((Follows on directly from All's Well that Ends Well.)) ___________________

"You know," Vicki was saying as she bent to pull the stick from Cosmo's mouth with no little effort - the collie wasn't keen on letting go of the impressive piece of brush he'd unearthed for his game, "I didn't really get a proper chance to thank you for coming to get us." She drew her hand back and threw the stick, sending Cosmo bounding after it with a cheerful bark and wagging tail. She smiled over at Johnny. "The least you could do is let me raid Jon's wardrobe for you. You can't be comfortable walking around in skin-tight lycra and nothing else. Not that you aren't studly in it, of course." She chuckled, teasing Johnny as easily as she teased everyone else she came into contact with.

Johnny watched as the dog bounded off after the stick. He and Cosmo had played this game more than once, only Johnny had to be careful not to set the stick on fire. He'd learned that the hard way. He shrugged, seeming as comfortable and at ease in his skin-tight uniform as Vicki's husband did in Armani. "I kind of have to wear it, Vicki. It's the only thing I own that doesn't go up in flames." Admittedly, unless she was a comic book fan, she probably didn't know very much about him or his particular talents.

"You should get other clothes made in the same material, then," she suggested with a grin, glancing up in time to see the dog accelerating back toward her. "Oh, cripes ..." She stepped smartly behind the Human Torch, and Cosmo crashed into him, all paws and fur and his precious stick clutched in his jaws as Vicki laughed impishly.

"It's not that..." Johnny broke off as Cosmo came rushing back toward them, careening into Johnny with the retrieved stick. Johnny laughed, flashing a grin over his shoulder at Vicki, who had smartly taken refuge behind him. "He can do this all day, you know," Johnny informed her, as if Vicki didn't know this about her own dog. "He's a good dog. Smart as a whip." Johnny leaned over to rub the dog behind an ear and coax the stick out of Cosmo's mouth.

"Oh, I know," she agreed with a smile, sticking her tongue out at the dog as she came out from behind the superhero she'd been hiding behind. "I think you're the only person with as much energy as he has, to be honest." She eased herself down onto the cool stone of a nearby bench, watching the pair of them playing, and her smile softened a little. "Is Liv okay?" she asked quietly. "I thought she'd still be here when we woke up, especially with you still around."

Johnny turned in place, pulling the stick as he did so, Cosmo following, neither of them seeming to get dizzy. The smile on his face faded a little when Vicki asked about Liv, and they were both reminded of the night before. "She's blaming herself. The old man was a little hard on her, but she'll be okay," he said as he came to a halt, crouching down and ruffling Cosmo's ears until he gave up the stick, the two of them flopping on the ground, despite the cold, Cosmo warmed by his spot on Johnny's lap. "How are you?" Johnny asked, looking over at Vicki, with a surprisingly concerned expression on his face.

The redhead sighed a little, half-smiling at the plop of man and dog onto the grass. "I was hoping Humph wouldn't take it out on her," she admitted reluctantly, knowing that the Old Man could be a tyrant when he was in a bad mood. "None of it was her fault; we're the ones who snuck out on security." She shook her head, gently rubbing her hand over the bump at her waist as he met her eyes, asking after her own state. Her half-smile returned, one hand rising to touch the dark bruise that marred the pale skin of her throat for a moment. "I'll live," was her reply, short and to the point. "I got a scare, and it'll take a while to get over that. But I can't show it too deeply, not until I know Jon won't take it to heart and try to divorce me for my own protection."

Johnny didn't really know Vicki or Jon enough to know whether Vicki was being facetious or serious and the look on his face showed it. "I don't think he'd do that, would he" He adores you." But then, there had been a time when he'd told Liv it was too dangerous for her to be with him, so he kind of understood what the man was going through. He frowned as his eyes followed her touch to the dark bruise at her throat. "Wish I'd gotten there sooner," he told her soberly as his fingers scritched at Cosmo's fur.

