Chapter Thirteen
"Ryan," a slightly out of breath Marissa called out as she wandered into their home laden down with bags of groceries. "Could you help me carry all of this in?"
When there was no answer, she looked in the living room, still not finding him, before going into the kitchen where she saw that he was on the phone. Motioning to her that he would be just one moment, he continued taking notes from the person on the other end of the line. Sitting the bags down on the center island, Marissa pulled out a barstool and sat down to wait for him.
In some ways their lives had changed drastically since New Year's; in other ways, it remained stagnant. Gerry's secretary had called on the second to let her know that the boys' nanny would be picking them up that afternoon. Apparently, Gerry had recovered from his hang over by then, so their small visit did not last long. Although it upset Marissa again to watch her sons being taken away from her, Ryan had been able to keep her distracted and focused upon the baby, alleviating as much stress as possible. He had even insisted that she wait to start work until she had passed her twelfth week mark, seeing as the risk of miscarriage declined drastically after that point.
Once it had gone by and everything remained perfect with the pregnancy, despite some mood swings, cravings, heartburn, and swollen feet, she had started work two weeks before. Armed with a new vehicle, another SUV, one that she liked better, despite it not being a luxury one, because she got to pick it out herself, Marissa had the freedom to go to work and run errands. Plus, it was just the right size for a growing family. Due to the fact that she was training, she was working for a few days in every division of the hospital, getting a feel for wherever she may be placed on a permanent basis. She loved her work, and, for the first time since high school, she was making friends on her own based upon whether or not people liked her for who she was and not for her status in society.
As she sat there, waiting for him, lost in thought, Ryan couldn't help but watch her, a smile flashing across his face despite what he was being told over the phone. He thought she looked adorable in her scrubs, and although, to the normal, untrained eye who had not studied every square inch of her body, she didn't appear pregnant, Ryan could just barely make out her slight bump. Her hair was swept up in a messy ponytail, curling wisps escaping the confining restraints of the rubber band holding her hair back, her makeup was minimal and completely unnecessary, he thought, and her skin glowed. Sitting there, oblivious to the world around her, Marissa looked content, which was something he often didn't see on her face, and the sight of it made him sigh a quiet breath of relief. Too bad he was about to shatter that feeling of ease.
Clicking the phone off and putting it and his worries aside for a moment, Ryan shuffled over to his fiancé and wrapped his arms around her neck, gently drawing her to him as he kissed her hair.
"Hey," he said softly not wanting to startle her.
Surprising him, Marissa turned around on her seat and stood up quickly, kissing him hello, and then taking his arms off of her neck to grasp his hands in an attempt to pull him after her, but he stood still. "Hey," she returned. "How was your day?"
"I'd much prefer to hear about yours, but," he amended when he saw her go to protest, "it was good. I finished the crowd molding today, so that next week I can start gold leafing it." Laughing at her confused expression, he continued. "I'll show you what it is later. Now, tell me about your day. Are you feeling alright? You and baby aren't too tired are you?"
"We feel great," she answered honestly. "Work was easy today. I'm in the lab for the next week, so basically I sit a lot, but it was cool, too, very interesting and kind of like I got to work on a bunch of science experiments." Ryan laughed before she could say anything else. "But, I do need your help to carry in the groceries, so come on." With that, she finally managed to pull him towards the front door, and they walked outside towards her car hands linked.
"So who was on the phone when I came in," Marissa asked curiously as she supervised Ryan loading the bags into his arms after he insisted that she not carry anything else inside. "It looked pretty serious."
"It was," he agreed with her, "and I was hoping to distract you for a little while and make you relax some before telling you, but it was your lawyer on the phone. The trial date has been set."
"And," she pressed him, "when it is?"
Stopping their movements and making her look up at him, he answered, "March 1st." When she went to protest, he continued. "Apparently, Gerry paid another visit to whoever his connection is, and he got the trial date pushed up."
"We're not prepared. I mean, we haven't even really started to work on the case," she lamented, worry replacing the former happiness which had been on her face.
"I know, I know, so that's why I set up an appointment to meet with Mr. Taylor next week." Signaling that they should move their discussion into the house with a slight nod, Ryan picked up the last bags and Marissa shut the hatch of the SUV. "Because of your work schedule, I made it for….am I carrying two bags of grapefruit?"
Bewildered by Ryan's sudden topic change, it took Marissa a moment to answer. "What….oh, yeah, they looked good."
"When I told you to get some fresh fruit for yourself, I meant a variety, not the entire stock of one kind of fruit," he teased her.
"So…I like grapefruit, and I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and snacks." When he just smirked at her, she rolled her eyes and offered an explanation. "Fine! As soon as I saw them, I started craving them, okay?"
"Did you buy everything in bulk," he quizzed her, smiling at her pout and waiting for her to open the front door for him.
