Chapter 20: Orders and Instruction Booklets

Todd pulled into the parking structure of the Sweet Valley Tribune. He rolled down his power window, and smiled at the security guard. Todd pressed the button and a ticket popped out. "How're you doing today?" Todd asked him casually.

"Oh, pretty good..." He replied. "You sure have been around here a lot lately." He commented, as he raised the gate, allowing Todd to drive through. Todd laughed.

"Yeah, I know. I should probably invest in a parking pass." He kidded. "Anyway, have a good day." Todd offered before driving through. He parked on the 5th level, and set his alarm as he was walking to the elevator. The Sweet Valley Tribune had become his home away from home lately, but he knew there was nothing wrong with that. He was just like any other husband visiting his wife. It was quite easier to make an appearance now, surprising his wife seeing that school was out for the summer and his job as the AD had less to do.

Liz looked at the proofs her editor had given her. She was explaining what needed to be done and what way she wanted it. Liz nodded her head listening. Even though she didn't agree with him, she still let him talk. She realized that in a few years she probably would be an editor too and she could boss people around, but for now she was the lowly

reporter. The editor finished and gave her a folder telling her she would have another story which would involve some much needed to research. It was something for the Variety about the new strip mall coming to town. She took the proofs and the new story and walked back to her office. She needed to grab her purse and hit the library as soon as she could so she could get home at a decent hour. She also needed to make a bunch of phone calls to find out about the new mall and she also needed to talk to the layout crew.

Todd whistled as he pushed in the door to the Sweet Valley Tribune. He nodded his head at a few people he knew casually. Making his way down the hall, he turned left, and walked down another long corridor. He approached Elizabeth's door- the third one on the right, and saw that it was open. He saw Elizabeth, standing with her back to him,

just as she was shrugging on her coat and grabbing her purse and a folder it seemed. Todd smiled and stepped inside. Just the sight of his wife was cause enough for him to break into a smile. Todd swung the door shut behind him. "Going somewhere?" He asked her, still smiling.

Liz turned around frightened. She had been so lost in her thoughts about her new story that she hadn't even heard someone come in. She focused on the person and realized it was her husband. He was around here a lot lately and she wasn't the least bit surprised to see him. "Hey you!" She said walking towards him pecking him on the cheek. "Actually I was just on my way to the library. Did you want to come with me?" Liz asked. Usually he was more of a distraction at the library, but maybe he could help.

Todd put his hands on her waist and drew her in closer to him. He kissed her lightly on the mouth. "Why are you on our way to the library? Shouldn't you be, I don't know- sitting at your desk writing or something?" Todd asked her.

Liz laughed. In the many years she had known Todd, she would have thought by now he would have known that she lived at the library. "Well I have to do research, make a few calls first, and interview some people. Then I can sit down at that desk and write my story. There's no use doing it now." She said, taking his hand and guiding him closer to

the door.

Todd groaned but allowed himself to be guided by Elizabeth. "The library? So that means your going to be on your feet, walking up and down rows of books, carrying heavy books, and reaching for high books?" Todd questioned, not at all pleased by the situation. "I wish you would tell your editor to make you stay at your desk."

"Todd, I'm a reporter. This is what I'm supposed to do. Besides, I don't want to stay at my desk. I like being on my feet and doing research. It's never bothered you before..." She said, grabbing her bag with all her stuff from the chair right by the door and shut off her office lights. She closed her door, and wrote a quick message on her dry

eraser board saying she would be at the library, and left her cell phone number for where she would be could be reached.

Todd sighed, knowing that this was a battle he'd have a far shot from winning. "Yeah but Liz, you've never been almost eight months pregnant before." He reasoned. "I know you love your job, but for the sake of the baby- and your own sake- don't you think you should just stick to a desk job right now?" He asked, as they were walking down the

hall. "Or better yet, just go on maternity leave now? I mean- women do it all the time honey! It wouldn't be shameful or anything."

