New Life, New Memories

9. Welcome Home

Riker's POV:

It's here. It's finally here. Today. Today. Today's the day I've been waiting for, for the past 2 and a half months. I finally get to have my baby girls with me. No vists. No giving them back after 2 hours. No goodbyes. No tears. From now on they're mine. From now on they'll rely on me. From now on and forever they'll be my princess's. They'll be daddy's little girls. Just this once I wish time would move faster so that I can have my girls in my arms. The first of many times, but never going to be the last. It is 9:05 a.m. and they arrive at 9:30 a.m. and I have to be at rehearsals for 10:15 a.m. Gosh all this waiting was beginning to make me super excited, but impatient at the same time. To ease my emotions I decided to make sure I had a diaper bag packed and full of all the essentials that I would need. I walked up the stairs to the extra bedroom, which is now Kinley and Kenzie's room to load my bag with diapers, wipes, extra pants, sweaters, and socks. I then left their room to go back downstairs into the kitchen where I took two small containers and filled them with Goldfish crackers and stuck those too in the bag. Next I got their cups ready, but I made 2 for each of them. One with water and the other with watered down apple juice. I placed those in the bag just as my door bell rang. I nearly pooped my pants from excitement. As I walked to the door I did a little hop skip thing to show how ecstatic I was at the moment. I opened the door to reveal my girlfriend Vanni. It kinda made me disappointed because I was excepting my girls to be at the door not her. Don't get me wrong she is definitely one of my girls, but not the one I was hoping it to be.

"I'm not what Riker?" Vanni questioned as I thought 'ah shit I said that out loud'.

"Nothing babe. I just thought it was Michelle with Kinley and Kenzie so when I saw you I was just a little disappointed, but don't get me wrong I'm so happy to have you here! You look beautiful today, by the way!" I said giving her a kiss.

"Nice save buddy" She said patting my shoulder after she broke the kiss. With that there was a knock on the door and I knew for sure it would be them. I opened it to see Michelle with each of my girls holding one of her hands. I smiled out of pure joy to know my girls had come and wouldn't be leaving. I greeted Michelle and the girls and let them come into the house. Like the other visits the twins were shy at first but once they saw their toys they ran right in and made themselves at home, which is good considering this is their home now.

"Riker." Vanni said rubbing up and down my arm to get my attention.

"Hmmm.' I replied coming out of my thoughts.

"Michelle was telling you about how she needed to go over last minute details with you." I nodded in understanding and we walked to the dining room to go over the details Michelle needed me to know.

"So these are the girls birth certificates, indicating who their birth parents are, their full names, their weight and height at birth, eye and hair colour, and of course their birth date. Now something you should know is that their birth parents have both sadly passed and that is why they ended up in our care. Their mother died shortly after birth due to her body not being able to cope and their father being in the army died in combat. So he never met his daughters and their mother barely saw them before she passed." I took in the information Michelle had given me and gave her my deepest thank-you for everything she had done for me. Before Michelle left to say goodbye to the twins she turned her attention to Vanni which made me pay more attention to what was going on around me.

Vanni's POV:

"Now Savannah. It is Savannah, right?" Michelle started.

"Yes" I nodded with approval.

"These girls are going to look to you as their mom. What ever you do know they will always be watching. With you being the girl Riker looks to for companionship these girls will as well. I will not only be evaluating Riker throughout the next 4 months but you as well. If I see that you will not be able to provide the love and attention they need from a motherly figure I will either have to take the girls and replace them or ask you to remove yourself from their lives. Do you understand?"

"I will do everything in my power to love these girls as if they were my own daughters. I will do my best to be the role model they need in their lives to help pick them up when they fall, to read them books before bed, to give them hugs and kisses whenever they come to me, to be the last one to let go from a hug, to be the mother they deserve even if I'm not their adoptive mother."

"I'm so happy to hear that! Thank you for understanding. Now to go say goodbye to the little monkeys." with that Michelle got up from the table to go into the living room to say goodbye to the twins. I can honestly say that I am terrified to know that they will be looking at me as a mother, but at the same time ridiculously excited to watch these little babes grow.

Riker's POV:

We walked to the living room with Michelle and watched as she said goodbye to Kinley and Kenzie. They asked her a couple questions on where she was going and why they weren't going with her. Which she responded with the answers that she's going home to her house and that they aren't going because they're home now. They went back to playing and Michelle got up and walked over to Vanni and myself. I again said thank-you and gave her a huge hug good bye. Vanni said goodbye and walked to the living room to check on the twinnies. Before Michelle left I needed to ask her about something she said earlier.

"Hey Michelle what do you mean you'll be evaluating me for the next 4 months only?"

"Riker the judge ruled in your favour. You will not be able to tour with the girls outside of California, but I will only need to visit you 3 times within 4 months before you can. Which starts now. So you can start touring in July." Michelle finished explaining with a huge smile on her face. "Are you serious!? That's amazing! Thank you so much! You are wonderful!"

"You're welcome Riker! Now go enjoy your daughters and I will see you sometime next month!" "I will thank-you Michelle! See you next time!" I said as she walked to her car and I closed the front door. I turned around to see Vanni " standing in the foyer entrance. "What?" I asked her.

"Nothing. Just looking at how giddy you are and admiring it." We both giggled until I spoke up again. "Savannah, did you really mean what you said about taking over the role as the twins mother?" She stayed quiet with her head down for a moment. "I did Riker. But if you don't want me too I understand and I'll stop that influence." She again looked to her feet so I slowly lifted her chin, looked into her eyes and reassured her, "Vanni, I wouldn't want anyone else who isn't my mother or sister to take over that role. I know you'll be amazing at it and if it gets to be too much for you, you know you can stop." "I wouldn't want to Riker." She looked at me with a smile and then kissed my lips ever so softly. We then heard giggles coming from around the corner and as we looked we heard little feet running away to hide. Vanni and I ran to the living room and pretended not to see them under the coffee table and wander around till we gave each other a signal and scooped them up in ours arms and tickled the 2 giggling 2 year olds, who now meant the world to me. Once I put Kinley down from our little game I noticed the time. 10:10. Damn I'm going to be late and Allison's going to make me work longer and harder today. "Hey Vanni we have to get to rehearsals. We'll see you later ok, babe?" "Of course! I'll text you, K?" I nodded and she helped me get the twins out the door and loaded into their car seats so that we could head off to meet Allison at rehearsals. As I drove away I muttered to myself Welcome Home baby girls. Daddy loves you and will never let you go, ever.