Chapter Five: Finally, we have multiples- Babies Five and Six

The first round of birthdays are Valentine and Oliver. Valentine's smarts are even more evident now that she's a child. It's also evident that she loves her family. She's always hanging around the house, playing and chatting with her siblings. 

Oliver is a heavy sleeper like William. He's also pretty inactive, hardly ever moving around. He's usually laying down, staring at the ceiling. He's not the most interesting of toddlers to say the least. He got his father's hair color, which I'm thrilled about.

William ages up to be quite handsome. While he's still the grumpy and moody boy we all know, he's more respectful of other people. Well, terrified. He gets easily intimidated and keeps his mouth shut more often. He also has issues with being outside late at night.

And finally, Lydia. She keeps her teenage hairstyle and ditches her sweater and jeans for a comfy dress. She's got an interest in fixing things, so she's heading into the Science career to test out her skills. 

It's a tearful goodbye. Valentine clutches Lydia's arm and is nearly impossible to get off. William seems unchanged, just his normal grumpy self. Oliver isn't even in the room, he's in the family room playing with the blocks.

Me? There are tears in my eyes as I hug my eldest goodbye. Lydia smiles and waves goodbye and eagerly dashes out the door, promising to visit on the way out.

The rest of the evening is quite somber. I make some spaghetti while William sculpts upstairs. Valentine is playing Peek-A-Boo with Oliver, much to his delight. It's quiet, other than Oliver's giggles. It's odd not having Lydia around, her blue skin and multicolored hair easily setting her apart from the rest of Twinbrook. 

The phone rings and Valentine dives for it. It's Lydia, letting us know that the move went well and she'll visit soon. It does little to improve the mood, but it's good to know that everything is fine.

 Dinner is mostly quiet, but the few conversations we have is lifting the mood. By the end of it, Valentine is laughing and joking along with William. I watch them with a smile on my face. I'm not in a cheerful mood, but it's nice to see that my children are.

After dinner, the kids finish up their chores and do some last minute activities while I put Oliver to bed. Then, the lights turn off and another day in the Falls' household has gone by. 

Oliver greets me with a giant smile when I take him out of the crib the next morning. I smile back, it's hard not to when his face lights up like that. 

I hear the kids get up and soon, they're heading downstairs for breakfast. The lights turn on in the kitchen and the sounds of two tired kids fill the air. I give Oliver his bottle and go to greet the pair.

The next father is a man named Dale Delgato. His hair colors are absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to see if our kid(s) get any of his features. I'm still hoping for multiples to speed things along.

All goes well with Dale and I come home pregnant for the fifth time. A new Falls' child is on the way!

The first thing I do is start Oliver on potty training, which is mostly smooth sailing. He's potty trained after an hour, which is a huge relief. No more diapers for a little while longer.

I take a small break to start of the laundry, then head back to Oliver to teach him how to talk. He doesn't catch on that quickly, but he can pronounce a couple words by the time the kids get back home.

Chase brings a friend home, Chase Bayless. It nice to see that William is making friends despite his grumpy attitude about almost everything. Chase seems like a nice person from the brief conversation I had with her. She doesn't stick around long though, I doubt she's having the time of her life with Valentine doing her homework at the other end of the table, trying to start up a conversation with two people who couldn't be less interested.

Repairing the computer is no easy task, even when it's halfway done. The shock of going into labor must have made me hit a few things because the thing is basically back to square one. Cursing under my breath so the kids hopefully won't hear, I begin the repairs with the screwdriver, trying to avoid getting shocked as much as possible. I'm grateful that I tied my long hair back earlier, it makes one thing less of a hassle. It really doesn't help that the only way I've gotten this far is from the WikiHow article pulled up on my phone.

I finally get the repairs done after an hour of shocks and me nearly ripping out my hair. With a sigh of relief, I sag back in the chair for a few moments before heading to the kitchen. However, I pause when I notice the odd look William is giving me.

"Something wrong?" I ask him. 

"Would it kill you to cook something?" William asks. "I'm sick of leftovers."

