Chapter 12: Bumps in the Road

Day by day life continued on as normal in the Goth household.  Bella did as any mother of a toddler would do; she potty-trained her son, babbled with him, laughed, outlasted temper tantrums, and loved him dearly.  Many assumed the Goths were the weirdest, most outlandish family in the neighborhood.  In reality they were probably one of the most normal families.  Bella enjoyed her days at home with Damen.  She looked at her son with nostalgic longing  as her baby disappeared before eyes and excitement as she watched grow more independent with each passing day.

Bella still worked at the diner every evening.  Climbing rank in the kitchen was tough but she was determined to be a Five Star Chef.  Bella enjoyed her days at home in the kitchen or in the garden.  She wasn't going to let the younger chef visionaries get one up on her place in the restaurant kitchen.  In between batches of her latest recipes she played with Damen or taught him to talk.  With the rest of the children at school during the day it was nice to have a toddler around to keep her company.  The Manor always seemed too empty if no one was home.  When it was time to resume cooking Bella settled Damen in the high chair and sang him nonsense songs as she worked her culinary magic.

Mortimer and Bella considered themselves lucky.  There was some sibling rivalry, but the family was tight-nit and close.  Cassandra spent most evenings at her job.  Alexander would sit in the living room and work on homework while Jada played with Damen.  The peacefulness allowed Mortimer to stay on top of the evening work and talk to his father when he was home.  There were nights when Mortimer would stand just out of sight and watch the little miracles and listen to their joyous sounds fill the house.  Sometimes he got so wrapped up in their happiness he lost track of time and bedtime was forgotten.

Mortimer was very successful in his role as a Creature-Robot Crossbreeder.  He still fought his bosses about the dangers of the Cow plant; or in his opinion, the lack of danger.  Mortimer thought it was completely acceptable to start marketing the Cow Plant and going public.  In the meantime he had his own crazy projects around the lab to keep him busy.  It wasn't long before he earned the title of Mad Scientist by his fellow researchers.  Landgraab Industries gifted Mortimer with a special ray gun for his prestigious title.  He enjoyed using it on things around the house, even if it didn't work correctly the first go-round.

Alexander had tagged along with Cassandra when she went into town.  He didn't spend much time with her but she didn't complain when he asked to go, so he was grateful.  Cassandra was taking longer than he wanted.  Alexander knew his family worried if he wandered so he told Cassandra that he was going outside.  She reminded him to stay nearby.  Everyone always told him to stay nearby like he was a baby.  There was nothing outside that was interesting and he thought for a moment to try to find something.  He remembered Cassandra wouldn't like it if she had to look for him and changed his mind.  Alexander turned to head into the store when a women let out a hysterical cry.  A crowd gathered.  The air got cold.  Alexander heard a loud crack of thunder and the sudden sound of bells.

Eerie organ music permeated the air and Death rose from a plume of blackened smoke.  Alexander watched in horrid fascination as Death came to collect the soul of long time neighborhood resident Buster Clavell.  He wanted to look away; to run back to his big sister.  Yet, he stood in place, witness to the grievous loss for Bessie.  Alexander watched those around him.  All were visibly crying.  He wanted to feel the same but wasn't moved to sadness.  Instead a determination formed in his head.  Alexander was well aware of his superior intelligence even if he couldn't articulate well enough to the rest of the world.  In the moment he watched the ghost of Mr. Clavell beg for more time Alexander decided he was going to be a doctor when he grew up.

Finding out that Alexander had witnessed a death with no one to shield him or answer his questions left a bitter taste in Mortimer's mouth.  Dying was inevitable but Alexander shouldn't have had to experience it so suddenly. Mortimer knew it wouldn't be long before Death would be visiting their own family.  His father was one of the oldest sims in the neighborhood.  Mortimer wouldn't admit to it but deep down he could see the readiness in his father's eyes.  At least Alexander wouldn't be as surprised when the moment came.  Until then Mortimer and Gunther made up for lost time.  Their outings were more of subconscious attempt at the father-son bonding which had been avoided during Mortimer's younger years.

Cassandra spent her evening off from work keeping an eye on her siblings.  Since her dad and Grandpapa were spending so much time together Cassandra started coming up with activities away from the house to keep them busy.  Alexander had refused to go into town after their last trip.  Cassandra begged him to reconsider.  They were just going to see a movie.  Finally she convinced Jada to talk to him about going.  Alexander begrudgingly agreed, but ran into the theater instead of waiting for Cassandra to buy the tickets.  He didn't want to risk having to witness any more deaths.

