Second Cup Of Coffee Part 1
Sweet little Lizzy wanted me to continue the story of her and Greg. So….i made her wait for a bit and she was like “where is it?” “is it ready NOW?” Well i also managed to surprise her. she NEVER thought of twins. Enjoy Lizzy. And one day may your dream become reality…Katie Holmes’ did !

A Second Cup Of Coffee.

Greg was still in shock. “Honey, did you hear me? The rabbit died. You DO know what that means right?” Greg just nodded slowly. “Well? I’m not sure if you are happy or not.” Lizzy looked down at her hands and then she protectively rubbed her still almost flat tummy. “It’s still early enough…if it’s…not…what…” Her words got cut off when the stool Greg was sitting on fell backwards and Greg was kissing her.

Gil looked up at the noise and wasn’t happy at what he was seeing. He closed the folder and walked out of his office and headed into the room where the kissing couple was. He had warned them against this sort of behavior on the job. A simple peck was one thing…this was too much.

He coughed but it didn’t stop them, he tapped on Greg’s shoulder and still nothing. Finally he put a hand on Greg’s shoulder and squeezed slightly hard.

“GRISS! Guess what? I’m going be …errr WE’RE gonna be a Dad! I mean, I’m gonna be one, she’s gonna be a..a…” Gil caught Greg before he hit the ground. Lizzy just started to laugh and then helped Gil put him on the stool that Greg knocked over.

“Take it easy Greg. Lizzy get him some water.” She nodded and headed to the ‘Break Room’. “I was coming over here to give you the devil. You know how I am about personal things on the job.”

“Oh, right I was kissing her kinda hard..sorry.”

“Well, it’s understandable. Congratulations. When is the baby due?” Greg opened and closed his mouth. Gil chuckled, “Didn’t get that far before you reacted? Ah here’s Lizzy.” She handed Greg the water and rubbed his shoulder. “Congratulations Lizzy. When is the due date?”

“Not for another six months. So we have plenty of time to plan and fix up the baby’s room and….ohh umm excuse me.” She ran out of the room.

“Where is she’s going? Liz..” He was stopped by Gil’s hand on his shoulder. “She just ran outta here. Why?”

“Oh Greg you have a lot to learn over the next six months. Does the term ‘morning sickness’ mean anything?”

“But it’s night time.”

Gil just laughed and turned around and headed to the door, just in time to see Catherine. “Hey Cath.” He wiggled his fingers for her to come over and she did. “Our youngest is growing up. We’re going to be grandparents.” Catherine let out a squeal and ran over to hug Greg. “Now explain to him what morning sickness is and WHY it doesn’t happen just in the morning.” Gil left laughing.

“Oh I am SO HAPPY for you! Oh Lizzy’s got it? Ummm”, Greg nodded and Catherine pulled up another stool. “Well Greggo, she’s going to go thru A LOT of changes, both physically and emotionally. Ahhh part of that is the morning sickness, sometimes it’s short lived other times it’s nine months worth.” Catherine looked far away as if remembering a time when she went thru it and she shook her head at the memory.

“Well, how long for you?”

“Six LONG months, the last three were the only good months. Then it was backaches. Plan on doing a lot of rubbing. Back, feet, wiping tears for no reasons. Getting yelled at for no reason. The usual.”

“Gods all that? I mean I didn’t have any brothers or sisters so…and my cousins were all older. I missed out on all that. Granted I learned stuff in school but….”

“It’s totally different from the books. You will find out, you think you love Lizzy now? Just wait, and when you hold YOUR baby for the first time….it will overwhelm you…the intense feeling.” She hugged Greg again and saw Lizzy coming down the hallway blotting her forehead with a cool paper towel. “Hey Honey, congratulations!” She hugged Lizzy, who just smiled her thanks. “Peppermint, it settles the tummy and helps with the breath afterwards.” She patted her shoulder and left the room. “Mind if I spread the word?” Both shook their heads no.

****************

Later after the shift was over, they decided to go out and celebrate. They went to Lucky’s. Lizzy ordered the biggest breakfast Greg ever imagined. “Ah Honey, you were barfing a few hours ago now…..I mean order what you want but….”

“I’m starving all of a sudden. Man I could eat a horse.” The waitress brought over two coffees. “Mmm ah, can I have decaf please? Sorry just found out we’re preggers!” She smiled and the waitress congratulated them and brought Lizzy a decaf.

“So…boy, girl, names? What would you like?” Lizzy folded her arms on the table and leaned in alittle. You started it.” She giggled.

Greg leaned over and kissed her sweetly. “And man was it fun doing it.” Lizzy blushed and Greg tipped her nose. “Think maybe when we get home we can…..since we can errr don’t need protection now.” He grinned like the Cheshire Cat and wiggled his eyebrows. Lizzy pushed his face back. “What? That’s what got us into this!” He laughed.

