Hey all, I'm back with a new story! This is a sequel to When It Gets Hard, so you might want to read that first before reading this one if you haven't already. Totally up to you. Although some things here might not make sense if you don't... hint, hint, nudge, nudge. Anyways, here it is. Hope you all enjoy it.

- V

Chapter One:

Alana was a happy squealing mess. She was as happy as a five year old could be. And as a toddler, she loved to do things like running around the house to avoid bedtime, screaming when she didn't want to do certain things, like going to bed on time, and hiding inside of her toy crate to not be found. Her child logic was if they couldn't find her, there was no way she could be put to bed. But of course she never got away with it.

Ryan absolutely adored his daughter. He thought she was the most beautiful child in the entire world. His whole life revolved around her. Alana was his happiness. But of course, at times he wanted to get away for a while. Preferably with his very loving boyfriend, Horatio. But Ryan was always very busy with working as a CSI and then coming home to take care of Alana and the house. He loved going places with his daughter. Particularly the park. Just earlier, she and Ryan had gone to the park. Ryan had only expected to be there for about an hour. But whenever he announced that it was time to go, Alana would throw a fit and run away and continued playing for another two and a half hours. And who was Ryan to deny his little girl happiness? He just couldn't do that. He was definitely the pushover, while Horatio was more firm.

Horatio had finally called Ryan and asked him when they were coming home. When Ryan had told him that their daughter refused to leave, Horatio told Ryan to hand the phone to her. Immediately, she tried to throw the phone, but Ryan quickly stopped her and told her that Horatio wanted to speak with her. With his tone, Alana knew to be skeptical about taking the phone. But she did anyways, and listened to Horatio speak. Before she was done, she said a small, meek "okay" and slowly gave the phone back to Ryan. Whatever Horatio had said to her seemed to mellow her out. But made her upset too. Horatio had already hung up the phone, while Alana started running off toward the car. Of course, Ryan had to run after her to stop his daughter from just running blindly into a parking lot. He held her hand and guided her to the car. He got her buckled up in the backseat and then drove back home.

The car ride was pretty quiet. Alana would usually demand for Ryan to put on her special CD that played songs obviously made for children. But today, she was quiet and seemed pouty. When Ryan had asked her what was wrong, she made a noise but didn't answer him. Ryan tried, and asked again. But she remained quiet. He couldn't force it out of her.

They pulled into the driveway, and Alana started fidgeting in her seat. Ryan saw her, but he didn't bother to ask again what was wrong. He knew he'd find out soon enough when they both went inside. Ryan got Alana unbuckled from her seat, took her hand and then led her up the driveway. He unlocked the door to his and Horatio's home and went inside and was welcomed by the smell of something baking. Alana visibly perked up, let go of Ryan's hand and ran past him to get into the kitchen.

Ryan smiled as he heard Horatio question their daughter with a stern, but playful "what do you think you're doing", and then her giggling loud. He followed into the kitchen and saw Horatio was putting Alana on the ground. Which wasn't anything new, since she loved to run inside the house. Horatio would always catch her mid-run, then pick her up to make her slow down. And then he'd release her. Alana smiled and walked over to the oven and tried to peek inside. "Cake?" She questioned.

Horatio nodded. "Cake."

Ryan gave Horatio a quick kiss on the cheek before sitting down at the kitchen table. "What's the cake for, Horatio?"

"It's for tomorrow. Remember?" Horatio seemed shocked that Ryan had forgotten. "It's Natalia's birthday tomorrow, Ryan. And I said I'd make a cake, and you said-."

Ryan put his hands on his head. "I said I would bring snacks. I completely forgot to stop at the store."

"Well, no worries. We can go before work tomorrow." Horatio told him.

Alana had a pained expression on her face. "No cake?"

"Afraid not. Besides, don't you remember what I told you on the phone?" Horatio asked his daughter. She pouted, shuffled her feet and nodded her head yes. Well, now it was bothering Ryan that he didn't know what Horatio had said to her. "Alright, go get cleaned up for dinner." Horatio said.

Alana turned and walked very slowly out of the kitchen. Both men could hear her very slow footsteps going up the stairs.

"What happened?"

"I told her that after dinner, she's taking a bath and going straight to bed."

"Oh, no, why?" Ryan asked.

"Ryan, this is the third time that Alana has disregarded you telling her that it was time to go home. She does the same thing when you try to send her to bed; she runs away and hides. That has to stop and she has to be punished to learn her lesson." Horatio explained.

Ryan knew he was probably right. He never did like to punish Alana. He didn't like to see her upset. Although he knew Horatio didn't necessarily like to upset their daughter, either, Ryan knew that Horatio usually did what he thought was best. And more than usually, he did know.

Ryan sighed. "Right. Well, what's for dinner, then? I forgot to take something out."

