It's Nice to be Back: Baby 47

I apologize for this being kinda short. They won't always be this way, obviously. :3

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Jesse asked, stroking my orange hair as I lay on his chest. I nodded and he sighed. "Are you sure you really want to start the challenge back up? You quit for a reason!"

"Jesse," I huffed. "I want to start again, okay? I promise I'll be fine. I'm almost half way done and when I finish we can get married like you were begging of me when I announced I was quitting."

He shifted a little bit, causing me to sit up. "Hey," he started, sitting up. I looked at him, putting on my glasses and he smiled. "I'm really glad you're back."

"Back? I was never gone."

He chuckled. "You know that's not what I meant. You weren't the same after Anna died. I think this break was good for you. How are you gonna get back into the swing of things?"

I rolled my eyes and slipped into the bathroom. "It was always our plan to finish together! Come on! Start back up before I get too far ahead!" she insisted. Let's just say, Skye was the reason I started back up.

"Hey Jess," I said as I applied my lipstick in front of the mirror. He "hmm-ed" in reply. "Wanna be the next father?" He choked on his breath and ran to the bathroom.

" Are you sure you're feeling alright ?" The look on his face was pure gold, causing me to burst out laughing. He raised his eyebrow questioningly, earning even more giggles out of me. I nodded and he smiled widely. "Of course! I thought you said 'no having of the babies until I'm done.' What happened to that?"

I grinned and walked into his chest, resting my head under his chin. He wrapped his arms around my waist, earning a sigh out of me. "I just can't wait any longer. I want to see what our children could look like."

"Well, let's get to makin' babies, then!" he said giddily, grabbing my wrist and pulling me to the bed.

"You're just excited for the process leading up to the children, aren't you?" He nodded and I slapped him gently.

We got to it and fell asleep in each other's arms. When I woke up, he was gone. I pushed myself up off of the bed and wandered to the kitchen. "Jess?" I called quietly. "You down here?"

"Over here!" he replied. I found him next to the stove, cooking pancakes. "Just thought I'd make some love wrapped up in syrup for Mommy." I smirked and wrapped my arms around him as he moved the pancake around the pan gently.

As he whispered things into my ear, Skye came up to the window next to my stove. Waving and peeking in, she shouted, "OMG! IT'S PARKER! ELLO!"

We both sighed and I walked to the front door. Before it was even open all the way, she barged in and hugged me.

"I'm so glad you're back!" she exclaimed, clutching onto me harder and harder the more I tried to escape her grasp.

After being ambushed with questions about how it felt to be doing the challenge again, Jesse ushered his mother out of our house and pulled me to the counter. "I'm sorry. That interrupted our time together," he said as he pulled himself up and reeled me in so I was resting my head on his chest. He began kissing my neck and eventually I dragged him back up to the room, and after some, um, "intimate time" with him, fell asleep in his arms.

I guess I should probably get you up to speed, right?

After I was allowed to leave the hospital, I was forced (by a certain teal haired best friend of mine) to go to therapy. 

Jesse insisted (after I told him that I was quitting the challenge) we age up Lee to a young adult. So, I did and sent him on his way.

I wanted to, in a way, start anew, so I dyed my hair orange and moved into a new house.  

It, for the first time, was just me and him and it was nice. But then I began missing the challenge and Skye (who I stopped seeing for a while because it reminded me too much of my challenge days) so I started back up again. That's pretty much all you missed. My life isn't all that interesting. 

While most challenge mother's are worth reading about and talking to, I'm not. 

Other than wanting to see Skye again, I also started the challenge back up because I started it in the first place because of Amber Lights, and she got to finish her challenge, so it motivated me to start again. Basically, I owe a lot to Skye and Amber because now I can finally finish my challenge! 

I was woken up to the doorbell and just by their voices I knew immediately who it was: Calista Smith, Laura Johanson, and Skye but there was someone I didn't recognize. I pushed myself out of bed, quickly got ready and ran downstairs to greet my friends. "PARKER," Skye exclaimed. "LONG TIME NO SEE, YO." 

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "It's not like you were here yesterday, or anything," I muttered. I hugged Calista and said hello to Laura and turned my attention to the turquoise haired girl that stood nervously by my door. 

"This is Ellie," Calista explained. "She's a new challenge mother. She--"

"I know you!" I interrupted. "I grew up with you! Didn't you live next door to me?" She smiled and nodded. After catching up briefly, Skye dragged us all to the basement. "PARTAY TIME!" Skye hollered, dragging me over to the dance floor. "We gotta get you back in the groove!"

"Of dancing or birthing babies?" Laura asked, heading for the dart board.  

Skye laughed and said, "Who says both isn't an option?" 

