Chapter Ten

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, dear August, Happy Birthday to you!"

"Do you have the camera ready, sweetheart," Julie asked her daughter, for she was eager to have the moment her first and only grandchild turned a year old captured in a photograph forever. No one had been more surprised by how well Julie took to being a grandmother than Julie herself. She found the role much easier and much more pleasant than actually being a parent. While she had always loved her girls, she had also had a hard time putting aside her own selfish needs to focus upon those of her children, but, as a grandparent, she could spoil and baby and play and cuddle with her grandson whenever she wanted to, and then give him back to his parents as soon as he became fussy or she became bored. It was the perfect situation for her, and it only helped matters that he was a well behaved child, and, since he was born, she had never seen her daughter happier. Anyone who saw Marissa knew she was meant to be a mother, and the three of them, Ryan, Marissa, and August, were the perfect little family.

"It's my son's first birthday, Mom," the younger woman dismissed her Mother's concerns, "of course I have a camera. Neil is also filming this for us on his camera, so we'll have a video, too."

"Aw, I remember the homemade movies," Seth, who was with them via speaker phone mused lazily to himself while Ryan helped his son blow out his lone candle. As always, Seth was eager to turn the conversation back to a topic he understood and was interested in: himself. "They always consisted of me looking sleek and stylish in my ill cut suits, my unruly curly hair, and eyebrows that needed grooming, because that was before I discovered the magnificent invention called tweezers. I'd be alone, sitting in the corner of a room, scuffing my feet against the parquet floors, and, occasionally, the parentals would appear to pinch my cheeks or ruffle my unruly hair. They'd soon leave though in search of a glass of Chardonnay or Merlot, needing a little refreshment to take the edge off of the suffocating, Newport party, and I would be, once again, left alone with only my thoughts…."

"And your imaginary friends," Ryan added snidely. "Don't forget them."

"Yes, they'd be there, too," the rambling brunette admitted.

With faux enthusiasm in her voice, Marissa redirected the conversation. "Speaking of those invisible playthings of yours, Seth, why don't you go and try to find one. This is my son's first birthday. We're not going to spend the day listening to you wax nostalgic about a past only you seem keen on remembering."

"I'd take what you can get," Sandy offered helpfully. "I can't believe he even remembered what today was."

"He didn't," Summer spoke up for the first time. "Cal and Nic did. They've been driving me crazy all week, first demanding that we go shopping for birthday presents for August even though I'd already picked out some clothes for him a few weeks ago and then by leaving their card making supplies out all over the house. I think they've been more excited for August's birthday than they get for their own."

"Well, we appreciate everything you've sent us," Ryan spoke up. "It was too much, you really shouldn't have bought so many things, but it was really nice of you, so thank you."

"Like I said, the boys were pretty pumped up for today."

"I wish you could have flown out," Marissa said sadly. "We haven't seen the boys in months, and August has changed so much since then. Are Cal and Nic there now so we can talk to them?"

"Yeah, Aunt Marissssa, we're here!"

Recognizing the familiar lisp, the telltale sign of missing teeth, Marissa squealed excitedly, "oh my gosh, Cal, did you lose another tooth? Which one this time? Did the tooth fairy come? What did you get?"

"I lost two," he called out proudly, "both of my front teeth. It's really cool I can stick my tongue out between my other teeth and make hissing sounds. Nic hates it, because he says I look like a snake."

"It's really scarwy, Aunt Marissa," the younger brother offered, his tone adamant in its dislike for his older brother's new found talent. "And he does it when we're eating dinner, so I'll yell at him to stop and get in trouble."

Taunting his younger brother, Cal teased, "that's because you're a big baby. Only babies get scared by snakes!"

"I am not!"

Before the disagreement could turn into an actual fight, Marissa curbed their animosity by taking the conversation back to safer ground. "You never told me what you got under your pillow, Cal."

"Oh," the little boy replied dejectedly, "the tooth fairy left me comic books. I wrote her a letter, just like you told me to last time, asking her to leave me baseball cards, because my Dad always steals my comics, but she didn't listen."

