A/N: Thanks for reading. Enjoy!
"Aunt Mia, when is your baby coming?", Landon asked Mia who was snuggled on her sofa while enjoying the company of Ana and Landon.
"The baby was supposed to be here two days ago, but sometimes babies are late."
"I hope your baby comes soon."
"You and me both.", Mia replied as Ana returned from the bathroom. "You all right?"
"I'm fine. I had two large glasses of water at lunch, and my bladder was feeling like Niagra Falls.", Ana giggled. "I couldn't help but overhear you telling Landon you're ready for the baby. I feel like he or she will be here before the end of the week."
"You wouldn't happen to be part of a baby due date pool, would you?" Ana immediately shook her head at the question. "Elliot was over yesterday, and he said he should've done a pool. He laughed and said it was a joke, but sometimes it's difficult reading him."
"I assure you that I haven't placed any bets.", Ana giggled. "You and Ethan have been fairly tight lipped about baby names. Do you have one picked out?"
"We've got a few that we like, but nothing has popped out at us. I think the perfect name will come to us the moment we meet him or her."
"You don't know if you're having a boy or a girl?", Landon asked while opening a piece of gum that he had in his pocket.
"We wanted to be surprised, kind of like your parents were when they had Liam. Is that how it's going to be this time around?", Mia asked Ana.
"We still have a little time before we can find out, but we're leaning towards finding out this time.", Ana replied. "It was nice being surprised with Liam, but now we've having two babies so planning ahead might be the best way to go."
"Aunt Mia, can I go in the kitchen and make some chocolate milk?", Landon asked, knowing that Mia enjoyed making chocolate milk from regular milk and chocolate syrup. "I promise I won't make a mess."
"You sure can."
"Be careful.", Ana said as Landon headed to the kitchen.
"How do you like living in the new house?"
"I love it. There's still a few things that need to be sorted through, but for the most part, everything is unpacked. Landon's been trying to decide how he wants to decorate his room. He mentioned having it exactly like his room at the old house, complete with the in room tree house and all, but he realized he wants to make it different."
"I'm not sure how I want it though.", Landon shrugged while returning with his chocolate milk.
"Whatever you decide will be perfect."
"You haven't said whether you're planning on being on the school board again.", Christian said to Ana while helping prepare dinner for the family since Melissa was out of town on vacation, and Gail was out to dinner with Taylor.
"Why wouldn't I continue?", Ana replied. Christian stopped slicing the tomatoes in front of him and glanced over his shoulder at Ana. "You better be careful or you're going to cut yourself."
"That's not going to happen. I have impeccable cutting skills."
"Uh..that doesn't mean slicing a finger is impossible." She watched as he set the knife down and stalked across the floor to her. "Get back over there "Mr. I Have Impeccable Cutting Skills."
"I want to be closer to you.", he whispered, turning Ana's face as red as the tomatoes.
"We're in the kitchen where one of the kids might walk in so unless you want a repeat of the other night when Landon overheard us, I suggest you behave.", Ana smirked.
"The other night was a little awkward. Thank goodness the door was locked."
"What you doing?", Layken asked as she walked into the kitchen.
"We're making dinner.", Christian answered. "What are you doing?"
"Playing wif Lan Lan."
"Layken, stop putting my army men in your doll stroller.", Landon muttered. He stomped into the kitchen with Scooby Doo, the family's dog at his side.
"She's putting the army men in her doll stroller?", Christian asked.
"Yep. She says they need to go night night."
"I'm sure your toy army men get tired too. Speaking of toys, I bet the two of you have toys all over the floors of your room. Please go and clean up a little before dinner.", Christian said.
"Fine." Landon left the room with a giggling Layken at his side. "Ah, now back to the topic of conversation we were having a few minutes ago. I'm not referring to the one about Landon almost catching us. I mean what we were talking about before that."
"I assumed we had moved on from that conversation.", Ana said as she started washing the celery. "I have every intention of being back on the board. I still believe I can help make a difference. Nothing's changed."
"Not true. You're carrying our twins now."
"You're saying I shouldn't be on the board because I'm pregnant?"
"My words aren't coming out right." Christian took Ana's hand and pulled her over to the table where he sat down next to her. "You've been experiencing terrible nausea."
"It's not as bad as it was."
"I'm not going to dispute that, but...", Christian stopped. "I'm worried about your stress levels. Between taking care of the family and your work, you're already stretching yourself."
"I understand where you're coming from, however, I'm going to give you my word that I'll be ok. If things start becoming too much, I'll resign from the board.", Ana smiled while brushing her thumb along Christian's cheek.
"Is that the phone?", a groggy Christian asked while turning over in the bed and trying to grab his cell phone which was on the nightstand. He almost knocked over the lamp during his fumbling, but he was finally able to grasp the phone. Ana's eyes fluttered open as she continued to lay on her face with her face towards Christian. "Hello. Yeah. That's great. Ok. Bye." He set the phone back down and rolled over. "That was Ethan. He and Mia are on their way to the hospital. She started having pains this evening, but she thought they were only Braxton Hicks. Ethan's not so sure."
"Are we going to go or wait to see what's going on?"
"I told Ethan to keep us posted. If it's the real thing, we still might wait until morning since labor can take a while." Christian yawned and was about to turn the light off when he noticed Ana shifting up in the bed. "Ana, you might sleep better if you're laying down."
"It's odd, but I'm not as sleepy now, and no, I'm not in the mood.", she giggled.
"I can make you some warm milk to help you.", Christian suggested as they heard Liam crying.
"I'm going to pass on the warm milk, and I'm going to go check on Liam. Don't worry about me. Get some sleep." She slowly made her way on to her feet and pulled her light pink cotton robe over her blue pajamas.
"Do you expect me to sleep while you go and check on the baby?"
"Yes. Besides, you should enjoy this moment because in a few months, the word sleep won't be in your vocabulary."
"I heard there's a new kid in town.", Christian smiled while peeking his head inside Mia's hospital room. It turned out she had indeed been in labor the previous evening. After eighteen hours of labor, she and Ethan welcomed their first child, a daughter.
"And she's a cute kid.", Mia replied, admiring her bundle of joy who was resting in her arms. Christian and Ana moved closer to get a better look at the baby.
"She's an angel.", Ethan said from his chair on the other side of Mia's bed. "You should've seen Mia. She was tough during the entire labor, barely broke a sweat."
"Although I did almost break Ethan's hand."
"Congratulations.", Ana told the new parents. "Does she have a name yet?"
"Jocelyn Leslie Kavanagh.", Ethan replied with tears. "Even though my mom's not here in body, she's here in spirit and will live on a little through Jocelyn."
"I know Leslie's looking down with pride and love. I also know the two of you are already amazing parents to your little girl." Christian touched the baby's hand, feeling one of her tiny fingers wrap around his.
"Welcome to the family sweet Jocelyn.", he whispered.
