Authors Note:
Lauren- I absolutely LOVE getting all your reviews, I really do… and I mean this in the nicest way possible… PLEASE stop with the G-d stuff! I respect your religion and beliefs, but I'd honestly prefer you not review my story if you're going to write that stuff at the end. Also, if I do include Jeanie and/or Lucy it probably won't come up for awhile because I'm really not focusing this story on them.
Angie, HP, Neela, everyone else- Thank you so much for taking the time to read this story! It's definitely giving me the inspiration to keep working on it! I'm sure you guys all know that getting reviews (good or bad) inspires one to keep going!

The next morning Doug woke up to the sound of an alarm clock buzzing. He was almost positive he hadn't set the alarm, and groggily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, squinting at the numbers. When he saw it was 10am, he flipped over quickly to wake Carol and was surprised to find she was nowhere in sight. He jumped out of bed, throwing on his robe and rushed out the door. Checking the twins' room and finding it empty, he continued down the hall after seeing the empty bathroom and went into the living room. It was there that he spotted his wife asleep on the couch with Kate resting comfortably at her side in a warm embrace. He decided not to wake them up, figuring they'd had a long night and went to get ready for the day. After taking his shower and getting dressed, he headed into the kitchen to prepare a little breakfast. It was then that he noticed the gift basket Elizabeth had left for them. He decided not to peek into it just then, wanting to wait until the entire family was together. Realizing that they had virtually no breakfast food and it was nearly 11am, he went over to Carol and gave her a kiss on the cheek, waking her up.

"What?" Carol said softly as she began to wake up, Kate still in her arms, "What's going on?"

"Shh, it's just me," Doug said, stroking her hair, "It's almost 11, I'm going to take Tess to the zoo. Everything okay here?"

"Um," she said, looking at the sleeping child, "Yah, we had a little problem last night but I think everything's okay."

"Okay," he whispered. "I've got my cell and my pager with me incase you need anything. Have a good day."

"You too." She said, kissing him softly before he walked out the door. She then promptly fell back to sleep. They'd been up for 3 hours in the middle of the night and she hadn't gotten Kate to fall asleep again until 6am.

"Daddy! Daddy guess what me and Rachel did this morning?" Tess said, thrilled to see her father. "Guess what! We put on makeup! Don't I look grown up?"

"Yes you do, but I think we're going to be wiping that off before Mommy sees you, right?" Doug chuckled, looking over at Elizabeth who innocently put her hands in the air. "Why don't you go wash your face so we can go to the zoo?"

"We're going to the zoo?" Tess asked, nearly breaking the sound barrier. "Can Rachel come to the zoo, can she please?"

"What do you say Rachel? Would you like to go to the zoo with us today?" Doug asked, not wanting to put Rachel on the spot, but not having much of a choice as Tess waited eagerly for a reply.

"Sure, I guess. Did my dad say it was okay?" Rachel asked, a complacent smile adorning her face. Truth be told, she had fun with Tess the previous night, she didn't mind babysitting too much, and Tess was an interesting kid. When she wasn't around too many people she could even be downright quiet and contemplative. "Just let me get some things."

Doug smiled as he watched Rachel and Tess go off to get ready for the zoo. "So, how much trouble was she?"

"Oh, she's a real sweetheart, Doug. Truly it was no trouble at all." Elizabeth said with a smile, handing Doug a cup of coffee. "You know they're both welcome anytime."

"Thanks Elizabeth." Doug said, giving a charismatic smile that made his eyes twinkle.

"How long do you expect you'll be gone?" she asked, unsure if she and Mark would be expecting people for dinner or not.

"I'd say we'll be back by 5:30, if not I'll call. I don't think I could stick Carol with Kate duty all day while I get to play in the zoo with Tess." Doug said.

"How is she doing?" Elizabeth wondered, a bit concerned about her new neighbors.

"You know what, I actually have no idea." He responded, shaking his head, "When I woke up, Carol and Kate were asleep on the couch and I'd bet good money they're going to be out at least until 2pm."

"If you'd like I could check on them a bit later," Elizabeth volunteered.

"No, I'm sure if Carol needs anything she'll call." He reassured her. As Tess ran out of the bathroom, face cleaned and jumped into her father's arms, Doug gave a little grunt, not quite expecting to have her suddenly in his arms.

"Daddy, can we go to the zoo now? Is mommy and Kate ready?" she had a large grin on her face.

"Are…" he corrected.

"Are mommy and Kate ready?" she asked again.

"Mommy and Kate are going to have a rest day; it's going to be just you, me and Rachel." Doug said, wondering how she would react to the news.

Tess was silent for a moment, considering her feelings. She certainly wanted her twin with her, as well as her mother, but those desires weren't strong enough to complicate what would otherwise be an exciting activity so she said, "Then can we go?"

Rachel appear in the living room, dressed appropriately in jeans and a T-shirt, holding her backpack which contained a camera, a hat, a handheld fan, her cell phone, and a few various accessories. "I'm ready."

"Great! Last one to the car is a rotten egg!" Doug exclaimed, putting Tess down, but not moving a muscle. "Wait, scratch that thought. We don't have a car. Tess, how would you like to go on a trip in a Taxi?"

