Hey. Sorry it took me so long. But I got a lot to do at work and have been pretty busy. So here is the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 5: We both are mommies

Piper and Alex grew so fast, both their parents were amazed by their development. Both girls were talking more and it was fun for everyone around to listen in on the conversation between the two girls. Their favourite game at the moment was playing family with their stuffed animals. Right now Mr. Bear, Alex's teddy bear, was the dad coming home from work and Piper's giraffe Mrs. Sniffles was swimming in the pool.

"Hi honey. Welcome home." Piper said, taking her giraffe out of the imaginary pool and let her walk towards Mr. Bear.

"Hello. I am you do raffi?" Alex answered as Mr. Bear with assumed voice.

"I was swimming."

"Cool. I want to do a car race." the teddy aka Alex answered and Alex got off the couch where they were playing to the mat next to the window where she found some of Danny's play cars. She sat the teddy onto the way too small car and drove with it through the living room.

"No car race!" Piper protested.

"Vrroomm." Alex and her bear on the car drove by Mrs. Sniffles and Piper as fast as Alex could run. She went on with her race as Piper and her giraffe turned back to the swimming pool and Piper made her giraffe a nice drink at the pool. Both of them were playing separately for a while until Piper got bored and asked Alex how long this race was and if she had won already. Alex said one more round and ran through the room and accidently bumped into Piper who had gotten up from the couch. Piper fell and shortly looked like she was going to cry. Alex sensed that and quickly went over to Piper to help her up.

"I'm sorry." Alex said. "Piper hurt?"

Piper shook her head and asked her "Play family again?"

"Okay." Alex and Piper returned to their place on the couch. Diane and Carol checked in on the girls every now and then and saw the two of them playing quietly on the couch and got back to their conversation.

"You daddy and I am mommy." Piper told Alex.

"No. Teddy not want to be daddy." Alex replied.

"Who is Teddy then?" Piper wanted to know.

"Fireman." Alex replied. Recently it had been about firemen a lot for Alex.

"Then Teddy is daddy who is fireman." Piper said.

"Okay. Teddy is gone to put out fire." Alex said and she and her teddy bear jumped of the couch.

"Why always away Alex? I not play alone!" Piper complained about Alex running off again. She jumped off the couch too to follow Alex. Soon their game was forgotten as both girls got into the kitchen and Carol made them pancakes for the girls.

XXXXX

Diane and Louis weren't sure about the planning for their wedding. Even though they wanted to get married soon they didn't want to do it without Diane's parents being there. They still believed that they would wake up soon and they could tell them even though there hadn't been much change to their condition recently. They went to see them every other day, maybe every third if they were busy.

Three month's after the accident Diane's fathers condition got worse. When they came to the hospital that day the nurses were busy around him and Diane knew immediately that something had changed. She hoped for the better but soon the nurses told her that even though it had been steady until now he had shown cardiac arrhythmia recently and it wasn't a good sign. A day later they told her that he had had more problems over the night and unfortunately more than he could handle in his condition. It was a shock for Diane. Her hope had been crushed in less than a day and her mother's condition hadn't changed. At least for her there was still hope even though she would be devastated to wake up and find out she had missed out on over three months and her husband died. She could still get better and wake up someday. Even though Diane didn't know what to do she promised herself not to give up hope that at least her mother could make it through the accident.

The next week was hard. Ever since the accident Alex had asked where her grandparents were and Diane had taken her to the hospital and explained to her that they had had an accident and were in hospital so that the doctors could help them get better. At first Alex understood but when the wounds had healed they looked like they were sleeping and she asked every time when they would wake up and how long they'd sleep. Diane had tried her best to explain it to her, but Alex was only three and it was something really hard to understand for a kid that age. Now she had no idea how to explain to Alex that her grandpa would never wake up and she couldn't see him again. Diane hadn't fully realized that her father was gone yet.

Two weeks later, the funeral had been three days after her dad died, Diane got a call from the hospital to come in. She immediately worried that there would be another one and they didn't want to tell her on the phone that her mom had passed away too. But when she arrived the nurses smiled at her so she was confused. When she entered her mom's room she found that she was awake. Her mom had finally woken up from her coma. If that wasn't good news she didn't what was.

"Hi mom" she greeted her smiling widely.

"Hi sweety." her mom quietly replied her voice still hoarse from not using it for a while.

"I am so happy you finally woke up." Diane replied a lump building in her throat and felt tears rise up in her eyes. She went over and hugged her mom tightly.

"Me too." Eva whispered. For a while no one said anything.

"Uhm. I think it's better if I tell you now. If the nurses haven't told you yet?!" Diane started but was afraid to go on.

