If there was one constant in the Populous household, it was children’s parties. This time, it was the turn of Vikram and Xenia.

Having fulfilled his ambition of acquiring a high skill level in logic and handiness, Vikram set up his own tinkering business. He was excited to be making his mark in the world. Bebe worried a little about him, being the only human-simbot hybrid in town, but he seemed self-confident, and she had to admit that knowing his birth father had done him a lot of good.

Even if she wanted Xenia to know her birth father (which she didn’t), though, he was nowhere to be found. Since Bebe decided having a butler wasn’t for her, he seemed to have skipped town. Kurt’s colouring was so much like Bebe’s, so it was hard to tell what, if anything, of his genetic material the little girl carried, for which Bebe was grateful.

Being the youngest, and the last child Bebe was going to have, made Xenia extra special. Bebe couldn’t help but indulge her in ways she hadn’t always been able to with the others when there were so many children to attend to. She read Xenia stories every night and even bought her a new toy box and bed.

Wendy and Willow were thriving at school, with Wendy joining the debate club, and Willow working on the school newspaper. They were still determined to forge careers in science, but Bebe encouraged them to develop these other interests to keep their options open.

Although Bebe and Asa found the house somewhat quiet with only their three youngest girls at home, their family kept growing and maturing. Barbara’s eldest, Lorenzo, was now a striking young man. Although his father had died when he was very young, Barbara had since remarried a gentle man named FortA, and they had two children:

Jerry, who could make his great-great grandmother melt with just one glance from those big blue eyes…

and baby Kendra, the youngest member of the family.

Natasha also had a son. She and Cassidy were raising him – Asa didn’t feel it appropriate to ask where the boy’s father was.

But he knew his grandson was much loved. He saw a little twinkle in the boy’s eye that, just for a second, reminded him of Seona, and he felt a fleeting sadness. It had been a long time since she died, but he still missed her from time to time.

Elisabeth had been struggling to adjust to being a new mother now that her husband Deshawn had passed away. Bebe was worried about her granddaughter, so beautiful yet much less confident and self-assured than her mother Julie had been.

However, Bebe was delighted to hear that Elisabeth had asked Vikram if he wanted to lodge with her and little Bree, and he’d accepted. She always loved to see her children and grandchildren supporting one another.

Whilst Asa was relishing his role as Mayor, he couldn’t help but worry sometimes about the pressure of the job. He so wanted to do a good job for his town, for his family, but there was a lot of work, including more paperwork than he’d anticipated. Paperwork had never been Asa’s thing – although he’d learned to read and write, his skills were still nowhere near those of someone who’d had a proper education, and with him working days and Bebe working a lot of night shifts, she wasn’t always around to help him.

He found a lot of support from his co-worker Nichola, though. She was eager to help – for the good of Sunset Valley, she said, and so they started to have regular post-work meetings in the bistro where they could taste Bebe’s latest concoctions and go over the latest work documentation.

He wasn’t aware of the paparazzi from the local rag snapping their meetings, saving them for the next round of elections when they could splash with something juicy about their mayor and councillors and increase circulation.

He also wasn’t aware that the good of Sunset Valley wasn’t really the motivating force behind Nichola’s helpfulness.

He didn’t spend every week night with Nichola, of course – he had a huge family he wanted to see. One night he was babysitting for Paige and her three sons…

…Harry, Caleb…

…and Siddhartha. His grandsons (whom he had to pretend where great-grandsons, because Paige still didn’t know that it was he, and not his son Fitzy, who was her biological father) had inherited his dark colouring and were each developing very strong personalities.

As Asa chatted and played with the boys, there was a knock at the door.

Nichola, out canvassing support for the council, expressed her surprise at seeing Asa in the Williams household. She hadn’t known he was related to them. Asa wasn’t sure if this was the time to point out he was related to pretty much everyone in town.

Nichola was very keen to talk election strategy, even though it was months away. Asa found it difficult to ask her to leave, so he could spend time with the boys, and instead, she ended up staying and talking until Paige came home.

Time continued to march on, and the twins had their birthday.

Willow was confident that they’d be able to afford their own place and was eager to move out as soon as possible.

Wendy was a little more nervous about leaving the family home, and Bebe and Asa said she could stay a while longer if she chose, but Willow was insistent that her sister move with her.

The house had only one child in it for the first time in a very long time – probably, Bebe realised, for the first time since Annalise was a baby. She would have to get used to it – it wouldn’t be long before Xenia, too, was grown-up and wanting to forge her way in the world. Xenia seemed happy enough to be the only child at home, but Bebe made sure she spent plenty of time chatting to her brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. She didn’t want her to feel isolated from the others, but to enjoy being in a big family despite not living with them.

The hunger for another child never quite went away though. Bebe had been thinking for a while about how to ease that longing without actually having another baby, and one evening, watching the news about the devastating floods in Twinbrook and the number of children that had been orphaned by them, she knew she must help. She was going to have to talk to Asa.

However, Bebe’s plans were likely to be the least of Asa’s worries…

–

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60. Adopting a Baby >>

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