Reason took another swig from the cup of instant coffee she had made herself as she sat at the slab in the kitchen. Even though they were getting into the more hands on part of the program, there was still plenty of paper-based work to do, so she found herself pulling another all- nighter.
Suddenly Maudie called out, "Mommy! Can I have a glass of water?"
Reason got up. "Sure, baby."
When Reason got there with the water, Maudie was sitting up in the bed. "Here you go, sweetie." Reason told her, handing her the cup.
Maudie took it and began to drink. "When are you coming to bed?"
"I could still be a little while baby, you should go to sleep." Reason told her.
"I did go to sleep." Maudie told her, "Now I'm up."
"Well, you should go back to sleep." Reason told her, "There are several hours 'till morning."
That was when Maudie asked suddenly. "Mommy, when's our birthday?"
Reason chuckled. She couldn't believe Maudie remembered they had a shared birthday. "A few more days, honey."
"I think we should move it." Maudie told her.
Reason cocked her head. "Why?" She had been excited about turning four for weeks.
"That was we could both be there." Maudie explained
Reason's hear couldn't help but break a little. "Come here," She said, pulling Maudie out of the bed and sitting her on her lap, "Mommy will be there. It's going to be a little hectic—well, more than a little, but we will make it work, okay?"
"Okay." Maudie looked up at a her and asked, "What does hectic mean?"
"It means it's going to be very crazy and busy." Reason answered, "But we'll make it work. Mommy's already traded Miss Serena the jam for the cookies. And Miss Bonnie's coming down to see you."
Maudie smiled a little.
"So, we kind of have to." Reason finished, putting her daughter back in the bed, "Now, go to sleep." She kissed Maudie on the forehead, "Love you, baby girl."
On the day of Maudie's and Reason's shared birthday, Maudie was the first one up. "Mommy, Mommy!" She exclaimed happily, jumping up and down on the bed, "I'm four!"
Reason rolled over, rubbing her eyes. "That's right." She smiled, "Happy birthday, baby."
"Happy birthday, Mommy!" Maudie explained frog splashing Reason, "How old are you?"
"I am twenty-one." Reason told her, managing to sit up, "Come on, time for breakfast."
As the pair came out, Bonnie stepped out of the room that was supposed to be Maudie's room, but since she was still reluctant to sleep by herself, Bonnie just slept there last night while the McCarthy's took the other.
"Miss Bonnie, guess what?" Maudie asked.
"What?" Bonnie asked playfully.
"I'm four and Mommy's twenty-one!" Maudie declared happily.
"Oh really?" Bonnie responded in mock surprise, picking the little girl up.
Maudie grinned, nodding. "Uh-huh."
As they all walked into the kitchen, Bonnie asked the little girl. "So, Maudie, do you want all your presents all at once, or can I give you the ones I brought down now?"
Maudie started playing with her hair, looking down bashfully. "Can I maybe open one now and the rest later if Mommy says that's okay?"
"Well, I already cleared it with your Mom and she says it's A-Okay." Bonnie smirked.
"Yay!" Maudie cheered, please with this development.
Reason was in the process of toasting the bread, while Maudie squirmed at the table, waiting for Bonnie to come back. Eventually the older woman came back, holding what looked like a tear drop pearl on a slivery chain. "Okay," She said, crouching down in front of the girl, "This is actually from your Aunt Avery." She then carefully draped the necklace around the little's neck.
Reason turned around, her eyes widening in shock. "Bonnie, we can't—she-"
"It's only paste. " Bonnie pointed out, then suggested Alright, maybe she should just wear it on special occasions until she grows into it." As she spoke, she walked over to Reason. "And Avery didn't leave you out, either, co-birthday girl." She handed Reason a small white tube.
Reason closely examined the tube, reading the small green circle and the label above it. L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream
"I'll call her to thank her later." Reason said, putting it in her pocket.
