"You found our talkie-talkie?" the first voice asked.

"Is that what this is called?" Leo answered.

"Yeah, unh hunh, because first you talk, then we talk, then you talk, then we talk, get it?" More laughter.

"Oh, yeah, I get it." Leo nodded under the covers. "It was stuck in the chair in the lobby where I live."

"Where do you live?"

"In New York?" Leo had been taught never to give his address, either with his voice or in written form, and he remembered this, though he didn't think he could be hurt by two little girls.

"Hey, us, too! We live in Tribeca, in the brick building by Ice Cream Dreams. Do you live by us?"

"I live in an apartment with bricks, too!" Leo said, forgetting to keep his voice down. "It's on the corner by there, and The Whole Bean Coffee and Book Store."

"Yeah! Us too!" Leo could hear squealing and giggling, though he could tell that they were trying to be quiet, like him. "Is Mr. Bobby your doorman?"

"He is!" Leo laughed loud enough to make Happy come to snuff around his head, to see what her boy was up to all buried under his blanket. "I live on the eighteenth floor. Where do you guys live?"

"We live in the penthouse, on the very top. Lottie bought the talkie-talkies at the thrift store when she went with our daddy, but when she opened the bag there was only one inside."

Leo could hear the speaker asking, "Did you sit in the big chairs in the lobby that day, Lottie?" The voice got louder. "Lottie says she sat in the big green chair while she waited for Daddy and Mr. Bobby to move something. That must be how that one got there."

Leo nodded again, and realized that they couldn't see him. He also realized that he was going to suffocate if he stayed under the covers much longer. "Hold on, you guys," he said. He scrambled out of bed and ran into his closet, waiting for Happy to follow him and shutting the door all the way after turning on the light. It shared a wall with the rarely used guest bathroom, and he didn't think his parents would hear him.

"Okay," he panted, sitting under where his shirts hung, scooting as far back as he could. Happy looked at him curiously, decided everything was okay, and circled a couple of times before settling down next to the door with a thud.

"I can talk louder now," he told them. "And I know who you are! I've seen you guys! You're the family with all the girls! And you all have curly hair! And you have a new baby, right? A boy baby? Your mommy has lots of red hair? And you have a HUGE doggy!"

More laughing. Wow, these were the happiest kids Leo had talked to in a long time.

"Yeah, we're them! That's us!"

"Which ones are you?" Leo tried to remember what they looked like when he saw them coming or going in the lobby.

"We're the twins."

Twins?

"I thought twins looked exactly the same," Leo said, scratching his head. As far as he could remember, the four little girls all looked different.

"I'm adopted, from Haiti," the lower voice said. "I'm Lottie."

"And I'm the one with red hair," the other voice said. "Brina."

"How are you twins? I thought twins meant you grew inside your mommy at the same time."

"I was born here in New York and Lottie was born all the way in Haiti on the exact same day." Giggling. "And her birth mother died, and we wanted her, and so we adopted her, and we turned into twins."

Leo was nodding. Made perfect sense to him.

"What do you look like? If you've seen us, maybe we saw you, too."

"Uh, I'm five, and I have blond hair and blue eyes," Leo supplied. "I have a blue coat with a hood, and a Lord of the Rings back pack. And I have a doggy, not as big as yours, but pretty big, named Happy? She's black and white, and really hairy?"

Leo could hear excited laughing mixed with the crackling sounds. There was a loud noise, and more laughing. "Oops, sorry, I dropped you. We've seen you! You're the short boy with the mommy who has brown hair, right?"

"I'm a big boy," Leo answered, feeling a little indignation. "How old are you guys?"

"Four. Our birthday was a little while ago, in September."

"I turned five in May," Leo told them. "I'm older than you guys. I go to Kindergarten at Carstairs School."

"Oh. We go to Sycamore Prep. We're in Kindergarten, too."

"Really? Even though you're only four?" Wow.

"Yeah. All of us girls go there. But our sister Clio is probably going to go to Hamilton Academy next year to play piano. She's really good."

"Neat." Leo smiled. "Which one is she?"

"The big one. With long brown hair?"

Leo heard scuffling.

"We have to go, Leo, our parents are coming to say good night, and we don't want them to know about you." Brina said in a stage whisper. "We can be secret friends, like we're spies, okay?"

"Okay. You guys, can we talk some more tomorrow night?" Leo asked hopefully. "I go to bed at 8:30."

"Yeah!" He heard both voices acknowledge the plan enthusiastically. "Good night, Leo!"

More crackling, then silence.

