Chapter 7

A/N: So, this chapter and the last one are both a little fluffy. I feel like all the drama has made the writer lose sight a little of how important this is for Liam and Steffy having previously lost a baby, I feel like there have been a lot of missed opportunities for things like decorating a nursery and talking to the baby and giving your baby advice that she won't need for a couple years. A lot of the excitement of a new baby is lost, and I wanted to give Steffy some of those moments. So, here it is! Twice in one week! I'm proud. Enjoy!

Liam's POV

"Hi there, baby. I'm sorry it took me this long to do this. It's a long story, most of which is my fault. I'm sure you'll hear about it someday, and when you do I want you to remember that I loved you from the very start. And I loved your mother from the day I met her, and sometimes I've been stupid. I've allowed myself to be deceived and manipulated, but in all those times, my love for her has never wavered, weakened or faltered. You'll get it, if you don't already. She's strong, and smart, and beautiful. So beautiful and not just because of her looks; she's kind and absolutely kick ass. It is almost too easy to fall in love with her. I know I definitely couldn't help it and I never could've stopped."

I looked up at Steffy who seemed to be busy with her work on our line, but if I knew her as well as I thought I did, she could probably hear me. Not that I cared, I preferred that she hear, maybe if I said it enough, she'd believe me.

"I know you've probably heard a lot of fighting, and that was probably a little scary. I hate that I have to tell you this so soon, but sometimes adults fight, and sometimes it's about things that they don't even understand, but that doesn't mean they don't love each other. Sometimes, it's because they love each other so much that they fight. I know it sounds very complicated and it is. The world is a very complicated place, and I'm going to try my best to shield you from that, but just know that your very presence in the world makes everything a little brighter. Your mother has done some pretty amazing things in her life, all of which are reasons why I love her, and of all those amazing things, none of them even come close to comparing to you. Daddy loves you."

"It's been less than a week and she's already using your baby as a bargaining chip to get you back and hurt my daughter." Brooke interrupted.

I hadn't noticed she'd been standing there. She along with Ridge and Hope had entered the office at some point and I had been to0 wrapped up in talking to my daughter to notice. At my change in attention, Steffy's gaze drifted to the door as well, her shoulders tensed and prepared. Now, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that she had been eavesdropping. She clearly heard Brooke's barb and was preparing for a fight.

Before I could jump to her defense, Ridge spoke.

"Brooke, be careful how you talk about my daughter." He said, much to her annoyance.

"Why should I? She's made a sport out of destroying my daughter's future. She's manipulative and untrustworthy. It's the truth. She betrayed Liam, with his father of all people. Their marriage ended that night in the guest house, and no truth or manipulation by Bill can undo what she has already done."

Steffy's shoulders sank lower with each insult. Her eyes brimming with tears, but she remained quiet. Hope, whose mother was jumping down Steffy's throat in defense of her, remained silent as well. I didn't have to wonder if she thought those things as well. She had said as much to me before, and in my hurt and anger I had let her. But no more.

"Brooke, you will watch the way you talk about Steffy. She has done absolutely nothing to you and I won't have you blame her for things that weren't her fault. If you need someone to blame, then blame me. I'm the one who hurt Hope. The reason she is in pain right now, and has ever been in pain is because of me, and the choices I made. You will stop picking on the mother of my child, the woman that I love, simply because I chose her."

Steffy looked at me in shock. Everyone did. No one spoke to Brooke that way. Ridge looked proud, and Hope looked a little annoyed at my defense of Steffy, but the way she spoke about Steffy made my blood boil.

"And not to be disrespectful Brooke, but where do you get off talking about betrayal and untrustworthiness? You who betrayed your sister with Bill, and Ridge with Eric, and slept with your daughter's husband. It is not and will never be your place to talk about anybody's indiscretions when your list is so long."

Steffy placed her hand on my arm, possibly wanting me to hold back, but I was too far gone. Before our session with Dr. Marsh, I had blinded myself to the unfairness of the way Steffy was treated by Brooke, Hope, and Eric, but it was clear to me now, and it was appalling.

"How dare you?" Brooke glared.

"No." I said. "You don't get to act offended. Like you said. It's the truth. I chose Steffy, I am with Steffy and we will be together forever. I won't let anything get in our way, especially you Brooke. I expect you to respect our relationship."

Brooke glared at Ridge, wanting him to jump to her defense. When that didn't happen, she turned her attention to Hope, who remained silent, eyes bright with tears, but at least her scowls were reserved for me and not Steffy.

