Gen 2 - Chapter 12: Supermom

I really.. really hadn't missed screaming babies while we were on our trip. I'd missed our babies, but not the screaming. Oh, yeah, the screaming I could do without. I missed when Dahlia and Drazen were quiet little toddlers who could deal with their entertainment themselves. It was especially stressful now, after our trip..

Mostly because ever since we got back, Elvy had been feeling awful. She got sick on the plane ride home, and now she was getting sick at home. She didn't seem to have much else wrong, though, so she insisted on me letting her continue to help me with the little ones, and I agreed reluctantly, but I kept my motherly instinct eyes on her. What if she'd caught some sort of.. foreign illness or something had bit her or.. or... there were a loooot of what-ifs running through my head, and all of them were bad.

When it got close to the triplets' birthday, Elvy wanted to throw a party for them. I thought it was a bad idea, since she was still feeling sick constantly, but she was insistent that they deserved a birthday party. Unfortunately, even though she invited quite a few people.. no one showed up.

Only a day after the first party was supposed to be, she decided to try again, and invited different people to our swim birthday party for the triplets. We all could go swimming after they aged up. They all promised that they would actually show up this time. As soon as she got off the phone, Elvy felt nauseous again and rushed to the bathroom. I saw, and walked in behind her.

"Elvira, after this party of your's you are going to go see a doctor, okay? No objections. I can't stand seeing you this sick. You're looking even frailer than usual lately."

She moaned a little, and flushed the toilet, before getting up and walking over to the sink, rinsing out her mouth. "Fine.. I'm tired of feeling this sick..."

"Good girl."

I have to admit, she did quite well at pretending to not feel miserable as she went around greeting her guests. One of the babysitters from when we went to Egypt was there, as were Faith Knowles - though she had to leave pretty quickly, because she stood outside too long and nearly roasted from the sun - Feliks, and Rhett and Katina. Rhett had recently become an elder, and I could have cried. My baby brother was an elder before I was. That was just wrong.

While Elvy was chatting with the guests, I went to grab the triplets and take them to their cakes.

First up was Zachariah, and by the time I got him to his cake.. everyone had already left, except for Katina. Who kept crying over the death of one of her recent conquests. And here I thought I'd really liked her. Anyway..

Zach grew up into a handsome little toddler, who was nearly identical to his Mommy Elvira. Except he had my mother's hair.

Next up was Jeremiel, and as I took him to the cake, Dahlia started crying for me. "Mama tired mamaaaaa!" 

I looked over to her with a sympathetic look, knowing exactly how she felt. I was exhausted too, but right now the triplets where more important. "Just a minute, honey, okay? Mommy Elvy will get you to bed." Speaking of Elvira.. where on earth was she? After everyone had left, she'd disappeared herself. Without any sort of notice. I was stressing out, and tried my hardest not to come unglued, because it was the boys' birthday and they deserved to have their Mommy Lyr fully functional.

When Jere grew up, I had to stare at that adorable little boy. He had the prettiest light blue eyes, mostly my facial features, and the same hair as my sisters. Which I heard was my father, Buster's. Eventually I snapped myself out of it, because Quintus still needed to have his birthday.

Blowing out Quin's candles.. was much more eventful. It started off like normal, I just took him to his cake, and helped him blow out his candles.. but then the flame on the candle somehow lit the rest of the cake on fire, and in turn, the counter. It took me a moment to comprehend what was going on, but I finally realized that I needed to get Quin away from it. I walked to the next room, and put him down, then hurried back in. While I was in there, Quin aged up. I didn't really get to see him until later, but he was still absolutely adorable, with my Mom's hair and eye color, and most of my facial features. I guess my genes were dominant?

Somehow, when I got back into the room, the fire had spread. I didn't know what to do, I wanted to panic, but I grabbed the fire extinguisher and started to spray it the way the instructions said, listening to the smoke alarm going absolutely crazy. I knew the fire department would be here shortly, but my motherly instincts refused to wait that long.

The flames were getting uncomfortably close, and I think I did get some burns, but nothing serious. I freaked out, though, when Elvira came in, "Lyric, what's goi-"

"GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN ELVIRA! OUT, OUT, OUT!"

I don't know if she did immediately, but she did leave eventually, and I let out a sigh of relief. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I put the fire out, and felt like just.. sitting in our pool or a cold bath for hours. But I knew that wasn't going to happen. I headed back out to the living room, where Elvy was cuddling Quin, who was whimpering and sniffling into her shoulder. The firewoman got there shortly after walked into the living room, and I told her the fire was out. She gave me a speech about safety, and then left. With a deep sigh, I sat next to Elvy on the couch.

"No more birthday cakes."

"You won't stick to that." Elvira told me, petting Quin's hair.

I chuckled, and closed my eyes. "I know.. I swear, that fire nearly got me in there." At that, her arm snaked around me, and she leaned her head against mine. "By the way.. where were you? This was your party and you disappeared."

"I.." she hesitated. "I decided to go to the doctor, like you suggested. I got to feeling a little too sick and fatigued, and decided it was time. Rhett took me."

I blinked, and then looked at her. "Oh? So did you find out what you have?"

"Yeah.." she looked almost embarrassed. What could it be that would embarrass her? "I'm.. pregnant."

Shock. Lots of shock. I just stared at her, looking a little like a fish. My jaw just hung slack for several moments, and I tried to make words, but they didn't want to come. "But.."

She nodded, and chuckled. "That's what I said."

"You've already gone through menopause! Is that even possible? That's just.. you're.."

