Trying to pick out names for our cubs wasn't as hard as I had originally thought it to be. Molly had settled on the name that Mugdha had proposed to us when we made the order for maternity clothes for Molly to wear. The Hindi word for fish, Machli for our daughter, after the "Queen of Rathambhore". And Michael for the male cub, after Michael York who had helped us so much when we had first moved to Columbia Falls. Some of it still felt a little bit odd in the sense of naming our daughter for a mundane animal, but after looking through countless websites on the tigress, I had to admit that if our daughter overcame half of the difficulties in her life as the "original" Machli had done, our daughter would do well.
The real difficult thing in that regard was coming up middle names for them. This of course lead to further pondering over things related to names. There was still time of course to prepare, but with Molly now going into her fifth month, finding a good name to be our cubs' middle name was something that began to take a great deal of seriousness. Molly was commonly flipping through baby name books she'd borrowed from Kalispell's library and online listings. We would then bounce ideas off of each other when I came home from work. And during the time while Molly was checking things to figure out middle names for our cubs, I focused on doing our cooking in the evenings when I came home. It gave Molly a break from all the housework type things and let her focus on figuring out middle names for our cubs.
Figuring out a middle name for Machli proved to be the most difficult. Because the name was of Hindi origin, many English names didn't quite roll off the tongue well with it... or course neither would either surname of our daughter's parents... Mine, Wayne was rather English and Molly's, Rhoer, was German. So getting a name that would fit well with the first name and either surname was tough. After one or two days of searching, Molly, however, gave up on getting a middle name that rolled well with Machli.
"What about Tora?" Molly asked me as I brought dinner into our dinning room one evening.
"Tora? Like the movie?" I wondered, "Tora, Tora, Tora?"
"Yes, same spelling," Molly nodded, "and it is Japanese... but..."
"Doesn't quiet sound great with Machli or Michael," I commented.
"It'd only fit with Machli," Molly explained, "It's a girl's name."
"Still doesn't sound quite right," I commented.
"I know," Molly sighed, "but most of the names that sound better with Machli are too foreign to be spoken well by anyone but Rathik and his family... and most of those names are from India and most of those appear to be of Sanskrit origins. And I doubt most people would understand the names... the closest I found was Jasmin, but I don't want to go down that road..."
"Disney?" I wondered.
"Strippers," Molly gave a grumble, "remember that lady your dad busted when we first went into college?"
I shuddered at that story that had made local news. Some exotic dancer named Jasmine had approached my father when he was going into work one morning and hit on him so much that she was ultimately arrested for disturbing the peace and interfering with a police officer. It had made the news that she hadn't let my father go into his station, and ended up chasing him around it a couple of times before subordinate officers arrested her. My dad also spent a week in my mom's doghouse trying to explain that he wasn't into the woman.
"Don't remind me," I sighed, "so, why Tora?"
"The name means tiger," Molly answered, "and I know we agreed that that would be a bit redundant... but it's a different language and rolls of the tongue differently then names like Lionel, Leon, Leona and so forth that mean lion. It sounds different... and I guess adds to some of the exoticness of having our daughter's first name being Machli."
"Machli Tora Wayne," I said slowly, "Our tribute to other cultures."
"I'd suppose," Molly nodded.
"Have you had any ideas for a middle name for Michael?" I then asked.
"What about Baldwin? It's a Germanic name meaning "brave friend"... it would repeat what Michael York was to us," Molly commented, "a brave friend, especially given his age and all the "stuff" Beauregard had been throwing at him."
"Michael Baldwin Wayne," I said slowly, "tasting" the name, "sounds pretty good. Do you want to go with that name?"
"Yeah," Molly nodded slowly between bites as we ate, "it would balance things with Machli... if Machli has more of the "exotic" touch in her name... Michael would have more of a traditional name."
"I don't know if Baldwin is a very common name," I said slowly, more to state that I didn't know how popular it was rather then to voice any opposition.
"It's probably more common then Machli or Tora in the United States," Molly pointed out.
"I'm not opposed to, and to a certain extent... picking a name because it's popular sounds like peer pressure," I commented.
"Do you like the idea?" Molly asked.
I slowly nodded, "Yeah... Machli Tora and Michael Baldwin. The cutest cubs born in America."
