Runaway-Zebra- Thank you! It's good that you're not picky, and there will be more than just Shane fluff soon, but I like writing the fluff lol.
Castiel Angel Heart- (chapter 5) to be honest I forgot all about that! Thank you! (chapter 7) Horse baby watch may sound interesting…but it sucked lol. I had to walk outside IN THE DARK (I'm afraid of the dark) with only a flashlight lantern thingy and look at our fat horse…and guess what? She STILL hasn't had it! (Chapter 8) I like writing fluff lol.
"Eat your eggs," Vanessa told Larayne.
"But I don't like eggs," she said shifting them around her plate.
"Raynie, you heard your mother, eat the eggs," Shane said as he walked into the kitchen area, fully dressed in his police uniform. The top was a brown button-down shirt, and the pants were slacks.
"But eggs are disgusting!"
"Not another word about it. That's what your mother made for breakfast, now eat it. You can't be picky," Shane said in his authoritive voice. He didn't like yelling at his children or even raising his voice but sometimes that was the only way to get through to them. Larayne was quiet and picked at the food she hated. She'd heard stories about how the world used to be; about how they could simply have any food they wanted by using money. The idea was foreign to her, but she thought that that way would've been better. Because then, she wouldn't have had to eat eggs.
"How do you want your eggs?" Vanessa asked Shane.
"I'm okay. We got any coffee left?"
"Nope. I'll have to pick up more when we can go to the store tomorrow," each person was allowed one trip to the store per week. And they'd get a certain amount of points they were allowed to spend, and a family's points depended on members in the household and their jobs. Shane and Vanessa's house hold for example was allowed to spend 141 points. It sounded like a lot but the more rare and hard to produce and item was, the more points it was worth.
"Okay," he replied. "I'm fine then. They'll probably have some down at the station."
"Alright."
"Need any help before I leave?"
"Can you check over Larayne and Judith's math homework? Their bags are on the couch in the living room."
"I'll get right on that."
Once Shane had done that and Vanessa ate some breakfast, they both walked outside to send the girls off to school. They'd both gotten bikes on their first day of school, courtesy of the town leader, since they lived so far away.
"Bye girls, be good. I love you," Vanessa kissed each of their cheeks.
"Bye mommy, bye daddy, love you," Larayne said.
"Love you too Raynie," Shane said. "I'm sorry for yellin' at you this morning." The black haired girl just nodded.
"Bye Nessa," Judith said. She'd taken to calling her aunt that. When she was younger she'd started off calling her 'mommy' but Shane and Vanessa had set her straight. "Bye daddy. I love you!"
"Bye Judi. I love you too!" Shane called. Larayne looked at her sister and then to both of the parents.
"Um, can Maddy and Alexis come over on Friday? Please?"
Shane looked to Vanessa. They both knew sleepovers were her ground to dictate.
"Only if you two get your room cleaned," she said.
"Okay!" they rode away happily. Carl walked outside a few moments later, Aiden in tow.
"You ready to go?" he asked his uncle.
"Yep. Bye Ness," he kissed his wife's lips before heading to their golf cart.
"Be careful out there," Vanessa hugged her nephew and sent both men on their way. Next, she took Aiden over to Beth's house. The blonde opened the door happily. She didn't really have a job, so Beth became a babysitter, Maggie worked at the school as a teacher, and Glenn worked at the grocery store. The blonde opened the door cheerfully and smiled at Vanessa.
"C'mon in guys," she said and held open the door and everyone made their way through the living room, Aiden began playing with some of the other children. "Tea?"
"Sure," Vanessa replied, taking a seat at the counter. Beth poured a cup for the brunette and set it on the counter.
"When do you have to be at work?"
"Hm," she leaned over and looked at the clock. "Four hours?"
"Okay good, we can have some girl time."
"Actually that reminds me," Vanessa broke a smile.
"Oh God, you're pregnant again," Beth said.
"What? No! This is much better than that!" she paused for a moment and watched at Beth looked at her expectantly. "Shane wants to have a wedding ceremony, y'know white poofy dress, cake, the whole enchilada."
"Aw! That's so sweet!"
"I know! I almost cried. But it gets better," she paused allowing her huge smile to break through. "I want you to be my maid of honor."
"Really!?"
"No, I'm just saying that," she replied sarcastically.
That evening at dinner, the Walsh family and Carl sat down in the dining room to a grilled chicken meal. Shane looked over at Vanessa, and she back at him, before he spoke.
"Okay guys," he said, pulling everyone out of their conversations. "We're gonna have a wedding-"
"Daddy, what's a wedding?" Larayne asked.
"It's when two people that love each other get married," he explained.
"Who's getting married?" Judith asked, confused.
"We are," Vanessa said, gesturing between her and Shane.
"I thought ya was a'ready married," Aiden said.
"We want to have the ceremony and have all of our friends and family there…it's somethin' we used to do, back in the days before walkers walked around," Shane said.