"So do I," Vicki told him honestly. It was a strength and a weakness in her character that kept her honest unless a lie would do more good; it gave her sincerity when she faced up against Jon's tendency toward angst. "Not that it really would have changed anything. The damage was done as soon as I knew what she was planning to do to me. Nothing's worse than my own imagination." She didn't comment further on what Jon might or might not do to keep her safe, not wanting to air too much of what was truly private, instead lowering her eyes to Cosmo, who had abandoned his stick in favor of rolling onto his back and inviting Johnny to rub his belly.

"I'm sorry, Vicki," Johnny told her seriously and sincerely, his expression conveying the deeper feelings he hid from most of the world but allowed a select few he trusted to see. "Liv is sorry, too. If there's anything we can do..." He trailed off, leaving the offer open and out there if she cared to take advantage of it. There wasn't much more he could do than that really. He didn't really feel the kind of guilt Jon or Liv did, but being who he was, he wished he could have helped more than he had. He was supposed to be a hero, after all, but he couldn't be a hero if he didn't know when people needed his help. He wondered if he should do something about that. For a moment, Johnny forgot about Cosmo, but Cosmo was hard to forget and soon, Johnny's all-too-warm fingers were rubbing Cosmo's furry belly to the dog's utter contentment.

"Just do what you've always done," the redhead told him quietly, her expression warm through her smile. "Don't hold onto the guilt, either of you. You're our friends, not our keepers." Her smile deepened at the sound of Cosmo's happy little sighs under the absent-minded affection being handed out to him. "And, um ....I'm not sure quite how, but I know I'd feel a lot better if you had some kind of direct link to us. Maybe the GG folks can set you up with a comm link or something?"

He arched a brow at her idea, nearly reading his mind. He already had a comm link to the Avengers. It couldn't be that hard to link it up somehow to Jon and Vicki's cellphones or something, but science and technology had never been his thing. That had been Reed's area of expertise. "That's where Liv went, to Granger Conglomerate R&D. Probably to get some new-fangled security stuff to make sure you two stay safe." That was about as scientific as Johnny's brain got. It wasn't that he was stupid; it just wasn't his thing.

"Let me guess ....she didn't have a choice about it," Vicki snorted, making an educated guess about who and where this little sidetrip for Jon's solemn little P.A. had come from. A snore reverberated from the collie under Johnny's hand, knocking any thought of continuing the serious conversation out of her mind as she laughed. "You know, I think he might be considering moving in with you."

Johnny smiled as the subject returned to that of the collie who he'd somehow managed to put to sleep. "I don't think so. It's pretty clear who his master is. I'm just a temporary replacement." His smile faded a little, his fondness for the dog obvious by the look on his face. "I've never had a dog," he told her, purposely not going into why. Ironically, neither had Jon. It was something the two men had in common, though neither knew it yet.

He smirked a little at Vicki's reply. "Unless your name is Sue Storm, I doubt you're invisible!" The mention of his sister's name brought a fresh pang of homesickness, but he did his best to hide it. "Liv told me she was just waiting for me to ask her. She was half asleep when she said it, but still. So, I know she'll say yes. It's not that. I just....don't know what to do. Do I buy her a ring or do I have her pick one out' Should I take her some place special" Long engagement or short engagement' Here or back home?" There were just so many decisions to make, though he didn't really have to decide it all at once or all by himself.

"Maybe you should ask your sister," Vicki suggested gently. She hadn't seen the pang that crossed his face, but she knew from experience that being away from a close member of your family for an extended time could be painful. She was very lucky that Jon had taken her to see her father three times in the past year, and seemed determined to keep up that regularity in the foreseeable future. "Liv's got a problem with feeling guilty or thinking she doesn't deserve effort or money being spent on her, though, doesn't she" In which case ....buy her a ring, don't take her shopping for one. She'll choose the cheapest to try and keep you from spending what you want to spend on her. Trust me."

"My sister?" he echoed, uncertainly, thoughtfully. "She'll just tell me to come home. She didn't want me coming here in the first place," he moped. "She's pregnant. Probably getting ready to pop anyday now." Though his words sounded sarcastic, his tone of voice was a little bit sad, and it was obvious to anyone who knew Johnny well that the one person he missed more than anyone else was his sister Sue. "She raised me after Mom died. I gave her a lot of grief, but I just want her to be proud of me, you know?"

