Late Winter, 1999

When Oliver returned home for the evening, he was pleasantly surprised by the aroma filling the flat. He quickly made his way to the kitchen, where he found Katie looking out the window, facing away from him; the table was set for their dinner.

Smiling to himself, Oliver quickly crossed the kitchen so that he was standing behind Katie.

"Hello, love," Oliver said, simultaneously wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to her temple.

Katie, having been lost in her own thoughts, started slightly and turned so that she was facing Oliver, his arms still around her.

"I didn't hear you come in," Katie said with a soft smile, wrapping her arms around him as well.

"I'm just incredibly stealthy like that," Oliver replied with a shrug. "Did you make dinner?"

Katie pulled away from Oliver slightly and raised an eyebrow at him.

"I mean," Oliver said quickly, "Clearly you made dinner—it all looks wonderful, by the way. I only meant I thought it was my night to make dinner?"

"I felt like tonight was a good night for an edible meal," Katie replied, a slight teasing note in her voice as she melted back into his embrace, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. "Clearly using the eternal servitude I won from you to send you to cooking classes was a bit of a waste."

"I wouldn't call them a complete waste," Oliver contradicted. "I haven't set the kitchen on fire even once since then."

Oliver could feel Katie shaking with silent laughter for a moment before she disentangled herself from his arms.

"Go sit down," She ordered her husband with a smile, pushing him lightly towards the table.

Five minutes later found both of them sitting at the table, eating the meal Katie had (thankfully) prepared.

"So…" Katie began slowly, "How was your day? I didn't think your meeting would go so late."

"I don't remember a contract signing ever going so long," Oliver agreed. "But they had the whole team there. Everyone needed re-worked contracts after the special ones they put out for the shorter season last year."

"Sound like fun," Katie said dryly.

"I'm sure you'll get to go through all of it soon enough," Oliver said. "But how was your day? Clearly you're feeling better than when I left this morning."

"Quite a bit better," Katie replied with a wan smile. "Actually, I heard from the management in Holyhead today, finally."

"Good news?" Oliver asked. "I'm assuming they don't want to lose their star chaser."

"No. No, they don't," Katie agreed. She bit her lip, mulling over her next words, before deciding to simply plow on, "But I'm afraid it's going to happen whether they like it or not. I've decided to retire."

Katie had stopped eating by this point and now Oliver stopped in shock as well.

"…what?" Oliver spoke slowly, sure he had misheard her.

"I'm retiring from playing Quidditch," Katie replied, her face carefully neutral.

"When?" Oliver's shock had seemingly rendered him momentarily incapable of speaking in more than monosyllabic words.

"This morning," Katie replied easily, seemingly unaffected by her husband's mounting distress. "Or, rather, I suppose it was technically this afternoon."

"But…why would you do that?" Oliver demanded helplessly, and Katie barely managed to reign in the smile that threatened to break free at his outburst. "Why would you want to? Who would want to stop playing Quidditch? It's the best job ever! And you're in your prime! Why retire now? Why retire at all? I mean, I know you like to say that I'm overly obsessed, but I just don't understand. Isn't playing Quidditch professionally all you've ever wanted? Is it just Holyhead that you don't want to play for anymore? You already said they offered you a new contract, so it can't be that they didn't want you anymore. Did you not get along with the people there? I thought you loved your teammates! If that's the case, I happen to know any other team in the league would love to have you. You see? Don't be rash, Katie. You don't have to retire."

Katie simply sat there patiently throughout his rant. Once he had finished, she looked thoroughly amused.

"It's really not a matter of 'having' to retire," Katie informed her husband, who was now giving her a look that clearly said he was imploring her to come to her senses. "It's more like I want to retire."

"But why?" Oliver repeated. "You basically just had the best season the league has ever seen! Who wants to retire after being named Rookie of the Year? You're brilliant at Quidditch! You have years of playing left still!"

"This is true," Katie conceded with a slight nod. "But I just don't think pregnancy and playing Quidditch mix together very well."

"Oh, well, I suppose that makes sense," Oliver said thoughtfully. Then his wife's words seemed to fully sink in, "What?!"

"Surprise," Katie offered with a smile.

