Sorry if it's felt like ages since I updated, but here it is. :) Enjoy! Thank you all for the very kind reviews!

Chapter 11

Anna inhaled sharply. She placed the tea kettle back on her stove top and then walked over to John, taking her ultrasound from his fingers. Then she brushed her fingertips along the small blurb on the photo and placed it back on the refrigerator, before returning to the tea kettle.

"Yes," Anna whispered, keeping her eyes on her stovetop. "I'm six weeks…almost seven weeks now."

"And it's…"

"Yours, of course," Anna replied. She let out a loud breath, before turning and facing John. "I was going to tell you sooner, only…"

"I broke things off," John finished for her. Anna nodded. "Did you know that day?"

"Yes, I had the ultrasound in my hands. I was about to tell you and then, well, I didn't know what to say when you ended things."

"I thought you wanted to break things off."

"So you decided you needed to do it first?" Anna asked, raising her brows. John glanced down, shamed.

"Yes."

"It's alright. We can't change the past now."

"No," John agreed. "We can't. I guess we have more to discuss than just the merging of our firms."

"Yes," Anna stated, biting on the edge of her lip. She grabbed two cups for their tea and steeped the leaves within the water. Then she placed their two cups on the island and took the seat next to John.

"And you want to keep the baby?" There was a hopefulness in John's voice. Anna smiled.

"I do."

"I want to be a part of the baby's life," John quickly said.

"Of course," Anna whispered. "I would never keep you away from your child. It's still early. But we have time to figure out the details after he or she is born."

John's hand reached over and he placed his hand on top of Anna's.

"We could try to…" he paused, mulling over his words. "Date?"

Anna chuckled. "Dating isn't really our style, Mr. Bates."

"No," John had to agree. "We usually jump right to the bedroom."

"Or the broom closet, or the closest chair, or the…"

"Right," John broke in, putting his hand up. "But I do like you, Anna. I missed us while we were apart."

Anna turned her hand so that hers and John's fingers entangled. "I missed you, too."

"So we try it? Dating? We can move slowly and maybe we won't work out, but we have several weeks to try it out, see where this goes."

"I'd like that," Anna genuinely said. "I mean, there are plenty of parents that co-parent well enough. We just have to promise that if it doesn't work out romantically for us, that we'll always be good co-parents when it comes to our child. That he or she comes first, over everything."

"Absolutely," John strongly replied.

Anna felt a rush of joy run through her body. This had gone much easier than she had anticipated. She stood from her chair and placed herself in front of John, resting her hands on his shoulders. Then she bent forward, capturing his lips with her own. John's hands reached out for her, resting one of his hands against her taut belly. He pushed her forward, slightly, and pulled up her top before kissing her lower stomach.

"Hi," he whispered against her skin, making Anna laugh.

Anna closed her eyes and then lifted his head back up so that they could kiss again. She brought her hands over John's, urging them to help her take off her top. John met her eyes.

"Can we? Is it…is it safe?"

"Yes," Anna assured him with a smile. "Very safe."

At that, John stood, lifting Anna into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist and giggled into his neck, as he began searching for her bedroom.

"There," she said, pointing to the hallway on the right. John hurried his way to her bedroom.

When he opened the door, he gently placed her onto the bed, attacking her neck with his lips. The two of them inched back toward the pillows. As Anna laid her head down, John began kissing down Anna's abdomen, pausing over her belly for a moment. Then he began to pull and tug at her bottoms to slide them down her legs.

As Anna tried to pull him back up toward her, John shook his head and kissed the inside of her thigh.

"You're giving me a baby," he whispered against her skin, making her body shake in anticipation. "I' going to give you all the pleasure first, multiple times," he promised.

Anna could only close her eyes, as John's lips continued up her thigh.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

"Alright," Mary said, business as usual. The three of them sat at the large table in the conference room at Mary and Anna's law firm.

John's hand darted under the table to rest on Anna's knee. Anna placed her hand over to his, giving him a wink.

"Good gracious," Mary said, shaking her head. "Can you two please keep it together during one meeting?"

"Of course," Anna replied, though her hand stayed over John's.

Today the three of them were discussing the ins and outs of the merger. It would take a couple of months before they could be merged completely as one. They would move all of John's workers into their building. Thankfully, they had already begun to expand their firm by another floor in the building. Instead of needing to hire more people, the merger would fill that void.

"Matthew, who you know does contract law, put this contract together for us," Mary informed them. "It has everything we spoke about."

John took the papers from Mary and began to read over it. He, Mary, and Anna had a lengthy meeting a few days prior going over all the details of what they would need for this merger to work. It hadn't been easy, but now it seemed they had come to an understanding.

"Looks good," John replied. He grabbed the pen and signed it. Then a sigh left his lips.

