"What did you just say?"

"Well, I was asking you if you would want to marry me," Chris told her, his voice still low, partly because of the gravitas of his question and partly because of the little girl asleep just below them. He looked Stephanie straight in the eyes, clear blue meeting cloudy blue. She could tell from his expression that he meant every word he had just muttered to her and somehow that made it even more difficult to breathe.

"You were?"

"Well, yeah, that's usually what 'will you marry me' is all about? I thought that maybe you would want to marry me," he said to her again.

"Wow," she told him. "I did not expect that tonight, not at all."

"Well, I wanted to make some grand proposal, you know, one that would get me in all the newspapers for being the most romantic guy ever. I was thinking about taking you someplace beautiful and decorating an entire room with white lilies and you know, being in a nice suit and getting down on my knee and everything, I just wanted you to have something really great to remember…"

"But…"

"But, I don't know, that's not what our relationship has ever been about and I guess I thought that a proposal that fits our relationship more would be more meaningful."

"I like that thought," she told him.

"I have a ring and everything."

"You do?" she asked incredulously. She would've figured that he wouldn't have had one yet, or at all. She didn't really know what she was thinking right now as the thoughts rushed through her head at an alarming speed.

"Yeah, it's upstairs, I'd get it for you, but um, I can't move," he said, glancing down at their daughter, who was asleep across his lap. "But you know, it's up there, in my sock drawer, just sitting there…it's tasteful, huge and tasteful, I figured that was more your style."

"You're right."

"I'm sorry this isn't fancy, I really am, it just came over me, you know, and I wanted to propose and it felt right, and you know, I wanted it to be a discussion, you don't have to say yes right now, obviously. You can think about it. I'm fine with that. It's an open-ended offer."

"You already know I'm going to say yes though," she told him. He started to smirk, "See, don't go posturing to me and telling me that I can take all the time that I want, you know I'm going to say yes, you're just trying to make it seem like I have a choice in the matter."

"Of course you have a choice in the matter."

"Well, you know my choice," she told him. "Of course I would want to marry you. You've been nothing but good to me and my daughter and our daughter, and well, I'm happier with you than I have been in a really long time."

"I am too," he told her. "I am too. You have no idea, Steph, how much better I feel now that I'm with you, you know. The world of Hollywood and A-lists and B-lists is so tiring, you know, a revolving door of people in and out of your life."

"I can see where that can happen. Not that I'd know it or anything, being on the outskirts of fame," she laughed.

"So…um, this whole thing, it's a yes, huh?"

"It's an absolute yes," she told him. "I would love to marry you, Chris."

Chris bit his lip, "You know, a long time ago, many, many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away--"

"Oh, here we go, Star Wars reference," Stephanie joked.

"Shut up," he said good-naturedly. "What I'm trying to say here…a long time ago, I liked you."

"So you don't like me now."

Chris just looked at her. She gave him a grin and it was funny grin, one filled with promise and a future. Here he was, sitting with his…fiancée and his daughter, with a little girl he loved sleeping upstairs and they were a family. They were a family now and they were going to be a family for a long time. He just reached out and tucked some of her dark hair behind her ear and she leaned into his touch.

"No, I like you now too," he told her. "I just had the biggest crush on you, you know. It was one of those schoolboy things that happens from time to time."

"So you would write Stephanie Jericho on everything, will I find a notebook with it scribbled all over it in little hearts?" she asked.

"I tucked that away a long time ago," he told her with a wink. "I just didn't think I had a chance back then. I still didn't until the day that I ran into you at DisneyWorld, okay, I didn't even think that I had a shot then either. I just spent a lot of time thinking of what could've been…if I had met you first, if you hadn't started dating Hunter, if something else had been different, I don't know, it's just been a really weird journey to here, but I want you to know that for a long time, you were the only thing that I really wanted. I mean, it wasn't like I couldn't survive without you, but now that I know what it's like to actually be with you, it has exceeded even my wildest expectations. You gave me a daughter, for God's sakes."

She laughed, "Well, that one was kind of on you too."

