An exasperated Sophia Curtis glanced up as Alex Vartan entered her room; she'd just been settled into a private room and her mother had just arrived in a whirlwind from her cruise. "Please make her leave the hospital."

Alex had a nervous expression on his face. "She was just worried about you." While that might be true, Sophia and her mother had a sometimes abrasive relationship; they were close, but Nora Curtis seemed to make Sophia feel inadequate about her career without even trying. Vartan knew that Nora didn't do it on purpose, but it could have been nice if she could cut her daughter some slack that not everyone accelerates up the food chain of the police force with the swiftness that she had. Having a mother who was a former police captain were big shoes to try and grow into and it was a point of contention between them and he only guessed that somehow Nora had made a comment to Sophia that making detective just wasn't enough by her age.

"Like hell she was." Sophia was in a foul mood; despite the fact that she was making a remarkable recovery from her injuries her mother's appearance had soured her happiness over it all. While she was somewhat glad that her mother had made the effort to leave her cruise and come back to see her; she would have sworn under oath that her Nora would have preferred that she was at least in a coma when she'd gotten there so she could feel better about the expense of flying back from her cruise early. And then when she'd mentioned that Alex had proposed that's when the shit really hit the fan.

Alex sat down on the bed next to Sophia. "She's your mother." Nothing like stating the obvious and he could tell immediately it was the absolutely wrong thing to say.

"I don't care if she's the mother of the year; sometimes she irritates the hell out of me." Sophia looked up into Vartan's eyes and couldn't help but smile for a moment before her brow furrowed. Her next words seemed to come out in the form of a growl. "She seems to think that I'm going to ruin my career if I marry you."

"What?" His eyebrows shot up in surprise; that did not sound like the Nora Curtis he knew and he wasn't sure if he should take it personally or chalk it up to a mother wanting her daughter to reach the levels of success she had.

Sophia reached for his hand. "She thinks that I'm going to want to start a family right away because of my age and that if I want to make captain I should sacrifice my personal life for my career." By her tone this was obviously not how she felt about the situation and she felt damn fine about what she'd accomplished at her age. Her age be damned, women much older than her started families everyday.

"Hey." Alex furrowed his brows. "This isn't about her; this is about you and me and we haven't even had the chance to talk about kids yet." It wasn't that he didn't think they'd have kids, he just reasoned that was one of those things that would either happen or it wouldn't and getting worked up about one way or another didn't make a whole lot of sense.

"No, we haven't." Her eyes clouded a bit; she really had no idea how he felt about becoming a father someday. Of course she wasn't sure what sort of mother she'd make either, but how dare her mother presume that they needed to start a family right away; she wasn't old, she was only thirty-five. She had other things to worry about than starting a family; like seeing if her body would recover enough to go back to work for one.

Alex leaned in and softly kissed her; he could sense that anything he was going to say was probably going to be the wrong thing at that moment given Sophia's frame of mind. Nothing like easing into the discussion with a well placed kiss or two.

As they pulled away a few moments later, a smirk flitted across Sophia's face. "I think you have an unfair advantage Detective; that kiss of yours takes all the fight out of me." Not that they'd even been fighting, but this man had a calming effect on her like no other man she'd ever been with. She wasn't sure what she'd done to deserve someone like him; but whatever it was she was eternally grateful.

He let out a soft chuckle and leaned in again, savoring the way her lips felt; he was still acutely aware that things might not have turned out like this; she very easily could have died and where would he be then? As he pulled away, an idea formed in his mind. "You know, we haven't gotten very far beyond the proposal..." His words trailed off as his eyes followed Sophia's to the ring on her finger.

"No, we haven't." She glanced up at him; a devilish look in her eyes. "And if I wasn't stuck in this damn bed, I could think of several ways I'd like to yes all over again." The thought that it was going to be a little while before she was going to get the green light to indulge her passion with the man she loved was frustrating.

Alex waggled his brows and leaned in with a husky whisper. "All in due time, babe." The most important thing to him was making sure that Sophia healed completely; he didn't want to have to explain to her doctor that the reason for her return trip to the hospital was because they'd been having crazy wild sex.

Sophia laughed and winced slightly. "I'm going to find a way around it." She let out a sigh and looked into his eyes for a long moment before she spoke. "How do you feel about kids?" She couldn't seem to get the subject out of her mind; kids were a big deal, and while she really liked children, she didn't want to marry Alex and only then find out that he wanted six or seven children; one or two was just fine with her.

He smiled softly at her. "I like kids; and if we have them, I'll love them because they're ours." He felt a wave of relief as she smiled at his words; apparently that was the right answer and thankfully it really was what he felt.

Sophia's smile was misleading though. "If we have them?" She wondered if he really wanted children at all, or if he'd rather be a career minded couple; keep things status quo so to speak. She looked at him expectantly.

Alex let out a soft laugh and leaned in and gave her a quick kiss before giving her a reassuring smile. "There is no one I'd rather have children with than you; but there are no guarantees in life that we'll have them." He let out a thoughtful sigh. "My sister Tracy and her husband tried for a long time and when they couldn't get pregnant, they tried fertility treatments and then tried to adopt." Sadness filled his eyes. "They spent so much time trying to have a baby that they forgot why they got together in the first place. They got divorced a couple of years ago." He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. "I don't want that to happen to us, Sophia. I think we should just let nature take its course and if we have children we have them, and if we don't then let's focus on what we do have together; not what we don't."

Sophia felt moved by how heart-felt his explanation was and her voice was thick with emotion as she laced her fingers with his. "I love you so much, Alex."