A/N: Last chapter guys :) Hope you enjoyed the story and have a great Christmas! Thanks for reading (and reviewing ;)!
Rory is still growling at me when everybody is gathered in the dining room. It's not a mad growling, it's more of a 'wait-what-I'll-do-to-you' growling. It's cute!
Finn is his old, 'normal', self. Nothing Finn does is normal, but his behavior is not stranger that on an average day. Although I still don't know what was up with him earlier.
Jack is sitting next to me in Lailie's old high chair and suddenly I remember why I constantly had to buy new sweaters when Lailie was his age. Half of his food magically finds its way on my right arm. The mashed potatoes add a nice yellow touch to my brown cashmere sweater.
Lailie and Henry occupy the large window seat, sitting Indian-style and eating a weird mixture of mashed potatoes with stuffing and gravy.
"So, lovely Rory, whom do we have thank for this amazing dinner tonight?"
"What, Finn, are you implying my wife can't make a home-cooked meal?"
Everybody chuckles as Rory starts pouting.
"You are mean! And, believe me or not, I made part of this dinner myself!"
Colin quickly glances over the table. "Please, Rory, do tell me what! So I can avoid it…"
Steph slaps his arm. "Colin! Rude!" Then adding, leaning towards Rory. "Don't worry about him. He doesn't even know how to work the dishwasher."
Now it's Colin's turn to growl. "Tiny teasing… you won't live it down…" I hear him mumble.
A few moments later, all you can hear is the clicking sounds of silverware touching plates and the Christmas carol CD supplying us with soft tunes since everybody is enjoying their food.
"Oh my God! You're pregnant!"
Suddenly Finn's Australian accent fills the room and makes everybody flinch and stop what they have been doing.
"Geez, Finn, give a girl some warning!" It's Rory who breaks the silence. "And Logan already told you yesterday."
Finn looks at her, shakes his head and starts making weird moves with his arms.
"No, not you! Although, you, too. But I don't mean you, I mean her!"
Colin swallows. "Steph, is there anything-"
"No, Colin. I'm not pregnant! Although, given that Rory is, we might want to-"
"No." He shakes his head strongly. "Don't even think about it!"
"Ha, we'll see who wins this discus-"
"No, it's not Steph!" Finn voices again. He turns his head, staring at Miranda who is sitting next to him.
"Miranda, are you pregnant!"
The woman in focus, by now everybody is staring at her, puts her napkin down and starts clapping her hands.
"Wow, Finn. I'm impressed. It took you only 3 hours to react to what I told you."
Very confused, but also very sincere, he looks at her.
"Miranda, darling, who did this to you?"
She stops clapping and gasps at him.
"No, wait, don't tell me!" He gets up and gets something out of his pocket before he moves his chair. Suddenly, he gets down on one knee.
"Please, lovely Miranda! Do me the honor and agree to marry me! I promise, I'll make you an honorable woman! I will love this child just like my own and I will not kill the guy that impregnated you and left. Please, Miranda, will you marry me?"
Opening the little box, he reveals the engagement ring that I've seen many times before.
Gasping Miranda has turned into irritated Miranda.
"Finn! Are you nuts?" She yells at him, he stares at her. With big cow eyes nonetheless.
"But, Miranda," he stammers, "I love you and I promise I'll accept this child as my own, no questions asked! Though, I'll kill that bastard…"
She's still yelling at him. "Finn! You are the father, you are the bastard! It is your child!"
Suddenly Finn is taken aback. His voice is almost squeaky when he speaks again. "My child? I'm gonna be a daddy?"
I hear how Colin groans from the other end of the table.
"Yes!" Miranda takes Finn's face in her hands. "Yes, you're gonna be a daddy! And yes, I will marry you, if that offer is still good. Or will you only marry me if someone else got me pregnant?"
Finn just stares off into space, still kneeling on the dining room floor, his face in Miranda's hands, still holding up the little ring box.
Sighing Miranda waves her hand in front of his face. "Please, Finn, not again!"
Taking the ring from the box, she turns towards us, the gasping crowd.
"Well, guys, he asked, I answered with yes, now I get to wear the ring, right?" Quickly she slips the ring on her left hand and leans down to kiss Finn.
"Yes, Honey, I love you, too."
Dinner is forgotten. The ladies jump at Miranda, pulling her arm to see the ring. The hugging and squeaking show from earlier plays again, only with three instead of two actors.
Again it is Colin, my partner in crime, who sits down next to me to watch the live exhibition of female anticipation and happiness.
"Well, Colin," I say, "guess who will have a really, really hard time of talking his wife out of getting pregnant again?"
His voice is almost whiny when he answers. "You know what? Actually the baby part is not the worst; it's the pregnancy that really wears me down! Both times I was pregnant with her, I had to puke in the morning, gained a lot of weight and you can't imagine those cramps I had when she went into labor…"
I just have to laugh at him. "Colin, you're such a sissy!"
Lucky for us, Finn doesn't need another 3 hours to come back to life this time. As soon as Colin and I pull him into the living room and put a drink in his hand, he's capable of speaking and expressing his thoughts.
"Wow. I'm going to be a dad!"
His smile spreads over his entire face. I've never seen Finn like this. Except for when we were at boarding school and he smoked that weird mixture… He thought that the headmistress was in love with him and he kept smiling like a clown, a really dumb clown.
"Wow, I'm going to get married…"
Suddenly the smile fades and he turns pale.
"I can't get married! What about all those women? All those red heads that are waiting for me? I can't commit to only one lady!"
He looks panicked.
