Since it took so long to get your original surprise up, have another one SACarter :)

Chapter Quote:
"Our children can be our greatest teachers if we are humble enough to receive their lessons."
~Bryan McGill
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Chapter 20: Advena

Abigail

I was in bed reading my book, trying to take my mind off my argument with Grey, when Giselle knocked on my door with Ella by her side. I greeted with them with a smile and said, "Hey, what's up?"

"Ella wanted to talk to you and say goodnight," Giselle responded.

"Of course! Come on over!" I insisted, setting down my book while Ella leapt onto the bed. Her mom said she was going to go downstairs for a few minutes but that she'd be back, leaving me all alone with Ella.

"Did you enjoy your birthday?" I asked.

"Yeah! I love Grey! We share the same birthday. I'm so lucky," Ella chirped, causing me to smile. "You're luckier. You're with him all the time."

I flashed back to my conversation with Grey earlier, and how at some point in the near future, I wouldn't be with him all the time. There was also the possibility that I may never be with him again in the future, and for reasons not of my choosing... but this wasn't the time to think about that. My focus was purely on Ella.

"What was your favorite part about today?" I queried.

"Being with Grey! And surprising him. And the cake. And the presents."

I laughed. "So all of it then?"

"Yeah, all of it." Ella stared at me. "When are you two gonna get married?"

I was really glad I wasn't drinking anything at the moment or I probably would've choked again. "Oh, uh, well he would need to ask me to marry him first."

"Why hasn't he?"

"I don't know. There could be a lot of reasons. Maybe he's not ready for marriage. Maybe he thinks I'm not ready for marriage."

"But why wouldn't he be ready? Or you?"

"Again, there could be a lot of reasons. People sometimes aren't emotionally ready, physically ready, fiscally ready."

"Fishily?"

"Fiscally. It means they may not have enough money to get married."

"Oooh. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. But I don't know if he is. You'd have to ask him that."

"I like you. You make him happy."

"I do?"

"Yeah! He kept talking about you. And he watches you all the time."

"You're a very observant four-year-old, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Mom says it all the time. She says I make Santa's job hard. The Easter Bunny's too. And the Tooth Fairy's. I don't know why I do that, but I do."

I couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. I'm sure Ella did make it hard to hide things from. "Those three rely on secrecy to do their job. With how observant you are, I see how you could make things difficult. But that's a good thing, to be that observant. It means not much gets by you."

"Are you like that?"

"I'd like to think I am. But I've been trained to be like that. It's part of my job."

"You're a psychoist right?"

"Close. I'm a psychologist." Ella sounded out the word a few times before asking for an explanation about what my job was. I had a feeling this conversation was going to be a long one, but I didn't mind. I loved talking to this inquisitive mind.

"What has she roped you into explaining?" Giselle questioned from my doorway.

"My job."

"Mommy, I wanna be a psychologist when I'm older! So I can help people like Abigail!" Ella stated happily.

"We can start on that tomorrow. For now, it's time to go say good night to Grey and then it's bed time."

"But mommy-"

"No 'buts', Ella. Let's go. Abigail and Grey will still be here tomorrow. Say goodnight."

"Goodnight, Abigail," Ella said sadly, giving me a hug.

"Goodnight, Miss Ella. I'll see you tomorrow. Hey, why don't you, Grey, mommy, and I go on a horseback ride tomorrow if the weather allows?"

"Yeah! Can we mommy? Can we?" Ella begged.

"I don't see why not. But I'll only let you if you listen to me."

"Bye Abigail!" Ella leapt off my bed, tearing down the stairs to go see Grey.

"That was an inhuman speed," I noted in amusement.

"Oh you should see her when she hears the word 'ice cream'. I think Grey and Duke are the only ones who compete with it."

"How are you doing, Giselle? I know it's not my place to ask but-"

She smiled at me. "You're a psychologist, it's in your nature. You're also a nice person. When you ask, I can tell you're asking out of genuine concern rather than because you're doing something out of habit."

"Then you know I can also tell you're dodging."

"Yeah... I'm hanging in there. Ella keeps me preoccupied, making sure she's okay. She's handled this really well. I think seeing Grey helped her immensely. If she had lost the both of them, I don't think she'd be doing as well as she is. Hell, I wouldn't be doing as well as I am if Grey was gone too. He's like a brother to me. And it makes me happy to see how well he's doing. What he went through... I can't imagine it. Knowing he has this amazing family and incredible girlfriend to support him, it means the world to me. Enough of my rambling though, I'll leave you be with your book. I know how I used to get when people would interrupt me when I was reading. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow. And Giselle, if you ever need anyone to talk to about things, I know you haven't known me long, but I'm here for you too," I offered kindly.

"Thank you. I might just take you up on that." Bidding each other good night, I went back to my book while she went downstairs to put Ella to bed.

Well, I tried to go back to my book. I couldn't truly focus on it. My mind kept replaying the argument with Grey. Deep down, I knew I was being selfish in wanting him to stay. I feared if I let him go back in the field, he wouldn't come back to me. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't, but it was the chance that he might not that was causing me to throw a fit about him leaving.

On the other hand, I knew he wanted to do this, that he had to do this. For him. He was married to being a Marine as all others like him were. Chris had been the same way. Who was I to stop him from doing what he needed to do? What kind of person would I be?

However, I still couldn't rationalize myself into thinking that way. It would take a bit. Shutting off my lamp, I rolled over and shut my eyes, praying I'd be able to fall asleep easily.
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Grey

After Giselle had taken Ella and put her to bed, I remained downstairs on the couch. I was pretty sure I was the last person Abigail wanted to see right now. Besides, there were more than a few people that had been following me all day, waiting for the others to disappear so they could talk to me.

