While I Wait

Chapter 10

When he heard her twisting her key in the lock, his eyes shot up and he watched as she opened the door.

"Rick, you have to see…." She paused, taking in the dim lighting and dinner table set for two. He was sitting at the table, dressed in a button down and dress pants.

"Hi.." he smiled, standing from his seat to make his way towards her.

"You just said dinner, you didn't say I needed to be dressed for the occasion."

"Well, I decided to make it special, you look beautiful already, I just wanted to dress up for you?" He said as he approached her, helping her slide her jacket off. Hanging it in the closet as she watched him closely.

"What are you up to?" she asked suspiciously.

"Why do I have to be up to something?" he smirked. "Cant I just do something nice for my very pregnant fiancé?"

"Rick.. about this morning…."

Interrupting before she could finish "It was great, very eye opening." he laughed, and she shoved at his shoulder. "No but seriously, Burke and I had a good talk today and I just wanted to make this special. I cant even begin to imagine how hard this has to be for you, and the more I think about it.. if the roles were reversed, if you didn't remember me, I would be heartbroken, and I know how hard it had to have been for you to get to this place with me, where we were getting married… So I think I owe it to you to put my best foot forward and actually try to get us back to where we were, or at least close. I mean we don't have long before the baby will be here and I want us to be in a good, strong place when he or she does get here."

"You're going to be a great dad Rick, you already are a great dad. Don't feel pressured to force things with me because of the baby. Regardless of where we stand we will always be parents together."

"Kate, stop.. I don't just want to co-parent with you. I want this. I want you, I've always wanted you, and to be completely honest, if you weren't pregnant it would have been very easy for me to just jump in this with you. I have been overly cautious because of the baby, I didn't want to fail you. I didn't know if I could be what you need or want, but after talking to Burke today I realized that I already am enough. If I wasn't, then you wouldn't be here, right?"

"You're everything I want, babe." She stepped closer to him, wrapping her arms around his abdomen and hugging tight. His arms quickly followed suit and he hugged her back.

"So, this dinner, is officially our first date. I would have picked somewhere fancier but I'm not really allowed out."

"Just for now." She laughed, stepping away. "I'm seriously starved though so feed me."

"Ahhh, of course you are." He laughed, taking hold of her hand and leading her to the table.

She couldn't believe how sweet he was being, not only had he set up a romantic dinner, but for the first time since he had been home she actually felt like he wasn't scared of her. He pulled her seat out for her and she sat down quickly, reaching for one of the dinner rolls that were sitting in a basket in the middle of the table.

He sat across from her and lifted the top off her plate. He had made her favorite Italian dish, Chicken Parmesan.

"This looks amazing Rick."

'Why thank you, I thought it was going to get cold waiting on you. Where have you been?"

"Oh that's what I was gonna say when I was walking in, let me just grab my purse." She started to get up, but he beat her to it.

"Just stay… I'll grab it."

She simply nodded, a little suspicious of how he was acting.

"I want you to relax… I think you deserve to be waited on a little bit. You've been doing everything on your own, and you know if I had been here in the beginning, I would have been the most overbearing fiancé of all time.."

She coughed, "husband, you would have been my husband if you had been here since the beginning."

He locked eyes with her, a sense of guilt overcoming him. He knew she meant nothing by it, but she was right, if he had been there since the beginning they would have been married when she found out. He handed her the purse and took his seat.

She pulled out a sonogram picture and slid it across the table. It was a 3-D picture of their baby.

"Wow, technology has really come a long way since Alexis. When is this from?"

"Today, I went to this special place today to get it done, isn't it amazing."

He smiled up at her but she could tell that something was wrong.

"Hey, what's wrong?" She reached across the table, laying her palm over his where his left hand was resting on the table.

"I just wish I could have been there, or that you would have made them come here to do it. I just feel like, as far as our baby goes… I'm on the outside."

"On the outside? Rick, I'm sorry…. I honestly just wanted to surprise you."

