Help- Baby 16 Part 3

 The next day passes in a blur. I focus on teaching the toddlers their skills while I try not to think too hard about anything. Tom said Bill was coming over in a couple of days so he could see if I recognized him. First I focus on teaching Isabelle to talk. "Now say heartbreak sweety, heart-break."
"Mommy, what's heartbrick?"
Of all words I could choose...

Then I teach her to walk. "Mommy's happy!" She said while giggling. "She's smiwing."
"Yes, mommy is happy," I said back.
In all honesty, am I happy? No. I hate having to fake a smile to make everything seem alright. I've been told by a few people to just get over it, but how can I? I would never want anybody else to go through this, but some people just don't understand the effect it has. 

Later as I'm cooking dinner, Tom comes and sit on the counter. "Hey now," I said. "No butts on the counter."
"Oh, chillax, it's all covered. But if we were to move into the bedroom or that bathroom over there I think that it could change rather quickly."
I laughed. "Maybe later."
"Really?" He asked me excitedly.
"Maybe."
"Alright," He said. "Hey, this is a little change of topic but..."
Oh no.
"Have you thought at all about what I told you earlier?"
"Tom, I really don't need to see a psychologist for this. I'm fine."

"I wish I could believe you."
"Honestly, I don't think talking to a stranger about my problems will help at all."
"You don't know that."
"Fine, I'll think about it."

 We decided to age everyone up tonight. (AN: I didn't get a picture of Tessa, sorry about that.)
Jace looks just like his dad, only he got my hair and my lack of body fat/muscle. He's trying to buff up though!

 Felicity is just as obsessed with purple as she was as a toddler only now she pronounces the word right. 

She's also a girly girl at heart. (Along with Tessa, they get along great.)

 Alec loves getting dirty and playing in the mud. He's a very typical little boy. As long as he doesn't track mud throughout the house I'm fine. 

 Isabelle gets along with Alec more than her other sisters. She's definitely a tomboy and doesn't mind going out and getting muddy or scraping a knee. She also has a strange fascination with worms. Do I get it? No. But hey, whatever makes a kid happy.

 After a long night with Tom, I'm woken up to this by the side of my bed. 

"Psssssstttttt, Laura, wake up."
"What do you want?" I asked grumpily. "I thought you wanted me to sleep."
"I do, but we have a visitor!!"

 "Why would you invite someone over at 7:00 in the morning, Tom?"
"Because I want to see your reaction before I go to work!"
"Alright, this person better be pretty damn important then."
"They are."
"Fine."

 I sigh, get out of bed, make myself look decent, and then wonder why this person had to come and interrupt my sleep the one time that I actually don't have nightmares about Bridgeport. 

 When I head outside to see who this person is, I see my mom. She looked different. She looked happier and a lot less stressed out.

"Mom!" I yelled as I threw my arms around her.
She laughed. "Hey sweetie!"
"How are you?"

"I've been great," She said. "Your dad and I finally got a divorce about a year ago. Everything is much easier now."
"That's great," I said. "I'm glad you're away from him now."
"Yeah, so how have you been? Tom told me you were having a rough time lately."
I shrugged. "I'm getting by. Tom and the kids help a lot."

"So," my mom said. "You and Tom are married and have some kids together?"

I laughed. "Noooo, if we do get married, it's not going to be for a while. And some of them are his, the others are from different fathers."

"Wait... What?" 

"I'm doing a 100 baby challenge. I'm doing a pretty good job too, I'm already on baby 16."

"Are you crazy Laura? Why would you want to do such a challenge?"

"Because I love kids, why, what's the matter with me doing the challenge?"

"It's dangerous, do you know how many diseases there are out there?"

"Yes mom, I do. I'm very well aware of the risks."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"I already told you why I'm doing this. Why are you flipping out at me?"

"Because, I don't want you to get an STD or something and die. I already lost one of my kids, I don't need to lose another."

"What?!?"

"Collin committed suicide when he was on summer break from boarding school because he couldn't deal with what your dad was doing."

"When did this happen?"

"A few years ago, why?"

