Red Dress

- - -

KRISTEN

I rested my hands atop my still flat tummy. I was already four months along, and still…nothing. Well, no I take that back. I've gained a whopping seven pounds, and only a tiny protrusion has made its presence.

I had all of my weekly doctor visits, and every time, everything seemed to be good. The doctor said that he saw no reason that I shouldn't have a healthy, nine month pregnancy.

"You almost ready, babe?" Rob asked, poking his head into the room.

I sighed, and nodded my head. "Yep!" I tried to sound happy.

He nodded his head, and left. I grabbed my purse from the counter, and smoothed out my red dress.

I slipped into my red heels, and walked into the living room, where my kids, and my husband waited for me patiently.

"You look pretty, mommy!" Lily chimed.

The boys nodded. "Thank you baby." I said.

Rob smiled, and whistled. He rose his eyebrows, and walked over to me. "You look amazing my love, but you really need to stop teasing me." His hand started traveling up my leg, when Lily tugged on Rob's pant leg.

"Daddy! Can we go now?" Lily asked.

"Of course baby, come on." I gathered the boys, and Rob took Lily.

We pulled up to Kellan's driveway, and got out of the car. We walked up to the door, snow going into my shoes, and Lily's. She complained the entire way to the door.

"Mommy, there's snow in my shoes." She said, looking down at her feet. I smiled, and took her hand. "I know baby, but you can take your shoes off when we get inside, okay?" She nodded, happily. The boys were holding each of Rob's hands, as he waited for the door to open.

"Uncle Kellan!" Lily yelled when he opened the door. "Hey munchkin!" He smiled, taking her into his arms. The boys always got shy around Kellan, being that he was so big.

I smiled at Rob, who was trying to get Liam and Adam to go inside.

Kellan put Lily down as she went running for the kitchen screaming; "Aunt Nikki! Aunt Ashley!"

The kids referred to them as their aunts, and uncles, and they had no problem with that in return.

The boys were hesitant, but hugged Kellan when they got inside. We always made jokes about how Liam used to hide behind Rob whenever Kellan came over.

"Hey Kel." I said, pulling him into a hug.

"Hey sweetie." He hugged me back. He was so sweet. His bug, lean, muscular appearance made you think that he was this big macho, harsh guy, but in reality, he's just a really mushy guy.

Rob and Kellan man hugged as I made my way into the kitchen, meeting the girls and Jackson.

"Hey!" I screeched as we group hugged.

"Oh my gosh! Your getting so big!" Nikki exclaimed.

Phew, what a relief.

"Really? You think so? I think I'm so small compared to when I had Lily and the boys." Thank god we were only having one this time around.

"No! I think you're growing!" Nikki said happily.

I giggled, and took the bowl of salsa from the counter, and walked into the living room where everyone was. The boys were playing with a Tonka tractor in the corner, while Lily was sitting on Rob's lap.

After we were sitting there for at least twenty minutes, I glanced over to Nikki's hand as a sparkle caught my eye. That's when I saw it. A ring. An engagement ring. The chip went flying out of my mouth. "EW! Mommy!" Lily screeched.

Nikki looked at me, here expression of complete confusion. "Are you okay!?" She asked. I pointed to her hand, covering my mouth with my hand. She looked down, and sighed.

I looked over to Kellan, who was smiling like a little kid.

"Is there something you want to tell us!?" I asked, overly excited.

She nodded. "Okay, okay." She looked at Kellan, and took his hand.

"Kellan and I are engaged!" She said, happily.

"Daddy? What's engaged?" I heard Lily ask.

"It's when two people are getting married, Lils." He told her, and she smiled at Nikki.

"Aunt Nikki and Uncle Kellan are getting married!" She announced, happily, bouncing in Rob's lap.

