"Okay, who said having a baby would be easy?"

Chris sat on the floor in Finnegan's nursery. Stephanie was standing above him, walking back and forth with Finnegan in her arms. He was crying and then crying some more, his face contorted in screams as she tried to calm him. Chris had been at it for about ten minutes before Stephanie took over, and now he was leaning against the teal-painted wall.

"Nobody," he answered.

"Oh yeah, remind me again why we had him?"

"No choice," Chris laughed as Stephanie's laugh trickled through the room.

"Right, right, right," she said. "Because we're the idiots who didn't take enough precautions, resulting in the little bundle of hell in my arms right now."

"Exactly."

"Come on Finny, please be quiet, please, please, please, please, I'm begging you, see, Mommy is begging you, I will get down on my knees and beg if you stop crying. I will do anything you want if you stop crying. If you want me to act like Barney or whatever, I will, I will do that if you stop crying."

Chris watched as Stephanie continued to try and calm down the little boy. Her hair was messed up from sleeping and she was in her pajamas, some long pajama pants and a tank top for easy breastfeeding. She had a baby towel slung over one shoulder and Finnegan in her arms. He had never thought she was not beautiful, but he couldn't recall a time she looked more beautiful, not even when she had that pregnancy glow. It was truly something when she could look so beautiful at four in the morning with a crying baby in her arms, stressed out to the max.

Then his mouth said something before his brain could contemplate it. "Stephanie, will you marry me?"

Stephanie froze for a moment, and if this tale were anything but true, Finnegan would've stopped crying in that very moment. But he didn't, he kept wailing in her ear and she was still standing in his nursery in the middle of the night. She turned to Chris, mouth agape as he sat there on the floor against the wall, no ring, no bended knee, no flowers surrounding them. No, they were just in their newborn son's nursery, painted in a light teal with oak furniture and a balloon lamp on top of the dresser. A newborn son they didn't plan and didn't know how to take care of yet and were just scraping by.

"What?"

"Um," he cleared his throat, suddenly dry even though it hadn't been a moment before. "Will you marry me?"

"You're…asking me to marry you…now, right now?" she asked, glancing around the room.

"Yeah, yeah I am," he said, a little more confident now. He stood up and went over to her. He took Finnegan from her arms and as if by magic (or because Finnegan was tired), Finnegan stopped crying and she stared down in awe.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

"He's tired, he cried himself to sleep," he said, holding Finnegan closer to him. "So…about the question…"

"Chris…"

"I mean, we're a family now, and I thought…well, I mean, we can make that official."

Stephanie looked at him, straight in the eyes, searching for something. She was searching for her answer, wanting to know what the reason for this was for, why this second, why now, when Finnegan was just born. It was like faced with Finnegan he knew he should marry her. That he didn't want her to be alone, a single mother, so he would tie himself to her like a life preserver.

"Chris…not tonight," she told him. "Look at us. We're standing here at four in the morning with our baby, and this isn't right, this moment isn't right, and we can't just rush into a marriage because we have a baby. I mean, does this feel right to you?"

He sighed and shook his head, "No, it doesn't feel right."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," she said. "Here let me put him to bed."

Chris never told her that it felt right to him.

Chris was tapping his fingers on the barren table in his apartment. He was anxious, of this he was sure. His leg was also beating out its own rhythm on the floor underneath the table. He was waiting impatiently for the person he had an appointment with to arrive. He had set up a private consultation and was just waiting for the person to arrive as Finnegan took a nap in his bedroom. He wanted to get this person in and out before Finnegan woke up and tattled on him to Stephanie.

Finally, there was a buzz on his intercom and he got up quickly to ask who it was and buzz them up. When he did that, he looked around his apartment, making sure everything was in place. He didn't want to look like a slob for this woman. There was a knock on the door and he rushed to answer it. The jeweler looked to be about his age, maybe a little younger and she was dressed professionally.

"Hello, Mr. Irvine I presume," she said, sticking her hand out.

Chris shook it amicably and held the door open for her. "Yes, but please, call me Chris."

"Okay Chris, only if you call me Jane," she answered with a smile.

"Will do, won't you come inside," he said, leading her to the table where she laid some catalogues. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Oh no, I'm fine," she said as they sat down. "So, you said over the phone that you're in the market for an engagement ring and you wanted it custom-made because you had a very specific idea in mind for it."

"Yes, I did," he told her. "I don't think I could find what I'm looking for just anywhere, it's a little unusual, but so is the woman I want to marry and the circumstances under which I want to marry her."

