Tealeaves and Thorns

"You know, that's, um, that's something I ask myself every day. What I did to deserve such an incredible woman." Horatio chuckled, dipping his head just a little as his cheeks turned red. The fact that this stranger had called Maria his wife wasn't lost on him. It's why he was blushing. Because she wasn't his wife just yet, but... they were close to making that happen, and it wasn't the first time she'd been referred to as his wife, or him as her husband, and neither chose to ever correct it. It was a testament to their love for one another. A love that even other people could see.

"Maria is... well, she's everything. Yes, she's beautiful, so very beautiful," and when he said beautiful, he also meant her heart and her soul, too. "And she's so much more, too. She is kind and strong, stronger than she gives herself credit for, and she's thoughtful, too. She's always thinking about others. She loves with her entire heart and she always sees the good in people. Even when they can't see it in themselves." He smiled, equal parts pride and wonder. "I've seen... so much darkness in my life and Maria, she..." His smile widened just at the thought of her. At the thought of Maddie, too. His two girls. The two loves of his life that he absolutely could not live without. "god, she and Maddie both brought so much light into my life. Did away with that darkness entirely." In ways he never thought possible.

Including this moment. Making breakfast together in the kitchen on Father's Day and catching Maria munching on the cereal she once claimed she hated most and it was actually very comical. Something neither of them expected. "You were right. And now we know how they've been disappearing." Because it certainly hadn't been him. He liked the cereal okay, but rarely did he eat them. Rarely did he eat cereal at all unless they were having a quick and simple breakfast together. And it wasn't that he accused Maddie of eating more than usual, it was just that, at the time, she'd been the only one really eating them and every time she picked up the box, there was less than before. That made Horatio wonder... "How long have you kept this from us?" He questioned like he was interrogating her, but the smile was still in place to show he was only teasing her and that he was still thoroughly amused.

But, as promised, he took the blame onto himself and Maria was all too happy to let him. He laughed at that, at the way she'd just chastised him. "In my defense, I did not think it would actually happen." He wasn't really a superstitious kind of man. He never really believed in the power of jinxing, as some called it. He was a man of evidence and fact. But, well, this was proof enough that sometimes, sometimes it could happen. Though he did believe in fate and destiny. Especially when he looked at the two of them.

Maddie made a face when Momma said they were... they were... frowned and tilted her head. "What does con... con..."

"Con-spy-er-ing." Horatio helped her to sound it out.

"Con...spy...er...ing." She tried. "Con...spiring?" She asked and Horatio nodded. Her face lit up again.

"She means we planned this somehow. That her now liking fruit loops is our fault."

Maddie quickly looked at her. "But... but... what'd I do, Momma!?"

Horatio laughed and shook his head. "Nothing, sweetheart. She's only kidding." He reassured her with a grin and Maddie giggled.

He made his way over to her, hoping to earn her forgiveness which usually wasn't difficult to do. And when she mentioned still wanting to be Mrs. Caine, he hummed happily and kissed her. Just a sweet, gentle kiss. "Mm, good. Because I look forward to the day I get to call you Mrs. Caine." He added softly with one more kiss. Though, some had already started calling her such. Like the doctor and nurses at the hospital. Thinking about it made his heart flutter, made warmth fill his chest. God, he really couldn't wait. Just like he couldn't wait to officially adopt Maddie. Maria and Maddie Caine. The Bloomsco-Caine Family.

He pulled back and looked over at Maddie as she giggled, then her eyes went wide and her mouth opened with a gasp.

"Can we!? CAN WE, MOMMA!?" Maddie asked, now very excited at the idea.

Horatio looked at Maria and smirked, chuckling at that. "Now that was your fault." He stated, what with her getting Maddie's hopes up about having the pantry stocked full with fruit loops. "Besides, is it really that bad? You used to loathe them and now you don't. Now you have something else you can enjoy." He tried to help her look at the bright side of it. An easy, easily accessible snack that she could also take with her since they came in small boxes, too, or she could just put them in baggies. "I'll make sure we have a box in the bedroom at all times." He whispered teasingly, unable to help himself. He kissed her cheek and walked to the table, pulling out her chair for her before he sat in his.

