Lana Kane drummed an annoying rhythm onto her armrest. Malory had dragged her out of bed that morning, apparently, Archer had plans with AJ for the day and she had thought it was the perfect excuse for Lana and Malory to have a girls' day out, something Lana never wanted to do with Malory. After enough guilt-tripping, though she'd begrudgingly agreed. Lana barely finished getting ready before Malory dragged her to the airport.
"Is that necessary? There are other people on the plane you know," Malory asked her.
"Was dragging me out of bed and to an airport necessary?" Lana bit back, mimicking Malory's voice. "Plus, why are we flying commercial, there must have been a plane we could have borrowed or commandeered or something? I hate commercial."
"There were no planes for us to commandeer on such short notice, and we need to get to New York tonight. Now shut your mouth and enjoy your flight," Malory said downing her fifth glass since they'd gotten on the plane, they had barely made them it off the runway. "Why the hell are we going to New York, anyway? With ISIS gone there can't be anything there for us," Lana said.
"You'd be surprised, dear."
After a thousand hours on an airplane, a shopping spree, Lana's clothes weren't good enough for Mallory, a trip to the spa, and a visit to a salon for hair and makeup, Lana found herself in front of the old ISIS headquarters. "What are we doing here?" she asked Malory, "I thought we were getting dinner."
"This was around the corner. I figured it would be nice to see the old stomping ground. The building is even still for lease," Malory informed her.
"Good to know we can always come home if we want," Lana said, surprised at the pang of nostalgia hitting her in the gut. She didn't want to miss this place.
"Do you want to go in?" Malory asked her, pulling a silver key from her coat pocket and waving it in Lana's directions.
"Seriously?"
"Yes, let's go," Malory said making her way towards the front door. Lana followed her, entering the first-floor dry cleaning, another pang of nostalgia hitting her. While she didn't want to miss this place, this was where she met most of her friends, where she met Archer, and where she was working when AJ was an infant. All the important events in her life happened in that office building.
Malory called the elevator and pressed the button for the main floor. The sight she saw when the doors slide open surprised her. There was a trail of roses leading out of the elevator, the edges lined with candles. "This is your stop dear," Malory told her, putting pressure on her back to help push her out of the elevator, the door closing behind her.
"What is going on?" Lana asked, taking in her surroundings. The carpet was still a god-awful yellow color, but the rose petals drew the eye away from the awfulness. She followed the trail into the bullpen. All the furniture was gone, the only thing identifying the room was the yellow carpets and the wood paneling on the wall.
In place of the furniture was more roses, littered throughout the room, dozens of candles, and a small picnic blanket with a brown wicker basket in the middle, and in front of the picnic, setup was Archer. He was in one of his best suits, his hair was impeccable, and he had a bouquet of roses in his arms. "Hey," he said awkwardly, running his free hand through his hair, ruffling it.
"Hey," Lana repeated, taking a few steps so she could stand in front of him.
"You look... You look great," Archer told her, looking her up and down appreciating the view.
"You don't look so bad yourself," Lana said, feeling her mouth pull into a smile.
"These are for you," Archer told her, all but shoving the flowers into her arms. She smelled them quickly before turning her attention back to Archer.
"They are beautiful, but what's going on?" She said motioning to the room.
"Oh yeah this," Archer said as if he had forgotten everything he was doing. He took back the roses, set them down and took both of her hands in his. "Well, first things first, I wanted to tell you how much I love you," he said grinning.
Her heart sank a bit at first, was this all an apology date? Had he done something wrong again? But the smile on his face seemed out of place, so she forced herself to push away the thought, "I love you too," she answered.
"Yeah, yeah I know, let me talk," He said hurriedly, ignoring the dirty look she was giving him. "Lana, you are my best friend. You have been my best friend for god knows how long. I know I was a shitty boyfriend that first time around, and wasn't great the second time either, though there were some technicality things going on…"
"Archer," Lana warned, not wanting to go down that road right then.
"Yeah, yeah, right," he said resetting himself. "Either way, I hate that it took me being in a coma to get it right, but even before then, being able to be with, and in love with not only my best friend, but the mother of my child, it's incredible, and while I had said as much to other people; I recently realized I had never said it to you. So now I am, and I don't want to make the mistake of not telling you what you mean to me again. I want you, AJ and I to be a proper family. I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life. I want a dozen more beautiful little-mixed babies," Archer said, his smile now huge. Lana didn't know what to say to this waterfall of emotions coming from him, but she could feel her eyes watering.
"Especially if one of them comes out with my blue eyes and AJ's color. That baby will rule the world," Archer said, still rambling about mixed babies.
"Archer," Lana said, reassuring this time as she squeezed on his hands.
