Prologue
Relaxing on the sun-lounger in her loose sundress, Hope basks in the warm sun as she gently caresses her swollen belly. A belly carrying a fourth generation Mikaelson first-born witch, a tribrid like her. The poolside is so quiet and peaceful, unlike the noisy crowd in the house at the moment. But the quiet moment is soon ruined by the familiar voice of her sister-in-law.
“How dare you sneak out here without me?!” Lizzie scolds Hope.
Hope lifts up her sunglasses to frown at her also very pregnant sister-in-law. Lizzie walks closer to Hope, holding her back more than Hope does these days.
“Gosh, Lizzie. You looked like you’re gonna fall over anytime.” Hope stretches out her hand to help Lizzie but the blonde slaps the tribrid’s hand away and sits down on the sun-lounger next to her.
“Shut up, Mikaelson. I’m carrying twins. And it isn’t fair you’re carrying your child in your 18-year-old body while I’m carrying mine in my 28-year old body.” Lizzie rejects the help and relaxes comfortably on the lounger. “Sigh.. Now I know why you prefer being away from the party in the house. I feel so light lying here.”
“28 isn’t old, Lizzie.” Hope puts her sunglasses back on.
“They’re making bets on who will pop first again.” Lizzie reveals. “I had to get out of there.”
“And who’s leading?” Hope asks.
“I am.” Lizzie then rolls her eyes. “I can’t believe they would think the bigger the tummy, the sooner it pops. I’m not a balloon. I just have twins!”
“We’re both in our eighth month. Anyone of us could pop first.”
“I know right!”
The two mothers-to-be enjoy a little bit of silence between them for some time, relaxing and taking in the spontaneous sunbathing as peacefully as possible.
“Oh.. look who just arrived.” Lizzie looks over to the front of the house to see Amber arriving with gifts and where Josie cheerfully welcomes the hybrid to the baby shower party.
Amber catches the eye of Hope at the poolside and waves at her but Hope waves back in a direction to tell the hybrid to go in the house and not come to her yet. Amber seems to catch what her Alpha was hinting at and nods with a friendly thumbs-up, following Josie into the house.
“Will she freak out if she finds out her boyfriend is the one who impregnated you?” Lizzie wonders aloud.
“Lizzie! How many times must I remind you it isn’t Raf from this world!” Hope exclaims.
“I know I know.” Lizzie adds. “The Raf from this world can’t procreate since he’s a hybrid and that Raf in that alternate world was just a werewolf. But honestly, I still don’t know how the science work. You’re a full tribrid and yet you could procreate. And it isn’t like you were sent to the alternate world where vamps can procreate.”
“Well, I guess my family tends to carry some kind of cosmic loophole gene. My dad was a hybrid who managed to procreate. I guess I carried down that gene, without knowing it actually still works?”
“I still can’t believe you slept with Raf. It’s like Raf is one-night stand material in any world!” Lizzie chortles as she recalls her one-time gym sex with the werewolf.
“And I still can’t believe you married Landon and are having a pair of possibly undying twin witches.” Hope counters.
“Well, I can’t help it when both you and Josie left me alone with him all these years!? At least the coven is delighted that their current leader is going to have a pair of twins who can’t actually die in a merge. They know they can’t throw my little boy and girl in prison for being naturally undying. Nature doesn’t break any rule.” Lizzie states proudly.
“No offense, coven leader. But I still hate your coven. Just because of one prison break attempt I did, they threw me into an alternate world where there is no existence of the Saltzman twins. It sucked that I could never find a Josie Saltzman in that world. Your coven really did me dirty there. I was one hell of a miserable soul! I kept missing your sister that on one pissed drunk ass night, had sex with werewolf Raf and boom! Pregnant!” Hope recalls.
“Well, look at it on the bright side, if you didn’t get thrown in that Josie-less world, you wouldn’t have had that one-night stand with hot Raf, you wouldn’t know you could procreate and have this little miracle baby. And you were only able to get back into this world because of your baby. This world where Josie was already out of prison, Hope.”
