Marry Me Mafia

The After Effect

It took another two hours for the house to finally settle back down. Nico came back to the girls' room after escorting Mrs. Brooks to the door. He looked tired, his hands had a tremble Renee hadn't noticed before. When he walked through the door, the sight that met him seemed like something out of a dream. Renee was on the floor, playing tea time with the girls. She was so gentle and kind to them. It was the picture of a perfect family. Nico felt a tightness in his chest. His thoughts went back to a conversation he had with his brother, John, when they had found out he and his wife were expecting. John was so excited and nervous the day he showed Nico the sonogram. It looked to Nico, like two little fuzzy beans in a photograph. "Nico," his brother laughed, "I'm going to be a dad, and you are going to be an uncle." He pointed out in the photo a spot Nico couldn't make out, but he nodded like he understood, "See Nico," he exclaimed, "that's a foot." Now he is standing there looking at those same little girls with Renee, and it was like all the excitement and nervousness he always saw in his brother and the joy he witnessed between John and his wife in the labor and delivery room was suddenly made crystal clear in those little girls' bedroom. It was a warm heavy feeling that stirred in his chest. The feeling that made him scared, proud, and strangely lost all at once.

Renee saw him when he came and stood in the doorway. He looked sad for a moment, then his eyes crinkled, and a small smile played at the corners of his beautiful mouth. She looked over at him, and motioned slightly with her head, as if to say 'come on'. Nico's smile widened, and he walked fully into the room. The girls saw him and immediately dropped their dolls and play tea, and ran to him grabbing his pant legs. "Uncle Nico!!! Did we do it? Did we win?" Nico's face looked confused for a second, not understanding what they were talking about. He looked to Renee with an eyebrow raised, "What did I miss?" Renee stifled a laugh, "These two," pointing at the girls, "need an Academy Award, two matching ponies, a pan of fudge brownies each, and probably more. They are truly diabolical." The twins were beaming and nodding along to it all. Renee then sat Nico on the edge of the bed, and explained how the girls had independently decided on a plan of action. They then manipulated the good doctor and Renee to their best advantage. How they cried on cue, and even used Hannah's bruised arm from a week ago to make DCFS think Dr. Skinner had caused all the damage. Nico's face went through a barrage of emotions all at once. He looked at his nieces like they had grown antlers, "HOW?" Ava looked up at her uncle proudly, "Antonio and the security crew let us watch a lot of Law & Order." Nico pinched the bridge of his nose for a second, "Well, OK." was all that he could get out. Renee couldn't hold it in anymore. She started laughing; a full bell laugh that she couldn't hold back anymore, then in a terrible moment when she had to take a breath or die, she SNORTED! Nico looked at her as if to say, "WTF was that?" She was now on the floor laughing. The girls joined in, and it became the girls tickling Renee, until she snorted again. Then it happened, a deep sound that seemed to bubble up from the ether. Nico was laughing and somehow crying at the same time. Those beautiful girls had pulled off something he couldn't have planned out in a week of payouts or bribes, and without even knowing, Renee had played into it as if she herself were the mastermind, and not two genius level 4-year olds. Nico knelt down, pulling the girls to him for a hug, "That was an incredibly brave and dangerous thing, girls. If that doctor had figured out what you two were doing, they could have gone really bed." Hannah hugged Nico, "That would never have happened. That lady doctor was super jealous of Aunt Renee." Ava chimed in, "Yeah, she kept making those weird faces whenever she looked at Aunt Renee. Like what Jeremy at our old daycare used to look like when someone had a toy he wanted badly." Nico looked at Renee, and back to Ava, "What kind of face?" Ava screwed her face up into something that looked like she had either smelled a bad fart, or anger was boiling behind her eyes, on a little girl, it was terrifying." Ava stopped making the face, and smiled brightly, "Like that." Renee stood up, and ruffled the child's hair, "Yeah that's unhinged." Nico couldn't argue, "Don't make that face again, it could stick like that." he remarked.

Nico took Renee by the arm and walked to the elevator. "Two little psychopaths..." he mumbled, but Renee just smiled, "but they are our little psychopaths." Something in Nico's heart stirred when she called Hannah and Ava "ours."