Growing Up

Chapter 31

Upon arrival to the courthouse, Mariska and Sophia rushed inside and went into the bathroom to get changed. Mariska had told Sophia that she didn't need to wear a dress, but she had brought one anyway, and her daughter was more than willing to dress up in one of her favorite dresses instead of a floor length fancy one.

"Where are the twins?" Sophia asked, as she and her mother went back out to the car to put their other clothes away.

"They are getting picked up by your father right now. Then he is going to bring them here, we'll get them changed, then we have our scheduled time of 5:03 to get married."

"Mom, you do realize that I'm not old enough to be a witness, right?" Sophia stated, and Mariska nodded.

"I do know that... and since almost everyone I know is busy doing taping for shows and other things like that, Kelli and Ice are going to stand in for us."

"Don't act like that is a big deal to you, Mother." Sophia grinned, before she quickly grabbed her mother and hugged her tightly.

Sophia hadn't expected to be so excited for her mother to get married. She thought that she would be so upset that someone else was going to be controlling all the time that Mariska had, and that Sophia would be alone again. But then Peter came back into their lives. Peter was the father that Sophia had always wanted, and she just wished that Peter and her mother hadn't broken up in the first place. But then she realized that it might have had to happen so that she and her mother went to go look for a kid, which ended up being kids, to add to their family.

"Sophia, are you crying?" Mariska asked, as her daughter still clung to her.

"I'm sorry, Mom... I just to thinking and I'm so happy. This is the family that I'm supposed to be in. I'm supposed to have you and Peter as parents, and I'm supposed to have Missie and Luke as my siblings. I always thought that I wanted you and Chris... that I wanted to be parented by the two people that created me. But I don't think I really wanted that then, and I sure as hell do not want it now."

"If you wanted to still be around Chr-" 

"Mom, I don't. I feel a little guilty that he is depressed, but I feel like he might need that to realize how I felt. How I felt when he said he wanted to get back together with Carly so that Alex had his parents, compared to how he ran out on us when I was only 6 months old. I wasn't even a human then, Mom. I was pretty much just a drooling pile of flesh. He didn't even know who I was and he still ran out."

"If he would've stayed around and saw how amazing you are, I think that maybe he and I would've gotten married. That we would've pretended to be happy to make sure that you had a stable home life."

"Then you wouldn't be happy..." Sophia trailed off, as she heard Missie and Luke squeal her name.

===

Sophia stood beside her siblings, as they watched their parents exchange the vows that every other couple exchanges. Sophia was watching and listening as much as she could, but she found herself wondering if Alex's parents would really get married to make sure he had the stable home life that Mariska had hoped for herself.

She had been so zoned out through the whole thing, that she didn't even notice when it was all over. Her siblings were squealing happily and hugging her parents, while Ice-T and Kelli said their congratulations to the happy couple.

"Soph?" Mariska asked, when she realized her daughter wasn't in the group.

"Yeah?" Sophia asked, as she blinked a few times and shook her head a bit to get rid of the thoughts that had clouded her mind.

"Gonna come over here?" Peter asked, when he heard his wife speak.

"Y-yeah... of course. Sorry." Sophia spoke, before taking the few small steps and joining in on the group hug. Sophia picked up Missie, since she is the shortest of the twins, and helped her hug the rest of the family easier.

They stood like that for a few moments before they headed out to celebrate as quietly as this excited family could possibly be.

===

That night, after a lot of celebrating, everyone was finally settled into their bed. Mariska had cuddled up close to her husband, but instead of talking about the life they were sharing, they were talking about how distant Sophia had seemed.

"Do you think something happened today?" Peter asked, and Mariska shrugged a bit.

"I know she saw Carly... I just don't know if she is reason why Soph was so quiet, or if maybe our talk before the wedding was the problem." Mariska sighed.

"What did you say?" Peter questioned.

"Well, we just got to talking. She was crying randomly while she hugged me. She started to talk about how she loves our family, and how she thought that she had always wanted me and Chris to be her parents... then I told her about how I was gonna marry Chris if he would've stayed around."

"You were gonna really do that?" Peter asked, and Mariska nodded slowly as she yawned a bit.

"Yeah, but babe, he left. It wasn't meant to happen so it didn't happen. I guess I was supposed to be with you from the start. I guess I just never thought my husband would be this tall... like you are a giant compared to me." Mariska teased, because she wanted to get off the hard topic of her possibly having married Chris.

"I don't think that I want to be married to someone who makes fun of my height." Peter squeaked a bit, before they started to laugh.

Sophia stood outside her parents' bedroom door and smiled. She wanted Alex to be happy like how she is...she realized right then and there, that Chris wasn't capable of being a good father to a child, because he still hadn't grown up himself. He's still immature and even though he tries to do right by the women he knocks up, he doesn't have the ability to marry them and raise the children he has with them because he is scared. He is scared and almost like he isn't ready to lose the life he has as a bachelor.