"Arthur!" Gwen yells from across the house, and he cowers a little at her tone.
He racks his mind, trying to anticipate what he's done wrong.
"Yes, love?" He hopes whatever it is can be resolved quickly.
"Come here."
Uh oh.
He drags himself up from his desk and trudges to the living room to find a very unimpressed Gwen sitting with Scout in her lap.
"What. Is. This?" she asks, presenting their daughter's bare feet, which are sticking out of her onesie pajamas.
"Um… Scout's…toes?" he scratches at the back of his head. He knows exactly what she's referring to, but he's hoping by some miracle she hasn't noticed.
She just glares at him.
Right. He should have known. Nothing gets past her. Not even the super-secret surprise party he'd attempted to throw for her birthday the previous month.
"Um, well it's funny, really—"
"Arthur, you know we were saving these? I thought we discussed that! What on Earth possessed you to cut off the feet of her pajamas?"
"I was changing her and she was tripping over herself. They're too small!" he argues defensively.
Gwen looks exasperated. "That's because they're her six month jammies!"
"Well, so? Now they still fit her!"
His wife shakes her head. "Sweetheart, I thought I showed you where her new clothes are. She's been growing faster and we're not using that size anymore. I told you we were saving them."
"Saving them? What for?" He threw his hands in the air. "She's hardly going to start shrinking. What use could we possibly have for them?"
Gwen's mouth falls open and he is sure his logic has prevailed, until he registers the look in her eyes that he's all too familiar with.
The one that's reserved for when he's accidentally said something completely idiotic. The one that means he's unknowingly hurt her.
She stands up, handing the child to him, and storms off to their bedroom without another look.
He's in trouble. Worse trouble than cutting-the-feet-off-your-daughter's-pajamas-so-they'll-fit-and-you-won't-have-to-go-rummaging-for-another-pair trouble.
Bouncing Scout absently in his arms, he plunks down on the sofa, rethinking the conversation. His logic had been sound after all, hadn't it?
He jiggles her on his knee, smiling down at her and playing the game she likes where he dips her low and then brings her back up, making different faces each time.
Then he kisses her fine, curly hair and inhales her unique baby scent that he loves.
"You're not angry with me, are you?" he murmurs to her. She just gurgles a bubble of saliva out of her mouth and turns her head away, flinging a curled fist at his chest and squirming her bare toes against his stomach.
Sighing, he stands to walk her down the hallway and strap her into the baby bouncer where he can see her.
"Guinevere," he says softly from the door to the bedroom. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize... I didn't know you wanted to save them. I should have—"
"You honestly can't think of a single reason why I'd want to save them?" she asks, hurt and cross, but talking to him, which he counts as an improvement.
He just stares, agape, wondering what she wants to hear from him.
"Bloody wonderful, Arthur. Good to know your future son or daughter has absolutely no bearing on your thoughts!"
"My future…? Gwen, we have a daughter—"
She looks away from him, and the small movement catches his eye: her wedding ring twinkling in the light from the nightstand where her hand rests against her abdomen.
"Wait," he says, feeling incredibly foolish. "Are you saying… Guinevere, are we…?"
She turns a tearful glance to him, and it's barely a second before he's at her side, sitting on the bed and taking her hand.
"I was so excited," she says softly, the words thick in her throat, "and I was going to tell you, but then you seemed so busy and I started to wonder if you even wanted another—"
"Gwen, Guinevere," he says, the words tumbling from his lips as he pulls her close and strokes her hair. "Love, of course I do. Don't ever think that I don't—I want to build a family with you. I love you and Scout more than anything in this world, and I'll love our future children just the same. Don't ever doubt that, even if I can be a complete idiot sometimes—"
"All the time," she mumbles through her tears, catching him off guard, and then they're both laughing, though Gwen's is watery.
Arthur clutches her hand tighter, and it begins to sink in. His eyes prickle with moisture and his heart is filled with wonder as he contemplates who the small being inside Gwen is and how much his world will shift again when he or she arrives.
"How long?" he asks quietly, and Gwen sniffs, smiling faintly.
"Ten weeks, I think. I don't know why it took me so long to notice. I should have realized right off. Even you knew early when Scout was conceived."
Arthur thinks back to that moment, and the whirl of emotions he'd experienced, and then of how much joy his tiny daughter brought to their already blissful life.
"Oh, my god," he laughs suddenly, overcome. "We're having another baby."
Gwen looks up at him, and she doesn't have to search his eyes to see how he feels; he is ecstatic. He watches her face transform from one of trepidation to hope, love, and trust, and his heart swells.
"We are," she grins slowly before pulling his head down to kiss her, and they taste the salt of tears on each other's lips.
They stay that way for a while, and when they withdraw for breath, resting their foreheads together and absently stroking each other, Arthur says:
"I promise I won't ruin any more of her clothes. But Guinevere, you know we can get new clothes for the baby if we need to."
"I know," she sighs, her breath hitching. "It's just when I was growing up, my mother recycled all of our clothes, even between me and my brother."
"It's alright, love, we don't have to worry about that. But I promise we'll do this together."
"Thank you, Arthur," she smiles softly. "You're a wonderful father, and the best husband I could ever have wished for."
He waits for the even if you're an idiot most of the time, but it never comes.
A/N: Somehow these have been roughly in order up until now, but it will probably not be as linear going forward. Thank you for your comments! I appreciate them all.