Jon frowned when he heard Emily crying. He'd been trying to give it a few minutes before running to see what was wrong when she woke crying in the night, so long as it didn't sound like she was in serious distress, but it wasn't easy. "Should I go check on her?" he asked, though he already knew what Vicki's answer would be.

"Try and give it a little while, love," she suggested, though she knew he'd been expecting her to say it. Her smile was reluctantly resigned to the understanding that, even if Emily did stop crying and go back to sleep, Jon was going to want to check on her. They had slightly different styles when it came to parenting, but so long as each kept the other in moderation, it seemed to be working. "Finish your sandwich."

He frowned, a different kind of hunger on his mind, but with any luck, there would be time for that later - if Emily and Benjamin allowed. Mostly Ben, as he was still an infant, but Emily had her moments, as well. "I suppose I'm guilty of spoiling her a little," Jon admitted, climbing off his wife and taking a seat beside her before reaching for the other half of his sandwich.

"It's only natural," Vicki assured him gently, moving to sit up when he did. She curled against his side as he began to eat once again, listening to the half-hearted whining coming from Emily's room with a faint smirk. "But we have to learn to do this just as much as she does. And we won't have the same problems with Ben if we're comfortable with it by the time he's old enough to try it on."

"I always worry she's having a bad dream," Jon explained as he contemplated both his sandwich and Emily's fussiness. He thought there were worse things than spoiling her - he could be like his father and be neglectful instead.

"But you know when she's in real distress, love," his wife pointed out softly. "That cry we're hearing" That's a spoiled little madam who thinks she can keep her father up all night if she makes a fuss. And you're not the only one guilty of spoiling her - I've done it, too. Unfortunately for her, we're learning the error of our ways, and that means she doesn't get her own way all the time these days. It's best she learns that now, before she starts throwing "no" back in our faces at every opportunity."

"Yeah, I know," he admitted with a sigh as he took a bite of his sandwich. Who ever said that parenting was going to be easy' He loved his children, but he didn't want them to become spoiled brats. And to both their credit, little Emily was already starting to settle back down.

"Besides, she's already interrupted your amorous attempts once today," Vicki added with a low chuckle, brushing a kiss behind his ear. "Are you really going to let an eighteen month old put a cramp in your sex life?" She grinned at him, trying to raise his mood once again. It wasn't that she didn't feel that spike of anxiety when one of their children cried; she was just harsher with herself when it came to responding. Learning the different cries had helped, too.

"If she put that much of a cramp in my sex life, we would have never had her brother," he pointed out. There was nothing wrong with his mood that a few kisses from his lovely wife wouldn't resolve. "I'm sorry I missed our anniversary," he apologized a little sourly. They'd been so wrapped up in being parents lately, their anniversary had come and gone with little fanfare. He thought nothing he did from here on would ever top the trip to Venice where he'd proposed.

She laughed softly, hugging into his side affectionately. "I didn't remember until this afternoon," she confessed. "Putting a date on our relationship seems so silly when I've known you all my life. I love you, you're my husband and the father of my children. That won't change, no matter how many anniversaries we forget. And that's the important thing."

"You've known me, but..." he broke off with another sigh. He sometimes got a little frustrated with the lack of memory from before he'd met her, and yet, it was likely more of a blessing than a curse. Still, though he'd only known her a few years, between the lack of memory and his travels into her past, it almost felt like he'd known her all his life, too. "Was I really as bad as they say?" he asked curiously, though there wasn't much point in it, since he was an entirely different person now than he had been before the bullet that had taken his memory.

Her smile softened, understanding why he asked, even if she couldn't give him the answer he really needed. For that, he would have to ask Helena. "No," she told him softly. "Not from where I was sitting. You were a little wild, I suppose, but look at young celebrities on Earth right now. Young people are idiots, especially when they have money and the leisure to spend it. You were experimenting, it's a part of growing up. And don't forget ....if you hadn't been that way, you wouldn't have met Mataya." Her fingers gently stroked against his cheek. "What you were has very little bearing on what you are, Jon, or the way that I see you," she assured him affectionately. "We all make mistakes."

