(Vincent's pov)
It was a week after my parents had left, Clem, Minerva and I along with Hazel are currently heading to a counseling session, it was a family councilor so it should work for us. Though I'm not to sure. We finally get tot the building and Hazel goes and plays with the toys in the room. She wasn't talking to any of us currently since Minerva told her that I might not be her father. She looked so heart broken at that, and yelled at her mother and even yelled at me.
"Aldon?" I hear and we all get up and Hazel follows us into the office and she sees some more toys on the shelf. The woman grabbed a stuffed bear for her and hands it to Hazel who hugged it and I look to her. Minerva goes and takes a seat and Clem takes a seat in a separate chair and I just stand.
"So how is everyone?" The woman asked and I rubbed the back of my head.
"Fine, just don't want to be here." Minerva speaks up and I look to her.
"Why don't you?" The woman asked her.
"I don't need to be here there is nothing wrong." Minerva says.
"There seems to be, I mean your own daughter isn't even looking at any of you." The woman says and I look to see that Hazel was just looking at the books and hugging the toy and I looked down.
"She's a pit upset at some news." I say and the woman looked to me.
"What news would that be?" She asked and I clear my throat a bit.
"That I uh… might not be her… Papa." I say and looked down.
"Is he the father?" The woman asked Minerva who kept quiet.
"You know it would make things easier if you would just say if he is or isn't… just get it off your chest." The woman says and I look to Minerva. She still didn't say anything and I look back to Hazel who then looked to her mom then when she saw me looking, she turned away and I looked back to the woman.
"Ok, we can talk about that later, Hazel, right?" The woman asked and Hazel looked to the woman and she nods.
"Do you want to tell them how you feel?" She asked her and she shakes her head and I rubbed the back of my neck.
"Is it ok if she goes to our child councilor?" The woman asked and I nod and look to Clem.
"Clem can go with… to watch her." I say and the woman nods as Hazel goes with Clem and they go take her to the other room.
"Seems to be a lot of tension with you two." She says and I watch her as she writes some things down.
"Look we don't need any of this." Minerva says.
"I think otherwise, it seems Vincent here is worried." She tells Minerva and I look to the woman.
"How did all this start?" The woman asked.
"When he left." Minerva says.
"Bullshit, it started after almost a year after I left, I-."
"It's been like this always-."
"Hey I didn-."
"Ok I think you two need to calm down." The woman says and I take a few breaths.
"Seems like you two are thinking it happened at different points in time." She says.
"Well… yea." I mutter and crossed my arms a bit.
"Well how was everything after Hazel was born?" The woman asked and I looked to Minerva and then back to the ground.
"Everything was ok, he was really happy, excited that he was a dad and… protective." Minerva says.
"Anything else?" The woman asked.
"I don't know… I mean I was happy that I was having a kid, I mean I wish the circumstances were different but I love Hazel." I tell her and I look at Minerva.
"I really do." I tell her and she looked away.
"So, the arguing happened when?" She asked us and I go and take a seat.
"When her fucking parents wanted to get involved." I tell her.
"Oh? Care to explain?" She asked.
"Vincent and my parents don't see things eye to eye." Minerva says and I scoff.
"Understatement of the century, her parents have hated me since they found out we were dating and I was trans, they're homophobic pricks that only want to make a quick buck without the work." I say.
"Hey my parents started with nothing just like us." Minerva says.
"Bullshit, your dad got his money from your grandfather, I grew up with nothing but my grandfathers' lessons and my grandmother too, they don't know what it's like to have an absent mother and a fucking family that hated them." I tell her.
"Your family hates you?" The woman asked.
"I mean… my aunts and uncles do; my cousins are ok and I… fixed things up with my dad." I tell her.
"But when you were younger?" She asked.
"Just grandma and grandpa… mom was busy working… look regardless her parents are pricks, they're trying to make Hazel just play one instrument only they want to burn her out before she can actually enjoy music." I state.
"And you know this how?" She asked.
"Hazel is talented, she wants to play other instruments and I intend for her to do what she wants." I tell Minerva.
"She told my parents that she wanted to play the piano." Minerva says.
"I bet they guilt her into it." I say.
"They didn't."
"Let me guess you were there?" I asked.
"Yes, and Sophie." She says.
"I highly doubt you were there; Hazel would have said if you were." I say to her getting pissed.
"Do you think your daughter could be lying?" The woman says and I look at her.
"No, she wouldn't lie to me." I tell her.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yes I am."
"Well maybe she wanted you to know she was interested in piano." The woman said.
"Then why would she ask to play other instruments?" I asked.
"Maybe to make you happy?" The woman asked and I groaned.
"Think about it Vincent." Minerva says and I glare at her then shake my head.
"Look, I want what's best for my… for Hazel." I tell Minerva and then looked to the woman.
"Well maybe you and Minerva as her parents should both ask Hazel what she wants." The woman asked and I nod a bit.
"Now, relationship issues between you two?" She asked.
"No, we aren't together." I say.
"Oh, are you with Clementine?" The woman asked.
"No, they broke it off years ago." Minerva says and I mess with my hands a bit.
"Actually… we kind of got back together around last week." I say and she looked to me.
"Well hold on, Minerva why would this make you upset?" The woman asked and I look to Minerva.
"Maybe I thought… we could try again?" She asked.
"No, no way, never." I tell her.
"Would that have been an issue?" The woman asked.
"We fight constantly, we broke off our engagement because she was screwing around with other guys." I say.
"But she has changed in the past few years, right?" The woman asked.
