Saturday, July 27, 2013

Chapter Thirty-eight

31 weeks

The beginning of September was as beautiful as ever, a small dip in temperature but it was still hot and gorgeous outside. School had started and the house was quiet.

Sarah wasn't working today and hoped Richie wouldn't either, but she knew better than that. He was very busy arranging everything. Immensely proud as she was, she was as also sad she couldn't see him perform. By the time Richie was leaving for Europe, she would be in her last month of pregnancy. The thought of him missing the baby's birth had crossed her mind a few times but Richie would be back two weeks before Sammy was due. If Sammy stuck to the due date.

She spent most of her day strolling around the house, whenever she sat down Sammy protested until they walked again.

As long as Sammy would behave tonight, she thought she'd be alright.

Tonight, they would celebrate their anniversary. It was hard to believe a year had gone by so fast but she was also incredibly happy with everything that had happened in that year. Her life had changed so much and for the better.

The feeling of having a husband that truly loved her was amazing, surrounded by a happy family was all that she could wish for. She had always dreamed of this. Only, she had imagined it when she was 25, not at the end of her forties.

But that was how it was and she wouldn't change anything anymore, her past had made her stronger, she knew that, she had just proved it in court.

In the bedroom, Sarah noticed something unusual. She had kept the rose Richie had given her a year ago when he proposed, it was still safe in its tie box but the box wasn't on her night stand anymore. Checking behind it and not finding it made her panic a little bit. Sure the flower was wilted and mostly falling apart but it had special meaning, she wanted to keep it as a reminder of that wonderful night.

She checked the rest of the room but couldn't find it anymore. Why would anyone take it or put it somewhere else? Everyone knew the meaning of it.

She shouldn't get upset over it, it was only a flower, a dead one even but she couldn't help herself as the tears slid down her cheeks.


Richie arrived home an hour later, he had been gone almost all day but he knew Sarah understood he had imported things to arrange and it had been the perfect time to get her anniversary present. They were having a date tonight, a special restaurant he had picked out and he planned to give Sarah her present during dinner. He was sure she would love it.

He had put a lot of thought into his gift and finally decided this would be a very good anniversary gift. He almost couldn't wait to give it but took it upstairs to the bedroom to put it away for later.

There he found Sarah lying on the bed, he put his gift on top of the dresser and walked over to her. She seemed asleep but when he got on the bed next to her he saw she wasn't. He could see the tear stains on her face. It always made him feel bad when Sarah was upset. He hoped it was because of hormones rather than something to really upset her.

"What's the matter?" He asked gently as he wiped his thumb over her cheek.
Sarah sighed. "I don't know, a mixture of everything I guess."
"What do you mean?" Richie asked confused, still keeping his gentle touch over her cheek.
"I'm pregnant. Sammy wants to do stuff and I just want to lay down, my back hurts, my feet hurt, everything hurts." She sighed again. "It's probably hormones."

Richie moved over to her other side, his hands going straight to her back to massage the pain away.

"What else?" He asked gently. "Does this help?"
"I does, thanks." She could feel the tears burn behind her eyes again. "I lost something."
Confused, Richie looked up but from his position he couldn't see his wife's face. "What?" He asked even though he already had a pretty good idea about what she had lost.
"My rose. The one you gave me when you proposed, remember? By the large rose bushes. It was so wonderful and now I lost the rose."
"Oh." Richie tried to sound worried.
"I just can't find it. I can't believe it's gone." She couldn't hold back the tears anymore and started crying all over again.
"Sarah." He said. "It's alright. You'll find it again." He tried to sooth and hug her but it didn't help.
"It's gone. I've looked everywhere for it."

He hugged her tighter, he couldn't believe she would get this upset over losing a dead flower.

Gently he let go of Sarah and got up.

"Where are you going?" She asked confused.
"Getting something that'll cheer you up."
"But I want you here."
"Just a second." Richie said as he walked back to the dresser and picked up the small wrapped box.

Sarah sat up and watched him in wonder.

Richie picked up his wrapped gift and went to sit next to Sarah again.

"I wanted to give you this tonight but I'll let you open it now." He handed it over even though he wanted to wait til later, he also wanted to see his wife happy.
Sarah took it and looked it over. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, just open it."

