Spring arrived and things were changing in the Greene household.
For one thing, Max and Nikki were house-hunting, which was a massive headache. Not to mention that the whole family was currently dealing with Nikki's second pregnancy, which had gotten off to a rough start with the whole 'getting shot in the back' thing. It was better now, though, and Nikki pointed out that Max had a similar scar in almost the exact same place. When asked by her daughter how she knew that, Nikki and Max both turned bright pink and avoided each other's gazes for a little while after that.
"Do you have any idea what kind of place you're looking for?" Gwen asked Max as he tapped his pen on the kitchen table.
"I was thinking a three-bedroom place with a big yard, somewhere near the woods for Nikki's sake."
"She's still affected by that whole needing-nature thing? She works at a diner!"
"Worked at a diner. With me back in town, she's been working on her certification as a park ranger."
"Okay. So, a three-bedroom, two bath, with a big yard and access to the woods… that actually sounds doable around here."
"And like a dream house," Nikki commented, entering the kitchen. Her baby belly was slightly visible under her shirt as she opened the fridge and pulled out a piece of cake she'd swiped from the diner before she'd quite two days earlier.
"That's what I'm keeping in mind with this, Nik," Max told her. "How are you holding up with all this?"
"I'm doing better than I was with Lovetta."
"Yeah," Gwen affirmed without thinking. "You weren't hospitalized due to stress this time."
"Wait, hospitalized?!" Max gasped. "What the fuck?!"
"It turns out final exams, heartbreak, being disowned by the one parent you're in contact with, and pregnancy are a bad combination," Nikki said with a shrug. "I was in the hospital until I stabilized, then I came home. That's all there is to it."
And it's my fucking fault all that happened. I broke your heart and got you pregnant, which is why your mom disowned you. I'm gonna be better, Nik, I promise.
"Well, I promise that things are going to be better this time," Max stated, getting up and hugging his pregnant girlfriend around the waist. She smiled and they started kissing.
"Uh, adoptive mother in the room!" called Gwen. "Save it for the basement!"
Max and Nikki separated, both of them blushing. Then Nikki grabbed Max by the wrist and led him out of the kitchen, a smile on her face. Gwen knew exactly what was going through the expectant mother's mind at this point.
"Have fun, kids! Keep the noise down, though!"
"What was that about?" inquired Lizzie, coming into the kitchen.
"Oh, just pregnancy hormones raging and making Nikki want to bone Max into hell a dozen times over. You know, normal stuff."
"Ew. Thanks for that image I'll never get out of my head."
"It'll go away. Max said the same thing when I was pregnant with you."
"And there's another one. Can we stop talking about this?"
"Sure. Have you picked a college yet?"
"Yep. Now I just need to really buckle down to pick a major. Just not liberal arts or psychology."
"They're both valid fields."
"That can't get me a decent job and I'll end up working at a summer camp."
"Hey, that worked out pretty well. I met your dad, your brother, and Nikki, and because of all that, I got to be a mom and a grandma within the space of about seven years."
"True, but I don't know if that's the path I want to take."
"Well, when you figure it out, you've got the rest of us supporting you."
"Thanks, Mom."
"Just try not to get pregnant or burnt out before you finish school, okay?"
"Gotcha." Lizzie sat down, drinking a can of Maple Zap! that Neil had left in the fridge last time he was over. "Jesus, this stuff's basically espresso in a can. How the hell does Neil drink it?"
"Nerds have stomachs of pure titanium. Hell if I know how they do it."
Lizzie laughed, but it was cut short by the sound of the doorbell ringing. The teenager got up to answer it and Gwen went back to her shitty romance novel of the week.
"Uh, Mom…? You might want to come here!"
Gwen put down her book and headed to the front door, where there was somebody she'd never expected to see.
"Candy?"
"…following this, the Spanish conquistadors killed much of the native population of Tenochtitlan by way of the sword and disease. Now, are there any questions?"
Lovetta raised her hand and Miss Baker pointed at her.
"Yes, Lovetta?"
"Why were the Spanish so obsessed with gold?"
"Because money is power, but it's also the root of all evil. Remember that, kids." She checked her watch. "Okay, remember to read up on the precolonial civilizations of the Americas. There's a test next week. Study hard!"
The bell rang and Lovetta headed out to the carline. Her dad was waiting, as usual, but her mom was in the car, too. Confused, the ten-year-old hopped into the backseat and made herself comfortable. She noticed that her dad looked pissed as hell and her mom was on the verge of tears.
"What happened?! Did Vihaan or Daniel get out of jail?" Lovetta asked.
"No, Vet," Max sighed. "Unfortunately, somebody else decided they wanted into our lives, so she showed up on our doorstep earlier and is still at the house. She's refusing to leave until she meets you."
Lovetta knit her eyebrows together in confusion as her dad drove towards the house. Nikki stared out the window the entire time until they actually got home. A fancy red car was out front, one Lovetta didn't recognize in the slightest. Upon entering the house, she saw a woman with the same mint-green hair as Nikki (save for some graying streaks) sitting on the couch.
