Oops (General Hospital)

Thanksgivings 2019

November 28th 2019

     "Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving." Julian coos, holding Derek out in front of him. "Come on, Buddy, say Happy Thanksgiving."
     Kim comes over and places her hand on his back. "Hon, he's not gonna say it."
     "You said that when I was trying to get him to say 'dadda' and he did."
     "Yeah, the next day. He'll say it on Christmas." She says, taking Derek and placing him on the ground. He totters over to where the others are playing. "People will be here any minute. Why are you still playing around."
     "People are already here. People are always here. Tilda and Gerry got here with the twins two hours ago.  We have seven toddlers, they aren't expecting it to be perfect. Relax, will you? Everything's going to be perfectly fine." Julian looks over as Layla crawls over to him  standing and pulling on his leg. He picks her up, running a hand over her head of fuzzy blonde hair. "What's wrong, baby?"
     "Wubby."
     "Oh, honey, I know you want your wubby. Krissy is bringing it. You just gotta wait a few minutes." He says. Tears well in her little blue eyes. He holds her against him, slowly rocking her. "I know, I know."
     The doorbell rings, Julian crosses his fingers and goes over. "Kristina, thank God!" He takes the blanket she's holding, putting it in Layla's arms. She tucks it between them and buries her face back in his chest, cooing now. "You're a godsend."
     "Oh, I know." Kristina laughs. "Hi, Layla. Are you happy?"
     She doesn't move her face from Julian's chest, just squeaking. "That's her way of saying thank you. And another thank you from me. She cried for an hour after we got home. I can't believe I actually forgot the one thing that makes my little girl happy. We couldn't do anything to help her. We'd stick a binky in her mouth and she's spit it out. We'd hold her and she'd pull on our ear and scream into it."
     "You have it now. Don't lose it again. I may not be there next time to help." She teases, looking over at the door, Valerie coming in.
     "I thought Molly was coming with you too." He says.
     "She decided she'd rather spend today with the Ashfords." She tells him, heading over to the group of playing babies. Valerie stays.
     "How was the honeymoon?"
     "It was amazing." She says, pulling out her phone. "We swam with dolphins."
     "Sounds fun. How was the-" Kenny runs over, pulling on his pant leg. He picks her up. "What's wrong?"
     She pulls on his ear, kissing his cheek. "Down."
     He puts her back on the ground, watching her run back to her siblings. "I'm sure that made sense in her head. Ah, the joy of children. So, you and Kristina plan on that any time soon?"
     Valerie shrugs. "You'll have to wait and see like everyone else."
     He rolls his eyes. "Tease."

A Little While Later

     Alexis places Liam on the ground. "Go get your daddy." She pats his back. Liam turns around and looks out the door. "No, buddy, go see Daddy." She nudges him towards the livingroom. He sees Julian and runs towards him. Jax comes in behind Alexis, taking her coat.
     Liam crashes into his father's leg, giggling and trying to pull himself up onto his lap. Julian gives him a hand, placing him on his left knee, the only free place for him to sit.
     Derek sits on his shoulders. Kenny sits on his other knee. Tomas and Abel both hang off an arm. Layla sits under his right arm, playing peek-a-boo with Marti, who's under his right arm.
     Alexis and Jax walk into the living room. "Hi, Julian. Liam, you found Daddy, good boy." She beams, rubbing her son's chubby cheek.
     "Dadda." He mumbles, looking at Julian, then Jax, then Julian again, and finally back at Alexis. "Dadda?" He starts to breathe heavily, then cry, rubbing his face and reaching for Alexis.
     She picks him up, patting his back. "I'm gonna go up him upstairs for a nap. He's been kinda cranky."
     Marti pulls on Julian's shirt. "Dah-dee." She complains, bouncing.
     He sighs and picks her up, shaking the rest of the kids off on the couch, and carries her upstairs. He turns into the nursery, smiling at Alexis, who's rocking Liam in one of the rocking chairs. "Marti needs a change."
     He lays her on the changing table, making faces at her as he goes, keeping her attention. She yawns as he starts to button up her onesie, closing her eyes. He holds her against his chest, sitting in the rocking chair across from her. She smiles, hoping to get him talking. "What's wrong?"
     "Jax. But it's not his fault. I just don't like that Liam is confused about who his father is. We made an agreement, Jax isn't Liam's father and he won't act like it. I don't like that I'm coming second to another man in my son's life. I've had that too many times. I missed more than thirty years of Sam's life, thirty of Lucas's, and five of Leo's. I just hate to think that I'd miss anything with these babies, and I have. I missed Liam's first word, his first steps, and I know I'm gonna miss more. So please, have Jax back off a little bit."
     "I know it hurts to see your baby think someone else is you. I'll have Jax take a step back when it comes to Liam. And maybe you can take a step forward. When he comes and visits you on Saturday afternoons, maybe you can keep him until the morning. How does that sound?" She asks.
     "Would you be okay with that? It's moving up the plan we had. I don't wanna make you uncomfortable."
     "It won't. You're amazing with them and it's only a night a week. Liam sleeps from seven to five, so he's super easy at night. I trust you."
     "Thank you, Alexis."
     She nods, looking down at Liam, who's fallen asleep. "They're so precious. Especially when they're still this little. It's sad when it's gone. Makes you want another. Speaking of another, have you talked about that at all?"
     "We have. I'm getting a vasectomy and she's getting her tubes tied. We won't risk another pregnancy. This last one almost killed her, so she's done with her own babies, and I have so many kids I can't risk having another. It's not fair to them. I'm already dividing myself too much, I can't split my time up any more."
     "I get that. How are things with the other moms going?"
     "Well, things with Rosie are still tough. Her and Marti just never clicked and honestly, Marti has serious separation anxiety when it comes to me. The first night she slept over the Harke's, she cried for three hours straight before they called me. Layla is super easy. She's happy wherever. The twins are a problem. We try to give them time apart, but they don't like that. I'll have Marissa take Tomas or Abel and I'll keep the other one, but then they'll both scream bloody murder until we put them back together. But things are good. Things are really good."

Later

     Julian taps on his plate and stands up. "I wanna thank everyone for coming today. It means so much to me that we can all be together, as a family. You probably noticed that I didn't go when we were saying what we're thankful for. But I do have something. Well, lots of things. I'm so thankful for my children, all ten of them. I'm so thankful for my sister, nieces, friends, grandchildren obviously, and just for the general fact that we're a family and I never thought I'd have one. There's one more thing I'm thankful for that I need to bring up, because she's in a category of her own."
     He squeezes Kim's Kim's shoulder, looking down at her. "Kim, you've been by my side since minute one and your love and devotion has given me more strength than I thought possible. You've been there for me during some of the best times of my life and some of the times it almost ended, and it's only been two years. The more I watch our babies grow up, the more I realize that we're spending the rest of our lives together, one way or another. So," he gets down on one knee, lowering himself slowly, "I wanna spend the rest of our lives not only together, but really together. Dr. Kim Nero, will you marry me?"
     She covers her mouth and nods. "Yes! Oh, God, Julian, yes!" She wraps her arms around his neck. "You got my hints."
      "I've been getting them." He kisses her, turning to Leo as they settle down. "This is almost as important as the proposal itself. Leo, will you be my best man?,
     Leo smiles and nods. "Uh-huh! Yeah! I love you, Daddy!" Leo jumps onto both of them.
     Kim holds Julian's cheeks. "We're really gonna get married. It feels like a long time coming."

Three parts left!