My head hurts and it's the pain that drags me awake. The sun's bright across the bed, shining with an enthusiasm I don't feel. Something happened last night but my head's still in a haze. I roll over instinctually towards the right on the bed. Right is Gregory's side. His side's going to be empty, just as it's been since the divorce.

I start to roll back when I realize the bed isn't empty. Warmth- body heat assails my senses and I cuddle into it. Maybe I'm dreaming, but there's an arm around my shoulders that insists I'm not. The hair of his chest brushes against my cheek and I realize he's nude. When his fingers run up my back, I realize I'm nude as well.

What was going on last night?

Trey. It was about Trey. "Gregory knows!" I remember in a flood of anguish. "Oh god Gregory-"

"Shhh..." Comes the immediate response. He's here, now. That's Gregory's voice. His hand on my arm reassuring me. "It's all right now. Everything is going to be all right."

I pull the sheet up over my chest as I sit up in a panic. My head complains immediately at the change in position. "How is it going to be all right?" He catches my hand on it's way to my face. "Annie stole our baby."

Gregory props himself up on one elbow and kisses my hand delicately. "I took him back."

"But Caitlin-" I start to protest as I turn away from him towards the edge of the bed. Gregory sits up, catching me and pulling me back to his chest. My head doesn't ache when he holds it against his neck.

"Caitlin shouldn't have lied." He arranges the sheet over my chest and holds me close in his arms. "She bought a baby."

"Because she lost hers!" I remind him, but it's hard to be angry when he traces my temples like that. It's entirely unfair that a man who causes so many headaches is so good at chasing them away.

"You never would have considered telling me our child was still alive after our miscarriage." Gregory leans back against the headboard and moves his hands down to my shoulders. "I imagine Cole's going to be just as angry with her as I am. She's been passing off our son as theirs for months. She didn't even give him a chance to grieve."

I can't tell him Cole could be raising his own son. A son I could conceived with the man Gregory hates most in the world. That debt's been paid by both of us. The pain we caused each other outweighs even our terrible misdeeds. I can't even bring myself to feel anything but numb about it anymore. "We lost a grandchild we never knew."

He coaxes the tension from my shoulders, bringing me slowing into this new reality where our son is coming home. I should feel for Caitlin and empathize with her pain, but I just want to hold my son and tell him that I love him. That I've always loved him. "But our son is coming home." He reminds me with the same quiet patience.

I close my eyes, feeling the quiet of his bedroom settle into my heart. "Home to you?"

"Home to us." Gregory pulls my hair back, letting it fall over my bare shoulders. "I want you back."

I kiss his cheek and feel the stubble of a long night. "I am back."

"Back in my heart." He cups my chin and meets my eyes with bitter honesty. "But I need you back in my life, in my house, in my bed-"

My tiny chuckle surprises me. "I'm in your bed right now."

Gregory's smile promises he'll never cease to amaze me. " Will you be here tomorrow?"

I bit my lip as the gravity of his request hits me. It's certainly not as impressive as the first time he proposed but it's just as effective. My hesitation prompts him to continue.

"I'd like to have you here, tomorrow, next week, a year from now-." Taking my hand, he caresses the space on my finger where my rings used to live. He takes my hand to his chest and dives into my eyes. "I need you to be here."

I can't look away from him and he knows. Gregory wouldn't have brought it up if he wasn't sure of my answer. "I'm here darling."

"Promise you'll stay."

"With you?"

"With me." He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses the space on my finger.

"You're with Annie." I argue weakly but he disagrees as he makes his way down to my wrist.

Glancing over at the watch on his nightstand, Gregory gives me a victorious smile. "I've been a free man for nineteen minutes. the courier dropped off the divorce papers at Annie's feet promptly at nine this morning."

Laughing with him is like finally coming home. "Certainly didn't take you long to move on."

His gaze burns with that intensity that stole my heart so many years ago. "I never moved on. No one else held a candle to my first love."

"Oh darling." It's still there. The sparkle he had the first time he looked at me. Does he see it in my eyes now?

Gregory must see it because he exudes nothing but confidence. "Let us be a family with our son."

"Yes." I whisper finally, nearly too softly for him to hear me. I nod, fighting exhausted tears out of my eyes. Our kiss says goodbye to the way we were. It's the end of an affair and the start of something more permanent and infinitely more precious.

"Our son." I repeat gently as we pull apart. "Trey's our son."

Gregory winces slightly and reaches for my shoulders as he leans back against the headboard again. "We're going to have to change his name. I've always hated that nickname."

His hands find a home on my stomach and I smile at the welcoming sunlight in the window. "Gregory Richards Jr."

"Liv-" He ceases his protest when I squeeze his hand.

"I'm not debating it." I tilt my head up to better slip into the hollow of his neck. "He's your son and I love the sound of it. Gregory Richards Jr-"

"Would you settle for Gregory Thomas?" He fidgets the sheet and strokes his hand lazily down my shoulder. "I want to have something to call him that doesn't make me think I'm talking to myself."

I might have been happy, somehow, without him. Perhaps I would have forgotten what bliss was like. Now it's all I can think about. "Love you." I choke on the first syllable and curl into his chest. "Gregory Thomas Richards is coming home."

"That's the theme of the day isn't it darling?" Gregory looks at his watch again and crawls out of bed towards his robe. "Now, if I know Annie as well as I think I do- you're going to love this part."

He's just finished tying the belt of his robe when she breaks down the door, divorce papers in hand. "What the hell is this?" Her eyes glare at the bed as if she could set it on fire with me in it. "An affair I could understand, one last roll in the hay before you put her out of your mind forever. But divorce? Wasn't I enough for you?"

Gregory sits down on the bed next to me, handing me one of his shirts to pull as he holds the sheet up. "It's not personal Annie. We both knew our marriage was a business arrangement and like all business, it's been concluded. Just sign the papers and move on to the next deal."

"I don't want to move on!" She cries as she flings the papers on the foot of the bed. "I want you."

"I wanted my son, but you had other ideas about that." Gregory wraps one arm around my back as he dials downstairs. "Rose, you can send them up now."

"You can't do this to me-" Annie's tears serve only to annoy him further. "How can you do this?"

Gregory's jaw is set, but he's enjoying this. I can see the light in his eyes. "I'm not doing anything."

A quick knock on the bedroom door announces the appearance of two uniformed police officers.

"They've been waiting for you and I'm afraid they've got big plans for you Annie." Grinning like the cheshire cat, Gregory takes my hand and wraps it up in his. "But you remember how this part goes, don't you?"

The taller man reaches for Annie's shoulders. "Annie Douglas, you're under arrest for kidnapping, assault and criminal endangerment of a minor child. You have the right to remain silent, if you waive that right anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you."