December 19, 2000 Tampa, Florida

With a groan Tina eased herself out of her parent’s SUV, still feeling like she’d been run over by a truck even after spending four days in the hospital on observation.

The walk from the car to the door would probably be the furthest her feet would take her for some time, now that she got the joy of beginning her sentence on bed rest.

Ending up in the hospital, despite the hazard it played on her body, ended up not being the worst thing that had ever happened to Tina. She came out of there with more love and respect for Nick than she’d had in a while. He had jumped into the pool and saved her life that night, then out of the blue became the father she always wanted him to be and took care of Parker almost completely solo while she was recovering. She figured he would have passed the buck to her parents and enjoyed the extra time playing video games. Instead her mother told her that they only had their usual visits to the main house and that Nick had become a surrogate mom; thinking up activities, baking cookies, making lunches, and keeping Parker to his normal schedule. It was only four days but it was more than she had ever expected of him.

Breaking from her reverie she realized her father had been taking an awful long time opening the door, “Is there something wrong with the lock?” she wondered and he just grunted and continued jingling the handle before finally swinging the door open.

As she cleared the doorway Tina’s eyebrow raised curiously at the sight before her. A single chair had been set out in the middle of the hallway and a banner proclaiming ‘Welcome Home, Mommy’ with Parker’s scribbles was stuck above the adjacent doorway.

“What’s going on?” she asked with the hint of a laugh in her voice.

Her mother smiled and rubbed her shoulder quickly, “Just have a seat and enjoy they’ve been working on this for a couple of days now.”

“Working on what?” she asked as she sat down but by then both her parents had taken their leave. She barely had the chance to come up with any theories when she suddenly heard a guitar strum.

The music started first, just a guitar which she could only assume Nick was playing. Soon afterwards Parker made his way into the hallway and she had to smile, knowing that he had picked his own clothes that morning judging by the way they mismatched.

“Hi Mommy!” he said excitedly, and she heard Nick’s voice from the other room remind Parker of what he was doing, “We’re singing a song for you!” the boy repeated his father’s instructions rather than following them and Tina couldn’t help by laugh.

“Okay, then let’s hear it,” she smiled and Nick soon launched into the song. I couldn’t help but laugh when Parker, rather than trying to sing on his own, started to lip synch his father’s voice to the best of his ability, occasionally throwing words that he knew into the mix. It was just a silly song about how much they missed her with a silly dance to accompany it but she couldn’t have asked for a better greeting after what had been a few very stressful days.

Tina laughed harder when Parker, who had clearly lost interest in the task at hand, started staring at Nick through the doorway rather than playing along with the routine.

“Parker,” came Nick’s voice, “Don’t you want to finish the song for Mommy, just like we practiced?”

“No,” was the little boy’s response and the music stopped.

“Okay,” Nick chuckled and walked into the hallway, acoustic guitar strapped to his chest, “Well let me tell you there was a very dramatic finish; there were jazz hands, some Vaudeville, with a very over the top musical crescendo.”

She smiled, “I’ll take your word for it.”

Nick pushed the little boy in her direction and after his father’s encouragement he launched himself into her arms with a warm hug.

“I miss you,” he said, his little arms wrapping around her neck.

“Aww, I missed you too,” she told him, tears coming to her eyes for more than one reason. The banner, the choreographed welcome home song, and a happy and healthy little boy waiting for her when she walked back through the door was more than she could have hoped or asked for.

“Welcome home,” Nick said and she looked up from Parker to smile at him.

“Thank you,” she said sincerely, “For everything.”

“It’s a tough job,” Nick said with a nod of his head, “but somebody had to do it. There’s no need to thank me. Now, let’s get out of the front all and into bed where you’ll be more comfortable.”

“Oh yay,” she said dryly with a roll of her eyes. The last place she wanted to be after spending the last four days in bed was in bed again.

“We have some more surprises for you,” Nick said coyly with a grin.

Parker hopped down off the chair and nodded along with his father, “Yeah, Daddy and Grandpa moved your room downstairs with the great big TV and then we made cupcakes!”

“Wow, thanks Park,” Nick laughed and picked the boy up off the ground, “You sure are good at surprises.”

“Thanks, Daddy!” Parker’s toothy grin was identical to Nick’s and his blonde hair was long enough to fall into his eyes much the same as his father.