She did as he asked and gently unwrapped the gift, careful not to tear the paper. Inside, she found the all too familiar tie box.

"Richie?" She asked confused, he had taken it?
"Open it." He insisted.

Sarah opened the tie box and noticed the box was entirely full, she turned it upside down and an acrylic cube fell out, the rose preserved in the middle of it. She held the cube and ran her thumbs over the smooth edges.

"I thought you'd like it, that way the flower wouldn't be damaged any more. Now you'd know it'd be safe." He explained.
"Richie, that's so thoughtful and perfect. I love it. Thank you so much." She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. "I love you."
"I love you too honey, happy anniversary."

Monday, July 22, 2013

Chapter Thirty-seven

31 weeks

"Honey?" Richie walked out of office, excited about what he had just learned, he needed to tell Sarah. He walked through the house and finally found her in the living room. "Honey?" He asked again to get a reaction.

Sarah looked up to him from the couch. "Hey, everything alright?"
"More than alright." He said happily and moved to sit with her. "You know the show in Amsterdam I planned?"
"Yeah..."
"It's already sold out and the German shows are doing so well, tomorrow we're announcing the show in London. I have to set up another one in Amsterdam. Can't believe how fast that already sold out." He said excited.
"All sold out? All of it?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah, isn't that awesome?"
"It is... But if you plan another show, does that mean you have to leave earlier." She asked, her husband was going to be gone for almost a month, she didn't want him to leave earlier and be away from her even longer.
Richie shrugged. "Depends on when there's nothing booked at the same venue. Got a few days before the show in Germany so hopefully it'll fit in there."
"It will, you'll figure it out. I'm so happy for you." Sarah reached over to give him a hug, then tilted her head to kiss him tenderly. "Too bad I can't go with you."
"I know, I'm sorry but I'm gonna do some shows around here too and then we can drive there together and you'll get to watch me. Alone." He said proud of himself.

Finally he was doing another solo, proving how good his own music could be. How good he could be as the front man without anybody's help.

Sarah looked up at him, locking their eyes. "I'm really glad you dyed your hair back."
"You're not the only one." He chuckled. "I got so many tweets about that."
"Twitter. What do you do on that Twitter?"
"Not much, just say what I've been doing, like how my day was and stuff." Richie shrugged.
"And people find you interesting?" She teased.
He pouted, teasing her back. "My fans do."

Sarah couldn't resist that and reached over to kiss him again, this time with more passion. She was glad to see her husband so excited and happy. He really deserved this after all the hard work he had done during the last year. She was sad he would have to leave her but he had to do this and she granted him that.

"There's just one thing we need to do before I go on tour."
Sarah looked at him confused. Ava's birthday was right before he left but why would he mention that? "What?"
"See your doctor again. I want a new picture of Sammy so I can take it with me."
"Oh." Sarah nodded. "I think we can do that."
"And we still don't know the sex." Richie pointed out.
"You do."
"Me, is not we." He pointed out cleverly again. "So do we have names yet?"
With everything that had been going on lately Sarah really hadn't put time in thinking of names yet. "No, we don't."

Looking around the living room, Richie spotted his iPad and got up to retrieve it, he turned it on as he sat down and went online.

"Let's see what the internet says about names." He held his arm open for Sarah to settle against him.

He searched a few webites and came up with lists of the most popular names of the last year.

"Most used for a girl, Sophia and for a boy, Aiden."
"I don't like either, they need more meaning." Sarah said, a name needed to fit the person.
"What do you mean with meaning? I can look up what they mean."  He already started searching another page.
"Like Caleb means whole hearted and Noah means peace or rest. At the time that were very important things for me and that's why I picked them out."
"Sophia means wisdom. Aiden means little fire. Lets not use that, that might mean trouble when he's older."
Sarah chuckled. "We still have time to figure something out."

They continued their search online and pointed out a few more names that they might like to use but nothing really stuck to be sure of. Sarah still didn't know what sex the baby would have and Richie was keeping the secret all to himself, even Ava and Caleb didn't get to know.