"What do you do at a wedding?" Larayne scrunched up her nose.
"Okay, it's like this," Vanessa knew they'd understand better if she explained. "The bride, which is me in this case, chooses a maid of honor-someone to help her and stand by her, usually a best friend; she sometimes picks bride's maids, who also stand with her when she gets married. And, she wears a pretty white dress and walks down an isle to her husband to be-your father, who has his best man, which is like a maid of honor, and his groom's men, like bride's maids."
"You forgot the flower girl and the ring barer," Carl pointed out.
"Right," Vanessa said. "The flower girl walks down the isle before the bride to drop flower pedals on the ground. And the ring barer brings the rings to the bride and groom."
"I wanna be a flower girl!" Judith exclaimed.
"No, I wanna be it! I should, I'm older!"
"Well I'm younger, and cuter!"
"Nuh uh! I'm cuter!"
"Girls, enough. You're both equally as cute. You can both be flower girls," Vanessa said, effectively shutting them up. "And Aiden you can be the ring barer."
"But that's not fair!" Larayne exclaimed. "You said flower girl as in one! It should be me. You're my mom."
"Larayne Zara Walsh!" Vanessa exclaimed, dropping her fork to her plate, causing a loud clinging noise. "Go to your room right now!" they'd spoke before about how Judith's mom had died, so Vanessa was like a mom to the younger girl. When Judith started to cry, Shane made his way over to his daughter. Vanessa made her way over to them and knelt down next to the crying girl.
"I wish I had my mommy," she said, muffled by her father's shirt.
"I do too, sweetheart," Vanessa ran her fingers through her dark hair. "Your mommy would've wanted to be here with you. But you have your dad…and your brothers and your sister…and me. I'm here for you, I would've spoiled you to death if she were here, y'know that? I spoiled Carl when he was little too."
"Can I talk to my daddy alone for a little while?" she said, looking at Vanessa with her dark eyes.
"Why don't we go sit on the porch, hm?" Shane offered.
"Okay, I'm going to go talk to Larayne…" she stood and allowed the father and daughter to leave the room. She turned to her nephew.
"Will you keep an eye on him? Just for a few minutes?" Carl nodded and Vanessa kissed her son's head. "I'll be back in a little while to help you get ready for bed, okay?"
"Okay, mommy. I keep eatin' my food."
"That's a good boy." Vanessa made her way upstairs and opened the door to the room Larayne and Judith shared. The dark haired little girl was lying on her bed with her arms crossed. Vanessa took a seat on the bed so that she could talk to her first born. "Why did you say that? Were you trying to hurt your sister?"
"She's not my sister," Larayne huffed.
"First off, yes she is. She has the same dad," Vanessa was trying not to lose her cool, but this type of behavior was not okay. "Secondly, you need to lose the attitude. If you think Maddy and Alexis are coming over Friday you're dreamin'."
"But-"
"But nothing. Downstairs you were a brat; I'm not going to lie to you or sugar coat it. You were a complete brat to Judi and that is not right. She did absolutely nothing to you."
"Why do I have to share my mom though?"
"Because Judith doesn't have one…and if things were switched and I was the one to die, wouldn't you have wanted your Aunt Lori to take care of you?"
"I guess so…"
"Okay then, you need to apologize to your sister and you will share being the flower girl, got it?"
"Okay," she sighed.
"Good, now go clear your plate from the table and get ready for bed."
After everyone had said goodnight, Shane and Vanessa laid in their bed together. "So what did you tell Raynie?"
"What I've been telling her since day one. She apologized to Judi…but…" Vanessa replied.
"She's a good kid that's just having a difficult time sharing. It happens," Shane reasoned.
"It's just don't want our daughter to grow up a selfish brat…"
"She won't. Not with a mom like you," he said sweetly.
"If she doesn't start acting like she should…I don't know what I'm gonna do."
"We'll put the fear of God into her tomorrow, I promise. She just needs to be told how it is, Darlin'. You don't need to stress yourself out about it. We'll figure it out. We always do. Remember Aiden's 'mine' phase?"
"Yes, and he took all of Judith and Larayne's stuff from their rooms?"
"Exactly, and what did we do?"
"He taught him otherwise."
"Yes, kids go through phases and all that shit."
"How do you do that?" she asked.
"Do what?"
"Always make me feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulder."
"I don't know," he shrugged. "I know you and I hate seein' you stressed."
Vanessa looked up at Shane from her space on his chest where she always slept. She pressed her lips to his, once, then again. The second time was longer and hungrier. Shane moved his hand to the back of her head and he held her lips to his.
AN: I was gonna make this longer…but I'm just…I lost my writing muse for like everything at the moment. I had my first day of tennis practice and it like kicked my ass. So I literally came home and took a 2 and a half our nap! I don't nap! I could like go back to sleep right now…this is sad. Lol. Those of you that thought that my rambling was done…nope. Here it is! This is what happens since I don't ever post status updates on facebook…and I don't tweet either.
