Here's a fluffy little fic I decided to write after having watched some of the first season on DVD, and realized that there was a time when things were a little less complicated…anyway, please review and let me know what you thought. It's fluffy and light, but it's what I needed right now.

Disclaimer: Oh right, none of the characters are mine…sadly…


"These are the days now that we must savour
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You've got to hold them in your heart.
"- Van Morrison


Sandy came home to find Kirsten's Range Rover in the driveway. It was the first time in awhile that she had gotten home before him. Caleb had a new emergency that had kept her at the office until late every night. She would come home completely exhausted, and Sandy would heat her up a plate of food as she tiredly asked all three of her boys how their day went. Seth would rant about something that had happened that day, as Ryan told her that his day was fine, and usually asked if she wanted more to eat. Some nights she got home too late, and the boys were already in bed, and Sandy was waiting up for her in their bedroom.

"You don't have to wait up for me," she would tell him, even though he could see in her eyes that she was pleased to have someone awake when she came home. It made her feel less lonely.

"I'm not waiting up for you," Sandy would lie. "I had to finish these." She knew that he was lying, and accepted it with a soft kiss. Even if Sandy tried to go to sleep before her, it was a lost cause. He couldn't go to sleep until he knew that she home safely. Sandy couldn't sleep until he knew that both she and the boys were safe.

Kirsten hated when she got home too late to see the boys.

"They're already asleep?" She would ask with a slight frown. It bothered her when she couldn't check to see how their day had gone. By her own admission, she was no Carol Brady, but she felt that at the very least she should be aware of the daily events in her children's lives. She should get to talk to them at least once a day. Her father was having her come in at the crack of dawn, and some day she didn't see them at all. There was a little note on the counter to tell the boys to have a great day and that hopefully she would see them later.

Sandy was, therefore, ecstatic to see her car parked in the driveway. He opened the door and heard her and the boys talking in the kitchen. He put down his briefcase, shrugged out of his suit jacket, and followed the noise. Kirsten was laughing at something that Seth had said as she placed the food container on the table. Ryan was shaking his head as he pulled out four glasses, and no one noticed at first when Sandy walked in. He cleared his throat and all three heads turned in his direction.

"Oh hey honey," Kirsten said coming over to give him a soft kiss on the cheek. "I didn't hear your car. I ordered Thai." She gestured to the many containers behind her.

"Great," he said as he walked towards the table. "You're home early." Kirsten's face split into a grin.

"I know, isn't it fantastic?" She grinned at him. "I finally told my father that he was being a slave driver and that if I kept going like this I was going to break down, and that I needed a night off and I walked out." Sandy couldn't help but mirror her grin. He could only imagine what Caleb's response to that had been, as he could picture the old man in his mind sputtering as Kirsten stormed out of his office.

"How many times has he called?" Sandy asked.

"Well, I turned off my cell phone, and we're at what? Ten times on the house phone?" Kirsten looked to the boys.

"Eleven. He called once while you were in the bathroom," Ryan answered as they all sat down.

"Eleven times," Kirsten corrected. "I'm considering un-hooking the phone."

"Well I, for one, am glad that you are home," Sandy said. "It's been awhile since we had a family dinner." It had been weeks since they had all sat down and eaten together, and all of them, Seth included, though he would never admit it, had missed just sitting down and teasing Kirsten for her lack of culinary skills, eating, teasing Ryan about his lack of speaking skills, and the basic bantering that was a staple at any Cohen family meal.

"So do you boys have any plans for tonight?" Kirsten asked.

"We were thinking of taking the girls to a movie, would that be okay?" Ryan asked.

"And more importantly, can we borrow the car?" Seth chimed in.

"Yes to both," Sandy answered, and then the wheels in his head started clicking. No boys. Kirsten was home early. Movies lasted about two hours, add in driving time, and maybe he could slip them some money to get something to eat afterwards…Sandy started adding in his head. That was at least four hours of blissful alone time with his lovely wife.

"What time is the movie?" Kirsten asked catching Sandy's eye and giving him a wink, and Sandy knew that she was thinking the same thing that he was. He loved when they were on the same page. Especially when that page included a bottle of wine and the hot tub and his wife in a very skimpy and revealing bathing suit.

"Um seven," Seth said. Seven. That was an hour and a half from now, Sandy thought to himself.

"Well, you should probably get there early and get good seats. I mean, if you sit too far back, then well, you don't really get the whole movie theater experience, and if you sit too close up, you get that crick in your neck from looking up the whole time. Then of course, you have to sit in the center, because that's the prime seat, although you could consider sitting at the end of the aisle for an easy exit, there's a lot of planning involved, and I just think that if you got there early you could plot out the best seats to take," Sandy told them. He was well aware of the fact that he was rambling, but he just had a mental image of Kirsten in her bathing suit, and that quickly turned into Kirsten without her bathing suit, and he simply couldn't wait an entire hour and a half to see the image become a reality. Both Ryan and Seth gave him a strange look. Kirsten giggled, and tried to cover by turning it into a cough, and failed miserably.

"Um, okay," Seth said finally. "We'll leave about quarter after six to go get the girls. That gives us a half hour to get to the theater and pick out our seats."

"You should probably leave about six," Sandy replied. Seth raised an eyebrow at his father and then turned to his mother for some sort of explanation, but she just shrugged.

"Dad, that's ridiculous, it takes like fifteen minutes to get to the movie theater," Seth argued. "There's no need for us to leave an hour early. The girls live ten minutes away, if that." Sandy opened his mouth to argue back, with another ridiculous excuse when Ryan broke into the conversation.

