April 2016

‘Have a science project. Can u stop @ Michaels b4 u get me?'

JC Chasez's phone buzzed from its spot on the arm of the couch. He looked over his shoulder at the device then back to the floor in front of him. He frowned.

"She's not going to go anywhere."

JC looked up at the voice. His lips stretched into a smile watching his wife walk into the room carrying a now clean Noah.

"One clean Little Man." Rachel declared as she lowered Noah to the floor and watched as he toddled to his basket of toys. "I think you got off easy."

JC laughed. "I recall you tap dancing out of Amelia's room."  Amelia had woken up from her nap with the monster of all blow outs. The stench had hit them when they opened the door to her bedroom when she started crying signaling her nap was over.

"Self preservation?"

"How did that work out for you?"

"Got a good dose of karma," Rachel laughed lightly. It wasn't thirty minutes later, Noah woke from his nap. Instead of the easy wake up she thought it would be, the same stench hit her when she opened her son's door. The difference this time, Noah had somehow managed to get his diaper off. Poop had been smeared all over the bedding and the crib rails. Through the slots and onto the wall. All over Noah himself. JC had only laughed when she called him for help, but he did start the bath water as Rachel gingerly picked up her son.

JC turned his attention back to the floor in from of him where his three month old daughter Amelia Grace lay on her pink baby blanket. Her hand was fisted and crammed in her mouth. He didn't think it was possible for his heart to grow any larger but it did. It always did whenever he looked at Amelia or her older brother. So much had changed but sometimes it felt like yesterday he ran into McKenzie selling Girl Scout cookies at The Grove.

McKenzie was now a freshman in high school; counting down the days until she could get her permit. At last check on the running countdown she had posted to the fridge, it was 55 days. He shuddered to think about and hope she was a better driver than her mother. He knew in 55 days she'd have her permit. McKenzie was constantly looking over the driving booklet studying for the test.

Once she had that laminated ID in her hand, JC had no doubt his weekends would be spend in the passenger seat of his own car, his fist clenched with nerves and his right foot pressed to the floor board as he taught McKenzie how to drive.

McKenzie was no longer in Girl Scouts; finally able to talk Rachel into allowing her to quit. Just last weekend, while out, he and McKenzie ran into a troop of daisies selling cookies. JC's heart filled at the adorable little girls, no more than six, with their tiny blue vests. He bought a case of thin mints immediately. (To feed his wife's chocolate habit of course.) Then bought a couple boxes of Samoas for himself and a couple do-si-dos for McKenzie.

Seeing the group of girls, JC couldn't help but imagine Amelia doing the same in a few years when she reached kindergarten. Wearing a bright blue vest with colorful petals sewn to one side and fun little patches on the back. By that time, his schedule would be considerably free with McKenzie off to college.

Boy wasn't that something he didn't want to think about. McKenzie leaving. But life was moving fast. McKenzie already in high school keeping him and Rachel busy with everything under the sun with her school involvement. Volleyball in the fall. Basketball over the winter. Then track in the spring. Through all that were band concerts and piano recitals. Ski club trips. And somehow McKenzie found herself at the community theatre over the summer where she played one of the ladies fawning over Gaston in the production of Beauty and The Beast.

He loved every second of the chaos having a teenage daughter and two children under the age of two brought into life.

The biggest change (as if two under two wasn't enough) and one of the biggest highlights in the last three years, McKenzie was now his.

Officially.

McKenzie Sofia Chasez.

Just like she had printed on the adoption paperwork. That paperwork was put away and saved with other keepsakes he collected over the years. Too many emotions surrounded those particular set of papers for him to actually file them with the courts. JC still found himself choking up remembering Christmas evening in 2013 when McKenzie stood in front of their entire family - his and hers - her eyes filled with tears, her cheeks already wet with them, asking him to be her dad. It had been an indescribable feeling seeing his last name on those papers. Now it's on official school papers sent to the house. It's over the loudspeaker at games when she's announced. Secretaries speak it into the phone when they pull her from class when he picks her up in the middle of the day. It's printed on the back of sports t-shirts. He never tires hearing it.

