It was the next morning, and Jack woke up to an empty bed. Jack was confused; Rose never woke up before him. Slowly, he walked downstairs to find the living room and kitchen empty. "Rose?" He called quietly, trying not to wake the children.

There was no response. Thoroughly confused, Jack slowly walked back up the stairs and found Maddie's door open. Jack slowly opened the door to find Rose asleep with an asleep Maddie in her arms. Jack smiled and closed the door, letting them sleep a while longer.

Jack went back downstairs and made coffee, toast, scrambled eggs, and fruit. Myles came downstairs to find Jack drawing in his sketchbook. Myles sat down next to him and looked at what he was drawing, which was Maddie and Rose upstairs. "Can I draw too?" Myles asked.

"Well, sure," said Jack. He ripped a piece of paper out of his portfolio and handed it to him.

They sat there drawing for a while and finally Maddie came downstairs. "Good morning," she said.

"Morning," said Jack. "Is Mommy still asleep?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Maddie, sitting down.

"Okay, I'll be back," said Jack, heading upstairs to Maddie's room. He entered the room to find Rose still asleep, and he sat down on the bed. Slowly, while still asleep, Rose inched closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on him. She stayed this way until she finally woke up. "Good morning," Jack whispered.

"Hey," said Rose, finally coming to her senses. "What's going on?"

"I was going to ask you that," said Jack with a smile. "I woke up and you weren't next to me."

"Maddie woke me up last night. She had a nightmare and she was scared," said Rose. "I finally got her back to sleep, but she was sleeping on top of me, so I couldn't sneak out."

"Got it," said Jack. "You must be exhausted. I can't imagine you slept well."

"I didn't," said Rose. "I'm probably just going to figure out when to take a nap today."

"You should sleep some more," said Jack. "I'll take care of the kids, you sleep."

"That's okay," said Rose. "Besides, I was thinking we could finally tell the kids about the baby."

"Really?" Jack asked, taken aback.

"Yeah," said Rose. "I'm already showing, so it's going to get harder to hide, and we've had so many close calls. I don't want them to accidentally find out. I would rather just tell them."

"I agree," said Jack.

"Besides, I think they'll be happy about it, don't you?"

Jack smiled and kissed her. "So do I."

•••

Rose got dressed and finally went downstairs. Sitting on the couch was Josie. "Good morning," said Rose. "Where are Maddie and Myles?"

"Good morning, Mom," said Josie. "They're in their rooms."

"Hold on a second," said Rose. "Since when am I 'Mom'?"

"What do you mean?" Josie asked. "You are my mom."

"Yes, but you've always called me 'Mommy'," said Rose. She wrapped her arms around Josie and hugged her tightly. "Awwww, my little girl is growing up!"

"You're little girl needs some air," said Josie. Rose loosened her grip and gave Josie a kiss.

Rose looked at Jack. "Where are the twins?" Rose asked.

"Still sleeping," said Jack. He handed Rose a cup of coffee.

"Oh, no thanks," said Rose. She didn't want to drink coffee while she was pregnant.

"Oh, right," said Jack, putting it back on the counter.

Josie was confused by this. "Since when do you not drink coffee?"

Rose sighed and looked at Jack, who slowly nodded. They led Josie over to the couch and sat next to her. "Josie, we have some big news to share with you."

Josie's eyes widened as she looked at Rose. "You're pregnant!"

Rose was taken aback. "What? How did you know?"

"You've been sick for weeks, you've been in bed a lot lately. The last time you did that, you were pregnant with the twins," said Josie with a smile. "So it's true?"

Rose kissed Josie's cheek. "Yes, it's true. But don't tell the twins, we're going to tell them."

"Okay," said Josie.

"Mommy!" called a voice from upstairs.

"Let's go tell Maddie," said Rose, going upstairs. "We're going to talk to her. You'll be okay down here until we get back?"

"Sure," said Josie. She stood up and hugged Rose. "I'm so happy."

Rose kissed the top of Josie's head. "I love you, Josie." She and Jack walked upstairs. "Good morning."

"Hi," said Maddie, sitting up. She looked at her parents, who both sat down on her bed. "What's going on?"

