A/N: Wow. I can't believe this story is finally over. I started it six months ago, and it seems ridiculous that it's already up and finished, but that's the way life works. I know I've gotten busier recently and left DOABH on the back burner, but it's coming back soon, too, I promise. Until then though, thanks for the ever awesome reviews, the wonderful conversations, and the amazing readers you all have been. I'm always up for suggestions both on stories I'm writing and on new stories, or just up to talk, and I'd love to get/keep in contact with all of you. My AIM is carrotsneedham and if you feel like it, shoot me an IM or a PM or whatever. I love to chat. And without further adieu:

Reader Responses:

Ruli- Wow! I love your reviews, and I miss chatting with you friend!! You're the best, and like you said, the epilogue can be days, or months, or decades down the line. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Nat- Oh thank you! You're quite wonderful, aren't you!?
Ama.Dear- Of course. I swear I always do an epilogue haha
Henantz- Oh thank you! I'm glad it makes you happy!! Sorry it was so long!
Dancer- Yeah, don't we all want a guy like that.
Kerber- Where have you been on AIM my friend? Haha. And than you so much! You are a wonderful reviewer and I value your responses muchly!
BigTuna - Wow! Thank you. That means so much to me. One of my biggest struggles/goals as a writer is to show a steady progression from what a character is into what they become. I really appreciate you saying I've done that! I wasn't devastated about it either to be honest ;)

Alaska- I have no idea what that means, but discounts are awesome. Hahaha.
Small Tuna- Yeah, I don't know. Stealing Cinderella is kind of cheesy, but the premise is beautiful when you're at that cusp of wanting to be married and still having father issues. Who knows. Sentimental me. ;)
Squint Squad- Thank you! The pastry is amaaaaazing.
KTface-Thank you! I was trying to make it realistic and amazing all at the same time!
Lulu- OF course I do. I am an epilogue queen! And I don't even know what I think about the writers and JAM proposal. I will await sept 25th.
Lovemesome- Aww thanks. I want my husband to do that one day too!

Firewolves- Oh thank you! I appreciate it!
Young- HAHAHA. Yes I know!
Dina- Thank you! Hmm. I don't know. Maybe because I figure he's a winker. He does the other things a lot too, there's just like one or two paragraphs where he winks a lot. He winks! It's his thing. You know, like Ryan's the fire guy. And Stanley's the crossword guy. Jim is the wink guy? Hahaha. And than you!
Tophetangel- Well here it is! And than you so much!
GlamGlitter- Or did I?... and thanks so much! You're wonderful!
Skywalker princess- AWWWW. Thank you! What a compliment! Seriously, thank you!
DragonWingedHanyou- I AM GIVING IT TO YOU NOW! Hahaha.
Alison- Aww thanks! And thank you! You're the best. We will talk soon, I promise. I've been busy!

Anon- I think that basically gets down to it, don't you? Thanks!
Ashley- Me too!
OneTreeFan- Thank you so much!! You're the best!
Sara- WOW! Thank you for your wonderful review! Please add me to your favorites or something because I love your reviews and would love to have your input on other stories! I appreciate what you've said about their characters because my number one goal is for them to seem like real people. And I hope you feel wonderfully better soon!

She climbed the stairs of her parent's brick house, the wood creaking under her feet with every step. She smiled as she thought back to the years she'd spent chasing her brothers and sisters through the hallway, trying to cover up the messes they'd made and trying to fix the various windows, appliances, and pretty decorations they'd broken with powerful kicks and bad catches.

It had been four months since she'd set foot in her parents' house. She'd gone to college and gotten married, and now, when she and her husband had just bought their first house, she was back to the attic of her parents' modest two-story house searching for those things she'd left behind for her hop from temporary living space to temporary living space. Now that she was moving into a legitimate house with legitimate space, she was taking the last of her things that afternoon.

She was the last one to make this final transition, which made it easier for her to sort through the storage boxes in the attic. All of her older brothers and sisters had done their share of clearing out old memories, and now she was left only to sort through her own, and her parents boxes of memories. She inhaled the scent of childhood as she reached the attic, taking a moment to savor in the feeling of home before she began the process of moving her life completely from one place to the other.

