1.19

"What are you guys still doing up?" Kaylee asked as she and Ty walked up the sidewalk. Fran rolled her eyes.
"This one," she said with a motion of her head toward Gabe, "Didn't want to go to sleep. It was almost if he knew you guys were coming back this morning."
Gabe's face scrunched up when Fran refused to let him go. He doubled his efforts to escape from Fran as he kicked and squirmed and held out his arms to Kaylee.
"Let him go," Kaylee said with a grin. She and Ty had discussed Gabe while they were on their honeymoon and had decided that, if it was possible, they would like to adopt him. Kaylee watched as he unsteadily walked toward her.



"God, it's good to be home," she said once she bent down to pick Gabe up and placed him on her hip. Ty tickled him under the chin, Kaylee noticed the scar there had healed completely, and Gabe laughed.
"Alright girl, I want to know how your honeymoon was. Tell us everything!" Fran scowled at Ty when he choked then sucked her teeth. "Well not everything...although I'm sure you're dad's done them all to me and probably twice as well."
"Moooom!" Ty groaned and Kaylee swallowed back a laugh as they walked into the house.
"Well, Fran I don't know about twice as well. Ty's pretty good. He must-" Her words were muffled by Ty's large hand.
"Let's not even go there," he stated firmly.
Kaylee and Fran shared a look then both had to look away before they burst out laughing. Once Fran had pulled herself together she leaned forward eagerly.
"So, start at the beginning!"

"Well, we got up early the next morning and-"
"Babe, I don't think she wants the very beginning."
Ty ran his hand through her hair and pulled her closer to him. "We got to the hotel..."

"...and the guy there nearly peed on himself when he saw Ty!" Kaylee cut in.
"He did not," Ty grumbled in embarrassment.
She nodded. "He did so. He was going on about how he had been a fan of Ty since his college football days and he started spouting stats and everything. Ty was trying to sign us in and I thought the man was going to rip the page out of the book so he could say he'd gotten an autograph. It was hysterical!"

"Yeah, and while she was snickering behind me I had to listen to him stutter over himself. I thought for sure he was going to follow us back to our room but luckily some other people came in to sign in so we left.
"The hotel room was gorgeous! I-"
"I wanted to spend some time in there but she wanted to go out sightseeing."
"Course I did. I mean, hello, we're in this nice little Asian village and Ty wants to bump uglies?" Kaylee flapped her hand in the air while Ty looked up at the ceiling and Fran and Damon laughed.
"Anyways, so we went back outside-"
"Unfortunately."

"-and met up with a nice tour guide. We asked what there was to do around there and he gave us some lovely sight seeing suggestions. We decided on the bamboo forest and it wasn't long before a helicopter arrived to pick us up."


"It was annoyingly loud. All that freaking debris kept getting in my eyes."
"This was my first time on a helicopter and I thought it was awesome. I mean, sure we'd flown to the Village but a helicopter is a whole other story from a plane. It's smaller and I was at the window looking out.

"Yeah, and then she got nauseous and had to sit with her head between her knees the entire ride in."
She sucked her teeth. "Well, one way a helicopter is different from a plane is that you can feel every freaking bump." She placed her hand over her stomach in remembrance.
"So, we got the forest, it was us and another group, and come to find out they had closed it to tourists."
"She was disappointed to say the least."
She turned to Ty in amazement. "I was disappointed? I wasn't the one who was upset because I didn't get to see any panda bears!"
"I wasn't upset because of that!"
"Oh, I remember Ty used to have this stuffed panda bear. He used to carry it everywhere with him! It was the cutest-"
"MOM!"
Kaylee snorted on a laugh then continued on. "So some idiot kicked a tree and..."

"There were bees everywhere! I mean we tried to prevent them from getting into the cabin but it just didn't work. I'm sure that it would have been funny if it happened to someone else but all I could hear was Kaylee screaming and-"

"I wasn't the only screaming! I kept hearing the phrase: 'I don't know if I'm allergic! I don't know if I'm allergic!' as he ran up and down the street swatting at the bees that were following him."
Ty raise his voice to be heard over his parents hysterical laughter.

"Finally they left and luckily Kaylee and I were unharmed...thanks for asking," he said as he ran his hand up and down Kaylee's arm.
"But after all that running and screaming she was exhausted so we went back to the hotel room."

"But apparently he didn't think I was tired enough because he asked me if I wanted him to rub it and make it all better."
"I MEANT some lotion or something! Ya know...just in case she had gotten stung!"
She rolled her eyes! "Riiiight! The area you were trying to pat wasn't even close to-"

"So, she looked over her shoulder and gave me the evil eye and told me to shut up and go to sleep." He grinned then leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to her mouth. "I hadn't really felt married up until that moment."
Kaylee could feel her face growing red with embarrassment as his parents nudged at each other and shared a look.
"Keep that up Tyrese and you'll be feeling married for a long time!"
Brushing a hand down her cheek he winked at her. "Babe, you know you can't resist this...just like I can't resist you which reminds me..."

