Cassie pats her hand reassuringly. Joy's facial expression remains unchanged.
"I'm sure you have plenty of time to figure it all out."
"What if I don't?"
"I don't think there was a definitive timeline."
"Let's hope not," Joy responds.
"You seem completely overwhelmed by the thought of this dream coming true. I guess that I assumed, maybe incorrectly, that someday you would want to have a child of your own."
"Down the road. As in the future. You know, years from now."
Cassie purses her lips, and furrows her brow, "You think the dream means otherwise?"
"I am certainly worried that it does."
As if summoned Abigail appears in the doorway. She offers a warm smile.
"Are the two of you having a family meeting without me?"
"Joy was just telling me that she is feeling a lot of anxiety about what the dream meant. Obviously the version you've had most recently is a little more detailed than what we've seen," Cassie admits.
"Is there a specific concern?" Abigail raises a brow as she sits down next to Joy.
"I'm just curious about the timeline."
Abigail nods her head, but not a single word escapes her lips. Cassie watches the exchange in confusion.
"Are you sure that you didn't just watch Witches of Eastwick, and have all of that seep into your subconscious?" Joy queries.
"I have never watched that," Abigail insists.
"I think I am out of the loop on this," Cassie admits.
"I believe that Abigail is suggesting that all of the preparations for the future are already in motion."
Cassie nods, "Abigail I know you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. You should probably get home."
"I do?"
"Yes, you have all those arrangements to make for the festival."
"That is true. I will leave the two of you to sort this out," Abigail retreats.
Silence envelopes the room as Abigail disappears. Joy looks at Cassie, who peers into her soul with a pair of amber color eyes.
"It's okay if you're not okay."
"I'm not okay with any of this."
"The deep furrow of your brow tells me that you are concerned enough to believe that Abigail is right."
"We keep dancing around the subject. I don't even want to think about it."
"There is plenty of thought to be had on the subject. Motherhood isn't anything to be taken lightly."
"I'm not ready. I'm not ready for this conversation, either."
When Sam gets home he finds Cassie pilfering through the bookshelves.
"Are you looking for something in particular?"
"I thought that I shelved a photo album in here."
He smirks, "You did. It's in my office. I was flipping through it last night before I came to bed."
He follows her as she makes her way to his office. He remains silent as she takes a seat at his desk. She finds a box of pictures on the corner of his desk, and a stack of albums in front of her seat. She furrows her brow in confusion.
"I recognize this album," she points to the one on the top of the pile.
"The middle one is Nick's."
"This one is new," she points out.
He nods, "I wanted to surprise you. I remembered that you linked all of our devices to the cloud. I printed a bunch of the pictures off, and I started a new album. I underestimated the number of decent shots though, so I'll be going back for another album. It seemed only right we had a Radford/Nightingale/Russell album. Especially since it would appear that we have another lifetime of pictures in store for us."
"I can't believe you did this."
"I couldn't sleep, so I thought I would put my insomnia to sleep."
"What's on your mind?"
"We're having a baby. We never talked about that. I mean we settled into our married life, and it was a conversation we never had," he explains as he leans against the desk.
"Then we should have it now. Sam, would you like to collaborate with me on a little project?"
He taps his chin, "I'm not sure. Will it be expensive?"
"Definitely."
"Will it be time consuming?"
"Without a doubt."
"Will it cost us sanity, and sleep?"
"Guaranteed."
"Could it go horribly wrong?"
She nods, "Which is why I think we never had this discussion in the first place."
"I don't want to borrow any trouble, but as a doctor I know there are a lot of things that can go awry. I know that you're healthy, but it's still nerve-wracking."
"Neither one of us are getting any younger," she adds.
"Are we off our rockers?"
"Obviously. I wouldn't have voted for this."
"Really? That surprises me. You are great with all creatures big, and small."
"There is a reason that we never had this conversation. I thought I had nailed the coffin shut on this chapter."
He furrows his brow, "What do you mean?"
"After I had Grace I had an ectopic pregnancy that required medical intervention. I hemorrhaged, and went into hypovolemic shock. They had to perform an emergency surgery. They were able to save my uterus, but they had to remove the fallopian tube, and the ovary due to the location of implantation."
"Which is why you immediately called in a favor, and got imaging?"
"I didn't want to say anything until I could be sure."
"I see why we didn't have this discussion. You hate being vulnerable."
"So you can see why this wouldn't have garnered my vote."
"Also why you weren't particularly concerned that it was a possibility."
"At a certain age with only one ovary you would really think that the odds weren't in favor of any of this."
"How do we proceed?"
"What would your vote have been?" She queries.
"I wouldn't have voted for this either. My preference would be taking a gamble on youngsters that we may never call our own. I guess the universe had different plans for us."
"I think the universe is just reminding us that we're on its timetable."
He grins, "And in the blink of an eye we're going to be on someone else's time table. What are we going to do about that?"
"I think after we get over all the initial anxiety, and move into the second trimester we will both feel a little bit of relief, and be able to enjoy the thought of having a baby together."
"Nick, and Grace are going to be absolutely pissed."
Cassie smiles, "Make sure we capture that one on film."
Sam laughs, "I'll save a page for it in the family album."