Chapter 12: Oh Baby, Baby, Baby!

Tanya was starting to believe that Brent would grow up to become an astronaut.  Shortly after his birthday, she bought him a toy chest full of costumes.  The only one he ever seemed to put on was the space suit.  He adored that costume and wore it often.  Brent would wear that thing all day long.  He was adorable in it and it melted Tanya's heart to watch him do the "moon walk".

Brent would constantly batter Anderson with questions about science and space.  He would even go so far as to plot out star charts on his easel instead of painting regular pictures.  Anderson had a good nature about it though, and would indulge Brent with whatever tidbit of cosmic information he had.  Tanya was glad to see they were still close.  She was afraid that as Anderson grew closer to becoming a young adult, that the two would drift apart.

Tanya started to wonder if Brent had got his imagination from her.  Not long after she began showing, strange things started happening around the house.  Furniture would move on its own, there would be just a hint of a smoke smell in the house, and electronics would turn on by themselves.  Then one night she saw him.  Grady was there in the living room.  She rushed over to tell him about the baby.  He was so excited to hear the news!

Tanya would stay up all night for weeks talking with Grady.  It was her secret.  She was afraid if she told anyone they would think she was insane...or worse, Grady would disappear and never return.  The two had a fantastic time together.  They spent hours talking about the baby's future, dancing together, or just goofing around.  Grady's favorite time was when Tanya would tell him ghost stories!

As the days passed, Grady seemed to pop up less and less.  At first Tanya was angry that he didn't seem to need to come to her in the night as often, but after some time she thought that maybe that was just his way of letting her go, helping her get on with her life.  She just wished that the kids had had that chance as well.  She worried about how they were dealing with the loss.  She did her best to explain things, especially to Brent.

Just after one such conversation with Brent, she felt the familiar pains of labor.  Finally Grady would get to meet the child he left behind for her.  Tanya had Anderson watch the two younger boys while she headed to the hospital.  She was so excited to meet this baby and was so glad the time had finally arrived.

Little did she know as she arrived at the hospital that fate had planned a huge surprise for her.  She definitely got her wish of a baby girl.  Three times over!  Ansley was born first, then twenty three minutes later came Briannah.  Last but not least, Callie was born sixteen minutes after Bri.  Tanya was ecstatic, but knew that for a while she would definitely have her hands full.  She now had six children to care for!

After she got home with the triplets, Tanya waited in the nursery for Grady to show up.  She waited for several nights but he never came.  How could he not want to meet his daughters?  Tanya was so confused.
Then one night as she was getting a bottle from the fridge, she stared deep into Ansley's eyes.  It hit her all at once.  The girls were not Grady's.  They couldn't be.  There was something off about the eyes.  They were neither hers or Grady's.  The eyes had this crystal like glow to them that just didn't fit.  But then, who was the father?  And why couldn't she remember?!?