At 9:37 AM the next morning, after an excruciating fifteen hours in labor, while squeezing the hands of her husband, Odin, and best friend and sister-in-law Piper, Clara Titan gave birth to a healthy six pound, four-ounce baby boy.

After the monumental struggle to push him out, and all the screaming, cursing, and frustration that accompanied his arrival, the baby himself was a beautiful, silent cherub. He had thick dark hair in places, and in other spots, not so much.

“He’s a trendsetter already, baby,” Odin remarked. “Pretty soon, every newborn in town will have that hairstyle. The…I don’t know… ‘Dalmatian’?”

“Shut up, Odin, I just want my baby! I need to hold him,” Clara pleaded.

The room was treated to the pitiful first cry of the new arrival, prompted by the nurse giving him a gentle pat on the rear end.

Odin cut the cord, and the newest Titan was weighed, measured, and checked for birth defects before he was set— naked— on his mother’s chest.

“Oh my God, my baby, he’s so beautiful,” Clara said, wiping away tears.

“Don’t get too attached, your work isn’t finished yet,” the attending physician remarked. “There’s still one more in there waiting to make his or her debut.”

Odin and Clara knew they were having twins, but they’d chosen not to know the genders of their babies.

Clara nodded and handed the baby boy off to Piper, who swaddled him expertly.

Piper sat down in a nearby chair, cooing to the baby while Odin gave Clara a brief pep talk and a kiss on her sweaty forehead.

“If everybody’s ready, let’s continue,” announced the doctor.

Twelve minutes after baby number one’s arrival, the second slipped out as if going down a waterslide at nearby Wave Works.

“Congratulations on your baby… girl!” The doctor announced, after an appropriately pregnant pause.

Odin wiped away a tear and bent to hug Clara as their daughter reacted to her birth very differently than her older brother. She screamed and screeched and wailed until Odin cut the cord.

She was weighed (five pounds, three-ounces), checked, and given to Clara. She didn’t stop howling until she expertly latched onto Mommy’s nipple and received her breakfast.

Her eyes were a dark, bold blue, and the hair atop her head, while not as dark as her brother’s, was full all over. No bald patches. No Dalmatian ‘do.

“So what are their names, now that you know what you have?” Piper asked, still rocking the sweet, gentle bundle while Clara nursed her wild daughter.

Odin, sitting by Clara’s bedside, locked eyes with his wife and nodded his head. She burst into tears and reached an arm to wrap it around Odin, who leaned across the bed and gently caressed his daughter’s head.

“She’s Emmie and he’s Callum,” Clara announced.

“We had two boy names,” Odin explained. “Callum, for Clara’s husband who was killed. I hope between this Callum and me, we can help to fill the hole in Clara’s heart. And Emmie is named after your father-in-law, Piper. Emerson.

“If they would have both been boys, Emerson and Callum. A girl would have always been Emmie, and we weren’t entirely sure about a second girl.”

“Raven’s not going to be happy,” Piper reminded the proud new parents. “She was really campaigning for her name.”

“We thought about that,” Odin said. “That’s why Emmie middle name is ‘Verna’. Raven’s birth name.”

“Doesn’t she hate…” Piper’s voice trailed away.

“Bingo,” Odin said, with a smile.

“I’m so tired, please take your daughter,” Clara asked. “I want my steak now. And then to sleep for twenty-seven hours. Take care of those babies.”

One of the perks of the boutique hospital the Titans chose was a steak dinner for all new moms. For Clara Titan, it would be Wagyu beef.

A nurse in the corner gave Clara a thumbs up and went off to let the kitchen know that room #223 was ready for her Wagyu.

Clara melted when she watched Odin hold Emmie for the first time, cradling her and rocking her gently back and forth, whispering to her.

Piper took a picture of the proud new father sitting in his chair holding two bundles, one pink and one blue, and sent it to everybody she thought would care, captioning it with their names, weights, and times of birth:

Congratulatory texts from well-wishers in so many different far-flung places nearly blew up Clara’s phone.

Clara finally got her steak, delicious and well-deserved.

* * *

Raven replied with snark at the sight of Emmie’s middle name, as expected. She and Canaan had met in Vienna to prep for the auction two days hence. Canaan was thrilled to have become an uncle again.

Atlas brought Lea over in the afternoon to meet her new cousins, and she was absolutely delighted, although it took some convincing to get her to understand that Callum and Emmie were real, and not baby dolls with which she could play.

Atlas was not pleased at the lack of Cuban cigars.

Abner II was dejected at having to remain behind, although Diane the dog-sitter came over to hang out with him. He paced the condo nervously, like an anxious new father.

Emerson Titan wept at the news of his grandchildren’s arrival, and he promised to visit them just as soon as he could.

All was well and peaceful in the Titan universe.

But not for long.