This is just a bit of fun.
The idea came to me while I was writing my other WC fic, which I fully intended to post first, but what the muse wants it usually gets, so yeah, this one's up first ;)

Hope you enjoy…

Title: I Can See The Future When I Look In Your Eyes
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the 'plot'
A/N: bold type is flashback
Summary: Sometimes the traits they hold within themselves clash to cause the worst possible outcome imaginable. Other times, time like this, they create something amazing. Something that could only be described as perfect.

"You change your life by changing your heart."
Max Lucado

.

"What about Edward? That's a classic; timeless name," he suggested.

"No," was the reply; her bored tone evident.

"Jacob?" he tried next. "We could call him Jake when we're being all buddy-buddy with him, and full-name him when he's in trouble."

He was practically beaming at the possibility.

She put an end to that quickly.

She put her book down on her lap and turned to fit him with a look that told him exactly what she thought of that particular suggestion. "Tell me, Caffrey, are you trying to suggest names that will make us look like raving pop-culture obsessed parents? I'd have thought your well-traveled ass could've come up with something better – obviously your talents lie elsewhere."

"Too Twilight-y?" Neal surmised at that.

"Too thirteen-year-old who wants to name all twelve of her kids after the characters in the greatest book she's ever read when she grows up. Yes," she returned.

His lips tweaked up at the corners; she certainly had a way with words.

"What about Robbie?" she suggested after a while.

Neal looked up to find her watching him with a raised eyebrow and an expectant look on her face.

"You know, pay homage to the fact you've robbed me of my freedom for the rest of my life?"

Mozzie snickered in the corner and Neal shot him a glare.

"Nice, Alex. Real nice," he awarded her.

"Well, I apologize, if it's a little difficult for me to maintain a perpetually sunny disposition right now, Neal, given that it feels like your spawn is playing kickball with my bladder," she practically snarled in return.

Swinging her legs off the side of the bed and pushing herself to stand up, he instinctively stood with her and placed a hand on her back.

"I swear if Burke has made him a sports fanatic by his proximity during this whole thing, I will dropkick him in the nuts and not feel an ounce of regret," she raged as they walked across to the adjoining bathroom.

"Duly noted," he said. "I'll be sure to warn him of that fact."

Alex swiveled round and fit him with a glare that told him on no uncertain terms would he be doing any such thing. And then she slammed the door in his face.

He released an audible sigh, and stuffed his hands in his pockets to stop himself from wringing them together in display of uncharacteristic nervousness.

"Ah, the woes of being a young unwed mother," Mozzie remarked, casually flipping a page in his book.

Neal turned to look at his friend, regarding him with weary eyes.

"Oh, I know! What about Casimir?" was Mozzie's excited exclamation a few moments later.

His head shot up to deliver a smile against Neal's unconvinced raised eyebrows.

"It would fit perfectly," his friend assured him, smile never wavering. "It means 'destroyer of peace'."

When Alex emerged from the bathroom a minute later she threw her hairbrush with proficient aim at Mozzie's head and sent him a smarmy smile when he cried out in surprise and pain.

"Hey!" he cried out after successfully retrieving his glasses.

"Let it be known that I hate you both on equal measures right now," she informed them as she got herself settled once more into the bed.

"Why? I wasn't the one who seduced you and then impregnated you with my super sperm!" Mozzie complained.

"Moz!" Neal exclaimed, eyes wide at his friend's chosen terminology.

"No, you're just the one who provided the wine for him to do so," Alex ranted back.

Mozzie seemed to contemplate this for a moment, and then he moved his head from side to side as he relented, "Ok, fine, so I might've provided rather copious amounts of the product, but I refuse to believe you hold me in the regard as him."

"Your incessant chatter is annoying me, please stop talking," was what she said to that.

There was a note of tiredness that reigned supreme of the snark, however, and when Neal looked over at Mozzie, the other man seemed to have noticed it as well.

"Very well," he nodded, closing over his book, and stood to address them. "I can detect when my presence is not immediately called-upon, I shall go and see if June is more welcoming of my company."

Neal met him at the door and gave him a soft smile, his gratitude evident, "Thanks Moz."

"Yes, well, just remember my prediction," his friend replied. "I want it noted that I was the first to identify the obvious hell raiser for the undoubted chaos he is about to cast over all our lives."

.

Sometime after Alex had somehow managed to fall into a fitful sleep, Mozzie reappeared and then disappeared again and Neal was left sitting in the room with no one to talk to but himself. So, naturally, after he'd flicked through the various books and played numerous games of chess against himself, he drifted into his own thoughts. And that took him to recalling the moment he'd told Peter and Elizabeth that Alex was pregnant.

"So, I have something to tell you both," Neal began, smiling at them for added impact.