“Seriously, names? Don’t really have a choice in sex…that’s already decided by you.” Lizzy laughed at the look on his face. “Well it was. So, I want to wait to find out. I don’t want to know ahead of time…if it’s okay with you.”

“Sure. I like surprises. But…what about the room and clothes and….holy smokes this is gonna be expense.” It finally hit Greg. “College, car, insurance, and…and…” He sat back as the shock hit him. “Wow.”

“Hey, we can do this, I’m not going to stay off for any longer then I need to and we do have the daycare right there at the Lab. So that’s a plus, I’ve got my savings and….”

“You’re not touching that. PERIOD. That’s your money for something for YOU. It is MY job to support MY family.” Lizzy blinked a few times. “Sorry, just I want you to stay home, if that’s what you want. Don’t you want the white picket fence and….”

“Greg, I don’t want anything but you, and our baby. I don’t care if I live in a trailer park. As long as you are with me and we are safe and happy. I do want to work, the thought of staying home and not seeing other people…no. I’ll go mad. Somehow I see myself after someone goes ‘read any good books lately?’ and me answering, yeah twinkle, twinkle was great.” Greg chuckled, “Really, I want to work and I want to come back to work as soon as possible. How about….if we live on your salary and use mine to get ready for the baby and then for the few weeks I’m off…we’ll have things stored away in the bank.”

Greg smiled, “And there is always the coins.”

“What?”

“I can sell my coins. Some of them are worth quite a lot. That should help.”

“NO! Those are yours. You make me keep my savings, you have to keep your coins.” She held up her hands, “Deal or NO deal. Period. Ohhh, I’m not going to have my period for six months. WHOOOO !!!!”

“Yeah but Cath said your hormones are gonna be worse now then when you get errr boy.” Lizzy’s one eyebrow was up. “I love my wittle pumpkin when she’s….I’m not getting out of this one.” Lizzy laughed. “Phew! And I didn’t need chocolate this time.” Lizzy’s eyes lit up. “Or not. Hey Rachael! Piece of double fudge brownie swimming in chocolate sauce over here please.”

*********************

Greg’s dog Cody was sniffing at all the boxes in the house. He couldn’t get used to not having running room. There were boxes all over the place. Lizzy had several baby showers and people were giving them baby furniture long before they would need it. Since it was the first grandchild for both sets, the kids got so much stuff, from them, a lot of it was double items. They were both pulling long shifts and didn’t have time to put things away and get organized.

Cody was waiting at the door when they got home one day. “Greg….get Cody please. I can’t deal with him right now.” She headed to the bedroom.

“Come on boy. Walk.” The big dog brought over his leash and waited patiently for Greg to snap it on and they headed out for a walk. It didn’t take long since the dog was waiting all night to go out. “Good boy!” Greg kept him walking a while longer to give Lizzy some quiet time in the apartment. The more he thought the more he realized that the apartment just wasn’t going to be enough room for them. Once he got back to the apartment he called Catherine for some information and then checked on Lizzy.

He peeked in and she as sound asleep on top of the bed. He went over and covered her with an afghan and kissed her forehead. He left her a note in the kitchen and told Cody to watch Lizzy and he left.

****************

Greg looked over the place and asked the realtor a lot of questions. He said he would think about it and let her know within the next few days. Greg went to the bank and got his coins from the safe deposit box and headed to a coin dealer.

In the meantime Lizzy woke up with the phone ringing in her ear. “Hello? Oh Sara! I’m sorry, I laid down for five minutes and yeah. I’ll be right out. Sorry just didn’t hear you knocking. Didn’t Greg answer the door? Cody? Where’s Greg. Sure sorry, I’ll be right out.” She ran to the door and opened it. “Sorry come on in, I gotta pee. I hate this part of being pregnant. Always pee’ing.”

Sara walked around all the boxes and roughed with Cody for a bit. When Lizzy came to the living room, Sara smiled, “He left you a note in kitchen. You know Cody HAS to have a treat…so I got him one and saw the note.”

“Oh, great.” She went in and read it. “Well he didn’t say when he’d be home so…I just wrote him a note and said for him to eat since we are going out. Let’s go. I don’t want anyone else looking at that house.”

Lizzy and Sara went to the house and both fell in love with it. “Mind if I get back to you after I hit the bank, like in a few days?” Lizzy got a smile and a nod from the realtor. “Thanks. Sara? Would….”

“Come on let’s hit the bank.” She laughed.

“Thank you!”

Lizzy asked about pulling out her money from the IRAs and then asked about pulling a loan for the house. The banker said it would be a few days.

