Ryan and Marissa came home from the hospital Thursday afternoon with a sleeping baby in her baby carrier. Ryan held the handle; the carrier containing Brittany bundled in a baby blanket. He set her on the kitchen table and Ryan and Marissa marveled over her.

"So, the baby's home and asleep. What should we do now?" This was all new to them and they had no idea what happens now.

"Well, Brittany's sleeping. Should we put her to bed and maybe we can hang out or go to sleep too? Remember that tonight we have to go over Sandy and Kirsten's house for the baby shower/welcome home party so maybe sleep would be good." Marissa pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and gently clicked the handle of the baby carrier up so she could hold it.

"Mother knows best." Ryan smiled walking behind Marissa who was now holding the baby carrier in her hands. They walked up the stairs to the now furnished, pink, nursery. Marissa set the baby carrier on the ground next to the crib clicking the handle back so she could take the baby out. She unbuckled her and holding her carefully, placed her in the crib covering her up with her pink blanket. Ryan leaned over the railing watching the baby stretch her arms out in front of her and then opening and closing her eyes a few times until she fell back to sleep.

"It can't be this easy can it?" Marissa asked whispering as the two exited the room. She grabbed one of the baby monitors turning it on and set it next to the crib then took the other with her into their bedroom. She turned off the lights and the two walked down the hall into their room.

"Maybe we're just lucky? I am so tired from working overtime just to pay off the hospital bills and then taking care of you and the baby." Ryan sat at the end of the bed unlacing his shoes and kicking them against the wall. He lay on their bed covering himself up with the blankets and shutting his eyes quickly.

She nodded and placed the baby monitor on their nightstand and then covered herself with the blankets, and the two lay in each other's arms as they closed their eyes to go to sleep. Marissa exhaled, she was so tired she fell right to sleep. Ryan too. As they got comfortable, the piercing screams of the baby blasted through the baby monitor awaking Marissa and Ryan from their sleep.

"I'll go." Ryan said swinging his legs off the side of the bed and stumbled out of his room into the nursery.
Marissa lay back down on the bed closing her eyes trying to get back to sleep.

Ryan walked into the baby's room and leaned over the crib picking her up into his arms. "Shh, it's okay…. daddy's here. Shh" He held her in his arms, covering her up with the blanket she was barely wrapped in already, and lightly swayed her back and forth bouncing as he walked around the room. He watched the baby squirm in his arms, her little face turning red as her mouth was ajar where deadly shrieks fled. He walked around the room, passing the same furniture for the third time now and his daughter's screams weren't fading.

"Britt, please. Daddy's very, very tired and I know you are too and we would both be very happy if you'd close your little eyes and go to sleep. We have a party tonight, grandma and grandpa are throwing it for you and you don't want to be all cranky when we go tonight do you?" His face panicked he began thinking of what she could want. A diaper change? No, she was changed before they went home. A bottle? Yes, a bottle, she hadn't eaten for a few hours. "Are you hungry baby? Is that why you're crying? Daddy will make you a bottle and then we'll all go back to sleep, sound good? I knew you'd see it my way." He rubbed her back as he walked down the hall, her cries echoing through the house. Marissa wasn't sleeping, in fact she heard everything Ryan said and it made her heart melt. Ryan was going to be such a great dad and just hearing how sweet he is with the baby already made her fall even more in love with him.

Ryan went downstairs and sat Brittany in a bouncy chair located on top of the kitchen table. He strapped her in and put the chair on vibrate to ease her crying for a second. He grabbed a bottle from the fridge and set it on the counter next to the stove, then grabbing at a pan he filled it with a few inches of water and put it on the stove to heat the baby bottle. A few minutes passed and he grabbed the bottle and testing it on his wrist. To his surprise it was way too hot and he winced in pain and threw a little temper tantrum, catching himself before he started swearing. Brittany stopped crying, she was watching her father and from the look on her face she thought it was quite amusing.

