Once again, I apologize. School's been a lot harder this year than last and I'm still adjusting to the work load and finding free time to post. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Not mine.


I don't know how long I laid there until I heard, "babe?"

"In the bedroom."

Carlos came up the stairs and into the bedroom. I unconsciously licked my lips. He was in corporate attire and currently loosening his black tie with two buttons undone at the top, his dark mocha latte skin peeking out at me. It was sexy as hell.

"How'd it go today?"

"I can't do it."

He looked confused. "Do what?" He asked, walking into the closet.

"Everything. Kids. Babies."

"What?" He asked, coming back out shirtless and in black sweat pants. "What happened?"

I was distracted by a hormone surge. "Why are you just in pants?"

"Babe, look at you." I looked down. Oh, because I was wearing the matching shirt. He smiled. "Are you going to tell me what happened?" He asked again, sitting down on the mattress and pulling me into his side.

I sighed. "I don't know where I went wrong."

He got a better look at me this time. "Why do you have peanut butter in your hair?"

"To go with the banana that was on my shirt?"

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

I sighed. "I tried to make them lunch, but they just threw it at me."

"They threw it at you?"

"And then giggled."

He smiled. "Babe."

"Don't laugh at me. Somehow I made it wrong. I didn't cut all the crust of or something insane like that."

"It couldn't have been that bad."

"But it was! I tried to make a good impression, but…" Damn, here come the tears. "I can't do it. If I can't even watch kids for one afternoon, then how can I have my own?!"

"If I didn't think you could do this, we wouldn't be having the little one already in you." He rubbed my stomach soothingly. "You put too much pressure on yourself."

"Marco ended up in the hospital."

"What?"

"With a Candy Land piece up his nose."

"How?"

"I was taking my turn and had my back to him and then he started crying! He wanted to play but he's too young to play, so I said no. He didn't listen and when I put some toys in front of them, he didn't even touch them. Celia said he had skipped over the terrible two's, but I think he started. Today."

He slid down into the bed and brought me into his chest. I silently cried. Today was a disaster! Nothing more could go wrong!

Well, one more thing…but I wasn't thinking about it. Nope. Not me. Nothing else is happening to me today.

"It could've been a lot worse." He said.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better? The thought that it could've been worse?" I sat up and looked at him. "He could've choked? He could've set himself on fire? He could've set the house on fire? God, everything I think of is worse!"

"Calm down, Stephanie, breathe." He said. He pulled me back into him and I tried to draw upon his strength.

"I can't do it." I said.

"Yes, you can." He began to soothe me by drawing circles up and down my back. "So you had one bad experience with kids. You learn from it and do better next time. I wasn't great with my nieces and nephews when they were young. I couldn't even change a diaper."

"You've changed a diaper?"

"Don't sound so shocked." Then, he chuckled. "The first one I did was on Julie."

I was shocked. Julie and Carlos were close now, but I had no idea that they had some kind of relationship before she got kidnapped.

"She was five weeks old and I was shipping out in two days. Rachel was exhausted and I told her I'd change Julie. It went so bad that Julie had started to cry and when Rachel came in, she laughed until she started to cry. I had somehow managed to get the diaper onto one leg and her arm."

I giggled. "Really?"

He nodded. "I must have closed my eyes or something. Rachel redid it and showed me the right way. Of course she wouldn't let me do it on Julie until I did it perfectly on her baby doll from her teenage years. By the time I perfected it, we were divorced and I didn't see her again until she was a kid." He got a wistful look in his eye. After a moment, he turned back to me. "The point is, no one is perfect the first time around. That's what makes us human. I know a little more than you about kids so I can teach you what I know. The rest we can learn together."

It was then that I realized what this baby meant to him. It was his chance to make it right for giving up his rights to Julie. He's been given a second chance to be the father that he never was to her growing up. I'm glad they've become closer; otherwise he'd miss everything that's been going on in her life right now. But now he's getting the chance to raise a baby from birth. To help it grow, and walk, be potty trained and be there for its first word. He was going to love this child more than anyone has been loved before.

"You're perfect, you know." I said, snuggling into his chest. He didn't seem to mind that I still had peanut butter in my hair.

He sighed. "I'm far from it."

"To me, you'll always be perfect."

He squeezed me gently. "Glad to hear it, Babe."

I yawned. "Will you show me how to diaper a baby doll?"

He chuckled. "Tomorrow."

"I'm holding you to that mister."