Chapter 3.8- Safely Planted

            “Are you alright?”

            “I guess.”

            Roger beamed at Mariah and it was like he’d never left. Her cares melted away into meaningless nothings as she began to look over the man who stood in front of her.

            “Your hair is different.”

            “Yeah, either I had entirely too much of it or not nearly enough. I went with too much.”

            “Are you growing a beard?”

            “Just don’t shave as often as I used to. It looks more ‘natural’ this way. I fit in better.”

            “Are those tattoos? Wait. Roger? Is that a plug in your ear?”

            Roger sighed, his smile fading.

            “’Riah,” he said, taking her hands. “’Riah, I know I look really different to you, but all of this? Is just skin. Skin and hair. And I like my ink. You will too.”

            “You’ve lost weight,” she pouted in response.

            “So have you. So there. And you shouldn’t be losing weight, should you?”

            Scowling, she lowered her gaze. His remark brought her recent reality back, bursting the small bubble of happiness she thought she’d found.

            “C’mon, ‘Riah,” Roger said, noting the disappearance of her smile. “Let’s go inside and you can tell me all about how I’m going to be a dad, ‘cause I kinda don’t believe you yet. If you talk long enough, maybe I can stay the night.”

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            Mariah did indeed manage to talk to him long enough that he stayed. Any euphoria he might have felt from her announcement replaced with worry over how she handled the news herself. In the end he thought he might have talked her around to the idea of being a mom once more, though. At least, he hoped he had. Time would only tell if he’d done a good enough job or not.

            And while they had stayed up late talking, he’d still managed to be up in time to catch Dove’s early stirrings on the baby monitor. Dressing silently he slipped into the nursery hoping to get to her before her wails woke her very tired Mama.

            Greeting the little girl he’d known so well with a smile he lifted her onto his hip hoping she’d snuggle in just as she always had.

            Instead, Dove frowned up at him, pushing herself away, twisting herself to get a better view of the person who held her.

            “Aw, c’mon, babe,” Roger attempted to soothe her. “It’s just me. It’s Roger! Daddy? Remember me? It hasn’t been that long has it?”

            But Dove refused to respond. “If you’re not going to cheer up, I know what can get you to smile,” he continued, a mischievous twinkle dancing in his eyes.

            “Do you know what will make you smile for me?” Roger asked the still somber little girl.

            She only frowned deeper, making tiny creases appear between her eyes.

            “Well you’d better smile, and fast, or the tickle monster will come to get you.”

            Dove still refused to respond.

            “Well then here it comes, *Gasp!* It’s. The. TICKLE MONSTER!!!”

            Before he could even try to approach her with his hand Dove let out a shriek. Not just any child’s wail either. Roger had no idea how something so small could manage to cry that loudly without shattering eardrums and glass.

            “NOOOOOOOOoooooo!!! NOOOoooooo You!!! Mommieeeeeeee!!! Hep! HEP MEEEE MOMMMMIIIEEE!!! NOOOOOO!!! BAAAAADD!”

            So much for letting Mariah sleep in.

            But there was one last thing to try. Maybe he could head her off before things got really bad.

            “Hey, you,” Roger forced a smile. “Look, Dove. Looks who’s up!”

            Roger had managed to plug the bottle into Dove’s still trembling mouth just before Mariah had walked in.

            “Hey, yourself,” she answered, her voice still heavy with sleep. “What on SimPlanet is going on in here?”

            “Oh nothing,” he replied as cheerily as he could through clenched teeth. “Just getting reacquainted. I didn’t think it had been so long since I’d seen her.”

            Mariah scoffed.

            “She’s still a baby, Rog’. Your hair and skin is as much a part of you as your clothes are to her. And it’s been almost 3 months since she saw you last. Give her some time.”

            Reaching out, Roger pulled Mariah nearer.

            “But that’s just it, babe,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of time.”

            Nodding, Mariah traced the whorls of ink on his forearm with a finger. “You’re coming back to help me redo the nursery though, right?”

            “I wouldn’t miss it. You’re going to call an interior designer to help you lighten the rest of this place up too, right?”

            Mariah nodded again. She wouldn’t miss doing that either. A little change would probably do her a world of good.

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            “We did a good job, right?”

            “It looks fantastic. So much better than that flowery monstrosity. I swear if you looked at that stuff too long your eyes would bleed.”

            Mariah’s doctor had assured her a little boy was all the source of her pregnancy misery. Something about how her body responded to the miniscule amounts of testosterone made her have extra severe pregnancy symptoms or something like that. At least she’d struggled out of that first half of pregnancy and things were settling down. Though she could still use a good nap.

            “The pink carpeting?”

            “Gone by midweek. That wanna be Mohawk you’ve got going on?”

            “Ain’t goin’ anywhere, babe.”

            “When did you start using ‘babe’ so much?”

            “Just getting all that awesome vernacular and awful grammar I use on the job thoroughly ingrained. Wanna go for a roll in that haystack babe?”

            Mariah punched his ribs playfully and went to lay down her roller. Downstairs, Dove squealed with glee at something Roger’s dad, Ottawa did. Both of his parents were there. They were supposed to be watching Dove, but Sally had taken the opportunity to be in Mariah’s house to do other things as well. In between stocking the freezer with casseroles and playtimes with Dove she’d come up to ‘survey the new nursery.’ During those trips she’d dropped many heavy hints that it was time for Roger to give up his assignment. Time for Mariah to trust them more. Time to be thinking ahead to the next pregnancy. Time for rings on fingers and name changes, too. In short, she wanted both of them to give up the world for their love.

