"Maggie?" a deep voice softly calls.
Maggie just moans and tries to disappear under her blanket.
"Maggie, Morgan's awake and we'll be landing in about an hour," Ron tells her.
Maggie spends several seconds trying to process this information through her sleep fogged brain. With a sigh and a groan, she finally acknowledges what Ron's said.
"Thanks, Ron," she yawns as she props herself up on an elbow.
She can barely hear Morgan's whimpering over the drone of the plane's engines. With a tired sigh, she throws back the blankets and heaves herself upwards. After nearly cutting herself in two, she undoes the seatbelt and then gets up to attend to her daughter's needs. By the time the twins are both taken care of and she's gotten changed back into presentable clothing, Ron sticks his head back out of the cockpit.
"We're going to be landing shortly," he says.
"Thanks, Ron," she replies as she takes her seat and straps herself in.
A short time later she can feel the cabin pressure changing as her ears pop when she lets out another yawn. It doesn't take long for them to touch down and taxi towards the terminal. After they come to a stop and she can hear the engines powering down, she starts to undo the seatbelts holding down the twins' car seats.
Ron emerges from the cockpit and opens the hatch. He talks briefly with the ground crew before coming over to help Maggie with the twins. After draping a blanket over each of the baby carriers so that no one can see the kids, they exit the plane and blink into the early morning sun.
As they wait just outside the plane as one of the flight crew unloads Maggie and Ron's luggage onto a cart, Maggie digs around in her purse for her sunglasses. Once they're done, one of the crew pushes the cart over to them and Ron starts pushing the cart towards the parking lot, baby carrier still in hand. Maggie just trudges along behind him, too tired to care where they're going as she shifts her carrier from one hand to the next.
Several minutes later, they finally reach a SUV that's waiting for them with Sharon behind the wheel. Sharon hops out and quickly comes around the vehicle with her arms open. Ron puts the carrier down and makes sure the cart isn't going to roll anywhere before giving his wife a kiss hello that quite possibly includes the checking for tonsils.
Maggie attempts to ignore them by trying to get the carrier she's carrying into the back seat of the SUV only to find that she's too short to get the thing up there. With a quiet chuckle, Sharon takes pity on her and climbs into the back of the vehicle before taking the first carrier from her cousin. While the two women get the car seats situated, Ron loads the luggage into the back and then returns the cart to where it belongs.
By the time he gets back, the car seats are in and Maggie is sandwiched between the two of them while Sharon has settled into the driver's seat. Ron stops and narrows his eyes at his wife while she just gives him a big grin.
"My car," he snarls at her through the open driver's window.
"But, sweetie, you just flew in from California," she replies in her sweetest voice. "You must be all worn out after that long flight."
"Will someone please just drive this thing?" Maggie growls without looking up from where she has her head on the back of the seat. "I got all of four hours of sleep or so and I still need to get home."
"See?" Sharon continues in that sugary sweet voice. "Maggie needs to get home and here we are keeping her from her bed."
"Then move over," he orders.
He opens the driver's door and starts crowding his wife out of her seat. A brief, but loud struggle ensues that includes many giggles and playful shrieks coming from Sharon as Ron bulldogs his way into the driver's seat. Maggie doesn't even look up as she nails each of them with a baby toy going on 'feel' alone.
"Save the wrestling match for when you get home," Maggie grumbles. "Just get me to my car so I can go home."
Ron leers at his wife who's looking worriedly at her cousin. One look at Sharon's face and Ron knows their wrestling match is going to have to wait. Sharon turns her gaze to her husband who sighs and reluctantly nods. She smiles at him and gives him a quick kiss before moving over to the passenger seat.
He slides into the driver's seat, hits the button that automatically adjusts the seat for him, straps in and then turns the engine over. By the time they get to the interstate, Maggie is sound asleep and snoring away in the back seat. Luckily it's a Saturday so traffic isn't too bad and they get Maggie home in about an hour. Well, at least most of the way home.
"What's the code?" Ron asks Sharon.
"How should I know?" Sharon asks back as she reaches over and shakes Maggie's knee. "Maggie, honey, you need to wake up."
"Where are we?" Maggie inquires groggily.
"We brought you home," Sharon quietly answers. "What's the code to get the gate to open?"
"7873," Maggie automatically responds and then lets out a huge yawn.
Ron rolls down the window and punches in the code. The gate swings open almost noiselessly and Ron puts the SUV into gear. They drive up the driveway, around the red oak and stop in front of the steps. A tall thin man holding a baby steps out the front door and looks quizzically at them. It takes Maggie several seconds to realize what's wrong with this picture.
"Umm…Maggie?" Sharon questions as she looks back at the other woman.
"Oops," Maggie chuckles.
"Maggie? Is that you?" the man on the porch calls.
"Hi, Doug," Maggie greets after rolling down her window. "Ron and Sharon were driving me home and I guess they forgot I moved."
"Oops," Sharon echoes, turning a lovely shade of pink. "Sorry."
