Flynn - she's back!

The day after my visit with Rapunzel dragged as well.  Hallie and Jase kept me busy, though! 
Everyone was woken up around six in the morning, because the two babies were wailing away. And no, they wouldn't go back to sleep.  Apparently, they might have gotten a little too warm in their makeshift bed, but I'm not completely sure that's what the issue was.  Regardless...
Sometime in the evening, Merida started grumbling.  "I thought she was supposed to be back by this evening."
I looked at her, thinking hard.  "Yeah..you're right.  She should've been.  I hope nothing happened..."
"It'll be fine, I s'pose.  Was kinda hopin' she would be back before this evening, so we could go shootin', but apparently, that's not gonna happen.  I suppose I'll just go now...if someone'll watch Allie?" 
I nodded.  "I can watch her for you." 
She said thanks, and then she was off. 
I held Allie and Hallie both for awhile; Jase was off playing with Blondie.  When the babies had both gone to sleep, I carefully stood up and bent to lay them down. 
I stood for a few minutes, watching to make sure they were going to stay asleep....when I felt two small hands grab my shoulders in a death-grip and a 'boo' was whispered in my ear. 
I caught my breath, jumped and shook all over from surprise and fear.  When I heard the laugh, I knew it was my wife. 
I was going to turn around and grab her up, but when she suddenly let go of my shoulders, I lost my balance.  I stumbled backwards, and I felt her brace her hands on my back. 
Once I got my balance back, I turned around to face her.  I cupped my hands around her cheeks, and started to pull her up into a kiss, but before I could even bend down, she giggled, jumped up, and grabbed me into an excited kiss. 
When she pulled away, I  grinned at her. 
"No more cold shoulder?"  I said jokingly. 
"No more!"  she announced, smiling.  Suddenly, it faded.  "Sorry I was such a brat.."
"It's fine," I told her as I put my arms around her and rested my head on top of hers for a couple seconds.  She wrapped her stick-thin arms around me and smiled at me. 
And then Jase squeezed in between us and wrapped her arms around Rapunzel's legs.  Rapunzel managed to not fall down as she awkwardly leaned down and scooped Jase up.  Not sure how she did it, but she did. 
"I'm so-o-o-o-o-o-o glad you're back, Momma!  Daddy kept going on about how bad he felt, so I bet he's glad you're back, too!  He didn't tell me that, but I heard him saying it to the others.  But I'm really  glad you're back!  You're better?" 
She chuckled at Jase and answered her, shooting a glance towards me.  Meanwhile, I was trying to think about how to skirt around what Jase had said.  I mean, yes, it was true...as you know..but I didn't want to let on to anything. 
Pretty soon, Rapunzel set Jase down and I put an arm around my wife. 
She turned towards me, pulling loose from my arm, and instead took me by the hand.  "Where's Merida?" 
I explained to her where Merida was at.  The whole while, I couldn't help but smile at my wife.
"I see," she said, trailing off and letting go of my hand.  She reached over to pick up Hallie, who had woken back up in the ruckus, and went to sit down. 

