Chris couldn't be certain whether it was the insistent tugging at his arm or the loud sniffles accompanying a sea of tears that effectively pulled him from the serenity of a deep sleep the next morning, but, either way, the sudden disturbance was enough to evacuate him from what had been an infinitely restful slumber. He wasn't fully prepared for the gut-wrenching sight he was met with upon opening his eyes, but his heart rate shot through the roof as he jolted to a sitting position in bed and instinctively snaked his arms around Stephanie's unclad body. He mentally reviewed the previous night's events, smiling softly when he thought back to their engagement, but that expression melted right off his face when he reminded himself he was holding his crying fiancée in his arms. Giving her a visual once-over, Chris couldn't find anything immediately wrong and resigned himself to repeatedly kissing her head and stroking her hair.

"What's the matter, babe?" he probed. "Did you have a bad dream?"

Chris rubbed his eyes sleepily as he waited for an answer that didn't come. Stephanie leaned into his side and snuggled her face against the crook of his neck, longing for the comforting touch that only he was able to provide. The sun's intrusive rays were already sneaking in from the opposing side of the curtains, and a brief glance at the clock revealed it was only a quarter until nine. They couldn't have been asleep for more than a few hours, because Chris had kept Stephanie up well into the evening and early morning hours, busying her with a physical representation of the love he felt for her.

He reached around for her left hand and picked it up, revealing the impressive rock he had placed on her ring finger the night before. Chris brought her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to her skin, turning the opposite side towards him and kissing her palm as well. The majority of her crying had quelled, but Stephanie still wasn't eager to talk and seemed perfectly content to remain bundled up in his embrace for as long as time would allow. After rocking her gently a little while longer, Chris ventured back into uncharted territory, in attentive pursuit of the cause of her distress so early in the morning.

"Steph, I want to help, but you have to tell me what's wrong. Are you nervous about getting married, or upset about something else?"

"No," she mumbled without looking up.

"No, what?" Chris wondered. "You're not nervous about getting married?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

She picked her head up from his chest, eyes red and glassy, cheeks flushed. Chris swept a hand over her blushing skin, which was warm to the touch, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. He held her hand and used his thumb to caress her knuckles, soothing her the best way he knew how until she felt confident enough to extend a response. "I was your first best friend ever, and I hurt you."

"What do you mean?" Chris frowned. He wasn't following her train of thought.

"I was the first person you ever considered to be your best friend, but I betrayed you by lying about my birth control. I was probably the only person you ever really trusted, but I got pregnant on purpose, and I bet that's why you were so hurt when you found out what I did. I'm a terrible person, and you shouldn't want to marry me, Chris. I want you, but you shouldn't want me," she said. Stephanie followed her words with a pitiful sob as she collapsed against him at once. Chris spent several seconds processing her words in shock before he snapped himself out of his daze and enveloped her in a placating embrace.

"No, babydoll, don't say that," he urged, rubbing her bare back with a smattering of tender strokes. "I should want you, and more importantly, I do. You shouldn't feel bad about what happened. I'm not upset about it anymore and, besides, it's like I already said, you weren't the only one who was wrong. I wasn't perfect in the situation either, but we forgave each other, and it's all water under the bridge."

"But I hurt you," she moaned in despair.

"And I'm sure there were times when I hurt you, too. That doesn't mean either of us doesn't deserve the other," he pointed out. "It just means we need to be more self-aware and do better in the future. We hashed this out already, so I'm having a hard time understanding where all this emotion is coming from. We're fine, Steph. You, me, and the baby are fine."

Stephanie pulled away silently and wiped at her face with both hands while Chris reached for a tissue from the box on their nightstand and handed it to her so she could blow her nose. When finished, she balled the tissue in her fist and handed it back to him so he could dispose of it in the nearby trash can. "I never knew I was your first best friend until you told me last night. If I had known that, I wouldn't have gotten pregnant without telling you. Now I feel worse than ever," she admitted, face contorting in pain as another set of tears slipped from her eyes and flowed down her crimson cheeks.

"Is this coming from your heart, or are these your pregnancy hormones at work?" Chris inquired. It wasn't in Stephanie's nature to harbor such a negative outlook on their life together, or even life in general, so he inferred her outburst stemmed from a far more elementary issue. She had grown emotional beyond measure since her pregnancy began, and he could almost guarantee that's what was driving her to react so irrationally to his words from the night before.

"I don't know," she shrugged. Chris reached up and intercepted her tears with his fingertips.

"I think it's the hormones, baby. You were fine when I proposed last night, so this is probably just the pregnancy making you emotional," he guessed, grabbing her hand and holding it securely in his. "I don't want you to feel bad about anything that happened in the past. We're over that, and we have been for quite a while now. We've gotta work towards the future and trust that everything will work out exactly the way it's meant for us."

