Summary: With no princess Amira being pregnant/coming back, no evil doctor Yusuf meddling in things and no creepy Ben lurking behind the corner, Syed and Christian continue their dream of becoming parents; adopt a little girl named Leena and try to cope with the new situation. And yes, they're married :) Takes place in spring 2012.

I do not own Chryed, only lovely Leena.

Just a normal day. Christian is using the first warm hours of the spring for getting rid of his winter fat, working out on the square and around.

Me, I'm busy with accounting but today it's not as boring as it normally is. Watching my gorgeous hubby from my place at the front window of Booty's, seeing him stretching and flexing and every now and then winking in my direction, I feel like the numbers on the screen multiply all by themselves. In the meantime, I ponder idea after idea what to do once my work here is done.

But then again… why waiting till after work? An early lunch break surely can't hurt…

So I decide to pack my stuff, shut the computer and head off to a bit of love before lunch but when I look out of the window again Christian has stopped showing off for me. He's still where I saw him last, at the other end of Turpin Road, but now he's only half turned to me, talking into his phone, an unreadable expression on his face.

Cripes… clients… but he's not ready… he needs to get fit before getting others fit… so I can watch him work out just that little bit longer…

With a huge sigh I slump back on my chair, silently cursing every current and future client who dares to rip me off time with Christian. And working his clients all day is going to make him all groggy in the evening, so chances to get any tonight are slim for me. Double cripes! That's torture.

A sudden movement which I see out of the corner of my eye makes me looking up from the screen and out of the window again, and I nearly jump from my seat when I see Christian standing outside, a huge grin on his face and waving his phone in my direction.

"Sy… you… are never going to believe… who just called…"

The next moment he's inside Booty's, hugging me incredibly hard, releasing me, almost ramming his phone into my chest and hugging me again, this time while pulling me off my chair and starting to dance me around the salon. I have the fleeting impression of him being happy. Whoever it was on that phone, it certainly wasn't a client.

"Christian… just stop it…" I try while laughing at his childish outburst, and he indeed stops, if only for now starting to excited hobble up and down next to me. "So, come on, spill… you won the lottery…?"

And suddenly, all his excitement stops. Standing still, he takes my hand in his, looks me straight in the eye and says the sentence we have been waiting to hear for months.

"Sy… we have been approved."

"We… what? How d'you mean… do you mean… did the agency call you… and they said we're going to…? Christian…"

Now it's my turn to hug him hard, spinning the both of us round and round till I think my head is falling off. We are going to be Daddies…

"Wow wow wow… Sy" finally Christian says a bit breathless while still smiling the biggest smile ever. "Let me live, will ya? Yeah, Diane said we're going to get a written confirmation as well, and more information, about what's next and stuff. They're now going to look for possible matches and then… Sy… I think we'll be going to be parents by summer…"

I hardly understand the last part of his sentence since Christian is suddenly overwhelmed by his feelings, sending a few tears into my collar while holding on to me for dear life.

We stand like this for a few moments, both trying to get our heads round this sudden radical life change. Sure, we knew it would happen (we dreamt about it, worked hard for it, done everything for it to happen). Still… it's real now… it's really happening… and we're prepared like fuck…

I quickly break our contact and look at my husband in desperation. "Christian! We don't have anything for this kid! No bed, no toys, no food, no clothes, no… no nothing! They will arrive and we will have a baby room full of junk and old vests!"

We cleaned and tidied the house till it was nearly as sterile as some operation room when we knew we would be checked weeks and months ago… but now there's nothing much left of that, and our baby room looks a mess… if someone from the agency comes around again right now, we're fucked…

"Relax, Sy! We still have loads of time." No, we haven't! There's so much to do, apart from buying teddies and diapers and baby food. None of us has organized his break of work, we have to find a suitable paediatrician, we're not even half through this thick and uber-expensive 'How to raise a child' book… and we don't even have a name for our little one! We registered for a little boy or girl from the age of a few months to one year and the agency told us we could change the name the birth mother gave him or her. After a long discussion, weighing up the pros and cons, we decided to give our baby a name we both choose and like. But that's about it. None of us came up with any serious suggestion (I still try to forget about Christiana, Christian II., and Syed junior.).

At all my arguments Christian only rolls his eyes in a mock-dramatic gesture, telling me again that we will have sorted all that by summer; what leaves me aghast. He doesn't seem to care about any of this anymore…

"Christian, what's wrong with you? We'll never be ready in time if we not start right away. I'm not saying we need to turn everything round in about two weeks but at least we can start to prepare the baby's room now we know we have been approved. Nothing wrong with that, is it?"

A huge sigh and a step back from me tells me that maybe there is.

"Course there ain't, Sy. I… can't even tell ya how excited I am about this… all this… me and you… and baby Junior…" – "But…?" A dreadful feeling goes along with this word, and for a short moment I feel like fainting right here and now, especially when all excitement leaves Christian's face and is replaced by some kind of sincerity I seldom saw on it.

Taking a seat on my chair and sighing again, Christian is not far away from getting punched in the face by me. What the heck has got into him?

"You remember when I told you about me almost being a father, don't you?" Yeah, course I do. Stupid Roxy and her stupid boyfriend, messing about with Christian over an innocent child's life.

"I almost had it. What I was looking for my entire life but just couldn't have. I love Rox, and I loved Amy even before she was born. So when Rox asked me to be a daddy to Amy, I was so thrilled… everybody said it's a bad idea… everybody thought we completely lost our minds… I was too happy to listen to any of that. I prepared everything, you know? Bought a bed, a changing table, night lights, rattles, teddies… I even threw away everything that could have been inappropriate for a child to see… and there were a lot of these… you know the rest of the story. It didn't happen, although it was rock solid clear and everything planned and… nothing could go wrong."

Here he stops, taking a deep sigh again and avoiding my gaze. I knew that this whole Roxy-Amy story has really got to him, and I'm convinced that this plays a not unimportant role in his plan to have a family with me at all costs. But honestly: compared to the really stupid plan of raising Amy with his best friend, our dream to adopt is rock-solid. We are approved; the only thing that could happen is that we now have an ultra-long waiting period till we actually can call ourselves daddies. But even this is more than unlikely.

All this I don't tell Christian. He's already too far away to listen to rational explanations, so I just make a few steps in his direction, hug his sitting frame and tell him that I won't let anyone take this child away from us. "This time we're two in this, remember?"

I feel him nodding against my shoulder and snuffling, like he's about to cry again. I was never able to see this big and broad-shouldered man cry like a toddler, so I press him firmly against my chest one last time, take a step back and suggest to call it a day (I'm far from able to do any more accountings today and by the looks of it Christian's work out is finished as well).

"Let's celebrate, Christian. Who knows when I'll have the next chance to have you all to myself… suppose in about eighteen years…?"

This indeed cheers him up, and since Christian being happy means total disgrace, I have difficulties to not end up on the cold and not-so-clean floor of my work place. Instead I manage to drag my husband home in one piece, for some marital fun in our big and cosy bed. After this we have lunch together and then start to turn the flat upside down and inside out till late evening, making plans for redecorating nearly everything in this flat to suit the needs of our little baby boy or girl.

Next chapter: more redecorating, baby names and family matters.