Patrick couldn't stop looking at it. Teresa smiled to herself as she kept catching him in her periferal. He held the ultrasound image like a treasure between his fingers, just looking at it. Since they'd left the appointment he hadn't spoken a word. His silence was so deafeningly happy that she felt no need to break it and just kept on smiling as she drove. They were headed to her house, but she was beginning to think lunch by their pond sounded better. Hearing their baby's heartbeat for the first time needed to be celebrated and she had the rest of the day off anyway.

"You wanna grab something to eat and head over to the cabin?"

He looked over with a smile. "Absolutely."

That broke the spell. He put the little picture inside his jacket and in a moment his hand had found its place on her stomach. She covered it with her own as the turn for her street passed by. They'd been splitting their time between the airstream and her house, the latter promising to be far more comfortable as pregnancy progressed. After the baby came, they planned to be full time at the house. It would be a long time before the cabin could be called home and they were both fine with that. The baby's arrival would definitely slow the remodel, but that was okay. Patrick was as excited to be working on the place as he was at the thought of it being a finished home for them.

They picked up sandwiches at a shop they'd come to favor along the way. When they pulled up and parked behind the airstream Teresa took their lunch from the car and waited for Patrick. He went to grab a blanket from the camper. Hand in hand they walked to their log at the other end of the pond. Once they'd eaten and a significan portion of Patrick's bread had been thrown to the ducks, the two of them sat and listened to the breeze rustle in the reeds. He wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder and she leaned against him. After a little while he pulled the picture from his jacket again and held it out for both of them to see.

"This is our baby." He said, like he was still trying to convince himself.

"It's our baby." she agreed.

Neither of them could keep from smiling. He pressed his cheek to her hair while his other hand softly brushed her shoulder.

"So," she said "At the next ultrasound do you wanna find out what it is?"

"It's human I hope." He said plainly. Her soft chuckling shook them both. "You know what I mean."

He grinned. "I do."

"And?"

"I don't know." He said honestly.

"Really?"

"Really. Do you want to know?"

"I think I'd like to."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Well, we've got some time."

"We do."

Teresa closed her eyes and listened to the calm rythmn of her husband's breathe. Birds and breeze and bugs all melded gently with the sound. Patrick couldn't take his eyes of the picture in his hand. A sadness crept into his expression. It didn't overtake the joy he felt or push away his peace, but it didn't go away.

.

.

Title is a lyric from Brett Dennen's "Little Cosmis Girl". I am madly in love with that song and have probably listened to it a BILLION times in the last few months.

"Little cosmic girl, isn't it a big world?

Say, don't you worry about the little things

Don't let the daylight rob your dreams

Little cosmic girl, isn't it a wild world?

There is love and there is sadness

And there are miracles and madness

And we may never understand

No we may never understand"