APRIL

"And…. here's your baby!" Dr. Ryan announced.

On the ultrasound monitor, two little white blobs were attached to the lower portion of the placenta built up inside of my uterus. Head and the rest of the body, presumably. The baby growing inside of me was only six weeks along and two days along, and impossible for anyone who wasn't familiar with how an ultrasound looks would have never guessed that two tiny blobs would be a baby. It was no bigger than the size of a pea. Even with my medical degree and four years of practicing beneath my belt, I still felt like the thing that I was staring at wasn't a baby. But it was. Not only was it a completely real baby, but it was my baby. Jackson's baby. Our baby. That was something that I had wanted for years and years, yet now that it was finally here in front of me, I felt frozen.

I placed my hand down on my abdomen, just beneath my sternum so that it wasn't in Dr. Ryan's way. It explained nausea and made much sense than Ebola did, given that I shouldn't have shown symptoms yet. I had been cleared and the patient was now dead. Pregnancy would explain the fact that I had cried after calling time of death – I was hormonal.

"Wow," I breathed out, eyelids fluttering. "That's… wow. That's a baby."

"It is," Jackson muttered as he leaned forward, his hands folding in front of his mouth and covering it up. It obscured part of his expression, but not his eyes which were transparent despite the mixture of emotions there. "Huh. You didn't… suspect anything?" He glanced at me.

"No," I shook my head and wet my lips, mouth feeling dry.

"Are we considering termination?" Dr. Ryan asked slowly, her gaze flickering between the two of us. The simple question brought upon a wave of panic.

"No, no, absolutely not," I answered firmly. That wasn't an option for me.

Her fingers clicked against the keys. "Alright, well, I'm going to print off a copy of this for you to have. You'll need to schedule a follow-up with me at twelve weeks and we'll make sure that everything is still progressing smoothly."

"Uh, Dr. Ryan, is there anything we should be worried about or can be testing regarding the exposure that April had?" Jackson asked, straightening up and looking at me. "Some kind of screening…?"

"Because April didn't have the active virus, there's no reason to believe that the fetus would have it in any way. However, if you're still interested, we can do a CVS test which would look for genetic abnormalities or birth defects, as well as a few other problems, which can be done between ten and thirteen weeks. There's also an amnio, which is slightly more accurate and done between about sixteen and twenty weeks." Dr. Ryan explained everything. Most of it I already knew and I shook my head, unable to stay silent.

"No, I don't need any of that." I shook my head. "Can I just have the picture, please? I need to get back to work."

"Of course." She handed the photo over to me. "I'll let you get back to it."

With the photo in my hands, my chin dropped down as I stared at the same little blobs that had been on the screen. They're no more clear on a physical copy of the image than they had been on the screen. But there was no doubt in my mind that little cluster of cells was a perfect mixture of Jackson and me. It was unexpected, but I knew exactly what it really was: a precious gift from God.

The timing was inconvenient and there was no way to try and deny that. I was chief resident and this was the last year of residency, my due date was only a couple of weeks before we would be responsible for taking our boards which would disrupt absolutely everything. Jackson might be able to have something at least resembling normal, but I would be on maternity leave. This meant when it came to interviewing for fellowships and positions at other hospitals, no one was going to take me. Even if it was illegal to discriminate against pregnant women, it still happened. This would permanently alter the course of both of our lives… but it was still our baby.

"We should talk about this," Jackson said as I stood up, pulling back down my scrub top.

"What about?" I asked.

"This. You're pregnant." He motioned to my stomach. "And– you know, we just dealt with the whole Sydney thing. I thought it was clear that kids were the distant future, not right now. Also, the thing about no tests? What was that?"

"What? It's not like I planned this." My brow furrowed. "It just happened. And… yeah, the timing sucks, but it's our baby. That's our baby, Jackson. That's beautiful."

"I just think that it would be good for both of us to sit down and talk about this. There's a lot to figure out." He scratched the back of his head. "Your mind is made up and I get that, but I would like to chance to talk about everything. Like, for example, getting tested. That's the kind of thing that would be wise to know about. You're a doctor, you know that."

"I should get back to work." I glanced down at my watch. "I'll see you at home."

If there's a conversation to be had, I don't know what to say.

