A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys, I'm glad you thought the last chapter was good, please keep reviewing and let me know what you think. :)

"You're pregnant."

Stephanie sat out on the balcony of her old bedroom. She had just told her parents that she was pregnant. Well, that wasn't entirely true, she and Chris had just told her parents that they were having a baby. Her father had ushered Chris out of the room and so she had gone upstairs to collect her thoughts. She knew that even though her parents hadn't outright said to her face, they were disappointed in her. Hell, she was a little disappointed in herself.

She turned her head to look at Shane. "Yeah, I'm pregnant."

Shane nodded his head, "I don't think I heard it said to you, but congratulations."

Stephanie gave him a smile before turning to look out at the view over suburban Connecticut. "You're the first person to say that."

"Out of?"

"Well, Mom and Dad and you were the first people we told, so I guess out of three, you were the first person to actually congratulate me."

He shrugged and pulled up a chair next to her. "Someone had to say it and since Mom's in shock and Dad is probably chewing out and/or firing Chris, I figured the responsibility fell on me to tell you what we're all really thinking."

"I doubt that right now Mom and Dad are ready to congratulate me."

"When they think about what they're getting they will. They're just in shock. I think they figured that you would be married before you did the whole kid thing. They're older, they're set in their ways of thinking, and their way of thinking is that you get married first and then you have the children. But that's Mom and Dad, they were what, twelve when they got married," he joked.

Stephanie laughed, "No, that's when they met."

"You're twenty-six years old, that's not a child, Steph. You're an adult and you and Chris aren't a one-night stand. You've been together for over a year, you're in a real relationship, this isn't the end of the world."

"It sure felt like it," she told him. "I know you've never gotten a girl pregnant, Shane, but it's not like this isn't life-altering."

"Of course it is, but Steph, you can't tell me you aren't excited."

She smirked a little, trying to hold in her smile. "Once I got over the shock of it, and once I told Chris and he accepted it, we're both, we both want this baby, and that's a really strange feeling. I want this little Irvine inside of me, you know. And I know that it's going to be hard with our jobs, and I know that we're going to have to change a lot of things in our lives, like our living situation, but I really want this baby."

"Then you shouldn't care what anyone thinks, not Mom, not Dad, Chris's parents, friends, those snobby people our parents are friends with…you just be the best mother you can be to this kid while I get to be the best uncle this kid has ever seen. I'm going to spoil the little rugrat like you wouldn't believe and he is going to look up to me for sure."

"How can you be so sure of things sometimes, Shane?"

"Because, Stephy, I'm the big brother, and I'm supposed to protect the little sister."

"So shouldn't you be out kicking Chris's ass because he knocked up your little sister?"

"Chris is my friend, no way, I'm glad he'll be around…but if he ever, and I mean ever abandons you or your kid, if he ever acts like he shouldn't, then I'll kick his ass."

"That's the good thing about Chris though, he never lets you down."

"So what did you need to see me about that was so urgent?" Shane asked as he walked into the restaurant where Chris had been waiting. Chris was sitting at a table with Finnegan next to him, coloring on the kid's menu they had given him.

"Nice greeting," Chris grumbled as the man he had considered almost like his brother sat down across from him and grabbed the menu sitting in front of him. "I called you here for a very specific reason."

"You talked to Stephanie?" he guessed, hoping that was the case. He knew that Stephanie had a habit of drawing things out and he wasn't sure if she had yet seen Chris and talked to him. After hearing her tearful confession, he knew the only way that things were going to work out was if Chris and Stephanie sat down and Stephanie told Chris about everything that she had heard and what that meant to the both of them.

"No, well…not really, you know. We've talked about Finnegan and she mentioned that she needed to talk to me, but I was busy at the time, for a reason I'll tell you in a second, but she wanted to talk to me, so we're going to talk…but later."

"That was confusing," Shane told him as the waitress came over and took their orders. "So what exactly does that mean? Does that mean you're going to talk to her?"