"This ought to be good," Peter muttered, readjusting his position in his seat.

"Alex is pregnant," Neal announced, and he couldn't seem to help it; he was positively beaming at them. "I'm going to be a dad!"

"Oh, Neal!" Elizabeth exclaimed, rising from her seat instantly to wrap him in a tight hug. "We're so happy for you."

When she stepped away, Neal's eyes shifted to her husband, as he prompted, "Peter?"

"Alex is keeping it?" were the first words out of his partner's mouth.

"Peter Burke, what a thing to say!" his wife admonished him, glaring at him intently.

"I'm sorry, honey, but if you knew Alex - " Peter started to reply, but she didn't let him get very far.

"Well, evidently you don't know her as well as you think you do, " Elizabeth countered easily.

"It's alright, Elizabeth," Neal placated with an almost mischievous grin. "Peter's always thought Alex was a bad influence on me."

"That's because she is!" Peter replied. "She's a black-market fence, Neal. And every time she appears in your life she seems to cause trouble for you."

"Technically I'm a big boy – and she's never been convicted of anything," was Neal's offbeat answer to that. "I'd have thought in your book, the fact that I'm on a tracking anklet and she's not should count more in her favor than mine."

The elder glowered at him.

"I guess I was wrong about you, Peter," Neal continued in an exaggerated tone. "You really do think I'm the exception to the rule."

"Your anklet means I can keep an eye on you, keep you out of trouble," Peter told him. "But Alex… "

"Is that your way of saying you feel entitled to watch out for her while she carries my offspring. Aw, Peter, I'm touched. Truly," Neal said, a hand on his heart and a conjured up earnest expression on his face.

"It means she has connections to areas my reach doesn't cover, Neal," Peter answered.

"Alex's always been a smart girl," he said, and it was true.

"And yet she somehow allowed you to knock her up," was the return remark from his partner.

"I'm sure there's a compliment in there somewhere," Neal said, flashing Peter a brilliant smile. "A thinly veiled congratulations."

"Of course," Peter answered, grinning back at him. "Congratulations, Neal! I hope your child inherits more of the traits provided by those around it than from its own parents."

"Peter!" Elizabeth exclaimed, seemingly scandalized as she shook her head at her husband's antics.

"I wouldn't let Alex hear you say that," Neal quipped in response, unperturbed as he beamed back at the couple. "She'll ban Moz from visiting altogether."

.

"Urgh, why is this baby not here yet?" Alex groaned, leaning her head back against the pillows with a heavy sigh.

"He likes the element of surprise," Neal couldn't help but remark with an already proud smile. "Just like his Daddy."

Before Alex could comment, Peter beat her to it. "Well he's not trying too hard to evade your clutches, so I'd say he's not too like Caffrey."

Neal's head whipped round to the man who'd just entered, his eyes wide and his hand instantly lifting to his throat to try and signal to his friend to stop talking.

"Make another comment like that, Agent Burke, and I will find a way to get out of this bed, swipe your sidearm, and then shoot you with it," was Alex's displeased reply.

"Was she always this violent?" Peter whispered to Neal when he crossed the room to greet him. " 'cos I don't remember her being this violent."

"It's been sixteen hours," Neal said by way of explanation. "She's just a tad restless."

"A Caffrey who runs on their own time. Shocking," Peter mused. "Well, all I can say is: I'm going to enjoy watching you taking on my job for the next… oh, twenty years or so?"

"I thought it had already been pointed out to you that your comedy lines weren't welcome here," Neal replied with mock seriousness.

"You expect me to survive in here without them?" Peter questioned.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Neal answered with a brimming smile and walked back over to the chair by the bed with more of a spring in his step than before.

.

"What about Arthur?" was the suggestion from the opposite side of the room.

"I already tried that, Peter," Neal's amused tone practically sailed across the space that separated them. "She's not having any of it."

His partner raised and eyebrow at him, evidently trying to decipher the source of his entertainment, when Alex filled him in, saying, "It would give him the nickname Art."

Peter rolled his head to the side to fit Neal with a look. "Trust you to find an alternative meaning in a baby name."

"What?" the younger asked, throwing his hands up in the air in mock defense. The wide grin on his face was unable to mask, however. "It was a valid suggestion."

"I saw through it straight away," she replied.

"It was a good try though, wasn't it?" Neal remarked, amusement clear in his voice, as he wiggled his eyebrows at Alex.

"Yes, Caffrey, it was valiant effort," she humored him, and then turned her attention to the door as it opened.

"You're only on 'A', honey?" Elizabeth asked sweetly, reentering the room and looking over her husband's shoulder at the book in his hands.

Peter looked up when she appeared on his periphery and she leaned down to kiss his cheek.

"Arthur?" she queried out loud, and then stifled a giggle. She patted his shoulder encouragingly. "Keep going, honey."

