Tammilehto 4.1

TAMMILEHTO LEGACY CHAPTER 4.1

Welcome back to Tammilehto legacy! I decided to change the stories to LiveJournal as slideshow, it gives me much more freedom than the exchange does; I can end the chapter on my own terms instead of the limits of exchange, I can put more than one picture on one slide, I don’t need placeholders etc. etc.

I won’t make any recap now since the last update was a recap itself but just as a reminder the last chapter ended with Titta’s and Tuisku’s wedding catastrophe and Tuisku had to go to sleep in his old childhood bed. And that’s where the story continues. Enjoy!

Tuisku had thought that he wouldn’t sleep at all, but he must have fallen asleep at some point because he woke up. After wondering a short moment what had woken him up his brain registered the sobs close by.

”Titta, what the…”, he started but didn’t know how to continue, the reason he was sleeping in his old bed was after all the fact that she had told him so.

”I… I have said horrible things… I…”, and the rest of her words were covered with new wave of sobs.

”Do you know what the time is?” Tuisku finally managed to ask just to say something.

”I don’t know… I haven’t been sleeping at all. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”, and the sobbing only continued, ”I don’t know what made me to say any of those, I didn’t… I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t.”

With those words Tuisku got up and was standing right behind Titta.

”You mean that you don’t hate me and the whole family after all?”, he asked quite coolly but couldn’t help being distracted by the smell of her hair.

Titta wiped her eyes, ”no, I don’t hate, but she was my best friend and I didn’t think what I said. I’m sorry”, she said again, trying hard not to cry, ”you must hate me right now.”

”I don’t hate you”, he simply said.

”You… you don’t?”, she asked, ”but everything I said last night…”

Tuisku put his arms on her shoulders and turned her around.

” You were shocked, she was your best friend and you are scared, it is all just understandable. I’m scared too but there is nothing I can do for it right now.”

Titta put her arm slowly on Tuisku’s waist, ”you are saying that you don’t hold it against me?”

This time Tuisku managed to smile, ”no I don’t but I thought you would hold it against me, you know, the whole family history.”

Titta smiled now too and reached her another arm on Tuisku’s waist too.

With that Tuisku pulled her closer to a tight hug thinking that this night wasn’t probably as bad as it had looked like.

”In that case… I want to marry you”, Titta whispered.

”Ok, I will talk to my parents on the morning and we can arrange a new party as soon as possible.”

”No, I don’t want another party, I just… I just want to marry you.”

”So no white dress, beautiful flower arch, cake?”

”I was lying awake tonight and I realised that those things don’t matter. Only thing that matters is you, me, us and that I love you.”

”I don’t know what to say…”, Tuisku only managed to say, ”except that I love you too.”

”Can we get married now?”

”Right now, in our pyjamas?” Tuisku asked, surprised and when Titta nodded he decided that the place and time was as good as any.

There's a calm surrender to the rush of dayWhen the heat of the rolling world can be turned awayAn enchanted moment, and it sees me throughIt's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you

And can you feel the love tonightIt is where we areIt's enough for this wide-eyed wandererThat we got this farAnd can you feel the love tonightHow it's laid to restIt's enough to make kings and vagabondsBelieve the very best

There's a time for everyone if they only learnThat the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turnThere's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoorsWhen the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

~Can you feel the love tonight – Elton John~

”It hasn’t exactly been a wedding night I expected it to be”, Tuisku started but was interrupted by Titta.

”I know it is my fault…”, but this time Tuisku interrupted her.

”Don’t start that, it isn’t your fault, it is no one’s fault. I was just going to say that even it wasn’t as expected it just turned out to be almost perfect.”

”What do you mean almost perfect?”, Titta asked slightly disturbed.

”Well…”, Tuisku blushed, ”I was thinking that there is still some couple hours of night left, what would you say if we moved to the next door bedroom and…”, Tuisku was happy he didn’t have to finish as at that moment Titta kissed her and they indeed moved to the next door bedroom where they found comfortable twin bed.

As any newlyweds, they didn’t use those couple hours for sleeping and only fall asleep next to each other when the sun was rising.

Which was about the same time as Gunnel and Pyry got up. When Pyry came downstairs he noticed that Tuisku’s old bed was empty and the door to the another bedroom was closed and smiling he turned to his wife brushing gently her cheek.

