20th of June Tuesday

Dogs had to be on the leash when taken into the National Forest, but before somebody could stop the two brown dogs, they stormed away from their owner, reached a tall brunette woman, jumped at her and pushed her on the ground. Surprised by the attack, she tried to fight off the two animals before she realized, whose dogs they were and that they had no bad intention.

"Scooby, Rantanplan, stop that. I'm not your favorite toy, stop licking my face and jumping on me. You're bad boys!" She pushed the dogs away and got up, having them jumping at her again, happy wiggling and barking, like they found a long lost friend and had to tell her all the things they experienced since their last meeting.

"Scooby! Rantanplan! Stop that! Sit! Will you listen?" A blonde woman followed the dogs, trying to get their attention. Without success.

"They've got no manners, just like their mommy."

"Sorry, I tried to get them on their leash, but as soon as I opened the door, they were gone. Nothing can stop them when they have the chance to see and greet you. Will I get a reprimand?"

"At least." The brunette pulled the blonde in her arms and kissed her passionately. After a long day at work it was a nice surprise to find Sofia and the dogs in the forest, just in time for Sara's quitting time. The whole day she had been at work, missing her lover and hoping the blonde could finish on time, so they had a few hours together after work. Now it looked like Sofia called it a day before she did and came over to see her.

"Wow, that's a nice reprimand. Can I have a few more?"

"Maybe later." Sara took the leashes and secured both dogs, who stood next to them, happy their family was at the same place. "Are you here to see me and take me home or will we have a little walk with our two underbred dogs?"

"If you are fine with spending a little bit more time at your workplace, we can have a walk here. The dogs haven't been here in a while and it's more interesting for them to see new places than being at the reservoir every day."

"Well, then lets have a little walk. It is warm today, here we have some shade and it's quiet." Sara took Sofia's hand and started walking. She spent most of her day in an office, working on an education program for children during the summer holidays and looked forward to a little exercise. As much as she enjoyed jogging around the reservoir, the forest was much better.

"How was your day? Did you close your case?"

"No, not yet, there are few pieces missing. I'm almost one hundred percent sure who the killer is, but we need some more evidence. Some cases need more than others."

"You talked to him? Her?"

"I had him in interrogation, the problem is, he's a VIP…Trevor Trent. And when you work a case with a powerful person, who has powerful friends, you need to be more than hundred percent sure, otherwise you won't get a warrant, leave alone a conviction. You know the problem, had it yourself a couple of times. And Mister Trent does have VIP friends."

"His name doesn't ring a bell." Sara tried to remember a person with this name, tried to get a picture to the name.

"Because you never read the interesting newspaper Tony and Sally leave in the living room. So many famous people from L.A., our neighbors more or less, are in them, and you don't pay attention."

"You mean gossip magazines?"

"They deliver news about stars, they're news magazines. Anyway, he's a TV actor, a pretty famous one, his show is in the top three in the country. I think he won a prize last year, can't recall which one."

"And he killed his lover." That was more important to Sara than a prize. This man was a killer, or was the main suspect in a murder case.

"Maybe. We can't prove it one hundred percent. Yet."

"But you're sure."

"Yes…my guts tell me, he did it. And my boss told me, my guts aren't the evidence he wants to get this guy back in interrogation or getting a warrant. Only because he's rich and knows a lot of important people, we can't treat him like a homeless guy. It's not fair."

"It has always been like this. It's easy to get a warrant for anybody's house, if you want a warrant to search somebody special's house, you need a conviction of a jury to get a judge on your side. Most times these people know judges too."

"Yes, very frustrating." The blonde sighed.

"You'll get the evidence, you're a great CSI and you were a fantastic cop. This VIP has no chance. When he's guilty, you'll prove it."

"Thanks." Sofia kissed her lover shortly. It was good to hear Sara had confidence in her. When your own boss told you, you didn't have enough evidence on your hands and didn't want to fight for you, it was good to know, your lover trusted in your. Not only because she loved you, but because she knew how you worked, how good you were. And Sara wasn't a person, who made compliments, she didn't believe in. Not even to her lover.

"I do my best."

"You are the best."

"What a shame we're in the forest and not as alone as I wish we were. I feel like jumping you."

Sara laughed. "That has to wait until we're home, otherwise I might lose my job and we need the money."

