He didn't know why he found it so funny that Norma continued wearing her apron over her very pregnant belly, but he did. Alex had never really thought about her tiny her frame was, since she was usually disguising it behind full circle skirts and aggressively screaming at people like someone twice her size, but he was very aware of it now, as she waddled around the kitchen, her stomach knocking into his head every time she passed it. Glancing over his shoulder, he tried not to laugh at the way her apron was sticking straight out over the shelf that was her stomach.

"Please, sit down." He said, knowing it would fall on deaf ears. If he had a nickle every time he had tried to tell Norma to "sit down", "take it easy", or "let me do that" he would have roughly a billion dollars by now. It had been a long 7 months.

She was apparently looking for something, but wouldn't tell him what, insisting that he couldn't help, as she flitted back and forth through the house, mumbling to herself. He suspected she had forgotten what it was, as baby brain had fully set in, but he dared not suggest that, so he just watched as she toddled back and forth.

"Where the hell is it?" She muttered, growing more frustrated, as she opened a drawer full of papers, flicking through it half heartedly. He sighed, exasperated that she wouldn't just let him help - It was been a constant theme that led to Alex sneaking around the house in the middle of the night, tidying and cleaning and cooking in secret so he wouldn't get in trouble for trying to help. She really was entirely ridiculous.

He glanced at the inconspicuous bag next to his feet. They were planning on going to get a crib today, and, after much moral deliberation over the past few months, had decided to use Bob Paris's get away money to buy the baby's things. After initial hesitation, and even a hasty suggestion to burn it, they had reluctantly agreed that it would be stupid not to spend the money on their child. It didn't belong to anyone. Not anymore.

Reaching into the bag, he gripped a strap of bills, slapping the money onto the table.

"I will give you a thousand dollars to sit down for ten minutes."

She glared at him for a moment, before breaking into a wide smile and flopping down onto the kitchen chair, admitting defeat. Reaching for the money, she used it to fan herself, obviously exhausted by her search. He stood, throwing the window open, letting the summer breeze in to cool his sweating wife, who was managing to only complain about being 7 months pregnant in the summer heat about 3 times an hour.

"Ooh, Alex, while you're up..." She said, smiling as he was already reaching for the freezer, opening it to grab her a popsicle before she could even ask. Glancing past him, her eyes lit up and she struggled to her feet, ignoring his pleas for her to stay sat down, reaching past him to pull an envelope out of the freezer.

"There it is!" She announced triumphantly, frowning at the freezing cold paper in her one hand, and then at the popsicle in the other. "Who the hell put it in the freezer?" She looked genuinely perplexed, and he bit his lip to stop from laughing. Who indeed.

"I got you something." She announced, recovering from her confusion, lowering herself back to the chair again, slapping the envelope on the table in front of him.

"For me?" He frowned at the slightly frostbitten brown envelope.

"Mm hmm!" She murmured brightly, trying to pretend she wasn't already more interested in eating her popsicle in three bites that would inevitably give her brain freeze.

He flipped it open in his hands, sliding out the contents, which was several very densely worded documents. Flipping through the tops of the pages, he tried to make sense of the legal jargon, and court numbers at the top of each page. NC-110, NC-120, CM-010. None of it made any sense until he flicked to the last page and he froze.

"Petition for legal name change." He read outloud, not quite sure he was believing it, letting his eyes scan down to the bottom of the page, where her own handwriting had printed out her new name, a big red filed stamp partially obscuring it.

"You're-"

"-Mrs Romero. Officially." She grinned at him, her tongue and lips stained blue from her super-healthy and natural frozen treat. He kissed her before she could say another word, pouring all of his gratitude into the kiss, tasting the overly sweet chemical raspberry flavour on her lips.

"I..." He started, as he pulled back, shaking his head in disbelief again at the documents in his hands. "I thought you said it was archaic and patriarchal and you didn't see why women had to give up their identity and-"

"I just like giving you a hard time." She interrupted, smirking at him as he plonked himself into the chair next to her. He chuckled and she took a deep breath, casting her eyes down for a moment. "Besides, I was never really that attached to the name 'Bates' anyway."

