Olivia fought against being awake, she found the peace of bed far too pleasant, but someone was laughing. Roger, she decided without opening her eyes. Roger was often laughing and that meant she could go back to sleep. Rolling over, she intended to forget all about the noise in her room. Someone flopped onto the bed next to her, he was laughing as well, and that struck her as odd.

The only person who would jump onto the bed next to her was Gregory, and he didn't start out his mornings laughing. Deeply reluctant, she opened her eyes just a tad. Roger threw open the curtains and she knew she was done sleeping for the day when the bright sunlight sliced into her eyes.

Hiding her eyes beneath her hand, she listened as the two men talked over her head. "Come on sweetheart. We've been up since dawn making breakfast and you're going to love it."

Moving her hand aside, she stared at her husband, entirely dumbstruck. "You don't cook."

Still laughing, Gregory pulled her up and set up the pillows behind her. "Neither does Roger really, but we had a rather strict mistress force us to this morning."

"Payment for use of her kitchen last night." Roger explained as he set the tray of breakfast over her legs. "Gregory makes an excellent gallery slave. You'd be proud of him."

Kissing her cheek, Gregory coaxed her to open her eyes. "We brought it all the way up here for you."

"And it's time for me to go for my run." Roger announced tactlessly. "That way you two can get all romantic without making me lose my breakfast."

Opening her eyes slowly, she caught Roger's wink to her husband as he disappeared from their room. Gregory tucked her hair back behind her ears and gestured to the tray. "I know it looks a little odd, but I can swear to you it is completely edible. I even brought you some coffee and orange juice."

Touched, she squeezed his elbow as he cut her first bite for her. "What did you make?"

"Oven pancakes. Marian tells us that they are good traditional food, from the 'old country'" The wry expression on his face made her giggle. He patiently held the fork in front of her mouth. "Think of it as a breakfast soufflé. Roger and I both loved it, even though we had a hand in making it."

Smiling, she took the fork into her mouth and smiled as she started to chew. He raised his eyebrows at her impishly and grinned. "I thought you'd like it."

She took a sip of her coffee while he refilled her fork. "How did you and Roger end up cooking?"

Admiring the way she curled her lips around the fork, Gregory fed her again. "We're the only ones here, and Roger was alone until we arrived. And you know Roger, always making friends with anyone in charge of the food."

Olivia licked sweet maple syrup from her lips slowly and waited for her next bite. "So he dragged you down to the kitchen?"

Catching a stray drop of syrup with his thumb, Gregory nodded, seeming surprised with his own behavior. "I was up anyway, and it was that or go running with him."

"I think you did a good job on this." She assured him as he cleaned some more syrup from her cheek with his tongue delicately.

Gregory stole a sip of her juice and smiled, "It was nice to do something with my hands, not to think about anything but the eggs I was beating."

"I'm glad you're having a good time darling." She took the fork from his hand in order to squeeze his fingers. "I was worried about you."

"Nicholas meant more to me then I realized." He replied softly as he cut more of her slice of pancake. "The only model I ever had of a father was a cruel monster, and even though I try so hard not to be like him, I think about the hurt I caused you, Sean and Caitlin and I can't help wondering if I am just as bad."

Swallowing her breakfast through the lump in her throat was difficult. "You're not a monster Gregory." Olivia promised with eyes that were already stinging.

His small laugh was just a hiss of air in his throat. Gregory took the cloth napkin from the tray and dabbed at her eyes. "Hey, sweetheart, you're going to get salt all over your breakfast."

With tears cascading down her face in earnest, Olivia realized it was a real problem and started to giggle nearly hysterically. Moving breakfast safely out of the way, Gregory pulled her to his chest, folding her close. "It's all right Liv."

"We're all right."

"I'm sorry." She whispered to his chest, "I can't help it."

Rocking her gently on the bed, he was smiling softly when she came up from his arms. "Are you going to be able to eat without ruining your breakfast now?"

Olivia nodded slowly, still more choked up then she wanted to admit. His hand was gentle as he cleared remaining tears from her face. "I don't want you to think you're a monster," she protested as he brought the tray back and resumed his doting.

He kissed her forehead, nearly disturbing the coffee. "I can't really believe that when I around you. Sometimes it's the only time I feel human."

She held up her hand, stopping him from further admissions. "I'm going to cry all over your pancake."

Gregory used the napkin again, marveling at her endless capacity to feel things he had trouble understanding. "I wish you wouldn't."

"Stop being so sweet." She ordered softly.

He hardened his expression to his best courtroom sneer. "Better?"

Olivia's crying changed fully into giggling. His frozen expression was entirely out of place over his borrowed pajamas and lazily tied plaid robe. The waiting fork in his hand only added to sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

Covering her mouth shyly, she admitted, "I think your reputation would be damaged if people saw you like this."

Gregory looked at himself and then back at her with a genuine smile that warmed her heart. "Most definitely." He brought the fork to her lips and used the gentlest expression she on his face in years to coax her. "Please finish eating?"

Swallowing, Olivia wrapped her hands around his knee with renewed admiration. "If you keep feeding me I'm going to get spoiled. I might even get used to this kind of treatment."

Trying to remember the last time he feed her an entire meal, Gregory's mind went back to years ago. "I used to feed you lunch in bed, when you were pregnant with Caitlin."

He took another sip of orange juice and continued to search his memories.

"I used to get so worried about you. You never ate any breakfast and half the time you were still sleeping when I got home from work."

Olivia sighed and filled in the blanks in his thoughts. "I was anemic; all I wanted to do was sleep."

"And you had morning sickness, and you kept having those dizzy spells. I don't think I slept soundly from the day you told me you were pregnant."

Letting him resume his task, Olivia carefully spoke around the food in her mouth. "You were young."

"And a nervous wreck." He added with a self-depreciating chuckle. "I'm afraid I wasn't nearly as good to you when you were pregnant with Sean."

Shaking her head to get him off of the topic, Olivia put her hands on his face and held it. "It's all right now darling."

Gregory kissed her hands as he set them down on her lap, and tempted her with the fork again. "Do you ever wish we had another chance? To really get things right."

"I thought we were getting things right-" Olivia started to reply, before she realized what he was referring too. "Another baby?" She asked finally.

"I know both of us have so many things we regret about Sean and Caitlin's childhoods. Neither of us was there enough for them, and neither of us knew how to love them the way we should have." Licking syrup from his fingers, he gave her a weak smile. "Sometimes I wish I could take it all back, do it again and do all of it right this time."

Olivia didn't know what to say. Her latest bite sat half-chewed in her mouth for a long time as she tried to think. Finally she swallowed, and this time she set the tray away to crawl into his lap. "There are so many things I'd like to change, between us, with Cate and Sean, but I don't know if we can have another baby."

The quiet note of sorrow in her voice told him she was truly afraid of disappointing him. "I'm not as young as I used to be darling."

Kissing the top of her head, Gregory leaned back against the wall behind the headboard. "It was just talk Liv. Just foolish wishes. Don't worry about it, in fact, don't even think about it another minute. We have enough sad things to deal with today."

Wrapped tightly in his arms, Olivia knew the deep longing in his voice. She had no idea if she could have another child. Common sense told her she was still young enough to deal with her period once a month, and wasn't she in reasonably good health for her age? Did she even want another baby?

Looking up at Gregory's gentle smile cemented her resolve. As she snuck out of bed to climb into the shower, she spent a long moment looking at herself in the mirror. If he wanted another baby, then she did as well. Now the only question was if she could give him one.