Mal groaned as she bent over the toilet, trying to keep Ben from hearing her as he was in a Portal call with Phil Jr and Emma. Carlos had invented the teleconferencing app back when Jane had been pregnant with Caroline as a way to make house calls easier for the more routine cases, but it had quickly taken off. Carlos had told Ben once that the name had come from Persephone's portal, Mal having told him about the portal calls a few times when Carlos was giving Estelle a routine physical.
The three royals, however, were trying to determine faster trade routes for Uma to use for their respective kingdoms since she was dangerously close to her due date and still stubbornly insisted on sailing the routes. No way was Mal going to derail that just because of a little stomach bug.
A stomach bug that also came with an intense craving for strawberries and her clothes not fitting her like they used to...no, no. She was not pregnant again. Sure, she and Ben had had some well needed alone time after the Learning to be Royal gathering but they were careful!
And yes, okay, Mal knew that even the best protection wasn't exactly full proof but still! There was no way she was pregnant. She and Ben had told each other that they weren't going to try for another kid until the twins were at least five and there was no way Mal was going to break that. She was not pregnant. No way.
"You're pregnant...and in denial."
"What the?!" Mal exclaimed as she looked over at her aunt, who had appeared in her bathroom. "Aunt Eileithyia, what are you doing here?"
"Your inner thoughts aren't as internal as you think they are, Malinda," Eileithyia said with a small smile.
"I kept everything off the link this time!"
"Your verbal thoughts, yes, but your nausea? Stubbornness? Frustration? Those were sent through the link. Don't worry though, with young Uma nearing her due date, most of the Gods thought the feelings were hers rather than yours. I was able to separate the two though."
"How?"
Eileithyia gave Mal a look. "Malinda, did your pregnancy brain make you forget who I'm the Goddess of? I'd need to be able to separate everyone's feelings on the mental link so I could be able to tell if there was a pregnant member of Olympus who needed assistance. And I'm so grateful you realized you were pregnant when you did. Any longer and you would have been delivering the baby not knowing you were due to have one."
Mal shook her head. "I'm telling you, Aunt Eileithyia, there's no way I'm pregnant."
"Fine, if you want to be stubborn about this," Eileithyia sighed and pulled out her 'big book of babies', as Hades liked to call it. Where she pulled it from, Mal honestly wasn't sure as there were no visible pockets in her aunt's wardrobe. Eileithyia flipped it open and ran her finger down the list. "Let's see...ah here we are Le Bête. See for yourself Malinda."
She turned the book around and handed it to Mal, pointing to where Mal's name was on the page. Mal carefully took the book and looked at where her aunt was indicating.
There, in bright purple ink...wait, purple?
"Why is it purple?" Mal asked, looking at her aunt.
"The name reflects the favorite color of the mother. And if two mothers have the same favorite color, then one of them gets a different shade of the color. It's all to make sure everything stands out," Eileithyia said. "And now you're distracting both me and yourself. What does the page say, Malinda?"
Mal sighed and looked down at the page once more. There was no denying it. Right there, in bright purple ink, was her name with the word 'pregnant' next to it.
"I...I really am pregnant," Mal said softly.
"By Jove, she's realized it," Eileithyia said with a small smile to show she was only teasing her niece. "And like I said, it's a good thing you realized it when you did. What with your baby being due in October and all."
Mal's head sprang up and she stared at her aunt. "I'm sorry what? Uma's due in August and she's almost ready to burst, what with her due date probably a couple of weeks away. That...there's no way..."
"I'm guessing you're forgetting about your little alone time back in...March I want to say?" Eileithyia asked as Mal continued to stare at her aunt in shock. "Yes it would have to be March, to fit your seven month gestational period. Oh! You might want to tell your husband sooner rather than later. I've found that's the best course of action with this type of news."
"I mean of course I'm going to tell Ben, why wouldn't I?" Mal asked before shaking her head. "I just...I need a minute is all."
Eileithyia gave her niece a small smile as she sat on the edge of the tub. "It's completely understandable, Malinda. Especially if you didn't suspect a pregnancy."
