Harper & Lee Plus Three

Oh No

I laid in bed and closed my laptop. I wanted to finish A Castle of Shadows before bouncing over to the rest of Sweet Home Sextuplets, so I'd taken a break from it. Now, I'd finished the last episode and didn't know what to do with my life.

"Hey bitch! I'm here!"

I looked in the doorway and gasped. "OMG are you serious? You drove all the way up from school to see me?"

"Girlfriend, do you really think I'd do anything else?" Etsy asked. She came over and hugged me. "Whoa! You're seriously huge."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious."

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm on strict bed rest. They have to help me get up to go to the bathroom, but I'm glad that my smallest baby is stable. I really thought so many times we were gonna lose them."

"But ya didn't!" Etsy said. "Anyway..."

She placed a big bag on the table. There was a pizza box inside of it. I almost started crying out of happiness. Etsy also pulled out a box of wings, garlic knots, and my favorite cinnamon roll dessert from the pizza place. She had a pack of paper plates too.

We sat down and talked for a while, mostly about school and how she just wanted to drop out and keep selling her jewelry. She had way less time now with all her homework...and parties.

"You're already halfway there. Just keep going. It's what I tell myself every day when I'm lying here, miserable."

"How many weeks do you have left anyway?"

"As long as I can go. I think the record for a sextuplet pregnancy is like thirty weeks and a few days, so if we're lucky, a month and a week left."

"You'll make it. And I'll pass with straight C's!"

We both had a fit of laughter, and I thought pizza sauce was going to come out of my nose for a second. Once she got everything cleaned up, she headed out. I told her Lee and the kids were on their way.

"See you tomorrow, bestie!" Etsy said on her way out the door.

A few minutes later, I heard a scream down the hallway. Yup. That was definitely Lee and the kids. They each came in holding their favorite toy. Lee put each one of them on my bed.

"Ella, what happened to your Baby Yoda? He's all dirty," I said.

"She won't let me put him in the wash," Lee said.

"Ella, why can't Daddy wash your Baby Yoda?" I asked her.

"Because he'll die from all the water!" she said.

"Oh, you'll mean he'll drown?" She nodded. "I don't know as much about Star Wars as Daddy, but don't Jedi have special powers?"

"No, Mommy! The force!" said Lukas.

"Uh-huh, that's right," I said. "So Ella, I bet Baby Yoda can use the force to breathe underwater, so he can get nice and clean." I looked over at Lee, who was rolling his eyes. "Ella, what do you think? I bet he'll be just fine in the washer, because he can use the force."

"Okay," said Ella.

Lee had the look of "I can't believe that actually worked" on his face. I smirked. At only nineteen, pregnant with sextuplets, and in a hospital bed, I was still killing it as a parent.

"Mommy, when are babies?" asked Zophia.

"Soon, Zozo. About another month," I said.

All three kids let out a long, whiny, "no!" that felt like it dragged on forever.

"It's okay guys. It leaves you time to keep getting your new house ready," I said. "Do you guys like having your own house with your own rooms?"

"Yeah!" they said.

"That's good. And then when we get the babies out Mommy will be able to come home and have fun with you guys," I said.

"What about babies?" Ella asked.

"Remember, babies will be too small to come home. They can come home when they get bigger," I said.

"How long, Mommy?" asked Lukas.

"Probably around when you guys start preschool in the fall," I said.

"Babies go school?" Zophia asked.

Lee and I both laughed. I patted the little blond hair poofs on top of Zophia's head.

"No, Zozo. Babies can't go to school. They have to stay home with Mommy," I said.

All of a sudden, I peed. Like, I peed a lot. I hoped and prayed the kids wouldn't notice, and that I'd be able to get them off my bed and just discreetly call the nurse to help me out.

"Mommy, why wet?" asked Lukas. He started to poke the wet spot on my blanket.

"Lukas, no! Don't touch!" I said.

Lee quickly scooped him up and out of there, along with the two girls, who were not happy about it, Zophia especially. She started screeching and stamping her feet.

"Zophia, stop that!" I said, to no avail because she continued to cry.

"Mommy had an accident. You guys can't be on the bed with her," Lee said.

"Can you press the nurse call button for me?" I asked.

"Sure," said Lee, now holding the crying Zophia.

A nurse came in right away and asked, "Everything okay in here?"

"Just a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. Also, I think I peed myself," I said.

"Oh dear," said the nurse, her face growing pale. "I can smell it, honey. That's not urine. Your water broke."

Lee and I exchanged glances, then looked back at the nurse.

"We can't stop it, can we?" I said.

"Are you having any contractions?" the nurse asked.

"No. Not yet," I said.

I looked over at Lee, who already had his phone to his ear, most likely calling his parents.

"That's a good sign, so we may have a little bit of time to get your doctor over here," said the nurse. "But you're definitely having these babies tonight." 

***

Author Fun Facts: 

-I watched the entire series of Sweet Home Sextuplets to help me write these parts of the story! I loved the show and recommend it. For those of you in the US, you should still be able to watch the whole series for free on the TLC website. 

-Around the time I finished writing this book, I dreamt that I met the Waldrop family (from Sweet Home Sextuplets). We had a bbq at their house and we got to talk about writing about sextuplets vs having them in real life. 

-As far as I know, there are no Sweet Home Sextuplets fanfics on Wattpad. If you find any, send them my way. I'm curious!