"I think they are trying to get us out of the house," Ryan said to Seth, who was completely oblivious. Seth sat for about another minute before it clicked and a disgusted look came over his face.

"You do want the house so that you can discuss the fine library systems of Canada, and play boring board games like Monopoly and Connect Four right?" Seth said.

"Well, I was thinking more along the lines of strip Connect Four, but yeah," Sandy answered. One of his great pleasures in life was to torture his son.

"Oh, ew, oh gross, I'm suddenly not hungry," Seth pushed his plate away. "We're leaving now. We'll walk around the pier, I don't care, let's just…go…please."

"Finish eating, and then you can run as fast as you can away from this house," Kirsten instructed. Seth sighed and resumed eating. Even Ryan looked a little sick at the thought of Kirsten and Sandy playing strip Connect Four. The meal continued without any other incidents and Seth and Ryan excused themselves as soon as they were finished eating. As they walked away, Kirsten heard Ryan say to Seth,

"They aren't really going to play strip Connect Four. I mean, that's not a real game…and they're just going to watch a movie and turn in early. Right?"


"They're gone," Sandy said gleefully as he ran back into the living room where Kirsten had been reading a book until the boys were out of the house. Sandy grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "How about you go change into a bathing suit and then you and I will get us some wine and we'll meet at the hot tub?"

"Sounds like a plan," Kirsten said as she gave him a kiss and walked away towards their bedroom. Sandy grabbed a pair of trunks from the laundry room and quickly changed into them, grabbed the wine and two glasses, and practically sprinted to the backyard. Kirsten emerged from their bedroom a second later holding two towels in her hands. She handed one to Sandy as he handed her back a glass of wine. Kirsten slipped into the hot tub and sighed in content.

"Oh God, I needed this," she said with her eyes closed. Sandy sat down next to her and pressed a kiss on her temple. "Not as much as I need this." She pulled his face close to hers and pulled him for a deep kiss. Sandy's hands roamed her body as he pulled her on his lap.

"We should…maybe go into the bedroom," he suggested.

"The boys won't be home for hours," Kirsten said raising an eyebrow suggestively. "We never have the house to ourselves anymore, and it's not like any of the neighbors can see…" It was Sandy's turn to raise an eyebrow. It was times like this that the old Kirsten manifested herself. The Kirsten who wasn't a mother, and who wasn't a successful business woman. It was the Kirsten who lived in the back of a mail truck. The Kirsten who loved to take risks and loved any kind of adventure. Sandy was well aware that they were grown-ups who had responsibilities, but he couldn't help but be excited as to what the old Kirsten was going to talk him into doing that night.

And the old Kirsten was making herself very busy by taking off his swimming trunks.

Well, Sandy thought to himself, I should probably catch up.


It was hours later when Seth and Ryan decided that it was probably safe to go home again. They had gone to a movie, stopped and gotten some chili dogs and cheese fries, dropped the girls off at their houses, and went home.

"Hopefully they're in bed," he said as he pushed open the door and stepped into the house. He didn't hear his parents, and breathed a sigh of relief that they were in the clear. As they made their way into the kitchen, Ryan was in the lead. He spotted Kirsten's bathing suit first. It was hanging off one of the stools, and it was then that he noticed Sandy's swimming trunks hanging from the light fixture. He didn't even want to think why they were up there. Also, he didn't want to wonder why there were strawberries and whipped cream out on the counter. In fact, he kind of just wanted to turn and run and try to erase the images that were quickly popping into his head. Ryan placed his arm out to stop Seth.

"Dude, you don't want to go in there," he said.

"Why?" Seth pushed past Ryan.

"Don't' say I didn't warn you," Ryan muttered.

"Oh God!" Seth said covering his mouth. "Is that…is that my mother's bathing suit? And my dad's….oh sweet mother of God…" He turned his head away from where his parents were lying on the couch. Luckily a blanket was draped over top of them, as it was quite obvious to both boys that there wasn't much clothing on underneath. Sandy was holding Kirsten in his arms and Ryan had to swallow a little bit of throw up when he realized that Kirsten had some whipped cream on her face, and even a little bit in her hair. Their voices made both Kirsten and Sandy stir and Kirsten's eyes fluttered open and she looked up guiltily at the boys.

"Oh…you guys are home already?" She asked in an innocent tone, becoming more and more aware of the fact that she was naked with her husband with her two sons looking on with completely disgusted faces.

"We're just going…to…go to bed," Ryan stuttered as he turned and hurried out of the house towards the pool house, with Seth on his heels.

"They found us?" Sandy's voice startled her, and Kirsten turned to look at him. He knew her pretty well, and he knew that Seth and Ryan finding them in a…compromising situation would absolutely mortify her. She looked deep in thought, and he figured that she was racking her brain to come up with some good excuse as to why their bathing suits were flung about the kitchen, why there were strawberries and whipped cream both on the counter, and he noticed with a slight smile, in his wife's hair. "Aw, honey, someday they'll appreciate that their parents were so in love after all those years. It's going to be okay, they aren't scarred for life, and don't let Seth talk you into thinking that…"

"It's not that," Kirsten said hurriedly waving her hand to dismiss the thought. She raised her eyebrow suggestively at her husband. "It's just…I wonder how we can get them out of the house again next week. I was going to take the night off again."


Like I said, light and fluffy, but let me know what you thought about it. I'm off to bed, I think, although I don't quite have a summer job yet, so my plans for tomorrow include sunbathing and going shopping with money that I don't actually have...Anyway, please review!