Chapter 53: We are Family

   Alder whistled a tune as he drove through downtown Sun River, and then out towards the city limits, the suburbs of Sun River, where their new house was located.

  

   To Alder's surprise, Lia had actually been excited about moving.  She had hated New City and couldn't wait to leave it.  Since she had taken that little bit of news so well, he had then told her about Dora and the baby.  She had opened her mouth, but Monty intervened with some throat clearing and pointed looks.  After a brief stare down between the two, Lia held her tongue and didn't have much to say about him signing away his parental rights.  Alder hadn't known what Monty did exactly that made Lia back off, but he had been grateful for it.  He hadn't been in the mood to be lectured again.

  The first lecture had been because he hadn't intended on bringing Spring or Ryder with them to Sun River.  Spring had assured him they had a place to go to.  Alder had looked at it as an excellent way to get out of an awkward situation.  He didn't want to get used to them being around, nor did he want Spring getting any ideas.

  Lia had then promptly called him an idiot, among a few other choice names.  She had told him of course Spring would say that, Spring had her pride too, and only an idiot would believe her.  Alder had given Lia all his reasons, they were good ones, he had thought, but Lia had shot every one of them down.  Finally he had just given up, the argument was pointless, and he was secretly glad they were coming with anyway. 

  He had found it amusing though to watch Spring flounder as she tried to argue with Lia.  Spring had tried the same arguments that Alder had, but Lia would have none of it.  She had ended the whole thing by telling Spring, "We are family now, and family sticks together."  So in the end, Lia had gotten her way, and Spring and Ryder had made the move with them.

    Alder pulled up in front of the house that would be their new home, he hoped for quite a while.  Moving was a pain.  They all got out of the vehicle and got their first glimpse of it.  He breathed a silent sigh of relief at Lia's first response. 

 

  "I like it here Alder, much better than that nasty old city we were in."

  "Well, as long as you're happy Lia."  Alder said, with a hint of sarcasm.  Sarcasm usually went over her head though, and this time was no exception.

  Lia nodded.  "That's right.  And so far I am happy."  Alder's eyes met Monty's, and Monty just grinned at him.

  They settled into Sun River, and their new home rather quickly.  Lia happily planted a few herbs and vegetables in the large backyard.  "Mama always said fresh is better." she would tell anyone who would listen.

 

  It wasn't too long after the big move, when Spring started showing again.

 Lia had a bunch to say to her brother about it, but one look at Claudio, and she kept her mouth shut.  She still remembered the long discussion they had over her putting her nose into Alder's business.  Discussion, because they never fought, they only had loud discussions.  Claudio had actually won that loud discussion.

  She sighed.  It was just so hard though.  She could make better choices for Alder than what Alder was making for himself.  The only thing that was making it easier on her, is she had her own suspicions that she was pregnant as well.  She didn't have time to fuss over Alder and his choices, she had a whole other person to plan for.

 

  Alder cautiously opened the front door and peeked in, was it safe?  With two pregnant hormonal women in the house these past months, he never knew what he was walking into.  Paradise or Hades.  "Alder, if you're thinking of escaping you'd better think again."  Alder groaned.  Lia.  He was busted, not that he would admit to it.

  "I was just on my way up to spend some time with Ryder." he lied.

  "Like I believe that one!" Lia hollered at his quickly retreating back.

   Alder flew into his son's room, and quickly shut the door behind him.  He turned around to find Ryder looking at him.

 

    "Now, don't look at me like that little Dude."  Alder smiled as he hefted Ryder up into his arms.  "You're lucky, you're still a little boy, so you only get the happy side of Mommy and Auntie Lia.  Daddy on the other hand, is not so lucky!"  He tickled Ryder and Ryder laughed and laughed.

  "'gin Daddy!  Gin!"

  "You want the Tickle Monster to get you again, do you!  Aaaah!"  Alder made his hand into a Tickle Monster puppet, and Ryder squealed with glee.

 

  "Mo Daddy!  Mo!"

 

   "Okay little Dude, no more Tickle Monster until you use the potty.  Daddy doesn't like stinky diapers, remember?"

  "'tinky!  'tinky!"

