twice as sweet

october 2032
previous update
Paige Bowen (36 years), Trevor (34 years)

Paige schedules her c-section at the urging of Dr. Hadley. She doesn’t tell Trevor, she allows him to go to work without knowing the babies would be arriving that day. She’s still not over the affair, and she’s used him these past months so their babies wouldn’t die like their last one did. She needed him to be successful at resting, and she isn’t sorry.

But sitting on the bed, with Nurse Caroline being cheerful, she feels lonely.

Her Mom is with her though, and she moves to her side to try and provide comfort. Trish had two daughters, and she never expected her confident daughter, Paige to be going through this. Comparing her own life to her daughters, and Trish feels hers has been unfairly easy. She’s still happily married, she had the exact amount of children she wanted, and she never experienced loss. She wishes she could trade places with her daughter, to protect her from these hurts.

They get Paige settled down, and it’s time to begin the procedure.

While they sterilize, Paige thinks about her own life and what choices she will make in the future. She doesn’t need Trevor once the babies are born, and while the babies need a Father, she can’t imagine staying with him. It’s a terrible example to her children, and she doesn’t want to start their life out on the wrong foot.

But it isn’t an easy choice either. It is scary to have two babies to feed, diaper, raise, all while returning to work.

Dr. Hadley says it’s time to begin, and Paige tries to focus on good thoughts for this moment.

The tugging is uncomfortable, at times Paige feels like she’s going to fall off the table, but it doesn’t hurt, and she’s grateful. Her Mom smiles when Dr. Hadley announces a head of blonde-hair. Trish jokes that Paige was bald until she was 2 years old.

When they announce it’s a baby boy, Paige lifts her head in anticipation, hoping to glimpse a peak at her son.

He has her skintone and hair, but her Father’s eyes.

She names him Philip.

Dr. Hadley announces it’s another boy. Two twin sons! Paige is in shock to have twin boys when her sister just had twin boys earlier this year. She blamed Trevor for the twin gene (seeing his mistress was having twins too), but she’s wondering if maybe they both have the twin gene.

She names her second son, Rupert.

Back in the hospital room, the babies are cleaned and checked, and now Paige and her Mom snuggle with the boys.

The hospital called Trevor, he was on her contact list, because she hadn’t removed him. Trevor shows up while they are discussing the babies hair, and how much Philip has. Paige knows she has to put his name on the birth certificates, and that he has to meet them eventually, seeing they still live together. Still, she isn’t happy to see him, unannounced and intrusive.

Trish stares at him, a million words she wants to say, but she holds them in, feeling the weight of Philip in her arms, and knowing he will be in their lives as long as he lives. She has to be mature for the boys’ sake.

He marvels at having two sons. While feeling sick when he remembers Tamika is also carrying twins, what if they were two sons too? Even two daughters seems like too much to handle. Financially he can’t afford four kids, it’s ridiculous that this has happened to him at all.

He pushes the thoughts aside, hoping to melt Paige’s hardened heart for him. He coos to Rupert, knowing he didn’t pick the name, but he didn’t mind. He was pretty sure Tamika would choose those babies names too.

Awkwardly, he moves to meet Philip. He has his Mother’s hair blond hair, but he has his Dad’s length. When Trevor was born, the nurses all swooned at his thick red locks. It chokes Trevor up, but he hides the weakness. Everything was messed up from what it was supposed to be. In two years of marriage, they’d had a miscarriage, and now twins. And he hadn’t been strong enough to make it through it without temptation. He wished he was a better man for his sons.

Trish escorts the boys back to the nursery for a break, she lingers there, knowing Paige needs to have words with Trevor. She yells at him, and he takes it without defending himself. When he leaves, he doesn’t come back to the hospital again.

Paige checks out three days later, just her and the boys. Trevor is still at the house, as nothing has been resolved yet. Holding her two sons though, Paige feels grateful to have two healthy boys. Being one month premature, they’re doing much better than doctors expected, and Dr. Morgan only wants to see them once a week for the next three months to check progress.

At home, Trevor lingers and Paige doesn’t force him out. They tag team the boys, making quick work of nighttime feedings.

Trevor is still a bartender at Red Mill, so he works the evening shift, while Paige works the day shift at City Hall. Trish comes by to check on the boys when she has an afternoon off. When the boys aren’t around, she doesn’t hide her true feelings, but Trevor seems unperturbed by her anger.

Trish snuggles with Rupert, who began fussing when she came inside. She imagines Trevor is feeling confident about staying in the marriage and house, because Paige hasn’t told him otherwise. But Paige calls her almost daily, upset about him still being there, but she’s afraid to be alone.

Trish always knew that raising the boys would be difficult, but Paige had believed the bedrest would be the hardest part. It was very important that she did the bedrest properly to not lose the boys, but raising children was always difficult. Even now, Trish struggles with the pain of her daughter going through this heartache.

Trish believes in her daughter though, and she knows she could raise the boys alone and do a dang good job too.

Trevor leaves for work, and Trish waits to talk with Paige. She arrives home from work in a great mood, she absolutely loves working in politics, wholly intending to run for Mayor when the boys are in school.

Her Mom calls her to the sofa after she’s cleaned up from work, showering in the morning is nearly impossible with the boys, so she does it when she gets home.

