To the anon who has nothing else to do but to leave numerous heinous reviews : can I just ask that you to be original? Because calling me gross and saying this story is horrible every single time I post a new chapter is a bit redundant and it's getting old! As a native speaker, I'm sure your vocabulary is vaste enough for you to come up with more original and eloquent insults, right? Who knows you could actually teach me a few words!
Thank you!
Chapter 52 :
The unexpected :
A week passed since Olivia decided to put her pride aside and ask Dorothy to relocate to New York to help with the twins on a more permanent basis. Even though Amanda is now twenty days away from her due date, her moral is as good as it possibly could. Despite suffering from terrible back pains, swollen ankles and being almost unable to get dress or shower on her own, the future mother learned to take comfort is the little things, like Olivia massaging her feet, shaving her legs or helping her shower but what brought the more relief to her was to know that, should anything happen to her during delivery or afterwards, Olivia would never be alone to raise their twins and that her mother and sister would be by her side every step of the way.
"What are you doing?" Stepping into their bedroom holding her back with her right hand, Amanda is almost livid, her heart is pounding her chest and her mouth is drying up. Despite having gone through thick and thin with Olivia, she has no idea how they're going to face this new ordeal or how to bring the news to her delicately enough to avoid provoking a violent reaction.
"I'm packing a bag with a few things for you and the twins just in case you need to stay at the hospital for a few days." After spending a whole month carefully picking up the cribs, wallpapers, changing table or new born clothes and transforming the empty room next to theirs into a perfectly safe and comfortable nursery for their twins, Olivia's newest mission is to prepare everything for Amanda's stay at the hospital and to insure that she'll be as comfortable as possible during and after delivery.
"That's very thoughtful." Smiling slightly at her wife's thoughtful idea, Amanda takes a few steps towards their bed and bites the inside of her cheek, still unsure of the words that should be used to bring this terrible news to her.
"It makes sense. I don't want to have to pack in a hurry or ask your mother to drive back to the house to pick up a few things and take the risk that she might not know which sleepers or robe to pack. Considering the twins might decide to grace us with their presence any day now, I figured I would pack now that the nursery is finally ready to welcome them." Preparing every single details of this birth is something completely new for the Detective. Up until a couple of years ago, she lived her life without making any plans for the future or even hoping that she'd ever have the life she's sharing with Amanda but against all odds, this life full of responsibilities, planning or unforeseen events fits her very well and she wouldn't change it for anything in the world.
"You're absolutely right, but would you mind sitting down? There's something I need to tell you." Amanda's voice is low, warm and comforting and as she reaches out to her wife's forearms as an indicator that something rather important is happening, she immediately sees her wife's face turning pale.
"Are you okay?" Feeling the gravity of the situation in her wife's voice, Olivia immediately reaches out to her belly, looking for some fetal activity that would indicate that the babies are in distress...or not.
"Yes, I am and so are the twins, but I'm afraid I have some bad news." Pushing the bag that's on their bed aside, Amanda invites Olivia to sit next to her and absentmindedly start stroking her hand with her thumb.
"Tell me." Right at this minute, Olivia has no idea what might have happened that would make Amanda so cautious, almost reluctant to tell her the truth.
"When you were in the shower, I received a phone call from a social worker in Vermont. There was an accident last night and Calvin's grand parents were killed on impact." In her almost 15 years career as a police officer, Amanda notified dozens if not hundreds of families, friends or even colleagues that a loved one had died but this, having to notify her own wife that someone she knows passed is something she wasn't prepared for, especially considering the consequences their deaths might have on their lives.
"Oh my God, how is he?" Being a cop, Olivia worked on enough suspicious car wrecks to know exactly the kind of injuries Calvin might have sustained and the motherly, paranoid, loving part of her immediately starts to picture the worse.
"Surprisingly well. Appart from a couple bruised ribs and a broken wrist, he's perfectly fine. I promise." Realizing her approach might have been to direct and her voice not reassuring enough, Amanda snaks her left around her wife's shoulder and started stroking her neck with her thumb, hoping it would calm her down progressively.
"Has he been checked out by a Doctor?" Olivia replies, as she snaps out of that momentary contemplative state to join Amanda back into reality.
"Yes, he was immediately given complete check up that included x-rays, an ultrasound, MRI, the whole package and there was no internal bleeding or any other kind of brain damage. He's fine, Liv." Although she knows that Olivia needs a complete report on Calvin's current medical condition, Amanda chooses to summarise what the social worker told her as to not overwhelm her with useless informations that her brain might interpret as more dramatic than they actually are.
"What happened?" Olivia asks as she forces herself to take deep breaths.
"From what Calvin told the social worker, they were driving back home from the movies when a car hit them at crossroad. According to the police it was a stupid accident, the driver's breaks just malfunctioned." Feeling that Olivia is having trouble breathing, Amanda starts rubbing her back with her left hand, hoping that knowing that they weren't hit by a drunk driver would somehow be of some comfort.
"God, Calvin, where is he now? He must be completely traumatized." Calvin is now fifteen years old and he's been through more challenges and survived more dramas than most adults and as resilient as he is, Olivia has no idea how she's going to help him cope with losing his beloved grand parents.