Molly smiled and then looked down to her growing belly.
"Did you hear that? You two have names! Machli Tora and Michael Baldwin!" Molly said to her womb, and gave a contented grunt when they kicked. As they did so she looked up to me.
"They like their names," Molly announced.
"I knew they would," I smiled back.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
About one week after Molly's fourth obstetrician appointment we had our first Lamaze class. Doctor Wainwright had been very helpful in getting us an appointment with a licensed midwife who ran the classes in Kalispell. From what we knew from Doctor Wainwright directly, this midwife's practice was affiliated with the Kalispell Medical Center and we wouldn't be required to stop seeing Doctor Wainwright. And what was even luckier, Doctor Wainwright had gotten us squeezed in to the evening classes, which was a good thing. It would mean I'd have to leave work early on the days that Molly and I had the classes, but Officer Howard had been very accommodating when it came to allowing me to be for Molly's appointments and other pregnancy related things.
Things in that week since our last obstetrician appointment at work had also been quiet. Things had returned to being fairly quiet with quiet patrols with the calls that Officer Barnes and I were called to were the "routine" ones. The one thing at work that loomed over everything at work was Grabar and Larceny's trial. Officer Howard and Agent Heer were both fairly certain that I would be called to testify in their case because of the fact that I had identified Grabar and Larceny as the thieves by scent, but so far, it did not appear as though the case had even made it to trial. Agent Heer and other FBI agents were still trying to get Grabar and Larceny to give them a list of the pawn shops they had taken their stolen goods to. And based off of what Agent Heer had told Officer Howard in his latest update in that situation, it didn't appear as though they'd get a chance to actually begin recovering any of the things that were stolen by the two Black Rat thieves in the near future.
But I could do little with regards to that. At work, I mostly happily updated Officer Barnes and Officer Jenkins on how Molly was doing and how her pregnancy was progressing, including the updates on coming up with names for our cubs. And before Molly and I left for Kalispell for our first Lamaze class, Rathik and Mugdha brought over the first couple of maternity dresses for Molly. It wasn't the complete order that we had made, but it was enough that Molly would have clothes that would fit her better as her womb would continue to grow larger in her last two months of pregnancy. We thanked them heavily for their hard work. And Molly was wearing one of the maternity shirts and shorts that hey had made for her as we drove along to Kalispell.
"So, what do you think?" Molly asked me as we rode along.
"About what?" I wondered, "Lamaze classes? Doctor Wainwright has said its important and my dad has told me he attended classes with my mom when she was pregnant with me. It's necessary, and prepares you for dealing with the pain of giving birth and will probably be there to prepare me to help you."
"And hopefully you're not called to testify when I'm giving birth," Molly said half nervously.
"Hopefully," I nodded, "but from what we've been told they haven't even gotten to an actual hearings yet. So we don't know if I'll be called to testify before you're due."
"Ah-ha," Molly commented, "but no I wasn't referring to attending Lamaze classes. I was referring to Clemens and Jenny. Mr. Patten told me that they're engaged now."
"I'm happy for them," I said simply, "I'd say that he deserves it after some of the things that he's had to endure."
Molly nodded in agreement to that.
"Who do you think they'll pick for their bridal and grooms party?" Molly asked.
"Probably Mr. Patten and close friends of their family," I shrugged, "Who else would they chose?"
"I don't know," Molly replied, "but since Joseph told me... I want to just give them a big hug and tell them to be very happy."
"I'm sure they don't need us to tell them to be happy," I commented.
We continued to ride along and made our way into Kalispell and began driving along until we came to the office that midwife that was running the Lamaze classes was operating out of. It was a fairly small office-like building but with a large glass window in the front. But its affiliation with the Kalispell Medical Center was fairly obvious, as the same logo that on the hospital there was also the sign that had the name of the center where the Lamaze Classes would be given.
"And this is the address that Doctor Wainwright gave us when he called?" I asked to Molly while I turned our Transit to move into a parking space in a small parking lot beside the center.
"Yes," Molly nodded, "same place... and we're to meet with a woman named Jennifer Litt."