"Tell me about it." Four days ago her accountant told Sofia how much money she had spent on extending her house and how much money she owned the bank now. Don paid a big part of it, so her accountant was happy for the moment. The problem was, with all the money Don paid in advance, he didn't have to pay rent for the next two years. Sooner or later she had to cut back on some things to pay the mortgage.

"We'll work something out."

"Actually, I've to work something out, it's my mortgage, I bought the house. You pay rent, which is more than I want."

"Honey, I live there."

"Yes, you live at my place, I love you and it feels strange to get money from you…when you're married, you don't pay your partner for living in the same house."

"No, but you share the money anyway. If you want, I stop paying rent and buy all the groceries, petrol and whatever else we need to buy. One way or another, I pay money. And have you ever noticed, you only refer to the house to 'your house' when it comes to pay money for it, otherwise it's 'our house'."

"It's our home, you know that."

"So I pay for it too. You bought it, I live there, I pay the rent. In case we ever break up, there won't be an argument about the house, it will always be yours and I pay rent like I'd do at any other place too."

"We won't break up." The blonde grumbled. "Don't say silly things like this."

"I said, in case. You know there's no guarantee we'll live happy ever after, but I hope we will."

"Yes we will. There's no way I let you go, you belong to me." Sofia pulled her lover in her arms and kissed hard. "You're mine and I'm yours. If anybody tries to change that, I'll shoot them without a warning."

"My cop is back, I love my cop as much as I love my CSI. Don't worry, I'm all yours. You're the one I want and the only one who has a key to my heart."

"Good. How do you feel about having dinner with your best friend and your godchild?"

"Sounds like a good idea."

"Greg invited us over for dinner at seven-thirty."

"Means, we should leave soon or we walk another twenty minutes or so and go straight to his place."

"We walk ten minutes, go home, feed the dogs and walk down to their place."

"After that we go home and have sweet sex?"

"Gosh, I love this woman, she's the best thing that ever happened to me." Sofia grinned, got her arm around Sara's waist and kissed her cheek. Her girlfriend was the icing on a cake and she was all hers.

"Eric, look who's here, your godmother." Greg hugged Sara when he opened the door to let the brunette and Sofia in. "We haven't seen her in a while, have we? I thought she had forgotten us."

"Never. Where's my boy?"

"In the living room, busy rolling over and watching his sister how she starts crawling."

"Jorja is crawling?"

"A little bit, started today."

"Wow, I want to see that." Sofia pushed her lover aside to get into the living room.

"And I've to talk to my boy, he can't let his sister go ahead of him. He needs a coach."

"He'll follow her soon, girls are faster with everything."

"Yeah, they start to date when the boys are still playing with cars."

"My daughter won't date until she leaves university!"

"Sure." Sara chuckled and followed her lover into the living room. Jorja was on a thick blanket, rolling around and laughing while Eric lay on his back and watched his sister. Sofia was next to them, talking with them, her hand on each baby. A moment the brunette wanted to keep as a memory, she pulled out her cell phone and took a photo of the three.

"That's a nice pic."

"Want to sit next to them and I take a photo of the four of you?" Jules offered.

"No, first I need a hug from my favorite therapist."

"Friend."

"Therapist friend." Sara pulled Jules in her arms and kissed her cheeks. "I missed you, why don't you, Greg and the babies move back in the room next door? It was fun to have you around and the house is quiet without your little family. Living in an own house is overrated, family matters and we're all family. Come back, I'm sure the twins would enjoy that too."

"Your room is too small for us."

"We build a new big room over Don's new rooms. You can have the gym area . Will you come back?"

"No." Jules laughed. I want to live with my fiancé in our house, when you want to see us, you have to walk two hundred yards and visit us. It's not like we're far away."

"Not the same house is too far away. I miss you."

"Visit me more often."

"I think I need a session."

"Talk to Amanda."

"No, a friend session with coffee and muffins."

"Sounds more like a date."

"Can't say that, your fiancé and my girlfriend are in the room."

"And they heard every word you said." Jules kissed Sara's hair. "Come on, say hello to your godson, he missed you. Did you forget him or why weren't you here for a few days?"

"As much as I hated it, I wanted to give you and your family more time together, without a visitor all the time. You lived six weeks in our little room, I bet you're still happy when you have time for yourselves."

"You're always welcome. So is Sofia."

"Oh, I do exist for the two of you, good to know.""

"She's cute when she's jealous." Sara sat next to her lover, kissed her and pulled Eric in her arms. "Hey big boy, how are you? Did you have a good day at day care?"

