Because I'm not a heartless monster of an author and believe Shay's gone through enough crap and deserves some MORE cuteness and love. Also, because you're the reader who probably has their own crap to deal with, you need some cuteness and love as well. All the healing! All the muscles! ALL THE BABIES!!! Neeeyar nyar nyar! Also, I have a degree in English and write every day, but I've totally forgotten how to spell believe. Is that even right? WHY DO YOU KEEP TELLING ME IT'S WRONG, SPELLCHECK?!?

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Shay woke up in the evening to the gentle call of Harvey's voice.

"Shay. Dinner is ready."

She groggily pushed herself up, wincing as her hips and back cracked from the movement. Harvey's spotted ears twitched.

Though she had always been a heavy sleeper, after giving birth to the rabbits she found it took even longer for her to wake up and she'd been needing more sleep then she remembered. Harvey had voiced his theory that her body had been permanently worn down, like with age, and had therefore come less efficient with its energy. She didn't much care for that theory, but it made sense.

She took stock of her children and found that only the snake boys remained. The girls must have woken up earlier and wriggled out with Asher.

Harvey must have followed her gaze, for he said "The girls and Asher are eating already with Parker, and Muir is up in a tree keeping watch. Curtis and Ryan aren't back yet."

Her stomach sank and tightness returned to her chest. She hated the feeling, having grown too familiar with it. She took a deep, steadying breath to push it back.

All around her, the boys stirred. Tongues left butterfly kisses on her skin as she rolled to her feet. A veritable red sea of scales parted before her.

Harvey reached out to brush her arm when she drew near, his smooth eyebrows puckered with concern.

"Would you like a massage after dinner? And there's no need to worry about your mates or yourself. Everything's okay."

"Am I that obvious?"

Harvey fell in step with her as she made her way to the fire pit on the other side of the budding stone walls of the house. She could see Parker's head peeking out over it, leopard ears tall and straight.

Every other step, Harvey's tail would brush against her calf, just hidden beneath the hem of her skirt.

"I made it my way of living to be able to tell when someone was in pain or anxious. And I'm familiar with you."

"I'm sorry for making you worry."

"I do not worry much. You are home and loved. You'll be okay with time."

Will I? Her hand would never be the same, nor would her body, even if this world had modern technology. She had only been here a year and already she was being told her body had aged before its time.

She pushed the thought away and looked across the grass prairie to see the sky goldening over the distant, glittering ocean. It was still quite some time before the sun set, but she could already smell the faint musk of evening. As she focused on deepening her breathing, as though the beauty around her could soothe her fluttering breath, she could hear the whisper of snake bellies following in the grass behind her. Somehow the sound soothed her far better than anything.

Harvey brushed his knuckles against her arm again. His tail hooked behind her knee.

"There's a girl," he murmured. "I can already hear your heartbeat slowing."

He had talked away a few possible panic attacks that had occurred over their travels. Sometimes a sudden sound or losing sight of a mate that was hunting would set her off. Sometimes it would just be a nightmare.

At the fire, Parker happily offered her a coconut bowl of mango slices over rice, drizzled over with coconut milk sweetened with honey. It had quickly become a favorite of hers, though they didn't call mangos by that name, and the fruit, though the same texture and color on the inside, was an almost neon green on the outside. The three girls were already off to the side chomping on fish they had caught, their noses wrinkled at the very smell of rice. Only Sky out of the three of them seemed to have any inclination towards plant foods, but she wouldn't eat rice unless it had been cooked in meat broth. At their feet, Asher munched on the chewy carcass of a large beetle.

Shay thanked Parker and sat next to him to eat.

"Have a good nap with all your babies?" he asked.

"It was wonderful."

"Sure looked like it. It made me peaceful just looking at it. You're such a cute mom."

They often made it a point to talk about positive things about her. She had noticed more than once her guardians and mates stopping mid-sentence from saying something negative or could even be remotely worrying to her. She wondered if someone had recommended it or if they all just instinctively felt how fragile she had become emotionally.

Thus, Parker happily chatted with her about how the house was going and the both of them soon ended up in a deep discussion about how it would turn out.

