Through Thick and Thin

Back to the Beginning

Deep breath in..

"Mommy?"

Let it out..

"Mommy?"

Deep breath in again and stretch your arms and fingers to touch your toes..

"Mommy what are you doing?"

The young mother opened her eyes, finding an identical pair staring back at her with obvious curiosity in her big brown eyes. The toddler had her face in close proximity to her mothers.

"I'm doing yoga, baby." she replied simply, letting out the breath she was holding. She paused for a moment as she remembered her daughter wasn't supposed to be with her, but with her husband. "Where's daddy? He's supposed to be watching you,"

"He took Branon to play football with unkie Lukie and unkie Beau," her little girl replied, plopping herself down next to her mothers yoga mat. "He said it was too cold for me so I stayeded here!"

Ariana Grande-Brooks sighed in exasperation, "Of course he did." She mumbled angrily to herself.

"But iss okay," the two, almost three year old, continued, "I wanna be with you and auntie Di!"

Ariana paused at the last part, looking down at her. "Auntie Di is here?"

The little girl nodded excitedly, grinning. "Uh huh!"

'Auntie Di' was Luke's beautiful blonde wife, Dianna. The two met two years prior in their last year of college - it was practically love at first sight, at least for Luke. It took a lot of persuading on his part to get Dianna to even give him a first date, having just got out of a long term relationship that did not end well.

But when she did, she fell head over heels and they were married within a week. It's been almost two years now and they were still as strong as ever, with a baby on the way.

The twenty-three year old quickly got off her yoga mat with a smile. "Let's go then, baby girl."

The toddler smiled and lifted her arms for her mother to pick her up, which she gracefully did, practically a professional now with children.

Mother and daughter made their way down the stairs of their small two bedroom home. It was all they could afford with Jai still in school. His dream of being a pro football player didn't exactly pan out. Ariana had to drop out of college by the middle of her third year after having their daughter in February.

She didn't want to leave her newborn with her mother - it wasn't like she didn't trust her, she did more then she trusted her own husband - it was that she already did so much for her, looking after her newborn son so she could finish high school.

She also didn't want her mother to think she couldn't handle it. Although she was happy she was getting another grandchild, she had been very upset learning that her daughter hadn't learned her lesson about protection in the bedroom. Having a baby at nineteen still made her a teenage mother.

After realizing there was nothing that could be done, she became supportive and was there for her daughter whenever she needed her.

Jai decided to instead go into medicine and spent his nights in classes and his weekends with his family. His weekdays were full with his part time job coaching football at the local middle school. Yet even with him working, they barely afforded the house they were in. Their parents had to pitch in and pay half.

Ariana smiled at her sister in law as she stepped onto the first floor of the house. "Hey Di," she greeted, placing her daughter on the ground.

Dianna Agron-Brooks looked up from the magazine she was reading and smiled as the brunette approached her. "Hey," she effortlessly stood up, as effortlessly as a six month pregnant woman could. She didn't even look like she was near six months pregnant. She had a very small bump for being so far along.