"Look, I am in a happy and healthy relationship with Clementine, Hazel loves Clem and even calls her Mama, I am not looking for anything else." I state.
"Well has Hazel actually been around you two in a home like environment?" The woman asked.
"When she was little yea, Minerva stayed with us for a few months so I could work and she could take care of her." I say.
"How about this, now I'm not saying you two have to be in a relationship but maybe you two should stay together with your daughter, without Clementine around… maybe she wants both of you, her biological parents to work together… has she seen you two argue?" The woman asked.
"Maybe once or twice, but that was because we were deciding when Hazel goes to someone's house." Minerva says.
"See, maybe she wants to be around both of you at the same time… she doesn't know what it's like to have both of her actual parents together… maybe she feels like she's missing out like the other kids?" The woman suggests and I look to Minerva then back to her.
"No, she's fine-."
"There is your problem Vincent, you think she is fine but have you talked to her about this?" The woman asked.
"I mean she's a little young." I mutter and looked to the floor.
"How about this, sometime at the beginning of the month, You, Minerva and Hazel stay at one of your houses, and talk with her, show her what it's like to have both of her actual parents in her lives, and no arguing just you two raising her." She suggests.
"This doesn't sound healthy." I mutter.
"It's just for a month." Minerva says and the lady nods and I rubbed my face.
"Fine… but if she asks for Clementine, you talk to her." I say.
"Ah, nope none of that, you both will talk to her, it's not going to be a one parent putting more responsibility on the other do you both understand?" She asked and I sighed in defeat but I nod.
"Fine, fine." I say and get up.
"We done?" I asked.
"Well, I would like to talk to you and Clementine actually just for ten minutes." She says and I nod as Minerva leaves and then Clementine comes in and takes a seat next to me.
"Hello, how are you Clem?"
"I'm doing just fine." Clem says and I rubbed my head a bit.
"So, Vincent would you like to explain what will be happening next month?" The woman asked and I look to her then to Clem and I sighed.
"Minerva and I… are going to raise Hazel together for a month… because the doc here thinks that Hazel feels as if she needs both of our attentions." I explained and Clem looked to me then to the doctor.
"You're kidding right?" Clem asked.
"Why would I joke about this?" The woman asked.
"They clearly don't get along."
"Don't you think it's because Minerva is jealous?" The woman asked and I sighed.
"Of course, she is, she fucked up big time, she thought she could have whatever she wanted and was mad because Vincent was happy for once, even before we started dating, she was mad because I was around him, and we were just friends." Clementine says and I look to the Doc and I nod.
"She is right, we posted a pic and Minerva automatically accused me of dating Clem." I tell her.
"Well at the time, did you?" She asked.
"What?" I asked.
"Did you have feelings for Clementine at the time?" She asked and I look at Clem and I shrugged.
"I mean… yea a little but come on anyone who has two brain cells would want to date her." I say.
"But do you think you were to fast?" She asked and I look to Clem.
"I uh… was I?" I asked Clementine.
"We were friends for a few months, and I did like him." She tells the doc and I look at the doc then to Clementine.
"So not moving to fast?" She asked.
"No." I state.
"But you two broke up?" She asked.
"Because I was mad at Vincent." Clem says.
"Because he had a baby with another woman?" The Doc asked.
"Not… entirely." She says and I look at her.
"Well… care to explain?" She asked.
"I… look I know he was in a bad place, his grandmother died, he wanted to be alone and I thought at the time it would have been fine but he… I wasn't there to help him, and I felt like… I wasn't enough." She says and I look at her more.
"Clem, I…" I stopped and took a breath.
"So, you felt as if you didn't help him enough that you think he went to another woman for comfort?" The doc asked.
"I would never… Clem." I say and she looked to me.
"I know, you didn't do it intentionally, you were drunk, I know but I just… felt terrible." She says and I look down a bit and I rubbed the back of my neck.
"Did you two ever talk about… sex during your time together?"
"I mean… not between us, we talked about… certain things, and we did talk about having a family at some points but… that's about it, I was still… dysphoric." I tell them and they nod a bit.
"And you were ok with this?" She asked Clem.
"Of course, I didn't want him to feel like we had to start a family instantly, and I was still in college, he didn't want me to be a mom to soon." Clem explained.
"But did you?" She asked and I look to the floor a bit then looked to Clem.
"… A little I mean after I heard about Minerva, I thought that… I don't know." She says.
"Did you think Vincent would have left you for Minerva because she was having his baby?" She asked.
"No, he… no he wouldn't." She says.
"Vincent?" The doc asked.
"No, I would never leave Clementine."
"But again, you broke up."
"Yes, we just… we agreed to it." I say to her.
"I'm just trying to get a clear picture is all and sometimes I have to be a bit repetitive." She says and I look down a bit.
"It's annoying." I mutter.
"I know, and yes I might seem like an… asshole for asking these questions and such." She says and I scoff a bit at this.
"Vincent do you not like therapists or counseling?" She asked.
"I had to go through therapy and stuff before I could start my transitioning, as for Counseling, eh." I mutter and looked to the Doc.
"Bad times?" She asked.
"No not really, I had really great help when it came to transitioning." I tell her.
"You just don't like me?" She asked.
"No… you seem cool." I tell her.
"Thank you… well the ten minutes are up, shall we talk again?" She asked and I nod a bit and look to Clementine. She nods a bit at this and we head out the room and make another schedule and I look to see Minerva with Hazel and I rubbed the back of my neck a bit and we all head out the car. As I get Hazel in I look at her and smiled at her and then I get into the drivers side and think a bit.
