A/N: Hey guys! So here's the next chapter! Sorry I didn't update yesterday. I was at work from 10-5 and was super tired when I got home.
Maria awoke the next morning with someone roughly shaking her shoulder.
"Fuck off." She groaned, trying to swat the person away with her hand.
"Maria, Natasha's on the phone!" Emily snapped, finally managing to wake her older sister.
Maria sighed and took the phone from Emily, in no mood for any of this crap. If Natasha was calling her because of problems at work, then she was going to scream.
"Someone better be dying." She answered groggily as she got up to enter the bathroom, carefully shutting the door behind her as she listened to what Natasha had to say.
"Wow. I never thought i'd see the day where the Black Widow is afraid of hospitals and doctors." She said sarcastically before Natasha almost started yelling at her for the comment.
"Okay, well are you pregnant? That would explain why you're throwing up all of s sudden."
Natasha told Maria that she would call her right back as soon as Maria said that and hung up, not giving her friend a chance to reply.
Maria sighed and left the bathroom, grabbing the folder of adoption papers and beginning to fill out her portion of them. She continued to fill them out for fifteen minutes until she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her.
"You know how I feel about you sneaking up on me." She said, turning and giving him the papers so he could fill out his portion as she went downstairs.
Shawna was making breakfast and David sat at the table with Erin and Brinley, and Cathy was helping her.
"What are you making?" She asked, sitting at the table next to the twins.
"Pancakes. Would you like some?" Shawna asked, actually being pleasant this morning.
"I would if they didn't have nuts in them. Thanks for the offer, though." Maria said, sighing. It had been so long since any of them saw her that they forgot about her nut allergy, or Shawna didn't know about it, so Maria was going to let that one slide.
"You don't like nuts, Maria?" Erin asked, raising an eye brow at her cousin.
"No, i'm allergic to nuts."
"So does that mean your throat will close up if you have any? What kinda nuts?" Brinley asked.
"Just peanuts, but Steve and all our friends and the people we work with assume that i'm allergic to all types. Which is why if they see me with a jar of Nutella or any nut besides peanuts, they take it away from me." Maria explained as Steve came into the kitchen.
"Shame on you, Steve!" The twins said simultaneously, confusing him as Emily walked past him and sat at the table.
"I can make some pancakes without the nuts that you and Emily can eat." David offered, knowing Emily was also allergic to nuts.
"No, that's fine. We'll just eat some cereal instead."
"Who puts peanuts in pancakes anyway?" Emily asked, making a face in disgust, "What kind of cereal do you have?"
"There's Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms_" Cathy started, only to be cut off by Emily's squeal of delight as she went for the Captain Crunch, "And for healthier options, we have Cheerios and Special K." She added as the doorbell rang.
Shawna left Cathy in charge of the pancakes as she went to go answer the door, opening it to reveal the other side of the family, "Hello, how are you guys doing today? It's a pleasure to see all of you again, please come in!" Shawna said, being overly nice as she invited the other group of people in. There was an old woman followed by two younger women and two men.
"Now, are those my other beautiful granddaughters? It's been so long!" The woman said, smiling at Emily and Maria as they got up to hug her.
"Yes grandma. It's us."
"Maria, you look so much like your mother, and I bet Daniel does too. And Emily_"
"I swear if someone tells me I look like the drug addicted woman that everyone calls my mother, i'm going to scream."
"Actually, I was going to say that you've grown into a beautiful young lady. When I first walked in, I could've sworn that you were Maria's twin."
Emily sighed, "Well, telling me that I look like Maria would imply that I was beautiful, just like she is, which i'm clearly not. She's the prettier one." The teen said, taking her bowl of cereal and leaving the kitchen.
"Now Maria, who is this handsome young man that you're hiding from us?"
"Well grandma, this is my fiancé, Steve. Steve, this is my grandmother Patty, my aunts Kelly and Karen, and my Uncles Mike and Mark." Maria introduced them as John, Danny, and Anna entered.
"Jonathan! You got skinny!"
"Thanks, Kelly. As if I didn't already know that." John said bitterly, giving a friendly smile as Danny and Anna hugged them.
"So, where's this baby of yours that John told us about?" Karen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He hasn't woken up yet. He's slowly starting to sleep longer."
"Yes, he's sharing a room with Elsa. They should be waking up soon." Anna said, nodding her head for them to follow her so she could show them where to put their things.
Steve looked at Maria, "You didn't tell me about your uncles."
"Oh yeah. They're both kind of computer geeks. My uncle Mark is into technology though. He actually built a car, if my memory serves correctly."
Steve gave her a strange look, "He built a car?" He asked, genuinely shocked.
"Yeah. A cobra. Me and Emily joke around that he and Stark would get along great."
"Huh."
Later that afternoon, Maria sat at the desk in her and Steve's room doing work on her laptop and emailing Alexa's social worker about what's been going on. Shawna had been being particularly generous to Alexa today, but Maria knew it was just an act. Everyone was either relaxing, drinking, or preparing Christmas Eve dinner, and all the children, minus nine month old Ryder, were playing in the snow outside. Even Alexa.
Maria actually couldn't wait to bring the little girl home so she could call Alexa her own and keep her away from Shawna. That little girl and Shawna were in for a surprise.
The next time Maria looked up, her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. Towards the woods, right at the edge of them, was a pond. Small, but fairly deep. The pond was frozen, but not frozen enough that you could walk across it; even a child could fall through the ice.
Alexa was playing on the dangerously thin ice.
A/N: Let me know what y'all think! Please review!