Pushing past him despite the little noise of protest that he made, I quickly hurried down to the emergency room. Dr. Hunt would notice if I was late and I needed to work my way through everything going on in my head. I was going to have to take precautions in the ER and start taking prenatal vitamins. X-rays would have to be avoided. I'd have to be more cautious with wearing face masks around patients to avoid catching anything. There was no way that I would be able to keep this secret for very long. Bailey and Webber already knew, and now Hunt would be added to that list.

All I want to do is work and get out of my head but the first patient that came rolling into the emergency room had a clear broken leg and possible pelvic fracture. It meant that he needed an x-ray, the one thing that I couldn't be around for.

"Can we hold off on the x-ray for just a minute?" I squeaked out as Dr. Hunt pulled it in.

"No," Hunt shook his head. "We need it now."

"Just– one minute," I requested, swallowing thickly. "I need to step out."

"Kepner, I need you here." He didn't look up at me to see the panic that I could feel settling in. "It's just an x-ray, it'll only take a minute and we need the results."

"I can't." The pitch of my voice jumped up. "I'm pregnant. Just wait!"

Finishing clamping where I was working, I stripped off the gloves in my hands and threw them harshly into the biohazard bin before stepping out without waiting for anyone in the room to reply. It was too early to tell people and yet all of my bosses knew. That meant that more people were going to know and I didn't know how to get a handle on it.

The E.R. looked the exact same that it always did. Something should have been different. My life was changing but other things looked like they were staying the exact same.

My phone buzzed with a text message from Jackson and I don't look at it immediately. We would talk tonight – I could keep my word on that much but I didn't know what to say just yet. It seemed as if he didn't share the same excitement. I wasn't sure what that meant for us. It had already seemed as if we were forever attached to one another and now, there was really something that would attach us like that. What if he really didn't want the baby?

"Kepner." Dr. Hunt barked my name and I turned around with wide eyes.

"Dr. Hunt, I'm so sorry– I shouldn't have done that, that was totally unprofessional and again, I am so sorry for stepping out of line like that."

"Stop." He held his hand up. "You don't need to apologize."

"Uh," I blinked quickly. "What?"

"I'm happy for you, Kepner." His hand clapped onto my shoulder. "I wish you would have told me before we went into the room together, but don't apologize. This is good news."

"Oh." Finally, someone had said something positive. "Okay. Thank you, Dr. Hunt."

"If you want to take the rest of the day off, just let me know." He suggested.

I shook my head quickly. "No. No, I don't need that or want that. I'm fine. I want to be here."

"Alright. Then let's get to work."

Keeping my mind all consumed by work and avoiding cases that needed x-rays, it felt nice to just do my job. Doing my job was a lot better when I wasn't inside an isolation room with an Ebola patient. The news coverage of it over the past few days had been insane and another patient had come up, but the CDC had taken over instead of letting him come to our hospital. Last that I had read on the news, he was still in critical condition.

I had gotten lucky.

That was something that I needed to actually keep consciously in mind when talking to Jackson. Maybe I could make him see things the same way that I did. He would see what I saw. He had to.

When I left the hospital, his car was already gone from the parking lot. But when I get home, it's not parked where I expect it to be. There was no other car in the driveway. The house was empty. Turning on the light for the kitchen, I looked around. He hadn't gotten home yet – maybe he had gone to pick up dinner, or something else. I turned on the television so it wasn't so quiet, making myself a cup of tea and settling down on the couch to wait for him. Eventually, there was the sound of the front door opening and shutting.

"Hey," I called out, straightening up. "I thought that you left before me."

"Yeah," he scratched the back of his neck. "I had to run an errand, sorry. I thought I might still beat you home."

"Oh, okay," I wet my lips. "Do you still want to talk?"

"Yeah, I do."

Jackson set down his work bag and put his jacket down on the counter. I don't criticize him for not using the hook this time, holding off despite the instinct. Leaning forward, I put my cup of tea down on a coaster on the table, folding my hands in my lap. My thumbs twiddled around one another, unable to bury that little bit of anxiety.

"Um, so…" I started slowly. My bottom lip caught between my teeth, not sure where to go.

"I'm in. All the way." Jackson blurted out

"What?"

"I know that it might not be what you planned or how you planned it but we can do this. We'll get married – have an awesome kid, be amazing parents. I'm in." There was near enthusiasm in his voice with the way that he spoke about it, a complete turn around from the hesitation that I had seen in him this morning.

