Chapter Twelve- Sleepless nights
Iggy was the first through the door, he was carrying Lily. The others came in after them. They all looked shocked at how small Luke was. I noticed, with delight, that they had my hospital bag with them.
"Is that him?" Lily asked him. "Is that Luke?"
"Yup, that's your brother." Iggy told her grinning.
"Oh, he's really little." She commented looking Luke curiously. Iggy came over and sat on the bed with Lily on his lap. Lily came closer to me and hovered over Luke. They watched each other, as if they weren't quite sure what to think of each other. Then she smiled slightly. "He looks like daddy, but that's weird because daddy is really tall but Luke is little."
"He's probably going to grow up to be as tall as daddy is. They are so alike."
"See, he's my mini-me!" Iggy bragged proudly to the flock. The guys all started clapping him on the back in congratulations, which I didn't understand. I mean, I did the hard work, all Iggy did was get laid. The girls came and gave me one armed hugs.
"He's so cute, even if he does look like Iggy." Nudge babbled. The other girls nodded in agreement. Well, I for one thought Iggy was cute. I caught his eye from where he was talking to the guys. We exchanged quick smiles before turning our attention back to the conversations. Then the flock dished out the presents that they had brought for Luke. He got blankets, clothes and toys but his favourite present was from Ally and Jacob. It was a giant baby blue teddy bear, with really soft fur and black bow around its neck. Luke had reached out for it when they gave it to him and when Iggy had moved it out of Luke's line of vision; he started crying until Iggy put it back where he could see it.
While all this was happening, Lily had jumped off the bed and was standing in the corner looking dejected. She was used to getting all our attention and not having to share it with anyone. I was about to try comfort her when I saw Shadow shuffle over to her and give her a flower. Lily grinned and hugged him tightly, giving him a light peck on the cheek. Unfortunately Iggy saw this whole exchange and his over protectiveness flared. I needed to do something
"Hey Lily, do you want to hold your little brother?"Lily's eyes brightened up and she grinned. I got her to sit in a chair that was by my bedside and put a pillow where Luke's head would go. I carefully put Luke into her arms. She held onto him tightly.
"He's not that bad." Lily said slowly as Luke lay placidly in her arms. He seemed to be quite relaxed when he saw that she and I had the same eyes, he found something familiar in her face. "But I would still like a sister."
"We'll have to see about that." I laughed and Lily looked hopeful. When she decided she'd had enough of holding of Luke, he got passed around the room. Luckily he didn't kick up much of a fuss. Out of the whole flock Ally appeared to be his favourite; he was very relaxed when she was holding him. But, although I hate to brag, he seemed happiest when he came back into my arms. Total mama's boy.
When I had seen how much Luke liked Ally, it made me really sure of something that I was already pretty definite on.
"Hey, Ally and Jacob can I ask you guys something?" I made sure that my thoughts didn't give anything away. This had to be a surprise. They both came to my bedside. Iggy came and sat closer to me, knowing what I was going to ask. And although he acted annoyed by it, I knew he agreed with me
"There's been something I've- we've wanted to ask you guys for a while. Would you guys like to be Luke's godparents? I couldn't think of anyone better." I waited for their answer. They were obviously discussing it in their minds.
"We'd love to." Ally said as they both smiled. I beamed at them while Iggy groaned.
"Why Violet, why?" He whined.
"Stop being such a drama queen Iggy." Ally stated. "I know you're happy about it." Iggy went red and looked up at the ceiling. I snorted with laughter and looked down at Luke. He looked very sleepy and he yawned, his tiny mouth forming an 'o'. He was so adorable. He snuggled more into my chest and fell asleep. Everyone just hung around talking in low voices so they wouldn't wake him. Lily crawled up on to my bed beside me, and was soon fast asleep also. Someone obviously missed nap time.
I watched my two sleeping babies happily, everything had turned out perfectly. Watching them both made me feel tired. I lay awake all night worrying that I wouldn't get to enjoy this and of course an extremely intense labour. That would make anyone tired. Since I couldn't suck energy out of the wall, I would have to settle for good old fashioned sleep. I shut my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
I woke up to a tiny voice crying.
"Shh, Luke. You don't want to wake mama up, do you?" Iggy was walking around the room, bouncing Luke trying to get him to stop crying. Lily was still asleep at my side. We were the only ones in the room, the flock had all gone.
"Give him here." I said sleepily, letting a yawn escape, Iggy turn to look at me, startled.