”See, I told you they would sort it out, there was no need to worry.”

Gunnel touched his hand, ”I’m happy about that, they clearly care about each other, would have been a real pity if they hadn’t worked it out. Besides, I don’t remember being the only one worried, at least I wasn’t walking nervously around the upstairs hall last night.”

Of course the another household where Maya’s fate was taken the hardest was the combined Tammilehto-Puljula household. The morning after the wedding Inka didn’t know what to do, she had slept barely at all and then her grandchild was supposed to come any moment. She found herself walking aimlessly around the house, occasionally cleaning a plate or emptying the trash can.

Touko and Meri didn’t take it much better, Meri tried to read, Touko didn’t even bother to look like doing something. Both were just waiting nervously for news, any news at all.

Then the time finally came when the social worker came with the baby and a piece of news.

As Johannes took the baby, the social worker told the family that Maya had died an accidental death and the police didn’t believe there was anything suspicious about it. She had simply been too tired after giving the birth and set the stove in fire.

”Sad fate…” she finished, ”but we are glad that this baby at least has a family where she could come. I’m sorry to say that she came to us with nothing with her except this photo, it looks like the woman is her mother”, she said as she handed a photo frame to Meri. Meri felt her eyes getting wet, it indeed was a picture of Maya with some guy who had to be Kalle.

”Thank you”, she managed to say.

”I need to go now, I take it that you will be fine?”, she glanced around seeing that there were four adults present and thought that she had seen worse places than this, much worse.

”I think we are fine”, Johannes said, it seemed that he was the only who could talk, ”thank you again.”

The social worker had also told the family that Maya had given the baby a name already, her wish had been to call her Mari.

”She combined our names”, Meri said with a sad sigh, ”I just wish I would some day know why and how all this happened and why she didn’t come to us instead.”

Johannes sighed too, ”as much as I would like to promise you anything, that I can’t promise.”

”If you are trying to be funny, it isn’t working.”

”Right, sorry. Do you want to take her?”

For the first time Meri smiled, ”very much.”

At the Kurvi household Lumi had just received phone call from Meri.

”Set the stove fire? Dear god”, she only said after hearing the news.

”…”

”Of course I will check and double check it at work and I will also talk to Sade, she has her own sources too”, Lumi told Meri, ”I don’t believe for a minute that it was an accident. On top of all, it has turned out that Kalle is missing, sounds fishy enough.”

”…”

”Yeah, I can pass on the news, actually Tuisku is coming to visit tonight, I can tell him as well, I bet he likes to know as well, but I need to go now, working time.”

After she had returned from work Tuisku stopped by and they agreed to have a chess match.

”So it really was an accident then?”, Tuisku still had to ask even Lumi had just explained everything.

”It looks so, I didn’t believe it at first but everything I found out from the scene supports that theory and your sister seems to agree with me.”

”You actually… went there?”

”Of course I went there, how would I have not gone?”

Tuisku sighed, ”I sometimes wonder what it is with the women of this family…”

”What do you mean?” Lumi asked.

Tuisku took a moment to answer, ”it just looks to me that you all try to do more than you would need to, my sister, you and… well, Maya too.”

”You call it more than I need to do that I try to find out as much as possible about what happened to my cousin when I’m the one who can?”

”I didn’t mean it that way… I just meant that wouldn’t it have been enough if you had seen the evidence, why did you have to go there?”

”I just had to”, Lumi said, ”she was my cousin and best friend and I feel already quilty enough for her fate.”

”But it wasn’t your fault”, Tuisku tried.

”It was… if I hadn’t given her Kalle’s name, she would never have met him, would have never got pregnant, at least not for him, and would have never died in a fire.”

”I think”, Tuisku said slowly, ”that anyone of us can blame him- or herself just as much as you can but it doesn’t help anything, it most certainly won’t bring her back. It is better if we all try not to dwell on misery and try to continue the life as normally as we can. After all, you know it as much as I do that Maya more or less sealed her own fate long time ago.”

Lumi took a good look a Tuisku, ”you know, when your parents made you the heir, they made one of their best decisions.”

Tuisku only glanced at her and quickly back to the chess board, he wasn’t used to get compliments like that. Lumi looked at him a while and then continued on safer topic.

”I heard that you and Titta got married after all.”

