"Good mornin'."

Lindsay smiled and opened her eyes a little, finding Adam leaning over her.

"Hey."

He stooped down and kissed her gently then settled back against the pillows, drawing her into his arms in the early morning light.

"Well we survived year one. Thoughts?"

She let her breath out slowly and watched the blue of dawn as it filtered through the windows, her mind racing back over the last twelve months. The tears, the laughter, the struggles and the triumphs. She couldn't help the lump that rose in her throat as she remembered the first time she saw her son. How tiny and frail he had been, and how big and healthy and growing he was now. She thought about how scared she had been then, even though she hadn't really confronted that in the wake of all the joy and hope of those early days. She thought about the depression and how she'd ripped it away from herself shedding the skin she had worn for so long and being only who she truly was. She thought about how far she and Adam had come together, how much stronger they were.

"Overwhelmed," she said finally. "I couldn't have done this alone. Not with anyone but you."

"Right back at you," he said, tracing his finger over her face. "You know Linds, I am so proud of you. Everything that's happened this year and just the day to day of being a mom and a wife and working and holding it all together. I am so proud of you babe."

"Thank you. And I'm proud of you too. As much as you say I've held everything together, you have been the one to carry me. Every single day, Adam, you're the keeper of every strength I have. I lean on you so much and I couldn't get through a day or even an hour without knowing that you're on my side."

"And that's where I'm always gonna be."

She smiled and kissed him, running her hand down his chest and around his back to hold him close.

"What do you think babe, should we go wake up the birthday boy?"

"Yeah, let's go."

He pulled her up from the bed and they went into Colton's room to find him still sleeping peacefully. Both arms were raised over his head and his cheeks looked especially chubby and for a moment they just stood there at his crib watching him sleep. He was every good bit of both of them, his very existence a result their love for each other, the most beautiful manifestation of it that either one of them could have imagined.

"I can't believe we made that," Adam said, holding her from behind and kissing her shoulder.

"It's an act of God that we had anything to do with it and he's this perfect."

They watched him for a while longer before Lindsay leaned down into the crib and gently brushed her hand over Colton's face. He sighed sleepily and opened his eyes, smiling up at them widely and lifting his arms to be picked up. Lindsay obliged holding him tight and kissing his cheeks.

"Do you know that today's your birthday buddy?" Adam asked as he held them both. "You're a whole year old today. Do you feel like a man?"

Colton giggled at the attention and sleepily buried his face in Lindsay's hair.

"Should we have some breakfast dude? You can have a banana."

"Baw!"

"Yeah, banana!"

They went into the kitchen and Adam turned on a light while Lindsay settled Colton in his high chair.

"So hon, are you sure you're okay with no party?"

"Yeah. He won't remember that we didn't have one, and it's a lot of work that I just didn't have time for, and I think it will be better just the three of us."

"Sounds good to me. Of course I still think we should let him do a cake smash."

"I ordered a little one at the bakery. We can pick it up later."

"Do you think it'll be too cold to go out today? We can bundle him up and go for a walk. He loves that, sitting in the stroller, waving to his constituents."

"Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist?"

"I think he inherited our shared love for people watching."

"As long as he doesn't spend a lot of lonely days on a park bench."

"I'll make sure. So what do you think?"

"If we bundle him really good a walk would be nice. Maybe after lunch?"

"Perfect," he said, finishing cutting up the banana and putting the pieces on Colton's tray. "Can you say thank you, bud?"

"Dada."

"Well I appreciate the sentiment. Babe, you want breakfast?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go shower first though."

"Oh I see what you're doing there."

"What?" she chuckled, raking a hand through her hair and yawning.

"See I was just going to do oatmeal or something but you said you're going to take a shower, which means I have time to make a real breakfast. And now I don't have an excuse not to."

"Well, it is one of the things you do best."

"Maybe so."

"You don't have to make breakfast honey, but I do need to jump in the shower."

"Scrambled, fried, poached?"

"Whatever you want. I'll be back."

She made her way into the bathroom and Adam turned the stove on to warm the frying pan.

"Hey little dude," he said, sitting down at the table next his son. "I need you to be straight with me here. Am I doing an okay job at this dad thing?"

"Bah," Colton said, offering him a piece of banana.

"Is that a yes? Cuz sometimes man, I don't think I'm quite good enough. That's not your fault though. Except the part where you're this perfect kid and I'm scared to death of screwing it all up somehow. Mama thinks I'm being silly. She says I'll never screw up. You think she's right?"

"Mama!"

"You sure love your mama, don't you? I totally know where you're coming from. She's the best mama in the whole world, isn't she? We got to remember to keep telling her that, okay?"

Colton nodded, his automatic response to "okay." He didn't seem to mind how many things he had agreed to in the last few months.

"Hey, if you don't tell mama, I'll let you have a spoonful of Nutella with your banana."

"Wow buddy, look at all the presents you've got," Lindsay said, while Colton shyly surveyed the brightly colored packages. "You're getting spoiled."

"Dat?"

"You want to open that one?" Adam asked, pushing to towards him. "Looks like it's from Auntie Taylor."

