Alright, well here's chapter 15 for all my fans. I hope you enjoy and don't forget to review.

Amy POV

"Ugh, why do you have to leave so soon? Why? Do you really have to go? Don't leave me!" Adrienne whined as I put John's things in the duffel bag.

"I am leaving because I need my boyfriend and John needs his daddy, and this is what's best at the moment for our family."

"Can't you just make him suffer just a little longer? I'm going to miss my little munchkin." She flopped on her couch and folded her arms.

I laughed. "Well, you can come to visit your little munchkin whenever you want to."

She sighed. "Alright, well it was fun while it lasted. Tell Ricky that he has an ass-whooping coming his way soon."

I laughed as I continued packing.

Ricky POV

I raced around the house checking to make sure that nothing was out of place. I had been cleaning since I got home from dinner with Amy last night. The house had gotten messy quickly ever since Amy was gone. I couldn't believe that I was finally going to see my son again. It might've been a couple of days without him and Amy, but it felt like an eternity without the two people I loved the most. I kept cleaning up places that I had already cleaned, making sure everything was perfect. Ashley walked into the living room while I was straightening up John's play corner, nearly scaring me to death.

"You have been cleaning all day. You need to chill. What's going on?"

Just as I was about to tell her that Amy and John were coming home today, I remembered that Amy asked me not to tell her or her mom.

"Uh, ever since Amy and John left, this house has gotten pretty messy. I mean, we were using cooking spoons in our cereal and measuring cups as our regular cups. The rooms are a mess. There's pizza boxes, dirty dishes, sprawled toys, and we couldn't find the remote. The kitchen looked horrible. Just because two people left the house for awhile doesn't mean we let the house become a health hazard to us. It's still a home to people."

"Oh, why did she leave anyway?"

I rolled my eyes. She just loved hanging this over my head, didn't she? "Well, we had relationship problems, and she needed her space from me so she went with Adrienne."

"Hmm, what type of "problems" exactly?"

I sighed. "You know, Ashley. Don't sit here and act like you don't. You're the way she found out."

"Uh, okay." She started walking back upstairs but stopped and came back down. "By the way, don't ask me to help clean because the answer's is no. You're lucky I even clean my room."

She walked back upstairs and slammed her door followed by her loud music vibrating the whole house. I inspected every inch of every room to make sure there was no last minute cleaning. My phone started to vibrate in my pocket.

"Hello?"

"I'll be there in a few minutes, just so you know. Does Ashley or mom know?"

"No, they don't know. Your mom is at work, and Ashley is ignoring and annoying. I'll see you when you get here."

"Alright, I'll see you soon."

I hung up the phone and ran around the house, going through inspection faster before I heard a knock on the door. I ran down the stairs, almost tripping a few times. I checked my clothes to make sure I didn't look too bad. I quickly opened the door and saw Amy struggling to pick up duffel bags and John. I grabbed John and a bag and put them both on the floor. I looked at Amy and hugged her, holding her tight to me. I had missed this.

"Welcome home."

"I missed you."

"I missed you, too."

I turned around to John, and saw him waking up. I pulled him out of the car seat as he opened his eyes. He started to smile.

"Hey buddy, how are you?"

He waved his hand and put his head on my shoulder. "Ashley's upstairs if you're looking for her."

Amy POV

It felt amazing to be back in my own house. I missed everything and everyone in here. I left John and Ricky in the living room and went to Ashley's door. I knocked lightly, and I heard her sigh. She slightly opened the door.

"Ricky, I already told you I'm not helping…Amy!" Ashley's eyes bugged out of her head. "What a nice surprise today."

"Hey, I missed you. How have you been?"

She looked at me strangely and raised an eyebrow. "How have I been? How have you been? Where have you been? How's John? Wait, where is John? Where is my nephew?"

I laughed. "Your nephew is downstairs with his dad playing. Obviously, we have a lot of catching up to do, the two of us. We can walk around tonight, if you want to."

She humped her shoulders. "It doesn't matter to me. Sure, we can go tonight after dinner. Does mom even know you're coming home?"

I shook my head. "I wanted it to be a surprise for the both of you."

"Wait a minute, is that why Ricky rushed out of here last night, to help you plan this "surprise?""

