Chapter 60: Moving in
For the next days, they looked for a house. Something in a good neighborhood but not too far from SWAT and from Uncle Sarzo and Auntie Elena as she was the one who will come to keep the kids once Chris will be back at work.
"Think I've found something!" Jim handed his phone to Chris.
She grabbed it and studied the screen attentively for the next minutes. Jim waited impatiently for her opinion. But he felt this house could be the one.
"Got to admit, sounds interesting."
"Only interesting? Come on, Chris. This is the best we could ask for. Three bedrooms, a large living room and kitchen and a garden. Diablo is finally gonna be able to run all day outside."
Hearing his name, the dog came to Jim to get some pets. "Come here, sweety!"
The dog immediately jumped on Jim's knees and lay over him. "That's my sweet boy!"
Chris looked at the scene. She was a lucky woman. She got the cake and ate it. She couldn't believe it.
"What? » Street asked her as he noticed she looked at him closely.
"Nothing… Just the house… It seems ok… We could go and visit it tomorrow?"
The day after, they went to visit the house. Each carried one of the babies in the baby holder. A man was waiting for them in front of the house.
"Mr. Street, I suppose?"
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Kulic. This is my wife, Chris and our sons, Aaron and Nate."
The man gave Chris a faint smile. "Nice to meet you, Chris and the boys. I guess you need more space, right?"
Chris snickered. "Yes, they might be very tiny, they already take all the place in the apartment."
"My kids do the same. And believe me, it's not better with time!"
Mr. Kulic took them inside the house, showing them the rooms. It was spacious. Way more than the apartment. The boys could share a bedroom, another for them and the last one could be used as a sports room. Or an office. They didn't know yet.
"Mr. Street, you told me you have a dog?"
"Yes, a German shepherd. He's 5."
"He should love the garden then!"
"Got to confess it was one of the reasons we came to visit the place first. This and the spot. Right in the middle of our family and work." Chris finally told the estate agent.
"Seems like the perfect fit, then!"
Chris and Street shared a conniving look when they heard the expression. It was one of the things that Street always said about them. They were a perfect fit. It was a sign they had to buy this house. This day, they signed Mr. Kulic's document given them property on the house, calling the bank to get a loan and then Uncle Sarzo's to help with the works in the house.
[…]
One month later, they could move in the house in the middle of Sherman Oaks neighborhood. On early morning, their whole SWAT family, Uncle Sarzo, Auntie Elena and Cousins Thomas and Diego came to help. They needed to be fast and ended everything before tonight because Chris was back at work next week.
"Where do we begin?" Luca and Hondo were the first here.
"The boxes in the bedrooms!" Chris quickly answered. Street let her take the things in charge. He brought muscles and humor and also food. He had prepared many salads last evening for everybody.
Hondo and Luca took care of the boxes in the kids's bedroom and put them in the trunk of Luca's pick up. At the same time, Chris alternated her time between feeding the kids and emptied Jim and her's bedroom and put everything in the trunk of her car. Jim was supposed to help her, instead he was nurturing. Not very helpful but it was nice to see him playing "peek-a-boo" with the boys. She smiled.
"Getting softie, Chris?"
"Ah ha ah, you like this! Wait for me to be back next week to kick your ass, Tan!"
He laughed before pleading guilty to be the same in front of Joyce.
"Guess it's making us even, then!"
"Let's say this."
"How can I help?"
"There're boxes in the kids' room and in ours. Choose your fighter!"
Deac arrived later, he had to deal with a school emergency with Lila – she had forgotten her bag at home. "But I'm cool now! What can I do?"
The cars were quickly full. Chris told the guys to follow her till their new place. Jim will stay with the boys and Diablo. They all drove behind Chris and reached the new house in 30 minutes.
"Well, well, well, look at this little lovebirds' nest!" Hondo teased Chris as he got off the car.
"Ah ah ah Boss !" She quickly hid behind the boxes to mask her blushing. "In fact, we'll enjoy the space! Boys take a lot of place despite the fact they are so tiny."
"Wait to have four of them." Deac joked.
"No thanks, two are good. We'll stop here."
"Two is great, especially when I see the mess with only one." Tan laughed on his own.
They emptied the cars, taking every box and putting them in the right room. Then they came back to the apartment in West Los Angeles and did it all again several times. Street waited for them taking care of the kids and dog and food. At the end of the day, the apartment was empty. It seemed so big now. Chris and Street remained a moment alone inside.
"Weird, right?" Street asked his wife.
"Yes… So weird… Leaving this place so full of memories of us, of me, of…" She stopped for a moment to restrain the tears coming into her eyes.
"Erika… I know… Miss her every day too… Guess she would have been happy for us…"
She turned to him and pouted. He was right. She was the only one who confronted her about Jim. Way before they talked about their feelings. "Yes she would have."
They walked a last time around the apartment. Looking at every detail, not to forget what had been their first cocoon. Making a last selfie in what used to be their bedroom and finally closed the door. It was time to start a new chapter of their life.
[…]
SWAT fam came the day after in their house. As well as Uncle Sarzo and cousins Diego and Thomas who started to paint the walls. They came very early to end before their first works of the day. At 10 AM, they were already gone. For the rest of the team, today was time to assemble furniture and tidy the boxes so from tonight the house will be easy to live.
