The Anderson-Powers- A Hard Ask

"...and they all lived happily ever after. The End."

Tecna smiled as she closed the book and placed it on her lap. She leaned forward and placed a kiss on the forehead of the small child who was lying in a small bed right next to Tecna. Tecna returned to an upright position and took in her daughter's sleepy face and the strawberry blonde hair that fell in her eyes. Tecna would never tire of looking at Ada's sweet little face.

"Good night, my darling."

It had been three years since she had given birth to her daughter and Tecna was surprising everyone, including herself, at how well she had taken to motherhood. Tecna never fared well with humans, preferring the company of technology to flesh and bone. But Tecna supposed that there was some truth to the statement that having a child changes everything. She never thought that she would be reading to a child at night, much less one of her own. Tecna loved her career but she found that being Ada's mom was the best job that she could possibly have.

But now, it was time for bed and Tecna reached forward to turn off Ada's bedside lamp but was stopped when she heard a small and sleepy voice call out to her.

"Mommy?" Ada asked.

Tecna returned to her upright position in the chair before answering.

"Yes?"

"I have a question, Mommy."

Tecna exhaled through her nose and smiled. Her friends had warned her about this age where almost everything out of a toddler's mouth was some sort of question. Both Tecna and Timmy were not strangers to their daughter's inquisitive mind. In fact, they loved it. But it was a gamble on whether the questions that Ada asked would be answerable questions or a question left to be decided by some higher power, if there was one.

"Yes, dear, what is it?"

Ada's cherubic face turned serious. Or as serious as an adorable three-year-old's face could turn. Tecna smiled as Ada's eyebrows came together in concentration and her pink lips turned down into a frown.

"Mommy," Ada began, "daddy said that Ms. Aisha couldn't come to our house with Malik to play because she just had a baby. And Ms. Flora has a baby in her belly too. Do you have a baby in your belly?"

Tecna looked at her daughter for a moment before answering, "No, dear, I don't."

"Oh..." Ada's eyes looked away from Tecna as if forming another question in her head, "do you think you will have one soon? Everyone has a friend but me."

"Sibling." Tecna couldn't help but to correct her young daughter.

"Huh?"

Tecna let out a soft laugh, "Never mind."

There was a small moment of silence as Tecna didn't really know what to say next. Ada was still too young to know about Tecna's traumatic delivery, which ended with an emergency radical hysterectomy. Tecna wanted to tell Ada that there would never be a baby in her "belly"; not again. But as Tecna looked at her daughter, she just didn't have the heart to tell her.

"I am not sure," Tecna answered as diplomatically as she could, "I guess that we will have to wait and see what happens."

Ada pouted, "I don't like waiting."

"I know, dear, I know."

Tecna leaned forward and ran her hand over Ada's small head, brushing back the hair that fell onto her face.

"But right now, you have to get some sleep so that you can play with Valerie tomorrow at Ms. Musa and Mr. Riven's home, okay?"

Ada snuggled under her covers and smiled up at her mom, "Daddy says that Ms. Musa might also have a baby in her belly, and I heard daddy tell Mr. Brandon on the phone that Mr. Riven and Ms. Musa should find other ways to resolve fights than other in the bedroom."

"Did daddy say that?" Tecna would have a talk with her husband about watching what he says in the presence of children or if children might be around.

"Yes, mommy," Ada replied with naive honesty, "and that Mr. Riven is a horny dog, but dogs don't have horns, do they, mommy?"

"No, my darling, they do not. Daddy is very silly sometimes," Tecna smirked, "I will have to talk to him about his...assessment. But for now, you must sleep."

Tecna pulled the blankets to Ada's chin and placed one last kiss on her forehead. Tecna rose to her feet and placed the book that was in her hands back in its place on the short bookcase.

"Mommy," Ada's small and tired voice called out again, causing Tecna to turn around, "I think that I would want a sister. Boys are icky."

Tecna smiled, "Yes, they are, Ada. Shut your eyes and sleep, dear. I will see you in the morning."

Leaving the room and her daughter, Tecna shut the door and inhaled. She would see Ada in the morning, and hopefully, she would forget her request. Ada is too young to know about Tecna's current condition and too young to face such disappointment.

Tecna walked down the hall and into her bedroom, where Timmy was sitting up in bed, reading a book of his own. Timmy looked up from his book and adjusted his glasses on his nose as he smiled at his wife.