"So… lunch?" I asked everyone.
"At home?" Hazel asked.
"Sure, anything in particular?" I asked.
"Pancakes?" She asked and I nod.
"Alright, chocolate chip?" I asked and Hazel cheers and I smiled a bit and drive to my house. Once I pulled into the driveway and shut the car off everyone got out and I get out as well. We head inside and I get the food ready to make and Hazel grabs a stool and she tries to help me.
"The lady that talked to me was nice." She tells me and I look at her.
"Oh? Do you want to tell me what you two talked about?" I asked her.
"She asked if I have friends at school." she says and I look to her.
"Do you?" I asked and she shook her head.
"No." She says.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Some of the kids are mean." She tells me and I look at her.
"Now why are they mean to you?" I asked.
"… I don't know." She says and I rubbed the back of my neck.
"Well… do you tell them about your Papa and Mama?" I asked.
"I told my teacher I have two mommies and a daddy." She says and I watch as she mixes the bowl of pancake mix.
"Did they act mean to you?" I asked.
"One girl heard and said you're a bad man." She tells me and I looked to the sink then to Hazel.
"But you aren't a bad man." She says and I think a bit.
"Do you know why they think that way?" I asked.
"They said, you cheated on my mommy with Mama." She tells me and I looked down.
"No… no I… I cheated on Mama with Mommy." I tell her honestly and she looked at me.
"It… it was my fault, not Mama or Mommy ok?" I tell her and she looked to the mix a bit and she looked to me.
"Was I a mistake?" She asked and I look at her in shock.
"No, god no you are not a mistake who told you that?" I asked and I see Clem and Minerva on the side of the kitchen but made sure Hazel didn't see them.
"… I can't tell." She says.
"Why not?" I asked softly.
"I promised." She says and I think.
"Well… I think we can break this one small promise don't you think?" I asked her.
"No, you said it was bad to break a promise." She says and I think again.
"Yes, but if it makes you unhappy to keep it, it would make you feel better if you tell someone." I tell her.
"A girls Mommy said that… she's a teacher." Hazel says and I nod.
"Ok… I can talk to-."
"No… I wasn't supposed to hear it." She says and I look to her.
"Ok… ok we can keep this a secret together… but if it happens again you need to tell me, ok?" I asked and she looked to me then to the mix again and then back to me.
"Ok." She says and I rubbed her head gently.
"Hey, Princess it's ok… you and I only know this ok." I tell her and she nods.
"So, I'm not… a mistake?" She asked and I pick her up and look at her.
"No, you are not a mistake you are my little adorable, funny, Princess who is the most important girl in my life." I say to her.
"What about Mama Clem?" She asked.
"Yea she's important to me too." I tell her and she looked to me.
"Are you and Mama Clem going to get married?" She asked and I chuckled.
"You want us to get married?" I asked.
"Maybe." She says and I laughed a bit and set her back down and I think.
"Why? do you want to be our little flower girl?" I asked her and she nods at this and I smiled and we worked on the pancakes more.
"Well… if Mama Clem ever wants to marry me then you'll be the first to know and I'll make sure you are in the wedding." I tell her.
"I get a nice dress?" She asked and I laughed and nodded.
"Yes, you get a nice dress, any color you want." I say to her and she gets happy and I look to her a bit and I start working on the pancakes.
"W-Why do you want Clem and I get married?" I asked her and she looks to the pan a bit and tells me when to flip it and I do as told.
"Mama Clem makes you happy." She says and I nod.
"She does yes, she makes me very happy." I tell her and I think about it for a bit as we both worked on the food.
"Hazel… how would you feel if… if you and Mommy and I live together?" I asked her.
"And Mama Clem?" She asked and I look to her sadly.
"N-no just us three." I say.
"Hmm, no." She says and I look to her.
"I uh… think it would be a nice idea to try it." I tell her.
"No, not if Mama Clem doesn't come." She tells me and I rubbed my neck and then the other two come in and I look at them.
"Well… it would only be for a month." I explained to her.
"No, not without Mama Clem." She says and we finished the food up.
"Why don't we try something else." Clem says and I look to her as does Hazel.
"If… it is ok with Minerva, she can stay here for a month… and we can… work together? I mean Hazel has gotten use to all three of us in her lives." Clementine suggested and I think a bit.
"I like that idea." Hazel says and she gets down from her stool and she goes and gets ready for lunch and I think a bit before we all get ready to eat. Hazel sat next to her mom and I sat next to Clementine and we all eat. I look at Hazel as she looked happy and I look to both Clem and Minerva and it clicks and I nod to myself a bit. After a while we all finished lunched Hazel said she was going to play in her room and I nod as I get everything cleaned up and then looked to Clem as she helped me. I then looked to Minerva and I sighed a bit.
"Ok… hear me out on this." I say and they both looked to me and I look to them.
"What if Hazel… is wanting attention from all of us?" I asked.
"You think that?" Minerva asked and I nod.
"You both heard her, she said she wants Clem involved too… she's gotten use to all three of us raising her that… she thinks it's normal for all of us to raise her." I tell them.
"It seems that way." Clem says and I rubbed my chin a bit.
"So, what you are saying is that she thinks it's normal to have two moms and a dad?" Minerva asked.
"Don't you think so? She's been around us the most since she was a baby, she asked if she was a mistake, was a bit shocked when I told her about the situation between us, I mean she did ask if Clem and I would get married, but yet she likes the idea of all of us living together… like a big happy family." I say.
"I mean yea I get it, it's not as if we're living as a nuclear family." Minerva says.
