Leah and Zak were out for quite a while since the incident with the videotapes. Since she ran, Chloe has been eagerly waiting for Leah to come back so she could apologize. The guilt that's been building up in her after seeing the broken look on her sister's face, and that it is her birthday, is eating her up inside.
But they never came back, not for a while at least, around ten in the morning did they finally come back to the house. And the reason for that is they were so comfortable, quiet, and peaceful that they both fell asleep on the hammock with birds singing in the morning as their lullabies.
The only reason they came back inside after they finally woke up is that they remembered that a party is happening for an hour from now. With hands intertwined they walk into the kitchen, Jen is making a big bowl of salad while Sammy is out back by the pool area grilling burgers and hot dogs. "Happy birthday my sweet girl!" Jen cheers seeing her daughter walk through with her boyfriend behind her. Leah blushed with an embarrassed grin.
"Thanks..." she says with a grin, "when is Jess going to be here?"
"She told me they are on their way." Jen smiles "Where have you two been all morning?"
"At the hammock"
"Ooh, it's nice up there isn't it?"
Leah smiles and nods"Yeah"
"It's so nice we fell asleep for a few hours" Zak laughs scratching the back of his neck, her mother smirking at that answer.
"Oh I don't blame you, I love it up there. Did you take care of the animals this morning?"
"Oh god I forgot" Leah runs her hands over her face "I did the horses, I'll do it now."
"Thank you, dear, I'm sure Chloe and Aaron will help, and make Danny help as well, I just want the animals taken care of before Jess gets here so we can start the party!"
Leah nods her head, "Okay...I'll go grab Danny then.." Leah disconnects her hands from her boyfriend's and she exits the kitchen into the living room. Zak watches as she leaves, waiting to make sure she's as far as possible before he walks over to her.
Jen smiles seeing Zak here, "She's a lovely lady isn't she?" Jen asks while separating the lettuce into the bowl.
"She's amazing." Zak nods in agreement, then leaned in "Hey uh, can you do something for me?"
"Sure sweetheart, what do you need?"
"Can you wrap some presents for me?"
Jen smiled "I can," she nodded "Are they for Leah?"
"They are," Zak nods. "Wrapping gifts is not my expertise and they...well one of them...is extra special and should be wrapped nicely."
"Well, leave them in my room, and when I go back up there to change I will wrap them before coming back downstairs."
Zak smiled "Got it, thanks so much Jen" He wrapped an arm around her for a side hug, and Jen smiled wide and leaned on him for a hug back.
"You're welcome, sweetheart."
Leah walks upstairs, then over to Danny's room, with her middle knuckle she taps his door multiple times. "Danny?" Leah says calmly, her ear up to the door waiting to hear him. "Danny, can you help me with the farm animals please?" She opens the door and Danny is playing a video game on his console. "Danny?"
"After this!" Danny says pointing to his TV, he must be on a round, Leah just sighs and sits down next to him and watches him playing his game, if she lets him he will help after.
Leah looks in his direction. "What do you think of Zak and Aaron?"
"They're boring," Danny says, never looking away from the tv. It was an answer she expected from Danny. Honestly, she would've been surprised if he said something nice about them!
"Why do you think they are boring?"
"They don't do anything fun, like play video games!"
"I mean, Aaron is a huge geek, he loves Star Wars and he does play video games too, maybe if you invite them to play a game they would love to play a game with you"
"Whatever" Danny ignored her, his game ended shortly after and they were ready to go to the farm and care for the animals before the party started. As they walk down the stairs Leah is met back up with an anxious Chloe with her cat Phil in her arms.
"Leah!" Chloe shouts as if she's been waiting to talk to her for hours, which she has, "I'm so sorry for what I did this morning!"
Leah sighs, "It's whatever kid, I was going to have to face it at some time"
"I forgot about all of it until you ran off and I felt terrible!"
"I said it's fine, relax, just help us take care of the farm animals."
"What is she talking about?" Danny asks as they exit the front door.
Leah shakes her head "Nothing, hun"
Chloe stood there watching her big sister and little brother walk away, was Leah still mad? It was the tone she used that left Chloe confused. She anxiously stroked her gray and white mixed cat down his back for comfort. Aaron walked by, "what are you thinking Munchkin?"
"She's mad at me," Chloe says, staring in the direction where Leah and Danny walked. "I just apologized and she's still mad!"
