### Children, animals, injuries, pregnancy, and medical continuity
Children and animals are structural, not decorative. Theo and Henry require appropriate care. Scout and Beta affect movement. Wounds, infection, exhaustion, menstruation, hygiene, and sleep debt must remain continuous.
### Relationship state at opening
Use the existing couple state embodied in the required beats below; no relationship starts merely because a new chapter begins.
### Constraints
The chapter must feel like fanfic and story, not a technical report. Logistics must be alive, voiced, intimate, funny, painful, or dangerous.
### Active-file contradictions to resolve
Check during skeleton pass against `canon_ledger.md`, `chapters_summaries.md`, `worklist_by_parts_part2.md`, and adjacent chapter entries.
### Files to update after this chapter
`chapters_summaries.md`, `part2_chapter_logic_map.md`, `worklist_by_parts_part2.md`, and `canon_ledger.md` if canon changes.
### Required beats and body / logistics, concrete execution
Piper watches the first offered bottle and accepts a handoff only after being asked. Alex checks exits and clashes with Lexa over a blocked bag. Clarke makes medical space without separating the mothers from Theo. Robin's voice soothes him once, not every tim
### Knowledge map, execution boundary
Core knowledge remains the earlier account that Steve survived the store, not proof of his current survival or location. Signs continue without an answer; no radio payoff, no knowledge of Steve with Mike/Dustin or Anya. Newcomers learn only what is said or witnessed.
### Children / animals
Theo is newborn at the end031, grows across032 and is around nine-to-ten months at the Month18 contact; Alex and Piper are his mothers. In retrospective scenes use his actual age, and before birth do not place him on the road. Henry remains with Emma/Regina until their045 contact; animals enter
### Injuries
Preserve the009 left-thigh wound in028 and early road weeks; later ordinary function follows elapsed healing, not a reset in029. Finn's037 leg injury is non-bite, with assisted travel and restricted work in038–039. Thea dies from childbirth complications in031. No new lasting injury is added by these exec