It started With A Phone Call

Epilogue

I smiled at how happy Avery and Luke looked as they admired their baby. "Can we let the others in now?" I asked out loud while staring at the baby. "Yes. I'll go open the door," the midwife said and made his way over to the door. When I heard a bunch of male voices I knew that everyone was here.

"I can't believe I have a granddaughter," Mr. Hope father said and held onto his wife's hand. She nodded in agreement as a happy tear streamed down her face. Warm arms wrapped around my waist and I instantly felt better. Dan kissed me on the cheek and admired the new addition along with myself.

"Can you believe that in eight months we'll have our own baby girl?" he said while rubbing my non-existent belly. I looked up at him and gave him a funny look. "How do you know it's a girl?" I asked him. He smiled down at me, "I just know," he said. Luckily we were speaking quietly to each other and no one heard. We were planning on letting everyone know the news sometime after Avery and the baby were settled back in at home. Dan and I had just heard the news a few days before that I was just over ten weeks pregnant. It took us by surprise, but I guess it was bound to happen.

Dan and I hadn't been very responsible about protection since we moved in together with Avery and Luke six years ago. We all now lived in a penthouse (a very generous wedding gift from Luke's parents) that overlooked the city with Avery and Luke while we saved for a down payment on our own house.

At first I freaked out at hearing the news because I only had one more year of medical school before I could go into residency. We immediately checked with the programs if it would be ok for me to have a one year break before I did residency so I could care for the baby. Thankfully it was fine so I can just start working a year after everyone in my class.

"Do you guys want to hold her?" Avery asked, which snapped me out of my thoughts. I saw Luke cradling his new baby and nodded. He handed her over to me carefully and I made sure that I was holding her properly. I admired her for a few minutes before Dan did the same.

"So can you tell us her name now?" Ave's mother asked. Everyone gave Avery and Luke a desperate look. "Her name is going to be Venice," Luke said proudly. Everyone awed at the beautiful name. We all knew that it was because Venice was the city that Luke and Avery spent the most time on their honeymoon and they fell in love with the city. "Venice Hope Johnson. It's a really nice name," Ave's father said.

"Hey Doc and midwife dude?" Ave asked out loud. I cringed at the fact that Ave kept forgetting the midwife's complicated name and had apparently given up on trying. The midwife didn't seem to mind while he and the doctor smiled and walked closer to us. "Thank you so much for helping us through with this. Without you, Venice may have not even been here," Avery said.

"You're welcome. I love my job and seeing the satisfaction of everyone after they meet their baby for the first time," the midwife responded and the doctor nodded. "When can I go home?" Avery asked him. "The food here sucks so as soon as possible would be great." The doctor laughed. "Since you gave birth naturally and seem to be doing really well, I would say tomorrow night would be the earliest. We just have to do some tests and let you rest for a while." Everyone nodded and went back to enjoying the mini version of Avery and Luke.

~~~

"Surprise!" Garrett, Brody, Evie, and her fiancé Max shouted quietly as everyone entered the nursery. Avery was more than just surprised to see that our friends were all in Toronto and the nursery was completely decorated and looking great. Ave ran, well... quickly waddled up to everyone and gave them a huge hug. Luke looked terrified of seeing his wife running after just giving birth less than twenty-four hours ago. Ave seemed to be perfectly fine so I didn't bother stopping her.

"When did you guys get back?" She asked the boys. They smiled brightly before answering, "Two days ago," which earned them each a hard punch in the arm. Evie laughed at their faces that showed the pain that they were in. "See, I technically didn't lie since I live in Toronto. I just didn't tell the full truth

when I said that I wasn't sure what time I'd be back from Montreal," she said before hiding behind Max.

"Wait... how did you guys get in to do all of this?" Ave asked curiously. Everyone pointed to me and I hid behind Dan. "So I may have known that they were all here and I may have left a key with security and texted them when you were on your way to the hospital," I said. Avery gave me an angry look before she waddled over to me. I prepared for the oncoming pain before Avery gave me a hug. Surprised, I took a few seconds to hug her back.

"Thank you for always being so awesome," she said. I smiled at her. "Thanks for being my best friend," I said back. After a few hours, Venice was sleeping and everyone was sitting down in the living room. Dan told me to go with him to the bedroom so I could help find his battery charger. I went along with him and as soon as we walked in he spun me around and gave me a deep and passionate kiss. I didn't hold back and started walking him over to the bed before he broke the kiss. I pouted at him when I realized that we weren't going to be doing anything.

"Those hormones of yours have been going crazy these past couple of weeks," he joked. "Hey, I can't help it. I'm pregnant, remember?" I said as an excuse. "No worries. It's great for me, but we have guests and they'll probably catch on," he said. "I think we should everyone in two weeks. Your parents will both be back from New York and mine will be back from Brazil. Everyone's still going to be here so it's the perfect timing," Dan said. I nodded in agreement and placed a hand on my flat stomach. "Do you think I'll be showing by then?" I asked him. Dan walked over to me and placed his hand on top of mine and played with my wedding ring.

"I don't know. You'll be three by then so you probably will a bit if you wear tighter clothes, but with a normal shirt I doubt it," he said. I gave him another kiss before we made our way downstairs. Every time I walked down the stairs I admired the long row of our wedding pictures. On the right side of

the wall there was a picture of our kiss that sealed the deal at our wedding. The others were some from our honeymoon in Greece. On the left side it was Luke and Ave's wedding and honeymoon pictures.

"What took you guys so long?" Luke asked us with a knowing smirk. I sent him a glare before sticking my tongue out at him. "Dan somehow managed to leave his charger in the sock drawer. I really don't understand how," I lied smoothly. Everyone bought the excuse easily before we settled back down on the couch. "Sky and I decided that we want to have a get together in two weeks. Our parents will be back and you guys will still be here so why not celebrate how everything has worked out these past few years," Dan said. Everyone seemed to like the idea.

"Mine are coming back next week so that sounds great," Luke said. His parents now lived in England, but wanted to make it to meet their granddaughter. Ave went into labour a bit earlier than her due date so they couldn't make it on time. "Sounds great. Is everyone fine with 6:00 on the Saturday?" Dan asked the group. They all nodded so it was a done deal. All we had to do was inform my parents and Ave's parents.

The next few hours spent was just everyone catching up and hearing funny stories about our jobs. Dan was still a teacher and Ave would have the year off of teaching since she just gave birth. Luke was doing great with his business and was quickly working his way up. I was working at a pharmacy since I got my bachelors of science degree. I would be a licensed doctor as soon as my residency was over so I was just working in the mean time.

Garrett and Brody had moved to Los Angeles together since Garrett was playing for their football team and Brody was an Agent for a bunch of sports stars. Everyone's lives seemed to have worked out just fine even after all of the problems that we've all encountered. When it was nighttime we showed Garrett and Brody the den with a pull out couch. Evie and Max went home since they only lived a few minutes away and would probably be back tomorrow.

"Can you believe how far we've come?" Dan asked me. I just nodded and unconsciously put my hand on my stomach again. "When she asks how we met how do we explain?" I asked Dan. He smiled at me saying her for once and kissed me lightly.

"We'll just tell her that it started with a phone call."