"You think that's funny? Huh? Your dad's in serious pain and you're smiling?" He shook his head; he thought it was funny that that got her to stop crying, that the way to get Brittany to quiet down is by inflicting pain upon themselves. He grabbed the bottle and put it in the fridge and grabbed another one. "Let's try this again." He put the bottle in the pan again and took it out a few seconds afterwards just to get it slightly warm. "Here we go." He picked her up from the bouncer and made his way back upstairs to the nursery where he sat down in the rocker and began to feed the baby. Brittany drunk from the bottle, her eyes slightly closing as the warm milk began to take affect and cause her to become sleepy. He just stared lovingly at his daughter feeling what it really was like to be a parent, to have a baby and to feel this unconditional love towards this tiny little person. He rocked in the chair and when she stopped drinking the milk, due to her unconsciousness, she slightly burped making Ryan laugh. He returned her to her crib, tucking her back in and giving her a kiss on the forehead. With every ounce of energy he had left, he sluggishly, dragging his feet, walked into the bedroom and plopped down on the bed causing Marissa to bounce slightly from the impact.

"She's a lucky little girl you know." Marissa said, now facing him.

"What do you mean by that?" Ryan asked rubbing his forehead.

"She's lucky because she has such a wonderful father. You were very sweet with her."

"How…." He looked around, the room was down the hall and he shut the door to make sure Marissa wouldn't be woken up from the baby's cries. "Baby monitors? You listened with the baby monitor…aren't we a little old to be eavesdropping?" He asked curiously.

"I couldn't resist. The baby monitor was on the nightstand, and it just happened to be on and so didn't the one in the nursery." He laughed and kissed the side of her cheek. "What time is it?" He couldn't see the clock too well.

"It's two o'clock. We have to be at the party in two hours, we can't sleep we have to get ready now." She jumped out of bed grabbing at a black skirt and a long sleeved fancy work shirt that changed into with in two minutes. "Come on Ryan, get up and go take a shower." He looked in the mirror, playing with her hair, deciding what she should do with it. She decided to wear it down since it was the easiest thing, and luckily she didn't have to do anything to it because it was already straightened from when she did it at the hospital.

Ryan moaned and got out of bed and made his way into the bathroom, turning on the shower. He was in there for about fifteen minutes and when he came out soaking wet he heard Marissa in the baby's room talking with her.

"Everyone is so excited to see you tonight. All your family is going to come and they're going to fuss over how adorable you are, yes they will." Marissa said in a high-pitched baby voice, poking at Brittany's chest as she talked. Marissa dressed her in a long sleeved baby dress; it was a green satin dress with black lace around the back where it tied into a bow. She was wearing black tights and black baby shoes and looked adorable. Ryan laughed quietly and walked down the hall to finish getting dressed. Marissa held her in her arms and grabbed the baby carrier with her other free arm and walked downstairs. She sat on the couch, and with the tv on, she played with the baby while waiting for Ryan. Ryan came down after he got dressed, about twenty minutes later. His excuse – he didn't know what to wear. Nothing to fancy, just a black long sleeved shirt and dark blue jeans, his hair in his normal style, he trudged down the stairs seeing his girls waiting for him.

"It's about time." She stood up from the couch and smoothed out her skirt from wrinkles, then looked down at Brittany who was all set to go in her baby carrier. She was awake and alert, her blue eyes looking all over the place as she sucked on a Winnie the pooh pacifier.

"I'm ready now, need me to get anything?" He asked helping Marissa out the door.

"Grab our jackets and grab the baby bag. It's on the kitchen table." She yelled. She walked to their car opening the door behind the drivers seat and buckled the baby carrier into its base. She shut the door and walked to the other backseat door, getting in again and waiting for Ryan.

He ran out of the house holding the three things Marissa told him to get and opened his door getting in. He threw everything onto the passenger's seat and caught a glimpse of Marissa's death glare reflecting from the rear view mirror. "Sorry, sorry – the phone was ringing. Anyways, let's go see Brittany's grandparent's." He put the car in reverse, then into drive, and the three were off to Newport to go to their daughter's welcome home party.

They arrived a half hour later, Britt fell asleep in her car seat and Marissa was passed out too. When Ryan pulled into the driveway there were pink balloons tied to the mailbox, baby decorations covering the outside of the house and cars all over the driveway.

"We're here." He said parking the car. He got out and opened the door taking Brittany out of the car and Marissa slowly emerged too, not happy she was woken up.

They walked up to the house sighing, and then opened the door, everyone ambushing them as they walked in.

"They're here!" Kirsten yelled running over to Ryan and Marissa, hugging both and then peering in at the baby, their whole family doing the same. "Can I hold her?" Kirsten asked smiling, her first grandchild and she couldn't be happier.

"Of course." Marissa put the carrier on a near-bye table and unbuckled her, handing her over to Kirsten who immediately lit up when she held the new baby in her arms.

