DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine. (And for this chapter, that means Anastasia, too.)

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!

What? An update in less than two weeks after huge gaps between updates? This is what winter break is good for, folks.


As it does seemingly almost every fall, the flu sweeps through Sunnyside Daycare Center. Aria and Clara are both scheduled to get their flu shot that Friday, and Ben had gotten his the week before, because he was going to talk with the king of Andalasia and didn't want to get sick. She, after almost fifteen years with the man, knows this to be code for 'I hate shots more than anything else in the world and don't want my daughters to see me cry when the doctor pricks me.'

Which is sweet, of course, but the fact that he gets it so far in advance and then lies to his daughters about how brave he is when he gets shots, well.

But of course, because it's just her luck, that Thursday, in the middle of a Council meeting, there's a knock on the door. Ben frowns, but stands as Chip comes in. He has a cell phone in his hand- Mal's.

And she's the primary contact for Sunnyside.

Aria's fine, but Clara's running a fever. She and Ben share a groan. Clara had woken up with the sniffles that morning, but the two of them had brushed it off; everyone's noses got runny when it got cold. Apparently, that had been a gross miscalculation.

Belle volunteers to pick up Clara for them, and they manage to finish the meeting with several new initiative ideas and plans. Ben manages to get away and take care of her for an hour or two, but then he has leave and she takes over.

Clara, at her request, has been bundled up in all of the covers from her and Ben's bed, plus the blanket Jane knitted her last Christmas and the dog snuggie Carlos gave her for her birthday. Mal stands in the doorway and wants to laugh at how pitiful her daughter looks. Her nose is dripping like crazy and her cheeks are flushed, with eyes barely staying open, yet she still manages to pout.

"Hi, Fey," she says, and she walks forward and lays down beside her in the bed. "Are you cold, baby?"

"Yes," Clara says, practically groaning. She kicks at her blanket cocoon and Mal bites back a laugh, wrapping an arm around her daughter's body. "I firsty."

"Daddy says Chip got you some juice boxes; do you want one of those?" Clara nods and Mal stands up and grabs one off their dresser, and the box of tissues that's next to it. Clara's still having some trouble with how, exactly, to blow her nose, so maybe the flu can become a teaching moment. She gets back in the bed and pulls the flaps on either side of the juice box, then sticks the straw in and holds it in front of Clara, who reaches for it.

"Hold on. Sit up, please," she says. Clara shimmies up slightly, but Mal knows she's not going to move much farther and gives her the juice box by the wings. Clara takes a long sip that drains at least half the box, and Mal crosses her fingers that she's actually able to keep it down.

"Mommy?" Clara asks, wiping at her nose.

"Yes?" Mal says, passing her a tissue. Clara blows into it more with her mouth than her nose, then wipes the remaining snot and sets the tissue down.

"Can we watch Anastasia?"

"That depends. Do you want to try and get some sleep? It is almost naptime," she says. Clara's eyes are barely open, and even if they do start the movie, she knows that little girl's going to be out before the end of 'Journey To The Past' but plans on fighting it the whole way. She would much rather let Clara call it now.

Clara yawns, and curls into her side, making the decision for her. Mal smiles and begins to stroke her hair and sing softly, "Far away, long ago…"

An hour later, and Clara's been out for a good fifty-nine minutes. Mal's been scrolling through Facebook, trying to catch up with the world. Ryder posts what feels like every five seconds about Aiden, which is adorable but… Come on. Lonnie's posts always have something to do with Chris, but, they're getting married, so it makes sense. Despite having gone super officially public, Jay and Carlos rarely mention their relationship online, which she almost envies. Her relationship with Ben had always been examined because it had become official on live television during his coronation. Jay and Carlos had hidden their relationship for a long time, and she knows Jay rarely talks about it in interviews. It would be nice, she thinks, to have had that time away from the spotlight to develop her relationship with her husband, even if the way it's turned out is amazing.

What's more interesting about her Facebook wall these days, though, is the number of people getting engaged, married, pregnant. Anxelin, Flynn, and Jane are all still single, but most of her other friends, no matter how close they are to her, are in some sort of big life event. Even Dizzy's engaged now, as crazy as it is considering she's twenty-four. (Of course, Mal was pregnant at twenty-four, so maybe it's not that crazy.) It's not that she feels left out, per se; she's married to an amazing man and has two amazing children, so if anything, she's ahead of the curve, but it's just a heavy dose of ironic. She had been against marriage and children, even romantic relationships, but at least she wasn't the first to give in the way Evie was.