That made Tuisku smile, ”we did, in our pyjamas”, he grinned, ”and she is expecting a baby now.”

After that they happily chatted about kids until it was time for Tuisku to go home.

”I’m glad you came, say hi from me to everyone at home – and give a poke to my brother.”

Tuisku laughed, ”I can say hi but you can poke him yourself.”

In middle of this all Aleksi was oblivious to any threaths that his family possibly had. His biggest worry was the bunny rabbit who refused to break no matter how hard he tried to bang it to the floor. His destructive side seemed to take hold of him also when building with the wooden blocks, it seemed that the funniest thing for him was when he got to break everything he had just built.

But apart from toys his favourite hobby was to go splashing in a puddle if there was one somewhere nearby.

”That picture was all that came with Mari”, Meri said to Lumi who had come to see Mari, ”do you know the guy?”

Lumi crinched her teeth, ”I know him alright, he is the one Maya was seeing, the guy from the law firm, Kalle Makkonen and based on the colour of Mari’s eyes, also father of this baby.”

”I thought as much. Where is he now?”

Lumi sighed, ”I wish we would know but there is no single thread to his whereabouts, but in any case it looks like we aren’t in immediate threat, at least not more than we have been this far.”

”At least some good news, one of the first for a long time.”

”I know, but we still have to stay on look out, don’t count on anything.”

”We have to make some rearrangements here, there is no point that both of us get up in middle of the night when Mari needs something”, Johannes said with stifled yawn when they both had woken up for Mari’s cry.

”I will talk to mum and Touko on the morning, we only have three bedrooms so we might need to do some rebuilding too.”

”How about if we would try to get her a sister or brother?” Meri asked as Mari was tapping her cheeks with her small hands.

Johannes yawned, ”you know I don’t have anything against that but can we talk about it on the morning?”

”Sure, you go back to bed, I will go and feed her.”

Back at Kurvi household Touko had come over for a surprise visit claiming that he had something to show for Lumi.

”I heard something from my colleagues about this place and it makes me wonder if he had gone there”, Touko told Lumi while opening a web site.

Lumi came closer supporting Aleksi against her hip, it was clear who ’he’ was, who else than one certain missing lawyer.

”Where did you hear about this place?”

”My colleagues, there are people who have travelled all over the world and seen much more than our whole family put together. Here come and have a look, I can take Aleksi.”

”Wheeeeeeeee”, Aleksi was screaming in delight.

”You like this don’t you?” Touko laughed.

”Flyyyyyyyyy!”

”Yes indeed you do, like a little aeroplane.”

”Me a’woplane?” Aleksi asked when Touko was putting him in the crib.

”Now you will be sleeping aeroplane, your mum tells me that you are so tired that you will fall asleep in the air if we continue playing.”

It turned out to be true, as soon as Touko had turned his back Aleksi was fast asleep and Touko went to have a chat with Lumi about Kalle’s whereabouts.

Lumi and Touko had had a long conversation but even then she wasn’t reassured, the place Touko was talking about wasn’t only far away, it was a place that she thought wouldn’t attract men like Kalle who had got used to live with all possible luxuries. As much as she was curious about it, there wer other matters on hand. Aleksi was about to have a birthday soon and Lumi and Amatius realised their apartment was simply going to be too small and decided, finally, to buy a house.

”What do you think?” Amatius asked nervously.

”I think the neighbourhood looks nice and safe and the house itself is ok too, quite big yard also for Aleksi to play. Can we fence it?”

”Sure, I was thinking that myself.”

As soon as they had settled down, Amatius had called the contractors and by Aleksi’s birthday they had new fence.

Lumi had wanted Aleksi to meet more of the family than last time now that they had the space for it and now that he would also be old enough to actually talk to them. The party started as the parties usually in this family started, with Gunnel’s and Pyry’s pillow fight.

”Time to wish something Aleksi”, Amatius said while helping Aleksi to blow the candles.

”I want to be a’woplane!”

Not an aeroplane, but,

”A knight! I will be a knight and rescue everyone! I just have to ask my parents for a real sword instead of just one in the shirt. And new shirt too, this is lame”, he decided and headed to the cake.

”You already ate your cake?” Tuisku asked Aleksi while sitting down.

”Mum only gave me small piece”, he said grudgingly and then looked at Tuisku curiously, ”you my uncle or something?”

