Standing up and stretching lazily, "I'll check on dinner," Gregory promised.

Olivia watched him from her place on the patio. 'Don't be gone long." She requested softly.

Turning mid-step, Gregory knelt on the flagstones. "I won't." Her hand wandered to his shoulder and he caught it, smiling at her patiently. "I just want to see what Rose left for us. Call it curiosity."

She blinked at him slowly as he kissed the back of her hand and returned it. "Okay darling. You be curious." Olivia let her eyes close on his face. "I'll be right here."

"I'm counting on that." Gregory teased as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. Two weeks since the accident and her skin tasted like he remembered. No more hospital antiseptic and soap, just warmth and sweetness.

Shutting the patio door, he watched her through the glass for a moment before turning to his surprise. "She doesn't suspect a thing." He announced to his guests. "Everyone ready?"

Sean handed Trey to Bette's waiting arms. "I think so dad." Glancing over to his sister, he smiled bravely for her benefit. "It was really good of you to let us do this. I know it'll mean a lot to her."

Gregory dropped a hand to his son's shoulder and dug in his fingers to get his attention. "To both of us." He met his gaze seriously. "You have no idea what it meant to hear your voice on the other end of the phone. And then all you brought back with you..." Looking over his shoulder at his daughter, he still didn't dare smile too long at her.

Caitlin sighed and tried to keep her feelings to herself. "I'm here for mom. Mom deserves to know that I'm okay about this." This was giggling up at Bette as she tickled his cheeks. Trey grinned giddily at AJ when he waved a toy in his face. Chubby fists batted at the little stuffed rabbit before he got it.

Sean watched the scene with quiet appreciation. AJ was in his house. Sitting on his father's sofa, and he didn't seem to mind a bit. Gregory tugged playfully at the rabbit and lit up when Trey smiled in his direction.

"Do you want the little slugger?" Bette offered, meeting Gregory's eyes and feeling the unaccustomed warmth.

"I think I'm going to have my hands full with Olivia." He volunteered as her eyes softened with concern.

"You don't think she's going to faint?" Bette settled Trey on her lap and encircled him with her hands. "She's been doing so well lately, I wouldn't want to jeopardize anything-"

His laughter nearly carried out to the patio. "This woman dragged herself out of her hospital bed and across Sunset Beach to find me. I think she can handle a little surprise. Especially a positive one."

"What have you been telling her all this time?" Cole asked softly from the doorway. He looked deflated, losing his son and gaining a brother-in-law had been more than difficult for him. Caitlin looked up at him but she still had trouble with eye contract. She hadn't even had expected him to return with her to Sunset Beach. Least of all that Gregory would make him accepted in his own house.

Gregory couldn't help liking the deflated Cole. The defeated man who's perfect little wife had lied to him about their child. Who hadn't even given him a chance to grieve because she'd been too afraid to lose him.

"That I'm looking for you. That my sources are all looking for you, that AJ and Bette are looking for you." Gregory looked back out over the patio, making sure she was still safe.

Bette waved her naked hand in his direction and then pointedly at AJ. "You did tell her about the annulment, didn't you?"

Sean winked at AJ and nudged him in the side, making sure he caught the significance of the gesture. AJ wisely said nothing and kept his eyes on Trey.

"Of course I did." Gregory paced over the dining room and checked the line of candles down the table. Rose had filled the wall sconces with roses and the scent filled the room with a cloud of perfume. "I made sure to mention it in passing last night."

"The dining room looks amazing." Bette added with a professional nod as she tucked Trey into his high chair. "Just amazing, Rose really earns her overtime, doesn't she?"

Sean took his place next to Trey and Emily slipped shyly into the chair next to him. Something might be there, AJ teased Bette with a wink and a nod. Bette left the head of the table open for Olivia, and Gregory pulled out her chair took one last look over the table.