"I don't think she's mad, she said it was okay."
"But it was her tone!"
"I don't know, kid, maybe ask Zak how she's feeling?"
"Ask me what?" Zak overhears his name as he is walking down the stairs from leaving his present in Jen's room.
Chloe turns in his direction "Is Leah still mad?" she asks anxiously, still stroking her cat's fur.
Zak hummed, "She was angry at first but I think she calmed about it now, don't worry about it. Just come help us with the animals please." he answers her nicely, and walks past them to the front door, his answer eased some of Chloe's nerves. She never wants her big sister to be mad at her; nobody wants Leah to be mad at them!
For the next thirty minutes, the Blade kids and their guests took care of their animals, fed them, cleaned their cages and little houses, and in the chicken coop, Danny collected all the eggs. With all five of them working around the farm it got the job done quickly, and as they did that, Jen and Sammy prepared for the party.
When they finished taking care of the animals they walked back inside to change and freshen up, the kitchen table had a black tablecloth covering the top. Paper plates, cups, plastic utensils, and napkins were ready on the table, with bottles of drinks, teas, lemonades in glasses were ready too. Then on the floor is a cooler with a bit of ice inside. On the table is the bowl with salad inside and there are a few different bowls of different kinds of chips. And Sammy is still grilling outside. And at the end of the table, are wrapped presents, five of them Zak recognized as his gifts to Leah. He noticed the sizes of the book, and the four Funkos individually wrapped.
For the next hour, the Blade kids and their guests have been in and out of their rooms changing and freshening up in their bathrooms to get the barn animal stench off of them and to wear clean clothes.
Leah and Zak freshened up the quickest, as they shared the bathroom and changed in the same room, it's the couple's perks that make you win the race. They were downstairs in the kitchen talking with Leah's mother when they hear both Gracie and Zelda barking at the front door, they turn their heads and Leah's older sister (by two years) walks inside with three white cardboard boxes stacked in her hands. The following is her husband Logan holding their ten-month-old baby Augie in one of his arms and he had his camera strapped around his neck.
"Hey!" Jess cheers as they walk into the kitchen.
Leah and Zak stand up, "hey!" Leah smiles seeing her again.
"Here, let me-" Zak helps Jess with the boxes, he takes them out of her hands, earning a thank you from her. She warned him to be careful with them, as all three of them are cakes. He figured as much, because of the size of them, and on the lids had A, L, and Z written with a red marker, she made him a cake too. He was surprised but flattered.
Leah and Jess hugged tight, they haven't seen each other in years. Well, she was there for Jess' birth. She couldn't miss that, her first baby and her first nephew! But she couldn't be there for long, so she could only hold him for so long at that time before she had to leave. To see how much he's grown now since then, baby fever was on the menu today! "Happy Birthday baby sister! How are you?" Jess asks her sister while rubbing her back.
"Everything is good, how about you?"
"Everything is wonderful, just perfect." Jess smiles and lets her sister.
"That's great...now give me my nephew!" Leah turns to Logan and sees the little boy in his daddy's arms looking at Leah with uncertainty. "Hey sweetheart!" she cooed and held her hands out to him "Come here, let me see you!"
"Go see Aunt Lele," Logan says to his son, he leans towards Leah and the baby reaches his hands out to her, Leah's heart is bursting right now, she takes the precious delicate angel in her arms and he's looking at her with his daddy's brown eyes. With how much his mouth is agape, she could see he has two little teeth growing in on the bottom row. His brown hair spiked up in a cute little mohawk, she is screaming inside. Zak better watches out, he's at risk of being replaced!!
"Hi, beautiful boy! I missed you so much!" Leah cooed and kissed his cute little cheek"Hi" she smiled
"Bah!" Augie spits looking around his surroundings, he sees Gracie and Zelda walking around and he is sold!
"Bah is his favorite word," Jess smiled as she set up the table, "though he says mama when he's angry, he's a crawler, a fast one at that."
"Oh, aren't you just the cutest little thing!" Leah says happily looking at this baby, pretty soon tears will start falling if she doesn't relax.
Logan had his camera up, he brought it to take pictures, he loved photography and while the family is having a reunion today, there is no better opportunity to play with the camera. While Leah cried over how precious her nephew is while her nephew looked at her and bah'd like a sheep basically, he took a few pictures then walked over to Zak and shook his hand. "How have you been, man?" Logan asks.
