A/N: This is one of those in-between chapters that tie up loose ends. I hope it's not too boring.

Chapter 28

After sharing dinner with Will and Uncle Geoffrey. Henry and Elizabeth made their way back to the house. Though neither of them said it, they were feeling both mentally and physically exhausted. Pulling into the drive, Otto stepped out of He gatehouse to inquire about Geoffrey. He was pleased with the positive report and they headed up the drive. Walking into the house, Elizabeth was greeted by Frederick and gave him the update as well. Henry headed upstairs while she stepped into the kitchen to grab a couple water bottles from the fridge.

It only took her a few minutes but by the time she made it to the bedroom, Henry had candles lit and soft music playing. She could hear the water running in the bath. "Oh Mr. McCord, have I told you today just how good you are?"

"Why Miss Adams, you haven't, but I have a feeling you are about to show me."

She grinned against his lips and she kissed him with everything she had. Pulling apart for air, she pecked him on the lips and said, "I think I have a bath calling my name."

"I'll be waiting." He kicked back on the bed and listened to her singing to herself. She was so incredibly off key, but it was completely adorable. Chuckling, he picked up his book. He was bound and determined to get it read before the end of break.

Elizabeth emerged an hour later, wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants, hair clipped on top of her head. Walking into Henry's room, she stopped in the doorway and smiled. Henry was laying on the bed, book in hand, fast asleep, glasses perched precariously on the end of his nose. He was so handsome laying there, Elizabeth was overwhelmed by the love she felt for Henry. She stood there for a few minutes just taking the scene before her.

She crawled onto the bed and knelt beside him. Removing his glasses, she placed them on the side table along with his book. She ran her fingertips along his jaw, then settled her hand on his chest. Henry started to stir and she took his top lip in her mouth, sucking on it gently. He smiled against her mouth and flipped them, landing on top and pinning her to the mattress. She shrieked as he plunged his tongue in her mouth. One hand was in her hair, the other on her hip. She had one hand on his cheek and other on his back pulling him closer. Within minutes, he was grinding against her and she was so wet. Elizabeth was losing her mind. "H-Hen-Henry, you have to stop."

"I want to see you come,"Henry panted.

"Baby, no! Not without you. I want to wait for you. Oh God." She pushed at Henry's chest and he rolled off of her. They both lay there side by side, chests heaving, trying to calm down.

A few minutes passed. "Henry," she laced her fingers in his.

"Yeah," he pulled her hand to his lips.

Elizabeth leaned up on her elbow and studied him. "I'm ready."

Henry looked at her. "Really?" She smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, really."

"Good." He kissed her and stood to pull back the covers. Helping her under the blanket, he climbed in after and cuddled up behind Elizabeth spooning her.

"I love you Henry."

"I like you ok too, babe."

Henry woke but kept his eyes closed for a few minutes. He felt the rise and fall of Elizabeth's chest pressed against his. He smiled thinking about last night. Elizabeth said she was ready for marriage. He was elated. He pondered his proposal trying to decide what he would do. Secretly, he hoped they would be back to his place by New Year's Eve, but with all that was going on with Geoffrey, he didn't know if they would end up sticking to their original plan or not. He'd have to just roll with it.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and shifted himself out of bed and went to shower.

She was still asleep when he was out of the shower. He quickly dressed and went downstairs to make some sort of breakfast. Entering the kitchen, Henry saw Will seated at the table drinking a cup of coffee. "Good morning," he said, "Did you already make breakfast?"

"Good morning," Will responded, "I don't usually eat breakfast, so I just made a pot of coffee."

"Mind if I have a cup?" Henry asked, pulling a package of bacon from the fridge.

"Sure. I only drink a cup or two. There's plenty for everyone."

Henry pulled the skillet out of the cabinet and set it on the stove. He set a cup out and poured the coffee and sat down with Will. "Do you have a minute? I have a question."

"Yeah, sure. What's up?"

Henry hadn't really planned what he was going to say, so he stumbled a bit. "Uh, yeah. Will, here's the deal. I love Elizabeth and I know that we haven't really had a chance to get to know each other well, but I was wanting to know if you had any problem with me marrying her."

Will laughed and clapped Henry on the shoulder, "I'm here to tell you that I've found Lizzie more likeable in the past few days than I have my entire life. Whatever you are doing agrees with her. I don't know that you need my blessing, but you most certainly have it."

