Chapter Four → Love is our shield, it keeps us concealed

Thankfully the toddlers got along well enough, Michelle adjusted to having Katharine in the house flawlessly. There was no jealousy over mommy holding one more than the other, however there was a little bit of jealousy over a certain toy.

Katharine had been given an odd little doll by the guys at the station, which she spent every waking moment with. Michelle didn't really understand why she didn't have a doll like that.

But when mama came home with an Oscar the Grouch stuffy, it made Michelle forget all about the funny little doll her sister had.

Late nights for Kinsley coupled by early mornings for Cherie all the while raising two toddlers left very little time for sleep, ever. If it wasn't for quick naps the women would never get any sleep, although that didn't help with the feelings of guilt they each had for not spending as much hands on time with the tots as they should have.

But the girls entertained themselves well enough, barely noticing their mother's exhaustion. Katharine played with her doll Bobo whilst Michelle found the joy of the xylophone, the noise it made always sounded just a bit better if the whacker was damp. Yep, really, it's a proven scientific fact.

"So..." Cherie started one evening as they sat down to yet another meal of out of the box crap Kraft-dinner. "I couldn't help but notice that there's a group of men standing on our roof." Kinsley was just silent. "Wearing tool belts." Still no response. "Any idea where they came from?" Cherie prompted.

Kinsley paused her eating. "Local theater group doing rehearsals for roof top YMCA performances?"

Cherie scoffed. "What, you find a second story landing that fell off the back of a truck this week?"

"If only i was that good." Kinsley chuckled, finally looking up to see her wife's unimpressed look. "Look, the kids are getting too old to share a room with us, and if you're okay with keeping our sex life designated to only the shower fine. But I, personally, would really love our bedroom back."

The blonde sighed. "How much is this gonna cost us?"

"Couple grand." Kinsley shrugged. "I figured we could spare it."

"You're going to put an entire second floor on the house for two grand? How the hell did you manage to pull that off?"

"Slave wages?" Kinsley arched her eyebrows in a playful way.

"Please don't tell me you picked those guys up in a Home Depo parking lot."

"No!" Kinsley scoffed. "Lowe's." That was when Cherie face palmed, her wife was insane.

So that's how it went, as the weeks dragged on, so did the renovations. The girl's were soon potty trained and before long were starting to talk. "Money!"

"No money, honey, we're poor." Kinsley said.

"Money!" Michelle said happily again.

"Oh wow are you ever in for a rude awakening." Kinsley muttered.

Kinsley still worked nights, finding that her path crossed with the police more often as her cases got more involved. "You're Cherie's girl right?"

"Wife, i'm Cherie's wife." Kinsley said to Mitch, the vampire d-bag that was Cherie's boss.

"Right, yeah."

Kinsley had a feeling that Mitch was into Cherie, understandably, but still, she didn't have to like it. The guy threw a lot of parties, a lot of lame parties and Cherie was always on the guest list.

Thankfully though, Cherie was oblivious. To both the sheer lameness of the parties and the fact that her boss wanted her to do more than just his paperwork.

Kinsley's work was bringing her more and more into the tougher parts of town, more than once she found herself in fights with a perp that refused to fess up to something. Which was the last thing she needed, she fought enough at home....

Okay, so the fighting was usually with the washing machine, but still, it was a work out, "One day i will have enough money to replace you!" She shouted at the inanimate object. 

"Honey, it can't hear you." Cherie said from across the room.

"Oh it knows!" Kinsley shouted over the ruckus the washer was making. "It's days are numbered!" She said before kicking it, just for good measure.

Pretty soon the second story of the house was finished, and while they were now down a good twenty-five hundred bucks, it was worth it because no sooner than it was done that the girl's grew up and were ready to use their own room.

Katharine was an odd little one, kept to herself a lot and talked to the air. She worried her mothers, even though she assured them she was in fact not crazy. "I'm just talking to Bobo."

"Should we get her tested?" Kinsley muttered to her lover.

"Isn't Bobo the doll?" Cherie countered.

"I'm standing right here you know, I can hear you." Katharine pointed out to her parents, giving them both a droll look.

