So Damn Domestic

Five Months Later. BPOV


It’s Christmas Eve in the Lehane household. Everyone thinks that Thanksgiving is the day that you should appreciate everything you have to be grateful for, but Christmas is really the day that you should count your blessings, and that’s kind of what I’m doing right now. I have a lot to be grateful for. The materialistic things don’t really matter to us. This house, and everything that’s in it is a great bonus, don’t get me wrong, and I am grateful that we have these nice things, but it’s not what’s really important. The important stuff is the fact that I’m married to the love of my life, and we have three beautiful children together who are happy and healthy, and even though it’s been a rocky path we’re both happy and healthy. Thinking about all of the Christmases we’ve spent together always makes me smile. And I have plenty of photo albums to help me remember.


“Hey, whatcha lookin at?” Faith asks and sits down next to me on the couch. She takes my glass out of my hand and sips at my wine a little bit but doesn’t give the glass back. Well we are married, we have to share everything now. Being married to Faith is kind of like being married to a three-year-old. They think that when you have something they want it’s nice to share, but when it’s the other way around they’ll throw a fit if you try to get them to share. I probably shouldn’t say that. Faith is very sweet, and loving and all of that other stuff. But would it kill her to not hog the nacho flavored chips? “I remember that.” She points to the picture of Dawn and she has a big chocolate stain on the front of her shirt. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your sister so pissed before. Remind not to accidentally drop a piece of cake on her.” I smile a little and take my glass back and sip at the red liquid before I speak.


“In her defense you do eat like a slob.” She rolls her eyes and takes the glass away and takes a little sip of it. She puts her free arm across the back of the couch and I lean against her and use her shoulder as a pillow. The thing that a lot of people don’t know about Nevada is how cold it gets here at night in the winters. Right now outside it’s thirty degrees, and our heater isn’t working very well. We have the kids in sweats and under a lot of blankets so they’ll stay warm, but it’s still cold in the house, and I’m starting to feel like a Popsicle. Right now I have my favorite blanket wrapped around me and now Faith is here to keep me warm. “There’s the picture that Willow took.” I point to the one on the bottom of the page. I smile a little bit and run my fingertips over the cool plastic covering of the album.


It’s a picture of me and Faith. It was late that Christmas night and a lot of people had already gone back to their own apartments, but Willow and Kennedy stuck around. Faith and I fell asleep on the couch, me in her lap and she has her arms wrapped around me like I’ll disappear if she lets go. We’re both in our pajamas, we didn’t get dressed that day, we never do on Christmas. I was in my white pajamas with the long sleeved button up shirt, and drawstring pants. They had little candy canes all over them. Faith was in her green, drawstring, silk pajama pants with little Santas and reindeers all over them, and a black tank top. She had her hair back in a pony tail but a few strains fell out during the day and they were outlining her face. My hair was down and it covers up a lot of my face as I use Faith’s chest as a pillow.


Faith flips through the next few pages without even stopping to look. I guess she’s trying to find a certain year or something. It doesn’t take her long to find it. There are only a few pictures of this particular year in this album. The rest of them are in the light blue album that says ‘Matthew’s First Christmas’ in big gold letters. The ones in here are mostly of the scoobies, and some other people. Like the significant others of the scooby members. Well, the scooby members minus Dawn. This was when Kyle started taking her up to the cabin that his parents own so that they could spend Christmas alone together. I guess that isn’t going to be happening anymore. Dawn said she’d try to make it over tomorrow, but Alex was sneezing and coughing a lot two nights ago which means that Nick is going to be sneezing and coughing a lot and so Dawn might have her hands too full with two sick little boys.


“Look how happy they were,” Faith says and points to a picture of Willow and Kennedy. They’re both sitting on the floor by the tree. Kennedy is sitting behind Willow with her chin resting on her shoulder and her arms are wrapped around Willow and holding her close while she opens a present that I bought her. They look happy because they used to be really happy. I like to think that maybe if we had stayed somewhere else, that if we didn’t go to Angel’s then Kennedy never would have met Cordelia and they wouldn’t have fallen for each other, and Willow and Kennedy would still be happy. But deep down I know that isn’t true. They would have met eventually, and they would probably still have fallen for each other, and Willow would still have gotten hurt. But now she has Sky and the pain is finally going away for good. They’re even coming over tomorrow morning for breakfast and present opening.


“I hope her and Sky work out. They’re just so good together, and I don’t think Willow can survive another heartbreak.” It’s true, I really don’t think Willow will make it if she gets her heart broken again. My bad luck with relationship ended when I started dating Faith. Hopefully Sky will be the one to make Willow happy for the rest of their lives. They’ve gotten really close ever since the whole ‘me being abducted by the Ferreus demon’ thing, and I’m glad. They both still live in Ohio, but they’ve moved off the campus of the slayer school. They rent a small apartment together about five minutes away. Willow isn’t just living there anymore because she has nowhere else to go. She’s teaching full time, and when Giles retires she’s going to take over for him as headmaster. Or is it headmistress? Oh well, it doesn’t matter.


“I hope so too,” Faith says and takes another sip of the wine. I give her a little pout and she gives it back and I smile. She doesn’t even try to deny that she’s whipped. She knows it and she’s not embarrassed to admit it anymore. “‘Cause when they have kids and ask us to babysit we’ll hop the kids up on sugar and see how much she likes it.” Is she ever going to let that go? When Matthew was two we had Willow babysit for us, and she thought it would be a good idea to give him a massive amount of chocolate. The sugar rush didn’t quite kick in until the ride home, and after that he was like a hell spawn on crack. He destroyed a lot of the house, furniture, picture frames, some of our CDs, DVDs, the glass door of the entertainment center, and he terrorized Tucker for a couple of hours. But the things that really pissed Faith off was when Matthew took a Sharpie marker to her favorite leather jacket. She’s wanted vengeance on Willow ever since that day, and she’s determined to get it.


“Babe, that was eight years ago, alright, eight. That’s almost a decade. Just let it go. She didn’t know what she was doing.” At least I’d like to believe that. I do think Willow giving Matthew all of that chocolate was revenge because when she and Kennedy went away on a little trip to the Oregon coast we forgot to go over to their house and feed their fish and they all died. Faith just sighs and takes the glass away from me again and takes another little sip. Great, now it’s all gone. I wasn’t done with that. At least she didn’t leave me the last little bit because everybody knows that the last little bit is mostly backwash. She tightens her grip on my shoulders a little bit and I smile. I look up at her and she’s smiling too. I rest my head on her shoulder again only this time I’m facing her. I leave a couple of kisses on her collarbone and she holds onto my hand. She puts the glass on the coffee table, closes the photo album and puts it on the coffee table next to the other two I have out.


“Remember what we did our first Christmas night?” she asks with a little bit of mischief in her voice. I think back all those years ago until the memory is running around in my head. I nod a little bit and I smile gets a little bigger. “You think maybe we can do that again for old time’s sake?” I look up at her and she has this little gleam in her eyes and it reminds me of all the times in high school when we’d be patrolling together, and she’d suggest going to the Bronze and picking up a couple studs, and she’d have this exact look in her eyes. It’s a look that says she wants fun, and mischief and maybe even some trouble, but with lots and lots of fun. I give her a little kiss on her lips but pull back before she has the chance to respond.


“I don’t know. We had a different bed back then. Do you think the headboard will hold?” I ask and gently run my fingertips along the collar of her shirt. She leans down the very short distance and kisses me. It isn’t much of a kiss at first. I don’t think it even qualifies. Our lips are pressed against each other but there’s no movement, but the sounds of our hard breathing through our noses. But now our lips are moving, and so are our bodies. I rotate so my whole body is facing her and I wrap my arms around her neck. I lean back until I’m laying down on the couch and Faith doesn’t fight it at all. I lift my legs up until my thighs are around her hips, and we’re gently grinding against each other. I break the kiss so I can breathe, and she rests her forehead against my shoulder.


“Sit up for a second.” She gets off of me and I sit up too. I take the blanket that was wrapped around me earlier, and I drape it over her. I lean back again until I’m laying down, and I gently pull on the blanket until Faith is on top of me. The blanket is shielding our bodies from the rest of the room, and it’s containing the heat that’s coming off of our bodies. Like I said earlier, Faith is here to keep me warm. We kiss again, and this time our tongues come out to play one of their favorite games. She dominates the kiss right away and I sigh a little bit against her. We start to slowly grind against each other again, and I’m getting really worked up really fast. I have no idea why I’m getting this turned on this quickly, but I don’t really care. I just want some release. I just want Faith. Her hand slips in between our bodies and she starts massaging my breast over my shirt. My already hard nipple gets harder and I start moaning.


“Shh. Babe, you have to be quiet,” Faith whispers and I nod my head a little. She starts kissing my collarbone and I have to bite back the moans and groans that want to come out. My hands roam down her back, and I’m careful not to pull the blanket down. You never know when one of the kids is going to wake up and come out here to see why the lights are still on. I grab Faith’s ass and squeeze really hard. She moans a little against my skin and starts sucking on the hot flesh. I push on her ass so she’s grinding harder against me, and it causes more friction and the friction causes more pleasure. Her hands leaves my breast and works it way down. She focuses on my stomach, and I’m starting to get a little frustrated. She’s gently nipping at my neck, and it’s driving me crazy. With every little nip of teeth on skin I get a little shockwave that goes straight to my throbbing clit.


My hands leave her ass. One of them stays on the small of her back and the other creeps around until it’s in between our grinding bodies. I slide it under her pajama bottoms, and passed the elastic of her underwear. I run my fingernails through the short pubic hair on her mound and she shivers a little. It makes me smile just a tad, and I move my fingers lower until they come into contact with the warm fluid waiting for me in the juncture between her legs. Then she’s the one who has to bite back a moan when my middle finger gently brushes up against her engorged clitoris. I see something move out of the corner of my eye and I look over to see what it is. Tucker has walked into the living room and is sitting on the other side of the coffee table staring at us. I stop moving and just look at him, and he’s staring right back at me. Faith notices my lack of movement and looks over to see what the problem is and she sighs.


