AN: Hello readers! Here's another chapter!

"Oh, oh, be careful Julie!" Elizabeth gasped and waved a napkin over the steaming pot of noodles on the stove. It had almost boiled over, and it might have, had Elizabeth not noticed just then.

"Oh! I'm just no good at this!" Julie groaned. Elizabeth patted her sister's shoulder.

"No, no, Julie, you just need practice." Elizabeth assured her.. "When I first started cooking, I couldn't even really figure out how to boil water."

"But I'm supposed to be able to do this! I'm supposed to be able to take care of my husband, and my baby, but I can't even boil water correctly!" Julie cried, and put her face in her hands.

"Julie, it'll be alright. You'll be here another week, we can make great progress in that time!" Elizabeth insisted. Julie nodded slowly, took a steadying breath, and stirred the pot of noodles.

"Ohh! They're sticking again!" She groaned.

"Don't worry about it Julie. We can fix it yet." Elizabeth assured her and reached for the spoon but stopped all together when she felt a strange sensation in her stomach. "Ha- ho, woah!" Was all she could manage to stammer like a mad woman. In the past few days she had thought she might have felt the fluttering described in her book, but now she was sure about it.

"Hello Elizabeth?" Julie asked. Elizabeth snapped to attention, now grinning ear to ear. "What's going on?"

"The baby moved!" Elizabeth laughed, and instantly Julie's hands were on her stomach. "Oh, you won't be able to feel it yet, Julie! It's just like there are...little bubbles."

"Aw! That's so exciting! I can't wait until that happens to me." Julie sighed. "My baby hasn't done anything yet."

"Well, it's still small Julie. You're a little behind- woah!" Elizabeth giggled, and put her hand on her stomach again. "I never thought it would be so...incredible!"

"I want to feel it!" Julie groaned. Elizabeth didn't hear her, she was too wrapped up in the feel of fluttering in her womb. The moment was so incredible that Elizabeth felt tears in the corners of her eyes. She had known all along that she loved this baby, Jack's baby, but she was overwhelmed by the emotions that swirled in her now. She sunk slowly into a chair, and reveled in the feeling of fluttering inside of her belly. "Elizabeth? When will Jack and Tom be home?" Julie asked, waving the spoon in front of her sister's eyes.

"Hm? Oh, yes, um...Any minute now." Elizabeth said, stroking her hand over her belly. "Did you fix those noodles?"

"Define fix?" Julie asked, and showed Elizabeth the now drained clumpy noodles.

"Well, that'll be fine Julie. We can try mixing in just a little oil. And then when we put the sauce and the meatballs on it, it'll be perfect." Elizabeth assured her, and took the bottle of oil from the shelf above the stove. "Not too bad for your first attempt on spaghetti with meatballs."

"Yours was better." Julie pouted.

"But I've been practicing my cooking for months." Elizabeth insisted.

"So have I!"

"Yes, well, I had Abigail Stanton as my teacher. It's impossible not to learn from her." Elizabeth said with a smile. Julie sighed, but nodded, and got back to fixing the noodles. That was when they heard the door open. "Jack?!" She called straight away, and ran towards the door.

"Elizabeth? Hey, is everything alright?" Jack asked as she rushed into his arms.

"Jack, Jack, everything is wonderful!" Elizabeth laughed, and kissed him.

"Where's Julie?" Tom asked as he put his coat on the peg.

"Tom! I"m in the kitchen!" Julie called. Tom smiled, nodded to his sister in law, and went on back. Elizabeth laughed again, and kissed Jack square on the mouth.

"Now, I don't object to this, by any means, But what has gotten into you?" Jack asked.

"Jack, something wonderful happened just a few minutes ago! I felt the baby move!" Elizabeth squealed, and Jack's hands flew to her stomach. "You won't be able to feel it yet, But it is moving in there. I can feel it. It's like little flutters, like a hummingbird's wings."

"Our baby." Jack sighed, his hand roaming over her stomach slowly as he spoke. "I can't believe we made a baby."

"It's not unbelieveable Jack, all things considered." Elizabeth blushed, and Jack kissed her again. She pulled away when she felt the fluttering again. "Mmph! There it is again! She's moving!"

"She?" Jack asked.

"Or he." Elizabeth corrected herself quickly.

"You think it's a girl?" Jack asked, his large hand moving to cover almost her entire belly.

"Oh, I don't know. I mean, there's no way to know Jack. But something tells me that it's a girl." Elizabeth smiled and bit her lip. "Call it mother's intuition."

"It might be a girl. Of course, it could also be a boy." Jack said.

"Oh, thank you for stating the obvious." Elizabeth laughed. "What? Do you think it's ridiculous?"

"No. Not at all. We should never disregard a mother's intuition." Jack assured her and ran his hand through her hair. She leaned in to kiss him, but stopped when she heard a loud clatter from the kitchen.

"Elizabeth? I don't think we can eat this now!" Julie called from the kitchen.

"What did you do?" Elizabeth sighed. She left Jack to get out of his red serge and his boots, and went to the kitchen. "Oh my goodness!" She gasped- there was sauce, just everywhere. Noodles spilled on the stove top. "What did you do?"