She worried for a bit about feeding the boys, but they all refused to go hunting. The girls translated for them when they insisted they had to stay to protect her, and that, being snakes, they didn't have to eat as often as her anyways. If that was really the case even though they were still children, she wondered why her daughters still ate three hearty meals a day.

After finishing his beetle and cleaning the crumbs off his jaws, Asher crawled up into Shay's lap, ignoring the jealous glares of the snake children who had since grown too big to do the same. Even so, it wouldn't be long before he too would no longer be able to fit.

Shay hoped that day was far yet, as his warmth was comforting and she loved to pet his soft mane.

When she finished eating, she had to dislodge him to lay down on a thick pelt Harvey had spread out for her. Asher tried to resettle against her side, only to be shooed off by Harvey, who made quick work of untying the back of her dress.

"Do you think you should be doing that while her mates are gone?" asked Parker. It wasn't the first time Harvey had given her a massage for her weakened back and hips.

"She's in pain and they've accepted me. Can you hand me the coconut fat?"

Parker sighed and did so.

"I still think it's so unfair that a single stripe like you got accepted where I didn't."

Harvey ignored him. They'd had this argument before and it didn't need to be rehashed, and for that Shay was glad. It was hard enough working on staying calm without Curtis or Ryan around.

Then Harvey's hot hands, slathered in coconut oil, met her back and her bad thoughts simply melted away. As always, she did her best to keep herself quiet, but as he worked down to her extra achy lower back and finally to her hips, a low moan slipped out.

She heard Parker shift from where he sat on the ground.

"You're looking pretty sleepy girls. Shall I cuddle you to sleep?"

Luna and Dawn gave affirmative chirps, and even Asher gave a faint chirrup.

Sky, however, said, in a rather sleepy tone, "No. I only sleep with my mates."

"You don't have any mates, though," said Parker, tone light with amusement.

"You're not my mate. No cuddle. Bad sisters, you no cuddle either."

"You're dumb," said Dawn.

"Daddy's my mate," said Luna with a yawn. "And Mommy. Mommy's my mate."

Dawn snorted. "Stupid, parents can't be your mate."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't make babies with your parents."

"Mommy has no babies with Ryan, and Ryan's her mate."

"That 'cause it hasn't happened! Someone stuffed rabbits in her first."

"You don't stuff babies into mommies. Babies appear in mommies, like poof! When mates give them a special hug full of love."

Asher's head went back and forth between each girl as they spoke like a bobble head.

"That dumb. Who said? Hugs don't make babies."

"Yes they do."

"Then why don' you have a baby? You've been hugged lots."

"It a hug by a mate!"

"Which is why we can't cuddle with Parker," broke in Sky seriously.

The argument quickly stopped as understanding dawned on the twins, who gave identical expressions of terror at Parker.

Parker threw up his hands, eyes wide. "You three have it all wrong! You're not going to suddenly get pregnant just because I cuddle you to sleep, you're just babies yourself!"

"I only cuddle with my mate," said Sky, all somber, half-lidded blue eyes. "My mate would be sad if I cuddled with someone else."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Like your mate would ever know, you don't have one."

"But he could..."

"No he wouldn't!"

Luna, however, had other concerns. "Does that mean daddy and mommy can still be my mates? Since hugging won't make babies?"

Dawn seemed to take personal offense from both her sisters and threw her little hands in the air, like a grown up miss who'd lost her cool at the office.

"That it! I'm going to bed! Too much stupid."

She took a hold of Parker's clothes as she walked by. Shay happened to have her head in the right direction to watch and giggled at the sight of a full grown man scrambling to get to his feet at the order of a little hand as wide as his thumb.

"No, Dawn! Don't cuddle!" cried Sky.

"Shut up! I do what I want!"

"You're too young to be a mommy!" wailed Sky with a hand out.

"You would make a really bad mommy," said Luna, not quite under her breath.

"I'm gonna be a daddy, bitch!" Dawn screamed back.

Shay choked on her own spit. Harvey scrambled away, wheezing with pent up laughter, as she shot up to her hands and knees, ignoring the smarting of her joints.

"Dawn! Where'd you learn such language? How dare you call your sister that!"