"But as she gets older, we need to explain some things." I say.
"Like what?" Minerva asked.
"Well, I mean if Clem and I get married, and not… all three of us." I say
"Oh, she's going to be asking why you didn't marry me too." Minerva says and I nod.
"You would be correct." I say.
"But she knows we aren't together."
"Right but let's be honest here she's going to probably ask why we aren't getting married too, or you know if she ever asks for a little brother or sister and so on." I explained.
"I mean all kids ask for a little sibling." Clem says.
"Yes, but if she is thinking the way I think she is, then she might ask why Minerva isn't having a baby too." I tell them.
"We can explain it to her." Minerva says and I take a breath.
"I think we can wait on that but if we all can agree with it, maybe we should live together… get along you know." I suggest.
"And have boundaries." Clem says and nod.
"So, any rules?" Minerva asked.
"Well… if you intend to date someone, please don't bring them here unless I have talked to them… I don't want anything to go missing." I say quietly and I look to her.
"Alright that is fair." She says.
"Uh, chore chart needs to be made up, uh work schedules too, since Hazel has a fear of me going out to work, we need someone here to keep her calm when I do start working." I explained.
"Alright fair." Clem says.
"Uh… parties' friends and family invite, but your parents better watch it when it comes to our living arrangements, we are doing this for Hazel." I say.
"Done, I'll be sure to tell them." She says.
"I will get the guest room ready for you and we can figure out what else we need to do to follow up on all this." I say and I head into the guest room and I hear some small feet going up the stairs and I look up to see a foot and I think a bit. I get the room ready and I start thinking about extending the house a bit and I rubbed the back of my neck. Once done I get out the room and I turn to see Hazel looking at me.
"You, ok?" I asked and she looks to the floor than to me.
"Yea I'm ok… are you ok?" She asked and look at her.
"Yea why wouldn't I be?" I asked her as we sat in the hall and she hands me one of the toy cars she begged me for.
"With Mommy and Mama." She says and I'm a bit confused.
"With Mommy living here with Mama and me?" I asked her and she nods.
"We can make it work out… if it makes you happy." I tell her. I watch her as she rolled the car on the ground a bit.
"I like, Mommy and Mama… Mama teaches me how to play soccer, and Mommy teaches me about dresses." She says and I chuckled.
"And what do I teach you?" I asked her as I rolled my car a bit.
"About music." She says and I look to her.
"Are you working on the song?" She asked and I nod a bit.
"Yea but it's taking me a bit." I tell her honestly.
"Did you like music?" She asked and I nodded.
"Loved it." I tell her.
"Loved?" She asked.
"I do love it still, it's just… harder for me now… especially with-." I stopped and looked down.
"The accident." She says and I nod.
"Yea that." I say and roll the car around.
"It's my fault." She says and I look at her.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I wanted you to come home faster… after your dinner… it's my fault." She says and I look at her and pat her back gently.
"Princess, it wasn't your fault not by a long shot." I tell her and rubbed her back more. she lays her head on my leg and I rubbed her back more and I wait for her to go to sleep. I look to see Clem and Minerva coming up the stairs and I pick Hazel up and I lay her down in her bed and I come back out.
"Alright… time for a nap." I joked and headed down the stairs.
"Vincent." I hear and look to see them both looking at me.
"We can talk about that later, right now I need a nap." I tell them and they nod and I go and head to the living room and I lay down and take my nap.
-Five Years Later-
"Happy birthday to you." People were singing and I was looking at Hazel as she was looking at the camera as I filmed all of this. She smiled and waved at the camera and I chuckled and the song was finished.
"Alright blow out the candle." I say and she does and everyone clapped their hands and I smiled and stopped the camera.
"How does it feel to be ten years old?" I asked her.
"Hmm still the same as I was at nine." She says and I laughed and rubbed her head a bit and she points to Lee and Carly as they take a photo of us and I smiled and looked to Hazel.
"How's Mama?" She asked.
"Oh, she is fine just resting up." I say as she looked over to Clem who was talking with my parents and hers.
"Hey Hazel mind if I steal your dad for a bit?" I hear and look to see Brody.
"Hmmm, I don't know." Hazel jokes and I smiled and rubbed her head.
"I'll be right back." I say and follow Brody over to Louis and the others.
"What's up?" I asked.
"So, we are in a bit of a predicament." Marlon says and I look to him.
"Which would be?" I asked.
"Well… we kind of… need a new guitarist." Louis says.
"What happened to that one girl uh… Beth?" I asked.
"She quit, she didn't tell us why she just up and left." Ruby says and I think.
"I could try and find-."
"We wanted to know if you could… come back." Aasim says and I look to all of them.
"Look, we just… we know you're running the store after Chuck… passed away but it'll only be for a short while, until we can find someone, but we leave next week and she just left on short notice." Louis says and I look to him than the others.
"I don't think-."
"Just for a few months." Marlon said.
"I just need some time to think on it." I tell them.
"We can only give a few days, or we have to cancel the tour." Brody says quietly and I rubbed the back of my neck.
"Ok uh… if I do go then I need to set some rules." I tell them.
"Sure." Ruby says before Louis could speak up.
"If I get a call from Clem or Hazel, I have to take it." I tell them.
"Well, what if you're in the middle of a consort?" Louis asked.
"We take a break after the song is done; I'll make a way for you all to know… I'll tap the pocket my phone is in." I tell them.
"I think that's fair, especially with the fact that Clem is… well carrying." Brody says and I look to them.
