CHERYL POV:
I slowly step into the shower. Toni turns around and looks at me. "I need you." She whispers. I pull her into a kiss. We make out for a few minutes until she picks me up. "Toni!" I moan quietly. "We don't have to." I whisper. "I want to." She nods and kisses my neck. "Condom?" She ask quietly. "No, I'm ovulating." I whisper. She nods and slides herself into me. "Oh!" I moan quietly. She thrust slowly.
Toni walks out of the bathroom. "Do you think it worked?" She ask going over to the closet. "No." I says quietly. "We can try something el-." I stop her. "No! I want to have a kid and I want to be the one who does it." She nods. "Ok! It's just that might not be an option Cheryl!" She says walking over to the bed and sitting down. "I'm not giving up hope, but I think we need to be realistic." She whispers. "I want a kid with you. I don't care if they aren't biologically related to us or not. I'll love them no matter what!" I take a deep breath. "We can keep trying for a bit but I think if you're not pregnant by July I think we need to do something about this." She explains. "Ok?" I nod. She kisses me. "I just don't want this to be our entire relationship."
TONI POV:
I rub Cheryl's cheek as she sleeps. We've been trying to have a kid for a while. It's been hard on both of us. Cheryl never wanted to have kids while her mother was alive, after she died we had the idea of throwing out of Birth Control and to try to have a kid! If she wasn't pregnant by the end of the year we would adopt. That was 3 years ago. We've been trying on and off since then. "Cher." I whisper. Her eyes slowly open. "What's up?" She ask quietly. "I got a call from Fangs and he needs me to meet him at a meeting." She looks at me. "Ok." She says quietly. "Just be safe." She whispers. I nod. She pulls me into a quick kiss. I smile. "I'll be back in an hour." I tell her.
"How's Cheryl?" Fangs ask quietly. "She's ok! She still hasn't wrapped her head around the fact that she might not be able to have a baby. I don't know if it's me or her that's causing the problem! But still, I'm really worried about it." He nods. "Totally get it." He says quietly. "You ok?" I ask him. "I told Cheryl I'd be home in like 10 minutes." I tell him. "I'm ok, I just needed some support. I'm feeling a lot better." I smile. "Ok! Call me in the morning." I say quietly. "Ok." He nods. I go to my car and drive home. I walk into the house. I go upstairs, walk into the bedroom and see Cheryl wide awake. "You ok?" I ask her. She takes a deep breath. "I don't think I can get pregnant." She says wiping her tears. "Well, we can get tested to see if there's a problem for either of us." I tell her. "It might not be you..." I take a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I don't really know how to handle this." I say awkwardly. "It's ok." She says quietly. "How's Fangs?" She ask changing the subject. "He's ok. He got in a really bad fight with his dad and it was either going to meeting or drinking so he called me since besides you, I am the only person who knows he has a problem." I tell her. She nods. "Damn." She says quietly. I nod. "Yeah." I whisper. I kiss the top of her head. "Let's go to sleep." I whisper. She wraps her arms around me. I pick her up. I lie down on the bed and just hold Cheryl. I smile a little. "I don't care if we have a kid and they aren't biologically ours, it's probably best, not to be an asshole but we are both pretty fucked up." I tell her. She sits up. "I just want to raise a kid with you." I say quietly. I look at her. "We'll keep trying, but we really need to look into our options." I whisper. "I don't want to put a kid through that trauma of being adopted." She whispers. I take a deep breath. "Cheryl, you know I was adopted right?" I ask confused. "Yeah! You've talked about how kinda fucked it you up." I nod. "Yeah, but I rather have a bit of trauma wondering if my birth mother ever loved me, then either being with her or be put in and out of foster care!" I explain. "The kid might feel differently but I know what it's like so I can help them!" I explain. I kiss her forehead and wipe her tears. "I'll make an appointment to see a fertility clinic." I tell her.
