Adventures In Babysitting

Posted on Wed Sep 4th, 2019 @ 8:25am by Hera & Ensign Fiona O'Dell & Ensign Briaar Gavarus
Edited on on Sun Sep 22nd, 2019 @ 6:23pm

Mission: Family Detention
Location: USS Hera, Deck 10, 10-Forward
Timeline: 2396

As Ensign Carrott gripped his wife's hand and they whisked her away to sickbay to deliver their firstborn child, the rest of the baby shower departed with them. All save for the unlikely duo of Gavarus and O'Dell, who found themselves holding the bag- the diaper bag in this case. Little baby Minerva, the orphaned Minotaur calf whose mother had perished in childbirth who had recently been adopted by the Carrotts had been somewhat forgotten in all of the excitement of the sudden onset of labour in Mrs. Carrott, thus leaving Minerva bouncing on O'Dell's sparse hip, even as Gavarus eyed her dubiously.

"What, nae, we canna joost chase them doown right noow and say 'here's yuir OTHER bebe ye forgot at yuir shower, g'wan and keep oop wi' her as the lady is squeezin oot the next one. That's nae right. And I suppose the nurses and sooch could look after her, but Carrott's our mate, aye? We owe it to him to look after his daughter. Besides, she's adorable! Look at those cheeks and that downy fur! She's like a wee Highland shaggy wi' thumbs! Aren't ye, Minnie! A-yes ye are! A-yes ye are!" O'Dell cooed cheerfully at the toddler, who gurgled in delight at the silly redheaded moppet.

The usually grouchy Briaar Gavarus was smiling as broadly as her fat face would allow at the miniature Minotaur on her partner’s hip while wiggling one of her thick fingers at the newborn's nose. “Yes she is, aren’t you Minnie? Whose the cutest damn baby in the universe? Minnie is! Yes, she is!”

As she did, little Minerva Carrott took hold of Gavarus’s finger and immediately shoved it in her mouth, as apparently babies of most races seemed apt to do. Hunched over and not wanting to interrupt Minnie, Gavarus leaned over slightly with a quizzical expression. “But, uh, what the hell are we gonna do with a baby until they’re… what… done?”

"Uh, ye do know how that works, aye..." O'Dell asked dubiously of Gavarus, who replied with an irritated sneer. "Alreet, alreet, joost checkin. Waaaaahhhhl, seein as how we've got her and no one's ta stop us, I figured we could maybe joost... babysit for a while? I mean, she's so cute, and... s'been a long time since I've had a wee one aboot to play with, ye know? Why don't ye grab her diaper bag, we'll grab a table, have some cake, feed her a bottle, keep her in clean diapers and we'll just mind her. For all we know, the missus could be in labor for days, so til somebody says otherwise, I figure tis our duty to look after wee Minnie here and make sure she's well cared for. S'right, ennit Minnie? Yuir Anities Fiona and Briaar will look after ye while yuir brother or sister or whatever may come make there way into the universe, aye? Aye?"

A gurgling burp and a delighted squeal was the reply, which Fiona accepted as a positive answer.

"That's a yes. So, tis ye and me and bebeh makes three, aye?" O'Dell looked up at her porcine partner with those big green eyes, a slight hint of pleading to them.

"Ohhh, not the eyes. Dammit!" Gavarus reacted with an exaggerated, cartoonish protest whine for effect before resigning herself with a snort. "Yeah, yeah, of course. We got this. Half of my brothers and sisters are younger than me. If I can babysit for five of them at once, we can totally manage one tiny little Mini-taur.” Gavarus replied with a slightly nervous smile as O’Dell’s quick embracing of the baby suddenly had the Tellarite a smidge curious.

“Here, gimmie my finger back for a sec’, Minnie.” Gavarus slowly popped her slobber-covered finger out of the tight grip the Carrot baby still had on it. “We can replace it with cake, which is far superior. Shit, can she eat cake yet?”

"Beats'a hell oota me. I guess we could look it oop in the database, but a wee bit a frosting likely couldnae hurt. Worst that'll happen is it rushes out one end or the other, aye? C'mon, Minnie, Auntie Briaar's got yuir diaper bag, so we'll warm ye a bottle and we'll have ye some cake and we'll strike the party while we're here so's we dinna get the chief in trouble wi' 10-Forward for leavin more of a mess'n we usually make, hmm?" With that said, O'Dell deftly shifted the hooved heifer to her other hip with a grunt, and started trying to undo the streamers with her free hand. It was clear that the tyke weighed a bit more than she could carry for very long, but Fiona was uncomplaining. Instead she was just working to distribute the load, and cheerfully nattered to the infant as she set about cleaning up after the shower.

