A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Here is my fastest update in a very long time.

The next day Calleigh called the one person who was her trustee.

"Alexx."

"Alexx, hi, it's Calleigh. Do you have a moment?"

"Sure thing, honey. What's wrong?"

Calleigh contemplated for a moment if she should tell her on the phone but decided against it. "I need to talk to someone. Can you meet me?"

"Sure. But I can't come right now. Or is it urgent?"

"No, no. Meet me tonight at my place. Around seven, if that's okay?"

"Of course." She paused for a moment as if she was suspecting something. "Calleigh, it's not something bad, is it?"

She sighed. "I don't know yet."

"Alright. Meet you tonight then. Bye."

"Bye."

She put the phone down and thought what she should tell her. Alexx knew that she had had her doubts about the paternity and also knew who the father could have been. Now Calleigh had to tell her that it really was Ryan. And James was out of the picture for good.

She couldn't help but wonder what Ryan would say. Would he be glad? Sure, he loved spending time with Oliver but that didn't mean he would be too thrilled to know that she has been hiding this from her all this time. Two years and he didn't even know he might have been the father.

Calleigh thought how it would be said. Ryan, guess what, you're Oliver's father? No, that wouldn't do. She couldn't just be blunt and tell him that.

"A penny for your thoughts."

Calleigh was shook out of her contemplations as she heard Ryan behind her. She smiled at his very convenient question.

"I was just thinking. It's nothing important."

"If you say so. Want to go to the park with Oliver? He could use some fresh air."

She smiled. "Should you be spending all your days off with us? I figure it most get boring after a while."

"Never. I very much enjoy them."

"Then let's go."

There were few people in the park, despite the perfectly warm weather so they found themselves a nice secluded place to sit.

Oliver sat happily and played with his toys, talking to himself in his baby language. Calleigh looked at him and wondered He has no idea how much he has changed my life. Looking at Ryan, her mind was crossed with another thought. And he does not know how much his life will be changed.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the hand that waved in front of her face. "Hello, Earth to Calleigh?"

She blinked her eyes and noticed how amused Ryan was by her demeanor. "You sure have a lot on your mind today. Something wrong?"

"No, everything's fine. Just thought how lucky I am to have him. I mean, two years ago if anyone had told me I would be sitting here today and I would have a son who is 15 months old, I would have laughed at it."

"Weren't you thinking about having children with James?"

A shadow of pain crossed Calleigh's face.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Cal, I didn't mean to…"

She smiled. "No, no, it's nothing. You just… I guess I never realized that I didn't want children with James."

She was silent for a moment but Ryan didn't interfere.

"He was good and comfy and nice to be with but I could never see myself being together with him until the rest of my life. Children were not a possibility."

"But you wanted children?"

"Oh, yes, every bit of me did. But I just felt as if there wasn't a man in my life who could offer me the kind of stable life that would allow me to bring a child into this world without worrying about anything. I put children on hold, so to say and didn't realize that the clock was ticking."

"And Oliver…?"

"He wasn't planned, I'll say that. But when he was born, I felt as if he came exactly when I needed him. And since I was starting to border the line of having children, I decided to go for it."

She was a little shocked herself for confessing all this; never had she let a man get so close and see the real vulnerability in her usually strong façade. But what he said next, surprised her even more.

He took her hands and in a very quiet, soft manner said, "Cal, you're not old; you have a long way to go. And even when the numbers are bigger than you would like, you will still be young because I don't think you could ever lose your sparkle. There is no such thing as running out of time."

She smiled bitterly. "What will keep me from getting old?"

"Love."

He said it so quietly she thought she didn't hear right. But when he looked straight into her eyes she knew that she didn't have to look for it. It was already there.

Ryan leaned in closer, so slowly to give her the opportunity to pull away and stop this but she decided not to opt for it, even though every rational part in her screamed not to do this.

His lips came closer and she closed her eyes in anticipation. She could smell him, could feel his breath and it was only a matter of millimeters…

A sudden cry of pain jolted them both awake and she pulled back as quickly as she could, letting go of his hands and rushing over to Oliver who was crying.

"What is it, honey? What happened?"

She searched for the reason and found it when she saw a tiny red mark on his hand.

"Oh, baby, a bee stung you. Come here." She took him in her arms and tried to calm him as he cried to let his pain out.

Ryan was about to say something when his beeper went off. Looking at it, he silently cursed to himself. "Listen, Cal, I have to go; the lab is having some emergency and I'm needed. Are you okay by yourself?"

"Sure. Go on, I'll manage."

Even though they both tried to act friendly and pretend that nothing had happened, they couldn't hide it. The fact that anything didn't happen was what bothered them both the most.

"Talk to you later?"

But she was too preoccupied with Oliver to answer him so she just nodded. He left and while walking away tried to convince himself that everything was how it used to be between them. Only now he couldn't hide the fact that deep down inside, he did love Calleigh Duquesne.

By the time Alexx arrived, Calleigh was going out of her mind. Not only did she have to deal with the fact that Ryan was Oliver's father but they had almost kissed and that added to her nervousness.

The doorbell finally rang and Calleigh greeted Alexx with open arms.

"Hi, sugar, how are you doing?"

"I'm okay. Do you want something do drink?"

"Whatever you have is fine."

Calleigh poured them both some wine as she wasn't breastfeeding anymore and they sat down in the living room.

"How's Oliver?"

"He's growing so fast. Today was a bit sad because a bee stung him. But we went to our doctor and he prescribed some medicine so he's fine now. He's sleeping."

She nodded and they sat together; Alexx talked about what had happened in the crime lab, although Cal knew all about that from Ryan. Finally Alexx stopped and looked at her.

"Cal, I know that you did not invite me here so I could tell you about the lab. What is wrong?"

She took a deep breath. This was the moment. "I… I had the paternity test taken."

Alexx was surprised but didn't say anything. Calleigh needed time to say what she had to say.

"Ryan is the father."

Alexx gasped involuntarily. She had known it was a possibility but she couldn't imagine what effect it would have.

"Have you told him yet?"

"No."

"Are you going to?"

"I promised myself I would if he was the father. But now… I don't know. It scares me, Alexx. How can I put this on him? Maybe he doesn't want this, maybe I will just scare him?"

"Honey, he loves Oliver; I have seen them together. He's crazy about him."

"It's one thing to like a child but a wholly different matter to be a father. I have kept this from him for two years. How can I just say it out of the blue?"

"Calleigh, don't think, just act on impulse. Do you love him?"

"Yes." Calleigh was surprised by her answer herself. "We… we almost kissed today, in the park. And I really wanted it to happen but we were interrupted. I felt so content when I thought we were actually going to kiss and so unhappy when it didn't happen."

Alexx smiled. "Don't tell me this. Tell him."

"How? 'Ryan, I'm in love with you and, by the way, you're Oliver's father'?"

Neither had heard the door open and close but they did hear the gasp behind them. Turning around, Calleigh looked straight at Ryan who had meant to surprise her. By the look on his face, she had already surprised him.

A/N: Well... he does know now. But what will happen? Will there be a happily-ever-after in the next chapter? If you review this one then I just might write the next one for tomorrow.