Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination and the kids names.
a/n: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed the last chapter and as always, welcome to the new readers and those who favourited this story. I never imagined that this story would get this kind of response and it blows my mind to see how much you guys love it so I decided to update it first before my other ones. Enjoy.
Matt and Gabby were happy that the twin's party was a success and a new routines settled itself again as Matt worked every hour he could on the new house to make it livable for everyone. Matt worked on getting the bathroom upstairs done first with a friend who was a plumber so the shower was usable for him every time he had to work in the house late, which happened more often as the project took shape. Gabby walked in one evening to find Matt on his knees working on the floor to the living room.
"Hey, how's everything going along?" He looked up at her and rocked his body against his heels.
"They are going along great actually. The soaker tub arrived a few hours back and Tyler helped me set it up before we called it a night. He's supposed to come help me with the powder room tomorrow morning."
"Wow that's great. Did you touch anything on the rooms upstairs?"
"Not really. I figured I'd finish one section of the house at a time."
"Good idea." She leaned down to kiss him.
"Where are the kids?" He was actually surprised that they weren't there with her.
"They are with Christie and Kelly for dinner so we could have a little bit of alone time."
"I like the sound of that." He put his tools down and got up, heading for the kitchen with her.
"So what's in the bag?"
"Thaï."
"Perfect." He washed his hands and face before joining her at the table.
"Are you going to be home late tonight?" She digged into her box.
"I'm just finishing up the floor in the living room and I should be back home in time for bath time."
"Great because I miss you."
"I know babe. I'm just trying to finish this house as soon as possible."
"You don't need to finish it into exhaustion though."
"You're tired of taking care of all five by yourself huh?"
"I might have lost patience qui Grace, sorry."
"I'll have a talk with them tonight and I promise I'll cut back here." It was true that he was here on most of his days off, leaving Gabby to fend for herself and five rampbuncious kids on top of the shifts she was doing at the hospital as well.
"You said it yourself, we don't have to rush to move into this house."
"I remember that yes."
"Than if you remember that, remember that if you help me with all the chaos, there could be some nice rewarding moments for you too." She winked at him.
"You drive a very hard bargain Gabriella Dawson." He leaned over the table and kissed her. They finished eating and Gabby left so Matt could finish the floor so he could come home quickly. He turned the lights off and locked behind him before driving from the new house to the one they were still living in. He walked in to hear some voices bickering in the kitchen. He followed them to find Grace and Luis arguying about toys. "What's going on here?" It was rare that he used this tone of voice with the kids but he knew for a fact that Gabby was with Valentina upstairs for her bath.
"He stole the game I was playing with."
"That's not true, it was just lying there so I took it. You're the one who ripped it out of my hands."
"Ok I've heard enough from the two of you. What you guys did wasn't nice so an apology and I want the two of you to think about it for ten minutes in the couch and I don't want you to move from there until I say so. The apologies were mumbled but Matt watched as the two of them took opposite sides of the couch before going up the stairs where he found the two other kids in a room playing quietly. "Hey." He poked his head in the bathroom.
"Hey. Thanks for taking care of those two. They've been driving me nuts since they came back from your sister's house.
"Sorry for leaving you so often with them."
"It's fine as long as you give me a nice long back rub later."
"Absolutely." He watched as Gabby finished washing Valentina and took her out of the tub to put her in her pj's. He fixed the tub for the girls first and called them both to get cleaned up, leaving to go be with Gabby a little bit, the girls being able to clean themselves now.
"What was that fight about?"
"Toy sharing. I'll talk to all of them together before they go to bed."
"Thanks babe." When all the baths were finished, all four older kids went into the kitchen for a snack so Matt waited to have all four of them comfortably sitting at the table to talk to them.
"I think we need to have a little talk." All four sets of eyes looked at him while he was leaning against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Is it about the new house?" Grace asked excitedly.
"No it isn't." Grace's back immediatly straightened at the slight change of tone in his dad's voice. "We need to talk about what happens when I'm not home." Grace immediatly knew he was going to talk about her fight with Luis. Matt waited until Gabby was back and that he was sure that he had all four kids's attention. "I know that everyone is excited about the new house but we need to fix the new house first before we can live in it so that's why a lot of the time I'm not home." He made sure they understood every word. "So while I'm not there, Gabby is in charge so that means you listen to her at all times. She has five of you to take care of and Valentina is still small so I need the four of you to act like grown ups and not make life hell for her is that clear?"
"Yes." All four said together. Matt could see that he had gotten through to them.
"Now finish your snack and then teeth brushing and time for bed." Gabby finished cleaning the kitchen with Matt's help as the kids finished eating and brushing their teeth. It didn't take that long for all four of them to be sleeping, leaving both adults to enjoy some quiet time with soft music and wine.
