Everyone ready for the tag? :)

Mike: Yup. Let's get this story finished.

Micky: You bet!

Lauren: Yeah. :)

Davy: Ready, mates. :)

Mike: We'll find out if Pete's ready later. He's a bit busy right now. ;)

(We open with Mike, Davy, and Micky performing "It's Got to Be Love" against a backdrop of colorful psychadelic lights. Davy has his small bass instead of a tambourine. There’s occasional psychodelic video effects and playing with the camera and negative - it's shown positive, flipped upside-down, darkened, lightened, etc.)

*Micky keeps twirling his drumsticks and occasionally dropping one.* ;) :P

(Davy puts his gutiar down and dances against more video effects, while Mike does movements and makes faces behind Davy in the background. He makes bunny ears over the dimunuative Englishman at one point. ;) )

*Micky tosses the sticks down and moves around to stand in front of Davy and Mike.* ;)

(The boys keep trying to push each other out of the way until they finally push so hard, they push themselves offscreen as we see one last burst of special effects and the video fades out. ;) )

(We fade in on the Montgomery House. Emma, Lauren, Mike, Davy, Micky, the twins, and Katie sit in the kitchen, eating pizza and drinking soda. Bottles of sparkling grape juice chill in a pewter bucket on the counter. A cake that says "Congradulations, Peter and Valerie" sits next to the juice; it's obvious from the marks in the icing that certain hands have already taste-tested the topping. ;) )

Bob: Looks like we came just in time for a party. ;)

Mike: Yeah. Triple family celebration.

Davy: Yeah, we're havin' a party to welcome the kids back, a baby shower, and a family good-bye party for us. ;)

Bert: Where's Peter?

Micky: *smirks* He's a little busy. ;)

Mike: (Nods) Val went into labor early this mornin'. He took her to the hospital. Chrissy was here with us for a while, but she went over to her buddy Sarah's house for the night. She'll be back tomorrow.

Davy: We're plannin' on a biggah adult going away party next week before we leave for our tour. ;)

Bert: Heard anything from the hospital yet?

Micky: Not yet. Of course, that might be because Pete's passed out. ;)

Mike: I think he'll be cool about it. He wasn't actually going to watch the birth.

Bert: (Looks at the twins) How are you kids feeling? You had some very scary adventures in this story!

Little Mick: Me okay. *goes back to eating* ;)

Shelly: Little scary. Okay now. :)

Bob: Shelia didn't hurt you too badly?

Little Mick: No like dark. :P Okay now. :)

Bert: How did you get out of that dark room, Little Micky?

Little Mick: Went bye bye. *goes back to eating again* ;)

Bert: How long has this one been kicking around?

Emma: Bert, this story's been backlogged since at least late winter-early spring. It was originally planned for August, but then we came up with "Monkees to the Future" and thought that fit in better with that arc's time-traveling theme. The general storyline - Shelia and Alex kidnap one of us, we go after them, there's a showdown in some weird local place - was also a bit too close to the set-up of "Return of the Clone" to run the two sets back-to-back.

Bob: Where did this idea come from?

Emma: This one was another product of our late winter-early spring brainstorming chats. We thought it would be nice to do something with the kids...especially with another kid coming. :)

Bob: (Grins) How do you kids feel about getting to rescue Auntie Ursula, Uncle Peter, and Aunt Valerie? ;)

Katie: Yay! (Claps) :D

Shelly: *claps* We good! :D

Emma: (Smiles, hugging the little girls) Aunt Ursula says she's proud of all of you. You'll be fine Guardians someday. :)

Bert: Hey, what are you going to do with Ursula now that's she's been "outted," so to speak? ;)

Bob: Yeah, is she gonna go back to the cave?

Mike: (Shakes his head) Nahh, Alex and Shelia know it too well for us to leave her alone there now. We're keeping it as a quiet place for us and a lab for Micky, but we're moving Ursula to a new secret spot for the time being.

Micky: *nods* It's the only place where they'll actually let me make explosions. ;)

Davy: That's because we can just bring Ursula in to make repairs when you blow things up. ;)

Micky: Ha ha ha. :P

Bert: When is this tour starting?

Mike: In a couple of weeks. We were going to start sooner, but then Val had her baby and we rearranged some of the dates.

Davy: It's really exciting! We're going to major cities in the west, southwest, and midwest mostly, along with a few select eastern cities. I can't wait!

Mike: Playin' to all those people's gonna be great. I mean, thousands of people are finally going to hear OUR music. It's what I've dreamed of since I was a kid singin' along with Roy Rogers and BB King in my mom's kitchen. :)

Micky: It'll be nice to see other parts of the country, for a change. I'll get to check out the varied architecture. ;) :)

Mike: The album's coming out in a few weeks, too.

