From Forbidden Fruit to Love Renewed Chapter 15

She wakes up with Bo's arm around her; smiling she snuggles back into him. She lays her hand across his chest and falls back to sleep listening to the beat of his heart. He wakes up a little while later, and just stares at her thinking of how lucky he is to be where he is. Their moment of solitude is interrupted by their son's insistent knocks on the door, "Mom, dad, wake up it's time to bring Rory home."

Laughing, "You'd think it was Christmas", leaning in to kiss her, "Hold on champ", he slips out of bed and opens the door.

Matthew jumps on the bed, "Come on, mom. Get dressed; we've got to go get her."

"Matthew, sweetie, we still have a couple of hours before your dad and I can go to the hospital, and you have school, mister."

"Awww mom, I don't want to go to school today."

Looking up at his father, "Do I have to go, dad?"

"You've already missed enough school, now git.", she says looking over at Bo.

He notices her look and turns to look at their son, "Matthew, listen to your mom, okay? Now, go get dressed."

"But dad said I could be there when we bring Rory home."

"We don't even know if she'll be able to come home today, buddy."

"Fine," he shrugs his shoulders and goes to his room to get ready.

"We better get dressed ourselves. I'm going to go take a shower."

"I'll make sure Matthew's getting ready while you shower, unless..."

"Don't even think about it, Buchanan, our son is just down the hall," as she walks into the bathroom, peeking her head around the doorframe, "but there's always later."

Bo is sitting on the bed when she walks out of the shower. Still not being used to him being in her bedroom, she walks out toweling her hair dry, nothing else on.

Catching his breath, "God your beautiful."

Startled by his presence, she moves the towel in front of her, "BO! What are you doing in here?"

Laughing he gets up and begins to walk towards her "Um...well lets see...long talk downstairs last night....walked up the stairs hand in hand...fell asleep with the love of my life in my arms...woke up this morning...kissed the woman lying in bed with me....sent son to get dressed, helped son get dressed, and now," he continues to walk towards her; his blue eyes sparkling with desire. He reaches out and pulls on the towel, sending it to the floor, "Yeah, I was right, beautiful," He takes her face in his hands and kisses her; his tongue parting her lips. She responds to his kiss; her hands instinctively wrapping around his neck. His hands begin to explore her body as her hands run up and down his chest; their tongues still locked in a passionate kiss.

They begin to walk towards the bed, both forgetting about the little boy just down the hall, "Mom, dad. Are you coming out of there? I need breakfast, mom."

Breaking their kiss, "Our son bellows."

Catching his breath, as he looks at her, "I'll take care of it, why don't you put some clothes on?"

He kisses her once more before opening the door, "Come on, champ let's go find some grub."

"Can I have pizza? There's pizza leftover from last night." his eyes pleading with his father.

"You're mother would kill me if I gave you pizza for breakfast." Bo looks back at the door, "Well, maybe just this once."

She shakes her head laughing as she walks back into the bathroom, "Yeah right, Buchanan.....pizza for breakfast was a staple for us. Who do you think you're kidding?"

In the kitchen ten minutes later, Bo starts on the last slice of pizza. She walks into the kitchen, "Hey, where's mine?" looking at the empty pizza box.

He looks at her holding out the piece in his hand. She takes it from him, "Thank you, honey." She leans over giving a kiss on the cheek.

Matthew leans over and whispers to Bo, "Mom never eats pizza for breakfast, what's she doing?"

Hearing him, "Your father is a horrible influence on my eating habits, Matthew."

Bo just looks at her, "Me?" pointing to himself in disbelief, "No, you're a horrible influence on mine. I never once had a cold slice of pizza for breakfast until I met you mother."

"Bo Buchanan, don't you dare lie to our son”, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Okay, okay, maybe I did, but I never ate popcorn for dinner before I met her."

"And you loved every single....kernel, Buchanan."

"You ate popcorn for dinner? Cool! "

Shaking her head, "No, no not cool and don't even think about it., you're still a growing boy and you need your vegetables."

"Pop corn is a vegetable mom, pop corn."

"A little help here dad?" She raises her eyebrows at him.

"You know, Matthew," he gets a serious look on his face, "with Rory here your mom is going to start getting all that nasty baby food, and if you don't eat your vegetables, she might try to feed you that."

"Ewwww, Gross." He scowls as he looks at his mother, "Don't do that okay, I'll eat them, I promise, just don't making me eat the squishy stuff."

She glances up at the clock, "Okay, buster. The bus will be here any minute...so scoot."

"Bye mom, bye dad" he grabs his bag and heads for the door. He turns back around just as Bo was pulling Nora into a quick kiss. Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, "Grownups."

Slapping him on the shoulder; pulling out of his embrace, but smiling, "Thanks for the help, Buchanan."

"Hey I gave you the last piece of pizza what more do you want?"

"Oh poor baby, you gave me the last partially eaten slice after eating how many, yourself?"

Clearing his throat, "You know I think it's time we go check on our little girl."

Laughing at his obvious attempt to change the subject, "That's what I thought," taking his hand they head for the door.

