A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger :-D It's always a pleasure...

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Monsters and Milk

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Barbara sat there as stiff as a statue and searched for any wind-up in Tommy's face but there was none. Objections, reason and anxiety raged inside her head and belly against romance and joy, against an overwhelming anger that he was toying with her emotions. She felt his hands softly stroking her cheek and saw his constant smile.

Well, at least finally he had kissed her.

And he looked as if he was going to repeat it. Unable to move Barbara let him give her another, slightly longer kiss. Involuntarily she followed Tommy's face with hers when he ended it to keep their lips connected as long as possible. It was what she had longed for all day. It felt good. It felt earth-moving good. Too good in fact to be true. She shook her head in disbelief and inhaled to voice her concerns. A gentle finger on her lips made her hesitate.

"Before you say anything else, Barbara, please let me give you to understand that I have thought about us for a very, very long while now." Slowly and quietly he told her how he felt for her, how he had discovered his feelings, when he had discovered that his feelings for her were deeper than he ever had felt for any other person in his life. He told her that he truly hoped, yes, that he in fact believed she was feeling the same way. He talked about how happy and excited he always had been when they had arranged some date. "And it only was a very short step from allowing myself to call those dates by name to the moment I realised I am deeply in love with you. I love you Barbara."

During his little speech of love one or the other tear trickled down her cheeks and her face finally looked everything but dismissive. She started to believe him.

"Please don't cry." Tommy said with tears in his own eyes. He wiped his thumb across her wet cheek before he leaned down again and gave her a third kiss that suddenly got out of hand somehow when Barbara gave in and answered it with all the pent-up passion from ten years or more.

Albeit with a tad more relish it had started as gentle and loving like the first two kisses but when Barbara's hand eventually dug into the back of his head to keep him on her lips and when she opened her mouth to his soft nibbling they soon were kissing passionately deep.

Her arms were around his neck, one hand in his hair and one hand on his shoulder, and Barbara pulled him towards her. With Tommy's hand firmly gripping onto her hip an involuntary moan came from her lungs and pulled her out of the moment.

"Tommy..." she whispered and stroked the hair of his beard watching his lips. They looked so kissed and so alluring. She took a deep breath and went on talking. "Tommy, I think there's no-"

He interrupted her with another gentle kiss. Barbara had laid there defeatedly pushed into the cushions, an entirely gently contented expression in her face, an almost smug smile on her lips. If after all she still had objections, Tommy thought, he simply would kiss them away. Even if it took the entire night.

But as if on clue a tiny voice pulled them out of the depth of the scatter cushions and crumpled rugs where they had indulged in the tenderly heated encounter.

"Babba, I think there's a monster under the bed." Ian stood at the door and looked at them with big frightened eyes. The adults dashed apart. They totally had forgotten that they were not alone in her flat. Tommy raked his hand through his hair. It had been quite ruffled by Barbara.

"I'll have a look, Ian." Barbara gently said getting up from her sofa. Only in the last possible moment Tommy let go of her hand not without another soft squeeze. She smiled. "I'm sure there's nothing. Come here, little man, you only had a bad dream."

Convincing Ian that there were no monsters Barbara brought the boy back into the big bed and even laid down next to him so he could hold her hand for a while. Tommy heard her quietly speaking and then humming some melody.

He got up from the sofa and went to the kitchen.

Since at the moment she was having little children in her flat and had to keep it somewhere secret it took Tommy a while before he found the bottle of single malt whisky but then he poured them both a glass. He would not leave before they had talked about what would follow, now that they had crossed the invisible line between them. Either it would become a very long or a very short night he would not mind. Maybe he would not get any sleep at all tonight.

"Oh, no, not that, Tommy!" Shaking his head he remembered the kids and splashed some cool water from the tap into his face.

Returning to the sofa he saw that she had not yet come back. In her bedroom Tommy realised that Barbara had fallen asleep next to the boys. He would let her rest for a while. In the meantime he would push the baby bed into the living room and prepare her sofa for the night. For a brief second he considered again staying for the night but to begin with, they both were tired and secondly, he would not want to rush things, would he? His proposal was enough haste for today. Although he really would love to hold her. They could just as well talk in bed, couldn't they? With a smile he shook that image out of his head. It definitely was too alluring and he did not trust himself to behave decently. He would not ask to stay.

With Barbara's bed finally prepared he glanced into the baby bed. Paula looked at him with wide eyes. Probably to the lights in the living room and the rustling he had made she had woken up and now slowly started to decide if she should cry or if the man would understand without her voicing it that she could do with a drink.

He understood and picked her up to carry her into the kitchen. Earlier Barbara already had prepared some small milk bottles so Tommy now only needed to fill one with warm water, shake it and test the heat. All the while Paula was sitting in his arms and he not only wondered where on earth all this routine had come from and why he obviously knew how to prepare a baby bottle, but he also talked with her and kept her busy so she would not start crying and wake Barbara up.

"Do you think I've shied her away with my inappropriate question, Paula?"

The baby, now contentedly sucking on the teat, just watched him with big eyes. Another female voice answered him.

"No, you haven't. Not really."

Tommy looked up.

Barbara stood there in the doorway and she obviously had watched him for a short while. She had heard him soothingly talking to Paula about the great day and that he had loved to have this little insight to how it could be having a real family with Barbara. He had mumbled to the girl that he felt like an idiot and was shocked about his previous question before their first kiss which admittedly had been wonderful, gorgeous, marvellous. He had hummed the melody of the lullaby she had sung to Ian earlier so Barbara knew he had listened to her or even had watched her then like she had watched him now.

Holding the bottle Tommy had stroked the baby girl's cheek with one finger and rocked her while he had stood leaned against the kitchen sink with his eyes fixed on the cutie in his arms. Barbara had wondered how Tommy still could hold the quite big girl who already was walking her first few steps alone. He had not sit down somewhere so Paula could sit on his lap but he obviously did not care. He had rather strong arms, she had thought. Strong arms that could hold her too. She would love that.

Slightly blushing Barbara even had heard Tommy asking Paula of her opinion to his internal debate if he should ask Barbara for permission to stay for breakfast. As far as she was concerned he also could stay for lunch and dinner and breakfast the day after tomorrow.

Finally Paula had finished and Tommy rocked her in his arms. That was when he had asked her the question Barbara had answered instead of the baby girl.

His head went up and he smiled. "How long have you been standing there?"

Barbara just shrugged and approached him. "Just a while. Thank you for taking care of Paula."

"It was pure pleasure."

"And thank you for making my bed."

Tommy did not answer to that. They just shared a deep look. There was still some hesitation, some sort of anxiety in Barbara's eyes but she could see that he had meant his initial question to her seriously. And there definitely was the unspoken question if she would want him to stay for the night.

"Do you want to put Paula to bed?" he asked instead.

Since she nodded Tommy handed her the baby and their faces came so close that he now acted like he had wanted earlier in a similar situation. Now he simply closed the distance to Barbara's lips. Closing her eyes she responded immediately and with Paula in her arms and his arms around both they shared another long and tender kiss.

Abruptly Barbara turned away. Another second longer and she probably would have placed the girl onto the worktop and snog the hell out of Tommy - no matter how tired she was. A nervous laugh accompanied her words towards Paula while they left the kitchen. "I'll put you to bed now, hm? We would not want to ruin your good behaviour just because we've none, would we?"

"Ah, well..." Tommy muttered following her, raking his fingers through the hair that Barbara had left slightly ruffled again. He still could feel the warmth of her lips lingering on his. "Of course not."

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