After breakfast Reason helped Maudie with an outfit, that, while not specifically perchused for her birthday, Maude had wanted to save for that day, a little dress covered with a pattern of flowers of every color, orange, and pink and white, and a few purples, with dark blue almost black leggings. There ever shoes that matched the leggings. Of course, now a days Maudie didn't need that much help. She could get everything on herself and just needed a little assistance with shoe laces.
"There's my big girl." Reason praised, cupping her face and just looking at her for a moment. She was going up way too fast. Then she adjusted her necklace and took Maudie by the hand. "Come on, baby girl. Time to go."
Reason couldn't get out of work this year, so that morning the Winchesters and Bonnie took the kids to the park, planning to meet up with the second birthday girl later that day. Maudie was sad that her Mommy couldn't come, but she liked getting to see her friends.
The trio pressed themselves against the side of the slide. "I think the cost is clear. "Maudie whispered, leading the way as they climbed up the stairs to the slide platform like little spies. Once they got to the top, Maudie shouted, "Charge!"
Maudie ran down the platform, getting on the slide, her boys right behind her, then they ran up the stairs and down the slide again. "To the horsies!" Maudie shouted.
The boys were right after her, each of them getting on a horse. Soon they were bouncing away.
At the dinner, Reason was just finishing cleaning the woman's bathroom, putting it back in the bucket , before walking out back into the breakfast rust.
As was usually for a breakfast rush, or actually a lunch or dinner rush for that matter, the dinner was crowded, the waitresses on duty at the time, Serena Joy, Denise, and Edith, were running around, rushing up to the order window as soon as they put their last plates on the table. Into this chaos Reason trudged, going to the back to dispose of her mop water.
After disposing of it and getting fresh, she walked back out with her cleaning supplies to begin the men's room, when something caught her eyes. A boy appearing in his mid twenties, slightly over average height, light brown hair, was standing in front of the pinball machine in the back. While it wasn't that a big a deal, the patrons rarely ever actually played with the machine, so they always took notice when someone did.
The balls shot back and forth in the machine, the boy playing as Mulder, pushing the right flipper up as the lights flashed and the music played. They boy made 20,000 points. Then 20, 500. Suddenly the screen flashed in its 1990s pixels glory 50,000 POINTS 4 MORE FOR THE TRUTH. He keep flicking back the ball as the FBI initials in white flickered. Two more points and the truth would be his. Suddenly an orange image of an opening file cabinet popped up on the screen and muddled voice could heard, if not understood.
"Nice job, pinball wizard." Reason complimented, walking away.
At the park, more so less fifteen minutes later, a by now familiar blonde, approached holding a box in one hand and the hand of a little boy holding a handmade teddy bear with the other. "Hey guys." Adele greeted them making her presence known.
"Hi," Sam greeted, them, "Come on, sit down. Jerod, Maudie and the boys are up there." He pointed to the trio were up the stairs on the playset, where the kids were setting their roles for the next pretend game with rock, paper, scissor. "I think you might actually be of some help."
With that, Jerod ran up the playset while Sam introduced Adele to Bonnie.
Meanwhile, at the dinner the breakfast rush had cleared out, leaving one or two customers and the staff. However, there was one person from the dinner rush still there.
"That guy's still here?" Reason asked, walking over to Serena Joy as they looked at the young man at the clashing, flashing pinball table, the ball whizzing past the tiny model of the alien fetus from 'The Erlenmeyer Flask'.
"Yeah," Serena Joy confirmed, "I think he's halfway to 'Blood' by now?"
"'Blood'?" Reason repeated, familiar with the episode, but not getting the significance.
"The wizard mode." Serena Joy explained.
Suddenly the screen flashed as he got bonus points, releasing another multi-bal.
Serena Joy's eyes went back to her second. She had one guy, who had a full cup of coffee and a sweet potato muffin in front of him as he pecked on his lap top.
"Okay, my guy looks good for a while , what do you say we take a closer look?" Serena Joy suggested.
Reason nodded as they gingerly approached the game.
