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Expensive by the Dozen for Archive

Family Guy long fanfic

One night, Meg got off of the phone with someone and pressed the hang up button. She went over to Kevin who was on the couch and feeding their little baby George.

“Good news, in nine months from now, I will have a violin recital at the theater downtown.” she said

“Really, already? Wow, a recital at the major theater which seems like a year away.” Kevin replied

She sat on the couch and took his hand to kiss because she was rather excited to play.

“Uh huh, but you know something, that means every day I have to practice. Whether it would be at night or in the morning or in the afternoon. By the time my recital comes around, my fingers will be so exhausted.”

Kevin looked around the living room and sensed a dark future coming around the time of the violin recital.

“Hold on, hold on, it might be dark times before we even put on a show.”

Meg didn’t understand him and thought he was just being dramatic. He shook his head in fear and folded his arms so it was up to her to take the baby.

“No, it won’t. We will be fine around the time of the recital. Plus, the children are getting older, we have to throw birthday parties as time goes on and very soon……..”

He waited for her to respond until he said the word “what?”

“Our little boys will be walking or at least crawling.” Meg finished

“In the meantime, it’s best to practice for the upcoming recital once a day. The more you practice at it, the better, right?” Kevin hoped

They shared a kiss and she leaned in to give him kisses before taking the baby to feed him.

“I will start practicing as soon as we all wake up.”

Intro: Peter and Lois were playing the piano.

“Boy the way Glenn Miller played.” Peter sang

“Songs that made the hit parade.” Lois sang

“Guys like us we have it made.” Peter sang again

Then the two of them sang together

“Those were the days”

Lois pointed at Peter and sang near him

“And you knew who you were then.”

“Girls were girls and men were men” Peter sang

“Mister we could use a man like Ronald Reagan again” they sang together

Peter started to finish the song

“Didn’t need no welfare state”

“Everybody pulled his weight!” Lois sang once more

“Boy our station wagon ran great” Peter sang again

Then the two of them finished the song by singing

“Those were the days!”

Story: Meg was in the backyard and pulled out her violin. She read the notes and the musical lyrics before attempting to play the song.

“This is Mozart and his four seasons' melodies. Maybe in the middle of the show, we can play this and switch back to ode to joy.”

She played the violin on the sheet and she tried not to wear down her fingers. She used the strings to play the right notes but she sometimes messed up. Kevin walked outside and held baby Eve as she was upset.

“Uh, I don’t mean to interrupt practice but our daughter is looking for you.”

Meg listened as he brought the baby closer and made the song even more quiet to soothe her baby. She looked at Kevin in pure confusion.

“Aw, I’m sorry, it wasn’t a good time to start practicing now, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, if you can, you still practice and that way, the children always feel like you are nearby.” Kevin replied

They had to take her equipment inside so they could be near the children. Meg had just finished carrying the stand outside and now she needed to bring it back in. She struggled to help the stand through the back door. She saw her dogs Mammy and Muffy trying to jump on her.

“You guys, you guys, give Meg a minute and I can carry this in without stepping on your feet.”

She put the violin and the case on the kitchen table, she took the sheet music and placed it on top of the violin and she stood the stand into the living room first. She placed it on the carpet as she made it stick. She went to get the violin, the sheet music and the string so she could play it. She went to the couch to look at the sheet music before studying the notes and finding out what she had to play.

“Now, reading the music notes might not make me sleep but I can guarantee my song will be beautiful by the time the show begins.”

She played the violin and started with Mozart. She had to play with an E note and carefully constructed the notes so she knew what she was doing. She played as quietly as she could since there were children nearby. She didn’t want to startle them but she heard a child’s cry upstairs.

“Meg, you might be too loud for Fredrick.” Kevin called

“Sorry, I didn’t know this.” Meg called back

At the Griffin residence, Lois saw an ad for a hair salon on television and became invested in watching it.

“If you ever feel like the tangles in your hair get too snarly or if your hair stays oily after washing it in the shower or in the bath faucet, come on down to Lakin’s hair salon. We serve up to 20 customers with 40 to 50 employees at a time. We will give your hair great honors like making it fluffy, making it silky or making it shiny with reflections coming from the lights. Lakin’s hair salon, now up to 40 percent off with a tip.” an announcer said

Now Lois was convinced she had to go to Lakin’s and started texting her friends Bonnie and Donna. She got excited like she was a young woman or a teenager and started laughing.

“Oh my gosh, a hair salon where I can get an opening in just a week from booking it. I’ll be glad to finally be rid of some of those grey hairs.”

Peter and Brian walked up to her and had some baseball gloves in their hands. They were about to leave the house and were bothered by her weird behavior.

“Lois, can I leave with Brian to throw baseballs around?”

“Not now, I have to schedule to get my hair done at Lakin’s. And Bonnie has not gotten her hair done in a long while either.” Lois replied

The two of them decided to leave regardless of how she was acting. Her opinions did not matter to them anymore.

“Whatever, we will be back when you care or want to cook us dinner. Today, Glenn is the pitcher and Brian has to learn to catch it.” Peter revealed

“It’s not like she cares what we do anymore.” Brian replied

They left the house and Lois waited for some texts from Bonnie. The latter had just gotten out of the shower at this point and she looked at her phone. She texted a thumbs down and used a stop sign emoji.

Meg was getting ready for bed that night when she felt her stomach around the naval area. She felt like was gaining weight upon noticing this.

“Oh, Kevin, we might have to get me a new set of clothes later on.”

He read his book as she laid in bed and kissed him on the cheek. She put his arm around him to assure him she was right there.

“Why do you think you need a new set of clothes?”

‘Because, I think I am starting an eating binge after being on a diet for so long. I might have eaten three dozen cookies in the past week.” Meg told him

She waited until he looked at her and for some odd reason, he would not even kiss her.

“Well, if you are gaining weight, you might want to see what the problem is before assuming anything.” Kevin replied

“Oh, I see. I suppose our sexy and beautiful nights are far behind us now.” Meg sighed sadly

She laid on her back and looked at the ceiling. He thought he hurt her feelings and tried to comfort her.

“It’s not that I don’t find you attractive.”

“Huh? It’s not?” She asked

She looked at him and nearly cried, so he tried to be honest with her.

“Would you rather focus on everything we have going on? Even our children growing up and facing new challenges?” he asked

So he leaned in to hug her and she sighed, revealing how she felt about it.

“I’m sorry. I’ll try to cut down the carbs again so I can at least look better for my recital.”

“It’s not that I’m worried about how you look at the recital, well mostly I am but I am worried about you failing playing your music.” Kevin admitted

She laid on her back again and looking at the ceiling was something she did every single night.

“I’ll practice because this recital will probably be the most important one. In fact, we have to invite everyone in town.”

Kevin and Meg never even kissed that night. They just shook hands before even going to bed. She couldn’t wait until the day she would play her music.

“Your fingers might be bleeding by then.”

“Don’t think too much of it, goodnight Kevin.” She said

They slept throughout the whole night without even kissing, hugging or touching each other. They had a good night’s sleep and none of the children even woke up.

Two weeks from that night, Lois was in her red station wagon and brushed the orange hair on her head. She looked at her phone and waited because she was getting very impatient.

“Meg, you said you would not be late for your appointment, come on.”

She happened to be inside the house changing Elvin, Flynn and Harry’s diapers. Her other girls were standing by the ottoman and wanting attention. She didn’t know what she was going to do.

“Kevin, you promised me you would be here. I can’t be late for my hair appointment. It’s been too long since I had one.”

She put the diaper on Flynn and looked around, trying to find his clean outfit.

“Caring for 16 of them gets harder as they get older and grow so much farther away from you.”

She looked on the floor for the clean outfit and she looked on the couch but she did not see a clean outfit for any of the babies.

“Kevin, where are you? I need to go! I have to go, now!”

Kevin was bathing Andrew in the tub because he got paint all over him and he was using soap to clean it off. He didn’t hear Meg calling him downstairs over the crying children.

“Okay, I will have to buy you a smock, an apron and a hat so you don’t get paint all over your skin.”

“Dada, dada!” Andrew said

Meg was coming up the stairs, she looked for Kevin and could not hold everyone. He didn’t realize she was in a hurry and attempting to leave.

“Kevin, are you coming downstairs?”

“No, he has paint all over him and he has to get cleaned up.” Kevin revealed

Now she was in a hurry more than ever and nodded her head. She was ready to cancel her hair appointment.

“These kids need someone to watch them and I need to go.”

“Okay, okay, fine, if you want, leave them in the bathroom with me and I can get paint all over them.” Kevin sighed sadly

She picked up her phone and called Bonnie who was sitting in her garden and sipping lemonade.

“This is Bonnie.”

“Hi, I have to leave right now for a day out with my mom and Kevin has to bathe our son in the tub.” Meg said sternly

Feeling frustrated, Bonnie got up and walked over to Meg’s house to help her. She put on boat shoes before walking over there.

“Okay, okay, I’ll come over, I hope Susie is around here, somewhere.”

Meg carefully walked down the stairs and heard the doorbell ring. She opened it up and saw Bonnie, who was unhappy she had to deal with whiny children.

“I’m so sorry. I sound selfish but I have to leave right now.”

“Go ahead, go with your mom to the salon or whatever. I’ll help the children before they start to fall down.” Bonnie said

But they saw Faith about to go down the stairs and Bonnie had to catch her. She cut her feet on the sides with the boat shoes as she rushed to the top of the stairs to get her. She sat on the top of the stairs and held Eve, Faith and Grace, who were very cranky.

“I’ll be back in two hours.”

Lois got so impatient that she started up the car and prepared to leave without her daughter. She had done this numerous times before. She was only backing out when Meg was running up behind her.

“Mom, mom, I can finally go, wait.”

Startled, she stopped the car as Meg went onto the front lawn. She fell over and landed on her back. Meg felt her stomach hurting and was immediately alarmed.

“Oh no, oh no, I should get to a hospital.”

She opened the car door and got into the front seat. Lois realized she had been in a hurry to leave the house and get into the front seat.

“What took you so long?” Lois coldly asked

“The kids needed to be cleaned up and Kevin cleaned our son in the tub upstairs.” Meg said unhappily

Together they left their neighborhood to head to Lakin’s hair salon and Lois drove by a two story house which was on sale. She looked at it and read “call Rose Morgan to purchase or tour the house.”

She pulled out her phone and took a picture as Meg seemed really annoyed with her.

“What are you doing? Our appointment is in ten minutes.”

“This house looks fairly new, I have never seen it before and it might be around that Rockwell place.” Lois said

Annoyed, Meg pressured her mother into going since they needed to be at an appointment.

“Go, mom. I don’t care about it. We can worry about it later.”

Lois left the house and took Meg to the salon. On the way there, Lois turned the air up and Meg was feeling rather cold.

“The air in the car doesn’t even work anymore, Peter must have used too much of it after driving it for so long.”

“But why? It’s not that hot outside and it’s blowing arctic winds around my face.” Meg pointed out

It didn’t dawn on Meg why Lois turned up the air at first. She took out a bottle of water and drank it but to her it seemed too warm.

“Meg, the air needs to be cooler because this water tastes like fluid.” Lois said

“No, we’re just going to a hair salon and coming back.” Meg pointed out

“Yeah, but I’ll have to dye my hair back to the neon orange it was before because there are grey hairs around my skelp.” Lois replied

But Meg failed to notice Lois was sweating and she waved her hand around. She started driving faster and even went past a stop sign.

“Mom you didn’t stop at the sign over there, what’s wrong?” Meg asked

“Wait, there was a stop sign back there? I didn’t see it.” Lois chuckled

“What is going on? You are acting like you’re about to collapse.” Meg said with worry

No matter how much Lois tried to cool down, the sweating got worse and her clothes were soaking wet. She rolled down the window to get some air. Suddenly, Lois was rapidly breathing.

“Meg, turn the air up higher and make sure you have a towel ready in case there’s water.”

