**Move Like You Want, Ben Howard**

Alisha strode into the office for their regular ten o'clock coffee and coordination meeting. They were making one last pass through the security and logistics for the enlistment ceremony this afternoon. "Commander Green! You are looking fine today."

Kara tugged her jacket more tightly around herself, more out of habit than anything. There was no disguising the protrusion of her belly now. "That's nice of you to say. I did fancy up my hair for the ceremony this afternoon."

"I meant it. You are getting the rosy glow that everyone who is not pregnant wishes they had."

"You mean the constant feeling of being overheated? Yeah, I've got that. Along with swollen feet and a fierce craving for french fries. "I have been dreading this ceremony ever since I ran the three day forecast on Monday. We're going to have heat and humidity a little early this year."

Alisha handed over a large cup of iced tea. "Don't worry. Aunty Alisha is here to rescue you."

Kara patted the chair next to hers. "Is that what we're going to call you? It suits you."

Alisha sighed as she dropped into the seat and rolled it back so she could tip the seat back against the wall. "I hear it's the next best thing." She pointed to a second cup of tea on the edge of Kara's desk. "Where's Val? I brought her some of that disgusting Peruvian herbal stuff she loves."

"Oh you just missed all the drama. Michener has decided that he wants to turn this little right of passage for the recruits into a media circus. She and Mason went to get some equipment to broadcast his speech. Throw the tea in the fridge. She's been swearing for two hours already. By the time she gets back I'm sure she'll be ready for some kind of herb."

Alisha bared her teeth and grunted. "Ugh, she'll be a total bear later. I think we need to get her a new job. In addition to the fact that she doesn't like his politics, she can't stand the fact that he does everything on the fly. She'll be talking my ear off all night about how, even if he is the president, he can't just expect everyone to jump to his bidding all the time."

"All night huh?" Kara grinned. "So it's going well?"

Alisha tipped her head back, her big eyes closed, and sighed heavily. "I don't know. I like her so much it's scary. Even the ranting, it's just part of her passionate nature and I'm really attracted to that."

"Oh yeah? Got any juicy details to tell?"

"Nope. Besides, I hear your second trimester hormones have kicked in full swing. You don't need my stories to augment your own sex life."

Kara was flabbergasted. "Where did you hear that. If that husband of mine…"

Alisha almost spit her tea across the office. "No, he hasn't said anything. But Burk was giving him a hard time because he fell asleep at the gym yesterday. One minute he was stretching and the next he was snoring. What are you doing to the poor man?"

Kara flushed and shrugged. It really had been her fault. But when she'd come back from her third bathroom trip of the night the moonlight had been shining in the bedroom window, falling on her husband. And he'd been laying there, naked and sprawled out with no shame. She had gotten soaking wet in the three steps it took from the bathroom to the bed, suddenly understanding why everyone said the second trimester was awesome. "If you're not going to kiss and tell, neither am I. But seriously, Val seems a little less head over heels this week than last week. Did something happen? She's going downriver in a few days, better fix it now."

"A few days?" Kat stuck her head around the door from where she'd been working in Chandler's office. "I thought the ship didn't sail until next Monday?"

"The ship doesn't, but Chandler and Garnett decided last night that the overland team headed to the coast is going on Wednesday to get ready. Ray and your dad didn't tell you?"

Kara watched as Kat tried and failed to keep her expression neutral. "I guess I got the days wrong." Her eyes fell. "Can I go out for a while Kara? I need to uh, do something."

Kara didn't see her again until the ceremony that afternoon. She and the kids had front row seats on the grass facing the courthouse steps. After Michener's speech announcing his new program dividing the country into zones so that food and medical support could be coordinated regionally, he performed the swearing in ceremony himself. It certainly wasn't unheard of for a president to make a show of being Commander-In-Chief, but usually they used events like graduation from the service academies as their platform. Still, Kara thought he held himself well as he inspected the young men and women.

After the ceremony the new recruits were released to greet their families and she was pretty sure she caught a glimpse of Kat kissing Ray on the cheek when no one else was looking. She'd figured the wind was blowing that was for a while but still, it was sweet to see them in action.

Once the recruits were sent home for the evening, Danny came to collect her from the steps. "I have a treat for you." He held up a plastic shopping bag. "I want to give you this present but I'm a little afraid you'll be mad at me."

Curiosity drove her to hold out her hand. "The only way to find out what I think about it is to let me see what it is."

He passed over the bag. "If you're mad, please know I mean well. There wasn't a ton of options at the market."

She reached in and pulled out a scrap of royal blue lycra. A second darker blue piece remained in the bag. "A bikini?"

"Ray and Colin have declared the pool at the YMCA properly chlorinated and they are opening it for the kids this evening. I thought we could join them but I wasn't sure if your old suit would fit." She was pretty sure that the funny squirm in her belly was her stomach panicking at the idea of appearing in public in a bathing suit and not Flutter himself.

"I don't know. I would love to swim but…do you think we could go after everyone is finished? There's no need to subject them to the great white whale."

He laughed, his green eyes sparkling. "Nope. The pool will be open from 1700 to 1900, that's all. Then our earstwhile lifeguards have other obligations."

She eyed the suit. It would be heavenly to float around and relax for a while. "Alright, I'll go. But if the suit doesn't work out I'll just sit on the edge and dip my toes."

