1.23

"I was wondering when you were going to come home."
Ty froze on the porch steps. He had been lost in thought and hadn't even realized that Kaylee was on the porch. Climbing the rest of the way up the stairs he cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"We need to talk," he said as he stood a distance away from her. He noticed that her hands tightened until her knuckles were white. She refused to meet his eyes and instead stared off into space.
"I know," she whispered.
Taking a step closer he blew out a breath. "What you did was foolish and not only put yourself in danger but our unborn child. What would you have done if Hannah or Winston had found you? Karrick tells me that Hannah is a master in several martial arts skills. It may not look like it but she's dangerous. And Winston? That man is out of his fucking mind to begin with and add on his hatred of you because you're in the position he wants?"
Ty took another step toward her. "But that's not the worse thing. I wouldn't have known where you were. What had happened to you. I would have been left floundering, relaying on a man who doesn't give a shit about you, to try and find my wife. My wife! Jesus Kaylee, would you look at me?"
Her head whipped around. "What do you want me to say Ty? I made a mistake? That I had an error in judgement? That I obviously wasn't thinking right? Because I can say all those things but-"
"No, that's not what I want. What I want is for you to realize that you have people depending on you Kaylee. You are not indispensable. Do you think Gabe could handle losing someone that he loves yet again? Do you think that I can lose someone that I love and be totally okay? I don't think you realize that I would snap Hunter's fucking neck and destroy Hannah and Winston without blinking an eye if anything happened to you. Christ, it makes me physically ill to even think about losing you."
"Ty, I was trying to protect my family. To protect you and Gabe."
"Kaylee, I'm going to say this once and one time only. I don't care how macho this sounds or how much it offends you but I will take care of you. It's my right as a man and a husband to protect you. What kind of man would I be if I let my wife take unnecessary risks and be okay with it?"
Ty could feel himself getting worked up again. Taking a deep breath he took the final step toward Kaylee. Reaching down he pulled her up. "Come on, I have something I want you to see. This wasn't how I planned it but..."
His voice trailed off as he tugged her along after him.

"When did you get this car?" Kaylee asked as she shut the door behind her.
"I traded my truck in this morning for this. It's more family friendly," he said as he rounded the hood. He came to a stop beside her as she looked around them.
"Why are we here?"
She eyed Ty as he shuffled his feet back and forth then he shrugged sheepishly. "Look, I know how much you loved the old house and I know I said we would make memories in the new house but..."
He puffed out his cheeks. "Look, this house just got on the market. A realtor called me a few days ago and wanted to know if we were still looking for a house. When I told him no he suggested that we come out here and take a look at it just to make sure. I figured that he was just trying to make a sales pitch so I did a quick drive by when I had an afternoon free. This is it Kaylee. This," he said with a wave of his hand, "This is home."

"What?" Kaylee was confused for a moment and then comprehension dawned. Gaping at Ty she looked from him to the house and back again. A startled sob broke free and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Swallowing, eyes brimming with tears, she took a step closer to a horrified looking Ty.
"This is our house? What about the house we just brought?"
Ty hesitantly took her hand. "Are these happy tears or sad tears?" he asked cautiously.
Giving a watery laugh she gripped his hand in hers before bringing it to her mouth and placing a kiss on his knuckles. "These are happy tears you idiot," she said before slipping into his arms. She felt the tension ease from his body.
"I am sorry that I worried you earlier," she whispered. "I promise I won't do it again...at least not intentionally."
Bending down he gave her red nose a small kiss. "And I promise that if you do I'll make your ass as red as your nose."
He laughed when she swatted at him. "As for the house we just brought we hadn't signed yet but I've given the realtor a sizable bonus for her troubles." They stood staring at the house for another minute before Ty bundled her back into the car headed to the doctor's office for their appointment.



Serenity Cove Hospital
"Are you sure you don't need any help getting up there? I can-" Ty reached out to help Kaylee but froze when she glared at him before settling back into the chair.
"I'm not that huge yet Ty," she exclaimed before straightening her shirt over her distended stomach.
"Of course you aren't," he said soothingly, holding up his hands. "I just thought I would try to help you up. Sometimes I have trouble getting up on the examining tables when the physicians want check me out. The paper you know? It's always so slippery and..."
His voice trailed off when Kaylee stared up at him with an unreadable expressions. Grinning sheepishly he looked around the room.

It was brightly lit and the walls weren't that sterile white or the nasty green that he had been expecting. Actually everything looked to be in working order. This was the first time that he'd been able to make it to one of Kaylee's doctor visits. It had completely slipped his mind with the move and all but then his phone had gone off while he was walking and thinking. Startled, he had looked down to see the alert telling him about the appointment. Even if he couldn't physically be there he did like to listen in to what the doctor had to say. He realized he was prowling around the room only when Kaylee instructed him to sit down. Grabbing a chair he lifted it up and set it down next to her.