“Babe, he’s just a dog,” she whispers and sucks on my earlobe. I close my eyes and moan just a little. I arch my neck a little towards her so she has better access to it. She nibbles her way from my ear to my pulse point and she starts sucking, and biting at it. I start moaning and grinding against her again. I stop though when I hear the jingling of Tucker’s licenses. I open my eyes and watch him walk around the coffee table and sit in front of the couch. He’s just watching us and it’s bugging the hell out of me. I guess Faith knows I’m looking at him again because I feel her finger under my chin and she pulls my face to the side so I’m looking at her and before I can say anything she’s kissing me. I ignore the feel of that dumb dog’s eyes on me and focus on Faith’s lips, and hand. Her hand is now in my pajama pants and her magical fingers are slowly working over my clit. Then all of a sudden I feel a cold, wet nose tough my arm. I pull back from the kiss and take my hand out of Faith’s pants.


“Get him out of here. I can’t do this with him in here.” She knows that I can’t have sex with the dog watching. I grunt out my displeasure when her hand leaves my pants and she gets up and grabs onto Tucker’s collar and leads him out of the room. Now that the moment’s been broken I don’t know if I can get back into it or not. I swear one of these days I’m going to kill that dog and make it look like an accident. Ok, so I won’t, but he’s still a pest. He’s been a pest since the day Faith brought him home. When he passes away I don’t think we’re going to get another dog. Having three kids is hard enough without having to worry about taking care of another living creature. I look up when I hear Faith walk back into the room. She’s smiling a little bit and it makes me smile a little. She lifts up the blanket and crawls on top of me, and lets the blanket fall over our bodies so we’re shielded again.


“So, where were we?” she asks, her voice is husky and just the sound of it makes my clit quiver a little more. She starts kissing me, and her hand goes straight for my pants. She starts rubbing my clit again and I moan into her mouth. She breaks the kiss and she’s panting a little and so am I. I slowly massage her breast and she moans a little bit but tries to bite it back. We do have to be super quiet or one of the kids might wake up. It’s hard to remember that in the heat of the moment though. She starts kissing my neck, and slowly sucks on my pulse point. She’s going to leave a hickie but it’ll be gone in a couple hours. I slowly work my way down her body from her breast, to her stomach, to her abdomen, and then to the waistband of her pajama bottoms. I slowly run my fingers through the short hair on her mound, but instead of teasing her clit like I did earlier I go straight for her entrance and thrust two fingers deep inside her.


“Uggh, oh God,” she moans and her fingers start moving faster against my clit. I bite back a loud moan, and keep slowly pumping in and out of her. The grinding of our bodies is doing nothing but causing my fingers to go in deeper and I’m sure she’s loving it. It’s also causing her fingers to work harder against my clit and trust me I’m almost in heaven. Give me about five more minutes and I’ll probably be there. “B, that’s so fuckin good.” She really does have a way with words, doesn’t she? I moan in response, and add another finger. She finally moves her touching from my clit to my entrance, but she’s teasing me. Her middle finger is slowly circling my dripping hole and I don’t think I can take much more of it. I thrust towards her hand a little bit but it’s hard because I’m pined beneath her.


“Faithy, please stop teasing,” I moan out and start pumping in and out of her harder. Maybe if I give her more she’ll give me some. And she does. She enters me with just her middle finger and I grunt in frustration. “More, baby please. I need more.” She loves it when I beg. She nips at my neck a little bit and it makes me shiver. Out of nowhere I start making this weird whimpering noise. It sounds so strange to me, but I can’t make it stop. Even when she gives me more I can’t make the noise go away. She gives me two more fingers, and starts pumping into me in a slow but hard rhythm. And every time her fingertips brush against my g-spot I whimper. I need her attention there, and she knows it, but she’s not giving it to me. She likes to tease because it gives her power, and Faith still does have some control issues. They’re no where near as bad as they were when we first started dating, or when we first started sleeping together, but they are still there.


She gives in to my pleas and presses her fingers firmly against my g-spot. She covers my mouth with hers to help me quiet the loud moan. At first her fingers don’t move, they just stay pressed against me, but then she starts to slowly but firmly rub against that little pleasure spot. I do the same to her and she bites my bottom lip to stop herself from saying whatever it is her vocal cords want to yell out. I don’t focus on that little bit of pain, all I focus on are her fingers buried deep inside me and all of the pleasure coursing through my body. I can feel my orgasm building and I start thrusting against her hand the best I can, but it’s kind of hard when her body is pinning me to the couch. She finally lets go of my lip, and her head limp against my shoulder. She’s panting really hard, and moaning, and trying so hard to be quiet.


“Baby, I’m gonna come,” she whispers into my ear. I can feel her hot breath against my skin and it’s driving me a little crazy. It feels like all of my nerves are exposed and screaming out for attention. But it’s the way Faith said that little statement, and the sound of her voice that drives me over the edge. Her voice was husky, and deep, and she sounded a little desperate. Almost like she was begging me to let her come. My fingers hit her g-spot very hard and I feel the outpour of her orgasm gush all over my hand. She squeaks that high pitch little girly squeak that she hates so much, and two seconds after I have to bite my lips to keep from yelling. I’m shoved over the edge and thrown into my climax and all I can do is just lie here and let the waves of pleasure take me for a ride. I don’t know how long it takes me to finally calm down. It feels like hours, but it was probably only a couple of minutes.


“We should probably get cleaned up,” Faith says and kisses my neck a little. I nod my head but we don’t move. We just lay here, breathing hard and try to fully recover from what just happened. It’s been a long time since I’ve come that hard and I don’t think I’m going to be able to walk for another…half hour maybe longer. And either Faith’s orgasm wasn’t as intense or she just has a quicker recovery time, either way she slowly gets to her feet and takes the empty wine glass into the kitchen. I hear the faucet running so I know she’s rinsing the glass out, and now she’s putting it in the dishwasher. She used to not do that. She’d just leave the dirty dishes in the sink and wait for me to load the dishwasher, but that was a long time ago. She knows better then to do that now. I watch her when she comes back into the living room and she just looks at me. She smiles a little bit and it makes me a little self-conscious. I ask her what she’s smiling at and she just rolls her eyes.


“Nothing, you just look cute all wrapped up in that blanket. Want me to carry you?” And Dawn said I’d never be able to tame her. I nod my head a little bit and she picks me up off the couch and carries me bridal style into the bedroom. She leaves though, but just to turn out all the lights that were left on in the other rooms. I shiver a little bit ‘cause it’s fucking cold in here. When Faith walks into the room and shuts the door I ask her to check on Joseph. She walks over to the crib and stands there looking at him for a few minutes. I would ask if there was anything wrong but I know there’s not. She does this sometimes. I used to think it was kind of creepy when I’d wake up in the middle of the night and see my mom watching me sleep from my bedroom doorway, but now I know why she did it, and I don’t think it’s creepy.


See when your kids are awake everything is crazy ‘cause little kids want a lot of attention and you’re trying to do everything at once. You try to clean up the house and do the laundry and play a game with them, or look at the picture they drew, or fix them lunch or whatever, and they’re being loud ‘cause that’s just what little kids do. But all you really want to do is sit down and have some peace and quiet. They’re like little devils when they’re awake, but when they’re sleeping they look like little angels because they’re finally staying in one place for longer then three minutes, and they’re quiet. I’m pulled back to reality when I feel something jump up on the bed. I look down towards my feet and roll my eyes when I see Tucker on his stomach and slowly crawling his way up the bed.


“What time are Red and Sky getting here?” Faith asks and crawls under the covers. She lays on her side so she’s facing me and Tucker rests his head on her thigh. I tell her around nine and she smiles a little bit. “You do know the kids aren’t gonna be able to wait that long, right?” I smile and nod my head a little. “We should let them open up one present to hold ‘em off until after breakfast. “Dad should be here ‘round seven so we should let them open something he got ‘em.” I nod my head a little but I’m not really paying attention to what she’s saying. I’m too tired. “I can’t wait ‘til Joey’s two, ‘cause that’s when they get really excited about it. All three of ‘em will be sneaking in here to wake us up so they can open presents. Sometimes I can’t believe this is real, ya know?” I can’t believe Faith is actually talking after sex. I slowly close my eyes and listen to the sound of her husky, tired voice as I drift off to sleep.


FPOV


I woke up a couple minutes ago, but I haven’t moved yet. I’m not pretending to be asleep, I have my eyes open, but I don’t want to move because if I do I might wake Buffy up. She’s on of the lightest sleepers ever. The reason I don’t wanna move is because she’s in my arms right now. We fall asleep in each other’s arms a lot, but we move around a lot when we sleep so it’s pretty rare that we wake up spooning or holding each other. But right now is different. Her head’s on my shoulder, one arm is over my stomach, and the other is under the pillow. She’s snoring a little bit, but it doesn’t bug me. I’ve always thought it’s kinda cute. She swears on her life that she doesn’t snore, but it’s not like she can hear herself do it. I give her a little kiss on her hairline and her eyebrows scrunch up and she looks so adorable right now.


I look over at the door when I hear it creak open. It doesn’t open all the way, just enough for Mattie to stick his head through. I hold my index finger up to my lips and he nods his head. He whispers something to Addy, probably telling her to stay quiet. They tip-toe their way over to my side of the bed and they carefully climb up. I smile a little bit and gently run my hand up and down Buffy’s side. She wiggles around a little bit but she doesn’t wake up. She’s a light sleeper but not that light. So I kiss her forehead a couple of times. Her eyebrows wrinkle up again and she looks just as adorable as before. I kiss her temple, then right next to her eye, and I slowly kiss my way down to her cheek. She wiggles around and lets out a grunt and I can’t help but laugh a little bit.


“Baby,” I whisper and give her a little kiss on the lips. “Babe, the kids are up.” She whines a little and rolls over so her back is facing me. She’s not getting away that easy. Christmas is probably a bigger deal for me then it is for the kids. They don’t know what it’s like to have an alcoholic for a mother who’s too busy drowning in self-pity to care about anything around her. And if I get my way they never will. I always spilt them on Christmas because after my dad went to prison I didn’t have happy holidays, and Christmas was the worst. Anyway, I scoot closer to Buffy and I hear Addy start giggling for whatever reason. I wrap my arms around my beautiful wife and start kissing her neck. “Buffy, it’s Christmas. Now wake up.” I shake her shoulder a little and it does the trick.


