Electra

Erin flipped over in the water and swam back towards the side where James was crouching. "Thanks," she told him, "I bought it for the occasion. It's nice to have a chance to play outside for awhile. And the water's plenty warm." She flicked some at him teasingly to demonstrate. "What did you say to Mike, anyhow?" Resting an arm on the side, Erin looked over to where Alex and Mike were still standing. "He's been here five minutes and looks like he's got a third degree sunburn."

"Anything to prove that eating's not so bad," Stesha teased, cleaning up some of the detritus from the table. "There's a couple more entrees in the bag, you can put them in your fridge and have them later. I picked up plenty." She folded the top down on her own half-eaten food and laid the chopsticks across the lid. "Do you think you're going to start calling and telling people tonight, or just let the news unfold? And do you want Derrick and I to keep mum about it still?"

"What do you think it is?" Erin asked curiously, finishing her transaction and coming back with the cat food in a plastic bag. Premium cat food was expensive, but Oliver turned up his nose at anything that contained any kind of by-product meal. She wasn't sure how he could tell, but he never missed. Sometimes she thought he could read the labels too. "Maybe he's got some kind of special date planned and he's trying to surprise you."

While Mike was off regaining his composure, Erin leaned down to Alex. "Hug him, dare you." she whispered in her roommate's ear, then sauntered off towards the pool with a grin, leaving the two of them alone. As she went, she shucked off her own clothes and dropped them in a pile on a beach chair, revealing the results of her own shopping expedition. She didn't make her silver two-piece swimsuit look nearly as good as Alex did hers, but the suit definitely showed off a lot of very well-toned muscles. Without bothering to check the temperature, she hopped up onto the diving board and dove cleanly into the pool. She was glad it was warm.

"If nothing else, the food'll probably be better than anything they've got at school," Erin pointed out, studying the lists of ingredients on the backs of the various bags of cat food. She seemed to be taking the comparisons quite seriously. "And if James can make it warm out, I wouldn't mind just stretching out for awhile. I'm tired of all this snow. It just doesn't snow like this in Seattle." Making her selection, she took the chosen bag up to the checkout, where she was lured into adding a couple of jingling cloth balls to her purchase as well.

Alex didn't have to extend her senses far to find Erin, that notable's always-focused consciousness was just arriving in the driveway of the resort. Erin parked her truck and put the keys in her pocket, then made her way around to the pool area where everyone had congregated. As she walked, she shrugged off the coat she'd been wearing, since it definitely wasn't necessary in the bubble of muggy summer weather. "Hey guys," she said, joining the group near James. "Nice weather for a swimming party. Anybody going in yet?" Erin looked a little uncomfortable, as usual in most social situations, but not terribly so. It was, after all, just the gang for now.

"That would be bad," Erin decided. "You and Mike could wind up fooling around, and suddenly Eddie's outside making out with a thirty-year old Zoe. Which would, I guess, probably keep them from having sex too much this weekend." She snickered as they walked into the pet store, then headed for the shelves of cat food. "I think I may only stay a couple hours, but I'll make an appearance. Maybe it'll be fun."

Erin grimaced. "Well that sounds like fun. At least there'll be swimming. I already know alcohol doesn't do anything to me, even if the idea of a drunken hookup were very appealing." She grinned over at Alex. "Maybe you can bring along a backpack full of board games, in case you get tired of teasing Mike to distraction. And maybe James will have some video games there, too. I'm sure Eddie will bring his music, if he'll untangle himself from Zoe long enough to play it. Maybe you can just keep pestering him with requests all day, that might do it."

"We should go shopping," Stesha decided, gesturing very definitely with her chopsticks. "I'll take a day off sometime when you're free, and we'll go out. Visit some of those fancy baby boutiques downtown, get all marinated in baby stuff. How can it really seem real until you start collecting everything you'll need, right? Then we can get you some new clothes. Jack's credit's good for it, right?" she asked, grinning, with a look around the sumptuous penthouse. "Especially if we get you some really excellent clothes. It'll be a few less things to worry about." '

