JUST TOUCH IT

~ a small glimpse at married Haleb's life post 7x20 ~

Aria slowed as she neared the partly open supply room door. As she listened more intently, a wide grin came over her face.

"Oh, go ahead..."

"I'm not so sure..."

"Go ahead. Touch it. You know you want to."

Aria wasn't exactly sure what the conversation was all about, but she certainly wasn't leaving right now!

"I don't know, Han... it's just so... wow!"

Hanna sighed. "l know, babe, but trust me. You won't hurt me. And you most definitely won't hurt her."

Her?

"Aria!"

Aria turned around, startled, and quickly shushed her husband — and on that particular day also her boss — Ezra. Whispering, she motioned him over. "Honey. You gotta hear this..."

Ezra sauntered over, a bit perturbed. "Now, Aria. What's so interesting in our supply..." His voice trailed off as he listened to the conversation inside.

"Are you sure, Hanna?"

"Absolutely. It feels absolutely amazing. Trust me, it'll be OK. Touch it." Aria and Ezra both held their breaths, mentally urging Caleb to touch... it.

"Gee. That's not at all what I thought it would feel like..."

"That's something different, isn't it?"

"Totally. Can I touch it again?"

Aria and Ezra heard Hanna's soft chuckle. "Sure, go ahead. She likes to be touched..."

There was silence before Caleb spoke again. "It feels so warm. And kind of hard, too. I wonder how it gets like that..."

Ezra could swear he heard Hanna shrug off the question. "l don't know. It just kinda got this way on its own."

"Does it feel weird?"

"Actually, it feels really, really nice."

"Lemme touch it again..."

That was it. Ezra had heard enough. He loudly cleared his throat. Stepping a bit away from Aria, he bellowed in a voice that could be heard all the way down in the boiler room. "Has anyone seen Hanna and Caleb?"

Aria jumped at the sound of Ezra's voice, and guiltily moved away from the supply room.

Hanna looked out the door and walked up to Ezra. "I'm right here. What's going on, boss?"

Ezra glared at Hanna. He also noticed that there wasn't a stitch of clothing out of place. And her hair was perfectly coiffed. "Where's that husband of yours?"

"Caleb?"

"Do you have any other husbands?"

Hanna frowned in curiosity and gestured behind her. "He's still in the supply room. Why? What's going on?"

They both turned to see Caleb emerge from the supply room. "Looking for me, boss?"

Ezra was confused. As Aria walked up to join them, he couldn't help but notice that Caleb was his usual impeccably dressed self. He turned on his heel and muttered. "In my office. All of you."

Hanna and Caleb were confused. Aria grinned slyly at Caleb and elbowed him in the side. "Next time, better use the staff restrooms, you two love-birds. Ezra and I tried some alone time in the supply closet, you can forget about that. There's always someone barging in, looking for more butter cream." Aria chuckled and followed the couple into Ezra's office.

Hanna and Caleb paused and looked at each other.

"The supply closet?" Hanna looked back towards it, realization hitting her. "Caleb, you don't think...?"

Caleb grinned, remembering their conversation. "l think that's exactly what THEY think, babe."

Hanna took a deep breath and entered Ezra's office. Sitting down on his leather couch, she began. "Ezra, it's not what you think..."

Ezra paced the office like a caged bear. "Hanna, don't say a word. I've done a lot of those things in my youth when I had some part-time jobs as a waiter in countless bars and restaurants."

Aria struck him a surprised sideways glance, indignant about the fact that he hadn't told her about what those kind of things were.

"But at least I had the courtesy to lock the doors for my privacy and that of the lovely ladies that were with me."

Caleb interrupted. "But, Ezra... If we could just explain..."

Ezra paused in his pacing and stared at Caleb. "No no no, you don't need to explain. I know that you two are newlyweds and I forgive and overlook at lot of things between you two. But I can't do it this time. You guys promised you'd help me out on Opening Weekend and I'm really, really grateful that you're part of my PIES & BOOKS crew, but the showroom is buzzing and there's at least five people out there craving our Soy Latte and Vegan Apple Pie Combo and if you don't serve them in the next three minutes, they'll never come by again."

Caleb glanced at Hanna in helplessness. She whispered to him, "Let him vent. It's the only way." Caleb nodded his agreement and sat down next to her as Ezra continued.

"l swear sometimes I think I need to turn the fire hose on you two!" He turned to glare as Aria started to chuckle. Aria clamped her hand over her mouth, her eyes smiling with laughter. Caleb caught her look and grinned weakly back.

"When we advertised our staff as the 'hottest team in town', I never thought that you'd take me seriously. There's a time and place for everything, guys. And the workplace is NOT the place. Heck, even Aria and I know when to leave each other alone."

Hanna bit her inner cheek to keep from smiling. She had never seen Ezra this worked up. She tried again. "Ezra. You've got it all wrong. Trust me."

Ezra stared at her, his arms crossed. "Oh really? I didn't hear what I heard between you two in the supply closet?"

"Well, yes, you did."

"Ah ha!"

"But, it's not how it sounds." She looked at Caleb. "Jump in here anytime you feel like it, Caleb."

Caleb smiled. "You're doing just fine, babe. Go ahead."

Hanna threw Caleb a look that said she would get even with him. Caleb looked at her with love in his eyes.

She tried again. "OK, Ezra. You're right. It did sound like it sounded, but it wasn't about that."

Aria was trying to follow Hanna's explanation. "l don't get it."

In exasperation, Hanna's voice grew louder. "We weren't doing it in the supply room!"