"I just...Aunt Eileithyia, shouldn't I have known? Shouldn't I have been in tune with my body or known I was going to be a mother again?" Mal asked as she looked over at her aunt.
"Of course not," Eileithyia told her.
Mal couldn't help but stare in shock. That had not been the answer she had been expecting.
"Malinda, you already have two kids and have one of the most exhausting jobs in the world," Eileithyia told her, shaking her head in slight amusement at the shocked look. "I'm pretty sure the only person who wouldn't be understanding of you not recognizing your pregnancy symptoms would be Zeus."
Mal snorted in amusement and then paused as she realized a rather important detail she'd been overlooking. "Aunt Eileithyia, since I...I didn't know I was pregnant and I—."
"From what I'm able to tell, any dragon transformations have not harmed your baby," Eileithyia said, looking at her book as she took it from Mal's hands. "And yes, you're only having one baby. I remember how you reacted upon finding out you were having twins the first go around."
"Oh thank Gods," Mal sighed in relief before shaking her head. "Not that we wouldn't love them if they were twins but with Effy and Reese in their 'terrible twos' as they're called and their magic coming in, I don't know what Ben and I would do if we had two sets of twins."
"You'd do the exact same thing you're doing now, only with four kids instead of two," Eileithyia told her. "I know you Malinda, and more importantly I know how Persephone and Hades raised you. Nothing would have stopped you from being the best possible parent to all of those children."
Mal couldn't help but give her aunt a small smile as she heard that. She wasn't going to lie, hearing that from someone other than Ben or her parents, Hadie, or Rea was nice because they weren't obligated to say it simply because they were married to her or because they were her parents or siblings.
"Do you want me to get King Ben?" Eileithyia asked, her voice gentle.
Mal sighed. "It would just worry him and I know he's working—."
"You're more important Mal," Ben's voice came from the doorway and Mal whipped her head around to see her husband standing there.
"How...how did you—?"
"Know you weren't feeling well?" Ben asked. "Mal, we've got two amazing Cerberi who came to get me without you. That kinda let me know something wasn't right."
Plus Dean let me know that Maurice had been crying over the monitor and wanted to know if you were okay since he didn't hear you with him too, Ben thought but didn't say anything. The last thing he wanted was to make Mal feel guilty.
"What about the Portal call?" Mal asked.
"Emma had to hop off for Ethan and Phil got surprised by a visit from Melody and their twins. Mal...sweetheart, are you okay?" Ben asked as Estelle trotted in and rested his heads on Mal's leg. Nyx waited patiently by Ben's side, knowing that Estelle would want to be by his girl if something was wrong.
"I'll give you all some privacy," Eileithyia said, her voice still gentle as she got up and left the bathroom to take advantage of the time to visit with her great niece and great nephew. Mal sighed as she sat up and looked over at Ben.
"...I'm pregnant," she said, her voice soft.
"Really?" Ben asked, his eyes lighting up in excitement.
Mal couldn't help but stare at him in shock, and Ben shook his head as he noticed her reaction.
"You really thought I wouldn't be excited about this?" Ben asked. "I mean, yes it's sooner than we thought but that doesn't mean anything."
"But...Ben, Aunt Eileithyia said my due date's in October," Mal told him. "We've got nothing prepared, no nursery, no crib, and we haven't even told our families!"
"And we can do that," Ben said, his voice gentle as he sat down next to Mal before pulling her to him and holding her in his arms. "We got this Mal. Even if the due date's sooner than we'd like it to be, we still got this."
"How are you so calm?"
"Oh I'm panicking just as much as you are," Ben told her. "But we made it work with the twins and our jobs. All I'm worried about is...did we miss something with the baby? We haven't had any doctor appointments so—."
"Aunt Eileithyia said the baby appears to be in full health, not even my dragon transformations have harmed them," Mal said. "I'm not going to lie, that's a huge relief...even if it does mean I could have gone on dragon flights when I was pregnant with the twins."
