*Trudy's P.O.V.*

I was in a room, watching a parade or something and then Vera was in the room. Suddenly I was stood with her, yet I didn't remember moving. I was talking to her. Then I knew why she wouldn't look at me and she sat down.

I told her that I knew why she wouldn't talk to me.

"You didn't like your present."

I have no idea why I mentioned that, even as I held up a box of chocolates.

"I don't eat chocolate."

I was talking crazy. But then it got crazier, I was crying. She left the room, but I handed her the box.

"At least take another look. You might find something you like."

She had a look at the animal print patterned locket I'd put in the box for her. She turned back and hugged me. I knew that this was her apology.

Then I was in a courtroom of some kind. Some people and I were talking, but I heard Jasper's name come up. I wanted to perk up and learn more. I just couldn't.

The crazy thing was: Jasper wasn't there and my beautiful daughter wasn't on my lap and hoping to be fed.

Then I opened my eyes. I was lay next to Jasper, my coming child kicking me and my baby girl trying to hop out of bed by herself and failing very miserably.

I got out of bed and picked up my tiny daughter.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

"Mama! Me hear you cwy in you sweep, is you OK?"

"Yes, I was just having a strange dream."

"Me did too! Me dweam me was fwying with bubberfwies."

"That sounds beautiful, baby."

She was beautiful and she was very happy to be relaxing with me.

(An hour later.)

Jasper was trying to teach my child to walk. She was lying on the floor and barely gurgling or smiling.

She was tiny enough to be a newborn without the curling.

"Come on, baby. Just try."

She blinked up at him. He was fast losing patience with her.

"Come on, Tee! You're a big girl, you can learn to do this!" His voice had raised slightly.

I ran to them and scooped up my baby. Jasper gave me a look as I cradled Tee like she was a newborn baby.

"Don't you want her to learn to walk?"

"Yes, but she clearly doesn't want to. Shouting at her is not going to make her want to do it more. She'll be more scared. Just treat her gently."

"I've been trying to do that, but she just won't listen."

"I know, sweetheart, I've been listening. But darling, this is a new experience for you both. Try to remember that you aren't the only one learning new things, she is too. She might be a bit irritating to you right now, but you have to work with her a little."

"OK, I'll try again. But I'll need you to be here in case she acts difficult."

"OK." My baby started squealing and sucking on my shirt. "What is it, baby?" Another squeal and she sucked on my shirt again.

She just wouldn't speak. "Is my baby girl thirsty?"

She squealed again. It seemed to me like she wanted milk.

"Yeah, she's thirsty. Come on, pet, you can have some milk." I sat down on the sofa with her, then I let her feed.

Jasper sat with me, looking at our sleepy child as she was falling asleep.

"Is she really just tired? Because she's been this way for half an hour."

"Yes, she must just be tired. It must be hard work for her, you know, learning at such a young age."

He gave me a look that clearly hinted that he thought I was nuts. Well, maybe I was. But that didn't stop me from loving my family.

(Four hours later.)

Tee had slept for the last four hours straight. I was very concerned. When she did wake up, she'd made a mess in her nappy. I changed her and put her in sky blue jeans and a baby blue shirt. She looked beautiful. She gave me a look, the same one she'd given me when she was born.

"Can you say something to Mama, baby?"

She gave a little gurgle. Maybe she was feeling threatened again and she was regressing to a newborn. I picked her up.

"My little newborn baby. Who's such a gorgeous baby?"

A sweet gurgle.

"I know why you're doing this, baby. I really do. I love you for it, gorgeous."

Then Jasper came back.

"She's finally awake, then?"

"Yeah. She's just feeling threatened again and she wants to be treated as a newborn baby herself. That's all."

"Oh, I get it. Yeah, we can do that."

So we treated her like our newborn baby. She was happy with that.

Lucy came downstairs with Dixie, both of them giggling. Then they saw Tee being babied, understanding it all instantly.

"Aw, look at the precious new baby!"

*Jasper's P.O.V.*

Great. Just great. I have a crazy wife, a child who was trying to be a newborn again because she felt threatened by Trudy's pregnancy and three girls cooing over her. This is disastrous.

