See chapter one for disclaimer. Thanks!

A/N: thanks for the reviews! I'm glad that you're all enjoying this story so much! I hope that you like this next chappy, and of course, please review! There will be one more chapter before this story is over!

For The Moment

Chapter 13: Catching Up

Two months later, March 2

Annie Camden hurried around her house trying to keep herself busy. Eric had left for the airport to pick up Ruthie Peter and the baby nearly 45 minutes ago. She knew they would be there any second, and was so antsy to meet her grandson that she could hardly stand it. Ruthie had been off on her maternity leave, but since Peter was still teaching, they hadn't been able to come out yet. At first he had insisted that they not come until school got out in June, but Annie and the rest of the family knew they had to see the baby before he was 6 months old. Peter had finally given in last week and taken this week off so that they could visit their large family in California. They had arranged it so that Ruthie and Peter would arrive at around 5 pm, and the rest of the family would be coming over at 5:30 for dinner, giving Annie and Eric time to catch up with their daughter and have their grandson all to themselves.

Annie dusted the dining room table for the eighth time that day. As she put away the dusting rag, she heard the garage door going up and felt her adrenalin kick in. They were here. She ran her fingers quickly through her hair, wondering why she hadn't taken all this time to straighten herself up. Before long, the door opened and she couldn't help but smile. Eric came through first, carrying two black suitcases. Then, she caught sight of her daughter's brown wavy hair. As soon as Ruthie saw her mother, she ran over and embraced her.

"Mom!" She cried. "Oh my gosh, it's so great to see you. I've been wanting to come down her for so long!" She hugged her again. Peter laughed in the back ground and Annie looked up to see him too. She greeted him warmly. Ruthie smiled and pointed over to the baby carrier sitting near the door, a blue blanket tossed expertly over it. "Mom…" she took her mother's hand and lead her to it. "This is Jackson." She lifted the blue blanket carefully to reveal a tiny baby, sleeping soundly in his animal print one-zie. Annie gasped and Eric smiled down at her.

"He's adorable!" Annie whispered. Ruthie lifted the blanket all the way off and began to unbuckle him. "You don't have to wake him, I'll see him when he's up." She said. Ruthie shook her head and continued.

"It's ok, it's time for him to wake up any way. He's been asleep since 10 minutes after our plane took off." He began to stir and let out a loud cry as his mother lifted him out of his warm bed. Ruthie patted his back softly to calm him. "shhh" She cooed. "It's ok, honey." She turned to her mother after he stopped crying. "Wanna hold him?"

"Do you have to ask?" Annie asked with a laugh. She reached over and carefully lifted the tiny baby up and placed him against her body. He looked up at her with sleepy brown eyes, with matched his tuft of dark hair. Annie smiled and kissed his forehead. "Hi Jackson, I'm grandma." She introduced herself. "He's precious." She told Ruthie and her daughter smiled. They walked over into the family room where they all sat down and began to chat.

"How are you two doing, being new parents and all?" Eric asked. Ruthie and Peter looked at each other and laughed before answering.

"Well…" Ruthie began, "It's been…interesting. That's the word. I don't think we ever imagined that it could be this hard, but so fun at the same time. Peter's a light sleeper, so he wakes up every time the baby cries during the night, and then has to still go to work every morning. I'm always exhausted, and never, ever get a nap. He seems to know when I'm just dozing off, because that's when he let's out the real screeches." They all laughed and Annie nodded, remembering how her children did the same. "But it's so amazing. I feel like I have this whole new purpose in life. I mean, who knew you could love a little pink bald guy so much?" She smiled. "He's the joy in my life, along with his daddy of course." She pecked her husband on the cheek quickly, then continued. "Peter is already asking when we want to have another, which is mind boggling, but…" Peter cut her off with a laugh.

"I don't mean I want another baby this very second. I just know that if we want more kids, we need to time it out to know how their age differences will be and all. I don't mean I want her to be pregnant again now or anything. We're going to wait until he's at least 2. Plus, we had so much trouble having him, who says we're going be able to have any more?" With that, Jackson let out a scream and began to cry loudly. Ruthie stood and took him from her mother.

"I'm sure he's hungry, he hasn't eaten since before we left. I'm going to go feed him." She said. Annie nodded and stood as well.

"We're keeping you waiting, I know you have a lot to do. We have the garage apartment all made up for you, so honey, why don't you feed him up there. I'll have your dad bring up your bags in a half hour or so."

"Oh that's ok," Peter chimed in. "I can get them. Thanks so much for setting up the apartment for us again. That'll definitely be easier on you guys than having a new born in here. Plus, we appreciate all the space."

"Any time." Annie and Eric said in unison. The new family got their bags and walked out the door, starting for the garage apartment. Annie smiled at her husband and he wrapped his arms around her. She looked up at him. "Grandchild number 17's the charm, huh?" She asked and Eric laughed.

"Wow. 17. It seems like just yesterday that Haylie was born…our first grandchild. It was so crazy." They were silent for a few minutes while they remembered. Their moment was runined when the door bell rang. Annie hurried to open it and saw Sarah, Matt, Kate, Jacob and Amanda standing there when she did.

"Hi mom." Matt greeted and she hugged them all as they entered the home. As soon as Sarah got in, she looked around expectantly.

