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abbatoirablaze · 2 years ago

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Good Girls Grown Up

Word Count: 4.3k

Note: This takes place approximately three years before the current timeline of Ex Wive's Club

Warnings: anxiety, feelings of not being a good enough pairing, slight angst, insecurities, soft! Lee (because that is a warning), bullying, mentions of an unwanted child, angst in children, gaslighting.

“Mayor Bodecker, what do you think you are doing?” she whispered softly as her husband’s nimble fingers worked their way sinfully inside of her sleep shorts. Lee hummed thoughtfully, pressing his erection against his wife’s backside. His fingers dipped inside of her, and she moaned. Her eyes flickered closed and her core clenched around the familiar digits, “Lee…oh, fuck…”

“Such improper language for the first lady of our little town.”

She giggled as he nipped along her neck. Instinctively she bucked her hips against her husband’s hand, his calloused palm dragging deliciously against her clit. Lee’s own hips pressed forward once more as he was filled with need for her, “Lee…oh, Lee…who cares about language…”

“You’re right,” he agreed thoughtfully. She whimpered when his fingers pulled out of her, and his hands worked needily on her sleep shorts. She was quick to stop him, and he frowned. She turned her head ever so slightly so that she saw him in her peripherals. He wore a nervous look, “what’s wrong, Em?”

“Lee…the kids…” she sighed, “it’s Easter…they’re bound to barge in…and the triplets…”

Lee looked over to the extra-large bassinet, where his three youngest babies were sleeping soundly. He sighed to himself, “you know that ‘he’ misses being inside of you, sweet pea…”

“Lee, we have nine little babies now…not six…and four of them have the ability to barge in without their siblings carrying them.”

“Just one taste,” Lee all but begged, his nose gently touching that of his wife’s. She turned around in his arms, giggling at him. He frowned a little bit more and she wrapped her arms around his neck, “c’mon sweet pea…we’ve done this since we moved here…I taste you before we start our festivities…it sets my whole day right!”

“Your insatiable nature is the reason we have nine children, mayor!” she teased.

“Oh, it’s not for lack of trying, sweet pea,” Lee smiled, wrapping his arms around his wife, “if you’d let me as much as I wanted to, we’d easily have double the number.”

“Lee Bodecker!” she squealed.

Lee smiled, “c’mon sugar…there was a time when you were the same…I remember quite frequently when we were freshly married, you were askin’ for my Bodecker baby juice all the time…”

A new blush rose to her cheeks and Lee shot her a flirtatious wink, “oh I still do want it…but I think we need to seriously consider you getting snipped first…”

She watched the color drain from his face, “snipped?”

“Lee, we have nine babies…”

“What happened to double digits, Mrs. Bodecker?”

“Nine children happened!” she sighed, admitting it aloud, “I don’t know how you’re in your 40’s and manage to keep up with them. I’m only in my 20’s and they leave me exhausted every night…”

“You want me to hire a nanny to help you out?” Lee asked, a concerned tone taking hold of his voice, “sweet pea…I cou-“

“I’m not saying that, Lee,” she said quickly, cutting him off, “I just-“

“Sweet pea…I don’t want you feeling like you are run ragged by the babies…we got more than enough money to be hiring help!” Lee offered. He watched how silent he was for a moment, and in that instant he knew that there was a bit more to how she was feeling.

He started piecing together all the little hints.

They hadn’t been having as much sex.

She was less flirty, and always talking about being exhausted.

Sometimes he’d get home late and she’d already be passed out in bed, the children tucked away.

Lee waited patiently, “baby…talk to me…just say the word and we’ll do it.”

Em bit her lip, “you wouldn’t be mad?”

Lee felt his heart ache. He held his wife a little bit closer and reached up to tip her chin up so that she was looking directly at him, “why would I be mad, sweet pea? We have nine amazing babies together…you gave me that amazing gift! Hell, you agreed to marry me and let me make nine sweet, beautiful babies with you. Let me do this for you, baby…”

“I think I need help, Lee…” she admitted with a nod. Lee nodded in response and wrapped his arms around her.

“We’ll hire some help, baby….and I-I’ll look into a vasectomy.”

“I-I don’t want to go to school today…”

Jake frowned, looking down at Evie as he served up the pancakes and French toast he’d made for the kids. His youngest two seemed oblivious to the tension in the room as they munched on their breakfast, but Jake and his eldest son were tuned into Evie’s distress, “why not, Eve?”

