2Exhaustion had claimed her early the previous evening, but sleeping was not easy. Topper held her protruding belly and rolled to her back as she tried to get more comfortable. It was hard when you were growing an alien inside you, especially one who’d decided to develop at twice the speed of a normal baby.
She and Stark had miraculously—and without intending to—conceived a child on their Alaskan honeymoon which was less than three months ago. Gaia’s messenger had sort of aided Topper’s choice in allowing the conception to occur, but Topper wasn’t going to hold that against the woman. But if the messenger ever called her by her birth name again, she would not be so friendly. No one got to call her that horrid name. No one except Gaia.
Topper sighed as she felt her legs being lifted and g
