AN: Merry Christmas! My gift to you is this extremely long, Christmasy-ish chapter.
A few months later.
It had grown cold in Bridgeport, which was expected during the arrival of winter. It didn’t always snow, but you could almost guarantee that it sure felt like it should.
Noah was a happy baby, though he was a bit of a light sleeper. Paxton turned out to be a brilliant mother, even though there were times when she would doubt herself, blame herself for things that weren’t in her control.
I walked into her room, looking for her. I finally found her standing over Noah’s crib. I came up beside her, though she didn’t seem to notice.
“Archer invited us over to his house for Christmas,” I whispered. Paxton took her gaze away from her sleeping son and finally seemed to notice I was there.
“Oh,” She said, returning her gaze to Noah. We both stood there a while, staring at the consistent rise and fall of his small chest.
“Noah has his eyes,” She whispered suddenly. His, as in his father.
“I love Noah, I love him so much that it hurts. It’s just, sometimes, I’ll look into his eyes and see Garrett’s. I try to remember that Noah’s not Garrett, RJ. I do. ” Paxton continued, her gaze never leaving her son. He held many of her features, right down to the blond hair possessed by our father, and grandmother before him. I’d known where his eyes had come from. No one in our family possessed that mixture of green and yellow.
“You’ve got to let him know that, Pax.”
“I know. It’s just, one day, I’m going to look into his eyes, and see his father’s looking back at me,” She said, turing her head towards me to reveal large tears rolling down her cheeks.
I put an arm around my sister and held her close.
“He used to hurt me, RJ,” Paxton said, though it was muffled against my chest. “I would look up into his eyes and see nothing but anger. And now Noah has his eyes. I’m scared that because I think of Garrett when I look into Noah’s eyes, I’m not going to be a good mother.”
“Paxton, let me damn well assure you that you are one of the greatest mother’s I’ve ever met. You love him unconditionally, and you take care of him to the best of your abilities. If that’s not a good mother, then I sure as hell don’t know what is.”
Paxton raised her head from my chest. “When did my little brother learn all the right words to say?”
“When he earned his Doctorate degree,” I mumbled. Paxton rolled her eyes, and softly swatter my shoulder.
“So, Jane, I was wondering if you and Jake would like to spend Christmas with my family, since… you know… it’ll be different this year. I’m actually spending it at my Uncle’s house, um, the father of one of Jake’s classmates, Kaylee. So, if you’d like to, that’d be great. I just don’t want you two to be alone. Just call me and tell me what you think. Uh, bye. Oh, wait! This is RJ,” I said as I hastily left Jane a message. I honestly sounded like a nervous teenager. God, what’s wrong with me?
My phone began to go off, and I grabbed at it embarrassingly fast, hoping that maybe she had gotten my message. I was sorely disappointed to see that it was an unknown number.
“Dr. Rowan de Marco?” Asked a voice on the other end.
“This is he.”
“Dr. de Marco, do you know anyone by the name of Jessica Witman?” This peaked my interest. I hadn’t heard from her in almost a year.
“Yes, I do, though I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Dr. de Marco, would you mind coming to the Bloom Wellness Facility in Moonlight Falls as soon as possible?” Moonlight Falls?
“What business do I have in Moonlight Falls that concerns Jessica?”
“Dr. de Marco, I cannot disclose any information unless it is person,” The voice said, a hint of snark in their tone. I rolled my eyes in frustration.
“You’re lucky it’s only a two hour drive form here,” I said, and abruptly hung up my cellphone.
I called Paxton while on my way to Moonlight Falls, giving her a lame excuse of having an emergency doctor’s convention. She didn’t seem to believe me, but sounded too tired to argue.
I arrived at the Bloom Wellness Facility at around sunset. I walked into the doors and was greeted with the familiar, sterile smell of a hospital.
“Rowan de Marco,” I said to the nurse at the front desk. ” I got a call telling me I need to be here.”
The nurse searched her computer. ” Ah Ha! Found you! You must be here to see Margaret.”
“I suppose. I wasn’t exactly told a name.” The nurse shook her head in annoyance, as if that was a common occurrence.
“I swear, that woman. So old she’s turned batty,” The nurse mumbled to herself. “You’ll find her down the hall, last door on the right.”
I nodded in thanks, and made my way to the designated room. The door was open, and at the desk typing away was an old woman who looked well past the age for retirement.
“Dr. de Marco?” She said when she finally looked up at me.