"Finn!" Colin interrupts him and throws a pillow square at his face.
"Finn, buddy, you've been with Miranda for two years now. And as far as I know, the two of you are having a plain old commitment relationship. There are no more red heads waiting, Miranda is the only red head you've been seriously interested in for a long time. You love her, she loves you. Why can't you get married?"
"Because I'm too young! I haven't conquered the world yet! I'm not ready to settle down and get dragged into a life of mini vans and wedding anniversaries. I'm too young to be unhappy."
"What do you mean, Finn?" I raise my eyebrows at him, "do you want to say that married life equals unhappy life?"
He shrugs his shoulders.
"Forget it! Finn, Rory and I have been married six years and 279 days. Are we still is love? Yes. Do we fight? Yes. Do we make up again? Of course! And there are bad times but usually good times and even if times are rough, I wouldn't want to miss a single day with her. I'd say that every day I do not spend with Rory and Lailie is a lost day but never was a day I spent with them an unhappy day."
Colin nods absentmindedly and adds: "Finn, you've had that ring for a year now. Why did you buy it if you didn't want her to marry you? Why on earth did you ask her, if you didn't want her to say yes?"
Suddenly Finn jumps up and starts pacing up and down the room like a tiger. In my mind I see how in cartoons people wear off the flooring and fall through the ceiling of the room below whenever they are pacing.
Abruptly he stops, jumps over the back of the couch and leans back into the cushions.
"Gentlemen," he announces cheerfully, "I'll be a daddy and I'll get married. Both kind of scare the shit out of me right now, but I think this calls for a celebration!"
The look Colin and I exchange says 'let's just accept it before he turns even weirder'.
We are joined by the ladies a couple of minutes later. Miranda eyes Finn suspiciously but finds him in a very, almost too happy mood. But, just like everybody else, she simply accepts Finn's mood since it's way better than the previous 'mute' Finn.
With lots of champagne (real as well as fake) and lots of joy and laughter we celebrate two babies and one engagement.
Is it quite late when Colin returns from putting the boys to sleep in the guest bedroom and joins me at the door to bid Finn goodbye.
I'm quite happy that he is in a way better state than he was when he came to our house tonight. Finn claims that the three of us need to celebrate the recent developments again sometime, in a more manly fashion, meaning cigars and some decent scotch.
We agree to put some kind of plan together for New Years Eve, maybe take the ladies and kids to New York.
"Finn! Come on, move your butt over right now!" Miranda's voice echoes over the front lawn.
"Gentlemen, you have heard my lovely wife-to-be. Have a wonderful night. And Colin, have fun impregnating your wife!"
Finn turns around smirking and Colin is about to go after him but I pull him back into the house.
Laughing I say: "Colin, he's right! You know what? Let's make a bet!"
"A bet?"
"Yes! If Steph doesn't end up pregnant within half a year, I'll give you my new boat for your summer vacation."
"Logan, that's not fair!"
"Why not?"
"Because the only way I could stay away from her would be me working in California 'til summer."
"I'm sorry Colin. But you know what? I know a really good fitness center where you can lose all that baby fat…"
Lailie is still awake when I enter her room. She's sitting on the ottoman, watching Strawberry who is peacefully snoozing on the armchair, snuggled into the yellow blanket.
"Hey Pix, are you planning on sleeping on the ottoman tonight?" She giggles slightly and hushes at me.
"Strawberry is sleeping," she whispers in a very low voice.
"I know," I whisper back and pick her up. "And I know another little girl who should be asleep right now as well!"
She crawls between the sheets, eyes still focused at the cat, and I sit on the side of the bed.
"So Pixie, how do you like Christmas now?"
"I love it!" She beams. "First I get a baby brother and then I get a kitten! You're not mad at mommy anymore and Aunt Steph said that I was behaving like a great big sister when I played with Henry and Jack tonight."
"So everything is good?"
"Yes!"
"And Pix?"
"Yes Daddy?
"You know Strawberry is not a toy. She's a real cat! And you are responsible for her. You need to feed her and give her something to drink and make sure she's ok. Understood?"
"Yes Daddy, Mommy already told me! She also said that I'm not allowed to pull her and push her and put doll clothes on her and I'm not supposed to carry her around all the time cause she can walk and until she is bigger, I have to make sure that she won't fall off the stairs."
Wow, Rory seems to be a lot better at the talk, although I wonder where that doll clothes part comes from…
But I've got something to add.
"And Pix, no cat on the bed! She can sleep on the armchair or in her basket or wherever she wants to sleep but I don't want her to sleep on or in your bed. Clear?"
"Crystal clear…" she sighs and glances a last time at the sleeping cat.
Smiling she looks at me.
"Daddy, it was a great Christmas!"
"I think so too! Now, off to sleep! Sweet dreams Pixie!" Kissing her forehead I add: "I love you!"
"I love you too! And I'm really looking forward to next year's Christmas 'cause then my little brother will join us!"
"Yes, but that isn't 'til next year."
I'm happy how everything ended up this year. Rory and I will have to have the talk about keeping things from each other during the next couple of days.
Chuckling, I have to think about next years Christmas party with the boys and their ladies. There will be, probably, three little babies in attendance so chances are pretty high that next year Christmas will be just as eventful as this year. And I'll have to stock up on sweaters if Junior turns out to be anything like his big sister.
And we still have to think about the living arrangements.
But not now, not when my beautiful wife is laying next to me in bed, smelling like lemon shampoo, her head resting on my chest.
All of this doesn't have to be discussed 'til next year.