They walk down the long hallway towards the PICU, hoping that today would be the day they were able to take their little girl home.

They walked into the PICU and stood beside her bassinet. She looks up at him, seeing his brows creased in thought, "So, what are you thinking?" she looks up at him.

"I'm scared."

"Scared? Why would you be scared?"

He looks at her, taking her hands in his, "I've never done this before, I mean by the time Drew came into my life he was full grown. Matthew, well, I wasn't there and up until now she's been in the hospital, so there was always a nurse or doctor around in case I, I don't know screwed up but now, it's just going to be me alone, changing diapers, making bottles, feeding, burping, dressing her, she's so tiny."

"Bo, honey, relax...you'll be fine. I'll teach ya, we'll do it together."

"But,"

She puts her fingers on his lips "No buts, I see the way that little girl calms down when she hears your voice, she knows who her daddy is, and she's knows that you will make sure nothing ever happens to her. Just listen to her and she'll tell you exactly what she needs."

She reaches into the bassinet and runs her hands over her tiny forehead. "So little one, are you ready for your big day."

"Bo, Nora," the doctor walked up behind them.

They turn around and look at him, looks of anticipation on their faces, "Oh, Dr. Andrews we never heard you come in," turning back around to look at her, "So is our little girl ready to go home?"

"She had a little fever last night; I'd like to keep her one more day."

Nora turns around, her anticipation replaced with panic, "Fever? What would cause her to spike a fever?"

"It's most likely nothing or"

"Or what, what's wrong with her?"

"Or she may be fighting an infection, but there is really no cause for alarm. We've run a few tests, we'll know shortly. Honestly, keeping her one more night is really just a precaution."

"But she's still so little, wouldn't a fever be a huge thing for a baby of her size?"

"If it was a high fever yes, but it was slight, as I said this is really just a precaution."

"So tomorrow...she can come home tomorrow?"

"If everything stays as it should today and tonight, I see no reason why not. You can hold her if you want. She’ll be, okay."

"Are you sure, I mean wonder if she's sick?"

"She's on a low dose of antibiotics...She'll be fine."

"Well, go ahead mom, pick her up."

She looks up at him, finally relaxing, "Don't you want to hold her, Bo?"

"I will when you're done. It's not like it's the first time we've ever held her." He wrapped his arms around her as she picked up their little girl, "Hey there precious," reaching out and taking her little hand in his, her fingers closing around his, "The doctor says you have to stay here one more day, but tomorrow, you get to come home with us, what do you think about that, huh?" She lifted her other hand; waving it in the air, "You like that idea don't you angel?"

"Of course she does, she can't wait to come home." She closed her little eyes, a small yawn escaping as she nuzzled closer to her mother. Nora lays her down; running her fingers over her forehead, "Rest little one and we'll see you tomorrow."

Bo leans in and kisses her forehead, "We love you, angel. We'll see you tomorrow."

As they walk out down the hallway she looks up at him, "So, I guess you are going to go to work today then?"

"No I have a surprise for you, but first you need to go home and get some rest."

"Bo, you know how I like surprises, it's not nice to keep surprises from me."

"My lips are sealed, honey," pretending to zip his lips, "You won't get anything out of me, you can try, but I'm going to be strong," he says puffing out his chest.

Laughing, "Oh, yeah? Even if I promise to do this," leaning up and whispering in his ear.

Laughing as he pulled away from her embrace, "Oooo I like that, but" he takes his fingers and zips his lips, "even that won't do it. So don't even try it", she raises her eyebrows, "Well not until later anyway."

"Fine, but I don't think I will be so willing to do that later, if I don't get my surprise now."

"I'm not worried; I think I can convince you," he grins.

"Oh you do, do you?"

"You know you've never been able to resist me in the past."

"Oh please, you're the one who can't keep his hands off of me"

"Well that's only because I know what's under those clothes you got on, seeing as you paraded in front of me this morning," pulling her into a passionate kiss as they stand in the middle of the hallway.

Blushing, "Bo Buchanan, you shouldn't do that, and keep your voice down; you shouldn't talk about me parading around."

"Honey, no one's around."

"Still Bo, we're in the hospital. And it's not like I did it on purpose, I didn't know you were there."

"Oh," raising his eyebrows at her, "does that mean when you know I'm there, no parade?" his baby blues sparkling.

She smacks his shoulder, "Come on let's go, I'm tired."

"See I told you, you needed to get some rest."

"Yeah, yeah...the all knowing Bo Buchanan strikes again," taking his hand, "Come on, let's go home."

She kisses him before walking upstairs to lie down. He waited until he heard the door close before he picked up the phone, "Renee, it's Bo...Yeah, she's fine, had a slight fever so they're keeping her another day....No they said it was nothing, Listen, Renee, I was wondering if you could keep Matthew for us tonight? I have something special planned for Nora and I really want to give it to her before Aurora comes home. Great. I'll pick him up at school and drop him off say around 6?...Thanks Renee."

He walks over to the bottom of the stairs and looks up, pulling the small box out of his pocket, "Tonight's our night, Red, the first step towards the future."

TBC....