Slowly, I gathered myself before speaking. "Don't say that if you don't mean it."

"I mean it. We can do this." He replied without hesitation.

"Do you really mean that? I mean, this morning… You seemed so ambivalent about it. Like it was something that had just been dumped into your lap and you were forced to deal with it." I expressed hesitantly, brows drawing together.

"I want this. We get married, we have a house and a yard. A big yard." Jackson enthused. A wide-toothed smile was across his face, his eyes sparkling as he looked down at me.

"We have a wedding." I echoed his sentiment, matching his smile.

"A huge freaking wedding." He laughed, nodding his head.

"In a field with butterflies." That was the thing that I had dreamed of since I was a little girl. A big, wide-open field with everyone that I loved gathered around, monarch butterflies flying around the two of us. And when I was a little girl, he was the one that I had imagined standing at the end of the altar, waiting for me. Even if I didn't see myself as a pregnant bride, or a mother going down the aisle, there was still something. There was still everything.

His head nodded along with everything that left my mouth. "Butterflies, a field, whatever you want. With our family – your family, my mom, everyone's going to be there."

With his hands cupping my face, he leaned into me and kissed him. I returned the kiss with a surge of energy, a second wind that I hadn't realized was there. His tongue slipped into my mouth and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling myself onto his lap. His hands gripped onto my hips and I wrapped my legs around his waist. This was the way that we had gotten into this situation in the first place. The space between us disappeared as I pressed into him.

"Are you sure we can do this?" I questioned, pulling away with a gasp for air.

"We can do this," Jackson affirmed.

Another firm kiss was pressed against my lips, his hands shifting to my ass and squeezing it firmly. I groaned against his lips, fingers running through his hair. His curls were beginning to grow out just a bit more than he usually let them and it was a new texture.

"Wait, there's one more thing," he muttered against my lips. He pulled away from me, tucking my hair behind his ear. "My errand."

I shifted back for a little space, continuing to sit on his thighs. "What?"

"This." He reached into the pocket of his pants and I lifted up slightly to make sure that I wasn't in his way. A moment later, a small black box was revealed from the inside of his jeans. My eyes widened as I stared down at it and he looked up at me briefly before opening up the box. A delicate-looking, silver ring was sit inside, a rose designed in the center of it with the diamond set in the middle. It was beautiful.

"That's… wow. Jackson, it's beautiful. It is so beautiful." I found his gaze.

"I mean it. I mean every word of it. We can do it. So marry me, and we'll have this baby." There was a question inside of Jackson's words and I nodded my head.

"Yes. Yes, we're going to do it."

Removing the ring from the box, Jackson slid it onto my ring finger. It fit perfectly, just a little snug. It was small enough to be subtle but certainly gorgeous enough to still draw compliments once attention was on it. It was perfect. I can't believe that he had managed to find it on a whim.

That night when we make love, there was something different there.

Maybe a part of it was some kind of physical sensation with the differences that my body had begun to go through with our child growing inside of me. Or maybe it was the perfect little ring on my finger that gave a tangible signal to the rest of the world, letting them know that he loved me and I loved him, that we were going to spend the rest of our lives dedicated to one another. It would display our love until my stomach became large enough with our child that it would draw all of the attention of wandering eyes. Both, likely.

There was definitely no sense in hiding either element of truth from everyone else. Between all of the doctors and nurses that we worked with, it was unlikely that it would stay hidden for long. People would be able to piece it together. The longer I stared at myself in the mirror, the more that I could convince myself that maybe my breasts did look a little bigger than usual. Morning sickness would be hard to hide, too.

"Guys, there's something that we want to say," I announced to the group.

The chief resident had an office every year but as soon as the others had found out that it was mine, they had deemed it theirs as well. Alex, Cristina, and Meredith were all crowded onto the couch with Izzie sitting on the arm of the furniture. Reed was leaning against the door, staring at her phone even as I spoke.

"You're pregnant." Cristina blurted out.

"What?" I squatted. "How did you know?"

"Your boobs. You've been extra perky lately. It's annoying." She glanced at her nails as she spoke.

I took a deep breath. "Well, yes, I am." I slipped my hand into the pocket of my scrub pants, slipping the engagement ring onto my finger. "Jackson and I are expecting. And we are also engaged." I held out my hand to show off the ring. Izzie and Reed both leaned forward, complimenting its unique design and beauty.

