Gen 3 - Chapter 10: Not Quite a Fairytale

I wasn't going to tell Marcelo until I was sure. I spent those first few months, when I wasn't getting sick, distracting myself with Marcelo, or fixing things. Or upgrading things. I didn't want to think about possibly being pregnant - I mean, I wasn't ready to be a Mom. I mean, if I was a human I would have been a full-blown adult for a while now, but.. still! In vampire years, I was still a young adult and had years before I had to worry about having babies. I did notice that I was more emotional than usual, because when I would think about being pregnant sometimes, I would burst into tears. But that could be from anything. Right?

Eventually, I finally gave in and bought a test. It was positive. Not knowing what else to do, I put on a dress that I'd gotten for myself ages ago but had been too big before, and then went to tinker with the sink. I don't think I had fully processed anything yet. Baby. I was have a baby. I was having Marcelo's baby. Everything spun around my head for hours, until it finally all hit me, and I broke the sink. I didn't care, though - I completely ignored the water spraying me, as I placed my hands on my tummy and cooed to it. "Baby.. I like that idea. Mommy loves you, little one. I can't wait to meet you." 
Why had I ever been nervous? I was excited - more excited than I think I had ever been about anything, even when Marcelo told me he loved me. I was also scared, but that just added to the excitement in a strange way. I knew how to be a Mother - I'd had two examples. Now, the really nerve wracking part was how to tell my koi..
Oh. And my siblings. Especially my brothers. I hoped they wouldn't kill Marcelo for getting me pregnant before marrying me..

At least I was pretty sure that Quin wouldn't kill Marcelo; he was far too distracted with his own love life to worry much about mine. He still was confused and trying out girls, this time Kristy Harden had caught his eye. She was related to a girl that Mom Lyr had been interested in when she was a teenager, somehow, but I wasn't sure how. Daughter or niece, I think. But anyway, Quin had decided that he wanted to fall in love with her. I told him that it wasn't exactly something someone chose to do with a particular person, but he didn't listen, and rushed off to meet her at Smuggler's Cove. 
He told me bits and pieces of what went on, he was - again - too smitten when he got home to understand or even speak much. He did mention turning her, and I smacked my forehead. He was going to be publicly disgraced for that, I just knew it, but I was going to be publicly disgraced for having a child out of wedlock, so I said nothing. We could be stupid together.
But at least I'm not in love with the idea of being in love, I have true love. Even if my true love is too stubborn to admit it sometimes.

My baby bump developed far more quickly than I would have liked. I was going to wait as long as I could before I told my siblings about my pregnancy, but only a couple of months, they had all pretty much guessed it. I could tell, because they just started having conversations with me about the baby, and what I was going to name it, and what Marcelo and my living situation was going to be. I told them I really didn't know, and they told me that I should probably figure it out. They were right, I knew, and one day while I was reading, I just kept thinking. I was going to name my baby Rosella if it was a girl, and Eider if it was a boy. I had that much down. But as for living arrangements.. Marcelo and I hadn't seen each other since I'd started growing, and had only chatted online or over the phone, so he didn't even know I was pregnant. I know, I know, I needed to tell him, but it just seemed like something that should be told face to face. Not over the phone, text, IM, or email. And he couldn't visit right now - Jamal and Candy had had another baby, a little girl named Alicia, and she was a handful. I could have visited him, but my siblings didn't want to let me out of the house while I was pregnant. Bah.

At only seven months, I looked like I was going to pop any day. I felt like I was going to pop any day. I decided it was high time that I told Marcelo. I hoped that when I told him, he would immediately drop down on one knee and propose to me, but I knew that there was no way. We'd never talked about marriage - he was too busy helping out at home to think about getting married to me yet, so there was no way he'd have bought me a ring. I could dream, though.
I called him up, and waited. And waited, and waited. Finally, he answered, "Hiya, Dahlia."
I smiled nervously, trying to tell my nerves that I was going to have to do this sooner or later, and sooner was better than later. I wasn't going to wait until our baby was a teenager. "Hi, Marcelo. I'm going to get straight to the point - can you please come over?"
"Um.. I don't think I can right now, Dahlia. Candy really needs me-"
"I really need you, Marcelo. I really, really, really need you right now, okay? Tell your sister it's a matter of.. of life or death. Mostly life, but.. oh, please, if you need to just bring Alicia with you. I need you."
He was silent for a few moments, then I heard some voices on the other end. I felt tears gathering in my eyes - I was afraid he wasn't going to come. I needed to tell him - I finally had gotten the courage to tell him, I had to do it now. After what seemed like an eternity, he came back on. "Okay. I can come - she says she has plenty of help here. I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?"
"Okay. Thank you, so much. Tell Candy thank you for me, too."
"I will. I'll see you in a few minutes - I love you."
"I love you, too, koi."
Upon hanging up, I told Drazen to tell Marcelo to come downstairs when he got there. I was so big I could barely go up and down them, and if I didn't have to, I tried not to. I sat on the bed, and waited for my love to show up.