“I just don’t want to go!” she muttered, poking at her food, “can I stay home today? I-I think I need to stay home. My tummy hurts!”

“Look, kiddo…we talk about our feelings in this household…you know that! If you’re feeling sick, we’ll make a doctor’s appointment and get it figured out, but that’s not what it sounds like. So do you want to talk about it? If not, we’re going to school today!” Jake said firmly as he placed the pan back on the stove. When she didn’t respond he put the spatula down and turned around, speaking into the Bluetooth in his ear, where his team was going over the groundwork for a mission, “Clay…pooch, I’m going to have to call you guys back…”

He tapped the side of his Bluetooth without waiting for a response, and then looked to his adopted daughter, “you going to tell me what’s going on, Evie, or do I have to play twenty questions?”

Her jaw tensed momentarily, and her eyes glistened. She looked to Tyler and he went to speak but she ran away from the table. Jake looked between his sons and daughter. Layla and Jacob shrugged, the three and four year old not entirely sure what was going on, while the second grader Tyler bit his lip and looked away from his father. Jake watched his son’s actions, and he sighed when the little boy refused to make eye contact with him.

“Tyler…”

“Evie asked Michael to play with her at recess yesterday…and they kissed underneath the slide…”

He fought off the instinctive protective urge that made him want to smack the young Barber boy silly in lieu of hearing the rest of what his son had to say. He waited, but Tyler remained silent. Jake’s brow furrowed, “and…”

“Some of the other kids said that Michael only kissed her because he felt bad for her,” he admitted, still biting his lip as he told his father the story, “Evie got sad when they asked why he’d feel bad for her…”

“What did they say, Tyler?”

“That Michael only did it because he feels bad that Evie’s real mom didn’t want her…” he said quickly, “that you and mom only took her in because her mom was going to throw her away! They started calling her a garbage baby.”

Jake looked down the hall, heartbroken over what his son had just told him. They’d had a long journey fighting for Evie, and she was wanted amongst the Jenson clan more than anything, “you know that’s not true, right Tyler?”

“Of course I know that!” he said as though it were the most obvious piece of information he ever heard, “I told Evie that we love her and that she should tell you and mom, but she said no…she tried to talk to Michael and he wouldn’t even look at her.”

Jake’s jaw tensed, “that little shit…”

“Dad…am I in trouble?”

“No bud,” Jake said with a shake of his head. He reached over and messed with his son’s hair, “you aren’t in trouble.”

“I pushed Michael when he ran away from Evie…”

“I’ll be right back,” Jake said quickly, disregarding the claim that his son made, “you did good in protecting your sister…do me a favor and make sure Layla and Jacob eat breakfast!”

“Okay daddy…”

Jake rushed out of the kitchen and down the hall to where Evie’s room was. His heart ached as he heard the little girl crying from the other side of the door. But before he could so much as speak when he burst through the door, he saw that his wife already was there sitting on the bed, with Evie sitting on her lap and sobbing against her chest.

“It’s okay, Evie,” Maddie sighed, gently smoothing down her half-sister’s hair, “don’t listen to those mean kids at school…”

“They said my real mommy didn’t want me! They called me a garbage baby,” she sobbed, “and Michael went along with it. Michael is my boyfriend! And he didn’t stand up for me.”

“Well I’m going to talk to Sasha and Andy after I drop you off at school-“

“Mommy no!”

“Baby…that’s not right,” she sighed, looking into her half-sisters chocolate orbs, “no one should say that. And if Michael really was your boyfriend he would have stood up for you. You said Tyler stood up for you, right?”

“Uh-huh…”

“People that love you will always stick up for you, baby!”

“But my real mommy didn’t want me!” she argued, “no one wants me…you and daddy just feel bad for me!”

“Don’t you ever say that again!” Maddie said firmly, holding the little girl at arm’s length. Maddie’s tears reflected Evie’s and both of them refused to move a muscle, “I don’t want you to ever say that again…”

“But it’s true!”

“I want you!” Maddie said quickly, a tear streaming down her cheek, “I want you so desperately to be part of the family Evie…our mother was a mean woman…but I wanted you so badly. I fought for you!”

“We fought for you!” Jake agreed from the door.

Both Evie and Maddie looked teary eyed at Jake. Jake felt like his throat was closing up, seeing two of his girls in so much pain, but he pushed himself further into the room. He dropped to his knees, “Evie…Maddie and I want you…Maddie and I adopted you when we got you here…remember?”

The little girl nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks.

But the trio was shocked when they heard another voice from the door.