“Huh? Water? Mom, what are you talking about?” Meg asked with confusion

They went past a red light and were nearly hit. She started to worry and thought her mother was in no condition to drive.

‘Watch where you’re going! You almost got us killed.’ she warned her

“Meg, I can’t see. I’m blind, I think that eating binge caught up to me.” Lois whined

Lois turned to her right and soon the car was going down a hill and Meg attempted to stop the car, but they were going too fast.

“Mom!”

The car rolled into a ditch and windows were broken. Lois had passed out in a puddle of her own sweat and Meg attempted to get out of the car, thinking it would explode.

“Mom, mom, wake up, the car is going to explode!” Meg screamed, trying to get out of the car

There were passers by who ran up to the car to help them. Lois passed out and some woman covered her nose, because of how smelly it was.

“Ick, she should have worn deodorant.”

Peter was at home and sat on the couch alone. He had no idea what happened after Lois left the house.

“We now return to Kids, the Sequel.” the announcer said

Brian walked up to him after getting a strange yet concerning phone call. He had some news to tell him.

“Peter, someone just gave me a strange call. They said Lois got into an accident.”

“Not now, this is an actually exciting movie I want to watch.” Peter said

He saw a couple under the age of 16 having sex and this put him off.

“See, this movie exposed everything.”

At Quahog Hospital, Lois woke up and had a hospital gown on her. She was wrapped in a blanket and her sweat had been wiped away at this point. She opened her eyes and saw only her doctor in the room.

“Wait, wait, where am I? What’s going on?”

Her doctor had some bad news for her after that car crash and she decided to carefully tell her.

“Mrs Griffin, were you aware that you have been in trouble on the road before you passed out?”

Lois tried to talk but it was hard and she smelled nasty after having a sweaty breakdown like that.

“No, I don’t. I don’t know what’s going on?”

“You were driving your car and your daughter told me you broke out into sweats. You tried to stop the sweating and you rolled your car into a ditch.” the doctor explained

She tried to think of when this happened and didn’t have one memory of breaking into sweats and passing out.

“Oh, oh, I can’t remember what happened. I can’t remember sweating like crazy and crashing my car.”

The doctor wrote it down that Lois never remembered what happened before she crashed her car. Then she had a little bit of a worrisome thought.

“Who was in the car with me? Was I alone?”

“No, Mrs Griffin, you had your daughter in the car and you were on the way to the salon. You both survived but Meg is traumatized now from what happened.” the doctor replied

“I hope she’s okay. If she hit her head, it’s going to cause some trouble.” Lois said dryly

Her doctor was about to reveal the news about why she broke out into horrible sweats.

“We learned the reason you are sweating is because of menopause. You can no longer produce fertilization or have any menstrual cycles.”

Lois blinked, hoping this was a sick joke or this was not true. She wanted the correct answer.

“Are you sure it’s menopause? Doctors have told me that I have had menopause before and I still got heavy periods.”

“Uh uh, that’s not the case this time, honey. The amount of sweat they found you in, they almost considered using a firehose to clean you up.” the doctor told her

Now Lois felt sad because menopause was another way towards old age. She sank in her bed and she looked up towards the ceiling. She had tears in her eyes and started to sob over her youth.

“I’m not young anymore. I’m not young and I am reaching the age of easily broken bones and pulled muscles.”

Meg was in a different hospital bed, she had a gash on her head and a long scar was visible on the bandage. She waited for a doctor to arrive when Kevin came in with Spot. He was glad she was okay.

“Oh my god, we got a phone call and it sounded like it was bad news, are you alright?”

“No, I’m not alright. My mom passed out while driving and I didn’t stop her in time.” Meg said

He tried to kiss her forehead but she refused to let anyone near it in case it was dangerous. She didn’t want to risk any further injuries.

“How did she crash the car when you knew for sure she was a good driver?”

“I’m not sure, Kevin. But now, I’m worried it will lead to permanent damage and possibly medical seizures.” Meg replied

“Will this have an affect on your motherhood? Or even your music playing?” Kevin wondered

But no matter how much she wanted to admit she was fine, she couldn’t know for sure and thought her future was in jeopardy.

“I have to wait on the news on my injury.”

The doctor, a woman, arrived and had some news for Meg. She hoped she was going to be fine and wanted to know the results of her injuries.

“Mrs Swanson, can we have a talk?”

Meg nodded her head and waited for the results.

“Yeah, how’s my head? Was there any damage?”

“First, the cut on your forehead resulted in only a little bit of blood loss and after some scanning, there was no injury to the brain or muscles.” the doctor explained

This made Kevin relieved and he acted like he was wiping sweat away.

“Good, so how long until that scar goes away?”

“It will be there for a couple of months, we have done other tests on her after the accident like a cancer test, a bladder test, an eye exam and we even ran a pregnancy test on her.” the doctor said

Meg wasn’t too surprised at first and thought the doctor was going through every result.

“Tell me doctor, there must be a little damage to my head or maybe even my heart after this?” she asked

Her doctor walked up to her and attempted to reveal some good news to her.

“We ran the pregnancy test because we feared for the safety of your entire body. But there is good news, you don’t have to worry about harming the baby.”

Meg thought the doctor was referring to one of her existing children and cleared her throat.

“My kids were not in the car with me.”

“That’s not what I meant. The accident left no damage to your body and you didn’t have a miscarriage. You’re pregnant.” the doctor told her

Kevin looked confused and held Spot by his leash so he wouldn’t chase after anyone. He hoped the doctor had mixed something up.

“Did you look at someone else’s pregnancy test and thought it was hers?”

“We are positive that her body is in the reproductive state. Her test came out positive and she seems to be doing fine after the accident.” the doctor said before going

Meg looked at Kevin and felt nervous. There were so many things to think about since she just learned the news.

“What can we do? Our recital is coming up and our house is not getting any bigger.”

“We’ll figure out something. We only have eight months to change in such a hurry.” Kevin said quietly

“You heard what she said. Are you in denial?” Meg asked

“No, I’m not. But this comes as a shock to me.” Kevin replied

Lois was in her hospital room and cried tears because she learned about her own mid life stages. The rest of the family, minus Meg, entered the room to see her and they were glad she turned out fine.

‘We came as soon as they called us.’ Brian said

“Who’s they?” Lois asked

“How do you break into sweats that much? You’re not really that fat.” Chris wondered

“The car is going to smell like shit, won’t it, Lois?” Peter said dreadfully

She was upset as she revealed the news to everyone.

“They told me I have hit menopause. That was the reason I started getting hot and passing out. I can no longer get my period.”

“Wait, you’re hitting that stage of life already? At 46 or 47?” Brian tried to guess

She seemed burnt out because he didn’t know her age. She started explaining to the rest of the family.

“This is the start of my old age. I can no longer get pregnant and I can no longer get my period. This is just the first stage I am hitting and in ten years, I’ll be wrinkled up.”

Peter and Chris looked at each other before both of them spoke up.

“Uh, Lois, no one wants to see you age into an old witch or an old hag, so complaining might just make it worse.” Peter said

“You should dye your hair silver to fit in with the old people.” Chris said

“Or, get an anti-aging cream to put on that pathetic punchable face of yours.” Stewie said happily

After saying that, there was nothing but silence and Lois scratched her head, which smelled like sweat after what she went through.

“I’ll need a warm shower that’s not too cold or not too hot.”

“Don’t sweat while sleeping next to me.” Peter warned her

Meg saw Joe and Bonnie come into the hospital room with all of the kids and she was worried because of how they got all of them.

“Oh, you decided to bring the kids to visit me.”

Joe took Allison and Daisy out of the stroller and handed them to Kevin. Bonnie attempted to hold Faith and Hope as they were feeling cranky from the car ride.

“They were worried about you not coming home and they wouldn’t sleep until they saw you.” Bonnie said

“I get they should visit you but doctors are limiting the time to just one hour.” Joe finished

Kevin bent down and saw Eve biting into her teething toy and had a feeling she was in pain.

“Those gums might be throbbing, at least it’s better than being in agonizing pain all of the time.”

Meg didn’t want to tell her family about her pregnancy yet and just chimed about how much she was going to miss them.

“Here, just carefully lay the boys on top of me and I can speak to them.”

Kevin took Elvin, Flynn, George and Harry out of the strollers and put them in their mother’s arms. She smiled at them, knowing they had a big future ahead of them.

“So, does it hurt to hold them?”

“I’ll only be here for a few days and when I come home, I’ll hold you, love you, feed you and rock you to sleep.” She promised

Hope attempted to reach out with her hand and hug her mother and she was caring for her little brothers.

“She’s waiting for you to hold her.” Joe announced

Upon giving back Elvin, Flynn, George and Harry to their grandparents, she held Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope. She was scared to tell them of her pregnancy at first.

“Mommy’s okay, she had a little accident and that’s it. She is going to sit here in this hospital bed, waiting to get up so she can go home.”

Hope attempted to say a word but her voice was too quiet. Meg had to give her a little pat on the head.

“I’m sorry, I won’t be able to come. Mommy’s got to feel a little better, first.”

Grace bit into another teething toy so Meg knew this was bad news.

“You’re going to be in pain, aren’t you?”

After spending a few days in the hospital, Meg picked up the handheld bell with the feather attached to it. She used the feather against her wrist and felt the tickle. She had dealt with bells and feathers before during previous pregnancies and held her ears, thinking it would happen again in the future.

“No, no, no, no more ringing and no more soft feeling.”

She had flashbacks of when her therapist guided paintbrushes against her stomach and used her voice to trigger her laughter. She wanted the voices in her head to stop and she thought she was going crazy.

“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!”

She saw no one else around and stood up from the couch. She looked around and passed the shelf where there were a few books and where her carousel was sitting. She saw the mirror in the little hallway downstairs and looked at her face.

“Goodbye, pretty looks.”

That evening, Meg laid in bed, knowing of the future that awaited her. She hated to think of what was going to happen if she told doctors or massage therapists. She didn’t see Kevin trying to talk to her.

“Honey? Do you want to talk?”

She turned her head towards him and looked like she was about to cry.

“No, not tonight. Maybe tomorrow when I feel like it.”

Kevin noticed how sad she sounded and tried to comfort her. She held her stomach to protect it.

“It must be because of what your doctor told you.”

“I wish it was just a hoax or a false positive.” Meg sighed sadly

“Me too but now, we gotta think of one more life that’s arriving into our family soon.” Kevin said

“But honey, she said I was pregnant and they confirmed it. You know what happens when I become pregnant. The big belly, the weight, multiple little fetuses.” Meg explained

He helped her so she wouldn’t announce it out loud. He didn’t want their older children knowing just yet.

“Who knows? Right now, it’s only the beginning and you have all of the time to love our other children, feed them, wash them and change clothes as your weight keeps on giving away.”

Meg looked up at the ceiling, unsure of what was coming in a few months when she would go into labor.

“We need room. We need room for all of them. They can’t sleep in the basement.”

He agreed with her and thought the basement would be too scary for them. He had a sad look on his face because there was so much they needed to do.

“Every child needs some room to grow and find their own identity.” Kevin said

Meg and Kevin went to sleep and she didn’t know about facing the bells and feathers. She had to focus on everything around her.

“Nighty night.”

The next day, Meg was confident enough and brave enough to tell her family the truth. At some point, she knew her mother hit menopause so breaking the news to her was not going to be easy. She knocked on the door and she heard Brian barking at the front door. She rolled her eyes because he did this most of the time. Peter opened the door to let her in and saw the gash fading away on her forehead.

“Uh, what do you want? Did you want to rub that scar on our faces?” Peter said unhappily

Meg handed him some envelopes and he read them. He thought she was delivering their mail.

“Dad, you and I should talk with mom. Those are invitations for an upcoming recital.”

“Oh, did you find them in our mailbox? Have you been going through our mail?” Peter asked

“No, Kevin and I made them on the computer and printed them out. We have hundreds of more to give away.” Meg said

Lois had her hair in a shower cap and saw her daughter handing out envelopes.