"Ok, fine deal, anything else?" Louis asked.
"Let's say we are on the road or at a concert and Clem goes into labor… you'll have to have some songs written that I am not needed for so I can leave, I'm not missing this." I tell them.
"Ok fair." Marlon says and I think.
"I'll think of other things later, but that's all I ask for right now." I tell them.
"Ok deal… so?" Aasim asked.
"Alright… just let me tell Clem and the others." I tell them and they nod. I look over to Clementine and I walk over to them.
"Hey." I say and kiss Clem on the cheek.
"Hey, I was just telling mom and dad about the baby names we have picked out." She tells me and I chuckled.
"Did you tell them what Hazel suggested?" I asked and took a seat next to her and she laughed.
"Oh god, Hazel wanted to name the twins peanut butter and Jelly." She says and they laughed and I think.
"Didn't she say if it was a girl, we should give them her middle name?" I asked and Clem nodded.
"Oh, that's adorable." My mom says and I smiled and Hazel comes running over to us.
"Papa, Mama, where is Mommy?" She asked.
"I think she is in the backyard." I tell her.
"I already checked." She says and I get up.
"Alright come on let's go look for her." I say and wave to my parents and we go look for Minerva. We checked all over the house and I scratched my head.
"Maybe she's in the front yard." I suggest and we head out to the front and I see an unfamiliar car and Minerva was talking to whoever it was inside. I make Hazel stay where she is and head over to Minerva.
"Hey Minerva Hazel is looking for you." I say ad she looked to me quickly.
"She is?" She asked and I nodded and she looked back to the car and sighed.
"Fuck… Vincent… my parents." She says and I glare at the car and then look to see both her parents inside and I crossed my arms.
"I didn't allow you here." I tell them.
"Look we just-."
"No, I don't want you here." I tell them.
"It's our granddaughter's birthday we should be allowed to come." Her father says.
"I said get off my property." I tell them.
"Vincent… just five minutes, that's all." She says and I glare at them then look to Hazel who was waiting on us.
"Fine Five fucking minutes but I swear to god if you two pull anything I will throw you out." I threatened and they get out the car and we all head in. I make sure to keep Hazel near me and they looked around the house as others looked at us and I look to Hazel as she looked to Minerva and I lean down to her.
"Why don't you and Mommy go talk and I'll stay here ok?" I asked and she nods as she goes and takes her mom away from her parents and I look at them as they looked around a bit.
"Well seems you're still living here." I hear her mother mutter.
"Pardon?" I asked.
"Nothing, oh we brought a gift for Hazel." She says and comes up to me and hands me an envelope and I look to her.
"She'll love it." She says and I look to Minerva's dad who was looking around a bit but stayed where he was.
"Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Leigh." Clem says as she gets up and holds her hand out to Minerva's mother who looked at Clem's hand and then looked to me.
"Ehem, it's polite to shake hands." I tell her and she rolls her eyes a bit and I clench my fists a bit.
"So, make sure she get's that envelope." She says.
"Well, that's rude." I hear Lee say and I nod and look to see Hazel and Minerva come over, so I hand Hazel the envelope. She looked at it then to me and I look at her.
"Your grandmother wanted you to read it or something." I say and she nods as she opens the envelope.
"Two tickets to the… orchestra?" She asked and I groan a bit and rubbed my head a bit.
"Yes, you said you liked that one Broadway show and this is like that." Mrs. Leigh says and I chuckled a bit.
"Beetlejuice is nothing like this." I say and look to see her glaring at me and I frown a bit.
"Oh, trust me, it's better than… that." She says and I shake my head.
"But I don't like-."
"I knew you would enjoy it, that's why I got you three, one for you, your mom and dad." She says. I then look at Hazel who just nods.
"Thank you, Grandma." She says and I look to Mr. and Mrs. Leigh as they nod and then they head out as Mr. Leigh looked to his watch and I glared at the door as it closed and I grabbed the tickets and ripped them.
"Vincent-."
"No, shut up, don't say anything." I tell Carley and she nods and I throw the tickets away and I take a breath.
"Hazel let's open the other gifts." I suggest and she nods and she goes into the living room and Minerva helps me grab the gifts and we set them to the side and hand them to Hazel and we all watch.
"It's from Mama." She says happy and she opens it to see a baseball mitt.
"YES!" She says excited and I laughed.
"Well, you said you wanted to try baseball so I'm glad you like it." Clem says and Hazel goes up and hugged Clem who hugged back and then she goes back to opening gifts.
"This is from Uncle Louis." She says and it's a music book.
"If your dad ever get's you that drum." He says and the others laugh and I chuckled as Hazel looked at me and I sighed and nodded.
"Ok, I'll get you one." I say and she looked happy. She then opens more of her gifts and then she gets to mine. It's a bit big now but not to big for her and she looks at it a bit and then opens it and it's a guitar case and I see her look at me and I rubbed my neck and she opens the guitar case and she smiles.
"My own guitar?" She asked and I nodded.
"You said you wanted to try it so I made one for you." I tell her and she comes over and hugs me.
"Thank you, Papa." She says and I pat her back a bit. she pulls away from me and shows off her guitar to Minerva and I look to Clem and smile. It wasn't long till everyone had left except for the other kids. we all went outside and I started up the fire pit. I went inside real quick until I hear a knock on my door so I go answer it and I see a woman.
"Hey sorry, Hazel invited my daughter Autumn but we were running late." The woman says and I see her daughter who was holding a gift and a envelope and I nod.
"Of course, um… it's a sleepover party." I say to the mom.
"Oh, I didn't-."
