Rafe watched Alison from the doorway. She stood in front of the full-length mirror, running her hands over her rounded stomach. Rafe thought she looked bigger than the day before, but he wasn't about to say anything about it for fear she would take it the wrong way.
"You look beautiful," Rafe said.
Alison turned to Rafe, just realizing he was standing there. "Thank you."
"Are you wearing that for me?" Rafe asked with a grin, commenting on the black negligee she wore.
"I'd wear it for no one else," she said, flashing him a smile. "Aren't you going to close the door?"
"I was thinking about it." Rafe closed the door, then locked it.
Alison walked over to Rafe, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Did you check on Katrina?"
"She's asleep."
Alison began to undo the buttons on Rafe's shirt. "Good. We better get started." Alison gave him a grin as she took his hand, leading him over to the bed.
"Well we've got plenty of time," Rafe said. "You know she'll be out for hours."
"But it won't be that way for too much longer. Once the baby comes he'll be awake every two hours and no one will get any sleep. Don't you remember how it was with Katrina? It felt like we were always in a rush."
Rafe laughed. "Yeah. That was never easy."
"So we better get used to it." Alison sat down on the bed, pulling Rafe down with her.
Rafe struggled with the last few buttons of his shirt, then slipping it off as he claimed her lips once again.
Rafe rested his hand on her hip, then slowly running his fingers against the length of her side until he touched her neck. His lips left her mouth as he moved to kiss the soft spot above her shoulder.
"Oh!" Alison suddenly moaned.
"Shh!" Rafe laughed. "You have to be quiet. You want to wake her up?"
Alison suddenly sat up, starting to laugh to herself.
The moment was obviously gone. Rafe looked at her, confused. "What's so funny?"
Alison gave Rafe a smile. "I think we already did wake someone up."
"What do you mean?"
"Gabriel's kicking me."
Rafe's eyes widened with excitement. "He's kicking?"
"Yes! Feel!"
Rafe placed his hands on her stomach, suddenly feeling the life inside of her make his presence known. He couldn't help but laugh. "That's amazing! Hey there, buddy!" Rafe said to Alison's stomach, hoping he could hear him.
Alison was in awe. "Wow. That's the first time I've felt him move! It's all so real now."
"He's most definitely a Kovich. That kick is strong," Rafe said with a laugh.
Moments later, the strong kicks they each had felt slowly turned into little thumps, and then he was done.
"I suppose he's comfortable now," Alison said. "So, where were we?" Alison moved closer to Rafe, placing her lips on his.
Rafe gently pulled away. "I'm not so sure we should do this right now."
"Not do what? Make love?"
"Well...yeah."
"I don't understand."
"Well, Angel, the kid's awake. Don't you think he's going to wonder what's going on?"
Alison began to laugh. "Oh, Rafe!"
"What? I'm serious! I mean he's just laying there, playing, and all of sudden...well you know! Wouldn't that scare you?"
Alison laughed even harder. "Rafe, I'm pretty sure it's dark in there! He can't see a thing!"
"Well sure, he's not going to be able to see but he'll certainly be aware of something!"
"Rafe, he's a fetus! He's not going to know what's going on! I promise! He's probably going to sleep!" Alison tried to stop laughing. "Come on, haven't we had this conversation before? I want you to make love to me. Now, you do want to make love to me, right?"
Rafe gave her a smile. "Of course I do. Why would you ask such a silly question?"
"I was just checking," Alison said, moving closer to Rafe. "Now, can we start again?"
Rafe wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. "With pleasure."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Now, Dolly, you eat your peas and carrots. They're good for you! Bernie, you make sure she does it. And no playing with your food! I'm gonna go wash the dishes and when I come back, I want to see a clean plate! Or no TV! Got it?"
Alison smiled as she watched her daughter playing in her room. "Hi, baby. Playing house?"
"Yeah. It's lunchtime. Hey, what's the box for?"
Alison put down the box she was holding on the floor. "Daddy brought them. We'll need lots of boxes to pack all of our things for the move. I thought I'd help you pack up your closet."
Alison started towards the closet, but Katrina suddenly ran in front of her. She stood in front of the door, blocking its entrance.
"No, Mommy! Don't go in there!"
"Why not?"
"Um, because there's a monster in there!"
"A monster?"
"Yeah! A really big and ugly one! You don't want to see him!"
"Well I'm not scared of any monsters." Alison started towards the door, but Katrina wouldn't budge.
"No, Mommy! He'll eat you if you let him out!"
Alison gave her daughter a suspicious look. "You know, I'm beginning to think that you're telling me a story. I don't think there's a monster in your closet. I think you're making it up because there's something in there that you don't want me to see."
"I don't want you to see the monster! You better not wake him up now because he'll be really grumpy if you disturb him!"
"Katrina, that's enough. Now move aside so I can get to your closet."
Katrina reluctantly moved away, watching as her mother turned the doorknob and opened the door.
When the door was finally open, what seemed like hundreds of toys spilled out onto the floor.
"Uh oh," Katrina said softly.
"Oh dear, Katrina Rose!"
"I told you not to open it!"