"Uh, who's that?" she asked her dad.
"Lovetta, this is your other grandmother," he sighed. "Meet Candy. Candy, this is Lovetta, your oldest grandchild."
"Oh, she's just the cutest! Come here, sweetheart!" Candy held out her arms for a hug, which Lovetta accepted. Nikki excused herself to go upstairs and Lovetta could see tears in her mother's eyes. Max followed his girlfriend, a worried expression on his face.
"Hey, Grandma Candy?" Lovetta said. "How come I haven't met you before?"
"Well, I made a bad decision and your mother ran away from home. She ended up here."
"A bad decision?"
"I tried to tell her what to do with you, and she didn't want that. She wanted to raise you. And it seems like she did a good job." Candy had a smile plastered on her face, but Lovetta was bothered by her mother's reaction. "And now I'm hearin' that you have a little brother or sister on the way? I'm excited for you, darlin'!"
Upstairs, Nikki was pacing back and forth in her and Max's room, running her hands through her hair and biting her lip with worry. Max entered the room, closing the door behind him.
"Why is she here?" she asked. "We're finally at a good point and she just decides to come barging back into my life!"
"Nikki, calm down," Max urged, grabbing her hand. "This isn't going to help anything. You need to stay calm."
"The day I found out I was pregnant with Lovetta, she gave me a choice: get rid of the baby or get out of the house. I chose Lovetta over her and we didn't speak until after I gave birth."
"I thought you hadn't spoken to her since you got kicked out."
"I went back after Lovetta was born to give her a second chance, and she blew me off, saying that our baby wasn't going to amount to anything more than a statistic in a trailer park. I haven't spoken to her since. And now she wants into our lives?"
"Listen to me. You are one of the strongest people I know. You can handle seeing your mom for an hour. Besides, she's nowhere near as bad as my birth father, right?"
"Right." Nikki gave him a hug. Suddenly, he felt something hit him, ever so lightly, in the stomach.
"What the fuck?" he asked, confused.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Something just hit me."
"That's the baby kicking." Max blinked and rested a hand on her belly. There it was again, that slight tap.
"Holy shit… this is real." His face lit up and she couldn't help but laugh.
Now she felt like she could face her mom.
They headed back downstairs to find Candy chatting with Lovetta, asking her questions about school and friends and anything a grandmother was supposed to ask her granddaughter about. Nikki took a deep breath and sat down on the couch.
"Nicolette, she is just the cutest thing!" gushed Candy.
"I know, Mom. I raised her for ten years." Candy's gaze traveled to Max and he could feel that familiar stare of disapproval.
"Nice to see you, too, Candy," he sighed.
"How long have you been back?"
"About six months, give or take."
"Hm. Good to know you've been supportin' my daughter while she's spent the past eleven years livin' with your parents." Lovetta, sensing her dad's rising temper, ran over and climbed onto his lap to calm him down.
"To be fair, she's only been living with them because you kicked her out. You've been supporting her as much as I have—except I've now been supporting her financially for the past six months."
Candy opened and closed her mouth, unable to come up with a response to this point. Her eyes traveled to Nikki's abdomen, where the swell of baby number two was visible.
"And I see you two have gotten busy in those past six months."
"Mom, can we please discuss this when Lovetta isn't in the room?" Nikki requested.
"I was hopin' to talk to you alone, Nicolette." Max got the hint and carried Lovetta out into the backyard, leaving his girlfriend alone with her mother.
"So, what did you want to talk about?"
"I'm… sorry."
"Sorry?"
"I didn't react well to your first pregnancy. I should've sat down and talked to you instead of screamin' like I did. You were already hurtin', and I didn't make it better. You left, and then when you came back, you had one of the sweetest li'l babies I'd ever seen. I felt like you hadn't even needed me and I lashed out at you because I felt unwanted. And you left again, for good, and I was too busy worryin' about my own hurt feelin's to try and fix things." Nikki took a deep breath.
"Mom, do you want to know what happened while I was pregnant with Lovetta? I almost lost her because I was overstressed from everything that had happened. I was hospitalized for a month while I stabilized."
"Oh, God…"
"After I gave birth, I brought Lovetta to meet you to try and give you a second chance, and you did that lashing out thing… I didn't want you around my daughter if you were going to be that kind of influence."
"I am so sorry, Nicolette. I didn't know how to apologize before, and then I heard from Neil that you were pregnant again. Then I realized that I was gonna miss out on both of my grandkids and I didn't want that to happen. That's how I was able to come see ya today."
"I'm glad you're apologizing, but that's not going to fix it."
"I know. Nothing can fix it completely." Candy gave her daughter a hug. "Bye, Nicolette. I'll see ya some other time."
Within a month of that visit, Max and Nikki found a house and moved in. Lovetta was sad to leave her grandparents behind, but she was happy to be living with both her parents. Her dad was very protective of both her and her mom, insisting on driving them wherever they needed to go. She suspected it was because of what had happened in January, but she didn't really care. All that mattered was that her family was together.