"Daddyyyyy, you need to eat it before it gets cold!" Maddie said, her mouth full of food.

Horatio nodded and immediately took a bite while Maddie watched him with a hopeful look in her eyes, practically holding her breath. "Wow." He hummed, swallowing down the bite and licking his lips. "This is incredible." He praised, his words honest, made evident in how he took another bite, then wiped his mouth afterwards.

"You really like it, Daddy?"

"I love it, sweetheart. I hope two will be enough. I might want more." He chuckled, half joking, and half serious, because it really was that good.

"There's part of me still loathes them." Maria said. "But this started last week, it's like they were just calling to me from the cupboard. There is not being a box in the bedroom. I draw the line there." Maria narrowed her eyes at him and his teasing and then smiled and softened when Maddie started to call for him to eat his breakfast.

Maria went to sit down on the other side of Maddie and picked up the juice first taking a sip before she looked down at the bagel. "I am, give me chance." Maria chuckled picking it up and inhaling, it smelled wonderful, it looked wonderful. Maria picked it up and took a bite causing the yolk in the middle to burst and end up on her pajamas.

"Hmmm, oh god, oh god look at me." Maria said looking down at herself. She picked up the cloth and started to try and clean it. "This is absolutely delicious darling but I think momma might need a knife and fork. Look at the mess I'm making."

He shifted a bit to give Maria more room, his gaze following the man that had squeezed past them. Yes, he had got paranoid after Italy. Even moreso than he had been before. A bit of paranoia couldn’t hurt, it just shouldn’t take over one’s life. His gaze returned to meet Maria’s. In that very moment he knew he would regret agreeing to that barbecue. “Well, I—” He bit down on his lip for a moment, shaking his head. “If it makes you happy? I wouldn’t be surprised if they said no, though, after all…I’m still their boss.” And it was rather awkward to spend free time with the boss, wasn’t it? “You know I don’t mind. And…well, if you want to invite them over and they don’t want me there, I’ll leave. It’s fine. I can...find something else to do.”

She thought he did mind, and she didn't want him uncomfortable in his own home. At the same time, though she also really wanted to have a barbecue again. She wanted everyone round at her house again and it would be a nice restbite from everything that had happened.

"Okay, how about, we have the barbecue. If it becomes too much for you, you can always take Barney out and then whilst you're walking him I can get rid of everyone." She suggested. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable Gareth, but I also do miss having people over. I'll have to clean up the back garden, maybe get some more planters and we'll need to do some shopping. Hopefully Eve won't still be on her vege kick then and if she is maybe we could tempt her with a sausage." Maria laughed.

"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them."

"My god you've got to stop. I wasn't kidding when I said about you setting off a... I don't even know if you'd call it a craving. We definitely do not have time, before you start. Iris has a doctors appointment so I have to be back at 1:30pm on the dot."

He nodded when she answered, wanting the waffles dry, wanting to let the eggs and bacon soak into it. Then he chuckled when she mentioned hot sauce. Hot sauce on waffles sounded odd to him, but only because he’d never seen or heard of anyone eating their waffles like that and who was he to judge? Not that he was. Because he wasn’t. “I like when my bacon or sausage soaks up the syrup.” He said, moving to grab the hot sauce from the fridge for her. He’d let her do it so he didn’t accidentally put too much. Then he rolled his eyes at her sassy comment about cooking. “Notice I said we?” He pointed out with a smirk, kissing her cheek as he walked by her, taking his seat at the table. "I guess it, uh, I guess it depends on what we feel like eating. We could make pizza." He suggested with a shrug, sounding serious, only to let out a laugh not even a second later. "I'm kidding!" He laughed. "I promise no pizza tonight." Since they had it last night and since they might have it for lunch today. He was only messing with her.

"You'd be having a different sort of breakfast entirely then." Maria said it without even thinking and her mouth dropped open, but she covered it pretty quickly. "Oh my god, I can't believe I just said that." She flushed fully then, cheeks and it travelling slightly down her neck.

