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Chapter 12 – Small Surprises

Emily was tired and slightly nauseated. She had to admit, she had been burning the candle at both ends. But there was a lot that she wanted to get done before John's next rotation down, when Scott was due to go up. It was with thoughts of John coming back that she remembered his last day down the month before.

Three weeks earlier (or six days after the end of chapter eleven)

While her husband was back for such a short time, Emily still had work to do on her own. She had sandwiched in two days at the newly opened Akaroa Medical Clinic, reviewed schedules for visiting specialists, checked out the housing arranged for said specialists and monitored Jeff's well being when the Thunderbird's commander had returned with heat exhaustion after a forest fire in Canada.

But this morning she had worked to clear her calendar. Kate had promised to reign in Jeff so that Emily could spend as much time as possible with John. Emily lay beside her husband, watching him sleep. She had felt him crawl in beside her after a rescue at three o'clock in the morning but had been too tired after a day of working at the clinic and trying to make her father-in-law rest. Emily swore that no one in the family knew what the phrase "take it easy" meant. Laughing silently, she realized she was a fine one to speak, look at the schedule she kept. Thinking of that schedule, Emily slid out of bed for a moment. She wanted to double check on the rotations for the clinic and pulled out her desk calendar. Halfway through her review Emily noticed something, something that got her thinking…then laughing.

"Em? Honey, are you OK?" John opened bleary eyes. Smiling, Emily slipped back in bed with him and kissed him gently.

"I was just checking on something and I realized that something should have happened that hasn't." John looked confused and Emily took pity on him. "Now, I don't want to say anything to your family until I am sure, and I am afraid of disappointing you if I am wrong, but I am fairly sure I am not." John became even more mystified at his usually practical wife's babble. "John, how do you feel about us having a baby?"

John's self-satisfied smile and bracing kiss told Emily all she needed to know. He felt pretty damn good about it.

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In the three weeks since John had gone back up to Thunderbird Five, Emily had confirmed her pregnancy with Dr. Henrichs when the woman came to do her clinic duty. Between the Physician's Assistant that had been hired and the rotations of other doctors with two New Zealand hospitals and the specialists who would occasionally visit from Los Angeles, Emily found most of her work relegated to administrative duties. Oddly enough, she found that to be far more satisfying than she had the paperwork of working for a hospital. She still worked some clinic days, but knew that as her pregnancy increased, even the short flight from Tracy Island would make her new family anxious. They would be nervous now if they knew she never flew alone these days. Of course, as Emily saw it, she never had. All she could say was it was a relief that John had only seen good things from her being pregnant.

The rest of the family remained ignorant as to Emily's condition. She wanted John to be standing next to her when the Tracys were told that a second Tracy grandchild was on its way. Two thoughts flowed through her mind; first, she could recall subtly letting John know that she was in fact pregnant (not easy with his father and two of his brothers in the room) and second, more frighteningly, Emily would have to force a confrontation with her mother soon. Susan Haas was the power broker in the family; the one Emily would have to deal with. Emily knew her father and brother did nothing without Susan's approval; Emily had never done anything that met with her mother's approval. But once John and Emily had announced her pregnancy to the family, she knew Jeff would be itching to release the marriage announcement and her mother would give approval to her daughter's oh-so-acceptable union. It was important for Emily that her mother give in before it was known that her daughter had married one of Jeff Tracy's sons, as close as marrying into royalty as existed in America. She knew her family would never be the loving, supportive group her in-laws were, but was it too much to ask for acknowledgment that Emily mattered?

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Two days later, Emily and John sat down to dinner with the family. The foundation had been laid in a clearing near Scott and Kate's villa, the pre-fab house would arrive some time next week, designed much as the other couple's had been. But for now, Emily and John were happy to be ensconced in John's old room. With Alan and Fermat newly home, Scott's family at the table (not as common as before, but more common with Scott up on Five) and John back on Earth, now was the perfect time to make an announcement. Before leaving Five with Gordon, John had pulled Scott aside and let him in on the secret. Big brother had been smug at knowing the news before even their father, but had paled at the thought that he had taken Emily along on another rescue and had never even known that his sister-in-law was pregnant. It would take Scott a while to recover from that.

Alan Tracy was suspicious. Emily and John kept looking at each other as if they wanted to say something. It reminded him of the day when Scott and Kate had tried to get their families attention to announce…

It was Alan's poor luck that just as he went to softly ask John that the room had one of those rare quiet moments. "John, is Emily pregnant?" In the utter silence that filled the room, it was hard to determine which blond was blushing harder. Seeing the way Emily's eyes sparkled and John's self-satisfied smile told Jeff Tracy all he wanted to know. Once again, it was Alan who had –unintentionally this time – announced a forthcoming Tracy grandchild.

At least this one had not been conceived on a Thunderbird. Jeff felt duly blessed at that. And looking at John's smiling face, he saw Lucy each time she had announced her condition. Would this be a granddaughter? It would be nice but he would never count on it. His sons were the seventh generation of Tracy men, not a daughter born in nearly two hundred years that he knew of. But a man could dream, couldn't he?

a/n - yeah, I know, another pregnant Tracy wife. Emily got pregnant even faster than Kate. But this will not be a pattern. It does fit in with the two oldest Tracy brothers but wouldn't make sense for the others as much. Have to get a giggle at Alan. Not only did he play match maker (unintentionally) for Scott and John, he also announced their wives pregnancies (once on purpose, once by accident). OK, Emily's mother is next, and if you disliked her before, you will hate her soon. As always, thanks for the reviews.