I'm sorry I'm updating so early, but I've got a date with my nephew and this is the only way I know it'll go up tonight. Bear with me. This the first day in at least two weeks that I've had Internet at work.

CUTENESS WARNING!

"Did Lucas and Dillon do something I'm not aware of?" Elizabeth wondered as she set the small play table upright. Neither Cameron nor Lance was knowledgeable about how it got turned over in the first place, although she did hear suspicious giggling whenever the word "crayons" was spoken the rest of the play date.

"What?" Lucky asked in his best innocent voice. "I thought Lance was having a good time." He dumped the remaining toys in a mass lump into the toy chest. It probably would be better if he actually sorted out the toys into their "proper containers" as his mother called them, but that just seemed like a waste of time. One spot for everything and then nothing could get lost was his motto.

"He sure did. Any kid who was given straight sugar from the time he stepped foot in the door to the time he left would think this place was Disneyland." She handed him a stack of coloring books, trying not to roll her eyes as he placed them haphazardly on top of the bookshelf.

"Oh it was not like that. He didn't have sugar the entire time he was here." Lucky scoffed.

"True." Elizabeth nodded as she moved towards the couch. "There was the one piece of sugarless gum I gave him."

"See? There you go. It wasn't the entire time." He lowered himself next to her on the couch, kicking his feet onto the coffee table in front of him.

"Well my mistake then." She smacked him lightly on the arm and kicked his legs lightly to get him to remove them from the furniture. Seeing him move them to the floor, she settled back into the arm rest, she fixed her best no-nonsense look on Lucky. "So who were you teaching a lesson to?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Lucas or Cruz?" Elizabeth looked to the ceiling as if she was searching for the answer. "I'm going to go with Cruz."

"How did..." Lucky caught himself quickly. "I mean Cruz and I worked out our problems."

"So you got drunk or in a fist fight?" Elizabeth questioned. "Where was I?"

"We are grown men. We don't solve all our problems like that."

"I've met your family remember? Try that on someone who hasn't. Besides I saw how you and Cruz were acting today."

"And how was that exactly?"

"Like your both putting up a good front, but you are both still uncomfortable as hell around each other." Elizabeth stated matter-of-factly.

Damn. He had thought he was hiding it better than that. Sure his relationship with Cruz had become less strained since Cameron's accident, but he was in no way ready to process the fact his best friend was dating his aunt. Or the fact that today he basically went on a triple date with them. It was far too weird to think about and he lost Kevin Collins' emergency beeper number years ago.

Judging from the looks Bobbie and Cruz kept passing each other at the theaters and the way Lance had already sized Cruz as the person to beg for permission (the number of toys Cameron had simply because Cruz couldn't tell him no would fill a third world country), he would have to find a way to deal with. But, Lucky reasoned, he didn't have to do this on any set timetable. And if along the path to acceptance he had a little fun at his old friend's expense would there really be any harm?

"If he's going to be a father, he needs to learn to deal with these situations." Lucky felt very proud of himself for not shuddering when he spoke. It was a sign of progress right? "I'm just preparing him for parenthood."

"Oh this all just preparation for him then? It's all for his own good?" Elizabeth questioned skeptically. Did she really think she was going to buy any of this? She thought she was good at avoiding her own issues, but Lucky was seriously giving her a run for the money.

"Completely."

"You know what I think?" She leaned closer to him, pulling his chin to face hers and looked directly into his eyes.

More than likely she wasn't thinking what he was thinking right now. And Lucky was smart enough to realize this was not the time to bring up what he was thinking right this very second. "I'm sure you want to share."

"I think you are pretending to be ok with this because you realize your friend and aunt wouldn't risk all this for some fling. And you can add and realize a baby is coming in a few short months and there will be proof staring you in the face at every family party for years to come." She reached out and tapped the tip of his nose. "You are faking it until you actually make it."

"You think you're brilliant don't you?" Lucky chuckled. She was damn close to the truth but he was not about to give her that particular satisfaction right now.

"I know I'm brilliant. Just accept it. It will save you months of arguing in the future."