"You did say we. Maybe I'm just starting to get used to being treated like a princess by my knight in shining armour." Maria teased him back gently and she had to resist the urge to grab hold of him and keep him close when he kissed her. "No pizza, we could look in the cookbooks. There's some good recipes in there. Probably better doing that than just going to the store and buying a load of random ingredients." Maria laughed as she started to dig in, letting out a hum of approval at her egg, hot sauce and bacon soaked waffles.

She listened to him talk and the day sounded perfect, the tail end of it got a little lost after he'd said about having her for dessert. As if she hadn't already been thinking about his tongue on her, about his hands on her, about what they'd done that morning. Maria swallowed her food a little hard because she was trying to temper the rising heat.

"Maybe we just wait." Maria suggested. "Maybe we just wait to see if she does anything, to see whether she just takes your rejection on the chin and leaves you alone." Maria bit into her toast but it had gone a bit cold and she didn't massively feel like eating it. She knew she needed to though. There was nothing else in her stomach.

"I mean, Moneypenny knows what happened. I saw what happened. People saw me leaving. If she does do anything.... there are sort of witnesses. Something tells me she won't be going to HR. That doesn't say she won't try again though." Maria swallowed then. Not because of Gareth but because she hated the thought of him being put in that position. She hated the thought of someone making advances when he didn't want them too.

His mind was starting to get off track so he focused on the book again, reading through the list of names while writing more down that they both liked. He watched her flip to the M's, likely looking for Maddie's name. Then he saw the name Madison and he smiled. A fond, yet bit of a sad smile, accompanied with a slight ache in his heart. "I, um, I still often think about how similar Maddie's name is to my mother's." It wasn't the first time he's talked about her, especially by name given how close they were. "And my niece, also named Madison." He grinned, though that wasn't at all intentional. Certainly not by his brother because he didn't even know Madison existed. Though he wondered if Raymond spoke to Susie about his parents at one point and if she decided, on her own, to name her daughter after their mother. Or maybe she just liked the name. But Maddie... the little girl he loved like his own, the little girl he was going to adopt very soon, her name was so close to his mother's and he loved that. God, he missed her. Missed his mother. She would've loved Maria and Maddie.

He swallowed down the emotion that built when thinking about her in that moment, about how he wished she could've met the two girls he loved most in this world. The two girls that changed his life in the most beautiful of ways. He kissed her shoulder again with a soft sigh, nodding when she answered his question about whether she still worked there. "Maybe when we're there for the next appointment, we can ask. I bet she'd love to see you. And Maddie." He suggested, reaching for the book of baby boy names and setting it on his lap before he grabbed his water to take a drink. Then he turned back to Maria and returned his hand to hers that was on her stomach, lovingly stroking her hand that wore the engagement ring.

He smiled at her question and hummed in thought, slipping his fingers between hers and gently lifting her hand, watching the ring shine in the dimming sunlight that was still shining through the blinds. "I suppose it depends on how soon we want to marry. We've still a lot of planning to do." Planning that they started, but hadn't finished. They started the night before everything with Adam happened and with the pregnancy and preparing for the baby, they hadn't had much time to continue planning. But god he was excited. And it showed in his eyes and how the smile on his face was reaching them. It showed in the way he held her hand, gazing upon the ring on her finger. Engaged. They were engaged, soon to be married.

She smiled when he talked about him mom and his niece and turned to press a kiss to his shoulder.

"It's almost like the universe was just waiting for us to find each other." Maria said, and she did believe in those things. She believed in fate and soul mates and happily ever after. It was something that helped to get her through the worst times. The idea that fate was just waiting to give her something better and it had, time again. First Maddie, then Horatio and now the baby. There was always balance in the universe. For the bad there was the good and the good was always, in her experience worth it.

"Have you thought about those." She gestured to the book of baby names, even as they were talking about the wedding she still wanted to know what he liked. "I think for the wedding, it depends on what we want. I don't mind being pregnant for it but it might mean we have to put a honeymoon on hold for a while. Or plan one with children involved. I suppose it also depends on if we want this little sprout there too. In a little dress or suit." Maria grinned at him.