Epilogue

2 Years Later at the Brady Picnic

Brady Household

Chloe Kiriakis was in the living room of Belle's beautiful two-story house gathering up the toys Dominic and Ariana had left lying around after lunch. They had been in a rush to get out to play with the other children, their father included. She had no idea where the toddlers got all of their energy. It amazed her that they still had that energy left at all.

"Hey what are you doing in here? The party is outside." Philip said as he walked in through the patio door and came in back of Chloe wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm surprised you even noticed that I was gone. You looked pretty busy to me playing with the kids. I doubt that you actually noticed my absence." She turned around placing the toys in his arms as they started to walk back outside where everyone else was.

"I resent that Chloe, I always notice when you're not around. It's a habit I developed in high school, you should remember that." He placed the toys on the table and then went to sit down in the chair. As Chloe attempted walked pass him to sit in the seat next to his, she was pulled into Philip's seat with him. He whispered something in her ear and she blushed, her cheeks turned red as he said some naughty things to her he nibbled on her ear.

"Okay, you two don't think that we can't see you. I mean you are sitting in front of us." Maria said from her seat at the table next to them. She was five months pregnant and proudly showing off her bundle of joy in a maternity short and top set.

"Yeah, there are some of us who don't want to watch you guys make-out." A six months pregnant Mimi said from her lounge chair in a pair of overall shorts with a t-shirt of Brady's under it, drinking a glass of Lemonade.

"We are not doing anything that you and your husbands, respectively, haven't done to get you guys in those conditions in the first place."

Before, Maria or Mimi could respond to his comment, five-year old Conrad, and four-year olds Azarian and Gabriel came running onto the patio. They each ran to their mothers, except for Gabriel who didn't see his mother, so he went to Maria.

"Mama, make them stop," Azarian said as he stood next to Maria's chair and grabbed her hand as if that were going to protect him.

"Stop what?"

"Kissing us. Aunt 'Ria they won't stop trying to kiss us." Gabe said as he tried to hide behind Maria's chair making her turn her head so that she could hear his soft voice.

"Who's kissing you Gabriel?" Liz asked as she walked up with Orion, her eighteen-month son, she has just come from changing his diaper. Gabriel then ran to her trying to hide behind her legs.

"The girls," all three little boys answered simultaneously. Just then the oldest little girl entered the scene, Devon. The little blonde spitfire ran over to them. But, before she could run towards Conrad, Michael, who was following behind her and grabbed her, scooping her little body up in his arms.

"Pixie, I think that you've tortured the boys enough today," he said as he carried his daughter over to a chair beside Maria and sat down, holding her securely in his arms.

"Okay, tell me what happened? I so hate being out of the loop." Maria said as she looked over at her twenty-month old son, Tavian playing in the sandbox with Dominic.

"Well, it seems our daughter started a little kissing revolution when she kissed Conrad. Then, Serena decided that she really liked Gabriel so she kissed him. Then, our poor little son got attacked but not only Ariana but Mickey too. They snuck up on his side and kissed him on both cheeks." After retelling the whole story, Michael laughed little about it as he tickled his daughter. "When they all had kissed one of the boys, the boys ran over here to get away from the girls. Maria, I told you that you have got to talk to your daughter about this." He looked at Maria as if it were her fault.

"Wait a minute, you mean my daughter, my precious baby girl kissed your son?" Philip was in a little denial as he incredulously sat up. "No, you must be wrong, my little girl isn't even two yet, she couldn't have kissed him. Ariana is too quiet … too shy to do something like that."

"Hey, you don't have to believe me you could ask Max, Shawn, Belle, Kay or anyone else who was over there. We all saw it." Michael responded shaking his head.

While Philip found this hard to take, Chloe thought it was a little amusing. Although, she did find herself slightly unnerved that Ariana had acted so boldly. Both her children were affectionate to their family members, so she had no trouble believing that Ariana might have given Azarian a little kiss. Chloe had suspected that her daughter had a little crush on him; she was brought out her own private thoughts as the rest of the group arrived on the scene. Chloe got out of Philip's lap as she saw Kay and Belle walking Ariana and Mickey onto the covered patio. Brady followed them with Serena hanging on him and Max had both Tavian and Dominic walking beside him. The children ran to their parents, respectively.