”No, I’m your cousin.”

”My cousin, but you are all grown up.”

”You should say that my parents, I think they would disagree with that matter.”

”Eeeow, you just burbed”, Aleksi pointed out, ”and you took my place.”

”Right, sorry kid”, Sade smiled at him.

”I’m not a kid, I’m a knight”, he said seriously, ”who are you?”

”I’m Sade, your cousin.”

”You too are my cousin? Shouldn’t cousins be like my age?”

”I think usually they are but your mother is much younger than my dad is.”

Aleksi continued his round with the visitors and found an empty seat next to Touko.

”Who are you?”, he started again, ”you can’t be my cousin, can you?”

Touko laughed, ”no, I’m your uncle.”

”Oh, you are old.”

”Thanks very much.”

”Why is everyone wearing outdoor clothes?”, Aleksi continued.

”I guess we are just too lazy to take them of and it really is cold outside. How are you warm enough in just a t-shirt anyway?”

”Why wouldn’t I?”

”Indeed, why wouldn’t you”, Touko said and thought that this kid would probably make their life interesting, not that it wasn’t it already.

”And you are?”, Aleksi asked Gunnel bluntly once Touko had gotten up and Gunnel had sat next to him.

”I’m your uncle’s wife, not Touko’s though”, she added as she had seen these two talking.

Aleksi thought for a moment, ”so the man you hit with the pillow is your husband?”

”That’s him.”

”Why did you hit him with a pillow? Aren’t you too old to play?”

Gunnel laughed, ”I hope we never get too old to play.”

”Still nothing about Kalle”, Sade told Lumi, ”not even slightest sign. I can’t understand how he can disappear just like that. I went to search his apartment with my colleagues and we haven’t found anything this far.”

Lumi grinned, ”don’t say that to your brother though.”

”Why not?”

”Oh, he seems to think that the women in our family are a bit crazy that way.”

Sade laughed, ”are you telling me he is wrong?”

”Wouldn’t come to my mind” and they both burst laughing.

And back to the main household where the time had come for Titta to give birth for their first baby.

”Owwwww”, she screamed, ”where is everyone?”, there was no one in the living room when she had went into labour.

However, that was soon to be changed.

”I didn’t realise it looks that bad when watching”, Gunnel admitted.

”You aren’t very much helping mum”, said Tuisku who was simply standing still arms crossed hardly daring to breath.

He finally took a breath when Titta handed her a beautiful baby girl,

”I’m dad, I really am a dad, a beautiful little princess’s dad”, he smiled fondly at the baby.

”You weren’t hoping for a boy?”

”It doesn’t really matter, I guess it would be cool to have a son though but I think that this one just wrapped me around her small finger.”

”Then let’s hope the other isn’t a girl because then you will be in trouble.”

”We will see when the time comes”, Tuisku said absentmindedly while just staring at the baby.

”Well, the time is now…”

”Time is… you mean?”

Indeed, the time was then as Titta gave birth also to another baby, this one girl too, both babies had green eyes and blond hair.

”We are grandparents now, feels weird huh?”, Pyry said to Gunnel as Titta and Pyry were taking care of their babies.

Gunnel smiled happily, ”isn’t it great?”

Pyry grinned, ”very much so. I would like to retire soon to be able to be home more with them but Amatius isn’t yet close enough to take my place so I don’t want to do it yet.”

Gunnel tilted her head, ”am I actually talking to Pyry Tammilehto, the guy who woohooed 20 girls at the college?”

”Shush, not in front of my kids – or grandkids”, but grinned widely all the same and changed topic looking at Titta, ”you have picked names already?”

”We had two options for a girl but since there is two now we are going to use both of them, Pilvi and Tuuli.

- - -

pilvi = cloud, tuuli = wind

Titta and Tuisku were a bit hesitant to put the twins to their cribs, they would have liked to just continue holding them but both were in a need for a nap. And this of course gave a nice excuse for the parents to have a ’nap’ too.

At first Tuisku wasn’t sure about Titta’s suggestion but after she had managed to convince him that it was perfectly alright, he was more than happy to comply.

The days to follow were busy even there were four adults in the household and the twins were quite easy to take care of, they rarely complained and were just happy when someone was paying them some attention. And attention they did get, at one point Titta pointed out that the girls also had to sleep sometimes.