"Todd, I'm fine! Trust me. In a few weeks I'll go on maternity leave and after two days of being cooped up in the house with me, I'm sure that you would have wished I would have stayed at work. Besides it's not that busy right now so it's not like I'm being overworked." She walked up to the front desk and waved to the secretary. She walked out the front door and saw one of her co-workers coming in. "Hey!" she said.

"Wow, when's the baby due?" she asked looking at Liz's bulging stomach.

"Only one more month." Liz told Jenn proudly, her hand gently resting on her overly swollen abdomen.

"That's right, one more month." Todd repeated. "One more month where you should be at home, resting, and finalizing everything before the baby makes his appearance." He said pointedly to his wife, with hopes that she'd understand his point.

Liz rolled her eyes looking at her co-worker, Jenn. They said their goodbyes and Liz walked out of the door, heading for the stairs.

"Whoa, whoa. Wait just a minute. " Todd said to her. "Shouldn't you take the elevator?"

"Todd I always take the stairs going down. It's the going up that kills me. The elevator always takes longer anyway." she said reaching the top of the stairs and becoming more and more frustrated with his overwhelming concern. She grabbed the railing and started trotting down the stairs. She was glad she had worn her comfortable shoes today; sine she had to do a lot of running around town to do.

Todd sighed and followed along beside her, comfortable knowing he could 'help' her if she needed it. They reached the bottom of the stairs and before Elizabeth could push open the door of the stairwell, Todd grabbed her arm. "Liz, wait." He demanded, growing more frustrated by the moment.

"What is it?" Liz said losing her patience. At this rate they wouldn't even make it to the library before lunch time. The thought of lunchtime made her realize just how hungry she really was but she quickly pushed the thought aside. She had a lot of work to do before she could go home today and hastily pulled her arm out of Todd's grasp.

Todd looked down at the ground for a minute, and then looked pleadingly back up at his wife. "Sweetie, I'm asking you, would you please- for me- stop working and go on maternity leave?" He knew and realized he was asking a lot of her, he wasn't that dense. But he truly thought that perhaps she would understand where this was coming from and why he was asking it of her. He hoped that because he was her husband, she would do it, for him.

"Todd, I already said I was going to! In a couple of weeks! My editor wants me to stay until the beginning of August until he can find a suitable replacement." She tried to explain, exasperated. "But even when I do go on maternity leave I'm still going to be working at home! You heard the doctor when he said it was best to stay active. It's healthy for me and it's good for the baby." She started walking away. Sure enough Todd followed after her. She walked through the entrance and headed for her car. She always parked in the very back row so she could get her exercise in and because the lot was usually full by the time she arrived.

Todd sighed again, and this time there was a bit of annoyance in it. "Well let me talk to your editor then." He suggested, following her. "I'm glad that you're remaining active, but that doesn't have to mean loading yourself down with work. Exercise is exercise. Work is stress." Todd caught up with her and caught her hand in his. "Look Liz I'm only saying this for you. I'm concerned about you and the baby, that's all. You should really take it easy on yourself this last month. Once the baby is here it's going to be a lot tougher."

"Todd I am taking it easy! And I am not stressed!" She said, even though she realized the heightened level of stress in her own voice. She unlocked her door with her remote-less key entry and climbed in.

She waited for Todd to do the same and started the car. "Todd, I'm going to have a whole two weeks to just relax. By that time I will be begging for something to do." Liz said as she buckled her seatbelt. She hated to admit it, but she craved constant excitement as much as Jess. It may not be the same since it didn't involve getting in to trouble, but he

loved being busy.

Todd got in and pulled on his seat belt on too. "God you're stubborn." He mumbled to himself, hoping she wouldn't hear. He meant it a way that was equally approving and disapproving though. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek before she could start backing out. "I just worry about you." He said tenderly to her, his face still

close to hers.

"Well I love you and I see where you're coming from but just give me my last few weeks before I have to give up work." Liz pleaded with him before looking at her clock. It was almost noon. "Instead of the library let's hit Box Tree Café. I'm starving." She said decisively.

