![[I saw three ships]](../img/2012icon.png)
"So, how's it feel, your last day at work for three months?"
Stephanie glanced up at her coworker and gave her a disgruntled look. "Like none of you are going to survive without me from the looks of the amount of work I have to do before the end of the day."
Not taking offense--or denying the charge--Terri laughed, then took Steph's arm and levered her out of her chair. "Yeah, sorry about that, but it's not going to get done even if you stay till midnight. Come on, we've got a surprise for you."
She was being steered towards the break room and her nose twitched at the scent of fresh coffee--which she couldn't drink, dammit. "There'd better be cake."
There was cake. White cake with pink icing because they'd found out it was a girl as soon as they could, and it was from DeForno's Bakery, so she pretty much forgave her office for piling on the work and making her indispensable.
Also, there were lots of gifts. The six month diaper service was much appreciated because while she was all for natural cotton diapers, Kara wanted disposable for convenience--and she said she'd vaporize all of them--and Cassie was torn between easy use and the need to save the Earth and complained that vaporizing left a carbon footprint, and God, her girlfriends were so weird sometimes.
Stephanie just liked the cute covers you could get with the cloth diapers, and those adorable little pins with ducks and lambs on them.
Even with the party, she was only two and a half hours late getting home and the scent of lasagna--one of her pregnancy staple foods--drew her into the kitchen. Cassie was just taking a pan out of the oven and Kara was pulling on her boots.
Frowning, Stephanie dumped her purse on the sideboard and waddled to a chair next to Supergirl. "Where are you going?"
"Early patrol. Babs called. There's something suspicious going down at the docks and the rest of the Bats are busy." Smiling, Kara kissed the mother-to-be, then gave a nod to Cassie. "Save me some?"
Nodding back, Cassie turned from the stove. She was wearing a 'kiss the cook' apron over yoga pants and a t-shirt, so Kara did, before slipping out the back door and darting into the sky.
"Darn it. I was hoping for a nice, relaxing evening at home with both of you for my first night of maternity leave. Also, the car is full of presents."
Cassie grinned and placed a loaded plate before Stephanie. "So, the party was a success?"
"Yeah. You two could have come, y'know. Everybody knows. No one cares." Which was one of the benefits of working for an advertising firm with clients such as Planned Parenthood and the local Wiccan bookstore. No one cared that one of their top ad writers was in a threesome with two women.
"I'd hoped to get out of office hours but with finals next week, every student ever needed to see me, half of them wanting extensions on their final papers."
Taking a bite of her lasagna, Stephanie groaned in delight. "You didn't grant any did you?" Not even Babs had given her extensions in college, and she'd spent her nights swinging around Gotham fighting crime, so she figured today's students didn't deserve them for being hung over or whatever.
"One legitimately had a grandfather pass away two days ago, but, no, the rest just got my stern face." Cassie took a seat and handed Steph a glass of milk, taking a sip from her own juice.
"You could have had wine. I could have sat here and drooled a bit."
Chuckling, the semi-retired Wonder Girl and professor of archaeology at Gotham U, leaned over and kissed her girlfriend. "I had a glass before you got home."
"Only another month..."
Over dinner they talked about the gifts they'd received for their daughter-to-be and where they'd put everything and how Kara was going to have to lump it over the diaper issue. Seated in her comfy chair with special padding, Steph's aching back recovered enough that she volunteered to do the dishes while Cassie unloaded the car. She placed a covered plate in the microwave for Kara, then stored the remaining lasagna in the fridge, before climbing the stairs to the nursery.
It wasn't pink--they'd all agreed on that immediately. Instead, the walls were a soft cream and the wood rich mahogany. The bedding was old fashioned Winnie the Pooh and the decor was a combination of all three heritages which managed to look perfectly blended and not a weird mish-mash. There were Kryptonian symbols carved into the chest of drawers and an Amazonian glass lamp on top of it. Cute bats hung with stars and moons from the mobile and on the walls were photographs by Cassie's sister, Donna, of all their friends and family.
The friends and family who were the village that would help raise this baby.
Steph found Cassie holding up an adorable red, blue and yellow striped onesie. "Kara's going to love this."
"I'm partial to the eggplant colored dress myself."
Chuckling, Cassie knelt and dug through the bags and boxes until she found that one and held it up as well. "You'd think your coworkers were in on our secrets."
Sinking into the rocking chair, Stephanie folded her hands over her tummy, patting the baby slumbering there. "You think we have enough stuff?"
"I think this baby is going to have enough stuff for three." Cassie shot her a look. "You're not carrying triplets are you?"
"God no. Though it feels like it sometimes, especially when she starts playing soccer with my kidneys. I swear there are at least four feet in there."