JC's eyes strayed to the middle shelf on the built in shelving unit in their living room. In the middle of the décor on the self was a photo that set proudly. The first official photograph as a family right there in the court room no more than five minutes after the judge banged her gavel signaling the adoption complete. McKenzie in the middle. He on one side. Rachel, holding a baby Noah, on the other. Their eyes were wet and red-rimmed. Their smiles wide. The photo was all the more special because Rachel was secretly pregnant with Amelia - a wedding night surprise.

"Beautiful isn't she?" Rachel sat down next to JC and leaned against him. Amelia was such a content baby. It wasn't odd for her to lay on the floor or in her bouncer chair and just watch what was going on around her. Unlike Noah. Noah was on the go the moment his eyes opened until nap time then he was on the go again.

"Just like her momma," JC agreed. He shifted to rest against the couch better and wrapped an arm around Rachel, pulling her more firmly against his side. Noah continued to dig through his toys, pulling every single one out that he had just picked up.

He wasn't sure who Amelia would look like. The little soft tuffs of hair on her head (currently interrupted by a pink headband) was brown. McKenzie's had been brown when she was born, but now it was blonde just like Rachel's. Her eyes were still grayish blue. He thought she looked like McKenzie when she was a baby. He wouldn't be upset having another mini Rachel running around.

Though he wasn't sure if his brain and heart could take it. McKenzie was starting to become more interested in boys. She attended a couple dances already this year. Homecoming in September he was drying Rachel's tears when McKenzie left with Briahna and their dates. All he could think about was the boy who nervously slipped the corsage on his daughter's wrist and his hand placement during the slow dances and hidden spots beneath the bleachers of the gymnasium. Now she was crushing on a junior who played football. McKenzie was causing him to go grey faster than he already was.

McKenzie was going to school dances and crushing on boys. Noah James was 15 months already and running everywhere. Amelia Grace was three months and he was certain she was teething. Why wouldn't time just slow down?

JC's phone buzzed again alerting him of the text he received earlier. This time it caught Noah's attention.

"Oh!" Noah dropped the blue train engine carrying a wagon with zoo animals. The conductor fell off the engine as did the gorilla and monkey passengers.

His son toddled toward the couch where JC's phone lay. Noah's brown hair was starting to fill in and grow. Bright blue eyes matched his own. JC knew if he squeezed Noah's inner thighs or wiggled his fingers on his collarbones, his son would collapse in a fit of giggles. Those infectious giggles could be heard from anywhere in the house. The same giggles one could help but join in. His mood always cleared up with that laughter.

"Da! Da!" Noah exclaimed proudly as he held out his father's phone.

"Come ‘ere you!" JC removed the phone from his son's hold before wrapping him up in his arms. Before his fingers even reached Noah's side, the toddler was giggling loudly with intermittent shrieks. 

"Aren't they crazy?" Rachel leaned over Amelia after she was displaced from her husband's side. She smiled as her daughter's eyes focused on her and she broke out into a toothless smile. Her arms waved excitedly and Rachel watched as her lips and tongue moved as she tried to speak. "That's right. They are crazy."

"Crazy in love with you." JC turned Noah to sit in his lap. He leaned over pecking his wife on the cheek.

Rachel picked up Amelia unable to hold out any longer. If she could, she would hold her all night long. Keep her in her arms. Listen to her soft snores. Feel her tiny fidgets. She pressed a kiss to her forehead breathing on the sweat smell of baby lotion. A hint of formula JC had given her while she was bathing Noah after his nap.

"Kenz needs to go to Michaels to pick up supplies for a science project," JC said reading the text message his daughter sent.

Rachel hummed. "Is she typing blood again?"

