Escape To, 2005

Remar, summer, 2005
Bradford is 41, Suzanna is 40, Laci is 7, Lilly is 1 and Lora is 1 simlonic month

Bradford was content. Sure, he liked to tease his wife about having a son, but honestly, having a houseful of girls suited him. He sighed as the sudden thought of three female teenagers running around the house, along with a possibly premenaposal wife and only three bathrooms. They might have to think about getting another home, a home with more bathrooms.

Thankfully he had his job to escape to. The work of a personal injury lawyer never really stopped and he had plenty of cases that needed to be resolved. Most of them were quick, settlement cases, however occasionally he would get a case that needed a little more legwork and more negogiation. As he stared at the stacks of files near the photo of his growing family he wondered how long he would be content with where he was in his career. Thankfully he had his family to escape to.

Suzanna was grateful when Jesse appeared at her door. Lilly had just laid down for a nap, while Lora had finished her morning bottle.

"Thanks again, I'll call you around lunch time." she promised darting out the door.

Suzanna glanced at her sheet for the day as she walked to the clinic. She still had some maternity leave left, but the clinic needed her. Besides, she would be taking some vacation time in a few simolonic months, she reasoned with herself. Thankfully it was summer time which meant her brother, Jesse, had the summer off from his teaching position. It also meant that most days you could find him with six little girls at his feet. Suzanna bit back a smile as she thought about what the scene at the house probably looked like. Especially now that Lora's young age required that Jesse keep the children close to home.

She couldn't help herself as she picked up the phone and quickly dialed his cellphone. It wasn't quite lunchtime, but she was curious.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Jesse. How is it going?"

Jesse sighed. "Right now we're all in the kitchen. I'm feeding Lora, who has apparently developed a case of the picky eater as she's spitting up close to 30% of everything that she swallows. Laci and Veronika are trying to bake cookies, but they keep eating the cookie dough, which means we have to keep remaking the batch. Lilly is trying to stuff sprinkles up her nose, Jennifer has successfully gotten three chocolate chips in her ear which I'm hoping that the summer heat will cause them to melt and Jessica...can toddlers die of sugar overdose? Because I'm sure the bag of sugar was full, but now it's pretty much empty and Jessica has sugar all around her mouth and in her hair."

"Wow..."

"Listen, I know you called to gloat about your easy day at the hospital, but-BLARE BLARE BLARE-EEEEEEEEEEE!!! DADDY!!! UNCLE JESSE!!! Ok, calm down! EEEEE!!! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!Get off the table! We're not going to die!"

"Jesse? Jesse, what's going on?"

"No you don't have to stop, drop and roll! It's-Suzanna, I gotta go. UNCLE JESSE, STOP, DROP AND ROLL!!! The cookies have overflowed from the baking sheet and the oven is smoking."

"The cookies overflowed? How-"

"Listen, have you made cookies with two seven simyear old girls? You'll understand it when you see it."

"Uh..."

"Get from under the table! Suzanna, I gotta go."

"Ok, bye!"

Suzanna hung up the phone and held onto the desk as her body quivered in a fit of giggles. Thank goodness she had her job to escape to.

*****

"You can start trying for another child as soon as you are comfortable," Suzanna reassured the couple.

Ginger and Grex nodded numbly.

"Will...will it happen again?"

Suzanna flipped through the chart. "Unfortunately I really can't say. Miscarriages are difficult to understand. Your tests have all come back normal, so I don't see why we would be fearful of it happening again. However, if you decide to have another baby, we will definately monitor the pregnancy very closely. Any other questions?"

The couple shook their head and quickly left the office. Suzanna quickly walked down the hall to check in on Ana Rayne. The little girl had a surgery scheduled for later that simweek and she was keeping a close eye on her vitals. After visiting with her youngest patient she peeked into the medical centre's ICU where another patient was waiting impatiently.

"Can I go home now?" Grace Elise asked as she rocked on the bed in her PJs.

Suzanna reviewed her chart and checked her vitals. The little girl was admitted to the hospital due to complications with the Plumbob Virus.

Nicole Humphrey sat in the other bed looking solemn and mumbling to herself. Suzanna knew that the woman was praying so she tried to make as little noise as possible while checking Grace Elise.

"Not yet sweetie, but I did bring you something." Suzanna said pulling a well worn copy of My Birthday Transition All Over Again and handing it to the little girl.

"Ooo, I heard about this book. Thank you!" she said and promptly started to read.

Suzanna left the ICU and scrubbed up before peeking her head into Julio's office.

"Anything new?"

"Ana Rayne is stable, her vitals are fine and the surgery is still on for this simweek. You will need to exam Grace Elise's parents. I doubt that she was able to get the virus and not spread it to her family."

Julio nodded, "They actually here early for visiting hours. I'll check them now."

Julio narrowed his eyes as he reviewed his sister-in-law's lab results and the now familar image popped up on his screen.

"What is it?" Jolie asked nervously.

