Surprise!

She could feel the nervousness tugging at the back of her throat. Amelia didn't usually have a hard time expressing herself, but a lot of things had been changing about her, lately--things Naomi couldn't, or wouldn't, understand.

Deep breath, release. "I just don't think this is a good idea," Amelia said with an anxious, shaky voice. Her eyes were cast downwards, averted from what she knew would be displeasure in her partner's eyes.

"What isn't a good idea?" Naomi asked; Amelia knew, though, that she was just feigning confusion. Naomi wanted Amelia to say it to her face--but it wasn't that easy.

"Us. Coming here," Amelia stuttered out. "This isn't Bridgeport, Naomi. People will talk. People won't understand. Won't understand... what we are."

A look of irritation crossed Naomi's eyes; clearly, she was not as affected by this as Amelia was. Since she'd finally confessed her feelings for Amelia, she'd been reluctant to hide them. Naomi wasn't a 'let the cat out of the box and then try to stuff it back in' kind of gal. The hardest part had been taken care of, leaving Naomi very little resistance to pursuing Amelia. Amelia, on the other hand...

... well. Naomi had tried to be as sensitive as possible, but there was only so much she could do. This wasn't something they could hide forever, as much as Amelia might want to.

"Look, Mia," Naomi began slowly, trying to sound calm. "You won't know how they'll react until we try. Besides, this is hardly different then us just going out together as friends. No one will know the difference, and even if they did... There's no way you can know that they'd actually care."

"Plleeeaasse, Naomi, please don't make me," she begged in response. "I'm just... not ready."

"Not ready? Not ready?!" It wasn't like Naomi to become angry, especially not in public, but this was different. "Amelia, we've been seeing each other for almost six months now. Six months! And I have bided my time, waiting for you to be ready to be seen with me in public, and I have been terribly accepting of it all considering how long I waited just for you to even see me this way, and now, I can't even go to a bar and get drinks with you because you're afraid of people finding out you might just happen to be dating a woman?!"

"It's not tha--"

"Look, if you don't want to be here with me? Fine. We can go home. I'll pack my things, and I won't force you to have to deal with this, because if you can't even be seen with me... it's obviously not what you want."

"No, no please Naomi, that's not what I want, at all." Amelia was overwhelmed with horror. She didn't realize how frustrated Naomi had become with their 'relationship', but in reality, she couldn't blame her. This was all Mia's fault... All Naomi wanted was to be happy--and Mia deserved to try to give her that much back. "I... I feel for you deeply. And I need you. I need you more than I need anyone else in my life right now, but it's just--it's just not easy, okay?"

"I understand it's not easy, Mia, but that doesn't exactly make it a good excuse," Naomi cast with a roll of her eyes, rolling her knuckles against her hip bone.

"No, it doesn't... And I'm sorry. I'll give it a try, alright? Just please, don't... don't talk about leaving me. You're the only thing holding me together, and if I lost you--"

"Mia," Naomi said firmly, swiftly moving her hands to indicate that Amelia needed to stop where she was headed. "I'm not going anywhere. Even if you never wanted to be seen with me, I still probably wouldn't go anywhere," she admitted with a sigh, almost frustrated with her own dependence on Amelia. "I just didn't know what else to say. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I've got a thick head, sometimes I need a kick in the butt to get it working right," Amelia mumbled, toeing the ground with her foot.

"Well... I wouldn't love you if you were any other way," Naomi offered with a weak smile.

"I know." Amelia lifted her gaze, a smile finally beginning to grow on her own lips. "And I probably wouldn't love you the way I do, if you weren't a hard-headed, stubbornly committed woman who can actually put up with me."

"You're lucky," Naomi smirked. "I get the feeling not many people would."

"'Probably not. It takes a skilled matador to tame the bull, ya know! Not just anyone can!"

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Man, how did I end up with someone like you," she  muttered, now beginning to laugh.

"Aw c'mon, you know you like it! You sure liked it last night when I--"

"Yes yes, I get it Amelia--can we just go inside now? I'm getting hungry."

Amelia violently shook her head, sending her ponytail flapping from side to side from her sudden rush of excitement. "Nope--I got something to give you, first!"

As their lips finally drew apart, Naomi's eyes slowly opened again to see Amelia's grinning, blushing face. "You really are a piece of work," Naomi muttered, before briskly taking Mia's hand into hers, tugging her off towards the double doors of the bar.

"Aw c'mooonnnn!!" Amelia giggled as she was dragged inwards--but her laughter subsided the second they crossed the threshold into the Steel Stallion.

"See? The place is practically empty," Naomi chuckled as she released Amelia's hand and let her gaze travel left and right, scanning the bar. "You were worried for nothing."

"Yeah, I s'pose," Amelia said, still feeling a bit fidgety. "But at least I could disappear in a crowd..."

Naomi rolled her eyes as she spun around to face Mia. "You're impossible, you know that? Anyways, I'm gonna go get us some drinks--try to keep yourself out of trouble for five minutes, alright?"

"I think I can manage," Amelia smirked, though the sound of drinks lifted her spirits a little. Once she had a little nectar in her, this would be a lot easier. Inhibitions were such a pain in the butt, sometimes!