“Alright, I’m up. Stop shaking me I’m getting nauseous.” The kids start laughing a little and she rolls over and gives them a look. “You won’t think it’s funny when I throw u all over the bed.” They stop laughing and she smiles. “That’s what I thought.” She yawns really wide and holds onto one of my hands. “Why don’t you guys let Tucker outside, and me and Mama will get up, and you two can open one present each?” They practically leap off the bed and run for the bedroom door. They call Tucker’s name as they run like hell beasts down the hall. The old guy lazily gets down from the bed and trots after them. Buffy yawns really wide and I can’t help but smile a little bit. I don’t know why but this morning she just looks so damn cute. “It’s only five-thirty.” She lets go of my hand, pulls her pillow out form under her, rolls onto her back, and covers her face with her pillow. “The sun won’t be up for another half hour.” I laugh a little and snuggle up to her. She doesn’t get as excited about Christmas as I do, which surprises a lot of people.


“I know baby,” I tell her and she grumbles a little bit. I can’t help but laugh out loud at that. I give her a little kiss on the arm and I hear her sigh. “But we better get in there before they tear through all the presents.” She pulls the pillow away from her face and gives me an irritated look. “Hey, you’re the one who said they could open one.” I rip the covers off of her and she instantly starts shivering. “Come on, I’ll make some coffee.” I get up and ignore her bitching and go into the kitchen. Mattie and Addy are in the living room and they’re fighting. Addy wants to open her present now and Mattie is telling her to wait. “Addy, you wanna come help me make some coffee?” I yell and she runs into the kitchen and she looks all excited. I pick her up and wrap my arm around her waist and her butt is pressed against my abdomen. Damn this kid has a boney ass. Takes after her mother on that one. My butt isn’t very big but it’s more then just skin and bone.


“First you put the filter liner in here.” I put one of the paper liners in front of her and pull the filter out of the machine and put it on the counter. She puts the liner in, and waits for more instructions. People forget kids want to learn and if you take the time to show them how to do stuff they’re more then happy to help. That and lots of positive reinforcement. I’m trying to work it just right so that when Addy is a little older her and Mattie can do all the chores and all me and B will have to do is cook the meals. “Now put in two scoops.” I pull the coffee can over and take the lid off. She finishes doing that and puts the lid on the can. “Good job. Now put this back in the slot here.” I help her put the filter back, then help her fill the pot with water and pour it in the slots at the top of the coffeemaker. I put the pot back on the burner and put her down. “Good job, toots. Now go get Mommy out of bed. Sing her the Tigger song.” She literally squeals with joy and books it out of the room.


I take out two mugs from the cupboard and set them down on the counter. I chuckle a little when I hear Addy singing that damn song at the top of her lungs. B yells at her to stop and I wince ‘cause I know what’s coming next. Joey starts crying ‘cause the girls woke him up. He normally doesn’t wake up until six thirty, sometimes it’s closer to seven. I sigh and start making a bottle. He probably won’t stop crying though ‘cause he hates being woken up too soon. He has a schedule that he likes to keep. He’s way more difficult then his brother and sister were at his age. Mattie was a blessing, ‘cause he was so easy going. He never fought sleep, and he didn’t cry a lot. The only time he ever really cried was when he was hungry, and even then it wasn’t real loud. Addy was a little fussier but I think that’s ‘cause she’s a girl.


“Thank God, you already made one,” B says and takes the bottle from me. I just got done makin sure it wasn’t too hot, but she’s testing it too. When she feels that the formula is just right she holds the nipple up to Joey’s mouth but he doesn’t clamp down. “Come on, baby boy. I know you’re hungry.” She’s using her baby-talk voice and it’s a little irritating. He’s a baby but he’s a person too, ya know. Besides he isn’t hungry, he’s pissed off. “I know, sweetheart, I’m sorry I woke you up. I didn’t mean to.” I smile a little bit and walk over to them. He’s screaming his fuckin head off. His face is bright red and he has tears rolling out the corners of his eyes. I take him from Buffy and hold him up to my shoulder like I used to do whenever I’d burp him. His hot little cheek is rubbing against mine, and he’s crying right in my ear, but it doesn’t bother me.


“I know, Moose, you’re really, really mad.” I know I got a little irritated when B talked baby-talk to him but I can’t help it. It just happens. “Tell me all about it.” I rub his back and he just keeps on crying. That’s the plan. Sometimes a baby just needs to cry. And I get pissed off when people wake me up before I have to be awake, so I understand what he’s going through. Buffy puts the bottle on the counter and goes into the living room with the kids. I guess she’s gonna let them open a present now. I know she’s only going to let them pick something small that we bought ‘em. We always save the presents from other people for later, that’s just one of our rules. I hear Tucker whining and scratching at the back door so I let him in. He’s wagging his tail and lookin up at Joey. Tucker’s always loved being around babies, but I gotta tell ya it’s a mystery why. Babies are great, but they can be very abusive to animals ‘cause they don’t know any better. And Tucker is a Golden Retriever which means he’s got a lot of hair for a baby to pull.


“Mama look what Santa got me!” Addy yells as she runs into the room. Me and B buy a few gifts for the kids and label them ‘from Santa’. I think Addy is really going to love the other present that ‘Santa’ got her, but that won’t get here until a little later. “It’s new clothes for my Barbie.” She holds up the box and I glance at it and tell her it’s cool even though I probably couldn’t care less. What? They’re just clothes. She puts the cherry sucker back in her mouth and leaves the room. I take it they got into their stockings too. Christmas is the only day of the year that they get candy before breakfast. And even then they only get a little bit. Joey stops crying and finally calms down, and he rests his head on my shoulder. I gently rub his back and grab the bottle and walk into the living room. Addy’s sitting with her back pressed against the entertainment center. She has her Barbie out and is already playing dress up with the new clothes.


“Mattie what did Santa get you?” I ask and sit down on the couch next to B. He doesn’t believe in Santa anymore, hasn’t since he was eight, but he’s willing to pretend because of Addy. He holds up the video game and says the name out loud and I tense up a little bit. “No frickin way.” Buffy really got him that game? She didn’t tell me she was getting it. I plop Joey into B’s lap and sit down next to Mattie on the floor. I take the game from him and read the description on the back. Yep, this really is it. I still can’t believe she bought this. “Come on, whatta waiting for?” I jump up and we book it for his bedroom. I take off the plastic wrap and turn on the playstation and put the game in. I pick up the controllers and toss one to him, turn on the TV, and sit down next to h im on the bed. Buffy got him what I would consider a must have. Combat Warriors V.


“I am so gonna kick your butt. Just lettin you know,” I tell him as we select our characters. After we do that I pick the environment to fight in and we wait for it to load. Damn this is taking forever. “Better break me off a switch, boy, ‘cause there’s about to be a whoopin.” On the count of three we start fighting. It’s mostly just button mashing ‘cause neither of us have played this before so we don’t’ know all of the controls. I figure out that the square button makes the guy punch and I deliver three solid hits to Mattie’s guy’s face. His health goes down a lot and I chuckle a little bit. “Looks like you’re low on life. Ya might wanna start making funeral arrangements.” I try to punch again, but he presses something that makes his guy jump in the air, spin in circle, and kick mine right in the face. My guy goes flying to the other side of the screen and half of his face is drained.


“You were saying?” Mattie says and he’s trying not to laugh. What a little smart ass. I’m actually surprised he said that. See Mattie doesn’t smack talk when doing anything competitive, never has. It doesn’t matter if he’s play a sport, a video game, or sparring he just doesn’t partake in the playful banter like me and B. He’s too busy focusing on his next move to try and come up with a witty comeback. But when he does they’re usually pretty funny. It doesn’t take us long to figure out what all the buttons do, and now we’re trying different button combos. I have Mattie pretty much beat. He only has about half an inch of life left and a couple more kicks should take him down. I know this probably isn’t too good for his ego but he needs to learn that you can’t win at everything. When it comes to video games I’m just too good. At least in theory.


He does some weird combo, I have no idea what, but it makes his guy jump in the air and howl out a blood curdling scream. The environment changes from the jungle scene we were just in, to a dark red background, and we’re standing on a black platform. Blue lightening bolts strike him from the sky and all of that electric energy sparks from his chest out to his right fist. The character is still screaming and this is possibly one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in a video game before, and I have played a lot of video games. The character’s hand gets bigger, and bigger until it’s about ten times it’s normal size. It’s glowing, and pulsating with the blue electricity of death. I try to make my guy run away but I can’t. Mattie’s guy punches mine right in the chest and it kills me on the spot.


“And that’s what you get for talkin shit,” Mattie says and turns the game off. I tell him to watch his mouth but I only half mean it. I cussed like a sailor when I was his age. Never in front of my mom or dad ‘cause spankings from your parents are just no fun. Anyway, we got back into the living room just in time to see the drama unfold. Addy’s still playin with her Barbie and minding her own business for once. I don’t know where B is but she’s not in here ‘cause Joey’s on the floor all by himself. He crawls over to Addy and grabs her doll by the hair and snatches it out of her hand. She grabs onto the ankles and yells at Joey to let go while she tries to pull it away from him. But he’s a slayer too so instead of ripping it from his hand like she would have with another other ten-month-old, the head of this doll gets decapitated from its body, and I have to bite my lips and prey to God that I don’t start laughing.


“No!” Addy screams out and starts crying, which makes it so much harder not to laugh. It is kind of sad though. I mean, it’s just a stupid doll and she’ll get over it, but that was her last one. All the others have been destroyed one way or another. She gets up off the floor and spots me. Crap, now the drama is really going to be high. She runs over to me and lifts her arms up. I reach down and pick her up, and prop her on my hip. She calms down enough to talk and holds up the headless body of her beloved doll. “Look what stupid little brother did.” She hiccups a little bit and starts sobbing like the doll was a real person and was just brutally murdered. Well, I guess in the mind of a four-year-old it just was. I wipe away her tears but they just keep coming. Man this kid can cry when she really wants to.