As soon as he walked in the bedroom door, I know that he knew what I needed him. I mean, who could miss a belly the size mine was? Even though I didn't need proof that he knew, I still got it, because his eyes widened a bit and his mouth dropped open a little as well. I stood, and waddled over in front of him, nervous again. "Hi Marcelo.. so I bet you'll never guess why I wanted to talk!"
He just stared at me with the same expression he'd had when he walked in, and said nothing. His eyes wandered down to my belly.
"Yep, you're going to be a Daddy."
He squeaked. I giggled. Then he looked back up into my eyes, his eyes still wide, but he was grinning now. "You're.. you're pregnant. Really pregnant. I'm going to be a Daddy? You're going to be a Mommy. This is GREAT news! Oh my gosh!" he gasped, and then pulled me in for a passionate kiss. I shouldn't have been worried - why had I been worried, again? I kissed him back, deeply, and the next thing I knew we were on the bed. Evidently he was really happy to be a Dad. I knew we probably shouldn't have while I was as big as I was and as far along, but at the time I was too happy to think about it. And nothing happened, so it wasn't a big deal anyway.
The rest of the night we spent cuddling together, sleeping a little, but mostly cuddling. When I woke up, he was gone, but there was a note telling me he loved me.

It was only days away from my due date when it was finally decided what the housing situation would be. I was not a fan of the idea, at all, but my siblings were insistent. They had decided that as soon as I had the baby, they would move out, so that Marcelo and I could get married and move in together. I tried telling them, several times, that I needed them around for a while after the baby's birth, but they kept telling me that it would be better if they let me get on with my life. I cried about it. I was sure that if I cried, they'd listen to me, but they didn't. So instead of moping about it, I tried to get as much time with them in as I could. 
I watched them - I felt like they were going to disappear of the face of the planet. I know it was just the hormones, but I still burst into tears whenever I thought about them moving out. They'd all already packed most of their things, and now it was just a waiting game. Drazen made me a sketch to cheer me up, but I didn't cheer up. I knew I should be happy, I was about to gain a husband and a child, but I was going to lose my siblings. Some may not look at it that way, but us Parodis.. once we moved on, we really moved on. Oh, sure, we called each other, sent emails, kept everyone in the loop, but we never really visited each other. I vowed that I would, but would I really?

To keep me from moping me too much more, finally Drazen told me I could get out of the house. In fact, he commanded that I go to the spa and get a massage for my aching back. I didn't argue, at all, because it had been aching more than usual that day. 
I had barely entered the doors, though, when my water broke. "Aaaah!" I gasped in pain, and gripped my belly. The receptionist, a teen boy, didn't seem to know what to do and started to panic, so I finally just told him to call the hospital and tell them that I was heading their way. He nodded and did as I told him, then I told him to call Marcelo's number and tell him to meet me at the hospital - then I headed out. The hospital was quite a ways away, but the receptionist had also told them to send an ambulance, so they got there within minutes and then I was at the hospital. Marcelo showed up shortly after I was ushered into a room.
The labor was.. long. Very, very long and painful, and I found myself crying a lot. I know it was at least twenty-four hours, before I could finally relax. Marcelo had left at some point, because he was needed at work. And then at home. I cried harder at that. Angrily, not just from pain. I shouted a lot about what sort of a person he was to do this to me, not marry me, and then abandon me. My poor babies, brought into the world hearing that..
Oh, yeah. Part of the reason it took so long, and was so painful, was because it was twins. The first baby was born, a little girl, and I named her Rosella as I said I would. And then about ten minutes later came her twin sister, Wren. 