"No, I was really just trying to figure out if coming home was the right thing to do, for John. We just met up and talked over a few things, and I decided I was ready to come home and stop being a "single mom.""

"Oh, well yeah I was kind of in the middle of something here, so I'll talk to you tonight."

"Uh, ok."

I walked into my room and took in the fresh scent of nothing. I slumped onto my bed, my bed that I missed so much. I got under the covers, missing the soft cotton on my legs and the pillow holding my head up. A few minutes later, Ricky walked in with John sleeping on his shoulder and lay next to me.

"You can go put his crib if you want to," I said, ruffling his hair.

"Nah, I just want to be here with my entire family."

We lay there until we heard someone at the front door. I almost panicked, but then I remembered that mom had been at work all day.

"Hey guys, I'm home. For some reason, Amy's car is in the driveway. It must've broken down. Anyway, who's up for chicken and mac and cheese?"

I quickly ran downstairs and yelled, "Me!"

My mom almost dropped the box of macaroni shells when she saw me. "Amy, oh my gosh honey I'm so glad you're back home with us. We all missed you so much."

She pulled me into a tight embrace, laughing and crying all at once. "Amy, I was so worried about you and John. Where's John?"

"He's upstairs sleeping. Do you need help with anything for tonight?"

"No, I'm good, but tomorrow I need to go shopping for Christmas decorations and maybe a few gifts. Would you like join?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I'll come with you. I need to grab a few things anyways."

"Great, well can you go let everybody know that dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes. Tell them it's homemade macaroni. That might help a little."

I laughed and headed upstairs, intruding on Ashley to let her know dinner was being made. She nodded and threw something at the door, forcing me to quickly shut it. I walked back into my room to find Ricky changing a pretty unhappy John. He buttoned up his pajamas and put him back on his shoulder. He shut up pretty quickly.

"Oh yeah, I have something to tell you," I said putting my hair behind my ear and moving my bane out of my face. "I'm going back to school."

Ricky made a confused look. "Wait, you never dropped out. How could you go back if you were never gone?"

"Well, I went up to the school because I'm sick of doing school at home, so I'm trying to go back to school. You know, actually be inside the building."

"What about John?"

"I enrolled in the daycare next to the school. I went online and the daycare worker didn't tell me, but since I'm in high school I get daycare for free. It's actually a pretty good place. I like it, and John seemed to like it. Before he can start going there, I have to get his shots and a copy of his birth certificate. I wanted to get that done during Christmas break, so he could start after our break. How does that sound?"

"Great, but do you think it's a good idea?"

"Yeah, I mean when I'm at home I barely get work done because I'm always making sure John is fine. If I go to school, I can always stay after once or twice a week if I'm not getting something. If I'm at home, I have to understand or else I'm screwed because I can't ask anyone for help. What do you think?"

"I think it's good for you, but what about John?"

"Well, it's a good place for him to start meeting kids his age and make some new friends. It's a good experience, and he starts learning stuff. It's a safe and kid-friendly environment."

"Do you really want to do this?"

I nodded my head. "Yes, I think it's a good idea, but I'm not the only parent. Are you okay with this?"

"Yeah, I mean you both get something good out of it. You get a way better education, and he gets to play and learn. I just want you to be happy at this point, so do what makes you happy. If going back to school makes you happy, then go back to school. Don't let me stand in the way."

I hugged Ricky. "Thanks, but what about you? Don't you want to go back to school?"

He humped his shoulders. "I kind of don't want to go back. I don't really see the point in both of us going back, you know? I mean, you can go learn and interact with your friends and come home and give me the lessons for each day. If we do this, I can sometimes randomly pick up John from daycare and possibly get you out of school, if you want to."

"Well, I mean you don't have to stay here locked up for the rest of the year. I think you should come back with me. Besides, I don't have anyone else to get in trouble with in any of my classes. Will you just think about it, please? I'd miss you too much."

"I'll think about it, for you." Ricky kissed me, and things started to get heated until John started moving around and crying. I laughed.

"What a mood killer." I picked him up and held him in my arms until mom came upstairs and told us that we could eat dinner. I followed Ricky to the kitchen, preparing some baby food for John.

Ricky looked at me weirdly. "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I am, but I have to feed John before I can feed myself."

