Dustin stood on the balcony of his penthouse suite and looked out over the vast city that stretched before him for miles and miles. Olivia was almost ready to leave, and the twins were down for the night. Granny should be there any minute, to babysit for them.
Turning at the sound of the balcony door, he smiled to see Olivia waddle into view. Her belly was huge with another set of twins.
"Are you sure you want to go out? We could order food in and watch shows on the T.V.?"
"Oh, you!" she laughed. "The PED tells me I have another week before they'll be ready. Stop worrying!"
"Mom and dad should be meeting us at the restaurant. I can't believe how well Kit is doing this time around. Getting all of the people brought here, without bartering or arguing, has been so much easier this time around."
"I can't believe how good Granny is with little kids. Who knew our kids could grow so fast?"
"I'm just glad you're not all psycho this time around. I'm really enjoying having an actual wife and more than just the one kid."
"Let's go, before either of the twins wake up and ask where we are."
"Is Granny here all ready?"
"Yeah, she finished talking with her mom, Old Motha, earlier then she thought she would, so she was able to get here early."
"I told her that her mother wouldn't mind her showing back up. I'm glad they haven't had any issues with Gooblens not being born with crystals yet."
"That's kind of freaky to know about. I would never have thought they had crystals in their stomachs."
"I'm just glad Granny was willing to let me get a sample of her genetic data so I could figure out what was wrong. She wouldn't let me do it before."
Olivia grimaced. "I'm a little sorry I was there when you found out what was wrong. Who would have thought it was possible for them to have a nutrient deficiency with all the crap they eat?"
Dustin nodded gravely. He wished he didn't know, after finding out. Though they had readily agreed to keep the fermenting on their planet. Their outrageous appetites died down a lot once they started getting the right foods.
"So, are you going to request any crazy foods this time? The pickles and brownies were a bit hard to watch last time."
"They were interesting, but the pickle crunch just did not go with the brownie flavor…don't worry, I'm not currently having any cravings," she laughed at his panicked look.
Taking her arm, Dustin stepped off the balcony onto the waiting nanobot cab. They made wonderful taxi's when they weren't needed in construction.
Dodging through the traffic, they arrived at the restaurant just in time to see his parents stepping out of their own nanobot cab.
"Olivia! Look at how big you've gotten!" exclaimed his mother, rushing over to give her a hug.
"Not as big as you!" she responded, holding his mother out at arms reach to look her over.
Dustin's mother was expecting the very first set of triplets, ever recorded being born among the Uz'En. Everyone was excited to see how they turned out. Even Granny and Old Motha were enthusiastically waiting.
"Has she picked out names yet?" asked Dustin to his dad.
"No, she was going to ask Kit to help her, and they haven't been able to meet up," he said, shaking his head.
Looking over the menus, after being seated in a reserved seat in the back, his mom looked over at him and said, "You know, Dustin. You should really write a book about your adventures in the virtual world, just so we can all see the difference it made when you woke up."
Olivia laughed, "There's no way it would all fit into one book!"
Dustin shrugged. "Then I'll write three. The kids would love to read them, I'm sure."
"Keep out some of the more saucy moments, then," said Olivia, blushing as everyone laughed.
"How many planets do you have floating around our sun now?" asked his dad, after their food had arrived and everyone had a chance to eat something.
"Six. I don't think I want to bring in any more. Though there are some really nice asteroid belts that I've found, that I want to claim. We could use the extra materials to help with the city building on planet three. The Gooblens went through a lot of their materials before we found out what they needed to eat."
"No! You are not going to talk about that here!" exclaimed Olivia, glaring at him, and he laughed.
"All right, all right. We should probably head home soon. I want to make sure we're home before Granny decides the kids aren't getting enough to eat and make her slurry sludge for them to eat."
His mother frowned. "I don't know what that stuff is, but all of the kids love it, and it really seems to make them grow better. I wonder how she ever came up with it."
"She learned it from my mom," said Kitteral, thoughtfully. "It was a staple on our home world, before the incident occurred."
"The one that Granny caused?" asked Dustin, rolling his eyes.
"What? No! Granny was staying with us and, I think, hiding among us, when the slavers came. She even tried to fight them off. There were too many, and they bombarded her with missiles until she passed out. I thought she was dead until she showed up later and rescued me and my dad. I wish my dad had been willing to listen to her, he might still be alive today if he had."
"Sorry, I had no idea," said Dustin, feeling like an idiot.
"No worries, you didn't know. You're right, we should probably be getting home. Even if there is a couple of weeks before the babies are due, we probably shouldn't stress them too much. It was good seeing you guys. We should do this again," said his dad with a chuckle.
"Don't worry, we will," said Dustin, helping Olivia up from her seat.
"You say that as if you know for a fact that we will," said his mother, struggling to stand herself.
"That's because I do," he said laughing and giving her a wink, as he left with Olivia.