"Veronica." Lara said. "That's a lovely name."
"Eh, put it on the 'maybe' list." Alex said, wrinkling his nose and flipping through another baby name book.
Lara wrote 'Veronica' down on. She looked up at the large clock in the living room. It was around eight that night. Bryce was on a second date with his flesh and blood girl while Hillary was taking his eldest niece to a movie. This left Lara and Alex home alone so they could pick out a name for their unborn daughter. Lara was laying on the chaise lounge, after finding that is was very comfortable and helped her back. Alex was sitting on the floor next to the chaise lounge with several stacks of baby name books around him.
"Here's one! Adora, that's a sweet name." Alex said.
"Adora?"
"Or Xena. Like the Warrior Princess."
"That's going to be a little tough for her to live up to." Lara smiled.
"Hey, her mother could give good old Xena a run for her money." Alex smiled, kissing her palm.
The phone rang. Alex sighed and got up. "It must be Hillary begging me to pick him up."
"Come now, Alex. Hillary can handle a thirteen year old girl for a few hours." Lara chided.
"Yeah, a normal thirteen year old, this one happens to have a crush on all of the members of Blue and the guys in Hear'Say. I've said it before and I'll say it again, too much pop music rots the brain."
Lara laughed. "You're still sore about someone mistaking you for a Backstreet Boy, aren't you?"
"Come on, Lara, they should at least called me 'Kevin' but 'AJ'?"
"Just answer the phone, you insufferable AJ look-a-like." Lara smiled.
Alex blew her a kiss before walking over to the phone and picking up the receiver.
"Talk to me." Alex said.
"Did you like my present, Alex West?" A raspy voice asked.
"Who is this?" Alex demanded.
"I'm gonna kill you Alex West. I'm gonna kill you and your bitch. Then I'm gonna take your baby."
"Who the hell is this?!" Alex shouted.
"I'm gonna steal the baby, you can't stop me. You're gonna get what you deserve, Alex West." There was a 'click' and the phone went dead.
"Shit." Alex hung up the phone, picked it up and hit '*69'. He pressed the phone to his ear and listened as a recorded voice picked up.
"The number you are trying to reach is out of your calling area." The voice said. Alex slammed the phone down before the voice could suggest that he called the operator.
"Alex, why were you shouting?" Lara asked. She had walked over to him, a worried look on her face.
"Nothing Lara, just a solicitor." Alex lied, taking Lara in his arms and resting his hand on her stomach.
"A solicitor for what?" Lara asked, bewildered.
Alex was about to answer when he felt a gentle movement against his hand. "Hey, the baby kicked." He murmured.
Lara laughed. "You think it's cute only because you don't have her kicking you all day and night."
"Probably." Alex smiled. "Now, let's get back to getting a name for our little one."
"Agreed. But we're not naming her Xena."
***
"So Bryce, tell me all about this flesh and blood girl." Lara smiled, sitting down next to Bryce at the dinning room table.
Bryce blushed a bright red as he pushed his breakfast of burned scrambled eggs around his plate. "Well, what do you want to know about her?" He finally asked.
"What's she like? She's got to be pretty special to get a second date out of you." Lara said.
"Well, she's really smart and she's fluent in four different computer languages."
"Uh huh, what else?"
"She's really nice and she had a kitten named Mattie. And she's really pretty."
"What does she look like?"
"Blue eyes, pale, red hair, she looks a lot like Nicole Kidman."
"I thought you liked blondes."
"I never said that."
"His poster of Emma Bunton might suggest otherwise." Hillary called from the kitchen.
"Oi! Don't you start on Emma!" Bryce said, defensively. He had had a crush on the young singer for years.
"What does she do for a living?" Lara asked.
"She's a software programmer for Eidos. She's even letting me come over to help her test out some new games and check it for bugs and things like that."
"What's her name?"
"Corazon."
"That's a lovely name."
"Yeah, her mother is Spanish."
"You'll have to bring her over some time, I'd love to met her."
"She's really shy."
"You should invite her for dinner one night. Hopefully, Hillary might be able to cook something without burning it." Lara said, eyeing the eggs.
