Shane bounced his palms on the edge of the examination table in the little exam room while Alexis swung her legs back and forth from her spot. They'd called Walsh as directed when Alexis' post-partum bleeding medication had ran out, and he directed them to come in for an appointment with Doctor Harvey, the obstetric specialist. Alexis didn't bother telling the man she knew who Harvey was, considering he'd delivered her little brother, she just wrote down the item for the appointment and had dissolved into tears when she'd done so. Shane had simply wrapped his arms around her and held her until the crying had abated and offered to warm up the leftover chicken and mashed potatoes from Ryan and Honey-Milk for their lunch.

Now, sitting in the little room, waiting and waiting, all he wanted to do was hold her again, for Shane could see the same miserably guilty look in her eyes again. Not as strong as it had been the previous Friday night, but there all the same.

'Shane, could you stop that please?' she asked him nicely. 'The sound is really annoying me, I'm edgy enough as it is.'

'Sorry, honey.'

'And please stop calling me honey, I really don't like it.'

'Why?'

Alexis sighed. 'It's just...it feels like you're being condescending, even though I know you're not. I've just had it used too many times like that, like 'oh honey, you don't know better do you', or 'oh, honey, let the grown-ups worry about it, you're just a child'. It bothers me.'

'Okay, I'll remember. So refresh me again, why does Harvey want to see you and not Walsh?'

'He's the head of OBGYN here, it's his specialty to deal with medical situations like mine.'

'Right. You think you'll be okay at school next week?'

'I think so.' She sighed again, only this time it was wistful, not impatient. 'Maybe...if you're

'You don't even need to ask, my sweet.'

'See that one, I like.'

Shane grinned, glad to see her smile. 'My sweet?'

'Yeah, makes me think I'm some kind of cutesy sugar-doll.'

'Okay.'

The door opened and Harvey came in, a kind light in his eyes as he clicked his pen and examined her chart. 'Alexis, I'm terribly sorry to have to see you under these circumstances,' he said in his patient, steady way. 'I understand how difficult it can be for a couple to go through this.'

'Thank you, Doctor Harvey.'

'Alright, lie back and we'll have a look-see at your cervix, see how far you've firmed up.'

'We had a couple of dates before we got to that part in our relationship,' Shane said dryly as Harvey snapped on gloves and gave Alexis a digital examination. He heard his fiancee suck in a sharp breath at the pressure of it and Shane held her hand tightly. 'Remember our first real date?'

'We went to Spice Island. I was so nervous, I thought was going to spill my dinner all over myself.'

'Same here, although there is one moment about that night that has always stuck with me.'

'Oh?'

Shane nodded, recalling the moment like a digital photo in his brain. 'We were looking at our menus, and I glanced up and you were chewing your fingernail in thought as you tried to pick something to eat. I had this flash of you and I together in my apartment eating in bed together, and you were doing that.'

'That's kinda hot you were thinking that on our first date. You didn't even kiss me until after we were playing pool.'

'And that led us to other fun things, which is kinda how we wound up here.' He looked over at Harvey, who had finished doing his thing with Alexis' lady-business. 'So, doc, verdict?'

'Alexis' bleeding has stopped entirely, and her cervix is just about closed. You should be ready to resume intercourse by Friday.'

'And what about my future fertility?'

'I read your chart, Alexis, there was DNA testing done on the blood sample that was removed from your uterus when you came in last Friday and I can tell you that you and Shane have a ninety-eight percent chance of conceiving naturally in the future. The testing also revealed that the embryo never fully implanted itself because of the fact you were on the hormone needle for your birth control. The over-abundance of hormones in your body meant it didn't have a chance to properly develop '

Harvey pulled off his gloves, dropped them in the medical waste bin. 'I have had other patients experience similar situations, Alexis, and it had no bearing whatsoever on the woman or the man involved in the conception of the failed embryo. Nor did it affect their chances of getting pregnant in the future. One of those patients you know quite well, but obviously I can't go around blabbering about her medical file.'

'Obviously,' Shane and Alexis chorused.

'When it comes down to it, this was just bad luck.'

'Bad luck.' Alexis sat up, gave Shane a there-it-is smirk. 'Seems to be some of that going around.'

'If you like, I can recommend some counseling programs.'

'Thanks, but I think I'll check into one of the counseling programs at my school. Not to impugn the ones you're offering, but I'm only in New York until Sunday, then it's back to Princeton.'

'I understand completely.' Harvey reached into his pocket, pulled out a card. 'This is my cell and pager, if you have any concerns. Either one of you.'

'Thanks, Doctor.'

'Hopefully the next time I see you, it's because you and RJ are getting another sibling, or RJ is going to be an uncle in training pants.'

Shane laughed at Harvey's parting words, then at Alexis who was redressing from the hospital gown into her street clothes. 'So? How's it feel now?'

'Better. Hearing it confirmed that this was a fluke accident - the miscarriage, not the pregnancy,' she clarified emphatically, 'helps a lot, but I think it'd still be good for me to have a little bit of counseling while I'm still handling the hormone down-flux and you're not there.'

'About that. I talked to Pearlmutter on Sunday, when he told me to take the time off and he said he'd give me until next Monday, then put me on the swing for Tuesday so I can stay two nights with you down in New Jersey.'

