Hello Again

Again, Ryan's childhood is my creation!

It was harder for the people around him to believe how much Ryan's life had changed in less than a year than it was for him. He always hoped that if he was ever lucky enough to see Emily again, if her heart didn't belong to someone else, that things would just fall into place. He told himself that it was possible that Emily had moved on and was now happy with someone else. If that had been the case, Ryan loved her enough to respect that.

Ryan was beside himself with joy when they met again and Emily was single...and wanted to be with him after all this time. The pieces just fit and baby Bella was another part of the dream life he wanted with Emily. They understood it was indeed very private thing but till his wife became pregnant his friends didn't know how much Ryan had wanted fatherhood. Neither did they know he grew up an unwanted, emotionally neglected child by his parents. He hadn't spoken to his parents since he left home at eighteen,. He felt his life got a hundred times better without them in it. They didn't know he was a CSI in Miami, or most importantly that he and Emily were now married and expecting a daughter.

Ryan wanted to keep it that way. His in-laws thought Ryan's parents were as awful as he said, Harry and Vanessa Studman had met these people themselves. They had no business knowing of Ryan and Emily's baby and they weren't going to find out from the Studmans.

Emily's parents were planning on surprising their daughter with a visit in a week. They were excited about seeing Ryan again. He was the person they had always wanted Emily to be with. The fact the two were having a baby was icing on the cake. Vanessa Studman laughed out-loud when he commented he hoped the newlyweds' home wasn't too small for them and a baby. Harry had heard that the spare room that was going to be the baby's nursery was small. He said he hoped the couple weren't paying a fortune for a "shoebox."

"It's a two bedroom condo in Miami, dear. I'm sure whatever they're paying is a bargain," she said. "I think the baby will be just fine. Tiny babies don't require a lot of room."

Vanessa and Harry had already made hotel reservations for the length of their stay. It wasn't an insult to them not to stay with their daughter and son-in-law and practically there was no room. Ryan was home early on the day his guests arrived. Horatio told him to leave early that day when the lieutenant heard Emily Wolfe was having a bad day nausea-wise and was off work. His wife had awakened from a nap and had been able to finally keep down some chicken noodle soup and crackers. She was surprised to hear the doorbell ring.

"Who could that be?" She thought out-loud

Her jaw dropped and she was speechless for a split second when she saw her parents. Ryan heard the commotion from the kitchen and entered the living area that led to the porch where his wife and in-laws were.

His father-in-law came across the space separating Ryan and him and shook Ryan's hand.

"Such a long time, man. So glad to see you!" Harry said.

"You too," Ryan said.

Emily wasn't the only one thrilled she were back in Ryan's arms; in fact, her parents would have been over the moon if Emily had got pregnant the first night she and Ryan reunited. The four sat and chatted in the living room. Vanessa thought it was adorable that Ryan had arm placed around his wife's shoulders as they chatted. The couple felt somewhat bad that their guests couldn't stay there but they had started working on the nursery now and the room was filled with boxes of oak furniture, a crib that could converted to a toddler bed, a wardrobe and change table with drawers. The matching rocking chair and boards for extra shelving were on order.

"Oh, don't worry, honey," Emily's father said. "I think that room has better use at the moment."

Emily showed her mother the baby's room so far. The room was now painted lilac purple and Disney baby princess stickers covered the walls. Though miscarriage was much less likely at this point in her pregnancy, this was all the couple dared to do at this point. The furniture could wait another while to be set up and they hadn't purchased any baby clothes yet and had asked their friends not to give them any yet. Alexx Woods, Ryan's surrogate mother made sure of this. He had asked his wife and she thought it was fitting that the African-American woman to be the baby's other grandmother. She was like a mother to Ryan and was fast becoming a second mom to Emily. Ryan already bought the grandparent invitation to Alexx, shocked and gratified, the woman tearfully accepted. Emily was going to ask Selena ro be the baby's godmother. Ryan was strongly thinking of asking Frank to be the godfather being if it wasn't for Frank's boldness Ryan would have never spoken to Emily. He wasn't sure it was her and he hadn't wanted to look like a fool. The young CSI or "dust monkey" as Frank called him had thanked him several times for this since that afternoon.

Frank had just smiled and said it wasn't a problem. He'd been happy to do it.