"SANTA CAME MOMMY! WAKE UP!" I heard Lily scream at me. I heard Rob groan from the other side of me. Liam and Adam were standing next to Lily, patiently waiting, but I could see the anticipation in the way they were constantly moving. Their hands wouldn't stop touching a body part, and they were looking at their feet every five seconds.

They looked so adorable in their little Christmas pajamas. They were red, and green, with little reindeer and elves on them. Lily decided that she was 'too old' to wear Christmas jammies, so instead she opted for her 'Blue's Clues" feety pajamas. Her hair was still in the pony tail from last night, curl strands had escaped, and the tie had fallen down a bit, making it look like she just rolled out of bed.

I giggled, and we got up out of bed.

When we got downstairs, we of course had to seem to be in shock of ' How much Santa brought this year'. Of course, it was a lot. Last night had been a long night of carrying the large black bags upstairs from the basement, and putting each present under the tree, and deciding which ones should go into the stockings. Rob of course, only gave me the light bags, to which I was not mad, because I didn't really feel like lugging around huge garbage bags full of gifts.

"Mommy, look! Santa brought us the Gi Joe towy!" Liam screamed.

Rob chuckled, and I leaned back into him as we sat on the floor.

I heard the doorbell ring, so I got up, and went to the door.

"E-Ellen?" I rasped out.

Rob came up behind me, a bouncing Lily in his arms.

I watched Ellen gasp as she clung to Domenic.

"W-what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Who are you?" Rob asked, completely out of the loop.

"We were supposed to be Lily's parents." They both said in unison. I watched Rob tense as he held Lily tighter.

"We want you to know that we're going to adopt her, and this time, we're going to get her." Ellen said.

I felt my blood pressure rise.

"EXCUSE ME!?" I screamed.

"Mommy" Lily whispered, starting to cry.

"Shh baby, its okay" I cooed to her. I tried to keep calm, because I didn't want to hurt the baby. It was bad enough that he or she may be starting to get a little crammed in there, and it didn't need anymore stress.

The boys came running up to us, but I blocked them. I didn't want them going near them.

"She's our daughter. You can't take her away from us. They won't let you." I said slowly.

Ellen smiled, and proceeded to come into the house. Rob stepped in front of her.

"Don't you dare step foot in my house." He growled. I grabbed his arm, holding on for dear life. He whispered something to Lily, and I watched as she was put down. She grabbed both her brothers hands, and walked back to the tree.

I turned back to them. "How dare you!" I screeched.

"You didn't even let us see her!" Ellen yelled.

"Oh, but I did. I invited you to all four of her birthday parties! You didn't come to one of them!" I screamed.

"I didn't think that was a way to meet my daughter." My blood stared boiling.

"Your daughter!?" I yelled. "Are you fucking insane!?"

"We signed the papers." She said simply.

"I backed out of the adoption, the lawyers took care of it." I said.

"Paper won't keep what's mine away from me." She smirked.

"Fuck you." I spat.

Domenic looked at me, apologetically.

"Don't you look at me like that! Why aren't you stopping her! You know this is wrong! Are you that damn naive?" I asked Ellen.

"There is no way that you're going to get Lily, and your fucking nuts to even think you would!" I spat.

"She never belonged with you. You didn't even want her!" She pointed at Rob.

"Listen to me! Don't you dare criticize him! Look, you two are such wonderful people, and there are surrogates!" I shook her head. "We've always wanted her. She just feels like ours." She said calmly.

"Well she isn't yours!" I shouted.

"You know, it's really a shame. What happened to that poor man. Michael, was it?" I shuddered.

"Don't." I started.

"You killed a man!" She yelled. "You think they would let you keep your children if they knew that?" She asked.

"We settled things." I said.

She laughed icily.

"Honey, it's time to go. We have to pick up Ethan." Domenic stated.

"Who the hell is Ethan!?" I asked.

"Oh, dear. He's our son." Ellen said before leaving.

I watched them leave, and quickly ran to the phone, and dialed 911. Rob stopped me by unplugging the phone."Why the fuck did you do that!?"