"Hey, that's ok," Doug assures her. "I'm just glad you're alright. We got a bunch of calls a few months back asking if we'd seen you. You had us worried, little missy."
"I'm sorry, Doug," Maggie replies. "I didn't realize that you and Helen were going to be bothered because I left."
"Care to tell me what happened?" he asks as he comes down the steps, shifting the baby in his arms.
"Not right now," Maggie answers. "I see you guys had your baby. What did you have?"
"We have another boy," the proud papa grins as he shifts the baby so Maggie can see him. "His name is Brian."
"He's beautiful," she says. "I love the name."
"So did you have a boy or a girl?" he asks as he steps closer to the car to peek in the window better.
"Yes," she grins back.
"Yes?" he questions, his eyebrows threatening to become one with his hairline.
"This is Dylan," she tells him as she pulls back the blanket.
"He looks like his daddy," he states, completely nonplussed by the blue tint or the stripes.
"And this is Morgan," she continues as she pulls back the other blanket.
"Why's that one green?" he asks, standing on tiptoe to get a better look.
"We think it's because she's a girl," she answers. "Where's Helen?"
"She's giving the animals their breakfast," he replies as he stands flat again. "She should be back up in a minute. Do you want to come in?"
"I'd love to, but I have a feeling Sharon and Ron want to get home soon," she sadly declines.
"Got that right," Ron grumbles from where he's slouched in his seat.
At that precise moment, Helen comes up the path from the ranch. She looks quizzically at the SUV parked in front of her home until she sees Maggie waving at her and then a big smile lights her face. She races around to the same side as Doug and reaches inside the vehicle to grab Maggie's outstretched hand.
"You're back and you're alright," Helen exclaims. "We were so worried about you. And you had the baby…babies?"
"Morgan and Dylan," Maggie informs Helen, pointing to each child in turn.
"How cute," Helen coos. "And so colorful. At least it'll be easy to tell them apart."
"I'm sorry to have worried you," Maggie states remorsefully.
"Well, I'm just glad you're alright," Helen replies. "I love your hair cut. It looks cute short."
"Thanks, it's so much easier to care for," Maggie responds.
"What does Abe think of it?" Helen asks.
"He likes that it's easier to get to my neck," Maggie snickers and she can hear Sharon and Ron chuckling.
"How is Abe?" Doug inquires.
"He was ok when I talked to him a couple nights ago," Maggie answers. "But I probably should be getting home. He's probably worried about me."
"Ok, it was good seeing you again," Helen says as she and Doug step away from the car.
"Don't be a stranger," Doug tells Maggie.
"It was good seeing you two as well," Maggie replies as Ron starts the engine of the car. "I'll try and stop by a little more often."
"You better," Helen calls back as the SUV starts to pull away.
Maggie continues to wave until they exit through the gate and then she turns back around, a silly grin on her face. She sighs happily as they drive down the road towards her current home. A short time later they're pulling up to a different gate and Maggie gives the code to this one.
Ron pulls up to the front door and parks the car. He gets out and starts to unload her luggage as she and Sharon get the car seats out. Maggie lets them into the house and Ron proceeds to place the bags just inside the front door while Maggie and Sharon bring the babies upstairs.
They put the babies in their crib and get them tucked in. Maggie follows Sharon back downstairs and out the front door. As they step out into the bright sunlight, Ron is shutting the back of the SUV and Sharon turns towards her cousin while Ron gets behind the wheel of the car again.
"Thank you so much for driving me home," Maggie says. "You didn't really have to, you know."
"Yes, we did," Sharon replies. "You were wiped out and there's no way I was about to let you drive while you were that tired. Especially since you have the babies now."
"You're right, I was wiped out," Maggie agrees. "I'm not about to run any marathons right now as it is, but I do feel a bit better. Thanks."
"You're welcome," Sharon smiles as she gives Maggie a hug.
With that, Sharon turns around and quickly gets into the SUV. She waves goodbye as they pull away and Maggie returns the gesture. Once they're gone, she goes back inside and pushes the button that closes the gate.
She heads to the kitchen hoping that maybe there's a frozen bagel in the freezer that she can have for breakfast. At the very least, she can make herself some coffee and have a bowl of dry cereal. When she gets to the kitchen, she opens the refrigerator door with great trepidation and just about has a heart attack.
Instead of the green fuzzy food and slimy mold that she expected to find, she finds a fridge that's been cleaned out of science experiments and restocked with fresh food. She glances at the kitchen counter and sees that the fruit bowl has fresh fruit in it as well. With a smile on her face she makes herself a breakfast of orange juice, coffee, bagel and a banana before she finally decides to head upstairs with some of her luggage.
As she passes the nursery she can hear Morgan starting to stir and with a resigned sigh, she heads down the hall to drop off her bags. When she opens her bedroom door she nearly gasps in surprise to what's waiting there. With a smirk on her face, she quietly puts down her luggage and then heads off to tend to her children's needs before coming back to her homecoming surprise.
Author's Notes: Yeah, I know it's short, but I promise that there will be plenty of ahem action in the next chapter.