“We want you too, Evie!” Tyler proclaimed, “You’re my big sister…you’re all of our big sister…”

“Sissy!” the three-year-old Jacob chirped. Layla nodded in agreement, rocking back and forth on her feet.

“We love you, sissy!”

Evie sniffled and Jake led the charge, wrapping his arms around both Maddie and her. The Jensen babies were quick to join in and they all began to reaffirm the love that they held for Evie. Maddie sniffled and Jake’s eyes caught hers.

‘I love you!’ she mouthed.

And Jake tearily smiled, wondering how his life managed to go so right.

“Hey…”

Cami looked up from her desk, surprised to see Sam standing there with kindergarteners Jamie and Stephanie, and his own four-year-old daughter, Kaya. She bit her lip, unable to hold back the smile from her lips, “well hey there guys…what are you doing here?”

“A few of the guys were working on some new prototypes for the wings on my suit…”he said with a shrug, “picked the girls up, and was going to take them down to the tech lab since the daycare closed down for the day…”

“Again?”

“Your newborn brother can be thanked for that…” he said while holding back a chuckle. Cami frowned, nervous to ask. Sam bit his lip, “apparently one of the women was playing with him, and he wouldn’t let go of her finger…”

“Oh no…”

“He snapped it!”

Cami gasped, “No.”

“Was pretty funny watching Buck come and get him…” Sam admitted, “but it’s better than Mel coming down. You know she would have made those poor girls feel bad for it. Your dad just looks sad when he tries to fight over it.”

“Oh god…is he arguing with them again?”

“Baby, it’s the second time James injured one of the workers…”

“He’s a serum baby…they know that they’re supposed to not stick their hands in his face,” she sighed, “he’s got super strength. I mean, Jamie and Stephanie are a lot more mild-mannered than him, and me and Steve were there a lot more…I mean, he cut down on the missions he took, and I didn’t work for a while when I had them…mom is a counselor with those groups and dad’s never slowed down. James is bored! Of course he’ll break bones and test waters if someone allows him to.”

“Doesn’t do that to your mom!”

“Mom does have a way with Barnes boys…” she laughed to herself, “she puts them in their place, and quick!”

“Mommy come with us!” Jamie begged, interrupting the adult conversation.

Stephanie and Kaya agreed, “Come down to play with us!”

“Mommy’s busy babies…I have a lot of work I need to do!”

“Please!” Kaya asked, running up to Cami’s desk, “we wanna show you a card we made…we made cards!”

“A card?”

Sam nodded, pulling the attention away from the girls, “they made you and Nia a card because mother’s day was coming up next month…”

“You girls made us cards?”

The girls giggled, excitedly nodding along. A chorus of squeals met her ears, “and I have to come down with you guys?”

“Uh huh!”

“YEAH!”

“Come with us, mommy!”

“See my mommy?”

“Yes, Kaya, we can stop at the medical ward and see your mommy too!” she agreed, lifting the young Wilson girl up, “after we drop daddy off to go play with his wings, we can see mommy Nia!”

“Daddy us uppies too?”

Sam smiled, lifting Jamie up first, only to pass her off to Cami, who balanced her on the other hip, and then he turned to Stephanie who was giddly awaiting to be picked up by him.

“Uppies!” Stephanie giggled.

“Yeah, yeah!” Sam smiled, lifting her up, “now you three are stuck with us!”

“YAY!” Kaya giggled.

“Mission Accomplish!”

“To tech!” Jamie demanded.

“Yep,” Sam nodded, already starting out the door, “Mission accomplished girls. We got mommy out of the office! Now lets go play with Uncle Tony’s tech and then we’ll see your mommy Kaya!”

The girls were a mess of giggles, chattering excitedly the whole way down to the tech wing, but as soon as Sam let them go to try on the wings, the girls all lost interest.

It didn’t matter that he was the new Captain America, or that the wings were easily way bigger than them. The girls were far more excited by the prospect of showing off their cards.

They had jointly handed off their card for Cami, but the twins insisted that they take the card up to Kaya’s mom. Sam was okay with the idea, seeing the girls were already starting to get a little bored being forced to be in the space that wasn’t friendly to a child.

So they quickly made their way up to the medical wing. Doctor Cho had told Cami that Nia was off in the office, catching up on paperwork.

And surprised she was, when Cami opened the door to the office, and three little girls were bunched up beside her, rushing on in.

