Author's Note: This story is based on the NBC television series The Facts of Life, which as far as I know, is the property of Embassy Television, Columbia Pictures Television, and Sony Pictures Television. No infringement is intended.

Chapter 1: A Honeymoon in Appleton

It had been an utterly perfect August day. Edna Caden – formerly Edna Garrett – was back on her family farm in Appleton, Wisconsin, enjoying the last day of her honeymoon with her new husband, Howard. Edna had lived in Peekskill, New York for a few years now, working as the school dietician at the Eastland School for Girls, and she had always been happy there, but as the old saying went, there was no place like home. Now that she was back at her family's farm again, she was truly in her element. She had long since learned how to thrive in the city, but she was always a farmer's daughter at heart.

Howard, who'd really been quite a drifter for most of his life, working as a cook in a myriad of different places all over the country for many years, had always preferred city life, himself. However, when he worked under Edna as a cook at Eastland a couple of years back, he'd fallen head over heels in love with her. Even though he quit his job at the girls' school after ten months and left Peekskill for another job in Manhattan, the then fifty-three-year-old bachelor simply couldn't get Edna Garrett out of his mind – or his heart. So at the beginning of the last school year, he returned to his previous position there, and they resumed their relationship. The rest, as they say, is history. On a lovely warm evening in May, he popped the question and Edna gave him a very enthusiastic yes. Two people who weren't enthusiastic about them getting married at the time, however, were fifteen-year-old Natalie Green and her best friend, fourteen-year-old Tootie Ramsey. Neither one of them were exactly thrilled with the prospect of Mrs. Garrett getting married and going to live somewhere else.

Although Edna's official position at Eastland had been that of school dietician, she had had other responsibilities that weren't in her job description that she never get paid for in her time there. At the beginning of Howard's first year at Eastland, Blair Warner, Jo Polniaczek, Natalie Green, and Tootie Ramsey stole the school van and hotwired it, and they attempted to get into a nearby bar with fake IDs. When they were arrested by an undercover cop at the bar, Eastland's headmaster at the time, Mr. Harris, was so furious he immediately expelled them. Mercifully for them, Edna was kindhearted enough to come to their rescue, convincing Mr. Harris to allow them to stay as long as she agreed to accept full responsibility for them and have them work with her and Howard in the kitchen and cafeteria to pay off the damage they did to the school van. The girls also had to move out of their dorm rooms and into the old storage room across the hall from Edna's bedroom so she could keep her eye on them. Ever since then, for three wonderful years, the five of them lived and worked together, and they really did become a family. It had always been an unspoken truth that Mrs. Garrett was the only real parent they had in their lives. It was quite obvious that she couldn't have loved those four girls more if they were her own flesh-and-blood daughters. Caring for four teenage girls in addition to feeding an entire student body was hardly easy, but even though her previous life had Eastland had not been without its share of challenges, she had never been happier.

But that still didn't change the fact that the divorcée of twenty years felt lonely from time to time and needed companionship in her life. Edna had always hoped that she'd get married again someday, and when Howard came back into her life, everything just fell right into place for both of them. Howard was more than smitten with Edna's warm, sweet, giving, tenderhearted personality, and Edna truly adored Howard for his enormous heart and lively spirit and endlessly goofy nature. He truly was a clown and an overgrown child, but in a good way. He wasn't immature or irresponsible, but he was a constant goofball, and that was one of Edna's most favorite things about him. While she certainly didn't like the idea of leaving the girls behind to move in with Howard, she was absolutely in love with him, and she knew that as much as she loved her girls, there did come a point where she had to do what was right for herself as well. On top of that, her two oldest girls, Blair and Jo, were both eighteen and getting ready to start attending Langley College in the fall semester, so the splitting up of their family was inevitable. It was always going to happen regardless of whether or not she married Howard and moved out of her room above the Eastland cafeteria. And it was hardly as if she was running off to some faraway place like Africa with an annoying, selfish old fuddy-duddy who didn't care about her relationships with her girls. When Edna agreed to marry Howard, she knew she'd simply be moving into his apartment with him in town and coming to work at Eastland every day, so even though she wouldn't be living with Natalie and Tootie anymore, she'd still see them all the time. Therefore, in spite of the fact that Natalie and Tootie were far from pleased about the idea of Mrs. Garrett moving out, they were ultimately left with no choice but to make their peace with it. And although they were upset about Mrs. Garrett not living with them anymore, they were in fact very happy for her and Howard, as were Blair and Jo, when they officially tied the knot just after Blair's and Jo's graduation in mid-June.

