I don't own the Orville.

Living with Gordon was nothing like Alara had thought it would be. He was neat, picked up after himself and took time out of his day to spend with Jack. It was like he wanted to be there, had always been there.

But Alara couldn't help the pain she felt when she watched him bunk down on the couch. No matter what she said, he didn't want to be in the bed with her. She didn't understand why. What had changed?

Gordon seemed the same around her and others, joking and laughing all the time. She wasn't sure what was going on in that head of his. All she knew was she didn't like it.

After a week of being on the Orville, Alara took Jack to check in with Claire. She would have to put Jack in the ship's daycare facilities while she and Gordon worked, but first he had to be checked out and made sure he was healthy enough to be around the other children.

"He's a healthy baby boy," Claire declared as she handed Jack back to Alara. "A bit of a mischievous one too. He'll probably grow up to be a prankster like his father."

Alara smiled. "Probably, but I hope he gets something from me. He is already looking more and more like Gordon everyday."

Claire chuckled before looking up from putting in her notes about the exam. "I'm sure he will. It will be the best of both of you. That's usually how it works."

Alara nodded. Claire tilted her head slightly before asking. "So, how's Gordon taking all this?"

Alara rocked Jack slightly. "Fine, better than fine actually. You would think that he planned to have a child this whole time the way he fawns over Jack."

"How about you?"

Alara looked at Claire a bit confused. "What do you mean?"

Claire shrugged one shoulder. "Well, this was a bit of a surprise, for everyone. Most people are wondering how you two got so close. You seemed to be friends, but didn't seem to have the type of relationship that would mean sleeping together."

Alara nodded. "We were friends, are friends," she said. "I was going through some things a year ago and the night Jack was created was a result of my stupidity. I got drunk and basically threw myself at Gordon, who happened to be the person who was helping me get back to my room that night." She looked down at Jack. "Despite everything, I am glad I have Jack."

"Do you love him?"

"Jack?" Alara said with a laugh. "Of course, he's the most important person in the world to me."

Claire smiled but shook her head. "No, do you love Gordon?"

Alara froze. Love Gordon? She hadn't thought about that before. So much had happened that she had pushed all thoughts of love out her mind. Could that be why it hurt when he wouldn't sleep next to her? Could that be why she had been so upset about Amara flirting with him? Had she been jealous? Is that why she couldn't sleep without dreaming of him? Why her thoughts were filled with him?

Was she in love with Gordon?

She looked at Claire with wide eyes. Claire was still smiling, as if she had asked the question already knowing the answer. Alara wished she would tell her, because right now she was so confused about this. She cared for Gordon, more so than she had anyone else before until Jack. She liked being around him, he made her smile, he could make the day better just by being himself.

Was that love? Real love?

"I..."

"Bridge to Lt. Kitan!"

Bortus' voice rang out in the medical bay. Jack moved in her arms at the sudden noise before settling. Alara took a deep breath. "Go ahead," she replied, honestly confused about the call. She wasn't cleared to return to work yet.

"The Captain is requesting your presence on the bridge. Your father has contacted us."

Alara felt fire fill her veins, anger flooding her senses. Damn her father. She had told him that she would discuss Jack's father with him after she was sure what was going to happen with that. Things were still up in the air between Gordon and herself. Why was he contacting the bridge instead of her directly?

"On my way." She turned to Claire. "Could you watch him?" she asked hopefully. "This could get out of hand quickly."

Claire nodded. "Sure. I was just about to take a break anyways."

"Thanks," Alara said before handing Jack over to Claire and heading to the bridge, praying that Gordon wasn't there. This didn't need to get complicated, and if her father figured out that Gordon was Jack's father, it would get very complicated.

As luck would have it, she ran into Gordon just outside the bridge. She could hear her father yelling, something he rarely did unless he was really angry. She grabbed Gordon's arm and kept him from walking into view.

"Wait," she said. "That's my father in there and he isn't very happy with Jack's father, with you."

Gordon looked at her with confusion. "Why?"

Alara heard Ed respond with a calmer voice, but then her father's louder voice overshadowed Ed's.

"Let's just say, he wasn't thrilled that I returned home pregnant and unmarried," she said. "Just please wait here until I talk to him."

Gordon looked like he wanted to say more, but Alara didn't wait. Instead she walked out onto the bridge to face her father.

"Captain, I demand to know who the father is!"

"Dad," Alara said calmly, staring at the man on the viewfinder. "We talked about this. Jack's father is between me and him. You are not involved."

She walked in and stood next to Ed, her eyes focused on the angry man on the screen.

"Not involved?" her father screeched. "He is my grandson, my first. I sure am involved."

From his hiding place, Gordon listened to the conversation. Apparently Alara's father wasn't taking the whole unwed mother thing as calmly as Alara would have liked. It killed him to know that he had caused this problem in Alara's life, with her family.