Horatio nodded and came up behind Ryan. He leaned over the chair he was sitting on and wrapped his arms around him. Horatio kissed him on the neck, as Ryan smiled again. "I got a pizza instead. It's been a long day, so I figured we could just eat that and then go to bed." Horatio kissed him again. "What do you think?"

"Go to bed?" Ryan questioned.

Horatio chuckled. "Ryan, you know I don't mean sleeping."

"Oh, right. Well, in that case I think it sounds good." He answered. Ryan started looking around. "Well where's the pizza? I'm starving."

Alana had made her way back down the stairs and into the living room to join Ryan and Horatio. She sat on the couch in between the men, and continued to pout as they ate. They both kept urging her to eat, but she was in no mood to. Ryan almost told her that she could stay awake longer tonight if she would eat, but he knew that he'd be giving in. And he knew that Horatio would have been very upset at him if he did that. So Ryan had to remain quiet mostly.

"Alana eat your dinner." Horatio told her.

She stared at the plate in front of her, and then to Ryan with such wide eyes that he had to look away. He couldn't stand seeing her upset.

Horatio sighed and shook his head. Even he couldn't take the torture much longer. But he could still be firm in his bedtime decision. "Okay fine, how about this," he broke the heavy silence, "Alana if you finish your dinner and go to bed like the good girl I know you are, I will let you have a piece of cake."

Alana's blue eyes widened again but this time, in delight. "But it's for Natalia."

"She'll understand." Ryan chimed in. And with that, Alana happily bit into her pizza slice and was back to her normal, bouncy self again. Horatio looked upset, probably for letting himself even he had to admit that seeing Alana sad did get to him. Ryan grinned at Horatio, trying not to laugh at the fact that the stoic, stoney attitude had went away so fast. He nudged him softly, making Horatio roll his eyes and go back to eating his pizza.

After dinner, Horatio got Alana into the bathtub where she cleaned herself up. He had already laid her pajamas out for him, but of course she didn't want to wear the cute green pajamas with the little brown dog on it. She wanted to wear the even cuter pink pajamas with yellow cupcakes on them. And Horatio figured, sure, they're just for her to sleep in. She could wear what she wanted. As Horatio read her a quick bedtime story, Ryan decided to get into the shower.

Alana was absorbed in the story that she had heard a hundred of times already. What she loved most about it wasn't even the actual story. It was Horatio. He would make different voices for each character and that drew her in. She liked how he read it.

"Time for bed Alana."

Horatio and Alana turned and saw Ryan standing in the doorway. He held a towel, and was wiping his hair to get the excess water out of it. Horatio just stared at the shirtless man in front of him. The water from his hair had started to drip down to Ryan's shoulder, roll down his chest and onto the carpet. He had suddenly stopped talking, which made Alana curious. "What's wrong dad?"

Horatio shook his head and snapped back his attention to his daughter. "Nothing. I was just…" He chuckled to himself, not even bothering to finish his sentence. He didn't even know what to say. He couldn't tell his four year old daughter that he was checking out her other dad.

He heard Ryan laugh.

"Dad just hates when my hair's wet." Ryan explained. "It drips on the floor and it annoys him."

"You have to dry it." Alana told him.

Ryan smiled. "You're right. I should have thought of that."

"Another story?" Alana asked Horatio.

Ryan sucked in his breath. He was growing impatient. The truth was he and Horatio hadn't had sex in almost a month. To say he was needy to do it was an understatement. Horatio glanced at Ryan, and saw the disappointment on his face. "Alana, you have to go to bed. You have daycare in the morning. You don't want to be too tired to play with all your friends, right?"

Alana shook her head. "No."

"So can we skip the second story tonight?" Horatio questioned.

She nodded. "Okay. Goodnight."

Horatio gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead and told her goodnight. Ryan did the same, but kissed her on the cheek. Alana turned to her side and closed her eyes. Then the boys were off. Horatio had disappeared into the bathroom for a while, Ryan lay down while he waited.

When Horatio returned, he chuckled a bit. "You're not going to sleep on me, are you?"

Ryan's eyes opened slowly and he stared at the man in front of him, as if he were processing what he just said. "No, no. I'm awake. It's just as soon as I lay down on this bed, I get so sleepy."

Horatio crawled into the bed next to Ryan, and kissed him. "Well it's your fault for buying such a comfortable bed."

"Well excuse me if I thought that we deserved the best. And trust me, this bed is the best."

Horatio just nodded and hummed in response He kissed Ryan again on the lips, this time he actually reciprocated. Ryan opened his mouth slightly to allow Horatio more access. Horatio took that opportunity to slip his tongue inside. Horatio heard Ryan moan softly, and he noticed that his breathing slowed down. But he also noticed that Ryan didn't seem as into it.

"Ryan, do you want me to stop?"

"No, of course not. We haven't had sex in a while and tonight is the night." Ryan nearly pounced on Horatio at the mere mention of stopping. "We have to do it tonight."

