Love You Too: PART 104

"What do you think's going on up there?" Ellie asked Joe as soon as their hosts had left the room.
"I think I know. Don't worry though, I'm sure they'll sort it out all by themselves" Joe replied, focussing the rest of his energy on the tiny baby girl in his arms, who had her head pressed firmly against his chest.
"Isn't she a doll?" Ellie cooed, tickling the baby's cheek.
"She is, isn't she" Joe said, smiling with such warmth and compassion at his niece.
"Do you... You know. Do you want children?" she said, broaching the subject as carefully as possible, not wanting the wrong answer to cascade from his lips.
"I definitely do" Joe said, his eyes never leaving the baby's.
"With me..?" she asked quietly
"Yeah" he answered, turning his head to smile cheerfully at her "I've never realised how much you resemble Tiffany you know"
"We are half sisters.. But thank you Joe. I can't begin to explain how happy that's made me" she said, throwing her arms around his neck and holding him tight.

"Sit down" Tiffany said as she emerged from the bathroom with the test in her hand.
"This is my third time doing this, I'm pretty sure I can handle whatever the result is" he said, his eyes wide and bright with positive anticipation.
"I'm going to sit down, please join me?" Tiffany asked, knowing the result but elongating the time where Nate didn't know.
"Fine, but please just tell me the result?" he said, angling his body to face Tiffany as if they were in an interview situation.
"I'm pregnant" she said, but with a brief pause she added "Again"
Nate's face remained full of anticipation for a matter of seconds before the news really sank into his mind, and before the ideas of another child began to formulate themselves deep in the most glorious recesses of his brain.
"I'm so proud of you, thank you thank you thank you" he said, throwing himself on her so she was forced to lay down and he had prime position over her face and her neck, planting kisses all across the expanse of her skin, grinning incessantly while he thought of this serene future with his growing family.
Tiffany, on the other hand, accepted these kisses warmly, but didn't see such a bliss future. She saw her husband drifting apart from her again, she saw herself neglecting her daughter just so she had enough energy to care for another, and she saw her future at Columbia slowly slipping away from her grasp.
"I've thought of a name" Nate said, his smile as wide as a crocodiles.
"Go on" Tiffany said through an anxious and worried expression.
"Serena. She's so peaceful and serene, and that's all I can see ahead of us as a family. Nothing can anger the water ahead of us now"
"I like it" she said, kissing her husband on the lips just once, knowing she had to go downstairs and talk to the oracle of the household: Joe.

"Joe and I are going for a walk with Serena, is that alright?" Tiffany asked Nate as soon as the immediate celebrations were over.
"Of course" Nate said through his enlightening grin that had spread further and further across his cheeks.
Tiffany strapped Serena into her stroller, and pulled her long woollen cardigan over her plain white tshirt and electric blue skinny jeans, slipping into some black ballet flats and emerging from the front door, with Joe following in hot pursuit.
"I assume you're not happy with this?" he asked, putting an arm around her.
"How can I be? I'm being tied down more and more by each child, and my future's getting away. I don't want Nate to abandon me again either" she sighed, resting her head on his broad shoulder.
"Tell him. I know he may seem excited, but he loves you too much to see you so unhappy. He was always like this when he was really young too: he'd get so excited, but he always cared more about other people's feelings. I really don't know what else you can do" Joe said, pacing slowly along the perimeter of Central Park.
"But what if he still wants to keep it? I don't know if I can go through another pregnancy totally alone"
"You won't be alone. You'll have me" he replied, sitting down on a nearby bench and patting the seat beside him so Tiffany could sit down too.
"Thank you" she whispered, hugging him and kissing him on the cheek as a symbol of thanks.
"Anytime you want to talk without the other two, you come and speak to me, okay? I'll do anything I can to help you"
"I know. You have no idea how helpful you've been over the past six or so months. You didn't tell Ellie about everything I told you about Nate, did you?"
"Of course not. Everything you tell me is in the strictest confidence, so please don't worry"
"Can we do something now?"
"What is it?"
"Can we go and buy another pregnancy test? I want to make sure I definitely am pregnant. My mind won't rest until I've had a second opinion"
"Good thing I brought my wallet, isn't it?" he laughed, taking the stroller from Tiffany and standing up to walk south down Fifth Avenue, towards the nearest pharmacy.