"They were with my parents today, grandparents day at the mall, spoiled with new toys and clothes. I'm not sure which part of 'stop buying things for them all the time' my parents don't understand."

"All of it?"

"Probably."

"Next week when my parents come over for a week, they'll get spoiled again." Greg grinned. "As long as they're young it's not that bad, in a few years they'll scream for their grandparents all the time when we don't get them, what they want."

"We need to talk to our parents about it again."

"You do the talk, it's your job to talk."

"We talk to them. We. Our children, our responsibility."

"Poor Greg, I feel with you. Telling doctor Bendler what to do is…hard." Sofia said.

"Aren't you supposed to call her Alison? She won't like it when you disobey, Sofia." Jules grinned. "You know her."

"I do, saw her last week when she checked on my leg. Almost a year after the accident, my leg is fine and she still wants to check on me."

"You're her special patient and you'll be her special patient for the rest of your life. Get used to it."

"Will she check on me when I'm pregnant too?"

"As good as she can if you don't stop her."

"You couldn't stop her from checking on you."

"No, not really."

"Having a doctor looking after you makes me feel safer. She isn't a gynecologist, but she's a doctor and knows more about my body and it functions than I do."

"You're having your doctor appointment tomorrow, don't you?" Greg looked at Sara, who had Eric on her belly, arms at his sides so he couldn't fall down. Every now and then she lifted him up and let him 'fly'.

"Don't mention it." She got cramps when she thought about it. The doctor would get her eggs, use Don's sperm to fertilize them and freeze then until it was time to inject them Sofia. It could all be over within a few days or take a couple of weeks or months. Sofia's gynecologist worked out a plan when it was the time to inject the fertilized eggs and then all they could do was wait and hope for the best.

"Nothing can happen to you."

"I know but…I don't like the idea of having somebody taken parts of my body out and freeze them. The only things that makes me go there beside my girlfriends, is the thought of having a little Eric in our house next year. A little sunshine like you and you can play big brother later." She kissed the tip of the nose of the boy, who started giggling. "Yes, you will be a great big brother for our baby. Can show him all the cool things you discovered."

"Did Don donate already?"

"No, he'll do it tomorrow. Must feel strange for him too."

"And when is it time for your part, Sofia?"

"According to my doctor in ten days. Next summer I could have my sexy curves back. Not that I won't look sexy when I'm pregnant."

"She worries about her sexy swagger." Sara grinned.

"What's left of it. Mood swings, putting on twenty pounds, staying at home, not able to dance and drink…I wonder if my girlfriend will leave me for somebody thinner and more fun to be with. Or stays away for long shifts instead of coming home to her grumpy and moody lover, who does nothing else than eat chocolate and complains about her belly."

"Unlikely." Jules answered for Sara. "She was with me all the time when I was pregnant and never minded the fact I can't dance and drink anymore…she did call me fat…"

"I never called you fat! Once I wondered if there are only two babies inside you because it could have been a football team as well."

"See, you called me fat. And I was fat, that was the reason why I couldn't walk anymore. You won't have twins, you won't be fat and you can walk, Sofia. With your sexy swagger."

"They'll inject two eggs, there's a possibility to have twins…and then we need to get a new room and my accountant will kill me."

"Or you have to use one of the rooms downstairs." Greg said.

"My parents had a similar idea: I kick out Tony and Sally, move back downstairs with Sara and they move in our rooms upstairs. The whole family in one house."

"You didn't like the idea?"

"No! Sally and Tony are part of the family, they stay as long as they want and I need the money from the rent. Plus I want my parents in Los Angeles, even in Silver Lake, but not in our house. When we have to give up the two rooms because Don wants another room with his girlfriend, our kid gets older and wants his or her own bathroom, we can think about not having the rooms rent out anymore. Until then, we'll have housemates."

"Don has a girlfriend?" Jules looked surprised. "I didn't know about that. Since when?"

"Huh? Who said that?"

"You said, when Don and his girlfriend want another room."

"Oh, no, I meant when he has one, who wants to live with him in the house, and they want another room. There's no woman in his life…beside Sally, Sara and me. Oh and your cousin. I'm not quite sure what their relationship is, but they spend a lot of time together, our two videogames junkies."

"They meet two or three times a week. My mom gets crazy, whenever her sister calls, she can't tell her about Tanya dating successful doctors, only be quiet about the video games sessions with Don. Like teenager. Not what she wants for her niece, nor what my aunt wants for her daughter. The old doctor problem. When they come over and meet Tanya, they won't be pleased."

