Summary: Archie has a surprise for Ruby. Also, dinosaurs.

Note: A little snippet of Red Cricket just to shake things up a bit. Enjoy.

Farmhouse Cake

Ruby was in two minds about her feelings towards being woken up at half past seven on a Thursday, traditionally her day off and therefore the day she had a lie-in. There were some mitigating factors to being woken up on this particular Thursday, however. Firstly, she was not feeling as sick as a dog, which was how she had been waking up feeling for the past week, and as she was not confined to her bed feeling terrible, it made sense to get out of it and do something constructive. Secondly, the person doing the waking up was Archie, and his expression of enthusiastic excitement was enough to completely kill any reproaches that Ruby might have given him for waking her.

"I've got a surprise for you," he said.

Ruby looked up at him and narrowed her eyes.

"Is it an ice-cream maker?" She had been hankering after white chocolate marshmallow ice-cream for a few days now, but she and Archie had not been able to source any at any of the local shops and she was getting to the desperate stage of thinking that it might be quicker and easier to just make her own.

Archie's face fell. "No. It's not an ice-cream maker. But hopefully it will be just as good as an ice-cream maker."

Ruby gave him an inquisitive look, glancing all around the room to try and see if there were any clues as to what her mysterious gift might be if it was not an ice-cream maker. "What is it? Where is it?"

"It's not in the flat," Archie said. "It won't fit in the flat. We're going to have to go on a little trip to see it. Sadly, this does mean that you're going to have to get out of bed."

Curiosity as to what could possibly not fit in the flat won out over reluctance to leave the cosy blankets, and Ruby pushed the covers off. Ten weeks into her pregnancy, there was still nothing to see in terms of a visible baby bump, but she had already gone up a bra size and a half. Not that she had heard Archie complaining about this. She was pulled from her musings by the arrival of Pongo in the bedroom, jumping up and licking her face as she got out of bed. It then transpired that he too was coming on the trip to see the surprise, and he was incredibly excited at the prospect. Pongo had been extremely affectionate to her of late, and Ruby assumed that it must be the influx of pregnancy hormones giving her a different smell. She had been slightly concerned that the Dalmatian had somehow mistaken her for a fellow canine in heat, but so far he had simply been as attentive as his owner; wanting to be with her but not constantly under her feet. She wondered what would happen later on when she actually started to show, whether Archie would be as calm as he was at the moment or whether he would panic. She had not expected him to take the news so well, but perhaps because she had been so worried and distraught at the time, he had risen to the occasion admirably. Of course, there had been a couple of times during the past few weeks when Ruby had roused in the middle of the night to find Archie wide awake, scribbling in his notebook by the dim reading light, making lists of things that they needed to get ready for the baby. A cot and a Moses basket were sensible items; a two-foot tall plush stegosaurus that he had seen in the toyshop window slightly less so. Tellingly, it was the stegosaurus that was sitting in their wardrobe, waiting to be given to its new owner whenever he or she arrived. But still, a stegosaurus was better than nothing, and at least their preparations for becoming parents had begun. Archie was thrilled to be a prospective dad. His relationship with his own parents had not been the most smooth, and he was determined not to repeat their mistakes with his own child. Ruby could tell that he was nervous at times, but then so was she, and they would muddle through it all together.

By the time she was ready to go, Pongo was at the stage of chasing dust motes around the hallway, and when Archie finally let him into the car, his tail was wagging so hard that Ruby thought it might be in danger of falling off. Archie steadfastly refused to tell her anything about the surprise until they had left the town centre and were driving into the countryside, when finally, Ruby's constant questioning of 'what is it, what is it' bore fruit.

"It's a house. Not an actual house. Well, an actual house. A house viewing. The appointment's at nine o' clock."

Ruby looked at her partner.'Gobsmacked' did not adequately describe her feelings.

"You found us a house," she said. "You found us a house and you arranged a viewing and you didn't tell me? Why?"

Archie just chuckled.

"You'll see."

Ten minutes later, Ruby did see.

The house was beautiful; a bit on the small side compared to the other properties they had been looking at on the outskirts of the town, but still bigger than their current flat. An old farmhouse with ivy and other creepers climbing up the stonework, and nailed back wooden shutters. The only thing that could have made it any better was a thatched roof, but that might have been more trouble than it was worth if the insurance ended up costing more than the house itself.

"It only came on the market last night," Archie said, once they had parked next to the estate agent's car in the driveway. "I wanted to get in there quick."

Ruby grabbed him by the shirt lapels and kissed him fiercely.

"I want this house," she said. "I haven't even seen inside and I want this house."

The house's size - comparatively small for a two-bed family home - and out-of-the-way location were off set by its huge garden and beautiful period detailing. Ruby had always wanted to live in a house with character, and Granny had always decried this as an impossible dream. Right now, Ruby was fairly certain that she was looking at a fantasy made real.

After showing them around, the estate agent left them alone to think things over, and Pongo promptly settled himself in a patch of sunlight in the living room, thumping his tail against the carpet.

"Well, Pongo's certainly made himself at home," Ruby said. "Please can we live here Archie? It's so much nicer than the other places we've seen, and Pongo could bury an entire full-size stegosaurus in the garden with room to spare."

"I'm glad you liked your surprise," Archie said. Pongo barked his assent and bounded over to them. Archie scratched behind his spotty ears. "And Pongo's asking when we can move in. I think he's already searching for dinosaurs. There's only one problem."

Ruby bit her lip.

"What's that?"

"How am I going to convince you to come home and not start moving in right now?"

Ruby laughed. Oh yes, this had definitely been worth getting out of bed for.