And Again

Chapter eighteen

"It's really simply" Nicky said as he handed each of his family members a small plastic tube. "Spit in the tube, seal it, put it in the bag"

"We have to fill this whole thing with spit?" Kate asked

"Just until the blue line" Nicky said.

"You wanna explain to me again why we have to do this disgusting experiment?" Sammy asked.

"Grace is deaf, you've almost died several times, I've had cancer 3 times, I'm epileptic, and it turns out that my daughter is epileptic" Nicky said. "I wanna know if there's some genetic reason we all keep getting sick or if we're just the most unlucky family to ever live"

"You know, it might've been a better idea to do this before I decided to reproduce" Grace joked.

"Yeah, I'm not responsible for that" Nicky said.

"How are you feeling, though?" Allie asked.

"First trimester sucked, but now that I'm past that, I feel fine" Grace said. "Except that I constantly have to pee. It's really annoying"

Allie chuckled. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that doesn't stop after the baby's born. It takes like a year for everything to go back to normal"

"Pregnancy sucks" Grace said

"Good to know" Kate said.

"No" Logan shook his head. "Nuh uh"

"Dad, chill" Kate said. "It was a joke"

"So what's going on with this cutie" Rory asked, referring to Jenna who was sitting on her lap.

"As of yesterday morning, she's been officially diagnosed with epilepsy" Nicky said. "So we started anti epileptic drugs and hopefully that helps"

"And she hates it" Allie said.

"She still use a pacifier?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, why?" Allie asked.

"They make this pacifier that has a syringe you can attach" Rory said. "Might be easier to give her the medicine that way"

"No no no" Jenna shook her head.

"Yes yes yes" Nicky chuckled.

A few weeks later, Nicky and Allie were standing in their new house, watching Jenna walk circles around the empty living room. They wanted the movers to do Jenna's room first so that the move would be as easy as possible for her and also so that she'd be able to nap that day.

"Mama, up" Jenna pointed to the stairs. Their apartment didn't have stairs but she was always trying to climb on the stairs in Rory and Logan's house. Nicky and Allie were a little bit nervous about Jenna on the stairs, especially since she was so interested in climbing them, so they made sure to have baby gates on the stairs before they even moved in.

"We can't go up right now" Allie said.

"Up!"

"The movers are working up there" Allie said. "They're setting up your room so you can take your nap in time and not be a grump later"

"Dada, up"

Nicky laughed and picked her up. "You didn't like mommy's answer so you're asking me?"

"Up"

"We can't go up right now"

That night Allie was laying in her new bed, in her new bedroom, in her new house, with her head on Nicky's chest while he rubbed her back.

"We own a house" Allie said.

"Yeah" Nicky said. "We have for several weeks now"

"But now we live in it" Allie said. "We live in a house with a big yard where our daughter can play and a pool where she can swim, in a neighborhood where it's safe to let her ride her bike around the block. We can spend our summers outside, with our friends and family, having barbecues and pool parties"