Roswelllostcause: Yes, the girls are something else but keep in mind they're not 16 yet!
What an age...
Eve: You are so right...every time my daughter wanted something she knew would get an "I'll think about it" she would ask her dad while he was busy under a car hood and of course she got a yes. They both soon learned that was not working out so much. As the saying goes, "all hell broke loose" one day and that promptly stopped.
Carolyn: My daughter showed that same concern over a small cut I got while chopping carrots and good Lord I thought she was going to cry. She is the one who had to put the band aid on, it took almost a whole box before we got it right but she wouldn't hear of it any other way. I still laugh about it...she has no memory of it all she was so young.
Jake: Thank you for dropping in, I think they're cool too. If I get through the third in this series we'll see them in a more grown up light. One of these days. It's hard bouncing back and forth between this baby age and the more adult age but maybe I'll work it out.
Chapter: 4
Liz slept pretty well last night…Max hardly slept at all watching Liz, but all in all they did have a fairly decent night’s sleep and when Liz woke up in the morning the twins were both standing at the foot of the bed watching them.
“What are you doing up so early?” Liz asked and they both looked at their Mommy with big eyes and Deana asked…
“Awl you awlwight?” Liz smiled and jabbed Max in the side to wake up…he looked at her through sleep hazed eyes and she pointed to the foot of the bed…
“Yes, girls, I’m alright and Daddy will move over and you can finish your sleep with us…okay?”
“Chesss…” They both answered and ran to Max’s side of the bed. He reached down and lifted them to the center of the bed one at a time, along with their dollies, and they both curled up next to each other and fell right back to sleep. Max looked over at Liz and gave her a big smile and laid back down and went right back to sleep with his little family safely tucked in next to him. Liz just laid there and smiled at the three of them…life was good even in it’s emergencies.
She wondered what she would be hearing from the doctor…’let it rest Liz’ she told herself…and then she was back to sleep as well.
When Diane woke up and headed toward the back stairs she noticed the girls rooms was empty, then when she passed Max and Liz’s bedroom door it was wide open so she thought they were already up but on closer examination she noticed four people and two dolls sound asleep in the big king sized bed and she pulled the door shut to let them rest. Even though the twins were babies they were smart enough to recognize trouble and they knew their Mommy was hurting and they needed to be with her. Children are just too smart sometime she thought to herself as she continued on her journey to the kitchen.
There were plenty of leftovers from yesterday’s breakfast so she decided to just add a platter of scrambled eggs to the menu and call it good but she had a huge surprise…Jeff and Philip had beat her to it. Nancy had already started the coffee and was squeezing the orange juice and then she suggested they get the girls up and dressed before Liz woke up. Diane told her what she just encountered and didn’t think that would work because the girls were asleep in bed with Max and Liz. Nancy just looked at her and grinned.
“Do you think that’s such a good idea…what if they kick her or something.” Nancy said with concern in her voice.
“Oh, I don’t think that will happen…go up and take a look…honest…they are all curled up next to each other holding onto their dollies…Liz is on one side facing them sound asleep and Max is on the other with his arm under their pillow facing them. They are all fine, trust me. I have a sneaking suspicion that they didn’t start out like that last night because their bedroom door was wide open when I went past and their little beds had been slept in, for awhile anyway. They really are too cute for words.”
“Yes they are…thank God they have the parents they have…there just seems to be love permeating this whole house.”
“Yes there is Nancy, and I think it will always be like that…no matter how many they have. I can’t wait to meet the boys…this is going to be so much fun.”
“It certainly is.” And both women continued to chatter away while Philip and Jeff continued to cook…Jeff couldn’t be happier, Nancy was really starting to feel comfortable showing kindness and love and was discovering how wonderful life could be. He thanked God everyday for his blessings and these wonderful people who introduced him to a better life.
* * *
It was about 8:30 when the sound of a baby crying had the upstairs all awake. Sandy figured it was time to get up and that meant everyone got up…Briana and Deana woke up and looked at each other and smiled, they loved Sandy and they could hardly wait for Uncle Alex and Aunt Isabel to bring Sandy to the kitchen.