"But now I can't actually be your best friend, because I broke your trust already. You'll never trust me again."

"I do trust you," Chris corrected. "I trust you with my entire life, and we wouldn't be together if I didn't."

"You wanted to leave me that day at the inn, and you said it was because you couldn't trust me anymore. You asked me why I thought you would want to spend your life with a person like me. I remember it."

Chris cringed at the distant memory of that horrible day, wishing he had the power to retrieve all the hurtful things he'd said to her and lock them away. Unfortunately, life wasn't so simple. Squeezing her hand encouragingly, he replied, "I don't remember exactly what came out of my mouth that day, but if I really said I didn't want to spend my life with you, then I'm sorry for that. You're always going to be my best friend, and there's no getting out of that. I won't let you," he teased, poking her in the side of her stomach, which earned the first smile out of her that entire morning. "Being best friends doesn't mean we'll never have arguments or go through hard times. Actually, the fact that we went through such difficult stuff together is exactly what makes us so close."

"If hard times are what makes a couple close, then that's even worse. We didn't go through any hard times until I got pregnant, so how could we have been true best friends before then?"

"We had our moments, Steph. I don't think we went through anything to the extent of our argument after you initially found out you were pregnant, but if you think hard enough about our years together, you'll realize we did have some pretty explosive moments," Chris said. "Like, okay, remember the time I accidentally ate a piece of the birthday cake you spent all day making for Shane's son, because I didn't know it was meant for him? You were livid at me."

She laughed at the memory, and the sound perked Chris's ears right up. There was nothing more beautiful than the sound of Stephanie's laughter in the wake of such emotional angst. "I remember that. I specifically told you it was Declan's cake, but you were watching a hockey game instead of listening to me. That situation still doesn't compare to my pregnancy, though."

"I know, but I was just trying to give an example. We may not have gone through the hardest times back then, but we bonded in other ways," Chris replied. "The point I'm trying to make is that some days I'll piss you off, and other days, you'll piss me off. We'll have arguments, storm out of rooms, and give each other the silent treatment sometimes, because that's what makes us who we are as a couple. Just because we go through that doesn't mean we love each other any less, because those are the moments that make our relationship tough as nails. Life happens the way it's meant to, I think, and this obstacle came to us for a reason. We were supposed to experience this pregnancy to show us exactly what we were made of as a couple. If you hadn't gotten pregnant, I might not have proposed when I did, and we wouldn't be as happy as we are now."

"I never thought of it like that."

"You see?" Chris asked, reassuringly tucking some stray hair behind her ear. "We have to remember what a blessing Renner is," he said, placing his hand on her stomach. "Our son isn't a mistake. He was meant to be here, and that's why you got pregnant. This is all fate at work. We were destined to be the parents of this little boy together, and that's what we're doing."

"So, you're really not hurt anymore?" Stephanie quizzed warily. "Not even deep down inside? I keep thinking you're probably secretly mad at me for it, because I remember when we broke up and you said you couldn't be the type of boyfriend I needed because you were still holding onto too much anger. It seemed to change so quickly, which makes me think you might be covering up your true feelings, and I don't want to be the one to make you feel bad."

"You never make me feel bad. You make me feel on top of the world, and I thank God for you every single day of my life. I honestly mean that, too. I really do."

"I know. I've heard you praying before bed, and you always make it a point to mention me."

"That's because you're what's most important in my life. I added a prayer on for Renner, too."

"I've heard," she acknowledged, thinking back to a couple nights prior, when she listened to him whisper his prayers out into the darkness of night just before they fell asleep together. "It's really sweet of you."

"Please don't feel bad about what happened, and don't cry anymore, either. I hate seeing you like that," Chris admitted, reaching out to caress her cheek. "I don't want you hurt at all, but especially not over spilled milk. We both said what we wanted about how the pregnancy came about, and now we need to move on from it. I'm not mad or hurt, and my turnaround might have been quick, but that was only because my dad talked some major sense into me. I don't have bad feelings about it anymore, and I hope you don't, either. I can't be upset about a situation that's giving us something as great as a son. To keep being mad about it would be like wishing him away, and I don't want him gone. I want him here with us."

"I want that, too," Stephanie agreed, her voice strained from the congestion brought about by her tears. "I can't stop thinking about how we'll be able to go places as a whole family. I can picture you carrying him while we take a walk at the park or sit with him in the kiddie pool at the water park. I can't wait to be a parent with you, and I especially can't wait to be your wife."

"I'm excited, too. We've got so much to look forward to, and I don't want you to keep going over the past and letting it upset you. Whatever happened is done, and we can only move forward from here. You just have to know that any pain we went through at the beginning of your pregnancy has made us stronger in the end. We'll use what we learned from this to make us a better married couple and better parents, so no more tears, okay, baby?" he requested. "We have too much in our lives to look forward to to be looking into the past and letting it make us feel bad."