Ariana ran to Chloe, who had leaned down to pick her daughter, as she stood up she was bombarded with the force of her son's small body as he grabbed onto her leg. Ariana laid her head on her mother's shoulder, her soft brown hair rested on her back as she wrapped her arms around Chloe.

"It's look's like you could use a little help," Philip said before swooping down to pick up his son as Chloe sat down. However, Dominic was having none that as he struggled to get down. Philip immediately knew that it was time for a nap. When the children got tired they always got testy when they didn't get their way. He placed Dominic back on the ground, then sat down next to Chloe and lifted Dominic up into his lap, unlike his sister Dominic just sat on his father's lap, not attempting to go to sleep. Philip moved a strand of Dominic's hair from his face as he looked down at his son. He also had Chloe's brown hair and blue eyes. Both of his children resembled Chloe, other than the fact that they both had his dimples and sometimes on a sunny day you could see blonde highlights in their hair, there were really no other physical likenesses to him.

"Well, I think that someone, is ready for a N-A-P." Chloe stated as she kissed her daughter's head resting on her shoulders.

"Yeah, I think that everyone is," Maria responded as Max handed Tavian to her. Her small son reached for her and when she got him he rested his head on her shoulder. Tavian, while he resembled his father facially and had Michael's light brown eyes, he had a darken shade of Maria's blonde hair. As he snuggled into his mother's arms more he looked around and saw his older brother standing by their mother and sister and his father nearby, sitting together.

Meanwhile, Max had walked over to Liz and bent down so that he was level with his son who was still hiding behind Liz's legs. Liz looked down and watched her son glance around from behind her as Max had kneeled.

"So what exactly are you doing here behind your mother Gabe?" He asked smiling at his son who peeked from behind Liz's legs cautiously looking around to make sure that Serena was nowhere around. When he saw that Serena was with her uncle he moved to stand directly in front of his father before answering.

"I am trying to stay away from 'Rena. She tried to kiss me Daddy." Gabriel whispered to his father.

"I know, I saw. So that's what you're doing, hiding from Serena?" Gabriel slowly nodded his head in response glancing past his father to make sure that Serena was still with Brady. "You know, she's just two years old. She's just a baby and doesn't really understand what she was doing." Max said as he tried to reason with his son.

"But, Dad, she tried to kiss me. That's disgusting and besides that she's a girl. I don't want any girl kissing on me. She's just a baby." He animatedly whispered leaning in closer to his father.

"Max, you might as well stop while you're ahead. He won't get it. You know what it's like at that age, nobody wants to be kissed."

"Well, actually, I don't know what it's like I didn't come out until I was six, remember." Max said looking up at his wife.

"Humor me," Max then sighed and stood back up. As he rose back to his full height, Gabriel ran and hid behind his legs.

"I guess we'll just have to let this play itself out." He kissed Liz on the cheek and then reached across her to take their youngest son from her arms. Their son happily went from one parent to the other not minding at all. Orion, looked like his elder brother, meaning he looked like Max. But, he had Liz's chestnut colored brown hair. Max looked down at his son (Gabe), to see the small child peeking at Serena through his legs before moving to hide again. He inwardly sighed, What happened to our sweet, quiet little Gabe? He asked Liz mentally whose only response was to laugh at his expense.


Kay sat down and placed her little girl on a table before her so she could tie her shoe. When she finished she lifted little Mikayla off the table and then Mikayla toddled over to where her Daddy had sat down next to her mother.

"Up," She demanded putting her hands on his knees. Kay laughed at the sight of her daughter ordering her father to lift her up. "Daddy, I kwiss 'Zarian." Mikayla stated (Mickey for short) grinning proudly at her accomplishment.

"I know little one, I saw. What were you thinking? You are too young to kiss boys. You're just a baby."

"No, I's a big girl." She firmly contradicted him shaking her head swinging her two identical pigtails at the same time.

Miguel looked at Kay and he sighed, she laughed. "You know she gets this from you. Will you please tell her because maybe she will listen to you."

