First, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I hope 2016 treats everyone well.

Second, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the first installment. As all writers know, hearing feedback from those who have read the material you've put time into can be hugely rewarding and even give you inspiration.

Matt's POV

I've been sitting at my desk since 10pm, trying to complete my paperwork. It shouldn't take more than thirty minutes for a thorough report, but it's been an hour and I'm not even half way through it. I throw my pen on the desk in frustration and lean back in the chair, rubbing a hand over my tired face. The clattering of the blinds that hang on the window of my door refocus my attention.

"Hey," her voice is soft. Almost angel like. I can instantly feel the tension in my body start to lessen.

I push my chair away from the desk and reach out for her. When she places her hand in mine, I gently pull her towards me even though she's protesting.

"I'm too heavy," she tells me.

"Never," I insist, guiding her to sit on my lap. I just want to hold her and never let go. My arm is around her back, supporting her and my other splays out across her bump. Her hands are on my chest and slowly move to my shoulders and then behind my neck. She leans down and rests her forehead against mine. "This - you - are exactly what I need right now."

"Want to talk about it?" she quietly asks me. I'm not surprised that she knows something happened during our last call. Even if she wasn't intuitive, none of us were in a particularly jovial mood since we'd come back to the station. A freak accident on the Interstate had seriously injured a young family. including an infant.

I take a deep breath and shake my head. "Later," I tell her. And I mean it. I will tell her later. Just not tonight. Or tomorrow. Maybe not for a little while. can't put this on her. Not now. It wouldn't be fair. "What's going on out there?"

"Not much," she sighs. "Everyone's getting ready to crawl into bed."

"Who's on night watch?" I ask.

"Kelly." She giggles. "Apparently it's his Christmas gift to everyone." I chuckle.

"McAuley made some crack about him being too cheap to even buy chocolates."

"He's going to get his ass kicked before Chili comes back, isn't he?" I joke.

"Oh yeah," she shifts on my lap and I know she needs to stand up so I help her as best I can.

"Do you need another back rub?" I ask, noticing that she's holding her lower back with both hands and now she's pacing the small room.

She shakes her head no. "I just need to stretch and I should be OK."

"You sure?" She nods. "What about some hot pads or something?"

"Actually, that might be good. I think there are a couple of hot water bottles in the supply closet."

"I'll grab some extra pillows, too."

She yawned, her eye lids growing heavy. "Thanks, hon."

I was grateful when Gabby had arrived at the station this afternoon. I was nervous as hell about the weather forecast and her being home by herself. I had called Antonio and he promised that he would stop by the house when his shift was over. Since his shift wasn't over until late, I had knocked on the neighbors door and asked that they pop over and ask Gabby to borrow a cup of sugar, or something, just to make sure she was OK. When she had shown up at the station, I sent out a couple of texts, cancelling the Gabby-checkups since I knew she was alright.

I was extra grateful to know that Gabby was tucked safely inside the station by the time we arrive back from our last call, just in time to eat the dinner she'd made us. The storm had definitely rolled in earlier than expected. The visibility out there was low but we were able to see a little better thanks to the lights on our rigs. We'd been commenting that to be a driver of a car or truck in this weather would be dangerous at best. The road conditions were made worse by the fact that the city hadn't been able to get all the streets salted before the storm arrived. Main roadways were in pretty good shape thanks to the salter trucks and snow plows working in tandem, but residential and areas with less traffic, like the firehouse, were of lower priority.

When I returned to my office a few minutes later, I had a filled hot water bottle wrapped in a towel in one arm and am balancing a stack of pillows in the other. "What would you like first?"

"Pillows, I think," she answers, but she doesn't sound sure.

I set the bottle down on the desk and then I place the stack of pillows on my chair before picking up the top one and handing it to her. I knew she was uncomfortable all the time and I felt bad about that. But she was so damn beautiful. She always has been, but now, knowing what she was putting her body through to have our baby...I'm a lucky man.