The suit certainly made her feel self conscious. She had never been super comfortable with a bikini in the first place but then to have her new figure on display was downright un- nerving. It didn't help that when she looked down she could just barely see her flip flops leaving red impressions in the puffy flesh of her swollen feet. Still, the minute she'd walked in the Y and smelled the familiar scent of chlorine she'd known she was unlikely to just sit on the edge. The sound of kids laughing and splashing echoed off the old tile walls as she wrapped herself in a large towel and tiptoed to the locker room door. With a steadying breath, she yanked it open.

The pool was packed. In addition to all the kids, it felt like half the crew was there. Danny and Burk were tossing a beach ball over the heads of some kids in a game of monkey-in-the-middle. She waved to Commander Garnett who was reading a novel in a lounge chair by the large windows overlooking the river. She'd put on a large straw hat and a wrapped in a robe with a tropical flower theme to appear like a Hollywood celebrity. "Andrea! I didn't realize so many people would be here." She gestured toward the raucous pool. "Is this the spa corner?"

Andrea laughed. "I figure they will tire themselves out and head to dinner in a little while. After that the grown ups can take over. That's what always happened with Lily. She would beg me to take her to the pool but after twenty minutes her teeth would be chattering and her lips blue and we'd call it a day. I was just thinking that a nice Tiki bar could fit in that corner over there."

Kara perched on the end of a lounger and watched as Danny jumped out of the water, displaying an extra foot of tan and toned abs in his effort to catch the beach ball. Damn he was a fine looking man. Her mind wandered to the kind of fun they could have if it was just the two of them at the pool and she almost missed the ball when he threw it her way. "Hey! You promised to join us! Don't be shy, come on in."

Behind her, Andrea chuckled. "Trust me, the feeling of getting off your poor feet is going to be worth it."

With a sigh, she unwrapped the big towel and quickly headed for the steps at one end of the pool. She slipped into the water as fast as she could manage. Andrea was right. As the cool water enveloped her lower legs she sighed in pleasure. She pushed back from the wall and circled her hands in a lazy tread to keep her head above water.

Two of the kids, who were playing some kind of silly game that involved dipping underwater and coming up giggling, bumped into Kara.

"Sorry Commander Green." One of the girls apologized. "Want to play underwater tea party with us?"

She let them teach her the rules and tried to play along. But she found it was harder to sink than it used to be.

"Sorry girls, I think I'll have to stick to floating about today."

Across the pool she saw Danny nod to Burk and head her way with quick easy strokes. "Feel good?"

"You don't know the half of it! I hope someone decides to open this place for real. I will come every day. I don't care how huge I get."

Danny laughed and reached out an arm under the water. His fingers glided over the bare skin of her back as he pulled her closer. "Come on. There's a calmer spot where we can just tread around. They bobbed in the middle watching the kids play around them. "It won't be long before we're taking Flutter to swim lessons." He gestured to where several little girls were following along as Ray demonstrated putting his face in the water and blowing bubbles.

She winked at Danny. "Let's get him born first before we start worrying about lessons and sports teams." She indicated where Kat was following along with the little kids. She had a muscled grip on the pool edge and her face was tight with concentration. "Besides, just because we like the water doesn't mean he will. Look at Kat. Her father swam miles in the open ocean with Chandler, but she can hardly float."

Danny grinned. "Oh, I thought she was just over there to flirt with Lee." He nodded toward where the tall man was gracefully swimming up and down along a yellow and blue lane line. "I think he's sweet on her. I overheard him asking Ray if he'd seen her the other day and if she had said anything about what happened after the party. He seemed quite concerned that she might be upset. There was definitely a heavy note of something happened in the air." He kicked harder to be able to hold his hands out of the water and make air quotes around the "something happened".

"Kat and Lee? I don't know. You know she's so friendly with everyone that it's easy to read too much into it." Ray waved Emma, Dylan, Colin, and Rob over to the area on the edge where the lesson was occurring to help the younger kids try to float. Kat edged over to the lane line and shook her head when Rob held his hand out to indicate that he'd hold her to keep her from sinking. "See, all those young people are friendly with one another. It's pretty nice how much they support each other." She watched as Kat shook her head in vigorous protest and then scowled at Ray when he insisted she should give it a try.

Her assessment of Lee as just a friend to Kat was challenged when he stopped at the end of his lap and invited her to join him in his lane. With a quick glance at Rob, Kat ducked under the lane line. When Kara caught the glowing smile Kat bestowed on Lee and the deep scowl Rob aimed at her back, she wondered if she'd been misinterpreting all along. Maybe a budding romance wasn't as far fetched as it seemed. Maybe that kiss she'd seen with Ray was more brother-sisterly. It had been on the cheek after all. Somehow the idea was strangely disappointing. "Maybe these hormones are making me feel too much like an old lady matchmaker."

Danny edged closer so that their legs brushed each other under he water. The feel of his warm skin gliding over hers right there in public gave her a delicious shiver. "How do you feel about eating in tonight?" Swimming is making me starving!

"Eating in bed you mean?" he took her hand and turned her toward the ladder. "I feel good about that. Certainly better than I do about playing guessing games about the love lives of teenagers." And when he brushed against her as she reached up to grasp the poles that made up the ladder handrails, she felt the evidence of exactly how good he felt about it.