"Clare Katherine," Taylor replied, sliding his arms around Kaylee's waist as they watched Miranda with their daughter.

"We can't really stop you, can we?" Kaylee smiled, leaning back into Taylor's arms as Miranda made short work of getting her hands on the newborn baby. Little Clare protested a little at being jostled around, but thankfully did not make her displeasure felt with a vocal display.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful girl," Rufus told them. "Sit down, I'll make the tea."

"Oh, hush!" Miranda scolded with a grin as she eased baby Clare out of her trappings and scooped her up into her arms with easy confidence. "Oh, Rufus! Isn't she adorable?" she asked, as she held the baby out for her husband's perusal. "You and Ro-Ro are going to be great friends. I just know it!" she told the tiny girl.

"She's lovely, dear, now stop giving the new parents a heart attack by holding her at arms' length," Rufus told his wife with a warm laugh, kissing her temple. He'd admire the baby in his own time. "Taylor, come into the kitchen and remind me how your wife likes her tea." In other words, come and tell me how you're feeling and get it all off your chest before you have to go home and bottle it again.

"Oh, pish. I'm not going to drop her," Miranda said, pulling the baby close to cradle her in her arms, as she tilted her head into his kiss. "Go on, shoo. Have your man talk in the kitchen while you make the tea, and don't forget the cookies!" she reminded him. "Come along, Kaylee, and tell me everything!" she said, as she linked arms with the younger woman to lead her into the living room. She turned briefly to stick her tongue out at her husband, as soon as he turned his back to her.

Smiling, Kaylee paused to twist about and hug Taylor fondly, knowing they'd both be looked after here before they were allowed to go home again. Deciding to show off Clare to Humphrey, Miranda and Rufus was possibly the best decision they'd made all week. "We won't be far," she promised Taylor in a low whisper, needing the reassurance herself. Despite the fact that the nightmare was definitively over, she still felt off-balance sometimes.

Taylor nodded and touched a kiss to Kaylee's cheek, assuring her quietly that everything would be fine.

"I'm sorry, Kay," Miranda found herself apologizing as the two of them got settled on the couch. "I don't get to fuss over babies very often," she explained, which was true, despite the abundance of children who lived at Maple Grove. Babies didn't stay little very long, as evidenced by their own little Rowan.

"No, I understand," Kaylee assured her, settling into the corner of the couch with a sigh of relief. "Newborns are special." After all, from her teenage years she'd been the babysitter of choice for most of the families on the Grove, and even now, she occasionally got a phone call asking her to watch someone's small. Kaylee was still a child at heart, in the best way. "I didn't realize how demanding they are, though."

"Sweetheart, we're right here, if you need any help. There are at least half a dozen people at the Grove who would be willing to help if you need it," Miranda reminded her cousin by blood and niece by marriage. She understood how hard it was to ask for help and how the young couple probably didn't want a dozen different people taking care of their daughter, but the offer was there if they needed it. It was more help than she'd ever had when she'd had her own Bethany.

"Oh, we'll take you up on that, I'm sure," Kaylee promised her affectionately. "I'm sorry we didn't call when it all kicked off. It just seemed like something we needed to do together, and not to be made the center of attention. I'm really not at home in hospitals, I wouldn't have been a very well-behaved new mom with visitors too."

"I understand. You don't have to explain," Miranda assured her as she turned her attention back to the tiny bundle in her arms. "She is just beautiful, Kaylee. You and Taylor must be so proud," she said, though that kind of went without saying. "What did the Old Man have to say?" she asked, looking over at Kaylee with a smirk on her face. She knew how much Humphrey adored children, especially babies, and the fact that they'd named her for his late wife must have pleased him.

"What didn't he say?" Kaylee laughed in answer. "Everything from scolding us for not telling him before to crying over her name. I think he's looking forward to lording it over Jon and Vicki that he's seen the new baby on campus and they haven't, silly old fool that he is. And he reminded me that the music room isn't used much, again."

"You'll use it again when you're ready," Miranda assured her with a smile. She didn't want to pry as to how she and Taylor were doing. She knew it was going to take time for them to heal from the terrors they'd suffered, but this little one would go a long way toward helping them heal. "You should know I'm very proud of you, Kaylee. You and Taylor both," she told her seriously, thinking she might need to hear it.

