Laura's stomach had settled around dinner time, and she was starving. She made her way downstairs and found everyone in the kitchen. She took a deep breath and was relieved the scent didn't make her queasy, but she also knew that meant whatever they were making was probably disgusting.

"Laura Lee!" Steve exclaimed as he looked up and saw her in the doorway. "How are you feeling, lovely?"

"Better, Steve. Thanks."

"Do you think it was something you ate at lunch?" Roberta asked.

Laura looked at Steve. This was his chance.

Steve met her eyes and swallowed hard. Then he looked back at his mom. "Must've been," he agreed.

Laura nodded and walked into the room. She took a seat at the kitchen table. He would have other chances, she supposed.

"Are you hungry at all, pet?"

"Starved, actually."

"Excellent. Well, how does breakfast for dinner sound?"

Laura inhaled again. She could smell scrambled eggs. She repressed her gag reflex. "Not great," she complained. That wasn't what she'd smelled earlier.

Steve frowned. "No, no, babycakes. No eggs when you're not feeling well. Just the smoked eel for you."

Laura cringed noticeably.

Steve brought her plate to her. "Smell," he instructed.

She took a deep breath and her stomach… settled? She was starting to feel like a circus freak. She had to remember to go on Fear Factor before this pregnancy ended. She looked up at Steve gratefully. "That smells great. Thank you, honey."

"You're welcome," he purred, leaning down to kiss her forehead.

Everyone else joined her at the table with scrambled eggs and smoked eel, which Steve assured Laura was a Swedish delicacy. Laura tried several times to steer the conversation toward her pregnancy, so that Steve could jump in with the news, but he never did. Each time, she just felt a gentle squeeze of her knee below the table. Eventually, she stopped trying, deciding to let him guide the conversation there completely on his own.

It was Herb, however, who decided to make a big announcement first. He cleared his throat. "Well, kids," he said, setting his napkin down and folding his hands in front of his clean plate, "we have some news we'd like to share."

"What's that, Pop?" Steve prompted.

"We're buying a second house in Moscow," he announced.

Roberta grinned brightly. "It's this cute, little townhouse. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. It's about a ten minute drive from here."

"And we'd like to give it to you," Herb finished.

Laura and Steve exchanged a glance in the awkward silence that followed.

"What?" Laura asked.

"For when we visit?" Steve asked.

"No," Roberta said firmly, "for you to live in. Here in Moscow."

"What." Laura said again.

"Oh, we know this is a little sudden for you, but your father and I have been thinking about this for a while, Steve. Our relationship has so much healing to do," Roberta explained. "We could heal so much faster if you lived here. Think about it. You could join our therapy sessions permanently. We could spend so much more time together."

"We could make up for lost time," Herb added, "like we did today."

Roberta turned her attention to Laura. "And who knows? When you're ready, maybe we can… be around to help you with our grandkids."

Laura looked down at her lap and forced a smile intensely. She took a deep breath, trying to suppress the rage she was feeling, but she looked back up in surprise when Steve had taken no such steps.

"You gotta be kidding me," he exploded.

"Steve," Laura scolded softly.

"No, really, Laura. This has to be a joke."

"What do you mean, son?" Herb prompted.

"Do you two honestly think I would uproot my entire life, that I would uproot my wife, and move across an ocean because we've had a few good chats over the course of three days?!"

Roberta's voice was shaky. "Steve, we just thought—"

"That we'd fixed this? That this would be that easy to fix?!" He relaxed slightly as Laura's arm wrapped around him. He took a deep breath and forced his shoulders to relax.

"No, Steven," she replied. "We just thought that this would be really hard to fix if you lived on the other side of the world!"

"Well, whose fault is that? Who decided to abandon me when I was 17?"

"Steven, that's not fair," Herb exclaimed. "You decided to stay in Chicago."

"Because my whole life was in Chicago! Because the love of my life was in Chicago!"

"Because Harriette and Carl Winslow were in Chicago?" Roberta challenged, her tone sharper than they'd heard it this whole trip.