She looked to Ezra and Aria and saw that they didn't believe her. A movement to her side caught her attention. She turned toward the office door and saw a group of people curiously looking in through its glass window. At Hanna's glance, they all hurriedly left, leaving only Toby to leer at her, his hands moving in the age-old gesture "naughty, naughty."

Her cheeks grew warm with embarrassment. She turned once again to Caleb.

Seeing his wife's distress, Caleb finally spoke up. "It's true, Ezra. We're a lot more professional. We wouldn't do it in the supply room."

Hanna's sigh of relief turned to a gasp of surprise at Caleb's next words. "Now if you had a spacious staff room to provide us with..."

Ezra looked to both of them. Finally he grinned. "Ok, then. If you weren't doing what Aria and I and the entire barista crew thinks you were doing, what WERE you doing? And more importantly, Caleb, WHAT were you touching?"

Hanna sighed and scrambled to get up. "l was showing Caleb this." She grabbed the hem of her t-shirt to reveal her naked stomach that was showing a small baby bump.

"Oh no no no. Stop right there! I really don't need you to demonstrate whatever it was that you were demonstrating to him in that supply closet before," Ezra forced himself to look away while motioning for Hanna to stop her actions.

"No, Ez. You're still not getting it right. Look!" Hanna told him, keeping her shirt held up.

Aria and Ezra leaned forward. "What is it?"

Almost in a reverent whisper, Hanna explained, "The baby! I can feel her movements get stronger! And since they have been going on for a while today, I thought I'd have Caleb try to feel them from the outside."

"Yeah, Hanna was just showing me the small bumps the baby kept making with her hand or foot or, I don't know." Caleb told them, barely able to obtain his pride.

As they stared at Hanna's belly in wonder, a tiny bump suddenly appeared beneath her left breast, disappearing just as quickly. Caleb grinned despite the fact that his attempt to put his outstretched palm on it had failed. Then, another bump showed up a few inches farther to the left.

"Wow," was all Aria could say. Without thinking, she started to reach out for it, but she quickly withdrew her hand and looked at Hanna.

She smiled. "Oh, that's okay. It won't hurt you. Go ahead and touch it."

Aria tentatively touched the spot with a single finger where the movements could be seen before. "Gee, that's... well..."

"Warm and hard and just overall weird all at the same time?" Hanna suggested.

"Yeah, and also, like Alien… You know, the movie…" Caleb snickered.

"Yeah, no!" Aria turned to Hanna and saw her smiling lopsidedly at her. "I'm going with what you said, Hanna." She had the good grace to look embarrassed and grinned back at her before the dull feeling of disappointment and despair tried to settle in her stomach as she became once again aware of the fact that she would never get to experience baby movements inside of her own womb.

Caleb excitedly added, "Our doctor told us that since she gets to hear our voices a lot every day, she would probably react to our touch. Especially Hanna's." He turned and smiled warmly at her.

"Nah, I think she's going to become daddy's little girl from day one. She gave me some seriously strong kicks when we were alone in the storage room and you put your hand on my belly. Every single touch of yours just made it more intense!"

The double meaning behind Hanna's words wasn't lost on Caleb. He smiled back softly and mouthed "later" to her. Her eyes told him that she would hold him to that promise.

"I'm sorry," Hanna whispered as she turned to face Aria who had become noticeably quiet and kept staring out the window absentmindedly. "I didn't mean to make you feel sad or awkward. That's why we hid in the storage room."

"It's alright." Aria looked at her with a forced smile on her lips. "Just give me a minute or two. And please take my word for it when I tell you that I'm really happy for you."

"It's just that… I keep thinking about it, you know… How you can't… I mean…"

"I know, I know," Aria fended. "But don't worry! We're good. You don't have to keep all the excitement to yourself. I'll be alright, I've got Ezra. And we've got each other."

The little movements had stopped, and Hanna slowly pulled the t-shirt over her belly again. For a moment, they all fell silent.

Ezra cleared his throat. "Well, now that THAT has been settled, why don't we see if we can get some work done around here? Tables six, eight and thirteen need taking their orders. And good luck on getting any tips from tables two and twenty-eight for making them wait this long for their checks."

"Copy that, boss!" Caleb took Hanna by the hand, and the two started walking to the door. "But before that, Ezra, tables ten and sixteen asked for oat milk, and since I'm new here, I'm afraid I have to follow Hanna to the supply closet to have her show me where that's stored," he said and winked meaningfully at Aria who was blocking Ezra's view on his way out.

"Oh right. OK, you two. Go and take care of business. Meanwhile, I have some books to reorder because some doofuses thought they could use my copies of Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal" as a coaster and as a means to adjust their wobbly chairs. Wobbly chairs! In my establishment! Can you imagine? I'm going to give that handyman a piece of my mind!" He exhaled sharply and turned around to hammer his password into the keyboard of his MacBook that was sitting on his desk behind him.

When Hanna and Caleb had left the office, Aria kept watching them as they made their way through the seating area, headed in the direction of the storage room. Behind her, Ezra stared at his laptop screen, saying, "You know, Aria. I don't think that we heard the whole story about that supply room."

"And I don't think we ever will, honey."

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Hanna and Caleb start to embrace and kiss in the doorway at the other side of PIES & BOOKS before stepping into the room entirely and closing the door behind them. Aria's smile grew wider and with a quick look at the clock on the wall she decided she was going to give the couple ten minutes alone time before she would storm in to tell them that they didn't have any oat milk in store to begin with.

THE END