Clean up centers popped up quickly, organized by female novus groups, the tasks mostly carried out by juvenile novus female scouts like the one Roy’s daughters and my sisters were in. Civilians helped though, and was something that a lot of people did so the city could get back on track, and children that helped got paper booklets that other organizers could fill out. The more trash bags they filled with trash, the more gifts they could redeem their booklets for. I got Colin one and explained to him what he could do with them, and he seemed pretty excited, if not a little confused.

It was really more of a novus child activity, with novus children easily able to lift heavy items and understand what the weight to point conversions in the activity meant (which is why so many children bullied others out of the way so ‘they could work’), but they had booklets for sapien children as well with the expectation that someone was going to help them.

Plus, as Roy told Gideon, it was fun watching as the people with severe hangovers struggling to help without puking or crawling under a bench to sleep. Hurricanes – though significantly less powerful – were common in our city, and most people used it as an excuse to hunker down with cousins and party.

My brother’s family and I usually just slept through it or did some arts and crafts.

As I was a student at the Liliport University, that was where I brought Gideon and Colin to help clean up, Roy taking his daughters down to the school yards while Little Lawrence went with Mabel to help the peacekeeper cadets at headquarters.

The University, I was horrified to find out, was wrecked, everything expect for the literature building had substantial damage, the sort that would take months – and some years - to fix.

It was devastating to see the school I had worked most of my youth to get into, the school I was attending and planned on staying at for the rest of my academic career just gone, but I pushed that aside because Colin was already nervous and Gideon watched me like an eagle.

Being in full protective gear gave me the advantage of being able to easily hide my reactions to things, though.

We spent a couple hours collecting trash, Gideon helping Colin fill up bags with paper trash while I helped the other novus lift heavier debris and chat with my classmates about what the plans were for the programs. Most were being outsourced to other colleges in different parts of Victoria, but my program was being outsourced to Claymoore and I was heartbroken.

I couldn’t take my family to Claymoore.

My clan all but had a target on their back due to the bad blood with them – there was no way I could take Gideon out for dates there or raise Colin where I was afraid to go out for a stroll with them. I’d have to look at a different school on my own then, which was….

Something to worry about later.

When Colin got bored and hungry we stopped as I didn’t really want to push him to much, so we went home to eat.

After Gideon and I made lunch, I called Willow and we talked for a while about the new developments, with Willow saying he was in the closing stage of arranging the marriage for Gideon and I.

When he said that he was hitting a snag with getting approval from Gideon’s Matriarch, who didn’t love that I lived in Victoria, I impulsively asked if she would approve if I agreed to a limited residence in Greater Lakes. I told him what happened to LU and said the next best program was in Greater Lakes, which I was confident I would be able to get into once Gideon and I were fully mated.

And that was how we ended up moving to Greater Lakes.

It caused a bit of drama with my family, especially Roy who rightfully argued that it would be harder to figure out how to raise Colin away from my support system, but Gideon and I were able to get a two month lease on an apartment in the new parent complex in GL, and so it sort of worked out for the time being.

I didn’t like being so far from my family, but they were only a train ride away, so we managed, and the new parenting complex was a very useful place to be as a young family.

Gideon and I did not get any alone time with Colin because – as his therapist we set him up with at the new parenting complex told us – he had very severe separation anxiety on top of an intense fear of storms steaming from his mother being hung in one for infidelity in the rain and then tossed into a lake, so showers and baths – water in general – were a trigger for him.

But luckily Gideon and I were pretty much locked into our relationship from how aggressively we courted each other, so we didn’t require anything more than sleeping together and cuddling to keep nurturing the bond between us.

After we moved into the new parenting complex and I secured a place in the Greater Lakes Dental program, Gideon’s matriarch approved of our match, and we were married later that week in my hometown.

It was a good wedding – a happy wedding. Gideon told me about some rituals from the colony that we worked in, like wedding crowns and feasts, and I think he was as happy as I was with it. I knew he was missing his family, but over all…

A good day.

A happy day.

Ilan came down and stayed with us, and Gideon taught him about their wedding customs, and Ilan did the part of Gideon’s family (giving a blessing, agreeing to the marriage). Gideon’s cousins Morgana and her novus mate Howard – who had been an incredible help in Greater Lakes – came down as well for the ceremony.

Colin sat in my lap the entire ceremony and helped me pour the wine, and afterward he sat on my shoulders while I danced with Gideon – or, sort of danced, since Gideon didn’t know how to do anything else then let me twirl him, and since he was taller than me by a head, it was awkward, but we had a great time and I think everyone was happy with it.

I was, and I knew Gideon was, and I think Colin was nervous, but after it was all over, Gideon and I gave him a gift basket with treats and toys that he went through on the train home so I think he had a good day as well.

Roughly about a month after we got married, I started to go through the final rapid growth period. This was factored into my schooling, which was put on a wait period for sixth months as I adjusted to being mated as well as got my young family settled in our new city.

