Cammie Goode has a bit of an announcement to make to her husband-but the only problem is that they're kind of on a mission. Well, she's always had bad timing, so may as well keep the streak going.
My reflexes knew what was happening before I did. The terrorist aimed a potshot at me–at the middle of me, the most important part of me as of two weeks ago–and my instincts sent me into overdrive. Pain exploded in my right side as I took the hit in a place I definitely wouldn't have otherwise, forcing a scream of pain out of me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Zach turn, worry masking his face. I broke the man's wrist and drove a fist in an uppercut before jabbing his solar plexus; his eyes rolled back and he feel like a ton of bricks.
"Cam, are you okay?" Zach asked, picking across the dead or unconscious bodies to get to me. "That was…sloppy?" He sounded almost shocked.
"I know, I know."
"What happened? You never lose it like that, why did you take the hit there?" His questions felt relentless, and I felt nauseous.
"I just–don't worry about it. What matters right now is searching these bodies–"
"Doesn't matter? Not to derail our mission but I'm fairly certain you at least have a bruised muscle down there, hon, that's not gonna just fade overnight. I'll have to stick to your right side now." His voice grew heated, like it always did when he was worried. "It's not like that was some new move or something; I can't remember the last time something caught you off guard. What were you thinking, going out of your way like that? It's not like–"
This was not how I had planned to break the news to him, but considering circumstances it was the way I was gonna do it anyway. I grabbed one of his gesticulating hands and pressed it to my stomach, locking eyes with him. "That is what I was thinking."
The realization melted onto Zach's face, as if he couldn't believe it. First disbelief, in green eyes as wide as dinner plates, and then complete shock, in his jaw hanging open, and then something that I could only equate to wonder. "You're…Cam, you're…"
"Pregnant. Yes." I smiled, a laugh escaping me like a gust of air. "Are you really that surprised? We have been trying very consistently."
"I-I-I-I just–" His hands–scarred from the brawl, calloused from gunplay–encircled my waist and he held me too close for even air to come between us. I could feel him shaking. "We were trying but my brain could never… It never really…" He laughed too and pulled back to kiss me, a full-fledged open mouth situation that we hadn't really been able to indulge in months, and it was like the world had stopped.
But then he let go and stepped back a bit, holding me at arms length. "You need to go home. Right now," he said, almost as an order. It was like a switch had flipped in my husband: ecstatic and overjoyed to dangerously protective in a wink.
I stared at him and spoke steadily. "Zachary, don't be ridiculous. This is our op and we're almost done for God's sake, we have three more days! And when else has this been a problem?"
He sputtered ineffectually; objectively, it was a hilarious thing to see. "Th-the whole time, honey! It's not like this just happened at you! How long have you known?!"
"Two weeks." I braced myself for his reaction.
"Two weeks? Why didn't you tell me before we left!?"
"You were gone in DC proper for a whole two days for that training. And then there wasn't enough time for me to get a second with, what, 72 hours before this mission? I wasn't gonna jeopardize this like that."
"What about Bex–"
"She left for Lebanon a day before we came here!"
Zach stilled, the same way the air came together before a storm. I knew he wasn't going to yell at me, but I could tell he wasn't happy. "Does Bex know?"
"I–yes." Guilt flooded me, making my cheeks redden. "I wasn't going to tell her until after I told you! But we were at lunch in DC and she just…you know how she reads people. She just knew."
Zach threw up his hands. "Why didn't she volunteer to come with me, then!? The Agency gladly would have sanctioned it!"
"Her recon op in Beirut was already in the works, there was no way she could've dropped," I replied, and I felt myself grow tense. My voice did the thing that Macey always called me out on, when I was being Very Serious and I couldn't bring myself to yell so I spoke softly instead. "And you know I don't like you running these kinds of ops without me."
"And I don't like doing them without you either but I don't see how that matters anymore!" He held my face in his hands for a moment, making me focus on him, before touching my still-flat stomach. Worry gleamed in his eyes. "If we're starting a family, Cameron, it's a priority."
Something in me that I didn't even realize was running wild seemed to calm down. I had never doubted Zach's inclination as a protector, but suddenly I was seeing him as a father, and I realized I had never loved him more than I did in that moment. I kissed him, just enough for us to share the air, to remind myself that we were together. "I know that, Zach. I do. You have to have noticed how I've been eating, how I've been acting," I replied, and I saw his mind churn back, thinking of the wine I'd refused, the different-than-usual workouts I'd done in the hotel room, the amount of water I'd been drinking.
"Of course. You're right. I'm sorry," he said quietly, deflating a bit. "I should know that. I know you'd never put our baby in undue danger. I just… I worry."
Our baby… "Oh, you worry? Bex left me a dead drop a couple of days ago that was just a bunch of links to pregnancy books on Amazon. And don't even get me started on Mom, oh my gosh…"
"Does she know too?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Oh no, no way. I can't wait to surprise her and Joe, she's gonna lose it. But this? Oh, she's gonna kill me for this."
Zach laughed. "For what, giving her a grandkid?"
"No, for taking that grandkid to run an op in fucking Poland. Speaking of, we need to search these guys," I said, glancing around us at the carnage that we'd just finish having a serious discussion in the midst of.
Zach tugged me forward for a kiss, one that lingered even after we pulled away, our foreheads gently touching. "I love you."
"I love you too. So much."
"I'm–Cam, I'm really excited."
I felt elated. "Me too."
"None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful." – Mother Teresa