The day after Quinn had revealed to Artie that attempt #2 had failed, he had called Dr. Scott's office, to set up the next appointment. As the day approached, Quinn noticed Artie becoming more and more withdrawn. He seemed so distracted all the time, and it was like nothing she could do or say really reached him. He smiled, and laughed, and acted like everything was fine…but she could tell that it really wasn't.

The day of the appointment was much like the two previous ones had been, but one thing was different. The fact that Artie was basically silent through the entire procedure was not lost on Quinn. Or on Dr. Scott, who, despite not being all that surprised by Artie's comments etc. in the past, was worried. He'd had a lot of patients over the years, and the way Artie had reacted to everything wasn't what made him worry…the fact that he was suddenly completely silent, not voicing any concerns or asking any questions, was, because it was so out of character.

He could tell from the look on Quinn's face as her husband sat, in complete silence, holding her hand and looking off into a corner of the room that something was definitely off.

After the procedure, Dr. Scott left the room, to finish up some paper work. When he saw that they were getting ready to leave, he emerged from his office, and jogged down the short hallway to catch up with them.

"Artie," he said, approaching him and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

He nodded, looking over at Quinn, who smiled softly, and unlocked the van, deciding that the doctor must want to talk to him alone, or he would have asked for both of them.

Once she was in the van, Artie turned to Dr. Scott, a questioning look on his face.

"Is everything ok?" the doctor asked, sitting down on one of the benches outside the clinic, so he would be eye-level with the much younger man.

Artie nodded. "Of course," he said. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"You don't seem to be yourself," the doctor went on, being careful of what he said. The last thing he wanted was to make Artie mad, or upset him. "I know you're disappointed that the procedure hasn't worked so far, but we're still early in this process, and we still have a lot of options to choose from."

"I know," Artie said. "You said it could take months, or even years. I know something will work eventually," he said, unconvincingly. "We just have to be patient."

"Is everything alright with you and Quinn?" the doctor asked, trying to gauge whether or not Artie was being truthful.

He nodded. "Everything is great," he said. "I'd better get her home now, so she can lie down and rest."

The doctor nodded. "Before you go," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a business card. "We have a new counsellor here that specializes in these sorts of things. If you ever need someone to talk to…he could help."

Reluctantly, Artie took the card. "Thanks," he said. "But we're fine. Really."

The doctor nodded again, standing up from the bench. "Call me if anything happens, ok?" he asked, holding out his hand.

Artie extended his hand in return, giving the doctor's a firm shake. "We will," he said, turning towards the van. "And Dr. Scott?"

"Yes?" the doctor asked, smiling at him.

"Thanks," Artie said. "We really appreciate everything you've been doing for us."

"You're welcome," the doctor replied. "Now," he said, "Get your wife home and take care of her!"

"I will," Artie said, smiling at him. "As always."

The next day

"Why are there so many choices?" Artie muttered, examining the large rack of assorted princess Barbies and other dolls at the department store they were visiting. "Which one did she want?"

"You mean which ones?" Quinn asked, giggling. "Well, this one," she said, pointing to one. "And this one. And those two. And then that one."

Artie chuckled. "You may as well have just said she wanted all of them in the first place, woman!" he said, continuing to examine the dolls.

"She also wants a princess party," Quinn said. "Just in case you didn't get the memo."

"The memo? I've had the memo every day this week at breakfast," he said, grinning. "We probably should have started planning this a little sooner," he added, feeling guilty that preparing for Avery's birthday had been pushed to the backburner while they'd dealt with the second procedure not working, and prepared for the next one.

"It doesn't take that much work to put together a back yard princess party," Quinn said. "We can do it, no problem!"

"About that," Artie said. "What if we stopped at that fancy party place on the way home, to see if they have princess parties, and if we could maybe book one for next weekend? Do you think they can book on such short notice?"

"I think that place is pretty expensive," Quinn said. "Why don't we just do it at home? We can make it really nice."

"She really wants the perfect princess party," Artie said. "Actually…I apparently can't give her what she REALLY wants, but at least I could give her this," he muttered softly, casting his eyes down.

