For the second time, Chris was left speechless.

Here he was, in almost the exact same position, but instead of hearing some crazy confession from her, she was telling him something that he couldn't quite believe. Instead of the desperation and anger that he heard when she had confessed that she didn't think he loved her the same way he loved him, he heard a hopefulness and a gentleness in her voice when she said the two words that he had been saying for years.

He turned to her and closed his eyes, "Wh…what did you say?"

"Marry me," Stephanie said. Chris opened his eyes slowly, looking at her through the dim light streaming in from the kitchen. He looked at her as another bolt of lightning briefly seemed to make the room glow. Maybe everything was glowing right now.

"I don't…I don't understand," Chris said, looking at her earnestly now. "You just said that you needed time. You just said that you needed to think…are you just trying to get me to stay? Because if that's why you're doing this, then that's really cruel, Stephanie."

"Have you ever had one of those moments where you see yourself doing something, and it's like you're watching yourself do something stupid?"

"I guess so," he said, confused, wondering why she would confuse him like this. Did he really deserve the torture like this? He didn't deserve to have his chain yanked like he was her pet or something. He had feelings, and if she was just fucking around with him right now, it was the meanest torture she could think of.

"Well, you proposed, and I'm like, watching myself saying no. Then I'm thinking to myself, 'Stephanie, what the hell are you doing? This man says that he's loved you this entire time and he's always seen a future with you, and this was your biggest fear and he just dispelled it,' and my body is like, still frozen and the words won't come out right, and I'm just thinking I'm a complete idiot for saying no and I need to be slapped upside the head. And since slapping myself wouldn't work, and you slapping me would probably knock me out cold, I had to mentally slap myself. Marry me, Chris, marry me because I love you and Finny, and I love our life."

"You want to marry me?" Chris asked, his voice even, but trying to hold back the hope that was starting to creep inside of him.

She nodded, "I want to marry you, Chris. I've been an idiot. If I'd just talked to you, then this could've all been cleared up. I've wanted to marry you since the first time you asked, but I always wanted to give you the option to leave me, because I thought that you would take it. Now that I know you wouldn't take that option, it changes everything."

"You've always wanted to marry me?" he asked, still too stunned to answer in any way but a lame echo.

"Yeah, of course, look at you," she said with a slight chuckle. "You're gorgeous, and your personality is the best, we think alike, and you're a great father to our son, what more could any girl want? The mere fact that you want me, that you really want me, it just puts it all over the top. I've been stupid to reject you…so please don't reject me…"

"This is all so surreal," Chris said, running his hands through his hair. "I never expected this to happen…not like this…I mean, I just…I don't know what to say, I'm speechless, you've made me speechless."

"Is that a good thing?" she asked jokingly.

"I don't even know," he said with a laugh. "I just--"

"Mommy?" came a confused voice from the bedroom.

Stephanie turned to see Finnegan standing there, rubbing his eyes. His hair was sticking up in every which way and he looked tired. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was approaching 2:00 am. She didn't know how Finnegan had slept through the fighting, but only woke up at this moment. She smiled at him, though he didn't see it since he was just about asleep on his feet. She went over and kneeled in front of him.

"Hi there, Finny," she said softly as she fixed his hair.

"Mommy, what are you doing here?" he asked gently, looking at her through his sleepy blue eyes.

"Well, I got scared because of the storm and came to see Daddy since Daddy makes everything better," she told him.

"I was scared too," he said, nodding somberly. "But Daddy said that I could sleep with him."

"Yeah, Daddy said the same thing to me, but you were hogging the bed," she said, kissing the tip of his nose. Finnegan giggled and made a funny face to his mommy. "Why don't you go back inside the room and go back to sleep, it's very late for a little boy to be up."

"But I'm all alone in there and the booming is still scary," Finnegan protested. "I want to stay with you and Daddy."