”Where are you running to?” Tuisku asked sleepily as he woke up only to find Titta fully dressed. However, the only asnwer he got was the sound of vomitting in the toilet.

”Something smells good”, Tuisku commented while feeding one of the girls.

”Just some pancakes.”

”Make sure to make a full plate, I would bet anything Titta can eat easily at least two platefulls”, he said casually.

”Why… you don’t mean that she is… that you will be having another baby?”

”Afraid so dad”, Tuisku said, ”I was a bit worried since Pilvi and Titta are still so small but at least they will have their first birthday before it is born.”

”And that means that at one point we will have three toddlers in the house, good luck”, Pyry grinned.

At the Palosuo household morning was starting nicely.

”Do we have to get up already?” Sade asked Risto.

”I don’t think we have to get up at all since we both have a free day but there is something I would like to do that I didn’t get a chance to do at the wedding.”

Now Sade was curious, ”chance to do at the wedding? What is it?”

”Dance.”

”Oh wow”, Sade smiled, ”I didn’t know that you are good dancer, this is fun. I just don’t think we are dressed appropriately.”

”I rather think that you are a real pleasure to look at in that night gown”, Risto commented.

”Oh shut it”, Sade replied but couldn’t help smiling.

It had started well but from the breakfast the things seemed to go wrong right from the start.

”There is something I have intented to talk to you”, Risto started, ”on Tuisku’s and Titta’s wedding day Tuisku was mad because you had been plotting behind his back with Lumi. How come I didn’t know anything about it either?”

”We weren’t plotting, we were just trying to decide what to do with Maya.”

”And it never, not even once crossed your mind to say something about that to me?”

”I.. no, it didn’t, I didn’t think you would be interested.”

”Of course I’m interested! I don’t like the idea that you go and plan something like that without me knowing about it.”

”Look… we didn’t really plan anything, we were just discussing the options.”

”All the same… you should have told someone else as well, not just me but your brother, Amatius, Meri, Touko… it isn’t just your business to decide what to do.”

”But our work…”, Sade tried to explain, indeed she was working as intelligence agent while Lumi was working with law enforcement.

”Your work? What do you think I do then? As a member of the city council I possibly couldn’t have had any opinion where to find Maya for example?”

”Oh.”

”Indeed.”

Sade tried to change the topic but went only from bad to worse,

”I think we will be having puppies soon.”

”I’m trying to talk to you some sence and you start talking about puppies? Does anything else mean anything to you except your dogs? How about having a baby, you know, one without tail or four legs?”

”But we have agreed that…”

”I know bloody hell what we have agreed but I have had enough about you and your damn stubborness. Can you for once think about someone else than you?”

”You just said that I only think my dogs”, Sade laughed nervously, she didn’t think Risto would be serious.

”I have just had enough!” Risto was shouting.

”You have had enough because I don’t tell you everything I talk with my family?”

”I have had enough because you don’t think anyone else except you and your damn dogs! How about try and make me at least feel like a man in the house!”

”So that’s your problem, isn’t it? You are afraid that I somehow undermine your holy manhood?”

That was enough for Risto who just walked out of the door without saying another word.

”I didn’t mean to… I don’t know what I thought… I…”, and to her surprise she started to sob but the only one to witness that was Taiga.

After she had calmed down she took her phone and called to the only place that she could think where Risto would go, he didn’t know many people in this town yet.

”Tuisku, hi, it’s me… Is… is Risto there?”

”…”

”No, I just thought that maybe he came there after we… had a small fight.”

”…”

”I’m sure it is nothing serious, but can you give me a call if he comes there?”

However, it was only evening that Tuisku heard the doorbell and to his surprise Risto was there.

”Can I come in?”, he only asked.

”Sure…”

Tuisku had suggested a game of chess since he thought that whatever Risto had in his mind, wouldn’t be easy to discuss and having something else to do while talking would be good idea.

”I’m not going to pretend I wouldn’t know why you are here”, Tuisku started, ”Sade called me and said that you had some kind of a row.”

Risto snorted, ”if you want to put it mildly.”

”What happened?”

”The morning started well but then we just… run into some disagreements.”

”And you left the house?”, Tuisku stated.

”I didn’t know what else to do”, Risto confessed, ”I was so mad at her. She just thinks that she is something and no one else is nothing, except her dogs maybe.”

