The knock at the door made you jump. Daisy had left over an hour ago but it wasn't too crazy to think she might return. Even though you'd told her she didn't need to check on you anymore she still did and if you were honest you liked the company as much as you liked the snippets of information she had about Simon. You were almost sure she gave Simon the same kind of information about you and whenever she left you found yourself smiling, wondering what details she would share. Of course what you should have been doing was talking to Simon and sharing the details yourself.
You sighed, rolling from the bed. It had been almost a week since your sonogram and nothing had changed between you. You knew Simon had been busy taking a team out almost daily but you weren't talking, you didn't see him and despite that you were thinking about him more than ever. In fact, you'd done more than think about him, you'd dreamt about him too and the dreams had only left you wanting.
You opened the door, prepared for Daisy's shy smile but finding Simon's instead. You did a double take, cheeks heating at the memory of last nights dreams before you consoled yourself with the fact that he had no idea about your dreams.
"Hey," he said, the sound of his voice only making you more aware of your secret fantasies.
"Hey," you repeated, knowing you should invite him in but somehow not saying anything more.
"Is this a bad time?" he asked, his eyes trailing over your body as you realised it was 11am and you were still wearing pajama bottoms.
Your blush deepened, your hands trying and failing to cover the multicoloured donuts that were sprinkled over your legs. "I was reading," you lied, somehow reading sounded better than what you had been doing, nothing.
"I-" he hesitated before inching closer, his hands sliding along the door frame as he filled it. "I have a surprise for you."
"A surprise?" you couldn't keep the excitement from your voice.
Simon waggled his eyebrows, looking a little bit more sure of himself.
"Well what is it?"
With another glance at your pajamas he chuckled and told you, "get dressed and you'll find out."
"Don't I at least get a clue?"
"Nope," he sealed his lips with an invisible zip, looking as adorable as he looked attractive and for a moment you just stared at him. A dopey smile filled your face from cheek to cheek before you realised what you were doing and shut the door.
You didn't have many options of what to wear, in fact you only had one clean pair of jeans which you squeezed into before stretching a once loose fitting tshirt over your belly and pulling on a pair of sneakers. For your hair you shook it out, staring in your mirror and wishing you hadn't as you quickly scraped it back on top of your head, wondering if you'd ever bother with makeup or a curling wand again.
When you were finished you opened the door to find Simon leaning against the opposite wall, his hands shoved in his pockets. "Let's go," he grinned and you found yourself picturing this exact scenario with a small child instead of you; surprise adventures with Daddy. The idea gave you a warm fuzzy feeling and you floated on it until you were outside and he was opening the door of a large truck.
You didn't know what you had in mind but this wasn't exactly it. Laura and Fat Joey were already waiting inside and you gave Simon a wary look which he countered with, "you're just gonna have to wait and see."
Waiting and seeing wasn't exactly your style. "Do you know where we're going?" you asked Laura.
"You heard the boss," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders and a smile that told you she knew exactly where you were going.
Wait and see. You'd never felt more impatient in you life and maybe that was because you'd never had anyone try to surprise you like this. Even before the end of the world, nobody had ever made that kind of effort and Simon doing it now seemed even more surreal. He was a man with a million things he had to think about and he'd pushed them aside to think about you.
You smiled, clipping in your seat belt and biting back your impatience. Luckily you were on the road for less than thirty minutes when Simon said, "we're nearly there. Close your eyes."
"Close my eyes?" you laughed but he was serious. So serious he stopped the truck and from his pocket he pulled a long fabric strip.
"No peeking," he said, reaching towards you to fasten the blindfold over your eyes. The brush of his fingers had your spine tingling as you tried not to sigh at every lingering touch.
The remainder of the journey was over in the matter of a few minutes and when the truck stopped again you held your breath, the temptation to peek was almost unbearable but you didn't give in. You hands clutched to your knees as you listened intently to every sound. Simon getting out of the car, Laura and Fat Joey following behind. A clatter, hushed whispers, scraping then your door swinging open.