I just wanted to get up and go. I can't handle this any more. I stood up and left the building. Not long after, Trudy joined me. It was pouring down.

"Go back inside, Trudy. I don't want you to get ill."

"I'm not having you getting ill yourself. Get inside, darling. I'm not letting you get sick."

I turned around, picked her up and put her to bed.

"Stay there, don't move, Trudy."

She rolled onto her side and started crying. I couldn't console her. I sat with her and patted her. She just cried. Then I started kissing her. She sobbed and tried to escape. I was worried for her.

"No, Trudy. Come on, you aren't being serious, are you?"

"J-Just g-g-go a-and d-d-do whatever it i-i-s yo-you-your doing. L-Leave m-me alone."

"Trudy, I'm not leaving you to cry. Even if I have to hold you forever, I won't leave you."

She sobbed and I felt awful. That solved my problem. I wasn't letting her suffer.

"Come here, Trudy." I lifted her onto my lap. She buried her head on my shoulder. I rubbed her back, cradling her.

"Trudy. Cute, lovable, sweet."

Her sobs shook through her.

"Come on, babe. You don't have to cry."

I kissed her soft black hair. She sat up and fished a tissue out of her pocket and mopped herself up.

"I'm so sorry. You didn't need to see that."

"Trudy, it's all OK. I know you need to cry, everyone does. I just want you to be yourself. You know. Cute, clumsy, sweet, cuddly, warm, mushy and kissable."

"I'm what? Did you make all that up? I know I'm very clumsy, but since when am I cute, sweet, cuddly, warm, mushy or kissable? Where did that even come from?"

"I don't know, it just describes you."

She pressed her lips to my cheek. Then I kissed her lips. No matter how many times I kissed her lips, they were always softer than warm butter.

*Dixie's P.O.V.*

"So that's what you do when your sink's leaking. Got that?"

"Yeah, you ask Victor."

We were just concerned by that. I recounted the story of how Trudy adopted me, and how the whole mystery of the suns in the wall went.

It hadn't been exactly mysterious, but definitely sorta difficult. I mean, who really wants to be stalked by a ghost and forced to hunt down things?

Nobody does, that's who.

"So what do we do if we make it leak?"

"We make it leak and wait for some poor, gullible soul to turn the stupid tap on, then SHPLURT! They get sprayed and we get highly amused. Then we get Victor to go and fix it. Then bing-bang-boom, we've pranked the poor soul who turned the tap on and wasted some of Victor's time when I know how to fix that ratty tap."

Lucy fell about laughing. "Are we actually going to do that?"

"Yeah, course! I'll think up a new plan for another prank later. I think Mum's crying around about now. She's always quieter if she cries."

"Aw, that's sweet."

So I went and put on Latex gloves, then we made the tap go leaky. Enough to spray someone a lot.

The tap thingy was ready to spray until Victor decided he wanted to clean it up.

(An hour and a half later.)

I saw Dad in the kitchen. And oh, boy. He looked super-annoyed. Gulp, if he finds out that we've purposely bust up the tap, we're dead. Either that, or he'll blame Mum. Then he'll bide his time, take it out on her and when he realises it wasn't her, he'll kiss her until she feels better and start wanting to kill us.

He turned on the tap and got sprayed. He fixed it himself and just looked way more annoyed.

Then unfortunately for Mum, she went into the kitchen and saw Dad.

"Trudy, this tap was leaking earlier. Care to explain?"

"Explain what? If the tap was leaking, using the tense you used, I assume it's fixed?"

"No thanks to you, yes. Now, explain what happened. It looked like it had been done by hand."

"So it's automatically me who did it? It's automatically my fault? I can't explain it away, but rather than get into an argument, I'll lie to you and say that I did this. I'll tell you a complete lie: I did burst the pipes leading to the tap, purely because I felt like it and I just wanted to prank you. Happy?"

