Stevie stared at herself in the mirror. No one else would be able to see any difference but she was beginning to show; she would have to look through her office clothes to see what would be best suited to hiding it. Rosemary handed her coffee as she stepped into the office that morning, which immediately put Stevie on edge. "What happened?" Rosemary only went and got her nice coffee when something had gone wrong.
"There has been a terrible setback with that battery technology we were working on. The lab that was working on it encountered an accident and most of the data and research has been lost in a fire."
Stevie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Get the manager of the facility on the phone. I need to figure out what I'm going to do about this."
After an hour long conversation with the manager who only barely convinced Stevie not to fire him, she felt completely exhausted. Rosemary came in again and tried to cheer her up with a bagel. "Food isn't going to help, Rosemary."
"That doesn't change the fact that you need to eat. Also, I'm assuming Friday is the best day for your doctor's appointment next week?"
Stevie nodded and Rosemary left her to try and figure out what to do about the financial setbacks the fire had caused as well as the time setbacks for the new battery.
When Stevie was about to leave for lunch, she opened the door only to see the last person in the world she wanted to talk to standing just outside her office. "Ms. Carson I'm so sorry. I haven't been able to remove him."
"It's fine, Rosemary. I'm sure that Mr. Trask doesn't intend to keep me long this morning."
"Certainly not," he replied with a false smile, looking her up and down the way an animal might eye its prey.
She sat at her desk and eyed him warily. "What exactly do you want, Trask?"
"I only wanted to inform you that I am aware of the fruits of your exploits with Mr. Lehnsherr. I have to say, though, that your doctor's office did a very admirable job in keeping that information hidden for so long."
"I'll have to give them a gold star," she replied coldly. "You're doing a remarkable job in hiding your contempt."
"Contempt?" he asked, genuinely confused. "Ms. Carson, I hold a great deal of admiration for you. If it weren't for the fact that you supported the mutant cause and were pregnant with the child of one of the most dangerous mutants in the world, then I would have absolutely no problems with you. Even so, you make a very worthy adversary." What was most surprising to Stevie was the fact that Trask appeared to be sincere.
"I suppose that now you'll be leaking that information to the press in order to ruin my reputation?"
"No. For now I'll keep it to myself for use at a later date. Besides, I don't want to ruin your reputation unless it is the only way to destroy the mutants and for the time being that isn't the case."
When Trask left, Stevie felt a shiver wrack her entire body. Trask was planning something and she was sure that it wouldn't bode well for her.
When she arrived home that night the phone rang and she assumed it was Rosemary or possibly Allegra, but was very surprised when she heard "Stevie" on the other end. There was no mistaking his voice. It looked as if her search for him was over.
"Erik?" Her voice, barely a whisper, rose almost two octaves from a combination of excitement and nerves.
"It's so good to hear you." From the tone of his voice, she guessed that their separation had been equally hard on him. They had been accustomed to spending days together at a time and were now completely deprived.
"I didn't know you'd be able to call." She felt more relaxed being able to hear him. This wasn't the type of thing she wanted to share over the phone, but if that was her only option, she would take it.
"I'm usually not able to, but there are occasional exceptions. I have a surprise for you." She could hear how absolutely delighted he was, so it had to be a pretty amazing surprise. "I can be in New York next week for three days."
She felt as if her entire body would launch like a rocket. "Really?" It was so perfect: not only would she be able to see him again soon but she would be able to talk to him in person.
"Yes. I may be able to visit a couple times this year, actually. There are periods of time between tasks where we are doing nothing but waiting and I can have Azazel drop me there. I won't be able to do it often, but I figured…"
"It's unbelievable, Erik. This means so much to me." It really did, but she supposed she may have to prepare him for his 'surprise' as well, though she would only tell him in person. "Actually, I have a surprise for you, too, when you're here next week," she choked out.
She knew her voice had been off when she told him, but she hadn't expected him to sound so crushed on the other end. "Is everything okay? It doesn't sound like the nice kind of surprise."
"Everything's fine," she assured him, though she knew her voice was incredibly false. He certainly wouldn't buy it. Why did she have so much difficulty lying to him? "And as far as the surprise is concerned, it's just a surprise." Shock would have been a more appropriate word but it seemed as if she had already put him on edge for Friday so she didn't want to do any more damage than was already done. "I can't take the day off on Friday because I have to officially buy out another company which is an incredibly tedious process, but I will be home much earlier than usual," she promised. In reality she had a doctor's appointment that afternoon and she wasn't going to be inviting Erik to it before they had actually spoken to one another face-to-face.
"I have to go. But I'll see you on Friday." He hung up.
