(A/N; wooo booy! Sorry everybody for the lackage of updatage! Summer classes have started, training for work as started, everything is just so busy. Hope you didnt think I forgot about the Ephison shippers! Lol, thanks to a couple of you who decided to check up on me, I'm fine and healthy, just with a case of writers block. Guess it doesnt help when I have school, work and training....I should update my other fic sometime this week as well!)

Ephram was sitting on the couch watching TV when Madison leaned over the couch and slowly put her lips to his and continued to kiss him passionately. Something he was definitely not expecting. After she pulled away, she walked in and stood in front of the TV, which made Ephram smile out of amusement because she wouldnt move even when he asked her to.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she slowly walked over to him, but she didnt answer, instead she lowered herself on top of him, and straddled his lap, putting her arms around his neck before kissing him passionately once again. Ephram slightly moaned, he was surprised. After Madison slowly pulled away, Ephram's head was tilted and his eyes were still closed. "Th-that....uh, uh was a wonderful surprise." When he regained his composure, Madison was smiling at him, but said nothing. All Ephram could say was, "again...what are you doing? I mean, not that I mind--"

Just then, Riley and Shai could be heard running down the stairs yelling at each other, which made Madison laugh as she discreetly moved herself off of her husband to one side, "spontaneity at it's best" she whispered as she playfully bit his ear, "even when the kids are in the house!"

"MOM!!!" yelled Riley, "Stupid Jamey Shai Ryan hid my painting! It's due tomorrow!"

Shai and Riley were arguing as Madison stood up and tried to break them up. Just then Randi came in the house screaming happily, "I thought Sammy needed a friend, mommy!" she yelled from the other room, "a friend of mine gave me their very cute Great Dane puppy since it was in need of a new home!" The house, at that moment, was a sort of controlled chaos with everybody yelling at each other and arguing, Ephram just sitting back taking it all in. Madison couldnt help but slightly smile as she put her hand to her forehead out of frustration. The Great Dane puppy, which wasn't really that small and looked like a miniature horse, was so energetic that it jumped the back of the couch and attacked Ephram with slobbery kisses!
"I wanna name her Tiger!" laughed Randi over the loud TV, which the dog managed to turn up the volume by stepping on the remote, the arguing siblings and the yelling Ephram as he tried gently to get the dog off him.

Madison raised her arms then threw them down by her side as she yelled, "Time Out! Time OUT!" Her voice seemed to echo and the dog seemed to happily sit down with her tongue hanging out and tail wagging, and all the kids stopped yelling and turned their eyes on their mom.

Surprised to see everybody paying attention she chuckled, "oh, wow, I didn't actually think it would work." she was proud of herself and nodded her head once before going on, "anyway, anyway, first" she said as she looked at Shai, "Unless you want to be grounded, I suggest you give your sister's painting back to her." And with that, Shai automatically ran upstairs to find the painting. "Randi, if you want to keep this dog, she's going to have to be trained--"
"Done" Randi smiled cheerily, "potty trained, she can sit, we're working on 'stay', she's very respectful and doesnt drool too much!"

"If she doesnt get along with Sammy then she'll have to go--"
"Oh she does! They love each other."
"How do you know that?" asked Ephram suspiciously as he moved to get a better look at his daughter.

Randi paused, then she said candidly, "for the last week we, uh, have, um, been bringing Tiger over here and she and Sammy have met a few times."
"Did you know about this?" asked Ephram amused as he looked at Madison who had a hand on her hip and gave her daughter a quizzical look.

"OH!" Riley said as she just remembered something, "before I forget" she thought for a second, "nevermind, I forgot..." and she went over to sit next to her father and to introduce herself to the new pet. This Great Dane puppy was white with black dots on the front part of her body. Her face was black except for a piece of white under her left eye. "This dog actually looks mean" thought Riley aloud, "Maybe we can train her to attack Shai! Every time we call him Jamey then she pounces on him and bites his head off!" Before either of her parents could say anything, she clapped her hands and ran to her room, "Brilliant idea, Sherlock, Brilliant!" Her parents just stared after her, then Ephram said joking, "I think she was adopted..." and he shook his head as if to say, its the only possible explanation, "She cant be one of ours..."
"Oh daddy," said Randi as she started playing with her new giant sized puppy, "since we have the day off tomorrow from school, can I visit Ry at the art school? She's allowed to have a family member join her for a day as long as its alright with everybody."

Ephram looked at her with a sort of confused look upon his face, then Madison replied, "It's alright sweetheart, we got that little paper signed so if you want to then you can go with her tomorrow morning."

"Oh, and daddy" she went on asking him another question he did not know, so he asked her, "Ran...why are you asking me? Mom's the one who knows all the answers, I'm just her sidekick and she tells me things when I need to know. So ask her, will you." he said with a smile.

It seemed, just as quickly as the chaos began, it quickly dispersed, leaving Madison and Ephram alone together on the couch.

He put his arm around her and pulled her close to him, "know what I found out today at work..." he didnt sound too hapy.

Madison shifted towards him to get a better look, but she didnt say anything. "I mean, dont get me wrong, it's a great opportunity, it's just..." he sighed

"Eph..." Madison said, "what's this great opportunity that you dont seem to want to take? Talk to me."

"I have to go to Boston at the end of this week for a week because the Boston Symphony wants me to play with them. I guess...I guess you could say they are hiring me. Now, the problem is, we both know I dont like travelling."

"It's only a week." Madison tried to sound upbeat and convincing, "it'll go by quickly!"
"Well, the way it was set up was like this; apparently there are only two other pianists that are as good as I am that the Boston Symphony looked at, and one's retired and the other is on vacation in Alaska, which leaves me so I have to go cuz my boss said so."

"At least it's not three weeks, like the two times I decided to take up that travelling thing for my job."

Ephram chuckled, "yeah, well, at least the first time we didnt have kids!"
"Jess will help us out, Ephram. It's only a week, and if need be, Auntie Delia will look after them."

The two sat together cuddling and watching TV for the rest of the evening before getting up to make dinner for the family around 8pm. Sammy waddled after them, oinking happily.

Madison tugged on Ephram's shirt on their way to the kitchen, pulling him backwards then pushing him forward until he started laughing for her to knock it off. She then pushed him up against the counter, and nibbled his ear, he chuckled, "I'm going to start calling you 'Nibbles'!" and he turned around and planted small kisses all over her face, intentionally missing her lips. Then she grabbed his face and planted a big wet kiss on his lips, smiled then got back to figuring out what to make for dinner. Ephram stood there, watching her before helping her. "I. Love. You." he said to her as he started boiling water.

Madison flung her hair behind her, raised her eyebrows then mouthed back, "I love you more!" and shut her eyes tightly and smiled big. The two continued to act like that until Shai decided to come down and join them.