xviii.

Rikki clutched her belly with a startled cry. She'd felt an odd sensation during the change that was unlike anything she'd felt before. At first she panicked that it was a dreadful omen and the baby was in danger, but the panic passed and turned to excitement as soon as she realised what had really happened.

Zane immediately began to pepper her with concerns. "What is it? What's wrong? Does it hurt? It didn't hurt before. " His view of her was from an awkward angle, but he didn't remember her belly being quite so round before. Of course, it had been months since he'd seen her in this state, but it wasn't something he was likely to forget anytime soon. Or ever.

"No, I... just... please Zane, you need to leave!"

She was pushing at him even as he held her up and kept her from falling—as if hitting the hard tile floor was preferable to being touched by him.

He tried not to focus on the hurt that urged him to oblige her.

"Rikki, stop shoving me, I'm not going anywhere. Not when you're hurt!"

She groaned in frustration but finally allowed him to support her. "Should I get help? Get Lewis, anything?"

"No! It's just... I just..."

"You what? Tell me what's going on!"

"I haven't felt the guppy kick before!" she finally blurted, her voice a mixture of excitement and irritation before she paled, evidently realising what she'd just announced.

"Guppy? What are you...?" he blanched at the way she cupped her hands protectively around her naked abdomen, making void any suppositions about the new lump being from an uncontrolled sweet tooth.

But the alternative was too surreal to process.

"You... you're..."

"Do you think he kicked because he doesn't like me transforming?" she asked in a low voice, as if to herself and not meaning for him to hear at all. It made far too much sense to Zane now, the way she ignored him to talk to her belly as if it was another person. Or... or contained another person.

"He?" he pressed, trying to set her down gently on the floor without letting go of her completely. Rikki probably had never been all that heavy on her own, but the additional tail was definitely straining on his arms.

"Or she," she breathed, finally recognising what she'd done and so very grateful he was putting her down before reacting. "I don't know yet."

He swallowed thickly. "Is that what you couldn't tell me?"

She waited for the anger to set in; for the jaw to set, his eyes to narrow, his nose to flare. It didn't happen. In fact, he seemed almost... a softer version of himself. He was in a strange state of awe. When she failed to answer his question, he asked more.

"Is the baby okay? Did changing hurt her?"

"I don't think so," she said, carefully watching his every twitch and gesture for a sign of the anger she was absolutely positive would creep up at any moment. "I've changed plenty of times before and he's growing just fine."

"Well, how do you know? Is there a doctor who knows something about this?"

"Just Lewis," she answered feebly, "he has some equipment he uses to make sure Guppy's okay."

"Seriously? Lewis?" His reaction wasn't a pleasant one, but it still lacked the ire Rikki would have expected. "I mean, sure he's kind of our medical go-to guy, but... Lewis?" In that moment, he wished it would have been another girl that had fallen in the moon pool with them; maybe sad little Cleo, or even that annoying cashier at the JuiceNet that insisted on measuring to exact fill lines and never going heavy on the cream. He never thought he'd feel threatened by gangly, nerdy Lewis before, but the fact that he was essentially doctoring his pregnant girlfriend felt odd, to say the least.

"He wasn't my first pick either!" Rikki retorted. "I wouldn't have told him at all, but mermaid obstetricians don't seem to take up residence here! Do you have any better ideas?" she prompted.

Zane shook his head, still staring in wonder at the belly that housed... Guppy?

"Why didn't you tell me?" Zane avoided her gaze as he asked, "You didn't think I'd take care of you?"

"I didn't know what your version of taking care of us was," she admitted solemnly. "I wanted to wait until it was too late to take care of the little guppy before telling you, and after that... I didn't want to be paid off to disappear or something."

She'd heard him sigh before, but this was something else. It sounded so despairing that Rikki nearly reached out to squeeze his arm reassuringly. "I thought you knew me better than that," he said.

"I hoped... but I told you I have trust issues."

"We'll work on that. Together." He had eased her onto the floor and moved back to allow her space, but now he crept forward, a tentative hand outstretched as he moved to place it on the gentle swell of her abdomen. He swallowed thickly. "With the...uh... Guppy." He chuckled, not feeling the movement she had mentioned before, but noting the firmness, the presence that emanated from her once slim waist. "Where'd you come up with a name like that anyway?"

Rikki grimaced. "Might have been something that slipped out of Lewis's mouth."

"Oh, great." She was watching him warily, and finally he remembered he was touching her without receiving express permission. He withdrew his hand with a sheepish grin, and she relaxed immediately.

"I don't like you thinking I would have hurt you like that," he murmured. "Either by asking you to get rid of it or by throwing money at you to ignore everything you are to me. You know the last few months I've been doing the very opposite of pretending you don't exist and it's been rough, Rikki." She wasn't sure where to look when he breathed the words, "I've missed you. And even if I hadn't been outside my mind with worry over what I did or said to upset you so much, I... I know what it's like to be ignored by your family. When you're more a nuisance and disappointment rather than something to be proud of." Zane swallowed thickly, still amazed how much easier it was to talk about these things with her than with any other person. "I never want my family to feel like that, and if this little Guppy is mine... our... ours," he stumbled, "Is she?" he prodded. "The little one is mine for sure?"

Rikki's first instinct was to be angry and tell him to leave before she hurt someone. How dare he insinuate that she was that sort of girl? That after all they shared and spoke of and the craziness of the night they conceived Guppy she'd have slept with anyone else. But a definite nudge from within her womb diminished all her ire. He had a good reason to question her. Moon fever was unpredictable and merciless in its aftermath, and if she'd been caught under a full moon again with someone else nearby, even Lewis couldn't be sure what would have happened.

She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Rikki looked at him intently. "For sure. There is absolutely no possible way he's anyone else's. And what do you mean by 'family,' Zane?"

He seemed to struggle with a bout of nervousness for a brief minute, but soon squared his shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "I'm saying that I don't want Lewis to be the one to support you anymore. I mean... obviously he can still be a part of the medical mumbo jumbo, but just... You didn't have any more say in what happened that night than I did, but you're embracing the consequences and caring for it... her, the baby, and I... I want to too."

Rikki gave a small smile, and if he wasn't mistaken her eyes were just a little bit glassy. "I'm... glad, really I am. I shouldn't have kept it from you for so long, and I'm really sorry." There was a space of silence between them where nothing needed to be said. They simply understood. Until Rikki realised with a frown that she wasn't finished. "But there's one more thing. While I'm confessing to you I'd better let you in on something else."

"What's that?"

"My dad thinks Lewis is the father."

A/N: Wow. I didn't realise just how soap-opera-y this could sound until scrolling through the chapters and glimpsing the last sentences of each one. Well, there are forces at work here beyond me. Namely, the Beta. Not that I would have done this any other way! Because without her I wouldn't have done it at all. So, yes. We are to thank her. And love her. And fear her. As Smeagol fears and loves himself.