"It's better that we were cautious there," Ben said, shaking his head slightly in amusement at Mal's reaction. "But is there anything I can get you? Tea? Strawberries?"
"Strawberry tea would be great actually, if that's a thing?"
"I will make it a thing!"
Mal couldn't help but smile as Estelle and Nyx wagged their tails at Ben's voice, as if agreeing that they would make it a thing for her.
"You know we're going to have to tell the kids soon," Mal said.
"I know," Ben nodded from his spot near the sink; having sprung to his feet in his excitement to get something for his wife before realizing that it was probably not the best move to just leave Mal on the bathroom floor alone. "But we can do that privately, no reason they have to be in front of the flashbulbs of the press when we break the news."
"Oh Gods, the press!" Mal groaned and leaned her head back against the toilet. "I forgot about them!"
"We don't have to make it a big thing," Ben said. "Maybe even just an interview with Snow again?"
"Isn't Emma still pregnant? Or did she give birth?"
"She gave birth a couple of weeks ago, remember Mal?" Ben asked gently. "We only just got Emir to stop jumping around our office in excitement of his daughter's arrival."
Mal nodded softly and looked up at him. "Oh right. Sorry, I can't believe I forgot about Eva's birth."
"To be fair, you've been a bit busy and you've been given a huge shock," Ben said gently as he sat back down on the ground next to her; gently wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "We got this Mal."
"How can you be so sure?" Mal asked, looking at him.
"Because I'm listening to my heart," Ben told her. "And my heart's telling me that there's no way we'd mess this up. Sure the newest firefly is a little earlier than we had planned but we still planned for them."
"Ben, I've spent how many months not even knowing I was pregnant? What kind of a mother does that?"
"According to a story Rowyn once told me, Rapunzel didn't know she was pregnant with Evan until she was giving birth," Ben told her. "Would you call Rapunzel a bad mother?"
"Of course not!"
"Then why should anyone call you a bad mother?" Ben asked and smiled. "Hey, think of it this way. Now our firefly and Uma's guppy will be able to hang out together and be around the same age. Plus, Emir's daughter has someone to shadow."
Mal couldn't help but chuckle at that and Ben had to smile.
Good, he thought as he gently kissed her head. Don't you stress over this, Dragon. We're a team after all, I'll talk to Dean about reworking my paperwork so I'm more available. Plus after we break the news to our families, I know Chip'll be coming over to help set up the nursery...and you know what? I think I'm going to talk with Gil.
Gil was rather good with a sewing machine and Ben knew he had a beloved toy that had seen some better days. Besides, the whole reason he had saved Flamey in the first place was to pass it on to his kid...he just hadn't done it with Effy and Reese because how could he? It'd be like announcing a favorite of the two.
There was a small part of him that wondered if it would seem like he was favoring the younger sibling but hopefully Effy and Reese wouldn't see it like that and only care that their sibling had a plush toy like their dragon and Cerberus. Plus, he wouldn't officially pass on the toy until Firefly's first birthday but he didn't want to just rush Gil. Not with something like this.
"We should probably go tell the kids," Mal said softly, bringing Ben out of his thoughts. "Before they hear it from rumors spreading around the castle."
"Good idea," Ben nodded and gently helped Mal up onto her feet.
"...Why was Rowyn talking to you about her mom giving birth to her brother?" Mal asked as they walked out of the bathroom; Estelle and Nyx trotting dutifully by their side.
"If I knew, I'd tell you," Ben shook his head. "It was one of the rare moments in school where Emir and Akiho would recruit someone other than Lonnie to try to get me out of my office. I guess Rowyn thought the topic of child birth would make me squeamish enough to leave?"
"Did it?"
Ben raised an eyebrow, giving his wife a look that clearly read have you met me?
"Oh right," Mal shook her head. "You probably only left to read all the books possible on the topic."
"Nah...I did dive down a Scholarpedia rabbit hole when she left though."
"That does seem more like you," Mal chuckled as the two of them made their way to the playroom where their children and Mal's aunt awaited them.