Kari, Micky Jr., and Micky were sitting on the couch after a long day watching cartoons. Little Athena was upstairs in her crib sleeping soundly; luckily they hadn't had many night problems with her unlike another little boy...Micky Jr. was in the middle of his parents and was laughing his little head off. Kari and Micky were laughing along with him, not at the cartoon, but at how he was getting such a kick out of them.
"Mommy, that bunny is silly!" Little Micky laughed.
Kari kept giggling. "Yes, he is isn't he?"
"I know someone sillier than him," Micky said looking at his son.
Little Micky's eyes grew wide. "Who?"
"YOU!" And Micky launched a tickling attack with his son screaming with laughter.
"Shhhhhh, guys you're going to wake the baby!" Kari hushed them. She looked upstaris after they'd quieted down and breathed a sigh of relief.
"But I want to play with Thena!" Micky Jr. protested.
"Tomorrow," Kari told him, ruffling his curly hair.
Micky looked at his watch. "It's time for you to go to bed anyway, little man."
"Noooo," Micky Jr. whined, but stopped and began to giggle when his dad picked him up and zoomed him around like an airplane.
"Tell Mommy night night." Micky stuck the child's face in front of Kari's.
"Night Mommy!" Little Micky squealed and gave his mom a big kiss.
"Night baby!" Kari laughed and Micky took Micky Jr. and zoomed up the stairs. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Little Micky was laying in his bed and was thinking about tomorrow when he could see his friends at the studio. He liked the studio, it was lots of fun. And bothering those two guys that sit and yell was funny...
He thought about his friends some more. Cole was fun to play with, Micky always laughed when Cole got mad because he looked just like Uncle Mikey. Willow was fun to play pretend with. She was a good ghost. Athena was really, super fun, even though she couldn't walk yet, Micky couldn't wait until she did. Then there was Erika. Little Micky really liked Erika and he knew she really liked him because she said one day, "I really like you Micky!" Little Micky giggled at his thoughts.
Not being able to sleep anymore, Micky Jr. got up out of his bed and went to his parents' room. He opened the door and saw something moving around. He looked closer and it was Daddy on top of Mommy! Both of them were giggling and sighing and Micky wondered why. Confused by all of this, Little Micky went out of the room and closed the door and proceeded to go into Athena's room, where he went up to the crib and smiled. He loved his sister. The sandman struck again, so Micky climbed up the railing and went into the crib with Athena and fell asleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Shhh," Kari hushed her husband as they gazed at the scene before them. "It's so cute!" Kari giggled. Micky smiled and put his arm around her.
They had woken up to find Micky Jr. in Athena's crib, both of them sound asleep. Which was relieving since they went to check on the boy and didn't find him, so they were frantically searching the house and almost called the police.
Athena began to cry and Kari scooped her up and took her downstairs for breakfast. Micky stayed behind and watched his son wake up.
"Mornin' Bugs," Micky grinned.
"My name's not Bugs..." Little Micky sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hi Daddy!" He reached out and jumped into his father's arms.
"How did you end up in there?" Micky asked, as they walked down the hallway.
"I couldn't sleep," his son replied. He turned to face him. "Daddy, why were you wrestling with Mommy last night?"
Micky stopped dead in his tracks. "Wrestling?"
Micky Jr. nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't sleep so I went to your room and you were maing funny noises and wrestling with Mommy."
Micky's eyed widened and his mouth dropped. "Uhh..." Not quite knowing what to say. "She was.... being.... mean...?" Lame excuse, but he didn't know what else to say.
"Oh okay!" Micky Jr. replied. Micky looked at his son. "Don't tell Mommy I told you okay? She doesn't like it when I say she's mean." Micky made a face and little Micky laughed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At the studio, the boys were on their breaks and the girls had gone to the Black Box for awhile. Micky and Peter were sitting in their chairs, watching after the kids. They were talking about something when Micky stopped short. His eyes widened with horror.
"MICKY JR. what are you DOING?!" Micky ran over to his son who was on top of Erika, squirming and they rolled on top of each other. Little Micky ended back on top.
"Daddy, she was being mean!" Micky Jr. laughed. Erika was giggling insanely.
