Chapter 1:

Spot quietly opened the door and stepped aside to allow Rae to enter.  She walked over to the door of the parlor while he closed and locked the front door.  She smiled when she saw all the children sleeping on various pieces of furniture.

"Looks like a few someones were waiting for our return," she whispered to Spot.

"Indeed..." He smiled as well.

Andy was the first to stir. Lifting his head up over the couch with a yawn, he spotted them. "You're back! You're back!" he shrieked excitedly.

Ann sat up and rubbed her eyes sleepily.  "Momma? Daddy?" she blinked. "Momma! Daddy!" she squealed vaulting out of the chair she was sharing with Chris and running over to them.

Chris lurched with a grunt and peered around, wondering just who woke him up. Then he saw Rae and Spot being tackled by Ann and Andy, and he nudged Julie awake. "They're back."

"Who? What?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

Across the room Spot pulled Ann and Andy away from Rae. "Be careful you too."

"Why?" they chirped simultaneously.

Rae sent Spot a look that said, 'Do we tell them?'

He thought a moment about Ann's jealousy to Kendra and finally nodded with a sigh. "They'll find out eventually anyway... better get them prepared now."

"Find out what?" Ann asked.

"Prepare us for what?" Andy added curiously.

Rae knelt in front of Ann and pulled the girl into a hug. "A little brother or sister."

"What? How come?"

"Dr. Trent told us that you two are going to get a little brother or sister around Christmas time."

"Why? Aren't you happy having a baby already?" She meant Kendra.

"Of course we are sweetheart, but sometimes mommies and daddies can have more than one baby."

"But why do you want one? -I- don't want one..." She pouted a little.

"I'm sorry that you don't want another baby, sweetheart, but we can't change our minds now."

"How come? Can't you just tell it to come back later?"

"Because it doesn't work that way." She kissed Ann's forehead. "No more questions for tonight.  Upstairs to your beds. ALL of you."

Ann sighed. Julie gave Rae a smile. "Congratulations," she said, taking the little girl's arm and leading her up the stairs.

"Thank you Julie," Rae whispered with a sigh, as she watched the two girls walk up the stairs.

"I want it to be a BOY!" Andy exclaimed as Chris dragged him up the stairs. "There are too many GIRLS here!"

"Even I would have to agree with him on that one," Molly said, carrying Kendra up the stairs.

Rae smiled. Glancing at Spot, she asked, "What are you hoping for? A girl or a boy?"

He wrapped his arms around her, "Does it matter?"

"No," she nestled her head beneath his chin. "I was just curious, is all."

"I'd love to have a little girl that looked as beautiful as her momma...but a little boy would be fine too....just so long as he doesn't look like me."

She kissed him gently. "If it's a little boy, I want him to look exactly like his handsome father." She rested her forehead on his. "And don't you dare argue with me."

"Oh? And what will you do if I argue?" he teased.

Rae just smiled impishly.

He threw his head back and laughed.  "Come on, Mrs. Conlon.  To bed with you, it was a long trip."

She pouted a little but didn't feel up to arguing with him. Not now anyway.  She stopped him at the top of the stairs, "I want to tuck them in like we used to.  I haven't done that in a while."

Spot lifted a brow. "But-"

"No buts. It's not going to take THAT much out of me."

He sighed in defeat and followed her into the girls' room.  She stopped beside the bed and bent over to kiss Ann's forehead, "Goodnight Miss Annie," she whispered, tucking the covers tighter around the little girl's shoulders.

"Night Momma." Ann wrapped her arms tightly around Rae's neck. "Night Daddy." She did the same to Spot.

"Good night, sweetheart." Spot said, kissing her forehead

They said goodnight to Julie as well and then headed for the boys' room.

Chris was already asleep again when they entered the room, but Andy was sitting up on the edge of the bed. "Momma?" he whispered as they neared him.

"What?" she whispered, sitting next to him.

He crawled into her lap and wrapped his arms around her neck, "Are you all better now? Or are you still sick?"

"Well... I don't know. The baby makes me feel a little sick sometimes, but it'll get better soon."

"I want you to be all better now, so that you can play with me and Annie like you used to."

With a smile, she kissed his head. "Maybe you can talk Daddy into letting me play with you two more often." She grinned at Spot.

