After their little holiday party Hamish had more or less rushed everyone out of the house so he could take Vera out. She hadn't known what to expect until he told her they were going to the local ice rink. It was a family tradition of his that his mother took them to the ice rink every year as kids where they would drink hot chocolate and even if it was a bit corny it was something he wanted to share with Vera. Hamish was not the least bit surprised that Vera had wanted to be a figure skater in her youth and the only reason she hadn't pursued it was because she had also been too busy with dance. Of course she had, what didn't Vera do? Here Hamish thought he was going to show off some smooth skating skills and Vera was already a graceful ice princess, or well, queen.

Lacing up his skates he looked out into the large skate rink seeing groups of kids messing around and having fun. It was mostly college aged kids meaning most of them were Belgrave students and though it was now common information within the Order that he and Vera were a thing it wasn't so common among the general school population. He then spotted a dad out on the rink with his daughter, maybe no older than six teaching her how to skate. He was holding her hand while she wobbled and slid trying to watch how he was moving his feet. When she went down he was quick to pick her back up and encouraged her to keep going until he finally was able to let her hand go and she was skating on her own. Even though she seemed like she had some independence her father wasn't ever too far away to be there should she need him.

Hamish knew he had to be patient but watching scenes like that had him feeling more and more like he just wanted her to hurry up and get here. He wanted to bad to show Theo the world and teach her everything he could while she was little and willing to learn and listen. He wanted to raise her into an impressive little person who was as tough as her mother and as smart as Tundra with his compassion. A great combination of all three of them. "Find yourself a cute girl?" Vera came up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder looking over the groups of people.

"Yeah." Hamish stood up and grabbed her hands. "Though cute hardly describes her, she's really more like elegantly stunning or devilishly delicious."

"Sounds lovely. Did you happen to ask her if she's single?"

Hamish pulled Vera closer to him, "Absolutely not." He elbowed her lightly, maybe too lightly since he was almost in a constant state of fearful she might get hurt. "What about you?"

"Actually yeah, I did find someone attractive. He's masqulin and tall and has really great hair." Vera put a hand on his shoulder and pointed over to some dark haired guy talking to a few of his buddies. For a moment she saw Hamish's shoulder's sink, almost trying to measure himself up against the other dude and realizing he didn't have that kind of muscle mass or the ability to grow facial hair that nice. "I'm kidding." Vera leaned in closer to him having to let Hamish lean down a little since without the aid of her heels she wasn't that close to his height anymore. She kissed him on the lips, in public. Oh, they were allowed to have public displays of affection on? Hamish grabbed her arm feeling a little lucky.

He was a bit disappointed when Vera pulled her lips away from his and smiled back at him. "I like clean shaven well dressed tall men." She looked him up and down. "Looks like you are well dressed."

"I'm happy you like my usual choice of attire?"

Vera got that little smirk on her face again bumping her shoulder into him. "I like it better on my floor." She walked towards the rink going through one of the doors as Hamish watched her. Out on the ice she was a natural skating backwards and watching him a moment before doing a rather effortless spin. Hamish was quick to follow her out on the ice having to speed up a bit more to catch up to her.

"So, we are allowed to show public displays of affection now?"

Vera smirked at him, "Only if you want." If he wanted to keep them a secret on campus then that was his prerogative. With everything handled with the order she wasn't so desperate to keep them under the rug anymore and besides somebody had to be her baby's dad. She didn't get this on her own. Hamish reached out, taking her hand and holding it. He didn't need to be hanging off Vera to feel like he was with her, he just was even when they were far apart. It seemed like such a simple gesture but it meant so much more to Hamish since it was Vera taking his hand that had once told him that their relationship was real. Before then Vera never truly let him in.

"I'm sorry Christmas didn't go exactly the way I had planned. I just didn't want you to feel alone today because you aren't Vera. You are surrounded by people who care about you."

"I know." She held his hand a little tighter. "But sometimes you overthink things. You are really the only one I want to spend today with because like you said Hamish, today is about spending time with your family and you are…" She stopped, it was hard for her to put her feelings into words. "You're my family."

"You certainly are mine too Vera." And he'd make sure she would never forget it. Even if at first both he and Tundra thought they were a little crazy for finding Vera attractive. It made sense, she was a good leader, she was strong, smart, she liked to drink, she was physically stunning, and she was a good person when she let herself be. Vera had every quality that Hamish looked for and then some. "And next year our family is going to be just a little bit bigger."

"About that, you're going to have to come up with a better family tradition as sweet as this is. I don't think Theo will be trying on a pair of skates any time soon."

"There is a whole lot she won't be doing anytime soon. Including letting me feel her kick."

"Well don't rush her, all in good time Hamish. You can't rush perfection."

"I wouldn't dream of rushing her, you take your sweet time Theo." Last thing Hamish wanted was for something bad to happen to her. He had nightmares about it, more so early on when he woke up terrified Vera might miscarry their baby after he had started already getting so attached to them. Now it was more so a fear of her being born too early and getting sick and being stuck in a hospital for months and months fighting for her life. He knew neither of those things were a risk though, hopefully. At least so far Vera and Theo were doing still didn't stop his concerns though. "Are you alright Vera?' She had that look on her face, slightly pale as he pulled her to a stop and got her close to the wall. She looked like she was about to pass out. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little terrified right now.