"Baby, come on." He shook his head.

"She wants to take our little girl away!" I whispered.

"I know, and if she comes back. We'll be ready. We'll be ready for anything." He soothed, pulling me into his arms.

We tried to have a decent rest of the Christmas, but I just couldn't.

When it as time for bed, I wanted the kids to sleep with us, but Rob told me that by doing that, it would just make it seem like something was wrong. I gave in, but brought out the baby monitors; just in case.

I woke up at 2:09AM to rustling coming from the monitor of Lily's room. I instantly sat up, and jumped out of bed.

I heard her voice. "Shh, honey it's okay. Mommy's got you."

"Mommy, your not mommy." I heard a tired Lily try to argue. I gasped, and shook Rob.

"Rob! ROB! She's here, she's in the house! She has Lily! Oh my god!" I rushed.

Rob jumped up, and grabbed the gun from the side dresser, and I took the phone. We carefully tiptoed down to Lily's room, where we heard her words more clearly.

I started crying. This just couldn't be happening!Rob pushed open the door, and I heard him click the safety off.

I quickly rushed behind him.

"Put her down. Now." Rob said icily.

"Mommy!" Lily reached for me.

I tried to get in, but Rob blocked me, and I struggled against him.

"GO TO HELL!" I screamed out.

Ellen stood quiet, and set Lily down. My eyes went wide as she nudged her to come to me.

I quickly took her into my arms. "It's okay baby, momma's got you" I kissed her head as she breathed heavily.

"I think you should leave." Rob spat. "Before I call the police."

I looked towards Ellen who had tears streaming down her face.

"All I ever wanted was to be a mom." She said.

I kept my still face. I had no self pity for her.

"That fuck up of I husband that I have, ha! He can't have babies! Because he has fucking AIDS! Yea! AIDS!" She laughed.

"Worthless piece of shit. T'swhy I killed em'." She said, and my eyes went wide.

"Oh my god." I whispered.

Rob lowered the gun.

I gave the phone to Rob, and watched as he hesitantly dialed 911.

As we sat in the police station, my stomach turned, and I knew I was going to be sick. I frantically hit Rob, letting him know I had to puke.

Once we got to the bathroom, I felt so sick that I couldn't even stand up when I was done.

Rob scooped me into his arms, and brought me back out as I just dozed in his arms. I faintly heard him make chatter with an officer, and something about coming back tomorrow.

Next thing I knew, we were home. Home, sweet home. I raced upstairs, and ran into Lily's room, thanking Brittney along the way.

I sat beside Lily's bed as she stretched, and rubbed her eyes. "Mommy?" She asked.

"Yea, baby its me, go back to sleep." I told her as I kissed her forehead.

I turned around, and found Rob standing in the doorway, Liam behind him with his monkey in his hands, wiping his tired eyes.

I smiled, and walked over to them. I kissed my husband lightly, and picked up Liam.

"Hey buddy. What are you doing up?" I whispered.

"I couldn't sweep mommy. Can I sweep in daddy and yous bed tonight?" He asked sweetly.

"Sure baby." I said, walking down the hall.

The bed was going to get a little cluttered, with Liam in the bed, as he had quite a way of sleeping. He slept more, sideways, then normal.

Once everyone was settled, and Liam was cuddled in Rob's chest, I leaned on my side, and smiled at the pair of eyes that were boring into mine.

"Hey" I mouthed, and felt myself starting to doze. I yawned, and forced my eyes to stay open.

I put my hand gently to my stomach, and smiled. Sleep welcomed me with open arms.

Oh my gosh, it's been so long! I feel horrible, and I hope you all forgive me. I will comtinue this story whenever I have time, and I apologize for that. The new chapters for 'I'll Remember You' have caught up with me, and now I have to write them from scratch. It should be up tonight, tomorrow at most.

Love you all, Steph.

REVEIW!