Quinn, standing behind him, placed a hand on his shoulder, blinking rapidly to hold in the tears that were threatening to make a very sudden appearance in response to Artie's last, muttered statement.

"Why don't we stop there on the way home?" she asked, finally trusting herself to be able to speak. "And see if they have what we're looking for?"

As they finished up in the store, having purchased two dolls, because Artie couldn't narrow down which one was the right one, they decided to make a quick stop at the grocery store attached to the mall, so Quinn could pick up a few things she needed for the meals she'd planned for the rest of the week.

As he headed down the produce section, Artie glanced around. He wasn't sure if it just seemed like it because he was incredibly aware of them in recent weeks, or if there were actually babies EVERYWHERE. It seemed like everyone he looked at was holding a baby, or a small child.

He blinked a few times, wondering if he was hallucinating because he had babies on the brain. But, when he opened his eyes, after a brief glance around, he deduced that there were, in fact, children everywhere.

As he hurried to stuff some carrots in a plastic produce bag, he heard his name being called out behind him.

He turned, and was greeted by the smiling face of John, his ex-coworker, and his wife, Meredith. Who…was holding a baby. Great.

"Hey, buddy," John said, extending his hand. "Long time no see!"

"Yeah," Artie said, smiling at him. "Hi Meredith," he added.

"Hi Artie," she said, walking closer to him. "I don't think you've met Sally yet," she said, leaning down with the baby. "She'll be a month old tomorrow."

"Congratulations," Artie said to both of them, while staring at the perfect, blue-eyed baby. "She's beautiful."

"We weren't really trying," John said, reaching out and taking his daughter from his wife. "It just kind of happened one day. Never ceases to amaze me how easy these things are."

"That's…great," Artie said, glancing around and hoping that Quinn would surface sooner rather than later.

"Any more kids for you and Quinn?" Meredith asked, examining a head of lettuce before placing it carefully in a bag.

Artie shook his head. "Avery's keeping us pretty busy," he said, smiling at the mention of his daughter's name. "She started kindergarten, so there's been lots going on."

"Planning on giving her a little brother or sister anytime soon?" John asked, shifting the baby in his arms. "You can't tell me she doesn't want one."

Artie tightly clenched his hand under the bag of carrots sitting in his lap. Yes, she did want one. And he couldn't give her one. And John was, albeit unintentionally, slapping him in the face with that. Great.

"Oh," he said, picking up his phone, which had been resting against his thigh. "Quinn is looking for me. Apparently she's in the dairy section," he added. "Sorry…I'd better go."

"It was really good seeing you, Artie," John said. "I've got your number…I'll call you, and maybe we can go out for a drink or something."

"That would be good," he said, somewhat unconvincingly. "It was nice to see you both too. Bye, Meredith, Sally," he said, offering them a slight wave.

As he wheeled away, he glanced down at his black cell phone screen. He headed towards the dairy section, and was relieved to see that Quinn was actually there. He couldn't believe he'd just lied about a text message to get away from someone. She didn't need to know about that. Otherwise he'd have to explain the conversation that had taken place. And he definitely wasn't doing THAT.

"Got the carrots?" she asked, grinning at him.

He nodded. "Are we done? We should probably get home."

She nodded back, not failing to notice the way he glanced over his shoulder, or the abrupt tone in his voice. "We're done," she said, wondering what had happened. She thought about asking, before deciding that he'd talk about it if he wanted to.

"I think we should stop for ice cream after we hit the party place," he said, as they headed towards the checkouts. "How's that sound? I'm actually more in a cake mood…but ice cream will suffice. I really wish someone would open a drive through cake place around here."

She smiled. "Sounds good to me," she said. "As long as we go somewhere that has waffle cones. And a drive through cake place…would be amazing."

"Whatever you want," he said. "As long as where we go also has that thing where they dip it all in chocolate."

She giggled. "So, really," she said. "There's only one place we can go. The same place we always go."

He nodded, grinning at her. He'd realized a long time ago that something sweet was the perfect distraction…for both of them.

