Chapter Twelve

Once again John used Bo's car to drive Natalie and the girl's home. By the time they got there it was nearly 11:00 and both girls look exhausted. Before they had left the head of psychiatry came by to talk to Natalie. He explained that she needed to answer any questions that the girls had about what happened, but at the same time try and get them back into their normal routine. He was however positive that both would easily recover from this as Cris hadn't hurt or touched them in any way.

Both girls hesitated in the doorway a bit before entering the house. "Are you sure it's safe? The bad man won't come back?" Sydney asked quietly.

Natalie forced her most reassuring smile. "I promise."

"Can John stay with us Mommy? Because Grandma Eve told me he was a police officer so he could protect us right?"

Right away Natalie knew that this was Eve's way of being sneaky and ensuring her earlier question about John being their father didn't go avoided, Natalie glanced helplessly over at John. When she saw his nod, she turned back to Eve and nodded herself. "That's a good idea Eve."

Glad that her plan had worked, Eve's face lit up and she smiled. "You can stay in Uncle Rex's room." She looked over at her twin, "See Syd, John is gonna stay so we will be safe."

Sydney bit her lip and looked between her mother and John for a second. Finally she bobbed her head up and down. "Okay."

For the first time John realized just how much Sydney looked like Natalie. She had the same hair, eyes and mannerisms. He then looked over at Eve and took a second to study her. When he had first seen their picture on the news he had been struck with the realization that Eve resembled him, but seeing her in person it blew John away. It was both an awing and terrifying experience to be able to look in this child's small face and see himself.

Realizing that the girls were looking at him to say something he stopped studying them and smiled, "Sounds good to me."

Though it was really late, Natalie knew the girls must be starving so she ushered them into the kitchen and put on some chicken noodle soup figuring it was light enough for the late hour. They ate quickly, both too tired to really make any conversation. But as Natalie was leading them toward the stairs, Sydney froze again.

"Why did that man take us Mommy? Did we do something bad?"

Natalie paused for a moment, remembering the doctor's advice to be honest with the girls. But knowing that of the two, Sydney was the more scared and anxious, Natalie wanted to choose her words carefully. She was still debating on how to begin when she heard Johns voice behind her.

"You Mommy told me that you like fairy tales, is that right?" John said softly as he knelt down so he was eye level with the girls. Still gripping Natalie's hand, Sydney turned to face him. Still a little bit shy with him, she just nodded.

John smiled at her. "Me too. What one is your favorite?"

Sydney just remained silent, but Eve spoke for her. "Cinderella is her favorite."

"Well, you remember how Cinderella's stepmother and sister aren't very nice people? And how they lock her in her room? That was pretty mean of them wasn't it?"

Once again Sydney just nodded.

"Well Cinderella didn't do anything wrong, they were just bad people right?"

"Yes," She said very softly.

"Well even though we don't live in a fairy tale, there are still mean people like her stepmother and stepsister who do bad things for no reason. The man that took you was one of those people."

"So it wasn't something we did?"

John shook his head. "Nope, it was just because he isn't a very nice person."

"But what if he comes back? What if he takes us again? What if he hurts Mommy like he said he would?"

Sensing that the little girl could become hysterical, John gave her his biggest smile. "That's why I am going to stay here with you guys. Do you know what your uncle Bo does?"

"He takes bad people to jail."

John nodded. "Yup that's right. And you have my word that until Uncle Bo takes him to jail I won't leave your side."

"But what if he takes you?"

"If he tries to take me I will arrest him and give him to your Uncle Bo to put in jail."

Sydney thought about it for a second and then nodded. "Do you pinky swear?"

John flashed Natalie a confused look and when she just nodded, he took that as a sign to agree. "Yes, I pinky swear."

Sydney held out her pinky finger and John figured that he was supposed to do the same, so he did and smiled as she grasped on to his pinky with her own tightly.

"Okay." She looked back up and her mother. "I feel better now Mommy."

Blinking back the tears that had formed in her eyes from witnessing that exchange, Natalie smiled. "I'm glad sweetie, let head on upstairs for bed."

"Are we going to read like always mommy?" Sydney asked with a yawn.

"Of course," Though it was almost midnight, the doctor had also said to stick with normal routines.

"Since John likes fairy tales he should come too." Eve said with a small smile.

Seeing the looks that kept passing between Natalie and Eve, John found himself growing curious and made a mental note to ask Natalie about it later.

Natalie looked back at John. "Would you like to come with us?"

"Sure," he agreed and followed them up the stairs.

Story time went quickly and soon both Sydney and Eve were fast asleep in Natalie's bed. Making sure to be as quiet and careful as possible, Natalie slid down the bed and placed Green Eggs and Ham, on her dresser. She gestured at John who had been sitting in the armchair to follow her out.

"Normally, I would carry them to their bedroom, but for tonight at least I think it's best they stay in my room," she whispered as she led him back down to the living room.

"Yeah, for now they would probably feel safer there," He said pulling the robe he was wearing, tighter around him. When John had followed Natalie and the girls up stairs, he had been surprised when Eve and Sydney insisted he go change into his pajamas. "It's what we do. We all change into our jammies and then jump in Mommie's bed." Sydney had explained.

Remembering that John wasn't exactly the pajama type, Natalie had jumped in. "Girls, I think John is a little bit too big for jammies." She had then looked over at him, "Sweat pants and a tee-shirt will be fine. There's also a robe in there you can use."