"Okay, why don't you go lie down in Daddy's bed, and Daddy and I will be in there really soon so you don't have to be scared of the booming?" Stephanie told him. "Daddy and I are having a very serious discussion right now, but as soon as we're done, we'll be right in there with you, how does that sound?"

"Can I stay with you?" he asked pitifully. Stephanie pouted at him and he leaned forward to hug her neck. Stephanie lifted him up and let him rest himself against her, where he was starting to rapidly fall asleep against her shoulder, unaware that Chris was just staring at the two of them.

This was his family, he thought to himself as he stood there watching them interact. These were the two people in the world who loved him the most. It was a nice feeling, and for the first time, Chris really thought that Finnegan had just been the glue that held them together. He thought his son a lot of things, but Finnegan was truly the point where he knew he wanted Stephanie forever. He loved her, and he loved being with her, and he loved every, single, solitary moment with her, and nothing was ever going to change that. Finnegan proved that, Finnegan had come along and proved to him that Stephanie was the only woman for him.

"So you said that this was all surreal," she continued, running her hands soothingly up and down Finnegan's back as she spoke. Her voice was infinitely softer now, so she wouldn't wake up their son. When she looked down and saw Finnegan was asleep, she went over to the couch and laid him down gently, which brought her much closer to where Chris was standing.

"It is all surreal," he told her. He looked around. "I was never supposed to have an apartment or anything…"

"Chris, I love you, and I want a life with you, everything, I want everything with you," she told him.

Suddenly Chris burst into a huge smile and Stephanie had no idea what was going on, but Chris was rushing her. He took her into his arms and hugged her tightly. She hugged him back, and his hold on her just got tighter and tighter. He lifted her up and spun her around as she laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Chris, can't breathe, cannot breathe," she wheezed.

"Don't care, I got a yes! I got a yes!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Hey wait," she said as she managed to pull away, "I proposed."

"I proposed first," he told her, "So it's my proposal that counts."

"But I never said yes to that proposal, so mine is the one that counts."

"But I didn't say yes to your proposal, so mine is still out there," he told her.

"Mine is still out there."

"Stephanie, will you marry me?"

She shook her head, "No, you can't do that. You can't re-propose because you never answered my proposal, so my proposal is the one that's hanging out there."

"No, see, you never answered mine, you just told me that you needed more time, that's not a no, and it's not a yes, so if we go by the rule of not answering the question, you never answered my question, so technically, mine is still out there."

"Well I'm not saying yes until you say yes," she countered.

"Well, I'm not saying yes until you say yes," Chris responded stubbornly. The two of them looked at each other, silently challenging the other one to break. Neither one was going to do it though as they stood there in each other's arms, arguing about whose proposal was still valid. "I'm not saying it."

"Well, I'm not saying it, I proposed."

"No, I proposed, I even have a ring," he protested.

"Well I had the uterus that carried our son, so that trumps you and your ring."

"That was like four years ago, live in the now, I proposed. I have the ring, so just say yes already."

"Not going to happen!" Stephanie challenged loudly, which caused Finnegan to wake up again.

"Mommy, too loud," he whispered, waking up fully. He burrowed himself deeper into the cushions of the couch as his parents stood over him in each other's arms.

"Hey Finn?" Chris said.

"Daddy, I'm tired," Finnegan whined. He wasn't in the mood to be woken up for a third time, it was really late and he didn't understand why his parents kept waking him up. It was like he was being punished or something.

"I know kiddo, but I have to ask you an important question," Chris said. "Do you think that you can stay awake for just a minute so that I can ask you?"

"Okay," Finnegan mumbled.

"Do you think that Mommy and Daddy should get married?"

"Uh huh," he responded sleepily, not even knowing what he was saying at all. Chris laughed as he looked at Stephanie, who was just looking down at Finnegan. He kissed her cheek, causing her to look over at him. She smiled softly at him and he gave her a half-smile as he tried to fix some of her hair. She glanced at the sleeping child again before she turned back to Chris.