"Congratulations," Izzie chimed in with a genuine smile, standing up to hug Jackson and me.

"And before any of it can start," Jackson started, clearly looking at Alex. "No jokes about it being because we're pregnant, okay? Try and leave that kind of crap for high school. It's just immature at this point."

I smiled at him. It would probably come either way, but I appreciated that he was still trying for me.

"What are you going to do about your boards? The timing isn't great." Meredith asked.

"That's a question for the future." I tapped my nails against the desk, no answer for her. There was time to figure that out. "Which Jackson and I will figure out. But right now, I think it would be a good idea for all of us to just get to work. Reed, you have nights on the E.R. this week. Karev, you're teaching the skills labs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Meredith, you have Tuesday and Thursday. There is also a transplant chain this week… which only four of us will be able to scrub in on. So, keep that in mind."

Even if there wasn't much else that I could do to scare them off, the pull that I had as the chief resident was still a little bit of something that I could take advantage of. Technically it wasn't taking advantage of it, even though it felt like it just a little bit. It was just doing my job.

Everyone cleared out of my office slowly upon the possibility of getting in on a chain transplant surgery. Something like that being successful would look great on the books for the boards. I needed to be on it. I'd pretty much already picked out who I wanted on it, me, Cristina, Jackson, and Meredith. Even if the other women occasionally drove me crazy, they were good at what they did. Especially Cristina.

"Are you coming?" Jackson asked, lingering in the doorway.

"Yeah," I smiled. "Just a little bit of paperwork first, then I'll be there."

Filling out the last of the forms that I needed to get done today, I signed off it and let out a heavy sigh, dropping the pen against my desk. Things were going to get busier and busier in the next few months. A baby, a wedding. That was a lot.

Once it was taken care of, I grabbed my white coat from the back of the door and slid my arms into it. It felt nice to be able to show off my ring just a little bit.

Or at least, it did until I turned the corner and landed my eyes on my ex-boyfriend. I tried not to stiffen in surprise. Of course, I saw him all the time in passing, in crowded places, and usually… well, I would avoid him unless it was medically necessary for the safety of a patient. With Cristina always on cardio, though, it was usually easy to avoid. Pressing my lips together in a thin line, I took a deep breath through my nose and smiled at him. There was no reason that I couldn't be friendly to him. My life was in a good place and I was really, really happy. Everything happened for a reason and even if, in retrospect, things with him hadn't been perfect, they had helped put me where I am today.

"Hey, Nathan." I smiled and tucked my hands into my pockets.

"Hey," he smiled back at me and glanced down. "I heard congratulations are in order."

"Yeah." I touched my flat stomach with my right hand. "Thank you."

"Not showing off the ring yet?" His accent seemed especially thick with the question.

"Oh, I thought you meant the baby," I blushed and shook my head, folding my left hand over my right and giving a shrug of my shoulders. "I guess I'm doing both."

His brow furrowed. "Wait, what?" Nathan questioned. "You're pregnant too?"

Oh, no. This was awkward.

"Yeah," I smiled and nodded my head, glancing down at my feet and my weight rocking between toes and heels. "Not very far but it's kind of a hard thing to hide working in a hospital with all of the doctors and, well, the x-rays. It kind of just is out there with everything else."

"Huh," he huffed out. "I thought you were waiting till marriage."

"It… uh, I mean, sort of. No. Waiting for the guy I would marry, I guess. Not that I… questioned the validity of our relationship at the time even though maybe I should have." Oh, this wasn't going well. "I've known Jackson forever. He's my person. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Nathan shifted uncomfortably. "It's– you know, it is what it is. But congratulations. I am happy for you. I know that you always wanted to be a mom."

"Thanks." Another forced smile was given. "I uh, I gotta get to the E.R. I'll see you around."

Exchanging tense, polite expressions once more, I kept walking down toward the emergency room and let go of the breath that I was holding onto. It could have been worse. It was a little weird to think that I was pregnant at the same time that Jackson's ex-girlfriend was pregnant, even if she was months ahead of me. But he had freaked out in a bad way when that had scared her, nearly shut down. He had jumped to a big place with me, too, but in the exact opposite direction. He had run to get a ring.

Yeah, he loved me.