Ricky took the baby food out of the cabinet. "I'll feed him, you go ahead and eat."

I handed John over to him, finding a spoon. "You're not hungry?"

"Yeah, but I can wait. You go eat, and I'll feed him. It's the least I can do."

I made my plate and headed, followed by Ricky and John. We sat in the bed watching television until Ricky went to go make himself something to eat. John kept falling back on the pillow laughing and screaming when we tickled his belly. A few minutes later, I got a text.

Grrr, I miss you guys already. *tears*

Aww Adrienne I miss you too, and I'm pretty sure John does also, but I can't do anything tomorrow because I'm helping my mom get ready for the holiday, but I can do something on Sunday. Are you free then?

Yeah, I'll see you on Sunday. Make sure you bring John. We should go to the mall and buy him a few things for Christmas. He won't know what's going on.

Alright, sounds like a plan. I'll talk to you later, having family time. :)

A few minutes later, Ricky walked in with a heaping plate of chicken and very little macaroni. "Wow, such a manly appetite."

We ate in silence while John slowly started to drift, one of us shaking him a bit.

I put my plate on my nightstand and picked John up. "You can't go to sleep yet. You still need a bath."

Ricky went into the bathroom as I went in John's room and found pajamas and a towel. I heard John laughing and entered the bathroom.

"We're going to play with some toys. Does that sound fun, John?" Ricky picked up one of the rubber toys in the tub while John was splashing water everywhere and screaming.

I moved backwards a little to avoid being attack by the water. "Ricky, he's going to give us a bath, too. Are you ready John? I'll let you play before I bathe you."

I got everything set up for when he was done while him and Ricky were screaming together and playing with the toys. A few minutes later, Ashley stormed into the bathroom, hands folded across her chest.

"Keep your baby quiet. Some of us are busy ignoring people in case you haven't noticed. You all sound like a bunch of rowdy three year olds. Shut up!"

I rolled my eyes and huffed. "Ashley, while you're having a fit about not being able to ignore people, it's only seven thirty. You don't go to bed until midnight, so you shut up and turn up your radio. Not everything can go your way."

"Whatever."

"Are we still going walking later on?"

Ashley humped her shoulders. "Yeah, I guess. Just let me know when you want to go."

She walked back out of the bathroom, and a few seconds later we heard her door slam. "Was she like this when I was gone?"

"Nope, she never came out of her room. The only time she came out was when she was hungry, other than that her room was all she needed."

"Wow. Well, that's Ashley for you. She doesn't come out unless she really needs something."

I decided that John needed to be put to bed, so I quickly washed him and put on his pajamas. Ricky took him and put him to bed. I shuffled across the hallway, lightly tapping on her door. She barely opened the door and asked, "Who is it and what do you want?"

I rolled my eyes. "Ashley, stop being crazy and open this door." I walked into the room and saw Ashley putting her shoes on. "Well, I'm ready when you are."

"Don't you have to put John to bed?"

"Ricky's doing it tonight. I'm not waiting forever, so can we leave?"

She sighed and threw on a sweater and put her iPod in one of the pockets. "Yeah, let's go."

We started walking outside, admiring the bright stars against the dark sky.

"We didn't come out here to look at these stars light years away. Why did you leave anyway?"

I slowed my walking pace, trying to think of a way to tell her why I left without talking about Ricky cheating. It still hurt me. "Uh, for a minute I felt like I was the only parent to John. Ricky hadn't been helping for quite some time, and he kept staying late for work. We kind of started to…drift apart, I guess. I would try talking to Ricky about needing more help, but I guess it never got to him that I needed help and he wasn't being a good father. I remember a few days before I left, he wanted nothing to do with John. He put John to sleep just so he could watch a stupid show. Then…well, you know the rest."

She nodded her head slowly. "I knew there was more to it."

I laughed. "How were things while I was gone?"

Her mood immediately went from nonchalant and sarcastic to…sad and boring. That was a side I had never seen from her.

