The Tower: Family

Therapy

"So, tell me. How're things?"

"Good. Really good." That was the truth of it. I sat on the soft, plush couch in Jax's office, starting my therapy session and I felt really good. I was now sixteen weeks pregnant and Natasha and Wanda were now 24 weeks. I had a noticeable baby bump and we'd be finding out the sex soon. I was in that sweet spot where I wasn't too heavy to do things and I was past the morning sickness so I felt full of energy and ready to take on the world. On top of that, we were feeling the other babies kick now. The twins loved to put their hands on Natasha or Wanda's stomach and talk to their sisters until they felt them kick. They'd squeal and tell everyone how much their sisters loved them in excited jabbering. I loved touching them too. It was nice, when the day had come to a close, to relax, cuddled up on the couch with my hands on Natasha or Wanda, just feeling the babies kick. The kids were enjoying school. We dropped them off and picked them up in pairs. If Natasha was one of the pair we'd walk. If not, we'd have Happy drive us and wait in the car so we could avoid the paparazzi. They'd made friends and they came home jabbering about all the things they'd done. We organized play dates for them. On top of that, everyone had just taken on administrative duties unless there was something really big and they needed a heavy hitter like Thor or Hulk (which was so rare these days), I was almost stress-free and enjoying myself. So I was good. I was as good as I'd been in my whole life. This felt like the way things were supposed to be.

"You feel prepared for the babies' arrival?" Jax asked.

"Well, not yet," I admitted. "We have the nurseries set up. We probably still need to go shopping for baby clothes and while we still have the bassinets from the twins, we'll probably want to get another two, because even with the nursery, we'll want them sleeping in with us."

"Won't that make it hard on your sex life?" Jax asked.

"I think no matter what, four infants are going to make it hard on our sex lives," I laughed. "But we do have two other main bedrooms we use if we need time away from the larger group, for sex or sleep or whatever. I think we'll be okay. We did it with two, I know four is going to be more than twice as much work, but there are a lot of us."

"That is true," Jax said. "Well, I'm sure you'll work it out. So just clothes shopping?"

"Well, diapers and bottles. Wipes, creams. All that kind of stuff," I said. "But there's plenty of time and a lot of it can just be added to the normal shopping list. I guess the main thing we still haven't started working on is hiring a nanny."

"Why do you think that is?" Jax asked. "It would be a big process. I would have thought you'd all have Wanda out stalking the potential candidates by now."

I shifted where I sat as I considered the question. "I don't know," I admitted. "I mean I know we need the help. Even with all of us, six kids under five are going to be a lot to deal with. But I don't normally have anything to do with the hiring process."

"These are your kids though, don't you think you should be?" Jax asked.

He was right. I should be involved. I had been with the school choice and this was much more important than that. "Yeah, I guess so. I'll bring it up with Steve and Tony."

"Are you worried about it?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. They're going to be trusted with a lot and it's not like I haven't had people break that trust in the past."

"It is a big thing," Jax said. "They'll have access to a lot of your life and your family."

"We have Wanda though," I reasoned. "And Nat and Clint are good at reading people."