Here's the next chapter which is mostly cute stuff, very little drama. Hope you like it. I've kind of accelerated Emily's age a bit in this chapter, it's two months on but Emily's one and a half when really she should be one year and two months. I really wanted her to start interacting with Ryan and Taylor more so that's why I made her a bit older.

By the way, sorry about the wait. I've been writing this chapter for a while and I really wanted it to be perfect. Anyway, please review :)

Plot: Taylor and Emily spend two days without Ryan who is out of town on a business trip. While Ryan's away, Taylor must deal with her toddler, who really misses her father, as well as exciting news about her pregnancy.

Morning - Ryan and Taylor's House

"I don't think this is such a good idea," Ryan said hesitantly, setting his suitcase down by the front door.

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked.

"I don't feel right leaving you here by yourself when you're pregnant," he explained. "You've got to look after Emily and the dog-"

"Oh don't be silly, you have to go," she smiled. "Besides, I'm only 5 months along, although I know it seems like more considering how big I am." She set her hands on her ever-expanding stomach with a sigh.

"Yeah what's going on with that?"

"I don't know," Taylor replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Which is why I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to find out."

"See? If I go I'll miss your doctor's appointment," Ryan said. "I can't go, I'll just call work and-"

"No, you're going. You love your job, what's gotten into you?" she interrupted him. He sighed. "Come on honey, it's one night. You'll be back tomorrow afternoon and I'll fill you in on everything. I promise."

"You sure you're going to be okay?" he asked. "Tell me honestly. It's really no trouble for me to assign someone else the job of running this conference."

"Yes, I'll be fine. Now go," Taylor said, kissing him goodbye.

"Okay," he gave in. He then knelt down in front of his daughter and smiled, "Can you give Daddy a big hug Em?" The toddler smiled and threw her arms around Ryan's neck, hugging him tightly. "I promise I'll be back tomorrow, okay?" he said, kissing Emily on the cheek. "I love you." He then patted their Golden Retriever puppy, Lady who was named after the dog from Lady and the Tramp, Taylor's favourite movie when she was a child. "Don't be bad for your mom while I'm gone okay Lady? Don't steal any of our clothes either, she can't run after you as fast as she used to."

"Hey!" Taylor exclaimed. Ryan smirked at his wife, then stood up to say goodbye to her one more time. "Ryan, you're being ridiculous," Taylor said. "You're acting like you're going away for a month, rather than one night."

"Well I'm sorry that I'm going to miss my family," he replied.

She smiled, "Think of it this way, the quicker you leave, the quicker you'll be home."

Ryan smiled, kissing his wife one last time before picking up his suitcase and opening the front door. "Bye."

"Bye-bye dada," Emily said softly, waving sadly.

Taylor also waved as Ryan turned and made his way towards his car, then closed the front door. Emily looked up at her mother and pouted sadly. Taylor's heart broke, "Oh honey, it's alright. Daddy will be home soon, don't you worry." The toddler nodded, but continued to pout. "Come on baby, Mommy's still here," Taylor smiled, leading her daughter towards the living room. She thought for a moment, before coming up with a brilliant idea to get Emily's mind off her father. "Emily, how would you like to help Mommy in the kitchen?"

"Help?" the little girl repeated, a smile appearing on her face.

"Yeah," Taylor nodded. "How about we make some choc-chip cookies?"

"Yay!" Emily squealed excitedly, running for the kitchen as fast as her little legs would carry her, with Lady following close behind. The dog had become quite protective of Emily, even sleeping beside her bed at night. The canine had won her way into the hearts of Ryan and Emily, then eventually even Taylor. Lady was one of the family now.

Taylor and Emily managed to make it through the day without the toddler getting upset about Ryan. It was now 8:00pm, which meant it was time for Emily to start getting ready for bed. Now this, was going to be a problem. Ryan was always the one that put her to bed, and it was going to be difficult trying to convince the 1 and a half-year-old to go to sleep without a goodnight kiss from her daddy.

"Okay sweetie, what story do you want to read tonight?" Taylor asked after she had Emily in her pajamas and sitting in bed. Lady looked on quietly from the floor beside them. "We have Goldilocks and the Three Bears or Cinderella."

"Goddy-lock!" Emily exclaimed.

"'Goddy-lock' it is then," Taylor smiled as she sat down beside her daughter on the bed and opened the book.

Emily frowned, "No."

"What's the matter Em?"

