"- yes please."

"- okay, I'm going to call someone with the healing spell to drop by, that might be easier than taking you out and about right now." He wrinkles his brow slightly. "They'll be here in a minute. So she's - a doctor - and what do you do -"

"Addiction counseling."

Nod. "And what do you guys need - a place to stay, I'll look into that, citizenship's pretty easy as long as you stay out of trouble - I guess there are prenatal supplements and things and Elf ones might not be good enough..." There's a knock on the door.

Oranges look up.

He opens it. It's another Elf. 

"Hi!" says the new Elf. "I have healing. I touch you and it should fix injuries or illness. Would you like me to do that?"

"Yes please," says Mr. Orange, pointing at Mrs. Orange.

Elf taps her.

She straightens out her leg and beams.

Elf beams back. "That everything?"

"Yes, thank you so much," she says.

"Of course." Out he goes.

Oranges cuddle back up.

" - I'm actually thinking maybe you could go to Afterlife. You'd have a little bit longer to conceive and it's - very the opposite of Yvalta."

"...Afterlife?"

"It's another planet near here, it has - a time effect where everything happens about a tenth as fast, so I'm pretty sure it'd continue to be spring longer for Amentans. You don't have to, I'm just trying to think what'll - work best - stress isn't good for babies -"

"We'll go anywhere," says Mr. Orange.

" - yeah, let's do that. Also a place to live will be cheaper - do you want a city or the countryside -"

"Where is there work -"

"I'll pay your expenses, Elves hold that people shouldn't work when they have little children because it's good for them to spend the time with the children."

Mrs. Orange sniffs.

He wavers uncertainly. "If you really love your work you don't have to quit or anything, just - it seems like finding a new job in a new country while you're pregnant would be hard and scary and it doesn't have to be."

"We don't really love our work," says Mr. Orange, "it just, we would have done anything and you don't want us to do anything -"

"It's such a big universe," he says unhappily, "there are so many people and we want to give this to everybody but we can't do it fast enough."

Oranges cling to each other.