Author's Note: I can't believe we made it to the end. But at least we're going out on a nice, long chapter. This was such a fun story to write, and thanks so much for hanging in there with me. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to share any feedback or general thoughts.

Chapter Twelve

Neil pushed the up button on the elevator, then tapped it again as if that would make it come quicker. Checking his watch, he frowned at how late it had gotten. His duffel bag had started to dig into his shoulder and he regretted not packing it as well as he should have this morning. But he'd been in a rush and didn't want to miss his flight. Hitting so much traffic after landing hadn't helped either. He'd been anxious all week about this trip and would be glad when he could finally relax.

Thankfully, he didn't think any of the delays or annoyances had ruined his evening plans, it just meant the day hadn't gone as he'd expected. The most important thing, he reminded himself, was that he'd finally wrapped up all his work obligations for the week. And managing to get an entire weekend away from the hospital meant he now wanted things to go smoothly so he could start focusing on unwinding. He'd thought about calling Claire to let her know about the small adjustment to his timing, but figured he'd see her soon enough. She'd likely be wrapping up by now, and he couldn't wait to show her how much he'd missed her. The possibility of her being annoyed with his tardiness seemed a barrier he could overcome by being extra attentive for the rest of the night—which he'd planned on doing anyway.

The elevator arrived, and as he entered, he briefly wondered if he should have stuck to his original plan. He did have business in her building in the form of doing a final sign-out at the K-Unit while he was in the area. The idea had been to handle that business first, then get Claire. He hoped she didn't mind if he picked her up first so they could pass by the K-Unit together. At this point, he was so behind schedule, it shouldn't be a problem.

Exiting on the 8th Floor, he headed toward Claire's lab, nodding to the few people he recognized along the way. Since he didn't really come by here to see Claire, preferring to meet her at the house, the staff were more politely familiar than friendly. Sometimes, if Claire accompanied him, they'd perk up, even making her laugh by teasing him for being a hotshot surgeon gracing their humble unit with his presence. Of course, they loved her here and he'd take a little ribbing as a sign of their affection.

Since it was a little after five o'clock on a Friday, Claire's lab had mostly emptied out. He saw her colleague Dr. Kapoor focused very intently on the spread of reports that littered her desk. Toward the back, two lab assistants were cleaning, probably preparing to shut things down for the day. Heading left, Neil found Claire where he expected to—staring intently at her computer screen as she rallied to finish up her paperwork before the end of the day.

"You still working on your staff reviews, slowpoke?" He dropped his duffel bag next to her desk and ignored a sharp glare from her by kissing her cheek, letting his lips hover and brush along her brow as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. Not able to help himself, he planted another lingering kiss on the side of her neck, massaging her shoulders after pulling away. He couldn't wait to get her all to himself. "My department finished up last month."

"Good for you. So you decided to mosey all the way down here to rub it in?" Despite her cutting words, her amused eyes greeted him warmly as she twisted her head up to kiss him briefly but soundly. She saved what she'd been working on and pulled up her email, frowning at the five new messages in her inbox. "And my reviews aren't due until next week so I'm right on track. In fact, I'm just double checking my work before I submit ... since I finished them three days ago." She tilted her head back to smirk up at him, patting his hand as if she felt sorry for him.

"Aren't you the teacher's pet," Neil teased.

"You would know," she shot back, grinning as she deleted two of the emails and opened the next one. "Your flight got in okay?"

"Fine. It's the traffic that killed me." Neil set his briefcase down on the empty chair next to her and then sat sideways on the edge of her desk. "I ran a little late so I figured I'd come down here to pull you away from whatever it is that you're doing here and then you can run by the K-Unit with me. Is that okay?" It seemed wiser to get her buy-in with the altered plan, especially given how grumpy she'd been lately at the end of these long weeks.

"That sounds nice. Let me just finish answering this last email and we can get out of here. I can't wait to have a whole weekend to ourselves without one of us being on call or some emergency coming up. We haven't managed that in a while, and it's making me very cranky."

"You, cranky? I don't believe it." His exaggerated tone prompted a light smack against his thigh, a smile revealing her to be in on the joke as well.

