OMFG, LAST CHAPTER?!


Eric tossed the ball at the wall again, purposefully missing so it landed with a comical smack on Mike's head. Without looking up, Mike elbowed Eric in the stomach and rubbed his shaggy head. Sighing with unbelievable annoyance, Eric glanced at John's watch.

"Something wrong?" He asked, smirking heavily.

"My sex is ten minutes late, as a matter of fact." He replied, tossing his nose up snootily.

Mike giggled childishly.

Eric scowled at Mike and folded his arms again, sighing louder. Some secretaries were gossiping, John was eating Chinese food, Mike stretching out over the floor. Terry rubbed his forehead again and edited through a sketch once more while the other Terry scribbled various nothings on his sketchpad. For some reason Gray had left the building for his lunch hour, and it sounded like he wouldn't be back for a while. Eric's leg began to jiggle, setting off loose change in his pocket, keys, guitar picks. It all jangled in a stressed melody.

"Cut it out, Idle. I'm ready to throttle myself; don't give me a reason to change my direction." Terry warned dryly, tugging his hair.

"So, is anyone else cheating on their wife?" Eric asked loudly and relished the looks of horror on the other's faces as they looked up and fell silent.

"Kidding, Christ!" He laughed.

Mike squinted. "For a man about to skip off for a lovely afternoon with his wife, you're acting pretty shirty."

"Shirty? Please, Mike. I'm jumpy, maybe antsy. Not shirty."

"Pizza anyone?" Nadia entered and dropped a large box on the table between John and Mike. John glanced at the box and smiled wanly. Nadia immediately picked up on his slightly sympathetic look before she sat on Eric's lap and sighed unhappily.

"What's up, babe?" He remained as calm as possible.

She shrugged. "My car is filthy as a corpse. Besides, I'm ready to go to bed right now."

Forgetting for a moment others were in the room, Eric replied, "You think I'm not? Christ, Nadia, you act like you do all the work around here!"

"Just in the workplace, obviously." She quipped, smoothing his hair down.

"Well, I'm ready to call it a day, anyroad. Can we go home?"

"Sleeeeeep," she replied.

Terry tossed his hands up in the air. "Done! We're ahead now!"

Eric draped Nadia over his shoulder and said they could keep the pizza on the way out. Nadia felt him put her down in her own car, buckle her in, start the engine, and kiss her neck quickly before she opened her eyes and giggled. He winked and gestured for the road. An hour of seperation? Could he handle it?

She drove as quickly as possible, taking a different route than him, and much her to dismay, his car was in the driveway when she pulled up. As she stepped out, stretched her fingers towards the sun, and felt her skin warm to the shining light, she heard children laughing. A sound she was starting to miss. Elementary school children! No perverted sexual innuendo, no giggles as someone's ass was slapped on their way out, and no whispers of rumors that Miss Smart was about to commit suicide this weekend.

"Check in the mail," she said aloud as she rifled through the mail.

"For your house by the college?" Eric asked, toothbrush poking from his mouth.

She nodded, looking at the money. "Looks like they're all caught up."

Merlin scampered across her foot and tripped on an electrical cord, going against all pretenses and falling flat on his tiny face. He mewled unhappily and chased after Aphrodite with a hiss. Nadia didn't mind this cat problem much anymore. They left food out, left a litter box in the closet at the end of the hall, and let the cats do as the pleased. The only time it became an annoyance were days when the door was left open a little too long and the animals longed for a little attention. Any book-reading session and Eric would be jarred out of a fantasy world when a tail swished across his nose or Nadia shrieked from her painting studio and a shaken looking cat prowled along the kitchen, leaving black or yellow pawprints.

Eric spat into the sink, rinsed his mouth, and looked up from the mirror to catch Nadia's eye. "You tired?"

"Yeah," she replied slowly.

"Come here, then."

She followed him into the bedroom and smiled as he sat himself up on the pillows and blankets and patted his lap. She climbed onto the bed, laid her legs over his, and snuggled up into his arms. He cradled her as if she were his own child and closed his own eyes welcomingly. She sighed a few times, holding his fingers in her palm loosely. Eric felt her break away as sweet slumber stole her away.