"She's so precious!" Sandy marveled over her too, patting the top of her head.

"How's life with the baby, day one?" Jimmy asked as he talked with the happy parents.

"It's different, we're adjusting. We're running on about four hours of sleep but we're good relatively speaking."

"Oh I know, baby number one is always the hardest. Three a.m. feedings, diaper changes every few hours, teething, illnesses…. babies just do not care how much pain you are in, or how tired you are it's just whenever they want something they're going to cry, and cry until you get it, and that crying seems to never go away either. And they always seem to know when you're at your weakest point to start at it again. Or at least Marissa knew it." Jimmy hugged Marissa tightly, and then patted Ryan's back. "I am so happy for you guys. I'll be back though, I'm going to refill my drink." Jimmy walked in the other direction towards the kitchen.

"Thanks dad." Marissa turned to Ryan who needed something to keep his eyes open because right now he felt like his whole body was jello and he was ready to pass out right there from exhaustion. "I'm going to find Summer. Go get something to drink and don't worry about Britt, she's with our parents." Marissa scurried off to find her best friend sitting in the kitchen eating the finger foods set out for the guests.

"Coop! You're here, where's the baby?" She asked chomping on some grapes.

"She's with Kirsten and Sandy." Marissa took the seat next to her friend pouring herself some water.

"How are you doing? I bet exhausted. Remember Seth and I can help anytime with the baby. I mean we live next door to each other so it makes it a lot easier then driving here." She finished the bowl of grapes and now was on to the cheese and crackers. Marissa watched her, remembering how much over eating you do when you're pregnant and realizing it now once she wasn't anymore.

"Thanks for the offer but you're going to have your own baby soon and you're going to be just as equally busy."

"That's true, but when the baby does finally decide to make his appearance then we can do play-dates, our kids will be cousins."

"He?" Marissa asked.

"He, she…. I switch off – we don't know what it is going to be and I'm so sick of calling it an 'it'" She said laughing then stopping to touch her stomach. The baby was kicking like crazy and Summer started to laugh. "Must like the cheese and crackers."

"How much longer till my new niece or nephew arrives?"

"We'll let's see. It's December, three more months. The doctor said he or she is coming March sixth." Summer rested her arm on her protruding stomach, which seemed to grow more every time Marissa sees her.

"Wow three months? That's right around the corner."

"Tell me about it. We just finished painting the nursery and went out a couple days ago on a big shopping spree to get all the things that he needs. So all we need now is our new little Cohen."

Marissa laughed and helped herself to some cheese and crackers until Kirsten yelled for everyone to join them in the living room.

"Present time!" She yelled passing the baby to Sandy who started making funny faces to amuse his new granddaughter. The group moved into the living room and Marissa and Ryan were seated in their 'guest' chairs surrounded by lots of presents.

"You guys. You really didn't need to do this." Marissa said holding up a white onsie decorated with pink flowers. She opened a few more boxes stuffed with more clothes then she's seen in malls, blankets, hats, baby shoes, everything they need, car seats, tons of toys and when the hill of presents subsided, there was one more gift.

"And this is mainly for you both." Sandy said putting his hand on Ryan's shoulder and handing him an envelope.

"Sandy, Kirsten you didn't –" Ryan said looking up at his parents.

"Just open it." He said laughing. He stood back wrapping his arm around Kirsten who was still holding her granddaughter.

Ryan opened the envelope, his mouth ajar, as he didn't know what to say. He showed the paper to Marissa who had the identical facial expression. "You guys, really this is too much."

"We know that the baby coming early wasn't something you expected and we also know that the hospital bills will be expensive. Marissa has to stay home with Brittany so she can't work and Ryan, you and Seth have jobs at the Crab Shack making minimum wage. This present is to pay off the hospital expenses and still have a little left over to buy whatever you'd like. Maybe to use towards a house, food expenses – whatever, it's your money now."

"It's a check for ten thousand dollar, we really can't accept this." Marissa stood next to Sandy and Kirsten, engaging in a hug.

"This isn't a problem, this is our gift to you guys. We know how responsible both of you have been through these past months and we have to say we are proud of both of you. A baby is a huge responsibility and being in debt from it is only going to make matters worse." Kirsten held the baby tightly in her arms, Brittany was now sleeping and her arm hung towards the ground. Her mouth was slightly open and every so often she'd scrunch up her face if she heard a loud noise.

