"You have a whole room just for me?" Kate grins toward her brother, sitting up in bed and wearing a set of pajamas her sister-in-law had bought for her.
"Of course, Katie." Chad smirks toward his sister, "And Tricia bought you some stuff to wear. We're always really busy and aren't able to see you as often as we would like, but you've always had this here. It was important to us to have you over as much as we could when we moved here. Just so happened that we got really busy. I'm sorry for that." He has always felt like he needed to apologize to his younger sister, mostly because of how he thought and acted toward her from the time he found out his mother was pregnant, until he started going to Alcoholics Anonymous.
"It's okay. This room is really nice." She looks around, "Like at Ikea. I went there with Uncle Louie and Lizard once. Have you ever been to Ikea?"
"Surprisingly, no." He shakes his head, taking a seat on a beanbag within the room, "You like the colors and everything? We want it to be exactly what you want so that you'll feel at home whenever you stay."
"You should go to Ikea." Kate nods, "It's like...really nice. Like the perfect house." She grins broadly, "Do you think Tricia will help me fix my room at home?"
"Didn't Mom and Andy hire a designer to fix your room at the house?"
Kate shrugs, "I want it like this though...with this light green and the peach...and the sparkly things. The unicorns!"
Tricia walks past the doorway, their niece on her hip. "Good morning, Katie." She beams toward the girl.
"Kate was saying how much she hates her room." Chad teases.
"No, I don't!" Kate leaps from the bed, walking over to her, "I love all of it." She pokes her niece in the belly, "Morning, my baby." She continues with her initial line of thought, "I was asking my brother if you would help me fix my room at home. Will you? Will you help me? Please?"
"Of course." Tricia hugs the girl, setting Freya down. She makes eye contact with her husband once the two girls walk over to a tent within the room. "Well...this was nice, right?"
Chad nods slowly, getting up to move closer to his wife, sitting down on the bed next to her. "We'll find out soon if the next cycle had taken with the surrogate." He wraps an arm around her, kissing her temple, "Everything is going to work out. Don't worry. We can keep going with the adoption things as well. Whatever you want."
"With me being on dialysis and..." She shrugs, "Your family's ability to pop them out like Jiffy-pop has me...I don't know...Not jealous, but..." Tricia stops her train of thought when her husband's lips press against her own. "What was that for?" She asks as they break apart.
"This isn't your fault. Our family is supposed to grow a different way." He grins toward her, "I love the hell outta you. So...I'm going to personally ensure that you get everything you want. Even if it's a bunch of babies...even if those babies are adopted from all around the world. Just a Small World attraction waiting to happen."
Tricia begins to giggle at her husband's attempt to cheer her up. "Let's get the girls a bath and get them dressed. We're due over your parents' for brunch in a couple hours."
"Which I still think was a stupid idea. Mac was hammered yesterday...they were all hammered yesterday." Chad shakes his head, looking down when his sister walks back over to them, "Bath cool with you?"
Kate nods, "I think Freya has to go to the potty though."
"I'm on it!" Tricia stands, picking the girl up to walk to the restroom.
She watches as the woman leaves, glancing back toward her brother, "I would like to stay here more often, if that's okay. Tricia is really nice and I don't even hardly know her. She's really pretty and smart. You married a Barbie doll, Chad." Kate nods slowly, embracing her oldest brother, "And I like spending time with you. You're funny...and you smell nice."
"Well, I'm glad you like my smell." Chad nods slowly, amused with the girl's train of thought, "And I'm incredibly lucky Tricia puts up with me. Trust me." He holds her a little, "I'm also lucky to have you for a sister...you'll smell better after a bath though. I think Tricia has some of those bath bombs or whatever they're called that make the water all fizzy." He chuckles as she takes off toward the bath.
"You're okay. Everything is okay." Eve held her younger brother in bed, gently stroking his hair as he sobbed against her. "I'm right here and you're safe."
"I couldn't protect her. I couldn't protect Mom like I should." Rusty croaked out, shaking his head.
"Mom is fine. Mom is safe. Just like you. Just like all of us."
Julio stood in the doorway, blinking wearily, "He alright?"
Eve glanced up toward her partner, "Still think this is something he can handle himself?" Her brother withered in her arms, gripping onto his older sister.
He stepped in more, "Is there something I can do?" The older man sat at the edge of the bed, "He isn't hurting you, is he? Not that he would mean to, but you know what I'm saying."
"No. He's just terrified. I can't tell if he's like...sleep talking or...just truly terrified." She sighed softly, "Maybe a mixture of both?"
Rusty screamed out again before muffling his face against the young woman.
Eve shrugged, "I think it just has to ride out it's course."
"What about waking him up?" Julio offered, "I know some people say not to wake someone who is sleepwalking, but he's...maybe he's the exception?" He watched the young man more, "You need sleep. Let's figure this out."
"Julio, I think it just-"
"Rusty, man. Hey." He tried to turn him away from his partner, receiving an unexpected fist to the face from the young man. "Damn it." Julio backed away.
Eve bit her lips closed, attempting not to laugh. "I've got this, babe."
"You were right about the bath." Sharon holds onto her husband's arm as they walk up the path to their own home. Glad all of their children had sets of keys to their abode as to let themselves in when they weren't home. They all look like they've beat us." She pouts, "The bath was a bad idea."
"Watching how happy you were to take the bath meant just for you and seeing how relaxed you were, was all I needed to know it was the right decision." Andy lifts her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles. "So we beat the kids, who cares? Eggs don't take too long to cook, neither do pancakes, and the girls will be happy to help out, I bet."
"I wonder how everyone made out last night." She thinks a moment about her younger son and his issues that don't seem to want to get better, as well as her elder son who was watching over his niece and younger sister without having babysat for either. He's more than capable, she knows.
"I don't care how anyone made out. I just know that we slept better than we have in a while. Too long ago to remember, that's for sure. Depending on how it went, maybe we can let the kids watch one another more often. Chad seemed pretty happy about getting to watch them last night. Maybe we should let them."
Sharon shrugs a little, "Our other children are adults. Katherine...runs herself. Stubborn that one."
"Gets it from you." They mumble in unison.
Andy grins broadly, using a key to let themselves into their own home.
