Okay so this is just something I wrote at like 2am. It's set in the same universe as Grace, but you don't really need to have read that to what happens. It's just fluff, probably not very good but ah well. Happy Valentines Day! Let me know what you think.
Its Valentines Day today, you know that because its a day you've been looking forward to for weeks. The kids will be gone for the night, Grace will be at the Valentines Day dance at her school (which you're not so happy about as she's going with a boy named Tom) and then sleeping over at her best friends and Paige, April, Sam and Ben are staying at Kate's Mom and Dad's for the weekend.
Its not often you get to spend time just you and Kate, especially now you've got five kids and another one on the way, which is why you've been looking forward to this day for months.
The youngest four are already gone and the house just doesn't seem right. Its silent and its clean... Its kinda creepy.
Kate is upstairs with your daughter, helping her get ready for the dance, and you've been put on door duty. 'You're to answer the door to Tom, let him in, smile, offer a drink and nothing else' were your 16 year old daughter's exact words.
Yeah right, like that's ever going to happen. You're her father, she's your teenage daughter, and Tom is a hormonal 16 year old boy taking your extremely beautiful 16 year old daughter to a school dance. You we're once Tom, and you know he's gonna have a bit more than JUST dancing on his mind.
Kate got pregnant at this age, and yes, okay, so she didn't exactly intend on getting pregnant but Grace may not intend to either. And you're barely in your 30s, you're way too young and handsome to be a Grandpa.
You're pulled out of your musings when the doorbell rings. Show time!
"Hi, Mr DiNozzo? I'm Tom, Tom Fox. I'm uh, I'm here to pick Grace up" the young boy smiles nervously, clearly intimidated by you. You're glad you 'accidentally' forgot to un-holster your gun when you got home from work.
"Come on in" you smile back, waving the boy into your home.
He smiles nervously again and nods as he enters your home.
"Its a really nice home you've got here, sir" he swallows hard, looking around the house.
"Thank you" you reply, clapping his back. "But please, call me Mr DiNozzo"
Hehehehe, being evil is fun. Although, you'd better get used to this, you suppose. Four out of you five children are girls, and even though Sam is turning into a tomboy (would rather play little league and eat worms than wear dresses and play with dolls), you still suspect she will have boys lining up for her. Even if she is only four right now.
"You want a drink?" You ask, knowing that Grace will ask Tom about how he was treated and she WILL kill you if you do anything to embarrass her.
"S-sure"
As you lead Tom into the kitchen, you can hear your wife and eldest chatting happily upstairs. You grab a bottle of water and throw it at Tom and the boy impresses you as he catches it in his left hand with ease.
"Nice catch"
"Thanks. I played cricket a lot growing up. I lived in London till I was about 11, then I moved out here"
You just nod, you knew he had an odd accent and you knew your daughter has a thing for British boys. Typical.
"So uh, Tom" you say, your tone serious now. "How long have you and my daughter been going out?"
"N-not long, Mr DiNozzo" he gulps, shrinking under your gaze. "And what are your intentions with my daughter to-"
"-DAD!"
Crap!
"Tony!"
You turn and now you're the one who shrinks. Grace is just as scary as Kate is when she's angry, but the pair of them together... Its what you imagine Godzilla PMSing would be like.
Your daughter, however angry she might look right now, still looks beautiful. Her dyed blonde hair (which you're still not happy about, although you'd prefer she dyed her already almost blonde hair than get something like a tattoo or another inappropriate piercing. You're still trying to forget she got her belly pierced behind your back) is hanging in long, lose curls down her back. Her eyes are now a beautiful blue/green mix and are surrounded by a light layer of eye make-up and she's got a floor length, powder pink halter neck dress on.
You don't miss the fact that Tom's jaw has dropped to the floor as he takes sight of your daughter.
"C'mon, Tom!" She pouts, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the door.
"Have fun tonight, kids" your wife shouts as the front door slams shut.
Now that your daughter and her boyfriend have left, you can finally look at your wife. Man is she stunning. Even after five kids. Baby number six isn't showing yet, well, not to the average person anyway. You only found out yourselves a couple of weeks ago, and you're gonna tell the kids and everybody else after the first scan.
You're just going to stay in tonight, neither of you really having the energy to go out somewhere fancy. That's not really your style anyway, even when Kate doesn't have crazy all-day-rather-than-just-morning sickness. No, you're just going to lie on the sofa, cuddling and watching movies. And when you say watching movies, you mean making out like you did when you were back in college.
"I can't believe my baby is going to her first dance" Kate sighs. Despite Grace being the eldest, she will always be Kate's baby, no matter what.
"I know" you agree, wrapping your arms around your wife's waist and pulling her close, revelling in the fact that her stomach is starting to swell. "It seems like just yesterday she was running around the house in diapers"
"Only two more years till she goes off to college"
"Oh God, don't remind me!"
You kiss Kate on the cheek, breathing in the smell that is so uniquely her. The perfect smell that you've become addicted to over the past 16 years. You're actually pleasantly surprised when you don't actually get that perfect Kate smell mixed with baby sick which happens more often than not. You're sure Ben is like that girl from The Exorcist, but with like 100000x more puke.
Its getting on for 8pm, so you pick up the phone as you make your way to the sofa, ordering Kate's favourite pizza as she sorts out the movie.
She comes back and snuggles into your side as the boring ads roll. You wrap your arm around her shoulder as her head rests on your chest, her arm draped across your stomach and her legs bent to her own chest.
"Mmmm, you smell nice" Kate sighs almost dreamily, nuzzling her nose into the material of your t-shirt.
"That's what happens when Ben is puking on your Mom, instead of us" you chuckle, feeling her sweet giggles against your ribs.
"That child could puke for the U.S.A. In the olympics!"
