Lin missed the tour. He missed the cast- Pippa, Jazzy, Oak, Daveed- all of them. Although he loved Vanessa and Sebastian, he was getting a little stir-crazy.

Vanessa was due in about a month, and the preparations were busier than ever. They'd made the nursery a pale purple color, and put animal art on the walls.

But the real decorations had been sent in by the tour cast over Christmas break. Pippa had sent a beautiful painting of New York City, in pastel colors. Jazzy had given Lin a giant giraffe stuffed animal that sat in the corner of the room.

Oak had sent in a teddy bear. It was pink, with fluffy fur and a smile on its face.

The ensemble had sent a stuffed animal each- so Lin had twenty or so already. It was a lot of stuffed animals. Carleigh, of course, had sent a velociraptor. He'd texted her:

Lin: you know the baby is a girl right

Carleigh: obviously yes

Lin: then why did you send a velociraptor???

Carleigh: who says girls can't like dinosaurs lin? I THOUGHT THAT MR SCHUYLER SISTERS WOULD GET IT YOU WROTE THAT GEM OF A SONG AND IT'S A GIRLY SONG

Lin: sorry sorry carleigh

Carleigh: haha it's okay, if you want i can send a unicorn with rainbow fur and sparkly eyeballs and whatnot

Lin: no, no, i'm sure the small child will like the velociraptor just fine

Carleigh: good, if she does, then you must bring the child to me so i can have her and teach her the ways of the force

Lin: no!!! she's MINE

Carleigh: SHE WILL COME TO THE DARK SIDE

Carleigh: gotta blast i have extra rehearsal cause my flight got in late rip me

Lin: have fun!!!

Lin sighed.

"Daddy, when can we see Pippa again?" Sebastian asked, poking Lin in the side. Lin clutched his chest in mock pain.

"You wounded me!" he exclaimed. "I don't know, Sebby. Maybe after the baby is born, we can go back and see them."

"But Pippa hasn't come and visited me in forever," Sebastian whined.

"I know, but she's busy right now. She has the tour to do. I'm sure when it's over, she'll come and visit for a while and you can play with her hair all you want," Lin reassured his son.

"What about Jazzy and Renee?" Sebastian demanded.

"Maybe Renee will come see you. I'll ask her, okay?"

"When?"

"Maybe in a few days."

"But I want to see her now. You always tell me you're going to take me to see Renee and Groffy and you never do because all you care about is the baby that I haven't even seen!" Sebastian shouted.

Lin's heart melted a little bit. "Sebby, that's not what I meant-"

"I just want Pippa to come back! She cares about me!"

"Sebby!"

Sebastian ran to his room and slammed the door. Vanessa popped her head into the living room.

"Is Seb acting up again?" she asked. Lin nodded. Vanessa ran a hand through her hair, looking quite frazzled.

"I feel bad, because I feel like we've been ignoring him. But it's a lot to prepare for. I didn't remember how much we had to work when Sebby was born," Vanessa said tiredly.

"Well, we didn't have another child running around the house to think about, too. Maybe Sebby's right. I'll call Renee and have her surprise him, and then we can go out on a date. That gives everyone a chance to be happy," Lin suggested. "And maybe Pippa can FaceTime him, if she's not too busy."

"That sounds heavenly," Vanessa sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~

Things were not heavenly for the tour cast. Things were going wrong. Again. Pippa felt bad for Carleigh, who seemed exhausted after her flight.

Daveed was relentlessly drilling the show with Daniel in it. He was acting like Daniel was going on in Moscow, but everyone had all agreed that Daniel would wait until Sydney.

And, per usual, the longer they rehearsed, the messier the show got. Numbers that were usually guaranteed successes weren't. Mistakes that had never been made before were made. Someone dropped the white flag in 'Yorktown', Ariana screwed up her bullet choreography, and Carleigh nearly fell off the stage.

"What is going on?!" Daveed demanded once they hit intermission.

"We're all tired, and Carleigh's running on three hours of sleep, practically," Jessa called. "Over- rehearsing is just as bad as not rehearsing enough."

"Agreed," Brett said. "Rehearsing badly shouldn't be counted as rehearsing at all. Let everyone take a break. This isn't helping."

Daveed sighed deeply.

"Alright. Fine. You have the rest of the day off."

~~~~~~~~~~

ah yes my favorite carleigh and her velociraptors