I licked my lips and blew out a breath.

"This is not comfortable," I said.

Andrea Castile smiled at me. It was strange having my friend's mom do my ultrasound, but also very comforting especially when I knew that she was going to do everything she could to keep us safe.

"I know. I'm almost done," she said as she took some measurements of the baby before turning the screen. Dimitri rested his elbows beside my head and kissed my temple.

"There you are," Andrea smiled. I looked at the screen and shook my head.

"I just don't get how I managed to get pregnant," I whispered.

"It happens. I've had many patients be told they were infertile when they were teenagers and then end up pregnant."

"Is this going to affect my settlement?" I whispered to no one in particular.

"I don't think so. You did have a lot of damage. You can see scar tissue on the ultrasound. I want to monitor you closely, but I think that we are in the clear," she said before removing the ultrasound wand from my stomach and wiped my skin.

"But the baby's okay? Everything looks okay?"

Andrea smiled and smoothed my hair back affectionately.

"I see that you have a healthy baby," she reassured, and I nodded, turning my head to look at Dimitri. He had a soft smile on his face and when his eyes moved down to mine, it grew.

"What would you guess her due date is?" Dimitri asked, "I want to make sure that I have things finished up before she's too far along."

"I would say roughly December fifteenth," Andrea said as she cleaned up her things. Dimitri nodded and squeezed my hand.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around this," he whispered.

"Me too," I whispered and reached for his hand.

Andrea pulled her gloves off and adjusted my shirt.

"Any pain? Cramping or anything like that?"

I shrugged. "I've had a little bit of cramping. Almost like a period cramp?" I said as I sat up.

Andrea nodded her head. "Okay. A little cramping is normal, but if it becomes intense, let me know."

I nodded and blew out a breath.

"I still haven't wrapped my head around it," I chuckled.

Andrea laughed. "When I found out I was pregnant with Edison, I didn't wrap my head around it until I was seven months pregnant," she said, "But it'll become real soon."

Maria smiled at me as she positioned us, moving Dimitri's hands on my stomach.

"Okay, now look up at Dimitri," she said, gently pressing a finger against my jaw to tilt my head the way she wanted. I smirked and laughed and licked my lips.

"I'm not heavy on you, right?" I asked.

Dimitri shook his head and rested his forehead against mine. "No. You're fine. Your stomach is very warm," he said and flexed his fingers.

"Your chest is warm," I retorted. Maria had a cute idea of having me sitting cross-legged in Dimitri's lap, his hands placed on my stomach at the bottom and side with the words Muse 2.0 written in washable marker on my stomach. We were both dressed in jeans, and I was in a bra while he was shirtless. It was a raw photo and she wanted it to be as simple as possible.

"Okay, you two, stop talking and don't move," Maria said as she scooted back, picked up Dimitri's camera and took a few pictures. Dimitri made a face at me and laughed, and he kissed the tip of my nose as Maria took a few more pictures. She pulled the camera back and looked through the pictures before showing them to me.

"What do you think of these?" she asked, "They'll be in black and white."

I looked through the photos and nodded my head, glancing at Dimitri who looked equally impressed.

"They're perfect," he said, "But there is someone we need to talk to before we post anything."

I nodded my head. "I honestly have no idea who that is going to go," I chuckled as I stood up, grunting as I got up. Dimitri helped me by putting his hand on my lower back and stood up. I went into the bathroom and washed the marker off before getting dressed and going back out to the living room.

"Thanks for coming by Maria," I said with a smile. Maria nodded and gave me a quick hug.

"I'm so happy for you guys. I'll send you both the photos once I upload the card to my laptop. I nodded and walked out of my apartment with Dimitri, sitting in the front seat nervously. Dimitri reached for my taping hand and he squeezed it.

"I think your mom is going to be very happy for you," he said.

"I know, I'm just, not used to the idea of being pregnant yet. It seems so foreign. I mean, I've gone the last eight years thinking that I wouldn't be able to have a viable pregnancy, and now I'm almost five months. And I keep thinking about how much I drank, and all the foods I ate that I probably shouldn't have," I said and I could feel myself start to spiral.

