"I dunno, the usual, I guess," Dawn replied as she sat on the floor, taking a sip of her apple juice. "I wish we knew more people that had kids so everything wasn’t always so full of adults. I mean, how much fun can that be for a three year old?"

"Oh, Arianna enjoys herself, no matter who’s around. She loves the attention she gets. I don’t know if she would like sharing the spotlight with other kids…" she stopped herself when she realized what she had just said.

Dawn just looked at her, realizing that she was right.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that…."

"No, it’s okay," Dawn cut in. "You’re right. She’s going to have a rough time adjusting when the baby comes," she gently rubbed her stomach. "She’s used to being the only one, having our undivided attention. I don’t even know when we should tell her or what we should tell her about the baby".

"What does J think?"

"Well, he thinks we should wait a little while to tell her, then make it as simple as possible for her. I know she’s going to have questions, though . You saw her when we tried to explain to her that Alex and I were getting married!" She laughed.

"Yeah, but the two of you did a great job helping her understand that, I know you can think up some way of explaining to her where babies come from," D chuckled.

"Oh, you’re real funny," Dawn smirked then thought for a moment and looked over at D. "Can you imagine Alex explaining the birds and the bees to Arianna?" She started to laugh.

They both laughed then Dawn turned her attention back to her magazine while D started to write out the guest list.

"What kind of cake do you think I should make?" Dawn asked, eyeing a recipe for a strawberry cake with cool whip frosting in the magazine.

"I don’t know, what about a yellow cake? With vanilla frosting," D replied, looking up at her.

"No, I’m not too crazy about yellow cake".

"Okaaay, then what about chocolate? With chocolate frosting?"

"Lord no, Arianna would be bouncing off the walls…hell, so would Alex and Nick!"

"No shit, could you just imagine? All three of them on a chocolate high?"

"Oh God, we’d have to tranquilize them all just to get them into bed!" Dawn laughed.

"What about a white cake? With vanilla frosting?"

"Yeah, I like white cake better, but not vanilla frosting".

D rolled her eyes.

"I should have known better than to try to argue food with a pregnant woman".

"Yeah, you’ll never learn, will you," Dawn teased. "Hey, I like this recipe,"

Dawn showed her the magazine she was reading.

"It looks good. Arianna loves strawberries".

"Yum, whipped cream frosting. Want me to help you make it? You may need to make more than one".

"Nah," Dawn replied. "I can make the cakes, you just get the decorations, if you don’t mind. Alex doesn’t want me going out a whole lot. He wants me to take it easy and relax".

"Yeah, I can understand that. I know you hate it, but it’s the best thing for the baby. Try to stay off your feet as much as possible".

"I know, I know, I just hate sitting here doing nothing all day, everyday".

"I know, but think of it this way, you can decorate the baby’s room, cook nice big meals for your husband to come home to, change the house around a little, you’ve been talking about doing that forever".

"Yeah," Dawn sighed as she glanced around the room. "I have wanted to do a little more decorating around here. Put our wedding pictures up, get the baby’s room painted".

"What color do you want to do it?" D asked.

"I don’t know, I tried to get Alex’s opinion on it, but I’m sure you know what color he suggested," Dawn chuckled.

"Umm, let’s see," D said as she pretended to think for a minute. "Blue walls, blue carpeting, race cars and footballs all over the place…"

"You got it!" Dawn laughed. "He is so positive that this baby is a boy. For his sake, I hope it is".

"Oh, he’ll be happy no matter what it is. What about names? Have you come up with anything besides Dominic? Like any girl’s names"

"Well, not really, we haven’t had much time to really talk about it. We haven’t came up with any names for a girl yet at all".

"See, there ya go…something else you can do while you’re home! Think up baby names!"

The two girls were silent for a moment as D went back to writing up the guest list, and Dawn back to her magazine.

"You know," Dawn began as D looked over at her. "The Grammy’s will be here before you know it. Our Boys are up for two awards, so we best be looking damn hot. What the hell am I going to wear?? I’ll be six months pregnant by then, I can’t show off my body looking like that!!" Dawn asked, almost in a panic.

"D, I’m gonna be huge in a couple months. People are going to be staring, I really don’t even wanna go".

"Dawn, you have to go, you’re nominated for an award! Your first one! Did you forget??!"

"No, I didn’t forget," she smiled as she put the magazine down in her lap. "It’ll be fun, even though all these awards shows are the same and I’ve been going to them for years. Still, this is my first award and I’m nervous enough as it is. Then, people are going to be staring at me because I’ll be fat. I mean, as far as they know, Alex and I aren’t married.."

"Since when have you cared about what other people thought?" D asked, surprised.

"Alex won’t let me think any other way," she sighed. "I just want the whole world to know that we’re married, you know?"