On the last day of school, Lovetta headed downstairs the first time her alarm went off. She didn't swipe at the snooze; she was excited to go to school and come home early. Her dad had even promised that the three of them could go to lunch at Campbell's Diner. Her feet hit the bottom step and she peered into the kitchen, only to find it empty. She looked into the living room and found her parents lying on the couch, asleep. Max's arm was across Nikki's belly, as if that was all the protection she and the baby needed. Quietly, Lovetta grabbed her mother's phone and unlocked it, snapping a quick picture to preserve the moment. It was too cute an opportunity to pass up.
"Hey, Mom, Daddy, wake up!" she called. Max groaned and sat up, Nikki doing the same next to him.
"Lovetta…? What time is it?"
"It's seven AM. I've got school today."
"Shit. That's right." Max got up and Nikki moved to do the same, but he had her sit back down. "I've got this handled, Nik. You just relax."
"Yes, boss," she joked, laying back down. Max headed into the kitchen, where he proceeded to make his daughter a last-day-of-school breakfast consisting of waffles, bacon, and toast. Once it was all eaten (Nikki had joined them once it was all cooked), the family of three got into the car.
"You ready for your last day of hell?" Max asked.
"Yep! Just you, me, Mom, and the baby for the entire summer."
"Exactly," Nikki agreed.
Lovetta privately wished that one day, she could have a relationship like her parents—minus the guy getting her pregnant and leaving her for eleven years, of course. Max and Nikki were obviously in love, and they weren't going to split up. That had been a fear of Lovetta's since her dad had come back—that he would leave her mom and they'd never see him again. That fear had been squashed by him coming to her rescue, and by the fact that he was so protective of the two of them. He'd rather die than hurt them.
"We're here, Lovey," Nikki said, shaking her daughter from her thoughts. Lovetta nodded and got out of the car, where she was promptly met with her two best friends.
"Last day!" James cheered, pumping his fist in victory.
"Yeah, and next week, I'm off to History Camp!" Leo announced proudly.
"NERD!" James and Lovetta laughed in unison.
"Hey, History Camp is a valid choice of where to spend my summer!"
"I'm going to Adventure Camp," James added.
"Better check the fine print!" Nikki called out the window of the car. "It might be 'and more!' "
Carline finally moved and Lovetta watched her parents go.
"What's she talking about?" Leo inquired.
"Oh, the camp she and my dad met at was a 'camp' camp, where they basically offered almost everything. Mom went to Adventure Camp, Uncle Neil went to Science Camp, and so on."
"What camp did your dad go to?" James asked. The three of them headed towards the building.
"According to him, it was 'Meet Your Best Friends and Future Parents and Stop Being Such an Asshole' Camp. Mom said he didn't really have a camp like everyone else, though, so I think he made it up."
"Your parents have a really weird relationship," Leo commented.
"They're just really in love, that's all!" Lovetta had a bright smile. "I hope that I can find something like that one day."
She's so cute.
That thought went through the heads of both boys at the same time, but neither was aware of that. Instead, they ran to keep up with her.
"Camp?!"
Lovetta stared at her parents in shock.
"I don't want to go to camp!" she told them.
"You're not going by yourself, kiddo," Max assured her. "Remember? This is the camp your grandpa owns—Camp Campbell."
"So… the place you and Mom met?"
"Exactly," Nikki replied. "And your dad and I are heading up there with you."
"Why?"
"Well, I want to be out in nature over the summer. It's good for the baby." Nikki placed a hand on her belly. "And your dad is working at the camp. He doesn't want to leave me alone while he's gone."
"This camp is going to be family bonding, essentially."
"Exactly," Max affirmed. "We signed you up for Nature Camp. I hope you don't mind."
"Nope!" She shook her head. "Besides, I think Leo and James are going to Camp Campbell too. They saw the fine print on the pamphlets and Leo started complaining. I'm going to go pack!"
She ran upstairs and Max narrowed his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Nikki asked.
"I don't know how to feel about those two…"
"The three of them are basically you, me, and Neil when we were kids. It's harmless."
"Yeah, but you and I ended up together." She smirked.
"Feeling a little bit of shotgun-dadism?"
"They're not that bad yet, but if they want to date her when they're older, they have to go through me."
"Naturally." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'm gonna go pack, too."
"Be careful."
"You need to relax. I'm not going to go into labor by packing a suitcase."
"You don't know that. What were you doing when you went into labor with Lovetta?"
"Going shopping with Gwen and Lizzie."
"Yeah, you definitely don't know that."
"I'm only six-and-a-half months, babe." She smiled and headed upstairs.
Yeah, back to Camp Campbell.
In case you didn't pick up on it, I'm setting up a slight love triangle. Don't worry; I'm aware that they're still ten-year-olds. It won't come into play for a little while longer. I figured you'd all enjoy a longer story than just ending it 'and they had a second child, the end'. We'll watch Lovetta grow up a bit.
So long and thanks for all the fish!