“Yeah, the high council got me back so now they own my ass and then they will take my tribrid child as a sacrifice, just like what some witches tried to do to me when I was born.”
“Gosh, Hope. Must I say this again?! The high council got you back to protect you and the baby. You’re my family. They promised to protect MY family and they will not kill my niece! I will fight them if they as much as touch a hair of my niece!”
“Lizzie, I trust you but I just don’t trust other witches, especially your gemini coven ancestors.”
“Well, if you had not tried to break my sister out of the prison world in the first place, they would have trusted you more…” Lizzie reminds.
“Your crazy uncle was the reason we had to break out of the prison world. If you were in there with Josie and I, you would understand.”
“You and Josie tolerated him for two years, you could have patiently waited another three years for Josie to finish serving her sentence. In the end, you got your ass thrown into another world, leaving my sister with the psycho uncle alone. You’re lucky Josie knew how to handle him and completed her sentence safe and sound.”
“Sigh.. I know… And I’m lucky she still married me despite everything that had happened. Now she’s even more excited to raise our baby than I am.” Hope admits, internally thankful of what she has with Josie now.
“Hope dearie, no long-lasting relationship is always so smooth-sailing.” Lizzie adds. “You and my sister went through all these crazy events only to find your way back to each other every time. It only goes to show how strong your love for each other is.”
“Aww…That’s sweet, Mrs Kirby.” Hope smiles thoughtfully at her lovely sister-in-law.
“Don’t go mushy on me, Mikaelson.” Lizzie chuckles.
“How long do you two plan on staying out here?”
Hope and Lizzie turn to see their favourite person walking up to them.
“You’re both the main hosts! The ones they are supposed to be showering their gifts at!” Josie reminds the two mothers-to-be.
“It’s too noisy in there. Bad for our daughter.” Hope complains with a pout.
“Did she kick angrily again?” Josie reaches down to touch the precious belly, not forgetting to plant a loving kiss on her wife’s pouty lips.
“Nah, she’s calm now.” Hope reports to the wife.
“Alright, you both know I alone can’t handle so many guests.” Josie highlights to her wife and sister.
“The baby shower party was your idea, Sis. You deal with it.” Lizzie retorts.
“Oh, this is coming from the person who supported my idea eagerly because she LOVES PARTIES.” Josie rebukes too.
“Well, you could have invited less people.” Hope mutters.
“I invited more because there are three babies here!” Josie raises her hands in exasperation.
“Fine.. fine. I’ll go back in.” Hope soothes Josie, reaching for her hand as she sits up and encourages her sister-in-law along. “C’mon, Lizzie.”
“Wait.. did you dip in the pool earlier?” Josie asks her wife as she helps her up.
“No..” Hope shakes her head.
“Then why is there a big wet patch on your lounger?” Josie observes.
“Holy shit…” Lizzie looks at the patch and then at her sister-in-law. “Your water broke, Hope!”
Josie gasps deeply. “Okok…Let’s not panic! I…I will go grab the bag. Lizzie! Bring my wife to the car now!”
Lizzie nods and quickly grabs hold of Hope, walking carefully with her sister-in-law towards the car.
“Lizzie, if you let go of me, I can actually vamp-speed to my car, water-broken or not.” Hope tells the blonde.
“Right, blame the heavier pregnant lady for walking too slowly.” Lizzie rolls her eyes but she eventually lets go of Hope when she sees that Josie had vamp-sped from the house to take the bag and is now already in the car.
Pregnant Hope vamp-sprints to her car and takes the back seat while her wife starts the car.
“Bye! We’ll catch up later!” Lizzie waves at her girls as they drive off. The baby shower guests standing behind her also waved at Josie and Hope driving away.
“So, how much did most of you lose?” Lizzie smirks, asking the guests who have lost the bet on who would give birth first.