So here's chapter 4 hope you all enjoy it!
REVIEW! I'm trying to get more reviews and since this is the second to last chapter and there are now 17 I'm instituting a bribe (lol). The twentieth reviewer will be featured in this story as an unkown character (that they can pick). I had something for the fifteenth reviewer but since it's only 3 to 20 I'm going to make it higher. :)
One year later:
"C'mon Anna! You're gonna make me late!" Katie called, pounding on the bathroom door.
"How'm I gonna make you late?" asked Anna.
"You're hoggin' the bathroom!" Katie said, continuing her pounding.
"Guys, stop it!" Troy intervened, coming down the hall. Katie stopped pounding.
"We're not guys," Anna and Katie responded in unison, before Katie returned to pounding on the bathroom door.
"Katie, go use our bathroom," Troy said, taking his daughter by the shoulders and steering her towards the master bedroom.
"Chris, what are you doing?" Gabriella stopped in the doorway of her son's room, watching him seemingly throw all his clothes on the floor.
"It's spelling bee day and I don't have my lucky underwear!" whined Chris.
"If I recall correctly, you wore it yesterday," Gabriella said. "That would mean it's in the dirty laundry pile."
"Thanks Mom!" replied Chris, lunging towards the door.
"Not so fast, young man," Gabriella told him. "Wear a different pair today." As her motherly side took over, she added, "There is no way I am letting you out of the house with dirty underwear on."
"But Mom," whined Chris.
"No buts," Gabriella told him sternly. "Pick a new pair and come downstairs for breakfast."
"Whew," sighed Gabriella half an hour later, closing the door behind all four of her children and leaning against it. "I'm glad they're all gone now."
Troy smiled. "Me too."
Gabriella smiled at her husband. "And now that they're gone, I can tell you something I've wanted to tell you all morning."
"And that is?"
Gabriella came over to his side, and he wrapped his arms around her as she said, "We're going to have a baby."
"Hannah and Nathan Danforth!" called Taylor. "You're going to be late!"
Hannah grabbed her backpack and raced down the stairs. "I'm here, Mom!" she announced.
"Cereal's on the counter," Taylor said, as a baby began to whine through the monitor on the counter. "I gotta go get Ben." She raced up the stairs, bumping into both Nathan and Chad on the way up. After telling Nathan that cereal was on the counter and asking Chad to supervise, she raced upstairs in their new house, amidst boxes and such, to the room that housed the triplets that she'd given birth to four months ago: Benjamin Daniel, Alison Elizabeth, and Jacob Leigh—commonly known as Ben, Ali, and Jake.
"Hey Benny boy," cooed Taylor, lifting him. The baby's cries toned down in volume, then escalated as Taylor realized he was feverish.
"Open," she said, sticking her finger in the baby's mouth. Sure enough, she could sort of feel a tooth pushing through in the front. "Poor baby," she cooed, "Let's get you some Tylenol, okay?"
Walking down the stairs, she heard another familiar cry. "Chad, could you get Ali? Check her temp, too, because Ben's teething and she might be too."
"Sure thing," Chad called from downstairs. After a peep out the window, he announced, "Bus's here!"
Taylor heard the door slam behind her two eldest and then walked into the kitchen. Chad grabbed the thermometer and raced out of the room as Ali's cries got louder and were joined by a third.
Sighing, Taylor walked over to the medicine cabinet and pulled out the Tylenol. Setting Ben in his high chair, she poured the correct dosage and began the challenge—getting the four-month-old to swallow the icky-tasting medicine.
"Open," she said. Ben obediently opened his mouth and Taylor swooped down and poured the medicine in his mouth before it closed again. Ben swallowed and then, as if to tell her how yucky it was, opened his mouth and started to cry again.
"Hey," Chad said, coming down with Ali balanced on one hip and Jake on the other. "These two are teething too."
Taylor grabbed a teething ring that she'd had in the freezer for whenever the triplets started teething. She set Ben in his high chair and plopped the teething ring on the tray. Then she took Ali from her husband and poured out yet another dose of Children's Tylenol.
Ali put up a big fight about the Tylenol. It took most of the morning before she finally gave in and at that point, Taylor was exhausted. She plucked another teething ring from the freezer and tossed it onto Ali's high chair tray and thrust the Tylenol into Chad's free hand.
"I'm going to take a nap," she said, heading for the stairs.
"Wait!" called Chad. "What am I supposed to do with this?" he held up the Tylenol.
"Look on the back and measure out the correct dosage. Then wait 'till Jake wakes up," Taylor replied, already upstairs.
She burst into the master bedroom and collapsed, utterly exhausted, her head just barely hitting the pillow before she was fast asleep.
Chad, who didn't want to carry the Children's Tylenol around all day, set it down on the kitchen counter and did something he would really regret later: he left Ali and Ben on the floor in the playroom alone while he took Jake upstairs to his crib.
After leaving them there, he took Jake to the bedroom. After laying his son down in his crib and turning on the baby monitor, he left and realized that he needed to call the hotel and tell them that Taylor couldn't come in for her shift that day.
Returning to the playroom, he noticed that his other two children were not in the playroom as he had left them.
REVIEW!! As I said above, the fifteenth reviewer will get to play a character described above.
One more chapter!
