Chapter 2: Getting Exposure (Babies 4, 5 & 6)

"I want to thank you again for joining my challenge. I cannot believe that I'm the father of 4 kids now, soon to be 101, if you include Izzy."

Today was the morning that Becca would be moving out of my house and soon become someone else's surrogate.  We all planned on her big shift out and had a small fair, well party, the day before. Now the day is here and Becca had all her belongings packed and ready to move back to her own home. I have to admit that I'm gonna miss the adult company but I will soon have another woman here to take Becca's place.

"No need to thank me Jackson, I'm glad to help. In fact I have a friend who would like to join your challenge next if that's alright."

"You're kidding, I need all the help I can get for this challenge. Do I know this woman?"

"You bet. She's the receptionist at the A.I. Center. Her name is Magdalena Kwinn."

"And she wants to join my challenge?"

"Don't worry she's a registered surrogate too and she knows all about male challenges."

"Well tell her she's welcome to join."

"Great. I'll give her a call once I get home. Which reminds me, I better get going before I miss the train."

Becca walked over to the front door to where her suitcases sat untouched on the floor. She then turned to place Darrian back on the ground, he looked sad and almost like he was going to cry. This would be the first time the kids would be away from their mommy. As much as it saddened me to see my babies cry, their mom had to go for me to continue this challenge.

After a few short words passed from mother to son, Chase and Miya ran into the hall from the living room to say goodbye to their mommy as well. She gave each of them a kiss goodbye before leaving.

Seconds after Becca left Miya walked up to me with one arm stretched out and the saddest looking face.

"Daddy, did mommy go bye bye forever?"

I frowned when she said those words, but I bent over and picked her up. "Not at all, sweetheart. Mommy is just going to live somewhere else. She will be here to visit you all the time."

"Really, daddy? You promise?"

"I promise."

"I love you, daddy."

"I love you, too, Miya."

Miya smiled for the first time today and then gave me one of her famous, Miya kisses on the cheek. I don't know why but just that one kiss made me forget about all my troubles and sad past, and I smiled.

"Thank you for the kiss, Miya, daddy needed that."

"Hehe. You're welcome daddy."

For the next hour I sat upstairs playing 'run away from daddy' with the triplets. I had to cut the game short when I heard the house phone rang. I would have probably let it ring since I was all too exhausted from all the running around, but I was expecting a call from Izzy.

Izzy had spent a week in Sunlit Tides visiting her Uncle Sam and grandparents. After Isabella passed I never made much contact with her side of the family and I felt bad for keeping Izzy from them. Now Izzy takes two week vacations there twice a year. It was the least I could do for them and Izzy loves spending time with them all. I wasn't expecting her back for another week so I made sure I called her every chance I got and never missed a call from her.

When I answered the phone I expected Izzy to go on about how Uncle Sam tripped again on the kitchen floor, or how her and grandpa snuck a cookie before dinner without grandma knowing, but this time she went on about how she met a real life werewolf.

"A werewolf? You sure?"

"Daddy, he's a werewolf. I got to see him transform too, but he got in trouble from his mom for doing in public but it was so cool, daddy! You should have seen it"

"Wait, did you say he? Is this a boy, Izzy? Now I don't want you kissing this boyfriend of yours, Izzy."

"DADDY?! He's not my boyfriend. He's my friend. His name is Hardy and I don't like him like that."

"Alright, but no kissing. You're too young for that kind of stuff."

"DADDY!"

"Haha! Alright. Seen you soon sweetheart. I love you. Bye."

"Love you, too, daddy. Bye."

~*~

3 Weeks Later

Several things happened in the last three weeks. First of all Izzy finally came home from her trip to Sunlit Tides. All she did was talk about this Hardy kid and even mentioned how they're gonna talk on the phone and Skype with each other until they can see each other again. I'm going to have to meet this Hardy kid.

Secondly, Magdalena moved into the house. Izzy and the kids loved her. Miya especially loved her hair color and constantly kept playing with it. I was beginning to feel like she was getting annoyed, but she informed me it was fine. She helped out a lot at the daycare and was used to having her hair pulled by toddlers.

And lastly, I got a call from some photographer wanting to take pictures of me and several others for a couple of magazines she worked for. I was hesitant about this. I had never had my pictures taken professionally, especially pictures of myself shirtless, which they had mentioned. I think they thought I didn't catch them saying shirtless, but I did. I ended up agreeing to the shoot anyways. One of the magazines the woman worked for was called Challenge Daddies and she said I would be on the cover. It was a great way to get exposure in the challenge community and it would be a lot easier to get some surrogates for the challenge. Plus, I would be getting my pictures taken with two other challenge dads. I never met any other challenge father before, or mother as the matter of fact. I couldn't pass up the chance to meet other fathers doing the challenge too.

Magdalena offered to watch all my kids as I made my trip to Hidden Springs for the shoot. It was a long way from home, but thankfully it was far from my home town of Bridgeport as well.

I walked into the studio and to the front desk. No one was there so I rang the bell that sat on the counter. I did it a couple times to make sure I was heard, but no one came out. Instead someone else said hi.

"Hi."

I turned around, stunned at the sight of another person in the room. I hadn't seen or heard him when I first walked in. Which is why I was so surprised to see this man now.

"She's in the back getting the set ready. Why don't you come and sit. It might be another minute or so."