“Addy, please stop crying baby. I’m sure someone bought you a new doll for Christmas.” That only calms her down a little bit. The sobs are almost non-existent but the tears are still falling freely. I’m going to go ahead and say it, well only to you ‘cause I don’t want to get my ass kicked. But being a drama queen is a genetic thing in the Summers bloodline. Come on, you totally have to agree with me on this. Both B and Dawnie can be major drama queens. I sit Addy down on the couch and take the doll head away from Joey, and he starts crying. I roll my eyes and grab a toy out of the little toy box in the corner of the room and hand it to him and the crying instantly stops. I have Addy put all of the Barbie clothes back in the box and I throw the doll away. I don’t know why they make ‘em different ‘cause when I was a kid the heads just popped back on.


“Jeez, what’s all the crying about?” B asks when she walks into the room. She must’ve been in the bathroom. Only reason she would’ve left Joey alone for so long. I give her a little run down of all the drama and she chuckles a little but until Addy gives her a death glare that’s mean enough to skin a cat. Good thing we don’t have a cat. If Buffy got her way we would but Tucker would just chase it off like he did the last one. B sits down next to Addy and gives her a little hug, but Addy’s still pissed at her. “Angel girl, I’m sorry I laughed. It wasn’t nice, and I won’t do it again.” Addy accepts her apology and gives her a big hug. Now that all the drama has been settled I can start making breakfast. I promised my dad a home cooked meal and he’ll be here soon.


I’m about halfway through making breakfast when the doorbell rings. I look up at the clock on the stove. Fuck, he’s early! He wasn’t supposed to be here for another half an hour. Wait…false alarm, it’s just one of the neighbors. Apparently they made a bunch of Christmas cookies and they saw our lights on and thought they’d go ahead and bring ‘em over. It is a very nice gesture, especially ‘cause I get free cookies, but it’s bad at the same time ‘cause now Buffy is gonna bitch that she didn’t get the idea to make the neighbors some type of holiday treat. She does it every year, it’s like a tradition at this point. She bitches, I only half listen, and then burn myself on the stove to distract her from that annoying topic. But this year she doesn’t get the chance to bitch at me ‘cause Joey just tried to rip open a present so she had to keep him distracted until breakfast.


“Mama, when is Grampa gonna get here?” Addy asks in a whiney tone that instantly get me irritated. I stay calm and start flippin the bacon over. I tell her ‘any minute now’ and she grumbles and leaves the room. She loves being around her grampa Chris ‘cause he treats her like a fuckin princess. I don’t’ think he treated me that good when I was little and I’m his fucking daughter. Then again if Joyce was still alive Buffy would probably complain that she treats the kids better then she treated her. I think it’s like an unwritten law that grandparents spoil their grandbabies rotten as payback for all the shit tha their own kids put them through. But I could be wrong. I hear the doorbell ring again and my blood goes cold. Fuck! I never got the chance to talk to Buffy about the present my dad’s bringing over for Addy. Sure we’re gonna say it’s from Santa, we’ve been planning it for weeks. And last night I was going to talk to Buffy about it, but I got distracted. Damn my libido!


“Hey Addison, look what Santa forgot at my house.” As soon as he says that I turn all the burners on the stove off. Mostly because the bacon and sausage is done, partly because Buffy plus fire will equal third degree burns on my face. But it’s worth all the fear when I hear my baby girl scream out with joy. And damn she has a good set of lungs on her. I knew she would be happy. This is something she’s been asking for since she was two and a half. We told her no so many times that she stopped asking for it, which only makes the moment I’m not seeing so much better. It feels good knowing that my little girl’s happiness is because of something I did. But it’s scary as fuck thinking about all the different ways Buffy could react. I’m getting little flashbacks of the night she stabbed me up on the roof and hopefully she’ll show that kind of mercy. Yeah, that’s mercy compared to what she might do now.


“It’s a lady dog!” Addy screams and I hear her jump up and run over to my dad. From the sound of it I’d guess she’s jumping up and down and clapping her hands together. “Mommy look! It’s a lady dog! Santa got me a lady dog!” I don’t think anybody, including all of the little kids in the entire world, has ever wished that Santa was real more then me in this moment. I hear B say something but I can’t understand the words. I put the bacon and sausage on separate platters and then put them on the table. I take the huge bowl of scrambled eggs out of the microwave and put ‘em with the rest of the food. I get one of the plastic kid plates out of the cupboard and put it on the tray on the highchair. I start to butter up a piece of toast when I hear my dad say ‘Faith didn’t tell you?’ Fuck. I’m in trouble.


“No she didn’t tell me.” I gotta hand it to her she’s controlling her anger very well. She stomps into the kitchen and I try to play dumb. I finish buttering the toast and put some jelly on it; strawberry not grape ‘cause the little man doesn’t like grape like the rest of us. I start ripping it up into little pieces and she’s just fuckin starin at me, using her entire body to hate me. Ok, she doesn’t hate me. At least I hope not, but she’s really fuckin pissed at me. “Why didn’t you tell me you were getting Addison a dog? I thought we agreed no more dogs?” We did but then I changed my mind. I could tell her the truth. Tell her that I left it until last minute so she wouldn’t be able to say no and then forgot because I was horny. I could tell her that, or I could make something up and hopefully sleep in y own bed tonight.


“Because I knew you’d make me take her back to the breeder.” There, plain and simple. I have to come up with more or she’ll be mad all day. “Look, B, I know we came up with that ‘one dog at a time’ rule, but Tucker probably only has a couple of years left, and it’s going to be really hard on the kids.” I make my eyes well up with tears. Addy isn’t the only one in this family who knows how to put on a good show. “I just thought it would be a little easier if we already have another dog. This way it won’t seem like we’re replacing him.” I let a few of those tears fall and I sniffle a little bit, and put the tiny pieces of toast down on Joey’s plate. And just like that all of B’s anger melts away. She can say she hates Tucker all she wants but when he passes away she’s going to be bawling like the rest of us.


“You’re right,” she says in a soft voice. She puts Joey in his highchair and he instantly starts picking at the toast. B walks over to me and wraps me up in a big hug. I hug her back and keep the tears up. I’ll keep ‘em comin for another minute or two, and then ‘recover’ from this display of emotion. “I know it’s going to be hard on you when Tucker dies. He’s more your dog then anyone else’s.” She gently rubs my back and I can’t help but feel like I’m being trapped. I feel her grip tighten and I gulp a little. Damn, I’m so dumb sometimes. B never gets over anger that fast, ever. “But you should have told me about this, and explained it to me and I would’ve gone through with it. And I had something very special planned for tonight, but now you are so not getting any.” Dammit! She probably got a new outfit or something that she was going to wear for the first time! Son of a bitch!


“Mama look!” Addy screams and comes running into the kitchen. B lets go of me and sits down at the table. Now that she’s done being mad at me she’s watching how happy our little girl is now, and she’s smiling a little. Addy comes barreling into the kitchen with the puppy in her arms and it looks a little freaked out. “Santa got me a lady dog!” I get down on my knees so I’m eye level with her and she’s just so fuckin happy. I never thought a human being could be that happy, but I guess I was wrong. “Santa left it at gramps Chris’ house. And grampa Chris brought it here.” I take the puppy from my little girl and the thing looks relieved to be away from her. She starts wiggling around in my arms and licking my face, and Addy giggles. “My lady dog likes you, Mama.” I smile a little bit and put the puppy down on the floor, and she tries to climb up in my lap. Addy scoops her up in my arms and holds the puppy nice and tight, but not tight enough to hurt her.


“Your lady dog is a girl, and it’s time for breakfast so your puppy has to stay out of the kitchen.” Addy starts to pout but I give her a warning look and she stops. She knows fighting this rule is useless ‘cause I’ve never budged on it before. I take the puppy from Addy and go into the living room. My dad already brought the rest of the stuff in. I went all out ‘cause I didn’t want Buffy to bitch at me that the new dog is going to cost us money. I already spent the money so she has nothing to complain about. I got a crate, water bowl, food bowl, toys, a dog bed, a leash, a collar, puppy food, and an appointment next week at the vet’s office to get all of her shots and to get her spayed. Anyway, I put the little Cocker Spaniel in her crate and lock the door. Tucker is instantly all over it, wagging his tail and trying to smell her. He seems to like her. Lets hope it stays that way.


I go back into the kitchen and everyone is already sitting at the table and they’re making their plates with all the food I cooked. I don’t care that they didn’t wait for me. I’m actually glad that they didn’t. I take my seat and give Buffy a little kiss on the lips and an apologetic look but she’s determined to hold onto that anger. I’m sure I’ve said this before, probably many times, but nobody holds onto their anger quite like a Summers woman. And from the little glare Addy just sent my way ‘cause I locked her dog up I can tell that my kid has just enough of that gene inside her to be a problem. I really hope she doesn’t have it or the teenage years are going to be hell. But lets not think about that right now. Right now I just want to be happy because it’s Christmas morning and I have the best thing a person can ever have: a loving family.


BPOV


After breakfast we let the kids open up all the presents that Chris bought them. And there were a lot. I don’t think Chris is making up for all the years lost with the kids, I think he’s trying to make up for all of the lost years with Faith. He spoils our kids rotten because he never really got the chance to spoil Faith rotten. Faith has told me stories about the infamous Lehane temper, and how mad her dad used to get, but I think she exaggerated it a lot. And I think that because of the way Chris is with Faith, and the way he is with the kids. There’s no doubt in my mind that Faith was treated like a princess by her father. I think it’s really cute how Faith can act like such a kid around him. But at the same time it’s kind of annoying because she’ll encourage our kids to do bad things.