It was several days before I was allowed to go home. I hadn't heard from Marcelo since he left the hospital, and I was kind of worried. Why hadn't he come to see me and his baby girls while we were recovering? All of my siblings had come to see me, and tell me that they had bought a house, they were working on moving their things there while I was recovering. Some of my cousins I'd never even met came to visit. Raul even came to see me and I didn't even like the man! I made sure to give him a piece of my mind about breaking my little brother's heart, and if I could have gotten out of that hospital bed without getting scolded, I would have beat him to a pulp.
Finally, when I got home, I dazedly snuggled my little Rosella, wrapped up in her sea foam blanket. The only one left in the house was Quin, and he was busy sending his computer files to his new computer. While I waited to be able to tell him see you later - not goodbye - I called Marcelo. I only got his voice mail, so I left him a message, "Hey, Marcelo.. I haven't seen you in days. You have two daughters, Rosella and Wren. I thought I would let you know. Where are you? I miss you.." I sighed, and then looked over at Quin, who was standing now, and avoiding looking at me.
"So.. I guess this is it."
"No, it's not it, Quin. It's not like you're dropping out of my life forever, or vice versa. You're just moving next door." Luckily for me, they literally lived right across the road from me. I looked down at Rosella as I spoke to him. "Feel free to visit. A lot. Please, visit as much as you want."
"I will."
"And tell me how things work out with Kristy."
"Oh, Kristy dumped me shortly after she turned.. she found a new guy. Then a new guy after him, and a new guy after him.. like Amaranth, she's not easily satisfied." he sighed deeply, then walked over and hugged me, careful of Rosella. "I love you sis, I will keep you informed of my love life."
"Good. I love you, too. And I'll keep you informed of mine, too." I kissed his cheek, and he kissed Rosella's forehead, before he left. I tried not to cry, but failed pretty miserably. So I snuggled Rosella closer to make myself feel better. "It's not like I'll never see them again.."

Being a single mother to twin girls wasn't nearly as difficult as I was afraid it would be. I'd heard horror stories from Mom that Grandma had told her about when she'd had Aunt Dee and Aunt Naomi. Maybe my little girls were just better behaved than my Aunts had been at their age? The first several months went by in a blur, and I never even got the time to think about calling Marcelo. Sure, I said it was easier than I imagined to take care of them, but I never said it was downright easy. When one would calm, I had to immediately go to the other one to take care of her.
The times I was able to take for myself, I got as much sleep as I could - it wasn't much, but it was something. Thankfully, I had Quin constantly calling me and updating me on himself and everyone else. Eulalie had finally found herself a guy, Willie Thirtytwo, and they were pretty committed to each other. Quin was still having troubles with what gender to like, and Zach wasn't helping matters because he'd gone a couple of dates with Kristy. And then there was Jere, my little unflirty one, had started seeing an old vampire, Brigit Hemlock. Here I'd thought he was asexual.

It was getting incredibly close to the girls' first birthday by the time Marcelo finally got in touch with me again. My phone rang, and I looked at it strangely, before answering it. "Hello?"
"Um.. hi Dahlia."
Irritation was the first thing to rush through me. How dare he take so long to get in touch with me? He hadn't even seen his baby girls, and here they were almost toddlers. I pressed my lips into a thin line and looked down at Wren, who I was holding, to calm myself. She cooed up at me, and I smiled, mouthing, 'Daddy's on the phone'. 
".. Dahlia, are you there? Listen, I'm sorry I've been gone, it was really sudden, we had to go away and visit family.. how is the baby? Was it a boy or a girl?"
"Twin girls. Their names are Rosella and Wren. So you left because you were visiting family? You could have waited before you abandoned me in the hospital."
I heard him sigh, in what sounded like relief. Well, understandably, he probably thought I wasn't going to talk to him at all. "Rosella and Wren.. I can't wait to meet them. And.. well, it wasn't exactly just a regular visit, it was more complicated than that. It was a family emergency, you know? I'd tell you more, but.. I'd rather not. Listen, I was calling to invite you to our welcome home party. It's formal. Would you like to come? Please?"
I hesitated for only a moment, before suddenly getting a wonderful, brilliant idea. I had Grandpa's wedding band hidden somewhere downstairs in Mom's dresser.. I beamed brightly. "I would love to come. In fact, I'll come early. See you in a few minutes."
"Great! I love you, and I'm sorry I abandoned you."
"It's okay. I'm forgiving. I love you too, Marcelo." He didn't deserve to be called koi right now. He was Marcelo until further notice.
As soon as I hung up, I called the babysitter, got my formal wear and Grandpa's wedding ring, and waited for her to arrive, before speeding off towards the Swan/Knowles residence.

