Here's an update! Sorry it took awhile. My other stories will be updated within a week as well. Enjoy!

"Casey," I say my wife's name in a sing-song voice as I walk through our new house in search of the redhead. I know she's here…she just doesn't want to be found. Casey has made the wise decision to avoid me today.

Why? Because it's her birthday, and she knows I baked her a cake. A cake that turned out awful. A cake she will be forced to eat. But how could I not bake a cake? Sure I could have gone and ordered a professional cake that both looked nice and tasted good. But we have too much to celebrate for that. Casey's birthday is definitely a big event, we've been in our house in DC for two weeks, and her birthday fell on a Saturday. All good reasons to eat a cake.

My search for my redheaded wife ends when I go to the basement. There she is sitting on the couch with Blaze beside her, a blanket completely covering her up except for her arms. In her hands she holds an Xbox controller, and when she's aware of my presence pauses the game and completely withdraws under the blanket.

I chuckle and fall onto the cushion beside her. I rest my head against the human-shaped lump under the blanket. "Why are you hiding down here?"

"You aren't supposed to see me; this is an invisibility cloak."

I laugh again. "Well, technically I can't see you because you're under the blanket, so I guess it works. But why do you want to be invisible?" I reach for the top of the blanket and yank it off her. "It's your special day!"

Casey is completely exposed now, and she looks so utterly dorkily adorable. She's still in her gray PJs and her hair is messy. Her eyes go wide and her hand moves to her chest, gripping it dramatically. "You…brought down my cloak. Now my powers are useless! What have you done?"

I lean in and give her a kiss. I love the playful side of Casey, and it's resurfaced since we've been out of New York. She's been so at ease and playful these past couple of weeks, like her old self, the silly Casey I fell in love with. Our first couple of days were stressful, with the move and what had happened with Jenna. I was still pretty jumpy and I couldn't shake the guilty feeling I had for being glad that Jenna was gone forever. It didn't seem right to be happy about the death of another human being. Whenever I talked to Casey about it, she said she felt the same way but that she didn't consider Jenna to be a human being so she didn't qualify. I like that logic. I'm choosing to believe in Casey's logic right now and I've banished all thoughts of her from my mind. She's in the past, she's buried, and she's going to stay there. I'm alive and here right now with the most beautiful woman in the world.

I laugh and give her a kiss. "Stop being so cute. It's really not fair you know." I stand up and offer her my hand. "Now come on, upstairs. Your birthday awaits you!"

Casey pouts as I lead her up the stairs, followed closely by Blaze. He seems to know it's a special day, as he's wagging his tail excitedly. "Getting older is nothing to celebrate," Casey says glumly as we reach the kitchen.

"Baby, you're like a fine wine - you get better with age," I tell her with another kiss. She groans and I tell her to close her eyes. I position her in front of our kitchen table so she has a good view of the cake and her gifts. I tell her to open her eyes, and when she does I see a grin break out across her beautiful face. She likes to pretend her birthday is no big deal…but she loves it, and I know it.

Casey moves closer to the table and I follow her, linking my arm with hers. She leans in and examines her birthday cake skeptically, raising an eyebrow and looking at me. "Alex…it actually looks edible…I don't really know how to respond to this." I playfully slap her on the shoulder and she looks back at it, mildly impressed.

I have to say it's not my worst work. I spread the white frosting somewhat evenly this time, and the chocolate round cake is not lopsided for once. The only aspect of the cake I would say is "bad" is my poor attempt at writing Happy Birthday Casey across the top. I have excellent handwriting, so one would think writing on a cake with a tube of icing would be a breeze. One would think. But not so much. As soon as I uncapped that thing and lowered it to the frosted cake, I became a kindergarten student about to write for the first time.

Casey looks at me with an excited smile and kisses my cheek, "It's perfect, sweetheart. Thank you so much."

That makes me very happy, and I make Casey sit and start shoving her gifts in front of her. "Open your presents!"

Casey looks at the four boxes in front of her. "Why did you get me so much? Only one thing would have been fine!"

I knew she was going to say something about that, and I know exactly what to say. I'm so excited for her to open her gifts…one in particular. "Well there's another one, but I can't give that to you until bedtime." Casey is grinning ear-to-ear when she says that. "So you have all day to look forward to that. In the meantime," I take the medium sized gift and place it in front of her. "Start with this one."

She excitedly tears off the blue sparkly paper, revealing a brown box. I watch her struggle with the excessive amount of tape I purposely put on it. The box is heavy and I can tell she's confused as to why the box would weigh what it does. Then I see a smile form on her face, and her green eyes meet mine as she sets the gift down on the table. "You got me an iPad Mini! Thank you!" I can tell she's happy, and she kisses me on the cheek in gratitude.

I knew she would love it. She's been needing one; she uses her full size iPad daily, and it's a couple years old and the battery is getting bad. Plus it's so big and bulky. Whenever we go to Best Buy she always looks at the Minis and comments that one would be perfect for her,. They are purse size and thin, and she can use it with our Verizon service. With her important job, it will sure come in handy. Gift number one is a winner!