The movie was alright for a kids movie; not really Cassandra's cup of tea but Alexander and Jada loved it.  On the way home Cassandra blared the radio.  She shimmied back and forth to the beat of the music, laughing along with Jada.  Alexander mostly ignored them.  During a little move to the left Cassandra crossed the middle line and quickly swerved back into the lane.  She was too busy singing  and never saw the stop sign at the intersection.  The fun and games were over when Cassandra noticed the flash of blue and red lights in her rear-view mirror signaling for her to pull over to the side of the road.

The police officer had noticed the erratic driving and followed the car a bit.  He suspected the driver was drunk when the car went through the intersection without stopping.  He asked Cassandra to step out of the car and administered the sobriety test.  The officer was thankful this was not another case of teen drinking, but he still was not happy with her carefree driving.  He called a tow truck and told Cassandra that he would be taking them home the rest of the way.  Alexander and Jada thought it was cool  they got to ride in a police car.  Cassandra didn't think it was so awesome.  She was going to be in some major trouble when she got home.

The station called the Goths to let them know an officer would be bringing their children home.  Bella waited by the door.  The moment the police car pulled up she headed out to meet them.  She ushered Alexander and Jada up to the house.  Bella bid a quick thanks and farewell to the officer.  Then she turned to Cassandra.

"What were you thinking Cassandra Reagan Goth!?" Bella demanded.

"Jeez, Mom, chill out," Cassandra retorted.

"Don't you dare take that attitude with me young lady!  If there had been another car coming through the intersection this conversation would be at the hospital.  Your little brother and sister were in the car for crying out loud!"

"Alright Mom," Cassandra quickly responded.  "Nothing happened.  Everything is alright"

"No, it is not alright.  You were careless and you know better.  You are grounded.  Now go to bed."

Just when he thought life had nothing left to offer Gunther met a younger elder sim.  She caught his eye the moment she walked onto the patio of the bistro.  River was much younger in her elder years than he.  She was probably closer to Mortimer in age.  Something as trivial as age wasn't going to be a road block.  Gunther invited River to join him for lunch.  They had a great conversation.  Gunther felt at ease with her.  River enjoyed Gunther's company.  She had some tickets to the symphony and invited Gunther to join her the next weekend.

Gunther met River at the bistro the next weekend.  She had agreed to dinner before the performance of the symphony.  Gunther treated her to lobster thermidor, followed by sharing a piece of key lime pie.  River made him feel younger than he had in years.  He enjoyed her company  and thought about the many dates they would go on in the future; assuming the date finished as well as it started.  They still had some time before the theater opened the doors so Gunther asked River to dance.  After the song they felt completely at ease with each other.  It wasn't surprising  once Gunther found out they had compatible signs.

Gunther had intended on waiting until the end of the evening when he brought River to her house before he made his move at a good night kiss.  Standing there, after a wonderful dinner, simply enjoying each others company had Gunther all wrapped up in the romance of it all.  It had been such a long time since he last felt the stirrings of feeling like kissing someone.  Gunther stepped close to River and wrapped his arm around her waist.  He drew her close and softly kissed her lips.  Gunther worried for a moment she would push him away.  His fears were assuaged when River returned the notion.

As a close knit family it wasn't often anyone found themselves alone.  Occasionally, everyone sought out their own alone time.  Jada was extremely active, as required of her condition.  She had ballet after school and her parents arranged for the gym to make an exception in their minimum age requirement.  Oftentimes she sat at the block table concentrating on building the tallest block tower without the structure tumbling to the ground.  Jada always admired Alexander's intelligence and she knew she couldn't beat him in chess.  In the same way Alexander could see moves several steps ahead , Jada could envision the tower before she built it.  She took great pride that her towers usually always were taller than Alexander's.

Cassandra had accepted her grounding begrudgingly.  When Mortimer and Bella ungrounded her Cassandra felt free as a bird; until they told her she couldn't have the car keys back.  Now she was stuck riding her bike around town.  At first she had refused but the need to get out of the house eventually won.  She packed her bag and rode her bike down to the beach.  Cassandra had hoped that Darryl would meet her there but he was busy.  For a split second Cassandra considered going home.  Instead she changed into her swimsuit to soak up some sun and read her grandpapa's autobiography, her favorite book.

At his last appointment the doctor suggested get Alexander involved in the household to help build the connections between family members. He had suggested to do chores as a family.  On the weekend his parents went to work cleaning up the house and asking him and his sisters to help out.  Alexander was stuck taking out the trash.  It was such a mediocre job. The maid usually does it anyway.  Alexander wanted to tell the family he felt close enough to all of them he just didn't know how.  He also thought that they would have just known that since they were his family, but maybe they didn't because they weren't as smart as he was.  He was going to be stuck taking out the trash forever because his parents believe that cleaning will help with family bonding.