She sits down on the bed and I immediately bend down beside her helping her lift her feet. She quietly thanks me and flinches as she tries to find a comfortable position. Even on our bed at home she struggles to get comfortable so I know it's going to be ten times worse on my small single bed and without her pregnancy pillow. She lies still for a moment, trying to decide if it's a good position and then moves around some more. Her right arm is propped up on the bed, her hand flat on the thin mattress while her left hand reaches across and under her belly as if she's trying to hold her stomach out of the way as she rolls a little more to right towards me.

"Better?" I ask.

She nods and reaches out to take one of the pillows from me. She places it length wise between her legs, propping up her knees. "I think I might need one more there," she tells me quietly.

I understand that she's asking for help. She tried putting a second pillow between her legs one night at home and every time she attempted to place the second pillow, the first one moved out of place. Being as stubborn as she is, she insisted she could do it on her own. Eventually she became frustrated and then the frustration turned to tears.

"Thank you," she smiles at me as I gently set her leg down on the pillow after adding the second between her knees.

"Better?" She nods. I pick up a third pillow. "Another?" She nods again and slightly rolls back. I don't need her to tell me where this pillow needs to be. I set it on the mattress and slightly wedge it under her swollen belly. "Good?"

She rolls back over and takes a minute to decide. "Good."

I turn around and pick up the towel wrapped item from my desk. "Hot water bottle?"

She playfully bats her eyes at me. "Center it on my back?"

"Got it," I said reaching behind her. I lift up the bottom of the CFD sweatshirt she's wearing and then I lift up the tank top she's wearing under it. Thankfully there's just enough room to nestle the bottle between her skin and the tank top. It stays there easily and then I readjusted the back of the sweatshirt so that it's laying properly before covering her up with the blankets that are folded at the foot of the bed.

She reaches for my hand and threads her fingers through mine. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything," she tells me. "I know I haven't been the easiest person to live with, especially lately. You've taken really good care of me. Of us."

I smile, kneeling down beside her. I bring her hand to my lips and place a kiss on her soft skin. "You don't have to thank me, Gabby," I tell her. "We're in this together. You, unfortunately, have to do all the heavy lifting - that came out wrong," I immediately say, but her soft laugh stops me.

"I know what you mean," she tells me. "You're not in trouble. Not this time."

I chuckle. "You have done everything to keep yourself and our baby healthy since the moment we found out we were pregnant. But all I've been able to do so far is give you back rubs and get ice cream at three am. And I've been happy to do it. I just wish I could do more."

She smiles sweetly, her hand slipping out of mine and grabbing the material of my shirt, pulling me towards her. She presses her lips to mine.

We stay like this for a minute. My finger tips caress her cheeks and I pull her lower lip between my teeth gently as I pull away. That move always makes her weak in the knees.

"Tease," she lowers her head to the pillow. Her eyes are heavy but she's smiling.

"Get some sleep," I wink. Her eyes drift shut and I watch her for a moment before standing up. I turn on the small lamp on my desk and then shut off the overhead lighting in my office. The room is lit with a dim glow and I sit back down at my desk, attempting to get back to the paperwork that I need to finish. I scribble down a few things on the report. Behind me, I can hear Gabby's breathing even out and I know she's asleep. I push the chair away from the desk slowly, and turn around so I can turn to look at her.

As excited as I am to finally meet the baby, I'm going to miss moments like this. At the beginning of the pregnancy, Gabby was in awe of her ever changing physical form. She would look at her reflection in the full length mirror and stare. And I would do the same. Rather openly. It was amazing. She was, and still is, gorgeous. Then once she entered the final trimester, things began to change. She didn't look at her body with awe anymore. It's more like disdain. She has taken great care of herself, staying with in the recommended weight gain. If you saw her from behind, you wouldn't even know she was pregnant. But she was convinced that she looked awful. She notices things that I honestly think are all in her head.