She didn't know what she had said to make him as agitated as he was but she felt horrible for taking away the elation they had both felt for the following weekend. He knew something was up, obviously, but he had no way of knowing what exactly it was. In a weird way, it seemed only fair that they both be incredibly nervous for Friday. Her only problem was that she had no idea how to tell him. After all, it may not necessarily be horrible news, but it was incredibly inconvenient for both of them. Not to mention the fact that she didn't even know how to begin the conversation.
Stevie hadn't slept much as she waited for Friday to finally arrive. She pulled up to her house and saw the lights on. Erik. Bracing herself she opened the door to hear the familiar clacking sound of her newton's cradle and discovered the most nauseating smell wafting from the kitchen. He was cooking some type of meat, which she was sure was absolutely delicious, but now was not the best time to be cooking it inside her house.
He strolled into the living room, taking her in before he saw her hold up her hand then dash to the bathroom where he heard her heaving up what she had eaten for lunch that day. He hurried after her, concern etched on his face as he held her hair. After she had finished, she begged him to open a window in the kitchen which he willingly did.
When she stepped into the light of the kitchen, he immediately noticed how terrible she looked. Dark circles were under her eyes and she had turned a worrisome color which was probably due to her getting sick. She looked exhausted in every sense of the word.
They hadn't seen each other since January and it was now late April but they didn't have a reunion like the movies always depicted it. Theirs was much slower.
"Hi," she said, after she noticed him staring at her.
"Hi." Neither of them was accustomed to being lost for words, so Erik tried to clear the air a little. "I suppose you weren't going to let anything stand in the way of your business today," he mused.
"What?" She looked confused.
"You managed to complete it while you're sick – I'm impressed."
"I didn't feel sick until just a few minutes ago," she informed him, looking awkwardly at the floor.
For Erik, as he took in the tension in the room, it was as if his worst fears had been confirmed. After a long pause he said, "I think I know what you want to talk about."
"You do?" Now Stevie really was confused. So few people knew about this and he had been traveling around the world. There was no way that Erik could know.
"Yes, and it's okay. I know how difficult it must be for you to stay here and wait while I am away so long for my cause. I knew when I left that it was unfair of me to let you do that, so I don't blame you for wanting to end things."
She certainly hadn't been expecting that and despite her utter exhaustion she managed to pull a very strongly offended face. "That isn't what I wanted to talk about and it certainly isn't the 'surprise' that I mentioned on the phone. Jesus Christ, Erik! Did you really think that I wanted to end things?" He nodded slowly. "I love you, you idiot!" The tension in the air eased a bit and he felt as if he could breathe again.
Now it was Erik's turn to be confused. "What is it you wanted to talk about, then?"
"I'm pregnant." Then, as she let that sink in she added a little irritably, "I thought you ought to know."
He was clearly having difficulty processing the new information and all he managed to sputter out was, "How?"
"Well it certainly wasn't intentional. I was using every single type of contraceptive you can imagine." The stress was beginning to rise again, so Stevie tried to lighten the mood a little. "My current working theory is that you have mutant sperm."
The joke, at least for a moment, subdued the panic that was slowly taking over him. "I just…what?…"
He was still incapable of forming coherent sentences, so she decided to let him know what she had been thinking. "I honestly don't know what to say, either. I'm sorry? You should know that I have no expectations, Erik. Neither of us is ready for this and I'm not going to force you into this shitty situation."
"I think if either of is to be apologizing, it ought to be me." She could see that he was finally able to think again and was relieved. "You don't have to do this, you know. Not if you don't want to."
It looked as if Erik genuinely wanted to know what it was Stevie wanted. "I think I want this," she whispered. She also noted that neither of them could even bring themselves to say the word 'baby'.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the couch that they had shared so many times before, bringing her in close to him. Stevie couldn't be sure, but she thought this might mean that he wanted it, too. "How long have you known?"
"A few months. When you called me I was so relieved that I would have a way to tell you. Like I said: you ought to know. But I still don't know how the hell I'm going to pull this off." She didn't want to assume he wanted to be involved, though she desperately hoped he would.
"I don't have any ideas as to how we're going to pull it off, either." He subtly informed her of his decision and he felt her crying onto his shirt in relief.
They sat together for a while, feeling the mixture of terror and happiness bubbling inside them. "You look terrible," he informed her. Under normal circumstances he would have said this jokingly, but now he was genuinely concerned for her health – at least, more than usual. She really did look half dead.
"I haven't slept much since I found out," she replied numbly.
"Come on." He kissed her hair and had her eat the food he had been preparing earlier, now that the nausea had passed. Then, after having completed the absolute minimum cleanup possible in the kitchen, they walked to the bedroom and Stevie slept better than she had since he left.
When Stevie woke up the next day she saw that the clock read noon and she mentally kicked herself for sleeping so late. Erik walked in and handed her a mug of coffee, slipping back into the routine that they had held together. "I can't remember the last time I slept in until noon," she moaned.
He shrugged. "You needed it."
