Thank you all very much for the reviews! And a big thank you to my beta, Alisa, for not only editing the chapter but helping with some details about male pregnancy as well.
After going to McDonalds at around midnight almost every day for four weeks, the night shift staff knew exactly who Mac was and what he would order when they saw his car. Well, his and Horatio's car. Their new silver colored Toyota Corolla. It was a better family car then Horatio's "baby"; his 1955 Buick.
So when Mac pulled up at the drive-through at McDonalds one Friday night, he didn't even have to order. He just picked up the food and drove away after chatting a little with the staff. They were used to men and women coming late at night to shop for their pregnant partners.
Horatio's craving wasn't a McDonald's hamburger though, but pineapples. However, during midnight every day since he had been around 10 weeks pregnant, he had demanded two hamburgers to eat. Otherwise he couldn't go back to sleep, he claimed. Before Mac had moved down, Horatio had driven to McDonalds by himself to buy it, now he just forced Mac to do it.
As tired as Mac was during this time of the night, he happily did what his lover wanted or he knew there would be hell to pay. Horatio had always had a temper, but after getting pregnant he couldn't control it as good as before. His mood swings were just the kind Mac had seen in movies sometimes. It was quite amusing to see a grown man almost cry while watching the end of Titanic; something Horatio had never done before. Mac also knew it wasn't easy for the redhead to handle his mood swings. He could go from happy to sad or angry in seconds.
Mac yawned as he pulled into the driveway of his and Horatio's beach house. Horatio was already waiting by the front door and immidiately grabbed the bag of food when Mac approached him. He gave the younger man a quick kiss on the cheek, and went to the kitchen and sat down by the table to eat.
Mac just shook his head amused and watched as Horatio devoured his two hamburgers.
"What's so funny?" Horatio asked, with his mouth full when he saw Mac smile at him.
"You are."
Horatio shrugged and finished his meal.
"I got a new record." He grinned, "I have never finished this fast before."
"Be careful, so you don't choke on it." Mac warned, "You eat as if the food is going to disappear."
"The only place those hamburgers are going is my stomach." Horatio smiled.
The redhead stood up and embraced his lover. He snuggled his face into his chest and listened to Mac's heartbeat.
"Have I told you recently, that I love you?" Horatio asked.
"Yes, every time I bring home two hamburgers for you." Mac chuckled.
"Well, I love you even if you refuse to buy it. Just remember, that I need more pineapples tomorrow." Horatio said.
Mac smiled and grabbed Horatio's hand before leading him to the bedroom. They got undressed and lied down in their king size bed. Horatio fell asleep in seconds and Mac watched him. He put his hand over Horatio's still flat belly.
Calleigh claimed that Horatio was showing slightly, but the others weren't so sure. Horatio might as well just have put on some weight from eating so many hamburgers, although it seemed that no matter what the lieutenant ate he always stayed slim… well, until he got knocked up that is.
When the baby arrived, Horatio was going to take six months off for full-time paternity leave. He had the right to have a year off like the women, but he and Mac had decided that he'd only take six months and then go back to work part-time, (sharing his position with Calleigh so she was the boss when he wasn't in the lab), until their baby turned one. After that Horatio hadn't decided if he wanted to go back to work full-time or continue with working only part-time. Mac had a gut feeling, that the redhead would stick to working only part-time.
-I-
Mac often found Horatio in the bathroom in the mornings, but not because the other man was nauseous anymore. The redhead was first of all an early-riser, but it also seemed as if his body refused to let him sleep past 7am. Horatio would always wake up first and take a long, hot shower; which was usually when Mac woke up and joined him. This morning hadn't been any different and after some nice cuddling in the shower, the two men were getting ready to leave for some shopping for the baby.
"Do you think we'll have more children after this one?" Horatio asked.
He was standing in front of the full-length mirror in the bedroom and rubbing his belly, while patiently waiting for Mac to get dressed so they could go shopping for a crib, some shelves to put the baby's future books in, a baby chair, a swing and a baby car seat.
"Yeah, maybe. I think we should wait to decide that, until after we have our first bundle of joy though." Mac smiled.