"Well, yeah, I want to talk to her, but there's something that I feel I need to do first before we actually sit down and talk, which is why I wanted to talk to you," Chris told him. He wiped his palms on his jeans because his palms were sweating for some reason. It wasn't like he was going to ask Shane to marry him, for God's sakes.

"Okay, I don't know what this is about if you haven't talked to Stephanie, but I guess we can get to the bottom of that if you really, really want," Shane said, wondering just why Chris invited him here.

"I'm proposing to Stephanie," Chris told him bluntly, deciding that he didn't want to beat around the bush any longer. He needed someone's help in this and since his other go-to guy, The Rock, didn't live anywhere near here, he had to go with Shane.

"Yeah, you've proposed like fifty times already," Shane guffawed. "And my sister hasn't exactly been receptive to those, has she?"

"But this one is going to be different."

"Different, you mean you're going to spring a totally different question on her, like, 'Stephanie, will you have another baby with me?' That kind of question?"

"Oh shut your mouth," Chris said, then glancing at Finnegan. "Not that I'd hate that idea. But the fact is, and I hate admitting this because it makes me look like a low-life or something, but I've never given your sister a really nice proposal."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I've never done the romantic proposal type thing, and maybe that's the reason why she hasn't said yes," Chris explained.

Shane flinched a little when Chris said that. He knew the real reason why Stephanie had never said yes to any of Chris's proposals, but he couldn't tell Chris those reasons. He couldn't fight Stephanie's battles for her, and it wouldn't be fair of him to give away his sister's secrets like that. Stephanie had to be the one to tell Chris her fears or else it just wouldn't work out. But he wanted so badly to tell Chris the truth about why Stephanie kept saying no. Chris obviously loved Stephanie very much and couldn't figure out why she would constantly turn him down.

"Well…I don't know…"

"I always kind of thought that she'd want a really casual proposal, and I admit that my first proposal was a piece of sh--" Chris bit his lip and looked down to his son, who was busy doing a maze-type game on the sheet of paper, but didn't want to swear in front of him regardless. He continued, "It was bad. It had no feeling behind it, I mean, it did."

"When did you first propose?" Shane asked.

"It was like five days after Finn was born," Chris reminisced.

"Daddy, are you talking about me?" Finnegan asked as he heard his name. He turned his head up to Chris with a small smile.

"Yeah, I'm talking about the first time I asked Mommy to marry me. You were there actually. We were in your room and you were crying a lot."

"How much Daddy?"

"So much that I wanted to give you away," he joked, leaning in towards Finnegan a little.

"Give me away?" Finnegan asked with alarm. "To who!"

"Anyone who wanted you, but Mommy and I decided we'd keep you," he teased, then turned to Shane to continue. "But I was sitting against the wall watching as she tried to calm Finn down, and I don't know, she just looked so pretty that the words just came out of my mouth. Every time I've tried to propose, I just mentioned it casually because I thought that was what she wanted. I thought she would want something casual and then the opportunity to go with me to get her ring so she had some input in what she wanted. But maybe that's not the case. Maybe she wants the romantic setting and maybe she wants me to buy the ring."

"So you're going to propose?" Shane interjected.

"I can't let her go, Shane," Chris sighed, watching as Finn, bored by the conversation when it didn't revolve around him, went back to work on his puzzles. "When she went on that date, it almost ripped my heart out. Then this past Monday, when Paul hit on her and then said those things about her…I can't lose her, man, I just can't. I've spent the past six years with her and they have been the best years of my life. I've never been happier, and Stephanie makes me happy, I know that now and I knew it then. Plus, she had my kid, she willingly had my kid, how do you top that? You just don't."

"I get that, Chris, I really do, you don't have to tell me, I was there for the past six years. I just needed to know if you were going to propose."

"I am, and I'm going to do it next week, and I needed your help, will you help me?"

