*****110:

When she got back to the condo, Danny was awake and watching cartoons, Lorraine was sipping her coffee on the couch and the twins were starting to stir. She showered quickly and then went to nurse the twins.

"You got a call while you were gone this morning." Lorraine came up the stairs to stand in the twins' doorway.

"From?"

"General Colby. You remember him from...." Her mother started and then blushed crimson.

Tracy looked up startled. "From... of course I remember General Colby, he's Raine's first fiancé's dad, and he treated Raine like a son. He still wants to be included in the girl's lives. I told him he would always be welcome. What did he say?"

"He's in town. He wants to take us out to lunch."

"Today!" Tracy squeaked.

"At ten-thirty."

"Us, as in all of us?"

"Yes, all of us."

"My, my... when it rains it pours." Tracy announced and then shook her head.

"Why? What's going on that I should know about?"

"I've just been placed with three foster sons, ages, six, five and four, and they're going to be living over with you. I have to call someone to come and make us a doorway today. It'll have to go through the downstairs back hall into your living room."

"I feel faint, why in the world would you go and do something like that?" Lorraine cried. The cry elicited wails from both twins, one who unlatched from Tracy to see what the matter was and the other who had been gazing out her bedroom window peacefully.

"It's just who I am, mother. Get used to it. I'm about the most impulsive person I used to know." She stood up and burped Megan. "Especially when it comes to kids."

"Whose kids are they?"

"Austin's."

"Your friend?"

"Of course, do you know any other Austin?" She began to change a diaper and then decided it was bath time first and laid out identical twin outfits and hefted both girls into her arms and made her way across the hall to her bathroom. "We could probably have a door cut here too, in my room that would open into the hallway upstairs in your condo. Then we'd have access, easy access."

"I told the General to come here and pick us up, is that still going to work into your schedule?" Lorraine asked, a hand to her heart in mock surrender.

"Always." Tracy knelt over the tub and put the girls bathing apparatus down for them and began the ritual bath. When she was done she handed a towel enclosed twin to her grandmother and then crossed the hall with the other to dress her.

"You are very like your father," Lorraine said finally as she snapped the final snaps on Melia's outfit.

"In what way?"

"You move like him, quick, efficient."

"Oh." Tracy laughed. "I thought you were going to say, impulsive, or even thoughtless."

"Ray was never thoughtless. Thoughtful is more like it. He was always very thoughtful. But you... no, you are very loving. You'd do anything for a friend. I think your hard childhood has made you sensitive to other children's needs. I was thinking once you have your degree, you might want to consider social work and helping children as an option, depending on if you want to stay in the music and acting industry. You may not, you know."

"Never thought about it, it's all I know. But that's a very good point. I do want to help children. I will have to think about that, mom. Good point." She kissed Lorraine's cheek as she carried Megan down the stairs and called to Danny to get his clothes laid out. 

She had the twins in their swings in seconds, breakfast going, and the living room completely cleaned in minutes, and Lorraine watched her chatter away the whole time about General Colby and house renditions. She had no doubt that the required adjustments would be accomplished by the end of the day. If she wanted to keep up, she had better go shower and change.

*****