To my awians...thanks so much for helping me brainstorm ideas for neighborhood names. You girls ROCK! I came up with something simple. At least I came up with something so I could finally post this darn thing LOL.

Oh okay and one more thing, I don't know anything about house buying but I really tried to learn it. I don't think I'll ever become a real estate agent though. Sounds like hard work to me LOL.

Chapter 5

The first chance they got, Rafe and Alison made an appointment with the real estate agent to see the house.

Kendra was more than happy to show them around. "As you can see, the exterior of the house is in excellent condition, and if you maintain the lawn, you'll keep this magnificent display of color in the spring."

"Ooo, Mommy! Come look!" Katrina hollered from the bushes by the porch.

"Looks like your daughter discovered the rose bush," Kendra said with a smile.

Alison walked over to the bush, amazed at all of the beautiful pink blooms. "I can't believe I didn't see these before!" She gave Rafe a smile. Could it have been more perfect?

"Me and Mommy love roses!" Katrina told Kendra happily. "It's our favorite flower because it's both of our middle names!"

"Well if we move in, baby, we can pick some roses for the house every morning."

Katrina smiled. She loved that idea!

"Shall we see the inside?" Kendra asked.

Rafe and Alison nodded, following Kendra up the steps.

"It's a very nice neighborhood," Kendra continued as she led them into the house. "It's pretty quiet. A lot of families live around here."

"We actually have some friends that live nearby," Alison mentioned.

"Oh, well that's perfect! It's nice to live close to your friends. This neighborhood is actually pretty close to everything, the hospital, the park, the river. Well, here is the living room, of course. It's very roomy."

Rafe surveyed the room, finally being able to see the inside of the house in the light.

"What do you think, Rafe?" Alison asked.

"So far, so good. Looks great."

"WOW!" Katrina ran into the house, amazed at all of the space. The lack of furniture barriers made it so tempting to run! She ran across the white carpet from one end of the room to the other.

"Katrina, don't run," Alison said.

"I'm just looking, Mommy!"

"You can explore, but don't run."

Kendra smiled. "She's adorable. Reminds me of my little girl. She just turned two."

"Ours just turned five," Alison said.

"Can I go upstairs?" Katrina begged.

"I'll go with her," Rafe said, following Katrina as she dashed up the staircase.

Alison turned to Kendra. "Could you tell me more about the features in the kitchen?"

"Of course. Follow me."

Upstairs, Katrina ran in and out of the rooms, quickly glancing at each one before running out to see the next. As she ran towards the end of the hall, she came across the master bedroom.

"Ooo! This room is BIG! I want this one!"

Rafe laughed as he walked into the room, scooping Katrina up into his arms. "Sorry Princess, but the big room is reserved for Mom and Dad."

"Oh man! No fair!"

Rafe laughed, setting her back down. "Well you know what?" he whispered.

"What?"

"The other rooms in this house...they're up for grabs! Go pick out the one you want."

Katrina's eyes grew wide. "I'm gonna go pick it right now!"

Rafe smiled, watching her run out into the hallway.

As Katrina looked around, so did Rafe. He peeked into the master bathroom, noticing how much bigger it was than theirs at home. Alison had failed to mention that it had a whirlpool tub too. Already he was envisioning some really romantic nights in that thing.

"Daddy! C'mere!"

Rafe headed out of the room, walking down the hallway to find Katrina. "Did you find your room, Princess?"

"Uh huh! This one!"

"Well this is a nice one! Look at that. You've even got shelves right here so you can put some toys."

"Yep! And a closet with foldy doors!"

Rafe laughed out loud. "'Foldy doors'?"

"Yeah! Like you and Mommy have in your room! They fold open. See?" Katrina demonstrated, opening and closing the accordion-styled doors.

"Well that's really cool."

"Let's show Mommy!"

Katrina ran out of the room, looking over the banister. "Mommy! Come upstairs! I wanna show you something!"