"Well, as he needed to stay at the hospital for observation but he's being released this morning and the social worker agreed to let him go home and stay with his best friend's family, the Walkers until you arrive." At this moment, Amanda knows that their lives are about to change, that on top of raising twins, they would very soon be in charge of helping a 15 year teenager cope with one of the most terrific experience of his life. But it doesn't matter how big this challenge is, Amanda knows just how important the boy is to Olivia and has no intention of getting in the way of what should have been a long time ago.
"What? No, I'm not leaving you." And just like that, Olivia is snapped back to reality, as much as she loves Calvin, her priority has to be her very pregnant wife and their unborn twins even if it breaks her heart to admit it, she can not bring herself to jump into the next plane and take to risk of missing the birth of her girls.
"I'm fine Liv, I haven't had any contractions in a week and I'm only tree centimeters dilated, so as painful as it is for me to accept it, these babies are not obviously not willing to grace us with their presence before their due date and besides my mother is here if anything happens, so get on that flight, take care of Calvin and bring him back home after the funeral okay?" The one thing Amanda fears the most is that Olivia might miss the birth, that she might be stuck on a crime scene at the other side of the city during rush hour and that she might arrive to late to witness the birth of their babies. Unfortunately, dramatic times call for drastic measures and she knows that Calvin's well being has to come first and the only thing she can do is to cross her fingers and hope that she won't give birth until they're back home.
"God Amanda, what am I gonna do? I always knew this day could come, but they were still perfectly healthy and I never thought they could die before he'd turn 18." Over the past five years, Olivia developed a respectful and understanding relationship with Calvin's grand parents. It wasn't easy at first because both Calvin and Olivia had to cope with being separated but with time, they both realized that this arrangement was what the boy needed, that David's parents were more able to offer him the stability and attention he needed. Now, after a few years trying to adjust, Calvin and Olivia would visit each other several times a years and his grand parents had developed a strong relationship with the brunette, strong enough for them to make her his legal guardian, should anything happen to them.
"But they did and that's why they decided to revise their will last year to make you his legal guardian." Amanda knows that getting custody of the boy is what Olivia always wanted but how can either of them be happy when seeing them reunited means that his grand parents are dead?
"You sound awfully calm, do you realize what this means for our family?" When Olivia and Amanda visited Calvin last summer, his grand parents shared their desire to update their will and make her his legal guardian but considering how healthy and active they were, she never considered that she could ever be faced with this situation and now that Amanda and her are married with two babies on the way, this situation needs to be adressed and the consequences carefully considered.
"We talked about it last year when they told us about their desire to appoint you as his legal guardian." Amanda's apparent confidence is almost unsettling, she's not panicked at the thought of having to raise a teenager, a mourning one none the less, and she has every intention to be supportive and keep her fears to herself.
"Yes, but we weren't married or expecting twins last summer, our lives have changed and..." Is Olivia so scared of finally getting what she always wanted that she's trying to find excuses not to jump right in?
"Nothing has changed Liv, you love that boy and he loves you and most importantly he needs you, the two of you belong together." Saying those words, Amanda suddenly remembers the day Olivia told her about Calvin and confessed that she waited to tell her because she didn't want her to fear that she'd never be able to love another child. Now, looking back, Amanda realizes that Olivia's fears were spot on, but not anymore, as much as she loves Calvin, Olivia has more than enough love for him and the twins and she knows that raising him won't damage their family dynamic in any way and that it will at most, turn their lives upside down but in a positive way.
"I…I guess but it's been five years and it took us so much time to cope with the separation and seeing each other just a couple of times a year and he's a teenager now, it's like he's a new person, what if we don't get along?" Mumbling these words, Olivia immediately falls into her wife's comforting arms.
"You both changed a lot over the past few years but deep down you're still the same extraordinary people you were when you met and if the love you have for each other survived the distance and the years, trust me, there's no reason do doubt it won't survived this. I'm here and I promise to do everything in my power to help you guys." Gently rocking Olivia back and forth, Amanda kisses her forehead, hoping that mourning and adjusting yet again to a new life wouldn't be too hard on Calvin because with the twins coming into their lives really soon, the last thing this family needs is a angry teenager acting out.
Thankfully, after observing Calvin and Olivia interact, Amanda has no doubts that not only the boy grew up to be quite an extraordinary young man, but that these two share a bond that goes beyond blood or DNA, and that as difficult as this situation might be, this bond will help them cope and hopefully bring them closer. Also, thanks to the many conversations they shared, she has a feeling that Calvin is extremely curious to meet the twins and develop a fraternal bond with them. Things aren't perfect and probably never will but they all went through worse and hopefully this incredible bond they developed over the years will help them face this new ordeal, as a family.
Well, I bet you didn't see that one coming did you? I know this is happening very close to Amanda's due date but I figured it would add some tension to this already difficult situation.
I knew you wanted me to bring Calvin back to New York to be with Olivia, and it was always my intention, which is why I mentioned him from time to time!
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. The next chapter will either be Olivia flying to Vermont and making arrangements or I can skip directly to Olivia and Calvin flying back to NYC. Tell me what you prefer!
Thanks!