"We woke up later that night and ordered in."
"He wanted fried chicken of all things."
"So, she was still in the bathroom and I yelled to her that I thought we might go for a late night swim since the pool was almost right outside our door. I heard her say something, but-"

"He was focused on his food," Kaylee said with a laugh.
"Which I almost choked on when she came out of the bathroom and sauntered, yes sauntered, over to stand next to the table in this little white outfit." Ty closed his eyes and let out a hum. "God, that thing..." His eyes popped open he shared a look of mutual understanding with his dad before clearing his throat.
"And then she had the nerve to sit across from me and eat as if I wasn't dying!"

"The food smelled good and I hadn't ate anything." Ty snorted and she lightly hit his chest with the back of her hand. "Well, except for that bag of chips. And that sandwich."
"And my sandwich and my chips and you also drank half of my drink." He gently placed his hand over her stomach. "But that's alright with me."





"The next morning, after an enjoyable night," Ty said with a wink. "We decided to go on another tour."
"This time we asked the guide if there were any accessible tours and he mentioned this nice little zen garden were people could go and play mahjong. There was also a little wishing well that was famous. Then he looked around and told us there was a rumor going around about a ninja that would teach you the ways if you answered his questions correctly but he was hard to catch up with."

"Of course Kaylee wanted to eat! Just a nibble she said. By the time she was done 'nibbling' it was dark and the cook kept giving us strange looks."
"The food was amazing but the cook wouldn't give me the recipe."
"Not matter how many times she asked him," Ty said with a small laugh. "Eventually she was ready to go and don't you know-"

"Ty ran into the ninja! I was so excited! He would learn the ways. It sounded so mysterious and so, so zen like."
Ty frowned. "And then he asked me this stupid question and-"
"REJECTION!" Kaylee laughed when Ty crossed his arms over his chest. Reaching out she patted his thigh. "A lot of people must fail otherwise he wouldn't be mysterious."
Ty perked up at that. "Yeah, yeah that's true."

"Anyways, Kaylee saw that little fountain and flipped a coin and-"
"It started to glow," she said softly. "And...and I felt as if the thing I asked for would be granted. It was just like any inner peace stole over me and I knew that eventually everything was going to be alright."
Ty squeezed her hand. "It will babe, it will." He turned back to his parents. "I flipped a coin and absolutely NOTHING happened." He shook his head in bewilderment. "What the hell?"

"So we went to play mahjong and Ty was giving some old guy the stare down until the man got up and left."
"He was staring at me first. I was just wondering what he was looking at," Ty said defensively.
"Uh huh."

"Anyways, after everyone left, we played a round."
"I'd never played before," Kaylee interjected before she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against Ty. Somehow in their storytelling they had ended up on the floor while his parents sat on the couch.
"Yeah, she's a sore loser," Ty said as he tickled her side.

"And he's an ungracious winner. He kept humming 'We Are the Champions' under his breath and he was doing this funky dance where he was bobbing his head and waving his arms in the air."
"That's my famous victory dance! It's been imitated but never duplicated."
"Who'd want to?" Kaylee asked before Ty wrestled her onto her back. She laughed up at him and he grinned down at her. They straightened when Damon cleared his throat.

"Anyways, the next day we went for a swim. I swim fantastically but Kaylee swears up and down that I make too big of a splash when I enter the water so she had to show me how it was done." Ty rubbed the back of his neck.
"I have to admit she enters the water as smooth as silk and looks beautiful doing it. Not to mention that swimsuit was just a thing of beauty. Showed off every curve."

"We just went sightseeing after that," Kaylee interjected since Ty seemed lost in a daze. "And we decided that I should get a massage. Actually Ty thought I should get a massage to see how it would feel. He said that the team athletic instructor suggests that some of the guys get them before and after games sooo..."
"I've never seen her so relaxed. She was like a puddle up on that table."
"It was great." Then she scowled.

"But that woman couldn't wait to get her hands on Ty. He refused at first but he finally relented after she kept insisting he looked tense and she could take care of him." A growl had entered Kaylee's voice.
Reaching up Ty smoothed the tension from her neck. "A massage is all well and good but a sex marathon is ten times better."
While Kaylee sat there with her mouth gaping open his parents nodded their head in agreement and Fran even had the gall to mutter,
"Amen."