Artie was delighted, as they emerged from "the party place," who's name he knew he would NEVER remember. Not only did they have very fancy princess parties that sounded exactly like what they were looking for, but they could fit them in on the Saturday immediately following Avery's birthday. Her birthday was on Friday, and they'd already decided to have a family party day on Sunday, so Saturday worked perfectly.

"She's going to love this," he said, as they got into the van.

Quinn nodded. Despite the fact that she thought the price they were going to pay for something she could probably almost duplicate at home was ridiculous, she had to agree. Avery would love it. And Artie was probably right…if they had to buy all that princess stuff, the cost to do it at home probably wouldn't be much less.

"Ok, woman," he said, grinning at her, the grocery store encounter pushed all the way to the back of his mind. "Now. Ice cream."

She giggled. "I agree," she said. "Let's go!"

"Daddy," Avery said, crawling up into his lap. "Did you know it's almost my birthday?"

"What?" he said, a look of shock on his face. "Are you serious? How old are you going to be? 43?"

The little girl giggled. "No, silly," she said, placing her hands on either side of his face. "I'm going to be six!"

"OH!" he exclaimed. "SIX! Sorry, must have confused you with someone else."

"Can I have a princess party, Daddy?" she asked. "And go to the zoo?"

He glanced over at Quinn, who nodded, a big smile on her face.

"Tell you what, princess," he said. "How about you have a princess party with your friends on Saturday, and then we'll have a family zoo trip on Sunday, and dinner with everybody at Grandma and Grandpa's?"

"YES!" Avery shrieked, wrapping her arms around him. "A princess party! And the zoo! Is my other grandma coming too?"

"Of course she is," Quinn said. "You didn't think she'd miss your birthday party, did you?"

"Do I get two cakes if I have two parties?" Avery asked, bouncing with excitement.

"Wait…you want a party AND a cake?" Artie asked, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously? Because we thought you didn't need a cake if you were having a party."

"But…" Avery trailed off, before glancing up and noticing the gigantic grin on her father's face. "Daddy!" she said. "I know I get a cake at my birthday!"

Artie hugged, her, glancing over her shoulder at Quinn, and discretely holding up three fingers. When Artie had proclaimed that they needed to have a cake on Friday, her actual birthday, Quinn had agreed. Shortly thereafter, she realized that they would also have a cake at the party on Saturday, and she was fairly certain Beth would make a black forest cake on Sunday, because she knew it was Avery's favourite. Yet another thing she'd inherited from her father.

She was pretty sure that none of them needed to eat that much cake in such a short period of time, but it was too late…she'd already agreed. Plus…she couldn't really deny a little girl a cake on her actual birthday. Could she?

When she'd said that to Artie, he had laughed, and told her that he knew she secretly loved cake just as much as they did. Which she couldn't argue against either. And so…three cakes it was.

"You can invite eight people to your princess party," Quinn said, reading over the piece of paper in her hand. "Do you know who you want to invite yet?"

"Me," Avery started, holding up one finger. "And Ariel. And Shannon, Hannah, Maizie, Julia, Pam, and Holly. OH! And Crystal. That's too many," she said, holding up nine fingers and looking sad.

"You don't have to invite yourself," Quinn said, grinning at her. "So that's just right!" She went through the list she'd jotted down, reading over the names and trying to attach them to the faces of some of the little girls in Avery's class. She found matches for all, except one.

"Who's Ariel, sweetie?" she asked. "Is she in your class?"

Avery shook her head. "She's in Mrs. Ward's class. She's my friend, and she has the same name as my favourite princess! Did you know that, Daddy?" she asked, turning back to Artie.

"I do now," Artie said, grinning at her.

"We play together sometimes at recess," she said. "And I always make her my partner when we have gym class. But sometimes she asks if I want to be her partner before I can ask her! Did you know we have gym class with Mrs. Ward's class on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays, Daddy?"

"I do now," Artie repeated. "Actually, this sounds familiar," he added. "I think I knew this before."

Avery giggled. "Can I give out inivations, Mommy? When it was Hannah's birthday, she gave them out."

Quinn nodded. "Of course you can give out invitations," she said. "I've got them right here. Did you want to write the names yourself?"