For several weeks after that, I don’t really remember much at all.

I slept near constantly.

It was snowing outside, and it became apparently quick that neither Gideon or Colin were big on snow, both spending most of their time under the covers with me. Colin liked to draw on my face as I slept or decorate my hair with chalk and stickers while Gideon laid in bed on my other side, talking endlessly on the phone with his brother and playing games with him through the game station his cousin Morgana had bought for him.

When I was awake, I was cooking for Gideon and Colin, making sure Colin got a very gentle shower, one that required me holding his hand and sitting on the shower floor with him while Gideon washed his hair since he still thought it was the rain and would become hysterical. Every day I would check in with my family, and then try to figure out how to help Colin adjust to our new situation, Mabel’s Dad having some very interesting insight since their villages were pretty similar.

Raising a sapien child versus a novus child was very different, so it was a bit of a learning curve, since I was so used to helping with my novus siblings, but in a lot of ways, it was easier beyond Colin’s fear of showers (and baths, as it turned out) and separation anxiety.

And Colin, luckily, was amazed at my existence.

He truly seemed to think I was a magical creature, and that made things a lot easier.

One afternoon while Gideon was out with Ilan for a Amberchurch brothers’ day out (where Ilan would take Gideon on a shopping spree), I was pulling together lunch for Colin and he tried to explain to me the difference between novus and fairies before he patted my hand and told me not to worry, because he liked fairies better, and that we were far less scary. He assured me he’d keep my identity a secret because not everyone liked fairies, and said he loved me. I thanked him and told him I loved him to and how happy I was I got to have him as my baby, and then we sat on the couch together and cuddled.

It was such a joy, having Colin. He was such a kind, sweet little boy and after dealing with Roy’s children, who had the typical novus intelligence, it was so relaxing having a baby that didn’t need the intense, constant academic stimulation.

He was perfectly content sitting with me and watching a cartoon pirate cat sing and fight ghosts, his maximum academic ability being that he was trying to learn the alphabet and counting up to thirty.

He was such a joy.

Sex with Gideon, of course, became none existent for a while.

Colin had to be everywhere I was, even coming to sit on the shower floor or stand next to the bathtub while I got clean, something he insisted he do and his therapist said was because he was afraid I might die like his mother had. Gideon he didn’t care about outside a worried glance and an occasional nervous knock on the bathroom door to make sure he was alive, but if he couldn’t be in the bathroom with me, there would be a breakdown.

But I didn’t mind.

It was a little funny though that he insisted I wear swimming trunks and made sure I didn’t put my head under the water, Colin usually putting on swim trunks himself to stand by and watch me, sometimes wearing his shoes as well and telling me I needed to wear mine.

And I would, of course.

Gideon during all of this was usually sitting on the bathroom sink shaving using whatever beauty sample he got in the mail, particularly obsessed with calming face masks (ones that made my nose burn, but I refused to say since he enjoyed them so much).

Colin was full of questions about everything – and I was happy to respond. We tried to see if Colin would be okay with going outside with Gideon’s cousin Morgana for walks, but he would burst into tears once the door was closed and he couldn’t see me anymore, so for a long while, he was attached to my hip.

Whenever I went shopping, he was on my shoulder. Whenever I went for a jog, he was in a stroller. Whenever I was cooking, he was sitting on the counter watching.

It was a bit of a struggle for Gideon.

While Colin slept, Gideon and I would be able to occasionally sneak out of the room to have sex elsewhere in the house (usually downstairs the living room or kitchen so I could hear if Colin got out of bed to come looking for us), but we had to be fast because Colin was a light sleeper, and even worse, he seemed to only sleep well when he had his head on my chest so he could hear my heartbeat.

So Gideon and I had gotten pretty skilled at quick sex, which usually involved Gideon getting worked up alone and me hurrying to help him finish before I stripped my own cock while Gideon whispered filthy things in my ear and did some wild things with his tongue.

It was a challenge, but we were up for it, because Gideon and I, despite things involving a lot of effort, were very much in love.

Everything was exciting with him, even the little things, and each night I felt our bond strengthen. I was able to pick up all of Gideon’s micro reactions to things and know how to predict how he would react or what he was thinking, and for the most part, things were smooth.

As long as Gideon wasn’t raging at losing a video game, anyway.

That...that could get bad.

But Gideon had warmed up to Colin, though I was sure he saw him as a kid brother than his child, which I was okay with. As the head of the house, I took on Colin as my son, and that was my responsibility, one I thoroughly enjoyed.

I was more than fine with Gideon just focusing on having fun. He still helped take care of Colin, of course, but it was a lot like an older child babysitting a toddler….I knew that Colin would survive under Gideon’s attention, but….parenting?

Gideon was still not quite there with Colin.

Or even close.

And that was fine.

He didn’t really switch into parent mode until circumstance landed us a newborn.