I didn't waste any time when I got there. As soon as I spotted him standing in the yard, getting ready for the party, I approached him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hi." He turned, and upon seeing me, beamed and gave me a quick kiss. 
"Hi yourself. I'm glad you came. But.. you didn't bring the girls?"
"Well, I don't plan on staying too long. Tonight's their birthday, you know. I just had to come and do something.." I moved around in front of him, holding Grandpa's ring behind my back. He gave me an odd look at the 'do something', and I just grinned at him. I was excited - I had been waiting for this moment. I wanted to get married to him more than anything, now, and I didn't care if I had to ask him.
"Marcelo.. I love you, and I have for ages. You're the only guy I've ever thought about. The only one I've ever kissed, the only one I've ever.. well, you know. The father of my baby girls.. and, well.." I got down on one knee, despite the fact that it was nearly impossible to do in this dress. His eyes bugged out, and I knew he knew what I was doing. I brought the ring around in front of me, and opened it up to him. "Marcelo Edwin Knowles, will you marry me?"
He gasped, and I gave him my best, most charming grin. I figured I knew what the answer was..

.. but I was wrong. His face drooped, and he reached forward, closing the little black box. "Dahlia, I can't.. I'm sorry. Not right now. I'm.. I mean, I want to marry you, but I can't right now."
I stayed there, staring at him with all my heartbreak evident on my face. "But.. Marcelo..." I whispered, unable to quite process anything yet. He'd said no? But.. why had he said no? Not right now? He wants to, but not right now? I looked down at the box in my hands, and stared at it, not wanting to look at him any longer. Now the heartbreak was dissipating, and something else was taking it's place.
"Dahlia, I'm really sorry.."

"YOU'RE SORRY?!" I snapped, and rushed to my feet, my red head's temper flaring up. Oh, sure, I didn't have naturally red hair, but my Grandma's father had red hair, and my Mama Elvy had red hair. So it was there, just waiting to pounce. I also had tears streaking down my cheeks, my teeth gritting. I'm sure that if Marcelo was a human, he probably would have been wetting himself out of fear - as it was, he did seem pretty terrified anyway.
"Dahlia-"
"NO! You are not going to 'Dahlia' me! How dare you?! You have been keeping me at arms length since we started dating, and I just figured it was because of your stupid 'emotions are difficult' thing, but I'm beginning to think you have secret commitment issues! Or do you even love me? And what's worse, you can't even take responsibility for what you've done?! So you're FINE with the fun before getting me pregnant, and you're even okay with me being pregnant, but once it comes to actually taking RESPONSIBILITY for it and marrying me, oh no you couldn't possibly?! You are an immature jerk! There are worse words for what I'm thinking, but there are children around. And you abandoned me! You abandoned me, and don't give me the 'family emergency' excuse because you could have caught up with them after the babies were born! The girls are having their first birthday tonight, Marcelo, and because I came here tonight to PROPOSE to you, I'm probably going to miss their birthdays! So, don't you dare 'Dahlia' me! I need to leave now. Unless you're going to change your answer. Are you?" I pressed my lips into a line, and glared at him.
He seemed for a moment like he was going to apologize again, or give me the answer I wanted, but after a moment he looked away from me and sighed. "You're right, but.."
"That's what I thought. Bye." And with that, I headed home to two little girls that I knew loved me no matter what.

I was just barely in time to see Rosella age up into a perfect mix of her father and me, with my hair and Marcelo's eyes. I could tell right now that she was going to be absolutely stunning, and it was not just a mother's bias. And she was such a happily little thing already, I hoped that she kept that as she grew up.

As soon as Rosella had grown up, it was Wren's turn, and I watched her as she grew into her sister's opposite. Marcelo's red hair, and my teal eyes, with what seemed to be my face shape. Also a beautiful little girl, and I was a proud Mama. 