"Is it true?" Ridge asked. "Are you back together?" He smiled.

"No, we're not." Steffy answered decisively.

"We will be." I assured Ridge. He glanced at Steffy confused, and she shook her head.

"So, what you're saying is, you left my daughter for someone who refuses to be with you?" Brooke asked..

I glared at her, turning my attention to Hope.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you, but it's not fair to you to be with you when my heart is with someone else. And I am fighting to be with Steffy, for our life together, and our family. I hope you can understand that."

She nodded, wiping away her tears.

"I know. You're not a bad guy, Liam. And maybe one day we can be friends, but I'd appreciate not having to hear about your love for Steffy, or seeing you two together, especially right now."

"I'm sorry too, Hope." Steffy said. "Believe it or not, it was not my intention for any of this to happen. In fact, I tried like hell to prevent this very scenario. I hate what this has done to our family. As much as we like to pretend that we're nothing to each other, we share the same family, and one day I would really like us to act like it. What happens between Liam and I is not important right now. This is a place of business, and if nothing else I really want us to try to have a stable work relationship."

I didn't think I could love her anymore, but she always surprises me. The amount of grace she has, her maturity, her consideration. I am lucky to have loved her and to have had her love me, and our daughter is the luckiest daughter in the world to have Steffy as her mother.

She cleared her throat. "So why don't you take a seat. Rick and Maya should be here any second now, and we can get down to the reason I called this meeting in the first place."

She said as she clicked the projector to come down and began placing her designs on the easels surrounding the long table.

I tried to help, but she batted my hand a way and gave me a glare that could have disintegrated me where I stood. I was relegated to watching awkwardly while Brooke glared at me, Hope refused to look and me, and Ridge shot me pitiful looks that I can only describe as him being sad for me, and the situation I was in, but immensely proud of his daughter for making me work hard to win back her trust.

God, let this meeting start quickly.

We didn't have to wait long for the stragglers to arrive.

Rick, Maya, Pam, and the guy that I saw with Steffy the other day soon filtered in, and all attention turned to Steffy as the meeting commenced.

"I called this meeting to introduce a new hire, and a new line that we're introducing at Forrester."

She gestured to the man, who stood. "This is Cameron Hart. He is an exceptional runway and print photographer, and a great addition to our team here. We have been working closely on a new project that I hope you'll be as receptive to as I am."

She clicked on the projector, and a video slideshow started showing some stunning maternity and matching baby girl dresses and onesies. The 'to be announced' baby boy onesies were equally as exceptional. But the most beautiful thing in the entire slideshow, Steffy's happiness. She was featured along with some other expecting mothers in the slideshow and each of them had an exuberance about them, about feeling beautiful during this beautiful process. Whenever I caught her gaze, she radiated that happiness and a sense of accomplishment that shined through her demeanor and her smile.

At the end of the video, she spoke.

"I'd like to thank Cameron for his exceptional camera work. He really outdid himself, and I was a bit of a tyrant."

"It was my pleasure." He said. "It's easy making beautiful people shine."

I personally could've done without that comment, but I wouldn't let it take away from this moment.

"This new line is an affordable designer maternity line. It is very hard to find designer maternity clothes, I would know, and as such it is in very high demand. Statistically speaking, it is a great move for Forrester Creations right now. All of those are outlined in the packages in front of you, but besides just the statistics of it all. I think as a family company, we have let the ball drop by not catering to the creation of the family and making sure that women can look stylish and feel beautiful when they're creating a family. I am wearing one of the designs right now, and the designs have been focus-group tested, and worn by other women, in various points in their pregnancies and I and they can attest to the comfort level throughout a pregnancy from beginning to end."

"The girl line is called Steffy's Girl, and the accompanying boy line will be called the Mini Cooper in tribute to Liam and his mother. I want this line not only to be about designer baby wear, but comfort, and dreams for your children. I'll give everybody a minute to look through their folders and answer any questions you may have."

She didn't have to wait long, Rick fired away immediately.

"It looks like a pretty big budget. Where do you expect to get the funds for a project of this magnitude? Launching a new line is no picnic." He glared at her, and I felt that this had more to do with her carrying my baby, and my botched wedding to Hope than it did budget.

"We're going to have to move some funds around. Hope for the Future has been front and center for a while now, and a lot of our funds are going into that. Brooke's Bedroom is also a well-established line, so some of the funding will also come from marketing from that line. But most of the budget is coming from previous profits and our funds for startups." She said, calmly.