"Well, we have something we want to tell you," said Jack, positioning himself next to Maddie.

"What is it?" Maddie asked, resting her head on Jack's chest, and Jack put his arm around Maddie.

"You're going to have a baby brother or sister," said Rose.

Maddie sat up and looked at them both. "Wait, what?"

"Yep, Mommy's pregnant," said Jack, trying to read his daughter's expression. "What're you thinking, Mad?"

"That… I don't wanna be a middle child," said Maddie. "The middle child always gets less attention than everyone else."

"Well, Maddie," Rose said, holding back her laughter, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you already are a middle child. You've been a middle child practically your whole life."

"Well, now there's gonna be another child to worry about," said Maddie. "Our family is perfect the way it is. It doesn't need any more children."

"Maddie, I promise you, this new baby isn't going to change anything. I promise you we'll still love you just as much and show you just as much attention," said Jack. "Plus, you'll have a cute little baby in the house."

"You promise?" Maddie asked pensively.

"I promise," said Jack.

"Okay, well I have to get dressed," said Maddie. "I'll see you guys in a few minutes."

Jack and Rose left the room, and Rose closed the door behind her. "You promise the baby isn't going to change anything? Jack, how could you promise something like that?"

"What was I supposed to do, Rose?" Jack asked loudly. He noticed how loudly he was talking, and lowered his voice. He took Rose's hand in his. "When the twins were born, did it change how we felt about Josie, how we treated her?"

"Well, no," said Rose.

"Exactly," said Jack with a smile, "and the same will go for this baby. We're going to be exhausted, and sleep deprived, and drained, but everything else will stay the same."

"Jack," said Rose, "how can you say that? Remember when we had Josie, and everything changed? She became our number one priority, the most important thing to both of us."

"But Rose, that was completely different. That was the difference between before and after we became parents. Josie did become our main priority, and then every time we had a baby they were added to the priority list. But it didn't change anything with any of the children."

Rose looked into Jack's eyes and then looked down at his lips. Without a second thought, Rose kissed him passionately, placing her hands against his chest, then sliding them up to play with his hair. Jack wrapped his arms around her waist, then moving his hands down mast her waist, her hips, and down to her butt.

Jack pulled away, catching his breath. "Rose, you know we can't do this now," he whispered, still holding her in his arms. Rose looked at him, her smile fading into a frown, and she started to cry. Jack put his hands on her arms. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"It's the hormones," said Rose, putting her head in her hands. "The stupid pregnancy hormones."

Jack put his arms around her and kissed her softly. "I love you and your pregnancy hormones."

Rose looked at him and sighed. "And we really can't do this now?"

Jack smiled. "I'm afraid not."

"Well, you'll just have to make it up to me, then," said Rose.

Jack kissed her cheek and took her hand, leading her to Myles's room. "Myles," Jack called, knocking gently on his door.

"Come in," a voice answered.

Jack and Rose entered his room and sat down. "Good morning, sweet boy," said Rose, sitting down next to him.

"I'm so tired," said Myles, putting his head on her lap.

Rose stroked through his hair. "Do you want to go back to sleep, darling?"

"No, that's okay," he said. "I'm up."

"You tell him," said Rose. "I told the girls."

Jack nodded, and Myles sat up, looking at his parents. "Tell me what?"

"You're going to be a big brother," said Jack. "You're going to have a baby brother or sister."

"Really?" Myles exclaimed. "I'm so excited! But it better be a boy."

"Well, it's not really a choice," said Rose with a giggle. "But I'll see what I can do."

Finally, Jack and Rose left the room. "You know what I just realized?" Jack asked.

"What?" Rose asked.

"Thank god we made a guest room when we were designing the house, because otherwise we would be out of bedrooms," said Jack.

"You're right, we would be," said Rose. She stopped and put her arms around Jack.

"What are you thinking?" Jack asked.

Rose sighed and looked into his eyes. "I just hope this pregnancy is an easy one."

Jack smiled and kissed her. "I hope so too, sweetheart."

But little did they know, it would be the opposite. It would be the most dangerous of the three.