"What makes you think she isn't proud of you?" the redhead countered lightly, tilting her head to one side as she looked over at him. "Do you really think she'd tell you to go back to Earth if she knew how you feel about Olivia" Do you really think she's that selfish?"

His fingers nervously scritched the dozing dog in his lap as he tried to answer that question. He shrugged his shoulders, unsure how much Vicki knew about his life story. Back home, it was on the nightly news broadcast. "The Fantastic Three just doesn't have the same ring to it." But then, they'd probably just find someone else to take his place. "She thinks I'm irresponsible, stubborn, reckless, but I've changed." He paused a moment before adding, "I think."

Vicki's smile made itself known again in the face of his wondering about himself. "Sod the brand name," she told him. "I very much doubt your sister cares at all how she and that team are perceived by the media. I'd imagine she wants you to be happy." Her smile widened to a grin as she looked him over. "And someone who is irresponsible, stubborn, and reckless wouldn't be worrying so much about his sister's opinion of him, or exactly how to propose to his girlfriend."

What Vicki said made sense, though he'd never thought of it that way before. "Maybe I'll talk to Lucy. She knows Liv best." If he was serious about proposing before the year was out, he was going to have to get his a$$ in gear soon because time was running out.

"Or maybe you can trust your own instincts a little," she suggested gently, rubbing her fingers through the short crop of the Human Torch's hair as though he were her brother. "She's in love with you, not her sister or me or your sister's opinion of how you should do something. Try and remember that, hmm?"

Johnny arched a brow at Vicki's almost brotherly ruffling of his hair, a faint shade of pink tinging his cheeks, along with an almost shy smile, very uncharacteristic of the brash Johnny Storm and showing a different side of himself, a side he allowed few to see. He nodded his head, looking more boy than man. "Yeah, okay. I'll figure it out somehow. Thanks for listening," he told her with a small, thoughtful frown, back to square one. This proposing thing was harder to figure out than he thought, but maybe she was right. He should just do something that was completely Johnny Storm.

Before he could say another word, another voice was heard coming from the direction of the house. "What happened to Cosmo?" Jon asked with a wide grin on his face as he approached the pair, noting the snoring dog on Johnny's lap. "You two wear him out?"

She winked confidently at Johnny. "You'll think of something. And, you know, it helps that you already know she's going to say yes, right?" She was still grinning when she heard Jon's voice behind her, tipping her head back to watch her husband approach upside down, the tips of her hair brushing the ground. "Oh, you know me, love," she declared cheerfully. "I knocked him out with my powerful personality. That, or Liv's onto a winner snuggling up to Johnny every night."

Johnny was about to open his mouth and point out something else when Vicki's husband chose that moment to interrupt. Jon chuckled at Vicki's reply. His conversation with Humphrey seemed to have had the exact opposite effect on his mood as it had on Johnny's. While Johnny and the old grump had argued, Jon and his uncle seemed to have reached some kind of understanding. "Still hungry' I've kept you and Junior waiting long enough, I think," Jon said as he came up beside Vicki and dropped a kiss against her forehead, once it was no longer upside down anyway.

Johnny watched them curiously, seeing the same thing in them that they saw in him and Liv - a couple deeply and hopelessly in love with each other. "You already know it's a boy?" he asked, curiously, not knowing Jon had taken it upon himself to refer to the baby as Junior, though he had no idea whether the baby was a boy or a girl, as yet.

"Ravenous, as well you know," Vicki informed her husband, smiling up at him. For a moment, Johnny and Cosmo might as well not have been there, the world wandering away for just a few seconds as Jon met her gaze. It was part of their appeal to the media on Earth, this utter disregard for what other people thought when they saw them together, and unknown to Johnny, the Human Torch had exactly the same quality that he shared with his quiet girlfriend. Vicki blinked, looking down at Johnny again as she realised he'd spoken, offering a grin in apology for not answering straight away. "Oh, not at all," she laughed, moving to rise to her feet with only a slightly awkward stretch. "He just doesn't like calling it a spunk pebble in front of other people."