She says her ass is huge, I think it's perfect. She thinks her arms have a little extra jiggle, I think she's crazy. So, in her hormonal state, if she see's me staring, she is immediately convinced that it's because I'm wondering where the hell the old Gabby has gone... That couldn't be farther from the truth. It's the opposite. No matter how many times I tell her, she doesn't think she's beautiful. So I started to watch her while she sleeps.

The first time I saw the baby move inside her belly was while she was sleeping. I couldn't believe that she didn't wake up. It looked like it was painful. I didn't know if it was a hand or a foot, an elbow or a knee...but it was amazing. Feeling the baby move for the first time had been one of the greatest moments of my life and I had shared that moment with Gabby. She, of course, had felt the baby moving before I did...she had known that I was disappointed when I couldn't feel it yet but she kept telling me I soon would.

Then a few weeks later, she knew the movements were stronger and had come running towards me and without a word, grabbed my hand and placed it on her, then, small bump. My heart could've burst with joy when I realized that the movement beneath my hand was a little life that I had created with the woman who was standing in front of me. I wouldn't change that moment for anything. But the first time I saw our baby moving was a special moment between our baby and I.

She hadn't been in a great mood the day that I had first saw the baby moving within her. It was early autumn and the weather was still quite hot. She was tired and uncomfortable. People at the grocery store had invited themselves to feel her belly, without even so much as asking. She had come home grumbling about feeling like she was an attraction at a petting zoo. Kelly had laughed but then wisely bit his lip and left the room when she glared at him.

That night we went to bed with the A/C cranked up high. Kelly and I had both been rather cool but Gabby had insisted that it was still too hot in the apartment so the two of us just dressed in layers. She had fallen asleep on top of the blankets facing me. Her tank top had ridden up and was resting on the top of her bump, just below her chest. I laid facing her, but I couldn't stop staring at her swollen belly. Her skin was stretched tight, the faintest of lines starting to appear on the underside of her belly up to her belly button. That's when it happened. I hadn't expected it...truth be told, I hadn't realized that I would be able to see the baby moving inside of her. I was shocked and awestruck. I looked up and found that Gabby was still sound asleep. I looked back down and there was more movement. I had reached out and tentatively touched her belly where the baby was showing themselves to me. They continued to move underneath my hand as if saying "hi." It was definitely one of the most incredible moments of my life.

Then as the weeks went by, the movements became more pronounced. Of course I had started to push on Gabby's belly - while she was awake - in an attempt at interacting with the baby. If I pushed, the baby reacted and showed itself, sometimes wildly moving around. She had gotten somewhat used to my manipulations and had actually started to ignore me when I did it. One night, a few weeks before we officially moved out of the apartment, Kelly walked into the room and caught us. Well, he caught me. Gabby had her laptop propped up on her legs, sending an email to her parents. He had simply laughed and told me he understood. A wistful look crossed his face when he mentioned how he used to do that with Renee...when she had told him that he was the father of her baby. Then he threw an impish smile at Gabby and started prodding at the opposite side of her belly. She'd stopped typing and she pretended to be irritated, but we both knew she'd been amused.

I watch as she gently rubs her belly in her sleep. She's going to be an incredible mom.

"Hey man," Kelly greets when he see's me enter the common room.

"Want a coffee?" Herrmann asks from the kitchen, near the coffee pot.

"Please," I nod.

"You two sure you want coffee?" Kelly asks. "Don't either of you plan on getting some sleep?"

Herrmann chuckles. "I can drink coffee non-stop from the minute I wake up until the minute I go to bed."

"I don't think it'll be a problem for me," I answer, taking a seat on the far side of the couch beside Kelly.

"Not sleeping?" Herrmann asks as he sets my coffee mug down on the table in front of me.

I shake my head. "Not really."

He takes a sip of his coffee before he sets it down on the table beside mine. "On high-alert, huh?" He shakes his head not waiting for me to answer. "I remember that feeling. Like if you let your guard down for one second to relax, all hell is going to break loose."

I chuckle. "Pretty much."

