Sorry for the wait, guys! My brother got the computer up and running, so I'm back in buisness!
And for those of you who read ITT, it should have a new chapter up within the next few days.
Chapter 13
I was right in the middle of an amazing dream involving Nick and a tropical waterfall when I felt a small hand start patting my cheek. Groaning, I opened my eyes to find Nate sitting on the bed beside me holding the phone in his other hand.
"Mommy." he whispered. "Aunt Aiiiis is on da phone." he said, holding the phone out to me.
"Did you answer the phone by yourself?" I asked, taking the phone from Nate.
He nodded proudly.
I couldn't help but smile through my amazement. "Well thank you, Nate. But next time wait until I'm awake, ok?"
Nate nodded and I brought the phone up to my ear.
"Hey, Ais. You better have a good reason for making my son wake me up at this hour." I said, turning and noticing that it was six in the morning. Nearly an hour before I usually woke up.
"Sorry!" she apologized quickly. "I know it's last minuet and it's a big thing to ask, but you're the only person I know to call!"
"It's ok, Ais. You know I'm always willing to help! What's up?" I said sitting up in bed, Nate still sitting beside me and listening closely.
"Well, yesterday I wasn't feeling too good, and when Joe got home he thought it sounded like I felt when I was pregnant with the twins. So, he made an appointment with our doctor and the only time they could get me in was today."
"And you want me to watch the twins." I grinned.
"I promise it'll only be for a few hours! And they'll be perfect little angels for you!"
I rolled my eyes at that. "Well, I'm not sure about that last part, but bring them on over. I'd be happy to watch my nephews for you!"
"Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Cassie!!!!" Aisling said excitedly. "Joe and I just have to take a shower and get ready and we'll be over in about an hour."
"Did you just say "Joe and I" are going to take a shower?" I grinned.
"Oh shut up! You know what I meant!" Aisling laughed.
"Yes, I know exactly what you meant!" I laughed as well. "Getting in a little "shower time" before the new baby comes!"
"We'll be over in an hour." she sighed playfully before hanging up.
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I have no clue what was going through my head when I agreed to watching three male, Jonas toddlers at one time.........by myself.
Maybe it was the fact that I was up an hour earlier than normal, or that I hadn't gotten a chance to see Adam and Jonathan much. Who knows?
I'm not beating down on Adam and Jonathan at all! They really are great kids and I love them to death! But put three boys together, all under the age of five, and you get where I'm coming from.
Joe and Aisling showed up around an hour later, just like they had said, with both twins in tow.
"Hi, guys!" I smiled, opening the door to let them in. “Enjoy your shower time?” I asked with a grin.
Aisling just smiled and rolled her eyes as she walked in carrying Adam.
"Hey, Cass!" Joe said walking in with Jonathan. "Thanks so much for doing this!"
"It's no problem at all." I shrugged.
It was hard to believe that the little babies I had once held so easily were nearly four years old! Adam still took after his father, and Jonathan still had more of Aisling's features than Joe's, but they both had many of both their parent's finer qualities.
"Now I talked to them on the way here and they promised me that they'd behave for you." Aisling said. "Right boys?"
They both smiled sweetly and nodded.
I noticed that they were both wearing their Danger Junior #1 and #2 shirts on. How fitting.
"I love you two." Joe said, kissing Jonathan's cheek and then leaning over and kissing Adam's cheek. "We'll be home soon! Hopefully you'll be having another brother or sister!"
"It'll be a sister if I have any say in it!" Aisling grinned.
"You just wait, sister! Just you wait." I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Hey now, you two!" Joe jumped in. "Don't make a big deal out of this! It's really not something to be getting worked up over."
"Fine." Aisling sighed. "Come along, Joseph. Let's find out if I'm pregnant or not." And with that, she stomped back out the door.
Joe just rolled his eyes. "Thanks again, Cassie. We'll try not to be too long."
"Ok. Take your time! Everything will be perfectly fine here!" I assured him as he followed Aisling out to the car.
"Now, what do you boys want for breakfast?" I asked, turning back to Adam and Jonathan, only to find that they were nowhere to be seen.
Knowing that they couldn't have gone far, I began looking for them, following the faint sounds of their voices. When I did find them, they were with Nate upstairs playing with toys. I smiled and turned on the baby monitors, leaving one in there so that I could hear them and taking the other back downstairs with me so that I could clean up the house.
I fell into an easy routine, first getting a load of clothes washing before moving into the kitchen. By the time I was done with the kitchen it was time to switch out the clothes and I began folding the ones that had been in the dryer.
But as I set to work straightening out the living room I realized that I hadn't heard anything on the baby monitor for several minuets.
I hurried up the stairs quickly, more curious about where they were than scared. No noise is better than screams or crying. First I checked Nate's room. Toys were left laying on the floor, but no kids. I then scanned through all the rooms upstairs, but with no luck. I hadn't seen or heard them go downstairs, so I knew that they had to be up there somewhere.
Starting to get a little scared, I began going through the rooms once more, this time more thoroughly. When I got back to Nate's room, I walked in and started looking everywhere.