Pretty soon, Merida came back.  She promptly greeted my wife, a pleased grin on her face. 
"Try not to injure yerself again, would ye?  You've been in and outta injuries way-y-y-y more than normal!" 
"Yeeah-h-h...I suppose I have...." she chuckled in response. 
Seizing a teasing opportunity, I strode forward to stand in front of her, looking down into her face with a grin on mine.  "You SUPPOSE you have?" 
She glanced sideways at Jase.  "Jase... do you think we should pick on Daddy?"
Jase jumped up, eagerly nodding and a sneaky smile spreading across her face. 
"I'll get his hands, you tickle." 
Good thing I'm not ticklish.  Apparently, Rapunzel had forgotten about that little fact!
She stood, putting Hallie back down.  Standing in front of me, she reached for my hands, but I jerked them back and forth and high enough that she couldn't reach them.  Meanwhile, Jase was tickling any part of my legs that she could reach...which was quite frankly, pretty amusing.  Regardless...within a few minutes, I snaked my hands out towards my unsuspecting wife, grabbed her arms, and pulled her in towards me; turning her to face away from me, and then put my arm around her waist to keep her there.  Then, with my other arm, I grabbed Jase and swung her up onto my shoulder.  She shrieked with laughter and wildly squirmed to get away.  My wife started laughing hard, too,  wriggled in an attempt to get out of my arms, and I finally let her go.  Once she was loose, she turned back towards me, giggling with a silly little smile on her face, and her green eyes glowed with happiness...or was that impishness?  Regardless. 
I let Jase down off of my shoulder, and she tore off to pick on Blondie. 
After that, we all talked for awhile.  One by one, everyone went to bed.  It had been an early start this morning, after all.  I wasn't much tired, but I followed my wife to bed anyway. 
Hoping she'd stay up a bit and talk, I was glad when she just sat and looked up at me.  For a minute, anyway...
"So....spill the beans."
"What?"  I asked, sitting and studying her face.  I couldn't for the life of me think of what she was asking about. 
"The thing Jase said about you feeling so bad and everything?"    
Oh.  THAT.  Crumbs.  I had hoped that she'd forgotten about that.  I mean, seriously.  I'D forgotten about it!  "Well...okay, fine.  I just felt bad because I'd gone back on my word; that's all it was.  That I'd let you down."
"Ahh."  she nodded. 
"So tell me, wife..how was your two days?"  I said, fumbling for something to talk about. 
"Boring.  I just laid around...I did really like that warm blanket, though!"  She quietly laughed, even though she wrapped her arms around herself. 
"You cold?"  I asked.  I didn't want her to get hurt again! 
"Kind of," she said with a shrug. 
I started to offer to go get something she could wrap up with, but she refused. 
"No, Flynn.  Stay here.  Aren't you cold?" 
I wasn't, really...I mean, I was a little chilly, but I had a long-sleeved shirt on..and she had a short-sleeved dress on!  She was probably freezing. 
I patted my lap and offered for her to come sit, but she just leaned over into my side.  I shook my head before I rubbed my hands up and down her arms for a few minutes, trying to get her warmed up.  Then I just scooped her up and plopped her down on my lap, wrapping my arms around her and giving her a kiss in the hair. 
Instead of growling at me for picking her up, she just asked how my two days went. 
"Oh....busy.  I don't know how you took care of the girls for two weeks when I was gone!"
"I managed," she chuckled, "gave me something to do!" 
"True," I said, grinning.  "Just try not to get yourself hurt again, alright?  I can't take it."
She gave a quiet laugh.  "Oh, come on!  It was just, like, two days, and you came to see me one of them!"
"But still...," I trailed off as I studied her pretty face before giving her a kiss. 
When I pulled away, she gave me a sweet smile. 
"So I was thinking - and I'm not sure how I wanna put it...but I just - I-"
She stammered around.
I basically knew what she was going to say - knowing her, she likely felt bad about her behavior from when I visited her.  So  before she could start, I shook my head. 
"Lemme guess.  You're feeling bad because of your cold shoulder you gave me yesterday?"  I paused, and she nodded.  "Don't feel bad, sweetie.  I get that you were upset, and when you're upset, you say things you don't mean.  It's fine - no harm done!"
"I just...you didn't deserve one bit of it, and I can't believe that I treated you that way.  And for you to just take it in stride, not giving me a taste of my own medicine - not yelling or storming off - an-and just being YOU  - I just got really mad with myself, and I should have never treated you that way to begin with!  So I'm sorry...really sorry."  She finally finished. 
I gave her a smile and pulled her a tad bit close, and she loosed a relieved sigh. 
"I haven't said this in a few days - I'm slipping!  Love you." 
I got that funny feeling in my stomach when she said that.  "Love you, too, dear girl." 
She looked up at me and then reached up to give me a slow and sweet goodnight kiss, which I returned.  After our lips finally parted, I swept the hair from her face and took her chin in one of my hands and gave her a smile, which she matched with an adorable little smile of her own. 
Suddenly, it faded.  "You need to get to bed, hon," she told me. 
I shrugged, reluctant to let go of the moment, but she scooted off of my lap and curled up on her side. 
As soon as she laid down, though, she shot right back up.  "Should we maybe get the kids?  I don't want them getting cold." 
I shrugged again, thinking.  I realized that the window was still open and a pretty cool, steady breeze was coming through it.  Finally, I said that it couldn't hurt to check on them. 
She promptly crept out to check on them, and in a couple minutes, she was back. 

I watched her flop down on her back, and she said they were all 'comfy cozy', grinning at me. 
I reached over and took her hand, kissing it, and then asked if she was sure she didn't want me to go find something to use as a makeshift blanket. 
"I am positive, hon.  Actually, I could just wrap all this hair around myself."
Can you say train wreck?  As I thought about how that could go over, I tried not to laugh.  Instead, I just snorted.  She started giggling at me, and then clapped her hand over her mouth, horrified. 
We both went silent, and listened to make sure the babies hadn't woken up. 
Phew...that was a close one.  She let her breath out in a whoosh, and gave me a smile.  I grinned, shaking my head. 
"You know, you can just curl up with me.  You don't have to wrap yourself up in your hair.  To me, that sounds like a train wreck waiting to happen, especially with your track record the past month or so!"  I said jokingly. 
"Hey now..." she said, reaching to gently punch my arm. Then she flopped over onto her side.  Taking advantage of such an opportunity, I reached over and started to tickle her side.   She jerked, squirmed, and wormed around until she grabbed onto my hand and took it in a death-grip, so I didn't even try to pull it away. 
"You're mean!"  she whispered kiddingly, and I laughed through my nose and kissed her on the cheek and told her good night. 
"Night, hon...even though I'm not sure how sweet you really are...but good night."  she joked.  Or at least, I'm pretty sure she was joking. 
I suppressed a chuckle and pulled her close to me.  She finally let go of my hand, and then I was out cold. 


But within hours, I was back up - around four, I think.  I was freezing cold!  I glanced around, and through the darkness, I saw the window was STILL open.  Good grief!  I carefully touched my wife's arm, and felt she was cold as well, even though she was still asleep.  I crept past everyone else and went on the lookout for a shirt to cover up with.  I quickly found one, and was back up to the dresser in minutes.  On my way back to my wife, I checked on the kids, and they were still nice and warm.  Good. 

I carefully spread the shirt over my wife, and then realized how she was laying.  She was still on her side, curled up in a ball, but her face was smashed into the top of the dresser.  I went back to lay down, situating the shirt over both of us...but then I stared, fascinated at my wife's ability to sleep like that. 
How was she even comfortable?!  I mean, really...she probably couldn't even breathe.  Without thinking, I quietly chuckled. 
Then I heard her sigh and she looked at me drearily. 
"Did I wake you up, hon?"  I asked, concerned as I situated myself onto my side to look at her. 
"I guess not..why are you up, anyway?" 
I explained, adding the fact that she'd been faceplanted on the dresser, and she nodded, laughing through her nose.  "I dunno.  I was pretty comfy, until I woke up and realized I couldn't breathe." 
I grinned at her and kissed her forehead before I pulled her close to me again, and went back to sleep.