Max and Liz woke up to the girls’ giggles and smiled at each other…Sandy was ready to start the day so that meant everyone else was ready also.
“Sandy woked up.” Said Briana
“Yes she did.” Liz answered “Are you ready to get up too?”
“Chesss.” The twins answered
And Max just gathered the two of them up, pillow and all and gave them a great big hug… “Daddy? Iz zhoo woked up too?”
“Yes ladies, I’m woked up too.” Max chuckled…he couldn’t resist talking like them…something Liz frowned on. They were doing very well with their sentences but they didn’t need to be answered in baby talk. Max knew better but sometimes it was just too cute for words. Liz just shook her head at him and frowned…he reached over and patted the top of her head…”Love you!”
She grinned back at him and said “Love you too.” And the girls giggled at their Mommy and Daddy and said “We yuv zhoo too.” Max and Liz both laughed and said together “And we love you…and we love your babies too.” Liz added. They giggled and hugged their dollies just like their mommy and daddy hugged them and soon Max and Liz decided it was time to start the day.
Max helped Liz out of bed even though she insisted she was okay and they headed to the girls room to get them dressed. Max helped them brush their teeth, wash the sleep out of their eyes, their little hands and arms and helped them into their clothes and Liz combed their hair and put finishing touches on them and then it was time to dress the dollies. Max threw his hands in the air and left Liz to supervise the dolly dressing and headed to his own room to take his shower. After Liz had finished with the girls Max took them downstairs and told Liz he would be back up to help her. She tried to convince him that she was fine but he would have no part of it so she waited for him to come back…it was just easier that way. So Max waited for Liz to shower and get dressed even though she didn’t need his help; he just felt better about it. He made their bed while she dressed; she did ask him to tie her shoes for her though…her back was still hurting but she didn’t want him to know this. They would just have to wait until she saw her doctor, as long as the babies were alright she could handle the wait.
*~*~*
Meanwhile everyone was ready for breakfast as soon as Max and Liz came downstairs. Isabel had bathed Sandy and she was in the high chair chewing on her toast already and the twins were trying to get her to talk to them. Sandy was jabbering away at the girls but they couldn’t understand a thing she was saying so they just giggled at her and kept talking. Liz loved it and Isabel thought it was just too precious. To say that these parents were proud was an understatement.
All of the grandparents and Bernadette had served a beautiful breakfast on the sun porch even though the ground was covered in snow and everyone loved it.
Bernadette had to leave for the hospital around 10:00 a.m. in order to start the 11:00 a.m. shift. At least she had Christmas day off…she would be going home for New Years though and was really looking forward to seeing her family. Max and Liz knew how much she missed her home during the holidays and really tried to make sure she was kept busy and made to feel like a part of everything at the estate. It worked too, because Bernadette loved it here as did the other three young women living over the garage, they wanted for nothing.
Max tried to help Liz up from the table and she gave him a look that he understood perfectly…’back off’…and he stood back and allowed her to get up herself. Everyone at the table caught sight of that look and Diane had to stifle a laugh. Poor Max, he loved that girl so much that it would positively kill him if anything happened to her. Nancy just turned around and continued to clear the dishes, she couldn’t hide the smile on her face. Liz held her hands out for the twins and they took their mommy’s lead and headed for the small living room where they still had a lot of their toys from Santa. Liz sat in the rocking chair and talked to them while they played with various things and answered their little questions about certain items and they wanted to know more about Santa Claus too. Liz explained that Santa only came one time a year to very good little boys and girls and that they must have been very good little girls because Santa brought them lots and lots of things to play with. They looked at their mommy and smiled up at her. They wanted to sit on her lap so badly but Liz explained that they still had nine more sleeps and they nodded…they held up their little fingers and Liz reached over and took their baby fingers and laid them toward their palms and helped them count to nine. They giggled at their mommy…yesterday they counted to ten and they told her so too. Then Liz explained how, when one goes away there are only nine left. They weren’t too sure about all of this but they took her word for it and headed back to their toys. Max just shook his head and smiled…
“Do you really think they understand the concept of subtraction?” He asked.
