After they'd settled the girls into their seats on the large plane, Doug and Carol took flanking positions in the middle seat in each row. This, at the very least, would prevent any fighting for the window seat as they'd each have their own window; and make it harder for them to escape to the aisle. Carol sat next to Kate, with Doug sitting next to Tess in the row directly in front of her. Immediately after the announcements by the captain and flight attendants, Kate and Tess pulled their trays down and began coloring in their coloring books again. Doug, turned his head back and put his arm up and over his head, Carol took a hold of it and gave it a squeeze.
They'd been in the air for about half an hour when the predictable happened. The girls were tired of being on the plane and more than ready for their flight to be over so they got whiney and loud. Since there was nobody in the aisle seat in either of the two rows, Doug and Carol moved over a seat so that their daughters would have more room to spread out.
"Mommy, why do I have to sit next to Daddy? I want to sit next to you!" Tess whined as she unbuckled herself and stood on her seat facing back where her mother was.
"Tess, sit down," Doug said quickly as he grabbed her by the waist and placed her back in the seat, buckling her in again, then began tickling her as he asked, "Don't you love your Daddy too?"
"No! I want to sit with Mommy!" She insisted, kicking her legs and struggling to undo the seatbelt again.
Nearby a baby had begun to fuss and Doug shook his head, it was going to be a very long flight with another 3 hours to go before they'd be in Chicago. "Tess, you're going to sit with Mommy on the flight home, okay?"
"No! I want to sit with her now! How come Kate gets to and not me? No fair, no fair, no fair!" She squealed as she bounced up and down in her seat more. Struggling to get out of the seatbelt, she managed to push back hard enough in her seat with her foot on the recline button that she dipped backwards slightly and the picture Kate had been coloring wound up with a long yellow mark across it. It was then that Kate decided to fight back by kicking her sister's seat.
"Stop it, Tess! You made me mess up my picture!" she cried. At that point, half of the passengers had turned their attention to the two little girls and their parents, and none of them looked especially thrilled. "Mommy, look what she did to my picture!"
"Kate! Tess! If I don't have silence in the next two minutes, neither of you are going to be getting your allowance on this whole trip." Carol said firmly. There was silence immediately following that announcement and Doug did his best to apologize in a silent way to the passengers around him, so as not to upset the girls any further. An hour later they were halfway through the flight and both girls were sound asleep, spread out over the two seats. Doug had taken that time to invite Carol over to his seat and there she sat on his lap as they took some much needed cuddle time. Sitting together with a sleeping child at their left, they looked into each others eyes, each remembering back 8 years when they hadn't even conceived a child. How peaceful and romantic those times had been. Carol gave Doug one last kiss before heading back to the next row, the girls should have something to drink soon, and she saw the flight attendants canvassing the plane for interest in drinks and snack food.
"Tess, do you want some juice or water?" Doug asked as he rubbed her back, waking her up. The flight attendant smiled as she looked at the father being so sweet to his daughter and patiently waited as she woke up and made up her mind.
"Can I… I mean may I have some apple juice?" she asked, remembering to add the "please" after a couple seconds.
"Sure you can sweetie." The flight attendant replied as Doug asked for a soda and handed her a plastic cup with the name 'Tess' written on it in purple. This cup had a straw attached to the lid and was nearly spill-proof; the flight attendant laughed and accepted the cup for the juice.
Carol, who was having a little bit tougher time waking up Kate handed the woman a similar looking cup with the name 'Kate' written on it in pink. "Could I get a tomato juice and if you could possibly put some orange juice in here for her?"
"Sure," she replied and went on to the other passengers. A few minutes later she was back and looking a bit confused, not sure which cup belonged to which twin. Carol silently mouthed, 'pink' to the woman, not wanting her daughter Tess to get upset at the confusion; Kate, who was still satisfied asleep, would have minded had she been awake. Smiling the woman mouthed 'thank you' and handed Carol the tomato juice and pink cup of orange juice. Tess was delighted when not only did the flight attendant give her the apple juice in her very own cup, but she even called her by her name.
"Thank you!" Tess squeaked as she began to sip her juice. Doug took his soda and took a sip, smiling at the situation. Two quiet kids and they wouldn't land for at least a half an hour; things were going smoothly; of course that meant that something needed to go wrong before long.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are approaching Chicago, O'Hare airport. Please put your seatbacks and tray tables in their upright and locked position, the flight attendants will be coming around to collect any trash you have, we should be on the ground shortly." The announcement came over the speakers and Doug helped Tess put her toys back into her bag. Their seatbelts were refastened and he gave her a ½ piece of gum to help her ears with the transition from the air to the ground.