"Greggy- it's perfect, go get her and get this over with." Bette shoved him towards the patio playfully, and the hint of a smile on his face was her reward.

Gregory obeyed, a rarity for him. He crept to the side of her chair as softly as he could. Olivia still looked up toward him and smiled with her eyes closed. "What's for dinner darling?"

Reaching down for her hands, Gregory lifted her to her feet. "Something special. I think you'll agree Rose really outdid herself."

"Oh really?" Olivia raised an eyebrow playfully and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. The spot of warmth sent a shiver down his spine.

"Really." He promised with a stern glance that mocked his own usual level of seriousness. "Just trust me."

She held his hands to her stomach and ran them teasingly over her chest to stop on the scar he insisted was just as beautiful as the rest of her. "I think that goes without saying."

"Now-" Gregory teased as his thumb found the slippery satin of her bra through the thicker fabric of her sweater. "You trust me now. If I had known all it took was both of us staring death in the face-"

"You would have arranged something long ago." She tapped his chin playfully and steered him towards the dining room. "Come on darling, I want to see what's so special about this dinner."

"Oh you'll see." He growled under his breath, reminding himself that admiring her legs wasn't going to get him anywhere. Gregory shut the patio doors behind them and sighed happily. "It was a good idea to take back the old house."

"It wasn't my idea darling-" Olivia folded her arm into his. "All I said was that it looked less damaged than the new one."

"All the same," Gregory paused at the door to the dining room. "I missed that patio. I missed the sculpture above the doorway. I missed these funny Spanish wooden doors. I missed our-"

"Bed." Olivia finished as she hushed him with a sorrowful kiss. "Later." Her forehead rested cooly against his cheek for a moment. "When we get the okay from Dr. Robinson."

"I know, I know." He ran his hand down over her chest. Her breasts were still so amazing. Even though he had them memorized, whenever he thought about her cleavage at length, or let himself stare at it from across a room, he couldn't help feeling like he was seeing them for the first time. As if he didn't know what he'd find when he finally coaxed her out of that simple black sweater.

"I'll just be grateful when we're in charge of our own sex lives again."

Olivia giggled at his grim acceptance. He opened the door and missed the secretive smile she directed at the back of his head. Helping clean up after the quake had added a little definition to the muscles of his back that was positively alluring.

It wasn't until she heard Sean's polite cough that she was able to drag her eyes and mind out of the pleasurable gutter she had fallen into.

"Oh my-" The last syllable of her exclamation turned into a gasp. Her family surrounded her. Her entire family. Sean, Caitlin and her lost little boy- Olivia's first step quavered and Gregory's hand steadied her.

"Gregory-" Her shock ran up her spine and as soon as she blinked her eyelashes were damp. "Gregory- you-"

AJ coughed and nodded to her eldest son. "Sean did most of it."

Gregory led her to their children and tilted his head towards AJ in respect. "He did. He tracked down Caitlin and Cole."

Caitlin stood up with great effort. Her hands trembled until she found her voice. "And he convinced me that no matter what I felt, little boys needed their mothers."

"Oh sweetheart-"

Her daughter stopped the inevitable apology. "And mom-" Caitlin broke into a real attempt at a smile. "Sometimes grown-up women need them too." She reached out for her mother and hugged her as tightly as she dared.

"We are going to check and double check your medical records from now on." Bette joked as she uncorked a bottle of champagne. "Nothing will go overlooked Livie. Trust us on that."

Caitlin dropped a hand to her little brother's shoulder and insisted he get up. Sean started to blush the moment he looked at his mother. "Mom, don't cry. I wanted you to be happy."

"I am happy." Olivia insisted as she grabbed both of her grown children with a strength they had doubted she possessed. "I'm so happy I could-"

Bette tossed the champagne cork at her and it bounced lightly off her shoulder. "Don't even think about it."

Emily freed Trey from his chair at Gregory's nod and handed him to Sean. Sean took the lead this time and Gregory felt his heart swell with an unusual feeling of pride for his son.

