Strides in with the grace of a dancer, the charm of a politician, and the arrogance of a pop star. Completely ignoring that I haven't talked to you guys in two years.

*hair flip* "'Sup?"

Ah! How've you all been? I'm very happy to be back, and I'm very happy to have all these updates for you guys. Hopefully it will begin to make up for all the muck ups along the years where I've kind of left you all without supervision for years on end. Also I do hope that I will be wrapping this story up very quickly. Not that I want to see it go, and not because I don't love you guys. But out of guilt, I say, guilt! I simply cannot let you guys down again, I don't want to on etched on my grave stone, the-almost-invisble-kid: Published 9/26/2009-Updated 11/14/2012.

Anyhoo! I'll be publishing about ten chapters, and I hope then to be somewhere wonderful where new ideas come on the backs of butterflies who whisper those glorious secrets in your ear. But for now, I really, really hope you all enjoy, and also don't get made about the kind of angsty theme we'll be adopting here for a little bit. I'm maturing I can't help it!

She swung her feet lightly, letting her ankles tap against the bench she sat on, she twisted her bracelet around on her wrist. They always gave the when they took blood, or so the blonde nurse hand managed to inform her from under nine layers of makeup. Her name stared up at her, and she down at it. She wanted to cry. The doctor had been cordial, greeted her kindly and made several attempts at small talk before her one word, non-committal answers grew tiresome and he drew her blood in silence. She couldn't watch it happen, and she hardly felt the prick. This blood sample could change her whole life, Don's whole life, and the doctor hadn't said anything to her while he took it.

After he left it was all she could think about. Everything might be changing, and the doctor hadn't even wished her luck. Somehow she couldn't breathe and was hyperventilating at the same time. Her face grew hot and she tried to press a cooling hand to it. She hadn't called Don. Lindsay had called her this morning under the guise of finalizing their lunch plans, though they had done this the previous night at dinner. Just as they were getting off the phone she had told her to tell Don, to call him the moment they disconnected and tell him everything, before she went to the doctor. Before it became a secret.

She hadn't and she felt the weight of her guilt every moment since, but now that she sat alone with it, it threatened to swallow her whole. The phone beckoned her, it was just inside her bag, they could find out together, she could call him and apologize, explain everything and they could find out together, her fingers twitched, leaving the security of her hospital tag and she moved for the bag just as the door handle jiggled and drew her attention.

"Ms. Monroe, I've got some good news."

Lindsay watched her sister out of the corner of her eye. She was eating her lunch very calmly, each bite deliberate, calculated, carefully measured. She had been late to their lunch, and from that moment on she found herself almost consumed with worry.

"You're taking this rather well." She commented lightly, hoping to bait her sister into looking at her.

Bingo.

Jade eyes searched her face and wore bags under them, which were puffy and red due to 'allergies'. If Syler thought her excuse was weak, and that Lindsay didn't believe her she didn't say. She simply ate her salad in silence, but now that they looked at one another, she could see how tired she was, and had been since moving to New York. With the new clients pouring in from her work with Grace Walker, and Don, and their dad, and the babies she had hardly sat down in a year.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Her voice lilted and she chuckled at the end, taking a normal sized bite of salad. The charade infuriated Lindsay, who could see from her calm woefully ordinary exterior that she was an absolute mess inside.

"Does Don know?" Lindsay prodded, and Syler looked down at her salad.

"I came straight from the office here, I haven't seen him yet." She said with a shrug of her slender shoulders and Lindsay narrowed her eyes.

"You didn't call him this morning?" She asked and watched her shoulders tense.

Fight or flight. Lindsay thought mildly.

Her voice lost a battle with malice and she answer. "He didn't need to know then."

"And I suppose you think he should know now?" Lindsay speared a piece of chicken on the end of her fork a little more violently than she had intended, but she hated to see her sister in pain by choice.

Staring daggers at her salad and fighting a tight jaw, she countered "Why does this matter to you?"

