"Mommy?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how Beanie's in your tummy? Your uterus?"

Mouse laughed, and silently thanked the Santangelo twins for teaching Leo the new word.

"Mm hmm."

"I was just wondering..."

"Yeah?"

"I was just wondering how she was gonna come out?"

Mouse and Leo were lying together on a chaise on their terrace. It was very cold, but the sun was bright, and they were protected from the wind. Happy was out there with them, and the cats were watching them through the French doors.

They were bundled under a comforter, enjoying the sunshine, and just being together. It had been a few weeks since Leo had spent the night at the Santangelos, and Leo was doing much better. His cast had finally come off, and he was sleeping through the night, though he did sometimes climb into bed with his parents.

Mouse took a sip of her hot chocolate, giving herself time to think. She and Henry had wondered when this would come up.

"Well, um, you know how everyone goes to the bathroom?"

Leo sat up to stare at Mouse.

"You're going to poop her out?"

Mouse snarfed her cocoa, narrowly avoiding spilling it. She carefully set it aside.

"Oh my god, Leo, no!" she gasped, laughing.

"But you said--" he began, drawing his tiny eyebrows together.

"Let me finish, please," Mouse said, grinning. She gathered him to her and pulled the comforter up to cover him snugly. "So, like I was saying, everyone, men and women, have two openings, right?"

"One for number one, one for number two," Leo filled in, and Mouse could feel him nodding against her.

"Right," she agreed, stifling more laughter. "The thing is, in addition to a rectum and a urethra, which is what those openings are called, by the way, women have another opening."

Leo sat up again, eyes wide.

"Really?" He looked at her carefully to see if she was teasing.

"Really truly," Mouse told her son. "Between those two openings, we have another one, called a vagina, that's connected to our uterus. And when the baby's finished growing and is ready to come out, she'll turn upside down and I'll push her out."

Mouse stopped talking, wondering if that would be enough.

Leo lay back down, putting a hand on her belly under the comforter, patting it.

"Does it hurt?"

"I don't know for sure, because I've never done it, but I know it's hard work," Mouse told him. "That's why its called 'labor,' get it?"

"Oh." Silence. "Seems like it might hurt. Even a little baby's pretty big, right?"

Thanks, Leo, because I wasn't worried enough.

"Well, we'll find out soon, won't we?" Mouse tried to make her voice light.

"Can I come and watch?" Leo asked.

"No, it can get kind of messy and gross, and sometimes there might be an emergency that someone your age shouldn't see, you know?" Mouse tried to sound matter of fact and nonchalant.

"A 'mergency?" he repeated. Mouse felt his hand grow still on her tummy. "Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know, sometimes the mother is in a lot of pain, and they have to give her medicine, or the doctors decide that the baby has to come out faster than the mommy can push, so they have to do a special operation, called a C-section, to take the baby out--" Mouse realized she was not helping the situation.

"Mommy, could you die? Or Beanie? Could you both die? Like what happened to my first mommy?"

"Leo, I could tell you a lie and say that it's impossible, but I won't, because I think you can handle the truth," Mouse said, cuddling him closer. "And the truth is that yeah, I could die, or Beanie, or even both of us.

"But the chances of that happening are so small, Leo, honest. I'm more likely to die in a car accident, or in a fire. What happened to your first mother was so unlikely, and so rare," she concluded.

Leo was silent.

"Okay," he finally said. "I'll try not to be scared."

"Good," Mouse replied. "And you can help your daddy with that, too, okay?"

"I'll try," he promised. "Can we go inside now? I'm getting kinda cold."

"Sure, big guy, let's go."

🌹🐹🍟🥓🐹🍫🐹🍩🐹🌹

"Oh my god, has anything ever tasted so good?" Mouse moaned in ecstasy as she bit into the donut.

Henry regarded her with amusement as he stood next to the bed. Mouse was in it, dressed in one of her pretty nightgowns. Her tummy protruded and created a shallow shelf, on which rested a plate with French fries, bacon, and a candy bar.

"I thought sour things tasted good?" he asked as he sat on the edge of the bed. He, too, was dressed for sleep, in cut off sweats and a T-shirt. Mouse admired his sinewy legs as she continued to eat her donut.

"That was last week. This week it seems to be more about carbs," she responded.

"I think the word you're looking for is 'crap,'" Henry said, grabbing a piece of bacon from the plate and preparing to eat it.