"Yeah, I guess, you make me happy, Steph, and like, I knew if we got the chance back then that we could be something great. It was just something that I could feel in my bones, like when you just know something in your gut."

"I know what you mean."

"Good…good," he said. "I'm going to go put Ferris to bed."

"Okay, sounds good, I'll get things cleaned up around here and we'll meet in the bedroom," she told him suggestively.

"Sounds like a plan."

Chris shifted so he could lift up Ferris and he picked up his little girl. She curled herself in his arms and buried her face against his shoulder, not wanting to wake up right now. He took her upstairs and helped her brush her teeth and get into her pajamas before she climbed into bed, exhausted. He pulled up her blankets and she turned on her side. He leaned down to kiss her temple goodnight.

"Night, Bueller," he whispered to her.

"Night, Daddy," she mumbled back unconsciously.

Chris closed the door partway behind him before he got to his bedroom. Stephanie was just getting dressed into her pajamas. Chris went straight to his nightstand and grabbed the ring box. Stephanie came out of the closet and saw Chris sitting on the edge of the bed, holding up an open ring box. She walked over to him and stood in between his legs. She looked down at the ring and it was just as he had said, huge, but tasteful. All she could see were diamonds, but none of them were outrageously large.

She stuck out her left hand and he put the ring on it, slipping it down until it reached her knuckle. She looked at it for a moment, shifting her hand to see it from all the different angles. Then she took Chris's face in between her hands and kissed him, falling back with him until he was on his back and she was hovering over it.

"Do you like it?"

"I love it…I love you," she told him. "Let's just stay like this forever…"

"Okay, I'm all for that."

She leaned down and kissed him again.

The next morning came too soon for them. They only got a couple of hours apiece. After their wild, passionate, getting-married sex, they started talking about Keagan and the joint custody situation. Stephanie had tried not to shed tears, but it was hard not to let them come to her eyes when she thought about the fact that she was going to be forced to let her daughter see Hunter. She had never had a problem with letting him see Keagan, but this was different. She was being ordered to let her little girl go.

"I don't want to wake her up," Stephanie said the next morning. "I just want to lay here and revel in our engagement."

"I want that too."

"I wish I could just run away with her. Let's do it, let's run away."

"I wish we could," Chris said, rubbing her cheek, "but you know that we can't. We have to be the model parents here."

"That's not why you proposed, right? Because you want to show that we have a stable family for the judge?"

"No, that's not why."

"Good," she said and that was that. She took a deep breath and got out of bed, "I think I'm going to go wake Keagan up and help her pack some things for when she's there."

"Sounds good," he said, "you need help?"

"No, I'm good."

Stephanie gave him one last kiss before she got dressed and went into Keagan's bedroom. She sat down on the small bed and ran her hand over Keagan's hair. The little girl woke up with a funny, little snort and Stephanie giggled as Keagan returned to the waking world. Her dirty blonde hair mussed up from sleep.

"Hi, Mommy," she said sweetly.

"Hey there, sweets, we have to get ready for Daddy to come get you."

"Do I have to?" Keagan asked. "I don't wanna go by myself."

"I know, but you'll have fun with Daddy, I know you will."

"Are you sure?" she asked worriedly. She didn't know if she wanted to go see her daddy alone. It wasn't that she didn't like her daddy, but she had just never gone with him without her sister there, but her sister didn't have to go anymore because her daddy wasn't Ferris's daddy for some reason or another. Ferris was so lucky, she got to have Chris as a daddy.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Mommy, I want Chris to be my daddy, why can't you change that like you changed it with Ferris?" Keagan asked, pursing her lips and looking at Stephanie.

"Well…honey, because Chris is Ferris's daddy and Daddy is your daddy."

"But why? You can change it, you're Mommy, you can change it," she whined. "I want Chris to my daddy so I don't have to go."

"Believe me, baby, if I could make Chris your daddy, I would."

"So I still have to go?" she asked pathetically.

"I'm afraid so."

She sighed and hugged her mommy around the waist, "I'll help you if you don't make me go!"

