Mort held Julia above Hallie's crib – the little girl was simply awe struck. When she first saw her baby sister in the hospital, she was asleep, which convinced Julia that she was a doll. However, now awake, though quickly falling asleep in her crib, Julia stared at Hallie, wide-eyed.

"She's little, Daddy," Julia said, her voice almost questioning.

"Yes she is, sweetheart," Mort replied, his voice just above a whisper. "All babies are little."

"Me too?"

Mort smiled at her. "You too."

Mort stood next to his baby girl's crib for quite a while that evening; Julia was afraid that she'd miss something if she left. There was no harm in the two of them staying in the room, in fact, Mort wanted nothing more. When Hallie finally drifted to sleep, Mort sat down in the white rocking chair in the corner, Julia on his lap. He rocked her for a few minutes, in silence, before the little girl spoke up.

"Daddy?"

"Hm?" Mort snapped out of the daze he was in.

"You sad?"

He could understand why his daughter would ask that question. "No, honey, I'm very, very happy."

"No smile," Julia stated.

Mort sighed, trying to figure out how to voice the simplest explanation. "Julia, sometimes people get so happy, that they…well, they just like to sit and think about the things that are making them happy. Do you understand?"

"Hallie?"

Mort nodded. "But not just Hallie…" He gently tickled Julia's belly. "…you and Mommy too."

Julia smiled, her eyes bright. "You make me happy, Daddy."

Perfection. Every shitty thing that's happened to me in life has led up to this. It can't be real…

"Mort?" Alex walked into the nursery, her hair tousled in every direction, her face serene, but obviously exhausted.

He smiled to himself. …but it is. "Did you rest, baby?"

Alex nodded. "A little." She peeked into Hallie's crib. "Could you do me a favor?" she asked, sweetly.

"Of course."

"Could you give Julia her bath and get her ready for bed?"

Mort stood up, Julia still in his arms. "That's not a favor," he said before kissing her cheek. His wife smiled at him as he and Julia left the room.

Alex had nearly forgotten all about Amy's unwanted visit. Life was too wonderful at the moment to let in any obtrusive thoughts about her. Looking down at her newborn daughter brought fresh tears to her eyes – crying was something Alex had been doing a lot of since Hallie's birth. Any onlooker would suggest that she was suffering post partum depression, but they would all be mistaken. She was crying more about relief and regret than anything else; relief that she wasn't without her baby's father this time, but regret for the first eight or so months of Julia's young life. As much as she loved Tristan, Alex found herself wishing more and more that Mort would have been Julia's natural father. Guilt ate at her for those thoughts, but she simply couldn't help them from coming.

She had become lost in reflection for longer than she realized. Mort entered the nursery and found her staring out of the window, looking somewhat lost.

"Alex?" His voice pulled her back into the present and she turned to look at her husband, her face tear-stained. He went to her, folding his arms around her body. "Baby, what's wrong? You haven't been yourself at all." His voice was flooded with concern.

Alex bit her lower lip, debating whether or not to tell him what was really going on in her mind. He had never before rejected or "blown off" anything that concerned her, so she decided to confide in him. "Mort, I…I honestly have no idea what my life would have been like if I hadn't met you. I keep running things through my head over and over and…" Her breath caught in her throat. "…I loved Tristan with all of my heart, and I always thought I would, but…"

Mort guided Alex to the rocking chair and coaxed her to sit down. "Breathe, baby…calm down." Mort stroked his wife's currently unruly hair and waited until her breath was steady again. His voice soft, he said, "Nothing can be bad enough to have you this upset, Alex."

Alex's eyes were red and looked terribly pained. She whispered, ashamed of voicing her thoughts aloud, "I keep wishing that I never met him…that it would have been you and me from the start." She rubbed at her eyes. "I wouldn't have been alone with Julia, you would have been able to do have done everything with her that you'll be doing with Hallie…you wouldn't have abandoned me."

Mort was kneeling on the floor next to Alex and his mind raced. He had had the same thoughts hundreds of times himself; only he never had the inconvenience of suffering from hormonal imbalances along with them. He saw his wife's body begin to tremble and he, very gently, pulled her down to the floor with him, holding her as tightly as he could. "Alex, it's O.K. There's nothing wrong with wondering about what could have been."

"I shouldn't be thinking like this, Mort," she insisted. "It's like I'm killing him all over again."

"No, no, no," Mort protested, rubbing her back. "You're comparing two very different times in your life and you're wishing that both would have been as secure as they were this time. Baby, if we didn't go through our pasts the way we did, we may never have ended up here. I think about that all the time, believe me."

"Tristan didn't do anything to wrong me," Alex whimpered, afraid of hurting Mort's feelings by comparing him to Amy. "I shouldn't be like this."

"Alex, you've been through so much – especially right before Hallie was born – I'm willing to bet that if she never showed up, you may not be thinking this way at all."

Alex thought hard about what Mort had just said. All too quickly, she realized that he was right. Was it really that she was willing to push Tristan away, or more that if she'd never been with Tristan, Mort may have never been with Amy? "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I really thought that I pushed her out of my mind, but…I was so angry about her showing up here that it's literally poisoned my thoughts."

Mort continued to cradle Alex, cursing Amy in his mind. Hadn't he just been thinking about how perfect everything was? Was it possible that Amy was going to be able to ruin everything that he felt he was being rewarded with? His thoughts swirled until the soft cry of his daughter caused Alex to pull away from him.

"Midnight snack," she said, her face looking so much better than it had earlier. She got up and walked to Hallie's crib. Mort rose and shuffled his feet a little as Alex gently picked up their newborn.

"Do you want me to leave?" he asked.

"Of course not," Alex replied, smiling down at Hallie. "Why would I want that?"

"Isn't this…important bonding time?"

"From what I've read, I guess it is." She sat down in the rocking chair and situated Hallie. "I don't know from experience though, I couldn't nurse Julia."

"No?"

Alex shook her head. "I wanted to, but due to the circumstances, I wasn't physically able to." She opened her robe and Hallie didn't need much coaxing. She smiled a genuine smile at her husband. "It sounds so corny, Mort, but…at least for me, this is amazing."

Mort smiled back at her as he took in the site before him. "Not only for you."