Ty is grumbling in his kitchen when Anders wakes up. "All you have in here is alcohol and leftover takeout."

"I haven't gone shopping recently." He reaches around Ty and picks up a container. It doesn't smell that bad, so he grabs a fork and starts eating.

He really should get some more food soon. But Anders hates the tedium of walking up and down isles of boxes. Whenever he does make a trip, the store is always short-staffed. It's easier to wait until the fridge is empty and he has no other choice.

Ty leaves a little earlier than he does. The apartment settles back into its usual silence. This carries over to the office, where Anders arrives first. A few minutes pass with the sound of his typing filling the room.

The morning is peaceful. Everyone works steadily and no packages are dropped off. Anders spends most of the time worried that someone is going to come busting through the door. He didn't do any fighting the previous night, but he's been on that list the longest. He's had contact with the god hunters three times. Who's to say that they haven't looked into where he lives and works?

That also puts his brothers in danger. Ty was tracked down easy enough. And the other two haven't been very subtle recently. Olaf is always on the move, so he's probably the safest. And then there are the people around them. The goddesses. Co-workers. Patients. Dawn.

"Have we gotten any more strange packages?" he asks her.

"Not that I'm aware of."

She shifts in her chair, her stomach bumping the edge of the desk. Gently, he reaches over and smoothens the fabric of her dress. She starts and he withdraws his fingers. He apologizes and leaves her alone.

Back at his desk, he rubs his hands together. Her stomach had been warm and soft under his skin. Now the pads of his fingers are tingling and the muscles feel stiff. He curls and stretches them, but it doesn't help. Whatever it is will have to go away eventually, so he does his best to shake it off and continues working.

Meanwhile, Dawn is uncomfortably trying to sink down into her chair. It's not like he hasn't spent time poking her just to annoy her. It's just that even she hasn't touched her stomach. It makes showering and dressing difficult, but she works around it. Then Anders had just reached over with no warning and placed both hands right on the top of it.

It's like there's something remaining. A residue or mark from his fingers. It's ridiculous, but she has to stop herself from doing the same thing. It would take two seconds to follow the trail, but she won't let herself do it. She and the baby are two separate things. She is not going to start acting like a pregnant woman and holding her stomach every time a hand is free.

But very briefly, she taps the spot where the edge of his thumb trailed off. Goosebumps break out on her arms and the back of her neck prickles. She shouldn't have done that. Now she'll start touching it more often. And rubbing cocoa butter on it. And taking cheesy pictures like her hands forming a heart around her belly button.

There have been moments when she wished that something would go wrong. She knows that it's cruel to wish someone dead, but she wants this to end now. There are women all over the world who lose their babies that they already love. It isn't fair to them or her that she's made it this far. They deserve what she doesn't want. But instead, they all suffer. And she feels selfish for equaling her plight with theirs.

Dawn thinks that maybe they'll find something at the ultrasound. Something that will make this whole thing disappear. Maybe she can ask Anders for some of his good luck to rub off on her. He said he planned to come whether she changed her mind or not, so he could at least help.

She gets a call from her mother when the office is at it's quietest, so she ignores the call and waits until a more private time to talk. When she does get a chance to call back, her mother starts talking immediately.

"You'll be having an appointment soon, won't you? It's about that time."

"Yes." Five minutes out of the office and she's already getting this.

"I thought I'd come with you. It wouldn't be right for you to go alone."

"Mum, you can't come down here. You have a hard enough time spending an afternoon out. Besides, I'm not going alone."

"I thought you broke up with that man?"

Dawn grinds her teeth for a moment. "I did. Someone else is coming with me."

"Who? I really don't think you should bring just anybody."

"I'm not."

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Her mum has an edge of suspicion in her voice. What she's suspicious of, Dawn has no ida.

"I'll be fine." She planned on going alone, anyway.

"At least tell me who it is."

Dawn tries to edge around the truth for a few moments. But her mother is persistent and she's just going to call back if Dawn end the conversation without giving an answer.

"Anders is coming with me."

"Your boss?"

"Yes." Now it sounds pathetic. A grown woman bringing her employer along to a pregnancy check-up.

"Why on earth would he do that? He's always sounded like a narcissist if you ask me."