"How are you really doing, Dad?"

I look over at Kelly and see the amusement in his eyes. "Fine." Both guys chuckle. "What?" Kelly shakes his head. I look between my two friends and see the look they share. "What?" I ask again.

"You're about to be a father, man," Kelly answers. "That's scary as hell."

Herrmann nods in agreement. "That's an understatement."

I take a deep breath, not sure if I want to admit this out loud. If I even know how to explain it

"C'mon. Out with it," Herrmann says as he takes a sip of his hot coffee.

I take a deep breath and dive in. "What if I let them down?" There's no taking it back now. Kelly and Herrmann look stunned.

"Not a chance," Kelly finally answers. He sounds so sure of that.

"What the hell do I know about being a father?" I look between my two friends. "Seriously. What do I know about it? After my parents split up, my Dad wasn't around much. When he was, he was usually angry about something. He and my mom would take turns trying to poison us against the other...we pretty much had to raise ourselves."

Kelly looked me straight in the eyes. "You know a lot about being a parent, Matt."

"I'm clueless, Kelly."

"No, no," Herrmann shook his head. "Kelly's right. You know a lot. More than I did. Heather Darden entrusted her children to you when she was sent to prison."

"Lack of options," I tell them. "There were no family members locally who could take care of those two for as long as she was going away for."

"It was more than that," Kelly informs me. "She and Andy trusted you. You don't just ask someone to take care of your kids because of proximity and physical ability to run after and keep up with them. She knew that they would feel safe with you. "

Herrmann nodded his head. "They lost their dad. Then their mom was taken from them because one stupid mistake. They needed stability and she knew they would get that with you."

"I didn't have a clue what I was doing," I tell them.

"No you didn't," Kelly agreed with me. "But you came to work after finding out how long they were supposed to be with you and you told us that you would need help."

"I seem to recall the first person in line to give you a hand," Herrmann reminds me, smiling.

I can feel the smile tugging at my lips just thinking about that time we spent together. How we'd actually started to feel like some sort of family.

The first morning I was trying to get them ready for school, they were not co-operating. If it hadn't been for Gabby, those kids would've gone to school in their PJ's, without breakfast and at least one of them smelling like brewery. But she took the reigns and those kids moved faster than I had seen them move in days. She had them both dressed, back packs ready and sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast within ten minutes, which gave me enough time to mop up the beer from the broken bottle and sweep up the shards of glass. After that she'd even gone through my refrigerator and found some suitable left overs to turn into sandwiches for their school lunches. I remember watching her in complete amazement.

And then there was the time I was called to Griffin's school. He'd gotten into a fight and I had sat in that office with the principal, sure he was about to call the state to have them determine whether or not I was fit to be the boys' guardian. Then Gabby came sweeping into the room, announcing that she was with me...that we all just needed some time to readjust and that Griffin needed to know that it was OK to feel whatever he was feeling...that he needed time to process. When the principal had smiled and agreed with Gabby, I knew that I'd dodged a major bullet. She had only been aware of the fact that I had been called to the school because Boden had a big mouth, but regardless of how she'd found out, I was grateful she showed up. She hadn't made a big deal about it either. But it was a big deal.

And of course there were the nights when she'd come to my place. We would cook dinner while the boys would be tossing the ball around in my small back yard or playing video games. Afterwards, the four of us would clean up the kitchen, wash and dry dishes and then we would watch a movie, or play board games. I honestly don't remember having that much fun playing board games as a kid, but I had really looked forward to the nights the four of us would. Not only was it nice to have another adult to talk to, but it was also great to see how the boys' lit up when she was around. They looked forward to her coming over almost as much as I did.