 

    Alder ruffled his son's hair.  "Yeah, no stinky stinky in the diaper.  Big boys use the potty."  Alder smiled at his son.  Alder had once thought that nothing could replace his affections for his music, but looking at Ryder, he knew something had.  Rather someone had.  While he grumbled about hormone driven pregnant women, he could hardly wait until Spring had their second child.  Now that he knew more of what being a parent was like, he was excited about this next one.


  Lia climbed up the stairs, and was about to get ready for bed.  "Hey there little one." She spoke softly to her unborn child.  She patted her tummy.  "Last night you didn't let me sleep.  How about letting me sleep tonight, okay?" 

 

  She looked up to watch her husband pacing back and forth while talking on the phone.  He spoke in a harsh whispers, Lia was having a hard time eavesdropping on his conversation.  Really, Claudio should speak louder!   It was rather inconsiderate of him to speak in such low tones.

  "Antonio..."  Claudio started to say, then paused while he listened to what his brother had to say.

 
   "There's no need to put us under surveillance! Don't be..."  Claudio frowned, as he looked out the window.  Antonio kept interrupting him, and talking over him.  What Claudio really wanted to do was hang up on Antonio, but that wouldn't solve anything.  "Antonio," he tried again, "Stick to our deal.  You leave me and the Kahekili family alone, and in return, those unfortunate documents, that are in my possession, that paint you and our father in a very bad light, won't see the light of day.  Come within a hundred yards of my family, and I swear you'll regret it." 

  Claudio hung up the phone, and turned around to see his wife watching him curiously.  "Who were you talking to?"

  "No one important."  He kissed her lightly on the lips.  What he said was true, Antonio was a part of his past, not important to him anymore.  Now if he could just get Antonio to stop calling him and interfering in his life.  Antonio claimed that he was in the middle of a turf war with another family, and that he was simply putting Claudio under surveillance for his own protection.  Claudio didn't believe him.  Antonio couldn't care less about his little brother, so something else was going on.


  The pain was pretty intense.  Funny how you forget that, Spring mused to herself.  She had been in labor with Ryder for hours, so she knew she had a long night ahead of her with this second one.  She eyed the bar.  Maybe one little drink wouldn't hurt.  It might even help her relax a little. 

 

     That was one of the benefits of having been a mixologist.  She knew hundreds of different types of drinks.  This occasion called for a special drink though.  She couldn't decide between Woohoo on the Beach, which indirectly had led to this second child, or Big Mistake, because sometimes she really felt she had made a big mistake in moving here.

  She so badly had wanted to be part of a family, and while it had thrilled her to hear Lia say she was part of theirs, Alder never said the words.  She wanted to hear those words from him.  Followed by will you marry me.  She laughed at herself, then a moan slipped out as another contraction hit her.  She downed another drink.

 

    The contractions were getting closer and closer.  Spring frowned, hiccuped, and then giggled.  This baby was in a bigger hurry to get here than his brother Ryder had been.  The next contraction had her howling though.

 

  Son of a baby monkey!  That one really hurt!  The end result was worth it though, when she held her newborn son in her arms, the pain a thing of the past.  "Hello Niall."

 

    The next afternoon found Alder in a slight panic.  "Lia!"  Alder hollered..  "Lia!  Help!  She's found me!"

  Lia rolled her eyes.  "Alder, stop being ridiculous.  Of course our mother is here, her only grandchildren are here.  You know how she feels about babies!"   Alder moaned, while Lia shook her head at him. "Frankly I'm surprised it took her this long to visit us, and I told her so last time we talked on the phone."  Lia turned and headed for the front door.

 

  "I don't know how she does it, but she makes me feel like I'm six years old again with her heavy sighs, and her eagle eyes and..., what did you say?  It's your fault she's here!  Awww, Lia!  You know how she is with me."

  "I think it's adorable."  Lia said over her shoulder.  "She worries about you."

  "She just wants me to get married and have lots of babies!  She talks of nothing else!  It drives me batty!  I sure hope she isn't staying here."  Alder said worriedly.  He loved his mother, he truly did, but she just didn't understand that he didn't want the same things that she did.

  "Relax, Alder, she's not staying here."

  "Thank goodness!"  That was a happy thought.  His mother really put a crimp in his dating style, so he was glad she wasn't staying with them for this visit.  She liked to interview his dates to see if they had potential as future brides.  Really it was quite embarrassing to him.  She very nearly had them open their mouths so she could check their teeth!