"Go... play or something." Kinsley said. "And stop talking to the air."

Katharine just roll her eyes at them and headed off, adults just never understood.

Michelle was thankfully a little more normal, well, to Kinsley at least, but she was a fellow bookworm and understood spending most of the day with your nose in the book. Cherie however, did not. "Now that one we definitely need to get tested." The blonde joked. "She's too much like you." Of course when Kinsley hurried away toward the bathroom looking like she was close to tears, Cherie made a confused face. "I was kidding! Honey...." She sighed, shaking her head. Kinsley had been acting way weird for weeks, she had no idea what the hell was up with her.

Kinsley however knew exactly what was wrong with her, she'd been sick for days and feeling way over emotional and well, she was more than a bit late.

Pretty soon it became too obvious that Kinsley was in fact pregnant and she knew she couldn't hide it anymore, even though she tried to for as long as she could. And for a while it worked, no one questioned why she started wearing different clothes to work or why she was eating more. Although she knew she had to tell Cherie and soon, even though they didn't have the money to raise another baby, it was happening, whether their bank account agreed or not.

It was evident that Kinsley's odd attitude was taking it's toll on Cherie as well as their relationship, it all came to a head when the blonde came home one afternoon with news of a promotion to the Vice Squad only to find their bedroom completely redesigned. Gone was their old bed, now sat a brand new box spring and two mattresses. Sure, there was no actual bed frame, but after blowing that kind of cash on the bed part, there was no wonder why there was no money for the frame. It was too much, and Cherie blew her top, the two getting into a loud argument. 

"Well, what do you expect me to say Kinsley!? You're blowing money like a drunken sailor, you're acting all weird and bitchy. What's do you want me to do, pat you on the shoulder and say, good for you, continue on your path to bankruptcy. If you go down, I go down too, remember that!" 

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't be sorry, just think for once! Dammit, what's wrong with you!? Oh, don't cry!" Cherie scoffed.

"I'm pregnant!" Kinsley managed to get out around the tears, her hands going up to thread into her hair.

"What?" Cherie said, her anger momentarily dissipating.

"I'm pregnant." Kinsley said again, looking at her wife, her hands falling away from her face, tears slowing for the moment. "I wanted to tell you, but.... i knew we couldn't afford it right now and, i didn't want you to hate me."

Cherie sighed, meeting her lovers eyes. "I couldn't hate you, even if you paid me, i couldn't."

"Good, cause i don't have any money." Kinsley joked slightly, chuckling tearfully.

Cherie chuckled right along with her wife, taking her hands into her own. "Next time something is hanging heavy over your head, even if it's not something big like this is. Don't bear it yourself, let me in, okay?"

"Letting you in is what got us here." Kinsley quipped, a very badly timed dirty joke, which was classic her. 

Cherie laughed, shaking her head as she pulled her wife into a hug. "Promise?"

"Promise." Kinsley said.

"We'll make it." Cherie said softly, believing it. She needed too, what else was there to believe?

Chapter Notes

Dramatic! I know, i know, but I do enjoy the dramatics. Also, about that last little section with them, yes I use the Pose Player, but only once. I felt the need to point out, that besides the hands on the head position, all the rest of the pictures were of my own genius anal retentive obsession with pausing the game every five seconds for really good screen caps lol. 

Also, just a little rant. Grr Arg! I hate, and I mean, hate, the fact that there's a limit on how much a klepto sim can steal in a day. Four things, seriously four things and then it's like, no more, go home. Damn you game, I will decide when Kinsley is done robbing someone blind. If i could mod i would look into turning that off lol. Yes, well, rant is over now. 

Michelle and Katharine are adorable as kids, Bobo the IF is creepy as ever, seriously, i hate those things. Michelle's third trait is Bookworm and Katharine's is Eco-friendly. Also, i know there were very few pictures of her as a toddler, two reasons. All she ever did was play with that stupid doll and secondly, it's hard to cap with kids on my lap. But thankfully my niece and nephew are gone for the rest of the week, so i can start paying better attention to everyone in the family and not just Kinsley.