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The Cost Of Winning

The Big 0-4

FIANNA'S POV:

I wake up to something touching the end of my nose, and mumble, "No, Yoda. Get off of the bed."

I hear a giggle in response, and then Smidge says, "Yoda at ours house, Mommy! Me wants you to be woked. It am mines birfday, and us needs to go to zoo now!"

I hear Ash fumbling around on the other side of the bed, and he sort of croaks, "Cutie, it's only six fifteen in the morning, the zoo isn't even open yet. Why don't you go back to bed for a little while?"

"Me not seepy no more, me is hungwy ands borded."

Realizing that I'm too awake now to go back to sleep, I sling my legs over the side and tell Ash, "You go ahead and sleep a little while longer, babe. I'm gonna get her cleaned up and dressed, and then order up some breakfast. I'll wake you up then, okay?"

"That's cool. Thanks, love," he mumbles, almost asleep before he finishes talking. I take Bren's hand and walk her to the bathroom for a bath before breakfast. I get her cleaned up, and as I'm brushing her hair, I hear crying coming through the wall from the adjacent room.

"Abby ands Haywee is woked now," Bren observes. "Maybe thems are hungwy, too."

"Probably so," I agree. "Either that, or they need to be changed."

Nearly the second the words leave my mouth, I hear even higher-pitched crying from our room, followed by mumbling, and a thump. Then we hear, quite clearly, "Dammit!"

"Daddy is woked now, too," she says. "And him say a naughty."

We walk back into the bedroom, and see Ash standing at the changing table, fastening Ian's diaper, and muttering to him, to try to quiet him down. Bren and I go over to stand next to him, and she stands up on her toes to look at Ian and pats him on the head, saying, "Don'ts cwy, bubby. Daddy maked yous all cwean again, and us has beffast in a minute. Then us goes to zoo, and me wills shows you the ammals, and tells you they's names."

Ash bends down to kiss her forehead, and says, "Happy Birthday, sweetie! Let me go wash my hands, and then we can all decide what we want for breakfast." He heads into the bathroom, and Bren dashes out into the sitting room. I follow her, holding Ian, and see Miki and Ryan already there, with Abby sitting on Ryan's lap, and Haylee using the coffee table to steady herself as she attempts to walk around it.

"Happy Birthday, Smidge!" Miki calls out, and Bren dashes over and hugs her legs. She then runs over to the couch to hug Ryan, and when Ash comes out, he swoops her up and swings her around, making her giggle.

"All right, everybody, let's have some breakfast, and then we can get this party started!" he announces as he puts her down, and picks up the room service menu.We order breakfast, and finish getting the kids ready while we wait for it to show up. As I hand Ash an outfit for Ian, and start digging for Bren's sneakers, he gives me a quick kiss and whispers, "I guess we should have figured that she'd be too excited to sleep today. 'Shower time' tonight, I promise."

"You do know that I'm gonna hold you to that, don't you?" I respond, and he just raises an eyebrow at me and grins.

The food shows up, we get the kids fed, and manage to eat a bit ourselves in the process. Then we take turns watching the kids , so everyone can get dressed, and finally head out for the zoo around eight o'clock.The taxi drops us off at the gate, we get our tickets, and rent two double strollers. Ryan helps Miki get the girls into one of them, and I get Ian strapped into the other, while Bren insists that she's too big for a stroller, and she's going to walk.

"All right, if you insist," Ash finally tells her. "But if you get tired, you can ride. And you need to make sure you stay right by one of us, because if you try to run off by yourself, you'll ride whether you want to or not."

"Me don'ts runned away, Daddy, me is good girl," she announces. "And me don'ts want yous to get losed, neither."

We spend the rest of the morning wandering around the zoo,looking at all of the beautiful animals, have lunch at the little outdoor cafe, and buy some souvenirs at the gift shop. Bren falls in love with a child-sized purse in the shape of a dolphin, and Miki and Ryan get her a hat to match it, along with shirts for the twins. Bren also finds an adorable stuffed koala, and informs us that we should get it for Ian, because she has Pickle and Wockles, and he needs a friend, too. We also get shirts for ourselves, as well as various items for people back in the States, which means that we all have at least one bag when we finally leave.

By the time we get back to the hotel, Ian and the twins are completely sacked out, and Bren is tired enough that she actually agrees to a nap, which she hasn't wanted to do anymore for the last couple of months. Miki, Ryan, Ash, and I sit and chat for awhile, "getting our momentum back", as Ryan puts it, and after we've been back for about an hour, Ash suddenly grabs for his phone and looks at it for a minute.

When he puts it down, he informs us, "That was CC, they just got off the plane, and they'll be getting here in probably half an hour or so. They got rooms at the other end of the hall, and he said that they'll call as soon as they get themselves organized." He then hauls himself off of the sofa and heads downstairs to catch up with Desmond before everyone arrives, while the rest of us decide to change clothes, while we have a few minutes to do it in peace.

Ash comes back a few minutes later, and goes to change. Ian wakes up, and I bring him out to feed him. As I'm sitting in the chair, there's a sudden rapping on the door, and Miki grabs the stroller blanket laying across the back of the sofa and tosses it over Ian, then goes to look through the peephole.

"Don't even worry about it, Mik," Ash says as he comes back into the room. "I know that knock. Sometimes CC has trouble remembering that not everything is a drum."

