Jeff was in the kitchen cooking when Annie came home from work. She was humming as she dumped her stuff on the couch.

"Good day?" he asked her as she swooped in for a kiss.

"Great day," she responded. Jeff was glad. Work had been wearing on her a lot more lately. At almost twenty-five weeks pregnant, the aches and pains had started to get to her more. She usually came home grumpy and sore.

"Dinner should be ready soon," Jeff said, placing the lid back over a steaming pot and throwing his dish towel over one shoulder. "Why don't you have a seat and tell me about this great day of yours."

Annie sat back on the couch with a smile. "Well," she began. "I got some good news."

"Yeah?" Jeff prompted as he bent to check the chicken he had baking in the oven.

"It seems my skills are needed. They're sending me to Arizona for a couple of weeks."

Jeff straightened up and turned to her. "No."

Annie looked genuinely shocked. "No?"

"No, you can't go."

She got up from the couch, her shoulders set. "It's not a choice!"

"Quit, then."

Annie rolled her eyes in frustration. "That's not an option. You know that!"

"You have a contract, right?" Jeff asked, taking a step towards her. "Let me see it. I'll find a loophole."

"You're going to find a loop hole that the United States government missed?"

"Yes."

Annie made a noise of exasperation. "Jeff, no. That's ridiculous. It's only two weeks, I'll be fine. They know I'm pregnant. It's just office work, I swear."

Jeff wasn't buying it. "Why do they have to send you away to do office work?"

Annie faltered. "You know I can't tell you that."

Jeff jerked the dish towel from his shoulder and chunked it at the kitchen counter.

"What is wrong with you?" Annie almost shouted.

"I don't want you to go!"

"Would you please calm down and let me do my job?" she asked angrily. "I'm pregnant, not helpless. I can travel!"

"I'm not worried about the travel," Jeff shot back in frustration.

"You don't believe me? You think I'm going to be in danger?"

"Yes!"

"It's nice to see that you trust me," she said sarcastically. "If stuff like this was going to be such a problem, then why did you marry me?"

"Because I love you!"

Annie stopped in her tracks, her expression turning to surprise and Jeff sank onto the couch, spent. "I'm never going to be okay with your job. Not really." He sighed. "I believe you when you say that you'll be safe. I don't seriously think they'd put you in harm's way when you're pregnant. But that doesn't change the fact that if the circumstances were different, they could be putting you in danger."

Annie joined him on the couch. "I won't be working there much longer. Just another year. I can get transferred to a smaller field office. Or work for the Colorado Bureau. It's in Denver."

He smiled at her like you did when kids told you they never wanted to grow up. "Any job where part of your work attire is a pistol on your belt is going to make me just as crazy."

"Then I can do something else. I'm not technically doing anything with my hospital administration degree."

Jeff shook his head. "Please don't factor me into that choice. I want you to do what you want to do. Even if that means your performance review includes marksmanship. I just want you to know that I'm not going to stop worrying about your safety. Ever."

He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. "I'm sorry I ruined your day."

"You didn't," she said. "My husband just threatened the US government over my safety. I'm sure you're on a watchlist now, but other than that it was kind of romantic."

Jeff chuckled as he got his feet. "I'll go get Tyler for dinner. I'm sure the chicken is burned to a crisp by now."


"I'm getting really tired of dropping you off at airports," Jeff sighed as he pulled the car up to the curb. The DC airport looked nothing like the Denver one, but he felt like he'd been here a million times before. If he had a least favorite word in the English language, it was 'departures'.

"One more year," Annie reminded him.

They got out of the car and Jeff went around to the trunk to unload her suitcase. The process of dropping her off and saying goodbye was automatic and it sucked. He shut the trunk and wheeled her bag over to her, handing it off.

"Be careful," he warned. "Or they really will have to put me on a watchlist."

She stood on tip-toe to kiss him softly. "I'm always careful. See you soon."

"See you soon."

He waved goodbye as she disappeared from view.


While Annie was gone, Jeff spent his days apartment hunting. The dwindling number of weeks they had until the due date was really starting to stress him out. On the days when there were no apartments to tour, he wandered the city. Tyler was back in school and he was technically jobless. There wasn't a lot of point in looking for work either. In six weeks he would be taking on the full-time position of stay-at-home dad. The thought made his stomach drop.

After almost giving himself a panic attack at the National Mall, Jeff decided it was better if he spent his last week before Annie came home out of the public eye.

After two days of restlessly forcing himself to stay home, Tyler approached him. "I just wanted to remind you of our deal."

Jeff looked at him in confusion.

"I get a ten-minute warning if you're going psycho."

Jeff looked at his son and then down at himself. He had been bouncing his leg without noticing. He quickly stopped, crossing his legs to prevent it from happening again. "I'm not going to go psycho," Jeff assured him.

Tyler gave him an unconvinced look. After a moment he said, "You know, sometimes I just can't figure you out."

"What do you mean?"

Tyler seemed to be studying him. "I can't tell if you're excited or scared shitless."

"About what?" Jeff questioned even though he knew the answer.

"Elizabeth."

Jeff felt the muscles in his leg tense, but he resisted the urge to keep bouncing it. He opened his mouth to say something cool and snarky, but instead he said, "Can't I be both?"

Huh. Accidental honesty.

Tyler sat down beside him, still watching him closely. "Sure. But if you're going to be both, could we maybe find you a hobby?"

"A hobby?"

"You may not be going crazy, but I am." Tyler nodded at Jeff's bouncing leg. "You're driving me up the wall."

Jeff put both feet and the ground and leaned forward, elbows on knees in an attempt to keep the tic from returning. Maybe he was crazy.

"Let's do something to help Annie," Tyler suggested.

Something to help Annie. Jeff looked around the room. The den was kind of a mess. There were game cases piled up near the TV and empty glasses on the coffee table. The room could use a good dusting, too.

"We could clean the apartment," he suggested.

"Perfect idea." Tyler got to his feet and grabbed the empty cups, heading for the kitchen. "We'll put our nervous energy to good use."

"Our nervous energy?" Jeff asked.

Tyler shrugged. "Speaking as an only child who has literally never held a baby, I'm scared and excited too."

Jeff got to his feet with a nod and started organizing his and Tyler's video game collection, clearing off the TV stand. Annie was going to come home to the cleanest apartment in existence.


Once Annie was home, Jeff's anxiety seemed to subside despite the fact that their lives seemed to have picked up speed. Annie was in her third-trimester now, meaning that they had doctor's appointments every two weeks, and they were narrowing down apartment options.

By the time they'd found a new place to live and moved in, Annie was at thirty-two weeks.

"She's the size of a squash this week," Annie announced over breakfast. She was smiling down at her phone. She had downloaded one of those pregnancy tracker apps and had somehow become more consistent with updating them on Elizabeth's progress in the womb. Jeff didn't find it nearly as fascinating as Annie and Tyler did.

Tyler leaned over in his seat at the table to see what Annie was looking at and she moved her phone so that it was between them. "She has fingernails and toenails now, too," Tyler read off.

"We should probably have the baby shower soon," Annie said, putting down her phone. "We could have it in the new apartment."

"Don't we have enough stuff?" Jeff asked. "I seem to remember someone buying an entire aisle's worth of baby clothes earlier this year."

Annie glared at him and Jeff smirked back.

"We need stuff other than clothes," she said. "Like a crib? Or would you rather our daughter slept on the ground?"

Jeff sighed. "Alright, we'll start planning. Show me the baby shower idea book."