Married Life

Author's Note: This is the final chapter of Married Life. It's really REALLY late, but better late than never, right? If you want, I could do the sequel or I could just leave it at this and the rest could be up to your interpretation. Please REVIEW to give your opinion. Thanks a bunch, and hope you have a fun summer-or for those who are back in school, have a fun school year!

Chapter 25: Somewhere over the Rainbow

Allison's POV

"Robert, I packed the last kitchen box!" I yelled, we were sending the boxes over tomorrow night so we had to get everything packed up quickly. The kitchen was done, the garage was done, the bathrooms were done, the boys' rooms were almost done, our room was almost done, the living room was pretty much all done. Except for the photo albums, and the pictures on the walls. I wanted to do that together. Call me a sentimental fool, but I wanted to walk down memory lane one last time before that home wasn't ours anymore. One day, we'd probably come back to visit and we'd drive by to see some other family living here. The people who bought the place were a newlywed couple, Jared and Alexis.

The boys are staying with Lisa and House tonight. So we can get their rooms finished. I refuse to walk in their rooms yet, because I know I'm going to cry.

Robert came in, all sweaty in his jeans and gray t-shirt. I smiled apologetically. "I'll carry it to the moving truck." he said, huffing a little. My poor husband, I thought as I looked around my now bare kitchen and thought about when we painted it. When we bought the place, the kitchen was a dingy red. I was like, oh no. This is not me at all. So, one weekend, Robert and I went to Lowe's or Home Depot and looked through all the colors. Then, we closed our eyes and just picked a random color from the ones we liked. And then, we went to the paint, bought a ton of that color and drove home. We moved out all the furniture and painted it that night.

I looked again, and smiled wide. The memories of chasing my two sons around this kitchen suddenly threaten to choke me. I love this house. I love the memories we've made in this house. We started our family in this house. I look over to the slightly darker spot on the tiled floor, and laugh. That was from when we first brought Bailey home from the hospital. Whenever Robert held Bay, he got so nervous that he accidentally knocked a hot cup of coffee-my coffee- onto the floor. Never completely got that stain out.

I went into the living room, and plunked down in front of our big thing of photo albums and baby books. I flipped open a black one, that was blank on the cover. The first picture was our wedding photo. I grinned. "Rob, come here! Come look through these with me!" I yelled throughout the house. Wherever he was, he heard me. And came quickly. He smirked, and sat down. We went through photo after photo, and laughed. Then, we found a photo taken at the hospital. It was Lisa, House, Foreman, Thirteen, Wilson, Taub and us. I was extremely pregnant with what I assume to be Max, because Robert had his walking boot on in the picture.

We were all happy. We are happy. I kissed Robert's cheek. "Come on, we gotta finish the babies' rooms."

I went into Bailey's room first. I smiled at all his little fixings and the things I painted on the wall back when he was just a thing in my stomach. Now he's a little boy, with thoughts, ideas and dreams. I put all his clothes into the boxes. Then, his toys. Then, I found a piece of paper folded up under the mattress. It was a drawing. It had 5 stick people, 4 boys and one girl. I saw the girl's curly blonde hair and knew it was me. His dad was the man next to me with the blonde hair in his face. Max was the smaller kid next to him. And then there was an all-too familiar man with a cane standing off by himself. It said 'MY FAMILY' on the type in Bailey's scrawl. I bit my lip, and felt tears prick at my eyes.

I knew Bailey didn't want to leave...but he was putting on a good show for us. To make us happy, and to make Max happy. Because we all knew that Max wouldn't do anything without Bay's consent. I folded it back up, and put it into the box of Bailey's school stuff. I would frame it, and put it in his new room once we got settled. I looked up at one of the few pictures in his room. It was one of Bailey and myself, right after he was born. I can only assume that my husband took the picture. I have the world's biggest smile and yet I look exhausted. My first day as a mommy. Bailey's eyes were shut, but he had a slight grin on his face.

My special boy. I then saw a picture framed by his bed, one of those frames that say I LOVE MY UNCLE on it. It was a picture of House, and Bailey. Bailey was a toddler, a wide grin on his face. House was goofing off in front of the camera. I smiled in response to my son's smile. It was just so open and happy that I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I wrapped it in newspaper, and put it in a box, with the other picture.