"Daddy," she explained simply.

"Aw honey, Daddy's not here tonight," Taylor said to her gently. "But Mommy will do her best with reading the story okay?"

"No!" she exclaimed, stubbornly. She folded her arms across her chest and put on her infamous pouting face. Taylor was always so surprised at how much her daughter looked like Ryan when she did this.

"Emily," Taylor warned her. "I know you miss Daddy but there's no need to be rude to Mommy."

Suddenly the little girl burst into tears. Taylor sighed, pulling her daughter into her arms, "Maybe we should skip the story tonight baby?"

She shook her head and said softly, "Daddy..."

"Daddy's not here Emily, he won't be home until tomorrow afternoon."

"Mommy get Daddy?"

"Oh honey, I can't-" Taylor stopped for a moment, suddenly having an idea. "Okay, I'll get Daddy." She set Emily down on her bed and pulled the covers over her. "You wait here okay?" Emily nodded. Taylor then left the room and went to her and Ryan's bedroom to get the cordless phone. She dialed Ryan's cell phone number and waited for him to answer.

At this time, Ryan was at a business dinner with a few of his major clients and colleagues. They had just ordered their main course and were waiting for it to be served when Ryan's cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and realised it was home calling. "Sorry, I've got to take this," he excused himself to the other people at the table.

"Is it Mr Martin about the hospital account?" one of the men, Jim asked.

"Nope it's just my wife," Ryan replied.

"Checking up on you huh?" laughed an older, slightly overweight man who happened to be the CEO of one of the companies Ryan's company was designing an office building for. The other men laughed at this comment.

"Yeah, something like that," he said, flipping open his phone to answer it. "Hi honey."

"Hey," Taylor replied.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. "I just called you about an hour ago."

"No, well kind of," she stammered, making her way down the hallway towards Emily's room. "Nothing big. It's just, Emily really misses you and wants you to read her a bedtime story."

"Taylor, I'm kind of an hour plane trip away at the moment."

"I know," she rolled her eyes, leaning against the door frame of her daughter's room. "Which is why thought you could read to her over the phone. You don't happen to know the cliff notes version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, do you?"

"This is kind of a bad time for that-" he started.

"Please Ryan?" Taylor asked. "Your daughter's really upset and she won't go to sleep unless you read to her."

"Okay," Ryan gave in, "put her on."

"Thank you," she said greatfully, making her way over to Emily's bed and sitting down beside her. "Okay honey, Daddy's going to read you the story on the phone okay?" Emily wiped her eyes and nodded, as Taylor put the phone on speaker.

"Emily?" Ryan said. "It's Daddy."

"Daddy!" she grinned happily.

"Hey," he smiled. "Mommy tells me you want to read a story."

"Yeah," Emily replied. "Goddy-locks!"

"Okay, open to the first page," he started. He looked up at the other men at the table who were giving him weird looks. "It's my daughter," he explained, standing up from the table in order to avoid any more embarrassment.

"What?" Taylor said in confusion.

"Don't worry, I was talking to a few of the guys here," he replied, as he made his way over to a quieter part of the restaurant. "Anyway, as I was saying. Once upon a time there was a little girl named Goldilocks..."

10 minutes later

"...And Goldilocks ran out of the house and never bothered the bears again," Ryan finally concluded. "The end."

"Okay honey, are you ready to go to bed now?" Taylor asked her daughter, who was looking very sleepy at this point. Emily nodded and yawned. "I thought so."

"So we all good?" Ryan asked over the phone.

"Yes, thanks honey," Taylor replied.

"No problem, anyway I've got to go, our food's being served."

"Okay, say goodnight to Daddy Emily," she said, brushing Emily's blonde curls off her face with her hand.

'' 'night Dada..." she said sleepily.

"Goodnight, I love you both."

"We love you too. I'll call you tomorrow," Taylor said.

"Bye," Ryan replied, before shutting his phone and then making his way back to the table.

"Goodnight Emily," Taylor whispered as she kissed her daughter on the head. "Sweet dreams." She also pat Lady on the head, turned on Emily's night light then finally turned off the ceiling light.

As she exited the room, Taylor suddenly felt a kick in her abdomen. She smiled and rested her hand on her stomach, "No I haven't forgotten about you baby." She looked down at her stomach, "I love you, little one. Goodnight."