“Why are you here, sweetie? Did you dig into our mailbox because we forgot?”

“No mom. I have invitations inviting you to a one woman violin show.” Meg said

Peter handed Lois the invitations and she knew Meg had her own recital coming up.

“With these invitations, are we allowed to get in for free?” Lois wondered

“Not unless you want to pay 170 dollars for a ticket.” Meg revealed

They changed their minds on paying for it with tickets and allowed her inside. Handing out invitations was not the only reason she was there.

“Okay, we know we’re allowed to come for free. You can go now, Meg.” Peter said

“Wait, dad, mom, I have an announcement to make to the whole family.” Meg said

“Huh? What announcement? We know about your head injury from the accident.” Lois said in confusion

The rest of the family came up to her and she folded her hands, knowing they would be very unhappy with this news.

“So, Meg. What is it? Did you finally make arrangements with the theater to play your violin on stage?” Brian asked

“Yes, it’s a concert that’s going to be worth attending.” Chris agreed

Even Stewie had his own opinions about the violin recital Meg was doing.

“You know, most children find a solo violin act boring and would rather skateboard outside of their house.”

“Everyone, you’re not listening. This announcement is not about my violin recital or my injury.” Meg said

They didn’t know what she was going to reveal because they didn't expect it. She had to announce a bigger future coming for their family.

“Make it quick because your mom has to finish dying her hair and avoid looking too old.” Peter said

Lois felt offended and put her hand on her heart in offense.

“I can’t bear to look at my hair, Peter.”

Meg cleared her throat because this announcement was important for all of them.

“At the hospital, they ran some tests on me, making sure the accident did not do permanent damage but one test did come out positive.”

“Uh, what would that be? Was there a brain tumor you smashed up?” Peter asked

“Did they reveal any kind of damage or was it temporary?” Brian question

“They ran a pregnancy test and confirmed it was positive. I will be having a baby in the next eight or nine months. I’m not positive when it’s due.” Meg said

The family gasped because now they had something to worry about. They knew about how small the house was and that more kids would make it crowded.

“You’re not serious!” Lois said, feeling surprised

“Another baby is on the way? How many times has this happened, now?” Peter asked

“Five times. It’s my fifth pregnancy and I know there’s going to be four of them.” Meg told them

Brian shook his head and sat on the ground while Chris hoped this was a safe idea.

“Uh oh. I hope there’s enough room in the house for everyone or at least upstairs since you got rooms downstairs too.” her brother said

“Come on, can you let your brothers be adults before having more children?” Stewie complained

They knew how Stewie felt and Meg felt bad for doing this to him.

“Maybe when you are older, you will realize the more people you have in your family, the easier it is to connect with others.”

Peter and Lois didn’t seem happy about this news, which Meg actually expected. They were worried about how another multiple pregnancy would really affect her health.

“Is it even safe for your body to carry four babies many times? Even before you reach the age of 25 or 30 before becoming a full blown adult?” Lois asked

“My third pregnancy almost ended in horror so in my fourth pregnancy, I had to be very, very careful. It’s so strange since I didn’t experience a lot of symptoms.” Meg said

She shrugged as Lois and Peter wanted her to be as careful as possible.

“What kind of symptoms did you not have? Like blood loss or headaches or nausea?"

“I rather not explain that in front of the whole family.” Meg said with wide eyes

“Come on, we talked about weird, gross stuff with you before.” Peter reminded her

Meg was about to leave to go check on her family and she didn’t want to waste anymore time.

“Don’t you want to talk about this now? We are your family.” Lois called

Brian went up to Meg and now he seemed worried about her health too.

“They are right, Meg. I mean for the fifth time you’re pregnant and you know that you can only carry four babies. Don’t you think that concerns you or even haunts you?”

“I know for sure we didn’t use any fertility treatments and we only naturally conceived. That means we must have conditions that cause four eggs to hatch inside of me.” Meg said

“Don’t say it like that. You could have a special rare gene inside of you that only a few people carry.” Brian guessed

She had to go back across the street and check on Kevin and all of the children.

“I’m sorry. I’ll discuss this when I am ready.”

Brian watched her go and Lois felt even more sad. Not only did she hit menopause but her daughter was carrying another baby. They wouldn’t be surprised if the results turned out like they expected.

“Do you know what they are going to do? Maybe they should get a big room for everyone to stay in.” Chris said

Joe and Bonnie had been talking with Kevin when Meg came through the door. They had serious looks on their faces upon hearing the news.

“Is this true?” Joe asked

Meg bowed her head and didn’t want to admit they had knowledge about it.

“Yes, it’s true. I never said anything at the hospital because I wasn’t ready.”

Bonnie hugged her and comforted her. As a result of pregnancy, Meg could not help but cry.

“I know how it feels. Pregnancy can be difficult to announce, depending on how many times this has happened or how many years apart the children are. We cannot bring ourselves to describe any negative feelings because of how hard it can be for you to handle.”

“Mom hit menopause, there are 16 kids and only two rooms upstairs, I have a recital coming up. I’m worried that right now, something must be done. Changes have to be made.” Meg said

She went to the couch to sit down and wiped some tears away. She couldn’t hold it in and put her face between her knees to cry. Kevin tried to keep her from crushing her stomach.

“Hey, come on. You are only in your first trimester. We have a lot of time to make changes before the baby comes.” He assured her

“I know but I am supposed to practice playing music and I guess this pregnancy will distract me from that. 16 kids are going to have more baby siblings in this world and they will all need to share a room so the baby can sleep with us.” Meg explained

Bonnie and Joe didn’t know how to help her and they knew they didn’t want kids in the basement that young.

“We can’t switch houses because it would be illegal and fraudulent and we don’t have a basement at home. So it’s only best to save your money on maternity clothes and baby clothes and put some cribs together.” Joe said

“There’s just one problem. We can’t afford to move anywhere else. We have to figure something out if we’re going to have 20 kids in one home.” Meg said, nearly shaking

Kevin patted her on the back, trying to give her hope this would not be true.

“Maybe these will be the twins we always wanted. A boy and a girl.”

“You know what happens when I’m pregnant.” Meg said unhappily

They shared a hug because she was so distressed over her future and Susie even hugged her sister in law’s leg to make her feel better.

“We all have to get together and do something.” Bonnie pointed out

That evening, Lois took her hair out of the shower cap. She saw her orange hair and some grey hairs that were coming along with her old age. She shook her head in disappointment and went to her bed. Brian chewed a bone at the end of it and Peter combed his hair, which didn’t have any grey hairs at all. She laid next to him and felt a little ill after hearing Meg’s news.

“Lois, brush your hair out before you lay your head on a pillow.” Peter said

“No, Peter. I don’t care anymore. It’s been a rough week for me and I would like to go to bed.” Lois replied

She laid on the pillow anyway and thought about how her aging was going to affect her, especially after Meg announced the baby.

“Very soon you will look like your dad and even have wrinkles like your mom did.” he said

But he never expected a nasty glare at her while she stared at him hard in the face.

“She never even had wrinkles. That’s what was great about Pewterschmidt women and now I think I’m getting it from my father’s side of the family.” she said angrily

Lois laid on her side to get some sleep and Peter didn’t even feel bad for how he offended her.

“I was just telling the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts like a knife to the chest.”

“You are not a woman so how would you understand?” Lois shouted

They just laid in bed after their awkward conversation and they went to sleep.

The next morning, Meg took a walk while Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope were in a wagon she pulled. She didn’t want to go alone and the girls needed fresh air.

“I’ll have to avoid all of those high heeled shoes and thin socks since my swollen feet will make things complicated. Until the babies are born, my only goal will be wide shoes, long socks, lighter clothing and the right amount of exercise. And I can’t bend over or carry anything heavy.”

She came across the house Lois saw earlier and saw the number to call Rose Morgan, the real estate agent. She knew that buying the house would not be easy but looking at it would get her hopes up.

“Wait a minute. Why didn’t I think of it?”

She went behind the wagon to make sure the children did not go anywhere. She saw that the house had three rooms upstairs facing the front lawn, four windows downstairs facing the front lawn, a garage was to the front door’s right and a sunroom was to the front door’s left. She blinked and thought of how she could get the real estate agent’s help.

“Hmmm, I wonder if she is available to call today.”

She pulled out her phone and looked back to the sign and her phone as she attempted to call.

“It’s a very pretty house to live in.”

Kevin brushed Mammy in the living room on the couch and looked around, thinking Meg would come back with their daughters. He focused on keeping Mammy’s white fur all clean up.

“Gee, I hope she doesn’t go too far. She should know that being pregnant and alone is sort of dangerous. Depending on if she’s made enemies or befriended strangers along the way.”

While he brushed the dogs, Meg came home and brought the wagon inside. She had no intentions of pulling them out of it, given her condition.

“Kevin, while I was walking down the street, I saw something interesting.”

He said “shhhhh!” since he was still brushing their dog and trying to make her fur look nice. He was willing to continue talking.

“Yeah, what’s up? And were the girls okay in that wagon?”

She couldn’t lift them up because of her pregnancy and bent down to shake their hands. Esther Eve felt better and climbed out of the wagon herself.

“They liked the ride, they even liked the house we saw down the street.”

“House?” Kevin asked

He stopped brushing the dog to talk to her and she wanted to tell him about it.

“There was this house and it was huge. It was bigger than this house and my family’s house combined and it’s up for sale right now.”

“We can’t afford to live somewhere else and this house is filled with all of the memories we made.” Kevin said

He saw the ceiling and the yellow walls they had in the living room. She understood about him not wanting to leave.

“If we really have 20 children, would you want 12 of them to have the same room while 8 of them sleep in cribs or beds mushed up together?”

“Yeah, I don’t know but we might not have a choice. We made a good living space even though this place is so tiny. The kids might object or even have tantrums if they have to move.” Kevin said

Meg sat by the wagon and petted her little cat. She had high hopes they were going to give their children space someday.

“It’s not really healthy or even fair to crowd up children into one room and all of their dressers were moved to the basement. We can see if we can afford that house and we can give each set of quadruplets their own little rooms.”

Kevin sighed and looked at Meg. He was about to help her call someone to look at this house.

“Do you have the phone?”

That evening, Lois and Peter had dinner and Carter was present in their home. He decided to visit her after hearing about what happened.

“Thanks for visiting us, Carter. We had our doubts that Lois would even survive since she sweated and passed out.” Peter said

Carter was saddened to see his daughter have grey hair which made him feel much older than he already is.

“You have the same shades of grey in your hair that she did. If she saw you like this, she would be panicking about her own demise, which already occurred.”

“I hate to say this but these are stages of life we are going through and we have to brace them. For me, hitting menopause was like taking an electric portal to another world.” Lois explained

“You will never believe this but I threw away all of the clothes she was sweating in. she needs a new wardrobe to fit in because she’s so much older.” Peter said

Carter hated to hear those facts and also had another question.

“Tell me about your kids. How do they feel about their aging mother?”

“Stewie doesn’t care, Chris feels like he is seeing his mom become a witch and Meg can’t do anything because she’s pregnant.” Peter said

This shocked the old man and he nearly choked on his drink from hearing that.

“I’m sorry, who is pregnant?”

“Meg is, she must have gotten the news after the car wreck.” Lois said unhappily

Now he was paralyzed with shock and didn’t know how to react to this news.

“Is that a good thing that she is having a baby?”

“The house across the street will be crowded so no on that part and she’s already had quadruplets four times. It might be her fifth one.” Peter revealed

Lois and Peter hoped Carter would not pass out hearing this news and he grabbed his heart. She knew that her father had heart problems before.

“Daddy, it comes as a shock to all of us but none of us know what to do.”

He stopped himself and coughed and thought there was a way to help her.

“Doesn’t the basement there have a purpose?”

