February Night

Chapter 99

"Look what JJ gave me at work today." Spencer came into the living room, a smile on his lips and a little book in his hands. Lucy looked up. She had been laying on the floor together with Mateo and Tessa, to play with them.

"What is it?" Curiously, Lucy got up from the ground and then put the twins into the playpen that was standing in the living room since a few months. Tessa and Mateo had started to crawl when they were almost nine months old – this had been about two weeks ago. And now Lucy and Spencer had to keep an eye on them since they became quicker and quicker.

"It's the bedtime story she has told Michael and Henry and sometimes still does", Spencer said and the couple sat down on the couch. Little Baby Star. Lucy smiled and grabbed the book. She started to read:

Once there was a baby star.

He lived up near the sun.

And every night at bedtime that baby star wanted to have fun.

He would shine and shine, and fall and shoot and twinkle oh so bright.

And he said, "Mommy, I'll run away if you make me say good-night."

And then his mommy kissed his sparkly nose and said, "No matter where you go, no matter where you are, no matter how big you grow and even if you stray far, I'll love you forever, because you're always my baby star."

Lucy closed the book and smiled at Spencer before she leaned in and kissed him. "I can't wait to tell that story to Mateo and Tessa."

"Me too. I've already loved it when JJ used to tell it to her sons", Spencer said. "She thought we'd love it too and that our kids will love it as much as Henry and Michael."

Chuckling, Lucy leaned against Spencer's shoulder. "I'm sure they will." They both looked at their kids that were happily babbling and putting toothed rings into their mouths. Oh yes, the teeth. Lucy and Spencer already had some experience with this by now. It had been exhausting and often enough Lucy had been desperate when she hadn't been able to calm down her twins as their mouths were hurting due to getting teeth. And it wasn't over at all so far. Just in that moment, Tessa started to cry. Lucy went to pick her up.

"Shhh, what's the matter, sweetheart? Are your teeth hurting?", she cooed, rocking the baby in her arms. She searched for the pacifier to give it to Tessa. And there, the baby started to calm down again. Just in that moment, the doorbell rang. Spencer got up to open while Lucy sat down on the couch, Tessa still in her arms.

"Heyyyy! Where's my goddaughter?" Penelope. Lucy chuckled and a moment later, Penelope had come into the living room and rushed over to kiss Lucy's cheek and then take Tessa out of her arms. "Awww, she grew again!" The blonde covered Tessa's little, chubby face with kisses and the baby giggled.

"Well, they grow literally every day", Lucy smiled and watched her friend interact with Tessa. Mateo, still laying in the playpen, seemed to feel neglected right now and started to scream from the top of his little lungs. This time, it was Spencer who took him into his arms, quietly talking to him so he would calm down again.

"Hello?" Luke's voice sounded from the corridor and everyone was surprised to see him standing in the apartment. "I'm sorry but I rang the doorbell and no one opened", he apologized.

"Oh, might be because of Mateo. He was crying quite loudly", Spencer said with a little smile. He was still rocking his son in his arms. Smiling, Luke came over and took the baby from Spencer. "You both look tired as hell", he noticed before he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss on Mateo's forehead.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Thanks for telling us. It's not as if we didn't know already." She tried to hold back a yawn. Luke just grinned widely and then put his attention back at his nephew. Lucy leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes for a moment. She was glad that Penelope and Luke were here right now. She and Spencer could need a little break. They had known before that it would be exhausting and hard with twins – it was already exhausting with just one baby. But two were really something else.

"Does anyone want a coffee?", Spencer asked, already on his way to the kitchen. Lucy, Luke and Penelope said yes. Coffee was their elixir of life, literally.

"Do you actually plan on giving those cutie pies to someone for babysitting anytime soon?", Penelope asked, still mesmerized by Tessa. The baby was giggling and babbling and Penelope was just in awe. Lucy watched her and a chuckle left her mouth.

"We will, of course. But not anytime soon yet I guess. They're still so little...no matter how exhausting it can get with them and how tired I am, I can't imagine not being with them even one day", she explained to her friend. Penelope looked up, a smile on her lips.

"I totally understand you. They're just too precious, I wouldn't want to be separated from them as well if I were you", she said and covered Tessa's cheeks with new kisses. Lucy was glad her friend wasn't wearing any lipstick for once or Tessa's face would be covered in some red one by now.

"Alright, here's the coffee", Spencer said, putting four cups full of the steaming beverage on the coffee table.

"Thank you", Lucy said and took one of the cups. But well, after three sips, suddenly the twins started to cry. "Ah, they're hungry", Lucy murmured and got up to prepare the baby bottles.

"How do you know that they're hungry?", Luke curiously asked. Lucy smirked while she put some milk powder into both bottles. Her brother had followed her with Mateo on his arms, rocking him and trying to calm him down.

"I'm not sure, but I guess you just get a feeling for this. Every cry is different, you know. And this one is the one that tells me they're hungry", she tried to explain. Yes, she could say that she had learned to hear and interpret Mateo's and Tessa's different cries. But it had been hard at the beginning. Oh, how many times had Lucy been desperate because she couldn't find out what their babies wanted or needed when they cried and screamed their little lungs out.

With the two bottles, Lucy went back to the living room and gave one to Penelope and one to Luke. They could feed the twins now and they did it with pleasure. Lucy smiled as she watched them doing that job. She could see that her brother and her friend loved the twins as much as she and Spencer did. And it warmed her heart, seeing this. "Where's Spencer?"

"Oh, he just received a phone call and went to another room", Penelope said without looking up from Tessa's cute face.

The babies were finished drinking and Spencer was still gone. It had been almost half an hour now. Lucy decided to go and check on her husband. She knocked at the bedroom door and then slowly walked in although she hadn't gotten an answer. Unexpectedly, Lucy found her husband sitting on the edge of the bed, his face buried in his hands, the cell phone laying on the mattress next to him. "Spencer?" He didn't react. With her heart now pounding nervously in her chest, Lucy went over and sat down next to him. It was only now that she realized he was crying. "Spencer, what happened? Come on, talk to me!" She started to get worried and needed an answer from him.

He finally looked up. His eyes were red and puffy. Never had Lucy seen Spencer like this. "My...my mom...", Spencer started with a raspy and shaky voice, "She...she's...dead."