Micky just stood there in panic and horrified. He began let out cries of pain.
"Micky's what's wrong? They're just wrestling..." Peter came over beside him. He didn't think that Micky Jr. was "trying" anything with his daughter, since the dream had faded away and he became more mellow.
Micky made a sound no one could decipher.
"Micky?" Peter asked, waving a hand in front of his face.
"Micky's not wrestling with Erika..." Micky said softly.
Peter looked at him strange. "What do you mean?"
"I told Micky this morning that 'Mommy was being mean'," Micky almost cried.
Peter still didn't get it. "So...?"
Micky got fed up with anxiety. "WE WERE HAVING SEX LAST NIGHT AND MICKY WALKED IN ON US!!!" Everyone looked at them, but Micky didn't care.
Peter's eyes now widened with horror. "Wha... no..." He looked at Micky. They both began to scream.
"MICKY DOLENZ I COULD KILL YOU!!" came Kari's voice. She went up to her panicking husband and pulled him by the ear to the corner of the set. "Mommy was being mean... I can't believe that! And that he SAW!!!! Damn you Dolenz... I told you to sit with him until he was asleep!" She pushed him in a chair and put a dunce cap on his head she got from the props. "You can just sit there until you've thought about that!"
Micky just sat there, his chin resting on his hands, with the occasional twitch from watching Peter trying to pull his son off of Erika.
It was at this time that Willow happened to wander in with Ginger, Mike, Cole, and Sean (Steph was at work and Willow just loved to spend time with Auntie Gingie and Unkie Mike... not that Autie Kari and Unkie Micky weren't fun, but once she got over her fear of Mike, he became her best friend).
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Willow asked, a new game that one of the cameramen had taught her on set the other day.
"I dunno... four?" Mike asked, amused by this.
"Wrong! This many!" Willow said moving her right hand from behind her back to reveal that she had been holding up one finger.
"Mike! A little help please!" Peter asked, still trying to separate the two kids.
"Willow! Help me wrestle Micky!" Erkia yelled to her twin.
"Ok!"
"NO!" Peter, Kari, and Micky (the big one) yelled, running to stop Willow.
"What on Earth is going on here?" Ginger asked, craddling Sean.
"Nothing! Nothing. Everything is fine," Peter said getting hold of his two girls. "Are we done for the day cause I think it's time to go home. Steph and I are going to drop the girls off at her mom's and such." Peter said mumbling, not looking Kari or Micky in the eye.
As soon as he left, Cole looked up at his dad. "What is wrong with Unkie Peter?"
Mike just sighed, "What isn't wrong with him?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
An hour later, Peter stood holding his wife in his arms as the two watched their four sons in the nursery sleep. They both had done this every day since she had them a month ago.
"Peter, I can't stand this any more. I can't watch them through a window and not be able to hold them." Steph said turning around, burrying her face in Peter's chest, crying. "I should have taken the last month off. I should have stayed home and rested. They were so tiny when they came out. What if they had--"
"Shh... don't think that. This isn't your fault. You had no idea that there were four of them. The doctors say that they're going to be fine. They just need to get stronger before we take them home."
"I know, but this is so hard being separated from our children. Having the one chance to hold them and see them and then they get taken away. The closest we can get to them is three yards."
"I know," he said gently rocking back and forth, trying to comfort her. "But look at the bright side. We are more ready to bring them home now then we were a month ago. We have their room done with the last minute extra things we needed to buy. You have how you're going to raise the boys and still work thing all planned out. Erika and Willow have been coming to work with me to get used to doing that instead of going with you because now you'll take the boys with you. You're healthier now that you aren't so tired and stressed out. Maybe this was for the best."
Steph sighed, pulling away and turned to look at her sons. "You're right, you always are."
Peter smiled. "Yeah, well, it's a gift."
Steph rolled her eyes silently said good-bye to her babies.
"You wanna go home for dinner? I'll cook." Peter suggested.
Steph smiled.
"Yeah," he continued, "it'll be romantic. Candles, music, the whole thing."
"Sounds good."