"So you admit there's a future." Lucky leaned closer to her, wiggling his fingers in her direction.

"Maybe." Elizabeth managed a soft smile. "Depends on if you accept my brilliance."

He attacked before she could fully react. Pinning her to the back of the couch, Lucky moved quickly, tickling her in the places he knew made her squirm and beg for mercy the fastest. No way was he going to admit that, even if it was true. Elizabeth would never let him live it down.

Damn him, Elizabeth fleetingly thought. No matter which way she twisted, his hands were waiting to make contact. She giggled in delight but still attempted to push him back. "Lucky..." she managed between fits of laughter. "Stop. Please. Stop."

Obliging her request, Lucky rested one hand on her hip and ran the other through her hair. Playing with the ends, he rested his forehead on hers, placing a light kiss on the tip of her nose. "You're beautiful."

"I love you too." She sighed.

At the exact same moment, their eyes widened as the meaning of her words penetrated their brains. Lucky felt his breath shorten and his heart roar in his ears. Had he heard her correctly? "What? You what?"

Elizabeth squirmed to break away from his grip, which had tightened around her waist. Why had she said that? It didn't even make sense. Who responded to "You're beautiful" like that? And why the hell was Robin right yet again? She had ignored something and now she had inadvertently brought it up without warning. And his response was not helping her nerves any. This was why she never took the lead in relationships. "Let me up. Let me up." She pushed at his arms trying to move him.

Lucky's foggy brain registered her attempt to escape. He refused to let her up. No. Not now. She could not leave now. "No."

"Come on Lucky, just let me up." She could feel heat rising to her face. Why couldn't he for once let her just escape and regain her dignity?

"You make it darn hard to say I love you. You know that right?"

His words shocked her into stillness. "What did you just say?"

Lucky leaned closer to her, never letting up on his grip. "You make it impossible to say I love you. You are so ready to run I don't want to scare you. Every time we get to a good spot, you invent some drama in your head that needs to be corrected. It's one of the reasons I love you but it makes it a little tricky to share that with you."

He had a point. Why did he always have to have a point? "Is that why you said it when you thought I was sleeping?" she wondered.

"You heard that?" Taking her glance to the floor as a yes, Lucky continued. "I just felt I had to say it. It came out before I could figure out a way not to say it. Does that make any sense?"

In a way that was probably only comprehensible to her, it did make sense. Looking into his green eyes and finding the smile she knew was behind them, she relaxed her body. "I wouldn't have run you know."

His grip on her hip loosened but he still didn't remove his hand. Playing with the ends of her hair, he raised one eyebrow. "How do you figure?"

"Because I didn't." She pointed out. "I get that you had no way of knowing that fact though. I can't promise I'll stop making up drama but I can try to get better at not running."

"Good. But since I love you? I'd chase you down."

Pulling him closer to her, so their lips were just millimeters apart, Elizabeth smiled. "Since I love you? I'd let you." And she closed the distance with a kiss.

"SORRY!" Patrick bellowed, doing a little victory dance with his hands from his spot on the floor of Lucky's living room. It was rare that paying his cousin back resulted in any kind of fun for him, but this was proving to be an exceptional situation. Moving his green piece across the board to knock Robin's red piece back to Start, he made a sound resembling that of a bomb dropping from a plane. Cameron clapped his hands together as if his cousin had discovered something he had not and Robin smiled, barely nodding her head as her eyes spoke of revenge.

"Go Patty!" Cameron cheered.

"Don't make his ego any bigger, Cam. They'll be no living with him afterwards." Robin warned, knowing full well that he wouldn't listen to anything she had to say. Patrick could stand on his head and this sweet little boy would think he walked on water. "I don't know what you're so excited about anyway. Cam's sent you back to start so many times, you've only got one active little guy on the board." Robin pointed out, her obsessive need to win showing its true colors as she flipped over a card that held the fate for her three remaining pieces.

