"You are kidding me, right? How do you get all these people involved and then say, surprise, I'm not going to be in the movie after all?"

Laura was completely confused. The moment she called Freddie back the day after his message, and just hours after she put Ross on a plane headed to Vancouver, he had dropped a bomb on her. First was the good news - she had the part in the small indie that she had auditioned for not a week earlier. The next was bad news. He wasn't starring in it after all. After going into the audition surprised and leaving hopeful that her skills, plus their friendship would give her an edge, dropping the bomb that he wasn't going to be playing her new husband in the thirty day shoot that would be starting in a week or so, wasn't the best news at all.

Freddie was a great friend and she had enjoyed every moment she got to work with him on First Aid. Not that it was a lot, but the time they had together was great. She was looking forward to working with him again - this time in a more one on one capacity instead of in a town meeting setting, or wedding, or funeral. There were tons of those moments on the show; too many. She could almost see him run both of his hands through his hair, frustrated over the fact that this was actually happening - like she was. Cradling the phone in the crook of her neck, Laura headed back to the bedroom where she had been packing her own suitcase for her quick trip to New York the next day.

"You know how you go in for movie roles that you know you have no chance in getting, but you go anyway just to say that you auditioned for it?"

"You didn't..."

"I did," he paused. "And I got it. I wasn't supposed to get it. The role is completely out of my league and I have no idea why they chose me or if I can even pull it off..."

"You can," she reassured him, not even aware of the caliber that the role held.

"Please don't be mad at me. I'm mad at myself for this."

"I'm not," she told him, tossing in a pair of jeans to the open case before taking a seat on the bed. "I'm bummed we won't get to work together on this project, but I'm still holding out for something else."

"The next romantic comedy that comes my way, I'm going to insist that it's you by my side."

"Stop being a charmer and tell me about this new role you got."

Laura flopped all over the bed as Freddie told her about the role and she knew it was a big role for him to give up the Indie that he was still producing. It wasn't just a big role, it was a huge role. She actually couldn't believe that he had gotten it either and she was really excited and just past the point of pestering him for premiere tickets the moment he stopped talking. He did drop of our their movie, after all. It's only right that she got tickets for her and Ross.

"Wait," she stopped him mid sentence. "You're still producing and everything, but who's taking your place?"

"We haven't decided yet. D.W. and Shelley are working on that right now, but you have the role of Autumn."

"You'll let me know as soon as you know?"

"I don't think I'd hear the end of it if I didn't."

Laura stayed on the phone with Freddie for a bit more, catching up on his life and him with her before she had to actually start packing and make it over to her parents place for dinner. She had promised her mom and dad a real catch up day (or in this case, night) before she left for a day trip to New York. She kind of wished she could bring her mom with her, remembering all the times when she was younger that her mom was always on set for her photo shoots and interviews and traveling the world with her. She kind of missed those.

Tossing in a few pairs of socks, just in case, Laura smiled thinking about their little family trip to Dubai just after Austin & Ally ended. She had wished Vanessa would've come along with them and went on that camel ride. That was still one of her top moments in life to this day. She actually wouldn't mind doing that again; maybe somewhere old, or somewhere new. If she had her way, they'd all be headed on a one way flight to Italy right now so her dad could tell them his life story again. She loved listening to it and would possibly never tire of it, possibly even telling it to her and Ross' children someday.

She stopped. Did she really just think about having kids with Ross? Not that it hadn't crossed her mind before, because it had, but the weight of the thought just hit her. She wasn't going to lie - having a child with Ross would possibly be the best thing, but then again, they were still in their mid-twenties and they had so much more they both wanted to accomplish. For her, another album, and for him, getting through a first season on Permafrost. She let out a chuckle remembering how he said he hoped he would make it through the first week after getting the role months ago, since Gary and his writers were known for killing off one of the major stars in the first two weeks. Kids were a long way off, and if she was being honest, she actually wanted to be married first. She was that traditional type of girl that way. Boyfriend, Living Together, Married, House, Kids, Happily Ever After. That's how it should go in her mind. But since when has anything ever happened that way.

But hours later, she was sitting across the table from both of her parents and they were asking her the same questions. About marriage. About Ross. About if she thought about that. About if she really knew if Ross was the one. About grand kids. And, about if she knew anything more about Vanessa's new boyfriend. There were so many questions they were throwing at her and she didn't know how to answer or where to start. She hadn't even uttered an 'um' before Damiano came back with even more questions - about the kid's names! She knew her dad was growing older and wanting grandchildren sooner rather than later, but then again, he was still on the go and still lecturing at USC three times a week. She hardly believed that he wanted to be that grandfather who was stuck at home babysitting the grandkids while their parents were visiting countries they wouldn't learn about for years for work.

She looked in between her parents, her eyes becoming wider by the second. Refilling her wine glass, Laura took a full drink and was betting that she'd be the one who was going to drink the whole bottle. Especially with these questions that they were asking. How many kids do you think you'll have? A boy or a girl first? Have you and Ross even discussed this, since you have been together for over a year? Seriously, where did all these questions come from? Is this something they've been just pocketing until they got her alone?

