I don't own any of the original characters created by Blake Edwards and make no monetary profit from this story. When Pete and Edie decide to come out and play I pick up my tablet and wait for instructions.

This is the first chapter of a short multi-part story. Reviews and comments are always welcome and appreciated and often provide inspiration!

Edie's Baby Shower

• January 7, 1962

Edie Gunn shifted uncomfortably on the passenger side of the big Plymouth Fury as her husband brought the car to stop in front of the two-story apartment house where Mother lived. They'd bought the shiny black sedan a few weeks before Christmas, Pete almost balking at trading in his 1960 Sport Fury convertible with it's beautiful high tailfins for the new four-door model that no longer sported either the ragtop or the fins. But with a baby on the way they both realized that the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood dictated they needed something other than the two-door coupe Pete had always opted for. And when Edie had teased him that maybe the pretty Pioneer station wagon parked nearby would be more appropriate he'd quickly decided he liked the sedan much better. He knew they would need a second car eventually, though they'd been managing with one just fine until now, and figured there was a wagon in their not too distant future whether he was ready for it or not. And if driving around town on Sundays in a red and white station wagon with four doors and a tailgate was ordained he was glad he would be doing it with the woman seated beside him.

"I wonder why Mother wanted us to come over so early," the blonde mused, lifting a hand to her mouth as she tried to stifle a yawn.

She and Pete had a standing dinner date with Edie's former employer the first Sunday evening of each month, dating back to that early mid-summer morning a year and a half ago when Mother's had burned to the ground. The evening seemed to arrive much earlier than usual this time around, with Christmas day falling barely two weeks prior and New Year's Day the past Monday. It had been a busy time, with Pete's dad paying a surprise visit on Christmas Eve and his lady friend Mary Ann McAllister arriving the Thursday after Christmas to join them at Edie's behest. The older couple had headed home to Iowa earlier in the week, the apartment strangely quiet that first day without them.

The PI's lips tilted in an amused smile as he pulled the key from the ignition and began to button up his wool coat. Hand on the door handle, he leaned sideways to give his wife a lingering kiss. She smiled as he released her lips, the warm tingling that began with the affectionate caress making her wish, somewhat selfishly she admitted to herself, that the snow hadn't stopped falling as early as it had and that the plows hadn't been so quick in clearing the streets. Being snowed in with her man on this downright cold night would have been nice, though visiting with Mother was always a welcome event.

"Probably figures you'll be asleep by nine and wants to be sure you're safely back home and tucked into your own little bed by then."

Pete's favorite smile curved the woman's lips, big and bright with humor yet projecting a flirtatious sexiness reserved for him alone. That smile had bewitched him the very first night he'd seen her on the stage at Mother's, before they'd even met, and it hadn't lost it's attraction for him in the years since. Edie reached out a gloved hand and trailed her fingers slowly down his cheek.

"If I'm tucked into my own little bed then you better plan on being tucked in with me." She tapped his nose with her index finger, the same impudent smile dancing in her eyes, then presented him with a good-humored frown as both her hand and gaze dropped to the bulge hidden by her coat. "But I don't think this little guy plans on me being asleep any time soon. He's been somersaulting and flipping and tumbling all day." She lifted her eyes demurely. "It would be a shame to waste a nice warm bed on such a cold winter night doing something as boring as sleeping anyway. Maybe over dinner you can try to think of a way for us to occupy our time later."

"That shouldn't be too hard," the detective sighed, placing a quick kiss on her nose then opening the car door to step out into the chilly wind. They'd been to Mother's just a few weeks ago for Christmas Eve and it had almost been this cold but not quite. He stepped around the hood of the car as quickly as he could without slipping on the packed ice and snow, extricated his wife from the passenger side and then gingerly steered both of them along the sidewalk and up the steps into the lobby of the apartment building.

The door of No. 3 at the top of the second-floor landing opened to Pete's knock and they were greeted by Mother's gently stern grin. She ushered them into the little foyer, closed the door behind them, and made small talk about everything and nothing as she watched Edie remove her gloves and white cashmere scarf and the matching cap that was pulled down to cover her ears. The gloves had been a gift from Pete's dad and the scarf and cap a Christmas present from the the PI's pool-hustler friend Babby. Mother's eyebrows shot up as Pete helped unbutton the blonde's red wool coat and her seemingly ever-expanding abdomen came into view. The light gray material of the dress Edie wore hung loosely to below her knees, the bump of the baby she carried very much in evidence. Mother tsked and shook her head dolefully.

"Are you sure there's only one in there?"

Pete paused in the act of grabbing a hanger from the closet and gave Mother a look over Edie's shoulder, an expression of mild panic in his eyes, but the woman herself seemed to take the teasing in stride. He slid the coat onto the hanger and placed it in the closet then reached for the black buttons of his own dark gray herringbone wool overcoat.

"That's not funny," the man protested Mother's words, attempting to shed his coat and finding it being pushed back over his shoulders from behind just as fast as he got it off.

"I thought it was pretty funny!" The sound of his dad's amused voice had the PI turning half around in surprise. "Not something I'd be brave enough to say to her, but funny."

Frank Gunn held up a restraining hand to forestall the confused words forming on Pete's lips, instead reaching around him to catch Edie's hand and give it a squeeze as he winked into her equally surprised eyes before catching hold of his son's arm in an attempt to turn him back to the door.

"What say you and me go find something to entertain ourselves with while these women have their little hen party."

Pete frowned. Hen party? His eyes narrowed and he turned a suspicious gaze on Mother and Edie as the older woman ushered the younger into the living room. Curious to know what kind of mischief was being perpetrated, he shook off his dad's hand and followed behind the two women, pausing indecisively as he saw his wife suddenly engulfed by a gaggle of smiling and chattering females. Mother turned and gave a shooing motion with her hand, her lips silently forming a few words that told the two men to be back at seven o'clock.

Pete looked back into the room as he buttoned up his coat, Frank Gunn's hand firmly on his shoulder as the older man opened the door and urged him back out onto the landing. His gaze found a stringed banner, made of what looked like cardboard baby onesies in colors of blue, white, pink and yellow, stretched above the mantle of Mother's fireplace and spelling out 'Baby Shower'. Off to one side was a table with snacks and drinks and another heaped with brightly colored packages and there was a cake prominently placed in the middle of a third square table. The PI wondered at the sudden bereft feeling that washed over him but managed to summon a smile as Edie turned her head to meet his eyes over newly-married Lauren Martin's shoulder. Then Pop had him out the door and down the stairs, claiming the keys to the Plymouth and saying not to worry where they were going, they were full grown men and as such would manage to keep themselves busy for a few hours.

(Various references are made to events in "Christmas Surprises", a story co-written by Melchy and myself as Precinct 13.)