Mel had sat stewing at home long enough. She did manage to escape to go to work on occasion, but mostly been sitting around the house she now shared with Nathan wallowing. She was pregnant, she felt like a fragile piece of shit that couldn't even watch a movie about Batman without bursting into tears when someone got hurt, and she hated it. She just wanted to feel something other than useless, and the truth was that she missed her sister more than anything. For some reason she and Randy just hadn't talked, and she wanted to fix it. She knew it was partially her fault since Randy had told her not to come near her because of the pregnant cooties rubbing off, and Mel listened. Nathan was right - she could have been stubborn right back, and not lost her sister.
Even Matt had gone quiet, and all Mel could do was wonder if her brother was okay in the wake of Aiden and Pat getting hurt. After pulling on a hoodie over the top of her pajama pants, and one of Nate's t-shirts, Mel got in the car to make the drive to Randy's place. She couldn't be bothered getting changed, so her sister was just going to have to put up with the extremely casual get up. If she wanted her to change, Randy could find out for herself what it was like to wear a bra and tight shirt when your breasts were aching like anything. Going to work was murder on Mel, but she needed to do it. She needed to prove to herself, and maybe even Nathan that the florist job wasn't too much while she was pregnant. Hell, she was only just a couple months gone. She didn't even really have much of a bump yet. At least the vomiting had eased just a little. She could actually keep food down. She just couldn't help the weird combinations that she sometimes craved.
She pulled into her sister's driveway, and climbed out to go and knock on the door and wait, her hands tucked into the pouch of her top as she bounced on the balls of her feet. For all her complaints about feeling tired, sore, and run down, there was still a part of Mel that seemed restless. She figured it was the half of her soul missing her twin.
The test had been done. Despite all her Googling and researching, Randy had still sat in that bathroom hoping the little screen shot back a negative result. No such luck. It wasn't even little blue or pink lines. This one was top notch, and a tiny screen actually declared to them both 'POSITIVE', in capital letters and all. How could anyone argue with capslock, seriously? The test had remained sat in the bathroom on top of the box ever since, Randy returning to look at it at regular intervals to try and convince herself it was real. Peter didn't argue, and in fact, Randy spotted him taking his own few double-checking trips back there a couple of times. Even though part of them had this niggling notion that Randy really was pregnant, the result was still an awed shock to them. It was like Peter had been trying to do his best to stay positive and prop her up, but until the result actually came, it didn't specifically feel real.
She was still a bit in a daze about it all. The symptoms were there. Boy were the symptoms fucking there, but it just mostly felt like she had some weird flu. After their bath, Randy had literally curled up around Peter like one of those body pillows and slept for hours on end. God help him if he needed a pee or anything more. She had passed out clutching to him for dear life and agreed to take the test when she woke up. Luckily she had been almost exploding for a pee and there was no pee shyness whatsoever. In fact, she peed like a fucking racehorse and it was probably a longer wait for her to finish than it had been for the test to develop. But it was all over now, and Peter had gone into work for a short shift after making sure about twenty times that she would be okay, and surprisingly she had been. She had built herself a coocoon of covers from the bed on the sofa with all the pillow around her, her textbooks in easy reach while she watched shitty daytime TV and studied a little. Then the not-morning sickness hit and just as she had crawled stiffly back into the coocoon after going ten rounds with the toilet bowl, the doorbell rang and she groaned, wondering if she would go to hell if she just ignored it. But it went again, so she wrestled her way back out, keeping the leopard print Snuggie on that she had bought in a fit of insanity during the early days of her pregnant cooties. Turns out the stupid looking blanket with arms was actually quite warm and comfortable. Clashed horribly with her purple cow pyjamas, but still, like she fucking cared. She opened the door and found her sister standing there. Her breath left her in a rush like she had been kneed in the gut and before anything else, she found the words, "I'm pregnant," falling from her lips as soon as she saw her twin.
Mel had no answer, the Snuggie the first thing to send her speechless even before Randy's shock announcement. "Um," she started, and then stopped and just blinked. She pointed at Randy before pointing back at herself and just letting her mouth fall open. It was a long moment before Mel moved and just threw her arms around her fuzzy sister, trying to ignore the feeling she was hugging some kind of jungle druid. "Shit," she breathed out. "When? How? I mean, not how... Wh--What?"