"There's no purpose behind baseball cards," Seth interjected helpfully. "Sure, the gum tastes good, but its flavor doesn't last long, and it'll ruin your teeth, something the tooth fairy does not look too favorably upon. Plus, what are you supposed to do with baseball cards? Yeah, their costumes are cool, but, really, they all look the same just with different colors."

"You're supposed to collect them, Seth," Ryan explained, "because, someday, if the player has a good career, they'll be worth money. Don't worry, Cal," he soothed his oldest nephew, "I was out last week and picked you up some new cards. I just finished putting them in the binders, so I'll send them out in the mail this week."

"Did you get me something, too, Uncle Ryan," the younger Cohen son asked eagerly.

"Of course I did, buddy," his uncle answered with a smile playing across his face. "When your Aunt Marissa and I were out shopping for August's birthday presents, we found this really cool model car for you to put together. I'll send it with the baseball cards."

"Thanks, Uncle Ryan," both of the boys cried out enthusiastically.

""Maybe you guys could draw us some pictures of it to hang in your cousin's bedroom when it's put together," Marissa suggested. "We added all the birthday cards you made August to his wall of art. They look great!"

"That's a good idea," Summer agreed with her sister-in-law. "Why don't you two run along and go find Elizabeth, so Mommy and Daddy can finish talking to your Aunt and Uncle."

The young Atwood couple, their eyes on their son the entire time, could hear their two nephews run away from the phone just as their mother had asked them to. The rest of their small birthday celebration, Sandy, Kirsten, Julie, and Neil were all preoccupied with each other, discussing their grandchildren, their own lives, and sneaking large pieces of cake from the ridiculously big chocolate birthday cake Marissa had ordered from their local bakery. It was a flawless day for a party. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, the temperature was just right for the late September, Saturday afternoon, and the best part was that everyone they cared about was celebrating August's special day with them…even if five of them were there only by phone.

"So, how's Stella?" After several long moments of complete silence stretched across the line, Marissa broke the quiet to inquire about her toddler of a niece. "I was hoping she'd want to talk to me, too, so I could hear all her new words."

"Oh, she's finally taking a nap," Summer sighed dramatically. "That's her latest game she likes to play, refusing to go to sleep. Elizabeth read to her for over an hour this afternoon, but she still refused to close her eyes. Then I tried giving her a warm bath to see if that would relax her, but she only succeeded in ruining my new silk blouse. Seth suggested that we should just slip her a mickey, but I slapped that idea out of him…literally. Finally, it was Nic who got her to sleep. He took her into his room, put on her favorite movie which, thanks to you, Coop, is The Sound of Music, and she was out like a light in less than fifteen minutes. She's been sleeping ever since, and there's no way I'm waking her up. However, if you want to talk to your niece so much, I'll call you and let you deal with her the next time she refuses to take a nap."

"Anytime," the blonde woman replied. "You know I love spending time with the kids whether they're happy, sad, angry, or even grumpy. I'm still considering kidnapping them someday."

"There's no need to resort to crime," Seth joked. "Just send me all the left over birthday cake, and I'm sure we'll be able to work out a fair deal."

"You'd be willing to trade your three kids for a few measly pieces of stale birthday cake," Ryan asked, shaking his head in amused disbelief at his brother. "You're truly a unique parent, Seth."

"Trust me, he's a unique husband, too," Summer quipped. "But, listen, we have to go. There's a formal dinner we have to be at in two hours, and I'm nowhere near ready for it. Make sure you send us copies of all the pictures, birthday cake for Seth, and would you give my Dad my love for me?"

"Well, if you want, I could put him…"

"Oh, no, don't do that," Summer practically yelled to stop her former best friend from getting her Father. "I haven't talked to him in a few days, so he'll be even longer winded than Death Breath Seth is when he goes off on a tangent only he can understand."

"Hey," her husband whined, "I thought we agreed you wouldn't call me that again!" Mumbling, he continued, "I don't know why I ever told you about that nickname. You'd think I'd know better after being married to you for….how many years has it been?"

"Go get dressed, Seth," his wife ordered him harshly, his loud complaints letting the other couple on the phone know that he had been hit, several times, harshly. "Anyway, I've got to go. Happy Birthday, August," the petite brunette cooed out to her one year old nephew even though he couldn't really understand her. "Oh, and about that cake your sending my ass of a husband," her voice immediately hardened to an annoyed tone, "could you put arsenic in it? Thanks!"