  "Daddy and her have decided to move here, to be closer to us, so they already bought a house and everything.  Isn't that great?"  Alder stopped in his tracks and froze as Lia threw open the front door.  "Daddy!  Mama!"  After Lia got her hugs, she led them into the house.

      "Alder!  I am so pleased that you given me two grandbabies, but I still need a daughter in law!  It was supposed to be marriage first, Alder.  We'll have to work on that.  Where is the mother of your two boys?  Her name is Spring correct?  I think a lovely spring wedding would be perfect!  After I have seen my grandsons, I should like to meet her, this Spring."

  Lia took pity on her brother, and answered his silent plea for help.  "Mama, I can feel the baby moving.  Do you want to feel?"  Which effectively drew Elly's attention to her daughter.

  Alder quickly made his escape.  "Would you like a tour of the house Dad?"

  Reilly chuckled, "Yes, I do believe I would like a tour."

 
  Spring found Claudio upstairs in his bedroom.  She paused a moment, to consider her plan, and whether or not she wanted to follow through with it.  Then she pushed the door open.  Alder wasn't the only one who could sleep with other people.  She lifted her chin up.  She had been told by plenty of other men that she was pretty.  She needed to feel pretty again.  Alder only paid attention to their boys, and not her.  She was jealous of her own children.  It was time for a little payback.

  She tried to surprise Claudio, but her balance wasn't quite right after those few Big Mistakes she had made for herself.  She wobbled too much, and made too much noise.  "Claudio!" she said brightly.

  He frowned at her.  "What are you doing in here?"

  Spring moved in closer to him, and smiled.  She ran one finger down his bare chest.  "Well, I was thinking..."  Before she could finish that thought, she found herself thrust far away from him.

  "What in the hell do you think you are doing?" he asked harshly.  "Obviously you're not using your brain, because that was a pretty brainless thing you just did!  You need to figure out your relationship with Alder, and leave me out of it.  Sober up Spring, and don't let this happen again!  I won't tell Lia this time, because it would kill her, she actually likes you!"

 

  Spring hung her head, and whispered, "Sorry."  She felt so humiliated, what had seemed like a good idea, wasn't.  She hadn't even been thinking of Lia, who had befriended her, at all.  She had only been thinking of herself.  She ran out of the room.

  Claudio tracked his wife down.  She was standing in the kitchen with her parents, her eyes alight with excitement as she and her mother discussed the benefits of different herbs.  Her father just nodded his head every once in while, a slight smile on his lips.   Claudio watched her for several minutes, waiting for a break in the conversation.  He had never seen anyone as beautiful as his wife, she just glowed.   Once the conversation died down, Claudio pulled his wife into his arms and kissed her passionately.

  After the kiss ended, Lia smiled at Claudio.  "What was that for?"

 

  "I love you Lia."  Monty said.  He had married the most amazing woman.  He was so blessed.  He felt sorry for Spring, and he sincerely hoped that she could get things straightened out with Alder.

  Lia snuggled closer to Claudio.  "Hmmm, I  love you too." 




  Several hours later Lia went into labor.  Her labor was much shorter than Spring's, for within twenty minutes she gave birth to a daughter, Alyssa.

 

  Reilly was already smitten.

 

  He loved being a Grandpa, and he was glad that he and Elly had decided to move to Sun River to be closer to their grandchildren.

 

    Reilly was not the only one smitten.  Claudio adored his daughter, and spent countless hours with her.

  "Claudio!"  Lia said exasperated.  "I do wish you wouldn't toss her about and get her stomach upset right before I have to feed her!"

 

  "Ooops, sorry Love."  Claudio said, chagrined.

  Claudio was not the only involved father.  Alder was really enjoying being a parent, he found great joy in teaching Ryder new things.  Like how to walk.

  He couldn't wait until Ryder got older, there was so much he wanted to teach his son!   Thankfully he didn't have too long to wait.

  A couple days later it was Ryder's, Niall's, and Alyssa's birthday.

  Ryder, being the oldest, went first.

 

 
  Followed by his little brother Niall.

 

    And Alyssa.