Kaylee's smile turned bittersweet. "I'm glad someone is," she said quietly, looking down at her daughter in Miranda's arms. "That sounds so bad, doesn't it' I'm glad we're doing well enough for you to be proud of us. We still slip ....well, I do. Tay's so much better at this living thing than I am."

"He just knows how to hide it better, and he's had more time to practice," Miranda assured her, knowing Taylor well enough to know that was true. Besides, he had to be strong for Kaylee's sake. It was a man thing. Rufus did it, too. "You have this little ray of sunshine to brighten every day, but I won't lie to you, Kay. Being a mother isn't always easy, and babies are demanding little creatures."

"I'd rather deal with her demands than with the nightmares in my own head," Kaylee pointed out gently. She didn't make much of it, but she still had trouble in the dark, especially when Taylor wasn't there. "I can be strong for her, when I can't be for myself."

Miranda frowned a little. There was only so much she could do to help soothe the younger woman's troubles. She was no healer, after all, but she did care for her almost as one might another daughter. "Has Taylor been working nights again?" she asked, though she assumed he was on parental leave at the moment.

Kaylee nodded. "His last rotation was nights," she said with a shrug. "I feel like an idiot for not being able to handle being alone in the dark, though. I'm a grown up, I should be able to handle it, even after everything that's happened."

"You could stay here when he has to work nights, if you like. There's no reason you have to be alone when we're here. You'd be more than welcome. We have the room," Miranda suggested, hoping Kaylee wouldn't say no, just because of some misguided sense of pride.

"I appreciate that," the younger woman smiled. "I'd like to try, at least, so you may end up with me knocking on the door at some ungodly hour when he goes back to work. Clare deserves a mother who doesn't jump at her own shadow after sunset."

"If I'm even half as good a father as you, I'll be happy," Taylor told him with a fond smile for the uncle who had been as much of a father to him as he'd needed, especially after his mother had died.

Rufus snorted. "You'll be a far better father than me," he pointed out. "You're here, for a start. Just ....don't forget to be yourself, Taylor. No parent can be a parent nonstop all the time. Everyone needs a little time off now and then, and it's not a weakness to embrace that."

"There are times when ..." Taylor frowned a little as he trailed off, unsure if he should continue. He didn't want to worry his uncle anymore than he wanted to worry Kaylee. He was happy now; they were both happy, but that terror would always be there, lurking in the dark for both of them, no matter how much they tried to ignore it.

"Times when ...?" Rufus never let him off the hook. "You've started, might as well finish. I'll stand here until the tea's cold and Miranda has stabbed me with a stiletto heel for letting it happen otherwise."

Taylor grimaced at the thought of that, but wouldn't put it past Miranda. Though no one could replace his own mother, he'd grown fond of her and knew she was good for his uncle. They belonged together the same way that he and Kaylee belonged together. It was as though it had been written in the stars or some such thing. He sighed, knowing Rufus wasn't going to let him off the hook, but also knowing he could probably half guess what he'd been about to say. "There are times when I wonder if this is real or a dream; times when I wonder who I am or who I'm supposed to be. Times when I wonder why me" Why was I the one who was left alive to witness and not someone else?" Survivor's guilt, they called it. He'd learned that through therapy, but knowing it and understanding it were two very different things.

"Why you?" Rufus turned to face him, leaning back against the counter, his arms crossed comfortably over his chest. "I know the answer to that. Because no one else could have helped her through it, when it was her time. No one else could have healed you the way she has; no one else could have healed her the way you have. Perhaps it's a delusion, but I am content to believe that you survived, both of you, so that you could reach this moment and every moment beyond it. So you could create a future, together, that will far outstrip the pains of the past."

A faint smile crossed Taylor's face - a smile that was full of hope and affection for the man who opened his heart and home to him after his mother had died. "I could say the same for you. You never thought you'd have this life, did you? A second chance at happiness and family. My mother would have been proud of us both," he told him with undisguised affection.

"Your mother almost beat me black and blue for sending Miranda away in the first place," Rufus admitted with a fond chuckle. He straightened, reaching over to hug an arm about Taylor's shoulders. "We both got second chances, and we're neither of us going to waste them. But unless we get the tea in that room reasonably soon, your aunt is going to withhold my bedtime story, and I really can't be having that."