"You're…but we…I…pregnant?" Oliver sputtered.

Katie simply nodded. "Funny you should mention my being named Rookie of the Year. Do you remember the League dinner just after Christmas, when that announcement was made?"

Now it was Oliver's turn to nod.

"Yes, well, now I'm pregnant," Katie informed him.

"Pregnant…" Oliver breathed. "That's…that's…" Suddenly a smile lit up his face, "That's fantastic. We're going to have a baby."

"Generally that's what pregnancy entails," Katie said, still looking as if she was getting far too much enjoyment out of Oliver's reaction.

"A baby," Oliver repeated, so lost in his thoughts he didn't hear her. "You and me…parents…I think I need to sit down."

Katie had to bite her lip to keep a laugh from escaping. "Oliver, dear, you are sitting down."

"Oh…" Oliver looked around himself as if in a daze, "I suppose I am."

"Are you alright?" Katie asked now. And suddenly she looked worried, "You really are excited about this, aren't you? I mean, I know what you said, but…you aren't upset, are you?"

This got Oliver's attention, and he immediately reached across the space between them to grasp Katie's hands in his own. "Of course I'm not upset. It's a bit sudden, yes. After all, we haven't even been married a full six months yet. But does it upset me? Definitely not. We're going to have a baby…"

Katie couldn't help the grin that spread across her face to match his. But then it suddenly fell from his face.

"But…this is good…right?" He asked hesitantly. "I mean…your career…"

"Believe it or not, I've found one of those rare things that is more important than Quidditch," Katie said with a small laugh; Oliver, always true to himself, looked rather torn at that, but Katie knew his heart was in the right place. "Besides, it might be over just a tad sooner than I had expected, but at least I'm leaving on a high note and for a good reason—even if no one is going to know what the real reason is. And…I suppose I could always go back to it one day."

"I suppose retiring really is the best way to keep our private lives private," Oliver agreed. "This way, word won't get out to people who don't need to know about the baby."

"The Harpies probably won't take me back, of course, if I do end up deciding retirement really isn't for me," Katie stated. "To be honest, the manager wasn't very happy with me when I said I wasn't going to be coming back."

"Did she cause you any problems?" Oliver asked, concerned.

Katie shook her head. "She calmed down once I explained that I was retiring and not leaving Holyhead for a better offer."

"I don't know," Oliver said with a smile now, "I'd say you definitely got a better offer."

Katie smiled at that, before slipping her hands out of his grasp and standing up. "That reminds me; I made a special dessert so we can celebrate."

Oliver waited until Katie was walking past him, before reaching out and wrapping his arm around her waist so he could pull her onto his lap.

"I have a better idea of something we can do to celebrate," Oliver informed her.

"I'm sure you do," Katie replied cheekily. "Hmm…that reminds me…"

Oliver waited patiently for her to continue, tightening his grip on her as he hugged her closer.

"You might end up getting your wish," Katie mused aloud.

"What wish?" Oliver replied.

"I do believe you once…twice…maybe several thousand times, mentioned something about owning a house with its own Quidditch pitch," Katie said. "Not that I necessarily think we need to go looking for something that extreme now, but this flat is definitely going to be too small for us soon."

"Nothing about Quidditch is too extreme," Oliver informed his wife.

Katie looked at him thoughtfully. "We're also going to have to have a chat about how old our child is going to be before you start buying him or her any brooms that are meant for anything but sweeping the floor."

"No child of mine will ever do anything as disgraceful as sweep the floor with a broom," Oliver declared. "That's the greatest form of blasphemy I've ever heard of."

"Ah, so you're volunteering to help your child with the chores, then? Lovely."

"Why do I have a feeling that this baby is going to end up being only my child whenever it does something bad or makes a mess?" Oliver questioned.

Katie simply smiled sweetly at him. "You're already shaping up to be an excellent father, dear."

a/n—Last chapter I said that (including this chapter) there would only be 2 chapters left, plus an epilogue. I've decided that was most likely a false alarm and there's going to be an additional chapter in between this one and the one I had already planned on, meaning that after this there are now only 2 chapters and an epilogue left. Happy Friday!