Anyway, after the kids got done opening their presents and figuring out which ones they wanted to open first there was a knock at the door. I answered it and was wrapped up in a huge hug from Willow. She was really excited and I got to see a little bit of the old Willow for a few minutes. She was babbling, and stuttering so bad I didn’t understand her, but then she calmed down and told me the happy news. Sky had proposed. They weren’t sure when they were going to tie the knot, but the fact that Sky asked Willow to marry her, and gave my redheaded friend one of the biggest diamond rings I’ve ever seen is a big deal. I’m really happy that Willow is so happy. That she finally found someone to settle down with. Maybe they will have a couple of kids. Willow has always wanted children, but Kennedy didn’t, so she never had any.


It’s a little passed noon right now. I just put Joseph in his crib. He dozed off about ten minutes ago. Addison is getting a little tired but I doubt she’ll be taking a nap today. She usually doesn’t take naps anymore, but Christmas morning at our house can be a little over stimulating for a little kid, and she was up about an hour before she normally gets up. That’s not why she won’t be taking a nap though. She’s way too excited about the new puppy to do anything else. She isn’t really interested in the toys she got this year. All she wants to do is play with the lady dog. I am still pissed at Faith for not telling me about the dog. But I have to admit that seeing my baby girl so happy is a great thing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this happy before. And it’s all because of that little runt. Yep, that’s right Faith spent almost five hundred dollars on the runt of the litter. I just hope she doesn’t have any health problems because if she has to be put down after Addison has already bonded with her then all hell will break loose.


“So Buffy, are all systems go for tonight?” Willow asks with a little smirk on her face. She’s a big part of that very special surprise I had for Faith. Now I’m not so sure if I want to go through with it. Since Faith, Sky and Chris are all outside smoking I guess it’s ok to talk about this now. Matthew’s too busy playing the video game I bought him and Addison is trying to come up with a name for the puppy. So far Ruby is her favorite. I don’t know why she doesn’t want to name the puppy lady. I mean, that’s the name of the dog in the movie and that’s the whole reason why she calls it a lady dog. But I guess I shouldn’t even try to understand. I mean, what goes on inside the mind of a four-year-old is probably too far out there for adults to understand. Anyway, I turn a little on the couch so I’m facing Willow a little more and get a small, sad smile on my face.


“I don’t know, Will. I want to but I’m so mad at her right now I don’t know if I can force myself to be with her like that. I’m still not very comfortable with using toys in the first place, and this is so intimate. And what if it doesn’t work?” I sound like I’m panicking a little bit but I’m not. I’m just overreacting. I take a little sip of my wine and take a few calming breaths. This was all my idea. I thought it would be a great present for Faith, and me but now I’m not so sure. Luckily Willow is here to lend me some support of the best friend kind. I’m sure if Willow could convince me to give Riley a shot she can talk me into doing this too. Then again the whole Riley situation ended horribly. What if I do go through with tonight, and it ends just as bad? Ok, maybe not just as bad, but pretty close? I don’t think I can handle another fight with Faith. I like the way things have been going. We’ve been happy, and communicating again.


“Well, I don’t mean to sound conceded, but I am the one who came up with the spell so it will work. As for the other stuff, Buffy just look at how happy Faith made Addison by giving her that puppy. Now she may not have talked to you about it beforehand, but she didn’t tell you that she was going to buy Matthew a puppy either.” Why did she have to bring that up? I take a bigger drink from the glass and swallow it in one big gulp. I wipe away the little bit that dribbled out the corner of my mouth and I look into my best friend’s eyes. She’s trying as hard as she can to be serious right now. I know that this situation is a little silly, but I’m still pissed off about it. And she does have a good point. Addison is very happy that she finally got a lady dog.


“Yeah, but I was so mad at her for that we didn’t have sex for almost two weeks. And that was when we were still having it a lot. We’ve slowed down a lot since then.” It’s true. Back then we couldn’t go more then a couple of days without sex. Now it’s down to once, maybe twice a week. We’ve been tired. We have three kids and a house to take care of. Not to mention the dog. And we have to do all the slaying because we’re the only slayers in Lincoln. Emma has been making a lot of money lately because me and Faith slayer on a more regular basis now. We had to pull Emma aside and explain to her about slayer, and vampires, and demons and all of that because she would just find out anyway. We thought it would be better coming from us then her finding out by seeing a demon or vampire. She freaked a little but now she’s more then happy to watch the kids whenever we need her to.


“Buffy, you shouldn’t let a little fight get in the way of you being intimate with Faith. Or at least tonight. It’s Christmas, and what better gift could you give Faith then this?” She’s right, I’m pretty sure Faith is going to love this gift a lot. Oh God, what if she loves it too much? What if she can’t be with me any other way after this? Ok, I’m panicking. Why didn’t I think of any of this stuff before? Oh, because I was too excited about it to really think about anything else. I look up at Willow to voice my fears and she holds up her hand. “Huh-un, don’t even go there. You were thinking really loud and I picked up on the little mind babble. Faith loves you, and yes she’s probably going to love ‘the gift’, but there’s no way she’s going to love it more then you. What happened to ‘I can’t wait until Christmas night’ Buffy? Where is this panicky Buffy coming from?” I guess that is a good question. This sudden fear does have a lot to do with some emotional stuff that I’d rather not talk about.


“Hey, what are you two whispering about over there?” Sky asks as she and the others walk into the living room. She takes her place next to Willow, and Faith sits down next to me. Chris sits down in the recliner and rubs his face with both his hands and yawns a little bit. I guess he had an early start too. Willow tells Sky we were just gossiping, and she wraps an arm around Willow. Sky is very touchy feely with her. I can’t help but wonder if she was always like that or if she’s only like that with my redheaded friend. Then again, why do I care? It’s not like I’m going to be getting touchy feely with Sky at all, ever. I’ll admit that she’s a very attractive woman, but I’m with Faith. So it doesn’t matter that Sky is attractive and has a very nice body, or the fact that if I wasn’t with Faith and Willow wasn’t with Sky, then I’d spend all night ravaging her and-


“Stop right there,” Willow says and elbows me a little bit. Oh God, she heard that? Please tell me she didn’t listen in on that. “I can’t help it you’re thinking too loud, calm it down a little bit. And stop thinking about that.” She snuggles into Sky a little more and Faith totally picks up on the little move. Sky looks obvious but mostly because she’s too focused on watching Matthew play that game and she didn’t hear the beginning of the conversation. I’m sure that Faith has a good idea of what I was thinking. God I hope she doesn’t, or it won’t be me freezing her out tonight, it’ll be the other way around. And I don’t take rejection very well. But all Faith does is chuckle and wrap her arm around me. She’s going to stay calm and not make a big deal out of it, but she’s a little jealous and I can’t help but smile. I take a little sip of my wine and snuggle in closer to her.


“I’m gonna take off,” Chris says and gets up. I wasn’t really expecting him to stay for too long. Earlier he mentioned having some plans, but he never said what they were. I think he’s leaving to meet up with a woman. I don’t know why, but that’s the feeling that I’m getting. Anyway, he gives the kids kisses and hugs goodbye. Then he walks over to Faith and gives her a really big hug. “Merry Christmas, dolly-face.” He gives her a kiss on the cheek and ruffles her hair a little bit. She what I mean about the princess treatment? If he’s like this with her when she’s a grown woman just imagine what he must’ve been like when she was a little kid. She was probably treated better then a princess. Then again my dad treated me like that for a long time. At least until he started cheating on Mom. That’s when he became distant from all of us.


“Dolly-face?” Willow asks in a teasing tone after Chris leaves. Faith doesn’t answer her, just pretends like she didn’t hear Willow speak. That’s probably best for everyone. Faith can get a little...defensive when it comes to her dad and some of the pet names he has for her. And I should know because I tease her about them sometimes, and she gets pissed. But that’s ok, she does have an image to maintain even if it’s already been completely ruined. Oh sure all of the other slayers still think she’s some big badass because of Andrew and him keeping all of her horror stories alive, but the scoobs know that those are just exaggerations of what Faith is really like. She can be blunt, and rude, and a little conceded, and adventurous and sometimes a little threatening, but deep down she’s a sweetheart and all of the scoobies have seen that side of her, thanks to Matthew. It’s really hard to be badass when you’re talking baby-talk to a five-month-old.


“We’re going to take off too, Buffy,” Willow says and gives me a little hug. She holds me close to her so her lips are touching my ear and she whispers very lightly so Faith and Sky hopefully won’t be able to hear her. “And no more sexy thoughts about my fiancé. You have your own hot brunette to think about.” We pull back from the hug and I give her a little mock glare but she knows that I’m just playing around. Sky and Willow take turns hugging and kissing the kids goodbye, and then they each give Faith a hug goodbye. It’s really funny watching it because she’s not used to hugging people other then me and the kids, and her dad of course. And as soon as they’re out the door Faith gives me a little mischievous look and raises one of her eyebrows. I ignore because I know what she’s going to ask about. So instead of looking at her I focus my attention on Matthew’s game, but I can feel her eyes on me.


“Wanna tell me what that was all about?” she asks and scoots closer to me so she can wrap her arm around me again. I scoot away from her a little and she just keeps on moving closer. I tell her I have no idea what she’s talking about and she chuckles a little bit. “Alright, then I’ll tell you. What was going on inside that dirty little mind of yours that had Willow telling you to stop thinking sexy thoughts about her fiancé?” I blush but I ignore it and take another sip of wine. Faith isn’t going to give this a rest anytime soon though. “So you think Sky’s hot, huh?” She grabs onto my arm and turns me so I’m facing her. She gives me a deep kiss that I fight at first, but I get lost in after a few seconds. The little bit of wine I’ve had, and the feeling of Faith’s tongue all over my mouth is making me feel a lot drunker then I really am. “How about we role-play then? You pretend I’m Sky and I’ll pretend you’re Katherine Heigl.” I start to laugh but she cuts it off with another deep kiss.


“We’re still in the room, ya know,” Matthew says and the sound of his voice makes me pull away from Faith. I can’t believe we were just making out like a couple of teenager right in front of the kids. I blush a little bit and hide my face in Faith’s neck. That’s a bad idea though, because now I have the greatest temptation to start nipping at all the hot skin just sitting there right in front of me. I hear Faith sigh a little bit and I know she’s going to say something to him, even if it’s just a smart ass remark.