While Gavarus expertly undid the diaper bag and began preparing Minerva’s bottle in one hand, she was thumbing through a data PaDD that was in the bag for just such an emergency. The Carrott’s weren’t exactly expecting a baby Minotaur either and were doing their best to collect as much information as possible. “Well, this… really doesn’t help much. There ain’t much out there for little Minnie’s. According to this, she’ll mature a bit faster than a human baby… closer to Tellarite kids really… but there’s not much on dietary shit.”

Testing the bottle on her wrist and determining it warm enough, Gavarus stuck the other end in her own mouth and mumbled out the side. “Here, I’ll hold her for a bit. Bottle’s ready. Pretty sure she don’t have much in the way of teeth yet though, as I didn’t feel anything when she was gumming my finger.”

Trying to lift the tyke up to hand her off, O'Dell's spindly arms were already worn out, so instead she just stepped over and angled herself so that Gavarus could grab Minerva, and the tiny test pilot sighed in relief. "Whooo! She's a heavy little lass, she is! G'win ta be quite the healthy one I suspect. But that's good! Ye'll grow up big and strong like yuir Auntie Briaar, right? Not like yuir Aunti Fiona, who canna open the pickle jar, aye? Aye?" Fiona grinned at the cute cow cosset, then she tickled her tummy before resuming her cleanup duties.

""Does it say how big she's g'win ta get someday? Like yuir size, my size, what's Fedepedia got to say aboot alla that?" Fiona asked, mildly curious as she gathered up discarded wrapping paper to bag it up for the reclamator.

Sitting at the nearest table and tucking Minerva on one arm, Briaar popped the bottle out and began swirling it through the air towards the bovine baby's grabby hands. "The Baby Banshee is comin' in for a landing in shuttlebay you! Here you go, cutie."

Gurgling and giggling, Minerva grabbed the bottle and began going to town as Gavarus plopped the PaDD on the table and began scrolling. "Well, SHIT! If this is right, we're talking Big Ethel territory, maybe. It's not sure, really. Depends on what kind of juju majumbo she got made with, which the doc can't exactly scan for."

"Probably depends on her diet, gravity conditions, all that sort of rot along with genetics too I'd imagine," Fiona nodded, smiling at how at ease Briaar was witht he baby. With regular people she was awkward and usually uncomfortable but with wee Minnie she seemed right at home, and it was nice to see her having fun with the little one. While Fiona had no designs on having children and she certainly didn't see her and Briaar setting up housekeeping, somehow watching her with the little tyke, she just seemed a natural at it, and Fiona forgot she wasn't doing anything but just smiling at the sight of it.

"Yeah, nature plus nurture plus… what… Zeus magic crazy shit? Who the hell knows." Gavarus rolled her eyes at the strangeness of Minnie's origins, oblivious to the look she was getting from Fiona, while the fuzzy bundle pulled the bottle out of her mouth with a weird expression on her little face.

Putting the bottle on the table, Gavarus cricked an eyebrow and smirked while O'Dell looked on. "Shit, I know this one. You sucked that down too damn fast, didn't you Minnie Moo? Okay, c'mere."

Lifting the baby up over the shoulder with the spit up cloth over it, careful to avoid Minnie's little horns, Gavarus started patting her gently but firmly on the back. With each pat, the miniscule Minatour let out a tiny squeak until a mountainous burp erupted out of her.

"Whoa… that's some serious octaves, kiddo. You sure we're not related?" Gavarus chuckled as Minnie broke out into a series of gurgling giggles now that the gas pain was gone.

That spread a smile across the face of the minsicule Mariposian as she shook her head and returned to her labors, stacking up the baby shower gifts so they could be easily transported, even as the 10-Forward staff came forward, admittedly somewhat hesitantly, to help out with the cleanup efforts. Fiona carved off a healthy chunk of the cake for Gavarus, who she suspected would want a chunk, and she'd mentioned potentially feeding some to Minerva and overall the organized little officer finished getting things ship-shape as her porkchop pal finished with feeding time. Once her labors were complete, she returned to sit down beside them where she could see the small but adorable furred, hooved and horned babe and she tickled the furry tummy as Minerva polished off a bottle with a gusto that would make Gavarus proud.

"It may be a bit selfish, but I'll admit, M'a wee bit glad in all the hubbub they left the wee one here wi' us. She's adorable, en't she Briaar?" Fiona asked softly, starting at the infant with an odd expression on her face Gavarus most certainly hadn't seen before.