"Thank you so much. You don't know how much we appreciate this." They all hugged and Marissa got teary-eyed, their generosity meant so much to her, Ryan too.

"Well, now that presents are done with…. should we go eat?" Sandy turned around and walked into the kitchen, everyone crowding into the hallway. Marissa took Brittany into her arms after she began crying and Seth stayed behind, his hands in his pockets as he whistled.

"What a gift, right?" Seth asked while they both sat down on the couch lounging like old times.

"Yeah, I never would have guessed they'd give us a check. But hey, your gift was nice too – the outfits and the toys that Summer got are great." Ryan placed his hands behind his head, resting his legs on the coffee table.

"Hey I helped…kind of" he said hesitantly.

"Uh-huh" Ryan nodded.

"Well I gave Summer the credit card as payback for when I was a jerk."

"A jerk? Seth Cohen, no?" Ryan said jokingly.

"Yeah, stupid baby class we had to take."

"A baby class? You? This conversation makes me feel like I don't know you at all."

"It was Summer's idea, she thought it'd be nice to take this class together not only will we be spending time together but we'll also be learning how to take care of our baby." His voice high-pitched trying to imitate Summer.

"And how were you being a jerk?"

"I didn't do anything. It wasn't my fault the baby's head fell off when I was burping it and Summer got all pissed that I wasn't doing the breathing exercises that were primarily for the women." Seth took a break only to hear Ryan's immediate laughter. "Hey it's not funny, I had to apologize for over an hour, buy her a pizza which she didn't share and give her our credit card to buy whatever she wants with money we don't have. Okay, maybe it is a little funny, but it wasn't during the hour I spent talking through the door and saying over and over again how sorry I was. Do you think mom and dad will give Summer and me a big check like that when we have our kid?" Ryan shrugged his shoulders, their names were called and the two gaited into the kitchen. "As much as I don't like taking money, Summer and I really need it. We're already in debt from her shopping for the baby's things, not to mention the rent on the house. I never thought life would be this tough, you know?" Ryan nodded his head and took a sip from his beer bottle. The two walked inside, standing on either side of Sandy.

"So are you coming over here Christmas day?" Sandy asked, poking at his salad.

Ryan and Marissa looked at each other, Ryan shrugging his shoulders to her. Marissa was the one who scheduled everything and she nodded since her mouth was full.

"But Christmas eve over with us, right sweetie?" Julie asked from across the table. Marissa bobbed her head again, Christmas was right around the corner and this year was going to be the best Christmas they've ever had. Not only did Ryan and Marissa have each other, they had family who loved them and their daughter, life couldn't be better.

"The party was wonderful, you guys thank you so much for all the gifts but we should really get going. It's been a long, stressful week and we need to catch up on some well deserved sleep."

"Sleep? Yeah right. The first night's always the worse." Julie scoffed at her daughter's comments.

"I-it is? What do you mean?"

"Crying…it never stops. Once you get the baby down and you get into bed…. she'll be awake. When you're sleeping and she's sleeping, she'll wake up. Tonight will be a very, very long night. Make sure you drink a lot of caffeine to stay awake."

Marissa looked panicked, she never heard that the first night would be awful. "Yeah, well then Ryan and I should get going." Her voice reserved. She stood up from the table buckling the baby in her carrier and restoring the pacifier to her mouth.

"Seth and I will go load up the car with the presents." Ryan clouted Seth on the back, immediately springing into action and gathering the unearthly amount of gifts that they were somehow suppose to fit in their car. Ten minutes of walking in and out of the house, their arms inundated with gifts, the room in the car diminishing with every bag.

"Marissa, if you'd like maybe Julie and I could come over and spend some time with the baby? Take her out, go to the park and give you and Ryan some time to sleep?" Kirsten said as Marissa pulled out of their hug.

"Sure, I'd love that. Tomorrow, how about nine or ten? Or come over whenever, we'll definitely be up." She laughed, placing the baby bag on her shoulder, the family following her out to the car. Marissa got the baby situated, and she did so with herself too. The family of three was in the car, waving goodbye to their family members whose images got smaller as they drove out of view.

"What a party, we got so much stuff I don't even know if we have room for it all." Ryan looked in his rear-view mirror looking at Marissa.

"I know." Marissa yawned, she leaned her head against the headrest, her hand draped on Brittany's stomach and her eyes slowly closing.

Ryan smiled and continued to drive until he entered the apartment complex and parked in their parking space. Marissa woke up when Ryan turned off the car and they entered their apartment leaving the presents for the morning.