“The kids are not allowed to sleep downstairs, only the guests.” Peter said dryly

The next day, Rose Morgan was helping Meg and Kevin look at the house and she had some positive theories about it.

“The house was previously lived in five years ago when a family fled because of violence. It has nice running water, good electricity and get this, three full bathrooms crammed into this tiny but luxury space.”

Meg started to think about how she could get the house since she and Kevin didn’t have lots of money.

“How much would you sell this house for? 30,000 dollars for 30,100 dollars?”

“Oh, I don’t think it was that much money but they did say between 24,200 to 24,500 dollars.” Rose replied

Kevin looked at the house and hoped it was a good space for children to crawl around.

“I need to know about the stairs. How steep is the elevation level?”

“The stairs go straight up and have room for two people on each stair. I believe there are 20 steps before you reach the high levels.” Rose said

“How about the hallways or the basement or even the crawl space?” Meg asked

Rose showed them the front door and had a key to open it and get inside.

“The hallway upstairs is good use for shelter from a thunderstorm. As long as you close all doors, you should find safety. And did you know, there are two rooms in the basement, each connected to a bathroom?”

Meg and Kevin knew they had to get this house and wanted to know what was inside.

“How big? Tiny, medium sized or large?”

‘The basement bathroom has a tub next to the separate shower and two sinks are right across from them. Be advised to close both doors when using the shower.” Rose suggested

Meg hoped to have room in the house when she went inside. She watched as Rose unlocked the door and showed them the living room. It was spacious and there was a kitchen just 12 feet away. The stairs were to the left and there was a balcony looking down from the second floor.

“This doesn’t seem so bad. Show us what’s around here.” Meg said

They went into the kitchen which had neat tile floors and there was a black faucet that had already been cleaned up. Rose pointed to the right of the kitchen.

“Go past the entryway over there and you will find the dining room. We removed the carpet a year ago and replaced it with hardwood flooring.” Rose replied

So they went into the dining room and Kevin imagined a huge table for everyone to eat at. It had enough square roots as the living room and kitchen combined.

“We won’t have to worry about squeezing everyone into one kitchen. We can put the table here and have every meal in this dining room.”

Rita showed them the window leading outside and there was the front lawn. She helped them capture the size of the window.

“So, your children would have to be careful if they played on the lawn. This window was already replaced three times and the second time they repaired it, three kids were in the hospital.”

“Aw.” Meg said unhappily

They followed her across the living room and she opened the door to the half bathroom. She turned up the switch and she nodded her head because there was no power.

“So?” Kevin asked

“Yeah, the water and power are turned off as long as no one lives inside.” Rose explained

Meg was curious about the basement and looked down. She could tell that the walls were made of concrete.

“Do they need to be painted?”

“The walls downstairs. No, we took care of that unless you want to revision it into your own imagination.” Rose said

Kevin took Meg’s hand and wanted to see what was upstairs. He stepped on each stair carefully and attempted to find out if the children needed space.

“Come on, how many rooms are up here?”

They looked around and saw seven doors. They didn’t know where to go and the door at the end of the hallway had a large wall leading to it.

“This should probably be the master bedroom.” Meg said

They looked inside a large room and it was very spacious. Kevin looked around and went up to the wall near the door.

“Here, this place is where we can put the dresser and a television if we ever owned one.”

Meg walked into the middle of the room and had an idea on where to put the bed.

“Oh, this would be crazy but what if we put our bed against the wall, right in the very middle?

“Yeah, that would probably leave us room to walk to the dresser, if the bed is actually that small compared to this room.” Kevin corrected

Meg saw the window and carefully lifted the blinds to look out onto the lawn. She felt like she was higher than she needed to be.

“A good view of the sunset would be perfect with curtains instead of blinds.”

They also saw a door in the corner of the room. Kevin found the master bathroom. There was the tub, the shower, the double sinks and there was a private room for the toilet.

“Okay, we can tell millionaires would really dig this place.”

Meg excitedly looked into the hallway and saw a laundry room, which would have a ceiling hatch leading to the attic.

“Woah, the laundry room is just across the hall so we would hardly need laundry baskets.”

Kevin took Meg to a bedroom next to the laundry room and he envisioned it as the boys’ bedroom. He imagined racecar beds and colorful walls making it into a dream.

“See, we would put our older boys in this room.”

She blinked and imagined it as the girls’ room instead. There were so many opportunities to make with this.

“Any bedroom can be theirs. We just have to arrange them and paint the walls right.”

They found the next door which led to a bathroom. There was only one sink, one toilet and one tub with a shower.

“It could be their bathroom to share.” Meg continued

Meg and Kevin went into the next bedroom. It felt natural to them to put their younger boys in this room so they could be close by.

“So, you want to put Emmett, George and all of the other boys here?” Kevin asked

“Within a beat of my heart, I would move them into this room. Hopefully their closet has enough space.” Meg said with a smile

They came to the end of the hallway and found two rooms lined up with each other. Kevin looked to the room on his left and imagined it as the room for Allison, Belle, Claire and Daisy. Meg looked into the right bedroom and knew who was going to sleep there.

“Tell Rose that we can almost afford the house, almost.”

Kevin looked out into the front yard and had a good feeling the window would be safe. She felt sick, thinking they were three stories up and not two.

“We should see what the yard looks like.”

They came downstairs with him helping her by holding her hand. Rose folded her hands and thought they enjoyed the view.

“You can tell why the richest families in the world would want to buy this place.”

They all had a good laugh and Kevin was about to see the yard and Rose opened up the basement door for him.

“I’ll be back, let me see if the yard will prove it worthy to buy the house.”

“Hold on, haven’t you seen the basement yet? I’m sure it will give everyone plenty of space.” Rose announced

Kevin went into the basement without Meg. There was a door underneath the steps and he came down to a cellar. Across the room from him, there were two doors and between was the bathroom, like she mentioned.

“It will be the workout space I will have.”

Meg walked into the yard where she saw lots of grass but it was not as big as the yard at her house. She imagined a playground with swings, slides, even monkey bars and sandboxes.

“Oh, if I put a fence in, they won’t be lost or wander behind the yard. But I must ask, will there be room to stretch their legs?”

Rose looked at Meg and knew she had doubts about the yard.

“You don’t really like this yard, do you?”

“No, not much but is it okay to put a fence around them? You know, just for safety.” Meg said, putting her hand in front of her

She waited for Rose to respond to her and she wrote something down on her notepad.

“If you own the property or if you buy it, you could put anything you want, even a garden shed.”

Meg imagined a large garden shed for the children and nodded her head in agreement.

“I will have to look into it.”

Kevin came back upstairs and was amazed by what he saw. He offered to take his wife downstairs.

“So, the basement is nice and the shower has plenty of room.”

“Kevin, the yard is not as big as the one back at home.” Meg said sadly

She felt his disappointment but he knew their kids needed some room to play and sleep and eventually, grow up.

“I’m sure the size of the yard won’t matter to them. All that matters is they have a yard where they will make good memories.” Kevin said with a smile

“The yard at home is where they would play tag, red rover, hide and seek, all of that. They even liked learning to walk from that tree to the door.” Meg said unhappily

She went to the front door since no one lived there and Rose could see she was getting emotional.

“Well, we’re glad you enjoyed the tour of the house. If you can buy it someday, we will have to set up arrangements to pay the mortgage and all of it.”

“Our yellow house down the street was our wedding present. It might break my grandpa’s heart to sell it.” Meg said, nearly crying

Kevin hugged Meg and she was getting emotional over the idea to buy the house and sell the amber home.

“We did our progress at that amber home, now it’s time for a change.”

“They will finally wake up with their dressers right in front of them.” Meg replied

Carter drove down the street at the same time and he saw them standing in front of a house they were looking at.

“Hey. Is that house available for me to rent?”

“No, it’s for sale, not for rent. Meg and I thought of buying it but we’re poor and we might have to wait ten years.” Kevin called

So instead of letting them wait, he decided to make a deal and get it for them.

“Not on my watch.”

Later that day, Joe, Bonnie, Peter and Lois were speaking with Meg about the home they just toured and she had hopes about buying it.

“The house might be a normal looking space to live in but the basement is just about the same as ours and the attic isn’t even on the second floor. It’s above the laundry room.” Meg bragged

Lois and Peter were sure she was rushing to buy a house and knew hundreds of steps had to be taken before she could move out.

“Where is the laundry room again?” Peter asked

“Upstairs, across the hall from the master bedroom. Anyway, we think there will be enough space for the children to live in and the kids can finally have their own rooms.” Meg said, folding her hands together

“If you move into that house, you will have to sell this one and I’ll have you know that selling a home is not easy. You have to clean it up and fix all of the walls and plumbing before you even suggest such a thing.” Joe said

“You have eight or seven months before this baby comes and this house is down the street and moving and selling your house takes a year.” Lois told her

Kevin had pictures on his phone which he showed to everyone. He even showed pictures of the laundry room. He was even excited about the kitchen.

“The sink is bigger than the one in our kitchen. The dishwasher looks like it actually has some space to put bigger plates inside of.”

Meg took the phone and showed everyone the pictures of the house she wanted to move into.

“See, each set of quadruplets can get their own room. They can put their beds in one place and their dresser in other places. They won’t have to worry about putting their dressers downstairs to save room.”

Lois looked at the bedrooms she took pictures of and nodded her head excitedly.

“If you had extra money, buying this place wouldn’t be so bad at all.”

“We didn’t say we could buy it. We’re only excited about those possibilities that we could move in.” Kevin replied

Joe took the phone and smiled and even liked the idea of four children having their own room.

“The house looks like our house from the inside. I wouldn’t be surprised if the rooms had the same amount of square roots.”

Carter walked into the house and decided to talk to Lois about the house Meg had been looking at.

“There you guys are. I even walked into Joe’s house trying to find everyone.” he hinted

“Daddy, Meg is thinking of buying a house just down the street. She’s worried that she has to move into that place right now.” Lois said

“Yeah, I know. She made the right choice picking it because of all of the rooms upstairs and that spacious dining room I saw.” Carter said

Meg looked at her grandfather and even held his hands. She was worried about his disappointment.

“If we move out of here, you will say we disgraced it because this was our wedding present after all.” She said

“No, I get it. You won’t have enough room when your child comes and you think sending young children to sleep in that basement is wrong.” Carter explained

Kevin had a sad look on his face and wanted Carter to approve before he could move out of the house and move down the street.

“We had done our best to keep the house in the same condition it was, right before we moved in. We thought of it as a home, a place to make memories and we thought it was a good place for our children to grow up. If we move out, just to make room, you won’t be mad at us, right?”

“But what you’re doing is thinking for those kids and how they should have their own space instead of being crammed in the room upstairs.” Carter pointed out

“We have yet to tell all of our children about it and once we actually start to auction this house, our hearts would break because of all of the good memories we had here.” Meg said

“Tell them about it tonight and say it’s like a dream instead of letting on about how important it is to move.” Carter advised

Meg and Kevin hated to sell their amber house for something different but it was always a tiny space where they called it home.

“Home is all about where you make the most of it.” Kevin sighed

That night, Meg and Kevin looked at their sons Andrew, Bradley, Caleb and David in their tiny beds lined up against the wall. She had some exciting news to tell them.

“Boys, in a few weeks, we are going to a new place that’s just like your room. But it has more space and you can have more room to walk around.” Meg said

“You will finally share a room with just boys and you won’t need to worry about girls coming in or sleeping next to you, wouldn’t it be nice?” Kevin asked

The boys blinked and Bradley rubbed his eyes before blinking.

“Beddy.”

“When we go to that house, you won’t sleep in here anymore and you know you love this room very much.” Meg said

“Big place.” David said

“Right, big place and you will get to have more room to get out of bed and walk around in the morning. Just before you can go to preschool.” Meg replied, wiping a tear away

Kevin went to Allison, Belle, Claire and Daisy’s crib and decided to tell them about the new house he will take them to.