Parker looked back from the corner of the sprouting house, looking uncertain. Dawn, however, pretended not to hear as she scrambled over the short wall to the nest of furs on the other side.

"Dawn! Get back here, I know you can hear me! DAWN!"

Harvey was still trying not to laugh as he touched her shoulders. "Calm down, I can talk to her."

"No you won't, I'm her mother."

"Alright, okay, just try to take it easy."

Meanwhile, poor Parker stood there frozen, having a conniption between horror and amusement. He attempted to back Shay up as she came stomping over, attempt being the key word.

"No-no Dawn, you should---haa hee hee hee---you should really--"

"Are we cuddling or not?" a little hand popped over the wall.

Needless to say, Parker ended up being put on police duty to keep the girls in bed and civil with each other rather than cuddling. Asher slithered off to the side with the boys, who had silently watched all this from their coiled turrets in the grass, most likely confused as to what the adults were getting all worked up for. And Shay ended up in the fur by the fire as Harvey almost forcefully put her in a coma by rubbing her sweet spots over her hip joints. She more or less expected the fur to be wet with drool when she left. Sunset had arrived and she more or less planned to fall asleep here.

"Magic hands," she muttered.

Harvey chuckled. "Do you like my hands?"

"I like what they do-oo-ozvvvvvv." Bye bye, brain.

In order to get at both her hips at the same time, he had been crouched over her knees. But then she felt the heat of his thighs straddled against hers as he moved in to push down the ball of his palm. She'd probably be alarmed by this if her brain was still around.

Somewhere along the line, her wool skirts had ridden up to just beneath her tush. When Harvey's hands suddenly lifted, she blinked blearily back to consciousness.

"Hngh?"

"May I touch your skin?" Harvey whispered next to her head, his voice warm against her cheek. "Massage your thighs? Would you like that?"

Since her thighs connected to her hips, and the hips were the main offenders of her life, she gave a groggy grunt of permission.

She inwardly jumped a bit at the feel of his hot hands on the back of her thighs. But, while not the sweet spot above her hip joints, his fingers were still working wonders, and with the excuse that this was Harvey--the Harvey she knew, the Harvey that would never, ever do anything she didn't want or hurt her--she fell back into a pleasure soaked daze.

She was almost truly asleep when his thumbs tapped just below the curve of her butt, beneath the reach of her skirt.

"Would you like me to touch here?" he whispered. His breath smelled like earth and grass.

She could just feel the heat of his chest brushing against her back. His tail swept over the back of her calves, like a silk ribbon swaying in the breeze. Long, golden hair poured down her neck and shoulders.

Heat budded low in her gut, drawing her back from her sleep with a jerk of uncertainty.

The last time she had been intimate with a guy was before she had found out she was pregnant with the rabbits. Both she and Vincent had been too nervous to approach each other afterwards, both too apprehensive of their complicated situation to want to hurt each other. And then when she had gotten so big so fast, suffering so much...

And neither Ryan or Curtis had ever hinted at the subject since she had returned, both knowing instinctively that, if mating were to happen, Shay would have to be the one who initiated it. Even without the topic of sex being brought up, Ryan and Curtis were already treating her like glass. The closest they got to it was whenever they happened to see the rabbit beastmark on her leg and their eyes would grow cold. She already wanted to cut the mark off, but only her promise and compassion to Vincent stopped her.

In the time she gathered all these thoughts, Harvey had already pulled back his hands and tugged her skirts back down.

"It's alright," he murmured. "It's only what makes you feel good. No one's feelings are hurt. You're doing nothing bad." His fingers combed through her hair, gently trailing along her scalp.

Shay seriously wondered if he could read her mind then, even as her memory reminded her of Harvey's explanation of hearing heart rate and smelling anxiety with increased sweat. What he lacked in strength and fighting ability, he made up for in his sharpened senses.

So she puffed through her nose and closed her eyes again, humming to the pleasurable trail of his fingers in her hair. The bear pelt was familiar and oh so comfy and warm. The quiet crackle and pop of the campfire made the perfect ambiance. And there, far in the distance, she could hear a hush of ocean.

