So it seems that I'm not the only one who gets a little drooly over the idea of Ranger in a kilt. I have two plot bunnies hopping around in my head concerning that very thing, one from a lovely reviewer that wasn't signed in so I can't properly thank. She (or he, I guess) will know it if I end up using that one.

Thank you all for the well wishes on the rotten cold. My littler walking petrie dish was home for the last two days with it, spicing things up with an added fever. Now we just need the hubs to come down with it and we can remove the plague cross from the front door. A family that coughs uncontrollably together, stays together.

Sorry for the weeks delay on this, but I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. Hopefully you are too.

I own only the plot.

RPOV

"I love you, Carlos." She murmured before promptly passing out.

See, here's the thing, this wasn't an uncommon thing for her to say. But lately, she hadn't really said it that much. It had only been a week or so since I finally broke down and told her about how my feelings had changed, so, in and of itself that wasn't really a big deal. I tried not to get too excited when she mumbled those words, but I couldn't help hoping that she had finally caught up with me.

I buzzed the garage open and parked, watching her for a minute as she slept against my arm. The vague future that I had always thought I would have, the wife, the kids, the house, it all seemed to be coming into focus now. And Steph was at the center of it all.

Whoa, wife? Where did that come from?

I resituated her against her seat and hopped out, knowing that it wasn't a good omen for sex tonight when she didn't even stir. Opening her door, I stroked a finger down her soft cheek, she hummed deep in her throat, but didn't move. Sighing, I unlocked the door into the kitchen and went back to get her. I scooped her up and brought her inside, she never moved. I even managed to get her sweater, skirt and bra off without waking her. Although, the hard-on I'd had pretty much since our lunch-time conversation resurrected, again. My balls were probably bluer right now than my Rangers jersey.

We hadn't bothered with clothes for bed all week and I saw no reason to do it now. I just kissed her smooth belly and whispered goodnight to the Bean. I covered her with the blanket and headed into the bathroom, closing the door with a soft click.

You'd think that with how many times that I'd come this last week that I would be okay with waiting until tomorrow morning. But, I wasn't, and it was actually starting to hurt. It didn't help that the visual of what I had done to her in the car was replaying on a loop in my head. Add to that an awesome soundtrack of her moaning my name as she climaxed on my hand… goddamn…

I stepped into the shower, staring my cock down. It didn't matter, it was going to stay like that until I jerked myself off. The celibate interim between trying to get her pregnant and a week ago, had seen me doing this at least once daily. I grabbed the soap she loved and palmed my cock, biting my lip at the almost painful hypersensitivity. I started stroking, wishing like hell it was her delicate, soft hand instead of my big, calloused one. There was just something so fucking sweet about the way she touched me, the dirty, sexy look in her eye. It made the whole thing so much more satisfying than jerking off alone in the shower. I pulled up my go-to image, the one of her riding me that last time, and immersed myself in it. I could almost feel her, her perfect pussy slip-sliding on me.

Fuck, I couldn't wait to be inside her.

I jumped when her hands slipped around my waist and batted mine out of the way. She snugged her body against me, the press of my kryptonite against my back burning me inside.

"Unh, Babe!"

I was right, the feeling of her hands on me was immeasurably better. But, if she was awake enough for this, then she was awake enough for me to finally be where I've been dying to be for the last five weeks. She kissed my shoulder and tightened her grip. "I'm sorry I fell asleep on you," she whispered. "I can't believe I left you like this, to take care of it by yourself." She kissed my shoulder again, slowly working her way up my neck. The feeling of her body shifting against my back making my eyes roll back. I turned to face her, thinking about the numerous scenarios that I'd imagined over the last week that didn't involve overly deep penetration.

"Babe, as good as that feels," I told her, gently prying her fingers loose. "A hand job is not what I had in mind."

She smiled that sexy little grin, "No?"

"No." I stepped forward until her back was against the tiled wall. Her hands landed on my chest, smoothing up into my hair. She tugged my face down until our mouths were millimeters apart.

Sighing sweetly, she murmured, "What did you have in mind then?"

I reached down for her knee, wrapping her leg around my hip. I slid my hand towards her pussy, my fingers finding her hot and practically dripping. "Fuck, how are you so wet already?" I easily pushed one finger into her, my other hand cupping her perfect tit, my thumb brushing gently over her nipple. She groaned and closed the tiny gap between our lips, slipping her tongue against mine.

She let her head thunk back, breathing heavily. "Do you have any idea of how sexy you are?" She puffed, "I was watching you through the glass," I added another finger and she bit her lip and panted. "Seeing your hand on your cock like that. Baby, even a nun would get excited watching that." Her hand slid down and grasped me at the base. She raised on the toes of her right foot and placed me right there. Right at her entrance.

Fuck.

"Are you ready?" I whispered.

"Yes," she hissed.

