I think you guys will like this chapter. Wink, wink.

"The earth has music for those who listen." - Shakespeare

New Year's Eve was never a huge celebration in the palace. That is, until my first year there. I decided that as a reward for their hard work throughout the Christmas season that all maids, cooks, butlers, groundsmen, and advisers should have this holiday off to celebrate with their families.

I dressed myself which was actually very refreshing. Mary had left me a dress she had designed for the holiday. It was red with a high collar and I paired it with pearl-studded black stockings and black heels. My hair I just kept curled and threw up into a ponytail.

The sound of my heels must have alerted Maxon to my entrance back into his suite. He was dressed very casually in pants and a button-down; an outfit he normally saved for summer time. "You look beautiful," he complimented.

I bobbed out a curtsy and smiled coyly. "You're looking pretty spiffy yourself. How about…" I walked past him, deeper into his closet. I found what I needed and wrapped it around his neck. "This tie?"

He smiled and faced the mirror to tie it. I stepped up in front of him and took the tie out of his hands to tie it for him. He leaned down to kiss me as I finished tying the knot. I pulled back. "Hey, we don't have time for this. Someone needs to get downstairs to make sure my mom doesn't find the liquor cabinet too early," I whispered.

He laughed. "You mean you need to get to the strawberry tarts before her?"

"Well, that too," I shrugged as Maxon pulled me closer to hug me. Sometimes it just felt so good to be hugged by him. By anyone really but mostly by Maxon. I actually kind of preferred a hug over a kiss because I liked the feeling of being held. It was always my first solution to whenever I got cold in the well air-conditioned palace. On the rare occasion that Maxon had to go to a province for a couple days to do work that was what I missed most about not having him around.

We walked down to the music parlor where we had set up tables earlier. May and Gerad were already arguing over who was getting the race car piece in Monopoly. I laughed at them and welcomed Mom who sure enough, already had a glass of wine in her hand. "How many of those are you drinking tonight, Mom?"

"Don't worry, just a few," she assured me but her cheeks were already flushed. I just laughed and shook my head. She wasn't an alcoholic; she never drank at home. Maxon was uneasy the first time she was a little inebriated at the palace but now he found it more humorous than me.

We all sat down and played games with the TV on in the background where the new year was counting down on the other side of the country. I had my playing cards close to my chest when I turned to Maxon to ask, "Are you going to do a special happy new year message on the Report tomorrow?"

"Maybe," he answered vaguely as he craned his neck to try to look at my cards.

"Hey, hey, hey! No cheating over there!" James called from his side of the table.

Maxon discarded, holding my gaze. "Rummy!" May screamed, practically diving on to the table to get her cards. "You guys need some practice at this game. A twelve-year-old should not be beating you."

I rolled my eyes and picked up my card for my turn. We kept playing different games, only taking breaks when we watched the ball drop in Hansport. Mom excused herself to use the bathroom and told us to keep playing. We weren't concerned until it had been twenty minutes and she wasn't there.

"I'll go find her. She's probably flirting with one of the guards again," Kenna joked. She left and came back later. "I couldn't find her."

James, who had been bouncing Astra by the window to get her to go to sleep, started laughing. "Um, guys…you may want to see this."

I don't know what I was expecting; rebels climbing over the walls, a New Asian army in our front yard. I don't know but I was not expecting to see my mother swimming in the fountain in the driveway. "Oh. My. Gosh." May started laughing hysterically as Maxon and I shared a look, following Kenna down to the front door and outside.

"Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars!" Mom was singing loudly and horribly out of key. I winced as we approached her in the fountain.

"Okay, Mom, you've had enough to drink," Kenna told her, trying to pry the wine glass out of her hand.

She shook her head. "You are my daughter. You don't tell me what to do," she snapped, backing further into the fountain.

Maxon sighed and bent down to take off his shoes and socks, dropping them into my hands. He untied his tie and left that on top of the pile. He climbed into the fountain slowly, like a hunter stalking his prey. "Magda, there's another pool inside that you can swim in. Do you want me to show you? It's nice and warm and has bubbles," he coaxed, talking gently.