"Is Ada all settled?" Timmy asked as he set his book down to his side.

"Yes," Tecna sighed. She walked to the small wardrobe at the corner of the room where her pajamas were hanging.

"In my years of knowing you, I have learned a thing or two about reading your emotions, and I know that a sigh like that means that something is troubling you."

Tecna removed her shirt and replaced it with the soft fabric of her pajama top before replacing her pants with the soft fabric of her shorts.

"It's Ada..."

"Is something wrong?" Timmy shot up to a more upright position after hearing his daughter's name, accompanied by Tecna's sigh.

"No, not at all." Tecna smiled in an attempt to assuage Timmy's nerves, "well, not really. She asked me about a sibling."

Timmy's posture relaxed back into the bed as he raised the covers to allow Tecna to slip in right beside him.

"She has asked you too?"

Tecna quickly turned her head over to look up at Timmy, "She has asked you?"

"Last night, when I put her to bed. She asked me if I knew if you had a baby in you."

"And what did you tell her?"

Timmy smiled, "I told her that as far as I knew, you did not and that it would be a surprise for us both."

"She will have to know someday, Timmy." Tecna frowned, "But I don't want to disappoint her. Her big blue eyes were filled with hope that I might have a baby in me, but how am I supposed to tell her that she won't have a sibling?"

"Who said that she won't have a sibling?"

Tecna's eyebrows came together in confusion, much like her daughters did just minutes before.

"What do you mean by that, Timmy? I have no uterus or ovaries or...don't tell me that you have got some other woman pregnant! I know that I am not able to have any more children, but I didn't think that you would have-"

"Woah woah woah, Tecna!" Timmy held up his hands as he looked at his wife in shock and terror, "No! Never! I don't even know how you could accuse me of such a thing!"

Tecna placed her head on Timmy's shoulder, "I'm sorry. It's just that with all of our friends having more and more children and with Ada asking when I would have more, it's so hard to think that one day you might want more and..."

"You are thinking irrationally, and you know it, Tec." Timmy wrapped his arm around Tecna, "And to calm any fears, I simply meant that there are other ways in which we could give Ada a sibling. We could always look into adoption. We could be like the Mike and Vanessa to another child. Hopefully one without such a complicated past and some power that everyone evil appears to want."

"Adoption?" Tecna pondered the thought and wondered why it had not crossed her mind earlier.

"But these are thoughts for another day when it is no longer night." Timmy kissed Tecna's forehead, just as Tecna had done to Ada's moments before. "For now, both you and Ada are all that I could have ever asked or hoped for. Plus, she might forget all about the matter before we know it."

"I sincerely hope that she does," Tecna sighed, "I don't know if I would want her to have a younger sibling. Ada is just so headstrong and I can just picture it now, Ada bossing around some poor baby who will curse us for bringing them here."

Timmy laughed, "She gets the headstrong quality from you."

"And apparently, she gets her candor and sharp tongue from you." Tecna turned to look up at Timmy, "Ada told me about some of the things that you had said around her. About Riven being quite the, what was it? Horny dog? At least that is what Ada told me tonight."

Timmy winced, "She heard that?"

"Ada hears everything," Tecna remarked, "she is too smart for her own good."

"She also gets that from you. So smart and so beautiful and-"

Tecna placed a hand over Timmy's mouth, "You can continue showering me with flattery in the morning as your form of self-prescribed penance."

"I'll be more careful about what I say with Ada around."

"I appreciate that," Tecna replied, "it is bad enough that Stella has become her favorite and who knows what Stella says around Ada."

Timmy laughed as he took off his glasses and set them on the bedside table. He reached to his side and turned off the small lamp, sending the room into darkness.

"I do suppose we are lucky," Timmy said.

"Why do you say that?" Tecna asked as she snuggled closer to Timmy.

"Because now we can have some fun without any unplanned little surprises."

Tecna rolled her eyes, not that Timmy could see, before she turned on her side to face away from Timmy.

"Now who is the horny dog?"

Timmy wrapped his arms around Tecna as he pulled her closer to him, "I never said I wasn't."

"I suppose you didn't." Tecna laughed before yawning, "Goodnight, Timmy."

As Tecna closed her eyes and did her best to drift off to sleep, she felt a pair of warm lips begin to run across the skin of her shoulder, up her neck, and to the bottom of her jaw.

"Goodnight, my wonderful, beautiful, brilliant, stunning-"

"I said goodnight, Timmy."