Second Moments

A/N: Though it can be read independently from the first, this fic is a sequel to "Some of Life's Sweetest Moments". It is set nine years in the future. Gio/Betty fluff, with a little bit of Claire/Ignacio thrown in the mix.

I dedicate this to the awesome-ness that is the Getty Girls. Thank you all for being there to support, discuss, joke, and over-analyze with me!


After ten hours of labor and another hour of pushing, at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, Betty gave birth to her second child, Samuel Ignacio Rossi. The newborn had dark brown eyes and a head full of black hair, much like his sister. He weighed in at a little over eight pounds, and upon hearing the size of the baby, Gio had made a comment about how he was going to be an "eater" like his mother. Due to the circumstances, Betty had been less amused by the comment than he had.

Not too long after the birth, a large group of people were gathered in Betty's room. Gio was beaming proudly. Isabella couldn't stop staring at her brother with awe. Gio's parents, Silvia and Vincent, were as joyful as if this was their first grandchild instead of their fifteenth. Ignacio sat in a corner with Claire, looking happy about the baby, but also concerned for Betty's health. All the aunts and uncles were passing the baby around, cooing and fawning over him. For her part, Betty was feeling tired, but exceptionally blissful.

"He looks like you, bro. Poor kid," she heard Alessandro, Gio's younger brother, say as he held the infant in his arms.

"Watch it," Gio warned. "You may be bigger than me now, but I could still take you."

"Don't worry, I'm just kidding. Your son's cute." Alessandro said, then added with a smirk, "Because he looks like Betty."

Betty laughed along with everyone else at the ribbing, but the truth was, that while Isabella looked like a combination of Gio and Betty, Sam was the spitting image of his father. She looked over at the small infant bundled in blue blankets, now being held by his Aunt Hilda, and took in his small yet beautiful features, the white cap the nurses had placed on his head, and the way his tiny balled up fists were pressed against his face. She smiled lovingly as she thought to the day that had been the start of her journey the last nine months.

Betty stared at the little pink line staring her in the face. She let out a joyous whoop and did a little dance. For a moment she even had the notion to pack up Isabella and drive to Gio's Sandwich Depot with the pee soaked stick and show it to her husband, her elation was so high. Then she realized how ridiculous and unsanitary that would be. He'd have to wait until he got home to hear the good news. If possible, Gio wanted another child even more than Betty did. The whole reason she'd taken the test while he was gone was because she didn't want to get his hopes up for nothing. They'd been trying the past six months and it seemed that they were finally successful.

The rest of the day seemed to go by at an excruciatingly slow pace. Betty couldn't focus on the article she was supposed to be writing. She would open up the word document on her computer and look at the blank screen and see nothing but Gio's face when she would tell him the news. She looked at the clock again for what must have been the hundredth time. 2:30. She still had three or four more hours until he got home. She gave up writing as being worthless in her state and went to go check if Bella was awake from her nap yet.

She wasn't.

Betty decided maybe some television would take her mind of off her excitement. She sat on the couch and flipped the TV on. A soap opera was in progress, she tuned in just as a woman said, "I'm going to have a baby. And it's yours!" with an accusing finger towards a dark haired guy, as dramatic music swelled.

She turned the channel. A commercial where a smiling man held an infant popped on the screen. She turned the channel again. This time a very pregnant woman and her husband were on a talk show.

"Oh, for goodness sake," Betty said aloud as she shut off the TV and went about pacing the room.

Betty decided to occupy her time by coming up with the perfect way to tell Gio they were going to have another baby. With Isabella, they had found out together that they were expecting, so being able to give Gio the news was a first. She thought of the ways she'd heard of people telling their husbands. She could always make him dinner and tell him. No, too mundane. She could go buy a cute little onesie and wrap it up for him. No, by the time she got Bella up and ready to go they wouldn't have enough time to shop for the perfect outfit. She could just casually drop it into conversation. But how would she drop in 'By the way, I'm pregnant,' into their daily exchange? Maybe the best way would be to just sit down and tell him in a calm and mature way.

Suddenly, Isabella could be heard jabbering from her room. Betty put the thought of Gio and the baby on hold as headed to her daughter's room. As she neared the door, the toddler could be seen standing up holding onto the railing of the crib with a huge grin plastered on her face. Betty couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"Up," Isabella said, extending her arms, as soon as she noticed her mother's presence.

"Hi, sweetie," Betty said as she picked her daughter up, "Did you have a good nap?"

Isabella responded with some more jibber and some head nods.

And so, for the next several hours, Betty's thoughts were occupied with the one year old.

At a little after 6:00, she suddenly heard a key in the door. Gio had barely stepped a foot in when she hurled herself into his arms and screamed, "I'm pregnant!"

Not quite as calm and mature as she had hoped, but she was too excited to be concerned by that.

"What?" came his startled, yet distinctively pleased reply.

"I'm pregnant! We're having a baby!" she said again, jumping excitedly.

Gio's face split into a wide smile. "You mean I finally knocked you up?" he asked.

Betty pushed herself away from him and shoved him on the shoulder.

