Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, Earth- 14:14 hours

"Why do I feel like I am about to go in front of a firing squad?" Jack asked his brother as they walked up the steps to the house.

"Because you are?" Richard teased, "It will be alright. Your family is on the other side of that door. Now more than before."

"I just…." Jack sighed and knocked on the door

Richard leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Your wife is on the other side of that door, and I know she has been missing you."

There was scrambling behind the door, and it opened quickly. "Gracie…"

Before Jack could say more, she was in his arms holding him tight, crying uncontrollably. "Gracie… sweetheart, what's wrong? Are you hurt? Did someone say something to you?" Richard helped guide the couple inside the house.

"Jack ... I…" She tried to talk between sobs, but it wasn't working.

Sighing, Jack just held her tighter, "Shhhh… it will be alright," he whispered into her hair and then looked at his brother with a glare.

"Hey, I was with you. I didn't do anything." Richard held his hands up in defense.

"She is fine, Jack." Lynn came in from the kitchen, kissed his cheek, and petted Grace's hair.

"What happened?" Jack looked to the woman who had always been his mother.

"We were all talking in the dining room as we were prepping the table. Then, finally, Christine commented how we didn't need to add another plate for her new husband, and I think things finally hit her." Lynn rubbed her back. "She needed you, and since you had yet to arrive, she thought you had left her."

"I would never do that." He kissed the top of her head.

"Try telling that to a scared hormonal female," Richard sighed. He got a glare from Lynn.

"Gracie," Lynn noticed she had slowed her crying. "How are you feeling, honey?"

"Sick." Grace carefully let go of Jack. She didn't want to get sick all over him. "My stomach is a mess, and I don't feel good."

"Jack, since you are here, why don't you help me take her to her room for a rest." Lynn suggested, "Once there, I can check her out, and she can get some peace and quiet for a bit."

"Sure," Jack half-carried Grace up to the third floor and down the hall to her room. He noticed that many of her childhood things were still there, but the room felt different from when he was last.

Lynn pulled back the covers on the bed, "Grace, why don't you lay down here."

Grace did as she was told but looked up at Jack. "Will you be alright, Jack?"

"I might need to borrow a new shirt from Alan, but I'll be alright." He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm more worried about you."

Lynn was finishing a basic scan on her. "Grace is fine. She is exhausted a bit dehydrated, and her nerves got the best of her. She is better now that you are here, but I think she could use a nap."

"I won't leave him twisting in the wind Gracie," Richard said from where he was leaning on the door frame.

"See that you don't, Skyler," Grace settled down to rest.

Reluctantly Jack left the room to let her rest. When he stepped out into the hall, he caught the eye of Alan standing at the top of the stairs. Jack nodded to him. Alan returned the nod and turned to go back down to the second floor.

"Richard, you and Lynn keep an eye on her for me. I need to take care of something." Jack looked Richard dead in the eyes.

"Of course." Richard patted him on the shoulder, and Lynn gave him a quick hug and kiss.

Jack took the stairs down to the second floor. Having grown up in the house, he knew the south side was Robin and Alan's suite, but the north side was Robin's home office and sitting room. He rarely went in there growing up, but he remembered that serious business went down there. Anyone who went in there was going to face is 'aunt,' She was someone you did not want to be on her wrong side.

Stopping outside the door, Jack took a deep breath to calm himself. He didn't care what happened to him, but he had to protect his wife and child. So he would take on anyone who threatened them, even his 'aunt.'

Soon as he had stepped into the room, the door swished quietly closed behind him. With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked up to the desk, and he faced Full Admiral Robin and Captain Alan Scott.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Jack Ryerson, thank you for visiting with us today." Robin acknowledged him

Jack raised his eyebrow at how the Scotts were handling the situation.

"Thank you, sirs, for the invitation."

"Lieutenant, it is our understanding that you recently married your childhood sweetheart."

"I did, sir. We eloped this past weekend when we were visiting Scotland."

"A beautiful place for a wedding. "

"Indeed, it was, sir, and we were able to get holos of it for our families."

"I'm sure they will appreciate that," Alan said from behind Robin. Jack noticed a slight smile on Alan's face at the mention of the holos.

"Lieutenant, it has also come to my notice that you and your new bride are to ship out in 10 days for your new deployment."

"Yes, sir." Jack wondered where Robin was going with this line of thought.

"Per regulations, your commanding officer could allow for leave to celebrate your marriage." Robin continued.

"Correct, sir; however, we would not want to cause a conflict of interest given our familial relations within Star Fleet."

"There will not be a conflict of interest as Captain Prakash has chosen to offer you the two weeks of leave for your marriage celebration with no undue influence." Robin placed a datapad on the desk in front of Jack. "However, Captain Prakash requires that you, Lieutenant, deploy immediately following your leave as he needs your expertise in preparation for the second group of deployment."

"Understood, sir."

"Your bride will be part of the second group of deployment, which will arrive 14 days later." Robin slid another datapad across the desk towards him. "They have been made aware of this arrangement as well."

"Thank you, sir."

"While Captain Prakash is content to have a young family on the station and does not want to put stress on soon-to-be-parents, he must have his officers able to perform their duties."

"Understood, sir."

"He recommended that during the two weeks you are separated, Lieutenant, you will set up the necessary accommodations for you, your bride, and your future child. Meanwhile, your bride will be able to get any specialized medical care necessary before she leaves and close out any necessary items for your family as you are deployed to the station for the next 24-36 months."

"That sounds agreeable, sir."

"Now to other personal matters." Robin turned to Alan.