"Yeah, she is aggressively cute." Gavarus replied, now actively trying to avoid acknowledging Fiona's odd expressions that the porcine engineer could describe as 'maternal'. Then she picked up the baby higher up over her own head and laughed.

"Yes you are. You are like, warp 11 cute, aren't you, Minnie Moo! Yes you are, your cuteness defies the theoretical maximum acceleration curve, yes it does!" And as she baby talked, Gavarus began making kissing faces, aiming at Minerva's fuzz rimmed hooves that were dangling in the engineer's face. "I got your hoofies! Yes I do!!!"

Crossing firmly into the goofy, Gavarus made biting noises and began nipping at the baby Minotaur's wriggling feet as little Minerva giggled like crazy, almost kicking Gavarus in the face more than once by accident. From the bar, as the staff finished putting everything back together for the lunch crowd, most simply rolled their eyes at the display from the two usually drunk barflies.

Thus passed a few hours of the afternoon, and as the evening settled in, the unlikely trio found themselves still together. While they'd managed quite well with the infant throughout the day, changings and feedings and burpings managed with aplomb by the two unlikely barflies whom had both come from large families who were quite deft hands at child care, they considered their options.

"I suppose we could go chase down Medical, but again, first bebeh, so likely Carrott and the Misses are nae in the mindset of worryin' about Minnie right noow s'much as worryin' aboot the arrival of the next Carrott. So, do we joost take her back to quarters wi' us, y'think? I dinna want to upset innyone, but we canna abandon we Minerva here. Not thast we ever would. No we would not. Nae, twould nae happen!" Fiona cooed at the miniature minotaur currently bouncing on her lap as she played a simple flight simulator on a PaDD in front of her, keeping the tyke entranced by the bright colors and sounds.

Looking around, Gavarus frowned slightly. "I guess the Chief must have figured out that we have Minnie. I mean, if Gonadie was asking if we could handle her kids when they're born... or hatched... or whatever Romulan BIRD PEOPLEdo... she is probably okay that we still have baby Carrott, right? I guess we could take her back to one of our quarters... have the super crib delivered there for now? She can play with Cueball maybe?"

"Given that she shoves everything she can get her wee mitts on into her mouth, maybe not Cueball, But we kin come oop with a rubber version that she canna get into her mouth that's too big for her to choke on. And there's bound to be some toddler toys in the replicator we could make... aye, let's take her back to yuir quarters. We kin get the engine parts off the floor and there's less chance she'll find a chokin' hazard when one of us isnnae lookin'" Fiona agreed, before looking down at the baby minotaur on her lap, who seemed reasonably entranced by the bright colors and explosions onscreen of the flight sim. "Aye, ye like that, Minnie? Come home to Auntie Briaar's for a bit til yuir mummie and dada can come pick ye oop, hmm? And maybe we'll get all of us a nap, because I'm kinda booshed meself. Watchin kids is tirin work, I forgot..."

"Yeah, that sounds like a frickin' plan to me, Fee." Gavarus replied, flagging down the server who was perplexed at how pleasant the usually prickly porcine was with a baby around. After a moment, arrangements were made to beam the heavy-duty crib that was still in the corner of the bar to the Tellarite Ensign's quarters for the time being as the unlikely trio got up to leave.

As they collected their stuff and the toolkit Gavarus was using to assemble the new crib and made their way into the corridor, the staff of Ten-Forward let out a collective sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Gavarus held little Minerva high on her more-than-ample hip and bounced her up and down as she and O’Dell made their way to the turbolift as the portly porcine began singing in an exaggerated falsetto to time with the bouncing.

“Oh, you can TELL by the way I use my walk, I’m a MINotaur and I’m so damn cute! AHH AAAH AHHH AHHH! Minnie is cute, Minnie is cute!” Which turned more than a few heads of crewmembers passing in the hallway as the fuzzy little baby kicked her tiny hooves to the singing, laughing and trying to stick her hands in Gavarus snout.

“Crap, Fee! The toolkit… If I don’t lock it back up in the R&D storage locker I’ll get written up for it again. We gotta make a quick stop.” Gavarus groaned while waiting for the Turbolift and deftly dodging Minnie’s grabby-hands reaching for her nose.