Trish tells her daughter she needs to make a decision about Trevor. Limbo is not healthy for any of them.

It’s time to reconcile or end it. Thankfully, Paige agrees.

While Trish would love her daughter whatever her choice, she’s relieved Paige wants to end it. She knows her daughter deserves someone better.

That Saturday afternoon, Trevor and her meet in the kitchen without intention, and he tries to pull her in for a hug. Regularly, he seems to forget he’s cheated on her, and she knows he’s still talking to Tamika.

He hasn’t learned his lesson, and she won’t stand for it anymore.

She kicks him out, and tells him she’ll meet him in court.

He sits down in the living room, the one Paige redecorated without his opinion. He tells the boys he will see them soon, he knows Paige won’t keep him from them, but he doesn’t have anywhere to go. He will try Tamika, and see if she allows him to stay.

He’s gone, and her garden is unwieldy. Paige doesn’t have time to tend it; she hopes in the future she will have the time.

Things break in the house, and she’s forced to repair them. She can’t really afford to hire someone, because she did decorate the home and the boys’ room to feel more like their place.

Rupert fusses in the night, and she’s the one tending to both the boys. They never sleep through the other one, so she’s running back and forth instead of sleeping.

She eats dinner alone, and she decides the dining room is the next space she will decorate. She can’t stand looking at her old college furniture, and Trevor’s old tastes in decor.

She purchases the furnishings in pieces, as she can afford them. Cleaning the house in the way it hasn’t been done in a year, due to her bedrest.

She’s exhausted, but she’s never felt more alive. This all has meaning to her, and it feels worth her energy. As soon as Trevor was gone, Paige felt her confidence return.

The quiet hours of the early mornings were the most trying, and yet, rewarding at the same time. She loved when it felt like they were the only ones awake in the whole town.

She even managed to grab her sickly harvest before the first frost.

Somehow she started gaining weight, but it didn’t get her down.

When she finally got to sleep at night, she felt happy with all she accomplished, even if there was a pang of loneliness.

She made friends with Evie from City Hall, and she’d visit after work some days. Which provided her with a stimulating conversationalist, something Trevor was good at.

Her little sister, Brooklyn came by to visit when she could. With twin infant boys and a toddler daughter at home, it wasn’t always easy for Brooklyn to steal away. They did text and talk almost every day though.

She was smitten with baby Rupert and Philip. In a few months, it’d be Christmas, and their parent’s home would be filled with babies. She couldn’t wait to celebrate with all of them.

Rupert was the fussiest of the two.

Paige started working on a social media presence. She wasn’t running this election period, but she was fully intending to run in the next one, and she wanted everyone to know her name.

She left for work in the morning, feeling confident. Although she couldn’t decide if she should change her last name back to Lange. It was important to stay consistent in politics, but she didn’t want to have a different surname than her boys.

During her lunch hour, Paige and her Dad took the boys for their weekly checkup. They were two weeks old, and Dr. Morgan had already released them to Dr. Marcus, because they were doing so well.

They were taking back to the room, and they boasted how strong the boys were. Trent insisted they took after Paige, who was fiercely independent and strong, all her life.

Clara came in to check on the boys’ heart rate and breathing, and she lingered to play with them a bit. She didn’t often get to see newborns who weren’t gooey and just born. When she graduated in May, she’d be working full-time at South Mercy, and she’d likely see people of all ages, much more frequently, but for now, babies were a novelty.

Dr. Marcus came in to do his check-up, and no matter how they’d had a clean bill of health recently, Paige couldn’t help but worry. Two weeks old was still quite young, and they were going into the cold and flu season.

Dr. Marcus congratulated her on the boys’ good health though. He did warn RSV was a serious risk to their premature lungs. They needed to stay clear of anyone with a cold or cough. Paige was up for the challenge, she would fully sequester them from her soon-to-be ex-husband, Trevor if it meant the babies stayed healthy.

He wanted to continue seeing them weekly, only because if something did arise, it was best to nip it in the bud quickly. But he stressed he wasn’t concerned for the boys, they seemed to be strong and healthy.

This helped ease Paige’s concerns, and she told Dr. Marcus she’d see him next week. She wasn’t rushing to the court house to file for divorce, but she was feeling more confident with her decision to follow through. Soon, she’d go down and make it permanent, but she needed a bit more time.

Notes: When I loaded Paige’s lot, she would instantly miscarry the twins; I couldn’t stop it even with cheats. So I pulled them out one month early, and I rolled that they were healthy, but at risk for sickness. When I do my next ROS for flu/cold, they’ll have a higher risk of getting sick.

Paige has no feelings for Trevor, but he still loves her. When she got mad at him for his affair, it didn’t seem to affect him at all. Right now he’s living in my bin, until I can visit Tamika’s house to check her wants. I feel like he’d call her, not because he wanted to be with her as much as he just needed a place to stay.

I think she’s gonna be a rocking single Mom, and I have a note to have her run for Mayor in the next election. The boys will be 4, and starting preschool. I don’t know yet what her platform would be, but I have PLENTY of time! haha.

You can check out Paige’s redecorating project on Tumblr.

Thanks for reading!

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