The next morning, Caitlin was in the master bathroom waiting on the little stick to show her a sign one way or another if what she suspected was true. She was pretty certain she was pregnant but she could also just be stressed out too, not like their lives had been hectic lately, she thought grimly.
It wasn't long though before a plus sign showed up very clearly and she swallowed hard. Tears of happiness gathered in her eyes and she couldn't stop smiling. Well…this should be interesting, she thought with a grin.
She continued with her morning routine, almost bouncing from nerves and just how to tell String they were pregnant.
When she walked into the bedroom, her husband was laying on his back with his arms under his head. He was awake and smiled at her as she came into the room.
"Good morning, Mrs. Hawke," he told her with that boyish grin she loved so much.
"Good morning, Mr. Hawke," she told him as she crossed to the bed to sit down beside him. Caitlin leaned down and gave him a sweet kiss and he drug her down into the bed as she giggled. Hawke rolled on top of her and she moved until he'd settled between her thighs.
"How long have you been up?" Hawke asked and she shrugged.
"Not long, I was going to go start breakfast soon. Figure the kids will be up in a little while," Caitlin told him and he smiled down at her.
"We could always lock the door," he murmured and kissed her again and she laughed.
"As much as I'd love to…there is something I need to tell you first," Caitlin said softly as she stared up into baby blue eyes.
"Hmm, what's that?" he asked as he leaned down to kiss her lightly again.
"Well, you know those additional children we talked about having one day?"
"Yeah."
"How's one day in, oh, maybe 6 to 8 months?" she said, not knowing how far along she was yet.
Hawke blinked at her, confused by her words at first and then a huge grin spread across his face. "Really? You're sure?" Hawke couldn't believe it, well he could, not like they weren't talking about it and hadn't used anything to keep from getting pregnant but it was still amazing to him. He was going to be a dad to a child with Caitlin, with this amazing woman he loved so much. Emily would have a little sister or brother and Le a first cousin.
"Unless the test is wrong it looks like I'm pregnant," Caitlin said with one of her happiest smiles. "We can confirm it at the clinic tomorrow."
"Oh my, God. We are adding another child to this crazy family," Hawke said with a laugh and then kissed her deeply. He never thought he'd be in this situation. Two children already, granted they were foster children right now but still, and a new baby on the way. They had lucked out on the baby thing with Emily and Le, no late-night feedings, no diapers, already potty trained and all that. This one they were starting from scratch with. Le wasn't theirs and wouldn't be if they found Sinjin but Emily they were going to adopt and give her the Hawke last name. She'd be Emily Louise Black Hawke.
"We should probably wait until I get it confirmed tomorrow but I can't wait to tell the kids and Dom. He's going to be so happy to have another grandchild on the way. Oh…my mother is going to be thrilled too," Caitlin said with a laugh.
Hawke slid down Caitlin's body and lifted her shirt to reveal her tummy. "Hello in there, little Hawke," he said softly. "We can't wait to meet you." He leaned down and kissed her stomach and Caitlin felt tears of happiness gather in her eyes again.
String had been full of surprises over the last 5 months and one of them had been how incredibly sweet the man could be. He was great with Le and Emily and had been shockingly easy to live with. There had been a few bumps along the way with learning to live together for both of them but having known each other for so long and being such good friends helped. Something had changed in him, something that made him more open, had made him admit how he felt about her after all this time. Not all of it had to do with Emily coming into their lives and now their little family had grown again to add Le in a closer family dynamic than before and now another was going to be joining them in a few months. Their lives had changed so much and the man who had been a loner now was surrounded with family and with friends. He was still the same man, headstrong, brave, somewhat of a smart ass sometimes and she had learned that he loved fiercely. She finally understood his fears and his worry about a curse. It was because he loved too much and too deeply and she wasn't going to ever allow him to regret that love.
"I love you," Caitlin whispered to him and he looked up at her and smiled so happily it took her breath away.
"I love you too," he answered. He moved off of her and sat up and shook his head.
"A baby, we're going to need to add a nursery to the renovation plan," he told her and Caitlin laughed. It had always been a possibility but they hadn't exactly thought it would happen this soon. Caitlin had been on birth control pills for years and her doctor had told her it could be a while before they were out of her system and they actually did get pregnant. Apparently, it didn't take as long as he thought it would.
"Yeah, is there room to add off the loft so we can have the baby close?"
"I think so, you wanted to expand the laundry room, so we could just expand it out and then add off the loft and have it right over the laundry addition. That'll give the baby room for a crib, changing table, dresser and a rocking chair," Hawke said as he stood up from the bed and walked over to the closet to get some clothes out for the day.
"Oh, yeah. I think that will work. That way we can still have the window in the loft and just add a door into the nursery and a window in there too," Caitlin said as she got up and straightened out the bedcovers.