“Hey, I hope you don’t mind,” she said quickly as the girls ran to the front of the desk, “Doctor Cho said it was okay and we wanted to surprise you!”

Nia smiled, genuinely taken back seeing her little girl excitedly peering at her from over the edge of the desk, “You…wanted to surprise me?”

Cami smiled at how surprised Nia actually looked. She looked from her daughter to her one time best friend, tears lining her eyes. Kaya was giggling, the four-year-old holding out a mother’s day card that was nothing more than a bunch of scribbles to her.

“Momma, you!”

“She’s handing it to you, momma!” Cami smirked.

Nia rushed around the desk and knelt down to her daughter, overwhelmed by the emotions that she’d felt. She reached out, her hand stroking her daughter’s cheek, before pushing back to tuck some of her curls behind her ear, “it’s beautiful baby.”

“Love you momma!”

Kaya nearly threw herself against her mother, her tiny arms wrapping around her as much as they could. Nia leaned into her daughter’s touch, “oh baby…thank you.”

The card lay nearly forgotten between the two of them for a few moments.

“If you’re willing to spring yourself from Dr. Cho for a bit, we could go and grab lunch with the girls. Sam is testing some new wings in the courtyard.”

“Do you wanna grab some lunch, baby?” Nia asked.

Kaya nodded excitedly, “We go lunch with mommy and momma.”

“Yeah baby!” Nia confirmed, “let’s go grab some lunch.”

Sasha bit her nails, unsure of what to do. She sighed, taking a deep breath as the doctor looked at her, “there’s nothing wrong with your daughter, Mrs. Barber, or so it appears, but we’ll know more after tonight.”

“See, I told you,” Andy smiled reassuringly, “Ashley is doing great!”

“Andy, she’s wetting the bed and screaming in the middle of the night…” she said worriedly, “last week she stopped breathing.”

“You thought she stopped breathing.”

“You don’t have to deal with it,” she grumbled, “you sleep like a rock, Andy…”

“Baby…”

“Well, the two of you will have a night off tonight at least,” the doctor attempted to joke, “the sleep study should reveal any issues that she’s been having and we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

Andy and Sasha shared a look before turning their attention back to the doctor, “you mean we can leave her here?”

“She’ll be monitored the whole night. You two are free to leave. The sleep study will end and we’ll have the results by nine AM.”

“Why do you have to discredit everything that I do?” she spat, the left overs to the dinner she, Andy, and Michael had enjoyed, now being put away.

Andy frowned, “what are you talking about, Sash?”

“The doctor’s office, earlier..I thought Ashley stopped breathing,” she remarked, “no, Andy…I didn’t think it happened. It did happen. I was check-“

“Here we go again,” Andy growled, cutting her off, “you check on the kids through the night and you spotted her in a second where her breath hitched. You didn’t have to go rushing in and make it seem like you were saving her life, Sasha. Ashley was fine. You scared her when you woke her up like that”

“I’m not crazy, Andy…she did stop breathing!”

“Look, I get it…the kids weren’t your first option, but you’re going overboard, Sasha,” he said angrily, his arms crossing over his broad chest. He leaned against the counter and glared at her, “but we had Michael. You walked away and left me with him. He turned out fine. When you came back, you agreed to a second child. You wanted Ashley just as much as I did. You can’t keep going back and forth about this.”

“What the hell are you saying, Andy?”

“You need to get help,” he said simply, shrugging his shoulders, “I was talking to Bucky and the guys about it bec-“

“You were talking to Bucky?” she growled, “why the hell were you talking to Bucky and the guys about our relationship, Andrew?”

“Mel’s a counselor baby!”

“Don’t baby me,” she replied angrily, “this is not a situation you can just ‘baby’ your way out of. You were talking about me to the guys…”

“I think you could really help from the support groups that Melissa helps run.”

“I’m not going to that, Andy…we tried it when I went through the postpartum with her, and it didn’t work,” she answered, her defenses building up because of her anger, “my meds are good, and I evened out!”

“You haven’t,” Andy declared, “even before the other week when Ashley supposedly stopped breathing, you were doing things, putting her through unnecessary tests. There’s nothing wrong with our daughter, Sasha…”

“Andy yes there is!”

“No, there isn’t!” he argued, “now here’s what’s going to happen, Sash…because I’m fucking tired of this. Tomorrow morning, when we pick up Ashley and the doctor says there’s nothing wrong with her, you’re going to drop it. No more testing. No more scaring her. We’re done with this endless, needless chase.”

