Disclaimer: see previous chapters

Terri asked Stiles to sit. After several highly anticipated minutes and with a heavy sigh, Terri said two simple words,

"I'm pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Stiles said almost in a whisper. That was not what he was expecting. "How? When did. . ." the answer popped in his head before he finished the question. "Nice, our first night there?" Terri shook her head yes.

"We should have waited."

Terri thought back to that night. She decided to switch from the pill to the new patch only a month before the wedding. It wasn't until the morning of the wedding that she remembered she was two days late changing the patch. By the time she told Stiles, they were both completely undressed and not really in the frame of mind to stop what they were doing. It didn't take Stiles long to convince Terri that her chances of getting pregnant that night weren't great. She knew better, and so did he, but at that moment, the risk seemed worth it.

The minute Terri found out she was pregnant, what they did that night seemed like a very stupid decision.

Stiles was thinking about just when that was.

"We've been back from Nice. . ." He began counting in his head. "You're six weeks pregnant? How long have you known?"

"Just since I came back from Liberia."

"Since Liberia? Terri, that was almost two weeks ago! When were you planning to tell me, on the way to the hospital?"

He was angrier than she'd expected. Terri knew that not telling him was wrong, but she wasn't ready to deal with the situation herself and telling her husband meant she had to. She reached out and put her hand on his now tightly folded arm, which just about matched his clenched jaw.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away. I just couldn't. I didn't know how to say it."

"How about, 'I'm pregnant?' Or, 'We're going to have a baby?' See, not that difficult!"

Terri was about to counter when the surveillance monitor on the computer caught their attention. Terri and Stiles turned around. The dot on the screen that represented

Andrei was on the move. Stiles walked away from Terri and picked up his bag from the chair. "I've got to go."

Terri didn't know what to say. She could tell Stiles was back in mission mode, but she didn't want him to leave in the middle of this conversation.

"Wait, you can't just leave.

Stiles responded to her rather snidely, "Have you forgotten that we're trying to save lives here? We'll talk about this when we get home. Now is not the time; we need to refocus on the mission."

Terri mocked him behind his back like she used to do to her mother after being scolded. She knew he was right, but she hated the way he switched gears so fast and chided her with his "we have to stay focused speech." He was all business now. If anyone had walked into their room, it would have been hard to guess that the couple inside were newlyweds.

The next day, Jackson and Lex joined Terri and Stiles. Jackson arrived with the news that the mission was going from one of surveillance and fact finding to one of assassination. Stiles was not comfortable with the new assignment. Terri could tell something was wrong, but Stiles expressed his concerns only with Jackson. Both Jackson and Lex could tell things were not great between the couple, but both had long since learned to pretend they didn't notice the tension. Terri wrestled with whether or not she should try to talk to Stiles. She finally decided she had to say something.

"Stiles?"

"What?"

They were alone and his tone with her was not friendly. Terri got close to him and looked into his eyes. "Hey, are you okay? I mean about tonight?"

He looked at her big brown eyes and saw the love and concern, but he was still angry and wasn't ready to forgive her or confide in her, not yet. Even if he hadn't been upset, he wasn't sure he wanted her to know about his internal conflicts over this mission. After a few seconds, he shifted his weight so Terri's hand fell from his shoulder, and replied with a terse, "I'm fine." and went in the room with the others.

Terri kept standing there. She was the one who screwed up this time and she knew it. What she didn't know was how to fix it.

Everyone's emotions were raw when they found out Andrei was innocent, but Stiles felt especially guilty and blamed Jackson and his analysis. When Stiles pinned Jackson to the wall and began yelling at him, Terri was afraid Stiles might actually hurt him. But, when she heard her husband say he was going "to hell" because of what happened, her heart broke. She had never seen him so distraught.

After a moment's indecision, Terri went to look for Stiles. She found him on a walkway overlooking the swimming pool. Without a word, she put her arms around his waist, resting her head on his back. He jumped and then relaxed a little when he realized it was Terri and put his arms over hers and closed his eyes. They stayed that way for a while, the two partners, best friends, and lovers, not saying a word yet knowing what the other wanted to say.

When Stiles finally spoke, it wasn't about the mission. "You don't want the baby, do you?"

Terri was surprised by the question. "Huh?"

Stiles turned to face his wife. "Do you want the baby?"

Terri had not thought about it in terms of want or don't want, more in terms of "how am I going to handle this?" They hadn't planned to even discuss kids until they'd been married a year; their work lives were just so chaotic.

"I don't know. It doesn't really matter anyway. It's done."

"Terri, do you want the baby?"

"I want children, yes. Do I want to have a baby now, so soon into our marriage? Am I ready to stop working in the field? No, not really." She let out a heavy sigh and continued, "But it will be okay. It has to be." Terri didn't sound the least bit pleased with her current situation. "Do you want it?"

"Two hours ago, I would have said 'no, we aren't ready,' and really, we aren't, but-" He paused for a moment then went on. "Terri, it's a life. Life, any life, is so..." he paused, searching for the right word. "Precious. After what just happened," he trailed off not ready to talk about Andrei yet. "It's ours. Our child, yours and mine and that's pretty amazing."

Terri still wasn't convinced, but she loved her husband and she knew that his part in Andrei's death had a profound affect on him. He felt very guilty and sad. Maybe concentrating on their baby, a new life would help him. She decided to play along.

"Yeah, I guess that is pretty amazing. Hum, imagine a little A.B. running around with cute blond ringlets and my nose."

Stiles frowned. "Why your nose? What's wrong with my nose?"

"Absolutely nothing," she said as she leaned in and kissed him on the tip of his nose. "I am sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I wanted, no, I thought I needed to get used to the idea before I could talk about it. Then this mission came up and that wasn't a good time. I know that's no excuse, but I just wasn't ready. I guess I thought that if I didn't talk about it I could ignore it for awhile. But, this is not just about me. This is our news and I should have told you as soon as I found out. I truly am sorry. Can you forgive me?"

When Stiles looked into her pleading, earnest eyes the only thing he could say was, "Yeah." Terri breathed a sigh of relief. Neither of them said anything else for some time; they just stood by the rail and held each other. They still had a long night ahead of them.

They didn't know it then, but Terri's surprise pregnancy was just the beginning of the crises they were about to encounter.