I never thought about the possibility of being pregnant, so I ate and drank the whole international tour. There were nights when I drank more than moderately.

"Many women drank when they didn't know they were pregnant. It's okay, Rose. We know now, and we can plan accordingly. We can make sure you eat the right foods and take all the supplements you need," he soothed quietly. I licked my lips and nodded my head, letting out a deep sigh.

Dimitri tried to keep me occupied as we drove, asking me how I was feeling physically. I was feeling okay, and it made sense now that all the times I thought I was hungover or ate something that didn't agree with me on tour wasn't the case.

"I'm not as tired anymore, I have a bit more energy. And my skin isn't as itchy, which is strange," I explained.

"That's good. I've heard that during the second trimester, your symptoms will get easier," he said as we pulled into Mildred's driveway. I licked my lips and tapped my finger on my knee before unclicking my seatbelt and got out of the car. I knocked on the front door and waited for Mildred to open it. She did with a smile, excited to see us in person and not over a video chat.

She welcomed us in excitedly, asking a million questions a minute about the tour. We answered all her questions before her questions turned to more serious ones.

"How are you feeling since the accident? Are you sore?" Mildred asked, brushing her fingers over the seatbelt mark on my shoulder.

"I'm feeling okay, but there is something that we need to talk about," I said and glanced at Dimitri before taking my phone out. I had taken a video of my ultrasound before I left the hospital. I turned the phone to her and played the video. She expression was confused before realization crossed her face.

She gripped the phone between her hands and shook her head.

"Is this what I think this is?" she asked in shock, looking between us.

"Yep," I said with a grin, "I found out in the E.R. after the accident. I'm about sixteen weeks."

Mildred's expression turned to a jubilant smile and she leaned towards me on the couch, wrapping her arms around me excitedly.

I blew a slow breath out as I lay on the couch. I drummed my fingers against my stomach, looking up at the ceiling. We were in the middle of a massive heatwave and the weather network was calling for potential storms through the night.

A clap of thunder made me turn my head towards the window. The rain had just started, hitting the window so hard that it sounded like hail. The lightning had been flashing a bit, but it was almost soothing to see it light up the room.

I traced my fingers over my stomach, feeling how it had changed. I couldn't feel anything yet, but it felt nice to be able to just…be me and the baby. I wanted to have some time to really think about this. My life was changing in a way I never anticipated it to.

I was becoming a mother. And it scared the shit out of me. What if I ended up like her? A cold, loveless, monster who didn't care about them. I cared now, but what if I changed my mind later? I knew that postpartum depression was bad, but it couldn't last that long.

I couldn't do that to them. I couldn't fathom it. I wanted to be the Mom I needed. I wanted to be like Millie. And Rhea. I wanted to be what I didn't have.

I jumped when there was a knock on the door. I got up and opened the door, letting out a breath.

"Hey," I said tiredly.

"Hey," Dimitri said with a small smile. His hair was wet from the rain and his duster had water drops on it too.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I heard that the storm was supposed to get back, so I wanted to make sure you had everything you needed in case the power goes out," he said gesturing to the bag in his hand. I smiled and stepped to the side to let him in. it was sweet to see him concerned like this.

He came in and set the bag down on the coffee table, running his fingers through his hair.

"You didn't have to come all the way here to bring this," I said through a yawn.

"I didn't mind," he said, "Plus, I know that you aren't crazy about storms."

I shrugged. "The lightning seems to be soothing tonight," I said as I bit my thumbnail.

"Oh?" he asked.

"Yeah. I just kind of got caught up in my head," I said with a wave of my hand, but a surge of emotions ran through me, and I felt my eye water.

"What if I end up being just like her?" I asked thicky and Dimitri tsked, pulling me into a tight hug. I rested my head against his chest and let the tears come, my arms around his waist.

"You won't be," he soothed.

"You don't know that," I mumbled.

"But I do. You couldn't be like that. You knew what it felt like to grow up in a house with a bad mother. I know that you would never make someone go through that."

I let out a trembling breath and tightened my arms around his waist.

"Promise you'll never let me do that to our kid?"