I pushed up and in gently, fuuuuucccckkkk, watching her face the whole time, our eyes locked. Jesus, I loved the way her eyelids fluttered half-closed and the way her mouth fell open when she moaned. But most of all, I loved the way she wrapped around me. All this last week I had been so fascinated that her labia had become more swollen than before when she was aroused. In fact, next to my kryptonite getting bigger and more sensitive, that had to be my favorite 'side-effect' of her pregnancy. But this, feeling her completely surrounding me was un-fucking-believable. She was even tighter than before and I wanted nothing more than to pick her up fully and bury myself in her, but I managed to maintain a modicum of control.

"Babe, fuck…" I rested my forehead on hers. "I love you so much."

She froze, her eyes widened and she made a tiny choking sound in the back of her throat. "What did I say to you in the car?" She eventually whispered.

She went to move her leg down from my hip, but I held her there. "When? Before you fell asleep?" She bit her lip and nodded. "That you loved me." I pushed into her a little more, her fingers digging into my shoulders in response.

"But, oh…" I pulled out a fraction and pushed back in, her eyes doing that fluttering thing again. "But, that's not how…" Her head fell back again and she moaned long and loud when I kept moving, knowing full well that I was very slowly and deliberately rubbing the head of my cock against her sweet spot. "Carlos, that's not… oh god… how I wanted to tell you."

It was my turn to freeze, I don't even think I was breathing. "Tell me what?"

Her hands slid into my hair again, keeping our foreheads touching. She looked me right in the eye and took a deep breath. Her words coming out on a woosh, "I'm in love with you, Carlos."

Holy shit!

"Say it again," I begged.

That sweet smile lit up her face. "I'm in love with you." She took my hand in one of hers and slid it between us to her belly. "Like, want to be with you always and have your babies kind of in love with you." She moved my hand back to her ass cheek and shifted her hips until I started moving in her again. "I love you," She whispered, pulling me down for a deep kiss.

"Really?" She nodded. "Say it one more time?"

She smiled and grabbed my hips with both hands, pushing me further inside. "I love you."

This was too much, feeling her, hearing her, staring at her beautiful face. I started to really move then. Our height difference and positioning preventing me from going really deep. And that was a good thing right now. Especially given that it looked like she was thirty seconds from coming like crazy. Which was also a good thing because I wasn't going to last too much longer either.

I was wrong, she lasted thirty-three seconds, and I lasted forty-five.

So sue me, it had been a really, really, long fucking time.

SPOV

I don't think I got more than three hours of sleep that night. And, it wasn't all him either. It was like I couldn't get enough of him. The new intimacy we shared was so much more than the sex though. Like right now, he was half on top of me, up one elbow, just the very tips of his fingers gently dragging from my breast down over my ribs and waist to my hip and back again, watching the goosebumps spread out from his touch. Like he was exploring me for the first time again, not the hundreth, cataloging my reactions.

"You're so soft, Babe," he murmured, his fingers ghosting over the underbelly of my right breast. "They feel warmer than they were." He turned his hand so he was cupping me. His eyes flicked up to mine, the curiosity there was absolutely adorable. "This is kind of crazy. I'm so fascinated by this," he squeezed gently, "and really turned on at the same time."

I couldn't help but laugh. "You've been all over my boobs since the beginning."

He grinned. "I know. They're perfect. I can't help it, but it's more than that. There's something very cave-mannish about the way I feel." His hand slid south and landed above my pelvis. "The fact that this is my, our, baby in here…" He shook his head slightly. "It gets me going every time I think about it."

He shifted his hand lower still, making my breath catch. Birds were starting to sing outside the window in the pre-dawn darkness, but going to sleep was the furthest thing from my mind as he rolled us over, settling me on top of him.

It's one thing to read about how a pregnancy progresses, hear your friends complain about being exhausted and nauseous and watch them get bigger and more waddly as the weeks roll by. It's completely different when it's you personally going through it. While I'd only gained 2 pounds, I was having a hard time buttoning my pants already and after a ten minute naked stare down with the mirror I had come to the conclusion that my waist was gone for the foreseeable future. If I turned sideways, I was definitely thicker and as Carlos had pointed out once or twice, my boobs were rapidly approaching what I considered huge. I was only ten weeks now, but I was pretty sure I'd been feeling the top of my uterus above my pubis for over a week now, meaning I was at least three weeks ahead of schedule. There was a myriad reasons why I was already big, not the least of which was that the Bean's father was a large man and the women of my family came from hardy Hungarian stock. Nary had a one of us had a baby that weighed under eight and a half pounds. My little boy seemed to be in on the family competition of who had the biggest first baby.

Hearing my mom's voice call up the stairs snapped me from the analysis of my reflection. "Stephanie! Are you ready?"

"In a minute," I called back. It didn't matter, she was already coming up. At least she gave me enough time to put underwear and my new stretchy waisted jeans on before she came into my room.