As she typed away, he spotted her work bag on the floor and picked it up to place in front of his on the chair. He walked her empty mug over to the break room next door and rinsed it out for her. When he got back, she'd finished her email and was shutting down documents and programs and then gathering papers as her computer powered down. Neil eyed her carefully, noting how tired she looked. Maybe he'd suggest they get to bed early. But he'd have to do it in a careful way so as not to suggest that she needed the rest because she looked awful. And to him, she didn't look bad, just tired. Especially after a long stretch of not seeing her, no one else in the entire world was more beautiful to him.

Claire stood at her chair and looked around, assessing whether she'd forgotten anything. While she was distracted, Neil grabbed both their bags and waited patiently by the entrance to her office. "Alright, let's head out. I've been in and out of the lab all day. I'm starving and my comfy new lounge chair is calling my name," she declared.

Before he could comment on that, she'd joined him at the doorway to her office and waved goodbye to the two techs in the back, telling them they shouldn't stay too late. She also popped her head into Dr. Kaoor's office and wished her goodnight. Dr. Kapoor waved absently and went back to her work.

"She's on deadline," Claire explained as they exited the lab area and continued down the hall to the west end elevator bank.

He looked down at her with brow furrowed, trying to assess how exhausted she really was. She'd been working so much lately. Too much if you asked him. Their pace was leisurely, maybe a little slower than usual. She hadn't complained about him carrying her bag, which surprised him. His concern sharpened.

"Stop brooding," Claire said.

His surprise turned to amusement that she'd noticed his subtle examination. "I'm not brooding. Just wondering why you've been so busy today?"

Claire glanced briefly at him and shook her head, not convinced. "I had a consult that turned into a minor emergency. So I was back and forth to the trauma unit in addition to helping the new residents set up an experiment we need to run over the weekend. They'll be monitoring it, but I wanted to make sure they hadn't screwed anything up."

"That's … a lot, " Neil agreed. He almost said more, then thought better of it. "Based on the last time we talked, I thought you'd be in the lab doing paperwork all day."

"You and me both. But at least we have the weekend to relax." Smiling up at him, she waited until she sensed him backing down before hitting the button for the elevator. A few minutes later, they were on the second floor strolling toward the K-Unit.

"I hope Tanya doesn't mind that I'm technically late at this point," Neil said. "I'm in enough trouble with her as it is."

Laughing, Claire elbowed him gently. "You shouldn't have forgotten to return your paperwork the last time you were here. You know what a stickler she is for protocol. I know you're not used to that back up in your gilded tower, but some of us have to follow the rules."

"Very funny," Neil said. "Just, put in a good word for me when you see her around."

"I'll think about it." She offered another patronizing pat and opened the door to the K-Unit.

Sure enough, Tanya sat at the desk in the foyer, greeting them with a raised eyebrow for Neil and dramatically checking her watch. Claire chuckled next to him and he sheepishly reached into his briefcase to produce the paperwork she'd been hounding him about.

Neil gave her his most charming smile. "Am I out of the doghouse?" Claire rolled her eyes and went over to the corner to sit down and get comfortable as they finished their business, pulling out her phone and scrolling through something of interest. There was no way he was getting out of here without a long dressing down from Tanya and they both knew it.

Tanya looked over the documents, meticulously checking for any errors. She went through it twice, probably to torture him. Finally, she filed away the papers in a desk drawer and turned back to him with crossed her arms. "I think I'll ask Ari what she thinks. It's her call."

Walking over to the bright, open room to her right, she leaned in and scanned the area until she found who she was looking for. "Hey Ari, guess who's here and finally turned in his homework."

He heard a shuffling before quick footsteps halted at the threshold, revealing a curious head poking out to see who'd arrived.

Ari looked him over and sighed. "Daddy? You in trouble again?"

His daughter surely meant to reprimand him with that stern little face of hers. Yet it only filled him with a familiar, overwhelming love. Her dark eyes narrowed on him, made less menacing by the cute coils of hair that had escaped her ponytail and clung to her cheek. She looked flushed, probably interrupted from an afternoon of active play. He cherished these moments of seeing her personality come out, this brilliant three year old little spitfire who was the best of himself and Claire.

The proper response to his beautiful Ariella Ruby Melendez could only be contrition.

"I am a little bit, mijita. I'll do better next time."

Ari nodded with approval and popped all the way out of the playroom and into the foyer. "You were gone so long at your con-verse, Daddy. It was forever." Claire had dressed her in the t-shirt with the bears playing baseball that Ari adored. It was his favorite too.