"Spunk pebble?" Jon echoed, chuckling as he offered Vicki a hand to help her to her feet. "You're going to have to translate again, darling," he teased, smiling warmly at his wife. Ironically, both he and Johnny were attached to women who were originally from England and who now and then slipped into slang that neither understood, Johnny being from New York and Jon from Rhy'Din.

Johnny only grinned, making no move to get up from the ground, loathe to disturb the sleeping Cosmo. He had nothing better to do until Liv got back, after all, except maybe get more grief from Uncle Scrooge Granger. "You two go on. I think I may join Cosmo for a nap."

"You sure you want a translation?" Vicki teased laughingly, ruffling Johnny's hair again as she slipped by him. "Hey, you could always walk him down to the offices and pick Liv up, you know," she suggested to the Human Torch. "Or you could terrorise Lucy in the kitchen into letting you play with dinner." She curled her fingers into Jon's grasp as she stepped to his side, hugging her husband's arm to herself comfortably. "And as for you ....spunk is sperm, stud muffin. Work it out for yourself."

Johnny's expression perked up and if it wasn't for the dog on his lap, he probably would have hopped excitedly to his feet. "Can I?" he asked brightly, like a kid who'd just been given permission to do something he'd been wanting to do but thought was not allowed. "You don't think they'd mind?" he continued, wondering how the folks at Granger Conglomerate would feel about him and Cosmo showing up unexpectedly and unannounced. He knew Liv, at least, would be happy to see them.

Jon chuckled. "Nah, go terrorize them for a while. Tell Caro I said it was okay." He linked his fingers with Vicki's, relieved that she still seemed in good spirits. His stomach growled loudly reminding them both that it was pushing lunch time and they still hadn't had breakfast.

"A cosie..." He couldn't help but smirk. "There you go again. Can you please translate that, Mrs. Granger?" It wasn't often that he asked for a translation, usually getting the drift of what she was saying, whether he knew the various words and phrases or not. "Humphrey made sure to remind me that I shouldn't try to be too macho and take all the worrying on myself," he informed her with the tiniest of frowns, knowing he was guilty as charged.

She smiled again, drawing him off the sidewalk and into the clinic easily, aware that for the next half hour at least there would be two very uncomfortable security guards lurking in a waiting room full of pregnant women and genuinely enjoying the mental image that came with that thought. "See, I told you he was smarter than he looked," she teased her husband gently, giving her name over the desk to the clerk who looked up as they approached. "Partnership, remember" And a cosie, you know ....a tea cosie" Knitted thing that goes over a teapot to keep it warm?"

"I never said he wasn't smart," Jon remarked, regarding Humphrey. "He's got a rough exterior, but inside, he's a big softie." He laughed at the mental image her definition of cosie produced in his mind. "A tea cosie for an entire house" That's a lot of yarn, Vicki. I'd hate to think of all the sheep that would have to be sheared to make something like that." He glanced a little nervously around, noting that there, other than for himself and the security guards, they were mostly surrounded by pregnant women. Of course, it wasn't the first time Jon had been here, so he wasn't all that surprised, but he thought the security men might not feel the same way. He leaned close to whisper in Vicki's ear. "Think I should tell them to wait outside?"

The grin she gave him was downright evil. "Nope," she whispered back, looping her arm about his waist as her own lips brushed his ear. "If they want to follow us everywhere, they'll just have to get used to being in embarrassing places where any minute a random woman might go into labor right in front of them for a while." She grinned, glancing over the desk as the clerk directed them toward the waiting area outside third ultrasound suite, one floor up.

"So long as they don't follow us to the bedroom," Jon grinned back, a polite nod to the desk clerk as she directed them toward the elevator - or stairs, whichever they preferred. Jon hated hospitals. Every visit to a hospital, it seemed, had only brought him pain, but these visits were different. These visits were mostly happy occasions where the doctor assured them that everything was going fine and they were able to hear their child's heartbeat and see pictures of what was going on behind Vicki's burgeoning belly. Happy memories to replace the sad ones. Jon just hoped this visit went as well as all the others before it. He wrapped a had around Vicki's as he led her toward the elevator. Even though it was only one floor up, he didn't want her exerting herself anymore than she had to.