Lindsay helped him rip the paper off and he stared at it for a while before shoving it in his mouth with a smile.

"Well at least he's enjoying it," Lindsay commented, opening the cardboard box.

"Dude look, it's a sock monkey!"

Colton looked at the toy for a second before diving on it with a giggle.

"Mo?"

"Monkey."

"Mo!" he hollered, holding the monkey close.

"Well that was a success," Lindsay chuckled. "Should we open another one?"

They spent the next little while opening presents, finding mostly clothes from the grandparents which were very needed as he was hitting a growth spurt. Adam had been in charge of presents from mama and daddy, so Colton ended up with Baby's First Spaceship Robot, and Baby's First mp3 Player and a few other geeky toys that only a child of his would appreciate.

Colton liked the sock monkey the best though and sat there cuddling on the floor with it while Adam and Lindsay cleaned up the wrapping paper and boxes.

"We could go for that walk now," she said, checking out the window to make sure it wasn't snowing. "I bet he falls asleep halfway though."

"That's alright. Just means I can have some one on one time with his mama when we get back."

"You mean we can finally finish that game of Scrabble?"

"You're goin' down, Ross."

"No, Ross, I do believe you are."

She grinned and picked Colton up off the floor and headed into the bedroom to get his coat and gloves while the phone rang.

"Want to go outside for a while? Maybe daddy will buy us some hot chocolate. Think we can talk him into it?"

"Doo!"

"I think you're exactly right."

"Hey honey?"

"Hey yeah?"

"That was Mac on the phone. He wants us to come down to the lab. I guess a couple reports got misplaced and he needs us to verify the duplicates before he can put them in the files."

"Do we have to do it today?"

"He's got people breathing down his neck."

"Alright."

"I'm sorry hon, I know you wanted-"

"Nah, it's not a big deal. We'll go and be done in ten minutes."

"Okay."

"At least we're getting outta the house, right little man?"

"Out!" he shouted plainly, pointing at the door.

"That's right. We'll go drop in on Mac and you can drool on his tie."

"Hey guys, I'm sorry you had to come in on your day off," Mac said, handing them each a manila folder full of papers.

"No big deal, Boss," Adam said, taking his pen and signing the first page. "Do we know what happened to the originals?"

"There was apparently an unfortunate coffee incident somewhere in the vicinity of Stella's desk. Luckily everything had been logged into the computer, but we still need hard copies," he explained as Colton crawled over to that side of the desk.

"Hey Colton. Sorry I had to interrupt your birthday. Are you at least going to get some cake later?"

He grinned and grabbed Mac's chair, pulling himself up to stand.

"What are you guys feeding this kid? I think he's grown two inches since Thanksgiving."

"Yeah, we're thinking of having him studied."

"Hey guys," Stella greeted as she walked past. "Are you going to be here for a while?"

"Just a few more minutes. Why?"

"I've got a birthday present with someone's name on it."

"Stella."

"What? I can't just go shopping for myself all the time. I just finished wrapping it, it's in the break room when you're done in here."

"Okay, we'll be in in a minute."

They continued to sign off on the various reports while Mac clucked his tongue at Colton, who gave him a smile, even though he was a little too old to be amused by such antics.

"Ready to go buddy?" Adam asked, leaning down and picking Colton up.

"Out?"

"Yeah, but we'll make one quick stop first."

"Mama?"

"No, I think we'll leave her here."

"Mama!"

"Okay, okay, we can take her home with us."

Colton gave him a look and reached out for Lindsay, who took him and shot Adam a smirk.

"Looks like he knows who calls the shots," Mac chuckled.

"He's in for a rude awakening."

Lindsay rolled her eyes and they made their way down the hall to the breakroom.

"Hey, there's the birthday boy!"

"What are you guys doing here?" Lindsay asked as everyone sat around the tables, seemingly waiting for them.

"You said you weren't going to throw a big party, but we didn't think that was very fair. Well, for us at least," Stella explained.

"We thought that we'd take matters into our own hands," Austin added. "So we got cupcakes and ice-cream and a little Jack McManus for the dude who is a die hard Bang On This Piano fan."

"Are you serious?"

"Of course! I know you said you wanted to just have a family day but… screw that!"

"Adam, did you know about this?"

"I might have heard some rumblings a few weeks ago, but nothing definite."

"Are you okay with this Linds?"

"Yes, of course I'm okay."

"Good, then let's party!"

Hawkes turned the stereo on and Colton squealed in delight at the intro to his favorite song.

"Baby can you headbang?" Lindsay asked. Colton nodded his head vigorously, the closest he could come to headbanging anyway.

"You guys have the coolest kid on the planet."

"Just wait, he can almost play air guitar on command."

"Someone has been spending too much time with his dad and iTunes."

"I'm pretty sure Colton's first sentence is going to be "don't stop believing." We're so in for it."

"At least he's got good taste. Poor Isa's going to grow up liking Metallica," Flack said.

"Flack, you like The Offspring!" Austin shot back, her hand on her hip.

"And?"

