Chapter 276:

Urs and Alex entered the office and after checking in, they waited to be called. Today Aaron was going to be evaluated to see how his muscles were doing and they would come up with a formal therapy plan for him that they would begin sometime shortly after the New Year.

Urs was holding Aaron and the baby was chewing his fingers and hand.Drool was running down his fist all the way to his elbow. Alex saw it and reached in the diaper bag to get a burp rag to wipe it off before it rolled onto Urs.

Alex was surprised at how well Urs actually handled those types of things. Some men were totally grossed out by drool and spit up. Urs didn't love it but he handled it calmly enough and seemed to have a strong stomach, and that comes in handy when you have a baby.

"Aaron Buhler?"

"Yes, we're right here." Alex answered as they stood and followed the nurse.

They spent almost the next hour just sitting and watching while the doctor worked Aaron from head to toe, making notes about his physical state and in particular the condition of each of his muscular groups. He made note of what he felt Aaron would need in the near future to keep his current mobility and to encourage the strengthening of his muscles over time.

It would be several years before they would know if Aaron would ever be able to control his bladder, which was one of the common concerns in children with Spina Bifida.

Eventually the doctor allowed Alex to come and get Aaron dressed and then he asked them to come sit in his office so he could give them his recommendations.

"Aaron does have some mild weakness and some tightening in different muscles. I have the name of a wonderful pediatric therapist. When you get home, call them and set up an appointment to begin Aaron's therapy. I'll fax them my report and I'm sure they will end up doing their own evaluation on his first appointment. They are great at what they do and I have seen children that I didn't think would ever be able to walk come running into my office years later."

"Do you think Aaron will be able to walk?" Alex asked.

"I've learned not to make any definite predictions. But I think with good therapy, Aaron has an excellent chance of walking. His defect was quite mild and the damage was minimal."

It was both encouraging and at the same time a bit frustrating to hear the doctor's words. Alex was happy that things didn't seem to be too bad for Aaron but she wanted a concrete answer. She understood that without a crystal ball, the doctor couldn't see into Aaron's future and give them the answers they wanted.

Once they were home, Alex fed Aaron, then Urs changed his diaper and put him in for his nap. Then he and Alex sat down and had their lunch.

"What do you think of what the doctor said today?" she asked him.

"I thought it was good. We knew to expect him to need some therapy. So there was no surprise there. We'll do whatever we need to to make him as strong as he can be.... What about you? I know you hoped to go in and find out he had no problems at all. I did too but realistically I think he's doing great considering how things could have turned out."

"I know. I just wished for an answer to my questions, answers that cannot be given right now. I'll just have to learn to be patient."

"Can I talk you into going upstairs for a nap?"

"I'm not tired." she said, totally missing the glint in his eyes because her mind was still wandering.

"Me neither. I actually didn't have sleeping on my mind."

Alex finally understood what Urs was saying. She smiled at him and put her hand in his outstretched one, letting him lead her upstairs.

He could feel the tension in her body as he touched her and he wanted to help her relax.

Slowly he kissed her face in featherlite kisses as his hands roamed over her body, just barely touching her. He kept looking at her face, watching for the softening of her features that would signal that she was letting go of the worries of Aaron's future and was getting lost in the tidal wave of emotion and passion that was always unleashed when they made love.

She was standing there totally enjoying Urs's attentions and began returning his kisses and slid her hands up under his shirt, loving the feel of his warm skin on her hands. She saw his smile of satisfaction at having succeeded in distracting her from her thoughts.

"Let me love you Liebe. We have plenty of time to worry about Aaron. Let's take advantage of his nap." he whispered in her ear.

No words were necessary as she took his hand and led him to their bed. They loved each other until they were both satisfied and worn out, then dozed until Aaron woke from his nap, looking for attention.

*

That evening, Urs sat in front of their Christmas tree with Aaron in his lap. They'd begun placing some of their wrapped gifts under their tree after Seb, Lisa and the children had left for Paris.

Aaron had been mesmerized by the blinking lights since they had put the tree up a week ago. Urs spun some of the round ornaments so they would catch the lights and Aaron's attention. He began to kick his feet and his arm were stretching out like he was trying to reach for the brightly colored ornaments.

"Next year, we might be having to keep him away from the tree." Alex said coming and sitting behind Urs, massaging his shoulders and kissing the bare skin on his neck.

Urs laid the baby on the carpet and stretched out along side of him and Alex followed laying on the other side of Aaron so he was sandwiched between his parents.

"Couldn't you just lay here and look at him all day? He's so perfect." Urs said as he ran his fingers through his son's hair.

"He is perfect. Mami was right you know. He looks exactly like you."

"I see the resemblance but I also see you when I look at him."

The doorbell rang, causing the dogs to bark which startled Aaron and made him cry. Urs shushed the dogs and hopped up to see who was here while Alex calmed the baby.

Urs opened the door and his mouth dropped open in shock.

Without a word, he drew his mother into his arms and hugged her until she had to make him loosen his grip.

"Sorry Mami."

He took her hand and led her into the living room where they had been relaxing.

"MAMI!! What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming back until after the New Year." Alex said as surprised as Urs was to see her here and with no word ahead of time.

