Chapter Twenty-Two: Revelry

     Everybody shout what's the big idea?

     "Hey! What's the big idea?!"

      Imagination movers are music to your ears. We're music to your ears! We're the guys who like to figure things out. What?

     "We love to figure things out!"

     You need some help just give us a shout.

     "Hey, movers won't you help us out!"

     Marie grimaced as she heard the loud music and singing from somewhere outside her haze of sleep. Two little voices shrieking the lyrics back at the music aggravated her slight hangover. True she'd only had a couple of drinks, three to be exact. But since she hadn't had anything else with them they of course had given her just a small migraine this morning. She grimaced even more as she heard the girls continuing to sing along with the loud song. She opened one eye, seeing both of them sitting on the bed, the bright midday light streaming in through the windows behind them.

     She heard the shower running in the next room and knew Nick must be in the shower, that would be the only logical explanation as to why the girls were getting away with waking her. Not that she completely minded. She was happy to see them. However at the same time it was rather uncomfortable to have them there while she lay in the bed she shared with their father, in only his button down shirt from the night before. She grinned watching the girls while laying still as before. Just looking at their innocent smooth faces as they watched their show in awe.

     Livie turned then seeing Marie grinning at them. "Marie! You're awake!"

     "Yes, I believe I found a new alarm clock." She replied pointing in the direction of the television. She sat up a little keeping the duvet wrapped around her hips. "Tell me what this show is all about."

     She listened to the girls clamor about their show and she smiled. It made her happy to see them so at ease and animated in her presence.

     "Marie why are you wearing Daddy's shirt?" Joanna asked with a sly grin on her face.

     Marie chuckled, "Well I asked and he said he would let me borrow it yesterday. Is that okay?"

     "Yeah, it looks comfy." Livie chimed in with a grin only to turn her face back to the television.

     "It is."

     A few moments later Nick came walking out of the bathroom a towel wrapped securely around his waist and another smaller one he was running through his hair. "Hey you two, I thought I said not to disturb Marie." He said giving them a reproving look.

     "We couldn't find the remote to the TV in the other room." Joanna reasoned giving her father a guilty look.

     He looked around them to see Marie grinning at them her hair looking like a mess of loose curls. "All right I'll find the remote, you two out to the living room so Marie can shower and get changed too." He ordered and the girls went with a groan. They had gotten comfortable watching their show in the bedroom and didn't want to move. He smirked and found the remote in the cabinet where hotels normally put the electronic equipment and flipped on the television for them before heading back into the room. "I'll be out in a few minutes and we'll get some breakfast okay?"

     "Yay!" Both girls shrieked as he closed the door. He shook his head muttering to himself so low that not even Marie could understand what he was saying.

     He looked at her then standing on the side of the bed, in just his shirt and smiled. "I have to admit, I love the way my clothes hang on you."

     She smirked and rolled her eyes smoothing her hands through her hair, her fingers quickly getting tangled. "Ugh, this is going to take me forever to untangle."

     Nick smirked and wrapped his arms around her waist as she walked past him stopping her. She looked up at him and arched one eyebrow. He looked like he was going to say something. She figured he was probably going to say how he felt again. Reaffirming his feelings towards her. However he didn't. He reigned himself in and simply channeled it all into a kiss. She smiled as his mouth met hers remembering the night before. How intimate it had been between them.

     When he broke the kiss Marie placed her hand at his jaw and grinned. "You sir, are one dangerous creature."

     Nick grinned and moved over to his suitcases. "Too bad we're not really alone, I'd join you." He remarked as Marie disappeared in the bathroom.

     "Well another time then." She replied sticking her head out of the door for a moment before tossing him the shirt she'd been wearing. Nick rolled his eyes and groaned as he began to dress for the day. He smiled as he pulled on his clothing. It was completely uncanny the strange sense of balance that was coming into his life as of late. He was most certainly head over heels for Marie. The intensity of what he felt for her could be construed as nothing else.

     He knew that she must feel something for him. He was patient; that it might take her longer to get to where he was and he was more than willing to wait her out. How she handled herself, with his friends, his children, the paparazzi and how impressed she was with seeing him do his job. More and more it was becoming glaringly obvious about how perfectly she fit into his lifestyle her personality able to mesh with every aspect of his life. He wondered for a brief moment that if they decided to try for a long distance relationship, if things would work out just as well.

