Chapter Text
Gwen looked at the pile of clothes to her left, and the enormous closet of clothes to her right, heaving a huge sigh of frustration. She was only three hours in and was starting to realize hoarding wasn't the answer. When they are done with this move, they had damn well better be there until the kids are married, and they retire in Oklahoma.
Blake had only been gone a few days, and it was already driving her to the brink of insanity. Not only did she miss him like a limb that had been cut from her body, but the kids had been acting out more, and Gwen had been forced to Facetime Blake both nights that he had missed bedtime because Apollo refused to go to sleep without his Blakey singing to him.
Blake had been understanding, and even had a barely concealed pride when he would pick up the phone, and head outside or to the room he was staying in during his nearly week long hunting vacation with his friends Tom, Jacque, and a few other mutual friends they had acquired along the way.
The unrestrained worship, and pride in his eyes when her kids asked for him never failed to melt her into a puddle of happiness. Blake thrived on being wanted, or needed, and God if that wasn't such a refreshing change from her ex husband. Gavin was God knows where, not that she even cared at this point. She felt heartbroken sometimes for her kids, but he had slacked off so much that even Kingston, and Zuma asked about him very rarely.
Blake had taken to parenting like a true natural, and she hadn't realized how much of a team they were until she laid in bed at night alone exhausted, not used to this whole parenting thing all by herself.
Gwen was jostled out of her head when she heard loud footsteps followed by what she assumed was supposed to be whispering, and giggles that were rapidly getting closer.
Turning her body away from the depressing pile of clothes, she looked towards the door in time for it to crack open, little hands peeking through the small crack making her have to cover her mouth to smother her laughter. God, her kids were little weirdos sometimes.
Opening the door all the way, the entire crew, plus Stella plopped down on the carpet beside her, Apollo who had been on Kingston's back with a Spiderman costume on crawled into her lap, snuggling in, and making all of her stress slip away. Kids are magical like that...the cause of your stress on second, and the cure the next.
Kingston bit his lip,and looked at Gwen... apparently, he had been elected as spokesman for whatever plot this crazy group had concocted.
"Mama, you know how last night after you talked to Auntie Endy on Facetime, and you let us talk to Ryan, and Jace while you cleaned the kitchen?"
Gwen looked skeptically at her oldest child, trying to figure out what angle he was going to use this time. Still perplexed, she nodded an affirmative, indicating he should keep going.
"So, we talked to them, and they told us that Blakey went to their house on his way to hunt, and that him, Endy, and Nanna Dot were sad because the anniversary of his brother's death is coming up. I remember how sad he was last year, so we want to surprise him when he gets home."
Tears welled up in Gwen's eyes as her oldest son spoke. She was almost sure he was going to try to get her to take him to the movies, or to do something fun, but instead wanted to spend his weekend surprising Blake so he wasn't sad. How lucky could a girl be? Their love for Blake still caught her off guard sometimes.
"King, that sounds like an amazing idea. I'm really proud of you guys for being selfless, and willing to spend your weekend helping someone else. What do you all want to do for him?"
Kingston looked at the other kids, and nodded his head. Zuma, then Stella took over.
"Since Blake loves Christmas as much as we do, we were thinking we could put a few decorations up to surprise him. We don't want to put up the tree, or anything because we know that's his favorite part, but maybe get a village like we talked about last year, but never did it."
Stella shook her head enthusiastically, adding her input to the group, "And get some of that apple cider in a jug that my Daddy, Papa Dennis, and Blake like so much."
Apollo jumped in feeling left out; "And give Blakey lots of kisses, and snuggles!"
Gwen smiled at the kids, and her heart fluttered at the love that they had for Blake. Even Stella, who was terrified of Gavin was absolutely enamored with Blake. He was that perfect blend of fun, and loving. Her entire family loved him more than she ever dreamed. Life was so much more fulfilling when she was able to love freely with her family without the guilt trips Gavin would throw on her for not ignoring them. He hated his family, so her loving hers was an utter inconvenience to him. To Blake, it makes him love them more. It's beautiful.