"They just told me that it has been close to four month's that I and your dad were in a coma. And one doctor was brave enough and told me what happened to your dad. I know." her voice broke and Diane saw tears rising in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry." Diane said, both women now crying. Diane was secretly thankful to the doctor that she didn't have to tell her mom about her dad's death.

They talked for a bit. Diane told her mom with tears streaming down her face about John's funeral and what had been the month's before. She told her about the engagement. And Eva was so happy for her daughter.

"Alex has been asking when you'd wake up constantly." Diane smirked. "She missed you a lot. And so did I."

"Oh please bring her soon. I can't wait to see how she's grown." her mother replied with a melancholy in her eyes. "I can't believe I missed so much."

"She'll be thrilled to see you." Diane smiled.

They came visiting the next day. Alex was so excited to finally see her grandma not sleeping anymore.

"Ganma" she screamed as she ran into her room.

"Hi, sweetie." Eva greeted her with a big smile. "Wow. You've grown so much."

"I'm big girl now." Alex answered standing next to her grandma's bed. Eva and Diane chuckled.

"Yes, you are. Come up to grandma. Give me a hug." she held out her arms as Diane lifted her daughter up on her mothers bed. Grandmother and granddaughter hugged tightly for a while.

"I love you." Alex said to her grandma. "I missed you. You sleep so long."

"I love you, too, sweetheart." Eva answered with tears in her eyes. "Yes, I had to take a long nap. But soon I'll be home and we can play with your Teddy again." she told Alex who gave her a wide smile. "Yes. Teddy waiting for you too."

Just about a week later they could pick Eva up and bring her home. Diane and Louis spend a lot of time with her to help her get settled back into life back at home that she now had to do on her own and alone. Eva was happy that her daughter helped her but asked Diane and Louis to leave her alone every now and then to get used to live alone and give her some time to deal with her husband's death.

Six months later they celebrated Diane's and Louis' wedding. Piper and Alex were dressed in cute dresses as they were flower girls. They had planned a small ceremony with a celebration with family and close friends only. They had luck and the sun was shining bright. The location they had chosen was partially outside so guests could choose between the inside tables and dancefloor or chatting outside in the closeby garden. The ceremony had gone well, Diane and Louis both decided to write their vows. Before the ceremony Diane had had a moment of melancholy and sadness as she originally wanted her dad to walk her down the aisle which wasn't possible anymore. But her mom asked her if she could take over that part and do it instead. Diane gladly agreed.

The ceremony was just what the couple had imagined. Everyone wished them well and they kept on celebrating. The dance floor was soon filled with many eager dancers. As Diane was looking to find her daughter she could find Alex and Piper in the middle of the dancers holding each others hands and dancing with their own childish, a little clumsy looking moves to the music. With their matching dresses and nicely coiffed hair they were the cutest sight of the party. They didn't seem to bother about anything else at all. Of course their parents were quick to seize the moment and take a picture of the two girls. Soon they were both tired and Bill brought the girls home where they had asked a babysitter to stay with them until they got home. Carol and Bill had offered Diane and Louis that they'd take Alex for the next weeks so the two of them could have some time to themselves while going on their honeymoon. And that started with Alex staying over tonight already. Diane and Louis would come by shortly before they were jumping on their plane to their honeymoon to say goodbye to Alex.

"Bye mommy. Bye daddy. Have nice holiday!" Alex waved at them as they walked towards the car.

"Bye honey. We love you. Be good for Carol, please!" Diane said as she waved to Alex trying to smile. She felt sad leaving her for two weeks and not seeing her everyday. She was used to not seeing her part of the day when she worked and Alex was in kindergarten, but still she saw her every day.

When they were gone Piper, Alex and Carol went into the house. Piper and Alex went to play in Piper's room. Piper had been super excited that her best friend stayed with her for so long and they could play together anytime they wanted.

"Play family?" Piper asked Alex.

"Okay." she replied and took one of Piper's dolls which was her favourite. Mostly because it had shoulder long black hair, much like Alex herself.

"I play mommy." Piper said and took another doll and a smaller on. "And this is baby." Then she turned to Alex. "You play daddy?"

"No. I want to be mommy." Alex replied.

"But I don't want to be daddy." Piper pouted.

"We both are mommies." Alex just stated.

"But who is daddy?" Piper asked confused.

"No daddy. Phil in kindergarten has two mommies and no daddy. It's okay." Alex just replied and started moving her doll around.

"Okay. I am mommy Piper and you mommy Alex." Piper now smiled, accepting the new family concept quickly.

"And this baby Harper." Alex said.