So he had gone and changed and then sat in the armchair and watched as Natalie snuggled between the girls and started to read. If he hadn't already known it, watching them confirmed that Natalie was an amazing mother and as they took a seat in the living room, John told her so.

She shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "It just comes naturally." Just sitting here with him having finished putting the girls to bed caused the events of the past forty-eight hours to catch up with her and before Natalie even knew what was happening, she was sobbing.

"Oh god, what if I had lost them? What if we hadn't gotten there in time?" John moved closer to Natalie and awkwardly put an arm around her. "Shhh… It's okay… don't think that like. We got there in time, their safe now."

"I know, it's just how close we came to losing them," Natalie managed to choke out as she continued to sob.

Knowing it was something she needed to get out, John just remained silent and held her for the next fifteen minutes. Finally, the tears subsided and she pulled away. Embarrassed she wiped away her tears and moved to sit on the arm chair that faced him.

"Sorry about that," she said embarrassed about her little meltdown.

"Don't apologize Natalie."

Deciding to change the subject, she smiled at him. "You were really good with Sydney earlier. Of the two she's always been more scared of things like the dark and getting lost." Natalie laughed warily, "But yet she's the first one who will do something risky like try and fly or go on rides, I don't get that. But you were really good with her."

Now it was John's turn to feel embarrassed. "They're both amazing Natalie, you've really done a great job. I'm just sorry I wasn't around to help you."

Natalie sighed. "I won't lie and say it was easy, because it wasn't. The day I found out I was pregnant, I was terrified. Scared I couldn't do it, scared I wouldn't be a good mother, scared I would mess this up. But my family helped. Jess went to every single Lamaze class with me and was in the room when I delivered them. Despite my protests, my parents bought me this house and Asa a new mini-van." A soft look came over Natalie's face as she remembered how loved and accepted she had finally felt through everything her family had done. "Your Mom was amazing, and even Marcie was great. You know as well as anything how many problems Marcie and I had, but the second she knew she was getting two nieces her and your mom planned me a huge shower."

Natalie stood up and went over to the bookshelf and pulled down a few albums. She walked over and sat beside John then opened the first one. "There are from my shower." Natalie said motioning to the first few pages of the photo album. "My parents had brought me over here to surprise me with the house and everyone was waiting inside when I opened the door."

John studied the pictures seeing how happy everyone looked. Natalie looked happy too, but there was something about her eyes, they seemed slightly sad. "I know, I am huge." Natalie said, noticing how John was staring at one of her.

"You look beautiful," John said softly, as he looked at the picture of seven months pregnant Natalie.

Natalie blushed and turned the page. "These are from the day they were born. This one here," she pointed to the first picture of her looking very angry. "was taken by your brother during one of my contractions."

"He delivered them?" John asked in surprise.

Natalie nodded with a small smile. "Yeah. At first the idea of it really freaked me out, but he is a doctor and they were his nieces, so I got over it." She turned the page to a series of pictures where she was holding the girls. Natalie's hair was all messed up, sweat was dripping down her face, but she was beaming. To John, she had never looked more beautiful.

"Eve was born first, a very easy delivery. But Sydney," Natalie rolled her eyes. "Put up a fight. She was born nearly an hour later and let me tell you it was hell."

"You picked beautiful names."

Once again she grinned. "I wanted to include all our mothers in some way. Eve was easy, the second I saw her I knew Victoria didn't work as a first name. So, I went with Eve Victoria. Sydney took a little bit of work. I wanted Roxy to have a place in there, but there was no way I was naming my daughter Roxanne. So I shortened it and used Anne as the middle name."

"How did you come up with Sydney?"

"I didn't, Rex did. I had no idea what suited her, so I told my brother he could name her. Not only was he honored, but I had never seen him go at something so serious. Finally, he settled on Sydney and I fell in love with it."

John continued to skim through the next few pages. There were pictures of the girls with family members, and a lot from the first few months. There were pictures of them bathing, sleeping, and eating – pretty much every second was captured.

"Since there had never been any pictures of me and Rex around as a kid, I went a little camera happy."

"But you're in a lot of them too," John said referring to one that had an exhausted looking Natalie holding Sydney. Natalie glanced over at what he was looking at. "Rex took a lot of them when he lived here."

"Your brother moved in with you?"

Natalie nodded with a small smile. "Yup. I moved in as soon as I got the house and Rex moved out of the loft. I tried to convince him not to, not wanting to subject him to four a.m. feedings and crying, but he insisted. Told me it was just until I got settled." Natalie laughed quietly. "He actually just moved out a couple of months ago. Rex was amazing, he did everything. Fed them, changed diapers, bathed them, and as they got older arranged his schedule around me." Seeing John's confused look she explained. "Rex finally opened that PI firm he had talked about, so he would base his hours around mine at the station so that one of us would be there. Plus, with Jessica and Nash next door, there was always someone around."

"I really missed out on a lot."

John spoke so softly, that Natalie almost didn't hear him. When she did, she glanced at him sadly. "Yeah you did, but you're here now John and I need to know what you plan to do about it."

"What do you mean?" John asked looking up from the album he was holding.

"Eve asked Michael, Rex and I if you were her father."

"What?"

Natalie nodded. "Apparently at the young age of five she was able to realize that since Eve is her grandmother and Michael her uncle, and you their son and brother, that you must be her father."

"Wow," was all John could say, shocked at her observant behavior.

"Yeah, and the only way I could get her to drop it was by promising her an answer tomorrow. So I need to know to know what to tell her and part of that is asking you this – John are you going to be their father?"