"I know it's hard to say goodbye to something you worked hard for," Anna sympathetically said to him. "But this is a new beginning."

"Yes," John said with a smile. "A new beginning."

"No sex in this building!" Mary stated, putting her foot down. "So help you god, if I ever find out the two of you…."

"We won't," they both promised. Mary eyed them carefully, not quite sure she believed the two of them.

"Good."

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Anna sat back against the wall, placing the heel of her palm against her forehead. She had been vomiting for the past half hour. No matter what she did, it seemed that her sickness hit her strongly in the evenings. So much for morning sickness.

When she told Sybil about it, Sybil told her it was a good sign that the baby was growing and she gave her a few things to try. None of them seemed to be working. She felt awful.

Knock. Knock.

"Crap," Anna muttered to herself. She stood from the floor and turned on her sink. Splashing the cool tap water over her face, she grabbed a towel and patted it dry. She had hoped she would have been done vomiting and ready for her date on time.

Knock. Knock.

Anna had just lifted her toothbrush to brush her teeth, but dropped it to go and answer the door.

Reaching the door, she turned the knob and opened it. John stood on the other side with flowers and chocolates. Anna attempted to smile, but her face only turned green.

"Oh dear," John muttered. "Is everything alright?"

Anna's head shook slightly and she motioned for him to come on inside her home. He followed her inside and placed the flowers and chocolates on the side table.

"I'm sorry, John. I know tonight is supposed to be our first date, but I'm having terrible morning sickness," Anna admitted, a wave of nausea rushing over her again. John frowned.

"I thought that was supposed to be in the morning."

"Me too. Very deceptive name, if you ask me," Anna groaned.

"Here," John offered, bringing his arm around her shaky frame and sitting her down on the sofa. "What can I get for you?"

"I don't know. I have some ginger biscuits in the cabinet."

John walked away and into Anna's kitchen. He quickly searched for her biscuits and made her a small glass of water.

A fresh, harsh wave hit Anna and she got up off the couch, heading to the closest bathroom and leaning over the toilet. Within just seconds, John was behind her, pulling her hair off her face with one of his hands and rubbing her back with the other.

The retching was so severe that tears filled Anna's eyes. She sat herself back up and used tissue to wipe her lips. John helped her off the floor and then Anna used the sink to rinse out her mouth.

"I'm going to go into my bathroom to brush my teeth," Anna told John. "You can leave if you'd like."

"Absolutely not," John quickly replied. "Has it been like this every evening?"

"For the past several days," Anna informed him, taking in a deep breath.

"I wish you'd told me," John murmured, bringing his hand up to rub against her shoulder.

"Told you about my vomiting? Why?" Anna chuckled.

"It's our baby. I know I can't be sick for you, but I'd like to help however I can," John replied. Anna's lips quirked up slightly and she nodded.

"Alright, I'll text you every time I vomit from here on out," she teased.

"That's all I ask."

Anna smiled and then turned to head to her main bathroom so she could brush her teeth and try to do something with her hair that had fallen into a huge mess while she was throwing up.

When she returned into the living room, she saw that John had put together a few gentle foods for her stomach and had made some more tea.

"You didn't have to do all this," she said, though she sat down and quickly grabbed a biscuit to nibble on.

"Ah, it's our first date," John disagreed. "I wanted to make it as nice as possible."

"Sorry, it's a crummy first date," Anna frowned. John pulled her close so that her back would rest against his stomach and he kissed the top of her head.

"Nonsense. We can have just as good of a time here together. We could watch a movie or something."

"Sure," Anna replied. She lifted up the remote and the two of them debated over what to choose. Once they finally settled on a comedy, Anna curled up against John.

"What if I were to come over every evening to help you while you're getting sick," John offered.

"You'd really want to do that?"

"It's a way I can help with our baby," John answered. Anna felt her lips curl up and she nodded.

"Alright." She relaxed completely against John and within minutes, because she hadn't been sleeping well for days, she fell right into a deep sleep.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

The movie had only been on a few minutes when John glanced down to find Anna asleep in his lap. He lightly chuckled. He carefully moved her so that he could stand and then picked her up, taking her to her bed. She didn't stir.

When he laid her down and brought the covers over her, she made a low sound, but remained asleep. John bent forward and kissed the crown of her head. He scrawled a note and placed it on the pillow next to her. Then he left her apartment, making sure to lock the door behind him.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Waking up the next morning, Anna immediately panicked. How had she gotten in her bed? She remembered that she had been with John. Had she fallen asleep on him?

She twisted her lips and sat up, finding a letter on her pillow. She smiled.

Had a wonderful evening with you. I'll see you tomorrow. Sleep well, my darling.

To be continued...

Some happiness...will there be a new enemy for the law firm coming up? Blue skies ahead? Well, we'll have to wait and see! Thank you!