JC snorted as he typed the very same response. McKenzie had asked for his blood type under the guise of a science project. At the time, she had been sure he was her biological father and she was investigating her theory. It turned out his blood type pointed in the direction of a possible match. McKenzie kept what she was doing a secret until Leyton blabbed. JC still wished he'd been on that trip to Mississippi. It would have saved some pain for both he and Rachel, as well as McKenzie, if she had only asked.

That didn't matter anymore though. He was her father. She called him dad. And didn't he love that.

"I need a few things from there as well." Rachel used one hand to push up from the floor, the other wrapped securely around Amelia. Folding a leg beneath her she sat in the curve of the sectional, snuggling back against the soft cushion. "I gotta get started on Mel's next book before she has a cow."

"You did just had a baby." JC watched Noah crawl back over to his toys and the train he had previously been playing with.

Rachel hummed in acknowledgment. "I know. I was there."

"Me too. Have the scars on my hand to prove it." JC laughed and dodged a wadded up burp cloth his wife threw in his direction.

"How about I go and pick up Kenz. That way I can grab what I need as well. I'll even bring Noah and Mia. You'll have an hour or so all to yourself."

"Tempting." And it was but he had so many years of being by himself. In the quiet. In the short span he'd grown used to the absolute chaos in his house. The conversations. The music. Talking and laughing. Sleepovers. Baby cries. The addition of a puppy - a sheltie named Lucy. As if that wasn't enough, JC let himself be talked into adopting a floof-ball of a kitten from a litter their neighbor found between their fence and shed. A long haired splotchy black, orange, and white devil that insisted on always attacking his toes. If their docile dog hadn't been named Lucy, he would have championed the cat to be named Lucifer. While he still called him that or The Devil, his proper name was Oliver.

Silence was a bit unnerving for him now.

"But you're gonna pass?" Rachel smiled knowingly. "Come clean. You married me for Kenzi."

JC laughed as he stood up. "Pleading the 5th on that." He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his daughter's head. "You have a list?"

"Yeah it's on the pink sticky note on my desk."

With a kiss on his wife's lips, JC left the room and headed upstairs to the bedroom where he freshened up before grabbing his wallet and car keys from the top of his dresser. Back downstairs he veered away from the living room and into Rachel's office of sorts. The room had previously been used as another bedroom. Once they purchased the house, one of the rooms they had reworked was this one. Adding bigger windows on the outer wall to allow more natural light into the studio. There were canvases in different states of completion. The drawing board held an outline for one of the pages in the current book in the series Melissa and Rachel worked on together.

The animated series on Nickelodeon spawned from the books was still going strong. He'd been so proud of his wife - and Joey's. He still couldn't get over the fact that their creation not only spun off to a hit kids' cartoon but morphed into merchandise.

Finding the sticky note right where Rachel said it was, he read down the list. Reaching for a pen sticking out of the holder, he quickly scribbled McKenzie's items underneath. The contrast between his wife's handwriting and his was almost night and day. Rachel's beautiful script laid somewhere between cursive and print. While his was sloppy and always appeared to be rushed.

"Do you want me to take the munchkins and give you some peace?" JC offered as he came back into the living room.  

"No," Rachel shook her head as she stood from laying Amelia in her bouncer chair. "Amelia just conked out."

"Want me to pick up dinner?"

"That would be amazing."

"Okay. I'll be back." JC kissed her. "Love you."

"Love you," Rachel smiled softly at him. She kissed him again before letting him go.

Armed with his shopping list, JC walked into Michaels grabbing a basket at the door. It didn't take him long to gather all the items. Though he did panic a bit with the Styrofoam ball McKenzie needed. There were multiple sizes and he had no idea the size. The paint tripped him up as well because McKenzie didn't specify the colors. He played it safe there and got the rainbow plus white, black, and brown. He figured any other shade she could mix. But the Styrofoam ball he wasn't sure. Breaking down, he sent his daughter a text, hoping she was able to answer.

‘Earth size.'

