Chapter 26---Another chapter of this FF cross-fiction where Matt and C.J. both wonder what to do next. I hope you enjoy it, thanks for reading and the feedback!

Damn it, what was wrong with her, C.J. thought lying back in her bed, tucked under her blankets trying to get to sleep. Chris had driven her home after their coffee date and she had enjoyed herself immensely while with him. They had chatted about a lot of things since he had offered her his insight about her relationship with the father of her baby. Maybe in another time, she would have been attracted to a man like Chris since they did share some things in common including a love for things artistic.

But truth be told, she had spent much of her coffee date with a man who had been able to appreciate her as a woman, thinking about the man who looked at her as the mother of his child. Ever since he had discovered the truth about her pregnancy, Matt's focus had been on the impending arrival of the latest member of the Houston dynasty which stretched back to the earliest days even before Texas had won its independence from Mexico and was yet to become part of the United States. She knew how important family had always been to Houston even before he found out that he hadn't been a Houston, by blood but through a love that had proven to be much thicker than that. And she didn't begrudge him being caught up with becoming a father himself, she just wish that he saw her as a woman too, the woman who had conceived their baby through an act if not of love then of passion.

She tossed and turned a bit and then reaching for her robe got out of bed to read for a while. She had heard that sleeplessness was best dealt with by engaging in some really boring reading but she had been online earlier that day on some sites reading about the more advanced stages of pregnancy which she would be experiencing soon enough. Maybe after reading a little bit, she might be able to sleep.

Matt tossed and turned in his own bed at the inn. He had left the Brick having called it a night and had driven off, passing the coffee spot where C.J. and Chris had gone after the reading. He felt the strong urge to park his car, walk right in there and ask the artist, poet and deejay what his intentions were involving his woman. His woman? C.J. would read him the riot act if he tried to pull a stunt like that but right now he didn't care. He felt some primal need to make it clear to Chris that C.J. belonged with him, her shapely figure was ripening with his child and he didn't care how if that made him appear like a Neanderthal.

But of course he stopped himself before he could even put his foot on the brake to slow down to find a parking space. He knew that any display like that might cause him to lose delicately won ground with C.J. who after all, had always been a strong believer that women were on an equal footing with men in all areas of their lives. He knew how hard she had fought to be an attorney, to succeed in a profession dominated by men, where all the key players were male. So instead of going in the coffee place, he had driven past it back to the hotel and tried to settle down for the night. But sleep hadn't come easily and after a while, he had gotten up and tried to focus on some really boring paperwork he needed to complete.

C.J. yawned as he waited for Ed at the Brick so they could redo the footage at the Lodge with some of the founding members of Cicely's version of the polar bear society, which usually involved stripping off one's clothes and jumping into some very frigid water, which was not in short supply in these parts. She couldn't imagine herself doing anything so impulsive but she admired their nerve.

"Didn't get much sleep," Shelli noted as she walked by with a tray filled with plates of omelets and buckwheat pancakes.

"I have a lot on my mind," C.J. said.

Shelli sighed.

"With me, it's not being able to sleep in my favorite position," she said, "I can't wait until it's time for this puppy to come out."

"How much longer," C.J. asked.

"About a month," Shelli said, "but that just seems forever right now."

C.J. smiled.

"You must be excited," she said, "now that you're in the homestretch."

Shelli nodded.

"Despite the aches in my legs and back and the having to hit the john every hour on the hour and feeling tired all the time…"

Joel walked up to them dressed like a mummy and began to unravel his winter wrappings.

"Shelli," he said, "You have an appointment later this afternoon. We'll have a better idea of how much longer."

Shelli folded her arms.

"I just hope that Hollings, jr. isn't going to be late because I'm about as big as I can get without popping."

Joel looked at her.

"That could happen," he said, "Not the popping part, because that's medically impossible, but your baby could be born after your estimated due date. It's your first baby. Of course, that means that it could arrive early too."

"So in other words, it could arrive at any time," she said.

"Well yeah, in a manner of speaking you could certainly say that."

"Okay, I'm cool with that."

Shelli left them to finish serving her food to her customers.

"She seems pretty calm about things," C.J. noted.

"Oh Shelli's pretty laid back about most anything," Joel said, "What about you?"

C.J. smiled.

"I'm fine," she said, "I'm glad the morning sickness has been going away and I really feel more energetic."

"That's good," Joel said, "There's no reason why your pregnancy shouldn't continue normally."

She nodded.

"How did your date go last night with Chris?"

She raised a brow at him in surprise.

"Is that a medically based question?"

He scratched the back of his head.

"You know there's nothing prohibiting you…he…."

She looked at him indignantly.

"Excuse me," she said, "We went out and we had coffee…Well I had tea and we talked. That is all."

Joel looked at her somewhat doubtfully.

"I've long been fascinated with Chris' ability to attract the opposite sex," he said, "If I had the equipment to run tests, I might be able to narrow it down to a specific pheromone. "

She shook her head.

"Not that it's your business, but I'm physically attracted to Chris," she said, "I just think he's a nice guy."

"Okay, well everyone thinks he's a nice guy," Joel agreed, "but there's still something in his biochemistry, there's got to be. If I were a woman, maybe I'd feel an irresistible drive to do the horizontal mambo…"

C.J. rolled her head at the budding scientist. Maybe he had originally planned to work in a laboratory, conducting research and writing papers for medical journals without ever intending to see or treat a single human patient. At least, until the State of Alaska stood in his way and demanded his four years of servitude as payment in full for his medical school loans.

