All Is Well

Darla was seated on the lounge room's blue and brown colored oriental rug. Sev had asked her to stay with Lottie while he took Eileen to the twins' room to change her nappy. Darla was content enough to do so. She'd left her baby doll, Bessie, in the room earlier and Darla was holding her doll by its hands and was making her do a little jig. It was fun enough and Sev would be back soon and then she could go do her puzzle in the kitchen again. Beside Darla, Lottie was picking up and putting down the colorful toy blocks Edie had scattered on the rug for the twins before she went to feed baby Essie.

From the next room, Edie's voice drifted in. Darla thought nothing of it. She was probably just cooing at her littlest niece. Lottie did not react the same. Instead of continuing on with her game of testing all of the blocks between her lips, she dropped the latest one in her hand and turned her head in the direction Edie's voice had come from.

"Dee!" she yelled, startling Darla into dropping Bessie. That was the first time she'd heard her niece say her mum's name. A wide grin spreading across her face, Darla twisted herself around toward the open threshold between the lounge room and kitchen and dining area of her family's home. "Come quick, Edie!" she hollered. "Lottie said your name!"

A moment later, her sister appeared, Darla's newest and still very ruddy niece attached to her breast. "She did, did she?"

She beamed at the mother. "Uh-huh!" she assured. Returning her attention to Lottie, who had gone back to squishing a soft toy block in her mouth, she poked her niece's cheek. The baby looked at her, dark blue eyes wide and questioning. Listing to the right, Darla pointed over at Edie and asked, "Who's that, Lottie?"

Lottie's little face lit up with glee when she saw her mother standing in the doorway. Tiny mouth parting to show off her sparse smattering of sprouting teeth, she gurgled, "Dee!"

Darla laughed. "See!" Getting to her feet, she reached down and pulled her niece into her arms. Lottie was heavy and too big for her to carry far, but the few steps between them and her sister wouldn't be too much of a challenge she was sure. Waddling over to Edie, she faltered a moment when she saw the mother was using her free hand to cover her mouth and that her eyes were wet.

"Edie?" she whispered in a soft, tentative tone. Why was her sister crying all of a sudden? Darla searched her mind at chaser-speeds to find a possible reason. When one came to her, she didn't hesitate to voice it. "Are you sad, 'cause she's calling you Dee kinda like I call you Edie instead of Mummy?"

Her sister began to shake her head. "No, no," she told Darla while Lottie began to twist in her hold, arms yearning for Edie. Crouching down slowly as not to jostle wee baby Esther, Edie smiled at the two of them. "I'm jus' so happy." She reached over to pet Lottie's cheek and quiet her whining. "My baby knows my name."

Darla readjusted her grip on Lottie and nodded. Even so, she felt a little uneasy. In the picture books she and her brother and sister read the twins, Darla knew the parents always made a big to-do when the babies in the books called them "mummy" and "daddy". Darla pursed her lips and tried to think of how to voice the tummy-twisting feeling she was experiencing. "Will you be sad if she never calls you mummy?" she inquired after a beat of silence between them.

Edie looked at her then. Her hazel eyes were thoughtful. "No," she answered after a moment. "They're only copyin' yeh an' Sev'rus. If it sticks, it sticks." Returning her gaze to Lottie, her eyes took on a melted gold quality as she murmured, "An' how could I ever be upset when my name sounds so swee' in her wee mouth?"

Darla relaxed, relieved to know Edie wasn't sad and never would be if her nieces didn't call her mummy. It was on the tip of Darla's tongue to ask if she thought Severus would feel the same if the twins called him Severus instead of Daddy when Eileen's babbling filled the room. Turning her head, she smiled when she saw her brother hovering in the mouth of the corridor leading to their bedrooms. He looked oddly satisfied and Darla found herself knitting her brows together. Why did he look so happy? Just an hour ago he'd been in a strop about how many of his OWL students had failed to pass the exam.

"Guess wha', love," Edie prompted her brother.

He rolled his eyes but played along. "What is it, Edie?"

"Lottie said my name!" she replied, delighted.

Severus began to chuckle. "How serendipitous," he remarked. "Eileen said Sev when I was changing her nappy."

Edie gaped. "Wha'? Really!" Getting to her feet, she hurried over to Severus and Eileen. In a bright, excited voice, she asked the other twin, "Who's go' yeh, Eileen? Who's holdin' yeh?"

The baby squirmed a bit, before rolling her eyes up to stare at Darla's brother's strong chin. "Sev!" she proclaimed, drawing breathless laughter from Edie and a broad grin from Severus.

Darla found herself looking kindly down on Lottie, just basking in the simple joy that filled her family's small quarters. The baby suddenly made a grab for a lock of her hair, which she expertly dodged. "Ah, ah," she chided. "No hair pulling." Darla pursed her lip once more. "But… If you learn to say my name properly, I might let you pull it." She shifted Lottie to one arm and made sure her niece could see her face and free hand as Darla pointed one finger up. "But just once! You pull hard, Lottie."

"Dee," her niece said.

She huffed and rolled her eyes in a fashion not too dissimilar from how Severus had just a minute before. "That's Edie," she corrected, pointing at her older sister.

The baby copied her and in a serious little voice, repeated, "Dee."

Darla grinned. "Yeah!" she exclaimed, swooping in to kiss the baby's nose. "You're so clever!"

This short one-shot is something of an explanation for why the girls call their parents what they do in Family Branches's next multi-chap installments like Long Way From Home and Summer Skeletons. I hope you enjoyed the babies and Darla being cute as well as meeting the baby Edie finds out she's pregnant with near the end of Black Eyes!

Also, keep an eye out for the next fic in the series, it's a one-shot called Reminders!

Thank you very much for reading :)