How it is

Chapter twelve:

Who's gonna rock you,
When the sun won't let,
You sleep?

8 weeks, 2 days pregnant

Christina's POV:

Two days after taking to Amelia, I still had to find out the best way to approach Owen. He messed up, badly, but so did I. I could have been the bigger person, talked everything through and went from there. But I acted out of hurt and spite. I shouldn't have.

"Owen, can we talk?" I ask one morning, the morning of my 8 week ultrasound. "It's about my ultrasound" I tell him, hoping to bring up the fact that we were having two babies, well three if you count Amelia's baby (which I was still pissed about, but wasn't on a warpath anymore).

"What is it?" Owen asked me, hand on his hip and scowl on his face. We wanted to talk to me about as much as he wanted a tooth pulled.

"I have an ultrasound this afternoon; 3 o'clock. If you wanted to come, I'd like you there" I tell him.

"Of course I would love to be there" his face softens, and he scrubs one hand down his face tiredly "Christina, we should talk"

I nod "I spoke to Amelia and I'd like it if we could speak; the three of us, about the kids and how often her baby will be with us when it's born. But i would like it if we could talk about us first?" I ask hopefully. As unhappy as I was about Amelia and her baby, I knew Owen and Amelia weren't any happier. It needed to be talked through.

"I would love that" Owen says, seemingly surprised "I'm glad you and Amelia are civil enough to sit down and talk about our kids"

I nodded, and put a hand to my stomach that held two little tiny babies.

"There's something else I need to tell you"

Owens face fell; he looked like he was expecting the worst news possible. I didn't know how he'd react, but I figured he'd be happy. Five years ago all he wanted was kids, and now he was about to have four.

"Is the baby okay?" He asked seriously. "We had some scares early on with Scarlet, I don't want this pregnancy to be like that again. I just about lost ten years off my life that day you fainted and hit your head" he recalls the day early on in my pregnancy, I was maybe eleven or twelve weeks along, when I fainted. Scarlet was ok, I just had low blood sugars.

"Everything is perfect" I assure him "but in LA, Addison did my first ultrasound and..." I handed him the small picture I'd been hoarding in my pockets since the appointment.

Slowly, I watched as his face broke out into a huge grin; bigger than any grin I'd ever seen. He was GLOWING.

"Twins?" He asked, laughing happily "we're having two more babies?" Then, with an excited hoot, he picked me up and spun me around and around until I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

"There's two babies in there" he touched my stomach in awe "two little tiny babies" he was beside himself with happiness.

"Yeah" I nuzzle into his chest and breathe in his scent; one I missed dearly. "There's two babies"

Owen kissed my forehead soundly and wrapped his arms around me protectively.

"We'll be okay, Christina. You, me, Scarlet and those little babies. We're all gonna be okay"

~

"Weekends when the baby turns a year old"

"I think we should trade off every week"

"What will we do before she's a year old then?"

"Weekends and visits?"

"Why can't we start the week changes earlier?"

"I'll be breast feeding, I can't pump enough for a week"

Owen, Amelia and I were trying to come up with a schedule for when Amelia's baby was born. There were all kinds of factors to consider, like the idea that when I give birth there will be two extra babies plus Scarlet and Amelia's baby. It was hard to find a system that worked.

"I say weekends until the kid is six months, then you do every other day. Amelia can pump enough for one day at a time, then start doing weekly trade offs when the kids a year old" I try to work around Amelia's plans to breast feed, the idea of three newborns around my house and my child.

"That sounds doable" Amelia nods "now for holidays, I want Christmas Eve and Christmas Day morning. You can take Christmas Day afternoon and New Years. My Mom has all her grandkids out on Christmas and I don't want to miss out on that" Amelia explains.

Owen nods "We can manage with that. In return, I want Easter Sunday. My Mom is getting excited at the idea of planning egg hunts for more than just one kid"

"You can have Halloween too; it'll be easier to take all four kids at once"

"And you can have the Fourth of July to visit your sisters for barbecues" Owen compromised. This negotiation was going smoother than anyone expected.

"Christina? Anything to add?" Amelia asked "I know you're not a biological parent but I think you should add in if you have anything to say"

I think for a moment, then two, before deciding.

"The first day of school; every year we get him or her the night before so I can take pictures with my three and yours. You can come pick him or her up and drop them off at the same time we go with ours" school was always very important to me; I was excited for Scarlet to be starting kindergarten soon. Technically she could've started this past September but considering she's a December baby we wanted to wait until she was five.

Or Owen did. I wanted to watch her go and learn and kick some ass. But Owen and his sentimental self said one more year with us, then we'd send her to school. I reluctantly agreed.

Amelia nodded with a smile and jotted it down on the page she was using to make note of everything.

"Well I think that's everything" Owen smiled.

I smiled back, but somehow I still felt weird about the whole situation. Having some sense of order made it easier, but I still didn't know how to navigate my feelings.

I still didn't know how I could possibly love Owen.