Chapter 12 Carrying Twins

"Are you alright?" Hunter called through the door after Aria had mysteriously fled in the middle of eating breakfast. 

Aria almost groaned, wiping her mouth that now tasted distinctively of grape pancakes. 

"This all your fault," she told him, walking out the door again.

 "How?" Hunter asked her confused.

 Aria glared at him, "You got me pregnant, the one time we don't use protection and this is the result," she grumbled. 

Hunter just smiled as she took a seat, he knew that even though Aria was pretending it was a bad thing she was ecstatic. Maybe twenty was a little too young, but neither of the Zions would change their decision for the world. 

"We have a doctor's appointment soon and then you have lunch with Alicia," Hunter told her, staring disapprovingly at her still dressed in her night clothes. 

"Don't mention her name," Aria grumbled. As soon as she had found out about the pregnancy Alicia had been so excited, claiming that she would be the best great auntie ever. Aria hadn't worked out anyway to get her out of her child's life. They were due for their scan it was fifteen weeks and they were hoping to find out the gender this time, they had another at ten weeks but it was to early. 

"I'm really happy at the moment," Hunter told Aria, giving her a kiss. 

This was enough to make Aria smile, "Me too," she agreed.  

Aria hated ultrasounds they seemed to do a lot without actually telling you what they were doing.

 "Just excuse me a minute," the nurse told them not explaining why. 

Aria reached out to grab Hunter's hand, "It'll be fine," he promised his eyes on the screen that showed their child. A doctor came in to have a look, leaving Aria more worried than before.

 "You're expecting twins," he announced quite suddenly and both Aria and Hunter looked at each other in shock. 

"Now they're identical and they share a placenta," he said after a few moments giving them time to recover. 

"Is that bad?" Hunter asked. 

"No it just means they run the risk of developing twin to twin transfusion, which is an unequal flow of blood to each twin, which affects growth," the doctor explained to them, "but don't worry it only happens to one out of ten. You'll just need to have scans every two weeks from 16 weeks to 24 weeks. Its also normal in all identical twins that one won't grow to the same size which I'm already seeing so you're probably going to be looking at an early birth before 37 weeks as your smaller twin may stop growing." Aria nodded, looking down at her stomach for the first time afraid for the life in side. Hunter gently squeezed her hand, trying to reassure her it would be okay.

 "So would you like to know the gender?" the doctor questioned them. Both Hunter and Aria nodded eagerly the seriousness of their condition forgotten in their excitement. 

"Looks like a girl," he informed them.  

Hunter and Aria were scared at first at the thought of having twins, all they responsibility heaped onto them but they quickly decided it was a blessing. The first thing they focused on doing was setting up the nursery meaning Aria's salon station had to gone.

 Which was fine since Hunter C had just lost his job at the bistro after they had to make cutbacks, so he quickly agreed to take over Aria's business until she was ready to come back. 

They could easily afford to live off the fashion designs Aria was selling and Hunter's book royalties. 

"What do you think about Cameron?" Aria asked one night. 

Hunter made a sound, "You can't turn down every name," Aria snapped. 

"I'm not," Hunter protested. 

Aria just gave him a look, studying the name book again, "How about we name one each," she proposed. 

Hunter considered if for a second, "Alright," he agreed. 

Every name that the other one came up with they hated, so finding two names they both liked would be a mission. Aria decided on Cameron, Hunter on Violet. Neither really liked the name the other chose and while Aria was very vocal about it, Hunter was careful not to be. The hormones were getting to Aria and the fact the twins had developed early signs of TTTS which meant weekly ultrasounds. She had had just about had enough of Alicia and the family and was prepared to stamp on her phone. She didn't want them near her children, and Hunter was the only one stopping her from telling them. 

They finally finished the nursery and looked at their handy work with pride, two cots stood waiting to be filled. 

Aria's specialist had carried out a procedure that would hopefully help the second twin, but he wasn't happy at how small it was looking. By 34 weeks it had all but stopped growing, they wanted to see if they could hold out a little bit in the hopes it would continue its growth but no such luck. Aria was booked in to be induced at 35 weeks, lucky for them everything was prepared. 

"Call as soon as their born," Constance, Hunter C and Buck demanded. All of them were already parents so they knew how it went. Aria was at least glad her babies would have mates to play with. 

"It's going to be okay, isn't it?" Aria asked Hunter, before they left. Hunter pulled her into a kiss, "Of course, their confident." 

Aria hesitated she loved her unborn children more than she thought possible she couldn't even begin to imagine the pain she would feel if she lost one of them. 

Chapter 11 Two Years Gone

"It's the red one," Alicia called out to Aria snapping her out of her thoughts.

 "What?" Aria asked confused, she hadn't really been listening to what Alicia had been saying. 

Alicia just shook her head, "Never mind, are you coming to visit the family in summer?" Alicia questioned her. 

Aria internally groaned, "Um I don't think so, we just don't have the money for it," she said shrugging. Alicia gave her a look, one that Aria was very familiar with, "They'll pay your flights." 

"No it doesn't feel right, I like making my own money," Aria countered smiling. 

Alicia sighed, "Your loss, so what were you thinking about?" 

Aria looked down, "I was just wondering what Hunter had planned for Love Day," she admitted.

 Alicia smiled, "It'll probably be a picnic at the park, he's a romantic like that." 