"Don't be a sore loser, Robin. You're sending all the wrong messages to the impressionable child." Patrick shot back, trademark grin at least a mile wide as he listened to her quietly mumble inarticulately. He wasn't sure, but he was almost certain she was coming up with ways to inflict the most amount of pain she could with the least bit of effort.

"Oh, look at that…" Robin slid her red piece back four spaces and smacked Patrick's unaware green one with as much grace as she could. Once she was pleased with the outcome, she did a victory dance of her own, one in which Cameron felt obliged to mimic causing Patrick to double over in laughter.

"My turn! My turn!" Cameron announced turning over a card. He moved the silver hat he had chosen from the Monopoly game twelve spaces ever so slowly missing Robin sticking out her tongue at Patrick's goofy smile since his head was bent. "One. Two. Eighteen. Twenty-six. Twelve!" He giggled, glancing up to see if he had done it right.

"Good job!" Patrick and Robin said in unison rendering him slightly bashful. His dark eyes full of excitement, he started to turn over another card.

"Uh uh uh, Cameron. It's not your turn." Patrick shook his head, his expression softening as he spotted the look of defiance on the three-year-old's face.

"Now you're calling him out on the rules? What about the law you passed when we were playing Life?" Robin reminded him, her chin lifting in challenge.

"It's a game, Robin. What was so wrong with having multiple wives?" Patrick wanted to know.

"How about the fact that you had so many there wasn't any room for the kids?" Robin retorted, folding her arms.

"Your turn, Patty. Come on." Cameron whined impatiently.

"You were the one who said you should get to choose if you got married. How was that following the rules?" Patrick countered, glancing at his card with little interest before mumbling, "Can't go."

"No one should be forced into marriage, Patrick." Robin argued.

"You have way more issues than the average crazy female." Patrick whispered, hoping she hadn't heard him but assuming she had since he never got anything past her.

"I can't go either." Robin sighed, a smile forming when she saw how happy Cameron was that it was his turn again.

Meeting her eyes with solemn eyes, Cameron said, "I'm sorry, Roby."

"For what sweetheart?" Robin asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"For sending you back to Start. SORRY!" Cameron shouted, smacking her piece with enough force to catapult it across the carpet.

"That's a good boy." Patrick gave his cousin a high five, his lips pursing in appreciation when he caught sight of Robin's backside as she went after her game piece.

"Got you!" Robin shrieked, oblivious that she was on display. Turning, she blushed when her eyes locked on Patrick's. "Is it my turn?"

Patrick shook his head slowly. "No."

"Then why are you staring at me like that?" Robin asked bashfully.

"I just want to make sure you're watching when I win." Patrick lied, returning his attention to the game.

"When are you going to learn? Losing is to your benefit." Robin laughed.

"We'll talk details later." Patrick promised, shuffling the cards for the umpteenth time.

"Patrick!" Cameron wailed suddenly, causing the adults to look in his direction.

"What's the matter Buddy?" Patrick wondered crawling over the wheelchair, worry clear in his expression.

"My toe itches and I can't reach it." Cameron explained in a desperate cry.

"Which one?" Patrick wanted to know, biting back his grin at how quickly he had assumed the worst. Robin was starting to wear off on him. He was halfway to neurotic.

"The big one. Hurry, it--it hurts!" Cameron insisted, wiggling his toes to further prove his point.

"No problem." Patrick assured him, using his thumbnail to reach around the cast and lightly scratch his little cousin's toe. "Is that a little better?"

"I think I need some ice cream." Cameron answered seriously.

"I got it." Robin nodded, knowing Patrick would do anything Cameron asked and never complain too much about it. He would whine and groan because he was Patrick, but he would make the Earth stop spinning if he could manage it. "Chocolate or caramel?" She inquired before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Both!" Cameron clarified eagerly.

"Me too." Patrick spoke up.

"You can get your own." Robin prompted him.

"If I come in there, who will watch Cameron?" Patrick wanted to know, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"Insatiable. I swear. It's a wonder…well it's just a wonder." Robin managed weakly, leaving him and Cameron to pick up the game since the little boy had smacked it closed in his haste to get Patrick's attention.