"I'll try for you," she stopped laughing to look at her daughter sitting on Miguel's lap. She was a cute little girl; she had Kay's long sable (a darken brown color) hair and her expressive face. However, she had her father's golden hazel eyes. As Kay observed Mickey in her two-piece pink short set, she was suddenly reminded of herself at that young age. She snapped out of her thoughts and returned to the matter at hand. "Mikayla," he daughter looked up. "Sweetie, you can't kiss Azarian like that because … your mama's baby girl and even though you are a big girl, you can't kiss another boy until you are at least nine years old. Okay sweetie?"

"Nine, thwat's old, Mama. But, okay." Mikayla nodded. Miguel held his daughter in disbelief. It was always so easy for Kay to get their daughter to do things, so it should have been easy for him to.

"Okay, how about fourteen, Mikayla you shouldn't kiss another boy until your fourteen."

"What's wrong with nine? That's when I got my first kiss." Kay couldn't believe Miguel was being so ridiculous; he gave her an incredulous look. "Well it was."

"No Daddy, Mama said nine," Mikayla tapped her father's chin as she looked up at him and giggled.

"Why do I even bother, she's just like you." Miguel sighed as Kay joined her giggling daughter on his lap to laughing kiss him on the cheek.


Mimi sat back in the lounge chair drinking her lemonade and relaxing.

"So how is my son?" Brady asked as he moved to sit down next to her.

"Well, if you mean Conrad, he's still traumatized over getting kissed by Devon." She answered as she pointed to their son playing on the opposite end of the chair. "But, if you're talking about the baby. She is fine." Mimi said before smiling. The day before Mimi had gone for a checkup the doctor had determined the sex of their child. However, both she and Brady had agreed to wait until the birth to find out. Every since then they had been debating the sex of the child.

"Well, I was actually referring to Conrad. But, since you brought it up you know that the man ultimately decides the sex of the child, right." Mimi nodded. "Well, I say that the baby is a boy, so there. The man has spoken." Brady moved on her lounge to touch her stomach where the baby promptly kicked his hand. Mimi laughed at him. "Seriously, I can't have a daughter, Meems."

Mimi stopped laughing. "Why?"

"Because, I'm going to be older when she's a teenager and knowing my luck she'll look like you and then I'm going to have to spent my days threatening all the guys she's going to have messing with her. And that my dear would be a full time job." Mimi had thought that he was serious, but once he finished talking she was relieved that she just had to laugh.

"Yeah, with my looks and all the Black self esteem, our little girl is going to be loads of trouble for you." Mimi covered her mouth with her hand realizing that she had let the secret come out. Brady recognized the expression on her face and immediately knew what happened.

"You know the sex, don't you? You found out after I left the room. Well, you might as well tell me what we're having." When she didn't respond and just widen her eyes, he finally got it. "It's a girl. We're having a girl," she nodded excitedly before Brady lowered his head to kiss her gently.

"Jeez, Dad isn't it enough that I got kissed by Devon. Do you and Mommy have to play kissy-face, too? God, why don't you get a room." Conrad said having moved up to see his parents kissing. Brady released Mimi to swoop down and pick up his son who he placed on his lap and tickled him with Mimi.

"Get a room, uh? I'll show you get a room." Brady and Mimi continued to tickle their son hearing his giggles.


Shawn and Belle were standing together talking to their adorable two-year old daughter. She was a little Belle except for her rich chocolate brown hair like Shawn's. Shawn was currently holding his daughter in his arms, while Serena was struggling to get down.

"Daddy, down. I wanna go to Gabbie." Serena Brady was ineffectively trying to get down.

"Whoa Rena, I think that you need to calm down a bit. Belle, will you attempt to calm her down." Belle who had been watching the toddler grow annoyed in Shawn's arms thought that her little girl sure was growing up fast. "I'd like to think that our little stalker would at least leave Gabriel alone for a little while. And since when did my little angel start kissing boys?"

"Serena Kimberly Brady you need to calm down. Sweetheart, I think that we have let you terrorize Gabriel enough today. It's time for you to take a nap, anyway." Belle said as she reached and took her daughter from Shawn's arms. The little girl stopped struggling once she was in Belle's arms and peered up at her mother with her baby blue eyes. "Oh, no sweetie those sad eyes of yours aren't going to help you now."

"But, Mama, I don't wanna slweep. I's not tired." Serena yawned.

