A/N: I know I should be finishing my other large work, but the idea hit me and I liked the way the words flowed out of my fingertips, so I hope you enjoy it. Please do me the favor of reviewing the story. Criticism is most welcome as long as it is constructive. Thank you and enjoy.

P.S.

I know there are a few errors, I will get to them as soon as I find someone to beta the story. Anyone interested in the job?

Chapter 1

Autumn. It was beautiful time near the mountains and that night the new moon would rise round and full. Brown hair whipped the air as Alex put a painted clip into her hair to secure the front pieces in the back and left the back hair down. The thick locks floated around her shoulders as she twirled in a burnt orange peasant skirt and white men's dress shirt over a loose brown t-shirt. Through the layers of material, the curve of her body showed clearly. Barely three months into her pregnancy, she showed just slightly; most of the women in her family never showed at all, so this wasn't unexpected at any stage. She seemed to glow and her cheeks were flushed apples. The warm beginning of a fall breeze loosed a few more golden leaves into the air to float down to the browning grass that encircled the small ring of clear ground. The knarled limbs hung low enough on some of the thick, ancient trunks to climb on, lending themselves to many afternoons of playing above the ground for the young children.

Elizabeth, a friend who was staying at the cabin on the other side of the clearing from theirs, sat on the porch of the quaint little house with a cup of herbal tea in her hand, watching her friend dance in the joy of the season change. The clearing was littered in early orange, red, and gold leaves creating a picture of peace. Alex danced until she was dizzy before tripping over her feet and dropping into a laughing, joyous heap on the dying grass. Elizabeth put her tea on the top porch step and went to gather her friend from the multi-colored foliage.

"Alex, really. You should sit down now. I don't want to get blamed for you getting sick," Elizabeth scolded, rolling her eyes.

She and Alex walked hand in hand up the porch steps, before plopping down next to the teacup. "Oh, don't worry about me. I'll be fine and so will all things about me. What can go wrong when the world is so beautiful? Come on, it's so calm here." Alex smiled, her confidence in her convictions clear.

"Well, fine. But at least drink something hot."

"Hot chocolate?" was the hopeful reply.

"I think I can find some. I think I got a communal pack box when we were in town." Elizabeth turned and went into the house. Alex heard the whiring of the microwave, a familiar sound, as Elizabeth took the quick way of heating the milk. Within minutes, the smell of delicious hot chocolate was wafting up from the oversized coffee cup in Alex's hands. Smiling in content, she blew on it to cool the liquid enough to drink and took a slow, luxurious sip. "You like chocolate far too much," Elizabeth giggled.

"That's impossible. You can't like chocolate too much. It's too addicting to ever have too much."

"What? That makes absolutely no sense," grumbled Elizabeth as she rolled her eyes.

"I know it doesn't, which is why it explains my point perfectly. Chocolate is happiness incarnate, so therefore, like many things, it does not have to make any sense at all." Alex smirked, looking satisfied before yelping as she burned her tongue on the hot liquid in her still steaming porcelain mug.

Elizabeth went into hysterics as Alex hurridly fanned at the tongue hanging out of her mouth. She stopped her chuckles, however, when Alex pushed her backwards onto the porch. Glaring at each other, they fell back into gales of laugher, since neither of them could be serious, or angry for that matter, for very long. As the two were calming down, a slick looking, dark green car drove up the gravel drive in front of the cabin. The sharp, crunching sounds as the rocks rolled and tossed under the large tires filled the clearing. The SUV stopped in the curve of the driveway just past the end of the cabin, allowing for other cars to park behind it. The driver's side and front passenger doors opened with small clicks and then slammed shut as two men got out and strode to the steps. A moment later, the two back doors opened as well, revealing four people, who had obviously been squashed together in the back brown leather bench seat. Two of them were bickering loudly while the other two shook their heads and groaned as they left the battlies to fight it out. With any luck, they'd kill one another before they reached the house. With a brilliant smile, Alex was swept up from her perch on the steps into a bone-breaking hug. Smiling, Daniel set her on her feet and looked at her in the adoring way you would a new puppy. He was such a sap sometimes.

"Daniel, you almost killed me. Don't squeeze so hard, would you?" Alex whined.

Liandra gave her a friendly slap on the back before smiling, turning around to facing the increasingly loud fight behind her, and slammed their two heads together. A resounding cry of pain filled the clearing as Alex sat back down, unable to control her riotous laughter. Daniel leaned against the steps railing as Jeffy, the younger man who had extricated himself from the car, rolled his eyes pointedly.

"Michael, Sean, you get over here right now and start acting like civilized human beings," said Liandra in the voice of a scolding mother.

"Fine, but you didn't have to do that. We woulda stopped eventually," moaned Michael, rubbing the visible bump on his head.

"How's the kid?" inquired Sean as he shoved his oldest brother aside and hugged Alex. Daniel stumbled backward before glaring at him.