"You know what." Richie thought out loud after few minutes.
"What?" Sarah wondered what name suggestion he had next, he had already suggested a few names that she had to turn down.
"We're all alone."
"Yeah..."
"We should do something more fun." He said as he turned off the iPad and put it away.

He pulled his arm back from Sarah, who was confused about what he was doing. He stood up and picked her up and started walking towards the stairs.

"Something more fun?" Sarah asked.

Richie carried her up to the bedroom where he gently put her down on the bed and crawled up next to her.

"Much more fun."
"We already have a baby, you can't make another one." Sarah teased.
"Still need to practice for later."
A little surprised she looked up at him. "Later? We're having more children after this one?" She hadn't even thought of that but it seemed like Richie had.
"We can talk about that later." He ignored the question and bent down to kiss her.

The last month their sex life hadn't been much but with the trial finally over, he had noticed Sarah was in the mood for it a lot more than during the summer. If it was because of the trial or hormones, he didn't care, as long as he got to kiss his beautiful wife and pleasure her all through the night, he'd be happy.

Her lips tasted as sweet as they always did, he could never get enough of it and by the sound of her moans, Sarah couldn't either.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Chapter Thirty-six

A/N I seriously hope I did enough research on all these crimes and if not, it's fan fiction.

30 weeks

That same morning they sat in the same small court room.

Jonathan was already there, still in a blue prison suit with his hands cuffed together, two officers standing close to him.

Sarah was holding Richie's hand thightly, she was scared and nervous. Richie could feel it, his knuckles were turning white but he wasn't going to let Sarah take her hand away and continued to squeeze back, although he didn't do it as thightly as Sarah was.

The boys were quiet, nobody had talked much during breakfast or the drive to the court house. They had met up with Mr. Slone and he once again assured them that everything would work out as they had planned it. Sarah hoped so, if not, she had no idea what else could happen, things could only get worse.

"All rise."

They all stood up as the judge walked into the room and sat down, overlooking all off them. He had a stern look on his face, which was set so it seemed like it was how he always looked at people.

Just like last time Sarah found it hard to look up and pay attention to everyone that was talking, the words were difficult to understand and she had to remember to stay relaxed. Richie had done everything to keep the trip relaxed, even vitising her family that lived 6 hours ago. For that, she was glad they had made this trip. The lawsuit was just a down in it but very soon that would be over too.

She squeezed Richie's hand again when the judge started talking, she tried to look down at her feet but her view was obscured by her large belly. Sammy had definitely grown over the last few weeks.

"To start with, the prosecutor changed the charges."

At that Sarah's head shot up, noticing that everyone else did the same.

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked worriedly.
"I have no idea." Richie confessed but it didn't sound like anything good.

There wasn't much time to keep wondering about what was happening and why the charges had changed, the judge continued talking.

"The prosecutor charges Jonathan Gibson with assault that obstained life-threatening injury, spousal abouse, marital rape, child abuse and failing to support children." The judge continued.

"That's good." Richie whispered.
Sarah only nodded shortly.

"For assault obtaining life-threatening injury, the maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment."

Richie could feel Sarah's hand loosen around his. Twent years was good but there was more to come.

"For spousal abuse against Sarah Sambora, maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment. Spousal abuse against against Nicole Smith, 4 years of imprisonment."

"Twenty-nine." Caleb whispered quickly.

"For marital rape against Sarah Sambora, sentence of 8 years imprisonment. Marital rape against Nicole Smith 6 years imprisonment."

"Forty-two." Noah wispered too.

"Child abuse of two children, sentence of 8 years combined."

"Fifty, that's as good as life." Caleb whispered again.

"Failing to support two children through paying alimony for 12 years, maximum sentence of 10 years."

"Sixty." They both whispered again, sounding excited.

Sarah couldn't believe what she heard, she was too amazed to listen what else the judge had said. A total of 60 years in prison. If Jonathan ever was going to be a free man again, he would be 107 years old. She smiled at how unlikely that was.

Jonathan's lawyer tried to put a good word in, lower the sentence but the judge wouldn't budge and ended the case.

At the sound of gavel, Sarah looked up again, as they judge rose from their seat they all had to stand up again.

