Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Three days later at a lodge in Yosemite National Park

He was unpacking their suitcase, separating the dirty clothes from the clean, so he could start a load of laundry. She came out of the bathroom with an upset look on her face.

"We have a problem?" She said with an upsetting undertone that made James immediately turn his attention to her.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" His eyes full of concern, wondering what had gotten her so upset out of nowhere.

"I was looking through my personal hygiene bag, 'cause it's time to take my pill, and it's not there." Tears rolling down her face.

"What? Why are you crying?" he walked towards her, and wrapped her in his arms.

She let him hug her for a brief moment, so she could regain her composure, then pulled away and looked up at him. "You don't understand. We had sex this morning, and last night, and let's not forget about the last couple of days, so if I don't take my pill, then I might end up pregnant."

He didn't know what to say, just looked at her tear streaked face, black teardrops from her mascara running down her cheeks, her chin quivering.

She walked back into the bathroom, and he followed her as she grabbed her bag again and dumped it into the sink. "See, it's not here." The both of them looking through the stash of things again. "I must have left it in the last hotel we were at."

"Maybe it's in your purse. Have you checked your purse?" He left the bathroom, she followed him.

"I never put it in my purse, James." She was mad at herself, but letting it out on him instead.

"Sure you do. I've seen you do it." He started looking through her purse, dumping its contents onto the bed. No pills to be found. She still looked clearly upset, so he said. "Why don't we go to a pharmacy somewhere, and you can get a new pack or whatever it's called?"

"It doesn't work that way. I need a prescription. And I don't have any more refills left, cause I still have 2 whole packs at home." She wiped her tears away, to clear her eyes.

"What are you saying? We need to get home so you can take a pill? Seriously? That's like a 7 hour drive." he looked annoyed.

"Seriously? Last thing I knew was that you and me having a baby would be the worst thing in the world?" She stood there, tears had disappeared, her face hardened and her arms folded in front of her.

He looked at her, a little irritated himself, "Whoa, now hold on a minute? We had a deal to not bring up the past."

"Deal's off, Cowboy. We need to go home." She stood her ground.

He sighed, "Alright, if the deals off, then maybe we should talk." His face softening again, as he sat down on the bed, patting the spot next to him suggesting her to sit down too.

She didn't budge, just shook her head. She didn't want to sit down.

"Alright, suit yourself, Freckles. Let's think about this for a minute." He moved his hands around as he spoke, as if that would give the words any more meaning. "We had sex quite a bit on that island too. Unprotected sex I might add, and you didn't end up pregnant." His eyes met hers, and she nodded.

"So, first off, what are the odds that you would get pregnant now, from something we did a couple of hours ago. You took your pill yesterday, right?"

"Right!" She said in response, unfolding her arms, her face not so tight and angry anymore.

He continued when he saw her relaxing her stance, "And let's not forget why I thought us having a baby would have been a bad call. According to Juliet, pregnant women were dying on the island. That's what she'd said when she was helping Claire shortly after arriving at the beach. You do recall that, right?"

She nodded, looking to the floor, placing her hands on her hips.

"And I had already told you that I wanted to stay on that island. You and me together. You being pregnant would have been a really bad idea back then, you with me on this?"

She nodded again, looking at him this time.

"So now, we're in no danger, no island, no freighter people out to kill us. Everything's different. We're different. We're married too. So I think it would definitely not be the worst thing in the world if you and me have a baby." He stared at her, waiting for her reaction.

Her eyes spelled confusion. Was he really saying what she thinks he's saying? She asked, "So, are you saying you want to have a baby?"

He stood up, "Do I want a baby? Hell, Freckles, I don't know. I'm happy with just us, but if we would find out that you were pregnant, then … it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. That's all I'm saying."

She walked over to him and framed his face to kiss him. He wrapped her in his arms, pulling her close.

Then he asked, "Do you?"

"I don't know. I mean, I thought that that wasn't even an option anymore. I thought you didn't want to have kids." She looked up at him, tears stinging at her eyes again.

"If you want to have babies, I'm more than happy to give you babies, mamacita."

She started crying again hiding her face in his tight embrace. Then she looked up at him, just nodding her head, then said the same thing he said, "It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

He smiled, "Alrighty then, whatever happens happens."

Her lips crushed into his again, he'd definitely said the right things this time around. While they were kissing, she nudged him backwards towards the bed. Because she wanted 'whatever happens', to happen real soon.

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About three month later – Claire's house

"We got this." Miles said, as he tied Aaron's shoe for him. "You two just go and paint each other's toenails, or whatever it is you two do when we're not around."

Kate and Claire looked at each other, rolling their eyes at Miles remark. James smiled in response.

"Alright, we're good to go." Miles pulled Aaron up to a standing position.

Aaron ran over to Claire and kissed her, "Bye momma."

"Bye baby, and listen to Miles and Uncle James."

Miles came over too, and kissed Claire bye. When they broke away from the peck like kiss they looked over at James and Kate kissing passionately.

"Uh-hum." Miles let out a fake cough. "Honeymoon's over you two. And there are children watching."

James slowly pulled away from the kiss, smiling and looking over at Miles, "There is a child watchin', just one." He kissed Kates lip one last time, and let her out of the hug. "Bye." She smiled back, "Bye."

They started walking towards the door, James turned around and mouthed 'I love you' towards Kate, but no sound escaping his lips. She mouthed 'me too' back to him. He winked and they left through the front door.

As soon as the front door shut, Claire looked up at Kate and said, "What now?"

"TV and chocolate ice cream?"

"Sounds perfect."