My temper begins to rise, but I force a smile on my face. "I made the spaghetti just last night, so it should be fresh." 

"I'm sick of it! You cook once and it's leftovers for the next two days!"

"Would you rather let it sit in the refrigerator and go bad?"

"Yes!"

"Then you would complain about the smell and that we're wasting food and on and on." I replied, letting the smile drop. "Your always complaining, would it kill you to be happy sometime?" 

"I am not-"

I cut him off. "Yes, you are. Always complaining about something. You never smile anymore, you just sit and sulk and complain. It's driving me crazy!" My voice is increasing to a yell. In the kitchen, I hear Valentine quickly heading out as fast as she can, but I'm too angry to care.

"Your so over dramatic!" William yells back. "You make a big deal out of everything. Your so annoying mom!" 

I'm positive I'm visibly shaking from rage. William is only slightly red in the face, otherwise he's pretty much composed. 

Your just a whore right?"

At that moment, I don't see William. I see his father, standing before he so smugly, making me feel as small as an ant. The mocking words, his confident grin. 

I want to scream.

It only lasts for a second and William's face comes back into my view. 

"Mom?" he asks, the anger in his voice gone. "Are you okay?"

He's not James.

I take a deep breath. "Do you want fresh food? Fine." I'm still shaking, but not from anger now. "Not now, it's too late. But tomorrow night. You cook." 

I barely get the last words out before the nausea that I had been feeling for the last few hours beginning to force it's way up. William says something in response, but I'm rushing to the bathroom before I can hear his words. 

After I throw up, I lean against the end of the bathtub and slide to the floor, horrified at what had just transpired. Did I really hate James much much? Yes, he called me those names, but did I hate him enough to see our son as him? My grumpy, artistic, cowardly, heavy sleeper son? William, who I had raised him from birth and every moment after? How could I compare him to James? He was quite unpleasant, but nowhere near the awful personality of his father.

Ruby would know what to do.

The thought is sudden and it comes out of nowhere. My stomach clenches at the thought of my red haired aunt. I put my hands in my knees, feeling the tears that had been forming in my eyes spilling over as i began to sob.

Like many times before, I reflected how much of a mess my life was. My mother and father died in a car wreck when I was only a few days old. My aunt, who raised me, took off in the middle of the night a few weeks after I had moved out. Majority of my cousins never spoke to me and I rarely got calls from Skye (Falls) and Aqua. Fifteen cousins and hardly any contact.

Now here I was, barely twenty and sobbing on the floor, mother of four kids and one already moved out. No siblings, no parents. Just me and my kids.

Of course I had Skye (Everard) and Paisley, but that was it. My world was incredibly small, just my four kids and my two friends.

Just us against the rest of the world... 

I chuckle a bit at the thought. Skye and Paisley have their own issues, but they always make time for me, no matter what happens. My kids love me and I love them too, no matter how much we argue.

My life sucks and there's a lot of stuff I'd like to change about it, but lately it's been a lot of fun, even with the drama. I'm in a lot better place than I was when Ruby took off a few months ago and I have four wonderful kids, more on the way and two awesome friends to prove it. I've come pretty far in such a short amount of time.

Feeling a little better, I wipe the mascara stained tears off my face, creating small smears of black on my cheeks. I wash my face and stare at myself for a moment. I'm not entirely pleased with my appearance, but Oliver's kicking up a fuss, so I hastily exit the bathroom and try to avoid the looks of Valentine and William.

As tired as he is, it's hard to get him to bed. He's incredibly clingy, which isn't all that fun at eleven P.M. His hand clutches to mine and I don't have the motivation to remove his grip. I let him hold my hand as he sits, whining for me to pick up up, but I can see how tired he is so I leave him. He cries a little, but with a little soothing, he finally closes his eyes and drifts off to sleep. I smile at my orange haired toddler before sighing and turning out the light.

Sleep eludes me when I lay down, despite the late hour, I'm incredibly tired after my emotional evening, but my thoughts are torturing me. Memories of my early days fill my mind and my aunt's smiling face comes into view.