"And Norman's not?" she asked. 

Alicia rolled her eyes, "If you count the flowers his assistant brought romantic then yeah. To be honest I think he's flying us over to Sunlit Tides." 

"Well that's good, isn't it?" Aria asked confused. 

"He has a business meeting there," Alicia informed her.

 "Oh," is all Aria said in reply. Once again Aria found herself wondering if Alicia and Norman were really in love, she doubted it, the family needed some of his business, so they had married off their daughter like she was just a business asset. Thinking that made it easier to stay in the same room with her, but not by much. Aria remembered clearly the conversation she had with Hunter that led her to this moment.  

"What am I going to do they killed my parent's, for what?" Aria screamed at Hunter upset, it had been a few days after her parents funeral. Hunter stood there calm as anything but Aria could tell that inside he was secretly fuming, "Aria you need to calm down," he told her.

 "Calm down? I can't I don't know what they want, it doesn't make any sense. Nobody that evil cares that much about their family," she said continuing to scream. 

"I don't know either Aria but," Hunter started pausing on the word as if unsure if now was the time to bring the subject up. 

"What?" Aria hissed. 

"You know this isn't the end," he finally said. 

"Why like killing my parents isn't enough?" she snapped. 

Hunter sighed before he said, "You got a text from Alicia today she said that she hoped you'd had enough time to come to your senses." 

Aria exploded, "What right does she have? I hate her I hate them, this is my fault I never should have looked for my bio mother, I ruined everything."

 Hunter hugged her, "No Aria, this isn't your fault. I don't know why they doing this but its not you," he assured her. 

Aria sniffed feeling a fresh lot of tears coming on, "I have a brother and a sister Hunter, what if they're next." Hunter didn't say anything, this wasn't something he could fix. Aria let the tears fall, the crying exhausted her as she fell asleep in Hunter's arms. Hunter moved her to the couch and a few hours when she did come back down she had made her decision, "I'll join their family," she announced in a whisper.  

The first time Aria met the family she wanted to be sick. They acted as if they were so excited to meet her, as if they hadn't blackmailed her to be one of them. Aria had learnt to hide her feelings well in the last two years, but she hated them all. She hated the fact her and Alicia lived in the same town and the fact she had to see her.  It didn't take her long to understand the reason why they wanted Aria as part of the family so much, and just this once it wasn't her fault. As Aria learned in the criminal business it was all about respect, the Amador family were at the top because they were ruthless and unrivaled. Ariel after what happened to James, started working with the FBI to bring them to down from the inside. Somehow the family found out, unfortunately Ariel wouldn't back down and she had to be taken care of. However some of the family's employees the ones a step away from the inner sanctum starting questioning them, if they couldn’t handle their own family, how could they run the business? They couldn't even order the daughter who was going to ruin them to be killed. Enter Aria, she was the perfect example to prove Ariel was a one off a bad shot in the line, so to speak. It took Aria a while to realize but she was being used to advertise the family, prove they were as strong as ever. She was the only family member that hadn't had a part in the family, and by forcing her in they appeared unified and her hatred of Ariel proved the point even more. Aria hated herself for what she was doing, but two years had started to numb her to it. 

Things her in life were going well despite this, she never accepted the family's money and her styling business was better than ever. Hunter had more books and best-seller's to the list. 

"You're home," Hunter said cheerfully as Aria walked through the door after getting back from seeing Alicia.

 "Yeah," Aria said tiredly.

"That bad?" Hunter asked. 

Aria rolled her eyes, "When isn't it?"

 "It'll get better," Hunter promised. 

"I doubt it," Aria replied sadly. 

"Wait, I have good news," Hunter declared thinking of something that would cheer her up. 

"What?" Aria asked a tad excited at seeing Hunter's smiling face. 

"Hunter C called and said him, Constance, and Buck have all decided on Egypt for a summer holiday, which means we're going to," he told her.

 Aria grinned, she hadn't heard anything better. Constance and her husband Buck much to Aria's surprise were now her other two best friends and Hunter C got on with them as well to. Aria had indeed grown up, her selfishness although still part of her, had been put firmly in the past. She didn't have time to be selfish when someone else controlled her life, it was this thought that made Aria's smile disappear from her face. 

"We can't," she told Hunter. 

"Why?" he asked confused. 

"Because we're meant to be going with the family and I told them we couldn’t afford to go anywhere," Aria informed him. 

"I'll call the others," was all Hunter said there was no argument or discussion they didn't need to.

 The Amador family was not one you messed with, for anything.  

A coupe of days later Love Day arrived and Hunter took Aria to the spring festival the perfect distraction for her. She sometimes wondered why Hunter stood by her side life would have been easier with someone else. For the first time in ages, Aria remembered what it was like to be young and careless. Aria and Hunter skated like they use to as kids, but Aria couldn't remember how they got so out of practice as she fell on her face. 

The did things they hadn't since they were teenagers and Aria wished she could just rewind to that time.

 They both thought it was pretty funny when she sneaked behind the kissing booth and Hunter pretended he was a customer. 

The night ended with them watching the stars, as Hunter pointed out some of his favorite constellations and they whispered about the people around them. 

Although it would be inaccurate to say the night exactly ended there. 

Aria had never been more happy in her life, but as they saying goes there's a calm before the storm. If Aria had thought life had dealt her, her dish and she could move on she had never been more wrong.