Terry Heaven – An OWBC

Chapter 5

By Mzyra

Family Life

So, after much longer than it should have been, Terry had finally reached old age, though with his youngest child still able to comfortably fit in his arms. And old age wasn’t scary with his wife and children by his side.

Speaking of which, Jan loved her non-biological son as much as her own kids, especially for how much little Ability was like his Daddy. And, well, knowledge sim around the supernatural, of course.

Terry himself was mostly oblivious to the unusual aspects of his son, Billy was just Billy, the little guy he gestated himself and was amazing and perfect in every way, like the rest of his siblings.

And, like the rest of his siblings, it was time for Billy to grow up and start his school years. Though Billy was more focused on cake right now.

And he continued to look a wonderful mix of both parents, with his big alien eyes, small alien ears and alien colouring, along with Terry’s nose, mouth and the rest of his face. Most unacquainted people found the eyes alarming at first, but the general conclusion was that he was pretty darn cute.

Meanwhile, his older siblings continued to do their own things. BD slobbed around and played in the bathtub when he wasn’t attempting to chat up girls…

Penny apparently developed a fascination with world news and the stock market…

Bennie was EXTREMELY nice…

And Order and Tim mostly played together as close twins would.

Billy couldn’t help but notice that he was the only one with green skin and thereby a little different, but at least the teddy was the same way! Maybe he was secretly part teddy…?

With all the kids gone off to school, Terry could finally properly resume running the business. And the simselves did rejoice. And partake of questionable activities.

Though there were more wholesome options for those so inclined, so Terry couldn’t be held entirely to blame.

And grilled cheese sandwiches available, naturally.

Nobody was certain, but they imagined the reviewer had already been partaking of questionable activities, back before he chose his clothes, hair and moustache. Still, a good review was a good review, regardless of who it came from.

But if you go away for even a small amount of time, you can’t be entirely surprised if you return to children running amok.

“Wheeeeee! I’m gonna reach the aliens!”

Fortunately the teenagers had learnt better and did their homework. And also Penny’s, because for some reason she always forgot but was too nice for anyone to hold it against her.

And BD was happy to play with and help look after his little siblings, romance aspiration or no.

And with teenagers relatively reliable and in charge, their parents were allowed some alone time, especially now that they could be almost certain of no ‘accidents’ happening anymore, though Terry probably wouldn’t have minded if they were blessed with another little miracle.

And Penny thought that what she saw outside was scandalous…

“Hey BD! Come look at what they’re doing in the hot tub at Dad’s business!”

“OH MY GOD, let me see!”

Then, the next evening, it was time for Jan to join her dear husband in elderhood. She couldn’t say she wanted to exactly, but given how close her kids were getting to growing up, it was probably best that she did. Well, that, and the fact that she hadn’t invented a way around it.

Her clothes could have been worse, although the cardigan was about two inches thick at the bottom.

“Good job, Mom! Your fashion sense has not yet shamed the family. Maybe you could discuss that with Penny please…?”

Jan decided that, stuff her so-called ‘age’, she still had the mind (and, to a lesser extent, the body) for her old clothes, and if she wanted to keep wearing them, she darn well would.

Terry completely supported her in that decision. And in bed. Because if a family sim can’t be passionate with their long-term spouse and other parent to five of their children, how can they be?

And elsewhere Bennie felt an intense desire to clean everything. Though that was probably because of the way nearly everything was unclean. Curse his being by far the neatest person in the house.

“Mess? What mess? I don’t see any mess. What about you, teddy? …What bottle that’s been there since we were toddlers?”

Tim generally preferred dancing to cleaning, and Terry could certainly understand that, even if Bennie disapproved while there was housework to be done.

Billy was the closest to understanding. And also EXTREMELY nice.

“I agree with everything you say because you are saying it and I can’t let it cross my mind to disagree!”

And after that weekend the kids were gone again…

So both Terry and Jan went to run the business for once. And eat lots of grilled cheese.

“I don’t know, you guys. I mean, I’ve been here like five times before and had a great time and the price hasn’t changed, and Terry’s my sim and I love him like a child, but… Five whole pounds, you know?”

“Mzyra! Since this is your sixth time here and you allowed me to come here and have a much better life, I’ll give you 5% off!”

“Wow, £4.75! That makes ALL the difference!”

“Great!”

“…. Can I hug you please?”

“Ask my wife.”

