Here's to Something New {Marr & Jack}

I've set myself to working hard in the kitchen. Peeling the vegitables and cutting them up and placing them in a broth of chicken stock. The aroma of it is wonderful and the more I get put in there, the heartier it becomes to look. All the while, I can hear Matthew and Brooklyn playing in thekliving room and I canonly wonder what it looks like. Only once do I sneak over to the opening of the kitchen into the living room to have a tiny peek and see that Matthew is helping her build some blocks. Though, Brooklyn doesn't seem to like the wya he does it and takes over once or twice before I slink back into the kitchen.

With a smile on my face, I canonly feel Mira trying to wiggle around more and with each one sends a bit of pressure to my hips and makesme stop to take a breath. "Mira, girl... you gotta chill out my sweets. There's no room for you to be doing that in there. You're killing me. You're going to be just like your daddy." I state in a whispered tone and rub my stomach a little bit, feeling the hard bump on one side that I can only think of to be where her head is placed.

A different sensation comes again, making my breath hitch and it lasts a good minute before it goes away. It's just anohter false contraction that I'm getting used to that is occuring so often anymore. At least I know it's not real and it feels like all the others.

The moment I reach for the spoon, I hear footsteps behind me and it startles me enough that when Matthew's voice comes out, I actually squeak a little. "Damnit, Matthew. Don't sneak up on me like that..."

"Please tell me dinner's ready. I can't play any more building blocks... please."

"Hey... you're fixing to be playing years of building blocks with Mira... don't go sour on me now, buddy." I tease him with a kiss to his lips and look back to the small pot of soup and the simmering meat on the side. "but just so it don't kill you, yes. Dinner is ready. Go get Brooklyn and get her washed up for dinner, please?"

While those two get washed up for dinner, I lay out the food on the table and place a heaping serving of the thick vegitable soup into Matthew's bowl and a smaller portion for Brooklyn. Just like that, the two hungry people come flooding into the kitchen to have a bite of the meal.

"Impressed?" Matthew asks me when he starts to attend to Brooklyn's food for her to eat it. I give him a grin.

"Yup. Very much." I wrinkle my nose up, and take a bit of the food and lean back in my chair for a moment and let my hand go to soothe my back. "Dinner duty is yours from now on. I'm exhausted." I complain and keep trying to rub a certain spot on my back to get it from aching. "Hey, Brookie? Do you wanna play a game after dinner or do you wanna take a nap with Kyky?" I try to expertly put something fun and something not fun together to give her a choice. Not that it'll matter because she's shaking her head no vigorously.

"No nap, Kyky. Play game!" She says, matter-of-factly. Those curls of hers flying in every which direction until she puts her finger to her lip and starts to 'think'. "Play game. Hide and seeky. Maffew, YOU IT!" She squeals and pinches a peice of meat between her fingers and pops it into her mouth.

"Did you hear that... we're playing hide and seek, Matthew. I will always loose. Mira will give away my position." I tease.

It's quite easy for Brooklyn to remain her usual cheerful self with the nice distraction from her two babysitters. Though, she doesn't really consider them that with the aunt and uncle titles they've been given. They're as much as family as Brittany was, and she enjoys their company far more then deer ol' granny's. As impatient as Matthew seems to get, it's humorous to watch his reactions every time she pushes another block on him. The giggles refuse to stop, and even still continues at the dinner table.

Despite her young age, she's fully aware it's past nap time. Once it's dark out, it's only bedtime from there on out. "No nap, Kyky." She giggles with a hard shake of her head. "Play game!" Is agreed, knowing very well that fun always comes from that sort of activity. Plus there's no way she's falling asleep this early.

With the encouragement of this promise, Brooklyn hurries with the rest of her meal. Not like she's ever been the type to protest, as long as it doesn't come to saying goodnight before she's ready. Louder giggles are evoked as she scurries from the table, after the approval that she ate enough of course. "Come Kyky." She nearly orders in her toddler way, grabbing Kyanite's hand to lead her into the living room.

