Chapter Three
By the time Alex pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex, the two little girls in the back seat were almost asleep. Maggie had been trying to get them to have a conversation, asking them what they wanted to do tonight and other menial questions just to keep them awake, but it was becoming harder and harder to engage the children, as their eyes grew heavy and their heads started to loll to the sides of their car seats.
"We have to keep them awake long enough to feed them," Maggie commented.
Alex turned and looked at too tired little faces. They were still dressed in t-shirts as dresses, and their eyes were blinking slowly, staying closed longer and longer each time. She smiled to herself.
"Yeah, they do need to eat an actual meal."
"Well, let's get all of the stuff upstairs and then we can order a pizza or something. Kids like pizza, right?" Maggie asked.
"Pizza is definitely a kid friendly food. Although, we might need to give them a bath afterwards, because sauce gets messy," Alex mentioned, climbing out of the driver's seat and pulling open the door to Kara's side of the backseat.
She made quick work of unbuckling the limp child from her seat, slinging her up onto her hip and turning to shut the door with her foot. Maggie followed a similar pattern with Lena, trying to juggle the toddler, the big stuffed bear and making sure Lena didn't drop the pacifier out of her mouth and onto the asphalt. Alex locked the vehicle after hearing Maggie slam the door and the two made their way up the stairs.
"One of us is going to have to make trips," Alex commented as the two climbed into the elevator in the building. She turned and looked at Maggie.
"Danvers, I bet you I can get all of that stuff up into the apartment with one trip," Maggie smirked.
"You're on," Alex laughed.
…
"How the hell did you manage that?" Alex was shocked, she was sat on the couch, two snuggly toddlers cuddled in her lap as her fiancée ambled through the door of the apartment with bags lining her arms. The TV played some cartoon channel in the background.
"Told you I could get everything up here in one trip," Maggie laughed, dropping all of the bags onto the floor of the kitchen. "Better start unloading, I'll call for a pizza."
Alex huffed a sign and shuffled the two little girls off of her lap, letting the two continue their TV time for a few moments as she started sorting through bags of snacks and clothes and toys. She sorted each of the sets of clothes into separate bags, leaving out a pair of pajamas for each child along with a pair of socks and a set of underwear. By the time she had finished going through the piles of clothes, Maggie had returned and they began sorting through the boxes of child friendly snacks and other things they had picked up from the store. The two worked as a team, quickly getting everything put into cupboards and made sure that the bags were all stored to be recycled.
Alex looked over to check on the two children sitting on the couch. They had started leaning into each other, limbs tangling together as they dozed like puppies. Kara had her arms slung around Lena, the younger child snuggled against Kara, pacifier hanging out of her mouth and her arms tightly wound around the soft brown bear.
"Should we change them now?" Maggie asked, looking at the pajamas laid out for the girls.
"I'm thinking we should wait for the pizza, it might get pretty messy, and I'd rather not have to change them twice," Alex commented.
Thankfully, the doorbell rang soon after, and Alex gratefully opened the door, paid the teenaged boy for the delivery, along with a tip, before dropping the cardboard box on the island counter and clapping her hands.
"Supper's ready," Alex announced.
The two girls on the couch perked up, looking over the back of the couch at the counters in the kitchen.
"Come on," Alex beckoned the two little girls over to the kitchen as she took the pizza box to the table.
The two little girls scrambled and tripped over each other trying to get to the table quickly. When they made it to the table, Kara scrambled up onto a chair, sitting up on her knees so she could see over the table top at Alex as she dished out pieces of cheese pizza onto plates. Lena on the other hand, was standing beside one of the chairs, her bear still in her hands and her eyes wide and she tried to figure out how to get up onto the chair, her legs shorter than Kara's.
"Here we go, Little Miss," Maggie smiled, scooping up the little girl by her armpits and depositing her on the seat of the chair. Lena's eyes were wide and surprised as her bare feet left the floor.
"Thank you," Lena lisped.
Alex passed out plates, putting Kara's plate in front of her, the pizza cut into smaller pieces. When she placed a second plate of cut up pizza in front of Lena, she crouched down and looked at the little girl, reaching out, but not touching, the pacifier in the toddler's mouth.
"Can I have this so you can eat?" Alex asked. "I'll put it right here so you can see it the whole time."
Alex pointed to the space beside Lena's plastic cup filled with water. Slowly, Lena pulled the pacifier out of her mouth, placing it in Alex's hand, getting baby slobber on her palm.
"Thank you," Alex grimaces, placing the soother on the table before wiping her palm down the side of her leggings.
As a second thought, she got Lena to move the large brown teddy bear into a chair all of his own beside the raven haired girl, so that she could avoid having to put the bear in the washing machine, lest he be covered in red sauce from the pizza.
With everything settled, everyone dug into their dinner. Lena was stretching up to see her plate on the table, eating the cut up pieces slowly, one bit at a time as if she was scared of getting dirty. Kara had dug into her dinner straight away, getting sauce and melted cheese all over her cheeks and hands, acting the complete opposite of the surprisingly pristine girl beside her. Alex had to laugh to herself, her little sister ate the same way whether she was an adult or a toddler.
