A/N: Just a bit of fluff and a bedroom scene. We so need it :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Once again, she couldn't sleep. But this time it had nothing to do with nightmares or bad thoughts. This time her mind wandered through happy moments of their life, and lingered in the conversation that they had shared earlier that day in the servants hall.

Mr Bates, the ever so racy man, saying for the world to listen that there was one thing they could do in the matter of having children. She giggled quietly as she looked at him sleeping soundly by her side.

She turned to her side to have a better look at him, as he softly snored laying on his back. His mouth slightly opened and his hair messed from his turns on his pillow. She smiled. Gently she tickled his neck, just under his earlobe with her index finger, and chuckled when he grumbled in his sleep. She then tickled his ear, and he brought his hand up to scratch it off.

'What happened?' He asked with a worried look on his face when he saw that she was the one disturbing his sleep.

'Oh, nothing.' She giggled and he smiled sleepily.

'Just teasing me, eh?'

'Yes.'

He smiled to himself, not moving from his position and closing his eyes once again.

'John?' She said a moment later, when silence fell between them.

'Hmmm?'

'Are you awake?'

'No.' His voice was low and she barely hear him.

'That's a shame...I was going to say that you are ever so handsome when you sleep.' She stated tracing his face with her fingertips. His broad jawline and his beautiful lips, the fair line of his nose and his eyebrows. She loved her husband so much she could hardly breathe sometimes.

'Only when I sleep?' He teased her.

'Yes.'

He laughed. 'Good to know...I should spend more time sleeping...else you'll go off me soon.' His voice was still rough and his lids too heavy to open.

'Silly beggar. That will never happen. You are the most handsome man that ever walked on God's Earth but...there's something...when you sleep you look so...boy like.'

'Silly.'

'I'm not silly...I'm in love. So in love.'

He opened his eyes then, and she risen up on her elbow and was looking down at him. Love and undying tenderness were playing in her eyes and he smiled with all the passion he felt for her.

Caressing his cheek with her palm she kissed him softly on the lips and quickly responded when he deepen the kiss and held her face between his hands.

Their tongues played together for a moment, as his hands travelled from her cheeks to her neck and hair, caressing every bit of skin he found in the way.

When they broke apart in need of air, they were both smiling and flushed, and wanting each other. She dipped her hand under the covers and down on his body, until it stopped just above his waist. Slowly, she placed her hand underneath his shirt and helped him to get rid of it. Soon, his pajama bottoms and her night dress joined his shirt on the floor and he rose over her body, kissing her collarbone and neck.

'I thought you were sleeping.' She smiled as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, bringing him closer to her.

'I was only joking.' He kissed her lips again.

'I was wrong.'

He stopped his ministrations and looked at her with a questioning look.

'You are most handsome when you make love to me.'

'Well then...I should spend more time making love to you...else you'll go off me.'

John silenced her giggles with his lips as his hands caressed their way down her body, touching and tickling all her secret spots.

He joined them when she begged him to, and the feeling of her legs tight around his middle made him wish they would spend more time like this, lost in each other's body, loving each other for the rest of their days. But that was not possible and he was eager to make these moments wonderful for both of them.

'I want us to have a baby.' She told him later, in the aftermath of their exertions, as she laid her head in the crook of his neck. 'I don't want to avoid it any longer.'

'Well...we just did the one thing it takes to have one.' He smiled into her hair.

'And you? Do you want a baby?'

'I do. I've always wanted to have children with you. I think now it's the right time for us.'

'Me too.' She smiled and kissed his neck.

'Although, I hope you don't get pregnant just yet...I do like to...work on it.'

'Mr Bates!' She laughed. 'You silly beggar!'

'What? I know you feel just the same my darling.'

'Let's sleep or we won't be able to wake up in the morning.'

'I was sleeping!' She gently slapped his chest as she chuckled against the warm skin of his neck.

Wrapped in each other's arms, they fell asleep peacefully, dreaming of their future, surrounded by their children and aging together and as strong as ever.