"Um, alright," I said slowly as I walked over to sit in one of the chairs next to this guy.

"Um, are you one of the challenge dads who came for the shoot too?"

"Yeah. I'm Aiden Swan. A new father to the challenge. You?"

"I'm new too. I'm Jackson Daniels."

"Hi, Jackson. Nice to meet you. So what inspired you to start this challenge?"

"Um, my wife."

"Your wife, and she's okay with it?"

"Ah, well, she's not alive anyway."

"Oh I'm so sorry."

"No it's okay. Who inspired you to start yours?"

"Well, it's a funny story-"

"Jackson Daniels! Glad you could make it." Before Aiden even had the chance to answer my question a woman walked into the room from the back. She looked crazy with the weird clothing she wore and the mixture of different colors that normally wouldn't go together. She had a friendly feel to her and personality that said she was an artist with an overly creative mind.

There was a sound of another person entering the room and the last guy for the shoot entered the studio. He had white blonde hair and I later learned his name was Logan Fey. It was great to finally meet some challenge dads and know that I'm not the only one.

The photographer gave us a brief summery of what we would be doing for the shoot and then led us to the back so we could begin taking photos.

~*~
3 Months Later

Isabella, Isabella was who I was dreaming about before I was suddenly awoken by a very excited Izzy. She was wearing her PJ's and jumping on my bed.

"Daddy, daddy! Wake up! It's snowing!"

I let out a low grunt as I lazily sat up on the bed. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and Izzy came into my vision. She had the biggest grin on her face and now, thankfully, wasn't jumping on my bed anymore. Instead she sat next to me.

"Daddy, it's snowing. Does that mean we can put up the Christmas tree now?"

"Yes," I smiled sleepily.

An hour later the tree was up and decorated. Izzy took a step back to admire the beautiful tree for a minute before running into the other room to call Hardy and tell him about it.

I stayed where I was to admire the tree myself. It looked great- Izzy did an amazing job on it. She was just like her mother, always had a creative eye and a skill for decorating. Something I had none of.

I was soon joined by Magdalena holding Chase in her arms. "Admiring the tree?"

"Yeah, Izzy loves decorating the tree."

"Well she's very good at it."

"Couldn't agree more. I don't know what I would do without her. So did you need something?"

"Not at all, just came to remind you of the triplet's birthday."

"Oh, yes, thank you."

I walked into the kitchen with Magdalena right behind me. A freshly baked cake sat on the counter and balloons sat on the floor. Izzy had already hung up with Hardy and now had a blow horn ready for the birthday song.

I lit the candles and quickly picked up Darrian and we all wished him a happy birthday and he got to blow out the candles. You should have seen  how adorable he looked trying so hard to blow out every last flame.

I re-lit the candles and we did the same thing for over Chase and again for Miya. One by one each of my kids grew into energetic, video game playing, sugar-loving children.

~*~

Magdalena's pregnancy was going smoothly and she was due any day. To celebrate the almost delivery she wanted to play in snow. She had a lot of energy for being a 9 month pregnant woman, but I didn't protest and we decided to make a day out of it for the household.

We all partnered up to see who could make the best snowman. I was with Darrian, Izzy with Magdalena, and Miya with Chase. Each of us picked our spot and we started building. 

I would say that mine and Darrian's snowman was the best but the girls insisted that their's were. There was a short argument before Darrian and I gave in and let them win. We offered the title to them but they just kept saying that we knew their's was the best but were afraid to admit it.

After the snowmen contest the girls wouldn't lighten up on the whole we can't admit defeat thing. I just ignored them and threw myself in the snow and made a couple snow angels.

Not long after getting the girls to stop talking about the snowmen thing I heard Miya crying out to me.

"DADDY!!!! Chase crushed our snowman!"

"No I didn't!", Chase yelled in defense.

"Yes, he did. Look, daddy, our snowman is a lump of snow now!"

"Don't believe her dad. She's lying!"

"Am not!"

"You are too!"

"NOT!"

"GUYS STOP IT! Miya you can make a new snowman, and Chase crush your own stuff, okay?" I yelled back at them. I swear these kids didn't know when to quit fighting. I needed to get back in the house.

When Magdalena began to complain about backaches we agreed that our snow day of fun was over.

Back in the house we changed into some warmer clothes and began doing our own thing. I sat on the computer and worked on my forth book. My first three books were published and I was beginning to make a name for myself. My books were popular enough that I was able to support my family and be a full time dad.

I was not on the computer an hour before Izzy came by wanting to use it. "Daddy, I need the computer. Hardy is getting on Skype and I want to talk to him."

"Why don't you call him sweetie?"

"DADDY! He's on Skype and we want to video chat."

"Alright. Alright. I'm getting off." 

I logged off and Izzy logged on. She was on Skype a few minutes before we heard some commotion going on in the other room. When I ran to investigate I found Magdalena in labor. Luckily I got to her in time to take her to the hospital. There she gave birth to three little babies.

 

Robert, Aloura and Dustin, were the names I settled on for my three newest babies. I couldn't believe that I got another set of triplets. But what do you expect when you use A.I.? I'm just lucky that I had Becca to help me out and now Magdalena.

---
I'm just as surprised as any of you that Jackson got another 3 babies. I was hoping for twins, but hey 3 is still good. More babies the better for the challenge. :)

I hope you all enjoyed chapter 2 and I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on it, so please comment. :)

Edited with love by Logan <3