Choni one shots

128: The One With 3 Kids: pt 2

TONI POV:

"You ok?" I ask Cheryl quietly. "Yeah." I look at her. "You've been washing that dish for a 10 minutes." I look down. "It's spotless." She whispers. I put it on the drying rack. "Did you sleep last night?" She ask quietly. I turn off the faucet. "Yeah." I lie. "Toni?" She pushes. "I'm gonna ask you again. Did you sleep last night." The kids are 3 years old now, I get up every hour to make sure they are ok. "Yes! I just wake up every hour to make sure they are still alive, but I'm not staying up all night." I whisper. "Mommy!" Leah yells running in. I pick her up. "Hey sweetheart." I kiss her cheek. "How was aunt Betty's?" I ask smiling. "G-g-good. Jason was being a-annoying. A-and and Maya just slept the- the e-enti-ire time." The rest of our kids walk in along with Betty. "Thanks for picking them up from preschool." Cheryl whispers. "It's no problem! It was kinda weird because they are all in different classes and I had to hunt them down. But it was fine." I put Leah down and they all go into the living room. "Is Maya feeling ok?" Cheryl ask quietly. "I don't know, I think she was just tired she said they had a field trip." Cheryl and I nod. "That would be why she tired." Cheryl whispers. "I was told to give you guys this by Leah's teacher." Betty hands me the envelope. I open it and try to focus on the words but everything is blurry. "You know if you slept you would be able to read it." I look at my wife. "I did sleep last night! Barely, but I did." I insist. "Give the note to me." She takes it from me. "Do you guys ever stop bickering?" Betty ask quietly. "Yes! You just come here when we're at each other's throats." I tell her. "You're also working off or 24 hours of no sleep!" I take a deep breath. "What is the letter about?" I ask quietly. "They want us to come in because want to start speech therapy with her." I sigh quietly. "She's 3!" I insist. "She has a stutter!" Cheryl bites back. "I'm gonna keep the kids occupied, so they don't have to see mommy dead on the floor." Betty whispers before walking out. "Cheryl-." She stops me. "We're not letting her stutter get worse than it is." She says. "No, your nose is bleeding." I motion towards my noise. "Shit!" She grabs a paper towel. I help her. Once we get her noise cleaned up I look at her. "What?" She smiles. "I'm really sorry." I whisper. "I haven't been the best wife, I'm trying though. It's just hard when you're mother is a complete Lunatic and keeps trying to ruin your life." I whisper. "It could be worse though." I look up at her. "A week ago my mother sent me a voicemail that she was gonna murder me in my sleep. Luckily I have a lawyer and she's back in jail." I whisper. "Ok you're right it's bad." She whispers. I smile. "She's in jail she can't hurt us." Cheryl moves hair out of my face. "I love you."

I knock on the door. Veronica opens the door. "What?" She ask quietly. "I ahh... I came- I came here to pick up some of Jess's stuff." I whisper. "You got what you took." She almost slams the door in my face but I stop her. "Her beenkie!" I say. She stops resisting. "I want to give it to my daughter." She opens the door. "Daughter?" She looks at me. "I remarried. I've been with Cheryl for a few years now. You should remember her from high school. We had triplets." I say quietly. "O-oh." She looks down. "Come in." She whispers. I walk into the house. "Wine?" She ask. "Oh no! I-I don't drink anymore. When Cheryl was trying to get pregnant we both stopped and neither of us really went back to it." I say quietly. "Coffee?" She ask. "No, if I drink coffee I'll be up at all night. I already do that without coffee." I say awkwardly. "Your mother?" She ask. I nod. "Tea?" I shake my head. "I hate tea." I smile awkwardly. "Please say you drink water?" I nod. "Yeah." I smile. "Sit." I sit down on the couch. "So you and Cheryl!" She walks into kitchen. "Yeah!" I rub my knees awkwardly. "How's that going?" She ask walking back in. "We have are ups and downs. My anxiety and PTSD from the army and my mother and and us it doesn't make my marriage easy, but we- we make it ahh... we make it work." I explain. She hands me the glass of water. "Thank you." She sits in front of me. "What about you?" I ask nervously. "How- how are you doing?" I drink my water. "Good! I haven't really been serious with anyone. Not since the last time we talked. But I've been working on fixing the my family's name in this town." She whispers. "Cool. I've notice there hasn't been as many articles ripping the Lodges apart."

"Where were you?" Cheryl ask quietly. I take my helmet and jacket off and put them on the kitchen table. "I went to go pick something up..." Cheryl looks at me. "From my Ex-wife." I say awkwardly. "I needed to pick up a thing for Leah." I whisper. I sit down. I take a off my boots. "Why can't you put those with the rest of the shoes?" She ask quietly. "Because they are a pain in the ass to take off." I groan. "Oh that feels good." I sit back. "What did you pick up?" She smiles. "Oh!" I pull out Jess's beenkie of my bag. "I thought Leah would like it because it has stars on it." I smile. "I also picked up a few of the her stuffed animals for Jason and Maya. I'll need to clean them a bit. Jess had a habit of drooling the Mississippi River every night." I joke. "How old was she?" Cheryl ask quietly. "She was about to turn 10. She kept all of this stuff because she didn't want to let go of her parents." I whisper. "I'm gonna go wash these." I get up awkwardly. "Put you're boots away! I think feel like I'm taking care of 4 kids with you!" I pick my boots up and walk out. "Sorry!" I yell.

"Why Veronica?" Cheryl asl quietly. "Ah yes! We're having a date night bath and you bring my ex-wife. That makes sense." I say slightly sarcastically. She smiles. "You're obviously over her so I figured we should talk about it." She rubs my arm. "We went off to college, you were engaged to Reggie and I thought you moved on." I whisper sadly. "Veronica and I we were at the same college, we hooked up at a party and we both liked each other... so we decided to date and the rest you know." She smiles. "I was never engaged to Reggie." She laughs quietly. "Yeah you were!" Cheryl shakes her head. "No! I never even dated him." I take a deep breath. "You didn't?" She nods. "Did hook up with him at that party." She whispers. "I don't recommend him." We both laugh quietly. "He plays football, that's disgusting." She whispers. "But Basketball is hot." I say. "Yes, a basketball getting smashed into your face and getting a bloody nose, is so so hot. I was almost burned alive on how it was." She smiles. I pull her into a kiss. "I love you." I whisper. "I love you too." She smiles. "Do you want to have another kid?" She ask quietly. "Do you really want to hear my answer?" I ask quietly. "Yeah." She nods. I shake my head. "We have 3 children. I can't do another one. Not yet at least." I whisper. "My window is closing Toni!" She whispers. "We have 3 kids! We can always foster to adopt in the future! Give a kid the childhood we didn't get." I whisper. "Toni we can't foster." She whispers. I look at her confused than I realize. "You're DUI." I whisper. "That was in high school though." She shrugs. "I don't want any more children right now!" She nods. "You're right." She whispers. "We should hold off." I whisper. The door opens. "Mommy?" I look at Jason. "Hey! Where's Betty?" I ask quietly. "She's with Leah." He whispers. "Go bothering her." He walks out and Cheryl closes the door behind him. I take a deep breath. "Point made." Cheryl smiles. "Thank you." I kiss her hand. "We have weird kids."