"Well, it was pretty bad. The morning after you left, mom figured you had went to the park with John, but she saw that most of his clothes were gone, and your drawers were wide open with barely anything in them. She kind of started to freak out. She tried to talk to Ricky about what happened, but he locked himself in your room. He cried 24/7. He would wake me up sometimes at night because he was hitting the bedpost, screaming you and John's name, begging that you would come back and stay with him, praying that he would see John again. Sometimes, I wanted to go into the room and tell him to knock it off and go to bed, but I knew he needed to suffer as much as you did, so I let him beat himself up about your relationship. He didn't eat for a day sometimes. There were days when he was pissed off. If you said one word to him, you were going to get an earful. Mom isn't happy with him right now, though. She forced him to talk about what happened between you two. She didn't talk to him for the rest of the day, but she said she felt like she was acting like a child. She cussed him out pretty bad that day. She almost beat the hell out of him because she thought he forced you to leave the house that night. If you notice that they don't talk as much, that's why. I mean, she didn't let him starve or anything. Let's just say that while you were gone, things were pretty dramatic."

"That's what it sounds like. It almost makes me regret leaving, but I did what I had to do at that moment. I had to do what was best for John and me. It seems like he changed quite a bit while I was gone. Were you like…taunting him because of what he did?"

"Nooooo." She waved her hand freely. "Why would I do that?"

"You're Ashley. You do any and everything that irritates people, and you do it on purpose. So, did you taunt him or not?"

She sighed. "Yes, I couldn't help it. It pissed me off that he had done that to you and John. I know I might act like I don't care about you, but I really do. I care about John, too. I couldn't stand the fact that he had been so unfaithful to you and to John. I wanted to kill him, but then you really would be a single parent and murdering gets us nowhere. I taunted him every time I saw him. I was most likely part of the reason why he locked himself in the room and was screaming and crying at night, but I don't give a damn. He deserved it, and I don't regret anything I did while you were gone."

I knew she cared about us. Even when she made it seem like she hated the whole world, I knew she still cared for her family. "What did you say to him? Were you making jokes, or were you just serious the whole time?"

"I was very serious. Cheating's not something to joke about, you know? I pretty much made him feel guiltier because I didn't think he was suffering as much as you were. You're not mad, are you?"

I shook my head. "No, if you're mad that he betrayed your sister then that's what you're going to do. I would've done the same thing for you, too."

We kept walking around, the cool wind blowing my hair back. I missed times when Ashley and I bonded like most sisters. Most of the time, we were too busy annoying each other to realize that when mom was gone, we only had each other. The cold winds started to sting out skin, so we ran all the way home which only our throats sting as well. The moment we opened the door, the warm air cooled us back down and our throats stopped stinging. I walked upstairs and heard John's soft breathing as he slept.

"Wow, we weren't gone that long. John must've been pretty sleepy."

Ricky just nodded slightly. I looked over to his hands and noticed that he was reading How to Love.

"I didn't know you read "love" books. How long have you been reading this?"

He sighed. "I bought the morning after you left. I needed to figure out how I was going to fix us, our relationship. This book so far has been working pretty well for us, so I figured I should find more tips and life lessons."

I nodded. "Oh, well maybe you could stop reading for the night. We haven't had a moment to ourselves yet since I got here."

Ricky started winking and licking his lips. I rolled my eyes. "Not like that, stupid. Just Amy and Ricky time, Ricky and Amy time."

He humped his shoulders. "Sure, but I was kind of hoping that you would be willing to do something else."

"Ricky, I'm not having sex with you, not for a very long time."

He started laughing, but I saw nothing funny. "I wasn't talking about sex. I was hoping that you would be willing to put your promise ring back on." He stood up and found the promise ring on my nightstand. "I know that I broke my promise before, but let me make a new promise. I promise that I will try my hardest to give you a better future than the past. I promise to always be there, to be a better father than I was being, and to be a better boyfriend to you. I don't want to lose my family anymore, and I'm sorry for any pain I've caused you these last three months. I promise I will do anything it takes to make sure I don't lose you or John. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Will you accept my promise ring…again?"

I started laughing a little, but immediately got serious again. "Yeah, but this is the last time. Next time, I don't want the ring, you, or the relationship."

A grin started spreading across his face. He slid the ring back onto my finger and hugged me for a long time, silent tears streaming down his face. He slightly pushed me back and looked in my eyes. "I love you."

I smiled. "I love you, too."

We kissed until John started crying. I sighed. He always got us at the good times. "I'll get him."

"No, no I'll get him. It's okay, uh; you can get ready for bed."