There was a pause, you could almost feel the heat of Simon's skin as he seemed to hesitate in your doorway. You were almost about to say his name when he took your hand, the feel of it making your heart jump as quickly as butterflies began to flutter excitedly in your stomach.
"You didn't peek did you?" he asked as his other hand hooked under your arm and he guided you from the truck.
You shook your head, relishing the closeness and the way his hands made you feel. They were so solid and secure, if you were to fall you'd never hit the floor and you knew right then how rare it was for you to trust someone so implicitly.
He guided you over what felt like tarmac before it changed to something smooth, more like lino than tile before he finally let you go. His voice sounding a little further away when he said, "you can look."
You clung to the excitement of the surprise for a little longer before slowly peeling away the blindfold, your eyes squeezed shut until it was completely removed.
When you opened them you looked around dumbly, the lighting was dim but your eyes quickly adjusted, first finding Simon then finding all the things that stood around him.
"If you don't wanna-" he began quickly, his face falling
"It's perfect," you said, your gaze flicking between the cribs and strollers that were part of the huge baby store you were standing in.
"Yeah?" Simon allowed himself a smile and it really was perfect. "I've made sure everywhere is secure for a mile around here so you don't need to worry about any surprises."
Suddenly the past few days made more sense. He hadn't been working, he'd been doing this. Part of you wanted to cry but then Simon opened his mouth and said, "I thought you might wanna do this before you get too big."
You cocked your head to the side, biting back a laugh and teasing him instead, "too big?"
"I mean…" his eyes landed on your belly, "bigger. But in a good way. You know… you should be getting… ah I'm not gonna come back from that one am I?"
"You're a real smooth talker," you chuckled, your eyes landing on the racks of maternity clothes and talking of bigger, you couldn't waddle over fast enough.
"But I guess you're right," you said, picking up a pair of maternity jeans, the stretchy panel at the top looking like a little slice of heaven.
"Do you think it would be weird if I changed into these right now?" you asked, pulling at the waistband of the ones you were wearing and deciding, "these ones are strangling the baby."
Simon's eyes landed on your belly and swept along your legs, "I'm not one to complain when a woman takes her clothes off."
You laughed nervously, your skin anticipating his touch as you wondered if he would make some kind of a move except he began moving the wrong way. "I'll fetch a cart and give you some privacy," he called before disappearing.
Privacy was the last thing you wanted and you were starting to admit that it wasn't all down to hormones. It was down to Simon. The only problem was you. You didn't know how to do anything about it and you wasn't sure if you even could.
So, wearing a pair of maternity jeans and a huge smile, you put ideas of Simon's hands and other parts to the back of your mind. Instead, focusing on the excitement of baby shopping and you hardly knew where to begin. This would probably be your only chance to do anything like this before the birth and there was at least one advantage to the end of the world, no price tags.
You don't know how long you spent lost in a world of thermometers, nipple cream and cellular blankets but it was starting to make your head hurt. Now you were staring at cribs, bassinets and cradles and wondering which one you should choose.
"I had no idea babies needed so much stuff," you lamented, rocking a bassinet and watching the little bears on the hood gently swaying. "A couple of my friends had babies but we were waiting, we were remodeling our house and-"
You stopped yourself. You hand slipping from the bassinet as you swallowed all the words back down in one big lump. You didn't like to talk about before and you especially didn't like to talk about him. You didn't want to even think about him, it was too painful and it would only spoil what was turning out to be a nice day.
You glanced at Simon hoping his silence was a sign that he hadn't heard you but one look into his puppy dog eyes told you he had. He picked up a stuffed animal from one of the cribs, smoothing down its fur before tucking it back into place. "We tried for years to have kids," he said eventually, the words lingering between you before he chuckled sadly, "I always thought it was me."
You touched your belly, the proof that it hadn't been him. Once upon a time you'd both been a 'we' and an 'us' with somebody else, somebody that was gone. There was no right thing to say except, "I'm glad we're having this baby."
"Me too," he smiled, his eyes lighting up.
You picked out the white crib along with sheets covered in pink bunnies and then it was time to go home.