“Girls, do you want a nice cozy bedroom, all to yourself, away from boys and their racecar beds?”

Daisy blinked at her father and could not respond with a full sentence.

“Yeah, you girls will share a room and your younger sisters will share a bedroom and your youngest brothers will share a room.” Kevin whispered

“Room.” Claire said

“Yeah, it won’t be crowded in the room where you slept in. You can even change your shoes without boys coming in.” Meg replied with a smile

Later, they spoke to Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope. Meg watched them sleep and she whispered to them about their “dream house”

“In your new room, you won’t be across the hall, but you will have an entire room to store everything that belongs to you.”

She wanted to kiss them but had to avoid it to wake them up. She exited the room, thinking it would be one of the last times she ever did so.

“Man, it’s going to be so tough. Once we move in, we will be down the hall from them and they might not like it.”

Kevin was standing over the large crib where Elvin, Flynn, George and Harry were even sleeping.

“You won’t have to worry about adult smells stinking up your noses every night. You will have your own little room and you can sleep in the crib without waking up mommy and daddy.”

Elvin almost heard what his father said and nearly laid on his side. Meg nearly cried because moving day was almost there.

“Maybe we should talk to them when they are awake.”

Kevin and Meg got into bed and kissed each other before even laying on their backs to sleep. They were going to miss sleeping in that room once they moved out.

“Every night, I think I am looking at the stars from laying on this bed. Did we not notice that there was a popcorn ceiling the whole time?”

After hearing that question, he looked at it and realized she could see the stars as long as it was dark.

“Oh yes, in the future 30 years from now, this room will be a reminder of when we were young.”

“Yeah, but our room at our new house might even be better. We’ll just have to see.” Meg said

They shared a kiss and she laid on her back, hoping it was safe for the unborn babies.

“Good night, see you in the morning.” Kevin said softly

“I will always see you tomorrow.” Meg replied

Four weeks later, Brian, Chris, Stewie, Cleveland Junior, Roberta, Rallo, Patty, Ruth and Esther were taking the children with them and Meg had some diaper bags for them.

“Everyone, remember, don’t let them get too hot and if they want to come home, tell them that we are just cleaning the house and moving things around.” Meg announced

Brian held Bradley and Caleb who were excited to leave the house for the day.

‘Do you think it will take all night to move everything into the house?’ Brian wondered

“We might be criticized for crowding up the park. No one would believe we have an actual family of 16 babies.” Chris told her

Meg handed Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope their bottles because they were thirsty. They didn’t want to leave the house and they were very cranky.

“We can’t have them in the house while they move furniture around. It will be too dangerous and there are some things that are extremely heavy.”

Patty, Ruth, Esther, Roberta and Junior left with the children and Stewie looked back, knowing it would be the last time the children leave the house.

“Meg, some of us are going to drop the babies and break their ribs.” Stewie warned her

Meg watched them go and sighed. She knew there was work to be done.

“I’ll go pack up our clothes first downstairs.”

Upstairs, Peter, Lois, Bonnie and Quagmire were taking the sheets off of everyone’s beds to pile them up and move them into the truck. They had to fold the mattresses and move them to a box, which they could take to the moving truck.

“Okay, now that the mattresses and pillows are off of the bed, which should we take to the truck first?” Peter asked the others

“There are going to be two moving trucks, one for the clothes and sheets, the other truck is for heavy furniture.” Lois replied

Quagmire and Bonnie removed a mattress from the child’s crib and placed it on the floor. They took the sheets off and started to fold them.

“It will be at least six days before we get everything into the new house down the street.” Bonnie told him

“No, it won’t. Cleveland is supposed to be helping out with getting dressers and shelves to the next moving truck and stacking them neatly so they don’t fall over.” Quagmire replied

“Kevin and Meg should have moved their children’s clothing and dog cushions into the truck first, so when they get there, everyone knows where their stuff is.” Bonnie pointed out

Pete and Lois put the mattresses on a pile and it wasn’t going to be easy moving them downstairs and outside. He placed them like they were piled up and ready to move.

“Is it easier to sell furniture and buy something new?” he asked

“No, they like their things and daddy’s money went towards that house.” Lois replied

Kevin and Meg packed everything from her basement room first. They folded clothes and had to put them in three boxes.

“This basement room did so nicely storing my clothes away. Whenever I came here, it was like walking back into my old room. I didn’t see if the rooms in that basement had any closets.’

“They do, they are nice closets and we’re going to need bigger and softer hangers.” Kevin replied

They packed up her dresses and neatly folded them. They had to put them in three large boxes which would be difficult to take upstairs.

“Who’s going to help carry these upstairs?” Meg wondered

“We will have to. Dad cannot do it since he cannot walk and everyone else is moving our children’s stuff to the truck.” Kevin replied

“Are you going to miss that basement room across the hall?” Meg said, showing a sad expression

He looked across the hall and noticed he packed nothing up from the room. He knew her bedroom had to come first.

“It won’t be easy since my clothes are heavier and there is a big ass dresser in the way.”

“Let’s put that dresser in our master bedroom and the other dresser in the basement.” Meg said with hope

“But I just had a theory, where is the crib for the new baby gonna be?” Kevin reminded her

She put her hand on her face and could not believe she forgot it.

“Um, our bedroom. They can go in our room so we can always hear them.” Meg replied

She hugged him and became distressed about moving everything in one day.

“We’re going to get everything done, we will move all of the shelves to the living room once we get them out.” he promised

Joe opened the door and Cleveland and Donna had finally come to move a lot of furniture out of the yellow house. They had to expect to move heavy things before going home.

“Hey, you finally made it. First, we need help moving all of the mattresses to the truck and then we need to move all of the shelves to the other one.” Joe said

The couple stepped inside and Peter tried to slide a tiny mattress downstairs since it was easier. He pushed it and landed on the ground. He expected his neighbors to move it to the truck right away.

“Here, I got more mattresses coming and it looks like Meg’s bedroom is just a mess.” he announced

Joe, Cleveland and Donna attempted to move the mattress and despite it being a tiny one, they were struggling to lift it.

“I didn’t think it would be this tough to move a mattress, even if we are just going down the street.” Joe said unhappily

They carried the mattress to the moving truck with all of the clothes and Carter stopped them from getting it on board.

“No, this is absolutely unacceptable!” Carter shouted

“We’re trying to help all of you guys move the mattresses!” Cleveland protested

“Yeah, but we’re here to move furniture and you know the mattress will be for the furniture truck.” Carter said

Donna, Cleveland and Joe had to move the mattress to the other moving truck. Inside, Peter pushed the next mattress down the stairs.

“Someone keeps peeing on it, it’s so gross!” Peter shouted

After getting all of the mattresses to the truck, Cleveland, Donna, Joe, Bonnie and Quagmire were glad it was over and Bonnie wiped some sweat away.

“Meg and Kevin should buy new ones or at least hose that one down.” she said

Meg was still in her basement and packing up dresses in her room. She had a feeling she would miss going down there.

“In the meantime, I can’t bend over to pick up the clothes. It will be too much on the little baby.”

She held her stomach which was still growing and shed a few tears. She folded one more dress before putting it in the last open box.

“I’ll see this one in five years.”

That evening, there were boxes to take to the moving trucks and Meg put the tape over the last one. She sighed because soon, everything would be at their new home. She was shaking her head, thinking of the night she moved in.

“It wouldn’t be fair to grandma since she thought we would be here for a long time. If she saw us moving out, she would be so disappointed.”

Kevin didn’t know how they were going to move everything before the children returned. He saw it was getting dark outside and he knew Meg couldn’t move anything heavy around.

“Do you think they’re coming back to move everything to the truck?”

“They already have the furniture moved in and they said they were coming to help us. Sometimes, I don’t understand any of my elders.” Meg said, shaking her head

He put his hand around her and she started getting emotional, since she thought of it as her house.

“It’s not easy but your grandfather said once you get moved in, you can just rest your spine after stretching it. You wouldn’t even feel bad once you have a new baby in your arms.”

“This was my grandparents' wedding gift to us and we moved out just a few years later. Grandma would say I’m ungrateful.” Meg said unhappily

They were interrupted when Carter entered the house and had brought some men to help them carry the boxes to the truck.

“Meg, Kevin, you don’t need to worry much longer. All of the furniture got moved in and all of the beds and tables are set up. Now we just need to move clothes and other things before we get settled in.” Carter announced

About 20 men came in and took the boxes to the truck. Two men had to move each box since the boxes were heavy. Meg got emotional and decided to tour the home one last time.

“I’ll be back, let me just look at each room one last time.”

She went into the kitchen which no longer had a table. She looked in the empty dining room where it was completely empty. There were marks on where the table and chair legs were.

She looked in the basement where there was no couch and no tv. She looked in the room on the left, where her old bed was before they moved it and she looked in the room on the right where his old bed used to be.

Then, she took a careful walk up the stairs and headed to the second floor of her house. Tears were coming down her face at this point. She looked in the room where all of her children had to share it and sleep in it.

Finally, she took a look at the bedroom where she and Kevin slept with four babies always nearby. She left the bedroom door open to remember it by. She came downstairs and held Kevin’s hand. She saw the house empty for the first time and looked at it one more time before she walked outside.

Kevin and Meg shared a kiss and locked the door one more time. They headed to their minivan as the moving truck drove away with everyone inside. They started it up and backed out of the driveway, they looked at it before heading down the street to their new house.

Later, everyone brought the kids to their new house and Meg and Kevin welcomed them. Allison, Belle, Claire and Daisy were handed to their parents first and then the girls tried to give them, Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope. They placed the first girls on the ground so they would run around and play.

“So, how do you like the new house you are going to stay in?” Brian asked with hope

“It’s not going to be the same, even though we will have more room now and we have to spend another day putting away clothes and neatly organizing them.” Meg said with sadness

Chris took Andrew and Bradley to the couch where they didn’t feel like they were at home. They saw that the television was blank and wanted to turn it on.

“Look guys, the tv is far away from you and it will sound loud in a large living room like this.”

Meg and Kevin took their eight youngest kids into their hands and couldn’t wait for them to be in their new rooms.

“Despite needing to paint the walls and match the themes of their rooms, having actual space will really make things neat. We made the right choice to come to this house and let them grow up.” Kevin said

George reached for Meg’s nose as she tried to kiss him and she felt him squeeze it.

“You must have had a long day at the park and now you get to go upstairs and rest in your new cribs. By tomorrow, you will wake up to the relief of fresh air.” Meg cooed

Chris attempted to plug in the television and struggled to reach for the outlet. He couldn’t find it and started to wonder if there ever was one.

“Hey, are you sure we don’t need to move the television towards the bathroom door?”

They looked behind them and saw the shelf, which had been placed right by the door under the stairs.

“Don’t worry. I’ll plug in the television later.” Kevin announced

Peter, Lois and Bonnie made the couple’s bed upstairs in the master bedroom. Now it appeared the bed had room for when they woke up and took a walk around.

‘We have done it. We all thought it would be ten days before they would have everything moved in.’ Peter said

“Yes, they won’t be across the street anymore and they have to walk down the street to visit us.” Lois replied

Bonnie saw four independent cribs for each baby and none of those cribs had mattresses or sheets yet. She looked in them and had a bad feeling about them.

“You know, if they have twins or even triplets after all, they could save the last crib for that cat that they have.”

Lois and Peter looked into the crib but it was nowhere near time for a child to sleep in it.

“I don’t know about them spending money on four mattresses. That’s going to be a big budget for them.” Peter said

“They will get them soon. Let’s just finish making this big bed over here.” Lois suggested

They finished the bed and it looked tidy. Even the room’s hard floors with the rug nearby could also make it clear. Now, all three of them were distressed over moving everything and had a feeling things would never be the same.

“So, Meg and Kevin moved everything but their clothes into the house.” Peter said, about to cry

“Yes, they will thank us one day for moving everything because moving is not an easy decision.” Lois said, bowing her head down

They shared a hug and knew it would be hard for them. They left the room, thinking it was time for them to go. They looked in the first room past the laundry room and saw it was set up for the younger boys. There were four independent cribs for most of them and two of them were lined up on each side of the room.