Todd looked at her, his eyebrow raised in amusement. Suddenly her work didn't appear so important to her anymore. But Todd knew Elizabeth had a strong will, and he respected her for it. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to keep a watchful eye on her. "You're always hungry. More than me even!"

Todd whistled to himself as he looked through his email, reading some, deleting some, and forwarding others. It was about 3:30 and he was sitting back in the comfortable desk chair in the office, lazily dealing with his often ignored email account.

He and Elizabeth had had a nice lunch at the Box Tree Cafe, and then had driven over to the library where Elizabeth insisted on spending a couple of hours doing research on some of her work. Todd had been their the whole time with her, helping her out in any way he could, and had actually kept good on his promise he had made to her at the restaurant to not pester her about taking it easy. Todd, he felt, had been rewarded from this by Elizabeth agreeing to call it a day after her work was done at the library, so they could come home instead of her going back to the office to work some more.

They'd been home a few minutes, and she was apparently busy with something herself because he didn't hear her. But when she called his name a second time, he finally did hear her. "Yeah?" He yelled back to her, as he deleted about 5 more emails.

"Are you busy Todd?" Todd had spent much of his time over the summer painting and repainting, painting and repainting.

"Um... Not really. What'd you need Liz?" He said, even though he dreaded asking that question and silently prayed to himself that she wouldn't suggest painting the baby's room again. So far, it had been nearly every color of the rainbow.

"Do you think maybe we could that tonight we could make dinner together and catch a movie? Just the two of us? I mean, it'll probably be the last chance we'll have for a while." She explained, slowly making her way into the office.

"Well, I'd like that. But would you rather stay home, order some takeout and rent a few movies?" It might be nice just to stay in and enjoy each other for a night." His mind wandered back to just months before when they were first found out she was pregnant. The level of intimacy between them had been at a virtual all time low since just a few

months before that.

"Yeah, that's fine. As long as it's Mexican." She agreed happily, just wanting to enjoy the last month with her husband alone. Even though she had no previous experience with a new baby in the house, she'd heard all the details from Billie when they'd first brought Bradley home from the hospital and again after Jeffrey had been born. She knew it was going to be a big adjustment but had no idea what really was in

store for them.

Later that evening, Liz had changed in to some lounge pants and a baggy long sleeved white t-shirt. She was snuggled into Todd's supportive body, his arm resting protectively over her shoulders. "I'm going to miss this Todd." She told him longingly, looking into his eyes.

"I am too sweetie." He reassured her, planting a kiss on top of her silky blonde hair. "We can still do this. We'll just have what we've always wanted with us." He told her, moving one hand down to caress her swollen abdomen. He looked to the clock above the fireplace, and saw that it wasn't really even late at all. He removed his hand from her belly and rubbed the back of his neck. His eyes wandered from the clock over to the far left side of their living room, which had totally been overtaken by stuff. Baby stuff that is. Every baby apparatus imaginable was clustered into the already small enough living room. And it had been sitting there for about a week- ever since Liz had had her baby shower. He exhaled as he couldn't believe how much crap there was.

"God I never new a baby needed so much...stuff." He said to Elizabeth,

waving his hand for emphasis.

She chuckled. "A baby needs more than "stuff" sweetie. And she's going to be here, needing her "stuff" in a room of her own." She explained, making sure to put an emphasis on "her."

Todd shrugged as he stared at the looming tower of stuff. Knowing that sooner or later he'd be hauling it to wherever its intended places were. "This baby shower thing was good for us though, seeing as how we didn't pay a cent for any of that stuff." He commented with a grin.

"I know. Just thinking of what must have been spent is kind of overwhelming." She asked, snuggling in closer to his body. "Do you think we could try and get that nursery put together?"

"I've certainly learned a lot this past month...babies are expensive and have a lot of crap!" He said. His chuckle trailed of into a sigh as he heard the second part of what she said. "Tonight?" he groaned. "Besides, whatever happened to your mom decorating the nursery?" He asked. That seemed like the easiest and smartest thing to do.