‘Okay, but I don't think I can fit that into my car.'

The eye roll he received back caused him to grin.

The check out line was a few people long and JC settled into wait. With his basket in one hand, he browsed his phone with the other. McKenzie gave him grief about not being on social media a lot but he didn't see the point of being glued to his phone instead of being in the moment. He spent more time on his personal Facebook than anything now. It was the app that had more of not only his family members but Rachel's as well. It was private and only for family and close friends.

He was commenting on a photo Tyler posted of his daughter Eliana, born a couple months after Noah, when he heard voices behind him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw a woman pushing a double stroller. The canopy over the seat closet to the back was half opened allowed for a few items to rest on top. An infant close to Noah's age was under the canopy and a toddler no more than four sat buckled in the front. He gave a smile to the woman when he met her eyes. She appeared a little frazzled. Her eyes slightly wide, her jaw clenched. Her face pale.

"Why don't you go in front of me?" JC offered as the person in front of him went up to the cashier.

"Oh I couldn't," the woman shook her head. Her hands fisted the stroller hard enough her knuckles turned white.

"Please. I know what it's like to have a small window of opportunity to get errands done before kids have a meltdown."

"Well... okay..."

The women smiled appreciatively as they switch spots in the narrow aisle leading to the row of checkouts along the front of the store. "Seriously. Thank you."

"Don't mention it. My kids are fifteen months and three months. There's a lot of strategy going into going out with my wife. Hoping we can get in and out before there's a diaper blowout or one of them starts screaming bloody murder."

The woman chuckled lightly. "Yes. I don't think there's a parent who hasn't been in that position."

The conversation carried on for a few moments more before the woman moved to the cashier to check out. JC was a little confused why she kept staring over her shoulder toward him. He brushed it off as one of three things: she was trying to figure out why he looked familiar. She was slightly star struck and couldn't help staring. Or she was trying to figure out why he, of all people, was in Michaels. He almost wanted to answer ‘Yes I am who you think I am and my wife sends me on errands like normal marriages.'

Another cashier opened up and he stepped forward forgetting all about the woman and her kids. He never noticed her leaving. He got held up by the ‘earth sized' Styrofoam ball and its lack of price tag so checking out took a little longer than expected. Armed with his bags, he returned the basket to the stack and walked outside. He squinted in the sun his sunglasses left in the car. Crossing the road in front of the store he pulled his keys from his pocket. Further down in the aisle, he saw the woman from the checkout line. The back hatch of her white SUV was open and she disappeared around to the further side.

For the first time, JC found himself thinking about the times Rachel had both kids by herself and how she had to get both of them in the car. It was a little easier since Amelia was able to stay in her car seat. The car seat popped from the base in the car and attached to their double stroller and then vice versa. Then it was getting Noah in who sometimes thought that meant becoming a wiggly slippery worm.

He hit the unlock button on his key fob as he skirted around his own SUV. Newly purchased before Noah was born. He traded his hummer in but kept his convertible. Sometimes he took it to pick McKenzie up from practice. They hadn't done it in awhile but he and Rachel would sneak away and cut through Topanga Canyon and catch the Pacific Coast Highway to cruise along the coast for a getaway. With the birth of Noah and Amelia it didn't happen often unless they had someone to watch the babies. He didn't want to leave them both with McKenzie at fifteen. He still thought she was too young especially with Noah and Amelia being so little yet. Melissa would usually come over for baby snuggles if he and Rachel wanted to step out for a lazy drive or lunch.

Realizing how long it had been since he and Rachel took a lazy ride to the coast got JC thinking about asking Melissa if she could watch the babies for a couple of hours on Sunday. With McKenzie's track meet on Saturday, they wouldn't be able to sneak away. Sunday was wide open though. He and Rachel could sneak away for a drive. Have lunch at a little hidden away diner they found almost an hour north. Pull off into one of the scenic overlooks and watch the waves crash into the cliff.

