Author's Note: This chapter has a little adult content so proceed at your own risk.

Chapter 20: Of Unicorns and Babies Part 2

He got his answer as he stepped through the doorway and found her lying in bed on her side as if she were waiting for him. The covers were pulled up to her chin, which was resting on her left hand. Her right hand was curled around the top of the covers. "It's taken you long enough to put our daughter to sleep. I was beginning to think I was going to have to start on my own," she purred and gave him a feline smile.

"I lost track of time," he replied and felt the corners of his mouth turn up in a grin. His evening was about to get even better and he began to stalk toward her when she held up her right hand to halt him.

"Lock the door," she instructed. "I'd rather not have a repeat of waking up to find our daughter trying to crawl into bed with us and asking why we had no pajamas on."

Chuckling, he turned and secured the door. "Hopefully her new little friend will encourage her to stay in her own bed from now on."

"Don't count on it," she warned. "It's more likely we'll have two interlopers in our bed instead of one."

Tossing his jacked onto the chair by the fireplace he lazily strolled up to the bed and smiled down at her predatorily. Her hair was loose and curled around her flawless face and for the millionth time he was stuck by her beautiful. "You are the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on," he confessed softly. "Even after all this time you still take my breath away."

Touched, her eyes softened and she gave him a sweet self-conscious smile. "Thank you." Her smile turned into a coy one and she batted her dark lashes at him as she motioned at his body with her finger. "You're wearing an awful lot of clothing," she assessed. "How about you take them off?"

"How about I take your clothes off first?" he volleyed back. "Or are you already naked under those covers?"

Tossing back the covers with her right hand she smirked at him as his mouth dropped open as he took in the sight of her curvaceous figure clad only in a short, ice blue negligee with matching panties. A delicate pearl snowflake glowed between where the two halves of the skimpy top of her outfit met and her buxom chest was barely encased by the delicate, thin blue lace. For a long moment he could do nothing but stare at her like a starving wolf looking at his next meal and she finally broke the spell by pressing her foot against his crotch and eliciting a loud moan from the obviously aroused man. Grabbing her foot, he lifted it up to his mouth and kissed it.

"Uh uh," she reprimanded and withdrew her foot to tuck it underneath her as she sat upright in the center of the bed. "No touching until you strip."

Grinning, he began undoing his tie and tossed it in the vicinity of the chair. As he began unbuttoning his shirt he asked if she was going to do the same for him. "That's up to you," she teased back. She wasn't surprised when his eyes zeroed back on her chest and he hoarsely declared he would help her out of her clothing.

Dropping his shirt to the floor he moved his hands to his waist of his pants and worked it free. "That's new," he said in reference to her negligee. "To what do I owe the honor of this spectacular little number?"

"I was saving it for a rainy day," she answered and reached for his boxers only to have her hands pushed away.

"No touching until the clothes are off," he smugly reminded her. "Patience, woman. And you haven't answered my question."

She laughed and made herself comfortable reclining back on the bed. "Earlier tonight at the zoo you said we should make another child. I thought this outfit might give us both incentive to give it a good old English try… or two… or three." She raised an eyebrow at him as he discarded the last of his clothing. "And from this angle it appears that you are appropriately enticed."

Placing both hands onto the bed he slowly crawled onto the bed towards her. "Let me show you just how appropriately enticed I am," he growled and leaned down over her.

Wrapping her arms around his neck she pulled him to her. "Please do," she demanded and gave him a passionate kiss.

A soft ray of sunlight awoke him early the next morning. Yawning, he stretched his long limbs and turned to find her curled up on her side and staring at him. Her dark hair was wet and pinned up on her head and she was wearing her white robe. "Good morning," she murmured and gave him a little smile. "Sleep well?"

"Very," he said and reached up to tuck one of the loose curls around her face behind her ear. "You?"

"A most satisfactory night," she answered back and ran her left hand down the side of his face.

"What time is it?" he asked with another yawn. Judging by the light coming through the narrow part in the curtains the hour was very early.

"6:30 am," she said and laughed as he groaned and wondered aloud why she was up so early. "I wanted to get up and have a little peace and quiet before our daughter wakes up and goes into overdrive because it's her birthday."

He groaned. "Oh God, I forgot about that." He looked over at the door as if expecting Ashley to come bursting through. "How much time do you think we have?"

"Enough for you to put your pants on," she snickered and reached over to pull open the drawer of her nightstand. "And enough time for me to present you with this," she said softly as she took his hand with her right hand and placed a pair of soft objects on it with her left hand.

He squinted at the items and then looked at her questioningly. She gave him a self-conscious little smile and waited for him to say something. He pulled his hand closer to his face and inspected the pair of tiny, white knitted socks. "These socks, while lovely, are a wee bit small for the likes of me, don't you think Luv? I don't think even Ashley's new doll could fit these."

"They're not socks," she corrected. "They're booties."

"They still won't fit," he snorted and stopped as he saw the serious expression on her face.

"They're baby booties," she explained softly. "They're for a baby." The way she was looking at him was almost anxious, as if she were waiting for his reaction to her explanation and not entirely sure how he was going to respond.

Surprised, he stared at her and then at the booties. "Luv, I know you can be overly optimistic at times but don't you think you're rushing things a bit? We just had sex last night. It could be a while before you get pregnant, assuming that's even possible given our advanced age."

