Random One Shot Emison Stories

Double Trouble

Alison was tired. No, not just tired she was exhausted to be exact.

It wasn't always easy. Actually, it was almost never easy but this week has been the worst.

She got used to the looks they attracted. Her and her wife. The judging stares by strangers, the whispers at the store when she and Emily went through the baby section, picking up a new pack of diapers with two identical looking toddlers waddling after them.

Today however was different though. Emily wasn't with her and she wore a tired expression on her face as she walked through the Target.

Sleep was a luxury with a pair of two year old twins and the bags under Alison's eyes were evidence of that.

"M-mommy!" Grace cried.

"What is it, Gracie?" Alison squatted down in front of the wailing toddler. She wiped the tiredness off her face and put on a smile instead, drying the tears off Grace's pudgy cheeks with her thumb.

Grace pointer her finger in a direction, waving it around wildly, trying to communicate what caused her such distress without actually being able to form a lot of words.

I mean... She did just start talking. She is only two.

"Illy," Grace said, "Illy." She pouted again.

Immediately, Alison's stomach sank. Lilly. Grace was trying to say her sister's name and that was when Ali realized she was nowhere to be seen. She had just turned her back to the twins for five seconds to reach for the diapers on the top-shelf, and now she was gone.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, where is she? Lilly?!" Alison scooped the remaining twin up into her arms and looked around frantically, but Lilly wasn't in the aisle with them. Alison was sure both twins where still with her when they entered it – but two year olds could be incredibly fast if they wanted to. And Lilly usually only wanted to, when she could slip from Alison's view somehow.

Okay. She needed to calm down. If she panicked now, she'd just make Grace cry even more. Lilly couldn't be that far away, could she? He was after all still a toddler with very short legs. Very, very short legs. The twins were small, even for their age.

Lilly wasn't in the aisles near them either, but there was one more spot Alison had to check. They usually went to the same store for all their shopping needs, so even though they didn't normally let the twins walk around the shop. They knew their way around, especially Lilly.

Lilly was a clever child. She started to walk when she was only one year old, whereas her sister needed another six months before she started her first tries. Lilly was better at talking too but her social skills on the other hand were far behind those of her sisters. While Grace already learned to share when asked to Lilly would start screaming and crying and refused to give up anything she considered hers. Where Grace showed first signs of empathy, Lilly still focused on herself and her own needs. The pediatrician assured Alison and Emily it was completely normal for children, even identical twins to develop in different stages and paces, but sometimes she couldn't help but worry about Lilly just a little bit more.

Just like now, when Alison was power-walking through a Target at three in the afternoon, navigating through the mass of customers with a toddler on her arm. Their shopping cart abandoned in the baby aisle. She could hear Lilly before she could see her.

"No!" Lilly shouted and Alison's heart skipped a beat. Her legs carrying her faster as if in reflex.

"No! Let go!"

Alison all but skidded into the candy aisle. Grace shrieked, holding onto Alison and immediately bursting into tears again while Lilly struggled against an older lady and a young employee, kicking and hitting and screaming as if they were burning her. When in reality they just tried to hold onto her so she wouldn't run off.