He didn't hang onto the worry or guilt for long. How could he when he couldn't even remember it and when he had such a lovely wife to assure him that it hadn't been as bad as he'd feared" "At least, Mataya doesn't hate me," he admitted. He was actually unaware of anyone who did, though he thought he more than likely had made a few enemies over the years.

Vicki laughed quietly, nuzzling against his arm as Emily faded into silence and - presumably - back to sleep. "Mataya loves you like a brother," she reminded him. "Which reminds me - she's already threatening to arrange a marriage between Oscar and our next daughter. Might want to head that one off next time you pin her down for a lunch date."

"Our next daughter?" Jon chuckled, settling back against the couch and winding an arm around his wife as soon as he was finished with the sandwich. "Have you taken a peek at the future?" he teased, blue eyes gleaming happily.

"Who, me?" She laughed again, twisting to curl her legs over his lap as he drew his arm about her, familiarly close without suggesting anything that might give him cramp. "No, I think this one is Juno," she clarified through her grin, though she wasn't against the idea of having more children. Just not until Ben was out of diapers. "I have a feeling your best friend just wants to make it family official, whether Oscar likes our unborn spawn or not."

"She's practically family already, and I'm not going to promise my second-born daughter's hand in marriage when she hasn't even been born yet!" Jon remarked with a chuckle. He wasn't against the Grangers and the De Lucas being connected through marriage, but he thought it was a bit premature. Still, it was amusing to think Mataya was already trying to play matchmaker between a six-month old and a child who wasn't even a twinkle in her parents' eyes yet. "Besides, what?s the matter with Emily' She's not that much older than Oscar."

"It's the text that's bothering you more than the performance, isn't it?" she guessed softly. His earlier question about the past he didn't recall was a fairly big clue, after all.

"I think so," he admitted, searching her eyes as if he might find the clue to what was bothering him there. "Just a feeling. It's silly, I guess."

She shook her head, her fingertips gently stroking his temples as they talked. "It's never silly if it's bothering you, love," she told him in a gentle voice. "Maybe you need to step back from it and look at it with a little distance. The play was written in the sixties, and yes, it is a comedy, but it deals with underlying issues that are very serious and have the potential to be incredibly harming if encountered in real life. That's why they're there, in the text. A good comedy always contains a little tragedy, just like life."

"I wasn't like that when I met you, was I?" he asked. "I know I've done a lot of stupid things in my life. I know I was a little wild in my youth." He was all of twenty-eight, almost twenty-nine, though sometimes he felt ancient. "It's a good play. Hell, the movie version was nominated for an Oscar." The original movie version anyway.

"Jon, as far as I can tell, you've never been like that," she tried to reassure him. He'd asked her when she was thirteen not to follow his younger self's career, but she hadn't been able to escape it when her best friend developed the crush to end all crushes on "dreamy" Jonathan Granger. "You've never dated more than one person at a time, that I know of, for starters. Yes, you might have slept around a little, but most people do, you know." She wasn't including herself in that assessment. She'd slept with exactly two men in her lifetime, and the other one had already been forgotten when Jon came back into her life.

"I'm feeling guilty about things that I don't even remember," he said, realizing that had to be the reason for his discomfort with the role. That was all it was really - a role, like any other. He wasn't Hamlet or Christian Grey or Alfie Elkins. He was Jonathan Granger, the actor, and his ability to bring these characters to life was not only part of his skill as an actor, but a gift.

"Again." But the word was offered with warmth and a smile, a soft kiss dropped onto the end of his nose to soften any scolding that might have been implied. "Even if you were like Alfie - and you weren't - that isn't who you are now. You're Jonathan Granger - husband, father, brother, and Oscar-winning actor. You're not a misguided adolescent or a slightly screwed up young adult anymore."