I look at the doctor. "Well?" I ask quietly. "You're perfectly fine. Your sperm count is a little lower then it should be but honestly it's nothing to worry about." She tells me. "What about Cheryl?" I ask quietly. "Do you know if she's had an abortion or anything like that in the past?" She ask quietly. "Ah! I don't know about abortions, but a few years ago, she was pregnant but she didn't know and a medication she was taking, one of the warnings on it was to not conceive a child and we accidentally, did that." I say the last part awkwardly. "What medication was she on?" The doctor ask. "Um! I don't remember. She suffers from chronic migraines and it was something for that. She's been off it for a while because it didn't help, she's on a medication that is safe for her to het pregnant-." I stop myself. "Why are you asking me this stuff?" I ask her. "Oh! I tried asking Cheryl and she broke down crying and asked me not to tell you but I'm not her therapist and she's your wife. She's seeing the counselor we have here for stuff like this." I nod. "Yeah, she's really emotional right now. But as stereotypical as it is for woman she's always been a bit emotional and hot headed." I explain. "How did you miss this?" She ask quietly. "Oh! While you were talking to her, I got bored and went to get something to eat." I tell her. She nods. "I was hungry. I'm always hungry since I work out and burn through calories." I say quietly. "We should probably keep talking about the whole reason we're here." I say sitting up. "Right! Cheryl's chances of getting pregnant really low." I take a deep breath. "Why?" I ask her. "We have to do more test. But she can still get pregnant it's just really hard." She explains. "Does she know?" I ask her. "Because I don't think I can look her in the eyes and tell her." I add. She nods. "She knows. That's kinda why she broke out in tears." I nod. "Ok." I whisper. "Should we keep trying or is there anything else we could do?" I ask quietly. "We'll have to talk about this with Cheryl you could use a surrogate. You could adopt or we could use insemination." She explains me. "Insemi- what?" I ask confused. "You ejaculate into a cup and we put that in Cheryl so it'll be more accurate." She tells me. "Oh! That makes sense! I like that one." I nod. "So it's like using a surrogate but instead of using someone else's it's Cheryl?" I ask her. She nods. I nod. "Ok! I'll be honest, I'm not the smartest person. I had a bit of trouble with alcohol and I definitely did some things that I caused some brain damage, so have some memory issue and other things." She nods. "It didn't effect your sperm count which is quite impressive actually." I nod. "Yeah, it was 7 years ago, my drinking problem only lasted a year in college then I got kicked out and was lucky enough to stop, my body has had time to recover." I explain. There's a knock on the door and Cheryl comes in. "You ok?" I ask her. She sits down next to me. "Is there anything we can do?" She ask quietly. Our doctor explains what she explained to me. I rub Cheryl's back. "Will it work?" She ask the doctor. "It's more likely then you two having sex." Our doctor explains. I look at Cheryl and watch her try to wrap her head around it. "Do we have the money?" Cheryl ask looking at me. "We have money set aside that my dad left us for something like this." I tell her. She nods. "We can try it." She whispers. I wrap my arm around her head, pull her close and kiss her head.
Cheryl walks out of the bathroom holding a pregnancy test. I look at her. "Cher?" She looks at me. "Are you pregnant?" I ask standing up and looking at the test. I look back at her and hug her. "Holy shit!" I smile. She looks at me. I cup her cheeks. "Hey, we'll get through this!" I tell her. She nods.
9 months later
CHERYL POV:
I look at our daughter. "She looks so much like you." I say looking at Toni. "She has your everything." I say quietly. She looks at me. "I bet she has your heart." She says stroking her hair. "What do we want to name her?" I ask quietly. "I always liked Amber." She whispers. "Middle?" She ask quietly. "Well, if we're going with the whole nature thing then I like Violet." I tell her. "Either last name we use for her will work to." She says quietly. "I like Amber Topaz." I say looking at her. She smiles. "Amber Topaz." She whispers back. "I really like that too." She says before kissing the top of my head. I look at Amber. "Hi Amber." I smile. She looks at me and smiles. "This is why I wanted to have a baby Toni." I say quietly. "Now I get it." She whispers.
