospital.

When they got there Dory rushed in ahead, leaving Pete to trail along behind. 

After a mercifully brief labour, the two of them left the hospital with a beautiful baby girl whom they named Elenie.

When they got home, Dory tucked her new baby into the swing they'd bought and switched it to rock while she had a quick shower to get clean from her exertions.

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Pet Spam

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Town News

• Carmen Sperie-Harris aged to toddler
• Todd Sperie-McKinley & Sallie Mitchell-Crist aged to children
• Kaitlyn Sperie-Sabo aged to young adult and got a job in the military
• Ramin McKinley aged to adult
• Fabio Sperie-Sabo & Quynh Sperie-Harris aged to elders
• Aquarius Ocean & Cedric Harris died of old age
• Stacia Fields-Vamp & Bryce Roman have got married after Stacia got pregnant
• Shadow Sperie-Fields & Sterling Harris-McKinley are going steady
• Menolly Clemetis & Tempest Sabo are back together again
• Lukas Sperie and Adamaris Dennis broke up