He takes the stairs two at a time and then comes to a halt at the top, thinking maybe he should breathe and think through what he's going to say. It takes him only a couple of seconds before he realises he needs to just say what he feels and hope what comes out of his mouth makes at least some sense. He opens the door quietly just in case she might have gone back to sleep, although he hopes she's feeling well enough by now that she'll be up and awake.

"Freddy walked you for miles, didn't he?" She smiles at him as he walks into the room, and he's relieved to see that she looks good. There is colour in her cheeks and a sparkle in her eyes, one that doesn't seem even to have been dulled by any of the horrors she may have read in the book she has open in her lap again.

"You look a lot better than when I left you." He walks over and sits on the bed, tilting her chin up so he can kiss her. "Your dad sure can walk. It was good though, we had a good talk."

"Well, I'm glad." She smiles again, closes the book and sets it aside. "And yes, I do feel better. Can't go wrong with ginger biscuits and tea, it seems."

"Harry...uh, he knows." He feels guilty, which makes no sense because it isn't like he told Freddy, the man was clearly onto them from the minute they arrived yesterday. "About the baby. I didn't say anything, I swear, he just...knew."

"I had a feeling he might. He always has been able to tell when I'm not quite myself." She sighs but she doesn't look worried like he feared she might. "We probably should have just told him when we arrived yesterday."

"Well, he knows now." He grabs her hand and squeezes it. "He's delighted, obviously. I didn't tell him much, just that we weren't deliberately keeping it from him and that we only just really found out ourselves. So he probably has tonnes of questions."

"Come on then, I suppose we should go downstairs so I can face the Spanish Inquisition." She moves to sit up but he tugs her hand into his lap and tangles his fingers with hers. "What?"

"Just...hold that thought, princess, just for a minute." She looks at him curiously but she nods and watches as he gets up off the bed.

He goes to the jacket where he knows the small velvet box is stashed and takes it out. Again he stops to take a breath and opens the lid, his back to her as he takes a look at the ring inside. He's not worried about her answer, and he's not worried that she won't like the ring, he has pretty high hopes that she will, he just doesn't want to totally flub the moment. He doesn't want their proposal story to begin with him completely tongue-tied and unable to make any sense. He turns and tucks the ring box behind his back as he walks over to her and sits on the side of the bed.

"Harry." He smiles at her and she returns it but there's a look of faint confusion in her eyes. "You know how much I love you, right?"

"I should hope so, considering I'm spending my mornings on the bathroom floor for the love of this baby you put in me." The confusion fades into curiosity and she smiles again. "But yes, I know you love me."

"Okay, so you must know too that I'm less of an ass with you. I'm more patient, more thoughtful, less hot-headed, well, most of the time, and just...I'm just better with you. I know this isn't going to come as a surprise, I know we've talked about it already." He brings the box around from where he had it hidden behind him and smiles at her. "And before you ask, no, I didn't run out and buy this because I got you pregnant. I've had it longer than that, I was just waiting for the right moment, and then I kept missing the right moments, and then we found out about the baby and I didn't want to freak you out any more than you were already. So...oh, hang on."

"Don't change your mind now, Dempsey. It was all going rather well." She grins at him and he knows he has his answer, but he still wants to do it properly. Getting off the bed he turns to face where she's still sitting and moves down to one knee.

"Harry, I love you more than anything. I'm going to blow husband number one clear out of the water, honey. I mean, I know the bar there is pretty low, but I'm going high, I promise you. I love you, so, uh..." He opens the lid and he sees that she's nodding before he's even asked the question. "Marry me?"

"Of course I'll marry you. Do you really think I want to raise this child on my own?" She smiles at him and he slides the ring onto her finger, letting out a long sigh of relief when it appears to fit perfectly. "That's not the only reason, obviously. I do love you too."

"I figured we may as well hit your dad with all the news this weekend. What is it you English always say, in for a penny, in for a pound?" He leans in to kiss her, sliding his hand into her hair and grinning against her lips when she slides her arms around him and pulls him back into the pillows with her.

He never tires of kissing her, can't imagine he ever will. Each time feels new, a different touch, a different taste, and he somehow falls in love with her a little more every time his lips touch hers. He feels her hand on the back of his neck, her fingers stroking his skin, tugging gently on his hair, and she lets out a tiny sigh against his lips before she pulls back and smiles at him.