"Sorry, I was trying to get him to stop." He apologised.
"It's ok. He's probably hungry. You take Lily and I'll feed him." Iggy carefully placed Luke in my arms and scooped Lily up, going to sit on a chair underneath the window. Luke stopped crying as soon as I started feeding him. My boy loved his food. After he was fed, I lay him down in the cot at the end of my bed, while I got changed out of the hospital gown that I had been wearing, as I didn't have my bag with me. But now I did, so, I got changed into my own pyjamas which were a lot more comfortable.
"So, where's the flock?" I asked getting back into bed.
"They went off to get food."
"Why didn't you go with them?" I asked. He needed to take care of himself.
"I didn't want to leave you."
"Iggy..." I began disapprovingly.
"I'll go get something when Lily wakes up and take her with Me." he promised, trying to stop my worrying. It was around dinnertime, when was I going to get my plate of crappy hospital food? I was hungry. There was a knock on the door and an orderly put a thing of food on a table near my bad, then left. I ate a couple of forkfuls feeling disgusted. I was used to Iggy's near gourmet food and this just didn't cut it. Luckily the flock came in giving me an excuse to stop eating. Lily woke up, yawning, when she heard them come in.
"Here, I got you some real food." Ally said handing it to me.
"Thank you so much. You're a lifesaver!" I exclaimed, starting to eat. It was so good compared to the hospital food.
"What are friends for?" I noticed that even though Lily was awake and the flock was here to keep me company Iggy hadn't gone to get dinner.
"Iggy, go eat." I instructed, between mouthfuls of food.
"But... but... but..." Iggy was running out of excuses. I was fine and eating and Luke was happily lying in his cot watching his teddy.
"I'm okay. Lily needs dinner and so do you." With a sigh he stood up and left taking Lily with him. He's too over-protective and stubborn for his own good.
"You'll be okay won't you?" Iggy asked anxiously as he was about to leave the hospital for the night. As the father of the baby, he was allowed to stay overnight but I wanted him to be at home with Lily. She needed at least one of her parents. The flock had all already gone home.
"Yes, I will. Go home and go to bed." Iggy looked tired. It had been a very full-on day.
"Call me if you need me. Or text me if you just want to talk. I'll be here first thing in the morning." He gave Luke a final cuddle. "Bye, be good for your mother. Love you." He gently put Luke back in his cot and covered him with blanket in addition to the ones he was already wrapped in. Lily hugged me around the neck.
"Bye mummy. See you tomorrow. I love you." I hugged her back and kissed her on the top her head.
"Love you too. Have a good sleep sweetheart." Lily smiled and then went over to Luke's cot pausing for a moment. Then she swooped down and gave Luke a small kiss on the forehead.
"Uh, bye Luke. Don't be annoying." she told him and then went over to Iggy, he crouched down to pick her up and came over to me.
"I love you." He said before kissing me briefly.
"I love you too. Bye." Iggy and Lily left the room, shutting the door behind them. I looked over at Luke. He was fast asleep, covered in a blue blanket with a green car on it that Max and Fang had gotten him. His big blue teddy was sitting at the end of his cot, by his feet. He'd see it when he woke up. I switched the light out, feeling incredibly happy as I fell into a peaceful sleep.
Or not so peaceful. Luke woke up every couple of hours, needing to be fed, changed or just simply needing a hug. It was slightly annoying when I wanted nothing more than to sleep. But I did it without complaint. My baby needed me. One thing that amazed me was how much Luke looked like Iggy, when he was asleep. He had the same, slightly opened mouth and he even made little snorting noises, which reminded me of Ig's snoring.
By eight o'clock the next morning, I had accomplished a few things. Luke was fed and changed, lying happily in my arms. I had been seen by my doctor and my blood pressure going down but she wanted to keep both me and Luke in the hospital for a few more days just to make sure. One of the big risks for Luke was his breathing, his lungs hadn't fully developed when he was born but Dr Lodani said that he was coming along well, just like any other newborn.
Iggy and Lily showed up as I was watching TV, while holding Luke. Iggy kissed me and then took the baby, wanting to spend some time with his son. Lily sat on my lap and watched TV with me. It was happy, quiet family time.
"The flock is coming in about an hour and Emma and Dave texted me and said they'll probably drop in later on. They said to pass on their congratulations, they would have texted you but they weren't sure when you'd be awake." Iggy explained flicking his gaze up from Luke for a minute.