She sat down in a corner of the attic, pulling an old box toward her and lifting the flap, coughing at the dust that shook loose as she did. She reached inside of the box, smiling as she pulled out an old picture frame of her mom and dad on their wedding day. Her father's dark brown hair was combed to the side—a look she'd rarely seen him wear except when her mother begged him to, which she didn't do often. Her mother's was curled slightly, half up with tendrils beside her face. It was a candid shot from their wedding, and the expression in her father's eyes couldn't be described as anything less than being desperately in love.

She pulled the frame out of the box, along with a few other things she knew her father—ever the sentimental one—had kept all of these years. She saw her parents' wedding announcement, and an old piece of tenfoil she'd written "hey daddy" on, followed by a date just over seven months before her oldest sibling, Allie was born. She pulled out little figurines, a dried up rose from a special ceremony, and other pieces of paper from art shows her mother had been in, or letters her father had written her mother years earlier. After she'd pulled nearly everything out of the box, she noticed an old, worn and dusty scrapbook at the bottom, easily made 30 years ago, if not more.

She pulled the scrapbook out of the bottom and wrinkled her forehead as she read the cover: ABC, 123, Baby, You and Me, Girl. She leafed through it carefully, her entire face scrunching, not in recognition but in confusion. She was busy looking at the inscription on the first page, when she heard her mother's soft voice behind her, "Kamea?"

She turned, smiling at her mother from her spot on the floor. She lifted up the scrapbook to show her, "what's this?" Her mother smiled from her spot against the door and walked slowly over to where she was sitting. She slowly sat down on the ground next to her daughter, pulling the old scrapbook in her lap. She smiled, patting the back of her head.

"Haven't you ever heard the story of your dad and I?" she asked softly, smiling as she opened the front cover.

"Sure, you and dad met at that office and were best friends and you dated and then you fell in love," Kamea shrugged. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Our story's a lot more complicated than that," Pam said, dusting off the first page with her sleeve. "I was engaged to another man, and your father was in love with me, and there was just so much drama. But it all came to a head this one afternoon. I'd had a fight with my fiancé and was sitting on your father's porch waiting for him to come home, and when he did, that's when it all began."

"What happened?" Kamea asked, smiling.

"I'll show you," Pam said, flipping the first page.

Kamea watched as her mother flipped to the first page, smiling to herself. "Your dad gave me this scrapbook for Christmas one year," Pam said, running her finger over one of the pages. "I'd forgotten it was up here." Kamea looked over the page, taking in the stickers and pieces of paper glued on to the red background. She noticed a big black A at the top, and her father's scribbly handwriting under it, is for apartment hunting. "Where should I start?"

"The beginning," Kamea said, smiling.

"Well," Pam began, smiling as she spread her legs out in front of her, bringing the scrapbook up on her lap. "Your father had always been my best friend, pretty much since the moment I met him. We just had this chemistry and we got along so well, and it just made sense. But I was engaged to my high school boyfriend, Roy, and it was all just a secret, hidden mess." Pam smiled, looking off into the distance for a moment before focusing her attention back on her daughter and the scrapbook in their hands. "One night I fount out Roy had been cheating with me, so I went to your dad's and waited for him to come home because I didn't really know what else to do. Looking back on it, there are plenty of other places I could have gone, but at the time, the only name that kept flickering in my mind was Jim."

Kamea smiled. "Well, I think Dad's the right person to go to. You know he can't refuse help to anyone."

Pam smiled, laughing. "That's the truth. Remember when he was late for Christmas dinner that one year? I was so mad at him," she chuckled. "Turned out he was just helping some old fart on the side of the road."

Kamea laughed, "typical Dad."

Pam nodded for a moment, before smiling and continuing, "anyway, your Dad brought me in and let me stay with him, and he was just really good about it. He didn't force me to talk or tell him what was up or anything. He just let me be… except there was this moment in the kitchen where I was ranting about how men were scum, and I was done with them and blahdy blah blah," Pam waved her hand in dismissal and Kamea laughed. "And your dad took such an offense to it that he bet me he could make me change my mind by taking me on 26 dates, each with a different letter of the alphabet."

"Dad is so cheesy," Kamea said, laughing as she looked down. "So A was apartment hunting?"

"Yeah, he circled all of these apartments in the area, and checked them out for me," she smiled, pointing down at the floor plan from the brochure of the apartment she'd lived in. "This is the one he picked out for me, and it was really wonderful," she smiled. "I needed to live on my own, and it was the perfect apartment for that."

"Why is there an…" Kamea paused as she read the name of the cereal, "Applejacks box? What are Applejacks anyway?"

