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“Hello, love,” Len said as he settled on the sofa behind Hermione. He gently started kneading the knots in her lower back.
Hermione’s head tilted back. “Oh god, Len,” she moaned. “That feels so good.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” He grinned and pressed a kiss against the crown of her head. “How are you doing today?”
She huffed out a laugh. “Are you sure you want an answer to that question?”
Len chuckled and raised an eyebrow at her. “You know I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want to know.”
“I know,” Hermione sighed. “I just feel like my answer is always the same: I’m tired, sore, I can’t see my feet, and I’m as big as the Enterprise.”
Wrapping his arms around her, Len placed his hands on her expanding belly. “How many times do I have to tell you that you’re not as big as the Enterprise?”
“Until I’m no longer as big as the Enterprise, so after your children are born,” Hermione said.
“Well, it won’t be much longer now,” Len told her. “Even with you sitting down, I could see that they had shifted down some today.”
Hermione placed her hands over his. “I can’t wait to meet them.”
“Me either,” Len murmured against her hair.
“If you help me up, I’ll get ready to go to the party,” Hermione said as she shifted forward some.
“How about we just say in tonight?” Len offered.
Hermione looked at him over her shoulder, relief evident on her face. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” Len replied. “As I said, it won’t be much longer and as much rest as you can get would be best.”
She collapsed back against the back of the sofa. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
Len chuckled. “I figured you would like that. I’ll let Jim know and we’ll stay in, have some dinner, and maybe watch a Christmas movie or two? Since we didn’t get to watch anything on Christmas Eve.”
“That is a perfect way to spend the night as far as I’m concerned, even if it is New Year’s Eve,” Hermione replied. She grinned up at him. “I’ll be waiting for you here.”
“You better be,” Len teased. He stood up from the sofa. “Anything in particular that you would like to eat tonight?”
“Surprise me.”
Scotty bit his lower lip as he looked at the back of Captain Kirk’s head. He released his lip and asked, “Are you sure we should be doing this?”
“Why not, Scotty?” Jim asked without looking over his shoulder.
“Because Bones said Hermione was tired and they wanted to spend New Year’s Eve in their quarters,” Scotty replied. “Together.”
Waving a hand over his shoulder, Jim said, “They’ll enjoy us bringing them food and something to celebrate with at midnight.”
Scotty shared a look with Spock. The chief engineer shrugged in response at Spock’s raised eyebrow.
Uhura leaned over to whisper in Scotty’s ear, “You know there’s no point in arguing with the captain when he’s like this.”
“You’re right, but I can just see this ending in a disaster of some kind,” Scotty replied. His voice just as quiet as the communications officer’s voice had been.
The two must not have been as quiet as they thought they were. “What could possibly go wrong?”
“Hermione goes into labor because she’s angry for us crashing in on their night in alone,” Scotty replied. “That’s not even taking into consideration Bones’ response when he sees us.”
“We won’t stay long,” Jim said as he stopped in front of the door to the couple in question’s quarters.
Bones turned off the Christmas movie they had been watching and shut down the holoscreen for the night. He settled back into the sofa as he wrapped an arm around his sleeping wife.
Hermione had fallen asleep about halfway through Frosty the Snowman, but they had watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer before so he had been surprised that she had lasted as long as she did. He knew she needed the sleep, so he hadn't moved her when he noticed her nod off.
The chirp of their door had Bones wincing. He looked down to see that Hermione was still asleep, so he carefully extracted himself from the sofa and made his way over to the door.
Opening it, he found a small group of people outside. A frown tugged at the corner of his lips. “What are you all doing here? Why aren’t still at the party?”
“We wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out on the food and had something to celebrate with when midnight rolls around,” Jim replied as he stepped closer.
Bones held up a hand. “Hermione’s asleep now and I really don’t want to wake her,” he explained.
“We’re so sorry for bothering both of you,” Scotty piped up from behind Jim.
“It’s okay,” Bones replied. “Thank you all for your thoughtfulness. I’ll put everything in one of the stasis boxes Hermione created as we probably won’t be enjoying any of it until tomorrow.”
“Understandable,” Spock said.
“How is she doing?” Uhura asked.
“Tired, but that’s to be expected, especially since I don’t think it will be much longer before she has the twins.”
“Then we’ll just drop this stuff off for you and be on our way,” Uhura said.
“Thank you.” Bones accepted the gifts they had brought for them. “Have a good night and Happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year,” the others replied before they departed.
Bones closed the door and placed the food and drinks they had brought in one of the stasis boxes in their quarters.
“Who was that?” Hermione asked.
Turning, Bones saw his wife sitting up on the sofa. She was alert, but he could tell she was still exhausted.
“Jim, Scotty, Spock, and Uhura,” Bones replied. “They brought us food and drinks from the party, including a drink for you.”
Hermione smiled before breaking out into a large yawn. “That… was nice… of them,” she said around her yawn.
“It was,” Bones agreed. “But I put it all in a box so we can enjoy it tomorrow. For now, it’s time for bed.”
“Bed sounds wonderful,” Hermione replied.
Bones helped her up and the two of them headed for bed on one of the last nights where their family was just the two of them as less than a week later, Hermione gave birth to Georgia Grace and David James McCoy.