"I'll talk to Zach about it tomorrow when I meet with him," Hawke said. He already had a meeting with the contractor who was helping them with the remodel. His team already had some of it started and it was going well so far.
"Have they worked out the heating for the new addition, I forgot to ask the other day?" Caitlin said as she turned to face her husband.
"Yeah, wood burning forced air furnace would be safer for the kids," Hawke said as he headed toward the bathroom to take a shower.
"Oh good, I was worried about that. I didn't want a fireplace on that side of the cabin," Caitlin said. "I'm gona start breakfast while you get ready."
Caitlin practically floated down the stairs she was so happy. It wasn't confirmed yet of course but she was certain the test was correct. When she got downstairs she found Le sitting at the breakfast bar.
"Morning, Le. Emily still asleep?" she asked giving him a little kiss on the forehead.
"Morning, yeah, I checked before I came down and she was still out. Thought I'd just come have a glass of juice while I waited on everyone to get up. I figured you were already up just not down here yet," Le said with a shrug, used to Caitlin waking up early. He loved that his Aunt Cait was so affectionate and would give him hugs and kisses out of the blue sometimes.
"Hmm, yeah. I guess I probably was, I got up and took a shower and everything and then woke up String. He's showering now," she told the boy. "How much homework do you still have this week?"
"I still have two essay worksheets and four math worksheets. One is word problems," Le said making a face and Caitlin grinned at him as she set the frying pan on the stove.
"Your Uncle String is really good with math, you might ask him for help with those word problems," she suggested.
"He won't mind? He's been awful busy lately," Le said, worried he'd be just adding more stress to his uncle's busy days.
"No, he won't mind. Besides, he has a degree in applied physics, I think he'd be a lot of help with those problems and maybe with the geometry worksheet I saw in your folder. I think he'd enjoy helping you in fact," Caitlin explained, realizing that Le thought he was being a bother.
"I didn't know that," Le said looking up at Caitlin.
"Oh, well, yeah. Not like we talk about our education much I guess," Caitlin said with a laugh. "String has a master's degree, so he went to college for 6 years. I have a bachelor's degree so I went to college for 4 years. Mine is in criminal justice."
"Hmm, I guess I'd never really thought about it before. I knew he'd been in the military and was a pilot, I never considered he went to college too," Le said, not realizing his uncle had a degree like that.
"What do you think you might want to do when you grow up, Le?" Caitlin asked curiously as she worked on breakfast.
"You promise you won't laugh?" Le asked.
"Why on earth would I laugh?" Caitlin said turning to look at him.
"I want to be a veterinarian," Le said. "My friend Stevie laughed at me when we were asked in class."
"Why would anyone laugh at that?"
"He said that I should be a real doctor not an animal doctor, they make more money," Le said with a shrug. "But I love animals and I think I like them more than most people."
Caitlin bit her lip unsure how to feel about that. Le had been hurt a lot in his life, his time on the streets in Vietnam when he'd gotten separated from his Aunt hadn't been easy at all and he'd lost so many people in his life that it made sense he'd like animals more than people.
"Well, I know from growing up on a ranch that a good veterinarian is very important. The animals on a farm or ranch are very important not only for your livelihood but I know on our ranch we really loved our animals. Everything from the cat that kept mice out of the feed in the barn to the dogs that helped herd the cattle to each and every cow and calf and all the horses. Every animal on the ranch was important to us and having Doc Grayson to help us when they were sick or hurt was important for my dad," Caitlin explained.
Le was watching Caitlin with wide eyes as Emily and Hawke entered the kitchen. "What are we talking about?" Hawke asked as he came in and poured a glass of juice for Emily and then a cup of coffee for himself.
"I, uh, was telling Aunt Cait that I'd like to be a veterinarian when I grow up," Le said a little worried what his uncle might think.
"I didn't know that. That's a great thing to work toward, Le," Hawke told him. "You ever been to the San Diego Zoo?"
"No," Le answered.
"Well, since we have the rest of the week before you return to school why don't we take a day and go? I think someone who wants to be a vet would enjoy it, and you can talk to the vets and zookeepers there. Since it is the middle of the week and stuff it won't be terribly crowded and I have a friend that works there," Hawke said, unknowingly putting all of Le's worries to rest and didn't catch the wide smile Caitlin was giving him. Hawke had no idea what Le had said before he came downstairs so his easy acceptance and desire to take him to the zoo just told Le all he needed to know. It wasn't a silly idea and it wasn't something to be laughed at.
"I'd love to go to the zoo, oh that would be so much fun, Le! You want to fix animals like Sally and Tet?" Emily said gushingly to her cousin, she thought Le was pretty cool already and wanting to be an animal doctor? Well that was just the icing on the cake for her.