"You're not tired?" Serena shook her head and rubbed her eyes as if to keep herself awake. "Look, everyone else is going to take a nap so you have to, too. Besides, that this is your nap time, little Miss Brady." Belle turned her daughter towards, Chloe and her twins, Maria and Tavian, Liz with Orion, and Kay with Mikayla. "So are we ready to take our nap?" Serena looked at everyone else and nodded. "Good, so let's say goodbye to Daddy."

"Bye Daddy." Serena waved bye to her father, Shawn responded by leaning down and kissing her cheek.

"Alright, then. I'm going to go put her down and then I'll be right back." Belle leaned up and brushed her lips against Shawn's cheek before moving down to put Serena down for her nap.

As she left the patio area the other parents followed with their children. Chloe and Philip had their twins; Kay carried Mikayla as Liz walked her young sons in followed by Michael and Brady, respectively, with their own children.


It was late in the afternoon and the children were still napping. Everybody was outside enjoying the cool summer day with the beautiful weather that they were having, on Shawn and Belle backyard. The radio was on playing some of the top ten hits of the seventies, eighties, and nineties.

"You know Belle I can't believe our daughter kissed Gabriel." Shawn said.

"Well she didn't really kiss him, she kind of smacked her lips on his cheek. So you really can't count that as a kiss." Shawn looked exasperatedly at Belle.

"The point is that she obviously got that flirty side of herself from you."

"May I remind you, that you also like to flirt with people. So she could have gotten it from you. Although, now that I think about it she probably got it from me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"She means that since it took you nearly two years to ask her out, that your daughter couldn't have possibly got her flirty ness from you. Because is she if did Shawn, then it would have taken her several years to kiss him." Brady laughed and Mimi, who was sitting next to him, hit his arm. "What? Why did you do that?"

"Just because you have to move fast at everything you do doesn't mean you should put Shawn down. Some people, like Shawn, take their time to do things to make sure that they are right."

"I seem to think that you like me to do some things fast, Meems." Brady responded as he whispered near Mimi's ear.

"Do you think that you guys could not do that in front of us, it's not like we can't hear you? Some of us would rather not like to see a sample of what goes on in your bedroom." Philip said from across the way.

"Oh please, Philip I know that you are not talking. I have personally seen you and Chloe do worst than just whispering in public." Brady responded wrapping his arms around Mimi leaned back against him.

"So have I," the Evans, Guerins, and Lopez-Fitzgeralds all chorused together. Chloe blushed and turned her head so as to have her hair come down and cover her face.

"You guys are embarrassing Chloe, so why don't you find something else to talk about." Belle said as she noticed Chloe's discomfort.

Everyone laughed and continued to have their own personal conversations as another song began to play on the radio. At first no one really paid much attention to it, until the chorus came on. It was Kiss.

The talking had stopped as all of the men turned (except for Shawn) and looked at Max who wasn't paying any attention to them or the music because he was busy nibbling on Liz's neck. When Max felt the death-ray eyes on him he looked up to see all of the men glaring at him, again everyone but Shawn. The women on the other hand all shared a secret grin.

"What? It was just a dance you guys really should have gotten over it by now." Max sat up on the lounge chair moving Liz to the other side of him.

"Dude, you had your hands in places that they shouldn't have been. It was totally inappropriate of you to do that, Maxwell. Your hands were every where." Michael said as he stuck up for himself and the other men.

"Yeah, and may I remind you that you flipped my wife, my pregnant wife over your shoulder and let her slide down your back into a split. You know as well as I do that you would have been just as mad as we were --- are if one of us had done the same thing with Liz."

"No, Max wouldn't have gotten mad because he knows that it was a simple dance performance. It was a Latin performance and as you once said yourself," Shawn gestured towards Miguel. "It had to be a little risqué, and pretty obviously be for show."

"Shawn's right, you guys are totally overreacting. It was two years ago for one thing. And for another you should have gotten over it by now." Belle said as she supported her husband completely and kissed him on the cheek for being so bright.

"Oh please, Belle. You're only agreeing with him because he is your husband. Besides, neither of you know what it felt like considering you," he pointed to Belle. "Were pregnant. And you," he gestured towards Shawn and then Max. "Didn't have to watch grabby hands over there basically feel up your wife right in front of you. And neither of you had to completely embarrass yourself on the stage with a whole bunch of people staring at you." Brady finished and the other men, Max and Shawn excluded, voiced their approval of what he had said.