The fact that Horatio was older made it more difficult for him to get pregnant. Unlike women; men, (those that had the ability to become pregnant), could get pregnant throughout their lives. However, their chances of getting pregnant got slimmer as they got older and also their chances of keeping the baby and not having a miscarriage.
Another thing that kept men from having "too many" children, was the fact that after being pregnant 3 to 5 times the body said "stop". Scientists had long searched for a specific reason as to why the male body simply rejected any pregnancy after a while, but they were to this day somewhat clueless about it. Their theory was that it was simply the body's way of saying that enough was enough. It was highly unusual for men to get pregnant six or seven times.
Mac had read a lot about male pregnancy on the internet, and Horatio's doctor had also told them everything that the scientists knew so far about it.
Through the internet Mac had also found support groups for pregnant men and their partners. However, Horatio had been in a bad mood when Mac had suggested that they should go to one of the groups meetings ,so he had refused to be part of any support group at all.
However, after a little persuasion the redhead had at least agreed to chat online with other pregnant men; some of which were pregnant for the second, third or even fourth time. The men who were not pregnant for the first time, acted as coaches and could often give pep talks to the pregnant partner when he was having a bad day or the not pregnant partner when he was having a bad day or simply didn't know how to handle all the mood swings and cravings.
"Let's go." Mac smiled when he was dressed.
Before the two men could drive to IKEA though, Horatio wanted to have some tea. A special herbal caffeine free tea, that Alexx had suggested he'd take instead of coffee. It had taken a few days to get used to the tea, but now he loved it more than coffee.
Even Mac drank the tea instead of coffee, just to show that even he could quit the caffeine addiction no matter how hard it was. Even if he wasn't the one who was pregnant, it was a way of supporting his lover.
After having his tea, Horatio and Mac could finally get on their way to IKEA.
Once they were there it proved to be easy to find a crib and some shelves, but harder to find a swing, a baby chair and a car seat. There were many different colors and Mac (who thought the baby was a girl) wanted a girlish color. While Horatio wasn't so sure about the gender of the baby and therefore wanted a neutral color.
"What if the baby is a boy and all we have bought is girl-stuff and clothes?" Horatio asked, "And a pink car seat."
"Well, you know we don't have to be so stereotypical." Mac smiled, "What boy can't sit in a pink car seat?"
"You're hopeless." Horatio rolled his eyes, "I'm taking this baby chair; it's just a chair anyway."
Horatio picked out a red swing and a black car seat, while Mac picked out a light green swing and a pink car seat.
"Okay, this is crazy. We need a third person's opinion." Horatio chuckled and pulled his cell phone from his jeans pocket.
He dialed Frank's number and the Texan picked up after the first ring.
"Frank, Mac and I need your help." Horatio said, "What is best out of the following; a red swing or a light green one?"
"Um… red." Frank said.
"Okay. What about car seats then, a pink one or black one?"
"Well, black is kind of boring don't you think?" Frank said, "I guess Mac picked out the pink one, huh?"
"Yes."
"What other colors are there?"
"Dark blue, light blue, green, red, white, orange, yellow and even purple." Horatio said.
"Take orange." Frank said.
"Orange?"
"Yeah, it works for both boys and girls."
"Yeah, alright. Thanks Frank." Horatio said and hung up.
"Alright, you win. We take the red swing." Mac said, "Why did Frank say we should take the orange car seat?"
"He said it works for both boys and girls."
Mac and Horatio took a closer look at the orange car seat. Frank was right. It wasn't even completely orange in Mac's opinion, more like orange-yellow. But it looked quite nice.
"Alright, we'll take that one." Mac smiled.
Horatio grinned and picked it up. Then the two lovers went to the cash desks to pay.
-I-
Ryan and Eric would usually spend their weekends partying or just being lazy after a week of hard work. However, they had decided to help Mac and Horatio put together the crib and the baby chair, as well as putting the shelves on the wall.
"H… if you look at the manual, you might actually be able to put the chair together today." Eric pointed out when Horatio failed for the fourth time to put the, "useless piece of crap" as he called it, together.
"I don't need NO freaking manual." He muttered.
