"Eric!"

"What?"

"Stop. That tickles," I giggle.

"I forgot you were ticklish there. I can't help myself. I have to touch your belly." His fingers flutter along my sides, stopping every few seconds to caress my stomach.

I pull away a little, jerking and laughing uncontrollably. I smack away his hand and get my giggles under control.

"Why must you touch my belly?"

"I'm just saying hi to the baby." He leans his head down and whispers something I don't understand. I'm guessing it's Swedish.

The goofy grin on his face is priceless and I can't be upset with him. I laugh, taking my fingers and wiping the smirk off his face. He parts his lips, baring his teeth as if he's going to bite me. He captures a fingertip between his teeth and nibbles.

"We don't know that there is a baby yet."

"But we want there to be, right?"

Ugh! I don't know what to say anymore. Now that he knows there's possibly a baby, he's in baby heaven. I wish the doctor would call me in soon so we can get this over with. I want to know what I'm dealing with either way. I'm glad Eric is here with me, but I'm a little frustrated. I don't want to get too eager just to be let down. Since he's excited enough for the both of us, I feel like a bitch for not being able to be just as excited, too. I sigh, needing to release my frustration in some way.

"Yes. I do want your baby. Our baby. I just don't want to get my hopes up to be let down."

"Why would they be let down? If you aren't pregnant, we'll go straight home and start working on getting you pregnant. It's a win-win," he winks, then nuzzles my neck.

I smile and feel a little better. Leave it to him to think of it that way.

"Ms. Stackhouse?" I perk up at hearing my name. The nurse nods to me. "The doctor is ready for you now."

I squeeze Eric's hand and we get up and head back to the exam room. I hold my breath the entire walk. I can't think of anything but being pregnant. I want to be. I don't want to be. I want to be. The nurse smiles at us, more like Eric, and points us to the room we'll be in. Eric sits and she leads me over to the scale to be weighed. Ugh… just what I was looking forward to.

"Let's see, you're about 135 pounds. Hmm…"

I didn't like her "hmm" after my weight pronouncement. Or the way her eyes kept cutting over toward Eric. Just what I need.

"Dr. Lee will be with you shortly."

"Great. Thanks." I was short. It was better than me calling her a bitch, like I wanted to.

I went through the usual prerequisites for doctor's visits—getting weighed, shedding my clothes for the ugly generic gown, and waiting for half an hour before the doctor decides to grace us with his presence. But don't let me be late for my appointment. No… cause then I'd have to reschedule.

I'm already nervous, and Eric keeps smiling at me and trying to make me smile but I just want to be out of here. I hate doctors and I want to know what we're dealing with so we can go from there. I never thought I was impatient, but I guess in this case I just need to know if I'm going to be a mom. It's something I've always wanted and now that it's within my grasp, I feel like it'll be snatched away.

()()()()

"So, what should we tell people?"

"We don't have to tell anyone anything, yet. We're supposed to wait a while, right? I mean, just until we're past the point of danger," I shrug.

Eric is up, pacing the room. He hasn't been able to sit still since we got the good news. I can't even think how he drove us here since he was wired like the Energizer Bunny. I'm happy too, but he's practically vibrating with excitement. He sits down then hops right back up again, a beaming smile on his face. I slip my hand over my belly and sigh with contentment.

I'm going to be a mommy.

"I'll do whatever you want. But älskling, you should know how happy I am."

He doesn't have to tell me. The permanent grin on his face is evidence enough.

"I don't think that'll be a problem. In fact, we won't have to tell anyone I'm pregnant. They'll know just from looking at that grin plastered on your face."

He laughs and I have to laugh with him. It's infectious and now I can relax. Yup, Dr. Lee told us what we wanted to hear. I can stop thinking about not being pregnant and figure out how we're going to do this. I smile thinking about the events of the day.

As soon as we got the results Eric hugged the doctor. I would have thought he'd hug me first, but apparently the doctor got the hug because he delivered the good news. I'll have to remind him that he's not the one carrying the baby, I am. And… I couldn't get a question in edgewise. Honestly, I think since I told Eric I might be pregnant, he's been online looking up everything he could find on babies. He was all over Dr. Lee asking him questions about sex (how often we could have it, whether it would hurt the baby), what I need to eat, if I should stay bed ridden (which he wanted for his own reasons) and everything else under the sun. I just smiled and nodded, watching him talk a mile a minute. He was so wound up I think he even went into Swedish for a second. It was cute. I can admit that now. Then, not so much.

He insisted on driving us home. Because I'm pregnant, now I can't operate a vehicle. We'll have to have a serious talk once he calms down, but for right now, I'll let it slide. Of course, he did take me to get my vitamins and anything else I would need so I really can't complain. I had to stop him from picking out diapers and looking over the different baby formula. I know he'll be even worse once the baby gets here but that was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. I took out my BB and snapped a picture. I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point.

Gran walking into the living room humming a tune from my childhood pulls me from my reverie. She sits down in the wingback chair across from us and looks to me expectantly.

"So, how did it go you two?"

We look at one another before Eric opens his big mouth.