You fall back into a comfortable silence as the menu pops up on the TV screen. You were expecting some gross chick movie Kate's forced you to watch hundreds of times, and you're shocked senseless as you realise its your James Bond DVD she put on.
"I thought you hated James Bond" you say as Kate chooses the 'play movie' option with the remote.
"I don't hate it" Kate shrugs. "I just find it boring. But you like it, and I love you"
"You have no idea how much I love you right now" you grin broadly, kissing Kate boldly on the lips. "I got something for you, by the way" you say once you both break away for oxygen.
"Tony! I told you no gifts this year!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know" you shrug. "But you're my wife and my best friend and I love you. You know I love to spoil you" you say as you fish around the back of the sofa. "Close your eyes"
You make sure Kate is doing as you say and that she isn't peeking before you place the neatly wrapped box on your lap for her.
"Open" you smile.
Kate opens her gorgeous green/brown eyes, and immediately narrows them, shooting you the infamous skeptical Kate look.
"Tony, I swear if this is like that time you decided to have a kinky Christmas and put your di-"
"-Kate, just open it" you say, not wanting to relive the memory of how kinky Christmas went horribly, horribly wrong.
Kate hesitates, clearly not wanting to ruin the perfectly wrapped box. She does this every single time she gets a half decently wrapped gift. And then she takes forever when she does actually get around to opening it, so she doesn't rip the paper, just for the simple fact that she can use it again.
After a good few minutes, Kate finally un-wraps the box. She looks like she's about to cry when she see's what's inside... Which, its not that impressive, but then again, she is pregnant and hormonal. There's just a bunch of bits and pieces in there, a personalised Yankee Candle in Kate's favourite smell (which may or may not have a piece of hidden jewellery for her to find once it burns out), a whole bunch of candy because you know that's what she's been craving, and stuff you've collected over the years.
"Oh Tony, you kept this?" Kate asks, a tear rolling down her cheek as she pulls out the receipt from the first time we went on a date. She keeps rummaging around the box, pulling out random things that she didn't realised you had kept. Movie stubs, corks from your wedding wine, the napkin from the restaurant where you proposed. "Tony, this is... This is beautiful!" Kate sniffled, wiping the runaway tears from her cheeks.
"You like it then?" You ask and Kate just scoffs, her nose poked inside her White Linen scented candle.
"Like it? Tony, I love it!" Kate scoffs again, throwing her arms around your neck and crashing her slightly salty lips to yours.
Just as she's about to deepen the kiss, the doorbell rings.
Damn pizza!
You reluctantly get up from the sofa, pecking Kate on the lips as you do and head to the front door, grabbing the box and shoving a $20 in the delivery boys hand.
"Is that... Is that chicken and mushroom with extra cheese?" Kate asks as you re-enter the living room. She's got the nose of a bloody bloodhound at the best of times, but you swear its superhuman when she's got one of your offspring growing inside her.
"Yup" you grin.
You think Kate's going to throw herself on you again, showering you in kisses, but instead of you, she pounces on the pizza box.
"Mmmm, this is soooooo good" Kate moans, her mouth already full of pizza and her words muffled.
You can't help but laugh, she's just so God-damn adorable right now. She's sat on the floor, cross legged with the pizza box in her lap. Her eyes are cross eyed and she's moaning with every bite she takes.
You're glad you ordered your own pizza, because you know that Kate's will have disappeared completely within five minutes.
You'd like to tell her to slow down, knowing she will either get gassy or heartburn (or God forbid, both) but the last time you told your pregnant wife to slow down whilst eating, she had thrown the giant, wooden pepper shaker at your head.
The tiny scar just above your eyebrow starts to ache at the memory.
As you open your pizza box, you smile as you notice that the pizza is in the shape of a heart. You begin to wonder if Kate noticed too, but you doubt it as she's already halfway through her fourth slice.
Once you've both finished your pizza, you find yourselves back on the sofa snuggling. Kate resumed her previous position, her head is positioned to face the TV, but you can just about make out that its somewhat contorted. You know that look. Its the heartburn look. She won't admit it to you though, so you get up and go get the ice cream from the fridge.
You're all out of Kate's favourite; raspberry ripple so you just reach for the kids' tub of vanilla instead. You swear that Kate had a whole tub in there last night! You grab two spoons before you head back into the living room.
Kate looks at you as though you are God or something when she see's the tub of ice cream in your hands. She readily accepts the spoon and digs in.
"You okay, babe?" You ask after a few minutes. The ice cream is long gone and you and Kate are snuggling again, half falling asleep, half watching the movie.
"Yeah" Kate yawns. "Just tired, that's all. Ben didn't have his nap this afternoon" she yawns again.
"You wanna go to bed?" You ask, you're pretty tired yourself.
"No... Not yet" Kate snuggles in even closer to you and you kiss her forehead softly. "This is nice, can we just stay like this for a little while longer?" She asks, her voice is thick with sleep.
"It is, isn't it?" You smile, your fingers ghosting up and down the curve in her side, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake. You really could stay here forever.
Kate looks up and captures your lips in a soft, but passionate kiss. You can still taste the ice cream on them. You kiss for a few moments before you both need oxygen and reluctantly break apart.
Resting her head on your chest once more, Kate let's out a dreamy sigh. It doesn't take her long before she begins to snore softly. Its not even 11pm, but that's considered late for you, considering that three of your kids are still young and are fast asleep by 9pm.
Carefully, you stretch out across the sofa so that you and Kate are now lying down fully. You barely have the energy to do it, but you switch the tv and the lamp off and pull the faux fur blanket over you and your sleeping wife. You kiss Kate on the cheek before you lay your head down, your arms are wrapped around her, keeping her both safe and warm and within seconds, you're asleep too. Dreaming dreams that include your amazing, beautiful wife and your five fantastic children.