I asked my DH to tell me what other guys said to him before we had kids. We agreed that the usual "You can't even imagine how your life is about to change." is pretty lame. But then we tried to describe how it changes and we couldn't quite do it. Neither of us can really remember what it was like before kids anymore. We remember how we used to spend our free time...oh free time you splendid precious thing that I used to waste like there was no tomorrow...but we can't remember what we thought about and felt before kids. Sleep deprivation, keeping track of everyone's schedules, endless laundry, and still remembering to brush your teeth at least twice a day will do that to you.

**Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On, Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham**

"Congratulations man." Burk slapped Danny on the shoulder. "I don't know what you were waiting for."

Tex stroked his gray beard. "Well, Thank God you finally did it. At the rate you were going I thought you'd be on your third kid before you asked her."

Kara grinned at Tex "Oh no. This is a one time deal. Pregnancy is miserable. Why does anyone ever do this a second time?"

Tex smiled ruefully. "Two reasons, one you will be so in love with your kid the moment you see them that you will immediately want a whole passel of them. Two, by the time they are one years old you will be so sleep deprived that when you finally get some adult time by yourselves, you will forget all about how you got this one in the first place." The tipsy group laughed and the fathers among them nodded at Tex's sage wisdom. Danny wondered if what Tex said was true. He hadn't expected to have any kids, never mind lots of them. But when he looked at Kara all round and soft the way she was now, he thought about it, a lot.

Kara stifled a yawn as she looked around the hotel lobby. The inauguration party was beginning to wind down. Many of the officers had already gone off to bed. The lights had been dimmed for more intimate conversations. The President and Commander Chandler had settled into a nook off to one side for what looked like an intense conversation. Several young ensigns and enlisted were setting up a drinking game at a collection of couches to their left. Danny saw Kara shifting back and forth as if her feet hurt and he knew she'd been ready for bed hours ago. She leaned into his side a little more.

"Come on, I think it's long past the point when leaving would be rude." He felt her give a warm shiver as he spoke into her ear.

"I agree, please tell me that Engineer Rho got the elevators working because I am dead on my feet."

Danny took her hand and placed it in his elbow, careful to follow every regulation to a T in public. "Come on. If the elevator isn't working I'll carry you."

She laughed softly, and he understood that she was trying not to draw attention to the fact that they were leaving together. Although their relationship was common knowledge now, it still felt odd to openly be a couple. Chandler had asked them to keep it professional when on duty. And, although this was a party, they were still in uniform which made it still feel a little weird.

Once in the hallway she stopped and slipped off her shiny black shoes. Her audible sigh of relief brought a smile to Danny's lips. "Feel better?"

"Yes, Andrea warned me that I would grow a shoe size but I didn't really believe her. I guess I should have. Tomorrow I'm going to have to ask if anyone has an idea where I can find a larger pair of regulation shoes or ask Chandler if he can give me a waiver to substitute something else." Danny punched the elevator button and eyed the small red triangle lit up on the door frame. "I'm going to take that a good sign, but if the elevator doesn't show, I don't think you should carry me."

He leaned back on the wall between the two sets of metal doors. "Why not? Doubting my abilities again Foster?"

At that she threw her head back and laughed out loud. He loved it when she laughed so freely. "Never again. No, It's just that I'm like two people now and it is six floors."

It was his turn to grin. "Well, you may be two people now, but you're both tiny and I'm pretty sure I can make it, but if it worries you that much, I could commandeer a 1st floor room for you instead." Now she was just being ridiculous. He could carry Burk up the stairs if the situation called for it.

When she smiled at him this time, it took his breath away. After all of the shitty things that had happened in the last four months, this one perfect thing made it all ok. He was scared out of his mind about the future but he knew one thing with absolute certainty. He loved this woman and he was excited to make a life with her. He would do anything to keep her, and soon their child, safe and happy. She was standing by the stairs, holding out her hand. "Come on sailor. I need the exercise and.." She leaned in and lowered her voice once more. "I think we need more privacy than the first floor can provide."

Five minutes later he ducked through the door between their suites. Chandler's answer to the issue of sleeping quarters had been to have them assigned adjoining rooms and warn them that they were expected to act professionally in public, which suited Danny just fine. After all that time at sea, having all this space to themselves was positively decadent. Halsey shot across through the doorway without so much as a head butt in greeting as he went to check on Kara. He heard her cluck at the dog from where she was sitting on the sofa removing her shoes. "Hey boy! Come up here and say good evening!"

"I thought we agreed that one would be the fur-free couch!" He called as he tucked his dress shoes into a pair of panty hose he used to protect them from scuffing when he wasn't wearing them.

"He's on the floor!" He smiled and headed into his bathroom to brush his teeth. Ha. The minute that damn dog figured out that was where Kara liked to sit, he'd be all over that spot the second she left the room.

He returned from changing and brushing his teeth to find her right where he left her except now her head had flopped onto the back of the couch and she was snoring lightly, a shoe in one hand, and the other laying protectively over her tiny baby bump with the slightest glint of sparkle reflecting back at him as she breathed in and out. He pulled out his phone and took a short video of her as proof that she'd begun snoring lately. Figuring his plans for the rest of the evening were shot, he bent to undo the other shoe. He had just placed it with its mate under the end table when he heard the shot. Kara's head jerked forward. "Was that?"

He and the dog sprang into action, adrenaline surging. It had sounded like it came from the floor above, to the west end of the building. Double checking the locks on her door and then striding toward his own little efficiency kitchen he called over his shoulder. "It certainly sounded like it."