Author's Note: Ahhhhh I am so glad everyone seemed to enjoy the last chapter! I like it way better than the other one I wrote. Oh I kind of wanted to say there may be some continuity errors in this story, please just forgive and ignore them. Maybe you didn't even notice but going back and reading some stuff I realized that I unintentionally didn't write things how I did before, but then again these chapters weren't originally intended to coincide, so eh. Just wanted to address it, I noticed it. Also, I am unsure of when I will put up another chapter of TMH, I'm just always in the mood to write this story for some reason. Also I have ideas for like really short chapters for this story which I might do, like they won't be long or quite as in depth but they would be more frequent, idk, cause I'm not sure if I want to do them as full "chapters". Tbh I don't know that much about amusement parks in the Beacon Hills area so bear with me. As always, thanks for reading and please keep up the reviews! They help me want to keep writing!
"What do you want to do first?" Stiles asked his young daughter who was sitting in her car seat in the back of the SUV, next to her younger brother who was currently babbling on and on in his backwards, infant car seat.
"I want to ride on the rides, Daddy." She responded as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Oh she was definitely Lydia's daughter.
"Okay, but what rides?" He asked as he tried to keep his eyes on the road in the somewhat heavy traffic.
"I don't know, I've never been there before." This statement was less sassy but it still reminded him of something his wife would say.
"She gets that from you. You know that, right?" Stiles asked looking over at Lydia in the passenger's seat, she rolled her eyes.
"Really? She gets her sarcasm from just me?" She looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe it's a combination." He admitted.
"Maybe like a perfect combination?" She smiled and he avoided eye contact, he still couldn't believe he had said something so lame and embarrassing, really he couldn't believe that she even remembered such a dumb, miniscule combination.
"Maybe." He mumbled under his breath.
"No mumbling, Daddy." Cassidy told her father, she had no idea what they were talking about but she liked correcting her parents for things they scolded her about. Lydia looked back at her daughter's prideful smile and laughed softly. She really was just like her; there was no denying their relation whatsoever. She looked like Stiles too though, it was remarkable. Her bronze eyes were just like her father's, so were Noah's, Lydia loved that.
"Maybe." He said, this time more clearly.
"Don't be embarrassed, it was cute." She giggled, leaning over the console and kissing him on the cheek. "I think we may even have a couple perfect combinations of us." She couldn't help but peer into the back seat at her perfect babies. Cassidy was in a bright tank top and grey shorts, sandals, with her strawberry blonde hair thrown up into a ponytail. Noah was wearing a blue onesie with khaki shorts and matching baby shoes.
"I have to agree with you on that one." He loved them so much, he wasn't even sure it was possible; he would do absolutely anything for any of them.
"Are we there yet?" Cassidy, asked for the tenth time in the past thirty minutes.
"Yes, we're almost there." They were currently trying to get into the parking lot of their destination. Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia had decided to take the kids to the local amusement park for the day, it was only a two hour drive and they thought it would be fun for the kids to experience. The Sheriff and Melissa were also planning on meeting them there at some point in the day.
"Are you sure? That's what you said last time."
"Why all the sass today, I might have to start calling you sassy Cassie." Stiles joked as they finally were able to turn into the parking lot.
"Nooooooo!" She whined.
"Well then you better start being nice then, or otherwise I'll have to start calling you that." He said as finally found a parking spot and pulled right in.
"We're here." Lydia turned to Cassidy and smiled before exiting the car. Stiles went to the back of the car to retrieve the all-important stroller and get it all set up. Today they had to bring the special double one, with the baby car seat attachment. Lydia retrieved Cassidy from her seat and placed her so she was sitting on the back of the SUV, legs dangling back and forth as she watched her father wrestle with the stroller. Lydia went to the other side of the vehicle to get her son out of his car seat for a bit.
"Hi Noah." She cooed, he had been crying a little, not being able to hear anyone's voices anymore. As soon as he saw Lydia though, he stopped and looked up at her with those gorgeous light brown orbs. God, he looked just like Stiles, she couldn't see much of her in him at all really, even the little bit of hair he had, definitely Stiles. "Hi baby, no more crying, mommy's here." She said unbuckling him and pressing him toward her chest. She smelled the top of his head, and just took a minute to breathe his perfection in.
"When do we get to go in Mommy?" She asked Lydia as she walked back around the car.
"When Daddy gets the stroller put together, after I change Noah, and after we get our sunscreen on." Lydia said, laying down a blanket in the back of the SUV and then laying down Noah on top of it. Being prone to sunburns was something they all unfortunately had in common.
"Noahhhhh." Cassidy giggled as she leaned over, closer to her brother and continued to talk to him as Lydia changed his diaper. He babbled something incoherent as he giggled at her. "Say Cassidy-y-y-y" she told him, she had been trying to get him to say her name ever since he managed to say "Dada" a few times in the past week.
