Seven months married seemed at once like such a long time and the blink of an eye sometimes. Not that Lena would have had it any other way. It truly was amazing how much her life had changed since she had met Tommy - through the heartache of losing him so very soon, and the joy of finding him again, to the astonishingly domestic bliss they'd created together here on the beach of King's Cove. Their shop had done a wonderful trade over the summer; they'd even had a few orders for snowboards as the weather cooled and winter came to Rhy'Din. Out here on the beach, they'd had a few snow storms, but the salt and sand kept it from laying, protecting them from having to dig out the way they might have had to on the Grove. They had Jack and Jasmin for company, too, both couples astute enough to know when company was welcome and when it was not these days.

There were a couple of things, however, that she just had to share with her husband, and one of them was sitting on the backseat of her car as she pulled along the newly laid road down to the cove. "Now you just shush," she told her companion. "You're supposed to be a surprise, you know."

Though it was the dead of winter, there was no better time to order a custom-made surfboard so that it would be ready in time for summer. Thought they'd gotten off to a late and somewhat slow start, Tommy had enough orders lined up for snow and surfboards to keep both him and Lena busy through the winter and into the spring. He was never happier, it seemed, than when he was sanding and smoothing the board and getting it just right. That's what he was up to while Lena was out running her errand, holed up in his workshop, the stereo blaring the classic music of the 60s and 70s that he'd grown up with, with him singing along.

Counting on the sound of the wind and water to keep any stray sounds from carrying, Lena grinned to herself when she heard the music from the workshop, blessing her good luck. Plenty of space to put the various things that were crowding the trunk of the car in their appropriate places in the house, all the while corralling her new friend before he gave Asha a heart attack. That done, she headed for the workshop, bundled up against the cold, leaning around the open door to watch her husband at work with a warm grin.

He had cleaned up good since the free spirit that was Tommy had first arrived in Rhy'Din in his psychedelic hippie van. He'd shaved his beard revealing a youthful, boyish face and trimmed his hair enough so that the blond curls that covered his head no longer drooped in his face while he worked. More importantly, he was happy here at the Cove, and that happiness showed in everything that he did. It took a moment before he spied Lena at the door and paused in his sanding and grinding to smile over at her, straightening from his lean and pushing the protective goggles away from his face. "Hey, Midge!" he beamed. "You just get home?"

"Mmhmm," she nodded, smiling at her handsome husband as he looked up at her. "I found something in town I think you'll like, too. But you have to step away from the sander and come inside before you get to see it, Moonbeam." Her smile sparkled as she teased him; they were both as bad as each other when it came to work, only too easily sucked into working for hours on end without a break.

He pulled the goggles off his head and set them aside, reaching over to shut the music off so that they weren't shouting over the volume. "Oh' Is it a new nightie?" he asked, waggling those blond brows of his at her, a mischievous grin on his face.

Knowing full well what was waiting for him in the house, his guess sent his wife off into gales of laughter, sagging against the door-frame with her arms curled protectively about her stomach. "Oh ....oh ..." Snickering, she struggled for breath, wiping away a stray tear. "Oh, Moonbeam, now I can't wait until you see this ..."

The look of mischief on his face turned to puzzlement. "Okay, it's not a nightie. Is it a sandwich' Because I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" he told her with that dimpled grin of his again as he abandoned his work and crossed the workroom to her, reaching for her hands and pulling her toward him.

Still giggling, she went quite willingly into his arms, drawing her fingers against his cheek as she kissed him. "You can't eat it," she assured him affectionately. "Asha might try, but she won't be able to, either." Lena really wasn't very good at giving out decipherable clues. "So are you coming home for the night, Moonbeam, or am I curling up on the couch all by my lonesome?"

Now, those clues really confused him, especially the part about her cat. What was it she'd brought home with her, and what did it have to do with the cat' He still thought it was something to eat, or maybe it was just the fact that it was almost time for dinner that had him thinking about food. But no matter what it was, Tommy wasn't the type to let it trouble him for long. He smiled and leaned in to brush his nose against hers. "I could be convinced to call it quits for the night."

"I could make it worth your while," she murmured fondly, tipping her head back to nip at the end of his nose with a smile of her own. "I might have brought back pizza with me. And beer." She winked at him playfully, knowing from experience that he and Jack could both be convinced to do just about anything for pizza if offered at the right moment.

"Mmm, groovy," he replied, though he seemed in no hurry, snaking his arms around her to properly welcome her home with a kiss that left no doubt in her mind how much he adored her. As hungry as he was, pizza could wait a few minutes longer.

