GEN IV: Chapter 13

Just days after moving into the new home Logan was getting big enough to crawl around his own spaces and for the first time ever - he held his own bottle. Rachel was so happy for him that she called Brian, who was out on a case, to share the happy news.

While she was on the phone Logan noticed that she wasn't paying attention to him.

So the little guy thought it would be fun to hide in his toy box - mommy would never find him.

She didn't either, not right away. When she hung up the phone she saw that he was gone and started a search. In this new house where not everything is unpacked she knew that he would have many hiding places.

Logan got bored after about eight minutes of waiting for his mother to find him, so he crawled out of that toy box and looked for something else to do. He found some yummy little dolls in their own house sitting in Jennifer's room just waiting to be eaten.

Rachel started to panic after about ten minutes, but she finally heard some small giggles coming from her daughters room. She peeked in and saw Logan playing so she let him alone.

Rachel went to the restroom and just as she was about to leave she passed a mirror and noticed a line on her face. After a short squeal of shock she leaned closer to the mirror and checked her face - nothing. It was just a smudge on the reflective surface. Recently celebrating her middle age birthday had put a panic in her that she was getting older, but there was no proof of that as of yet.

Brian came home from the case he was out investigating and got Logan and took him down to give him lunch. He snuggled his little boy after he was wiped up and put him in the floor to play. As he watched Brian thought of Rachel's words spoken a week ago - '...you must be nuts. Are you going through a midlife crisis or something?'. The truth was that she was right. After celebrating his middle age birthday, Brian felt like he needed change all around. New clothes, new house, new car - what next?

"OH! The car! It should be here soon." He said aloud to nobody. Coming out of his own thought bubble Brian noticed that his little man was tired. Brian changed into his pajamas (it always helped put Logan to sleep if he thought others were going to bed too) and read Logan a night time story. Pretty soon the baby was fast asleep.

Brian heard a small honk. At the same time, he heard Rachel asking for him to join her in the hot tub. Brian rushed to change into his swimming trunks and shouted "sure!" toward the stairs.

Outside Rachel was greeted by the delivery man. She was more than shocked to see the package.

Brian came rushing out of the house. He was trying to get there before Rachel but he saw that he was too late.

"Okay before you say anything, I can't return it. It was flown here from Italy!" He said as fast as he could after a moment he saw Rachel was staring at him in quite an alarming way. "Honey? Really honey can you quit looking at me like that?"

"How... Much... Was... It?" Rachel managed to say.

"Uh. Just 30... okay 40," Brian paused and looked at his wife, "okay - §60,000." He flinched waiting for the blow.

"Are you serious!? You just totally blew through our babies' school funding?! You have GOT to be kidding me!"

"No no honey, not at all. There... Okay maybe I dipped in a little, but just a small §10,000. That's easily replaceable, easily. The rest I had saved up. Truly baby it's not a big deal." Brian said he was nearly bouncing up and down on the spot in excitement about the car.

Rachel sighed. She heard her own thoughts echoing in her head 'Why? why do I even try to argue with him? I couldn't ever refuse anything that brings him happiness. Look at him, he's like a teenage girl after her first kiss.' she sighed again.

"Obviously it's futile to try and disagree with you. But just so you know, you'll be the one working it off. I know with what you get paid per case it won't be long, but I also want you to understand that you are not to be gone all day either. Not so much overtime that you miss out on family things. On top of that, you BETTER be done with this mid-life crisis crap!"

Brian smiled. "Thank you baby! Thank you!" He embraced Rachel quickly. As much as he longed to drive his new toy he put his priorities in order and said, "How about that dip?"

The two of them got into the hot tub and cuddled with each other. Brian thanked her again for allowing him to keep the car. He kissed her lips. Even with that little kiss things started to smolder between the two of them. Pretty soon they were under the water and bubbles enjoying the moment.

A short while later Jennifer came home from school and asked her father to play a game of tag before doing her homework.

The two of them played various games for a few hours while Rachel sat inside reading and listening for Logan. When he did wake, she stayed in his room and played with him for a while.

The next morning, after breakfast, Brian decided to do some sculpting. He had idea in his head that he just had to make. Not like anyone in the family needed it but he wanted to make a wine rack.

While he was down there Rachel joined him for a workout. This was another thing about getting older, Rachel wanted to loose weight. Whether she admitted it or not, she was also going through a mid-life crisis. Hers was not as exuberant as Brian's was, it was more like gaining internal balance and self respect.

Working on and off all day Brian finally finished his project. He dusted himself off for the last time and went to tend Logan.

Brian found Logan in Jennifer's room, he was trying to wake his sister who had tucked herself in for the night.

Brian scooped him up and gently chastised Logan, "Little man, you should know better. It's not nice to wake people when they are asleep."

Logan giggled and pulled at his father's hair. "Bed? Night night?" He was slowly learning to speak and knew key words like 'eat', 'dada', 'mamma' and 'play'. He got his point across when he needed to.

"Sure buddy, are you tired?" Brian asked.