After the judge had gone Richie turned to leave but Sarah hadn't moved, she was watching Jonathan get up. Noah and Caleb waited next to Richie too, he looked over and noticed they were watching their biological father too.

"Are you alright?" He asked carefully.

Sarah nodded, she needed to see this for herself.

The officers escorted Jonathan through the room, passing by them.

"I'm not done with you yet." Jonathan said, directing it to the two boys. "I demand a DNA test!" He said loudly as the officers pushed him away.
"You do that pal." Richie put a protective arm around both teenage boys standing next to him, watching Jonathan and everyone else leave the room.

A minute later they were the only people left in the courtroom along with their lawyer.

"Can he really do that?" Sarah asked.
"He could but I doubt he'll have the resources to do that in jail. Congradulations, we won the trial." Mr. Slone said as he extended a hand to Sarah.
Sarah shook it with a smile.


They said their goodbyes and thank you's outside, infront of the large building. Mr. Slone wished them all the best and returned inside.

Finally Sarah turned to her husband and wrapped her arms around his neck. The happiness she felt was unlike any other feeling of joy. The main reason of all her worries was gone, locked up for good. She could finally continue her life with her family.

All she wanted right now was to finally go home again.

So excited, she pulled out of the hug and kissed him deeply. Not caring who might see them and how indecent it might look. She was happy and she didn't care about anybody else right now.

When she finally straightened up,  Noah and Caleb were still busy with their phones.

Richie knew he couldn't possibly know how happy Sarah was at this moment, he just knew how happy he was about this turn out. Knowing that Sarah's bright smile was finally back, was all the happiness he really needed.


Once in the car back to the hotel, Sarah completely relaxed and rested her head on Richie's shoulder. Right now she didn't ever want to let him go. He had supported her through the last few months, she now wanted to share her happiness with him.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Chapter Thirty-five

30 weeks

It was early morning when Sarah woke up, the room was still dark and Richie's arms were still holding her strongly, at which she smiled. In his arms, she always felt safe. He always protected her.

She also heard his steady breathing behind her. She didn't want to wake him up but she needed to go to the bathroom. Moving away from him very carefully, she got up and quietly walked to the bathroom.

The quiet around her gave her a very peaceful feeling but she hoped it wasn't the quiet before the storm.

Returning to the bedroom, she saw Richie was still asleep. Being just as careful as before, she got back in bed with him, moving closer to him until she could feel his warm body against hers.

She was surprised when he lifted his arm and wrapped it around her again.

"Where'd you go?"
"Just the bathroom." She replied.
"Hmmm."

Only seconds later his breathing was slow and steady again, back to sleep.

Without losing his grip on her, Sarah turned to her back, sighed and stared at the ceiling. She didn't know what to do. Positivity, they always said it worked but now she wasn't so sure. What if she was right and Jonathan really did walk away from it all as if nothing had happened?

From that moment she knew sleep wouldn't be something she'd do until after the trial. She was too worried and nervous about what could happen today and what the effects of that would be on the rest of her life and her family's life.

She almost wished that the lawsuit had never happened, no trial, no witnesses. That way Noah and Caleb wouldn't have had to go through it all again. It was bad enough to know that they had lived through the abuse too but now they had to relive it. It wasn't fair of her, she shouldn't put her sons through something so painful. She needed to protect them, a mother's job but letting them testify and see their father again wasn't a way to protect them. She knew Jonathan had hurt them with what he had said but the boys weren't going to admit that, they were trying to be strong too.

Even with the case having been two days ago, she could still clearly remember everything her sons had said. Noah had talked about the night he had woken up because of noises that were scaring him but that wasn't all he had to say, that wasn't the only time he had heard scary noises around the house.

Later she found out that that was Noah had told Richie the night she had to go to the hospital. Noah had been the one to tell her. She wasn't exactly amazed that Richie hadn't told her but in other way she was. He could be trusted with any secret, even if it was one to keep from her but to protect her sons. Richie really cared about her sons, she knew that, but this seemed like an even bigger step of trust and caring. Once again she praised herself lucky to have found him and trusted him like he had asked her to back then.

She didn't regret one bit of their relationship, they had their disagreements, like when Richie though Sarah shouldn't work but after Sarah explained to him why she had to he let her go. The same had happened when Sarah was in the hospital, the first time and even more so the second time. Soon she was going to give him what he wanted.

