Meghan cringed at the sound of the pounding on her front door and ran as fast as her healing body would let her to answer it. She was ready to give whoever was there a sound tongue lashing. The children had finally gone to sleep at the same time and she was looking forward to an hour or so of sleep herself.

She swung the door open to find there was no one there, instead there was an intricately carved crib with a large red bow attached to it, sitting on her porch. Ignoring the biting wind Meghan stepped out onto the porch and looked around her land, searching for the one person who hadn't come to see her or the babies, the man who had made this for her.

Meg stepped off her porch and cupped her hands around her mouth to call out his name. She called three times, her voice breaking on the last one before he came from around the house. They stared at each other for a few moments before she walked over to him and hugged him tightly.

"It's strange being able to hold you so close." Ian said into her hair causing her to giggle. "I can't stay Meghan."

She pulled away and looked up at her friend. "Not even for a little while? You haven't even seen the children."

"What if Luke comes home?"

"Then we'll tell him the truth." She glanced back at the crib, "It's beautiful, thank you Ian."

"You're very welcome. I'll carry it upstairs for you. I'm sure your father doesn't want you moving heavy objects yet."

"I'll put some coffee on while you do."

When Meg went upstairs to fetch him for the coffee she found him kneeling beside the cradles where her children slept. He was staring down at them with a small smile then turned to her. "They're beautiful. I can see both you and Luke in them."

"Thank you." She whispered, unsure of why her voice failed her.

Ian stood and took a deep breath. "I can't stay Meghan. I'm sorry."

"Not even for coffee?"

He shook his head quickly then placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. "It�s just better that I go, maybe another time?" Meghan nodded and showed him out, a short while after he had gone Meg found a small box with a bow on it sitting inside of the new crib.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Luke entered the nursery before bed that night and frowned at the sight of the new crib. He quietly approached it and the small boy that slept inside.

"Ian came by earlier."

Luke's shoulders dropped at that bit of information, and he turned to his wife. "He was here? In our house?"

"Yes." She whispered.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

In response Meg shrugged, "I wasn't sure how you would react."

"If it was innocent then you shouldn't be frightened for my reaction." He replied as he kissed first his son then his daughter and walked out of the room.

Meghan sighed and followed him out of the nursery. She sat at her vanity and prepared for bed in silence. Luke noticed her charm bracelet then and gently grasped her wrist. Attached to the bracelet were two new charms, two small silver bassinets engraved with both his children's names and the date and time of their birth. Meg watched silently as a shadow crossed his face.

"A gift from Ian." She stated softly.

Luke said nothing, just nodded and turned away from her. He cursed himself for not thinking of the gesture himself.

"Luke?"

He turned back to her briefly and shook his head. "When you speak to him tell him thank you from both of us. It was a nice gesture."

Meghan exhaled softly in relief. She wasn't sure how her husband would react to the gifts but as usual, Luke surprised her. She watched him in the mirror as he crawled into their bed and lay down. He then propped his arms behind his head as he waited for her. She turned in her bench to face him, "Luke we have to talk." She said softly.

Luke sat up apprehensively, "About what?" He waited patiently as she turned away from him to stare at her lap.

She cleared her throat softly, "We need to finish the discussion we began on Valentine's Day. We need to talk about what's been happening between me and Ian."

It seemed as if a huge weight had been dropped into Luke's stomach, of all the topics she would want to talk about this was the last he expected to hear. "I�m listening." He said softly.

"I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't want there to be anything left unsaid that could cause problems later."

"Okay." He replied, slightly worried about what she was going to say.

Meghan licked her suddenly dry lips. She had known since Valentine's Day that she had to come clean to her husband. It wasn't fair to either of them to go on tip-toeing around this subject. "We've kissed." She stated in a soft voice. "More than once. The first time was under the mistletoe while we were decorating the parlor for Christmas."

Luke fought back rage and tears. She had shared a kiss under the mistletoe with him then kissed his friend not too long after.

"It was awkward and Ian felt incredibly bad about it, but I told him I wouldn't tell you." She glanced up to stare him in the eyes. "You two were just beginning to patch things up, and I didn't want a silly, meaningless kiss to ruin it." She waited for a response but only saw Luke's face darken in disbelief.

That Bastard has been lying to my wife to get her away from me. Felt bad my ass. Luke thought silently.

He doesn't believe that I'm innocent, Meg told herself. She took a deep breath, too late to stop now. "The second time was on New Years . . ." She began then paused at the flash of pain on his face. "When you went to get the champagne he kissed me again . . . but this time it wasn't as meaningless." Her voice broke slightly. "I kissed him back" She whispered.

Luke was stunned and speechless as he tried to fight back his emotions.

"I know how you feel. I felt the same way when I saw you and Elena kissing in the bordello last summer." She said into the silence.

When he spoke there were tears evident in his voice. "I didn't kiss her back Meghan." Meg silently wiped the first tear to fall from her eyes as Luke continued, "Why did you kiss him back?" He asked, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

"It's different for me Luke, I'm not as experienced as you are. You're the first man I've ever really kissed. When Ian kissed me it was different for me, it was an . . . experiment I guess." She replied softly.

Luke wondered for the first time if maybe they had rushed into this marriage too soon after confessing their love for each other. "Meghan, when you love someone you don't need to experiment with other people. It's when you're not in love with someone that you need to experiment."

Upon hearing the pain in his voice, Meg's gaze dropped once again to her lap, "I don't know what to say. I love you Luke I really do, but . . ." She took a deep breath, "I won't lie, his kiss was nice." She heard Luke sigh in resignation at her confession and dared to look at him, when he nodded for her to continue, she sniffled loudly and wiped her cheeks. "He was gentle, and if the babies hadn't moved you probably would have caught us." His face darkened once more as he remembered the way he had found them on the couch, Ian's hands on her abdomen and Meghan's flushed face. He had thought she was nervous about having a man so close to her, what a fool he'd been.

