Chapter 20

Natalie rushed home from her errands. John couldn't get away for lunch today and that was just as well. She had stopped at the drug store on the way home to pick up a test.

Jody was downstairs with Sean, she had watched him while Natalie had run out. Jody had turned into a God send to them. Her college schedule allowed her to help out during the days sometimes. At first so Natalie could work but, now she helps out more if Natalie needs run errands or get the other kids from school without disturbing Sean.

Sliding to the floor of their bathroom, she crossed her fingers while she waited on the test to process. She knew it was a long shot. None of the doctors thought it was likely to happen so quickly. They were sitting right at three months now. Which meant she would have gotten pregnant before the three month mark. She knew logically it was too soon but, all of the symptoms were there.

Laney's fourth birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas were behind them. Liam's sixth birthday was just days away. Sean would be two soon. 'How old would he get to be?' she wondered. Would she get to watch him grow up? Tears ran down her face, she hadn't allowed herself a good cry in a while. Her heart ached for her little boy. Could their family survive this if he didn't?

~jolie~

"Natalie," John said coming through the door.

"I'm here," she answered coming into the room from the kitchen.

"Hey sweetheart," he said turning to kiss her after putting his keys and phone down.

"Hey how was it today?" She asked, they both agreed she was needed at home more now than before for the time being at least but, she still missed going to work every day.

John did a double take when he saw her. "Uhm...it was quiet today," he looked over her again, "is that new?"

"This?" Natalie asked looking down at herself. The Navy blue wrap dress was nothing special, "gosh no.

This is probably the oldest thing I own," she smiled cheekily, "besides you of course."

"Uh-huh," John said putting his arms around her again and kissing her forehead, "well, I couldn't decide if I had seen it before or not." He moved around to the front of the couch to sit down.

"Well I used to wear it a lot before, "she said absently, "I got it back around the time Michael and Marcy got married….I wore it to her shower I think. I found it in the back of the closet…and it still fits," She said leaning over the back of the couch.

"Really? Well, it's pretty," he told her.

"Thanks," she said with a smile, "you hungry?"

"I could eat a horse," he said flipping through the mail, he suddenly realized it was too quiet, "where are the kids?"

"Liam and Alana are at the museum with Rex & Gigi and Sean is asleep in the playpen. I moved it into the dining room earlier so he wouldn't be disturbed. I could still see him though," Natalie looked over her shoulder and into the dining room where her son was napping.

"How has he been today?" John asked looking in the same direction. Natalie came around the couch to sit next to him. The medications he was on tending to make him drowsy. Their happy, laid back child mostly slept these days.

"Good. Actually, Rex and Gigi offered to watch him for a while tonight…" She let her voice trail off.

John looked at her suspiciously, "why?"

"Well, I was thinking we could take Liam and Laney out. Just the four of us. Do something special with them," she looked at him hopefully.

John sighed, "I was really hoping to get some work done upstairs tonight." He told her hoping she would understand. He could see the disappointment on her face. Something was telling him he should take this opportunity to spend time with his family.

"Oh," she said with a false brightness she didn't feel and plastered a fake smile on her face, "ok. Well, I'll get dinner started then. I know you're hungry." She stood to leave the room and he grabbed her hand as she passed.

"Hey," he said standing up, he fiddled with the fingers on her hand, "if you want to go out and do something, let's go. They would probably enjoy it."

She looked deeply into his eyes to try to determine whether or not he was appeasing her or if he meant it. Satisfied by what she saw there, she smiled brightly at him.

"It could be fun. We could go to Rodi's, Liam loves going there and getting the special treatment by the girls. We could get some burgers and play some pool?" He couldn't look away from the light in her eyes.

"You're so beautiful," he mumbled, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"What?" She laughed unsure if she heard him correctly.

"I love you," he said, still holding her hand he brought it to his lips and placed a kiss in her palm.

"I love you, too," she responded breathlessly, completely mesmerized by the look in his eyes.

John went to change while they waited for the kids to get back. Natalie had fed Sean so her brother or his wife wouldn't have to worry about it. John couldn't shake the fact that something felt off. Not necessarily bad or good just…weird. Something about this whole day was weird. Dismissing it as nothing more than being out of sorts because of all the stress they were under, John changed and headed back downstairs.

He knew that they had been focusing a lot of their attention onto Sean. With his illness and the added doctor appointments, conversations, meetings…trying to get pregnant. Everything seemed focused on Sean. They tried their best not to forget about Liam or Laney or push them aside in any way but, he knew they weren't getting as much attention as Sean was from every one.