A/N: I find it interesting that some readers thought Cristina was being insensitive by not calling him during the holidays, while others thought that Owen was wrong by using the "forbid" word. Personally, I think that they both made mistakes in communication.

Owen did not see Cristina for the entire first week of school. He could never make it in time in the morning to see her drop off Leah and in the evenings, his opportunities to see her were thwarted by the appearance of Shauna. He was beyond frustrated, now, since she was not taking his calls.

On the Monday of the second week of school, it was the same story in the morning. He arrived to see Leah sitting at her desk and no Cristina in sight. In the afternoon, he was hoping against hope that he would see her. He looked around the car park, he was pretty sure that he saw her car. He looked around to catch a glimpse of her but he was distracted by the stream of children, exiting the school.

He saw his son, who had the most distressed look on his face. Matt ran up to Owen and jumped up in his arms, weeping like if his whole world had ended.

"What's wrong, Matt?" he asked, concerned that his son was in such a state.

"I didn't get an invitation," Matt spluttered out.

"Invitation for what?" Owen asked.

"I didn't get an invitation for Leah's birthday party," Matt wailed.

"How do you know this, Matt?" Owen asked. He could not believe that Cristina would not invite Matt to Leah's birthday party. That did not sound like the woman he loved, especially since he knew that Cristina was very fond of Matt.

"Leah's mummy gave the teacher all of the invitations to give out to everyone in class. Everybody got one, 'cept me," Matt cried. He was inconsolable. Owen started rocking him in his arms in an attempt to soothe him. Still, he could not understand how Cristina could hurt his son like that.

They may be having their issues right now but to hurt Matt, who hadn't done anything wrong, was unacceptable. He was angry and sad at the same time.

"Hi," he heard the familiar voice behind him. It was Cristina. He turned around. He didn't how to feel at that moment – he was so happy and so mad simultaneously. Cristina was holding Leah in her arms; Leah had a purple envelope in her hands.

"Cristina," Owen croaked out. Matt, on seeing Cristina and Leah, cried even louder.

"Don't cry, Matt," Leah said, patting him on his back. "Here's your in-be-tation." She handed him the purple envelope.

"I am sorry," Leah said. "I dropped it in the car, this morning."

"Yes, I found it on the floor of the back seat," Cristina said. "I came this afternoon to make sure you got it. So we didn't forget you, Matt. I am sorry if you thought we had."

"See, Matt," Owen said. "Cristina and Leah didn't forget you."

In an instant, Matt started to smile, as he tightly held on to the purple envelope. It was like if he was given the key to the magic kingdom.

She added, "There is a slip of paper in it for an RSVP. You can fill it out and give it to Miss Thompson by Friday so I can see about catering. She's collecting all of the RSVPs for me."

When she said that, Owen realized that she was treating him like any other parent in the class, asking him to return an RSVP. If they were together, he would have had an active part in the planning of the party. Now, he was just a guest, being asked to return an RSVP.

She turned away and headed to her car. Was that all she was going to say to him, after all these weeks of silence, he wondered. This could not be it. He had so much to say to her and there she was, walking away from him.

"Cristina," he called out. She turned around. "You don't need an RSVP from me. Both Matt and I will be attending the party."

"Okay," she said, as she turned away again and walked to her car. His only consolation from that was that she was actually talking to him, a vast improvement from the lack of communication since Christmas.

After that day, he hoped that things would have improved between them and the lines of communication would again be open. However, it would be rare that he would even see her. He still missed seeing her in the morning. Since she lived that much closer to the school, it was easy for her to get to school in the morning much earlier than he could ever manage. She had again resorted to using Shauna to pick up Leah in the afternoons. She was still avoiding him.

He didn't see her again until the day of the party. It was being held at a local roller-skating rink. Matt had been very eager for the party and could not stop talking about it. Lots of other children were already there, skating in the rink. Many of them were accompanied by their parents. He spotted Leah with her dad in the rink. He was holding her hands and they were spinning in circles. He obviously knew that Ian would be there because after all, he was her dad.

"Lace up my skates, Daddy," Matt said, excitedly. "I want to go in the rink."

He laced up Matt's skates and then did up his own. He looked around for Cristina and saw her at the food table. She looked flustered.

As he and Matt went around the rink a few times, he continued to steal glances at Cristina, who seemed to be putting together goodie bags for the children to take home after the party. He wanted to go talk to her.

"Matt, I am going to talk to Cristina. She looks like she needs help. So you're going to skate right there, so I can see you," he said. They both skated to the edge, with Owen stepping out of the rink. He took off his skates and headed off to chat with Cristina.

"Do you need some help there?" he asked. She looked up at him, her eyes were screaming yes.

