It was only a few hours later when Grace woke up. After a few seconds, she realized that she wasn't in her room. Oliver held her close and his face was pressed into her hair. She laid there for a few minutes about to fall back asleep when her dull cramps reminded her why she had woken up at four in the morning. Not wanting to remove herself from Oliver, she reluctantly and very gently lifted his arm off of her and slowly snuck out of bed. Grace made her way down that hall and into the bathroom of her room to take care of herself. Minutes later, she walked out of the bathroom and looked at her untouched bed briefly before abandoning it and following her heart back through the mansion's dark hallway. Oliver had rolled onto her side of the bed and when she lifted the blankets to rejoin him, there wasn't much space for her. She slid in the best she could before she felt Oliver's strong arms wrap around her as he rolled back to his side of the bed, taking her with him. His nose nuzzled into her cheek and he whispered, "where did you go?"

"To my bathroom."

"You know you can use the bathroom in here."

Grace smiled. "I know that. But I needed something out of mine."

"Keep some in here. Then you don't have the sneak through the house in the dark," he replied simply and almost without thought has he pulled her closer to him.

Grace groaned slightly, "thank you, I will."

"Are you alright sweetheart?"

"I'm fine..." she hesitated briefly debating how much Oliver wanted to know, "just cramps."

She felt him repositioning himself next to her. She rolled onto her back and he moved to lay on his side, pressing his lips to her neck, he placed kisses there while his hand immediately went to her lower abdomen rubbing gently.

"Oliver..." he stilled afraid he was making her uncomfortable. "I love you," she murmured.

His hand resumed moving and he whispered, "I love you more," against her warm skin and they both fell contently back to sleep.

It was almost six thirty that morning when Annie felt herself falling from the bridge as Grace and Oliver walked away from the scene. She bolted awake and tears started to fall from her eyes. Remembering what Grace said, she scrambled out of bed and ran down the hall to her room with Sandy close behind. Annie pushed the bedroom door open and her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw Grace's empty, undisturbed bed. She left and raced to Oliver's room. She walked through the darkness of his room and reached out and tapped his shoulder. He rolled over towards her and she whispered in a shaky, tear filled voice, "Daddy?"

"Annie, what's wrong?"

"I had a bad dream... and I can't find mommy."

"She's in here sweetie," he responded as he felt Grace roll over and curl herself into him.

"She is?"

Oliver reached out and rubbed Annie's cheek, "it's still early, why don't you come up here with us."

"Really?" Oliver's heart sunk at the combination of relief and disbelief in her voice. He separated himself from Grace to make room between them and helped Annie onto the bed. She snuggled herself down into the comforter between her parents. Grace rolled over again in her sleep attempting to fix the lack of contact she had with Oliver. Realizing it wasn't Oliver next to her, she woke up to see him brushing tears off Annie's face. "What's wrong Annie?"

Annie's tears only fell harder and she hid her face in her mom. "I had a bad dream," she mumbled against her.

"Shhhh," Grace whispered soothingly as she rubbed Annie's back. "You're alright baby. We've got you. Daddy and I love you so much."

Annie nodded into Grace and Oliver smiled lovingly at her realizing that he needed to make that little girl his daughter and his beautiful fiancé his wife as soon as possible.

The rest of the week seemed to fly by. Annie was still having nightmares, but they didn't seem as bad with her parents there to comfort her. Oliver and Grace tried to get back into the office as much as they could and try to get work back on track, and Oliver scheduled the Judge to come to the house Friday morning to do the adoption. Annie was so excited and became elated when she found out that Grace's family was extending their trip to be there for it. Annie had taking a liking to Grace's mom and spent quite a bit of time with her throughout the week. Laura kept her nose out of everyone's business and tried to fly under the radar to avoid more drama with her sister.

Thursday morning, Helen and Oliver crossed paths in the hallway.

"Good morning Helen."

"Hello Oliver. Have you seen Grace? I was hoping to spend a little time with her this morning while Annie has her swimming lessons."

"I haven't seen her but I was just heading to where I think she might be before I head out. Why don't you join me."

She followed Oliver down the hall and to a door which she hadn't been behind yet. He opened the door and crossed his office to the French doors leading out to a small balcony. There curled up in an oversized patio chair, wrapped in one of Oliver's robe, coffee cup in hand, was Grace.

"There you are," he said and Grace turned to him with a smile.

"Hi. Oh mom, good morning."

"Your mom was looking for you and I thought you might be here," he winked at her knowing that if she didn't wake up in his arms, he'd find her in his study and in his robe.

Grace looked to her mom, "no one ever comes in here so I like to have my coffee here in the morning."