Steered toward the elevator, Vicki chuckled to herself as one of their shadows accelerated to be able to enter the same elevator as they did, wondering what would happen if the lift broke down and she went into labor. She was one of those people who didn't get into elevators with pregnant women for exactly that reason, so naturally that scenario was uppermost in her mind. She leaned against Jon's side as they waited for the metal cage to lower to them, sighing contentedly. "What, are you not into having an audience, love?" she teased him cheerfully. "They might learn something."

Jon's thoughts were nothing like Vicki's. It would never occur to him in a million years that the elevator might get struck and he might be forced into delivering his own child. Maybe as Vicki's due date grew closer, that worry would settle in, but right now, all he was worried about was that the baby was healthy, especially after everything Vicki had been through. "If they want to learn something, they can go see Fifty Shades...[/i[," he replied, not even bothering to keep his voice down - perhaps a warning to the men shadowing them.

She laughed fondly, hugging Jon's arm against herself as the elevator arrived and disgorged the usual array of slightly harrassed-looking staff and a couple of visitors. Squeezing his hand, she stepped forward into the elevator, leaning into a corner to make room for the others who stepped in with them - the bodyguard conveniently placing himself between Jon and his wife, and everyone else in the little space. "Well, I certainly learned a few things from Fifty Shades..." she grinned to her husband teasingly.

Jon tensed just a little as a small crowd of people stepped out of the elevator and they stepped inside. Elevators were small, cramped spaces, and when they were filled with people, they were even more so, but they were only going one floor up. They'd be there before they knew it. He arched a curious brow at Vicki, returning the grin playfully. "Oh, really' And just what did you learn" I thought you were an expert on that subject by now."

"Well, I did have an unfair advantage," she chuckled, walking her fingertips up his chest as she smiled at him. The rest of the elevator could have been empty for all the attention she paid to them. "I was rather heavily involved in the research. And just think ....in a few months, we'll be able to check out some of the really wild stuff."

He chuckled as he caught her fingers. She might be ignoring the crowd in the elevator, but he was acutely aware of the curious glances and raised eyebrows, though no one was brave enough to say a word. "Right, in between feedings and diaper changes," he replied with a smile. He wasn't so naive that he didn't know the focus of their marriage was about to change from them to a newborn baby, but it didn't worry him a bit. He also knew it wasn't going to be easy, but having a family of his own was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, and he was determined to do a better job at it than his own father had.

"Shush, don't burst my bubble yet," she laughed, hugging into him as the elevator came to a halt, their suit-clad shadow elbowing a path for them out of the little space and onto the main floor, where his colleague was already waiting, only slightly out of breath from his run up the stairs. Dropping her hand into Jon's once again, Vicki picked her way past the pair, heading for the familiar line of seats outside the familiar door. "If we get the chance to know whether it's a boy or a girl today, do you want to?" she asked him suddenly, lowering herself down onto a padded seat to wait for the technician to call them.

Jon followed her out of the elevator, only giving the security men a brief glance before leading Vicki toward the waiting area. He took a seat beside her and drew her hand toward his mouth for a loving caress of lips. "I don't know. It's a bit like knowing what you're getting for Christmas before you've had a chance to unwrap your present, isn't it?" It was tempting to find out whether the baby was going to be a girl or a boy, and it made perfect sense to do that, but in the end, it was going to be Vicki's decision, not his. "What do you think?"

"Well, we already know it's going to be a baby," she laughed teasingly, nestling fondly into his side as they sat together, blatantly ignoring the suited shadows who had taken up places by each of the exits to the waiting area. "I don't know. People go on about keeping the surprise, but I don't mind. I'd like to be able to tell people that I'm having a boy or a girl, but I don't mind not knowing, if you would rather not. We both know I couldn't keep it to myself if I did know!"