About supper time he opened his eyes, alone. Cursing his insane ability to sleep through women crawling over him, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and ambled into the kitchen, kicking off an attacking cat as he did so. The slight movement of toes moving across the floor and a day being all shut up inside a house caused Phobos and Merlin to go completely insane with boredom and attack ceiling fans, fluttering papers, inanimate objects, and moving people. Eric placed the clawing cat on his shoulder and walked into the kitchen where Nadia was sitting across from Lexi. The woman's hair had been sheared short, her shoulders frail, bent, shaking. Eric froze, eyes widening as the pale and sickly thing flopped forward onto the table and sobbed harder. He backed into the hallway and tuned his ears to their conversation.

"It's hard to trust you again, you do realise?"

A strangled squeal. "Nadia, I was on drugs. I wasn't thinking straight. He was the only thing that had happened to me, not the best. Just the only thing and I wasn't willing to let that go. Even if you had been hurt before, he was the only thing that had happened and I wanted it back. I don't know how many weeks rehab it took me to understand that, but I'm all done with it. You...you m-miscarried and I couldn't believe how much it hurt to hear about that."

Eric could tell Nadia was having a hard time deciding whether or not to forgive Lexi and move on, though things would never be the same.

"You look awful, Lexi. Your hair...we should bleach it again."

"You think?" Lexi sniffed.

"Yeah. I think so. But maybe I should talk to Eric first."

Lexi made a very strange sound, like she'd inhaled to sharply and had to expel the extra air through her nose with a loud snarl. "He'll kill me-"

His feet hit automatic, and he jetted into the kitchen. Red pain was smeared all over Nadia's left cheek, her bare shoulder dabbed a little as well, white spatters covering her glasses. A single pawprint was on her forearm. Merlin looked pouty as he slunk around the couch.

Lexi spun and Eric almost recoiled. Her eyes had sunk back into face as if she had been ravaged by a horrible disease; her complexion had worsened and her skin was sallow. In short, it looked as if she had spent the last few years of her life wasting away endlessly.

"Eric-"

"Hullo Lexi, how are you doing? Not to sound rude, but you look like a train-wreck."

She smiled weakly, letting out a little laugh. "I feel like less than shit, and before you say I am, I know. I just know, okay?"

"No, Lexi. You've made an attempt to heal. The best thing you can do for yourself is heal." He sat and placed Phobos on the table. The cat fell over on its side and began to meow and stretch.

"There are not normal cats, Eric." Nadia poked the thing in the side.

Eric snorted. "They were raised here, weren't they?"

"Ah, yes, the radiation."

"No, the atmosphere." He giggled.

Lexi hugged her arms to her sides and sniffed some more, fingers playing over the plain blue jeans hanging lank around her hips and legs. He put his hand over hers and forced the warmest smile he could. She looked a little encouraged, but insisted she leave. Leaving her number for Nadia, she hopped into a plain white car and drove away, slow and uncertain.

"I can't say the change is bad, considering she took on cocaine and tried to win you back by making me think I was going to die because I was going to have a baby."

Eric felt the unfamilar stab of offense. "It wasn't that bad, now that I think about it. I mean, shit, I was scared, but...our little girl-"

"Please," she shot him a warning look, "don't talk about it. I...I wanted to have a daughter, Eric. She would have been the perfect child."

"I know,"

"I felt like I was being punished. For not wanting her and being afraid to take responsibility for her."

"It wasn't anyone's fault, she-"

"Please," she stood up and pulled on her hair. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Eric felt his voice soften considerably. "We could adopt."

"Adopt what?" She snapped. "It's just a case of kindergartener syndrome, Eric. I can't have it, I want it-"

"Then why do I want it, too?" He stood up, anger flashing across his face. "It was an accident, Nadia, it wasn't God laying down a cruel hand, and it wasn't Lexi this time. We have no one to blame, and she would have been perfect. It isn't perfect genes, it's the household. We could raise any child as our own and make them just like her. Just like she could have been."

"I wanted to a part of you there," she sobbed, pushing him away as he attempted to hold her. "I wouldn't care if anyone else in the world was the father, as long as I got to raise your child. We could-"

"No!" He shouted back, grabbing her shoulders. "No, Naddy, I won't."

She slapped at his chest, pushing him away as he pulled her into an unwanted embrace.

"I love you, don't do this to us."

"I hate me."