"Please, I wouldn't turn down any help. Shauna was supposed to help me but she had a family emergency. Could you help with the distributing the snacks and helping out with the games, that would be awesome. Sometimes, I wish that I didn't promise her that she could have this 5th birthday party. Some extra children, that I didn't really cater for, also showed up, so I have to scrounge around to make up some goodie bags for them," she said.

"Just tell me what to do," he said. "I am all yours." He meant that in more ways than one, he wanted her to know.

"Thanks," she said, gratefully, handing him a tray. They worked, along with Ian, as a team that afternoon. Working together allowed Owen to realize that Ian was actually a great guy. They worked well in keeping the kids entertained with all of the games, while Cristina and some of the other mothers handled the food.

During a break from the games while the hired clown/magician was performing, Ian turned to Owen, "So you were with Cristina?"

Owen was a little surprised at Ian's question but he decided to answer, honestly. "Yes, we were together for a couple of months until Christmas, when we had a fight and we haven't really been speaking, since. I am trying to get back into her good graces but it hasn't been easy."

"Yes, she is hard that way. She makes you work for it," Ian said. "I kinda figured that you were with her, when I saw you at the Christmas pageant. I really didn't want to believe it because deep down, I always thought that there was a chance for her and me to get back together."

"Oh," Owen said, wondering whether Cristina had decided to go back to her husband and if that was the reason why she was avoiding him. He just had this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Don't look so worried," Ian said. "She told me today that us getting back together was not in the cards for us. She said it was too difficult for her to get past what had happened. She said I was a great father and Leah was fortunate to have me as a dad. But she said that was as far as it goes. Leah will always be in my life but Cristina said she would only be there as Leah's mother and that we both had to move on."

Owen was a mix of emotions. Did that mean that Cristina was going to come back into his life? He could only hope.

"So, if you're going to be with her, I am going to wish you good luck. She is an awesome person. I did wrong by her and I will never forgive myself for that. But I will always wish her well and if she is going to choose you, please do right by her," Ian said, offering his hand for Owen to shake.

"I will if she just lets me," Owen said, shaking Ian's hand. Cristina observed the two men shaking hands. What the hell was going on there, she wondered.

As the party-goers started leaving and the number of people dwindled, Owen decided it was probably time to go home. Matt's energy was running on low and probably needed to take a nap. He had been running and roller-skating all evening.

He picked up his tired son and was going to tell Cristina that he was about to leave.

"Well, thank you for coming. I hope you and Matt had a good time. Thanks for all of the help with the games and the food," she said. She handed him a goodie bag for Matt. Their hands touched.

He looked at her. "Please, Cristina, can we talk?" he asked. "These last six weeks have been absolute torture for me."

She looked up at him. "Yes, I need to talk to you, too. But I have to stick around until everybody leaves and we clean up here. I will come by your house after I am done. Is that okay with you?"

"Yes, yes, thank you," he said. "I will see you later."

"Sure," she said, as she turned away to go back to her hosting duties.

Waiting for Cristina seemed like an eternity, even though in reality, it was only two hours when he heard the doorbell. He had already put an exhausted Matt to bed. He opened to the door to see Cristina, holding a sleeping Leah in her arms.

"Come in," he said. She entered and put Leah down on the living room couch.

"You can put her in the lower bunk in Matt's bedroom, where she normally sleeps," Owen said.

"It's okay, we won't be staying that long," Cristina said. Her words disappointed him. He had hoped that if they made up tonight, she and Leah would stay the night over at his house.

"So we need to talk," she continued. "Do you want to go first or shall I?"

"I will go first," he said. "I need to get this out. I just want to say I am so sorry for my choice of words when we had that fight over Christmas. I was disappointed and to be honest, very jealous that you were going to stay over at your ex's house. I mean, you two have a long history together and a child. I didn't know where I stood at that point," he said. "And I guess my jealousy showed and I should have trusted you."

"Yes, you should have because nothing happened at Ian's house, except we had a quiet Christmas with Leah," she said. "I guess you were wondering why I didn't call you over the holidays."

He nodded.

"Well, initially, it was because I had forgotten my phone at home on the kitchen counter. But afterwards, I realized I needed some time to think. It may have been cruel, it may have been insensitive but I needed the time to think about you, me, Leah, Matt and our future together or not together. There is something I have to tell you," she said.

"What?" he asked, anxiously.

She let out a big breath before she started talking. "Okay, here goes. I am ten weeks pregnant. I have decided to keep it. This was my decision. If you don't want to be part of this, this is your chance to say so. I will not hold it against you. I am going to give you an out, right here, right now."

His mouth dropped open.

A/N Please leave your reviews. Thank you for your comments.