"Well, you might as well worry about the things you can do something about, instead of going crazy over the big stuff," Stesha pointed out pragmatically. "I can lend you some pants and you can roll the cuffs, at least until you can get out and go shopping. They're doing cute things in maternity clothes these days, it's not just mumus and A-line dresses anymore. And there's good things about eating too," she suggested with a grin. "Stuff like ice cream, and hot apple pie, and tiramisu, and really cheesy pizza, and excellent Chinese takeout..." She gestured with her chopsticks to the spread in front of them. "And really, Jack's been watching his own butt for a long time. He's better off with you out there with him most of the time, but right now, you'd probably just throw him off his game, because he'd be trying to protect, you right?" Stesha made a game effort to keep any skepticism at that idea out of her tone. "Think about it, Taylor. Sure, they're worries, and they're hassles, but they're kind of cool, too, aren't they? You're going to have a baby. It's a happy thing, even if there's a lot to be concerned about."

"Nothing's going to happen to you," Stesha replied staunchly, setting down her food. "Or to the baby. There are too many people watching your back to let that happen. Look at the wedding. Half the heroes in the city turned out to see you get married, and every single one of them was willing to fight on your behalf. You'll just have to be careful. Very careful," she admitted. "And maybe for quite awhile after he's born, too. But I can't think of a better place for a hero to raise a child than in Freedom City. You won't have nearly as much trouble finding a babysitter as you would in, say, Omaha." Smiling at her own attempt at a joke, Stesha reached out and put a hand on Taylor's shoulder, telegraphing the move broadly in advance. "Really, even when you're pregnant, you're one of the most formidable heroes I know. And one of the most knowledgeable. You'll figure out the right thing to do, whether that's to stay here or to try and speed things along, or even to move out of the dimension for awhile."

"You could start carrying around a flashlight, I guess," Erin suggested, slinging her bag over one shoulder as Alex caught up with her, then stopping in front of the mall directory. "I want to stop at the pet store before we go," she said, "I'm running low on cat food. And if James' party winds up going a whole weekend, I don't want to come up short. Not that I would probably stay that long, but still. What do you do at a party that goes three days, anyway?"

Stesha pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Well," she suggested tentatively, "if you want to keep Jack's secret, you may have to come clean about your own then. If you tell them that you're a superhero and you have powers, maybe you won't have to bring him in on it at all. Any... quirks that the baby ends up having, if you have to explain them at all, you could explain them as being a result of your powers, not as a result of anything that he brought to the table. You still have plenty of time to let them get used to it, August is still eight months away."

Stesha was quiet a moment, concentrating assiduously on picking the mushrooms out of her palace chicken. She probably could've made a few more half-hearted arguments about the baby's humanity, but Taylor didn't seem in a very optimistic mood at the moment. And she wasn't even going to go anywhere near the subject of Jack's sordid sex life. Not that there wasn't plenty she could say. "Does you family know?" she finally asked instead.

Erin nodded agreement and headed for the nearest checkout counter, which was thankfully under brighter lights. After carefully counting out the money for her swimsuit from her wallet, Erin waited for Alex to pay for hers, then headed out into the mall with her. "Stay in school?" she finally asked, laughing. "I'm not sure we're supposed to say that to people our same age. Though I guess now that you've told her to, she definitely will. Do you get that a lot now?"

"Well, that's a good sign," Stesha replied, trying to be optimistic. "Maybe it'll just be like, hmm, like using cryogenically frozen sperm, or something like that. The sperm was obviously still alive, even though he definitely isn't, so maybe it's an artifact from when he was, and the baby will just be a normal kid." She nudged another spring roll in Taylor's direction, even as she picked up her own chopsticks. "And a summertime baby is good timing. You'll want to stay inside all through August, but at least you won't have to worry about school. And you've got the pool," she added with a smile. "Have you started thinking about names yet?"

"Oh, yeah! Um..." The girl patted her pockets, then reached into her backpack and pulled out a notebook. Flipping to a clean page, she proffered it eagerly towards Alex. She spared a glance or two at Erin, but looked rather intimidated. "Could you make it out to Patty?" she asked eagerly. "My friends totally aren't going to believe this. I didn't even know superheroes shopped at the mall!"