"Well, not just dogs but all kinds of animals, yeah," Le answered.
"That's soo cool," Emily announced as she squirmed in her chair.
"What about you, bug? What do you want to be when you grow up?" Hawke asked the little girl.
"A pilot like you and mommy and grandpa," Emily answered. "Or maybe a teacher? I dunno. I do want to be taller. I definitely want to be taller."
Her addendum had all of them laughing.
"I'm pretty sure you'll achieve the taller part in a few years, kiddo," Hawke told her with a chuckle.
"Better than one boy at school, when they asked our class he said he wanted to test mattresses," Le told them and Hawke really laughed at that one.
"I'd bet money he heard that one from his dad," Hawke said and Caitlin laughed as she plated up breakfast for everyone.
"When I was little I remember them asking our class, I think it was first grade and one of the boys said he wanted to be a dog when he grew up," Caitlin said as she joined them at the breakfast bar.
"At that age, I said I wanted to be a professional musician," Hawke said with a shrug.
"I honestly think you are good enough you could be," Caitlin told him honestly but Hawke just shook his head.
"That was before the flying bug bit me," he grinned and she laughed.
"Yeah, that one does tend to trump other things sometimes," she added.
Emily was staring at them oddly and Le started to laugh. "They don't mean an actual bug, Em."
"Oh," the little girl seemed to be relieved and Hawke had to hang his head and not laugh outright at the child.
Caitlin didn't fare as well and giggled a little. "It's called a metaphor, Emily. You might hear someone say they were bit by the acting bug or something like that. It just means that they tried it and really loved it."
"Okay, I thought I had to go looking for a bug at the hanger or something," Emily said with a funny look on her face and that did it for Hawke. He was shaking with laughter at that point and Caitlin started to giggle again.
"I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you, Emily. I'm imagining a bug with rotors," Hawke said to the child and she and Le started laughing too.
Le hopped down from his seat and ran to get his sketch pad out of his backpack. "I gotta draw that," he admitted as he came back to the bar. He took a few more bites of his breakfast and then turned to a blank page in the sketch book and started drawing.
Hawke leaned over to see what the boy was drawing and was incredibly impressed by the quick sure strokes the boy made with the pencil. He was scribbling a cartoon drawing that was really very good. It looked like a dragon fly with really big eyes and rotors with big feet for landing gear. It took the boy maybe 10 minutes to flesh out the small drawing on the page but it had Hawke grinning.
"That is awesome, Le," he told him. "I had no idea you could draw that way."
"Oh, Le is always drawing the coolest stuff, daddy. He drew a princess bear for me the other day. He even helped me color it, I put it on my dresser," Emily said as if Hawke and Caitlin should know this.
"Can I have a look?" Hawke asked, gesturing to the sketch pad.
Le shrugged. "Sure," he said as he handed it over.
Hawke started paging through and found that the drawings were really quite good for an adult let alone a 4th grader. Some were a little out of perspective but most were very good. There was a drawing of a menacing looking dragon, a sports car that looked like the real deal and a drawing of a bored looking girl with huge eyes along with a few popular cartoon characters he'd drawn. "You're an excellent artist, Le," Hawke told the boy honestly.
"Uh, thanks. I just like to doodle sometimes when I'm bored," Le said as if it wasn't that big of a deal.
"These are more than doodles, half-pint, these are really very good. Oh, that lion is beautiful, you did an amazing job on that one," Hawke said, holding it out for Caitlin and Emily to see as well.
"Oh, that's so pretty, Le!" Emily said.
Le shook his head. "I drew that from a photo in National Geographic," he said with a shrug.
"Did you trace it?" Hawke asked.
"Well, no," Le admitted.
"Then, you did a great job," Hawke said. "It's okay to be humble but don't downplay your talents, Le. Not everyone, even adults, can draw like this. It's a gift, just accept it and accept the compliments you'll get and the occasional criticism too. Trust me, you'll get that too, even if you were Picasso reincarnated."
Le smiled a little, realizing that they were being honest with him. He knew his uncle had a lot of artwork, real, pricey stuff too. Obviously, he knew a bit about art so maybe he should just take the compliments like he said and not worry about the critics quite so much.
"Thanks, Uncle String," Le said honestly.
Hawke turned back to the funny little bug with rotors that Le had sketched out and asked if he could put it on the fridge. Le laughed and said sure, so he hung it up next to a drawing Emily had done of flowers with smiley faces.
Sinjin had been a pretty good artist too growing up. He was always drawing something when he was bored, even on napkins. Dom had kept every one of the little drawings he could find too. They were still in Dom's apartment in Sinjin's old bedroom. It was just one more thing that made Hawke feel a connection to his nephew.