"Emily, Bette, AJ and I had to get him a new passport in the American Embassy in Paris just to get him home, but we thought you'd like to know that we mutually decided on-"

Bette raised one of the champagne glasses she was filling. "I voted for Malachi. He is Greggy's son after all-"

Gregory gave her a dirty look as he took the glass of champagne from her hand.

AJ piped up guiltily as well. "I rather liked Armando-"

Bette handed him a glass with a sickeningly sweet smile. "Fancy that."

Sean shook his head and smiled at his mother and little brother as the baby entwined his fingers in her hair. "I knew you and Dad wanted him to be named after Dad, and though I thought it was a terrible idea when you were talking about it..." He looked over at his father for a moment before turning back to his mother's glowing expression. "I made sure his name was changed to Gregory Richards Jr. Just like you and Dad wanted." He shrugged to keep for looking too supportive of his father. "I think it grew on me."

Olivia grabbed him and crushed him to her with her free hand. "Honey- I am so, so very proud of you."

"Proud enough to let me in on the champagne?" Sean teased as he freed himself and retreated, blushing crimson, to his chair.

Gregory set a glass in front of him. "Go ahead, you just have to stay in tonight."

The smell of dinner cut through the roses and whetted the appetites of everyone present. Emily leaned over to him with a quiet grin. "That shouldn't be too hard."

"And the dinner was lovely darling. Absolutely lovely. However did you manage to get all of them into the house without me noticing?" Olivia set down her hair brush as she turned around on the vanity bench to smile at him with naked admiration.

Gregory stretched out on the bed and rolled up on his elbows to grin back devilishly. "You did fall asleep on me."

"That's right..." Olivia let her chocolate silk robe slip from her shoulders and reveal the low-cut back of her nightgown. The shade of ivory lent a glow to her skin in the weak light of the bedroom.

Gregory set aside the contractor's statement he was pretending to read and let his eyes wander the perfect line of her spine.

Olivia caught his hungry expression in the mirror as she picked up her hairbrush again. Pretending to tire with a difficult spot on the back of her head, she asked, "Darling would you be so kind?"

He left the bed in a moment and settled on the bench next to her. His pajama encased knee touched her thigh and left a hot spot that nearly shattered her resolve. Olivia closed her eyes and let him work out the last of the tangles in her hair. When he finished and set the brush down, Gregory dug gentle fingers into the knots of tension in her shoulders. His touch on her bare skin was gasoline on the fire.

Olivia slid the strap of her nightgown aside to give him unlimited access, but Gregory stopped just above her waist. "We can't." He whispered with greater remorse than she'd heard from him in a long time.

"We can talk." She hated lying to him nearly as much as she hating having him stop touching her.

Gregory rested his chin on her shoulder and covered her hands with his own. "All right."

Olivia brought her hands over his and snuggled into the warmth of his chest. "We haven't really talked about what happened."

He fidgeted with her fingers, and hugged her a little closer. "Do we need to?"

"No darling." Olivia turned around, slipping her legs inside of his as she faced him. "We don't. I think we are all right the way we are."

"I agree." Gregory switched his hands to her knees, enjoying the smooth silk over the smoother skin of her legs.

"And I'm happy." Olivia sighed deliciously and naughtily pulled a leg up over the bench. Her nightgown pulled tight for a moment before she found the slack in the skirt and let it fall between them. "Gregory, I am happier here with you than I've been in a very long time."

He played with the fabric and found her bare knee. Resisting the urge to tickle her, Gregory settled for burying his hands in silk.

Olivia burst into the same radiant smile she'd had at the dinner table. "At the risk of jinxing myself, I'm happier than I've ever been, right here. At this moment."

He wrinkled his nose playfully and kissed hers. "Don't get superstitious on me now."