“Yes.”
“I knew it! I could tell by your eyes,” She said, as though it was the most surest thing in the world. “Come now, sit.”
Margaret motioned for me to sit in one of the uncomfortable looking wooden chairs. I sighed, but sat down anyway.
“My name is Margaret Jones, but please, just call me Margaret. Everyone does.”
“Yeah, well, hello Margaret. Can you please explain to me why I just had to drive two hours from Bridgeport to Moonlight Falls?”
Margaret looked dazed, as though she had almost forgotten. “Oh, yes. Well, I’m a family social worker for this lovely town. Have been for, well, I’ve forgotten how many years, but it’s been a while.”
“And why do I need to meet with a family social worker?”
“Before I answer your question, Dr. de Marco, you’ll have to answer some for me.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Fine.”
“Good boy. Now, you do know a woman named Jessica Witman, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever engaged in sexual relations with this woman?”
“Yes.”
“How long has it been since you last saw her?”
“Almost a year.”
“Were you aware that she was just arrested a few days ago?”
“Jessica arrested?” I asked, my eyes wide with shock. I knew she was crazy, but I didn’t think she was that crazy.
“Yes, with charges of stalking, theft, along with breaking and entering on multiple accounts.”
“Wow,” I said, unsure of how to respond.
“Did you know that Ms. Witman was pregnant until fours months ago?”
Upon hearing this, I gripped the sides of my uncomfortable chair. Jessica…Pregnant? She couldn’t have possibly been pregnant. She-She always told me she was taking her birth control medicine. Unless, she lied to me.
“And-And who is registered as the baby’s father?”
“Dr. de Marco, I think we both know the answer to that,” Margaret said. The room suddenly began to shrink, and I was helpless to do anything to stop it.
“Since Jessica is currently charged with such numerous crimes, it was decided that she wasn’t capable of holding custody of the boys.”
“Boys?!?”
“Twins, Dr. de Marco.” Twins. I have twin sons.
“As I was saying, she has no living relatives, and the only option besides you would be foster care, and we prefer not to do that unless there as simply no other options.”
“There’s got to be a mistake! I don’t have…have sons!”
“When I told you I could recognize you by your eyes, Dr. de Marco, I wasn’t kidding. One of your sons’ has them.”
“I can’t be father,” I whispered. Margaret looked at me sympathetically, and walked over towards me.
“Would you at least like to see them?” I didn’t say anything, but nodded in response. She smiled and began leading me to where my sons were being kept.
We arrived in a room that had many cribs, though only two were being occupied. Margaret stayed by the door, but motioned for me to walk forwards.
The first crib held a boy with my hair and my eyes. Those damn de Marco genes just refused to submit. He looked up at me and smiled. I forced a smile back.
The other crib held another boy with the same brown hair, though his eyes were ice blue like Jessica’s. Like his brother, he smiled at me.
“How long until they can be released to leave with me,” I said without taking my attention away from the cribs.
“It shouldn’t take long at all,” Margaret said, her voice growing closer with each step she took towards me. “The one with your eyes is named Gray, and the one with the blue eyes is named Jaden.”
Gray and Jaden. My sons.
Arriving home with two children on my hip was a rather awkward affair. I’d had to stay in Moonlight Falls a few days, while all the paperwork was put in order, and I’d had no less than twenty calls from Paxton demanding I tell her exactly when I was coming home. She’d sounded frazzled, as she’d never been left alone with Noah for so long. Of course, once I told her why I was in Moonlight Falls, she flipped out entirely.
“How do you even know they’re your’s?” She demanded. I held the phone silently for a few minutes.
“I just do,” I said, and Paxton didn’t say another word of doubt again.
As soon as we were home, I put my boys in the two cribs I had asked Paxton to buy before I arrived home. They fell asleep instantly, barely giving Paxton anytime to get a good glance at them.
“You know, I never saw this coming for either of us,” Paxton said as we both flopped onto the couch in exhaustion.
“Being a single father at 26 didn’t exactly make it onto the list of things I wanted to do when I grew up.”
“Neither did being a single mother at 28. Do you love them RJ?”
I looked into the golden eyes that matched my own. “I haven’t even known them a week, and I know that I would give my life for them if had to.”
Paxton smiled. “That’s how I feel about Noah.”
We sat in comfortable silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company.
“Oh, a girl named Jane called while you were gone.” Paxton whispered, breaking our silence.