A few moments later, Alison headed upstairs.

"Come see, Mommy!" Katrina grabbed her hand, leading her to the bedroom she had chosen for herself. "I want this room! Daddy said I could have any room I wanted except the big room."

Alison laughed. "Well I think this is the perfect choice."

"And look at my closet doors! Aren't these cool? I want to paint my wall pink! Daddy said I could! When do we move in?"

Rafe laughed. "We have to buy the house first, Princess."

"Well when we do, this is my room. Oh, and come look, I picked out Gabe's room too!"

Katrina took her mother's hand again, showing her the room across the hall from hers. She looked up at her mother with a smile on her face. "Can this one be Gabe's room?"

Alison poked her head in. "I think this would make a great room for your little brother."

"He's just a baby, and he's not even born yet so I had to pick out his room for him," Katrina explained.

Alison laughed. "Well you did a good job picking out the rooms." Alison turned to Rafe. "So what do you think of the rooms?"

"I think you failed to mention that the master bathroom has no ordinary tub."

Alison laughed. "I wanted you to be surprised!"

"I was surprised. And I love it."

"Oh good!"

Kendra completed the tour of the house, showing off all of the little details that hadn't been noticed before.

"So, what's the consensus? Is this what you had in mind?" Kendra asked with a smile.

Rafe and Alison looked at each other and smiled. The decision had already been made.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

That evening, Lucy invited Rafe, Alison, and Katrina over for dinner.

She had planned a big dinner for herself, Kevin, and the girls, but Kevin was called unexpectedly to the hospital to check on a patient, and Serena had decided to hang out with her friends instead.

Lucy and Christina couldn't possibly eat all of it themselves, so Rafe and Alison were more than happy to help them finish it off.

"Lucy, that was really good," Rafe said, pushing his plate away as he finished.

"Well good! I'm glad you enjoyed it!"

"We ought to come over for dinner more often," Alison said with a smile.

"Mom, can we go play now?" Christina asked.

"Sure. Why don't you girls go play some games?"

Christina looked to Katrina and smiled. "You wanna play Candyland?"

"Yeah!"

The girls got up from their seats and left the table in a hurry.

"So, is Katrina still excited about the baby?" Lucy asked with a smile, watching the girls run off.

"Oh yes!" Alison laughed. "It was the first thing she told Miss Laurie when I took her to daycare this morning. She ran up to her and said, 'Guess what! Guess what! Mommy has a baby growing in her belly!'"

Lucy laughed. "So, have you made any nursery decorating plans yet? I suppose you can turn that spare bedroom into a nursery for the little guy."

Rafe and Alison smiled at each other.

"Well, cousin, that's actually something we wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Lucy perked up. "Well, you know if you need any help, I'd be more than happy to! How about baby blue walls for a baby boy?"

"That sounds great. Actually though, we were hoping you could help us with more than just the nursery," Rafe said.

"What's that?"

"We have a lot of packing to do," Alison said.

Lucy looked confused. "Packing? What are you packing?"

"Well...everything. We found a two-story house, Lucy, and we made an offer to the real estate agent this afternoon," Alison admitted.

"You're moving? When?"

"Soon. We want to have enough time to have things ready before the baby comes."

"That's great news! I'm so happy for you two! Where's the house?"

"It's in the Green Meadows neighborhood."

"Oh, that's not far away from Ian and Eve."

"Yeah, it's actually down the road from them."

"Lucy, we do hope you know how thankful we are that you let us stay in your house for so long," Rafe said, smiling.

"Well it worked out perfect. When I moved into that house, I didn't think Kevin and I would ever get back together. But then I didn't need it because we got back together, and the lighthouse has always been special to us. I was glad to let you two stay there. Although this news does make me a little sad though. This means I'll have to find new renters. You two were my favorite ones. I may not get so lucky next time. I might as well just sale it."

Rafe and Alison laughed.