"Thanks again for the pep talk with the kids. I don't know if I would have had the energy to do it."
"We're a team, well when I don't leave you alone with the five of them."
"It's fine, you're working hard to get the house ready for us to move into it."
"We said we didn't have to rush it and that's what I'm doing."
"I know you're going that because you want us to be comfortable and it's starting to be a tight fit for us here."
"I'll ask the guys for some help, try to get this moving quickly."
"And I've seen 51 work together, I have faith in you."
"Thanks babe. I'll try to finish it all before the end of summer."
"Don't tire yourself too much, Chicago needs you with your head in the game, I need you with your head in the game." She whispered, her eyes closing as Matt pressed his thumbs in her shoulderblades.
"Oh my head is in the game." He whispered, his lips finding their way to her neck and his fingers finding a knot on the right side of her back.
"Thank god I have a day off tomorrow."
"How come?"
"There's no way I'll be able to get up when you're done with me." His hands were making wonders on her and the tension of the last few days were starting to fall off her shoulders.
"You deserve it. We should get away when everything is over with, just you and me." He said out of the blue.
"What do you have in mind?"
"I don't know, something fun. No kids, no responsabilities."
"I like that." She mumbled, Matt clearly making her melt under his touch.
"How about we call it a night?" Matt was off for 48h and he wanted to be able to spend some time with Gabby close to him, Matt having to go work in the new house again in the morning to finish the surprise he was working on.
"I think it's going to be a good night." She got up and kissed him. They put the wine away and headed for bed, the two of them falling asleep quickly.
Matt woke up to a quiet house. He quickly got up and kissed Gabby before going downstairs and leaving her a note on the kitchen table, heading to the house to get a move on. It was barely eight and he was expecting a delivery between eight and noon and he didn't want to miss it. One of the reasons why he hadn't finished the living room floor the night before was that he had done the one in their room first so it would be ready when the truck got there. He started working on the livingroom floor again when Kelly arrived.
"What's delivery's ETA?" He handed Matt a coffee.
"Between now and noon. I'm trying to get everything done as soon as possible."
"You look tired man."
"Please don't remind me."
"I'm pretty sure Boden will if you're not focused next shift."
"Let's just get this done." Kelly nodded and the two of them went up front to unload the wood out of Kelly's truck so it would be ready for the following week.
Gabby woke up to an empty bed so she went down to the kitchen only to find it empty as well. They were supposed to spend some quality time in bed this morning and deep down she was mad at him for not keeping his word but when she picked up the folded paper on the table and her anger dissipated, leaving a smile on her lips.
Good morning beautiful,
I know I said that we'd spend the morning together but I wanted to finish some things with Kelly this morning but I sent in some reinforcements your way to have fun with the kids. Meet me at the house for dinner.
I love you.
Matt
"I love you too." She whispered just as the doorbell rang. She opened the door to Shay, Christie and Violet.
"You just found out didn't you?" Shay smirked.
"He's just lucky he has a way with words, I wanted to kill him five minutes ago. Come on in, the kids are still in bed."
"Just what we need. It's time to make breakfast for everyone." All the girls went into the kitchen and they made a big breakfast for everyone. The kids came down about half an hour later and they enjoyed breakfast together before they got everyone ready, the girls telling Gabby they were headed towards the waterpark.
Matt and Kelly got all the wood placed in the back yard just in time for the delivery truck to park in front of the house. Matt signed for the items and the guys brought all the purchases in the master bedroom.
"So Gabby doesn't know you're doing this at all?"
"Not suspecting a thing."
"I'm sure she's going to love it."
"I hope so." The guys left about half an hour later, leaving Matt and Kelly to put everything where Matt wanted it. Kelly left Matt to finish doing the setup after all the heavy pieces were where he wanted them. kelly went downstairs to grab a beer, the heat starting to be heavy around lunchtime. They ordered some pizza and grabbed more beer, the next mission being the room off the kitchen.
"You know that you'll be wiped out before this is over." Kelly could see that Matt was wearing himself thin. If he wasn't on shift at the firehouse he was at the new house or running around after five kids.
"I'm trying to ballance everything Kelly and I'm trying to stay on top of it and so far it's going fine. It's not as if I was doing all of this alone."
"I know but, just be careful. all your girls need you to stay alive."
"I know." It didn't take long for them to finish the small room because it would be an area mostly for the kids to hang around while Gabby cooked.
"Do you think the girls are having fun?"
"With Shay and Gabby together, no doubt."
As expected, they had gone though most of the water slides in the kids section, Valentina giggling everytime she went down with Violet.
