Insimenator.org

My name is Jenna Brooks, and I'm 33 years old.


I'm happily married to my husband Peter Delaney, and I love him to pieces! We've never had a big fight, and he's brilliant with our kids.


We've got two children; Tony - our 8 year old scientist, and Erica - our 2 year old adventurer.

Peter is a journalist in the local newspaper, and he also works a bit for TV stations and other newspapers as a freelancer. I'm a nurse, and worked for a couple years in an elderly care facility, but after Tony was born too early and with a lot of complications, I spent a lot of time at the NICU. I fell in love with the place, and after a few additional courses to my nurse training, I'd finally found my dream job. Now I'm a NICU nurse at the downtown hospital, and couldn't wish for a better job than this. I love working with the babies, and being where life starts. Helping babies face their first struggle in the world really makes my heart leap with joy.  


I met Peter when we were both at the university. We became friends then, but realized after a time there was a lot more between us than just friendship. On our graduation day, he went to his knees and proposed to me - in front of everyone! I didn't care. I jumped into his arms, and kissed him as an answer.
We married, and moved together. I realized I was pregnant with Tony when the morning sickness came. We quickly realized our tiny space was too small for us and a baby, so we found ourselves a bigger house, which happened to have been previously owned by my parents. When I was seven months pregnant, I woke up one night with terrible stomach pain, and my water broke. At the hospital they realized Tony was very sick because of a problem with his blood. Shortly after he needed surgery for a heart defect. He spent three months inside an incubator, needing breathing help and medications, but after a bumpy ride we finally got him home. After spending a year home, doing the evening classes to become a NICU nurse, I got a job in the same unit Tony had spent his first three months in. A few years later I got pregnant with Erica. Nine months later, Tony got the sister he had wanted, this time without any complications.
Now, after being Erica's big brother for two years, Tony is desperate for a baby brother...

This is our little family for the moment. If you notice the little speed bump on my belly, I can only say that's not chocolate.


We have a few other family members too - Penguin the parrot, and Hat the hamster (Don't look at me like that - I did NOT decide those names!). We have a few aquarium fishes too, but besides Glorp, Tofu and Booey none of the others have names. Tony really wants a dog, but I honestly think we've got enough creatures living in our house.
Nowadays, our house is filled with insects and other creatures (one of Tony's recent "school science projects" - don't ask...) and every evening our house looks like Toys'R'us exploded in a PetSmart. But what do you expect with a messy two year old child, and a boy who loves every single animal he can find in the backyard, including frogs, ants and the occasional beetle, and doesn't clean up after himself no matter how many times he's told?

Here's Penguin, our lovesick parrot. I realize his name doesn't make sense, but after we brought him home he fell in love with Tony's penguin toy, and Tony thought it was so funny he named the poor bird Penguin as a joke. We tried changing it, but it's the only name he answers to, so it kind of stuck. We once tried finding him a parrot girlfriend, which didn't work out, so we suspect he may think he's an actual penguin.


My favorite hobby is singing. When the house is empty I take out my microphone and sing as loud as I can. Erica loves when I sing for her at bedtime. She loves nursery rhymes of all kinds and won't go to sleep without one. I also play el-guitar, and could have had my own band if family life hadn't taken over.


My children mean everything to me, and I want them all to be happy. Peter and I always try to be there for them, and support them in whatever they do. Well, at least Tony. We don't go around supporting Erica when she knocks down vases and such! I thought the "terrible twos" was a myth until she came along, because Tony was a little lamb compared to her. I'm only hoping it won't last.  

And then there's the little "secret" I'm carrying. Yes, you may have guessed it from the picture - my belly is inhabited again. It's not very visible yet, but in a few months' time, we'll have a new little one in the family. Peter jokes that we'll soon be outnumbered, but so far we've managed, so I'm not too worried.

And that's it, I guess. For now.

Being the mother of two can be a trial, but most of the time normal family life goes by without you thinking about it. Life turns into routine as days, weeks and months go by. Before the twins, everything was so easy. It didn't always feel easy - but it was.

I once entered a writing contest named "Supermommy". To be honest, I think most mothers are supermommies. You have no idea what they really do. They wash tons of clothes, make food several times a day for their family, work to earn money, help with homework, organize schedules, and handle sick children (and husbands). I looked back at my old contest entry, and found this little story. Before we had the twins, most of my life was like this. Then everything turned upside down.

***

My morning starts with yelling. Not me yelling - but Erica yelling. Lately, Erica has begun to wake up before dawn, and thinks a perfect start of the day is to jump up and down on our double bed, screaming for us to wake up.


After calming her down (yelling a little in return), I wake up Peter (who can sleep through a thunderstorm), and take Erica downstairs to make breakfast. After Peter has dragged himself downstairs too, I go upstairs to wake up Tony. He's a sleepyhead just like his father, so it takes a few minutes (hours really) before he realizes it is morning. Then I go to the bathroom to get ready for my workday. I'm usually in my pajama until just before I leave the house, because Erica loves strawberry jam for breakfast, which usually goes everywhere but into her mouth. Need I say more?

When I come out from the bathroom, Tony is usually still wandering around like a zombie, and he has definitely not found the kitchen yet. I steer him to a chair by the table and give him some breakfast. He usually wakes up a little while eating, just enough to not fall asleep in his cereal.


After I've done some laundry and finally have the time to sit down and eat breakfast, I usually find Tony in a deep argument with Erica. Let's say it's not easy to argue with a two year old who says 'no' to everything and starts crying when things aren't going her way.


When everyone is dressed and ready, I drive Tony to school and Erica to daycare. Peter uses his bike or work car if he can, since his work is in the other direction. Peter almost begs me for another car, because he's not too fond of the work-issued one, but I think it's more than enough with one car and one set of expenses.  
After putting the children off at the right places, I go to work.
On my day shifts, I work until around 4 pm, and pick up Erica and Tony on my way home. Tony is in a homework group from school finishes until I pick him up. Here he does most of his homework before coming home, and gets help with it if need be. The sooner he's finished, the sooner he can use the spare time before I pick him up to play with his friends. It gives him motivation to do his homework, and saves me from a lot of nagging.
Before driving home, we go to the supermarket. If I'm not in the mood to take two hungry and unruly kids with me in there, I do grocery shopping before picking them up, because it saves time, money and frustration.
Coming home, I prepare dinner. Peter finishes work at around five, so I try to get the food ready before then. What can I say? I like having a proper family meal together. He makes dinner the days I work evening shifts, so we split the work equally.
Then we talk about the day and our plans for the next day, while eating nutritious food.


Who am I kidding?
When dinner finishes, the table looks like a war zone, because Erica loves having one-sided food fights. Erica and Tony aren't speaking as much as screaming to each other, and refuse to play together. I go on all fours washing up the darn spaghetti that somehow got under the fridge, while Peter is washing the ceiling; goodness only knows how Erica managed that.  


The day Erica learns to eat her food without spilling or throwing any of it, I'll cheer and throw a party. Not even salad is a safe food with that kid in the house, and she refuses to eat any 'non-playable' foods unless Peter does the cooking. I'm almost wondering if she likes creating the extra work for us.
After washing down the kitchen, I usually find Tony in front of the TV, watching cartoons or playing videogames with Peter. Erica likes playing with her dolls (or throwing them around).


After relaxing for a bit, we have some family time together until somewhere between seven and eight, when it is Erica's bathing time, also known as a trial by water. If she's not screaming, she's spilling soapy water all over the floor. Sometimes I manage to trick Peter into doing it, but not often. He knows what he'll be walking into, and he usually ends up getting wetter than me. Occasionally I'll dress up in rainwear and boots just to have some chance of getting out of the ordeal with dry clothes.


For all of Erica's shenanigans, we have a lot of good times, too. It's always nice to have some mommy-daughter time together. After reading a story for Erica, or singing a song (whatever mood she's in) she usually falls asleep. Usually is the key word. If she's having an off day, I have to prepare myself with another story or song ? or what I get in return is a hissy fit lasting several hours.
After making sure she's asleep, I go downstairs to watch some more TV. Peter's responsibility is getting Tony to bed. Let's say that's only a tiny bit easier than getting Erica to bed, because he's a master when it comes to dragging out time.  
When Tony finally is in bed, we have a couple hours of housework or relaxing to do, before two tired parents can go to bed. We usually fall asleep almost at once - completely exhausted ? around 11 pm.
And that's pretty much my day. My parents sometimes watch the kids, but usually only in the weekends. I only hire nannies if my parents aren't available. Mostly it's just me, Peter and the kids ? and the new little one soon to come. I just can't wait (=sarcasm =those &%?#&?#@$% hormones...).

***

This was our family life at its best. Life went by without too much thinking. Happy children, and otherwise just a normal family life, if a bit challenging at times. Up until then, my worst experiences had been the (torturous) birth of Erica and the three months we spent around Tony's incubator. Oh, and of course the Chickenpox experience.

***

I woke up to Erica's really loud crying. When I came into her room, I immediately saw she had blisters all over her body. She also had a fever, and was itching like mad. Of course I realized I couldn't go to work that day. She was only a little over a year then, and I had started working again only a couple of months before. I lifted her up to soothe her.  
Then I heard Tony yelling for me, and went into his room. He was itching too, and his skin looked just as bad as Erica's. I sighed, said "Don't scratch those, Tony,? and went down to find some wash cloths and duct tape for their hands (to prevent them scratching themselves) and cream for their skin. The day went past in a flurry over getting drinks for them, giving them baths for the itching, soothing Erica who cried almost non-stop from sunup to sundown, and washing clothes (both of them had somehow caught the stomach flu, too). If this wasn't enough, when Peter came home he complained over headache and dizziness, and I could see blisters on his face.
"Have you ever had chickenpox?? I asked him.
"Chickenpox? I don't think so.?
"Thought so,? I said, and sighed.
Well, let's just say the next day was worse. Two sick kids and a husband who thinks he's dying of fever is more than enough to make an unfortunate mother go crazy. It went on for two more days like this.


Erica got well first, and was happily running around causing havoc when I could finally declare Tony well again. He had to stay home two more days because of the school's policy when it came to contagious sicknesses. Peter? well, I mostly ignored him after Tony got well. His fever had gone down, but he was still acting like a baby and complaining.
On top of everything - when I finally hoped everyone was healthy again ? I got the flu! Yeah. Housework is not the same when your head aches and you feel like lifting a toddler is heavier than lifting a car. There's just no time to be sick when you're a mom.  

***

This was nothing. Nothing at all compared to what was to come.

Another story I have to follow because I like it.
Update whenever, please?

It all started with one fateful night out. Peter and I were just going to have a quiet dinner together alone while my parents watched Erica and Tony. Or so we thought.  

Four months before, we'd gotten the message we were expecting twins. We were looking forward to it, even though it would mean a lot more work. I had no idea how much.

***

"Sure you'll be OK?" I said to mom.
"Don't worry. I know where the first-aid equipment is, and I think I can still remember the emergency number."
I scowled at her.
"Hey, I'm just kidding! I promise we will have some nice, safe fun! Right, Martin?"
"Yep!" dad said, and lifted a laughing Erica high above his head. "Your mom keeps the kids entertained, and I'll watch TV. I'm just joking, Madison!" he added when she sent a scowl his way.


I was lucky to have young parents. They weren't yet 60, and had lots of energy reserves for their grandchildren, so they were nearly always available when we needed babysitters. Peter's parents had age creeping up on them, so while they liked babysitting, they also needed rest in between the visits from our hurricane duo.
After taking a quick shower, I went into the bedroom to get changed. One of the biggest problems about being pregnant was having nothing to wear. The dresser was full but nothing fit. Seven months pregnant with twins, and I was already bigger than I was right before Erica was born.
I grimaced at the row of pretty dresses, and sighed. They had all become too small several months ago. I ended up choosing some pants and a somewhat nice shirt. After all, Peter and I were only going for a non-formal dinner together - and a movie if we got the time. There wouldn't be much alone-time for us once the twins were born, so we'd better appreciate it while we could.
Peter peeked in. "Ready yet?"


"Does it look like I'm ready?" I snapped, as I tried - but failed - to drag the pants over my giant belly (to be honest, they barely went halfway up my legs).
"Need help?" he teased.
"Get out!" I growled, and threw a sock after him. Those darn hormones!
I gave up the pants, and found a blue flowery dress instead (which I hadn't worn for several years - what on Earth was it still doing in my closet?) and miraculously enough, it fit. After getting dressed I went downstairs. Peter stood waiting for me at the entrance door, snickering.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing," he said, and tried - but failed to stop smiling.
"I will not hear a word about me looking like a whale or anything like that. Even though I feel like one..."
"Then you have to be the cutest whale I've ever seen," Peter said with a teasing grin, and kissed me.
"Mommy and daddy are sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Tony roared with laughter, before running away to the kitchen.


"Just wait until the twins are born. Then I'll run after you!" I snapped back - but I did not manage to hold back the laughter.
"Ready to go, then?" Peter said, after our laughter had calmed down.
"Think so. You don't happen to have a wheelbarrow, by the way? Might need one after I've eaten."
We laughed again, and went out to the car after saying good-bye to the kids and my parents.

The restaurant was a cozy little place where they served Italian food and other goodies. We both ordered pizza, and started discussing names for the twins. Maybe not the most romantic topic - but to my defense, I didn't have a habit of being in a romantic mood when I was pregnant. The romantic mood usually came before I got pregnant, not after...
Peter was always a lot better at romantic stuff than me. He would sometimes give me roses, cook a romantic dinner, or watch the kids so I could go out with a couple of friends from work. It was one of the reasons I loved him as much as I did - he always went a long way to show he cared about me.


When the babies came we wouldn't have much time to go out together, so the past Friday evenings we'd tried our best to enjoy some alone-time together - going out to eat or see a movie, or whatever we felt like at the time. Not dancing. I liked to dance, but at the moment it was out of the question with a belly like mine. I'd tried - and looked like a beach ball bumping around!
We chose a nice table and ordered our usual favorites. The past couple Fridays we'd spent discussing names.
Peter sipped to his soda. "So what do you think about Hazel or maybe Ada if it's girls?"
"Not too bad. What about Josh or Noah for a boy?"
"I'll add them to the list," Peter said and fished up his phone, where he kept a list of all our name suggestions. "You know... Choosing names would've been so much easier if we knew whether it's boys or girls."
"Well, I kinda like the surprise. My OB said both of them were in the wrong positions to be sure, and Celina had no more luck."
Celina was a colleague of mine at work, and the heart surgeon who had saved Tony's life. Later she became one of my best friends. She was also one of the doctors monitoring the twins' progress, because of a possible issue with one of them. The babies' positions were never quite right to get a good enough look, but she thought the baby could have a heart problem due to some irregularities in the heart sounds. I hadn't liked hearing this, but at least the baby would be in good hands. Celina had promised to be there during the planned C-section, so she could check out the baby immediately after it was born.  
"We still need two boy and two girl names then," Peter said, and ate another piece of pizza.
I was happy I wasn't having any weird cravings this time. With Erica I needed ketchup on everything, and with Tony I started liking sardines. Now I couldn't stand the smell of sardines, and ketchup I could only eat on hot dogs.
"Mmh," I said, and put another bite in my mouth. Ok, I'll admit it. My craving this time around was pizza, and I couldn't get enough of it.
Peter thought for a minute. "What do you think about naming them after someone we know? Maybe using middle names?"
"That's a good idea. My parents' middle names are James and Adelaide, but I'm not sure what I think about those. James is nice, but Adelaide sounds a bit outdated. Not sure about their parents. Can you remember any?"
He thought for a bit. "No, but I can look it up. I think both of them have middle names."
Peter started fiddling with his phone again.  
"Calendar," he said, briefly holding it up so I could see. "Got everything on here. Birthdays as far as to our grandparents."
It didn't come as a surprise. Peter had much more control over my family tree than I had. After half a minute of staring at his list I gave him an annoyed look, rather wanting to enjoy the dinner than him staring down into a screen the rest of the evening.
"We can take a look when we get home, alright?"
"Sure." He put the phone back in his pocket. "You know... Maybe we should wait until they are born. We've always ended up using a different name than what we had in mind."
I smiled. "We did think Tony was a girl until he came out, and we couldn't exactly call him Miranda."
"True," Peter said, returning the smile. "And remember we thought Erica was a boy? At least 'Eric' was pretty easy to change. I'm not sure what I think about Miranda, though. It's the name of the assistant proofreader at work, and she's always grumpy. I'd rather not be reminded of her."
"Mhm. Yeah."
Just then, I felt a sharp pain shoot through my belly. On reflex I put a hand on the baby bump.
"Are they kicking?" Peter asked.
"Dunno. It usually doesn't hurt this much," I said, using both hands to stroke my belly, which would sometimes calm them down. "Maybe it's false contractions. I had a lot of those with Erica the last couple months."  


"Yeah, I do remember we had a couple of false alarms."
"A couple? I think it was more like five or six times we were halfway to the hospital!"
Just then, I felt it again, this time even more painful. It lasted for several long seconds. I doubled over, leaning on the table, trying my best to breathe through the pain.
Peter's eyebrows furrowed. "Sure you're OK?"
The pain slowly trickled away to nothing. I sat up straighter, and the future kickboxer in my belly started up again.
"Well, it can't be the real thing now - it just can't! It's way too early. Whatever it is, the babies are playing football with my bladder again. Be right back."
I stood up, and as I did so, something wet trickled down one of my legs.
"What is it?" Peter asked, worried.
I glanced down, where a pool of watery fluid was collecting around my feet.
"I... I think my water just broke," I said, my voice shaking with fear.
Peter's face went white. "Are you sure? It's way too early."
I nodded, and sat down carefully, feeling a bit dizzy. The water didn't smell much, and certainly not of urine. Some of it even looked a bit bloody.
I nodded. "I'm sure."
"Crap." He took out his cell phone, and dialed 911.
Whatever he said into the phone, I didn't register - because right then, a really bad contraction hit me. Peter dropped his phone on the table, and carefully helped me down to the floor, supporting my back. One of the waitresses came over.
"Is something wrong?"
"She's got contractions, and it's too early. I've called an ambulance."
She nodded. "Just tell me if you need anything. I'm right here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few painful minutes later, I heard sirens and saw lights flashing in the restaurant window.
The waitress went outside, and came back again with two paramedics trailing behind. I recognized one of them. Jeremy was Celina's son, working as a paramedic while studying medicine.  
"Hello there, Jenna," he said. "Don't worry. We'll give you something to stop the contractions until we reach the hospital."


He fastened a belt around my belly which would oversee the twins' heartbeats. He studied the curves for a moment.
"One of them has fine readings, but the other one is in distress, with irregular and slow heartbeats," Jeremy said. "We'll have to hurry. I'll notify the hospital so they'll have everything ready."
The trip to the hospital felt endless, despite only taking five or six minutes, and I missed having Peter's hand to hold, even if I knew he was driving behind the ambulance in our car. On the way they checked my vitals, but Jeremy assured me everything looked fine. So at least this wasn't pre-eclampsia.
Several times during the ride, it felt like one of the babies was using the other as a punching bag.
Jeremy sat in the back with me, frowning at the screen.
"What's going on?"
"Is one of them kicking much?"
I nodded, still trying to stroke my belly to calm them to no avail.
"It's strange, but every time the other baby's heart rate drops I see you reacting, and the heart rate goes back up again."
I stretched my head to see the screen. Indeed, every time the heart rate fell, I could feel several kicks.
They took me to the maternity OR, where I was met with my OB.
I got some meds to help mature the babies' lungs in case of the worst, and another dose of meds to halt the contractions, but after half an hour it became clear the contractions were only getting stronger.
"We can't wait," my OB said as she did a hurried ultrasound of my belly. "Twin A is barely moving, and there's no amniotic fluid left. We have to get them out now. Call the OR, tell them to prep for a C-section," she yelled to another assistant. "Don't worry," she said to me. "I paged Celina and she's on her way. You and the babies are in the best of hands."
"I know," I said. "Can I be awake?"
"As long as nothing else happens, I think we have the time."
They gave me spinal anesthesia, and readied me for an emergency C-section. My thoughts went back to when Tony was born. He'd also had a heart problem when he was born, but after surgery he had no more problems.
Peter held my hand through the surgery. I didn't feel a thing, but did get some awful pictures in my head since I knew what is happening on the other side of the screen. After all, I had assisted during a lot of C-sections myself.
"A girl!" I heard the surgeon say. "She looks healthy, and is breathing a little by herself."
Peter squeezed my hand extra hard, and I thought I could spot a smile behind his mask.
A nurse briefly showed me the tiny little bloody baby who was trying some faint screams, testing her still weak lungs.
"And this one is a boy," he said - but his voice was anything but cheerful. "Darn. He's not breathing, and he's turning blue."
"We have to hurry," Celina said, and the surgeon handed her the baby. "It's definitely a problem with his heart."


They barely showed him to me. I only got a glimpse of a limp bluish baby before they hurried both of my little babies away to two separate warming stations set up against the wall in a corner so they could work on them.
I could hear them doing CPR on the boy, with Celina barking out orders.
The girl was hurried away to the NICU not long after.
Celina came over to me. "He's tiny but he's hanging in there. We're taking him to surgery now. His condition is worse than I expected, but I'll explain more later."
They disappeared through the door with the boy placed in in an incubator for warmth. Through the plastic box I could see a tiny purplish bundle, breathing artificially with the help of a tube.
I felt like crying.
And I did.

After the surgery they rolled me into a private room, which I was thankful for. I couldn't handle sharing room with a bunch of happy mothers and their crying babies. Not right now, anyway. Peter sat down next to me, and took my hand again.
"Do you think he'll be OK?" I asked, tears still in my eyes.
"Yes, no doubt. They do amazing work here, and it's not exactly the first time they do a surgery like this, is it?"
"No," I admitted, remembering Tony and all the times I'd been caring for newborn babies and preemies with heart problems after him.  
The room was quiet for a few minutes, until I heard the wails of a baby outside in the hallway.
"I'm sorry I ruined our date," I said. "This was not a perfect end of the evening."
"Don't think about it. The babies are more important than finishing our date. Which reminds me - I'll call your parents. They'll have to babysit for a few extra hours."
He kissed my cheek, and took out his cell phone, dialing the number.
I lay there, staring up in the ceiling while he talked to my mother, the thoughts in my head living their own life.

is that quick enough :D

just kiddin'... I have one more chapter to do right now, and then the contest entry, and then I'll start the real story. this is just warming up...

I can't promise that there will be as many pictures as in my earlier stories. Mostly because I'm suffering from an extremely slow computer, and really slow camera and play mode ingame. But the story will not suffer from it :)

That update was insanely fast.
Can't wait for the real thing.

I remember once when we'd just brought Erica home from the hospital. She cried a lot the first few weeks, until we managed to get her used to something vaguely resembling a schedule - but the first two nights home were definitely the worst. I almost went crazy. I'd finally managed to put her to bed, and had just reached the living room when I heard her start again. Grumbling a little, I headed for the stairs. I was halfway up the stairs when she stopped crying. Puzzled, I went to check on her. I found Tony in the chair, holding Erica and singing for her. She was looking at him, listening to his voice. I smiled, and tiptoed inside, sitting down beside the chair.


