(Or the time when Skye and Jemma go out to finish some last minute Christmas shopping and leave Grant and Leo home with the kids to babysit)
"Mummy, when will you and Aunt Skye be back?", seven-year-old Elizabeth Fitz-Simmons asked, tilting her head to one side, her reddish brown curls flopping as her blue eyes were wide with curiosity.
Jemma knelt down and kissed her oldest child on the forehead.
"I'll be back after you're in bed and asleep.", she replied, tucking one of her daughter's curls behind an ear and smiling at just how much her little girl looked like her father, Leo Fitz-Simmons who stepped forward, carrying his other daughter, five-year-old Victoria Fitz-Simmons.
Victoria, however, was asleep in Leo's arms in her footie pajamas. She had gone over to a friend's house for a play-date earlier and had returned home exhausted but happy.
"Ready to go Jemma?", Skye asked as she pulled on her winter gloves.
"Mommy!", six-year-old Lily Ward called as she ran to her mother, closely followed by her four-year-old brother, Phil Ward, and then their father, Grant Ward, who was carrying their youngest sister, fourteen-month-old Melinda "Mindy" Ward.
Corona loped along behind them with her trademark Samoyed smile on her face. Even in her older age, she could still keep up with the children and the children loved her.
"Ah, here's my brood of ducklings!", Skye said as she knelt down and caught her daughter and son in her arms.
Grant placed Mindy's feet on the floor and held her hand as the little girl toddled over to her mother to join in the group hug.
Corona laid down on the hallway rug and put her head down, content to watch her humans interact from a distance.
"Are you going to go with Aunt Jemma to the hospital?", Lily asked her mother as she pointed to Jemma's sizable bump, "Will it be like the time when you and Daddy went to the hospital and we got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house and then we got to visit you and meet Mindy?"
Leo smiled and shook his head.
"No' this time, Lily…"
"The twins will come in the springtime.", Jemma said, finishing her husband's statement.
"Oh…", Lily said with a nod.
Skye met her husband's eyes and he raised his eyebrows as if to ask, "Should I put them to bed now?"
Skye gave the tiniest of nods to Grant and she kissed her babies goodnight.
"Okay, mommy has to go now, how about I read you all a bedtime story?", Grant asked his children.
"Can Uncle Leo do the sound effects?", Phil asked.
Grant looked up at Leo and Leo shrugged.
"Sure, I 'spose I can do somethin'.", the engineer replied, "Come along Lizzie.", he beckoned to his oldest child.
Elizabeth kissed her mother one more time.
"Goodnight mummy."
"Goodnight Lizzie."
Skye stood up and gave Grant a kiss, both of them grinning a little when their older kids made gagging noises.
"See you soon Grant."
"Drive safe Skye."
"I always do… you're the reckless one…", Skye winked at him as he went upstairs with their children and Corona.
"Have fun Jemma.", Leo said, kissing his wife before placing a hand on her belly and smiling as he turned and followed Grant upstairs.
Skye and Jemma got into Skye's car and were soon off to the mall to get some shopping done before Christmas.
"Thanks for letting us spend Christmas with you.", Jemma said.
"Oh it's no problem, besides, you have no idea how much of a help it is when we have more than two adults in the house… things get a little crazy…"
"Oh trust me, two girls can be quite the handful…"
"Have you ever found your kids playing 'house' and having a make believe tea party with your fine china and with the dog in a bonnet as a 'guest'?", Skye asked.
"Not quite… Although on some occasions, I have found them playing 'Laboratory' with my chemistry kit or building fortresses with the heavy science textbooks…", Jemma replied, adjusting her seat belt over her abdomen.
"Are you excited about the twins?", Skye asked.
Jemma shrugged.
"I don't know if excited is quite the word to describe it…"
"What do you mean?", Skye asked, "Didn't you want more kids?"
"Well, Leo and I wanted three kids, and I don't mind that they're twins and we'll have four, that's not my main area of concern. I'm happy to have them and I don't mind that at all.", the scientist replied, twisting her scarf absentmindedly.
"Then what's the problem?"
"You remember when Victoria was born?"
"Yeah… she was born six weeks premature. I remember having to watch Elizabeth when you would go to see her in the NICU."
"And that's the problem… I don't think I can go through that again…"
"Through what? Having another preemie?"
"Yes… you wouldn't quite understand my situation because all of your children were born healthy and you got to nurse them and hold them after they were born, but can you imagine for a moment that Phil had been born premature, you would be expecting to hold him like you had when Lily was born, but instead of holding him, you only catch a glimpse of him before the NICU nurses whisk him away.", Jemma paused as Skye parked the car outside of the mall, "How would you feel?", she asked.
