Mal and Ben ~ Parenthood

A new day

Lily seemed to be fighting of her fever alright, and was already much better the next day. Ben tried his best to make the visit as short as possible, because he still was a bit worried about her.

But after Mal had started joining the meetings, because Lily got way to restless just staying in the room all day, everyone adored her.

Mal was very well aware that she was a really cute kid, so it didn't come as any shock to her.

Lily sometimes could be a bit shy with strangers, but right now she seemed to like the attention. Probably because Mal had kept her away from anyone for a few days.

Poor Ben. Every time it seemed as he had finally come to a conclusion, someone would say something that would mess it all up completely. Mal kept smiling at him every time she could see his temper getting risky. But as it had been going on for an hour, she found that wouldn't be enough anymore, and decided to place Lily, who until now had been sitting with her, on his lap.

As soon as she did, she started to play with the pen Ben had used to take notes with.

Mal could clearly see that her little plan had worked, as he again started breathing calmly.
"As I was saying," he started, "I know this is a very difficult thing to solve, but you all have to be open to suggestions. I may be the king, but I don't have a million answers to everything. So you need to be very clear to me, about what exactly it is that you want me to do."

After he had said that, silence filled the room.

-

They had decided to continue the talk the next day, so that all of them would have something to say, and Ben would have time to come up with some more suggestions.

Right now he was standing with Lily in his arms, having a little conversation with her, in what she was able to say. Mal stayed away a bit, not wanting to disturb their quiet moment.

She was looking at them from a distance, when someone broke the peaceful silence.

"Mal?" someone asked.

She turned around to see who it was, and saw that it was no one she knew, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just wanted to know if you are okay," he asked, which confused Mal a bit.

"Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"

"It's just we didn't see you the first couple of days, and I can't help but notice that your not with your family right now."

"Oh," Mal said, realizing what he meant, "Ben and I are fine. Our daughter has just been a bit sick, and I wanted her to relax, without dealing with too many people. So don't worry, we are fine." To prove her point and avoid further conversation, she went to Ben and Lily, and kissed both of them on the cheek.

-

Finally the next day they managed to get to an agreement, which meant they could be returning home. They decided to leave as soon as they could, not really feeling like staying there any longer.

The way home was easy, and Lily feel asleep half way through, because it was getting towards her bed time anyways.

They returned home a bit late, and decided to just go to bed, so they could enjoy not having to deal with fighting people tomorrow.

But for some reason Mal couldn't fall asleep.
She couldn't help but think about that man who had thought something was wrong. Why would he assume that? It wasn't like they were acting weird in public. Did the people really just wait for something to go wrong between them? Did they not believe they were able to raise a child together in such a young age? But maybe it didn't mean anything. In reality Mal couldn't care less what the people thought, if they were going to judge her by how she was living her life. She was happy, happier than she had ever been.

-

Some days later they were going to visit Evie. They hadn't seen her in some time now, because a lot of things had been going on. And now Evie had said that she missed them.

Lily was super excited. She loved Evie a lot, and always had a really good time when they were together.

As soon as they stepped through the door and Lily saw Evie, she got out of Mal's arms and ran to give her a hug, as Evie picked her up.

"It so good to see you," Evie told her, "I missed you a lot. How are you guys doing?" She then asked Mal and Ben.

"Great," Mal replied, "Happy to be home from that trip. They were honestly the most impossible people in the world."

Evie laughed at that, while still mostly having her eyes on Lily, "Doesn't surprise me. How did Lily take it?"

"Besides from being a bit sick, she loved it."

Evie then looked a bit worried, she really sometimes acted as if Lily was her child, "Is she okay now."

"Yes, it wasn't anything too serious, she's all better now, right baby?" Mal asked her.

She nodded excitedly, which looked really cute.

Evie had moved in with Doug some time ago, and they were greeted by him when they walked further inside.

"Hi, how are you?" He asked.

-

They had a really nice day. Mal couldn't help but feel a bit bad for Evie that she had been the one to get a child first.

She knew that she enjoyed being with Lily, but Mal still couldn't help but wish she would soon have one too, because she knew she wanted to.

"So are you guys ready to have a child yet?" She found herself asking, regretting every word.

Evie looked a bit surprised by the question, but then she answered, "I would love to, but maybe we'll wait a bit longer, I don't know. But I promise you it will happen at some point."

Mal thought it could be great if they had kids around the same age, especially because she didn't often leave Lily's side, and it would be a good opportunity for her to have someone on her age to play with, without Mal having to sent her to daycare or something.

Of course she did meet kids at her age. She had some friends they saw some times, but this would still be great.

Not wanting to push Evie any further, she kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.

They returned home just before dinner, and met with Ben's parents to eat.

Lily had a lot of energy from having so much fun all day, and made a big mess. So after diner Ben went to their room with her, while Mal stayed behind with his parents to clean up a bit.

They talked a bit about everything while they did so, but after they were finished Mal went back to Ben and Lily, to put her to bed and end the day.