The week passes at a crawl, and even the kids are sensing his excitement, becoming just short of unmanageable. He's dying to see the baby, and he's never seen a pregnant woman's ultrasound—or, for that matter, seen an ultrasound. He's been sick as a dog, waves of nausea plaguing him at random points in time, occasionally costing him a meal—almost making him unable to teach. However, at least Rebecca seems to be doing better, and that's more than he could wish for. When Friday finally comes around, he's so excited and uptight that he can't sleep.

The next morning finds him with an arm slung over Rebecca as she nibbles on soda crackers. It takes her a bit before she can actually get up, and he stays beside her as they walk to St. Paul's hospital. His heartbeat is quick, and he's almost trembling with nervousness and excitement as they greet the OB/GYN just because he's never met her before. So when he finds himself standing there, feeling a little awkward as the doctor shoves the camera thing up Rebecca's vaginal canal, he hears Sixteen laughing.

"Calm the fuck down, man: it's just an ultrasound."

He looks over his shoulder to see Sixteen grinning at his expense, and the other men in his head appear, all of them curious. Altair looks rather mortified at what the doctor is doing to Rebecca. Ratohnhaké:ton is staring at the screen, his cheeks red as he tries to give them some privacy while satisfying his curiosity about the baby.

"An ultrasound?" Ezio murmurs, staring straight at the doctor and watching what's happening to Rebecca.

Sixteen launches into some sort of explanation as Desmond tunes them all out, holding Rebecca's hand and watching the screen. It's nothing more than a blur of black and white pixels all over the place, and he's trying to see for something in the mess of image. All five of him are staring, even Sixteen, and the doctor points at the screen after several minutes of feeling like he's watching the light speed screensaver on his computer.

There's a big black hole on the screen, and where the doctor is pointing, there's a small blob.

"There it is. Your baby."

A tiny white blob, and Desmond inhales. It's real.

"Here's the head," the doctor says, using the mouse to point to one end, "and here's the spine… the arms… the feet…"

He's entranced. He can feel it, deep in his heart and everything he's ever liked has nothing compared to the feeling he has right now, as he squeezes Rebecca's hand and swallows, this unbridled love, this overwhelming sensation that's threatening to drown him, and he can't take his eyes off the screen. There's a living human being inside his girl, and he can almost swear the fetus is glowing.

That's his baby.

Inside his partner.

And he's going to be a parent.

And then he realizes he's wrong, because it should be that that's their baby.

Inside his partner.

And they're going to be parents.

"Des?" he hears Rebecca call somewhere, and he swallows again, gasping slightly when the blob actually moves a little.

The doctor laughs, and he's so lost in staring at the screen that he barely hears the rest of the tour of the baby. He looks when Rebecca places his hand on her stomach, and he finds himself grinning. There are black blobs where the eyes should be. They're the most beautiful eyes he's ever seen.

"You okay, Des?"

He looks back at the screen, not hearing the questions she asks the doctor, so utterly in love with the little blob on the screen. He could stare at it for hours, and this one little blob has stolen all of his love and threatens to kill him with such utter happiness. He can't stop the grin from spreading over his face.

"Oh my God, Desmond, you're trembling!"

He kisses Rebecca, unable to help himself before staring back at the screen.

"It's our baby, Rebecca!" he murmurs feeling like the grin spreading across his face is going to rip his lips in half just to alleviate some of the strain from stretching so much. "That's our kid."

"Well then," the doctor says quietly, smiling, "you might like this. Look. Here's its heartbeat."

He looks, seeing a small flickering light, on and off, on and off, and the doctor pulls out a small radio-like thing. She presses one end against Rebecca's stomach, and he swallows, hearing something like a drum being beaten through a slushie. That's his child's heartbeat he's listening to. She adjusts the amplifier, and his eyes are stuck on that little flickering light inside his partner, inside his child, and he can't help but feel as if he's seeing the best thing in the world, that slushing sound something he'll never forget as he watches and watches, and he could listen forever because that is the absolute best thing he's ever heard, and that's his child and the child's heartbeat. And Rebecca is just the greatest thing ever, and she's carrying his baby, and all he can do is sit and stare, one hand on his partner's stomach and the other holding her hand, and she's got the most amused look on her face when he looks at her next.

"Excited, Des?"