“You’re playing your game, so what do you care? It’s not like you can see us with your eyes on the TV.” She does have a good point, but still we shouldn’t be making out like a couple of horny teenagers in front of our kids. That’s the kind of thing that can scar them for life. Matthew doesn’t say anything ‘cause he’s getting too wrapped up in the game again. Faith pulls back a little until she can see my face, and she smiles. She leans in and kisses me, and I don’t fight it. I guess it’s ok as long as we keep the use of our tongues to a minimum. Yeah, and that little plan only lasts about a minute and a half. As soon as the tip of her tongue touches mine I melt against her and let her take over.


“I can hear you kissing and it sounds gross,” Matthew says in a very irritated voice and I pull back again. Faith tries to follow me and keep the kiss going, but I put my hands on her shoulders to block her. She pulls back with a little irritated noise and she looks over at our son. He isn’t paying attention to us anymore, he’s too busy playing his game, but I’m sure if we start kissing again and he hears the noise he’ll get really pissed off. So I give Faith a little peck on the lips, and get up and start to make dinner. We always have an early dinner on Christmas, and I always make a huge amount of food and we just eat the leftovers for a couple days. That’s our tradition and we’re sticking to it. I’m about half way through fixing my big dinner when Addison comes into the kitchen holding the puppy and she has a little frown on her face.


“Mommy,” she says in a little whiney tone. I stop mashing the potatoes and look down at her. She’s standing about a foot away from me and she’s looking up at me with that little frown. I don’t have to ask what the problem is because she keeps talking before I even get the chance to respond. “My lady dog won’t wake up.” I kneel down next to her and make sure the dog isn’t dead. I’m sort of afraid that the kids will play too rough with it and accidentally kill her. She’s a small puppy, and they’re slayers sometimes they forget about their super human strength. But the lady dog isn’t dead, she’s just sleeping. Addison hands her to me like she’s sick or something. The puppy wines and collapses in my arms. She is a really cute little dog, I will admit that.


“That’s because she’s tired. Puppies are like babies, they need a lot of sleep.” Addison sighs and yawns really wide. I guess she’s getting a little worn out. “Come on, let’s put the puppy in her crate. Maybe you can have Mama open up your new Barbie and you can play with that.” Addison lets out a little ‘alright’ but she’s disappointed that she doesn’t get to play with the puppy anymore. I put her in her crate and she stands there for about two seconds before she collapses and goes back to sleep. I’m still a little irritated with Faith, but that little thing is starting to grow on me already. And the bright side is she isn’t going to get very big so she won’t tear up my house. Hopefully. I really hope I didn’t just jinx it. If this little lady dog gets as bad as Tucker did I don’t think I’ll be able to wait for Faith to retrain her. Tucker almost destroyed the old house, and he got very jealous of me whenever I was around Faith. I’m not going to tolerate it this time. I shouldn’t have tolerated it last time but I did, and I can’t really remember why.


After dinner I called Dawn to see how she’s doing. I called her this morning and she said she wasn’t going to make it. Not only do both boys have a really bad cold, but she’s getting it too. I offered to go over there and help her out but she says no, that I should be with my family because it’s Christmas. I feel a little bad that she’s alone on Christmas and sick at the same time. I really wish she could find somebody to be with but she probably won’t even think about playing the dating game until the boys are two, maybe three. And even then dating as a single mom has all sorts of problems. I tell her I love her and wish her a merry Christmas even though it’s clear she isn’t having one. When I get off the phone I check up on the kids. They went to bed about half an hour ago. Addison threw the biggest fit when we told her that the puppy has to sleep in the crate instead of in the bed with her. This way it won’t be able to hop down and crap all over the carpet. I go into my bedroom and see Faith tucking Joey in. Poor little guy is all worn out.


“Hey baby?” I ask in a low voice and close the door. The only light on is the little lamp on Faith’s nightstand so the room is pretty dark. We don’t use high watt light bulbs because those wake Joey up. He’s a pretty light sleeper just like me. She turns around and raises an eyebrow as her reply. I don’t really know where to begin. The plan was to do the spell at the very last minute and surprise her, but now I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I sit down on the edge of the bed and look down at my hands. She can tell I’m nervous and she’s being kind of supportive. She lays down on her back and looks up at me with a little smile on her face. I smile back at her and run my fingers through her long hair. She scoots towards me a little and rests her head in my lap. She takes one of my hands and gives the back of it a little kiss. Without even using words she’s make me feel a lot more at ease. How does she do it?


“I was just wondering if you ever think about the day we made Joey?” I worded that really weird. I didn’t mean to word it like that, it just came out. “I mean, do you ever wish that Willow would cast that spell again, so we can have sex like that again?” She looks a little confused and I know it’s not because of the questions. She’s wondering why I’m asking the questions. “Well?” I ask sounding a little impatient and she has to think about it. I just want to get this conversation over with so I’ll know if I should go ahead with the surprise or not. She’s quiet for a couple of minutes and I distract myself by running my fingers through her hair. It feels a little greasy ‘cause way early this morning we got a little sweaty together and she didn’t get a shower today.


“Not really no,” she says and I don’t really know what to think. Is that a bad sign, or a good one? I don’t know and it’s going to drive me a little crazy. “It was great, really great, but it was a temporary thing. If you’re trying to ask if I want to do it again, well yeah I wouldn’t mind it. But only if you want to. You know I don’t want you to be uncomfortable with anything we do together.” I smile down at her and I feel a little better. “Only if we do that again we’re going to the store first and buying lots and lots of condoms. Wouldn’t want you getting knocked up again.” Well that’s a little discouraging. Has she already forgotten that I want four kids? Oh well, she’s right. It wouldn’t be safe for me to get pregnant again because the possibility of something going wrong is pretty much a hundred percent. “Did Willow show you how to cast that spell or something?” She tries to keep the suggestiveness out of her voice, I can tell she tried but it came out sounding suggestive.


“No, not that spell. The spell she came up with one that lets the wearer of the strap-on feel like it’s real, but it’s not so there’s no need for protection.” I can’t help but blush a little bit. Willow has gotten so that she likes telling me very descriptive stories of her sexcapades just to embarrass me. Only I don’t get embarrassed too easy so she has to exaggerate them a little bit. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. “I was going to cast it tonight as a surprise, but then I started rethinking everything because I didn’t know if you’d want that or not.” She closes her eyes for a couple seconds and makes this little purring sound ‘cause I’m still stroking her hair. She’s so weird sometimes. “Faith I’m trying to be serious.” She opens her eyes and then rolls them at me. Sometimes she can be so aggravating. Why do I even bother?


“I know, and you need to stop. It’s not like we’re talkin life or death here, B. Come on, we’re married now. If you have any questions about what kinky new things I wanna try you should be a little more relaxed. And we can do the spell if you still want to. But lets not do it tonight. I’m fuckin tired,” she says that last part around a big yawn. I can see the back of her throat and I’m so tempted to do something with th situation, like drop something in her mouth, but I’m not holding anything. I’m only thinking it because it’s so something she would do to me if the situation was reversed. And this just goes to show how much we really have changed over the years. I think for the first time ever Faith’s too tired for sex. Hide under a table or something to protect yourself from falling debris ‘cause I think the world is about to end.


“I have a feelin Addy’s going to be coming in here tonight. Do you think maybe we should talk to somebody about the nightmares?” I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not. If we take her to a child psychologist she could tell them about being a slayer, and all about demons and vampires and how her moms are like the best slayers ever, and we’ve saved the world almost countless times, and the person would think that my baby’s crazy. Or they could believe her and hand her over to the government for testing. Either way I don’t like the outcome. And they’re just nightmares, I’m sure they’ll go away. All little kids have nightmares. “I know that most kids have nightmares, but not of the shit she says she sees in those dreams.” That’s true. Her dreams are pretty...graphic. I don’t know where she’s seen that kind of stuff before. We don’t let her watch violent TV shows or movies. And there’s no way she’s getting all of those images from one of Faith or Matthew’s video games.


“I don’t know. Can we talk about it more tomorrow? I just want to curl up in your arms and go to sleep.” She smiles a little and nods her head, but I think she’d rather talk about it now. But she doesn’t push for it. We change into our pajamas, and curl up under the covers. Faith turns out the light and I snuggle up to her. She holds me as we fall asleep and I silently give thanks to everything that I have to be grateful for. But most of all I’m grateful for her. I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t come along. If I hadn’t fallen in love with her I’d probably still be having horrible relationship after horrible relationship. Or I could be married to someone else and have completely different kids. I’m glad that when I told her that I love her she didn’t reject me, and she didn’t laugh in my face. She didn’t want to date me right away, but I’m stubborn and I got my way after a while. And I highly doubt she regrets any of it. We have a wonderful, very happy family, why would anyone regret that?


FPOV


I jolt awake when I feel something shake me. What the fuck? I was having a great dram. But now it’s gone because someone just had to wake me up. I feel them push on my shoulder again and I slowly open my eyes. I see Addy standing about four inches in front of my face and I jump a little. Damn kid’s trying to give me a heart attack. Addy’s still trying to wake me up. I guess she didn’t see my eyes open or something. She’s crying a little and I can smell the urine from here. These nightmares that she’s been having have really gotta stop. Not only has she been waking me up, but she hasn’t been sleeping very good since they started happening. She wets her bed way more, and she gets so scared that she bawls her eyes out. Didn’t I tell B that Addy would be in here tonight? I so totally called it.


“Mama,” she whispers and she sounds like she’s trying so hard not to cry. I sit up a little bit so she knows I’m awake. I don’t want to wake Buffy up. My voice is always a little harder to control when I first wake up. “Mama I had a accident.” She starts crying a little and I reach out and gently cup her cheek. I slowly get out of bed and hold onto her hand. I had lead her out of my bedroom and into the bathroom down the hall. I flip on the light and we both wince at the sudden brightness. She starts crying a little harder and I don’t know if it’s because she doesn’t have to be quiet or if the light hurt her eyes. I draw her a bath but then decide that I might as well take one too. I never did get a shower yesterday and I feel kind of gross. After the bathtub is full of warm water I help Addy take off her cold, wet clothes and put her in the tub. Then I strip down and slowly climb in.


