(co-written by O)
In the early morning hours of the forest, what would have been a peaceful and tranquil day was taken by the sound of a woman screaming in pain. It wasn't because she was dying, although it was painful, it was because she was in labor. The woman was Chenoa Desoto and she was surrounded by her family with her godmother, Goldie, helping deliver her baby as she did her best while sweating and pushing through the pain.
"Querida, you're doing great, she's almost out." Miles said to Chenoa who squeezed her hand tightly around Miles's hand and turned to look at him while still in pain.
"Cállate Miles, no me estás ayudando aquí!" Chenoa shouted at Miles.
"Come on Chenoa, you can do it dear, she's almost out." Goldie said as she sat in front of Chenoa taking the baby as it was coming out.
Eventually, everyone present heard the baby crying. Miguel and Gabrielle Desoto stood off to the side with their grandson, Mato, close to them thinking at the whole process seemed pretty gross. Miranda and Amara were also there holding each other's hands and getting misty eyed at the newborn baby. Meanwhile Bear Jr. helped Goldie cut the baby's cord and then clean up the newborn infant girl before wrapping her in a blanket and giving her to her mother and father.
"Felicidades Chenoa, Miles, she looks beautiful." Miranda said complimenting her brother and sister in-law on their second child putting one hand on her wife's shoulder while holding the other.
"Gracias Miranda. Mato, come here and say hello to your new baby sister." Chenoa said softly to her nearly 3 year-old son as he looked carefully at his new baby sister.
"Well, don't keep us in suspense Chenoa, did you and Miles decide on a name? Miguel and I would love to hear the name of our nieta." Gabrielle said to her daughter in-law.
Miles and Chenoa looked at one another and smiled before replying.
"We talked about a name and we decided that....Winona would be a perfect name for her. So everyone welcome Winona Desoto into the family." Miles said as Chenoa gently kissed her new daughter's little forehead while the adults and little Mato looked at the newborn with a smile.
"Happy mother's day Chenoa." Goldie said to her goddaughter as Bear Jr. held their hands together.
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Stephanie smiled as she continued talking on the phone with Chenoa before entering her mother's house and waved as they entered. Travis waved as he entered behind Stephanie.
"Well congratulations again Chenoa, Travis and I will come by some time later to see her. I'm sure she's just as pretty as you." Stephanie said complimenting her best friend before hanging up.
"Hi moms, how are you both?" Stephanie said as both Ann and Jackie came up to Stephanie to give their daughter a hug.
"Oh, we're both doing great. Anjelica brought us this beautiful tea set from the kitsune realm after finishing up her sleepover with Stella and the other girls at the kitsune palace." Jackie explained to her daughter as she showed her the unique tea set on the coffee table.
"Wow, that looks....oh....careful in there little one." Stephanie said gently patting her stomach.
"Oh! You felt him kick? Oh, let me feel it. I want to feel my grandson kick." Ann said excitedly as she got up and came over to Stephanie, as did Jackie and Anjelica.
All three of them felt Stephanie's baby kick from the inside.
"I can't believe I'm going to be an aunt to this little guy." Anjelica said with a smile on her face.
"You may an aunt to more than just him when you marry Mason one day." Stephanie said to her little sister as she blushed a little red thinking about marrying Mason one day.
"Speaking of Mason's family, how was the sleepover with his cousin, Stella, wasn't it? She seems like a nice girl." Stephanie said to her sister.
"Oh yeah, she's great. I had an amazing time at the sleepover there with them. We all became fast friends and have said that we'll keep in contact with one another. Besides Stella, there was also Sachiko, and Nanami, a couple of nice kitsune girls and I got a nice little tour of the palace along with Nanami." Anjelica explained as she explained to her mothers, Stephanie, and Travis the great time she had.
Travis sat down next to his wife listening to his sister in-law talk about her fun night while also feeling his son give a little kick to his father from inside his wife's belly.