"Todd..." He knew she was going to get no where in this conversation once the whining started, but listened to his wife none the less. "It's really not Mom's responsibility. This is OUR baby. She offered to help. She never said she'd do it for us. And anyways, I'd kind of like to be involved."

Todd sighed again, and leaned his head back against the couch. "You're right, I'm sorry." He told her. He'd never seen Liz be so into decoration of any sort- but then again, he's never seen Liz prepare for having a baby either. "So what would you like me to do hon?" He asked her. "And I guess I might as well get started on whatever it is tonight." He added for her giving that shoulder that he still had one of his arms around, a squeeze.

"Well... I'm promise I won't make you paint the room again." She said, looking at her husband with a gleam in her eyes. "How about we set up the bassinet. That's probably most important."

"Thank God!" Todd said over dramatically about her painting comment. He'd already inhaled enough paint fumes for a lifetime- and that was all from ONE project! He removed his arm from her and hoisted himself up off the couch. "Ok, " he said, walking over to the stuff. He stopped. "Where is it?" But somehow, he already knew hat answer- it was under everything. He sighed.

"You know what. I guess it's all equally important. Just pick a pile and we'll start there. It's all got to be put away eventually." She told her husband lovingly, knowing that it was a long shot to get him involved in this tonight anyways.

"Ok......" Todd said, wiping his hands on the back of his jeans then bending down picking up as many apparatus and boxes as he could at once. The fewer trips back and forth, the better. When he knew he absolutely couldn't hold another thing he turned and started making his way slowly down the hall to the nursery, amidst Elizabeth's cautions to be careful not to drop anything. He got to the nursery and as delicately as he could he kind of opened up his arms and dumped everything.

They'd put the rocking chair together a few weeks back when Elizabeth was having what Todd called a sentimental moment. She'd desperately wanted to sit in the nursery and just take it all in. It seemed so real finally. Heading down the hall, Liz sat in the rocking chair again. "Why don't we start with the changing table? It's right there." Liz told him, pointing to the box he had just set in the corner. "If you get me the instructions, I'll read them to you."

Todd nodded and nudged all the box and things over to the other wall so that he'd have room to work. "I'm going to go get the scissors" he said, before briefly disappearing into the study. He came back with them then started tearing into the box Elizabeth had pointed to. Todd was down on the floor, on his knees, and finally got the box torn open enough to get the stuff out of. "You know I'll still do the bassinet tonight" he told her as he worked. "I just wanted to get that stuff off of it. But when I'm done with the changing table I'll get to it."

Liz smiled weakly, happy about how willing he was to do this for her. "Thank you sweetie." She said as she planted a kiss on his cheek but let him continue. "I'm just really anxious to see this room put together. I can't wait for this little one." She told her husband, rubbing her swollen abdomen.

"Me too." Todd said, tossing the now empty box aside. "Maybe he'll be early even" he thought, excited at the thought. He fished around through the stuff and found the plastic bag containing the directions among other things, and handed them off to Liz. "Hey, were we planning on doing much for my birthday this year?" He asked her suddenly. It was coming up in about a week.

"St Todd." She responded quickly to his question, hoping she sounded sincere. "I completely forgot hunny."

"Oh" Todd said, trying to hide his hurt, which he was pretty sure he did. He was just a little surprised that's all, that Liz would forget about his birthday. She was always so on top of stuff like that. He shrugged and looked nonchalant. "I just thought I'd ask, since, dad asked if I wanted some Dodger tickets that night which he can get from the office, and I told him I wasn't sure what we were doing yet." He started assembling what appeared to be the biggest part of the changing table, not waiting for Liz's instructions.

"Well Todd. It's not too late to make some plans. Or we can just take the tickets if you want." She told him, hoping that the surprise she had in store would definitely surprise him.