None of the interactions that I have about the life changes are as awkward as that with Riggs. Anyone else who commented on it was entirely congratulatory about it and no one dared to make a comment on the engagement being based on the pregnancy. It was a little bit of a catalyst, but not a causal event.

By the time I'm with Jackson in the car driving home for the day, I was exhausted. I'd barely had time for a lunch break and I was ready to curl up on the couch and take it easy for an hour or two before going to bed.

"Do you want to get something for dinner on the way home?" Jackson asked.

"There's leftover lasagna in the fridge." I poked him. "I'm going to eat that. There's some stuff in the fridge and pantry that you can put together." We weren't on a fellow or an attending salary yet. I knew that he came from money, but we would have to start saving up for the baby. The wedding too, sure, but that was an afterthought comparatively.

"Alright," he agreed before falling quiet. I take advantage of the moment.

"Do you think that we should move into somewhere bigger?" I asked, placing my hand on a stomach. "Our apartment s great for the two of us but I think it'll be a little crowded with a baby. And our lease says we can't paint the walls."

He paused. "Yeah, I guess we should." He nodded his head. "We can start looking into it, yeah. It'll be easier while you're still small, moving and getting everything at a new place set up. I can buy out our current lease."

"You don't have to do that." I shook my head. "I can't afford that."

"April, stop being frugal for a second." Jackson glanced over at me. "If we're getting married, then what's mine is yours. And this is for our baby – there's no way that I'm going to let some contract that I can buy out keep us in this place longer if it's not the most optimal situation. Let me do that for you and the baby, please."

"I just…" I sighed. "I don't ever want you to feel like I'm using you for your money, or anything like that, you know?" The money gap had been there for so many years. It wouldn't change for a while.

"I have never thought that." He pulled into his parking space, putting the vehicle into park and turning his torso toward me. "Okay? Not once."

"Rationally, I know that," I paused and wet my lips. "It's still just a little insecurity of mine."

Jackson leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss against my lips, cupping my face in one of his warm, large hands. "It's not something that you need to worry about, I promise. I'm taking care of you and the baby. I know where you come from and we have the same salary, remember? I'm going to make sure that our kid has the best, that money isn't a sacrifice we have to worry about with him or her. And our kid's money is your money. That's a part of what that ring means. Just because we're not married yet doesn't mean that it can't start now."

"You always know the right thing to say." I tipped my head forward, forehead resting against his. "That's one of the things that I happen to love about you, you know? You always know how to calm me down."

"For better or worse, it's something that I've had a lot of experience with." He chuckled. "Let's go in."

Oh, he was right.

High school had been such a messy time for me between my family and all of the kids at school, I had been all over the place and freaking out was something that happened almost every week. There had been some exceptions, but most of the time he had always been capable of talking me down from the edge and getting me to screw my head on straight again. I was glad that the years of distance between us hadn't taken that away from him, because it seemed like I was going to need that particular skill of his now more than ever. I was about to descend into becoming a hormonal mess.

There was still another impending freakout, though, one that went back even further than my relationship with Jackson. I was going to have to tell both of my parents and my sisters about my pregnancy and engagement. My sisters might be celebratory, but I wasn't convinced about my parents. Not after what had happened during my senior year.

Since college, I hadn't seen a lot of my parents and that had been a mix of circumstances and intention. There had been breaks that I had stayed at school when I probably could have gone home, always citing having too much to do with my plans to graduate early. I'd gone home for Christmas here and there, but I had always spent the summer working or on an internship. I had found ways to avoid them and now, I was good at it. Truthfully, they could have changed, and I might not have noticed them.

But I had to get it out of the way, sooner or later. The longer that I waited, the more anxious that it was going to make me. Stress wasn't good for fetuses. That was the only thought that gets me to actually pick up the phone and call my mother after dinner.

"Hi, Mom…" I spoke after hearing her answer. "It's me."

"April!" Her surprise was clear. "Oh, we haven't heard from you in forever. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine." As if she could see me, I found myself forcing a smile. Jackson wasn't even in the room for me to need to do it, yet the compulsion was still there. "Is Dad home? I was hoping that I could talk to both of you.

"Of course, give me just a minute to go get him."

Shuffling occurred on the other end of the line and I curled my legs beneath me. The television was playing on the other side of the bedroom wall in the living room, Jackson finishing up watching some recorded game. When my mom picked up her phone again, it was easy to tell. My stomach dropped even though neither one of them had given me a reason yet.