"No," she replied, sticking her tongue out and giggling when he leant forward to capture it with his mouth, narrowing escaping him. "Everything else that I bought was normal."
"At least it's a healthy craving," he conceded, dumping the numerous bags of groceries on the counter as they worked together to put them away.
"Are you done interrogating me about my food selections?" When he nodded his head to show her he was through, she changed the subject. "Good. Now, back to this trial, when did you make out appointment for next week?"
"Oh, I made it for Friday night after you get off of work. I figured you wouldn't want to miss any more work than you're going to have to, what with the trial, then the baby, and eventually, hopefully, our honeymoon, and I know that Friday is going to be crazy, because we have the doctor's appointment that afternoon during your lunch break, but I figured, I'd make you relax during the weekend and pamper you for Valentine's Day."
"Ryan, we don't have to celebrate Valentine's Day."
"Uh, yeah we do," he corrected her. Watching her closely, he moved to her, tilting her chin up to look at him while he asked the next question. "You've never celebrated it before have you?"
"Have you," she returned, smiling smugly when his smirk turned into a frown. "That's what I thought," she boasted.
"Well….I….um…..," Ryan began, obviously hedging the conversation until she mock glared at him. "I always made sure that whenever I attempted to date someone for a couple of weeks…."
"So you could get laid," Marissa finished for him, her voice serious but her eyes mischievous and teasing.
"Yeah, what you said, anyway," he continued, "I always made sure that I broke up with them before a holiday approached, so…."
"Alright," she conceded, "we'll celebrate Valentine's Day for the first time together this year." Moving her eyes away from his, she spoke softly. "And I might have already got you a little something….."
"Same here," he confessed before kissing her. Pulling back, he had a smile stretched wide across his face. "So, we have a couple of hours before dinner, whatever should we do with ourselves?"
Dodging his lips again, Marissa wiggled out of his grasp and ran towards the backyard, grabbing Q's leash on her way. "Walk Q," she shouted over her shoulder before she disappeared, leaving a slightly disappointed yet amused Ryan shaking his head after her as he followed his giggling fiancé outside to find their lazy, self-involved dog.
"So, what will it be," Dr. Seagal asked the exuberant couple in front of her, "do you want to know the sex of the baby?"
"Yes," Marissa answered excitedly, the anticipation evident in her face while Ryan shouted out the opposite answer.
"Absolutely not," he contradicted her, leaving them staring at each other confused and unsure of what to do while the doctor just laughed at them.
"I'll tell you what," Dr. Seagal interrupted their staring session, "I'll print out a picture for you, go and get it while Marissa gets dressed, come back so we can talk, and I'll tell her the sex at the end of the appointment after Ryan leaves the room. How does that sound?"
The couple, with smiles once again upon their faces, nodded in accordance prompting the doctor to leave the room, chuckling softly to herself.
Helping Marissa into her shirt after she wiped off the gel from the ultrasound, Ryan couldn't help but bring up the sex of the baby again. "You really want to know," he asked her. "I mean, I just think, you know, waiting until the baby is born would be…fun."
"I've done that twice," Marissa answered him, "and besides, I think I already know what I'm having and I want to see if I'm right, but it's fine that you don't want to know. I'll keep my lips sealed." Leaning in to kiss her, Ryan, for several moments, prevented her from speaking. "Or you could keep doing that and I won't get a chance to talk," she giggled, sitting back down in the chair to wait for the doctor to return. Right on cue, Dr. Seagal came through the door, photo in hand, passing it off to Ryan to hold while they talked.
"So, Ryan, you told me you had some questions at the beginning of the appointment. What can I answer for you?"
"Grapefruit," he started, "is that a normal craving?"
Laughing, she shook her head yes. "All women crave different things during their pregnancies, and as long as Marissa doesn't start asking for things like dirt, chalk, or paint chips, then she's fine." As she noticed the bewildered expression on Ryan's face, she explained. "Women with pica can crave those things, and often it's a sign of anemia. But, Marissa, if you're really craving citrus, I'm going to give you a prescription of Abreva just in case you start to develop cold sores, alright?"
"Thanks," Marissa replied. "I'll have Ryan fill that this afternoon."
"Do you have any other questions," the doctor inquired, turning back to Ryan.
"Her feet swell," he confessed. "Is there anything you can give her to help with that?"
"Normally, women can take water pills, but because she's pregnant, that's not an option," the doctor explained. "You need to watch her salt intake, really monitor her diet, make sure she drinks plenty of fluids, see to it that she sits with her legs and feet elevated while avoiding crossing her legs, she needs to wear loose, comfortable clothing and loose, supportive shoes, and try to not let her remain on her feet for long periods of time. If the problem persists, we'll have to watch her blood pressure, and if it gets too high, she might be at risk for toxemia, which will lead to bed rest."