She gave a sigh and tapped him on the nose with one finger. "Montague John Druitt, you have a degree from Oxford University and you seriously do not know what it means when your lover presents you with a pair of baby booties?"

His forehead creased and he felt the tiny objects with his other hand as if to confirm they were really in his palm. Surely she wasn't saying what he thought she was saying. He looked back at her and found her staring at him in amusement.

Sitting up, she turned to face him and picked up one bootie with each hand. "A woman presents her lover with a pair of baby booties when she wants him to know that she is expecting their child," she calmly explained. "In less than six months time we will have another little one under this roof. Our family of three will become a family of four. Well, five plus if you add in Henry and his new family."

She waited patiently as he blinked repeatedly and his mouth opened and closed twice like a fish. She really had left him speechless… which was exactly how he had reacted when she had informed him that she was pregnant with Ashley almost eight years earlier.

"Are you… are you sure?" he croaked. He had been joking last night about having another child. He never actually thought they could produce another one.

"The morning sickness I've felt over the past two months tells me yes," she cracked and almost toppled over backwards when he suddenly bolted upright before her.

"We're going to have another child?" he asked as he leaned forward to look into her eyes. At her nod a big lopsided grin spread across his broad face. "And you've know this for three months and haven't told me… again?" he surmised.

"The first trimester is always best handled cautiously," she answered, "as I informed you the first time."

"And last night was…" he prompted.

She giggled. "A very good night." Wrapping her arms around his neck she gave him a dimpled smile. "I was feeling good and you did say you wanted to make another baby so a night of hot sex seemed like a good idea at the time."

"A very good idea," he agreed and pulled her up against him. "Although I would have been a little more gentle had I known you were with child."

"I know you would have," she said and kissed him. They hadn't been together as a couple when she'd discovered she was pregnant with Ashley and by the time they'd gotten around to having intercourse again she'd been five months pregnant and, to her annoyance, he kept trying to treat her as if she were a delicate piece of glass.

He pulled back unexpectedly. "Hang on. This means you were pregnant when we were back in Old London. If Tesla and I hadn't come to retrieve you then you and our child would have been… I would have lost you both and never have gotten to know him or her…" He stopped talking and glanced down at her stomach where their latest offspring was thriving and swallowed hard as he was hit with the realization of how close he'd come to almost losing the bulk of his family.

"But you did come and we got home safe and sound. We're okay," she tried to reassure him. "Don't think about that. Focus on the here and now."

"The here and now is amazing. More than I could ever hope for," he whispered and leaned in for another kiss. He would never tire of kissing her honeyed lips. They froze as the morning silence was interrupted by the sound of someone turning the doorknob to their bedroom. As one, they turned their faces toward the door to hear the knob being twisted back and forth loudly. Then came the knocking on the heavy wood door followed by "Mommy? Mommy!"

"Our daughter has lousy timing," John grumbled and dropped his head onto her shoulder where he had access to her neck and gave her a kiss. There were two more pounds on the door and cries of "Mommy! Daddy!" before the knob began twisting again and a loud kick on the door pierced the room. "Let me in!"

"Just a moment!" Helen called out to their impatient child. To John she reminded "Your pants!" and scooted off the bed to open the door before Ashley could do any actual damage. She'd unlocked the door and swung it in just as Ashley went to kick it a second time. Stumbling forward, the child fell into her mother's waist, causing Helen to gasp in surprise, and dropped her doll onto the floor. "Honestly, young lady, there is no need for such a racket."

Picking up her stuffed mermaid Ashley gave her mother a grumpy face. "Why did you lock the door? I don't like it when you lock the door."

Helen sat down on a nearby comfy wingchair and picked up her hairbrush on the side table to begin coming out the tangles of her wet hair. "Sometimes adults want to have a little privacy and need to lock their door."

Ashley sat down on the matching ottoman and stared up at her mother with a frown. "Why do adults need privacy?"

Pausing, the brunette smiled down at the curious child who looked back up at her with big blue eyes framed by thick dark lashes. She and John did make beautiful babies she thought proudly. "Sometimes adults just want to talk about adult things and be alone."

Ashley scrunched up her little face in confusion. "So you and daddy lock the door to talk?"

"Among other things," Helen vaguely answered and leaned forward to begin combing Ashley's messy bed hair.

"What other things?" Ashley pressed and pouted as her mother worked on detangling her long golden locks.

"I know today is a very special day," John interrupted from the doorway of the adjoining en suite. He'd teleported there earlier to get dressed before the child could discover him without his clothing again. Tapping at his temple absently, the big man pondered aloud, "But for the life of me I can't recall why." Giving her a smile he said, "I don't suppose you would know why today is so special, hmmm?"

Ashley rolled her eyes at her goofy father. "You know why today is special, daddy. It's my birthday!"

"Your birthday?" he gasped exaggeratedly and picked her up. "Today is your birthday? Are you sure? Maybe it's my birthday," he teased and laughed as she shook her head at his silliness.

"It's not your birthday today, daddy, it's mine. I'm seven today."

"Seven years old," he repeated. "You're officially a big girl now."

"Uh huh," she agreed and pinched his cheek. "But I'm still going to sleep with you and mommy forever," she proclaimed and giggled as her parents loudly groaned. "Me and Ariel."

"We're going to have to get a bigger bed," John sulked.