It had been 6 weeks – 6 weeks since Erica has stormed out of the condo after Kendall told her that she wouldn't be a part of this baby's life if she couldn't accept him as a part of the baby's life as well.
As the bulge on Kendall started to grow, so did Zach's love for this child that technically wasn't his. He was doing everything in his power to give Kendall and the baby all the love that they needed and deserved. He would catch her, though, staring off and he knew that, as much as Bianca could help from Paris, she wanted her mother periodically. Even Babe, whose relationship with Kendall was strained at best, tried to help and advise as best she could and as much as Kendall would let her. Opal and Myrtle did the best they could – they helped Kendall and talked and talked and talked to Erica, but to no avail. Even Zach had gone so far as to meet with Jackson to see if any progress had been made. But, they both knew that Erica was a proud woman and would not cave easily. It had taken Erica so long to warm up to the idea of Miranda, who belonged to the apple of Erica's eye. They just hoped that Erica would thaw sooner rather than later.
Zach had surprised Kendall with a late afternoon picnic and refused to allow her to return to work till the next morning. They had an early dinner on an unusually warm day in an empty plot of land that Kendall had never seen before and did some shopping before returning home.
Zach had taken to talking to the baby at night while Kendall lay there. Sometimes he would do it while she slept, sometimes he would do it while she stared at him like he had lost his mind, but he did it every night.
"Why" she had finally asked him one night.
"So he's not surprised at the sound of my voice" he said, very matter of factly before returning reading the sports page to the baby.
Tonight, he was telling the baby all about his cousin Miranda when Kendall popped up on her elbows and looked at him.
"William Alexander."
He turned his head and looked at her. "What?"
"Well, it just occurred to me that he's going to be here in about 5 months and that he should probably have a name by the time he does. What about William Alexander – we could call him Will."
He smiled at her and was touched. "William is a good name, but don't feel like you have to use Alexander. Use whatever you want."
She returned his smile and sat all the way up. He sat up with her and she placed her hand on his cheek. "It's who you are. Zach, Alexander Jr – it's still you, regardless of the name. It's still your heart, your brain, your smile, your devilishly good looks – it's you. So choose, Alexander or Zachary, because it's going to be one of the two."
She still managed to do this, even after all this time, she could still wow him and make his heart beat just a little bit faster. Sometimes all she had to do was walk in a certain way, or purr his name when she wanted him or something she spied in a window. Most of the time, it was her words. He doubted that she even realized how her words really affected him.
"Alexander. William Alexander… what, Hart, Lavery?"
The name was out of his mouth before he realized it. Just mentioning Lavery made her sit up straight. Ryan had made no contact since the night he found out about Kendall and Zach. Zach knew that Erica and Ryan had been meeting regularly – Jackson had filled him in on that.
"Kendall, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"
She smiled at him. "It's fine. Slater, by the way. I don't know why you would think it would be anything but Slater."
Zach smiled at his wife. "William Alexander Slater."
"Will Slater" she whispered back to him.
"A good strong name, Will Slater" he whispered back, crawling up the bed toward her.
She cocked an eyebrow at him and scooted back till she was against the headboard. He quickly caught up and stole her breath with a soul searing kiss. He pulled back when the need for oxygen became too great and sat next to her. She rolled onto her side and cuddled up next to him.
He sighed and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Well, I've been thinking about something too."
She turned her head up to look at him. "What's that?"
"We need to move." They spent most of their time in Kendall's condo, but Zach still had the place across the courtyard. Kendall joked that it was going to be his place to escape to when she became 'pregnant crazy' and that he had probably gotten the locks changed so that he could hide from her in there. Zach swore he only kept the place because he had nowhere else to put all the furniture.
"I know. I want a house with a yard."
Zach just smiled and scooted out of her embrace.
She sat up, confused. "Where are you going?"
"Be right back" he yelled over his shoulder. He was back a minute later with his briefcase. "I have a secret" he said as he pulled some papers out of his briefcase.
"What?"
He held out a stack of papers in her direction. "Well, our picnic today on that piece of land you thought was so pretty. Yeah, we own that."
She sat up on her knees and scooted toward him. "Since when?"
He smiled and sat down on the bed. "Since last week. I've just been waiting for a nice day to take you out there."
She looked down at the deed to the land she was holding in her hand.
"I've got another secret."
Kendall just stared at him, wide eyed.
"Look at the next page."
She flipped the page to see a copy of blue prints. As she perused them, she gasped. "This… this would seem to be blueprints of my dream house."
"It is. They break ground tomorrow."
She launched herself at him. He just chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her. "Surprised?"
"Pleasantly. Zach, this is… this is perfect, but won't it take awhile to get a house built."
Zach smirked at her. "Not when you tell them that money is no option and the house has to be ready in 5 months for a new baby."
She was shocked. "It's going to be done before the baby is born."
"Yeah, but probably only by an hour or so."
She sighed and looked up at this wonderful man. Why anyone would want them apart was beyond her. "I love you so much."
"I love you too, Kendall."
She latched on to his lips and pulled him back onto the bed. He rolled them over so she was on top of him.
"Make love to me" she whispered into his ear.
"Anytime, my love" he whispered back.
They quickly fell into the family routine – he took her to doctor's appointments. He made sure that Simone took her shopping for new clothes when she needed them. He took her out to the house a few weeks after construction had started and she instantly fell in love.
"With what? The studs? All the wood and mud?"