"Cass, he's still a baby, he doesn't know any words yet." Lydia said as she could tell her daughter was getting annoyed that he wasn't speaking her name. "Besides he still has to say "Mama" first." She smiled and leaned down to kiss his chubby cheeks. "You're just so darn cute." She told him as he smiled widely, his eyes focused on her. He looked up at her with his beautiful brown eyes in complete awe, like he was mesmerized by her; he was totally Stiles' kid.
"What about me?" Cassidy asked.
"Yes you're darn cute too." She said kissing the top of her daughter's head.
"What about me?" Stiles pouted as he finished putting the baby seat into the stroller, walking over to where the rest of his family was.
"Eh, I guess you're pretty cute too." She said smiling, as she began to rub sunscreen into the baby's skin. He laughed as he applied sunscreen onto Cassidy's super pale skin. After the four of them were protected with SPF Stiles and Lydia buckled the kids into the stroller and packed up everything they would need for the day into it as well. Stiles pushed the stroller through the congested parking lot as Lydia rooted through her purse to find the tickets that they purchased beforehand. After getting into the park they veered off to a nearby bench to wait for everyone else.
"What are we waiting for?" Cassidy asked as she sat on Stiles' lap as Lydia was looking on the map, trying to figure out where to go first.
"We're waiting for Aunt Allison, Uncle Scott, Melissa, Scott, Christopher, and Grandpa, sweetie. Just be patient." Lydia told her daughter as she folded up the map.
"Ugh." Cassidy groaned, they couldn't blame her though her patience was good, but she was still four years old.
"Why are you being so sassy today?" Stiles asked as he turned her around to face him, making her giggle. "Huh?"
"I don't know." She said quietly.
"Well you better be good or we might just have to take you back home."
"No!" Fear written all over her face.
"Then you better tone down the sass today, okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay good." He said as he tickled her, making her laugh. He always knew what to do to put her in a better mood, just like he had learned how to do with Lydia. After a few seconds, he stopped and she laid her head on his chest, with one arm wrapped around his neck while they waited for everyone else and as Lydia snapped a few pictures.
"Look who's coming over here Cass." Lydia told her daughter as she saw Melissa, John, as well as Allison and Scott, each pushing a stroller. Everyone gave each other greetings and hugs, glad to be together. Since Melissa and John were married in the Spring they were all technically family now.
"Daddy can we ride those?"
"The bumper cars? Yeah we can go do that if you want to. Anyone else want to come?" Stiles asked, and everyone agreed to go on while Melissa looked after Christopher and Noah, she wasn't too big of a fan of amusement park rides. Allison and Lydia rode in one together, John took Cassidy, Scott took his son, and Stiles went solo. They all had fun running into one another, with Allison and Lydia being the main target in it all, mostly because running into them always roused a shrill yell.
"Was that fun?" Lydia asked Cassidy as they exited the ride.
"Uh huh, a lot of fun!" She squealed. "Can we do it again?"
"Maybe later, we still have a lot of other things to ride today." Lydia explained as she took her daughter's hand.
"Okay." Cassidy said as they walked back to Melissa. Noah was settled in her arms but as soon as he saw Stiles he began to squirm in her arms.
"Hi buddy." He said as he took Noah from her, the smile on his son's face couldn't be any bigger. "Hi there." He kissed the top of his head, both of them with goofy grins on their faces now.
"I want to ride more rides!" The younger Scott expressed to his mother.
"In a minute." Allison insisted as she buckled him into his stroller. With that the group was off to the next ride. They found an area with a few rides just for the kids, so the adults sat and watched Scott and Cassidy stood in the lines holding each other's hands. Lydia fed Noah under a large blanket, despite the heat, while hiding behind Stiles, just in case. She was very modest about breastfeeding, she rarely did in public, it was supposed to be a private experience. The rest of the group conversed and watched a toddling Christopher for entertainment as he took lots of wobbly steps.
"Did you guys have fun?" Scott asked the two practical preschoolers as they walked back to the adults; just as they were instructed to do (it was only a fifteen foot walk).
"So much fun Daddy!" The younger Scott exclaimed as Cassidy went to Stiles and climbed up onto his lap.
"What about you Cass, did you have fun?" Stiles asked, kissing the top of her head, she nodded quietly. "What's wrong?"
"I want to ride a ride with you." She pouted.
"Don't worry you have all day to ride with me and whoever else you want to."
"Really?" She was smart but didn't quite grasp the idea of amusement parks yet.
"Really, I promise."
"That makes me happy." She smiled and turned so she could hug him, she looked at Lydia finishing Noah's feeding as she tried to burp him. Cassidy made a few faces at him to make him giggle. "Look he's laughing at me." She laughed back at him as Lydia continued to pat his back while he sat upright, giggling at his sister.