"Well, we don't have to…"

Ryan sat upright, making Horatio do the same. "No, Horatio, we have to." He shrugged. "I mean, unless you suddenly don't want Alana and Kyle to have another little brother or sister like you've been bugging me about for the last 4 months. But I digress."

"Wait, Ryan are you serious?"

"So serious."

"You want another baby?"

"I don't see why not."

"Like, you want one right now?"

"Well, we can't have one right now, but if we have sex right now I calculate that we'll probably have one in about, let's say 9 months." Ryan answered.

Horatio just chuckled. He didn't even care that Ryan was being a smart-ass. All he cared about was the fact that he actually wanted to have another baby. Horatio wrapped his arms around Ryan in a tight hug. He was incredibly happy. Ryan in return, playfully rolled his eyes and huffed out a deep breath. But he held onto Horatio just as tight as he was holding him.

Ryan could feel Horatio's hands moving. They started on the small of his back and he hugged him. But gradually, Horatio's hands traveled down lower. Ryan lifted himself more, to give Horatio better access to grab his ass. Ryan kissed Horatio on his lips, this time much more vigorous than before. When they finally pulled away from each other, Ryan wasted no time in pulling down his shorts, and then trying to get Horatio's pants off. But of course Horatio had chosen this day to wear the most complicated belt in the world.

Ryan fumbled with the belt, his hands started shaking as he became more frustrated that he couldn't get the damned thing off. Horatio finally moved Ryan's hands away from him. "It's not a Rubik's cube, Ryan. It's a belt." He laughed at his own lame joke as he unbuckled the belt himself, sliding it off and tossed it onto the floor.

Ryan launched himself back at Horatio. He unbuttoned his pants for him, unzipped them and Horatio had to get off of the bed to actually take them off. When he did, he leaned back on the mattress, as Ryan had his hand pressed against his chest pushing him down.

Ryan took Horatio's cock out of his boxers and ran his index finger from the base all the way to the tip. He watched Horatio's face as he did so. Ryan had quickly discovered early into their relationship that Horatio liked to be teased. Not a lot, or else he'd get too frustrated, but a little.

He got off of the bed and dropped down to the floor onto his knees, putting his mouth over Horatio, sucking the head of his cock into his mouth. Horatio let out a low moan, being sure to keep quiet. He lifted himself slightly, being propped up by his elbows into the mattress so he could watch Ryan. Ryan went to work, licking and sucking the shaft, listening as Horatio said soft curse words under his breath. Ryan stopped moving though, when he felt a hand touching his hair. He knew what that meant.

Horatio gripped Ryan's hair, keeping him in place and he bounced, forcing his cock to continuously hit the back of Ryan's throat. Ryan closed his eyes tightly, breathing through his nose as well as he could. He put his hands on Horatio's thighs, this being the signal to stop. Horatio released Ryan's head, letting his cock fall out of his mouth and Ryan breathed in and out heavily for a few seconds. Ryan's eyes had tears in them, which was not unusual. At the beginning of their relationship, Horatio would have asked Ryan if he were okay. But now, he already knew. Ryan loved it.

Ryan started licking it again, doing it at his own pace this time. Horatio would occasionally grip his hair, and face-fuck him again but he stopped after a few seconds to let Ryan do it how he wanted.

Horatio leaned forward, and grabbed Ryan's arms. He forced him to get up off the floor, the towel he once had wrapped around his waist was now on the ground. Ryan laid down on his back, already feeling impatient and needy. Horatio reached into their bedside table and grabbed their lube bottle- one of many- and started squirting it onto his fingers. But Ryan grabbed Horatio's hand and shook his head. "No fingers."

"Are you sure?"

"Just want you now."

And Horatio was okay with that. He put a little bit more lube on his fingers and started rubbing it on his cock. He did insert both fingers inside of Ryan, to wipe the remainder of the liquid inside.

Horatio pushed in almost agonizingly slow. Ryan didn't want that, he just wanted to get fucked. He started to move his hips, but of course that didn't quite do the job. "Horatio go faster." He said. Horatio started working up to a faster speed, satisfying Ryan.

When he moved even faster, Ryan's body jolted and he moaned out loud. Horatio continued, grabbing a pillow and moving it closer. Ryan took the hint, and put the pillow over his own face, muffling his moans and keeping the to a minimum. Horatio continued thrusting into Ryan, even wrapping his fingers around Ryan's cock and pumping it a few times.

Ryan shuddered when he came, sending it right onto his own stomach and chest. He clenched his hole around Horatio's cock, making it even tighter. Horatio bit his lip and started thrusting faster and faster until he felt himself cumming. He came hard, inside of Ryan, groaning as he did and listening to Ryan's muffled slow moans.

He slowly pulled out of Ryan, panting.

Ryan tossed the pillow to the side and smiled. "Love you."

Horatio smiled too, and placed a kiss on Ryan's lips.