Ken was sitting in a parked van tucked off to the side of a dirt road, partially in the underbrush, somewhere outside of Caracas. They were on their third kidnapped kid rescue op in less than a year. With the political environment and resulting economic impact, Venezuela had developed a huge kidnapping problem. The first two missions had gone so well that they were quickly in demand. Owen had been somewhat shocked at how well Blue had not only responded to his direction, but also made some very smart decisions on her own. They had gotten two kids back to their parents with minimal bloodshed and had also managed to get local law enforcement to clean up after them, getting several of the kidnappers captured in the process. Since the elite were often the targets, the pay days had been lucrative.

Owen was currently out in the field with Malone, Seal and Collins. Clancy and Zackquarius were busy working a combination of Blue's camera and the men's monitors. They had an ear piece specially manufactured for Blue so that Owen could talk to her, connected to her head harness. Jacobs was up in the driver's seat and the rest of the team was spaced out in two other vehicles, in staggered extraction points, in a triangular formulation surrounding the target. From his glance at Blue's feed over Zach's shoulder, they were close. Ken was surprised when he felt his personal phone buzzing in his pocket. Nearly everyone who had this number was either here or knew the timing and sensitivity of what they were currently otherwise occupied with. This couldn't be good. He fished in out and thumbed it on. His caller id flashed with a simple 'M'.

"Babe, we're kind of right in the middle here," Ken held his temper, figuring she wouldn't have called without reason.

Miranda responded without pause, "I figured dear, but I just found out Claire is pregnant. She swore me to secrecy because she didn't want to interrupt anything but I thought you'd want to know."

"Right call. Got to go," with that he hung up and turned to Clancy. He knew that Miranda was aware a Love you was implied but in the field all comms were kept to a minimum of anything personal for security reasons. "Get me on Malone's ear piece right now," Ken picked up an extra ear bud knowing that his team would get him Malone's ear within seconds and without question.

"Malone?" Ken verified.

"Yeah, Commander?" his second answered back.

"Get everyone out asap and pull Vance out immediately."

"Yes sir," Malone affirmed.

Malone may have had questions but he knew that they weren't to be asked in the interim. Ken was almost certain that Owen wouldn't be as controlled. "Do whatever you have to do but get Vance out."

Not two minutes later Clancy pulled his ear bud out, quickly keyed in to drop the volume on his laptop, replaced the bud and turned to Ken. "It's for you."

Ken ignored the string of expletives flowing from his newest teammate.

"Malone, shut him up! Vance, this isn't the time! Shut it and get clear unless you want to get tazed unconscious and carried out of there!" Ken threatened and not emptily, although the risk to Owen was counter to what he was trying to accomplish.

"Fuck!" he heard Owen spew, followed by at least three deep heavy breaths. A moment later Zachquarius gave Ken a thumbs up as Owen had managed to calm himself enough to give Blue new directives to abort mission and meet up with the extraction team. The raptor's hisses in response sounded very much like a dinosaur's version of swearing.

Radios went silent after that as Clancy and Zachquarius tracked everyone clearing their respective areas safely. Fifteen minutes later Ken's ear bud cracked back to life with a return of Owen's fury. "What the hell, Commander!" Owen spat out through the comm link. "What's going on? What about the kid? If you think I'm pissed you should see Blue! Pulling her off her line like that ain't good!"

Ken didn't take the bait to launch into the fight that he knew Owen was swinging for. Instead he just went for the heavy punch. "Your girl's pregnant."

"What are you talking about?" he paused. "She hasn't passed any eggs that I'm aware of and besides they would still need some method of fertilizing and…" Owen trailed off as something started to sink in. "Wait, which girl?"

"The one still at home," Ken answered, trying and failing to suppress a broad smirk. "Are you all clear?"

There was no response from Owen. Clancy quietly mouthed to his boss, "They're less than a quarter of a mile out. Blue's back in the truck and everyone else is back and already moving."

If Ken had the correct visual he would have seen Owen stop mid trail, both hands down on his knees, suddenly unable to breathe.

"Vance!" Ken spoke sharply into the mic. Owen swallowed, and rubbed a hand through his hair as he stood. He and Claire hadn't talked about it but hadn't done anything to prevent anything either. As a couple they were both very good at ignoring the elephant in the room so to speak. Owen figured in hindsight that given their collective ages if something had happened they were both going to be ok with it, otherwise one of them likely would have somehow brought it up.

"Yeah, I'm here and we're almost there." Owen managed.

