#flashbackfriday

Dr. Martinez POV

16 years ago

"They're beautiful." I whispered.

In my and Jeb's arms were my three bundles of joy.

I smiled and looked at Jeb. He was holding the youngest of the three, Max.

In my right arm was James (Iggy for short) and in my left was Zephyr (Gazzy for short).

I looked into Iggy's bright, blue eyes and thought, "This is my family."

Gazzy was sleeping and then suddenly 'exploded'.

I started coughing and my eyes started watering. I turned my head and saw Jeb doing the same.

"Awe jeez! What have you been eating Valencia?!" Jeb asked jokingly while pinching his nose shut.

"Haha. Very funny. That wasn't even me! It was Gazzy again!"

Jeb shook his head and made a tsk tsk tsk sound. Then he looked at me and said, "Always blaming it on the kids. When will you learn?"

I decided to do the most mature thing I could think of so I stuck my tongue out at him then said, "I hope this is just a phase for Gazzy. If it isn't we're going to need to buy a lot of air fresheners at home."

I watched as Max played with the buttons on Jeb's shirt. I smiled when I saw Jeb smile at Max.

Just then a doctor walked in. He smiled at us then scrunched his nose. He started coughing and I saw his eyes start to water. Once he finished coughing he choked out, "Oh dear God! What is that awful smell?!"

Jeb snorted and pointed at me with his free hand.

I glared at Jeb and said, "Jeb shut up." Then I turned to the doctor. "It wasn't me. It was Gazzy."

The doctor laughed then said, "You might want to head to the store after this and buy some air fresheners."

Jeb chuckled then went back to playing with Max.

"Sorry to bother you Mr. and Mrs. Ride." The doctor continued. "I've been told that we need to take Maximum, James, and Zephyr to do a couple more tests to make sure they are happy, healthy and ready to head home."

"Okay." I said reluctantly. I kissed the top of Iggy and Gazzy's heads and handed them over. "Please be careful with them." I told him.

"Don't worry ma'am. Mr. Ride, could you help me carry Maximum to the testing room? It won't belong. 20 minutes at the most."

"Of course." My loving husband replied. He walked over to me and handing me Max. I held her and kissed the top of her head.

Jeb kissed my cheek, picked Max up, and left with Dr. Smith.

20 minutes later they weren't back. I panicked a little but then told myself that they were fine and that it probably was just taking a little longer than expected.

An hour later they still weren't back. I grabbed the remote by the side of my bed and pushed the 'nurse' button.

The nurse came rushing in and asked, "What can I do for you Mrs. Ride?"

"Do you know where my husband is?" I asked. "He and Dr. Smith took my three children to do some more testing before we leave. They left around an hour ago."

"I haven't heard of a Dr. Smith that works in the infant department but I'll go double check."

"Thank you." I said as she was walking out of the room.

A couple minutes later the same nurse came back in.

"Ma'am, there is no Dr. Smith that works at this hospital. Nobody has seen him, your husband, or your children. One of the other doctors contacted the authorities about this. They are on their way to help figure out what's going on."

"What?!" I screamed. "Where is my family?!" I felt some tears form in my eyes. I tried to blink them back but it didn't work. I sat there as I felt a tear run down the side of my face.

"Ma'am, please calm down. The police are almost here. If you'll excuse me, I have to go grab something real quick."

She rushed out of the room as the first sob escaped me. Tears streamed down my face like a waterfall. I clutched my blanket until my knuckles went white.

My babies. My sweet babies. They weren't even a month old and now they're gone.

The nurse came back in and had something behind her back. She walked over to me.

I started breathing really hard. More tears came out.

All of a sudden I felt a small prick on my upper right arm. I looked to see the nurse pull the shot out of my skin. I started to feel drowsy. I blinked and tried to stay awake. I had to find my kids. Before I knew it I passed out.

The last thing I saw was the nurse staring at me and a single tear run down the side of her face.

One Year Later

It was already over one year since they had gone missing.

The police searched throughout the entire hospital that day but couldn't find them anywhere. They checked everywhere. They even looked on the video cameras but someone had erased the footage. The worst part was that I couldn't remember a single detail about Dr. Smith. Absolutely nothing! That didn't help with the investigation.