Taylor chuckled, not bothering to shrug his uncle's arm from his shoulder as he might have when he was younger. "A bawdy bedtime story, I assume," he teased with a knowing grin. If he and Kaylee shared half the love and devotion that Rufus and Miranda shared, theirs would indeed be a happy marriage. "Did you ever think you'd be making tea and changing diapers?" Taylor teased further as he set the remaining tea fixings on a tray.

"Making tea, yes," Rufus admitted cheerfully, releasing his nephew from his grasp easily as he reached into a cupboard for the cookies Miranda had demanded. "Changing nappies, not so much. Although both are infinitely preferable to dealing with projectile vomit."

Taylor grimaced at the thought of that. "That doesn't sound pleasant," he remarked, though in his mind there was very little that could easily disgust him. After all, he had seen far worse in his lifetime than soiled diapers and spit up, and these were normal things, everyday things. "I suppose we will just have to survive it," he added with a smile that assured Rufus all would be well, one way or another. He and Kaylee were survivors, after all.

"I have every faith in you," Rufus chuckled, loading everything onto a tray. "Let's find out if the ladies have made each other cry yet, shall we?"

"I think we're more likely to find them laughing," Taylor remarked, as he lead the way back to where Miranda and Kaylee were waiting in the living room, with baby Clare still cradled in Miranda's arms.

"What took you so long?" she asked as the pair of men joined them.

"It's a serious business, making tea," Rufus explained cheerfully, setting the tray down on the coffee table. "Really, angel, you should know that by now. Have I neglected that part of your education so terribly?"

"Oh, no. I am constantly reminded of how crucial tea is to your daily existence," Miranda replied, with a dramatic roll of her eyes. It was no big secret that Rufus was English, and everyone knew how fond the English were of their tea. No matter what was going on in the world, everything stopped for tea.

"Really?" Kaylee laughed disbelievingly.

"Tea is essential to my continued ability to function," Rufus assured her, lifting the teapot. "Shall I be mother?"

Kaylee cackled at this, looking to Miranda for support.

Behind his back, Miranda was lip-synching his every word by rote without saying a thing. She had heard it often enough, after all. "Some people prefer coffee, you know, Rufio," she reminded him, but did not refuse the tea. She'd become accustomed to tea because of him, but there was nothing like a cup of coffee to get one going in the morning.

"Coffee has its place, and don't think I don't know you're mocking me when I'm not looking, woman," Rufus informed his wife fondly. "You will be repaid for it when you're not holding an infant." He flashed a smile at Miranda, handing over her tea, confident she could juggle a cup and a newborn easily.

"Who me?" Miranda replied, feigning innocence. "Would I do such a thing?" she asked, though they all knew she was guilty. "I'll be looking forward to it," she told him with a grin before taking the tea in one hand, the baby nestled in the other. "Sit down, Taylor. You're making me nervous!"

"Yes, you always do such a thing," Rufus chuckled, giving his nephew a nudge toward the couch where Kaylee was sitting. "Here, take these with you," he suggested, handing Taylor a couple more cups of perfectly made tea before turning his attention to his own cuppa.

Kaylee giggled. "When I first met you, I never would have imagined you would be so happy being domesticated," she said wonderingly. "And you!" she added, looking at Miranda. "You're just effortlessly good at everything."

"I'm pretty sure all babies are like that," he assured her, though he hadn't had a lot of experience with babies before this. He knew they were demanding little things, especially when they were hungry, but he didn't think that would last forever.

"Yeah, but this one's ours," Kaylee pointed out. "I hope Sam forgives us for having her soon, I miss having him to cuddle in bed with you." Their dog had been delighted with the baby right up until the moment she had thrown up on him, at which point he had decided he was never entering a room containing her ever again.

"He'll get over it eventually," Taylor assured her, though he wasn't too sure of that either. He hoped Sam would grow to accept her as one of his pack eventually, like Cosmo and some of the other dogs at the Grove had with their own masters' children. "I wonder if there's something we can do to help them bond," he mused aloud.

"Force him not to be such a coward, maybe," she suggested thoughtfully. "He won't like it to begin with, but shutting him in with us and Clare, in one room, might be the only way to restart their bonding process."