"Well, it does happen, it's just very rare. And I guess, with vampires, it's less rare. Since we're dead to begin with, our ability to give birth doesn't really leave. It just gets really muffled or something. But the doctor said I'm going to have a lot of problems with it, and should probably stay in bed for most of the pregnancy.. I do NOT look forward to that. ... but I do hope it's a girl."

And like the doctor told her to, Elvy started to stay in bed pretty much every day. I brought her her plasma juice every time she got thirsty. I had to turn into supermom! I had to take care of my wife, and my twin and triplet toddlers. It was nice, spending so much time with all of them, but even within the first couple of months, I felt like I was going to go insane. I couldn't get to any of them on time, so when I'd get to one to put them to bed, they'd be asleep on the floor. Or if they were hungry, they'd be nawing on their teddy bear, obviously trying to suck it's plasma (since the vampire gene seemed to be even more dominant than my eye color). Drazen was the only one who didn't constantly need my care, he was such an independent little boy. I also had the sneaking suspicion that Elvy would get out of bed and take care of him when I wasn't looking. I swear he was her favorite.

 I had to take quite a few quick dips in the hot tub, and had to psyche myself up quite a few times a day. "Go Lyric, you can do it! Woo! You're supermom! You can take care of your pregnant wife, and five toddlers all by yourself! WOO!" I looked ridiculous there cheering myself on in the living room in my swimsuit, and my picture ended up everywhere - our front door is made of glass, and we have a huge glass window in the living room as well - but I didn't care. It helped. Plus, it's nice to read people's comments online, about how despite my age and slight chubbiness (which I quite adore, thank you), I was still 'freaking hot in my swimwear'. Heheheheh.

Eventually, though, my birthday caught up with me and I knew there'd be a lot fewer comments on how hot I was. And that taking care of my family by myself was going to be a lot harder.

I aged pretty well, though, I gotta say. I didn't look terribly old, and really didn't have that many wrinkles. And I looked good with grey hair. I just added some black tips, though, to complete my usual look. 

After I became an elder, things got even more difficult. I never even bothered to change out of my swimsuit because I never got sleep anyway, except when I got to take a quick dip in the hot tub between feeds, diaper changes, and putting them to bed. I was absolutely exhausted, though, and my body was handling it much worse now than it had before. I was back to passing out constantly, and then I'd lose it a little bit at the stereo when it would wake me back up. "Shut up, can't you see I'm trying to sleep here?! The todlders always scream and the living room floor is the ONLY place I can SLEEP so BE QUIET!" There was more, but that's the only piece that makes any sense. Even to me.

As it got closer to Drazen and Dahlia's birthdays, and Elvira's due date, I finally got the chance to go to bed with Elvy, because the twins had settled down a little since they were almost children instead of toddlers. Unfortunately, my victory was short lived, because only an our or two after I went to sleep, I felt an elbow in my ribs. "Lyr."

I groaned, and didn't look over at her. "Wha..?"

"The babies are crying. I'd take care of them, but.. bed-ridden except for bathroom needs and all..."

"Kay..."

And it started again.

Then finally, it came time for Elvira to have the baby. And it was a tough labor, partially because it had been induced by her heading upstairs to check on one of the toddlers because I was passed out in the living room as usual. When I heard her screaming, though, I ran upstairs and started freaking out. "Elvira, you were supposed to stay in bed! Hurry, downstairs, to the car, I'll drive you to the hospital!"

She screamed, and then looked at me, nearly crying - obviously from the pain. It was heartbreaking to see. "No, it.. I don't think I could.. aaaaah.. make it back down the.. stairs!"

So a home birth it was to be. I tried to help her as best I could, since I had been trained for this kind of thing, but it just isn't the same when it's an elder and your own wife. It took a long, long time, and it was tiring for both of us. For a while I thought she wasn't going to make it, but finally she gave birth to a beautiful little vampire girl, and we agreed on the name Eulalie.

While Elvira was giving birth to Eulalie, however, we had absolutely no idea that Dahlia and Drazen were having their birthdays. First up was Dahlia, and she became a beautiful little girl, deciding to wear a hat to cover up her naturally curly hair.

Then it was Drazen's turn, and he decided to keep his messy hairstyle. He, like his sister, was definitely growing up very beautifully, and I just knew that we'd have to fight girls and boys off of them when they became teenagers. I also didn't figure they'd have any trouble making friends, they were both such sweethearts.

(A/N: Ta-da! Yeah, so, at the beginning of last chapter, when Elvira and Lyric were at the market place, Elvira got the wish to woohoo in tent with Lyric, and Lyric got the wish for another baby. Elvira still had the wish for a girl, so I figured why not. It'd keep Lyric young a little longer. I heard the baby bells, and automatically figured it was Lyric since she was the only one of the two that was capable of having babies. Nope. Got back, and Elvira kept getting sick, then spun into her "maternity wear" at the party. She was just a floating head with feet, so.. I decided that worked well with the elder-being-pregnant thing, I'd just not take any pictures of her and say she was bed ridden and had a hard time with the pregnancy. Eulalie made me happy, being a girl. Because I'd wanted one more girl, since when I played it last time, they'd adopted a little girl and named her Eulalie. Sorry I didn't show her, but that woulda had to show Elvira. XD Her traits are: neurotic and genius. Both of my girls are geniuses! Oh, and Dahlia's new trait is: family-oriented. Drazen's is: light sleeper. Yeah, Dahlia grew up well and Drazen didn't. The next "chapter" might be the heir vote, by the way.)