“No not really…but they understand the concept of so many sleeps, it doesn’t hurt to keep explaining…someday it will sink in.”
“Okay sweetie…whatever you say. Now, how are you feeling?”
“Actually, better now that I ate something. I guess I was hungry and I didn’t realize it.” She answered. “I think I’ll sit on the couch with my feet up for awhile…they seem to be occupied for the time being.” as she pointed to the girls. Max nodded in agreement….
“I think they had a nice Christmas in spite of us. What do you think?”
“Oh God, I hope so. I think their grandparents and Isabel, Alex ,Sandy and Bernadette made it great for them actually. I’m just sorry we missed it.”
“Me too sweetie but I am also very thankful that you are okay.” And with that he brought Liz in for a hug and a kiss on the top of her head. She felt so protected and loved and so very tired all of a sudden…she didn’t want to miss anymore of the holidays but she just had to take a nap. She snuggled into Max’s side and was asleep in no time. As Max recalled her pregnancy with the girls and he remembered how tired she always got and never gave it a second thought. And, of course, she was recovering from surgery as well, poor thing.
*~*~*
Liz and Max headed into the doctor’s office for her follow up and Liz was feeling a whole lot better by now. The doctor had them take a seat in her office and asked Liz if she was having any problems or did she have any questions at all and then Liz dropped the hammer so to speak.
“Well, I do have a couple of questions. How did the X-Rays turn out and did the urinalysis and blood work show anything besides an elevated white blood count?”
Max looked over at her with a questioning look and the doctor just raised an eyebrow. She forgot who she was dealing with for a minute and so she told Liz what she wanted to know.
“Well, you’re a little anemic…which is no big deal….”
And Liz looked at her and said “Out with it.”
“Well, we would like to do some more X-rays on your back…there seems to be a couple of vertebrae out of alignment.”
Liz looked at the doctor for a second and Max grabbed her hand…she gave him a smile and then looked back at the doctor. She wanted to weigh her words very carefully so that everyone would understand where she was coming from.
“Alright. By ‘out of alignment’ do you mean there is no deterioration or slippage but just out of alignment?”
“Yes, just out of alignment. We can put you in traction and …”
Liz interrupted the doctor immediately…”I know how the medical profession feels about chiropractors but if all I have is a misaligned vertebrae I will see a chiropractor and have him put it back in for me.”
“Oh Liz, are you sure that’s what you want to do. A chiropractor will keep you coming back forever.”
“I’ll bet he won’t keep me coming back as often as a doctor and his traction contraption will…I’ll make a deal with you. If, after one month, my back is not back where it should be I will consider your treatment. You do understand I did say ‘consider’ right?”
“Yes Liz, I understand. Do you have a chiropractor in mind?”
“Yes I do as a matter of fact…the team’s chiropractor. I’ve seen what he’s done with those baseball players and I am sure he will do wonders for me. All I can say is thank God…I really was thinking the worst and now that I know what the back pain is I am so relieved. You will never know how relieved I am…I knew the appendicitis wasn’t the only problem when I left the hospital but I wanted to give you enough time to get all of the test results in before causing anymore problems at home than we already have. Not that there are problems but I don’t need to be getting sick.”
Max grabbed Liz’s hand and she stopped talking and looked up into his eyes and realized she had kept a secret from him and he was pissed…along with the fact that she was starting to ramble. She wasn’t too sure she was ready to leave the doctor’s office just yet…Max needed time to calm down. What in the hell was she going to do now…’oh, I know’…
“Doctor, is there any follow up that I need to do regarding the surgery…Can I lift the girls yet?”
