"It's not that bad." Bobbie started to explain but was cut off by the loud electronic whine of the doll. She busted out laughing as the scowl crossed Cruz's normally placid face. "It could have been worse." She pointed out.
"Oh really? How's that? They could have picked up a real baby and given it to me. Because, at this point, I think that's the only thing that tops this." Cruz gestured toward the doll, reaching into his shirt pocket to extract the black plastic key to silence it.
"Well knowing Patrick and Lucky, embarrassing photos of some sort could have been involved." Actually she had to give her nephews credit. They were handling this turn of events way better than she had expected them to. Maybe they were growing up. Or maybe she had better thank Robin and Elizabeth.
Cruz, having finally calmed the baby down, cut a sideways glance at his wife. "I always assumed their devious nature came from Luke, but maybe it was you."
Gently kissing his cheek, Bobbie patted her husband's shoulder. "I guess you'll just have to stick around to find out."
"Are all babies this heavy?" Cruz wanted to know.
"Only when you feed them."
"Between the baby and the car seat...I may have to cancel my membership to the gym and just spend my day lifting them in and out of the car."
"And don't forget the diaper bag, the toys, and the stroller." Lucky ticked off as he and Elizabeth neared the car. Cameron, tired after a full day of running around with his older cousins, was out cold, resting his head securely on his father's shoulder.
Cruz blew out a breath and shifted the baby to his other shoulder. "It's a good thing you've got Elizabeth and Cam with you or I would run you over with my car." He assured his friend, certain that it was going to be a long seven days.
"You don't drive fast enough Grandpa."
Cruz caught Bobbie's smile. "I walked right into that one, didn't I?" Without waiting for her to respond, he handed Bobbie the doll and went about strapping in the car seat. He had watched Lucky do it a hundred times, and maybe even done so himself, but he couldn't remember exactly how to do it. The way he saw it, the baby should only need the required seatbelt. What were these other ones for?
Bobbie smiled at the young couple and noticed the tension she had seen rest in both of their shoulders seemed to have vanished now that the party was over. On some level she had assumed the tension was over the wedding but after several near fights through out the party, she knew it wasn't that. Something was going on but she couldn't quite put her finger on it just yet. "I'm glad you came." She told Lucky patting his cheek.
"See? I told you just sending a card was a bad idea." Elizabeth chimed in with a laugh.
The three of them were stunned by the sound of the car seat hitting the floorboard. Following a string of muttered expletives, they saw Cruz's head dip and the car seat jumped into the seat.
"Are you really sure about this one Aunt Bobbie? He doesn't seem too bright." Lucky pointed out.
"I heard that." Cruz called back, snatching the baby from Bobbie, turning the car seat around, and locating the places on the car seat where the main seatbelt was supposed to go.
Bobbie ignored the parade of insults between her husband and nephew. It had been this way since the two of them met and would be this way until the end of time, she figured. There was no use in trying to change the inevitable. Cameron stirred slightly in Lucky's arms and Elizabeth turned slightly to the side to pat the little boy on his head. It was only for a second but it was long enough for Bobbie to notice the tell-tale bulge, similar to the one she herself had. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed.
"What? What?" Cruz asked almost dropping the baby in the process. His head shot up as if he expected to see someone on fire.
"You're pregnant!" Bobbie exclaimed, pointing toward Elizabeth's stomach. "You're pregnant!"
Lucky and Elizabeth shared a nervous look. They had thought Laura had told the other couple everything the second they had landed. Well, Lucky thought wryly, that was obviously wrong. Maybe this announcement would go better than the disastrous first two. Third time was the charm right? "Yes." He said simply, squeezing Elizabeth's hand lightly.
"Hey." Cruz smiled. "Congratulations." He and Lucky did the man-hug thing and patted each other on the back. Then he turned to Elizabeth. "Are you sure? This is Port Charles. You might to run a test and make sure it's even yours." He suggested. When the town had been centered around the mob, they were constantly having babies for each other and then forgetting whose belonged to which.
"Well the first one did say it was yours, but we weren't planning on telling Bobbie that just yet." Elizabeth smiled as Bobbie congratulated her with a hug.
"So I guess this means you're taking custody of the doll at the end of the week?" Cruz asked Lucky lifting an eyebrow.
Lucky smirked and adjusted Cameron higher on his shoulder. "I think I already passed that test."
"You got lucky, no pun intended. Cam was an easy baby." Cruz reminded him.
Bobbie caught Elizabeth's stare. "How far along?"
"Four months. Almost five."
Cruz smirked at Lucky. "You have some serious competitive issues, my friend."
"You haven't told anyone yet, have you?" Bobbie asked. "That's why everything was so tense inside."