Emma: I'll be first in line to buy it. ;)

Katie: Da! :D

Emma: And Katie will be second. ;)

Lauren: Then me! ;) :D

Emma: I'm sure the twins will want their own copy, too. ;)

Little Mick and Shelly: Want moosic!

Micky: Sounds like we might have to get one for each of them. ;)

Bert: (As he and Bob chuckle) Speaking of "moosic," where did the idea for the radio story come from? ;)

Emma: Like the last set's stories, this one is on Lauren. ;)

Lauren: Part of it was based after WCBS’ abrupt change from oldies to whatever the heck "Jack" is supposed to be in June. I had to vent about it in written form, and that's what happened. Of course, Mick and crew had better results than the fans of WCBS did. :P

Emma: I got some venting out, too. I've lost at least two radio stations in the South Jersey area in the same way fans of New York-based former oldies station WCBS lost their favorite place on the dials did. It's not right and it's not fair. Not EVERY radio station HAS to play the same music. There is room for variety on the dials. Just ask the growing number of people who have satellite radio and listen to obscure stations on the Internet in 2005.

Lauren: Exactly. I was fortunate enough to have a local Lite FM station change to oldies a little over a year ago. :D

Emma: The two easy listening stations here in South Jersey went belly-up. One became a Spanish language station and I believe now plays country; the other was converted to a simulcast of a popular local conteporary rock station.

Mike: FM "format" radio was a new thing in the 70s. The "formats" changed radio, as they forced a station to revolve around one musical or spoken genre - classical music, contemporary music, oldies, news, religion.

Emma: Fine for business, not always great for variety. The contemporary/light rock radio station I listen to in Wildwood frequently borrows the music of it's "sister" oldies station across the hall, but many stations aren't that lucky or creative.

Bert: Are you staying on the air, Mick?

Micky: Yup, and playing as many "varied" oldies as I can. Everything from 1969 as far back as I can find something good. Big Band, Swing, Rock and Roll, Pop, Bubblegum...you name it, and I'll play it, within reason. ;)

Davy: 'E's going to take a hiatus while we're on tour, though, then 'e says 'e's going to try to come back in the fall. 'Avin' a famous DJ will be good for business. ;)

Micky: Of course! Until then, I asked Jack to take over for me and keep his own slot right after. He loves it. Besides, he also says it keeps him from getting harrassed by Coco and her starry-eyed crush on him. *rolls his eyes* ;) :P

Emma: I still think that's cute. ;)

Micky: *shrugs* I just think Coco's going a little overboard with it. Jack has said that he does think she's cute & a really nice girl. He's only a few years older than her. I think they'd be great together if she stopped falling all over the poor guy. ;)

Mike: Love does weird things to people, Mick.

Micky: You ain't kidding. ;) :P

Bert: And on the subject of "love"...how are wedding preparations coming along, Davy?

Davy: Ehhh, we're aimin' for spring. It'll probably be a small church wedding. We thought of usin' the pad, but it's just too small these days for all of our friends. We're hoping to hold the reception there, though, once the repairs are completely done. :)

Emma: And the Pad remodeling is almost finished. Just a few things left to do on the living room and the exterior. Should be completely ship-shape by next year. :D

Davy: Daph went out to discuss bridesmaid’s gowns with the Abbies. ;)

Bob: As for next year...what's up next?

Emma: We're going to jump ahead a bit in the timeline and do this year's holiday story, which should be a bit more fun than last year's. In fact, we've had this year's main story planned SINCE last year. ;)

Bob: That long, huh?

Lauren: Yup. ;)

Emma: Actually, we came up with this one when I complained about running out of ideas for last year's story. ;)

Mike: Weren't you guys talkin' about us doin' "A Christmas Carol?"

Emma: (Nods) Yup. We're going to do our own "Christmas Carol" play with the locals. ;)

Micky: That's gonne be fun. :D

Emma: I'm a big fan of "A Christmas Carol" in all forms and read the original novella every year, so I'm really looking forward to this one. :)

Davy: And the twins are gonna play angels in a Christmas pageant. ;)

*The twins cheer.* :D

Mike: Countercasting. ;)

Emma: And, alas, don't expect any extra prose stories or updates from me for a while other than putting new stories up and continuing the editing. I'm in the midst of trying to move out of my current real-life apartment, so we'll see how that goes.