Doug held the other half of the gum over his head and said with a grin that went generally unnoticed, "Gum for 'Twin B'."
"Thanks babe," Carol said as she took the gum from his hand, but didn't let go until she'd given his hand a small kiss and another squeeze. Carol knew that waking up her still sleeping daughter, who had not felt the need for juice, so that they could buckle her up and have a safe landing would be a difficult task. Kate didn't tend to take naps, so when she was asleep she was down for the count as it were. "Kate, come on sweetie, time to sit up. We're going to be in Chicago really soon and we can see Uncle Mark and Auntie Elizabeth."
"No!" Kate protested as she felt her mother sit her up in her seat. A large frown on her face she picked up the blanket that had been on top of her and held onto it with one hand as she stuck the opposite thumb in her mouth.
This was not typical for either girl, they'd both generally stopped sucking their thumbs at the age of 2 and Carol leaned forward in her seat, tugging in Doug's arm slightly. "Houston, I think we've got a problem."
As if on cue, Kate let out an ear-piercing wail, "I don't want to go to Chicago! I want to go home! I want to go home! Home! Home! Mommy! Mommy I want to go home! Mommy! Daddy! Home! Home!"
Tess, listening to the tantrum her sister was throwing spoke in a loud, clear voice, "Aren't you glad I'm being a good girl and not a little baby, Mommy? Aren't you glad I'm the good daughter? Don't you wish you were sitting next to me and not Kate the baby?"
"I'm not a BABY! I want to go home!" Kate screamed. "I WANT HOME! MOMMY! HOME!"
"Baby wants to go ho-o-me!" Tess teased, getting into it, finally not being the one who was whining.
"Tess, you're not helping." Doug warned as Kate continued crying.
"Kate, you love seeing Auntie Elizabeth and Uncle Mark, remember?" Carol tried to reassure her screaming child before they attracted anymore unwanted attention from the passengers who had been giving them dirty looks through much of the flight. "Come on Kate, look Daddy even gave me some nice gum for you to chew on, okay?"
"NO! I WANNA GO HOME!" she protested as she began hiccupping, the tears cascading down her cheeks. Carol unbuckled herself from her seat and moved over to the seat next to Kate and, buckling herself back in, hugged her daughter as best she could while still keeping both of them in seatbelts. As the plane started its descent, Kate stopped crying, but continued the thumb sucking. The passengers who had been subjected to Kate and Tess walked by angrily, giving each Carol and Doug dirty looks while mumbling under their breaths that even the infant on board had been relatively quiet.
When the last few people still on the plane made their ways towards the front and passed them, one muttered rather loudly, "Little brats… can't even sit quietly for 5 minutes… stupid kids."
This set Doug off and he called out to the man who had moved further up towards the exit, "Hey buddy, those are my kids you're talking about!"
Carol quickly rose and put her hand on Doug's arm. "Just let it go Doug, he's a jerk, but let's just get the girls and go, Mark and Elizabeth are going to be waiting a long time if you go after that guy and get arrested. Haven't we had enough for one day?"
"You're right, I'm sorry." Doug said, giving her a hug and a kiss. "G-d you're beautiful; I'm a lucky guy, huh?"
"Luck had nothing to do with it," she smiled, giving in to a longer and more passionate kiss. They were broken apart by an 'ewww' from Tess and Doug reached down to grab his carry-on after helping Tess with hers. Kate, who was still upset from the trip, had obediently put her carry-on over her shoulders. After Carol did the same with hers, she picked up the child and decided it might just be easier to carry her through the airport than risk another big blow up.
Tess walked towards the exit first, proudly boasting to the flight attendants, "I was the good one, I didn't even cry once about home."
Doug smiled and apologized to the attendants who looked a little haggard from the flight. "I'm really sorry about all this."
"Don't worry about it," a woman said with a smile plastered on her face, "happens all the time with kids."
Doug could tell she wasn't really thrilled with his apology and he reached into his pocket for some cash and shook her hand, slipping her a 20, "I'm really sorry, they're first timers."
The woman nodded her head with a genuine smile and accepted his 'apology' as Carol carried Kate, who still had a firm grip on the blanket, by them. The woman who was about to ask for the blanket back, as it was property of the airlines thought better of it and was just happy to have everyone off the plane, especially the screaming twins, "Bye-bye now, thanks for flying, hope to see you next time."