I remember asking her to come over, telling her we could order some pizza and rent a movie...and then her telling me she couldn't because she had a thing. I was more disappointed than I should've been. I wasn't entirely sure why that was at the time. I had chalked it up to being used to her being around and that she was an infinite source of help getting the boys to eat their dinner and even getting them ready for bed. But then a few days later, we had taken the boys to the park and she'd gotten a call that she refused to answer. I asked what was going on and when she'd told me that she'd really stepped into with that guy, I offered to have a talk with him. Although, truth be told, I probably would've done more than that. I was angry and thrilled at the same time. Angry that this guy had done something to upset her, thrilled that it was over. When I realized that I was thrilled, I was confused.

She was my friend. She had been there for me when Hallie had died. She was the person who came to my house and saw me, broken. She broke my walls down. I allowed myself to cry in her arms, holding on for dear life. She picked up the scattered pieces around my house and slowly, she'd picked up the broken pieces of me. She helped me through the darkness.

I had realized during my leave of absence that I hadn't been grieving for Hallie as if she were my world. She had, of course, been my world at one point. But our relationship had failed for many reasons...and we had been over long before we officially broke up. We had reconnected, but the core issues of why we didn't work remained the same. We'd turned to each other because we were lonely. And just as quickly as she'd come back into my life, she was gone again. But this time, she wasn't coming back. I was grieving for the loss of someone who had meant a lot to me for a long time. For my friend. Grieving because as a fireman, I'm supposed to protect and save people from fires. But I couldn't save her. I had felt a lot of guilt over her death but Gabby had been the one to bring me out on the other side.

Looking back on it now, Gabby had been one of our issues. Hallie had been jealous of our friendship and on occasion she'd picked fights with me over it. Telling me that it was obvious there was more between us than friendship. She knew, of course, that cheating was not something I was capable of. But she insisted that she could see it written all over my face - that I was attracted to Gabby, and Gabby was attracted to me.

It was no longer lost on me that after Hallie and I officially broke up, I sought Gabby out. I hadn't told her about the ending of our relationship, but I knew she would be at that bar. I needed her. We'd gotten pretty close over the next couple of weeks and then she'd mentioned her cousins Christmas party. I hadn't missed a beat, telling her that if she wanted a friend, she should ask Mouch - but if she wanted a date, I was her guy.

Meeting her family had been a bit overwhelming. I wasn't used to being around large families. There was always a lot of loud voices in my house growing up, but usually it was because someone was angry. This party was full of loud voices...but it was clear that they loved each other unconditionally. I had been envious of that and then suddenly I was thinking about my own family. I was jarred from my thoughts when Gabby had been pulled away and her aunt had cornered me. It was only for a few minutes, but I had been thankful when Gabby reappeared and pulled me into the library. I had really wanted to kiss her that night, but I knew in my heart that if we did take that next step, I wouldn't be able to jump in with two feet. I needed a little time to figure out the situation with my mother. I didn't want to start something with Gabby, that I knew would be amazing, with something else hanging over my head.

Naturally I hadn't just told Gabby the truth. If I had been honest that I wanted her, us, but that I needed a little time to figure out stuff with my mom she wouldn't have jumped to the wrong conclusion. She had been hurt and embarrassed that I hadn't leaned in the final distance. Instead I had moved my head to the side and kissed her cheek. The ride home that night had been awkward. She had insisted that it was fine, but I knew by her tone that it wasn't. That she just wanted me to drop the subject so we could pretend like it didn't happen. Stupidly I went along with it. She took my silence as confirmation that the reason I hadn't kissed her was because I wasn't over Hallie.

And then there was Peter Mills. I liked the kid - until I knew he had stolen Gabby away from me. In my heart I knew that she had started something with him because she was rebounding from the hurt I had caused her. But I couldn't be upset. I had no claim on her. So while I wasn't upset with her, I was will Mills. He'd moved in on my girl. So I worked him hard as our candidate. I would have him scrub the showers and floors and polishing the rig as much as I could. I rarely gave him a moment to breathe when we were at the house. And I even left him at a scene once when he was talking to the guys on Squad. I had never told Peter about the text she had accidentally sent me that was meant for him. I had an odd sense of satisfaction that she'd been thinking about me when she'd sent it...if she hadn't been thinking about me in that moment, the text would've been sent to the intended recipient.