Not long after, Erica was sleeping again. Tony kissed her forehead before handing her to me, and I put her to bed.
"I know I said I wanted a bike for my birthday, but Erica is my bestest birthday present ever!"
Erica had been born the day after Tony's birthday - talk about timing! I smiled to him, and gave him a long hug.
Even though they could be like most brothers and sisters - arguing, blaming each other for broken things, and fighting once in a while (more like twice a day on a good day) - I knew they loved each other a lot. My best moments with them were when they behaved like friends, and when Tony was looking out for his sister. I hoped he'd be just as good a big brother for the twins, too.[/i]

***

I woke up to the sound of a door closing. I must've fallen asleep sometime during the late evening, too tired and exhausted to keep my eyes open. I did remember the dream had been about Tony and Erica. I just couldn't quite remember what it had been.
One of my nurse colleagues, Molly, came in.
"Hey there, Jenna. I just wanted you to know your baby girl is ready for visiting now. I can take you to her if you want?"
I nodded, and Peter helped me into the wheelchair Molly had brought.
Molly took us to the NICU, and we washed our hands before entering. Our little girl was inside an incubator, surrounded by machines monitoring and giving medications, wires connected with stickers that looked giant on her, and tubes going in and out of her tiny body. She had a CPAP tube strapped to her nose, pushing up her nostrils and making her look like the world's most adorable piglet. The CPAP meant she could breathe mostly on her own, which made me relax a little. Not needing intubation was usually a good sign with a small preemie.
"She's a strong little girl, this one. Not a big fan of sleeping, though. She's been awake most of the night, even crying a bit. Want to hold her?" Molly said. "I was just going to feed her, but thought you'd like to do it instead."
"Of course!" I said.
Molly lifted the tiny girl out of the incubator, wrapped her in a blanket, and handed her to me. I expertly fiddled with the tubes and wires so they weren't in the way. She kicked her little legs, a little fussy and squirmy, probably from an empty belly.
"Hi there, little one!" Peter said, and touched her cheek carefully. The girl looked up at him, and blinked a little. Her eyes were dark blue, though preemie eye color often changed. She still had soft preemie fuzz all over her translucent skin, and her head had a spiral of blonde strands just long enough to give her a tiny fringe.  The diaper she had on looked to be at least two sizes too big, and the pink knit hat poking through the CPAP straps almost reached her eyes.
After several years of handling tiny premature babies, I still hadn't gotten over how small they could be. Tony had been a bit larger, born at nearly 32 weeks. The twins were only at week 29.  
Molly handed me an open syringe with what I expected was donated breastmilk, and I connected it to the baby girl's NG tube. My milk still hadn't come in yet, which would probably take at least a couple days of pumping. For now she would be tube-fed, but I hoped she'd take to breastfeeding when she was a bit bigger and stronger. She started fussing again, and gripped the tube as if to tear it away.
"There, there, little one," I said, gently rocking her. "Calm down, it's just a bit of food. Gotta get strong, you know."
Peter studied the name sign, which for the moment said "Baby Girl Brooks" and my details. The sign was pink, decorated with flowers. "What do you think about a flower name?"
I thought it over. "You mean something like Rose, or Lavender?"
Peter briefly glanced at his phone, probably checking the birthday list. "You know we talked about naming them after someone in the family? Mom's middle name is Lily-Ann, but she never used either of them."
"Lily is a nice name. I like it."
The baby girl gave a tiny baby smile. Peter held out his pinky, and she grabbed it, barely reaching halfway around.
"I think she approves."
I nodded. "Lily it is, then."
Molly smiled. "I like it, too. It's a cute name."
I peeked over at Peter's phone. "Any more nice names in your family?"
"Dad didn't have a middle name, but I'll keep looking."
I turned to Molly. "So how's our boy? Have you heard anything?"
"Last I heard is that he needed a quick fix to make sure the ductus arteriosus stays open. Celina is still working on him. I've not heard any more about the situation, but whatever it is I'm sure she'll fix it. She's the best heart surgeon in the hospital, and you know it."
I didn't like the sound of that. There were only a handful of heart conditions I knew of where keeping this particular blood vessel open after birth would be vital for survival, and none of them promised anything good for our baby boy.
"I know," I said. But knowing he was in good hands didn't mean I wasn't afraid. We'd almost lost Tony when he was born. I did not want to go through it once more.
By the time I'd finished feeding Lily, she'd fallen asleep. Because of my stitches, I let Molly put her back into the incubator, since I didn't want to risk tearing anything open.
Molly guided us back to my room.
"You should get some sleep, Jenna. I'll come and tell you when the surgery is finished."
I yawned. I'd only slept a few restless hours after the surgery, and was dead tired. I must have managed to fall asleep again, because I woke up to Erica climbing up into my bed.
"Mommy allrigh?"
I let her crawl into my arms, and gave her a hug.
"I'm ok."
Tony and my parents were there too.
"We just got here. Are the babies OK?"
"We're still not sure about the boy, but the girl is fine. She's breathing mostly on her own."
"Boy and girl?" Tony said, and a smile spread over his entire face.
"Yes, both," I said.
"Wow! A boy I can play with when he gets a bit bigger and a girl so I'll never again have to play tea-party with Erica!"
I laughed, and ruffled his hair before giving him a long hug.
Just then, a knock came on the door, and Celina peeked in.
"I just want you to know the surgery went well. He's still a bit weak, but stable at the moment."
"Thanks so much, Celina."
"No problem. It's my job, after all." She eyed the rest of the people in the room. "I'll come back and talk with you later, okay?"
"Can we visit them?" Tony said excited.
"I've told you before they don't let in children under 12 years, Tony," I said.
"Aww... why can't it be my twelfth birthday today?"
I smiled. "I'm sure you can see them through the window if you want."
Tony insisted on pushing the wheelchair. When we got over to the NICU, I briefly held up Lily in front of the window, so they all could see her. The boy was still too weak, so I could not lift him out, but Molly helped moving the incubator closer. Tony melted like ice cream when he saw them.


"Do they have names yet?" Tony asked when I came back out.
"We decided to name the girl Lily, after Gran's middle name," I said. "We're not sure about the boy's name yet."
Peter checked his phone again, and turned to me. "What do you think about Aidan? It was your grandfather's middle name, but I kind of like it better spelled with an A instead of an E. Apparently it means 'little fire'. Maybe we could add on James from your dad?"
Tony nodded, smiling. "I like the name Aidan, but cut James. One of my friends is called James, and I don't want them to get confused."
"I like it too," I said. "He's a little fighter, so the name fits perfectly. There's no need for a double name."
"Aidan it is, then," Peter said, and we headed back to my room again.

After cuddles and good-byes, my parents took the kids back home for some dinner and bedtime. A few minutes after they left, Celina knocked on the door and poked her head in.
"Can I come in?"
I smiled, and nodded.
She sat down beside my bed, and motioned for Peter to sit down, too.
"I guess it's time for good news/bad news now," I said with a sigh.
Celina nodded. "Mostly bad ones, I'm afraid. As you know, I've suspected the baby boy-"
"-Aidan," Peter added.
"Nice name," Celina commented with a smile. "Like I said, I suspected Aidan had a heart defect, but he was never in a good enough position to get a clear view with ultrasound. I had some suspicions, but didn't want to worry you too much. It tuned out one of my suspicions were right, and unfortunately it's not one of the better options. He's got what's called Hypoplastic left heart syndrome."
I nodded in recognition. I'd seen it a couple times in the NICU before.
"It means the left side of his heart is underdeveloped, and the left ventricle is barely functional," she added, for Peter's sake. "It's a severe condition, but I have seen worse cases than his, so for now I'm positive. It is going to involve at least two more surgeries, and possibly a heart transplant further down the line, but it is possible to live well into adulthood without a transplant as long as the surgeries are successful and there aren't too many other complications."
She gave us a bit more information on the condition, and a hug each, before she left.
"We can deal with this," Peter said, staring at the door where Celina had disappeared. I wished I could be as sure of it as he sounded.

Days went, and then weeks. Except for a few setbacks as was expected with preemies, Lily got stronger every day, and a bright summery day in early September we were allowed to take her home - close to the original due date, a little over two months after the birth. Aidan was still inside his incubator, and was not out of danger yet. He had multiple setbacks, and also needed a second surgery for his heart once he'd reached a good enough size. It hurt deep inside me the day when we could only take Lily back home, and not her brother. She was still tiny, and a lot of the clothes we had bought were still a bit too big for her. She was not yet as big as a full-term newborn baby, but she did grow fast.
When we parked the car in the driveway, we were met with a big banner over the entrance, showing "Welcome home, Lily", with an arrow pointing into the garden. We followed the arrows to the back yard, and found a great party going on - food, presents and most of our closest family greeting us.
I put a sleeping Lily in her stroller just inside the door (she was not supposed to be outside much, or be around many people for a few more weeks). Everyone wanted to see her, though.
It was a tradition in our family to greet babies when they came home with a big party.  
After a rather calm party (not too much yelling and noise because of Lily), everyone but my and Peter's parents went home. They and Peter did all the cleaning, while I went in to feed Lily, who'd taken to breastfeeding like a hungry little champ.

In the evening, we ordered pizza, and had a little picnic in the living room (much to Erica's entertainment - she ended up on the pizza. Literally!).  


Lily had to stay at home the first months - and maternity leave was not exactly glorious with a baby who always cried when she wasn't carried around, and the two tornados causing just as much havoc as usual.  


Visiting little Aidan at the hospital became a daily event. I walked around day after day, week after week, month after month - hoping he would soon be strong enough to come home.
His setbacks were many, and he ended up needing more surgeries, and went through several infections. What I saw in the doctors' faces scared me. I had been around them enough to know when they looked like that, something was wrong. They tried to calm me down, saying Aidan would most likely soon be ready to come home. But I could see the worry in their faces.
Which made made me worry, too.

Another touching and probably heartbreaking story.  I think I'll get my kleenex ready - I know I'll need them!  I'm always so impressed by your pictures and your effects - I love the spaghetti all over the kitchen, the chicken pox, and Erica in the pizza box - just to name a few.  Great job so far - I look forward to more.

great story keep up the good work

I loved your previous stories raven, they even reduced me to tears at some points, and this one is shaping up to be on the same level of excellence :D Your pictures are fantastic, I want your graphics card! xD
You're a fabulous writer, keep it coming :)

^ well, I want a new computer... graphics might be good, but playing sims is slower than anything. Took me 36 hours to take the last four pics for the third round of the contest. at least it didn't turn itself off while I was playing. Today, It's done that four or five times already - and everything I've done today, is surfing the net.

I'm glad you all like the story - so far at least. (and yes, there is a kleenex warning here, just so you know...:angel:)

Ugh.  I do not know how you can stand that.  I wouldn't have the patience.  I was compaining because I spent about 12 hours shooting for my last chapter, not including photoshopping for a couple more.  And a freezing/crashing issue would put me over the top for sure.

But, your hard work certainly shows - your pics are always fabulous - lots of attention to detail and interesting 'human' poses.  Very fun to look at.

well, I'm getting used to it... also, I forgot to clean out my downloads folder a little - but I had a short deadline, and I didn't want to spend two hours going ingame again. Though, maybe I should've done it. The Brooks' house is a bit big, too - and my computer screams when I use too many sims, too big houses, or too many downloads.

I just hope I can afford to buy a new computer before I start school again. lately, it has started to turn itself off if it gets too hot. It's already done that four or five times today... getting tired of it. besides - I need more computer memory soon. almost all EP/SP's installed, and only 512 MB RAM is just too little. Turning down ingame graphics makes the picture quality go down, and I really don't want that.

Awesome start! I cant wait to see the next Chapters....you spoiled us with the first 3 chapters since they came out so quickly!

I'd already posted them in the contest, and they needed only some fixing. and I have to finish some other things before I can post the next chapters. I'm giving you a lot to read in one go - that's why :)

Wow! I love it! You are so good in storytelling (no wonder why you won the Complete the story:Romance contest)!!! I can't wait for next chapter!

hopefully I can get the next chapter ready by monday. as long as my computer co-operates, that is...

The first 5-6 chapters are finished in writing. I only have to do the pics now.
(and hopefully the net is up´n´go until monday too...)

love the story and the pics are go great cant wait for more!

"If there are no more complications the next few days, Aidan will most likely be ready to come home next week," the doctor said.
Aidan gave a tiny little smile from behind the bottle - almost as though he understood what the doctor had just said. I joined in. He was going home! 


It had been nearly six painful months for all of us. Six months of walking around worrying about our little son - and brother - lying there alone in a hospital bed when we weren't around. Now the waiting had come to an end.
"Thanks doc," I said, and gave Aidan a careful hug. Only a few weeks ago we had finally been allowed to hold and touch him without wearing gloves and face masks due to a bad infection he'd struggled to get rid of. The doctors still insisted on giving Aidan some extra oxygen through tubes in his nose - but he was breathing on his own now. He was still a bit frail, and still had surgeries planned for the future, but for now he was in as good a shape as could be expected.


He was eating on his own, too, but tended to prefer a bottle over breastfeeding because it gave him a bit less resistance. He needed frequent breaks during meals, and quickly got tired. Only a few days earlier we'd carefully started to introduce Lily to foods like porridge and such, and while she spit out most of it, she was interested in trying. Aidan was still only getting milk with extra vitamins. He was also a bit smaller than his sister - and while Lily had started sitting up with support and roll around, Aidan was far behind her there too, but he had partly rolled over once or twice the past couple weeks, getting tangled in the monitor wires, so we hoped he wasn't too far behind. Both of them were supposed to be roughly on the level of 4 month old babies, so we didn't have too high expectations. Now he only had wires monitoring his vitals, and oxygen tubes to help with his breathing. He'd been moved to the step-down unit about three weeks prior, and had gotten a regular baby bed to sleep in.

A few days before, we'd taken Aidan to one of the family rooms so his older siblings could properly meet their brother, and Tony had been allowed to hold him for the very first time.


He had been over himself with joy, and if I was not mistaken, he was still smiling right now. He had even begged to change Aidan's diaper!


Already from the first second, there had been a strong bond between them, and I saw what I had always seen in Tony - that he was without doubt one of the best big brothers in the world. And from the ear-to-ear smile Aidan gave Tony, I could see the baby agreed with me.


Erica had also been allowed to meet her little brother. She had smiled, pointed at him and happily exclaimed "Aidan baby bother", before staring at him through the entire bottle of milk Tony fed him.


Lily had met her brother for the first time in weeks, too - and I had the feeling she had been really happy to see him again. The two of them had stared at each other with wide open eyes, before Lily had started smiling. He'd smiled back, and grabbed her hand. When we got home, she'd even allowed me to put her down for a while so I could do a bit of cleaning. At times I wondered if she had an invisible connection to Aidan, because she acted as an antenna to his health. If she cried the entire night, suddenly started bawling out of the blue, or refused to be put down, you could bet something had happened to Aidan. She'd been a nightmare during the recent infection, barely sleeping at all.
And now Aidan was going home. Finally we could start being a real family. Not having to visit the hospital all the time would be the best part - and of course the almost six hospital-free months for me before I started working again after the maternity leave.
Life couldn't be better.

When we came home that day, we went straight upstairs to the room we had readied for the twins, to put the final touch on the decorations (Erica's help was mostly limited to testing the toys). The old baby bed we'd used for Tony and Erica had broken a while back, when Tony decided to play pirates with a few of his friends and needed a pirate ship, so we'd invested in a couple sturdier cribs in white.


We'd wanted to give the room to the twins together, and now we finally could. Lily had slept with Peter and me up until now, because it was the only way we could get her to sleep. I hoped this would change once Aidan came home.

A week later, I could finally dress up little Aidan in his own new clothes instead of the hospital wear. In spite of being clothes supposed to fit three month old babies, the clothes were still quite loose-fitting on him.
As we were leaving, I held up Aidan and said "good-bye" with a baby voice while waving his hand toward the doctor and nurses who were waving their good-byes to him. It felt wonderful.


At home, we were met with half our family plus a lot of friends, smiling and waving, and a banner saying "Welcome home, Aidan!"
Everyone wanted to hold him, and since most of them were meeting him for the first time, I could understand it. Tony was overly enthusiastic about it all, and kept the twins very busy doing peek-a-boo games as long no one were holding them. It was wonderful hearing Aidan giggle together with his sister.
That night, the twins slept happily in their beds, which we'd for the occasion put together so they could see each other. The next morning I found them smiling and holding hands through the railings.
Everything felt perfect. 

About a week later we spent their first Christmas at my parents' house, my mom insisting we had more than enough on our hands already. The kids loved all the extra attention and presents, and I was happy to leave all the responsibility in mom's capable hands.

Finally I had all my four children around me - and even though all the diaper changing, crying, feeding and cleaning (Erica and Tony 'helped' a lot by throwing things around and making a mess every so often) took a lot of my energy, I didn't care. I felt so free all of a sudden. We could go for outings in the park, and just be a family again. When Tony and Erica had their tenth and fourth birthday, we went for a big family picnic in the snow. I baked cakes and other goodies, we made cocoa and grilled marshmallows, and everyone had a wonderful time.

Then one night as I was checking on the twins because I heard Lily cry, I found Aidan lifeless in his bed, his skin almost purple. 

Happiness just doesn't last forever.

i love thisss.
its so goood.

great story.
this is amazing

Aww! Just as things were looking up, they go back down. Can't wait to read the next chapter, and see what happens to little Aidan.

great story! i love it..its so amazing!!

Lovely story!I wonder what will happen to poor,little Aiden?

Yeah,I want your graphics card too!Mine is sh*t.The water in neighbourhood view is just a solid blue strip and it crashes all the time on residential lots. :(

Sorry about the wait. My net has been messing a lot the last couple of weeks, and my computer froze up a couple of times in a row the last time I used it (you'd think using only Word was not straining at all...). Now it barely starts. And if it does start, THEN it freezes up.... (Someone WILL get a few hard words tomorrow - my comp is barely four years old!)

The story is mostly finished, but I'm having a hard time getting the pics done (if my comp won't work, I can't even get them out of there right now... *cries*). But I'll try to get the next chapter up tomorrow... if it's possible. Can't promise pics right now, though...
 
Luckily my brother has a (working) computer WITH (mostly working) net...

Vacation, moving to a new apartment, net trouble, computer trouble, vacation without net at all... yipee. NOT!

Great chapter keep up the gook work

Sirens howled in my ears, the world around me just a blur of colors. The little body lying on the stretcher had slowly turned back to pinkish again after he'd been given oxygen, but Aidan was still not out of danger. Only a fast reaction from me, starting CPR at once, had saved his life.
I had yelled for Peter to call 911, and as he had ran for the phone, face white after seeing Aidan, the baby's heart had finally started.
While I followed the ambulance, Peter had stayed with the kids since they were still sleeping, promising to come to the hospital as soon as possible. The heartwrenching screaming coming from Lily, Peter desperately trying to calm her down, followed me all the way out the door.
Everything felt so painfully slow. I knew the ambulance drove faster than most of the other cars on the highway, but for all I knew time could have stopped.


Half an hour later, Peter and the kids found me in the waiting room. Erica and Lily were sleeping in the stroller, while Tony looked like he had been crying.
"What's going on," Peter asked me.
"I don't know. They did some tests, and then took him to surgery," I said, tears pressing on.  
He took his arm around me, and so did Tony.


"Have you talked to someone?" Peter said, drawing me into a hug I sorely needed right then.
"They hurried him away so fast," I said, tears dripping down on Peter's shirt as I cried over his shoulder. "They didn't say much."
We sat there in silence, crying and worrying. Three frustrating hours went by, until Celina finally came to tell us the surgery was done.


"There was a problem with one of his heart valves. We've done what we can for him, and he's stabilized now."
She took us to him, and we sat there by Aidan's bed for hours.


It's just so unfair.
Was there someone who did not want my family to live happily ever after?
I mean, why us?
Why my family?
Why Aidan?


Questions without answers.


Two weeks later, we could finally take Aidan home again. We got some medical equipment from the hospital so we could oversee his heart while he was sleeping, and bought breathing alarms to put under the mattress for both the twins - just in case. It was a small comfort knowing we'd have a warning if something like this happened again.  
I found myself almost waiting for the next nightmare.
I didn't know it would happen so soon.
And that it would be even worse than before.

Cool. I don't mind the lack of pics.It took me a while to put up pics in my story too.

It's ok. :]
D: What else could possibly happen?!


I'm so looking forward to the next chapter.

Great chapter even if there is no picture its like reading a romance novel. looking forward in reading the next Chapter. Keep Up The Good Work.

Great story!!! I totally love it! but i'm really worried about aidan, i hope he'll be okay :(

Wow, Theraven, great story!
I followed your story through the Supermom Contest aswell.
I was excited to hear that you'd be continuing the story, as yours was my favorite.
I have one question though, where is Baby Aidan's hair from? It's adorable.

If you kill Aidan I'll kill you. Kidding. You r such a great writer. I bow before your awsomeness :worship:

Awww:( love the story:)

you're such a good storyteller we dont even need the pics =)
keep up the great work!

As do I. :worship:

Lol. Raven, you have such talent for stories! I have to admit that my favorite of ALL your stories would have to be Anna's Diary. But this one might rise up to the same par as Anna's Diary!! It's really great, fantastic, wonderful, spectacular, amazing, fantabulous, etc. etc. writing. :smile:

Aidan's hair is from some of Tenshii Akari's skintones (based on Louis skintones). Been mixing a bit with them myself for this story. It's originally toddler hair refitted on infant skintones. I could've used Bloom's hair too - but I wanted the twins to have different haircolours.

And thanks for all the praise - from all of you :)
I'll get the rest of the story and the pictures up as soon as I can when I get back my computer (as long as it hasn't blown up yet... *grumbles*)

YAY! I FINALLY GOT MY COMPUTER BACK!!!!!! (excuse me for yelling with joy...)

so, here's the big UPDATE: added pics to ch. 4 and 5, and I've also rewritten a bit in both the chapters

Magnificent. Simply magnificent. I love your stories. This one is so heart-wrenching. And my favorite boy name is Aiden. It's so lovely. Good luck with your computer. I understand your frustration. My game won't even load or when it does it won't let me go to any of the lots or it crashes when I get on a lot. It's a big pain.
Your story alleviates my frustration and makes me not want to blow up my computer because then I couldn't read it. Keep up the fantastic work!

From the little I've read of this story, I love it.

ooo love the pics!

o_0 your story is beautiful, i love it! :-P
__________________________________

Great pictures looking forward in reading the nex chapter

ooooooh im hooked now! just like i was with  your other stories!

I just had to randomly put in a non-random part of a song:
How many people have to cry,
The song of pain and grief across the land,
And how many children have to die,
Before we stand to lend a healing hand.

And here's another part of the same song:
How many victims must there be
Slaughtered in vain across the land
And how many children must we see
Before we learn to live as brothers

The bits in bold are the parts relevant to the story.

well, I already have a song that fits the story perfectly (you'll hopefully see what I mean in the final chapter). but the text above is good. can't say anything else (is it a michael jackson text, or am I completely on the wrong track here?)

sorry for the long wait. I'll try to finish the next chapter sometime this week. I had to do an emergency babysitting for my 3 year old nephew yesterday, just when I had gone ingame to do the next chapter. on the other hand, I did actually get a good idea for a few of the pictures when I tested an infant outfit yesterday.

Wow, this is really good. Nice work!

Uh oh, this one looks like a tear jerker and i always cry! T-T

How did you get tony to hold a feed aiden?

I love it and where did u get those items

(yYes, I know I'm slow.... but I finally got the time to do the pics, so here is the 6th chapter. Hope you like it :))


"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Tony yelled from the living room.
I came running, hoping for all in the world it was not another emergency involving Aidan.
According to Tony's face expression, it wasn't, and I could finally breathe again.
"Look, Lily is walking!" Tony smiled from ear to ear, as Lily took some of her first wobbly steps toward him while he stood ready to catch her if she fell.


I hurried over to the drawer where I always had a video camera lying - for reasons just like this. I got Lily's three last steps on tape, before she wobbled, and plumped down again, straight on her butt.


She giggled when she hit the floor, smiled and looked up at Tony.
The twins were thirteen months now. Lily was still a bit behind babies her age, and a little bit smaller - but not by much. Aidan was even further behind. He had barely started sitting up without support, but was struggling a lot to keep himself upright. He could crawl a little, but I couldn't see any signs of him starting to walk anytime soon.


Almost every motion he did seemed awkward for him, and sometimes it seemed as though he didn't really know how to use his legs. Two days ago he had seen Lily getting up by gripping the table edge, and had tried himself - but hadn't even gotten his butt up from the floor.
I didn't really worry, at least for now. The doctor had said there could be some more time before Aidan started walking. After all, he was almost three months premature, and he had spent his first six months in the hospital, so it was not exactly a surprise he was a bit behind.
"Did you get it?" Tony asked, and went over to peek at the camera screen as I put it on play.  


"A little of it, anyway," I said, smiling a little when I saw the clip before the one of Lily. The last clip on the camera had been five minutes of Peter's feet. He always forgot to turn the camera off while filming.
"It's soooo cool!" Tony said, grinning from ear to ear. "I was the first to see her walking!"
"Yes, you were," I said, and ruffled his hair.
"I hope I'll be the first to see Aidan walking, too," he said excitedly, and sat down next to the twins.  


I hope I'll someday see Aidan walking, I thought.

-----------------------------------------------

Aidan didn't take his first steps until he was almost eighteen months old. By then, Lily had already started running around.