"Sounds like she would need a special ring."

"She does. She really does," he said, a little more dreamily than he would've liked.

"Okay, so what did we have in mind?"

"Well, I wanted to use our birthstones in the ring."

"That's an interesting concept," she told him. "A lot more well-thought out than a lot of men take into engagement rings. What birthstones are the two of you?"

"Well, I'm a citrine and she's a sapphire."

"Oh, so did you want to build the ring around the sapphire then?" she inquired.

"Actually, there's one more element to the puzzle," Chris interrupted. "You see, we have a four year old son together, and I wanted his birthstone to be the center of the ring. I know it sounds cheesy and everything, but he's just everything to us so I wanted it to be like, he's the most important thing in the form of the ring."

"That's really beautiful," she said gently. "Do you have any brothers?"

"Unfortunately, I'm an only child."

"My husband will be happy to hear that," she joked. "And your son's birthstone would be?"

"We're in luck, he was born in April, so it's a diamond. I was thinking of the diamond in the middle and then our two birthstones on either side."

"That sounds lovely, so let's talk the different cuts that we want and the band and everything. I think with the kind of ring that you want, a platinum band will be the most sufficient, you mentioned in your price range that you had no ceiling."

"Yes, that's correct, I only want the best for her and since I have the means to do so, I want to do that for her. She deserves this, she's put up with me for the last six years, so she definitely deserves this."

Jane laughed, "Well, we have some lovely rings that we could look at, but might I make a suggestion?"

"Yeah, sure, you're the jeweler and I'm just the doofus who knows nothing about rings," he joked.

"Well, I think that in this case a pave setting would look a little less on the garish side considering we're using three different stones, while also emphasizing your son's birthstone, the diamond, which you want to be the focus anyways right?"

"Yeah, I want his to definitely be the focus, and I don't want it to look like a clown ring, but I'm not entirely sure what a pave setting is, I have an idea, but I'm not totally clear on that."

"Well," she said, grabbing one of the catalogues and flipping through it before settling on a picture. "This would be an example right here, the stones are paved into the band to create the illusion that the band is made of that particular stone. Now, usually, we do that with diamonds, but if we maybe put a couple of citrines on one side and a couple sapphires on the other, it would look beautiful with the diamond in the middle setting."

"That actually sounds kind of cool," he said, looking down at the catalogue at the example of what she was talking about. He heard a door open behind him and cringed a little as Finnegan walked out sleepily. He turned to his son and smile, "Hey there, kiddo."

"Hi Daddy," he mumbled, still trying to fully awaken from his nap. "Can I have a snack?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, turning to Jane. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it, I've got two at home myself," she responded, "I know what it's like. He's very cute."

"Thanks," he said, getting up and going into the kitchen to pour some Goldfish crackers into a small bowl and grab a juice box for Finnegan.

Finnegan walked over to the kitchen and saw someone he didn't know, but smiled anyways, "Hi, my name is Finn."

"Well hello Finn," she responded, shaking his little hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," he said, very business-like, another one of Stephanie's traits, surprise, surprise.

"Hey there Finn, do you want to go watch TV?" Chris asked as he came over with his snack.

Finnegan shook his head, "Daddy, can I sit with you? I want to sit with you."

Chris really didn't want to look at rings around Finnegan in case he told Stephanie about it, but he could hardly deny his son in this situation and nodded, sitting down and pulling Finnegan into his lap while he munched on his crackers and drank his juice. Jane smiled, realizing just why Chris wanted the diamond to be the absolute centerpiece of the ring, not just because it was the flashiest stone.

"Jane, do you think that it would be okay if we did this another time, I don't want someone to be a loose-lips around a certain other someone."

"Oh, I get it," Jane said. "I'll leave these catalogues here and you can look them over and call it in and we'll make you this ring. From what you've been suggesting, it sounds like it'll be beautiful."

"Thanks, let me at least walk you out to your car."

"If you insist."

Like many things in life, timing is everything. At this very moment, Stephanie was driving to Chris's apartment to drop off Finnegan's stuffed teddy bear that he had forgotten. Finnegan still liked to have his teddy bear around him when he slept although he had given up the habit of carrying it around during the day. But still, if Chris was ever going to get Finnegan to sleep that night, he was going to need Lionheart, which was the name Chris gave the bear, not the name Finnegan gave the bear, because Chris was a little vain.

