Ex's and Anniversaries

Rated "M" for couple fun!

Ryan's first day back at the lab after Bella was born was a slow one so he got to show the stacks of photos he had of his three-week-old daughter. The photos of Bella enjoying her first bath at home after her umbilical cord stump fell off made Alexx and Calleigh laugh.

"She looks she's enjoying herself," Calleigh said.

Calleigh was now six months into her pregnancy. Emily Wolfe had told her there would be days pregnancy would "absolutely suck" and today was one of them for the expectant mother of twins.

"She was," Ryan said. "She looked a bit shocked at first, she didn't know what to think about it. Then she cried when we took her out! "

Ryan proudly told everybody that Bella was cooing and other noises. She tried to imitate noises her parents made. And now she seemed to only have eyes for mom and dad. She knew and preferred them over anyone else.

"That's completely normal. And I bet you two love it," Alexx said.

Ryan couldn't deny that one, even if they were tired all the time. Their baby's coos were enough to make both forget what time it was when Bella woke at night.

At home Bella Wolfe looked curiously around the living room when her mom carried her from the nursery.

"What ya lookin' for? You're still lookin' for dada, huh?" Her mom said. "He's not here, yet. He'll be back." In the kitchen Emily laughed out loud when Bella seemed to lift her head when she opened the door to the microwave to place a bottle of formula inside. "He's not in there, either."

Ryan smiled when he called home and his wife said his daughter was looking for him. He laughed when he heard that the baby was looking for him at every corner, even in the microwave. The two were forgetting that their first wedding anniversary was in less in eight weeks. Ryan remembered when Horatio asked if the two had anything planned. He told Horatio no, then also remembering that his in-laws were going to be out of town, visiting friends in Washington, D.C..

"Why not?" The lieutenant said. "Anniversaries are important."

`After the wait that the couple had put up with, Horatio thought the two should celebrate this one big time. Horatio had already volunteered to watch Bella when her parents spent their first night away from her when she was six-weeks-old. Even with the job being Horatio Caine's life there were days when it was mandatory for him to be off and he couldn't be called in either. Her parents thought it was important that their daughter be exposed to a wide circle of family and friends and Horatio already had a great rapport with Bella. It was apparent that he was looking forward to spending time with the baby girl. To make sure the new parents had the energy for 'other things' that night, Vanessa was coming over on that Saturday afternoon so the two could sleep. Emily laughed to herself knowing her mother believed that the last time she and Ryan had sex was weeks before Emily went into labor, not hours.

Her mother didn't need to know the difference.

A day prior to their anniversary weekend, Emily had the opportunity or misfortune to run into her husband's ex, Erica Sykes. Emily was completely aware that her husband had dated the television reporter and how sorely the relationship had ended. Not that Ryan cared that much about her, but he realizing Erica was just using him as a way to get easy story information to advance her career had been infuriating. Then she made fun of his desire to be a father. Erica "never wanted to be a mother," she told Ryan. Pregnancy and the "mandatory leave she would have to take to look good" would ruin her career. If and it was a big, she ever became a mother, it would be through a surrogate. If her husband wanted to continue to work, they would hire a nanny or he could "be the wife."

Erica had never seen Emily Wolfe so she didn't know her...till she ran into her while she and Bella waiting her parents to meet them for lunch. She ran into a co-worker who excitedly called her by her full name, said Bella was beautiful and asked about Ryan. Emily knew Erica was in the restaurant because several servers were making a big deal of it. Somewhere along the way Ryan told his ex about Emily and evidently it had to be positive toward Emily because Erica came over to Emily and said.

"Ah, so you must be her. The famous Emily Ryan Wolfe could never stop talking about! I've heard so much about you!" Erica said sarcastically.

Same here, bitch, Emily thought.

Although she was sure it wasn't in the same fashion.

Having this woman in front of her after hearing all the pain and ridicule she had caused Ryan made Emily want to smack Erica Sykes so hard that no amount of professional make-up could cover it up.

"Yes, that would be me. And if I had my way, Ms. Sykes, Ryan would have never have met you in the first place, considering all you ever did was treat him as a source and cause him grief."

Erica snorted.

"Now I see why he wanted you so bad," she said. "Apparently you were willing for him to knock you up and give up your freedom to raise a kid," she said, looking a sleeping Bella in the carrier on the table.

Touch my daughter and you'll regret it, Emily thought.

Evidently Erica Sykes had a "handler." Another woman in a business suit came over to her and told they should leave. It seemed that this person knew as well that Erica was trying to up the ante, get Ryan's wife to lose control so she could have her arrested for assault. But Erica Sykes handler or not, Emily wasn't buying into that. As much as she wanted to take a shot at this bitch, it would only cause trouble and she wasn't about to do that to Ryan, he had been though enough and unlike Erica Sykes Emily loved Ryan and wouldn't add to his pain.

"And you know what?" Emily replied. "It's been a pleasure. Damn shame you passed up the opportunity 'cause you'll never have it again."

Ryan was proud of his wife for the way she had handled the situation, though part of him wished the law wasn't in the way because he would loved to know his wife had put Erica Sykes in her place.

"I'm proud of you, babe," Ryan said, kissing his wife hearing of the confrontation . It was shortly before they left for their weekend.

"I hate what she did to you," Emily said to Ryan as she hugged into his chest.

"I know, baby," Ryan murmured. "But she's long past now. Though I can't say I wouldn't have liked it if you let her have it," he chuckled.

"My goodness, you're a chatty baby," Horatio said to Bella as she cooed away, her tiny fingers in her mouth. Bella had discovered her fingers and thought they were the best toy ever. "You don't mind that daddy and mommy are going out tonight, do you?" Bella was already comfortably snuggling in Horatio's arms.

Her parents had some but little anxiety leaving the baby girl. How could they with the contented sounds she was making? Harry told his daughter and son-in-law that they would enjoy having some alone time and warned them not to feel guilty. They weren't just mommy and daddy, "although they feel like that right now," They were a couple, too.

Both thought it was ironic that their "first time" after the birth of their baby daughter was on their first wedding anniversary. Books and many women had told Emily that the first time having sex after childbirth often hurt. Perhaps she was just lucky but Emily enjoyed it, as did Ryan, quite thoroughly...and vocally.

Personally Emily questioned why sex after childbirth would be painful, if a baby can fit through there, well, something else could fit in there without pain.

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