Author's note: I dedicate this story to my reader KathyG who has been dying to see John make a faith commitment to Christ. I hope this will fulfill all your expectations, my friend.

John drummed his fingers nervously on the table and watched as Rosie sat in her high chair, carefully picking up pieces of apple and eating them contentedly.

He heard the door of the bathroom open and close again, and turned expectantly to look at his wife of five months, Kayla. Her face looked impassive and she held something clutched in her hand.

"Well?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in question. This news could change everything for the three of them.

Her lips curved upwards in a breathtaking smile which made his heart skip a beat. She extended the object in her hand towards him. "It's positive, John. We're going to have a baby." Her eyes suddenly shone with happy tears, which she blinked back rapidly .

He saw the confirmation with two pink lines on the pregnancy stick in Kayla's hand. It was the news he had been hoping for, yet it still surprised him when he felt a surge of emotion overwhelm him, joy.

Ever since they were married on Valentine's Day, he and Kayla had been hoping for this outcome, actively trying to conceive. As the months passed, with no pregnancy, Kayla had grown disheartened, fearful that she might be too old at the age of thirty-nine to successfully conceive. John had tried to convince her that she was not too old, that indeed Molly Holmes had been thirty-seven herself when she and Sherlock conceived their daughter, and Victoria was now two months old, and as healthy and pampered a baby as one could ever meet. Nevertheless, Kayla had remained fearful, and had waited until her period was two weeks overdue before venturing to take a pregnancy test, hardly daring to hope her dreams of having a baby might yet occur.

Now, John took the stick from her and placed it on the table, before wrapping his arms around Kayla and bestowing on her a very tender kiss. "What did I tell you?" he told her gently, with laughter in his voice.

Kayla's lips quirked. "I know, but I've dreamed about this for so long and to know it is actually happening is almost unbelievable."

He stroked her cheek gently with his thumb. "For a woman of faith, you sure seem to lack it at times," he teased.

Kayla blushed and linked her fingers with his. 'Okay, I admit that I sometimes am pessimistic When it comes to things in my own life. I prayed for a husband for thirty-eight years you know, until you came along."

"Thirty-eight years?" He tapped her nose playfully. "You've been praying since you were a baby?"

She pulled her hand away from his, pouted and put both hands on her hips. "John Watson, you know what I mean."

"Yes, sweetheart." He lifted his chin upwards to kiss her forehead, and she relaxed her stance, settling her own arms around his waist. "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to find someone so soon after Mary either. I guess we have Sherlock and Molly to thank for that." He wished sometimes he were a little taller, rather than the exact same height as Kayla, because he had seen the way Sherlock would stand behind Molly and wrap his arms around her, resting his chin on her head. It was a very sweet kind of gesture.

But he had noticed how accommodating Kayla was when it came to their height, in making sure she always wore flat shoes. Oh well, at least he didn't get a crick in his neck when he kissed her.

Oh," he said, suddenly remembering they had plans for this evening. "Shouldn't we be getting ready for that thing at church tonight? Our friends will be expecting us at Baker Street, and I need to make sure Mrs. Hudson is all set with Rosie for the night."

He gave Kayla another quick kiss on the lips and she released her hold on him with a little smile of acknowledgment.

He walked over to Rosamund, ruffling her blonde curls gently. "Well, Miss Rosamund, you are going to be a big sister. What do you think about that, then?" he asked her.

She seemed supremely uninterested, merely placing another piece of apple in her mouth and beaming toothily as she chewed With her mouth open, dribbling a little of the juice from the apple as she did so.

Kayla walked over to the high chair as well and placed a soft kiss on Rosie's cheek. "You're going to be the best big sister, aren't you, sweetie pie?" she cooed to the little girl who looked at her and then offered the last piece of apple to her stepmother. Kayla took the proffered morsel, but instead of placing it in her own mouth, she held it in front of Rosie's, and the child obediently opened her mouth and accepted the gift.

John looked at his two girls affectionately. Kayla had stepped into the role of motherhood as if she was born to it, and Rosie adored her. Kayla was the only mother Rosie had ever known, after all, having been around for a year now, since the time John had begun to see Kayla shortly after Sherlock and Molly had become engaged.

John still remembered that hurt filled week after he had broken things off with Kayla, deciding that he did not want to be the cause of her ruin. She was a Christian, he was most definitely not, even though he had been raised in the church as a child. If not for Sherlock and Molly's intervention and encouragement to see where things could lead, he might have decided it was best to raise Rosie as a single parent and remain unattached.

After reconnecting, John and Kayla had taken things slowly, neither of them wishing to rush into things. John had respected Kayla's values. She had never been intimate with a man, and he had been determined to not push her into a sexual relationship. After all, if Sherlock and Molly, who had known each other for seven years, had gotten through their two and a half month engagement period without giving in to their passion for one another, he felt he should certainly be able to do the same.

By Christmas, John had known he was truly in love with Kayla, and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Things had slowly been getting more passionate between them, but Kayla had refused to go on any type of birth control, stating that doing it would only increase their temptation to have sex. Rosie had already been conceived before he was married, and John did not want a repeat of that. Later, he remembered rather ruefully speaking with Sherlock about cold showers and the necessity for them.

By the end of January, John had made up his mind to ask kayla to marry him. They had spoken in passing about marriage, and he had tried to gauge Kayla's reaction when he said he would not want anything fancy for a wedding if he were to be married again, having already gone through that. Kayla had laughingly commented that she would rather elope then have a big wedding herself, and he had taken her at her word.

