Thank you readers and reviewers. Please don't be cross when I say that this is the last chapter – this was originally intended as a one shot and I've come to the end of my plot line now – unless you would like a '7 months later' kind of epilogue? Because I do have one of those kicking around in my brain.
Ten minutes later, they were still necking on the floor of the control room like a pair of teenagers, his hand inside her shirt and her fingers fumbling with his belt buckle. Kissing her stomach and whispering to their baby had inspired Mac to throw herself on top of him. He certainly hadn't objected. It wasn't until they heard one of the control room doors further down the corridor slam shut that they remembered where they were.
Mac blushed rosily. "Oh my goodness, I really hope no one walked past those glass doors after the guys left," she giggled, doing up his belt again.
"Nah, Jim's a good kid, I'm sure he would have told everyone to steer clear," said Will, although he was blushing a bit himself. Public displays of anger, sure, he had those cornered (although since he'd got back together with Mac they were mostly for show). Public displays of affection were not his thing. When he was alone with Mac he could let himself go, be completely himself, but that didn't mean he wanted anyone else to see him like that.
Reluctantly, he removed his hand from her breast (yup, they were even more amazing than usual, he hadn't been wrong about that) and refastened the buttons on her blouse. He stood and reached down to help Mac up, before settling her carefully back into her chair.
"Jesus, Will, I'm pregnant, not breakable you know!" she exclaimed, although her smile robbed the words of any real anger.
"I know," he said, sitting down on the desk in front of her. "I understand now why you've been tired and off your food and off sex-"
"I'm not off sex," she clarified. "I'm just so exhausted by the time we get home in the evenings, and there was that one night when I really wanted to but I was worried that I was going to barf all over you half way through-"
"You've been throwing up?" he interrupted.
She nodded guiltily. "Mostly in the mornings. I wake up early, vomit in the toilet, brush my teeth and then come back to bed before the alarm goes off."
"Mac!" He was horrified. "That ends right now. If you feel sick, you wake me up and I'll come and hold your hair for you and rub your back, okay?" he said sternly. She nodded and tried to look cowed, but her twinkling eyes gave her away. "Even better, I'll get up first and bring you crackers and lemonade in bed. That way you might not have to be sick every morning."
"That sounds wonderful," she sighed, leaning in for another kiss.
Will shook his head and held her off, refusing to be diverted from the subject of her health. "Mac, I know all that stuff is normal, but you shouldn't be fainting at work, should you? What does your doctor say? Are you sure everything is okay?"
She ruffled his hair affectionately. "Will, I saw the obstetrician yesterday for the first time, and she told me that she wished all her patients were as healthy as I am. I stood up too quickly when Joey queued up the wrong graphics for the tornado, that's all. I promise I won't do it again."
"That's as may be, but I want to hear what the doctor has to say for myself," he grumbled. He didn't trust Mac to follow doctor's orders if they conflicted with running her beloved show, and he was also feeling a bit hurt that she'd gone to the appointment without him, even though he knew that he only had his own past behaviour to blame. "When were you going to tell me?" he couldn't help asking.
"I promise I was going to tell you tonight, Will, even before I-"
"Fainted in the middle of a show?"
"Yeah, even before that. I'm booked for my first scan tomorrow, and I would never deny you the chance to see your child for the first time, assuming that you wanted to," she finished awkwardly.
He looked at her for a long moment. "Mac, I'm sorry that I hurt you so badly in the past that you were too scared to tell me that you were pregnant. There is nothing you could ever do that would make me love you less, do you believe me?"
"I do," she said. "I feel the same way. And besides, I hurt you first," she said sadly.
Will shook his head. "It doesn't matter anymore. We have to put it all behind us now. We're going to be parents. Parents, Mac! I can hardly believe it."
"Do you think we're too old?" she asked hesitantly.
"I might be, but you're not."
She smiled "Well, old man, I wish you would ask them to stop writing 'advanced maternal age' on all my medical records then. I'm only thirty-nine, after all."
"Seriously Mac, we'll be fine. We're intelligent, well resourced, and we love each other. We'll figure it out."
"But we don't exactly have jobs that lend themselves to raising little people. We both work crazy hours, you know we do," she said, stretching her neck to one side and then the other in an attempt to work out the kinks.
He watched her affectionately. She had to be exhausted, he could see it in her eyes, but this conversation was too important to just let it drop. "C'mere," he said, rolling her chair closer to him and then turning it around so that he could massage her sore muscles.
Mac groaned and let her head fall back onto his chest as he started working the knots out of her shoulders. "Oh God, Billy, that feels sooo good. Your hands are just amazing. You know I can't concentrate when you're touching me, though."
"Shhh," he said. "Just relax." He found a particularly tight spot and pressed down hard, causing her to moan again.
"Mac, you'll be distracting me too if you keep moaning like that," he complained. She had her eyes closed, but the look of total bliss on her face wasn't helping either.
She opened her eyes for a second and twinkled up at him. "Sorry," she said, not looking the least bit sorry. "I promise I'll be quiet if you just keep doing that right there, oh yes, like that-"
Will shook his head at her inability to stop talking, and tried to remember what they had been discussing. Babies. That was it. Babies not being compatible with the hours they worked. Oh my God, they were having a baby. He still couldn't get his head around it.
"So here's the thing about babies, Mac. They're morning people," he said, working on the base of her neck now.
She cracked open one eye and regarded him sceptically. "And just how do you know so much about babies, Mr McAvoy?"
"Three younger siblings, two nieces and four nephews," he said smugly.
"I accept your sources. Please continue with your lecture, and your massage."
He complied. "So, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted-"
She poked her tongue out at him, but he refused to rise to the bait.
"Babies are morning people, so once you come back to work-" he wasn't stupid enough to ask whether she wanted to come back to work; he knew better than to piss off a pregnant lady "-one or both of us can stay home with the kid each morning, we could even do the ten am meeting by teleconference, and then we can hire a nanny for the afternoons and evenings, and we can sneak into the kid's room when we get home from the show and kiss them goodnight. We could even start with a nanny and a nursery at work, especially if you're planning on nursing for a while."
Mac screwed up her face in thought. "I guess that could work. I don't know Will," she sighed. "I just feel so out of my depth."
He pulled her into a tight hug. "We'll be fine Mac. Having a kid is like throwing out the run down and doing the whole show with nothing on the monitor, and you know how good we are at that. Now c'mon," he said, helping her up and then placing a hand at the small of her back to guide her to the door. "You're exhausted and I want to get you home to bed. We've got a big day tomorrow, we're going to see our baby for the first time." Unbelievable.
"Don't get too excited," she snorted. "Apparently it'll look more like a peanut with a heartbeat than an actual person."
A peanut with a heartbeat. Well, that was a good place to start. Because he knew he would screw up sometimes, but he was going to love that little peanut with everything he had, and play it silly songs on the guitar, and buy it way too many presents, and make sure that no one so much as hurt one hair on its head.
He felt a big goofy grin spreading across his face, and suddenly remembered Habib's smile from that afternoon. The little fucker had known! He'd guessed exactly what was up with Mac, and he hadn't so much as given Will a hint. Well no, that wasn't fair; he'd actually given Will several hints which he'd been too dumb to take. Still, he was gonna wipe the smug smile right off of Habib's face the next time he saw him. Except maybe he wasn't, because Jake was Abe's son, and Abe had been a good father. And Will was going to be a good father too.