Jumping back a bit…
Martha and Jenny met at the diner for brunch. Martha found Jenny to be very happy, which was a bit of a surprise for her. Martha assumed Jenny would be a bit more stressed from her unplanned pregnancy. Or the fact that Harry’s parents were so dead set against their son in a relationship (they didn’t acknowledge the marriage), with a girl he’d only known a few months.
But here she was, beaming from ear to ear. They hugged before taking seats across from each other in a booth. Jenny was glad she had someone else to talk to about these kinds of things, other than her own mom. Because there were only so many things you could say to a parent before it got awkward.
“So, how are things?” Martha asked. She placed her order while Jenny went on and on about how excited she was (as if it weren’t already evident).
“I know Harry’s stressed and all, but I hope he’ll stop letting his parents get to him so much. They just don’t understand.” Jenny said dismissively.
“But you’re okay with everything?”
“I’ll admit I would have liked to wait a few years before this happened,” Jenny pointed to her stomach,” but there’s nothing I can do now. Well I guess technically there is, but I’m not about to do that.”
Martha nodded, understanding Jenny’s feelings towards THAT option. She, personally, could never do that, but didn’t have anything against women who did. Though she’d be lying if she didn’t say she was relieved to hear Jenny was keeping the baby. Or babies, since according to fellow werevixens, they usually had twins.
Anything in particular you wanted to talk about?” Martha moved the conversation along.
“Oh you know the usual questions. Actually, my mom had a C-section, so she couldn’t tell me much about the, uh, ‘process’, so I was kinda hoping you could fill in a few blanks on that front.”
“Uh, alright.” Martha wasn’t sure the diner was the most appropriate setting to talk about the nitty gritty parents of childbirth. She wasn’t going to be able to eat the eggs she’d ordered.
“But mostly, since you’ve had two kids, I wanted to ask how you go about raising boys.”
“You think the baby’s a boy?”
“Ya, it’s a bit premature to be guessing the kid’s gender. But something in my gut just tells me it’s a boy. I don’t know, maybe I’ve got ESP or something.” Jenny laughed.
“Well, it’s not without its headaches I’ll say that much. Eric and Nate always butted heads when they were little. Opposite personalities and all. Not to mention Eric was just as smart, if not smarter, than Nate. And he wasn’t shy about telling Nate that. That kinda stuff didn’t stop until they were about ten. But it was all just the usual brother vs brother kinda stuff. William said he was the same way about his older brother.”
“Is it weird that I’ve already been thinking of names?”
“No, the second I found out I was pregnant with Nate I think I made a list of about a hundred possible names. One for boys and one for girls.”
“I haven’t run any of them by Harry yet. He’s been so busy tearing his fur out. Literally. I came home the other night and found him lying o the ground with clumps of hair all over the floor.”
“Geez, it’s worse than I thought. Maybe Frances should talk to him.” Martha thought.
“Hey Martha, isn’t that Eric?” Jenny pointed to the teenage couple walking into the diner. IT was indeed Eric and Spencer, wearing a jacket over a white dress. Martha was more surprised to see Spencer wearing a dress than seeing her finally out of her hybrid form.
“Who’s he with?”
“His girlfriend, Spencer Lawson. They’re family moved back to town a couple of weeks ago.”
“Her name is Spencer?”
“I don’t really understand it either, but to each his own.” Martha said in regard to the odd choice her parents made when deciding on a name. Though if one thing was for sure, the unique name matched Spencer’s equally unique status as a hybrid were.
“Aw, they look so cute together.” Jenny smiled when she saw the two sitting together in a booth. She imagined that’s how she and Harry looked. Or used to look because of late, Harry spent more of his time having panic attacks.
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“…don’t bother baby proofing anything. They always find a way around it. I’m not sure how different were pregnancies are from normal ones, but I think some of the same rules apply, regarding the things you can and can’t do or eat.”
Martha kept Jenny well informed about the ins and outs of raising kids. She had trouble remembering some of the nitty-gritty details, as Eric and Nate hadn’t been “kids” for quite some time now. Anything Martha didn’t know, or couldn’t remember Jenny would ask her mom later. They saved the more “medical” things for later, when they weren’t surrounded by other people.
Every now and then, Martha would turn around in her seat to steal a glance at Spencer and Eric. The two looked as happy as two teenagers in love could be. They were too far away for Martha to hear what they were saying, not that it really mattered. Martha was just glad to see Eric happy, and finally coming out of that rock hard shell of his.
“What names have you been considering?” Martha returned her focus back to Jenny. They’d spent almost two hours in the diner. They’d finished their food a while ago, and were now just mooching cups of coffee. Which Martha felt a little bad about, so she made a mental note to leave a big tip.
“Mmm, well I’ve been leaning on guy names. Thought about naming the kit after Harry, but when I floated it past him he said he didn’t want his son to grow up with such a dorky name. I’ve been toying around with ‘L’ names; Liam, Luke, Leo, Lincoln, Levi.”
“Why ‘L’?”
“My mom always said that if she’d had a boy she would have named me Lowell. Don’t ask my why because I haven’t a clue. My middle name is Leah, guess the affection for ‘L’ names is hereditary.” Jenny shrugged.
“And if it’s a girl?”
“Still sticking to ‘L’ names, Lindsay, Laura, Lena, Lucy.”
Martha nodded, but only heard the first part of Jenny’s sentence. Something caught her eye, and she’d turned to look to her right. Eric and Spencer were getting ready to leave, having never noticed Martha or Jenny. But as they walked out, someone else walked in. Sort of.
A man had just come out of the bathroom, and was now staring at her son and his girlfriend. Martha narrowed her eyes when the man left soon after Eric and Spencer.
“Martha? Yoo-hoo, anyone home?” Jenny gently tapped Martha’s hand, bringing her back to the table.
“Sorry. What were you saying?”
“Nothing important. Something wrong?”
“Not sure. Some guy just followed Eric and Spencer out of the diner.”
“Some guy? Huh, are you sure? Why would he want to go after those two? And in the middle of the day?”
“I’m probably just being paranoid. But he seemed to recognize them.” Martha said, looking over her shoulder once more. The man was gone, outside pretending to read something on his phone. But every other second he would look up to see where Eric and Spencer were.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Martha thought. Without any further thought, she took out her own phone to call Evan. If anyone could do something about the situation, it was him.