“Nice, that way their crying is not as loud.” Peter said

They walked to the room past the bathroom and saw it was set up for Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope. Their large crib was to the window’s right and the dresser was across the room. Then, Bonnie looked down at the end of the hall, to her left was Allison, Belle, Claire and Daisy’s room and they had independent cribs to sleep in.

“Wow, it won’t be long before they have to get big girl beds.”

Peter and Lois saw tiny beds in the room across the hall and the walls were still white. They had a good feeling the boys would be comfortable sleeping there.

“This is how you set up a house for each quadruplet.” Peter sighed

Bonnie, Peter and Lois came downstairs and saw Kevin and Meg trying to settle children down for bed. They could tell they were not in the mood to observe everything since they were so tired.

“Guys, it’s all done. Their rooms are all set up, now you just need to put their clothes away.” Lois announced

Meg sighed and looked at Kevin before deciding to give everyone their own beds to sleep in.

“Come on, tomorrow is such a big day for all of us.” She said

Putting Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope in their new crib was rather easy. Meg put a blanket over all four of them and put a little stuffed bear by their side.

“See you tomorrow, okay. It will be the first morning in our new home.”

Hope squealed, causing Eve to hold her ears, even though she was the farthest from her.

“Enough, enough.” Meg said, with her voice getting quieter

“Shhhhhh!” she told the baby

Kevin dressed Elvin in Flynn’s clothes and dressed Flynn in Elvin’s clothes. He didn’t care since he was tired of packing.

“I know, I know, it’s time for bed and we need you to be warm enough.”

He put Elvin in his crib first and put Flynn in his crib second. He put a blanket over Flynn who was still crying.

“I know, it’s going to be tough one.”

Meg entered Allison’s room and saw her still awake. She wanted out of the crib but Meg wanted her to go to sleep.

“Is your pull up full? Do you need new clothes on before bedtime?”

She picked up her little daughter and put her on the floor. She opened up a box full of clothes and pulled out a shirt and little pajama pants.

“Will this help you?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Allison said, shaking her head

Meg picked up her baby and started to change her. She felt like it was something she had not done in a long time.

“It feels like forever since mommy dressed you for bed. At least it’s first time I’m dressing you while taking time.”

“Okay.” Allison said

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Andrew, Bradley, Caleb and David were already in bed, much to their father’s surprise. He decided to close the door halfway to make sure they could leave the room if they had to.

“See you tomorrow. Taking you to the park was a swell idea.” he said

The next morning, Meg and Kevin were sleeping in their new room on their bed. Their dogs were sleeping on the bed by their feet. Their younger quadruplet boys slept in their independent cribs. In the next room over, Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope were just waking up and they were covered in the same blanket.

In the room at the end of the hall, Claire stood up in her crib and waited for her mother or her father to grab her and put her on the ground. Bradley ran across the room and tried to get his sister out of the crib and bounced up and down while shaking on his knees. Meg opened her eyes and still thought her baby boys were in the crib across the room from her.

“Time to get up, we have a big unpacking day ahead of us.”

She just now realized that the cribs in front of her were for the new babies and she bowed her head down sadly. She had to remember where everyone’s new rooms were. She went into the boy’s bedroom first and saw Harry first. She picked him up and held him. She had to get the other children up since it was morning.

“Come on, it’s our big day to put clothes away so you know where to find them.”

Andrew, Bradley, Caleb and David ran into their brothers’ room down the hallway and she nearly fell while holding her other son. She had to remember that they had small beds to sleep in now instead of cribs.

“Alright, alright, we will get everyone downstairs in a minute. It’s not going to be easy bringing you there.” Meg announced

Kevin slept heavily and he was snoring while laying on his back. He opened his eyes and heard his children cooing and screaming. He was too tired to deal with this and covered his ears with a pillow. His young son could walk in his room and run to the stairs to climb up and wake him. He crawled on his knees and removed his father’s pillow away from him.

“Hey, stop!”

But he saw his son and could only stop himself so he would not hurt his feelings.

“Are you up that early already?” Kevin asked

Meg carried the baby boy to the staircase and nearly got caught when she saw the gate that would prevent anyone from falling down. She had to remember that she was pregnant, holding a child and the first floor was all the way down.

“Okay, okay, everyone, we can’t go down unless it is safe.”

She didn’t know what to do at first since she didn’t know how to open the gate. She tried to use her foot to step over it but was too nervous. She found something that could open it but it was complicated.

“Come on, come on, Harry needs to go downstairs.” she said

She opened it up and all of the dogs ran downstairs, she had to slowly go down, carrying Harry while pregnant.

“I’ll guide you down in a moment.” she told her boys.

She took a few steps down and slowly made it to the bottom. She put Harry on teh couch and watched him kick his feet.

“It’s going to be a moment, I will get your big brothers as you can’t roll off of the couch.”

She went upstairs to get Andrew, Bradley, Caleb and David and started to slowly guide them down the stairs. She thought it was fun but knew it was dangerous to hold on without a railing.

“Easy, easy, I gotta teach your sisters how to do this next.”

That morning later on, Kevin and Meg had lots of little children in high chairs and they each had scrambled eggs on their trays. Kevin ate toast with bread and scrambled eggs. Meg ate more scrambled eggs and even some berries in a bowl. There were a large number of berries in the center of the table.

“Were you even comfortable using the stove this morning?” Kevin asked

“Yeah, the burners get super hot and I thought that if I turned it up to three, it would be scorching hot, considering I am sensitive to smells.” Meg said

While their children got scrambled eggs on their faces and used plastic spoons, they looked around their dining room and it was especially bigger than their old one. Kevin ate his toast and enjoyed it in their new space.

“Thank goodness we don’t have a carpet like we did with the other one. But the echoes give off some creepy vibes.” Kevin said

Meg ate her eggs in a hurry which inspired Allison to do the same. She realized that one plate was not going to be enough.

“Kevin, I hope we didn’t run out of a dozen of these eggs. I feel like I have to eat more.”

She stood up and took her plate to the sink. She rushed into the fridge to find some eggs while looking around. Not a lot of food was put inside yet.

“What did you find?” he called from the dining room

“Uh, we might have to go shopping for more. I’m eating for 5, remember?” Meg yelled back

She started to get nervous because she was hungry and she found her bowl of berries she was eating. She gobbled them up, which worried him because she was an adult and there were children around.

“Uh okay, you can make some toast and a bagel while I help them clean up and set up the new play pen.” He offered

“Toast is not going to do any good. I’ll just warm up the biscuits until we can get a big meal or something.” She replied

Andrew finished his eggs and dropped the spoon on the ground. Mammy went up to it and licked the crumbs and germs that were left.

“Or I can order things online, how does that help?” Kevin nervously asked

Lois was at Lakin’s salon after finally being able to have an appointment. There was a woman who was doing her hair. She was relieved to have it done and not look so old anymore.

“Yesterday was a tough one and this appointment could not have come at a better time. We moved all of that heavy furniture into my daughter’s new home and you would not believe how big the living room actually is.” she explained

“How big is it, Lois?” her hairdresser asked

“It’s got enough room for five couches to sit in a square, but other than that, the carpets are actually clean, unlike my own. Every room has a special light above it and once I saw the basement, I knew they were going to stay there permanently.” Lois explained

Her hair dresser wrapped her hair in tin foil to dye it as she was going to help her remove grey hairs from it.

“Mrs. Griffin, do you know that despite your daughter’s family getting bigger that her children need to have a room of their own. Home is about where you make memories and not really where you have to eat and sleep at night.”

“They have four children and each child needs their own room. You know it’s not right to give a boy and a girl a room to share?” Lois asked

“You know, back then, big families would be crammed into small homes and they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.’ the lady said

Meg was in Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope’s room and lined up each set of clothes to put in their drawers. She couldn’t wait until at least everything was all moved in. She lined up each of their white dresses.

“Now girls, all of these dresses are going on some hangers so you can wear them whenever you go out. If you want to store your shirts and shorts away, we have to do them neatly so they can be sorted out and have a home in each dresser.”

She put a dress on a hanger and put it in the closet. She put the next dress on the hanger and put it into the closet. There was a pile of hangers and a pile of dresses nearby. She put the next dress on the hanger when she heard the doorbell ring. She didn’t have time to leave anyone since there were babies nearby.

Kevin was downstairs and opened the door to find Louise Hammon, much to his surprise. He didn’t expect her to visit the first day they lived there. He picked up his cat so she would not get out.

“Hey, did you come to check on us?” he asked

“Yeah, is Meg here? I heard the good news she has another child on the way.” Hammon said

“I can’t exactly tell what room she is in. She is helping our kids put the clothes away. We recently just moved into the house.” Kevin laughed nervously

Hammon looked upstairs and saw how long they were. She attempted to go up and check on her.

“Today, I am only checking her blood pressure since it’s important. I understand she is in her first trimester.”

“She didn’t know you were coming so this may come as a surprise to her.” Kevin replied

“In the future, we can discuss to cause laughter and everything.” Louise said

Meg was just hanging up clothes in her daughters’ closet when she heard a knock. So she thought it was her husband Kevin.

“Yeah, what’s going on? Did they even fall asleep?”

Louise opened the door instead and Kevin was behind her. She nearly jumped and put her hand on her heart, not expecting her visit.

“Hi, I was just dropping by to check on you.” Louise said

Meg sat on the ground and folded her daughter’s dress before putting it on a hanger.

“Hey there, I’m just hanging up the dresses so the girls know where to find them.”

As she was hanging up the dresses, Louise looked at Faith and put her finger in her tiny hand.

“So, you girls have gotten so much bigger than I thought.”

“Yeah, they are walking now, which is so raw because the last time you saw them, they were only very tiny. Well, they’re still tiny today.” Meg said

Kevin picked up two of his daughters and offered to take them out since Louise would check Meg’s blood pressure soon.

“I’ll be out of your way just in case you are in a hurry.”

Meg sighed and looked at her former therapist, thinking she was up to something.

“Anything you have planned?” Meg asked

“No, just here for a blood pressure test. You know the massages do not start for a few months.” Louise said

So, offered to take Meg to her room as two of their daughters played in a pile of their dresses. Louise walked in and saw the cribs being set up for their baby. She looked inside of them since she was excited for her patient.

“Over there, the babies will sleep until they are three years old. Mom says it’s good for the babies to get their own beds and sleep in their own spaces when they are toddlers.” Meg said

Kevin walked into the bedroom to get Grace and Hope as the other kids were waiting in a different room.

“Mommy will be back in the room in a little bit, alright?”

Meg laid on the bed as Louise put the velcro around her arm and told her to take deep breaths. It was only time for the blood pressure.

“Do me a favor, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.”

Following her advice, Meg closed her eyes and didn’t even feel anything pinching her upper arm. She couldn’t envision what she was going to have.

“Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.”

For five minutes, Meg did some deep breathing on her bed, in her new room and she relaxed. Louise had read her blood pressure as normal.

“Good, good, it’s going to be fine. No paintbrushes or oil this week.” Louise announced

She helped Meg off of the bed and she felt better from taking deep breaths and getting her blood pressure taken.

“I had a headache coming on until you decided to show up. I think it really stopped me from experiencing brain damage.”

Upon having her blood pressure taken, Meg showed Louise the new baby boys that she had. She picked up Harry and Louise rubbed his little head.

“Oh, which little child is this?” Louise asked

“It’s Harry Howard. For now, he’s only the youngest baby until this little child comes along.” Meg replied

Next, Louise found baby George and it was rough seeing him since he was in the womb the last time she saw his mother.

“And they turned out very healthy, which is important. You know why we had to make you laugh for a reason.” Louise said with a smile

Meg was proud of children being healthy more than anything. She was going to raise healthy children with her husband.

