Brigadier General Kati Mannequin of the Earth Sphere Federation Forces sat in her office and reviewed a stack of paperwork as she waited for her husband, Patrick, to answer her summons and arrive. Outwardly, she was her usual calm, dispassionate self, but in reality, she was nervous because she didn't know how he was going to react to the news she was about to break to him, though these thoughts were momentarily dispelled by the sound of her door swinging open.

"Hello, Colonel!" Patrick Mannequin cheerfully greeted as he walked into the office and closed the door behind him, after which he walked up to his wife, smiling like a kid in a candy store. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Please sit down, Patrick," she replied, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk, which he took the hint and sat down on as she cleared the paperwork in front of her and mentally prepared herself for what would come next. "There's something I need to tell you."

"What is it, Colonel?" he concernedly asked her before reaching forward and taking her hands in his. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, nor did he really know why she had called him to her office, but he vaguely understood by the look on her face that something was amiss.

"I'm pregnant," she told him in the plainest tone possible.

"W-what?" Patrick nervously stammered as his smile vanished from his face, his brain struggling to register what his wife just told him.

"I'm pregnant, Patrick," Kati gently repeated, the sight of her husband's confusion displeasing her. "We're going to have a baby."

Kati's words brought an elated smile to Patrick's face, though it was somewhat tempered by the guilt he felt.

"I'm so sorry, Colonel," he suddenly replied, his choice of words taking his wife by surprise. "I didn't use enough protection."

Kati couldn't help but chuckle at her husband's unusually introspective but still characteristically boneheaded response, which helped lighten the mood.

"Patrick, I've told you multiple times, wearing a second condom doesn't help at all, and birth control pills don't work on men," she softly assured him, reciprocating the smile he regarded her with. "And I thought you'd be happy to learn that you're going to be a father."

"I am, Colonel, really," he told her, genuinely happy but still feeling guilty. "But I feel like I've ruined your career by getting you-"

Kati cut Patrick off by leaning over her desk and kissing him, feeling unusually giddy when she saw the flustered look on his now reddened face afterwards.

"You've ruined nothing, Patrick," she said. "You're the sweet, simple man I love and married, and if you're ready to be a father, then a few years leave from the ESFF is completely worth it."

Not normally prone to thinking about anything more than what was right in front of him, Patrick found himself deep in thought for perhaps the first time in his adult life, but he quickly realized he had only one answer.

"I'm ready, Colonel!" he eventually announced with a smile, speaking in an enthusiastic tone as if she had just ordered him into battle.

"Good," Kati replied, reciprocating her husband's smile before standing up and clearing her desk. "Now please lay down here."

"Uh, wha-"

"Between my pregnancy and the amount of time we'll have to spend caring for our baby after they're born, I don't know how often we'll be able to have sex," she explained in her usual authoritative tone, which greatly aroused Patrick. "So, if you'd like to, I want to do it as much as we can before it becomes unsafe for the baby, starting now."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" Patrick enthusiastically declared with a salute before climbing on top of the desk and laying on his back, after which his wife mounted him, the two of them quickly making love before going back to their regular duties as if nothing had happened.