I knew Jeb was behind this. After he found out I was pregnant with triplets, he wanted to take the kids just for a little bit and run a couple of experiments on them. I hated that idea and refused. Every time he brought it up I shut it down.

I started drying the dishes when I heard the doorbell ring. I dried my hands off and hurried to the door. I opened the door and no one was there.

"Rotten kids," I thought. "always ding-dong-ditching."

Then something caught my eye.

I looked down and saw a basket.

And there was a card attached to the handle of it.

And on the card it read, "Maximum, James, and Zephyr Ride."

And there was also a blanket in the basket.

And under the blanket were three lumps.

And those three lumps were three little babies.

And then everything inside of my head clicked.

Those 'lumps' were my children.

My long lost children.

I felt the tears start to stream down my face.

I carefully grabbed the basket and brought it inside.

I looked at the babies. One of them had bright blue eyes.

Yes. That was Iggy.

And that was Gazzy.

And that was Max.

I had to be dreaming.

I had my family back.

Four Years Later

"Mommy!" I heard Gazzy scream from the other room. "Max took my truck!"

"Max honey, please give Gazzy his truck back."

I didn't hear an answer so I walked into the rec room. It looked like a mini tornado had gone through here. There were toys everywhere. I looked up and saw Max and Gazzy fighting while flying in the air.

Yes I said flying.

After someone or something brought my children home I picked Max up and saw the wings. I gasped and checked Iggy and Gazzy to see if they were the same. Sure enough they were. I wasn't sure what to do. "Okay Valencia. You can do this. One parent and three kids may be hard. One parent and three kids with bird wings may be harder, but you can do this. You can do this." I told myself.

I swore to myself if I ever saw Jeb again I was going to kill him for taking and hurting my children.

I was able to keep their wings a secret. I told them to not tell anyone about them and they strangely listened.

It was ironic because I'm a vet and I now have kids who are 2% avian.

After I found out about the wings I decided to do a couple renovations on the house so the kids could fly inside. All that had to was raise the ceilings and make the rooms wider.

"Mom!" Gazzy screamed, bringing me back to reality.

"Wait. Where's Iggy?" I asked.

Then, all of a sudden I heard a loud BOOM come from the other room. I ran to the living room and saw smoke everywhere.

"Iggy?!" I yelled.

"Look Mommy," Iggy thankfully replied, "I made a smoke bomb!"

"Woah cool!" I heard Gazzy say then they both ran upstairs.

"Max sweetie, can you clean up all of yours toys for me please?" I asked her.

"Okay Mommy." She replied and walked off.

"I can do this." I said to myself.

Eight Years Later

"MOM!" Max screamed. "TELL GAZZY AND IGGY TO STOP THROWING SMOKE BOMBS IN MY ROOM!"

"Iggy! Gazzy! Get down here!" I hollered.

Ugh. Teenagers. They had just recently turned 13 and it was already a pain.

When Iggy and Gazzy came down I said, "You guys need to leave Max alone. She needs her space now. You guys can go help me start dinner if you want or you can go work on your homework. And I know you two have homework."

"I wanna help with dinner!" Iggy said immediately perking up.

I knew Iggy would say yes to that. He had a special talent for cooking.

"Gazzy do you want to help with dinner?" I asked.

"Sure." He said and followed Iggy into the kitchen.

"I can do this." I told myself. Anytime things got hard, that's what I told myself. It was kind of like my motto.

Just then I heard an explosion and I turned around. There was spaghetti sauce everywhere.

"So much for spaghetti for dinner." I thought.

"Sorry" Gazzy said with a little smile.

"It's fine Gazzy. You two go change your clothes." I said since they were both covered in tomato sauce. "When you get back you need to clean this mess up and I guess we'll order pizza."

"Yes! Pizza!" they shouted then ran upstairs.

"Oh Boy. Teenagers are going to be a lot harder than I thought. But, I can do this." I said with a smile.

QOTC: do you have any siblings? if yes: how many?

AOTC: yes i do. i have 2 younger brothers

remember to stay swaggy and peace out :)