~!@O*U@#(!#^@(&@)!#*@!)(#*!@_)~(@+_)!*!@(&#@!^*)@!#(_!@#(+~@~!#(_@#)*)!*^$#*#&)@!(#~(#_)@!(&#@_!(+!@#)&@

Within a few days, Nadia had completely recovered from her episode. Eric was sensing a little vacation in her mind, and within the next few months, she had become almost normal again. One thing was for sure in all this. When she was on her feet again, and summer finally laid a caring hand to them, he was left to beautiful afternoons sitting up talking to her, being childish by morning, college-aged by evening, and a total pervert by night. Boredom never seemed to last, and within the various season changes, Eric sensed a great change coming. He couldn't quite put his finger on it as the years faded in and out, and the third July following Nadia's miscarriage finally brought in a total change in their lives. The last, and final chapter.

Eric felt his eyes wonder to another girl as she fell in front of his eyes. This was intentional, he was sure, but didn't bother to tear his eyes away from her retreating figure. Shaking his head with a slightly curled lip, he looked back at his paint-stained girl and felt his heart start jumping already.

"I don't supppose you're up for a little romp?"

"Depends, on the beach, in the park, or in the house?" She flashed him a semi-playful look.

He feigned shock. "I was merely implying we could frolic among the daisies, Mrs. Idle! I never intended you to take such a naughty angle!"

She giggled as he crushed his mouth to her neck and maneuvered her hips so she was forced to wrap her legs around his hips.

"Not here, you git."

He whimpered loudly, catching a few scorning looks as he played with her jeans and shot her several looks.

"I see your bedroom eyes, Mister, and I'm not playing...yet."

He impatiently walked her along the sidewalk until the little house came into view. This being the last few weeks before she had to start teaching again, he felt it necessary to get his kicks in while he could. Not to mention that the past few months he had been away filming the last bits up to a movie, and this was the precious time between projects. Yes, when she had visited him in Scotland it had been magical, some great sex being crammed in at the last second, between takes, some ludicrous schedule making daytime a mile a minute, and sleep time a snore a second. She didn't tire him, no. He loved her too much to even consider changing a thing.

As she fell back on the bed, the primal urge returned. He kissed her as hard he could, taking a firm lead, and then she let out a little cry.

"Oww! Careful!"

He looked at his hand curiously. A light pressure on her stomach...

"Ow! Weren't you listening?" She sat up and rubbed her stomach with a pout. "Bastard-"

"Naddy, I wasn't pushin' hard-"

"Oh, sod off, would you?"

He lifted his eyebrows uncertainly. "Are you awright?"

"Fine, bloody fine-"

"Lemme take a look anyway."

She smacked his hand away. "Bugger off!"

Pinning her down the best he could, Eric lifted her shirt and meticulously combed through her skin, checking for bruises, cuts, scratches, or anything unusual. Besides a nasty scar from her past surgery on her right side, nothing looked amiss. And yet, when he pushed on her slightly less-than-flat belly, she squirmed and kicked.

"Stoppit!"

"Naddy-"

She smacked him upside the head swiftly, laying a very mean stare on him. He rubbed the spot as she stalked to the loo and slammed the door behind her. Returning with a bottle of Aspirin and a soft look, she popped the pills dry and hugged him.

"Sorry about that. You were hurting me-"

He kissed her, still puzzled. "We should get that checked out. What if your scars are splitting or something?"

"Yeah, maybe they can just take that sucker out. Who needs a uterus anyway?"

Eric smiled nervously and kissed her cheek, running his fingers through her hair. He loved it now. Unstyled, hanging in her eyes, ends flipping out in a dainty, feathered fashion. A single, skinny leather hair band kept the longer, feathery ends from her straight fringe. He kissed her again and hugged her as gently as possible.

Walking rigidly to the phone, Eric panicked. Something was wrong, and the last time he'd had this fluttering uncertain feeling, Nadia had lost their baby. Unjustly stolen from her-

He dialed and waited while the phone rang.

"Doctor Corson's office, how may I help you?"

Eric inhaled sharply. "I would like to make an appointment with the doctor for my wife, Nadia Idle..."

The rest was trivial. He didn't really remember speaking, or hanging up, or curling up around Nadia's warm and sleeping form as he ended his daily tasks and fell asleep.