"So, how're you feeling today? Did you get sick again?"

I pulled a sweater on and turned to face her. "Every day, at least once."

She nodded and smiled. "I was the same with your sister. It should be over soon."

I grabbed my boots and she followed me downstairs. "Carlos and Maria are meeting us there. Ready to go?"

"Yep, I can't wait to see this baby. I think it's going to be a girl."

"Nope," I said pulling the front door closed behind me. "Definitely a boy, Mom. I've thought so since before we got the positive result."

She smiled indulgently and patted my shoulder, I tried not to grit my teeth at her patronizing me.

"Are you going to find out the sex for sure?"

"No, definitely not today. There's a new blood test that can determine the sex and screen for more abnormalities than the test I'm having done today, but Dr. Stevens only does it on high risk patients," I told her pointing the car in the direction of the doctor's office.

She nodded. "And, are you two going to get married soon?"

Good thing this wasn't the first time, or even the twelfth, that she'd asked this question or I probably would've crashed the car at her non sequitur. "Mom, it's only been a month since we decided to become a couple. I think marriage would be a little hasty." She opened her mouth to insert her argument, but I cut her off. "Yes, I know we're practically living together already and we are having a baby. Neither of us are going anywhere. Just be happy for us okay."

She took a breath to counter, but seemed to change her mind about what she was going to say. Taking my hand and squeezing, she reminded me of why I loved my mom so much. "I am, sweetheart. You can't imagine how happy I am. I'm just going to say one more thing and then I'll try to keep my trap shut about it." I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of that claim. "Do you remember when you broke your arm when you were fourteen?"

That had been one of the most painful things I'd been through to this day. I don't think I would ever forget it. "Yeah."

"Do you remember how you got home?

I smiled at that, "Yep, he was so worried." We had been riding our bikes on some dirt trails about a mile from home, I hadn't seen a felled sapling across the familiar path before my front wheel caught it, and I was pitched over the handlebars. My out stretched arm breaking my fall, snapping the radius, ulna and the humerus on the right. Carlos didn't even blink. He scooped me and my uselessly dangling arm up and ran all the way home. The entire mile. He talked to me the entire time, begging me not to cry and telling me that everything would be okay. He had flatly refused to leave the waiting room while I was in surgery. Only letting Maria take him home after I had left the recovery room and he sweet-talked a nurse into letting him see that I was somewhat awake and okay. Guess who had carried my schoolbag for me for the next six weeks?

"Sweetheart, I know him almost as well as I know you. He was trying not to show it, but he was terrified when you were in surgery. He kept saying that the accident was his fault, he even started crying when one of the nurses came out to give us an update, telling us that it was taking longer than they had planned. He was exhausted, it had to have been about 2 am by that point." She squeezed my hand again. "I knew then, Stephanie. I knew then that he loved you, that you would end up here. Why do you think that Maria and I have always pestered you two."

I pulled into the parking spot, a fizzy, giddy feeling in my stomach when I spied Carlos standing at the office building doors with Maria, waiting for us. Smiling at him through the windshield, I told her, "Yeah, well, you two can stop. We're together and I have no plans of letting him go. Ever." She grinned and went to open the door. "Wait, when did you know that I loved him?"

She took her hand off the handle and turned to face me. "When you dragged him home for after school cookies and told me, 'this is Carlos, my new best friend.'" She hopped out then, ducking down to look at my stunned face. "Come on, I want to see my new grandbaby."

She was already across the street, talking to Maria by the time I had my seatbelt off. Carlos opened my door and tugged me out, hugging me close and kissing me stupid. "How excited is your mom?" I asked him when he finally pulled away. "Mine is bouncing."

He laughed, "About the same. You know they have the rest of the day planned out, right? Mom found some baby boutique she thinks you'll like and then they want to go to lunch, and then do more shopping," he muttered exasperatedly. He hated shopping.

I wormed my arm around his waist under his open jacket and started across the street, "Yes, I've been informed of the itinerary and don't worry, I'll be having a bout of pregnancy induced sleepiness, around five o'clock. We will be home making out on the couch before the game starts."

He bent and kissed just above my ear, whispering, "I love it when you're sneaky," so they wouldn't hear.

"What are you two whispering about?" Maria asked seizing me into a hug. You wouldn't think that such a little woman could hug like that.

"Nothing Mama," Carlos told her. "Ready to meet the Bean?" She grinned his grin and led the way inside.

Of all the life-altering events of the last two and a half months, nothing could've prepared us for the news Dr. Stevens gave us fifteen minutes later. In fact we're still reeling from it even now.

Little bit of a cliffie, sorry for that. But, the next part would've been too long to include in this chapter.

Let me know what you thought? Your feedback drives me to write faster!

Thanks for reading,

Love,

EA xoxo