Evenin' gang. I am soooo behind at work so that means if you're lucky you might get a second chapter out of me in the next twelve hours. I'm slamming coffee anyways and writing is my favourite form of procrastination. Gotta get some actual shit done until this Fanfiction gig starts paying the bills (if only your kind reviews paid the bills, I could live where John and Alex do, you guys really mean the world to me). I had way too much fun writing lecturer Alex, hope you love reading him. Thank you thank you a million times over. I'm off to go 'get work done.'

Okay, okay, deep breath, just like you've been practicing. I opened the door.

"Good evening, I'm Alicia, your caseworker."

I let the well dressed woman in, heavily exhaling. This is it. John greeted her in the living room. We talked casually for a few moments, I could tell she was looking for certain answers. I spoke easily with her while John clammed up. She interviewed us each privately as well as together to address every aspect of our lives, past present, and future. Alicia inspected our apartment, impressed will all of the modifications we'd made. It took about two hours to get through the meeting.

"Well, gentlemen, you've certainly gone above and beyond to prepare, I'm delighted to recommend you for placement. Now we wait."

John and I stared at each other, I spoke first, "that's it?"

She nodded, "rarely do we see a couple so prepared. Should be in the next six months you'll have your baby."

John grinned at me, I returned the smile.

"Thank you so much." He was beaming.

"So, that's really it?" I asked again.

"That's it. I wish all couples made my job this easy."

"Well… well, thank you so much."

I walked her out and thanked her again. John could barely contain himself when I got back to the couch. He bolted up and hugged me. We stood there swaying.

"It's really gonna happen." He sighed.

"Sure is," I bent up and kissed his cheek, "now I just need to make it through the next month and get done with this semester."

"Then we get to go on our honeymoon."

"You ever going to tell me where that is?"

He grinned, "nope."

"Surprises are the worst."

"You've mentioned that."

"Come on, John. Give me a hint. A little hint."

"No, I'm scared you'll figure it out, you're too smart."

"I bet I won't. Just a little hint."

He narrowed his eyes at me, "fine... Neither of us have been there."

I thought about it, "hold on, need pen and paper." I pulled away and started to retreat to my makeshift study.

He gripped me around the waist and pulled me back, "no! If you do that you'll figure it out."

I stood stock straight and grumbled, he was right, if given the opportunity to make a list of all the places that I remembered us talking about not having been I would probably be able to narrow it down enough to figure it out. It was a logical solution, if that was the clue, it meant that we had both talked about the location as a place that we hadn't been, which there couldn't be too many that we discussed, even less so were desirable honeymoon locations. I shut my eyes and ran my teeth over my lip, hand fidgeting across my thigh where it hung, writing on the tablet of my mind.

John pressed his hands to either side of my head and whined, "Alex, no! Stop thinking! Stop!" He sustained the vowel for a full breath.

I opened my eyes and grinned at him around my bitten lip.

"Godammit! You figured it out already, didn't you?" he flung his hands to his sides and dropped his head back in defeat, his eyes betraying a smile.

I smirked, "I don't think so, but it's cute seeing you all flustered."

"You're totally going to figure it out now. Ugh, this is why I didn't want to give you a clue."

"You could just tell me."

"Not a chance. You'll find out in June."

"Alright, I'll leave you be. Just… first, a quick question. What airline?"

"No." He knit his eyebrows and his lips twitched, not telling me was starting to eat him alive

"Which airport?"

"No." His nostrils flared.

"What time is our flight scheduled for?"

"No!" He looked pained as he whined. I could almost see the secret in his eyes, begging to be let out.

I got closer to him and nipped at his ear, feeling the chill run through his body, he closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath.

I took the opportunity to reach a hand down between his legs.

"This feels like bribery." He complained.

"That's what having your husband's hand cupping your balls feels like, huh?"

"This is… it's... extortion."

"No, it's not. There's no threat. What am I threatening you with? An orgasm? Don't try to out-lawyer me."

"Ugh, fine, isn't there some legal term for what you're doing?"

"Nope, no need to get the law involved. Just a man seducing his husband after a successful interview in which all of our hopes and dreams get to come true.. And, I mean, if that husband wanted to - in the throes of his ecstasy - announce the destination of their honeymoon, that would be fine, too."

"Keep dreaming. I'll take a blow job, though." He winked.

"Sorry, I'm a prostitute, not a ho. I don't work for free. Pay me in answers"

He grabbed me tight to him and pressed a kiss to my temple, the will to banter leaving him, "I love you so much. We're really gonna be dads."

