Bacter Family Saga

While Yersinia was extremely upset about the recent turn of events in her family it did appear that things had finally sorted themselves out. Bacillus and Mallory had taken their niece, Gabriella, into their home and she seemed to be adjusting to live with them well. Yersinia was glad of that. She had wanted to help but was secretly relieved when Bacillus and Mallory offered to take Gabriella. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her it was more that Yersinia was much less of a motherly figure than Mallory and she had her hands full with a toddler herself.

Yersinia and Xavier had forgotten just how much work a toddler could be. When Listeria was an infant she was easy. She just ate, slept and pooped. Now that she has grown into a toddler she is a little bundle of energy and is never content to sit idly. They realized this and postponed teaching her to walk briefly because they figured once she could do that she would be trouble on wheels. Xavier did take the time to teach her to talk.

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It had been so long since she was pregnant with Legionella that Yersinia had forgotten how much she hated being pregnant. She hated how tired it made her, how it made her back, legs and feet ache. She hated how she had heartburn regardless of whether or not she had eaten. She hated how she felt like she couldn’t breath but most of all she hated how she waddled to walk. She felt huge. Xavier told her she was glowing but she just wanted to smack him when he said stuff like that. She felt like a whale and was tired of being pregnant. She just wanted to have this baby.

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The death of Anthracis and Francisella’s coldness to the rest of the family had left many of the Bacter’s in a stupor. Yersinia and Bacillus had done everything they could to try and get Francisella to see reason but she was blinded by and ignored their every attempt to reconcile. It seemed that Xavier was the only person in the household able to carry out a level of normal function. Yersinia always seemed to be on the phone with Bacillus trying to sort out what to do about their sister and Lora had started to go downhill after Anthracis’s death. This left Xavier to tend to Legionella. He didn’t mind really and loved his daughter immensely so it was nothing to him to teach her to talk. He was pleased to see that his daughter was an intelligent little toddler and quickly was repeating the words he said to her.

It seemed that once Yersinia heard her daughter speaking she snapped back to her own present reality. She felt terrible that she had neglected her daughter and started to spend more time with her. She wanted a good, strong relationship with her daughter because she hoped to avoid whatever had happened with Francisella with her own daughter. It was with this new resolve that Yersinia taught Legionella to walk.

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Lora felt as if her heart were being tugged in two. She was torn between the grief she was feeling over the declining health of her husband and the joy she felt over the birth of her granddaughter. When she was with little Legionella she was so happy. But on occasion she would feel sad because Anthracis couldn’t hold his little granddaughter in his own arms. When she was born Lora had carried her in and laid her on the bed beside him. All he could do was weep. He was dying; there was no doubt about that. So Lora took advantage of the joy she felt with Legionella and would go into her nursery to escape the pain that came with facing her husband’s mortality.
“Oh, little Legionella, you will know your grandfather and he would have loved you so,” she’d whisper in the baby’s ear.

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Simmer’s Note:Sorry about the title but I couldn’t resist.

Yersinia was settling nicely into married life. Her mother was right, being married really didn’t interfere with her career much. She was still doing well as a surgeon and rather enjoyed coming home to Xavier every evening. Xavier had to quit his job as a professor because he had married one of his students. That was very frowned upon and he was forced to resign. He was disappointed but it gave him the opportunity to pursue a sports career, which was something he had always dreamed of doing. He was a starter for the Legacy Lacrosse team. It wasn’t as glamorous or as prestigious as playing baseball or football but Yersinia was proud of him nonetheless.

Yersinia had noticed that since she and Xavier had returned from their mini-honeymoon she hadn’t been feeling quite herself. She felt tired all the time and she had noticed that while she has been studying lately she’s had to stop and rush to the bathroom to throw up.

Yersinia was in a bit of a denial about the true cause of her situation. She wasn’t ready to have children yet so she tried to play her condition off on a stomach bug. But her medical expertise couldn’t allow her to be kept in the dark about things much longer and she had to accept that fact that whether she was ready or not, she was pregnant. She smiled to herself slightly when she thought of her mother’s reaction. Lora would be beside herself. Ever since she had gotten her first grandchild from Bacillus Lora only wanted more. But what would Xavier think? That made her feel a little nervous. There was no doubt her parents would be beyond thrilled but Xavier might not be.

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Yersinia let out a sigh one morning as she brushed her hair before work. It was longer now and she decided that she wasn’t going to get it cut. Her old cut felt too much like a reminder of her own life and she had to face the fact that she was a very different person from that teenager who cut her long locks off. She was now engaged and after attending her brother’s wedding she was starting to think that maybe it was about time to start thinking about planning her own wedding with Xavier. She was still a little hesitant. It seemed like a big step and while she loved Xavier she wasn’t entirely sure she was ready to slow down her career because she was pretty certain that after they got married she’d be expected to start having babies. If the pressure didn’t come from Xavier then it would certainly come from her mother who, since finding out Mallory was expecting, was very anxious for grandchildren.

Anthracis was also starting to hope for a grandchild. He was getting on in years and wanted to still be around when his little Yersinia finally had children of her own. He was really starting to feel his years and decided that the time had come for him to retire from his job as a mad scientist. It had been a good career for him and had supported him well but he was getting old and he was ready to relax for the rest of his life. So he called up the university that supported him and informed them of his resignation.

They were sorry to loose him seeing as Anthracis had provided them with lots of good research over the years but they respected his decision and did know that he was becoming an old man. They had no problem providing him with a decent sized pension.