Quickly agreeing to the plan, everyone got ready, and Gwen was able to get her small break from organizing the closet from hell. That alone made it worth it.
45 minutes later saw the whole crew trekking down the aisles of Michael's, purchasing a Christmas village they had talked about the previous year, and other odds, and ends to surprise Blake.
Blake had texted three times since they had been out, and she felt bad being secretive, but the kids wanted to surprise him so badly.
Last year on the Anniversary of his brother's death, Blake stayed home in California, a scheduling conflict that couldn't be helped, and he spent a lot of special time with Kingston, and bonded them unimaginably closer.
This year, Blake, and Gwen were going to spend the weekend alone in Tish, the kids going to their Dad's for the first time in month's. This little celebration was more for the kids to show him how much they love him.
The shopping was done in record time, and they spent the rest of the day playing Christmas music, and decorating the house with the small decorations they had purchased, adding it to the ones they already had.
Several things were adorning the house, but one glaring piece missing was the tree. The tree would go up the week after Thanksgiving when everyone was home from their Oklahoma holiday. The Oklahoma tree, however would go up on Black Friday with all of the extended Stefani-Shelton family members in tow. It was going to be a perfect holiday season.
Blake had so much fun making traditions, and carrying over traditions from his family to the boys, the glimmer in her eye always matched the glimmer in Blake's Mom's eye. Her usual razer sharp wit would soften, and she would stare at her baby boy with so much love, and pride it would make your heart ache. That family was a true blessings to her family.
After settling everyone in, and heading back to her closet to finish the seemingly unending part of getting ready to move, she left the kids watching Miracle on 34th street, and quietly talking in the theater room. Apollo was down for a nap, and the older kids were fine for short periods of time without a chaperone in the house, so Gwen spent a solid 2 hours finishing up her task.
Checking on Apollo first, who apparently had gotten up, and went across to the theater room also, she cracked the door, and all the kids were snuggled up, sleeping. The credits playing to the movie, but hand made construction paper cards were on the table top, an obvious secret project for the cowboy. She will never tire of that feeling of true happiness she gets in her heart when she knows life is just working out for once. It's so new, and scary, even still. It's exhilarating.
Gwen snapped a picture of the pile of sleeping children to send to Blake; he was never shy about wanting to receive pictures of the kids when he was away.
He would always softly smile, and his dimples would pop when he explained himself.
"I don't care if I'm that annoying Dad. These kids chose me... how cool is that? I'll be showing pictures of them until the day I die. I waited almost 40 years for this. "
Gwen captioned the picture "2 more days. We miss you so so much."
He immediately replied "I can't wait. I miss my family so much. I love you."
The next two days creeped by at a snails pace. Constantly being busy usually helped, but it had been so long since Blake had been gone an entire week; everyone was cranky, and out of sorts. They would probably have to avoid a full week from now on for everyone involved's mental well-being.
The previous night, Blake had gotten choked up that Apollo was singing his ABC'S on the phone before bed, and had gone all day in pull ups with no accidents. It had been a battle they had been fighting for a while now, and Blake's heart filled with equal parts pride, and anguish that he had missed so much.
Sniffling back tears on the phone with Gwen, he surmised that babies grow up in a week, and Apollo is going to be going to prom by the time he gets there the next day. Gwen giggled at his dramatics, letting him know she did it two times before, but nothing ever prepares you for your youngest to start spreading his wings, and growing up.
When the front door opened, Blake's bag had barely hit the ground when he was literally tackled to the ground by Kingston, and Zuma. Apollo leaped into the pile when he had already been brought down, Gwen watching with tears in her eyes from the doorway. They definitely never greeted Gavin that way.
After a few minutes of rough housing, Blake stood up, sat Apollo down to run with his brothers, and swept Gwen up in a loving kiss just this side of decent. It had been a LONG ass week.