The game was over… for now, "I love you, too. Now we just have to wait, but I still have papers to write for the next month. So, I'm going to go and get that started."

He sighed and nodded, realizing I meant that I was in for a late night, "want me to make you some coffee?"

"You don't have to."

"I know." He kissed my temple for a second time and released me. I sat at my desk and started working, feeling the pressure of deadlines hurting toward me.

John brought me a hot cup of coffee and watched over my shoulder as I typed. He got out his pencils and sat on the floor against the wall, I watched him watch me and knew that I was his subject. I ignored it and kept working until I realized I was falling asleep. John still sat on the floor sketching, blanket now wrapped around his shoulders, half drank cup of tea beside him.

"Okay. That's all I can do tonight." I glanced at the time in the corner of the computer. It was after four in the morning.

"Oh, thank God." John stood up.

"You could have gone to bed."

"Wanted to be close to you."

"I wasn't going anywhere. You could have gotten a decent night's sleep."

"Just wanted to be by you." He flopped into bed.

I set my alarm and fell asleep, John resting his head on my chest.

I managed to make class on time, doing better on little sleep this morning than John. I turned in my papers and tried to focus during the lecture.

At work, I settled in at my desk, trying to get us ahead of schedule so I could leave in a few weeks with a clear conscience. Madison's boyfriend… Lafayette's cousin, Thomas was there again, just hanging out on the couch, I could see why Lafayette wasn't the biggest fan. Guy was smart... I had to give due credit, but he was pompous, spending most days just sitting in the office, waiting on James to be done.

I got a text and checked it, from John.

Bad news

I felt my heart sink and stepped outside and called him, instinctively feeling in all my pockets for a pack of cigarettes that hadn't been there for almost three months. He didn't answer.

John, you can't text shit like that and then not answer. What?

Sorry cant talk still in meeting. Going on assignment

Assignment?

To DC next week for at least 3 days

That's not so bad.

But Ill miss you

I smiled at my phone like an idiot, dammit, John, get me all worked up and then be so fucking cute about it.

I'll miss you, too.

I worked a little late, trying to make up for the lost time from being in class. John was home when I arrived, sitting on the sofa, a piece of pizza hanging out of his mouth, brows furrowed at his computer screen while he edited a photograph of a fire hydrant.

"You're a bizarre little creature." I kissed the top of his head. He took a bite of the pizza. Using his hands to hold it now.

"Hi. Have a good day?"

"Good enough. Thomas was there again."

"Again?"

I nodded.

John finished his pizza, "so, Adams said I'm leaving Monday, be back Thursday night. Bunch of press conferences, I guess."

"That's alright, I'll just be working anyway."

"I knew you'd say that. Dinner's in the kitchen."

I got a piece of pizza, not really caring about the bizarre combo of green peppers and pineapple and sat down with John. He closed his computer and looked at me.

"You working tonight?" he asked.

"Yeah, this case we're studying is going to be the death of me."

"Almost done," He trailed his fingers over my arm, "you don't think we'll miss out on a baby because we go on vacation do you?"

"No, we're still allowed to have real lives."

He nodded. I looked at my phone, "fuck, it's already seven, I gotta go get myself set up, Polly's skyping me soon for her English paper. Which reminds me, you do know what contractions are, right? Like 'can't', 'don't', 'wouldn't'. They teach that in South Carolina?"

He made a puzzled face, "yeah."

I shook my head, "God, you're bad at texting."

"Whatever, I get my point across."

I rolled my eyes and clicked open the Skype app on my laptop. Polly called shortly thereafter.

"'Sup, brother-in-law?" she grinned on the screen.

"You don't have to keep calling me that." I smirked.

"It's still fun. I'm gonna ride it out for at least another month."

"Alright, so what are we working on?"

She rolled her eyes and sank back into her chair, "stupid freaking Animal Farm. Like, it's just a worse version of Charlotte's Web."

John called over from the couch, resuming work on his computer, "Charlotte's Web is a really good book!"

Polly looked for John behind me and then resorted to shouting, a time honoured Laurens family tradition, "I know, right!"

"I think it might be the last book I truly enjoyed!"

"Me, too!"

I rubbed my temples, "ack! You read that in the fourth grade, find better books, like, like the Odyssey or, or, or The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, or, Christ, Voltaire? Don Quixote? You can't really tell me Charlotte's Web is the greatest literary work!"

Polly giggled, "when you're stomach's empty and your mind is full it's hard to sleep."

"True dat!" John called.

"You people are bizarre," I tented my hands in front of me, "so Animal Farm.'

Polly got back on topic, "right. Stupid Animal Farm. It's just so dumb. Like a revolt from farm animals? Is this about being vegan or something?"

