It takes time but things slowly go back to normal. It takes longer for the children. They are old enough to understand that their mother was very sick and almost died. That scares them for some time. It causes some of them to have nightmares. All the fathers find themselves with little ones sharing their bed for some months afterwards.

By the time Julie has the babies things have settled down though.

For a change everything goes smoothly with this pregnancy and all the babies are fine.

They are also all girls. Which delights the females of the house to no end.

Mary Ann remembering Julie's words begs her to let her spoil the babies just this once. Julie agrees and then wishes that she hadn't when a delivery truck comes in, the whole truck just for the children.

Julie sighs, at least it's just this once. They already have another nursery prepared. Sarah had two healthy children a boy and a girl and she absolutely dotes on them.

Jennifer has two boys and although she does her best she's not quite sure how to be a mother. The others help her out, especially Michelle.

Julie watches Mary Ann as she interacts with the children and comes to a decision.

"Mary Ann, can I talk to you and Andres?"

The two immediately leave the side of their grand children and go over to her. Julie takes them to Adam's study. Adam is in the city at one of his businesses dealing with some problem. Julie knows that he won't mind her borrowing his office for a bit.

As they all get comfortable and tea is brought in Julie jumps right in. "How would you two feel about moving in? The children adore you and would love to have you here full time. I and the others like having you here. There's the suite you use that is sufficiently separate that you aren't-"

Andres sets down his tea cup carefully. Julie only uses the tea set of her great grandmother when she serves them tea. "Julie are you sure you want us here? Have you talked to Adam and our other sons? We weren't really very good parents to them and I'm not sure that they would like us underfoot now."

"Andres, Mary Ann, I have talked to all your sons and your other daughters-in-law. They all said the same thing. They wouldn't mind but it would be up to you if you wanted to give up your freedom like that. You won't have the privacy you have on your own. With twenty-six grand kids from me and four from the other two you'll be pulled to help out in the nursery quite often. The oldest are already monopolizing a great deal of your time. We will understand if you don't wish to live here, but I do hope you'll at least consider it." Julie says in a rush to get it all out before she chickens out.

Mary Ann smiles and wipes tears that she has away. Andres smiles as he answers, "There is nothing to consider. We accept and gladly. We can't change the past, but we would like the chance to make things right, the best we can, now. Spending more time with our children and grandchildren is more than we ever dared hope to have. Thank you, Julie."

Andres and Mary Ann both go over to her and give her hugs. Julie smirks. She remembers the time when Andres was uncomfortable receiving a hug and now here he is giving her one. She's also seen him hug all the grand kids. 

"Jewel, what happened today?" Adam says after dinner.

"What do you mean, Adam?" Julie asks confused. 

"I mean, with my parents. I don't think I've ever seen them smile so much. Not even when the babies were born."

"Oh, that, I invited them to live here full time. It seems to have pleased them that I did. They did want to make sure it was okay with you and the others. They seemed to be a bit unsure that you all would welcome them." Julie teases Adam. She knows that he's wanting to know what his parents response was.

"I'm sure that you reassured them that it was fine with us." Adam says dryly. He is doing his best to control his impatience.

"Hmm," Julie gives a noncommittal answer.

"Jewel? What did they say?" Adam says exasperation evident in his voice.

"They'll be moving in next week. They've already listed their house. They'll leave in the morning to pack things up. They'll be donating most of their things to an auction that's coming up. The one for the children's hospital."  It's a charity event they never miss, it's the one closest to Julie's heart and the others support it for her more than any other reason. Even with the bad memories associated with it.

The blood for the children's hospital is strictly off limits from all vampire's. It's the one place the vampire's don't dare hunt either.

"I need to go check on the slaves, want to come with me?" Adam says standing up and offering his hand to Julie.

Julie takes his hand and follows him down the stairs to where the slaves have their own living quarters. They are quite well appointed, each one has their own bedroom. No more than three to a bathroom, their own kitchen they can use whenever. They can have whatever they want, they just need to request it. They even have their own private garden to be in.

Technically they aren't even slaves. They can leave whenever they want and they'll be given money owed.

They are paid for each blood donation they give. When they wish to go shopping for themselves they are given money to spend and even have use of cars from the estate.

The males are separated from the females, but with permission of the females are able to be with them, unless they are being punished for infractions.

There is a small population of vampires that prefer the hormone laden blood of pregnant females and so some of the female slaves volunteer to be pregnant. They are even allowed to keep and raise the child if they wish or give it up for adoption if they don't.

"Adam, why are they called slaves?" Julie never could understand that.

"They are bound to us even more so than the servants. They are free to go, but they have to be released to do so. Before this all became so civilized they were truly slaves. Mostly kept in chains and not treated very well. Very smelly and they didn't last too long," Adam tells her. His face scrunched up with the memories of the slaves of times past.

"Slowly many of the slaves became pets to the vampires and so things began to improve. Some bright vamps realized that if the slaves are taken care of nicely their blood tastes better and they last longer.

"Now, only those with the money to take care of slaves can have them. Those of us that have them sell the blood to those that can't and we make a nice tidy sum off of it. We also police those that have permits to have slaves to make sure that they are being taken care of. The last thing we need is police involvement." 

Julie stops him and gives him a kiss, "I knew there was a reason."

Adam reluctantly ends the kiss and deals with the reason he is down there in the first place. Julie thinks she sees a face she recognizes, but it isn't one that she can easily place.

It takes her some time but she eventually realizes where she'd seen that face before. The maid that told her to do the dishes the first night she came to the estate. So this was the punishment Adam gave her. 

It's considered a demotion to go from maid to slave. The slaves try to get jobs as maids and those that have them guard them jealously. 

Julie smirks but thinks that Adam overdid the punishment.

As they go up the stairs, "The maid that told me to do the dishes my first night here, I thought I saw her as a slave."

"You did. Candy broke the rules and deliberately went opposite of my orders. She was demoted to slave." Adam replies knowing immediately whom she was talking about.

"Don't you think ten years is more than enough time to be punished?"

"The punishment was the demotion," Adam shrugs his shoulders. "There haven't been a whole lot of openings since then. Any way she wouldn't be promoted. She is free to go whenever and she knows it. She chooses to stay because she wouldn't get a job that pays as well or free housing that is as nice as this. Plus I believe one of the male slaves is her boyfriend. I believe they are trying to get pregnant."

Julie just raises her eyebrows and doesn't say anything. Strange how things turn out.