"Psychedelic, baby," she teased him in return before he caught her lips in a welcome home that was definitely reciprocated with no small amount of enthusiasm. Her fingers curled into his hair, tugging affectionately. "C'mon, baby, come inside where it's warm."

"Yes, dear," he replied with a grin, though he seemed in no hurry. He leaned his forehead against her a moment before brushing another kiss against her lips. "We better go inside before the pizza gets cold," he said, assuming that was what she had alluded to with her riddles. After all, it was something that Asha might try to eat, though he doubted she'd be too interested in beer.

"Mmm, cold pizza is nowhere near as good," she agreed in her mysterious way, tweaking at his jeans as she stepped back. "Put your toys away, baby, I've got something else for you to play with." She winked, giggling irrepressibly, and beckoned with one finger.

As Lena smiled in relief, the dog barked at the sound of her name, the wag of her tail increasing happily as she bounced on her paws, butting against Tommy affectionately. "I think that's a yes," Lena laughed softly, finally closing the back door and locking it securely. "She likes you."

Well, that was encouraging, anyway. Milo and Cosmo didn't seem to mind him so much, so maybe it really was just Asha who was the snooty one. "Where'd you find her?" he asked, laughing at the dog's enthusiastic response to his question, even if she didn't quite understand what it was he'd been saying.

"I asked Johnny and Liv where they found Bella, and they sent me to the shelter," she explained, moving to produce food and water bowls from where they had been stashed on her return. "I figured you'd get on well. She loves water, apparently."

"Does she" I wonder if I could teach her to surf," he replied with a mischievous grin, though he was entirely serious. "You still didn't answer my question, though," he said, as he gave the dog a final scritch before moving to his feet to face his wife.

"Which question was that?" she asked curiously. She couldn't recall a question having been asked that she hadn't answered, but then, she had been a little distracted worrying about whether or not her husband and the dog would hit it off.

Tommy wasn't sure if she really didn't recall the question or was simply evading it, but he wasn't afraid to bring it up again. "The question about it being good practice. Good practice for what?" he asked, taking a lean against the cupboard as he watched her prepare the dog's food and drink. It seemed a simple enough process of pouring out food into one bowl and filling another with water. He might think this dog business was a little more complicated than that when Luna woke him at the crack of dawn to go outside and do her business.

"Oh, um ..." She actually blushed, biting her lip as she handed him the food bowl. "Here, feed her ....And you know what I mean. They say that having a dog is good practice for, you know, having children." She shrugged innocently, moving to take her coat off finally.

"That's what I thought," he replied with a chuckle as he took the food bowl from her. "There isn't anything you need to tell me, is there, Midge?" he asked with a curious lift of his brows. If it was good practice, that didn't mean she was pregnant already, was she" He'd always assumed Jack and Jasmin would beat them to it, but sometimes these things happened unexpectedly, and their love life wasn't exactly stagnant.

Lena bit her lip, watching him as Luna danced around him, clearly more excited about food than wondering what her new owners were talking about. She'd already sniffed the cat food and declared it inedible, which was a blessing in itself. "There might be?" Lena leaned back against the counter, a worried look in her eyes as she waited to find out what the reaction might be. "I mean, I haven't seen a doctor or done a test, but ....I'm late."

Tommy wasn't quite sure what to think of that. Should he be happy at the prospect of becoming a father or terrified" "Late?" he echoed, uncertainly before turning his attention to the matter of feeding their new housemate. "But that doesn't mean anything, right' I mean, you might just be late without being pregnant?" It wasn't that he didn't want to have a family; it was only that the thought of it scared the crap out of him, despite his claims to wanting half a dozen sons.

She nodded, trapping her own hands behind her back against the counter to stop herself from fidgeting. "Yeah, I might be," she assured him, looking down at her feet. "I mean, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. I could just be stressed, or maybe I've caught something and don't know about it yet." Or I could be pregnant, and you look horrified by that idea.

He'd always thought they'd have a family. In fact, he'd talked about it more than once, but it had always seemed like a dream - like something that would happen sometime in the far-flung future, not now. They hadn't been married very long, but they were settling into King's Cove nicely. The shop was doing well, and he could honestly say they were happy, but were they ready to be parents" Was anyone ever really ready? "Oh," he replied quietly, unsure how to react when she didn't even know for sure.