She's interrupted from these thoughts by her phone buzzing in her hands. She goes into her messages to find it's from Ben:

she out?

How'd you know?

genius. also she was barely awake when i was there so.

Clever.

what do you wanna do with aria?

Separate them. Aria's getting that flu shot tomorrow come hell or high water.

hate to say it but claras so much worse when she's sick. why couldn't it be aria?

Don't think like that; we cannot have both of them sick. Between Clara's constant angry neediness and Aria's tired clingyness, we'd be dead.

are we bad parents for having this conversation?

No?

alright, off to pick up aria. chip'll bring you guys lumiere's famous chicken soup for dinner.

Perfect. How do you wanna split up girls tonight?

clara's going to get mad at you and force us to switch soon enough and you know it. let's just focus on keeping them happy and away from each other.

Sounds like a plan. I knew I kept you around for a reason.

ha. Love you.

*kiss emoji*

She pockets her phone and continues to lay with Clara, and thinks about the Facebook wall. It's not that she feels left out.

It's that she wants another one. Really, really badly, too.

It's been almost a year since that sort of kind of got serious about trying. If they get to her birthday next year with no progress, it'll be time to figure out if something's going on. It would be just their luck that once they're actually thinking about getting pregnant, it doesn't happen.

She sets her phone down and snuggles up closer to Clara, who's stuffed nose is making her snore softly. Her skin is still hot and clammy, and her heart breaks for her little girl. There's really nothing she can do, after all, not with the flu. Aria, though, she can keep away from the virus for as long as possible and hope it works.

Her bladder begins to protest for what feels like the tenth time today and she groans, extracting herself and heading to the bathroom. Because her luck sucks today, they're out of toilet paper (Likely Clara's fault, since Ben's better about changing the role than Mal is) and she opens the cabinet under the sink to grab a fresh roll.

And her extra pregnancy test box stares back at her.

She's incredibly tempted to just use it, as she's done before, but she fights it. She has more important things to worry about right now than an empty uterus, like sick kids and Isle fundraisers. She grabs the roll of toilet paper and shuts the cabinet. Maybe she should put one of those God awful babyproofing things on there that she can't get off, just to stop herself. With a sigh, she flushes the toilet, washes her hands thoroughly, and returns to her and Ben's room. Clara's still out, but Ben is standing over her, kissing her head. He smiles when he sees her coming out of the bedroom and gives her a long kiss on the lips.

"You're a great mom. You know that?" he whispers, resting his forehead against hers. She smiles, but doesn't say anything. "I remember back when you were terrified about turning out like your mom."

"Um, if I remember correctly, you were pretty terrified about being a shit parent, too, so…" she replies, but she hopes he knows she's slightly teasing. His dopey smile cements this, and he wraps his arm around her. "Where's Aria?"

"She ran into the house screaming about having to pee, so I told her where I'd be when she was done. I thought you'd at least to see her before Clara kicks you out." Mal rolls her eyes, but knows he's not wrong; Clara's probably going to be pissed about not getting to watch Anastasia like she'd wanted, even if she'd basically fallen asleep after she suggested.

God, she's the worst when she's sick.

"I'll miss you at dinner tonight. I was really looking forward to footsie," she says with a wink. Ben's eyes widen and he glances at Clara furitively before looking back at her.

"You can't just talk about our sex lives in front of our daughters anymore! They understand things now!"

"It's footsie! I've played it with Aria at state dinners to get her to sit still! The fact that it often leads to… other things is irrelevant," she replies. Ben smiles at her and leans in to kiss her, but someone knocks on the door.

"Daddy! You wanna play Barbies with me?" Aria calls.

"Do I!" he replies and runs to the door, stopping with his hand on the handle. "Love you."

"You, too," she says, and he runs out the door. She can hear Aria giggling as they (likely) run towards her room. Clara rolls over from her side to her back with a loud thump, and Mal bites back a laugh. Sure, maybe they were in the downs of parenting ups and downs, but they'll be going up soon. She can feel it in every fiber of her being that things are going to pick up, very, very soon.


A/N: I'm not going to make any updating promises; sorry! Hopefully sometime soon, because I've got some exciting things planned! Let me know what you think; reviews honestly are great motivators!