"I've to meet your cousin too. Time for a check." Sofia made a grimace.

"Did she hurt you the last time?"

"No, she's really good and I had the feeling she talked to me like I talked to a scared witness of a crime scene."

"Anxiety patient are her area, she took some psychology courses to understand the fear better and learn, how to help people, to overcome their anxiety or make it at least bearable to be at the dentist. Eric and Jorja will be her patients too."

"They've two teeth, you can barely see." Sara furrowed her brows. Wasn't it a little bit early to think about a dentist when the babies didn't have many teeth?

"And it's important to brush them, Tanya got us special tooth brushes for babies and showed us how to clean their teeth. In a year or so they're supposed to learn to brush their teeth themselves."

"Tanya will make sure your baby gets its toothbrush as well when the first tooth appeared." Greg smiled and pulled Jules in his arms. "There are some advances with a big doctor family. Alison will make sure all the little wounds and scratches from learning to walk and ride a bike, will be looked after and when they get too wild in sport, she'll take care of whatever they have. Bruises, black eyes, sprained ankles. According to my fiancé, who was allowed to do sports as a child and teenager, I've to live with the thought if all these things happen to our babies more than once. Maybe I don't want them to play football. Beach volleyball is such a nice sport."

"And kills your knees." Sofia added.

"Basketball?"

"Catch the ball the wrong way and your finger is broken."

"Soccer. Tennis"

"Step on the ball or slip and your ankle is sprained."

"Surfing."

"Sharks."

"Chess. Nothing can happen when they play chess. I played chess."

"That's not a real sport. Why don't you let them make their own decision? You can't protect them from injuries their whole life. And a sprained ankle or a black eye won't kill them. It's part of your life. And when they want to be cops…"

"No way! Our babies won't be cops!"

"When they want to be cops and go to the police academy, they need to be fit."

"No cops! This is a doctor family."

"The way I know your fiancé, she won't push her babies to become a doctor."

"No, they can become whatever they want - if they win against their grandparents."

"Probably your mother has already secured their work places for after university." Sara put her head on Sofia's lap, put Eric on the floor and watched him turn from the back onto his belly.

"Look! Jorja is crawling." Sofia pointed to the little girl, who had pushed herself up and crawled half a yard before she dropped back onto her belly, a little bit surprised, that she wasn't crawling anymore.

"Good girl, don't give up, you can do it. By the end of the month you'll crawl through the room." Greg supported his daughter.

"And you will be right behind her, won't you?" Jules took Eric in her arms and kissed her son. "Your sister might be ahead of you now, that doesn't mean you can't get ahead of her. And when you want to take your time before you crawl and walk, it's okay with your mommy. I don't want to rush after the two of you, both taking off in different directions."

"I wonder if the captain will run after our baby or if she'll turn it into a rookie and gives orders." Sara chuckled.

"I bet our baby will smile at her and she'll melt like butter in the sun. No firm captain, no orders, only granny, who will spoil the baby with whatever it wants. Just the opposite to what she did with her own daughter."

"Well, grandma is always the best and allows more than mom. Get used to it. We buy a shirt that says 'if mommy says no I go to grandma'. I like them, they're funny." Sara pulled the head of her lover down and kissed her. Her mother-in-law would be great with the baby, she had seen Marie with the twins. With a baby in her arm, the captain had no chance to look scary.

Back home Sara knocked on Don's door and when he didn't answer, she opened the door and stepped inside his little apartment. Since he had more space, he didn't hear them knocking all the time; especially when he played a video game. His former bedroom door was the front door now. A wall was built in the old bedroom, so there was a hallway and the rest of the room became a smaller bedroom. Where once the exterior wall ended the room, was now a passage way to the new, big room. On both garages was a living room and kitchen. This was the place she found Don most times.

Also today, he sat on the couch and watched a ballgame, a beer and potato chips next to him.

"Hey detective, how are you?"

"Good, how about yourself"

"I spent some time with my godchild, we watched his sister crawl, decided, he doesn't have to worry about not being able to crawl yet and after I took him to bed, his mother cooked a really nice dinner for me…and I asked her to move back with her family in our house because I miss them so much."

Don laughed. "I bet she wasn't happy about your idea, the room upstairs is too small for the whole family and when the twins start crawling, they need more space."

"We can build two more rooms above your living room."