As Aidan took his first awkward steps, finally managing to get up using the table edge - but with much more difficulties than his sister - I already had the camera ready.
I got every single one of those five first steps, before he plumped down again on the floor.


After this I finally managed to calm down a little, thinking he was on the right track again, and gaining in the lead Lily had on him.
But it did not last for long. Only a couple of weeks later, Aidan got a chest infection after catching the flu in daycare - and then it was back again to the hospital in a hurry, with his fever rising over 40 C.


It was a short hospital stay, and after only a week he was mostly healthy again.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the troubles. Two months later, he got another infection. Luckily, this time he didn't need a hospital stay - only two weeks home from daycare, and antibiotics.
Only a few months later - five weeks after the twins' second birthday which had been celebrated in a flurry of cake-smeared children from daycare, tons of balloons, and two hours of opening gifts - Aidan started complaining about "ouches" in his chest.

Life isn't easy when you have sick children.

Great job again! Really cute!

i cant tell you enough,
i love this story.

wow, this is amazing!
I love the twins, they're so cute!

If somthing happens to aiden i think i'm gonna cry. But then again raven has a few tricks up her sleeve i bet.

thanks JGARxx, Karla and Egghugger (and everyone else that commented):)

and yes, I do have a few surprises and tricks up my sleeve :D
there are always a few surprises in my stories... and I've got around 15 chapters left - so there's a lot of surprises hidden... won't say more ;)

I just hope my computer don't go back into its former hibernation-state again. It's already been messing around a lot today - freezing up, and black screen... *cries*

wow this story is great- i read your first two stories aswell. i love all your pictures :D can't wait to read more:D

poor raven. we should send her a new one. um, or maybe just some cookies.

i love this story and your pictures are amazing :smile:

so i was wondering how did you get a child to hold a baby and feed a baby? and also how can you get it so twin babies are wearing different clothing?

Great chapter looking forward in reading the next one great job

i L0V3 UR STROLLERS

they're single strollers from Modthesims, put together.

OMG I have to have the hardest stone-heart in the world. I've read all of your stories, and they don't even sadden me. The sad stuff just brings an "Oh, that sucks, like, really bad."
Nothing against your stories, I just have a hard time crying... or getting sad... ever since a few years ago. Something bad happened to me so yeah...



-ME

Awwww, what a well written and sad story.
I cant waint to read more. Its beautiful.

Thanks for all the comments :)

I'm trying to do the next chapter right now (just having a little break...). Will hopefully be able to finish it sometime the next few days (as long as my computer co-operates with me...)

It´s soooooooo good but from where did you get this baby bedding??

lol:lol:

oohh i forgot to ask - how do have two diaper overides in your game? it only allows me to have one? :S thankss.
cant wait for update xD

well, that's just a trick (that takes too long for anyone else than me to have the patience of doing...). You really can't have two overrides.

what baby bedding, lehm?

oh, and I only have a few pictures left to edit. The chapter will hopefully be up sometime today or tomorrow. I'm cleaning my room at the moment. Already filled an entire box with books, and that's just the beginning... my room looks almost worse than our attic, so I guess it's needed...

[ATTACH]127993[/ATTACH]

This baby bedding.

ah.

The pillows are from here (http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/sims2/meshes/652869/) (a recolor of these)

The beds are called hansen (http://sims-2.gameslife.ru/objects_sets18.htm) (there are several recolors at thesimsresource.com too)

the veil thingies are from here (http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/sims2/sets/702267/)

Thank you soooooo much!!!!!

Oh Em Gee...
This Story Is Soo Good =]
But Also Veryy Sad =[
AShh xx

I had to part the chapter into two parts, since I had over 20 pictures altogether. Long chapter... But I hope you like it :)


"NO NEEDLE, NO NEEDLE, NO NEEDLE!" Aidan screamed, and threw his hands around my neck for protection against the big, scary and dangerous doctors standing around him, making sure to hide his hands deep into my hair.


"Sorry. He's been like this for a few months now," I said to the waiting anesthesiologist who was about to stick the IV in Aidan's hand. Aidan sniffled, and hugged me even tighter, watching the man like he was some kind of dangerous monster with sharp teeth. In Aidan's eyes, he was.
"Don't worry, I'm used to this," the anesthesiologist said.
"Aidan?" I asked the little boy in my arms.


He was just a little over two years now, and was in for his fourth heart surgery. Poor little guy. He'd already spent almost a third of his life at the hospital, and had started hating everything about it. Especially anything including needles.
"You know you've had ouches in your chest?" I said to him. We'd had this conversation several times before, but safe at home was something else than just outside the OR.
Aidan looked up at me, tears making his eyes red.
"Bad ouches! Me go owie," Aidan sniffled, and buried his head in my hair again.


"Yes, bad bad ouches! But you know what? If you let Celina carry you into the big room behind that door there, she will make you go asleep, and when you wake up, the ouches will be gone."
Aidan stared at me with his big blue eyes. "Wow! No ouches?"


"No more ouches."
I hoped I was right this time.
Aidan looked over at Celina. He was terrified of most of the other doctors, but knew Celina was my friend and that I trusted her, so he usually trusted her too. Actually, she was pretty much the only doctor he trusted at the time (and that says a lot!).


"Will you go with her, then?" I asked.
"Mommy come too?" he said, with his irresistible puppy-eyes. I almost said yes.
"Mommy can't come. Not right now. But I promise I'll be there when you wake up."
"Big promise?"
"Big promise," I said, and hugged him again.
After this, he skeptically held out his hands toward Celina, who took the little boy carefully from me. He clung to her about as hard as he'd clung to me, sending terrified glances over at the anesthesiologist.  


"Is it OK if you do the IV after he's asleep?" I asked. Aidan usually accepted the IVs once they were in. Putting them in was the main problem.
"Of course," Celina said. "There's no reason to scare him any further."


Aidan waved his hand to me, and I waved back - until they disappeared through the door. I could feel the tears pressing on. I hated to leave my son in the hands of surgeons. I knew there was always that tiny little chance this was the last time I saw my little boy alive. All of us had made sure to give him lots of extra hugs the day before, and Lily had refused to sleep anywhere else than in Aidan's crib, even if the two of them together in one crib was pretty tight. None of them seemed to mind, though.


Celina was the best heart surgeon in the entire hospital, and I trusted her more than anyone else. But I still felt sick deep, deep inside me. Even a great surgeon could lose someone on the table, and I did not want that someone to be my son.


I went down to the NICU. When I reached the door, the tears didn't want to stay back any longer, and I slumped down in a corner, crying.


After spending a year at home with Aidan and Lily, I'd gone back to work. It was a workday today, but my boss had said I could take the day off because of Aidan. I didn't want to. Working took my thoughts away from my little boy lying on a surgery table, having his chest cut open.
But right now I needed to get everything out. Every bad feeling. Every dark thought.
"You OK, Jenna?" Molly asked when she spotted me sitting there.


"Not really," I answered, and looked up at her.
Molly crouched down next to me. "You can take the day off if you want. No one can blame you for that."


"I know. I just need something else to concentrate on. If I take the day off, I'll just sit the entire day in a chair, crying. I need to direct my thoughts elsewhere."


Molly put her arm around my shoulders, and we sat there in silence for a few minutes. Molly was a bit younger than me, and I'd been her mentor for a small part of her nursing studies while she'd done additional pediatric courses. Her calm and positive nature made her a perfect fit for the NICU, and she always made everyone around her feel good, including the babies and parents. When we went on to become colleagues, she quickly became one of my best friends.


When I finally managed to collect my head and dry my tears, Molly helped me up.
We walked in silence into the NICU, and after I had dried away the final tear, I promised myself to be strong for Aidan the rest of the day.

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(the rest of the chapter will come soon :))

Ooooh! 0 _ o

Sooo good! I can't wait for the next part!

This is a really good story! PLease let Aiden be okay! I am begging you!

awh, i want aiden to be okay!
great story! im hoooked

Here's the second part. Just have to finish tidying and cleaning my room before doing the next chapter...


The NICU had one of its calm periods with fewer than usual critical patients. We had a 28-weeker on her second week of Bili-light treatment for jaundice, a 32-weeker with breathing problems, and a boy who'd been born a couple days ago with a hole in his diaphragm, awaiting surgery. A set of twins born almost four months too early had been very critical for a while, but for the moment they were stable and seemed to be thriving. 
Caring for the babies felt like therapy to me - even though the little ones reminded me a bit too much of my own children when they had been born. It was also the only way for me to block out anything else.
A couple sat next to one of the incubators, holding the hand of a little boy who'd been born with a hole in his heart, and had gone through surgery a few days earlier.   


They had the worried looks I recognized from my own face the time it had been me sitting there, and the boy reminded me a little bit of Aidan.


To distract myself, I quickly read his chart and the new notes Celina had made earlier. He had been taken off the ventilator the day before, and was already showing signs of having the intended effect from the surgery. His fingers and toes were no longer blue, and he was showing interest in taking bottles. 
I smiled to the mother. "Nathan sure is a little trooper, and it looks like he's doing very well. Would you like to hold him?"
"Can we?" she asked, her face lighting up.
"According to the doctor he should be strong enough now," I said, and opened up the walls of the incubator. I untangled a few of the wires, and lifted the baby out, deciding to do a quick diaper check first.


I swaddled him in a warm blanket, making sure all the wires and tubes were secured.
"Here he is," I said, and handed him carefully over to his mother.


She brightened up like the sun.
This was one of the things I liked the best with my job - seeing the happy faces of parents who were allowed to hold their children for the first time.


I remembered the first time we had been allowed to hold Aidan. He had been nearly three months old, and we had needed to use gloves and facemasks when we were handling him because he still was weak after all the infections he'd had.


Touching your little baby with gloves on just isn't the same. I had been so happy that day when we could finally discard the masks and gloves, and actually touch him. Hold him. Kiss him. Feel like we were really his parents.

The first time I had held Tony - and of course Lily - had been amazing too. Most mothers get to hold their children immediately after they are born. Holding Erica just seconds after her birth, all slimy and crying, had been one of the best moments in my life. Being able to take her home after just a few days in the hospital had felt even better.


When the baby was premature it could go days, weeks or even months before the parents were allowed to hold their baby. But when you were allowed, it was the best thing in the world.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

A few hours later, during our lunch break, Celina came in.
"The surgery went well. Aidan is in the PACU now, sleeping off the anesthesia. We'll have to monitor him closely for a few hours, since he had some troubles breathing after the anesthesia. The oxygen level in his blood is a bit too low at the moment, but he's getting there."
I hugged her, and followed her up to the PACU.


I then called Peter, and sat down next to Aidan's bed, taking his hand. I sat with him until they decided to move him to the Pediatric ICU, followed him there, and sat down by his bed again.


Peter came down to the hospital after handing off the rest of the kids to my parents.


After several hours of waiting, about an hour after Aidan had started breathing on his own and the tube had been removed, he finally woke up.


Groggy and rather grumpy, he reached his arms toward me, and I lifted him up, comforting him and telling him everything would be OK.


I hoped I was telling him the truth.

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i feel sooo bad for Aidan...and your photoshopping didnt look crappy also where'd you get jenna's hair?? this story makes me cry, and i dont cry easily... good updates :D

thanks :D

Jenna's hair is most likely a peggyzone one (either donation or free). Don't have much else in my DL folder right now besides peggy hairs. Got tired of most of the XM ones that I had. besides - the hairs I never used (but downloaded anyway) took a lot of space that I needed for other things.

wow, i just love this story more&&more everytime =]
your photoshopping isnt crappy, it's awesome!
i can tell that you put a lot of though into this story..
i love it how you know how to explain everything in
order for us to understand exactly what you are trying to say.
love the update:D

I love your stories. I can't wait to read more of this one!

Great Job Theraven!
Very good, and sad aswell.
Where did you get the hack that allowed Tony to hold Aidan?

I just realised that it might be possible for somone to make a oxygen tube for toddlers using the soother mesh. You might want to talk to one of the better meshers about it.

Wow theraven, this story is just amazing. I never cry. Never. But when he was screaming about "no needles!!" I just lost it. Great work.

thanks everyone :D

and that's an idea, Egghugger! I've thought the same thing myself, but since I'm more of a recolorer than a mesher, that's someone elses job (right now, anyway - but it might change in a few months... I'm starting 3D animation in just a few weeks, and I just can't wait!!! :D)

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oh, and before I recieve another PM about the animations I used for Tony, i might as well post the explanation so that everyone can see:

I used the good "old-fashion" "insimenator" way - Tony is really a teen in a child's body in some of the pictures. Same goes with Erica (teen as toddler).

you need:
the Insim machine and the insim Summoner, the OMSP from MTS2, an invisible version of the OFB magisplay tray thingy, the Moveobjects on and Boolprop snapobjectstogrid false cheat codes + a lot of patience, since trial and failing is a big part of a photoshoot. (you might also need an older/younger version of the sim you're going to use)

You must have a sim in the age you want the sim to behave like (he must be saved as this age, meaning that you can't age him to this before the next step - unless you save, quit and reload the lot), and then you age him down/up (blue part of the insim machine) to the age he's supposed to look like. Then you delete him, and summon him back again with the summoner (restore family). Remember that the poses will act a bit weird for all ages, but they can now use poses for other ages - children will be able to use adult/teen poses. BUT: toddlers/children will hover in the air as older ages, while teens/adults will crouch a little as younger ages.

For the poses, I used the model pose box (and the depression pose box for some of the pics in the last chapter) from MTS2, posed Tony, put a bottle and the baby on the ground, clicked on the bottle and chose "feed baby". I can't remember what pose I used for Erica in the same picture, but it was one of the pose boxes from http://www.JD-movies.com

The OMSPs and the OFB tray is used for placing the sims higher than the poses normally are.

Remember that you do this on your own risk, meaning that saving the game after messing around with especially insim and the magisplay tray MIGHT do strange things to your game (I lost a really cute toddler because of the tray - luckily I didn't save, so I got him back). I try to avoid live mode when playing around (That's how I lost the toddler), and take everyone off the trays before changing to live mode again.

I recommend trying the techniques on a test lot the first times you play around with them.

i can't wait for the next chapter

Aww that was a wonderfull update, and dont worry about your photoshopping skill.
Ive never seen such good photoshopping skills used for a the sims pics.
Its hard to photoshop into sims but you did a great job.
And thanks for the pointers on how to get your toddlers to act like teens.
I'll try it :D

I can't say for sure when the next chapter will be ready. I have a lot to do in real-life before even thinking of spending a day or two to do the pictures...
and the story just keeps on getting longer. I've already added two chapters to the text today... Have to use the inspiration when it finally shows up, you know :D

I'm also doing some infant outfit testing in between all the cleaning and tidying i'm doing n my room (but I can actually see parts of my floor now that I've not seen in maybe two years, so I'm getting there :). That's how it goes when your room is used for a personal store room...)

Great Chapter looking forward in reading the rest of the story

omg that was so good! adian is so adorable!!! i want him XD i think hes the cutest todd i've ever seen! "no needles" i thought aww pooor litle boy but i loled at how cute he looked XD i want him.. cant wait to read more :D

I might concider uploading him... but it will have to wait a little.

I'm still cleaning up that &¤&/%¤ room (and since mom decided she might as well make me help tidy up a few extra rooms, it might take longer than I'd hoped to finish cleaning...) - but I'll try to finish it sometime next week.

(and if you read my story, and like it - please leave comments. I love getting comments :D)

i luv this story! I haven't cried cause i can't (had surgery last week and still recovering) but its really good!

Please update, were dying out here!

This is such a beautifully sad story. I love looking at your pictures, very well composed and inspiring! I really want to start a story to test out the toddler/teen thing now. :D
Hanging on for the next update :-P

I've finally started. I'm halfway done with the pics right now - but I need some sleep before doing the rest of them.

my real life is a bit hectic right now. I'm moving to a new apartment on monday or tuesday, since school starts again in a week, and I've also been cleaning my quite messy room at home (now it looks better than for at least 4-5 years ago...) and packing away most of it's contents. I just haven't had much time to sit down and do the pics. But I'll try to get the new chapter up by Sunday :)

Two weeks later we could finally take Aidan home from the hospital. He was not allowed to go to daycare yet, because of the danger of infections after an open heart surgery, so I had to stay home with him for a couple weeks until the wound had healed properly. Lily was really happy about that, since it meant both she and Erica could stay home, too. I didn't want the two of them to drag home any germs when Aidan's immune defense was not on top. At least Aidan had someone to play with when the girls were home. Tony was not happy, since he still had to go to school.

****************************************************

"Can we go pitnick?" Aidan asked me one Friday, as I was cutting up some vegetables for dinner. He'd been restless all day, and had grown tired of his usual activities, which included anything that didn't require too much moving around.


"Picnic, you mean?"
"Yeah, pitnick. With cake and ife cleam and froot and zrofen piffa. Can we?"
I smiled at him. "Maybe this weekend, so everyone can go."
"Best mommy," he said, and hugged my leg - before waddling away into the living room again.


That boy... every other week he asked me if we could go for picnics. He loved the park, where he could smell the flowers, and of course bring a bunch of them to me or Peter.


He loved to watch the birds, and feed them with the stale bread I always brought (or tiptoe up to the poor creatures before jumping out and scare them, giggling when they quacked and skidded along the water surface to get way), and he loved to scare Erica with the insects she couldn't stand - wriggling them in front of her face until she screamed.
They all loved the park, and I knew Aidan's suggestion would be welcomed.  
Tony enjoyed playing football and other games with the other children his age.  


Erica loved to make sand cities and rivers in the sand box at the playground (and smash them up playing dinosaur afterwards).


Lily couldn't get enough of the ducks, and would stare at them for hours, giggling while feeding them, or screaming if one of the ducks decided to run after her. If she found ducklings in the grass, she would and follow them around making quacking noises until they jumped into the water.


They all loved the food.
And I loved to be a part of one of the happy families there.
I wrote down a new shopping list and almost had to throw Peter out the door to go to the grocery store (football game on TV - says all...), sending Erica and Tony with him to get some peace and quiet.


Erica because I needed to separate her and Lily since the two of them had just gone berserk at each other again, arguing over some toys; and Tony because Peter could need some help with finding the groceries and carrying bags.

The next day, we packed the diaper bag, the cooler and the picnic basket, dressed the twins, and then helped Erica get dressed (she insisted on doing it herself, and I ended up spending ten minutes untying her shoelaces which she had somehow twiddled together).


Then I yelled for Tony to hurry while Peter put the twins in their stroller. When Tony finally had the decency to tear his face away from the computer screen and drag himself downstairs, we all went outside and headed for the park.

After yelling for everyone to stay within eyesight (and remind Tony to watch his siblings for the umpteenth time since leaving the house), we sat down near the water so we could keep an eye on Lily and the ducks.
After sitting there relaxing for a while, hunger eventually took them all, and I unpacked the food - cakes, muffins, fruit salad, ice cream, sandwiches, pizza and a lot more.


They all ate in a hurry, and took off again.
Picnics were a brilliant chance for Peter and me to be a little romantic. With four kids, romance wasn't much of a priority most days.


We didn't take it too far of course. Just a little kissing and cuddling - while at the same time trying to keep an eye on the kids.
Peter was just in the middle of feeding me some grapes, when Erica came running. She looked rather upset.
"Mommy, come!"


"What is it, dear?"
"Aidan fell down from the monkey bars, and he's crying!"
I jumped up, and ran after Erica.


Over at the playground, several children stood around someone on the ground. I ran over.
Aidan was sitting with his back against the monkey bars, wailing and holding his forehead.


"There, there. Mommy's here now," I said. "Where does it hurt?"
"Owie head," Aidan sniffled, and I carefully took away his hand. He was bleeding a little, and he also had a scratch on his chin - but it didn't look like he was going to need stitches or anything, since the cuts weren't deep.  


I'd have to watch him for a few days - just to make sure he hadn't gotten a concussion or something. You never knew, especially when kids hit their head. What seemed like a small scratch could turn out to be something a lot more serious.  
I scooped him up in my arms, and hugged him, comforting him until he'd calmed down a bit.


Then I carried him over to where Peter sat, and took out the mini first-aid kit I always brought with me to the park. Four kids had taught me to always come prepared.


I cleaned the wound, and put on a Sesame Street band-aid. He had a few other scratches too - but nothing serious. Luckily the monkey bars were low, and the ground was soft underneath.


"Does it hurt other places," I asked him.  
"No," he sniffled.
"What happened?"
"Lost gwip."
"You lost your grip?"
He nodded.
"You have to be more careful, Aidan."
"Was! Said lost gwip!"


"Well, no more climbing or running around for you today. You can feed the ducks with Lily if you want."
He threw me an annoyed look, but didn't say more. I handed him another ice cream from the cooling bag, before he waddled over to steal some bread from Lily.


We stayed a little longer - just long enough for Lily and Aidan to use the rest of the bread to feed the ducks, and for Tony to finish up a football match with his buddies. Then we packed our things and went home.

As I was playing with the twins and Erica after dinner that evening I noticed Aidan moved around very stiffly - at least compared to Lily. While she was running around, Aidan still had troubles keeping up with her, doing more of a waddle than a run. I guessed Aidan had gotten a few more bruises than I'd noticed from the fall.


But when I changed his diaper before putting him to bed, there were only a few purple bruises to see - none of them big.


Though, his calves looked a bit swollen for some reason.
Strange.

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Hope you liked it :)

Great chapter looking forward in reading the rest. keep up the good work.

Raven I love this story I don't know why I never saw it.  Just read through all of it and my heart just aches for Aidan and his sweet Mommy.

Don't know why it reminds me of that movie Unbreakable where the guy was born with broken bones and things just got progressively worse for him.
Maybe because it was just on tv recently and I watched again.

I hope Aidan has a happier experience.

awww i love this story, i'd publish your stories if  knew how and had enought money :)

thanks everyone :)

Awww sweet update but i hope nothing happend to Aiden when he fell.

wher do you get the medical outfit for aidan

I've made all the medical outfits myself :)

infant outfits I make recolors for myself, and the other outfits I did in bodyshop.

I'm in love with your story. Some of it made me cry. Good work, I hope you can update soon.

aww..i love this story!
ohh no..poor Aydan
he never got better =[
love the story!

Hello Theraven!
I just wanted to say great work on the newest chapter. Aidan is just the cutest toddler:) Speaking of Aidan-- while trying to find out how popular my names was, I came across the meaning of the name Aidan, 'Little Fire'. I'm not sure if you or someone else has mentioned this before, but I thought that was neat. I'm sure you planned this, right?

thankies :D

well, that's actually the reason this story is named "little Fire" - because that's the meaning of Aidan (I actually mentioned it in chapter 3) :). I found it out myself when I was trying to figure out good names for Lily and Aidan, and a couple of other characters in another story. I also had a hard time finding a useful heading for the story, and when I saw that Aidan meant "little fire" (or just "fire") - well, the heading gave itself :)

Lily means "purity, innocence, beauty", and although Lily isn't exactly the most innocent toddler (when it comes to her sister-fights with Erica, at least), she's a really good sister to Aidan (and quite adorable - if I have to say so myself :D. She lives up to her name even more later in the story, actually. I based her a tiny little bit off from Harry Potter's mother, Lily).

Gasp! I'm scared! And if you kill aiden I'll die!

awww adian is actually too cuteee XDXDXD i soooo want himm... when he fell of the monkey bars i was like omg you poor lil boy.. :/ you set up the park scene realy good - all you pictures are amazing !! can't wait to see more of this stroy.. i wonder whats the matter with adians calveS?

A few months later, I took Aidan and Lily to their periodical control. Lily charmed herself through everything, and she - unlike Aidan - had no problems with needles, even holding out her arm toward the nurse without being asked, not so much as averting her eyes when the needle went in. Honestly, it wasn't often I saw three year olds smiling when taking a blood sample! Aidan made a big scene as usual, but Lily let him borrow her giraffe toy and proceeded to hold his other hand while the nurse drew blood, which calmed him down quite a bit. He was very happy when it turned out the nurse had an Elmo band-aid to put on the tiny pinprick wound, but the moment the doctor mentioned the word "vaccine" he had a crying fit lasting pretty much throughout the entire ordeal, and no amount of comforting helped.


"Lily is progressing fine," Dr. Walters finally said - after giving Lily a bright red (sugar-free, of course) lollipop for sitting quietly and behaving nice. He had given a green one to Aidan, which was now stuck to the kid's forehead, tangled in his hair because he'd fallen asleep on top of it, exhausted from all the crying.