"I agree," she nodded. "I don't even know why I got so weepy. I just happened to wake up like 15 minutes ago, and everything from last night was on my mind. When I thought back to your proposal story about us being best friends, it really got to me, so I woke you up."

"It's okay to feel sad sometimes, but I wouldn't want you to feel that way over anything I said last night. I want you to associate good memories with my proposal, not bad ones."

"I do."

"Good, I really hope you do. Best friends?" he smiled, raising an eyebrow while he awaited her response.

"Best friends," she laughed, leaning forward to accept a kiss from him when he puckered his lips. She yawned directly after pulling away.

"I hope that's not a show of how you feel about my kissing skills."

"No," she laughed. "I'm just tired from being up all night. You're such a tiger in bed."

"Hey, what can I say?" he chuckled before lying down on his back. Chris held the covers away from their nude bodies so Stephanie could position herself on her side, as she always did. Since she had gotten pregnant, they slept in the same position every night. She would scoot as close to Chris's side as her growing belly would allow and prop it atop his stomach, all while resting her head comfortably in the center of his chest. When she assumed the usual position, he draped the comforter over their bodies and kissed the top of her head, holding her close with one arm. "Get some sleep, babe. We're gonna need it for all the calls we have to make to our families to tell them we're engaged."

"I love being engaged to you," she murmured drowsily, cuddling into Chris's side.

She fell into a cocooning sleep within seconds.

"Rise and shine, baby girl," Trish gushed, easing into Elisabeth's nursery and greeting her with a huge grin. Her daughter was on a fairly regular sleep schedule and, like most babies, awoke right along with the chirping of the birds and rising of the sun. Elisabeth giggled and stretched her hands towards her mother, wanting to be picked up and showered with kisses and attention. She found herself in for quite the reward when Trish did exactly that, hoisting her out of the crib and onto her hip, as she rained kisses on both of Elisabeth's cheeks. "Good morning, my little petunia."

"Hi," Elisabeth waved.

"Hi there, darling. We'll go get milk as soon as I change your diaper," Trish advised. She ruffled Elisabeth's soft locks as she brought her to the changing table and positioned her on top of it.

Once Elisabeth was in a fresh diaper, Trish brought her downstairs and retrieved a premade bottle of milk from the refrigerator. She bounced Elisabeth lightly on her hip to keep her occupied while warming the bottle under a hot stream of water at the kitchen sink and handed it off to her after testing a drop on her wrist. Trish carried her back up the stairs, loving the rare mornings when she and Paul were both home at the same time and could laze around in bed, doing nothing except relishing in being a complete family. Paul was alert as could be, having been awoken by Elisabeth's cries sounding over the baby monitor, and was lying on his back with his arm folded underneath his head when Trish appeared.

His eyes lit up exponentially at the welcoming sight of her strolling into the room with Elisabeth, and his daughter reached for him right away. Paul raised his head, cooing, "There's my little princess. Can I have her, babe?"

"Of course," Trish answered, shuffling to his side of the bed and handing Elisabeth off.

"Is her diaper changed?"

"Honestly, sweetie, do you really think I would have brought her in here with a dirty diaper?"

"Sorry," he held an apologetic hand up, rolling his eyes at his own obsessiveness. "I get carried away with her sometimes, but it's only because I love her so much. I should have known you would have changed her diaper before getting her a bottle."

"Such an overprotective dad," she muttered playfully, slinking around to her side of the bed and slipping underneath the covers. She kissed Paul's cheek and rested her head on his shoulder as he doted on Elisabeth, singing her songs and poking her tummy to make her laugh. "I love these moments," she admitted.

"Family moments?" Paul asked.

"Yeah. I hate it when we're apart, so whenever we can stay in bed all morning and not have to rush out the door for anything, I try to soak it in for all it's worth."

"I know what you mean. I've been trying to be home more often, especially since I don't want to miss Eli's milestones, but our schedules have been completely opposite," he said. "It seems like every time I have a free schedule to be here, you have something to do at your yoga studio. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you've got your own thing going for yourself, but I miss you. Plus, you know, I'm still hoping for that second baby."

"Aww," Trish pouted, scratching the top of Paul's head lightly. "I'm glad you're still happy enough with me to want another baby, but we can't go into it blindly. We've gotta at least come up with a basic game plan to make sure one of us will always have a free enough schedule to handle both kids, you know, in case the other has a prior commitment or place to be. It's enough to make my head spin."

"If there's any couple who can make it work, it's us. Plus, look at Chris and Steph," Paul pointed out. "They're having a baby, and I'm sure neither of them is planning on giving up their jobs. Steph will still be at the shows and Chris will still play with his band, because that's just what they do. It all comes down to desire and how much effort we're willing to put into this."