He glanced up to see her smiling down sadly at her knees.

"Why would I be?" She said quietly, her tone bitter and wistful. He reached out to grasp her hand, giving it a little squeeze, drawing her melancholy eyes up to meet his.

He didn't know what to say, so he just leaned forward, kissing her very gently again, before pulling back and kissing the tip of her nose. She smiled at him and shrugged suddenly.

"Besides, it's 2016. Having three kids with three different last names is no big deal now." She said casually, even though he knew that, on paper, it went against everything the prim and proper Norma Bates stood for. His face lit up at her words though.

He hadn't wanted to make a thing of it, but he had secretly been heartbroken that his daughter probably wouldn't have his last name. He was just assumed that the headstrong, unyielding Norma Bates would give their child her own last name and hadn't brought it up, not wanting to get into a depressing, passive aggressive argument about it. It had been the main reason why his baby-enthusiasm had run a little dry when it came to choosing a name. He found himself repeating every retro, classic baby name she plucked out of her name books with his own last name after it in his head, and then having to correct himself, trying the name again to see how it paired with "Bates." The more names she had offered, the more depressing he had found the whole process. He now felt like he needed to see the list again with a renewed enthusiasm, as he gazed happily at his wife, who had snatched the name change documents back and was now fanning herself with them.

He was opening his mouth to ask if he could maybe see her never ending name list one more time, when there was a sharp little rap on the front door, followed by the sound of it opening a crack.

"Hello?" Emma's voice rang out uncertainly throughout the house, and Norma and Alex both smiled at her hesitancy to cross further into the house without warning. She had no way of knowing that the doctor had taken sex off the table in these last couple of high-risk months, and both her and Dylan had a slightly irrational fear of catching Alex and Norma in a compromising position after Dylan had shared the underwear-on-the-floor incident, and Emma herself had skipped down the cellar stairs one day to find them red-faced and flustered, folding laundry suspiciously breathlessly.

"We're in the kitchen, Emma." Norma hollered, at a volume Alex was finally starting to get used to.

The girl swept into the kitchen, hovering nervously by the doorway, her hands twisting in the fabric of her cute little heart print sweater.

"Hi guys. Erm, Sheriff, could you come help me with something?" He rolled his eyes, rising to his feet gracefully.

"Emma, I told you, call me Alex." He gestured to Norma's stomach, which was dwarfing her small frame as she leaned back on the chair, staring curiously at Emma. "We're practically family now."

Norma and Emma's mouths both fell open at his words, both of them smiling at the thought of their little family unit growing. He was right. They were a family now, but it seemed strange for Alex to comment on it so casually, since he always had that vague sense of awkwardness with Emma that he seemed to have around anyone who wasn't Norma. She supposed it was years of being "Sheriff Bulldog" that made it hard for him to let other people see his softer side, but it seemed Emma was seeing it now, pouting a cutesy little smile over his shoulder at Norma. He was oblivious, of course, walking over to her and waiting patiently.

"Oh. Erm. Can you come outside? Dylan can't carry it by himself. Well, he can carry it." She bumbled along sweetly, not wanting them to think she was suggesting Dylan was weak. "I mean, he can lift it, but I was worried about his back and.. Well, I tried to help, but I'm not really supposed to be doing any heavy lifting until my lung capacity surpasses-"

"Emma. Stop." He interrupted gently, and she breathed out a soft, embarrassed laugh the way she always did when she rambled.

"Ok. Just... come." She jerked her head to the door, and Alex shot Norma a confused look before following Emma out the front door. Norma listened to the quiet murmur of conversation and the soft grunting of men carrying something heavy, before her curiosity grew too great and she managed to struggle to her feet, crossing over to the door just in time to see Alex and Dylan carrying in something big covered in a grubby, paint-splattered sheet.