Pam laughed, "Oh, they were this old cereal we had way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. They were made for little kids. You know, lots of sugar, bright colors. Your dad loved them and made me eat them because they started with A." The girls laughed for a moment, before Pam flipped a few more pages.

"So I guess at this time you weren't really interested in Dad? Was he interested in you?" Kamea asked, looking up.

"Um, well," Pam hesitated for a moment, mulling the question over in her head. "I think… and this is getting mushy and weird so to each his own, but, I think I've always been interested in your dad. Loved your dad, really. I just didn't know it yet, or I refused to recognize it, or something. If you would have asked me then, I would have said no. And your dad says he was kind of in the same boat. He surprised himself by how adamant he was that I not give up. So yeah, I suppose we were interested, we just didn't know it yet," Pam said, smiling as she let the page land on E.

"E is for Eavesdropping?" Kamea read out loud, looking at the page. The background was entirely covered in camouflage fabric, and she laughed, "what the heck did you do?" She smiled, noticing outlined pictures of her mother and father, one on each side of the page, decked in full spy gear. "Stinging Zebra? Zigzag Platypus? What in the world?"

Pam chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand. "I forgot we did this!" Kamea looked at her perplexedly, while Pam stared at the page, smiling and relishing in the memory before opening her mouth to explain it to her youngest daughter. "Do you remember that little boy you used to go to preschool with? Maximilian?"

"You mean Max? Yeah, he was weird," Kamea said. "He always had the weirdest food for lunch, and his mom always gave me weird looks."

Pam laughed, smiling. "Well, your dad and I used to work with Max's father… and his mother, actually. But his father and we had this strange relationship. It was really the epitome of love hate. And we used to pull these pranks on him. That's actually how your dad and I got so close."

"Like what?" Kamea asked.

"You know, the old jello in stapler, desk in bathroom. Just generic tricks. Well, Mr. Scott, your dad's boss. Do you remember him?"

"Mr. Scott? I thought dad's boss was… oh wait, you mean from like, a really long time ago?"

"Yeah, it was a long time ago," Pam said, shaking her head lightly. "Well, he used to host these award shows called the Dundies, and Max's dad thought the world of the Dundies, and so he saved them and displayed them and everything. And he had really ticked us off the week before, so that week we retaliated by stealing his dundy." Pam laughed, and Kamea stared at her, mouth open. "That's also when we found out he was dating Max's mom. They'd kept it a secret for a long time."

Kamea smiled, looking the page over as her mother continued.

"This was our E date. This is the first time dad met Grandma, and he swears up and down she's the one who made him realize he loved me. I'm not sure how that came about, but hey, I'll take it however I can get it." Pam smiled, fingering the corner of the menu he'd kept from their dinner out. "Grandma met us for dinner. Your dad got the tacos. I remember because he was really sick from them for a few days afterwards, and I was so bored at work." Kamea laughed, watching her mother as the door opened behind them.

"Hey Mea, you ready?" the girls turned around to the voice, and Kamea smiled as she saw her husband poke his head in the room. "Oh, hi Mom!" he said, smiling and making his way over to Pam and kissing her on the forehead. "We were going to go out to dinner. Would you like to come?"

Pam smiled, shaking her head lightly, "No thanks, you two have fun." She picked up the scrapbook, starting to close it, when she felt Kamea kiss her cheek.

"We'll finish it later, okay?" she asked, smiling. Pam nodded, grinning as she took Kevin's hand to get up off the ground, carrying the scrapbook downstairs.

Jim opened the door to his house and hung his briefcase up on the hook near the door, walking into the kitchen to get a glass of water. The house was mostly dark, as it normally was when he came home from a long business trip earlier than he'd originally said he would. He tried to do that as often as he could. Often, he told Pam he'd be back Wednesday, fully knowing it would be Tuesday at the latest, just so he could see the broad smile on her face when he unexpectedly showed up at their door. He pushed his glass against the ice maker, watching as the ice clinked against his glass, and then he shifted his hand to the right and pressed the water dispenser, grinning at the sound the water made as it hit the ice.

He kicked his shoes off and headed toward the stairs to get ready for bed, when he noticed a faint light in the living room. He assumed Pam had just forgotten to turn it off that night as she'd watched reruns of The Price is Right, but when he walked into the room, he was surprised to find the TV off, the lamp on, and Pam sleeping in his recliner, a huge book in her hands. He smiled as he walked closer, knowing what book she was reading, but why, he had no idea. His mind drifted back to that day so many years ago when he'd created the scrapbook for her.