"She is already on level with other children her age and is putting on weight and growing like she should. For now it doesn't seem like she she's at risk of learning difficulties or other problems related to premature birth, but it's of course a bit too early to tell yet."
Without being asked, Lily had proudly counted to ten using her fingers, and sung the entire ABC song for him, which she must have picked up from a kids' TV program. A couple of the letters had been mixed up, but what could you really expect from a 3-year-old? Aidan had watched her and smiled, nodding his head in tact with the song.
Dr. Walters sighed, and leaned forwards.
"But I'm getting worried for your son, Jenna," he said, indicating Aidan.


"Aidan is still having troubles walking, and he's not growing as fast as he should. Even though he has spent a lot of time in the hospital, he should not be as far behind his sister as he is. It could be related to his heart problems, but I'm woried there might be something we've overlooked."
I hugged the sleeping boy in my arms. Lily, who sat in the stroller, was playing with her doll and offering it some of her lollipop. She glanced up at the mention of her brother, but quickly turned her attention back to the doll again.


"You have any idea what it might be?" I asked, trying to untangle the lollipop from Aidan's hair.
"I have a few suspicions, but I don't want to say them out loud until I'm sure."


I shivered.
We had been in and out of the hospital since getting Aidan home. He'd had several infections, heart failure, feeding problems the first year, and a number of smaller issues. He really didn't need more now.
Still struggling with the lollipop in Aidan's hair, I almost felt tempted to rip it straight out - until Dr. Walters handed me some scissors. I took them, and finally managed to get the sticky thing out of the boy's hair, throwing it in the paper bin. Aidan lost a small part of his fringe, but it would grow back out.


"Aidan's muscles are weaker than they should be," Dr. Walters said, "and at the last checkup I thought the frequent hospital stays and his heart condition could be blamed - but now I'm not so sure. He's lagging even further behind than last time, and there's a mild stiffness in his joints I don't like. You saw yourself how Lily managed to do everything, but how Aidan struggled doing the same things? He's at least 6 months or more behind in motor skills, struggling with what children his age should be able to do easily."


I nodded. Dr. Walters had made the twins pick up toys, run, jump and generally move around to see how they used their bodies. Lily had done everything right, but Aidan had struggled. Picking up small items from the floor and walking steadily - among other things - seemed difficult to him. While Lily's favorite activity was jumping on the couch, I had never seen Aidan try jumping before, and he had not managed it this time. He'd tried, but had stumbled and fallen down on the mat under him instead. Lily loved being chased around by her older siblings, running around and laughing. Aidan's top speed was more of a faster waddling walk, often a little bit unsteady. He also had these strange ways of getting up again whenever he fell down - sort of climbing his hands up his legs until he reached a standing position. He'd always gotten tired easily because of his heart, and while the previous corrective surgery had given him an extra energy boost, I'd recently noticed moving around was more of a problem for him than getting tired.


"Is it OK if we keep him here for the night to do some more extensive tests?" Dr. Walters asked. "It's probably a good idea if you stay overnight, too. Him and needles, you know."
I nodded, not quite trusting my voice. I hated the thought of Aidan going through a bunch of testing, not looking forward to yet another round of screaming and panic attacks.


I followed Dr. Walters to the Pediatric Unit where Aidan was supposed to stay for the night. Aidan woke up halfway there, recognized his surroundings, and did not at all like to be back. Too many bad memories, I guess. I tried helping Aidan into a toddler-sized hospital gown, but he freaked out just by the sight of it, so I ended up letting him wear only his diaper.


Then I called Peter and asked him to pick up Lily. I had to take a night shift in the evening anyway, so it was not a big deal staying close to Aidan. It only meant less sleep in the morning for me.
At the end of the day I felt really sorry for my little boy. If he had hated the doctors before, he loathed them now.


After dangerous syringes, a "vewy skewy" MRI machine, masked doctors and several other big traumas later, he finally fell asleep crying in my lap. They'd ended up having to put him under light anesthesia to do the MRI, and he was groggy the rest of the evening.


I put him gently down in the hospital bed, knowing the next day would be just as bad for him. He was a brave little boy, but after spending almost a third of his life in a hospital, he'd gotten enough of it. I understood him well, because I hated seeing this happen to my little boy. Why couldn't he be just as healthy as the other children in his daycare? Why did he have to be sick?


I found myself asking questions again. Questions that couldn't be answered.
I sat with him for a while, making sure he was asleep before walking up to the NICU for my night shift, planning to catch a couple of hours' worth of sleep in one of the on-call rooms after my shift ended.


I told the nurses to tell me immediately if he woke up during the night, but thankfully he didn't.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The next day, as I had predicted, was equally bad for Aidan. He went crazy when they tried taking yet a blood sample, and I had to hold my crying and hysterical little boy tight while they stuck their dangerous, sharp needles into his arms - and leg, when they did a muscle biopsy. Numbing up the area wasn't much helpful, because at the sight of the needle he had a full-out panic attack, kicking and screaming.


My best tries at comforting him didn't help, and I almost started wishing Lily was there.
When they finally finished with the tests, Aidan relaxed a little. The other tests that day weren't as bad, so he calmed down enough not to attack anyone. His survival instincts were really strong, especially inside a hospital. It had ended with biting a few times, and more often than not he had to be sedated. Once he had stressed so much while they were taking a blood sample his heart had almost stopped.
Poor little guy.
When I could finally take him home, he turned his head toward the hospital and stuck out his tongue. Then he turned back and gave me a sunny smile - knowing we were going home, and were freed from the hospital, at least for a little while.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

A week later, I had just finished making dinner when the phone called. Putting down Lily on the floor (she was still screaming for ice cream even though I had clearly told her more than enough times we had to eat dinner first), I ran toward the phone before Aidan reached it. He loved talking in the phone, and had become my automatical answering service for phone sellers.


"Hello? It's Jenna Brooks," I said.
"Hello. It's Dr. Julian Walters. I was wondering if you, and hopefully Peter too, could come down to my office tomorrow at around two. It's Aidan's test results. I'd rather not take them over the phone."


Shivers ran down my back as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water down my shirt.
Coming down to the office.
It could mean only one thing.
Bad news.
I promised to come, and hung up.
"Kids, dinner!" I yelled, and dialed Peter's mobile number. Dinner was getting cold, and he still hadn't shown up.


"Hi, Jenna," he answered.
"Hi. Where are you Peter? Dinner is getting cold."
"Don't say you don't remember, Jenna. I'm on a filming job. I told you a few days ago. We just arrived by plane now. I'm sitting at the airport, waiting for the cab."
"Darn. I'd totally forgotten. When are you coming home? Dr. Walters called. They got Aidan's test results today. He asked us to show up tomorrow at two."


"I wish I could come with you, Jenna, but it's pretty much impossible for me to get away from here. The next plane is tomorrow anyway. I guess we're home around three. I'll pick up the kids on my way home, if that's ok."
"I wish you could be here, too. I have a bad feeling about the results."
"You worry too much, Jenna. I'm sure you're just overreacting."
"Well, I don't know."
Just then, Tony came in carrying Aidan, while the girls were hanging off his legs.
"Is it dad? Can you say hallo for us?" he asked.
"You can say hello yourself, if you want," I said, and held up the phone.
All four yelled loudly into it, "HELLO DADDY!"


"Hello, I love you all, and be nice to mommy!" Peter yelled back. I put the receiver to my ear again. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Jenna. I love you."
"I love you, too. Bye."
"Bye."
I hung up, and started serving food, all the while lost in my own thoughts. The kids didn?t seem to pick up on my mood, having their usual arguments over who got the most apple juice in their cup or not wanting to eat their greens.


I did not look forward to tomorrow.
Not at all.



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Great chapter i am looking forward in reading the next chapter great story

Gasp! STOP KILLING AIDEN! :crybaby::crybaby::crybaby:

*shock* theraven, STOP HURTIN POOR AIDAN!!! great update.

Ohh the anticipation we're left with. i can't wait.

AGH! CLIFFHANGER! I HATE YOU!

Lol, just kidding. Fantastic update, can't wait for the next one!!

please update and give lily some love in every story its always about the little baby the boy i forget his name lily needs sopme love and tony and ercia you alwasy say there trouble but they your kids just love them

:O Amazing, cant waint til next update.
Please dont kill poor Aiden :(

*sigh* I feel soooooo bad right now... :D

( = expect anything....)

theraven, i am truley addicted to your storys. Although the anticipation KILLS me!

i cant wait for the next chapter!

thanks everyone :)

I'll try to do a couple of chapters this weekend. I have a feeling that with almost two years of schoolwork put into only one school year (according to my teacher) will take up a lot of my time, so it's best to do it while I can still enjoy a quiet weekend...

YAY! chapter!

LOL!  That was a great teaser theraven.  Hopefully poor Aiden will survive all this!

I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. I'm almost done with the pics, but becuase of my (still) extremely slow computer, pictures takes at least three times the time as with any other computer...

Wuh, guh, WAAAH!
I read the last of it! NOOOOO!

*kstradleigh gets out pitchfork and torch*
upload another chapter....or else! :chainsaw:
and
NO KILLING :angel:AIDEN!:angel:

No! I can't wait for the next chapter!
Praying for Aiden!

updated the ch.9 pictures :)

this time I just want to finish the pictures for ch.10 before posting it. I feel it's a bit important, since the pics in that chapter are very important for the story... I've got a lot to do right now, since school has started, so I'll probably only have the wekends free to work on the story pictures.
(Now I'm officially a 3D animation student, so hopefully it's not long until I can make my own Sims2 CC - or until I can finally get a few of my movie ideas out of my head, or some of my stories in "live action" :D)

where did you get the happy raindrop set

Sweet :thumbup:

thanks for the comments everyone :)

(I actually managed to make my first animations today at school - even though we've not really learned how to do it yet :D. A chicken with blinking eyes, one with a man slipping on a banana peel - though without the banana peel itself :D, and a dog lying down on the gound while wagging it's tail. The characters are just simple meshes yet - boxes and spheres, but it's fun anyway. And it was only my fourth day working with 3D max, so I'm a bit proud of myself :D)

Arielle, I got the raindrop set somewhere among the room pictures at either http://www.sims2community.com or http://www.sims2supernova.com - but it might have been uploaded at MTS2 too.

and I promise that my next post will be an update - as long as my computer co-operates...

sorry about the other  comment about love listen to john lennon gets my all sad and werid but stil you should right books in rl i would be the first person to buy them
                          loner at 13
by the way where did u get angela baby outfit in Anns diary tear tear i cried at that too

thanks :)
If it's the infant outfit you mean, it's the last one here (http://www.tsc2.co.uk/version12/index.php?page=downloadlist&cat=clothing&sub=female&sub2=infant)

and the next chapter will be up sometime the next hour. Loading the pics to photobucket now :)
it's a long chapter - to make up for the long wait :)

EDIT: sorry - I had net problems...

its been more than an hour

lol

this waiting is KILLING me

I have no idea how I got home alive and in one piece after hearing what the doctor had to say.


One moment I sat stunned on a chair in his office, and the next I slammed the car door shut after me in the garage. The time between was mostly gone from my memory. All that was left was the talk with Dr. Walters.
And the questions.


Looking at my watch, I realized I had sat in the car for at least half an hour at the parking lot outside the hospital before I had calmed down my thoughts enough to start the car.
I also faintly remembered I had almost hit a street light on the way home.
"I'm afraid it's bad news Jenna," he had said. Not only bad. Nightmarish.
I mentally shook my head, trying to get at least some reality back into it, and opened the hallway door.
Right inside it, Aidan was sleeping in his stroller.


I tiptoed past him, almost tripping over Peter's suitcase. He had apparently just come home with the children, because the hallway looked like the usual tornado attack.
For once I ignored the mess. I needed to speak with my family.
"How did it go?" Peter asked as I entered the kitchen. He must have done the dishes from that morning, because he was drying his hands on a towel and there were no signs of dirty cups or plates anywhere, even though there had been a stack large enough to compete with the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the sink before I left the house.


I looked at him, and all of a sudden tears started forming in my eyes. The lump in my throat hindered speaking.
"That bad?" Peter whispered, as the towel slipped from his fingers. He put his arm around me, and drew me into a tight hug.
"He's got... he's..." I tried to say, but by mouth just didn't want to work.
"There, there. Just calm down, Jenna. What did the doctor say?"
Peter sounded all other than calm.


I had to swallow several times before I managed to say anything.
"He... he's got a muscle disease called... called... Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy," I finally managed.
Peter's face went white.
"Duchenne?"
"You've heard of it?" I asked, surprised he knew of it.


"Yes... One of my colleagues had a boy with the disease. He... he ended up in a wheelchair, and... and got problems breathing. He... he was twenty-three when... when he...." his voice faltered.
I looked at him, and just sank into his arms, crying.
Just then, Tony came in.
"Why are you crying?" he asked, his face filled with worry.


I swallowed, trying to control myself.
"Can you find the girls, Tony?" I said, and dried my eyes. "There's something important I have to tell you all."
As Tony went into the living room, Peter touched my shoulder. "Are you sure it's a good idea to tell them?"


I looked him in the eyes. "They have a right to know. He's their brother."
"You don't think it's a better idea to wait ? you know, to let ourselves get used to the thought first?"
"It won't help. And I will never get used to the thought that our son is sick. You of all should know this."
I picked up Aidan, and carried the sleepy little boy with me into the living room. In his sleep he snuggled up to me, hair tufts tickling my neck. I kissed the top of his head, wondering if he would ever be able to forgive me. His life hadn't been easy up until now, and it was about to get even more difficult.
In the couch, Lily and Erica were in the middle of one of their daily arguments. More of a fight, to be honest, shouting at each other and waving their hands around.


They had most likely played princesses or fairy tea party, or something of the sort, because both of them were dressed up in pink tutus, carrying purple wands with big pink stars on them. The living room looked horrible, since they had used the sofa pillows to build a pillow castle which had collapsed all over the floor. Tony effectively separated the catfight by sitting down in the middle of the girls. Lily peeked out from Tony's back, and stuck out her tongue out loudly to Erica, who answered back the same way.
"Girls, stop that," I said, and handed a still sleepy Aidan to his big brother. Aidan curled up on Tony's lap and continued slumbering.  


"What was it you had to tell us, mom?" Tony asked, putting Aidan into a more comfortable position in his arms.
"It's about your brother," I said, and nodded toward Aidan.


"Does he need another surgery or something?" Tony asked and looked down at Aidan, worry in his eyes.
"No. Not now, anyway. It's..."
I didn't know how to say it.
How do you tell your children their brother is dying?
"Aidan is sicker than we first thought. He..." I struggled to explain this so the girls also would understand, while at the same time fighting with the tears threatening to break out again.


"He's... very sick. The doctor said he has a disease that makes his muscles weaken, little by little. It's not so easy to see it now, but when he grows a bit older he will have problems walking. He will most likely have to use a wheelchair soon."
"Almost like great-gramps?" Erica asked, talking about Peter's only surviving grandparent; now quite sick and immobile, living out his last days in a nursing home.


"Yes, almost like him. Only... only faster. Great-gramps didn't need a wheelchair until he was very old. Aidan will most likely need one when he's around eleven or twelve, maybe before. And... and after a time, he will get troubles breathing... and... and such. The... the doctor said Aidan most likely won't grow much older than..." I swallowed. "...Than twenty."
The girls frowned. To them, twenty years probably felt like an eternity. For Tony, not so much. He was already well over halfway there.  
"But... but... why?" Tony asked, tears forming in his eyes.


"I don't know."
I didn't lie, not really. I just couldn't tell them about the genetic test Dr. Walters had insisted on. Not until I was sure, anyway. The thought that I might be the cause of Aidan's disease was unbearable. I still didn't have a faintest idea how Aidan had gotten the disease, other than the knowledge of it being some kind of a genetic mutation, usually transferred from mother to son. But to my knowledge everyone else in our family had been healthy, so where could it have come from? In some cases it could be a random mutation, but the doctor had wanted to test me just in case. If it turned out I was a carrier, the girls could also be.
"Can't the doctors do something about it?" Tony asked, taking a firmer grip around Aidan's hand. "Medicine, or... or... anything?"


"There... there are no cures for this disease," I said. "Not at the moment, anyway. A few things may help to halt the disease, but not by much. Physiotherapy is one of those things. The doctor said some medications might help a little - but none will cure him, and... and he will get worse even if he use them."
Tony stared into open air, and I could see he was struggling to swallow what I had said. Tears were running down his cheeks in a stream now.


Erica just looked at me, then at Aidan, and I had no idea whether she understood what I had told them, much beyond that their brother was very sick. She hadn't even started school yet, still at the age where the only things she should have to worry about was playing and having fun.


"Aidan sick?" Lily asked, tears dripping down on the couch.
I felt so sorry for my little girl right then. I had spent too much of my time with my youngest son lately, almost forgetting he had a twin sister who also needed her mother.
I lifted Lily out of the couch, wrapped my arms around her, giving her a long hug.
"Aidan is very sick," I said.


I didn't tell them this to scare them, but I wanted my children to know the truth. I wanted them to know why their mommy had to be there for their youngest brother right now. The knowledge would be a burden for all of them, not just for me and Peter. I just had to hope they could handle it.


Lily wriggled out of my hands, and walked over to Aidan. She took out the purple wand, looked at it, and touched it to Aidan's forehead.
"Plink. Now Aidan is better," she said happily, and crawled up into the couch again, sitting down beside Tony, smiling wide.


I almost smiled, but my mouth didn't seem to work. Lily and Aidan loved each other, and apart from occasional friendly teasing they'd never had a fight I'd seen. I knew how Lily hated seeing her twin brother being sick.
"Thanks for trying, but I'm afraid it's not that easy, Lily," I said, stroking her cheek.
She stared at me solemnly, and tears appeared in her eyes.


I swallowed.
"But I wish it was..."



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


(like I said - *goes into hiding*)

No, please, no. Aidan is so cute. You cannot kill him like this. Please, have mercy! PLEEEEEEASE! If you kill him I will stop reading!!
Well, I'll try to stop reading, but your stories are too good!

*Tear tear* Poor  Aidan please keep him living

Great chapter looking forward in reading the rest.

oh.my.GOSH! theraven, please dont  kill off Aidan. he is too cute. if you kill him ill....steal ur newspaper (just kidding) anyways, dont kill him. *tear*

I cried...
You tell such great stories!!!

Thanks everyone :)

Hey, don't steal my newspaper, Calico! (wait... I don't even read newspapers except on the net - so you can't steal it ;))

and I've got at least ten chapters more... so it's a (very) long story. But it would ruin the surprise if I told you whether or not Aidan will be in them... And I won't tell!

aww..I'm heartbroken!  Poor Aidan ok now I demand a download of Aidan for my game so I can make him live healthly ever after at least in my own game!

That was a great chapter,but now I need a new one to read.Please update soon.

lol

Hello

I would like him in my Game as well please if its possible Thank you very much.

Pierre

we'll see :)

Right now I want to keep my characters for myself - at least for a little while...


(and no characters/actors are harmed in my stories - even Anna is still living... Though I had to reinstall the game before FreeTime, so I guess she's still somewhere in the backups on my extenal harddrive. I like to keep them all alive...)

This story is so addicting

cant wait for the next chapter

I can't get enough of this!

I just hope poor little Aiden gets better. He's so cute!


Question though, How did you make them different heights and such. I mean Lily and Aiden look bigger than toddlers. and Lily and tony! I'd love to know.

Aswell as how did you get the animations of Aiden sleeping on tonys lap and in the stroller?
Someone really needs to make a toddler animation box!

the stretchskeleton code
for Tony I used somewhere around 1.15 (he's around thirteen now), and for Erica 0.85 (she's about six years old now) - and both of them are children in the two last chapters. The toddlers are just normal sizes (but I sometimes use the code on them too)

stretchskeleton 0.85 (or the preferred number - 1.0 or 1 is normal - except for teens, who have 0.98 as default, if I'm not completely mistaken)

the animations are just simple "fall asleep" animations. I just took down his energy level to zero, and paused in the right moment.
I still use the old toddler animation hack by squinge (sims2graveyard.com) - but I hope he will give out an updated version of it. It's REALLY needed. Maybe especially one with new animations or poses. I have to be extremely creative with the ingame poses for the toddlers right now - and they never do what I want them to do anyway, even with free will off...

Thank you and i can wait

Do you know when you will do another update

im dying here

lol

I updated only 3 days ago :)

it takes some time to do the pics, so I only have time to do them in the wekend. I do however have another chapter almost finished - but it's good to have some backup if I'm busy during the weekend. The update will come a few days from now, maybe - so just have a little patience. I want the pictures to be good, not just some I've spent two minutes on each just to have something to post.

ok

I can wait

lol

Must say, I didn't see muscular dystrophy coming... when you said swollen calves, I assumed heart problems (venous oedema). Go figure. You must do a lot of research into different illnesses for your stories (either that or you've had some very unlucky personal experiences with illness :sad4: ).

wiki and youtube are good to start with - but I always find more reliable sources afterwards :). I always try to make my stories as realistic as possible, so research is very important. I got a bit inspired for this story because a girl in my class last year had a documentary photo project about DMD - about three brothers where the two youngest have the disease. Also, I've put in a few personal experiences from the time when my own brother was sick. Not from DMD - but he also had a disease without a cure, and sadly the doctors did not find out what it was until several years later.

My two other stories are a bit personal too - especially MAF. I've lost so many people I loved, and that sometimes just makes you forget to think about the good memories instead of the bad ones.

it's always like that: good stories are those that you do a lot of research for - but the best ones are those where you actually know what you're talking about. Without everything that has happened around me in my life, I know that my stories would never have been anywhere near where they are now. And if you've ever heard that writing is good therapy - it's true! Since I get out most of my frustration and sadness in my stories, I feel happy most of the time otherwise - believe it or not :)

I'm sorry to hear about your brother. I always worry about asking personal questions, as I realise they can make people feel sad, so I'm sorry if I made you feel bad. I really like your stories though. Keep up the good work!

 were did you get lilys oufit in that post and her hair and adians outfit and hair great story

Aidan's outfit is here (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=288268). His hair is Raon nr.17

Lily's hair is a peggyzone hair. The outfit is from http://www.simphany.com/

poor adian :(... this is so great. :D

One week after Aidan had been diagnosed, everything still felt hazy. My concentration faltered every time my mind brought up a picture of Aidan in a wheelchair, or worse - a gravestone with Aidan's name on it. I spent evenings after the kids were in bed reading about Duchenne, and every time I closed down my laptop I wished I hadn't even opened it.


The little ones were running around as normal, and had probably forgotten everything already. I knew I couldn't forget. Not now, not ever.
Around the kids I tried to act normal, like nothing was wrong. But alone...
I found myself dropping items I was holding, burning food, forgetting simple things like turning on the washing machine after filling it, and else lose track of what I was doing several times a day. I noticed the same tendencies in Peter, and the following few weeks he spent more time at work, probably to keep his mind off worrying.


And all the while, the tears did not want to stop.
The genetic test the doctor had done on me showed I did indeed carry the gene mutation which was the cause of Aidan's condition. After testing me, the doctor had asked us if we wanted to test the girls, too. We'd said yes, because it could have implications for their future kids. The answer on those tests hadn't come back yet. I could only hope they had not inherited it.
I'd just discovered I had somehow managed to burn the spaghetti sauce when the phone rang. I turned off the oven, leaving the pot with the brownish sauce in the sink before I went to answer.
"Jenna Brooks."


"Hello, it's Madeleine Harris. Tony's teacher. I was wondering if you and Peter could come down to the school tomorrow afternoon. I need to talk to you about Tony."
Great. Even more trouble.
Wondering what on earth could be the problem now, I promised to come the next day.
Just then, the doorbell called, and I went to see who it was.
"Hi there, Jenna!" Mom said, smiling, as I opened the door. She gave me a long hug, and stepped aside, so dad could give me a hug, too.


They both had a nice tan, after a two-week vacation to Spain, so I hadn't had the opportunity to talk with them before now. This wasn't something I wanted to break over the phone.
"It's so good to see you," I said, and tried to smile.
Mom grabbed my shoulders, holding me at arm's length, studying me closely.


"What's wrong, Jenna? You've been crying, and you look awful! When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror?"
Was it this obvious?
"I-I don't know," I said, and turned toward the hallway mirror. Mom was right. I really did look awful.