Harvey combed through her hair a few more times before his heat above her vanished to be replaced by a light hide blanket. She heard the slide of fabric against skin and the thump of clothes falling. But just as she was beginning to tense at the possibility of Harvey being naked next to her, a warm, fuzzy leopard, not a man, lowered next to her, wriggling beneath the blanket so that his golden fur was within her reach.

Smiling, she rolled onto her side and tentatively put her arm over the big cat.

Harvey had realized, before she had even thought of it, that she would be unable to sleep without the feel of Ryan or Curtis next to her, so turned into his leopard form so she could, at the very least, pretend the fuzzy cat she hugged was a black panther.

Even though Harvey's earth and grass smell, bony shoulders, and smaller size instantly gave it away that this was no Ryan she hugged, Shay quickly fell into a warm sleep.

When she woke up, slow, warm, and easy, a familiar wavy haired, dark Arabian prince lay in front of her, his golden gaze meeting hers with a tender smile. Above them the sky had already lightened with coming dawn.

"I've got a gift for you, my sweetling. Would you close your eyes and open your mouth?"

Ever slow to wake up all the way, Shay simply registered Ryan in her brain, closed her eyes, and opened her mouth obediently.

When a rock, faceted and smooth, was suddenly stuffed to the back of her throat, shock spiked her system awake. But just as her throat moved to gag, the stone melted and slid away, as though absorbing directly into her throat.

Heat, just at the edge of burning, rockets through her body and bursting her vision with stars.

Instantly the fuzzy body at her back stood up, meowling.

Just as soon as the heat and stars had come on, however, it vanished, leaving her on the cusp of hyperventilating with alarm and eyes wide into the face of her husband, who already had his hands to her cheeks.

"Shh shh shh, it's alright."

"You couldn't have warned her?" came an angry hiss from behind Ryan. Red hair dripped between them and Curtis's torso appeared, peering at her in concern.

"Love, your hand, how is it?" Curtis asked.

Whenever her hand was mentioned, it was always the gimp one. Trying not to whimper with confusion at being woken up by having a rock stuffed down your throat, she lifted her left hand--only to then freeze, stupified.

Her hand, mangled for life, with crooked fingers that could barely move anymore, had become whole. Even her nails had returned to their original smooth state, as though they'd never even been used before.

Wondering if she had somehow made a mistake, she rolled onto her back to look at her other hand, but it too was whole. Even as she stared at them, blinking rapidly, she began to realize other things, like how, even after a night of sleeping on the hard ground yet again, her back and hips didn't hurt. She felt lighter. Stronger. To the point she had to sit up and jump to her feet just to prove that she could, and her body responded instantly. Elated, she felt her stomach through her dress and, instead of stretched out flab, her original stomach was there. She even lifted up her skirt so she could get a better look at her stretch marks only to find they weren't there.

"I don't hurt." She dropped her dress to look at her husbands, tears brimming her eyes. "I don't hurt anymore. I'm not all stretched out and scarred. I-I-I can move..."

With a choking sob she threw her arms around Ryan's neck, not waiting for him to fully stand up. He lost his balance and fell on his rump.

She wailed his name and thanks into his neck, opening and closing her healed hand over and over to relish at the feeling.

Ryan didn't get long to hold her, though, before where they had gone snapped into place.

She pushed him back with a sniff. "You went to fight collasals?"

"We had to get them to change directions anyway. They were heading too close to here for comfort," Ryan quickly. "We worked together, we were safe. Look, I didn't even get scratched."

"His ribs and back should be pretty bruised, though," said Curtis wryly as the end of his red tail jabbed at Ryan's side.

Instantly, Ryan curled, hissing.

"Stupid snake, what was that for?"

"You deserve it for taking all the credit," said Curtis, before sweeping Shay into his arms. His annoyance melted away to a loving smile she knew all too well. "He's not the only one who brought you an emerald." And using only one arm to hold her up, he reached behind his ear into his hair and brought out a bright, faintly glowing emerald. "I also got some clear crystals as well. You can use them however you wish."

But Shay hardly paid the jewel in his hand any attention, looking hard into his face. "You didn't get hurt? You left--you left to fight colossals just