December 31, 1972

"Happy New Year's Eve!" Danny greeted as he came in from the other room, his and Sandy's three year old daughter Lucy following close behind him, then running over to her mother who was sitting on the couch with Marilyn.

Lucy was born in 1969 in mid-September. She had features from both Danny and Sandy. Lucy had her father's bright blue eyes and her mother's bright blonde hair, which had the same texture and strength of her father- when it wasn't greased up. She was quieter than most three year olds, which obviously was from her mother, but once you got to know her and she was comfortable around you, she would be as loud and as outgoing as her father.

Sandy chuckled at her husband as she took their daughter onto her lap and shooshed him a bit, "Don't be too loud, Mariah and KJ are asleep in the next room."

"You might make them start to cry, Daddy," Lucy said in a matter of fact tone of voice, making both Danny and Sandy chuckle at her.

Danny put an apologetic look on his face toward his daughter. "Sorry," he whispered in a way obviously trying to make Lucy laugh, which she did.

"Are you excited to see the ball drop?" Soda asked Lucy with an enthusiastic smile.

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I never saw it before! Is it pretty?"

"It sure is! It looks real pretty. Just as pretty as you." He tapped the end of her nose, making her laugh again.

Candy nudged my shoulder. "Do you think that when me and Soda get married that he'll want to have a baby and be like how he is with Lucy?" she asked me in a whisper.

I let out a chuckle. "Please… you'll probably end up having to take care of two kids instead of just the one," I answered with a chuckle.

Everyone was there, and we were talking like we always did. We had no lives so that's just what we did naturally. There was something different every year, ever since we were teenagers, but as we got older, there was a lot more things that were different. Whether it be a baby, or a marriage or whatever the reason was- there was just always something different. It gave a strong feeling of nostalgia though every year, which I would never mind.

One thing was that Danny and Sandy were there. For the last couple years, the two would either go to California- where Danny was from; or to Australia- where Sandy was from- for a week around this time of year. I'm not really sure why they didn't go this year, but it was mentioned how Lucy wanted to stay home this year for the holidays cause, "Cousin Marilyn is gonna be there with Cousin Mariah" or whatever her exact words were. The two decided to stay in Tulsa for the holiday in that sense, I guess.

It was only about 10:30, so we still had an hour and a half to kill before the showing of the ball dropping in New York City in Times Square. Sure, Oklahoma was an hour behind New York, or even the East Coast for that matter… but still, they would play the recording.

The majority of the time was spent trying to make Lucy smile and/or giggle at things, or just trying to keep her awake. This was the once a year she was able to stay up really late, so she wanted to take advantage of it. She had fallen asleep a few times already through the night, but she wanted to be awake to at least see the ball drop. It was nice, trying to make her smile- we basically all did that with Mariah and KJ too and since one of us was always around them, they recognized us all and it wasn't hard to make either of them smile. Actually KJ wasn't that hard, he seemed to smile more than most three month olds... he probably got that from Two-Bit.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a faint crying coming from the next room. Everyone in the room perked up for a moment, but for the most part it was me, Two-Bit, Marilyn and Darry. "That's KJ," Two-Bit said and got up from his seat and started toward the room where KJ was and I followed after him. I stopped when I felt a tugging at the edge of my shirt. I looked down and saw Lucy. "Can I come too, Aunt Rain?" she asked.

Lucy called us all 'Aunt' or 'Uncle", unless it was Darry or Marilyn since they were technically cousins. We were all close so it was established that as time went on, all our kids would do the same thing. I smiled and nodded at her, "Yeah, sure, c'mon." She smiled and took my hand as I led her to the room where KJ had been asleep. Two-Bit turned around and looked at me as we walked and gave a confused look toward Lucy. "She wanted to come," I whispered. He nodded with a slight smile, trying to hold in a laugh.

I had noticed that, over the years, he started to mature. I knew we would all mature as we got older, but he did more than I ever thought he would from when I was fifteen. He had actually suggested and wondered about being called Keith again… granted her got rid of the idea in less than a minute and made a joke about it, showing that he was still him and would never really change one hundred percent- which I was completely fine with.

When we got to the room, the reason KJ was crying was cause he was hungry. I had a bottle that Mrs Mathews helped me with at home, since I hadn't really taken KJ out of the house yet since he was only a little over three months old and him being my first baby- to say I was paranoid would be an understatement. Thankfully though, I had Mrs Mathews who had been a mother for over twenty years now, and Keilah who was more than willing to be a babysitter whenever needed.

"Are you ever gonna have a baby girl like Cousin Marilyn and Cousin Darry?" Lucy asked and stood next to me and watched as I gave the bottle to KJ.

Two-Bit and I looked at each other, not fully sure how to answer. "Uh… maybe in the future… but not yet, we just had KJ," I answered with a slight chuckle.

"Do you think KJ and Mariah will be friends when they get big?"

I heard Two-Bit chuckle and looked up at him for moment. "Maybe Lucy. It could happen," he smiled.

"Maybe they'll even et married when they get big too!"

I tried not to laugh at her but it escaped my mouth and Two-Bit did that same, of course which caused Lucy to smile and laugh. By now, KJ had finished the bottle and was half asleep and trying to stay awake, probably wondering about what we were all doing around him and not wanting to miss a thing.

Lucy sat down next to me while I placed KJ back in the carrier thing- I didn't really know the official name for it- and rocked it back and forth gently till he fell back asleep. Lucy kept watching with an interested look. "How do you know what to do?" Lucy asked looking back and forth between me and Two-Bit.

"Well, your Cousin Marilyn and your Cousin Darry helped us," I answered quietly.

"Well then how did they know?"

"They learned from your mommy and daddy," Two-Bit answered and sat down.

"How did they know?"

Two-Bit and I looked at each other trying to figure out how to answer just like before. "They probably learned from their parents," I shrugged.

Before Lucy could ask another question, Two-Bit spoke up, "Why don't we all go back to the living room and you can ask your mommy and daddy?" Lucy smiled and nodded then left the room to go back to the front room. "Nice one," I whispered to Two-Bit as we left the room. He smiled and nodded, obviously proud of his answer.

Right when we got back to the living room, Lucy had ran ahead and placed herself in between Sandy and Danny on the couch and already asking questions at them a mile a minute. Sandy tried to answer her daughter's questions as best as she could while Danny kinda sat there confused and asically agreeing with everything Sandy said. Danny looked at the two of us with a look that showed even more confusion, probably wondering what we did to his daughter. Two-Bit and I shrugged at him and held in our laughter.

I am not happy with this chapter at all.

"You have not killed anyone in months," Marvin said to Frank Moses in RED 2 (sorry, I'm watching that right now and that part just happened… plus I watched the first one right before it)

I explained my absence in "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in "Nighthawks", and I thin chapter 5 in "Loyalty" and I think chapter 19 in "Cherry Flavored Soda" (?) or something like that so that's there- I apologize for it… the next chapter will be somewhat funny. I mean, being sick isn't funny, but more how Rain and the other character react to the other character having a cold (you can probably tell by that explanation who the other two are but yeah)

Oh and today my parents are married 20 years now! (july 22, 1995)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter- peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=