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The loud sound of something crashing to the floor sends a roar through the house. Rebecca is slow to react murmuring something incoherent underneath her breath, Tara reacts scarily differently. She shoots up from the dead of her sleep gasping at the feeling of two dozen bricks slamming onto her chest. Her eyes scanned the room twitching back and forth it takes her reaching out for Rebecca to bring her into reality. At the sight of Rebecca’s confused sleepy expression Tara’s breathing slowed to an appropriate level realizing her chest was free from any bricks.
“Hey, hey breathe baby.” Rebecca pushes herself to sit up leaning against the bed frame. Knowing the routine all too well one of her hands reaches around to soothingly rub Tara’s back. Her free hand finds Tara’s hand. She squeezes once, then twice and again until Tara nods showing she was listening. She does not even have to ask she already knows exactly what the nightmare was about. Over the years Tara’s nightmares about the shooting have grown less and less. It was extremely rare for her to wake up, sweating, panting and desperately looking for Rebecca, but on those rare nights when it does happen Rebecca is always ready. Except this night was different, Rebecca heard the bang as well. When she realized that fact herself her hand froze on Tara’s back. “I heard the bang too.” Rebecca slowly pulled her hand from Tara’s back her eyes shifted to the door.
“Stay here.” Tara instructed she did not allow Rebecca to even attempt to argue. She slid off the bed pushing any feelings of anxiety down focusing on the only thing that mattered. Protecting her family from the perceived threat. Accessing her gun from the safe in the closet she holds herself steady to focus on finding the intruder. Rebecca, never being one to listen follows after her only stopping to check on their kids.
Tara flicks the kitchen light on her fingers grip her gun but once the light fills the kitchen she’s quick to carefully place it on the counter. Relief pours over her like ice cold water on a hot summer day. “You know you two really scared mommy and me!” She shook her head stepping further into the kitchen to assess the situation. The twins jumped at the sound of her voice having the survival instincts of baby birds neither of them heard the sounds of footsteps. Tara’s eyebrows furrow at the sight of her daughter trying but failing to hide a huge bowl and her son scrambling to stand up but slipping in spilled milk.
“Tara they’re gon-” Rebecca stops herself mid panic her anxiety is quickly replaced with confusion. Anthony was soaked in milk, Cara was accidentally spilling something from a bowl behind her back. The kitchen was a mess a carton of eggs sat on the floor surprisingly only a few of them were broken, five different cereal boxes were knocked on the floor and all their milk was actively spilling out its container. “You know you can wake us up if you’re hungry.” She exhales a huff of air moving to help Anthony free himself from the milk.
“No go to bed we’re making a surprise!” Care whines her foot unnecessarily stomping on the ground as she demands the two to turn back around.
“Is the surprise destroying the kitchen?” Tara quips grabbing her gun she goes to put it away. Leaving Rebecca to further address the situation herself for the eight seconds she is away.
“No we’re making breakfast!” Anthony taking Tara’s words nothing less than fully serious laughs at the silliness of the question. Cara forgetting she is even holding anything lets go of the bowl behind her back freeing her arms to cross them over her body.
“You ruined it!” She cries, legitimately cries all the emotions in her tired tiny body too much to probably address so tears prickle in the corner of her eyes. Her nose wiggles with a sniff and her lips tremble, ready to burst into sobs she is only stopped by the sound of her mommy’s voice.
“Hey, hey breathe cece, breathe.” Rebecca repeats what she told Tara only moments ago. She takes a deep breath holding it for a second or two before exhaling, she does it again encouraging Cara to do the same.
Appearing beside Rebecca, Tara nods following Rebecca’s lead she takes a deep breath holding in she exhales when Rebecca exhales. The two keep taking deep breaths until Cara follows along. “What exactly did you guys make?” Tara questions already missing her perfectly clean kitchen.
“Cereal cake!” With equal excitement the twins shout at the same time. Their eyes glowing with pride. They both have spent so much time in the kitchen with their mama they knew how to make a handful of things. Clearly they thought that meant they were ready to tackle new creations.
“Cereal cake?” Rebecca repeats back, the ingredients all over the floor suddenly making more sense now. She forces herself not to gag when Cara steps out the way to reveal the sight of yolk sitting in a bowl of milk and soggy cereal. She nods forcing a calm expression on her face she tries to find the words to speak, not wanting to sound harsh but not fully being able to hide her disgust she just shuts her mouth. Quietly she is more than grateful when Tara speaks up.
“Uh that’s wow that’s creatively unique and very thoughtful.” Tara forces her best smile and grabs the half split bowl placing it out of Rebecca’s sight, who looked like she was nearly seconds from throwing up. “But you two aren’t even allowed to use the oven by yourselves, how were you going to make a cake?” She interrogates but regrets her question the second she hears their answer.
“With the microwave!” Anthony points to opened microwave, the two had to use a chair to even reach it.
“Oh my god.” Rebecca’s hand flies over her mouth. She’s imagining the terrible smell that would have haunted their microwave for the rest of time if the twins had not been caught.
“A microwave doesn’t get hot enough to cook a cake.” Tara finding the situation more hilarious than disgusting unlike Rebecca just laughs the mistake off. “You would’ve poisoned us.” She adds, already she’s moving to put the chair back in its rightful place. The twins watch her with the saddest pouts in on their faces. Their Mother’s Day gift was ruined and they had no backup plans. “How about instead of killing us all you just help me cook breakfast?” Tara suggests saving the day like always.
“Half our kitchen is on the floor.” Rebecca points out she’s not all that sure they will actually have anything to cook for breakfast.
“You two wanna go to the store?” Already knowing the answer because for some reason kids love going places, Tara asks in a dramatic high pitched voice getting the twins way too excited way too early in the morning. The twins nod the idea of going somewhere this early was somehow the most exciting thing in the world to them. “Well first we have to clean up.” Pointing to the paper towels on the kitchen counter she ignores the whiny protest from the twins.
Luckily it only took them around half an hour to fully clean the kitchen and take a trip to the store. With the help of their mothers the twins were able to make an actually good breakfast and they were incredibly proud of themselves. After helping their moms clean off the table they ran off to their rooms deciding they just could not wait another second to show of the cards they made the other day. “In a couple of years we’ll have two world famous chefs.” Tara jokes sitting right next to Rebecca on the couch so she can cuddle up with her.
“World famous chefs? You think the world is ready for soggy microwave made cake?” Rebecca wraps her arm around Tara, she could suddenly taste soggy hot cereal mixed with eggs on her tongue forcing her to gag. “Oh god I can taste it.” She shivers hating eggs makes the thought the twins cake even more disgusting.
Tara stifles back a laugh she could see the visible disgust in Rebecca’s eyes. “Here I’ll help get it off.” She swiftly cradles Rebecca’s face pulling her into a kiss. Pulling away after a few seconds she keeps hold of Rebecca.
“Did it work?” She questions.
“Nope.” Rebecca hums with a shake of her head this time she pulls Tara into a kiss. Each time Tara tries to pull away asking if the taste was gone Rebecca tells her no and pulls her right back in. The two do this until the sound of little footsteps running into the living room forces them apart. They help the twins climb up on the couch and are both handed one card from each twin. Although neither of them would truly call them cards, they were pictures drew on lined paper but that would not stop either of them from cherishing the drawings like they were priceless pieces of art.