"Here, you go to bed I'll go get Brit ready. Does she need a bottle before going to bed or -?" Ryan asked picking the baby up into his arms.

"No, she should be all set. She had a bottle before we left, she may need a diaper change though." A diaper change? Hmm, this will be interesting.

Marissa was in their bedroom probably sound asleep while Ryan was in the nursery changing the baby's diaper. Brittany lying on the changing table with horrendous fumes escaping from her diaper. "So you need a diaper change, hmm. A diaper change – I've never actually changed a diaper before in my life and mommy's too tired so I guess daddy has to give it a shot." The baby began to whine. "Shh, I know…this is painful for both of us." He scrunched his face; the worry lines were present on his forehead and Ryan was clearly in panic mode. He took a deep breath and pulled the diaper down soon putting it back up. That was the scariest sight he ever saw and as he looked down at his daughter who now stopped crying, he shook his head in disbelief. "How could something so little make something so disgusting? Can you tell me that? Okay, daddy is going to do this quickly and as painlessly as I can so bare with me, this is my first time changing a diaper." He pulled the diaper back down, cleaned her up and in well under a second had a new one on and he was done. She was cooing and gesticulating her little arms in front of her face. Ryan was panting like he'd run a marathon but in all actuality, he had only changed a diaper. "Now for clothing, let's see here." He began rummaging through the baby's dresser drawer pulling out an outfit he thought was acceptable for pajamas. "Here we go. Yes, I know…cold baby." He had the baby undressed except for her diaper and now was dressing her in her nightwear. Pulling a light pink long sleeved shirt over her head and when that was done he began pulling up purple stretchy pants decorated with multicolored dots. He held her up in his arms, supporting her head and then placing her down in her crib, covering her up. "See, it's not so hard. You look fine." He patted forward the tiny amount of hair she actually had and then stroked the side of her face. "Night cutie pie. I love you."

He turned the monitor on and to his surprise it already was. He finished up in the nursery and as he entered their bedroom Marissa quickly turned to one side trying to make it seem like she was sleeping.

"Funny… I know you're not sleeping. The monitors aren't only used for baby crying, they also come in handing for listening in on conversations." He took off his shirt, and was only wearing boxers as he slid into bed.

"Like I said earlier, I wasn't eavesdropping the monitors just happen to be on."

"Yeah sure. Goodnight. I love you." They kissed and the two lay back down in the bed. Marissa glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand, ten thirty.

A wonderful hour and a half of sleep was what Ryan and Marissa got and it was soon broken up by their daughter's screams. Marissa was still a little sore from her surgery but not as bad as the last few days.

"I'll go" she said groggily. Midnight, great. She lurched down the hall into the baby's room and scooped her up into her arms. "Brittany, sweetie why are you crying?" She knew the baby couldn't answer but they always seemed to do that with babies anyways. "Please, mommy's really, really tired. Maybe you could wait to do this when your grandmother's come over…. today." She realized it was already today and she wanted to go back into her cozy bed as fast as she could so she went through the possible list of problems. Diaper change? Not needed. Fever or illness? No. Hungry? Ding, ding, ding – we have a winner. In the kitchen Marissa fixed a bottle and began feeding the baby after it was ready. She was too tired to move anywhere so she decided to camp out in the kitchen, sitting on the wooden seats she tilted her head up to the ceiling closing her eyes as her daughter was drinking the milk from the bottle. She must have fell asleep for a little while because when she awoke the baby was asleep too, the bottle was completely empty and Marissa had a pain in her back from the chair. She put the baby back in her crib and soon dozed off to sleep in her bed, only to be awakened every hour and a half. All night they'd take turns getting up and checking the baby, feeding her, changing her diaper and rocking her back to sleep, returning to bed only to do the same thing ninety minutes later. When morning came around and the sun bled through the curtains and the sun' rays were shinning in their eyes, Marissa and Ryan opened their blood-shot eyes and were surprised that the sun woke them up and not the baby crying.

"It's morning? That was the worst night I ever had." He rubbed his eyes, bags formed under both of them, the new parents looked terrible.

"I'm going back to bed, it's only eight and I just got up a half an hour again." She covered her head with her pillow as she immediately fell back to sleep.