Although the kisses weren't really enough, any other welcome home party would have to wait until the kids were put to bed.
Their moment was cut short by three impatient boys, causing Blake to grin, and sigh into Gwen's neck. God it felt so good to be HOME.
Taking the adults by the hand none too gently, the boys excitedly dragged them into the area that the family utilized as a common area, causing an amused smile to cross Blake's face as they rounded the corner to the normally sparse, modern room.
The boys didn't notice the slight stiffening of his frame as they approached their little project, but Gwen did, bringing her hand to his back to softy rub up, and down in a comforting gesture.
Even though he had been living with them for almost a year, this was that moment. The "Daddy is home! We missed you so much! " moment that he had longed for his whole life. It caught him off guard, and his breath caught somewhere in his lungs, his heart hammering in his chest, tears clogging his throat. It was silly really. He knew the boys loved him, but it had never punched him in the gut like this until now. It was beautiful, scary, and just...perfect.
After allowing himself a moment to enjoy it, he realized the boys were still jabbering excitedly, his attention fixating solely on them, letting a huge smile overtake his face.
Gwen squeezed him again around the waist, kissing his cheek before engaging the boys.
"Okay... King, go ahead, and tell him about our week, and Zuma can explain the meanings. Deal?"
Both boys shook their heads in approval, pride radiating from their little bodies causing Gwen to glow with happiness. Apollo made his way over to his Blakey, just wanting his presence. Blake picked him up, and smiled at Kingston.
"Okay. We talked to Jace, and Ryan after Mama talked to Auntie Endy the other day. We knew you all were sad about your brother. We know you, and Mama will go to Tish, but we won't get to be there. We have talked about getting a Christmas village as a family all year, so we thought it would make you smile when you are sad. We missed you a whole bunch."
At this point Blake had given up all pretenses of being manly, and was letting little tears run down his face while he rocked Apollo slightly in his arms. He cleared his throat, and brought Kingston in for a slightly awkward hug since he had Apollo in his arms; Kingston melting into his side before Zuma started speaking, drawing his attention to the not so little blonde kiddo who had turned into a little man pretty much over night.
"Stella was with us. She had to go with Auntie Jen to Santa Barbara, she wanted to be here too. We all picked something out. Mama picked out the house, because we are going to a new house soon that will be all ours. King picked an ice skating rink because we did that last year in Oklahoma. Stella picked the ice cream shop because you always bring us mint chocolate chip ice cream, and Apollo just wanted to get two dogs so Betty, and Gingerbread could be there. I got the church because when Mama was sad, I prayed that someone would come to make her smile, and he gave us you."
Gwen let out a slight gasp, not knowing the story behind Zuma's village piece, tears rolling down her face at her sweet baby. She had no idea, and she couldn't imagine how Blake felt at that moment.
Feeling Apollo being placed into her arms, she watched Blake openly crying with his arms wrapped around her two oldest boys, both boys sniffling too, the emotion of the moment catching up with everyone. She could hear that they were softly talking to each other, only hearing slight pieces of conversation through their sniffles. The one thing she knew she heard was Kingston's soft "I'm sorry your brother can't be here. We love you so much."
Trying to keep herself from curling into the fetal position sobbing while watching this beautiful, heartbreaking story unfold in front of her eyes, her littlest kiddo had decided he had been ignored long enough, and broke the moment with his indignant "He's MY Blakey. I want my Blakey!" Making everyone laugh out loud, Blake kissing the other two on the head, and grabbing playfully at Apollo, throwing him over his head. A steady stream of giggles flying from him so happy to have his family back together.
Gwen sent all three boys to the theater room to get settled for a Christmas movie, and pulled Blake in for a hug. He kissed her softly on the lips before nuzzling his nose into her hair, breathing in her soft, comforting scent.
They stood in a comfortable silence while he breathed her in, his heart feeling settled for the first time in a week. Gwen whispering softly to him, careful to not break the soft bubble they had created.
"Welcome home, baby. "