"We are his parents," Alara responded. "We will decide what is best for him."

"We?" her father replied. "A man who abandoned my daughter to raise his child alone gets no say in any decisions."

Gordon felt anger fill him at those words. He would never have abandoned Alara, pregnant or not. Every move he had made lately has been for her happiness over his own, something he rarely did for any other person before.

"Dad," Alara said, her tone clearly angry. Gordon took a deep breath to calm his own anger to hear her words. "I was not abandoned, I told you that multiple times. Until I returned to the Orville he didn't even know that I was pregnant. I made the choice to keep quiet about it, to keep it from him. A choice I have come to regret. Since he learned about Jack he's been a wonderful father to him."

"Is he planning to marry you?"

Gordon wanted to, which surprised him. He had always thought that anything would be better for him than marriage. His parents marriage was a failure, Ed's ended in divorce and heartache. He had never wanted that for himself.

Of course, that was before Alara.

"If he doesn't than he may not be the best choice for Jack."

Gordon fought the urge to rush out there and give that man a piece of his mind.

"Who else would be a better choice for Jack than his own father?" Alara said firmly.

"Anything is better than a man with no morals who left my daughter pregnant and alone. You made a mistake getting caught up with a man like that."

Gordon couldn't take this anymore. He knew that this had to be hurting Alara. That man Alara called her father could say anything he wanted about him, but he wouldn't say a damn word about Alara like this.

"Dad," Alara said. "We will make all decisions regarding what is best for..."

"He's got to be the one! Jack looks just like him!"

Alara turned to find that Gordon had walked out onto the bridge, right into view of her father. She could have killed him. She had been trying so hard to keep her father from making this more complicated and Gordon just had to ruin it.

Alara turned back to the screen. "Dad..."

"Do you plan to marry my daughter?"

Alara froze. It was then she remembered that she was on a full bridge, with Ed and Kelly right next to her, and everyone was hearing this conversation, staying quiet to hear the answer to that question.

"Well," her father continued, "are you going to marry her and make this right?"

Alara took a step forward, hoping that somehow she could just end this whole conversation now. "Dad, this is..."

"Yes."

Whatever Alara had been planning to say flew out of her head at Gordon's voice. She turned to him with wide eyes. Had he just said what she thought he had?

Alara wasn't the only one who had turned. All eyes had turned on the redhead, who was looking at her father with a firm gaze.

Even her father seemed taken aback by that response, the anger gone from his voice. "What did you..."

In the calmest voice she had ever heard from him, Gordon said, "You asked if I was planning to marry your daughter. If I, the man you believed abandoned," Gordon nearly growled the word, "her, was going to make this right. I said yes."

If the first time he said it had shocked her, the second time nearly floored her. What the hell was he doing? Why did the idea fill her with happiness?

She thought back to Claire's earlier question. Was she in love with Gordon?

"Now," Gordon continued, "we are a Union ship with Union missions to complete. Since this has been cleared up I say farewell."

Gordon then crossed the room to her old station, reached over the man sitting there in shock and disconnected the call. Her father disappeared from the view finder, but the room remained silent.

Alara couldn't keep her eyes off Gordon's back, her emotions running all over the place. She wanted to ask him if he meant it, but was terrified he didn't. She wanted to run to him and hold him in her arms.

She wanted him to be hers. She wanted him to want to marry her.

The realization washed over as she knew without a doubt that she loved him.

She loved Gordon.

Before she could say anything, Gordon turned and walked off the bridge, not even waiting for anyone to say anything to him or to be dismissed. Alara watched him leave, still too in shock with everything that had just happened and everything she had just realized to run after him.

"What just happened?" Ed said, breaking the silence after Gordon was gone.

"Lt. Malloy stated that he would wed Lt. Kitan," Isaac said as if Ed had asked a real question. "It will be fascinating to witness."

"Alara?" Kelly said, drawing Alara's gaze from where Gordon had disappeared. "Did you know?"

"Know?"

"That Gordon wanted to marry you?"

Alara shook her head. Everything was so confusing. Gordon had told he that he wanted to be in Jack's life, but didn't want to sleep next to her. Told her father than the was going to marry her, but she knew that he planned to never marry anyone. "I'm so confused."

"Had you two talked about it?"

Alara shook her head. "No, it never came up. Not once."

Alara looked at where Gordon had disappeared. "Maybe he just said it put my Dad off track," she said. Logically that made the most sense, even if she didn't want that to be true.

"I don't know," Ed said firmly. "I've never seen Gordon so serious. If he was just trying to throw your father off, he was pretty convincing."

Alara wasn't sure what to think anymore. Although her feelings for Gordon were clear to her now, she had no idea how he felt about her.

And Alara was terrified to ask him.