It was time for a lot of change in the Populous household.  Though Bebe had discovered what seemed to be the secret to eternal youth, her children were all growing up fast, and several of them had birthdays to celebrate.

Fitzy, her youngest, was the first to grow up.  He had her blue eyes and his father’s dark hair, though he didn’t have much of it as yet.  Both Bebe and Asa were excited about training their son in  his essential life skills.

Declan also became a child.  He felt a little sad that his daddy couldn’t come and see him but Bebe promised he could go visit his father the next day.  She wouldn’t say so to any of the children, but she didn’t want their fathers visiting the house.  She thought their presence might upset the other children and, more importantly, might affect her relationship with Asa.

Still, Cameron decided a game of tiggy would cheer his little brother up and they played games with each other long into the night.  Declan really enjoyed it – it was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders knowing he had a buddy in his big brother.

But the biggest change was that Annalise was about to grow up as well.  She scooped out her first ever fish, Erinsborough, ready to take him with her to her new home.  She decided to leave the other fish in the aquarium for Cameron and the rest of the boys to enjoy.  She was nervous about growing up, leaving home, taking on new responsibilities, but she felt ready.

Annalise had been helping to look after her home and her little brothers for so long and she knew how to make a good deal of money from fishing.  She was confident she would survive.  She found herself a small place in the middle of town that she could move to, and she bid farewell to her mum, Asa and the boys.

As Annalise Populous stepped into the new world, she took a look at her family home and smiled.  They hadn’t always had much money, she hadn’t been able to sleep indoors, they’d had to work hard to clean and cook and take care of the little ones – and to feed the fish, but she had never resented it.  Hers had been a happy growing-up period and she was looking forward to seeing what kind of men her brothers grew into.  She was leaving home with happy memories.

For Bebe, Annalise’s departure was bittersweet.  It had always been part of her plan that her children populate the neighbourhood, that the Populous name spread, that she establish a dynasty.  That was why it was so important to her that all of her children had different fathers – the more children she had, the more chance that further down the line there could be some genetic difficulties and she wanted to reduce the dangers of that as much as possible, while ensuring she had a legacy that could change a whole town, maybe even a whole region or nation.  So she should have been happy that Annalise was the firstfruits of her children spreading their wings.  But she was a good mother, she loved her children and knowing they would fly the nest was also an incredibly sad moment, and though Annalise wasn’t moving far, things would never be the same again.

To take her mind off things, Bebe visited Leighton Sekemoto with the stereo she’d fixed for him a little while ago.

Bebe’s grief manifested itself as a need for affection… and she shared her sadness with Leighton. His own son Sam was of a similar age to Annalise, and he knew all too well the anguish of watching your children grow.  He was a great comfort to Bebe…

Old habits sometimes die hard, and so Bebe took solace in Leighton the way she knew best. As she slept by his side, the repercussions of her actions drifted into oblivion, if only for a while…

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