Since Rosella was already busy with exploring the new world of toys, I picked up Wren and snuggled her close, tears already beginning to come again. "Wren.. I just wish, for once, Daddy would make things easy on Mommy.."
She babbled lightly to me, and attempted to hug me back. I smiled, and wiped at a tear, then kissed her on the top of her head. "But, don't worry. Mommy's not going to give up until Daddy outright tells her he doesn't love her." I had a secret weapon, and that was my wish power. Oh, I felt like giving up, telling him I didn't even want to see him anymore. I was tired of being hurt so much, even if he always had a good excuse - but I wanted to get married, and he was the only one I could imagine being married to. And our daughters deserved to have a Daddy in their lives.


(A/N: I was SO angry at Marcelo when he turned Dahlia down, and then I realized it was my own fault, because I used the 'special..' hopeless romantic ability to propose without getting to 'extremely irresistible'. At least it got more plot! I like plot. Anyway, so, the girls' traits: Rosella has good and excitable, and Wren has excitable and brave. I know there's other stuff that I want to say about this, but.. I can't think of any right now.)

Gen 3 - Chapter 9: Lots of Love and a Time Machine

Eulalie had found the perfect way to distract a paparazzo from doing his job - flirting. While not wearing a shirt, or even a bra with straps. She had told me that she'd been wanting to flirt with our current pap, Matthew Jolly, and so when I saw her outside talking to him in her sleepwear one morning, it didn't surprise me. At all. I doubted that anything was going to come of the flirting, but I hoped for her sake that something would. Unless she didn't want anything to come of it. I wouldn't put it past her, she did love just plain old flirting with no strings attached..

I had been spending most of my weeks after my 'encounter' with Marcelo, at the library. Or talking on the phone with him, because he was constantly busy with one thing or the other, having a sister that kept getting pregnant by my cousin, Jamal, so there were babies to take care of constantly, and he was the only one home during the day. I offered to come over and help him, but he always turned me down, saying that he was fine and wasn't sure that we'd actually watch the kids. He had a good point, there.
One week, I hadn't talked to him, or anyone really, at all for about three days. I was lonely, and I wanted to go see a game at the stadium. That gave me an idea - I slipped my phone out of my pocket, and dialed Marcelo's number.
"Hi Dahlia."
"Great, you're there! Hello, koi."
"Do you have to call me that? It makes me sound like a fish."
"Yes I do have to call you that, and, well, you know, you do kind of look like a koi fish. You have the right color of orange.."
"Oh, shut up."
"Heehee. I like calling you koi, because it's a cute pet name, and it's 'lover' in Japanese. Anyway, the reason I called. I'm gonna be going to a game at the stadium later, and was curious if you'd want to go with me.. I'm so lonely. Everyone else has their own things going on, and I haven't even said hello to any of my siblings since Saturday. And it's Wednesday."
I heard a pause on the other end, and waited for him to give me an answer, nervously. "Okay, sure." I could have cheered. Instead, I just grinned. "Mom's home, and she offered to do the babysitting for me. Meet you there?"
"Yay! Yes, I will meet you there shortly. I love you."
"I.. I love you, too." It still always took a little bit of prodding to get it out of him, and I really had no idea why. His family weren't exactly the unloving kind, in fact, they always seemed quite loving. But ah well.
I hung up my cell when I heard his end click, and then quickly got as ready as I needed to get, before heading off towards the stadium, excited to see my love.