"Actually, I cooked this myself." Bryce said. "I thought it was pretty good for a first attempt. I got a little tired of TV diners." He said, sheepishly.
"Hello everyone! How are we this glorious morning?" Alex asked as he walked into the kitchen.
"You're in a rather good mood today." Bryce commented.
Lara and Alex smiled at each other before Hillary came out of the kitchen with a bowl of scrambled eggs and a plate of bacon.
"Good morning, Alex." Hillary said. "I pray you slept well."
"Very well." Alex smiled.
"Well, you can go ahead and serve yourselves, since Bryce decided to try and poison himself I thought to do a buffet style breakfast." Hillary returned to the kitchen and emerged with more plates of food.
"This looks wonderful, Hillary." Lara said, getting herself a plate.
"Thank you, Lara."
"And I can cook." Bryce said, pointing his fork at Hillary. "Just not eggs."
"Or anything else that doesn't require a microwave." Hillary added.
Alex smiled and sat down. The kitchen phone rang. Alex moved to get it.
"Sit and eat, Alex." Hillary said walking back into the kitchen. "If you started answering the phones I'd have nothing to do." He smiled. "Hello?" Hillary asked after he picked up the phone.
"Did you have a good night's sleep Alex West? Cause I'm gonna kill you. I'm waiting until you're away from the house and I'm gonna kill the bitch. Then I'll kill you. Cause you deserve it."
Hillary hung up. Not again. . . "Alex, could I see you for a second, please?" Hillary asked.
"Sure," Alex got up and walked into the kitchen. "What?" He asked.
"Our mystery called just rang." Hillary said, softly.
"I got a call last night too." Alex told him, sighing.
"This is getting out of hand. What did Scotland Yard say to do?"
"Not much. Since we don't have a trace on the phone lines and there's no one who has it in for us there's little to nothing that they can do. And I thought American cops were useless."
"Alex, try to be polite to them." Hillary said. "Why don't you get Lara out of the house for a few hours and I'll call them back and find out how to get a trace on the phone."
"Okay." Alex nodded. "Do you think she suspects anything?" He asked, glancing out into the dinning room where Lara and Bryce were chatting.
"I don't think so." Hillary said. "I hope not, anyways."
***
"And this is where I live." Bryce said, gesturing towards the trailer.
"In here?" Corazon asked, wrinkling her nose. "Why do you live in here when you can live in that beautiful house?"
"I'm a free spirit." Bryce smiled. "Want to come inside?" He asked, opening the door to his living quarters.
"Not now." Corazon said. "I've always wanted to see the manor. Will you give me a guided tour?" She asked, sweetly.
Bryce's heart melted. "Sure." He said. He led Corazon into the house. Alex and Lara were out and Hillary had already retired so the pair had the house pretty much to themselves.
Bryce started the tour of Croft manor with his sections, including the computer room, the sparing room and showing her Simon and Simon's newly constructed twin brother, Paul. However, Corazon seemed a little distracted. She kept glancing around the great hall and licking her lips at Bryce and eyeing the upper rooms.
"Do you want to see the kitchens?" Bryce asked.
"No, I want to see the upstairs." Corazon whispered, stroking his arm.
"Ummm. . . Okay. . ." Bryce said. He was practically paralyzed.
"Come on." Corazon lead Bryce up the flight of stairs and looked around at the different bed rooms. "Which one is the master bedroom?" She asked.
"Lara and Alex's bedroom? The one on the right- wait a minute, we can't-" Bryce wasn't able to finish his sentence as Corazon grabbed his arm and dragged him into the master bedroom, laughing. She stopped and looked around once she entered the room.
"Wow, this place is really nice." She said.
"Come on, Corazon, we've got to get out of here. Alex and Lara won't like us snooping around their things." Bryce said.
"Who cares about what they think?" Corazon said, slinking over to Bryce and beginning to unbutton his jeans.
"Whoa, hold on Corazon. I mean, we've only been on two dates."
"You talk too much, Bryce." Corazon said, unbuttoning his trousers.