Disclaimer: I don't own 7th Heaven.

Surprise

"Surprise!" the Camden kids shouted as the door to their parents' home opened.

"You're not Mom," Mary stated the obvious, after it was revealed that Lucy was the one behind the door.

"You think?"

Mary threw an evil glance Simon's way, but he just smiled at her.

"I thought you were gonna make sure Mom answered the door. So?" Matt asked his younger sister.

"Mom left," Lucy answered.

"Left where?" asked Mary.

"She's visiting Aunt Lily."

"Since when?" Matt prompted Lucy to continue, since it didn't appear as though she'd tell the whole story without a little bit of help.

"Yesterday," Lucy flatly replied. She had accepted the fact that her surprise was ruined, but she didn't care to talk about it, even with her siblings.

"Don't you think you could've called us?"

"I did!" Lucy yelled at her little brother. She was starting to get just a little bit agitated with all the questions. And Simon's previous one was the last straw. "I couldn't get through on your house phones or your cell phones! I tried all night! So, don't you yell at me, Mister!"Lucy stood on her toes so she could yell directly into Simon's face, while pointing an accusing finger at him. Sometimes being short just wasn't worth it.

"We unplugged the phones and turned off our cells last night," Simon explained, backing away from Lucy. Even small people were sometimes scary. Especially when their hair seemed to be standing straight up on its own. Kind of looks a cat's hair when their mad, Simon thought.

"Yeah," Cecilia glanced at her husband, who had a goofy grin on his face. Wonder if he sees the resemblance of Lucy to a cat, too, she thought to herself. Cecilia shook her blonde head to clear her thoughts, and then turned back to Lucy, "We finally got Kylie to sleep and we didn't want to take the chance of the phones ringing and waking her, or ultimately us, up. We need to sleep, too, you know!"

"Yeah, but just because our phones were off doesn't give you an excuse," Simon started, regaining his courage. "Why didn't you know until last night that Mom was leaving?"

Walking out the door, Kevin answered Simon's question with two simple words, "Black Hole."

Immediately, Simon understood. "Oh," he nodded, while Lucy shot daggers at her husband.

Just then, Kylie started screaming.

"Not again," Simon whined.

"Shhh, it's OK, Baby," Cecilia tried to calm her daughter.

"Let me try," Simon took Kylie from his wife. He and Cecilia walked into the house to try and quiet the crying baby.

"And what, pray tell, is your excuse?" Lucy asked her two older siblings.

"We took a late flight last night, so we could be here this morning, like you said," Sarah glanced at Matt, slowly losing her courage under the miniature blonde's careful scrutiny. As mentioned before, Lucy could get pretty scary.

"And they said to turn off all cell phones for take-off," Matt picked up where his wife left off, careful to avoid Lucy's gaze, lest he should chicken out, too. "I guess we forgot to turn them back on."

"That sounds like something I would do."

"Honey, you did do that. Look," Carlos showed Mary their cells, "ours are off, too.

"Oh," Mary smiled.

"In, go in," Thomas giggled.

Outside, everyone smiled, while inside, Kylie wailed at the top of her little lungs.

"Mind if we come in, too?" Matt asked, not so afraid any more.

Lucy's hair seemed to have flattened back out, thanks to Thomas's cuteness. Thank goodness for small children.

"Sure, why not," Lucy lead the way inside.