It was the middle of the night when I heard  a creaking sound. The hall light beamed in as my door opened. Gee stood there happily,

"Daddy, can I cuddles?" Gee asked.

"Of course," I said.

Gee crawled into bed between me and Jamia, making my wife stir awake.

"Hey, baby, did you have a nightmare?" She asked.

Gee shook his head. "I missed you."

"Oh, you're so sweet," she mumbled.

Jamia kissed his cheek and cuddled up close to him. The two quickly fell asleep but I wasn't so tired anymore. Instead I watched the way their chests rose and fell.

When morning came not long after I got up to get the kids ready for school. Miles' alarm was going off, the constant beeping driving me a bit insane.

"Daddy, I don't feel good," I heard a soft voice whimper.

Cherry stood in the hallway behind me and I knelt down, pressing a hand to her forehead.

"Jamia! Cherry's sick!" I called.

Nobody pretended to be sick to get out of going to school in our household because of what being sick entails. We had to take special precautions because of Gee.

I picked cherry up and took her back to her room, shooing Lily out. I grabbed sanitation wipes and began wiping down everything in the room and the hallway that Cherry could've possibly touched. Jamia got hand sanitizer and sprayed it over gee's hands, rubbing them thoroughly. She gave him his pastel pink surgical mask and he let out an unhappy whine. He hated wearing masks.

"Alright, line up," I said.

Miles and Lily came over and got hand sanitizer too. I could hear Cherry crying, I felt bad but she had to be quarantined because Gee couldn't get sick. Jamia took the temperatures of all the kids and allowed them to go. Miles looked a little annoyed with all the fuss but he doesn't remember the last time Gee got sick, he was only a baby.

"I'm gonna be late," Miles complained as he stripped down to his underwear so Jamia could wash his clothes.

Maybe it's a bit extreme but we couldn't risk anything.

"That's okay, I'll drive you," I said.

He rolled his eyes and went back to his room. Lily was refusing to give up her stuffed bear as Jamia got her undressed. Her little hands clutched to it tight.

"Daddy, no," she sobbed. "I want Mr. Stuffy!"

"You'll get him soon," I promised.

It ripped my heart as I ripped the toy from her hands.

"Gee, go downstairs," I said.

He went downstairs and Jamia got some clean clothes before following him down there. I held Lily close, picking her up as I heard Miles' school bus drive by.

"Dad," Miles whined. "Can I just stay home?"

"No you can't," I denied.

He sighed and got dressed.

"I don't get why we have to make a big deal out of it," Miles complained. "Everyone gets sick."

"It's different for your brother, you know he has immunity problems," I said.

"He's not my brother," he stated.

"Stop that," I ordered. "Get dressed."

I went into the twins' room and sat Cherry down in the bed.

"You just need to get some rest, sweetheart," I said.

"No, don't wanna," she whined.

I got some clothes for Lily before leaving the room again. I doused my hands in sanitizer before getting lily dressed and downstairs. Gee was on the couch watching teletubbies with a bowl of grapes.

"Hey, Princess, you feeling okay?" I asked.

Gee smiled and nodded.

"Dad, can you drive me to school instead of Jamia?" Miles asked.

"Miles, stop calling her Jamia, she is your mother," I said. "And I'm staying here with Gee. Did you make sure to wash your hands extra good, Princess?"

Gee nodded and miles groaned when he realized I wasn't going to be adding to our conversation at all. He stormed off upstairs but I decided to just ignore him.

"I washed it for the whole ten three times," he said, declaring he'd washed it for thirty seconds.

"Good boy," I muttered. "You stay here cuddled up, I'm gonna go do some cleaning."

Jamia rounded up the two kids and headed off while I grabbed a rag and a bottle of bleach. I scrubbed at every surface I could see before going back upstairs with some food for Cherry. She was asleep so I left the buttered toast by the bed before leaving.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" Gee asked.

"Cherry isn't feeling very good," I explained. "She's gonna stay in her room until she's feeling better."

"Can I cuddle her to make her feel better?" Gee asked.

"Oh but then you'll feel icky too," I said. "We can't have you feeling icky. Do you...do you remember the last time you felt icky? When Miles was just a little baby?"

Gee shook his head, popping a grape into his mouth.

