Must Love Dogs

Chapter Thirty-Six

A/N: Hey all! There's a little goodness for everyone in this chapter. ;) Anyways, I just wanted to say that there will be 4 more chapters left of Must Love Dogs before I bring it to a close.

Anyways, hope you all enjoy this update and thanks so much for reading!

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Must Love Dogs Chapter Thirty-Six

Whimpering cries had waken him up late in the night. Elena's tossing and turning had finally stirred Stefan awake and now, there he was staring at her as she slept soundly beside him. Stefan slowly lifted up his hand, caressing her cheek and hearing her groan out loud with a sweet sigh. "I know that you think marriage is pretty stupid. But, I'd die a lucky man knowing that you would ever agree to be my wife." Stefan said in a hushed and honest tone. There was something about waking up in the middle of the night beside the person you loved and knowing that every time you looked at them that you never wanted to see someone else beside you. There was something about that realization that hit him hard and in which he saw in Elena that made him feel exactly this way.

He leaned over slowly and kissed her cheek instead of waking her up just because he was bored and wanted someone to talk to. Stefan exhaled deeply, pushing the fallen covers up and placing them against Elena's bare shoulders again. It was early, a little after 5:30 in the morning and he couldn't seem to close his eyes and find peaceful slumber long enough to feel well rested. It didn't matter that the warm bed sheets seemed enticing or that he had been sleeping beside Elena. Stefan still couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that in about less than 2 months from now, he was going to be a first time father.

The jitters were driving him nuts ever since he and Elena had talked about baby names and paint colors for the nursery. Everything was becoming a lot more surreal and part of him had figured that a lot of his restlessness had to do with the stress of it all.

"Can't sleep?" Elena's soft spoken and sleepy voice came echoing into the room as she found Stefan sitting on the couch, holding another parenting book in his hands that seemed in the distant like they were sharking.

"No." Was all he uttered out, not even wanting to remove his eyes from the book as he heard her slowly make her way towards him. Her hand brushing against the back of his neck when he finally turned around and heard her rummaging through their pretty bare cabinets. "I was going to go grocery shopping later today." He explained while watching Elena stand near the fridge, her eyes locked on to him as she yawned out a breath and smiled. "It's fine, just please tell me that we have some pickles and vanilla ice cream around here?"

Stefan stared up at her blankly after what she had just said. "Pickles and vanilla ice cream? That sounds really disgusting." Elena laughed as he made a sour looking face at her, and then continued to go back to reading the book in his hands. He could hear her in the background, moving things around and groaning in what sounded like utter despair when she didn't find the pickle jar she knew that they had.

"Where are they?" Elena asked him as she spun around on her heels, feeling a bit dizzy and sick to her stomach all at the same time. "I'm eating for two, Stefan. Please, tell me that we still have those sweet, savory and crunchy dill pickles that you bought to put on hamburgers and that I'm now going to use to put on top of my ice cream." The room fell silent as he slowly got up without a word. Elena could tell that he was probably a bit irritated with her just in the way he was moving with such tension in his body. But, she didn't care because when he finally reached up above the refrigerator to a small cabinet and brought them down into her hands, she was giddy inside. "Here." He replied, handing them off to her as their hands touched and she grinned widely.