I'm back! Hopefully. I graduated high school. Need to move on in life. The last semester of school was just, wow, how can I put this? Umm, hell. It was just hell. Too much to stress over. But I'm gonna be back now. I can't wait to get my brain going again. =]

Stephanie coddled her five month-old baby, Ryan, as she waited for her husband to call and tell her when he'd be home, "hello precious, hi Ryan." She held him close, a big smile coming across his face, "aww, are you smiling at mommy?" He let out a small squeal.

"Mommy, when is daddy going to come home?" Her daughter Sophia stood in the hallway, "he hasn't been home in two weeks. I want him home."

"Sophie, honey, he said he'd be home tonight. That's what he told me." She stood up and walked towards her, "I think it's time for bed kiddo. Go brush your teeth." She patted Sophie's shoulder, "I'm gonna go put Ryan to sleep and I'll tuck you in when I'm done."

"Okay." Sophie turned away sadly, "I really wanted to see daddy." She shut the bathroom door behind her.

After a few minutes of rocking and holding Ryan, she laid him in his crib and shut the light off, "Sophie, sweetie, daddy will be home, I promise you. I'll bet that when you wake up tomorrow, daddy will be here. Okay? So don't cry baby girl."

"You promise?" Sophie wiped tears from her cheeks, "what if he's not?"

"I'm gonna call him in a few minutes and tell him he needs to come home. I think he's going to be here. He wouldn't make a liar out of me." She kissed Sophie's head, "go to sleep, be ready for school tomorrow. I love you."

"I love you too mommy. Goodnight." She smiled and turned over under layers of blankets, "tell daddy I love him when he gets home."

"I will." Steph closed the bedroom door and went towards her room. She cleaned her bed off and fixed her blankets, then went to her bathroom and changed into her pajamas. She got into her bed and pulled the blankets up to her neck, cell phone in hand. For a few minutes, she contemplated calling her husband, "nevermind." She put the phone on her nightstand and closed her eyes.

"Hey baby." Steph woke up to her husband's rough facial hair on her cheek, "I'm home finally. Sorry it took so long, there's a lot of construction going on at night." He stood on his hands and knees, moving his head in to kiss her lips, "I missed you."

"I missed you too Paul." She put her hands on his cheeks and returned the kiss, "and I know four others who missed you too. Sophie cried because you weren't home in time to say goodnight." She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close, "Lauren and Cody think they're too old to admit it, and we know Ryan just has no clue about what's going on." Before she could go on, he kissed her again, this time with a little more meaning, pressing to make it go farther than just a kiss, "Paul, I can't. Stop."

He kept a groan to himself, "what do you mean you can't?" He pushed himself up and swallowed, "baby, I haven't been home in two weeks."

"I know, but, I'm on my monthly 'routine' again. I just don't feel like it. I mean, I would if I wasn't going through that right now. I'm sorry but we have to wait a few days, give me like a week."

He stared at her in the dark for a moment, "I'm only home to do laundry really. I'm leaving again in like, two days. I don't have a whole week." He laid beside her, "I'm leaving and I'll be back in another two weeks." He held her hand while she took in what he'd said.

"Oh." She snuggled into his chest, "well, we're gonna have to wait then." The faint smell of his cologne still sat on his chest, "why can't you just stay home? You're never home for more than a week anymore. I miss when you were here more."

"Me too." He rested his arm on his side, his hand intertwined with hers, "I would like to be able to stay here. I'm really trying to let me work at the office an hour away instead of having to travel across the country. They won't get back to me about that."

She sighed, "hopefully they will, soon. I can't stand telling Sophie that you have to leave. She loves you so much Paul." She closed her eyes and drifted into a deep slumber.

"Daddy!" Sophie screamed when Paul stepped into the kitchen, "you did come home. Mommy promised me that you would be home when I woke up." She jumped out of her chair and ran to him for a hug, "I missed you daddy, you don;t have to leave for awhile right?" The kitchen fell silent and that was when Sophie knew, "I don't want you to leave again."

"Baby, I have to. It's my job." He reached down to hug her again and was left with open arms, "Sophie." She ignored him as she climbed back into her chair, "you're not talking to me now?"

"Paul stop it." Stephanie leaned on her daughter's chair, "she's upset, stop talking to her, otherwise she get's worse." She leaned over and whispered into Sophie's ear, "baby girl, why do you go to your room and calm down, and I'll be in there in a few minutes. Go in there and close the door, okay?" She patted Sophie's shoulder and watched her walk down the hallway, "that's what I have to deal with. Just sit down and eat breakfast."

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He sat at the table in a speechless shock, not believing his daughter wanted him home that badly, "dad, what time did you get home last night?" It was Lauren, his oldest daughter who was normally quiet whenever he was around. She was 14, the age where she wanted her privacy, and if she needed to talk, she would talk to her mother, never him.

"Oh, around like, midnight or so. I don't remember. I should have been home earlier but there was so much construction traffic on the way home."

She just nodded, like she always did when he talked too much and she didn't care to come up with a reply. She glanced at her mother before looking back to her bowl of cereal, "cool. I guess."

"So you're leaving again?" His older son, Cody, who was 11 was turning to be the same as his older sister, asked. He wasn't much of a talker either, but that all changed in certain situations cause whenever Cody was being yelled at, whether it was about homework or chores, he knew exactly how to talk back, "when?"

"In three days." He poured cereal into a bowl that Steph had handed him, then poured some milk into it, "I'm going to Miami Florida this time."

"All the way to Florida?" Stephanie looked away from the sink of dishes, "what do you have to do in Miami for two weeks?"

"Uhm, I don't know. It's crazy huh? Two weeks in Florida, and I'm not even there for myself. It's all business." He spoke quickly, trying to take the attention off him.

"I want to go to Florida." Lauren smiled, "I want to go somewhere away from home. That would be really amazing."

"Maybe, one day soon, we could take a trip somewhere. All of us, not just me." Paul stuffed his mouth full of cereal, "what do you think Steph?"

"I think you work too much to be able to do anything with us." She picked up a towel and patted her hands dry, "I'm gonna go talk to Sophie, excuse me."