"We'll talk about it some more tomorrow.  You should be sleeping right now." Spot said.

She leaned over and kissed Andy on the head. "Go to sleep now, all right sweetheart?"

"Yes ma'am."

Standing, she let Spot lead her from the room. "I missed them," she murmured, resting her head on his shoulder. "And we weren't gone that long at all."

He kissed the side of her head, "I did too."

With a final sigh, she said with a grateful tone in her voice, "Let's get to bed, shall we?"

"Good idea.  You look exhausted."

"I am a little tired," she admitted

"I told you, I told you," he said with a small smile, leading her into the room. He finally relaxed, seeing the familiar setting. Yes... Brooklyn would never feel quite as much like home anymore.  Rae changed into her nightgown and dropped into bed, sound asleep before her head hit her pillow.  Spot smiled, kissing her forehead before closing his eyes and falling asleep himself.

* * *

Rae woke early the next morning, feeling better than she had in a long while.  She kissed Spot's cheek before crawling out of bed and getting dressed.  She quietly made her way downstairs and was surprised to see Nick and Noelle sitting at the kitchen table drinking cups of coffee.  It had to only be maybe 6:30 am at the latest. "Good morning," they said simultaneously.

"Morning," she said with a yawn, joining them at the table.

"Did you two have a nice trip?" Noelle inquired with a small smile over the rim of her glass.

"We sure did," Rae answered, "And your inkling was right."

Her smile broadened. "How wonderful!"

"I don't think Ann is too thrilled with the idea."

"How did she deal with Kendra?"

"Ran away," Nick replied.

Rae nodded grimly.

"She's gotten where she doesn't even want to be around Kendra anymore," Spot said coming into the kitchen. Rae jumped with a start and watched him cross to sit near her. He kissed her cheek, "Feeling better?"

"Much, thank you."

"Did you two enjoy your trip?" Nick asked, passing them a plate of biscuits he had made.

"We both needed to get away for a while. Thank you for watching the children."

"You're more than welcome," Noelle replied. "It's been so long since Nick and I had children around..."

"How many children do you have?" Rae asked.

Nick and Noelle grinned at one another. "Plenty."

Rae smiled at Spot.  They knew what that was like.  Rae turned to Noelle suddenly, "Could you show us the tunnel?"

Noelle blinked, stunned for a moment, and appeared not to understand.

"You wrote about a tunnel that leads from the house to the barn..." she prompted.

"Oh yes!" Noelle laughed a little. "I had forgotten about it."

"We would like to know where it is in case one of the children discover it and decides to use it to hide from us," Spot explained.

Nick laughed heartily. "That's exactly what WE had do deal with..." Wiping his mouth with a napkin, he stood. "Well, Noelle? Shall we?" He held out the crook of his arm for her. Her only answer was to smile at him and take his arm. "This way," he called to Rae and Spot over his shoulder.

Spot stood and pulled Rae to her feet. He gave her a quick kiss. "Good morning," he whispered, before following the older couple.

"Morning," she whispered in reply with a smile.

* * *

Rae and Spot were quietly conversing on the couch when Ann came down the stairs.  She climbed up on the couch and sat in Spot's lap. "Daddy, does Momma have to have a baby?"

"Well, yes. You can't just stop a baby from coming."

She folded her arms across her chest. "But we don't need another baby. We don't even need the one we got."

"Ah, we may not NEED one, but Momma and I WANT one."

"Why? You already got me and Andy and Chris and Julie.  We don't NEED a new baby and we don't NEED Kendra."

"Ann, don't give me that tone of voice. It's going to get you into a lot of trouble," Spot said sternly.

She poked her lower lip out further. "I still think we don't need a baby," she muttered.

"The baby is coming whether you like it or not, missy. No matter what, Momma and I will still love you just as much after the baby comes as we do now."

"I don't un'erstan' why we need a new baby...we have a baby already."

"Well, sweetheart," Rae began, "Daddy and I want a baby of our own. Kendra is Molly's baby. She's just living with us."

"But Molly gave Kendra to us, doesn't that make her ours?"

"Yes..." Rae faded off, looking at Spot, wondering just how to explain this to a five year old so she would understand.

"Kendra is ours because Molly gave her to us, but Momma and I want a baby that belongs all to us."

