The job doesn't start until the first week of September, so Emily has a couple of weeks to kill.
She decides to dedicate one day to picking out a new car to buy and getting rid of her rental car, realizing that there's no point in putting off the purchase when she's going to need a car no matter what. The next she signs up for a prenatal yoga class, and finds herself standing in whole foods armed with a list of healthy foods of dubious taste to buy, stocking her fridge and her pantry.
She researches pregnancy, buys a few books, looks into local classes. When an online comment tips her off to the fact that a good daycare can mean a very long waiting list, she starts to research nearby options and quickly decides that she's probably better off hiring a nanny. Still, she thinks, it wouldn't hurt to check a few out.
One night, she has dinner at JJ and Will's home, Henry running around in the background and occasionally tugging on her shirtsleeves for attention. Emily marvels that he's getting so big, already nearly five years old. Twice on the weekend, the four of them go out to the park with a takeaway lunch and let Henry run wild. After they've eaten on their second visit, Emily watches Will and JJ play with Henry. She thinks back to the joke she'd made while JJ was still pregnant, about how JJ had snagged the last viable donor.
Emily wonders if perhaps JJ caught her in that line of thought, because the next time they're alone on skype, JJ's line of questioning immediately goes to her (lack of) love life.
"Have you had any contact with the father?" JJ asks from her hotel room.
Emily shakes her head. "I don't think he's going to be coming around, Jayje. I made it clear to him that I'm not going to push him into doing something he doesn't want to do, and he made it clear to me he doesn't want anything to do with a baby."
JJ sighs. "Which leaves you shouldering the burden."
"It isn't a burden," Emily says with a shrug. "I want my child to have a good father, but I can't make it happen."
"He's not the only man in the world, you know," JJ replies. "That can still happen."
Emily smiles. "Yeah, maybe I'll find what you and Will have one day."
After they end their call, JJ sits up on her creaky hotel bed, not really watching the news broadcast about their case playing across the screen. JJ thinks about Emily, facing down a pregnancy and a child alone. Emily is strong, capable, and will get through.
But JJ also thinks about Will, who is at home with Henry. Her wonderful husband who has been a loving father to her child since before Henry was even born, who now takes care of him so that she can continue to live the life she wants to live. She thinks of the fact that he's always wanted more children, that she's watched him let the idea go as he's tried so desperately not to fault her for it.
She thinks that they are all becoming better friends, thinks of the way Will is around Emily, of the longing with which Emily looks at Will. An idea that she isn't entirely sure isn't insane starts to form in her head.