Alexander was working on solving the unsolvable on the computer when Mortimer sat down next to him.  They looked at each other without saying a word for a long time.  Alexander wanted to tell his father what he was up to.  He thought since his father was a mad scientist he would understand some of the smart stuff pretty easily.  The words never came to Alexander.  Every time something came to mind he thought it sounded silly or trivial in his head so he wouldn't say it.  His father's questions were usually answered as curtly as possible.  Alexander didn't want to sound dumb.  The longer they sat in silence the more uncomfortable Alexander became.  He could stand the tension anymore so he went back to work on the computer.  Mortimer watched his son work.

Mortimer received a call from the grocery store letting him know his order for new seeds was in.  Mortimer headed in to town to get them and ran into Malcolm right outside the store.  The bad blood between the families still flowed, especially because Gunther had outlived Nancy and Geoffrey.  Rosalyn couldn't even mend the hurt between the two families she was stuck between.  Mortimer attempted to keep it civil in the public, though he knew Malcolm attempted to remove the Goth holding in Doo Peas Corporation at every opportunity.  Even though he had taken a path away from business Mortimer found himself attending more board meetings and having more say in the running of the company just to keep the Landgraabs from taking complete control.

Mortimer saw the situation going down fast.  The last thing the company needed was a public brawl between two of the board members.  Shareholders would sell their stock in the blink of an eye if they thought the company was going to implode from personal vendettas.  So they would dance the dance required of their upbringings in high society.  Mortimer offered his congratulations to Malcolm for the birth of his third child.  While it would seem like a nicety, Mortimer felt welcoming a child into the world deserved a congratulations regardless of his feelings toward Malcolm.  Of course the mention of a new addition ignited the desire in Mortimer, once again, to have another child.

Mortimer and Bella arrived home around the same time.  Bella had some exciting news to share with Mortimer and the family.

"Mortimer, the best thing just happened tonight," she said excitedly.    "I have been promoted as the Executive Chef at the diner!"

"That's wonderful Bells,"  said Mortimer.  The excitement shown through on Bella's face.  She was beautiful.  Damen tried to get their attention from the floor but Bella was too excited with the news to respond to him right away.

"Don't you know what this means?" Bella asked.  She did actually expect Mortimer to know, but the promotion wasn't the only news.  "A promotion this large sets me up to be a Five-Star Chef.  The current Five-Star at the bistro will be retiring soon.  I'm slated as the chef that will be taking over the role!  My boss is requesting my transfer to the bistro!"  Mortimer grabbed his wife in a hug.  Her moment she had been working for was right around the corner.

Feeding off of Bella's excitement Mortimer brought up having more children.

"Bells, with everything going so well let's have another baby," Mortimer pitched to her.

"What?" Bella sputtered, "Mortimer, I can't have a baby right now.  I'm so close to the top of my career.  Another baby could derail that...and we have four children already."

"You have so much respect at the restaurant.  I'm sure a pregnancy wouldn't change their plans for you."

Bella saw the look of hope on her husband's face.  She wanted more than anything to make him happy, but she knew this wasn't the way.

"I'm sorry Mortimer.  I don't want this right now.  Can we talk about this later?"

Bella had hoped that Mortimer would drop the subject for awhile.  She snuggled up in bed next to him.  There love life had always remained strong even though it was typical for long-time married couples to not find time for each other.  As things started to heat up in the moment Mortimer mentioned skipping the protective measures.  Bella cooled off right in the moment and scooted away.

"Mortimer be rational about this.  Do you think this is some sort of competition with Malcolm?  Because if it is you are winning right now anyway."

"I love our children, I especially love you.  I want that love to grow our family again."  Mortimer tried not to sound like he was pleading, but essentially pleading was what it was coming down to.

"We don't even have enough bedrooms to add another baby," Bella said, feeling exasperated. 

"I really think four is enough Mortimer,"  Bella explained.  "How are we going to get past this?"

"I don't know Bella.  I think it is a good idea."

"I don't think it is a bad idea, it's just not an idea I want right now."

Mortimer sat in silence.  There was nothing left to say.  Mortimer and Bella were at an impasse.  Damen started to fuss.  Bella decided to go check on him, thankful for the excuse to leave the uncomfortable silence that settled in their room.  When she came back to the room Mortimer was sleeping.  Bella cuddled up to her husband and held him close while she fell asleep.