"Yeah, I'm great, I'm just a little dizzy."

"Okay." Hamish pulled her closer to him and found their way over to one of the doors helping her off the ice before she ended up passing out and hitting her head. He rested her hands on the wall for support as he got up himself and started fanning her with his hand. "It's okay Vera, just sit down." He helped her over to one of the tables and eased her into a chair before getting down on his knees. His hand rested on her knee. There wasn't a sense of panic for Hamish since this was actually not too uncommon for Vera. That was one and only concern from her doctor that Vera didn't eat enough even if he tried to keep on top of it and remind her she needed to do more than pick at food or forget meals because she was busy. Her blood sugar crashed every once and a while and would remind her why she needed to start eating more. It was no wonder why she was still staying so small.

"I'm going to go get you some hot chocolate Vera, you just keep breathing regularly, no hyperventilating." Taking both her hands in his he gave her a reassuring squeeze. There was a small part of him that also wanted to tell her she needed to eat more than salads and bread but he couldn't really get upset with her when she wasn't feeling good. It was quicker to get to the little food court set up by cutting through the rink and so Hamish jumped back into the rink and hoofed it. He was on a mission right now. Even a brief run in with one of the students from class didn't stop him as she tried talking to him about his lecture on Wednesday only to be politely told he had to get Vera some food and informed her they could talk next time in class.

Rushing back with a hot chocolate and some mini donuts Hamish saw Vera was at least no longer pale and looking like she was close to passing out anymore. She just needed to rest a bit, working hard all day to get the house ready for company and hardly eating breakfast or lunch hadn't helped either. Vera quietly sipped her hot chocolate for a moment, her eyes darting down to the ground like she was a little ashamed. More so over making Hamish care for her when it really shouldn't be necessary. She was capable of taking care of herself. Hamish pulled a seat up next to her and brushed her hair behind her ear. "What's bothering you Vera? You look like someone just told you that your puppy died."

"I'm fine."

"Pardon the language but bullshit." He leaned closer to her looking down at her stomach. "Don't you ever repeat that word either Theo, it's a bad word." Hamish pulled her chair a little closer to him, she could sulk all she wanted but he wasn't going to let her be down and sad. He'd sort of made it his job to make Vera happy, a daunting task for sure but one he was happy to perform. "What's wrong Vera?" Glancing around he lowered his voice. "Something has been getting to you all day."

It was harder for her to fight tears and maintain her icy expressions when hormones practically made her cry at commercials or sometimes nothing at all. "It's just I know you are so impatient and excited for this and the closer it comes to the day this baby is born all I feel is terrified. I'm terrified of the unknown, of bringing her into this world and not knowing what the future is going to look like. I don't know if this is a safe world after everything that's happened and I fear having to be alone…" She caught herself from breaking down into tears. "Not, not that you would run but I trusted someone once until the day my daughter was born and he ran. He acted just as excited as you but as soon as it all became real he ran and he left us and he never looked back."

Hamish grabbed Vera holding her close, she needed to be held and understand it wasn't always her against the world. It didn't even have to be them against the world, it was a lot of people standing beside her and they were fighting to change the world. Vera must have been terrified only ever knowing abandonment and loss. She was abandoned by her mother, unwanted by foster families that bounced her around, abandoned by the boy who fathered her first child and even when she had something that made her happy, something she loved she lost that too. He couldn't blame her for fearing this wouldn't be a happy ending either. "Well luckily for you I'm not so frightened 16 or 17 year old boy too afraid to face up to responsibility. I think you forget I'm only five years younger than you and did I expect this or was I ready for this? No, am I ready to be a father now? I don't know but I do know from the moment you told me there has been nothing I've wanted more than this. I always knew eventually I'd have kids but I didn't think when it happened I'd fall in love so hard for someone I didn't even know. Remember Vera, I wanted her before you even did."

"I always wanted her too, I just didn't want to have her share my fate and live the rest of her life miserable and unhappy."

Hamish kissed her before pushing the mini donuts towards her to remind her she needed to eat something even if it wasn't necessarily healthy. "She's not going to be unhappy. She's going to be a spoiled only child." He was really only going with the spoiled only child bit because if he ever told Vera he wanted another kid eventually she might take him to the get neutered. It was best kept on the down low until they got well past all the challenges this baby was bringing with them. He also didn't admit that he saw himself spending the rest of his life with her, with or without marriage. He pictured one day they would have a big house with a big yard fenced in and two rugrats running around with their pet dog just living their dream life. Vera would be Grand Magus and Chancellor of Belgrave and Hamish would probably be a professor and worried about what he would do when his kids ended up in the order and he was the Temple Magus trying not to play favorites even though he spawn were clearly going to be just that.

"Looks like this whole day's been pretty rough on you, sorry you had a bad Christmas."

Vera took a sip of her hot chocolate and looked up at him. "I'd disagree, this has been my best Christmas ever and thinking about it the next one will be even better than this one. That's something worth being happy about Hamish."

"This has been my favorite Christmas so far too because I got to spend it with you."