"It appears to be the Plumbob Virus." Julio said sullenly.

He quickly did the same exam on his twin brother. This man shared his DNA and had the same face as he did, but he also had the virus in his blood stream.

Jorge didn't need to be told. His brother's face told him.

"What do we need to do?"

Julio handed the couple a prescription. "Take this everyday and limit contact with other sims. Keep an eye on your other children, if they develop any symptoms then bring them in as soon as possible."

"And Grace Elise? Can we visit her now?"

Julio shook his head. "Not while you're infected. I'm sorry. You can call tonight though."

Jolie started to cry. Julio knew how she felt, being seperated from her child. He left the room so Jorge could comfort his wife.

"How did the exams go?" Suzanna asked a few moments later. "Were they positive?"

Julio nodded, the strain of the workload evident on his face. "We will need to have a special meeting with the county council about this. That means five sims are infected, this is getting out of hand."

"I agree, let's call a meeting for tomorrow."

*****

Bradford helped the two women up the stairs of the pier. Finally the pier was open to the public and he wanted to take his nature loving little girl there for her birthday.

"Look, a skating rink! Can we skate?" Laci asked tugging at her daddy's hand.

"Of course, come on pumpkin."

The trio stepped onto the rink as the early morning sun warmed the dock. Bradford smiled as he watched his daughter spin and skate flawlessly.

"I'm not very good at this," Suzanna said her legs wobbling.

Before Bradford could concur, the couple felt thier skates slipping from underneath them and they landed with twin splats on the glossy wood rink.

"Are you ok?" Laci asked expertly skating towards the couple.

"My ego's a bit bruised, but I'm ok." Bradford said struggling to his feet.

"Do you want me to kiss it and make it feel better?"

Suzanna giggled. "No, thank you. You made it better all ready."

"Ok, well get back up and try again. You're never going to have fun skating if you spend the whole time sitting on the floor."

"Yes, dear."

Much to the delight of her parents, Laci soon grew hungry. Bradford paid for their time on the rink while Suzanna reserved a table at the local seafood diner.

"I can see the ships from here!" Laci squealed as the server seated them on the upstairs deck. "Hello, little boats!" she called towards the sea waving her hand.

"Daddy, can I have cake for lunch?"

"Of course."

"Do you want ice-cream as well?" Suzanna asked.

Laci shook her head, "Not right now. Just cake with lots of icing. I want pumpkin cake, do they have pumpkin cake?" she asked studying the menu looking for any familar words. "How do you spell pumpkin?"

"Why do you want pumpkin cake?"

"Cause I'm daddy's little pumpkin. I only see pumpkins in the fall when they're all cut up with faces, but my teacher said that you can eat pumpkins and that there's pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie and lots of things made with pumpkins!"

"I'm sure there's pumpkin cake on the menu." Bradford promised.

The family placed thier order and continued to watch the ships come in.

"Can I get a pet fish?"

"A fish? But you have Mr. Wombat, Ms. Birdie and Alan at home, why would you want a fish?"

"I think a fish would be nice to have in my room. A pink fish with stripes."

"A pink fish?"

"Yes. We read this book in 1st grade about a pink fish named Pinky. But that was 1st grade, I'm not a 1st grade baby anymore, I'm going to be in 2nd grade and one of the big kids soon."

"Yes, you are growing up so fast."

"Will you miss me, daddy?"

Bradford choked on his cake. He didn't want to think about when his little girl would be an adult, independent and on her own. Maybe with a family of her own.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, pumpkin?"

"Will you miss me while I'm at camp?"

"Of course. It will be very empty without you at the house."

"I'll miss you you too. Will you miss me too, mom?"

Suzanna nodded. "Yes, but we'll talk on the phone and you'll take lots of pictures, ok?"

"Ok."

After lunch, Laci ran off for a simple hot air balloon ride as her parents sat on the bench watching thier daughter rise into the sky.

"How did the meeting go?"

"As expected. We have to send out letters to warn the residents about the symptoms of the Plumbob Virus within a few days. It really is getting out of hand. Unfortunately sims under the age of 15 simyears are affected the most."

"So babies, toddlers and the like."

Suzanna nodded.

Bradford nibbled at her ear and Suzanna smirked. The couple looked at each other heatedly.

"I saw a photo booth by the skating rink."

"Mmm, I think we may have enough photos, but I can think of something else we could do..."

The couple stumbled out the photo booth just in time to see Laci disembark from the balloon and wave. "Can we build sandcastles?" she cried.

After attempting several sandcastles, or sandcottages as Bradford called them, the family sat down to watch the waves and the ships dock.

"This was so much fun," Laci said yawning. "We should bring Lilly and Lora here."

"Once they get bigger."

"When they get bigger we should do this everyday."
----
Five sims are infected or have been infected so far, the ROS called for 10 sims so the illness really is making it's way around the hood pretty quickly.

Suzanna and Bradford could not stay on their feet at all. They're pretty clumsy, but it was so cute to see them fall at exactly the same time.