When Neal's laughter bounced off the walls, Peter turned to scowl at him, a low growl in his throat as he said his name in warning tone.

"Hey! My baby's about to be born, a son no less," Neal said, hands up, palms forward, facing his partner. "You wouldn't deprive a boy of his father mere hours before he was brought into the world, would you?"

"I'm sure Mozzie could step into the role and no one would be any the wiser," Peter returned, edging closer to the other man. "Better yet, Alex could pass it off as an Immaculate Conception."

"Boys," Elizabeth commented, the affection in her voice unmistakable as she shook her head at the sight of the pair.

"Men," Alex said, with an incredulous look at the two of them.

They took one look at each other and burst out laughing, drowning the quibbling males into the background as they fell into easy chatter.

.

Needless to say that after twenty-one hours in labor, everyone was ecstatic when Alex finally gave birth to Caffrey Junior.

Incidentally, that was the age Neal was when he met the mother of his newborn son; a fact he pointed out almost gleefully, with Mozzie looking just as joyous by this apparently rather blatant sign of good things to come.

After they'd all settled down somewhat after the initial introduction to the newest member of their family, Peter came back into the room after informing their boss and other various members of staff of the news.

"Hughes has given you the week off," he told the younger man as he retook his seat beside his wife. "I told him we'd work out whatever's to happen beyond that."

"Well, I suppose I'll be the one to look after him most of the time then," Alex said.

"Your job is just as demanding as mine," Neal argued back. "If not more – yours has travel involved. I'm limited to a two-mile radius."

"Not when Peter's with you," she reminded him. "Besides your job requires mostly full day dedication, I'm flexible given that I'm virtually self-employed."

"Oh, is that what we're calling it these days?" Peter's amused tone cut in then.

"And where are we going to stay, hmm?" Alex then prompted. "I live outside the area that your little leash allows – "

"Mmm, two-point-one miles if memory serves," Neal cut in, shooting her a look.

" – and we can't be bothering June by staying there forever," she continued, ignoring his comment.

"Oh, honestly, it's no trouble," the elder jumped to placate the pair with a warm smile. "Lord knows I love the company, and there's more than enough space. I'll be glad to have you as long as you want to stay."

"Well, it's settled then," Neal said, clasping his hands together with a winning smile. "As for the caring and work side of things, I'm sure we'll figure something out this week."

"How is it possible that you two haven't discussed this till now?" Elizabeth asked, disbelief plain on her face.

Neal knew the real answer to this. As much as Alex might've wanted to trust that he'd be there, for her and their child, during the pregnancy and then later, he couldn't entirely blame her for not jumping into the situation with both feet and eager as a bunny on Easter morning. After all, last time she'd done that she'd been burned. He would know; he was the one to set her alight.

Mozzie's not-so-subtle-or-indeed-quiet snickering cut through the air and he took the chance to enlighten her, "Ah, well, stick around a little longer and you'll bear witness to this special brand of relationship for yourself."

Elizabeth couldn't seem to prevent the smile from curving her mouth at those words.

He lifted his hand and added in a stage-whisper, "Apart from being completely dysfunctional, it's highly entertaining. You should make sure The Suit gets you a savory snack or a refreshing beverage for the occasion."

"Thanks, Moz," Neal answered sarcastically.

"I swear, I will revoke those Honorary Uncle privileges of yours," was Alex's response.

"I don't even want to know," Peter closed his eyes and shook his head when he caught sight of Neal looking his way.

"Well, I'd have pegged you as being a tad more excited, Peter, given that as my son's Godfather you'll be expected to hold up your fair share of duties," Neal said then, grinning widely at the momentarily stunned expression on his partner's face.

"Wait, what?" Peter questioned, and the younger reveled for a minute in how startled and speechless his friend appeared.

Elizabeth was smiling encouragingly at him, biting her lip in uncontainable excitement herself.

"I want you to be his Godfather, Peter," Neal told him, smiling effortlessly at his partner. "You're one of the greatest men I know, and I want my son to learn the values you hold so dear."

"Wow – I don't know what to say," he was seemingly still stumped for words.

"Say you won't drop him or Elizabeth becomes sole Godparent." Neal winked at him. "Alex's rules."

Peter laughed, and sent an assured look to the mother of the newborn and his wife as she stood next to her, before asking the younger, "You're really trusting me with this?"

Alex shrugged, the corners of her lips quirking up in a smile, "Well, you've protected Neal for long enough, I reckon you're about ready to handle a new challenge."

Peter rolled his eyes; he had a feeling that calling the child of Neal Caffrey and Alex Hunter a 'challenge' was the understatement of the year.

"Besides I like your wife too much to deny you of this," she answered indulgingly. "And I know it would pretty much mean the world to your charge over there."