It took most of Lindsay's self-control to hold on to her fork, "Why does it…" Anger seized her body. Locking her jaw, she set her silverware aside as visions of them lodged in the vicinity of her sister's person became an appealing sight, "It matters because you're my sister and I don't want to see you throw away something good, just because it might not be easy all the time." She tried in vain to school her tone, but she didn't think it worked.

"So I suppose you would have taken this advice from yourself three years ago?" Syler asked hotly.

Lindsay's cheeks colored and she let the conversation drop for a moment, "My situation with Danny wasn't the same. We weren't in a relationship, and if anything it further proves my point! You saw what almost happened with us. Everything would have been so much easier if we hadn't assumed we knew what the other was thinking. If we had been honest with one another, everything would have been so much simpler and you know that." Lindsay clutched her rotund belly. Her kids were kicking around like crazy and her stomach was clenching painfully. She only hoped that the argument would soon be over as she didn't think it was good for any of them, those en utero or otherwise to continue.

"I also know Don, and you didn't see his face in Montana! He was terrified at the thought of having kids with me, he looked beyond relieved when he found out he wasn't…" If Syler said anything else it was lost at the odd things happen to Lindsay in that moment. For a moment warmth spread through in a bizarrely familiar way for something she was sure had never felt before. For a moment she sat in confusion of her surroundings before she looked up at her sister as though just remembering that she was there and they were arguing.

"Sy," Lindsay said with the color draining from her face, something about the way she spoke from the back of her throat; as though she were holding back sick, gave her pause, "I think…" She glanced down at her lap and blushed, casting a glance to the other patrons, "I think my water just broke."

Syler watched her sister carefully for a long moment, and she could see the anger slowly leaving her eyes, "Are you just saying that because you were losing the..."

"I was not losing!" She snapped and grimaced, and an ounce of pain eked though her, "And I wouldn't lie about going into labor!"

Several people glanced in their direction with general disinterest until they spotted her protruding stomach. Lindsay flushed deeply, as she watched their sever, now aware they were apparently in some sort of situation made a quick walk in to their table, flashing a tight, but calm smile at the surrounding tables as he passed.

He had just reached the side of their table when Syler raised her credit card to him, waving it in an all but frantic motion, "Check please!" Her voice drew the attention of those not already looking in their direction.

"Yes, of course," He said with a smile still plastered on his face, as he took the offer card, "Will that be together or…"

"Together." "Separate." Syler and Lindsay, respectively, interrupted together.

He nodded lightly retrieving his notepad from his apron, and glancing down at it, "So that's one Cesar salad…"

"It's together." Syler said watching Lindsay run her hands over her stomach in a serene sort of way that belied the worried expression on her face.

Ignoring Syler's hurried words, "And one chicken with side salad and two drinks."

"Are you serious right now?!" Syler snapped bringing her heated expression to face him.

"Ma'am," He replied calmly, "if we're having a problem…"

"You know what, nix the check, we'll stay." Syler said quickly.

"Syler." Lindsay admonished through a tight jaw.

"No, Linds it's fine. Weren't you just saying the other day that you had thought about having the babies in the apartment but there hadn't been the space? Well there is space enough here and I'm sure that," She glanced at the man who was now staring at Lindsay's stomach with a nervous expression, "Patrick here would be a shining example to midwives worldwide. Would you mind getting us a pan of warm water Pat? Can I call you Pat? Or at you more of a Rick kind of guy? I only ask because we should probably be on a nickname basis, I mean you are about to see my sisters vagina."

"Syler!"

The word seemed to snap his daze and he spluttered quietly through several half sentences, before descending into unintelligible noises.

"Or maybe just the check?" She said darkly with a clack of her tongue over the 'k'.

Syler watched him go as she stood to retrieve their jackets.

"You didn't need to do that." Lindsay said quietly, under a blush as she accepted her coat and surveying the damage she had caused their upholstery.