His voice gets caught in his throat. He's just taken by the child on the screen, in grainy black and white, the little light flickering in and out, and the web-like arms and legs pronounced. It's going to be engrained in his head forever, and as the doctor prints out the picture, he knows that he's going to have it framed. It's incredible. His partner has a living being inside of her, and he's lost his heart to the little white blob on the screen with the flickering heart that sounds like a drum in a slushie and coal-black spots for eyes.

"Congratulations, dad," he hears the doctor say, before she hands him a series of pictures she's printed, and he can tell he's trembling now as he holds them. "Everything is okay here."

And those are the most beautiful words he's ever heard. Everything is okay. Rebecca's okay; the baby is okay; he's okay. Things are beautiful. He's got a baby on the way.

She moves on to other parts of the check up, and he misses the slushie drumbeat when she puts away the amplifier. He's smitten with the pictures of the child inside Rebecca.

"If you're not careful, Des, you're gonna get a fly in that mouth of yours."

He looks up, rubbing his chin and closing his mouth at the same time. The doctor is laughing quietly, and Rebecca is shaking her head, dancing over, all dressed and ready to go, and peeks at the prints as she presses against his side. Before he can even think of it, he's got a grin splitting his face.

"Thank you, Rebecca," he finds himself saying, still holding onto the pictures as if they're the most precious thing in the world while he uses one arm to wrap around her and kisses her head. "Thank you."

She's chuckling as she looks over the pictures. "I feel kinda pathetic. I mean: I've always wanted a kid, but you're just… so into it."

He kisses her head again, walking out with the pictures, paying the bill, and feeling lighter than a feather. When they walk out, he can't help but sweep her off her feet, spinning her around as she yelps, laughing, and he's laughing too. He feels so incredibly happy. He carries her quite a ways before she demands to be let down, and he hugs her again before walking back to the hideout, his arm around her, and it takes all of two seconds before he's showing the pictures to everyone. And that night, when he's told everyone he can think of, and Shaun has had to listen to him go on for a while, humoring him as he stares at the pictures, completely in awe, Rebecca snatches the pictures and runs off when he's not looking. He goes to hunt her down, and he finds her in his father's office.

He's never seen his father look so upset as he looks through the pictures. He hangs back, invisible, and decides instead to listen in on this. He watches as his father keeps flipping through the pictures, staring, grief etched into every wrinkle on his face.

"These are incredible, Rebecca," he hears him murmur. "This is your child?"

She nods. "Yeah, you shoulda seen Dessie at the ultrasound."

He sees his father look up at her, that grief still there, if not worse.

"What was he like?"

"He was a mess, William. He was trembling, and at one point, I thought he was gonna start crying he was so happy."

His father smiles sadly, looking back at photos.

"Thank you, for letting me see these."

"It's no problem," she chirps. "You will be the grandfather, whether Desmond admits it or not."

They're quiet for a while, and Desmond is frowning as he watches. They don't actually move much, and he sees him eventually shake his head, resting his head in hand.

"I wish I could go back in time, change all of this."

He watches her tilt her head. "How far?"

His father laughs quietly, bitterly. "All the way back to when I married my wife."

Desmond frowns.

"Knowing what I know now… I didn't even see how much my son hated me on the Farm. I drove him hard enough to cause him to run away, and it wasn't even my training that he fell back on later in life."

"Hey, Billiam, it wasn't your fault: you didn't see it then."

"I didn't even marry for love, Rebecca. I married because I knew I should have a child."

Rebecca blinks. "Really?"

"I didn't care about if I was ready or not—it was simply to pass on the lineage."

"Oh… really?"

He shakes his head, looking back at the pictures.

"If I had known now… that attack… that was well-deserved, if you ask me. I had it coming for so long—"

"You didn't deserve that, Bill, no one does."

He shakes his head. "No, Rebecca, I did. If anything, it… opened my eyes."

"You didn't need to be attacked—"

William sets the photos down, leaning back in his chair. "Rebecca, if he hadn't, I never would have realized just how much hatred he bore toward me. Words are just words, but action… That is something that proves a point."

"Even though he shouted at you beforehand, you still wouldn't have realized anything?"

"I would have heard them, contemplated them, but words are all they are."

"You're so weird."

"I am a man, and a stubborn one at that."

She chuckles, sitting in one of the two chairs there.

"I should have realized such actions have drastic reactions. The only reason I'll even see my grandson is if you let me."

Desmond gets up, deciding it's time to step in now. He walks and stands in the doorframe. He leans against it, ignoring his father's almost surprised look. He looks at Rebecca.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised you showed him."