The next morning, Taylor drove over to Sandy and Kirsten's house to drop off Emily before her doctor's appointment. Kirsten was very excited to have her. It was her day off, Sandy was at work and Sophie was at school, so she enjoyed having her grand daughter for company. After thanking Kirsten again for baby-sitting, Taylor left for her doctor's appointment, waving to Kirsten and Emily, who were standing on the front porch, as she drove away. On the car ride to the doctor's office, Taylor was feeling extremely nervous. She wished that Ryan was there to calm her down. Whenever she was freaking out about something, he would simply take her hand and squeeze it, letting her know that he was there for her, no matter what happened.

Taylor knew she was being ridiculous. Her husband had only been away for 24 hours and already she was missing him like crazy. Just a day ago, she had been the one to tell Ryan that he was being ridiculous about this trip. Now, she was being even more irrational. Not that that was unusual for her. Ryan would be back that afternoon and everything would return to normal again. She just had to get through the next few hours without him.

Half an hour later, Taylor was sitting on an examination bed waiting for Doctor Miller. She looked around the room nervously, wishing the doctor would hurry up and come in already. Doctors, she thought to herself, rolling her eyes, Never on time for an appointment. Taylor frowned in annoyance. The one thing she couldn't stand was when people weren't punctual.

Suddenly the door opened, startling Taylor. Dr Miller entered with a smile on her face, "Hello Taylor, how are you?"

"I'm good thank you, how are you?" she replied politely.

"Fine thank you," the doctor nodded. "How have you been feeling? Are you still getting bad morning sickness?"

"No, not at all," she shook her head. "The medication you gave me is really working."

"That's good to hear, it means I've done my job," Doctor Miller smiled. "Now if you don't mind lying back on the bed." Taylor laid back on the uncomfortable plastic awkwardly. "Now, we're going to do an ultrasound today. Then I'd like to take a blood sample just to make sure your hormone levels are balanced. Nothing to worry about, just standard procedure."

Taylor nodded, "Doctor? Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, what do you want to know?"

"Well, I was just wondering, is there any particular reason why I'm getting so big during this pregnancy?"

"You could just been having a big baby," the doctor shrugged. "We'll check on that during the ultrasound."

"That's strange, my last baby was only small," Taylor replied.

"Well, every pregnancy is different," Dr Miller explained. "I've seen many cases where the same woman has a big baby in her first pregnancy, then a small in her second and vice versa. It's perfectly normally." Taylor still didn't look convinced. "But, as I said, I'll look into it during the ultrasound, just to make sure," she added, seeing the look on Taylor's face.

"Thank you Doctor," she responded, as the doctor turned on the ultrasound machine. As the machine started up, the image of the baby started to appear on the screen beside the bed.

Taylor looked up at the screen worriedly, "Is everything okay?"

"Everything seems normal..." she started, examining the screen carefully. "Hmmm. Interesting..." Doctor Miller muttered.

"What's interesting? What is it?" Taylor asked, starting to panic at little. "Please don't tell me my baby had two heads or something."

"Well there are two heads, you got that part right," the doctor smiled.

"What?!" Taylor exclaimed. "I was just kidding! Don't tell me it's true!"

"Taylor, it's alright. I promise, your babies only have one head each," she assured her.

"Oh thank god," she breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly it hit her, "Wait a minute, babies? Did you say babies? As in the plural of baby?"

Doctor Miller nodded, "That's right, I believe you're having twins."

"Twins!" Taylor exclaimed, a smile creeping onto her face. "Oh my god, really?"

She nodded, pointing to the screen. "See? Here's one baby and there's the other baby." Taylor just looked at the screen in shock. "And if we turn this on" -Doctor Miller turned a knob on the machine- "we can hear their heartbeats."

When she heard the sound of the babies' heartbeats, Taylor felt tears come into her eyes, "Wow," she whispered, unable to take her eyes off of the screen. She continued watching the babies for a moment. "I don't understand, why didn't we find this out during my last ultrasound?"

"Well often, one baby may be behind the other, which makes it difficult to see both babies, especially in the first trimester," Doctor Miller explained. "It happens all the time."

"Oh," Taylor replied. "How cute, they're already playing hide-and-seek together." She smiled proudly.

"They're also identical twins," she added.

"Really?" she smiled. The doctor nodded. "Oh my God. I can't wait to tell my husband. Can I have a picture of them to show him?"

"Of course."

Taylor was ecstatic. She and Ryan were having twins! Identical twins to be exact. She couldn't wait to tell him.