"So let me see if I get this straight, you were embarrassed to dance with me on the stage?" Kay turned and asked her husband.

"Yeah, you were embarrassed to dance with me?" Chloe playfully asked Philip who had been pushing her hair all to one side so he could put his head on her shoulder.

"No we weren't embarrassed per se, it was more like we were… were…" Philip looked towards Miguel for some help.

"We were caught by surprise that's all." Miguel answered promptly before he pulled Kay back so that she was leaning on him.

"Oh well, I guess it was kind of a surprise." Kay leaned back against Miguel and went back to watching everyone else.

"Spaceboy, you haven't said anything, so can I assume that you weren't the least bit embarrassed?' Maria asked Michael who was sitting beside her rubbing her stomach.

"Of course I wasn't embarrassed we've done that dance so many times before that I had nothing to be embarrassed about." Michael said and was then rewarded with a kiss.

"I don't think you guys had any reason at all to be embarrassed. Your performances weren't that bad. I think you may be being just a little ridiculous." Shawn started getting annoyed looks of disbelief shot his way by all of the men excluding Max, of course. Who had gone back to nibbling on Liz's neck.

"Yeah, right, like you know what it's like to stand I front of a lot of people and do what we did." Philip gestured toward the other men. Shawn became irate. He had danced in front of a crowd before they obvious weren't thinking clearly.

"I did dance like that at the Last Blast, don't you remember?"

Mimi who had been quiet for a while looked confusingly up at Shawn. "Are you sure that we were at this Last Blast?"

Shawn was exasperated. "Yes, you know the dance that we all went to. Belle and I danced there in front of God and everyone. Don't you remember?" Chloe, Mimi, Brady and Philip all looked at each other. Shawn looked at them in return. He looked at Brady who only shrugged and Chloe.

Chloe put her hand in the air. "I am so not in this," she said taking herself out of the conversation.

"Okay, although you did dance in public with a crowd of people. It's not on the same level with what we did. Besides, you and Belle weren't even dating when you did that."

"On top of that, Shawn you barely even touched my sister, which is good for you. Because if you would have I would have had to hurt you. Anyways, what you did was practically G-rated compared to what we had to do. It was nothing." Brady arrogantly told his brother-in-law. Belle who had been watching the men bicker all this time decided to put her two cents in.

"You know Shawn, they do actually have a point. I mean although we did dance at the Last Blast, it wasn't anything like what they had to do."

"Belle, I can't believe you're agreeing with them." Shawn shook his head in disbelief.

"They have got you floored man. Not only did your uncle and brother-in-law dis you, your wife did too. This is priceless." Maria hit Michael on the arm. "What? Is it my fault that he doesn't realize what happened here. And any in case if it really bothered all that much him, then he could always dance to a song and prove them wrong." He shrugged his shoulders.

"You know Michael, that's actually a good idea. Shawn, why don't you and Belle just dance to the next song that comes onto the radio. That way you could prove Philip and Brady wrong." Chloe said as she felt Philip's arm come around her waist.

"I'm not going to dance for you guys just because you want me to." Shawn responded looking at everyone, now completely annoyed.

Max, bait him. Liz said to Max mentally. He arched his eyebrow in response.

"Shawn, if you don't want to do the dance, I will. I think that I actually have my leather pants in the car somewhere. Yeah, now that I think about it I'm sure I do. I'll just go get them and then you can be amazed by my dancing ability with your wife." As Max stood up, he watched as Shawn got up fast and grabbed Belle's hand pulling her out of her seat on the patio out. He then proceeded to move to a far offside that was clear enough to dance on.

"No one dances with my wife but me." Shawn said before pulling her into his arms as they began to dance. All of the other couples watched amusingly as Belle and Shawn proved that they could also get down and dirty on the dance floor.

So the argument that had started it all was now forgotten as the family and friends of Philip and Chloe one by one took sides and defended it for the better. And as they did that they formed bonds between each other that no one could ever break, one by one bringing in the next generation of children in this big extended family of love.

The End…For now


Sequel: Secrets of the Heart has been posted!