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Mika and Claudia and their kids had been told by their kids to spend the day out together doing something fun before coming back home to a nice lunch.
"Do you hope this goes better than that year the kids tried to cook with the oven?" Claudia asked Mika gave a little laugh thinking about that year.
Kari, Aaron, and Haley were all in high school at the time with Mason in middle school. They had tried to make their mothers a pie, but had accidentally left in the oven for a little longer than they should have and overcooked it making it look less appetizing than they had hoped. Mika and Claudia appreciated their kids attempt to bake, but they decided to make up for it, they took their kids to the grocery store where they bought a pie for them instead.
"I just hope they cleaned up their mess if they did decide to cook." Mika said with a chuckle as they came home at the time their kids instructed them to and saw Mason sitting outside with Fenrir and peeked inside to tell his siblings about their moms coming home.
"Welcome home moms, we're just about ready inside. I'm going to go in first, you can come in right after me, but you both have to promise you'll close your eyes first." Mason asked his mothers as the two of them nodded and smiled to their son as Mason and Fenrir went in while Mika and Claudia waited outside a moment.
"Things seem pretty calm." Claudia said as Mika agreed and they both entered their home with their eyes closed.
"Okay, you can open them." Kari said as Mika and Claudia opened their eyes to see a great lunch feast lay out before them.
Their family table had been decorated with plenty of food that looked very appetizing and smelled fresh and a banner hung on the wall that said 'Happy Mother's Day' for them.
"Surprise! Happy mother's day!" Kari, Haley, Aaron, and Mason all said together as Genki, Ikuro, Nyx and Fenrir stood off to the side.
"Kids, I'm...I'm speechless, this all looks amazing, how did you all do this?" Mika asked as she was astonished her kids had brought so much delicious looking food.
"Well.....I asked Genki if he could bring some home grown food." Kari began.
"Then I asked Nyx if she had any special kinds of food that could be brought from her home and she brought a special made food that's edible for humans." Aaron continued.
"Then....Ikuro, Mason, and I went to the store and picked out your favorite meals because we all know I'm probably the worst cook in the family." Haley added as the others gave a little chuckle.
"And I suggested the banner to make it feel special. Do you love it?" Mason asked as Claudia and Mika both began to cry tears of joy.
"Oh kids....we love it. We're so grateful to you all." Mika said as the four Harris siblings all gave their mothers a gentle hug, before Haley got a little too caught up in the moment and shifted into tiger kintaro form and gave everyone a tight hug.
"Haley....baby....we can't breath...." Claudia said gasping for air before Haley let them all go.
Mika and Claudia now also looked to Genki, Ikuro, and Nyx, the three of them had been rooming with the Harris family to help deal with the 'Seraphim' situation and had been feeling like part of the Harris family as well.
Mika and Claudia went over and gave the three of them a hug and smiled at the three of them.
"We can't thank you enough for being in our kids lives." Mika said and looked over to Mason. "And if Anjelica were here, I would tell her the same thing." Mason smiled at that.
"I suppose I'm only the dog in this situation here." Fenrir commented as Mika and Claudia bent down on their knees to Fenrir.
"Nonsense, you're as much a family member as you are our dog." Claudia said as she gave Fenrir a hug and he in turn licked both of their faces while happily wagging his tail.
"Alright, now let's get to eating this before Haley devours all the dessert first." Mika joked.
"Hey!" Haley said as everyone else gave a hearty laugh at that.
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Lisa Turner sighed, hanging up her phone as she stared off into space. After speaking with her sisters, the 62 year old woman found her home to be strangely quiet.
"Everything okay?" Jason asked.
"Yeah," Lisa said. "Was just talking with Anne and Kellie. We were just finalizing plans to take our mom out for Mother's Day."
"Sounds nice," Jason said as he studied his wife. "So why do you look so sad?"