Peter turned to Neal at that with a roguish curve of his lips. "The world, eh?"

"Now, Peter, let's not get ahead of ourselves and exaggerate too much," Neal began.

"Oh, I'm not exaggerating, Neal, that was a direct quote from the mother of your child herself," Peter replied, and it was obvious he was enjoying himself.

"You realize what you've done, don't you?" Elizabeth said to Alex with an amused look on her face. "You've just ensured you have front row seats to their antics for the rest of your life."

"Maybe," Alex replied, with a playful smirk. "But I've also got the perfect escape route."

Elizabeth followed her gaze to the sleeping baby boy and laughed lightly; perfect was the only word to describe him.

.

"Maximus Xavier," Alex announced to the room of family surrounding them, her eyes never leaving the tiny person swathed in blue.

"I like it," Peter said, with a quick look to his partner, but his tone was somewhat wary as he continued, "I don't know that it really goes with Caffrey though."

"It doesn't need to," she returned with a hint of a smug smile. "He's taking my name."

With an eyebrow raise and a smirk on his face, Neal then inquired, "You really think he'll benefit more from having Hunter as his last name over Caffrey?"

"Well, seeing as Caffrey is synonymous with you, and that's the name on your criminal record, I'd venture a guess that he would benefit more from my surname, yes," Alex replied, her face the picture of amusement.

"As if they didn't print Hunter when you got picked up in France for – "

"It doesn't count if the charges get dropped, Neal," she cut him off with a smug grin. "Everyone knows that."

"It's true," Mozzie confirmed with a nod.

Neal scowled, ignoring his friend's comment, and countering the mother of his newborn son with, "He could still find it – "

" – Yeah, if he cracked the FBI and Interpol databases, among others," was Alex's instant retort.

At that, Neal cut back in to say, " – Which, given his parentage, isn't that much of a stretch."

" – He only needs to use Google to find out about you," she finished; and he had to admit, that did sort of trump his last line.

Mozzie's hand flew up in the air at that, his finger pointing to draw their attention towards him. "Which makes for an interesting point – "

"Your name will likely get him kidnapped," Alex added for what he assumed was simply good measure, though her voice was completely sober as she added, "Or worse."

" – That the lady has just raised," Mozzie ended, nodding in acknowledgment.

He cast his eyes up to the ceiling and heaved a sigh, before settling his eyes on his newborn son and carefully brushing a knuckle across his delicate little head.

"I can't believe I'm forfeiting my name because I'm more recognizable to the masses than you," Neal said. "What kind of cruel and unusual punishment is this? I'm so good at what I do I'm not allowed to pass on my name to my own flesh and blood?"

"If you stop pouting I'll let you make his middle name Art," Alex told him with an exasperated roll of the eyes.

He perked up at that, his face instantly brightening. "Really?"

He sat down on the bed next to her then and took their baby boy in his arms. She softly traced the curve of his puffed out cheek, her expression unguarded and recognizable as nothing but pure simply joy.

"Maximus Art Caffrey," he mused, voice full of amazement, eyes fixated on the little bundle cradled in his arms. "The greatest art forger – "

"Hunter," Alex corrected with an indulgent quirk of the lips, her eyes lifting up to look at him. "Making him the greatest art hunter ever to have graced this here earth."

Neal looked over at her, with a dazzling smile, and replied, "That's what I said."

There was an amused expression on her face as she rolled her eyes at him. And then with a contented sigh, Alex relaxed against the pillows, resting her head sleepily on Neal's shoulder. He turned his head slightly towards her and saw her fight to stay awake to watch over their son. Her hand was resting over their little boy's heart, with Neal's fingers filling the spaces between her own, when eyes slid slowly shut. He watched her chest rise and fall in perfect sync with their newborn son's and smiled at the sight, at the feeling of the two hearts beating in tandem with his own. Alex's fingers curled slightly around his and he dropped a kiss to her head, imprinting the crest of his smile onto her skin.

So that was what it felt like to feel complete.

From across the room, Peter and Elizabeth watched on with a mixture of pride, joy and sheer amazement. June held a hand to her heart at the sight of the little family before her and Mozzie regarded it all thoughtfully.

Maybe happily ever after was for guys like them after all.

The End.

"Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future."
Gail Lumet Buckley

A/N: I apologise if Alex comes across as possibly too bitchy. I put that down to her situation and the fact that from what we've seen of her so far she seems to be quite a tough person, and I imagine given whatever past she has with Neal and Mozzie, that letting her guard down with them and becoming emotional – even given the gravity of the situation – would be difficult for her.

Again this was just meant as a bit of light-hearted (?) fun, so I hope you liked it.

Thanks so much for reading, please let me know what you thought :)
Steph
xxx