Disclaimer: I don't own 7th Heaven.

Annie's Home

Lucy sighed as she sat down on the newly cleaned couch next to Mary. "I didn't think we'd ever finish."

"I told you we'd be done by six p.m., in fact, we're done one full minute earlier," the Colonel said, glancing down at his watch.

"Woo-hoo," Ruthie said, lacking enthusiasm. "Now, can you throw away that stupid whistle?"

"Not a chance, Dear. I must keep this whistle for all time. It's rather precious to me; you see, I've had it for quite some time," said the Colonel, a grin on his aged face.

"No, you haven't," accused Ruthie. "That's the third or fourth one you've pulled out in less than two days. Those are stupid, cheap, little, convenient-store whistles!"

"Well, that may be so, Ruthie, Dear, but I still like my whistle."

Ruthie groaned.

A key turned in the lock of the front door. Happy let loose with a couple of barks that were really almost growls.

"How'd the pizza guy get a key to our house?" Mary asked, for she was, once again, genuinely confused.

"You can't be serious. I cannot be related to such a dumb person."

"No name-calling, Simon; I'll go see who that is," the Colonel said, rising.

The front door, however, opened before he even got out of the living room. "Eric, are you here?" Annie called as she entered the house.

Eric went into the foyer, "Annie? What are you doing back so soon, Honey?"

Annie ran up to her husband. She hugged him. "I just missed you and the kids so much! I had to come back."

"Mom?"

"Mary!" Annie exclaimed. "Sweetie, when did you get here?" She hugged her daughter.

"Yesterday."

"Simon!" Annie hugged him. "Oh, hi, Happy," she leaned down to pet the dog who had walked in with her son. Happy suppressed the urge to beg in a doggie cry, since she couldn't growl.

"Yeah, she got here with the rest of us."

"Matt!" Annie gave her oldest child a bear hug. "Oh, my Babies," she caressed each of their faces to make sure they're really there.

"Hey, Mom." Ruthie hugged Annie.

"Hi, Mom," Lucy entered the foyer, pouting. "We were going to surprise you, but you went and left."

"Oh, Luce, I'm sorry, Baby," Annie kissed Lucy on the cheek. "Is everyone here?"

"Yep," Cecilia answered.

"Every last one of us," Sarah entered, holding a sleepy Thomas' hand.

"Cecilia, Sarah, Tommy," Annie hugged them all.

Simon turned to Matt and laughed. That'll teach his brother to be so obsessive over his son and nicknames.

"What about me?" Carlos asked with a laugh.

"Carlos!" Annie hugged her son-in-law. "Where are the other kids? Kylie? And the twins?"

Kylie wailed. Cecilia pointed to the ceiling. "That would be Kylie, now." She took Simon's hand, pulling him toward the stairs.

"And Johnny and Jessica are asleep."

"Yeah, and Sam and David fell asleep about thirty minutes ago," Matt said. "Me and the Colonel carried them upstairs."

"The Colonel?" Annie questioned.

"Hi, Annie, Dear."

"Colonel! It's so good to see you," Annie said, hugging him.

Simon and Cecilia came back downstairs, Kylie in her mother's arms. Sam and David weren't far behind. They hugged Annie excitedly the second they reached her.

"Hi, Babies," Annie picked each up, kissing their foreheads. Kylie cried.

"Shh-hh," Cecilia patted Kylie's back. "Shh-hh; Shh."

Annie let Sam and David go. "Is somebody jealous because Grandma never told them hello?" she said in a baby-voice wile she took the baby from Cecilia. "Come on; let's all go in the living room. You can catch me up on all your lives," Annie led the way.

"Look at this place," she exclaimed. Everyone cringed, thinking she was about to criticize all their hard work. "It's spotless! You cleaned, too?" The group let out a collective sigh of relief.

"You should've seen it before," Simon said.

Cecilia looked at her husband. "I think it's better that you didn't," she said turning back to Annie.

"Mommy! Matt and Mary and Lucy and Simon and Ruthie made a big mess all over," Sam tattled.

"Yeah, so Grandpa-"

"Colonel," Sam corrected David, again.

"Oh, yeah. So, Colonel made us all clean the whole house until it shined."

"And Ruthie bugged Simon and Cecilia," Sam told his mom.

"She poured HONEY everywhere!" David said.

Ruthie tried to tiptoe out of the room.

"Ruthie!"

She turned around, slowly. "Yes, Mom," she laughed nervously.

"What are the boys talking about?" Annie confronted her.

"It's nothing," Eric didn't give Ruthie time to answer. "Dad took care of it."

Happy barked when she saw the Colonel smiling.