Chapter 73

Jon looked up at the screen, sure enough, right behind baby Bongiovi Girl B, two was a head and two arms.  Jon slowly started to slide down to the floor.

“Trio, not a duet, but a trio.”  Jon mumbled as he sat propped against the wall, pulling away from the nurse in a futile attempt to get away from the foul smell of ammonia "popper", faint giggles surrounding him.

“Three, we’re having triplets?”  Lexie asked.

“I hope this one’s a baby brother.”  Romeo mumbled as he looked at the third baby on the screen.

“Is it a girl too?”  Stephanie asked, her fingers crossed.  Being in the minority in the house, it would be nice for the girls to outnumber the boys.

“Its sister is blocking the view, we’ll just label it Baby Bongiovi C.”  Doctor Sally said as he helped Jon stand.  “I hope you’re not going to do this in the delivery room.”  He teased Jon.

Lexie kept her eyes on the screen, two girls and a third one?  “I’m not having twins but triplets?”  She slowly sat up. Stephanie handed her a towel to wipe off the gel.

“That means, you’ll be coming back more often, we’ll try again after the holidays to see if baby three is also a girl.”  Doctor Sally said as he made a notation in the file. 

“Daddy, can we go by the mall tomorrow?” Romeo asked.

“Mall, sure, why?”  Jon asked his youngest.

“I got to see a man in a red suit about ordering a brother.”  Romeo said in a serious voice.  “Sissy asked for a sister and got two, I want to ask for a baby brother.”

The last of the four that still believed in Santa.  Jon smiled and patted him on the shoulder.  He would need to see the jeweler about adding another rattle to his order.

All the way home, they talked about how they would tell the family about the new trio coming to the family.

“We’ll announce it at the party.”  Jon told then as they headed into the tunnel on the way back to the river house.

“Jon, you know what this means?”  Lexie asked him.  “We need to start looking for a larger place to live in the city.”

Jon was more thinking in the moment and not in the long term.

“We got a while before you need to look.”  Jon told Lexie.

“You have tour starting, I have to be in Atlanta in a month, and the kids have school.  When are we going to have time?”  Lexie nibbled on her bottom lip.

“I’ll call the realtor that found the penthouse and have her start looking.  Will that be okay?”  Jon asked her as he pulled into the Garden State Parkway and headed to exit nine.

“I guess so, we have four months to find a place.  I wanted to start looking at furniture, three of everything.  We can’t go with pink, because we don’t know what number three is.” Lexie pulled out her ever present notebook and pen.

“Why don’t you do the room in a green and yellow colors, sort of generic baby colors?”  Stephanie leaned forward to the front seat.

“That’s true, those are natural baby colors.”  Lexie agreed.  “It will need to be a big room, to fit three cribs, changing tables and dressers.”

So Lexie and Stephanie talked about baby things all the way home.

True to his word he stood in the Santa Clause line with Romeo, so he could make his bid for a baby brother.  It was just Jon and Romeo, Stephanie and Lexie were looking online at baby items, Jesse and Jacob were helping Carlotta with moving things around for the party in two days.  After spending thirty minutes in line, they went to the food court for hot chocolate and coffee.

“So, Romey, you want a baby brother?”  Jon asked as he watched his youngest grow a whipped cream mustache.

“Yeah, Steph is the oldest, then Jesse and Jacob and me.” He wiped his lip with the back of his hand.

“Yeah, that’s because we had you last.”  Jon said as he handed Romeo a napkin.  “That’s how things happen.”

“I know,” He took the napkin and wiped his hand and lips.  “Jesse taught Jacob and me how to play football, Jacob taught me how to play Mario, who do I get to teach?”

“You could teach the girls how to play football, or play video games when they grow older.”  Jon said watching how Romeo processed the ideas.

“But it’s not the same, they’re girls.”  He said as he finished his hot chocolate.  “I can’t be the real older brother.”  He looked up at his dad.

He didn’t seem to understand that he would still be an older brother to the, then it hit him.  He would be the older brother of a little brother, instead of the youngest brother.

“I understand Romey, I understand.”  They threw the cups in the trash and headed to shop.