At the beginning of February, John went shopping and bought an engagement ring. He knew his own mind, and he knew he was ready for the next step. He wanted to share his life with her, and he was ready for her to be a substitute mother for Rosie, who openly adored her already. He would never forget Mary, she was the mother of his child, after all, but Kayla brought a different kind of love along with her sweet nature. She was very much like Molly, in fact.

Several days before Valentine's Day, John headed to Baker Street to ask Mrs. Hudson if she would take care of his daughter for a week or so. He would have asked Sherlock and Molly to take care of her, but knew that they were headed to Los Angeles in order for Sherlock to take part in an interview on a late night talk show only a week after Valentine's Day. Mrs. Hudson had been amenable to the request. She treated Rosie very much like a granddaughter, and he trusted her.

After finishing his business with his former landlady, John headed upstairs to speak to Sherlock. Molly was at work at the time, and he spoke to his friend about his plans. He remembered Sherlock telling him when they had been on the train, headed for Dartmoor during the Silver Blaze case, that the famous elopement spot named Gretna Green no longer did elopements. Sherlock had told him there was another place you could marry with only a day's notice, but he couldn't recall where it was.

Upon asking for the information, Sherlock had told him the place was Gibraltar. John had sworn his friend to secrecy, then headed off to purchase plane tickets to Gibraltar for the day before Valentine's Day.

Two days before Valentine's Day, when he and Kayla were enjoying a quiet dinner at Angelo's, John had proposed. Kayla had been completely blindsided. She knew they were headed that way, but had probably been expecting his proposal on Valentine's Day itself. When he had explained his reason for proposing early though, so that they could actually be married on Valentine's Day, Kayla had been thrilled. She had flung her arms around him and kissed him passionately right there in the restaurant. He had been quite glad it had been a public venue, because if he had proposed at home, he knew he would most definitely have been tempted to take her to his bedroom.

John had even done everything necessary to make sure she would be free and available to take a trip away. He had spoken with her parents, who had been a little disappointed at first that they would not have the opportunity to see their daughter walk down the aisle, but they had understood when he explained that with his widower status he did not want a big wedding, he just wanted to marry her and God-willing, make her the happiest woman in the world. Kayla's parents had smiled it that, and given him their blessing. He had also been in contact with Kayla's employers at the nursery school where she worked and arranged for her to have the next two weeks off.

Everything had gone to plan, and they had flown to Gibraltar the day before Valentine's Day, registered their intent to marry, and had married in a small ceremony the following day. And if there was one thing John Watson was sure of, it was that the wait to be intimate with Kayla had been worth it, just as he knew Sherlock and Molly always stated how happy they were that they too had waited. In fact, he had never seen a wedding where the couple were more besotted than Sherlock and Molly had been. They had positively glowed with happiness, and Sherlock had been almost unrecognizable from the man he had been a year earlier at John's wedding to Mary.

Although John was not particularly religious, he was by no means an atheist, as Sherlock had been. He certainly believed in God, he even knew about Jesus, he just felt the Bible to be a little hard to understand and had not bothered to explore it further once he became an adult. But he did feel the blessing of God on his and Kayla's wedding night. There was something very special about waiting to be intimate, and Kayla had been an extremely willing and enthusiastic pupil when he had introduced her to the ways of love.

Since their marriage, John had found himself drawing closer to the church. He knew that Kayla prayed for him, as did Sherlock and Molly. He had seen the way Sherlock had changed after he became a Christian and he felt a tug at his own heart. On the day Sherlock and Molly's daughter was born, John had spoken to Sherlock about the way he was getting closer to an understanding of what true Christianity was. He still wasn't ready to dive in and commit himself, but there was this niggling feeling within him that he was missing something very important.

Tonight, Kayla's church, he still couldn't bear to call it his own, because he only went there because she did, was having a screening of a film called The Case for Christ. Kayla had told him she wanted to see it, but he had not asked her what it was about, and he still wasn't sure what the premise of the film was, although obviously it had something to do with Christ.

John had been a little reluctant at first at the thought of going to see the film, but when Sherlock and Molly had said they would also be there, and that they could go together, he had agreed.

Approximately one hour after John discovered he was to be a father again, he, Kayla and Rosie left the flat and made their way to Baker Street in John's car.

As he drove, he and Kayla decided they would let Sherlock and Molly know that they were expecting their own baby. Kayla had made no secret of the fact that they had been trying to conceive, and he knew Molly especially would be delighted to know.

John found a park a little way down the road from 221 Baker Street, and he and Kayla walked the rest of the way, Kayla holding the baby, and he carrying the changing bag. When they knocked at the door, there was Mrs. Hudson, on hand to greet them as usual.

Author's note 2: This particular story has been in the works for awhile. Several months ago I borrowed the movie The Case for Christ from our local library as we had been studying the book in our Sunday school class. As soon as I saw the movie, a seed was planted inside me that I wanted this to be the catalyst for a conversion story for John. A couple months ago the movie made its way to Netflix. Thanks to that addition, I was able to watch the movie again and bring forth some direct quotes from it to use in the story, which I feel has enhanced it greatly.

I hope you have enjoyed the first chapter of the story, which provides some backstory for my characters of John and Kayla as they have progressed in their relationship since the time of Sherlock and Molly's engagement in A Journey to Love, Faith and Marriage. You will find the beginning of their relationship in that story.

There are also little glimpses of their relationship which you can find in my stories, Londoners in Los Angeles, where their elopement is revealed, and in Waiting for the New Arrival, where John has a conversation with Sherlock about the fact that he is drawing closer to God. I would love for my readers to check out those stories and respond to them as well.

If you enjoy reading about my characters of John and Kayla, make sure to let me know. The next chapter of course, will include Sherlock, Molly and their young baby, so you will get a little bit of parentlock here.