"It's fine, I'm sure Hazel has some spare clothes… are you ok with that?" I asked the girl and she looked to her mom and then to me and nods a little.
"What time tomorrow can I get her?" Her mom asked.
"Uh well, we are going to take the others out for breakfast and then maybe lunch but if you want to come back earlier-."
"No, it's fine… right mom?" Autumn asked and her mom asked and she nods.
"Ok, just call me when you need to be picked up." She tells her and I nod as Autumn comes in and I take her out to the back and Hazel sees Autumn and runs up to her.
"AUTUMN!" She yelled and Autumn sets the gift down and hugs Hazel and I watch them. All the kids were playing as us adults sat by the fire.
"Hey did you grab the marshmallows?" Clem asked.
"Oh, crap sorry." I say as I head back in and grabbed the marshmallows and come back out to see Hazel playing more with Autumn than the other girls. I take a seat next to Clementine and hand her a marshmallow and she kissed my cheek as she grabbed it and took a bite of it.
"So, we're going to take them out for breakfast, and I know a lot of the parents will be coming by to pick their kids up." Minerva says and I nod
"Yea, well except for Autumn's mom, she just told her to call when she needs to be picked up." I tell her.
"Autumn? Oooh I see." Clem says and I look to her.
"What?" I asked and she laughed a little and points to the girls and I see Hazel as she was showing Autumn around.
"She's just showing her around." I tell her and she shakes her head a bit and points to them again.
"Look at their hands." She says and I look to see Hazel as she went to grab Autumns hand but she is hesitant and pulls her hand back and I chuckled.
"Oooh, Hazel has a crush." I say and Minerva hits the back of my head a bit.
"Ow-."
"Don't be too loud about it." She tells me and I rubbed the back of my hand.
"A simple hand over the mouth would have been fine." I mutter.
"Sorry, force of habit." She says and I roll my eyes.
"Well, I think it's adorable." Clem says and I help her with the marshmallows. She smiles at me and I chuckled a bit and then I look to the kids as they play some more.
"Did they want to watch a movie?" Minerva asked and I shrugged.
"Let them tire themselves out." I say as they run around the yard a bit. I had made a perfect marshmallow for Clem which means it was burnt since apparently that's what the little ones want. She was happy and I smiled to her as she ate it and it wasn't till, I was making her fourth one that the girls all went into the house. Clem finishes her food and I helped her up and into the house and Minerva went to go see if the girls wanted anything. Clem says she is going to head to bed and I nod as I take her up the stairs and she heads to our room and I head back down the stairs.
"Papa, can you make popcorn for us?" Hazel asked and I look to her as the other girls look to us and I nodded.
"Sure, do you want the white cheddar seasoning on it?" I asked them and they all nodded as I get a bowl, the popcorn kernels and my grandmothers old popcorn maker. Hazel comes next to me and pours in some oil and I wait for it to warm up a bit on the stove. I then add the kernels to the pot and closed it then started to crank the handle a bit. it took about a minute before the kernels started to pop like crazy and Hazel was happy about it and I chuckled at this. Once done I pour the popcorn in and add the seasoning and mix it up then hand it to her right as the movie was about to start up. She runs over and takes a seat next to Autumn and hands her the bowl offering her some popcorn and I smiled a bit at this. I then see Minerva heading to her room and I od and go make sure all the doors were locked. Once done I went to the sink and cleaned the pot and dried it off and headed up to mine and Clem's room.
"How are they?" She asked.
"They're good, they're watching the Lion King Two." I tell her and Clem giggled a bit at this as I take my clothes off and I'm just left in my boxers. I head into bed and look to the book she is reading.
"Romance novel?" I asked.
"Yea, it looked good but honestly, it's bad, like… why the hell would you want to fuck a man that turns into a horse at night? I mean it would have been better if he was, I don't know secretly a prince?" She says and I laughed at this and moved the book from her hands.
"Now I may not be like those guys in the book but-." I get a small pillow to the face and I laughed and moved it to see Clem blushing.
"Not tonight, ok?" She asked and I nodded.
"Sure, sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like that." I tell her.
"No, I just… not with all the kids in the house." She says and I chuckled.
"I get it." I tell her and she nods.
"But a horse? Really?" I asked as I grabbed the book ad read the back description.
"Where the hell is it?" I asked.
"It wasn't on the description, that's what's making it bad, it's like from that weird show on Netflix." She says and I shiver, knowing which one she is talking about.
"Oh god, don't remind me, well I can burn this later." I say and toss the book to the side and she laughed.
"So did Duck and Sarah call?" I asked.
"No, they're still on their honeymoon." She says.
"Damn, a whole month." I mutter.
"Don't worry, they said they would call Saturday." She says and I nod a bit.
"Alright, well I might not be here." I mutter.
"Why?" She asked and I sighed and leaned my head back onto the wall.
"So… Marlon and the others asked if I could… join the band again." I tell her.
"Did you explain to them-."
"I took the offer." I tell her and look to her as she looked to me.
"You what?" She asked.
"But I did tell them that I have some rules." I tell her.
"Which are?" She asked.
"If I get a call about you or the babies, I am to leave immediately, I will not miss out on them and you." I say and place my hand on her stomach and she takes a breath.
"Well did they agree to that?" She asked and I nodded.
"Doesn't matter if they didn't, I'm still not missing this moment." I tell her.
"Alright… sorry if I'm sounding a bit… demanding-."