"Yes," Steve seethed. "That was part of it. Oh, believe me, that was part of it, but you shouldn't have left me." He turned his attention directly to Herb. "You shouldn't have taken a job that would tear me away from the only life I'd ever known. If anything, you should've waited until I finished high school, and even then, I don't see how you could leave the country where I was going to college, even if I was planning to move to Boston. I will never understand how you could just leave your only kid. I didn't understand it then, but especially now, I don't understand how anyone could do anything other than cross oceans and climb mountains to be closer to their kids." He looked at Laura, who was looking back at him with that look he hated, but he didn't hate it right now. He was grateful for the empathy overflowing from her. He couldn't carry the weight of his pain alone right now. "And now, to suggest that I would tear my wife away from her loving, supportive parents… Her whole family, really." He turned back to look at his parents. "To imply that I could so casually tear myself away from them even though they're the only family I've known for the past eight years… You don't know me anymore. I'm not convinced you really knew me back then. I wanna work on our relationship. I want you to know your grandchildren, but what you're suggesting is so incredibly selfish I don't know what you're possibly expecting me to say." He stood quickly. "I need some air."

Laura watched for a moment as Steve bolted toward the front door. Her eyes widened as she saw him exit without his coat. "Steve, baby, wait!" she called after him as she stood. She stopped and put on her jacket. Then she grabbed his and followed him out onto the front porch. "Baby, you can't be out here without your coat. It's freezing."

Steve looked up at her, now standing on the sidewalk below the front porch steps. "Am I crazy?" he exclaimed. "Is it crazy to look at two people who are willing to hand us a house and call them selfish?!"

"No, baby, you're not crazy." She moved to follow him down the steps, since it was clear she would have to force his parka onto him. She stepped onto the first step and hit an unexpected patch of ice. Steve ran toward her as she slipped but didn't get to her in time. She fell hard on her side against the stairs. She looked up at Steve, wide-eyed.

He looked down at her with the same expression. He felt like time froze for a moment, but he knew it didn't because he could hear his pulse roaring in his ears, his heart beating three times before he moved. He reached out to her and helped her stand. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?"

The tears already pooling in Laura's eyes felt like they would freeze to her cheeks in this cold. "I'm not hurt, but I fell kind of sideways. I hit the side of my stomach on the step."

"I know," he continued calmly. "I saw. It's ok. It was a weird angle. It's not like you fell totally forward. Everything's gonna be fine, but we're gonna go to the hospital."

Laura nodded, barely letting him escape her as he ran for the front door. She was still holding his coat.

Steve burst through the front door and ran into the kitchen. "You're taking us to the hospital. Laura fell."

"Oh, my God!" Roberta exclaimed, standing immediately and wiping her obvious tears.

Steve looked away from her hurt face to focus on something more important.

"Is she ok?" Herb asked as he and Roberta walked with purpose toward Steve and the front door.

"She's fine, but she's pregnant, and she hit the side of her stomach."

Herb and Roberta's faces ran through a range of emotions as they took in all of what he was saying. They continued to follow Steve out the door. "How far along is she?" Roberta asked as they stepped outside, and Steve returned quickly to his wife.

He wrapped his arms around her as she answered, "16 weeks."

Roberta nodded. "That's good. That's too early for some of the fall complications. Are you even showing yet?"

"Yes," Laura said, moving some of the fabric away from her stomach as Steve helped her walk toward the garage that Herb had just opened.

Roberta looked at her. "You're not so vulnerable when your bump is still that close to you."

"Early pregnancies are always vulnerable," Laura argued.

Steve opened the car door for her and climbed in beside her. He buckled her seatbelt as she kept her hands on her stomach, rubbing it gently.

Roberta climbed into the passenger seat and turned back to look at them. "Yes, but I'm telling you that if you were my patient, I would tell you that you would have been at greater risk of miscarriage earlier in your pregnancy and at greater risk for preterm labor later in your pregnancy."

Laura nodded as Herb peeled quickly out of the driveway. That made sense.

"Are you feeling any cramping or bleeding?"

Steve wiped her tears as Laura shook her head.

"Before today, have you felt the baby move?"

"No," Steve answered, and she shook her head in confirmation.

"Then we don't have to worry about whether or not you're feeling the baby move now," Roberta explained.

Steve and Laura nodded. Steve leaned his head against hers and wiped her tears again as she sniffled. "It's gonna be ok," he promised in a whisper as Roberta turned forward again to give them space. He rubbed her stomach gently. "It's all gonna be ok."

Laura counted her breaths in and out carefully, like she'd read in her birthing books. She knew her soaring heart rate wouldn't be good for the baby, even if the fall didn't hurt him or her.

———————————————————————

When they got to the hospital, Laura quickly lost track of what was happening as Herb, Roberta, and Steve started speaking Russian to the staff, but she was sure she was getting special treatment because Herb and Roberta worked there. She was sitting in an exam room within minutes of their entrance through the sliding doors to the ER. Steve sat on the bed beside her and started filling out forms in Russian. When the nurse entered, Steve turned to Herb and Roberta. "Can you two give us some space?" he asked softly.

