Ricki and Pete: My love will not let you down

All together

Pete fell asleep between Ricki's arms due to the sleepless night. Ricki held his head closer to her chest, running her hand trough his hair, lost in her memories. The scene was identical to many of the times they made love before. Yet, it felt weird. The time they had spent apart was more than what they had spent married. Their relationship was different, they'd hated each other for long time and now it was like they'd made love to an unknown person. Still there was something in their heart that kept them bonded to each other. Ricki's stream of consciousness was interrupted by the song she had written some nights ahead. She started whispering it, as her hand moved down to Pete's neck, tracing invisible lines on his skin.
"Don't hurt me again, Pete" said Ricki, kissing Pete's forehead and getting out of the bed to get dressed.
About half an hour later Pete woke up. It took him a while to realize what had happened, but when he did a big, satisfied smile appeared on his face. He also remembered that he had promised Ricki a dinner with their children, so he hurried to get dressed and went downstairs to take his phone.
Going towards the kitchen, Pete's expression quickly changed into a "disturbed" one. A bad smell dominated the environment and Pete couldn't explain what it was.
"Linda?" he called. "Linda Brummel"
"Hey..." said Ricki coming in the kitchen from the bathroom.
"What happened?" asked Pete
"What?" she replied.
"Is there something burning?" Pete continued.
Ricki suddenly remembered of the cake she had put in the oven and ran to get it out. She had thought about having a relaxing bath in Pete's luxurious bathtub while the cake was growing in the oven, but she felt so relaxed it completely ran out of her mind.

The cake was totally black and there was no way to save it.  "Cooking never was for me " said Ricki  "life must be a lot better with a wife that can do it"

"Yeah, but that was one of the funniest things of having you as wife"  answered Pete "how did you come up with it?"

"I... got inspired" Ricki said with a smirking face and both bursted out laughing.

"I'm glad I do inspire you, but I don't want you to destroy my house, expecially  on the night our children should come over for dinner"  replied Pete while taking the phone to search Josh's number

Ricki smiled thinking about having all her children in one room again and kept the satisfied look during all the three calls Pete made. Fortunatelly all the kids said yes and after the last call Ricki hugged Pete to thank him. She felt serene, like her life had found a new balance. That night she would have had all she always had yearned for: her kids and Pete loving her.

Some time later Pete knocked to Ricki's bedroom door and his heart skipped a beat in front of that vision. Ricki was wearing an elegant black dress, with see-through sleeves, she had bought for special occasions like one of her children's marriage. 

Pete tried to hold all of his feelings in that moment and warned Ricki to do the same. Letting their children understand that they still had feelings for each other would have hurt them. It was clear they were more attached to Maureen rather than Ricki and they could never forgive their father if they discovered he cheated on his wife.  Ricki felt her stomach shrink whenever Maureen was mentioned as if she was the actual mother of her children, even implicitly. There was no way she could take her place or at least half of it.  She was just the woman who gave life to those three wonderful people and... a musician. Deep inside Ricki really wanted to fix her mistakes, but Maureen was always ahead of her and she couldn't be hated at all.

Pete and Ricki didn't exchange many words in that room, all the words were in their minds and they answered to each other with nods. The door bell rang and Pete ran to open. All of their children had arrived toghether and Pete warmly welcomed them. The atmosphere suddenly warmed and Ricki could feel that step after step. Everybody stared quietly at her getting down the stairs.