She stood by the edge of the tree, telling him over and over again to be careful as he tried to hang the angel on the top of the Christmas tree. He looked down at her, rolling his eyes and smiling, making smart remarks that sounded something like, "I promise to eat my vegetables, mom." She'd respond with something about how she wasn't his mother but his wife, and just the mention of her and his wife in the same sentence would be enough to make him finish the tedious job of hanging the angel just so he could climb down the ladder and kiss her.

It was their first Christmas as a married couple. They'd only been married nine months, and they'd been an extremely difficult nine months, but he wouldn't trade them for the world. They'd had a hard time figuring out how to combine Christmas traditions and birthday traditions; he'd had a hard time letting her have her 'girl time', and she hadn't understood how much he really needed to see every game that came on TV. They'd fought over silly things, like whether or not Pam's sweater made her look flushed out, and serious things, like where the electricity bill had disappeared to since it came in the mail the day before. There longest lasting argument had been about the distance from Jim's dirty clothes to the hamper. He'd felt the floor was perfect to hold dirty clothes, but she couldn't understand why all his years of watching basketball on TV hadn't transferred to an ability to shoot his clothes into a laundry basket.

As hard as their first year had been, they both were still assured of each other's love and commitment to their relationship, and just that assurance had kept something alive in both of them. Nine months into their marriage and Jim swore they were closer than they'd been before.

He climbed down the ladder, and she smiled up at the angel, her face glowing with excitement. "Baby, it looks great," she said, turning to him and wrapping her arms around him. He smiled down at her, and she locked eyes with his, kissing him softly. "So, I have an idea."

"Okay," Jim smiled. "Let's hear it."

"Well, we have all of these traditions from our childhoods and families, and you know, we're a family now…" she said, trailing off lightly.

"We are," he said, smiling as he kissed her once. She blushed, as she did every now and then when he kissed her, mostly when she was taken by surprise.

"I was thinking we should start our own tradition. We can pass it on to our kids and it can wreak havoc on their marriages later on," Pam laughed, smiling. Jim grinned, slipping his hands into hers and squeezing them lightly. She'd noticed that recently Jim had started to really love holding hands with her. When she'd brought it up the past week, he'd simply shrugged and said 'it's like hugging for your hands,' and she'd smiled, taking his hands in hers. Their hands had been almost inseparable since then.

"So, what's this hellish tradition that will ruin our children's lives forever?" Jim asked, laughing. "Ketchup egg nog? Trick or treating? Oh, that would be kind of fun… We could dress up as Santa, or the reindeer, and go down the street…"

"Jim!" Pam laughed. He looked at her and she grinned. "That actually would be kind of fun…" she trailed off and he laughed. "But I was thinking we should start a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve and saving the rest for Christmas morning."

"I think that's a wonderful idea, honey," Jim said, taking her hand and leading her over to the tree. "I have the perfect one."

"Me too," Pam said, smiling. She grabbed a small, almost completely flat box and handed it to him as he handed her a bag with tissue paper. "Who's first?" Pam asked.

"You are," Jim said, smiling as he sat down on the couch, putting his present to the side and pulling her into his lap. She smiled at him and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you," she said, grinning.

He chuckled, "you haven't even opened it yet!"

"I know, but I love it already!" she said, giggling as she pulled the paper off the package, pulling the scrapbook out amidst all the paper. She gasped as she read the cover, turning to look at him, tears in her eyes. "Are you kidding me, Tuna?"

He laughed. "Just open it, Mrs. Tuna." She laughed, flipping through the first few pages as he narrated them.

Jim could remember almost every narration from that book, but the ones he most remembered were N and O, his two favorite dates by far.

"Oh, I remember this date," Pam said, flipping to the page that said 'N is for New York'. "I think I fell a little bit more in love with you on this date, Prince Charming."

He laughed. "I'm glad you liked it. I tried to give you every romantic date cliché in the book." She smiled, resting her head on his shoulder. "I wanted you to feel like a princess."

"I did," she said, running her hand over the page. She laughed at the restaurant menu he'd taken and one napkin he'd taped to the pages. She laughed at the ticket stub of their play, and smiled when she saw the picture he'd pasted to the page. "When was this taken?" she asked, looking up at him with a grin.