My thin layer of mascara had looked perfect before I went to work, but now it had run several places, and my eyes were red from all the crying. My hair was pretty much the same as when I had got up in the morning, looking like I could need several hairdressers to tame it. To put it simply, I looked like a panda bear after a tornado.
"Oh," was all I could say, before the tears started to flow again.
Mom led me into the living room, steering me toward the couch.


She pushed me gently down in it, and sat down next to me, dad sitting down on the other side.
"Is it Aidan again?" mom asked.
Mothers. You can't hide anything from them.
"Yes. He's... he's very sick. He..." I had to dry away a tear before even getting started.
"Just cry, Jenna. There's no harm in crying," Mom said, putting her arm around my shoulder. "Take your time."


It took me a couple minutes to make my voice work properly.
"We took him to see the doctor a couple weeks back. You know how he's been a bit slow in walking?"
Mom nodded. She had remarked it a couple times before.
"Turns out he has a disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The disease will probably put him in a wheelchair long before he's even a teenager. It eventually affects the heart and breathing muscles, and... and since his heart disease is already weakening him, he'll most likely not grow older than twenty or so. There's no cure."
We'd taken Aidan for a heart checkup a few days ago, and even Celina had some devastating news for us.
"Aidan's heart surgeon said a while back he may need a transplant when he's older, but now it's not certain he'll be able to get one. She said she'll try her best if it comes to that, but most likely he'll not even be considered."
I couldn't hold back the tears any longer, and my head fell down on mom's shoulder. Having a shoulder to cry on helped - especially mom's shoulder. Neither she nor my father said anything. They just let me cry until my eyes were empty, comforted in mom's safe and warm embrace and with dad gently stroking my back.
When I finally regained control over myself, I dried my tears on some kitchen paper mom had found, and sat up straighter. I was glad none of the kids were there to see me in my breakdown, everyone off to daycare or school.  Having the occasional day or morning off work was a useful shift-work perk.
"The... the worst part is that I'm the cause of his disease. The doctor did a genetic test, which shows I carry the mutation in my genes. We tested the girls just in case, but those tests haven't come back yet."


"Why not testing Tony, then?"
"He can't be a carrier. If boys inherit the gene, they become sick. Girls seldom show any signs of the disease, and can be perfectly healthy even though they're carriers. There's a fifty-fifty chance for the boys to become sick if the mother is a carrier of the gene, and there's a fifty-fifty chance for girls to inherit it."
Mom's face paled, and she looked away from me.


"What's wrong, mom?" I asked, worried.
She sat there staring for several minutes, until she finally opened her mouth.
"You had two uncles on my side, Jenna. Not one."
I just stared. "I only had Uncle Freddie, Mom. What are you talking about?"
One uncle and three aunts.
"No, you had two. But to be honest, I never knew my second brother either.


I frowned at her. She took a deep breath, and continued.
"When I was eight, I found one of mom's photo albums hidden deep inside a closet. I knew I wasn't allowed to look at mom's things without her approval, but I was about as curious as you were at that age, so I pulled out the album, wondering why it had been so thoroughly hidden. I opened it up and several very old photos fell out. I sat down on the floor, trying to pick up the photos before mom showed up.


"At one of the pictures I hesitated. It showed a boy who looked like he could be around seven or eight years old, posing in my father's old favorite chair with Freddie, who couldn't have been more than a couple years or so then. I had never seen the boy before in my entire life, and did not know of anyone who wore leg braces like the boy on the picture did.


"I jumped almost sky high when mom came in, but she didn't get angry. She just took the album away from me, putting it away on the top of a shelf where I couldn't reach it. 'Who is the boy with the braces?' I asked mom. 'He was your brother,' she said. 'But we only have Freddie,' I protested, thinking she was joking or something. Then she explained to me that a few years before Freddie was born, she and my father had gotten a boy, Byron, who got very sick very fast, not being able to walk far without the braces he wore, and ending up in a wheelchair only nine years old.


"The doctors never found out what he had. He died when he was only eleven, because of breathing problems after severe pneumonia. The health care back then wasn't the best, either. Mom was so deep down in sorrow she had tried to 'forget' him afterwards. This was the only time I heard her talking about him. She kept the pictures, though. I was born a year later. I don't know if Fred still remembers Byron - but if so, he's never mentioned his older brother either."
"So... so you had another brother? And I had two uncles?"


"Yes. I'd completely forgotten it until today. It's just... when you said that about Aidan, I suddenly remembered the picture. I... I guess this means I inherited the gene from my mother, and... and that you again got it from me," she said. "I'm so sorry, Jenna."


"Don't be. You didn't know, mom. But my sisters should take a test. They can be carriers, too. It's best they know about it."
"That might be the best, yes. I'll tell them."
"Thanks, mom," I said, and hugged her again.
"Don't be mad at yourself for being a carrier, Jenna. You couldn't have known, and I had no idea, either. You can't do anything about it now, so put it behind you and move forward, alright?"


I nodded. She was right, as always.

---

It turned out one of my two sisters had inherited the gene - but neither of her children had. My brother, Jared, had been extremely lucky not to get sick - just like Tony. The thought that Tony could've had the same disease as Aidan was scary, but thankfully he'd been spared.
The tests on the girls showed that Lily had not inherited the mutated gene - but unfortunately, Erica had, which meant not all of my future grandchildren were safe.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you liked it :)

OOOOOOOH. I loved that chapter, Raven! (Hope you don't mind me calling you that). Fantastic! I already can't wait for the next chapter.

Great chapter Looking forward in reading the rest.

luv this story, cannot wait for the next update.
 
*pulls out a pink cd (so what) and plays it while waiting for the next update*

Ooh! Yay, twists and turns. I feel the urge to go do some research, Great again Raven!

thanks, everyone :)

(and stay tuned for even more twists and turns. It's not over yet :D)

Theraven wonderful update as always!  I have to keep checking the threads to keep track why doesn't my subscription to thread thingy work???  I love the history part u have a way of making characters so real love it!

Oooh! So very good! Poor Erica She might not want to have kids now!

omg poor jenna.... what a life... first her little boy is really ill, then learns of a uncle who died and she nor her mum never met, now her little ercia has the gene... :| this story is so good and so realistic...i just love the realism you put into this.. you make me sad every time i read a new chapter.. i see a update i'm like "do i really want to read this or is it going to make me feel upset?" but i still read cos its so good..
i just wanna pull jenna and her family out of the pictures and hug them. :) - yes i'm that pathetic.-
i hope erica can somehow be cured, and little adian... its so sad :( i'm glad tony and lily hav'nt got that gene.
hope to have some good news in the next chapter.
this is fantastic, keep writing, i'm loving it. :)

aww...poor Jenna. first she found out Aidan was sick, then she had a uncle she never knew, now Erica's sick...theraven, there're sooo many twists and turns.great update, btw

good story i love it any chance aiden is available for download XDXD im inlove with that cutie

wonderful chapter, although I'm kind of blue for poor Aiden, I hope everything turns ok for them ^_^.

Hello

I am looking forward in reading the rest Keep up the good work

Pierre

theraven: i've never been one for sim stories, but i just sat at my desk for the passed hour and read all of your stories and i'm so impressed. i've always been a fan of your pictures and how much time you put into them and now i know why! you are a fantastic writer (a bit depressing) but they are beautifully put together! i can't wait to see what happens next with aidan and his health!!!

<3 Bree

I just finished reading all the chapters of this story. I am almost emotionally drained. You really did your research. It is a wonderful story and so realistic. I look forward to reading your next chapter.

I've always loved your stories, but crikey they're sad sometimes. That's the idea, of course! Still, there are never any happy endings when you have a terminal illness, I guess. Touching.

thanks everyone :)

I'm thinking of writing a funnier story after this. Though, I have to come up with one first...

im confused. did Jenna have an uncle and her mom had a brother that died from the disease, please help me, im so confused! i dont even know how to explain my question better!

yes.

Brothers and sisters of Jenna's mother are of course jenna's aunts and uncles. Jenna thought she only had one uncle (Jared), but in this chapter her mother tells her about Byron, who died from the disease before she herself was born two years later.
is that a better explanation? (I have to admit that family relationships tends to be a bit confusing, even for myself - my own family is confusing enough... :D)


(and now I feel stupid for not writing down Jenna's mom's name - the ingame version of her was named, but I've never used her exact name in the story, only naming her "Jenna's mom"... it was something starting with an M... Madison, maybe. Well, hopefully I'm going ingame to start the next chapter today, so I'll figure it out then...)

yeah, that helps a little. but did Byron die two years before Jenna or her mom was born? thats what  meant to ask after having less than twelve hours to think about the question.

two years before Jenna's mother (who's name is Madison, I figured out earlier today...) was born.

Madison never got a chance to meet her oldest brother (Byron), since he died two years before she herself was born. Until she found the pictures of Byron when she was eight, she thought she only had one brother (Fred/Freddy - his real name is Fred but everyone calls him Freddy)

Don't kill aiden omg :crybaby:
i fell bad enough for him. With muscle weakness and all. he'll never get a chance to live his life. i feel bad!

Thanks for all the comments :) It's so good to see that someone like my stories :)

I'm trying to make an update for this week, but I only have half the pics yet. I've come home late from school several times (8.PM monday...), and I was busy for most of the weekend (and fell asleep while doing the pics on sunday evening...) so I never got the time to finish them.

I'll try to get the update up by tomorrow or wednesday - but I'm not sure whether all the pics will be ready...

need a little sleep now. School tomorrow...

Thank you looking forward in reading the next chapter.

Pierre

The day after, I met up at Tony's school, knocking on his teacher's office door. I wished Peter could've been there too, but he was busy at work, with a couple days of filming a plane trip away, so he hadn't been available.
"Come in," the teacher said.
I opened the door, and was met with a friendly face as Madeleine got up to shake my hand.


"Please sit down," she said, and filled two cups of coffee. She handed one of them to me, and sat down behind her desk.
I sat down opposite her and took a careful sip from the cup. Still a bit hot, so I set it down on the desk to cool down a bit.
"The reason I wanted to talk to you is that I'm getting worried about Tony," Madeleine said, and took a sip of her coffee before continuing. "The last week his mind has been somewhere entirely different than in the classroom. We had a math test yesterday. He normally gets around 85-100% on every test, but as I looked over the tests yesterday, he didn't have a single correct answer. What's more, he's not as active during the classes as he usually is. Normally, he's the first kid with a hand up, and eager to answer any questions, but lately his activity in the class has consisted more of staring into the distance and definitely not paying attention. When he was asked what the capital city of France was during a geography lesson, he answered "Manchester United".  I've tried to talk with him, but he won't say a word about what's bothering him. Do you have any idea what's going on?"


I sighed. Apparently I was not the only one going through a tough time right now.
"You know Aidan? My youngest son?"
"Of course! He's a lovely boy, and Tony speaks about him often."
"Well, you see... a week ago, we got the message that Aidan is a lot sicker than we thought, and there's nothing the doctors can do about it. Tony is the only one of the kids old enough to understand what is happening, and I think he's struggling a lot with accepting it. He's probably got a lot on his mind, and I think this is why he's so distant. I've been pretty much the same."


The stunned expression in Madeleine's face told me she had definitely not known anything about this. She got up, and put her hand on my shoulder.
"That's... that's..." she sighed. "No wonder Tony has been do distant lately. Poor Aidan. And after everything your family has already been through?"


Tears started welling up in my eyes again, and Madeleine handed me a paper tissue. She took one for herself too.
"I'll talk with Tony," I said, drying the tears away. "Even though his brother is sick, it doesn't mean he can quit doing his schoolwork."
Madeleine smiled carefully. "No worries, Jenna. We'll try to be a bit more understanding toward him. Obviously you're all going through a hard time right now. I'll of course give him another chance on the test."


I smiled back. I was just glad Tony had an understanding teacher.

*****************************

When I got home, the first thing I did was to go upstairs and knock on Tony's door.


"Are you in there, Tony? I have to talk with you."
"Go away!"
"I need to talk with you, Tony. It's important."
No answer.


I opened the door, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn't.
Inside, Tony was lying on his bed, crying.
"Tony, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Go away!" came a muffled voice from inside the pillow.


"Look at me, Tony. We really need to talk."
I pushed over a chair and sat down next to his bed.
He turned his head to look at me. His eyes were red.
"What?"


I went straight on. "Are you doing your homework, Tony? I've just talked with your teacher, and she's worried. She said you got zero on a math test yesterday." I looked into his eyes. "Or is it something else?"
Tony buried his head in the pillow again.
"Tony... your brother being sick doesn't mean you can stop living. This is hard for all of us. But you have to try thinking about something else. Quitting your schoolwork won't help Aidan in any way."


No answer.
"Aidan needs his big brother. He looks up to you. And it certainly won't help if you're lying here all day."
"I know," he finally said, and turned around. "It's just that..." He sighed. "I can't concentrate. I feel like I should be doing something to help him. Not just dust away in a classroom."


He sat up, drying his tears, and I wrapped my arm around him, stroking his back in comfort.
"The best way you can help your brother right now, is to be there for him. Be his big brother. Play with him, and make him forget he's sick. Aidan needs us to be strong right now. I know it's hard, and even I struggle to understand why all of this is happening. But even so, I try to do my best at work. It does help with shutting out the bad thoughts, if only for a little while. Can you at least try your best to focus at school? Dealing with all of this will probably get easier with time, even if you don't believe it now."


Tony looked away for a few seconds.
"I'll try," he finally said.
"Good. And just so you know, your teacher will let you take the math test over again. I hope you do a better job this time, Tony," I said, and ruffled his hair. I knew he hated when I did that, but he just gave a tiny smile.


"I'll do my best, mom."

poor tony. and poor aidian

great chapter and i am sure that this sim family will get trought this looking forward in reading the rest.

Pierre

aww..Aidan illness is making his brother sad me too!  This story is filled with heart and sadness but sweetness too!

I love this story but the last aprts made me tear up. And I'm not kidding!

Awwww... :(

I've been silently following this story raven, and I love it! Your style of writing is amazing, and I really feel connected to the characters <3
Just had to comment on this so far, it's brilliant :)

Poor, poor Aiden and Tony :(
Please, be nice... Just once? :-P

Can't wait for the next installment, great job!

Thanks :)

well... you just have to read on, and you'll see. But I'm concidering at least two different endings. Can't say much more than that...:)

I can't wait for the next chapter. Chapter 11 made me cry.:icon9:

Wow, I love this story! I'm only onto Chapter 3, but it's great so far. It's really amazing though -- I'm a twin myself. My sister and I were born when my mom was only five months pregnant. My mom once told me that she cried when they asked her whether she wanted to be knocked out for the anesthesia because one doctor said, "If we put you under, by the time you wake up, both of your babies might be dead." We had to stay in the hospital for another four months, but both of use grew up fine and healthy. They called us miracle babies. :p Sorry for rambling, I just wanted to say that I can really relate to this, you know?

I understand.
Luckily for me, I was born when I was supposed to myself - but my aunt lost two children who were born too early. That was a few years before I was born, though. But I've heard the stories about them. The thought of loosing a child is always horrible, so when early born babies survive, it really is a miracle.

Fantastic story line! May i just say, your CC is brilliant! I love everything!

By the way, i might sound stupid, lol, but how do you get all these extra positions? Like you said earlyer on that, tony for example, is really a teenager in a childs body. Can i get that im my game too? If so how? I only have UNI, BONV and obv basegame. Is it possible? Thanks x

Hy! This is great! I wanted to ask you what hack for poses do you have? Cause I have model hack but I saw some poses here that are not included there, I think...

New reader here! I am so in love with your story. Poor Aidan, and the rest of his family... *sniffles*

Hi to all new readers (and the old ones) :)

just wanted to say I've updated chapter 12 with the rest of the pictures. I'll try to do the next chapter sometime this weekend, but I can't promise anything. Even though I've got a few days off, going home in the vacation means tons of other things that needs to be done.. :(


for all of you who wonders about the pose hacks - I use all from MTS2 (model poses + depression, and some others), Insim, decorgal, JD-movies (minus AL for now), and I also use ingame poses in old or new ways.
I avoid using pose hacks just because it's easy; but instead I use them because they're poses I could not have managed in other ways - and I try to use them in more or less creative ways. Using them just because it's simple is not my thing. I try to use ingame poses (or JD's ingame pose boxes) as much as possible, because they make everything look more natural. And for making children behave in other ways than they're supposed to - yes, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. One of them is the aging trick.

and the strollers are made by Snowstorm at MTS2 (who also runs eclectic-sims)

OMG i feel so saaaaaad righ now:'( I'm beggin you make the end not to sad!! I love your story and the pictures

Great Update

on the first pic in chapter 4 how did you get the babies to wear different outfits

Hating photobucket now...

but according to an e-mail I got, the pitures will be up again october 8th ...

theraven, if you hate photobucket, why not try Imageshack? anyway great update, i feel bad for tony.

great update- poor tony, when my best friends mum got sick she really fell behind on schoolwork, she was top of the class and then did just what tony did- its really sad, i hope they all get through this, poor pixels, :)

next chapter coming sometime tomorrow or tuesday :)
just have to edit the pictures, and fix something in the writing first.

Wonderful once again, Raven!

Thank you very much

Pierre

awwww :( pwease don't kill Aiden!

upppppppdateeeeeee ^.^ :D:D
btw can i ask where adian's hair is from , i lushhh itt :D

Aidan's hair is raon 17 (http://www.raonsims.com/item/detail.php?num=163&cat1=1&page=2&key=) :)

new chapter will (hopefully) come tonight :)

After a few weeks (well, months really) of wandering around with all those dark thoughts, I finally managed to lock them away in a place far back in my mind. I knew then best thing for Aidan and the rest of the family was to try living as normal as possible. It wasn't easy and we would need some time to adjust, but like I'd told Tony we'd eventually get used to the changes.

We started taking Aidan to swimming lessons at the hospital gym, because doing exercises in water was less straining and much better for his muscles than any other training. He absolutely loved splashing about in the water, and learned to swim in no time at all. I'd be terrified when he suddenly dove under the surface, and then swam several meters before he broke the surface again, making a huge splash and laughing so much he nearly lost his breath.


Sometimes we would bring Lily and Erica to his exercises, and soon enough we had three little dolphins playing around in the water, only coming up for air.
For hindering Aidan's muscles going stiff, we had to help him doing stretching exercises for thirty minutes at least two times a day. We visited the physiotherapist every day for a few weeks, getting instructions in how to do the stretching on Aidan at home. For now, this was not exactly pleasant for Aidan, but if his muscles stiffened, it could become very painful for him.


The stretching wasn't meant to hurt - but I knew that if I didn't stretch my own muscles after exercising, they became sore and stiff. If I didn't stretch, my muscles would only be sore only for a few days. If Aidan didn't stretch, his muscles would only go stiffer, and in the end become useless. They still would, even if he did the stretching - but the point was for it to happen much slower. At the physiotherapist he smiled and had did what she told him to do, but at home he easily got distracted, and wasn't too fond of doing exercises when the others were playing around. For an impatient little boy who hated everything that hurt and took time, this was as good as torture.


"Aidan, get back here!" I said, after Aidan had given up for the umpteenth time in an hour.


"Don't want to. Hurts!" 
"If you don't let me do it, your legs will hurt even more. Now get back here!" I knew he was too young to understand why he had to do stretching exercises, but my own patience was running out.
Aidan waddled away, and hid under a load of pillows.
I sighed, and got up from the floor. I should be glad he still could move around, but without stretching his muscles, he would most likely need a wheelchair much faster.
I eventually managed to drag him out from the pillow castle the girls had made earlier that day (they really loved making pillow castles, especially in the living room, to my great annoyance).


After four kids I had long ago learned how to be the boss, and I guess Aidan sensed I was at the end of my patience, so he did what he was told the rest of the half hour (which had really stretched to an hour by now). Finally finished, I let him waddle away again.
Tony walked up behind me. "Maybe I should try the next time, mom."
"If you want to, I'll not hinder you. At least he keeps still when you do it."
"Usually is the key word. He has a tendency to trick me into playing with him instead."


"And you usually let him do it."
"Well, don't blame me. He's very hard to say no to. Have you seen my cartoon, by the way?"
"I think it's behind the sofa pillows somewhere. I have a feeling that's where everything that gets lost in this house eventually shows up."
Several of the pillows landed on the floor as Tony rummaged around to find his DVD. I sighed. Even more tidying to do. As if I didn't already have enough to do in this house. When were my children ever going to learn to clean up after themselves? No matter how much I nagged, they didn't seem to notice.
"Ah, here it is. Thanks, mom."
"If you had put it in the DVD shelf, you wouldn't need to go looking for it. And put those pillows back, Tony."
He didn't listen, because I didn't get an answer from him before he left the room.
I guess if you looked away from the mess he had a tendency to leave behind, having Tony in the house helped a lot. Both Aidan and the girls looked up to their older brother, and I knew Tony loved all of them. He was a great big brother. Always there when I needed help, and always there when the little ones were bored. He loved playing with them, and was never embarrassed when they wanted to play cowboys with him as horse. He even made all the required sound-effects. The only thing I would like to change about him was his complete lack of understanding how to keep his surroundings clean and tidy.


The past few months, Tony had gone through a quick growth spurt. Being almost fourteen, he wasn't as bad as other teens I knew of, and he had fewer mood swings than what I'd dreaded. I guess having three younger siblings to help taking care of had something to do with it. I could already now see he would become one of the handsome boys most girls could only dream about.
They all grew so fast. Erica had started school, and she loved it there. Two more years and it was the twins' turn. I almost couldn't believe they were already four years old. Time went fast. Too fast.
A tear fell down my cheek. Just one this time. 
It wasn't easy to get over all the feelings which were still making a mess inside me, but somehow the changes had eventually seeped into our daily life routine, and family life had somehow been restored to a point where all the things we'd have to deal with in the future didn't resurface unless I had a really bad day. Yelling at the twins for stealing cookies before dinner, or dealing with Aidan's now less frequent hospital tantrums were no longer followed by the solemn thought of "why am I yelling at him when he's going to die too early?" like in the beginning. Somewhere along the way I'd gotten used to the fact that my son was only getting sicker and sicker, and that we would lose him long before we were meant to. It felt wrong for a lot of reasons, but at the same time it wasn't right to treat him any different from his siblings. While my first instinct was to protect him, I couldn't bubble-wrap him so he'd stay protected all his life. This was the life he'd been dealt, and like any other kid he didn't come pre-packed with absolute perfection. He had a need to test his limits (and my patience) just like the rest of his siblings. I had to give him the chance to test his wings, so to speak, even if they turned out to be partly broken.
Just then I felt a small hand on my shoulder.


"Mommy, don't be so sad," Aidan said, looking at me sideways. "Can you please be happy again, Mommy?"
I dried away my tears. "I'll try."
"I love you, mommy," Aidan said with a big sunny smile, and hugged me.


"I love you too, Aidan," I said, and hugged him back.
He was such an amazing little boy.
Who else had the ability to brighten up someone's day just by giving them a hug?

Ahhh! SO GOOD!

aww thats so sweet

Awwww! I have hopessss!

aww..sweet Aidan.  We all want to see him grow up healthy.

great update, that swimming pic is so cute, i love how you do all your pictures they looks so real! and danm you for making a fab story what makes me feel sad lol :P anyway, i hope adian will be ok, he looks rather tall in them shots. :) :) :D

Great chapter looking forward in reading the rest.

Pierre

I'm going to make a demand.

Post the next chapter NOW.  I don't care what else you have going on in your life.  ;)  

Lol, but really, it's a great story, one of the best Sims stories I've read.  Your grammar is impeccable, and you definately know how to write.  Keep up the good work!

thanks everyone :)

(charley - Aidan looks a bit tall because he's supposed to look like he's almost 4. For me the usual toddler size makes them look like they're 2-3 years old. And toddlers grows fast...)

I've got the next chapter almost ready - but I'm waiting a tiny bit with posting it. I've also got a load of school work to do - so I just want to have some chapters ready to post just in case my schoolwork hinder me from playing sims the next 3 weeks...

I've got a few sims CC projects I want to finish too (some of them have a lot to say for this story, and are 3D projects - but since my laptop is slow and hates my computer mouse, using 3D programmes becomes a bit time consuming and difficult to do...)

Because this story is ficyion, maybe raven will cure him or something. Pleeeeeeeease?