They kept on playing until Carol got them for lunch. The girls went downstairs and while playing they had put their two mommy dolls away to play it themselves and just kept the baby doll Harper with them to lunch also.

"Who is this?" Carol wanted to know.

"This is baby Harper." Piper explained.

"Okay. You're playing family? Who is the mommy and who is the daddy?" she asked.

"Alex and I both mommies." Piper replied casually.

"Okay. So who is Harpers mommy?" Carol wanted to know. Piper looked at her confused.

"Alex and me." she plainly answered and went on eating her lunch.

After that Carol stayed silent and listened to the girls babbling about their play. She wasn't sure if she liked the girls having this family concept like that. Not that she was homophobic or anything, she just didn't want her daughter to play things like that, even though she knew she couldn't force the girls to play mommy and daddy and decided to let them play the way they wanted to and talk about it with Piper when she was old enough to really understand it.

Diane and Louis had already been gone for a couple days when one afternoon Alex sat on the couch looking very much in thought and a bit sad. Carol went over to ask how she was. And as everytime they were together Piper was close to Alex. It became a habit for everyone that if they looked for one of the girls they'd just search for both because once you found one of them the other one wasn't far away.

"Everything okay, Alex?" Carol asked Alex softly.

"When is mommy back?" she asked with a thin voice.

"You miss her, don't you?" Carol asked and Alex nodded so hard her whole body shook. Carol had prepared for this and got a few things to distract the girls whenever this would happen and she was sure at some point Alex would miss her mom a lot.

"They'll be back next saturday. It's not that long. Until then I got you this little book. How about You draw something in there for your mom and I'll write in there what you and Piper did, when she was away. So when she gets back she can read about all the great things you and Piper did and also see your pictures? Do you think she will like that?"

Alex looked up and seemed to like the idea as she perked up a little. "I think it's good idea. Can I have it? I want to make a big heart so mommy knows I love her."

"That's a good idea. Piper you want to draw something too?" she asked and got the paper and pencils out.

Piper and Alex enjoyed the two weeks the could spend together. Everytime Piper felt that Alex missed her mom she went over to hug her and asked if she wanted to draw something for her which usually raised her spirit a little. But the day before Diane and Louis were to return even a distraction like drawing couldn't help anymore and Alex sat on the couch crying and asking when her mama would be back. Piper sat next to her and hugged her, which seemed to stop Alex from completely losing it. Carol went up.

"Hey, honey. I know it's hard. But your mommy will be here soon okay. Just one more sleep and she'll be here to pick you up." she said to the sobbing nearly 4 year old. The girls birthdays were coming up in about a month. Alex stopped sobbing for a bit and seemed to think about something. Then she put on a serious face and stood up from the couch.

"Okay. I go to bed now. And when I wake up it tomorrow and my mommy is here." she concluded and started walking to Piper's room where the girls had slept together for the last two weeks. Carol could stop her before she was in bed, but already halfway in her pajamas.

"Alex, honey. It's only 11 am. We didn't even have lunch yet. I'm sorry but you can't go to bed yet. Nobody can sleep that long. How about you and Piper go play and I'll make something for lunch soon. What do you want for lunch? It's your day to choose." Carol suggested.

"Okay." Alex seemed to agree. "I want pancakes." she changed back into her normal clothes and went to find Piper.

The next morning Alex was up super early and jumped around asking when her mama would be here about every ten minutes. Around 11 she saw a car driving up the driveway and saw her mom get out. She sprinted to the front door and ran to Diane, literally jumping into her arms.

"Hello my baby. I missed you so much." Diane said and hugged her daughter tightly.

"I missed you." Alex said almost crying. She hugged her and Diane needed to carry her in as Alex didn't let go.

"Don't you want to say hi to me too?" Louis said from behind Diane.

"Yeah. Daddy!" Alex screamed and held her arms out so Louis could take her from Diane.

"Missed you too." Alex told him.

"Yeah. I missed you too, my favourite girl." Louis said and kissed her on the cheek. Soon Alex wiggled free from him carrying her and went to the living room. She came back with her pile of drawings.

"Look, mommy I draw them for you. This is a big heart because I love you. I also made one for daddy." Alex showed them her pictures handing them to her parents and telling what she drew. Both smiled widely and listened to Alex tell them about her time when they were away. They stayed for lunch and told them what they had done on the honeymoon (the limited 'safe for a child' version) and listened to what Alex and Piper had done.

Couple weeks later they celebrated Alex's and Piper's fourth birthday. As every year they celebrated in the Chapmans garden and this time Carol went a little overboard and got a bounce house. But both Piper and Alex and their friends enjoyed it a lot.