Chapter 28

Ryan couldn't deny that he relished being surrounded by beautiful blonde women. Sitting on his futon in his newly-sparkling-clean apartment with wounded leg propped up on a footstool, his XBOX controller in his hands and the sounds of the three lovely blondes that were currently inhabiting his kitchen, cooking for him, made him happier than a pig in shit.

All he needed now was a certain tall lanky boy with mousy brown hair and chocolate colored eyes to show up and sit next to him on the couch.

Cera and Aunt Cassie had gotten home shortly after Ryan did. The moment his aunt saw the state of his two-bedroom apartment she declared that she refused to live in such a mess and, after she set herself up in the second bedroom, which contained a sofa bed, Cassie set herself to the task of cleaning up Ryan's kitchen.

Cera put her bags in the corner of the living room, she would be occupying the futon at night.

After the kitchen was clean and Cassie had begun sorting laundry, there was a knock at the door. Cera swiftly made her way to the door, opening it to find the third blonde, Penelope Garcia waiting with enough Chinese food to feed an army. "Hey, I'm Penelope!" She said, her glossy red smile beaming at Ryan's cousin. "I heard you guys where staying here and since Ryan is in no state to be taking you ladies out, I thought I'd bring some Chinese over and some home-made cookies. "

Cera was suddenly reminded of her mother and took the cookies from Garcia, welcoming her in. Garcia introduced herself to Cassie as she set down the steaming hot food. She approached Ryan and rustled his hair. " Will Junior G man be joining us tonight?" She asked, sitting next to Ryan on the futon. "Yeah he should be around soon" Ryan replied.

Cassie was busy pulling paper plates down from the cabinet while Cera unpacked the food. She'd been busy playing video games with Ryan and had worked up quite an appetite.

Food was spooned out and distributed as Ryan hobbled over to the dining table on his crutches, Garcia pulling up an extra chair for herself and another for Cera. "I brought some photo albums with me that we can look through after dinner!" Cassie announced. Ryan shut his eyes tightly, his mouth twisted in anguish. "Why?" he whined.

Just then, Reid showed up. Penelope, being closest to the door, got up to answer it. "Hello, sweetness, we saved you a plate" She smiled, ushering Reid into the apartment. She handed him a plate and tried to make room for the last possible chair she could find. All of them where packed around the small table, with little room to move.

When the paper plates where tossed out and fresh coffee had been made, They all gathered in the living room with the photo albums Cera had pulled from her luggage. Ryan felt embarrassed as soon as he saw the particular albums she was holding. The baby pictures were the least of his worries. He had been a fairly adorable baby, even if he had had quite a low birth weight.

The first picture in the baby blue album was of Hope, thin, but not quite as thin as she usually was, her red hair plastered to her face. She had put on about 20 pounds while pregnant. She was holding the tiniest baby, with red hair to match hers.

Then the usual pictures appeared. All of the typical things like Ryan at one year old, smooshing cake everywhere. Ryan on his first bicycle, Cera pushing Ryan off of said bicycle. The best picture from this album was probably a picture of Cera in a tie and bowler hat, pointing at Ryan(she appeared to be yelling)As Ryan bent over a toy kitchen set, arranging fake food on a plate. "Yeah I was always the Dad when we played house. Ryan never stood up to me " Cera laughed.

The particularly horrible pictures of Ryan's teenage years showed up in the next album. The dyed black hair and the chain covered pants made him visibly cringe and made Reid almost roll out of his chair with laughter. At the same time, he was glad that he had never gone thorough that stage and that his mother was never lucid enough to take a lot of pictures of him. He was so tempted to ask for copies of all of these horrible pictures to look at when he was feeling down, but Reid decided to show a little self control.

Finally everyone was tired, and Garcia left after making plans to take Cassie and Cera shopping at all of her favorite places around town. Reid sat on the couch next to Ryan, dusting kisses over his cheeks and forehead, promising to return the next day while the girls went out shopping. Finally Reid went back to his own home, leaving Ryan to hobble over to his bed, Cera pulling back the covers for him and gathering a couple of pillows for his leg. Spencer promised, that because tomorrow was Saturday night, that he would return for a sleep over. Cera made sure Ryan was situated comfortably before turning out the lights and unfolding the futon that was still warm from Ryan and Reid sitting on it.