"Is that gunfire I hear?"

Diana smiled and walked around the kitchen with the phone on her shoulder while she ate half a quart of chocolate chip cookie dough, before ten in the morning. "No Daddy, Hoot and the boys are putting the crib together. When will you be here?"

Diana dug at the ice cream and found she'd eaten almost the whole thing, her eyes scanned the kitchen for another source of nourishment. The sound of hammering and a power saw came from the nursery upstairs, deep within she knew they shouldn't have needed a power saw for a crib from a box, but she was too hungry to care.

"Soon honey….I'll be out all day. I sent in a form of leave for the end of your pregnancy. I want to see my grandson."

"Hoot thinks we're having a girl," Diana told him with a mouth of ice cream. She found a bag of dried cranberries and emptied it in the yellow box she held.

A series of swears came from upstairs, Greek swears.

"Watch your mouth, Pete, there's a lady downstairs."

"You know Sanderson……I don't think it's supposed to look like that….maybe we should put some rebar on it?"

Diana pondered whether she should see what the men were up to….then she spotted the almonds by the breadbox.

"Well what does he know?"

"He is the father, but we don't know yet. The baby keeps turning over when the pictures are taken. Already it's giving us a problem." Diana heard her father smile and wished he were in the same country.

The sounds of hammering followed by more swears came from upstairs. Diana sighed, "Daddy I have to go see what they're doing."

"They?"

"Yeah," Diana said as she walked from the kitchen toward the steps, "The boys are here helping. There's a debate over who the Godfather will be."

Slowly she climbed the stairs. Holding the box of ice cream, the phone and careful with her round stomach, Diana made her way up to be greeted by Sanderson. The man who'd become as much of her friend as Hoots took hold of

her wrist and held onto her to be sure she was steady.

"Ahhhhh, do you know who the godfather will be?"

Diana thanked Sanderson silently and answered her father, "Yes."

Then she headed into the nursery that had been painted a sage green that complemented the wood floors, a beautiful picture window had handmade eyelet curtains from the lady next door.

So far that was all that had been done, except for the tools littered across the floor along with parts of the crib. Seven Deltas filled the small room, all helped.

Diana walked to the Delta seated on the floor that she had married and gave him the phone. Several hands patted her stomach while Lambross peeked into her ice cream box and made a face, "What the hell are you eating now? You just ate a whole pizza and Greek Salad."

"Do you really want to have this conversation with her again?" Sanderson asked while he picked up his power screwdriver and went back to work.

Diana looked at what could have been a crib or boat while Hoot spoke with her father.

"We all went to tha doctor yesterday and got tha pictures, I e-mailed ya one right?"

Diana dug into her ice cream and ate another large bit then froze. Every head turned to her as she ran from the nursery to the bathroom. Hoot handed the phone to the nearest man and ran after Diana, "Darlin, what's wrong?"

Seated by the door Sanderson grinned and shouted, "Isn't morning sickness great?"

While the Delta spoke with Danny Lambross asked, "How the hell long does it last?"

Sanderson shrugged, "Everyone's different, usually it the first few months till the sixth I think. But she has eaten since she woke up."

Later that day…..

While Greek smell emanated from the kitchen swears still came from the nursery.

Lambross had been thrown out to cook dinner. Diana stood behind him with a stick of celery covered in peanut butter in one hand, a cup of chai tea in the

other, waiting for any scraps the man would give her. Lamb and other smells came from the oven when he opened the door. She stood inches behind and stared at the tasty smelling meat.

"Damn woman, would you go do something?"

Diana chewed noisily on her celery then smacked the man with it, getting peanut butter in his face. The Delta took a breath then yelled, "She hit me again!"

"Hit him harder, darlin!" Hoot yelled from upstairs.

Diana stuck her tongue out at the man in response.

Lambross rolled his eyes, "Oh that's mature."

The doorbell came before Diana could do anything else, Lambross gave her a shove, "Go answer the door."

With a sip of chai Diana strolled out of the kitchen, the stomach defiantly slowed her down. She put her stick of celery on a hall table as she headed toward the door. But the feeling of her stomach made it worthwhile. The knowledge of what was under the skin made her grin. Soon she would have a child and be a mother, Hoot would be a father, and her father would be a grandfather.

She lifted the hand from her stomach and opened the door. With all the men there was no reason to lock it, she pulled open the heavy wooden door and her heart froze.

"Mrs. Gibson?"

The two men at her door were in full uniform. Full Army Uniform, Diana looked from one to the other, both were high-ranking men, very high ranking. "Yes?"

"May we come in?"

She looked between them again, "Hoot is on family leave."

"We're not here about your husband," the higher ranking one spoke, a tall and stately black man with peppered hair. The other was a shorter bald white man, both in their late fifties.

Diana could see in their faces something was wrong, her father would have been the only other man she knew in the Army. She held open the door as Lambross yelled from the kitchen, "Who is it?"

Diana ignored him, "Where is my father?"

The bald man looked to her as she closed the door, "Perhaps you should sit down?"

"Where is he," Diana asked, she knew one day these men would come and tell her that her father had a heart attack or had been shot. Already she was thinking when she could fly out to see him.

"He is on his way home, Mrs. Gibson."

Both men watched Diana closely as grief came across her face, she began to tremble and dropped the mug she held. Diana knew injured men were sent to hospitals in Italy or Germany. Only the dead were sent home so soon. Her hands covered her face as her legs grew weak, as if she had lost all power to simply stand. Her entire body felt numb as she fell to the floor.

The higher-ranking man caught her before she hit the wooden floor.