Chapter 3.9- Shut Up, Close Your Eyes

            “You.are.late. my friend,” Mariah stood defiant as Roger burst through the door.

            His gaze roamed to the space between her fingertips, pulling him up short, gaping. He’d been expecting to get here barely in time to get her to the hospital. Looks like he was too late, indeed.

            “But-how-where-”

            “I have a surprise for you,” Mariah’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

            Roger’s legs were wobbly as he walked forward to meet her. This wasn’t at all what he’d expected. He’d been there for Dove. Mariah was shrieking and sharp tongued in her labor pains. This Mariah was again slim, beaming instead of scowling.

            “You don’t have to look so worried,” she giggled.

            “Where-I-I mean, how-how-where?”

            “Don’t worry about that right now. I have a surprise for you!”

            “Mariah, you called me this morning telling me to get here as quickly as I could,” Roger was slightly disoriented, still trying to figure out what was going on. “So I raced here. Last time I saw you, you were huge. And pregnant. With my baby. Now you’re not. Did you go to the hospital? When?”

            “No. No hospital this time. I didn’t make it. But it’s okay! C’mon!”

            “You-you didn’t make it?!? What about the baby!! Is the baby okay? Are you- have you seen a doctor at least? When!”

            “Don’t worry about that right now. I have a sur-”

            “-A surprise, yeah. But I’ve had enough of one already. I don’t want to see the afterbirth in the bathtub thankyouverymuch, what about the baby?”

            Rolling her eyes, Mariah grabbed his hand. “Just come on!”

            Keeping his hand firmly in her own she dragged a stumbling Roger up the stairs, positioning him directly in front of the door to the nursery.

            “Come here,” she said, angling behind him.

            “Mariah,” Roger’s voice now held an edge. He was ready to see his baby. Now. “I.Do.Not.Want-”

            “-Yes, you do, now come here.”

            Swatting away one of her hands, Roger turned.

            “Mariah, listen to me. I get enough gross surprises on the job. I don’t want to see it right now. I want to know what happened to my child. Now please. I’m done with the games.”

            “Me, too!” Mariah put on a shocked face. “So let me cover your eyes so I can show you the surprise.”

            “Whatever,” Roger shook his head, lowered his hand. “Just tell me you’re okay. Tell me the baby is alright.”

            “Shut up, close your eyes and I will show you,” she said.

            “Okay,” she said once she’d pushed the door open. “I wanna know more about the gross surprises you get on the job-Ouch. Go to your right a little, you ran my elbow into the door.”

            “Sorry,” Roger snapped. “It’s a little hard to steer with you covering my eyes.”

            “It’s.a.Surprise! Let me have my fun.”

            “Let me have my sight and answer my questions woman! Where is my baby?”

            “In a minute! And I do believe you share when it comes to ownership. Geez.”

            “Here,” she said, stopping him abruptly.

            “If you want me to see this surprise, would you mind NOT trying to see how far my eyeballs will go into my skull. Ouch!”

            “Whatever, cover your eyes.”

            “I’m losing patience.”

            “I’m about to show you! Twallan’s PlumbBob, you’re grouchy today!”

            “Answer my questions and maybe I’ll calm down!”

            “But I don’t want to answer, I want to show you. On the count of three you can open your eyes. One-”

            “If I see anything bloody-”

            “Two-”

            “-You will never live it down.”

            “Three.”

            “Surprise!”

            “…”

            “Say ‘Hi’ Daddy!”

            “Are you watching Tibi’s baby already?”

            “No, silly! Tibi’s little boy is at home with her.”

            “Then who’s the other one?”

            “They’re yours!”

            “But-but I-I thought-I-I thought-you-you said-the doctor said-”

            “Surprise! We had twins!”

            “Twins.”

            “Twins!”

            “There are two of them.”

            “That’s kind of what that means, yeah.”

            “Twins.”

            “Yes!”

            “Ceeven?”

            “Ceeven.”

            While Ceeven gurgled contentedly as though recognizing his name, baby girl let out an angry sounding wail.

            “And this little one is still kind of nameless.”

            “Nameless?”

            “Well, we didn’t really go over girl’s names did we?” Mariah winced as the baby’s cries reached a higher pitch.

            “Can-can I-I-can I-”

            “Yes! Please! I’m not used to holding them both at the same time. Take him so I can calm her down.”

            “Soooo, whacha think Daddy?” Mariah asked, watching Roger snuggle Ceeven. He still looked a little shocked.