"Regular clothes will probably be okay," Erin figured. "I know James is doing something to make the weather around his place warmer, but it's still going to be February outside the bubble. We're probably better off wearing normal clothes overtop, so we don't freeze when we leave school." They made their way towards the checkout, past the Valentines Day blowout that was the jewelry section, where even the lights were obscured by giant cardboard hearts and red bunting. The resulting dimness highlighted Alex's glow in a way the bright fluorescent lights hadn't, drawing a few stares from the people around them. "Oh wow!" Erin startled and spun at the voice from behind them, coming face to face with a girl who looked to be about fifteen or so, who was watching them with great interest. "I know you guys!" she told Alex, hurrying up to get face to face. "You're in Young Freedom, aren't you! I watched what you did at the baseball stadium this summer, it was so cool!" she gushed. "Can I have your autograph?"

Stesha laughed in relief as Ace opened his eyes, "You're not dead! Thank god!" She kissed him on the forehead in her exuberance, then turned to answer Doctor Archeville. "I don't know, I don't think so?" she replied, looking around to see who else might be hurt. As she watched, the shadows began deepening and lengthening throughout the room. "What's going on now?" she asked nervously.

Erin chuckled, putting her unwanted suits back on the hangers. "Well that shouldn't be too difficult. Wait till you're both wearing swimsuits, then give him a big, long hug. Maybe levitate up so you're a little taller, that might help too. You'll make him uncomfortable, and not be doing anything you can't get away with in front of a big crowd of people. You never know, maybe if you make him uncomfortable enough in the right way, he'll be the one looking to go somewhere more private." It was easier to talk about that sort of thing now, when she'd had a few months to sort out and get over the very small crush she'd had on Mike after their one date in the fall. It certainly seemed like Alex had her work cut out for her, anyway.

"I think I'll skip the turquoise," Erin decided with a laugh, changing back into her own clothes. "So are you going to make a move on Mike at the party, then? Knowing James, I bet he could steer you towards someplace private, or you could just use your invisibility thing. I doubt anybody's gonna be looking around with super-senses at a pool party. Hope not, anyway." She eyed Alex's growing pile of suits. "You could always spill something on yourself and say you want to change into another suit."

Erin blinked a couple of times at Alex's choice of colors, but decided not to suggest that the combination had all the fashion sensibility of a box of Nerds. She had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't going to win any arguments about color, for all the style definitely suited Alex better. Instead, she took the suit Alex proffered and held it up. "I dunno," she said, "I picked this one up more to suggest the style to you." She tried it on anyway, if only because it promised more coverage than the two-piece she had on. It softened things a little, she supposed, so she didn't look quite so much like she belonged in a weightlifting magazine. "It's better," Erin decided. "And nothing's likely to fall off, that's good too. What do you think?"

Erin looked over Alex's first choice. "You could stuff the cups," she suggested, "but that's probably not a great idea if you're looking for someone to get the suit off of you." She smirked. "Especially someone with x-ray vision. What you've got looks fine. I would lose the butt-ruffles though. They're kind of babyish, and they don't do much to show off your butt, if that's what you want to do." She looked at herself in the mirror again, then stripped down and tried on the two-piece. "Well, it looks... imposing, I guess," she managed, studying herself. It was modest, as bikinis went, securely covering all strategic areas, but it definitely showed off what six months of intensive workouts had done to a body that was in good shape to start with. She cracked a smile. "I guess this shouldn't be such a big deal, I wear a spandex bodysuit practically every day."

"I hate mysteries," Erin replied, mustering a half-convincing smile. "Why can't everything just make sense? I guess that's the good thing about being an atheist, at least it's easy." She took a deep breath and smoothed the last of her composure back into place as best she could. "Anyway, at least we can say now that we went and checked out what he's selling. We probably still have enough time for some videogames if we go back now."

"Sure," Erin said with a shrug, getting her own plastic number, much smaller than Alex's. "Not like you've never seen me changing before, right? Let's get the big one." The handicapped changing room provided enough space for both of them to get dressed without bumping into each other, well, not much anyway. Erin went for her safest choice first, a very straightforward black one-piece suit with straps that crossed in the back and no decoration whatsoever. It looked fine, she guessed, checking herself out in the mirror, but she couldn't help feeling that it was kind of boring. Especially next to the fashion explosions Alex had picked out.