I don't own the characters. The characters in my head that I do own would probably land me in a padded cell.

Chapter VII: I Fire Trucked Chuck

Johnny's apartment was near the city center and completely out of our way. I didn't mind though, it gave us more time alone and I could never tire of that. I didn't even get a chance to open my purse before he was throwing money at the taxi driver and thanking him. I scowled at him but I'm not so sure he took notice. I vowed to pay him back … somehow.

His bachelor pad was just that; a bachelor pad. I looked around while he showered and got dressed. There wasn't much to see. Just the basics; plasma T.V, large brown suede couch and a bean bag in the colors of his favorite team. I had a fleeting thought of throwing it over the balcony or marring it somehow, but he'd know it was me. I didn't want to reduce the chances of a repeat performance of the night before.

I checked over the couch and, seeing that it was free of stains, sat down until he appeared. He was dressed in dark jeans and a casual green shirt with some writing or pattern in black on the front of it. I couldn't quite make out what it was, possibly because I didn't spend much time looking at it. There was too much goodness to take in and I had to do it without seeming too creepy or stalker-ish.

It was my crush and he was standing in front of me, in his house, where I sat. I couldn't get my head around it, but more so, I couldn't fathom why he was looking at me the way that he looked at me right at that moment. His smile was almost … exhilarating. It wasn't the plastered on smile that he used for television either. It was genuine, and so surreal, not to mention contagious. I smiled back.

"So what do you think?" he asked, sweeping the room with a hand.

"It's nice!" I said enthusiastically. "The couch doesn't have boy stains on it. That's a bonus," I added, as I caressed the soft fabric with my hand.

He tilted his head slightly, looking at me like a confused puppy for a moment, before he rubbed his hands together with a toothy smile.

"Let's go see crazy Aunt Alice," he said, rather excitably. "I can't wait to have my future read," he added.

"I can tell you what's in your immediate future. You're about to meet the craziest lady you've ever laid eyes on." I took a moment to appraise him and then continued, "You're also going to meet my daughter," I said flatly.

"I've already met Sunny." He sounded confused.

"You've met her as Johnny Chuck, now you're about to meet her as …" I suddenly realized I didn't know his name at all and I looked up at him, eyes wide.

"Johnny Cullen," he replied easily. His smile was reassuring and I breathed a sigh of relief that his name wasn't something weird like … Johnny Musket Cheese or some shit.

He held his hand out to me as if he were introducing himself. I laughed but gave him my hand. Rather than shake my hand however, he pulled me into him and wrapped his arms around me.

I looked up at him and asked a question that had been on my mind for a while, "Are you sure about this?"

"Are you worried about me meeting Sunny?" he asked apprehensively.

I only thought about his question for a few moments before I responded. Sunny was impressionable, but she was at an age that meeting a guy once or twice wouldn't really register as something that could possibly disrupt her whole life and there for cause problems.

"No … no, I'm not."

His smile was easy but one of pleasure, he let go of me and took a step back. "Good, because I'm looking forward to meeting her again," he replied, sounding more relaxed than was normal for someone who was about to meet some strange woman's child – in a more personal setting – and crazy aunt. Sure, we'd shared a bed, but did this shit not seem weird to him?

"Orange or black?" he asked and I was shaken from my thoughts to see him pointing at two pairs of shoes. One of them obviously being the ones he wore at work. I felt a shiver run through me as I gazed at the orange pair.

"Black. Got to keep things G-rated, best to leave the orange ones at home," I replied, almost reluctantly. I sat back on the sofa to make sure my knees didn't buckle beneath me at the sight of his orange shoes.

He laughed at my reasoning and then picked up the black pair, before sitting next to me and tying them onto his feet. Once he had finished he turned to look at me.

"Ready to go?"

"The question is, are you ready?" I asked back.

"We'll find out wont we?" he replied with a wide smile.

He took my hand and pulled me up. Lacing our fingers, he then led the way to his garage, grabbing his keys from the kitchen bench on the way. I admired his shiny Honda as we approached it.

"Nice car," I commented.

He opened my door for me and I sat inside. "Perks of making a fool of myself on T.V," he replied before closing the door.

The drive to Ange's was a quiet one. He tried to start a conversation now and then but I was too highly strung to keep it going. When we were stopped in Ange's drive way I took a few deep and slow breaths.

His hand squeezed my knee gently and I glanced over to him. He seemed to be trying to reassure me. It occurred to me that I should be the one reassuring him. He was about to be interrogated by two very excited kids, my nosey best friend, and my all-knowing aunt.

"You sure about this?" Reassurance wasn't my strong point. Hell, I wanted to turn around and run, I couldn't understand why he wasn't even sweating.

He didn't answer; instead he exited the car and then walked around to open my door for me. His gentlemanly charms weren't completely lost amongst the panic raging inside me.

I rang the doorbell and waited for Ange to answer it. When she did, the look on her face was enough to simultaneously make me blush and want to giggle like a school girl. Had we still been in school, this is where we would have found a quiet corner to discuss all the gritty details from the night before. But now that we were mature adults, we had to hold in our girlish glee.