Nadia yawned as she awoke, and feeling the stabbing ache in her side, she groaned and squirmed into Eric's arms for comfort. He put his hand across her stomach, puzzled _expression appearing from an apparent sleep. He exhaled slowly and felt the swell. Maybe her organs were swelling? Rejecting the part of her that wasn't working properly? Would she give birth to an alien? What the hell was going on ? He gently ran his fingertips over the part of her yesterday that had so pained her. She hissed and let her stomach out, startling Eric as the swell met his palm with more force this time. The muscles were still working, taut and present, but an unpleasant flush was around her entire stomach, fading into her thighs and pinking around her neck. He kissed her unhappily and tried to reason with himself it was just her scars sending pain signals to her brain, and the brain was overreacting. She rubbed her earrings, her navel piercing, and hissed as her finger caught on the sensitive part of her body again.

"You have an appointment with Doctor Corson at ten, Nadia. You want me to drive you?"

She whimpered and hugged him around the neck as softly as she could manage. "I don't feel good at all, Eric."

"That's why I called, babe. You'll be okay."

"Providing I don't have cancer or AIDS, of course."

"Way to think positively." He replied dryly.

She sat up and rubbed her stomach, putting her head down. Taking up her glasses, she slipped them on, opened the door, almost tripped over a cat, and poured herself some cold tea. Sipping carefully, she tried to ignored the thudding of her heart and the pounding of blood in her ears. She felt sick. Closing the door behind her, she threw up and returned to the kitchen while Eric paced the tiles.

"I can't help but think you'll have to go back into surgery."

"Don't be silly; it's just swelling tissues. I'll get some painkillers and bloodthinners and be perfectly fine."

He cocked his head. "Did that Aspirin help last night?"

"Not really, no."

"My poor girl," he took her left hand and put it on his cheek. Feeling the cold metal of her wedding band pressed against his cheek was somewhat comforting. She opted to stay in her basketball shorts and tank top instead of changing, and didn't bother putting on proper shoes. Eric pulled on ratty jeans, a shirt she'd ruined with paint, and a pair of sneakers without socks. She put on flip flops and followed him out to the larger of the two cars. After clumsily buckling herself in, she started taking in slow, even breaths. This seemed to help the pain a little, and she excitedly told herself she'd be healthy as a horse.

Sitting in the waiting room, Nadia nervously watched many women with vacant looks, or toddlers, hanging about them. A few men and their children, a nervous looking couple receiving word the woman was pregnant resulted in the man passing out with a thud to the floor. Eric clutched Nadia's hand all the tighter as a wheelchair soared by, the woman in it groaning loudly. Primarily a pregnancy doctor, Eric had turned to Corson because he thought it was directly related to Nadia's surgery.

"Nadia Idle?"

Nadia leapt up, and before Eric could soothe her again, she raced behind the door and sat on the paper covered bed. The nurse took her blood pressure, temperature, and pulse before inviting her to wait for the doctor. Eric sat silently, staring at the mothering magazine on the shelf beside her. A pediatric growth chart sat against the wall. He felt out of place and bitter here.

A small cactus on the counter flourished, the big red flower on the top raised to the sun outside the window. Eric moved the pot and nervously smoothed his jeans, moving the wrinkles from his shirt to his face with one worrying sigh after another.

A man in a white coat down to his ankles entered, and, after pulling on a pair of gloves, he sat beside Nadia. "Well, Mrs. Idle, I see we have you hear with a complaint your stomach is hurting? Normally I wouldn't make this much time for a bellyache, but I've got a few suspicions. You say the hospital did an emergency procedure, yes? Well, they botched it. The records say severe scarring along the fallopian tube."

Nadia's plastered indifference faded. "Yes,"

"Well, the scar tissue may be tearing up your soft tissues. I'm going to take an ultra sound."

"Okay,"

Eric watched the screen as the doctor smeared jelly all over her aching stomach and gently guided the pedals around. Watching with wide eyes, Eric saw her lungs opening wider and sinking back down, unable to make heads or tails of much else. But the doctor was looking on in absolute astonishment. He turned off the machine and wiped his thick glasses on his coat.

"I'm going to need a urine sample, a blood sample and...well, I need to look at your scars, so I'll have the nurse help you clean up this mess, and I'll be right back."

The nurse entered and wiped up Nadia's stomach gingerly as the poor thing moved stiffly, letting the older woman take her blood and guide her to the loo. Eric sat in the room alone, hands shaking when he pulled them apart.