They looked back at him sadly, but they left willingly.

The nurse thankfully spoke English, and she asked Laura some preliminary questions. Then she told them the doctor would just be a minute.

As soon as she left, Steve leaned his forehead against Laura's and placed his hands on her cheeks, wanting her to focus on him instead of where she was. "Everything's going to be fine, sweetheart," he whispered again, for his sake as much as hers.

Laura nodded. "I know," she agreed, though she was crying again.

"They're gonna come in, and we're gonna hear our baby's heart beating perfectly again, and they're going to send us home, and everything's going to be fine."

She nodded. "I know."

He wiped her tears again and held her close until the doctor came in. Her accent was thick. "I hear you took a fall today, Mrs. Urkel."

Laura pulled away from Steve and wiped her eyes again. "Yes. I slipped on a patch of ice and fell sort of on my side, but my belly definitely hit the sidewalk."

The doctor nodded gravely as a tech came in behind her and rolled in the ultrasound machine. "Americans are rarely prepared for the realities of a harsh, Russian winter." She motioned for Laura to lay back on the bed. "Lift your shirt. We must find baby."

Laura lay back in the bed and lifted her sweater. She gripped Steve's hand tightly. He squeezed back just as hard. Laura shuddered as the cold ultrasound jelly hit her skin, but that feeling was long gone seconds later as they heard the hollow echo of the ultrasound machine. The doctor moved the wand around, searching for that rhythmic thumping that would signal to them that everything was ok. "I don't hear anything," Laura whimpered.

"Patience," the doctor insisted, moving the wand again.

Laura and Steve finally exhaled as that electronic, whirring, thumping sound filled the room.

"Heartbeat is a little fast, but so is yours, so it is not uncommon for the baby to be a little stressed. Little girl will relax when you do."

Laura and Steve exchanged a look.

"Little girl?" Steve repeated. "We're having a little girl?"

"Yes," the doctor confirmed, turning the monitor toward them. "Look," she said, moving the wand to a different spot on Laura's bump. "Those lines there are labia. No penis."

"No penis," Steve repeated, turning to Laura in awe. Tears were coming to his eyes.

She looked back at the doctor. "So everything's ok?"

"Yes. Heartbeat is strong and healthy. You're not in any pain. You're not bleeding. Everything is fine. You stay here for an hour to be monitored, but if nothing happens by then, then it is unlikely anything will happen. Come back if you bleed or cramp."

"Ok. Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Yes." She walked toward the exit and tossed her gloves. "You are Herb and Roberta's son, yes?"

"Yes," Steve nodded.

"They are good doctors."

"Thank you."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you," Steve said again as she left. He looked back at Laura. "We're having a girl."

Laura suppressed her bright grin. It seemed too early to celebrate; her fall was too recent. "We are."

He leaned down and kissed her. "I can't wait to raise a daughter with you."

"Me neither," she agreed. "Stephanie Harriette Urkel."

"Laura Harriette Urkel," he countered, kissing her again.

"I love you," she replied softly.

"I love you, too."

Laura let him hold her for a long moment before she pushed him back gently. "You need to go get your parents."

Steve cringed. "I don't want to."

"They're worried, Steve. You have to at least go tell them the baby is ok."

"The doctor will tell them."

"She can't, Steve. HIPAA," she reminded him automatically, her lawyer brain turning back on.

"You studied a lot of Russian privacy laws in law school, did ya?"

Laura chuckled. "Oh. Right."

"I don't wanna see them right now. I wanna focus on you."

"I'm fine, baby, and I understand why you're upset with them, but they shouldn't have to sit out there and worry."

"Laura," Steve said firmly, "I want you to know that I would never ask you to move away from your family. Not for this. Not for them."

"I know, Steve. I'm not worried about that. I know you would never do that."

"I want to be near your family. Your family is my baby's family. Our little girl is going to call Carl and Harriette "Grandpa" and "Grandma."

"She can have two sets of grandparents, Steve."

"I'm not sure that I want her to."

"Steve, I promise I understand why you're upset, but you shouldn't throw away all the progress you've made over the past few days because of this. They're trying to move too fast, and they're gestures are way over the top, but you know what that's like. You know where it comes from."

"Insecurity. Fear. Desperation. Loneliness," he answered.

"Yes. You can be upset with them. We can explain to them why it was wrong of them to try to push you like this, but don't cut them off because they're finally trying too hard. They're Urkels. What else did you expect?"