Skye was silent for a moment and then she replied,
"I'd feel like a part of me was ripped away… you know how you feel when they place the baby on you and you hear it crying, how suddenly that contact is a better painkiller than whatever they put in that epidural…", Skye looked at Jemma.
Jemma nodded.
"Well I'd still feel the pain… not just from the obvious birth but from the feeling of loss…"
"Imagine that feeling lasting for a month and a half… That's what it was like for me…", Jemma paused, "And Elizabeth thought Leo and I loved Victoria more because we would spend so much time in the NICU and not as much time with her… when Victoria finally came home, Elizabeth didn't want to have anything to do with her for ages."
"I know, Elizabeth may have only been two at the time, but when she was staying with us at first she told us that she wanted her mummy and daddy and she was clearly homesick but as the time passed, she went from saying that she wanted to go home to saying that you had a new baby and that you didn't want her anymore."
"Exactly, I don't think I can bear to go through it again. I know that there's a 50% chance that these twins could be born premature. I don't want to alienate both of my daughters if that should happen."
"Well, I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.", Skye stated as they entered the mall and went right to the nearest men's department.
"And what about you and Grant?", Jemma asked as they browsed for their husbands.
"What about us?", Skye asked.
"Are you thinking about any additions to the family?", Jemma asked.
Skye laughed and shook her head.
"Not at the moment… ask me again when Mindy turns two… then you'll have your answer… I was personally thinking about adopting a couple of kids, you know, since I was an orphan…", Skye replied.
"That sounds like a lovely idea, one that I'm sure Grant will like."
The two women finished up their shopping, asking that all of their gifts be wrapped in the store so that they wouldn't have to stay up all night on Christmas Eve to wrap them.
They drove back to the Ward house and just chatted idly about work on the way, but when they came in the house and hid the presents in the garage attic, they went off to look for their husbands and children.
They found Corona sleeping in her doggie bed on the landing at the top of the stairs inside and Corona raised her head when they neared her but settled again when she saw that it was just the human mothers.
They found their children sleeping in their respective beds and then they went to look for Grant and Leo.
They found them in the basement, trying to wrap some gifts for the children.
It was a mess to say the least.
"Hello boys…looks to me like you've been busy elves…", Skye greeted.
Leo and Grant looked up from a heap of wrapping paper, tape, tissue paper, and ribbon.
"Hey, how'd it go? Did you get what you needed to get?", Grant asked.
The two women nodded.
"You look like you need some help.", Jemma said, noting the mess.
"No kiddin'…", Leo replied with a smirk.
The women sighed and went to help their husbands wrap the gifts.
"Honestly Leo, how do you make a living building robots but somehow find it impossible to wrap a present?", Jemma joked lovingly.
"The hell if I know…", Leo replied as his wife helped him wrap up the telescope that Elizabeth had been asking for since last Christmas, "It's the big ones an' the odd shaped ones that mess me up…"
"Thank God, I'm saved!", Grant said, smiling as Skye helped him wrap up the tea set that they had bought so that their own dishes would (hopefully) remain intact.
"Did they cause any trouble?", Skye asked.
Both men shook their heads.
"Not a bit."
"How did you manage to get them to take their baths?", Jemma asked.
"Well, ye' know that Lizzie prefers showers an' is fine with taking them on her own an' that Victoria already had her bath before ye' left so Grant told me that Lizzie was welcome to use the master bathroom and that Lily would use it after she was done.", Leo replied, "I only had to check on Lizzie once to make sure she wasn't snooping about in Skye's cosmetics."
"What about Phil and Mindy?", Skye asked.
Grant and Leo both sighed.
"It was a mess…", Leo said.
"Phil knocked the bubble bath all over the floor and we had to clean it up. Phil tried to help us out by taking the rinsing cup off the side of the tub and dumping water onto the floor."
"Oh damn…", Skye said, "Did it leak through the tile?"
"No, I got it in time… Phil apologized and he only started kicking and fussing when I accidentally got shampoo in his eyes…", Grant said.
"But isn't that the 'no tears' shampoo?", Jemma asked.
"It was, but I remember getting that stuff splashed in my eye once and I swear it burns like you wouldn't believe…", Grant replied.
"What about Mindy?", Skye asked.
"Oh, you know, she was pretty normal. She didn't fuss once she was in the tub, but she kept squirming when I went to put her in and when it was over, she didn't want to get out."
Skye nodded.
They finished wrapping and said goodnight before retiring to their own rooms where both couples went right to sleep after the exhausting evenings they had endured.