At the park, space explorer Maudie (they decide to still just have space explorer for now) was digging up a sample of sand to take back to Earth, when suddenly two-light haired aliens in the form of Dean and Jerod grabbed her by the arm from either side. "Hey!" Maudie protected, wiggling as a third hark haired alien in the form of Cas appeared, examining a lock of her hair in fascination, before speaking to his companions in gibberish.
"The role he was always meant to play." Sam whispered over to Hannah in spite of himself.
"Do their pretend games always get this involved?" Bonnie asked.
"Sometimes more so." Hannah answered.
Outnumbered, the heroic little space explorer spent two weeks in game time, thought it was probably less than five minutes in reality, as pet to the curious aliens, before finally sneaking away, breaking for the spaceship with angry natives right on her tail, making in the nick of time, thought she didn't notice one sneaking on board with them.
"How come I never get to do that?" Hannah whispered over to the other adults.
"Well, have you ever tried?" Sam whispered back.
"Have you ever tried?" Hannah countered.
Meanwhile, back as the dinner, a crowd had formed around the young man at the pinball machine, now consisting or Reason and all three waitress on duty at that time, Jerry, Logan and Davy who had come back from the kitchen, and lap top guy, who was by now the only patron in the dinner, besides the one they were officially calling the pinball wizard.
"Alright," Serena Joy announced, "He's in the big leagues now. 'Blood'. The game's Wizard mode, based on the third episode of season two. Four balls, infinite ball saver, sixty seconds to get as many jackpots as you can…."
As Serena Joy went on someone came up from behind Reason teased, "And here I was thinking you were working?"
Reason whirled around to find one of her growing long distance friends next to her. "Alex!" She squealed hugging the girl, "How did you get here?" She was under the impression that with the younger girl's own higher education pursuits, she wouldn't be able to make it this year.
"It wasn't easy." Alex told her, "I barely squeaked by." Then she pulled a red tool box with a red ribbon out from the bag at her side. "All of us went on this together."
Reason hands covered her mouth before taking the box. "Oh, Alex, thank you…"
"You really don't have to do that." Alex began, "So, ah, what's with the sudden pinball obsession."
"This guy's been here all morning and he's almost made it through the entire game." Reason explained.
"This is it." Serena Joy was saying, "The big moment. The moment we separate the men—"
That was when the pinball wizard spoke for the first time since entering the dinner. "Ah, Miss, I don't mind you guys watching, but can we skip all the fanfare please, so I can just play?"
"Right." Serena Joy agreed, "Sorry."
At the park, Maudie was flying her spaceship, before the alien Dean crawled behind her, jumping up, "Ah!"
While that was going on, Elsbeth and her trio of blonde, brunette and redhead walked up. "Hey guys."
"Hello Elsbeth," Hannah greeted them, "Girls. The kids are over there." She pointed over to the play set, where Maudie and Dean were engaging in battle, fighting for control of the ship.
As the girls ran over to play, Elsbeth sat down on the increasingly crowded bench. "Feet and back keeping you now?" She asked Hannah with a twinge of empathy.
Hannah nodded.
"Ug," Adele added into the conversation, "As much I loved being pregnant I hated just the strain on my body making me partially immobile."
"Amen to that." Elsbeth agreed.
"I second that amen." Hannah confirmed,
Meanwhile, Dean had cornered Maudie on the "spaceship" where the birthday girl caught of her other friends, then called out. "Hold!"
The game on hold for a moment, Maude went down the slide and ran up to the girls. "Hi, Scarlet." She began, hugging the older girl, who was closest to her. Process what was going on, the boys quickly joined in greeting their friends as well.
At the dinner, everyone had fallen into a eerie quiet as the pinball wizard worked the flickered, sending the ball flying past Flukeman. The door opened, as a few customers filtered in.
"Ah!" The employees groaned as a group.
"Come on, we got at least an hour 'till lunch rush." Denise groaned.
Suddenly, the screen instructed the boy to shoot the right ramp for 420, 00 points. As the game bleep, what Denise said hit Reason.
"Oh, crap!" Reason explained, "Maudie and the others will be here soon. I'm not ready!"