Jon frowned thoughtfully as he considered the pros and cons of the situation. There seemed to be more pros than cons in his estimation, the only con being that there would be no element of surprise. "Do you have a preference?" he asked, curiously. Though he'd been calling the baby Junior, he really had no preference, only wanting the baby to be healthy.

Again, Vicki laughed. "Jon, that hardly matters now, does it?" she asked him in amusement. "It's not as though I can hold it hostage until it changes sex. But no, I don't have a preference either way." She rested her cheek comfortably against his shoulder, fingers playing with his patiently. "We're going to do this all over again, and there's a fifty/fifty chance we'll get at least one of each."

Jon frowned a little as his glance strayed to their linked fingers, feeling Vicki's head warm against his shoulder, the sound of her voice soft and soothing. "I know I've been calling the baby Junior, but the truth is it doesn't matter what we have. I'd be just as happy with a girl as a boy. All that matters is that you're safe and the baby is healthy. That's all." He turned his head toward hers, trying hard to keep his emotions in check, at least, while they were in public, but she knew him well enough now to notice the way his blue eyes were shining with unshed tears.

Vicki tore her fascinated gaze away from the little face on the indistinct screen, genuinely enchanted by the sight of their child right there and not suffering any ill-effects from their unpleasant awakening the day before. She looked up at Jon enquiringly. "Well ....I think I'd like to know, but only if you do, love."

Jon was transfixed by the image on the screen, watching as the baby moved slightly, just enough to prove that it was, indeed, real. He looked as amazed as he felt and nodded numbly at the technician's question, never taking his eyes from the screen, not wanting to miss a single second of this private and all-too-rare look at their child before it was born. "Yes, I'd like to know," he replied, having an instant change of heart, too excited to resist the temptation to find out for sure if they were having a son or a daughter, though he was sure he'd love each just the same.

The baby stretched as Jon spoke, reaching toward the press of the transducer to give it a push in return. Like Jon, Vicki was entranced, her gaze returning to the screen promptly once her query to her husband was answered. And the technician was grinning to himself again; you saw this a lot when you worked the OB radiography suites. The transducer moved carefully back over the curve of Vicki's belly, seeking out the perfect view to be absolutely sure. "Well, I can say with about eighty-seven percent confidence that you, Mr and Mrs Granger, are looking at a little girl."

Jon watched as the picture changed, moving away from the baby's face, at least, momentarily to check for something a little more elusive. He wasn't sure what he was looking at or what he should expect to see, but the technician seemed fairly confident, and Jon blinked in surprise. For some reason, he'd been expecting the baby to be a son. "Eighty-seven percent' Is that as sure as you can be?" he asked, not wanting to get ready for a girl, if they were really having a boy. His gaze darted briefly to the technician before returning to the picture on the monitor. He saw nothing that looked conclusively to him to indicate the baby might be a boy.

"Well, the picture isn't as clear as daylight, and I'm not going to say absolutely that it's a girl until she's out," the technician told him with a faint grin. "But I'm not seeing Mr W*nky, and that usually means it's a girl. I haven't been wrong yet, if that helps."

Lying between the men, Vicki laid her hand very gently on the uppermost curve of her belly. She was inclined to trust this technician; someone who wasn't going to say they were absolutely right when they'd never been wrong was someone who could be trusted. "Hello, lady," she murmured to her bump, her hand tightening in Jon's grasp once again. They were having a little girl.

Jon laughed at the technician's choice of phrase for the male anatomy, no matter how tiny it might be at this point in the baby's development. "Mr. W*nky is how this whole thing got started," he remarked with an amused grin, turning his gaze at last to Vicki, who seemed just as amazed as he was. He watched with rapt affection as she greeted their daughter for the very first time, smiling warmly down at her, feeling a surge of emotion welling up inside him again. "It seems I'm going to have two lovely ladies in my life now."

Visibly, the baby reached up to push against the soft pressure of her mother's hand in the moments before the technician removed the transducer, handing Vicki a box of tissues to clean herself up with. The redhead smiled; unlike the first time she had seen their child on screen, she didn't feel tearful. She felt exhilarated, pleased to be able to say she was having a girl, that Jon would have the little girl she could imagine him with sooner than the boy she hoped to give him next time. "We'll even the score next time," she promised her husband, though it was obvious that he didn't mind at all. "At least we can stop arguing about boys' names now."