Dimitri didn't say anything but hugged me tightly, kissing the top of my head. A clap of thunder made both of us jump, the intensity making the books on my shelf rattle. The lights flickered a bit before the room went dark, nothing but the lightning for us to see by.

I groaned as I heard the air conditioning stop. Dimitri moved away from me and I heard the plastic bag rattle, the room filling with light as he clicked on a flashlight. I blinked and let my eyes adjust to the light. Dimitri set it upright on the table and pulled more things out of the bag.

He had some little packet things and sent them on the table, some candles and batteries. I picked up one of the packets and looked at it.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Instant ice packs. With how hot you've been sleeping, I thought that these might come in handy," he said with a smile.

I smiled at the thought and lit a few candles, placing them around the room so that we didn't waste the flashlight and batteries.

"Do you want to stay for a bit? We could watch a movie on my laptop," I said.

"I'd like that," Dimitri said. Even though we got situated to watch a movie, we didn't end up watching anything, instead, we were huddled together on the floor in front of the couch, watching the storm instead with a notepad settled between us.

My left leg was lazily flung over Dimitri's, his fingers running gently lines over the side of my knee. The rain wasn't as intense, but it was steady enough to fi the silence.

"Do you want to know what we are having?"

I looked at Dimitri. "Not really. I like the idea of being surprised," I said and smiled at him, "What about you?"

"I think being surprised would be nice," he said as his hand continued to move. After a few moments, he picked up his notepad and flipped a few pages before setting it in my lap. I looked down at the notepad. It wasn't an empty page, but one that was filled with handwriting I'd become familiar with.

I picked it up and read the page, biting my lip as I read the words.

"When did you write this?" I asked quietly.

"The night you told me that you loved me. Well, at least the melody. The lyrics came to me on the flight home," he said.

I let my fingers run over the page.

"Roza, I want to make things work between us. I want this to be real between us. I don't want to fake it, I want to be able to truly let myself feel what I feel for you, and not stuff it back down. I know that the last month or so has been hard and we've fought. But I love you, and I want to make this work."

I set the notepad back on the floor and sighed quietly, looping my arm around his and resting my head on his shoulder. He let his head fall against mine, and as my arm was looped around his, I slipped my fingers between his, resting them on my leg.

"I want things to work too," I whispered, "But we need to be better at communicating. I know that I didn't help things by being weird about Abe, but we need to work on this. Together."

I tapped my nails nervously against the table as I waited. Dimitri cast glances towards me a few times before he grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers.

"Breathe," he whispered as he kissed the back of my hand.

"I know," I whispered, "I'm just…I'm freaking out."

Dimitri nodded and rested his lips against my hand, a sympathetic look on his face.

"We could always tell him over the phone?"

I scoffed and laughed quietly. "No, we can't," I drawled.

"I know. But it made you laugh," he said gently. I nodded and reached for my tea, taking a long drink from it. Abe had said that he needed to take care of some other business clients, but that he wanted to make sure I was okay after the accident.

I had suggested grabbing lunch, but now I was starting to sweat. We barely had a relationship; it was still new and I wasn't sure how I was going to explain this whole situation. I saw him walk through the doors and I waved at him, smiling at him but I knew that it looked crazed.

As he got closer, I let go of Dimitri's hand and stood up, letting him pull me into an almost bone-crushing hug. It reminded me of how Barry used to hug me, arms tight, hand on the back of my head.

"I feel so much better already," he groaned and kissed my hair.

"I glad you could make it," I said softly as I sat down. Dimitri stood up and shook Abe's hand, the two sharing polite smiles. I let him go over the menu before I started up a casual conversation with him. I needed to talk about something else before I dropped this bomb on him.

Abe asked about the accident and my injuries, wanting to make sure I was okay. Dimitri strung up a conversation about the last bit of the tour. Abe had mentioned wanting to go to a few events with Dimitri, wanting to help promote him on the tour. I was all for it and toyed with the handle of my mug.

"What's on your mind, kiz? I can see something is troubling you. Is it your back? Did the accident cause more damage?" Abe asked, his brows furrowing. I swallowed and looked at Dimitri before clearing my throat.

