The Next Morning.
Kellie was curled up against Jason in bed the next morning. Jason brushed Kellie's hair out of her face as she slept. Then he traced the amethyst necklace against her skin. Then he traced the outline of her body.
"Hey, there," Jason said, his hand now gently caressing Kellie's baby bump, "I'm your dad. I can't wait to meet you in a few months, along with a lot of other people out here. Until then, you've got a nice, safe spot there inside your mom. I do have a favor to ask though. Could you ease up on your mom a little bit with the morning sickness and fatigue? Let her feel better and enjoy carrying you for the next few months a little more."
Kellie stirred as she slowly woke up.
"Good morning," Jason said.
"Morning," Kellie said, curling up tighter against Jason, "Did I hear you talking to our child?"
"I was trying to negotiate better terms for the pregnancy for you," Jason said, "I figured it couldn't hurt to ask our child to ease up on the nausea and other symptoms.
"It's a nice thought, but highly unlikely," Kellie replied.
"I figured it was worth a shot," Jason said.
"If anyone could convince our unborn kid to make pregnancy easy," Kellie said, "It would probably be you."
"So what exactly were your plans for us last night?" Jason asked.
"Strip Pool," Kellie said.
"That would have been the shortest game ever," Jason said, "You didn't have much to take off in that dress."
"So you're assuming you would have hustled me out of my clothes right away," Kellie said, "That's cute. But no, my dress would have been the last piece of our clothes staying on."
Jason gave her a skeptical look.
Kellie hit him with a pillow, "What was that look for?"
"Consider we never actually finish a game of strip pool," Jason said, "I think you're over exaggerating."
"I had this whole plan to tease you the entire game," Kellie said.
"More like torture," Jason replied, "Although you pretty much accomplished that anyway. If you think about it, I won at Strip Pool before we even got started."
"There wasn't even a game," Kellie said as Jason grabbed the pillow before she could hit him with it again.
"Your dress was the first thing to come off," Jason said, "I'd say I won."
"That's debat-…" Kellie said as Jason cut her off with a kiss.
"That's not…" Kellie protested when Jason continued kissing her. Kellie found herself relaxing into Jason's body and letting him distract her.
Awhile later, Kellie was tracing Jason chest with her hands.
"What the odds we can stay here all day?" Jason asked.
"The odds are good for all morning," Kellie said, "But I could only put Molly off until about noon today. And I wanted to go see Uncle Lo today. I think I might be able to get access to the foundations financial records."
"How so?" Jason asked.
"Uncle Lo's still officially works for the foundation," Kellie said, "They can't fire him without it looking like wrongful termination. I'm pretty sure he still has his logins to the system. I just need to know his passwords and where his laptop is."
"Rather than look for a laptop that some people may not want to see you with," Jason said, "You might see if Spinelli can get you the information with just Lorenzo's passwords."
"Okay," Kellie said, "That's actually a good idea. So what are the odds I could convince you to bring me breakfast in bed?"
"I could just have Johnny take care of it," Jason said, "And leave it outside the door. That would leave me free to do other things with you."
"Well, currently your kid is sitting on my bladder," Kellie said, "I'm going to need a few minutes to relieve that situation."
"My kid?" Jason replied.
Kellie shrugged, "Just consider yourself lucky you didn't knock me up with twins. Considering you are a twin and I gave birth to one set of twins already, we probably had a really high chance of ending up with twins."
Jason shook his head, "What do you want for breakfast?"
"Just a bagel and cream cheese," Kellie said, kissing Jason before moving from the bed,, "I'm easy, at least in that regard."
After Jason and Kellie had eaten their breakfast, they were curled back up in bed together.
"I wish we had more days like this," Kellie said.
"Like what?" Jason asked.
"Just you and me with each other," Kellie said, "being able to shut out the rest of the world and the crazy."
"Maybe we just need to plan nights where the kids are with Charles or Olivia or Sonny & Carly," Jason said, "and we plan to stay in."
"I'd like that," Kellie said.
"Do you have any idea where you want to go on a vacation?" Jason asked.
"Some place warm, with a beach," Kellie said.
"I think I know a place," Jason said, "in Southern California. Next to the island that is probably your favorite place."
"You'd be okay with that," Kellie asked, "That was my home with Tyler and the kids for a long time."
"You should get to go back to visit places you love," Jason said, "if you want to. Especially that one. If we were going to the island, it would be the same deal. You spent a lot of time there with Tyler too. I just want to take you some place that makes you happy. Since the island is currently not an option, I figured California would be the next best thing. But if you want to go somewhere else, that's okay too."
"I'd love to go to California," Kellie said, "It's just I haven't been back since Tyler's funeral."
"We could go further south," Jason said, "Like say San Diego. And just find ourselves a beach house and just shut out the rest of the world."
"Make our own memories," Kellie replied, "I'm curious, where would you want to go if you could go anywhere?"
"Anywhere you are," Jason said.
"Come on," Kellie said, "There has to be some place you want to go see."
"There are some places in Europe I love to take you," Jason said, "Spain, Italy, and France. Out in the countryside. I'd love to go riding out there with you."
"Our own personal motorcycle trip," Kellie said, "Stop whenever we feel like it. I miss riding."
"I know," Jason said, "In few months…and then sometime after the baby's born and she's old enough to be away from us for a few nights, we could take that motorcycle trip."
"I'm going to hold you to it," Kellie said.
"Out of curiosity, do you…" Jason said, "Do you know what you want to do when the baby's born? As far working verses staying home. If you don't have an answer that's okay."
"I honestly don't know," Kellie said, "I stayed home with the boys and Alyssa. But I worked from home on getting the foundation up and running and expanding both times. And now I'd moved to consulting with law enforcement as it was. There may be something I could do remotely. But with not working with the foundation and that whole mess, who knows. And then's part of me that kind of like the idea of just taking time off work just to be mom. But I've never really done that."
"If that's what you want," Jason said, "There's no reason you can't. There's no rush to decide."
"Good," Kellie said, straddling Jason, "because there's other things I'd rather focus on."
"Really," Jason said, pulling Kellie back down against him, "What would that be?"
"You," Kellie said, she proceeded to whisper in Jason's ear just how she planned to do that.
Before she could finish, Jason was kissing her and pulling the covers back over them.