"Hi, pumpkin," Dad greeted me. "I've missed hearing your voice. You don't call enough."

"I know, I'm sorry." I held back a sigh. "I've just been really busy with work lately. This last year is the busiest with finalizing my specialty and I've been extra busy because I'm chief resident, so I have a lot of extra responsibilities."

"We're proud of you for that," Dad said. "You're doing a lot of great work."

"You are," Mom echoed in agreement.

I took a deep breath. "Thanks. There's actually something else good that I want to tell you. Something that's a little more personal. Do you remember how my hospital merged with another one? And I was really worried about getting fired because it was a better hospital?"

"Of course," Mom replied.

"It turns out I knew someone working there." Please, please let this go well. "Do you remember Jackson Avery? He was my best friend growing up until… Well, it turns out that he works at the same hospital at me now that they've merged. We've actually been seeing each other again for the past few months, now that we're adults."

Silence met me on the other end of the line and I didn't say a word to break it. I was being honest. It was their turn to be responsible. They needed to be parents, and they needed to be good people.

"I thought I told you how I felt about that boy when you were a child." Mom stated firmly.

"You did." No point in denying that. "I heard you. You reinforced it when you sent me hundreds of miles away from everything I knew to live with your brother. But I loved him them and I love him now, Mom. He gets me. He makes me feel loved and special like no one else in the world."

"Do you mean it?" Dad asked.

"Yes, I do," I answered without hesitation.

"April…" he doesn't get the chance to speak before my mother cut him off.

"I don't like this one bit." Mom scoffed. "You know how I felt about him. You've barely seen him and now you're acting like you've known him your whole life You don't know him. "

"No, Mom, you don't know him." I corrected him. "I've known him my entire life. Yes, maybe we didn't see each other for a while but that's because of what you did and how you lied. If I'd had a choice, then things wouldn't have been that way, but you made sure to take that away from me. But I know him and I love him more than anyone else in the world." A pause is taken before I blurt the rest of it out. "I love him and we're getting married."

This time, she doesn't hesitate to speak. "You're what? April Eloise Kepner, tell me that I didn't hear that right."

"You heard it right. I love Jackson and we're engaged. He proposed to me with a gorgeous ring, and we're going to be husband and wife, just like we both wanted when we were little kids. And we're also going to be parents together."

Another tense moment passed as they processed the news that I had dropped onto them. An engagement announcement and a pregnancy announcement at the same time was a lot. I had intended to do it one at a time, keeping the pregnancy news a secret as long as I could afford to, but they had managed to get under my skin. I don't pop off like that frequently but if anyone was going to do it, it would be my parents.

"You're pregnant?" Mom questioned. I stayed quiet. "Have you been going to church? You know that premarital sex is a sin. I can't believe this. I'm going to pray for you."

"I don't need you to pray for me." I snapped.

"April," Dad interrupted me. "You don't mean that. Everyone is deserving of forgiveness."

"I didn't do anything wrong." I took a deep breath. "I love him and he loves me. The Bible is thousands of years old. You know that the Bible needs to be interpreted in a modern context. There is nothing immoral about being with the man that you love and want to marry. I'm starting my life with him. If you don't want to get on board with that… fine. But I thought you should know."

There was nothing else that I could say to them.

Hanging up the phone, I dropped it down on top of my bed and slouched forward. Tears burned along the brim of my eyes and I don't want them to spill over. I shouldn't cry because of them. It had been a long time since I had cried because of them and I don't want to go through it again. My Mom just wasn't that good of a person. My Dad was so quiet that it was hard to tell what he was really thinking when he just let Mom speak over him time and time again.

I rubbed my hands across the back of my eyes, stretching out my legs and setting my phone on the nightstand, plugging it in to charge overnight. The bed squeaked as I shifted on it, looking toward the door when it opened.

"Hey," Jackson spoke as he stepped in and shut it behind him "You getting ready for bed?"

"Yeah. I called my parents. It went… about as expected." I admitted.

"So not good?"

"Yeah."

"It's okay." He slipped out of his jeans before curling up in the bed behind me, pulling me against his chest. "We don't need them. I promise. Me, you, and our baby. That's more than enough." He placed a kiss against my shoulder. "I love you."

"Me, you, and our baby," I echoed. "I love you too."