Leo carefully turned the switch off, then opened the closet door and got back in bed. He leaned over and wedged the Channel Master between his mattress and box spring, on the side close to the wall, just in case. Happy jumped on the bed and curled up next to him.

"Good night, Happy," Leo said to his dog, kissing her nose. He was smiling, though he didn't realize it. He could picture the two giggling girls from when he'd seen them in the lobby. Like tonight, they were usually laughing or smiling, hands clasped, one with curly dark hair, one with red hair and freckles everywhere.

He fell asleep that night feeling better than he had in a long time.

🦁🌟🌺🌟🌸🌟🦁🌟🌺🌟🌸

In the living room, Henry and Mouse sat next to each other, Henry with wine, Mouse with tea.

"You feeling better?" Henry murmured. He put an arm around her, drawing her closer.

"Yeah." Mouse nodded for emphasis. "I don't think I threw up at all today."

"Wonderful," Henry answered, chuckling.

Mouse turned to put her arm across him, and Henry was aware of her body pressing into him, of her softness surrounding him. He could feel her warm exhalations on his chest, too, and though he knew she wasn't trying to be seductive or anything, he couldn't help but respond. He shifted a little on the sofa, trying not to be obvious about it, but Mouse knew what he was feeling. She could tell, just from how he was breathing.

She leaned up and pressed a soft kiss into his neck, carding her fingers through his hair.

Henry flattened his palm against her back, pressing her into him gently, turning his head to reach for her mouth with his.

"I'm sorry I've been such a dud in the bedroom these last few weeks," she said, her voice soft.

Henry chuckled, his chest moving up and down under her hand. He kissed her again, his lips gentle, closing his eyes and making it last. "Don't be silly, honey, you've been busy, getting our baby going, giving it the best possible start it could have." He pulled back so he could look at her. "Only a complete asshole would've expected you to put out when you were running off to whoops in the bathroom every three minutes."

"Well, I'm feeling better," Mouse told him. She smiled, a pert, impish thing that made Henry tingle with anticipation. "I think I'm going to be ready to just fuck your brains out, as I told your bitchy ex, really, really soon, okay?"

"Sounds great," Henry answered, smoothing her hair away from her face. "No rush, though. I'm not an animal."

"Thank you," Mouse said, leaning in to kiss him again.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, and Henry reached and turned off the lamp so they could enjoy the cityscape view through the large windows, beyond the terrace.

"Do you want to find out the gender, honey?" Henry asked, turning his head to enjoy the fragrance of her hair.

After a bit more silence, Mouse answered. "Yeah, I would, actually." She lifted her head to try to see Henry's face in the near darkness. "Unless for some reason you don't want to?"

Henry shook his head. "No, I'm dying to know," he told her. "And I know Leo wants to know, too." He sighed, as he always did when he thought about Leo.

"You think I should try to talk to him again?" he asked his wife. "He's still acting really off and distant toward me."

The silence was a little longer, and Henry wondered if his wife had fallen asleep. "I think," she began, and Henry realized that she'd been thinking how to put her answer. "I think that you should figure out how you feel for sure before you try to apologize to him any more," she finally concluded, nodding a little for emphasis.

"I think the reason he's still funny around you is that he knows, somewhere in his little heart, that you're conflicted about him in some way, you know?" Mouse asked. "He knows you're sorry you yelled at him, but he can tell that you have unresolved issues or whatever."

"Oh, god, you think so?" Henry hoped this wasn't true, but he had the uneasy feeling that Mouse was right.

"Mouse, you know I love him, don't you?"

Mouse could hear the desperation in his voice, the pleading.

She nodded.

"I know that, of course I do," she replied, scooting even closer to him. "But I know you're still bothered by the whole genetic thing, and you're going to have to get over that, Henry, you just are." She put both arms around his neck and gave him a little shake. "You're a good man, a good person, and such an amazing dad, Henry. I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass and say that I wasn't shocked by what you said. It would never have occurred to me that biology could change your feelings for the child you raised."

And again, Henry felt small at the surprise and disappointment he'd caused her to feel, that he could hear in her gentle voice.

"But your feelings are still valid, if for no other reason than you're feeling them, I think," she went on. "So you need to work that out, and get back to where you can love him with your whole heart, the way you did before, you know?" She nodded firmly for emphasis. "Leo deserves nothing less from you."

"You're right, you're always right," Henry agreed. He hugged her in the darkness, grateful for whatever it was that had brought her into their lives.

"I love you, Mouse, so much, so much," he told her in a whisper, leaning in to kiss her again. "Let's get you to bed, okay? So you can get some rest."

She nodded her agreement, and they rose and went to bed, stopping on the way to open their son's door and look at him, sleeping with his arm around his dog.