He smiled. "In the hotel. I gave one of the bellboys a camera and a nice tip and told him he had to take a lot of pictures of us. This one was my favorite."

"I don't even remember twirling like that," she smiled. "God, I love my dress."

"Oh, you love that dress?" Jim said, laughing. "I guarantee you someone else loves it a lot more." She laughed, and he smiled, pointing. "We were on our way to Nobu, and we were heading out the door, and I lifted my arm and you twirled under it and out the door."

She smiled, staring at the picture a bit more. "God, look at your face. The way you're looking at me," she sighed, tears in her eyes as he pulled her closer. "You look so desperately in love."

"I am," Jim replied, smiling. "Oh, and look," he said, flipping a tab like one would a children's book and pulling out a silver disc. "I found our Cash Cab performance."

"No!" she squealed, laughing. "We have to watch it!" He smiled. "We will later, let's keep looking at the scrapbook." She flipped the page, tears in her eyes as she read aloud, "O is for Oh! The Places You'll Go!"

He smiled. "Oh, the places we went."

"Do you want to know something?" she asked, smiling as she looked at him and he gave her an incredulous look that directly translated into 'of course'. "This was my favorite date. Of all the dates we went on, this one was my favorite."

"Because of the awesome kiss?" Jim asked, laughing.

"No…" Pam said, "well, that too…" He laughed, and she smiled. "But no, you didn't care that I was sick, you just wanted me to be okay. And you took such good care of me, and you made being sick fun, and I don't know… I think that's when I first realized there was something there. For both of us." He smiled, watching her as she wiped her eyes. "And then when you kissed me… It was the best kiss of my life." She sighed, and he smiled, watching her and pulling her closer as they finished through the rest of the book.

Jim smiled, remembering easily how that Christmas was one of the best he'd ever had, mostly because of the present Pam had given him.

"Okay, your turn," Pam said, turning in her seat on his lap to watch him. She was twiddling her thumbs in the way she did when she was nervous, and she smiled, and he laughed.

"Why are you so nervous? I promise I'll like it," he said, smiling and leaning into kiss her. She smiled and nodded, and he pulled the paper off the flat box and lifted the lid, pulling out a single sheet of tinfoil. "Thanks for the tinfoil?" he said, arching his eyebrow.

"Turn it over," Pam said shakily, and he eyed her for a moment before doing what she said, reading the words she'd written in a black sharpie, the vision of it engrained in his moment forever.

He opened his mouth slightly, and then read, "hey daddy." His mouth dropped open for a minute, before he smiled, "okay, so do you mean hey daddy like, in the bedroom way or the baby way?"

She laughed, "well, I was thinking the baby way, but it can be the bedroom way too."

He smiled, "God, what an awesome Christmas!" He leaned in and kissed her, setting the piece of tinfoil to the side and pulling her closer, smiling. He slipped his hand down to her stomach and left it there, smiling at her.

"So, you're… okay with that?" she asked hesitantly, and he used his free hand to push the curls out of her eyes, smiling.

"Absolutely, I am."

Pam rustled in her chair, hearing Jim breathe even through the sounds of sleeping. She rubbed her eyes, smiling as she did before opening them, "hi," she said softly.

"Hi," he said, leaning down and kissing her forehead. "Do you always sleep in my recliner when I'm gone?"

"It smells like you," she murmured, wrapping her arms around him and hanging on. "I miss you when you're gone."

"I miss you when I'm gone too," he said, picking her up in his arms. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

She latched on, softly and sleepily protesting, "You're going to hurt your back."

"You're worth it," he said, walking into their bedroom. "Now shh."

"Don't tell me to shh," she said, kissing his stubbly chin. "Somebody forgot to shave this morning."

"Yeah, I can see your leg hair all the way through your pajama bottoms," Jim said, nodding. "You really should go to a doctor about that." She laughed as he set her down on the bed, and walked over to the dresser, changing quickly into the t-shirt and boxers that had become his classic bedtime attire over their entire marriage. He expected her to drift back to sleep in the few seconds he was away from her changing, but when he turned around, he was pleasantly surprised to see her smiling at him.

"So, how was your trip?" she asked, and he smiled, crawling into bed next to her and pulling her close.

"It was really good. I closed the Donaldson account which will be nice because it's a big account, and I went and visited with Mr. Monroe, and I think I'm really close to closing that too."

"Oh, that's great, honey!" Pam said, smiling. "You should have stayed longer to celebrate!"