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Yersinia ended up taking a separate cab from her parents back home so when she got home it was late and both Anthracis and Lora were nowhere to be found and the house was dark and quiet. Yersinia decided that the first thing she would do was to check some job listings and get her resume posted so that a job might come her way. Fortunately, she had done well in school and was already well qualified for a career in medicine. She applied for a few jobs on-line and then went to wait for her parents to come home.

Yersinia didn’t have to wait long. Anthracis and Lora’s cab pulled in shortly after she finished applying for jobs. It turned out they had stopped to pick up a few groceries on the way home so that their fridge would be full for Yersinia. Yersinia was grateful. Lora came up to her daughter and gave her a big hug and said, “Welcome home.”
“It’s good to be home, Mom,” Yersinia told her back.

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Yersinia could hardly believe it was her senior year of college. When she stopped and looked back over the last four years it was apparent to her how much had happened. She certainly wasn’t the confident and slightly arrogant eighteen year-old that left the Bacter Estate for Sim State University. She had expected to fall in love at college but she certainly never expected Gordon would turn out the way he did. But she was moving past that. At least trying to anyway but she still had nightmares and while she knew Gordon was in prison and would be there for a long time she still felt her heart skip a beat every time the phone or doorbell rang.

One afternoon the doorbell rang and Yersinia felt that familiar nervous feeling in her stomach. It escalated even more when Sella yelled out that there was someone there to see her. Yersinia thought she was going to be sick right there on the spot. Sella didn’t know about what happened with Gordon so she wouldn’t know not to tell her if it was Gordon. Yersinia was starting to panic. She was very relieved when she got the door and realized that her visitor was just Professor Xavier Jones. She hadn’t seen Xavier since Gordon’s attack although she did speak to him occasionally on the phone.

“Yersi, I’ve been worried about you.”
“Why Xavier? I’ve been fine.”
“I’m not so sure that you are fine, Yersi. You rarely return my phone calls and you changed majors and never mentioned anything to me about it. What was I supposed to think?”
“I don’t know, maybe that psychology just wasn’t my thing.”
“But Yersi, you were the top of your class, why would I come to that conclusion? Please, tell me what is going on.”
“It’s complicated. I’ve just had a bit of a change is all.”
“Tell me. I love you Yersi.”

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Yersinia felt like she was living in a daze. Since the attack by Gordon she was running on autopilot. Just going through the motions completely unaware of all that was going on around her. She was vaguely aware of the inquiries by her sister and knew that Orlando Bertino, her sister’s boyfriend had just joined the house and there was a memory of talking about school with her father. Little else sunk in. Bacillus had to remind her of her counseling appointment. She dreaded going but knew she had to.

She walked to campus with her head spinning. She was finding it increasingly difficult to keep her thoughts together. She arrived at the counselor’s office faster than she had expected. Her counselor was Professor Jessica Ebadi; Yersinia had taken Intro Psych with her. Yersinia gently rapped on the door. “Come in,” she heard a voice behind the door call out. Yersinia opened the door and walked inside.
“Have a seat,” Professor Ebadi said to her with a smile. Yersinia sat and watched Professor Ebadi flip through a file on her desk that Yersinia was certain was hers. Finally, Professor Ebadi spoke again, “Well Yersinia I see here that you have a popularity aspiration, you are majoring in Psychology and doing quite well with a 4.0.”
Yersinia smiled and nodded. She didn’t know how much she was or was not expected to say. But Professor Ebadi continued, “You are obviously doing quite well where you are. I have had you in class and Professor Jones also thinks very highly of your academic ability,” Yersinia felt herself grow a little warm at the mention of Xavier, “But the question is not how well you are doing but rather if you are happy where you are at. So the question I have for you is, are you happy?”
Those words struck Yersinia. Was she happy? Before the incident with Gordon she was very focus on becoming popular. But all of a sudden that didn’t seem to matter to her anymore. She felt much more internal and reserved. She looked up at Professor Ebadi, tears welling up in her eyes, “No, I’m not.” And suddenly Yersinia launched into the whole story about what had happened with Gordon and how she felt so alone and like she would never feel normal again. She didn’t care that Professor Ebadi was a colleague of Xavier and she might tell him what had happened. She just needed to get it all off her chest. Once she had she felt much better.
That sat in silence for a while but then Professor Ebadi spoke, “You will feel normal again. It will take some time and normal may be different but you will feel normal again. Trust me. You have gone through something very traumatic and it will take time for those wounds to heal. Be patient with them, they will heal. I think that given everything that has happened a change of aspiration would be good for you. Have you thought about that at all?”
“Yeah, I have and I think you are right. I was thinking maybe knowledge. That was my dad’s and it worked well for him.”
Professor Ebadi smiled, “I think knowledge would be a good change for you. Now, we will do that now and you can go home and think about what you want to do with your life and change majors if you’d like. And of course, Yersinia, everything that was said here stays here and if you ever need to talk, please don’t hesitate to contact me.”
“Thanks.” Yersinia left her appointment feeling lots better. She was relieved that she wasn’t going to tell Xavier. She didn’t know how he would react and she certainly didn’t know how she was going to tell him.

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Simmer’s Note: This chapter contains some disturbing scences. Please read with caution.

Another term had started for Bacillus, Mallory and Yersinia. Bacillus was finishing up his junior year and Mallory and Yersinia were both finishing up their sophomore year. It was starting to become more and more obvious that the negative footing Bacillus and Mallory started out on was pretty much gone. Their relationship continued to go smoothly and it was really starting to heat up. They were still putting off sleeping with each other but they were finding it increasingly hard to keep their hands off each other. Even something as innocent as playing video games would result in pretty hot and heavy make out sessions on that old couch where his father had made out with his mother.

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