"I don't know what went wrong!" Julie cried.

"Hey, baby, Julie, it's alright." Tom insisted and ran a hand over her hair, which had a good deal of sauce it.

"You know what, it's fine. I don't care what happened. It's fine. Just clean it up, please?" Elizabeth sighed, and then let out a light laugh. "Jack and I are going to take a walk, and we'll probably go to the cafe for dinner. When you're finished, you can join us."

"Of course." Tom nodded to her. He put an arm around Julie's waist, and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"I'm so, so sorry Beth! We'll get this cleaned up ASAP!" Julie assured her. She ran her hand over her face, and turned towards the stove.

"It's okay Julie. Sometimes messes happen. I know I make my fair share of messes when I cook. I had a similar incident with a pot of chicken and dumplings a month or two ago." Elizabeth laughed at the memory. "We'll see you in a little while." She walked out of the kitchen, and found that Jack already was wearing his coat and shoes. "You overheard?"

"I did. Let's go." Jack said as he held up her coat for her. She slid her arms into it, and went to try to pull it closed but found it was a bit tight, so she left it open. She pouted at Jack, and he kissed her. "Come on, Abigail is making chicken fried steak at the cafe tonight."

"Mmm. Sounds heavenly." Elizabeth sighed. She took his outstretched hand, and they walked out together. Almost as soon as they had shut the door behind them, Elizabeth spoke again. "Have you thought about names for the baby?"

"Have you?"

"I have." Elizabeth nodded. "But the question was have you?"

"I have."

"Well, tell me what they are." Elizabeth requested.

"Why don't you tell me yours?"

"You know, this is something we have to talk about right? There's a little person in here that needs a name." She laughed and patted the slight swell of her belly. "How about this. We each say a name we like, just one after the other, no commentary, no vetoes allowed."

"Alright. You go first." Jack said. Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Alright. Josephine."

"Francis."

"Pauline."

"Arthur."

"Elsie."

"Henry."

"Alice."

"Edward."

"Lilly- I think I've detected a pattern here." Elizabeth said.

"William. And what's that?"

"Have you noticed that I've said nothing but girls names, and you've said nothing but boys names!" Elizabeth laughed.

"Huh. I guess so." Jack said.

"You want it to be a boy, don't you?" Elizabeth gasped, and squeezed his hand almost painfully tight.

"I never said that."

"Then why didn't you pick any girls names?"

"You didn't pick any boys names!"

"But you know that I think it's a girl! Are you going to be disappointed if it isn't a boy?" Elizabeth asked, and stopped walking.

"What? Elizabeth, that's crazy talk!" He insisted. He moved so that they were standing across from one another, and lifted the hand that wasn't joined with hers to cradle her cheek. "How could I ever be disappointed by our baby?...Do you know what I really want it to be?"

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

"Like it's mother." Jack said, and Elizabeth felt her knees grow weak. She half smiled, and stood on her toes to kiss him.

"But you want a boy, don't you?" She asked after they'd resumed walking.

"Someday, sure. But there's a lot of time for that." Jack shrugged.

"But if this baby is a girl-"

"Elizabeth, I'd be thrilled to have a daughter. I'd be thrilled to have a son. Either way, I'm going to be the proudest father there ever was." Jack insisted.

"I think you'll be the greatest father there ever was." Elizabeth said gently. Then a thought struck her and she gasped. "I didn't write to my family! They don't know!"

"We've only known for a short time."

"Almost two weeks now! Jack! I can't believe I forgot to write them!" Elizabeth groaned. "I'm a terrible daughter."

"You've been busy! You've been teaching, entertaining company, and when you haven't been doing either of those things, You've been sleeping." Jack said softly, and he kissed her hair. "Write them a letter tonight. I'll make sure it gets out on the first stage tomorrow."

"Alright." Elizabeth nodded. "I'm sorry Jack. I know I've been a bit...emotionally unstable lately."

"You? Never." Jack said. Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him. "I like Lilly. But I like Elsie and Alice too."

"And I like Edward. And Arthur. And Jack?" Elizabeth suggested.

"What?"

"No, I meant I like the name Jack. I think if it's a boy, we should consider naming him Jack." Elizabeth said.

"Elizabeth, I don't think-"

"Why not?"

"We don't need to name a son after me."

"No, we don't need to. But I like it."

"Would you want to name a daughter Elizabeth?" Elizabeth thought about it, and her lips puckered as she thought.

"If we could call her Eliza for short."

"Elizabeth-"

"Just think about it." Jack gave her a dubious look, and Elizabeth gave him a sly smile. "And you've got to be considerate of my wishes because I'm carrying your child."

"Are you going to be playing that card for the next six months?" Jack asked. Elizabeth smiled.

"Can you blame me?"

"No." Jack sighed.

"Good. Because it is a lot of hard work." Elizabeth laughed. "But it's worth it. So worth it." Jack smiled and pressed a kiss to her temple.

An: sorry it's been so long since I last updated- I've been busy! But I'll try to have new chapters posted soon! There were some names kicked around in this chapter, did you like them? Have any recommendations?