"It'll be nice to see them; I don't think we've seen them since the whole paparazzi thing happened. How was last night without me?"
"I missed you, but someone else visited me during the night." Iggy chuckled and Lily grinned.
"I slept in you and daddy's bed. I thought he'd get lonely without you, so me, Mr Snuggles and teddy went to keep him company." She told me.
"That was sweet of you." I smiled, hugging her. "Someone needs to look after daddy when I'm not there."
"I should be the one asking you how your night went." Iggy said.
"It was alright, I mean he's a newborn baby, he's going to wake up during the night." I tried not to get Iggy worried that I wasn't sleeping enough.
"How much sleep did you get?"
"Five or six hours. It's enough. I've had worse nights." I thought back to the nights at the school or when Iggy had been kidnapped and I'd wake up at various times during the night, screaming my lungs out. Tending to my son's needs was much preferable to that.
"Well, I'll be able to help you when you get home. Do you know when that will be?"
"Not for a few days, they want to keep an eye on my blood pressure and Luke's lungs."
"What's wrong with his lungs?" Iggy asked, looking at Luke worriedly.
"Unborn babies' lungs aren't fully developed until the thirty-sixth week of pregnancy. Luke was born at thirty-five weeks so they're just a little concerned. But it's nothing to worry about, Doctor Lodani said he's doing well and his breathing is fine."
"Are you sure." It was Iggy's natural tendency to worry.
"Do you think I'd be sitting here, not doing anything about it, if I wasn't sure he was going to be absolutely fine?"
"I guess not." Iggy sighed knowing that I was almost as big of a worrier as he was. "But I just want to be kept in the loop this time. I can handle it. You don't need to protect me. And I don't want you to have to go through it alone. Please, promise to tell me next time."
"I'm promise." I gave Iggy a reassuring smile, which he returned.
After Lunch, Max and Fang, Ally and Jacob and their kids were visiting. Nudge and Gazzy both had classes at college and Angel was at school but they'd come see us after. Lily and Shadow were playing on the ground with some toys and I was holding Luke, who had just been fed. Iggy's phone buzzed and he laughed as he read the text. He sent a reply then turned to me.
"Emma and Dave are here and on their way up to the room." Iggy told me.
"Cool, what was so funny?" I asked.
"Uh, nothing, just something in the text." Iggy laughed nervously, holding onto his phone tighter. I'd get him cough up after. Just at that moment Dave and Emma walked into the room. Dave was tall and tanned, with short brown hair and Emma was petite and blonde.
"Hey guys!" Dave greeted us and Iggy grinned, happy to be in the presence of his friend.
"Sup man." He responded.
"Hi, you guys know Max and Fang and that's Ally and Jacob. They're Luke's godparents and Ally is my best friend." I informed them smiling.
"Hey, nice to meet you." Dave said friendlily.
"Hello." Emma muttered stiffly. The room felt tense. I was about to speak up when Luke made a very annoyed sounding grunt and started pulling on my shirt with his tiny hand.
"What?" I asked him. "Do you need to be the centre of attention all of the time?" I swear he nodded his head.
"So, Violet talks a lot about you." Ally told Emma awkwardly.
"Yeah you too." Emma replied then muttered something unintelligible.
"Did she say I was a mind-reader too?" Ally retorted. Something in the back of my mind-registered that this was not good, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from my baby. This awkward silence continued on for a few minutes until Ally spoke up.
"Hey Violet, did I tell you about my new jimmy Choos?"
"Jimmy Choos?" Emma asked. They were both shoe fiends. Luke poked his tongue out at me, I giggled at him.
"Who's a cute baby? You are, yes you are." I cooed to Luke, ignoring them so they could keep going on with their chat.
"What kind of Jimmy Choos?" Emma asked.
"Only the best pair from the newest season." Ally responded making Emma gasp.
"But that season isn't even out yet."
"I have connections."
"Ally has more shoes that all of us combined." I said looking up from Luke only for a second.
"You didn't mention that about her." Emma said accusingly. I shrugged.
"Didn't come up."
"How could it not, you know how much I love shoes!" Emma demanded.
"Okay, asking me stuff at the moment is not going to be very helpful to you. I have baby brain."
"Baby brain?"
"Yeah, leftover hormones, excessive tiredness. It's turning my brain into baby loving mush. Ally, you know what I'm talking about right?"
"Yes, yes I do. It's a terrible disease." Ally agreed.