"Thanks girls for this, I really needed it." They were now sitting down for lunch while the kids ran around in the sand.
"Matt is the one to thank. He's the one who planned all of this."
"Don'T worry, there will be some thanking."
"Gabby." Christie exclaimed, a laugh escaping her lips.
"I'm lucky to have him."
"Speaking of lucky." Shay started. "What's going on with you and Kelly?"
"I like where we are. It's easy and he's so good with Violet."
"I always knew Kelly would be great with kids." Shay added.
"Any plans of moving in together?" Gabby asked, not sure if the idea was even mentionned or not.
"We haven't really talked about it but he's spends most of his nights at home with us when he's not on shift. I'm just not sure if he's quite at that point yet."
"Trust me, he is. I've known Kelly for years now and I've never seen him committed to anyone the way he is to you and Violet. And let's face it, Matt didn't kill him yet so I know he would approve."
"You're probably right." Christie laughed. They spent a few more hours at the waterpark before they took the kids back home. The whole lot of them fell asleep in the truck out of exhaustion and it took all three adults to help them settle down for a nap. They did a pasta sauce for them but Christie and Shay had something else in store for Gabby.
"Ok so, since this is all planned out, we are kicking you out for the evening."
"You've done more than enough." Gabby protested.
"Matt's orders, sorry." They let her showe and change into something more casual before they practically kicked her out the front door with the instructions to meet Matt at the new house.
Matt showered and changed after they cleaned everything in the house and Kelly left him to go spend the evening with the girls at Matt's old house. Shay had texted him when Gabby was in the shower so he could order from her favourite italian restaurant so the food would be there when she'd arrive.
Gabby walked through the front door and could already smell the food and she smiled as she walked farther in, the lights dimmed. "Matt?"
"Hey." She turned around at the sound of his voice. He was walking down the stairs from the top floor. "How was your day?" He kissed her.
"You spoil me too much."
"I'll spoil you even more once we're done eating." They walked into the kitchen where food was waiting with candles lit on the counter.
"Matt." She could feel tears burning her eyes, her smile wide.
"My way of saying I'm sorry for missing today."
"I'm starving." She chuckled. They had been outside all day and even though they had had lunch, all this setting and her smotions were making her hungry now.
"Dinner is served." Gabby talked about her day while they ate, telling him in detail Valentina's excitement and everyone else's fun. Once they were done, Matt got rid of the food and put the dishes in the sink under hot water before deciding that they could wait in the morning.
"But Matt, the food will stick." Gabby protested.
"The dishes can wait." He smirked. He pulled a blindfold out of his pocket and showed it to Gabby.
"What's that?"
"That is a surprise I've been working on for the past few days." She eagerly complied and Matt lead her up the stairs, his hands on her hips guiding her to their destination. "Ready?" He whispered in her ear.
"Ready." She whispered back before Matt removed the blindfold.
"Open your eyes baby." Her eyes fluttered open but what was in front of her was making her eyes water. She looked at Matt before looking back into their room.
"Is this why I haven't seen you these last few days?"
"Yes. I wanted our room to be extra special."
"This isn't extra special, it's gorgeous Matt." The walls were a light, almost white sand colour. In the middle of the room was a heavy wrought iron bed with a white and aqua coloured motives. It was flanked by two massive side tables and at the foot of the bed, there was an eight drawer chest for Gabby to put her clothes in and againt the far wall was a chest for Matt's things. On the wall that Gabby assumed was her side, there was a collection of family portraits. "Where did you get all these pictures Matt?"
"I went by your parents house after the kids birthday party. They were happy to give them to me for this."
"It's perfect Matt." She couldn't help but pick up a black and white picture of Alberto with all three kids after Valentina was born, before their world was turned upside down.
"I'm happy you like it."
"I don't like it, I love it." She put the picture frame on her dresser and wrapped her arms around Matt's neck, her lips to his in a tender kiss.
"And I love you."
"Tell me about it." Gabby's fingers made their way to the front of Matt's shirt, undoing one button at a time. "The girls are staying with the kids for the night?" Gabby assumed with a smirk.
"That's right."
"Than we have this place all to ourselves?"
"All to ourselves." He whispered, lifting her up and sitting her on her dresser, his lips crashing on hers. They undressed each other and Matt let her wrap her legs around his waist before he set her down on the fresh new sheets. They made out in between the sheets as their bodies tangled into each other. They spent the night making love in their brand new paradise, one that would be theirs and theirs alone.
a/n: Wow, another big one. I really hope that you guys love it and please take a few minutes to leave a review, I always love to know what you guys think of it. - Sarra