JC was climbing into the driver's seat when a scream pierced the air. His heart stuttered at the jolt, caught off guard. He jumped from his car and looked around trying to find the source. Another scream sounded followed by shouting. Racing to the back of his vehicle, he looked around wildly. There down the aisle from him, he saw the woman from the check out. She hadn't gotten into her vehicle yet. In front of her was a man in a black zip up jacket. The hood pulled over his head. His hands were reaching for the stroller handle.

JC's face paled. "Hey!" He shouted and started down the aisle at a run. "Hey you! Stop!"

By the time JC reached the scuffle, the man in the hoodie had taken off to the van parked a couple spots down from the woman's SUV. Breathing heavily, his heart pumped wildly. What in the world had just happened?

"He tried to take my baby!"

"It's okay," JC wrapped a comforting arm around the hysterical woman. He kept his eyes peeled to the parking lot in case the van came back. Horns blared in the distant and he assumed the van was making a fast getaway. "I think he's gone."

"He was following me in the store!" The woman burst out.

"What?" JC questioned, his eyes scrunched in confusion.

"I kept noticing him and a woman. They always seemed to be in the aisle I was in. I f-figured they were grabbing the same thing I was... I-I started lingering more. Checking things out, pretending to compare prices... so they'd move on but they lingered. I-I heard them mention how beautiful Jillian was..."

JC watched as the woman knelt by the stroller and cupped the oldest child's face. She wiped the tears from her face as she moved to grab the baby. The baby was screaming loudly. The events of what just happened penetrated his brain.

Someone had just tried to kidnap the children and he stopped it.

"Shit," JC mumbled. He quickly dug his phone from his pocket and dialed 9-1-1.

In no time at all at least six police cars rolled into the parking lot and their position. The noise caused the baby to start crying again. The manager of Michaels had come out earlier after another patron told her what happened. She had procured a sucker and a tiny stuffed animal from the checkout aisle for the little girl.

It was a blur of activity. JC was questioned numerous times about what happened and what he saw. He hated the fact that he couldn't offer up a description of the kidnapper or the van behind the color of clothing and color of the van. He hoped security cameras in the parking lot were working to offer up more clues. Hopefully a license plate.

When JC was finally cleared to leave, he sat in the driver's seat and blew out a breath. His heart finally slowed back to normal but there was a ball still lodged deep in his gut. There was an attempted kidnapping not only in the city he lived in, but at a store his wife frequents. A store where at any time she brought at least one kid if not all three.

Rachel had offered to make the Michaels run. She had offered to bring both babies with her.

The ball in JC's gut grew as his palms sweated. What happened could have easily been his wife. That man could have been grabbing at their double stroller. And he wouldn't have been there to stop it. No man would have been. He was the only male around and he could have been just as easily at home enjoying time alone.

"Fuck!"

He gripped his steering wheel tightly as fear consumed him. This could have easily have been his kids. Their double stroller with the easy car seat release for Amelia. Or the single stroller that offered the quick release button causing both straps on either side on Noah's waist that came together with one between his legs to become undone freeing the child. Either one would be a quick grab. At any point Rachel could have been distracted by Amelia or Noah. Putting one kid in the car. The items in the car...

While he was at home laying on the couch playing Candy Crush.

Closing his eyes he leaned back against his seat. It served no purpose to think of the ‘what ifs'. The facts mattered. Rachel and the babies were not at Michaels when a monster tried to kidnap two children. The stars aligned where he made the decision to turn Rachel's offer down at coming herself with Noah and Amelia and Amelia falling asleep before he left to stop him from bringing the kids with him. Just like those same stars allowed him to be in the parking lot to thwart the kidnapper's attempt.

His phone buzzed, vibrating against the cup holder. JC blinked his eyes open and reached for the device.

‘Are you almost here?'

"Fuck," JC cursed again when he noticed the time. McKenzie's practice was over. He should have been there by now. He quickly tapped out he was on his way before pulling from the lot and leaving the fodder for his nightmares behind.

