Cameron Populous was taking his new responsibilities as the eldest child living at home very seriously.  He looked after the fish every day and made sure he was on hand to help his mum and Asa look after the younger children whenever they needed him to.

Declan liked to help his big brother look after the fish as well.  He felt like they were his friends.  And what Declan Populous wanted most in the world was friends.

Declan’s hero was his mummy, who was friends with so many different people in town.  He had stood on the school steps several times, watching her playing tiggy with people in the park and he decided he would follow in her footsteps.  He went to the park himself after school and started a game.  To his surprise, people joined in – and most of them were adults!  He couldn’t believe people were happy to be friends with him.  The kids at school might not care about him, but he had discovered that he could make people smile.  One day, Declan vowed, he would have so many friends he couldn’t count – he would have even more than twenty.  That would really be a LOT of friends.

The first person who was willing to become Declan’s friend was his little brother Eddie, who couldn’t wait to go to school with him in the morning now he was a big boy too.  Like his brothers Cameron and Declan, even at a very young age, Eddie knew exactly what he wanted from life, and he begged Bebe to buy him a very special present.  Bebe had a little money in the family account now, and though she was saving up to build an extension for the kids to have as a bedroom, she could afford this little indulgence if it would keep Eddie happy.

Eddie got straight to work painting.  He wanted to be the best ever painter he could be and write brilliant little stories.

Bebe was delighted with the way her sons were growing up and developing their own identities.  She looked at her beautiful baby daughter Gail and whispered to her that she wanted nothing but the same joy in life for this little one.  But looking at Gail made her broody once more.  She was at a loose end that day with the older kids at school and Asa at work, so she gave an old friend a call…

The fireman who attended Annalise’s disastrous party some time ago had been on Bebe’s mind a lot of late.  She called him up (and discovered his name was Adam) and invited him over.  They had great fun laughing and chatting together, and he was very happy to have a little cuddle with her – but Fitzy kept crying and then Gail needed feeding, and it seemed to put Adam off, as he simply would not woo-hoo her.  He made some excuse about having to go to work and left.

Bebe was a little dejected to she called someone she knew would be easy prey.

Pea Greene had long had a crush on Bebe and she knew it.  He’d recently befriended Declan and Bebe was sure this was to get closer to her, and so she let him.

Some people are more readily seduced than others.

After their encounter, Bebe felt a little anxious.  She had been acting on impulse, and hadn’t really considered the implications of what would happen if she had a child with Pea.  She knew that his skin tone was recessive and that, if she was pregnant, her child was more likely to look like her… but what if the child looked like Pea?  How could she explain that away?  She had always wanted children with a great deal of genetic difference, but had never really considered the implications of explaining this to a husband.  For once, Bebe was nervous.  Asa couldn’t leave her.  She needed him, the children needed him, and he needed them.  She just prayed that if she was pregnant, her genes would prove stronger than Pea’s…

…and though she hadn’t planned on having any more children with Asa because of the risk to the genes of future generations interbreeding, the guilt made her hope that she could get pregnant by him this time, that her body would reject what she’d just done with Pea.

The next day, she was promoted at work, and should have been delighted, but she left with a sick feeling in her stomach.  Her body wasn’t yet displaying any signs of pregnancy, but deep down she knew she was having another baby… and she was pretty sure who the father was.

There was someone she had to see, someone who might be able to help her work out the muddle her head was in right now. The house she visited was much nicer than her own little adapted bedsit.  She couldn’t believe she was actually feeling a twinge of jealousy.

As she knocked on her daughter’s door, Bebe was a little anxious. What would Annalise say to her? Would she reveal some truths that Bebe would find difficult?

They began with pleasantries. Bebe told her daughter about her promotion and filled her in on how her brothers and sister and Asa were doing. Annalise told Bebe how well her fishing business was doing – Bebe could see this from the house that Annalise had. She jokingly teased her daughter about not making her a grandmother yet, and Annalise jokingly replied that Bebe wasn’t old enough to be a grandmother. As they made these light-hearted comments, though, a deeper truth was hidden in each of them.

Bebe was really a little worried that neither Annalise or Brad had yet got a partner or had any children. She wanted her descendants to be many, and her eldest two didn’t seem to want the same thing. Annalise, on the other hand, regarded her mother carefully. She looked as if she could be Annalise’s sister or peer, not her mum. There was not a hint of grey hair, no lines, no wrinkles. A mum of seven including two grown up children should surely show some of that experience in her face? Still, maybe Bebe just had exceptionally good genes, and if so, Annalise hoped she’d inherit them. However, Annalise sensed there was something specific her mother had come over to talk about and so she pressed Bebe to come out with it.

Bebe spluttered nervously a little, before saying that since their trip to China, something Annalise said had been preying on her mind. Had her daughter really been embarrassed by Bebe having children by so many fathers? Annalise looked a little uncomfortable and struggled to speak at first, wanting to be honest but kind. She told Bebe that she was a great mum and she’d had a happy childhood, and she had just been a teen acting up. She loved all her younger siblings and didn’t really mind that they had different dads. She’d never even considered her dad living with them, nor Brad, Cameron or Declan’s dads.

But there had been talk at school, kids had called Bebe names. There were rumours about how many men in the town she’d been “friendly” with, and Annalise thought that maybe the boys had heard those rumours too. Annalise told Bebe that Asa was a good man, and he seemed to be a good dad. They all loved him. Annalise said she was glad that Bebe’s wandering days were over and that now all of the kids would have a more settled family.

Bebe thought long and hard about her daughter’s words. Perhaps a happy family unit was what was really important here. Not that it would change her plans, but maybe she’d have to be more careful in the future so as not to put her family’s happiness at risk.

Still, those were resolutions for the future. As for now, whatever was done was done, and she would have to face the consequences in time. Bebe was sure about one thing, though. No matter what this baby looked like, who its father really was or what happened when it was born, she was determined to give this child, and all her children, all the love she could, and try her hardest to keep her family happy.

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