She turned around and glared at him. "Men! Can't you see it – it's a home." She turned back and sighed, looking at the house. "I love it."
He stood next to her and glanced at her then at the house then back at her. "I don't see it" he said, scratching his forehead.
Kendall glared up at her husband. "Men. C'mon, let's get out of here."
A couple of weeks later, Zach was out on the floor, watching a few of the dealers and helping the pit bosses for the shift change when he heard his name yelled from across the casino floor.
"ZACH!"
He turned and saw Babe running full steam ahead toward him. She stopped when she got to him and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to regain her composure.
"Sorry" she said, taking large gulps of air "I kind of sprinted in here from the valet."
He just stared at her. "Okay…"
"Look, something… I'm not sure what's up, but…"
He started to get worried. "Babe, what is it?"
"Well, we were just sitting there, reading the projections from production and Kendall was reviewing the quarterly profit report and explaining it to me and Simone when she just…"
His heart started beating quicker than he thought was healthy. "What?"
"I don't know… she just… she just stopped what she was doing and just started staring off into space. Then she looked at me and Simone dropped the report on her desk and said she needed to go. She was out the door before we could stop her and now she's not answering her phone. We've been to your condos, to Dr. Madden's, BJ's – hell, we even drove through the lot at the Pine Cone and called Josh to see if she stopped by the studios, but… no one's seen her."
Zach bolted off the casino floor and out toward the valet. He yanked his phone out of his pocket and demanded that the valet have his car waiting out front in 30 seconds or they were all fired.
Babe was hot on his heels as he flew through the lobby and out the door. He ran around to the driver side and started to get in.
"Where are you going?" Babe yelled to him.
"To look for Kendall" he yelled back.
"But where? Where could she…"
"She's at the house" Simone yelled as she flew out of the passenger side of Ethan's car. "Danni just called – the manager at your house just called her at the office, saying that Kendall was sitting up in on the second floor in one of the room just humming to herself."
Zach threw a thanks over his shoulder before he climbed into the driver's seat and careened out of the parking lot.
He managed to make it to the house in record time from the casino – how Ethan and Babe had managed to keep up with him, he would never know. He flew out of his car and up the steps and into the shell of the house.
The workers had gotten all the exterior walls, the roof, and the second floor done in record time, just like they had promised Zach they would when he offered to pay them double if they could have the house done before the baby was born.
He stepped into the large room on the first floor and saw three of the worker just standing there.
"Where is she?" he growled at them.
"She's upstairs. We've tried to talk to her, but she's just sitting there…"
He didn't even stay to hear the guy finish his sentence – he just shot up the stairs. He looked in a couple of rooms on one end of the floor before heading to the other. When he looked in the first room, his breath caught in his throat.
There she was, sitting in a folding chair with her eyes closed, humming and rubbing her stomach.
"Kendall…" he said softly.
She opened her eyes and smiled at him. "Zach."
He took a couple of steps toward her. "Kendall, what are you…"
She waved him over. "Come here, quick."
He crossed the room to her and she grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach and covered his hand with hers.
He looked at her for a moment. "Kendall, what are we doing?"
She smiled up at him. "Just wait a minute."
He just stood there. After a few seconds, he started feeling foolish and was about to speak again when he felt a thud against his hand.
He just stared down at their hands. "What the hell was that?"
She laughed. "He's kicking."
Zach stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language. "Kicking? Wait, will he…"
And just like that, the baby kicked against his hand again. Zach laughed and crouched down, staring at his wife's belly.
"Oh my god" he whispered.
"I know" she said as he looked up at her. "I was just standing there talking to Simone and Babe. I just happened to place my hand on my stomach and just… kicked. I froze for a moment, not really sure if it was real or if I was hallucinating, but then it happened again and I just… I just…" And then it hit here – what she had done when she left the office and that Zach was sitting in front of her in the middle of the afternoon.
She shot out of the chair. "Oh holy god. I probably scared the living hell out of them and they went to get you…" She threw her arms around Zach. "I'm sorry" she whispered in his ear.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and smiled into her hair. "It's alright, but next time, how about you just share the good news instead of scaring the hell out of everyone."
She pulled back and smiled up at him. "OK. You mad?"
"Just worried" he said as he leaned in to kiss her.
Kendall apologized to the work men as they left the house and to Babe, Simone, and Ethan for scaring them. They all were just happy she was alright and each got to feel the baby kick.
Zach handed Simone the keys to Kendall's car and asked her to follow them back to the condo. Kendall had insisted that she was fine and wanted to go back to work, but Zach said no way.
"It's been an exciting day and I think we deserve to call it a day early" he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
She couldn't help herself when he gave her that look. She would agree to just about anything when he did that, and this time was no different. Ethan and Simone followed Zach and Kendall back to the condo while Babe headed back to Fusion to shut down for the day and let everyone else know that Kendall was fine.
Zach locked the door to the condo and sat down next to his wife, who just stared down at her growing stomach.
"What are you thinking" he asked as he played with a stray strand of her hair.
She looked up at him with tears in his eyes. "He's real. This… it's all really happening. For the first time, when he kicked that first time, it was like that maternal bond kicked in. We're going to really be a family with a son and… it's just all real."
"You bet it is" he said as he leaned over her and placed a kiss on her stomach. He sat back up and pulled her into his side. She sighed and molded to him and there they sat, relishing in the idea of this family and the reality that it would soon be.
TBC…. (I'm figuring probably three more chapters, so enjoy!)