Ho hum.

We had barely stepped inside before the children could be heard running toward us. Both kids rounded the corner and abruptly dug their heels in when they saw Johnny.

"Hey guys!" Johnny smiled and gave a small wave.

"OH MY GOD! JOHNNY CHUCK IS IN MY HOUSE!" Tyler screamed and began to run around in a circle.

All of us laughed, except for Sunny who was still standing there, mouth agape.

"Hey honey, you remember Johnny?" I encouraged her.

Sunny nodded and then came up to me. She hugged my leg, hiding her face into me shyly. We shuffled our way through to the living room where Johnny met and shook hands with Ben. Ben gave me a sideways glance and I gave him my death glare, warning him to not embarrass me. He chuckled and offered us a coffee, which we accepted.

Before long, both of the kids were banished to the play room and we sat down to coffee and some carrot cake that Angela had cut up for us. I didn't realize until then just how hungry I was.

"So what's the plan today?" Angela asked. I could see that she was holding herself back.

I'm almost positive that sitting down for coffee and cake was not at all what she wanted to do. Much like myself, I'm fairly certain she wanted to celebrate this momentous achievement.

"Ah, firetruck. Excuse us a minute." Angela stood up and held her hand out to me. I looked around the room in confusion and saw that both Ben and Johnny had no idea what was going on either.

Angela moved her head slightly to the left, indicating that I must follow her. I excused myself and did as I was told. Angela led us to her room, closed the door behind us, grabbed my hands then proceeded to jump up and down while squealing like a little girl. I let it all out. Joining in on her chorus of childish squealing and jumped around in a circle.

"You got laid! And by Johnny Chuck! You fucked Johnny Chuck!" She squealed!

"I fucked Johnny Chuck!" I squealed in return.

Abruptly, we both stopped. We straightened our hair, brushed down our clothes and then looked at each other. We giggled simultaneously and she pulled me in for a quick hug. She opened the door and continued to straighten her clothes as we walked back toward the living room. As I followed, I practiced making my face look casual.

Nothing amiss here. Simply two grown women celebrating the coming together of Adventure and Wonder Worlds.

I walked to the wall and banged my forehead on the cream plaster. I massaged my cheeks, hoping to mold my goofy smile into a look of indifference. Once I felt I had gotten it under control, I turned and continued on.

By the time I re-entered the living room, Ange was already in her seat. She questioned me silently with her eyes and I shook my head minutely. I sat back down and kept my eyes on my coffee cup. I feared that if I looked at Johnny, my goofy grin would return.

"So, um, where were we? Oh, yeah! So what are you guys doing today?" Ange asked again.

"Going to see Aunty Alice," I mumbled into my coffee cup before taking a sip.

Both Angela and Ben looked at me, seemingly shocked. I figured, we were adults, and amongst friends, so I told them about Aunt Alice's cryptic message the night before and the one that morning. Some of it Johnny was hearing for the first time and I looked at him to garner his reaction. He looked intrigued and not at all freaked out. I wanted to check his temperature. He laughed along with Ben and Angela when I told them about the morning's 'playtime is over' message.

I decided that I had embarrassed myself enough and changed the direction of conversation.

"You're awfully perky for one who spent the evening painting the other bar patrons with remnants of her stomach contents," I complimented Angela.

"Oh, God," she groaned. "That's not even the worst of it." She didn't elaborate, instead choosing to busy herself by taking a sip of her drink.

"Why, what did you do?" I looked between her and Ben, begging with my eyes for the whole story.

"She tried to rape me," Ben replied with a smirk.

"I did not!" Angela admonished him and slapped him playfully.

"Did too!" he replied childishly. "Then she puked all over little Ben." Ben winced as he announced this news.

Johnny and I burst into hysterics while Angela sank into her seat, shooting devil eyes at her husband. I couldn't breathe through my laughter and when I tried gasping for breath, a piece of carrot cake came up and lodged itself in my wind pipe. I spent a minute coughing, tears streaming from my eyes and drinking down my coffee to help soothe my sore throat.

Johnny patted my back and the kids came in to see what all the noise was about. I used this as a scapegoat and told Angela that we should be on our way.

As I hugged Angela good bye she held me tight and whispered in my ear. "Details. Tonight." I nodded before she let me go.

I put Sunny in her seat and told Johnny to follow me in his car before exiting Ange's driveway and turning left.

I looked in the rear vision to make sure Johnny was following okay and then let my eyes sweep over Sunny before looking back to the road. She looked like she was concentrating on something or was rather deep in thought.

"You okay back there, sweetie?"

"Mommy?"

"Sunny?"

"Did Johnny stay over our place last night?"

"Um…"

Fuck.

Hands up how many mummies have been in this situation or been caught with hubby by the kids….awkward! Reminds me of that Modern Family episode…yeah, you know the one ;)

One more chapter to go. Thank you all so much for the support and for sticking this out. I'm still off kilter today but hope to be able to reply to reviews later, after a nap maybe. xx