"Ready to go?" Scott asked as he stood up and Lydia placed Noah back into his car seat in that sat on top of the stroller.
"Yeah I think so." Stiles said.
"Cassidy, you need to get in the stroller or hold somebody's hand please." Lydia instructed her daughter who immediately ran to her grandfather and grabbed his hand. "Thank you." Lydia said as she adjusted the sun visor on the stroller to shield the baby from the harmful rays.
"Let's go on this one!" Scott said excitedly as he pointed to a ride that looked kid friendly, called something like the tumble bug.
"I'll pass, it looks a little bit too…spin-y for me." Allison told him.
"Lydia?"
"I think I'll pass on that one too."
"Scott and I will go then" Stiles said "come on let's go ride this one with Uncle Scott and…Scott" it never quite flew off the tongue, always sounded funny. Cassidy let go of her grandfather's hand and grabbed her father's as they walked towards the ride to get in line. After a few minutes they got on, kids in the middle and laughing as Lydia and Allison snapped a few pictures of the four of them on the ride.
"Was that fun?" Lydia asked them as they got off of the ride.
"So much fun, you have no idea, you really missed out." Scott answered, followed by a signature Lydia eye-roll.
"I'm going to ignore that."
"Yes, but can I ride something with you next?" Cassidy asked her mother as she took her father's hand again and they began to walk some more. After riding a few more rides and stopping to take a few pictures the kids were starting to get hungry.
"Mommy, I'm hungry." The younger of the two Scott's complained.
"Yeah I am too." The older Scott added, Allison definitely had her hands full Lydia decided as she watched Christopher thrash around in his stroller. But she was sure her best friend and soon to be step-sister-in-law wouldn't give her family up for the world. Because she was pretty sure not everyone would be able to handle her sassy three and half year old, her sometimes sickly baby, and her husband that loved her too much.
"Mommy. I'm hungry too and hot." It was reaching afternoon time, the sun was burning, a new coat of sunscreen would soon need to be applied.
"Why don't we go get something to eat?" John suggested and they all agreed. They picked an Italian style eatery where they all could sit down and recharge their energy. Luckily it was already noisy and the cranky children didn't offend any of the other patrons, it was an amusement park after all. After scarfing down some pizza and a few trips to the bathroom, the younger Scott and Christopher were asleep in their strollers next to the table, and Cassidy on Lydia's lap, while Stiles was feeding Noah the last of his baby food.
"Are you sure you want the kids in the wedding?" Lydia asked quietly, currently they were discussing the plans for Melissa and John's upcoming wedding ceremony, which they had said they wanted the younger Scott and Cassidy to be involved in, Lydia was unsure about how smoothly it would work out if that happened.
"Of course we want them to be in it, we have from the start." Melissa told her.
"Are you sure, Cass here can be a bit of a handful" she said as she rubbed her daughter's head softly, moving strands of hair that fell out of the ponytail away from her face. "Doesn't always listen to directions…although I'm not exactly sure where she gets that trait from." Sarcasm was heavy in the last part of her sentence as she glanced over at her husband as he wiped the food residue off of his son's pale face.
"Hey…" he countered as he continued to clean Noah up. It wasn't that he didn't try to do what he was told he just got…distracted. But it wasn't something Lydia actually found overwhelmingly annoying.
"Seriously it will be fine; we want them to be in it." Melissa assured her, Lydia was curious to see how the endeavor turned out.
"Sweetie wake up, we have more rides to ride." Lydia whispered a few minutes later when everyone was ready to go, she yawned and slowly opened her eyes, clearly not too excited to be awoken from her nap.
"Now?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Yeah, but I have to put some more sunscreen on you, so you don't burn." She told her as she slid out of the booth and covered her in sunscreen as Stiles returned from the rest room after changing Noah and lathering him up in SPF as well. After the four of their pale bodies were shielded enough they went outside on to more rides.
The next ride they rode was the merry-go-round, one everyone could ride. Stiles sat on one of the horses making sure Noah was secure in his arms, same with Allison and little Christopher, Scott stood next to his oldest son, as did Lydia with Cassidy, Melissa and John sat in the carriage portion of the ride, behind everyone else. Lydia made sure she had her camera out to snap a few pictures as well.
After that the adults switched off on riding with the kids so everyone could ride on the rollercoasters and adult rides if they wanted. John and Melissa agreed to look after the kids for a few minutes so Scott, Stiles, Allison and Lydia could go and ride the park's newest rollercoaster together.
"I feel like we're seventeen again." Stiles said as the four of them waited their turn in line to get on the coaster.
"If we were seventeen again Lydia wouldn't be standing within ten feet of you right now." Scott joked, that wasn't entirely true, but it did hold some validity.
"No that was when we were sixteen." Stiles insisted, he was right too, sixteen was his last ditch effort to woo her really.