"I swear to god Ella could see me," Frank remarked. He took a seat on the armchair. Daryl and Micah took residence on the arms. Tyler sat in front of the fireplace, flanked by a standing Mitchell and Michael. Chris sat next to me. Christian took the loveseat.

"She didn't say anything to you," Micah pointed out.

"She was too busy talking to the love of her life," Michael joked, nodding his head towards me.

"Who wouldn't love that face?" Chris grinned. "He has the face of an angel."

"Yeah, but has the mouth of a toilet," Mitchell snorted.

"You mean because he's full of shit?" Tyler suggested.

"Only when he's telling everyone he's okay."

"Did y'all come here just to pick on me?" I asked quietly. People were still up, and I didn't want to have them hear me talking to myself.

"That, and we wanted to wish you happy birthday," Chris said. Suddenly all my comrades started singing 'happy birthday' at the top of their lungs. I was eternally grateful the others in the house weren't subjected to their boisterous antics. But despite that, it still made me smile. I knew none of this was real. Not truly anyway, but it felt good to have them by me again.

"Thanks, brothers," I said. "I appreciate it."

"So why are you down here and not with Abigail?" Christian asked.

I glared at him. "I know you know why."

"Believe it or not, we don't spy on you twenty-four-seven. But yeah, I know."

"She found out you're planning on going back, didn't she?" Daryl mused.

"Yeah... didn't take it well."

"We can tell. You're designated to the couch," Micah observed.

"She didn't tell me to. I just feel it's better if she has her space tonight."

"Dude, if you're not told to sleep on the couch, then go to bed. Trust me, don't punish yourself if you don't need to," Frank said.

"I don't need to have a significant other to know that he's right," Mitchell agreed.

"I agree, and- wait, quiet," Chris ordered. We all fell silent, listening for what our comrade heard. It was soft, almost imperceptible, but I could just make out the sound of feet padding down the stairs.

"Grey?" Ella's voice piped up from the entryway to the living room.

"Hey kiddo, what are you doing up?" I queried, noticing my comrades vanishing from view. I forced my eyes to stay focused on Ella so as not to make her wonder what I was looking at.

"I couldn't sleep. Who... who are these people with you?"

"What people?" I glanced around, making sure my comrades really weren't there. From what I could see, they were still gone.

"There's eight guys. You don't see them?"

"No, I don't. What do they look like? And where are they?"

"There's one next to you. Blonde, big... he looks like Abigail." Well that had to be Chris...

"And the others?"

"There's three on the arm chair. A bald guy, but he's really funny. He's playing peek-a-boo with me," Ella giggled. She was most certainly referring to Frank. "There's two older men, bald too, and really nice. There's one on that couch for two people. He's got black hair and blue eyes. There's three in front of the fire. Two are standing. One is short, brown hair, blue eyes. The other is tall, blonde, blue eyes. The one that's sitting is blonde, and has green eyes. He's cute."

Ella blushed and she smiled at who I could only figure to be Tyler. Kids, no matter what age, had always been drawn to him.

"Grey, what does 'smitten' mean?" Ella queried. "The tall blonde next to him said I was smitten with the guy sitting down."

"Smitten means you really like someone. Like I'm smitten with Abigail. I'm smitten with you, too. You can be smitten in different ways. You're like a daughter to me. Abigail is my girlfriend, and I'm madly in love with her."

"You gonna marry her?"

"I want to," I said truthfully.

"You should ask her!"

"I don't know if she's ready to marry yet."

"She is! She told me!"

"She what?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

"We talked. I asked her if she'd marry you. She said she was ready. She said she didn't know if you were. The guy next to you has a really big smile on his face."

"Does he now?" I glanced over to my right where Chris had been sitting. I still couldn't see him, but I had no doubt that Ella was seeing him. "What else did she say?"

"That was all. We talked about her job and how observant I was. I want to be a psychologist when I grow up!" Ella declared with a determined smile. "I'm gonna help people."

"Psychologist. That's a big word. Did Abigail teach you that?"

"Yeah! She also taught me 'fiscally'. There's a lot of words I need to learn."

I laughed. "I'm sure you'll have no problem learning them. But, to make sure you retain all that information, you need some sleep. You got to get to bed, kiddo."

"No... I don't want to stay in that room. There's a strange guy in there."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded, trying to sound calm even though I was anything but. She was staying in Chris's room, but I couldn't think of any guy other than Chris that would be in that room. "What does he look like?"

"Tall, black hair, blue eyes. He's been here all day, but no one talked to him. He's just watching everything. I don't know him though."

"Do you want me to take you up to bed?"

"No, it's okay. Chris just said he'd take me."

"Chris?"

"The guy sitting next to you."

"Are you sure you don't want me to go up with you?"

"I'm sure! Chris wants you to stay down here for a little bit longer. Goodnight Grey!" Ella waved goodbye and headed up the stairs. Suddenly I could see Chris right behind her, a focused look in his eye. I had a feeling that whoever she was describing, he knew who it was.

"She's a cute kid," Michael said when they were gone.

"Yeah. She's just like Duke," I said. "Why couldn't I see you?"

"We didn't want you lying to her, so we made ourselves only visible to her," Daryl replied.

"I think I'm smitten with her too," Tyler admitted. "I'd die for that girl."

"You're already dead," Mitchell said.

"Hypothetically. So who do you think that person is upstairs?"

"No idea," I answered. "But I guess we'll find out when Chris comes back."
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