“Uh huh. They learned to laugh thanks to you. It wasn’t possible without your help.” Meg reminded her

Louise saw Elvin awake and didn’t ask permission when she lifted him up. She was just a total stranger to him.

“Hi there, I’m going to be sticking around mommy for a while.”

Elvin looked at his mother’s doctor in confusion and she just wanted to see how he was doing.

“Your mother must have taken very good care of you, right?” Louise asked

“He loves to reach for chocolate candy whenever I eat it in front of him. I have a feeling he would grow up to be an obese diabetic.” Meg said with worry

Meg would sit in a rocking chair in the room by the window and she had feelings that Elvin would be obese.

“Just make sure they eat healthy during the majority of their childhood so they don’t end up with diabetes.” Louise said

“But every mom is going to feed their children desert every night, why shouldn’t I?’ Meg asked herself

The Griffin family was at home when Lois walked through the door. Her orange hair came back and Peter had a chance to look at her again. She felt even better with her hair returning.

“Lois, your hair magically came back. I knew that mid-life crisis was not going to last very long.” Peter said with excitement

“I have to be careful so the color never really washes out of it. Every ten days, I have to wash my hair in cold or warm water, never hot.” Lois replied

Brian even went up to Lois to sniff her newly dyed hair. He was excited because the dye really made it smell fresh.

“Who did your hair? A younger woman or a professional?”

“No, it was Lacey. She’s the expert stylist who worked at Strand’s salon until it closed down.” Lois replied

Chris went into the living room and saw his mom with newly dyed hair. He didn’t expect it since she was getting grey hairs from her menopause.

“Mom, did you get a new wig?”

“Chris, it’s me. My hair is all fixed until 10 days from now when I wash some of it off in the shower.” Lois replied

It felt like his mom was not the same person and he started to scratch his head.

“It doesn’t seem right. You can’t bring someone’s hair back from menopause.”

“I was lucky it was done at Lakin’s hair salon and nothing else.” Lois replied

Stewie watched his mom fluff up her hair and he glared at it because he thought she hid her aging.

“You won’t recognize yourself 20 years from now.”

That evening, Peter and Brian watched the amber house that was across the street. It was no longer Meg’s home and the for sale sign was in front of it.

“Who do you think is going to move into the house next and live inside? Knowing that quadruplets previously lived there?” Peter asked Brian

“It could be a while and you know that four houses like it cover up the square root of the backyard.” Brian pointed out

It was always filled with barking dogs and laughing children. Now, it seemed quiet which was odd to both of them.

“I have heard everything in that house for years. I have seen lights on at night, I have seen Meg change diapers through the window.” Peter revealed

“Did you spy on her and go on their front lawn?” Brian said, feeling confused

“No, I could see everything they did in their living room. They forgot to close the curtains a lot. Now, it seems like that house being empty will leave voids in our souls.” Peter said, feeling unsure

Chris walked outside and saw the leaves scatter across the lawn where his sister and her husband used to live.

“I hope the house isn’t going to be empty like it was for many years before.”

“Me neither, but in the meantime, Meg’s new house has more space and the rooms don’t feel so crowded.” Brian told him

“Right, I wonder if the basement finally got set up.” Chris said with excitement

In October, Kevin, Joe, Bonnie, Peter, Lois and Chris all carved pumpkins in the backyard. There were even two picnic tables on some concrete where the patio door was.

“This Halloween is going to be something special. We will have all of these pumpkins on the front lawn and they are going to shine brightly on trick or treat night.” Joe said

“Will six pumpkins be enough for a family of 20 people?” Kevin asked his dad

“Don’t be stupid, we’re carving pumpkins for everyone so they can have their picture taken by each one.” Joe said, looking stern

Peter and Chris laughed at Kevin because his own father called him stupid. Lois and Bonnie tore pumpkin guts out of each one and placed them in a pile along with seeds.

“Does she have plans for a Halloween meal this year?” Lois asked her friend

“She decided to go easy on the pumpkin guts and just eat the chicken that she wants me to cook. She fears cooking will harm her growing stomach.” Bonnie said dryly

All of the pumpkin guts were placed in a pile and Chris pulled out a lighter so he could cook them and eat them for a nice Halloween brunch.

“Better turn Halloween into a special day all about food.”

Meg was inside, eating her salad when Kevin brought the carved pumpkin inside. She was worried because there was a cover for the entire table.

“Not inside the house. Keep it outside.” She warned him

“I just wanted to show you the designs.” Kevin said sadly

He showed her a pumpkin with a smiley face and she nearly laughed because her pregnancy was progressing.

“It might be the greatest Halloween ever.”

Chris had all of the pumpkin guts in a bowl and put them into the fridge. He was excited for a Halloween feast.

“That will be really fresh enough to cook on the bonfire.”

On Halloween night, Meg, Kevin and their children were eating their meals. All they ate were chicken drumsticks, steak, small salads with big tomatoes and baked potatoes. They all wore orange instead of any costumes.

“This is a good way to end October. It’s freezing outside, the heat is just nice and the food mom baked was very good. Happy Halloween, dear.” he said, putting his hand on her arm

She felt touched by him, she attempted to kiss his hand, since he had a firm and strong grip.

“It’s too cold for them to get candy and walk around. So, I had her make cupcakes for dessert.”

Bonnie entered the dining room and Joe had made packets of frosting. Kevin shook his head in disbelief. He didn’t know his parents planned to do this.

“Enjoy it while you can because she put these in the fridge the moment they were pulled from the oven.” his father announced

The next morning, Meg played the violin since her recital was getting closer. She had difficulty reaching with her fingers and playing the right notes since she gained weight. She was attempting to play Moonlight Sonata and every time she slipped, she was getting frustrated. She wanted to quit but she promised to put on a show.

“Damn it. But he always said that when you are mad, take a break. Maybe he has been watching PBS with them.”

She opened the basement door and went down. She saw him doing push ups on a yoga mat. He never even heard her come down because of how quiet she was.

“Kevin, Kevin?”

He didn’t stop doing push ups because he was very determined.

“What? I thought you were practicing.”

“No, I was taking a break. I am starting to fail at every note I play.” Meg revealed

“Then don’t play now. You know it’s not good to get up your blood pressure.” Kevin warned her

“In the meantime, we should find mattresses to buy to put into our new baby’s crib. You never know when we forget.” Meg said

“I’ll do it when I’m done. Besides, the prices are lowering down and everyone’s already Christmas shopping.” Kevin replied

“It would be so nice to plan ahead.” Meg assured him

She looked into the first bedroom across the room from the stairs. She saw Kevin’s bed, his lamp, his new LED lights and there was a tiny window.

“It’s been a while since I have been down here. Hang on.”

She opened the sliding door to the bathroom and saw the double sinks, the large tub, the shower and in between those, the toilet room.

“I wish they had no window above that toilet.”

Then, she entered the sliding door to her old room. There was her old bed, her dresser, her book shelf, her dresser and she looked into the closet where her old clothes were. She smiled and folded her hands together.

“Just how I like it.”

Then, Meg and Kevin looked in the mattress store for something to put into the crib. She hoped to find something and get prepared in case their little child was not born on time.

“So, where is the section for little babies?” Kevin asked

They met a man working in the store and his name was Jake. He folded hands and prepared to help them look for something.

“Hello, you came to the right place if you are looking for new mattresses.” he said

“My wife and I need a big favor and we hope there are four tiny mattresses put on sale.” Kevin revealed

“Oh, you want four tiny mattresses?” Jake asked in confusion

Meg rubbed her pregnant stomach and put her hand away before putting her jean jacket back on.

“Not that we need them today, next week or maybe by Christmas.” She said

In just a few hours, they had gotten the mattresses from the store. Lois, Peter, Bonnie and Kevin put them in the cribs and Meg held the sheets so everyone would put them in.

“This is a pretty exciting day for all of you.” Bonnie told them

“Uh huh. Buying mattresses and putting new sheets and blankets and pillows on top of them. They are just like putting them together on the exact week they are born.” Meg said happily

Lois attempted to fit each corner on the mattress and struggled to straighten out the corner near the wall.

“These mattresses are too low, or you need to push the bed upwards and let us put the sheets on.”

Peter picked up one mattress and put the corners on and laid it back down before putting the other corners on. Then he bent down to get a blanket and put it on the new bed.

“See, follow the way I do it and we will have nicely made beds.”

After the cribs were all made, Meg saw all of the mobiles nearly spinning and she saw the pillows lined up neatly. She had a feeling the babies could come any minute.

“We did it. This is only the first step to get ready for a child.” she said proudly

Kevin looked in each crib, imagining a baby sleeping in each one. He looked at his wife, who was only in his second trimester.

“Maybe there are four, we don’t know yet.”

On the day before Thanksgiving, Louise Hammon was at the house and knocked on it before Meg let her in. she was not surprised to see her.

“You must be here to listen to the baby’s heartbeat, right?” Meg asked

“Of course. But are you just a tiny bit nervous?” Louise asked her

“Yes, I wasn’t looking forward to anyone focusing on this…….” Meg said, pointing to her bump

She frowned at Louise as she touched her stomach just a little bit.

“So, I think tomorrow is Thanksgiving!” Louise said with a smile

“It is.” Meg reminded her

“Who is supposed to come over?” Louise wondered

Meg looked towards the stairs and called for her husband.

“Babe, who was coming for Thanksgiving?”

“I think our families, I’ll text my dad to make sure he and the others don’t go to the crazy bitche’s house!” Kevin called from upstairs

Louise was confused about Kevin calling someone a bitch.

“Who is he talking about?”

“His crazy ass grandmother.” Meg said before laughing

Meg laid half naked in her bed. She felt the doppler as Louise Hammon was searching for any heartbeats. She listened to see if there were four like she predicted. She listened for one heartbeat before putting the doppler on the other side of Meg’s tummy.

She had to move from one side of the bed to another to listen for any heartbeats. She moved the doppler to the side to see if she was having quadruplets. She listened and listened before calculating them. Meg could only smile and was deeply entranced by the sounds of the heartbeats.

“I have tracked down two heartbeats so far. Maybe you are having quadruplets.” Louise said

But she left the bedroom door open and Belle, Claire, Eve and Faith could walk in and see their mother with a stranger on her bed. Meg felt the doppler on the center of her stomach as she nearly opened her eyes in horror. She had a feeling something was wrong, but didn’t open her eyes.

“Louise, Louise, wait a minute.” Meg said quietly

But she could not listen as she studied another heartbeat in the womb. She carefully tracked it and knew it was a third heartbeat right away. She moved the doppler upwards when Meg was closing her eyes and listening. She could hear the faint sounds of children.

“Meg, I carefully tracked them all down. So far, I could officially confirm three of them.” Louise announced

She got off of the bed and pulled out a wipe to clean Meg. she turned her head and saw her daughters looking at her in shock. She wanted to sit up but was disappointed in herself for leaving that door open.

“You were not supposed to see this. I’m sorry, were you a little traumatized?” Meg asked

As Louise was wiping her clean, she showed a sad face and sighed, hoping no one would have to see her like that again.

“So, do you have any plans with your family for Thanksgiving?” Louise asked

“You already asked me that. We’re having family over and we’re going to start dinner when we want.” Meg replied

Kevin walked in and found an awkward scene. He picked up his four daughters and decided to leave with them. Meg couldn’t do much to move out of bed yet.

“I was looking all over them. They must enjoy their crawling lessons up the stairs.”

Meg looked at the ceiling and attempted to get up since she had to move around for the health of her children.

“I’ll proudly skip out on a feathery Christmas.”

“Why? Louise asked

“The fat stomach teasing is just so old by now and my poor babies can’t risk bumping their heads before birth.” Meg said, nodding her head

Louise put her things away and just accepted Meg’s rejection. She picked up her bag before going.

“The hypnosis is supposed to lower your blood pressure.”

