Midnight Sun Challenge Chapter 2.20

Sometime in the middle of the night, Maya had left her bed feeling the all familiar feeling of illness she had been battling for the past year.  Not wanting to disturb Ian, but not trusting her uneasy stomach, she quietly made her way to the basement couch to lie down in the cooler air.  'Not now,' she thought.  'I can't get sick again.  I have too many things to do.'

The last thing she wanted was her family to have to care for her again for another few months while she was barely able to eat, or care for anything in the home.  Sun had never seen her ill and she didn't want to give the young lady any other reasons for feeling any more unsettled about being in a new place with new people.  No matter how sick she felt, she was going to have to just "buck up" and do what needed to be done everyday.  Although if this illness was as bad as it had previously been, she didn't have any idea just how she would actually accomplish that.

All through the night, Maya dozed off and on and in between made trips to the washroom with a nauseous stomach that threatened revolt at anything that may still be left in it.  She managed to make it the whole night with only vomiting once, but the threats in between were severe as she dry heaved with no relief.  In the lower level of the boat she felt cooler than she had in her bedroom on the second floor, but it was clear to her that she was also slightly feverish.  Sleeping next to her husband, who she often referred to as her human furnace, had not helped the state of her head or stomach at all.  Lying on the couch with not even a blanket was comforting and calming.

She had no idea what time it actually was, when she finally awoke the last time and forced herself to sit up and assess her situation. Her head pain, had dulled to a light thud in the back of her head and her stomach felt unsure as to how it really felt.  She took some deep breaths to try and keep it calm.

Gingerly she walked to the washroom in hopes of relieving herself and not making her tummy any worse.  When she finished, she stood up to wash her hands and became dizzy to the point of almost fainting.  Holding her head with one hand and the wall with the other, Maya struggled to stay conscious.  Then slowly the dizziness began to fade and was replaced with another more pleasurable feeling.  A tingling sensation all over that started at her toes and rose all the way to her head; and then she knew.

In a state of shock, Maya walked the spiral stairs to the main floor in search of her husband but when she found him, he was deep in concentration over his latest book.  He was determined to make this new science fiction book a best seller.  She knew not to interrupt him once he was set in front of the computer, fingers typing away his thoughts and words.  She never wanted to be the cause of setting his productive train off course.

She decided that she would keep herself busy till she could get a moment alone with him and her first idea was to make good on her promise to decorate Sun's room.  Ian had taken up the kitchen table for some reason, so Maya and Sun sat in Ian's office to search the sites for furniture and decor.  

Sun was quite timid at first, but once Maya got her to fully understand that she need not be worried about cost or anything else, Sun began to have a lot of fun with it. Maya, who was still in shock about the morning revelation, couldn't do much more than spend a lot of time staring at Sun. Eventually she left Sun to shop on her own so she could take a bath.

A little while later she heard Ian excitedly calling her name, and she emerged from the bathroom to meet him. 

"Oh there you are.  I've been looking all over for you.  It'd done! It's finally done and my publisher thinks from what she has read so far, that it will definitely hit the best seller list!  Best news I could have gotten all day!"  Ian laughed.

"Oh.  Hmmm.  You may be wrong about that."

"Wrong?  What's better than finding out all your hard earned work will pay off?"


"Well," Maya began. "Ian I have something to tell you.










"Ian, you are going to be a father."  

"I don't understand. What do you mean I'm going to be a father? Wait, did you hear back from the test result already?"







"No Ian!  It has only been a few days, how could we know so fast?  No, listen Ian.  I'm pregnant!" Then Maya smiled.  Ian looked to Maya with a blank stare on his face until the news finally settled in. 

"You're pregnant?"  

"We're PREGNANT?!!"  Maya began to laugh in happy giddiness at Ian's reaction to the news!








"Ian, shhhh.  We don't want the kids to hear!"












"Are you kidding me?  Do you know how happy I am right now.  Come here!"

"Whoa!" Maya said as Ian pulled her into his arms.

"Best news I could have gotten all day!"

"Hmmmm," Maya said.  "You don't say!"

"Hello baby!  I'm your daddy!"

"I hear you baby."

"No Ian, don't be silly. That is my stomach grumbling because I haven't had breakfast yet!"

"Peek a boo baby!  We are going to be so happy to meet you!"

"Let's go tell Jin!"  Ian said.

*****************************************************************************************


Shooting hoops all night in the dark had really helped to work off all the anxiety I had been dealing with since the moment I came home with Sun.  By the time the morning light reached the mid morning sky, I felt like I was ready to head back to the boat and make amends with her.  It was our first fight, and not really that bad of one, if I said so myself.  Fine, so she did have a point, I do need to grow up a little, but hey I'm only 17 after all.  Plenty of time to start acting like a grown up when I actually AM a grown up.

I was just tossing in my last shot before heading for breakfast, when I saw my parents emerge from the boat and head in my direction.  Oh this can not be good.  My parents never, ever talked to me together.  It was like they had this agreement in who talked to me about what subject and they never strayed from that. But together?  That never happened.  Their faces appeared to be happy, so how much trouble could I actually be in?  