She was still trying to find the right moment to talk to him about her new discovery. Being away from him was killing her. It was only now that she realized how big and empty the house was without Chris. Sure, she had realized that it was big and empty, but Chris brought something to the house. He made it alive somehow, and though cheesy metaphors were not her style, she couldn't help it. She loved that man and she only hoped that it wasn't too late.

That was a scary thought to think about. She had been telling Chris that she wouldn't marry him for the past five years almost, and that had to break his heart a little bit more after every rejection. Yet he never left her, and she was so dumb and blind not to realize that wasn't just because of Finnegan, but because he loved her, and he had been willing to wait for her to be ready, except she had always been ready. She just never thought she was worthy. She never thought Chris just wanted her for her.

She pulled up across from his apartment building and saw Chris walking out with some woman. She furrowed her brow and watched as he walked her to the car, both of them smiling and talking as Chris held Finnegan in her arms. She looked suspiciously at this woman as Chris stood with her next to her car parked on the street. Her face turned to a scowl as Chris grinned widely at this woman. This blonde-haired, neatly dressed woman. Why was there a woman there? She wasn't going to jump to conclusions, but she couldn't help the thoughts creeping through her mind that she was too late. If she was too late, she didn't know what she was going to do. She couldn't lose Chris when she had him for so long.

She drove off to circle around the block so Chris wouldn't know she had been watching and then came back around to see Chris and Finnegan horsing around on the grass outside his apartment building. She pulled up again and parked this time, grabbing Lionheart and opening the door. She started crossing the private street that Chris lived on and Finnegan spotted her first.

"Mommy!" Finnegan yelled as he ran towards Stephanie at full speed, crashing into her legs as he hugged her tightly around the waist. "What are you doing here?"

"I brought someone who was missing you," she said, bringing Lionheart around from her back.

"Lionheart!" he yelled, grabbing it and hugging it to him. "Where were you?"

"He was at home and he was asking me where you were and I told him you were at Daddy's and he got very sad and cried, and then we had a nice cup of coffee and I told him I'd bring him over. He's very upset that you left him though."

"I'm sorry," he said seriously to his bear, then went to Chris, who by this time was walking over. "Daddy, I forgetted Lionheart."

"Wow, that could've been a disaster," he said.

"I'm going to play with him," Finnegan said, going over and sitting on the grass with his bear as Chris walked over to Stephanie with a smile on his face. Just seeing her was reason enough for him to smile. Stephanie found herself feeling like she did when Chris had first asked her out. There was kind of a giddy feeling in her stomach. Even if she did see a woman here earlier, it couldn't have been for the reason that was creeping in her brain, it just couldn't be.

Chris was hers, and he had been hers for the past six years, maybe even longer than that. She remembered when he had first asked her out and the feeling of shock when he uttered the words at her. She never expected him to ask her out; they had been just friends for the past few years and for him to ask her out like that, totally out of the blue, well, it was unexpected but not unwanted. She felt that way right now, that shock and happiness that she first felt so long ago.

"Hey," Chris said. "Thanks for bringing over Lionheart, Finn never would've fallen asleep without him."

"I know," she said. "He loves that bear."

"Yeah," he said, glancing back at Finnegan.

"Hey Chris, I was wondering if we could…talk," she said, forging forward and going for what she wanted, which had always been Chris.

"Right now?"

"Well, if you've got the time."

"Actually, I'm kind of busy with Finnegan and there's this other thing, related to non-wrestling business that I've got to get squared away, and you know, I would really love to, but I can't," Chris said, knowing if she went upstairs, there'd be a whole slew of catalogues of rings all over the table waiting to greet her in the face. The next time they really talked was going to be the moment where he proposed. He would lay it all out on the line and if she refused, then he'd have to accept that it was over.

"Oh," she said, sounding disappointed. He wanted to kiss her so badly, but he restrained himself. "Maybe another time then."

"Of course."

"I better go, I was going to go out with my mother for dinner," she explained. "Have fun with Finny."

"I will," he told her.

Stephanie circumvented him and went over to Finnegan, kneeling on the grass. Chris turned and watched as Finnegan stood up and hugged her tightly, whispering something in her ear. She smiled and pulled away to kiss the tip of his nose. He kissed her cheek and almost didn't want to let go, but eventually did as she stood up. She smiled and waved to Chris, and he watched her walk to her car and drive off. He was going to marry that woman, he knew it, he was going to marry her.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was starting to think he was out of her reach.