"Peter has mutant sperm," Randy offered, the words muffled from her sister's shoulder. She made no move to release the embrace, though. This should have come days ago... weeks even. There was no such fucking thing as pregnant cooties. She had just been terrified of the alternative to want to stop and think on it. "Latex isn't stopping it, clearly. But it just... I don't know... I don't... he... we... I have no idea, but I have an invasion in my uterus. It's been there about five weeks."
"Five weeks?!" Mel squeaked, and then gripped her sister a little tighter. The second she'd thought she was pregnant she'd told Randy. She didn't know why, but there was a slight twist in her gut as she wondered if Randy really had only just found out. She'd teased her sister about being pregnant before, but Randy had been adamant about being mental, and about having pregnant cooties. "Holy fuck... I can't believe it. Are you okay? Is he okay? I can't believe his mutant sperm! I'll kill him."
Randy's shoulders slumped. "No, not really. I feel so fucking sick, it's not even funny. I haven't had a period in six weeks, but I just... I don't know what was wrong with me. I didn't want it to be true. Does that make me a fucking horrible person? No! No! You can't kill him! I need him around for this, because there is no friggen way I am doing it on my own! I just... just..." She looked at her twin helplessly. "I hate it! I don't like feeling pregnant at all. I have no maternal instinct. I just know it makes me sick, and sore, and pee a lot. It also makes me constipated and gassy. It makes me hate toast, and it makes me fucking cry. I don't like any of it. I want a refund!"
Mel drew her eyebrows together as she watched her sister, pulling her mouth to the side as she brushed her hand over her twin's blonde hair. "Think I like it any better? I don't know how you figure I have maternal instinct, but I don't. I'm shit fucking scared of this whole deal, and I won't kill Peter... if only because I get it since I need Nathan just the same, but I need you too, and I've missed you. Even if you're like me. I cried the other because I burned the toast. Maybe I was picking up on your toast hate vibes?" She gave Randy a small smile. "I'm really sorry, sis. I thought it was enough one of us was knocked up, but both of us? This is gonna end badly."
Randy put her hand over her face. "I haven't told anyone, I didn't even want to tell myself. I was even inadvertently avoiding Peter, but not really. We just couldn't get on the same page with everything going on at his work and with the bunch. I... I feel like I'm hijacking on your time. Like, it's supposed to be a special thing, and I've gone and hijacked you out of it. I didn't mean to, and I'm really sorry! I don't know how it happened. I hate condoms. Fucking useless pieces of shit. I-I haven't told Matty, but I saw him at the hospital the day of the accident and... and... Nate knows. Peter told him."
Mel's face twisted briefly. "Nate knows? He never... He didn't even say he saw you except for that time he tried to kiss you. I can't believe he didn't say anything. Then again, he is good with the secrets thing. He never tells people things you confide in him. And hey, you're not hijacking anything. Why would you be hijacking? It's not like I'm some sort of centre of attention. I'm not. I'm happy just hanging in the background. I'm no one special. Now I'm just pregnant. I mean, it's kinda weird still. I'm slowly getting used to it, I don't really have a choice. And now you're pregnant too. We're pregnant together. Truth? I'm kinda glad I can share it with you." She tilted her head as she looked over Randy. "Are you okay? Did you see them? Aiden and Pat?"
"He hasn't seen me. He saw Peter, at the hospital. Peter was ending a long shift, Nate was going onto one, and Peter just let slip. I got pissed off at him before I realised what I was doing. I'm serious bitch with this whole thing. When I'm not crying, I'm feeling like chewing someone out and Peter usually gets in the firing line. It was only a couple of days ago and Nathan probably didn't want to say anything while I was being all crazy bitch. He might've been risking his life." Randy scraped her fingers through her long, messy hair. "I'm not really okay, no. I'm trying to process it. I just confirmed it yesterday, my head refuses to take it in. It's mental. How can we both be pregnant like this? We didn't even plan it. I don't feel old enough to be pregnant. I'm not ready. I don't know if I'll ever be. And... and... yeah, I saw them. Just brought back those horrible memories of Matty."
