Chapter 40

Kate was in Jamie's room. Kaylee was all tucked in and fast asleep, her conscious mind slowly drifting into dreamland. Kate sat on that couch she used to nurse Jamie in and cuddled him closer to her chest and softly hummed a lullaby to him, but little Jamie was still a little too excited to go to sleep just yet. He placed his hand on his mommy's lips and watched it. So Kate held his hand and kissed his soft palm, it made him smile.

"You and you sisters really out did yourself today, you know that?"

"Mmm" he said, a little drool wetting his lips. Kate chuckled and wiped his soft lips with his napkin

"I love you baby" she said, as she kissed his nose, and began to coo him again, brushing her nose against his. He tried once again to do it, this time, he ended up kissing the bridge of her nose. Kate brought him close and let him rest his head on her shoulder, he snuggled closer, letting his face hide in the crook of her neck.

She began humming a soft tune to him again, trying to get him to relax. And she couldn't help but think about how she had been away from him for just a few hours today, and she had missed him so much, all of her children, she couldn't imagine being away from them all weekend.

Little Jamie's hand slid down from its place near her neck to just above her breast, and Kate found that his breathing was slowing down, he was finally beginning to fall asleep. She smiled as an idea dawned upon her. She would go tell Rick about it as soon as Jamie was asleep. But now, she just wanted to hold him, and revel in the feel of his soft heart beat against her.

Rick cleared up the kitchen and then went upstairs to find Kate. He peeped into Kaylee and Jamie's room, to find Kaylee fast asleep, and Kate was lost in Jamie's world. He decided not to disturb them, for fear Jamie might not go back to sleep if he woke up now. So Rick closed the door slowly and walked on to Avril and Alexis' room.

He knocked lightly, and waited to hear one of their voices 'come in' said Alexis.

He pushed open the door, to find Alexis sitting on her bed in her PJs, painting her toenails, and Avril was on her bed, with her laptop sitting on her lap.

"Hey dad!" Alexis said, rick smiled, and made his way to his daughters side, he looked at Avril and said

"C'mere, I need to talk to you guys for a second"

Avril kept her laptop aside, and got up while Rick sat beside Alexis in the place on her bed that she scooted up to the side to give him.

Avril sat herself in the middle of the bed, her legs folded beneath her

"What's up? don't you have more interesting things to do tonight then join a slumber party with your daughters?" Avril teased while smirking at Alexis' brightly colored toe nails.

Rick raised an eyebrow at her and with that mischievous smile "Oh, I have much more exciting things to do tonight, but I'm not sure if you want to hear about them"

"Nope, I'd rather that stay a secret" Avril quickly said with a laugh.

"It's a good thing you two sleep here upstairs. I wouldn't want you two listening to your mom…"

"Oh my god! Stop! Don't finish that sentence!" Avril yelled

And Alexis said "You walked right into that one Avril, you're the one who provoked him!"

"Okay okay, I get it, I won't do it again!"

Rick laughed.

"Mind if I use your hand to try out a color dad?" Alexis asked, and Rick just splayed his fingers out for her and allowed her to paint a nail. But he continued to talk.

"Well, I came here to say goodnight to you two, and to find out what you plan is for the weekend, while your mother and I are away. For some reason, I don't feel too good about being away from you guys for two whole days"

"There's nothing you need to worry about dad" Avril said.

"Yea, grams is going to be here with us tomorrow, and we're spending Sunday at Grandma Beckett's place. They're more than happy to keep us. And you know we can take care of ourselves dad, we're not kids anymore." Alexis said

"Your brother and sister are" Rick argued.

"That's the reason we're having grandparents with us, otherwise, you know Alexis and I would have enjoyed a weekend with the loft all to ourselves" Avril said with a wink towards Alexis's direction. Rick looked between them and then said

"That brings me to the second part of this conversation. You two better behave yourselves, don't think you can do whatever you want just cause your grandparents are more lenient with you than your mother and I are"

"We'll be the perfect little daughters you know us to be" Avril said

"Good" rick said

And then there was silence.

"Is there something else on your mind?" Avril asked.

"Yea… what you four did for us today, it was, overwhelming. You mother and I had so much fun. And all of it was so thoughtful, the notes, the places you led us to, it was... beautiful. And I speak on behalf of both of us when I say, you couldn't have given us a better anniversary gift" he had a genuine smile of gratitude on his face, and it made both of them feel proud.

"We're glad you loved it"

"Loved is an understatement. You mom and I had the time of our lives tonight"

"Well, today was only the first half of the gift, tomorrow is when the anniversary really begins"

Rick laughed. "Thank you, both of you, I know you went to great lengths to do this for us, and I know you might not listen to us now, but we're going to pay you back for it."

"We won't let you."

"You will."

"Dad!" Alexis whined.

"Don't dad me!"

"You know what, we can discuss this after the trip, for now, we just want you and mom to have a good time together, with no worry about the four of us."

Rick nodded. And there was silence for a moment. Finally he held his arms out, and both of them hugged him at once.

"I love you two, your mom and I are really proud of you."

"We love you too dad." Avril said

"And as much as we'll miss you, you see to it that you make the most of this trip" Alexis said

"Yea, all that alone time with mom, you must be super excited" Avril said when they pulled away

Rick was just about to say something when Avril interrupted "no! Don't reply to that!"

They laughed and then Rick wished them a goodnight and made his way to the door. Avril went back to whatever she was doing on her laptop and Alexis continued with her nails. Rick looked at them for a moment from his place near the door and thought to himself. He was going miss these them like crazy, even though it was just two days. He hadn't even left yet and he was already waiting Sunday evening to return home.

When Rick passed Jamie's room, he noticed Kate wasn't in, so he kissed the little ones goodnight, and went downstairs to find his wife.