"I hope it was alright just coming like this. I couldn't stay away and miss his first Christmas. I was on a flight as soon as I made my decision to come." she said looking down on her Grandson who had grown so much in the short time she'd been gone.

"Of course it's alright. We've missed you." Alex told her and hugged her just as tight as Urs had.

Urs lifted Aaron off of the floor and handed him over, knowing that he would have two women to compete with now to get his time with Aaron. He smiled as he watched his mother hug Aaron and then she went to sit on the sofa with him just as there was another knock on the door.

"Did you bring someone else with you Mami?" Urs asked her.

"Oh No! The cab driver has been waiting out there with my luggage." she said having totally forgotten the man.

"I'll take care of it. You just keep spoiling my son." Urs chuckled.

"He looks wonderful, Alex and he's grown so much already."

"The doctor is very happy with his growth over the last couple of months."

They discussed his therapy that would begin in a matter of weeks. Urs came back with tea for all of them.

"Mami, I'm so glad you're here. Christmas wouldn't have been the same without you."

"I'm going to have to start rotating where I spend Christmas unless I can get all of you children to come to me so we can spend it all together."

"We'll have to discuss that. I know you want to be with all of the Grandchildren at Christmas."

"Yes, but I haven't missed the first Christmas of any of my Grandchildren and I wasn't going to miss his." she said as she played with Aaron.

After Alex fed him his last meal of the night, she handed him to Mami who burped him and took him up to change him into a dry diaper and his pajamas.

"You didn't mind her just showing up unannounced like that did you?" Urs asked her later as they prepared for bed.

"No, it was a wonderful surprise. Besides, with Seb and Lisa gone for the Holidays, it would have been a bit lonely. Mami being here will help to remedy that. Mom will love it too. They get along great."

*

The next couple of days after the trip to Santa's Village were pretty cold, especially for Lisa and the children who weren't used to the cold. So they stayed at home, taking the children outside for short periods to let them run off some energy. In the house, Seb and Lisa worked on making a couple of the rooms more child friendly, moving breakables to other rooms and letting them unload their toys in the cabinets.

Marlene spent a lot of time at the house visiting and helping with the children. Sammy was working hard at trying to talk her into coming home with them when they went home to Florida.

Seb did have to be on the phone a bit as they organized dates for the promotion of The Promise which by all reports was selling very well in dozens of countries. He would be heading back out less than a week after their return to Florida. They had signings, TV and radio shows as well as a couple of mini concerts to promote their upcoming tour.

When he came to sit next to Lisa on the sofa, he sighed loud enough to get her attention.

"Is something wrong?"

"No I can just see that we are going to be spending a lot of time apart over the next year, more than a year actually. We've got to figure out a way for you to travel with me at least some time. Maybe rotate which children come along on a certain leg. I know it would be a lot to bring them all at once."

"Maybe we could bring the older children on some of the legs during school vacations and the younger ones in between."

"That sounds good. We'll start discussing the specifics when we have the actual tour schedule. I just know I can't be without you for almost a year and I know that we won't have too many long breaks for me to come home. But I will as often as it is possible."

"Seb, I have a bit of shopping I'd like to do. Is there somewhere close by that we could go tomorrow?"

"Sure. We can go to the Christmas Market. They have just about everything you could want. Also a lot of unusual gifts."

Seb spoke to Maman to see if she would stay with the children the following day so he and Lisa could go to the Market alone. The children wouldn't have fun there, just getting bored as they walked through the market stalls. She agreed that that wouldn't be good to take all of them there and said she'd love to stay with the children.

Grandmere wound up with reinforcements the following day when Aunt Cecile popped over to visit just as Seb and Lisa were leaving for the market.

Seb noticed Lisa's silly grin as he helped her into his car.

"And just what are you grinning at?"

"I was just thinking that since Aunt Cecile is here, that means that Adrienne and Donovan are getting some time alone. I'm sure Aunt Cecile watches them like a hawk when she's there."

"Yes, I'm quite sure she does. We'll just have to take our time then won't we." he said with a conspiratorial wink.

Seb parked near the entrance to the market and they spent the afternoon slowly making their way from one section to the next. Mostly just looking, but occasionally finding a gift for someone or some trinket that Lisa wanted to bring home to remind her of their Christmas in Paris.

The market was beautifully decorated to help promote the Christmas atmosphere. The shopkeepers hoped that this would translate into abundant sales for them as people walked through, seeing the decorations and hearing the holiday music being piped through the market.

When they'd been walking for a while, they stopped and took a break for a snack. Seb introduced Lisa to one of his Christmas traditions, vin chaud, a cinnamon infused hot wine. They sat for a while sipping their wine and watching the many people that were also in the market.

It was inevitable that Seb would be recognised. Several times as they moved through the market they noticed people looking at them and Seb would just smile and wrap his arm around Lisa and continue walking, hoping that people would leave them to their shopping and their precious time alone.

For the most part, they did but there were a couple of times when fans did approach and ask for a photo or for him to sign something.

"It's alright Seb. I don't mind. It's part of your job. They've been very respectful, just taking a moment of your time then leaving us to go on."

"I know. I guess I'm just being a bit selfish. I just want you all to myself today." he said and kissed her temple as they kept walking and enjoyed the rest of their day looking for treasures, capping it off with an early dinner before they headed home.