"Well, I didn't. And I've offered to let him back out. He's adamant about coming. So the least I can do is get back to work. I'll call again another time. Goodbye."

Her mother tries to squeeze in a few more questions, but Dawn continues saying farewell and hangs up. The appointment is next week, but she'll get another couple of conversations with her mother before she goes and an eternity's worth for the rest of her life.

The team clears out in the afternoon, and the last hour or so is just Dawn and Anders. They're on the phone for most of it, setting up interviews and getting a venue prepared. When all is said and done, she's irritated and ready to never talk to anyone ever again.

She waits by Anders' desk while he finishes double-checking some forms. When he hands them to her and turns in his chair, the look on his face keeps her there. She feels like he can see something she can't. Then he slowly poked her, the very tip of his finger resting disturbing her dress and rubbing it against her skin.

He's poked her repeatedly, but this is almost the opposite. His eyebrows are furrowed and he's just sitting there with a finger held to her. Slowly as he brought it up, he lets his arms come back down and he looks up at her. It's terrifying. He looks as if he understands everything about this baby while all she knows is that it has a nine-month rent lease.

"Are you keeping it?" He doesn't sound like he's worried about her answer. The only person that will go along with what she wants.

"No. I'm looking into possible parents."

He nods and stands up to sit on the couch. She follows and lowers herself down, unable to bend like normal. Her back aches and protests the extra weight. Next, she'll be needing a wheelchair.

"Do you think you're going to regret not keeping it?"

"No." She has a plan, and she's sticking to it. "I have things I want to do, and a child will get in the way."

"You've though everything through?"

She hums.

"Good." A beat of quiet. "You'd be a wonderful mother. The kind I wished I had as a kid."

It's something so unlike Anders. He's never mentioned anything about being a child or his parents, as if he was never a child and neither mother nor father ever existed. It could be a moment of weakness. Or a small gift, him letting her inside for a small moment. Then he takes in a deep breath and it's the last she'll ever hear of it.

"I hope things turn out for the best, whatever it is." He reaches over and grasps her hand for just a moment, enough to displace the dust in the air. He moves to stand up and she holds his elbow, keeping him there. This is the most they've understood each other, and she wants to let it last.

So they sit. Her hand runs down his arm into his palm and he brings the other over. She hasn't felt this calm in a long time. Finally, she can just breathe. Like this one moment is separate from time. She doesn't have to think about lawyers and doctors and vitamins.

Anders' phone rings across the room. He unwraps from Dawn's hand and picks it up. There's a frown as he looks at the screen. "Hey, Axl".

She sits while he talks with his brother. Axl's voice can't be heard from where she is, but Anders' answers are simple. There's a line of tension running across his shoulders and down into his arms. Without warning, he let's loose a few choice words and hangs up.

"Sorry."

"He's your brother. You should take his calls."

"I'd rather I didn't." A hand rubs at his face. "If Axl or Mike come to the office and I'm not here, be careful."

Being cautious around his brothers isn't something Dawn would expect Anders to mention.

"Is everything alright?"

"Hardly."

They aren't usually this sharing of information with each other. It's new and a little strange to Dawn, but she's seeing Anders as more of a person. He'd always been more of a dynamic force that flits around her life, ripping things out by their roots. Now she's held onto a part of him. But the worst part is that she's not seeing that may good parts of him. He's taking shape as an unhappy, lonely figure.

She supposes she's never helped much with that. And in the past few months, she's done the same to herself. She hasn't been out with friends, too embarrassed to let them see her. The only person she's seen on a regular basis is Anders.

"What have your brothers been up to?"

He stares at her with a bewildered expression. She shrugs and leans farther back into the couch.

"Being a pain in my ass. Except Ty. He's still himself." He rejoins her back on the couch. "Even if he did give himself an ulcer over my food supply."

She probes into his life. He doesn't tell her much of anything, but she misses talking with another person about everyday things. Most words passed between them are about work. She takes in the details he gives her and thinks about how she's thought that she's known darker moments than he has. There are things that he's not mentioning, and her instincts tell her they would make her feel lucky.

He tries to ask her questions too, but he runs out. He's probably never had a personal conversation with a woman that didn't end with sex. It's a little simpler, with him not quite knowing what he's doing. But it's still odd to see him when he's not self-assured. She takes it in and tries to decide if this makes them friends.