"Mattew no build castle right." Brooklyn laughs and points over to the mess of blocks. "We try?" She questions, going over there to start stacking with or without assistance. There's no doubt their game of hide n' seek will come soon enough, but she doesn't want to be mean and start without Matthew. Maybe she can show him what a pretty castle looks like beforehand.

((OOC: Marr insisted that I wrote a post for Brooklyn lol Hope you two enjoy))

When I come back into the living room Kyanite has taken over and is buildung a block castle with the kid. She looks exhausted but still has enough patience for the little girl. Maybe she's practising. I surely had enough of that for now and decide not to play anymore.

Instead I find my spot next to her on the couch and let her take my hand and place it on her belly where I can clearly feel some movement under her skin. "It's hard to imagine what it must feel like when there's another human being moving around inside of you." I muse and chuckle at the 'kick' against my palm.
"Ow.." Her face falls against my chest in the exact spot where my scar is. It's still a bit uncomfortable when somebody pushes right against it but I only grit my teeth and let her do it. "Matthew, calm her down."
Gently I draw cirlces in the spot where the movement was. "Shshsh...calm down." I smirk a little and look over at Brooklyn who's busy building a tower. Only a second later the thing comes crashing down and she starts screaming angrily and runs away.

"So much for a nice moment with you." I sigh heavily but hold Kyanite so she won't go chasing after Brooklyn.
"Let her be. She'll calm down."
I lean my chin on top of her head and take a few deep breaths trying to relax.

"What do you think your brother and Vy are up to now? Still eating or already latching onto each other....?" I twist a strand of her hair around my finger because I love her dark locks.

The kids eagerness translates straight into annoyance for me. "I'm all played out." I complain but Kyanite pulls away from me after she tells me that she can't move around in all the ways that she wants to any more, which just earned her a 'Oh don't I know it' from me.
"You seem to be moving alright." My voice has become somewhat tired...especially of playing games.

But when Ky calls out for me to tackle the kids I get up and reach out my arms, which she runs straight into.
I proceed to throw her on the couch and tickle the hellout of her until she giggles and gasps so nobody can understand what she's actually saying.
My fingers keep finding the best spots while I aks. "Are you done? had enough now? Done? Tell me to stop...no more play...eh?"
Hopefully she will surrender and calm down after this.

She wiggles away from my grasp and runs off looking back at me whether I follow with a loud scream. "Matthew...done, I'm done...."
I roar like a biest one more time because I can't possibly foresee what#s happening next.because of my teasing the kid keeps looking back, giggling and shouting for me to stop tickling her and runs dead smack into the half closed door.

The scream that follows is anything but funny and shakes me to the bone.
The force of the impact her little body made with the door threw her back and onto the floor where she lies screaming like a maniac.

In less than a second I'm on my feet and next to her reaching for her shoulder to get a look at the crying little toddler.
"Kyanite!" I yell suddenly very frightened.

I've stopped trying to go after the child the moment she starts heading back into the living room. I just can't chase after her and I'm sure if I did, I'd be shaking Mira up and my breath would leave me just three steps into a run. So, I pass off the responsibility to tickle the little girl as I yell for him to capture her and sure enough, giggles erupt from the living room. A little bit of screaming, too, but most of all those infectious bouts of laughter that makes me smile and I stay where I am in case she starts to come running after me to keep Matthew from tickling her anymore. Though, it seems to last a bit longer and just as I hear her voice yelling out for Matthew to stop, a noise invades my senses.

The thud of the body hitting the floor and the high pitched cry of a child in pain jolts me and sends my body into auto pilot. I don't even register much the voice of Matthew screaming out my name and instead I take off running, a hand placed to my stomach as I come into the living room and look around for what's going on.

Then I see it.

Matthew is on the ground, leaning over the little girl in front of the doorway, her legs thrashing about and her hands holding onto her head and bawling like I've never heard her do before. "Matthew! What happened?"

"I wan' mama."

I fall to my knees and look down to the screaming child that's in nothing but pure agony and then I notice the blood on her head that her hand is pushing against. "Brooklyn... come here.. Brooklyn, calm down baby... Shhh...shhh... let me see. Let me see your boo-boo..." I try to coax the child but there's nothing getting through to her so I lean over and scoop the child up into my arms and try soothing her against my chest and start to rock her. Even though I try, it's hard to keep her pressed against my body with the bump that seems to take away the comfort she needs.