"Ty! You can't move things around," she hissed shooting a look at the door.
"Why not?" he asked as he gave the doctor's stool a nudge with his foot to send it across the room before sitting down.
"Because everything is set up the way that they want it."
"Now it's set up the way I want it. So, this doctor seems pretty cool huh? I mean the few times you've allowed me to talk to him he's seemed pretty down to earth. Low key and all right? He doesn't make you uncomfortable or anything does he? Because if he does we can-"
"Ty...are you nervous?"
"Fuck yeah," he said with a laugh before scrubbing a hand over his face.
"Why?" she asked curiously peering over at him.
"I have no idea. I've always hated hospitals ya know? They make me uncomfortable." He rolled his shoulders and his fingers tapped the top of his thighs in a rapid tempo. His leg jiggled nervously.
"It'll be okay," she said soothingly reaching over and patting his arm. "Dr. Veszerk is very competent and he'll answer any questions you have. After all he's been doing this for a VERY long time."
"Right, right." Ty blew out a breath but shot out of his chair and was half way across the room when a knock sounded on the door.

"Kaylee, how nice to see-"
"Hey, Dr. Veszerk is it? How are you? How's everything going?"
Kaylee smothered a smile when Dr. V looked up from where Ty was enthusiastically shaking his hand to roll his eyes at her. Somehow he was finally able to pull his hand from Ty's grip.
"Mr. Jameson, it's a pleasure to finally met you in the flesh. Why don't you have a seat and you may ask me any questions you might have."
Inwardly Kaylee groaned. This was going to be a long visit.

"So," Dr. Veszerk said some fifteen minutes later. "A little caffeine never hurt anyone Ty."
"But the book said-"
Dr. V flapped his hand in the air. "The book never had to live with a pregnant, hormonal woman looking to get her chocolate fix on. Look, as long as Kaylee doesn't pig out on fatty or sugary foods I really don't see any problem. Trust me Ty, Kaylee will be fine as will the baby. Now," he said turning to Kaylee. "How have you been feeling?"
"Wonderful. I actually think I felt the baby kick yesterday but the books said that that wouldn't happen for a couple more months."
Once again he flapped his hand in the air. Out the corner of her eye Kaylee could see Ty frown.
"Look, those books are more like guidelines. What do you think women did centuries ago before all these helpful books come out? They played it by ear that's what they did and somehow the population grew."
"There were also women dying on tables and infections. Not mention the large amount of stillborn babies and-"
Kaylee and Doctor V shared a look as Ty went on a monologue about the woes of eighteen century pregnancy.

Twenty minutes later Doctor V and Ty were now engaged in a discussion over bed rest versus field labor. They had someone how veered off the beaten path, Kaylee thought as she listened to them shoot off statements left and right. She sighed and both men stopped talking to look down at her.
"Are you okay babe?" Ty asked instantly contrite. "Look Doctor V is a great doctor. He's going to do a wonderful job of taking care of you and the baby. Don't worry."
Kaylee stared at him in amazement. Hadn't she told him the same thing nearly an hour before? She was tempted to start thumping her head against the back of the chair when she glanced over at the doc to see him fighting back laughter. His red eyes gleamed and his mouth trembled before he cleared his throat.
"Alright, let's put this jelly your stomach and see what the baby is up to in there. Lift up your shirt for me Kaylee."
Kaylee did as instructed. She watched Ty as he watched everything the doctor was doing. The doctor put the instrument to her stomach and instantly they could hear the quick thumping of the baby's heart.
"Are you wanting to know the sex of the baby? I might be able to see what we're working with here if-"
Ty looked down at Kaylee and saw her gnawing on her lip. Grinning he shook his head. "That's okay Doc. We want to be surprised. Just let us know if everything is okay."
"Well, why don't you have a look for yourselves," he said as he wiped off Kaylee's stomach. Getting up he pressed a button on the machine and then turned it fully toward them.

"Look at our baby," Ty said before he reached out with a trembling hand and touched the screen. "Look at our baby," he whispered. He looked down and smiled in wonderment. "Can you believe that we created something so perfect? Look at its little head. Gosh," he whispered looking back at the screen.
Kaylee noticed the sheen of tears over his eyes and without a word slipped her hand into his.

While they had been at the doctor's Frances, Damon and Kava had moved all their things into their new beach house. The layout was pretty much the same since the same contractor that had built that house had built this one as well. The next morning Kaylee decided to head upstairs and unpack some of those boxes first.
She worked steadily for a few hours then decided that she was going to do one last box before calling it quits. Opening a box at random she froze when she looked down at the contents.
Laying on top of some old bottles of alcohol was a pink night gown. A baby nightgown. This was one of the old boxes she had been lugging around since she was eighteen. One of the boxes that Janet had left behind but one that Kaylee had never had the courage to throw away or look into. Taking a steadying breath she started to pull everything out of the box.

Before she knew it was she surrounded by odds and ends. Most of the things were baby items that brought back hazy memories. Especially the bumble bee. She could remember playing with it vaguely. There was an old makeup case, some books, sports items, old CD's...it seemed as if the contents had been thrown haphazardly into the box without regard for what it was. She reached to open a small case, wondering what she would find in there but her gaze caught on the stack of books that she had piled in front of her. She hadn't noticed it before or maybe they had slipped out when she had stacked them but a pile of letters were half in and half out of the bottom book.



Getting up she bent awkwardly over to reach for the letters. She could see the return address was from someone named Kiki but she couldn't see the last name and she couldn't see who the letters were addressed to. Her knee bumped the top book and it fell off the stack jarring all the rest of the books. The shifting of the books allowed her to clearly see the letter on top and she snatched her hand back.

"Hey babe, I think you should take a break now. You've been up...Kaylee? What's wrong?"
Kaylee stared down at the letters in confusion. "All these letters...they're addressed to me."