Ann's lip quivered a bit and she sniffed. "Can we give Kendra back then?"

"If Molly decides that she wants Kendra back, then yes we will give her back..." Rae forced Ann to look her in the eye. "But no pestering Molly, got it?"

She wrinkled her nose and puffed her hair out of her eyes, but finally she nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"If I find out that you were pestering Molly, you will be in big trouble right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good! Now tell us what you did while we were gone."

"Well... me an' Andy helped Nick and Noelle real good... And we learned how to milk the cow- it's scary!"

Spot grinned and kissed the side of her head. "Did you play with Kendra any?"

Ann wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Maybe you should," Rae suggested. "You may just like her."

"Babies are no fun. They can't play dolls or cards or play games outside..."

"But they grow up and before you know it, they're old enough to play all those fun games with him.

"But I want to play games with her NOW! Chris doesn't like to play with me...Molly says she's too big to play with me...Julie likes to read all the time..and Andy would rather play with Chris..."

"Well, this IS a dilemma," Spot replied, hugging her. "We need to get you a playmate, huh?"

She nodded and rested her head against him.   She sat up suddenly. "Momma? Daddy? Why did Nick and Noelle leave?"

Rae and Spot glanced at one another. "They left? When?"

"Before I came in here."

"Did... did you see them leave?" Rae asked, a bit confused.

Ann nodded. "They told me goodbye and then left."

Spot looked just as puzzled as Rae. "I wonder why they didn't tell us anything..."

Ann reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to Rae.  "Noelle gave this to me."

Spot and Rae exchanged glances as Rae unfolded the paper and read the contents.

"She says that their work here is complete.  That there are people who need them elsewhere."

"What does that mean? ... Do you think that's their way of telling us we took advantage of them or something?" Spot suddenly appeared very worried.

Rae shook her head. "I don't think so.  I hope not."

"Are they gonna come back?" Ann asked, eyes widening.

"I don't know sweetheart," Rae said.

"D'you think they are at the orphan place?" she asked hopefully. "Maybe we could go get them?"

"They are too old to go to the orphanage, Ann."

"But maybe?"

"No, princess," Spot said.

"But... but..." she sniffled. "I thought they were going to live here too..."

He rested her head on his shoulder, "They were needed somewhere else, baby."

"I'm not a baby," she protested.

Spot sighed, but he didn't know how to explain it so she wouldn't take it as an insult. "Alright then." He kissed her head and set her on the floor, "Why don't you run along and play...Momma's looking kinda tired and I think she wants to take a nap."

With a forlorn sigh, she nodded. "Yessir..." She gave both of them a hug and then wandered off.

Spot stood and pulled Rae to her feet. "Upstairs for a nap, Mrs. Conlon."

Rae pouted. "I swear, it feels like I just got down here..."

            He kissed the tip of her nose.  "I want to make sure that both you and that baby are healthy."

"I know," she replied with a small sigh. "But surely I don't have to lie around all the time."

"I don't want to take any chances."

"I know," she murmured, resting her head on his shoulder as they headed up stairs.

"I don't want anything to happen to you, darling.  I love you too much to let anything happen."

She gave a small smile. "I know."

He stopped and turned her to face him. "Promise me that you will take it easy. No lifting anything heavy, including the twins."

She gave him an amused little smile, but nodded. "I promise."

He kissed her gently, "I'll hold you to that, Conlon."

"I know you will."

He slipped his arm around her waist and turned her back toward their bedroom. "I love you, Rae."

"I love you too Spot."

He led her into the bedroom and over to the bed.  "Sleep well, my love," he said, tucking her in.

"Mm, if I fall asleep at all," she said with a slight grin.

"I'm going to stay here and make sure that you do."

She giggled. "All right then... it may be a long wait."

"Then I'll just wait."

She smiled. "You're such a wonderful husband..."

He kissed the tip of her nose, "You aren't such a bad wife..."

"I better not be!" She plucked Beauty and the Beast off the night table and gave him a grin before burying her nose into it.

He pulled the book from her hands. "Sleep, not read."

"But it'll help me..."

"It will help if you just close your eyes." She simply pouted.  He shook his head. "That pout doesn't work with me anymore."

"It should. If you loved me, it would," she teased.

