Author's note: Special thanks for the lovely reviews for the last chapter, which felt risky but important to include in this story!

As ever, I am grateful for reads, follows, favourites, and especially reviews! It means a lot to know that people are enjoying this story.

Chapter 21 - Questions

Mike pushed his face into the back of Rachel's neck for a moment, ignoring the insistent beep of the alarm clock. His hand was cupped around the very slight bump of their twelve week pregnancy, and her back was pressed tight against his chest. He felt her stir and opened his eyes to see her reach out and slap the alarm off. He tightened his arms around her and kissed her shoulder.

"Mmm." She pressed back against him. "Good morning."

"Morning." He kissed her neck this time, gently nipping her. He slid his hand up to cup her breast. "How are you feeling?"

"Nervous. Excited." She pushed back against him again. "Tense..." He heard the smile in her voice.

"Ah, release of tension needed?" He traced his thumb over her nipple.

"I think it's a necessity." She replied, turning over and smiling at him.

"Whatever the lady wants." He kissed her, drawing her close, running his hand down her back and reaching between her legs. She threw her leg over his, making space for his fingers to explore her. He stroked her gently, finding her sweet spot and making her shiver.

"Feel good?" He murmured, and she nodded as she kissed him.

He felt her hand tracing down his chest, making just a little space between them, and then her fingers encircled his hardness and he groaned. He kept his finger on her sweet spot while his thumb stroked gently in and out of her, and she matched his rhythm as she pumped him in her fist, slow and firm.

"I want you inside me." She whispered, and he groaned, as much at her words as the feeling of her hand on him. He rolled onto his back so she could straddle him, and she guided herself down onto him as he held her hips. She moaned, her eyes meeting his as she started to move. He reached between her legs to stroke her as she rocked on him.

"You're beautiful," He rasped, fighting the temptation to thrust up into her and take control.

She was moving a little faster now, starting to gasp, and he gave in and lifted his hips, driving up into her, making her cry out and throw her head back.

"Mike!" She cried out, "Please!"

He thrust again, keeping his thumb on her sweet spot, and she trembled. Twice more, and she shattered, clenching around him with a cry of satisfaction as he surrendered to the feeling of her, and the sight of her, and came hard, her name on his lips as he spilled himself inside her.

She fell forwards onto his chest, and he held her, stroking her back as they recovered.

"I love you," She murmured.

"I love you, sweetheart." He touched her face and she moved her head so she could look at him.

"You always know what I want." She said.

He nodded, then suddenly grinned. "Is that a hint that you need breakfast before we go?"

She laughed a little, "Maybe!"

The OB that Doc Rios had found had recommended waiting until now for a second ultrasound, and as they drove to the newly cleared hospital, Mike was starting to feel nervous. The last six weeks had seen huge transformation in St Louis, not least with the establishment of Rachel's new lab and the inception of a military training camp under his command. They had started to settle into a tentative routine, and there was a growing sense of optimism in the city.

But there had been nights when he'd woken in a cold sweat from dreams about threats to Rachel and the baby, and nights when he'd been woken by her screaming in her sleep and had to wake her from nightmares that she claimed not to remember. The rational part of him knew that this was part of adjusting, dealing with what they'd all been through, but he couldn't shake the worry.

He tried to smile reassuringly at Rachel as the OB, Dr Patrick, rubbed gel onto her slightly rounded stomach. Her face was a little pale and she gripped his hand tightly.

"Here we go…" Dr Patrick kept the display screen turned away from them as she started the ultrasound, and Mike kept his eyes on Rachel's.

"It's going to be okay." He murmured, and she nodded and tried to smile. They'd agreed not to tell anyone about the pregnancy until after this scan, and although they'd reasoned it out as the normal and sensible thing to do, Mike knew that they were both secretly terrified something would be wrong.

"Okay," Dr Patrick smiled and turned the screen towards them. "Everything is looking good, so I'll talk you through it."

Although he knew the doctor was still talking, Mike wasn't taking in a word as he stared at the image on the screen. Unlike the dot of six weeks ago, this was a discernible baby, moving slightly in grainy grey and white, and as the doctor turned up the volume on the monitor, he heard his son or daughter's heartbeat, clear and strong.

Tears were running silently down Rachel's cheeks as she stared at the screen, as transfixed as he was, and he had to swallow down a lump in his own throat.

"We'll scan again at around twenty weeks." Dr Patrick said quietly, "And at that point we should be able to see the sex, if you want to know. But for now, we're good. Do you want me to see if I can get a picture for you?" She asked as she wiped the gel from Rachel's stomach. "I haven't tried it with this equipment yet, we're still getting fully set up." She paused, "Not that I need to tell you that, of course. It's thanks to you that we're here at all."

Rachel dragged her eyes from the monitor and smiled at the doctor, and Mike managed to do the same. Then as she left the room, they both looked back at the now static picture on the screen.

"Look at that." Rachel said softly, putting her hand over her stomach. "That's him. Or her."

He laid his hand over hers. "Perfect." He couldn't think of anything else to say at that moment.

Mike carefully buttoned the thin piece of paper containing the fuzzy image of their baby into the breast pocket of his uniform shirt before opening the car door for Rachel.

"Home?" He asked.

She shook her head. "Lab for me, please. The equipment from the universities should be arriving today, and I want to supervise."

He bit back the instinct to argue, reminding himself that despite his fears, Rachel hadn't returned to the pattern of working twenty hour days that had characterised her time on the Nathan James. In fact, they'd both been making it home for dinner almost every night.

"So, are we going to tell people now?" He asked. "About the baby?"

"Well, Tom already knows, and Jed, and Bertrise of course, after she caught me throwing up into my office waste bin. I'd like to tell Kara, since we're in a similar position…" She paused.

"What is it?"

"No, nothing. Just- Well, it's a little more straightforward for Kara and Danny."

He glanced over at her, but she was staring straight ahead. "What do you mean?"

She sighed. "I mean, they were a couple before all this, and yes, they broke the rules, but they were both single and now they're getting married. You and I are a little more complicated."

He felt that familiar twist of guilt in his gut, and pushed it away. "I've said it once, I'll say it again. We fell in love, that just happened, and nothing anyone else thinks means a goddamn thing."

"I know, and I agree, I do. But at the same time… There are questions."

He shrugged. "Let them ask. I don't care."

She only managed a half smile in response, and it was only once she'd got out of the car at the lab and he was on his way to the training camp that he realised it might not be other people's questions she was talking about. It might be her own.