A/N: Timelines may have changed from my Christmas stories, because I just don't want to make some things wait so long! A huge thanks to lily moonlight for letting me borrow Holly, I hope I do you proud!
Valentine's Day February 14th 2022
"And then we did a spearmint with the candy hearts and I guessed them all right, Mommy!" Holly said excitedly, shoving the handouts at her mother, curls bouncing along with her tiny body.
"I think you mean experiment, baby," Stella replied with a laugh, as she put her gun and badge in the safe before scooping her daughter up into a hug. "And good job on those observations, how did you get so smart?"
Holly gave her mother a confused look. "Because you and daddy are geniuses, Zavier said so."
"Maybe your mother is, but I don't claim to be a genius, Holly," Mac said, coming in from the kitchen where he was overseeing their older children's homework while preparing dinner. While he knew he could have found a sitter, not to mention Zaria had been begging them for the responsibility, he much preferred staying in with his family over taking Stella out to some fancy place during what his wife dubbed 'amateur hour'.
"I disagree, Mac Taylor," Stella protested, slipping out of her blazer and taking Holly's handouts toward the family board of accomplishments in the entryway.
Mac gave her a smile, taking in all the items on the board with pride. "And just what is your hypothesis for that, Stel?"
"Not a hypothesis at all, a conclusion, you moved down here, married me and made all my dreams come true by giving me this family. Sounds pretty genius to me," Stella replied, turning and giving him a long kiss, breaking away only as the strains of 'New York New York' sounded, their far away family wanting to FaceTime.
"Are you still sure about this Uncle Mac? These kids are going to be hopped up on so much sugar between today and their birthday on Thursday, I'm pretty sure they could power the plane," Gus said, looking from the iPad to all the candy piled on the table from the twins' backpacks with dismay.
"It's fine Gussie, I know how upset you were last year with it being cancelled and not being able to travel. What better way to celebrate their 8th birthday?" Mac smiled, thinking it had been far too long since they had all been together. In fact, most of Holly's memories of her cousins came from FaceTime.
"I can't believe the twins were Holly's age the last time we were down there!" Gus exclaimed, echoing Mac's thoughts.
"I can't believe you are flying with an eighteen month old," Stella quipped, passing by in the background, handing plates and cutlery to her brood as they set the table for dinner.
"Will is the easiest toddler on the planet and Parraine Billy would kill me if he didn't get to see his Godson soon!" Gus said with a laugh, looking over at her youngest who was currently stacking blocks in his play yard, or what Don loved to call 'baby lock-up' as the series of gates did resemble bars. She heard a thundering on the stairs, looking up and over in time to see a flash of long black hair fly past, grabbing the iPad off the table and taking it over to the den. "Bye Mac," she said with a laugh.
"Pepere Mac, I drew Valentine's for everyone!" Jess said, excitedly flashing her impressive artistic skills at the screen, her dimples winking as a broad grin spread across her face, her eyes growing wide as she knocked the iPad off the table, her 'older' brother catching it before it hit the floor. "Thanks Aiden!" she quipped, not missing a beat in showing off her artwork.
"And that's why we have life proof cases," Don remarked from the kitchen, checking the food in the stove.
"Life proof is not Flack proof," Gus said with a snort, before realizing that Will was currently using her phone as a teething ring. "Dagnabbit," she swore.
"You were saying, sunshine?" Don teased, dropping a kiss on his wife's head while stealing some of the twin's candy before going to rescue her phone.
A/N: Part 2 to follow tomorrow (?) featuring the Messers and the rest of the gang!
