"I'm home." announced Tony after entering his house.
After he had safely put his gun away, he wondered why none of his children had welcomed him yet. Usually, they would come to him as soon as he entered the house. At least his youngest.
After taking off his shoes and jacket, his family was still out of sight, so he began his search.
"Leo, Rae, Ash?" Tony called his children with no answer.
As he walked down the hall, he heard noises coming from the living room, so he decided that the first thing to do was look there.
Immediately he recognized the petite person sitting on the sofa.
"Hi Leo." Tony smiled at his oldest child.
"Hey Dad." His daughter had glanced at him when he entered the room, but was now devoting herself to the television again. She was watching some cartoon that was far too loud and too colorful for Tony.
Under normal circumstances, Tony would have told her that it was rude not to greet him properly, but he had other things to take care of.
"Where's your Mom or your sisters?" Tony wanted to know from the eleven-year-old.
Without turning away from the television, she just shrugged her shoulders.
Tony sighed as he turned away from his daughter and continued his search.
When he found the kitchen empty too, he decided to go upstairs.
He had just set foot on the step when he heard giggling coming from under the stairs.
"I found you." Tony said with a smile when he saw his two youngest children in their hiding spot.
"Finally." One of the little girls laughed while the other wrapped her tiny arms around her father.
Tony lightly strokes his daughter's dark hair.
He had missed seeing their happy little faces when he was at work.
"Where's your Mom?" Tony asked the six-year old's after hugging them both.
"Mommy is ... I don't know." Asha answered her father. "Do you know?" She looked at her sister.
"Mommy was tired." Raen said as she shrugged.
"All right. I'll look after her." Tony said in a slightly concerned voice. Kate hadn't felt well for a few days and he was starting to worry about her.
"Daddy?" Raen called her father in her sweetest voice.
"Yes baby?" Tony knew she was going to ask for something. His daughters might have wrapped him around their fingers, but he still knew when they were using their tricks to get what they wanted. Most times at least.
"Can we have dinner after you check on Mama? Cause I'm hungryyyy." She looked at him with her big puppy eyes. He loved the color of her eyes. It was the same as Kate's. Asha also gave her father her best puppy look, but when he looked into her eyes, he saw his own. It seems that his eye color was the only thing the twins inherited from him. Aside from Asha's eye color, they were both perfect copies of Kate with only minor differences.
"Sure, sweety." Tony was even more worried now because Kate would normally prepare some food for the girls, but if she hadn't today, she might be sicker than Tony thought.
Tony gave his daughters one last smile before going upstairs.
He quietly opened the bedroom door, expecting Kate to be in the shared bed. But the room was empty.
He entered the bedroom and called for his wife, because the door to the adjoining bathroom was locked.
"Tony?" Her voice came from the bathroom.
Tony entered the room quickly.
He couldn't tell exactly what it was, but his wife's voice had sounded different than usual.
"Kate, what's up?" He looked at her worried.
She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub. She didn't look good and Tony was about to rush to her side when something else caught his attention.
"Kate, is that a ..." Tony pointed to a piece of white plastic lying next to the sink.
"Pregnancy test? Yes." Kate confirmed.
"Kate, it's positive." Tony looked at his wife in disbelief.
"I know. But it's old. Maybe it's broken. It's expired about two years ago. It was silly to even take it. I mean, I can't be pregnant, right?" Kate looked at her husband with a questioning expression.
"Wait, let me check something." Tony pulled out his cell phone. He was just as nervous as Kate, but he tried to stay calm.
"According to the internet, positives are mostly true." He said after a short time.
"What?" Now it was Kate who looked at her spouse in disbelief.
Tony shrugged and without a word, he sat down next to Kate on the edge of the bathtub.
He was still thinking about the possibility of becoming a father again.
"No, that can't be true." She said quietly. "We didn't plan that. It can't be true." Reality began to sink in.
"We didn't plan the other children either." Tony joked.
"We planned the twins." Kate gave her husband her typical look.
"Technically, we have only planned one. But that's not the point, Kate. We didn't expect half the things that have happened to us in the last 12 years, but it always turned out to be fine. I'm sure everything will be alright." Tony had processed the initial shock and was now trying to calm his wife down.
"How can you be so confident? We haven't had a baby in almost ten years. What if we fuck this kid up?" Kate looked at Tony with her big hazel eyes.
"Kate, you're exaggerating. The twins are only six." Tony laughed. "And taking care of a baby is like riding a bike. You will always know how to do it." He once again tried to calm her down.
"What if it's not healthy? What if we made a crappy baby because we're way too old to have children?" Kate spoke quickly.
"We're not that old, Kate." Tony said while he put his arm around Kate.
"You will be well into your sixties by the time this one starts high school." Kate pointed to her stomach.
"Ouch." Tony sighed, "Let's worry about these things when we're sure you're pregnant." He knew that Kate wouldn't stop worrying till they would know that she isn't actually pregnant and if she was in fact pregnant, he knew she would be worried about the baby till they would bring it home safe and sound. And honestly he would do the same.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe it's just a false positive," Kate said, not really convincing, after thinking for a while.
"Yeah, probably." He gave her a small smile before kissing the side of her head.
They both knew that it wasn't a just pregnancy scare and that they would welcome another child in their lives in about eight months.