"I guess that's our answer," Chris whispered to her, so they wouldn't wake up Finnegan. "So should we take his advice?"

"Yeah, I think we should," she told him, and she was blushing now, and she didn't even know why. They had been together six years and he knew her inside-out, but he still could make her blush. He kissed her rosy cheeks, moving his lips down to cover hers. They kissed eagerly, having missed each other in their time apart. Stephanie moaned quietly into his mouth and wrapped herself tighter against him so her body was pressing into his.

She finally needed air and pulled away breathlessly, her eyes still closed. She took a sigh out of content and opened her eyes to see Chris holding up a ring about six inches from her face. She looked at it and noticed that it seemed to have colors in it. She looked up at Chris questioningly, never having seen a ring quite like this before.

"I know it looks like a crazy ring," he told her, "It's meant to be that way, it's um…well, it's our birthstones, and then the diamond is Finn's birthstone. I never got you a ring before, I figured that once you said yes we could go shopping for it so you could get what you wanted, but I was going to propose again and thought that I should have a ring this time, I thought that maybe…maybe the reason you kept saying no was because you didn't get the perfect proposal…now I realize I'm just an idiot who needs to watch how I phrase things."

Stephanie giggled and held her left hand up so he could slip the ring on her finger. "It's beautiful, I love it. Thank you." She kissed him again, then turned that into a tight hug. "I love you."

"I love you too," he told her, and he finally felt like he could have everything that he wanted with her. He hugged her tighter than tight, finally able to call this woman his fiancée. It was an incredible feeling knowing for sure that she was going to be his, that she hadn't, and never wanted to reject him. His thoughts were broken up as she let out a rather noisy yawn. "Okay, someone's had enough for one evening."

"Gonna take me to bed?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows playfully.

"Well, if you don't mind sharing with the two Irvine men?"

"Nah, I think I can handle it."

Chris kissed her one more time and went over to the couch, lifting up Finnegan gently. Finnegan instinctively snuggled into his daddy's warm body as he was carried into the bedroom. Stephanie followed behind her guys and watched as Chris laid Finnegan down on one side of the bed. He could've put Finnegan in his own bed, but if he woke up by himself, it wouldn't be pretty. Stephanie climbed in bed and Chris climbed in behind her, just like earlier, except this time, he was lying with the woman he was marrying, not his ex-girlfriend.

"Move over, I've got no room," Chris told her.

"You've got no room? I'm the one stuck in the middle."

"Well, can't you move Finn over a little bit?"

"You try moving that log," Stephanie told him. "He's not going to budge."

"Well can't you move over a little bit more, my ass is hanging off the bed?"

"I can't move over anymore," Stephanie answered. "I'm literally like smushed in between you two, he's a bed hog."

"That's your fault."

"It is not my fault," she protested.

"It is too."

"Is not."

"He's your son, he's like your little clone, so if this is a trait of his, it has to be a trait of yours."

"He's your son too."

"So says you."

"Oh shut up," Stephanie told him good-naturedly.

"I would if you moved your ass over."

"I would if you shut your mouth."

Chris leaned over to kiss her again, "How's that for shutting my mouth?"

"Well, I like that way…"

"So I'm just going to have to sleep with half my body off the bed?"

"Looks that way," she said as Finnegan came over to cuddle with her. Chris wrapped his arm around Stephanie's waist, and she knew she wouldn't want to be anywhere but here, smashed together with her son and her…fiancé, riding out a thunderstorm in an entirely too small bed. This was her family, a family that she and Chris had both wanted, and wanted to see through to the finish.

"I love you, Steph."

"I love you too," she whispered back, letting him grab her hand. "Hey Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for never giving up on proposing." Chris was silent for a few minutes and Stephanie thought he was asleep, but then she felt him kiss her shoulder and then lean his cheek against where he had just kissed her.

"Thank you for being there to hear every one."