They separated hands and Zak nodded his head "It's been wonderful, how has it been for you?"
"I could not be happier, honestly"
"I don't blame you, you got it all set huh?"
"Oh I do, God blessed me with a beautiful wife and healthy baby. That's all I need."
Zak nods again as he thinks to himself. God blessed him huh..with a beautiful wife and a healthy baby. He sure did. As for himself, God did bless him with a beautiful girlfriend and a beautiful furry companion. As for marriage and children, having children has never been a must-have for him. He is content with his profession and how stable life has been for him and Leah never brought children up, so he thought she didn't want any either. Which was good for him. As for marriage, he thought it was pointless, it's just a piece of paper under the government, how is a piece of paper a symbol of eternal love? The ring part he understood, but everything else...pointless. To him, they already act like they were married, he considered Leah as his wife but they never threw those words around to not throw anyone off. But she is his wife until the end of time. He hoped she saw him as her husband.
Leah walked over to him with little Augie still in her arms and she bounced him making him giggle. "Say hi Uncle Zak!" Leah said in a babyish voice, with a free hand she flaps her arm, copying how Augie waved, when he saw her copy him he laughed at her. "Hi!" she said again waiting for him to say hi back.
"Hi," Zak copied her tone and waved the same way she did, making Augie smile wide. He either smiles or laughs, either way, they're both so cute!!!
"Bah!"
"Bah" Zak copied him, and Augie smiled wide. Then something caught the baby's attention. "What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?"
"Bah bah bah" Augie leans forward and reaches for Zak's cowboy hat by its hood and he pulls it off and he starts chewing on it. Quite the teether he is!
"Ahh no that's my hat–"
Leah laughed "It's his now Uncle Zak"
Augie didn't care, he stares at his uncle with his beautiful eyes and then looks away at the animals playing in the living room while still chewing on the hat. Zak sighed, "Alright, fine, it's yours. A little thief you are, just like your aunt. Except she steals my shirts." he looked back at her with a glare after his last comment, and Leah smiled and blushed with that.
"And I'm never stopping!"
Sammy finishes grilling and he brings in trays of grilled burgers and hot dogs with Jess finishing setting up the tables and the family is finally ready to dine into lunch. All around the table, they ate and they talked about everything a reunited family talks about. They mostly caught up with what Leah and Zak had been up to the past few years, and they couldn't catch up to speed without talking about the show. As if they don't watch the show on premiere nights to support their (future) son and brother-in-law!
After lunch came the time Danny, Chloe, and Aaron were eagerly waiting for...CAKE TIME! Jen and Jess throw the trash from lunch away and pass around clean plates. "Stand up birthday kids," Jess says to the three birthday kids as she takes out each of the cakes from their boxes and lays them out.
Aaron's cake is designed like Chewbacca from his favorite series, his design is made completely of fondant. When Aaron saw his cake he was so happy, he screamed like a child. "Aaron's took the longest to design," Jess said, he thanked her more than once for this cake, she nodded her head and smiled. She appreciated the appreciation.
Jess opens Leah's cake box and she lays it in front of her, it's a small all-black icing round cake with the Supernatural Anti-Possession tattoo drawn with white icing at the top, then on the bottom was her name written with angel wings on both sides. "I did my best with this one"
Leah smiles wide, "It's perfect!"
Jess smiles, pleased with her reaction.
Then last but not least, Zak's cake is placed in front of him. "Leah said you love Dracula, I never read it so I did my best with something vampire-y," she says, the cake placed in front of him is a small white cake all around the rim covered and dripping with strawberry syrup which is supposed to look like blood. And at the top, she wrote Happy Birthday Zak with red icing, she even gave Zak's name fangs, and the fangs leaked with strawberry syrup! And she drew some little bats with black icing. "The inside is red velvet, don't know if you like velvet or not..."
Zak smiled wide, he loved this cake, and he appreciated the effort and to even have one! Sure his birthday is in two days and Aaron's birthday was two days ago but he didn't expect to get his cake! But Leah had to make sure they got their cake too, because they deserve a cake too. But to tell Jess what cake design they would love? That angel... "I...I love it. Thank you, Jess."
Logan took a few shots of the cakes, then of the birthday kids with their cakes, before the family sang the awkward birthday song. They make their wishes, and they blow their candles out together.