She opens the door, and CC charges into the room, followed by Jinxx, Alice, Andy, Inna, Jake, and Jon, all carrying packages and bags.They put the gifts on the bar, and when Ian finishes eating, they all take turns hugging me, and cooing over him, since they've never seen him in person before. Andy and CC explain that Juliet and Anna both had things they couldn't get out of to come to Download with them, but that they sent gifts with them.

"Where is the birthday girl, anyway?" Andy inquires.

Before anyone can answer, we hear, "Me is here, Unca Andy. All of we goed to zoo today, and had wots of funs, so us was seepy. But me is woked now, so us can has some more funs."

"I'm glad to hear that, kiddo," CC chimes in. "I don't know about everybody else, but I'm all about funs. That's what we're here for, y'know."

She walks into the room, and gets hugs from everybody. When she gets to Alice, she gives her sort of a curious look and asks, "Does you wivs here, Aunt Awice? All the peoples us talks to sound wikes you."

"I used to live here, yes," Alice replies. "I live in California with your Uncle Jinxx now, but I lived here for a long time before that."

"Does you wived here too, Aunt Inna, or somewheres else? You doesn't sounds wike Aunt Awice, but you sounds not wike we, too."

Inna sits down and pulls up a map on her phone, showing it to Bren and pointing out first the United States, then England, where we are now, and then pointing out Ukraine to her, and explaining that this is where she's from.She also points out Russia, and tells her that Anna was born there, and Bren is fascinated. She turns to me and Ash and inquires, "Did yous know there was so many far aways?"

"Yes, we did," Ash tells her. "Daddy has been to a lot of them, and when Ian gets a little older, I hope I can take you guys to see some of them, too."

"Okay, how about we get somebody to open some presents here?" Jinxx interjects. "Miss Brenna hit the big 0-4 today, and I think that deserves some gifts."

"Pesents, yay!" Smidge squeals, bouncing up and down. "Tank yous for mines pesents, cans me open now?"

Ash puts her up on the couch, and everyone starts handing her their gifts, as Ryan goes to collect the twins, who we can hear fussing through the monitor.When they come out, Inna and Alice instantly start cooing over them as well, and we find out that when Ash had mentioned that they were all coming along with us, the guys had gotten gifts for them, too.

Ian, who has slowly been passed around the room, finally makes it back to Ash, who holds him against his chest, facing outward, so he can see everything, because he doesn't seem to like it when he can't. His eyes sort of wander around the room, and his face lights up when he spots Bren. He wiggles against Ash, babbling, and Bren grins at him, saying, "Waits some minutes, bubby. When me finish opens mine pesents, me wills give yous tisses, and helps you names yours new bear."

Very soon, there is a big pile of empty gift bags and torn paper in the floor, and she's surrounded by clothes, toys, and art supplies, while Abby and Haylee have new activity toys for their strollers, cute little rag dolls in different colored dresses, (peach for Abby, and lavender for Haylee) and tiny little BVB shirts for the festival tomorrow.

After the presents are all opened, we hang out and talk for awhile, and then go downstairs for dinner, before the rest of the band head back to their rooms. As we all get off the elevator, Jonturns to Ash and reminds him, "You guys go on at four-thirty, and have interviews scheduled before that, so you need to be there no later than two-thirty. Think that'll be doable?"

"He'll be there, Jon, " I say. "I won't let him lose track of time, so you don't have to worry."

"Good, that makes my job easier. Thanks, Fi."

They all take off down the hall, and the rest of us go back to the suite, where the girls plop down in the floor and play with the new toys until they fall asleep. We get them into bed, and then watch a movie before Miki and Ryan decide to turn in for the night, since we have another busy day tomorrow.

They go to their room, and I'm picking the toys up from the floor, when Ash says, "Hey, Fi, do you happen to know what time it is?"

Looking down at my watch, I tell him, "It's almost ten-thirty, babe. Why, are you expecting a call or something?"

"Nope, and that's not exactly what time it is, y'know."

"Okay, I'll bite. What time is it, then?" I ask.

Walking up to me, he slides an arm around my waist, then bends and wraps the other around my knees, lifting me into his arms. As he does, he gives me a mischievous grin and replies, "It's shower time."

I return his smile and toss the toy I'm holding onto the couch. "Yes, you're absolutely right," I say, as he carries me toward our room. "This can wait until morning."



A / N: They'll finally make it to Download next chapter, and someone will try to make some mischief. Tune in next week to find out who!!








Notes

Comments

@Merelan
Definitely something to consider. If not an actual prologue, it would probably be interesting to have her remember some of the things that happened in this book, so i'll most likely have to find a way to work that in somewhere. Thanx for the thought!

Red Phoenix77 Red Phoenix77
8/21/18

Oh yes PLEASE a sequel! I would love to see events through Bren's eyes! Something fun you might consider is a recap of the story told by a teen Been, as like a prologue.
I look forward to seeing what you devise next!

Merelan Merelan
8/21/18

@Merelan
Cool, glad you enjoyed it!

Red Phoenix77 Red Phoenix77
8/20/18

Awww, such a sweet chapter! Yay for Ash and Fi!

Merelan Merelan
8/20/18

Ah, I love this story! Good on you, Fi!

Merelan Merelan
8/13/18