"That's 'conference' sweetheart, and yes it felt like forever because I missed you and Mama so much." He held out his arms to her and beamed as she skipped towards him. But when Ari spotted her mother in the corner, her face lit up and she changed her trajectory and flew to Claire, ponytail streaking along behind her in a mess of soft curls. She hopped up on the chair beside Claire and leaned in to be hugged.

"Mama! You're here! And you brought Ady!"

Neil glanced at Tanya who shrugged. "Ari, no hug for me? You just saw your mom this morning, but I've been gone all week. That's five whole days. And I brought you presents!" he pleaded, pointing at the duffel bag at his feet. He feigned the saddest look he could muster as if he'd break out in tears any moment. No fool, Ari eyed him suspiciously, but climbed down to give him a quick hug. Neil leaned down to kiss the top of her head and then sent her back to Claire.

"Sorry, Daddy. But it's Mama. And she brought Ady!"

Gently as she'd been taught, she leaned back into Claire and laid her head on Claire's very round, heavy stomach. Another gift she was giving him, this time a little boy they would proudly name Adrian Luis Melendez. In fact, her due date was quickly approaching and after today, she'd start her maternity leave. Her doctor hadn't exactly ordered her to bed rest, but certainly she'd suggested taking it easy before the baby arrived.

They'd thought Ari would have a problem adjusting to the idea of a new brother or sister, but all her friends had siblings and she'd taken to the idea of it quite enthusiastically. Thus, as soon as Claire began to show, she'd insisted on treating her little brother as if he'd already arrived. Even though she knew that Adrian had to hang out in her mother's stomach until he was ready, she still thought it hilarious to pretend as if Claire had a choice on whether she'd bring him on their little adventures together.

Looking at Claire and Ari beaming at each other, even as tired as Claire was, it almost brought tears of happiness to his eyes. This is what he'd always wanted. Who knew it'd take years of making mistakes, biding his time, and ignoring what was right in front of his face until finally stumbling onto perfection. And then marrying her.

They'd worked so hard to get this life, especially in those early days of their relationship. It'd been a lot of getting schedules to align, flying back and forth, and many hours on Skype to keep things from falling apart. It became a ritual to set up their tablets during their respective dinners and pretend they were at the same table, sharing the details of their day. They managed to rack up an impressive amount of miles going back and forth between San Jose and San Diego.

In the beginning, she had the more flexible schedule with fewer hours on call, so her flight times heavily outweighed his. They'd hunker down in his house, mostly because they didn't feel like dealing with the possibility of running into someone they knew and having to explain their relationship. He understood and respected Claire's concern about both their reputations so it didn't bother him to be more cautious. And honestly, in those first days, he'd been content to have her all to himself.

Yet he preferred the time they spent in her little house with that baby grill on the patio, long rides along the coast, dancing and playing together, and being free and in love. They'd spend warm afternoons napping in the hammock in her backyard or going to the markets to put together a meal they'd make together later that night. They'd even contemplated him moving down there when things turned serious enough to start going down that road.

Lim already knew about them, of course, and teased Neil discretely but mercilessly in a good-natured way. It made his and Claire's situation feel almost normal sometimes. Then it didn't take long for Shaun to figure them out. They'd forgotten how perceptive he could be, and when he and Claire both mentioned the same concert within a week of each other, he'd asked point blank if they were dating. Neil dodged as much as he could until Shaun assured him that he'd wouldn't give them away. And he'd kept that promise—except when he teamed up with Lim to poke fun of him and Claire as an experiment in improving his friendly banter with others. 'I told you she was your favorite,' he liked to say.

After a year of this, something extraordinary happened. St. Bonaventure asked San Diego Downtown Memorial for a surgeon on loan to pilot a surgical research residency like Claire's in San Jose—a three month posting at minimum. The logical choice had been one of the leads on Claire's program. But one of them had just gone on maternity leave and the other led two other grants that required on-site supervision. The easy choice was to instead send their senior resident: Claire.

Less easy was Claire's decision to accept. St. Bonaventure still held a lot of conflicting memories for her. The rejection from Andrews and the board, the competitiveness that mostly hadn't been a factor in her San Diego program, not to mention the ethical ambiguity of dating an attending even if he technically wasn't her boss.