Alison looked down at all of the toys around her ankles. "Katrina, what are all of these toys doing in here like this? When I told you to put away your toys, I didn't mean stuff them all in the closet like this. I meant for you to put them away neatly."
"I try to, Mommy."
"Well how about putting these in your toy box then?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Cause they won't fit!" Katrina pointed to her toy chest, filled to the brim with toys. The lid wouldn't even completely close because it was so stuffed with toys.
Alison looked at the toy box, then to the toys on the floor, and back again to her daughter. "I think we have a big problem."
"Yeah, you're telling me! I think I'm gonna need a bigger toy box!"
"No, sweetie. I'm afraid we're going to have to get rid of some of these toys."
Katrina looked up at her mother with a confused expression. "Get rid of them?"
"I didn't realize you had so many. I don't think we can pack all of these. We'll have to give some of them away."
"No, Mommy! You can't give them away!" Katrina immediately got to the floor, grabbing a handful of stuffed animals and Barbie dolls. "We can pack them! We just need a big box!"
"Sweetie, we have no choice. These are just way too many toys for us to pack."
"We can pack them!"
"It'll make an awful lot of clutter. We can't bring all of them."
Katrina looked at her mother again, this time with sad eyes. "Was I bad? Is that why my toys are gonna be taken away?"
"Oh no, sweetie. No, of course not!" Alison had been so preoccupied with the clutter problem that the thought of Katrina thinking she was being punished hadn't even crossed her mind. She suddenly felt bad for raising her voice when she saw the mess. The kid couldn't help it. She had too many toys and no place to put them. "Come here, sit down."
Alison sat down on the bed and patted the space beside her. Katrina joined her.
"Katrina, you're not bad. You are a very sweet little girl. And you know what?"
"What?"
"You're also really lucky. Did you know that?"
"Because I got a lot of toys?"
"Well, that's not the only reason. Let me tell you something. Did you know that the are some children in this world, some children who live right here in Port Charles, and they don't have any toys?"
"No toys!" Katrina's eyes widened with surprise. She couldn't imagine a world without toys!
"Well they may have a few toys, but not many. And I'm sure they probably have to share with their brothers and sisters."
"Miss Laurie makes us share the toys, but that's not always fun. Because sometimes I like to play with the baby doll with blonde hair, but then Chelsea comes and takes it away and Miss Laurie says I have to share it. But there's only one doll with blonde hair and she hogs it!"
"Well that's probably what it's like for a lot of kids with only a few toys. They have to take turns playing with them."
"Mommy, doesn't Santa Claus bring them any toys?"
"He brings them what he can. But sometimes toys come last, because maybe they need food or clothes more. Toys cost money, and if they their mommies and daddies don't have a lot of money, they can't spend it on a lot of toys for their children."
"Daddy says when people don't have a lot, you should help them."
"That's right. How would you like to help those kids?"
"How?"
"I was thinking, since you already have so many toys, maybe you could give some of them to the kids who don't have any."
"I don't have to give them my dollhouse, do I?
"No. You wouldn't have to give away the toys you play with everyday. I wouldn't make you give away your dollhouse or Bernie or your dolls or any of that. Just the toys that you don't play with anymore or the ones you just don't want to keep." Alison looked to the floor, picking up something she hadn't seen in ages. "Like this teletubby. Do you play with this anymore?"
Katrina shook her head no. "I don't like teletubbies anymore! That's for babies!"
Alison laughed. "You see? I knew you had some toys you'd be willing to part with! How about we get two big boxes. In one box, we'll put all the toys that you want to keep. And in the other box, we'll put all the toys you want to give away."
"Okay!"
"Rafe!" Alison called out.
"Yeah?" he answered from the other room.
"Can you bring us another box? A big one!"
Moments later, Rafe walked in with the extra box. He surveyed the heap of toys on the floor. "I can see why you need the extra box," he said with a laugh.
"I'm giving away some of my toys, Daddy!" Katrina said proudly.
"You are?"
"Yeah. Mommy says some kids don't have toys and I have too many so I'm gonna give some toys to them so they'll have something to play with too!"
Rafe smiled at his daughter, sitting down on the bed beside her. "Well I think that's a great idea, Princess! And that's a very good thing for you to do."
"I'm gonna put all of the toys I don't want anymore in one box and the toys I want to keep in the other. And the toys I don't want are the ones I'll give away."
"Well I tell you what. If you get that box of toys together, I'll take them to the youth center and see if I can find some kids that would want them."
"Okay! I'm gonna start now!" Katrina hopped off the bed and got down on the floor. The first thing she grabbed was the teletubby. "Bye, Laa--Laa!" she said as she threw it into the box.
Rafe couldn't help but laugh. He was glad to see the teletubby go.
"Hey, Mommy! What about this?" Katrina picked up a soft stuffed elephant that played lullaby music when you pressed its belly.
"Oh wow, I remember that. You've have that for a long time."
"I don't want this anymore. It's sort of a baby toy. But maybe Gabe will want it! Can we keep it for Gabe? He'll need some toys too!"
Alison smiled. "That's a wonderful idea. We'll put aside some toys that you want to give to your brother."
Katrina smiled. She liked that idea. Then she happily went back to sorting through her toys.