Realizing that his wife needed some cheering up, he said, "You'll never guess what happened at work today..."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Mike walked in at his home from the set at around 10, feeling like he had to concentrate greatly on just walking. He found Ginger sitting in the back of the living room in a big, over-stuffed leather chair, rocking Sean while Cole knelt beside her in the chair, hmming to get the baby to go to sleep. Mike smiled. "Hey," he said quietly.
Cole held up a "shhing" finger to his lips then waved. "He's trying to sleep."
Mike nodded at got closer to the three. "Why are they still awake?" he whispered to Ginger, squatting down beside the chair.
"Well, Sean is an infant. Infants rarely sleep when you tell them to."
Mike gave her a "ha-ha" look. "What about you, buddy?" he asked Cole.
"He's got something he demanded to wait up to show you," Ginger told Mike. "Go on," she instructed Cole, jerking her head towards the den with a knowing smile.
Cole excitedly climbed down from the chair with Mike's help. He grabbed his dad's hand and drug him into the den (Ginger snickered at the difficultly Mike was having at walking that far bent over).
Once inside the den, Mike asked, "So what do you want to show me?"
He helped Cole, who was trying to climb up on the bench in front of the organ. Cole asked, "Will you do pedals?"
Mike laughed silently as Cole positioned his hands on the keys. "Yeah." He sat down beside him and started to do the pedals of the organ for the little pattern he'd been showing Cole.
Cole played five little notes all on his own with proper hand motions like Mike had been showing him then smiled at Mike, proud of himself.
Mike looked almost astonished. "Cole!" he exclaimed.
Cole folded inward, grinning.
"That's really cool! That's so smart!" Mike couldn't believe he could do what he'd just done.
For a little while longer, Cole repeated the act and Mike started adding to it for him to practice more. Finally the toddler was struggling to keep upright and Mike took him to his room and tucked him in. Ginger cooked Mike dinner (at around 11), and Mike told her about his day.
"Uh... They had an idea at work, the producer and director, for an episode."
"Yeah?" Ginger said.
"Yeah. They want all of you girls to be in it."
Ginger looked surprised, then made a sort of "ew" face.
Mike nodded. "I started to not even tell you about it. I'm not sure I want you out there like that..."
"I'm not sure I want to be out there like that..." Ginger had had lifelong aspirations of fame and acting and such, but now that she was married to Mike with two children, the kids and Mike were her priorities. And marrying a Monkee then all of a sudden appearing in an episode with them wasn't bound to do good for anyone's image.
"Steph and Kari are doing it. I thought you'd want to know that. They wanted you to do a lot of episodes, but I said maybe one. I thought the fact Kari and Steph were in it might mean something. It's up to you."
Ginger thought about it for a while. "Well..." She sighed. If Kari and Steph were going to do it, they wouldn't be very happy if she backed out on them. "I guess I'll do it..."
"Are you sure?" Mike asked.
She nodded. "Yeah." She shrugged. "Might be a lot of fun."
Mike shook his head. "Or a really, really long day..."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After the long days of shooting the episode, the group congegated and Mike and Ginger's to watch it. The guys had been leaning towards getting the producers to do more documentary-style/variety shows, so at the end of the episode, the outakes (a few of them at least) were included, which is what the group was watching, laughing their heads off. In the episode, all of them had gone on pretty humorous dates, but the actual show was nothing compared to the bloopers: "How about now?" Micky asked, pulling away from Kari.
"No."
Micky stood there thinking things over for a moment before tackling her in a furry of kisses.
Kari screamed, as she fell to the ground, Micky on top of her.
"Micky! Get off!" Kari laughed trying to push him off, the rest of the crew laughing. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ginger stood on her tip toes to kiss Mike. She wobbled, a little off balance and Mike gently poked her in the shoulder and she fell on her butt.
"I am going to kill you, Nesmith!" she yelled standing to her feet ready to attack her laughing husband.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Peter sat, turning the jack in the box around, trying to figure out what was wrong with it and suddenly it sprun out and hit him in the eye.
"Oh my God! Peter, are you ok?" Steph asked leaning over to check him out.
"That hurt. Oww..." Peter said, showing her that he was ok, or not bleeding at least.