So they talked about it, mulled it over, laid out the pros and cons, and played devil's advocate. In the end, she returned to San Jose. And after almost five years of being colleagues, friends and then lovers, they essentially moved in together. To keep the pressure off, they reasoned that it was a temporary fix. Finding an apartment for three months seemed silly, especially if she planned on spending most of her time at Neil's anyway.

It turned out to be one of the best three months either could remember.

During the day, they saw very little of each other, being on different rotations and schedules. Sometimes, though, they'd get to collaborate, and that didn't feel as strange as it probably should have. The lack of contact made it much easier to avoid any temptation to reveal their intimate relationship.

And the arrangement made it much more satisfying to come home to her. Sometimes she'd be finishing up dinner for the two of them. Or he'd wake up to her snuggled up next to him in bed, dead to the world after a long late-night shift. They'd take day trips together and he finally got to introduce her to his parents. They loved her, of course. And Claire insisted on coming with him to his regular visits with his sister. Gabrielle had been wary of the new woman in his life at first, but Claire had a way of winning people over. They'd created enough of a routine that it surprised them both when it came time for her to return to San Diego to finish the last couple months of her residency.

That first week apart had been frustrating and lonely for the both of them. There had been some talk of keeping her pilot project going, but the politics of it didn't sound promising. Downtown Memorial might not want a competitor in that particular research field and St. Bonaventure hadn't seemed committed to funding the pilot long-term. That's when they'd danced around their options—him seriously considering the idea of moving down to Southern California to be closer to her.

Claire had dismissed the idea—a little too quickly, he'd thought. He had seniority where he was, a shoe-in for chief of surgery soon, maybe even president down the line. It would be foolish to throw that away. On the other hand, Neil thought it foolish not to give that up for the happiness he felt being with her. She'd called him such a sap for saying that, but the smile and tears he saw in her eyes over their video conference told him how much it'd meant to hear that. Knowing what he did about her childhood, it had to be emotional for her to be treated as if she mattered more than anything else.

And she did to him.

Neil put out discrete feelers anyway—or so he thought. Even if he didn't act on it, it didn't hurt to know his options. Except soon after, he found himself in Andrews' office, Marcus looking stone-faced with Aoki standing at his shoulder ready to pounce. The power play rather annoyed him. If they had something to say, they needed to just spit it out.

"So," Marcus began. "In case you hadn't heard, St. Bonaventure has decided to pass on the San Diego Downtown Memorial pilot extension. The board felt that it's not the right time to find funding in that area. Especially when San Diego has taken the clear lead."

Neil looked at him curiously. "Okay. That's not my department, but good to know, I guess. I'm not going to complain about not fighting another project for funding. Is that what you pulled me out of my rounds to tell me?"

"Actually, no." Marcus steepled his hands in front of him, resting his arms rigidly on the desk. He opened his mouth and then closed it again as if rethinking his line of attack. "Are you happy here, Neil?"

"Uh, yes," he replied carefully. Before he panicked, he told himself there was no way Andrews could know about the meeting he took two weeks ago while visiting Claire. He'd told her he was having lunch with an old friend, which wasn't a lie. He'd just failed to disclose that the topic of conversation was the open department head position at a neighboring hospital to hers. Still, that's not something he'd expect to get back to Marcus.

"Good," Marcus said. "With the chief of surgery position coming into play soon, I just wanted to … check in about how things are going." Neil had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Andrews and his mind games were tedious, but it signaled him playing at something that Neil probably wasn't going to like. "Sorry, I meant to finish explaining about the former pilot program. Although we won't be extending the pilot, we will be continuing the research. The trials we've run and the data from that are still very valuable to our colleagues, especially given the diverse sample set we have access to in Northern California. What both hospital boards want to do is place a semi-permanent surgical specialist here. They'd continue the research that'll be led from San Diego, but also assist in surgical duties here as necessary. Downtown Memorial foots the bill, we get some of the credit and an extra set of hands."

A picture started to form of what all this meant. Neil tried to control the flutter of anticipation at getting the whole story. And it worried him about why he'd been called in.

"So good news? We could certainly use the extra set of hands. Lim too." His tone held his suspicion, yet he tried not to give anything away through that or in his expression. He glanced over at Allegra who had her game face on.