Mel pulled her sister back into a hug and rubbed her hand against her back. "Okay, okay... Maybe you're getting my bitch hormones to boot? I mean, all I do is cry. I haven't even had the horny thing yet. I wanted the horny thing. That I could handle. Being an ugly blubbery ball of watery mess I can't handle, I hate it. I was nearly crying because of how beautiful I thought a flower was at work. It's pathetic. I'm sure Peter understands, otherwise he wouldn't even bother getting into the firing line in the first place. He can take it. Shit, how are you going to tell Matty? I remember that... I didn't ever want anything to remind me of that again. I'm sorry you had to see them."
Randy had an overwhelming urge to throw up all over the place when the thought of telling her big brother was waved in front of her. In fact, she pulled away, clamping a hand over her mouth and tried to debate if she had to bolt to the bathroom, of if she would even make it in the Snuggie. But she managed to swallow the urge back with a small cough, pressing her lips together and drawing in a long, deep breath through her nose and then let it out again slowly. "It's okay... I inadvertently got some free shrink attention after it. I could see with my own eyes Matty was okay. He was there, he was going into the surgery with his ex ninja lay. Speaking of, I think Matty's seeing someone. I just get a feeling. Anyway, I dunno how I'm going to tell him. I dunno how I'm going to do any of it. I'm not sure I'll even be able to feel like it's real until I can see it with my own eyes."
Mel watched her sister with concern. If Randy was going to be sick, Mel would probably go out in sympathy and she was enjoying not losing every meal she ate. "Free shrink attention? Oh, Lachlan. Nate told me about that, too. It's great you finally got to meet him. I'm glad. He's seeing someone? Seriously? He never said... Why didn't he say? Is this another ninja lay? The other one ended so well. Until you get a bump? That's probably not going to be for a while yet, and if you wait that long, Matty's going to wonder why you never told him. Telling him... sucked, but I did it."
Randy nodded and closed the door, needing to move back into the house to her sofa solace before she keeled over and got tempted to not get back up again. That was another thing. Dizzy spells. So far, only a couple and never when she was with anyone. She needed to go and get a check up with a doctor, once she figured out which one she trusted enough to touch her. "I don't know, but I don't think it's like before. He outright admitted there had been someone when I asked but he didn't elaborate. It's probably just early days. I haven't seen him much the past couple of weeks, and the whole accident thing probably fucked with his mind, too. Pat's his boss." She sighed and flopped back into her nest on the sofa. "I just need a few more days in denial, then I'll try to deal with it."
Mel made Randy move enough so she could climb in the nest with her, arms wrapped around her twin as she comforted her sister. "Okay, so take a few days. It's normal. Can't believe Matty's already found someone, but then he is Matty. He probably obliviously got himself caught up before he realised. But if he's just saying it's early days, that's good. It means he does maybe want it to work out. Or that there could be later days. Doesn't stop me wanting to know who she is, though."
Randy rubbed her hand roughly over her lower stomach and puffed her cheeks out with a long-suffering breath. "Why anyone would choose this is beyond me. I always thought those mothers out there that go on about glowing and being in touch with their inner goddess and feeling a cosy warmth when they're knocked up were so lucky. It made it sound sort of appealing, you know, when the time might've come. But this is just bullshit. All I feel like is that I've eaten dodgy food. Sick and bloated. This is supposed to be the honeymoon period, you know? All lustful and feeling sexy in a relationship. Now I'm just worried I'm going to feel like barfing during sex and terrified I'm going fart so loudly in front of him, they hear it in Alaska. But at the same time, right now it feels extremely satisfying to fart. I'm turning into a bloke. Speaking of." As if to emphasise, Randy farted loudly when she couldn't be bothered holding it in, even if it was muffled in the mound of blankets and pillows. She closely followed it by a second one and then scrunched her nose up in annoyance of herself. "I'm also turning into the fucking Easter Bunny, because all I want to eat right now is carrots. I think after the last fling, he's probably trying to do the right thing this time, take it slow, not get in too deep too quickly. He must be still able to work with the other chick okay. They were both there that night. But I have no idea who she is, either. Lachlan mentioned it, something about seeing Matt with a blonde girl. I didn't push him on it, because he doesn't know Matt that well and it was just mentioned in passing, but bloody hell. Who could this blonde chick be? The other ninja lay was brunette."
