Happy Birthday, September 2027

Brooke and Charlie were thrilled to find out that Brooke is pregnant after they had been trying for over a year and were already going through fertility tests to see if there was a problem. They've just come to the hospital for the first ultrasound.

Brooke is starting to worry that something is terribly wrong when Dr Williams keeps checking and checking the ultrasound and finally says she needs to consult another doctor. "Don't worry, everything is fine, I just need to check again to make sure..." she says and guides Brooke and Charlie back to the waiting room.

After what felt like hours but was probably more like 5 minutes, Dr Williams calls Brooke and Charlie back to her office. "Sorry to keep you waiting" she says and then continues to deliver the news that have Brooke and Charlie frozen in their seats. "I wanted to make sure but there is no doubt about it: you're having triplets!"

Dr Williams then continues to tell the surprised couple that it isn't such a big surprise that they have a multiple pregnancy seeing that it runs in their family on both sides. Understandably Brooke will be monitored very closely during this pregnancy and it's very likely that she won't make it full-term but it's nothing that the hospital can't handle. It's a lot to take in but Charlie assures Brooke that they can totally do this. They have the best experts to ask advice from because Charlie's parents have gone through the exact same thing!

Meanwhile in Allerdale Brooke's nephew Beck is celebrating his first birthday. It's a small party with just the closest family members. Paige has gone back to work in the military and for Jack the autumn is a busy time on the farm so a big party was out of the question. Beck's siblings Todd and Emma are there of course and also aunt Frieda made it all the way from college just to celebrate Beck's big day.

Paige helps Beck just "a little bit" with the candles on the cake.

Beck looks a lot like his mother Paige except he has definitely gotten his his hair colour from grandma Amabelle and eye colour from grandma Olivia - just like big brother Todd.

Mom Paige as a toddler. Definitely Beck's nose and eye shape come from her.

Dad Jack as a toddler.

Notes:

• Triplets! I had decided that Brooke and Charlie would have a multiple pregnancy especially since I thought they'd probably have to get fertility treatment. But it makes sense anyway since Brooke is a twin and Charlie is a triplet and also Charlie's mom is a twin so it really runs in their families. I toyed with the idea of quadruplets but in the end decided against it. Mainly because I think they'd have to move if they had 4 babies at once - and I really don't want them to move.
• The triplets are due in March 2028 but as said in the text above, Brooke might not carry full-term.
• It's kind of hard to compare Beck and Jack because my default skintones in Jack's toddler days were so different. (I might age Jack down and get pictures of him with my current skintone at some point.) However I think it's quite clear that Beck definitely takes after Paige the most, he might have Jack's mouth but his eye shape and nose are Paige. BTW, grandpa Kurt also had blonde hair so Todd and Beck might have gotten their hair colour from either Kurt or Amabelle.