"Now, Joe has the night shift this week, so he'll be with you during the day." TK told his wife. "And Izzy has agreed to stay with you at night."

"Why doesn't Izzy just stay with me all the time?"

"Because Joe is a doctor and Izzy has a job."

"I just can't believe that you got a trip on the same week we had planned our vacation."

"Yeah, well, you shouldn't fly anyway."

"But now I have a whole week to do nothing except hang around the house."

TK kissed her cheek. "I wouldn't have it any other way. You need your rest."

"You know that I haven't been as tired since the second trimester started."

"That doesn't mean that you don't need your rest."

"You worry too much."

"You don't worry enough." They smiled at each other. TK shut his suitcase. "All set. I leave first thing in the morning."

Yes, the second trimester had brought many new changes. Kari had stopped having morning sickness and was more energetic. She had also switched to elastic waistband pants for her seemingly elastic waistline. Kari was growing, and it was beginning to show.

"I'm so fat!" Kari cried on the scale the next morning.

"You're not fat."

"But I've gained so much weight!"

"Honey, you're pregnant. Get off the scale and come say goodbye!"

"Okay. Goodbye." Kari said in a bored sounding voice.

"That's it? I'm going to be gone for a week and all you can say is 'goodbye?'" TK imitated her.

"Fine. Goodbye, pookie."

"Pookie!" TK said, disgusted.

"Hurry up, or you'll be late."

"'Kay." They kissed goodbye.

"Have fun, TK!" Patamon said.

"Bring us souvenirs!" Gatomon added.

"Yeah, yeah." TK drove away.

Kari went inside and cracked some eggs into a frying pan. "Wouldn't it be funny if Joe didn't show? After TK went through all that trouble."

"I think if you told him that, he'd run back to 'save you.'" Gatomon sipped a glass of milk that Kari handed her.

"He's so worried about you." Patamon shook his head. "Poor pookie."

"Hello?" Joe's voice could be heard in the kitchen.

"In here, Joe!" Joe walked in. "Want some scrambled eggs?"

"Sure, thanks." Joe poured a glass of orange juice.

"How was the night shift?"

"Quiet. Good thing the employee lounge has a couch or I'd be exhausted today."

"I have a question." Patamon said. "You're a brain surgeon. Don't humans usually make appointments to have brain surgery? Why are you on the night shift?"

"You never know when someone will have a stroke, Patamon. And if there's nothing going on in my department, and they're short on people, they'll put me in the ER. Just because I specialize in brain activity doesn't mean I can't help out in there."

"Less talking, more eating." Gatomon stared at the pancakes Kari was putting on her plate (Gatomon refused to eat eggs).

"Sorry to keep you waiting, your majesty." Kari laid the plate down.

"Are these blueberry pancakes?"

"Yes."

"Then I forgive you." Gatomon dug in.

"Can I help you with the dishes, Kari?" Joe asked after breakfast.

"Thank you Joe. If only my husband would offer to help with the dishes." Kari tossed him a dishtowel.

"Yeah. You have to force him to wash them." Said Patamon.

"And even when he does, he only does them halfway." Added Gatomon.

"But he's gotten better. It just took a little training." Kari defended.

"Kari, you're the only girl I know who trains her husband to wash dishes." Joe dried a pan.

"You must not know very many girls." Kari finished wiping the counters.

"So. Are you ready for your checkup?"

"But you aren't an obstetrician!"

"I know, but I promised TK." Joe got a stethoscope out of his bag. He put it to Kari's heart. "Your heartbeat is a little fast, but that's normal at this point." He guided it downward to her stomach. "The baby's, however, is perfect. Right where we want it to be." He put the stethoscope back. "Now," he said, "Report!"

"My morning sickness is gone, and I've been gaining about a pound a week."

Joe nodded. "Both normal for the second trimester. Have you been exercising?"

"Yep. I take a walk every afternoon, and go to the pool at my gym twice a week."

"Good, good. Leg cramps?"

"Not yet."

"Okay, just be aware that they may start soon. And don't forget that, even though you may not feel as tired, you should still get plenty of rest."

"You sound just like TK."

"That's because he constantly calls me with questions."

Kari looked thoughtful. "He should be calling Dr. Greystone."

"Yeah. I don't know why he doesn't like her. She's one of the best in her field."

"Well, I don't think it's her skills that makes him, er, uncomfortable."

"Oh, the personality thing. Yeah, it gets a lot of new dads. But she is really good in the delivery room, and they never regret choosing her as an obstetrician."

"It's so funny, though. He tries so hard to pretend to like her. I swear, it's a good thing the water in that water jug is free, or we'd be broke right now."

"Ah, yes. The old 'let's get a drink' routine. A classic." He stopped talking to watch Gatomon roll her egg into the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" Kari asked.

"Giving my egg a bath." She answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Eggs need baths?"

"They do when their father decides eat a Popsicle while egg-sitting."

"So it dripped. I was hungry. Is that a crime?" Patamon said.

"It is when you use our egg as a napkin."

"Better the egg than my carpet." Kari whispered to Joe. Luckily, Gatomon didn't hear.

"So have you picked out a name yet?"

"Well, Cody suggested Nori, as you know, and I really like that name. The other one I like is Naoko."

"Hmm. Nori Takashi. Naoko Takashi. A pretty hard decision, if you ask me."

"Yeah, well, we've got until February to figure it out."

"That may come sooner than you think. Time flies. When's your due date?"

"February 25th."

"See? It's near the end of October now. Just four months. You've started getting ready, haven't you?"