"If someone had told me a couple of years ago that I'd have your ring on my finger…" She smiles a little wider and looks down at the ring. "Well, I would have asked if they were feeling alright."

"Not to mention what you've got in here." He slides a hand down to rest on her middle, his fingers splayed out, thinking about all the work her body is doing right now to grow their little human, blowing his mind all over again.

"Yes, well, I'd have thought that even less likely, obviously." She covers his hand with hers and shakes her head, a fresh wave of disbelief apparently kicking in. "Come on, let's go and find Freddy. I'm sure he has his list of questions ready by now. I'll demand some lunch in exchange for the answers."

"Hello, my darling." Freddy's grin is infectiously wide as he pulls Harry into his arms, kissing the top of her head before he pulls back. Holding her at arm's length he nods and Harry smiles back at him. "Ah yes, that's my girl. You're glowing, Harry, I should have realised right away."

"Well, I wasn't exactly glowing earlier this morning." There's a frown forming on Freddy's face but she heads it off. "I'm fine now though, really. It's been like this most mornings, to be honest."

"Now that it has passed for today, are you hungry? Could you manage some lunch?" Freddy asks, as keen as ever to feed his daughter, probably even more so now he knows there's a grandchild on the way.

"I could, yes, but we actually have something else to tell you first." He watches as she smiles at her father, and he's glad he proposed here, glad she can break this news to Freddy in person and not over the phone.

"Oh Lordy…" Freddy grins again and gently squeezes her shoulders. "It's not twins is it?"

"Oh God, I bloody hope not." Freddy laughs out loud and Harry holds her hand out in front of him. "So…"

"Well, well…" Freddy beams at her and then turns to him. "I didn't think you were going to run upstairs right away and propose, James! This is the most wonderful news. I couldn't be more delighted for you both. We absolutely must have a celebratory drink with lunch."

"I'm starting to feel like there's a pattern here." Harry shakes her head but there's a smile on her face and he loves to see it. He can't get enough of seeing her happy, she's more beautiful than ever with this combination of happiness and pregnancy glow. Maybe he should just get her pregnant every couple of years for the foreseeable...he suspects she might shut that idea down if he ever dared to voice it though. "I'm the one who has to go through everything that comes with having a baby, and everybody else gets to drink champagne. It seems terribly unfair, to be quite honest."

Now she's pouting, just slightly, just enough that it makes him want to laugh because he can suddenly so clearly picture a toddler with her eyes and the exact same pout. He's going to be in such trouble when he has a mini Harry on his hands, and he knows it, yet still he hopes the day comes when they have a house full of them.

"Alright you two, let's have some lunch and you can tell me everything." Freddy grins and puts an arm around each of their shoulders, steering them towards the dining room.

Over the course of lunch, Freddy manages to save him some work by establishing that Harry wants to get married as soon as possible, and confirms what he already knew about her wanting something small and with little fuss. There's a surprise though too, Harry wants to be Mrs Dempsey after they're married, something he really hadn't thought much about but had maybe subconsciously expected that she wouldn't want. She tells him, and Freddy, quite clearly that she wants the same name as her husband and child, it's as simple as that. He can't help joking that whenever Spikings yells for Dempsey in that unmistakable voice of his he's absolutely going to choose to believe she's the one he's looking for. He knows as well as she does that their boss is never going to let him get away with that.

"And what did Chief Superintendent Spikings have to say about all of this?" Freddy grins and pours more tea for Harry, more coffee for the two of them. "He was inadvertently your Cupid, after all."

"I hardly think he could have expected any of this, Daddy. I think if he thought we might stop bickering for five minutes he'd consider our pairing a success." Harry grins back at her father, and he thinks she's right, he doubts Spikings would have seen this coming at all. "We haven't told him yet. Well, not officially, anyway."

"Harry thinks he knows already." He grins at Freddy and hears a sigh from Harry beside him.

"I don't think he knows, necessarily, but I do think he has his suspicions." She takes a sip of tea and shrugs slightly, definitely seeming less worried about the possibility of their boss springing them than she had been yesterday. "We'll need to tell him in a few weeks anyway, so I don't suppose it really matters."