"Have you ever thought of specializing in medical research…"

He looked at her funny then wandered off and she knew she asked a sensitive question. She filed it away for further use in case he ever started asking her questions about who she had slept with. A woman dressed in a striped dress walked by. C.J. remembered her from the nights the women spent competing in their ongoing Scrabble tournament.

"Hi Clara," C.J. said.

"Hi there C.J.,' Clara said, "How did your date with Chris go last night? Is he as good as I hear?"

C.J. rested her head on the table, thinking it might just be a long day.

Matt stopped in at Ruth Ann's to pick up some papers faxed by Murray last night and to pick up some aspirin for his headache. Probably due from not sleeping so well last night but how could he when he had spent the whole night thinking of C.J.'s date with Chris? Did she make it home safely last night; did she make it home at all? It hadn't occurred to him that the two of them might hit it off so well that they might have headed back to his place. He closed his eyes for a second, not willing to go down that path. Besides he knew that despite their problems, C.J. loved him. Oh yeah wait, she had told him that at least twice and hadn't been happy with the response she had received from him.

He sighed, always realizing that he had never been a man of words, but of action. Now C.J. had worked as a lawyer since graduating with honors at Harvard School of Law which meant she had to develop impeccable verbal skills to practice her trade and she had done just that. She wrapped his mind and other parts of him into knots with just a few carefully chosen words that seemed to flow easily. He on the other hand acted, the way that he might have spoken if he could find the right words. That last night they had spent together, she had told him she loved him when he prepared to leave and he had felt the urge to pick her up in his arms and show her how much he loved her back. But time had been pressing and as many people would have felt in his situation, he thought he had plenty of time when the mission was done to make it clear how he felt. But of course that hadn't turned out to be the case and it had been several months before he had even seen C.J. again. And she had been more wary of him, much more guarded and several months pregnant.

The ball had been in his court but for the first time in his life, he hadn't known what to do with it and he still wasn't sure. Not an easy reality for the man who embraced everything that came his way by working and playing hard.

"Excuse me, are you looking for something Matt?"

He looked up and saw Ruth Ann stacking some canned goods on a shelf.

"Damn kippers," she said, "I put them on the shelf one day and notice they're gone the next…"

"Here let me help you," he said, grabbing some cans.

She smiled at him.

"I heard C.J. had a good time on her outing with Chris last night."

Matt bristled but tried not to show it. It didn't matter because Ruth Ann noticed.

"You know Matt," she said, "I don't think you need to worry about Chris."

"Who's worried," he said, "I just hope he took C.J. home at a reasonable hour so she could get plenty of sleep."

"I'm sure he did," Ruth Ann said, "He just wanted her to take some time from remembering she was pregnant so she could relax a bit."

"She hasn't complained about the pregnancy."

"I didn't mean it that way," Ruth Ann said, "I meant that just because a woman is pregnant and going to have a baby doesn't mean she ceases being a woman. She might be entering a new stage of her life but she's still the same woman for the most part."

Matt ran his hand through his hair.

"I know that Ruth Ann," he said, "At least most of the time I do. This is strange for me too. I've never been a father before."

She smiled at him.

"You have some great times ahead and some trying ones," she said, "But it might not hurt if you start treating C.J. not as if she weren't pregnant but as if she were still the woman you got pregnant in the first place."

He lifted a brow.

"It really wasn't all that hard," he said, "She's a beautiful woman and I don't know why it took so long for us to get together. Not that we meant for her to get pregnant at the time but I'm not complaining."

Ruth Ann paused.

"Why don't you think back to that time and what you felt and shared together and try to recreate those feelings," she said, "Like you say, it shouldn't be that hard. You two obviously care about each other."

He frowned.

"I'll have to push back past a wall of sadness that followed that night we spent together," he said, thoughtfully, "That's the hard part."

Ruth Ann shrugged.

"Maybe," she said, "But you have to want it enough, you have to want her and I think you do."

He nodded, considering what she said and knowing she was right.

C.J. sighed at her table after about a half dozen people had passed by and asked her about Chris. She knew Cicely was a small town filled with people who considered each other family but there really was nothing to tell. The truth was, after she and Chris had coffee and talked for a while, he had driven her home. She liked him but she had no desire to be more than friends with him. After all, she was in love with someone else, for the good that did her. But then she thought she had loved and been in love with Matt much longer than she was willing to admit. She just had no idea how he felt about her besides clearly being physically attracted to her. But she needed, no she wanted more than that from the man who had fathered her child. At least that's how she had always wanted it to be.

She heard footsteps which drew her out of her reverie and he stood before her.

"Hiya C.J.," he said, "Mind if I sit down?"

She bit her lip looking up at him and shook her head.

"Hi there yourself," she said, "I'm about to have some breakfast and I'd love for you to join me."

"C.J., I'm sorry…"

She cut him off.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," she said, "I had a great time with Chris last night but he's not the man I want in my life. I'm just not sure what that man wanted."

He reached out for her hand and she slipped hers into it without thinking.

"That man wants what's in front of him," he said, "He's just done a lousy job of showing it."

Her heart skipped a beat.

"And that's going to change, starting right now…"