"I'm fine," Marissa argued, dismissing Ryan's concerns, "it's nothing that bad. If I'm on my feet a lot at work, my feet swell slightly. Ryan just worries too much."
"It's good that he worries about you," the doctor chided Marissa. "Just because you've had two easy, worry free pregnancies, doesn't mean you can dismiss things like this. You're older, our bodies change constantly, and each pregnancy is different. Ryan's doing exactly what he should be doing, asking me this."
"What about stress," Ryan interjected. "We're about to start the custody trial in a couple of weeks."
"Just watch her, observe how she's feeling. You'll sense if anything is wrong. I'll send some brochures home with you about battling and coping with stress for you to read over, and if you have any questions, you can always call the office or go online. There are numerous websites where you can find out any information that I could tell you. I'll write a couple of them down on the brochures." Standing up, she ushered for Ryan to join her, walking him to the door. "Relax, Marissa will be just fine. You're doing a great job with this, by the way. I'll see you at the next appointment." With that, she shut the door after slightly pushing him out of the room and turned around to face an amused Marissa who was merely laughing softly at Ryan's antics. "So Mom, ready to know if you're having a boy or a girl?"
"I've been ready," Marissa answered truthfully, her eagerness apparent on her face.
"What do you think you're having," the doctor prodded her.
Rubbing her stomach, Marissa looked up at the woman across from her, her eyes slightly glazed over. "A girl," she responded.
Opening the door, and motioning for Marissa to come with her, Dr. Seagal finally spoke up. "Mother's intuition, it's an amazing thing." And with that, she went off down the hallway to find Ryan's brochures, leaving Marissa behind with an expression of pure joy etched over her countenance as she stared down at the daughter she was carrying.
The late afternoon meeting with Mr. Taylor, Marissa's attorney, was not going as smoothly as the doctor's appointment had earlier that day. Ryan, basically a quiet bystander, sat back silently watching as his fiancé and her lawyer argued endlessly about the best way to approach her case. While Taylor wanted to hire a private investigator to see if they could unearth any dirt on Gerry, Marissa was adamant that she win the case based solely upon her credentials as a mother. All three of them knew that Gerry would not play by the same clean, child-friendly rules, but Marissa did not want to stoop to his level. She believed that they would be able to win the case without having to paint her soon-to-be ex as the horrible excuse for a human being that he was.
Despite his best intentions and honest opinion as a professional, Taylor was unable to convince his client to let him run the case the best way he saw fit, so they ended their meeting with Marissa the victor and pleased with herself for getting her way and the lawyer frustrated, annoyed, and completely clueless as to how he was going to win custody for the woman he was representing, the party who deserved to raise Garrett and Cooper. As Marissa left the office to go the bathroom before she and Ryan proceeded to make their way home, Taylor pulled Ryan aside to speak to him privately.
"Mr. Atwood," he began only to have Ryan interrupt him.
"Please, Mr. Taylor," Ryan admonished, "call me Ryan. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing quite a bit of one another, so you don't have to be so formal."
"Well then, in that case," the attorney smiled at him, "please call me Evan. I need you to do me a favor." Knowing he had Ryan's full attention, he continued. "I need you to convince Marissa to speak out about the abuse. Now, she hasn't admitted anything to me," he explained when he saw Ryan attempt to protest, "and I doubt she has said anything to you either, but we both know that he hit her, and it's essential that the judge know exactly what kind of man Gerry is. Plus, those boys should not be with a man who would ever hit a woman."
"Mr. Tay….Evan," Ryan began, scrubbing his face in a tired manor, "if Marissa will not even admit that Gerry hit her to you or me, how is she ever going to admit it to a courtroom full of strangers she doesn't trust. You and I both know that it happened, but think about how she must feel about it. She stayed with him for years while the abuse continued. Admitting that it happened would be embarrassing for her. It's not about protecting Gerry, I know for a fact that she hates him; it's about protecting her boys from ever learning what their father did to her and about protecting herself. She has too much pride to confess what went on in her marriage to anyone, and, to be honest, I completely understand that."
Heaving an exasperated sigh, Evan dejectedly collapsed into his leather chair behind his desk. "Well then, I guess I have my work cut out for me. Don't worry though," he said as he looked up at the younger man in front of him, "I'll figure something out. Enjoy your weekend, Ryan, and tell Marissa I'll be in touch with her next week."
"Thanks, Even," Ryan said quietly. "And the same goes to you, enjoy your weekend as well." With that, he disappeared through the door, closing it softly behind him so that he could not see the attorney bury his head in his hands in a defeatist manor.