"No they know." Elizabeth replied in a strained voice. "That's not what they are mad about it."
Bobbie and Cruz shared a puzzled look. "What then?" Cruz inquired.
Lucky braced himself. "Once again, everyone thought we should get married now. And we aren't."
"Any particular reason why?" Bobbie barely beat her husband as the question leapt from her throat.
"It's just not the right time." Elizabeth reasoned. "It would be about the baby and that's not fair to us or the baby or, not to mention, Cameron."
"It's not something anyone should rush into." Cruz told them, relieved that he was finally in a position to give his friend some advice.
"Thank you. Can you discuss this concept with my mother please? She seems to like you these days." Lucky grumbled.
"It's been the silent war ever since Christmas." Elizabeth explained. "Today was the first time they were even in the same room since then."
Cruz whistled. "Well that explains the tension."
Bobbie nodded. "That it does." Turning toward the young couple she smiled at them. "If you are happy then we are happy for you. And don't worry about Laura. She will come around sooner or later. Most likely right before the baby shower. She can't resist the chance to throw a party."
Robin paused in the archway of her new apartment. It was only about three or four times bigger than the loft had been, only three or four times the size! She was still as awed by it today as she had been the day Patrick showed it to her. The box in her arms was weightless as she let her mind wander a little bit. Wall-to-wall carpeting might be a way to go, but she wasn't opposed to the sleek wooden finish. The living room needed at least a few rugs and some pictures. In fact, the entire apartment needed something other than these, while beautifully managed, neutral-centric colors.
She wasn't so dense to think that the place would come complete with any of that and she was already prepared to put a few of her own touches into the place without leaving Patrick out in the cold so to speak. He was going to help whether he liked it or not. She didn't want this to be her apartment, she had very big hopes of it being theirs, and that meant he had to contribute in its style, its flow and, most of all, the feeling each of them got when they walked in from a long day at work.
All three bedrooms were located upstairs along with two bathrooms. A remaining bathroom was set off to the side of the kitchen just beyond the living room along with a laundry room, a dark room, and what Patrick referred to as his "office." She had a similar room upstairs that he had left her the power to do anything with. She had teased him that, one day out of the blue, she was going to switch the rooms up and not tell him.
"Um, Robin…?" Patrick interrupted her current thoughts and she turned to face him. He had insisted that he take the largest boxes, convinced that they didn't need moving guys to help them. Well, let's see how he felt when he pulled a muscle or something. "This is kind of heavy. Do you think you could move a little to the right?" He half begged in a hoarse, scratchy voice. She jumped out of his way, a look that must have resembled pity spreading across her features. "Good God, what do you have in here?"
Robin tilted her head to the right and read the black writing. "Clothes." She informed him.
"Clothes?" Patrick responded incredulously.
"Well I have to have clothes, Patrick." Robin pointed out.
"Clothes." He repeated dropping them just past the door.
"Careful." Robin goaded him.
"I'm sure they aren't fragile." Patrick answered sardonically.
"I don't remember you complaining about my clothes before." Robin reminded him.
Patrick gave her a pointed look. "You could wear a paper sack and I'd react the exact same way."
"That's true." Robin nodded. "Come on, we've got a lot more to do."
"Yes, I know." Patrick grumbled.
"Don't tell me you're already losing adrenaline? Should I call Cruz and Lucky, because I'm sure they would help—" She wasn't at all surprised when he cut her off.
"No." He held out his hand in front of him. "I'm fine."
"Then quit you're bitching and let's get back to the task at hand, shall we?" Robin ordered, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.
"Yes ma'am." Patrick saluted her and they walked back to the elevator together.
It took all morning and the better half of the afternoon to get every box and stick of furniture from the truck they were borrowing from Uncle Luke—he kept insisting they should just take it because he had had his time on the motorcycle and he doubted he'd be able to go back to the monster of a vehicle. Robin felt like she was on autopilot so the little detail of the last box she brought in not being taped shut didn't register. She couldn't remember what was in this box and couldn't bring herself to care. She was bone-weary as was Patrick. He had only whined about that first box. Since then, he had been quiet. It wasn't until these last couple of trips that they had both started panting and taking longer to get back and forth than they originally had.
"There." Robin breathed out a sigh of relief and Patrick shut the door behind them. "Did you lock the truck?"
"I don't think I did." They shared a look of guilt but then each shrugged it off. Uncle Luke had made sure no one could ever hotwire his truck though neither of them understood how, they just trusted him.
"When did you say the couch was arriving?" Robin asked, stretching out across the one carpeted area of the entire bottom floor.