Brooke was next, "So, what I'm hearing is you plan to shove mine and Hope's line to the back, to boost your own ego. So much for a professional relationship. If you are going to use your position to further your vendetta against my daughter and me—"

"First of all," Steffy started, a fire in her eyes now. "I have no vendetta against you and Hope. As is normal with new startups funds can be taking from established lines who already have buzz and require less marketing. Second, if you had bothered to look in your folder, you would notice that my budget is much smaller than the one given to Hope for the Future and Brooke's Bedroom when they were starting up. This line is meant to be affordable to all mothers, and as such I will try to keep company spending low so that we can maximize profit while still making this brand affordable. Lastly, if you have nothing worthy to contribute and are intent on bringing personal issues into a business meeting you are free to leave. I only invited you into this meeting as a courtesy."

She spoke with confidence, but I could see that she was trying her best to blink back tears. She had been through and emotional roller coaster lately. A lot of that fell heavily on my feet, but Brooke definitely wasn't helping with her constant insults and objections. Usually Steffy was one to meet her head on, but all the stress on top of the hormones form the pregnancy made Steffy a little more emotional and less resilient than usual.

"Listen, this a line that is very important to me. Rick and Maya, I'm sure you would have loved to have a Forrester baby line when Lizzie was born. All that I am asking is that everyone show me the same respect and support you have given to most everyone else who's ever had an idea about how to take this company forward. You will leave personal lives out of business meetings and take in that this is an idea, and a line with merit."

Cameron stood up, draping his arm around Steffy in a way that spoke of a familiarity between them that I was certain wasn't there. "Basically," He said. "What your CEO just said in a much nicer way, was get on board or get out, because Steffy's Girl and Mini Cooper; they're happening."

And as much as I was glad someone with less of a messy past, and a clear bias to Steffy had come to her defense. I hated that Cameron was touching her and defending her. She was my family, not his. It was my job to protect her, not his. And I was desperate to tear his fingers off of her.

"Well, I as co-CEO think it's a brilliant idea. This market will always be in demand, the designs are beautiful, they look comfortable, and they are definitely affordable. I sign off on this and whatever budgetary adjustments it requires." Ridge said.

"I agree. It stands to be a very profitable line for Forrester." Thorne agreed.

"I can't argue with the numbers." Rick said, grudgingly.

"And with the way the press has taken an interest in my pregnancy, I might even be able to shave down our marketing budget some more." Steffy added.

Hope and Brooke remained silent as the others discussed product placement and production.

The meeting closed, and Steffy and Cameron stayed behind, talking a bit, Steffy clearly excited about the future of the line, but Cameron was a little too close for comfort.

I walked over to them, dropping a kiss on Steffy's cheek and sweeping her up in my arms in a way that made her laugh and scream my name.

"Thank you, for Mini Cooper. My mom would've loved that." I said.

Without letting go of my hold on her, I turned to Cameron.

"Liam Spencer. I used to be Liam Cooper of Mini Cooper. Steffy's husband." I said, hand outstretched.

He frowned. "Husband?"

He glanced between us, confused. Our split was very well publicized as well as my wedding to Hope.

"Ex-husband." Steffy clarified for him.

"For now." I made my intentions clear. Steffy glared at me as Cameron nodded, finally exiting the room.

I smiled down at her as she muttered something about how annoying I was under her breath, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to hide my intentions. She knew that, Brooke and Hope knew it, and frankly if it were up to me, I'd broadcast it on tv, so everyone knew it.

It would read: Steffy Forrester is a strong, confident, brilliant, beautiful woman. She is the love of my life.

I am going to fight for her until I run out of breath, and nothing, not Brooke, or Rick, or Cameron would stop me.

A/N: I have been super inspired to write this week. Possible because I've been watching, and the Logan's are really annoying me, especially Brooke and her self-righteous attitude. This is just me taking out my frustration on how she acts towards Steffy throughout the show. Also, when she yelled at her that one episode awhile back and made Steffy cry as if she had never done worse, I wanted to punch the tv. I also wanted to write a little bit of a jealous Liam, because in his fights with Bill he's been really possessive. He keeps saying 'my wife' and 'my family' and I think it's so funny because Steffy is not his wife anymore. He made sure of that and that's what I keep screaming at the tv b/c Liam clearly wants to have his cake and eat it too and that's not how this works. Anyway, as always. Read, review and enjoy!