"So Ally, how do you get your shoes before their released?"
"I'm a fashion consultant for all the major shoe company, so I get the shoes before anyone else." They launched into a full on shoe banter that I just tuned out of. I liked shoes but I wasn't as near as obsessive as they both were. I noticed that Iggy and Dave both had their heads out the window, looking down at the throngs of paparazzi and media that had formed out there.
"Dude is that Ryan Seacrest?" Iggy asked.
"I think it is." Dave replied.
"Pretty boy asshole." Iggy muttered. "I bet I could hit him with that jug of water."
"Nah, there's no way you could get him with that."
"Wanna bet?"
"You're on. Twenty bucks?"
"Let's do this thing." Iggy grabbed the jug of water off my bedside table and stuck his head out the window again. I could tell his mark by his and Dave's laughter.
"Look at his face!" Dave snorted.
"Revenge is so sweet. And so is my twenty dollars. Cough. Up." Iggy taunted. I saw Jacob and Fang rolling their eyes at Iggy and Dave but I simply smiled and laughed. I was so glad that everyone was getting along.
"How much stuff did you need?" Iggy exclaimed as he threw some of my stuff into my bag. It was four days later and I had finally been discharged from hospital. I was carefully putting Luke into his car seat. He had just been feed so I was hoping he'd stay happy the whole drive home.
"Well I've been here for five days. I needed all this stuff, besides it's partially Luke's too."
"Yeah, like a quarter of it. I've got everything together though. Ready to go?"
"Yup, the sooner we get out of here the better." I had already signed the papers so I was free to go. Iggy carried my bag and I carried the car seat as we walked out of the room. We went down to the lobby and out into the car park. Iggy unlocked the car and I strapped Luke's car seat in making sure he was securely in. I kissed his forehead and shut his door. I got into the front seat and turned to Iggy.
"Iggy, for the love of god, do not drive like a maniac with the baby in the backseat."
"When do I drive like a maniac?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Did you really just ask me that?" Iggy made an annoyed huff as he started up the car. He did drive carefully, for once. My heart swelled with happiness when I saw the house come into view. I hadn't been home in almost a week and now I was here bringing my baby home. Iggy parked the car in the garage smoothly and I hurried out of the seat to see Luke. I pulled his car seat out and saw that he was asleep innocently. Funny how I could never get him to sleep at night but he seemed to fall asleep when Iggy, the scariest driver in the world, was behind the wheel. Iggy brang the bag in and we walked into the house together.
As soon as we opened the door, Lily sprinted in to the room.
"Mummy you're home!" She exclaimed happily. I handed Luke to Iggy and crouched down to hug her
"I've missed being at home with you so much. But you need to be a little bit quieter now. Luke's sleeping." Lily nodded. She had remembered how quiet we had to be when Typa was a newborn.
"Okay." She whispered.
"I'll take him up to bed." Iggy said in a low voice, heading for the stairs. It tugged at my heart whenever I was separated from Luke. But I squashed the feeling and smiled at Lily.
"Mummy, come see my two new dolls. Daddy got me one for hitting the ball when we played baseball and one for having a little brother!" Lily dragged me into the lounge where Ally and Jacob were sitting on the couch watching TV. Shadow was playing on the floor and Typa was on Ally's lap.
"Hey guys!" I greeted them as Lily dragged me into the corner of the room where the doll's house was set up.
"Hi Violet." Ally replied with a smile. "Welcome home."
"Thanks. It's so good to be back here." Iggy walked back into the room with a baby monitor in hand.
"He's still fast asleep." Iggy told me and sat down in a chair balancing the baby monitor on the arm of it. "I'll listen out for him." I nodded and turned my attention back to Lily and her new dolls.
Later that evening, all the kids except Luke were in bed. Iggy and Jacob were off doing their own things, and I was folding up the laundry in the lounge. Ally was sitting on the couch holding Luke, who was holding on to her finger, spending some quality time with her godson.
"You're so handsome." She cooed to him. "All the girls are going to love you. But we're not going to let you be a man whore. No. You won't follow in your father's footsteps." I smiled seeing how happy he was with her.
"Are you still alright holding him? I can take him if you want." I offered even though I still had a pile of laundry to go through.
"No no, it's fine."
"Okay, well I'll just finish up here and then it's bedtime for you my boy." I told Luke. His tiny hand tightened around Ally's finger. He knew that I was going to take him to bed. And that meant that there would be even more resistance when he was older. But he did look really tired; it had been a big day for him, coming home for the first time. I gave him half an hour at the most before he was out like a light.