Alexis said nothing, just nodded and wrapped her arms around her fiance. Somehow he always just knew the right thing to do to make her feel better. She stood there holding on to him for a few extra minutes, then tipped her face up to his and kissed his lips.

'So last night, we had Ryan and Honey-Milk stopping by to see us, who's it going to be tonight?' he asked as they left the room.

Alexis' move to respond was interrupted by the sound of someone calling their names, and they both turned around to see Daniel walking towards them in his dark blue scrubs, his tropical fish scrub cap peeking out of his pocket.

'Hey, Daniel, how's it going?'

'Good, good, hope you two are doing better than last Friday?'

'Alexis got the all-clear from Harvey,' Shane confirmed. 'We can still have babies when we want to.'

'That's great news. I have a message to pass along from Andrea. She said that if you are interested, we're going to Antigua in December for four days and you're more than welcome to come with. We'll be taking a red-eye on the twenty-sixth and fly home the night of the thirtieth.'

'That's an amazing offer,' Alexis said, surprised down to her toes to receive such an invitation. 'What's the occasion?'

'Remember Andrea's friends from Japan who were at the wedding? They're shooting a new film in the Caribbean starting in January and want Andrea to give their principle actors a crash course in scuba certification. I'm off on holidays anyways, and...well, this might sound a little presumptive,' Daniel admitted, bashfully scratching the side of his face.

'Go on.'

'Well, Andrea's not so nuts about the idea of hiring a nanny to come with us to watch Nessa, or leaving her with Agnes for so long, so maybe you guys could watch her with us?'

'How do you mean?'

'Well, we're there three nights, right? Like maybe one night you watch her, one night we watch her, and then we do like a family thing on the last night.'

'Oh, of course,' Shane volunteered. 'I think that sounds like a great idea.'

'Seriously?' Alexis looked at him, eyebrows raised in happy surprise.

'Sure, we haven't had a trip away together this year, not like when I came to see you in England and we went to Paris and Amsterdam,' he pointed out. 'Why shouldn't we take a few days for a getaway for ourselves?'

'That's true. Okay, um, sure, why don't you guys stop by tomorrow night for dinner and we can iron out some details.'

'Sounds great.'

Alexis gave him the address which Daniel keyed into his phone and he darted off with promises to bring his family over the following night. She watched him go, then turned to smile at Shane. 'So wonderful to see how much they've grown into our family.'

'It is,' Shane agreed, putting his hand in Alexis'. 'You wanna get something to eat?'

'Actually...I'd really love to do some baking. But we're sitting shiva and that's off limits.'

'I think we can make an exception.'

A few hours later, the apartment was filled with the wonderful scent of cinnamon and butter and toasted walnuts. Tehy'd stopped at the market for Alexis to get baking supplies, and while Shane did all of her pre-measuring and washing the bowls and utensils, Alexis went through the soothing ritual of adding in sugar, eggs and flour as needed.

She made his favourites first, pfeffernussen, followed by chocolate chip and oatmeal almond. The batch of walnut-white chocolate and raspberry were half-way done being mixed when the intercom buzzed.

'That's probably Meredeth and Javi, they were coming by with lasagne tonight,' she told Shane as he went to the intercom.

'You're probably right. Hola, como estas, hermano?' Shane asked, using one of three Spanish phrases he knew.

'Shane? Is that you?'

'Mom.' The joy of seeing his friends with good cooking in hand vanished, and he looked at Alexis in what could only be described as infuriated panic. 'What are you doing here?'

'I need to speak with you, Scheine. You and Alexis, urgently.'

'Just a minute.'

He released the 'Talk' button and looked at his fiancee, who had turned around completely and was dusting off her hands. 'Should I let her up?'

'Yes. It could be that she wants to talk about Eli.'

'And what if it's about Rachel and Yassir?'

'Isn't it better to get it all out at once than let it linger and drive you two apart?'

'She's already fractured things by lying to me,' Shane started, but Alexis stood firm her ground.

'She told you the truth, something that was probably as difficult to say as it was to hear. Would you rather have found out that your mother did what she did from someone else? Possibly Eli if you two had gotten into a confrontation?'

'Damn your logic,' Shane grumbled, and kissed her when she walked over with flour-covered hands. 'But I love you all the same.'

'Love you too. Now let your mother in.'

He pressed the 'Talk' button once more and cleared his throat. 'Okay, Mom, you can come up.'

'Very well.'

A few minutes later, there was the knock on the door, and Shane opened it to see Shir there, and for a moment, he saw that she really looked her age; the usually gentle lines near her eyes and mouth were deeper than they had been two days before, and he felt the pang of guilt that his treatment of her - tossing her out on her ass from his home - was partially to blame for that.

Shir stood there, holding onto a green plant. 'I wanted to come by, offer an apology for the way I said what I had to say. May I come in?'

Her son stood back in tacit welcome, and Shir looked around. It had been three years before when she'd last visited; it definitely had a woman's touch in it now. She looked over in the kitchen, saw Alexis baking.

'Hello, Shir.'

'Hello, Alexis. I brought a plant,' Shir said rather lamely, and Alexis nodded at the kitchen table where plates of her baked good were cooling.

'Just put it there amongst the cookies.'

'What do you want, Mom?' Shane asked, a little more tersely than he'd intended.

'I want to talk to you about Rachel, and Eli, and Yassir.'