A/N: Here's another one for you folks! Still not giving away gender yet—that's a closely guarded secret only I know! This chapter will take us through an emotional rollercoaster for poor Maddy. And a little bit of angst at the end with her worries about the baby's health and how smooth the pregnancy will go. Luckily for Maddy, she's got Mark to help keep her reassured. Please read and review! I hope you enjoy the chapter…

Chapter 10

Maddy experiences a broad range of emotions in one day—bring on the prenatal stress!

Mark left for work earlier than usual that morning—he had a meeting with the commander. Maddy was, therefore, left to take care of Adelaide before heading off to work.

"Come on, Adelaide, eat up!" she told her daughter, handing her breakfast to her. She made herself some tea—her coffee addiction would have to be squelched during the pregnancy—and sat down at the table. Afterwards, she quickly helped Adelaide get dressed and then hurried her out the door to avoid being late for school.

The walk to the nursery school was fairly painless, but she should have known that the teacher would stop and ask questions.

"Mrs. Reynolds! I heard you're pregnant!" the red-haired woman smiled widely at her. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Maddy returned the smile awkwardly. She hardly knew this woman, and suddenly she's talking about her pregnancy?

"You know, I never would have guessed. You look great for a pregnant woman!" the teacher continued, not making it any easier on poor Maddy.

She cleared her throat awkwardly, turning bright red with embarrassment. "I'm only a few weeks along..."

The woman made an awkward noise acknowledging this new information. "Oh, well congratulations!" she repeated.

"Thank you," Maddy replied again, turning and heading off quickly before Adelaide's teacher could come up with anything else embarrassing to say to her.

She made it into work on time, immediately opening her work drawer and beginning to analyze DNA samples extracted from recently-deceased carnotaurus adults.

Malcolm entered a short while later.

"Dr. Wallace," she greeted him. "Good morning."

"Yes, good morning Mrs. Reynolds," he responded curtly. "Is it true what they tell me? That you're…with child?" he hesitated.

"Yes it is," she proudly informed her boss.

"Well I guess you'll be expecting maternity leave, then," he grumbled.

"Not for a few months, at least. Is there something wrong with me leaving for a while?"

"No, no. It's just that it has become increasingly difficult to find someone with your natural talents for science," he told her. "You take after your mother," he added.

"Well thank you, Dr. Wallace, but I am going to have to request maternity leave eventually," she told him, trying to ignore his comment about her mother.

"Fine, fine," he waved her off, trying to put the thought out of his head. "How is the DNA analysis coming?"

"It's coming along. But there's still a long way to go before we can actually recreate the entire carnotaurus DNA map."

"Very good. I'll leave you to it then." He left the room before she could respond.

She sighed, turning back to her work. If nothing else, at least she got a much-needed break from work.

Maddy returned home from work, exhausted from the stress. Her back was aching. She was pleasantly surprised when she found Mark in the kitchen, preparing dinner while simultaneously helping Adelaide with an art project for school.

"You're home!" he greeted, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, which she returned.

She grinned. "Put on an apron and some soap operas—we'll make a housewife of you yet!" she giggled.

"Thought I'd give you the night off," he replied, ignoring her teasing.

"Well that was very sweet of you," she gushed.

"No need to thank me, just doing my job," he struck a superman pose.

"Dork," she snorted. "I'm going to go take a hot bath—my back is killing me!"

It was much later at night when Mark went to bed. He was surprised to find Maddy still awake, lying on her side.

"Hey," he murmured, his hand finding its way to her back and massaging it to relieve the tension there.

"Hey," she replied sleepily.

"Something bothering you?" he asked.

"Just worrying is all," she replied.

"About what?" he lay down beside her now, a hand draped protectively around her waist.

"About all the months ahead. I'm afraid something might happen, Mark…"

"Nothing's going to happen, Maddy," he reassured her. "You had the same worries with Adelaide and she turned out absolutely perfect."

She turned her head around to face him. "But Mark," she whispered, almost fearfully. "What if something does happen? We've wanted another baby for so long…" a film of tears starting to form in her eyes.

She felt his arm holding her more tightly. "It'll be fine, Maddy," his voice was soft and tender. "Everything is going to be fine."

"Statistically, one out of every four women has a miscarriage at least once in their life," she quoted from some obscure research journal. "My mother had one between me and Zoe. What if I end up being that one out of four?"

Mark reflected on this a moment, uncertain of how to answer. "Then we'll keep trying, Maddy. But I'm almost one hundred percent sure that we won't need to keep trying."

Maddy held her breath for a moment, calming herself. His words, coupled with the comfort of having him beside her, his arm holding her close, made her feel stronger. "You're probably right," she finally said. Then, after a pause, she added: "Oh God, this whole day's been an emotional rollercoaster." She heard Mark chuckle and snuggled closer to him. All the different experiences of the day slowly melted away as she drifted off to sleep…

A/N: Poor Maddy: embarrassment, stress, and fear. Just your average day as a pregnant woman, I suppose (although I know very little about this subject…) Anyway, trying to portray realistic fears here. Miscarriages are a tragically common occurrence. Anyway, general consensus so far is that Mark will get a little son and Jim will get a little grandson. Speaking of Jim, I wonder how he feels about all this? SPOILER ALERT: that's coming up soon! And, in a few more chapters, I may just reveal the baby's gender AND name! It's all coming up but you need to follow this story. And please leave a review while you're at it! Thank you!