A Different Reality (Lasting Love)

Family Day Out

Justin's POV

"Good morning, princess." I get Kay out of her crib "Let's go lay down with mommy." She sleepily lays her head on my shoulder and wraps her arms around me as I walk to our room. I lay her on our bed between Jen and I and watch as Jen instinctively pulls Kay closer wrapping an arm around her.

"Momma?" Kay lightly pulls on Jen's hair to wake her. I let her since she slept in pretty late.

"Hi, honey." Jen smiles as she half wakes up "Did daddy bring you here?"

"Yeah." Kay replies quietly while yawning. She rolls over so that she's laying on me, and Jen is already back asleep. I look between her and Kay, who is mimicking Jen to act like she's sleeping, and am still amazed at how much Kay resembles her. She has all her perfect features that I hoped she would get. More and more each day I notice these similarities.

"Mamma up!" Kay yells taking me away from my thoughts. She slides over to Jen and hits her in the face until she sees that her eyes are open.

"What's wrong, baby?" Jen asks as she sits up to hold her. Kay rests her head on Jen's chest hugging her.

"I think she just wants you awake." I move over closer to them "She was asking for you as soon as I got her."

"I'm still tired." Jen yawns looking at the time "I don't know why. I got to sleep late."

An hour later, we're all awake and dressed. We didn't feel like cooking, so we decide to go out for brunch.

"Daddy!" Kay yells from the back of the car "Fast!" She yells again causing Jen and I to laugh. Ever since she learned some more words she's always trying to use them.

"Kay, are you gonna eat your food?" Jen asks.

"No!" Kay responds. She's decided recently she doesn't want to eat anything but cookies.

We get seated at the diner and make sure that Kay is trapped in the booth behind me and cannot try to escape. Jen goes through the menu with her hoping that she'll eat something.

"Chocy." She decides on letting us know she wants chocolate milk. I help her look through the food again and finally get her to agree on some pancakes.

"What are you getting?" I look across at Jen "They seem to have a lot here."

"I don't know." She glances down at her menu again "I think the steak and French toast sounds good."

"Are you okay?" I ask confused "Is that even a thing?"

"No. I'll just get two things." She says "I'm hungry and it sounds good."

"Well, okay then." I pick out what I want and help Kay color until they bring our food. We end up drawing a family picture of all of us. Jen helps her color it in after I draw the stick figures. I end up with pink hair somehow while both of them look normal.

"Daddy," Kay pokes me as we start to eat "I try?" She picks up my toast.

"Of course, baby." I let her, hoping that it'll make her eat better. She tries it and ends up liking it eating the whole thing.

"How's yours?" I ask Jen who has already eaten at least half of it.

"Awesome." She looks over at me smiling "I love it."

"I done!" Kay announces after tearing up her pancake and eating one bite.

"You need to eat more than that, honey." Jen grabs the fork and holds it up to Kay's mouth "You need to eat this or you won't get to be big."

"No." She pushes her plate away.

"Kayleigh." I look over at her seriously "If you don't eat then you have to go right for a nap when you get home. You need to start eating what we give you."

"We'll get you ice cream if you eat some more." Jen tries to feed her again "You can have extra sprinkles."

"Okay." She finally gives in and eats almost all of the pancake.

We finish our food and take Kay for ice cream like she was promised. She, of course, falls asleep in the car on the way there. Jen decides that we should probably just go home since she doesn't feel too good, probably from her weird food, and Kay is never in a good mood when she wakes up.

I put Kay in our bed to nap and Jen tells me that she's going to lay down with her.  She's kinda worrying me with this weird behavior, but I chose to ignore it.  It's probably something I won't understand anyway.

"Hey, babe." Jen stands at the top of the steps calling down to me "Can you come up here?"

I walk upstairs to find her pacing around the hallway.

"What's wrong?  Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She replies not very convincingly "I uh- I think I know why I've been so tired and sick lately." She grabs my hand pulling me through our bedroom and into the bathroom.  We stop at the counter right before the sink.

"What's going on?" I ask looking around.  It's then that I notice the two tests laying on the counter. They both have the double lines that will change our lives forever.

"Oh my God, Jen." I look over to see her crying "That's awesome!  We're going to have another baby!"

"You're happy?" She asks "I thought you wanted to wait longer."

"Of course I am!" I walk over and kiss her "This just means we get to meet our baby earlier."

"Yeah!" She smiles kissing me back "This is great."

Kayleigh runs into the bathroom obviously curious as to what's going on and reaches out for Jen.

"You're going to be a big sister!" Jen exclaims as she picks her up "Do you want a baby?"

We brace ourselves for the answer.

"No baby." She replies.

Jen and I look at each other hoping that she changes her mind.