"After the massage Kaylee had to walk off her mad so we wandered aimlessly until we came to this secluded area. Everything was quiet and pristine. When we moved closer to the small structure nestled there we could hear a monotone humming. There was this little old man-"

"And he was floating! Ty walked up to him and spoke but he only cracked open one eye before grunting and closing his eye back. So I whispered to Ty that maybe we should leave but Ty just walked over to the man's tea set and started to make tea. I was frantic thinking the man was going to do some Kill Bill moves or something but he only grunted once again and motioned for Ty to pour."
"We talked for a bit," Ty said curling around Kaylee, his wife he thought with a smile, "and then he seemed to grow bored with us and told us to walk the grounds a bit."

"I walked over to the sand garden and after raking it I decided to meditate myself. I used to meditate sometime in college and even do some yoga so-"
"So she's super flexible."
Fran laughed then cleared her throat when Kaylee gave her the evil eye.
"Anyways, the next thing I know I'm floating just like he was and...for whatever reason it didn't even phase me. I think it was the aura of the place. After I finished the man motioned me over-"

"And proceeded to tell her this amazing story of a maiden and a dragon."
"Ty! You weren't supposed to be listening."
"I couldn't help it! I mean, the way that dragon destroyed that army for that chick? How can you resist that?"
"Said the man who doesn't want to go to to the movies with me."
"Those are chick flicks."
Kaylee shook her head. "He told me the Dragon Legend and it was as if while telling it to me I could see it. And while I was still reeling from the wonder of it he disappeared. I mean all I did was blink and then he was gone."
Smiling down at Gabe, who had curled against her, she ran her hand through his hair. "I can't wait to tell Gabe the story."

"We woke up to a lot of noise the next morning. Come to find out there was a fight going on outside our room. Two old people were actually having a knock down, drag out fight," Ty said with disgust. He shook his head. "What they were fighting over I don't know but I know that old man kicked that lady's butt...and then helped her her find her cane afterward."

"It was almost time for our trip to end so Ty and I decided to just walk around and pick up some knick-knacks. We got you guys some stuff by the way. It started to rain so we sat down under an awning and just cuddled."

"I asked her if she happy."
Kaylee turned and looked at him over her shoulder. "And I told him that I'd never been happier."
Fran smacked Damon on the chest. "Hello, why have we not gone anywhere lately?"
Damon absently rubbed at his chest, as if Fran's swat had really hurt him, and frowned. "I didn't know you wanted to go anywhere!"
Fran threw up her arms. "So now I have to tell you if I want to go somewhere?"
"Yes." He paused. "No?" Damon blew out a breath. "How does Italy sound?"
Fran cocked her head. "Italy sounds wonderful."
Kaylee chuckled drawing their attention.

"So we checked out."
"This time he made me do it but the guy was still trying to talk to Ty. I couldn't believe that a week had went by so quickly."
"Neither could I. We have to go back there again. Maybe after the baby and when Gabe's older enough to enjoy it."
"And you and Fran can come Damon. We could make it a family trip."
"Sounds like a plan!"

"We were waiting on the taxi when I turned to Kaylee and told her-"
"That no matter how many times he had thought about us being married-"
"My imagination paled in comparison to the reality."
"Oh god! Tyrese, you're going to make your mother cry," Fran wailed already crying.
"Sorry mom...but it's the truth."
Damon brushed a tear from Fran's cheek. "We raised a hell of a son babe."

Kaylee looked around her to realize that while they had been talking the sun had risen and the living room was now flooded with light. She had just leaned back against Ty, the deep bass of his voice vibrated through her making her drowsy, when Fran called her name.
"Huh?"
"I said I want to see that kimono that Ty just said he got for you."
"Oh!" Getting up, with a little assistance from Ty's hand on her butt, she walked back into the bedroom to change clothes.

She tottered down the hall in the wooden sandals he had insisted on getting for her as well. No wonder when the geshia's were dressed like this they took little steps. There was no other way to walk, she thought as she held out an arm to steady herself. She could hear Ty in the kitchen, making breakfast, when she entered the living room.

"Ta-da!" She slowly twirled while Fran clasped her hands to her chest.
"You look amazing! That color really brings out the color of your eyes. You should wear colors more often than you do. Don't you think Damon?"
"Yeah, you look lovely Kaylee."
Kaylee felt herself blush. Buster barked drawing her attention. Seeing the mailman leaving she yelled that she was going to get the mail. She carefully navigated the stairs before she started to laugh. She could just imagine what she looked like.

She was still chuckling when she bent down to peer into the mailbox. She thought it was a stark change from six years ago when she used to dread opening the mailbox for fear of one more bill she couldn't pay. Letting out a happy sigh, she closed the box and turned as she flipped through the mail.

She didn't realize someone was standing there until he spoke. His voice was low and toneless.
"I believe you have something of mine."