Somehow Mzyra got the feeling she’d forgotten to fix ACR again. At least Terry was safely married. Fellow simselves, however…

And questionable activities were enjoyed!

But at least there was no inappropriate conduct in the hot tub.

This time.

All that ‘hard work’ at the business required a good massage.

Or it was just that Terry and Jan were practically soul mates and, allowed any time to themselves, would instantly and adorably be all over each other. Much to the awkwardness of all the other occupants of the house. And the neglect of their own other bodily needs.

Speaking of adorable and sappy, BD secretly doted on all the kids, playing with them, tucking them comfortably into bed…

But there was no way girls would like that, surely? They liked confident, flirty guys with no emotions! Who walk around in their underwear!

“Hey babe, I like your hat.”

“Er, thanks, it’s just the uniform. I wouldn’t wear it if I didn’t have to.”

“It suits you. Matches your hair.”

“Um, thanks.”

“So, you want to go out with me sometime…?”

“Oh, you were hitting on me? I, uh, um, I, no I can’t. Um, sorry.”

“What… But why?”

“Um… Really busy delivering newspapers. Bye!” And she ran off.

So BD went to what always made him feel better: pretending to be a pirate.

“Avast! We shall find some beautiful mermaids and get us to first base, me hearties!”

Who knew where he got it from…

Elsewhere most of the others didn’t have relationships on the brain yet, as their hormones hadn’t kicked in. How could ‘kissing’ compare to dancing, teddies, or – most especially – cake?!

“What kind of cake?”

“Chocolate.”

“Mmmmm. How many layers, Daddy?”

“Five.”

“Wooooooooow. So if I decide to marry someone I can have a five-layer cake?”

“Um, yes, but that’s generally not why you marry someone…”

“Sounds better than the other reasons I’ve heard.”

All the siblings were quite close really; boys and girls, from oldest to youngest, regardless of aspiration. Of course, they just considered it normal.

Though one of them did wonder why they never heard anything from their other family. But he had plenty of wonderful people down on his own planet anyway.

Given everyone else’s ages, it shouldn’t have been such a surprise to their parents when it happened, but it came time for Tim and Order to enter the world of teenagers. Five in one household….

Order managed to go first and got a dress she really quite liked (though her father thought was rather low cut), but frizzier hair than she was happy with…

While Tim got a pretty bland outfit. And scruffier than he felt was appropriate really. Not if he wanted to do and earn well in the world…

So the twins went to change, while their father mournfully comfort ate for the loss of more children to teendom…

And came back looking much better.

Or they did for a short period of time, but just because he had neater clothes didn’t mean that Tim had become any neater himself, and puddle jumping was just the best thing ever, making pure white trousers muddy or not.

But that very same night was Bennie’s final opportunity to leave for university, so he determinedly took the chance, as everyone ran to wave him off.

With one sibling off growing up and moving on, it made the others think about themselves.

“So, what do you think you want to be when you grow up, sis?”

“You know, ever since I hit puberty a few hours ago, I have the strongest compulsion to have ALL OF THE BABIES. Remind me to look up how you get them. How about you?”

“Er, well… I kind of want to… do ballet? Is that silly for a boy?”

“No, that’s cool! You can teach all of my babies how to dance! We’ll have a whole ballet school of dancing babies and amaze the world!”

“Um, okay. Sure…”

“I hope Bennie has babies soon so I can babysit.”

“Order, I think you might be obsessed.”

“Tim, I think you might not be obsessed enough.”

Luckily, after some more time and enthusing with their father about how great babies are, Order calmed down, and assured her mother and twin that there would be no babies until she was an adult, she promised.

And BD assured Tim that dancing was pretty cool and probably help him get hot babes. Tim wasn’t sure that that was what he really wanted, but at least it was positive?

More so than his actual skill in it so far, at least. Ballet was hard, man.

Though ‘hard’ was subjective. Apparently rock, paper, scissors was impossible against Penny, though, in BD’s defence, that was probably more a case of it being impossible to predict Penny’s thinking.

Not being much younger than Tim and Order, finally it was Billy’s birthday out in the yard, and with a party thrown so that Bennie would come home to celebrate too.

Billy continued the surprisingly good Beckett fashion, and Terry tried not to cry in pride and joy and loss.

Billy, for his part, decided that he wanted to be a rock star. Because it looked fun, and also to get the ‘hot babes’ BD kept talking about, who definitely loved musicians.

