Hi.

In the morning Marley woke up for work. She noticed that Ryder wasn't next to her, but heard the TV downstairs on. Even with no job he still had his habit of waking up early? Silly Ryder. After showering and putting on a cream knit sweater and jeans with her favorite brown shoes she followed downstairs to feed the puppies then grabbed herself a yogurt from the fridge. She craved cereal pieces in her yogurt as well as a glass of milk, but she forced herself to deal with what she had.

Ryder came in carrying a cereal bowl and empty coffee mug settled inside of the bowl with the spoon sitting inside of the mug. He gave Marley a surprise morning kiss. "Morning Babe."

"Hi." Marley greeted, returning a kiss to the tip of his nose. She had already ate half of the yogurt and decided that was enough. She put the rest of it back inside of the fridge, making Ryder lifted an eyebrow. "What?" She asked.

"That's it? Aren't you hungry?" He asked.

"No, I don't really want anything in here but I know I had to have something." She lied to her amazing husband. "Plus I might get a huge lunch later."

"Oh no worry," Ryder said. He put his stuff down then reached into the fridge and pulled out a brown bag from the bottom. "Since I have time now I just made you a lunch. I don't know what you would want so I just packed different things. PBJ sandwich, carrots, green grapes, banana, apple slices, bag of barbecue chips and a cookie." He handed her the bag with a smile.

Oh god, he made all this for me? This is...so much food! And so much money! But instead she smiled and said, "Thank you."

"Alright. I'll call Burt later and ask if there's any work there." Ryder explained. "I can't promise a lot though since he's got a lot of guys already."

"You can work for one day for three hours and that's still good enough for me." She smiled at him. "I love you."

"Love you too."

At the radio station Marley arrived and settled herself in minutes later. Avery walked in after her and they waited for the sports update finished in the next ten minutes.

"So is it a boy or a girl, Marley?" Avery asked as he took a drink from his water bottle. "Boy right? It looks like a boy."

"How can you tell if it's a boy or girl?"

"Oh several ways. I know of this one theory where if you carry high it's a boy, and carrying low is a girl. Or maybe it was high for a girl and low for a boy. Then there's this string test where, I think it's a ring, you tied the ring to a string and dangle it over the stomach and if it swings back and forth it's a girl, circles for a boy. Or circles for a girl and swinging for a boy. Then there's another test the Chinese way. It consist of this chart and you just figure out when you got pregnant and the due date. Then there's like, certain positions to get a boy or a girl."

"And yet you and your wife of five years don't have children." Marley joked.

"Shut it Marley Lynn. Ya ready?"

"I have to use the bathroom first, I have time right?" Avery nodded. "Great, I'll be right back."

Marley left the radio room and hurried down to the women's room to use the bathroom. She was in there for about five minutes in total then left, but was stopped in the hallway by a co-worker asking for advise. By the time she finished the statement for the advise, Marley could hear Avery's voice greeting the people for the daily talk. Marley excused herself, after promising to answer the statement later at her break time, then hurried down the hallway to her station room. She stood at the window watching Avery talked, waiting for him to give a sign for her to come in. After a minute or two he waved his hand in and she walked in quietly. Avery quickly covered up Marley's absents from the radio.

"Hey Marley, is it true that everyone literally grabs your stomach. Like some random stranger will just come up to you and start rubbing your kid without permission? Is that why you got here late? Some random people just decided 'OH look! A pregnant woman! She must love when people come up and rub her stomach!' Correct?"

"Oh geeze yeah," Marley laughed. "Literally everyone just rubs my stomach. I remember in college I was in an elevator with my husband, then boyfriend, and our three friends and one of their two year old nephews and some woman came on with us. My friends nephew asked very loudly, 'Hey Aunt Mel! That lady looks like she carrying two babies!' The woman turned to my friend and said 'I am NOT pregnant!' Oh god, my friend turned so red.'

"Oh crackers, that's hilarious." Avery laughed. "Hey one more pregnant story before we put on the tunes. So about seven months ago a friend of mine was pregnant for the third time. She already had a seven year old and a two year old. My friend—"

Marley listened to the story then felt a buzz in her pocket. She pulled her phone out and saw a message from Melody.

She looked like she was carrying six or seven kids that day!

Marley giggled before putting a smiley face as a response then put her phone away. After Avery finished the story and put on some music, he turned to Marley and started to speak when he saw someone from behind. "Walter Alert." He whispered.

Marley rolled her eyes before spinning around and facing the window. Walter motioned her outside. She got up and followed out to him. "Yes Walter?"

"Late for work, Mallory?" He asked.