"No, I guess not. Just another role, isn't it?" he asked, though it was yet another redundant question. He smiled a little and leaned close to rest his forehead against hers. "What would I do without you, Mrs. Granger?"

"Mope," she answered him succinctly with her familiar playful grin, easing her arms about his shoulders as her lips nuzzled tenderly to his. "Feeling better now we've played doctor for a bit?"

"I'd feel even better if we played husband and wife. What do you say, Mrs. Granger" Shall we to bed, my lovely, wise wife?" he asked, with a playful grin as he touched his nose to hers, his arms going around her waist.

"Mmm, I think that is an excellent idea, Mr. Granger," she agreed, the husky tone of her laugh always his first clue that what had been interrupted had only been put on pause. "Preferably before I have my wicked way with you right here."

"You're the one who stopped me to eat!" he reminded her with a laugh, though that wasn't completely true. It had been Emily who'd interrupted their romantic interlude with a brief bit of crying.

Laughing, she pressed a fresh kiss to his lips, drawing her fingernails teasingly over his scalp as she did so. "We have to keep up your stamina," she purred against his lips, deliberately rocking her hips just to tease him a little more. "I can't have you giving up in the middle out of hunger, can I?"

"And when have I ever been in danger of doing that?" he asked, the smirk on his face turning into a grin. He moved to his feet, hands sliding over her hips and around to her rear to support her and hoist her up with him.

"There's always a first time," Vicki laughed, wrapping her arms and legs more securely around him as he bore her into the air. "I have to look after my old man now he's advancing toward the ripe old age of thirty, don't I?" She winked at him, nibbling teasingly at his lower lip, daring him to take offense.

"I still have another year to go," he reminded her, whispering as he carried her toward the bedroom, creeping as quietly as possible past Emily's room. The little suite of rooms at the big house afforded them the privacy they needed and desired, while still allowing them to be close by to keep Humphrey company and in case he needed them.

A black and white head poked out of Emily's room as they passed - Cosmo, making sure his adult humans were all right, before returning to his self-appointed post as puppy-protector right next to Emily's crib. Vicki smiled, brushing kisses from Jon's lips to his ear lobe before answering in a whisper of her own. "A whole year to be the sexiest man under 30 in the multiverse, and then you'll be the sexiest man over 30 for decades to come. And mine."

"You, my love..." he started, stifling the shiver that was playing at his spine with each teasing kiss, but unable to stifle the reaction from other parts of his body. "...are biased," he continued as he passed Cosmo and pushed past the doorway into the bedroom where he pushed the door closed before depositing his cheeky wife on the bed.

"And I always will be," she managed to get out, before being deposited on the bed with a bounce. Red hair spilled out over the covers beneath her head as she grinned up at him, lifting one bare foot to wiggle her big toe between the buttons on his shirt and tickle his belly button playfully.

He was definitely overdressed, but was about to rectify that matter as soon as his wife let him. He caught hold of her ankle and teasingly ran a finger along the curved arch of her foot, before leaning in to brush a trail of kisses from her instep to her calf.

Oh, there had been a time when he'd been perfectly happy and willing to submit himself to certain torments at the hands of a lover, but the Jon that had once been so submissive seemed to have died with the memories of his past. This new Jon who'd emerged preferred to be the dominant one, though he was equally happy to let Vicki take charge, so long as she didn't inflict pain. But theirs had never been that kind of relationship, both of them more interested in pleasure than pain. He chuckled down at her as she tugged at his pants, lifting his hips to wriggle his way out of them. "I'm more than happy to satisfy your hunger," he teased back at her.

"Careful what you say, stud-muffin, I'm in the perfect position to take care of some of that right now," she warned, and quite deliberately blew her warm breath over the bulge they'd already created together that was threatening to tent his boxers altogether.

"Have you ever known me to be much of a prude?" he teased, before a sharp intake of breath halted his speech. She could feel his muscles tense, as his body reacted to her teasing.