“That, I am fine with. I’ll enjoy teasing once I’m thin again.” Meg revealed

On Thanksgiving day, the Griffin and Swanson families were over at Meg and Kevin’s house. There was no turkey that year but there was steak, ham, stuffing, potatoes and cooked vegetables. Meg carefully ate her food to avoid burning her body. Joe looked around and saw Kevin dig into his steak.

“How did you cook it without burning yourself?” Joe asked

“I cooked it at different temperatures and in the end, there were no warnings from the smoke alarm.” Kevin said

Meg ate her potatoes and enjoyed them. She thought it was good for the baby to eat. Peter took a piece of carrot and dropped it to the floor where Spot ate it. Mammy was starting to growl at him.

“Uh oh, everyone please attempt to flee before things get ugly.” brian warned them

A dog fight took place and there was loud screaming. Then the dining room window was close to breaking.

That evening, Meg laid on the couch with Minnie by her feet, chewing on a toy and nearly biting Meg’s skin.

“Minnie, something is wrong with your sister.”

She wiped a tear away and folded her hands on her pregnant stomach. She looked up to the ceiling and felt a little nervous about Christmas coming up.

“She’s gotta learn to behave.”

In December, Meg had a red dress on and played Christmas songs on her violin. It entertained her whole family. She played like she was in a jazz band and imagined the sounds of drums, cellos and horns playing. She kept playing until her fingers were sweaty and she was tired out.

“This is not good. This is not good at all.”

“What?” Kevin asked

She put the violin away and stopped playing just to rest her fingers. She felt too tired and too weary to keep playing.

“If they are not born by the time the recital comes around, it’s going to be difficult.”

Kevin held her hand while Emmett wanted his mother. She didn’t even bother paying attention to him.

“Don’t play if you’re that tired. When I was a kid, I would type stories into my computer and there were times when my fingers wore themselves down.”

“Kevin!” Meg shouted

She nearly cried because she was annoyed with him, rambling on and on. She felt her head because she was tired.

“I understand it now.”

In the middle of December, Meg, Kevin, Peter and Lois were having dinner with Preston Lloyd and an elderly woman who looked like him. Lois had a pink dress on and Meg had green dress on, to fit in with the Christmas spirit.

“Mr Lloyd, I understand you wanted Meg to meet someone.” Kevin said

Peter looked at Meg and attempted to offer her new people to meet.

“Meg, you should know my boss Preston Lloyd and he says that this old bag is his mother.” he said

Lloyd’s mother looked at Meg and thought she was pretty but didn’t know why she was gaining weight.

“Mrs Lloyd, hi, Kevin and I are delighted to meet you and it’s a good thing we met around Christmas.”

“Meg, oh my, I heard you and Kevin have a baby on the way.” Mrs Lloyd said

Kevin attempted to explain how he and Meg already had sixteen children.

“Yeah, we have four children, they are wonderful and they are excited because Meg is having twins.”

Preston cleared his throat and tried to help his mother get her gift out.

“She also wants to present a gift to you. She likes giving away expensive things to new mothers.”

“I’ve been a mom. So pregnancy isn’t entirely new.” Meg said shyly

“Someday, when you are an old lady, you might do this, sweetie.” Lois said in a deep voice

Mrs Lloyd’s wheelchair was rolled over to Meg and she took it in her hands. She hoped it was not too valuable or too shiny.

“Do you know what Christmas is all about?” Mrs Lloyd asked

“Uh huh, every woman thinks they have it all figured out.” Meg said dreadfully

Meg took the gift and since her fingers were big, she could not open it on her own. Kevin stood up from his chair and attempted to open it.

“Here, allow me to help.”

He opened up a necklace with a Christmas tree figure and he gently put it around her neck. She was sure it was choking her because it was heavy now.

“Yeah, I envy rich old ladies for being able to give presents like that.” Peter said, looking at his daughter

Preston looked at Peter and nearly frowned.

“She only recently gained her wealth in her sister’s will. She will pass down whatever she likes.”

Meg nearly cried and looked at Mrs Lloyd. She was secretly rubbing her pregnant stomach.

“It’s very nice. I have gotten gifts like it but it’s wonderful.”

Kevin held her hand to make sure she would not cry.

“Some people don’t get it when young women start bawling out of nowhere.”

Lois and Peter looked at their daughter, her hand shook as she tried to thank Mrs Lloyd.

“You’re welcome, Widow.” Meg said shyly

Three days before Christmas, Meg was on her couch and Christmas music was going. She had a bra and underwear on as Louise listened for her heartbeat once more. She had Meg lower blood pressure as her pregnancy was progressing.

“You are doing great so far. You can’t hear the music, you can’t hear the bells and you can only hear the sound of the baby’s heartbeat.” Louise whispered

The instrumental version of Sleigh Ride was playing and Meg was half asleep and half awake. She didn’t even feel ticklish as she heard the heartbeats.

“Okay, I think we’re about done.” Louise announced

She picked up a new handheld bell and rang it which would snap Meg from her trance. She looked at her doctor with a relaxed look on her face.

“Tell me you have found four heartbeats.” Meg begged

“If I was an official doctor at the ultrasound, I would but I listened and your heartbeats are still doing great.” Louise told her

She turned off the Christmas music as to not startle her. Meg ignored this and put a robe on.

“That’s good. I’m positive it’s quadruplets again.” she said

“I am also positive, but you know something, you should take a bath once a week.” Louise advised

Meg thought Louise was trying to make fun of her for her smell.

“Wait, did I not smell good enough for the appointment?”

“No, no, I’m trying to say……” Louise said before clearing her throat

“You can take baths as long as the water is not too hot or too cold. You have to make it feel just right.” Louise told her

“Oh………” Meg said before stopping

She winked at her doctor because she gave her good advice.

“It might be better since the shower hardly has enough room upstairs.”

Meg guided Louise to the door and opened it. She had to use her foot to stop the cat from getting out.

“You have a good Christmas. And I hope all is well with your children.” Louise said with a smile

“Merry Christmas! And happy Holidays because there’s so many of them in December.” Meg called

She kindly closed the door to let Louise get back to work or go home. She sighed because the appointment was over.

“It’s over. No belly touching for Christmas. I wish to be thin and not pregnant for it.”

Kevin walked up to her, already in his green sweater and green sweatpants.

“Say, do you like what I’m wearing?” he asked

“Hey, my sweater and sweatpants are still upstairs. I haven’t changed into them!” Meg laughed

“Come on, I’ll help you put it on.” Kevin said

“You promise you won’t puke looking at me?” Meg asked, folding her arms

“No, I won’t. I have seen mom like this before.” he said

“Right, she was pregnant with Susie for a long ass time.” Meg remembered

“I was thinking of burning mom’s old pictures.” Kevin said, pointing to his temple

On Christmas morning, the Swanson family opened presents. The fourth set of quadruplets each got different colored teddy bears. Kevin placed each of the bears in the hands of each son. They were laying on their backs and he was ready to take a picture with a camera.

“Your grandparents are going to love this. It’s what every baby should receive around the holidays.”

He took one picture and it printed out. Meg guided Esther Eve to open up her gift and it was a tiny looking doll. The doll looked like it had real hair.

“Oh my gosh. Did you ask Santa for a doll this year?”

Kevin bent down to take a look and he was shocked a doll was given to his young girl.

“What brand is it?”

Meg looked at it and the doll could open its eyes before closing. She even found a brush that went with the doll’s hair.

“Wow, it must be a rare brand that went out of business years ago. Their sisters must have gotten the exact same ones.”

Moments later, Eve, Faith, Grace and Hope had the same types of dolls but with different clothes and different hair. Faith’s doll had brown hair with brown eyes and a yellow dress. Grace had a doll with auburn hair and green eyes with a green and white dress. Hope had a doll with short blonde hair, brown eyes, a red sweater and a dress. Kevin nodded her head in disbelief.

“If they don’t like it, I can hide these dolls away. Grandma must have lied, saying it was from Santa.”

Meg found her presents and they were lined up from small to biggest around the tree. She didn’t understand who could give her presents like these and why.

“I didn’t ask for much. All I asked was for baby clothes, blankets, gloves, hats, dresses, or shirts. Maybe they are all girls this time.”

She and Kevin opened up each present and each of them had church bells. Meg found the second smallest bell too heavy to move on her own. They didn’t even move them out of the boxes. The chains were attached to each little bell.

“Was this on your secret list of gifts you wanted?” he asked

Then, she started to have a meltdown and almost pulled her hair out. She tried to bend down, which was dangerous because she had a baby in the womb. Her own children were getting scared and nearly cried.

“No, no, I asked to stay away from bells this Christmas! Why? Why? Who sent me all of these bells?”

Kevin started to think and imagined hanging all of those bells up from smallest to largest. He saw feathers tied to each clapper and each of those feathers touching Meg’s stomach. He imagined the wild laughter from her being tickled. She held the sides of her stomach as the bells kept shaking above her.

“We don’t have to use all of them for teasing you. They could be dinner bells, or calling bells or maybe…….”

Meg looked up and imagined a bell on the ceiling. She saw it ring and it was dropping roses. Those roses disappeared out of her mind as soon as she knew what to do.

“We can’t move them right now. It will take more than 10 people to hang them up and get them back down.”

The Griffin family arrived, unaware of her situation. She opened the door and they had more presents for everyone.

“Hey, do you know where the children are? Chris said that all quadruplets should be spoiled with Christmas gifts.” Peter said

Chris saw his nephews running up to him and he had a present to give all of them.

“It’s going to be so cool once you open it up.”

Stewie ran around the living room and chased the dog before pulling her tail. He waited until she started licking his face.

“Other people’s pets are my third best friends.”

At Christmas dinner, Joe, Bonnie, Peter, Lois, Susie and the quadruplets were the only ones joining them for dinner. There was noise in the living room and Joe had an announcement to make.

“Tomorrow, Bonnie wants to go up to Cranston and see her parents like she does every year and she wants to taste that porridge that she made.”

“She also made ham on the fire and it’s completely burnt so she is sharing it instead of letting it go to waste." Bonnie replied

Peter and Lois were shocked by the news and hoped they were kidding and not serious.

“So, every year, you eat burnt ham for Christmas.” Peter said

“Wouldn’t she be against that, Bonnie?” Lois asked

“Yeah, but she doesn’t waste food, no matter how spoiled or rotten it is. She burns it more and more until she finds it hot enough to eat.” Joe replied

Kevin knew how his grandma cooked her food and felt a little ashamed talking about it.

‘Uh yeah, thanks for coming over, you guys.”

“Tell me by next year, you will celebrate your first Christmas with our newborn babies!” Meg pleaded

“What do you mean? Of course Lois and I will because we are your family!” Peter reminded her

“No, I mean Joe and Bonnie. Usually, they have Christmas with her parents every year and sometimes they choose them over our babies.” Meg pointed out

Lois looked at her and thought it wrong to judge Bonnie and her family.

“It’s always going to be their decision to celebrate Christmas with whoever.”

“Oh, we can always visit you on Christmas Eve and let Susie spend the night if you don’t want her near that clock or whatever. But that won’t be for a long time. She actually enjoys her time with her own grandma.” Bonnie said with a smile

Meg kept eating her dinner because she was pregnant again and wished they would come over when the new baby was born.

“Please, the first Christmas day with the baby would be something special and memorable.”

Joe and Bonnie looked at each other and then looked at their son.

“It will be a busy Christmas that year and her mother might not like it if we don;t come over.” Joe said

Kevin heard noise in the living room and checked on Stewie and Chris. There was a toy fire truck and a drone going nuts in the living room.

“Who is flying that in the house?”

Chris tried to stop the drone but it was out of control. It hit the ceiling fan and dropped on the floor.

“It must be an automatic one.”

Kevin saw the fire truck go by and Spot chased it.

“Grimey.” Stewie said

That evening, Meg took a bath in the master bathroom. She had to use warm water for the sake of the children’s health.

“Tickle free Christmas.”

Part 2 coming soon