"We're pregnant! Isn't that great? I mean, Sookie's pregnant. I'm going to be a dad!"

"Oh, sweetheart! That's wonderful news. You're excited, right?" She had an Eric smile, too. I can just imagine how the rest of my time spent here will be. Smiley happy people holding hands…

"Yes, Gran. I'm excited. I think Eric here is excited enough for the both of us though," I laugh.

"Well, I'm happy to hear that. I do need to ask, where will you be living? You know you're more than welcome to stay here if you need to. I just wasn't sure, what with Eric being in Sweden, and you here."

Eric squeezes my hand as he corners me with an affectionate gaze. "Sookie and I haven't really talked about that yet. We're keeping things under wraps for now, so I guess we have a little time to decide before we need to do anything."

"Yeah. We have time." I look at Eric with as much adoration and love as I can. He shifts his hand down to squeeze my knee.

The phone rings before Gran can say anything else, and she gets up to answer it. I look at Eric ready to rip into him for blabbing when we said we weren't going to tell anyone, but the sadness on his face causes me to bite my tongue.

"I don't know what to say, Sookie. I need to be in Sweden. I know you want to be here and you're family is here, but…"

"We can talk about it later. I don't want to ruin our happy moment. Besides, I don't need the stress. And it'll be easy, right? We can go back and forth." I reach out to take his other hand, turning him to face me completely. I give his hand a squeeze and smile to show him I'm okay with this. His hand moves from my knee, sliding up and down my thigh restlessly.

"Right. But where will the baby be born? Here? Stockholm? That's something we need to decide. We can stay here up until the time you can't fly anymore and go to Stockholm then. Or we can go to Stockholm now and come back before the baby's to be born."

"Yeah, I don't know. I'm only five weeks along now, so we have quite a bit of time to decide. Oh, and tomorrow, I have to meet with my attorney. I set up a trust for Bill's son, Charles and want to make sure everything is set with it."

"You're worried about someone else's kid now? Ours should be more important." His tone is a little harsh, but I ignore it.

I roll my eyes. "Don't you start with me. I made a promise and I'm going to see it through. Once I have, that'll be the last I have to deal with it."

I watch Eric pout a little after my comment. I don't know why he's so bothered by this but I can't do anything to change it now. It's done and I just need to sign a few documents to be sure everything goes through as it should.

"Are you going to tell your friends?" he asks.

"Um, I'm going to try not to but they probably already know." He looks at me quizzically and I nod. "You did tell Gran—the biggest gossip around—so there's no telling who she'll blab to, especially since she's on the phone right now. You've really let the cat out of the bag, you know?"

"There's no way we weren't going to tell your grandmother. You know that as well as I do." He cocks an eyebrow and I giggle.

He's right.

I shake my head. "Right. Okay, sure. But you told her. I was going to finagle my way out of explaining somehow." Truthfully, I was going to break as soon as I saw Gran. Eric just beat me to it. If I could have held out, Gran would have found a way to make me blab. She knows my weakness for sweets.

"I highly doubt that. Will you come home with me tonight?"

Way to change the subject. Just the timbre of his voice set my lower half on fire. If he can do that with just a question…

"I um… I hadn't really thought about it. I guess I can."

"Good. Because I'd like it if you stayed with me. Everything should still be in place from the last time I was there, so it'll be ready for us. I can't wait to get you back in my bed," he waggles his brows.

"Speaking of, what's with you asking the doctor about how much sex we can have?"

"That's a very important question to be asked. Don't you think?" He raises a brow and I melt. Damn sexy eyebrow raise.

"Not the most important thing, no. You were great though. You asked some questions I hadn't even thought of."

He did. I was surprised by how much he knew to ask when I couldn't even process the magnitude of the situation. In fact, I'm still a bit in shock.

"I'm taking this very seriously, Sookie. I want this with you. You know that. And I know you worry about me being younger than you and that I'm not ready, but I am. I just want to prove that to you." He looks serious and I feel abashed.

"You don't have to prove anything to me. I know you want this. I just want you to be sure you can handle it," I sigh.

"I'm a big boy. I can handle anything."

"Even dirty diapers?"

"That remains to be seen." He shudders a bit thinking about that.

I laugh. "I'll take that as a no. Thank you for coming with me today. I really don't like doctors so it means a lot that you were there with me. Which reminds me… I um… I need to tell you something."

"What's that?"

"Amelia found someone for me to talk to. A shrink. You know, to talk about the things I have issue with—mainly Bill. I'm not sure how long I'll have to see this woman, but for now, I think I'll need to stick around until I get things resolved."

"So that settles a few things. We'll stay here until you're ready to go to Stockholm. Will you be okay with that?"

"I think so. Would you be upset if I didn't want to go to Stockholm until after the baby's born?"

He's quiet for a moment. I look up at him and don't really like the look on his face. His brows are furrowed and he seems deep in thought. That makes me worry a little. I really don't want to get into a hardcore, heavy hitting conversation right now. I need to take a breather. I need to…

"I have to pee. Think about it and I'll be right back." I hop off the couch before he can say anything and hightail to the bathroom.