"Morning Jin," my father said.  "Your mother and I have something to tell you."

"Did you hear about the test?" I said a little too enthusiastically.

My mother rolled her eyes a little and gave my dad this strange look before saying "No Jin, it's only been a few days!  Six months. It clearly said six months before we would know."

"Oh," replied Jin.  "What's up?"  Or more like, what did I do now I thought.

"Jin we do have good news to tell you.  At least I hope you also think it's good news. Your father and I are going to have a baby."

"A baby?  At your age?" I asked.








My father gasped and said "Jin Charles Bell!  Apologize to your mother!  She is still plenty young enough to have a baby."




















"I'm sorry mom.  It just slipped out.  I guess I was just shocked. That's great mom!  Congrats.  When is the little tyke going to get here?" I asked, trying to sound more enthusiastic about it.

"Well I don't know for sure but 
I'm thinking 
in about 7 months from now.  
Are you happy Jin, really?"





"Of course mom.  Who wouldn't be excited about a baby!"  Boy I was going to get a gold star in heaven for that one!

"See Maya, everything is going to be just fine."  Then my father presented my mother with a bouquet of red flowers and they began making out.  Just like they always do.

I wandered away to give them privacy but to give myself some space as well.  A baby?  Are you kidding me!  Could my life get any more turned upside down than it had in the past few days??

Suddenly the idea of returning to the boat was not at all appealing, so I headed to the beach to eat my breakfast at the kitchen there.  I imagined the talk inside, would be all baby this and baby that and I felt I had used up my quota of fake happy for today.  I was sure that Sun would be happy for my parents.  Weren't all girls gaga over babies, no matter who they belonged to?  Come to think of it, I had no idea if Sun wanted children.  I just assumed that all girls did. But, did she?

Then that led me to asking myself all kinds of other questions. Like did she have a life goal?  My parents were very firm with me about contributing to the household.  I wonder if she knew that?  If she had stayed in France, I'm sure she would have pursued a career in dance.  She was also a very accomplished photographer.  But taking pictures would get old really quick in a small place like this.

The more I thought about things, the more uncomfortable I was feeling about the situation.  With Sun threatening to leave and now my mom pregnant, I thought it would be best to remove myself from the situation.  That way, Sun could settle in and get to know my parents more, which I was sure would be easy now with a baby to plan for.  Distance between Sun and I would effectively avoid any more misunderstandings as well. All it took was for me to think about her and my heart beat faster while my skin tingled from my head to my toes.  There was definitely a lot more of that "tingling" going on in the boxer area since I met Sun, something I had never felt before to any real degree.  I didn't know if it was Sun exclusively or perhaps an age thing that had brought on the change, but I had to say that I definitely liked it, and wished I could have more; much more!  Now I knew why my parents spent the days in each other's arms and often disappeared to be together in private. Yes I was thinking I was definitely needing some private time of my own for a little while, just until things cooled down.

I pulled the tent from storage and set it up on the second floor of the barn where I would stay fairly warm.  The nights still dipped down to winter temps, but I didn't care if I had to sleep in my winter clothes.  With the outdoor kitchen, washroom and a place to sleep I had everything I needed. 

I thought now would be a good time to get working on writing my first book, while I had nothing to distract me but the waves washing up on the beach.  This would be good, good all around for everyone.

***************************************************************************************

Jin had been missing from the family for almost a week when Maya expressed her concern to Ian.  

"Its not right Ian, this hiding thing he is doing. He should be here dealing with things not keeping to himself out there in the cold."

"Leave him be Maya.  I think for once he is truly trying to do the grown up thing.  Yes, I know this must be difficult for him but he is trying Maya and I think we should just let him do it his way.  He will come back in when he is ready.  Its not like we don't know where he is."

"I guess.  But maybe you could just go and talk to him. Make sure he is all right."

"No I'm not going to do that and you aren't either.  Leave him be Maya. He is not your little boy anymore.  He needs to finish growing to a man on his terms and in his own way."

"But what about Sun?  How do you think she feels about being ignored by the person who asked her to marry him?  Its not right Ian, just not right."

Ian didn't want to fight with his wife, especially in her delicate condition so he did what he always did to take her mind off things. He spun her into a dip kiss then started talking to her about the baby.  What they both didn't know, was that Sun had been listening to their conversation from the other room.

Truth was that Sun's feelings had been slightly hurt by Jin's disappearing act, but she hadn't fully considered what Jin was really doing.  He was trying to make things easier on her so she was going to do the same.  He couldn't stay out there for the next six months till the test results came in.  She needed to find a way to settle in to the island and start living her life here without him, for it very well could be that they would never be together romantically again, once that result came in.  Ian had called his good friend Geoffrey Landgraab in Sunset Valley to be in charge of getting the test results to them as quickly as he could.  But no amount of money could change the scientific process, and the time frame they were given was the best Geoffrey could do, even after putting a rush on it.

She had been greatly missing her dancing and she discovered that there was already a dance bar and mirrors installed in the basement. She dug through her suitcase till she found her ballet work out clothes, the ones she had thrown in after much debate with herself about why she was packing them.  She was very glad now she had. After doing many stretches, more than she normally did, she  stood up next to the barre and begin going through the practice moves. Sun felt stiff and very much out of shape, even though she was only away from dancing for about one month.  By the time she was done her toes were bleeding and the bottoms of her feet were on fire.  