A minute or so later the back gate of the van slid open to Malone and Owen, followed closely by Seal and Collins. Malone immediately placed a firm hand on Owen's closet shoulder and pushed him down into the waiting seat. Clancy turned enough to raise his eyes to his partner.

Owen took a deep breath and let it out. "Ok, can you explain to me why you pulled us, and I mean specifically me, back from saving an innocent kid?"

"We'll get the kid back. There are other resources. You know I have means and connections. The call's already been made. What I'm not going to do is leave you in field when you've got your own kid on the way."

"Hey, congrats man!"

"That's great!"

"Wow man!"

Typical Collins chimed in with, "Hey your boys can swim!"

The heartfelt approvals echoing around the van were nearly lost on him. "Why is my life more important than the kid's?" Owen asked, his eyes not leaving his boss.

"To his parents it's not. To me, your wife and your unborn child, it is. That's it. This is not up for debate. You're out."

"You and Malone both have kids!" Owen had some inkling that this was not the normal response one should be having to finding out that the love of their life was carrying their child. However, circumstances and anger were over riding his thought processes.

"Owen, our kids are adults. Malone and I make a conscious decision every time we step into the field, and I've explained this."

Owen cut him off before he could continue. "How is this different from the conscious decision we all make?" he barked out.

"You're not thinking straight," Ken continued. "Fortunately I am."

What Owen didn't let him finish on was a reminder of his steadfast refusal to let anyone else he had any control over mess up their kid's childhood like he and Malone had. Kids need their parents whenever there was a choice. Pulling Owen out helped to ensure that.

In the end, his back up contact quickly got a hold of a local team of hired soldiers. Thanks to Blue's tracking they were able to finish the job. It was messier than Owen would have liked, but they got the kid out.

Back at the small airstrip they had been using to covertly fly in and out of the country, Owen pulled out his phone. They were making final departure checks and he had just gotten Blue settled.

He hit the call button.

"Honey? Is everything ok? You don't usually call until you've landed. Are you ahead of schedule? Did something happen?" Claire rapid fired questions at him, her voice somehow teetering between concern and relief at his contact.

"Hey sweetie. I'm fine. Everyone's fine. Something you want to tell me?"

"Fuck," she swore and paused. "Miranda! She swore to me she wouldn't say anything!"

"You know you're going to have to clean up the language if we're going to be parents."

"I'm sorry Owen. Shit!" she added quickly realizing she had just broken protocol using his first name. "God! I'm terrible at this!" Claire paused again, taking a steadying breath. "So, wait are you happy?"

"What kind of question is that? Yes, of course I'm happy! Wait, aren't you?"

"Yes! But I'm also scared and I had to talk to someone and I feel terrible that you weren't the first to know. We hadn't talked about it and I figured it would change everything and I know how hard you've been working and I just didn't.."

Owen cut her off mid spiral. "Babe it's ok. Everything is fine. I can't wait to hold you." He wanted to add an I love you so much but they had already said more than they probably should over the line. "I'll see you soon."

"I'll see you soon," she responded in kind.

Claire was none too happy to find out that every man on the team learned of her pregnancy before she even got to tell her own husband. However she comforted herself with the knowledge that given the crazy lifestyle they shared it was likely part of the course. When she realized that she had missed her period for the second month in a row and started thinking backwards she had panicked and ordered a same day delivery on a home pregnancy test. Miranda certainly didn't nit-pick everything that was ordered to the homestead through the joint accounts but she had caught that one. In his own form of hindsight, thinking back, Owen realized that it had been a bit since he and Claire had had to take their typical monthly hiatus from being in each other's pants. The rest so to speak was history.

Owen had texted Claire when they landed back in the state as per his usual routine. She had been impatiently wandering between their rooms, the carriage house and the main house, awaiting his return. She happened to be crossing the grounds between the buildings when she heard the SUVs pull up into the front drive. A moment later she caught sight of Owen, not exactly jogging but swiftly moving towards her across the grass. She moved towards him in kind. The second they reached each other Owen sunk to his knees and wrapped his arms securely around her waist, pressing the side of his cheek to her stomach.

"Honey, I'm ok. Are you ok?" she asked.

"Perfect," he responded immediately, not slacking his hold an inch.

"Ok, can you get up? You're embarrassing me."

"Don't care. Just want to hold you both."

"You know it's about the size of a plum right?"

"Plum perfect," he joked. "Now shut up and let me have this."

Claire let out a breath and decided to do just that. She relaxed into his embrace and softly ran a few fingers through his hair. By the time she had relaxed enough into his contact, he stood and gently lifted her chin to place a rather chaste kiss on her lips.

"I love you," he endeared.

"I love you," she affirmed.