"Oh's a good way of putting it." She nodded again, her eyes turning to Luna crunching away at her bowl full of biscuits. She had no idea how to react; she wanted a family with Tommy, but she wasn't sure if they were ready for it. And the uncertainty didn't help. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. I mean, it's not like we know for certain either way."

He felt suddenly guilty, knowing how much this must mean to her and how horribly selfish and unsupportive he was being - just like his father before him. Had the man ever even wanted children at all" Had he felt even a smidgen of happiness at his only son's birth' "I'm sorry, Midge. I don't mean to be unsupportive. It's just a bit of a shock, is all." He smiled as he turned her face toward him, the old happy-go-lucky Tommy making himself known in the sparkle of his eyes and dimpled smile on his face. It was just another of life's adventures, after all, wasn't it' "It's not like it's going to happen tomorrow. We have nine months to get used to the idea, right?"

"I didn't bring her back today to soften the blow or anything," she burst out, suddenly feeling the need to explain herself better. "Luna would have come home today no matter what, and I should have just kept my mouth shut. I'm sorry, baby, I shouldn't have said anything. It's not like we've even talked about it." She bit her lip, her feelings echoing his. She felt guilty for dropping it on him without something solid to hold onto one way or the other, knowing what little she did about his own family.

"No, you shouldn't feel like you can't talk to me, Midge. This is something that affects us both. It's just..." He frowned a little as he tried to put his finger on what it was that was bothering him about the possibility of having a child. Was it simply that he wasn't ready yet' That he thought he was too young, that there was still so much he wanted to do with his life, or did it go much deeper" He wasn't sure he wanted to think about it that hard. "I'm just not sure I'll make a very good father," he admitted with a shrug, crouching down on the floor to stroke Luna's fur as she ate her dinner.

"I know you will," Lena murmured softly, wishing she could reassure him somehow. "Look at the way you are with all the kids in our family, with all the kids who came to the beach over the summer. Look at how you are with Jack, and with Milo and Cosmo, and now with Luna. I wish you could see yourself the way I see you, Moonbeam. You wouldn't be worried at all."

"I'll take a shower after dinner," he promised, not too worried about his appearance. As a matter of fact, he had cleaned up quite a bit from the way he'd looked when he'd first arrived here in Rhy'Din over a year ago. "Maybe if you're lucky, I'll even let you wash my back," he teased back, pulling away from her so he could retrieve dinner from the oven before it became inedible.

Giggling, she turned away to rescue the dips and beer from the fridge. "Sounds like fun," she conceded with a smile. "Still kinda holding out for a bath, though. It's not like we haven't shared one with Milo before - Luna's probably better behaved when it comes to not jumping in on top of us."

He laughed at the thought of that. "Milo's a little too big to share the tub with us now! And there's a reason doors were invented, you know," he teased back, though he wasn't sure he wanted to listen to Luna whimpering outside the door, feeling lonely and left out. Whether Luna was better behaved than Milo remained to be seen - the dog was just a big overgrown puppy, really. He opened the oven, a little surprised to find it wasn't just pizza in there.

"Fine, I'll concede the bath tonight," Lena allowed with a warm smile, nudging Luna gently out of the way as she collected the whipped cream and a couple of forks and headed for their living room. "C'mon, my stomach's rumbling so loud, she's gonna start growling back at me."

It was a feast worthy of a celebration in Tommy's view, but he knew from experience that Lena seemed to enjoy spoiling him and knew just how to do it. "Yes, dear!" he called back as he grabbed some plates to serve up the pizza and fixings. Sometimes he swore she was on a quest to make him fat.

To be fair, she didn't treat him like this too often. But she'd felt as though today they both needed it, and with Luna newly in the house, the thought of cooking had not been a pleasant one. Asha was shooed off the couch easily enough as Lena sat down, torn between watching her husband come in, and watching a large Belgian sheepdog being nudged and pushed until she gave in and lay down with a snooty cat curled up against her belly.

"Well, it looks like she stays," Tommy said as he joined her in the living room and handed her a plate filled with pizza and potato wedges. If Asha had decided the big sheepdog was welcome in her home, it seemed the decision had been made for all of them. He wondered if the cat would be so welcoming of a small child.

"I hope she does," Lena smiled warmly, toeing off her shoes to curl up on the couch beside him. "You know she's yours, right' I know you and Asha don't exactly see eye to eye, and I thought you'd feel better to have a cuddly furry of your own." Because Asha did have a habit of deliberately sitting on Lena and glaring at Tommy in a very off-putting way.

