Disclaimer: With the exception of the babies, all is not mine.


Dedication: To Alanna who actually likes my screenplay for a fourth Indiana Jones movie.

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And Baby Makes Three
by Kristen Elizabeth

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July 6th, 202

"So, what does Duo want?"

Relena looked up from rolling a silk stocking up her thigh. "What makes you think he wants anything?"

"Please." Heero plopped down onto their bed, sitting upright against the headboard as he watched her dress. "They flew to Earth for the weekend. He's taking us to dinner at a restaurant of our choosing." He crossed his arms. "He wants something. The question is, what?"

His wife laughed as she attached the sheer black stocking to a lacy garter belt. "You're so suspicious, pumpkin."

Growling intimately, Heero sprung from the bed and grabbed her bare midriff. "You know what happens when you call me that..."

Not in the least bit frightened, Relena looped her arms around his neck. "I get punished?" Heero nodded and ducked his head to suck at her neck. "Hey, hey!" She managed to wriggle out of his grip. "No leaving marks. My dress is low cut."

"Really?" he said, interested.

She disappeared into the closet and emerged a moment later, sliding a black lycra dress over her head. "What do you think?" she asked once she was dressed.

Heero shook his head, as usual stunned to see how beautiful, sexy and yet, classy she could appear all at once. "I think you need to change." He reached for her hips, pulling her up against him again. "You're going to have men staring at you all night."

"Hmm..." Relena tweaked his nose. "You're as bad as my brother." She pulled away and stepped into her shoes. After giving her appearance a quick once-over, she took his arm. "Come on. We're going to be late."

They took Heero's car to the restaurant, foregoing the limousine. After all, Noin and Millardo might need it sometime during the night, Relena reasoned. Plus, she liked distracting Heero when he was driving. Twice he threatened to pull over and have his way with her in the backseat on the side of the road if she didn't stop torturing him. A futile threat; she would have liked that as much, if not more, than going to dinner with Hilde and Duo.

Their friends were already waiting for them at the chosen place, a small, intimate Italian restaurant. Neutral ground, Heero considered it. He wouldn't have to choke down Duo's greasy burgers and fries, but also wouldn't have to hear Duo complain about being forced to eat raw fish. The only thing Duo liked about Japanese cuisine was the huge fireball at a hibachi grill. And Heero would never pollute his body with American junk food.

Once the four friends were seated and the waiter had taken their drink orders, Heero put down his menu and looked the braided man. "All right, Maxwell. What do you want?"

Duo feigned outrage. "Heero, I'm shocked! Do you really think I have to want something in order to invite you and Relena out to dinner?" Heero nodded. Duo chuckled nervously and hid his face behind his menu. "Oh look, Hilde. They have spaghetti..."

Heero pulled the menu down. "Spit it out."

Shaking her head in amusement, Relena pulled gently on her husband's arm. "Heero...come on. At least wait until dessert for the inquistion."

Sighing, Hilde set down her menu. "All right. You win, Heero. Yes, we do have an ulterior motive."

"I knew it," Heero said, with an edge of triumph in his voice. Once again, he looked at his best friend. "So...what do you want?"

Duo cleared his throat nervously. "Well, see....it's like this. Hilde and I haven't....I've been saving up some vacation time...we looked around for a babysitter....but we trust you guys most of all....I mean, if you two say 'no', we'll understand...." He bit his lip. "What do you say?"

Heero expression was one of utter confusion. "To what? Did you ever actually ask a question in there?"

"Yes," Relena replied, a brilliant smile on her face. "Of course we will!"

Her husband looked at her. "What's going on? What are you signing us up for, Relena?"

"When are you leaving?" she asked the other couple, without replying to his question.

Hilde smiled gratefully. "In two weeks. Oh, you don't know how much this means to us! Thank you both!"

Duo nodded. "Really, thanks."

Heero gently took his wife's hand. "Relena...just what is going on?" His voice was calm, but hiding a building anger.

Her eyes shone. "We get to take care of Lilli for..." She stopped.