I was on my knees looking under his bed when I heard a little laugh coming from the closet. Sighing in relief, I stood up and walked over, opening the door to find the three missing boys sitting on the floor.
"You found us!" Adam cheered.
"What were you boys doing in there?" I asked as they ran out.
"Paying hide an seek wit you, mommy!" Nate grinned. "You win!"
“But you guys didn't tell me that you were playing!”
"So?" Jonathan shrugged. "You're a mommy! You know everything!"
I laughed. "Well, not everything. How about you boys come downstairs now and we'll fix some breakfast."
All three boys cheered and raced towards the stairs. Smiling, I followed them down. They ran into the dinning room and scrambled up into the chairs, huge grins on their faces.
"Wait a minuet!" I said, walking into the dining room and seeing them like that. "You have to tell me what you want to eat first!"
"Waffles!" they all cheered.
"Make them like daddy makes them!" Adam added.
I laughed. "And how exactly does your daddy make them?"
"With lots of whipped cream and syrup!" Jonathan answered.
Laughing again, I headed into the kitchen to fill their order. The last thing that those boys needed was sugar to add to the natural energy they already had an abundance of. I had just started mixing the ingredients when the trio came racing into the kitchen to check on me. But half way Jonathan tripped and hit his head on the counter.
I immediately raced over and picked him up as he started sniffling.
"Where does it hurt?" I asked.
He pointed to a spot on the side of his head, his bottom lip quivering as he tried not to cry.
I examined the spot, brushing back his hair to look at the skin. He would more than likely have a bruise, but he'd live.
"It'll be ok, Jonathan." I smiled before kissing the spot on his head. "There, does that help?"
He nodded and I sat him back down.
"Kisses make everyone feel better!" Adam commented as I went back to the bowl of waffle batter.
"Yeah, especially daddy after he comes home from work and he's had a long day and he's tired!" Jonathan chimed in. “Mommy can always make daddy happy again!”
"Is that so?" I smiled as I mixed the batter.
"Yep!" Adam said walking over. "I think it's because mommy grabs his tie and pulls him into their room. Then she starts kissing him on the mouth and telling him how hot he looks. It must mean that he's gotten too hot because then she starts taking off his clothes and making weird noises like a cat.........."
"Who wants to stir the batter!" I said quickly.
Thankfully, that changed the subject for them and they began fighting over who was going to stir it first.
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The boys were coloring when Joe and Aisling called a couple of hours later. Yes, Aisling was pregnant; and, no, they didn't know the sex of the baby yet. But Aisling assured me that as soon as she could find out she was going to! Joe let me know that he was going to drop Aisling off at home before coming to pick up the boys.
After hanging up, I turned back to the coffee table where the three were coloring. Walking over to Adam first, I looked down at his sheet of paper.
"What's that?" I asked, pointing to a creature he had drawn on the paper. "A green chicken with blue legs?"
"Yep." Adam replied, his eyes never leaving his drawing.
"Oh my! I wonder what color eggs that would lay?"
"It doesn't lay eggs! It lays chocolate chips!" Adam corrected me.
"Oh ok." I said, snickering quietly as I moved over to Jonathan. "And what are you drawing, Mr. Jonathan?"
"A house." he said simply.
"But it looks like the house is on fire." I said as I looked at the picture. "And why aren't the firemen putting it out?" I asked, noticing that there were several stick firemen standing around the building.
"Because the fire-dog chewed up the hose, so they can't use it. So they're having to wait for a new hose."
I just shook my head as I stepped over to Nate. They truly were their father's sons.
Looking over Nate's shoulder, I could clearly see that he was drawing a picture of our family. There were two tall stick figures standing on either side of a smaller stick figure with a yellow smudge representing Elvis off to the side. I could tell which one was Nick, since Nate had given him thick brown curly hair and a guitar, but it confused me that on the other side of me was a little girl.
"Nate, who is that?" I asked, pointing to the stick figure on the other side of me.
"Tat's my sister." he replied.
"But you don't have a sister."
"I know. But I want one. I alweady have Adamm and Jonatan, so I wan a sister." he replied in a slightly sad tone.
Smiling, I kissed the top of his head. "Don't worry, Nate. Before long you'll have a little brother or sister."
Nate smiled and went back to coloring.
As I sat down on the couch, I couldn't help but think about how long Nick and I had been trying for another child. After doing some quick math in my head, I figured up that we had been trying for nearly two and a half months. It was seriously starting to worry me. When we were trying for Nate it had only been a little over a month. I mean, I knew that sometimes it could take a little while to conceive, but I never would have thought that it would take this long! Especially with how much Nick and I had been going at it!
Before long Joe arrived and picked up the boys. Now, I know that it's supposed to be the mother who has the glow when she's pregnant, but I think Joe was an exception. I had even seen it when they found out that Aisling was pregnant the first time! Just in the way he hugged Adam and Jonathan and listened as they shared about their day showed that he truly was a proud father.