"Why did you say it was a lie when it's true, Trudy?"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Jasper! Why would you accuse me of doing something as stupid as that? In case you haven't realised, I have a baby making it impossible for me to bend over! Look. I can't bend down far enough to even touch the pipe, because, oh, yes, I'm five months pregnant! If I'd done this, I'd still be at it now!"

Oh, great. Now he's really irritated and she's probably gonna get whacked. Mum shrank back a bit, terrified.

*Lucy's P.O.V.*

Trudy was trying to slowly back away. I was scared to death for her. She backed into the wall and she was so scared, I felt horrible. But Dixie and I were frozen to the spot.

None of us saw it coming. The slap across Trudy's cheek was so quick, we heard it before she could feel it. A split second later, she was crying. She didn't react more than tears, she stayed frozen to her spot, not even able to move with the shock.

Then she said, tearfully "Jasper... that was the meanest thing you've ever done to me."

It looked like he knew that she was upset and she wasn't the criminal mastermind, so to speak. He tried to give her the hug she needed. She just ran for it, probably thinking she was going to be slapped again.

Dixie and I exchanged horrified glances. This prank was so not funny any more. Trudy had been hurt, this was beyond bad.

Dixie went to Jasper with confidence.

"Dad, it was me who bust that pipe up. It was a prank. Mum knew nothing about it. Hitting her was wrong. It's me you should have slapped, not her."

Uh-oh. Dixie got a sharp slap, but she handled better than Trudy did. Then Jasper had to go and see to Trudy. We heard what happened afterward.

*Jasper's P.O.V.*

I went to find my poor wife. She was lying on our bed, tears streaming onto her pillow.

"Trudy, baby?"

"I don't want to talk."

"I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to listen to me."

"Well, no."

"Just hear me out, Trudy."

"I'll listen, but you are not allowed to expect me to forgive you no matter what you do."

I sat with her.

"Trudy, I should have believed you. I know the real culprit now. Slapping you was the worst mistake ever. I promise I won't let it happen again, no matter what you do."

"You can promise what you like, I won't be forgiving this incident."

"I can't make you do that. But what I can make you do is come and have a cuddle."

I picked her up and made her sit on my lap. She was very tense and looked like she expected to be slapped again. Instead, I kissed her cheeks and stroked her hair.

She nestled up. "I've changed my mind. You're forgiven."

"Glad to hear that, because I have a special present for my lovely little lady. Close your eyes."

She did as she was told. I gave her a tiny box, wrapped in pink paper with red hearts. It was a heart shaped sapphire necklace in a silver plate and fancy silver chain.

"OK, baby. You open your eyes and unwrap it."

She did and looked at the box.

"Uh...?"

"Open the box, cutie."

She lifted the lid off the blue velvet box and stared at the necklace, her mouth open.

"Jasper... what? When? Why? How much did this cost?!"

"I am never telling you how much it cost. Mostly because I don't want you to have a heart attack. And I got it for you last week. And I got it because you're the most special woman in the world and I thought you deserved a special treat."

I put it on her, knowing it would suit her. Her eyes were glowing with happiness.

"See? I was right. You look beautiful."

I placed her in front of the mirror. Her makeup was everywhere and streaked in tear lines down her cheeks, but she still looked perfect.

"Oh, my God! I look like I've just stepped out of the circus! As a clown that got dunked in water!"

"You look gorgeous. And did you just say oh my God?"

"Yes! But thank you, darling. The necklace is beautiful."

"It made me think of you. Apparently, it's the only one of its kind. Like you. Except you're so precious, you're priceless."

She gasped. "What? Did you just say what I think you just said? Say all of that again?"

"The necklace made me think of you. It's one of a kind. Like you. Except you're so precious, you're priceless."

"Jasper, that... that was..." Her eyes were glowing more and more.

"Are you OK, sweet cake?"

"Jasper, you're the most wonderful and lovable person ever!" She kissed me.

I pulled away from her for a second. "I'm glad you like it."

Then we kissed again. Then a very loud, very female scream echoed through the house.

Trudy pulled back, looking worried.

"What was that...?"

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review and tell me what you think! If you have any ideas for the next chapters, just PM me. Until next update, Random Dizzy. :)