Kate walked over to the fridge and got the ice cream out of the freezer, while Claire got two bowls and spoons out.

Settling on the couch, switching mindlessly through channels, eating their ice cream in complete silence. No Aaron running wild, not James and Miles arguing about sports. This was pure bliss.

"So, are you gonna tell me what's going on, or do I have to fish for it?" Claire looked up from her bowl, then shoved a big spoon full into her mouth.

"I'm not pregnant." She looked over at Claire, disappointed.

"But you just started trying. I've heard it sometimes takes a while."

"I know, it's just that I always thought …" She shook her head.

"What?" Claire wanted to know now, curious what her friend was thinking.

"I guess I just thought with all the sex we've been having, it would happen right away."

"Have you talked to him about it?"

"No." She looked up surprised. "No, he doesn't even look at this as trying. He said 'whatever happens happens'. He's content either way."

"Hmm." Claire just made a sound.

"Hmm what?"

"I read in this magazine about these couples trying to get pregnant, and this one couple got pregnant the moment they'd given up on ever becoming parents. They said the constant wishing and worrying about wanting a baby had stressed them to the point, where they couldn't get pregnant."

"So what? You're saying I should not wish or hope to get pregnant and then I'll get pregnant? That makes absolutely no sense at all." She licked her spoon clean, the ice cream was all gone.

"I'm just saying, maybe you should just relax, enjoy being married to him, just like you were before you knew he wanted babies with you."

"I don't know. But it's easier said than done. I guess I can try. But I think I'll need more ice cream to get used to the thought of letting go."

Claire smiled and grabbed her bowl, "Coming right up. Now pick us a good channel, something romantic. We gotta take advantage of the fact that today there will be no boys in the house."

XXXXXX

He unlocked the front door to their house, and got out of the way to let her go in first. She walked straight into the living room, and put her purse down on the little coffee table by the couch. She yawned as she slumped down onto the couch, positioning a pillow under her head to get more comfortable.

He sat down too, pulling her shoes off for her, then pulling his own shoes off, and snuggling up next to her.

"What are you so tired from?" he said looking at her yawning again. "Miles and I had Aaron all day."

He yawned too. It's contagious.

"We were too lazy I think, watched tv and ate ice cream the entire time you guys were gone." She covered her mouth yawning again.

He got up and got a pillow from the other sofa. Then both of them just laid down, him with his back towards the back of the couch. Her back to his chest, cuddling up while he flipped through the tv channels.

"I thought about writing a book." He blurted out.

She turned around to look at him, "Really? Why?"

"I don't know. Just something that crossed my mind the other day. I thought about writing about everything that happened to us. The only thing is, I would probably have to declare it 'fiction' … nobody would believe half the shit we've been through to be actual facts."

"Huh." She sighed, and turned back towards the tv, snuggling into him and resting her head on his arm. "Maybe you should write it. I'd read it for sure, would be interesting to see your point of view on things that happened."

He put the remote down, moved the hair away from her neck and kissed it. It tickled her, and she squirmed around for a moment, until he stopped.

"You wanna go upstairs, Freckles." He said with his growling bedroom voice.

To his surprise, she sat up, looking at him. "Why are you the way you are?" She said, looking at him as if this was a perfectly acceptable question.

"Excuse me?" he raised his eyebrows and sat up to be face to face with her.

"You know. You have those moments when you're acting like a real ass. Saying all the wrong things at the wrong time. You pick fights with me for nothing. Drive me up the wall sometimes. But then … then you turn around and hold the door open for me. Make me breakfast and bring it to me in bed. Cuddle with me on the couch. And the sex." She blushed a little. "You're always making sure that I …" She couldn't say it.

He smirked, and finished her sentence "That you're satisfied."

"Yeah, why is that? Why are you the way you are? Like a split personality?"

He sighed, then laid back down, "Can't tell ya'."

"Why not?" She pouted.

"Cause a deal's a deal, Freckles."

"So this has to do with your past? Just talk to me, James, please?"

He sighed again. "But if I tell you, then you can't hold it against me. Deal's still a deal."

She nodded, "Deal's a deal, I just want to know what goes on in your head sometimes."

He sat up to face her again, "You know what I did before we crashed on that island."

She nodded again.

"Well, these women that I conned, they all had one thing in common. They were all married, had a nice house, had money and a husband that seemed nice enough to buy them anything they wished for." He looked in her eyes, and he knew she was beginning to understand. "But what they didn't have was romance, chivalry and all that good stuff … they were very unsatisfied in that department. So that's where I came in, and who can blame them really … most of them probably got no more than 5 minutes and a wet spot on their side of the bed with their husband."

She made a face, and started to regret having asked him to tell her, looking down.

He saw her looking away, but continued anyways. "So knowing what I know now, being married myself I've decided to make sure you'll never be unsatisfied in any department."

She looked back up at him. "I'd never cheat on you."

"I know that. But still, even though I might be a jerk and act like one most of the time, in the back of my mind I know you're the best thing that ever happened to me. And when I remember that, then I remember to treat you like the best thing that ever happened to me." He smiled at her with those sad puppy dog eyes.

She moved closer to him, snuggling into him once again, hugging him tightly. "No matter how big of a jerk you are, you are the best thing that ever happened to me too. You're the first person that accepted me, even though you knew I'd killed someone, but you wanted me anyways."

He held her close, "We are really something, aren't we, Freckles?" He kissed her hair. She didn't say anything.

"And while we're on the subject, Freckles. I might not say I love you all the time, and neither do you. And that's alright, that's just not us, and I get that … but no matter what, I do love you!"

"I love you too."