Surprising Marissa, Ryan had planned a whole day for the two of them to spend Valentine's Day together. After sleeping in late Saturday morning, practically rising at lunch time, they had spent the afternoon at the beach, lounged in each others arms, talking, resting, and reading, just enjoying the beautiful, sunny, February day and each others company. He had packed them a picnic lunch with grilled salmon, a squash medley, pasta salad, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert, a meal, thankfully, in Ryan's opinion, free of grapefruit or anything else related to it. Snacking on the food all day long, they occasionally got up from their tiny oasis on the public beach to play like two innocent children, even going so far as flying a kite, something which made Marissa giggle endlessly.
As the sun went down over the ocean, casting amber, garnet, and amethyst shadows over the smooth, mirror like surface of the waters, the two lovers strolled down the almost deserted beach, bodies joined together as they kept the other warm, the coolness of the night already settling in. Their day had been simple, unique, flawless, innocently fun and causal just as Ryan and Marissa were as a couple. It was a day they would remember forever, a day they would relish sharing every single detail with their grand children someday. Upon returning home though, they settled in for an evening that would always remain private between just the two of them.
After exchanging gifts with each other, Ryan's gift to Marissa a video camera for her to record memories of their children for posterity and Marissa's gift to Ryan, an assortment of sexy lingerie that she would be able to wear while pregnant, gifts Marissa insisted would not be used at the same time, the two were curled up in each other's arms, completely clothed still, just quietly whispering to each other and, every few moments, looking at the ultra sound picture again.
"I can't believe that the baby can already suck its thumb," Ryan exclaimed for what might have been the tenth time. Smiling down at their unborn child, thumb in mouth in the photo, Marissa couldn't help but fall deeper in love with Ryan as she watched him sit in awe of the miracle inside of her, his hand rhythmically caressing the small bump on her abdomen.
"It can do more than suck its thumb," Marissa said softly. "I remember reading years ago when I was pregnant with Garrett that by the time a baby is four months old they can also yawn, stretch, and make faces."
"And it's only about six inches long….how is that even possible," he asked in wonder.
"The baby's amazing…and obviously, it takes after its Mother," Marissa taunted, laughing when she saw Ryan merely agree with her. "You were supposed to tease me back," she reprimanded him.
"But you are amazing," he argued with her, brushing a feather light kiss against her forehead before she climbed out of his arms and scampered towards the bathroom.
"Well, for that," she playfully cooed, "you get a treat." Disappearing into the bathroom, Ryan assumed she would be out within a few minutes, but as the hands on the clock ticked by steadily, his once wide awake eyes glazed over with sleep and drooped closed as the quiet settled over the house. Startling him out of his light slumber, Marissa exited the bathroom forty five minutes later, bathed, ready for bed, and grinning oh-so-not innocently.
As Ryan opened his eyes to gaze at his fiancé, he was pleasantly amazed to see that she was wearing one of his presents. With only a pastel pink, whispery, georgette, pleated, baby doll on, slightly see through to entice Ryan even more, Marissa made her way to him, sliding down onto the bed and taking his mouth in a leisurely kiss. As she helped him strip, her mouth never leaving his, his hands danced over her body, caressing it softly and exciting her passion to even high levels.
Once he was completely rid of his clothes, Marissa stepped back from him, much to his initial dismay, but as he became aware of what she was doing, his temporary separation from her body was bearable. Painstakingly slowly, she sat down in a chair across from the bed, and let her hands run the length of her right leg until she reached her foot where she slipped her matching stiletto off and set it down on the ground before giving the same treatment to her left leg. Ryan watched her, his eyes trained unwaveringly upon her every move.
Standing back up, she swayed her hips from side to side as she slowly glided her barely-there thong down her legs, stepping out of it once it landed on the floor. Turning around before she bent over to pick it and the shoes up, she raised her body gradually letting Ryan enjoy the sight she made for as long as possible. Walking across the room, she placed her shoes and thong in the closet, turning around to make her way back to her eager fiancé. Standing in front of him, legs slightly spread, hands on hips, her eyes roamed his aroused body, smiling broadly at the response her strip tease was invoking.
Finally deciding that she had made him wait long enough, her hands wandered to the hem of the baby doll, lifting it unhurriedly over her head and tossing it aside so that she stood in front of him completely nude and waiting for him to take her. Screaming out in surprise and pleasure as Ryan launched himself out of the bed, taking her in his arms, and entering her before his mouth could even greedily take hers in an endless kiss, he lustfully pushed her up against the wall. Their love making was wild, frantic, desperate, and completely satisfying, leaving her slumped over on his chest as he supported her in his arms while they both regained their breath.
Carrying her over to the bed, her arms still entwined around his neck, they lounged against the headboard together, kissing and feeling every square inch of each others bodies, slowly, this time, bringing their desire and need to the point where they craved each other. As Ryan and Marissa made love into the night, over and over again, Cupid slept soundly that evening, knowing that he had created at least one perfect couple who had celebrated his holiday in a divinely beautiful way…together, as one.