Chapter 28: Family Gatherings

Tennyson becomes a child, and Tearney is expecting her first.

Aiden takes the fall while protecting his boss, and has to spend the night in jail.

"I was so worried," Tearney sighs when he comes home the next morning. Luckily for both of them, the Appaloosa Plains police department is largely in Bedlington's pocket, and Aiden's prints were never run against the wanted criminal data base.

He was released just in time to see their daughter, Kelsey, born. When they bring their infant daughter home, Aiden decides he has to find a way out of this business, for their sake.

So, after  delivering a bribe to City Hall for his boss, he approaches her directly.

Patricia Bedlington is the last person you'd suspect of running a criminal enterprise, which is perhaps why she's so successful at it. "To be honest, pretty boy, I only took you on as a favor to your father," she tells him, "I learned a lot from him, and I owed him that. You, however, have none of his finesse. And you smile far too much. You aren't particularly necessary to my operation, so for your father's sake, I'll let you go, after you do a couple more jobs for me. But just remember, one word from me will land you and your pretty wife in a cell for life. If I ever need a favor from you, you'll come through."

Aiden is too relieved to be released so easily to be insulted by her poor review of his performance. "Of course, any time you need anything, I'm there," he promises.

Kelsey becomes a toddler.

Tearney gave up her dreams of a career in art, but she's found a few patrons in Appaloosa Plains who appreciate her vision and commission the occasional piece from her.

After putting in a few more nights with Bedlington, she finally lets Aiden go. He rushes to Tearney with his news as soon as he's free.

"What will you do now?" she asks.

"I'm going to stay home and take care of my kids," he answers with a smile, "We aren't hurting for money, and being a husband and a father has meant more to me than anything else I could be doing."

Tearney smiles, "Well, that's good to hear, seeing as I'm pregnant again."

Aiden pulls her into a deep kiss. He couldn't possibly be happier.

Bedlington was right, Aiden wasn't really suited for a life of crime. Being a stay at home dad proves to be far more rewarding.

Tennyson has become close with classmate Dakota Fox. He often comes home with her after school, and they spend hours together playing games and watching TV.

Tearney goes into labor at dawn.

This one is a boy, Rory.

Since her son Dakota is such a frequent visitor to the Bowman house, Cheyenne Fox decided to pay a visit and get to know Tennyson's family personally, bringing both her boys with her, Dakota and his younger brother, Kiowa. Her daughter, Aimee, is a toddler and has stayed home with Shawnee.

Cheyenne is the mayor of Appaloosa Plains, and much like Tearney's mother, she's a very down to earth politician, concerned mostly about the environment and family issues. The two women findthey get along very well, and quickly become friends.

Rory becomes a toddler.

Tennyson and Dakota become teens, and their childhood friendship blossoms into romance.

Tennyson's first kiss.

Tearney spends her evening sucking up spirit's for Kenji's research, but she has yet to see any real ghosts, like the one that stole candy from when she was a toddler. Then one night as she's on her way home from a job, she sees one just sitting on a bench like he belonged there. Tearney does not hesitate to tell this ghost that he isn't wanted amongst the living.

She gives him a few slaps to emphasize her point.

"That's what you get for stealing candy from children," she hisses after giving him a sound beating.

"I never stole anything from anyone," the ghost protests weakly, but his eerie, whispering voice doesn't get through Tearney's rage.

The next time she saw Kenji, she told him about her encounter with a real ghost. "I'm tired of collecting these pathetic spirits," she says, "I want to take on the real menace, the ghosts."

"Take this," Kenji said, handing her a new device, "I made this using the data I've gathered from the spirit samples you've brought me. It's a scanner that will help you find ghosts, and force them out into the open."

The new scanner works beautifully, revealing hidden ghosts so Tearney can suck them up with her banshee banisher. If she had known how useful nerds and their ideas could be when she was in high school, maybe she wouldn't have been so hard on them.

Kelsey becomes a child.

Like her mother, she has a fondness for reptiles and snakes.

She's good with animals of all kinds.

Since he quit working, Aiden has a lot of time to spend with his wife. So it's not a huge surprise when she finds herself pregnant for the third time.

"I hope you're still happy about the stay at home dad gig," Tearney laughs.

"I would never have believed it, but I'm happier here than I think I would have ever have been if we'd stayed in the city," Aiden admits.

The Foxes come over for a family visit. Tearney finally gets to meet Cheyenne's husband, Shawnee.

Cheyenne has recently been elected governor.

Kelsey and Aimee Fox play tag outside.

While Tennyson entertains the rest of the Fox clan. She and Dakota have been going steady, and his family already treat her as their own daughter.

Tearney bakes her first key lime pie, a recipe she just recently learned. Everyone agrees that it came out perfect.

This time Aiden and Tearney have twins, Jacy, a boy, and Jinx, a girl.


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Challenge Notes:
First, career issues. Aiden's career was like broken or something. He'd go to work, and the job panel thing would be stuck on 'Going to Work' for hours after he was there, sometimes for the whole shift. I did check, and he was inside the rabbithole, not stuck somewhere trying to get to work. And the whole time it's stuck, he's not making any progress on the progress bar. So, I'm not too fond of the criminal career to begin with, the hours suck, and Aiden is not getting progress for the time he's wasting there. So, I had him quit.
I also had issues with the Ghost Hunter gig. I'd noticed this before, with Tamsin Enmity I can do away with maternity leave, but while she's actually pregnant, she'll be 'On the Clock' but no jobs spawn.
So, after Kelsey was born, I gave her the fertility treatment award, hoping she'd get twins next time so I'd be able to get my last two required children out in one pregnancy. But, no, Rory was a single birth, and I didn't get twins until I only needed one more kid. So now I have 5 kids in the house, lol.

Right now I'm favoring Kelsey as heir. Mostly because I cannot be done with the fighter thing soon enough. I always get tired of that one long before the generation is over. So the sooner my heir comes of age, the better.
My roll for Generation 5 is: Single parent, two kids. I used the Expansion Gift for the career, choosing Animal Wrangler. The goal is Opportunist and Misc Fun is Tattoo Addict.

I just want to add how much I love the Fox family. Tennyson's relationship with Dakota developed totally naturally. He really did come home with her after school rather frequently, and his mother did call to set up play dates, bringing her family along with her.