Even if Billy didn’t love having to study mechanical in preparation for it.

~~~~~

Bennie settled into university fairly well. It was nice to go somewhere with more people his own age…

Including one woman called Suzanne Boyle, much to certain people’s amusement.

But it all involved a lot of work and effort, and he had yet to come across any hot guys. TV had lied to him on so many levels.

And, actually, so had Mzyra. Why had she even been so insistent about him coming here at all?

“Bennie! It’s Mzyra here.”

“Hi?”

“Have you considered transferring universities for a year? They have this great programme at Simfield U…”

“Is it going to be much different to this?”

“Er, sure! Um, half the amount of work, double the amount of hot guys. Promise.”

“Yeah, but two times zero is still zero.”

“Fine, I guarantee there will be at least one hot guy in your dorm if you go there.”

Bennie sighed. “Yeah, but he’ll probably be dead straight.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain of that…”

“… Fine, I guess I don’t have anything to lose.”

“Good! Oh, and don’t lock your door open when you’re unpacking, yeah? ‘Kay thanks.”

So, with a vague, but not massive, sense of hope, Bennie headed off for a transfer year. At least he’d see somewhere new.

It went rather better than he expected, even if Mzyra was being cryptic and a little ominous in her recommendations while he was there. He had a boyfriend! An actual, factual, and really rather handsome boyfriend!

Bennie had no idea how he’d survived all that time before without one, really.

Honestly, it was a real struggle to go to lectures and not just jump on him every couple of minutes.

Luckily Stern was perfectly amenable to being jumped and dragged to bed by Bennie at almost any possible time.

Though he equally enjoyed the moments when the usually active and talkative Bennie was quiet and/or asleep. Just beautiful and peaceful in his arms.

It was rare that they ever had the time and self-control to actually go out on dates, but for a special occasion…

Though it was hard to escape your own family at any time in so small a place as heaven. Even having rather loud conversations about make-outs with their friends…!

But there was probably never going to be a time when people he knew weren’t around, so Bennie proposed anyway. He liked it, and he was sure as heck putting a ring on it, romance sim or not, thank you very much. Stern was thrilled.

It was an adorable, ecstatic moment to begin the founding of their own family.

Which could only last so long before the young, testosterone fuelled romance demands returned.

Some people might have said something if it hadn’t been their fault it was happening.

“Oh look – it’s Bennie! Oh, he’s busy with that young man. I’ll talk to him later. Another orange juice, please!”

Luckily Terry couldn’t be anything but happy about such obvious love. And the fact that they weren’t actually naked at least.

And with the help of his amazing fiancé, Bennie graduated well with his proud parents at his side.

And Stern, naturally.

“Carry me over the threshold! And upstairs; I can see the bed through the window already and it’s taken long enough to get here already.”

So the couple got a nice big house across one of Heaven’s sprawling fields, still in view of Bennie’s childhood home…

And then swiftly tied the knot in the garden, in front of the pond, becoming Stern and Bennie Ryman of Heaven.

All the family excitedly attended, along with De, Bennie’s best friend since he was a kid.

And she gave Stern her blessing as an adorable and good husband for her friend. Stern couldn’t help but be even more adorably shy about it.

It was a shame that none of Stern’s family could attend from so far away, but with Bennie there and his large family, and a fantastic cake to share, Stern couldn’t feel too sad.

And the younger kids enjoyed the opportunity to dress up all posh for the first time.

And meet new people.

“Heeeey, you’re pretty.”

“Thanks, though you’re rather young to be saying it that way to me.”

“I’ll be fourteen soon!”

“Yeeeeah, sure.”

Simselves were never a good thing for the mind of a teenage boy.

The other wonderful thing about Stern was that he was neat too! No more living with a million slobs!

“So, how are you two supposed to have biological babies? Are you sure Mzyra said that?”

Bennie was sure that Mzyra said that, but he wasn’t sure how. Nonetheless, it didn’t matter much yet, there was plenty of other reason to ‘try for baby’ as it were…

But apparently that was sufficient in itself. Who knew how it was working biologically, but whatever, men had alien babies, so why not?

If anything, Bennie was actually a little more surprised that it wasn’t him who’d gotten pregnant. Though it was more convenient as Bennie was the one who actually wanted a job, and he certainly wasn’t complaining about not having to get stretch marks, lug around a baby and then give birth…

But in the end it was all worth it, even for Stern; he gave birth to a precious little girl – and Terry’s first grandchild – who looked just him.

And with that, a new generation had begun.

~~~ End of Chapter 5~~~