"Well, I canna lug yuir heavy arsed toolkit, so give 'er ta me and I'll take Minnie, and we'll joost take 'er with us to the flight deck, aye?" Fiona was currently managing the diaper bag, but she shifted the weight from her hip to her back smoothly as she held up her slender spindly arms for the gurgling cheerful infant, receiving her and bringing her close as the miniature Minotaur calf immediately grabbed a handful of her crimson curls to begin chewing on them. "Drop yuir tools in the locker so we dinna get ye in dutch wi' the chief, then we're free an' clear ta take the wee one home wi' us. Izzat what we want, ma wee shaggy, aye? Ye want ta come home wi us, hmm? Aye? Aye?"

Peering into the big brown eyes of the happy baby between her delighted squeals, as she alternatively used locks of Fiona's curls as a veil, pacifier or an attempt at forming a beard on her face, O'Dell's expression softened again, and she got that look.

"Briaar... I hate ta bring this oop, but... I mean, we're joost a pair of irresponsible drunks who nobody should ever, ever trust wi' any sort of responsibility, right? I mean, we're doing fine right now, but... we're noo... I mean... parent material... d'ye ken...?" Cautiously Fiona looked up at Gavarus, her head cocked at a funny angle due to Minerva currently attempting to weave her hair into a mud patty or something.

All of the color blanched out of Gavarus and she swallowed unexpectedly loudly at the thought as they entered the lift and began the short trip to the R&D deck. "Uh... I... I dunno, Fee. I mean, I n... never would have t... thought... uh..."

As usual, Briaar got a smidge stuttery when she was nervous, and Fiona's maternal leanings coming out of left field had her more than a little nervous but also clearly conflicted and thinking about it all the same. "L... Let's see if Minnie s... survives the night before we start thinkin' about anything. I mean, w... we're both obviously good with 'em, but... I... I dunno."

Blissfully, it was a short ride and the doors hissed open and they popped out quickly, making a beeline to the R&D bay. As the doors opened to the sight of the shimmering, silver Banshee parked and secured on its pad, Gavarus muttered, "I'll just lock this shit up in the back and I'll be right back, k?"

"Hey!" Leaning so she could keep the bouncing babe on one bony hip, Fiona reached out to chatch the thick finger of her best pal. While she was in no way strong enough to stop Gavarus from doing just about anything, still the soft-hearted engineer stopped for her as she always did. "I'm nae sayin ye and me should roosh out and set oop housekeeping, okay? S'not like that, so relax. S'juust... I'm surprised, is all. Ye and me... maybe... we wouldna make sooch terrible mums after all, eye? Just... something to think about. That's all. We dinna need one of our own... because nobody could possibly be this cute..."

As she spoke, Minnie was busy making herself a wig of Fiona's ample head of hair by snuggling in close and pulling it across her own head, which looked comically adorable. "But joost... I mean, I dinna imagine it neither but... tis a 'who knows down the line maybe?' kinda thing...?"

Five decks down, the Goddess of family and motherhood rolled her eyes, chuckled, shrugged and continued reading 'Animal Farm'.

"Yeah..." Gavarus looked at the adorable little fuzzball in O'Dell's arms and smiled as well. "I'm not NOT thinking about it, believe me, Fee." Then she gestured to the equipment lockers down the small corridor next to the door to the break room. "Let me lock this up and I'll be right back."

Swiftly, Gavarus disappeared down the corridor, leaving Fiona and Minerva alone on the deck for the moment.

"Yuir a wee panic, you are," Fiona smiled at the gurgling beast baby. Growing up, in the modern structures of the Mariposians, the Bringliodians still brought their livestock, which now flourished with replication technology. So cows and sheep and pigs and chickens and goats were all the sorts of barnyard animals she'd grown up around. As she looked at the wee monster on her hip that would likely someday dwarf Gavarus, who was currently making a fu manchu mustache with a lock of her crimson curls. Which somehow just looked adorable on her, which was apparently one of her magical powers. Fiona O'Dell considered her plight on the starship that was her home.

Her boss was a chicken- well, a parrot more like, far too exotic for a mere barnyard hen. But a bird, bright in plumage and attitude, brilliant with her hands and her imaginations and born to fly. Her best pal and partner in crime was a testy Tellarite, a porky pig in space, curly tail and all. The wee milk to poop facotry here had the buds of her horns and Briaar had tied her forelocks up in the cutest twist. Fiona sighed.

Still she lived in a barnyard. Just a different barnyard, and a different kind of manure.

Setting Minerva down on the deck, Fiona looked around for the diaper bag, remembered that such a thing had weight to it, which her thin and wiry frame complained to be under- even now it was of great relief to her to have set the baby down. Realizing Briaar had the accuresed thing and she was down the hall, Fiona stretched out her aching back and turned all bright eyed back to Minerva.