"Come on, tell me what you need done, I'll help." Alex told her.
"I'll go get the cookies." Serena Joy said, joining them in running off as well.
At the park, after roles for the girls had been incorporated into the game of pretend, Vanessa stat on an imaginary throne as a group of four of her subjects, six you counted Bambi, Coat, and Yellow Eyes, brought now two space explorers, Maudie and Scarlet, before her. The queen leaned in, walking around the creatures, making a several bleeps and bloops, lifting locks of both girls' hair, lightly poking them, peering closely at them. She then took Scarlet, locking her in an imaginary cage making several gibberish orders, also pantomiming. Dean taking an imaginary spear, poked it at Maudie and forced her down the slide.
As Scarlet was kept for study in the "citadel" Maudie was taking around the planet to show a mostly invisible citizenry. As she and Dean were making their third round, Maudie got an idea. "We can't go through there!" She declared, "The ground is lava!"
Forgetting about the supposed language barrier, Dean jumped up on in imagery rock, with Maudie jumping on another, then another jumping away from Dean, giggling. Realizing he had been had, Dean started jumping in pursuit, unable to keep a strait face at that point as well. Eventually Maudie "lost" Dean, hiding behind the slide, before sticking her head out. Time to recuse Scarlet.
Maudie snuck past the guards into what seemed like an empty citadel, save for Vanessa, who as pretending to sleep, and Scarlet, who was still languishing in 'captivity' while Dory and the boys were under the platform, surprising laughter.
Scarlet looked up, hopefully, about speak when Maudie put a finger to her lips, indicating silence, while she worked at a lock only she could see. Eventually the lock opened and Maudie opened the cage, pulling Scarlet. However, at that point, Vanessa had "awoken" and the guards had made it up the steps, charging.
"Scarlet behind me!" Maudie ordered, then pushed Vanessa in front of her.
" A little less rough." Vanessa whispered to her.
"Sorry." Maudie whispered back, still using Vanessa as a not human shield as she and Scarlet went down the side, letting her go once they reached the spaceship. As the took off and went into space, Maudie asked, "So, where to next."
At the dinner, Alex had snuck behind the counter and stood next to Serena Joy, who was blending chilled black tea and sweetened condense milk, pouring the concoction into a tall glass.
"Hey, Denise." Serena Joy called out as the waitress passed her, "Do me a favor, ask that table if they wanted vanilla or green tea ice cream on this, my note's smudged."
"Okay, but I think we're out of green tea." Denise advised, before going off.
"Got it." Alex declared in victory, having managed to get the 4 candle into the cookie without breaking it.
That was when Reason came over. "Okay, I got sidetracked a few time, but the presents are all in one place. How's it going here?"
"Everything's ready." Alex told her.
Just then there was more noise and flashes from the pinball machine.
"Guys," Denise said, coming over to them, "I think he did. I think he actually did it. Also, they said vanilla."
Meanwhile, Maudie and Scarlet were sitting the swings as Vanessa and Castiel put flower crowns on their head.
The space explorers have found a group of more friendlier aliens. In fact, so friendly, that they made them their queens.
As a celebration was going on, Sam stood up and called out, "Hey, guys, time to go."
"Aw!" The little ones all complained at once.
"Would cookies when we get to see Maudie's mom make it better?" Sam coaxed.
That did the trick. "Yay!" The kids cheered, running for the cars.
That was Bonnie reached out touching Maudie on the shoulder. "One second, honey." She told her, pulling out two more packages. "These are from your grandparents."
Maudie tore them up revealing a set of coloring books and a Crayola 64 pack, thought Maudie just knew it was the biggest box of crayons she had ever seen. "Thank you!" Maudie beamed, hugging her. "Can I show my friends?"
"Of course." Bonnie agreed.
Maudie ran to the cars, calling out, "Guys! Look!"
Reason was standing outside the dinner when the car pulled up. Immediately Maudie jumped out of the car and ran towards her calling, "Mommy!"
