Luckiest Souls

Thanks again for your reviews, comments, and support for this story! I know I took you all by surprise in that last chapter with Sylvie dying but I'm glad that the baby news helped take some of the sting out of it. That was always my plan! Anyway, this chapter will hopefully answer another big question for you guys related to Dawsey's future and I really hope you enjoy it. Your reviews lately have been SOOO sweet so please keep those coming because they really help my motivation! =)

December 2022

Gabby was in the middle of planning for dinner when she decided to sit down at the dining room table to catch up on some things online. They were having Lila, her husband Landon, and their son Michael over for dinner that night and she wanted to make sure she had enough food for everyone. She finally decided to plan for Mexican food and have all the fixings for tacos, fajitas, salad, and burritos so everyone could get what they wanted from several options. It also wouldn't require her to cook too much that night. She browned up some ground beef and put that in one crock pot with taco seasoning and then put some shredded grilled chicken in the other crock pot. She got the rest of the fixings together and stored them in the fridge, dinner wasn't for another hour or so, and finally sat down at her computer to get some things done.

Almost an hour had gone by when Gabby got up to finish making dinner and she couldn't remember the last time she'd had so many tabs open on her laptop. She was doing some online Christmas shopping on one website, looking for baby stuff on another site, had the Zillow site open to look at a house that Matt had called her about earlier in the day, her Facebook page was open because a friend from Puerto Rico had sent her a message, and she also had her email open to read an email from Dr. K. She wasn't normally this much of a multitasker when she was on her computer but her and Matt had a lot going on right now and she was trying to keep up with everything.

Life had gotten slightly chaotic for them once they found out that they were finally expecting a baby. They'd immediately invited Lila and her husband over for dinner so they could talk about how things were going to go and the two couples were happy that they worked things out easily and got along so well. Gabby and Matt planned to meet with Lila once a week just to touch base about how things were going with the baby and to plan out all of the doctor appointments. Gabby was still struggling with the fact that she wasn't carrying her and Matt's baby, but Lila was such a sweetheart and she was doing everything she could to make this a good experience for them. The appointment where they found out the sex of the baby was their favorite moment so far because Lila never went through that process with her own son (she and her husband had decided to be surprised). They all got to enjoy that moment together and Gabby thought Matt was going to run around the hospital screaming and crying when they found out they were having a baby boy. He had never said anything to her before but he admitted on the way home from the hospital that he would have been happy with either one but had *really* been hoping for a son.

Gabby turned the crock pots on low and finished getting out all the fixings from the fridge, Matt would be home soon and Lila and her family would be coming over shortly, and she felt her mind wandering to the other big thing that had occupied her thoughts for the last few months: Sylvie's death and how it had affected the two of them. She still missed her friend and ambo partner so much and couldn't believe she'd lost yet another friend to violence while on the job. The weeks following her death had been very dark for her, even though the happy baby news had helped, and after her own gunshot injuries healed, she'd been unable to return to work at the CFD. She just couldn't face going back out on an ambulance after losing two of her best friends while working on it. She'd resumed teaching classes at the academy in the fall which hadn't helped her heart heal much but had helped her get past the worst of the pain. She never imagined that she would lose another friend to violence in the city and after a long discussion about how and where they want to raise their son, Matt and Gabby talked seriously about the possibility of moving out of the city. Two other gang related crimes had happened not far from their old firehouse which had rattled them even more, so they started house hunting about two months ago. It started off as a fun experience for them, they were both big fans of the HGTV shows and loved looking at all the different houses, but they weren't having much luck finding a house they could afford right now. Their finances were stretched about as thin as they could go with the baby and most of the houses they liked were out of their price range. Matt had finally found an amazing fixer upper house in the Glencoe area during his lunch break that day and had sent the link to Gabby for her to check it out. She really liked the layout of the home (it was a tri-level home with a ton of space and potential) and it was right on the lake which was something both of them were hoping for in their new home. The house needed quite a bit of work but they still had some time before the baby was born to get the main areas livable and then they would be able to do all the other work on their own time.

Gabby turned as she heard the door open to the kitchen and Matt came rushing in apologizing for being late. Gabby smiled and shook her head at him, he wasn't late at all, and told him that Lila and her family weren't even there yet. He dropped off all his stuff on their desk and then came over to give her a big hug and kiss. He had been so supportive and loving to her as she worked through processing Sylvie's death and when she went through her random struggles from time to time, he'd also given her all the space she needed to process everything and let her emotions out.

The couple snuggled together for a moment in the kitchen. They had just celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary the previous week so they were still feeling warm and fuzzy from that celebration. Gabby could have stayed in her husband's arms all night but eventually she let Matt go so he could change clothes before dinner. She made sure everything was done and once she was finally satisfied that dinner was completely ready, Matt returned to the kitchen with a big smile. Dinner smelled amazing and he was starving but he was also hoping she'd checked out the house so they could talk about it.