"You can distract him from it for now with the news of your impending nuptials, darling." Freddy grins and reaches for his coffee.

"Which will probably mean he instantly puts two and two together." She rolls her eyes and he realises she's probably right about that. Not that it really makes much difference, he's going to need to know soon enough anyway.

"Hardly matters, Harriet, you're going to have to tell him sooner or later anyway." Freddy voices his thoughts for him and it makes him smile. "I'm sure he'll be delighted for you both."

"I'm sure he will. I'm sure I'll also end up on bloody desk duty for the next six months." Harry sighs loudly and he and Freddy both turn to look at her. "And before you say anything, yes, I know I'll obviously have to think about work slightly differently, I know there are things I won't be able to do, or shouldn't really do, I suppose, but if he thinks I'm doing nothing but paperwork then-"

"Honey, he doesn't even know yet, uh…" He pauses because he really doesn't want to turn this into a fight. "You might be getting ahead of yourself. Is this another thing you've been worrying about?"

"Thinking about, not worrying about." She's definitely been worrying, he can hear it in her tone even as she denies it. "Fine. Maybe I've been worrying about it a little. I just don't want to be stuck at my desk all day long like I'm incapable of setting foot outside while you're running around getting into God knows what kind of trouble without me, that's all."

"So you can tell the boss exactly that. He'll be too scared to argue with an angry pregnant woman who carries a gun." He grins and she almost returns it so he breathes a sigh of relief. There's a part of him that would love to see her cocooned safely at her desk until the baby arrives. There's a bigger part of him that doesn't want to be shot for daring to suggest it.

"This is starting to sound somewhat like shop talk, detectives." Freddy cuts in, his tone serious but the twinkle in his eyes saying otherwise. "Now, if it weren't currently pouring with rain we could sit in the garden. Lord knows you city dwellers could use some fresh air. Never mind though, garden or not I can still go and hunt for cake. I'm sure somebody or other must have baked one."

"What if we just brought the baby and lived here, Harry?" He grins at her from across the table, taking in how relaxed she looks, how she looks more radiant than ever. God, he's a sap these days.

"The novelty would wear thin really quickly, I promise you. It's beautiful, of course, but it was quite a...lonely place to grow up." She tails off and he reaches for her hand, squeezing gently. "And I know you well enough to know you'd die of boredom outside the big city. I think regular long weekends will be just fine."

"Sounds good to me." He grins at her and spots Freddy heading back towards them, a housekeeper in tow with an enormous chocolate cake on a tray. "I don't think we'd survive all this food on a permanent basis anyway. We'd be outrun by the bad guys at every turn."

"I think I existed on cake and very little else when I was a teenager." She smiles at her father as he sits down. "Every time I looked up there seemed to be another one on the table. Freddy and his sweet tooth."

"What's that, darling? My what?" Freddy beams at her as he always does and reaches for the plates in front of him.

"Your sweet tooth, Daddy." She looks at the cake on the table and her eyes widen. "And the abundance of cake when I was growing up."

"Nothing's changed, Harry. I just have to eat it largely without your help these days." It doesn't seem to be doing him any harm, if his walk this morning is any indication. He has more energy than men half his age.

"Well I'm here now and I'm going to be bursting out of my clothes soon enough anyway, so I may as well have a decent slice." She squeezes his hand as she looks over at her father slicing into the cake.

Half a slice in and he realises he could be persuaded to move to Winfield Hall for the cake alone. He watches her as she works her way through her slice slowly, and admits defeat at exactly the moment he thought she would, putting the fork down and sighing. He carries on to the end with his, there's no way he's leaving cake this good on the plate. He knows she's watching him too, and when he looks up she smiles and leans in to brush the corner of his mouth softly.

"You missed a bit." She licks the trace of chocolate from her thumb and a faint hint of colour appears on her cheeks as she seems to remember her father is sitting at the table with them. Not that he's focused on anything besides the slice of cake in front of him. "Can't have it going to waste."

"I should send you home with a cake." Freddy pauses his eating, looking like he could be wondering if he should run back into the kitchen right now. "You've an extra mouth to feed now, James."

"I'm not quite sure that's how it works." Harry smiles at her father but he has a feeling she won't actually object if a cake does appear when they're due to leave tomorrow. "I don't think the extra mouth needs to be fed until it actually arrives."