"I know you do," D smiled as she leaned over and squeezed Dawn’s hand.

"I’m afraid that they’re gonna find out from someone else. I don’t want it to happen that way, that would be the worst thing that could happen".

"So, tell everyone, who cares? Your fans will learn to deal with it. His fans love you anyway, I’m sure, eventually, they’ll come to terms," she smiled.

"Oh, is that what that is?" D teased. "’Protective’ is putting it mildly," she rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Oh, I almost forgot, speaking of telling people, guess who called yesterday?" Dawn asked.

"Who?" D asked, puzzled.

"Noah. He called around noon the other day to congratulate me on my nomination. Then he started to get all emotional. Saying that he missed me, missed talking to me, blah, blah, blah. I think he was drinking, he had to be".

"He called your house??" She asked with wide eyes. "Where was J when he called?"

"Oh, he was sitting right there. We had just made breakfast and were sitting down to eat. He grabbed the phone away from me and told Noah to shove his congratulations up his ass because we were married now and there was nothing he could do to change that."

"I know, I know. I was thinking the same thing. Even though it was funny when it happened, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was a big mistake. I know Noah’s pissed now".

A thought struck her and she looked back up at Dawn.

"Yeah, we were, umm….busy all morning," she blushed. "Then for the rest of the day".

"I don’t even wanna know…." She laughed and shook her head.

"You know, it amazes me that you two have been together for as long as you have and yet you still have a more avid sex life than most rabbits I know," they both laughed.

"I know, and I can’t wait until after the baby is born," Dawn sighed and lay her head back on the couch pillow. "He’s just so…..God, I miss feeling him…."

They were both laughing when the front door opened and AJ walked in with Arianna. She ran over to her mother and was just about to jump in her lap when AJ stopped her.

"Arianna! Be careful!"

AJ’s tone was serious as he scolded the little girl.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to jump on Mommy?"

"I sowwy, Daddy," the little girl said softly as she looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.

He looked down at her, trying hard not to laugh. She had him wrapped around her little finger and she knew it. She knew exactly what to do to get herself out of trouble. When she flashed her big blue eyes at him, he melted. He knelt down so he was eye level with her.

"Okay, just remember, we don’t run in the house, either, munchkin. You could fall and hurt yourself."

She smiled at him and walked slowly over to her mother, glancing over her shoulder at AJ to make sure that he was watching how slow she was walking. Everyone in the room watched her in amusement. When she reached Dawn, she wrapped her arms around her neck.

"You’re just like your Daddy, do you know that?" She teased Arianna as the little girl giggled.

Dawn laughed.

"Well, I know where I’ve seen that puppy dog look before," Dawn said as she smiled and cocked her eyebrow at AJ.

"Hi baby," she smiled.

"Hey D, what’s up? Taking care of my girl?"

"Always," she looked up at him, her eyes burning a hole right through him.

He looked at her with a puzzled look on his face.

"What?" He mouthed, noticing the look on her face.

She looked over at Dawn, making sure that she didn’t notice. Arianna was diverting her attention, telling her all about her day with her Daddy. D got up and walked over to AJ.

"We need to talk," she mumbled, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him towards the kitchen.

"Angel, I’m going to get us some drinks, be right back," AJ called over his shoulder to Dawn.

"Okay," she laughed as Arianna tickled her.

"So, what’s up?" AJ asked once they got into the kitchen.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!?!?" D fumed, slapping him on the arm.

"Owww," AJ said, rubbing the spot where she hit him. "What the hell was that for?"

"Why did you say that to Noah?"

"Say what? To shove his congrats where the sun don’t shine?" AJ chuckled.

He walked over to the cabinet and pulled out three glasses.

AJ could see the fear in D’s eyes and he turned serious.

"What do mean?"

"Noah is dangerous AJ! My God! He could tell her everything! She could find out that we lied to her, that we kept Noah’s manipulations from her all this time."

"He wouldn’t do that," AJ said, shaking his head.

"You know damned well that he would."

AJ turned and went over to the sink. He stared out the window, thinking about what D said. Noah was capable of telling Dawn and he may do just that.

"Shit, what have I done?" he whispered, closing his eyes.

D walked up behind him and put her hand on his back.

"I know what you wanted to do, J. You wanted to rub it in his face that Dawn’s your wife and he can never have her now. I understand that but you shouldn’t have done it."

"I didn’t think……."

"No, you didn’t and now we’ve got to brace ourselves for the outcome."

AJ looked at her apologetically. Why didn’t he just hold his tongue? Why didn’t he think before he spoke? He fucked up again.

"I’m sorry, D."

"You’re not the only one that can get hurt here. You may have just fucked us all over."

With that she grabbed the glasses and left the kitchen. AJ watched her go and sighed heavily.