"Brooklyn.. let me see your boo-boo.. Brook..." I feel a jolt of something through my body, and the jolt sends a cold chill through my body. I can only suspect the adrenaline is reacting harshly at this moment to everything else and the wiggling child trying to get away from me in order to sooth her own injury. She won't let me even look at her head until a good minute later. Slowly, I peel her hand away from the injury and notice how deep it is and look up to the door and notice the latching part of the door is what got her when she hit it.

"Kyky.. hurts... kyky... I wan' mama." I hear her cry and again, a jolt of pain spreads through my midsection and makes me grimace just slightly as I turn to Matthew.

"Go get a towel... hurry, Matthew." I send him off to go get what I need as I keep rocking the child in my arms. "It's going to be okay, Brookie. Kyky is going to take care of you, okay? Can Kyky fix your head?"

She whimpers loudly still wanting to hold on to her head, but I have to keep peeling her hands away from it. "Don't touch it Brooklyn." How is there any way to keep a two year old from touching something that hurts so bad?

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How on earth did this happen? Why did it happen? Why of all the nights that we were looking after little Brooklyn, did she have to get injured and Vy not be here to help us out to figure out what's going on or how to fix this? It's just the two of us and a crying, screaming child whose hurt and bleeding. In all of the thrashing around, I can barely tell what's going on with myself. I'm terrified for the little girl, yet something seems so wrong. Something don't feel right, but I can't place my finger on it. Once I demand for Matthew to go get me a towel to take care of Brooklyn, I start to realize what's going on and slowly I begin to wonder if it's the real thing or just another set of false contractions. At this moment, it's hard to think of anything else other than just the terrified little girl in my arms.

"Kyky... kyky... kyky." Her little voice keeps wanting to repeat as her crocodile tears soak into my shirt. In between the moments that Matthew is gone and when he gets back, Brooklyn's pain level just won't go away and she starts to squirm again against my hold and when Matthew gets back, he takes her from my grasp and holds her for me in order for me to press the cloth against her head to get it to quit bleeding.

"No Ky. I done... no, Ky! Boo-boo done!" She keeps trying to get me to stop touching her injured head but I won't let off. I just know I need to stop the bleeding and get her to calm down.

"Shhh, don't scream, Brooklyn. It's not that bad. You're going to be fine..." He tries to calm her down, but it don't work until he shows her the scar on his arm and tells her how he got it. Instantly, I look at him with a disgruntled frown.

"Thanks Matth..." I halt in my words to another jolt of pain or something starts hitting me in my lower back and circling around to my front. What makes this worse is his jokes just won't stop there. He mentions showing her another wound he got, but I only keep that disgruntled look on my face.

"Not here, Matthew. Not now." I tell him when he gets up to get the first aid kit. Brooklyn instantly scurries into my arms more and wraps her tiny arms around my belly and presses her face against Mira's living space.

"Miwa... Brookie gots a booboo." She whimpers and talks to my belly as if Mira could talk back. It's a sweet moment, but painful as I blot at the wound on Brooklyn's head and she presses her face and nose into my belly to keep me from doing it again.

"Brooklyn, hold still, sweetie. I gotta stop the blood from coming out, okay? I gotta make the booboo stop hurting." She only nods and gives me this look of fear from her gaze upward to me.

"Oww..." She suddenly hiss out. "Brooklyn, honey.. sit up for me, okay?" I ask her. She does it and looks to me. She puts her hand on top of my own that's holding the towel on her forehead. "Wanna sing a song? Can you help me sing twinkle twinkle?"

"Twinkle... twinkle wittle star..." Brooklyn starts to sing, her voice full of sobs and a tear or two still falls as I sing along with her, but a lot of the words are replaced with silence as the pain in my lower back intensifies just slightly. Now, a bit of fear is starting to turn my blood cold.

When Matthew returns, all I can think of is getting Brooklyn's forehead fixed up. So I reach for the first aid kit and open it up to get a bit of the supplies out nad the bandages and antiseptic. "Brookie... can we doctor your head?" I ask and I can see the fear in her eyes once again. "I won't hurt you, Brooklyn. I promise!"