My husband was quickly packing toys into one of the other boxes, when he found another picture. It was a yellowed picture, one that was familiar to me and more familiar to himself. It was a little boy, not Bailey or Max. It was Robert. You couldn't really see their faces, just their profiles. It was sunny, even though the picture was black and white. Robert had a smile, and his mother had a slight grin. Her hair was blowing in the breeze, and her chin was resting on Rob's head.

"Oh, I forgot about this..." he half-whispered. Either to me or himself, I wasn't sure.

"What?"

"When my dad went on business, she'd take one of us kids out for a special day. She'd bring my aunt, and we'd just go out to wherever 'the wind took us'. That day was my day. I was probably six or seven. She pulled me out of school, and we went to the beach. Because...the beach was my favorite place on Earth. We just played in the sand, ate junk, surfed, swam. Whatever I wanted to do, we did. Towards the end of the day, we sat on a huge rock and watched the sun set. The waves were crashing quietly in the background, I was shivering a little because it was getting darker out and the temperature went down. She came over to me, and wrapped her arms around me, putting her chin on my head. We stayed like that forever, never hearing the clicks of the camera that my aunt had snuck with her."

"That's beautiful, Robert." I said, smiling a little at the image he painted. He looked at me, and lifted one side of his mouth in a smirky smile. He wrapped it, and put in the box with the others. "No, honey, you should put it in with ours. It's yours." "Nah...it's Bailey's now. I think he deserves to have some memento of his grandma. Plus, I have tons of pictures of her." he said, as he stuffed a random teddy into the box.

Finally, Bailey's room has been completed. I sighed with relief, and exhaustion until I remembered we still had to finish the other rooms in the house. I groaned, heaved myself off the couch, woke my husband, and went to finish the rooms.

Robert's POV

Max's room went simply enough. He's too young for many things. It was just kinda weird; I mean just a few years ago I was in here, painting the walls for a baby yet to arrive. And now, I was cleaning out my son's room. It's so crazy. I spent years of my life just praying to get out of Melbourne, and now I was willingly going back.

Even I thought I was nuts, I can hardly imagine what my family thought when I emailed them and told them.

Finally, the last box is packed and loaded. All that's left is to get the guys in the morning, and head out. I sit on our couch that the movers will load into the truck tomorrow, my wife under my arm. I look around what very soon won't be home anymore.

"It's strange, isn't it?" Allie says, breaking the silence.

"Yeah...a little too strange." I respond.

"I know...I mean I'm sad we're ending this chapter in our lives...but I'm also excited to see where the next one takes us." she said, snuggling into my chest. I nod, looking around again.

"Remember the first night in this place?"

"What, when I tried to carry you in and I tripped?" I asked, chuckling at the memory. Allison had had tears rolling down her face from laughter as I sat up to survey the damage I had caused.

'Not one full day of real married life, and you're already bending over backwards for me."

She nodded, laughing. "It wasn't that bad! You just couldn't see over my beautiful face." she said, snorting delicately in the adorable way she does when she's laughing really hard.

"I seem to remember the next morning, waking up in our room to the sound of you slipping and toppling down the stairs."

She blushed, and stopped laughing. I laughed as soon as she turned bright red. "It wasn't that bad! You just couldn't think about anything but our beautiful night we'd had before!"

"Robert Chase! You're a married father, you want your sons to pick up on that kind of talk?" she admonished me, a grin trying not to appear on her dimpled cheeks.

"Well...if they get a wife nearly as amazing as mine, I wouldn't blame them if they did." I said, kissing my wife's neck.

"You're a hopeless romantic, Robert." she said, batting her eyes up at me.

We fell asleep soon after that, cuddled in each other's arms. Allison woke me up, whispering that we had to get a move on and get the kids. I nodded, rubbing my eyes sleepily. She tossed me a bag, "Take your meds, then we go."

By meds, she means my inhaler. I took a few breaths like I'm supposed to, and then wrapped it back up in the plastic baggy. I grabbed the few things we'd packed for the trip. Games, books, iPods, laptops. Clothes were going through baggage claim. We looked around one last time, remembering all the memories we had made over the past couple of years. Came in as fresh-faced newlyweds in their starter home, and we're going out as a couple with a few years of marriage under our belts and two kids to show for our efforts.

When I moved to America, I came completely alone and isolated from my family. Now, I'm going back to Australia with my own little family. I guess you can say, I achieved the American dream. Now, lets see if I can get the Australian one too...

THE END...?