3 years later
I watch Amber as she plays with the water. "Mommy! Mommy! Look!" She walks over to me. "What is it?" I ask smiling. She shows me a frog. "Cute!" I say smiling. "Hey, how about we put him back by the water so he can't be with his family." I tell her. She nods and goes back to the water. I look over at Toni and she motions to the food. I nod. "Amber, come here Sweetheart, dinners ready!" I tell her. Amber runs over to me. I pick her up and we go over to the picnic table. "What do you want kiddo?" Toni ask smiling. "Burber!" Amber says quietly. "Burger? Cheese or no?" I ask her. "Cheese!" She says happily. "Anything else?" She shakes her head. "Ok." I say making her the burger. I put her on the bench. Toni looks at me. "You?" She ask quietly. "Burger." I say quietly. She nods. "Cool." She looks at me. "You ok?" She ask quietly. "Yeah! Just tried." I tell her. "You sure?" She ask concerned. "I had to sleep in a tent in a sleeping bag." She nods. "You're tired." I nod. "Well, we're eating and going home so you can sleep in a bit."
I took at Toni. She smiles and takes my hand. "I have to pee!" Amber shouts. My head drops and I take a breath. "Can you wait?" Toni ask looking into the mirror. "No!" Amber says quietly. I sigh. "I'll take her." I say getting out of the car and going in back. "Come on, you get to pee in the woods again! I say picking her up. "Isn't that exciting?" I ask smiling. She looks at me unimpressed. "Well, if anyone questioned if you are mine, your definition amusement is definitely mine!" I say quietly. She looks at me even more unimpressed. "Ok, let's just get this over with." I say quietly.
"Can you do Amber's hair? And get her ready for the day? I need to get to the shop to help Fangs open up, he forgot his keys." Toni ask pouring coffee into a travel mug. "I can't do her hair." I say quietly. She stops. "You always do it." I say. "Cheryl it's not that hard. Just make sure it does end up to fizzy." She says before kissing the top of my head. "But she has-." She interrupts me. "I wrote it down and I just sent you a link to a video that can help." She says quietly. "It'll be ok. She knows what to do and can help you. I've been preparing her for this day for the past 3 years." She says smiling. I look at her. "You got this." I whispers. "If not I'll run home quickly and help, but I think you can do this." She explains. "Fine." She nods. "Cool! I'll see you when I get home or after you call me in tears!" She says quietly. "I thought you had faith in me!" I say standing up. "Oh! I do. But I also like being sarcastic." She says smiling. "You are so lucky I love you." I say before kissing her. "I love you too." She says smiling. "Go help Fangs before he does something stupid!" I tell her. She nods and quickly leaves. Toni and I always wake up an hour before Amber just to have some time to get ourselves ready before we get her ready. I go upstairs and walk into her bedroom. "Sweetheart. Get up! It's time to start your day. I don't know mama's speech she gives you everything morning." Amber slowly wakes up and looks at me. "Come on kiddo." She gets out of bed. "Do you want to eat first or get dressed first?" I ask her. "Dressed?" I ask. She nods. "Ok." I smile.
I finish braiding her hair. "Good?" I ask her. She looks at me. "It tight." She says quietly. "Um... I don't know how to fix it, do you?" I ask quietly. "No, mama always does it." I nod. "I know. I don't know what to do." I explain. "Why?" She ask quietly. "Because your hair is different then mine." I say quietly. "Obviously. I have brown hair and you don't." She says quietly. I take a deep breath. "We don't need to have this conversation today." I say quietly. She looks at me. "This is a conversation for mom. Not me." I tell her. "Why?" She ask quietly. "Because I don't have the information to tell you and I don't want you walking around with false information." I tell her. She goes to step off her step stool and accidentally falls forward. I try to catch her but it's too late and she goes face first into the small garbage can.