Patrick returned with Syler's card and receipt, "I'm sorry about the wait, we've got a taxi outside for you."

Lindsay gave him a beaming smile, which turned to an angry growl at the back of her sister's head, who had turned to snarl at him, "It's about damn time."

She scribbled a mock of her signature, and drew a line through his tip before reaching for her sister's hand to drag her out of the restaurant, "I'll be back to pay for the upholstery." She called over her shoulder.

Patrick looked down at the chair and grimaced, "That's okay." He managed, as he dropped a napkin over the seat.

Out on the street Lindsay pulled her coat around her shoulders and lowered herself into the back seat slowly, absently answering Syler's question about which hospital. As frustrated as she was with her sister she was glad to have her there, it wouldn't have been something she could have done on her own.

She stared down at her stomach and felt an odd detachment from the situation. It was really happening; it had all seemed so far away, like they had all the time in the world to get to now. To prepare their house, and their jobs, and hell prepare themselves. Were they ready? To be parents, really be parents. All at once she was back in moment, and she realized with a wide smile that it was really happening; she was having her babies, their babies. Her and Danny's babies. Something about the thought made her pause, and she wondered what, when a wave of panic rushed her.

"Danny!" Syler turned abruptly from arguing with the cabbie about which way was faster to look at her, he eyes wide and searching, "I've got to call Danny. He has to be there, he can't miss this. He can't not be there Syler! I can't do this alone!"

"I'll call him Linds, it's okay." Lindsay nodded as her head swam and Syler didn't seem to be getting her phone out fast enough, "Sit back relax, I've got it. He'll be there. Nothing could keep him from you three."

The words made Lindsay smile widely, and in her mind she knew that she was acting like an emotion tilt-a-whirl, and she should slow down take a breath and let Syler handle it, she watched her sister speak quickly to Danny and she could hear panicked snatches of someone who sounded like her husband through the phone. Everything was okay, he would be there, everything was okay, he was on his way, and everything was okay.

"Call Don." Lindsay said suddenly, and Syler's anger flared back to life.

"Do you really want to have this conversation right now?" She asked, gesturing from Lindsay to the cabbie.

"I want him to be there for the birth of my children." She stated firmly, and ignored the beginnings of Syler's protest, "He is my husband's best friend, my only sister's boyfriend, and one of the people I'm closest too. He's their godfather for fucks sake! I want him there." Lindsay wasn't normally one for language, but her anger with her sister had reached a breaking point. Only Syler could be with someone in labor and manage to make their decisions about her.

Syler nodded, and reached down to text him. She knew if she heard his voice, she would break it would break her completely. Lindsay watched her closely, but said nothing, "I won't talk to him." Syler said. She sounded like a disgruntled child and she knew it.

"He'll know something's wrong if you don't." Her sister countered.

"Nothing is wrong!" Syler said hotly, turning away from her sister to stare out her window.

The words sounded false. Just as they had for the last several hours since the doctor had delivered the news, since she had left the hospital in a daze, and cried in her cab. Since composing herself on the street outside the restaurant, watching Lindsay affectionately rub her belly through the window, oblivious to everyone else in the restaurant. Since she had picked up her phone eight different times in the last three hours to call him and beg him not to hate her for lying to him, for keeping this from him, after they had sworn to be honest, no matter how much it might hurt.

But she wouldn't concede now. Everything was fine, in the end no matter what she had herself, and that was all she had ever needed anyway. At least that was what she always told herself. Absently she wondered if it had always sounded as false to her as it did now.

Who's excited? Because I'm pretty freaking excited, you guys have pretty much been waiting six years for these babies to be born. Imagine if I had been updating regularly every week until now, these babies wouldn't be babies, but in the 1st grade. I just made myself really sad for two reasons. One because my fictional babies would have been all grow'd up and ready for the 1st grade, and also because I realized just how long some of you all have been follow me. I'm really touched guys! Good god it had been a roller coaster of emotions right now, leave me a review if you want.