This is so sad... but you always do such a nice job with the writing, the photos and everything. I love it.

You're so good at writing stories, I bet you could write some really great books.

I just read the story in one sitting and is loving it. Great work theraven :D

I am absolutely loving this story, You write so well that i think you could easily be an author. The family are so beautiful and i hope everything works out for them.
P.s. Could someone tell me what skintone this family has ? Thanks

"Mom?" Tony yelled from the living room.
"What?"
"Can you watch my laptop while I go to the bathroom? Don't want the girls to mess with it."


"OK," I answered, and headed for the living room. I was going to clean in there anyway, so why not now?
"Thanks mom," Tony said and ran to the bathroom.
Usually Tony did his homework in his room, but since his favorite TV show was on, he had to come down to see it. His own TV had broken a couple of weeks back, thanks to Erica getting the brilliant idea she wanted to play football in his room.


Needless to say, Tony had banned her from going in there ever again if he wasn't around to supervise her.
I turned on the vacuum cleaner again, studying the mess of books and note papers lying all over the coffee table. It felt like ages since the last time I'd helped Tony with his homework now. Up until he started High School almost a year earlier, he had been joining a homework group after school, getting everything done before coming home - even getting time to play with his friends before we picked him up. Now the school had study groups three times a week, so they could do most of their projects and homework there if they wanted to.


To be honest, I was glad he didn't need homework help any longer; because I'd once taken a look at his math book, and had given up deciphering it after five minutes. Too long ago and too many changes since I'd been at school, I guessed. Tony had always been at the top of his class in math and science, and got good grades in most other subjects. He loved school, and always tried to do his best.
This particular day he had come home a bit grumpy, and - unusually for him - he'd started his homework as soon as he had set his foot inside the door.
I looked over at his laptop.


He had been writing non-stop on something all evening. And to be honest, I was very curious about what could have made him upset enough to thrust one of his books against the wall in frustration earlier in the day, grumbling something that sounded more negative than positive about his teacher.
I studied the laptop for a few seconds more. Then I went over to sit in the couch, and looked at the screen.


Next to the laptop, there was a homework note. I read it - while at the same time feeling guilty of snooping around in his things. I only had one excuse for doing it. But it was a good one.
I was his mom.

English assignment: Write a short text about your career plans for the future. It is to be used as background material for your career presentation on Monday.

While reading what Tony had written, I began to understand why he was so frustrated at his teacher.


"When I grow up..."
By: Tony Delaney Brooks
"Since we got this assignment yesterday, I've heard other people in my class talking about what they want to be when they're done with school. Talking about their future, about how they want to live when they're all grown up.
Most of them don't even know how lucky they are to even have a future.
When I was a bit younger, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I watched all kinds of science programs daily to learn about everything. I think my mother thought I wanted to be a scientist, but I was really just trying to learn so much I could about everything around me, and I've always loved to learn new things. But to be completely honest, I wanted the usual jobs boys at my age wanted to have - like police officer, fireman, or maybe even professional football player.
I didn't realize there were kids out there who never even get a chance to grow up. Kids who can't plan their future, because they may not have one.
My younger brother is one of those kids. He's been sick all his life, and not long ago we learned he's sicker than we thought - a muscle disease with no cure. He has to do painful exercises in the morning and the evening, just so his muscles won't go stiff. It helps a little, but not enough. Mom says he may need a wheelchair long before he reaches high school. He's got a severe heart disease too - and it's weakening him even more. He doesn't have much time left to live.
Maybe ten years.
Maybe fifteen years.
Maybe even twenty years - but that's really too much to hope for.
We don't know.
He's four years old now, and some of the children with this disease barely survive their teens.
I feel awful thinking about this assignment. I have a future. I can plan all I want, and I know I have a chance at getting my plans fulfilled.
My brother does not.
I do know one thing: I'll always be there for him.
I don't know how long he has left, and I do still have my hopes up that someone will find a cure very fast. If no one does, I think I want become a medical scientist and find cures to diseases - both the disease my brother has, and others.
I owe him as much.
If I can't help him, I can at least help other children - giving them hope, and a future to plan."

Tears fell down at the table, as I read the final word.
Tony, you brilliant, beautiful boy!


I got up from the sofa just in time for him to not notice I'd read anything. He sat down and continued editing his essay, while I went to the kitchen to dry my tears.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

On one hand, you want your children to grow up, start their own lives, and see them flower into the good people you've raised them to be. On the other hand, I knew one of my children would most likely never get this opportunity, so I also wanted to keep them as children as long as possible. It's the many sides of being a parent, and the many sides of life. Of course I knew there still was a chance, well - only a small hope really - that someone would find a cure for Aidan's disease, but as the days, weeks and months went by, I also knew the time before it was too late only came closer and closer. Still, I tried as best as I could to forget it, at least for now. Aidan could still walk, could still have fun playing around with his siblings. And I just had to admire Tony and the girls for all they did to make Aidan feel happy. I seldom got a picture with only Aidan in it. Usually one or two of the others always snuck in - especially Lily. Aidan and Lily were inseparable, always keeping together through everything.

Through it all I filled our photo albums with all of our happy days, all the fun things we did - the laughter and the joy of being children, and of being a family.


Whenever I had the chance, I took out my video camera and filmed them, making living memories out of all their little schemes, their laughter, and their voices. Anything I could to save the good memories, for when our lives eventually would get tougher to deal with. I was painfully aware that time would soon arrive, but for now, the kids should just enjoy their childhood as much as possible, finding wonder and joy in everything around them.


Having videos of them was even better than pictures - almost like reliving the times we had shared.


I wanted to have memories. Not only because of Aidan, but for all of us. I wanted to have albums containing everything we had had together while the children were young, so that I one day, when Peter and I were old with greying hair, could take out the albums and remember all the happiness we had shared together with our children. Maybe even show the pictures to our grandchildren, so they would know they once had the most amazing uncle. Even though I still had hopes that someone would find a cure for Aidan, they dimmed every single day. The doctors had said that by the time Aidan needed a wheelchair, it would most likely be too late to do much, even though a cure was found.


Time always speeds up when you don't want it to.
That's just the way life works.





(and before anyone starts to wonder - there's a lot more to come... and I also put a few more pics of the children in my picture thread)

Aww wonderfull once again theraven :) They turned out to be beautifull children :D

Great chapter i am looking forward in reading the rest.

Pierre

Wow! I'm going to cry! Aiden is so cute, and I swear, If he dies, I will cry even harder.

*puppy eyes*

I can't get enough of this story! It's just so... incredible! Oh, I hope they find a cure... Tony probably will. I thought of that already in one of the first chapters lol... keep up the amazing work! You are so talented. :)

Your story is really inspiring. Thank you very much for that. ^_^.

I just love the last three pictures, where did you get the oufit for aiden when his sis hugged him? Keep up the good work:) I love your story^^ but don't let Aiden dieTT_TT

Great pictures! What hack do you use for making them hug each other like in the picture?

I only posed them like that. It's no hack, just ingame animation put together in a new way.

aidan's outfit is here (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=288268)

This is a completely incredible story.

If you don't write more, I will hunt you down and use brute force. ^_^ Seriously though, AMAZING stuff!

there's a lot more - I'm only halfways yet ;)
and I've got a couple of other stories I'm concidering to make into sims stories.

As everyone says here, it is a brilliant story and you tell it in a way that we just wanna read and read and read, so keep up the good work...:angel:

I'm looking forward to read the rest...

And yes, please make the other stories into sims stories as well, I believe we all will love them as much as we love this one and the other two. :angel:

thanks :)

(and if I do write more stories, you'll probably be one of the first to hear about it, Thedragon :D)

thanks again my friend... :smile bi:

So saddd.. BUT HAPPY!

i love love love love love this story! what tony wrote was soooo sweet, it brought me to tears, all the pictures of the family are brilliant! and the writing, seriously youu ARE SO talented! moar moar moar :D

These last two updates were aww...I loved seeing the album style pics of the kids growing up.  I'm so looking forward to the next update I think the kids will be bigger?

Aww good update

I can't wait to see the twins as children

and Tony as a teen

"I want a pink backpack with lots of glitter on it," Lily said excitedly, as we were checking out all the choices in the store.



"What do you want, Aidan?" I asked him. He held on to my hand a little harder than usual, while I led him over to the table with all the backpacks. His right ankle and foot were a bit stiffer than the left ones, so he walked somewhat unsteady. He had already started using braces at night, and sometimes during the day. He didn't like wearing them, but they helped stretch his ankle tendons so his feet wouldn't develop deformities. At least he could still walk, but he had given up trying to keep up with Lily several months ago.
"That one," he said, and pointed at a blue backpack with a green dinosaur on it.


"It looks really cool," I said, and took it down from the shelf. "Do you want to try it?"
He nodded, and I helped him put it on.
"Mommy, look at me!" Lily yelled and danced around on the spot, so I could see the shocking pink, glittery, and extremely flowery backpack she wore. "Isn't it just perfect?"


"Yes it is, dear," I said, and smiled.
Aidan giggled.
"What?" Lily barked.
"You look funny when you dance. And pink is yucky!"
"I DON'T look funny - and pink is WAY better than dinosaurs!" Lily snapped.


"It is NOT!" Aidan protested.
"IT IS!!!"
"IT'S NOT!"
"IT IS!!!"
"Stop it, you two," I said, and tried to separate them. "People are watching!"


"Oh, sorry," they whispered at the same time, both of them looking around, a bit embarrassed.
"Besides - you both look good, my little school kids." I ruffled Aidan's hair.
"Don't do that, mommy."
They were six years old now, and on their way to start school in just a month. They were both equally excited and almost couldn't wait. They'd loved their year at kindergarten, and hoped Elementary would be equally exciting.  
"Are you sure you want these ones, then?" I asked them, indicating the backpacks they still wore.
"YES!" They both yelled in unison, smiling up at me.
"Well, then what are we standing here for?"
We also picked out a couple letters in their favorite colors to sow onto the backpacks, pink for Lily and blue for Aidan, and we went over to pay. The twins followed on my heels.
They insisted to pay for their own backpacks - with my money, of course, so I handed them the amount of money they would need.
"Do you want to wear the backpacks, or shall I put them in a bag?" the cashier asked.


"Can we, mommy?" Aidan said, blinking his deep blue eyes up at me, followed by "Pretty please!" from Lily.
I stared down at the two of them with a mock serious expression, almost laughing out loud from seeing their too innocent doey-eyed faces.  
Doing a little art break before answering; I finally said "Ok, then. But only on the way home."
"YIPPEE!" they both squealed, and smiled like two bright suns as we left the store.


I was glad their fights never lasted more than a few moments. Or... well, not exactly fights. More like tiny disagreements. They had never ever fought each other, at least not to my knowledge, and if they had a disagreement they'd sorted it out and become friends again before you got further than the first warning. A few minutes ago they had been yelling loud enough for the entire store to hear, but now they smiled and held each other's hands (which they did all the way home). They would get into fights and disagreements with their older siblings several times a day, though - more often than not in a two against one style.


I guess the two of them truly were best friends, which was the best you could ask for when it came to siblings. Especially since Aidan didn't have a lot of other friends, except for the ones he and Lily had shared in daycare and kindergarten.  


At the end of the next month, near bedtime the evening before school started, Lily ran to and from her room, checking her backpack almost ten times an hour.
Aidan sat in the couch, mostly staring into empty air.


As Lily ran past me for the umpteenth time that day, I said "your backpack is ready, Lily. You don't have to check it more."
"But what if I forget something?"


"You won't. And if by any chance you do, you can take it with you the day after tomorrow."
Thiz didn't stop her, so instead I went over to Aidan and sat down beside him.
"Are you OK, Aidan?"


"Not sure." He looked a little pale around the edges, almost like he was about to throw up.
"You don't have to worry. I'm sure it will be really fun, and both of you will learn a lot of new things and get lots of new friends."  
"You think?"
"Of course! Who wouldn't want you for a friend? They'd have to be crazy!"


Aidan nodded half-heartedly; before he picked up the ABC book he had gotten from the teacher three months earlier, and started reading. Or - more likely - just looked at the pictures. He had learned the alphabet and the numbers, and liked to look at pictures in his books, but he never read out loud like Lily loved to do. His favorite was a Peter Pan book he'd gotten for his last birthday. He'd spend hours looking at the pictures, and wanted me to read a chapter for him every evening at bedtime. We'd read through the book twice already.
When Lily came back, carrying her own ABC book, she sat down next to Aidan.


She often insisted on reading together with Aidan, and I think she had her mind set on teaching him how to read simple words before they started school. She could read a little, and I was almost sure she knew the ABC book by heart now - but she still struggled with the longer or more difficult words.


I studied them both. At least I hoped both of them would like school. Learning new things was only one aspect about school.
It was the social part I really worried about. Lily had always been very outgoing, so I saw no troubles there. But Aidan... he had always been a bit shy, and mostly kept to Lily. He often had troubles getting to know other children, and I feared he would feel lonely at school.


There had been times when other kids had teased him for his awkward way of walking. I worried about bullies, and I knew they more often than not picked targets that couldn't defend themselves easily. I feared Aidan would become a very likely target. I just hoped I was wrong.

They are so cute kids!

Great chapter And i am looking forward in reading the rest of the story

Pierre

I hope that no one bullies Aiden, or I might have some bullying to do!
;]

I'm gonna miss little Aidan as a toddler but he is a cute kid

good job :)

i love this story!! I must beg for more

MORE!!!!!

I say: brilliant, just brilliant. :worship:

You still keeps us all to want to read more and more and can't wait for the next chapter.

Keep up the good work my friend...:D

thanks everyone :)

(oh, and see you tomorrow, Thedragon... got busy with something at home...)

Oh my god - I just read it all and it's so amazing! I love them, they're so cute. Pleeeeease don't kill hiiiiim :crybaby: I love Aidan he's just so... lovely! And Tony! And his sister loves him so much, please don't kill him!!!

Edit: PLEEEEEASE!!!!

OMG OMG OMG That was brillant more please you truly are a great writer and creater of baby clothes =] =] = ] =]=]=]=]=]=]=]=]

AAAAAAAH! Aiden is even cuter as a child!
Don't do anything bad to him, theraven! I beeeeeeeg you!

Another great chapter! I'm excited to see how their first day at school will be. I hope Aidan won't be bullied. He doesn't deserve that, he's so cute and sweet. :)

Aw, great chapter, Raven! I've always loved your stories, and this one is no exception. Fantastic use of cc, and great storytelling! Keep up the good work!

how did you get tony to hold erica and aiden?
it's so cute!

omg, soo cute as kids!! great pudate, everyone better like adian or your going to have to put the mean kid up for download so i can put then in my game and have my simkid pick on them! :)

Love this chapter! I want more!

More please!!! *hops up and down impatiently*:blob5::toothy8::toothy7::bounce::blob7:

I love this story! Don't kill Aidan or make it so he gets bullied though! Please!!! *fidgets around waiting for you to post next chapter*

*whistles innocently*
you'll just have to read on :angel:
I've still got somewhere around 15 chapters left... but that's all I want to say about that... :D

And thanks for the comments, everyone :)

Next chapter will probably come either tomorrow or thursday (hopefully, at least - as long as I don't fall asleep in front of the computer again... 8-12 hours of school throughly messes with my head...). Or maybe friday if I get stuck at school again... :(

Raven... more please? :)

what happened to all the pics?

I hate photobucket

they'll most likely be up in two days or so. (I'm starting to hate photobuket too... but at least I know what the problem is now... :()

But the newer pics will not disappear like this (at least not for a long while yet...) so I will be able to upload new pics without them disappearing :)

oh ok

Great update as usual, Raven. Aidan looks so cute as a kiddie, lol. If he gets bullied, I too may have some bullying to do!

Wonderful update,Raven!I hope Tony does find a cure for Aidan,because I couldn't bear to see him die.

Lily loved school. Already the first day she had gotten several new friends, and during lunch they all sat talking together.


When she had nearly finished eating, she noticed Aidan was nowhere to be seen. He'd been there just a moment ago, hadn't he?
"Anyone's seen my brother? Aidan?"
The girls shook their heads.
"I'll go look for him, then," Lily said, and got up.


He was not in the cafeteria and not in their classroom, and she knocked on the handicap toilet but it turned out to be unlocked.
She looked for him everywhere - except for the boys' toilets, of course. She did ask one of the boys coming out if they'd seen Aidan, but he hadn't. Aidan was nowhere inside the school. Maybe he was outside?
When she reached the door leading out to the playground, she saw him almost at once, not too far away. He stood together with a few boys from their year, and a few older boys. Most of them were laughing or smiling for some reason.


So had he gotten a few friends after all? She smiled, and was about to turn and leave, when she saw one of the older boys push Aidan. 


She did not like the sight of this, and strode over to where they were standing.
"Aidan?"
They all turned around except Aidan. He was crying, tears running down his cheeks in a heavy stream.
Then she understood. They were not his friends. Not at all.


"Why are you bullying my brother?" she snapped toward them, putting her arm around Aidan.
"We were not bullying him," one of the boys said. "We were just..."
"What? Teasing him a little, maybe? Just because he's smaller than you, it doesn't give you the right to bully him."
Lily knew her brother was a bit more sensitive than other boys. He hated when she tried to protect him, but sometimes she felt like she had to. Being a minute older than him technically made her his big sister.
"Come on, Aidan," she said, turning him away from the bullies. Teasing Aidan was her job, not other people who didn't know his limits. The two of them had a small fight once in a while - but it never went too far, and they always became friends in the end.
This was different.
"What a weakling," one of the boys said to the others, and laughed. "Being protected by his sister!"


Lily turned around again, fire glowing in her eyes and face going red with anger.
"WHAT did you just say?"
Had she known karate or something like it, the boy should have felt really sorry for himself right then, because his remains would probably have been sent back home in a shoe box. Unfortunately (for her) she didn't. This didn't hinder her from using her mouth, though.


"Just because my brother is a tiny bit different from you doesn't mean you have the right to bully him! He may be smaller than you, and he does have problems walking - but that's NOT his fault! And it is NOT a reason for bullying! There are NO reasons for bullying at all! You should be ashamed of even saying one wrong word to him! And if you ever had half a brain you wouldn't even dream of saying a bad word to anyone! If I ever catch you bullying my brother or anyone else again, I'll make you forever curse the day your mother met your father!"


She had learned that one from Tony, so over-protective big brothers did come in handy once in a while. And the best part? They would never ever admit a six year old girl had said anything like that to them. They just wouldn't! She had to admit she didn't have a clue what it meant but it did sound pretty good.
The boys stood stunned, watching her as she led Aidan away. She noticed he leaned on her heavier than usually, and was still trying to stop his tears. Lily loathed seeing him like this.


"Did they say bad things to you?" she asked, and gave him a comforting hug when they had gotten out of sight of the other boys.
Aidan nodded, drying away a tear.
"Don't let them bully you, Aidan. You have got to fight back!"


"It's not that easy Lily," he mumbled against her shoulder. "I hate being different. I hate being sick."
She patted his back. "I know, Aidan. I know."

After this incident, the bullies luckily (both for Aidan and for themselves) stayed away from Aidan. A few days later, he had gotten several new friends. Even though they all knew Aidan was a little different because of his disease, they were not bothered by that little detail. Just because he couldn't run or jump or climb as well as the rest of them didn't mean they couldn't have any fun. They treated Aidan just like they treated the other kids - with respect and kindness. Lily loved to see her brother happy. It made her smile. It made her happy.


But just in case, she asked her mother if she could start karate lessons. You never knew, right? She didn't say the reason behind it, though. Aidan didn't want her to say anything, and she hated to add more worry for her parents. They already had enough to worry about.

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Wow! Great update, Raven! I felt so bad for Aiden when those boys were teasing him, but it made me laugh when Lily defended him like that! Great job, as always, with the pictures. I already can't wait for the next update!

aww

poor Aidan

hes lucky he has Lily

Awesome update!
"...I’ll make you forever curse the day your mother met your father!”
LOL. Go Lily! She has so much on her shoulders. Poor little Aidan too, but I'm glad he has friends and Lily is fiery. ;)

Aww I love Lily, she is such a sweet sister!
Poor Aiden! I HATE bullies!

Grrrrr. You did it, Raven. Stupid bullies. Why?

Great update, loved when Lily was standing up for her brother.
"...I’ll make you forever curse the day your mother met your father!” ~ Priceless .x.

Oooh, so cute!

Excellent! :D

I never thought I would get into this so much... you only updated it today and already I'm feeling like you've taken ages to post the next chapter!! This is awesome!!

Why? because there are things I want to tell with this story. That's why. (but I won't tell what, of course - not until I post new chapters, anyway ;))

thanks for the comments everyone :)

I love it! Good job! Can't wait till the next one!

*grumbles* Well, now that you have already done the damage, can you have them bully Aiden again? I want to see Lily kill them. After all, she did ask to take Karate, right?
We can't forget this, either:
"And if I ever catch you bullying my brother or anyone else again, I’ll make you forever curse the day your mother met your father!"

Poor adian! Good on lily though! *cheers*
Maybe erica and tony could help lily next time aswell *wink* :D
great update! :)

Well, my friend...

I just say an exellent update, just keep the good work up... :goodjob:

And theraven just love to twist the story back and forth and sideways just to make all of us here crazy everytime we read another chapter where everything is upside down (again...) :)
andthe more theraven does that, we love it.. or at least I do... :D

so... :clapp: for you my friend and I just :pray: to have the next chapter up soon....

cya later...

Thanks for all the nice comments everyone :) (?and I just feel extremely happy today for some *cough* strange reasons? :D so I decided I?d post the new chapter a little earlier than I?d originally planned. I just wish this chapter was a bit happier... well, it won't ruin my happy feeling, though :D)


"Mom!" Aidan's voice came from downstairs. 
"I'm coming down in a minute!" I yelled back, picking up another sock from Lily's messy bedroom floor. It seemed she had still not managed to find the laundry basket I had placed on her room three years ago, even though I'd placed it next to her door with a sign on it saying ?laundry basket'.
"Mom!" Aidan yelled again, louder.
I let out an annoyed breath. "Honestly, can't you wait for two seconds?"


"MOMMY!"
I sighed. "All right, I'm coming."
I put down the laundry basket, and walked down the stairs. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Where are you?" I asked impatiently.
"Living room," he yelled.
I went over to the sofa group, and looked around. "I can't see you. And please don't tell me you got me down here just to play hide and seek or something. I've got a gigantic load of laundry waiting for me."


"I'm here." His voice came from behind the couch. His voice sounded... scared, maybe even a bit panicky, almost as if he had been crying.
He had probably been feeding the fishes. The aquarium was behind the couch, and Aidan loved the fishes. Maybe one of the fishes had died again. I had told the kiddies not to overfeed the poor things, but they never listened.
When I got over to him, he sat on the floor. His eyes were red, so he really had been crying. And he looked terrified. 
"Why are you sitting there, Aidan?" I said, and crouched down next to him.


He whispered something.
"What?"
"Can't move my leg."
"You can't move it?"
He shook his head, sniffing.
I took his foot in my hand, and tried to do a few of the stretching exercises. But to my unpleasant surprise, his foot felt a lot stiffer than usual. Especially the ankle. He'd struggled more with his legs lately, almost walking on his toes sometimes, but I didn't know it had gotten this bad.


"Maybe you should put on the braces again," I said. They helped him doing the stretching while he was walking around, and hindered his feet from becoming deformed, but they were somewhat painful for him to wear.
I tried helping him to stand up - but since his foot didn't want to work, I just helped him up onto the couch instead.


Then I called his physiotherapist, to hear what she had to say.

A week later we stood outside the OR yet again, saying good-bye as they took Aidan away for yet another surgery, this time on his legs.
In spite of me working at the hospital, I had almost started hating the place by now. How many more times would I have to follow my son to a new surgery?


How many times did I have to comfort him, telling him everything would be fine? Telling him good-bye, give him a hug and wave until the surgeons disappeared through the door with him? How many times did I have to sit there, waiting - knowing this could possibly be the last time I ever saw him alive, because of the strain each surgery put on him - knowing his heart could simply fail there at the surgery table, and he would be gone? I knew they always had a heart specialist close by during Aidan's surgeries, in case something did happen. In some ways this just added to the worry.


How many times?
I just didn't know.


