One of the worst parts of being a semi mortal angel, in Pony's opinion, was still being able to get sick. As rare as it was, it was still possible and pony hated it. He was laying in bed with the flu, thankfully his parents were babysitting the girls until Pony got better. He felt awful but Johnny was taking care of him so it wasn't too bad.
"pony, honey, sleep, it might be harder to get sick but that means it'll take much longer to recover." soothed Johnny
"I know but I just feel too much like crap to be able to sleep" groaned Pony
"then just relax, let me take care of you" soothed Johnny, laying a cool damp cloth on Pony's forehead and tucking the covers around him. Pony closed his eyes and tried to sleep. Johnny gently ran his hand through Pony's hair, brushing his sweaty bangs out of his face. Johnny sighed, the room was littered with used tissues, empty tissue boxes, empty and half full mug of tea and dirty soup bowls and bottles of cough medicine. He slowly started picking up the room, thanking his lucky stars that the girls were at their grandparents house. He piled the dishes into the already overflowing sink before going back to making sure Pony stayed asleep. He heard the front door open.
"Hey, we're home" shouted Dally
"Quiet down a bit please, Pony still has the flu" said Johnny
"Oops, Sorry" said Dally sheepishly.
"How about you go to bed Johnny, Dally and I can clean the house for you, you need to take care of your husband" said Abilene. Johnny nodded and went back into his and Pony's room, crawling into bed beside his sick husband. Meanwhile Dally and Abilene got to work on the dishes and making a fresh pot of tofu noodle soup and another pot of lemon and honey tea. Dally got the laundry started and cleaned the living room and bathrooms, changed the bed sheets in all the rooms and took out the trash.
"There, that should take some of the stress off them" said Abilene, putting the soup in the fridge to be heated up later. Dally smiled and put his arms around her.
"Shall we rendezvous in our room?" asked Dally kissing her neck making her giggle
"Later, we need to go grocery shopping for them" she said
"Why?" asked Dally
"Sweetie they took us into their home, their your oldest friends and they don't really have the time or the energy right now to go themselves" said Abilene. Dally sighed
"I know, it's just, I kinda wanted to spend some quality time with you, work today was rough, 3 suicides and six ODs, then I had to take three prisoners to hell, I hate going down there because it reminds me that I was almost sent there." said Dally shivering slightly
"I know how you feel honey, but you can't think like that, you're here, with me and your friends, you wanna know what I do when work gets me down?" said Abilene
"What?" asked Dally
"I keep a list of all the souls I've brought here to heaven, I look at it and it reminds me of all the families I've reunited" she said
"Wow, how long have you been do it?" asked Dally
"Since I first became a grim reaper, I died on the Titanic" she said
"Wow, what was that ship like?" asked Dally
"It was amazing, I was rather wealthy so I enjoyed the finer portions of it." she said
"Maybe later tonight you can regale me with stories of that cruise" said Dally
"Sure, now let's go shopping and then I'm all yours" she said kissing him. He smiled and the two went out, leaving a note telling Johnny where they went and that they'd be back soon. When they got back Johnny was heating up some of the soup for Pony
"Thanks for all the help you two" said Johnny
"No problem, it's the least we could do" said Abilene
"Pony should be better in a few days" said Johnny.
"Hey Johnny, Abby and I have been talking and well, would it be a problem if we had a kid of our own? It's just seeing you and Pony taking care of Ginger and Josie like a perfect team makes us want the same" said Dally. Johnny smiled
"Well it would be good for the girls to have a little cousin they can play with all the time, but the only problem I see is your work schedule, kids are a lot of work, Pony and I were young when we adopted the girls but we knew what we were getting into and we were prepared for it to be a lot of work, are you two absolutely sure that you want a kid, they do take up quite a bit of time in a person's life" said Johnny
"Well that's why we are asking you, we really want a kid of our own but we'd need you and Pony to babysit during the day" said Dally
"I'll discuss it with Pony later, were you guys thinking adoption or biological?" said Johnny
"Adoption, we bring so many kids up here that don't have families capable of taking them and it breaks our hearts every time we have to leave a sweet little baby at the orphanage" said Abilene
"Another question then, boy or girl?" said Johnny
"Probably a girl, we are used to dealing with your two so it might be a little easier to follow your guys' example" said Dally. Johnny sighed
"Pony and I aren't parenting experts, its a trial and error system, there is no following by example with parenting, there are obvious don'ts and possible do's and countless what the heck am I supposed to do about this's, are you 100% certain that you want the next 18 years of your afterlife to be spent in constant panic over what to do next and the constant nag of worry about whether you're doing the right thing for your child, it's a roller coaster. Sometimes is pure bliss and joy, the other times it's wanting to curl into a ball in the corner in fear that you've made a decision that will ruin your relationship with your spouse and or your child" said Johnny. Dally and Abilene looked at each other and nodded
"We're sure about this Johnny, we want a baby of our own to love and cherish" said Abilene.
