Generation 1, Chapter 4

I adored my baby boy.

It seemed like no time at all before he was crawling around and getting into trouble.

I sometimes wished that he would just stay a baby forever. I wanted to keep him safe from all the dangers I knew from personal experience were out there in the world. Sadly, he was growing faster than I knew how to deal with.

Lee seemed to handle it better than I did. I supposed it was because he'd already gone through this stage with Sam.

He was the one who taught Dylan how to walk and talk. I preferred to just savor my time with him instead of encouraging him to grow up even faster.

I knew Lee loved Dylan just as much as I did, though. While he seemed to still be slightly upset with me, he adored our son.

He was warming back up to me, though. He could never stay mad at anyone for long, and he did love me… or at least he said he did.

I was becoming more and more paranoid about that, though. Did he really love me? Had he ever? It was hard to imagine that he could love someone who killed the woman that he really loved. Was he just humoring me because he felt sorry for me? Maybe that was it. Maybe he had been with me out of pity at first, then stayed because of Dylan.

I tried to push my worries away, but they always nagged at me from the back of my mind. He was here with me It didn’t matter why he stayed, just that he did. As long as he was here, I would be fine.

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I’d taken as much time off as I could, but eventually the day came when I was supposed to return to work. The problem was, I really didn’t want to. I had gotten the job because I needed a source of income. Now Lee lived with me, and he had a job. Money might be a little bit tight for a while, but it would be worth it to no longer have to compromise my moral code every time I went in to work.

Lee didn’t mind. He had never liked my job. He didn’t understand why I couldn’t just get a different job, but I convinced him that this was for the best anyway. Now I could stay at home with Dylan full time, and we wouldn’t need to hire a babysitter. I didn’t trust strangers in my house. What if my father had sent them? We were far away now, but there was nowhere we could go that would be completely out of his reach.

So it was decided. I would stay home with Dylan while Lee was at work. He told me I could go out after he came home, but I never did. I didn’t really like going out. What if someone saw me and connected me to my father? No, it was much safer to just stay in my house, with Lee and Dylan and Sam. They were the only people I really cared about anyway. I had never bothered to make other friends.

Sometimes Lee tried to convince me to come out with him and some of his friends from work, but I always refused. Lee knew them, but I didn’t, which meant that I couldn’t possibly trust them. He didn’t understand, though, and I could feel him pulling away from me. I knew that if I didn’t do something, he would leave me. Even Dylan didn’t seem to be enough to convince him to stay, as much as he loved him. He could take Dylan with him, after all. Who would stop him? We weren’t married, and I would never be able to take him to court. I was living under a false name and I couldn’t even leave the house without having a panic attack. So in my panic and desperation, I made a plan.

One evening while he was playing with Dylan (our little genius always knew where the blocks went), I crept up behind him and hugged him.

When he turned around, smiling, I stood on my tiptoes to whisper in his ear.

“I want another baby.”

He hesitated, but when I batted my eyelashes and smiled as charmingly as I could manage, he willingly followed me to the bedroom.

He wouldn’t leave me while I was pregnant, which gave me nine months to think of a better plan.

Author's Note: I'm revealing the rolls here because there really isn't any point in keeping you in suspense any longer.

Family Structure: Step Children
Number of Children: 3
Primary Career: Criminal (Thief)
Secondary Career: Science
Generational Goal: Idle Careers
Miscellaneous Fun: No Strangers

The no strangers thing will come up every now and then (it's the main reason I had Nyx quit her job), but the rest of the rolls will probably never be mentioned again. On a different note, Dylan is kind of a weird looking toddler. I think he'll be cute when he's older, but Nyx's square jaw really doesn't look great on toddlers. Anyway, join us next time for the last child of the first generation!