Kate smiled at Rick as he sat on the floor playing with Kevin and Jenny's five-month-old daughter, Amanda, who they were babysitting so the other couple could have a much needed date night. And Kate needed practice, having not been around a small child for more than a few minutes at a time since high school.
Rick stood Amanda up, holding out his arms as the giggling infant fell forward against his chest.
"If you hurt her…" Kate began.
"I won't hurt her. She's having fun."
"Ryan will kill you," she told him.
Rick stood her up again, this time barely catching her as she fell slightly sideways. He quickly sat her down on the floor, handing her a toy. "See? She's fine."
"Where you like this with Alexis?"
"Would it make you feel better if I said no?" he asked sitting on the couch with her and pulling her against his chest as they watched Amanda play with her teddy bear.
She simply shook her head, leaning her back against his chest. "I'm choosing to trust you."
"I've kept Alexis alive for 20 years, haven't I?"
She hummed in agreement, nodding her head once. "How is still a mystery to me."
"You know, she's really excited. She always wanted a baby brother or sister. I think she just might be upset that you're about fifteen years too late."
"Fifteen years ago I was…" she began but trailed off. He knew exactly what she was going through fifteen years ago.
He kissed her neck, running his hand along her stomach. She hadn't really begun to show yet, at barely two months pregnant but he knew her body so well, he noticed her slight weight gain before she did. To anyone who didn't know she was pregnant, she just looked like she'd gained a couple pounds.
"I wonder if Ricky will be that cute," he said after a moment of watching Amanda play.
"Ricky?" she said, turning her head to look at him. "Do I get a say in this?"
"Of course. But I always thought if I had a son he'd be Richard Junior."
She smiled. "Fine. If it's a girl…"
"Rikki."
"Are you that desperate for this kid to be named after you that you would name your daughter Richard?"
"Of course not. Rikki as in R-I-K-K-I. As in Rook and Nikki."
"And it just so happens to work out that the baby is still named after you."
"Well, it's part you. Nikki is you."
She shook her head. "Do I have a vote?"
"Of course."
"Johanna Nicole. There's a little bit of Nikki Heat in there."
He smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear then stroking her cheek softly with his thumb. "I'm not backing down on Richard Junior though."
"Mmm… alright." She grabbed his hand, catching his thumb between her lips then biting down.
"Ow! Ow, ow, apples! Apples! Ok, we can talk about Richard," he yelled until she finally released his thumb.
"I'm fine with Richard."
"Then why the biting?"
She let out a quick laugh, kissing the tiny dent on his finger. "I want a vote on the middle name. You got Nicole for the girl."
"I didn't want Nicole, I wanted Rikki."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Rikki can be our second daughter."
"But if we have a boy and his name is Ricky, we can't name a girl Rikki later."
"Alright, how about this, I promise someday you will get a Ricky. Whatever spelling it ends up being."
He grinned. "You know you just agreed to possibly have a second baby with me."
"If you play your cards right, maybe," she told him, kissing his lips quickly. "I want my first daughter to be Johanna though."
He nodded. "What did you want boy Ricky's middle name to be?"
"Roy. I know, Richard Roy doesn't have that nice of a ring but…"
"No, no. I like it. I know Montgomery was like a father to you and he was my friend." He grinned against her neck. "Where would we be if he didn't give me permission to follow you around?"
She smiled, looking at Amanda again, wondering just where she would be if he'd never been permitted to work next to her six years ago. He did make a snowball that eventually turned into an avalanche but she knew that she would have someday begun investigating her mother's murder again. She would have created her own avalanche, with or without him. But if she had gone at it alone, he wouldn't have been there to help her, to pull her to safety before she drowned in it.
"Well, you'd probably be naked on a horse somewhere," she said, shaking those other thoughts from her head.
"Yeah, most likely," he agreed.
She could tell by the tone in his voice he was thinking the same as her, that she would not only not be on this couch in his arms, pregnant with his child, and babysitting their partner's daughter. They both knew exactly where she would be if it wasn't for Montgomery. He placed a kiss against her cheek, touching her stomach again.
"We owe a lot to that man," he whispered. "The least we could do is name our kid after him."