Shane cringed a little at the thought. He knew that Chris and Stephanie, well, mostly Stephanie, had some issues that needed to be worked through. Stephanie had only just recently figured out that there was a chance that for the past five years each and every single one of Chris's proposals had been because he wanted to propose and not because he felt some obligation to her. But she really needed to tell this to Chris and tell him what she was feeling.

"I don't know…how did you want me to help?"

"Well, I don't want you to like come up with the speech or anything," Chris chuckled, "That's Finn's and my job to do. I was just hoping that you could get her where she needed to be. I just didn't want to be like, 'Hey Stephanie, come here because I'm going to propose to you the right way,' so I was hoping that you'd help."

"I don't know, Chris, that's a tall order," Shane said uncomfortably.

"It's a tall order to make sure she gets somewhere?" Chris asked in confusion. "It's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, it's really simple."

"Well, you know, this is your thing," Shane said.

"You can't help?"

"When is this? I'm booked in meetings all next week and I don't have a spare minute, it's a big time of year you know, we have the quarterlies and stuff like that," he lied. He just didn't want to get involved when he knew how his sister was feeling. Chris needed know. "You know, I think that you should talk to Stephanie before you propose."

"I'll talk to her when I propose," he shrugged. "I think that we can talk then."

"Well, if that's what you want to do," Shane said. "I just don't think I should get involved this time."

"Shane, please," Chris pleaded. "You don't understand how much I love your sister…she's…everything to me, man. She's the only woman I've ever loved like this and no other woman is ever going to compare to her."

Shane closed his eyes, Chris was making this very difficult for him. He wanted his sister and Chris together. "Chris, I don't know…"

"Shane, I'm begging you here. I just want my family back," Chris told him and Shane had never heard him so impassioned.

"Okay, what can I do for you?"

Stephanie was reading in the living room. The house was quiet and she missed the noise, as weird as that was. Usually she'd hear Chris and Finnegan playing around somewhere upstairs. She hated when Finnegan was at Chris's because that meant he wasn't here. She never thought she'd have to share custody with Chris, but she wasn't going to deny him the chance to be with Finnegan.

The doorbell rang and she got up to go get the door. She opened it and saw Shane and then next to him was Finnegan, she looked surprised because he was supposed to be with Chris and she knelt down as he hugged her. "Finny, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I had lunch with Chris today and he thought that you might be missing Finn so he said to bring him over here," Shane said.

Stephanie smiled at how thoughtful Chris was, "Thanks for bringing him over. Finny, did you want to go watch television?"

"I'm going to go to my room and read my books!" Finnegan said excitedly as he ran to the staircase and trudged up the stairs. Stephanie watched after him before turning to Shane.

"Thanks for bringing him over, the house just doesn't seem the same when he isn't in it," Stephanie said, giving a small smile as she glanced up towards the staircase again. "So what brings you here?"

"I was just wondering if you had spoken to Chris yet?"

"No, I haven't," she said, shifting her feet. "Why do you ask?"

"I really think you should."

"I asked him if we could talk and he told me he was busy. He said we can talk later and I'm going to take his word on that. That's all I can do, Shane. I can't force a conversation on him. That wouldn't work. I just have to…I have to wait until he's ready to talk. If I'm not too late," she mumbled.

"Too late?"

"God Shane, take one look at Chris, one good look at him. How long do you think he's going to stay single? I mean, he's always had women falling all over him, even when he was with me, even when I was so obviously pregnant with Finny, girls were still trying to steal him away. Now that he's unattached, how long until he finds some woman who makes him happy and hasn't had a kid or anything?"

"First of all, you had his kid, I think that he wouldn't care what you look like since you had his child, and secondly, I don't think that's going to happen," Shane said, knowing that it was 100 unlikely to happen. Chris was getting ready to make the proposal of a lifetime to Stephanie. There was no way there'd be another woman, not after the words that Chris had said earlier.

"Still? Girls love him, and he loves girls, he can have anyone he wants."

"Trust me on this one, Steph, the only girl he wants is you, and maybe a little girl if you ever get pregnant again."