At this point, her cries and tears of pain are diminishing, but that two year old bout of being scared of the doctor is there. "No doctor..."

"Okay, Brookie. No doctor." I tell her, and cup her chin into my curved hand as I look for the ointment but it seems to be missing from the bag. "I'm going to go find the ointment... be right back."

I push off the floor, leaning heavily on the table near the door. It's then that another jots of pain sends waves of uncertainty through me. "Mira... calm down, please... " I try to coax her but half way to the stairs the pain isn't diminishing at all. It's getting a little longer. Three steps up the stairs makes me stop for a moment and take a deep breath.

Could something being really wrong. Did Brooklyn kicking me and I didn't realize it? Did something happen when I fell to my knees beside the pair of them? I still have time, right?

I bite back the pain and use the handrails to help me up the stairs and into my bedroom to go to the bathroom to look for the medicine. Before I can even get to the threshold of the bathroom, something happens and I stand there completely caught off guard.

I press my hand against my stomach and feel the hardness that is Mira beneath my skin. "Mira... not now... anything but this."

I prop myself against the wall, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. Already, my mind is tring to count the seconds and minutes between the growing pain. Only when it finally disappates, do I resume my quest for the ointment and retrieve it and head back down stairs with it.

"How's she doing?" I question him and look to Brooklyn whose tears have finally slowed down and her chest is only heaving now due to the amount of tears that had been shed. With gasping breaths, she reaches for me as soon as I'm near and I bend down and sit on my bottom and keep her where Matthew had her.

"Is it going to require any kind of stitches? Is how bad is it?" I rub Brooklyn's arm.

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When I get back to the duo, I see how Brooklyn seems to be calming down only slightly, that is until we start to mess with her head again. All the while, I hold her close to me, with my arm around her tiny little body so she can press her head against my chest and Matthew can doctor the wound and try to bandage it.

Matthew's solution is to call her mom, but I didn't even think about that. She's out with my brother and having a wonderful time while we are here caring for her child that's injured now. How is that going to look on us? Would she ever let us watch her again? I've had tiny little bruises or a bumped knee while she's under my care, but for something like this... my heart drops suddenly just to think that she may keep Brooklyn from being watched under my care again.

"We can handle this..." I mention and make it seem as though I'm seriously confident about this. I just hope that she doesn't have a concussion from hitting the door or anything else happens. I can only hope that the bleeding will stop as well. If it doesn't, it may require stitching. I have to inform him that I don't have any of those butterfly bandages so we have to opt for the regular ones instead.

"Are you alright? I can do this, you know. Just comfort her." I nod and keep Brooklyn in my care as he deals with it. Only when he is about to finish, she slaps his hands away and I hold them down so she won't do it again, but she kicks him instead as the bandage is placed on the side of her head.

"See.. Brookie.. we're done. All better, okay? No more bad booboo." I tell her, and she instantly puts her hand up to the bandaid to check herself out and seems satisfied when she don't feel the blood anymore but the bandage instead.

"Good. Done. No more boo-boo." She tells me, as a matterof factly and nestles her head away from Matthew. "Bad Mattew. Kyky, mattew hurt me!" She blames MAtthew for hurting her and it makes me grin for only a moment when another wave of pain shoots through my abdomen. I halt my breath and lean over just a little - clinching my eyes shut.

"Brookie... why don't you come lay down with me, okay? We'll make sure your boo-boo feels better, okay? Kyky's tummy hurts." Brooklyn nods and moves to get out of my grasp as I look to Matthew. I don't want to alarm him, but as many times as I've had issues with false labor pains, I can only imagine that this is because of the intensity of what just happened. I shrug it off as Matthew looks at me concerned.

"Just another episode." I tell him, hoping it is as well, and as I stand to get up, it hits me that this isn't like all the other times. It actually makes me crumple over and hiss under my breath. "... Matthew. Can you help me up? Please... I just need to go lay down." I reach out for him and stand up and reach my hand for Brooklyn and start to walk down the hall and to the stairs.

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