"Okay, stop," she urged them both. "What's with the interrogation?"

Ellen looked over to Damiano before answering her, with a bit of caution. "We were just talking the other day and these just came up. Even Stormie is wondering..."

"Wait, you talked with Ross' mom about this?"

Ellen nodded her head. "I had lunch with her the other day and us, being the moms, got to fantasizing about little Ross and Laura babies. Your siblings aren't the only ones who were hoping you two would be the end all be all couple."

"You talked with Stormie about this...and Mark?"

"I'm sure Stormie has shared this with Mark," Ellen said, taking a sip of her own wine.

"Ross and I haven't discussed anything beyond which cities were going to for movie promo and what we're having for dinner the moment he gets back."

"So, no marriage or baby talk yet?"

"No!" Laura shook her head. "We just started dating, Mom."

"Just being optional word here. You've been together for over a year officially, and over five years unofficially."

"Unofficially?"

Damiano got a wicked smile on his face then, leaning over the table to his younger daughter. "Yes, unofficially. You can't tell me you'd be at this level with Henry."

She was about to argue with him, but there was really nothing to argue about. Henry wasn't Ross. Henry wasn't even close to being the one at all. Setting her wine glass back by her almost empty plate, she tried to switch the subject to her father's lectures or to her mom's theater that she grew up going to. Just something else besides when she was going to start popping out babies. There was years for that and there was still a lot she personally wanted to accomplish before that. She wanted a house, maybe another pet, wanted her sister to find happiness, wanted to get those blue heels from YSL that she'd had her eyes on for years...so many other things than a baby. At least for the moment. But, her parents weren't letting it go just yet.

"Mom, Dad," she cut them off. "I love you both, but kids are not on the table right now. How about me and Ross get through promoting this movie first and then we'll talk. Maybe you'll get to be pet grandparents? Would that be okay?"

"Pet grandparents?" Ellen raised her eyebrow, obviously unimpressed with the suggestion.

"That's what I'm offering and that's not until next year. Take it or leave it."

Ellen, nor Damiano, didn't respond and that's exactly what she wanted. Hopefully they'd pick up on her other hints and answer the questions she had asked. She actually really wanted to know about the theater and her dad's lectures. She always thought that if she had attended college normally in the past years, she definitely would've been a student of her father's. It might've been kind of cool to sit in on one as a student and not just as the daughter who was waiting for her father to be done so they could go to lunch.

After cleaning up the dishes and finally catching up on the things in their lives, Laura cuddled with Velvet before going back home. She had an early flight tomorrow morning and needed to make sure she had some sort of shut eye. Once she was in New York, she'd call Ross and let him in on this ridiculous conversation she had to endure without him, and of course let him know that his own mother was thinking about their future kids too.

That would be the best conversation ever.

+++

Whoever was the mastermind behind the Duluth Trading Company was now officially his hero. Still on the open sea for filming, Ross was bundled up in warmest, coziest and comfiest coat he'd ever put on his body. It was freezing out, even with the sunshine beaming down on him, his co-stars and the crew aboard the expedition boat that they had taken over for the show, and the coat he had wrapped around his body was saving his ass from freezing off. He honestly could've sworn the crew member who gave him the coat was an angel and handed him a pillow of some sort. One moment he was just taking a seat on the edge of the vessel and the next, Sofia was preventing him from falling backwards into the frigid water. He wasn't necessarily tired at that time, but the coat was just so damn comfy that he was ready to just take the best nap ever in it.

Still on the boat, they were headed into their tenth hour of filming and he and Cleo were huddled together, trying to keep warm. The young actress - she wasn't that much younger than him actually - leaned her head on his shoulder for a millisecond before the director called them both up to bat. He had only arrived a few days before hand and immediately got an earful from Amber, who'd been on the set for a few weeks before, about this particular director who had secured a handful of episodes to helm. He wasn't a perfectionist and didn't want to do a million takes on every scene. He was a one and done type of director and so far, Ross and Cleo were not the one and done type of actors. This scene - it was their third take, and final, if the director had anything to say about it. As much as Ross was the perfectionist too, the one and done thing didn't sit well with him and he'd do the scene over and over again to get it right. But seeing as how this was their last scene of the day, he was all over that 'get it done' mentality. Especially since the coat was rocking him to sleep with every move.

Action was called after he stripped of the coat he'd be buying from wardrobe after the season was through. He ran over his lines with Cleo and she pulled out the brattiest responses to him, just like a younger sister would a brother when he said something that would definitely not sit well with anyone. It was almost reminiscent of the fights he sort of recalled with Riker and Rydel when they were younger. While Riker wasn't the over protective big brother over Rydel that you'd expect him to be, he was still protective of Rydel. Hell, he was protective over all of them.

Ross spat back at Cleo as she stormed off, back into the covered shelter of the boat, and he pounded on the side of it, upset at her and himself for the stupid fight between them. Pretending to be angry wasn't all that hard, he learned, but punching his hands into the fiberglass frame was less than enjoyable. He gripped the side again, his knuckles becoming white as the wind blew through the hair that had escaped from the hair gel that had been slathered over his head earlier in the day. Looking back up, to the open waters, he squinted, pretending to see something that wasn't there - something that wasn't a solid sheet of ice; something that definitely wasn't Antarctica. He yelled back, calling out his pet name for Cleo's Claudina, and for Sofia's Korli, hoping that Joseph wasn't actually crazy here.