I wasn't sure where he was going with that but then it dawned on me. I looked at Kenna. "Go up to Mom's guest room and get a bubble bath going." She nodded and hurried off as I looked back at my husband slowly walking my drunk mother out of the fountain.

He helped her out so she wouldn't fall. "I'm all wet," she noticed, looking down at her sopping clothes like she didn't know she was jumping around in water. I nodded and hugged Maxon's belongings closer to me as he looped an elbow through hers. "I'm going to get your carpets all wet," she whined to Maxon.

He smiled. "It's okay Magda, they can get cleaned."

"Oh, right. Because you're the king. And you're my son-in-law."

"Yes, I am. And for right now I'm going to help you get to this nice, new pool, okay?" He was still speaking in his soft voice. I followed them slowly up to the guest room that had essentially become hers. I didn't miss the guards and maids we passed along the way laughing at our appearances, especially Maxon's bare feet. Kenna met us at the door and ushered Mom inside.

"I've got this. You two go back downstairs with the rest of the family," she offered.

I frowned. "Are you sure?" She nodded so I passed Maxon his clothes.

"I think I'm just going to go change," he said. He turned back to head upstairs when a guard ran up to his, panting from what I presumed was a long run. Maxon instinctively reached for my hand as we both assumed the worst had happened.

"Your Majesties, I was just send for you both to tell you that Lady Marlee is having the baby," he reported. "And she requested your presence," he added for me.

I gasped, putting a hand to my mouth. "Where is she?"

He took a few seconds to catch his breath and then said, "In the infirmary."

I nodded, about to dash off but then I remembered my husband. He seemed to read my mind because he took my hands. "Go be with her. I'll change and be down there shortly."

I kissed him on his cheek and took off down the hallway for the infirmary. Once I got there I almost ran into Dr. Ashlar who was smiling. "Oh, Your Majesty, your friend is asking for you," he told me.

"Yes, I know," I said quietly, heading to the doors of the room where I knew Marlee would be. I pushed the door open, sticking my head in to see my best friend lying in the hospital bed, apparently asleep. Carter looked up at me when he heard the door open. He came up to me and hugged me. "How's she doing?" I asked.

He nodded and smiled. "Good so far. She's just getting some rest. Dr. Ashlar said that the first time you go through this it takes longer." His voice was shaking but that was the only thing that betrayed how nervous he was.

"How are you doing?"

He put his hands on his hips and shrugged. "You know, just worried about her. Today isn't about me."

"You're going to be a great father," I told him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you America. Where's your husband?"

I laughed. "Well, we had a little incident involving my mother dancing in the fountain. Suffice to say, he's in our room putting on some dry clothes."

"Is it wrong of me to say that I'm not surprised?" Carter joked.

Marlee shifted in the bed and opened her eyes blearily. "America, you're here!" she said, sitting up a bit. I walked to the side of the bed and took Carter's seat.

"Where else would I be?" I asked her. "How are you doing?" I wanted her opinion. Knowing that I would probably be going through this in the coming years made my stomach tie itself in knots and I wanted to know how it really was. That was why I asked Marlee if I could even come.

She made a face. "I mean, I'm not comfortable. I guess it'll only get worse though." She sighed, picking up her cup of water. "I'm sure you were probably wondering where we were during your little party though."

I laughed. "It did cross my mind a couple times but it's okay. You seem to have a pretty good excuse so I guess I can let it slide this one time."

"I'm glad you're here," she said, holding my hand.

"Me too." She scrunched up her face as I assumed she was getting a contraction. Carter came back in with another cup of water and my husband, this time wearing dry clothes. He stood behind me with a hand on my shoulder.

Carter rubbed her hair as the pain subsided. "Okay," she sighed and rested her head back against the pillows, "that was a bad one. How long was that?"

Carter glanced at the monitor at his side. "About five minutes."

I looked up at Maxon and I almost laughed out loud at the curiosity in his eyes. Dr. Ashlar walked in then with a clipboard and after a quick bow to Maxon, he addressed Marlee. "So you can get the epidural at any time but I am a little concerned about the baby being a little stressed so I would like to hold off on giving it to for another hour or so."