Logan nodded his head, "Night night!"

The next day, while Rachel was having breakfast she left Logan in the den to play with a toy rabbit given to him by his Aunt. As she sat and ate her pancakes she heard random noises coming through the archway. First there was always a 'boo' and then many giggles from Logan. Out of curiosity she stood up from the table and peeked.

What she saw melted her heart.

Her two babies were playing together. Jennifer was voluntarily keeping her brother company - and enjoying herself. Rachel thought she couldn't be much happier, but when Jennifer stood and pulled Logan to his fee to hug him, she really thought she'd cry. Rachel was very happy that Jennifer had finally warmed up to Logan.

GEN IV: Chapter 12

One morning Brian made breakfast for the family and told them that he'd be visiting Johanna on the way to one of his cases. It was really early in the morning, but Johanna asked that he come babysit for about two hours while she ran out for an errand.

Brian was at Johanna's before the sun even touched her doorstep. Carla had grown quite a bit since the last time he visited. Johanna left pretty quickly to do what she needed to do.

"I shouldn't be too long, thanks for doing this Brian. I know it's early." She said as she walked out the door.

Brian and Carla spent the sunrise together playing and giggling. He attacked her with the claw and tossed her in the air delighting in her laughter. He couldn't wait until Logan was this age, which would be soon, and he missed Jennifer being this little.

Johanna was back in about an hour and a half as promised so Brian said goodbye and went home to pick up his little man. While he was playing with Carla he decided to take Logan with him on his investigation this time.

First stop was a graveyard. Quite an interesting place to bring an infant, at least it was daylight - not so scary. He was on a search for any proof of wrongdoing. He did find something, a thread or two stuck on the fence. The next step was to take the evidence to the Science facility to get it analyzed.

Finally, back to the graveyard for a stakeout. With Logan laying just under Brian, he hid as far in the bushes as he could and waited. Logan giggled at the leaves of his daddy's camouflage.

It wasn't long before two suspicious characters gather in front of him and begin to whisper. Brian could hear nothing being said between them, but the papers passed from one to the other was not missed. That was all the proof he needed. After going to the police station to turn in his information, after which he and Logan went home.

Logan had such a big day that he fell alseep on the ride home and Brian placed him in his bed as soon as they arrived at the house. Brian watched his little boy sleep for a few mintues.

Then something came over him.

Brian wrote a note to Rachel and left the house.

It was two days before Brian returned home. As soon as he walked in he was greeted by Rachel.

"What are you wearing?" She said. Her happiness to see him was overtaken by shock of his new 'outfit'.

"New clothes, do you like them? Listen," Brian started, "I did it, get ready.. honey we're moving. I bought a new house."

Rachel looked at her husband.

"I bought a new car too, but it won't be delivered for a few days."

Still unblinking, Rachel started to speak. "What? What do you mean? Moving? You have got to be kidding. If you think you're just going to uproot our family, you must be nuts. Are you going through a midlife crisis or something? A new car, that's fine - but a new house? Thats a little ridiculous isn't it?"

"Oh come on. It's not that big of a deal, let me explain. The house I got is a little smaller than this one. When my family moved here I actually didn't like it much. Our family was large at the time too. Now it's not. Look at this place - it's just the four of us, we don't need so much space. You know, I see you running around here working and cleaning all the time. Don't you realise that if we were in a smaller house you probably wouldn't be so busy." Brian paused. "We need a change."

Rachel sighed. "I'm not going to disagree with you. We do need a change, and this place is a little big for us. But honey it's your family home."

"Oh no it's not. My family home is left back in Twinbrook. At least I hope it's still there. What I mean is, this place never really seemed like 'home' to me much so it doesn't bother me to much to leave it."

"Okay Brian, I can see you really mean this. We'll move. I'll get packing after work. I have to leave though."

"About the car..." Brian started.

"I don't have time, I gotta run. We'll talk about it later."

As Rachel walked out Brian called behind her, "Don't worry about packing, I'll call you at work with the address to our new house. The movers will be here in about an hour."

With Rachel at work and Jennifer in school, Brian decided to go ahead and leave. He went in and packed a good diaper bag then got Logan up and left the house. He had called a limo to pick them up as opposed to drive himself. Drivers would be picking up the family's cars and driving them over later.

Brian and Logan pulled up to the new house and got out of the car. Brian stood holding Logan and looked at it. It was great, very nice. He loved the little area where it was located, not in the distant country anymore but closer to town. One of the best parts was that Dylan lived right next door.

Time to unpack and get settled.

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Generation 4 Fuller Home (click to view home) - Pictures on my House blog, you can see how it's laid out and rearranged if you want to! I hope you like it.

GEN IV: Chapter 11

Over the next few days, life in the Fuller house was busy. Rachel remained occupied taking care of Logan and things around the house. Brian went to work and solved cases as often as he could and in addition to that he called Johanna when ever he had time. Unfortunately she hadn't been available to talk since Carla had been born. Brian would have to make sure to take some time out to visit her again. He was worried about Johanna knowing that Ranier was connected to her in any way.