When they were done, Lena relatively clean compared to Kara, a few splatters of sauce on her cheeks and hands, both nothing major. Kara on the other hand looked like she had just rolled around in a puddle of the stuff. She had pizza sauce all over her hands, and splattered up her cheeks. Some had, somehow, ended up in her hair and on her forehead. Both of them had sauce down the make shift dresses they were wearing.
"This is why I suggested we change them afterwards," Alex laughed as Maggie took in the disaster zone that was the two little girls.
As Maggie started cleaning the kitchen from their meal, Alex gathered up both of the messy toddlers and carried them to the bathroom, depositing them on the clean tile floor and telling them not to move. Alex brought in the two sets of pajamas for the girls before turning on the faucet in the bathtub and adding in some bubble bath. The two little faces were in awe as they watched the tub fill with bubbles.
Alex tried not to think too hard about the fact that it was her little sister and her sister's best friend that she was going to bathe, before taking off the ruined shirts and placing each little girl in the growing pile of bubbles. Kara was first to start giggling, splashing around lightly in the growing pool of water. She picked up a handful of the bubbles and placed them on Lena's head, giggling manically as she did it. Lena froze for a moment, looking at Alex as if to ask what she should do. When Alex smiled, holding back a laugh, the little girl started to giggle too, reaching up to take the bubbles off her head and throw them at Kara.
The two went back and forth for a little while, childish giggles filled the bathroom and echoed down the hall. Alex's shirt was becoming increasingly heavy with water until she eventually had to put a stop to the fun and games. While she did enjoy the carefree fun the two were having, the girls were covered in pizza sauce, and she needed to get it off of them before it started to stain.
"Okay guys," Alex announced, grabbing up the bottle of soap and a couple wash cloths.
"Awwww, Alex," Kara whined, not wanting to stop her fun with Lena.
"Give me ten minutes to get you guys clean and then we can do something else that's fun," Alex bargained, lathering one of the wash clothes and making towards Kara's face.
"Mo' bubbles?" Lena lisped, her Irish accent more pronounced in her younger state.
"No, no more bubbles," Alex laughed, maneuvering Kara's face as the older child tried to get away.
"What are we gonna do then?" Kara asked.
"Maybe we could put on some comfy pajamas and then we can watch a movie," Alex bargained, finally scrubbing off the last of the pizza sauce from her little sister.
She moved on to Lena, quickly scrubbing off the small portion of sauce that had made it onto her fair skin, scrubbing a little harder to make sure the pale three-year-old didn't stain herself red. When she was finished, she wrung out the cloths, hung them on the towel rack and pulled out the plug at the bottom of the tub.
"Okay, out we go," Alex smiled, scooping up the girls one by one in the big fluffy towels.
She quickly helped them dress in the fleecy new pajamas, Kara in her Supergirl onesie, and Lena dressed in her little green dinosaur onesie. Slipping some socks onto the little girls' feet, she sent them out with instructions to get Maggie. The apartment was quickly filled with the sound of the pitter patter of two sets of little feet, and then giggling and screeching as they found Maggie, most likely in the living room. Quickly gathering up the discarded towels and clothing, Alex tossed them into the laundry hamper and joined her girls in the living room.
"Movie, movie, movie!" Kara cheered, bouncing up and down on the couch.
Lena was much more subdued, sitting on the big couch cushions, her stuffed bear snug in her arms and her pacifier stuck into her mouth again. She looked up at Alex with big green eyes, waiting for her to sit on the couch so she could join the older woman.
"What movie should we watch?" Maggie asked, leading Kara over to the shelf of movies that were beside the television.
"Hmmm, dis one!" Kara cheered, hauling out a DVD case from the shelf.
Alex could barely hold in her laughter as she read the cover, Lilo and Stitch. She took a seat down on the couch and lifted Lena up onto her lap, letting the little girl snuggle into her comfortably.
"Okay," Maggie cheered, taking the case from the little girl and placing the disk into the DVD player.
Kara cheered and skipped over to the couch, jumping up into the cushions and leaning against Alex, taking Lena's hand in hers as she bounced, eagerly waiting for the movie to begin. Maggie smiled as she joined the other three on the couch and pushed play on the remote.
…
By the end of the movie both Lena and Kara were completely asleep, Kara snoring lightly as she leaned against Maggie and Lena was peaceful in Alex's lap.
"We should get them to bed," Alex whispered.
Maggie nodded, not wanting to wake the two sleeping toddlers. She lifted Kara off the couch and carried her down the hall to the spare bedroom in the apartment. Alex followed slightly behind with Lena in her arms. They placed the two into the large bed in the guest room, smiling at each other as they left the room, leaving the door open slightly.
"Hopefully we'll hear something tomorrow about what happened," Alex commented as the pair climbed into their own bed.
Maggie hummed and nodded, settling herself against Alex as she turned off the light. The two hoped they could get through the night with the two little girls down the hall.