The day of the party, Christmas Eve dawned snowy, Lexie had been up with the birds, making sure everything was ready for the party.  Jacob came down in his PJ’s, he came into the family room and watched Lexie flitter around the tree.

“All this work and its over by lunch tomorrow.  Romey will be up before the sun, to see what Santa brought him.”  He yawned, “I’ll hook up the video for tonight, its looks good.” 

“I bet it does.”  Lexie came over and sat by Jacob.  “Do you like doing that sort of thing, videotaping?”

“Yeah kinda, I take all the videos when we go out trips, either with dad, or St. Barts.”  Jacob reached over for one of the gingerbread men sitting on a tray on the table.

“That’s why you’re not in any of the family shots.”  Lexie grabbed a cookie too.

“Unless Dad’s in his David Bergman mode,” He bite off a foot.  “Everyone thinks, just because I look more like him than Jesse and Romeo, I’ll be the singer just like him.  But I like being behind the camera not in front of it.”

Jon had woken up alone and went in search of Lexie.  He wished he had picked up his camera on the way down.  They were facing the tree, with their backs to him.  Of all his kids, Jacob was the quiet one, coming out of his shell more and more.  Lexie was a great mentor for Jacob.

Coming up behind them, he looked down and noticed the half eaten gingerbread in their hands.

“Cookies for breakfast?”  Jon spoke and they both jumped.

“Gingerbread has flour, eggs and milk, which makes it a breakfast food.”  Lexie said as she bite off its head.

Jon came around and sat beside Jacob. 

“Ready for tonight?”  Jon reached for a cookie.

“The house is ready, so I guess I’m ready.  The kids want to announce the baby news.”  She said looking down at Jacob and winked.

“Yeah dad, we want to be the ones to announce the baby news.”  Jacob said as he looked up at Lexie and winked back.

“Okay, if that’s what you want.”  Jon said.

The party was in full swing, packages under the tree grew and what they had bought for the guest were on the table by the door.  So when they left they could grab one.  In each basket was a copy of Lexie award winning book, the women’s bag had earrings and the men’s had a watch. It was easy to tell them apart the women’s was on one side of the door and the men’s the other. 

About nine o’clock Romeo moved everyone in the family room.  Jesse and Stephanie, made sure everyone had a glass of champagne or cider.  Jacob attached his cell phone to the TV system.

Jesse and Stephanie got to the front of the huge screen.

“We had to wrestle this from daddy,” Stephanie said to much laughter.  “Yesterday we, Jesse, Jacob, Romeo and myself, along with daddy and Lexie.  Went to the Doctor’s appointment.”

“We all got to be there when we, found out what Lexie was having.”  Jesse added.

“Many of you know Lexie and Daddy were having twins.”  Stephanie told the crowd. 

Jon was on the receiving end of head tapping and shoulder bumps.  Jon reached over and took Lexie hand, bringing to his lips he kissed her knuckles three times.

“So, we thought we would show you how the appointment went.”  Jesse informed the crowd.  “Uncle Southside will you get the lights.

Once the lights went down, Jon leaned over and whispered in Lexie’s ear.

“Did you know about this?” He whispered.

Lexie just nodded and smiled. 

There on the big screen was the family with Doctor Sally.

Everyone clapped when the Doctor announced Baby A Bongiovi was a Girl.

“A little Granddaughter.”  Carol oohed and ahhed. 

“Way to go Kidd, another girl.”  David yelled across the room.

Then the Doctor announced Baby B Bongiovi was also a girl.

“Twin Girls, Jon is after your title Lemma.”  Richie kidded David.

“What is this?”  The Doctor said.  The camera moved to Jon kissing Lexie.  Jon had looked up at the screen.

“We’ll call this one Baby C Bongiovi.”  Doctor Sally said, as the camera panned to a very pale Jon sliding to the floor.

“Trio, not a Duet, but a Trio?”  Jon was heard to mumble.  The screen went dark and a banner was held up between Jesse and Stephanie saying “Welcome Bongiovi Triplets”.

“Congratulations Daddy and Lexie on having triplet’s two girls we know for sure.  We’ll find out next month if it’s a Boy or Girl.”  Jesse announced.

You could have heard a pin drop in the room.