"Dude, no," I exhaled, "it's about communism, Orwell was this huge Socialist, right?"

John shouted, "like Bernie Sanders."

"Hush, I'm giving a lesson over here," I hissed.

"Feel the Bern!" John whooped.

"Stop talking. Anyway, okay, so," I found the cap of a pen and held it between my first two fingers while I gesticulated in front of me, "the animals are just people, break it down to that, just people versus people, but in the forties, shit's kind of tense, right? So Orwell, smart dude, kind of a whack job, can't just be like, 'ugh, Stalin, and Communism,' so he writes this book that's all, 'ugh, Animalism,' and people in that era totally see through it, it's straight up propaganda."

"So why are we reading it?"

"Well, it's a classic, for one, great intro to Orwell, but more than that, you get this whole anti-capitalist anti-totalitarian sentiment, too. Which is totally still a thing. Capitalism is alive and well, which, I mean, Capitalism started out great! Go Capitalism. When our country was a baby, we needed to figure out our debts, I mean, you've got us trying to break it off with England and figure out trade, so national bank, definitely the way to go," I lifted the pen cap to my mouth and held it between my teeth, talking around it, "states were still trying to figure out how to do the whole united as a country thing, right? Like, you've got Virginia out there, just planting and slaving and having a grand ole time, meanwhile New York - who actually got shit done - is swimming in debt because we've been up north winning wars and starting the actual 'running a country' thing and all that good shit. So, boom, you get a national bank, and move some things around, let the union assume state's debts, and you get a new line of credit. It never really worked the right way, because, you know, Congress and shit, so Capitalism started out great, but then it got all bastardized into what we have today which is megalomaniac billionaires who, you know, become president and sell Christmas Ornaments, effectively making them more money, while poor Flint, Michigan doesn't even have clean water to drink. You go over to 1940's Russia or USSR or what have you and it's super duper jacked up. Really bad over there, worse than what we're seeing today because you get those dudes who take the good idea that Capitalism is supposed to be, like the idea of you inheriting your spouse's debts when you get married because all for one, you're one entity - sorry about those student loans, John - and then you balance it all out, but no you go over to forties Russia and you've got this whole absolute power corrupts absolutely thing that happens so it butchers good Capitalism and turns it into Totalitarianism."

John was behind me, and put his hands on my shoulders, "are you even still talking about Animal Farm?"

I drew the pen cap from between my teeth and held it in my fingers again, "well, yeah, but if you don't get the whole Capitalism thing-"

"I get it!" Polly was staring wide eyed into her webcam.

"If you don't get that part then you think that Animal Farm is just Charlotte's Web. That's… I can't let her think that." I told John.

"I don't! I promise! It's nothing like Charlotte's Web! It's about banks, yay banks, but also boo banks! Communism sucks!" Polly was insisting.

"She gets it," John rested his chin on the crown of my head, "hi, Poll."

"Hi, Jackie."

"Alright, you get it, so what's the assignment?"

"I have to write two pages about how the pigs keep their authority."

"Boom, easy, done, whatcha got? Lay it on me!"

She looked at her notebook, "they, uh, well they say 'four legs good, two legs bad.'"

"Good start, what else?"

"Oh, uh, no, that's it."

I put the pen cap back between my teeth and helped her come up with strong arguments, our conversation took almost three hours, but she came up with a decent first draft.

"Thanks, Alexander, I can at least show up with this for peer review, can you help me again?"

"Yup. Just send me a copy of the edits your classmates suggest, actually, no, don't, just send your draft, forget what they say."

"Learning to take criticism is important!" John called.

"Yeah, sure, but not from losers!" I retorted.

Polly and I finally hung up and I started on my own homework.

"Poor love, now you're going to have a really long night."

"I don't mind, kid needed help."

"You're really sweet to help my sister."

"Not a big deal." I told him.

"Kind of a big deal. You're sweet."

"I've warned you before not to stare into my sweetness, you'll break it."

"Worth it." He nudged into me and went to sit back on the couch and keep working.

I kept working for the next two hours, John got up to get a snack, just a jar of peanut butter and a spoon, and kept working.

"I hate this." I complained, moving on to the fourth case, rolling my wrists, letting them click, trying to relieve some of the tension.

"Me, too. I got strapped with so much in order to go out on assignment… Like I had an option!" John was exasperated.

"I know. Adams is a fucking prick."

"Word." He agreed.

"So…" I trailed off.

"Sex break?" He suggested.

"I'm fucking down." I shut the lid of my laptop and bolted to his side.