"A week," Duo supplied.

"We get to take care of Lilli for a week," she repeated happily. "Won't that be wonderful?!"

Their drinks arrived just then, so no one heard Heero mumble, "Oh yeah. Duo's kid. Wonderful."

****

"Lucas...don't drop that cup again. Lucas..." Millardo Peacecraft squeezed his eyes shut as his fourteenth month old son dropped his plastic covered cup from his high chair for the twentieth time since breakfast had started.

His wife, Lucrezia Noin, bent over and picked up the cup. "It's a game, sweetie," she told him. "Just play along." Lucas banged the cup on the plastic tray of his high chair and gurgled what sounded like "daddy" around a mouthful of Cheerios.

Millardo had to smile. "Did you hear that? He said it again."

"He's been saying it for a month." Heero entered the kitchen and immediately reached for the coffee pot.

"Hmm...someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Noin handed a mug to her brother in law. "Bad dinner with Duo last night?"

Heero poured coffee into the mug, added some milk and took a long sip before he replied. "They're going on vacation and they want us to keep Lilli."

"And you agreed?" Millardo asked.

"Relena agreed." Heero sat at the table. "She's ecstatic. She's already talking about having one of the extra rooms made into a nursery."

"What's wrong with the nursery we already have?" Noin gently stroked her son's head as he mashed soggy Cheerios on his tray.

Heero set down his coffee. "It's blue. Relena wants pink for Lilli."

She covered a small smile with her hand. "How long are Duo and Hilde going to be gone?"

"A week." He picked up his mug, but didn't drink. "This means a lot to her, so I'm going along with it. If she wants to paint a room pink, that's just fine with me."

Millardo picked a Cheerio off his lap after Lucas sent it hurtling through the air. "Why do we bother to try to feed this kid, Lu?" Upon seeing Lucas' mischievous grin, he sighed and smiled. "Eat your breakfast, Lucas."

Noin watched her baby place a few wet Cheerios into his little mouth. "I'm kind of jealous. Duo's taking Hilde on a vacation. How long has it been since we've had some time off, sweetie?

Her husband shook his head. "I can't remember."

"I wonder..." Noin's tone was thoughtful as she sipped a glass of milk.

Relena entered the kitchen with a smile on her face. It was something Millardo hadn't seen on his sister in far too long. She walked over to the table and was about to give her husband a kiss, when Lucas dropped his cup once more. Relena scooped it up from the floor. "What are you doing, baby?" She handed it to her little nephew before planting a kiss on his chubby, messy cheek.

"Heero woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, so you must have woken up on the right side." Noin winked at the younger woman.

"Did Heero tell you? We're going to get to look after Lilli for a whole week." Relena into the fridge for pitcher of orange juice. "Isn't it great? You haven't seen her since they moved, have you? She's too adorable for words."

Noin rested her chin in her hand. "Relena...how would you and Heero like to look after Lucas, too?" She glanced at her husband. "I think a vacation is just what your brother and I need."

Millardo caught the look in her eye. "Yes. Definitely. A vacation."

"Lilli and Lucas??" Relena's smile doubled in intensity at the prospect not getting to mother just one baby, but two for a whole week. "Isn't that fabulous, Heero!?"

Her husband held onto his coffee for dear life. "I'm sure it will be lots of fun," he replied through clenched teeth.

"Where do you want to go, Lu?" Millardo asked his wife.

"Oh, I don't know...." She leaned across the table to kiss him. "Surprise me."

Meanwhile, Relena lifted her nephew out of his high chair to clean him up. "Rena," Lucas declared happily until she started to wipe his face. He started squirming. "No-no..."

Heero watched carefully. "Are you sure you know what you're getting into, koibito?"

"Please." Relena tossed her hair over one shoulder and held onto Lucas until he was clean. "It'll be a piece of cake."

