Disclaimer: Not mine! Not mine! Not mine! Get the picture?

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Of course they have a baby! Do you really think I'd let them think they have a baby and then they end up without one? Wait... bad question. :P

Chylea3784: Thanks. My next story should be out the same day as the epilogue for this one.

Mz. Daydream: Glad I made ya happy. :P

AALover: Nope, I'm not that evil. They tell everyone else sometime in seven or eight months between now and the epilogue. :P

Melissa: Yay, you're not grounded! You'll see tomorrow if it's a boy or a girl, assuming I finish the epilogue in time.

Author's Note: I just couldn't resist writing this...

Chapter 36

Andros found Tawny in her bedroom later that night, attempting to teach her elephant to give rides to a doll twice its size. Stifling a laugh, he moved in front of her, kneeling down to get her attention.

"Hey, Tawny," he said, lifting his daughter up into his arms, smiling as he felt her small arms encircle his neck. "Your mommy and I have a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" Tawny's eyes lit up. "I wanna see!"

Andros chuckled softly and carried her into his and Ashley's room, dumping her carefully down into her mother's lap as Ashley scooted over, making room for the three of them on the bed.

"Where's the surprise?" Tawny asked, glancing around the room in anticipation.

"It's not that kind of a surprise," Andros said, smiling over Tawny's head at Ashley, who was positively glowing with joy. "Ask your mommy."

"Mommy, what the surprise?"

Ashley grinned and reached out to pull Tawny close. "Tawny, you're going to be a big sister."

"Sister?" Tawny's eyes became perfectly round as she contemplated the word. "Mommy, what does that mean?"

"It means," Ashley said softly, kissing the top of her daughter's head, "that I'm having a baby."

"Baby?" Tawny wrinkled her nose in thought for a moment and then nodded. "A baby like my dolly?"

"Not exactly," Andros said, taking over for Ashley as she swallowed down her laughter. "This is a real baby, like you were once."

"A real baby?" Suddenly, Tawny understood and shrieked with laughter. "Can I have one too?"

"Someday," Ashley said. "When you're all grown up."

"When that?"

"Never," she heard Andros mutter, and laughed. He looked at her sheepishly and shrugged.

"In about fifteen years," Ashley said. "That's a long time."

"Have two?" Tawny suggested hopefully. "One for you. One for me."

"I don't think so, angel," Andros said. "There's usually just one."

"Oh," Tawny said, disappointment taking over her small features. "Where baby?"

"It won't be here for a while," Ashley said, unsure of whether to laugh or cry at the sudden sadness on Tawny's usually cheerful face.

"When baby get here?"

"In about eight months," Ashley told her.

Tawny looked completely crestfallen now. "I want baby now!"

"So do we," Ashley assured her. "But the baby is a tiny little thing right now, and it can't come until it's big."

"Baby tiny?"

Ashley nodded. "All babies are at first. You were very tiny."

"I big," Tawny insisted. "You say so."

"You are now," Andros told her. "But everyone is tiny when they're born."

"What born mean?"

Andros hesitated, very certain that this was a conversation that he did not want to have. "Umm... ask your mommy."

"All babies live inside their mommies for nine months," Ashley explained. "Their mommies keep them safe until they're big enough to come out."

"The baby inside you?" Ashley nodded and Tawny's eyes went wide. "How?"

"Umm..." Ashley's eyes flickered to Andros, who grinned at her before becoming very interested in his hands. She could see his entire body quivering as he tried not to laugh and suddenly smiled sweetly at Tawny. "Daddy will tell you."

Andros's head shot up and he cast her a half-hearted glare that faded steadily into a half smile as Ashley simply stared innocently back at him. He shot her a look that promised revenge, sighed, and turned his attention to the little girl watching him expectantly. "Your mommy and I made a baby, but the baby needs somewhere to live until it's strong enough to be born, so all babies live inside their mommies."

Tawny nodded. "How do you make a baby?"

Ashley groaned as Andros smirked at her. "Mommy will tell you."

"Umm..." Ashley wracked her brain frantically, searching for an explanation that wouldn't be too much for a three year old to handle, the only one she was able to come up with incredibly cheesy and cliche. "When people love each other, there's something special that they do together that can sometimes make babies."

"Like what?" Tawny looked completely intrigued now, and Ashley groaned again, not knowing how to simplify matters any further, but prefering to keep Tawny sheltered for just a year or two longer.

She glared at Andros's smug face over Tawny's shoulder. She fully accepted that when Tawny as old enough to understand it was her duty as a mother to explain to her daughter about marriage, love, and the functions of certain body parts, but until then...

"Ask Daddy," she smirked.

Tawny obediantly turned to Andros. "Daddy?"

"Babies get made when two people have sex," Andros informed her calmly, his face slowly turning bright red.

"What that?"

"I'll tell you when you're older," Ashley cut in, not giving Andros the satisfaction of diverting the question to her, and hastily changed the subject. "Are you excited about being a big sister?"

Tawny nodded. "Baby be a girl."

"We can't choose that, angel," Andros told her, as willing as Ashley to let their earlier conversation become forgotten. "You might get a brother."

"Brother?" Tawny wrinkled her nose. "Boy?"

"Yeah," Ashley said. "But brothers are good, too. Uncle Jeff is my brother. You like Uncle Jeff, don't you?"

Tawny nodded. "But I want girl."

"We'll see," Ashley said, yawning. "Good night."

"Night, Mommy."

"Come on, angel," Andros said, scooping her up into his arms. "Let's get you into bed."

After he tucked Tawny in, he returned to his room. The instant Ashley saw the look on his face, she groaned, covering her face with her hands as she lay back against the pillows.

"Don't say a word," she threatened him. "Or you might not live to see this baby."

"You owe me," he informed her, the severity of his tone lost when he started to laugh softly.

"I know." Ashley laughed sheepishly. "But you started it."

"I started it?" he repeated. "I just didn't know how to explain what being born meant!"

"Ohhh..." Ashley said slowly, breaking down into near hysterical laughter. "Oops... Sorry."

Andros smirked and scooted closer to her, his hands going straight to her sides. Ashley started giggling helplessly, unable to do anything but laugh and squirm around, uselessly trying to escape as Andros tortured her sides.

"Not fair," she gasped. "You know I'm ticklish!"

The smug look on Andros's face only grew, and he slid his hands under her shirt, his hands moving over her bare skin as Ashley's squirming increased.

"Andros! Stop it!" she shrieked, paralyzed with laughter. "You fight dirty!"

He only smirked again and leaned in for a kiss. Ashley wrapped her arms around his neck, still laughing to hard to keep her mouth on his for any length of time longer than a few seconds. Her giggles turned out to be contagious, and a moment later, Andros was laying beside her, laughing as hard as she.

"I... really am... sorry," she gasped out, taking several deep breaths in a row to calm herself. "I didn't know it would make you that uncomfortable... I was just... having fun..."

"Having fun?" he repeated, doing his best to look wounded, failing miserably because Ashley had regained more control than he had.

"Sorry," she repeated, now actually sounding slightly apologetic. "I just felt like being silly..."

Andros laughed again. "I know," he said ruefully. "No one has more right to be happy than you do."

"I am happy," she informed him, as if he couldn't have figured it out on his own.

"I know you are," he said with a grin, reaching out to smooth a few stray hairs out of her eyes. With her brown eyes sparkling the way they were, he couldn't doubt the truth of her words. Ashley was happy, truly happy, and there was absolutely nothing he wouldn't do to keep her that way.