He loved listening to her laugh. Olivia pushed him back a bit and tried to be serious as she toyed with something small on her dresser. "Would you mind just listening to me for a moment? So I don't lose my place?"

"Not at all." He folded his hands in his lap and channeled his professional calm. "Go ahead, I won't say a word until you let me."

Her hands retreated into her lap and Olivia watched them for a long moment before beginning. "You know I love you. and I think you know I love you more now than I ever had because I trust you. You saved my life, you literally pulled me from the jaws of death." Olivia couldn't watch the pain in his face so she kept her eyes on her hands. "And if that wasn't enough, you were ready to follow me to the afterlife."

Olivia's voice dropped in embarrassment. "I never believed anyone could feel that way for me. Where I was the center of their universe. I didn't think I could feel that way-" Looking up at him brought a flush to her cheeks. "At least not until I met you."

His half-smile made her blush all that more brightly. "You were extraordinary. You lived life more passionately than anyone I had ever met, or even heard about. You were unique. Fascinating and dangerous and wonderful all at the same time. Having you, and winning your heart made me feel like I could be as special and as amazing as you asked me to be."

Her hands stayed firmly in her lap, but Olivia's eyes wandered, her eyebrows tightened as more unpleasant memories came to the surface. "I'm not trying to forget our hard times because if we did that, if we let ourselves go on as if nothing had happened, our relationship wouldn't be what it is." Her hair bounced gently on her cheek as she turned back to him.

"And it's the most precious thing in the world to me-" Olivia caught him opening his mouth to interrupt and corrected herself for him. "Aside from our children."

Gregory kept quiet but he shared her contentment. It was impossible not to when it radiated off of her like it was light itself.

She lifted her hands, still clenched together and opened them up just in front of him. Lying in a perfect circle on the outstretched shelf of her palm, was his wedding ring. "We share a past, beautiful and terrifying as it may be, it's ours. It's our house. And now with our children here it's a home again. Our home. We're bound together by so many things, it only seems right that the future should be ours as well."

Olivia giggled suddenly as nerves got the better of her. "You'll have to forgive me if I get this wrong, I've never had to do it before." Slipping off the bench, Olivia knelt carefully on the floor next to his feet. His wedding band was still there in her hand, waiting for him.

"Gregory Richards-will you marry me?" Lips trembling as if she was caught on the verge between laughter and tears, Olivia waited.

It was Gregory's turn to be speechless. He tried to open his mouth, but nothing happened. Finally, clumsily, he reached for the ring as he slipped off the bench to join her on the thick carpet of their bedroom.

"Liv-" He blurted out finally, feeling as tongue-tied as a freshman again. Nothing he could think of was good enough to be a response.

Melting her lips into his, Olivia took the last of his breath away. Leaving him emptied on the floor, she retreated to the bed and sat down on the corner. Leaning forward gave him a spectacular view of her cleavage, and she knew it by the wicked glint in her eye. "I thought you might need some time to think, and I saved this as the perfect way to give you the time to decide what you wanted to say."

Olivia reached for the strings holding the front of her nightgown closed. "Dr. Robinson gave me the okay."

"Okay?" Gregory looked from her to his wedding ring and back to her. Incredulity made him look like a little boy again. "Liv-" His eyebrows shot up in surprise as her suggestion cut it's way home. "Olivia-"

She dropped all pretense and snapped her fingers as if he were Spike into the garbage again. "Get over here right now."

Gregory slid his wedding ring onto his hand for safe keeping as he climbed up to the bed. "As you wish."

Olivia found his wedding ring on his hand and twisted it once playfully. "Don't give in too much." She ran the string for the front of her nightgown right beneath his nose. "I might get used to it."

Starting at the bottom of the bodice, he ripped the lacing open. Gasping her shock and appreciation, Olivia was still startled when he shoved her back to the bed. "Can't let that happen now, can I?"

"No..." Olivia bit her lip and shivered as he started to work his way up. "You really just can't."