"She isn't going to die, Idle, calm down. It's just a virus, that's it."

Nadia stumbled in with a quick thanks to the nurse, closed the door behind her, and fell across Eric's lap. "What the hell is wrong with them?"

"Them?" Eric asked, feeling distant and scared.

"Am I dying? What the hell is going on?" She looked so annoyingly calm.

He kissed her cheek. "No, baby, they're just worried for you. They don't know what's wrong."

"What if I am?"

"I'll buy you the prettiest cottage in the mountains I can find and we'll live there until you kick the bucket, how's that?" He smiled as best he could.

She smiled back at him, panic fluttering in her chest.

The door closed behind the doctor as he reentered with a large printout in a folder. "I have some rather shocking news, folks."

Eric immediately swooned. "Oh, fuck-"

"You can decide whether or not to cuss after I give my speech, Mr. Idle." Corson warned dryly and held up the first of the two clearish sheets to the lighted backdrop, flicking the lights.

"This is your scar tissue right after surgery. See the stitches and the line of incision along the tract?"

Nadia and Eric nodded in unsion.

"At your check-up, the scarring was bad, as seen here."

Nadia winced at the thick white line along the dark gray of her organs. She squirmed.

"Here is your current outcome." He held up the last one, and the white line, had faded to a thin thread across a small one-inch area on her right side. A slight bulge was located somewhere in the largest part of the dark space.

"This proves my reproductive analysis, Mrs. Idle. Your body built the scar tissue to prevent the skin from ever suffering the same damage twice, right? Hard, brittle tissue to prevent from ever being cut again. Well, when things like that prevent your body from following with its natural path, it fixes that as well. Your uterus continued to function as if nothing was wrong. Pregnancy after pregnancy unnoticed, miscarriage after miscarriage, the scar tissue shredding all future embryos. Your body grew sick of suffering such a loss with all this mayhem, and, within three years of suffering such a great bodily injustice, repaired as best it could to prepare for the next pregnancy."

Nadia stared, mouth agape.

"A layer of soft, smooth tissue grew in place of the scar tissue, and you, defying all odds of recovery, are pregnant beyond all reasonable doubt."

Nadia glanced over to the space Eric should have been occupying, had he not sunk to the floor in a faint.

His hand was somewhere above his head when his eyes fluttered open, and he stared up at a nurse's soft brown eyes as she let go of the limb. Taking his pulse. He rubbed his wrist and shook his head, leaning up from the paper-covered bed. Nadia had this glazed smile on her face as the doctor handed her several prescriptions and shook her hand a few more times, tossing a greatly amused smile to Eric, who, in his awakening, had squeaked in awe.

As he paid at the secretary's office, he felt Nadia loop her hand into his belt loop and he grinned inwardly as well as outwardly.

"Hear that, you rascal? Pregnancy after fuckin' pregnancy. Get a little somethin' on my shoe and I'll be sproutin' kids."

He snorted and looked back her, eyes glittering. "Sex fixes everything, Naddy."

"He said it's painful because I'm stretching and the scar tissue is still there, but buried under the smooth tissue. So it'll hurt a little more in the early stages, but it should be a perfectly healthy baby."

A grin covered his whole head. "You are not opening a single door, you hear me? I am carrying you into work, driving, and I am not riding in any shopping carts-"

"Oh, Eric..."

"No, I'm serious. If It's possible for you to sit on your ass for the next nine months-"

"I'm three months pregnant." She smiled with a blush.

He looked at her incredulously. "How can you be three months pregnant? You're thin as a rail! And wouldn't you notice if your monthly was a couple months late?"

The secretary was a brilliant red as she handed him a card for Nadia's next check-up. "Good afternoon, sir."

He nodded and took her hand, leading her out through the front.

She shrugged. "I guess I thought everything would be a little off because of the surgery. Once and a while I'd skip one-"

"Those other pregnancies, probably-"

"Well, it was normal, that's all I'm sayin'. Anyway, I'm three months along, skinny, and yet..." She put a hand on the bulge. "I feel big as a balloon."

"I thought it was swelling."