"Tell me about it," Mel murmured before kicking in with a fart of her own. "I love Nate like crazy, but I know I'm being an emotional wreck, and I'm crying when I should be laughing, or losing it over goddamn toast. I just really want the horny part to kick in. I want to go back to wanting him like my life depends on it. I miss those times, you know? But I know he's also busy, so at least this lets him catch up on his rest, I guess. I haven't actually barfed during sex, so I think you're safe. The farting can't be helped, and you're just going to have to learn to relax about it. Carrots? Huh. I don't have the carrot thing." Mel smiled just a little. "Do you think? Because that would mean it's kinda not a fling. We might actually get to meet the blonde chick. Is she really blonde, or bottle blonde? Not that I can judge."
Randy shrugged a little, losing her steam again. "I don't know what to think anymore. My brain has malfunctioned completely. I can't even focus on college, and that's scaring me. I'm so screwed if I fall behind. I'm scared to tell Matty because I know he didn't take it well with you and Nate, but then at the same time, I know that was mostly just a lack of condom thing more than anything. He felt like he had failed as big brother or something. This is just... it's an accident. Something screwed up. I have never not used a condom with Peter and I'm on the pill. But there was a few times there when my body was a bit screwed up when I was stressing about some assignments and I made myself sick. It probably screwed with the pill, but that's why I kept with the condoms. Only, it must've burst and we didn't realise it. Peter's all with the super hero powers, so maybe he just has ninja sperm. We don't know, we've tried to analyse it. I just don't want Matty angry at me. I-I did seriously contemplate an abortion. Does that make me horrible? There's maybe even a tiny part of me now that would go with that, if I had the conscience to go through with it, but I don't. I did think about it, though..."
Mel kissed the top of her sister's head and gave her shoulders a squeeze. "It's normal. How could you not think that when we have a choice? I thought about it, but I just can't. Nate would never let me either. As for Matty, at least you've known Peter a while. It's not just a few weeks, or something. I think that was his other big bone of contention. He couldn't get why I was pregnant when he'd never actually met Nate. He didn't know I was in love with him, or anything, and I really regret that. I should've shared Nate with Matty in the beginning."
Randy nodded a little, looking at the pile of mess she had managed to build on their coffee table. Then she frowned, looking back at her sister. "When did we stop talking to him? Going to him whenever anything was wrong? Even when he was away at college, we still used to talk to him all the time. We've become those sisters, you know. The ones who get boyfriends and start thinking we don't need our brother anymore."
Mel's eyebrows knitted together and she felt like shrinking back until the couch swallowed her. "I never wanted to be one of those sisters... What do we do? We can't keep being those sisters!"
"I-I don't know. I didn't even realise til now, but it's true, isn't it? Neither of us have either really had serious boyfriends before, but the minute we do, Matty's all with the thinking we're pushing him away and not talking to him. And he's right. I've just been telling myself he's too busy with work whenever I think about going to talk to him, but I think I've been making excuses. The thing is, too, he's not going to come to us and interfere if he thinks we don't need him anymore. He's just going to keep his distance... and that's what he has been doing. He stepping back and letting Peter and Nate do their thing," Randy realised.
"But I don't want him to stay away. I need everyone to do their thing! I need you doing your thing, and Matty doing his thing, and Nate doing his thing so that I can do my thing! There shouldn't be seperate things. It should be a big ball of things." Mel was really starting to get worked up now as the realisation dawned on her, too. This wasn't good. This really, really wasn't good. "I miss him."
Randy nodded, biting down on her lip when she felt close to the urge to cry again. She just cleared her throat and reached over to pick up her cell phone. "Let's call him, get him over here. Should we? Means I have to tell him, but then it will be out there. We can talk to him and get our brother back."
Mel nodded as she raised her hand to start chewing on her thumb nail. "Yeah, do it. Call him. I don't think he's working right now. Plus I'll be here for the moral support when you tell him. Shit, I still can't believe it. Both of us pregnant..."
Randy just looked at her twin, bewildered. "Me either. If I start crying uncontrollably when he gets here, you have to talk for me. I don't want anymore secrets from him," she resolved and started dialling in their big brother's number.