"Don't joke," she said sullenly.

"Trust me, everything will work out. You just need to talk."

"Thanks Shane," she said, hugging him. "Thanks for bringing Finny too."

"No problem, just talk to him!" Shane insisted.

Stephanie nodded and closed the door as Shane left. She looked upstairs and decided she'd have a little conversation with Finnegan. Finnegan was around Chris when she wasn't, maybe he'd have some insight. Sure, it'd be four-year old insight, but at this point she was grasping at straws. What she had said about Chris was true and that set her mind ill-at-ease. She didn't want to lose him, but it seemed only a matter of time before that happened.

Chris was a good-looking guy, you didn't need to be smart to realize that. He had only gotten better with age too, and although she hated his short hair and desperately wanted it long again (she did convince him to grow it out a little longer). And he had never wanted for women around him because they were always fawning all over him. Even when she was pregnant, actually especially when she was pregnant, girls had been trying to entice him because she was pregnant and sometimes wasn't up for bedroom activities.

Now that he was unattached and without Finnegan some of the time, it had to be easier to date, and it had to be easy for him to pick up any girl he wanted. Even during their first date within the first two seconds of seeing his smile she was willing to drop her panties for him. And she knew that she wasn't the only one willing to bed Chris Irvine within minutes of seeing him. So why wouldn't he take advantage of that?

Unbeknownst to her, the reasons were her and Finnegan. She walked into Finnegan's room and saw him sitting on the ground reading from some books. He wasn't officially reading big, long books, but he could navigate his way around Dr. Suess and the like. She sat down next to him and lifted him into her lap as he held the book in front of him. She leaned her chin on his shoulder and kept silent for a few minutes.

"What's that word, Mommy?" Finnegan said, pointing to a word.

"Brick," Stephanie told him quietly.

"Thank you," he said graciously.

"Hey Finny?"

"Yeah?"

"Has there been any…girls…at Daddy's apartment?"

Finnegan scrunched up his face and nodded. "Yeah, I saw a girl there."

Stephanie could feel a drop in her stomach. "Do you know what she was doing there?"

"Uh uh," Finnegan said.

"Did you hear Daddy ever refer to her as something like, 'girlfriend,' or 'special friend,' or anything like that?" she asked.

"I don't remember," he told her as he went back to reading his book.

"Are you sure you don't remember, or are you just forgetting right now, like it might come to you later and you just don't know it?"

"Mommy," Finnegan whined. "I'm reading."

"Sorry," she mumbled. "But there was a girl there, in Daddy's apartment, did you talk to her?"

"I talked to her before," Finnegan told her, not looking at her, "but then the next time, Daddy tolded me that I had to watch TV in his room while he talked to her."

Stephanie frowned, but was pleased that they weren't in the bedroom together, "Did you see them kissing or hugging or anything?"

"I don't remember, but maybe not," he said innocently.

"Okay, well, thanks Finny," Stephanie said, kissing his cheek, then lifting him up so he was sitting on the ground again. "I need to make a phone call and then I'll be back."

She got up and went into her office, grabbing her phone as she dialed Chris's cell phone number. She needed to talk to him soon, it was imperative. She didn't want him to find someone else. She didn't think she could live with herself and by herself if she lost Chris.

"Chris Irvine speaking."

"Hey Chris, it's Steph, I need to talk to you, soon, please."

"Steph, I'm really busy, like I said."

"Chris, please," she pleaded.

"Okay…next week then," he said, thinking that it would actually eliminate the need for Shane. "That good?"

"Yeah, next week then, thanks."

Stephanie hung up the phone and nodded her head to herself. She had to make next week count. She had to convince Chris that she needed him and she had to tell the truth about the past five years. She needed clear her conscience of the demons that had been haunting her for the past five years. She needed to make things right with Chris for everyone's sake, but especially for Finnegan's sake. She needed Chris to come back home and be with her and their son. She needed her future with him.

By this time next week, she'd either have Chris back…

Or she'd have nothing.