Chapter 10

"Chris we better get going," Vaughn called out to Chris.

"Coming, Michael!"

Vaughn turned his attention to Jack and said, "Thank you very much for your blessing, Jack. You don't know how much you're approval means to me. And how much it'll mean to Sydney too when I ask her. But, Chris and I have to leave now. I have to go talk about this with him. Then, I'm off to go ring shopping."

Jack smiled and replied, "Have fun at Disney Land. But…," he paused, "You better keep them safe."

"Don't worry Jack, I will." For my sake, I better keep them safe,he thought.

Vaughn and Chris entered the car and buckled up. "You ready to go, buddy?" asked Vaughn.

"Yep!" was Chris' gleeful response.

For the next five minutes, Vaughn just drove while listening to Chris happily babble about the movie he was watching. He found it amusing that at the age of five, Chris could talk about lots of different things as if he were older than his age.

Finally, Vaughn was about to pass a park when he pulled into the parking lot. "Michael, what are we doing here?" questioned Chris.

"How about we go on the swings before I start talking? Is that alright?"

"Um… ok," he shrugged back.

When they reached the swings, Chris sat in one and Vaughn sat in the one beside him.

"So…" Vaughn started off.

"So… what, Michael? What's up?"

"Chris, this is kind of difficult for me to ask. Let me think how I'm going to say this," he paused with a sigh, "Um… what do you think about me?"

"I think you're the greatest person in the world, Michael! … Well, other than mommy, of course," he beamed.

Vaughn grinned and ruffled Chris' hair up a bit. "I have to agree with you there, buddy. You're mom is one great person. So," he sighed one more time and thought to himself, why is this more difficult than talking to Jack! He continued, "How would you feel if I married you're mommy?"

"You mean like you would be mommy's husband… and you would be my daddy?" he asked with a hoping voice.

"Yeah…"

"I think that would be so awesome, Michael! Then you can live with me and mommy and teach me how to play baseball and help me with my homework and let me stay up at night and you would pick me up after school and…"

"Breathe!" Vaughn chuckled. "I'm glad that you think that," he grinned. "But, for now, this will be our little secret. So, no telling your mom until I ask her, okay?"

"I cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye," Chris recited while doing the hand motions.

"Uh, yeah…" Vaughn laughed uneasily. The things that kids pick up from one another these days… "Well, let's go home and pack."

"Yay! Disney Land, Disney Land!"

Sydney's House

Saturday Morning

When Sydney got home yesterday afternoon, instead of finding Vaughn helping Chris to pack his suitcase, she found them cooking dinner. She was a little upset at them for not packing, but was touched that they cooked her dinner.

Oddly, right after dinner, Vaughn didn't stay as long as he normally did, muttering something about an errand he had to do. She thought something was up when Vaughn and Chris looked at each other and smiled, but she just brushed it off.

It was now 7:45 in the morning and things were very hectic. Vaughn told them that he would pick them up at 8:00, giving Sydney and Chris only fifteen more minutes to finish packing.

Sydney was passing by the bathroom to get their toiletries when she saw the Chris had fallen asleep while brushing his teeth.

"Chris, wake up," she nudged him

"Five more minutes, mommy," he mumbled.

"Honey, wake up. We still have to finish packing and Michael will be here in fifteen minutes…" she stopped. The doorbell had rung and she groaned. "Chris, sweetie, you have to wake up now and go answer the door for Michael, he's here early."

After hearing the word Michael, Chris' eyes flew open and he happily walked to the door. "Michael!" He gave him a hug and went back to his room to go get changed.

"Hey, what are you doing here so early?" Sydney asked.

"I'm not that early, Syd. It's only five more minutes till eight. And by the looks of things, it seems as if it will be another ten minutes before you're ready. So, I'll just go put the suitcases in your car."

"Well, I would be ready if a certain someone… ahem," she cleared her throat, "had helped my son pack yesterday like he promised."

"Sorry about that," he said warily. "But, you still keep me around anyways," he laughed.

"You know that's right," she said back.

Outside of Sydney's house, the same black dark blue sedan that was parked outside a couple weeks ago was there once again. When the driver saw Vaughn, Sydney, and Chris get in the car, he put his hands on the key ignition. Once they were a block away, the driver started the car and followed them all the way to Disney Land.
Vaughn pulled into the gigantic parking lot and all three of them had their mouths gaping at the sight before them.

Left and right, Chris kept pointing to one ride and then another, asking Sydney, "Can we ride that? Over there, can we ride that? What about that one?..."

Vaughn and Sydney looked at one another and smiled. "Calm down, Chris," Sydney said, "Before we can go on the rides, we have to check into the resort first."

"Resort? What's that, Michael?"

"Well, buddy, a resort is like a really expensive hotel. It has water slides there and big pools and all that stuff that you really like."

"Cool…" he trailed off, just taking in the sights in front of him.

They checked into the hotel and took their baggage up to their suite.

Sydney placed a sweet kiss on Vaughn's cheek once he opened the door to their room.

"What was that for?" he asked, confused. "I mean not that I didn't like it but… yah…"

"Well, for you and Chris winning this for us, of course," she said as she motioned to everything around her.

"Can we go now?" Chris asked, very anxious to get on the rides.

Disneyland

"Ticket, please," the ticket lady said.

"Here you go, ma'am," Vaughn said as he handed her the tickets.

As they were going through the gate, he felt a tug on his shirt and looked down to see Chris crossing his legs and jumping around.

"Michael, I have to go use the potty real badly," he whispered.

"Sure buddy, your mom and I will wait right outside of the bathroom. Don't forget to wash your hands."

"Yeah, yeah," he called out while jetting off into the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom

Chris was just finishing washing his hands when he felt a tap on his shoulder. The man was wearing black sunglasses, a black hat, and a Disneyland worker uniform.

"Hey kid," he said sweetly. "Your mom and her boyfriend told me to get you and bring you to the carousel, where they're at right now."

"Um… ok mister." Not knowing that he was about to be kidnapped, Chris innocently grabbed the strange man's hand and was led away through the other exit of the bathroom.

dun dun dun! enter suspense music! lol. anways... moving right along, everybody having a good start to week so far? ok well, im off to go spend the rest of my day relaxing! laters.