"You didn't get knocked up by a Prethalon did you?" Kara asked from the doorway, a grin on her face as she shoveled a bite of heated-up pasta into her mouth.
"Huh?"
"They have four feet and six hands. No clue why. They're also salmon colored. I don't think that'll go with that really adorable purple dress," she teased.
"Eggplant."
"How were the docks?" Cassie asked as she rose to put folded clothes in the drawers and Kara dropped to the floor to peer into a couple bags of toys.
"Uneventful. Well, there was a large smuggling operation, but I put a quick stop to that. No Mad Hatter or Killer Croc or Joker. Just a gang of idiots. Half of them pissed themselves when I flew in," she replied with some satisfaction, then groaned over her meal. "You make the best lasagna."
Cassie grinned at the compliment.
Steph made a face. "I'm pretty sure my arrival never made any villain pee himself."
"Believe me, it's not something to be proud of, especially with super senses." Supergirl wrinkled her nose, then inhaled the aroma of tomatoes and cheese before taking another bite. "It got a call from Clark while I was out. He needs me in Metropolis tomorrow, but I told him I had to be back by seven for the final lamaze class."
"It would be nice if all three of us could make it for the last one .txte we only were all there for the first one." It wasn't a scold, though--her girlfriends not only had their own jobs and extracurricular activities but were covering for Batgirl being knocked up. Stephanie fingered a stuffed elephant then pulled it to her face to take a deep breath. "Lavender."
"Helps babies sleep, supposedly," Cassie said, then dropped to one knee by the rocking chair. "Speaking of sleep, you look really tired."
"Long day, but the last one for a while." Stephanie yawned and handed over the elephant. "It's early, though."
Kara shrugged. "It's been a long week for all of us."
"I forgot to ask, how'd your case go today?"
"Remind me again why I wanted to be a social worker?" There was a frown on Kara's face and Stephanie leaned forward to brush her hand over her shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Just...the mom wasn't a bad person. It was obvious she loves her kids and they love her, but she's just...poor and working two jobs and they got left alone too much and the youngest ended up breaking her arm in a home accident. It's so much easier when there's a clear cut villain."
"Did she lose custody?" Cassie asked, as she knelt to fold empty gift bags.
"No. A part of me thought she should, but I talked to the kids enough to know it wasn't in their best interests. I got her into a program for financial help so she can quit one of her jobs and be there at night. They were all just so scared."
Cassie hugged her and Kara reached out and took Stephanie's hand.
"We're really lucky that we can give our baby all she'll ever need," the social worker whispered.
Stephanie gave a fleeting thought to her first child, the one she'd given up because she'd been too young and had no money and only her mom as support to raise. Yeah, they were lucky now. She patted her stomach again and the baby kicked in response, making her smile.
"Okay, I think a warm bath and then cuddling in bed watching a rom com is in order, maybe with hot cocoa?"
The other two jumped to their feet and while Kara took her dishes to the kitchen and to make the cocoa, Cassie helped Stephanie up and into their bedroom where a California king sized bed took up most of the space along with a sixty.txth flat screen tv on the opposite wall.
"Sandra Bullock? Drew Barrymore? Reese Witherspoon?"
"I'll be asleep ten minutes in, so it doesn't matter to me."
Laughing, Cassie guided her very pregnant and waddling girlfriend into the bathroom and sat her on the closed toilet while she ran a bath. "Just don't doze off in the tub."
The scent of jasmine and vanilla filled the air as bubbles filled the tub. "You spoil me."
"You're the one who jumped into having a baby whole body first when Kara first started musing about it. You deserve to be spoiled."
"Also, I have varicose veins now." Stephanie stuck out one of her legs and Cassie lifted it up slightly to pull off a sock.
"Yeah, I'll have the lotion ready for those and the stretch marks." She patted Steph's foot and pulled off the other sock, then helped her up. "You'll be okay in here?"
"I'll yell when I can't get out of the tub," Stephanie said with a sardonic chuckle, because it was usually true. She didn't remember being this ungainly or this huge the first time around, and she mumbled, "Maybe I really am having triplets."
"I'm pretty sure Kara would have mentioned three heartbeats." With a kiss, Cassie left her to her bath and Steph slid out of her maternity pants and stretchy top along with the so not attractive underwear. She patted her naked tummy and smiled.
"Just another month." Then she groaned. "And then three months of intensive exercise to get back into shape to be Batgirl again." That hadn't been that hard the first time around either, but being a mom at twenty-eight was so much better than being one at sixteen, even if her body wouldn't rebound as fast.
And the varicose veins were just ugly.
Maybe Kara could laser eye them away...
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