Steve laughed and snorted. He leaned down and kissed her. "You are so wise."

"I know," she teased.

"Do you think our daughter will have your emotional intelligence?"

"Yes."

"I hope so." He took a deep breath, and he stood. "I'm gonna go get them. Are you ok with them being in here with us?"

"Of course."

"Thank you." He leaned down to kiss her again. "I'll be right back."

Once he had left the room, Laura raised her shirt again. She rubbed her baby bump gently. "Baby girl," she said softly, "I'm sorry you almost got hurt. I'll be more careful. Thank you for being strong for us."

———————————————————————

Steve found his parents just a few feet away from the door, hovering by a row of chairs but not sitting in them. "Herb, Roberta."

"Is everything ok?" Roberta asked urgently.

"Yes. Everything's fine."

"Oh, thank goodness!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him.

Steve hugged her back and felt Herb pat his back too.

"What a relief," Herb echoed.

"They want to monitor her for an hour," Steve continued as they pulled apart, "so we wanted you to come back in with us, but…"

"But what?" Roberta questioned.

"But first, I need to talk to you about what happened before Laura fell. About the townhouse."

Roberta inhaled sharply and Herb placed a comforting hand on her back.

"I need you to understand why that gesture was inappropriate."

"We understand, son," Herb confirmed. "You don't want to leave Chicago. We get it. We just thought we could make things a little easier for you two. We didn't mean to overstep."

"I don't wanna leave Chicago, but it's more than that."

"What is it then?"

"You two have been absent from my life for a long time, and even when I still lived in your house, you were never really that present. If you want a relationship with me, you need to figure out how to fit into my life. You don't get to bend mine to fit into yours. You've always done this. You've always tried to get me to be something I'm not. Now, I understand where that instinct came from when I was a kid. I know you were trying to protect me, and I can appreciate that. I can also appreciate that you no longer want to change everything about me, but even now, when something needs to change, you expect it to be me. Why don't you two change? Why don't you two move back to Chicago if you think time together is going to be an important factor in healing our relationship?"

"Is that what you want us to do?" Roberta asked.

"No. I would have been mad at you for doing that too, but I would have been less mad!" he squeaked.

"Why can't we move back to Chicago?" Herb questioned.

"Because Laura and I came here to figure out if I even wanted you in your granddaughter's life!" he snapped.

"It's a girl?" Roberta asked, her face softening in surprise.

Steve softened too. "Yes. We just found out," he said quietly. "Laura asked me if I wanted you to know our kids, and I didn't know the answer to that, so we came here to figure it out. It's not ok for you to try to make us stay here or for you to come home to force me into that decision. You were the ones who messed up, so I get to decide!"

"Ok," Roberta nodded. "You get to decide. Steve, your father and I have been talking about you and Laura having babies for years. We are excited to be grandparents, but you're right. You get to set the boundaries, and we'll be respectful of them."

"Really?" he questioned.

"We'll do our best," Herb agreed.

"Well, ok then," Steve said. "I guess you can come back in then. For now."

They nodded but didn't risk saying anything else. Then they followed him back into the room.

———————————————————————

Steve was talking to Laura's belly that night, rubbing it gently.

"We were so scared," he said, continuing his dramatic retelling of the day's events, "but then we heard your heartbeat again. It's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard, and that's really saying something because I've heard your mama serenade me."

Laura chuckled.

"Do you laugh when your mama laughs? I like to think so. I can't wait to hear your laugh." He kissed her stomach for the thousandth time that night. "Anyway, that's when the scary, Russian doctor told us you were a girl. You may recall that I've been saying that for months, but your mama never believed me. Now I have proof. They gave us a little picture of you, and it says 'женский' right at the top. That means 'girl' in Russian. Well, 'female' technically, but Mama said I'm not allowed to teach you foreign languages until you've at least started speaking English, so don't tell her I told you." He kissed her again. "We're so glad you're ok, Laura Jr.. Get some sleep. Daddy loves you." He kissed her one final time and climbed back up to his spot in the bed. He wrapped his arms around Laura.

"We're not naming her Laura Jr.," she said immediately.

He pouted. "Well, we're not naming her Stephanie either then."

"I'm carrying her. I can name her whatever I want."

"No fair," he complained.

Laura rolled to her side and pulled him closer to spoon her. "We'll find something, Steve. Now that we know she's a girl, we can start looking at baby name books or something."

"You know what name I bet isn't in any of those books?"

"What?"

"Stevaura," he said with a laugh and snort.

Laura giggled too. "If we want a unique name, that one's definitely top of the list."