I'm just a toddler, my blonde hair tied back in two neat ribbons on the side of my head. My dress is a light blue-green, hemmed with white lace. It's a bit fancier than the things Skye and Aqua wore, but Ruby did love spoiling me a bit.

She's holding my hands, gently raising me to my feet. "That's it." she says, smiling. "There we have it."

She steadies me and backs away, leaving me to wobble unsteadily. 

"Come on Amelia. Walk to me."

I look at Ruby, then at my feet. Deciding against it, I sit back down, looking at Ruby with a blank expression.

She chuckles a bit and she comes over to me and raises me back to my feet again...

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"Ruby!" I call through the house. I'm a child now, just arriving home from school. My hair is loose and rests on my back as I head to the kitchen, where the twins are doing their homework. They're teenagers now. Aqua's blue hair is swept back into a braid while Skye's red brown hair is tossed over her shoulder.

"Where's Ruby?" I ask. "I wanna show her my project!'

"She's out." Skye replies, turning a page in her textbook. "She'll be back soon."

"Finished." Aqua says, closing her book. 

"How?" Skye exclaims. "I'm only on the second page!" 

Aqua just smiles at her before turning to me. "In the meantime, do you wanna play a game?"

I grin at her and reach out for her with my hand. "Your it!" I cry and take off. Aqua is close behind and I hear Skye laugh as we leave her behind. 

"I'm gonna get you Amelia!" she yells as she chases after me. 

"No you aren't!" I reply and run into the living room, nearly crashing into my aunt, who had just walked in with groceries. 

"Sorry Ruby!" I yell as I rush outside, Aqua close behind. 

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"I miss Aqua and Skye." I groan, flopping onto the bed. The other beds around me haven't been slept in for ages. I'm the only one who occupies the girl's room now. The boy's room is vacant, it's just Ruby and I in the house now.

"Why'd they have to move out?" I grumble, turning over. "At least I'll be a teenager tomorrow. Then I can drive to their house." 

Ruby is leaning in the doorway, looking at me with an amused expression on her face. "Having fun?" she asks, smiling at me.

I groan in response. "When are your friends coming?" I ask her.

"Skye and Paisley?" Ruby asks. "I'm not sure. They both have kids and I'm not sure when they'll be able to come. They live in Sunlit Tides you know, it's pretty far away." 

I groan again. "Yay." I mutter. 

"Do you wanna go to the movies?" Ruby asks a moment later. 

"Not really." I reply, looking at the ceiling. 

"Suit yourself."

----------

I wake up with a gasp.

I fumble for the light switch and turn on the lights. The sudden brightness make my eyes sting painfully, but I ignore it and flop back onto the bed. My breathing is heavy. I close my eyes for a moment but bolt up a few seconds later, feeling the vomit rise in my throat. I stumble out of bed, memories of my aunt causing tears to run down my checks for a second time as I race to the bathroom.

I barely make it in time, but I bend over the bowl and throw up whatever dinner remained in my stomach. I heave for a few moments after it stops, but after I realize no more vomit is coming up, I unsteadily rise to my feet and flush. I stumble back into bed with tear stained cheeks and fall back to sleep almost instantly.

When I wake up, I barely remember my dream.

I don't particularly care enough to cook myself anything, so I settle for a leftover slice of cake from the birthdays. As I munch on my cake, I think things over. I'm relatively new to the world of the challenge mothers and pretty much unknown. I'd like to meet some new challenge mothers soon. I put that on my mental list of things to do as I finish up the cake. I consider starting up a meal just in case William botches up dinner, but I decide against it. We have cereal, we can survive.

Sitting down is no easy task with the small bump that appears on my belly, but I make the best of it. I make motions with my hands as I slowly speak each word to Oliver, exaggerating each syllable. He doesn't respond right away, but he catches on rather quickly and soon he's able to get a few words out. I owe the early success to Valentine, who had been teaching Oliver some new words the night before. She absolutely adores her little brother and her older one as well.