"No, you have every right to be, these are our kids, you're going to be a mom, you are allowed to be demanding." I say and she shakes her head a bit and I see that smile. I kissed her cheek gently and she looks to me and holds my face a bit and kisses me and I smiled.
"I love you, Vincent." She says and I look at her and smiled.
"I love you too Clem… you know if you really don't want me to go, I can tell them no." I tell her.
"No, if you want to go back to the band, I'm not going to stop you." She says and I nod.
"I just need to talk to the kid about seeing if he would be ok running the store with the other two, if not I'm going to have to close up shop for a while." I tell her.
"Hey why don't you have Minerva-."
"No… she is not going to be taking charge, I'd rather you take charge." I mutter and she laughed.
"But I don't know how to run a shop… plus I don't think I can right now." She says and I think a bit.
"Look I trust the kid, it'll be fine." I say to her and she nods.
"I get it, I just hope you have fun." She says and places her hand on my arm and I look to it then to her and smile.
"I got a few love songs put to the side… I even have that song for Hazel… I just don't know when to… you know sing it to her." I tell Clem.
"You'll know when, she still asks me about when you'll finish it." She laughed and I smiled. We decided to put the TV on and watch a few movies ourselves. It wasn't till around one in the morning that Clem had fallen asleep and I rubbed her head gently as I turned the TV off. As I did, I could hear some giggling so I get up and out of bed and head down the stairs but made sure I wasn't able to be seen.
"So Hazel, do you have a crush on a guy?" I hear.
"Hmm, nope." I hear.
"Really no guy at all?" I hear one girl ask.
"No… should I?" She asked.
"Well yea guys are cute." I hear a different girl say.
"Girls are cute too though." I hear her say a bit quietly.
"But you have to like guys." I hear and I shake my head a bit at this.
"My Papa doesn't like guys." She says.
"That's because he's a guy too." One girl says.
"Hey if Hazel likes girls that fine, nothing wrong with it at all." I hear the girl Autumn say.
"But how is she supposed to have a family?" One girl says.
"Uh duh, girls can have babies together." Autumn says.
"No, they can't." one girl says and I decided to come down the stairs. The girls kept quiet and I grabbed a glass of water and took a drink.
"Papa, tell them girls can have babies together." Hazel says and I spit my water out a bit.
"See even your dad knows they can't." One girl says and I look to them and I scratched my head a bit.
"Well, it's not impossible… back when I was a kid, they would try and use bone marrow for two women to have a child together, or one woman would donate her egg and the other would carry, back then it was hard for lesbians to have children together, but now science has made it possible for them… besides Hazel, you're born from me and your mom, and I'm-."
"TRANSGENDER!" She yelled and I laughed as she looked happy that she remembered and I nod.
"Yep, Hazel wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my doctors." I say and I go over to them.
"But my dad and mom said that only a man and woman could have a baby." One girl says, I think her name was Milly or something.
"Your parents were told that by their parents, they would use it as a scare tactic for some people." I say and held my glass and looked to them.
"But you all are too young to be talking about kids and families and stuff, be a kid, have fun and if you like girls or guys it's no problem, and hell, if you need to talk to anyone, my wife and I can help you out." I tell them and they nod at this. I finished my water and go put it in the sink. I wave to them as I head up the stairs.
"Your dad is pretty cool." I hear and chuckled to myself and I head to my room. I lay in bed for a while before I was finally able to sleep, but sadly I was woken up by my alarm going off and I quickly go to shut it off. I look to see Clem laying on her side and I rubbed her side a bit and kissed her cheek. I go and take a shower and freshen up a bit before I head on down to the living room and I see all the girls asleep. I look for Hazel and I see that she is sleeping next to Autumn and they are holding hands so I take my phone out and take a quick picture and go start on the coffee for us adults. I look to my watch a bit and then I hear some feet shuffling and look to see Minerva come in and I offer her some coffee which she takes and I make my own mug. I grabbed a glass and poured some orange juice for Clem and Minerva went and got the girls some glasses as well. I head up the stairs and see Clem awake and I smile as I come over to her.
"Do the twins want some Orange Juice?" I asked and Clem giggled at this.
"Yes, they do." She says and I hand her the glass and she takes the drink.
"The girls up yet?" She yawns and I shrugged.
"Don't know, they were sleeping when I went down… oh right." I say and pull my phone out and I show her the picture and she smiled at this.
"So cute." She says and I nod and put my phone back into my pocket and I look to her as she finishes the drink.
"Alright, time to freshen up." She says and I nod at this as she heads to the bathroom and I head back down. I see the girls all up and getting ready as they each took a turn in the bathroom and I look to see Hazel and Autumn talking to each other and I nod as I go and grabbed my coffee and took a drink.
"Clem up?" Minerva asked and I nod at this.
"Yea she is, she's getting ready." I tell her. Once everyone was ready, we all planned to go to the diner so I called ahead and told them about the big party and when we will be there. We all got into the van and I drove all of us there and we were all seated and everyone ordered what they wanted. I look over to Clem as she snacked on some of the fruit and I took a piece of her apple and she smiled and hands me the other half and I ate it. We all ate our food and the girls started a small food fight and I laughed a bit at this as I cleaned the mess up a bit. I paid for all the food and left Bonnie a really good tip apologizing about the mess but she said it was ok and that kids will be kids. I took everyone back to the house just in time for the parents to come and pick each kid up, leaving Autumn here with Hazel and I look over to them a bit as they go to the back yard and Hazel was showing her the garden we had started to work on.
"Papa wanted to grow a peach tree." She explained a bit as I watched them and they look to me and I shrugged as I went to go check on the chickens.