”And yet she called me as soon as she had managed to calm down”, Tuisku told him.

”What do you mean calmed down?”

”She sounded like she had been crying.”

Risto didn’t say anything, just moved a piece on the chessboard.

”I don’t want to interfere with your life but there is probably one thing you should know about my sister”, Tuisku told him, ”do you know that you were the first guy she ever kissed?”

”She mentioned something like that.”

”Did she ever say why?”

”Not really, and I didn’t push it.”

”She never wanted to kiss anyone just for the sake of it, she quite many times said that she wouldn’t be just a playground for anyone who would be used to get the first kiss and she didn’t want to use anyone for that either.”

”She always said that if she is going to kiss someone it has to be someone who means something to her. And seeing that she married you and you have most likely been doing plenty more things than just kissing means that she values you high above anyone else”, Tuisku finished.

Risto didn’t say anything, instead he just looked at Tuisku and then stared the chessboard without really seeing anything. Apparently Tuisku had same problems.

”I think it is best that we just quit, this game isn’t going to go anywhere. Besides I promised to call Sade if you come here, do you mind if I do that?”

”No… but can I stay the night here? I would like to think things over before going home. I know you have two babies and more coming but if there is anything I can help with…”

”It is fine, there is extra bed upstairs and my parents are great help with the girls so no worries there.”

”Hi… just called to say that Risto is here.”

”…”

”No, I won’t say anything to him, you tell that to him yourself, I’m not passing any messages between you two. Just one, Risto is going to sleep here over the night but I think he will come there on the morning so anything you want to say, say then, not now and definately not to me.”

”…”

Tuisku sighed, ”I know it is hard but try to manage, ok?”

”Uhm… hi”, Sade started awkwardly when she met Risto on the yard, ”nice to have you home.”

”So this still is my home?”

Sade swallowed, ”of course it is… look, I won’t say that I would tell you everything in the future either but I’m sorry about what I said yesterday, I probably shouldn’t have.”

”Indeed, you shouldn’t have”, Risto replied shortly. He had been thinking over the night and was ready to accecpt an apology but he wasn’t going to make it easy, ”anything else you might want to say?”

”It isn’t true that I would think only dogs, or just me… I think you, us a lot, I think my family, that’s why we actually are here now, because I thought my family.”

”You would do perfectly well without me, wouldn’t you?”

Sade bit her lip, ”I probably would but I don’t want to, I want you in my life. I… last night was horrible when you weren’t next to me”, she finally admitted.

Then she took a step closer to Risto who finally looked at her and seeing the pain and the caring in her eyes that only reflected his own, he gave up and pulled Sade into a hug.

”I had miserable night too”, he told her.

”Are we good now?”, Sade muttered against Risto’s neck.

”Yeah, we are good.”

”Then I think I have an idea considering your manhood…”

Risto grinned, ”tell me more about it.”

It of course resulted to this…

… and eventually to this.

After throwing up for the third time she thought that she knew what was the problem and run to hug Risto who was just waking up.

”I’m pregnant”, she squeeled in most non-characteristic way.

As it happened, for the first time Risto didn’t have anything to say, he simply hugged her.

”You two sure you coming to the party or would you just stay here?” Touko asked on the Tammilehto’s porch. It was Pilvi’s and Tuuli’s birthday and everyone was invited.

”We are coming in a moment”, Sade told him, ”can’t I just kiss my husband without disturbance?”

Touko sighed mockingly, ”sure… sure… go ahead, I suppose that is better than fighting.”

”Even though woohoo is pretty good after that”, Sade told Risto once Touko was inside and out of earshot.

”Want to try that again?” Risto grinned between kisses.

”Not anytime soon, thank you very much.”

It was indeed time for Pilvi and Tuuli to grow up, and just about time as Titta’s pregnancy was on last trimester.

”You feeling ok?” Tuisku asked Titta, ”you look tired?”

”I’m quite ok… even though I think I will go and have a rest after this, if that is fine.”

”Of course it is fine”, Tuisku smiled fondly at her, ”let’s get this over fast then.”

As soon as Pilvi and Tuuli were put on the floor they both crawled in front of the stereo and started dancing along the music next to each other much to everyone’s amusement. It also was much to everyone’s amusement that these two appeared to be very cute.

