Title: Yesterday to Tomorrow: Chapter Fifty, Sticky Fingers
Rating: NC-17 [violence, swearing, nudity, sexual situations]

Summary: With kids in tow, Alyssa visits the wedding site and runs into problems that ice cream can't solve.

Previous Chapter Set the Scene

Current Chapter Sticky Fingers

Next Chapter A Little Party

Sudden weight on her belly forced Alyssa's eyes to spring wide open. A moment later another weight held down her legs, about the heft of a two year old boy. She grinned sleepily at the two kids holding the blanket to her naked body, lazily wondering where Chris was.

"Mama?" Nick asked.

"Mmmmhmmm?" she looked around his sister to meet his little expectant eyes.

"Tum-tum hurts," he declared.

Alyssa frowned, "Why?"

"Probably because they ate all of this," Chris's voice came from the doorway.

Looking to the doorway, where Chris stood clad in only his PJ bottoms, she smirked. In his hand was an empty bag of gummy bears, the top torn wide open.

"Where did they find that?" she asked.

He shrugged, though there was no mistaking the sheepish grin on his face.

"Where did you have them not so well hidden, Chris?" Alyssa considered sitting up, but with Toni on her stomach there wasn't much room to manuever.

"That's not really important now," he replied quickly. "I'll take the goons downstairs to get some proper breakfast while you.... get up."

"Oh yeah now you want to be a responsible father," she teased, watching as he moved over to pull the kids off of her.

"Noooooooooooooooo!" Toni squealed, moving to the other side of the bed so that Chris couldn't reach her. "Lyss-Lyss make pancakes."

"Daddy can make them too," Alyssa claimed.

"Nuh uh!" she refuted. "Daddy make no shapes."

"Hmmm," she tapped her nose, seeing Nick squirming in Chris's arms. "How about you go downstairs and help Daddy get everything ready and I'll come down and make shapes?"

"Can I use mixer?" Toni asked.

Alyssa nodded, "You might need to show Daddy how to. I don't think he's used that one before."

"Okay!" Toni agreed and jumped off the bed, hurrying out of the room.

"You better hurry or there will be pancake mix all over the kitchen by the time you get there," she teased.

Flopping squirming Nick over his shoulder, Chris shook his head, "You're setting me up for trouble, aren't you?"

"You're the one who left gummy bears where they could find them."



The children giggled. Lily chasing Xavier around the fountain. Quentin, Toni, and Nick sat on the ground, colouring on sheets of paper. All well distracted while Alyssa went over her plans with the event coordinator of the LA Center.

"The aisle will be covered with a brocade, which we still haven't decided if it will be in place or rolled out after everyone is seated," she explained, glancing up to check on the five children.

"It would probably be easier if it was already down," the coordinator claimed. "Just my opinion."

"I've got tall candlesticks which we'll spiral flowers around for the ends of the rows of chairs, on both sides. That won't cause a problem, will it?" Alyssa looked to the young woman. "We can substitute faux candles if need be, but I would rather use these gorgeous hand-dipped red candles I found in Burbank."

She shook her head, "Shouldn't be an issue at all. Though I would check with the candlemaker how much it drips. You wouldn't want the wax to drip on any of the guests. And it would be a bitch to clean up."

"Very true," Alyssa nodded, head whipping around when Toni squealed. "Xavier! Give her back the crayon!"

"But—"

"No buts. What did you father say before we left?"

"Um...." he looked at his feet, dropping the crayon. "I can have a new bike."

"If?" she asked.

"I'm good," Xavier answered.

"And?"

"I sorry, Toni," he muttered.

"Thank you, Xavier," Alyssa stated, waiting till he and Lily moved away from the younger three. "The chairs you provide, what colour are they?"



Glancing in the car, she checked to make certain everyone was buckled in. She then slid in next to Lily, grinning at everyone. With the door closed the driver started the car and they were headed away from their two hour meeting at the LA Center that ended up stretching into four with the kids running around.

"Okay, who wants.... ice cream?" Alyssa asked.

Five grubby hands went up, two of them belonging to Toni.

She leaned towards the partition between the driver and herself, opening it with a flick of a button, "Ice cream parlour please."

"You sure about that, Miss Morgan? Five kids and ice cream?" the driver asked.

"I'm a glutton for punishment."

He chuckled, "Very well."



Up to her neck in bubbles, Alyssa's eyes dropped close. Having sat in the water for some time now, she relaxed, knowing the all over stickiness from ice cream covered hands was rinsed away. She heard someone enter the bathroom, knowing it had to be Chris as all five kids were asleep. Her eyes remained close, waiting to feel what he was going to do. She heard him undress, a little smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

A moment later toes pushed her legs aside, reaching for the bottom of the tub. She smiled a little more, but still didn't open her eyes. At least not until his lips touched hers.

"Tough day with the kids?" he breathed, arms circling around Alyssa to re-adjust her so that they could sit intertwined in the tub.

"We're so not having kids, Chris," she replied, snuggling against his chest, bubbles pushed out from between them.

Chris frowned, "Why not?"

"I cannot handle more than your three already," Alyssa answered.

"But—"

"Of course I didn't expect Tim's kids to be really well behaved," she commented. "They did all right until the ice cream parlour. Then Xavier decided he needed to show Lily how much he likes her by dumping his ice cream in her lap."

"And what did you do?" he couldn't hide the mirth in his voice.

"Cleaned everyone up as best I could, piled them back into the car, and came home," she answered, looking up into his eyes. "Really, Chris, let's re-think the kids thing."

He pushed a wet curl from her forehead, "It was just a stressful day, Lyss."

"I know," she sighed. "And the closer it gets to the wedding, the worse it will get."

"Still sure about this wedding thing?" he teased.

Shaking her head, Alyssa kissed him softly, "As sure as I am of marrying you."



Growling, Alyssa slammed the phone down on the base just as Chris entered the kitchen to retrieve another can of Coke. His brows arched, looking at her as he cracked open the can. When she said nothing, he took a long drink and cautiously stepped over to her.

"Something wrong, love?" he asked.

"Fucking florist has dropped our contract," she frowned. "I don't know what to do, Chris. We have six weeks until the wedding. How am I to find a florist in time for that?"

"Well....." he set the can on the counter. "Uh.... I don't really have any suggestions. Maybe you should ask Selene?"

She rubbed her temples, "I've already called the other florists I know. They're all booked up. This is bad, Chris."

"We'll find someone," he assured her.

"And pay out the ass for it. Unless you want to spend the day before our wedding arranging flowers with me," Alyssa stated.

He shrugged, "If that's what it takes to make our wedding perfect, I'll do it."

She smiled crookedly before moving around the counter and kissing half his mouth, "You might just regret your words, my love."

"Haven't regretted a thing I've told you. Ever."