Though Vicki might be able to hold back the tears of joy she had shed the first time around, Jon's eyes filled with tears at the realization that they were not only having a baby, but that, more specifically, they were having a daughter. A little girl all their own, like the little girl Vicki had once been, the toddler he'd met during his travels to his wife's past. He plucked a few tissues from the box to help her wipe the gel from her abdomen, smiling at Vicki's statement. "So, now we can start arguing about girls' names instead," he teased. The truth was that they hardly ever argued, about names or anything else, for that matter, and when they did, they tended to make up quickly. Hell, the best part of arguing was making up. His fingers drifted across Vicki's bare belly in a soft caress. "I'm not disappointed, Vicki. Not even close."

"You'd better not be disappointed," was her response as she smiled up at him, knowing that they were probably embarrassing the technician with their loving closeness. Not that it seemed to bother the man - he was busily printing out pictures and vital statistics for them, pretending they weren't there at all. Sitting up, Vicki covered herself once again, leaning over to kiss her husband tenderly. "We're having a little girl," she murmured, and this time the excitement was all there in her tone. It felt more real now than it had before.

Jon sighed against her lips, feeling that familiar surge of happiness well up inside him. They were having a daughter, a little girl. A Daddy's girl to pluck at his heartstrings and wrap his heart around her finger. Jon's heart soared at the thought of it, tears filling his eyes, even as he tried to hold them back. "A little girl, as beautiful as her mother," he whispered back, fingers caressing her cheek. He didn't have to see the baby to already know she was beautiful. Part of her and part of him, how could she be anything but beautiful" He was in love with her already, even before she was born.

For the second time that day, the technician tactfully cleared his throat, not even attempting to hide his grin as he handed the printed pictures to Vicki. Unrepentant, despite being caught canoodling with her husband in company, the redhead took the little snapshots with a grin of her own, sliding off the padded bench as she thanked the professional. Three shots of their little girl - of her backside, purely because it was funny; of her sucking her thumb; and of that stretch that had put her in contact with her father as he spoke. "Are you going to fold as soon as she bats her eyelashes at you, darling?" Vicki teased Jon, relieved that they had nowhere else to be today. For some reason, all she wanted to do was go home and be with her family.

"I do with you, don't I?" he replied, as though her question was a rhetorical one, helping her from the table and glancing over to look at the pictures the technician had given them. "So, baby's healthy. You didn't see anything wrong?" he asked, as if to make doubly sure. He knew the doctor would look everything over and make sure everything was as it should be, but he couldn't help but ask.

"Nothing at all," the tech assured him with a smile. "Heartbeat's strong, no sign of injury or stress. You already know she's not deformed in any way. Your daughter is as well as any other, Mr Granger." Beside Jon, Vicki lit up at hearing someone else refer to the baby as their daughter. It was going to take a little getting used to, but just having a gender made it so much more real.

"My daughter," Jon echoed, getting that starry eyed look Vicki was probably used to seeing in her husband, the horrors of their ordeal completely forgotten - at least, for the moment - at the thought of having a daughter. "Our daughter," Jon corrected himself, with a warm smile to his wife. He reached for her hand, linking his fingers with hers, looking happier than he'd been in days. "Shall we go show Humphrey pictures of his new grandniece?" he asked with a proud, happy twinkle in his eyes.

"Oh, I think that's a very good idea," Vicki smiled warmly up at him as her fingers found their comfortable rest between his, for the first time today utterly uncaring that two large men in dark suits were falling into step a small distance behind them. That didn't matter, all of a sudden. The frightening ordeal of the morning before didn't matter; the memory of what might have happened didn't even cross her mind. Because in just a few short months, they were going to have a little girl. And that, in a way, was about as perfect as it got.

((D'awww, happy lil' Grangers and their baby birdie bump. ::snickers:: Okay, folks, you know the drill. Spongiliciously hugiflorious thankboobles to Jon's player!))