When the celebration had quieted a bit and everyone went back to noshing and chatting, Carter and Peterson pulled the Ashtons aside.
“I guess this makes us sort-of-almost-kinda grandparents, huh?” Lee asked with a grin, and the foursome chuckled.
“It sure does,” Nick declared. “And glad of it. I did already tell my aunt and uncle, and we told Cally’s parents, but we couldn’t figure out how to tell you two in advance without it getting around to this lot of hot-shot investigators that something was in the wind.”
“And we wanted it to be a surprise,” Cally added. “So, um, we’re sorry Nick’s adopted parents didn’t get told sooner.”
“Nah, don’t sweat it,” Lee said, waving a hand in dismissal. “We get it.”
“And I can definitely see why you didn’t,” Maia decided, looking around. “Oh, Nick, just so you know, I’ve heard a few conversations hither and yon, and I think your division is a tad bit jealous of the fact that our lot has a collective nickname.”
“Oh?” Nick wondered. “They’re jealous of The Team?”
“I’ve heard it, too,” Lee averred. “I think they’re looking at calling themselves The Group, or some such, for your bunch of folks.”
“The Gang, I think,” Maia corrected.
“Oh! Yeah! That was it,” Lee agreed. “I knew it started with a G! The Gang. Which I’m fine with, as long as it’s not a gang like we just broke up a few months back, that wanted us all dead.”
“It’s probably good for morale, too,” Maia decided. “It was, for The Team.”
“I like it,” Cally decreed.
“That’s fine,” Nick said with a shrug. “I can see it.”
As the pregnancy progressed with no real difficulties out of the norm, Nick and Cally made inquiries, and discovered that the condo next door would become available, but not until a few weeks after the baby was due. A quick check with Cally’s parents revealed that the price was acceptable, and the older couple promptly signed the option paperwork to acquire it. Meanwhile, the impending parents decided that, with two spare bedrooms, they could make it work until the adjacent condo opened up to the Ameses.
“Because the middle bedroom will just become the nursery,” Cally pointed out, “and Mom and Dad can stay in the far bedroom, and we’ll set up a baby monitor in VR, and hand off to whoever is available.”
“That’ll work,” Nick decided. “It might be a little bit crowded in here until that condo becomes available, but your folks are nice, and we’ll all get along just fine.”
“Hey, you just want Mom and Dad as additional French chefs!” Cally teased, and Nick grinned.
“They taught you, didn’t they, babe?” he observed. “And I got no complaints there, at all. In any department.”
“Yeah. I guess it’s a good thing we hadn’t furnished the middle bedroom yet,” Cally noted. “We got the far bedroom mostly outfitted by consolidating our apartments, so we’re good there, but now we just gotta get baby stuff for the middle bedroom, and we’re good.”
“Yup. Now let’s go shopping for baby furniture an’ shit.”
They did. Soon the middle bedroom looked like a proper nursery, with a crib, feeding chair, night lights and mobiles, and Nick even gave the room a coat of paint in a soft baby blue. A single twin bed in the corner would suffice for a caretaker needing to stay close and still sleep, and an adorable child-themed and -sized dresser, chest of drawers, and nightstand that matched the crib was shoehorned into the room, as well.
Then they started stocking the furniture and closet with baby clothes and diapers. A little baby shower held at the Carter house, and attended by most of The Team and The Gang, helped greatly in that respect, as well as outfitting them with other little essentials, like a breast pump, feeding bottles, teething rings, pacifiers, and more.
While all that was in work, Alexandre was busy adjusting his wine trading business to accommodate the move, and Laura started packing their things with Alexandre’s help; they intended to put everything but their clothing and personal items into storage until they owned the condo adjacent to their daughter and son-in-law. They also put the house on the market, but it was set up so it wouldn’t close until after the baby was born. This would, they explained, avoid cramping the Ashtons during the last weeks of the pregnancy, when Cally would be most uncomfortable and potentially irritable.
“We want to help, not be in the way,” Laura said, and Cally and Nick were appreciative.
Meanwhile, criminal action in the Imperial City began to pick up in an odd fashion. Requests began to come in from the Imperial Guard to look into this or that situation, and generally the IPD Investigations division was tasked to do the job, sometimes in conjunction with the ICPD’s Investigative Team. Due to the request coming from the Guard, IPD always turned over the perp to the Guard for processing; most of the cases went into the standard courts, but a few simply disappeared, and Ashton and Carter – having some experience with these things – assumed they were tried in the High Court, and their sentences performed with no one outside the Palace staff the wiser. Occasionally a cryptic death notice reached the news media, but the cause of death was usually absent. Given the tendency for High Court executions to be cremated and the ashes anonymously disposed-of, it was hardly surprising.
“These are espionage attempts of some sort, aren’t they?” Ashton asked Captain Mercer upon the fourth time the IPD arrested someone for violating security on the Defense Department Complex in the inner ring around the Imperial Park, and Mercer showed up with a team to collect the prisoner.
“Um, I’m not at liberty to say, I’m afraid,” Mercer responded.
“Fair enough. I won’t press. But can I ask what’s
