What Is It?

"What is it?" Chief Detective William "The Duke" Wellington asked as he gazed down the object.

"It's so small," answered his childhood friend and fellow detective, Eliza Scarlet.

A moment passed and a noise made the two old friends jump.

"Pick it up, Eliza!" William exclaimed over the loud noise.

"No! You pick it up, William!" Eliza Scarlet protested.

Wellington looked around the room. It was gaily decorated with bright pastel paintings. Odd. The only way the room revealed its place in time was by the heavy wooden furniture.

William was tall. He was a bit over six feet with broad shoulders. He had beautifully coiffed dark hair with a great dark beard. When he spoke, his voice was deep with a definitive Scottish brogue which he knew was attractive to some ladies.

"I'm not picking it up, Eliza. What if I drop it? It might hurt it," he protested looking down at his childhood friend.

Petite, blonde, with big blue eyes and wearing a large dazzling smile, Eliza had dazzled him since her father had taken William under his wing at 19. Eliza had been16, then, and she still looked as inquisitive these many years later as she had been then.

"Don't be silly, William. No one could ever be hurt when they are in your arms," Eliza stated distinctly as she gazed up at him straightforwardly with no shyness.

He smirked at her remark. With silent but huffy manners and a roll to his eyes, he did as he was bid and picked the thing up.

"Boy, you sure are tiny," William said as he stood with the thing in his arms slightly rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. He stared and made faces at it.

"Well, I'm sure when you were two days old you weren't much bigger," Eliza answered back. If he could have taken his eyes away from the item he beheld he would have bathed in the bright light from Eliza's smile.

"It looks like you," Eliza suddenly said startling William.

"It sounds like you," William teased back loudly trying to make himself heard over the horrid noises as the item in his arms cried. He caught the light of her smile as he glanced back at her.

"Shh…" William soothed. Suddenly engulfed with the freight he carried in his arms; William made his way to a chair across from the bed in the room.

"Oh, I didn't hear you come in Detective," the housekeeper said as she crept into the bedroom to tidy up.

"Now I can do that as she watched Eliza move away from the bed and begin to pick things up.

"Nonsense, Ivy. I have been in that bed for two days. I need exercise not more of the same lying there."

Ivy caught Eliza's eye and together they stopped their work and looked over at William engulfed and softly talking to the object in his arms. They both gave a silent giggle.

"I have never seen the Detective so captivated unless he was investigating," said Ivy as she took guided Eliza to the chair near the bed.

"You're right Eliza. He does look like me," William said as he momentarily glanced at the woman sitting across from him.

"Considering he's your son, I should say he does," Eliza said as she rose carefully from the chair where Ivy coerced her to sit.

"Eliza! Two days after having a baby you need to get back in this bed!"

"Listen to Ivy, Eliza, she's the closest thing to your mother being here. I don't need to go to work and worry that you're off on a case two days after giving birth," William admonished though his eyes were fixated to his little baby son in his arms.

Eliza walked across the room and leaned against side of the winged chair where her husband sat holding and gazing on their two-day old son.

William looked up at his very disobedient wife and smiled. He reached up and she bent down and kissed him.

"So, do you like him?" William asked. He knew she had gone through hell to give birth to him. In labor for almost 24 hours until the little dark-haired boy made his noisy entrance into the world. William was on a case wherein his wife had the audacity to accompany him at nine months' pregnant. No wonder she had gone into labor!

"Yes, William, I do. Although trying to give birth to him I was having second thoughts about you and your part in this whole thing!" Although Eliza joked to William she was thrilled about their son. Surprisingly, it was the best case they had ever worked on together.

"So, what do we do now?"

William handed the baby to his mother who kissed him and then handed him to Ivy as she put him back in his cradle next to the bed. He then put his arm around his wife and coerced her back into bed.

"No…William…can't you stay here with me, and we'll can talk about the evidence I found?"

"You found?"

"Yes, I found. You totally missed it."

William rolled his eyes and nodded silently acknowledging that she did, in fact, find the piece of corroborating evidence needed to solve the case. However, he was not going to stand here and out loud acknowledge that she solved the case. Not when she had only given birth about 36 hours ago.

"Eliza, get in that bed. No, you need not concern yourself with the case. I have it under control."

"But you said you were glad I was there and that you didn't mind.."

"That was until you went into labor. I thought you were going to give birth to our child right there in that old warehouse."

"But William…" Eliza protested.

He sat down on the bed next to her as she did as she was bid and lay down. She turned on her side to gaze at their son sleeping peacefully in his cot. Her eyes caught William as he also gazed down at the little miracle lying there.

Things became quiet after the momentary disagreement between husband and wife. Ivy had slipped out of the room once she had laid the baby in his cradle.

"He is really ours. Imagine that. Me, a father," William realized softly in a tone that only his wife could hear.

"He is the most beautiful baby, isn't he?" Eliza said.

William looked down at his wife's long blonde hair unpinned and laying in beautiful curls adorning her shoulders. He was filled with so much intense love for her that he kissed the top of her head and laid his on head on top of hers. He had placed his arm around her shoulders and squeezed pulling her closer to his chest. He smiled as her hand came across and clasped his.

Eliza suddenly yawned.

"You're right, my love, I need to sleep. He'll be up soon enough for a feeding."

Before lying down as William raised himself from the bed pulling the blankets over her, he kissed her forehead as he looked into her big blue eyes.

"That's my girl. Can I count on you really getting some rest? I won't find you in the study rooting through the library or worse sneaked out the door to your office?" He asked.

Eliza placed her hand against his cheek and asked, "Are you happy?"

William smiled and thought before he spoke.

"Yes. I am the happiest man in the world. Now sleep."

William kissed her lips and then her forehead as he held her hand.

She had slipped into slumber before William could finish speaking.