Nick kissed the boy’s forehead then put him back down on the floor, “It’s a good thing he’s cute.”

“He’ll get by,” Tina agreed, standing from the chair, “You did okay after all.”

“He’s definitely cuter than me,” Nick scoffed, putting his hand on her back to lead her through the main floor of the house, “After all his parents are way better looking than mine were.”

“If you do say so yourself,” she joked, letting Nick lead her to his games room, “What are we doing?”

“Parker told you,” he said as he opened the door, “We moved the bedroom downstairs. This way you won’t have to worry about going up and down or about other people having to do the same.”

“But...” she contested, walking in to see that the leather couches, the arcade games, the consoles and the posters from the walls were all gone and replaced with all of the furniture from upstairs, “...what about your stuff?”

“It’s fine,” Nick waved it off, “I can play games in the living room. I moved everything down into the basement for now.”

She took stock of the room, noticing that her bookshelf was in the corner along with a very comfortable looking recliner, and Nick’s big TV was still on the wall with all the bells and whistles that fancy satellite companies could provide.

“I wanted to make sure you weren’t completely bored,” he admitted, leading her over to the bed.

“I appreciate it,” she replied honestly, climbing up onto the cool sheets with a sigh of relief.

“Good to be home?” Nick asked, lying down next to her in his usual spot.

She nodded, “Yeah… how did you know what I was thinking?”

He picked at the duvet for a moment then scooted over, wrapping his arm around her shoulders in a comforting embrace, “I know it may seem like I don’t care or that I haven’t taken the time to really get to know you but I do. I know everything about you, and I do care about you.”

“I know that,” she said honestly, having no doubt (especially after the past couple of days) that he did care for her, “You don’t have to be afraid to show me more often you know. You don’t have to be mad all the time.”

“I’m not mad,” he said and she tilted her head up to look him in the eye, “Really, I’m not. I’m... well, I guess I’m jealous.”

“What are you jealous of?” she wondered, brows furrowing.

Nick sighed and looked away briefly before coming back to her eyes, “I’m jealous of you.”

“What?” she asked incredulously, “Why on earth would you be jealous?”

“Because...” his voice was timid, “You have everything. You have seen every moment of Parker’s life, all the moments that I’ve missed. You have parents who love you enough that they would follow you to the ends of the earth if it meant that you were happy. You have friends who would drop anything to watch our son, or just come over and keep you company. I don’t have any of that. You being in the hospital was the first time I’ve ever been alone with Parker, you know that? Do you know how scary that was? I shouldn’t be afraid to be alone with my own son.”

“You did fine Nick,” she soothed his nerves, rubbing his thigh, “My mom told me that you never even asked for help. Obviously you knew what you were doing.”

“There was a lot of trial and error though. I had to go through a few tantrums just because I was trying to make him do things differently than he normally did,” he admitted, “There’s just so much about him that I don’t even know about. He’s gotten so big, and is doing things that I didn’t think kids his age could do.”

“They grow quickly,” she agreed, “Do you regret never reading any of those books your parents got you for our baby shower?”

He nodded sheepishly, “A little bit, yeah.”

“Is that why you made us move down here?” she asked boldly, feeling like she was in a position to ask some more serious questions without him blowing his top, “To try and bring me to your level?”

“What do you mean?” he asked though she knew he understood.

“You took me away from my friends, tried to keep me away from my parents, wanted to trip me up with Parker by always having us out on tour... leaving me in awkward situations like at an airport with no ride.”

Nick’s expression changed to one of surprise and she could tell at first that he was insulted but as he thought more and more about the words his face softened, “I don’t think I did any of that intentionally,” he said and she believed in his honestly, “but yeah, I think I did.”

“No more,” Tina told him firmly and watched as he nodded reluctantly, “Otherwise the next time you come home from a break it’ll be to an empty house.”

“Don’t start throwing threats around,” his voice suddenly became more serious and she knew it was time to back off.

“I’m not,” she assured him with another pat on the leg, “We love you and we want to be with you as long as you’ll have us. You just have to let us live our lives too.”

“No more being an ass all the time, I’m going to change,” Nick assured her, his hand holding hers, “I promise.”

”Good,” she replied hesitantly, having heard similar statements like that in the past, “Now, did someone say something about cupcakes?”