I tried to keep my voice calm, but, in reality, I felt jittery. “And.”
“And she said she would be, how did she put it, oh wait. She said she’d be delighted, and that they’d meet you there. Delighted about?”
“I asked her and her brother to celebrate Christmas with us at Archer’s house.” Paxton narrowed her eyes, and a smirk made it’s way onto her face.
“So you invited a girl to meet the family?” She asked, hinting at something more than an innocent get together.
“It’s not like that, Pax. They lost their father a few months ago, and I didn’t want them to spend Christmas alone.”
“Uh huh. So you like her, and didn’t want her to be alone?” Paxton asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. I rolled my eyes at my sister, ready to be done with the conversation.
“Yes-No-I don’t know. I just know that her brother’s one of my favorite patients. He’s a good kid.”
“Okay,” Paxton said, feigning defeat, though anyone with sense could tell that didn’t believe a word I was saying.
“Besides, with the talk of family get togethers, shouldn’t you have called Mom and Dad by now. It’s been months,” I started, killing two birds with one stone in the process: Changing the subject, and convincing her to call them.
Paxton looked down at her lap. “It’s not the right time.”
“When will be the right time?” I asked softly.
“Soon.”
If Archer freaked out the first time he saw my pregnant sister, then he must have had an internal nuclear explosion when he saw me walk in on Christmas Day with the twins.
I sat them both down on the floor as Archer made his way, quickly, over towards me. Paxton was behind me, though she continued to hold Noah.
“RJ,” He whispered harshly. “Why in the hell do you have two children?”
“They’re my sons.”
His blue eyes grew wide. “Really? Now? Had I known I wouldn’t have invited-”
He never got to finish, though, as a shocked gasp stopped him cold. I looked towards the source of the gasp and saw my mother standing frozen, her gray eyes large.
“Paxton?” She asked, walking slowly towards my sister. My father suddenly walked into the room.
“Cora? Where are-,” He stopped dead. His face utter shock and disbelief at the sight of my sister, who my parents hadn’t seen in 10 years.
“Paxton.”
Paxton was silent as our parents stared, though tears began to roll down her face. “I messed up.”
I thought my parents were going to fall down in tears right then, but they didn’t. Instead, they rushed towards her, and threw their arms around her and Noah. All three of them were mass of tears, save for Noah who looked around the house, dazed. I heard only mutters of “I’m sorry” from all three of them.
I felt a pressure on my leg, and looked down to see that Jaden had crawled towards me, and was demanding my attention. I scooped up my son, and held him close.
They broke away from their embrace, and it seemed that a cloud that I hadn’t even notice hung over Paxton was lifted.
“Who’s this?” My mom asked, running her fingers over Noah’s cheeks. Paxton looked at her yellow-eyed son and smiled.
“His name’s Noah.” My mom smiled, and, surprisingly, so did my dad. I looked around for Gray, and finally found him crawling towards Mom. She looked down into his golden eyes in surprise, though she picked him up just the same.
“And who are you?” She asked in childlike voice. I walked over towards them, and finally made my presence well known.
“His name’s Gray. He’s my son.”
She looked at him once again, this time seeing him differently. She rubbed his thick, brown hair. My father stayed silent, staring at his grandsons in shock.
“And this,” He finally asked after a while, indicating the boy in my arms.
“This is Jaden.”
“They look like you,” My dad said. I gave him a lopsided smile.
“At least we know they’ll be handsome.” I said jokingly. My dad rolled his eyes, but I could tell that he was happy. Our broken family had been brought together.
I suddenly heard a shriek of a child’s laughter, and I looked to see my mother tickling Gray. Really, you’d think all this smiling I had been doing would make my mouth sore, which it did. But it was a good sore.
“RJ!’ I heard a scream, and looked to see Kaylee and James, who had hit a large growth spurt in a short amount of time, running towards me. They stopped once they made it to me.
“Woah,” Kaylee said in awe. “You multiplied.”
The room was filled with laughter, even all the toddlers laughed, though they weren’t sure why they were laughing.
The door bell rang, and Kaylee’s eye lit up in joy. “It’s Jake!”
She ran towards the door, and opened it to reveal Jake with Jane in tow. Kaylee grabbed Jake, and pulled him towards the direction of the playroom to show all the toys she’d gotten for Christmas, with James struggling to catch up.
Jane stood frazzled in front of the door. I walked over towards her, still holding Jaden in my arms. “Jane, I’m glad you could make it.”