Marlee looked disappointed and I noticed her squeeze Carter's hand. "And if the baby is too stressed?" she asked bravely.

"We'll probably have to resort to having a cesarean. I know you wanted to do this traditionally but it all depends on how the baby is doing."

"Of course, I understand," Marlee answered. She looked at Carter nervously. I could see the fear in her eyes.

We waited on pins and needles for the next hour as different doctors came in to check on Marlee. The contractions got more painful and she let out a few screams. Each scream of pain made me wince from the memory of her caning. Finally, when the hour was up, Dr. Ashlar came in and gave us the news. "I'm sorry but I think we're going to have to do a C-Section. Carter, here's a robe we need you to put on. I'm assuming you're coming in the delivery room?" Carter nodded, taking the paper robe from Dr. Ashlar. "Marlee, we're going to start prepping you for surgery, okay?"

She nodded as she shut her eyes, a few tears coming out. I couldn't imagine how she was feeling. Coming this far all for nothing? I would be devastated. This wasn't something that Maxon and I could fix; this was real life.

I gave Marlee one last kiss on the cheek and then followed Maxon out to the small waiting room. We took seats next to each other in the hard chairs, our hands clasped between us. He rubbed his face and I noticed the purple shadows under his eyes. "You can go to bed if you want," I told him.

He shook his head. "No, I want to be here." I didn't need to ask his reasoning; we were, after all, the godparents.

So we sat and waited. At 2:34 in the morning on January 28, Kile Travis Woodwork was born. We had to wait until Marlee was in recovery for us to see him but the moment Carter came out to tell us…well, I had never seen a happier person in my life.

I couldn't get to Marlee fast enough. I wanted to meet my godson. Marlee was in her bed in a new gown with her son snuggled up on her stomach. I smiled when I saw them and she smiled back at me despite the growing bags under her eyes. "Hey," she whispered. "Come meet Kile."

I approached her slowly, sitting down in the empty chair next to her bed and looking at the small bundle nestled against her breast. He was crying softly and she was doing her best to soothe him, her lips close to his head as she shushed him. I glanced up at Carter who was watching his wife and son closely, adoration and love being the only thing in his eyes.

Maxon who, after spending time with Astra as she grew up, had gotten over his fear of small babies, asked, "Can we touch him?"

Marlee laughed and sniffed, a few tears coming out of her eyes. "Sure."

I watched as my husband reached his hand out and just stroked a few fingers down the babe's back, marveling at how natural it looked for him to be doing that. We stayed with the Woodwork family for a while until Marlee finally succumbed to some much-needed sleep with the hopes of being able to feed Kile in the morning.

I followed Maxon up to our room just as the sun was rising outside the windows. The palace was still pretty empty with all of the workers not reporting in for the day yet. He sat down on our bed and removed his shoes slowly, letting out a tired sigh.

"You know, I read somewhere that Queen Elizabeth of England used to bless babies," I said to him matter-of-factly.

He looked confused. "Which one?"

I thought for a few seconds. "The first, I believe."

"What are you saying?" he asked as he walked to his closet and started stripping down. "That we should go around blessing babies? I think we have more important things to do here."

"I don't know." I collapsed on to the bed, happiness filling me with warmth. "You just made me think of that today with the way you were with Kile."

I could hear the smile in his voice as he answered, "I guess you could say I have baby fever." My happy cloud deflated a bit at that.

I definitely had baby fever as well but there was no way of knowing if I could actually have a baby. I wanted a baby, desperately. The truth was that I just wasn't ready to try again what with my lack of success the first time we tried. I wasn't ready to go through that disappointment again.

The mattress shifted beneath me as Maxon sat down at my side, rubbing a hand up and down my arm. "What are you thinking about?" he asked quietly.

I turned on to my side to face him. "I want a baby," I admitted, playing with his fingers.

"But…" he prompted, knowing it was coming.

"I'm a little discouraged," I finished, throwing the statement out there for him.