"You don't think he's jealous, do you?" Taylor asked, worriedly. In a way, Sam had been their first child - an orphaned stray Taylor and found and rescued even before Kaylee had found herself pregnant.

"He might be, a little," Kaylee considered, turning over the idea in her mind. "Maybe we should stop hovering over Clare so much and give him some more snuggle time. He'll love her when she's big enough to play with, but right now, she just steals us away from him because he won't come near her."

"He's just a big baby himself," Taylor remarked with a chuckle, remembering how the bedraggled dog had followed him home from work one day. "Maybe you're right. Maybe if we give him a little extra attention, he'll get over it. Besides, I want them to like each other."

"He liked her before she threw up on him," Kaylee remarked in amusement. "That was my fault, though. I had her aimed away from me." She chuckled softly, nestling closer against him. "We can do this, can't we?"

Taylor chuffed. "Piece of cake!" he declared with a reassuring smile, though he knew it was not as simple as that, but considering everything they'd been through together and separate - all the terror and violence and nightmares - there really was nothing he thought they couldn't do, so long as they were together. "Trust me. We're gonna rock this, Kay," he added, cupping her chin and tilting her head up for a soft and reassuring kiss.

She smiled into his kiss, warmed and reassured by his confidence. She didn't know where she would be without him, and it was not a thought she wanted to contemplate for long. The kiss, however, was interrupted by the sound of returning footsteps.

"If I can carry two toddlers, angel, I can do a toddler and a newborn," Rufus was saying cheerfully, clearly defending his initial proposition to get Ro up all by himself while still holding baby Clare.

Miranda had no doubt Rufus could do it, but it left her feeling empty-handed and just a little bit useless. Nevertheless, she was not about to rain on his parade. He'd been robbed of Bethany's childhood, and she knew how much it meant to him to enjoy his time with all the little people in his life. "Very well, Mr. Mom. I'm going to order out and insist that Taylee stays for dinner. What do you think of that?"

Leaning backwards, Rufus peeked into the living room with a grin. "I think you're not likely to get any complaints," he told his wife fondly. He knew she wanted to hold a baby, but he did appreciate the opportunity to show off a bit. "Here, hold the littler one. Ro and I are still discussing the merits of not wearing a nappy."

"Yes, dear," Miranda replied, obediently and with the barest hint of a smirk, making no objection as she took the smaller of the two girls from him. "Well, now ....Aren't you the most content little thing," she cooed at her, just as the little one's eyes opened, blinking as she looked up into an unfamiliar face and started to whine in displeasure or hunger. Miranda laughed. "Maybe I spoke too soon."

Rufus snorted with laughter. "Milk on tap in that direction," he said, pointing toward the living room. Ro giggled, clinging onto his collar as he looked back at her. "Let's go and seriously contemplate the toilet, shall we, little tree?"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Miranda told Rufus with a grin. Not even a crying baby was able to ruffle her feathers much. She caught him by the arm and touched a kiss to his cheek. "I love you, you know," she told him quietly, before poking a gentle finger at Ro's tummy. "Be good for your Papa, and don't take too long!"

Chubby little fingers waved in her direction as Rufus bore Lei's little girl into the bathroom, audible in his attempts to make actually using a toilet seem interesting and exciting.

By now, though, Clare's crying was getting insistent enough that Taylor and Kaylee couldn't ignore it. "Oh, stick a sock in it, little monster," Kaylee called from the living room.

"If you had a bottle ready, I could feed her for you," Miranda reminded the new mother as she rejoined the younger couple in the living room, jiggling the newborn in her arms to keep her patient a few moments longer.

"Yeah, yeah," Kaylee grumped, though she was smiling as she sat up, pulling her oversized sweater off over her head. Hairpins went flying as she did so. "Oops ....I'll pick them up," she promised, puffing to blow her shortened hair out of her eyes as she made the arrangements for Clare's meal, so to speak.

"I'll get them!" Taylor said, stooping to find and gather up her hairpins before Ro got hold of one and tried to eat it.

"Trust me, Kaylee. I know it's exhausting now, but it will get easier," Miranda assured her while she jiggled the baby and waited for the young mother to get ready to feed her young daughter.