****************

The realtor looked at the two contracts and thought she was seeing double. “Funny, they both have the same address but….ooooh I bet he’s trying to please her and her him.” She had a good laugh and decided to call them both and set up an appointment that both of them would be bidding against each other. She set the appointment up with the both of them and sat back and laughed. “Well ONE of them’s going to buy it.”

***********

“Honey, Sara and I are going out this morning so, I’ll be home later.”

“Oh that’s fine. I was going to tell you I had something I wanted to do. See you what around noon?” Lizzy nodded. “Love you, have fun.”

“Bye!” Lizzy walked out with Sara and waved to him thru the glass walls. “Think he suspects anything?”

“Greg? Nope. Not a thing.” She smiled and Lizzy looked at her funny. “Nothing, nothing.”

Sara pulled up to the house and helped Lizzy out of the car and took her in and smiled to the realtor. Lizzy saw the interaction and had to ask. “Are you two okay or something? Acting weird. Sara….are you ? Oh, mm if you want I can take a walk around the house for a few minutes and give you some time.” Sara and the realtor rolled with laughter. “Okay, so guess that’s not it. Well I well take another look around, just to be sure.”, then she walked out of the room.

“Is he coming?” The realtor nodded. “I brought a certified check. We all combined our ‘baby gifts’ and I think this is a nice down payment for them.” She handed over the check and the realtor nodded. “Will they be able to handle the rest?” Again the realtor nodded. “Thanks for calling me when you realized it.”

“Mr Sanders is here, the front door just opened.” The realtor smiled and headed into the living room. “Mr Sanders, hello. Glad you could make it. I wanted you and the other buyer for the house to meet and see which one of you wanted the house more.”

“Funny, I can smell….Sara.?”

“Yeah Greg.” She came out from behind the kitchen door smiling.

“What are YOU doing here?” Greg was stunted.

“Oh just looking at a house. You?”

“Just …oh don’t tell Lizzy please. We need more room and….”

“Did someone call me?” Lizzy came around the corner. “GREG?”

“LIZZY?”

They pointed to each other and between Sara and the realtor, one couldn’t tell who was laughing harder. Finally when they were able to talk without laughing again, the realtor explained.

“I was going over the contracts and couldn’t believe both of you bidding on the same house. Guess you both wanted to surprise each other. Mrs Sanders, you put up your IRA fund and savings and Mr Sanders you put up your coin collection as the down payments. Mmm, now which one should I pick as the winner of the house?”

“I told you that money’s YOUR’S.”

“And your coin collection is YOURS.”

Both of them were standing there with hands on hips and looking at each other. Neither one of them wanted to give in. The realtor finally broke the ice. “Well, Ms Sidle here as a solution. You tell them.”

Sara smiled at the two of them. “Gods they aren’t going to believe this at the Lab! Well, we all thought about WHAT to get you guys for a baby gift and well, seeing that everyone donated so much stuff…we thought cash and well we managed to pull together enough from the ENTIRE building…to give you guys enough for a down payment on this house. Which it seems both of you wanted for the other. Sorta like that Christmas story. So….it’s a certified check made out to the two of you……want me to tear it up or give it to the realtor?” She waved it in their faces. “Going, going….”

Both Lizzy and Greg yelled, “DOWN PAYMENT!”

****************

They laid in bed before falling asleep and were quietly talking. “I can’t believe we both did that. I think we need to promise something.”

“What’s that Sweetie?” Greg kissed her forehead and rubbed her expanding tummy.

“No more secrets.” Greg kissed her again. “I take that as a yes.” He agreed and hugged her closer. “Greg?” He shifted slightly, “Are you that tired?” His eyes popped open and she smiled. “Guess not.”

*****************

Greg was thrilled to go to every doctor appointment with Lizzy. She took a cell phone shot of Greg when he first heard the heart beat. Neither of them looked when the sonogram was done in case they could tell the baby’s sex. The doctor snapped off several pictures and tucked them into the folder and promised that they could have them after the arrival.

Between moving into their new home and being pregnant, Lizzy was tired. If she sat down, that was it. Greg would find her sound asleep and cart her off to bed. After a while she got a tad too heavy and he would cover her up and sit quietly until she woke up. Sometimes he would fall asleep and wake up covered and Lizzy in bed.

“What would you like for your birthday?” Greg was rubbing her back.

“To see my feet.” Greg laughed, “Guess that’s got to wait a tad. Oh nothing really. I was thinking of a companion for Cody, but I don’t think I could deal with puppy training right now. How about a nice dinner out? Maybe at Lucky’s?”

“Don’t you want something alittle more fancy?” She shook her head. “Okay Lucky’s it is. We’ll go before shift and then go to the Lab. Won’t be too long now.” Greg rubbed her tummy and kissed it. The baby kicked Greg as he tried to hug Lizzy from the front. “Okay, okay, I take the back angle. Ghees this kid doesn’t seem to like hugs much.”