"Hmm," he sighed, appearing to think deeply about something. "Well, I say we give it another year of trying. If we still aren't successful after that…I suppose we talk to Dr. Ashlar." He paused. "This is painful for me as well, you know."

I frowned, unsure of what he was trying to say. "What do you mean?"

"You not getting pregnant. I know you're worried that there's something wrong with you but maybe there's something wrong with me. And if that's the case…I don't know. I'm king. If there's one thing I should be able to do, it's give an heir to the people."

I had never thought of it that way. Finally, I nodded. "Another year," I whispered, twisting his wedding band around on his finger.

He smiled. "I have a good feeling about this year."

It was strange seeing Marlee as a mother. She was my age and had a toddler attached to her hip at all times. She was worrying about what he was eating and making sure that all of the furniture was toddler-proof while I was worrying about what I would feed my husband on a weekly basis.

She had somehow surpassed me in life and I didn't know what to make of it. As if the stress of being queen wasn't enough, having her as a constant reminder of what I didn't have sometimes made me into a rather unpleasurable companion.

But Kile was my godson and I quickly became his second mother. If he wasn't with Marlee or Carter, he was with me. Maxon sometimes spent time with him but he didn't have the freedom to play with him as much as I did, a fact I knew bothered Maxon frequently.

With a fresh reminder of our goals in starting a family also came the reminder that we still had big plans for the country. In under three months time, Maxon had funneled money from the Selection fund and found partners in some big farming corporations to keep the food stations open in all provinces, not just in desolate provinces.

Eights were also slowly being absorbed into Sevens. We were receiving some backlash but we had been expecting that. The advisers warned us about it. The Sevens didn't like being compared to Eights but when Maxon presented his full plan, their complaints quieted down. When he told them that they would be raised to Sixes they didn't have much more to argue about.

With a country on the upswing, the next step would naturally be an heir. Naturally. Three months and no baby, I was okay. I knew that sometimes it did take some time for a woman's body to adjust to not being on contraception anymore. Then six months went by. Before we knew it, we were celebrating Kile's first birthday and I was still shopping for one baby.

"Maybe we're doing it wrong," Maxon suggested one night from my bed as I ranted about it loudly in our room. The staff had to know that we were having issues with as loud as I was about it sometimes.

I rolled my eyes from my bathroom where I was brushing my teeth. "I'm pretty sure there's only one way to do it and it's kind of hard to get it wrong." I put my toothbrush back and joined him in bed. "I just don't understand. Irresponsible teenagers manage to make a baby in one night. We've been at this for a year." I sighed. "I guess you're not getting a baby by your twenty-second birthday after all."

He frowned. "How'd you know that?"

"You fell asleep with your journal open one night. I saw your five-year plan," I explained, not ashamed for reading his journal.

I went on to plan his party, wanting to make it bigger than the year before. I was well aware of Marlee's eyes watching me sharply and carefully as if I was a ticking time bomb which I guess I was in a sense. My frustration was destined to burst at some point unless a miracle happened and I had never been a firm believer in miracles, despite my rather miraculous life story.

My frustration was deflated one morning in August though when the sight of strawberry tarts at breakfast made me want to throw up. Maxon wasn't there; he had an early morning meeting. It could have been me being paranoid or thinking wishfully but I couldn't stop the thought from forming. Maybe…just maybe…

The next morning I wanted a strawberry tart but I nearly threw it back up within an hour of eating it. This definitely wasn't wishful thinking anymore. My period was just a few days late and I woke up one morning sick as a dog. All of my other mornings I was fine with little nausea but that one morning was enough for me to go see Dr. Ashlar.

"Your Majesty, what can I do for you today?" he asked when I knocked on his office door.

My hands shook, prompting me to hold on to my belt tightly. "Um, I had a few questions for you."

He put his pencil down and turned to face me. "Ask away," he told me.

"So, I felt a little sick a few days ago. I was kind of hoping for a diagnosis." He turned back to his papers and pulled out a binder filled with what I presumed were my health records.

After flipping to a specific page he looked at me. "Are you expecting your monthly cycle soon?"

I took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. "That's the thing. I haven't gotten it yet. I was supposed to get it a few days ago. And, well, you know I'm never late."