Rebecca shrugs, and he notices she looks slightly uneasy.

"He was the only one who hadn't seen them yet." She smiles. "And as the child's grandfather, I think he deserves to see them."

He frowns. "Why? He'll probably treat our kid just like he treated me."

"Come off it, Des. I know you have daddy issues, but we should really at least try letting him in."

"I don't see why."

"You let Sixteen have a second chance, didn't you?" she snaps, her mood changing in the blink of an eye.

His eyes grow wide. He hadn't told anyone other than Shaun. He opens his mouth to retort, but Rebecca's having none of it.

"And for that matter, don't even think you can hide that shit from me, all right? No, Shaun didn't tell me. Yes, I found out. No, no one else knows. But fuck this shit, Des! Our baby deserves to have grandparents, and I'll be damned if I let your stupid fucking manly daddy issues get in the way of having a second grandfather! Don't you want your kid you have everything you never had? Here's your chance, dipshit! Don't let it go away! Get your ass in here and apologize to your father, because he's done nothing but lament since you fucking attacked him."

His father is hiding his mouth behind a hand, and he can only imagine the jaw-dropped expression he has looks utterly ridiculous. His father looks entirely too entertained, the humor in his eyes giving him away as he lowers his hand and sets it on the desk. After a little bit longer, William speaks.

"A pregnant woman is the only thing harder to fight than the entire Templar organization."

Desmond looks at him, sees the mirth in his eyes, and he blinks. Then, he bites his lip.

"I speak from experience, Desmond. You'd stand a better chance as a Hebrew before Moses' time than trying to get out of something she says."

"Damn fucking straight, Desmond, now get your ass in this chair and apologize—and I mean sincerely, too! Geez, between the two of you, there's enough jackassery to turn every person in China into a dumb-spewing, grudge-holding asshole from hell!"

He steps over to the chair and sits down as if it were made of nails. He rests his elbows on his knees as he leans forward, looking anywhere but at his father. He should apologize, he knows he should, but he can't. Not because he can't say, "I'm sorry," but because it won't be sincere. He's not sorry for attacking his father, especially if everything he said to Rebecca was true. He's been wanting that change in William for a while, and he'd be damned if his child grew up without as many grandparents as possible.

"Well? I'm waiting," Rebecca says, and Desmond decides he'd rather risk her wrath than say he's sorry if he doesn't mean it.

He sighs and leans back in the chair, meeting his father's gaze as he twists his lips. The look on William's face suggests he doesn't believe that he's actually going through with it. He frowns.

"I won't apologize—because I'm not sorry—and there's no point in wasting words if they don't mean anything," he can see Rebecca about ready to blow a gasket, so he hurries to continue, "'cause I know you. You're like the rest of us. It would have taken something drastic like the attack for you to change—just like Altair had to lose Malik's trust and Kadar before he changed, just like Ezio had to lose his family before he grew up, and just like I had to have a baby on the way before I had the strength to fight the men in my head. So I'm not going to apologize, because I'm not sorry. But if you ever forgive me, I'll admit that I'd like to try to reconcile things with you—if not for the sake of the baby, then for myself."

Rebecca looks utterly surprised out of the corner of his eye, and he chews on the inside of his lip, hoping that it doesn't all go to Hell. His father has yet to look away, although eventually, he bows his head.

"Fair enough, Desmond."

He relaxes into the chair a little more.

"It'd be nice if we could at least not be on such harsh terms," his father murmurs, "and I admit it would be nice to have you as a son again, but that will take even longer than nine months, and I'll be lucky if I can truly comprehend the depth of how you feel toward me, but I'm willing to work at it."

He sits there, staring.

And when he holds his baby for the first time after Rebecca gives birth, completely disregarding the pain in his broken fingers, and when he finally gets married to Rebecca and his father is there, when each of the men in his head are saying a part of his vow causing his partner to laugh, and when he and his father are actually healing their fractured relationship, when Sixteen has been attending the appointments and proving he can behave, when he's finally got a family and everything seems to be looking up, he finally believes what he's been telling himself from the beginning:

It's okay.


Here's the thing. Yes, a vaginal ultrasound can happen. :3 My poor mother. That's all I have to say. Anyway, questions, comments, complaints? Something tickle your fancy? Something make you squirm awkwardly and wish you hadn't read this? Lemme know. I love hearing from you guys.