"I'm kidding," he told her, pulling her back to him. "Betty, this is great! We're having a baby!" His smile was as big as she'd ever seen it.

"We're having a baby!" she repeated, happy to finally be sharing the joy with her husband.

Betty smiled fondly at the memory. Gio had been there every step of the way, and even though this wasn't their first child, he hadn't missed a single appointment. She was glad he was willing and able to be there with her during her pregnancy, as he'd proven to be the voice of reason during most of it.

Betty walked into the doctor's office and scanned the waiting room for Gio. He wasn't there yet, so she found two unoccupied seats for them and picked up a parental magazine to look over while she waited.

Several minutes later, the door of the office opened and Betty looked up to see Gio swaggering in. She felt her breath catch in her throat and a flutter in her stomach that had nothing to do with the baby. Betty drank in the vision of her husband. He was wearing a tight, emerald green polo that showed off his broad chest and shoulders and thick arms, and a pair of snug jeans that hugged him in all the right places. His dark, wind blown hair made her itch to run her fingers through it. Just the way he stood exuded manly sex appeal. Quite simply, he looked good enough to eat. He spotted her and had started walking over to her, but she was in his arms pushing her body against his in an embrace before he got half way there.

"Hey," he warmly greeted, "it's good to see you."

"Mmm… you too," she told him, still holding his body tight to hers, loving the feel of him so close.

"Betty, are you okay?" he asked when she still hadn't let him go.

"Ahem. Yes," she said with embarrassment, suddenly realizing that they were in the middle of a doctor's office. She promptly let him go and tried to think purer thoughts.

"Are you sure?" he persisted, inspecting her face with his eyes.

"Yes," she insisted a bit fiercer than she'd intended.

He looked satisfied and nodded, though he was still eyeing her just to be safe.

The desire that Betty had felt at Gio's arrival had abated a bit and she was able to think with a clear head as they moved back to the seats Betty had saved for them. This wasn't her first child, so Betty was pretty sure she knew what had caused the sudden urge to ravish her husband in the middle of a waiting room. When she was pregnant for Isabella, she'd gone through the exact same thing during her second trimester; Gio liked to joke that those months had been the best of their marriage.

As they waited for the nurse to call her name, Betty filled in Gio on what she and Bella had done so far during the day. Gio, in turn, told Betty a comical story about a customer that had complained because there wasn't any meat on her Vegetarian Sub.

"Betty Rossi," a nurse announced eventually. They stood up and followed the nurse into a room with sonogram equipment set up.

About twenty minutes later, after a routine check up, Betty was staring at a fuzzy black and white picture of her unborn child on a screen. "Gio, there's a hand! There's our baby's hand," she said excitedly, inexplicably feeling her eyes swim with tears.

"Yeah, I see it," he beamed proudly.

The doctor readjusted the wand on Betty's slightly rounded belly, then asked, "Are you going to be finding out the sex today?"

Before she could stop herself, Betty excitedly blurted out, "Yes!"

Gio looked over at her with a surprised expression on his face.

"Betty, I thought we decided we didn't want to know this time," he said.

"We did. But it's right there, so why don't we just have them tell us?" she asked, staring intently at the image on the monitor trying to decipher if what she was looking at was male or female.

"We wanted it to be a surprise. Remember, not knowing will make it all the more special."

"It could be a surprise today," she tried. Gio gave her a look. "Fine," she conceded, "We'll wait until it's born."

A short time later, they left the doctor's office. As they walked down the sidewalk towards their parked their cars, the wind picked up and not only blew Gio's hair in a tantalizing way, but also sent his scent in Betty's direction. Her earlier arousal returned full force, and a thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Gio," she said huskily, and put a stop to their walking.

"Yeah?"

"You know, I don't have to pick Isabella up from my dad's right away. Maybe you could stop by the house before you go back to work," she said suggestively, leaning in towards him in order to heighten the effect and make her intentions clear.

"Yeah," he said, his eyes blazing as he got her meaning, "I think I could do that."

Betty was snapped out of her memory by the sound of loud laughter. Silvia was telling stories about Gio when he was little.

"I heard water running in the kitchen and when I walked in, Giovanni, only two years old at the time, had stripped all his clothes off and was sitting in the sink full of water. When I asked him what he was doing he told me it was hot and he was trying to cool off," she told the crowd which caused another eruption of laughter. Gio was completely unabashed by the story, and Betty grinned at the thought of her husband as a precarious child. Knowing full well that Isabella was already like him, Betty imagined just how much Sam would probably be the same.

Thinking of Sam, Betty scanned the room to see who was currently holding him. Her eyes settled on Ignacio cradling the infant in his arms and talking to him in hushed tones. Claire stood next to them, admiring the baby and clearly pleased to be included in the family gathering.

Betty couldn't help but to smile at her father and Claire. She was so delighted that they had found companionship in one another. Both said they never wanted to remarry, but for the past five years they had been in a relationship that made them both happier than she'd ever seen them. While she was expecting, having both of them had been a blessing. Between watching Bella when Betty needed to go to the doctor or was just too tired to handle her, and having Claire invite them over regularly to swim in her pool so that Betty could find some sort of relief from the heat during the last couple of months of her pregnancy, she wasn't sure how she would have survived without them.