“Well he OR she is sure pressing on every organ I got. Be right back gotta pee.” She tried getting up. “Greg.” She grabbed his hands and he pulled her up. “Thanks.” He smiled as she waddled off to the bathroom. He quick made a call to Lucky’s asking them to make a small cake with ‘Happy Birthday Lizzy’ on it. They were most happy to do it for one of their favorite customers.

********************

“Umm ghees, I didn’t think you bloomed THAT much.” Lizzy was looking at Greg and tears were rolling down her face. She couldn’t fit in the booth anymore and Lucky’s didn’t have tables with chairs. “We can go someplace else.” She shook her head and used the back of her hand to wipe her nose.

One of the waitress came up with an idea. Lizzy sat on the end of the booth facing outward and they brought out a rolling tiered cart that she could put her feet up on. It was alittle awkward but it worked. Lizzy enjoyed her meal holding her plate. They had precut everything for her. She was tickled when the entire staff came out singing ‘Happy Birthday’.

When they got to work and headed to the ‘Break Room’ for the assignments, Lizzy found the staff had more cake and punch waiting. “Oh my!” She was crying and Greg was rubbing her back. He nodded to Gil and Catherine and they brought in a little carrier. “What’s this?”

“Open it and see.” Gil sat it so it was easy for her to open the latch. She peeked in. “Ooooh sweetie.” She pulled out a tiny little kitten. “Hello there!” She looked around and smiled. “Thank you all so much.

Nick, Warrick and Jim brought in the automatic litter pans and plenty of food and toys for the kitten. “Goodness! She…” Lizzy looked at the cat, “…she’s got more toys then the baby!”

“Thanks guys. It will keep Lizzy company at home….starting tomorrow.” Lizzy just looked at him. “Tomorrow Lizzy.” She just nodded. “Thank you.”

“What are you going to name her?” Warrick was dangling a ball on a string in front of the kitty and she was batting it.

“Hermes.”

“Who?” Greg looked at her.

“It’s after the French fashion house.” Catherine smiled at the naive look on Greg’s face. “We wouldn’t expect a man to know that would we now?”

“They make women’s handbags—very pricey ones, silk scarfs, perfumes, Fan des Mervelles, 23 Faubours, Caleche, men’s are mmm, Rocabar, Terre d’Hermes. Really nice stuff.” Gil smiled back at Catherine.

“Well you DO pay attention when I say something.” Every one laughed at their playfulness with each other.

“Dr Gil? Would you mind terribly if I went home tonight? I’m just REALLY tired.” Greg sat up nervously, “Down Greg, I’m fine just REALLY tired, and my back is killing me.”

“Lizzy you have your sick leave and maternity leave on the books, it’s not a problem. Greg, take her home and come back or here…go to the site after you make sure Lizzy’s okay in the house.” Gil smiled at her, “We have to keep our…..still not gonna tell us?” They shook their heads no, “…okay our Grand Lab baby and Mom healthy. Go, get the car Greg, I’ll walk Lizzy out and the rest of you grab something.”

“Thanks Dr Gil.”

“One of these days you will call me Gil or Grissom.”

“How about Uncle Gil? You will be the baby’s Uncle you know.” Gil smiled a silly grin and Lizzy laughed. “Guess growing up with family has it’s advantages. Ummp, man my back. I’m sure I look like a duck waddling down the hall way.”

“You look beautiful to me and I KNOW Greg thinks so.”

“I feel like a cow in serious need of milking. Not to mention this baby’s been in here long enough to make cheese. It keeps churning and churning…gods. I look at my tummy and think…that’s gonna come out WHERE? No way it’s humanly possible.” They both laughed and slowly walked down the hall to the front entrance. Gil helped her into the car and kissed her forehead. “Thanks, Uncle Gil.”

“Honey are you sure you are okay?”

“GREG.”

“Just asking. Got the cell handy? Carry it…..what? You’re giving me that look. Right shut up and drive.” Lizzy just patted his leg as they drove home. The kitten ‘meowed’ thru the cage.

“What gave you the idea of a kitty?”

“Thought about Cody and figured he was going to need something to keep him busy while we’re busy with the baby and…well you said you wanted a cat. When Cody goes, we’ll think of another dog…maybe your corgi but not now.”

“Thanks Sweetie. Glad it’s an automatic litter pan, since it’s not a good thing to have in the house when pregnant.”

“Isn’t that an old wives’ tale?”

“Nope. One of the things I was reading about. In early months can cause miscarriages so….glad I don’t have to deal with it. Poops are your job.”

“Do I have to do ALL the diaper changing?” Greg’s nose went up slightly.

“No…just the animal ones. Mmm, I’m ready for a nap. Gosh I’m really tired.” She yawned and Greg could see her head dropping to her chest