"Is it weird, that even though I've had the baby, that I'm still having cravings? I really want waffles." I informed Ally, as I folded up a pair of Iggy's jeans and we both laughed.
"Well, that's kind of understandable, since you've been eating nothing but hospital food for the past few days." I sighed happily.
"It's so good to be home. And everything's kind of back to normal. We're still being stalked pretty much but they've given us a little bit of space since Iggy fought back with the water." We chatted as I folded the laundry. Finally I got through it all and took Luke up to bed. I walked into his pastel blue room; the whole nursery was themed blue and white. I changed him at the baby blue and white changing table. I sat on the white rocking chair with the baby blue cushion on it. I fed him so that he'd sleep for longer; he looked so sleepy by the end of it. I knew he was tired. I lifted him into his cot and covered him with the blanket. I leaned over to kiss him on the forehead.
"Good night baby. I love you so much." I tucked him in slightly tighter as his eyes shut. I put the baby monitor on top of Luke's dresser and switched it on. I went to leave the room, taking one final look at my half-asleep baby before shutting the door. I went into the next room to check on Lily. She was fast asleep, hugging onto a soft toy with each arm, looking so adorable. I left the door open and went down stairs out to the garage. Iggy was in his 'explosives room.' it was a little shed-like thing off the garage where Iggy made his bombs, it was the only place in the house where I let him do it.
"I'm going to bed." I announced making him look up from the powder he was adding to a liquid.
"I'll join you. I'm guessing our boy is up at all hours of the night, best to get as much sleep as we can." Iggy started putting all the stuff away.
"That's true." I yawned. "God, I'm exhausted." Iggy and I started walking up to bed, until Iggy got bored of that and lifted me up into his arms. "What are doing?" I demanded trying not to be too loud as to wake the kids up.
"I've missed going to bed at night with you. I haven't had you stealing all the blankets or snuggling up to me for five whole nights. It's the small things like that."
"I missed you too." Iggy leaned down and pushed his lips to mine. In a few minutes we were cuddled up in bed. It felt so amazing to be in my own warm, comfortable bed with my loving husband compared to alone in the stiff hospital bed. I fell asleep with my face buried in Iggy's chest, the way it always should be.
Iggy groaned as Luke's crackly crying came over the baby monitor for the third time that night, waking us both.
"I fed him half an hour ago." I whined, sitting up.
"Maybe it's his nappy, I'll go." Iggy suggested, getting out of bed. He returned a couple of minutes with a still crying Luke. "It wasn't that." he said handing him to me.
"Hi baby." I cooed to him, his crying softened slightly but didn't stop. I tried for about thirty minutes to get him to stop, feeding him, walking around with him, changing him, anything I could think of but nothing worked.
"Is he asleep yet?" Iggy asked, lifting his head up groggily. He had managed to fall asleep despite the noise.
"Yeah Iggy, cause he cries in his sleep." I hissed back. Iggy looked stunned at my outburst and I felt guilty. "Sorry, I'm just so exhausted." I apologised. "I haven't slept properly in days."
"It's okay." Iggy sat up and put a comforting arm around me. "I should be doing more, not sleeping through it. I can take him for a bit." I placed Luke in Iggy's arms as the door opened. Lily shuffled in holding the doll that Iggy had given her when she became a big sister. She climbed up on the bed and out the doll down.
"It's not worth the doll if he's crying all night. You can take them both back." she told him tiredly.
"Sweetie, we can't take him back." She crawled onto my lap and cuddled up to me.
"Yes you can, just put him in the car and take him back to the hospital." She suggested, Iggy's eye lit up and he started getting out of bed.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm taking Luke for a drive. He fell asleep on the way home so he might again. It's a long shot but anything's worth a try."
"His car seat is in his room. Drive carefully." I called after him as he hurried off. He was a man on a mission. I sat there waiting for them to get back, while Lily slept on my lap. Finally I heard footsteps headed in the direction of Luke's room. Over the baby monitor, I heard Iggy putting Luke back to bed. He came into our room looking triumphant.
"He's asleep." Iggy sighed, practically falling into bed.
"Thank god." I put Lily between Iggy and me and lay down myself.
"Are you letting her sleep here tonight?" Iggy whispered, not wanting to wake her.
"Yeah, plus I can't be bothered moving her. Night, love you." The last thing I heard as I fell asleep was.