"It's dumb," Lisa sighed. "But, I miss having the girls around. Katie is with her family and Gloria has her kids, even Lynne is running around. The house just feels....quiet."
"It's bound to happen Lisa," Jason said softly. "I mean, the girls are growing up, starting families of their own, we've reached the empty nest part of our lives."
"Yeah and it sucks," Lisa grumbled. "I feel so old Jason. I mean....I've been a mom since I was 19 years old. Pretty much all my adult life, I've had a child in the house. Now.....all the girls are either moving out or have kids of their own."
"Didn't you and Nina just borrow the ring from Gloria so you could be teenagers for a day?" Jason asked.
"That's besides the point," Lisa grumbled. "I mean I always loved having the girls in the house. Katie, Gloria, Lynne, they were my life. Heck even our grandkids Jason always seemed to be around. I mean Morgan practically grew up with Lynne under our watch while Katie and Kellie worked. I...I guess I just miss having the girls around all the time. Especially since my sisters have their kids still living under their roof."
Jason offered his wife a soft, approaching his wife of 24 years and squeezing her tightly. "Everything will be okay Lisa," he said. "I miss the girls too. Our entire marriage revolved around taking care of them. We still have each other though, and I couldn't be happier to spend my golden years with you."
Lisa smiled, placing a gentle kiss on her husband's face. She could always count on Jason to be her emotional rock. Jason was the one to always balance Lisa whenever she pushed things too far.
The sound of the doorbell now drew the elderly couples attention. Curiously Lisa made her way to the door, gasping as she opened it.
"Happy Mother's Day Mom!"
Lisa smiled ear to ear. The auburn haired woman's eyes brimming with years as she gazed at Katie, Gloria, and Lynne. The three women's holding a large cake. Standing behind them were Lisa's grandchildren. Morgan leading the way for Gloria's small children and holding a homemade card.
"Oh girls," Lisa sniffed.
"We wanted to surprise you mom," Katie smiled. "We talked with dad. He told us you've been feeling a bit down with everyone moving out."
"So," Gloria added. "We wanted to surprise you with a cake and card. Bring the kids over and show you just how much you mean to us."
"You're the best mom," Lynne smiled. "I don't think any of us could ever ask for a better mom."
"Or Grandma," Morgan added. "You've always been there for us. Now, we want to show you just how much that's meant to us over the years."
Lisa wiped her eyes, turning to her husband who was sporting an impish grin. "Did you know about this?"
"I might have helped," Jason grinned. "Happy early Mother's Day Lisa."
Lisa smiled, hugging her children and grandchildren as she now invited them all inside.
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Nina Moreland smiled at having her grandkids around for mother's day, of course Caleb and Gloria were a little late coming over with their kids, but that was perfectly fine with Nina, she didn't mind sharing Mother's Day with Lisa. At the very least, Connor and Spark had come over with their own children to spend the day with their grandmother. She was having a good time playing with Jay and Cali while Kaida had made her grandmother a nice card and hug and went to watch some videos on her phone. Nina didn't mind Kaida acting like how she was, she had just turned 12 not too long ago, so she knew her granddaughter was at that time in her life where she was starting to become a teenager.
Chase and Andromeda had also came around to see Nina with Andromeda giving Nina a lovely apple pie. Nina was happy that Chase had found such a nice girl in the most unlikely of places, and although she wouldn't say it, she hoped to see a grandchild or two from them in the future. Charlotte came up to her mother while she was playing with her grandkids and had quite the surprise in her hands.
"Hey mom, I was looking through some stuff in your room the other day to try and find something nice to give you for mother's day, but I found this old disc instead. I didn't watch it yet because....well, I wanted all of us to see it together." Charlotte said as Nina looked at the disc and let out a little gasp recognizing that the disc had their old home movie on it from when Chase and Charlotte were still very young.
Nina put the disc into the player and let it play. She had tears in her eyes almost immediately when she saw the video on screen. Jacob Moreland was on the screen with a very young Chase and Charlotte crawling around him.