Stephanie hugged Keagan and kissed her head, "Baby, you'll be fine. I promise, it's just Daddy, and even if you are without Ferris, it'll still be okay because Daddy will pay attention to you, and you can have fun together."

"I guess."

"Come on, where's my crazy little girl?"

"Right here," Keagan said sadly.

"Come on, let's just get your stuff together and then we can go get Ferris because Chris and I have something big to tell you."

"Big?" she asked. "Like what? A pony?"

"No, not a pony," she said in a goofy voice. "It's something good though, I promise."

"Tell, tell, tell!"

"Not right now, come on, let's get packed."

Keagan didn't stop bothering her about what the news was the entire time they were packing her things. She was glad that the idea of a secret kept Keagan distracted enough that she didn't ask to not go again. It broke her heart to think that Keagan really didn't want to go but was being forced to. If Hunter had just come around more often, this wouldn't be as much of an issue. They got her things together and went downstairs where Ferris was already eating a bowl of cereal with Chris.

"Mommy, can you tell now?" Keagan asked impatiently.

"Well, I guess we can tell," Stephanie said.

"Tell what?" Ferris asked, looking between Chris and Stephanie. "What?"

"Well," Stephanie said, sitting down and pulling Keagan into her lap. "Do you want to tell them, Chris, or should I?"

"You can."

"No, you go," she said.

"Okay," he nodded, "well, your mommy and I are going to be getting married."

"Married?" Ferris asked, her eyes lighting up, "You're going to marry Mommy!"

That was the loudest Chris had ever heard Ferris be and he looked down at her. She looked absolutely ecstatic and she rushed towards him to give him a hug. Keagan looked up at Stephanie, a little confused as to what was going on and why everyone seemed so happy. "What does marry mean?" Keagan asked.

"It means that Chris and I love each other very much and we want to spend forever together and he wants to spend forever with you guys too."

"Oh, I wanna spend forever with you too, Chris," Keagan said very seriously.

"Good, I was hoping you'd say that."

"So you're never going to go away?" Ferris asked. "Not ever."

"Not ever," he told her. She hugged him even tighter around the waist and he kissed the top of her head. Stephanie smiled sweetly at the picture they were making. She knew, and Chris knew, that Ferris was likely also reacting out of response for Hunter leaving. Knowing Chris wasn't going anywhere was a relief to her. She didn't want to lose two daddies in a short amount of time.

"So you guys will get to be flower girls or something, we'll get pretty dresses and it'll be great," Stephanie said.

"I want a pretty dress," Keagan said dreamily.

"Well, we'll get you one."

The doorbell rang then and Stephanie couldn't believe that he was here so early. She hadn't even had enough time to feed her little girl breakfast. She got up and Keagan followed her slowly. She was trying so hard to delay the inevitable. Stephanie opened the door to her ex-husband and tried very hard not to give him the dirtiest look imaginable. She held it in barely.

"Hey there, kooky pie," Hunter said, kneeling down to her level, "you ready to go."

Keagan looked up one more time at Stephanie, pleading with her eyes not to go. She was practically begging. Stephanie nodded slightly and Keagan turned to her daddy, resigned to her fate, "Yeah."

Stephanie bent down, placing both her hands on Keagan's shoulders, and kissed Keagan's cheek, "You'll have fun."

The ring on her finger shone brightly, leaving nothing to the imagination of Hunter. He stared at it for a moment, a very long moment, before looking up at Stephanie, who was taking no notice of him right now. Keagan hugged her mommy and then went and hugged her sister tightly and then ran towards Chris, who hugged her too. Hunter looked on angrily. The little girl was obviously stalling and it bugged him that she was stalling so she wouldn't have to spend as much time with him.

"She hasn't eaten breakfast yet, you're early," Stephanie said succinctly, "so you probably want to feed her first thing."

"I know how to take care of my daughter, thank you."

"Fine," Stephanie said, "just take care of her."

"Whatever, go have fun with your fiancé," he said snidely. "This won't help you in court."

"If you think this is for the court, you're severely mistaken," Stephanie said, challenging him to say more.

"We'll see what's what."

"Yeah, we will, Hunter, we will."