For this chapter I would like to give credit to Kelsey for her insistence that I absolutely HAD to use the body paint this chapter. Heehee, but she didn't say how! LOL so I had fun with it.
And readers may also wish to thank Stephanie who made me change the
end of this chapter with threats of hunting me down and killing me.
Let's just say the original draft ending was not very honeymoonish. :-),
what can I say, I love keeping people hanging.
"Alice!" Frasier squeaked as he looked beyond the now open door into the room, somehow they had forgotten all about her as they hastily pulled away.
"Hey mommy" Alice said happily, still awake despite the lateness of the hour. "Look at what I found?" She said pointing to the box. Though it was obvious by the paint covering her face and hands what she had been in to. She looked confused as to why the two grown-ups were laughing so hard.
"She's three years old and already following in her mother's footsteps." Frasier lightly teased.
"Oh please Frasier, she thinks they're fingerpaints." Roz rolled her eyes and laughed.
"Why is this here instead of kitchen." Alice asked innocently holding up the can of Redi-whip. Roz looked to Frasier for help, but finding none had to create one of her own.
"Well honey, if it were in the kitchen then your grandpa Martin would eat it all so we hide it in here." Roz tried to keep a straight face while Frasier snickered, but Alice seemed to have no problem with that reason and turned back to the box.
"It's late, you should be in bed" Roz said to her daughter, trying to sound stern but failing miserably, the multi-color streaks on her daughter and some of the surrounding furniture was amusing.
"But I wanna keep playing." Alice whined, "can I stay up just a little longer?"
"Well...." Roz relented. "What?" She saw Frasier roll his eyes.
"Your firmness in discipline just dazzled me." He said dryly.
"Fine then why don't you try?" Roz challenged.
"Certainly" Frasier turned to Alice. "Now honey it's late and...." He got no further as Alice turned on her puppy dog eyes and he could do nothing more than Roz had tried, as he to began chuckling at the little paint streaked face.
"Besides we need to talk a little anyway." Roz sat down trying to be serious as Alice crawled up close to her.
"You remember Rick and Heather."
"Yeah," Alice got a little quiet at the mention of their names, even though everyone had been shielding her, her little 3 year old antenna couldn't help but pick up some of the tension.
"They want to see you a little bit in the morning is that OK?" Roz tried not to choke.
"OK, for a little bit." Alice agreed, concentrating very intently on the bottle of paint she was playing with.
The mood was somber for a moment as Roz tried not to think of how badly the hearing seemed to be going, it was hard waiting until they could get their input into the situation as Laura kept telling them it would change.
Frasier was also lost in thought as he watched two of the most important women in his life, wondering how it could be possible that they might be split up.
Alice seemed a little withdrawn for a moment before brightening up. She unexpectedly took a glob of paint and smeared it across her Mother's face, she began laughing so hard she snorted at the large green stripe she had placed. The laughter broke the tone as Roz started laughing, not at the paint but at how hard Alice was giggling. Which caused Frasier to start laughing as he watched Alice start smearing more paint on Roz's face.
"Ok, ok time to stop," Roz was laughing as she held her daughters arms back so she couldn't get any more paint on her and proceeded to exact her revenge by smearing large dabs of purple on Alice's chin and neck. Alice looked perplexed for a moment at this change of events before the lightbulb went on in her young mind.
"Daddy, help me." She squealed in another fit of laughter as Roz attacked her stomach with a jar of blue.
"Wait a minute who's side are you on?" Roz squealed when she felt strong hands taking her arms and holding her back as Alice regained control and began smearing the paint on her laughing mother.
"Need you ask?" Frasier lightly kissed her neck and then whispered in her ear, his warm breath sending chills down her spine as Alice obliviously continued spreading the paint, now reaching more areas than the face since her target was essentially helpless.
"I see..." Roz relaxed to throw Frasier off guard and then bolted from his grasp. Grabbing a jar of brown paint she opened it up and held it in front of her before he could get her back. "Alice, whaddya say we have a little fun with daddy, he doesn't have any paint on him yet." Roz said with a glint in her eye. Alice loved the suggestion and launched herself at her new target, Frasier was quickly rendered helpless as he was attacked by the two Doyle women and could feel himself being coated by the smooth substance.
"Mommy, his face is all covered up now." Alice complained a minute later, can we get it on his clothes?"
"I don't see why not?" Roz held up a big glob and approached him menacingly.....
"Wait, this is armani." Frasier gulped, barely removing his dress shirt in time before more paint was launched at him. Before too long his T-shirt was covered with red paint, making it look as if he had been viciously assaulted.
Before to long the 3 of them all collapsed streaked with paint and laughing, the bottles all completely empty.
"That was fun mommy," Alice was still laughing as she hugged her mother, "and ya know what, I just realized it tastes good to." Alice had just licked her lips and tasted a bit of the purple paint that was there. "It tastes like grape, do they all taste?" She got curious and started licking at all the flavors.
"I think that's enough education err... fun for tonight honey," Roz was blushing, suddenly having images of her talkative 3-year old telling the teachers at daycare and who knows who else about her Mommy's paint that tasted good and they smeared all over themselves. That just wouldn't sound good at all.
Frasier headed for the shower as Roz herded Alice down the hall to wash off the paint and put the tired child to bed. It wasn't until after midnight that she re-entered the room to find Frasier trying to get the paint off the floor.
"Oh welcome back, this stuff sure can make a mess." Frasier commented, not bothering to look up as he scrubbed.
"Yeah, it can." Roz agreed, the air between them suddenly thick in the following silence.
"It's late, we only have a few hours to sleep." Frasier said as he came up behind her and almost tentatively wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.
Roz couldn't help relaxing against him as he spoke, enjoying the rich smooth sound of his voice, and the clean odor of soap and shampoo radiating from him and the solid feel of his warm body behind her.
"I think we should go to bed now." She turned to face him wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I agree, only not for what you've got in mind, but to sleep." Frasier said apologetically after a rather hot and passionate kiss that caused both their toes to curl.
"What?" Roz was surprised as he pulled back, even though it was obvious he wanted to continue.
"We have to be back up in four hours, I thought you'd probably want to sleep." Frasier tried to sound noble.
"Think again," she growled as she pushed him unresistingly back
on the bed.