"Thanks Will," Henry let out a sigh of relief. One down, one to go. "If you don't mind, can we keep this between us? I'm not sure when I'm going to propose, so I'd like it to be a surprise."

"You got it. I'm going to head out and try to catch the pulmonologist on his rounds this morning. I'll see you later."

Henry smiled to himself as he rounded the corner to fry the bacon. He was nearly finished when Elizabeth came into the room. "Hey there. Did you sleep well?"

"Better than I have in a while. But, I woke up this morning worried about Uncle Geoffrey."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Well, I was just thinking that they were together a long time. So far, he doesn't seem to be that upset that she plotted and planned all of this. I just hope he has someone to talk to about it. That's a big betrayal."

"He talked to me about it a little bit yesterday while you and Will were out. I think it will work itself out over time. Of course, every time something else comes up, he'll have to go through it all again." Henry changed direction, ""I was going to have breakfast and then we can get going. Do you want some?"

"Good idea. I love bacon," she said stealing a piece from the serving plate."If it's ok, I'd like to go visit Maria today too."

In no time, they were headed to the hospital to visit Uncle Geoffrey. When they arrived, they found him sitting in a chair. "Good morning," Elizabeth leaned over and kissed his cheek. "You are looking really good today."

"Yes. I'm starting to feel more like myself too. You just missed Will. He was headed back to the house to pick up some things for me. The doctor said I could go home today after I have my physical therapy appointment. We'll arrange for the therapist to come to the house to do the exercises with me and in a few weeks, I should be good to go.

"That's so great!" Elizabeth was happy for him and thankful that it looked like she would get many more years to really get to know him.

"We won't stay too long since you're going to be coming home pretty soon, but I wanted to ask you about Maria."

"Did she have the baby?" Geoffrey wanted to know.

"Not yet. Henry and I are going to see her today. I was wondering if you had a problem with me offering Maria her job back after she has the baby and takes some time off."

"What do you mean offer her job back?"

"Otto said that Brenda fired her a couple months ago. She's probably ready to have the baby now, but I thought it would be nice if I could tell her that she could come back whenever she's ready."

"How long do you think it will take me to fix all the damage she did?" Geoffrey had the unmistakable look of despair in his eyes.

Elizabeth sat on the arm of the chair and wrapped an arm around her Uncle Geoffrey. "I don't know if you'll ever know the true extent to everything she's done." She laid her head on to top his. "We stopped her from doing the worst thing though."

"Yes. Although, I'm not sure that I would agree we stopped her from her worst act." Elizabeth squeezed his hand while he mourned the loss of children he didn't know existed until days ago.

Will returned with a suitcase Frederick put together and it was agreed that he would bring Geoffrey home. Elizabeth and Henry would go visit Maria and make sure she knew that she had a job to return to after the baby. Saying their goodbyes, Henry and Elizabeth left the room. "We need to make a stop before we leave if that's ok."

"Uh, sure, whatever you want."

Elizabeth stopped at the information desk at the entrance. "Can you please tell me who I need to speak with about paying a patient's account?"

"Is this your account?"

"No. This is for an acquaintance who is having a baby in the next few weeks."

"I don't know if you can do that. Pat is the name of the lady you want to talk to. Let me see if I can get her on the phone." The girl, whose name tag read 'Laura,' spoke to someone and hanging up, she said, "Pat will be right out. You can have a seat right over there."

Elizabeth joined Henry who had sat down when she approached the desk. "Are we ready?"

"Not yet. As usual, I'm causing problems."

A middle aged woman stepped to the desk and spoke with Laura. The girl motioned toward Elizabeth who stood and walked over to the woman. "Are you Pat? I'm Elizabeth Adams."

The woman nodded and Henry watched as Elizabeth started talking. Whatever Elizabeth wanted, the woman was obviously not wanting to do it. Henry chuckled to himself as Elizabeth straightened and squared her shoulders. "Here we go," Henry mused, "that woman has no idea what she's about to encounter." Henry had only seen her do it a few times, but when Elizabeth was set on getting her way, she was a force to be reckoned with. There was a lot of Elizabeth talking and the other woman listening with wide eyes, then some agreeable head nodding and Elizabeth smiling. She reached into her purse and produced her checkbook. She quickly wrote a check and handed it to the woman. She shook her hand and thanked her before motioning to Henry. "You are hot," Henry said sliding his hand around her waist as they walked out.

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

"Back there. When you go up against someone to get what you want, you put out this vibe and I find it totally hot. You should really do it more often." He pulled her close and kissed her cheek.