"Did you get a chance to look at the house?" Matt said as he took a seat at the table.

"I did," Gabby said with a smile. She turned to face him as she continued, "It definitely needs a lot of work but it's a great house. It has all the space we were looking for and I love that it's so close to the lake. That's an added bonus!"

"I thought so too," Matt said excitedly. "We can do all the work and repairs for any house but that location was the biggest selling point for me. You can't move a lake to your house unless you're a multibillionaire which we are definitely not!"

Gabby laughed and nodded at her husband, "Yeah, especially right now. I loved everything about it though. Do you really think that we'll have enough time to get the main areas at least livable before the baby comes?"

"Yeah, I think so," Matt said as he cocked his head before continuing, "but I really need to see it in person to be completely sure. I went ahead and set up an appointment with the realtor for Saturday afternoon if you're up for it. They're having an Open House on Sunday but I really want to see it without anyone else there. I know I'm gonna have some specific questions about the construction and repair work."

"That works great for me," Gabby said. "I'm excited to check it out. Are you sure it's not gonna be too far of a commute for you? I mean, that area is really pretty but you could end up having an hour commute to work on really bad traffic days. I don't want to see you get pulled away from me and our son for even longer amounts of time due to a long commute."

"Yeah," Matt said with a frown, "That was something that initially bothered me too but I think it will work. I mean, I did get a slight job change today that will have me driving around a bit more and not having to go to headquarters every day so I can almost make my own schedule on some days…"

"Wait…what?!" Gabby exclaimed as she came over to Matt at the table. He grinned at her and nodded as he explained what happened at work, "I'm still a communication specialist there but they also want me to join a team of officers that will interact more in person with the various firehouses. I would be planning official visitations with the houses in certain areas and once there, I would help them with training, planning, organization, and execution of all our rules and regulations. The commissioner discovered over this last year that too many of the houses aren't following all the regulations that they're supposed to anymore, so they want some captains to go in and help them out. They picked four captains to be part of this team so it was quite an honor to be asked to do it."

"That's amazing babe!" Gabby said while still smiling. "Will this change your work hours though? Can we handle that sort of change with our baby coming in a few months?"

"My hours actually won't change too much," Matt said, "That was something I asked them about prior to accepting the offer. I wasn't willing to make that big of a change to my job if my hours would be different but they said most of the visits will happen during the day with the occasional night sessions so they can see the second and third shift guys. They have a captain designated to work those hours though so I shouldn't have to do that very often, if at all. The biggest thing that made me accept the offer was the pay raise. I knew that the extra money would come in handy for us and since my hours aren't changing much, I figured you wouldn't mind if I accepted the offer so I did this afternoon."

"You were right because that's absolutely fine with me. Baby, I am SO proud of you!" Gabby said smiling as she gave Matt a huge hug. This promotion was quite the unexpected surprise but she was ecstatic that this job, one that he never would have even thought about doing a few years ago, had turned into something so positive and encouraging for him. The couple hugged for a moment longer and Gabby finally broke the hug to give him a big kiss which they would have continued for most of the evening had the sound of the doorbell not interrupted them. They broke apart then and went to greet Lila and her family so they could share the good news with them and enjoy a pleasant dinner together.

Matt was sitting on the couch staring at his laptop screen at the pictures he had taken of the house in Glencoe that they'd checked out that afternoon. The house itself definitely needed a lot of work but the potential for it to be an amazing forever home for them was all there. It was a very unique house which Gabby and Matt liked because it wasn't some cookie cutter house that looked like every other one in the neighborhood. The outside of it wasn't in horrible shape (although the roof needed some work) but there was old carpet in all three of the upstairs bedrooms, the basement floor needed to be replaced, the kitchen needed a big time upgrade (Gabby was adamant about that since she loved to cook so much), the sunroom and deck above it outside both needed some work, almost every room needed to be painted, and the bathrooms all needed to be redone. It was a huge amount of work but with Matt's construction background and both of them having a long standing desire to create their own forever home, they were excited about the possibilities this house presented to them. They were so in love with the house that they'd already put in an offer and were hoping to get a response from the seller before the open house the next day.

Gabby came into the living room from the kitchen where she'd gotten a glass of wine for herself and a fresh beer for Matt and sat down next to him on the couch. He thanked her for the beer and Gabby gave him a big smile.

"Baby boy was so animated at dinner tonight," she said as she settled into Matt's side. "It sounds crazy but I feel like he knows our voices and is trying to let us know that he's excited to meet us too."

