17th January, 1892 — Podmore Zoological Gardens
Eavan Miller/Elsie Kirke

He’d been back in time for the New Year, just about, but the first couple of weeks back in Scotland had been a blur. Conall felt like he’d slept more in the last fortnight than anyone humanly could. Months of hiking across the Congo after Tebo herds did that to you, maybe.

But he was now well recovered from that trip, and dedicated again to his foremost excuse for ever coming back to stay in Irvingly, which was that his family was here. Eavan, always; but now Eavan and Beau and Nola, his delightful little granddaughter, who in six months was a different creature than she had been, already more of a person, not to mention twice the size he remembered.

Next time he wouldn’t stay away so long. Not that he had plans to set off again on any far-off studies, not until he was back in proper shape. (He had neglected to mention the still-festering bullet wound on his leg in his sparse letters while he’d been away, and certainly hadn’t said anything since being back, either.)

No, because he was here to hear about Eva and about everything he had missed, which was why he’d stopped by at the zoo at the end of her shift there, for a tour; and, if he walked her home, he would have another excuse to spend time with Nola, too. Fine, fine, and Miller, too. (But mostly Nola.) “You’ve not been working too hard here, though?” Conall put in, eyes narrowed, after he had asked all his (– equally important –) questions about the feathered residents of her aviary.

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To nobody's surprise, despite the obvious bump she sported yet again, Eva would not be kept away from the zoo until absolutely necessary. As per her last agreement with Beau, she did not handle the larger creatures at the moment, though she did sneak in to see Astra. Having raised her from the egg and the fact that her deformed wing kept her grounded, the thunderbird as as docile as they came.

"Da!" She cheered when her father appeared outside the aviary. Had she known he was coming? Maybe. Was it likely she may have baby brain and forgotten? Probably. "You know me," she shrugged as she let Bastien out, who immediately took off for Amelia wherever she might be at the mo ment. The little traitor still enjoyed her co-workers presence more than her own these days. Then again, until Amelia and Mr. Fisk tied the knot themselves and settled down, Eva supposed she could begrudge her diricawl the chance at a quiet evening. With Nola firmly on the move and rapidly approaching her first birthday, little was safe from toddler hands in the Miller home.

"I have been sequestered safely to the aviary, don't you worry." Between her husband and father, it wasn't as if she was allowed to push herself too much. "I've missed you," she admitted as she wrapped her arms around his middle.

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“I’ll worry if I want to,” Conall returned without missing a beat, but also without any bite; he knew her, and that was part of it. Eavan was competent, and could take care of herself – and Miller was protective enough of her, too – but she loved her work and did not do well with staying still. Or, for that matter, being told what to do.

So he would worry, because it was his right to – she was his daughter – but he’d trust that all was well, too, until he saw evidence otherwise. He smiled as the diricawl went waddling off, and then returned his attentions to Eva, who was attempting to hug him – soon enough she’d be too big again to manage that. “‘Course you haven’t,” he said, fondly. “You’ve clearly been much too busy for that.” A little teasing, maybe; but her life was full and happy and that was the way it was meant to be, with her family and farm and birds at the zoo, and he didn’t blame her one bit for being able to get on perfectly well without him.

He was back again because his life wasn’t the same without Eavan, though, and he was sure she knew how much he had missed her.

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Eva pursed her lips and rolled her eyes at him, though he couldn't see it with her chin resting on his shoulder for a moment before the belly between them make the hug uncomfortable. He would worry, though he had raised her to be a capable, independent woman who could handle herself. She could understand it a little better now though. It was natural with Nola still being so little, but Eva knew the worry would never truly go away. And so she wouldn't give him a hard time about it.

"Da!" She squeaked again, this time aghast as she narrowed her eyes him. "I run a farm and a zoo, I am very busy, thank you very much." Eva laughed, warm breath visible in the cold air as she sighed afterward. "Walk with me, I'm on my way home." The walk wasn't all that long and she enjoyed the time to herself between being needed at the zoo and being some kind of needed at home. "I want to hear all about your trip." Letters only described so much after all!

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He laughed at her reaction, only raised his eyebrows at her excuses. He was pleased that she seemed happy in her life, whatever she was doing. He nodded at her instruction, falling into step with her as seamlessly as he could – his paces were a little less assured, a little less even, than usual, but he fancied if he took it slowly enough he could disguise this; and at least she was pregnant, so her own pace probably wouldn’t leave him floundering in the dust today.

He inclined his head at the mention of his trip, waved a hand to say it was fine. “Well, I want to hear all about little Nola. Fill me in,” Conall instructed, because the greatest downside of having been away was that he was missing valuable moments in his granddaughter’s life, and he didn’t plan on ever being a half-arsed grandfather if he could help it.

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Looping her arm comfortably with her father's, Eva let her free hand rest on her baby bump, a sensation she ever so enjoyed. It seemed he was unbothered by her slow waddle and was not about to be the one to drive the conversation, so she was content to lead in both.

"She is huge, taking after her father there," A growing babe with an insatiable appetite and curiosity. "Very near to walking, she grabs hold of the furniture and uses it to get around. It's quite amusing, though I fear I shall have to start rearranging the house so she cannot get into anything harmful." What a mess that was going to be. Who knew what Nola would get up to while Eva was nursing the baby or putting them down for a nap. "She misses her Grandda of course." Conall was her other favorite person, aside from Beau and she had them both wrapped around her little itty bitty finger. "Terrorizes the barn cats." Little demon. "Not unlike myself at that age, if the stories serve me right."

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Hmph, Conall only interjected at her first remark, by which he meant that’s what you get for marrying a man built like a bloody Viking. Thank Merlin the ground here wasn’t too uneven – if he concentrated, he could grit his teeth and make up the difference in gait, to make it less of a limp and more of a slow, intentional lope. Eva was a little more ungainly than usual; if he kept her talking well enough, he doubted she would notice.