Betty stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She took in the sight of her large, swollen belly and her equally swollen legs and ankles, all which looked even larger than usual due to the swimsuit she was sporting. She felt the prickle of tears behind her eyes. She didn't want to leave the bathroom looking like this. Her father and Claire would laugh, Gio would probably think he had grounds for divorce, and she'd scare Isabella. She was just about to change back into her regular clothes and tell them all she decided to just watch and not swim today when there was a knock at the door, followed by Gio's voice.

"Betty?" Gio called.

"Yeah," she responded.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

She hesitated a moment before she walked over to the door and unlocked it to let him in.

He walked in, took one look at her distressed face, and asked in a concerned voice, "What's wrong?"

"I look like a cow!" Betty wailed.

He chuckled. "You do not," he told her.

"Yes! Yes, I do, Gio," she told him. "Just look at me! I'm huge!"

"B, I am looking at you," he said in a husky voice. "You're gorgeous. And hot. And sexy."

Betty looked over at Gio and to her surprise found unmasked desire in his eyes.

"How can you think that this looks sexy?" she asked, gesturing to her huge stomach.

"Because that's my baby growing in there," he told her with masculine pride. "And there's nothing sexier than that."

She eyed him for a moment before she said, "You're-"

"Amazing? Sweet? Cute?" he offered.

"I was going to say crazy," she teased, feeling much more like herself.

"Ah, I know you don't mean that," he said grabbing her and pulling her into an embrace. He nestled his face in her hair.

She sighed in contentment.

"I love you," she told him softly.

"And I love you," he told her before caught her mouth with his. Betty swayed towards him as she deepened the kiss. Gio groaned, then brought his hands to her back and began caress, slowly and softly. Betty was suddenly was aware of how few clothes they wore, him in his swim trunks and her in her bathing suit, when he broke away from her. They were both breathless.

"Your dad, Bella, and Claire are waiting for us," he said in a gravelly voice.

She sighed. "Okay. You're sure I look fine?" she asked.

He gave her a look that half asked if she was crazy and half reminded her of the kiss they'd just shared.

"Right," she said. "Let's go."

Shortly thereafter, Betty, Gio, and Bella were in the pool while Ignacio and Claire watched from the deck, talking and sipping lemonade. Betty and Gio stood about five feet apart in the shallow end of the pool as Bella, wearing arm floaties to stay above the water, kicked and splashed herself back and forth between the two of them. The pigtails Betty had put Bella's hair up in were limp from the water, but she looked as cute as ever.

As Bella made her way towards her for what must have been the twentieth time, Betty could see determination and glee in her dark, shining eyes. Betty knew in that moment that Bella would be able to achieve anything she set her mind to. The pride Betty felt from knowing this was overwhelming.

As Bella reached her mother, she said, out of breath and with excitement, "I swim, Mommy!"

"I saw that, sweetie," Betty told her. "You're a very good swimmer."

"I swim again!" Bella informed Betty before she took off in the direction of Gio.

When she reached her father, she didn't attempt to return back. Instead he helped her float above the water on her back. Betty took pleasure in just watching them for a moment before she made her way over to them to join in their play.

"Do you want him back?" Silvia's voice startled Betty out of her thoughts.

"Oh," she said, realizing that she'd been staring at Sam, whom was in the arms of his grandmother at the moment. "No, if you're still-"

"Sweetheart, it's okay," Silvia cut her off. "It's your baby and we've all been hogging him. You hold him for a while."

Silvia walked over and placed the infant in Betty's arms. Betty smiled down at the newborn.

"Hi, Sammy," she said before she placed a soft kiss on his forehead. He let out a sigh before he slowly started to drift off to sleep. So lost was she in memorizing at the face she'd waited nine months to see, she didn't hear Gio approach.

"We did pretty good, didn't we?" he said.

Betty looked up at him. He was holding Bella and still smiling radiantly.

"Yeah," she told him. "We really did."

"My baby sleep?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, sweetie, he's tired from all the attention he's been getting today," Gio told her. "Do you want to give him a kiss goodnight?"

"Yes," she nodded, never taking her eyes off of the slumbering baby's face. Gio bent down so that Isabella could reach Sam. She looked at him for a moment longer and then left a loud, wet kiss on his cheek.

"Night, night, baby," she whispered.

Betty looked lovingly at her daughter.

"Mommy could use a kiss, too, Bella," she told her. Not needing to be told twice, Isabella leaned down to plant another wet kiss on her mother's mouth.

Gio sat down at the edge of Betty's bed, Bella sitting in his lap. He looked down at Sam and then at Betty.

"We have two kids now," he told her.

"Yeah," she acknowledged.

"Do you think we can handle it?" he asked her.

"I know we can," she told him confidently.

"Good," he said. "I know we can, too." Then after a moment's pause he playfully asked, "So when do you want to start trying for the third one?"