Was it time
Or was it truth
Maybe both lead her back to his door
As her tears

Fell at his feet
She didn't say "I love you"
What she said meant even more

With all the courage she could muster, Keesha knocked on the front door of the penthouse.

Jason opened the door, looking the same as usual, but she could see in his eyes the pain hidden there.

I laugh,
I love,
I hope,
I try,
I hurt,
I need,
I fear,
I cry
And I know you do the same things, too
So we're really not that different,
Me and you

He took in the baby in her arms and the baby bag on her shoulder and stepped aside to let her in.

Taking her free hand, she grabbed Jason’s and pulled him to the sofa. She placed the bundle of joy in the official first time father’s arms. “Daddy meet Cory.”

Jason laid the baby boy in his lap, unswaddling him. He counted his fingers and toes and just simply stared at the miracle of life, he held and helped create. “Cory?”

“Cory for short. His full name is Ward Corinthos Quartermaine,” she said quietly.

“With a name like that, this is going to be one stubborn kid.”

“Hey,” she protested, lightly punching him in the arm, “we, Wards, aren’t stubborn.”

Jason chuckled. “One day, I’ll have to introduce you to the love of my life and my cousin because they are stubborn.”

“I bet they’re just determined and the less informed call it stubbornness.”

They sat in the silence observing the new life with them.

“Where’s Courtney?” he asked finally, breaking the hour of bliss as they examined the little one.

“On her way to Malta.”

Jason remained silent.

“You didn’t have to sign the papers.”

“Yes, I did. Courtney thought Cory would be happiest and safest with you. And if I couldn’t be with him, then I wanted him to be with the person I trust most.”

Tears flowed down her face. She grabbed his head and kissed him with everything she had. She let out all the anguish of the time they had been apart, the heartache she felt at doubting if they were meant to me, and all the bittersweet joy that consumed her being here with him and their son.

Jason took possession of the kiss and turned it up to red hot passion. But before they could get swept away, Cory made his presence known. With great reluctance they ended the kiss and pulled apart. He lifted the newborn to his shoulder and his son instantly started rooting on his neck.

“This little one is hungry. What kind of formula did the hospital give you?”

Keesha searched the bag. “Similac Advanced.”

Jason nodded. “I used Similac with Michael. What else is in the bag?”

“A pack of diapers and some blankets,” Keesha concluded.

“You go warm the bottle and I’ll send Enzo to the store.

Heading off to the kitchen, she paused. “You don’t have to send him, we can get some tomorrow because he also needs a room with furniture and some clothes.”

Jason quickly walked over to her. “We,” kiss, “aren’t,” kiss, “leaving,” kiss, “this house,” he nibbled on her lower lip, “for at least a week.”

“What about Cory’s stuff?” she asked, breathlessly as Jason kissed and sucked on her neck.

“Internet.”

“I love how your mind works.”

Cory let out another cry. His father patted his back.

“I love you,” she said, walking into the kitchen.

“I love you, too.”

The whimpering instantly woke her. Grabbing the first item, she found in the dark, in this case Jason’s t-shirt, she used it to cover her nude form. With practiced ease, she picked up the room temperature bottle that Monica and Alan had assured her it was okay to give the baby, and gently lifted her son off the bed and into her arms. She quickly placed the nipple in his mouth as he desperately searched for it.

Cory’s midnight feedings, holding him in her arms, gave her a sense of contentment and rightness like none she had ever known. Feeling the bed shift, Keesha scooted forward to make room for the love of her life. She leaned against his warm, rock hard, bare chest. Peace. Perfect peace swept through her. “At some point, he’s going to have to actually sleep in his bassinette.”

Running his fingers through her hair, Jason asked, “Why were the floor, door, stairs, wall, and shower to rough for you?”

A smile lit her face as she remembered all the places they’d made love so as not to disturb a sleeping Cory.

“No, though I worry your cries prevent him from getting a peaceful rest, I just don’t want to be sleeping with a two-year-old Cory.”

He chuckled. “I think if anything stops our son from sleeping fitfully it’s his mother’s ‘Oh, Jason’.”

She butted her head against his chest.

“No worries by the time Cory is two his brother or sister would have pushed him out of the bed.”

Keesha froze. They had never talked about other children. It made their future seem much more permanent even more than the house they were building on the land that Sonny gave them so they could all be closer for familial and security reasons. It surprised her that she was so shocked by this. Didn’t she already hold in her arms a connection with Jason that would last the rest of their lives and beyond?

“Cory wasn’t going to be an only child, was he?” Jason asked, as if he didn’t notice the stiffening of her body.

Jason saw them being together forever and she trusted him so she had to trust that. They would be together as long as possible. “No,” she answered finally, “he needs a few siblings.”

“My own baseball team would be nice.”

“Nine?? I’ll leave that to Dara with Stone, Michael, Kristina, and Nia, she’s almost half-way there. I think I could handle a relay team.”

“How about basketball?”

“Let’s see how we do with the relay team and then we’ll talk.” Moving Cory to her shoulder, she gently patted his back.

Jason moved his hands to her stomach and rubbed it. “You do realize, we haven’t been using any protection? We could already be on our way.”

Keesha froze mid-pat. She had been so into Jason, the things he made her feel, and the things he could get her body to do, that the last thing on her mind was birth control. She would love to have another baby, a mixture of her and Jason, but not this soon. “I’m going to the doctor tomorrow. I need to get at least one baby out of diapers before the next one comes along.”

Cory burped and Keesha cradled him in her arms as Jason cradled them both in his.

“Before you leave, I’ll introduce you to Zach and Rudy.”

Their guards, but those words were never spoken just understood. She sighed.

“I know you can defend yourself and the baby, but I need someone to watch your back when I’m not there, so please for me,” Jason stated, in the closest thing his voice did to pleading.

“Okay,” she complied reluctantly.

“Thank you. I’m not as strong as you. I couldn’t live in a world without you,” he confessed, in the darkness of the night, kissing the top of her head.

There was the reminder that all wasn’t perfect in their world, but she was learning to live with it even though she hated it because it beat the alternative, living without Jason again.

I laugh,
I love,
I hope,
I try,
I hurt,
I need,
I fear,
I cry
And I know you do the same things, too
So we're really not that different,
Me and you