Tim pulled into the driveway of Adam and Ericha's around 5 in the afternoon. He hadn't told anyone of the change in plans so Adam was quite surprised to see him when he opened the door.

"Hey, I didn't expect you for at least another day. The others aren't due in until tomorrow night" he told him as Tim stood there in the slightly chilled air. At least it felt that way to him after spending two weeks in the warm south. "Oh, sorry. Come on in" he said as he stepped back from the doorway.

Cerise came running up to see who her daddy was talking to. Tim scooped her up, giving her a tight hug as she threw her arms around his neck and giggled. "Hey baby girl, I missed you" he said as he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I mist yoo too untle Tim" she said as Ericha walked into the room.

"I see the welcoming committee has greeted you already" she laughed as she took Cerise from Tim. "Are you hungry? Dinner is all ready, just need to put another plate at the table" she told him.

"Pwease untle Tim" Cerise asked as she looked at him with those beautiful eyes of hers. 'How can I refuse that face' he thought to himself. "Sure baby girl, l will stay for dinner" he told her as she squealed and clapped her hands.

After dinner he helped Ericha clean up while Adam gave Cerise her bath and got her ready for bed. He envied their life together, longing for a time when he would have his own family, but for whatever reasons that seemed to elude him, so he continues to bury himself into his music instead.

"Well Uncle Tim, your favorite niece refuses to go to bed. She wants you to read her a story tonight. I've been replaced" Adam says with a fake sniffle.

Tim is more than happy to do it but he knows how much she enjoys all the cool sound effects Adam usually makes when he reads to her. With a raised brow he asks "are you sure she wants me? You do so much better, even I would rather listen to you read to her, it's like a sound track to a movie" he chuckled.

Adam shruggs his shoulders, " little girl wants her untl Tim" he laughs.

Tim smiles and shakes his head as he heads to her room. There she is sitting up in her bed, holding the book she wants him to read. "Untl Tim, yoo wead me a tory?" she asks. "Absolutely, I would love too" he tells her.

She settles down into her bed as he sits beside her, opening the book and taking his glasses out of his shirt pocket. She listens as he begins the story of Princess Jasmine. A short time later both Adam and Ericha head down to see how it's going and find Tim fast asleep with his glasses slid down his nose and the book resting on his chest. Next to him is Cerise, yawning saying "shhh, untl Tim is sweeping". Adam couldn't resist taking a quick picture of 'sleeping beauty' .

They both smile as Ericha moves Cerise over, tucking her in while Adam is on the other side of the bed coaxing Tim to wake up. Tim squints his eyes, slowly opening them as he sees Adam standing there taking the book off his chest. "Aww man, I'm sorry" he tells Adam as he sits up and gets off the bed.

"No worries Tim. Why don't you head down to the quest room and stay there for the night". He hated to admit it but he was exhausted. "I need to get my bag out of the car first" he said as he yawned. "I already grabbed it for you, go get some rest" Adam replied.

Tim told them all good night as he walked out the door. He had stayed there before and already knew where the quest room was. As soon as he closed the door he flopped down face first without even taking his boots off and was sound asleep within minutes.