Hi, here's a short two-part story for the holiday...some time after "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch" , have a happy Valentine's Day!

The sun streamed in the window into the bedroom, waking C.J. up from her slumber. Not that it took much these days because getting a good night's sleep had become harder in recent months because of the growth in her girth, as Bo and Lamar so delicately put it. She had hit the eighth month of her pregnancy and well, most people could definitely tell these days what she and her now husband had been doing about those months ago.

Speaking of…where he was…the bed spot next to her was empty and she figured he must be up, working on the chores on their ranch, the ones he did before heading off to work in his helicopter.

She of course was grounded to her car only due to being so pregnant. She had joked to her friends that it was because she became too heavy for the chopper but really, she hadn't gained so much…she just felt it sometimes.

Then she noticed that he or her had woken up as well and had started playing soccer again. She rubbed her abdomen smiling because she didn't have long to go before she would be meeting the little stranger. Her pregnancy had progressed very well and except for some fatigue and morning sickness early on, she had felt pretty great…except for expanding her wardrobe as her body changed and now, having trouble sleeping and every once in a while she had just felt…moody. Bo and Lamar knew to stay away from her at these times when as Bo put it, she reminded him so much of Beulah and she didn't know whether he was talking about his ex-wife or his pet sow living in the barn.

She heard a crash suddenly and oh she knew where Matt was, he was in the kitchen and he was probably fixing her breakfast again. Smiling at that, she also braced herself because though he was a masterful cook, he could turn the room into a near disaster zone in nothing flat.

But a second or so later, he appeared in her bedroom with a tray of delicious smelling food and what looked like a small vase with a red rose in it. She looked at him quizzically.

"What's the special occasion?"

He put the tray in front of her.

"Does there have to be one?"

She tilted her head looking up at him.

"Wait a minute…what's today again?"

Matt smiled widely.

"It's Valentine's Day."

Oh damn, C.J. knew she had forgotten something…but she had been so busy with getting the nursery ready and working on some projects that she did on the days she didn't go to the office. And now…

"Oh Houston…I forgot…I'm so sorry…I just…"

He sat down beside her on the bed and kissed her softly on the mouth which stopped her speech. But how could she complain when he put it like that?

"C.J…it's okay…I know you've had a lot to deal with and this one's on me…besides after last night…"

Oh that, well it was getting harder to do…certain things but they had gotten more creative because just because she was pregnant didn't mean she had changed. They had built a pretty great life together since hitching up after she had gone off and bought his ranch right out from under him. Now that's not exactly the way that it had happened but he had put it up for sale after a period of neglect that had taken place when he had gone urbane on her. She hadn't been able to resist buying it up but when he found out he had been shocked. But he had quickly gotten over it, and in reality she had bought it so that no one else because she knew that underneath his new suave image and Armani suits, he missed it.

And now it belonged to both of them and Bo and Lamar and some other hands had helped bring it back to life, with a huge vegetable and herbal garden with plenty of chili plants too. They had fixed up the living arrangements for Rupert, Hildegard and their offspring and now they were working on filling up the spacious ranch house with children.

Matt had told her one night as they were curled up in the couch in front of the fireplace that he thought five or six was a good enough number. She had arched her eyebrow at him and said, okay fine as long as they traded off on who would do the pregnancy part…and so they were still trying to figure out that part.

"So you're going into town today?"

Matt paused.

"Just for a little while…but I'll have the phone on me at all times so page me if anything happens…"

Meaning if Houston, Jr. chose today to make his or her appearance, even though she still had another month to go.

"Okay…the baby's quite active these days…I think there's an athlete in there."

"A future football player…"

"Hmmm….I'm thinking more like soccer these days."

He smiled at her and rubbed her abdomen…marveling on the fact that when they had gotten frisky for the first time in the stable on the far side of the ranch during a monsoon, that had been enough to get her pregnant. He hadn't found out until she was hospitalized after a terrifying episode where she had been abducted by a vengeful Marquis Duval after he had escaped from prison and had enlisted Jonathan Renfield of all people to help him carry out his evil plan.

They were both back in lockup where they belonged and he and C.J. had gotten married, honeymooned in Hawaii where Vince and Mama and their family had relocated and had come back here to continue their busy lives. She had been working hard as a lawyer for them while he and Roy and now Will had been out working on the always challenging investigative caseload. They were still figuring out the logistics of commuting after the baby was born because she still wanted to work and Matt already knew he didn't want to be away from his family so he had been working at setting up a nursery and baby proofing the office.

"This breakfast is lovely…thanks and I'm sorry about Valentines Day…"

He put a finger over her lips.