"Jack, we are disappointed that you made rash decisions without consulting either your brother or his wife or Grace's parents." Alan kept his gaze directly on Jack. "Be that as it may," Alan then looked away to the sitting area nearby. "We feel it prudent to have a calm discussion about the situation we now face." He gestured to the seating area.

Jack nodded and made his way to the seating area. Alan followed and sat across from him on a love seat. Robin made herself comfortable next to Alan.

"We would like you to start at the beginning and explain how this situation occurred." Alan wrapped an arm around his wife.

"Grace and I have always been fond of each other, but at my Star Fleet graduation ball, I realized I didn't want any other girl on my arm but Grace. Of all the girls I knew and had classes with, I wanted to spend that night with Grace. I originally told her I couldn't find a date and suggested we go as friends."

Robin smiled, "You should be aware now that no one in the family believed that story, right?"

"At the time, I hoped that you...,"

"Wouldn't notice the look in your eyes when you saw her?" Alan gently teased.

"Yes," he rolled his eyes. "Grace and I kept in touch when I was out on my internship and research deployments. Then, when I was back home, we spent time together."

"In your mind, it was normal that you and she would go places together and take the other kids with you to make it look like you weren't together."

"Pretty much," Jack replied begrudgingly.

"So, what happened three months ago." Alan looked at him intently.

"I was going on deployment for the next four months, and with it being just before graduation finals for her, we spent the weekend in a cabin up north."

"Let me guess that was the big camping trip where you two had 'your first date.'" Robin couldn't help taping her fingers in annoyance.

"Well, we… "Jack began to squirm.

"Celebrated, let's call it celebrated," Alan remarked, not wanting to know the detail of what his daughter had done.

"Well, we …. celebrated and had a wonderful time with each other. It was then that I decided when I got back from deployment, I was going to propose to Grace."

"At least it is good to know you put some thought into marriage before you jumped into it," Robin said, slightly annoyed.

"Honestly, Admiral, if I had any clue that she could get pregnant, we would have taken better precautions." Jack pleaded with them.

"It wasn't your fault, Jack." Robin tried to reassure him.

"It was my idea and … and …" Jack stammered.

"Jack," Robin reached across and put her hand on his. "Seriously, it wasn't your OR Gracie's fault."

"But…"

"Jack, look at me," Alan took his other hand, "You two did nothing wrong."

"How can you be so sure?" Jack begged them.

"Jack, Gracie told you she was on birth control, didn't she?" Robin squeezed his hand to have him look at her. Then, he raised his tear-filled eyes to match hers, "There has been a slight uptick in the pregnancy rate of users of the contraceptive drug Grace was on in the past few months."

"What?"

"It prompted an investigation into the manufacturing facility producing the drug. The investigation found that a miscalibration of one of the dosing machines caused the drug to be ineffective." But, Robin assured him, "Literally, it wasn't either of your faults."

"Jack, through no fault of your own or Gracie's that weekend, there was a 50/50 chance she could get pregnant." Alan stood and walked over to the boy. "If there had been no malfunction. You would have been able to have your romantic weekend in the highlands and propose to her properly. You could have come home to your family and celebrated a wonderful future together."

Robin got up to hug the boy before her, "Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and my baby girl is having a baby. While we would have preferred that you had come to us, Gracie told us that you had a sweet wedding."

"We will show you holos later, but she was beautiful." He smiled a goofy teary grin.

"If she was half as beautiful as her mother was, you were a fortunate man." Alan smiled and got a nudge in the ribs from Robin.

"I would rip my heart out for her." He said tearily.

"We knew that a long time ago." Robin smiled. "Come on, I know your nieces are itching to give you hugs, and Sam has been feeling outnumbered today and could use your help balancing out the sass."

Jack laughed a bit. "It has always been three against 2 in this family."

"Jack, you have always been like another son to Alan and me, and we are happy that you are now officially part of this family." Robin hugged him.

"As part of the family, Robin and I wanted to offer to turn Grace's rooms into a suite for the two of you when you are here. "

"I'd like that." Jack chuckled. "When she wakes up, I think Grace will too."

"Hope you will humor a grandmother and your sister-in-law when it comes to turning the guest room into a nursery where we can spoil your child rotten."

"Do we have much of choice?" Jack laughed, still a little teary.

"No." Alan clapped him on the shoulder, "You don't. Not from what I've heard from Robin and Lynn. And don't think your nieces haven't gotten into it."

Jack wiped his face, "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Wonderful things Jack," Robin grabbed his arm and led him to the office door. "Just do all of the older generations a favor, no more surprises, please."

"We will do our best," Jack walked out of the door ahead of the Scott's and headed down the gallery stairs. The sound of the squealing females soon sounded as he was drug into the main living room by them.

Alan and Robin then turned to the stairs to the upper levels and saw Richard waiting there.

"I see he is still in one piece."

"We tried to leave him in one piece," Robin sighed. "He is a good kid. He will be a good husband for Grace, and I think, an even better father."

"Me too," Alan wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed the side of her head.

"Is Lynn still with Grace?" Robin asked.

"Lynn said the scans are fine. Grace just needed some rest. I think having Jack back with her will help." Richard sighed. "Alan, do you want to help rescue Jack from my daughter's?"

"In a little bit." Alan smirked, "I need to take you down to the lab. I've been working on these new designs. I think you will be amazed at what these possible upgrades can do." Alan laughed as he led Richard away and down into the lower-level lab area.

Shaking her head at the boys, Robin headed back up to check on her daughter. It didn't matter how old she was, Grace was still her little girl, and mamma bear wanted to make sure her cub would be ok with her own eyes.