"No, it's mine," Mouse said as she slapped his hand away.

"I thought you loved me?" Henry pretended to be hurt as he got into bed next to her.

"I do, I do, but have you tasted these fries?" Mouse put a few of the aforementioned fries in her mouth, moaning with contentment.

"I can't, someone won't let me," Henry answered, laughing.

"I can spare a fry, I guess," Mouse conceded, holding one up to her husband's mouth.

She finished her snack and put the plate aside.

"Carstairs called today," she began as they turned the lights out and settled down in the dark.

"And? What's their decision?"

Mouse sighed. "Well, sounds like Dominick's father is being a real asshole. He's talking about a lawsuit against the school for not properly supervising his kid or something like that."

Henry sighed, pulling Mouse into his arms. "Welcome to America, land of the litigious assholes."

"Yeah. And we might be able to fight all this and send Leo back, but I don't know if I want to anymore, you know?"

"Really?" Henry was surprised. "I thought you felt very strongly about Leo going back? Facing his fears and his enemies and all that?"

Mouse shrugged in the dark, making Henry smile. "I was talking to Daisy today, and she was saying that they could probably get him in to Sycamore Prep in the fall, you know, that she and Pete could vouch for us or whatever? It's a better school, and it sounds like they're more in tune with sensitive kids, more equipped to deal with them."

Leo hadn't returned to school since the incident with Dominick. He was under "intermediate suspension of indeterminate time," pending the resolution of the current situation. Mouse had been home schooling him, using resources she'd found online.

"But?" Henry queried, as Mouse lifted her leg over his hip. He could feel the baby pressing against him, along with the rest of her body. "I hear a 'but' in your tone."

"But Sycamore is a more expensive school," Mouse said. "By quite a bit, actually. I don't know how you feel about spending so much money on school, especially since we'll probably send Beanie to the same school, which means doubling our expenditure in five years."

"Oh, the money, I see." Henry was having a hard time concentrating on the conversation. Even though it was dark, he could remember how good Mouse looked in her negligee, and he could feel her rubbing against him. "Well, not to sound too cliche, but where our children's education is concerned, nothing is too much, I think."

He tipped her face up by the chin and found her mouth with his own, loving the chocolatey taste of the candy and donut she'd eaten on her beautiful lips.

"I'm not thrilled with how the school handled all this," he said in between kissing his wife.

"I'll admit, I like the idea of taking the decision out of their hands," Mouse murmured as she pulled Henry's shirt over his head. "Like they're right about everything or something? Because I think they handled all of this very badly. I'm not saying what Leo did was right, but that kid is a real douche, you know?"

"I agree," Henry said, leaning in to kiss Mouse's neck. He felt her breath against his jaw as she grasped at his back.

"So, how about if we just finish out the year like we have been, and just keep him at home? And he can start at Sycamore in the fall," Henry concluded, his breath catching in his throat as Mouse reached into his shorts and grasped him, long fingers delicate yet firm at the same time.

"Sounds like a plan, Henry," she responded, her voice breathy in the darkness. "They treated Leo like shit, as far as I'm concerned, and I'll be glad to see the last of that place.

"Now, enough talking, let's fuck, okay? I'm so wet it's practically dripping onto the mattress," Mouse moaned, rubbing herself against him.

"Okay," he agreed, lowering the strap of her nightie so he could touch her breasts, which were velvety soft and warm in his hand.

He lowered his mouth to one, taking the hard nipple in his mouth as Mouse gasped above his head. He kicked his sweats off under the sheets, being careful not to bump the baby with his knees, and he slid into his wife with satisfied sigh.

"Oh god, Henry, pregnant sex is amazing," he heard her say.

It turned out that, as her pregnancy progressed, it was easier and easier to bring her to orgasm. Sometimes just the initial push and thrust could make her come.

"I think so, too," he told her, right before he kissed her, holding her head to his own with his hand on her hair.

"Ah, god, this feels so good," he groaned as he continued to rock into her.

They climaxed nearly simultaneously, arms wrapped around each other, moving in tandem.

"You know, I don't know if we're going to be able to manage that position for much longer," Henry said musingly after, as he held her.

Mouse shrugged again. "I guess it'll have to be hands and knees for me, then," she replied with a little laugh.

"Sounds like a plan," Henry said, echoing Mouse's words from earlier.

They were sleeping moments later, still holding each other.