After that the party continued with the usual way; Touko played piano, Pyry chatted with Amatius about work, there were some pillow fights and Gunnel had also made real food just in case someone wanted to eat something else than just the cake.

”How is it going with Mari?” Titta asked Meri.

”Fine, she is adorable baby really, I just wish I wouldn’t be reminded of Maya everytime I look at her…” she admitted.

Titta lowered her voice, ”how is your mother taking this?”

”She is loads better now that there is Mari to fuss over actually, gives her something else to think about.”

”That’s good”, Titta agreed, ”babies tend to do that.”

Meri laughed, ”you of all people should know that.”

”You want to be an aeroplane little princess?” Risto asked when he felt someone tucking his pants and found Pilvi looking expectantly up at him.

”Yay!”

”You should get one of those yourself, you seem to be good with them”, Tuisku told him.

”We are working on it”, Risto only said vaguely.

”Really? So everything is going well?”

”Better than that actually”, Risto said and continued, ”I don’t remember us ever being this happy.”

Tuisku and Titta had been slightly relieved to have the twins to grow up but it turned out that when they were toddlers, they were twice as much trouble. Luckily, once again, the help of the grandparents was close and they were more than happy to teach them all the toddler skills often supervised by their dog, Maks.

Tuisku had been looking for a job in education ever since he came from university but now that he found an open position he was hesitant to took it since it meant less time with his kids. He had even considered not applying for it since they didn’t exactly need the money but the career was something he had always wanted. Titta convinced him that they would be more than fine at home with Tuisku’s parents around and Tuisku’s working days wouldn’t be too long and in any case he had the weekends off so he took the job as high school principal.

At the Palosuo household happy family event had taken place, it wasn’t yet Sade’s turn but Taiga’s who had given birth to two adorable puppies, Aatu (male) and Aava (female).

But Sade wasn’t far behind.

”Peek-a-boo!”

”You silly, as if the baby would see you now.”

”It can hear me though”, Risto told him.

”That’s why I would understand talking but playing peek-a-boo is plain silly”, she said and ruffled Risto’s hair fondly.

Of course two dogs with two puppies meant plenty of work. While the adults were house trained, the puppies weren’t and left puddles around the house, something the adult dogs found extremely entertaining.

That of course meant regular baths for both of them and usually they both were in the need of a bath at the same time.

”Ok, your turn Otto now that Taiga is clean, at least for now. After that I need to clean this bath and then maybe is my turn to take a shower too, don’t you think?”

In spite of the extra work Sade thought that the dogs were worth of it all but was surprised when she saw Risto playing with one of them.

”You know, I think they are actually quite cute, could we maybe keep this one? I like the look in its eyes.”

”What has changed your mind mr. ’we-won’t-have-more-dogs’?”

”I mean, just look at it?”

Sade laughed, ”I know what you mean and that’s what I have been trying to explain to you…”

”Explain what?”

”Oh, never mind”, she said and grinned to herself.

”Ouuuch! Someone get the girls to the other room, they don’t need to see this!”, at the main household it was also time for another birth.

”Calm down, just calm down”, Tuisku told her, ”they won’t remember anything of it when they are older.

”You sure?” Titta managed asked.

”Pretty sure…”

”Mummy hurt?” Pilvi asked worriedly.

”No, mummy isn’t hurting, she is just going to have another baby.”

”That’s the same thing”, Titta snapped.

”There you go, now we have a son too.”

”Wow, hello there. Two girls and one boy, I think we are done with the kids don’t you think?”

”You wish…”

”What do you mean?” and realising that she had turned away continued, ”you must be joking, right?”

But Titta wasn’t joking, she also gave birth to another baby and this time it was a girl.

”You really got to be joking me”, Tuisku was looking at her dumbfounded.

”I think this is beyond joking”, she said, ”two toddlers, two babies, fun right?”

”Uh… any name ideas?”

”How about calling that one Myrsky”, Titta suggested, ”and she could be Usva?”

”I don’t have better ideas, fine by me”, Tuisku thought that at that moment he probably wouldn’t have ideas for anything else either, holding the baby was about all he could do from his shock.

- - -

myrsky = storm and usva = mist

At the Tammilehto-Puljula household it was a bit more quiet and Mari was enjoying plenty of attention by four adults around her who were just competing to take care of her.