Sarah closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts, she wasn't thinking about her marriage and relationship. Opening her eyes again, she thought back to the trial once again. A little surprised she felt a kick inside her belly, as if Sammy didn't agree to what she was doing. She put her hand her belly to calm the baby down again.

After she had heard Caleb talk in court, she had hoped Jonathan would be sent to jail forever. What he had done to her son was so cruel she just wanted to hold Caleb and never let him go. She had to remind herself that he hadn't hurt Caleb physically when he only wanted to help when she was hurt badly. As he was telling the story in court, Sarah couldn't believe her ears, she hadn't ever heard him say it and she couldn't even remember when it happened. More than one time Jonathan would hurt her so much that she'd faint because of the pain.

Other than her heart breaking for Caleb, it was also filled with love for him, how he had ignored his father and had tried to help her when Jonathan wouldn't notice it. He was a brave child and she was very proud of him to stand up to his father like that, even if he hadn't known back then.

Hopefully, after they'd go home tomorrow they could finally leave the whole ordeal behind them and move on from it, continue the happy life they were leading up until that one phonecall changed it for all of them.

"What's wrong?" She felt Richie's arm tighten around her waist and starting to stroke her belly with his hand.
"Nothing." She answered and turned in his arms to face him. "Why are you up?"
"Was just going to ask you, so why are you up this early? What's wrong?" He asked again.
Sarah shrugged. "Just worried about what'll happen today." She confessed and moved closer to him.
His arm now around her back pulled her closer against him. "It'll be fine."
"You don't know that. He's always gotten away with everything."
"He's not getting away with this, the charges alone are bad enough to nerver let him walk free again."
"I hope so." A deep sigh escaped her.

She snuggled back in her husband's safe and protecting arms, hoping that he was right about this. Only a day ago she had felt positive that Jonathan would be sent to jail but now her hope had suddenly left. As if she knew it wasn't going to happen and that she should prepare for it. Hopefully it was only a feeling that she had and she's be proven wrong in a few hours.

Richie tilted her head up to look her in the eyes and softly kissed her.

"It will be fine." He said resolutely. There simply wasn't any other way. It wasn't an option, it was where Jonathan belonged after all those years. Surely a judge would see that too.

After this afternoon, tonight, it would finally be over for Sarah. Even though they had met, gotten married and we're having their own child, he knew it was still hard for but now that they were this close to Jonathan going to jail, he hoped that it finally really could be over for Sarah, for everyone.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Chapter Thirty-Four

30 weeks

The ranch was enormous and Sarah loved every inch of it. It had been since her teen years that she had to her uncle's ranch. Only now it was her cousin's ranch, she had inherited it when her father had died.

The wide open space and the quiet, gave Sarah a sense of freedom and belonging. Although she had never lived in Canada as her mom had but she had spent many summers at the ranch.

It was exactly as she remembered it, the house was a large wooden structure, with a beautiful stone fireplace in the living room. Outside there was so many space she couldn't even see where the neighbours lived or if there even were any. There were a few larger stables but only one of them had horses living in it.

She enjoyed simply sitting outside with Richie and her cousin, talking about summers of years ago and talking about everything that was going on right now.

While Sarah and Richie talked, the boys were exploring the stables with their cousins. They had only met when they were very small but they got along just fine right now. Sarah let them be and knew what was all to explore around a ranch, even if you were 16 years old, it was still pretty cool to find some things you didn't expect.

"So, if I find something really cool in the barn, can I keep it?" Noah asked, walking up to them with a carboard box in his arms, Caleb following further behind him.
"Depens on how big it is and if it fits in the car." Richie thought out loud.
"Oh, it's small, it'll fit."
Sarah looked at him wearily. "What did you find?"
"Kittens." He said with a huge smile, opening the box.

A little orange cat face peeked of the box and mewed. Soon enough a black head popped out too.