"No, um, but the accident did bring something else to light. I'm pregnant," I said quietly, almost a whisper. There weren't a lot of people in the restaurant, but I didn't want to say it too loud.

Abe blinked at me for a moment and cleared his throat.

"You are?"

"She roughly four months," Dimitri said, "It's a bit of a shock to both of us."

Abe nodded and took a moment to process everything. "And you're okay? I remember that you had some damage to your reproductive system with the first accident."

"How did you know that?" I asked with a furrowed brow—some information I shared with him about the accident, but not that much.

Abe reached for his coffee and used drinking it to buy himself some time.

"Remember that nice laptop Mildred and Barry bought you when you graduated high school?" he asked.

I nodded slowly, confused about how he knew about it.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"It was technically from me," he said as he tented his fingers, "Remember when I said I found you right before you were adopted?"

I nodded. "What are you getting at?"

"I had met Barry and Mildred. It wasn't just my decision to stay away. It was a collective decision. I said that I would wait until you had time to recover and then it got harder to find a way into your life without kiboshing everything. They never took out a mortgage to pay the last of your medical bills, I paid them. Which is why I know the extent of the damage. I helped pay for the funeral for Barry. Your brother thinks that I worked with Barry once upon a time."

I sat back in my seat and shook my head.

"I feel a little betrayed," I whispered.

"I know," he said, "And I will take the blame for that. Mildred wasn't a fan of keeping it from you, but you were fragile then. I wasn't about to set you back. Either way, I wanted to support you the only way I could think of."

I nodded to myself and blinked a few times before our waitress came to the table, taking our orders before walking away.

"I'm sorry," Abe said softly. I nodded and cleared my throat.

"There is concern because of the scar tissue, but Andrea is going to monitor me," I said, "She's looking into finding a specialist in case things go sideways."

Abe nodded his head and I could see the gears going in his head.

"And you two are happy?" he asked.

I smiled at Dimitri and squeezed his hand. "Yeah, we're happy," I said as I looked back at Abe.

Abe nodded and smiled to himself before he stood up again, coming around the table. I stood up too and hugged again, but this time it was a hug out of concern, it was of joy. He chuckled in my ear and squeezed me gently, cupping my cheeks when he pulled back.

"I'm so happy for you," he said and kissed my forehead, "If either of you need anything, tell me. I will do anything to help you too. Even if it's looking for a specialist to make sure you two stay safe."

I smiled at him and sat back down. I took a deep breath and laughed quietly.

"Now we know why I was such a basket case in Spain," I joked and Abe sputtered into his coffee cup.

"What?" Dimitri chuckled as he toyed with the ends of my hair.

"When we were in Spain, I literally felt like I was going insane. I was so emotional all the time. I was having mood swings, I was crying all the time, mostly at night when you'd gone to sleep. Or randomly for no reason. Abe came by one day while we were in Spain, and I mentioned taking a step back from the tour Stateside because I was all over the place. I guess it was just the hormones," I explained with a chuckle, "Remember me on the plane ride home?"

Dimitri thought about it for a minute before he snorted a laugh, covering his mouth as he laughed.

"When you kept flip-flipping between wanting to join the mile-high club and wanting to pretend I didn't exist."

I shrugged. "You didn't complain while you were joining the mile-high club," I said bluntly before remembering that my father was sitting across the table from me, "Sorry."

Abe smirked and waved a hand. "It's fine," he chuckled, "So. Do you know what you're having?"

"No, and we're going to wait," Dimitri said with a smile.

"That will make the moment all that much better," Abe said, "Congratulations. I'm very happy for you two."

"Thanks, gramps," I said with a smirk. Abe's smile faltered for a moment before it grew.

"Gramps?"

"Gramps, grandpa, papa, whatever name you prefer," I said with a casual shrug, but part of me felt like I was going to puke. It was the closest I had gotten to referring to him as my 'dad'. It made me nervous but in a good way.

"Dede," he said after a moment.

"Dede it is," Dimitri said with a smile, kissing my temple softly.

Home by Philip Philips