I'm excited that I'm getting this out earlier than Saturday! Now that school's slowed for the time being, I hope to get out another one soon! Hope you enjoy!

Not mine

"Are you sure you have everything?" I asked Ranger as I wiped the lint from his shirt in a nervous gesture.

"Yes, I'm sure. Babe, you triple checked after I did."

"Don't make fun, I'm nesting."

"Sounds painful."

I smacked him in the arm. "This is all your fault, you know."

"My fault?"

"Yeah, you're the one that got me pregnant. Don't you know it's not nice to mock the pregnant woman?"

He opened his mouth once and then shut it. "You're right Stephanie." He said. Tank chuckled. Carlos glared at him and he stopped in mid chuckle.

"I'll think about you while I'm in the shower." I said, kind of loudly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an old lady give us a dirty look. "Not like that!" I screamed at her. "He's my husband and we're going to have a baby you old bag. Get your mind out of the gutter before I put it somewhere you don't want it." Okay, it was something like that, but I didn't want that old, saggy lady thinking about my husband in the same way.

She went pale and scooted off. I turned back to Carlos to see him chuckling.

"I'm going to think about you in the shower too, Babe." He whispered in my ear. "And while I'm in bed and at work. All the dirty things that old lady was thinking about." He gently nipped on my ear.

I blushed. "I'm going to miss you." I said, hugging him close.

"Not as much as I'm going to miss you." He put his finger under my chin and forced me to look at him. "It's only for a week and then I'll be back. No danger involved."

I nodded, showing him my bravest face.

"You take care of yourself and our little bun in the oven and don't go crazy." He gave me a small smile as his hand went to caress my stomach.

"Don't get shot." I said, hugging him tightly one last time. His flight was called and we parted. He and Tank went to the gate and gave the flight attendant their tickets. Carlos turned one last time and waved at me. As they entered the walkway, I saw the flight attendant fanning herself with the ticket stubs. I smiled and turned around to Lester.

"Let's go to work."

"You got it, Beautiful."

As we drove back to Rangeman, my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Stephanie, this is your mother."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Hi mom."

"When were you planning on gracing us with your presence? I hope sometime before my funeral."

"I was going to come soon, mom. I've just been busy."

"Busy doing what?"

"Work. It's been hectic since I got promoted."

"You got promoted? To what?"

"I'm head of research now." I said.

"Which means what?"

"I sit around on my ass and do searches."

"Don't get snarky with your mother!"

"Sorry mom." And I was. It was another hormone surge.

"So when should I expect you and Carlos?"

"Tomorrow. And it'll just be me. Carlos went out of town on business."

"Nothing to serious, I hope."

"No, just tying up some loose ends."

"Fine. Then I'll make a nice pot roast with potatoes and a pineapple upside down cake for dessert."

My mouth watered. "Sounds good to me."

"See you tomorrow."

"Bye mom."

"So," Lester said looking at me from the corner of his eye. "How are you feeling?"

"Good."

"No queasiness, fatigue, soreness, bloating?"

"Um, no? What's with all the questions?"

"Just want to make sure that you're feeling good. Which you are."

I stared at him for a moment. "Carlos put you up to this, didn't he."

"No, Bobby."

"Why?"

"Because we all care about you and the little disaster that you've got growing in there."

"You think my child is a disaster?" I was getting angry.

"Not like that, Bombshell," he clearly thought I would take it another way and sighed. "Have you looked at the gene pool you two come from?"

I thought about it. It was true. Oh man, our poor child is going to be a walking disaster.

"Oh, please don't cry!" Lester said.

"It's all your fault!" Jeez, I've been saying that a lot lately.

"My fault?"

"Yeah, you made me realize that having a kid is the dumbest idea I've ever had!"

"Beautiful, you're taking this all the wrong way."

I sniffled. "Well how am I supposed to take it?"

"That no one else can raise the little person that is about to come out of you better than you and Ranger. Some people have kids that are perfect angels. Some have little hellions. You two will know how to raise and control him or her better than any parent I know. Including my own."

I sniffled again. "Oh." I said.

"So don't take it as an insult, because it wasn't. You and Ranger are going to be awesome parents. That kid is really going to fly."