However, life had another surprise in store for Edna after the surprise of a new husband. Right before the newlywed couple left for Appleton for their honeymoon-slash-summer-vacation, Edna's older son Raymond surprised her with a very special wedding present: her own gourmet food shop. He'd managed to buy an old building in downtown Peekskill where an Armenian deli used to be, and he offered to set her up with her very own business. Edna was a bit hesitant at first, but it was something she'd always dreamed of. Howard was more than supportive, and the girls were as well, so she decided in the end to go ahead with the idea. And after discussing it with Howard, Edna offered to allow all the girls to move in and stay in the large master bedroom of the adjoining house so that their family could remain together, which was something they happily agreed to. The girls would also be working part-time in Edna's new shop after classes to help her and Howard out with their new business.

For the following week after their wedding, Edna, Howard, and the girls stayed in Peekskill and cleaned up the old shop and whipped it into shape before everybody left for the summer. And ever since the newlyweds left Peekskill for Appleton, they'd been having the time of their lives on Edna's family farm. The farm now belonged to Edna's oldest brother and his wife and kids; however, they too had left home for the summer, and they'd allowed Edna and Howard to have the place to themselves for a kind of honeymoon. Despite the fact Howard was, in his own words, a born and bred city boy, he soon got into the spirit of it, and he actually had a lot of fun helping Edna tend to the farm for her brother…that is, when they weren't busy doing…other things.

And today, the twentieth of August, was officially their last day in Wisconsin, and while Edna and Howard would be leaving early the next morning, her brother and his family were returning to the farm later that following day as well. And even though Howard and especially Edna were sorry to see their extended honeymoon come to an end, they were ready to resume their life in Peekskill with the girls and start their business. Once they were finished with all the chores that needed to be done on the farm, they spent the rest of the day enjoying the simple things in life. They took a nice, long walk together for a while and then they went fishing until the sun went down, and as they fished, they laughed, talked, and had the time of their lives just by being in each other's company. The sunset over the lake in the park was breathtaking, and for Edna, the remarkable scenery before her eyes was only enhanced that much more the moment Howard put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his embrace. It was pure, absolute heaven. Nothing but nature, peace and quiet, and most importantly, each other. No headaches. No demanding, unreasonable headmasters to deal with. No deadlines. No faculty dinners. No fights or squabbles to settle. No shouting matches. No teenage crises on the horizon. No drama. Neither one of them could have possibly imagined a more idyllic honeymoon.

And despite the fact that they lingered at Edna's favorite Italian restaurant for hours and didn't get back until very late at night, they weren't ready to go to sleep. Even though they knew perfectly well that they had a flight back to New York early the next morning, sleep was the last thing on their minds as they settled next to each other in the bed of her brother's guest room.

It didn't take long for Howard to put his arm around Edna's shoulders and snuggle close to her. As soon as he did that, he whispered in her ear, "May I have a word with the girl who won that famous bet jumping off the barn into a bale of hay?"

Edna laughed, and then she told him, "She's right here."

"Want to go on another adventure on the farm, and uh…roll in the hay again?"

Again, she laughed, and she responded, "We've already been on plenty of our 'adventures' together on the farm. You know we'll have to cool things down a little once we're back in Peekskill. If the girls hear us while we're on one of our 'adventures,' we may scar them for life."

Howard laughed with Edna, and then after kissing her cheek, he whispered in her ear, "Well, they'll just have to realize that just because we've got snow on the roof doesn't mean there's not a fire in the furnace."

"I think we've been keeping that furnace lit very well these past few weeks."

After nibbling her ear a minute or two, he whispered, "Let's fire it up again."

"Whatever you say, Lover-Man, but you just remember that as soon as we get back to Peekskill, we're going to have four girls in our house to think about."

"We'll keep it down. They won't ever hear a thing."

Edna then looked at him pointedly and asked, "All kidding around aside, Howard, are you sure you're ready for this? This is a very big change for you. All these years, you've been a bachelor living on your own. Now, you're a married man, and in a very short time, you'll be helping to take care of four teenage girls. As soon as we get back to Peekskill, your entire life as you've known it is going to be turned upside down. You're going to have some heavy responsibilities on your shoulders. I want you to be prepared."

"I am prepared, Edna," he kindly reassured her. "Well, I mean…I don't think any man can be totally prepared for a change like that, but I believe I am as prepared as I possibly can be. And anyway, love, you know me. You know that I love those girls with all my heart."

"I know."

"And I promise you that no matter what, I'll always give them my best. No matter what, I'll always give you my best."

A warm smile really lit up Edna's face in that moment, and then she reached up and caressed his cheek. A second later, she said, "Now what was that you were asking about firing up our furnace again?"

Howard then gave his new wife a mischievous grin in return, and a couple of moments later, they…ahem…began another one of their "adventures."