     He had to talk to her about it first of course. That was the most imperative portion to getting them to do anything together once she returned home. It would be very painful, this he knew, if she didn't want that. Obviously she felt something for him. Something just as intense as what he was feeling but what if it wasn't enough for her?

     What if? What if she didn't love him? And that was the reason why she was being so quiet about her feelings, trying to spare his at the same time. He didn't think she would be the type of person to lie or hide herself from him. She was an open book. That much he could tell. She couldn't lie to him, not when her eyes gave away all her secrets. But as far as her feelings for him. He was just as confused as she was.  And that thought troubled him more than he would like to admit.

     He supposed he would ask her this week. He remembered that he had a gift arriving for her tomorrow at the condo. A thoughtful reminder of home. Maybe she would come over after and thank him. Or even a phone call would suffice. Although he definitely didn't want to have that particular conversation over the phone. Something so personal as to what they were going to do when she goes home shouldn't be done with the magic of technology. He had just a little over two weeks to come up with a plan, a solution to get her alone, to talk this out and present his side of things. The fact that the girls were going back to school tomorrow seemed to be the best thing possible.

     For when he would not be working he would be in fact alone. That would ultimately be, he felt, the best time to bring things up. While his daughters are in school and they could air out everything and find some solution to this madness he felt surrounding her impending departure.

---

    "Marie will you read to me?" Livie asked putting on her best pleading face.

    Marie looked over to Nick who was just finishing up his emails on his blackberry. He grinned and nodded. "Sure sweets, what would you like me to read?"

    "This one." Livie replied handing her a book.

    Marie's eyes lit up at the title and she grinned at Livie. "Where the Wild Things Are? I love this book!" She replied showing her enthusiasm to Livie at her excellent choice in literature. "Okay let's get started missy." Marie said lifting the armrest between them, settling the book between their laps and wrapping her arm gingerly around Livie's shoulders. She sighed contentedly as she opened the book and smiled at the first line, beginning to read it aloud to Livie. "The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind..."

    She continued to read changing her voice to fit each character as seamlessly as she possibly could. She was still amazed at how time certainly flew whenever she was with the girls and Nick. They had breakfast together, the four of them, then did a little bit of shopping together down the strip before their evening flight back home to Los Angeles.

    Home.

    A silly concept really. In all her years in New York she hadn't really felt so at ease as she did in LA. But she surmised that really it wasn't so much of the change in location but the relationships she was building. She was quickly beginning to realize that anyplace felt like home when she was with Nick. A definitely disconcerting feeling to be sure. They'd known each other such a short amount of time. Surely she couldn't be in love with him? She knew she loved his personality, his quirks, and even his flaws. Most of all she loved his daughters. They were her friends. Cherished friends who she wanted to see live, grow, and mature into the remarkable women she knew they would be one day.

    But to fall in love, to feel like she was there already, it scared the living hell out of her.

    She was falling in love, that she was sure of in fact in this moment, these past few days she'd realized that she was more than just falling. She was in love with him, rather deeply and profoundly. But what she didn't understand was that how she couldn't quite get how he unearthed these emotions in her. Emotions she thought wouldn't come out again. Not since she'd so idiotically fallen for Derek once upon a time. Yet at the same time this was completely different from how she'd felt about Derek. There were too many facets this time, so many different emotions all laced together so intricately around her heart that she thought she might suffocate from the intensity. Suffocation she freely welcomed and was almost ecstatic to endure.

    But one thing she couldn't wrap her head around quite yet is what they were going to do with her leaving. She didn't want to stop all communication but at the same time long distance relationships were hard to maintain. Was there some sort of middle ground they could maintain while furthering their relationship though thousands of miles apart from one another?

    How would that effect Jo and Livie? Would they resent her? Could they possibly even understand that she was going to have to leave them at some point in the very near future? The thought of leaving them, of hurting any one of them, Jo, Livie or most importantly Nick made her sick to her core. The pain of it, to see it on their faces would surely break her.

    Just as she was finishing up the book she noticed that Livie had changed to lay her head in her lap and was quietly asleep. Marie quietly closed the book setting it on the side of her as she played with Livie's light blonde waves. The images of Jo and Livie sleeping peacefully were two of the most angelic faces she'd ever seen in her life.

    Nick watched in complete awe as Marie lovingly watched over his youngest daughter. He grinned and leaned over taking her hand in his. Marie looked over at him smiling. "She's beautiful."

    "Yeah I can't believe how lucky I got with the two of them sometimes. They're exactly the kind of daughters you hope for you know?"

