For a recap of who's who in Llanview, go to my profile page.

Beginnings

One Year Later...

It was a beautiful autumn morning. Matthew and Destiny were cuddled in bed together. The sun shining through the big windows in Matthew's room and birds chirping woke them up.

"Good morning." Matthew said.

"Good morning." Destiny replied then went to move but Matthew held her tighter.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm getting up."

"No. Don't leave me. I'm cold, you keep me warm."

"You just don't want to let me go."

"You're right, I don't." Matthew kissed Destiny's neck causing her to giggle.

"Sorry babe but I have to get DJ from Shaun's and take him to school then Miry, Dani, Neela, Izzy and I are going to the gym... It's Evan's first day of kindergarten. Aww, isn't it exciting? Remember Miry's first day of kindergarten. She was so adorable. She had her little bow in her curly hair and she picked out her outfit. She was so excited. She said, 'I'm a big girl now!' Her eyes lit up. Aww! Our baby isn't a baby anymore! Now she's taking her baby to kindergarten." Destiny poked out her lip.

"You miss those years don't you?"

"Yeah for Miry and DJ."

"Move in with me. Let's have another baby."

"You say what?" Destiny quickly sat up and was completely awake after hearing that.

"Move in with me and let's have a baby."

Destiny laughed. "You done lost your damn mind!" Destiny felt Matthew's head.

"What are you doing?"

"Are you sick? You must me sick."

"No!" Matthew laughed.

"You haven't been drinking, have you?"

"Destiny, I'm fine!" Matthew laughed again. "I'm serious."

"You're tripping. We have a grandchild. Hell, you already have five kids. That's not enough for you? You have problems with the ones already have."

"We have a grandchild but we're too young to be grandparents. There are people our age who are just starting families."

"We're not those people, ok? We started young. Besides, we are coming up on forty. Do you understand that? Forty. Middle aged. Half way to eighty. Our oldest is twenty-one. We don't need another baby."

"I want another with you. The love of my life. We can do it right."

"You've lost your mind. I'm not having another baby. I don't want another baby anymore. I'm past that phase. That's not where I am in my life and I'm not moving in either."

"Why not? One big happy family. We could all be under one roof."

"I love you but you really need to get your head out of the clouds. Miracle is not moving in here even if you two have been getting along lately. And I know you don't think Dani is going to give you custody of Del. Another thing, that is too much for DJ to handle. Oh, one more thing, I am not just another one of your baby mamas, ok? If you're going to ask me to have your baby and move in, you could at least ask me to marry you first."

Matthew smiled. "Marry me."

"No. I shouldn't have to tell you to propose to me and not like this. Besides, I don't want to get married again anyway. I was just making a point."

"You don't want to get married again?"

"Right."

"I've waited a lifetime for you and you don't want to marry me?"

"It's not about you. It's about me. I don't want to get married again. I came to that decision before we even got together... Look, I'm going to get myself together." Destiny kissed Matthew then got up.

-v-

Miracle and Leon took Evan to his classroom for the first time.

"How do we say, 'See you later,' in Spanish?" Miracle asked Evan.

"Nos veremos mas tarde, hasta pronto, mama." Evan said.

"That's my boy." Leon said.

"He's bilingual?" The teacher asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. We're still teaching him." Miracle replied.

"Our family is big on passing on our culture and I'm half Cuban." Leon said.

"That's awesome. Evan, would you like to help me teach your classmates the numbers in Spanish?" The teacher asked. Evan smiled and nodded. "He'll be fine."

"Aww, my big boy! Give mommy and daddy a hug." Miracle said. They shared a family hug before they let Evan go then left the classroom. Miracle and Leon walked quietly to the car and continued to be quiet during the car ride.

"How long are we going to keep this up?" Leon asked.

"Keep what up?" Miracle replied.

"You know what I'm talking about, pretending like we're happy around Evan but when he's not around we're arguing or not talking at all."

"You just want to find an excuse to break up because you don't want to get married."

"No I don't. I want to marry you one day but not today! We're too young! You're just being stubborn! You know I'm right."

"Why wait?"

"Obviously, we're not ready!"

"You're not ready! You want out!"

"Every since... Darren passed away, you've been trying to speed through life. I'm not going there with you."

"Why did you have to bring up Darren?"

"It's the truth! We need to take a break."

Miracle looked at Leon. "Pull over."

"What?"

"Pull over!" Miracle yelled and Leon pulled the car over. "So you finally admit it, you want to break up."

"We need time apart. We need to take a break; we need to grow up."

"See other people?"

"Maybe. We need time apart. If it's meant to be, it will be."

"Fine, if that's what you want. It's over." Miracle got out of the car.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm walking."

"Don't be ridiculous girl, get in this car. Get in the car. Ooh, she's so damn stubborn. Miracle!" Leon got out of the car and went over to her. "You know I am not going to let you walk. You also know it looks bad if Miracle Buchanan is walking out here. If someone sees us then sees you get out and walk, they'll have a story by the time Access Llanview comes on tonight. You can be upset and stubborn but be upset and stubborn in the car." Miracle got in the car then Leon followed.

-v-

Matthew drove Nicole, Drew and Ace to Llanview High.

"Dad, this is not fair! Miracle got a car when she turned sixteen. We should get cars too!" Nicole exclaimed with attitude as usual.

"I don't reward bad behavior. Fix your behavior, attitude and grades then we'll see about cars for your seventeenth birthdays." Matthew replied.

"You've been a half-ass father all our lives, now in the last few years you want to pretend like you're daddy of the year. Please." Nicole got out of the car and slammed the door.

"Later daddy." Drew said then got out of the car.

"Enjoy your first day of high school, son." Matthew said to Ace.

"Thanks dad." Ace got out of the car. Matthew drove away after they entered the school.

Matthew entered the Buchanan mansion, went in the living room where Destiny was and sat down. He looked frustrated.

"You took DJ to school already?" Matthew asked.

"Yeah. Now I'm going to head to the gym in a few minutes." Destiny said.

"I don't know why you're going to the gym, we worked out pretty well last night."

Destiny covered her face and blushed. "What's wrong? I could tell something was bothering you when you walked in." Destiny asked.

"I don't know what I'm going to do about Nicole and Drew. I'm trying so hard but I just can't seem to get them on track."

"Drew isn't the problem. Drew's problem is that she follows Nicole. If you get her to follow her own lead and not Nicole, she'll be fine. Nicole on the other hand, I'm sorry but that little girl is hot to trot and that mouth of hers is going to get her into some trouble one day. Here's the problem, you waited too long to try to discipline them. You don't wait until they're teenagers to put your foot down. Both of their mothers are hot messes. Nicole is a bad combination of both of you."

"How is that?"

"That attitude, she's so disrespectful, she does whatever she wants to do and she has a sense of entitlement, so spoiled."

"You're saying she gets some of that from me?"

"Hell yeah. When you're bad, you're bad. Remember when Nate was working at the country club way back in the day and you did your best to make his job a living hell? That's Nicole. If you don't get her in check, you're going to be a grandfather again before you're forty... I know Miracle isn't perfect but what you go through with Nicole and Drew, I never went through with Miry. Maybe she ran her mouth a bit with you when I wasn't around but she didn't try that with me or anyone else for that matter. I'm not trying to judge Nicole but I just know that you need to figure out what you need to do to get her on track before you lose her."

-v-

Meanwhile at Llanview High, Drew was putting on lip gloss in the mirror of the girls' restroom. Then Nicole came out of a stall. She changed from her jeans and t-shirt to a blue mini dress.

"Why did you change?" Drew asked.

"Because I am getting out of here. I'll be back before grandma picks us up." Nicole replied.

"Where are you going?"

"I have a date with a very hot guy. I've actually been seeing him a few weeks now. It's getting serious. Enough about me, who are you primping in the mirror for?"

"You know."

"Aww, y'all are too cute but I'm dating a man. You don't know anything about that." Nicole adjusted her bra to make her boobs look perkier then walked out of the restroom.

-v-

Destiny, Dani and Neela walked into the gym and saw Miracle and Izzy sitting on a bench. Izzy was comforting Miracle, she was a wreck, crying hysterically.

"What's wrong?" Destiny asked, sitting next to Miracle. Miracle replied but it sounded like jibberish to Dani and Neela. They looked at each other confused.

"Leon broke up with her." Izzy filled in the blanks for them.

"Aww baby, I'm so sorry! It's alright." Destiny held Miracle in her arms.

For the first forty-five minutes Miracle just cried but once she was all cried out she put on a pair of boxing gloves and snapped out on a punching bag. Destiny, Dani, Izzy and Neela looked at each other with concern. They knew Miracle would be upset if she and Leon ever broke up and she was not taking it well at all but frankly, everyone saw it coming.