            Mariah was thoroughly annoyed by it.

            Walking to the other window she surveyed the river flowing behind the house. She missed her little cabin by the river and her trips there. A good swim in the rushing waters might be a bit much though.

            “So, no roll in the hay then?” Roger slipped up beside her.

            “My dear, I’m not too sure I could manage hay right now,” she chuckled. She was uncomfortable enough as it was.

            “Back to names then?”

            The two had figured out Roger could text Mariah fairly regularly without anyone being the wiser. Most of their text time had been spent going over and over, around and around every name in a baby name book Mariah had bought. Mariah burned the book in the fireplace the night before, frustrated that it didn’t have the ability to magically hand her the prefect name on a platter. Ten minutes after the flames had died down she'd cried in horror over the ashes, ashamed of what she'd done.

            “I-I had a bit of an-an epiphany last night with a-a name-a name,” Roger offered.

            Mariah turned to him. If it brought back his nervous stuttering, he must think the name was pretty important.

            “You don’t have to be afraid to tell me,” Mariah said.

            “Well, it’s-it’s kind of important, and I feel-I feel a little ashamed I didn’t think of it sooner,” Roger still looked super nervous.

            Mariah waited.

            “There was this-this kid. He was into the organization pretty deep when-when I got there and he was-he was the only one who had any kind of faith in me. The first month or so I-I really thought I was going to be pulled out because-because I wasn’t getting anywhere, no one trusted me or liked me. But this kid managed to convince some of the others that I was-I was okay. He was a great-great kid. He was only there because life hadn’t offered him anything else. I miss him a lot.”

            The kid hadn't survived some rivalry dispute. But Mariah liked the name, it was a little different. And so on the same day she got her nursery, Mariah also found the perfect name for her baby.

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            Figures. Mariah gave up on sleep at last. The pains had begun that morning, but she remembered how much time she’d had last time. So with pains in the morning that were never less than 15 minutes apart she had all day ahead of her.

            With 5 minutes to midnight showing on the clock, her day was over.

            She’d meant to tell Roger earlier that day, but wanted the pains to be closer before she texted. Not that there was any guarantee he would have been able to come. He’d managed to do something or other that had impressed someone who had decided he needed to be a bit more in the thick of things.

            Pregnancy brain meant she was still unable to figure out the finer points of it all. At the moment, she really couldn’t care.

            So he’d been officially moved to Lucky Palms to keep up his undercover work. That had pissed off both the department here and the one there. The one here didn’t want to scramble to find someone else here less than a year after getting someone safely planted.

            The department in Lucky Palms didn’t like that some nobody from the middle of nowhere could waltz in and oust their own man.

            Mariah was pissed because it meant he now lived almost 4 hours away.

            AND SHE WAS PISSED HE DID THIS TO HER, THAT IDIOT.

            Most of all, she was pissed at herself. Why hadn’t she told someone, anyone, that she was having contractions? Now she had no one to watch Dove and in the middle of the night the minor off and on pains of the day had become full blown labor.

            When a particularly sharp pain threatened to rip her belly in two she realized she wasn’t just in labor, she was about to deliver.

            And so little Ceeven Sixkiller made a smashing entrance into the world.

            Once she’d managed to clean the little guy up, dressing him in his first outfit, he was already asleep.

            Mariah chuckled at the sweet look on his little face, still somewhat in awe of what had just happened. If she didn’t have other very pressing matters to attend to, she would have stayed to have watch his slumber. Instead she quietly tiptoed out, hurrying back to her bedroom.

            “Thank goodness you’re still too little to roll over, huh?” Mariah sighed with relief, picking up Ceeven’s completely unexpected twin sister.

            Mariah was nervous about toting both babies upstairs at the same time and so had left this little one on her bed, pillows surrounding her to make sure she didn’t fall.

            “Now then, where are we going to put you?”

            Mariah scanned her room, her mind struggling to find the energy to process what had just happened.

            “Wait, where are we going to put you? What are we going to call you? What am I going to do with three kids?”

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I hate my game. Now to backpedal a little and put first things first.

When I redid Tibi’s room to be a second nursery I redid the house entirely. You can see pics of it here if you’re curious. It took me forever for a lot of reasons, none of which are remotely interesting. Lol

After that? Baby girl will get a name next time. Why? Because I didn’t have one prepared for her birth in the first place. She was a total shocker to me. Want proof?

See that awesome little number up there? That 2% chance of twins? I just knew I wouldn’t hit that chance. When I went back to a prior save to get that screencap I also replayed through the birth just to see what would happen a second time. It happened exactly the same way. A little boy, a little girl. Birth animation plays for the boy and then the girl pops out of the ether onto the floor in ‘please reset the baby’ pose. (For those who would like further proof, ask Misty about my reaction. I might have blown a hole in her monitor with the rage.) So while I’m supremely disappointed in how this messes with my plans, I’m going with ‘it’s meant to be.’ Also, there are no spoiler pics like there were for Dove because I don’t have them yet. I have spoiler pics of grown up Ceeven, but baby girl is yet to be photographed.

I will, however, reward your patience with a roll reveal. Congrats.

Number of children: 3/2. Dammit