Chapter 282:

The airport van pulled up in front of the house, immediately spilling out most of it's passengers. Some were moving slower than others. The three adults, Seb, Lisa and Maman, who had accompanied them home, were all very ready for a long nap.

On top of having the babies to look after on the flights, Sammy who had had an uneventful flight over to Paris, had felt ill periodically on the flights home. They weren't sure yet if it was air sickness or some bug he was coming down with. But now that they were on the ground, he seemed fine.

It was late afternoon and all of the children had slept enough in the air that all they wanted was to run around now that they weren't confined to their seats, all except for Kayti who was sound asleep.

Jim waited for Jeremy, Holly and Sammy to jump down, then he unbuckled Kayti and carried her inside, stopping in the foyer so that Mary could kiss her cheek and then carried her straight up to bed. Lisa said she would just let her take a short nap so they could all sleep tonight.

“Oh Lisa, You have no idea just how much I missed all of you.” Mary said while hugging the life out of Lisa.

“We all missed you too Mary. Kayti kept asking when you were going to come to Paris and cook her breakfast.” I guess you do a better job than the rest of us.” Lisa chuckled.

Lisa fed Jessica and Mary gave Lauren some dinner while Seb and Jim got all of the luggage put into the correct rooms to be unpacked later. Tales of all they had done over the Christmas holiday were traded between Seb and Lisa, Jim and Mary.

Lisa told them about the renovations being completed at The Bastille and that it would be opening back up in a few days.

“I've got so many pictures from our holiday and some videos too. The children all seemed to love Paris and enjoyed all of the attention they got from all of Seb's family and friends. We had so many offers to watch them and take them places that the last few days we were there, we hardly saw them. But it did give us the chance to have some time alone and Seb took me to some of his favorite spots. We didn't stray too far from Paris this time but I do hope we can see some more of the country when we go back.”

“Yes, next time we'll plan on another trip like on our honeymoon where we can do more exploring” Seb agreed.

“I guess we'll need to set a time to go do some grocery shopping, since we've been gone so long.”

“No, Debbie, Hannah and I went this morning. You'll just need to take a look through and see if we missed something you wanted.”

“Oh Thank you. Grocery shopping is the last thing I feel like doing right now. How is Debbie? Is she still feeling ill?”

“No she said she's feeling really good now. She's been to the doctor and everything looks great.They're just going to watch her because of her age. She's considered in the advanced age for being pregnant. But she's perfectly healthy right now.” Jim answered.

“Ok Good. Well, I think I'm going to run over and say hello. I'll be back in a bit.” Lisa said, taking Jessica with her.

Debbie hollered for her to come in when Lisa knocked. She was in the middle of preparing their dinner. When she saw Lisa and Jessica she quickly wiped her hands on the tea towel that was sitting on the counter.

“Hi, I am so glad you're back.” Debbie said. At the same time she was whisking Jessica out of Lisa's arms and giving the baby a squeeze. Then she reached an arm around Lisa and hugged her too.

“The boys are so glad to have the kids back. We went a few places including the beach a few times while you were gone to keep them busy over their school vacation but still all they kept saying was how glad they would be when you all came home.”

Just as Debbie said that the front door slammed open and all four boys and Holly came crashing into the house like there was an emergency. They all looked out of breath, chests heaving and were looking intently at their mothers.

“What's wrong? Is someone hurt?” Lisa asked the obviously aggitated children.

“No, Dad and Mr. Seb said that we could turn on the snow machine if it was alright with both of you.” Brandon got out through heaving breaths.

Lisa was trying hard to decide whether to laugh or get upset with the children for scaring the life out of her. They all looked so serious, obviously each one was hoping that their mothers would say yes, but afraid they'd say no.

Lisa looked to Debbie with the unspoken question. She wouldn't say yes if Debbie didn't want the boys getting all messy right now, because they inevitably would. As the snow melted around the edges, the ground became a mud puddle which the children loved to get into almost as much as the snow itself.

“It's fine with me.” Debbie said.

Blake and Brandon began jumping up and down.

“Wait just a minute. Lisa hasn't answered yet.”

Every one of the children's faces fell. They were just sure that she would say no and it would ruin their plans.

“Yes, you may go play in the snow for a while. But when we say it's time for dinner, either one of us, there will be no arguing about coming inside and getting cleaned up or it won't come out again for a while.”

“We won't Mama, I promise.” Jeremy said and looked at the other children to make sure they agreed. They all shook their heads yes that they understood before Lisa shooed them all outside and watched them all run screaming across the yard to their fathers, telling them that their Mom's said it was okay.

She laughed at their excitement as they almost tackled Seb and Jim. Seb looked over to the doorway and Lisa nodded her head to let him know it was indeed alright.

“You know, leave it to the men to put it on us to give the answer to that. If we had said no, we would have been the bad guys.” Debbie said trying to look irritated but not quite succeeding.

“I know but it is better in the long run isn't it. The guys would let the children do whatever they wanted.” Lisa chuckled.

“Hmmm yes, I suppose you're right. I guess we should leave things as they are.”

“Where's Hannah?”

“She's going to spend the night at Jenny's. We dropped her off on the way home from the store this morning.”