Between the effort of trying to look relaxed and of concentrating on the news of little Nola, there was little room to control his expressions, but Conall managed a barking laugh at the picture she’d painted of her young daughter.

“You’ve got that right,” he scoffed, in fondness, and briefly squeezed her arm in his a little tighter. “You were more trouble than a crowd of Cornish pixies before you could walk, as well. And then your mother and I used to joke about keeping you in the niffler pen so that you’d not wander off when we weren’t looking –” A sudden, vivid burst of recollection – he felt almost winded by the force of it – but when it had subsided, he added lightly, “You’ll have your hands full with two.”

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   Eavan Miller

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Eva grinned at the analogy, giving her father's arm a squeeze. They didn't often speak of her mother, it was hard for both of them, but she wanted to recognize the happy memories. Not to mention she rather thought sticking Nola in the niffler pen would be a good idea, they were all about the same size and could occupy one another nicely. "The niffler pen, I'll have to keep that in mind." Eva mused aloud. "Two will certainly be an adjustment, but they'll be able to play together eventually." And hopefully that would keep them out of trouble... or give them a partner in crime, it could go either way. Maybe a pen of their own wasn't a bad idea in the long run...

"I think this one is a boy," Though the pregnancy hadn't been too different so far, she felt like she was carrying much lower this time and apparently, according to the old wives' tales, that indicated a boy. Who really knew though. Only time and another birth would tell. This time it would be harder to convince Beau to let her go back to work. They needed the income though, she'd have to speak to Mr. Podmore again and see if there wasn't something she could do from home. "That'll be something different." Not Beau's first son, but the only one he was allowed to raise after all.

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“As long as the weans don’t outnumber the animals, mind,” Conall put in, in a mock-grumbling tone. As if she’d ever forget her calling in the midst of motherhood. Not that she could, exactly, when Miller was still a magizoologist too. (A small saving grace of her marriage, he supposed.)

He wasn’t sure how she could tell, but he considered the notion anyway in case this babe was indeed a boy. “A whole different kettle of fish, sure,” he agreed with a high-eyebrowed look. He gave an exaggerated shrug too, as if to say you’re on your own with that. “I’ve got nothing for you there.” No advice when it came to raising sons or raising a whole barnful of children, maybe – but all the same, he was looking forward to seeing it from the sidelines.

Perhaps that was a good enough excuse to stay closer to home (well, Irvingly, not home; no need to get sentimental) for a while, too?

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Eva laughed at the comment about having more children that creatures. That would be a sight, certainly, and possibly not out of the realm of outcomes, given the mutual infatuation between husband and wife in the Miller household, but she rather thought her father would not appreciate that information.

"Fortunately I don't see having more than one at a time, so at least there's that." She did not think that twins ran in their family anywhere. So far her married life had mirrored that of her own childhood, a single daughter being raised between magizoologists, but that was about to change drastically, as her father had also noticed. Neither one of them knew what to expect, though she thankfully had her aunts to lean on if she needed them. "Can't be that different than having a flock of diricawls following me around, right?" That she was used to. Fortunately, Nola was an easy babe, she just hoped the adjustment to a sibling wasn't too hard on all of them. Eva was a bit nervous for Beau, knowing his upbringing was wildly different than hers, but also because Nola had him wrapped around her wee little finger.

"No other way to find out than to live it, I suppose." It would be an adventure and the MacKay-Miller family was not afraid of that. "Will you be here this summer when the babe arrives?" Eva knew her father's ties to Irvingly were tenuous at best and she would never ask him to stick around, but it would be nice.

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   Conall MacKay

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Conall rolled his eyes good-naturedly to say yeah, small mercies. One at a time was plenty. But it was his turn to laugh at her comparison to diricawls – and laugh he did, long and hard. “You might have a point there,” he conceded eventually, however ridiculous it sounded. Never where you last saw ‘em, toddlers and diricawls both. “And you can handle the diricawls alright,” he said (proudly). So most likely the children would be no trouble for her.

The ghost of his laughter faded ever-so-slightly at the next question. “Sure, I might be,” he affirmed – and much as he didn’t like to deal in certainties and binding obligations when it came to where he would be, he certainly wanted to be here. “I’d like to be,” Conall added, more deliberately – in case she supposed he didn’t care. He’d abandoned her before, put himself first; he was trying to be better than that.

“Got nothing else on the docket yet, at least,” he continued, tone bright, if grimacing internally. Maybe he could pretend this was a good thing and not because he had to sort out this leg problem before he could manage going anywhere further than half a mile.

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Relieved that he seemed like he would be around for the baby's arrival, Eva sighed contentedly. "I'm well-prepared." She could handle multiple beasts at a time, certainly a baby upon another would be just fine. Nola was mobile though and that tended to be where she got in trouble. Perhaps a pen of some kind in the house to contain her and her toys was not entirely a bad idea at all.  Beau would have them all sequestered to the house if he had his way, but they did have a working farm after all. She could only rely on Murph and Fergus so much.

"Glad to hear it, for purely selfish reasons." She admitted with a chuckle. Having her Da around to help would certainly be quite helpful, even if all he did was entertain Nola here and there. Actually that was really all she needed. Caring for the infant was the easy part, it was the balancing act between the two that might prove to be difficult. "You can help build me a pen." She teased fondly, giving his arm a squeeze.

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“Ah, there’s the job for me,” he agreed, letting her tease. No, but he had missed the last few months of Nola’s life already, and ought to make up for that – and besides catching up with old Murph, it was good to be around, ready and waiting to glare at Miller if he ever fucked up as Eavan’s husband. Now that was an occupation if ever he’d heard one.

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