I hugged him. "Thanks Lester."

"Sure thing, Beautiful." He eyed me for another moment. "Uh, did Ranger talk to you about…"

"Staying here?" I nodded. "Yeah, he did. I'd rather be at home, but he's right. It's safer." Carlos had talked to me about staying at Rangeman while he was gone. He didn't think that we'd have any problems, but he was just being careful. He didn't want anything to happen to either of us. If God forbid something did happen, we wanted the Merry Men close instead of twenty minutes away.

"And you're okay with that?"

"For the health of my baby, yeah."

"Okay," he said as he relaxed his shoulders. I guess that was all that we had to talk about.

When we reached Rangeman, the guys gave me a warm welcome.

"We've missed you, Bombshell." Binkie said. The guys nodded.

"Well, I'll be here so much that you'll be glad when I go home."

They looked at each other, and then chorused a resonating 'no'. I blushed. "Thanks guys, for making me feel so loved."

They all came around and gave me hugs. We spent a good hour catching up on all the office gossip since Carlos and I had been working mostly from home. When I had finally made it to my office, it was almost lunchtime.

I got a good chunk of work done in the afternoon and decided to call Julie.

"Hello?" She asked when she picked up the phone.

"Hey Julie, its Stephanie."

"Stephanie! How are you? How's dad? Is everything okay?" She fired off.

"I'm good, your father's good. He's away on business and yes, everything is fine."

"Cool. What's up?"

"I was wondering what you were doing next weekend."

"Nothing. Why?"

"What would you say to a little weekend trip up here."

"That would be awesome! What's the occasion?"

"There are some things that we need to talk about. As a family."

"Okay." She didn't sound convinced. Every time I talked to her, she had more of her father's traits. "

"Don't worry, no one's dying."

"Okay." She sighed. That seemed to settle some of the nerves. We talked for a little while longer until I couldn't stop the yawns coming from my mouth.

"I'll call you soon, sweetie."

"Okay. Bye Stephanie! Oh, and I love you."

My heart melted. "I love you too, sweetie."

I rode up the elevator to the seventh floor. Carlos and I kept all the furniture and Ella kept it clean because it was known in the entire building that we would come up here for nooners and quickies. What? I can't help it! My husband is hot and I have all these hormones. I took a bath and settled into bed when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Babe."

"Hi Carlos. You get there okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just relaxing and thinking of you. How are you and the baby?"

"We're just fine. We just took a bath and slipped into the silky sheets."

"Naked?"

"No, in one of your shirts."

"Even better." I could hear the wolf grin from here.

"You know, soon I'm not going to be able to fit into your shirts. I'll be too fat."

"You'll be too pregnant. And it won't matter, you'll still be beautiful."

"That's sweet." I said.

"So what else is new?" He asked.

We talked about my conversation with Lester and catching up with the guys. He laughed at how I made Lester squirm.

"You made us into a family. You're the glue that holds us together."

"What?"

"If you hadn't come into our lives, I wouldn't know half the men's birthdays."

"That's not true."

"It is and you know it. When you came into our lives, you changed it. And it was for the better."

I sniffled. "You think so?"

"I know so. All the guys love you."

"I love them too. And speaking of love… Julie told me she loved me."

There was a pause on the other end. "And this is supposed to surprise me how?"

"Carlos!"

He chuckled. "Babe, she's loved you from the moment you talked to her and came to rescue her from Scrog. I'm surprised she hasn't said it sooner." He paused. "Babe there's something I've got to tell you."

"Uh oh, this sounds bad."

"It's not bad…but I'm not going to be home for a while."

"What?" I screeched.

"I'm filling in for a buddy of mine. His wife had a baby and he took a month off. I'm starting basic training as a special teacher and then he's going to replace me and continue with basic."

I sighed. "Carlos, your heart is too big."

"I'm sorry, Babe."

"Don't be. Who knows, you may need a favor from him someday."

"Yeah, maybe."

"I love you."

He sighed. "I've been waiting all day to hear that from you. I love you more."

"Come home to me as soon as you can."

"I have a better idea. What about you visit the weekend after next?"

I smiled. "Sounds perfect."

"Good night, Babe."

"Night Carlos."