Chapter 6 - Snapshots

As promised, Joey positively throws himself to caring for little Freya, even if it means getting up at all hours of the night to feed her so that she doesn't wake up Jarred.

Yes, Jarred is sharing his room with Freya's crib. He's not entirely pleased.

In fact, he painted this to demonstrate his general angst about being tied down to this situation as it is.

The family spends very unsocial weekends together. But they're quite fond of it that way.

Jarred seems to be aware of his soon-to-be puberty. I fancy that this is a chick he probably saw in an incredibly confusing dream.

There was then a birthday the following day...

...and Jarred came out looking particularly emo.

Much better.

You know, he might have Leda's eyes, but that nose? All Joey. GOD, it's all Joey. It also nearly pokes people in the eye when he so much as gets near them to hug them.

Jarred decides with his newfound maturity that maybe he should try to befriend the little monster that is the shrieking Freya instead of trying to avoid her and wishing her away. He feeds her happily, and informs his parents of this later that evening over dinner.

...of course, having to wake up at 3am when they start shrieking and your parents decide to let you take care of it instead can make you regret things pretty quickly. Jarred takes to screaming along with her in hopes that it'll get her to shut up.

Spoiler: It doesn't.

Leda's birthday arrives, and she is pleased to discover that she gets to celebrate it all alone, just like she wanted!

...buuuuut Jarred's never met a plan he hasn't liked to alter. Leda distantly wonders why he can't just stay in his room painting when he hears the sudden and explosive sound of noisemakers.

She also wonders why she's suddenly gone cross-eyed, but she figures that she'll survive.

Leda really really really really really has to pee and realizes that her son is hogging the upstairs bathroom as per usual...

...and so a downstairs bathroom is added instead! Though how this qualifies as privacy I have no idea. We'll just be thankful that this didn't cue an Oedipus complex instead.

Another painting, this one showing Jarred's hot-headed contempt for the fact that he shall have to attend stupid high school in the morning.

Freya grows into a toddler, and indeed has her father's hair. Joey isn't quite sure how to take this, since the donor of the sperm is now unmistakeable, but Leda prefers to float through life pretending that nothing is out of the ordinary.

Why do your children always need help with homework right after your sink explodes and your husband is not around to fix it? Leda gingerly sinks to the floor, however, and pretends that she doesn't feel like she's wearing a wet diaper.

Joey continues to be promoted, but this time he isn't afraid to hang out with his children at the same time. He helpfully assists Freya with learning which block goes in which hole, but he also notes uncomfortably that she really doesn't seem to need his help.

It also occurs to him that his promise to his infant son about leaving a legacy hasn't even begun to occur yet. And so he takes the extra cash from his last raise and heads out to the bookstore.

He purchases a tiny bit of it to become a partner, and leaves with such a euphoric rush that he goes straight to the grocery store to become a partner there as well.

Now that he is assured that the future of his children is provided for (and now that he has been promoted yet again, this time to Top Gun), Joey can't help but feel the faint longing for children again.

Consider his surprise when Leda comes to him that very evening, not an hour later.

"Sweetheart, I..."

"What is it?"

Leda blushes, looking off to the side as she nudges her hair out of her face. "I'm...look at it this way. Freya is going to become a child tomorrow. Neither you nor I are getting any younger. And I feel...I really feel like our family is...missing someone."

Joey nearly bursts out of his skin. "You wanna adopt, is that what you're saying?"

"Well, sort of, I mean..." After hemming and hawing for a moment more, Leda decides it's best just to spit it out. "I really miss feeling pregnant. You know? That bonding sensation that you have with the child in your womb? Giving birth and holding the baby in your arms and knowing that you just carried it for three days? Knowing that-"

"God, Leda," he murmured, grinning from ear to ear as he pulled her into an embrace.

"You read my mind. You really ARE my soul mate, you know that?"

"So it's...it's okay if I-"

"Do whatever you want, love. I trust you."

The next day is indeed Freya's birthday, and she is prepared for life!

Joey is late, as always. Jarred is at school.

Freya blossoms into the nerd she always will be.

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Note for future reference: any chapter named Snapshots later on will be more exposition like this one and less drama and angst. Sorry about that, if you got bored, but it was necessary!

I was going to have Leda and Joey adopt their third child, but rereading the rules made it occur to me that since they already have a child together, it might violate said rule to adopt together. Thus, Leda is going to get pollinated again, and this time with a random stranger guy that I haven't really picked out at all. Woo!

And yes, Freya does have blue tips to her hair, as difficult as it is to see in these pictures. I hope it becomes a little more pronounced once she's a teenager.

And no, you're not crazy, Leda's hair actually does change halfway through this. Blame her birthday, and then blame me wanting to put one of my favorite CC hairs on her after that occurred, since I'm gradually reinstalling mods tentatively.

Hope you enjoyed!