Since her mother and father had been so busy, Jennifer had started to imagine her doll 'Patches' as a friend the same age as her. The two of them talked often and played hard. Their favorite place to play was in the sand box that Jennifer had gotten for her birthday. Jennifer would build the sand sculptures and Patches would knock them down. Then they would laugh and do it all again.

Out on a job one afternoon, Brian ran into Dylan and invited him back to the house to meet his nephew. He played with Logan, snuggled and even fed him a bottle.

"You know Brian, I want one of these eventually." Dylan said, then he chuckled. "I guess I should find a girl first though, huh?"

"Yeah, I think you'd need a girl for that - unless of course you adopt. Honestly bro, I didn't think you wanted children." Brian said. "Speaking of which, have you met Carla yet? Jo-Jo's little one? She's adorable. I'm actually headed over there soon, do you want to come?"

"Oh no I haven't been by since the birth I guess. Unfortunately I can't make it tonight, I have to get to work."

It was not long before Logan fell asleep in Dylan's arms. Dylan laid the babe in his crib and said goodbye to Brian.

Brian told Rachel that he would be back soon and went of to Johanna's house.

Rachel was beginning to really feel the life of the house wife and mother. There was always something to do. Always. Sometimes she got so frustrated about it that she literally screamed and tugged at her hair. She missed her real job. It felt to her that she hadn't been to work in months, then she realized that she really hadn't. Her pregnancies and babies had lined up perfectly with weekends. Basically she had a weekend, then Monday started her first Maternity leave, as that came to an end it weekend was again. She found out she was pregnant at the end of that weekend - therefore was put right back on leave. She wanted to go to work but she's still on her second maternity leave and her boss wouldn't allow it.

Jennifer was old enough now to take her own baths, which took one thing off of her mother's list of things to do. She always enjoyed bathing too, it was the perfect time to play her submarine games. She always splashed and had lots of fun. Jennifer made sure to clean up the mess that always accumulated as well, just so Rachel didn't have to.

That night the girls had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner.

"Thank you for making dinner Jennifer, I really appreciate it." Rachel said. "I know I've been busy lately, I'm sorry I haven't spent much time with you. I'm trying to get better but it seems like everytime I get some kind of established schedule - everything goes wrong and I have to start over again."

After dinner Rachel went back to her housework, including laundry and cleaning bathrooms. Jennifer went upstairs to watch TV but then decided she'd prefer to dress up and play pretend.

**Meanwhile**

Brian showed up at Johanna's house and she happily invited him in.

"Oh gracious I'm glad you're here, it's nice to see you." Johanna said. "Here's Carla." She passed the baby to Brian. "I'm sorry to shove her at you, would you mind terribly if I took a shower?"

Brian played with the little lady for a few minutes while giving Johanna some time to herself. An hour later Carla was asleep so Brian and Johanna sat down for some television and conversation.

"Okay Jo-Jo, I've tried to hold this off and satisfy curiosity by observing but I can't judge by that only. Is Ranier in your life?"

Johanna wasn't shocked by his question at all. "I was wondering if you were going to ask. It didn't seem like you really liked him when you met. You didn't seem pleased with him." She paused a beat, "No, he's not. He did try to be. He came over that night Carla was born as you know and we talked. He insisted to be part of the family but I denied him. I told him that being the 'biological father' doesn't make him obligated to be her 'dad'. He could never be that. So I told him to get lost. If anyone knows about biological versus true parents it's me. You know Mother Daphne was my mother in every way possible, though she did not give birth to me."

"I know that must have been a little hard for you but I'm glad you did it. You're right, he probably wasn't the best 'dad' material."

"Oh, it wasn't too tough. As I told you before, that one night with him was caused by too much 'fun juice' anyway. Carla is an unplanned blessing but she's changed my life for the better, there's no way I would let him mess it up."

The two of them talked for just a little while longer before Brian said farewell and went home.

When Brian walked in the front door he saw Jennifer flinging a pillow around - seemingly at no one. She appeared to be having a blast too. He smiled as he walked by. Brian and Rachel both had noted some similar actions from Jennifer recently. They both assumed that she had an imaginary friend, but neither were positive.

Brian checked on Logan, he seemed content in his crib and nearly asleep so Brian left him be.

Brian ran into Rachel on his way out of the bedroom and she stopped him to ask a question.

"How do you think Jennifer is doing with Logan?"

"Oh, Jenn really doesn't seem as angry anymore. Maybe she's taken a slight liking to him a little. Then again I haven't seen her deliberately go near him just yet." He said.

"You're right. She probably needs to work through it mentally a little before she shows him any attention."

What her parents didn't know, or see (because they were too busy), is that Jennifer did find her own ways to get peeks at her little brother and start to be around him more. A lot of the time when he was in the crib, asleep or not, Jennifer would sit just outside the nursery to do her homework or read a book. She was starting to think that there was no way this little baby could be the monster she imagined originally. Maybe she could like him in the future. Maybe.