 

  Alder was a bit preoccupied though, and missed out on the cake and ice cream.  An old friend from his University days had shown up on his doorstep, she said she really needed to talk to him.  So he let her in, where they stared at each other for several moments.  Then she launched into his favorite kind of talk, and she ended up staying.

 

 
  It made for some awkward moments, especially for Spring, who pretended that she didn't care that one of his old lovers had shown up unexpectedly.   Spring was unhappy to hear that woman was staying for a couple days, at Alder's request.  In fact, Spring was downright ticked at Alder, and could have happily, cheerfully even, strangled him.  She wished she didn't love him so much, she wished that she could just move on, but she seemed to have this masochistic desire to stay with him, no matter how much it hurt. 

  What was her other choice?  To end things between them?  To move out, and never be a part of his life?  And what of her boys?  She just couldn't let go of her dream yet, she couldn't let go of him yet.  But she was darned if that woman was going to sleep in her bed!

   

  Alder didn't get what the big deal was.  There was plenty of him to go around.  Sheesh, women.

 

   The next few days passed by quickly, Alder showed Esther around Sun River.  He had been happy to see her, but he couldn't deny that he was happy she was leaving soon.  Things had been tense between him and Spring, and he found he didn't like the tension between them.  She was mad at him for some reason, Alder couldn't figure out why, but he knew that after a few days of charming her, she would forget all about whatever it was that had made her so upset.

  Alder wasn't a cook by any means, but he could make a pretty mean salad.  After dinner he was dropping Esther off at the train station.  Though, now that he looked at her, she looked a little green like the salad she had just eaten.  He sure hoped he wasn't sending her home with food poisoning!!?

 

  It was funny though, Alder mused to himself.  Esther never did tell him why she had needed to talk to him in the first place.  Unless she had just wanted to see him again?

____________________________________________________________________

  Notes:  In case you all are wondering, Lia has the insane trait.  So sometimes her clothes don't match up to the occasion.  She prefers sleeping in her swimsuit, for example. lol  The nice thing about insane sims, is I actually get to see the wardrobe I spend hours putting together but rarely use! =)

  Birthdays and age---I had some sort of an aging glitch, which was quite irksome.  I almost lost Reilly to a premature death, talk about your heart attacks.  How funny too, because he is not real, lol  But I literally pulled him from the jaws of death.  I invited Reilly and Elly over from MV, when he arrived he was OLD!  Reilly was still not quite half way through his adult stage when I left him in MV.  Kit still wasn't old.  So I added Reilly and Elly to a local household, so that I could fix Reilly's age.  I made him an adult again, and adjusted his age using MC.  I figured he should still have a few days left of adulthood.  10 minutes after I did that, SP gave me a notice that he died of old age.

  I went into a panic, and actually posted at Twallan's site, lol  I was concerned that SP was going to take away Reilly if I hit the unpause button.  Thankfully it did not, but that's how close he was to dying.  I think whatever that was may have affected the kids.  Because somehow they all ended up with the same birthday, when clearly Alyssa and Niall were born a day apart.

  Spring really did try flirting with Claudio.  Darn sims, got to keep your eye on them every moment.  She is flirty, Claudio is not.  He didn't appreciate her effort at all, and rebuffed her quite harshly.  Then he berated her ignorance, lol  Funny enough, after that happened, he did go looking for Lia, and gave her one of those heat of the moment kisses, which I thought was quite sweet.  All of that was autonomous.  I also had Spring working on her mixologist skill while she was pregnant.  I was taking pics of that, and suddenly she goes into labor.  Ha!  So I had to include all that, lol

  Alder can be a blockhead, lol  But he can be a loveable one too.  He was the one that taught Ryder all of his toddler skills, because I had to have Spring leveling up her Mixology skills, Claudio was off spreading his wonderful works of art in town, while Lia was gardening/working.  =)

  My baby brother, who is 21, is autistic.  I still watch him for my Mom while she is at work.  When he is upset, he will say quite loudly, "Son of a baby monkey!"  lol  So, I got that from my *little* brother.

 Two final notes--Dora had a boy, and it was named some awful name, poor boy.  Wilbert I think it was, it fits for her high end society type.  And two,  Antonio keeps calling Claudio, he's even shown up in town~

  Blooper pic----

  "Mother!!  Aren't you supposed to be playing with your grandchildren, NOT their toys?"

 

  Thanks for reading! =)