He slipped one hand behind her head and kissed her.  "Want to say that to me again?" he asked a moment later.

"If I do, will you kiss me again?"

He smiled. "I might....might not..."

"Well, then, I guess it's hanging in the balance... I may, I may not." She grinned impishly, pulling the blankets around her shoulders.

He leaned down and kissed her again. "Happy now?"

"Very."

"Will you go to sleep now?"

"I told you, I'd try.... but it may take a long time since I'm not terribly tired..."

He placed his finger over her lips. "Stop talking and close your eyes."

"But-"

"Ah!" He kept his finger in place. "Close your eyes. Close them." She sighed and closed her eyes. "Good. Thank you." He planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Spot, I'm not tired...Do I have to take a...."

"Shh." He silenced her with a kiss. "Go to sleep. And no, I won't do it again if you keep talking, so don't even try it," he added with a grin, seeing her open her mouth again. She sighed and rolled away from him. Spot frowned in reply. He bent down and kissed her cheek. "You know you aren't mad at me," he whispered and got up to leave before she could retort. She wrinkled her nose a bit and tried to sleep.

He walked downstairs to the study and settled himself on the couch.  After a moment, Ann walked into the room with a newspaper.  "Daddy, will you teach me to read again?"

"Certainly." He patted his lap, which she promptly clambered up upon, and situated herself around so they could read the paper.

After an hour of going over the alphabet he folded the paper and moved her around in his lap so that she was facing him. "Do you love me, Miss Annie Conlon?"

She nodded. "I love you very much, Daddy."

He kissed her forehead. "Just checking.  Know what?"

"What?"

"I love you very much too."

She smiled happily and hugged him. "You're the bestest Daddy."

He hugged her back. "I think you're the bestest too." He stood. "Let's go see if Momma's up."

"Okay." Nodding, she hopped up and waited for him to stand.

He stood and scooped her in his arms, carrying her up the stairs.

Anne squeaked happily, calling into the room as they entered it, "Momma! I can read my letters!"

Rae rolled over, but slept on.

Spot grinned. "Momma sleeps pretty hard."

"How do we wake her up?"

"Well... think of all the ways you can wake up a person... She's very hard to wake up. Why don't you give a few a try?"

Ann climbed onto the bed and bounced on it. "Wake up, Momma!"

"What? What?" Rae yelped, sitting up suddenly, strands of hair, tangled over her sleepy face.

Spot laughed and brushed the hair away from her face. "I thought you weren't tired."

"Mm, well, forcing sleep does that to a person," she murmured with a slight yawn.

"How about we pack up a picnic and take the kids down to the lake?"

"Mm, sounds good." She stretched lazily, yawned again, and climbed out of bed.

"You really have gotten lazy, Rae." Spot remarked with a smirk.

She glared at him. "Don't you start now."

He kissed her. "You know I'm right."

"You're the one who keeps insisting I sleep."

"If you weren't so lazy I wouldn't insist that you sleep."

"I'm NOT LAZY!"

Ann tugged on Spot's sleeve. "Don't hate Momma, Daddy."

"I don't, sweetheart."

"But you were arguing...."

"Sometimes people argue, but it doesn't mean they hate one another."

"But Momma yelled at you and you always yell back."

Rae sighed. "I'm just a little grouchy is all... Sometimes I am when I wake up," she explained to Anne. "Daddy wasn't yelling because I was getting angry for silly reasons."

Ann nodded, still slightly confused.

Patting the girl's head, Rae headed off to the bathroom to wake herself up a little more.

Spot knelt down next to the little girl. "Go tell Andy and the others that we are going on a picnic...and maybe swimming."

Ann squeaked happily and, nodding, ran off, shouting, "We're going on a picnic everyone! We're going on a picnic!"

Spot laughed and followed Rae into the bathroom.  He wrapped his arms around her waist. "I love you," he whispered in her ear.

She leaned her head back on his shoulder. "I love you too," she murmured. "But never call me lazy again." Gently, she elbowed him in the stomach, straightened, and proceeded to comb her hair back into a loose braid.

He kissed the back of her head. "I won't."

"Thank you." Turning, she gave him a kiss. "Let's go find the children then, shall we?"