"And you didn't think I might want to know this?"

"I didn't even know where you were at that point, Laura."

"You could've emailed or called me."

"Well you could've made an effort to contact me too," She said as she stormed off.

I was pretty silent throughout dinner because I couldn't stop thinking of what happened between me and my mom. It felt weird knowing that one second everything was fine and then the next second she was yelling at me and then it slipped that  my brother was dead.
It took a while, but then I realized everyone had gotten silent and they were now staring at me. I blushed, "What?"
"Oh, we were just wondering how your day went, mommy," Isabelle said.
For whatever reason it totally slipped my mind that we talked about our days at dinner today. "Oh, um, well. It was good. I cleaned up around the house a bit."
"Who was that lady you were talking to when we got onto the bus?" Alec asked.
"Oh, that was my mom."
"Awesome!" Tessa said. "Can we meet grandma? She looked really nice!"
"Yeah," Felicity said. "I want to meet her too."
"Well so do we!" Alec and Isabelle interjected.
"What am I, chopped liver?" Jace asked. "If you guys get to meet her I want to too."
"I'll see if I can set up a time for her to come over..."
"She should've stayed for dinner!" Tessa said. "It would have been so fun!"
Tom laughed. I had almost forgotten that he was there. Whoops... "Your grandma probably couldn't stay for very long you little rascal."
"Then why did she come over?" Tessa asked innocently.
"Just for a little visit," Tom said. "She'll probably come over again and meet you, no worries."

While everyone was doing their homework after dinner I went downstairs to paint. Somehow Tom had ended up at the easel next to me.
He glanced over at my painting. "Seems... Dark," He commented.
I looked at his. "Seems light."
"What exactly are you painting?"
"The arcade machines."
"The colors are kind of different."
"I'm aware."
"You seem kind of moody. Did everything go okay with your mom?"
"If you consider her freaking out at me for doing the challenge and then telling me that my brother committed suicide, then yes. Everything was just dandy."
He looked warily at his painting. "I swear I didn't know that was going to happen." 

"I know," I said. "Look, I considered what you said about the..."
"Psychologist?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"I'll go."
He came over and hugged me. "That's great. I really do think that it'll help you a lot."
"I know, and I trust you, so I'll do it."

On a completely unrelated note, Tom's lizard finally came in the mail! It's a gecko named Geico. 

What a wonderful sense of humor Tom has. 

It felt like the longest three days ever, but as I was talking to Tom I went into labor. "Hospital?" He asked.
"Eh, not this time around, thanks though," I said back.
"Alright," He said. "It's getting late, do you want me to get everyone in bed?"
"Knock yourself out."

As Tom was upstairs trying to get Isabelle and Alec to stop playing outside and go to bed (Which is an extremely difficult task)I gave birth to a little boy named Diego. He got the Easily Impressed  and Friendly traits. 

Tom and I both passed out once everyone else was in bed. Truth be told, I don't know how I would function without him around. Not only does he keep me sane, but also, he helps out a lot. 

The next morning I woke up and went to take care of little Diego. "You're so cute!" I said to him. "Even if your father is a total creep, you're adorable."
He looked at me with a confused face and I laughed. "If only you knew what I was saying."
He just stared at me and drooled.
Just then Tom came into the room. "Bill's here."
I sighed. "Great," I muttered under my breath. Whatever, it's time to grow a pair and deal with this. Maybe he could know something.

I walked down to see this guy sitting there. "Hi," I said timidly.
"Hey,"  He said. 

"So Laura," Tom said. "Do you recognize this guy at all?"

"Say something," I said.
"What do you want me to say?" Bill asked.
"He looks and sounds familiar. I don't know where I know him from though."
"Honestly, if you're going to say it, just say it," Bill said.
"Say what?" I asked.

"That I was there, you obviously know I was."

"Actually, no, I didn't."
"Oh..."
"But now that I think of it, you were the one who wanted Chaz to knock me out, weren't you?"

That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed this post. Oh, and also, I'm sorry I keep making cliffhangers. They're just so fun!! :3