And, just like that, she was gone. It didn't surprise Ryan and Marissa. After all, they had known Summer long enough to expect the unexpected. With a shared, amused smile, they turned the phone off, cut themselves their own pieces of chocolate cake, and set to helping their son eat his very own, specially prepared birthday cupcake. He would be a mess by the time the party was over, his new outfit ruined and stained with chocolate, but they didn't care. He only had his first birthday once, and they intended to do everything they could to make it wonderful for him. In all likelihood, August would be their only child, so they would do anything to make his life as ideal as it could be, and, if that meant letting him smear cake crumbs across his highchair, through his hair, and underneath the silky smooth wrinkles of his chubby legs and arms, then that's exactly what they would do.

-+-

Ryan and Marissa were working together to bathe their son, something they both found to be relaxing and one of the most beautiful moments of their day. Their parents had gone home a half an hour before, leaving their backyard destroyed, their kitchen a disaster zone, and August's bedroom a veritable fantasyland for a child. The amount of presents their little boy had received for his birthday was astounding and ridiculous really, so it was a good thing they had a few spare rooms to store some of the toys and many local charities who would appreciate a generous donation.

While she was running the water, making sure it was just the right temperature, Ryan was taking off the chocolate encrusted shorts and t-shirt their son had worn that day, tickling him and making the small boy giggle the entire time. It was what he always did to distract him, for the small tyke hated to be dressed or to have his clothes removed. Always on the go, he never wanted held or restrained from moving until it was time for bed when he cuddled up in his Mom's arms while she rocked his to sleep in his rocker as Ryan's strong and steady voice read him his bedtime story.

At the sudden sound of bubbles being blown across their son's stomach, Marissa came back to the present, leaving the thoughts of her family behind. Smiling up at her husband and son, she couldn't help but laugh along with them. "So, I was thinking," she admitted when Ryan handed a squirming August into her waiting arms. After gently placing him in the tub and grinning at his chubby little arms splashing the warm water, she continued. "I think we should spend the day together tomorrow, just the three of us. We could turn off our cell phones, not tell anyone where we're going, and just focus on our family."

"It sounds great," he agreed readily, bending down to kiss her on the lips gently before taking his standard position beside her while they worked together to bathe their son. "Did you have any particular place in mind?"

"Actually, yes," she admitted, turning towards him. "It's ridiculous that we live in San Diego with one of the best zoos in the world and haven't taken our son there yet."

"The zoo," he questioned her, casting a sideways glance in her direction, his doubt evident. "You do realize that it's supposed to be hot tomorrow, and, since it's Sunday, the whole place is going to be packed with other families, families with older, louder, obnoxious kids?"

Playfully glaring at him, she yelled, "Ryan Atwood! Kids are not obnoxious!"

"They are if you're not either their Mother or their Aunt. I only like kids who love you."

Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help but laugh at his cheeky comment. "Someone must have done something wrong to be sucking up this bad. What is it this time? Did you buy a new car without checking with me first? Perhaps you signed on for a big project that will keep you away from home more."

"I wouldn't do that, Marissa," he assured her, but she was on a roll and just simply digressed further into her negative ideas.

"Wait, you did not volunteer me to go shopping with your boss' wife again, did you, Ryan? Anything would be better than that!"

"Let me get this straight," he stopped her, still refusing to answer her question. "You would rather I spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new car we don't need than spend a few hours with my boss' wife?" In answer to question, she nodded her head emphatically. "And you would rather I be assigned to a demanding project that would take me away from you and August than appease the old bat by shopping with her for an afternoon?"

"Yes!"

"I am so not feeling loved right now," he complained, pouting.

"Ryan," she pointed out loudly, "the first, last, and only time I went anywhere with that woman, she demanded that I help her pick out lingerie, and, not just your typical bra and panty set, she took me to a store that sold edible lingerie!"

"Why didn't you buy any?"

"My clothes don't stay on long enough as it is," she snapped, smirking at his smug expression, "so I didn't think you needed any more encouragement. Besides," she amended with a soft glance towards their son, "this is not a conversation we're having in front of August. Just know that I'll never go anywhere with your boss' wife again, case closed."

