Three months later, Finley was enjoying a scone on the beach. It was a new thing that Sonya had made for him to teach him about Earth culture. He was still very skeptical about all the things that they had brought over. This one was a dry pastry type thing which he was wondering why she would give him until she also presented him with a cup of tea. It went over better that way.

So there he was, enjoying his tea and some Earth food and expanding his shipping empire, when Sonya waddled in. She was clearly showing and Finley was just as clearly not saying a single word about it as every single man in the Caravan had instructed him to multiple times. He was told that he was not even supposed to mention that some were pregnant unless he could actively see a baby leaving their body. He knew she was pregnant. She knew she was pregnant. But custom dictated that he not draw any attention to it.

Custom could go shove it.

“How are you going along there? He said your scones are pretty good. So good. In fact, that I might have to put another order in.”

Her receipt, which she groaned as she sat down into,. She really took her time with that. Something that he had learned she was going to need to do regularly. Using all of her limbs to get into the sitting position in a seat designed specifically for her, she nodded.

“I’m pretty good. The morning sickness has been hell on me, but best to be expected. I never expected to have a child. I thought it was too old back on Earth, but Kara has found a way.”

No one talked about it, but everyone knew that the Chosen were all trying to have children. With the combined effort of the entire Dwarven legion behind them, they had enough people that will help out with watching the kids for an afternoon.

“Oh, I’ve been working on that bottle design as well. I think I’m going to have one that’s going to meet your specifications,” Finley said.

Sonya smiled.

“I know there’s no such thing as formula here, but if we have to refrigerate breast milk, we’ll do it.”

He offered her a scone, which she readily accepted.

“How is Anthony doing with his rounds today?” Finley said.

“There’s going to be a baby boom. All the little dwarfs that are having little Dwarven babies? I can’t wait to see them. Several of the mamas are going to have more than one baby, which seems strange to me, but I keep hearing that it’s normal, so we’ll just accept that.”

Anthony's midwifery practice had grown in the weeks following the end of the major combat operations on the continent. With the death knights defeated, the remaining were much easier to eliminate. As such, the queen of children now could do so. They could still work on the back lines and this hadn’t even taken that many out of the regular circulation.

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“Are you still mad about that? Gigi and Valerie keep telling him he’s going to have to marry a duchess or a duke in time?”

“Who do you think is keeping him in line? I’m telling them to tell him that so he doesn’t do some stupid shit.”

Finley pretended to look shocked.

“You know I got a letter the other day, right?”

The rumor had escaped him. If he was right, she knew about who had sent the letter.

“Stella sent the letter, didn’t she?” Sonya said.

Finley really didn’t want to say anything, but he gave a slight nod. Everyone knew what was going on, because everyone knew Bob was alive with Stella somewhere and he just wasn’t going to be around them soon. Soon. Had he been, Bob was sure that they would have ironed our other differences. But the thing was, these humans were too stubborn.

They weren’t too stubborn to save the world, but this pissing contest between two of the strongest chosen about killing and stealing rankled him in a way that he never expected to be wrangled before. Why couldn’t they just get along?

“Did it say anything in particular?”

“I think that they’re coming back around, but I’m going to give it to you to make your own judgment.”

“That’s good. Sophie’s been going between us and them for a while now that she has the gate spell herself. It’s just... I don’t know if it’s a bridge too far.”

“We’ve given them time. When they’re ready, they’ll come back to us.”

“All right, enough about me and my problems,” she said. “Tell me about this new outreach that you’ve got going on.”

Putting aside the realities of humans that wanted to argue with humans about human stuff, Finley jumped into his five-point plan about how he was going to deploy airships to new continents in search of even more customers for his Intercontinental business. Now that they had finally contacted all the 13 tribes, his people were going to head towards the small island nation that housed all the dark elves. It would be good for him.

Then Anthony came by.

“Finley! You old chad!” he said, kissing Sonya. “I’m so glad you could take some time out of your busy schedule to come see us.”

“Anthony! You still haven’t told me what chad means, so I’m going to take it as a compliment.”

They embraced, Anthony putting him into a bear hug. Contemplating how he could get out of it, Finley worried Sonya wouldn’t back him up.

“I just saw that our wagon is back in circulation,” Anthony said. “I’m so glad. Sonya and I were thinking of taking it on a little baby moon.”

“See now, I know that you’re just pulling my legs and mashing words together.”

Sonya held up a hand.

“Please don’t tease the Tinker king, dear. He’s the best of all of us,” she said.

“I was thinking something as I sipped my beer the other day,” Anthony said.

Finley gestured at him to continue.

“Beer that he knows I can’t consume while I’m pregnant, I might add,” Sonya said.

The elf pretended to hide his oversized mug, to no avail. Everyone had noticed.

“I don’t even know where that came from, and I still want this. Can we just have this baby now?” Sonya pleaded.

“I was thinking about a name!” Anthony said.

Sonya feigned shock terribly. Finley leaned in to see what was going on.

“What are you both about to do? What was the name?” He said.

“We were thinking, if it was a boy,” Anthony said. “We would name it Finley.”

Sonya groaned.

“And if it’s a girl, we could call it Finn,” she said. “After all, we wouldn’t be here without you.”

“You wouldn’t,” Finley said.

He smiled at him. Even he grinned.

“You complete and total bastards. This doesn’t mean that Uncle Finley handles any child care.”

The End.