"I'm right there with you." He lay back down only to be awakened five minutes later by the baby's cries. "No, no…. don't move I'll go." He got out of bed to his surprise Marissa wasn't even offering to go though he still would have gone anyways. He was pretending to cry; he had never felt more tired in his whole existence. "Brittany, I'm your father and I'm begging you to please stop crying. We've all had a rough night and what would make us all feel better would be sleep." She continued to cry Ryan's words seemed to have not impinged on her since her crying prevailed. "Okay, you were just fed two hours ago, changed an hour ago…. what do you want? Daddy doesn't know what you want." He said pleading for her to stop; he never knew that having a baby was so much work. He sat down in the rocking chair swaddling the baby in his arms. "Hush little baby don't say a word, daddy's gonna buy you a mockin bird, and if that mockin bird wont sing daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring…." He sung, his words elongated the song didn't stand a chance especially since he fell asleep after he finished the first line. The baby liked the singing and began to whine when he stopped. He looked down at Brittany remembering what he was doing and continued to sing "…and if that diamond ring don't shine, daddy's gonna buy you a goldmine. And if that goldmine…. blah, blah, blah" he didn't know the words, he barely knew the words to the stuff he already sung and just continued to hum the melody of it. The baby fell asleep and daddy soon followed suit. It wasn't until Marissa woke up about an hour later to find Ryan sound asleep with the baby in his arms.

"Ryan…. wake up." Marissa said tapping him on the shoulder causing him to jump slightly.

"What?" Marissa startled him and soon after he gained his composure back, he stood from the rocking chair, the baby still in his arms, Ryan entered the kitchen. Ryan set the baby in her bouncy chair where she seemed content for the time being. He helped himself to coffee, something Marissa already had a cup of and was now going for seconds. "When are Julie and Kirsten coming?" He asked sitting at the kitchen table.

"Anytime, the sooner the better. need my sleep, my beautiful sleep." There was a knock on the door, the window filled with Kirsten and Julie's face.

"Marissa sweetheart, you look terrible." Julie said hugging her daughter.

"Thanks mom, you look great though." Marissa sat back down and Kirsten and Julie immediately came to Brittany's side.

"Hi my gorgeous little grandbaby." Kirsten was hunched over, her fingers in the baby's grasp.

"Ours" Julie corrected.

"Ours." Kirsten said clearing her throat.

Ryan leaned against the counter sipping on his coffee. "So what are you three going to be doing today?" He asked.

"We thought we'd go to the park, maybe we'd walk around for a bit while you two catch up on your sleep."

"You guys are lifesavers. That sounds great, keep her as long as you want." Ryan joked and was soon shot down by Marissa's glare.

"I'll go get her things together." Marissa stood up grabbing the baby bag and set it next to the bouncer. "Oh I didn't even change her yet, here I'll be right down."

"No let me, you sit and relax." Kirsten said picking the baby up and holding her up to Kirsten's shoulder.

"Marissa, this outfit – it doesn't match. Sweetie you can't do stripes with poka-dots" Julie said clicking her tongue.

"Don't tell me…Ryan was in charge last night." Marissa said turning to face Ryan who waved his hand at Julie and then took a sip of her coffee.

"I'll be right back." Kirsten began to walk up the stairs.

"I'll go too just to make sure she doesn't dress her in anything not suitable for our granddaughter." Julie followed behind her and the two were alone for the first time in a twenty-four hour time period- an discomfited feeling.

Julie and Kirsten emerged twenty minutes later holding Brittany in Julie's arms. The outfit the baby had on, Julie was clearly the one who picked it, an elegant dress, one clearly for a holiday function, tights, a bow for her head and nice shoes.

"Well we should get going." Kirsten hugged Ryan and Marissa goodbye, grabbed everything they needed and the house was silent.

Ryan released a loud groan and stretched his arms out to the side. "We're alone! Finally." He embraced Marissa in a hug and the two raced as quickly as two sleep deprived eighteen year olds could.

How wonderful grandparents come in handy, they'll be very lenient when choosing baby sitters especially since they'll all be hounding them to see the baby anyways. They slept in bed, at first taking a while to go to sleep expecting to be woken up any second by screams, but soon remembered the baby was out of the house. They slept the whole afternoon and woke up later in the day, refreshed and reenergized. It was wonderful. It was nice to be alone, just Ryan and Marissa, like old times. It even for a while began to feel like old times…no new baby, no apartment that they owned – just back in their regular houses. The feeling soon diminished when Julie and Kirsten came home…complete with their lifelong responsibility.