Ricky walked out as I found some shorts and a tee shirt to sleep in. I climbed into the bed, turning off the light and waiting for Ricky. He came back in the room a few minutes later, climbing in bed next to me. I started yawning insanely.

"Alright, well obviously I'm tired, so I'm going to sleep."

Ricky shifted a little, wrapping his arm around me just like before. I've never felt so safe and secure in my life. I was home, for good. I had my family with me, and that's all I needed.

Six-thirty in the morning

I felt someone lightly shake me. I figured it was Ashley just trying to annoy the hell out of me; mission accomplished.

"Ashley, go back to bed and leave me alone. It's too early to be trying to "be funny." Turn off the light and leave."

My mom started laughing. "Amy, get up and stop playing around. Come on, the sooner we leave the better the deals. You have fifteen minutes to get ready, or I'm leaving you. I mean it."

I sighed. I got out of bed, quickly showering and putting my hair in a messy bun. I threw on some sweats and a sweater and walked out the door, waiting for my mother inside my car. She lightly tapped on my window telling me to come on.

"I thought we could take my car, or we can take both. Your car is always crowded when you go Christmas shopping, and sometimes the Christmas paper is wrinkled. If we take both cars, none of your Christmas paper will be wrinkled this year, and you can buy more gifts for everybody…except me."

She sighed, contemplating whether or not to listen to her daughter. "Alright, don't speed up and lose me."

"Alright, where are we going?"

She humped her shoulders. "We need a new tree, but that's going to be last so we'll just go to the wrapping store."

I nodded my head. "Alright, are you going to follow me?"

She nodded her head, hoping that I knew some possible shortcuts. I rolled up my window and took off, waiting for my mom at the stop sign at the end of the street. She started honking just for the hell of it. She was something else sometimes. I turned my radio up to full blast, dancing in the car, desperately trying to wake myself up. I hadn't eaten anything yet, and I was starving. Mom always stayed out for the entire morning and a little bit of the afternoon when she went Christmas shopping. If I wanted to keep up, I needed something, so I called her.

"You know I don't like you talking while driving. What do you need?"

I yawned. "I'm starving, and my music isn't even help that much. Is it okay if I stop and get some coffee, kolaches, and donuts?"

"Yeah, it's cool. Do you mind getting me something, too?"

"I'll get you something, too."

"Okay, well get off the phone now. No more talking while driving, you got it?"

I laughed. "Yes mom, bye."

I kept driving until I turned into the parking lot of the breakfast place. I went inside and ordered everything and went to my mom's car. She was playing her iPod and dancing in her seat. I tapped on her window, and she nearly screamed. I held up the breakfast, and she let her window down.

"Sorry, uh thanks for the breakfast. I'll see you in a few minutes, okay?"

"Alright, just don't dance while driving. I wouldn't want you to get into an accident or get a ticket for staying at the light for twenty minutes because you were screaming the lyrics to some random song."

She started laughing. "Whatever, go eat."

I walked back into my car and turned the radio on while opening the bad of food. I had to wait for a red light anytime I wanted a sip of my coffee. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw my mom bobbing her head up and down and singing the words of songs. Only she would be able to drink, eat, drive and listen to music all at once. A few minutes later, we were trying to find empty spaces next to each other so we wouldn't be far apart. We ended up having to park in the back of the lot because people obviously didn't know how to park their cars. I followed my mom into the wrapping store and saw all types of paper; birthday paper, Christmas paper, Thanksgiving paper; Valentine's paper and a lot more.

One of the workers raced over to my mom and me. "Hello, my name is Lucinda and if you need anything just let me know. is there anything particular you need today?"

This lady was just a little too hyper for it to be seven in the morning. My mom had been here a lot, so she knew where everything was located.

"Um, no thank you ma'am. We're really just looking around, that's all, but thank you for offering anyway."

We walked to the Christmas section and started picking out different wrapping paper, but I knew we needed to cut it down a little.

"Mom, you don't plan on using all of this wrapping paper this year, do you?"

She started to nod yes, but she realized how much she was about to buy. We both held seven sheets of paper, enough for five years. "No, we'll just buy three."