Eizabeth rolled her eyes at Henry. "I will say that was the hardest I've ever had to work to give someone money. Let's go."

Elizabeth directed Henry to Manny and Maria's house. He was a little surprised that Elizabeth knew how to get to their house, but by now he suspected it was for the same reason that she sat in the gatehouse for hours and did lawn work with Joe and Manny.

She led him through a garden gate of a really cute house, but instead of going up the front steps to the door, they walked on a narrow path around the side of the house to the backyard. There was a large 2 car detached garage with a set of wooden steps up the side. She went up the steps and knocked on the door. It took a minute, but then the door opened, "Lizzie!" squealed the woman from inside. Elizabeth stepped in pulling Henry behind her. She gave the woman a huge hug and stepped back.

"Maria, you look fantastic! I've missed you so much" Maria led them to a couch and offered them a drink. "Maria I'd like you to meet Henry McCord." They shook hands.

"Manny told me all about seeing you. I miss everyone so much. How's Frederick? Manny doesn't see him often. And Mr. Geoffrey, is he doing better? I couldn't believe it when Manny told me everything that happened. It explains a lot though."

"Frederick is fine, Geoffrey is getting out of the hospital today and should be fully recovered in a month or so. And what do you mean it explains a lot?"

"Well, why I was fired of course." Maria looked surprised that Elizabeth wasn't following.

"Why were you fired?"

"She told me it was because I could no longer do my job satisfactorily. We all know that was a bunch of bunk. Knowing what we all know now, the real reason was because I questioned her about why Mr. Geoffrey couldn't get outside and have some fresh air. I pushed Ms. Brenda on it saying it would help him and the next day I didn't have a job.

"Ah, I see,"

"Of course, I never had any idea that she was up to no good. I just thought she was being overprotective, but I think she thought I was on to what she was up to."

"I think we all hoped she was just being cautious. So, when are you due?"

"In two weeks."

"That's so exciting. I know you've waited a long time for this baby."

Maria grinned, "Yes, we have." They continued to talk and Maria showed Elizabeth a few of the special things they had received for the baby.

Elizabeth held up a tiny little knitted sweater and hat." I cannot wrap my head around caring for someone his small. It's crazy."

"You know I'll expect you to come back here so you can visit us."

"Absolutely! That reminds me. I don't know that you are interested in coming back to your old job right now since you are so close to having the baby, but Geoffrey wanted to make sure you know that after the baby is born, and whenever you are feeling up to it, you are welcome to your old job and you can bring the baby with you."

"You're kidding?" Maria asked, stunned.

"No, I'm not kidding. If you don't want to come back, I'm sure that's fine. Geoffrey just wanted to let you know you are welcome to."

Maria was crying, "No, that's not it at all. Manny and I have been so worried about money, with me losing my job early and then having to pay daycare, we couldn't figure out how to make it work. This is such a blessing! Thank you, God!" Maria threw her hands in the air.

"I think Geoffrey will be more than happy to hear you are returning. He had no idea you had even been fired until I told him this morning. We'd better go, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to call or let us know. We're happy to help out."

"Thank you for coming over. I'm so glad I got to see you. Say hi to Will for me," then Maria leaned in and whispered, "and I like Henry. He seems like a great guy and you deserve a great guy." Maria gave her a hug.

Elizabeth smiled at her, "Thanks. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that I got something for the baby, Well mostly for you and Manny, but kind of in honor of the baby. You'll have to wait until he or she is born, but I hope you like it."

"I know that whatever it is, we will love it. On your way out, look behind the garage. You'll find the apple tree you gave us for our wedding present. Last year we had so many apples, we shared with all of our friends and had a bunch to donate too. It was awesome!"

Elizabeth grinned. "I'm glad it is producing. Remember how much trouble Manny got in when he ate that apple off the tree in the backyard. I thought Brenda was going to fire him, over an apple. Just one more example of that woman's craziness!" Elizabeth sobered, "well, good news is that Manny will be able to pick those apples this year and maybe you can give more away."

Maria smiled, "Yes, that's what we'll do."

When they got back in the car, Henry eyed Elizabeth. "What?" she asked kind of exasperated.

"I cannot believe that you could ever question whether or not you are a good person. I know full well what you did for Manny and Maria and that will likely be a life-changing gift for them. You are a blessing to everyone you meet! Don't forget it!" Henry pulled her into a passionate kiss. "Especially to me," he murmured as he kissed her again.