"Well we'll miss the place," Alison said, taking Rafe's hand and giving it a little squeeze. "It has a lot of special memories for us."

Lucy smiled. "I'm sure it does."

"So you'll help us with the packing and moving, right?" Rafe asked.

"Of course! And decorating! Don't forget decorating! I'll call Don and he'll make all the arrangements! I need to see this place soon. We have a lot of work to do!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Rafe came home from work, he saw Alison sitting at the desk, talking on the phone. She silently waved at him, but she didn't look happy. He wondered what had made her so moody.

"I understand," Alison said into the phone. "Well, I'll need to discuss this with my husband. I'll call you back and let you know...Okay, thanks, Kendra."

Alison set the phone down.

"What's the matter?"

"The house we want is apparently very popular. Kendra said there were two more offers on it and they were both better than ours."

"Well then we just raise our offer, right?"

Alison looked up at him, a look of disappointment on her face. "Kendra advised us to offer this much." Alison handed him a paper, which she had written a figure on.

Rafe glanced at the paper, seeing the problem.

"We can't afford that, Rafe. It's too much. That's way over the limit we set. We might as well accept it. We lost the house. There's no way we could afford that."

Rafe took a seat at the edge of the desk, looking at the figure once more. "Yes we can."

"How, Rafe? I know I come from a family with money but that doesn't exactly mean Nana gives me an allowance anymore. I don't see how we could make a better offer."

Rafe sighed, looking into Alison's eyes. "We can if I sell my parent's house."

Alison's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"

"I've been thinking about it for a while. It would definitely bring in a lot more money that we could put towards buying a new house."

"But Rafe, that's your family home! You can't sell Kovich Manor. That's like a part of your family history."

"Alison, my home is here in Port Charles now. My home is here with you and our children, not in Romania in a house that I haven't seen in years."

"But it has to be important to you, Rafe. Are you sure you'd want to sell it?"

"Of course it's important to me." Rafe smiled at her, taking her hand. "But what's more important is you and the kids. And regardless of it I sell it or not, we're going to need a bigger place. Our family is growing."

Alison smiled, placing a hand on her stomach. "Yes, it is."

"And if we're buying a house, we're going to need the money. And selling the house is a way we can get it. Sure I'll miss Kovich Manor. I have a lot of good memories there, but it's time to let it go. I haven't taken as much care of it as I should have. I should find someone who will."

"Okay. But won't you be sad that you'll never get to see it again?"

"Oh I'll get to see it again," Rafe said with a smile. "I'll have to go fix it up and clear it out if I'm going to sell it."

Alison's eyes lit up. "Oh that's great! I've always wanted to see where you grew up!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well of course I'm going with you."

"No. Out of the question," Rafe said firmly.

"What? Why?"

"Well, because. Isn't it obvious?"

She thought for a moment. "Vampires?" Alison asked hesitantly.

"No. I'm not worried about vampires. I'm worried about you flying in your condition."

"My 'condition'?"

"Well, yeah. Do you really think it's a good idea for you to be flying across the Atlantic when you're pregnant?"

"I'm not that far along, Rafe."

"I don't care how far along you are. It'd still make me nervous."

"Rafe! I'd be fine! Trust me! You know I wouldn't go if I thought it would hurt the baby. Look, we could all go! We could take Katrina with us and it could be a family vacation!"

Rafe thought about it, but Alison sensed his uneasiness about it.

"I don't know," he said.

"Okay. Look. I'll check with Dr. Meadows. If she says no, and that's it's not a good idea for me to be flying, then I won't go. Okay? No questions asked. But if she says yes, then honey, why not?"

Rafe considered it. "I have always wanted to teach Katrina about her Romanian roots."

Alison grinned widely. "Is that a yes?"

"It's a yes, but only if Dr. Meadows okays it."

"Yes!" Alison squealed in delight, throwing her arms around him and giving him a smacking kiss on the cheek. "This is going to be so much fun! I can't wait!"