"Well, you know I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to being gone from home," he said, and she laughed lightly. "How has your weekend been? Did everything go smoothly with Mea?"

"Yeah, she's not quite done yet," Pam said, resting her head on his chest. "She probably could have been, but we got distracted by stuff up in the attic."

"You mean like the huge ferocious dust bunnies?" Jim asked.

"Yeah, they're vicious little bitches," Pam said, giggling. He looked at her, rolling his eyes as she sighed, coming down from her laughter. "No, we found the old sentimental box."

"The old sentimental box? That's very descriptive," Jim replied straight-faced. Pam laughed, swatting his arm.

"You know, the us box. The one we put everything in."

"Everything? Like the lost city of Atlantis?"

She looked up at him, staring for a minute before dramatically rolling her eyes. "No, like the scrapbook and old pictures of us, and our wedding announcement. You know, our relationship milestones."

"Yeah, I've known what box you were talking about the entire time," Jim said, kissing her forehead. "So, since you've been taking a trip down memory lane, tell me something?"

"The Sixers are overrated?" Pam asked hopefully.

"Blasphemy!" Jim said, laughing. "I was just thinking," he said, pulling her closer. "You never told me what your favorite date was."

"April 22nd, 'cause its not too hot and its not too cold?" Pam asked, and Jim smiled. She sighed, "Our date to Snyder. And before you ask why, because I feel like I really got to know all of you that weekend. And I topped Caitlin Cooper."

"Who is Caitlin Cooper? And that's what she said?" Jim said, eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Caitlin Cooper was your first kiss. Don't you remember?" Pam asked, and Jim shook his head lightly in confusion, no recollection on his face. "Wow," Pam said, smiling. "I hope you won't forget me in forty years."

"Well, you use tongue."

Pam laughed. "So tongue is the deciding factor on whether you're going to remember someone?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Yep."

Pam slugged him lightly. "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

"Oh, did you learn that one from Allie when she was in kindergarten?" Jim asked, laughing.

"Allie did say that all the time, didn't she?" Pam asked, laughing. "For about a year everything at the dinner table was 'liar liar pants on fire', and Austin wasn't even talking yet."

"Well, she's always been a perceptive child," Jim laughed. "Maybe she just knew he was lying."

"Yeah, I suppose she has been perceptive."

"You suppose? Your six year old told you she was going to have another baby brother. She knew you were pregnant before you did."

"Hey!" Pam protested, laughing. "She's a girl! Girls know things!"

"I'm pretty sure most six year olds don't go up to their mommies and ask if there's a baby brother in her tummy."

"At least she didn't say uterus?" Pam shrugged her shoulders, laughing. "You know what I really want to do?" she said, looking up at him with a face that for a minute blended with his son's, and he almost thought it was Austin staring back at him and not his wife. He smiled, raising his eyebrows, almost captivated by the look of pure joy and comfort on her face. "I want to watch a home video."

"We can do that," Jim said, climbing out of bed and walking to the cabinet. "But after that we really should get to bed."

"Okay," she said, watching him open up.

"How many kids do you want to see in it?" Jim asked, thumbing through the videos sorted by year.

"All four," Pam laughed. She watched Jim's finger race across six years of tapes until it reached when Kamea was born, and she smiled. "Maybe when Mea was one or two."

Jim pulled out a tape and pushed it in the tape player, turning the TV on and pressing play before he climbed into bed next to her, pulling her close. "Vacation to Hawaii," he said softly, smiling.

"Oh, the infamous vacation to Hawaii," Pam laughed, smiling. "I'm really glad we went on that."

Jim chuckled lightly. "Even if we hadn't, we would have still ended up okay."

"Yeah, I just like to credit Hawaii for some reason," Pam said, laughing. "Maybe 'cause it got you away from the office."

Jim reached for the remote and paused it, turning to look at her. "You can always get me away from the office, baby. I know it didn't feel like it then, but don't give Hawaii so much credit you cheapen yourself out of some."

She smiled, leaning over and kissing him softly. "It all turned out for the best anyway. Without that little rough patch, we wouldn't be as strong today, right?"

"Right," Jim said, smiling. She snuggled closer to him and he pressed play again, both of them watching as the scene played in front of them.

"Daddy! Daddy!" a small five-year-old boy ran up to him, a sandcastle-shaped bucket and a shovel in his hand. "We're trying to bury Noah! Will you help us?"