"Right sorry," he stammered, he let go of one of her hands and bent down on one knee, her eyes were puddles now, "I guess what I am trying to say, Lana Kane is that I love you, and want to spend the rest of my life with you. So, will you m-oh shit," the sentence got cut off he pulled his hand away and searched his pockets for something.
"Did you lose the ring?" Lana asked, her emotions sobering up some.
"Oh no, oh no, I lost the ring," he said, still dramatically patting his jacket, "I lost the ring," he repeated a little louder.
"I got that, really Archer, it's okay, these things happen," Lana told him, disappointed, but not mad, Archer only shot her a weird look she didn't understand.
"I LOST THE RING," he said louder, almost shouting.
"I got that," she answered confused, but as the words left her mouth, a little girl came out from one of the offices, not just any little girl, her little girl.
"This ring, daddy?" AJ asked him, holding up a little box as she joined the couple.
"Ahhhh, there it is," Archer said, taking the box from AJ, he whispered something in her ear, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, before retaking Lana's hand. "Do you have anything to add princess?"
AJ smiled at her father, a reflection of his own. "Mommy?" she asked, getting her mother's attention.
"Yes, dear?" Lana asked her.
"Will you marry daddy?" AJ asked Lana. Lana looked between the pair, her family, her beautiful, weirdly conceived family.
"I guess I can do that," Lana told AJ, all eyes on her instead of Archer.
"Yay! Daddy, Mommy said okay!" AJ told Archer excitedly, throwing her arms around her father.
"Seriously?" Archer asked, genuinely a little surprised, he put one arm around AJ, returning the hug, and kept his other hand in Lana's.
"Of course, yes," Lana said, using his hand to help pull him up. He placed the diamond ring, huge of course, on her finger, before pulling her into a kiss. She wanted to deepen the kiss. She wanted to throw him on the ground and fuck him right then and there, but she was very aware of her daughter standing beside them.
"Can you believe she said yes?" Archer asked AJ after he pulled away from the kiss. He swung her up into his arms, she was getting too big to carry, but he didn't care.
"Duh," AJ said dramatically, her parents couldn't help but smile at her.
Archer placed a quick kiss on AJ's forehead at the same time Lana placed a kiss on her cheek. "We love you, baby," Lana told her.
"I love you too," AJ said looking between the two, beaming because of all the attention. Lana was super thankful that Archer had thought to include AJ, but she really hoped that he had plans for her after this, because she wasn't spending the night of her engagement sleeping. Lana met Archer's eyes over AJ's head and tried her best to convey her question without saying it out loud. He seemed to catch her meaning.
"Hey AJ, let's go find grandma real quick," Archer told her, setting her down.
"I can't stay here with you guys?" AJ asked pouting.
"AJ, we talked about this," Archer scolded.
"I'll be right back," Archer told Lana, giving her a quick kiss.
"Honestly, it's been a year since you got out of the coma, and I still can't believe that three years in a coma didn't affect your ability at all," Lana said panting, collapsing onto the mattress.
"I know right?" Archer said panting just as hard. They laid side by side for a moment, matching their heavy breathing. She hadn't even totally caught her breath before Archer was back on top of her ready to go. "Round two?" He asked with a big cheeky grin.
"I am still recovering from round one," Lana said exasperatedly.
"Well, if we don't keep going how are we going to make all of those beautiful little-mixed babies," he asked, his hand caressing the side of her breast.
"About that..." Lana said, removing his hand from her breast and placing it on her abdomen.
Archer looked at her confused. He looked at his hand on her abdomen, then back up at her, a huge smile crossing his face as realization dawned on him, "Seriously?" he finally asked.
"Seriously," Lana said smiling back, "I wasn't going to say anything tonight, but since you mentioned it."
"I love you so much," he said taking his hand and tangling it in her hair, pulling her into a bone-shattering kiss.
When he finally pulled away, Lana couldn't help but smile back at him. She was sure he had always had emotions, but would always be grateful that post-coma Sterling Archer was much better at expressing them, "I am glad you are excited," She told him honestly.
He rolled back over next to her, stretching out on his side, and traced patterns on her belly. "Of course I am excited! I love AJ with all of my heart, but it will be nice to have a baby I put in you instead of one that you stole my sperm to make," he told her with his usual cheeky grin.
Lana shoved him playfully, "it turned out all right," she said, wanting to be annoyed at his never letting it go, but most of her couldn't blame him, it had been shitty.
"Yeah baby, she was so obsessed with me, that she stole my sperm to make your sister," Archer said, the words directed at her tummy.
She shoved him again, "I was not obsessed with you, plus the baby doesn't even have ears yet."
"What do you call stealing somebody's sperm to make a baby then?" Archer asked, continuing his tracing on her belly.
"Desperate, not obsessed," Lana admitted.
"Well, I guess I can take that," Archer said. "Are you sure this is really happening?"
"Yes, Archer, this is really happening," Lana said.