Avery nodded, jumping off Artie's lap. "Can you help me?" she asked him turning back.

"I can, sweetie," Quinn said, patting the couch beside her.

Avery thought for a moment. "Can you help me with some, and then Daddy can help me with some?" she asked. "So we can share?"

Artie beamed, as Quinn nodded, and they got to work. He wasn't really around little children much, besides Avery, and Ella from time to time, but he was pretty sure his daughter was the sweetest, most polite, thoughtful child ever.

He watched, as Quinn helped her carefully print the names of her friends on the invitations, and then sat back to allow her to write her own name at the bottom all by herself. When she had finished the first four, she slid across the couch, bringing the other four to him, and they repeated the process.

"Do you want me to come help you read the names to hand them out tomorrow morning?" Quinn asked, arranging the invitations in a neat little stack.

Avery shook her head. "I can do it," she said. "And my teacher can help me if I don't know. Daddy," she said, leaning towards him. "Do you think the people I didn't invite will be sad? I wish I could invite everybody."

Artie was pretty sure what he was feeling was entirely unmanly, but his daughter's question made him feel like he could just melt into the couch.

"Well," he said. "I'm sure they'll understand that you could only invite a few," he said, the wheels in his brain turning rapidly. "And maybe we could make cupcakes for your whole class for your birthday," he said, glancing over at Quinn, who nodded subtly. "That way everyone could have at least a little celebration of your birthday?"

Avery smiled, and nodded, before her smile turned to a frown. "We can't," she said. "James brought some on his birthday, and Bobby is urgic to cupcakes, so he couldn't have any."

"He's allergic?" Quinn asked, assuming that was what she meant.

Avery nodded again. "I don't know what that means."

"That means that it would make him sick if he ate it," Quinn said. "It's kind of like how Daddy has allergies, but he's not allergic to food, just trees, and plants and stuff."

"Oh," Avery said. "Daddy, you shouldn't eat trees if they make you sick."

Artie bit back the laughter that threatened to emerge from his mouth. "I'll be careful, princess," he said. "Don't worry. I'm not going to get sick."

Quinn made a mental note to ask Avery's teacher the next day about the allergies, so she could figure out something they could take to school for Avery's birthday that wouldn't make anyone sick.

"I think it's almost time for bed," Quinn said, glancing at the clock. "Are you tired, sweetie?"

Avery nodded. "But I can't go yet," she said. "I have to help Daddy first."

"Help me with what?" Artie asked, shifting himself slightly, bracing himself on the arm of the couch.

"Physio, Daddy," she said, crawling over to him. "To keep you healthy! Remember? We baked you cookies and then I said I would help you. I was just little, but now I'm almost six, so I'm big and now I can help you!"

"Oh, right," he said, remembering back to her brief mention of the subject several weeks earlier. "Well," he said. "I think that can wait until you're a bit bigger. How about bed?"

She shook her head. "Daddy," she said. "I have to help you with Physio so you don't get sick from your urgies!"

"Ok," he said, a slightly serious tone in his voice. "The first exercise we have to do is cuddle, and then we have to give Bailey a cuddle. How does that sound?"

"How does that make your legs healthy?" the little girl asked, a questioning look on her face, as she reached out and patted his thigh gently.

"It makes my everything healthy," he said, grinning at her.

Avery nodded, before nestling herself into his side.

Artie glanced over to Quinn, winking at her. She giggled, playfully rolling her eyes.

He was pretty sure he'd be hearing about that later. He'd had so many unpleasant thoughts on his mind over the last few weeks, that all he wanted to do was sit on the couch, snuggling his family. Forever.

A/N: Thank you to everyone that's reading! I see you in my stats…even if you aren't leaving reviews. But I really wish you would, every once in a while! Let me know how I'm doing! ;)

I'm pretty sure this is my absolute favourite chapter so far. SO much fun to write. And SO easy…it basically wrote itself. I could write nothing but adorable Artie/Avery for the rest of my life…but due to the fact that there are other people in this, and that I have several other things on the go at all times…that will never happen!