"Well, that's good, because she didn't invite you." At the annoyed expression on his wife's face, Ryan changed the subject back to a safer topic. "And I think going to the zoo is a great idea. We'll make a whole day out of it. We'll go out for breakfast…."

"You'll make us breakfast and serve it to me in bed," she amended his statement for him. There were no arguments on his part.

"Okay, so after breakfast in bed, we'll get August ready together and set off for the zoo. I figured we could pack a picnic lunch and take it with us and then stop for dinner on our way home. Once he's asleep, maybe we could do something with just the two of us, get a babysitter and go out, or even just stay in and spend the night in bed."

"Hm," she teased, smiling down at the little boy and playing with the water briefly while she talked, "we'll have to wait and see if Daddy's a good boy tomorrow before Mommy makes that decision, right August?"

"Dada!"

"That's right, baby, Daddy will have to be on his best behavior if he wants to stay in tomorrow night instead of going dancing."

"Dancing, Marissa," Ryan groused, furrowing his brow in disapproval of her idea. "You know that I…. Wait a second, what did August just say?"

"He didn't say anything," she answered. "You know he hasn't started talking yet."

"No, he said something, and you responded to him, but we were both too caught up in out bantering to really notice. I think he said Dada."

Tickling her son, Marissa used her baby voice to talk to the little boy. "August didn't say Daddy, because he's going to say Mommy first, aren't you angel?"

"Dada!"

"Ha," Ryan yelled in triumph, standing up and pumping his fist in a vain attempt to congratulate himself. "I told you! I told, Mommy, didn't I, buddy," he asked his son, picking him up from the bathtub and holding his wet and squirming body to his clothed chest. "You did listen to me all those months ago when I told you we boys had to stick together, didn't you?"

"He's talking," Marissa whispered tearfully, standing up from her crouched position to wrap one of her arms around her husband while the other caressed the silky soft skin of their son's back. Resting her head on Ryan's shoulder, she pressed. "I can't believe he's already talking."

"Honey, he's a year old. You had to know it was going to happen sooner or later."

"Yeah, I know," she agreed with him, "but I wasn't ready for this yet. He's growing up too fast. He's not going to be my little boy much longer."

"He'll always be your little boy," he assured her, dropping a light kiss onto the crown of her head, the ringlets of curls from the humidity surrounding her forehead tickling his lips. "Sure, he's going to get bigger and he'll be able to do more things, but that'll just make it better than it is now. He'll be even more fun." Breaking through their emotional conversation, August kicked his feet against Ryan's stomach, accidentally hitting his Mom's arm, alerting both of them to the fact that he was quickly growing discontent. "Come on," Ryan suggested, moving the three of them towards the door, "let's go put this little guy to bed, and then I'll give you a bath, too."

"Promises, promises."

-+-

"I told you I'd give you a bath," Ryan teased his wife as they laid snuggly together in the garden tub of their master bathroom.

"Yeah, but I don't remembering offering to give you one, too."

"You don't have to," he said easily, letting his hands wander from her shoulders, down her arms, and under the multitude of scented bubbles to find the loofa he would need to wash her body. "I'll do all the work."

Playing along, she taunted, "oh, so this is work now, spending time with me when I'm naked, getting to excuse your wandering fingers as the careful ministrations of a helpful husband?"

"Alright, so perhaps work was the wrong way to describe giving you a bath." Leaving the discussion there, he squeezed a generous proportion of her body wash unto the loofa, lathering it slowly while he talked. "I still can't believe that August said 'Dada'. Two years ago at this time we thought we'd never get to experience this…a child, and, even though it didn't happen the way he had planned, here we are. I'm a Daddy, and you're a Mommy, and we have a son, a healthy, happy, beautiful son."

"Don't forget smart," Marissa added lightly, letting her head drop down onto his broad shoulder as she began to enjoy the delicate embraces his hands were administering onto her wet and supple body. "Our son is very smart, too." Sighing dreamily, she continued. "It was the perfect way to end today. First we got the call from the lawyer telling us that August's adoption has finally gone through, that he's legally our son, and that no one will ever be able to take him away from us. Then we had his party, and everyone who loves him got to spend his special day with him even if some were only by phone. And then, just now, he called you Daddy. Our little boy's talking, Ryan, he's talking. Do you know what this means?"