Oliver walked up behind Grace and gently massaged her shoulders, "I just wanted to come find you to tell you I'm leaving for my meeting with Wilson and Rockefeller. I should be home for lunch."

"Do you need me to do anything else before you go?"

"No, as always you have over prepared me love."

Grace laughed lightly and replied, "I do what I can. Anything you need me to get done while you're gone?

"No, we'll just do the meeting summery this afternoon. Have a good morning sweetheart. I'll see you in a few hours." He leaned down and kissed her briefly but as he pulled away, she raised her hand up to hold the back of his neck to bring him in for another kiss. "I love you," he whispered against her lips.

"I love you too honey."

He smiled at her before walking away. He briefly patted Helen's shoulder as he passed her, "bye Helen."

"Have a good day Oliver."

"Would you like some coffee, mom? There's more inside?"

"Sure dear."

Grace led her mom back into Oliver's office and shut the doors behind them. "I'll get it, mom. Make yourself comfortable."

As Grace made her way to the coffee cart, Helen began looking around. The pictures on Oliver's desk caught her attention. One was of Annie, one was a beautiful picture of Grace that she hadn't seen before, and the third was the picture from the newspaper of Oliver and Grace kissing with her hand on his face. There was a small piece of paper tucked in the corner of the frame that Helen knew as Grace's handwriting. It said I love you, Oliver. He didn't seem like a very sentimental guy so Helen was surprised.

"Here's your coffee. Why don't we sit over on the couch," Grace said as she made her way towards her mom. They sat down and Grace took her favorite blanket and covered her lap with it.

"Grace, I want to talk to you about Oliver?"

Grace groaned, "not you too. I thought you said you liked him and he was a good man."

"I do like him and I think he is a good man, but I just want you to stop and think for a minute because everything is happening so fast."

"Stop and think about what?"

"I need you to make sure that you are in love with him and not in lust with him."

"Mom..."

"No, just listen to me. A marriage won't survive if it's foundation is lust. And if that's what this is and the marriage crumbles, you and Oliver aren't the only ones that stand to get hurt."

"Annie."

"Exactly. So I don't need you to explain yourself to me, I just want you to stop and think it over because if you're just in lust with Oliver, things need to change."

Oliver returned for lunch just as he said, and afterwards, Helen wanted to take Annie for ice cream while Grace and Oliver got his meeting summery done. Once they finished, Oliver turned to Grace, "are you okay sweetheart? You've been awfully quiet."

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"Of course you can. What's on your mind?"

"My mom and I had a talk this morning, and I just can't get something she said out of my head."

"What is it."

"She told me make sure that we were in love with each other. Not just in lust with each other."

"You don't think we love each other?"

Tears that Grace didn't even know were coming spilled down her cheeks, "I don't know," she whispered.

Oliver stood up from his chair, walked around his desk, knelt down in front of her, and took her hands in his, "hey look at me. It's okay."

"No it's not!"

"Why not?"

"Because how can I not know if I love you or not?! Do you know? Do you love me? Or is it just lust?"

"Sweetheart, I can't speak for you, but let me tell you what I know. I've never been in love with anyone before. There's been lust, and while yes I think I am very much in lust with you, I have so many other feelings for you that I've never felt with anyone else, so yes, I believe I am very much in love with you as well."

"I'm scared"

"What are you scared of."

"Losing you."

"Why do you think you're going to lose me?"

"Because if it's just lust it won't last."

"Don't you think the fact that you have that fear and even that we're having this conversation makes it more than lust?"

"Maybe."

"Grace, this relationship is still new, so of course there's lust. But at the end of the day, I don't want to be with you so I can sleep with you. I want to be with you because my life is better when I'm with you and being with you makes me happy. I really believe that if there was no love between us, there wouldn't be anything but sex. I don't want you to rush into anything that makes you uncomfortable and I don't want you to feel pressured into anything. I just want you to know how I feel."

Grace just nodded.

"Grace, sweetheart, what are you thinking?"

"I'm in love with you. There can't be any other explanation for the way I feel about you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Sweetheart, there isn't anything wrong with being in lust."

"I know. But if that's all it was, our marriage wouldn't get very far."

"No it wouldn't. It can't hurt though."

"What?"

"Our marriage will last because we're in love with each other, and given we just had this conversation, we're willing to work at it. That being said, we are in lust with each other and we're damn good together. What could make a marriage better than being happy and having amazing sex?"

"You're impossible sometimes you know that?"

He pulled her to him, kissed her deeply and said, "Impossible or not, I am so madly in love with you."

"Mmmmm I love you too." They kissed again, and as his arms held her tighter and their tongues met, Grace realized that the only thing better than being in love with Oliver Warbucks, was being in lust with him as well.