Jim laughed, his mouth opening slightly. "You're trying to bury your younger brother?" Austin nodded lightly, unsure of how his father would react until Jim took the shovel from his hand and raced over to where his daughter Allie was standing next to a clump of sand with feet and a head sticking out. Austin giggled, running after his father to join his sister and brother down by the sand.

"Daddy are you good at this stuff?" Austin asked, adding more sand to his brother's stomach.

"Okay, here's how you do this, kids," Jim said, taking some sand in his hand. "You have to clump it together, and then kinda push it against Noah," he said, packing it against his youngest son's body. "Then you just keep adding on after you have the first layer packed. But make sure you pack it, 'cause if you don't what will happen?" He asked, looking from his nine-year-old to his five-year-old.

"It'll all fall off?" Allie asked, pulling the strap of her bathing suit back up to her shoulder and wiping her forehead.

"Yeah, when the wind blows, it'll all blow into Noah's eyes," Jim said. "And we don't want to hurt Noah, right?"

"No!" Austin said loudly, mad that Dad would even suggest he might. "We love Noah!" Jim smiled, adding more sand to Noah's belly.

Jim felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around to see Pam behind him, holding Kamea in her arms. She slid down next to him, her head falling against his shoulder as she smiled. Kamea got up out of her arms, walking closer to her brother and sister and pointing "noah!" The other kids laughed, and Austin reached up and tickled his sister. Pam closed her eyes to hear the sounds of her children laughing and giggling, the sun hot on her forehead until she felt Jim's cool lips touch her forehead just once.

She smiled, opening her eyes slowly to look at him as he leaned closer to her, kissing her once more and then pulling her tightly in a hug. "Our kids are incredible," he said in her ear, and she looked up at him, a soft, sad smile on her face.

"You should see them at home," she said softly, squeezing his hand. He looked at her, a somewhat perplexed look on his face before he put his forehead against hers, kissed her nose lightly, and said softly, "I will. I promise."

She smiled up at him, scooting closer as she watched Noah try and break free from the sand barrier, chasing his brothers and sisters into the water. She laughed softly as she saw Kamea toddling after them, and started to get up until she saw Allie turn around and laugh, picking up her little sister and running into the water, staying shallow enough that her younger sister wouldn't be scared. She called out to the boys, who had already swam out as far as they could, and they turned around, not even hesitating before swimming back to the shore.

"You're sure you're good with four?" Pam asked, looking up at Jim.

Jim smiled, leaning down to kiss her cheek and wrap his arms tighter around his wife. "I feel extremely lucky to even have that many," he said. "Besides, you remember our deal, don't you?"

She smiled. "You mean your dream to keep having babies until one of them looks like she fits the name Kamea, and then once we have that one, we'll know we're supposed to be done?"

"That's the one," Jim said, laughing.

"Oh I remember that one well. I was somewhat scared you weren't going to ever give me another girl! I'd just keep popping out boys until I turned fifty."

Jim laughed. "Would that be so bad? We'd have our own basketball team."

She smiled. "I'm happy with the way things are."

Jim smiled, and the two of them looked out at the ocean, watching their four kids splashing water, dunking, and taking care of each other, their giggles louder than the ocean wind.

Jim looked over at her, smiling. "I can't believe they're all grown up and married and making us grandbabies."

"I know. Just yesterday I was cutting the crusts off their sandwiches," Pam said, smiling. "Well, yesterday I did cut the crusts off Austin's. He's still a mama's boy at heart."

"Well, with a mama like his, why wouldn't he be?" Jim asked, winking. They laughed for a moment before Jim smiled, "do you remember that night, when we got home?"

"The tickling fight?" Pam asked, slowly inching away from Jim and he laughed, putting one hand down next to her on the bed and hovering over her.

"Yes, the tickling fight," he said, leaning down to kiss her passionately. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back, but he abruptly broke away, taking the opportunity of her arms being up to tickle her, laughing. She giggled, and he smiled, "I love the way you giggle," he said, tickling her more and more, her breath becoming more shallow until she finally shouted for him to stop. He stopped right away, smiling over at her, and she smiled back, her hair all over the place from rolling around the bed with the giggles.

"Some things never change, I guess," she said, laughing.

"Well, how I feel about you never has," he said, bopping her on the nose with his pointer finger, and she smiled, her eyes somewhat teary. He brushed her hair out of her face and smiled down at her, "I'm even more crazy about you forty years later than I ever was before."

