<USS Avalon> "Pink Elephants and Teddy Bears"

Pink Elephants and Teddy Bears

Li Vilya and Zachan Kabuki and Sussanna McEntire

Ringing the chime on Ming and Vilya's quarters, Anna smiled to herself but felt her cheeks redden in a blush.  This was a visit from the CMO with an ulterior motive from Sussanna McEntire.
 
The baby was lying on the couch, in the process of being dressed.  Vilya didn't care how unlikely it was that he'd fall off on his own, she wasn't taken chances.  Rather than get up to answer the door, she called, "Enter."

As Anna opened the door, she grinned at the little one on the sofa.  "Hey you," she said in soft tones to Zachan as she moved to crouch down next to Vilya.  "How're you and your Mummy feeling today?"
 
Vilya finished snapping on the onesie then picked her son up.  Kissing him, she held him out to Anna.  "He says everyone's loving the fact that Grandpa's staying with us for the foreseeable future.  He came back yesterday and said he'd made up his mind."

"That's brilliant, isn't it little man?"  Anna lifted the baby and cuddled him, grinning into bright blue eyes.  "And Mummy," she said as she smiled up at Vilya, "how's she feeling?"
 
"It has to be because of the fact that I was born during the Occupation.  Mama always said how tired and worn out she felt after I was born.  It was the same with Findel, she said.  I feel great, though!  Must be the better available care," she mused.  She grinned and added, "And I live with three men who love me."

"That always helps," Anna mused, her eyes returning to the little child who had gripped one of her fingers.  "And thus the CMO's visit concludes.  Though I do need the two of you to come for a check-up at some point.  But I also have another reason to be here."  Stroking Zachan's head, Anna said, "I need your help."
 
"Oh yes, my little man here is loving all the visiting.  He's going to end up quite the prince if we're not careful," Vilya said with a warm smile.  "But what can I do for his Aunt Anna?"

"Aunt Anna?" she said with a raised eyebrow.  "Poor child, cursed by association.  And mostly, I need to know what I need." Shrugging, she handed the little one back to his mother.  "You have it all so perfect here for him and I'll be having five, I just don't know where to begin."
 
Vilya held her son to her shoulder then sat back on the couch.  "I think if you think just one then get five, quantity isn't a problem.  If you don't know boys or girls or how many of each, you'll have to stick to neutral colors..."

"Colours?"  Anna dropped to the sofa, her eyes wide.  "I never even thought about colours.  There's no way I'm dressing my kids all the same.  I hated seeing twins at school whose parents were so lacking in imagination that they had to dress them all the same and I will not have mine being like that.  You realise I've got one of the larger cabins on this ship and I don't have room for them."
 
"Oh no, I meant more along the line of male and female colors.  Bajorans don't differentiate colors for boys or girls but Humans do, don't they?  Or some Humans?"  Vilya smiled at her son, looking so alert for such a tony child but looked up at Anna with a slight smirk.  "I think I started a trend.  I'm very happy to say that it's not just you.  There's Kaera, too."

"And Melanie Redgrave," Anna chuckled.  "And I've read a report from one of the doctors on DS9 that another of our crew's having triplets.  We're becoming quite the nursery."
 
Vilya giggled slightly at the idea.  "But if you shop for things and your part of Earth tends to go by color, you might want to stick to things that are good for either boys or girls.  Ming's ancestors didn't do that but they do where they live now so..."

"Yellow," Anna smirked.  "That's the traditional colour for when you don't know your child's gender.  Personally, I can't stand it, so I'll probably just dress them all in green or something."
 
Vilya reached to pick up a small blanket that lay on one of the pillows.  It was a bright ruby red color and made of knitted silk thread.  "A good luck color according to Ming.  Gold or yellow would be too.  They apparently had a lot of superstition about color."

"Gold I can live with and this is beautiful, but not yellow."  Anna scrunched up her nose and shook her head.  "Not with the red hair they're likely to have."
 
"But you and Mac are both..."  She leaned forward and peered at the other woman curiously.  "That color goes well with your complexion.  I wouldn't have guessed otherwise.  Do you want to do looking now?"

"It's platinum, Vilya," Anna laughed brightly as she tugged at the edge of her hair.  "How many other humans have you seen with platinum blonde hair?"  Smirking and rolling her eyes, she nodded, "Yeah, looking now would be good, since we're docked at a space station with one of the better promenades in the quadrant.  I can even buy little one a stuffed elephant, if we can find one."
 
"Alright then, I'll just take this bag with me," Vilya said as she stood up and grabbed a shoulder satchel made of some quilted material.  Slinging it over her shoulder, she said, "As soon as I sent word to my mother that she had another grandchild, she went a little overboard.  She bought me this and a lot of other things."

"It's good to have family like that.  I think Mac's folks are like that.  Mine... well, not exactly expecting the red carpet when I take Mac home, let's put it that way."  Wandering down with Vilya to the umbilical attached to the station, Anna grinned.  "Little man still needs a pink elephant.  I'd rather it was hand made but I'll replicate it if I have to."
 
"Oh! Don't buy one!  If you show me a good picture of an elephant, I'll find the right kind of thread or material and make one for him," Vilya exclaimed. "That's one of the things we learned on Jerrado: to make our own toys if we wanted them."

