Epiphanies And Decisions

Chapter 1

It still startled Ben sometimes to walk pass a room with a sleeping toddler inside, after Miranda's unfortunate miscarriage he had conveniently pushed all thoughts of babies,  nurseries and anything else baby related to the back of his mind.
Pru laid fast asleep in her recently purchased toddler bed, a thumb tucked into her mouth as she slept peacefully. There were piles of medical books stacked neatly into the corner of the room.

Joey had taken the guest room when he moved in, leaving the only option to make room for the new addition to the family, to transform Miranda's home office into Pru's new room. The task was proving to be more difficult than expected because his wife couldn't figure out which books she wanted to add to the shelves in the living room and which ones she'd store in the garage.

   Ben tore his gaze away from Pru and continued down the hallway, in a few hours she'd be leaving for her grandparents' house for the weekend. They were still in the middle of the custody battle, but at least by allowing them visitations the Millers wouldn't be able to claim that they were keeping Pru away from her biological family.

They'd taken Pru for weekly visits so far and everytime they took her, Ben's chest would feel tight as though it would be the last time they'd see her, Miranda wasn't much better, in fact she was worse, guarding her heart constantly, trying to avoid the pain and disappointment should they suddenly lose Pru. It was nerve wracking waiting for the court hearing in 3 weeks eventhough their lawyer had already suggested that there was a good chance that the verdict would be in their favor.

       They had chosen the same lawyer Jo had when she was in her own custody battle with Luna, the woman had practically dialed the number and shoved the phone at them herself,
when she heard that Dean's parents were contesting for custody, muttering something about not letting them take a partridge family from a kid, he had no idea what that meant, but somehow it didn't seem to be the first time Miranda had heard the phrase.

Ben could hear Joey and Tuck in the living room playing some kind of game on their Nintendo  switch and arguing over the right combination to use to defeat whichever level they were playing.          
    He quietly entered the room and paused seeing the 2 boys already dressed and ready for school waiting for him to drive them.
Ever since he and Miranda had set the rule of no electronics before getting dressed for school,(a rule set into place by several late trips to school) the boys had become extremely punctual when it came to getting dressed for school,  going as far as to dress as early as 5am in the morning just to play games, while they waited for someone to take them to school.

     Joey had been a blessing in disguise and though Ben had been skeptical at first for them to take in the boy, Joey had proven to be a great example for Tuck and a trustworthy brother and best friend not to mention he was also a great addition to their family period, always polite and encouraging. A genuine joy to have around in every way.

   Tuck was the first to notice Ben's presence and paused the game to look at him eagerly.
"Dad, can you please tell Joey that the best way to finish this boss level.......' the darker skinned teenager paused and  threw his hands dramatically in the air barely missing Joey's face. "In fact the way to win ant boss level is to save all the power ups for the last round, other wise you just run out of everything by the time you get to the main boss."

"But if we save the power ups an lose before we even get to the boss round then it wouldn't really make a difference would it?" Joey rolled his eyes at his brother and rebuffing Tuck's argument by adding his own 2 cents causing Tuck to defend himself.

Ben just smiled amused at their banter and shook his head, he made sure to grab his car keys making sure that the keys clinked together loudly  enough to alert the boys that it was time to leave,   the noise was barely heard over his sons' bickering, it got louder and louder with every point they argued.
"Hey keep it down you two, Pru's still asleep and so is Miranda." He interrupted their squabbling. Tuck was on the debate team and was fairly good at it which usually ensured that his arguments sounded solid l and Joey was just hard headed. The two combinations made for loud arguments wheather they were joking or not.