I didn't miss the corner of his mouth turning up as he made the connection. "Come with me." He led me to a small examination room and instructed me to sit down on the bed as he prepared what I presumed was an ultrasound machine. "Where's your husband?" he asked conversationally as the computer loaded up.

"Oh, I haven't told him any of this. If this is all true, I want to surprise him."

He chuckled. "And surprised he will be." He wheeled the computer dock over close to the bed and instructed me to roll up my shirt. At least I had worn a shirt today. I still blushed though, especially when he started rubbing a cool gel on my lower stomach. It was still flat with my hip bones jutting out on the sides which made all of this even more surreal. "So we can't do an ultrasound; it would be too early, I think. Once we've confirmed that there's definitely someone in there we can run some more tests to figure out the time of conception and calculate your due date."

"Okay," I squeaked out, staring up at the ceiling. The scratchy blanket on the bed was balled up in my fists as I waited for what a part of me knew, deep down, I was about to hear.

And there it was, filling the room. My baby's heartbeat. My child. This life that I had created with Maxon. A few tears fell out of my eyes as I looked over at Dr. Ashlar.

He coughed out a laugh but then just laughed in earnest. "Well, let me be the first to say, congratulations. I think we have an heir on the way."

I laughed and nodded, covering my eyes with my hands. Relief flooded through me. We had done it. We had actually made a baby. "I can't believe it," I whispered out. I looked up at Dr. Ashlar. "Why now? It's been two years."

Dr. Ashlar shook his head. "Sometimes it takes a while. But that's a nonissue now. You are having a baby."

I felt like bouncing through the hallways, screaming out my news. Instead, I knew that we had to wait to say anything. After the initial twelve weeks we could tell everyone. I just needed to find a time to tell Maxon.

When I met him for lunch that day he was in a somewhat frustrated mood and it killed me to not tell him but I wanted to wait for the perfect time. He sat and ranted for a while about the advisers and finally reclined back in his chair. "You look particularly radiant today. Anything I should know?" he asked, watching me carefully.

My heart seized. He already knew. No, that was impossible. If he knew already he would be bouncing off the walls with me. I just shook my head at him. "Sorry you've been having a bad day," I told him, reaching across the table for his hand.

He shrugged. "It happens."

"You can't have the good without the bad," I told him.

"Where's that from?" He smiled at me, making me want to melt into my chair.

I frowned. "My dad said it. I completely forgot about it until just now."

He nodded and rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand. "Well, then let's hope that there's good on the way."

Yes, Maxon, there is indeed good on the way. Behind the table, I put a hand on my stomach where my baby was. We'll tell your daddy soon, baby. Just hold on a few days.

Like i said, i think you guys would like chapter. i thought it was finally time for you all to get what you've been asking for since the first chapter! i know, there was a pretty big time jump in there but i didn't feel like waiting anymore. and i'm super excited because i am going home next weekend! yay! i mean, don't get me wrong, i love college but i really miss my dogs. and being fed food i don't have to pay for in one way or another. haha. anyway, review replies:

Weatherbug02: how about this chapter?

dolly123: is this your first time reviewing? i didn't recognize your name. if it is, welcome to the club! if not...well this is awk. thanks for reviewing!

winterprincess: i've been trying to figure out how to answer this question for the past few days (since i saw your review). i still don't really have an answer for you. all i can really tell you is no. their relationship is not just about sex. i just write about snippets of their life. so they all somehow include physical intimacy. they do not have sex every night. first of all, that'd just be exhausting for both of them because they lead such busy lives. second of all, i did mention in the last chapter that Maxon sometimes has to travel and is away so obviously they can't do it then. now, that's not to say that they don't have sex more than the average couple. i think they do. i just the vibe from them that they have a very physical relationship. hope that kind of cleared that up.

Someone the World Forgot: right! i've been saying that and no one has really caught on to it! i put one in an email to one of my old teachers a few days ago but ended up deleting it because i was too creeped out by it.

Theoneforever: sometimes these two are such lovebirds i want to barf but other times it's really sweet, right? thanks for the review!

until next chapter!