He smiled and slipped his arm around her waist as they headed down the stairs. Already, Julie had taken command and was preparing everyone for their outing. Rae and Spot smiled appreciatively at her, and Rae went on to help her load the picnic supplies into the basket Julie had found. They were soon down at the lake and Chris and Andy jumped right in while the girls set out the blanket.

"Be careful you two," Spot called out, though he meant mostly Chris, because he knew Andy could swim fairly well.

"I'm not going any more than knee-deep Spot, so you can stop being a mother hen." Chris yelled.

Spot rolled his eyes and helped the girls finish setting up before shooing off Ann and Julie to go play in the water with the boys. Then he sat beside Rae and sighed gratefully. "Lovely day, isn't it?"

"It sure is," she said as he rested his head in her lap.

"And I think now would be a splendid time to start planning for our baby."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Mm... names... Getting things ready- like clothes and such. I'm not sure. I've never planned for a baby before." He grinned at her.

She smiled, "I haven't either, silly."

"So, do you have any ideas for names?"

She giggled, "Spot Jr."

He laughed. "And what if it's a girl? Rae Jr. then?"

She poked him in the ribs, "You will not name our daughter that, mister."

"As long as you don't name any child of ours Spot Jr., then you have yourself a deal."

"Deal," she said, spitting in her hand.

He laughed, spat in his hand, and shook.

She made a face and wiped her hand on his shirt. "I don't see how I ever did that before. It's disgusting."

"Because now we have better ways of sealing agreements. Such as this." He leaned over and kissed her. "Not quite as disgusting, eh?"

"Not quite."

He pulled apart a slice of ham, nibbling on the pieces as he watched the children play in the water. "This life is so different from the one in Brooklyn... we'd never have been able to enjoy ourselves on a day like this there... always selling papes... but here..."

"We wouldn't be having this baby if we were still in Brooklyn."

"Nope. And we probably wouldn't be married either." He laughed faintly. "We'd probably still be throwing rocks at one another and pushing each other off the pier."

She sighed and curled up on the blanket next to him. "Do you ever wish that we could go back to those days?"

"Hmm, only to hear you scream at me while floundering in the water of East River," he teased.

"You were always so mean to me," she retorted.

"Can't say you were always the angel either, am I right?" When she didn't answer he sent her a look. "Who sewed my blanket and pillow to my bunk so that I couldn't get in my bed? And if I remember correctly that was in the middle of December in one of the coldest winters in history."

She was too busy biting her lip hard to reply, reliving the memory. A squeaky giggle managed to come out anyway.

"Shall I continue? How about the time that you 'fixed' my bunk so that when I jumped onto my top bunk it fell through to the floor?"

Her attempts to fight her laugher were weakening, and she snorted a few times, turning red from the repression.

"How about the time you took my clothes while I was in the shower and put them on the roof, soaking wet in the middle of December, and then when I went out to get them, you locked me out?"

That was the last straw; she couldn't hold it in any longer. Toppling over, Rae was hysterical, her sides in stitches from laughing so hard.

"I rest my case. You were no angel, missy."

"But it was fun," she managed to squeak through her giggles.

"For you maybe."

"Well, you admitted you weren't a prince either, so we're even."

"Why were you so mean to Daddy?" Andy asked walking up to the blanket, dripping wet.

"Pardon?" Rae sat up, glancing at Andy as he scooted onto the blanket to help himself to some ham.

"Why did you do all those mean things that Daddy just said?"

"OH, I... well I..." Rae stopped to think. Why DID she do them?

She glanced at Spot and then back at Andy, "When we lived in Brooklyn he used to push me into the water all the time, so I would do mean things to him."

"But ... I can't do that to Ann. You said it wasn't nice...."

"That's because it's not nice, Andy."

"Then why did you do it to each other?

"Because we didn't have parents to tell us that it wasn't nice," Spot said.

"Well..." Andy paused for a moment. "Well... that wasn't nice! There!"

Rae and Spot glanced at each other for a moment before they both started laughing.  "Don't laugh at me," Andy said with a pout.

They tried to regain their composure. "Sorry Andy, we didn't mean to seem like we were laughing at you. It was very thoughtful of you to tell us that." She elbowed Spot to prompt him to shut up sooner.

Andy didn't appear to notice either of them anymore, "Who's that?" he asked, pointing behind them.