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July 20th, 202

"All right....there's plenty of diapers in this bag. I got the biggest packages that I could, but if you need more, the size she wears is printed on the side. She usually needs to be changed in the morning, a hour or so after breakfast, halfway though the day, before and after naptime, after dinner and right before bed and every so often inbetween. Now, all the bottles in that cooler have breast milk, so make sure to warn Heero. There should be enough for at least one feeding a day; for the others, you can give her this formula. She's pretty good about taking the bottle. If she gets fussy, just hold her against your own breast and it might calm her down. She loves to be sung to before she falls asleep. Duo's usually the one to do that, so she's used to a somewhat off-key male voice. Maybe Heero would be willing to....okay, maybe not. All her clothes and play toys are in that suitcase. High chair, you said you've still got Lucas' old bouncing chair and they can share a playpen..." Hilde looked around the foyer. "What am I forgetting?"

Relena smiled and held out her arms. "The baby?"

"Oh! Right!" Hilde gently transferred little Lilliane to Relena. "I really can't thank you enough for this, Relena."

"It's really no problem." Relena smiled down at the sleeping baby. "It'll be good practice. For me *and* Heero."

Hilde had to laugh. "And you're watching Lucas, too? Wow...I can't wait to hear the stories when I get back."

"Same goes for you," Relena replied. "A week in Hawaii....try not to wear poor Duo out."

"Poor Duo, nothing." Hilde winked. "He's going to be one happy man when we come back on Sunday. Although...he's still upset that I won Hawaii and he lost out on Las Vegas."

Relena readjusted Lilliane in her arms. "Just have a good time. Don't even worry about us; we're going to be just fine."

Duo burst into the foyer, a hideous Hawaiian shirt over his usual all-black attire. "Are you ready, babe? The plane leaves in forty-five minutes. I pre-claim the window-seat."

Hilde rolled her eyes. "Get over here and say goodbye to your daughter."

He carefully lifted Lilliane from Relena's arms and kissed both her little cheeks. "Bye, baby-girl. Daddy loves you." He passed the child to Hilde who, after another round of kisses, gave Lilliane back to Relena. The baby barely cracked a eyelid through the whole exchange.

Relena waved to them as best she could as they walked out the door to the waiting taxi. "Bye! Have fun!!" Once they were gone, she resettled Lilliane against her shoulder. "I'd put you down, but you seem content to take your nap in the middle of all this comotion."

Just then, Millardo and Noin appeared at the top of the main staircase with Heero, reluctantly holding onto Lucas, in tow. When they reached the bottom, Noin smiled brilliantly at Relena. "Did they leave already?" Relena nodded. "Well, I guess we should be on our way, too. You know where everything is and what to do with it."

"Yes," Heero replied, wincing when Lucas decided his uncle's bangs were perfect for tugging.

Noin kissed her son's white-blond locks. "Say 'bye-bye' to Mommy and Daddy, Lucas."

The little boy beamed and pulled harder on Heero's hair. "Bye-bye!" he repeated.

Millardo, weighed down by the luggage, could only manage to nod at his son before his wife pulled him out the door and into the second taxi. The heavy, glass and oak door slammed behind them, leaving Relena and Heero alone with the children. Relena sighed happily and gently bounced the baby in her arms. "Well, sweetie," she addressed her husband without glancing back at him. "It's just you and me and the babies now." When Heero didn't reply, she turned around. "Heero?" Her husband had his hands on his hips, looking around as though he had lost something. Lucas was no longer in his arms. "Sweetie...where's Lucas?"

Heero looked at her worriedly. "I just put him down for a second and now...." He spread his hands. "He's gone."

Relena's eyes widened. "He could be anywhere, Heero! Why did you put him down? You know he can walk."

"He was pulling my hair. It hurt." Heero folded his arms. "This entire house is pretty much child-proof anyways. And he couldn't have gotten far on those little legs."

Just then, there was a loud crash from the parlor. A crash that sounded suspiciously like a one year old pushing something breakable off a coffee table. The loud noise startled Lilliane. She opened her little mouth and let loose with a high-pitched scream.

Relena closed her eyes. "This is not a good sign."

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TBC