Luca brought his tool box, Deac his baby knowledge while Hondo and Tan helped Jim to empty the boxes. Chris was already on board to assemble the piece of furniture. No way that they slept in the inflatable mattress again. They were too old for this. The guys saw her run all over the house between two breastfeeding times while Jim remained calm.
"Not helping Chris with assembling? " Tan asked to Street while he was tidying the kids' clothes in the closet that Luca and Deac had assembled earlier.
Street started to laugh, before tapping over Tan's shoulder.
"Chris assembles any piece of furniture faster than me, than any of us. I'm more into tidying. And she doesn't like this. I do. This is team work. Told you we were a perfect fit at any level!"
Tan and Hondo laughed at their turn. "Ok, man, we don't want to know everything!" Tan answered.
"Look who's the one with dirty mind now." Hondo joked.
They kept empty the boxes and walked in the living room to grab new ones. While they passed across the room, they saw Chris sitting in the middle of the living room. She was in the middle of the assemblage of the babies's beds, a screwdriver in one hand and screws in the other. Nate and Aaron were quietly sleeping, near her in their Maxi Cosies.
"Told you she was the queen of assemblage!" Street told Hondo and Tan as soon as they were back in the bedroom. They kept tidying and emptying the boxes till they heard a big noise coming from the bathroom. They ran to the place and found out that Luca and Deac surrounding by wooden planks, screws and mauls wide open.
"Told you that you were assembling the thing upside down."
"Oh come on… Look, it seems to be on the right direction."
"Luca, it's wobbly. Two of the feet are not touching the ground…"
"Ok, ok, Deac, you may be right…" Luca rubbed his chin, as if he was looking for clues around him.
Chris laughed at the scene when she joined the others. Either of them had any idea of what they were doing. She looked at Street who gave her one of his goofy smiles. The ones he only kept for her.
"Maybe you should help them a little?" He proposed her.
"And stopping this absolutely, amazing talk. Never!" She laughed.
"She's right, don't move, Chris, we need more of this!" Tan had his phone in hand and was filming the scene which happened in the middle of the bathroom.
"Damn man, I put the thing upside down… How could I have done this?"
"You read the instructions the wrong way. You started with number 8!" Deac answered, trying to remain serious.
"Son of a bitch, I thought it was zero! Half of the numbers was hidden under the screws."
At this moment, they all burst into laughing, impossible to restrain their giggles anymore.
"Ok, ok, make fun of Grandpa Luca. " He eventually burst into laughing too.
Chris and Street jumped as they heard Aaron and Nate waking up.
"I should…" She finally said as the tears became bigger.
"You definitively should help Luca!" Street added with a grin. "Taking care of the boys! And I know the milk is in the fridge!" He answered before she could say anything.
"And I give you my place! Gonna help Street with the babies. Better at this than explaining things to Luca, apparently." Deac stood up from the ground where he was seated and follow Street in the living room to take care of the little boys.
"So ok, Luca. Let's restart from the beginning!" Chris sat next to him and took the things in charge.
[…]
"C, back from the supermarket! I've got the diapers, the additional milk, I even took some Cantonese rice and fried chicken for us." He had to go in a hurry to the supermarket as they missed some essential things after the guys left in the evening.
Jim dropped the bags full of groceries on the kitchen table. They just had moved into this new house yesterday and he still had troubles to adjust to this huge space. Not that Chris's apartment was small but still this house was another level. And it was easy with the boys, now they had their own big room.
He called Chris another time and his request still remained silent. He pouted and tidied the groceries in the fridge and the kitchen closets. Worried not to have any news from Chris, he looked for her around the house.
After several minutes of worried roaming, he found her seated cross-legged on the ground, a boy on each of her legs, peacefully installed, half-sleeping. She was stroking each one of their boys with her forefingers, as if she used all her fingers she could break them. Looking at them with so much attention she didn't pay attention to Jim entering the bedroom. Diablo was looking over them from the corner of the room.
"Hey…"
She slowly turned and raised her head to look at him. She smiled. One of her softest smiles. He could see in her eyes, she was exhausted but appeased. "Hey…"
"Boys are asleep… They're lucky to be here…" Jim looked at the three people he loved the most in his life.
"Don't be jealous, Jim. You got me before, let me spend some times with my new men now."
"Not jealous, just missing you, your hugs, your kisses…"
"Stop that, you know I'm not a hugger… And you're lying, I kissed you before you left for supermarket… And by the way, why took you so long? You were gone for like 4 hours?"
He lowered his head, looking to the ground.
"Oh my God, you got lost?" She was giggling.
"Not really…" She gave him her dark, quizzical look. "Indeed yes, I did."
"I knew it! Since the moment I didn't see you coming back after one hour, I knew you were lost. Have you even listened to what I've told you?"
"Easy for you, you grow up around here… I'm a Long Beach product, my good lady, it's like at the opposite of here. You won't laugh the day I drop you there with vague indications." He answered, falsely offended.
"Glad for you, my breasts got enough milk for those two voracious! Or the whole neighborhood would have cursed us!"
"Always told you that your breasts were amazing, and apparently I'm not the only one to share this point of view." He told her mischievously.
She rolled her eyes, while grinning. "You, charming, pleasing creature."
He sat next to her, on the ground and let his head rest on her shoulder. Their boys were asleep. And they were staring at them. How was it possible that two broken souls like them had created such perfect ones? Yet, it was the case. Cleaning and tidying could wait, they were busy to admire the two most marvelous wonders on this Earth.