"You didn't feel good," I said.

"These grapes feel good in my mouth," he said.

I smiled, kissing his forehead. He smiled, holding out a grape for me. I quietly accepted, letting him feed it to me.

"Why doesn't Cherry feel good?" He asked.

"She's just got a little fever," I said. "She'll be better in a few days."

Gee nodded. "I'm gonna color a picture for her so that way she feels better faster."

"I think she'll like that," I said.

Gerard went off to color and I grabbed my notebook. I was working on some lyrics but I just kept getting frustrated. Jamia got home and kissed me on the cheek.

"Just keep working at it, you're gonna get it," she promised when she realized I was having a hard time writing. "How is our baby girl doing?"

"Sleeping," I said.

"I feel so bad for her," she mumbled.

"I know, I hate it when they get sick," I said. "How was Miles on the drive to school?"

"Refused to talk to me," she sighed. "I know he's going through puberty and that makes him super hormonal and stuff but...it hurts. I raised him, he's my son even if he doesn't have my blood."

"I'll try talking to him later," I said.

She nodded, giving me a gentle kiss.

"Sweetheart, it's gonna be okay," I said. "I was thinking that maybe the next time I go on tour I could bring him with me, we'll have a tour in the summer so he doesn't miss school. He'll be outside away from the computers and video games. I'll have a better time to bond with him. And maybe I can take Gee along too, he'll get to spend some time with his little brother and hopefully that'll bring them closer too."

"That sounds good," she said. "I don't think him being here with me would help anyone, we wouldn't be bonding and we would probably just argue a lot. He gets all whiny when you're away on tour. He won't admit it but I think he misses you."

Gee hurried in, giving his mom a hug.

"I wanna give Cherry kisses to make her feel better," he said.

"I'm sorry but you can't go near her, we can't have you getting sick as well," she said.

Gee pouted but didn't say anything.

"You eat breakfast?" Jamia asked.

"I had fruit," he said.

"Healthy breakfast for our healthy boy," she said.

"I'm healthy, mama," he said.

"I know you are," she replied. "Come on, let's go take a bath."

He nodded and the two of them went upstairs together.

"Daddy!" Cherry called.

I went up and saw the plate of toast was now empty.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" I asked.

Cherry shrugged. "I wanna go downstairs, Daddy."

"I know you do but Gee can't get sick," I said.

"Why is everything always about him?" She asked. "He gets everything!"

"Things are just different with him," I said. "You'll understand when you get bigger."

"I wanna be bigger now," she pouted.

"You'll be bigger soon," I said. "But for now you get to stay my beautiful little girl."

"I'm not little," she denied. "I'm bigger than Lily."

"You are," I said.

"I gotta go potty," she said.

I smiled and took her to the bathroom before returning her to her room. She played with her dolls on the floor when I went downstairs, washing my hands.

"Gee is up in his room having a nap," Jamia said when she walked down.

"Are you wearing different clothes?" I asked.

"Yeah, Gee decided to splash me with bubbles," she said. "He insisted that the submarine toy needed to go on a wild adventure."

"He's such a cutie," I said.

"So, what do you have written so far?" She asked.

"Shit," I said. "I know it's supposed to be my third album and all but nothing is coming to me, it's like there's no flow. I can't get those creative juices moistened up."

"Ew, why do you have to say it like that," Jamia said, hitting my shoulder.

"Seriously though, I've written a couple stuff but I don't like anything that I have written," I said. "It's all just shit."

"I'm sure it's not that bad, come on, let me hear some of it," she said.

"No, no, it's not ready yet," I said. "Trust me, I'll show you it when I know that it's ready."

Jamia smiled, resting her head on my shoulder.

"You should have hidden Miles' birth certificate better," she muttered.

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry," I said. "I wasn't expecting him to find it, and especially wasn't expecting him to freak out so much when he found out you weren't his mom."

"You couldn't have predicted that," Jamia said.

"He's an angsty kid going through puberty, it's exactly what I should have predicted," I said. "He'll get passed this faze, he'll go back to normal soon."

"Good, I miss him calling me mom," she mumbled.

I gave her a soft kiss.

"Come on, let's go take a little nap," I said.

She smiled as I pulled her up to my bedroom where we all but slept.