She smiled as she sipped her coffee. "I also can't tell you how many times I dreamed about this while you were gone. You're very sexy when you make coffee," she informed him.
"That makes two of us. I can't even begin to tell you how much I missed you, Stevie." He eased into bed next to her, trying to contain all the hundreds of questions floating in his head, not wanting to overwhelm her. "I'll stop everything," he told her. "I'll come back to New York."
Stevie could hear in his voice that he didn't want to do that and because she knew Erik she also knew he would hate to give up on his mission. "No," she replied adamantly.
"What? I can't just leave my pregnant…" He tried to think of a word that could describe their relationship and fell short. There probably wasn't a word that described them, so he opted to continue without a word. "…alone here."
"You can and you will. Erik, you need to continue. I'm not about to end my work because of this and you can't end yours, either. Besides, the last thing I need is for you to eventually become resentful because you had to give up your cause. Finally, and most importantly, if your cause is actually helping mutants, then it's going to benefit our baby." She had finally said the word and the entire situation suddenly became real to her. "After all, since you're the father and I have two sisters who are mutants, the likelihood that it's a mutant is fairly high."
Now Erik decided to begin twenty questions. "How far along are you?"
"Sixteen weeks. I'm due in October."
"October?" he asked. Things might actually be slipping into place nicely. "October is right around when our first big project will be over. After we've finished it, I can stay here for a while."
An enormous smile split onto her face. "Erik, I'm beginning to believe we may actually be able to do this."
"I still don't like the idea of leaving you to do this by yourself. If something happens, I'm not very easy to contact."
"If you don't wear your helmet then I can use Charles. I know you won't like it, but…"
"Due to lack of options I don't think I'm in any position to argue." He looked conflicted for a moment before staring at her very seriously. "If you ever feel as if you need somewhere safe to go, go to Charles. He'll protect you."
"Protect me from what?"
"I'm just playing through every single horribly possible scenario in my head of what can go wrong. I'm sure that isn't very comforting."
"Once again, it appears as if we're in the same boat."
"Does anyone else know?"
"So far, it's Rosemary, Dianna, Allegra, Jeremy and anyone who works at the office I went to for the test." She swallowed hard. "Trask knows, too."
She felt Erik immediately tense up. "Did he tell you?"
"Yes. He came into my office last week."
She heard what sounded like a growl escape him. "I don't want him anywhere near you." Stevie looked at him curiously. "He intends to create machines capable of hunting down mutants and destroying them – forgive me if that makes me paranoid."
"You aren't about to hear me complaining about avoiding Trask," she said, truly meaning it. She huddled in closer to him. "Honestly, I'm just happy that you're here."
"So long as you want this, I want this." Stevie wrapped her arms around Erik after hearing that. "You look much better now than you did last night."
It had taken a while for them to become comfortable with each other after not seeing the other for four months but they were soon revisiting the activities that had created part of their problem in the first place.
Afterwards, he played with her hair, noticing how shiny it was. "Jeremy found something on Trask," she told him excitedly. "He's looking into a facility that Trask is loosely connected to. Apparently it looks dubious. He gave me these papers on it." She stood up and pulled the papers off her dresser, quickly handing them to Erik so he could look them over.
"I'll have Mystique investigate."
"Trask is planning something," she said quietly. "I don't know what it is, but… We may be onto a way to ruin him but if I know one thing about Bolivar Trask it's that he's not going to go down without a fight. I also think that his morals may be even more grievously skewed than mine, so at this point I wouldn't put anything past him. Maybe I should pay him a visit, just to shake him up."
"I don't care if I have to kill him myself to make sure he's nowhere near you. I won't lose you, no matter what he's planning."
She shook her head. "I don't think killing him is necessary. Especially if we figure out what he's using that facility for. Don't be rash."
"I can't lose you, Stevie." He pulled her in so tight she had a little difficulty breathing. "When was your last doctor's appointment?"
"Yesterday. We're both healthy."
He stared at her nervously, "Both of you?" She nodded and kissed him in an attempt to assuage his anxiety.
She tried to distract him. "How are your missions going?"
For the first time since she had mentioned Trask, she saw Erik smile. "It went even better than imagined. Now that things are going well I may be able to come to New York more often." She kissed him happily, excited to hear good news after so long but this did little to cheer him up. "I hate not being here."
"You haven't missed much."
"But I will. I may not even be here when it's born."
She smiled sadly. "I'd rather you be here after it's born than before. Besides, we've already agreed that you need to do this. Isn't part of your big mission preparing the world for mutants?" He nodded. "Then our baby can be as proud of its father as I am. Neither of us can give up the work we've been doing – I'm just lucky that my work keeps me here in New York. You're doing what you can and it's enough, Erik."
"You can be awfully irritating when you make sense out of this chaos."
"I try."
"Fine, but please note my protest."
"Duly noted."