Flynn here - I am BACK!

Hey everyone! Haven't heard or seen anything from me in a long time, have you?  Well, I am back and supposedly cured of migraines.  I have no idea why but that's what Tangled Fan said.  Hey, as long as I really am, I won't question it!

Sunday evening, around six or so, Tangled Fan came down to the 'craft room'.  I jumped up hopefully.
"You're going back!"  she said with a singsong voice, and I could hardly contain my excitement.  I couldn't wait to see my wife and the girls!  Even Merida, Blondie, and Rayne!
She was in a hurry, though, so she just tossed me on her bed and left me to my own devices.

From the bed, I looked up when I heard a familiar giggle.  I peered across the room to see what appeared to be Merida and my wife fooling around, whilst Rayne documented it all with Tangled Fan's cell phone.  She - Rapunzel - took Merida's shooting equipment and started to pose.  Merida, behind her back, made a funny faux-exasperated expression, and the whole scene made me chuckle.  I couldn't wait any longer, so I started to make my way to the shelf.
I climbed up, and I ended up being kind of out of Rapunzel's sight, being that she was turned in a weird way for the next picture.
Jase saw me though.
Her whole face lit up and she immediately slid down off of Blondie's lap, exclaiming, "Daddy!!"
Since my wife STILL didn't realize what was going on, I put my finger to my lips and then swept her up into a big hug.  She wrapped her little arms around my neck and kissed my cheek excitedly, whispering "I'm so glad you're back Daddy!" in my ear.  I grinned at her and she giggled before wriggling to get out of my arms so she could go back to what must have been a very important conversation with Blondie.  I stood and wondered how one should greet a spouse who had no clue you were back from a two week absence.  Finally, I chuckled as I considered teasing her.  When in doubt, tease.
 "Should I leave?  If you've got that bow and arrow out, I'm gonna leave, because you're just plain dangerous with that thing."
The bow dropped to the floor.  She slowly turned to me with that deer-in-the-headlights-stare, for a few moments.  Her mouth gaped open, and I grinned at her.  I knew it wasn't sinking in for her - Tangled Fan probably hadn't told her I was coming back today.
She slowly took Merida's arm guard off, bent to pick up the bow, and she blinked about a hundred times.  She stood slowly, handed Merida her equipment back, and looked back at me.
She then grew wide-eyed once more, and an ear-to-ear smile brightened her whole face.  Her eyes started to tear up, and that's when she flung herself at me.
I stepped forward to catch her, swung her in a circle, and hugged her, chuckling the whole time.  Tears streamed down her cheeks.  She grabbed me into a fervent kiss that made me back up a step.  When she finally pulled away, I set her feet back down on the shelf.  Then I noticed everyone was clapping and beaming at us as if we'd just gotten married or something.  I felt a little awkward, but then I realized I didn't really care!
I bent down to give her a kiss.  After I pulled away, she sniffled.  Her tears were finally slowing, and she gazed up at me with a sweet smile, almost like she was mesmerized.
I grinned at her and wiped the tears from her rosy cheeks before sweeping some hair from her eyes and let my hand linger a moment on her cheek.  She hugged me so tight I wondered at how I could even breathe anymore.  My wife laid her head on my shoulder and I stroked her silky hair a few times before gathering her up into a tight hug and laying my head on top of hers.
After awhile, she pulled away from me.  I took her hands and held her out at arm's length.
"Still stunning as always!" I teased her with a wink and she giggled.
"You're handsome as always, too, good sir!" She joked back and returned a very over-exaggerated wink.
I pulled her in close to me again for a few minutes, before she asked if I would tell them all my 'big story'.  What big story?  I was just locked up down in the craft room in the basement for awhile, getting my sleep patterns tracked and modified. Woohooo, big adventure there; not.  But hey, if the girl wanted me to talk about it, if it pleased her, I'd do it.  I pulled away from her tight grip and bent to give her a quick kiss on the nose before I took one of her hands loosely in mine.
I led her over to the wicker chair and sat, patting my lap with a grin.  Surprisingly, she silently sat down, with no disagreeing.  Had she seriously missed me THAT much?!  Regardless.  I loosely wrapped an arm around her, and, realizing that all faces were turned to me, I chuckled and gave my speech.
Long story short; somehow I'm cured from migraines, as long as I get 7-8 hours of sleep, I don't get a migraine; but if I get less than that for a time of two or three nights in a row, I'll get a migraine, guaranteed.  It was really boring down there with literally no in and out traffic, and the only time anything got even a bit exciting was when I tried to escape to go back up here to visit with my girls.  Which had failed, of course.
During all of this, Rapunzel just simply had a very pleased, adorable smile on her face.
After all of that, the chatter commenced.
"So, you failed on your prison break, eh?  In your movie, you had a gang of Snuggly Duckling thugs that broke you out.  Of course, then ya kind of got stabbed by Gothel, but it was all okay in the end..." Merida said.
"Yes.  I fail at prison breaks.  Obviously!"  I joked.
Blondie handed over both of the girls.  Rapunzel took Hallie, and Jase sat on what was left of my lap.
