Best Man

"You rock a sobbing child without wondering if today's world is passing you by, because you know you hold tomorrow tightly in your arms."
- Neal A. Maxwell



Two days after the insanity that was going through childbirth for the first time, Caroline was able to go home with her newborn son. And while she still had the baby fat, she was no longer bulbous, which made her feel a little better about her appearance when she left the hospital.

She was greeted by her parents, Paul and Joanne Woods, who had flown out to California to meet their first grandchild, Mike's mom Cheryl, Billie Joe and Adrienne with their boys, Tre and Giselle, and of course Mike who had brought the infant car seat for their son.

The ride home was almost surreal, wherein Mike and Caroline both took turns taking glimpses of their baby boy sleeping peacefully. The others followed behind them in their respective vehicles until all had arrived at the Pritchard residence.

"Mike," Caroline muttered, climbing out of his black BMW.

"Yeah?" he replied as he, too, climbed out and opened up the door to the backseat; leaning in to unhook the car seat and pull it out without disturbing his son. When he successfully managed that task, he looked up at his wife and shut the car door. "What's up?"

Caroline walked around to his side of the car as she acknowledged Billie Joe and Adrienne who had hopped out of their car first with 14-year-old Joey and 11-year-old Jakob. "We never finished decorating the nursery," she muttered.

"Don't worry, it's all taken care of."

"It is?"

"Stella recruited 'Aunt' Adie to help her," he spoke with an impressed tone in his voice and a proud smile on his lips. "I swear, she's growing up too fast sometimes," he commented about his 12-year-old daughter.

Caroline smiled as she touched her hand to Mike's arm and leaned her cheek into it. "Well, one child may be growing up into a young woman, but another is just starting out."

Mike returned her smile and nodded. "Yeah, that's true." Then looking down at their son, he added, "Your big sister is just so excited to do stuff for you, so make the best of it while you can, Mikey."

"Hey," Tre called out as he and Giselle stepped out of his car and joined Mike and Caroline, and soon the Armstrongs, by the front door. "How was Junior during his first car ride?"

"Asleep," Caroline replied.

Whereas one would assume Giselle would be the most excited to see little Michael Ryan Pritchard, Jr. in person, it was actually Adrienne would couldn't get enough of being in the presence of a newborn.

As soon as everyone was inside, Adrienne Armstrong was the first one to call dibs on holding Mikey, as everyone was calling him now.

"I have come to terms with never getting a daughter, so you two better get to work on having one," Adie ordered playfully. "There are too many boys in our fold."

While everyone settled down and took turns holding Mikey, the already exhausted parents simply sat back and took it all in, contemplating everything that this new adventure had in store for them.

The adventure of raising their son.



Exactly one year later, everyone had reconvened back at the Pritchard residence to celebrate Mikey's first birthday which mainly consisted of him crawling around the living room floor in search of his favorite teddy bear and his foam keys while the adults ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the cuteness that was he.

While Caroline stood in the kitchen with the women folk of 'The Fold,' Mike and the men kept to the living room where they continued to watch Mikey busy himself with random things; such as pulling himself up to his feet by grasping the edge of the coffee table and then swiping a chubby hand out to knock stray table contents to the floor. Giggling at his motions as if it were a game, Mikey tried walking with the help of the table, but occasionally fell to the ground, landing on his diaper-padded bottom.

The blue eyed one-year-old rolled to his hands and knees before attempting to stand back up. When he succeeded, he walked along the coffee table and began to waddle very unstably up to Mike with his arms wide out.

"Dada. Dada, Dada, Dada..."

Mike smirked and swooped his little boy up in his arms and hugging him close. "Dada loves you. Can you say 'I love you?' Say, 'I...love...you.'"

In response, Mikey simply pulled his head back, stared at his father as if her were studying the Mona Lisa, and parting his tiny lips.

"C'mon...say 'I love you.'"

"Ah," Mikey began. "Wuhoo," he concluded as he dropped his chin to his chest and then threw his weight to show his boredom.

Billie Joe, who was sitting a cushion away, reached his hands out and grabbed Mikey from his best friends arms and then held the little boy up in front of him so that the little Dirnt stood on his lap; looking at him like some freak.

"For someone who's Mike's kid, you sure are a porker," the guitarist commented with a laugh as he laid a big ol' smooch on the boy's cheek.

Mike rolled his eyes. "He's not a porker," he insisted. "It's just the one-year, roly-poly stage. Every child gets fat between six months and one year. He'll grow into himself soon enough."

As the men talked more about this and that, and about Mikey, the women stood around the kitchen, making sure the birthday cake was in order.

"D'you got Mikey's own little cake to dig into with his hands?" Adrienne asked as she pulled the ice cream from the freezer.

Caroline nodded. "Yup." Turning around from the counter, she held the main birthday cake in her hands and smiled at her friend and then to her sister, Giselle, who was now donning an engagement ring, compliments of Tre. "Are all the plates and forks set out?"

"Yes, mommy," Giselle answered with a coy grin.

"Oh, knock it off."

Giselle laughed. "I'm sorry. I just can't get over how quickly you're having another child."

Caroline set the cake down on the kitchen table then looked down at her stomach. With a smile, she glanced back up at her sister and shrugged. "It's not my fault. It was my first wedding anniversary, Mike's got a great penis...what can I say? We're both horny for each other and fertile."

All the women cackled as Caroline, who was almost five months pregnant at this point, stepped into the living room and looked over the men's shoulders to where her son was scouring the floor.

"Time for the birthday cake," she announced.

Mike and the others turned around and stood up in acknowledgment. Grabbing up his son, the 38-year-old bassist let out a huff as he followed his wife into the kitchen.

"I'm getting too old for this shit," he mumbled.

"Mike," Caroline chastised. "Language."

"Sorry, honey," he replied with a teasingly exasperated tone of voice.

As he placed their son in his high chair, everyone gathered around and sang 'Happy Birthday' to the boy, who seemed in awe of the single, lit candle on the large cake on the table; watching the small flame flickering.

With a pair of blue eyes dancing with the candlelight, they grew to the size of saucers when Mikey's mommy picked the cake up and held it in front of him.

"Blow out the candle, Mikey," Estelle, his big sister, directed.

His eyes locked onto his sister's face and got distracted for a moment before having his attention brought back to the cake by his father snapping his fingers in front of the frosted treat.

Everyone kept showing him how to do it, so he began to mimic the movements they were doing, but simply ended up spitting on the cake and not blowing air. So, Estelle was given the job of blowing out the candle so the guests could get a slice and so Caroline could set the cake down.

As the party went on, followed by Mikey unwrapping his gifts, Mike and Caroline sat back once again, taking it all in and thinking just how exhausting the first year of their son's life had been for them; adding on top of that, both their bands' albums dropping with promotion and some touring.

Both bands' tours were smaller amounts of dates because Mike and Care wanting to be at home with their son, instead of on the road. And now they were expecting their second child, which would be fine for their careers because they could use the time once he or she was born for recording more material or taking the time off completely before hitting the grindstone once again.

It was up in the air for the time being, and right now, life was calm and perfect, and could only get better.