"Of course not. You'll probably succeed after ten tries. You just keep fighting the chair H, I'm cheering for you." Eric smirked.
Horatio rolled his eyes and snatched the manual out of Eric's hand. The younger man watched amused, as Horatio realized that he had put the wrong screws at the wrong places. Horatio slapped his hand against his forehead and sighed heavily.
In the bedroom Mac and Ryan had just finished putting the crib together, and were now moving on to the shelves. Three shelves were going on to the wall; it would seem as an easy thing to do for two grown men… but no, the shelves were heavier than Mac and Ryan had thought and also longer. It was hard for Ryan to hold it up while Mac tried to use the screwdriver to fasten them to the wall.
After failing three times, they gave up and called for Eric to come and help them.
"Did you guys read the manual?" Eric asked.
"Yes." Ryan said, "Why wouldn't we?"
"H doesn't." Eric shrugged, "Well, he didn't until I suggested it to him."
Mac chuckled and they all listened, when they heard a string of curses coming from the kitchen as Horatio failed again.
"Horatio... love, please take a break." Mac called out.
"I don't need a break!" Horatio growled.
"I think you do, or else there won't be much left of that chair." Mac said.
They heard Horatio mutter something incoherent before the front door opened and closed as Horatio went for a walk.
"I've never seen him so angry." Ryan said.
"Oh he's not angry. He's just a little annoyed right now." Mac grinned, "You should see him when I tell him that I forgot to buy pineapples, and then you'll see a very angry Horatio Caine."
Ryan and Eric chuckled as they imagined poor Mac trying to calm down his angry lover. They could only imagine how pissed Horatio really got and just because he didn't get his precious pineapples; pregnancy sure was a funny thing.
By the time Horatio got back, the three men had put the shelves on the wall and finished with the baby chair. They were relaxing on the back porch with some beer and pizza. Horatio sighed as he joined them and sat down next to his lover by the round table. Mac handed him a bottle of water and Horatio immidiately drank half of it.
"Feel better?" Eric asked.
"Yeah, sorry about that guys." Horatio sighed.
"No need to apologize H." Ryan smiled, "We're used to your mood swings at work and even then you hold back."
"Well, I can't go around getting angry outbursts at work, can I?"
"No. Well… it depends on who is there when you get it." Eric said, "The team can handle it, but maybe not the Chief."
"Then it's a good thing he almost never visits the lab." Horatio said.
"I just wish I had videotaped you when you tried to put the chair together, H." Eric smirked.
"Well you had your chance and you missed it." Horatio said.
"There will be more opportunities to videotape you." Eric grinned, "Like when you get that killer look in your eyes when somebody doesn't answer their phone."
"People should answer their phones." Horatio muttered.
"You would have never been angry at that before you got pregnant." Ryan said.
"Hey! Be nice to me; I'm knocked up and you're making fun of me." Horatio exclaimed.
"You have to admit that you're funny when you're cursing at whoever you care calling if they don't pick up." Eric chuckled, "And best part is that you can be pissed about it for hours."
Horatio had to admit that it was probably fun to see their usually in-control-at-all-times-boss suddenly get angry for such little things. He couldn't help but laugh and the other three men soon joined in.
Mac kissed Horatio's brow and handed him a slice of pizza.
"Did you put the chair together?" He asked.
"Yeah." Mac said.
"But that was my job."
"If we would have let you do it then it would have taken all night." Mac chuckled.
Horatio stuck his tongue out at his lover and grabbed Mac's pizza box. He got up and sat down on the other side of the table next to Ryan. Mac reached for the pizza but Horatio was quicker and pulled it out his reach.
"You want pizza, you order a new one." Horatio smirked, "I'm eating for two so I need this more than you."
"I'm afraid he got you there, Mac." Ryan grinned and Eric nodded in agreement.
"Once the baby is born I am so getting back at you for this." Mac growled playfully with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
Please reviews and do you guys have anymore name suggestions?...also: what is a "babysitter"...NOT, the "human" kind.
Editor/Beta's notes: "I apologize if I've missed any mistakes, I am human...I do my best to catch ALL mistakes, but some can slip through.Thanks, Alisa"