"They're tiny." Sarah said as her cousin got up to take the box from Noah.
"We just found them in some straw." He pointed over his shoulder to the barn they had just left and handed over the box. "We didn't want to just leave them there."
"They're only a few weeks old it seems." Sarah put in. "I don't know if they can even miss their mom."
"What if we get one at the shelter at home?" Noah asked, the kittens were cute and he really wanted one.
Caleb finally caught up with him. "Hey, if Noah gets one, I want one too."
"We already have a dog." Richie decided to point out the fact.
"Ava has a dog." Caleb responded.
Richie sighed, that was true. "We'll see."

The rest of the day Noah and Caleb hardly let the baby cats out of their sight. Sarah had to agree that the kittens were adorable but it was impossible to take cats over the border, they'd never be allowed that.

She also showed Richie around the ranch, to where the stables were with a few horses. Each stall had a sign with the horses their names. When she finally found the name of the horse she used to ride over the summer, the empty stall sent a painful shot through her heart. It was to be expected but it still hurt her to know that her horse had died.

"You never told me you could ride." Richie said as they continued their walk.
"Oh I can't." Sarah laughed. "Not really. Did you know horses are really clever animals? I liked talking to them, taking care of them, that sort of thing. The rides were always very short."
"Oh well." Richie sighed, but Sarah knew by the tone of his voice that something was coming up. "I know something else you can ride perfectly."
Sarah laughed and mock slapped him. "You're bad."
"That's not what you say." He chuckled and avoided more slaps.

They continued their walk and were both amazed at how large the ranch really was, Sarah knew the fields stretches for miles and miles but walking around made her realize that again. As they walked she told Richie about everything that remembered her of her summers here as a teenager. She had always looked forward to spend the summer in the middle of nowhere, the quiet and space were undescribable.

"You haven't even seen the best yet."
"What's the best then? We usually don't even leave the city when we're here or anywhere for that matter." Richie answered.
"The mountains are the best, all that nature, the lakes, the animals, it's simply amazing but you'd have to see it to know how amazing." Sarah explained.
"Maybe we can go there another time." He suggested but knew they'd be very busy for the next few months, maybe even longer.

Their walk ended back at the house where lunch was waiting for them.

Later in the afternoon, they had to start on the way back, knowing Richie had driven the entire way the day before, Sarah suggested she could drive for a little bit until they could switch.

After an hour of unenventful driving, they decided to stop for dinner in the town they were passing.

After dinner, Richie drove the rest of the way back to the hotel they were staying at.


It was dark by the time they arrived and they quietly made it up to their hotel room.

"How are you feeling about tomorrow?" Richie asked when they got in bed together.
"I'm not sure." Sarah confessed.
Richie gave her a confused look and gathered her in his arms. "Why not? Do you think he's gonna walk a free man?"
Sarah shrugged.
"He's not. No one would let him go free after everything he did."
"What if the judge doesn't believe us?"
"Why wouldn't he? There's proof Jonathan has been violent in the past. Sure he's only charged with attempted murder but with everything else they now know he's done, can't they just charge him for all that too? All those added up years gotta result in him being in jail for the rest of his life."
Sarah shrugged again. She wasn't sure. Jonathan had always gotten away with everything, he would have gotten away with this too if Nicole hadn't been pressured to finally report him.
"He'll be going to jail." Richie said, completely sure of it, there just wasn't any other way. For everything Jonathan had done, he had to be punished. "You'll see."

Finally Sarah nodded and snuggled into his arms. She didn't want to think about it anymore, they'll find out tomorrow, now she just wanted to sleep and hope.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Chapter Thirty-Three

30 weeks

Not soon afterwards they were back at the hotel. They had booked a studio for the whole week because they hadn't know how long it would take. The studio was large, with a kitchenette and sitting area, it also had two seperate bedrooms. That way everyone still had their privacy like they would at home.

"What are we doing for dinner?" Richie asked when they got back, trying to divert the attion of the lawsuit and he was hungry.
"Lets let Noah and Caleb decide." Sarah suggested, she was unbelievably proud of her sons, she was happy to let them decide whatever they'd do that evening or even the rest of the week.
"Pizza Hut." Sounded by both of them.
Sarah was happy they at least agreed and looked Richie to see if he agreed.
"You don't want to go to an actual Italian restauran?" Richie suggested, preferring a decent restaurant to a fast food place.
"No, Pizza Hut, it's been ages."
"Okay. Pizza Hut." Richie agreed.