"Of course, the ideal person would be Dr. Browne since she led the work here. If she's amenable to moving back—on a semi-permanent basis—it might benefit everyone."

"Again, you called me out of rounds for this? Are you asking my opinion? You know I have the highest regard for Dr. Browne. If you were happy with her performance then it seems like an easy decision for the board."

Marcus stood up and walked the perimeter of his desk to lean against it in front of Neil. Allegra stood her ground, simply watching the two of them.

"Neil, I called you out of rounds to tell you a different kind of story. We, in fact, have already vetted the idea of choosing Dr. Browne. We were in the stage of making an offer: I give her a call, send an official offer letter, and we're good. I'm just about to sign the letter that my assistant drafted.

That curious feeling turned to dread; Neil knew where this was going.

"Everything looks good," Marcus continues. "Except the address Margie pulled from our system is a temporary one from her recent rotation with us. And it looks … familiar."

"Cut the drama, Marcus, and get to the point."

Allegra stepped up and exchanged a strange look with Andrews.

"The point, Neil, is that we need to know whether you're sleeping with a resident" She held his gaze until Neil turned away in annoyance.

He scoffed, gripping his chair so as not to cross his arms defensively. "I'm not 'sleeping with a resident.' I'm in a relationship with someone I've known for almost five years. Someone who hasn't been my resident since you booted her from our program three years ago." And there it was. That old wound.

"Fine. You're in a 'relationship' with a resident." Allegra stared him down, her expression unreadable.

"It's not like she's going to be a resident if you bring her back for this position."

Allegra frowned. "That hardly matters when everyone knows that you were her boss at some point."

"But I'm not now. And at this point, she's been gone longer than when I was her attending." Neil argued, now thoroughly agitated.

"It looks bad," Allegra countered.

"To whom?" Neil threw back, almost shouting. "We were living together, openly, during her entire rotation this year and no one had a clue. You didn't even know until some clerical fluke happened. We are very aware of our reputations and relationships with colleagues and have shown that we know how to be both discrete and professional. Nobody had a problem when I was with Jessica or Audrey."

Allegra crossed her arms, now the defensive one. "Jessica wasn't a doctor under your tutelage and the situation with Dr. Lim, although not quite compliant with protocol, didn't involve fraternization with a subordinate. And your 'relationship' as you call it with Dr. Browne only involved keeping things discrete for three months. You won't be able hide your status for much longer if she moves back here."

"We weren't hiding anything. We've been together for over a year, and none of you had a clue. Well, nobody but Murphy and Lim."

Marcus straightened at that. "Murphy knew?"

"Of course. He and Claire are friends. He promised not to say a word and he didn't. And Lim." Neil sighed. "Audrey's known since the beginning."

"And she's fine with it?" Marcus asked, skeptically.

"She's the most fine with it. Annoyingly supportive," Neil added. "Especially when she and Claire are colluding."

Allegra raised an eyebrow at Andrews, a silent question he seemed to understand.

Neil took a moment to calm himself. He would do neither himself or Claire any favors by losing his temper. "Look, you do what you need to do, but you'd be fools to let Claire go. Again. And I'm certainly not letting her go. So you need to decide whether you're going to respect and support your doctors or whether you're going to fold because people, God forbid, might gossip about two professionals who have known each other for years having an adult relationship. I'm happy to tell the board that myself." He looked both of his colleagues directly in the eye, dead serious about his commitment to both his job and to Claire.

Another glance between Aoki and Andrews sparked his temper. "Are we done here?"

Marcus relaxed, leaning back slightly and sporting a maddening smirk. "Thank you for your candor. Actually, I lied about the letter. I just wanted to see what you'd say."

"What?" Neil bellowed. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Oh, all the other stuff is true. We'll be calling Claire to offer her the position right after we're done here. The board already approved it."

Allegra dropped her arms and rested them again at her side. "And they were unanimous, even with the information that you and Dr. Browne are … more than friends."

Now Neil was pissed. He hated these mind games they seemed intent on playing with the staff here. And he didn't particularly care for either of them being in his personal business much less having it be a topic of discussion at an official hospital board meeting. "Then what's with the interrogation if you already knew?"

"We wanted to see if you'd deny it. We wanted to know that this is serious between you two and that it won't cause problems. And," he nodded, "I'm satisfied.