Their relationship, I later found out, had hit a rough patch around the time of the fire that killed Hallie. When I was starting to come back around to my old self, thanks to Gabby, Griffin and Ben had come to live with me. Life just kept throwing us curve balls.

We settled into a routine and thanks to consistency that Gabby helped me provide, Griffin eventually started to come around. He wasn't so angry all the time and he'd even wanted to comeback to the firehouse which he hadn't done since Andy had died. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do for Christmas that year. The prison had holiday visits on the 24th and 25th, so Gabby had offered a possible plan.

Her parents were going to the Dominican Republic to spend time with relatives and Antonio and Laura were spending the holidays with their kids at Laura's family's house in Michigan...she was going to be all alone as well, so we could spend it together.

Since our last shift before Christmas ended the morning of Christmas Eve, she suggested that I go spend a little time with my sister and niece before taking the boys to visit their mom for a Christmas Eve visit. She would run to my house and get a couple of bags packed up and we could surprise them with a Christmas visit to her Dad's cabin. We could get a tree on the way up there and spend the rest of the day decorating and doing whatever we wanted. The boys I could go ice fishing on Christmas Day while she made us dinner. Maybe spend the next few days tobogganing and having snow ball fights. Just a few days of fun and relaxation. We all needed it. It sounded like heaven to me.

Neither of us had known that by Christmas, Heather would be released and she and the boys would be living in Florida.

Packing up the odds and ends the boys had left at my house had been a little sad. Of course Gabby had helped me. When I had mentioned to her that we could still spend time together, even without the boys, her response of having been down that road before caught me off guard. I felt like I had been hit by a ton of bricks. She had left my place soon after and then we were at work, once again back to pretending like nothing had happened. I hated it. It wasn't until later that we cleared the air a little. She had come into my office and confided in me about Shay and how distant she'd been after their suicide call. Then her tone lightened and she'd thanked me for saving her life at the scene of an accident. The way she'd looked at me over her shoulder, the sparkle in her eyes ... I knew that I had to tell her. I was tired of not being with her, so I had just laid it all out on the floor. I really didn't know where I would've been without her...and then Chout had interrupted us. They'd left on a call. The rest of that shift had been quiet for Truck 81 after that, leaving me with nothing but my thoughts...I had wanted nothing more than get Gabby alone when she came back so we could just figure everything out, but Ambo's call had run long. A woman had mistaken her neighbor for an intruder and stabbed him in the heart... As I anxiously awaited her return, I overheard Herrmann and Otis talking about how she was needed at the bar for an order that was coming in. When she had shimmied past me in the locker room, our bodies brushing against each other slightly, I was convinced she was trying to kill me. I had arrived at her place that night and as soon as I had gotten to the door, it flew open. Standing there, in a little black dress and the most impossibly red lips...all the words that I had rehearsed on my way over vanished. My body took over and my lips were on her's. That night was a beautiful blur. It was officially the start of us.

It was only a few short weeks later when I was injured and had brain surgery. Gabby had stayed by my side the entire time. I had been going stir crazy and had convinced the doctors to release me into Gabby's care just in time for Christmas. As a paramedic they were sure she would be able to handle potential problems and I swore that she would keep me in line, making sure I didn't over do it while I recovered. Thanks to my lack of family and her family having alternate holiday plans, no one at the Firehouse questioned the status of our relationship since she was glued to my side and I wasn't complaining. They may have known there was more between us, but no one said anything. It wasn't the Christmas we had planned with the boys, but it was pretty damn amazing - despite of my injury.

Of course the following year, Christmas of 2014, wasn't very merry. We were struggling to find the balance between work and home. Christmas of 2015 hadn't been much better. We had found our back to each other after months apart and we were solid. But the loss of our little girl had been a blow. Instead of celebrating the fact that we had baby on the way, we were mourning. Seeing families with infants and small children had been difficult.