"I love you too."
"You two look like death warmed up." Ally commented as Iggy and I came down to breakfast the next morning. We both looked as tired as hell, pretty much like any new parents do. Iggy was carrying Lily, who had stayed in our bed all night. Luke had decided to finally fall asleep for an extended period of time around six. Iggy put Lily in her chair and went off to make us breakfast. I sat down next to Lily, yawning. Iggy returned with three plates of toast and took his own seat. We both ate in silence, too tired to talk. I looked over at Iggy for a second and saw that he was resting his head on his hand and he was snoring away.
"Iggy!" I said and his eyes shot open as he sat upright.
"Where's the fire!" He asked groggily, looking around frantically. When he realised he'd simply fallen asleep, all the panic disappeared from his eyes and was replaced with tiredness.
"Daddy?" Lily asked.
"Yeah princess?"
"You promised that we could go to the beach today. See?" Lily jumped out of her chair and ran out of the room. She returned with a calendar and showed it to Iggy. "You promised that me and you would spend some time together before the baby came, just the two of us. But then Luke came early, which was really rude of him. But we're still going to spend time together, right?" Lily looked at Iggy with complete innocence and hopefulness. Iggy sighed looking torn.
"Lily, I know I promised. And we will spend time together but I'm just really tired so can we do it another day." Lily pouted and tears welled in her eyes. I knew that she was acting but I could tell by the look on his face that Iggy was falling for it hook, line and sinker.
"But daddy, I was really looking forward to it and it's going to get colder soon and we won't be able to go swimming. It's because of Luke isn't it? You just want to spend all of your time with him don't you, because he matters more than me?" She was good.
"No, of course not baby. We can go to the beach." Iggy caved. Lily grinned and threw herself into his arms.
An hour later, Iggy and Lily had gone to the beach and Ally and Jacob had taken their kids to the park. I was jealous watching them all leave; I was tired of being cooped up in the house or the hospital. So, I decided to take Luke over to my mum's house. She lived on a quiet cul-de-sac so unless I was followed there, I wasn't in much danger of getting stalked by the paparazzi, but I still checked before I took Luke out of the car. I wasn't quite ready for the world to get 'the first glimpse of baby Ride'. I knocked the door and was greeted by my mum within seconds.
"Hi honey," she said giving me a hug. "Oh and look at my gorgeous grandson. I only saw you the other day and you've already grown so much." I passed him to her so she could have her chance to coo over him. We went into the kitchen where Fang was raiding the pantry like he always did when he came here.
"Hey Fang." I greeted him, he just waved.
"It's good that you're both here. I wanted to show you something." My mum told us causing Fang to emerge from the pantry.
"What's that?" I asked curiously.
"I found a video of you two when you were babies."
"I though he threw everything about us out. More likely destroying evidence against him." Fang muttered bitterly.
"He must have missed something. I thought you might want to see what you were like as babies."
"That sounds great." I was quite intrigued to see this video. We settled in the lounge and Fang and I were on either side of mum. I was holding Luke who had his head on my shoulder. Mum pressed play and the movie started. Two babies were on screen that looked almost exactly alike, except the one on the left was scowling and silent while the other made baby sounds.
"I can tell which one is you." I joked to Fang who glared at me. Suddenly baby-me broke out into a wide smile.
"Oh look Violet smiled!" Mum's voice came enthusiastically from behind the camera. The camera moved to show a man sitting in a chair, his face obscured by a newspaper that he was reading.
"So?" He asked abruptly.
"It's a big milestone, and she looks so adorable. Don't you sweetheart?" I smiled even wider and made a few happy sounding noises.
Luke turned his head so he was looking at the TV.
"I'll think it's a big milestone when they do something useful." He snorted.
"What is your problem with them? Why can't you just be happy about them?"Reginald threw aside his paper angrily.
"Because they're screwing up my life! I didn't ask for them!" the camera returned to Fang and I again. Fang scowled even harder and my smile disappeared and my lower lip started wobbling. So that's where Lily gets it from. Fang looked at me for a second and then reached out his tiny hand to grab mine.
Off-screen I looked at Fang, and gave him a small smile, which he returned.
"Can we do this later?" My mum sighed. "I don't want to argue around them." The movie ended and I found that I had tears in my eyes. He really never cared about us but my mum did. She always had. I squeezed her hand tightly and she squeezed back. I saw that Fang was doing the same thing. I loved my mum and even though I had gone without her for twenty-two years, I couldn't cope without her now.