"I can only say I'm sorry for my behavior that night. You don't deserve to be treated like that in your own house. Especially by the two people you're supposed to trust the most in this world."

Luke could see how difficult this was for her and could hear the sincerity in her voice. "Meghan I haven't trusted Ian in years, but I trusted you. The only reason I would leave you alone with him was because of the trust I had in you. That's why it hurts so bad, you betrayed me." He said gruffly. Or allowed yourself to be deceived after I told you to watch yourself around him. He said silently.

Meghan groaned softly, what had she done? "I'm sorry Luke."

Luke could no longer contain his anger, her only response to betraying him with his friend was that she was sorry. "I never thought that Ian would force you, that's not his style. But deceiving you somehow, now that's right up his ally. I told you not to believe him! I told you what he did to me the last time. You said--you promised me that you would be careful in believing what he said!"

Meg jumped back in surprise at the anger in his voice and stared up at her husband, he was comparing her to his first love. "I'm not Sheila! I was careful! He was sweet to me and still is. He's my friend Luke. He wouldn't deceive me . . . ever!"

Luke took a deep calming breath then continued in a softer voice. "Does a friend try to ruin a marriage? Cause that's what he is trying to do, Meghan. Can't you see that? First the 'innocent kiss' under the mistletoe and then the more passionate kiss on New Years."

"He's lonely." She replied weakly.

How could he make her see that Ian's innocent kisses were his way of sabotaging their relationship? "He's a liar Meghan. It sure sounds to me like he's been trying to deceive you. He wants another man's wife. My wife. If he was so lonely then why doesn't he go after a single woman? There are plenty of them in Dreamville and out in the world, he doesn't have to go after my wife."

She shook her head quickly. He wouldn't, no couldn't understand how Ian's advances made her feel. She pressed her hand into her eyes to stop the flow of tears then gently cleared her throat and glanced back up intent on finishing what she had begun. "The last time we kissed was on Valentines Day."

Luke had to fight back the tears that threatened to escape, he had known about this one. Ian had told him, but he thought he had been lying in order to anger him some more because they were fighting. And now Meg was sitting there calmly saying it was true.

"I swear to you that neither of us planned that meeting he seemed genuinely surprised to find me in that hotel room."

Luke frowned. Why now? Why them? Had they rushed into this like everyone said? Was Meg just too young? Or was it the fact that she was so innocent and naive that she didn't--couldn't understand how someone could purposely destroy someone else's happiness for the fun of it like Ian was doing. "I have my own thoughts on that. I found your letter and it said the same thing as mine only the meeting place was different. I think Elena set us up. But that's not the point. If you saw that it was Ian and not me, why did you kiss him?" He asked, again not sure if he was ready for her answer.

Once again she bit her lip. "Oh." She said softly, "Well umm . . . Before I knew what had happened I was in his arms and he was kissing me and he . . ."

As she trailed off, Luke became worried that something worse had happened that night besides the kiss.

Her voice broke once more. "He umm . . . He caressed my abdomen but it wasn't your touch. It was wrong Luke. It was dark, the only light was candlelight, I didn't know . . . I . . . swear it." Her body shuddered with the force of her tears. "As soon as I realized it wasn't you, I told him to bring me home."

He nodded, accepting that in the dark she wouldn't be able to tell the difference until it was too late. After all, he hadn't been able to tell he was kissing Elena instead of his pregnant wife until he felt her flat abdomen. He then remembered what happened when they had got home, the initial pain of seeing them together followed by the joy of his children's birth. Luke waited to see if there was more, but Meghan remained silent.

"What are your feelings for Ian?" He asked monotonously. It was almost as if he was a third party in this, that her answer didn't affect him at all. On the inside he wanted to grab Meghan and hold her so tightly that no other man could ever pry them apart. But he wanted Meg to make her own decisions, she had to decide weather to stay or leave.

Meg glanced up at him with all the guilt she felt there for him to see. "I don't know how I feel about him. He's my friend Luke and I don't want to lose him, he's special but . . . he's not you. I am so sorry, I swear I never meant to hurt you Luke. I won't blame you if you can never forgive me. But I won't give Ian up, he needs a friend, Luke."

"Meghan you have to choose. You can't have us both. I can't tell you whom to have as friends. But I can say that you have to decide if you want this marriage to work. Just tell me, yes or no, do you want this marriage to work?" But still there's something missin', Whether I go, whether I stay, right now depends on whatever you say.

"We have children together Luke."

Luke wasn�t about to let her off without answering him, so he asked her again. "Yes or no do you want this marriage to work?" Whether I go, whether I stay, right now depends on, whatever you say.

Meghan closed her eyes against the pounding in her head. "I don't know." She whispered.

Heartbroken, Luke couldn't stop the tears. "Then until you find out, I don't think we should share the same bed." He said as he walked out of the room, he then headed towards the guestroom. As he closed the door behind himself he couldn't help but think that Ian would get his wish after all. Luke only wondered how long he would string her around before he got tired of Meghan. He stopped in the nursery on his way to the guestroom and looked in on his children. His children, made from the love he and Meghan shared. He touched them tenderly then closed the door and cursed the day Ian Grant came into Dreamville.

When he entered the guest room, he slid into the bed and held the extra pillow and only then did he give into his emotions and let the tears fall silently. What did I do wrong? What didn�t I do that she needed me to do? I tried so hard to give her everything. He asked himself.