The loud yell of 'Cut!' was yelled seconds later, a crew member handing the coat that he was calling heaven back to him and pulled it on.

"Okay, that's good, and a wrap on this scene. We'll pick it up tomorrow inside the studio," the director announced and he was jumping for joy inside. Not only because they would actually be inside the studio for the next week or so, but because he could go back to the hotel and sleep for about thirteen hours. He hadn't worked a lot in two days time, but he had to be present and just waiting around and watching was actually really tiring.

Picking up the sides from a P.A. as he headed inside, Ross slipped down next to Bruno, who played Silas, the expedition leader, around a table. The boat started to turn around back to the harbor and judging by the time it took them to get out there in the morning, they should be back within an hour. Digging out his phone from inside the coat, he let it slide over the table while glancing at the lineup for tomorrow, not noticing that Laura had sent him a few messages. But Bruno did. The Brazilian actor took the phone and glanced at the message as a sly smile came upon his face.

"Your girl sends you photos like this all the time?"

"Huh?" Ross took it, quickly putting in his passcode and pulling up the photo she had sent. Thankfully, it wasn't the ones she usually sent him - the ones where she's pulling out her silliest faces, or the ones where she's just way too sexy for him to handle. This one, was a little sneak peek from her photo shoot that she was on today. He was still unclear to which magazine this was for, but there was no doubt it was going to be gorgeous, because she was. Laura had her hair all straightened and her all the emphasis was on her eyes - those gorgeous brown eyes with flicks of sunlight in them that he loved getting lost in. He couldn't tell what she was actually wearing, if anything at all, but he knew one thing was for sure - he'd need this photo blown up so he could hang it on their walls.

Ross looked back at Bruno. "She's shooting in New York today for some magazine. Just a little preview."

"Looks good."

"It does," Ross smiled and put his phone down again after saving the photo and went back to the sides.

The ride back was quiet, with everyone in their own zone going over tomorrow's lineup and answering emails on their phones, if they could. They were on the open water still, after all. By the time he got back to the hotel, he was kind of beat but he did have plans. Tossing his clothes and shows towards his suitcase, Ross hopped into the shower before he talked himself out of it. Especially since, if he bailed out on dinner with Amber, Cleo, Sean and his wife Natalie, he'd get an ass kicking from Sean. He made it a quick on - in and out as fast as he could so he could spend the remainder of the time on the phone with his girlfriend who sent him another picture from her photo shoot while he was on the van back to the hotel.

That picture, which he would definitely not be sharing at all with Bruno, Sean or anyone else, may have been the reason for the shower more than his upcoming dinner was. She picked up on the second ring as he was pulling on his pants, sounding out of breath, but still beautiful. "When you send me sexy photos like that, can you not do it when I'm working?"

"How do I know when you're working? I don't have your complete schedule," Laura shot back, and she had a point.

"Bruno saw the first one you sent and I'm really glad he didn't see the next one." She giggled over the receiver which only made his smile widen. He liked when he was the cause of her giggle.

"Yea, the second one was on the border of NSFW."

"Such a thin line... I'm really surprised that you actually posed for that one."

"To be honest, the photographer caught me in between a wardrobe change and that's what you saw. I did like how it turned out though. Did you?"

"Did I? I've already called my guy to blow it up in a big ass poster so I can put it on our ceiling or something." The giggle came again. "Where'd you shoot this though?"

"Bushwick," she told him the neighborhood in Brooklyn. "We went all industrial with the location and then there I was looking like a socialite out of her comfort zone. I think that's what they were going for actually."

"I'm looking forward to seeing the rest, especially the ones of you in between. The photographer is going to send those all to me, right?" Ross wiggled his eyebrows even though he knew she couldn't see him being all flirtatious with her. But this was Laura, and she just always knew when he was being cheeky.

"I'm not going to answer that. How was your day?"

"Long," he breathed out, falling back on the bed with the phone still on his ear. He told her about being in the open waters for more than eight hours and about the jacket he was going to steal from wardrobe. He wouldn't be able to actually wear it in California, but it was definitely going with him to Colorado for the holiday season. He told her about the obnoxious director and about how they were going to be on green screen filming for the rest of the week.

"Kind of funny how the movie and this show are related like that," she mentioned after he told her that the expedition actors felt like aliens on a new Earth.

"Apparently I'm a fantasy guy now."

"My fantasy guy," she flirted right back. "Oh! I have a story for you. Have you talked to your mom lately?"

"Uh, it's been a week or so, why?"

"Well, it seems she and my mom have been talking."

It wasn't so out of this world that their moms were talking, but what they were talking about was now scaring him shitless. Laura had told him how she was put on the spot with question after question from Ellen and Damiano about marriage and babies and even told him that they even picked out a baby name for their first child; and while he liked catching up with her parents and his, he was very thankful he didn't have to endure that. Marriage? Babies? Yes, someday. Not today though. Definitely not today.