It was the middle of the night when Derek felt his communication crystal buzzing from within his storage bracelet. He wasn’t out cold, so it had woken him up easily. With a frown on his face, Derek flicked his wrist, and the red crystal appeared in his hand.

    ‘Derek!’ Jacks’s voice sounded from the other end.

    ‘Jacks?’ Derek asked. ‘What’s up? Do you need something? Is Rayna okay?’ he rattled off a few questions.

    ‘No, she’s not... well... yes, she’s okay... but...’ the man obviously was having a hard time gathering his thoughts because they were basically coming through as stutters even though the communication was based on thoughts instead of spoken word.

    ‘Slow down,’ Derek said.

    ‘It’s happening!’ Jacks finally said.

    ‘She’s having the baby?’ Derek asked. He knew exactly what Jacks was trying to say now.

    ‘Yes!’ Jacks answered.

    ‘We’ll be right over!’ Derek sent back, and as soon as he did, Jacks cut off the communication.

    Derek jumped out of bed and, with another flick of his wrist, stored the crystal and equipped his clothes all at the same time. Then he ran out his door and into the hallway, directly to Malorie’s room. He hesitated. He wanted to just barge in and shake her awake, but he instead chose the less intrusive option, albeit still pretty forceful.

    He curled his fist and pounded on the door just light enough to not send it flying off its hinges. His hope was that Malorie hadn’t activated the sound dampening runes before she went to sleep. If she didn’t answer, that meant she did. And his next plan was to pull out his communication crystal again, and if that didn’t work, he’d break down the door and rush inside.

    Luckily, it didn’t come to that. Instead, a bedraggled Malorie opened the door quickly and looked up at Derek with wide eyes. She looked slightly afraid.

    “What is it? What’s wrong? Is Brandi okay?” she asked in quick succession.

    Derek almost laughed because it was almost the same reaction that he’d given Jacks. “Brandi’s fine... probably,” Derek said. “It’s Rayna. She’s having the baby. Jacks just contacted me.”

    “She is?” Malorie’s face changed from that of hesitation and wariness to one of shock and joy. The next instant, the woman was wearing her usual business clothes and pushed Derek to the side as she rushed out of her room. “We have to hurry!”

    With a half-grin, Derek watched as Malorie frantically ran up and down the halls, waking everyone up. Everyone just so happened to only be Rudy. Derek wasn’t sure, but Bones didn’t seem like he slept much—even though he had a room in the main building, and one in the other building that was made for any employees. It was the one where Ogre slept for the most part.

    However, as Malorie was rushing back and forth, Bones appeared out of nowhere and crept up beside Derek. He was wearing his formal butler attire, as always. Derek wondered if he ever took it off. The skinny man seemed to like the look—either that, or he took his job way too seriously... or both.

    “The baby is on the way,” Derek said before Bones could say anything.

    “I see,” Bones replied. “I will stay and keep watch of your shop.”

    “You sure you don’t want to come with us?” Derek asked. “You and Ogre are part of the family now. I’m sure Rayna and Jacks would like to have you there.” RА?o?Εs?

    “We will visit the little one once everything calms down,” Bones replied.

    “She’s having the baby?” the sleepy-eyed Rudy asked as he approached Derek and Bones with a yawn.

    “Sure is,” Derek said.

    As he was thinking these things, he heard the sound of a doorknob turning and quickly stood up. He moved over to where he could see the hallway and watched as... a perfectly fine looking Rayna, who looked almost the same as she had the day they’d met—other than her clothes, which were much better—walked out holding a baby in each arm.

    Then, trailing so close behind her that they were almost touching, and wearing a giddy smile on his face, Jacks walked out. He was so distracted by his children that he almost didn’t even sense it when a small weight appeared on his head. Silvi had hopped up on top of the man to get a better view.

    “So small!” her voice chimed from her crystal. “A bit ugly... looks like potato... but has thumbs... will do good.” Her head then tilted, and she said, “Two potatoes!”

    Derek chuckled at the lack of a filter that Silvi had, then waited for Rayna to finish bringing them into the living room. When they got there, he finally got a good look at them. Silvi... wasn’t wrong. They did have a slight resemblance to potatoes, but didn’t most babies until they were a little older? Of course, Derek wasn’t going to say that.

    “But they are my potatoes,” Rayna said with a giggle.

    “Our potatoes,” Jacks said from behind just as the front door slammed open and Jake, Jack’s son, came rushing inside.

    “Am I too late? Did I miss it?” He slowed when he saw Rayna, then his father standing behind her. He ran up close, then hesitated. “Two!” he shouted excitedly.

    “No, you didn’t miss anything. We just came out, and yes, there are two,” Rayna said. “Now, everyone sit down before you upset them.” As the mom, she held all the power in their current situation, so Derek was the first to find his way to one of the chairs, and soon, so did everyone else.

    “It was quite the surprise,” Jacks said. He had taken a seat next to Rayna on a couch. “I certainly didn’t expect there to be twins.”

    “I knew,” Rayna said. “I could feel them. But I didn’t say anything. The look on your face in there was priceless.” The woman laughed.

    “You knew?” Jacks looked appalled at his wife.

    “Of course I knew,” Rayna said.

    “We guessed!” Rudy said.

    “And how did you guess?” Rayna looked at Rudy and raised her brow.

    “Uh... well... you...” He started motion out to his side with his hands, but stopped before he got himself in trouble. “It was just a guess.”

    “I see,” Rayna said with squinted eyes, then laughed again. “It’s fine. I’m just messing with you. Nothing could make me angry today.”

    “Oh, well, in that case...” Rudy started.

    “Don’t push it,” Malorie said, and the man shut up. Then she looked back over to Rayna. “Two boys?” she asked.

    “No.” Rayna shook her head. “A boy.” She rocked the baby in her right arm to show which one she was speaking about. “And a girl.” She did the same to the one in her left arm. “Now, Derek,” she said.

    “Huh? Yes?” he asked, breaking out of the slight daze he’d found himself in while staring at the newborns.

    “Come over here,” she said.

    Not knowing what she wanted, but not daring to disobey, Derek stood and walked over to Rayna and the babies. Once there, she raised the boy up a bit in her arm and said, “Derek, meet Hunter.”