Impulse

Chapter 40

*NARRATOR'S POV*

"What's that?" Harry peered curiously into the warm bundle he and Edward were being shown by their mother.

"It's your baby sister, love." Anne sounded so tired and felt a little sticky when her eight year-old boys leaned against her sides. "Her name is Gemma."

"Oh." Harry wanted to see more of the fussy pink person who was holding Edward's finger. "She's so cute."

"She is." Their mother laughed and cradled her newborn with both hands, smiling when Edward kissed Gemma's forehead.

The newest little addition to their family wasn't much of a crier. Gemma slept like the dead and her brothers worried Anne until they were allowed to share a room with her as she grew.

"Ma!" Harry was ten when he started carrying their baby sister around the house full time.

"Yes, Harry?" Anne was glad to see that her babies never fought.

"Can you make us brownies for movie night?"

"Sure thing." She leaned down and kissed his forehead, then Gemma's so the baby girl gurgled and clung to her brother.

It also troubled her that they had such vividly contradictory personalities and yet that was true. Edward was her most silent child, who could sit staring out a window for hours at a time without being restless or bored. Harry was more vibrant and loved every opportunity to help her out especially when cooking.

Gemma came along from the same father as her first-born boys with dark hair and darker eyes, changing all of that. Both Edward and Harry would take their little sister outside for walks and small picnics. Anne found herself bathing three muddy, joyous children almost every night because of it.

"Ma, come see this." Edward called Anne away from the kitchen after her duties were over.

"What is it?" She dropped onto the couch, exhausted, and pulled Edward under her arm.

Gemma was wriggling about between Edward and Harry, bored with their horror movie marathon. She crawled onto Edward's lap and giggled when her mother picked her up to tickle her.

"Mama." She put both her chubby, pale hands on her mother's face and snuggled into her warm chest.

"Hello, my angel." She wrapped her arm around her youngest so she was comfortable.

Harry had his head on Edward's lap with the latter combing through his lengthy hair. Her younger twin always protested to getting a haircut because longer hair made him feel more secure. She sometimes teased him about looking like a snowman but Harry rarely took mockery to heart.

The bond between her children only seemed to be intensified over the years as they became teenagers together. Harry and Edward finally let Gemma have some space which she wasn't too happy about after years of being attached at the hip.

"Where are you going?" She stood in the doorway of their bathroom while Harry removed the last of their belongings.

It was time to allow the maturity that has developed in each of them take the course of its own towards aging them. However Harry and Edward grew, it wasn't the same as when Gemma did. They grew as one, easily moulded to be one person that recovered what was lacking in the other.

Unfortunately, Gemma didn't have that counterpart and when her brothers showed signs of abandoning her she chose to act out. She had nobody besides them.

Throughout their schooling years - which she was still part of - she had them to keep her company in those barren halls with weird teenagers. She could rely on her brothers for everything but now it felt like they were leaving her and she would have nothing or no one.