I nodded and got out. After Molly got out and as we made our way toward the front door to the center we met a young couple headed in the same direction. Both were human, and the woman was heavily pregnant, possibly her eighth or ninth month. The man seemed fairly friendly but the woman was somewhat fearful.
"Hello," the man said politely, "y'all taking lessons?"
"Yes, I'm George, and this is my wife Molly," I said to him, "we're supposed to begin taking classes tonight."
"She doesn't look that far along," the woman commented.
"Abigail," the man chided her.
"I'm expected to be due in two months," Molly said with a sigh, "and three months premature by human standards."
"What! You can't induce labor that early! Your baby will die!" the woman, Abigail blurted quickly.
"Labor won't be induced," I told her, "and from what we could see, our cubs are already moving into position to be ready to be born."
"This will be natural?" the man asked.
Molly nodded, "Yes. It probably means that my pregnancy would be considered "high risk", but from what we know... it is natural for tigers to give birth prematurely by human standards. It means our cubs will be born blind and helpless... but in time, their eyes will open and they will be healthy. And we feel very confident in Doctor Wainwright's ability to help us."
"But why? All you Animal People say you're just like people? Why you give birth three months prematurely naturally?" Abigail half demanded.
"That is probably and evolutionary trait that comes from the fact that tigers are predatory animals," Molly answered, "if I were a mundane tigress and my body held my cubs within me until the point that they were fully developed, I would be too big to hunt effectively and would starve to death. And the Animatrix Serum, while it's been shown to do a great many things in the process of transformation... it does not mean that all the aspects of humanity would be retained. We are not lost to our instincts, which many humans fear... especially with my husband and I... but that doesn't mean that there are no things that would be very different from human births and pregnancies."
"You two from Columbia Falls, right?" the man asked after a moment.
Molly and I nodded.
"You two are Changes' last victims, ain't ya?" he then asked.
"Yes," I said simply, "some of the details make a pretty long story but to put things simply, we are the last of Changes' victims."
The man then nodded as we made it to the door. We went in and approached a counter where a secretary or someone that was sitting by a sign in sheet. She looked up to Molly and I and then stood up and held out her hand.
"Hello, you must be George and Molly right?" she asked.
"Yes?" Molly and I slowly answered.
"Good to meet you, and you are on time, a good thing," the woman answered shook our hands, "I am Jennifer Litt, you can call me Jen. I run the Lamaze classes here to help all the expectant mothers get ready to give to their bundles of joy."
She then gestured around the room to see various couples, one person male and the other a heavily pregnant female seated on specialized mats on the floor.
"Doctor Wainwright has told me about your case, Mrs. Wayne," Jen Litt spoke, "because you're expected to give birth three months premature, you can not substitute classes with me for regular care with Doctor Wainwright. I am merely here to help you get ready."
"We understand," Molly answered, "And we actually like Doctor Wainwright. He's been fairly friendly and hasn't treated me like I'm going to up and eat him."
"Not everyone is that fearful," Jen Litt replied, "Now, to begin things, my classes will revolve around the Lamaze technique to prepare you for giving birth. How breathe, how to relax and naturally ease the pain of birth. You are presently scheduled for once a week for the next two months. I expect the both of you to practice everything you learn from me in your spare time, is that clear?"
Molly and I nodded.
"Very good," Jen Litt nodded, "Now please sign on our sign in sheet and find a mat and an open spot. We'll begin with basic warm-ups for beginners and then I'll begin to go around with more private instruction with each couple to make sure they're all on the right page.
We did as we were told and quietly sat through the class. The warm-up consisted of taking fairly deep and slow breaths, like one was doing some sort of yoga routine or was trying to "cleanse one's self" as it were. Jen Litt then actually started the private instruction with Molly and I and a couple of the other woman who were new to the classes. In that, she instructed Molly and I on how she was expected to breathe during which parts of labor. She urged you to do it as well, as some method of helping Molly get it right. She also explained that I was there to help coach Molly through the process, and why I needed to know everything that she was expected to do. I supposed that that the system was that if the pain was too much for Molly, I could remind her of what she needed to do, and there the other portion of the classes would kick in. For while following them would take conscious effort, Jen Litt told us, that with proper practice, the way things would be done would be fairly instinctual. Overall, it made for a fairly decent first class.