"Me too,"

Eric abruptly stopped and lifted her shirt, kissing her bare flesh. "Lucky little bugger you are. Parents nutty as a couple of convicts and yet they can't wait for you to get your ass out here..."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~(!)!O@!U#(*@#@(*U@)!#@!(#*@!*#&@$(*)@(*#(EPILOGUE, YAYAYAYAY)S_#$)E#(@*$#@)($#@)

"Don't run, please, Sasha." Eric leaned over the stone wall around the edge of the garden. A head poked up around the corner.

"Don't squish my squash, Daddy." The face scrunched.

He stuck his tongue out. "You're no fun anymore!"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You ruined my prize-winning...uh, vegable."

"Vegetable, luv. Come on, let me look at this skirt yer mum told me about." He lifted his daughter over the low wall. From the garden emerged a mud and dirt caked six year old with a jean skirt hanging over scabby knees. A small trowel was clutched in her left hand as she scrubbed at her right eye and pouted her lips. He loved her lips. Just like Naddy's.

A small head of dark curls with a set of even darker blue eyes peered around the corner of the wall. "Come get me, Daddy!"

"Sasha!" He whined, patting his knee. "Give the old man a break, would you?"

She cautiously edged up near him, and, after dropping the hat of his she'd stolen, threw her arms around his neck. "Gotchya!"

"Sure do," he grinned and smoothed her rumped top down a little. His lovely little girls.

"When is Danny getting home?"

"Soon, luv. He goes to school all day, not like you. And Mum is bringing him home. He won a trophy."

"What about Paul?"

"What about him?" Eric asked, smoothing his older daughter's sandy brown hair down.

"He didn't get off the bus with me."

"Molly, dear, you can't keep track of everyone."

"Daddy, why does Trevor have freckles and I don't?" Sasha asked, pulling his Eric's hair hard.

He turned and looked at the sleeping form in the grass. "Because he's a silly boy, that's why. Go on, kick him."

Trevor yelped as a kick landed on his ribs. "Could you cut that out, Dad? I'm sick of her jumpin' on me-"

"I know, I know," Eric grinned. "You didn't ask for an army of siblings, but they're here, got it?"

His son's eyes flashed. "You know Candy's bringing her boyfriend tonight, don't you?"

Eric's stomach twisted. "I hate that boy, so...much...could...kill-"

"Dad!" His oldest daughter shook a fist. "John is a nice boy-"

"John is a drummer in a shit-band," Eric fluttered his eyelids, "and-oh, hi John."

The lanky boy with the long Beatles style haircut lifted his head in greeting, hands neatly in his pockets.

"Is everyone here, yet?" Trevor asked, yawning.

Eric glanced around the assembled parties. "Your mother, Paul, Danny, and Summer, yet."

Candy looked amused. "Did she go tagging along with Mum at the school again?"

Nodding, Eric stood and counted around the backyard before squeezing back into the house and glanced at the various notes on the bulletin board. Nadia would be arriving any second to help him set up the dining room and cook supper for the masses. Candy and John would go out again and his daughter would probably face with a scrupulous attention to her neck and face when she returned. The boy would be severely harrassed if a single mark was found, and he would make sure the apple of his eye, Summer, hadn't followed through with her threat to cut her gorgeous hair. Braids to her knees; that took patience. He loved that hair, dark as night, freckles splayed across her nose. From his side, not necessarily him, however. And those emerald eyes of Nadia's. He got goosebumps looking at the twelve-year old, and Nadia would catch him smiling at her with this loopy face and smack his arm.

"Don't be soft, Idle. It's my turn." She would say.

Sasha tugged his pantleg. "Is Paul here, yet?"

"No, dear, he's with your mother. What did he do now?" He crouched and smoothed the girls top again.

"He promised me a...a r-real something. Big word-"

"Telescope?"

"Yeah! Telespoke."

"You like the stars, Sasha?"

She nodded her little head. "Lots, Daddy!"

"That's my girl-" He broke off importantly as a shout lifted up from the back yard.

"You are looking at the most valuable player on River Bank's starting basketball lineup!" A loud slapping sound. Eric craned his neck around to see Danny giving John a high five. His fifteen-year-old son, sixteen-year-old daughter, and her seventeen-year-old boyfriend, John Nelson. Boy from hell.

Nadia eased up behind her daughter and attacked her vulnerable sides with trained fingers.

"Noo! Mummy!" The girl shrieked and fell back into the soft arms of her mother. The smell of paints and chalk dusted off of the comforting presence.

Eric smiled as she stood and kissed him on the cheek. "Good day?"