"Jon Granger, proud not to be a brown paper stuffer since 1993," she intoned wickedly, tugging his underwear free to take full advantage of the upper hand she had right now. It wouldn't last - it never did - but Vicki knew just how to make it memorable until he took charge again.

He relaxed enough to help her with his shorts, amused by her remark. It was in part her bawdy sense of humor that had drawn him to her in the first place. That, and other, more obvious traits. "You didn't know the me that was around then. How do you know I didn't go around with a rolled-up sock in my drawers just to impress the ladies?" And probably the men at that time, too. He'd been a little wild in his youth, though he didn't remember it.

"Because this," she said, wiggling said appendage gently below her grin, "is just too impressive not to have developed early." She winked at him and went to work, determined that he was going to have a good night's sleep, even if she had to tie him down and exhaust him to make it happen.

"My tripod," he joked back with a smirk. The two of them had dubbed that particular appendage with that title fairly early on in their relationship. He fell silent again as she went to work on him, surrendering himself to her completely, at least for now. As long as they'd been together, they never seemed to grow tired of each other, and each romp in the bedroom was still full of unexpected surprises and flirtation.

Eyes on his, she played him like a finely tuned instrument, knowing exactly how and where to touch and taste. They knew one another inside and out, and yet there was always something different to explore when they had the leisure to enjoy it. Certain that Emily and Ben would be out like lights for at least another six hours or so, Vicki planned to take full advantage of her husband, if he let her.

Jon was more than willing to let her play with him as long as she liked, at least until he reached the point where he thought he'd go mad if she didn't give him some relief. To his credit, it took some time before he reached that point and even when he did, he only traded places with her, letting himself relax just a little, while he gave her a little of her own medicine. He knew just where and how to touch her, and yet, each time they made love, they seemed to find out something new about each other. He'd never known her feet were ticklish, until today, and so he focused part of his attention on that, though he wasn't trying to tickle her so much as entice her.

Sure enough, any giggles he produced soon faded away into the sounds he most wanted from her, the sounds that told him he had his merry-tempered wife exactly where he wanted her. Unlike him, Vicki had a tendency to beg out of sheer impatience, and he seemed to delight in ignoring her until the time was absolutely right to finish what they had both started. Wrapped in each other's arms, they knew this dance well, sharing more than just their bodies each time they came together like this. It was a reaffirmation of everything they had been through, everything they meant to one another, all the promises they had made over the years. And it was never truly over, a tiny spark left to smoulder until the time came again.

Once they were through, they curled up contentedly beside each other in a tangle of arms and legs, heartbeats slowing, breathing relaxing, savoring the peace and quiet of the moment. Kisses were shared, slower, gentler, deeper, less needful, more languid, each savoring the moment as long as they could. "Love you, Mrs. Granger," Jon murmured sleepily against his wife's lips.

"I should hope so, Mr. Granger," she murmured back to him, smiling playfully as he nuzzled to her. "I'd hate to think you do that with people you only like." She laughed lazily, reaching down to tug the sheets over them as they lay tangled together. "Love you back, stud-muffin."

"You're the only people I'm interested in sharing that with these days, wife," he pointed out. "You've tamed me, it seems," he remarked with a smirk, though it wasn't the first time he'd said it. "So, what?s it all about, Vicki?"

She giggled softly, settling down into his embrace with a contented sigh. This was her favorite place to be, wrapped up in Jon's arms, and she hoped he knew it. "It's all about us, Jon," she murmured. "Every day, every hour. Us."

Jon smiled, as he let his eyes drift closed and surrendered himself to sleep, safe and content in the arms of the woman who loved him, who had always loved him, and who had, in a way, saved him from himself. Unlike Alfie, Jon had found the answer to that question. For him, it was all about family and the love of one woman who had made his life complete. The search was over. He had found his heart's desire and she was lying right beside him.

((It doesn't matter how long we leave it between scenes, these two slip on like a comfy sweater and always deliver something we weren't expecting! Many, many thanks to Jon's player for being awesome!))