Toni walks into the hospital. "Hey, what happened?" She ask quietly. I stand up. "I was doing her hair, she stepped off the stool and fell. Her eyebrow was bleeding and I just wanted to make sure her eye and head were ok! So we came here!" She nods. "Now I'm afraid they're gonna call CPS thinking this happened on purpose." I whisper. "Well, probably won't because you wouldn't have brought her here for a cut if you were abusing her." She explains. "They'll find anything!" I whisper. "Ok, they might question her but if both stories line up they won't think you're hurting her ok?" I nod. "Ok, now tell me why aren't you with her right now?" She ask slightly annoyed. "Because you called me saying you were outside so I came to meet you." I tell her. "Right, that makes sense. I just don't really want her alone with a doctor or something." I nod. "I know, let's go." We walk into the hospital room. Toni looks at Amber's face. "Hey! It's not that bad of a cut." She says quietly. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?" She ask concerned. "I'm ok. My eyebrow hurts." Amber says quietly. "Yeah, I bet. Anything else?" Toni ask quietly. "My arm." She nods. "Ok. It's probably just bruised."
TONI POV:
I look at Amber's eye. "How are your eye?" I ask her. "Ok." I nod. "Ok! It's looking a little bruised too but it doesn't look damaged." I whisper. "How's your head?" I ask concerned. "It feels ok." I nod. "Neck ok?" I ask. She nods. "Good." I whisper. I look at Cheryl who's still worried. "Hey, you did the right thing bringing her here." I whisper to her. There's a knock on the door and the doctor walks in. "Are you both the parents?" She ask smiling. "Yeah!" I say rubbing the back of Amber's head. I look at her hair for a second. "What the hell went wrong?" I ask noticing how bad her hair looks. "You had me do her hair with no help other than a video." Cheryl says smiling. I take a deep breath and sit behind Amber. "Is she ok?" Cheryl ask as I start to do Amber's hair. "She is perfectly fine, we do want to hold her here for the night just to make sure she doesn't have a concussion! She does seem to be ok, but symptoms of one can show up later so for the next few weeks you should also keep an eye on her." The doctor explains. I look at Cheryl and nod. "See? Nothing to be freaking out over. She'll be ok!" I tell her. I finish Amber's hair and she just lies into me.
(Amber's hair)
14 years later
Amber who's 17 now walks into the living room. "What's up sweetheart?" I ask quietly. "Since we are moving, what do I do about my learners permit?" Amber ask out of no where. "You get your license, so we don't have to worry about this!" Toni says taping up a box. They both look at each other for a second. "I'm not joking Amber, I'm tired of driving you around everywhere!" Toni say annoyed. Amber looks at me. "Mom!" I shrug. "This isn't the hill I want to die on, I already got to that hill and survived." I explain. Amber huffs and storms out by going upstairs to her room. I look at Toni. They're relationship has been rough for a while now, after Toni found Amber sleeping with her boyfriend a few weeks ago. I think that was the final straw for her, there was a few other things but I really don't know. Toni looks at me. "You need to loosen up on her." I tell her. "Well she shouldn't have been in my house fucking some guy!" She says pissed. I take a deep breath. "Toni..." I whisper. "Come on, help me get these boxes onto the garage and truck." She says getting up and lifts a box. I grab a box and we walk out. I look at her. "What was that hill you were willing to die on?" She ask putting the boxes onto the truck. "Having Amber." She stops. "She used to be my little girl." She says quietly. "Now she's all grown up!" She adds. I look at her. "Toni you can't stop her from growing up." She nods. "I know! I just really wish she hadn't hit puberty and become a younger version of you in high school!" She says quietly. "Is that supposed to be an insult?" I ask quietly. "A little." She nods. "Well, you're not wrong so I'm not mad." I say quietly. She smiles. "I hate you sometimes." I nod. "Love you too baby." I whisper before pulling her into a kiss. "She's not that bad, you're both just quick tempered. You guys get on each other's nerves quickly." I tell her. She nods. "I know. I just wish she would listen to me more often." I nod. "At least she considers listening to you." I smile. "Yeah! Because she's me! I know how to deal with her!" She nods getting off the truck and closing the big door. "You're so funny babe!" She says sarcastically. "I know! I should have my own special on Comedy Central." I say jokingly.