"Very good, as a matter of fact. You?" She played with the collar of his shirt.

"I almost squashed a squash and pulverized a drummer."

"The stresses of a stay-at-home father." She flashed him a grin.

He sighed and looked out the doorway to the John boy again. The annoying thing was kissing his Candy, hands politely in her palms, but lips roving all over her precious face. And beneath the sloppy noises, Candy was giggling and smiling. She was crazy about the kid, and Eric couldn't see why. The bleeding artist. She claimed he had a good sense of humor, but he never saw it.

Sighing nonetheless, he picked up Sasha and carried her back out to the garden where Molly had gone back to digging through dirt. Molly, braids still intact, sat with a beat-up old guitar, strumming cruddy chords and humming. Eric paused to let it all sink in. He never would have guessed that seven children later, he could still have the energy he did. And his nieces and nephews loved spending time with him.

Candy was his oldest child, a beautiful girl, medium brown hair with bright blue eyes, freckles, and full lips just like her mother's. She had the mood and vision of his wife, the absolute attitude of her, and he dreaded letting her go to the art college of her choice, but comedy, acting, and music hadn't fallen on her shoulders. She was thin as a rail as well, but wore all her clothes like she was born in them. Not academically gifted, but not left behind, she was known simply as an artist. And the paint on her left arm showed this plainly.

Danny was next in line, a true athlete. He favored spending time outside and loved basketball. He and Candy never really got along like friends, but they were siblings, not friends. He loved John like a brother though, and John had this wonderful habit of treating him like a very good friend. This was the only reason Eric didn't throw the kid out on his ass.

Trevor followed Danny by about nine months exactly, which was always Nadia's little hitch. Danny and Trevor were exactly alike, except Danny was normal, and Trevor was not. They looked alike, but Danny had normal eyes, and Trevor had eerie, daydreaming eyes that never stayed on one face for very long. And he loved to draw things. Anything that moved or didn't, it was immortilzed on paper in his room. Summer adored this brother of hers, and it showed.

Paul was the musician, and aptly named. He and John were arch rivals, but they put up with one another. Paul played guitar and held a good front for Molly and Sasha, who were his two darlings. He played them songs, wrote them songs, and taught Summer everything he learned after securing the fact he was the older twin, and was much better. He did very well in school, and happened to have a great number of girlfriend wannabes.

Summer was Paul's double, but she was so much more laid back than he was, it was a wonder they had once shared a room. While Paul tapped his foot and zoomed around incessantly, Summer brushed her hair and hummed songs. She played a good deal of bass guitar as well, and though the language was lost on Nadia, she spewed endlessly to her mother about various musical tidbits. "Did you know Paul McCartney was left handed? I bet you Paul would get more girls if he played left-handed, don't you think? I think John Lennon is sexy, Mum. Do you think so?"

A few years down from Summer and Paul, Molly had been born, and a wonder she was. Unlike any of them! She liked gardening, playing make believe, and reading about King Arthur and his knights. She played solitaire with Nadia's tarot cards and lost a few. She grew vegetables that Nadia used to cook and was the only one of them that had any tact with her humor yet. No matter what was going on, she had this sixth sense for appropriate timing. Eric envied this to such an extent it was a little sad.

And a year after Molly had come Sasha, Eric's little bundle of sweetness. Innocent as an angel she was Satan's spawn herself. Like stealing his hat and taking off with it. This very thing happened nearly every day, and yet he never saw it coming. The glazed look in her dark blue eyes before the curls bounced and she "yoinked" his hat away was always a complete shock.

He glanced with a happy sigh to Nadia, who was staring over the vast back yard with a huge smile. Holding Summer's braid, she made faces to Candy and John.

"Do you like the Rolling Stones, Mum?" Summer asked loudly.

"Yeah, I like them. Have I shown you my Steel Tarantulas collection?"

"No! Who're they?"

"Only the best college-band ever! Come on-"

John leaned into Candy's ear as Eric shouted for Nadia to stop. "Your parents are so weird."

"How so?" She asked, smiling daintily at this boy she loved so much.

He turned and faced Candy's parents, who had both gotten this loopy look on their faces at the same time. "He always says it to her-"

Nadia caught the look in his eye and felt a rush of youth come to her tired shoulders.
 
"Naddy? Remember! We're best friends forever."