He was already there when I got there, waiting for me, and the reason of why we were there instead of at his house or mine was completely pushed out of my mind. I went up to him, and we both started into small talk, about celestial bodies. I have to admit, I think I intimidated him with what I knew, but he hadn't mastered his logic skill yet, and I had. With the telescope. I felt bad, but at the same time, I wanted to share what I knew because he was going to be an astronaut, and astronauts should know those sorts of things.
After a while, I suddenly remembered why we were there, and I looked behind me at all the people pouring out of the doors, then sighed and looked at Marcelo. "Looks like we're a little late to go to a game.."
"I have a better idea of what we could do." he said, and grabbed my hands gently, smiling and swinging our hands back and forth, then into each other. "It involves your lips, and my lips, and no space in between them."
"I like that idea." I chirped, and smiled in a way that I thought was flirtatious, before pulling him in for a deep, passionate kiss, and embrace.
We stayed that way for a while, and we could hear people that passed by whispering about us, but we didn't care. Eventually, though, he pulled back, and when his eyes opened, his rather intense incredibly light blue - anyone without vampire vision would say they're white - gaze landed on my own eyes. I don't even remember how long we just stood like that, staring into each other's eyes, before he sighed deeply, pecking my nose. "I should go. I'm really tired, and want to actually get to sleep at night for once.." he stroked my cheek, and then smiled. "See you later, mio amore."
"Okay.." I leaned my face into his hand, somewhat like a cat being petted. "See you soon, I hope, koi."
He kissed me sweetly, then turned and hailed a cab, and sped off into the night. I sighed happily, then hopped into my own car and drove off. I still couldn't believe that I had such an amazing man. Why had he fallen for me, Miss Un-Extraordinary? I kept telling myself not to question it, because he always got irritated at me when I voiced my opinion about how he should have fallen for someone better for him. As I drove home, I reminded myself that at least I had a good personality, even if it was rather boring. 

  
While I was off with Marcelo, and then heading home, Eulalie was showing her awesomeness off to an empty Aquarius. She'd gotten a call from her agent, and was told to dance for three hours there. I know my sister is an amazing dancer, so when she told me earlier in the day that she was going to go there and dance later, I figured she wouldn't be coming home that night. Her flirty nature, her gorgeousness, her great dancing, and alcohol? I figured she'd find a guy and not come home. But nope, just after I got home, she got home as well, and complained about how there wasn't even a bartender there. Wow, no wonder they needed a celebrity to go dance there, if the mixologists didn't even show up..

I'd heard from someone I was chatting online with, that Quin's romantic possibility, Amaranth, had been seeing another guy, Donnell Petrov, on the side. I tried to tell Quin, and make him go back to himself, but he just decided that he had to try harder to win her love. Why hadn't he done that with Raul? I like to think it's because he knew Raul was a jerk, and wouldn't care about Quin's feelings so he decided to give up. I think the real reason is because he did really love Raul, and if the other male was happy, Quin was happy. Sigh.
But anyway, right after I told him what I heard Amaranth and he decided to try harder, he immediately left. "Quin-!" I called as he ran out, but just sighed. Ah well, let him make his own mistakes. Realize who he is by himself. When he got home, he was rather happy and floaty, so I figured it must have went well - he refused to tell me anything, but the look on his face told me a lot. 

  
Waiting for Sunday to come around, I read. Constantly. Again. I wanted to read thirty books, and I was getting very close. Marcelo and I weren't really talking as much as I would have liked, again, but he was always busy when I would call, so I told him I'd leave it up to him to call. He wasn't big on taking the initiative, though, so he didn't usually call. Thusly, I was usually stuck in the library reading towards my goal of thirty books. 

Every day, when Zach would get home from work, he would go straight to the inventor's workbench. He was determined to make a time machine, and often wouldn't even talk to any of us because he was so intent on just.. inventing. I don't know why. I mean, a time machine would be fun, but it was making him go a little insane.
Quin was having different sort of problems - love problems, again. I warned him about Amaranth, but he didn't listen, and one day when he called her up, she told him that she wasn't interested in him at the moment, because she was pregnant with Donnell's baby. The rest of the day, he kind of spent just staring into the mirror. I tried to comfort him, or ask him what the matter was, and he just shrugged me off and muttered something. I couldn't quite tell what it was, but I had a feeling that he was actually beginning to get down in the dumps for the first time in his life. He was such a romantic, and it seemed that no matter who he tried to love, they just shrugged him off. The next person to hurt him was going to have to answer to me.
Jere was obsessed with slimming down, being the heaviest set of us siblings now that Zach had worked his own chubbiness off. I was proud of Jere, but it got kind of annoying, because he was constantly working out and he got a bit on the smelly side.
Veronique was going to be going back to France soon, and so Drazen was spending most of his time either with her, or working on cases he was getting. I felt bad for him that she was going back, but it was kind of his own fault for not inviting her to move in. Or proposing. I suppose I shouldn't be the one to talk here, though. I was the same until Estiu told me to work for my love.. heh.