Walking through a department store while looking for my nieces Christmas gift, we'd seen a section of Christmas ornaments to commemorate 'baby's first Christmas.' We had stood there staring for a few moments before we looked at each other and knew that we needed one for our daughter. One day we would have children running all around us, hanging their first ornaments on the tree with glee, but our tree would never be complete without one for the baby we'd lost. We found a pearly white large bauble and had it customized with light and sparkly pink lettering that reads "Our Angel, Elizabeth Shay. 2015.

Christmas of 2016 was a much happier occasion. We had flown to the Dominican Republic to join her parents and their relatives. Antonio and Laura, who despite officially being divorced, had somehow found a way to reconnect, brought their kids to the DR as well. It wasn't the traditional white Christmas that Chicago typically provided, but it was special. We had rented a house with Antonio and Laura, insisting that while we we were flattered the Dawson family relatives had been more than gracious, extending offers to stay with them, we didn't want to impose. Antonio and I had hired a small company to go in to the rental house the day before we arrived, putting up a tree with lights and leaving the box of ornaments so the kids could decorate. We had taken Elizabeth's bauble off our tree at home and brought it with us to hang up.

During our first Christmas together as a couple, we started our tradition. On Christmas Eve, we have a glass of wine, listen to Christmas music and just admire the tree. It's been a special tradition for us so I decided it was my perfect opportunity to make it even more special. With a satin red ribbon, I added one extra special ornament. She found her engagement ring hanging on a branch and then and there, I proposed again. On Christmas Day, we had shared our big news with her family. By the end of Christmas dinner, her mother had us convinced that a New Years Eve wedding on the beach would be magical. Something with family, fairly low key...Gabby had never shown a particularly large interest in a big church wedding, with the fluffy white gown. The only draw back was that our family from the Firehouse wouldn't be in attendance. Kelly had been the only one able to come on such short notice, but everyone else had sent their love. When we'd arrived home in early January, Sylvie and Chili had organized a small reception at Molly's. It was perfect.
And now this year...the entire season, I've been on pins and needles. Excitement that the next chapter in our lives is about to begin...terrified I'm going to mess it all up.

Suddenly I realize both Herrmann and Kelly are trying to get my attention. I shake my head coming back to reality.

"Where'd you go?" Kelly asks.

"Just thinking," I clear my throat.

"Look," Herrmann leans forward, getting my attention. "I was scared shitless. I didn't know the first thing about kids. I knew even less about babies. Despite it, they all survived. I may be biased here, but I've got some damn good kids. I give Cindy a whole lot of the credit for that, but we're a team. The same way that you and Gabby are a team. You have to lean on each other. Where one of you is weak, the other is strong."

I nod. "I just don't want to screw them up for life. Or disappoint Gabby."

"As long as you love your family and do your best, you'll never disappoint Gabby," Kelly tells me. "I don't have to be a family man to know that."

Herrmann nods in agreement. "Matt, you and Gabby are going to be amazing parents. That baby is going to have so much love that they won't know what to do with it all...but I ain't gonna lie to you, man. You will make mistakes. A lot of them."

"Gee, thanks," I deadpan.

"I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect, not just for my kids, but for Cindy too. It was exhausting. And then when I realized it wasn't the end of the world to make mistakes...I felt free. Now when I make mistakes, I tell the kids honestly that I've messed up. And that I'm going to fix it. That's how they learn to not give up. That it's OK to make mistakes because you get the chance to make it right." Herrmann stands up and gives my shoulder a squeeze. "Don't put so much pressure on yourself, Matt. If you cut yourself a break, you'll see that things are going to be better than you could've ever imagined."

"Thanks," I nod. He offers a small smile to Kelly and then leaves. After a few minutes of silence, I sigh. "I should probably finish that paperwork."

End of Part 2.

I'm struggling a bit with part 3, but I hope to have it completed and, with any lucky, posted in the next few days.

Let me know what you think!

And if you have any suggestions - like baby names, for example, let me know!