After taking forever on what to do, we decided on a red wrapping that had different Christmas topics, an Elmo sheet for John, and a white wrapping that had sleighs, reindeer, and snowmen on it.

We stood outside with the wrapping trying to decide what to do next. "I think we should go buy gifts."

My mom nodded her head. "I agree, let's start with John. Uh, we can to Baby Land. They have a sale going on for all baby items. After that, we can go to the clothing store, Needles, to get something for Ashley. I don't really know what Ricky would want, though."

I humped my shoulders. "I'll figure it out tonight and see what I can get him. He might get some shoes, though."

"Alright, well let's head over to the baby store. Hopefully, we can be done with everything by one. Oh, that reminds me I wanted to go to the ornament store and make John an ornament like I did for you and Ashley."

"Okay, I'll meet you at Baby Land."

I put the wrapping paper in my backseat, kind of starting to enjoy the morning duties. I turned my music trying not get distracted and dance like my mom was, but it was pretty hard. The rest of the morning went by pretty quickly. John got four new outfits, two pairs of shoes, and a lot of toys. Ashley got three new outfits, two pairs of shoes, and a gift card to Needles. John's ornament was a shoe that said his name and the day he was born. I was still struggling over what to get for Ricky. He hadn't really made an effort to hint at some things that he could possibly want. The Christmas tree wasn't a real one, so we figured that tonight we could all put the branches and ornaments on together. When we got home, Ashley was for once out of her room and playing with John on the floor.

I raised an eyebrow. "Wow, the first time I've seen you play with John in ages. The holiday spirit got you already, huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, Ricky locked the door and wouldn't let me or John in, and John started getting fussy in his crib. I couldn't just let him sit there and cry all day."

I put the paper down slowly, looking upstairs for any movement. "How long has he been up there?"

"I'm guessing maybe an hour and half. I was just playing a game on iPod and heard John crying. I opened my door and your door was closed and locked. I don't know what time he got up, though."

"Hmm." I walked slowly up the stairs and got down on my knees in front of the door trying to peek underneath the door, but he had put a blanket to fill the hole between the floor and door. I sighed, wondering deeply what he was doing that was so "secret." I lightly tapped on the door and heard something scoot on the floor.

"Ricky, what are you doing in there? Ashley said you've been in there for an hour."

"I'll be out in a few minutes. You can't come in right now. I'm busy with something."

I laughed. "You're so busy even I can't come in and…ease your…business?" That was so lame.

"No, none of you can come in. I just need thirty more seconds, and you're all free to come in here and intrude in this room like it's none of your business."

I huffed, and started walking towards the bathroom. "Okay, just make it quick. Mom needs your help with a few things downstairs."

I ran into the bathroom and waited patiently for Ricky to quietly open the door. I thought I would be in that bathroom for the rest of my life until I heard a small noise from my room. I looked through the crack in between the door and the door frame and saw light coming from my room. I sprinted out of the bathroom and pushed Ricky out of the way and started inspecting my room. Ricky started laughing.

"Amy, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to figure out what you were doing in here that took you an hour."

I started becoming frustrated after five minutes of snooping and found nothing. He was such a good hider…I hated it.

"Have you found what you're looking for yet?"

"No, all I see is my jewelry, clothes, presents in the corner, my iPod…" I paused and instantly a smile spread across my face. "Presents, that's what it was. Aww, Ricky you were up here for an hour wrapping presents."

I started to reach for one of the boxes, but Ricky picked me up and put me behind him. "Don't touch the presents, please. Don't shake them or you'll find out what's inside. Just please don't even acknowledge the presents until Christmas Eve. Okay?"

My shoulders slumped and my head fell. "Can I just one tiny little peek? Please? I won't tell anybody what you got them. Please? I just want to see one gift. Please? Please? Please? Those gifts are going to sit there in that corner and torture me for the next three weeks. I just want one little peek. I'm begging you."

He just shook his head. "Nope, you're not allowed in this room until those presents are safely under the tree or somewhere in this house you'll never figure out."

He picked me up by the waist and started down the stairs while I was kicking and screaming for him to let me go. He put me down at the bottom of the staircase, and John started laughing. I fixed my hair and looked at Ricky, my hands on my hips.

"Really, all I wanted was one tiny peek at one present, and I can't even have that?"