"Oh, you have no idea," she laughed, pulling him down and kissing him softly as the home video played through in the background. She smiled, pulling away lightly and cocking her head to the side. "So, what was your favorite date?"

He smiled, "the one where you said yes."

"Remind me how that one goes," she said, resting her head on his chest.

"Then we really have to go to bed. You know tomorrow I have a date with the most beautiful girl in the world, so I need to be well-rested." She smiled, blushing lightly. She still hadn't quite gotten used to being the most beautiful girl in the world, but she wouldn't protest it any longer.

"It was about five o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon, and you'd been having a really rough day, I remember. Michael had been calling you Pamela Anderson all day, which, you know, was a double edged sword."

"I remember," Pam laughed slightly. "Doesn't seem so horrible anymore."

"Well of course not, you have me." Jim said, laughing. "Anyway, I came over to your desk and told you that you had to stay late to help me with some paperwork, and you were really not happy, but you didn't have your own transportation."

"I almost caught a ride with Angela. I was so peeved at you!" Pam laughed, swatting his arm lightly.

"But you didn't," Jim smiled. "So, when everyone had left, I made you do all this paperwork and I disappeared, and when I came back down you were really mad at me. But I didn't really care because you don't last long when you're mad."

"I can't help it!" Pam said, laughing. "You make me lose my cool and then you make me get it back!"

"I'm just that good!" Jim said, laughing. "Well, so, then I asked you to come up to the roof with me, and I think that's when you guessed something was going on."

"Well we'd had picnics on the roof before, so I just figured," Pam shrugged.

Jim smiled. "So I took you up to the porch and you were just shocked."

"Well there were flowers everywhere! Daisies because they were the happiest flower! And lilies because of our date!" Pam exclaimed. "And I just love flowers."

"And there was a table and two chairs in the middle of it all, and an old Rod Stewart CD playing in the background," Jim continued.

"No band only because you wanted it to be just us," Pam sighed, smiling.

Jim smiled, "and I served you the ultra-gourmet meal of grilled cheese and grape soda."

"Sparkling grape soda," Pam corrected, smiling. "It's important it was sparkling."

"Oh, right, sparkling," Jim replied. "Very important." Pam laughed, and he continued, "And then when you were done with your dinner, I cleared our plates and brought your dessert."

"My jello," Pam sighed.

"Your jello," Jim replied. "Lots of jello…"

"Because you had to use four boxes," Pam smiled, sighing.

"Right, because 'will you marry me?' is four words, and I needed one word per box."

"And then I finished my jello, and you put the boxes out in front of me. And you started telling me how much you loved me and wanted to be with me forever, but I couldn't even hear you because I was too focused on the boxes," Pam gazed into the distance.

"Right, and I could tell, so I made you listen the second time."

"And I did listen the second time," Pam smiled. "And what you said was beautiful."

"And I still feel that way," Jim replied, and Pam smiled up at him. "And then I gave you your second bowl of jello that evening."

"And on the top of it was a note card," Pam helped.

"And the note card said…"

"Damn! I put your ring in jello again. You have to eat it out," Pam smiled. "And when I ate it out, it was just a cracker jacks ring."

"I didn't want you to get jello on your fingers," Jim smiled.

"The real ring was in your pocket the whole time."

"But as soon as you realized it was a cracker jacks ring you were up out of your seat and sitting in my lap," Jim smiled.

"I needed to be close to you," Pam replied.

"So I put the ring on your finger…"

"And I just started crying and kissing you and hugging you and going crazy," Pam smiled.

"Because you thought it would never happen."

"And then it did," she finished.

"And then it did," he returned.

"And I would say yes all over again if you asked me today," Pam smiled.

"And I would be the happiest man in the world all over again," Jim replied.

"Because you were engaged to the happiest girl," Pam smiled.

"And then we would go to sleep," Jim said, turning off the light and pulling her closer.

"And dream of each other," Pam replied snuggling closer.

"And probably a few three-eyed monsters, too," Jim yawned.

"Probably a few three-eyed monsters too," Pam said, yawning against his chest, her breath becoming heavier as she drifted into sleep.

Well that's that folks! Hope you enjoyed the epilogue as much as the first 27 chapters, and I can't say again how thankful I am for you all reading and reviewing as you do! You are wonderful, and please tell me how you liked it! And don't hesitate to chat me up! I love talking to you guys!