Chapter 27- A Valentine's Surprise from Kelly To Mom and Dad

February 14th, 2000

Gordon's POV

Michele and I got a nice surprise yesterday from Kelly's doctors. She was coming home, Kelly had been in the well baby nursery since February 12th weighing in at 6 pounds eight ounces, which meant the weight requirement was met. She had been able to maintain her body temperature in the open crib for about a week. Also, she had been breathing on her own for about two weeks. She passed her hearing test yesterday morning. We had to bring her car seat yesterday so that the nurses could do the car seat test. If she passed that test, the nurses were confident that Kelly would be coming home. I had called Jerry Ducksworth and told him yesterday that it was possible that Kelly would be coming home this morning. Michele did the same with Dean Buckley. Which was expected that Kelly was going to be coming home at sometime during this week. Michele was planning on being around for the parent/teacher conferences, next week. Hans was a little confused this morning with us not rushing around this morning.

"Gordon?" Michele said.

"Yes dear?" I asked.

"It's nine o'clock don't you think that it's time to go and get Kelly and bring her home?" Michele asked.

"Yes I suppose so, what do you think Hans you ready to bring your sister home?" I asked.

"Sissy, sissy, sissy!" Hans said.

"I will take that as a yes son," I said and then I laughed.

"I will get him ready," Michele said.

"Get let me do the dishes really quick and we will be on our way," I said.

I was done with the breakfast dishes in a relatively short fashion, I then called my mom and said that we will be bringing Kelly home today. Mom was going to be staying with us for ten days until we got our feet back underneath us as a family of four. She had missed when we brought Hans home from the hospital but given the fact that we were living in California at the time I understood. Mom was going to move into Bella's room temporarily, since Adam moved down into Ollie's old room in January. Bella hadn't been home much nor speaking to me since the fight that we had 2 weeks ago, not even a hello in the hallway. I had tried to be nice to her, but she was still mad. I could not blame her, I suppose I did rip her from her family, but what gets me is that she asked me too. It doesn't matter now that I had a real daughter to contend with, I was never ever letting Kelly go. I even told Michele that Kelly wasn't allowed to date until she was thirty-five. Michele just laughed at me.

Michele, Hans, and I got up to the hospital at 10:00.

"Hey if it ain't the Bombay's," said Nurse Jenkins.

"Hello Nurse Jenkins, so is Kelly ready to go home?" Michele asked.

"More than ready she passed her car seat test with flying colors, I will let Dr. Kindrick know that you have arrived," Nurse Jenkins said.

Dr. Kindrick was Kelly's neonatologist, he was in charge of Kelly's care. Between him and Doctors Jameson and Talbert were three of the ten doctors that were on staff at Children's Minnesota. We waited for 25 minutes for Dr. Kindrick to walk into Kelly's room. Michele was holding Kelly and trying to get her to feed, which she was having much success from doing that.

"Good Morning Gordon, Michele and Hans," Dr. Kindrick said.

"Good Morning," Michele and I both said.

"So, are you ready for Kelly to go home?" Dr. Kindrick asked.

"Yes we are ready to go home. But we are not sure that she is ready to go home," Michele asked.

"Oh, she is ready alright, she has met all of the requirements, and she is feeding well," Dr. Kindrick said.

"Yes, ouch," Michele said.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yes, she pulled a little too hard," Michele said.

"Yep she's a Bombay alright," I said.

"Well, I will get the discharge paperwork ready to go, but as you can see from her last few days of rounding she was completely normal in everything," Dr. Kindrick said as he pulled up Kelly's chart on the computer for us to see.

"So, what is next?" I asked.

"Well, you will make an appointment to see her pediatrician as soon as you can and I will see you in my office in 3 months," Dr. Kindrick said.

"Okay," I said.

"Alright any more questions?" Dr. Kindrick asked.

"No," Michele and I both said.

"Okay, I will get the paperwork ready, and the nurse will be in here soon," Dr. Kindrick said.

"Thank you Dr. Kindrick," Michele and I both said.

"Your welcome and congratulations," Dr. Kindrick said and with that he left the room.

I made the call to Doctor Kell's office and was able to get an appointment for Friday at 9 am. I then called Jerry and said that Kelly was coming home, so I will be taking the last few days of my paternity leave for the week, and I will be checking in at the office from time to time. Luckily, I didn't have any cases going to trial this week. Michele did the same thing with Dean Buckley she was taking the next nineteen school days off. Just coming up to Eden Hall for in-service and Parent/Teacher conferences, she was planning on going back the 16th of March. Mom said that she would take over Kelly's care from that date until the end of school in May. Then Michele said she was going to stay home until Kelly was two. Hans would be in daycare on a part time basis until May, then Michele would probably let him stay home with her until he would be eligible for preschool.

