Elizabeth sat on the sofa, sighing and leaning her head against Jack's shoulder.

"Beth? What's wrong?"

"Another negative." She blinked away the tears that started to fill her eyes. "I know it can take time, but I really thought I'd be pregnant by now."

"It's only been five months since we got married and started trying, sweetheart. It'll happen for us. Sometimes, it just takes a little longer."

"I know, I'm just feeling impatient. I love you, and I love the little family we have with Harrison, but I just want to have a baby with you so badly."

"I think you're putting too much pressure on yourself." He put his hand on her cheek. "Let's just enjoy being with each other, and if we happen to make a baby, then that's great."

"It's my fault if we can't have a baby."

"What are you talking about?"

"You've fathered a baby before. There's obviously nothing wrong with you." She glanced down at her hands in her lap. "What if there's something wrong with me, and that's why I haven't gotten pregnant yet?"

"Sweetheart." He took her hands, waiting until she looked him in the eye. "We aren't even close to the point of speculating if something is wrong."

"When can we worry?"

"Typically they don't want to run tests unless it's been a year of actively trying. So see? We have plenty of time. Like I said, we'll just enjoy our time together, and we're not going to focus on whether or not that time together will result in a baby. Okay?"

"Okay."

"And speaking of time together…" he gave her a mischievous smile, offering his hand. "Harrison will be at Rosemary and Lee's for another hour."

"And whatever do you have in mind?" She slipped her hand into his.

"Oh, just a little something we can do to pass the time." He stood, tugging her along with him. "If you're up for it."

She gripped the bottom of his shirt with one hand, the other hand skimming across his bare stomach. "Oh, I think I'm up for it."

...

"Good morning, sweetheart." Jack smiled, handing her a mug of coffee as she walked into the kitchen.

"Thank you." She sank down into a chair, sniffling.

"Are you feeling okay, Beth?" He asked, observing that she seemed a little under the weather.

"I'm fine. Do we have any allergy medicine?"

"I'll check. Give me a second."

She sipped on her coffee while she waited for him to return. Simba wandered into the room, sitting down beside her.

"Hi, boy." She scratched the top of his head. "What sort of trouble should we get into today?"

"Mommy?" Harrison shuffled in, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "We going camping today?"

"That's right. I think daddy already has the tent ready to set up out back."

He climbed up into a chair. "Daddy says we can go camping for real in summer."

"Camping for real?"

"Uh huh. And he says we're gonna catch fish and have them for dinner."

"That sounds like so much fun, Harrison."

"What sounds like fun?" Jack returned to the room, a box of tissues in one hand and a bottle of allergy medication in the other.

"When we go camping in summer for real."

"Oh, yeah. That'll be a blast." He set the tissues and medicine in front of Elizabeth. "Here you go. Do you need anything else?"

She shook her head. "It's just allergies, Jack. You don't need to coddle me."

"Are you sure you're okay with us still doing the backyard campout? We can do it another weekend when you're feeling better."

"No, daddy! You promised!"

"I'm fine, Jack," she assured him. "Harrison has been looking forward to this. Worst case scenario, I stay inside while you two spend the night in the tent."

"If you're sure."

"Jack." She gave him a look. "We're not changing the plans."

He put his hands up in surrender. "Okay. Okay."

"Daddy, I'm hungry."

Jack scooped him up, dropping kisses all over his face. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Um, blueberry pancakes."

"Blueberry pancakes? With extra butter and maple syrup?"

"Yes!" He reached up, trying to tickle Jack's chin.

"What are you doing, Sonny boy?" Jack tickled him back, eliciting big belly laughs from the little boy.

Elizabeth smiled as she watched him, thinking about how blessed she was to be welcomed into this little family, how blessed she and Harrison were to have Jack. "I love you both so much."

...

Harrison handed Jack another stake for the tent. Jack stuck it in the ground, holding the hammer out toward his son. "Do you want to do this one, bud?"

His eyes lit up. "Yes!" He took the hammer, intense focus coming over his face as he carefully swung it into the stake, driving it deeper into the ground.

"Great job." Jack ruffled his hair. "Now we need to attach the tent to this so it won't blow away if it gets windy."

"Then we have s'mores?"

Jack chuckled. "Not just yet. That's for right before bedtime. First, we're going to set up our sleeping bags, and then I'll grill us some hamburgers for dinner."

"Yum!"

Elizabeth stepped out of the house, carrying a couple of sleeping bags. "Is the tent ready yet?"

"Almost." He turned back to Harrison. "Hey, bud. I think mommy has a surprise for you over there." He nudged him toward Elizabeth.

"You got a surprise for me?" He looked up at her, eyes wide.

"I do. Take a look at your sleeping bag." She handed him the smaller sleeping bag she held, waiting for him to unroll it.

"Lion King?!"

"That's right." Elizabeth smiled at his enthusiasm. "When we were visiting grandma and grandpa Carter, they said they found this in their attic, and they wanted you to have it. It was your mommy's sleeping bag when she was your age."

"It was mommy's?" he said quietly, taking a good look at it.

"It was," she confirmed, running her fingers through his hair. "Remember daddy said she liked that movie a lot? Your grandparents said they might have more of her stuff like this that you can have."

"I'd like that."

"It looks like daddy has the tent ready now. Why don't we go get these sleeping bags all set up inside it?"

...

"Can I have another one?" Harrison asked, licking the sticky bits of marshmallow off of his fingers.