The young boy who came rolling out of the hospital in a wheelchair a few days later was anything but happy. They had had to lengthen his Achilles tendons so he would still be able to walk - but things didn't look bright for him. The physiotherapist said his legs were already in a too bad condition to do much more, and he would most likely need a wheelchair full-time when he was around ten or so. The effect from the surgery would only be temporary.


After this, Aidan couldn't walk far without help. Not without the braces, anyway. He got a manual wheelchair, so he could travel around faster and easier at school and such while his legs got better from the surgery, but was told to use the braces as much as possible once the scars had healed.
Everything boiled down, twenty years or more may be too much to hope for. Needing a wheelchair already before he turned ten meant he probably would have even less time to live, especially because his heart only got weaker and weaker.
While I at a little over forty years old first now had lived half of my life - my son, only seven years old, had already lived almost half of his.
Life is unfair.


As I was helping Aidan do his exercises one day, he seemed distant. I couldn't blame him. He'd had a lot on his mind lately.
"Mom?" he finally said.
"Hm?"
"How... how do you think it is to die?"
The question startled me.
"I mean, do you think it hurts? I hope it doesn't."


I just looked at him for a few seconds, trying to think of an answer. I couldn't come up with a single one. 
"I... I don't know," I finally said. To be honest, it was not a question I wanted to answer.
"You know, great-gramps seemed so peaceful. Like he had just fallen asleep. Almost like he was still sleeping."
Oh, so that's what was on his mind? Only a few weeks past, the staff at the nursing home had found Peter's grandfather dead in his bed. The man had been over ninety years old, so it wasn't exactly the biggest surprise, but it had still put some fright in the children. Since then, Aidan had been distant, thoughtful. Like he was bursting with questions but didn't dare to utter them.
Apparently he couldn't hold them in any longer.
"I hope it's quick," he said. "Like falling asleep. You know - one moment you're awake, and the next you're gone." He looked at me. "What do you think, mom?"
"I'm... not sure. I have no idea, really. It's a difficult question no one really knows the answer to."


He turned away again. "I hope it's quick," he whispered - almost too low for me to hear it.
I shivered.
When your seven year old boy starts asking those kinds of questions, and you know there's a valid reason behind it - you kind of do start to feel like all hope is lost.

Lovely and sad and brilliant...

What ever you decide to do to that family, I ask for one, just one single favour.

Please make Aidan's life as painless as possible. It is not right for a 7 year old to even think about how he would die.

But you are a brilliant writer, keep up the good work. :D

well... that's what I think too. But... everything has got a purpose :)

Oh Gawd, theraven, you're breaking my heart here with this story.

I never usually like sad stories but this one is just amazing...

Mine too! It's so well written and sweet! :)
But I can't help being mad at you because Aidan is so adorable! :(

Aww poor Aidan

he looks like his mom when he's sad

Oh, too sad... Where did you get the hospital hair stuff? If it's by you (Which I suspect it is) could you upload it? It looks really high quality.

This is just too sad but its brilliant, I spent about a couple of hours reading this. You are an amazing writer, theraven.

thanks everyone :)



you mean the OR hats? yup, I made those myself (the textures I actually made from scratch in PS :)). Rewuesting things just takes too long when I need something "now". I only used Maxis meshes for them. They work for toddler to elder male, and for female teen to elder (I think, at least. Couldn't find maxis child/toddler meshes that fit).

(which reminds me that I've got some bodyshop work to do before I start the next chapter...)

I still don't know how to bin hairs, though (I have to learn that soon...) - so I don't have them for all haircolors. Only brown and blonde (but since the hair don't show through, it doesn't really matter)

I'll see what I can do about uploading them.

What does bin hair mean?

it means to put them in the right hair bin when you make them (it's done with SimPe somehow) - like black hair in the black hair bin, and blonde in the blonde hair bin. Otherwise all hairs will show up as custom hair (with only Bodyshop).

excellent update Raven. I love this story.

I really don't care at all about binning. To me unbinned hairs are only slightly harder to use, and I really couldn't care less.

This really is something to read...I made it thru a fair bit but it hits too close to home. My great aunt had all boys and only a few of them are still alive because she was a carrier. I don't know if I really want to finish it now...great story telling though, and picture taking. You do a fantastic job.

Great chapter looking forward in reading the rest.

Pierre

Awww! TheRaven! You just had to do that to poor Aiden? Did you?
I hope Aiden doesn't die too soon. He's such a sweet kid. Ever since you introduced him as a premature baby, we've all fallen in love with him.... right everyone?
Aiden, please don't die on us! Even if you do, don't think it was your fault. People like you all over the world know what you go through. I myself had a best friend who died of leukemia. I'm not going to mention any names, but it was a point of worry for me. Don't die, Little Fire, don't die!
MESSAGE FOR THERAVEN:
Grrrrr! You're aware that many of us will hate you if you kill Aiden off, right? We'll find were you live and....and.... TP YOUR HOUSE! No, just kidding. But I will feel like doing that if you kill poor, sweet, innocent Aiden.

What a great, yet sad, update... can't wait for the next. :)

Thanks everyone :)



That's really sad. It's horrible to loose someone from a disease, especially when you know all the time that you can't do anything about it. My oldest brother died when he was ten. Not from Duchenne - but from another disease (a very rare one - the doctors never found out what he had until several years later. But he most likely got it the same way, with my parents as carriers. They never knew anything until he got very sick about a year before he died). So I truly know how it is to loose someone.

I won't say whether or not there will be a good or bad ending to this story (because it would've spoiled everything) - but I am trying to write a good story, even if it might be very sad some places (that's why I always try to put in a few funny bits and pieces here and there - so that there won't only be tears, but maybe even a bit of laughter or some smiles awaiting for the readers too :))

so now (while I've got the weekend free from my boyfriend :() I'll try to finish a couple of chapters so that I'll have some ready before my new 3D oblig starts...

omg poor adian.
a great update though.
i really hope he does'nt die! :)

Wonderful writing once again theraven You have brilliant writing talents. I feel as if I personally know the family and that I feel their pain.

Good luck, TheRaven! I've never churned something out as fast as you do that actually is good! Your writing is superb, though! I have to work on a chapter for MONTHS before even I think it looks good enough! You are excellent!

well, I've been writing on this story for a long time (since before the contest ended). The story in writing is mostly done - it's just the pics I don't have ready :)

Can't wait, theraven. :'D

Ya' know, I've been following your story intently for weeks. It just keeps getting better and better. Sometimes I wish I could play your game. Just for a little while. This story makes me laugh, and cry. You've really done your research, and I appreciate your dedication. Just thought I'd stop by and tell you I admire you and your wonderful writing.

I can't wait for an update!

thanks :)

I've been *cough* busy lately (someone special should know all about that :D) so I've not had the time to edit the pictures before now (because I've not even turned on my computer since sunday - wonders of all wonders... :D). But the new chapter will come either later today, or tomorrow.

YAYYY!

Lily couldn't find Aidan anywhere. This really scared her. How far could he get in a wheelchair on a small school ground? Especially when he could barely walk a few meters without using braces - and he usually didn't wear those at school unless his legs hurt a lot.


He had followed her out, and in the span of five minutes, he had disappeared like fog.
She sighed. The school bell would call in a few minutes, anyway. Maybe he would show up then? It wasn't like she had to keep an eye on him all the time - but on some level, she felt like she had to. He was her twin brother, for crying out loud! She had a right to keep an eye on him, to know where he was.
Grumbling, she continued searching.
When she entered the playground, she heard voices. Angry voices.
A wave of fear took her, and she followed the voices. As she turned a corner, she saw several older boys standing in a circle, kicking something on the ground. Or rather - someone.


Shivers ran up her back, feeling like someone had just emptied a bucket of ice water over her.
Because there, a little outside the circle of the huge boys, a ruined wheelchair lay on its side.
Aidan's wheelchair.


Panic and anger, side by side, welled up in her.
If she'd never before understood what "seeing red" meant, then she without a doubt understood it now.
Her heart started racing, pumping adrenaline through her body and making her ready for war as she ran toward the boys.


When she reached them, she grabbed one of the boys' jackets, throwing him with almost super-human strength down on the ground. Hard. The next boy got the same treatment, landing even harder.
She threw a third boy down on the ground too. She never even realized the boys were almost twice as big as her.
The rage and the fear gave her strength.
Some of the boys she pushed so hard they lost their balance, tripping in their own feet.
One boy, she slapped. Very hard. In the face. If he got a bruise, it would be his own fault.
"HOW DARE YOU? GET AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!" she yelled, loud enough for half the people on the school ground to hear. He shrank back from her, ghostly white in his face.


When she pushed another boy down to the ground, she could finally see Aidan. She threw away yet another boy, and to clear the way, she kicked and hit anything within her reach until she reached her brother. The kids still standing backed off when she snarled up at them.
She dropped to the ground next to Aidan, afraid of touching him in case something was broken.
"Aidan? Can you hear me?"
His face was bloody, mostly from his nose, and he had a huge black eye. Beneath the blood, his skin was almost white. His one good eye opened, and darted around until he saw her.


"Hurts," he groaned, struggling to draw a breath.
"Where?" she asked, feeling stupid as the word left her lips. Of course it hurt!
He lifted a weak hand up to his chest.
Lily's eyes widened. His heart. Again.
"Call an ambulance!" she screamed. "ANYONE!"
The boys around them looked afraid. They had every right to. They had come this close to killing her brother!
"What are you standing there for? DO IT!" Frustrated tears were running down Lily's cheeks now. She wanted to get up and run to find the nearest phone herself - but she knew she couldn't leave Aidan like this. She was probably the only one there with even the slightest little knowledge of first-aid. But more than anything, she couldn't leave him with the ones who had done this to him.
"Find a teacher!" she cried again. "Anyone!"


But the boys just stood there, gaping. Several others had joined them now, at a safe distance from Lily, but no one did anything. By the look of them, they seemed to think what was happening in front of them was like a TV show or something. Freaky entertainment. Or they were just too frightened to do anything.
Someone must have heard her screaming, because suddenly she heard an adult voice.
"What's happening?"
"Call an ambulance!" Lily yelled to the frightened teacher who came running. "HURRY!"
"Oh, my..." she said when she saw Aidan, and turned, running inside to call.


Lily comforted her brother as best as she could, trying to ignore the audience standing over them. She could spot the signs in Aidan's face that the pain in his chest was increasing. He was good at hiding pain, but not that good. She also noticed his arm was lying in a strange angle, and he groaned when she accidentally touched it.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to. I think it might be broken. Just try not to move, Aidan. It might make everything worse."
Aidan tried to say something, but coughed instead. Whatever it was he needed to get out, got caught in his throat. Lily knew from the first aid course (which their mother had sent the entire family to a short while back) that if he lay on his back and started throwing up or something, he could choke. She was still afraid of touching him, but being able to breathe properly was a lot more important than a broken arm, so she turned him carefully over on his side, lifting up his chin a little, so his airways cleared. He coughed again - finally able to draw a rasping breath.
Drops of blood ran from his nose and mouth.


Their audience shrank back, and Lily heard several of them gasp or saying things like "eeew", "yuck" or "did you see that?"
Lily glanced up. Children stood all around them now, watching the horrifying show in front of them. No one seemed to have heard the school bell calling five minutes earlier. Lily wanted to yell at them to go away, but knew it was no use. Instead she put a couple fingers on Aidan's wrist to find his pulse. Fast, jumpy and so weak she could barely feel it. The teacher who had called for the ambulance had come back, and was staring at the drama in front of her with panic in her eyes, afraid of doing anything.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Lily could hear the sirens. Then three paramedics came running toward them.


The pulse in Aidan's wrist disappeared, and Aidan's heart chose that particular moment to stop working properly, and he fell unconscious, his body going limp.
"NOOOOOOO!" Lily cried out. She felt strong arms dragging her away from Aidan. She kicked and hit, but they held her tight.
One of the paramedics crouched down next to Aidan, rolled him over and checking his pulse.
"Crap," he said, and ripped open Aidan's shirt, starting chest compressions. 
The second paramedic took out an oxygen mask with a balloon-like thing on it, and put it over Aidan's mouth and nose. The third fastened large, white sticker-pads to Aidan's chest, and readied the defibrillator they were connected to.
On the small screen, Lily could see a green, almost flat line. No spikes moving up and down like they always had done when Aidan had been at the hospital before. She knew all too well what it meant.


The arms trying to hold back Lily tightened around her. "There, there. Calm down. Let them do their job."
Lily looked up. The teacher who had called for the ambulance had her arms around Lily. She stopped fighting, and just let the tears run, while her own heart continued its panicked hammering inside her chest.


"Clear," the paramedic said, and punched a button. The others jumped away, and two seconds later Aidan's upper body arched when electricity jolted through his body.
There was a spike on the screen, but the mostly flat line continued like nothing had happened. The two other paramedics continued CPR while the one with the defibrillator waited for it to charge again.
"Clear," she said, and Aidan's upper body arched for the second time.
The flat line persisted.


Lily was over the edge of panic now, and felt like she had frozen stuck in the ground. She didn't know what to say, what to do, what to feel. All she knew was that her brother was near to dying. Her twin - who she had known since before they were born. Her brother - who she loved more than anyone else. Aidan - her best friend in the entire world. And all she could do was to stand there watching. It just didn't feel right.
They started doing compressions on Aidan's chest again, blowing air into his lungs with the mask. Once or twice there would be a single spike on the screen, but that was it.


"Clear," the paramedic said, and once again Aidan's body jolted. But this time, the line suddenly became irregular curves going up and down.
"Arrhythmia," the paramedic said, and waited for the defibrillator to charge again, while the others continued CPR.
"Clear," she said for the fourth time, and pressed the button again. This time the irregular curves became more like the familiar ones Lily remembered from before.
Lily let out a heavy breath, realizing she'd been holding it in.


"We have a pulse," breathed the paramedic. "But it's very weak, probably due to internal bleeding. And the boy still isn't breathing. Let's intubate and get him to the hospital as soon as possible." The others started checking Aidan's overall condition, while another put some kind of metallic instrument in Aidan's mouth, putting a tube down his throat. Lily closed her eyes and turned away. She had seen enough already, and felt like she was about to throw up.


"Are you OK?" one of the paramedics asked her. "Do you know him?"
"Aidan is my twin brother," Lily said, having troubles keeping the tears away.
"Oh. Well, don't be afraid. We'll take good care of him. You can follow us to the hospital if you want. We'll need your parents' names and phone numbers so we can call them."


Only five minutes or so later, after the paramedics had loaded Aidan into the ambulance, they were hurrying away to the hospital.
Lily sat in the back, holding Aidan's hand while two of the paramedics worked on him. He was still not out of danger. Lily kept an eye on the machine with the curves all the time, and so did the paramedics. The curves were not steady, like she knew they should be - and the numbers on the side kept rising and falling. She saw worry wrinkles in the faces of the paramedics - the kind her father always got when he was worried about something.
She gripped Aidan's hand even tighter.
"Hold on, Aidan," she whispered, as tears fell down her cheeks. "Please don't die!"

WHAT? Kill those stupid boys! I didn't mean THIS when I said pick on! GRRRRRRR!

I hope those dumb boys get expelled, or BETTER: jail time.

Oh my flying pancakes, that's horrible!
Poor Aidan!! I really really really hope he lives, and that those boys get the crud beat out of them or just expelled.

Great update, even if the events contained in it are horrible!

aww poor Aidan

they had no reason to beat him up

its not his fault he was sick

p.s.-great update/awesome pics :)

Oh, yes. They should. TheRaven, are you not aware that those kids' parents can be sued by Jenna? Sue them! Sue them!

And why were the boys just standing around in the back, acting natural in most of the pics, especially the second to last one? That's just wrong. If I was them, and I hope I will never be them, I would have been running around and freaking.

aww no pooor aiden.

pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dont make him die! i really feel sorry for him. I actually had tears in my eyes reading that! No stories make me do that!

That's it. I'm crying! :bawl:
Wow, theraven, your story is so real!!! I agree with the others. The parents should be sued; they almost killed a little boy!!!:angryfir: and if Aidan has to die in your story (and I'm sure it's gonna happen) it has to be in a more heroic way...

Yes! You should have Lilly beat them up! Like, when they were just sitting around! What the heck were they thinking???

*runs away crying*

OMG. poor aiden!!!!! i had tears in my eyes.
HOW DARE THEY DO THAT TO SOMEONE. phyiscal bullies like that make me so freakin' angry. And they just stand there wear he's laying there lifeless.
I really hope aiden makes it.
Fab text and pictures as always, you make your stories so real.

Great story once again, it brought tears to my eyes. I hope that those boys know what they did and will rather start looking out for Aiden instead of bullying him.

Nooo! DON'T KILL HIM!

Hey, TheRaven! I know it's only been a day, but WE WANT UPDATE!

well, since I've not even started it yet, I'm afraid you have to wait a few more days. I only have time to make updates during weekends and holidays, and since I'm starting a new oblig assignment on monday (making a 3D ride movie - both modelling and animation in only 4 weeks... which means lots of very late school evenings :() I'll have even less time right now... But I'll try to make at least one, maybe even two or three updates this weekend - if I get the time, that is.

oh, and I might (only might) make a little christmas update sometime in December (my boyfriend requested that... :D). I just have to write something first.... :)

Great chapter looking forward in reading the rest marvelous work

Pierre

One of the better updates I've seen to any story I've read on here.

And now that's out of the way:
Oh girl, tell me you did NOT just try to kill off Aidan just then. Tell me that I did NOT just read that.

yeah ill be looking foward to the update (s)

so far this was the best one Ive read :)

great story =]

TheRaven, you said a while ago that there were a lot more chapters coming. Will that mean we still have a lot to go, or are we coming near the end?

Just another great chapter from raven. :D

Keep up the good work my love.... :)

And after what I know kstradleigh, there is over 30 chapters in total. So I believe that we have much more to look forward to...

But if Aidan survives.... hm.... that I guess we only have to wait and see (and no I don't know what will happen, she won't tell me nor let me read the rest of the story either).. So I have to wait like every one else here to see what will happen...

But anyway I love this story more and more for each chapter... :D

that's right, Thedragon ;) (everything... except that it's 32 chapters - for now, at least - and not 30... :D)

Thirty-Two?
*slips into happy land*
Yay! This story..... must....never....end.....until........magical.....32...

right i'm crying my eyes out here kill them boys now her hurt him

I just read the whole thing from start to finish.
O Em Gee.
A) You're such an awesome writer, I want to steal your skills!
B) Poor, poor Aidan.
Where did you get Aidan and Tony's hair? :D lol
This family has been through such a lot. I hope Aidan makes it out okay.
Please don't kill him!

thanks for the comments, everyone :)
and you just have to read on if you want to know how it ends...

their hairs are Raon 16 (http://www.raonsims.com/item/detail.php?num=155&cat1=1&page=2&key=) and 17 (http://www.raonsims.com/item/detail.php?num=163&cat1=1&page=2&key=) (and that's the last time I say that...)

Ooo. Love their hair! I can't wait for the next one, hopefully Aidan is okay. :(

Good job theraven. :D

Keep it up!

maybe even 42...
you know - the answer to life, the universe and... everything :D
(though, I don't know if my story ideas reaches that far...:happy8:)

Oh, I can't stop laughing at the number 42!
It's mainly because my english teacher (who was a big fan of Hitchhiker's Guide) held a pop quiz one day, and I put "42" for every answer. (She ended up not recording them because so many people flunked it) When she looked at mine, she started laughing like crazy. Ahhh, good times.

Finally, after several months of putting it off, and today alone server overload issues hindering progress, I have finally caught up on the progress of the Brooks family.  Superb story so far!  :smile bi:

Those little knuckle-headed hoodlums should've been busted, expelled, and sent straight to "Camp Juvi" as soon as that teacher came and saw what happened, especially concerning his condition and all... (heck, in fact, where was the prinicpal and the 5-0 when you needed them?)... poor Lily seems to be the only one on the school grounds with some sense in that situation, and I'm glad she's a very bright and sensible little girl for her age.  Had it have been me in that type of situation, I'd have gone beyond berserk on everyone there, so much respect to her on handling it as best as she could.  :lol:  

And at the rate it was going, poor Aidan wouldn't have had a chance of surviving... all of those boys should rot for being so rock-headed.  I just hope he's going to pull through alright... :bawl:

ohmygodd =[

I can't wait for the next one..

*gasps* Thank you, theraven, for making me cry again with your stories! :bawl: Seriously, you ever consider being a writer? Cause your stories are great. Anyway, send those boys to jail, if Aidan dies...Please make him live, for a pixel boy he's sweet looking. :smile:

Calico I couldn't agree with you more. :D

VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE

since both insim and several other sites has been extremely unreliable lately (this is the first time I've been able to log on here...) I've decided to upload my stuff to this site http://moonlightdragon.freeforums.org/ instead. I'm one of the owners/half administrators of the site, so at least I know what's going on there. My old stuff will still be here - but newer things, like new stories, infant outfits, and such, I will most likely only upload there. Though, I'll not be completely off this site, even if I'm posting less than before (I still usually peep in at least once every day or so :)).

If anyone's interested in becoming members, you're most welcome. You can even upload your own pictures, stories and downloads, if you want :)
It does require log-in (and acceptance from the administrator(s)) - but that's mostly to rule out spammers and such.

I'll most likely upload the rest of the chapters in Little Fire Burning too there, and I'm still not sure whether or not I'll upload it elsewhere (including insim) too. The more sites I upload it too, the more unruly my photobucket account(s) seems to behave...

I've already updated LFB with chapter 19 at my new site :)
Oh, and fear not - I'll post links to updates as long as this insim site lasts... :)

that's too bad but you're right the situation is really unstable 
this new story was very interesting Theraven and I would have liked to write a more detailed comment about it in this board but I will join also the new forum ^^ 
I love your works you know

Hey theraven,
can you post the tutorial of your adorable pictures and cute clothes you made in your stories?
i'm jealous that you're a really good writer.
I'm a writer also but still having grammar problems.
I have 2 stories out only on myspace.
Called True Love and Pregnant At 15.
I need your help on ALLL please.
=]

you know, being a good writer is all about having a good story to tell - and of course you need a lot of practice. I'm sure I've got some grammar mistakes too - but since english isn't my first language, I guess it's not that bad... I've always been good in english at school, and the past 2 or 3 years, I've almost only written my stories in english instead of my own language. That helps a lot, too :)

I've not yet written a tutorial on the baby clothing - but Tenshii Akari made one that works quite good, although there are a few small differences from that one to Bloom's meshes. I think it might still be in the tutorial section here at insim, as long as it didn't get lost in the Walt-orchano :p

There are quite a lot of picture tutorials around here too - and most of them are quite good. (Though, I've got some school practice too - several years with art classes after school when I was younger, three years on a school that taught art in additon to other classes, and also one year of photo last year, and now I'm doing 3D design/animation classes - so I've got some experience, you might say :))

My best tip when it comes to pictures, is that you have to do pictures that adds something to the story - if you can manage to capture a face expression that tells a whole lot more than the text does, then you've done a great photo. There's a reason that people says that "a picture can tell more than a thousand words" :)

AH. I WANT TO READ THE NEW CHAPTER. :(
WAH. WAH.
I've joined your new site, but my account is yet to be activated. Woooo. Can't wait till it does so i can reads the new chapter. Atleast adian is ok, i can see by the 'teaser' picture. ;3

i love this story and your pictures are amazing, bit shocked that english isn't your mother tongue, i never would have guessed tbf. I was just wondering if you could help me with something, ive found someone else with this but they cant remember. I used to have the same eyes as your characters in my game as my defaults and i loved them but my game crashed and ive had to reupload all my faves and get new stuff but ive forgotten where i got those eyes from! i usually get stuff from mts2 but ive checked and checked and without specifics its v.hard if you could help id be so grateful as ive spent an hour and a half today looking for them! many thanks

I've not found them again either. I've had them for a long time - they're default eyes by Helaena. I think they're from her old site, or they managed to disappear from MTS2. But I can send them to you if you want :)

thankyou! i swear they've dropped off the face of the earth lol would you send me them by e-mail attatchment? if so ill pm you my email addy manymany thanks!

is your PM box full, lilroselou? I know mine is, since I've not had the patience to go through it all... I think the max is 5, and I've got... uhm... much more...
I tried to send you a mediafire link, you see :)

woops maybe a little over 5 messages.....lol cleared out my sent and inbox so it should get through many thanks again for taking the time to do this

Hi there,
I just have a quick question for you, I would have posted this on your new site but i dont seem to be able to get on at the moment, the page wont work for me so it may be busy or something.