Within an hour we were on our way home, Kelly cried at the inequity of being in her car seat. Hans was so cute telling Kelly that it was ok, we were going home.

February 15th, 2000

Adam's POV

Tonight was the second to the last regular season game of my high school career. I could not believe it, just a few more games and I would be done with high school hockey. Charlie, Guy, and I were tighter than ever, which was great for us and bad for the girls. Well, the girls and Gunnar. We were facing St. Paul Academy on their ice. It was there senior night. We had ours 10 days ago. I kind of felt bad for Connie, Bella and Julie not being able to play in their final home game at Eden Hall. All of the seniors' parents came for seniors night, well expect for Gunnars. I think that Gunnar was kind of expecting this. All of the seniors were able to give flowers to the women or the mom's in our lives for being there for us. Gunnar ended up dividing his flowers among Amanda Buckley, Jewel Germaine, Casey, and Mom. I thought that was sweet of him. At the same time, I felt bad that his own mother wasn't able to come to senior night. I was surprised to see my own birth mother in attendance tonight, she received the flowers that Bella gave to her and as much as I wanted to give some of the flowers to my birth mother, because well she did give birth to me I couldn't. All because the old man was standing there and to him, I wasn't even family. That hurt even worse than them disowning me freshman year.

"Alright Ducks, you know what to do, we have to win the next 2 games to get into the playoffs, so let's go out there, skate hard, shoot hard, check hard and win," Coach Orion said.

"Hey, let's win this one for Kelly so we can get into the playoffs," Dad said.

"Alright Captain you have the lineup," Coach Orion said.

I looked at the lineup card and then said, "Julie's in Goal, the Bash Brothers on Defense and The Three Amigos on the line. Let's get those Spartans."

"Quack, Quack, Quack," The ducks all said going down the hallway.

"The Three Amigos?" Connie asked.

"Yeah," Charlie, Guy and I said together.

Connie just shook her head before she said, "You guys are unbelievable."

When we got out onto the ice for the face off, I said, "I'm Lucky Day."

"I'm Ned Nederlander," Guy said

"I'm Dusty Bottoms and together we're" Charlie said

"The Three Amigos!," we said together and did a little dance that ended with grunt

"Let's go," Charlie said.

"What the fuck?" a player on the opposite side asked.

When we lined up for the opening faceoff I said, "Well you slime-eating dogs, you scum-sucking pigs, you sons of a motherless goat."

"Sons of a motherless goat? Shut up let's play hockey," the center on the opposite side said.

"Alright let's have a good game now boys," The referee said.

I took the face off and passed it to Charlie who passed it to Guy who in turn passed it back up to me what I shot it and scored, "The Three Amigos," We said together.

"ALRIGHT KNOCK THAT OFF," Coach Orion barked.

Bella's POV

I was sitting up in the stands with my parents, watching the game, when Adam scored the first goal of the game and him, Charlie and Guy shouted, "The Three Amigos." I got jealous; I could not help it. It should be me and Gunnar on that ice helping Adam score not Guy and Charlie. I knew that they moved in together just from the grumbling that Gunnar, Dwanye, Luis, and Jesse were doing. How or why, I didn't know until today. While the why I knew, the how it was a mystery to me.

"Hey Ace, Relax you will be on the ice soon," Dad said as he looked at me.

"It's not fair, I should have been excused for the day. After all it's about where I am living," I said.

"Yes, but in the same breath you also skipped school. Which you of all people know that is a big no no, Ace. If you had come to me, before you pulled that stunt, I would have helped you Ace. You dug your own grave, and now you have to deal with the consequences," Dad said.

"I know, it just sucks," I said.

"Well, it doesn't matter Ace, just a handful of games left and then you will all go your separate ways," Dad said.

Dad was right, there were two games left in the regular season and if we were lucky to win those games, we would be in the state playoffs, which would give us at most six more games and then my high school career was over.

"It doesn't seem possible," I said.

"I know. I remember helping you learn how to skate, Issy," Dad said.

"And how to walk, Phillip," Mom said.

"And how to walk. Then I blinked and you are all grown up," Dad said.

"I don't know if I am ready to go on to a different team next fall," I said.

"Well, you can't go back to your freshman year, it's time to face the facts and be ready for the separation of you all," Dad said.

"Do you think that we will still be friends in 5 or 10 years?" I asked.

"Hmm probably you grew up together, but only time will tell," Mom said.

"I guess," I said. I sat there and watched The Ducks pound St. Paul Academy into the ground with a final score of 10-1. We were one step closer to the playoffs and one step closer to my high school career being over.

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