Who wasn't there.

"Gak!" O'Dell drew back in saurprise as her head whipped about, her situational awareness taking in her surroundings, searching for the missing toddler, who was only a few weeks old. She barely had the coordinatrion to crawl at theis point.

Or so one would assume. Yet there she was, crawling along making surprisingly good time toward the edge of the Deck 3 upper flight deck, where it gave way to the larger space of the Deck 4 Main Flight Deck.

"Pog me thoin and flog me molly!" O'Dell scrambled to her feet and scurried across the deck, scooping up the horn-headed heifer before skidding to a halt a bit too close to the edge than she would have cared had she been given more of a choice. At which point Minnie reached out toward the open space, lunging for it. Which tugged on O'Dell's still somewhat precarious balance. After all, at 15 pounds, Minerva Carrott was 1/6 O'Dell's bodyweight already. So when she lunged in her grasp, Fiona, struggling to hold onto her, staggered a half-step or two, bringing her precariously close to the edge.

"Knock that off, ye daft child, or yui'll topple us both! Fiona didn't look down a deck below to see what was there. If she fell, she'd have to try to protect the child, so it'd hurt, maybe for good. Struggling to hold on and pull them back, Fiona spat, "Stupid nurturin' instinct..."

"You're welcome," Hera replied absently as she licked a finger and turned another page.

Walking out of the back corridor with the diaper bag on her shoulder, Gavarus hopped on her hooves a little bit more excited than she would have imagined. "Okay, time to go to Auntie Briaar's, Min... Minnie?" Looking around for a moment, Gavarus spotted the pair near the edge of the platform. "SHIT!!! Is everything okay? What happened?"

Running over to the pair, Gavarus was legitimately worried for the baby and her partner as Minnie was now cooing and reaching over for the approaching engineer, making O'Dell lurch slightly again.

As Minerva pulled her over the edge, the daredevil test pilot spun to place herself in harm's way between the baby oxen and the deck below. Which was when she spotted Gavarus behind them. Eyes opening widely, Fiona clutched Minnie to her shoulder with her left hand and desperately groped for the tubby Tellarite's three-fingered hand with her right hand as she began to fall.

"Oh FUUUUUUU..." Gavarus shouted as she leapt forward, She reached well past O'Dell's hands and threw her arms around O'Dell and Minnie tightly as her ample belly slapped down hard on the edge of the deck. Of course, she was now only half on the deck. And the fatter half, that was gripping O'Dell and the baby Minerva, was dangling over the edge overlooking Deck four. "Ow... I landed on my damn nipples."

"Uh... Okay... shit." Gavarus realized she was ever so slowly sliding forward as her own hooves kicked. "Think you can, I dunno... climb up me or something?"

"I could if I wasnae holdin a toddler who seems determined to take a header offa the flight deck... ach..." Pulling her shirt tail up around the baby and into her teeth to make a sling for Minnie, O'Dell freed up her hands to scrabble along Gavarus's back. Once back on deck, she ran for the control panel and activated the localized gravity winch to grab Gavarus from sliding off the edge and haul her up by her beltline.

"Holy sweet evil SHIT! This is a Warp eleven wedgie!" Gavarus groaned as she pulled her uniform pants out of her generous crack.

Parking the toddler on the control panel, the tiny test pilot flomped across it in exhaustion as Minerva giggled and cooed, then laughed joyously. "Aye, easy fuir you ta say..."

"Okay... Ow... Let's... Ow... Let's get away from heavy machinery and ledges with her." Gavarus said, wincing as she walked awkwardly to the panel. "Damn nipples on my frickin' gut. Who thought that was a good idea? Are you okay, Fee?"

"Aye, I'm fine, but she's got a nuclear payload in that diaper by noow. It's g'win ta be less a diaper change and more a decontamination." For a change, Fiona blew right past her own imminent brush with peril, apparently relieved that the youth was all right to the point of having ignored her own plight for a change in a surprising bit of selflessness. "Hey, that was a brilliantr catch, by the bye. That was pub sports level, right there. My bluiddy hero, aye?"

"Hey... I wasn't gonna let you go splat." Gavarus blushed lightly as she poked Minnie's tiny snout. "Either of you, right cutie?"

"C'mon, let's get some rubber gloves, aprons and masks outta decon, because she's a kicker, this wee one, but this diaper's gettin' changed, by ghod!"