"Well? Where are they? I can't wait another second to see Ruthie!" She exclaimed.

"Sorry but you're going to have to." Eric told her. "She's feeding Jackson up in the garage apartment. They'll be down as soon as she finishes. They left about 5 minutes ago."

"Ah man!" Sarah said with a laugh. "I guess I can wait, but let's hope that baby eats fast. I might go crazy!" They all smiled. Right as Annie was shutting the door, she saw the Kinkirk family pull up outside. Moments later, Maddy ran up and jumped up for Annie to pick her up.

"Grandma!" She cried happily. "I haven't seen you in like a month!" She exclaimed. Annie laughed and spun her granddaughter around.

"I know! I've missed you all! Well hello there Ty and Collin!" She greeted the twins as they approached the door. They said hello back and hurried inside. Soon, Kevin, Lucy, Haylie, Anna and Elizabeth all walked up together. "It's the whole Kinkirk clan!" Annie cried with a laugh. "All eight of you! Come in, come in!" After Cecilia and Simon, along with Ben, Noah and Grace arrived, the adults of the three families sat down to chat in the family room while the kids took off to play outside, only 15-year-old Haylie sticking around. Lina and Sam were the next to arrive and joined the circle of adults while Molly, Michael, Abby and Aiden hurried out to join there cousins. After a few more minutes, Sarah shrieked and jumped up.

"Ruthie!" Everyone looked up to see Ruthie walking in from the door in the kitchen. Ruthie screamed too and the women embraced for what seemed like forever. Then, Sarah took Ruthie's shoulders and pushed her back, looking her over. "Wow! Look at you, you look amazing!" She cried. "Man, you've got almost all that baby weight off already! I still have some of mine from all of my kids!" They laughed and Ruthie disagreed. "So…where is he?" She asked. Ruthie smiled.

"He's with his daddy getting his diaper changed, they'll be down in a second." She said as she was ushered over to the crowd. A few moments later, Peter entered carrying Jackson. When he arrived at the sofas, everyone crowded around to see the tiny baby. The timer in the kitchen dinged and Annie stood.

"Dinner's ready!" She said and everyone stood.

"Hey, where are Natalie and David?" Eric asked. "They said that they would be here early…at 5:15. It's 6:00." Annie frowned.

"Man, I totally forgot. They must be running late. That's so unlike them!"

"Should we wait to eat?" Eric asked.

"Nah, let's eat. They wouldn't want us to hold up dinner just for them." Eric agreed and everyone walked outside into the backyard where all the tables were set up, as usual. Annie carried out the baby carrier for Jackson and sat it next to Ruthie's chair. The kids all took their seats at the children's tables and Annie and Eric carried out the food. Everyone dug in hungrily. Jackson, who had been placed in his carrier, was soon sound asleep and was adored by everyone.

Seeing that they were out of rolls, Annie stood and walked inside to get more. As she was doing so, she heard the front door open and saw Natalie and David entering. David had his arm around his wife, and as Annie approached them to say hello, Natalie looked up and Annie saw her tear stained face. She hurried over, concerned.

"What's wrong? What's going on?" Annie asked, putting her arms around the couple. Natalie's lower lip quivered.

"Yesterday, Natalie took a home pregnancy test…and it was positive." He said.

"What's wrong then? This is awesome! You guys have been trying for this!" Annie cried.

"Mom…let me finish." David instructed. "We went to the doctor today to get in confirmed, and it turns out that the test was wrong…she's not pregnant. That's why we're so late, I'm sorry." He said. Annie hugged them again.

"Don't apologize." She said quietly. "I'm so sorry you two…I can't imagine the let down that you're feeling. Natalie began to cry again and Annie pulled away so that David could comfort his wife. "You two don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"We really want to meet Jackson, but tonight…seeing a baby would be too hard. We'll be sure to come by some time this week though to see him before they leave." Annie agreed and told them good bye. She grabbed the rolls she had come in for and when she got back outside, relayed the sad news to the crowd. Ruthie bit her lower lip and looked down at her own baby. She knew all too well what it was like to want a baby and have it not happen. She stroked his face lightly, and he didn't wake. 4-year old Maddy Kinkirk walked over and peeked into the carrier at her baby cousin.

"A baby!" She whispered and Ruthie laughed.

"Yeah, this is baby Jackson. He's your cousin." She explained. Maddy looked at the baby for a few minutes, examining every inch of him.

"How old it Jackson?" She asked. "I'm four. That means I got born four years ago."

"That's right." Ruthie told her with a smile. "Jackson is 2 months old, which means that he was born 2 months ago. He was born on December 26th, the day after Christmas, at 11:51 at night!"

"That's late." Maddy commented thoughtfully. Ruthie laughed and nodded.

"Yes. Very late." Lucy looked over and saw her daughter standing by Ruthie and the baby.

"Madison," Lucy called, and the little girl looked up at her. "Go eat your dinner and let the baby sleep and Aunt Ruthie eat." She instructed. Maddy sighed and did so reluctantly. Ruthie laughed quietly and pulled the blanket over the carrier now that there was no one looking at her son. Peter reached over and squeezed her hand and she smiled at him. They were finally here.

A/N: Please review! The more reviews I get, the quicker that I will post the FINAL chapter!