'It looks like we've got a few big bugs crawling around the house.' Nina said chuckling from behind the camera.
'Don't worry hon, I'll get them. Come here you!' Jacob Moreland said playfully as he scooped up little Chase and pretended to gobble him up as little Chase laughed with joy.
"Dad..." Chase could only say as he watched the video. Andromeda held Chase's hand tightly as they watched the rest of the video.
'Addy! Addy!' Little Charlotte shouted as she wanted to play with her father too.
Jacob put little Chase down and picked Charlotte up and did the same thing to her like Chase. Jacob then held Charlotte's face close to his and kissed her on the nose.
'I love you baby girl.' Jacob said softly to Charlotte who gave him a little hug on his face.
"I love you too daddy." Charlotte said softly holding back her tears.
Little Chase now tried pushing his father down to the ground as Jacob jokingly fell onto his back like Chase was tough.
'Whoa! I'm going down!' Jacob said as he fell onto his back. Little Charlotte and Chase now crawled all over him as he pretended to be in terror.
'Nina help! Get them off of me!' Jacob jokingly called out for help.
'You're on your own with those two.' Nina said from behind the camera as Little Chase and Charlotte climbed up to Jacob's face and gave him a hug.
'Daddy loves you, okay? Daddy loves you both.' Jacob said with a smile on his face.
'Wave hi to mommy too.' Jacob said as he waved his only hand towards the camera as little Chase and Charlotte also waved back.
As the video ended, tears were falling from Nina's face as Chase and Charlotte kneeled down next to their mother.
"Are you okay mom?" Chase asked.
"I....I forgot we recorded that. At the time, I just wanted to record a silly moment with you two and your father, he....he loved you both so much....." Nina said as Charlotte and Chase held their mom's hands.
"I'm sorry momma, I didn't mean to upset you." Charlotte apologized.
"Upset me? Charlotte darlin', you've giving me a wonderful Mother's Day gift and I couldn't ask for anything more from either of you." Nina said as Chase and Charlotte gave their mother a hug while Andromeda watched the whole scene with a smile on her face.
Andromeda and Chase would visit her mother later that day, for the moment, Andromeda let the Morelands have a good mother's day.
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At the home of Eliana, Lilith, Alyssa, Rebecca, and Mary, Lilith Kane was sitting outside their house on the porch swing looking up at the stars at night. It had been a good Mother's Day for all of them, but Lilith's mind had been elsewhere for most of the day.
She heard footsteps and saw Alyssa coming over to the porch swing, Lilith patted the spot next to her for her to sit down.
"Did you have a good Mother's Day mom?" Alyssa asked Lilith.
"Of course I did. You and Rebecca gave Eliana and I some nice cards and a nice meal." Lilith said with a smile.
"But....something else has been on your mind, hasn't it?" Alyssa asked.
"Yes." Lilith replied softly looking up at the sky.
"It's....it's your sister, Aunt Sophie, isn't it?" Alyssa now asked as Lilith nodded.
"I want to save her, but....I don't know if I can. Not with who she's become. She doesn't even realize that she's become like....him. Something I'm sure my mother didn't want and neither did she, but.....she's been.....corrupted I think by this so called 'church'." Lilith said shaking her head.
"Well then, we'll just have to save her then, won't we?" Mary Kane said stepping out onto the porch with Eliana and Rebecca behind her.
"You.....want to save her? For me?" Lilith asked surprised.
"We'd do anything for you Lilith. You're my daughter." Mary said.
"You're my best friend." Eliana said.
"You're my aunt." Rebecca added.
"And my mom, and Sophie is still family, no matter what." Alyssa said as Lilith smiled at all of them.
"Thank you, all of you. Now....if you could, I think I'd just like to look up at the stars, with my family to end a nice mother's day." Lilith said as everyone smiled and sat alongside Lilith and looked up at the stars together.