“Somethings wrong, And-“

“SASHA if you don’t drop it, I’m going to drop you…plain and simple. Stop looking for things to be wrong!” Andy said definitively, “because the only issues that exist are the ones that you’re creating!”

“I don’t want to do it, Ari…”

Ari smiled, watching as his wife held their eldest, balanced on her hip, “you’ve already done it once, my love…but if you’re really upset about letting Isaac going to kindergarten in the fall, we could always-“

“Oh no, Levinson, I know where you’re going with that,” Britt smirked. She was quick to cover Israels’ ears, even though the sick kindergartener was in a deep sleep against his mother, “and watch that mouth of yours daddy bears…we’ve got baby ears nearby.”

Ari licked his lips and eyed his wife’s form, her sleep shorts leaving her thighs bare, while the fabric of the cami was pushed down ever so slightly from Israel leaning against her chest, “well…he is asleep…we could put him back down in his bed.”

“Ari…”

Ari sighed, knowing how much she missed spending her days with her growing children. She’d been far too busy at the law firm with her father lately, and had begun missing out on mile markers like Israel losing his first tooth and the Thanksgiving play. And she’d missed Isaac learning how to tie his shoes. And their youngest…Britt was heartbroken when she missed Arianna’s first day of daycare just so that she could get some socialization with children other than her two older brothers.

“I know mommy bear!” Ari agreed, coming in close to his wife. He reached out and took Israel out of her arms, and the little boy snuggled against his father, adjusting quickly, “you wanted to go back to work though…”

“I thought I would be okay…”

“We can talk to your dad together if you want,” Ari offered, “I’m sure he’d underst-“

“No…we can’t bring it up!” she frowned, “you know how much issues he’s having with Sasha…”

“But if this is affecting you this much-“

“Ari…dad doesn’t need the stress…I-I’ll get through it,” she argued quickly and quietly, following her husband as he went to Israel’s room and laid the five year old down, “I just didn’t know that I’d miss spending this much time with the kids…and I mean, one of us has to work…you retired from the embassy. And-“

“Hey…calm down,” Ari said gently. She stared helplessly up at him while he held her by the shoulders, “you are an amazing, intelligent woman, who is a force to be reckoned with, in and out of the courtroom. But you are just one woman. You need to take care of yourself just as much as you want to take care of everyone else. If not being home is getting to you this much that you need an out, I’ll go back to work. I have contacts, and I could pick up as an independent contractor…and I can do it all from home.”

“I can’t just leave dad in the dust…”

“You’re not…and he’ll understand that. You’re a junior partner, and you’ve done so much for him with the law firm. You could still consult. You could work from home if you really want. I’m sure your dad would appreciate you being the one who looks up the background for his cases. He’d love to have some free time. You could step down, and do the leg work,” Ari said kindly, “you’ve always loved that best about being a lawyer anyways.”

“I have…” she admitted, thoughtfully thinking it over, “god, I really have.”

Ari smiled, “see…and you could spend more time with the kids…and with me…”

“There it is,” she teased, “the real reason he’s helping out…”

“Hey…if I get to taste that honeypot more often, who knows,” he shrugged playfully, “I may convince you of a fourth child yet…”

“Ari…”

“That’s not a no,” he smirked, finally letting go of his wife and sauntering out of the room. Britt felt a sense of relief as she thought about what she and Ari discussed. She could talk to her father, and if she really needed to, she knew that Ari would go with her as well and she wouldn’t have to worry about anything other than taking care of herself and her family, “you coming to bed, mommy bear?”

Britt giggled, finally exiting her son’s bedroom. As the door clicked softly behind her she was surprised to see Ari’s shirt in the middle of the hall, leading towards the open bedroom door. As she walked and picked it up, she spotted his sleeping pants just around the corner of the door.

“Ari…”

“Come to bed, mommy bear….daddy’s got a little of his own honey waiting for you…”

Britt giggled a little bit more, her previous anxieties washing away as she lightly jogged down the remaining length of the hall and into her bedroom. Her eyes nearly bulged out as she shut the door. Her husband was laying naked on the bed in front of her.

“Well hello there, mommy bear,” he smirked huskily. Britt’s eyes raked down his muscular, hairy frame. The rasp in his voice sent a shiver down her spine, and her thighs instinctively clenched. Her mouth went dry as she watched him stroking his already hard cock, “should we make a little extra time to let mommy bear feel good?”

“Oh I think she more than deserves it!” she purred, sauntering towards her husband as her fingers worked on pulling her camisole off.