Chapter 21---Another chapter of this cross-fiction story. Thanks for reading it and for your feedback. Hope you enjoy it!

C.J. reentered the Brick after her meeting with Maurice while thinking about the advice he had given her, hard won from his own experiences with his long-lost son. She looked up and saw Matt still sitting and working at a nearby table and smiled to herself as he scratched his head over something. She walked on over to him. He looked up from his work when she arrived.

"Why hello there," he said, "I'm about ready to take a lunch break. Would you like to join me?"

She looked at him in hesitation, then finally nodded and sat down in his booth.

"You look really nice this morning," Matt said.

C.J. looked down at her borrowed jeans and long sweater.

"I'm about to…grow out of my jeans," she said, "but I really like the sweater."

He smiled at her.

"How are you feeling," he asked.

She stretched her arms.

"Pretty good," she said, "I think I'm picking up some energy."

"C.J…"

She sighed.

"I don't want to get into it with you today," she said, "I already told you where I stand."

He shook his head and she looked at him, puzzled.

"Actually I wanted to apologize," he said, "for my behavior last night."

Now she felt really confused.

"For asking me to marry you," she said, "That was very nice of you. I just couldn't say yes."

He leaned back in his seat, pushing his stack of papers aside.

"I didn't do it to be nice…"

"You asked me because you felt a sense of obligation to me and the baby," she finished for him.

He looked at the trace of wariness in her eyes that had shown up just about the time he had broached the subject of last night's conversation.

"I asked you because I want us all to be a family," he said, "Family's very important to both of us."

She couldn't argue with that. They both had grown up as only children without at least one of their parents. He had lost his mother as a young boy and she, both of her parents within a short time. She had always wanted to have children when she found the right man and somehow fit raising a family with the career she had chosen for herself. She still wanted to do that and she knew she had found the right guy, who had as it turned out been in plain sight all along. She just wished that he wanted to marry her for other reasons besides obligation.

Shelli walked up to both of them with her order pad.

"What's up for the both of you today?"

Matt and C.J. both ordered the special and Shelli nodded approvingly after jotting it down and left them alone.

"I know family's important Houston," C.J. said, "but so are other things."

He considered her words but she shook her head at him wondering how he could be so clueless. After all she had told him she loved him quite a few times. When she had nearly been killed by a bullet, and when he had been planning to walk down the aisle with Elizabeth. And after they had spent the night together in that hotel room.

Joel walked past the table and stopped when he saw them together.

"So how are things going with the two of you," he said, "or should I even ask."

C.J. and Matt looked at each other.

"I heard around town that he found out about your pregnancy," Joel said, "It's really a good thing in most cases for both parents to be engaged."

Matt looked at him.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean involved," Joel corrected.

"I have every intention of being involved in raising our child," Matt said, "even if we don't get married right away."

C.J. rolled her eyes at that. The man just never quit, but then she should know that when Matt dug his heels into something, he could be very determined.

"Modern day society doesn't dictate that couples marry before having children," Joel said, "Now certain religions might require that couples undergo some formal commitment ceremony before engaging in childrearing."

"I'm not against marriage," C.J. said, "It just has to be built on more than a sense of obligation."

Joel nodded.

"I'm a strong proponent of the marital ritual," he said, "In fact, I was engaged myself before I came to this desolate corner of the world."

Matt looked at the both of them.

"I don't want my child to grow up without his or her father."

C.J. just dropped her jaw when he said that. What was with him anyway? She had already told him that she wanted him to play a major role in their child's life. But she wasn't going to marry a man who didn't want to spend the rest of his life with her. She didn't have many memories of her parents as a couple but she remembered how much they had loved one another until tragedy had split them up on this earth. She wanted what they had, a man who loved her as much as she loved him, who she could build a life with which included children. What about all that was so difficult to understand?

"I wouldn't want my child to grow up without me in his life either," Joel agreed.

She grew exasperated with both of them at that point.

"Houston, I never told you I would keep our child away from you," she pointed out.

"No you haven't," he said, "but you don't want to get married."

Maggie wandered by at that point to listen in on the discussion and C.J. just threw up her hands at the men and excused herself and walked away. Maggie watched her go and then glared at Matt and Joel.

"What," Joel asked her.

"It's just like you men to treat a woman like that," she said.

"Like what O'Connell." Joel said.

"Like she's got no feelings or if she does, that they don't matter," Maggie said, "The woman's pregnant with his child and all she wants from him… you…are a couple of words strung together about how you feel about her."

Joel shook his head.

"O'Connell, you don't have a clue about what's going on here," he said.

She wagged her finger at the doctor.

"Oh I don't, do I?"

He folded his arms.

"You've not even had a date in months," Joel said, "Unless you count that husky that you thought was Rick a while back."

She threw him the look of daggers.

"Why throw that in my face," she said, "I must have hit a sensitive spot in Dr. Fleishman."

Matt looked back and forth between them, thinking if this is how these two courted each other, their relationship might kill them both before it progressed too far.