Afternoon - Ryan and Taylor's House

Taylor was proud of herself. She had kept the twins a secret for the last 5 hours. She hadn't told Kirsten when she went to pick up Emily. She hadn't even told Summer when she called an hour ago. Taylor was particularly proud that she hadn't called Ryan and told him. It was very tempting, but she knew that it would be even better seeing his face when she told him. Besides, someone had to be there if he passed out. Taylor counted down the hours until Ryan would come home. It took everything in her to stop herself from calling everyone she knew to tell them the good news. She would tell her husband first, the rest of the world could wait.

Ryan was due home in a few minutes. Taylor was sitting in the living room waiting for him. She could barely contain herself she was so happy. Emily was oblivious to her mother's excitement, sitting on the floor in front of her playing with her doll house. As she watched her daughter, she smiled happily at the thought of having two more babies around the house in just a few months.

Finally, Taylor heard the door open and Ryan's voice call out, "I'm home!"

"Daddy!" Emily squealed, running out of the living room and into the arms of her father.

"Emily!" Ryan exclaimed, lifting her up into his arms and hugging her tightly. He then carried her into the living room where he was greeted with a hug from Taylor.

"Welcome home," she smiled, planting a kiss on her husband's lips.

"It's good to be home," he replied. "I missed you both so much."

"You won't believe how much we missed you, didn't we Em?" Taylor said, kissing her daughter on the cheek. Emily nodded enthusiastically. "It's so nice to have you back."

Ryan smiled. "So did I miss anything when I was gone?" he said, setting Emily down on the floor. "How was your doctor's appointment?"

"That's actually what I've got to talk to you about," she said, trying to contain her smile.

"Why? What happened?"

"You're not going to believe it."

"Believe what?" Ryan asked, taking his wife's hands in his.

"Uh, maybe you should sit down first," Taylor said, gesturing to the couch.

"Okay..." he said, as they both sat down. "What is it?"

"Well..." she started, not being able to contain her excitement any longer. "You know how we noticed that I'm pretty big, considering how far along I am?"

"Yeah, did you find out why?"

"Actually I did," Taylor grinned, preparing herself for what she was about to say. She took a deep breath then announced, "Ryan, we're having twins!"

Ryan laughed, "Yeah, right. You're very funny."

"No, I'm serious," she retorted. "We're having twins. Identical twins to be exact." The smile disappeared off Ryan's face and was replaced with a look of confusion. Taylor clapped her hands together excitedly, "Isn't that great?"

"Twins," he repeated slowly. She nodded. "Two babies?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "Honey, you're not catching on very quickly here."

"Twins," Ryan repeated again, resting his head on the back of the lounge, his eyes wide in shock.

"Didn't we just go through this?"

He suddenly turned his head back to her, "Taylor we're not just going to have one more kid in a few months....we're going to have two! What are we going to do?"

"We'll handle it," she said, reassuringly. "It'll be hard, but we'll get through it." Ryan looked skeptical. She grabbed his hands gently, "Honey, this is a good thing. It's an amazing thing. You know how lucky we are? Only 32 of every 1000 pregnancies results in twins."

"How do you know that?"

"I googled it," Taylor shrugged. "The point is, this is a great thing that's happened to us. I'm really happy about it, aren't you?"

"Yes, of course I'm happy about it. It just takes a bit of getting used to."

"I know. I'm still getting used to it myself."

They sat in silence for a moment, both thinking about the news they had received that day. "Tay?" Ryan said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?" She looked up at him.

"This is really amazing news," he said simply.

Taylor smiled and had to hug him. Ryan also smiled but inside his mind he was still freaking out a little. Oh my God. Twins! he thought to himself nervously. How on earth were they going to handle this?

"Oh my God, I have to call Summer!" Taylor exclaimed. She leaned over, grabbed the phone and started dialling the number. "I was putting off telling her because I wanted to tell you first, but now you know so I can tell everyone!" She put the phone to her ear and grinned at Ryan. After a moment Taylor exclaimed loudly, "Summer! You're not going to believe this, Ryan and I are having twins!"

Ryan shook his head with a smile as his wife squealed into the phone. He could also hear Summer squealing excitedly, and he didn't even have his ear to the phone. He looked down at Emily, who looked up at him with her big blue eyes, "Enjoy the peace now kiddo, 'cause it's going to get crazy around here very soon."

"Cazy?" the toddler repeated.

Ryan nodded, "Very crazy."

Reviews are welcome!