Saturday night, I wrote for quite a while on 'Until My Last Breath', because I really needed to get this book published. I wrote on it so rarely, that it was a wonder I still remembered where I was going on it. I suppose it's the being-a-genius-vampire thing. But, when I got off to go to bed so I'd be rested for the game on Sunday, the computer broke down. Too tired to fix it right then, I went to sleep, and when I got up the next morning, when to work fixing it. That got me interested in handiness - this fixing things was pretty fun. No wonder Lalie did it all the time. She'd already upgraded about five things to self-cleaning, and I suddenly though that maybe I'd upgrade a few things myself. But not yet. I still had to go to my sports game.

Finally, it was time for me to head to the game, and this time I didn't invite Marcelo because I would forget about going to the game again, knowing me. When I got there, and headed inside, I spotted a pretty pregnant Amaranth. It was amazing she could have hidden that belly from Quin when he was there. I felt my temper rising, and it was all I could do to just walk past her and into the building instead of yelling at her for hurting my little brother.

When I got home that night after watching an awesome game and having a great time, I saw Zach punching in some numbers on this.. big metal thing. When the doors opened, and it was glowing purple, my jaw dropped. He'd finally invented it! The time machine! "ZACH!" I yelled as he jumped in, and reached out for him, but then he was gone, and the doors were closed. The elevator-looking box had an odd wavering about it, and I didn't want to get close to it, but I was worried about my brother. Would he come back safe? I guess I'd have to just believe that he had things under control. After all, he wouldn't jump into the time stream if he didn't know what he was doing.. right?
He did come back, later, and immediately went to get plasma. I guess things went pretty well, because as soon as he was done with the plasma, he hopped right back into the time machine.
I have to admit.. it did have a certain appeal to it. Time travel..

After a little while, I felt the need for Marcelo's company again, because siblings are great company and all, but they aren't the same as a boyfriend. Even though we weren't technically even going out. I dialed his number, and first we chatted for a while. About random things. I told him about Zach's time machine, he told me about my cousin and his sister's son, Jaime, and how fast the kid was growing. I told him about how many version of 'Jaime' there were in my extended family and extremely distance family. Jami, Jaime, Jayme.. I think there might have been a Jamie, too. That made him laugh, and I vowed that I would never name a kid a J name, simply because there were already too many J Parodis.
After a little while, when it started to get light out, I looked out the window. "I miss you, Marcelo. You should come over." I said, adding a hint of pleading to my tone. I wished I could give him a puppy dog look - I totally would have if I could have.
"I miss you, too, Dahlia.. I'll be over there in a few minutes, alright?"
"Eeee! Okay! See you soon!" I hung up, and went to wait at the door for when he arrived.

As soon as he got there, I zoomed out the door and scooped him into my arms, kissing him in greeting. When I pulled back, he laughed and smiled at me. "Hello to you, too."
"You took too long. I was getting impatient. Let's go downstairs." I kissed him one more time, before dragging him downstairs after me, occasionally just stopping and making out a little before we'd get to the bedroom. When we finally got to the bed, we spent all day there. We'd rest for a bit in between times, though, and just lay in bed and stare at each other. I loved my man, and he loved me, and I was so perfectly content.

I was perfectly content for a few weeks after it, until suddenly everything started coming up on me. I couldn't keep anything down, but yet, not much later I would be starving. I had a nagging suspicion at the back of my mind, and I wanted to refuse to believe it. I mean.. I couldn't be, could I? We were careful. At least, I thought we were.

(A/N: Eheheheheh. Sooo, this update was actually over the span of, like.. a Sim week and a half. I had a whole lot more pictures than this, but most of them were of her siblings, and none of them were really that interesting or easy to write about. I actually didn't plan Dahlia's pregnancy, I just jokingly used the 'risky woohoo', which I have set at 42% chance and even then doesn't usually work, but it did work that time. Hah! Well, in the past two generations by this time there was already toddlers, so I'm going at a good speed then! And.. I'm already at what I deem heir-vote-time in-game and want to play, so that's another reason why I skipped over a lot. Poor Quin has horrible luck in love - as soon as he's interested in someone, they find someone else. And Aquarius is glitched in my game, because no one can use the elevator. In order to complete the opportunity, since I had cancelled two before it, I had to eventually cheat and teleport Eulalie to the dance floor. XP That's part of the reason I'm debating moving them for the next generation. Practically everything is glitched.)