"So how's the new sushi place?"

I glanced to the door of my office to see Theodore hovering. "Hello to you too."

"It's our anniversary," he explained, coming closer.

I frowned. "I wasn't aware we were in a relationship. I'm leaning new things today. Just this morning Munchkin told us he has a pet mouse under his bed."

He huffed. "Blake and my anniversary—ten years. Is it true? The mouse, I mean."

"Sadly, yes. It was a small rat, actually. Rage saved the day." I snorted. "You should have seen Justin freaking out. Anyway, I joked about keeping it and calling it Ben. They didn't get the joke."

"Aw! That movie is a classic."

"Like us, apparently. I have to introduce Justin to Willard and Ben over the weekend." I smirked, remembering the funny scene from earlier. It was a Monday after all, and Mondays always suck. "You were saying?"

"Oh, right. Justin said you'd check the sushi restaurant. Did you go?"

"Yeah, for half an hour." I snorted, pushing the files away and leaning back in my chair.

"That bad?" Ted sat across from me.

"Nah, the food was great. But Leo called to tell us Peanut had a fever, so we left."

"Shit! Is she okay?"

"Justin's with her at the doctor's. I had to be here to meet our new client. If you and Blake like sushi, sure, I recommend the place."

"Awesome! It's settled. Thanks, Bri! I hope Ruby gets better soon." He gave me a small smile.

"Yeah, me too. I'm anxious as fuck to hear what's wrong." My phone buzzed on my desk. "I have to take this." It was Munchkin's teacher.

Ted nodded and left.

I answered, trying not to create bad scenarios in my head. It was enough Peanut was sick, I didn't need Munchkin sick too.

"Hello, Evan."

"Hello, Mr. Kinney. Remember the social communication project we discussed about?"

"Yeah, that shit. What about it?" I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I'll let you talk to Ms. Rebecca. She came here to evaluate each student…"

"And Munch—uh, I mean Patrick lacks social skills. Blame it on me," I joked.

"Mr. Kinney, this is important. I have to agree with Ms. Rebecca on this. Here, talk to her."

Christ. Evan was a pushover. As much as I admired him for staying sane surrounded by little rascals, he always got his way by using various tricks.

"Good afternoon. Mister Brian Kinney?" A rough voice, probably due to smoking too much, spoke.

"Yes, this is he. I take it you're Ms. Rebecca."

"Rebecca Walter. Nice meeting you, sir."

"Call me Brian," I muttered. I fucking hated being called 'sir', it made me feel ancient. "What's the problem with Patrick?"

"I don't know how to tell you this without offending you. Do you have time to meet today?"

"I can come to school in fifteen if you'd like." What could be so urgent? "He didn't curse or anything, did he?" I asked, while gathering my things.

Her breath hitched. "Is that a possibility?"

"Uh, I don't know. He hears some bad words from me, but of course, I try to use a filter around him." Now she thought I was a bad parent. "I'll be there soon to discuss this further."

"All right. Good bye."

During the ride to school, I called Justin to let him know where I was, and he said he'd meet me there, wanting to be present to whatever this Rebecca had to say about our boy. Peanut was safely with her Nana Jen, high on Baby Tylenol.

We parked next to each other in the school's parking lot.

"Hey, you." Justin kissed me chastely. "What's wrong?"

I returned the kiss. "No clue. It sounded serious, though."

We stepped into the building, shoulder to shoulder. Since it was almost three o'clock, most of the children were leaving.

Evan was in the class with Munchkin and a woman I took as Rebecca. She smiled in greeting, her eyes moving from me to Justin and back.

"Daddy!" Munchkin rushed to me, and I picked him up, kissing him soundly.

"What's up, kiddo?" Justin stroked his back, seeing him distressed.

"If you'd take a seat," Evan said, gesturing to the desks behind us.

"Okay, so what happened?" I insisted, sitting with Munchkin on my lap.

"Mr. Kinney, right?" Rebecca eyed me.

"Yes. Brian," I explained. "And this is Justin, my partner."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Rebecca." She smiled, coming to shake our hands. "We have various questions on the file I discuss with each child, and Patrick seemed unable to answer some of them."

"What questions?" Justin shot Patrick a confused look.

Rebecca took a business attitude. "Well, the most important part is that he doesn't seem to be in contact with his mother. I understand you wanted a child, but he should at least know his birth mother."

I cleared my throat loudly. Fuck. I couldn't believe this was happening. "There's no mother," I said quietly.

Rebecca's eyebrows shot up and Evan gave me an amused look, as if I was crazy.

"I told her that! She didn't believe me," Munchkin mumbled, snuggling closer.

Rebecca smiled indulgently. "Mr… I didn't quite catch your last name." She eyed Justin.

"Taylor," he muttered, clearly upset we were talking about this delicate subject.

She nodded. "Well, Mr. Taylor, maybe you'd like to take Patrick outside for a few minutes."

"Look, lady! My kid doesn't lie! There's no mother into this, okay? Use your imagination or leave it at that. Stop pestering him!"

"Justin," I whispered, tugging him down when he stood, snapping at her.

"Was she a teenager that didn't want him? Or someone that didn't want to meet him," Evan butted in.

