A/N: This short falls in the middle of "The Lost Valentine - Part 2". It's from Lucas' POV. I don't own "The Lost Valentine" and mean no infringement; just borrowed the characters to find closure in some special moments. Hope you enjoy it.
Loving Susan
Lucas pressed his face into Susan's hair and drew a deep breath. He'd been lying awake for awhile with his arm wrapped around her, her back to his chest. Her breathing was steady and her body completely relaxed. That Susan trusted him that much made him love her more.
They had been married for six months and it still surprised him sometimes. After his grandma passed away, he and Susan had been practically inseparable except when they were working. When he'd asked her to marry him less than nine months earlier, he'd expected her to want to wait, but the one thing both of them had learned from losing Caroline was that you shouldn't waste time.
He smiled as Susan entwined her fingers with his and settled further in his arms.
"Why are you awake?" she whispered. "Are you okay?"
"I could ask you the same thing," he replied.
"I'm awake because I can hear my husband thinking." She pulled her fingers from his and rolled onto her back. She looked at him sleepily. "Why are you awake?"
"I don't know," he answered, lying on his side. "I just happened to wake up and was reminded how fortunate I am."
"What are you talking about?" The soft sleepy smile she gave him warmed his heart.
"I have a wife whom I adore. A job I love. Parents who love and support us," he said from where he shared her pillow. "It can't get much better than this."
"Are you sure?" she asked cupping his cheek and pressing her forehead to his, with her eyes closed.
"Pretty sure. Why?" he asked then added, "Don't you agree?" Lucas slid a hand across Susan abdomen and she laid her free hand atop his.
"No," she replied. At his frown, she stroked the space between his brows and kissed him softly. "I think it can be better."
"How?" he asked with a sigh.
"With the birth of our baby." She stroked the hand that rested on her stomach when Lucas froze. He leaned up on his elbow and looked down at her. He absently drew figure eights over the baby with his thumb.
"What baby?" he asked just above a whisper.
She opened her eyes, love clear in them, and smiled at him. "The one we're pregnant with."
"Pregnant?" Lucas repeated.
Susan leaned up to kiss him with that smile that implied he was an idiot but she loved him anyway.
"Yes, pregnant." She answered.
"We're pregnant?"
"Yes, we're pregnant."
Lucas dropped back down to the pillow and pulled her into the curve of his body. He kissed her with everything in him.
"I love you," he whispered before straddling her and pulling her top up to reveal her still flat tummy. Lucas leaned down and pressed a kiss to her stomach. "I love you, too." Still straddling her on all fours, he leaned down and kissed her again. "I'm gonna be a dad."
She laughed out loud. "Yes, you're going to be a dad."
"Did I tell you I love you?" he asked looking down at her.
"Yes."
"Did I tell you how much?"
"I know." She replied. "Almost as much as I love you."
"I don't think that's possible."
"It is," she answered, pulling him down on top of her and proceeded to show him exactly how much she loved him.
After a long time, Lucas held Susan close to his chest while she dozed off and ran a hand over the place where their child lay safely inside her. He felt a moment of regret that his grandmother would never know this child. His parents were great and would be wonderful grandparents and since Susan had reconciled with her mother, Sarah, she was proving how much she loved her daughter.
The child would lack for nothing, but Lucas' grandma had been special and he hated his child would never know that for him or herself. If not for his grandma's devotion to his grandfather, he would never have met Susan and this life would be lost to him. Lucas couldn't imagine himself anywhere else. He threw out a quick thank you to her and finally allowed himself to slumber, thoughts of a little boy or girl with Susan's eyes smiling up at him.