"How did you find out, then."

"That turned out to be a fluke, as you say. I had lunch with the president of San Diego Downtown Memorial and the chief of surgery happened to stop by our table. We got to talking about Claire and he mentioned that she'd probably be amenable to the move since she was seeing someone at our hospital. He couldn't remember the doctor's name, but knew that person was our representative on the Standards and Practices advisory committee. He said you were a cute couple."

Neil rolled his eyes. "Dr. O'Donnell is such a busybody."

Andrews went back around to sit behind his desk. "If there are any rumblings about the two of you, you'll have plenty of reasonable responses. And if anyone has a problem with it, the board and this leadership are prepared to back you up. But we won't make a big deal of it and I trust you won't either." Glancing at Allegra, Neil noticed a subtle smile breaking through her usually stoic demeanor.

Looking back and forth between his two bosses, he didn't quite know how to feel. Anger at the intrusion into his personal life; annoyance at the assumptions about his and Claire's relationship; excitement that they might finally be in a position to take their relationship further just by living in the same city; but also fear that she would choose her stable life down in San Diego over that.

"I was serious about the chief of surgery part, though. I'm not going to watch you get scooped up by your old buddy down at University Hospital." Neil stopped dead at that. How Marcus and Allegra seemed to root out these things still mystified him. "Instead, maybe you could help convince Claire to join us up here."

"Well, that's up to her," Neil directed his attention pointedly at both administrators. "We've let her down before. I wouldn't begrudge her being cautious about accepting."

Marcus thought on that, then nodded. "Fair enough. But I hope we can put all of it behind us. This could work out for everyone involved. Make things right. And you can go back to your rounds by the way," Andrews said, dismissing him. "I've got some calls to make."

Neil rose from his chair in a bit of a daze and left. He stopped outside of the closed door wondering what Aoki and Andrews were discussing. The entire situation unnerved him. And now he had to wait and see what would happen on Claire's end.

In the grand scheme of things, waiting until later that evening to hear from her wasn't a long time, but the hours had passed entirely too slowly for his comfort. And when she did call him, his anxiety didn't disappear.

"Neil, are we sure about this?" she'd asked. "This makes it … real. Like really real."

"I told you from the beginning—I'm not scared. Not of us."

"I could get my own place."

Neil paused, not liking that idea one bit, but not wanting to pressure her. "You could …" he agreed, reluctantly.

Claire laughed. "But you'd hate that."

"I would, probably."

"And there's a lot of history with me in that town. At that hospital."

Neil sighed. "I know. I want it to feel right for you. We can work through anything."

They were quiet for a while, not uncomfortable, just both lost in their thoughts. He could hear Claire taking a deep breath across the line.

"Okay."

Neil smiled, relief flooding him at Claire's simple acceptance. But he needed her to be certain. "Are you sure?"

"I—" Claire stopped abruptly, reassessing her words, likely trying to figure out how best to reassure him when she was the one he wanted to comfort. "After I got settled here, I stayed away from San Jose for a while because I thought only bad things would eventually happen there. And yet I've never gotten it out of my system. Even when I'm here watching beautiful sunsets on the beach and learning new things at my hospital, I'm drawn back, wondering where I'd be if I had been able to stay. And then reconnecting with you, I can appreciate the good things without dwelling on the regrets and missed opportunities. With this new job, I can have all the things I've built here. But I also get you. And you've been a part of me getting to this point in so many ways. I don't want to run from you, Neil. Not ever."

"I won't give you a reason," he responded without missing a beat. "I promise."

"I know," she said, a warmth to her words that he'd never get tired of. "You have to promise me one more thing, though."

What could be harder than what he'd already vowed to her? "Anything."

"I know you want to move in together, and I want that too, even if I'm scared." He grinned, knowing they could handle anything. "But if we're going to make it work, you've got to do one thing for me."

"I'm all ears."

"You have got to clear more closet space for me."

"Done." He chuckled. He couldn't wait.

A week later, Neil had been chosen to take over the chief of surgery position at St. Bonaventure. Two months later, Claire had sublet her house to a junior resident on her team, moved in with him, and found her place back in San Jose.

And over time, people figured out that they were more than friends. The nurses thought it weirdly romantic, Park seemed to have guessed long ago, and Reznick was shocked that everyone seemed to have known but her. He and Claire moved on to a new chapter of their lives, back where they'd started in a way.