"That's not crazy," Matt said after taking a sip of his beer. "Lila said that he moves around a lot when she's at home but never more than when we're all together. I think it makes her happy that he reacts well to our voices. Maybe all that talking we do to him is helping after all."

Gabby chuckled. As their little boy got bigger, their conversations to Lila's belly got longer and longer. It was a very good thing that she had so much patience with them because she never minded and just let them talk all they wanted to their little guy. Gabby smiled before replying, "I think it is helping. I want him to know our voices so he recognizes us when he's born. We're not with him all the time so I think this will help in the long run."

"Absolutely," Matt said with a firm nod and smile. He leaned over to give Gabby a quick kiss before turning back to his laptop. Gabby put her head onto his shoulder and they both spent a few moments looking through all the pictures of the house. They couldn't help smiling at the potential of this run down, tri-level house out by the lake to be their new home.

"I love this house Matt," Gabby said after sipping on her wine. "I mean, it's got a lot of things to update and fix but the shell of it is so perfect for us, I loved the land around it, and that view is amazing. Finding a house like that is something we've talked about for years so maybe it's meant to be."

"It is an incredible house," Matt agreed as they continued flipping through the pictures. "I can't believe the price either because even with all the work that needs done to it, it's a steal for that area. We could really make that house our own with some time and all that work. Do you really think we can handle all that work along with raising our son?"

"Yeah, I do," Gabby said with a smile, "and our little guy isn't going to be running around underfoot for a while so I think we could pull this off. We also have some time now to get the big stuff done before he gets here as long as we can actually get the house and get all the paperwork done quickly. If that happens, I really believe that we could get enough done to move in by the time our little guy is born."

"That's true," Matt said while grinning back at her. "I don't know if we'll hear back from the owners today or not, but they appeared very anxious to sell and they seemed to like us. That has to count for something, right?"

"I hope so," Gabby replied. "That kitchen…oh my gosh Matt, that kitchen size over there makes ours here look like it came out of a tiny house."

"It was pretty big," Matt agreed. "I liked the two car garage and the huge basement area that we can easily turn into a nice family room with a playroom off to the side for our little guy. It's a huge amount of space with limitless possibilities."

"I love that family room idea," Gabby said as they looked at the basement pictures. "Wow, if we do end up getting this house, this will be our last Christmas here in this apartment. That's weird to think about and it actually didn't even occur to me until just now."

"It will also be our last Christmas as a family of two," Matt said with a grin as he put the laptop down on the coffee table and turned to put an arm around his wife. "We get to celebrate with our little man next year which I still can't believe. We've waited for this for so long and now we're just a few months away from meeting him."

"Wow," Gabby said as she laid her head back on the couch while looking at Matt with a bit of awe. "Our little guy…we're really going to be a family of three soon. Three!"

"Three…for now," Matt said with a mischievous grin. "Now that we know how this whole process works, I really hope that we can try it again and maybe become a family of four someday."

"That would be amazing," Gabby said as she stroked Matt's cheek with her hand. Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Matt's phone ringing on the coffee table. They exchanged an anxious look when they noticed the number of their realtor on his caller ID and Matt cleared his throat and took a deep breath before answering his phone.

Gabby watched as her husband's face went from anxious to confused to surprised and finally back to normal while speaking to their realtor and when he hung up the phone, she had no idea what all had been said during the conversation. Matt put his phone back down on the table and turned to his wife. He tried to contain it but the smile he was holding in finally crept out and he gave the good news to his wife, "Babe, we are actually new home owners!"

"We got the house?!" Gabby exclaimed as she sat up on the couch. Matt nodded and the two of them jumped into each other's arms and celebrated the fact that they were going to be new home owners along with becoming new parents in this upcoming new year. As they relaxed back onto the couch, Gabby sighed happily as she allowed all of her excitement to come flowing out, "I can't believe that we actually found and got our dream house and we're also so close to meeting our little guy in a few months…I feel like all the troubles and problems that we've had to fight through over the last few years have all been worth it. We wouldn't be nearly as excited about all of these happy moments if we hadn't had to overcome so much stuff together over the years."

"I agree babe," Matt said as he moved closer to Gabby. "A new house, a new baby…this is all of our dreams coming true. We're finally going to be parents and hey, Herrmann was right. He told you once that your day was coming and now it's almost here."

Gabby smiled at the warm memory and after sharing a sweet kiss with her husband, the two of them settled in to watch the SNL Christmas special and enjoy a quiet evening together as they headed into their last holiday season as a family of two.

***So Dawsey has decided to move out of the city into a familiar sounding house and they also have a baby boy on the way…gee, I wonder what they name him, LOL =) Anyway, I hope this chapter was enjoyable for you guys and thanks once again for all the support! =)