Trish pursed her lips and let a deep breath out through them. "So you really want to try for one?"

"Uh...I'm pretty sure we did try the other night when Steph kept Eli for us," Paul reminded, smirking at the recollection of their sensual night indoors. Elisabeth chewed quietly on the tip of her index finger as she glanced around the room, accidentally dribbling a small circle of saliva onto Paul's chest. He laughed and swished his index finger over the length of her chubby cheek. "If I didn't love you so damn much, I'd probably be really disgusted right about now, Eli."

Trish laughed and rolled onto her side, lifting up on her elbow as she gazed lovingly at her family. When Paul turned to smile at her, she leaned forward and pressed a warm kiss to his lips, following it up by puckering her lips against the tip of his nose. "We'll go for it, then. I guess I could be pregnant already, technically speaking, but if you want to try some more in case I'm not, you definitely won't get any complaints from me," she flirted, sending him a wink. "Try, and try again."

"That settles it. I know what I'm doing with my night," Paul grinned lecherously and held Elisabeth steady with his right hand, reaching down with the other and stroking Trish's thigh just enough to get a rise out of her. She leaned in for another kiss, which Paul returned with great enthusiasm, only pulling away after Elisabeth's insistent hand patted against Trish's cheek.

"I'm trying to get kisses from Daddy, but you're crampin' my style, sweetheart," Trish teased, caressing the baby's arm with her free hand.

"Da," Elisabeth babbled, slapping her palms against Paul's abdomen before sending him a gummy, saliva filled smile and adding, "Dada!"

Paul gasped loudly, his eyes ballooning as his mouth dropped open and he stared at Trish incredulously. "Did you hear that? Did you hear that, Trish? My baby girl just said my name!"

"Dada!" Elisabeth called again, clapping her hands and giggling in delight when Paul pulled her to his chest and enclosed her in a loving hug.

"That's right, princess. I'm Dada," he laughed, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her back gingerly. Elisabeth soaked in the praise, even if she wasn't entirely sure what all the joy was about. He was so wrapped up in Elisabeth's latest accomplishment that Paul didn't even notice Trish's disappointment until he saw her bottom lip jutted outward in an exaggerated display. "What's the matter, sugar?"

"Nothing," she answered quietly, shrugging his question off and turning away.

"You know this doesn't really mean anything, right, babe?" Paul asked, rubbing her arm tenderly. "It doesn't matter whose name she says first, because she loves us both the same. She's so close to saying your name, and we'll practice with her until she does it."

Trish managed a smile and nodded. "I know I'm acting like a baby, but there's this part of me that wanted Mama to be her first word. Is that totally selfish of me?"

"No, I don't think it is. I understand why you would have wanted that, but Eli loves you more than anything, and saying Dada first isn't gonna change that. I mean, look at this kid, she's crazy about you," Paul said, nodding his head in Elisabeth's direction as she smiled gleefully and reached her hands out towards Trish. She picked her head up from the mattress far enough to kiss Elisabeth's awaiting palm.

"I really am happy she said Dada, though. It's good to hear her talking, no matter what the word she says is," she admitted, brushing Elisabeth's wispy, golden hair over her head. Trish comically pulled her lips over her teeth to cover their sharp edges and playfully pretended to chomp down on Elisabeth's fingers, getting a big belly laugh out of her. "Good job on your new word, baby girl. You're gonna be a walking, talking machine in no time at all."

"Yeah, then we'll be chasing after her all the time, but you know what?" Paul asked.

"What?"

"That's the whole joy of parenthood, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Me neither," Trish said, reaching across to her bedside table and grabbing a hair tie. She pulled her mocha dyed tresses into a ponytail and stretched her petite figure out on the bed. "I think I'm gonna do some yoga if you have breakfast covered."

"You've got yourself a deal. What do you want to eat?"

"Mmm...I'm not too picky. I'll take whatever you make," she said, poking Elisabeth in the side. "What do you want, Eli?"

"Eggs and bacon?" Paul offered before correcting himself. "Actually, scratch the bacon. She has a hard time chewing that, but I can make some scrambled eggs for her."

"Why don't you do the mashed egg yolks for her instead? She seems to like those pretty well."

"No problem. I'll get right on it," Paul agreed.

Scooping Elisabeth into his sturdy arms and sitting up in bed, they each left Trish with a kiss on the cheek before disappearing from sight. Left alone with her thoughts, she rolled onto her stomach and crossed her arms, propping her chin on top of them as she stared at the solid headboard of their bed. Paul had expressed a keen interest in having a second child for the past couple of months, and she couldn't say she was entirely against the idea, or even partially in disagreement with it. Elisabeth brought an enormity of contentment to their busy lives, and Trish could only imagine how much her love for Paul would magnify with the arrival of another child.

Yes, a second baby might not be such a bad idea at all.