“And then Aunt Cassie made us waffles like you make them, and then we played outside, and then we watched Lion King, and then we colored!” Adam told his dad excitedly. “See my picture!” he said, holding the paper up directly in front of Joe's face.
“Wow, Adam, that's a nice.......chicken?” he asked, looking up at me.
I just grinned and nodded.
“Does mommy got another one in the oven, daddy?” Jonathan blurted out.
“Now where did you learn that phrase?” Joe laughed as he picked Jonathan up.
“I heard Aunt Sarah say it to mommy. Does that mean that you gotta cook babies if you want one?”
“No.” Joe continued to laugh. “We talked about this last night. It means that mommy has a baby growing in her tummy and soon you and Adam are going to have a little brother or sister.”
“Oh.” Jonathan nodded.
“Now tell Aunt Cassie bye and thank you for watching you!” Joe then said as he picked up Adam with his other arm.
Both of the twins said their goodbyes to Nate and I and Joe thanked me for watching the twins at least ten times before finally heading out to his car.
After all of the day's excitement Nate was trying his hardest to keep his eyes open for when Nick got home, but I knew it was useless. Finally, I got him to lay down in his bed, and he was out cold soon after. He wasn't the only one, though! After having to watch three toddlers for four hours all by myself, I felt like all of the energy had been drained out of me. So I stumbled into Nick and I's bedroom and lay down on the bed, giving myself over to sleep.
I was awakened a little later by the sound of the front door closing quietly. I thought that it must be Nick coming home from the studio, but I still didn't get up, seeing as I was still completely exhausted. But as I continued to listen, I didn't hear anything else. I was expecting to hear Nick calling out for me, or at least hear his footsteps as he walked through the house.
Starting to get a little nervous, I began contemplating whether or not I should go down to investigate. It was then that I sensed the presence of someone else in the room. My eyes were still closed, so I didn't see who it was, and I was too scared to open them and find out. Then, I heard soft footsteps walk slowly over the bed and whoever it was stop by the bedside. I could hardly breath as I lay there, paralyzed with fear as I felt the person lean over me.
Finally, I couldn't take it and let my fist fly loose, making direct contact with their eye. I heard a cry that I clearly recognized and opened my eyes in time to see Nick's hands fly up over his eyes as he backed away.
“I'm so sorry, Nick!” I yelled, standing up immediately and rushing over to him. “I didn't know that it was you!”
“Obviously.” Nick groaned as he continued to hold his hands over his eye.
“Here, let me see it.” I said, placing my hands over his and attempting to move them away.
He shook his head and took a step back.
“Nick, come on. You're acting just like Nate.” I smiled.
He sighed and slowly removed his hands. Sure enough, my fist had left a nice red bump beside his eye that was sure to turn into a bruise.
I sighed. “Let's get some ice to put on it.”
Nick just nodded and let me lead him down the stairs as he kept one hand over his eye.
After getting him an icepack to put on it we headed into the living room and sat on the couch. Nick clearly didn't hold a grudge about what I did and immediately pulled me into his side once we were seated.
“I really am sorry, Nick. I thought you were a burglar or a rapist or something!” I insisted.
“It's ok.” Nick smiled. “At least I know that I don't have to worry about leaving you at home alone! You've got the self defense thing down!”
I laughed. “So, would you mind telling me exactly why you were sneaking around the house?”
“Joe called and told me about leaving the twins with you today and he said that when he left you looked pretty beat, so when I walked in and didn't see or hear you, I guessed that you and Nate were taking a nap.”
I nodded and rested my head on his shoulder.
We sat in silence for a few minuets, just relaxing, until Nick finally spoke again.
“So...........Aisling's pregnant again.” Nick started off.
“No, Nick, I'm not pregnant yet.” I sighed, knowing exactly where he was taking the conversation.
“What's taking it so long?” he asked, a hint of frustration in his voice.
“I don't know, babe. It's starting to worry me too. Sure, it took a little while with Nate, but not this long.”
Nick took a deep breath. “If I made you an appointment for the doctor...................would you go?” he asked almost hesitantly.
I lifted my head from his shoulder to look him in the eyes.
“I mean, it could be nothing. There could be nothing wrong at all!” he said quickly. “But........just to put my mind at ease.”
I closed my eyes and nodded, leaning my forehead against his. “I'll go.” I whispered, opening my eyes to look directly into his. “I'll go for you.”
Nick smiled slightly and kissed me softly. He knew what it meant by me going to the doctor. It meant that there could potentially be a problem....and we were admitting it.
I sighed into the kiss and climbed over into his lap, letting all my worries pour out. Nick sensed it and placed the ice pack beside him on the couch so that he could wrap his arms around my waist. He knew exactly what I needed; knowing someone for most of your life gives you that kind of telepathy. I could feel him returning all of my worry with unconditional love. I knew without a doubt that, no matter what, he would remain by my side.
Whatever happened, whatever I found out, I knew that I could handle it. Just as long as I had Nick and Nate by my side. We were a family, and families are always stronger together.