I headed home a couple of hours later after Fang and I had lunch with mum. I was currently sitting on the couch, thinking about the video. Luke was on a blanket on the ground, kicking his legs around and waving a rattle around, having the time of his life. I heard the garage door open and a few minutes later I heard Iggy enter the house and come towards into the lounge. He was carrying a fast asleep Lily.
"Hey," I whispered not wanting to wake her up. He sat down next to me and kissed me on the cheek.
"Hi, how was your day?" He asked, still cuddling Lily tightly.
"Alright, I took Luke around to mum's house but it was just a really peaceful day. How was the beach?"
"Good, we made sandcastles, had a picnic, went for a swim. I had to drink about fifty cups of coffee to get through the day and then Lily fell asleep on the drive home.
"Did you both wear sun block?" I knew that Iggy would make sure that Lily was protected from the sun but he always tried to get out of doing it for himself.
"Yes." He sighed, rolling his eyes. He grinned down at Luke. "And how about you buddy? Did you have a good day with mummy?" Luke gave Iggy a happy look and kicked his legs around enthusiastically. "I bet you did." Lily let out a little yawn and started stirring. Her eyes opened and she blinked a few times.
"Hi." She said quietly, snuggling into Iggy's chest.
"Hi princess. Did you have a good sleep?" Iggy asked tenderly, brushing her hair out of her face.
"Yeah, but I'm still really tired."
"Well, how about I put you up into bed so you can have a nice long nap?" Lily nodded. "Okay, say goodnight to mummy." Iggy passed Lily over to me, who hugged me around the neck tightly.
"Night mummy." Lily mumbled. I kissed the top of her head.
"Sweet dreams baby. Love you." Iggy took her up the stairs. I bent over to pick Luke up from the ground and hugged him tightly.
"We are so lucky to have your daddy." I whispered to him. "Some kids have useless daddies, me included, but you've got one of the good ones. Sometimes he seems a bit silly but he loves us and will take care of us." I smiled at Luke thinking about how lucky I was to have such a great family and today had really proved it to me.
One Month Later
I couldn't stop smiling as Iggy parked in the garage. Iggy put the handbrake on and gave me a huge grin. Without saying a word he leaned over to kiss me. There was no way to describe how we were both feeling.
"Wanna screw with the flock before we break the good news?" Iggy asked, chuckling slightly.
"Sure, why not." I felt light and airy. Like I was walking on air. Iggy had a tight arm around me as we walked into the house. We walked into the lounge where the Flock was all hanging out. Even though this trial hadn't been televised, they had still decided to be together while it was happening. The first thing I saw was Luke, who was in his baby bouncer. He had grown so much in a month and last week he started smiling. At the moment he was giving me one of his biggest smiles and reaching out for me. I immediately went to him and picked him up out of the baby bouncer.
"Hi baby." I greeted him and he laughed, cuddling up to me tightly. Lily came up and hugged onto my leg and I hugged her back with my free arm.
"So, we lost the court case, but I decided to cash in on it. We are going to be the subject of E! Channel's newest reality show. Cameras will be here tomorrow morning so you all better be ready." Iggy was trying so hard to keep a straight face but I could see how happy he was behind it.
"We know your lying!" Angel and Ally called out in unison causing Iggy to start laughing.
"Hell yes I am! We won!" Iggy announced and excited chatter broke out. The tense days of hiding were over. we had came to an arrangement that if we were photographed and shown in a magazine, paper or on TV, we would get all the profit made from that issue. We also got a restraining order against Iggy's parents and a hefty compensation payout from the paper who had published the pictures in the first place.
"I think it was Violet who won it for us." Iggy said coming over to stand next to me. He picked Lily up and put his arm around me again. "She was amazing. You should have seen her sticking it to her father. It was actually kinda hot." I sighed, rolling my eyes. I was pretty sure everyone else was thinking the same thing, typical Iggy.
We spent the rest of the evening celebrating, with the flock. It was just such a relief that this whole ordeal was over and we could go back to normal. I was happy that night when I was finally crawling into bed with Iggy. I rested my head on his chest and his arms were tightly around me. I was looking forward to a good nights sleep.
"Peace at last." Iggy sighed cheerfully. But of course, peace never lasts long in our house. The sound of Luke's crying came across the baby monitor.
"Never a dull moment." I laughed, getting out of bed.