"Nevertheless, a little extra cake certainly won't do you any harm, Harriet." Freddy sighs and sits back in his chair. "Having said that, I'm fit to burst."

By the time they're ready to head to bed, he feels like he's been eating solidly for about twelve hours. Possibly because he actually has been eating solidly for about twelve hours. It's almost ten when Harry suggests they go to bed, and he can tell when he looks at her that the day of relaxation has definitely helped. Her eyes are brighter, she's calm, and judging by the look in her eyes it's not exhaustion that triggered her suggestion to head to bed.

"Goodnight, Daddy." She stands up and walks over to where Freddy is sitting, leaning down to kiss his cheek. "You will go to bed soon, won't you? You know your back won't thank you if you doze off in that chair."

"I know, sweetheart." Freddy smiles and squeezes her hand. "I'll finish this drink and then I'll turn in too. Goodnight both of you."

While she's in the bathroom he moves the books from the bed and tosses them into his overnight bag, figuring the last thing she needs is to start on them again and end up losing sleep over some horror of childbirth that she hadn't considered yet.

"I have to go shopping this week, Dempsey. Look." She pulls her shirt off over her head and gestures to her chest again, just like she did at home, the sight as arresting now as it was the first time. "I don't seem to have a single bra that fits properly anymore."

"Mm, I need a closer look, you're going to need to come over here." He smirks and she walks over to the bed, climbing into his lap and pushing her chest against his.

"Close enough?" She smiles and rests her hands on his shoulders. "Make the most of this because I doubt whatever I have to buy to stuff these into from now on is going to be quite as pretty."

"Hey, it's the gift that counts, honey, not the wrapping." His finger runs slowly down her chest and she smiles. He keeps moving, trailing lower until he reaches her belly button and circles his finger slowly around it, feeling her hands clutch his shoulders more tightly in response. "So, your dad knows about the baby, I put a ring on your finger, and we're apparently getting another cake to take home. I don't know how you top a day like that."

"We get married and then we actually have this baby." She slides her hand down his shoulder and he sees her smiling at the ring on her finger. "Those are two fairly substantial events. I don't think we've peaked quite yet."

"I hope not." He rests his hand against her still flat stomach and glances down. "What do you think, little dude? Mom and Dad got plenty left in them yet, right?"

"What are you doing?" He looks back up at her and she's smiling the big smile, the bright one, the one that punches the breath clear out of his lungs sometimes.

"Just checking in with my boy here." He circles her belly button again and grins at her. "Or girl."

"Well, your boy...or girl can't hear you because he or she doesn't have proper ears yet." She frowns, not looking entirely certain. "I don't think so, anyway. There's so much information in those books, I don't know how anyone is supposed to remember all of it. I do know that all of my throwing up and tiredness and everything else that seems to have disappeared out of my control is being caused by a baby that is currently the size of a raspberry. Which, frankly, seems ridiculous."

"A raspberry, huh?" She nods and he smiles at her, he can't seem to stop smiling at her. Next time he sees any of his New York friends he wonders if they'll recognise him at all as the same guy who got on a plane to London a couple of years ago. He was different then, he can see it now when he looks back and he can see too that the changes have been all for the better. "And it's not a test, I don't think you have to learn the whole damn book. It's not from the library, we don't have to give it back."

"There are definitely some parts I do remember…" Her hand moves from his shoulder and her palm is warm and soft against his chest. "Did you know that there may come a time, not too many weeks from now, when you could find yourself having to fight off the constant advances of your fiancée?"

"I didn't know that but I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not going to be fighting." He can't think of anything he's less likely to fight off than Harry jumping him at every available opportunity. No way, no how. "If my beautiful pregnant lady needs to climb on board then I'm sure as hell not going to complain."

"I hoped you'd say that." She leans in and kisses him, sliding her hands back up his chest to loop around the back off his neck. "I seem to be on board right now, if you'd like to take advantage while I'm still able to stay awake."

"Permission to take advantage, Sergeant?" He nuzzles her neck and feels her fingers tighten in his hair.

"Permission…" Her breath catches as he runs his tongue slowly down the side of her neck. "Granted, Lieutenant."