"For fuck's sake," I shouted. "I had him!"

Their blank faces showed me they didn't believe me and were minutes away from calling the loony bin.

"Hold Munchkin a little." I put him in Justin's lap as I stood up. "There are a few rare cases where men can bear children. I'm one of them," I talked as I unbuttoned the last few buttons from my shirt, untucking it from my pants and lifting it. "This scar is from Patrick. And this is from Ruby, his sister." I showed them. "It's up to you if you believe me or not, but I want you to stop insisting on stuff you have no knowledge about. I know Patrick is only nine, but he's not lying. We didn't teach him that. We're against lying, so if he says he doesn't have a mother, then fucking believe him!"

Evan's eyes were glued to my stomach, while Rebecca was looking between Munchkin and Justin and me.

"Unbelievable! It's true," she gasped.

I rolled my eyes, working on rearranging my shirt. "Anything else Patrick couldn't answer?" I took back my seat, tugging Munchkin back on my lap and kissing his head.

A flustered Rebecca looked through the papers in front of her. "Besides this mother issue….oh, yes. Here it is."

I exchanged a worried look with Justin, especially when Munchkin shifted nervously on my lap. I patted his leg, letting him know it was going to be okay.

"At the question of what adult he likes to spend time with and why, he answered something truly uncommon for a boy." Rebecca smiled tensely.

"Don't be too upset if he chose me over you," Justin joked.

"Do you know anyone by the name of Emmett?"

"Shit," I muttered, already knowing the answer. "He's our friend."

"I'm hurt. You chose Emmett over us—your parents." Justin wiped a fake-tear.

"Like kids are friends with their parents. We're the enemies, especially when we forbid them stuff," I joked.

Munchkin huffed. "You're my daddies! Of course, we're friends. I thought she meant someone besides you two."

"And cue Munchkin typical mushiness," I mumbled, cuddling him close.

Rebecca smiled at our exchange. "So this Emmett is a friend. Are you aware your son likes to have his nails painted by him?"

"Yes." I groaned. "We're working on that. I hope someday he'll wake up and realize what a queen Emmett is, and that no sane guy wears nail polish just because his nails look pretty." I rolled my eyes. "It's a phase."

"It's not a phase," Justin snapped, narrowing his eyes at me. "Don't worry, Munchkin. You can still have your Saturday date with Aunty Em and do your nails."

"Would you stop encouraging it?"

Evan laughed. "I see that's a hot topic in the family."

"You have no idea how hot," I muttered. "Anything else?"

"After I examine every answer, I'll have the results emailed to you. I apologize for my mistake." Rebecca looked embarrassed.

"It's okay. It's not like you have to deal with this everyday," I told her, getting up.

"Yeah. Brian's special like that," Justin boasted, kissing my cheek wetly. "If that's all, we should go. Our youngest is sick."

"Of course. It was nice meeting you."

"You too." Justin gave her his megawatt smile. "Good bye."

We bid our farewell, before we went to the cars. Justin took Munchkin since he had the Jeep. I promised to stop by our favorite Thai food and get something on the way home.

I couldn't believe we had to deal with this shit.

I'd never thought of the implication of having Munchkin and Peanut as they grew up. I highly doubted Patrick truly understood what it meant that I gave birth to him and his sister, but he knew there was no woman involved. He'd seen me have Ruby.

oOo

We reunited at home, almost an hour later.

Justin stopped by his mother's place and picked up Ruby, while I dropped by the Thai place.

She didn't seem to have a fever at all, with the way she acted.

When she spotted me in the hallway, she rushed full pelt speed from the living room. I lifted her above my head, before bringing her down and kissing her sweaty face.

"How are you feeling, Peanut?"

"I missed you."

I smiled indulgently. I had no idea how our kids ended up such killers when they talked about emotions. Sure, Justin was more romantic, but not over the top. As for me, definitely not.

"I missed you too," I said against her forehead. I noticed Justin in the doorway. "How high," I mouthed to him.

"100 now. Come on, Ruby. Time to get out of these wet clothes. You're already sick."

"But where did she get this? We're fine." I cuddled her close. "Let me change her. There's food in the bag on the table."

"Uh, Dr. Hunt ran some tests and he thinks it's not a mere cold."

"Awesome. What did she get?"

"He will call with the results, but he's ninety percent sure it's chicken pox."

"I'm going to kill Keith! I told him Lee looked sick! And so did Lenny. Fuck!"

"You know about this?"

"I figured something was up the other night when I picked her from her sleepover. Damn it!"

"Well, relax. We can't do much now. I bet they didn't know the twins were sick." Justin patted my arm sympathetically.

"Uh, there is a problem, you moron! Patrick never had chicken pox! And neither did I!"

He gaped at me. "Did you live under a rock or something? You have a sister. I bet Claire had chicken pox at some point."

"I wasn't born at the time she had it. This is simply fabulous. You don't live your life unless you experience all kinds of shit."

Justin smirked. "I'll still love you even when you have red spots all over."

"You're a sadistic sent straight from hell to torment me." I stomped up the stairs with Peanut in my arms.

Chicken pox was everything I needed.

I survived fucking cancer and two pregnancies. I could do it. Hopefully.