This time, though, Claire was all his.

As Tanya and Neil gathered Ari's things, the little girl chatted into her mother's belly telling stories to her little brother about her day. Claire smoothed Ari's hair back, laughing at her little jokes and cutting in with an occasional question or comment to let her daughter know she was listening. Neil lived for hearing their idle chatter in the background. Lived for the normalcy of it, and soon to add another voice to the cacophony.

Neil joined his girls in the foyer of the Kinder Unit playroom holding Ari's bright green backpack. "Okay, Ari, you ready to go home?"

"I'm ready. Mama, you ready?"

Claire rubbed at her back. "I will be. Can you help me up? Pull my arm?" Ari giggled. She considered her mother trying to maneuver herself to a standing position to be the most hilarious thing she'd ever seen. She climbed down from her chair and grabbed her mother's hand.

"Come on, Mama, you can do it!"

After a colossal effort from both of them, Claire stood on her feet, rubbing her back again. She groaned a little bit, definitely uncomfortable at this late stage in her pregnancy. "Oh!" she reached for the wall, leaning herself against it as she clutched her stomach.

Neil frowned, moving toward her and scanning her for signs of pain. He avoided touching her as she hated that and he didn't want to irritate her and add to the discomfort.

"Whoa, Mama!" Ari shouted, eyes wide and pointing. A small pool of water stood at her feet.

Claire had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for the better part of a month. She hadn't mentioned it being any more intense today. He'd learned from her pregnancy with Ari not to hover—after all, she was a doctor and knew what to look for. At least that's what she'd insisted.

Looking from the moisture on the floor and then up to his wife's face, a grin slowly spread across his lips.

Claire scrunched up her nose at his giddiness. "Oh, don't you start, Melendez."

"Start what?" he asked, innocently. She stared him down, and then took his hand and squeezed it. He nodded in understanding, turning back to his daughter. She looked more curious than scared, and he again wondered at this amazing kid he and Claire had created.

"Mijita, I think Adrian liked your stories so much that he decided to come out and play. How would you like to see your little brother outside your mama's belly?" It warmed him to see her eyes brighten, almost leaping with excitement.

"Ady, come play!" she pleaded. Claire and Neil laughed at her enthusiasm. Tanya came from around the corner where she'd disappeared to bring Claire some spare scrubs and directing her to the changing room. She put a towel over the wet spot by the chairs and took Ari's backpack from Neil to return to the playroom.

Neil dropped to a knee so he could speak directly to his daughter. "Ari, as soon as Mama comes back, I'm going to go take her over to see Dr. Jenny. Will you be okay for here a little while longer? I'll come back when we get Mama settled in."

"She can stay as long as you need, Dr. Melendez," Tanya said, keeping an eye on the handful of other children being supervised in the playroom. Having 24 hour childcare available at St. Bonaventure was a godsend. "And just leave your stuff here. I'll put it by the lockers in the back."

Neil mouthed his thanks to her as Ari tugged on his pant leg. She put her arms out to be picked up, which Neil happily obliged. "I'm a big girl. You help Mama and then we play with Ady later."

"That's right, my love. You're such a brave girl. Daddy loves you so much." He hugged his daughter—soon to officially be his oldest child—close to him. She gave him a sloppy kiss and scrambled to get down.

"Love you, Daddy." She hugged his leg and then ran back into the playroom. Tanya chuckled and followed.

A few moments later, Claire returned in dry pants looking as uncomfortable as ever. He reached out his hand for her and she took it, shakily but strongly.

"Ari's back in action in the playroom. I told her I'd check on her later after we get you settled."

Claire nodded. "Good." She winced and he felt her squeeze at his hand again as a contraction must have rippled through. He almost asked if she was okay, but he knew the answer and she'd be admitted in the next twenty minutes anyway.

Neil stared at her, beads of sweat already forming at her brow, pinched expression, full body preparing to bring another one of their children into the world.

"I love you, Claire. So much."

Her face softened even under the discomfort. She reached up and kissed him lightly, letting her lips linger for a moment longer than necessary. "Love you too."

"You ready?" Claire let out a breath and nodded. He held her hand tighter and brought it to his lips. "Then, let's do this."

The End