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Claire woke with the sudden––but not unfamiliar at this point in her pregnancy––need to pee. She sighed as she put the chamber pot back and tried to climb back into bed without disturbing Jamie but he had already woken and rolled toward her to wrap her in his arms.
"Are ye all right, Sassenach?" he whispered brushing her hair out of his face as he nuzzled against her.
"Fine... just the dream I was having," she explained rubbing her belly in an effort to calm the child within, who had apparently taken her getting up as an excuse to wriggle and stretch.
"A good dream ye lost the thread of or a dream that was unsettling to start?" he asked with concern.
Claire chuckled. "A little of both, I suppose. What you said earlier about the Apostle spoons..."
"Ye ken I was only teasing ye," he reassured her, his arm slipping down so he could stretch his hand over her distended belly.
She smiled. "Of course I know that but you can't control what you dream, can you?"
"Tell me?"
Claire shifted onto her back so she could look up at Jamie who raised himself on one elbow. "Well... we were back home at Lallybroch and we had twelve boys."
"One for every spoon indeed," Jamie said with obvious amusement.
"Indeed," she agreed, her smile seeping into her voice. "And apparently we took that a bit literally––they were each named for one of the Apostles..."
"What? No..." Jamie spoke with disbelief.
"Yes, right down to poor Judas."
Jamie laughed outright, shaking the bed. "Well, we'll no need two James' nor two Simons... Given my grandsire, I'd rather no Simons at all."
"I'm not sure we ought to name any of them James either––not as a first name at least... not with both you and Jenny's Jamie around."
Jamie seemed less convinced by this reasoning. "The lads' names we don't want... they'll be the lasses. A wee Claire for ye and an Ellen for my mam––even a Janet," Jamie rambled.
Claire laughed. "So eight boys and four girls? Or make that seven and five so we don't have to saddle any of our children with 'Judas' either."
"Sounds like a reasonable plan to me," Jamie agreed.
"Still, in my dream they were all boys," Claire continued.
"Ye said we were back at Lallybroch..."
She nodded, her hair tickling his nose.
"––and I'm presuming we'll have succeeded in our ventures here in Paris and we must have secured some sort of pardon for me as well..."
"Are you going to let me tell it or not?"
"Sorry," he apologized before brushing at a curl resting on her forehead. "Ye were saying."
"Well I believe several of the boys were fighting with each other and they were trying to tattle on one another. You and I were trying to find somewhere we could have a bit of... alone time..." She let her fingers slide across his chest, traveling through the short hair that sprinkled the area and making note of the way his nipples hardened at her touch.
"Aye," Jamie groaned. "Must no have been easy wi' so many bairns after us."
"Well that's just it," she told him with a playful grin. "The boys seemed to think we were trying to play hide-and-seek with them."
Jamie laughed. "Not the kind of... hide-and-seek that we had in mind."
"Decidedly not. After they came upon us in our bedroom..."
"Not the best hiding place on our part..."
"Then in my still room and your study and the loft of the barn..."
"Definitely Frasers," Jamie said with pride, "persistent in pursuit of their aims."
"Quite. You finally told them to bugger off or they'd never have a sister."
"And how did they take it?"
"I'm not entirely sure. You were busy kissing me and I believe I heard some of them––the oldest, no doubt––groaning and then this one began to kick my bladder until I woke up." She rubbed her belly again and received a kick in response as though the occupant knew they were being discussed.
Jamie reached over and put his hand on Claire's.
"I like the way that sounds," he remarked.
"Being interrupted every time we want to lie together?" Claire asked with a laugh. "I don't know how we'll ever get to twelve children if that ends up being the case. Half a dozen, maybe, but not twelve."
Jamie smiled but it was a quieter smile, the mirth giving way to sentimentality. "No, I meant the way ye were sayin', 'the boys,' like that––like ye already ken them and who they'll be."
"We'll get to meet them and get to know them all," she assured him layering her free hand on top of both of theirs. "One at a time."