Todd shrugged as he continued working. "I don't know. A game sounds fun though. Although I know you won't feel like traipsing up and down all the steep stairs." He commented to her. "Nah" he said, with a shake of his head, as he just made up his mind, "its ok, we don't have to do anything special. You're getting closer to your due date anyhow, so it's probably for the best." He looked a few of the pieces, not sure what to do next. "Hey can you pass me the instruction booklet back?" He asked her, his back to her.

Passing him the instructions she tried to reply positively. "Todd, if you want to go the game, it's fine with me. I want to do something you want. Don't let me and the baby stop you. It is your birthday." She hoped that even though she tried to convince him, he wouldn't take the tickets. In reality she did have something planned for his birthday. She'd made reservations at the Highlands Inn, in Carmel, a small town north of where they lived. She figured one last get away before the baby was born would be nice- something they'd remember.

"Elizabeth I didn't say you were standing in the way of anything." He felt the need to correct her. He eyed the instructions for a second, silently. Then he tossed them down and went back to work. "I can just watch the game on TV that night" he said as he worked. "I don't want to have to deal with the LA traffic, on my birthday or anytime

really. It's the pits. And it'll be right at rush hour..." he said as excuses, so that it wouldn't sound like SHE was the excuse. Yes he'd love to go to the game, but actually, what he'd love more is to just be with Elizabeth that night- his birthday. That's what would make him most happy. But for some reason, he felt funny about that, and embarrassed to admit it, especially to her. He stood up as the pieces were getting higher; it was obvious he was making headway. "Here can you hold this side up while I work on the other?" He asked her.

He slid over closer to her so she'd be able to hold the side without having to stand. Smiling, she spoke to him. "I'm off that day. I'll make a nice dinner for us and we'll grab a few movies, okay?" Now she had no idea how she'd be able to pull the surprise off. Maybe she'd just pack a bag for him and let him think they were going to get some videos and then just start driving to Carmel. Feeling the baby kick, she impulsively moved one hand to the right side of her stomach. "It sounds like a plan to this one." She said, smiling as she looked up to meet her husband's eyes.

Todd looked up from what he was doing and couldn't help but smiling back at her.

"Alright, since the whole family is agreed, it's a plan then." He said to her with their eyes locked. So she'd forgotten his birthday- Who cared! Guys weren't supposed to care about birthdays anyway, that was a girlie thing. Todd finished off the changing table some time later, and looked at 'his baby' proudly standing up securely, nestled against the wall where Elizabeth had instructed it be. He admired his work. "What's next?" He asked brightly, in a total handyman mood now. He however, heard Elizabeth yawn.

"Do you think maybe we could finish this tomorrow? I'm kind of tired." She pleaded, hoping he'd agree. In reality though, she had other plans in mind. She was tired- but not THAT tired. Right now she just wanted to enjoy the company of her husband.

Todd chuckled. "This is a first- me actually wanting to work on the nursery and you for once not." He commented to her. He spun the hammer around in his hand in what he thought looked like a pretty cool move. He glanced at his watch, then back at her, still sitting in that rocking chair. "Yeah it is getting late." He admitted. "I won't put anything else together tonight, but I do want to move the next project and maybe more of that stuff that's cluttering the living room into this room at least." He told her, as he spun the hammer again. He then hooked it to his jean pocket and laughed. "Think I'd look sexy with a tool belt?" He asked her jokingly with a laugh as he comically turned his head to look over his shoulder at his behind.

"Hmmmm... Not so much." She joked back with him. "Where you'd look really good tonight is in bed. In bed with me." She told him, hoping he'd get the hint and give up on working on the nursery.

Todd raised his eyebrow comically at her. "Are you trying to seduce me- again?" He joked with her, thinking back to the last time Liz had been feisty, a few weeks ago, when they'd had a crazy time in the shower. "Let me get this stuff cleaned up" he told her, "While you go get comfortable in the bed." He smacked her lips with his as he passed by her, and she in turn pinched his cute little butt at the same time. They were both laughing.