"Now don't you worry about a thing…I just want you to get ready because we'll be staying in L.A. for the weekend."

Her brows lifted.

"Really…I mean I have some case files to look at…"

Matt smiled.

"Okay…we'll have plenty of time after we're done with our work to have some fun…"

He waggled his brows when he said the last part and she couldn't help but chuckle at her husband, knowing his track record in that area.

"Chris…I don't know where these numbers came from…but I'll have to redo them…"

The secretary sighed.

"Murray wanted it done quickly and you know Carolyn…"

She was the brand new secretary that had been hired in the past month, very smart but still trying to feel her way around the office.

"You are feeling okay today?""

C.J. looked up at Chris.

"I'm just fine…just feeling pregnant…"

Chris chuckled.

"I remember when my sister was going to have a baby…you just knew when to give her a wide berth."

"Well I'm not going to be ripping anyone's head off today…but I need to get this work done."

So they set out to do that and Chris proved to be a great help as always. But then suddenly they heard the elevator doors open and then a shriek.

Roy looked through the camera lens at the car parked in the lot near the beach in Santa Monica, between what was called Muscle Beach and the Santa Monica pier, not too far away from where Matt had lived and still kept his beach house though he leased it out. They were doing a surveillance operation for their client who had some exotic reptiles nabbed from his collection and the two of them had followed them to where it was believed the stolen animals were being housed.

The man in the car had sat there for a few moments and they had kept an eye on him awaiting him to make his move so they could move in closer to find out what was going on in the makeshift shop.

"So do you think he's got it on them?"

Roy zoomed in on the car to get a closer look.

"Probably in a box or maybe a bag…but they would then be the missing asps."

Deadly poisonous snakes that could kill a human in a single bite, and Matt imagined it would be an excruciating and painful death. Best to avoid it because even if it didn't kill him, C.J. would if he got injured on the job with the baby arriving soon…an event he couldn't wait…but only a month to go. He had always wanted a family of his own with the woman that he loved and it had happened not long after realizing she had been there all along.

"So you got plans?"

Matt looked over at his uncle.

"You mean today?"

"Well it is Valentine's Day…I'm taking Celeste to the concert at the Hollywood Bowl."

"Sounds like fun…C.J. and I will be going to San Francisco…it's a surprise…"

Roy smiled.

"I know how much she likes that city…"

Matt nodded.

"She even thought about moving up there a while back…I just have to make sure she stays out of trouble this time. "

"What about you?"

"I wasn't dancing on the table at a club that was shut down by the vice squad…"

Roy chuckled.

"But you and she were caught up in that floating craps game on the Sunset strip."

Matt remembered that adventure when he and C.J. had shared a sizzling kiss before they realized they wanted to do that more than once every couple of years. The club had been shut down and hadn't reopened yet under its new ownership.

"This vacation's going to be a little tamer…just a little…"

Because after all, his wife was eight months pregnant and she really needed to get some rest. Life had been crazy on the ranch what with Bo, Lamar, Beulah the pig and some teenagers that she had been mentoring. And after the baby was born, they were both going to be very busy.

"We might want to think about moving," Roy said, "because our mark just did…"

Matt made sure he had his firearm and he and Roy left the vehicle.

"Where is he….I demand to see Matlock!"

With that, C.J. knew that the spoiled heiress Serena had returned and had just breached the line of secretaries who served as gatekeepers for the penthouse suite. She sighed, because she had nearly finished her work when this diva with a yen for smashing breakables had shown up looking for Matt.

Sure enough, Serena dressed in gown and heels arrived followed by a trail of secretaries who all said they had tried to stop her. C.J. just told them everything was okay and she would handle it, but was it?

Serena just took one scathing look at her, from top to bottom and obviously in the middle because her brows lifted slightly.

"You're pregnant…"

C.J. folded her arms.

"You noticed…you're going to stop screaming because you're disrupting people who are trying to work."

Serena's eyes narrowed.

"Who are you again?"

"I'm C.J. I'm Houston's associate and his wife."

Serena's jaw dropped and she put a bejeweled hand over where she should have had a heart.

"Oh no…mi amore…he got married…to you?"

C.J. just looked back at her.

"We got married some time ago…"

Serena's composure never her strongpoint had left her and as she looked around her, C.J. wondered if she would start throwing things. But she just stood there.

"I didn't receive an invitation."

C.J. wanted to roll her eyes but she just smiled.

"It was a small wedding for family and friends."

"I'm a close friend of his…if not of yours and well…it's clear why he married you…"

C.J. just sighed…her back muscles felt tight and she felt hungry again.

"Serena, are you hear for business reasons…because if not, we've got a lot of work to do here."

Then Serena's face snarled and she reached for a china figurine and picked it up before smashing it on the floor like a spoiled child.

"Okay, Uncle Roy what do we do now?"

Roy looked over at him and sighed.

"We figure a way out of here…"

They were both seated on the counter of what had been a makeshift store with a pair of hissing asps coiled around them, not to mention a monitor lizard that looked like it wanted to take a bite out of them.

"I can't believe we're stuck up here."

They had crept up to the shop to take a peek inside and had witnessed and had taken some photographs only they had decided to go inside posing as prospective buyers interested in some snakes. But the men had seen through their ruse, they started struggling and the men had gotten away while inadvertently letting out a whole slew of captive reptiles which had essentially taken control of the shop. Matt looked down and saw a boa constrictor coiled around the display case stand and was that a copperhead slithering in a corner.

Matt and Roy both had guns but they didn't have enough ammo to shoot their way out of this shop. And Matt's cell phone had fallen out of his pocket and rested on the floor near the Gila monster.

"Uncle Roy, don't you have a phone?"

His uncle looked back at him.

"No…I haven't quite caught up with the technological era."

So Matt had to find a way to snag his cell phone so he could call 911. As much as he didn't look forward to how much Hoyt was going to rib him over rescuing him from representatives of the wild kingdom, he didn't have much of a choice.

He bent over to get a closer look and very slowly started lowering his hand towards the phone but when one of the asps took a swipe at him and barely missed, he pulled up his hand again. This just wasn't going to work out well. They would be stuck here for hours before anyone knew to start looking for them, with a crew of poisonous reptiles all around them poised to strike.

Not to mention that C.J. would kill him, the worst fate of all.

C.J. just looked at Serena who had just smashed one of Roy's prized figurines from the Far East. When Serena reached for another one, C.J. nearly smacked her. Because Serena had been the overindulged daughter of a truly hideous and amoral billionaire, the world had suffered for it. It was probably too late for Serena to fix what was the result of bad child rearing but she just wanted her out of the office.

Like right now.

"You don't put that down right now…I'm going to send you to your corner."

Serena just let it drop on the ground and shatter while putting her hands on her hips.

"You…you stole mi amore from me…He was to be mine."

"Serena, he told you he never wanted to see you again," C.J. pointed out, "Back when he figured out who had killed your father…or did it before you succeeded."

The heiress shook her head.

"How can you, a mere commoner say such a thing? He…we were together…except for a few minor disagreements…"

C.J. sighed.

"Serena…you are trying my patience…"

The other woman didn't look impressed, her mouth curled into a sneer.

"You…you…you can't expect to hold onto him looking like…that."

"Like what…it's called pregnancy…it happens in the real world...didn't your nanny teach you biology?"

Serena didn't answer, just glowered. C.J. wanted to kick her out of the office…now…so she could hit the couch and maybe put her feet up for a spell. And she still had to buy her husband a Valentine's Day gift.

"You need to go Serena…"

But that's when the woman shocked her…she whipped out a pair of handcuffs and put on herself…the other to a rail. Then she smiled up at C.J.

"Try to force me…well know you can't…I must see him and I will wait."

C.J. shrugged.

"Fine then…I've got work to do."

She knew she had to stay here until she figured out a way to get the woman to leave. She couldn't turn her back on her with all the crystal still in reach. Not to mention some Ming vases and Faberge eggs that belonged to Roy.

Then Murray came in with a stack of papers and his eyes widened behind his glasses when he saw Serena.

"What in blazes…but when it comes to Houston's private affairs…I know not to ask."

Serena glared.

"Who is…he…?"

Murray adjusted his glasses.

"I'm Murray; I'm the president of Houston's company since he gave it up to run his agency."

She just blinked her eyes at him.

"Get me something to drink…Scotch on the rocks."

He looked at C.J. who just nodded, thinking the day had just gotten much longer.

Matt had tried to reach for his phone but the asps just didn't want to leave their prize and the boa constrictor had been eying the two of them very carefully.

"I've got to get to my phone…"

Roy looked at him.

"It might be a long weekend if you don't…this building might be abandoned for all we know."

Matt knew he had to come up with a plan quickly but they couldn't afford to get bitten either because they might die before anyone knew they were in trouble. He had no plans on doing that and leave his wife alone with their child to raise.

But he had tried again and the asp just moved its choppers and hissed. If he could just distract the snakes long enough to get the phone...then his uncle tapped his shoulder.

"What?"

"Look up…"

And that's when he saw the line of scorpions on the ceiling above them…