Learning to walk is the last thing William needs to learn. Oliver's first steps are unsteady, but after a few more times, they are more firm. He falls down a few times, but he hardly reacts, he just gets back up.

The kids get home from school and soon enough, it's time to start dinner. William stands in front of the refrigerator, unsure of what to make.

"Salad?" Valentine suggests.

"Don't want to cut myself on a knife." William replies.

"Spaghetti?"

"Don't want to burn myself."

This continues on for a while until Valentine suggests heating up some hot dogs. William doesn't object, since it's the safest option. He puts them in the microwave and heated them up, although he went way over the cooking time to make sure they wouldn't give us food poisoning. The result was some rather dry hot dogs, but they were alright otherwise.

After dinner, I was putting the dishes in the dishwasher when I saw William heading out into the hall. I left the dishwasher open and went after him, tapping him on the shoulder when I got close enough, which nearly caused him to jump out of his skin. He whirled around and relaxed when he saw it was me.

"I'm sorry about last night. I just got really mad." I apologized before he could even open his mouth.

"Oh, it's fine." William said dismissively. "At least we had some food."

I laugh in response and pull him into a hug, which seems to surprise him. He hugs back after a moment, but which much less enthusiasm. I just hug him tighter in response. 

"Mom, your crushing me." he says weakly.

That's my William. Always complaining.

Though he has a reason to complain this time, the thought still strikes me as funny as I release him. He gives me a weird look and heads over to the computer. I continue to laugh softly at his reaction as I go to check on Oliver, who's playing with the dollhouse in the nursery. He's starting up a fuss, so I scoop him up and put him in his crib.

The next day promises to be quite uneventful. Oliver has learned all of his skills and nothing needs cleaning. The only thing I can think of is maybe doing the laundry. Other than that, I have nothing else to do. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but not all that exciting. 

Wanting something to do, I take Oliver out for a small shopping spree. I've been wanting to learn some new recipes and I had the time to do it. It was nice to get out of the house, but the weather was hardly idea. It was a usual overcast day and the wind was fairly strong. I kept Oliver close as we headed inside the store. I picked out a good bunch of recipes at random. Oliver entertained himself with a picture book before it was time to leave.

When I got home, I put Oliver down in front of the xylophone and settled down in the family room, carrying the bag full of recipes. Some of them were clearly beyond my skill level, but there were a few I knew I could manage. I set to work and started reading the first one, a recipe for cookies. It's a nice way to spend a couple of hours, quiet and restful.

All the recipes pull me into cooking mood, so I pull out the cutting board and start chopping some vegetables. The veggi rolls are quick and easy to make, much to my delight. Not only that, but they're also delicious! The taste is wonderful and it's a big hit with the kids. A must keep recipe for sure! 

My stomach, which hasn't been that big, has grown tremendously overnight. I quickly cross my fingers in hopes of finally having multiples. Single births are relaxing and calm, but it's slow going with only one kid and a bit boring. 

I change my clothes and eat breakfast with my kids, William joining a bit late due to him being in the shower.  It's Saturday, much to the delight of the kids. They plan their day, which involves going to the park and movies. Since today is the day I'm going into labor, the kids will be on their own for most of the day. I know I can trust both of them, so I'm not worried.

William is in the middle of asking if he can go to the beach when the contractions kick in. William instantly freaks out, yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs. I laugh a little and nod. "Just take your sister." I reply and start waddling to the nursery. 

The two leave the house a few moments later and I wait in the nursery as the contractions continue.

After two hours, I welcome Heather Falls into my arms. I swaddle her up and put her in one of the cribs. However, the contractions are still going. It takes me a moment before I realize that I'm not quite done.

Soon, I have another baby in my arms, who I name Lilac. 

A/N I'm rather pleased with how this turned out. The ending is a bit rough, but I really think this is one of the best posts I've typed up.

By the way, can tell me where to get safe custom content? As you can see, I already have some in the game but I would like to get more, specifically maternity wear.

Thanks!