“Addy, shh, baby. It’s ok,” I tell her in a low, raspy voice. She’s still crying really hard and it’s only getting worst. I pull her into my lap and she rests her head right under my chin. I gently rub her back and hold her tightly against me. We’ve got to do something, anything to get the nightmares to stop. This is getting out of control and I hate feeling like I don’t have any control. I takes her about fifteen minutes to finally calm down. She’s so quiet now that I think she fell asleep. “Want me to wash your back?” I feel her nod her head. Guess I was wrong about her being asleep. She scoots off my lap and sits by my knees. I grab the washrag and the soap and gently scrub her back and she moves her hair to the side so I can wash her shoulders and neck. She likes taking bath with me ‘cause then she doesn’t have to wash herself ‘cause she knows I’ll do it for her.


“Did you have a dream about the bad man?” I ask and keep my tone light. When I finish washing her back I grab the plastic cup on the far corner of the tub and rinse off the soap. It must’ve been one graphic dream to have her so broken. She usually doesn’t cry that hard. I want to know what she saw but I don’t want to push her. If she doesn’t want to talk about it I can’t make her. “What did the bad man do?” She doesn’t say anything she just shrugs her shoulders. I try not to sigh ‘cause I don’t want to her think I’m getting irritated. “Addison, you can tell me anything. Nothing is going to happen. No one is going to hurt you.” I feel her tense up and all sorts of red flags start going off.


“He said he would…” she tries to get out but a sob cuts her off. So somebody is hurting her? Somebody is hurting my baby? I ask her who he is but she doesn’t say anything. So I ask her again and she starts shaking. “I don’t know.” She starts sobbing again and I pull her into my lap and try to get her to calm down. It isn’t easy though ‘cause she’s really fuckin upset. I can feel my blood boiling and my heart breaking all at the same time. I don’t know how long it takes her to calm down but when she does she gets a little nervous. She grabs the washcloth and starts washing herself and she won’t look at me. She’s acting just like Buffy when she doesn’t want to talk about something. I ask her who the man is again and she sighs all dramatic and pissed off. Yep, definitely takes after Buffy.


“Addy, is he a real person or is he just in your dreams?” I ask and she keeps washing herself off but he does reply. I just hope I can get some answers out of her that’ll help me figure out what the fuck is going on. If this ‘bad man’ is a real person he’ll be unrecognizable when I dump him on the doorstep of the police station. Hell, I might just toss him to the vamps, let them clean up the mess. Sounds like a plan to me.


“He’s not real. He’s just in my dreams.” Ok so is she telling the truth or lying because she’s scared? I can’t tell. It’s always hard to tell if she’s lying or not because she’s so damn good at it. She’s practically a four-year-old con artist. I ask her what the bad man did in her dream and she stops moving. The room’s completely silent as I wait for her answer. I think she’s emotionally worn down enough to answer my questions. I feel like shit for breaking her down like that but this is important and I need answers. “He hurt my lady dog.” She doesn’t say anything else. She starts washing my shins and knees. I guess she’s trying to keep herself distracted so she doesn’t have to think about what she saw.


“What did he do to your lady dog?” I ask in a soft voice. She pauses for a couple seconds so I know she heard me. But she ignores me. She keeps washing my legs and it’s getting a little annoying. I try not to sigh in irritation. I can’t get mad at her for not talking or she’ll never open up. What I want to know is why doesn’t she trust me enough to tell me what happened? What did the bad man tell her? “Put your head back.” I try not to sound frustrated but it’s hard. I just want to help her. I just want these nightmares to go away so she doesn’t have to wake up in fear. I use the cup to wet her hair and I take my time washing it. I make sure that every strand gets clean, and then conditioned. Ok, so maybe she does get that ‘distracting yourself to keep your mind off something’ thing from me.


“Why are you two up so early?” Buffy asks as she walks in. She yawns really wide and stretches her arms high above her head. Addy tells her that she had an accident but Buffy is still too tired to really care. She will in a little while though, and maybe she can get some more answers out of Addy. B pulls down her pajama pants and panties and sits down on the toilet. She glances over at us with a raised eyebrow. “Privacy please?” I roll my eyes and close the shower curtain. And even with it closed she has to turn on the faucet so we won’t be able to hear her take a piss. Ok, we’ve lived together for how long and she’s still self-conscious? That’s just stupid. “Addison did you have another bad dream?” She flushes the toilet and after a few seconds she turns the water off, and now she’s brushing her teeth. It’s like five in the morning, what the fuck is she doing? You’d think she’d want to go back to bed. Guess she’s just weird.


“Yeah Mommy,” Addy says and opens the shower curtain. She hates not being able to look at someone when she’s trying to talk to them. “I saw the bad man again.” She sounds so sad now. Why does the bad shit always happen to her? First she gets sent back to the past, then she gets a fuckin brain tumor, and now this shit. Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? Good, so it’s not just me. Buffy pauses for a couple seconds and glances over at her for about two seconds and then starts brushing her teeth again. I have Addy turn around so I can clean off her front. I know she already did it, but she’s a little kid so she probably missed some spots.


“What did the bad man do?” B asks and spits a fat glob of froth and saliva. The way she’s treating the situation it’s like she’s askin Addy what she did at school. Does she just not care or is she just too tired to care? I can’t decide which one. I’ll have to ask her about it later. How can she not care? If that is her answer, I mean. Addy’s wetting her bed and waking up terrified, how can B act like this isn’t a big deal? So many questions but I can’t ask ‘em in front of Addy just in case a fight breaks out. We try as hard as we can not to fight in front of the kids. Just hearing your parents fight is bad enough, but seeing it happen can fuck a kid up. And the last thing either of us want to do is fuck our kids up.


“He hurt my lady dog,” Addy says and looks down at her lap. What the hell? I had to practically pull teeth to get her to talk to me, but she’s talking to Buffy without any trouble. Then all of a sudden a light bulb goes off over my head, figuratively speaking. When I started asking questions I was all serious about it, but B’s acting relaxed and calm and Addy isn’t getting uncomfortable like she did with me. You may have won this round Buffy, but I will so take you down. Wait…what the fuck am I talking about? I need to stay focused ‘cause Addy might tell B what she saw. Then maybe we can figure out why these nightmares keep happening.


“Well, don’t worry, baby. Nobody’s going to let anything bad happen to your lady dog.” That’s it? She’s not going to ask her what happened to the dog? It could be important. “Come on, lets get you dressed so you can let your lady dog outside to go potty.” She puts her toothbrush back in the holder, and grabs a towel from under the sink for Addy to dry off with. She gets out of the tub and they leave the room. This fuckin sucks. I got like no answers out of her, at least none that are helpful. There’s only one thing I can think of that could help. Buffy doesn’t want her to see a shrink, and we can’t just do nothing, so I guess it’s time to call up Glenda and get her to do something magical. Maybe Red can do some kinda mind reading spell, see if Addy’s lying or not. I don’t know what would be the best thing to do so I’ll just have to wait to talk to Willow. And Sky’s a witch too so maybe she can help Red do whatever it is that she’ll do.


I wash myself off mostly for a distraction. Addy’s awake now so the ‘bad man’ can’t hurt her so I can deal with all this stuff later. Getting this resolved is important but I have some other important stuff to do also. Mostly just housework. I’m going to do more then my fair share to give Buffy a little bit of a break. Alright, I’ll admit it I’m mostly doing it just to make sure she isn’t mad at me anymore. I’m pretty sure she’s not, but I should do this just in case. I mean, last night she wanted me to hold her, and she never lets me touch her when she’s pissed off at something I did. I also need to do some laundry. We’re going over to my dad’s house for dinner tonight and I want the kids to wear their nice clothes. Their nice clothes are still dirty from the last time we had dinner over there.


After I let the water out and get out of the tub I dry off and throw on some clothes. I guess I’ll wash Addy’s sheets and blankets first. We don’t have to be at my dad’s until six so I have all day to do the laundry. After I throw in that stuff I scrub off her mattress and spray some Febreeze on it. I’m surprised we haven’t boughten one of those plastic covers to put over the mattress. I guess that would be too embarrassing for her. She gets really upset with herself whenever she wets the bed. Me and B keep telling her it’s ok and it’s not he fault, but she gets really ashamed when she does. I wonder if she got made fun of at daycare? She hasn’t worn a diaper since she was two and a half, maybe she wet herself during naptime and some kids made fun of her? I’ll have to ask her teacher about it. I know Mattie would never make fun of her for it and me and B have been nothing but supportive so why does she get so ashamed?


“What’s for breakfast?” Mattie asks when he walks into the kitchen. Well good morning to you too. Don’t these kids have any fuckin manners? I thought we taught them that kind of stuff. Hmm, maybe we forget. Oh well. I’m joking. I know they have manners, he’s just tired. I tell him I’ll make some ham and cheese omelets if he’ll take out the trash and I don’t even need to say please. He really likes my omelets. As I’m cutting up some ham from last night’s dinner I glance out the window and I can’t help but smile. Buffy and Addy are in the backyard, sitting on the grass across from each other and rolling the soccer ball back and forth, and the puppy is chasing the ball trying to bite onto it but her mouth isn’t big enough. Then Tucker stand over her, grabs onto the ball and takes off running. B and Addy both yell at him but he doesn’t stop. So they both jump up and run after him. I laugh to myself a little ad go back to fixing breakfast.


“Mama does my lady dog hafta go in the cage?” Addy whines and I tell her yes. “Why?” I tell her that it’s time for us to eat and the dogs aren’t allowed in the kitchen while we eat. I also tell her that Tucker learned to stay out of the kitchen during meals and one day the lady dog will too and she won’t have to be locked up. She gets a little irritated and I know she’s getting pissed off. Great, I really hope she doesn’t throw a fuckin tantrum. That’s the last damn thing that I need right now. “Fine.” She sound all pissy and she stomps off to the kitchen. But she surprisingly doesn’t throw a tantrum. She isn’t acting very pleasant, but there’s no yelling, no screaming, no mean words, or tears or melodrama. I go into the kitchen and everyone’s at the table already, and they’re waiting for me. I sit down and Buffy starts making up the kids’ plates. She puts an omelet on Addy’s plate, and some fruit but my precious little angel makes this weird noise, almost like a growl, and pushes the plate away.