"Before five." Patrick responded, lifting the flaps of the box Robin had brought in. "Hey Roby?"
"Yeah?" She hadn't realized her eyes were shut until he called out to her. Sitting up on her left elbow, she met his eyes.
"We have a stowaway." Patrick explained, nodding toward the box.
"What?" Robin pushed herself to her feet and peeked into the box. Morgan was curled into a tiny ball with his hands underneath his head. "How long do you think he's been in there?".
"Probably not long. He had to have climbed in on our last trip to your uncle's." They had left Morgan with Mac so that they could get this done, but the older man insisted that they stop and have lunch with him and the kids half an hour ago.
Robin bent down and, with Patrick's help, lifted Morgan out of the box. "His bed is upstairs. I'll take him." She whispered brushing a piece of her son's dark bangs from his forehead as they situated him in her arms.
Patrick watched her climb the stairs slowly and smiled. He was starting to like this idea of living with them even more if he could expect moments like this in the future. Remembering their brilliance in stocking the refrigerator with bottled water and beer, he headed toward the kitchen, but the sound of a knock at the door stopped him.
"Hi!" Elizabeth said slowly as the door opened to Patrick's tall frame. She held up a small package to explain her presence. "Robin around?"
"She just took Morgan upstairs. He climbed into one of the boxes without either of us realizing." Patrick told her.
"Oh well. I'll just drop this off then. I don't want to bother you guys." Even though Patrick had been nothing but supportive of her since he found out, Elizabeth still was nervous around him. She had blown a simple mistake way out of proportion and reacted like an idiot. Seeing Patrick just reminded her of that fact.
"What is it?" Patrick wondered, taking the small box from her.
"It's just a little housewarming gift. It's not much but I saw it and immediately thought of you two." Elizabeth shrugged it off
"She'll be up there for a while. I might as well open it and save her the trouble." Patrick grinned. He lightly pulled the green ribbon from the plain white box and lifted the lid. "Water pistols?" He caught her stare and had to laugh. "How'd you know?"
"I'm good. I keep telling you all that. Maybe someday you'll believe me."
"Maybe." Patrick nodded awkwardly. "Do you want to come in?"
Spying the still unopened boxes, Elizabeth tried to back out of the door. "I'm interrupting. And you're busy. I should just go."
"Actually, we just brought these up. I'm pretty sure if I open any of these boxes I'll pop a muscle." Patrick assured her. "Come in. You want a beer? Or a bottle of water?" He added remembering her current condition.
"No I'm fine." She moved cautiously into the massive apartment. Robin had told her it was huge but she hadn't quite believed her until this exact moment. "Good gravy Patrick. You really don't have to land planes in your living room to have enough space you know."
Patrick's laugh came from deep within his throat. "Yeah, I might have gone a little overboard. Do you like it though?"
"I doubt my opinion really matters here but the first few acres I've seen I like."
"Your opinion matters. You're our first guest." Patrick explained.
Elizabeth clapped her hands in an imitation of overwhelming glee. "Oh goody! Do I get my picture taken? Do I get to sign my name in a book in gold?"
"Camera's still packed so we'll have to do that next time."
Elizabeth snapped her fingers in regret. "Damn. It just won't be the same."
"Uh, I can tell Robin you're here if you want." Patrick offered.
"So that's how it's going to be now?" Elizabeth wondered. "A few jokes and then run off to find Robin?"
Patrick stopped in place, his back facing her. "I don't know. Maybe. She's about the only safe subject, isn't she?"
Elizabeth looked up to the ceiling to consider the other options. "At this moment I think so. All other conversations lead back to there."
"I had more questions than answers and you were an easy target. Plus, I was pissed about Robin." Patrick attempted an apology, knowing this was about as far as it could possibly go.
"I was thrown. And freaked. And I overreacted to it."
"No one likes being accused and I caused yet another fight between you and my cousin."
"It wasn't actually a fight. More like a flight."
"This is going to sound lame, but I don't want things to stay like this between us. We're about to have another person in common."
"Oh that was lame. It's going to ruin your rep when it gets out." She teased him, smiling. "But yeah I guess we are."
"I really am happy for you guys."
"Thanks. You, Robin, Cruz, Bobbie, and my grandmother are about the only ones."
"Unlike my usually perceptive girlfriend, I don't think that's true. Cut the family some slack. I know they were terrible at the Christmas party, but Spencers don't do well with surprises. Aunt Laura couldn't stop asking Cameron questions about his little baby brother or sister when we went over there for Christmas morning."
Elizabeth nodded. "Cameron mentioned that. Still doesn't help Lucky believe it."
"He'll come around. None of us have a very long attention span." Patrick joked.