            “I dunno, yet,” He admitted. “What do you think?”

            Laughing, Mariah just shook her head.

            “Exactly. And you’ve had a little longer to get used to the thought of having two of them than I’ve had. What happened? Why didn’t you call me before? When you went into labor?”

            “Once I realized what was going on for sure there wasn’t enough time to call anyone. He was here before I could wrap my head around what was going on myself. And it was too late at night to call anyone else. In any case, I did alright on my own. I handled it.”

            Roger didn’t catch too much of her last. Ceeven had snuggled in deep and Roger was too focused on the soft little boy in his arms to hear her properly.

            “Anyway, now you’re here we probably ought to get these two to a doctor or someone who can give them a birth certificate. Those might come in handy for school or whatever.”

            Roger simply hummed his approval.

            “Or maybe a name for this little one first,” the little girl in her arms was determinedly trying to get Mariah’s full attention, pulling at her hair and waving a tiny fist around her face.

            “Compared to him she’s really vibrant. From those first few moments even. He was so laid back and calm, he hardly fussed at all. But she demanded attention and action. She didn’t want to just sit still and let things happen around her. She wanted to be part of it all.”

            “Vivid…” Roger mumbled against Ceeven’s warm skin. “I can get behind that it’s vivid and vibrant. It’s still more of a dream that life like.”

            “Why not Vivid for a name then?” Roger looked up, gauging her reaction to his suggestion.

            “Are you kidding me?”

            “No?”

            “No.”

            “No. Vivian?”

            “Nooo. Vivia?”

            “Vivia. Ceeven and Vivia.”

            “Sounds about right to me.”

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            Vivia turned out to fit her tiny daughter perfectly. Ceeven and Dove would still be sleeping peacefully as the sun rose, but not Vivia. If the sun was up, even barely, she was up and wanting to play. She’d gurgle and coo at her mom, doing anything to keep from being put down.

            When she was unhappy, the world knew it. Some of her earliest temper fits left Mariah breathless at the amount of rage she contained. However, no matter how fast her anger had been provoked, the moment she spotted her mother she’d calm right back down again, content to have achieved her aim.

            Inevitably Mariah’s time with only one baby awake would come to an end and she’d have others needing her attention as well.

            She’d been a little scared of having more than one baby at first, but she quickly fell into a routine, learning how to balance and juggle all of their needs and demands.

            Dove had even adjusted to the babies’ presence sooner than anyone had expected. It still didn’t stop her from figuring out how the baby monitor worked incredibly quickly. Often she’d sit as close to it as she could before hollering at the top of her lungs for her Mama. Mariah would immediately put down whichever of her twins she was currently taking care of to run to her side.

            Dove thought it was a fantastic trick.

            And while she found it easier to be a parent to several kids than she’d at first anticipated, there were moments where the kids seemed to gang up on her, trying her patience to the max.

            In particular, if one of the twins cried, the other was sure to start the second she attempted to calm the first one down.

            The very worst days were when Dove heard the melee and joined in. There wasn’t enough of her to go around and not a single one of the kids had any patience with her at all. It was those times she wished Roger were there. Other than that, she was making it. She’d done it with Dove on her own. She was doing it now with three.

            So what if she fell into bed exhausted each and every night? She wouldn’t trade what she had for the world.

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            It’s a short one this time. But there’s only so much you can show of larva interactions and I want to go ahead and let them age up to toddlers so that will be next time.

            Baby Girl has a name! Vivia! I love how she turned out. She has a lot of Sally’s features, but she isn’t a clone thankfully. Ceeven has a good bit of Buck in him, which is exciting to me. I will always love Buck and I missed that jaw. Take a peek:

These two are also up on the family tree now. Eventually I’ll update the Generational Goals to put them on there as well. (PSssst! I still think Dove is prettier. ;) lol)

            Originally I had something particular planned I would have announced here, (I’d hinted at it with Dove,) but with three of them I had to scrap that. It just won’t work with more than two and I’m not ready to announce heirs or spares yet.

            However, I will say that the next generation being born around AP is probably going to get culled very soon. At which point I’ll be looking for potential classmates/romantic interests to put in town. If you have particular sims up for download you’d like to see in the running let me know so I can be sure to grab them! Or send me a link through PM on MTS or Tumblr if you have a private download you’d like to submit, or if you’d like to make a sim just for this that’s fine too. Thanks to anyone generous enough to share!