"Supposedly, fine," Alex answered with a slight smile.

"So, what are you willing to bet it's a girl?" asked Michael as he, mimicking his younger brother's earlier actions, pushed him backwards off the house steps.

"Well, I'm not sure I even want to know."

"Oh, come on, Alex," laughed Liandra. "Every other woman in your family has had girls so I'm thinking that you will probably stay in keeping with the family pattern."

"Well, you never know what might happen."

"And what does Jon think about this? He seem to be showing any favoritism for one kind or the other?" Liandra inquired.

"No, I don't think so. He wants me and the kid to be healthy, but he's been making noise about wanting a son. But I suppose that comes from growing up in a house filled with five other brothers and a younger sister. He's bound to have a bias somewhere in his head."

"Alex, get inside. I swear, you are going to catch cold one of these days and then where will you be? I'll tell you where, in the hospital with a pneumonia. What are you thinking? The sun is going down and as for the rest of you, letting her stay out in this breeze for too long, honestly. And you call yourselves responsible," called a voice from behind them. A stout middle aged woman, looking to be barely five feet tall, was walking across the clearing from her old, blue car.

"Good evening, Kerry. It's nice to see you too," mumbled Elizabeth.

"No daughter of mine is going to endanger the health of her child before it's even had a chance to take its first breath. Or at least put on a sweater." Kerry smiled as she said the last, knowing that for all her arguing, Alex would eventually do what Kerry asked her to. "When is Jonathan getting back, anyway?"

This abrupt change of topic caught Alex of guard. "Um, two days, I believe."

"I would think that with you in the state that you are, he would be here for you," mumbled Liandra. "Other than that, everyone inside, the sun is going down and it's getting chilled."

Daniel pulled Liandra to him and they walked inside together. Alex shook her head and smiled before following with the others. Kerry went on scolding them for not keeping her inside when the sun was going down. Alex sat herself down on the couch, enjoying the company. It was about time her friends started arriving. The cabin was bigger than some of the others in the clearing simply because it had to house a lot of people. Through the open doorway into the kitchen, Alex watched Daniel and Liandra talking. She really was something. Her dark brown hair reached her shoulder blades in rippling waves. She glowed, that was the only way to put it. Deep blue almond shaped eyes peered out of a slender heart-shaped face as her cheeks flushed a delicate pink. Danielle was a lucky man, in any case. She was an intelligent girl, although sometimes a bit odd. Engaged since before Alex had gotten pregnant, they were schedule to be married in the early spring.

Jeffy sat down next to Alex with a plop, startling her out of her reverie.
He was young, sweet, and stupid about the ways things worked. His parents had died in an accident when he was young and Michael, Danielle, and Sean had made it a point to take him under their wings and take care of him. They were all connected as a family, whether by blood, marriage, or sheer closeness. He was coming into his adult face, his features beginning to sharpen themselves into a less boyish look. She smiled at him, knowing that until they found him a proper home to stay at, he would be living full time with Jon and herself.

The doorbell rang and Kerry went to answer it, saying that Alex should rest. They didn't want her to strain. Rolling her eyes, Alex sat back down on the couch as Michael grabbed the remote, flopped himself over the arms of a chair, and turned the TV on. There was a small tussle for control as Sean jumped on him and they rolled to the floor, arguing for control of the remote. Daniel popped his head out of the kitchen, where Liandra had set noodles to boiling in a pot on the stove. Growling, he walking into the room, jaw set, and pulled the two boys apart by their collars.

"Stop it, morons. You two are far too old for this childish fighting. Mom would not be happy with you in the slightest and if you break anything in this house, Jon might—"

"I might what?" asked a cheerful voice from the doorway. Alex smiled and leapt up from her seat before squealing, "Jon."

Alex jumped the back of the couch and was caught up off the floor in a long-awaited hug. "You're back early, why didn't you call and tell me?"

Kerry smiled as she came into the room from locking the front door. "Well, he actually called me and we decided it would be a nice surprise to have him come in a little early."

"Excuse us for a moment." Jon pulled her down the hall and softly closed the door to their bedroom. For many long moments, they kissed, relieved to see the other. "How's the baby? And you? Is everything alright, did I miss anything? The questions tumbled from his lips in quick succession.

Alex giggled. "Yes, everything is fine. Why didn't you tell me you were coming back early? You big liar. You called and said two days yesterday evening."

"Well, I wanted to be here when the rest of our guests arrived, so I figured that I shouldn't leave you with all of the stress. After all, you are in a very fragile state."

"Fragile my foot."

"You are fragile as glass if I say you are now accept the pampering." He grinned.

There was a call from the hall as the front door was opened to reveal the mass of visitors who had come into the area for the ceremony to be performed under the orange moon in the next couple of days. Smiling, the couple went to greet some of their new guests, the feeling of something waiting on the horizon thrumming through the house.

A/N: Hope you liked it. Now go, go and review so the author can dance happily. ?