At Your Service ✓

[Chapter Seventy-Four] Shawn

Chapter Seventy-Four - Shawn

It was nice coming home, to our home. I had officially been moved off base and out of my apartment and Mari was now officially out of hers. This was our home together and it was the first time we were going to be here together.

We went upstairs and I showed her the house now that it was all finished and she held Collin as I showed her the nursery. Her eyes welled with tears as she looked at it.

The room had all dark furniture, the crib, changing table and dresser all went together and I made sure there was a rocking chair in there as well with an elephant theme to it like she wanted.

"I love it." she said as she went to the crib to set the sleeping baby down, he looked perfect in here. I grabbed a baby monitor and we finished walking through the house, Lalexia loved her new room and it was of course a rainbow with a cloth canopy thing on it that went around her whole bed.

I let her pick anything she wanted for her room and I had it painted however she wanted as well. I just wanted it to be a house they could feel comfortable in.

Mari loved the master and Lex was in the living room playing when we got back to that area.

"So what do you think?" I asked her and she kissed me briefly

"I loved it, especially the bed." She sighed and I held her because she really did look so tired. I felt horrible because I felt like we were ignoring Lalexia these past few days but my mother kept telling me that it was fine, Mari giving birth and being in the hospital was boring to a child and Mari was still adjusting to having people around to help, she's not used to not having her so much.

My mother was more than willing to steal her.

"Mommy are you okay?" Lex asked her and she kneeled down wincing a little

"Of course baby, mommy's just tired." It really did show the more you looked at her, there wasn't much life In her eyes and there were dark circles.

"Alright, you in bed." I said and she yawned as she nodded, I loved that she didn't even hesitate to go up there. Lex gave her a hug and kiss as did I and she went to our new room to sleep.

She wasn't worrying if I could handle the kids because they were ours now, not hers. It meant a lot that she had trusted me in this way, I knew that Lex was the hardest thing for her to open up about but now I had no doubt that I would eventually get the equal rights to her.

There was still her slowly backing off of things and going from the protective mom mode that didn't allow anyone near her to me being her husband and her needing too and I think with Collin here it will help all of that.

"Can we go see Collin?" Lalexia asked and I nodded, I grabbed her hand and we walked to the nursery

"You have to be really quiet though, he's sleeping." I told her and I picked her up to see better in the crib, I knew she was eight and could look in herself but I didn't want her to grow up.

She looked down at him and when he started fussing it was like a creepy mom thing, Mari came in and smile as she took him to our room simply saying he needed to be fed and then she kept him in the bassinette next to the bed so she could feed him every two hours.

It was like this for a few days and I felt bad because it's not like I could feed him since we weren't going to use formula so it was on Mari to get up with him for now so I made sure she had nothing to worry about with Lex.

After about a week she was doing a lot better, she looked less tired and she could move around easier without as much pain, she wasn't even phased when I came into the kitchen one morning, she had Lex sitting at the table and held Collin as she cooked breakfast, I don't know how she did it.

It was like she was made to be a mom, she made it look so easy but she assured me it would get harder when Collin got a couple months older and Lex was at home all day during the summer, I think we were settling in quiet well though to everything.

I wasn't a fan of diapers though, I've never had to change one until now and she refused to be the only one to do it. we started letting people over and after they got the okay it was like the just stormed the place, everyone was here all the time, so much that Mari had to start telling people they couldn't hold him because she missed him, she didn't even want me to, she just wanted to hold him all the time but Nick said Steph was the same way so I was going with it.

We were very attentive to Lalexia and she didn't seem to be bothered in the least that our attention was now split between them; she absolutely loved to sit there and watch him sleep or to rub his head. It was sweet seeing them together.

"Ready for baby number three?" I asked her and she glared at me as she kept an eye on the kids, it helped that my friends had someone the same age so she had a friend to play with when they all came over.

I kept a real close eye on that one.

N.J was the same age and when school started again they would be going to school together and unless Nick and I got transferred to separate units, they would always grow up together, he better keep his damn hands to himself.

"If you mention another child again I'm going to castrate you."

"Wow, brutal." I was a little taken back by her words.

"You try pushing out a child from your."

"Okay, I get it. I love you." I wrapped my arms around her and she just went with it, we were going to have another baby though, I know that we had to be more careful next time but the doctor said it was very possible to have more children.

"Love you too." She mumbled.

I thought back to the first time she said it and I smiled and then I thought back to when I first met her. I couldn't believe that things went this way; I thought she would be sex for a few months and I would move on with my life miserable.

I didn't realize how much I hated myself at the time and I'm amazed that she's still with me after how I treated her and I knew I would never do that again and I would never hurt her in the ways that I did before. She understood it and I hated that at the time but I loved it now. I could talk to her about anything and the nightmares stopped.

She made me happier than I could have ever imagined, it was funny to think back to her polite manner the first time I met her and I would have never imagined that it would be the first time I was meeting my wife, if you would have told me then that I would have been married with a baby and adopted a child I would have laughed.

It wasn't who I was, I didn't like people but now I'm surrounded by all the people I love in this world and I knew that making a phone call to that agency was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

We worked well together, shared our demons and moved past them together, she was a pain in the ass and stubborn but I wouldn't want her any other way. I annoyed her and made her want to kill me but she was like my best friend. Even if she was ready to kill me, if I needed her she would drop everything to be there, she would let go of her anger to be supportive.

It was why I loved her, sure she's made some big mistakes but I don't think the ones I made were any better, I forgave her and she forgave me and it was in the past. I knew that we would be able to work though anything because of everything we've already been through.

I knew we would be able to get through year-long deployments, I also knew it would make Lex and N.J closer as well as Steph, Reine and Mari. No one would ever replace Marla but I think those girls will grow to be just as close over the years.

Life wasn't perfect by any means but it was my kind of perfect; complicated and unpredictable, frustrating and amazing, irritating and full of love. It would be filled with a lot more ups and downs but I was ready for anything as long as I had my family and friends.

Life felt open and free for the first time and not just like an endless death sentence.

I sat on the couch that night with my wife leaning against me holding our son and my daughter on my other side as I fully admit I was the one to talk them into watching How To Train Your Dragon. Everything was the perfect definition of perfection, at least for the moment.

And that was the last chapter of their story together, there is no sequel but there will be an Epilogue, not going to lie, this makes my heart hurt a little. I love Shawn and Mari.