"Let them live in their own house, we need the space for our own baby."

"Yeah." Sara pulled her knees up. "I feel strange, thinking of tomorrow."

"Knowing a doctor will take a few eggs out and works with them. A part of you is under the microscope. Like evidence."

"I'm scared it will be painful, worry about what happens when they lose them, or mislabel them and we won't get them back. What about you? How comfortable are you when you think of tomorrow?"

"Not at all. Honestly I feel pretty stupid thinking about that a nurse will give me a plastic cup and some porn, send me into a room and waits for me to fill her the cup…it's like I'm a mix between a pervert and a breeding bull."

"Did you change your mind?" There was fear in Sara's voice and also understanding. He was right, he was treated like a breeding bull, all Sara and Sofia wanted from him was his sperm and he was supposed to deliver it tomorrow. Looking at the facts, there was no love involved, no romance. Only calculation.

"No, don't worry."

"I could understand it. You do this because Sofia and me want a baby and think, you're the best possible dad. You'll be involved, you will be the father of the baby and it will know about you, but it's her and my baby, I can understand when you feel used."

"Fact is." He pulled his arm around Sara. "I want a baby too and I can't wait for forever. My Misses Right might not exist and I don't want to be an old daddy, who thinks more of his own retirement than his boy's ballgames. I want a baby while I'm young enough to play with him or her, can take her out to the ocean, share my basketball collection cards with him. A surrogate mother is too expensive and I can't take care of a baby alone. Plus I want a special mother for my baby and how can a baby be more special than having your DNA and developing in Sofia's body? It gets the best of the three of us."

"And yet, here we are, having doubts and don't feel comfortable."

"Because the way this baby is made, isn't the usual way."

"Told you right from the beginning, you're not supposed to sleep with Sofia."

"To get your DNA I've to sleep with you." He smiled.

"Not an option neither."

"That leaves us with the doctor and the nurse. The needle and the cup…I assume you won't help me out so I don't need the porn magazine?"

"No." She laughed and hugged him. "I'm sure the nurse will. A good looking men like you are, there should be a few women, who want to help you out in your little cabin."

"I'm not interested."

"Are you interested in somebody special?"

"Like whom?"

"I don't know, just asking. You had a couple of dates."

"One time only dates. It never felt right."

"I liked the officer you met last month."

"Freshly divorced and burnt."

"Ouch."

"She's cool, we met a few more times for coffee and talked about work, not more. She isn't ready for something new and when I look at my dates and the experience the last months, neither am I. The only woman I meet on a regular basis - beside you, Sofia and Sally - is Tanya and we meet to play videogames and don't have dates. We only have appointments when she is the doctor and I get tortured."

"For a dentist she's great. Usually they're witches and compared to my last dentist, Tanya is an angel."

"With tiny little horns. You can see them when you look closely."

"Don't we all have tiny, little horns? Or are you a saint?"

"Always."

"Sure thing, detective." She got up. "Do you have the day off or will you go to work after our appointment?"

"I've to work. What about you?"

"Day off. I might buy some coffee and muffins and see my former therapist."

"The mother of the twins or the other one?"

"The mother of the twins, the other one won't have coffee and muffins with me. She sticks to the rules, no contact after therapy. She's the…whatever you call the cousin of your mother, of my godchild, I haven't seen her out of work since Eric was born."

"She was your therapist. And unlike Jules, she doesn't date your best friend."

"Jules is engaged to my best friend…gosh, when I remember the first time they met, I felt like slapping Greg. Are you single? In this moment I wished the earth had opened up and I could have vanished to somewhere far, far away. He knew she was my therapist and nevertheless, he flirted with her."

"Love at first sight."

"Crazy man with crazy hair and even crazier head."

"Your best friend."

"Are you telling me only crazy people want to be my friends?"

"Never said that."

"Careful detective, you get yourself in trouble."

"I hope our baby has your temper. And the cute little gap."

"You spend too much time with Sofia! I leave you for her now."

"Give the sexy blonde a kiss from me."

"From her little brother."

"From the sexy, dark haired detective."

"Not very popular." Sara hugged him. "See you tomorrow, sleep tight."

"You too. Enjoy the nights in peace, when our baby is in the house, we'll be very busy at nights with diapers and bottles. You know how it works, the twins were good training."

"Eric was adorable, no matter if he was asleep or awake. He still is. And so will our child." A few more months and they could be parents. As scary it the thought was sometimes, it made Sara very, very happy.