The front door opened and Lauren entered her and Micky’s house. She glanced around, frowning at the darkness. Micky had told her that he’d be home when she got out of her class...

Lauren closed and locked the door behind her, dropping her knapsack in the foyer against a wall. She went into the living room and looked around. She left and headed for the stairs.

She glanced at her watch. Maybe Micky was just getting the kids ready for bed... Lauren snuck a peek in the nursery and found it empty. She sighed rather loudly. "Mick..."

"In here," came a response that practically sent her to the floor.

Lauren stopped in the door to their bedroom, her eyes widening.

A dim light filled the room. It was enough that she could see Micky sitting on the bed, ankles crossed... wearing a long red robe and holding a single rose.

"Valentine’s Day?" Lauren said, with a slight frown.

"Yes." Micky stuck his tongue out at her. "Forgot, didn’t ya?"

"I didn’t used to care about this holiday, remember?"

"I remember." Micky grinned. "That’s why I planned this, so I could surprise you."

Lauren smirked. "Planned, huh?" She paused. "Janelle watching the twins?" He nodded. "Dim lights..." She tilted her head to one side, then quirked an eyebrow. "Nothing on under that robe?"

He kept grinning. "Why don’t you find out?"

"You’re terrible, you know that?" She crossed the room as he stood.

"For you." Micky handed her the rose, then made a vase appear. "Here."

"You always think of everything." Lauren set the vase down on the bureau.

Micky shrugged. "Usually. If I don’t, most of the time I can just make it appear like that." He leaned down to kiss her.

They separated. Lauren smirked. "Think you could make something else appear?"

"You got it, babe." He winked and pulled her onto the bed.

* * * * *

It was nice to have some semi-normal downtime again. What with everything going on and the return of Sheila, things had gotten pretty hectic again.

But none of that mattered right now.

Lauren smiled as she felt Micky’s fingers tracing figure-eights on her stomach. She loved it when he did that. She sighed, just listening to their breathing. She did almost laugh when the tracing slowed. She was curious if he’d fallen asleep, but his fingers just kept moving. After all, he had been able to work a staple gun in his sleep...

"What’re you laughing about?"

Lauren grinned, cutting off her chuckles, which she’d just realized were outloud. "Oh, nothing."

"Uh huh." Micky wasn’t buying it, but left it alone. Silence reigned for a few moments before he decided to speak up again. "Babe, I’ve been kinda wondering about something..."

"What’s that?"

"Well, um..." Micky tried to figure out how to phrase the thought.

Lauren craned her neck around to glance at him. "What’s wrong?"

Micky sighed. "Well, you... um, got pregnant with the twins the first night and... how many times have we been at it since you had them? I, uh... don’t understand, um..."

"Why I haven’t gotten pregnant again?" She finished for him, then smiled and shrugged. "Dunno. It’s a tricky thing. I still say it only happened then because I swear we broke some kind of record that night."

"Hmm."

Lauren sighed. "Mick, if I could figure out the timing, I’d give you the date right down to the minute, but I can’t." She smirked. "A woman’s body works in weird ways."

He matched the smirk. "You’re telling me." Then he sighed, "I guess I'll just have to be patient, then, huh?"

"Yeah, sorry, Mick," she said, chuckling. "You know, Mick, this is gonna be hard to beat next year."

Micky shrugged. "Maybe, but it'll be fun to try."

Lauren snuggled more into his chest. "Thank you for this surprise, Mick."

He smiled. "You're welcome, babe. You know I'd do anything for you."

She reached up and kissed him. "A dream come true, that's exactly what you are, Mick."

"So are you," Micky said, then kissed her forehead.