"And then it wouldn't be a present from his Auntie Anna, would it?"  Shaking her head, Anna led them onto DS9, the three of them sauntering through the docking ring and down onto the Promenade.  "Personally, I can only sew stitches, and that's only because we were taught rudimentary field medicine at the Academy.  I doubt the little man would be overly impressed with a Frankenstein Elephant."
 
Vilya's laughed brightly and reached to hug Anna with the arm that wasn't carrying her son.  "I thought maybe you meant one for one of your own," she said with a grin.  "I just hope he's not one of those kids who grows up and takes their toys apart just to see how they work."

Anna chuckled.  "You can hope he isn't like I was either.  I had a thing for playing doctor with my toys.  There was always a full ward of stuffed animals with bandages, splints and various levels of injuries.  Let's just hope he's the normal one in the Avalon family."
 
"You mean grandson of the hero of Bajor, the Narvach himself, and held by the Emissary himself?" Vilya asked dryly.  "My mother and my brother think he's just Vilya's boy and that's fine but some people look at him like he's a Messenger or something.  You are not getting a swelled head, little one."

"First Avalon baby and already the sweetheart of the entire Medical staff?  Sorry, Vilya, he's going to be spoiled rotten.  I think I saw Lilin knitting booties at break today."  Smiling down at the gorgeous little boy, Anna said, "You're going to be loved by the whole crew, little one."
 
"Well..."  Vilya looked around at the dazzling array of shops and had a moment of nostalgia.  She wished Benjamin was there so he could see her fine boy.  But then...maybe he has, she thought, smiling wistfully.  "Where do we start?  This looks so different from the last time I was here."

"I was hoping you'd know.  What do I need?" Anna huffed lightly.  "I'm a doctor and I don't even know what a baby needs other than the basics."
 
"Well, well, well...if it isn't the most beautiful daughter of a genuine hero that I've ever met," said a nasally voice.
 
Vilya bit back a sigh and turned around.  She raised one brow and gave the voice's owner a good natured glare.  "Stow it, Quark.  You're too late.  I'm already married."
 
The Ferengi sighed theatrically "So I hear but now you have one of those, too.  Tsk tsk, a shame for me.  So maybe I can have your friend here?"

Anna blinked at the little dwarf, a smirk growing on her lips as she lifted her left hand and waved her ring finger at him.  "Spoken for and soon to be mother of five little ones too."
 
"Five?!  Great Exchequer defend us!"
 
Vilya outright laughed at the little man's horror but the she patted his shoulder.  "I am going to assume that being an ambassador hasn't put you out of touch with the Promenade, Quark.  Where do we go to buy baby things?"

Quark muttered something under his breath about the excessive breeding of Hew-mahns then narrowed his eyes as he looked the two women over.  "A Bajoran couple took over Garak's tailorshop, try there.  But first, why don't you bring the little bundle of joy into my fine establishment so we can wet its head?"
 
"No!  Absolutely not!"  Vilya was horrified at even the thought of bringing the baby into the gaudy bar but the little weasel was being helpful.  "Thank you, Quark.  Be nice and maybe we'll send our husbands and my father over."

The pair of them made their way over to the tailorshop.  A largely built Bajoran woman was behind the main desk and she beamed at them happily.  One quarter of the little shop was taken up by baby things and Anna suddenly found it daunting.  "So... what do I need?"
 
"She's having five, ma'am,"  Vilya explained.  Nodding at the baby in her arm, she added, "This one is my first and the quints will be here first.  I can shop for one but five..."
 
"Five?"  The woman's eyebrows rose almost to her hairline.  "Oh my.  Well now..."  She began moving around the little area devoted to baby things with a basket over her arm, pulling in sleepers, tiny shirts, overalls, socks...

Anna hissed out a breath, feeling a little fear settle in her stomach.  "How much stuff do I need?" she said, her eyes getting wider as the pile grew higher.
 
"All of it," Vilya and the shop keeper chorused.  The shop keeper smiled gently and said, "You'll find that your laundry will multiply in leaps and it will be easier if you have more than one of an item for each child."
 
"Or maybe you'll decide that this little purple dress will be more suited to one girl than another..." Vilya said.

Trying to smother the panic, Anna changed the topic of conversation.  "D'you know where I can find somewhere to get soft toys."

"We sell them here," the shop keeper told her as she plonked the basket by the till.  "What kind are you looking for?"

"A little pink elephant," Anna said.

"There's a bin near the window, why don't you have a rummage and see what you come up with."  The shop keeper smiled.  "I'm sure there were Earth animals in there as well as Bajoran."
 
Vilya smiled wistfully at the little pile of toys.  "We didn't have these when we were little.  Not when we were on Bajor and definitely not on Jerrado.  My little wooden doll that Daddy made..."
 
"And thank the Prophets we have peace now, Child," the shop keeper said solemnly. "I pray both of your families will grow in peace."

It took Anna a while and she had to dig down to the very bottom of the bin but she finally found what she was looking for.  Then she saw a teddy and she melted.  It had a patch on its elbow and an _expression_ that just screamed: love me, take me home.  Picking up the teddy too, Anna tucked the pink elephant under her arm and wandered back.  She passed the bear to Vilya.  "Look what I found.  I think every little boy should have a teddy with a patch to go with his little pink elephant."
 
"Oh, he's adorable!"  She held the bear in front of Zachan, even though she knew he wouldn't quite grasp the idea of toys just yet.  "Look, Zachan.  Bears!"

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