"Well you've got me now." Lydia whispered to him as he placed his hands on her hips from his stance behind her and she leaned into him. God she loved him, more than she could have ever expected. The way he had her wrapped in his arms as he wore that bright blue shirt that lit him up and made him easy to spot him in a crowd (good for days like that day) and in his knock off Ray-Ban sunglasses, she wished there was a way to spend a thousand years with him.
"That's alright with me." He said kissing her neck gently. "You were worth the wait." He admitted.
"I'm glad you were patient with me." She whispered to just him, turning her head slightly so she could be at an angle to kiss him. A few moments later they were able to get on the roller coaster and it reminded them all of that time they had gone to an amusement park with the pack when they were younger.
"How were they?" Lydia asked taking a sleeping Noah from his grandfather's arms, both of them relaxing quietly on a bench by themselves.
"Perfect, as always." He had to say that, he was their grandfather. "Melissa's over there with Christopher, taking some pictures of the other two on the bumper boats."
"Thank you so much."
"Not a problem, their my grandkids, it's my job." He smiled, she could tell his heart swelled with pride that he could say his "grandkids", she knew Scott and Christopher would technically be step-grandkids pretty soon, but she was sure there would always be a special place for his biological ones, he couldn't help it.
He pushed the stroller for Lydia as she carried Noah over to Melissa and the rest of the group, Cassidy and Scott having just gotten off of the ride.
"Mommy can we go on that?" Cassidy asked pointing at something high in the air, the Ferris wheel, Lydia couldn't help but smiling remembering the one at the beach where she had admitted feelings to Stiles so many years ago.
"Of course we can." She smiled as they got in line and they all packed themselves into two gondolas. The Sheriff and Melissa packed in the same one as Stiles and Lydia and their kids, Noah still asleep soundly in Lydia's arms. Cassidy enjoyed the view very much as she sat on Stiles' lap, taking in the view and pointing out all of the rides she had been on throughout the day. Everyone else snapped a few pictures, Lydia making sure to get a good family shot of them. Afterwards they rode another ride or two before deciding to eat in a nice eatery with actual waitresses and waiters; everyone was able to get a decent meal before heading out for the rest of the night, Lydia was able to feed Noah and change his diaper, making him a much happier baby for a few hours.
The rest of the night went smoothly as they rode a few more rides each, some of the kids favorite rides they rode a second and third time, Cassidy giggling as she dragged her father to the lines over and over. Eating lots of junk food and everything else they had yet to do during the day, the adults riding a few more coasters. After it became dark and the park was an hour away from close with the kids beginning to fall asleep in their strollers the gang headed out to the parking lot, saying their goodbyes as they headed to their cars.
Stiles set a drowsy Cassidy down, who he had been carrying over his shoulder for the past ten minutes as they looked for the vehicle, in the back of the SUV. Lydia took the baby out of his car seat as Stiles put it back in. Lydia changed Noah's diaper one last time (she hoped) and Stiles returned and removed his baby's day clothes and changed him into his pajamas as Lydia took Cassidy to the restroom for one more bathroom break. When they came back Lydia put her daughter into her pajamas as well. Lydia was so pleased with her brilliant ideas like these; it would make it one hundred times easier to put them to bed when they got home now.
"Here, I'll take her." Stiles said, knowing it was sometimes hard to get his daughter just right in the car seat from Lydia's height.
"Thank you." Stiles took her and she nuzzled into his shirt.
"Say goodnight to Mommy." Stiles told her as Lydia kissed her cheek before Stiles put her in to her car seat. Lydia picked up Noah, who wasn't quite asleep yet.
"Hi baby. I love you, I love you." She told him kissing all over his face and snuggling him close to her body as Stiles came back around Lydia handed Noah to him.
"Hi buddy, are you ready for bed. Yeah I bet you're tired." Stiles cooed, hugging him and kissing the top of his sleepy head. "I'm tired too, lets get you ready to go to sleep." Stiles said as he buckled him in as well. "I love you so much." He said kissing his head. Lydia was right behind him, covering Noah up with a blanket.
"Goodnight Noah, Mommy loves you." She kissed his cheek and went to her side of the vehicle, where Cassidy was. She did the same thing, wrapped her up in one of her favorite blankets, she was already out like a light. "Goodnight Cassidy, I love you so much." She whispered closing the door softly as Stiles put the stroller in the car.
"That was fun." Stiles told his wife as they hopped in the car and prepared for their two hour journey back to their home.
Author's Note: I am so sorry this has taken me so long to update, this chapter just got away from me and I wrote more than I expected to, hope you like it. And damn wouldn't you know it half way through writing this I suddenly remembered… "Disneyland" I am so mad at myself. Maybe there will have to be another amusement park adventure, what do you think? Ugh I feel so dumb.