    "Yeah, they're fantastic." Marie whispered returning her attention to the sleeping child in her lap her voice was low, soft almost reverent as she praised them. She sighed again before looking out the window of the airplane wondering just exactly she was going to do with everything in her mind. But for the moment she wasn't going to worry.

---

    It was a little while later, about three hours that they were finally pulling up to Nick's house. Marie had forgone the chance to go back to the condo alone. She didn't know what she would do if left alone for too long. Being alone in her own thoughts was something she didn't want to do. Not that she didn't have a multitude of things to mull over in her solitude, she just didn't want to, not when she had the opportunity of spending more time with Nick.

    "I think they're exhausted." Nick remarked smirking as he pulled into the driveway. They looked over their shoulders seeing both girls were unceremoniously passed out in their booster seats. "Grab Jo, let's get these two sleepy heads up to their beds." Nick requested.

    Marie nodded and helped him gather up the girls and smiled slightly when Jo clung to her as she carried her through the house to her bed. She turned on the night-light in the room knowing that she enjoyed the play of musical notes on the wall just as much as Livie did. Nick placed Livie in her bed kissing her forehead then stopped and watched Marie as she placed Joanna in her bed brushing a few loose strands from her face.

    Quickly he excused himself down to the truck to get the rest of the luggage leaving Marie with the girls. Marie grinned as she looked at Joanna's face. She leaned over and placed a kiss to Joanna's temple and smiled. "Goodnight sweetheart." She whispered.

    Joanna smiled in her half consciousness and rolled over, "Night Mommy." She whispered taking Marie completely off guard. Even though she knew that Joanna was probably half dreaming, thinking of her real mother and not Marie, she couldn't escape the thrill that shot up her spine at the sentiment.

    Forcibly numb, shocked even, Marie made her way down the stairs and out to the patio. Nick joined her moments later wrapping his arms around her and placing a soft kiss to her shoulder. "Is there anyway I can entice you to stay tonight?" He asked with a devilish tone to his voice.

    Marie pushed away from him then and shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea."

    "Why not?"

    "Just I think I need to sort some things out I think. I don't know anymore."

    "Care to share? I mean come on you can tell me anything you know."

    Marie looked at the sincerity in his face and sighed. "When I was tucking Jo in. She said ‘night mommy'. And I know that she was thinking of her mother. But it scares the fuck out of me because I liked how it sounded. Even though I know she wasn't talking to me directly."

    Nick's features softened and he grinned a little. Hearing her admit she liked taking on a maternal role with his daughters was almost as good as admittance to her feelings. "Is that bad?"

    "It is when you think about it realistically! I am leaving in a couple of weeks. What do you think this is going to do to them? I can't hurt them. I refuse to. I love them. They're so fantastic and sweet and adorable, just the perfect little girls. I don't know how you're doing it but you are raising two of the most remarkable women I'll ever know. And then there's you. God. Do you even know how much it hurts to feel like this. To love you like this. It's scaring the hell out of me Nick!"

    Without even realizing what she said she sunk down to a lounge chair putting her head in her hands. She hadn't meant to get so heated, so freaked out, so emotional all in the span of five minutes. She felt Nick kneel in front of her pulling her hands away from her face. She looked in his eyes and he grinned. "You're in love with me?"

    "I said that out loud?" He nodded in response and she sighed. "Yeah. I am. I love you. I love them. But what are we going to do? I'm so scared out of my mind. I can't hurt them and it seems like it's exactly what I'm going to do."

    Nick pulled her face to look at him. He grazed his thumbs along her jaw. "Do you think this is any different for me? What makes you think it's any different for me?" He replied before pressing her lips to his. Both of them lost their breath, the electricity between them reaching a fevered pitch. Something they hadn't experienced before with just a kiss. He broke it reluctantly placing feather light kisses to her face. "We have two weeks to figure out what exactly we're going to do when you leave. I love you. And knowing that you love me, well that's really all I need to hear. I am not willing to give this up. To give us up. It's too good, it feels too right to just say it was a fun little vacation fling."

    "I agree."

    "But let's not talk about this now. We will when the time comes, right now I just want us to enjoy the next couple of weeks together while we can. But first I think we should continue this tomorrow. We're both tired and I should take you back to the condo."

    "Can I stay?" She asked as he smiled at her. She didn't have to ask; she knew he'd let her stay forever if she wanted.

    "Of course." Nick replied and pulled her in for another kiss.

(Music from Imagination Movers, and the story quote from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak)