For Jamie.
I can only hope you are proud to have me as your deputy.

I Can't Give You Anything But Love filled the room in glorious harmony as the smells of cinnamon and ginger danced up to the ceiling and Rachel Mason twirled across the tiles to check the oven ever so gracefully, her skirt swirling around her like a ballerina's. Her cupcakes were rising nicely, and would be warm on the table by the time her husband was home from work. She sashayed back to her mixing bowl to add food colouring to the icing, and hummed with the melody as it rose and fell, until the brassy timbre of Louis Armstrong's trumpet dominated the texture and shivered through her in a syrupy wave of golden tones.

With time only to stop for a cup of chai tea to soothe her rapid-firing neurones and calm her brain, Rachel looked out into the spring with a glow in her soft brown eyes, shining as if to appear molten, watching as birds danced through the sky with newly discovered freedom, and the first honeybee of the year dared to journey into the depths of her untended garden to forage for colour and sweetness. She hoped he found it. She sipped the tea as she watched a squirrel wriggle up the oak down by the pond, and her ever-elusive cat made an appearance for a brief moment - though Rachel barely saw a flash of white as she darted across the grass, her black spots glowing brown in the sunlight and her brown spots drawing Rachel's thoughts back to honey. She drew in a deep, pleasant breath of fresh air as she pushed open the French doors leading out onto the patio, allowing the pollen and blossoms to wash clean her lungs. Returning to the kitchen to extract the cakes, she left the door open, intending for the light breeze to have the same cleansing effect on the stuffy house - beating through the rugs and shaking out the walls; creeping up through the light fittings and breathing softly through the floorboards upstairs. It was so nice to taste the change in the weather, and to feel so light and open as she skipped over to a draw and grabbed a wire rack upon which to turn out her sweet-smelling treats.

She heard a key turn in the lock right on time, and voices soon filled the house, overtaking the trumpets so excitedly that the music was long forgotten. Rachel put down her icing bag and started for the door.

"Mummy, mummy, mummy!" came a joyful cry, soon followed by a rosy-cheeked, brown-haired beauty of six years, bearing a particularly colourful artwork depicting the same wonders Rachel had been enjoying just moments before, immersed in the Great Outdoors.

"Oh, sweetheart, it's absolutely beautiful!" Rachel congratulated truthfully, and tucked the painting into the corner of a cupboard fitting, number seventeen in a long line of wonderful works. She turned back to her daughter and crouched to her height, allowing the sight of such a clever little girl to satiate her thirst, having missed her all day. "I am so proud of you, my darling," she said with absolute sincerity.

"Come on now," Eddie interrupted, "upstairs and change your uniform, Jamie," he instructed, and the little girl raced past him, peeling off a green cardigan as she went.

Eddie walked slowly toward Rachel, drinking in the sight of her as he approached, so gloriously content with his life and so grateful to whatever greater power there might be that dictated that such a woman as Rachel Mason could even exist, let alone that she could devote herself solely to him.

They said nothing as they kissed softly, savouring the moment with eyes closed. She raised her hand to stroke his cheek as he placed his fingers at the small of her back with the lightest touch. They pulled apart gently, and took a long moment that felt like eons, but was really represented by one meagre minute, to gaze into each other's eyes and read what lay there - read their love and longing, read their desire and restraint, read their honesty and openness. It was as expressed in the first movie they'd watched together, here in what was Rachel's house and was now theirs to share; eight years ago now they had cuddled on the sofa as Avatar played, the standard greeting for the honest, blue race depicted translated to "I see into you." It was knowing a person and understanding that really knowing them was more than just associating with them - it was appreciating what lay in their soul. They'd both fallen asleep there before the end, Rachel's head tucked into the shape of Eddie's neck, and Eddie's ear resting atop Rachel's soft red hair.

Breaking away at last, Rachel drew her attention to the patient and deserving little boy on Daddy's hip, smiling toothily up at his parents, revelling in their happiness. "And how's my little Maxie, huh?" Rachel cooed, using his pet name. A sticker on his denim jacket read "Max" in neat, spacious handwriting, identifying the new boy in the crèche. His blonde hair stuck up at all angles, but he had not a care as his mother lifted him to the sky and spun him in circles until his elated cackles reverberated from the walls. She propped him up on her hip and looked into his happy face a moment, before asking, "Is it Thomas time now?" referring to Max's favourite show, Thomas the Tank Engine, at the mention of which he cried out, "Yeeeaaah!" and clapped his hands together.

Jamie came and sat with her brother and they watched their favourite cartoon curled up on the sofa as Rachel and Eddie stood in the doorway to the kitchen, speaking with hushed voices. Rachel asked about school, and Eddie raised his eyebrows and told her as little as possible, knowing she'd only want to intervene. "Chlo and Mika came in for a visit," he told her. "Really!" she cried, and demanded to hear all about them. He told of their success, and of Izzie, somehow older than Jamie, though Rachel could still only picture the baby wrapped in a blanket in the girls' toilets. Donté was performing particularly well running his own car mechanic business. "Tom and Davina must be so happy to see them," Rachel said, and Eddie confirmed that, adding, "And the girls don't get to see the baby very often, so there were smiles all round," referring to the Clarksons' baby girl, Emily Rachel. Eddie and Rachel were her godparents.

"Sounds like a good day," Rachel enthused, a grin lighting up her eyes as she spoke.

Eddie could not help but smile back as he replied, "It was," then moved on. "So how did your day go? What do we know?"

Rachel's smile became coy as she got to the Big Reveal. "Well, Phillip phoned, and he's loving it down there in London," she said, toying with her husband as she avoided the topical subject of the day. "And I got an email from Marley and Flick - those two are getting married at last. Our school should just be a matchmaking service." Eddie laughed at that.

"Come on, what's the real news?" he pressed.

She shrugged, as if not knowing to which news he was referring. "The education secretary opened his big mouth again and almost started a riot?" she suggested.

"Right, that's it," Eddie said, and started pinching Rachel's sides, tickling the skin above her hips, as the giggled and writhed and let herself go. He wound her round until she was imprisoned by his embrace with her back to him, and he held her hands so that her arms were crossed in front of her body. She continued to laugh as he nibbled at her ear and kissed along the pathway of her jaw. "Say mercy," he threatened.

"Never," she whispered back, standing her ground. Her laughter became shrieks as he spider-crawled his fingers across her skin and led her to the kitchen counter. He was about to speak once again when she turned suddenly and silenced him with a deep, passionate kiss, tempting him with her tongue and grazing his bottom lip with her teeth, biting down briefly and then returning to a soft coaxing, drawing him to her. He lifted her onto the worktop as they continued to kiss, and his hands slid under her shirt to rub her back, lingering on each bump of her spine, every moment and every touch more beautiful that the last. Rachel threw her arm around his neck, and tangled her free hand in his hair.

When they broke apart it was very sudden, as though they'd forgotten until that moment that besides each other, they also needed air to live. It was quite clear, though, that breathing came second to their companionship.

"Stop it, you, there are kids in the house," Eddie warned, thinking of Jamie and Max sat together in the next room, laughing at their mum's laughter - they'd always seemed to find it just as intoxicating as he had. "Now, no more playing games," he said with a stern look, "How did it go today?"

She smiled, ready to tell him now. Hopping off the counter, she led him by the hand to her tray of cupcakes, and lifted for him a plate of two. One was iced in pink, one in blue.

"Well?" Eddie asked, his excitement getting the better of him. "Which am I supposed to take?!" He was grinning from ear to ear by now.

As he had not received the message, she decided to tell him in a different way.

They wandered over to the open doors and breathed in the springtime scents, and she pulled his arms around her so they stood as before, with her back resting against his chest. Silently, she drew his right hand around to her belly and laid it flat across her naval. He rotated it slowly, soothing her and igniting a warmth which grew within her. Once they had settled into a rhythm, she pulled up his left hand and placed it next to the other. After a beat or two, he stopped moving his hands, and she turned to face him, knowingly trusting him to support her back and keep her upright.

"Two?" he whispered almost inaudibly.

Rachel had relinquished all control of her facial muscles as a smile with the beauty of a thousand dazzling suns overtook her features and lit a sparkle in her eyes. "Two," she confirmed in an equally quiet voice.

"Twins?" asked Eddie as though still not believing it.

"Yes," she murmured, then shouted, "Yes!" and the laughter was back, bubbling through her and leaking into him, their joy uncontainable and immeasurable as he held her by the waist and swung her in circles around him, her arms around his neck and her bare feet kicking outwards towards the fresh air beyond the glass.

He still held her up from the ground as she framed his face with her hands and bent her head to kiss him, their smiles merging into one overjoyed entity.

"We need to redecorate!" He stared, placing her gently on the ground yet still pulling her around in a lovers' circle. "And we need to buy clothes! And we need to think of names! A girl AND a boy's names!" His excitement was enough for both of them, but she still brought her own ecstasy, lifting them to the stars and beyond. Their love took them to the moon and back. Together they were infinite.

"We need to tell Jamie and Maxie their having a baby brother and sister!" Eddie exclaimed. "What are we going to name them?!" he repeated, his happiness overriding rational thought.

"How do you like Angie?" Rachel asked calmly.

"Can we call her Rachel?!" Eddie countered.

Rachel laughed. "You asked that about Jamie! The answer is still no!"

"OK... What then?!"

"We have plenty of time to decide!" she said, and she was right. Now she was six months along, her belly round and currently dented by a very stubborn elbow. She'd only had a week off work, and that felt like a century, so three months was almost eternal; this was why Eddie was temporarily in charge, and why she was so antsy to know the goings on down at Waterloo Road. Her staff had all rolled their eyes at the announcement of another new arrival several months before, but had stood and congratulated them anyway, cracking jokes about how much money they were going to have to spend on the ever-growing Mason-Lawson clan for numerous birthdays, and another congratulatory balloon and teddy bear for the newborn, and another Christening.

She turned from him slowly and he placed his palms once again around their two new babies as they gazed out into the fading day, the sky glowing faintly orange as white, fluffy clouds drifted along in wisps. They stood like that for a very long time as the trumpets took over again, and sang out from the kitchen, enveloping them in beautiful melodies as Eddie kissed the smooth skin of Rachel's neck.

Twins.

"You know," Eddie said. "I can't give you anything but love." He smiled.

Rachel smiled, too. "I know."

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