“Addison Kristine,” B says in that stereotypical mom way. “You straighten up right now, and eat your breakfast.” She finishes making up Joey’s plate and he starts jabbering to himself while he eats. Addy still doesn’t cooperate. She pushes the plate back more and Buffy gets really irritated. I try really hard not to smile ‘cause it’ll just undermine B’s authority if Addy sees me doin it. But it’s hard not to ‘cause no matter what B says she is a lot like her mom when she gets irritated with the kids. It’s hilarious to watch. “You know, Addison, Santa doesn’t like it when little kids act bratty out their Christmas presents. You might want to start acting nicer or he might come back and take your lady dog back to the North Pole.” That threat will only be good for one, maybe two more days. It does the trick for now. Addison is still mad ‘cause she didn’t get her way, but she eats her breakfast.


I don’t say much while he eat. Mattie’s talking about how he can’t wait to get back to school because the first week they go back they have a basketball game with some team from Vegas. It took me a while but I finally got Buffy to agree to let him play. I gave her more head in that one night then I have in the last three months. I got so dizzy I thought I was gonna pass out. I wonder what my dad’s gonna make for dinner tonight? He’s an ok cook, but his skills are a little…limited. I’m just saying there are other animals out there besides the cow that are raised and slaughtered for their meat. Every time we’ve gone over there he’s made something out of beef. Would it kill him to make some pork chops or something every once in a while? But I guess I can’t complain. It is his house after all, and he’s just fixing what he likes. Doesn’t mean he has to try and convert us to the ‘beef lovers society’.


“Would you two hold still for like five seconds, please?” Buffy nags at me and Mattie. We weren’t doing much. I poked him so he poked me back and we got into a little contest. It’s not my fault we’re bored. This elevator ride is taking forever! How long does it take to get to the third floor? I mean, seriously this is bullshit. Finally the elevator stops and the doors open. We step out and walk down the hall. Damn, how long is this hallway? “Faith will you stop dragging your feet? You’re acting like a three-year-old.” Addy lets out a very offended ‘hey!’ and Buffy rolls her eyes. “You’re not three anymore, Addison.” I laugh a little but stop when B glares at me. She’s pissed off at me because Ruby, Addy finally decided to name her, got into the garden when I left her outside by herself, and she completely destroyed it. I’m gonna have to replant the whole thing, and it’s going to take forever ‘cause B’s garden was pretty big.


Finally we make it to the end of the hall. B knocks on the door and we wait. After about two seconds someone yells ‘come in’ but it didn’t sound like my dad. We walk into the apartment and hear someone giggling, a girl someone giggling. What the fuck is going on? Buffy parks the stroller next to the door and takes Joey out of it. Mattie and Addy run off to find their grandpa. We follow them and find him in the kitchen and he’s not alone. There’s a girl in here with him alright. The ‘she’s just a neighbor helping me take care of the baby’ Brittany to be exact. Well, she’s quite the friendly neighbor isn’t she? I mean, she helps my dad take care of a four-month-old when she has no obligation to, and now she’s cooking dinner for us. Maybe we should move into this apartment building if the neighbors are so helpful. I’d never have to do chores again.


Tonight she’s wearing a cashmere sweater that’s red with little snowflakes all over it. It hugs her body very well and in all the right places. She has on some tight fitting blue jeans that probably hug her ass perfectly. I’ll have to wait until she turns around to see if they do. She blushes and looks a little embarrassed and I really want to know why. But I think I have a good idea. See, the sweater isn’t a turtleneck, and I can see a teeny-tiny little hickie on the juncture where her neck meets her shoulder. I get a very mischievous smile on my face and my dad gives me a warning look. So there is something going on, and he’s silently telling me to back off. Oh, this is going to be good. And here I thought tonight was going to be just another dinner at my dad’s. Moderately fun, especially after we break out the wine, but now it’s different. Now I can stir up some trouble.


“Sorry dinner isn’t ready yet, but we weren’t expecting you for another fifteen minutes.” Yeah, no kidding. “The chicken has a garlic seasoning on it and I didn’t know if the baby could have that so I’m baking a chicken breast for him.” Well, that was nice of her. Buffy is the one to thank her ‘cause I’m too busy giving my dad a playful look and he keeps glaring at me. Tonight is going to be so much fun. “You kids can go play if you want. You know where the toys are.” Ok that bugs me a little bit. She’s just being nice, so let it go. They do run off to the spare bedroom and dig into the toys. “So, what have you girls been up to today?” Buffy tells her ‘not much’ but I’m waiting for the perfect moment to try and draw them out. If they’re in a relationship I’m so going to find out.


“So, Brittany,” I say after Buffy gets done describing the stupid candle holder I got her for Christmas. It wasn’t the only thing, but it is by far the most pointless. Luckily the diamond earrings made up for it. “What did you do for Christmas?” She looks a little nervous, my dad looks a little irritated, and Buffy…well she looks genuinely interested because she has no idea what I’m trying to do. I lean against the counter and wait for her to answer. I’m trying not to smile because I don’t want to freak her out, and it’s really hard. And I have to admit that she’s pretty damn cute when she’s nervous.


“I just stayed home. My parents passed away a couple years ago, and the only family I have is a brother but we haven’t spoken in years. I usually go to Aspen with some of my friends but I decided not to go. My boss is sick and I had to cover for her at work.” Wow, that sounds somewhat believable. That must be one hell of a boss if she’s willing to cancel a trip to Aspen just to work. Either that or she was here with my dad. Is it weird that I’m not jealous? You’d think I’d be jealous of her because my dad and I just found each other last year, and if he’s too busy spending time with her then I might get kicked to the curb. But I don’t feel that way. Is that weird?


“That sucks that you were alone on Christmas,” Buffy says and I raise an eyebrow at my dad. His face is turning so red that I want to laugh and tell him to calm down before he has a heart attack but I can’t because it’ll ruin everything. And Buffy saying that was so perfect because Brittany doesn’t really know what to say. I feel like I should be cackling. Don’t wicked witches cackle and wring their hands together? ‘Cause I feel like I should be doing that too. Brittany takes in a deep breath and tries to make her blush go away. Me and B exchange a little glance, and B has no idea what’s going on. Is she really that dense or is she just in denial?


“Well, it was kind of nice being by myself for a change. I got to sleep in and laze around all day. It was nice. Quiet, but nice.” Oh, I just caught her in a lie! She is so going down. I’m about to open my mouth and say something when there’s a loud beep. “Chicken’s ready.” Saved by the bird. But I’m not going to let it go that easy. I’ll keep my mouth shut for now but I will open it later. Oh yes, you better believe it. I’m going to get to the bottom of this even if I have to ask some embarrassing questions I’d rather not know the answers to. My dad and I set the table while the two Bs stay in the kitchen and talk while Brittany finishes making dinner. Not only did she bake a chicken but there’s honey glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and she’s making the chicken gravy right now. All of it smells and looks great. Lets just hope it tastes good too.


“Kids, dinner!” Buffy yells as she and her new best friend walk out of the kitchen and into the dining room. “And when my mom got sick I dropped out so I could be at home more and help her around the house take care of my younger sister. After she passed away I had to get a job to support me and my sister and I never got back around to it.” They must be talking about school. How boring. “But now I’m taking a business course at the community college and hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to open my own self-defense training class.” Yep, that’s what she wants to do. I think it’s a little dumb, but she wants to do it and I’ll support her no matter what. As long as I get to open up my shop all will be good. It’s going to be so bad ass. I still need to come up with a name though.


“That’s cool,” Brittany says and sets the platter down on the table. Everything else has already been set out. “The job I have is only temporary. I’m an assistant so it’s kiss ass work mostly. My boss is pretty cool for a boss. She has her moments. What I really want to do is teach.” Aww, how sweet. We sit down at the table. Buffy puts Joey in the highchair and makes up a plate for him. She calls out to the kids again and this time they actually listen. I watch my dad and Brittany kinda closely but without being obvious, ya know? She’s actually making up his plate for him. And no one is saying anything! “I get my degree this June, then I’ll substitute for a while until I find something a little more permanent.” Now I think is the perfect time to start pulling out the big guns. I’m going to show no mercy until these two lovebirds fess up.


“Not to sound intrusive.” Yeah right. I totally mean to sound intrusive. “But during the subbing and then finding permanence do you see yourself getting married or having kids of your own?” She almost chokes on her milk, which would have been hilarious, but she coughs a couple times and goes back to normal. Buffy’s giving me some strange looks and my dad looks like he could kill me right now. Good, it’s working. Maybe he’ll get mad enough and in a fit of anger confess to there being more then friendship or just being good neighbors. Anyway, Brittany clears her throat a couple times and thinks about my question. I guess she’s trying to find a way to word it carefully.


“Well, that’s a good question.” She’s so nervous that her hairline is starting to get a little bit of sweat. Hmm, maybe I should back off and wait for them to tell me when they’re ready? No, fuck that. They might never come clean, and then I won’t know anything. And I hate being left in the dark. She opens her mouth to say something but my dad totally cuts her off. Well, that’s a little rude. He usually acts more gentleman like then that. Then again, who cares? Lets just listen to what he has to say.


“Actually, if I could interrupt for a minute,” he says and she nods her head. He takes in a deep breath and then reaches over and holds onto Brittany’s hand. Ok, this isn’t funny anymore. I think this relationship of theirs is about more then just sex. And up until a couple seconds ago I thought that’s all it was. “Brittany and I have been seeing each other for a while now, since February.” That was ten months ago! “And yesterday I proposed.” What?! “And she said yes.” The entire room is completely silent. Not even Joey is making any noise. I go to say something but my dad keeps talking. “There’s more.” Oh please don’t say it. “In about seven months we’re expecting a baby.” I think I’m going to faint. Whatever thought I was going to verbalize is gone. All I can do is concentrate on breathing. It’s Addy that finally breaks the deafening silence.


“But you’re so old.”