"Gotcha." Gavarus said as she hoisted Minerva off the console, which made a squishing sound as her own quite sensitive snout picked up the smell. "Oh, gods DAAAAAAMN! Yeah, that's a warp core breach, alright."

Holding Minnie at arms length, as she was still giggling, Gavarus carried her to the center of the deck. "We might need to use the Banshee to change her, this smells so bad."

"Of all the things to explain to the chief of abuses of her equipment, I dinna think we'll be able to get away wi' that one until her own have arrived. I wonder- Miradonian babies fly when they're born, s'what the Chief said. So her wee ones... will they be able to diaper 'em? Will the diapers hinder their aerodynamics?" As they suited up and went in after an awful diaper of literally legendary proportion, Gavarus and O'Dell distracted one another as they always did.

Not with inane patter, but with aeronautical biosystem discussions that would accompany their brilliant bosses inventions as practicalities built into the systems.

"But they'll be half-Romulan." Gavarus brainstormed the scenario out in her head as they worked on the diaper like the Indy pit crews of centuries past. "Maybe that'll ground 'em? Denser bones and shit. But still, we can probably work up a rig to reign 'em in. Probably need to come up with something for our little cliff diver here, while we're at it. Like a grav-lev onesie or something."

"Mebbe a harness, cross body... ach, dinna let it leak there or the smell'll permeate like the bog of eternal stench... aye, that's got it... wi' something of a limited forcefield tether so they canna fly or crawl too far from the control belt ye thinkin?" Hefting the soiled sack of minotaur manure to the reclamator, O'Dell moved with the careful precision if a bomb squad member, disposing of the hazardous material with the same care and caution one would usually reserve for high explosives. After all, this was their workspace, and it wouldn't do to have it smeared with poo.

Hoisting Minnie's hooves up slightly, Gavarus pulled out the wipes and began cleaning her the babu Minotaur's bottom as they worked out the mental schematics. "Yeah, that would work. I could probably use a flexing field so the kids wouldn't get snapped back hard and hurt themselves. Something with a bounce to it that would redirect momentum back towards the source. And speaking of inventing... we are going to need something better than these weak ass baby wipes. These were NOT designed for furry asses with tails."

Turning Minnie, who was trying to grab her own elevated hooves with a determined expression, Gavarus showed off her tiny bottom with shredded white wipe all over it like confetti. "I'm gonna have to hit the databases for this one. But for now, hand me that extra spit-up towel, please."


“Aye, old-school actual absorbent towels for the win. I imagine that’s the issue then- something with stronger texture, wider surface area and stronger consistency to deal textures other than pink humanoid baby skin. Because soon there’ll be feathered bottoms as well as furry ones, and in this barnyard everybody’s got a tail save the farmer’s daughter, and she’s the first officer, isn’t that so, aye?” O’Dell made a peekaboo face behind her face shield at Minerva to keep the child amused while briar worked on the more strenuous part of the cleanup, their tandem teamwork flowing with surprising smoothness.

While both came from large families and had plenty of practice, it was still a testament to both women’s partnership how easily they fell to the routine of one hand helping the other, and both pitching in the care for the adorable infant suddenly and quite accidentally entrusted to their care. Cleaned and diapered once more, baby Minnie sat up and blinked, surprised to find herself in such a state as her handlers began stripping off their NBC hazard gear.

“There! Right as rain and twice as fresh!” O’Dell declared, and Minerva shrieked with joy, then mooed, long and low, a surprising sound to come out of such a tiny creature.

Looking stunned for a second, Briaar let out a loud snort of a laugh at little Minnie’s ‘moo’, which only caused the tiny tot to giggle even harder. “I… I guess you’re right, Fee. Heh heh… there are a lot of damn tails to go around in this department, aren’t there.”

Folding everything back up in the diaper bag and with little Minerva cleaned and clearly happy, Gavarus slowly grunted as she lifted her considerably bulk back up off the deck to her hooves. “What do you say, Minnie Moo. Wanna go see Auntie Briaar’s quarters and play?”

Kicking her own tiny hooves up and down, the Mini-taur looked at both of her new Aunties and made grabby hands to both of them, with a gurgling grin and gave the biggest, cutest eyes imaginable as if she somehow knew how adorable she was and was maneuvering the two right where she wanted them.

“Maybe we could adopt,” slipped out before O’Dell could stop the words from coming out of her mouth as Gavarus couldn't help but blush and smile ever so slightly at the idea.

Meanwhile, on her fainting couch in her VIP quarters, the goddess of families grinned, closed her book and simply said, “Checkmate.”