Biff settled Martha into a chair and put an ottoman under her feet. Her aunt looked daggers at him but accepted the coddling since it was better than arguing in front of guests. Hernando stood, grinning at the domestic exchange while Valori and Annara sat on the sofa and did their best not to laugh at Martha's obvious discomfort at being the center of her husband's attention.
"Will you please leave me alone now, Biff?" Martha said under her breath. "I won't break. Promise."
"Of course you won't. How far along are you now, Martha?" Nina winked as she shook Biff's hand. "Congratulations, Dad."
"I'd estimate she's between six to eight weeks," Valori informed them. All eyes turned to the petite silver-haired psychic. "It's about the usual time when I first sense the growing child."
Olivia's grandmother's dark brown eyes lit up. "Oh? I noticed her slight swelling in her face and hands, too." Nina came over to Valori to introduce herself. "Are you doctor or midwife by chance? I worked as a nurse for many years with a local obstetrician before my husband and I retired and moved south. I miss the work."
Valori smiled with genuine warmth. "I have assisted a midwife to deliver a child on occasion. They felt my sewing skills superior when it became necessary to take the child out through the mother's stomach."
Olivia paled. Not what I'd planned at all. "Fascinating, but let's talk about a less graphic topic. It's Thanksgiving, and we want to have good appetites, right?" Everyone nodded. She took Hernando by the arm and led him over to her grandfather. "Granddad, this is Hernando. I told you all about him, remember?"
"I'm not senile. I remember it well." Bertram slipped his reading glasses onto the tip of his long nose and gave Hernando a good look up and down before shaking his hand. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, sir. You've been in the news quite a lot. My Olivia looks quite happy whenever she's standing next to you on the screen. Is being a diplomat a good career with a chance of promotion if you pay your dues, you think?"
Hernando stood speechless for a moment and Olivia quickly filled in. "Granddad, he's not working as a shop steward in an auto parts factory like you did. Hernando is acting as an ambassador for his entire planet. It's an important job."
"Yes, but I want to know if he'll be president of his planet someday. My grandbaby deserves to work with the best."
"One day I could very well become president of the BloodDark ruling council." Hernando stood tall and put an arm around Olivia's shoulders. "But for now, I'm proud to be a representative of our people to the people of Earth. Olivia has been an effective assistant in this task."
A twinkle in her grandfather's eye indicated he understood Olivia's plan. "So, you think you'd take her back on to work in your office if she asked?"
Hernando nodded. "I would, sir, but her parents have stated they want her to attend higher education. I want her to reach her academic potential as well, and I'd never want to come in between Olivia and her family."
Bertram chuckled. "Heck, I have a technical degree as a tool and die maker myself. Book smarts will only take you so far, and there'll be time enough to go to law school later. Right now my Olivia can help you build bridges of understanding between our worlds."
I knew Granddad would take my side. Now to convince everyone else... Olivia felt a burden lifting from her shoulders. She squeezed Hernando's hand and smiled at the gathering, happy to see her relatives accepting of her friends from a distant planet.
"Can you really help us with our deer overgrazing problems on our farm, Annara?" her grandmother asked. "Taking them out with bow and arrow takes a lot of skill they say, but I'd rather use archers than have a bunch of old drunken coots with machine guns on our property."
"I'm skilled with the BloodDark crossbow, which is very similar to the ones I've learned about from Earth cultures." In spite of her outward humility, Annara's pride was more than evident in her tone. "I can hit a wampus from a hundred strides away with one arrow. I fed many of us in the caverns of the Mosaic Desert through my hunting. This jacket I'm wearing was made from the hide of one of my best kills, a long-nosed wildebeest."
Nina admired the leather work and sighed. "Impressive. Did Olivia ever tell you about her great-grandfather who won an archery contest? He was one of the best archers in all of the Smokies."
"You come from a long and industrious ancestry, Nina." Valori closed her eyes, staring into the mist of time. "They hunted and farmed the valleys in the mountains of smoke for many generations."
Olivia's grandmother accepted Valori's cryptic pronouncement with a polite smile and a nod.
Good. Grammy will be on my side when I break the news. I just hope dear Valori hasn't weirded folks out too much. She means well.
A knock on the door alerted Olivia to another group of her cousins and then another aunt and uncle and cousins. She took their coats and escorted her relatives inside the overflowing living room. The younger cousins ran off to join Peter and Paul playing with Julian's model trains, and the older ones sat cross-legged on the carpet. Everyone laughed and chatted and enjoyed the camaraderie until her mother entered from the dining room.
"Olivia, Martha, I could use some help with the food preparation."
The conversation hushed. Olivia sprang to her feet. "Sorry, Mom. We were just visiting."
"Let me help instead," Biff said, placing a hand on Martha's shoulder to keep her seated.
Moira Brown stopped at the archway between the rooms and looked cross-eyed at her sister reclining in the best chair with her feet up. "What happened to you? You twist your ankle?"
Before Olivia could whisk her mother back to the stove, Valori