“Oh yes, thank you for going with Mary to get the shopping done. I was glad to know I didn't have to think about that for a few days.”

*

Later that evening after the children had come in and gotten baths and dinner, the older children were up in their rooms unpacking their bags. Some of their Christmas gifts were being shipped back and they had not arrived yet. Lisa gave Mom a quick call to let her know they were home. Mom said they'd come by tomorrow after they'd gotten settled. Alex wasn't home when she called so she just left her a message to call when she could.

Seb came into the bedroom where Lisa was unpacking their bags. He watched her from just inside the doorway and then he came up behind her and reached around her, taking the stack of clothes out of her hands.

“Hey, what are you doing? I'm trying to unpack.” she asked and turned to poke him in the ribs.

He tossed the clothes back into the open suitcase and pulled her against him.

“I need some attention. We haven't had a minute since we left Paris.”

“That is quite a job, travelling with all of the children. But I am so glad that we went Seb. It was a wonderful trip and the children that are old enough will remember this Christmas for the rest of their lives. I know I will.” She said as she hugged him and kept her head pressed against his chest.

He held her tightly against him and stroked her back, just enjoying the few minutes of closeness before they would be interupted. In the end, he wound up helping her to get everything put away and then took the empty suitcases to the hallway to line them up with the rest. They would all be put in the attic tomorrow, except for his which was left in their walk in closet, a rather unwelcome reminder that soon he would have to leave his family for a while.

Tomorrow he and the other three guys would be meeting here in the office with David on video conference since he and Grace were still in Colorado. They would be discussing some of the important issues that stilll needed to be resolved before the tour began.

The next day when Carlos and Urs arrived they were not alone. Lisa had called Alex and Vicki and told them to come and bring the kids and they would all just have dinner together there. Then the guys wouldn't have to feel guilty about being away all day. They could take breaks and get a snack, a drink or a kiss and then go back into their meetings and the girls would be able to catch up on everything that had gone on in the past couple of weeks.

As soon as their car came to a stop and Carlos had her unbuckled, Amelia jumped out of the car and ran to Lisa and then Seb for a big hug and kiss. Then she ran to join all the kids who were outside playing and being looked after by Debbie and Grandmere..

“She looks great!” Lisa said to Carlos and Vicki who were both watching until she had let herself into the play area and made sure the gate was closed as she had been taught. They both turned and beamed at Lisa, with happiness and pride.

“She seems happy.” Lisa said.

“Congratulations, both of you. We know that she belongs with you.” Seb said

“She has since the first day she was here and she stood there looking up into your eyes.” Lisa said to Carlos.

“We just hoped that it was alright with both of you. We know you got attached to her too.”

“Carlos, we love her. We always will but as long as we know she is happy and loved, and that we will get to see her, she's right where she should be.

Carlos wrapped Lisa in a very long hug. When Lisa pulled away she could see the tears he was trying to hide.

“You don't have to hide them from me. I know you love her.” Lisa whispered in his ear as they headed for the house.

On their way inside, they discussed taking the rest of Amelia's personal belongings when they left this evening. Also, Lisa thought to herself that now that it was confirmed that Amelia would be a Marin, she and Seb would need to sit down and tell their children.

They hadn't quite made it inside when Alex and Urs came. Alex left Urs to get Aaron while she ran up to hug Lisa. There hadn't been too many times since they were teenagers that they spent more than a couple of days without seeing each other, so these couple of weeks apart was a lot.

The girls took all four babies into the infant playroom and put them on the floor. Lisa kept Jessica close to her. She wasn't as mobile as Lauren or even Carlito and Aaron who had been rolling around everywhere and was trying to get up on his hands and knees from time to time.

Lauren was really too big to be in there playing with the little ones but since they were all right there to watch her she'd be alright. She hadn't exactly learned how to be gentle when patting the babies and when she wanted something, she would grab it away.

When Mom and Dad arrived, Alex went to help Mom and Mary in the kitchen. Lisa was going to go but Alex insisted that she stay with the babies and Vicki and relax. She knew how tiring a long flight could be and couldn't even begin to imagine flying with six children.It made her tired just thinking about it, she said.

It took some doing, but they finally dragged the guys into the house for dinner. They had gone to the music building where they could talk uninterupted and have their conference call with David.

As always when they were all together, it was a noisy and chaotic affair, but filled with laughter and several different conversations going on at once. Seb and Lisa had gotten some folding tables to have enough seating for everyone including the children. It wasn't always practical to get them fed before the adults.

“So when do you boys hit the road?”

Up until this point, the volume in the room had been rather loud. But as soon as Dad asked that question, it went silent except for the children.

Marie could tell this was a subject the guys, and much less the girls, hadn't wanted to broach tonight and her eyes shot daggers at Dan for not picking up on those signals himself.

“What? It was just a question.” he said looking around, trying to figure out what he'd done wrong.

“It's alright, Dad.” Urs told him and gave a smile to Mom. “We have to go meet with David in London in three days. We'll be doing promotions for the CD and tour almost right up until the third week in February when we start the tour. We're trying to make sure that we all have at least a few days to come home before the tour starts, but we can't guarantee that yet, probably not until right up until that week.”

The conversations slowly got going again and the sad looks that Mom saw on her girls faces faded as they were distracted by the children.