After getting instructions at the desk, it was easy to find the nearest Pizza Hut

At the restaurant they were seated fairly quickly and were all handed menus.

"Hawaiian?" Richie asked, knowing Sarah's usual preference.
Sarah groaned in disust. "No, I want the four cheeses one."
"Cheese? But you don't like cheese." Richie said confused.
"I didn't know you got to decide what I like and don't like." Sarah said, looking at him quite annoyed.
"I'm not telling you what you should like, just a bit suprised you want the cheese one." Richie explained.
Sarah sighed. "I want the cheese."
"Alright. Fine by me." Richie said, hoping to avoid more trouble about cheese. Sarah never had cheese so why would she want cheese now?

For himself he ordered a pizza with lots of kinds of meat and vegetable. He hadn't been to Pizza Hut in ages either and it was kind of nice to eat there again. Knowing Sarah was going to let the boys decide everything they'd do that week because they had had the courage to be a part of a lawsuit, he thought he would probably do the same thing if Ava had to go through something similar.

Emotionally, after a year of being a family, he did see Caleb and Noah as his sons. Not biologically but the bond they had was something he though every dad had with teenage sons. He believed a father didn't have to be biological but the person that took care of the children as his own. That was how he always tried to treat them and thought everything about merging their families had gone very well.


The next morning they packed a few bags and drove out of city, up to the Canadian border.

"Where were we going again?" Caleb asked after half an hour.
"Glacier National Park and after that we're going to Lethbridge." Sarah explained.
"And that's where your cousin lives." Caleb recalled. "Why the park then?"
"Because Noah wants to go and it'll be fun, we could see bears."
"Right." Caleb nodded, and picked up his electronics again to keep himself busy for the 4 hours drive to the park.

Around lunchtime, Richie parked the car by a lake. The drive was long but it was nice to see the country so closeby. They had lunch by the car before they packed a bag and followed the trail to the lake.

"Lets go hiking." Noah suggested while they were skipping stones.
"Hiking?" Sarah asked. "I don't think that's a good idea for me."
"Oh." Noah said disappointed. "We could just drive the trail up the mountain, that's cool too."
"In a bit, okay?" Richie asked, knowing he was the one that would drive but he'd been driving for four hours already, he needed a break. "You and I can walk a part of the trail." He suggested to Noah, that way he could at least stretch his legs.

Noah looked over at his brother, who was still listening to his iPod, skipping stones. He knew he was interested in going and agreed with Richie.

The trail they followed was made clear for hikers and was almost uneventful. After a few minutes they saw a sign for St. Mary's Falls and decided to follow it, thinking it couldn't be that far.

An exhausting 40 minutes later they finally heard the rush of water falling off a cliff.

"Finally." Richie sighed when he saw the waterfalls.
Noah merely laughed, it had been a long walk but it was worth it. "We have to get on the bridge to take some photos." He walked further tot he bridge, that way they could face the falls and take a few pictures.

Noah had been right to want to go to the park and Richie was glad they had done the walk together. In interests he had less in common with Noah than with Caleb. The waterfall was beautiful, the water a clear blue. He felt bad that Caleb and Sarah had missed out on this.

They took a break and took their time taking pictures of the waterfall and the river, then went on their way back by the river.


"There you are! You were gone for almost two hours." Sarah said angry when they finally got back to the lake and where the car was parked.
"We saw a sign for waterfalls but didn't think it would be that far." Richie explained. "Were you worried?" He asked, stepping over to hug her.
Sarah nodded and hugged him back. "I'm sorry for yelling." She felt tears burning in her eyes but had no idea why and tried to wipe them away.
"Why are you crying?" Richie asked and wiped away her tears.
"I don't know." She said trying to laugh it away.
"Come on, lets drive up the mountain then find our way to your cousin's house." He gave Sarah another hug before letting go.

In the car, Noah got his camera back out and looked for some good photos they had taken.

"Look mom, the water was so blue, it was just really amazing to see and look, I even got you a photo of d-" He caught himself just in time but his mood turned around. "Richie." Instead of showing the rest of his photos, he sighed and sat back in his seat.