"Hey Hazel… I know your dad use to be a rockstar and all but why did he stay here?" I hear Autumn ask.
"Because he loves my Mama Clem." I hear Hazel say.
"What about your mom?" Autumn asked.
"He loves her too but not romantically, not like Mama Clem." She tells her and I smiled and petted one of the chickens.
"What do you think about having baby sisters?" Autumn asked.
"I think it's going to be great; I can teach them how to prank Papa." Hazel says and I stick my head out.
"Not if I teach them how to prank you first." I say and she looked to me and sticks her tongue out and I laughed.
"I'm going to head inside real quick, don't mess with the chickens again Hazel." I say.
"That was one time." She says.
"Yea and you had feathers all over you, not again." I say.
"How did you do that?" Autumn asked just as I walked into the house. I headed into my office and called the store up to explain that I'll be in tomorrow to check the inventory but that we won't be able to make custom orders for a while, and that I would explain more when I get there. I also called our councilor and explained the situation to which they said it was fine just to make sure to schedule a meeting when I get back, or we could do a video call if the others are ok with it. As I finished up what I needed to do I head out and I look to see Hazel and Autumn talking some more and I come outside to see Clem sitting on the patio and I look at her.
"And how is my lovely wife?" I asked and she looked up to me.
"I am fine but aren't you going to ask your daughters how they are?" She asked and I chuckled as I bend down a bit and kissed her cheek.
"Papa, Mama can Autumn stay another night?" I hear Hazel ask as she ran up to us and I look to see Autumn was looking away and I look to Hazel.
"Of course, she can stay again." I say and Hazel cheers and runs over to the girl and I look to Clem and whisper.
"She totally likes her." I say and she pats my arm.
"Hey you would have done the same thing." She says and I think and nod.
"Yea you are right." I say as I get back to work and head into the garden.
"Do you like gardening?" I hear and look up to Autumn and I nod.
"Yea, my grandmother use to garden a lot when I was younger, and my grandfather too." I say and she looked to the plants a bit. I was cutting the dead leaves off the flowers and I chuckled.
"When I first started to garden it was to clear my head, Clem would come and help me sometimes too, but she was busy with teaching baseball to little kids." I say and look to Clem and waved to her.
"Hazel is lucky to have you as a dad." She says and I look to her.
"Are you ok?" I asked.
"Yea I'm fine." She says to me and I look at her more.
"You're not, but I get it sometimes you don't want to talk about your feelings, you want to keep them bottled up… but sometimes it's good to talk things out, and if you ever want to, you can talk to me, I won't tell anyone a word." I tell her and she nods as she takes a seat next to me and she pointed to a dead leaf and I cut it.
"I never got to know my dad." She says and I look to her.
"I heard my aunt talking about it to my mom and… it's stupid." She mutters and I look to the flowers.
"It's not stupid, you just want to know something about your family… maybe one day your mom will talk about it, but right now just give her some time, she probably feels like you would hate her if she says the wrong thing." I explained.
"But I love my mom, she's so kind and caring… she's busy a lot." She says and I rubbed my neck.
"My mom use to work a lot too, when I was younger my dad was a drunk, so she worked three jobs to keep a roof over my head… it's tough, but hey, just know your mom loves you and she's trying her best to make you happy… some kids might not see it like that at times but it's a confusing time for kids your age… Hell Hazel was scared of me going back to work after my accident." I say as I rubbed the side of my head.
"She told us about that, when we asked what was the scariest thing we've seen or heard." She says and I look at Autumn as she points to another leaf.
"She was mad at herself… but we got her to talk things out… though I still think she gets scared when I head to work." I explain. The next thing to happen was I ended up getting soaked in water and I hear Clem and Minerva both laughing and I look to see Hazel.
"I AM THE PANK QUEEN!" She yelled as she dropped the bucket and ran and I look to Autumn who was laughing and I get up and chase Hazel.
"AUTUMN HELP!" Hazel yelled as I was able to grab her.
"I'LL SAVE YOU!" I hear and the next thing to happen was someone trying to shove me a bit and I let go of Hazel and she runs over to Autumn and I laughed as I chased them both. It was around noon when we all stopped and I closed my eyes a bit and then it gets a bit dark so I opened my eyes to see Minerva.
"Done having fun?" She asked and I looked to the girls.
"Yea." I say and chuckled as Hazel lays on top of me.
"Papa you're getting fluffy again." She says and pokes my stomach and I laughed.
"Just trying to show Clem that being big is nothing to be ashamed of." I stated.
"Well, she is carrying two of your children, she's going to be cranky." Minerva says and I point to her.
"Hey, they are little angels and haven't caused much issues to her." I say.
"Right well your wife demands some food… you know the sandwiches you use to make her; she's craving those." She says and I nod and get up.
"Can we have one too Papa?" Hazel asked.
"Sure, but you can't have the peanut butter." I tell Hazel and she nods. We head inside and I get to work on the sandwiches, making Hazels first and then making Autumns, and then a few for Clem with Marshmallow, jelly, peanut butter and a little chocolate. I set them on different plates and the girls grabbed theirs and I hand Clem hers and she kisses my cheek.
"I don't know why but these two know when you make it, if I try, they just don't like it." She says and I laughed.
"They love their Papa's food." I joke as time passed on the two girls went to Hazels room and so did Minerva, Clem and I stayed in the living room and I turned the TV on for a bit and rubbed her shoulder as we just watched some random cartoons.
"I love you." I tell Clem.
"I love you too." She says as she lays her head on my lap and I rubbed her head gently.