Reason rushed to meet her halfway. "Hey, there, baby girl!" She beamed, scooping her up, "You have a good birthday so far?"
Maudie grinned nodding. "We want to the park and we played on the slide and played…"
As Reason carried Maudie to the dinner, leading the pack, two women with long dark brown hair met them at the door.
"Alex!" Maudie exclaimed, just as surprised as Reason had been.
"What am I, chopped liver?" Serena Joy asked in mocked dungeon, knowing it was just the novelty of the younger woman's presence.
"Hey there, Maudie." Alex said, giving the girl a hug.
The group managed to squeeze into two booths, with two root beer floats, three milkshakes, one chocolate, one strawberry, one vanilla, a purple cow, an ice tea float and a dozen sodas and teas between them so they could pay to use the table, and Reason sat the cookie with lit candle in a booth with Maudie in it.
After blowing out of the candles and eating the cookies, Reason picked up a gift a random. "Okay, this is from Vanessa, Scarlet and Dory."
Maudie needed a little help revealing a box with a picture of a small blue china tea set on it. Maudie's eyes lit up. "Thank you!" She exclaimed, "Thank you, thank you!"
Then Reason pulled another one out at random. "Okay, this one's from Miss Serena."
With a little helped Maudie unwrapped a plush round deep yellow bank, a round soft blob with four little legs and a sad looking face with closed eyes. Maudie scrunched her face, trying to figure out what it was, and Reason shot Serena Joy a questioning look, as she had no clue what was that was supposed to be.
"It's Gudetama, the lazy egg." Serena Joy explained.
That out of the way, Reason turned to her daughter. "What do you say, Baby girl?"
"Thank you!" Maudie beamed, hugging the creature close to her chest, "I love my egg bank!"
Pinking up a pink box Reason told her, "And this is from Mommy."
Maude opened the box, revealing a little pink ballerina dancing in a circle. Below her was a pile of green Saint Patrick's Day costume jewelry.
"It's a jewelry box." Reason explained, thinking the tot might not know what it was.
"Pretty…" Maudie declared, before looking at her Mom with sparkling eyes, too excited to remember her manners It was all thanks she needed.
By the time she was finished, Maudie had little cloth doll with its own teddy bear along with a children's books version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer a beautiful wooden bank craved with leaves, a flocked dog bank, a box of candy, a plush alien that came all the way from Roswell, and more sheets of stick-on earrings than she could ever wear.
As the kids abandoned their in some cases half-finished drinks, Maudie played with her new toys, Reason watched standing by a small pile of present that had been gifted to her: The tool box and some good quality tools, Avery's hand cream, a bottle of Apple Snaps. She shifted, for some reason suddenly uncomfortable.
"Hey, there, birthday, girl." Serena Joy began, walking over to Reason with Alex, each brunette placing themselves on either side of the blond. "You okay there?"
"Yeah, it's just…"Reason began, "I look at this and I just think—things are too perfect. I mean, you're getting married, Sam and Hannah are having a baby, you're getting married, I'm in school and things are going good, Alex, you're pratically halfway to being a nurse-there's got to be another shoe that's going to drop somewhere. Something's bad's got to happen."
Alex wrapped her arms around Reason. "That's a completely normal feeling to have—I think. But nothing bad is going to happen."
"And it's not like it's all that perfect." Serena Joy told her, "Me and Rawls haven't made a firm decision on pratically anything and we don't even know if we're moving into his place or mind, or a third option-"
"And the Winchesters are in the middle of the world's highest risk pregnancy." Alex pointed out.
"We're throwing your kid an illicit secret birthday party in the back of a greasy spoon and the high light of our day other than this was somebody playing a pinball game." Serena Joy pointed out.
Reason laughed. "Okay, okay, good point."
"Plus, I still sometimes have flashbacks around blood to the point where I've nearly changed majors five times." Alex told her.
With that each girl took her by the hand. "See?" Serena Joy responded, "Just imperfect to keep the bottom from falling out."
As Reason watched the children play, she hopped so. For all their sake's.