"What?"

"That soon it's going to be 'no, Daddy,' and then it'll just get worse. He'll start saying things like 'guess what, Mom, I have a girlfriend,' 'I want to go to college on the east coast,' and even 'I'm getting married.' I'm not ready for him to say those things yet!"

Muffling his chuckles in her hair, Ryan composed himself before soothing his wife's worries. "Sure," he agreed with her, "someday he will probably say all those things, and we'll be there to support him, but think of all the great thing he'll say first. You're going to get to hear him call you Mommy soon. You'll get to see his bright and shining face early in the morning when we run into the bedroom together to surprise you, and he'll yell 'Happy Mother's Day, Mom' or 'Happy Birthday, Mommy.' He'll bring home his school papers and art work, excited to show you how well he did and to tell you all about them. And, most importantly, someday soon he'll know how to say 'I love you, Mommy.' Now, would you trade all those wonderful things to prevent him from growing up?"

In a shaky voice rough with unshed tears, she whispered, "no. That will be great, won't it?"

"It's going to be wonderful."

"I just….it's all happening so fast," she explained the reason behind her fears. "It feels like just yesterday I held him for the first time, but, in what feels like just a blink of an eye, here we are, and he's crawling, standing up on his own, and talking already. Our baby's a year old, and it just feels as if his childhood is slipping by way too quickly."

"They always do, honey," Ryan said softly. "All parents feel that way."

"I know," she lamented, "but most parents get the chance to do this more than once, and, in all likelihood, we won't."

"You don't know that for sure," he interjected. Marissa could hear the traces of hope in his voice.

"What are you saying," she asked, turning around in his arms to face him. Sitting close together, she decided to rest her forehead against his as they talked.

"I'm saying that miracles happen," Ryan answered, "and we of all people know this already. First we got the miracle of our little girl. We were never supposed to be able to have children of our own, but we proved the doctors wrong; she proved them wrong. And then, when we lost her and our hope of ever being parents, August was brought to us by the most unlikely person, and we got our second miracle." Taking a deep breath, he continued, looking deeply into her wide, encouraging, sapphire orbs of blue. "I guess I just….I don't want us to stop wanting another miracle. Yes, it was hard to lose our daughter, but that was not our fault. Sometimes bad things happen even when people don't deserve them, but you're still young enough to have another baby, and, maybe if we get another starry night, we'll be able to make that same wish again and have another child of our own, a little brother or sister for August."

"So we try again," Marissa agreed with him, a wide, glowing smile lighting up her gorgeous face. "We throw away the condoms and the birth control and let nature take its course. If we get pregnant, we'll know that we got our third miracle, and, if not, we'll just be happy with what we have, with our precious little girl we never got to raise and our brilliant baby boy."

"He is brilliant, isn't he," Ryan teased her, skimming his lips across her jaw. "After all, he did say Daddy first."

"You're never going to let that go, are you," she complained, pouting her lip out in a tempting manner. "You're never going to let me forget that our son said 'Dada' before Mommy?"

"Nope." With that, Ryan lifted her up with one swift motion into his arms and stepped out of the Jacuzzi, leaving the bathwater just as it had been as he carried his squealing, giggling wife into their bedroom, dumping her precariously unto the bed. "The way I see it," he spoke while lowering his body down on top of her own, "there's no time like the present to start working on that third miracle."

She went to respond, but his eager, seductive lips quickly swallowed any words she was planning to say, and it would be much later that night before he ever relinquished them. A year after losing their daughter, they had their hope back, hope for their son, hope for themselves, and hope for their future. They would never forget the little girl they had lost, but she was always in their heart, comforting them, and, as they liked to think, watching out for her family. They would be alright, the three of them, Ryan, Marissa, and August Atwood, as long as they were together, and, if they were lucky enough to add another member to their family, they would be thankful forever. And it could happen, too, because, as they knew without the shadow of a doubt, miracles can and do happen…especially when you least expect them.