"Ok, ok. Let's just set it down here." Alex groaned, placing it on the floor and stretching back up to his full height, stretching his back out.

"Did you both lift with your knees?" She asked sharply from behind them, and all three of them whirled round to see her standing there, hands on her hips.

"Ok, give me the thousand dollars back." Alex said seriously, shaking his head at her.

"Hey Norma. You get bigger since yesterday?" Dylan asked casually, a little smirk playing on his lips, as he nodded his head at her huge, ever growing stomach, cut off as Emma smacked him hard on the arm.

"Dylan!" She chastised, and Norma caught Alex smirking at how Dylan's girlfriend might be more similar to his mother than he thought.

He held his hands up apologetically, rubbing his arm pathetically like she'd crippled him.

"We have something for you." Emma announced, somewhat unnecessarily, jerking her head towards the huge article covered with the sheet. Norma was pretty sure she could tell what it was just from the shape of it, but she raised her eyebrows anyhow, waddling over to it, and pulling the sheet off with a flourish.

It was a crib, but not like anything they could have found on their shopping trip. It was ornate, clearly hand made, with an simple, yet elegant carved wooden headboard, painted with some kind of pastel coloured design. She gasped at the sight, leaning forwards as far as her stomach would let her, her eyes drifting over the detailed pattern, made up of butterflies and daisies and a whole menagerie of tiny, fragile little birds. Each delicate little dove had been lovingly painted by hand and she glanced up to see Emma and Dylan smiling down at her nervously, their faces hopeful and expectant.

"It's beautiful." She breathed out. "Did you do this all yourselves?"

They both nodded proudly as she straightened up, letting her finger tips trail gently over the white, painted slats.

"Dylan did the heavy work. I just painted the birds and stuff..." She shrugged, her tone humble as she scuffed her shoes together.

"Wow." Alex choked out from next to her, taking a step towards her to wrap his arm around Norma's shoulders, apparently lost for words.

"This is..." He started.

"Do you like it? Is it ok? I know it's not as fancy as the ones you can buy in the store. We couldn't figure out- Well, I didn't really do much of the carpentry side of things, but Dylan couldn't figure out how to make one of those adjustable side things but-"

"It's perfect." Alex said warmly, cutting her off before she could try to talk them out of liking their gift. He stepped forward, shaking Dylan's hand, smiling at him.

"Thank you." He said seriously, and Dylan nodded back stoically as Emma and Norma hugged excitedly behind them, making matching delighted, shrill little noises. They pulled apart, and Norma pulled Dylan in for a hug before he could stop her.

"Thank you sweetie." She murmured in his ear.

"No problem... mom." He muttered back, and they pulled back just in time to watch Emma and Romero glance at each other uncertainly. Norma was immediately reminded of that day, months ago now, when Alex had left the motel and had dithered when it came time to hug her goodbye. He was doing that same awkward little dither now, holding his arms out hesitantly to Emma, whose mouth dropped open in shock at the invitation.

"Well.. ok." She whispered awkwardly, stepping forward and leaning up on her tip toes to reach up and wrap her arms around his neck. Norma smiled at the awkwardness of the whole thing, as she watched Alex stiffly pat Emma's back a few times, before they both quickly pulled apart, silently hoping they would never need to do that again.

Norma and Emma were happy to watch and offer unsolicited advice on the proper way to lift heavy objects as Alex and Dylan manoeuvred the solid, heavy wooden crib up the stairs, before Dylan and Emma bid their goodbyes, with Emma spending an inordinate amount of time saying goodbye to Norma's stomach, before they were alone again, back in the kitchen where they had started.

"I guess we have our crib now? So, I guess we don't need to go out today then?"

He cast his eyes behind her to the papers still lying on the table.

"There's something we could still do," He shrugged, trying to keep his tone even, though he had a hint of a devilish gleam in his eye. "If you're feeling up to going out still?"