Previously: "...A part of me feels like I'm crazy for even trying to get you to remember."
Ethan and I head back to the table and we finish eating dinner with the kids quietly. Lily's the first to speak up. "Is Ethan gunna go home now?" She sounds upset. Ethan and I share a look. "No, I'm not going anywhere." "Does that mean you're staying the night too?!" She gets really excited and Ethan looks at me again. I shrug. "If Angel says it's alright I will." "CAN HE? PLEASEEEEE! I PROMISE-" "inside voices Lily" "I promise I'll go to bed on time today" "pinkie promise?" "Pinkie promise" I stick out my pinkie for Lily to take. She takes it and squeezes out pinkies together. "Okay. He can stay. If you break the promise he's going home. Do you understand?" Lily nods her head excitedly. "Can he sleep in my room?" "Lily-" I try to hide my laughter. "Lily there's nowhere him to sleep in there." "Yeah huh! He can sleep on the floor!" I shake my head still struggling to hide my laughs. "He's not sleeping on the floor Lily." She starts to pout. "You're lucky I'm letting him stay the night. Take it or leave it, but he's not sleeping in your room Lily." She rolls her eyes and sighs loudly. "Fine. Can we paint your toes Ethan? Me and Penelope are really good at it!" "Yeah can we?!" Ethan looks between the girls and then at me. "This is gunna be a fun night" I finally let out my laughter.
After the dishes are clean I round up the kids for their baths. "DJ, you need to go take your shower." DJ shuts off his tablet and gets up going to the bathroom. I sit down on the couch next to Ethan and Gavin crawls into my lap. "Hi bubba. Are you tired?" Gavin nods his head resting his head in the crook of my head. "Okay bubs. Let's get you changed into your pajamas." I get up and take Gavin to his room putting him in a fresh diaper and in his footie pajamas. The two of us walk back into the living where the girls start screaming at each other. "GIRLS! Stop fighting. Penelope, go pick out your pajamas. Lily, come here." Penelope stomps the whole way to her room. I roll my eyes. "Hey, you don't have to fight with penny on everything you know?" "But she-" "I don't care lil, it's almost time for you to take your shower anyway. Go pick out your pajamas and then go to get in the shower." "Okay" Lily zooms off to her room. DJ emerges and lays down on the other couch playing in his tablet again. Ethan sits up and leans in my ear. "How do you do it?" "Do what?" I turn my head to look at him. "How do you make having kids look so easy? Like, it just oozes out of you so naturally and you know exactly what to say to make them listen to you." I shrug my shoulder. "I guess I've just spent enough time around them that it comes easily since we have that connection." Ethan mumbles something to himself and I can't quite tell what he said. I'm really tired myself and almost begin to doze off with my head leaned up against his shoulder until the girls come back from their shower. "Okay! We're all ready for bed!" I get up instinctively and DJ follows all of us into the girl's room. The girls climb into each of their beds, DJ sits in the rocking chair and Gavin and I sit on the floor. Lily shoots back up. "Where's Ethan?" I look around tiredly. "Um, he's probably still in the living room." "I'll go get him." Lily shoots out of bed and runs down to where Ethan is. A couple of minutes later her and Ethan re-emerge in the bedroom with lily attached to Ethan's hip. "I heard I was missing out on story time. I can't do that now, can I?" Ethan sets lily back into her bed and tucks her in while he tickles her. He sits next to me on the floor. Finally, with everyone ready, I begin to read the book. Penelope, lily, and Gavin have fallen asleep the only one left is me, DJ, and Ethan. The boys and I get up and leave the girls' room walking over to the boys'. I tuck DJ and Gavin in and start to head for the door where Ethan is waiting for me. "Angel?" "Yes DJ?" "Can I ask you something?" "Anything bub, what's up?" "Are you going to be sick forever?" I look at DJ with soft eyes and walk back to his bed sitting next to him. "No, bubs, of course not. I'll be better soon. It's just gunna take some time. That's all." DJ nods his head. "Okay" "okay. Goodnight DJ. I'll see you in the morning." I get up and walk to the door where Ethan is waiting. Shutting off the light and shutting the door lightly, leaving it open a smidge I turn to Ethan. "See?" He whispers. "Easy." I smile down to myself and grab his hand. "Let's go to sleep I'm tired." Ethan scoops me up bridal style, making me laugh. "Where to miss?" He smiles too. I lead him to the guest room that's kind of been converted into my room for nights like this, when I have to stay with the kids.
I emerge from the bathroom, towel drying my hair and Ethan's sitting there, in the bed looking at his phone. He looks up at me and smiles. "You make it impossible to not want to have your babies. You really fucking do." I giggle. "Dude I'm just drying my hair." "No, you're being perfect. Honest to god, if you'd let me, I'd marry you right now." I roll my eyes. "Ethan we aren't there yet. Tonight's the first night that we'll even be spending together that I'll remember. If it's not the first actual one." "It is" "is what?" "The first night we're spending together." "Oh" I sound a little disappointed. Not that I'm not excited to have Ethan be in the same bed as me for tonight, but it's just disappointing that even though I still don't remember everything about Ethan I never let him stay over. "What's wrong?" "I just- I can't believe I never let you stay over before." "I can't really blame you, I only started talking to you days before the accident anyway." I walk over to the bed, getting in. "So you're telling me that we've also probably have never kissed?" "Nope" I straddle his lap. "Oh I haven't?" "Mmm" he looks up bringing his one hand up to his chin to make it look like he's thinking hard while his other hand goes to rest on my hip. "Can't say that we did." I lean in closer to his face "so we've never been this close before?" Ethan smirks "not that I can remember" I finally lean in and kiss him. He pulls me in closer. We both smile within the kiss, starting to make out a little bit. After a couple of minutes the door creeks open I pull away from Ethan quickly and sit in my own side of the bed. In walks Penelope, rubbing her eyes. "I had a night more can I sleep in here with you guys?" "Sure baby, come here." She walks over and I pull her up into the bed with us, setting her in between. She immediately lays down and falls back asleep. "I'm gunna go check on the others I'll be right back" I whisper to Ethan. He nods his head and lays down with penny. I go and check on the other kids and see that lily is still sleeping. DJ is too, but Gavin is up and making grabby hands at me when he sees me. I pull him from his crib and bring him with me back to my room. "Looks like we still have someone who won't fall asleep." I say quietly to Ethan. He lifts his head up from his pillow. Once he sees the two of us he lays his head back down and lifts his arm up for us to crawl under. I giggle and kiss Ethan's cheek. "Thank you for coming tonight. It really helped a lot." I whisper. "It's no trouble. I just want to know my baby is safe." Ethan mumbles in response. My eyes widen. Did he just call me his baby? His hand grabs a hold of my hip and pulls me closer to him making the kids into a bit of a human sandwich. "Goodnight E" "Goodnight Angel"