*~*

"Is Dad okay?" McKenzie asked her mother after throwing her fast food trash away. She grabbed the ketchup bottle she used to douse her fries.

"I'm not sure," Rachel frowned as she glanced toward the hallway where her husband disappeared. She heard a door shut signaling he shut himself in his studio. Dinner had been a somewhat quiet affair with McKenzie leading the conversation and Noah's normal blabbering nonsense. McKenzie talked about practice and the away meet happening the next day. She explained what she was going to do for her science project and how the Styrofoam ball was going to turn into an animal cell diagram. She told them about the promposal that happened during lunch and how she would have been completely embarrassed had it been her.

Through it all JC was quiet. He barely offered a smile when Noah started chanting ‘da da da' while banging his hand in his high chair tray. She wasn't sure what was going on. She tried to catch his eye, but he kept his gaze adverted.

"I didn't make him mad did I?" McKenzie asked softly. "I'm sure I could have found things here to use for science..."

"Oh sweetie no," Rachel drew her daughter into her arms in a comforting hug.

"You sure?" McKenzie was unsettled. Her dad was late picking her up which never happened. He was always early. Sometimes early enough to watch the end of practice from the stands. Then it was the quiet ride home. Not even the radio was loud enough to fill the uncomfortable silence and she was too worried to turn it up or change the channel. Their normal rides were filled with music. Songs that he sang along to. Songs that he rolled his eyes to but let her listen all the while threatening to change the channel with the control on his steering wheel. Other times it was asking about something in class she didn't understand.

"Oh I'm sure baby," Rachel kissed her daughter's head. "Keep an eye on the babies for me."

McKenzie nodded as she watched her mom walk away. She didn't like the feeling in her stomach.

Rachel knocked softly on the door to JC's studio. The studio set in the back corner of the house and had been soundproofed as much as it could. Sometimes she could hear a muted melody drifting through the house. Other times it was silent.

Not receiving an answer, she opened the door and peeked in. If JC had his headphones on and working, she would leave him alone for a bit longer. Maybe what was wrong was something as simple as music fog. She used it when she noticed her husband spacing out before holing himself up in the studio. His brain was so focused on whatever snippet of melody or lyric in his head he sort of spaced. It happened with Melissa too when a scene would come to her or a plot. Nothing cleared the fog until it was worked out of their heads. This didn't feel like that moment though.

When she saw JC sitting on the small couch hunched over with his head in his hands, Rachel knew she was right. Closing the door behind her, she sat next to him; her side pressing against his and wrapped her arm around his hunched shoulders. His body trembled as she rubbed her hand over his back. 

"JC?" Rachel asked worriedly. Fear began to build. So many questions tried to burst forth. What happened from the time he left to when he picked up McKenzie? "You're kind of scaring me..."

She squeaked in surprised when he moved quickly, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her to sit across his lap. With a few minor adjustments she was sitting comfortably in her husband's lap. Her arm around his shoulders, her feet resting on the cushion beside them. His arms wrapped around her waist in a tight hug while his head laid on her chest. His breath tickled her skin through the t-shirt she wore. When his body trembled again, she brought her free arm up from her lap to wrap around him, enclosing him in a tight embrace.

They stayed wrapped in the embrace neither moving. Rachel let him hold her tightly, allowing him to draw whatever he needed from her - comfort, strength. She continued to hold him just as tightly offering him comfort. When his hold slowly softened and relaxed , Rachel let her outside hand slip from his back over his shoulder to cup the side of his face. Some of the fear dissipated when she felt him press a soft kiss to her palm.

"You wanna talk about it?" She moved her other hand so she was cupping either side of his face. Using her gentle hold on him, she lifted his head so he could meet her eyes. "JC... What's wrong?"

JC lifted his hand to his face and rested it on top of hers for a second before he took her hand in his. He relaxed into the back of the couch adjusting her more comfortably in his arms. Then he began to tell her the events that transpired. He watched her face become more horrified the more he spoke.

