John and Marlena (Finally) Get a Q!

Chapter 139 - A Fork in the Road

Marlena lifted heavy eyelids to find John watching her, the suggestion of a smile lingering on his lips. The baby lay snuggled in his arms, warm and contented, for the moment.

"Hey sleepyhead," he whispered, his lips twitching into a grin.

"Did I go to sleep?" she asked in a small voice as she tried to stifle a yawn.

"Just for a few minutes." He looked down at the tiny bundle in his arms. "Like mother, like son, I guess."

"Can I hold him?" Marlena pushed herself into a sitting position and reached for her newborn son. It might have only been a few minutes, but it felt like hours since she'd had him in her arms, and she ached with a maternal need to have him close to her.

"Of course you can," John deposited him gently in her arms and moved up beside her on the bed. Looping his arm around her, he looked at the baby over her shoulder. "He looks like you, you know."

"Rubbish," Marlena laughed gently. "He looks *exactly* like his father, right down to those *incredibly* blue eyes."

"Doc, *all* newborns have blue eyes," he nuzzled at her ear. "He has your nose. He's too beautiful to look like me."

"You're such a smooth talker," Marlena laughed as the baby waved a tiny fist in the air. "Yes, that's right, your Daddy is full of it, isn't he?"

"Only 'cause he has to keep up with Mommy, right kid?" There was laughter in John's voice, but it masked the sudden wave of emotion that smashed into him as he realized once again how lucky he was to be here with Marlena.

Things could have been so different and not for the first time, John wondered how it was that he had gotten so lucky. Because he sure as hell didn't deserve the love of a woman as beautiful and generous and passionate as Marlena. And if he didn't deserve that, he certainly didn't deserve the chance to make a life with her.

But here he was, holding her in his arms and he only knew that he would spend the rest of his life loving her, cherishing her and treasuring their time together.

"I love you, Marlena," his arm tightened around her, and he pressed his lips to her hair.

"I love you too, hony," she twisted her head and graced him with a gentle kiss of her own.

"Speaking of babies, I think it's time this tyke here met his little brother," John suggested. "What do you think?"

"Isn't it a little late, honey?" Marlena eyed the clock, which told her that it was still the twenty-eighth, but only just. "The nursery will be closed..." She looked at him in alarm, realizing what she had just said. "Oh, golly. Go and see if you can find him."

"Sure thing, sweetheart," John kissed her as he slipped off the bed. "Your wish is my command."

"*Hurry*."

Marlena's urging followed him out the door as she held the newly restless baby to her. It wasn't a feeling that she could describe, or even understand. It was bound up in the past, not just the recent past with Kristen or in the dreams she had been having, but with Belle's birth and right back to the death of her first baby boy.

Maybe it was a fear, maybe it was a simple need to have her newborn twins close to her, she only knew that she needed to hold both her babies. And with a mother's instinct, she knew that the boys would be happier if they were together.

The baby in her arms whimpered as though her thoughts had somehow triggered a latent uneasiness in the small consciousness.

"Shhhhh," she murmured, rocking the tot in her arms. "Shhhhh, it's okay sweetie boy. Momma's here. Everything's fine." The baby waved his arms, fretting softly as she cradled him and she dropped soft kisses on his downy skin, soothing him with the mere application of a mother's touch. "Shhhh, my love. Shhhhh...."