“No, Liz I don’t think you should be lifting them for another four weeks. It probably won’t hurt you but just to be on the safe side I wouldn’t. We don’t want you to get a hernia…after all your side has been weakened by the surgery.”
Liz knew all of this but she wanted Max to feel sorry for her and keep his mouth shut…
“Thank you doctor…will do. I’ll be in for my regular check up in about two weeks so I’ll see you then.”
“Good luck Liz.” The doctor knew exactly what she was up to and so did Max…what in the hell was wrong with her.
“Okay Mrs. Evans…what in the hell do you think you’re doing keeping something like that from me?”
“Oh Max, I didn’t want to upset anyone…I wasn’t sure about anything and I knew we had to wait for test results so I thought I’d wait and see.”
“Wait and see my ass Liz…you knew there was something besides the appendix and you kept it to yourself.”
“Yes Max I did…and I would do it again. I knew something wasn’t right but why should you have to worry along with me…until the test results were back there was absolutely nothing anyone could do. Now we know what it is and we’ll give Frank a call when we get home and see if he can see me and give me an adjustment and get things back where they belong.”
“Okay Liz, I’ll let you get away with it this time. But for God’s sake, will you promise me that you will share your worries with me from now on. What if it had been something serious and I wasn’t even aware that there was a possibility of something being wrong. How in the hell do you think I would have felt if there had been an emergency and I couldn’t even answer any questions…Liz you have to promise you won’t do this again.”
“Okay Max, I guess it was selfish on my part but I didn’t intend it to be.”
“Good…now let’s call Frank and get you fixed up.”
“Okay…thank you Max.”
“For what?”
“For loving me so much.”
Max reached over and grabbed Liz’s hand and kissed her open palm and smiled at her…”You’re welcome baby and ditto.”
*~*~*
And so they headed on home and made their phone call to Frank who was more than glad to provide Liz with his services. As a matter of fact he came to the estate and brought a collapsible table with him. To say that he was impressed with the place was an understatement and the Christmas tree in the entry really caught his eye. Max and Liz explained that the “magnificent seven” had decorated it and Frank raised an eyebrow. Liz started to giggle…I guess you aren’t aware of my nick name for the sons of the infield.
And then Frank smiled…”The little boys who gave you away at the wedding.”
Liz smiled and said “The very ones…I just love them.”
About that time the twins came running into the entry, took one look at Frank and grabbed their mommy’s legs, one each side, and peeked around at Frank. They were going to ask mommy to play with them but stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the stranger.
“Deana, Briana…this is Frank, he works with daddy. Can you say hello?”
“Heddo.” Came the reply from both girls…
Frank looked at the identical twins and thought if there were ever clones these two were certainly clones of their mother…
“Hello Deana and Briana. It’s so nice to meet you, did you have a nice Christmas?”
“Chesss.” They answered and then Liz bent down and told them to go see mamma because mommy had to visit with Frank.
They looked at their mommy and then at Frank and said “Dood-bye Fwank.”
And Frank smiled at the twins as they ran toward one of the doorways at the other end of the hall.
Liz took Frank into the large living room and asked him if he could work in here…
“Of course Liz…has anyone ever told you that the girls are the image of you?”
Liz giggled, “Yes, quite a few people actually. We don’t take them out a whole lot. To church, shopping sometime but most of their activities are conducted right here. As you can see there’s just about anything and everything they could possibly ever want right here. Max and I are over protective I guess but we really are terrified of kidnappers. Maybe we wouldn’t be as afraid if my situation had been different but it made us more aware of the insanity in the world and we guard them with our lives.”
“I see…I heard a little about your problems when you first came to Philadelphia but I wasn’t aware that you still felt threatened.”
“It isn’t so much that I feel threatened as it is an awareness of what could happen.”
“Uh-huh. Well shall we get started? Did you bring your X-rays with you from the doctor’s office for me? I really need to see what I’m dealing with here.”