"Alright, I'll let Pony know" said Johnny, hearing Dally and Abilene jumping up and down giggling with Joy, it made him smile, maybe a baby would be good for Dally. A few days later Pony was doing a lot better and the girls were back home, the four of them were sitting on the couch when Dally and Abilene walked in carrying a small little bundle.
"Guys, meet our new little bundle of Joy, Molly Elizabeth Winston" said Dally smiling and cuddling the baby in his arms. Pony and Johnny smiled as their girls looked at their new little cousin, cooing over her little wispy blonde hair and her sparkling blue eyes.
"Daddy, if Autie Abby is Molly's mommy, why don't we have a mommy?" asked Ginger, Pony sighed, the day had come to explain this to the girls.
"Because Daddy and Dada love each other, like Uncle Dally loves Autie Abby, so instead of a mommy and a daddy like Molly, you have a Daddy and a Dada, but we love both of you just as much as we would if you had a mommy and a daddy instead" said Johnny scooping his girls into his arms
"Oh." said Josie before snuggling into Johnny's chest
"I think I like having a Daddy and a Dada better anyway" said Ginger hugging Johnny
"Hey Dally, have you found your parents yet?" asked Pony
"Yeah, my dad didn't really make the cut for heaven, he was a bad person anyway so that doesn't really bother me, my mom is here but works full time as a secretary to some of the Prophets, she'll be coming for christmas though" said Dally
"that's nice" said Pony. Later that night pony and Johnny were getting ready for bed. Pony was looking at the baby pictures of the girls. He sighed the girls were I now 8 and going on 18, him and Johnny had finally let Steve show the girls how to fix and drive the car he had bought them when they were five, this was provided that Darry or Soda were with them and they never left their street.
"Johnny, I want another kid" sighed Pony. Johnny looked at him
"baby, are you sure, I mean Dally and Abby just got Molly and the girls are still quite a handful" said Johnny
"I know, but seeing how happy Dally and Abby looked with Molly, it made me remember how happy we were when we first adopted the girls, and well before we know it, they'll be all grown up and out of the house, I want another little one to shower with love and affection, plus it would be good for the girls to have a little sister" said Pony.
"so that answers my next question but why another girl?" asked Johnny
" I think the girls would be better with a little sister, I mean I'd be happy with either or but since we have the luxury of choice we should stay within our comfort zone and plus I kinda miss the spontaneous stuffed animal tea parties" said Pony looking fondly at all the photos. Johnny chuckled and hugged Pony from behind.
"I guess another baby girl would be nice, we'll go tomorrow" said Johnny, pony turned his head and kissed Johnny long and hard before they both fell onto the bed. The next morning they went to the orphanage and found a sweet, very quiet little baby girl with red hair that had little black streaks in it and she had a pair of hazel eyes that glittered like gemstones.
"she's perfect" said Johnny cradling the newborn.
"she just arrived an hour ago, poor thing,her mother didn't want to have her" said the head of the orphanage. The little girl grabbed Johnny's finger causing Johnny and pony to smile at her.
"she's the one for us" said Pony, they did all the paperwork and now she was Alison Rose Curtis. The instant they brought her home the twins walked up to their Dads and new little sister, they loved the baby instantly. Pony showed the girls how to hold her.
" four girls running around here by next year, now this is really heaven" said Abilene squeezing Dally's hand.
"I do have a question, why is it that you had to make sure we wanted a kid but you just spontaneously went out and adopted another one?" asked Dally
"we talked it over last night thoroughly, the girls are getting older and we realized that we never want an empty nest, we want to give kids a home because we can't have our own plus we love raising kids, besides, animal tea parties are great and seeing each other roped into putting on tutus and play makeup always makes us laugh, we don't want to give that up and with so many kids who need homes we never have too" said Pony
"just make sure you give Darry and Soda a nephew before they get too old to have fun with the kid" said Dally
"yeah, I know, next one we get will be a boy" said Pony.