I give Casey the second biggest box and let her go to town on that one next. This gift I'm nervous about; I bought her a pair of very cute tall black boots. We went shoe shopping the day after we officially moved to DC and spent a good deal of time trying on shoes and boots. I ended up buying new running shoes and two pairs of boots but Casey had refused to get anything. She did find a pair of black boots that she liked and looked adorable in, but of course when I went back to get them they were gone. I found a similar pair in her size and I hope she likes them.

She seems to. A smile spreads across her face as she takes the boots out of the box and immediately tries one on. It looks to be a good fit and I know the boots will look cute when she wears them with jeans.

"You like them? I know they are not the exact ones you looked at when we went shopping, but I thought they were cute."

"I love them!" I receive another kiss as Casey returns the boot she tried on to its box. "They are a perfect fit! You sure spoil me, baby."

"Well, you must be Cinderella, my beautiful lady."

I can't put into words how good this feels. To be home, with my Casey, feeling at ease and relaxed after so long of being afraid all the time. Casey is back to her old self, and it feels so natural and wonderful. I look into her eyes now and see the Casey that is confident, strong and loving. I no longer see the Casey controlled by Jenna. It's been a long time coming and I'm glad it's here.

Casey opens another present - a matching necklace and earring set, which see seems to love. I'm so glad she loves her gifts and she keeps talking about me spoiling her; well, wait until she sees the gift I saved for last. There's a possibility that it's too much. But my Casey deserves the best, and I'm going to take a chance.

"Okay, this is the biggie." I slide the last box in front of Casey. "Ironically, it's in the smallest box."

Casey grins. "Big things come in small packages. But I don't need anything else, baby. I already have everything I want here, with you."

I smile at the sentiment and nod at the box. "I know, but you may find a use for this too. It just may be useful. Maybe."

I can see I've piqued Casey's interest. This box is not wrapped; it just has a red bow tying it shut. She slowly and carefully unties it and opens the box. She sees what it is and stares at it for a full minute, before giving me an overwhelmed look. "Alex…" She removes the key and puts it on the table. "If this is what I think it is…baby, you did not need to do that."

"What do you mean?" I shrug. "It's a key. Just a key." I look thoughtful. "Do you think it goes to something? Is that what you're thinking?"

Casey shakes her head at my silliness. "Baby, stop. Please tell me you didn't do this."

But I did. Casey sold her car before we left New York, with the intention of getting another just like it when we arrived. That hasn't happened yet and she's been using my car, so I secretly bought her a car a week ago and went this morning to pick it up. She loved her jeep, but I opted for something more practical for her out here. I picked out a silver Lexus, fully loaded.

And I will never get to ride in it, because my wife is going to kill me for this.

I take her outside, and the look on her face when she sees her new car is worth the risk and every penny I spent. She looks absolutely shocked, and opens the driver side door and sits down on the nice leather seat. "I can't…I don't know what to say. Alex, this is a brand new car. As in, I'm the first owner of it…"

I laugh at her. "Well yeah, thats the definition of a new car, sweetie."

She meets my eyes with a serious expression and I see tears shining in her beautiful eyes. "I've never had a new car before; ever. A good previously-owned car was always 'new' to me. This is…much more than I expected, and more than I deserve. Is this car for both of us?"

"No; I still have my car. This is yours." She still looks shocked I lean inside and turn on the large GPS screen. "You'll never get lost with this, the car has voice command, and bluetooth so you can listen to your music and be safe if you have to take a call while driving. I figured you needed something reliable and functional with your job."

Casey takes everything in, and I can tell she's still so overwhelmed but does love the car. When she finally gets out, I start to talk again, but she silences me by literally grabbing me and wrapping me in a huge hug. She's crying, and telling me over and over again that she loves me. And when she finally breaks away from me, she takes me by the hands and looks into my eyes. "Alex, you're the best wife anyone could ever ask for. What you've done for me this past year, and since we have been together…most people would not have stuck it out. But you did, and you're beautiful and wonderful and I don't know how I got you." Her voice quivers. "You made me feel like a Princess today. An honest to goodness Princess."

I have tears in my eyes too as I kiss her deeply. "That's because you are, baby. You're my princess." I smooth her hair back and we stand there, smiling at each other. "Now what do you say you get dressed, we have some cake, and then go cruising in your sweet new car, Princess?"

"Sounds perfect!" We walk hand-in-hand back to the house. Nearly there, Casey says, "If the cake doesn't kill us."

This story has one more chapter...then it's over. Thank you to everyone who stuck with me until the end. It took way longer than I intended to finish it. I didn't mean to take so many breaks. But I'm glad it turned out the way it did, and I'm glad to have so many readers! You all rock.

Now, I want to do another in this series that takes place after this one. My question to my readers - what would you like to see happen in the next one? Would you like to see Casey run for office? What would you like? Anything but kids...I'm not doing that in these stories. Please review with your suggestions!