"O'Connell, all you've drawn so far are blanks," Joel said, "and until you change your attitude, that's all that will happen."

"Youuuuuuu…..Ahhhh," she said, grabbing her head in frustration, "You are the equivalent of toe fungus and you…"

She pointed at Matt.

"Are probably not a bad specimen of the male gender yourself but you've got a very nice woman who is waiting for you to drop this machismo act…"

Matt raised a brow.

"And tell that woman that you love her so she'll think you're interested in her as a woman you can't keep your hands off of and not just as an incubator for your child."

Both men looked at Maggie but she gave them one last pithy look and then stomped off. Joel shook his head.

"That woman is certifiably crazy," he said.

Matt didn't answer, suddenly thinking that her advice to him didn't sound that crazy at all.

C.J. sat and laughed as Chris told her stories at a table next to the bar where she headed after walking away from Matt and Joel. Chris, the perfect gentleman, had pulled out a chair for her and made sure she was comfortable and that her food had been rerouted to his table for her to eat.

"So you and Bernard really can read each others' thoughts," she asked.

Chris shrugged.

"I know it sounds strange but if he's happy, I feel it too," he said, "And when he's here, we can finish each others' sentences."

"That's pretty cool," she said, "I look forward to meeting him."

Chris looked over at where Matt and Joel sat.

"So he's not handling the news well?"

C.J. dug into her food when it arrived at the table.

"He's overjoyed about being a father," she said, "He's always loved kids."

Chris nodded.

"But you're not sure how he feels about you," he said.

She sighed.

"I know he cares about me. We've been best friends a long time," she said, "It's just that for a while…I felt like…there was more than that between us."

Chris nodded again.

"The act of creating a child, bringing forth new life in the world," he said, "That's a very powerful thing. It can literally shift the universe."

"I don't know about that," she said, "but I did tell I loved him."

"What did he say back?"

She looked down at her glass.

"Nothing," she said, "Just that he'd be back after he had gone with those men."

"Before the car blew up and you thought he was inside it," Chris responded.

She nodded.

"I felt at the moment that I had waited my whole life to say those words," she said, "I realized that I had waited even longer for him to say them back."

Chris scratched his head.

"Maybe he's a man of few words," he said, "There's different ways a man can tell a woman he loves her."

C.J. knew that but Matt's focus since he found out about her pregnancy appeared to be on giving his child his name. She knew why, it had to do with his adoption which had been kept hidden from him most of his life. She hadn't known about it until he had told her about it while holding her after they had made love. He had tears in his eyes which she had promptly kissed away. It hadn't mattered to her and it hadn't changed the fact that she had loved him her whole life.

"You don't have trouble coming up with words," she said, "You're a poet after all?"

"That might be," he agreed, "but did you know I once lost my voice and couldn't speak at all?"

She studied him but he appeared serious.

"It's true," he said, "I had lost it to a beautiful woman, a siren, who had been passing through town."

She was fascinated despite herself.

"How did you get it back?"

"The only way I could," he said, "through the kiss of a beautiful woman."

"With Houston it's different," she said, "I don't know if how he feels towards me is the same as I feel about him."

"Did you ever ask him," Chris said.

C.J. started to respond but then hesitated, to really think about it.

"No I guess I really haven't," she said, "I just assumed that if he loved me, he would tell me. Houston's a man who's never had trouble figuring out what he wants."

"Maybe in his own way he's lost his voice," Chris said, "and needs to find the right way to bring it back."

Matt looked over at C.J. talking to Chris.

"She seems to really get along well with him."

Joel looked over at the two of them and shrugged.

"Chris is a nice guy," he said, "Definitely eccentric but nice and he attracts women to him like moths."

Matt sighed.

"I didn't mean to upset her," he said, "I just was shocked to find out she was pregnant."

"She was shocked to find out you were still alive," Joel observed, "so that makes the two of you about even."

"Not that I'm unhappy about her being pregnant…"

"Well she is, and she needs to take care of herself, including getting plenty of rest, good field and some attention from you wouldn't hurt…"

Matt nodded.

"Why don't you stop worrying about doing the right thing for a while," Joel said, "and just focus on taking care of her?"

"She can be pretty stubborn."

"She's been alone with this pregnancy for a few months," Joel said, "and that can be overwhelming for a woman in her condition."

Matt knew that he had spent enough time making her life difficult for her, first by allowing her to think that he had been killed in that explosion and now by focusing on how to do right by his child without considering her feelings.

"How's she doing," he said, "her and the baby?"

Joel looked at him.

"Both mother and pending baby to be are doing just fine," he said, "She's set to have her first ultrasound tomorrow."

Matt's eyes widened.

"If you play your cards right," Joel continued, "then she'll invite you to come with her so you can take a look at your child's development in utero."

Nothing could excite Matt more than to be there to share that with her. But he had his work cut out for him to make it clear to her that he wanted to build a family with both her and their baby and he had to figure out just the right way to do that.