A mischievous expression lit Merida's face again.  "Maybe...Tangled Fan is Mother Gothel!  She keeps us all prisoners, after all!  Well, Rapunzel, guess ye didn't get away from 'er after all!"  She joked, referring to the movie.
"Oh, stop," Rayne laughed.  "She isn't Gothel."
"How do ye know?"
Rayne started to respond, stopped when she couldn't think of anything to say, and shrugged.  We all laughed.
Jase piped up.  "I'm so glad you're back, Daddy.  I love you!"
"Love you too, sweetie," I said, my heart swelling.  I didn't think, at that moment, that my heart could be any more full!
"Were you scared?  I would have been scared down there." Jase asked innocently.
I started to shake my head, but then I caught myself.  No use lying to my own daughter - I had been terrified down there, afraid I'd never get back to my family if sleep deprivation wasn't the problem.
"I was scared, a little bit."
Rapunzel stared at me, mystified.
"Of what?  Were there monsters down there?" She blinked her green eyes - Jase said this, not Rapunzel.
"I..well, I guess I was afraid that something would happen and I'd not be able to come back.  Your daddy's a worrywart like that."  I said lightly.
"Well, I think you're very brave!"  She said, cuddling up against me.
Rapunzel and I both chuckled quietly.
"So how did the babies sleep?"  I asked my wife.
"They were up and down, as usual...some nights they'd sleep all night, and others they wouldn't."  She said, looking down at Hallie, who was squirmy.  
"And hello to you, baby girl.  I didn't get to see you yet, you were sleeping when I came in!"  I said, making a goofy face at Hallie and grinning when she grinned at me.
Rapunzel smiled, too, but then she announced that we all ought to get to bed.
Merida agreed.  So then we got to work trying to get the babies to go to sleep.  After awhile, their eyes finally closed, and we laid them down on the chair.  Jase was completely and utterly tired.  She muttered 'good night' to both me and Rapunzel, and I took her into my arms to lay her beside the babies.  She was asleep within seconds.
The others all dispersed to their sleeping spots of choice, and Rapunzel and I headed over to behind the chair.  I could hear Merida sawing logs like nobody's business, and held back a laugh.
When we got back to our destination, I sat down up against the wall and looked up at my wife as she worked her way back.  I knew she'd reinforce the 7-to-8-hours-of-sleep rule, but I still wanted to talk with her.
"Why such an early bedtime?" I asked, speaking quietly so as to not wake anyone up.
She slid down to sit down.  "We were up at 5 with the babies, and up through the night with them, too.  It was too hot for anyone to sleep last night, anyway."
I made an agreeing kind of noise and she nodded.  I held my arm out from my side and raised my eyebrows at her, silently inviting her to come closer.  She quickly accepted with a grin, and curling up beside me.  Soon, though, she looked up at me and sighed.  "You should get to bed, too."
I protested.  "I could go to bed at midnight and still get back up at seven, and not risk a migraine!"
She started to protest MY protest, and trailed off.
"Why don't you tell me how everything went while I was gone?" I asked, trying to swerve away from the topic of sleep.
She shook her head and told me to go to sleep.  I shook MY head, and decided to tease her.
"I could tickle it out of you..."-When she started to squirm away from me, I tightened my arm around her so she couldn't-"Or get you up at - let's see - four in the morning?  That would be roughly seven hours of sleep."
"You.." she trailed off again, shaking her head.  "Fine."
"So...?"
"Everything went okay, I guess.  Nothing really major.  I did try to follow Tangled Fan once, to see if I could find you, but she caught me and took me right back up to the shelf.  Jase was exceptionally good.  I was expecting her to be really upset, but she was pretty okay.  And the babies were restless sometimes, like I said earlier.  Merida's leg hurt only once in that two weeks, which was great.  And...I guess that was basically it.  Boring, in other words!" She joked.
I smiled at her before resting my cheek on top of her head, giving her shoulders a squeeze.  I decided to tease her, expecting her to drive herself crazy trying to figure out how to make me tell her what we would do tomorrow.  "I'm planning on a full day tomorrow."
"Oh?" She asked, and her eyes clouded with confusion.
"Today was our one-month anniversary, and since we didn't get to celebrate, we'll do everything tomorrow."
Instead of harping at me about details, she just smiled and said she couldn't wait.
I considered teasing her with the classic "what have you done with my wife, the one who usually goes nuts in an attempt to figure out the details of the plans I've made?", because I was quite frankly surprised, as you probably would be as well.
But instead, I just took her chin and tilted her head up so I could give her a kiss. Then, I winked at her and asked her 'guess what'.
"What?" She said with a grin starting to play across her lips.
"Love you  - I love you big, flowery bunches."
She giggled quietly and shook her head at me.  "We're both hopeless, you know that?  And I love you too.  Big flowery bunches."
I chuckled at that, and gave her another squeeze as my heart squeezed too.
We talked quietly about whatever, and whispered what I guess would be called 'sweet-nothings' for awhile, and then I finally succumbed to her grumbles that I needed to go to sleep.  She leaned over so we could share a goodnight kiss, and then I snagged her hand and held it until we went to sleep.