He smiled back at her again, "Its fine, I know its not your fault Kate, and this is amazing, our baby is amazing, but this face… is definitely the face of our little girl."

"Really? You think?" She grabbed it back looking closely at it.

"Look at that nose, it's your nose, and her little lips."

"What makes you think it's a girl."

"She looks just like you, I mean if it is a boy, he's going to be a very pretty boy."

Both of them laughed as she placed it back on the table.

"Well, I don't really care what the sex is to be honest with you." she picked up her fork, cutting in to her chicken, "As long as he or she is healthy, I'll be happy."

"I know that I have missed so much of this pregnancy already but I really am just thankful that I'll be there for the birth… you will let me be there for the birth right?" he questioned, taking a bite of his food and chewing.

"You act like I'm keeping you locked up, Rick whenever you want to make it public that you have been found, we can do that. I just thought…"

"That I would need time, right, I know, and I understand, but I want to be able to go to your doctors appointments, and I want to be able to take you on a real date."

"Well we will talk to Gina then, and we will figure out a plan of action, my book tour is done, all the press is done, so now we will have time to sit down and figure this all out. I never meant for you to feel like a prisoner, I just wanted you to have time to figure everything out." She was beginning to feel overwhelmed, that maybe he blamed her for being cooped up in the house. She quickly put her fork down and excused herself from the table, trying not to cry in front of him.

But as soon as she made it into their bedroom, he was right behind her.

"Kate, I'm not mad at you, and I don't want you to feel like this is your fault, I'm sorry I said anything."

She quickly turned around to face him, the tears already welling up in her eyes, "I know this is hard for you, but it's hard for me too okay. You think I enjoy any of this? Do you know what it was like to run up on your car engulfed in flames… Do you know what it was like to think that the man that I was suppose to be marrying was gone. I had already lost my mother, and then you, and honestly if it wasn't for this baby I would have fallen completely down the rabbit hole again."

"First of all, don't yell at me like I'm the enemy here Kate, I said I was sorry, and I know how hard this has been for you, that's why I planned the dinner, I wanted to do something special for you."

He approached slowly, trying to read her out before he made any contact, and when he could tell that she wasn't going to turn away, he cupped both of her cheeks with his hands, wiping her tears away with his thumbs and then capturing her lips with his own. She quickly opened her mouth allowing him to slide his tongue in and deepen the kiss.

When they broke apart she couldn't help but smile, "You don't know how much I've missed that."

"Yeah, well you don't know how long I've been wanting to do that."

"Do it again." She whispered, stretching up on her tiptoes and wrapping her arms around his neck.

He lowered his mouth to hers again, and kissed her. This time it went on for a few minutes before they broke apart.

"I think our dinner is getting cold." He teased and she let go of him, running her hand across her abdomen.

"Yeah, and your child is begging for food, feel this." She grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. It felt like the baby was doing somersaults in her stomach.

"Wow, that's incredible, how often does this happen."

"It's never been this intense, it usually feels more like butterflies in my stomach. I think the baby is happy that mommy is happy."

"Mommy's happy?" he asked.

"Very." She smiled and nodded; "Now lets finish this dinner that my hormones ruined."

"They didn't ruin anything, if anything they gave me the courage to kiss you, to make you feel better."

She laughed at his confession and grabbed his hand to lead him back to dinner. She couldn't believe that the Mr. Playboy himself had to gather enough courage to kiss her. It was funny how even though he couldn't remember their relationship he was still fully committed. She tried to remember what Rick was like back then, was he really ready to settle down all that time ago, had she been completely unaware of how he really felt about her, or had she been trying to ignore it? Either way, she was happy that he had gotten the courage to kiss her, maybe things would feel more comfortable with them now.

Thank you all for the reviews, I woke up this morning to 22 reviews. I know a lot of people don't leave reviews because they don't have anything to say really, but I encourage you to get involved with the people that write these fics for you. You don't know how motivating it is when people show interest in my writing. Another 20 reviews and I will post again tomorrow!