Lauren: I may put out a vignette in December. Right now, I'm still trying to at least get half way through the annual novel-writing contest that lasts for the month, and I have little projects I've been wanting to work on for the upcoming holidays. :)

Emma: This is a busy time of year for both of us; it'll probably be January or February before much work is done on the site itself again.

Bob: Any possibility of stories on the big summer tour?

Emma: Nothing at the moment, though it's likely we'll go back and do a few prose stories on the tour later.

Lauren: I agree with that. I think the tour itself would be best left to vignettes. :)

Bob: What's gonna happen after the tour?

Mike: (Grins at the guys) We're already hard at work on material for our second album. Some of it's even gonna show up on the tour. ;)

Emma: (Looks at the door) I wonder how things are going at the hospital?

Mike: Kid should be out by now.

(Peter bursts through the kitchen door at this point, red-faced but very, very happy.)

Peter: Guys, Valerie had our baby. She had him an hour ago, but I didn't get a chance to leave until now. His name is Jordan Love Thorkleson, and he's the most adorable thing in the world! :D

(Everyone stands at once and goes to Peter.)

Emma: (Carrying Katie) Awesome, Peter!

Davy: Congradulations, mate! That's wonderful! :)

Katie: Unc! :D

Micky: Congrats, Pete! :D

Lauren: Congratulations, Peter. :)

*The twins cheer.* :D

Mike: (Puts a hand on Peter's shoulder) Good work, Buddy.

Peter: (Breathless, as he sits down at the table; the twins join him. Mike opens the sparkling juice and pours everyone glasses) Thanks. He's just so...so...cute! He has his mother's eyes and my nose and ears and this cute little tuft of reddish-brown hair on the top of his head. He's eight pounds, five ounces, and he has this little gurgle that sounds so musical...and I think he knows me already! I held him for a little while, and he looked into my eyes, and there was just...oh, man, this amazing connection... :D

Davy: Man, that's great. It sounds like your kid came out just fine. :)

Peter: He's the most beautiful thing in the world after Valerie. Chrissy and Sarah have seen him, and Chrissy held him. She's so good with him. She wouldn't let him go. ;) :)

Mike: You know, buddy, I think this calls for a toast. (Holds up his glass of sparkling juice) To Jordan Love Thorkleson, the newest member of our family. May he always be the apple of his parents and aunt's eyes. :) ;)

Peter: To Jordan (smiles and holds up his glass) and to all of us, Ursula too. She did a very brave and wonderful thing, confronting her sister...and now we can see her human whenever we need her. :)

Emma: (Holds up her glass) To family.

Davy: (Holds up his) And friends.

Micky: *holds up his glass* And to anything else we might've missed. ;) :)

Lauren: Hear, hear. ;)

Katie: (Shakes her tumbler) Ma! Da! :D

(Everyone else chuckles and says "hear, hear" and drinks. Emma gives out cake to the group.)

Emma: Well, I think this would be a splendid place to end this story. :)

Mike: (Nods) Yeah. Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans out there. May you be able to spend it with family of all kinds.

Peter: Old AND new! :D

Emma: For everyone else, enjoy the rest of your fall. :)

Micky: And be safe! :)

Davy: Watch out for devils! ;)

Peter: (Pulls a guitar out from behind him) How about we end with a song? (Smiles) "Lady's Baby" seems rather appropriate. :)

Katie: (Claps) Yay! :D

Mike: Katie wants to hear it, and I don't know if you've ever played it for the twins. ;)

Micky: Play it, Pete. :)

(Peter smiles gently, and we go into a performance video of him playing "Lady's Baby" on the guitar in the kitchen as the others listen. We fade out on the smiling Peter and the facinated group in the kitchen as the song ends.)

(Cut to another performance video, this one in the room with the Southwestern backdrop from the early second season. The Dream World boys are back in the blue six-button shirts...and Emma and Lauren wear the blue shirts too as they join the boys for "Oklahoma Backroom Dancer.")

(Emma struts out front to be the "Backroom Dancer" of the title; Davy briefly joins her before he notices a scowling Mike and returns to his maracas. ;) :">)

*Micky waves his arms and drumsticks from behind everyone.* :D

(Peter and Mike move together to briefly harmonize on their banjo and guitar, happily singing together. :) )

*Micky waves again.* ;)

(Peter grins and waves back. ;) :D)

(Mike rolls his eyes and Emma just shakes her head with a smile. ;) 8-|)

*Lauren ignores Micky and just dances, sort of, to the music.* ;)

(As the song ends, we cut from the "Backroom Dancer" video to "Early Morning Blues and Greens" playing over stills from the "productions" and the end credits. We end with a still of the full Dream World "family," including Chrissy and little Jordan, and the words "A Raybert Production.")