"Mine?" he asked, arching both brows in surprise. He shrugged his shoulders in regarding to the cat. "She's just jealous because she had you first," he said, willing to share her with the cat, though it didn't seem the cat was all that accommodating.

"She's a snob," she laughed softly, tucking herself into his side as she munched on a wedge. "And yeah. I mean, Asha hangs out in the studio with me when I'm painting, but you don't get that companionship when you're working. Luna can do that. And she'll go into the water with you when I'm being a wuss about it being too cold."

He smiled, touched by her thoughtfulness, though he'd never really felt lonely tucked away in his workshop - he was always too busy to feel lonely for long and when he did, there was always Jack or Milo or Midget around to keep him company. "You know, when we do have kids, I don't want them to have the kind of childhood that we had. I'm not saying we should have a household full of dogs and kids, but I want them to have a happy childhood. I want them to grow up knowing they were loved and making their own choices about what they want to do with their lives."

"I know what you mean," she nodded in agreement. "I don't want our kids to be afraid of telling us how they're feeling, or what they want to do with their lives. I don't want them to be afraid at all. And they won't be, because we'll make sure they feel safe, and they know they're loved."

"My mother, God rest her soul, would have loved it here," Tommy remarked with a thoughtful frown as he plucked a potato wedge off his plate. He rarely, if ever, spoke of his past, much less his parents. He was more concerned with the future than the past, but the past was what had made him who he was, and he wasn't so callous that he didn't think of it on occasion.

"What was her name?" Lena asked very gently. She didn't want to push him into painful memories, but she'd gathered enough to understand that he had adored his mother. It seemed a shame not to know at least something about the woman who had shaped him in those first years of his life.

"Mom," he replied with a teasing smirk. it was good to know he could talk about her and still smile a moment later. "Her name was Anne," he replied, more seriously. "Would you like to see a photo?" he asked. He only had one, and he had apparently never thought to bring it out and show it to her.

She laughed a little at the tease, glad to see him smiling. Food forgotten for a moment, she stroked her fingers through his hair affectionately. "I'd like that," she nodded. "In a little while. I'm enjoying having you sitting down and calm for once." She smiled, brushing her lips to his cheek tenderly. "I love our quiet time together, Moonbeam."

He smiled, comforted by her touch and feeling happy and content in his new life, despite the grief and guilt he sometimes still felt over his mother's death. "It's a good thing Jack has Jaz, or we'd probably have had to adopt him," he remarked with a smirk, enjoying the quiet moment together as much as she was.

"I thought we already did," she teased playfully. "He's like a brother these days." She cuddled in, nibbling on a slice of pizza. She did love these quiet moments, however rare they seemed at times. Most days they were on the go from morning to night, and fairly often into the night as well, but every now and then, there was a chance to just sit and be. "When do you think he's going to be a dad?"

Tommy snickered at her reply, even as he chewed on a mouthful of pizza. There was no denying the fact that Jack and Tommy were like brothers, even if they weren't related by blood. He was glad to see his friend so happy these days, but just as glad he had his own house and wife to go home to. "I'm sure they're working on it." Tommy smirked as a thought occurred to him. "Should we try and beat them to it?" Of course, if Lena was pregnant, it was kind of a done deal already.

She laughed at the playful suggestion. "We could try, certainly," she agreed. Given the haphazard way Jaz didn't really keep track of her own period, it was a wonder Jack hadn't already been saddled with a baby to bounce around.

But even free spirited Tommy was responsible enough to know that competing with Jack and Jaz wasn't a good enough reason for having a baby. There was something else to consider, though. "It would be nice to have kids the same age," he remarked thoughtfully. Related through their wives now, if not through blood, their children would grow up cousins and with any luck, would be forge bonds as close as siblings.

"Baby, it wouldn't matter if they were decades apart in age," she pointed out affectionately. "They're gonna be close, because the four of us are close. Kids are like that." She nuzzled warmly to him, laughing as a sudden round of movement from the floor resulted in Asha on her lap and Luna on the couch beside Tommy, big furry head in his lap. "There, you see" She knows she's all yours."

"So I see," Tommy replied with a warm smile, reaching over to fondly scritch the fur between Luna's ears. "She's perfect, Midge. Thank you," he said, leaning close to thank his wife for the surprise with a soft kiss. The little group at the Cove was slowly expanding, first with the addition of furbabies. It was only a matter of time before that expansion included children. The real question was who be the first to welcome children into their lives - Jack and Jaz or Tommy and Lena.

((So much love ....Huge thanks to Tommy's player!))