"We're still going to the zoo, right?" Tess asked, concerned that plans may have changed without her knowledge.

"Yeah, still going to the zoo." Doug laughed, taking her hand in his. The last thing the family needed was to have a child run into the middle of the street.

"Doesn't Rachel have to hold hands too?" Tess asked, knowing that all kids were supposed to hold their parents hands.

"Uh, sure." Rachel said, grabbing Tess' other hand as the three went out to the street to attempt to hail a cab.

"So, Rachel, what's your favorite part of the zoo? The last I remember you were very attracted to anything of the equine variety." Doug said, trying to make conversation as Tess colored in her coloring book, swinging her legs back and forth.

"I guess I like the seals the most, they have a pretty cool training demonstration in the afternoon." Rachel admitted. She wasn't completely comfortable in the situation, not knowing Doug or Tess very well, but she tried to make the most of it.

"Know what I like Rachel?" Tess asked, semi-replying to the question Doug had asked Rachel. "I like the gorilla's the most! They are the best animals!"

"Cool." Rachel said, then returned to her previous activity of staring out the window.

"Daddy can I have ice cream when we get there?" Tess asked sweetly, she had a sincere love of everything sugary.

"Maybe, we'll see what we can find when we get there. Rachel, would you like a snack when we get to the zoo?" Doug asked.

Tess looked at Rachel with her big brown eyes, hopeful that she'd say yes. "Sure, I guess ice cream wouldn't be too bad."

"Chocolate, right?" Tess asked her two older companions.

"Oh yeah, it has to be chocolate if it's touching my lips," Rachel joked. Tess simply smiled in response to that comment and imagined the ice cream she was going to get once they arrived at the zoo.

As the cab pulled up to the zoo's entrance, Doug paid him, giving him a healthy sized tip and grabbed Tess up, giving her raspberries on the cheek as they approached the ice cream shop. The line wasn't too extraordinarily long, and Doug, Rachel and Tess stood in it, Doug joking around the entire time. When they were in the front of the line, Doug ordered 3 chocolate ice creams in waffle cones, knowing that Tess would more than likely get halfway through with hers and lose interest in it. Doug grabbed 2 of the cones, letting Rachel take her own from the man, and led them over to a bench so they could wrap the ice cream up in napkins to prevent leakage. The ice cream was cool and flavorful and both girls seemed to really be enjoying their treats. Doug liked the ice cream as well, but was surprised at the substantial cost, attributing it to the fact that it was a "free" zoo. When the three had finished, Doug took great care to wipe the chocolate off of his daughters face, it was smeared from cheek to cheek, forehead to chin of the little 6 year old girl who had managed to eat nearly ¾ of it before making a face and dumping it into the trash can. Rachel, of course, had eaten hers quite neatly and still had only gotten ¾ of the way through her cone before she had to dump the monstrosity. Doug had finished his quickly and all that he had left was a wrapper to the waffle cone.

"All right everyone," Doug said, reaching into his own backpack, "hats on… and let's move!"

Tess grabbed her hat from her father and placed it snuggly on her head, gripping his hand and pulling him towards one of the zoo maps. "Daddy I want to go see the gorillas!"

"Tess, Rachel is our guest, don't you think we should ask her what she wants to do?" he reminded her.

"No!" she said quickly.

"It's okay Doug, the Gorilla's are a good place to start, they're pretty close to where we are right now and the seals show isn't until 2pm." Rachel said as she pulled her ponytail through the back of her hat.

"Gorilla's it is then." He announced with a goofy grin, doing a silly scarecrow walk towards the enclosure.

"Daddy!" Tess shrieked, "We have to act normal in public! Remember Mommy said to be on our best behavior when we're in Chicago?"

Doug laughed and walked normally with Tess and Rachel to look at the animals. Sometimes he wondered if zoos were really such a great thing to have in a country which supposedly valued freedom above all other liberties. The gorillas sat in their enclosure, perfectly satisfied to ignore the gawking visitors. One, a particularly large female, was picking at her baby and Tess found this especially fascinating as she got as close as she could to the walled off animals.

"Daddy look what she's doing! She's eating bugs!" she exclaimed. "Rachel, look she's eating the bugs off him! When my class went to the zoo this year our teacher told us that's what they do instead of combing their baby's hair!"

"That's cool Tess." Rachel said, observing how the gorilla's interacted with one another. If she was smart she could find a way to take notes on the entire trip and turn it into some sort of extra credit project for a class the following year. "It should be feeding time pretty soon; you're really going to like this."

"What do they do for feeding time?" Tess inquired, looking up to Rachel who seemed to know everything about the zoo.

"You'll see, just watch… it's really cool" Rachel assured her. Just as she'd spoken, food began to fly from above the enclosure towards the animals and they excitedly began attempting to catch the food and steal it from the larger gorillas. The smaller ones were especially amusing as they tripped over themselves, trying to stealthily snatch food that the larger ones hadn't noticed.

"Daddy, look! Look at that one! Look it stole the melon from the big one!" Tess shrieked, she could think of nothing better than what was going on in front of her eyes.