She smiled softly at me, though her eyes never left Jaden. “So am I. Who’s this?”
I looked down at my blue eyed son. “This is Jaden. He’s my son.”
Jane took a double take. “I-I didn’t know you had a son.”
“I didn’t know either until a few days ago. Sons, actually. The boy with brown hair over there is mine too. His name’s Gray.”
Jane looked at Jaden once more, trying to remain calm, though I could tell she was nervous. “And what about their mother?”
“Out of the picture,” I replied nonchalantly. Jane seemed to perk up at the news, though she quickly tried to hide it.
“Dinner’s ready!” Sora called, emerging from the kitchen with Emma on her hip.
After dinner, we had all managed to gather in living room. The children played with their toys.
Emma and Noah became quick friends , leaving Paxton a moment of rest.
Gray bounced between both his grandparents, babbling to them nonsense of a toddler, though they babbled right back to him. It was honestly a sight to see, my dad babbling to a baby.
Jaden refused to leave my side. Though I hadn’t know them long, their personalities began to show. Gray and Jaden weren’t that different, the only difference being that Gray was very social, while Jaden chose to hang in the background around people he knew.
Jane made her way over to me. “Do you think he’ll let me hold him?”
I looked down at Jaden, who gripped my shirt tightly. “He might, though I can’t give you a certain answer.”
Jane nodded, and began talking to Jaden in my arms. He looked at her with distrust at first, but slowly began to grow comfortable in her presence. Finally, Jane grew confident, and motion for Jaden to come to her with her hands. He looked at them for a few moments, but loosened his grip on my shirt and made his way towards Jane.
Jane grabbed him happily, and tickled him, making him laugh. She laughed as well, and I noticed how beautiful she looked when she laughed. I also realized at that moment I was doomed.
“RJ,” Someone said beside me. I looked over to see Paxton. “Can I talk to you for a minute.”
I nodded. and turned to Jane. ” Will you be fine holding him for a few minutes.”
Jane gave me a look, and rolled her eyes. “How couldn’t I?”
I smiled, and let Paxton drag me over to an empty corner.
“RJ, I think I’m going to move back in with Mom and Dad, along with Noah, of course. ” Paxton said, smiling happily.
“I think that’s great,” I said, and truly meant it.
“I’m just telling you because, you have the twins now, and I’m not gonna be there to help you with them.” Oh. I didn’t reply right away, which Paxton took as me disagreeing with her idea.
“I mean, I don’t have to. I can-”
“No,” I cut her off. “No, I’ll figure out something.”
“I was actually thinking you could ask her to watch them,” Paxton said, nodding towards Jane.
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“Besides, this would give you the chance to see her more often.”
I glared at my sister, even though the idea was appealing. I was sure that there wasn’t anyone that would take better care of them than her.
“You know, I might just miss you,” I said, causing Paxton to smile.
“I might even miss you too, Little Brother.”
Paxton and I talked for a little longer, discussing plans of how she was going to move out and when. After that, I made my way back to Jane, who still held a yawning Jaden.
“I think you’ve tired him out,” I said jokingly. Jane looked up at me and smiled.
“Just a little. He’s such a doll though, RJ.”
“You know, you could see him and Gray more often, I mean, if you’d like.” She looked at me with interest and in confusion, he eyebrows furrowed.
“How?”
“Paxton’s moving back in with my parents, and I work a lot, and I’m just not sure about asking someone I don’t know to watch them.”
“Do you mean you’d want me to watch them?”
“Yeah, I mean, I would pay, seeing as it would be a full time job to keep up with them.”
Jane looked thoughtful for a few moments. She finally nodded after a while, and had a large smile on her face.
“I’d love to.”
“Hey, de Marco’s! Pose for a family picture,” Sora called.
“Okay. Scoot in a little. Ready! 1, 2, 3! Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas!”
AN: I love the twins! Those de Marco genes just refuse to die. Of course, I’ve grown really fond of their golden eyes, so I’m not complaining. I just love how Elijah’s genetics continue to make an impact, along with Talia’s blond hair. Really though, if you think about it, Paxton and RJ look more like Elijah and Talia’s children more than anything. Merry Christmas y’all!
Twin Spam:
Remember: Gray = Gold eyes Jaden = Blue eyes
I know, it’s sounds like it should be different, especially since when I think of the name Jaden, I think of this lovely Yugioh character:
Happy Simming!
The de Marco Legacy for Sims 3 