"Oh yeah. We have all the furniture and stuff for the baby's room. In fact, we are kind of in the middle of painting the extra room right now."

"I hope that when you say 'we' you mean 'TK.'"

"Yep."

"Good. It's not good for you to be inhaling paint fumes." He and Kari talked a bit more about the baby. In the afternoon Kari decided to make her favorite orange flavored cookies. Unfortunately, she didn't have any oranges, so she told Joe that she was going to the store. After grabbing her keys, she walked out the door. And right into Yolei.

"Oof." Said Yolei as the two collided. "Woah, I'm sorry, Kari. Are you all right?"

"Uh, yeah. What are you guys doing here? Come in." Kari led Yolei and Ken in.

"Back so soon?" Joe joked, turning off the TV.

"My wife doesn't know the meaning of the phrase, 'calling first.'" Ken sat down.

"Well it's not like I planned on coming here." Yolei looked at Kari. "I had to tell you the big news. I'm pregnant!"

"Really? Aaah! This is so exciting! We'll be pregnant together!" Kari had sat down when she came in, only to jump up now.

"And we'll raise our kids together!"

"They'll be best friends!" Kari and Yolei went on squealing about what a 'happily ever after' they will have with their kids.

Ken looked at Joe. "Women are so loud."

Joe nodded. "And high-pitched."

When the girls finally settled down, Kari interrogated the couple, but they had just found out themselves. So Joe proposed that they go out to a local ice cream shop a few blocks away. Of course, they couldn't take the car; they had to walk. But luckily, the ice cream made up for it, and Joe bought. Ken and Yolei left after they were back home, and Joe started to get ready for the night shift. Izzy showed up just in time for a quick dinner before Joe left.

"So Kari," Izzy said as he locked the door behind Joe, "How are the digimon? I want to do an analysis of that egg." Kari led Izzy to the digimon's 'house,' thinking how much Joe and Izzy were alike. They're both smart and they both bring their work home with them.

Gatomon was not very happy with Izzy studying her baby. She had been very territorial toward her egg ever since it had come. 'Instinct,' Izzy called it, but whatever it was, Gatomon seemed to have an excessive amount of it.

Kari went to bed early, due to TK's orders. She fought with Izzy because he wanted her to sleep in her own bed, while she -being the gracious hostess that she is- insisted that she could sleep on the couch. But Izzy finally convinced her that he'd be more comfortable on the couch, so she dropped the subject.

Joe was much more tired the next day because of a huge high school party. According to Joe, somebody had spiked the punch, and there had been drag racing after. The very busy night left him napping most of the day, so Kari headed to the gym, partly for a little exercise, and partly to get out of the house.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, basically Kari doing boring indoor stuff. Except for Thursday night.

Izzy was working on Kari's computer, which he complained was much too slow, when the screen started to glow a bright blue color and let off a high-pitched whistling noise.

"What the heck?" Izzy exclaimed. He had never seen anything like this before.

"Well, it's about time!" Gatomon exclaimed, jumping up onto the desk. The screen suddenly turned white, and spat out what looked like a digivice and a tag into Gatomon's paw. She jumped off the desk and ran for Kari's room. Izzy followed, enthralled.

"Gatomon, what-" Kari, who had been reading in bed, was cut off as Gatomon jumped onto her stomach, throwing up her pajama top. "Excuse me!" She exclaimed, but Gatomon ignored her. The cat digimon pressed the digivice on her swelled abdomen firmly. The warm digivice glowed, and Gatomon took it and ran off into the hall, Izzy and Kari right on her tail.

Gatomon rushed into her room and into the rookery. Patamon and the others watched curiously as Gatomon pressed the digivice onto the egg, just as she had Kari. It glowed again, and out of its screen floated a crest. It hovered in the air. Gatomon raised the tag, and the crest flew into it. Gatomon relaxed, and gave the tag, crest, and digivice to Kari.

Kari studied the new mechanisms, as if the events were perfectly normal. She felt a slight curiosity nagging at her, asking a thousand questions, but she ignored it. She felt that there was something she had to figure out first. She looked deep into the crest, with Gatomon waiting patiently. The boys watched this whole ordeal feeling like the new kids at school, not knowing what was going on. Finally Kari looked up and said, "Achievement," and handed it back to Gatomon. Her partner smiled and set the devices in the rookery next to the egg.

"Achievement? What about achievement?" Izzy asked.

"It's the crest of achievement." Kari explained.

"How do you know?"

"I have no idea. I just know."

Izzy nodded as if it made perfect sense. "Instinct," he said.

Gatomon shook her head. "I don't like that word. Call it mother's intuition."

Izzy rolled his eyes. "Fine. Mother's intuition." He thought. "Well. Hope plus Light equals Achievement. Interesting."

"Oh, so now we're a math problem." Gatomon complained.

"You don't like to be compared to anything, do you? You insist to 'emit' an egg so you don't sound like a chicken. You build a 'rookery' claiming that you aren't a bird. And now you use 'mother's intuition' because you don't want to sound like…sound like…"

"An animal." Gatomon supplied.

"Sound like an animal! Why are you making this so complicated?"

"Well, Koushiro," Gatomon said, "it's because, in case you haven't noticed, I am not a chicken, a bird, or an animal. I am a digimon. There aren't any terms for digimon yet, and somebody has to make some up."

Izzy threw up his hands in defeat and walked out of the room to enter all the new information onto his computer.

"I can't believe Pookie missed that!" Patamon said.