“Yes, they’re right there on the coffee table and Max is getting the portable neon lamp for you out of one of the classrooms. He’ll be here in a minute. He probably had to stop and fill up a dolly’s bottle or something. I can venture a guess that’s what prompted the visit from the girls.”
Frank laughed at that remark…he just couldn’t picture Max Evans filling up a dolly’s bottle but then again he has a daughter of his own and he has done some strange things as well. Liz could read the expression on Frank’s face and giggled…
”It’s true you know…he even changes the dolly’s diapers before they go to bed if I’m not around. They have him right where they want him and God knows what it’s going to be like around here when the boys arrive. Chaos…that’s what it’s going to be…utter and total chaos.”
“Oh, you’re pregnant?”
“Yes, I thought you knew…about three months, and I had an emergency appendectomy on Christmas day. I’m fine now and my doctor knows all about you. They wanted to put me in traction and I told them to give you a month and let’s see where we stand.”
Frank looked at the young woman and smiled…”You have that much faith in me?”
“Yes I do. I’ve seen what you do with the team and I trust you completely.”
About that time Max showed up with the neon light for Frank to check out Liz’s X-rays and apologized for being delayed.
“It seems the dollies were wet and there weren’t any diapers left in the diaper bag so I went upstairs and got them a supply of my handkerchiefs…I hope to hell they’re happy with that because I don’t know what else to do for them.”
Frank and Liz both giggled…”I’m sure they’re fine Love…let’s get busy so Frank can get home to his own family.”
So after Frank took a look at Liz’s X-rays and knew what he needed to adjust he put Liz on the portable table and popped the vertebrae right back into its socket without a second thought. Liz got off the table and was pain free for the first time in weeks. She looked at Max and smiled and then went over and gave Frank a great big hug.
“If I feel this good tomorrow we won’t have to do this again.”
Frank looked at her and then at Max and smiled back…”I don’t think we will either. Sometime we just don’t know why they pop out but if we catch them in time it’s an easy fix. If you feel any more pain you just give me a call Liz…I’ll be more than happy to come back and take care of you. Take care of all those babies and if I don’t see you for this I’ll see you at the games. It has been a real pleasure.” And an eye opener he thought to himself. Mr. Joe cool giving his baby daughters his handkerchiefs for dolly diapers…what a story, my wife is going to love this.
*~*~*
And so winter came and went…spring practice started up and Liz got bigger and bigger. It seemed to her that she was bigger this time than she was with the girls but the doctor told her she didn’t measure any bigger and her weight was about the same so she just took her word for it and continued on with her daily routine. She was giving some serious thought to giving up her job for awhile though…and decided, after one particularly rough day on her feet, to talk it over with Max. She knew that he would go along with whatever she wanted to do and even though she didn’t feel she had missed out on any of the girls growing up she just wanted to be an at home mom. She loved being a mommy and she really wanted to do this. The more she thought about it the more she knew it was what she wanted to do.
She had completed the project that Mr. Appleby and Mr. Jarred had saved for her and it was a complete success…she had completed her study isolating the gene that had Tess going over the edge as well as several other projects and now she just wanted to stay home and be a mom. It was time.
When she got home that night from work the girls were waiting for her by the back door she stooped down to their level and took them both into her arms and hugged them for dear life. There was nothing any better than this she thought. She couldn’t wait for Max to get home to tell him what she wanted to do.
They had been in their new home for over a month now and although there were not individual suites for everyone there was ample space to live, enjoy and grow. They had provided a very large space for the girls to share a play room plus individual bedrooms that were basically connected to each other by French doors which could be left open and as they grew older they could be closed for privacy. There was a huge nursery with ample space for play things for the boys as well and as they grew older they would have the same set up as the girls. Everything was ready for the new babies and the girls were excited about being big sisters. They didn’t fully understand the concept yet but it wouldn’t be long now. They had celebrated their birthdays just a month before and were growing into very self sufficient little girls…or so they thought.
Olivia now worked at the new home with them only because Liz, Max and the girls all loved her and they didn’t want to give her up to the facility.
*~*~*