"I hope so," Kaylee sighed softly, reaching up to take Clare and feed the little noisemaker. She smiled gratefully as Taylor stooped to gather the pins. "I thought cutting my hair would make this easier, not end up endangering the lives of every other small child on the Grove."

"Don't worry so much!" Miranda told her again with a smile. "Besides, I like it. It looks good on you," she told her, regarding the haircut. Taylor found as many hair clips as he could before rummaging in the ever-present diaper bag for a burp cloth. "I never realized how much paraphernalia babies required."

With the noise cut down again, Kaylee visibly relaxed, tucking a cushion under her arm as she eased back. "Gods, I know what you mean," she agreed with Taylor. "I thought when I was babysitting that parents were just dropping off everything just in case."

"Well, if there's anything you need, we probably have it around here somewhere," Miranda put in, as Rowan was no longer a newborn and well on her way to being a toddler. She and Rufus weren't planning on having any more children, but they did keep some things around the house in case of visits such as this.

"Never say never," Miranda told him. After all, she had yet to meet a teenager who had not learned to use the potty yet. "They'd accepted our invitation to dinner, so now we just have to decide what we want," she explained further, not just for Rufus' benefit.

Rufus caught Taylor's eye, smirked for some reason, and straightened his expression once again. "Oh, I think this calls for pizza, don't you?" he suggested to his wife. An unheard of suggestion from him, but he knew his nephew had a weakness for that particular foodstuff.

"Pizza?" Miranda echoed, about to point out how Rufus wasn't overly fond of it, when she remembered that Taylor was. It was strange sometimes to think that her nephew had been raised away from the England Rufus thought of as home. "Oh, right, pizza! Well, decide what you want on it and call it in!"

"Who, moi"" Rufus asked innocently. "Darling, we have guests. One for them, one for us, and plenty of leftovers."

Kaylee snorted with laughter. "Give me the menu," she conceded. "I'll put one together for us, if you two will stop wrangling over what you want for a second."

"I prefer veggies," Miranda said, though she knew everyone had their own preferences. She didn't much care what they ordered. If she didn't like the toppings, she'd just pick them off. "What about you, Ro-Ro?" she asked her daughter, who was just staring to make herself heard. "What would you like on your pizza?"

"Wow, is she chewing well enough for pizza now?" Kaylee asked in surprise, taking the menu that Rufus passed her.

"She can't - or won't - do crusts," Rufus told her in amusement. "But apparently a good deep pizza is the best treat in the world. I'm blaming you for that, by the way," he added to Taylor with a grin.

"How is it my fault?" Taylor asked, curiously, glancing at the baby on his shoulder as she finally gave up a burp.

Miranda laughed. "He's just jealous she isn't too fond of fish and chips yet."

"No one in this city can batter a haddock properly," Rufus insisted as he sat back, watching Kaylee peruse the menu thoughtfully. He glanced at Taylor as he was questioned. "Well, it must be your fault, lad. No one else in her immediate family is addicted to pizza as a sixth food group."

"I'm from New York," Taylor explained simply with a shrug of his shoulders. "Okay, while you three are debating toppings, I'm going to go rescue Sam," he said, handing little Clare back to her mother. "Is Andy going to be okay with that?" he asked, looking to Miranda to see if her cat would deign to allow a visit from their dog.

Kaylee giggled at Taylor's explanation for his food preferences as she took Clare onto her own shoulder once again, brushing her cheek against the wobbly head that nestled into the crook of her neck.

"Andy will be fine with that," Miranda assured her husband's nephew. And if he wasn't, he'd just hide under a bed somewhere and not come out until everyone was gone.

"If he can handle three insane toddlers, he can handle one clingy dog," Rufus added cheerfully, rising to locate the phone. "Give Sam a quick run between there and here, and we can feed him, too."

"Will do!" Taylor said, rising to his feet.

It wasn't that far to Lilac Cottage where Taylor and Kaylee made their home, so it was a given he'd be back in time for pizza. From there, they'd spend a few pleasant hours with their extended family before heading home to get ready for bed. All in all, it had been a pleasant day out, and they were both grateful for the love and support of family. They'd both come full circle, in a way, finally able to close the door on a very dark chapter thanks to the arrival of their baby girl. The would always be shadows in their lives, but from now on, they would always look to the light.