Steph started to laugh as he rolled down the car window and chucked it out in the "rain" falling on the set.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Oh beautiful lady! Willst thou do me the great honor of allowing me to kiss thee?" Micky asked in a dramatic, British accent.
Ginger stood there, trying her hardest not to laugh, but ultimately failed.
Micky began to laugh as well and ran and jumped on her back (which was turned towards him), bringing her to the ground, laughing even harder.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
There was only one way to get Mike to shut up and Steph prepped herself before leaning in to kiss him.
Before her lips met his, she pulled away laughing. "I can't do this, man! This is too weird!"
"Oh for the love of God, this is the fifth take! It's not that hard!" Mike yelled, setting down his guitar and pulled her into a kiss.
Ginger walked onto the set and slapped Mike in the back of the head, in mock anger.
"Hey, I was just showing her how it was done," Mike protested, pulling away from Steph, who was blushing like mad.
Then Peter suddley came on the set and hit Mike in the back of the head, in a semi-mocking, semi-angry manner.
"What was that for?" Mike asked.
"You were getting fresh with my wife!"
Then Cole walked on to the set and hit his dad on the knee.
"What was that for?" Mike asked, everyone else around them laughing at him.
Cole just shrugged. "Everyone else hit you."
"Not me," Steph said before hitting Mike on the back of the head.
Mike stood up and stormed off the set.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Peter walked over to Kari and tripped, spilling the soda he was carrying all over her.
Kari jumped to her feet, the soda being freezing cold.
"I am so sorry," Peter said laughing.
Kari began to hit him repeatedly with her purse.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ha! Win!" Steph exclaimed, moving her piece to the final square.
Micky yelled in anger at loosing to a girl. He stood up and kickd the game board, the pieces going everywhere.
"I want a rematch!" he yelled, storming around the living room.
Steph stood up and opened her mouth to say her line but instead just stood there trying to remember it.
She looked over at Micky who began to run directly at her, ready to pounce.
She screamed as he took her down to the floor, pretending to beat her up. "Never ever forget a line AGAIN!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kari ran around the room, Mike chasing after her, when she tripped on the rug and fell to the ground. Mike, unable to stop in time, fell on top her.
"Nesmith! You're on my face!! I can't breath," Kari yelled, trying to push the Texan off.
Mike rolled off and was on the floor next to Kari, both of them trying to catch their breath.
"Well, now that we're down here..." Mike said, raising his eyebrows up and down in a joking mannor. He moved to go on top of Kari as if he wanted to make out with her.
Kari screamed in horror, trying to push him away.
Everyone sat there, in Mike and Ginger's living room, laughing as the episode came to a close... well, everyone but the kids, who were very confused.
"Why were you kissing Auntie Steph?" Cole asked his dad.
"Why were you wrestling with Auntie Gingie?" Micky Jr. asked Micky.
"It was all make believe," Mike began. "It's not real." "Oooh..." the kids said trying to piece it all together.
"Well, I can honestly say that that was the weirdest Monkee episode ever," Steph said watching her four boys lay on the floor, sucking their hands.
"Yeah, but boy was it fun to make," Ginger said, wiping the tears from her eyes. She and Kari had been laughing so hard at the bloopers that they had cried.
"Never again," Kari said shaking her head.
Athena looked at her and pointed at the TV, "Mommy there!"
"Yes, Mommy was there."
"Mommy here now."
"Well, as much fun as it is to have you all at my house...get out," Mike said in mock seriousness.
"Even me?" Willow asked, giving him the puppy look that she had seen her dad do on the television.
Mike leaned forward, "Especially you, little girl."
Willow stuck her tongue out at him and walked over to play with her little brothers.
"We really should get going," Peter said, not looking forward to trying to put all six of his kids to bed.
"Yeah, we should too," Kari agreed, picking up a yawning Micky Jr., while Micky picked up Athena who was beginning to blink as if her eyelids weighed ten pounds.
Ginger helped put the four Tork boys into the special four person stroller that the set people had made Steph and Peter and within a matter of minutes, everyone, but Mike, Ginger, Cole, and Sean were gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~