Naomi--clearly trying to suck up to Mia after her earlier outburst--reached out and squeezed her hand before she disappeared off to the bar, plopping up on a barstool to wait for the tender to take her order.

Left alone, Amelia began to take a better look at who was around, tonight. It mostly just looked like the usual Stallion crowd; a few drunks, a few rednecks with nothing better to do, some younger folks with some time to kill, and--say, wasn't that her brother?!

When she spotted Travis dancing just on the other side of the room, her spirits instantly lifted; maybe it wouldn't be so bad, with her bro, here!

But as she began to consider approaching him and giving him a publically awkward bear hug, she realized that the woman Travis was dancing with was definitely not his wife...

... but what they were doing sure made her look like she should be.

"Holy Plumbob!" Amelia gasped into her clasped palms, a tragically failed attempt at keeping her words inaudible to the rest of the bar. "Travis, what are you doing!?"

---

If it was possible to spark any more fire into Brad and Alesha's relationship, their new home had managed it. When you don't feel like you're living in a closet, it's amazing how much more inclined you are to be... ahem. Romantic.

The sheer size of it had made things a lot easier for them. They were no longer invading each others' personal space or tripping over each others' toes, and they were able to get their distance from Margo--not to say that being around her wasn't the joy of their life, but it's hard to be inclined to smooch when you've got a baby gurgling a few feet away. And not only that, but no more pesky neighbors intruding on their business, no more sounds of traffic...  They were far off in the surrounding hills, overlooking Twinbrook like a watchtower.

But this house--it fit like a glove. The pictures Meredith had taken were already sitting on their mantelpiece, which kept the house warm on the chilly nights up on this hill. Some nights all they did was sit by the fire, silently immersing themselves in each others' company.

But things weren't perfect. Margo was not settling to the new house well--or rather, not settling well to sleeping in a seperate room from her parents. Night after night, Bradley and Alesha had to wake to her screams, when Margo would open her eyes and realize that her parents were nowhere in sight.

They knew they'd have to wean her off of such attentions eventually, but both parent's mornings were beginning to turn into the most painful event of the day: recounting how neither of them was able to sleep the night before, and moaning at each other about how they needed to do something about it.

Since Alesha's job at the school required her to be awake earlier, Brad had taken it upon himself to make sure Margo didn't wake her mother too much at night. It was only a few more days before Alesha was due to go back to work, and he wanted her to go back rested and recooperated; but unfortunately, that meant sacrificing his own precious sleep to tend to Margo's constant nighttime cries.

Alesha begrudingly agreed to let her mother, Eva, play nanny for Margo until they could find someone more permanent to watch her, but neither of them were happy about it. Neither Brad nor Alesha felt comfortable letting their parents do this long term--so they needed to figure out something to do that would be long term.

Luckily for them, Brad was already on top of things.

Since Lamont had teased him about "paternity" time off of work, something had clicked inside Brad's mind. He couldn't take time off, no, but he did have a certain set of skills that would prove invaluable in fixing their current dilemma. It wasn't going to be cheap, but it was much cheaper than having a nanny until Margo was old enough to care for herself.

Like Lamont said--all they needed was another pair of hands...

... so another pair of hands, Bradley got to making.

But as his project had continued to develop, Bradley realized that this wasn't just an opportunity to create hands. It was an opportunity to put all his skills to the test. And it wouldn't be just enough to give this set of hands a mind: it had to have a heart. He was doing this for his wife, for his daughter; it had to be the best, most complex, most intricate thing he'd ever made, so into it he poured his soul, and his love.

So when the day finally came when the last gear was put into place, and the last spark was ignited in his invention's core, the amount of pride that flooded into Bradley's chest could have sent him to the moon.

Bradley couldn't contain his enthusiasm; as soon as he could, he raced down the steps of his workshop and threw himself through the front door of the house, barely even taking the time to wipe the grease off of his hands.

"Alesha!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Alesha, you need to see this!

Alesha seemed relieved to have something to break her from her reading, so when she saw her husband, she carefully tucked a bookmark into the pages and tossed her book to the coffee table. "What is it, honey?" she asked with a light smile.

"You know how you've been needing a nanny? Someone to watch Margo while we're at work?"

"Yeah?" Alesha's face instantly perked up. Had he found someone?

"Well--Alesha--you're going to be thrilled. I decided, before we even moved in, that I needed to get someone special to watch our little girl... And well, what better a way to get someone special then to make them, right?!"

"I'm... not following you," Alesha said, confused.

"Alesha," Brad said, the excitement practically bubbling out of him at this point. "I want you to meet XR-1010--or as I like to call her: Lilobot!"

As Brad waved his hands, something moved out of the corner of Alesha's eyes; it moved around the corner with a very mechanical *thud* *thud*, stopping just at the edge of the room to look at Alesha with a set of curious, whirring eyes.

Alesha felt the air escape her lungs violently.

With Alesha still speechless, Bradley continued. "Lilobot--meet Alesha."

It was with a quiver in her eye that Alesha watched it's mouth open, and a noise--not unlike a voice, but colder, buzzing and tonally challenged--emit from within it's metal skull.

"Hello, Mrs. Kane. It's a... *bzzzrrt*... pleasure to finally meet you."