"Can you say 'please'?"

"Please, can I have another one?"

"Okay, but just one more." Jack put another marshmallow on a stick for him.

He held the stick out over the fire, trying to keep the marshmallow from catching. "You ever have s'mores before, mommy?"

Elizabeth chuckled. "Yes, I have. My grandparents lived on a farm, and we used to have a big campfire there every Saturday during the summer, and we'd roast marshmallows and make s'mores."

"Did you ride horses?"

"Sometimes. Maybe this summer, you and Aaron can go ride Blue some more."

"Yes, please!" he exclaimed.

"And maybe you can invite James to come with you," Jack suggested. "I'm sure he'd like that."

"Daddy?" Harrison asked, suddenly serious. "Will James be in kindergarten with me?"

"I don't know if he'll be in your class, but he'll be at the same school, so you'll at least see him at lunchtime and recess."

"Oh."

"Hey." Elizabeth rubbed his back. "Even if James isn't in your class, you might have some other friends from preschool with you. And you'll make lots of new friends. I promise. You're a very cool kid, Harrison Thornton."

"Okay, mommy. I need a graham cracker," he stated, satisfied with the school issue for the time being.

Jack handed one to him, along with a piece of chocolate. Meeting Elizabeth's eyes, he mouthed, "thank you."

She smiled in response, still rubbing Harrison's back as he put his s'more together.

"Harrison, if we go on vacation this summer, where should we go?"

"Um, to the zoo!"

Jack laughed. "That's not a vacation. We could go to the beach, or to the mountains."

He gasped. "We go camping in the mountains!"

Jack looked over at Elizabeth, who just shrugged. "Okay, we'll look into that, bud."

...

"I'm shocked he fell asleep so quickly," Jack whispered, crawling toward Elizabeth. "After two and a half s'mores, I expected he'd be all hyped up on sugar."

She laughed softly, lifting the edge of the sleeping bag so Jack could slide in beside her. "Well, I think the game of tag afterward probably helped get rid of some of that excess energy."

"Probably." He zipped the sleeping bag up the rest of the way, inching closer to her. "Maybe we should put a sleeping bag on our bed," he teased. "This is so cozy."

"I don't know. Our bed is already pretty cozy." She snuggled even closer to him. "You know what I realized today?"

"What?"

"It's been a year since we reconnected."

"Really? It feels like we've been together forever." He kissed her forehead. "I'm so glad I was invited to your sister's house for dinner that evening."

"So am I."

"Do you ever think about all the decisions you've made in life that have led you to where you are now? Like how making one choice differently could put you in a completely different position?"

"Sometimes."

He smiled. "So many choices led me to this moment right now. Deciding to move back here after Olive died, deciding to get a less stressful job and meeting Luke there, deciding to accept when he invited me to dinner."

"Deciding to meet up after that dinner, deciding to go on a date, deciding to get married."

He put a hand on her cheek, softly pressing his lips to hers. "I'd say I've made some very good decisions over the past couple of years."

"I agree."

"I love you, Beth." He kissed her again. "Good night, sweetheart."

"Love you. Good night." She snuggled into his chest, falling asleep to the sound of his soft breathing.

...

Harrison took Jack's hand as they walked toward the store. "What're we doin', daddy?"

"Mother's Day is coming up soon, so we're going to look for a present for mommy."

"Can I make two cards at school?"

"One for mommy and one for mommy in heaven?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We take one to mommy in heaven when we see grandma and grandpa."

"That sounds like a good plan, bud." He squeezed his hand. "What should we get for mommy?"

"Um, flowers!"

"We can get some flowers the day before. Should we get her some earrings? Or a necklace?"

Harrison's eyes lit up. "We get her Legos!"

Jack chuckled. "I guess we can go see what Legos we can find, but we'll have to go to a different store for that."

"Why?"

"Because they don't sell Legos here. Come on, maybe they have a nice locket we can get for mommy, and then we can put a picture of you in it."

"What's a locket?"

Jack picked him up, carrying him over to a jewelry case. "It's a necklace that opens up and has a tiny little picture frame in it. Usually, people put pictures of someone they love inside of it."

"Is that a locket?" He pointed at a necklace sitting in the case.

The gold, oval-shaped charm had delicate flowers etched into its surface.

"Looks like it. Do you like that one? It's very pretty."

Harrison nodded. "Mommy will like it."

"Why don't we look at a few more? Just in case we see one we like better."

Harrison pouted. "But the Legos!"

"The Legos will still be there when we're done here, bud." Jack laughed. "Why don't you start thinking about which Legos mommy would like best?"

"An animal," he said without hesitation. "'Cause she's a zookeeper. They got a tiger one."

"We'll see if they have that set when they go. What do you think about this locket?" He pointed at a necklace in front of him, this one a silver oval with a few diamonds around the edge.

He shook his head. "That's not the same color as the ring."

"You think we should get a gold one to match her engagement ring?"

"Uh huh. The other one is better."

"Okay. Let's go see if we can get a closer look at it."

A few moments later, Jack was holding the locket down where Harrison could see it.

"Mommy can put a picture of my baby brother on the other side!" he exclaimed when he realized there were two spaces for pictures.

"That's true," Jack said, handing the necklace back to the worker. "Do you think that's the one we should get?"

"Yeah. Now we get Legos?"

Jack shook his head and smiled. "Patience, bud. Let me pay for this first. Then we can go find some Legos."