"No, I got here early. Just before we aired I had to use the bathroom and I asked Avery if it were alright if I went and he said it was fine. Then someone came up to me and by the time they finished talking, our part had already started." Marley explained. "I'm really sorry it won't happen again."

"Is this something that we're going to deal with? Pregnant woman using the toilets during work?"

"Um, I guess?"

"Don't use the bathroom during on air time." He stated. "You know better than that Mallory."

"I know." Marley said. "It won't happen again."

"Good. Get back to work."

Marley nodded and shut the door behind her. She looked at Avery, who had a stupid grin on his face, and mouthed to him He's an asshole.

"Hey I think there's a law against harassing a pregnant woman at work. And I think the further along she is, the more the law is enforced for her. I saw it on an episode on 'What Would You Do?' where the chick was pregnant and being a waitress. Hey Marley, wanna pull a lawsuite on Walter?"

Marley laughed shaking her head. "No, not unless he touches me."

At lunch break Marley sat alone. After giving the girl from earlier her advise, she read the newspaper. She was reading the very last article Ryder had written about. Writing as a daily lifestyle writer, he was mentioning some of the things he had learned in Lamaze classes. 'Do's and Don't Of A Birth Class. Brought To You By: A First Time Dad Who Has No Idea What To Expect When His Wife Is Expecting." It was quiet honest and he blurred out all of his friends names minus his and Marley's name, changing them to Barney, Whitney and Mary.

She didn't even touch her lunch. She just drank a lot of water. She got a call from Blaine who said he was outside her work and wanted to have lunch with her. She replied back OK and got up, throwing her lunch away.

Outside she sat Blaine sitting on a bench under a tree, with a sandwich in his lap. She followed over to him with a smile. "Hi Blaine."

"Hey, where's your lunch?" He asked.

"Oh I ate already, I was just reading the newspaper." Marley said sitting down. "It's hard to sit down with a huge thing sticking out."

"I have a pillow in the car if you want that against your back." Blaine offered. Marley shook her head. "Okay. So how's Ryder?"

"He got laid off."

"Shit, seriously? And with a kid on the way too? How could they do that?"

"They're asses who hate pregnant women." Marley said. "He's gonna try the car place where Burt works."

"Burt will get him a job there. I know it. Hey Ryder could always work at the school as a English teacher, right?"

"I guess." Marley said.

Upon coming home Marley found that Ryder was still home, reading the newspaper with a red marker in his hands. "Hey Marley."

"Hi Ryder," She greeted. "How was...today?"

"Fine. Some of the guys came over to set up the crib and changing table."

"What? Those are color specific?"

"No they're white but the bedding parts are a specific color." Ryder said. He settled the newspaper down and pulled her onto his lap. "How's my lady?"

"Good." She said, kicking her shoes off. "That lunch was good."

"Good." Ryder said, rubbing her back in small circles. "I can make us dinner now if you want."

"No, I'm okay." She said to him. "I think I'm gonna go take a nap for a while."

"Mmkay." Ryder said, going back to the paper to look at more job potentials. "I'll wake you in a while to dinner."

"Ryder, I'm not hungry." Marley said.

"Right now. But in an hour or two you'll be hungry." He said. "I'll just make soup that's all."

"Fine." Marley said, getting up and leaving for the other room. Maybe if she pretended she was still tired she could get out of it.

Two hours passed, Marley felt someone shake her and opened her eyes to Ryder with a bowl of chicken soup in his hands. "Hi Sleepy, time for dinner."

"Not...hungry." She said. "I'll go to bed soon."

"Marley please, eat for the baby?" Ryder pleaded. "Please?"

But I don't want too. She thought. Bu she didn't want to argue either so she sat up and took the bowl from his hands. After a few bites she asked how the job searching went. Ryder sat next to her and said, "Good. Burt said it was fine that I come in when guys can't come in. And this one guy had to take off Fridays from seven to five so I'll be doing that shift. Other than that it's just by hears to ear."

"Sounds like a good start. Anything else?"

"Maybe another newspaper somewhere? I don't care if it's online or real paper, just something. But anything I can do I'll do." He said. He put on a half-smile and wrapped his arm around Marley. "Don't worry, we'll be alright. OK?"

Marley nodded. But she still felt terrible. "OK."

"Wanna have a date this Friday? I get out by five, come home to shower and leave by eight for dinner?"

"Sure. Can we go to that new place downtown? Stunning Stars?" She asked. "I heard it's a a dinner theater like place."

"Anything you want." Ryder leaned in and kissed her. "I love you."

"I love you too."

3 AM

Three gags.

"I'm sorry baby, I'm so sorry." Marley muttered.

So things are going to be intense in the next few chapters! Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to the baby! We still have a way to go before Baby Lynn is born.