"Yeah, if I let you peek, then one present is spoiled for one person in this house. I don't think John would like it if you spoiled one of his presents."

He grabbed my waist, pulling me closer to him. "Can you please wait until Christmas, please? It would mean a lot if you did. Besides, three weeks will go by pretty quickly."

I kissed him. "Fine, but don't rub the presents in my face. That'll just tempt me."

"Oh, so rubbing things in your face tempt you? I'll be sure to remember that some time."

I started laughing and Amy started gagging. "Please, don't say that in front of John or me. Isn't that how John came into the picture anyway? We don't need any more sexual temptations before you're forty, got it? Now if you'll excuse us, your son needs his diaper changed, and being the good auntie that I am, I'll do it."

She took John upstairs mumbling to John something about sex and no good. Only she would attempt to talk about sex to a six month old. We continued kissing until we heard my mom trying to open the door.

"Can I get some help from somebody, anybody?"

Ricky walked over and took the box with the Christmas tree from my mom, laying it down in front of the entertainment center.

"Alright, we can start decorating after dinner tonight." My mom walked into her room while I followed Ricky upstairs. Ashley was in John's closet searching for a wunzy.

"Ashley, what are you doing? He doesn't need a new wunzy every time his diaper's changed."

"No crap, Sherlock. He took a crap and it's all up his back. He can stay in the same crappy clothes if you want, or I can do what you're supposed to do and change his wunzy, too."

I just smiled and walked in my room but ran out the moment I went in. Ricky looked at me a little confused. "Well, if you don't want to be with me right now, just say so."

I laughed a little. "No, the presents are in there. While I'm trying to spend time with you, I'm going to be constantly looking at those presents wishing I could look inside. Can you please move them, please? I can't go in until they're out or I'm going to crack, and you'll be mad with me."

"I won't be mad, just bummed. I'll get them out of here because we can't our time in the living room."

He picked the stack of presents while I was fighting the urge to grab one and lock myself in the bathroom. Ashley saw how bad I was struggling and started laughing at me. "Wow, you sure are obsessed with gifts, huh? You don't care who they belong to as long as you see them. Sometimes, I worry about you."

I frowned. "The feeling's mutual."

She rolled her eyes and went into her room, John crawling behind her.

"Hey John." He just looked at me and started laughing, continuing the trail to Ashley's room. He still found it hilarious that daddy carried mommy downstairs because she was snooping around.

A few minutes later, I heard Ricky's heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. He stood in the middle of the room, smirking the entire time. "Do you feel better now?"

"Yes, I do." I put my hair over my shoulder. "Do you plan on standing there the entire time for "Ricky and Amy" time? If so, this is going to be pretty boring."

He laughed, climbing on top of me and kissing my forehead. "I love you, Amy."

"I love you, too." He got on the other side of me and held me. I turned around and started kissing him but stopped after I heard Ashley tapping her foot. I sighed. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to let you know that your son is asleep. Oh yeah, and stop what you're doing before you give us another John please. You thought I was mean when you got pregnant the first time, you'll see a whole other side of my sarcasm. I'm going to drive you up a wall."

I got up, and closed the door in her face. "Go find someone else to torment right now, Ashley. We're not in the mood for this."

I heard her door slam and the walls started vibrating. She would turn her music up full blast, made me sick. I didn't let her music ruin my mood and neither did Ricky. We continued kissing, making sure it got to nothing more until we heard John crying. I looked at my alarm clock. We had been kissing for the past forty five minutes, wow. We both got up and went to go get John out of his crib, bringing him into my room along with a stuffed animal. We lay in my bed, Ricky yawning and John hitting his chest. Time flew by, and pretty soon it was time to start decorating the house.

Since mom had been begging to put Christmas lights around the house, Ricky was in charge of outside decoration. Ashley and I put the tree together, and mom decorated the inside of the house. John was busy playing in his corner to help us. We all planned to put the ornaments on together because it wouldn't be fair if Ashley and I did the entire tree. After putting the tree together argue-free, we sat down on the couch and went through the ornament box to make sure none had broken in the closet.