To everyone’s surprise Touko was very eager to help with her but Inka was never far either. It seemed that Meri and Johannes weren’t needed at all.

But soon there would be second baby so the extra hands never hurt, and Meri needed more rest anyway so it was only good that there were extra helpers. And of course it gave Johannes more time to start bonding with his unborn child.

Then it already was Mari’s first birthday.

”Thanks for coming”, Meri said when hugging Sade, ”who would have thought that we would be pregnant at the same time.”

”Not me at least”, Sade laughed.

When Inka had suggested that she would take Mari to the cake, everyone agreed as they thought that it would be only right.

After growing up Mari started looking the people around her being quite happy that there were so many of them who all clearly wanted to be with her.

”I just said Sade that it is funny we are pregnant at the same time, from all of the people, us, I never thought I would be having kids but now I have two”, Meri said.

”I really never thought about it”, Sade admitted, ”I guess it was just about finding the right guy and then it was sort of clear that we would have a baby some day.”

Lumi laughed, ”when Tuisku was born, gosh, that makes me sound old, I swore that I would never go through anything like that myself but my mum said that I would just need to wait that I would meet the right guy… I hate to admit but she was right.”

”So was it as horrible as it had looked like, giving birth I mean?”, Meri asked.

That made Lumi laugh, ”are you sure you want me to answer that question.” Sade and Meri both said in unison that maybe it was after all better not to know.

”Ok, let’s see how fast you can walk, should we?”

”Ok”, she agreed and it seemed that she had just been waiting to start learning that as it took Touko only a little while that she got the idea.

After few tries he just let go of her hands and stepped couple steps behind and set down to wait.

”Gwampa”, Mari simply said and walked to him and as Touko caught her, he looked her for a while.

”What did you just say?”

”Gwampa”, Mari repeated.

”Who tought you that?”

Mari only looked at him puzzled and repeated again, ”gwampa.”

Touko was happy that there was no one else in the living room as he had to clean something wet from the corners of his eyes.

”What would you say about some woohoo?”, Johannes asked hopefully Meri while kissing her one evening.

”Ouuuuch”, was the only reply he got.

Johannes pulled away, ”did I do something?”

”Owww!” Meri yelled, ”no, but I think, ouuuch, the baby is coming.”

Sure enough, that evening Meri gave birth to another little girl who they decided to name Minna.

Then… the last but not the least, Kalle.

”So you come from other side of the mountains too? My dad was from there”, half alien was asking him curiously. Kalle didn’t know who this half alien was, he had just went to answer the doorbell and there he was, standing as if it was the most natural place to be.

”Yes, but can I ask why you are here?”

The half alien shrugged, ”it is a very small village and whenever there is someone new, we want to know, it is rather closed society you see.”

”Can I at least have your name?”

”Oh, sure thing. Elmo Joutila.”

Another beauty of the slideshow, I don’t need to attach any picture at all if I just want to give you few notes. Where the last chapter was the hardest to write, this was the most fun this far, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Last time I installed ACR, this time I installed pregnancy wear anything hack and I have to say that I like them both. Too bad I only realised downloading that hack after Titta’s and Sade’s pregnancies but at least Meri got to enjoy it. I’m by now completely addicted to ACR, I like it how my sims do more things autonomously and I have started to give them free reign in other things too. Other thing in ACR that I just adore is the pregnancy scanner and with that I knew that Titta’s pregnancies were both going to result in twins, so it didn’t come as a surprise. My first thought when I saw that she was going to have twins again was more or less a helpless cry. Of course, I could have done something for it but then decided not to and lucky I didn’t, I have had plenty of fun with that household even though it is a full time job to take care of them.

Mari really is Kalle’s and Maya’s daughter, she was taken by the social worker when Maya died and when I made Meri and Johannes adopt a baby, she came, I was pretty sure she would but until the last moment I was afraid my plan would have backfired, luckily it didn’t.

This update was full of births, meaning that next time we will probably have a marathon of birthdays and maybe we will see more what is going on with Kalle. What is the place anyway (even though I gave quite straightforward hint for that) and what is going to come out of it?

And now, if you turn the next slide you will get the stats of the three new toddlers and after that some random cute or funny random pictures that I didn’t have a place for in the story.

Until next time!

Pilvi 5/10/4/7/6

Tuuli 7/10/4/7/6

Mari 10/8/10/3/3