Anyway my computer broke so I had to buy a new one, I lost all of my sims and my downloads and stories and everything  :( So i am trying to get everything back and I noticed that in this story (which is fantastic, and definately in my top 3 sims stories by the way!) your sims have some outfits I was using in my latest story.
In Chapter 8 when they go for a picnic Erica is wearing a dress with leggings and converse. I was just wondering what website it is from? I used to have that dress and 3 other colours of it and it was one of my faves.
If possible could you please tell me what site it is, I will be eternally grateful!

Thankyouuuuuu!!!!!

I went looking for that dress yesterday - but couldn't find it. Recently I've started puttin gin pictures of the outfits in the folders, and sorting things better, but I've had those dresses for a while, so that's probably why I can't figure out where in my 9gb load of downloads I put it... My best bet is that it's somewhere at TSR. I'm not very good at remembering where I found clothes, so I'm sorry I can't be of more help  :-\

i cannot get on the other site either. its saying error

I got on there a few hours ago - but the site was very slow... Probably just some site fixing or something.

ok its fine now, just was worried the site was no longer there.

Aw thanks anyway theraven  ;D

Those dresses i asked you about are on skysims.net. I finally found them! yay!

are you really going to make me wait hours upon hours to read the parts after the ones posted here??????? arg!!
i was so sad reading the ones i have so far, but when i saw the first tears in Tony's eyes i couldn't take it anymore. the very beggining reminds me WAY too much of my brother's daughter's (no i apparently can't say just my niece) birth, but she doen't have anything other than heart problems.  :'(
a long time ago (the .net era) i downloaded the nose tubes, and i stole the pictures of the toddler and infant with them on, and i combined them and added them as my desktop background, always wondering who it/they were, now i know it was Aidan. i have loved that lil boy to death before i even knew his story.
your story is so good i have been reduced to a very wet, noisy, sobbing puddle of sadness. I LOOOOOOVE IT!!!

I was really going to post it - yes, during christmas - but the writing block bugged me back then, so I never wrote the end of the chapter until now.

Well done raven. Finally a bit of happiness for Aidan.

Start of vacation = New chapter :)

That chapter was beautiful...Aidan is so brave.

Finally, right...? :)

That was sweet chapta. Will Aidan's back brace help him live? O-o We all want him to live so badly but I guess for families around the world that insn't a choice. :( Its so sad.

This has got to be the fastest update ever...  ;D

Liiilyyyy....omg, that was sort of sad. Lily is my favourite character next to Aidan, of course.

oh no! I hope Lily is okay!  :eek:

Another fast update  ;D

woo! I can't wait to go read it... and apparently want to kill you...?  :-\

Omgod raven noo please. Ohmygod. You said that in chapter 31 we were going to hate you! Does this mean...omgod NOO! Please! NOoooooo! Ohmigod! (rant over)  :eek: :eek:

I totally agree with Zorom!!! Don't know what to say more than what Zorom told... and OMG!!!!!!! :eek:

Did I say 31?
I meant 30... 

*goes into hiding*  1escape 

aaaaggg! oh no!!!!! don't killl Lily noooo!!!!!!!!!!! I kill you!!! **follows**

^AGREED! :mad:

*goes into hiding again*  1escape

Oh my god. You are evil, i hate you. All in jest. BUT HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?  :mad:

Amazing,I hope she doesnt die  :-\

I am about to read it, and I am STILL following you!!!

You were right, people would hate you by the end of chapter 30. I am one of them. :(
Poor Lily, don't let her die!

If she dies, so do you.

Shali is right, I thought I would kill you if Tony died, when I read the begining of the story, then Aidan, and now I think Lily's gonna die! Can't you only just kill Erica? Nobody likes her becasue she was barely in it... :'(

Don't worry - Erica's story will come later...  :cool:

Oh, wow, that's nice just kill all of the poor women's kids... lol no not really...

 :mad:

Just wanted to let you know that the story is available for guests to view now :)

So I don't really need my account there the- Oh, wait. That still is a prospective sims 3 mods place. Curse you!

huh?  :confused:

Nothing important.

New chapter :)
(... but bad choice of date, I think...  :-\)

Oh god I am gonna read it! you better runnn!

Start runnin'. :mad:

I seriously thought you had killed her already. Thank heavens she is still sort of alive! But wherever you are, I will find you.  >:D

I'm taking a break from the running right now... but I'm still in training  :-X

Absolutely brilliant :) Cant wait for more

Though I wanted to rip someone's throat out while reading it, I love to read each and every chapter of the story because no matter how it plays out, I am going to cry and I know it, but I still think it's brilliant, I'll help you escape.  :D

...Fine, I won't chase after him.

um, correction you wont chase after HER.

GAH! Bad brain, bad! *Slaps self*

*giggles*  ;D

Stupid brain...

I'm getting good at fast updates, right?  ;D

Thank God you are!! Gonna go read!!!

*Hugs* YAY! SHE'S ALIVE!

Speedy Update :D

Yay, that was fast! Well I read it, brilliant... well, I'm halfway through actually....Lily doesn't have what I think she has, does she? My aunt had something vaguely like Lily....???

Oh no!

Fastest update ever, I think  ;D

You....you....YOU....*proceeds to use a series of inappropiate words* Well! I never thought! >:o

oOoOoO! Imma kill youuuu!!! Kill Erica instead please!

I agree with 0BretttterB0. How about I set my friends on her, 0BretttterB0?

Yea! lol, no lets send your freinds after Erica.... and then theraven can write about that. sorry Erica, but I really don't like you at all.

You still have plenty of time to start liking Erica, since I'm barely halfway into the story yet ;)

Still... Also I would like to mention that if Lily gets better will she be in a wheelchair like Aidan?

I know you're starting to hate this answer, but... you'll have to wait and see  ;)

Acutally I am kind of getting used to it.  :rolleyes:

*Groans*

Absolutely brilliant chapter, i suspected the worse when i saw the headstones.

Cant wait for more.

You are so brilliant. I hate it. lol, amazing chapter! :D

Loved this chapter.<3
So much. You are truly an amazing writer!

Good chapter.

AMAZING chapter!

I don't wanna sound "evil" or something. I really love Lily, but I want something heart wrenching to happen.
Not death to Lily but something that'll really change their lives forever?

There are lots of things happening in the next chapters  ;)

Woo! I already cannot wait for the next chapter. :D

Here is me hyperventallating because I am agreeing with everything that was just said by Hannah.

If you kill Lily I will make a Theraven in my sims game to "play" with. :mad:

May sound a bit mean, but my first thought seeing that picture was "YAYAYAYAYYAYYAYAYAY!" lol.. *goes to read*

That doctor is a great example of a jerk.  :p
Awesome chapter!  ;D

Isn't he!? I almost wanted to just bite his ears off, not like he uses tham anyways!

Wow I LOVED this chapter.
That doctor is a JERK.

That was a really good chapter.
For some odd reason I feel a little sorry for the Morrison guy, just a little though.  :p

Gosh your amazing! I hate that #@!%*&$% Morrison!

This chapter was amazing! I'm sad for Lily though. ):

Awesome chapter as usual!

Awesome, brilliant, and I love the clever title.

A happier chapter, yay!
Wait.... knowing the way you write, this means that they'll be 12903 sadder chapters to follow. :(
Well, I liked this update anywaysss.

Theraven in chapter 40 is lily actually wearing diapers?

(yes, I know it's you, Fuzzyal, and can you PLEASE stop asking about the diapers? please? I might not even upload the ones I promisd if you're acting like this... I'm really tired of the whimpering, PM and post spamming, double posting, and everything else. It's bad enough that you're spamming my site, but if you start here, too... 2mad )


Not 12903 chapters, dramallama (there are not that many left ;)) but there might be... uhm... a few.   :rolleyes:

Read it, love it, your a genious... running out of ways to say that.

xD she asked Melanie for the reciept? Like that thing you get in a shop when you buy something? :D I suppose it was meant to be recipe, but its funnier this way.

That was sweet! Finally, a happy chapter! And that was brilliant, that Erica had the same type as her! :)
Waah, I just had a thought! Is this how you're going to kill Erica??? With a kidney transplant go wrong?!?

uups... spelling (or wording) mistake...  :-[
Spell check didn't seem to find anything wrong, so I didn't notice either...

Anyways, you'll have to wait and see ;). But I can't really promise that the next chapter is equally... uhm... happy...   :-\

:O Noes! Well, I was expecting it. :P

Well, this chapter was like... I can't think of a word! That's how good! :D

I only read the first few lines and I'm already mad and sad all at once!!!! Gah!!!

A nice bittersweet ending to a chapter, amazing.  :D

Wow, that really scared me when I read the title of the chapter. At first, I thought Lily had died! But in the end, it turned out to be a great chapter. :)

Great place to leave off before the break, I think lily's shirt is awesome.
I hope you have a good holiday break too!  :D

Good great fantastic chapter once more theraven!  :D

This was an awesome chapter, yet a little sad too...I loved it!

I haven't read it yet, but I am preparing myself for like, tears. And I am also running around my house squee-ing with joy from a new chapter! :D

I LOVED this chapter! This is the greatest sims story I've rea, bar none!

Aww I love this chapter! It was very cute! I really hope nothing bad happens on Christmas..

Honestly I really don't like Tony so much anymore... he's kind of, I don't know, boring as an adult... :(( Well either way I stilll <3 them all! Your brilliant!

OMG LILLY NO!!! AIDAN NO!!!! JUST NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I try, I really really try, to understand that you, like all other human beings, have things to do other than sit around writing stories and taking pictures for said story. I also really try to understand that it can be frustrating and writer's block happens.... but, DARN IT! WHY!? WHY MUST EACH CHAPTER END!?!?!? GAH! I want to see what happens next! Must....be.....patient....and...considerate *rocks back and forth*

Well, I'd say what's on my mind about this chapter right now, but A) it's one of those situations where I know what I want to say, but I can't get the words out. And 2) I really don't want to sound like an ignorant jerk regarding said chapter. :-\

Omg no! This is so sad, please be okey! D8

**heart failure**
If she's gonna die, I'm gonna go with her!!!
Beautifully written of course(:

*straps bomb to chest and patiently waits for next chapter*

If Lily die I will take you, and everybody else in this room, down with her.

*panics slightly about Aquarius's bomb*
Hang on.. I agree with you.. :D

I literally got emotional when I read this chapter. :'(
That poor family. I know it's just Sims, but you make it seem so real. I love it, and am eagerly awaiting an update.  ;)

I agree with all comments above XD
I forget what Lily looked like with hair :'(

Me too! ^

to hell with hair, I forgot what Lily looked like without all the blood and wires and bandages

You'll see her without any of that soon enough.
But I can't promise she'll get back her haircut...
1whistle

AH! I consider that a tease, theraven! Posting and no new chapter yet XD Haha, I'm just joking. I've been checking every day because I'm so anxious to see what happens. However, I still stand by my last post, complete with the rocking  ;D

My to do list for the next two months (just in case people are wondering):
* Finish characters (movie)
* texturing (movie)
* animate nearly all the shots myself (movie)
* do everything else on the list of unfinished stuff (still for the movie)
* Figure out what I'm going to do next year, if I don't decide to take the final 3D year right away (I've got a week left to apply to the university at home - I'm thinking about a year of English studies or psychology, plus I'll need a job, maybe try to finally get a driver's licence, try to make a stronger portfolio than what I've got now, plus finishing up the movies I did last year, maybe start writing a book, actually finish LFB... *puh*)
* Possibly attend my nephew's Christening/name ceremony (which means a weekend less to work on my movie)
* Finish writing some LFB chapters...
* picture taking for LFB chapters
* relaxing, while not thinking about movie
* actually sleeping
* remember to eat somewhat healthy food (which doesn't include chocolate)

4cry

This is me in two months > 4gah

Guess who wants summer vacation NOW!

O_O Sorry, I didn't mean to stress you more.... Sorry

No worries  ;)
I'm not that stressed out right now. I just have a bunch of stressed people around me (especially a worried mom and a nagging "colleague"/boyfriend). The stress probably won't show up until a couple of weeks before hand-in... Just be glad you don't have to be in the same room as me when I'm hyper stressed. I tend to come close to biting people's heads off...  :rolleyes:

I am trying to finish a new chapter, but it was very difficult to write it this time. I knew what the chapter would be about, but I think I've got at least ten different versions, none of which I'm perfectly happy with... So I'm taking a little here and a little there, and doing my best to patch it all up until it looks ok.  :-\

*bow to the god* Amazing chapter. I really really hope Lily gets better. I know that I, at least, get connected to these characters. Thank you very much for another great chapter ^_^

Ah! What an amazing chapter. It's such a cliff hanger. Great work.  3yay

Nice chapter. I hope Lily makes it so we can start focusing on Aidan again. and we can't forget about Tony's wedding

Thanks, everyone  ;D

Got a bit bored, so I made a music video. Planning to do a better version later, though.

If anyone wants to see it, you can find it as a download here (EDIT: new link, see next post by me).

Oh, and it's a spoiler if you haven't read the previous few chapters...  ;)

That glimmer of hope is always present isn't it? I guess that's a good thing.
Where did you learn about all the medical parts of the story? Just good old research? Or personal experience?

This story teaches me a lot of things.
In biology class we were learning about genetic disorders, and part of it was sex-linked genetic disorders. When I saw DMD, I was thinking loudly in my head "I know what that is!" I had half a mind to start talking about it because I knew about it.
But I didn't. Just sat quietly, quite happy with myself. It's little things like this that keep me in a good mood.  :p

The main inspiration from LFB actually came from a school assignment a girl in my photoclass did. She had photographed three brothers where two of them had DMD, and made it into a touching music video. I got curious, and did some research on it. At around the same time, I also entered the "supermommy" contest, and suddenly the story was born.

A lot of the underlying story comes from personal experience, though most of the medical stuff is research. A lot of "House MD" and "Grey's anatomy", A touch of Youtube, but mostly research on Wiki and medical sites.

And there's (nearly) always hope  ;)

That video was beautiful and it fit so perfectly. Great job!

I know there wasn't a new chapter last weekend - but there will be one (hopefully) tomorrow. Quickest chapter I've ever done, I think - despite several crashes (a bad hair, curiously enough a fixed hair from the booty...but I got the non-fixed version, and it worked)

I cried during the music video.  :'( Very nicely done. I do hope Lily's okay in the end.

I cried,this is beautifully written :)

I really liked it. One of the parts that make the story so believable is that you know a lot of medical terms and treatments! (:

That's an absolutely brilliant chapter. Poor Lily, I feel so bad for her family and I really hope she gets better

I've been reading for a while now - getting up to date - and I have to say I LOVE it. Your characters and their emotions are so deep and convincing, and the story is a serious tear-jerker. I don't think I could stop reading if I wanted to. Definitely have to commend you on medical research, too - and your realistic scenes. I love how lived-in you manage to make the it look at home, and how well all of your other settings are played out. Attention to detail is amazing.

Thanks, all of you  3hug

You are damn good with the pictures, how the heck you pose them like this? XD

Thanks :)

Poseboxes (mostly extracted ingame poses but also some custom boxes), find the right poses that look as natural as possible (and are more or less similar to how I want the picture to turn out) - which sometimes takes a while, plus (by now) a few years of experience.

How on Earth did you get Lily's one eye open? *-*

*Is amazed*

Well kept secret ;)

(nah... did the easy thing. One pic eyes open, one pic eyes shut. Then the magic of Photoshop did the rest, with some help from me ;D)

That's what I thought... :)

Thanks!

 :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :'(

Great chapter though!

 5cry sorry I am a big ninny.
Great story.
Do you have, like tissues?

Think I've got a big box of Kleenex somewhere.... I'll go look. Prepared for the next chapter...  2cry

*images Lily randomly exploding in a fountain of blood*

...I think that would actually kill the dramatic mood rather than enhance it lol especially to those with a sick sense of humor like me who would probably laugh at the complete randomness of that :P.

Yeah...  :-\

She sort of did it... No fountain, but lots of blood in any case...

AH! Lily! No! O_O Great chapter as always, but I do have to agree with with carenrose said in a post under the story "(By the way, I think you're wrong when you say the next chapter will come "soon enough." 'Cuz it's not soon enough unless it's already here! ;) )"  ;D

I find this ... immensely depressing ....
But a great chapter, as always <3

Can somebody just die or get better already!? Preferably the latter. the suspense is killing me! 1explode

I thought Lily was dead?! Read the last sentence and tell me she's alive?

You'll know soon...  ;)

I swear it totally says she's dead. But I guess you're right, we'll see.

It would break poor little *Aidan's heart D:

Maybe that's why she said we'd hate her. She's killing Lily and Aidan at the same time! :O

Ok I think we can all agree that Raven has a knack for torturing her sims to the brink of insanity and telling depressing but addicting stories, but even she wouldnt do something as cruel as killing both twins on the same day......right?

Very true - again, reminded of My Sister's Keeper, lol. A can' wait to see hat happens though xD Maybe Raven will surprise us all.

I'm actually hoping she thinks of some way for Aidan not be dead by the end of this story. It's so screwed up that at his age he's excepted the fact that he probably wont live long enough to finish high school.

She tried...

to kill them both on the same day? Yeah she tried but I actually wasn't expecting either them to die in that chapter anyway. It was more random than a tear-jerker, which I expect one of their real deaths to be

I thought they would die, honest.

I actually think Lily's done for but Aidan will live. The ultimate irony seeing as Lily's been the healthy one since they were born

Blimey Raven.
Its very very rare for me to cry over a movie or a book.. but you did it. I'm sitting here crying my eyes out.
Poor Aidan.. Poor Lily.

oh...oh my...wow..no..no...NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I'm proud of myself for not crying but NO!!!!! OMG Raven you are sick! Can't wait for the next chapter but I'm a bit mad at you right now lol

I have no comments, it was so sad :(

Poor Aidan D: and the rest of the Brooks family, of course. But ..... D: <----- The tragedy face.

*impatiently waiting for next chapter* WHY DO YOU TORTURE US LIKE THIS!?

Because it's entertaining  1tehe

It's been TWO WEEKS!!!   :eek:

She's totally doing this on purpose lol, she probably has the chapter done, but she wants us to wait cuz it's the most suspenseful! Damn you and your craftiness!

Actually, I don't have it ready this time. Not the pictures, at least. Without pictures, the story isn't quite finished either...

June is exam time, and it's hand-in of our @#%&@¤&% movie project at Monday. Which is why I've not even let myself think about having a LFB photoshoot.

Not that I'm not distracted from the project (Which I am... all the time) it's just that a chapter might take a whole weekend, and at the moment, that's time I definitely don't have...

Exams suck!  ;)

Tell me about it. ON friday I got an exam in a class where we've been pretty much taught nothing the whole year

My English teacher doesn't teach. I'll be the only one to pass.

Most English tests are common sense questions(Well they are for me at least) Ao you should pass regardless of whether or not she teaches you anything. The class I was refering to is an engineering/technology class, meaning the questions on there will be about how stuff works! Stuff that this jerk has never taught us. All we do is build things in that dumb class, we dont learn! I'm soooo gonna fail :(

Watch the language... edit please :(

done, my bad :P

Just don't want you banned!  ;)

Theraven I think lily is ready to be with the angel syou know this reminds me of the time I watched the movie the outsiders and the song So gold by Stevie Wonder started playing, I think the movie and song meant that even though there will be trouble you just have to face it head on.

oh! The Outsiders is one of my favorite books!  ;D

Ah, so short compared to the other chapters. Dragging it out to keep us guessing?

So many speculations about what could happen.

Short, because I didn't want to leave you waiting another week ;)

It was originally combined with the next chapter, but I decided to split them up because I didn't have the time to make a 50+ picture chapter this time. Besides - it felt like a natural place to stop...  :cool:

Just when I was about to come in here and ask how close you were to finishing. Well you certainly did a good job of shutting me up :D

Great chapter, I knew Aidan would be the one to save Lily.

AH! I love you right now for putting up a new chapter! I came here to see if you had put a new one up and I swear I could have shook my computer to go faster. To use the expression "I was tripping over myself to get to it" or something similar XD Anyway, lovely chapter! I can't wait to see what happens next!

Awww you're so thoughtful ~Raven <33

Haha, just what I was thinking, Aquarius.

WIN!  ;)

Epic Win

Great chapter I hope to see more.

I don't know, let's go see what happens.

This really cheered me up after seeing the disaster that was "The Last Airbender". Thank you Raven

I feel your pain. I was a huge fan of the tv series. The movie was a complete and utter bastardization of an epic tv series

Holy cheese squares! I missed the update?! FAIL.

NOOOOO!!!!! Lily can't be gone she just can't be I am so depressed

anxiously waiting....*starts biting fingernails until they're gone and I actually reach my fingers* *looks at bloody hand*...AAAAAAAAAH!!!

*gives bandages*

*ponders jumping off cliff* Nahh...

I missed the update too >.> Superfail.

I suppose I'll twiddle my thumbs as I wait?

Sorry for the long wait. I'm on vacation, and my computer is left back in my apartment... *sniffles*   :'(

when are your coming home?

As soon as I find out where she's vacationing in and....wait..I've said too much *hides rope, and booke titled "100 ways to torture" behind back*

I'll find out (grabs a rope, chair and 100 ways to torture book)
BTW that's from Spongebob

Try chocolate instead ;)

(Rockhead gives theraven chocolate)

I think I speak for everyone who has been waiting for the next chapter of LFB by supplying a quote by Brian Adams which reads:
Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.

Screw Patience. Violence gets quicker results >:D violence and chocolate!

*nods*  :D

Haha, my philosophy of life right there! I must agree!

I hate to say it but your philosophy is right Aquarius

is this story dead?

Not even close, fraroc. Theraven is on vacation- she said she'd update when she got back. and I believe her.

But I am writing even though I don't have my game ;)

The end might have changed again... got some new ideas. It has changed several times already - or rather, it's... longer... than it was at first.

I'll never finish the story if I go on like that...  I already have about 100 chapters all in all, maybe more, and that's just an overall estimate.  :-\

100!? Holy crap! Please don't leave Lily in a coma for 40 more chapters!

No, she won't. Not for 50 more chapters. That would be cruel....  

Then again... there was a power-out somewhere around chapter 30, I think, so my halo is currently powered by ... uhm... candle light...

3angel

Raven i'm sorry i doubted you :)


EDIT:

Either make lily better or end her suffering!!!!!
and while your at it, give Adian some stem cells and cure his DMD. (sorry if your a religious fanatic)

Well, as crazy as I'm going, I hope you're having a good time on vacation! You deserve it!

I agree with Zammy!

I'll do a happy dance if you can confirm 100 chapters!

HELLO??!? NEW CHAPTER?!?!!?

There is no reason to be rude, you know...

And stressing me is a really bad idea. The last time I was really stressed (and pissed off on top of that), I had to look myself in the mirror afterward just to make sure I had not grown horns and a tail... But I think I saw a hint of fangs...  >:D
Annoying me is not a very good idea, either... (just ask Fuzzyal)

*waits another day*

No, seriously - I've been busy moving and sorting files all day (1 1/2 months of stuff from my laptop and USB stick). Haven't even opened my game yet, and haven't written a thing for LFB today, either. Only have a few pics left for the next chapter part, though, since I did most of them before my holiday.

And as far as I know, stem cells can't cure DMD. At least not yet. (But maybe in the future).

---------
To OBretttterBO - I 'm not 100% sure, but I think I can confirm 100 or more chapters. Looks that way right now... *goes spying on Katie dancing the happy-dance*

And I had a god time on vacation - but it's good to be back. Too much nagging (mom) and nannying (I guess I had to expect that with two 5 month old babies (my bro's baby and my cousin's baby are two weeks apart in age) and a 4 year old boy to look after) for my taste.

The stem cells are in testing- but there's always a chance.

SWEET! & I don't care if you spy ;) ahahah!

It's probably a good thing I don't know anything about you other than your InSim name and that you write stories, because I'd have to happily tackle you when the next chapter is out XD (Not to mention to attempt a sneak peak at the other chapters cause I'm impatient)  :rolleyes:

I'm not saying that Stem Cells can DEFINATLY cure DMD, But It is a theory that the stem cells can grow back any muscle that has been corroded by the DMD. And also, can't girls get DMD under a genetic mutation?