"This is fun, you know. It's a nice way for us to bond, somewhat. This is why I love the holidays. You're always around your family, celebrating, decorating, and I almost forgot…music!" I went to turn on the stereo and found a few of our Christmas CDs we had bought over the years. I would've thought that Ashley would've turned the music off or locked herself in her room, but instead she started singing some of the words. I picked John up and started dancing around the house with him. He started clapping his hands and screaming. A few minutes later, Ricky walked in wiping sweat off his forehead. I raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you sweating? It's December. Who sweats in the winter?"

He smirked. "A person who just spent an hour outside climbing up and down a ladder, running around the house stringing lights sweats in the winter. It may not be hot out there, but your house isn't small. Plus, those reindeer out there aren't too light. Where's your mom?"

I humped my shoulders. "Last time I saw her, she was looking for her door stickers in a bin. She always loses her door stickers when she starts decorating. I should buy her a bin just for her door stickers."

He laughed and mom came around the corner panting. "I found…the door stickers. They were in…the laundry room."

I couldn't help but laugh. We picked out the stickers we wanted and hung them up on our doors. Afterwards, we brought out all of the boxes of ornaments and put most of them on the tree. I sat down but shot right back up. "I almost forgot the newest ornament." I ran to where the wrapping paper was and got the small bag that held John's ornament. Ricky looked confused.

"What's that?"

"We bought it this morning while we were out. Ashley and I had one for our first Christmas. I figured John should have one, too."

I hung it up on the front of the tree next to a snowman that Juergens. We stood back, admiring the tree. Ricky had asked everybody to go outside and look at what he had done. He had done a great job with everything. The light went around the house flashing red, green, and white. He had put out the reindeer light-up and Santa light-up with the countdown until Christmas in the front of the lawn. I looked down the street and saw no one else's houses lit up at all. They usually didn't start decorating until next week, though, so I wasn't that surprised. Since our neighborhood was pretty competitive, they were probably going to try to top our house, but that would be pretty hard.

We all walked back inside and walked around the house, very impressed with what my mom had done. She had taken out most of our regular kitchen decorations and put in the snowman cookie jar, the Christmas signs around the border of the kitchen, and the oven mittens were red and green. The dining room table had a red tablecloth; the napkins were white with green napkin rings. A lit up Santa had taken the place of our regular glass house in the middle of the table. The walls had random decorations such as reindeer, presents, and Santa.

"Mom, this looks amazing."

She raised an eyebrow. "You really think so? I thought I could've done a little better."

"No, it looks really good. It's perfect just the way it is. Wow, this is just awesome."

"Ms. Juergens, this looks like you hired a professional to decorate. It looks beautiful."

We walked back into the living room and stood looking dumb for a few minutes, but Ashley scoffed and left the living room and once again locked herself in her room for the night. Soon after, Ricky, John, and I slowly crept up the stairs leaving my mom before she realized that everyone was going to bed. Ricky threw John over his shoulder and started rubbing his back on our way to the room. We put John in his crib to let him fall asleep on his own and went to my room. I put my head on Ricky's chest while he twirled my hair in his fingers.

"Tonight was fun. It was a good bonding time with the family."

He smirked. "What's up with you and all of this bonding?"

I humped my shoulders. "I don't know, I think I get this way because it's around the holiday, and during the holidays, I want to be around my family. The holidays are a time for me to be with the people I love and have a good time."

Ricky nodded his head. I could tell that he had never really had a holiday experience because his parents never bought him presents. They would spend all of their money on drugs for themselves. I felt bad for him, no matter how hard I tried, I could never put myself in his place so I knew what to tell him. I looked into his eyes.

"Listen, I know that you never really had a "Christmas experience" before, but we're going to try our best to give you the best one you've had yet. It can be your "first" Christmas, too."

"You would really be willing to do that for me?"

"Yeah, I mean I feel horrible that you have yet to celebrate a holiday like you really should, I've always felt bad. I don't want to keep the tradition going, you know?"

"Thank you, Amy. You don't know how much that means to me. You don't know how much you mean to me."

I smiled and stared at the ceiling, playing with my promise ring. I started to yawn, and knew I should go to bed.

"Well, I'm extremely tired, so if I pass out on you, you'll know why."

Ricky kissed the top of my forehead, and I drifted off.

Alright, well what do you guys think? I want to know so don't forget to review. Thanks for all the reviewers, they mean a lot to me. I 3 you guys ! Bye !