Automatically, they glanced back. Brooklyn hadn't left them for good yet. "Oh... that's the... boy at the store..." Rae replied, furrowing her brow.

Spot sat up suddenly, "What's he doing around here?"

Rae shrugged, watching him. "I haven't the slightest..."

Ann ran from the water and plopped down on the blankets. "I remember you," she said as Tom neared the family.

"Oh, hello..." was Tom's startled reply. "Pardon me for intruding..." He gave Spot a fleeting, wary look.

Rae quickly spoke up. "Tom, this is my husband, Spot Conlon.  Darling, this is Tom, the nice young man who has been so helpful at the store."

"Hello," Spot replied cautiously, sizing the young man up with a typical Conlon look about his face.

Tom still looked rather unsure of Spot.   "He's my Daddy," Ann said, dropping onto Spot's lap.

"Is that so?" he replied, giving them an odd look. They didn't appear to be old enough to have children Ann's age.

Just then Molly walked down from the house where she had been feeding Kendra. "Hello Tom," she said, "What'cha doin' 'round these parts?"

Tom gave her a very startled look. "Molly! You're... here?"

She nodded, "Aye, been here for a while now."

"But... how? All the rumors... weren't you scared?"

"I didn't think that anyone really lived here at first. Besides, Andrew and I used to play around here all the time."

Spot appeared a little annoyed when Tom brought up the rumors. "Well... as you can see, none of them are true. We have many LIVE children here, and the lot of them are quite content," he announced grumpily.

Rae sighed, "Spot, please watch your temper."

Tom fidgeted a bit and Spot seemed satisfied that he still had his touch. "Care to join our picnic?" he asked, holding out a slice of ham as a peace offering. "It's not poisoned," he added when Tom hesitated.

Molly rolled her eyes, "Just take the ham, Tommy.  He's not that bad once you get to know him."

Tom did so and nibbled at the slice distractedly. "Nice place... I haven't seen this place since I was... oh, five years old or something, back when the Kringles' were still around. They were nice people, Nick and Noelle."

"It was kinda odd that they just up and disappeared," Molly said. "No one knew what happened."

Spot and Rae glanced quizzically between them. "Are you talking about the Nick and Noelle that was with us for a few months?" Rae finally asked Molly.

"Yep," Molly answered taking a bite of ham.

Spot nodded.

"They were back in town?" Tom inquired curiously. "I hadn't heard. Usually they stop by the shop to say hello..." He shrugged and took a big bite out of his ham.

"Nick was here for a while, but Noelle only showed up about a week ago."  Molly said.

"Hey, mister, wanna go swim?" Andy asked Tom, eyeing the water again. "Chris isn't much fun..." Chris, who had joined them just moments before, rolled his eyes.

Tom looked at the water for a moment. "I guess I could. Haven't been swimming since Andrew left."

"He came to visit too," Molly added, devouring a biscuit. "And guess what... I have a sister."

Tom looked at Spot and Rae, "A lot of strange things sure have happened since you two came to town."

Rae glanced at him. "How so?"

"Well, this house stood empty for twelve years...Nick and Noelle suddenly show up again...Andrew comes home with another sister...the rumors that are going around in town about this place..."

"Well... We don't know all of what your town is saying, but... we consider ourselves very fortunate," Spot replied after a long pause.

"The people in town are calling you a beast, because of..." Tom trailed off.

"Because of my face?" Spot asked.

"Well.... er... yeah."

"My Daddy got hurt in the factory," Ann said defensively.

"And he actually behaves better now then he used to," Rae teased, giving Spot a gentle jab with her elbow.

"Maybe you should learn from my example," he said, rubbing his ribs.

"But where would the fun in that be?" she grinned.

Chris leaned over to Tom. "Ignore them."

Rae continued to look at Spot, but pointed her finger at Chris. "Watch it," she said.

Chris just smirked.

"Are you gonna come swimming?" Andy asked again.

After a moment's hesitation, and prodding from a very impatient (but typical) Molly, he nodded and climbed to his feet to follow the boy.

Rae turned to Molly, "How do you know Tom?"

"Well... we both lived in the same town all our lives, so naturally you know everyone... And he and Andrew were friends," she replied.

"Andrew... Oh, right, Blank," Spot muttered to himself.

"Well...at least one person has changed their mind about us," Rae said.