"This fight is so old it's growing ear hair. Which is fitting since The Offspring is too."

"I wish I had hairy ears so I wouldn't have to listen to Metallica!"

"Well…"

"Shut up."

"You guys are ridiculous."

"We're stuck in a rut. Hey who wants cupcakes?"

Within a few minutes they were all gathered around the tables eating huge cupcakes with sprinkles on them. Colton had stared at his for a long time before taking a tentative bite. He was now mostly massaging it and taking an occasional taste of frosting.

"Do you see the death glare Isa's giving him?"

"She's like "Gimme some dang cake you jerk!""

"Colton can you share with Isa?"

He glanced over at Isa and shook his hand free of some of the cupcake. It landed in front of her and she grabbed at it, shoving it in her mouth as if it was the first real food she had ever seen. Which, besides baby food, it kind of was. Colton chuckled and took her cue, devouring what was on his hand and managing to "share" more with Isa in the process. Soon they were both quite covered in frosting and finding themselves very amused. It didn't take long before they were reaching over and stealing frosting from each other's faces to eat.

"I think it's time to clean up," Austin chuckled, noticing how much dessert was actually in her daughter's hair.

"We need to let them eat like this more often," Lindsay said, lifting Colton off the chair and taking him over to the sink. "I'm pretty surprised that the both managed to keep most of it off their clothes."

"Our children are all sorts of talented."

"Hey Aust?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for this."

"It was fun. Besides, this day is as much about you as it is about him."

"Maybe a little."

"Happy mama anniversary."

"Thanks."

The rocking chair creaked comfortably under their weight, a metronome of familiarity in the dark of night. They were quiet, staring at each other in these moments that were just theirs. She leaned down and kissed his forehead and he sighed, playing with her fingers as his eyelids dropped further and further. She looked at him for a while, noticing how his legs hung off her lap now, such a contrast to how he had fit completely in her arms just a year ago.

A small tear escaped her eye as the reality of all this hit her. One full year of her life was saturated with him. Twelve months where he had been her first thought, her last thought, and most of the thoughts in the middle. Fifty-two weeks of giggles and cuddles, new discoveries and cherishing moments. Three hundred sixty-five days of learning love all over again and knowing that nothing would ever be like this again.

Her heart clenched for the millionth time as she looked at him, running her finger over his face, loving him so much more every second that she could barely stand it. He sighed one last time and closed his eyes in blissful sleep. It pained her that their days of nursing were coming to an end, as he was pretty much disinterested except right before bedtime. He was growing up though, and it was time for them both to wean from that bond. It was okay, they would create more, when she read him a book before bed, or when her efforts finally paid off and he could read to her.

She touched his curls, noting once again that he needed his first haircut, but it would have to wait just a little while longer. She adjusted them in the rocking chair, pulling the blanket closer around them and closing her eyes, breathing in this moment, the last time he was a baby and not a toddler, the last time she could count his age in months. She rested her cheek on top of his head and catalogued every single feeling she'd had today. The joy of watching him grow far outweighed the melancholy of leaving babyhood behind, and she found herself anticipating the next year so much that her heart started to beat a little faster.

"You ready to put him down?" Adam asked from the doorway. She nodded and he crossed the room, pulling her up from the chair and into his arms. They stood there for a while, just the three of them, one unit together in the wake of the world. After a while, Adam leaned down and kissed Colton's cheek and Lindsay gently moved him to the crib. They made sure he was covered and warm, then slipped from the dark room and into the hallway.

"Adam."

She slid her arms around him and sighed letting a few more tears fall.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. It's just kind of scary, you know. We have to teach him how to live in this big bad world. He's going to see horrible things. His heart is going to break and he's going to go through trials and I look at him now and I don't want him to have to do any of that. But at the same time he needs to, you know? He needs to find his own strength and learn how to deal and become a man. I just don't want to have to see him hurting. And I don't know if I will ever be able to teach him well enough, so he comes out of those things better instead of scarred and bitter."

"Do you remember that first night in the NICU, when we held him and we just looked at him for so long. Do you remember the things we said we wanted to teach him? Above all else, the three things he needed to learn?"

"To love people, to be a giver, and to do his best in everything."

"Those three things honey and he's going to be just fine. Yeah, his heart might break and he might have bad days, but in the end he's going to have those values and he's going to have us, and he's going to be okay."

"You talk good," she said with a sniffle.

"Well."

She chuckled and leaned up to kiss him.

"Thank you for hearing me. And reminding me. And holding my hand every day."

"And kissing you goodnight?"

"Especially that."

"Thank you for being the best mama in the whole world and Mars and Alpha Centuri."

"Thank you for being the best daddy in the whole world and Mars and Alpha Centuri and the Milky Way."

"And Andromeda."

"I should have paid more attention in the one astronomy class I ever took."

"What, for moments when my nerd is showing?"

"Exactly for moments like that."

"Well, one year down."

"The rest of our lives to go."

"Can you handle it?"

"Yes I can."

"Crazy ride."

"I wouldn't change it."

"I love you, darlin'."

"I love you too. Let's go to bed."