Laura and Calista started a dart tournament while Skye and I danced like crazy. Ellie played arcade games, since she didn't exactly know any of us that well. Jesse went to work so we could have some girl time. It was really fun, and eventually Hadley Reed-Pope showed up. “NOW WE CAN REALLY PARTY!” Skye screamed. “Did you bring the booze?”

Hadley chuckled and whipped out a bottle of wine from her bag.

 “SHE BROUGHT THE BOOZE!” The rest of us laughed at Skye and allowed ourselves to get drunk. Don’t worry, I checked that morning and I wasn’t pregnant, so it’s not like I was doing anything harmful.

Near the end of the evening, we all passed out in the teenager’s room; Hadley on the top bunk (I don’t even want to know how she climbed up that ladder, as drunk as she was); Calista on a bean bag; me on the bottom bunk; Skye didn’t have enough motivation, so she collapsed on the floor; Laura found a spot next to her; Ellie on the other bottom bunk.

When we woke up, we all had pounding headaches. “I think my brain might burst out of my skull,” Skye muttered. “Whose idea was it to get drunk last night?”

We all glared at her and shook our heads. “Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, right?” I asked, trying to lighten the hung-over mood.

“Whatever fun we may have had last night is not worth what we’re going through now,” Hadley groaned.

Ellie nodded her agreement and we all went back to the basement to watch some TV with the sound nearly on mute.

We all talked about random things, mainly our kids and the men in our lives. Of course Skye and I sat next to each other while Calista and Laura sat next to each other. I felt bad because Ellie sat next to Hadley, someone she didn't even know. Not that there's anything wrong with Hadley, of course.

When it came time for them to leave, I said my goodbyes and found my way upstairs to my personal massage room. Jesse was extra nice when it came to building a house for my challenge. He gave me my own personal room that came in handy. I wondered how long it would be before I had to use it because of a baby.

Speaking of which, as I was working on another painting, I felt the first kicks of the baby. To celebrate the first baby of my return, Jesse and I went out to the bistro. For some reason my stomach wasn't agreeing with anything that time around. When we got home I was pretty much glued to the bathroom in case I had to have my dinner forcefully removed.

Jesse eventually became very worried about me. He would stand there and hold my hair back for me when I got sick. I was very grateful that he was around, otherwise where would  I be?

Various people came around to see me. Ellie and Skye came the most. Throughout this pregnancy I became very good friends with Ellie, and soon we talked all the time. I invited her to stay with us for the duration of my pregnancy to see how to take care of yourself. I feel like she learned a lot from me, at least I hope.

Laura and I also talked a lot over Facebook. When I wasn't talking with Calista, Laura, Skye or Ellie, I was playing World of Warcraft and watching anime. I may have been an adult with responsibilities but that didn't mean I couldn't indulge in the things I loved. Jesse, of course, spent a lot of time with me. Just to humor me, because he doesn't like anime, he would sit and watch with me all day sometimes.

Finally the time came to go to the hospital to have my forty seventh baby. Ellie began to panic and Jesse begged her to calm down. "Ellie, it's okay! I do this all the time! Just get in the car and sit with me."

Twelve hours later I came out of the hospital with a perfect little baby girl named Laura.

When we got home we fed her and put her in her crib to sleep. "You alright, hon?" Jesse asked as I collapsed on the couch.

"Leave me alone to die," I moaned, rubbing my hand across my hot face. "I think I might explode. Ellie, you're staying here until the baby is a young adult. If you're going to be a good challenge mother, you need to learn from experience."

Ellie from the corner of our living room suddenly had a look of terror on her face. "WHAT?" she exclaimed. "What are you saying, Parker?"

I smirked. "Basically, you're going to help me raise this baby. Like I said, you're not going to get any better at this unless you've worked with children. Got it?"

"I feel like you hate me," she muttered.

This got Jesse's attention. "Hey, you need to stop. Paisley's right. You called her the other day begging for help. You said you wanted a head start and now she's offering one to you. Take it or leave it." The tone in his voice meant business, and Ellie knew it.

"Alright," she sighed. "Thank you Paisley for this opportunity. I greatly appreciate it. I'm sorry to be a bother to you both."

"Not a problem," we said at the same time. She smiled and left to the teenager's room to go to sleep since she had been up all night.

I followed in her footsteps and fell into my bed. It had been a while since I had expected to wake up in a few hours to care for a crying baby, and it was actually a nice feeling. I had missed children while I was away, and seeing their perfect little faces was enough to make me smile.

Soon my phone was ringing, and what my older sister told me in between sobs was not something I was expecting. "Paisley," she cried. "Macy, Chase's girlfriend, and Anna were in a car accident... None of them made it."