This became her new routine everyday.  After waking early, she would take care of the chickens and spend a little time tending to the garden. 

After that, she would head down to the basement level to spend the next five to six hours working on her routines.  There was nothing like the feeling of flying through the air as she leapt across the floor.



















She could only get in three strides before she ran out of room, but she made due with what little space she had.
















About a week after their discussion about Jin, he came back home to stay.  He didn't talk much to Sun, but just the fact that he was staying in the boat gave everyone relief.  Jin started coming down every morning to work out on the equipment while she did her stretches.  







They didn't talk but that 
suited her fine because 
once she started working out she just zoned out, focusing on her muscles and her breathing as she had been taught. 

The more stretches she did the louder Jin banged the weights, till eventually he would storm out of the room, almost slamming the door behind him. 

It took her a bit to understand what was going on, but once she did, she wasn't sure how to handle the situation. She decided to go to Ian and ask him if he could remove the ping pong table, under the idea that she needed more room for her routine.  He gladly agreed and moved it to the other empty room in the basement.  Then she asked him to also move the equipment to another room, but he told her there was no where else to put it.  She then suggested the equipment could go where the ping pong table had been, and while he moved it, she made sure he turned the equipment facing away from the mirrors.  This way, she was hoping that Jin could still use the equipment, but focus on his work out instead of other things!   If Ian understood what was going on with all the changes, he never said a word to her.  He did however declare that the room was as big as a stage, after it was all done and sorted.

After that, Sun wasn't sure how to be around Jin and avoided him as much as possible, but Jin wasn't making it easy.  Once Jin figured out the equipment had been moved, he started coming down to practice routines at the barre with her. 

He was a really good dancer, although no where near the level she was.  He had been away from it for too long and was much too stiff in the beginning.  

Sun no longer felt comfortable wearing her traditional workout clothes and switched to her martial arts uniform.  It weighed her down a bit, but at least she felt more comfortable around Jin.  They spent many days dancing to the music, mostly in silence yet a good silence and even though they barely spoke things began to feel more normal for them as before.  

Sun became frustrated trying to practice in her baggy clothes and ultimately had to switch back to her ballet clothes.  It was then Jin decided he was going to coach her, however his version of coaching was like nothing she had seen in a ballet studio before.

  

(little writer side note-this was completely autonomous. I was busy watching Ian and Maya when I heard this yelling and couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  It was funny to watch)

Finally and after she was utterly annoyed, she turned to Jin and said "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean what am I doing?  I'm cheering you on!"

"First of all, I don't need a cheering coach and secondly that is not what I meant.  What is going on with you Jin?  You have been acting extremely weird since you returned to the boat."

"No I haven't!" he replied.  "Weird how?"

"Jin, I'm not an idiot you know.  I know what is going on with you, what you are thinking and that, it just can't happen Jin.  Not yet anyway."

Jin threw up his hands is defense.  "Sun I have no idea what you are talking about.  I'm just trying to find a way to be your friend."

"Then BE my friend and stop trying so hard.  You are starting to really creep me out and that is not a good feeling considering I am maybe engaged to you."

"Oh NO!  None of that talk.  We ARE engaged until that piece of paper tells us otherwise and that is how I choose to look at it.  I mean, don't you ever think of me in that way?  The way I think about you?"

Sun sighed and shook her head.  "Please Jin, this isn't right.  We shouldn't be talking this way, not until things are settled."

"Oh c'mon, be honest.  No harm can come from that."

"Fine!  Of course I think of you that way.  I would be crazy not too, but I am choosing not to for fear of what that test will tell us.  Don't you get it Jin?  I don't need this from you.  I need a friend.  Can't we just try to be friends and leave it at that for now?"

"We are friends," said Jin.

"Good! Then show me what that means to you."

CC Used In This Chapter

Poses

IMHO
badboy
8 Poses Sorry
http://sims3imho.blogspot.ca

Prima 24 Ballet Poses by Spladoum
http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=541099


Other CC

Fireplace Rug by PralineSims


Maya's Hairs

Long and sides pulled back-NewSea Sunset
http://simmingitout.blogspot.ca/2013/07/newsea-j150-sunset-glow.html

Long with braids-NewSea hair-TBA later

Jin's Hair-Joey by Cazy at TSR
http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/Cazy/downloads/browse/category/sims3/search/joey

Ian's hair by Cazy (Nicholas)
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-hair-hairstyles-male/title/nicholas-hairstyle--adult/id/1231401

Sun's Hairs

Ballet-SkySims 036
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-hair/title/skysims-hair-036/id/1160488

Later Ballet-SkySims 224
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-hair/title/skysims-hair-224-set/id/1247662

Long, pulled back-Anto (Blohm)
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-hair-hairstyles-female/title/anto--blohm-%28hair%29/id/1284027

Long with Bangs-Anto Alesso (Wings)
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-hair-hairstyles-female/title/alesso--wings-hair/id/1240830