"Oh that poor woman!" Rachel gasped. Her eyes welled with tears thinking of how the woman must have been terrified. "I'm so thankful you were there. Who knows what would have happened..."

"That's all I can think about," JC confessed quietly. "I keep thinking about how you offered to go and take the babies. I kept imagining you trying to load them in the car by yourself.  Michaels isn't exactly a hopping place and not a lot of men go there... What if no one came across it happening to you? What if he had gotten away with Noah or Amelia or both?"

"Oh JC," Rachel wrapped her arms around him drawing him into a hug. "It wasn't me. It wasn't Noah or Amelia. We're safe."

"I know but I can't stop thinking about the ‘what ifs'."

"I know you probably don't see it, but I'm choosing to believe you were meant to be there. You were meant to be at Michaels at that moment to help that woman..."

"But you..."

"I probably wouldn't have been in the parking lot to help her," Rachel cut him off. "You know how I get at Michaels. I could spend hours in there checking out the art supplies. Comparing them. Going back and forth on if I really need another box of colored pencils. If I need those charcoal pencils even though I never use charcoal. Of course I probably need another sketch book..."

"For your special drawings?"

Rachel laughed and hugged his neck. The special drawings JC referred to were old sketch books she kept back when she hung out with the band. While there were some drawings of all the guys, most of the pages held JC. Drawn by a 19 year old overly infatuated with the singer. Half in love with him and too afraid to say anything.

McKenzie had come across the sketches and used them as a clue in her attempt to prove JC was her biological father. They were close to being thrown away after her world imploded when McKenzie found out the truth of her conception and in a misguided attempt at helping, JC decided to take a step back breaking up with her. Luckily they learned very quickly they were better together.

"It wasn't me," Rachel said softly. "I'm here. Safe with you. Noah is safe out in the living room probably climbing all over Kenzi. Amelia is sleeping safely in her room dreaming of how often she's gonna wake us up tonight." Her heart lightened seeing the small smile appear on his lips. "It's scary to think about and JC, I promise I will be more careful when I'm out - by myself and with the kids.

"I love you." JC kissed her and slowly felt himself relax. While he was still scared at what could have been, there was nothing he could do to prevent bad things from happening. Except locking his wife and kids in the house, but that was impossible. Everything happened like it was meant to. His family was safe at home and he was put in the position to make sure another family spent the night safe in their home as well. It didn't mean he wasn't going to be making sure he went with Rachel and the kids on errands for the foreseeable future.

Rachel and JC stayed cuddled on the couch for awhile longer until the whistle of JC's phone broke the quiet. JC was able to reach into his front pocket without displacing his wife from his lap. The locked screen showed a message from McKenzie. An image attachment.

"Kenz..." JC unlocked his phone and opened his messages. Pulling up McKenzie's he smiled seeing the photo. He tapped on it enlarging the photo to fill the entire screen.

She was sitting on the floor in front of the couch - much like he was when McKenzie's text earlier started the events of the afternoon. Held in her free arm was Amelia awake from her nap. Her blue eyes wide. A tiny smile on her face. Man he loved to make her smile. It filled each and every space of his heart. Standing on the opposite side stood a smiling Noah - his eyes crinkled so much they were nearly closed - proudly showing off his teeth.

"We are so lucky," Rachel stared at the photo of her kids. She knew it sounded cheesy, but they were her everything. If she had been put in the position as that woman at Michaels today, she would have fought with everything she had in order to protect her babies - or die trying.

"You know," JC started as they stood from the couch. The photo McKenzie sent him his new background on his phone. "We never really talked about how many kids we wanted..."

Rachel squeezed his hand as she turned to face him, her back against the door. "As many as you'll give me."

JC cupped her face with his hands and leaned in to kiss her. When the kiss ended he took her hand and led her from the room ready to return to his most important job - daddy.