A/N — this story has nothing do with Thanksgiving. I just decided to post this today. :) Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate! xoxo — kals

A/N2 — in the most shocking news of the century, I've spent some time thinking about how quickly Danny and Kara adjusted to the news that she was pregnant, as well as how settled they seem as a couple despite (in canon) having met on the Nathan James only a few months before and Danny blowing up on Kara in the second episode. Much thanks to Aspect for letting me talk through all of this with her! xoxo — kals

A/N3 — also, I'm running SUPER late but if there is any interest in a 2024 Holiday Fest, let me know!

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Chapter 1

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"It broke."

Confused, Kara looked up from rezipping her coveralls to see Danny standing perfectly still. "What broke?" It was only after the words left her mouth that Kara understood what he meant. "The condom broke? Like tore a little?"

Please lord, have it be just a little hole. A pinprick. Barely noticeable.

But Danny wasn't paying attention. "The entire thing is shredded. It's like it exploded the way those tires blow on the highway and send rubber shards everywhere."

Shredded. Exploded. Sending shards everywhere.

None of that sounded like a minor tear. Nope, instead it sounded like a million tiny little Green swimmers were, at this very moment, tearing their way through Kara's body. For a second, she thought she might actually pass out.

Danny was still muttering, clearly to himself. "Clearly it was defective. We weren't even going at it that hard."

If one was defective, did that mean the entire box was suspect?

Were the other holes just too small for Danny to see?

The dizziness passed, but now Kara wondered if she was going to vomit. She wanted to make a dash to the shower, but she knew it was pointless. Besides the fact that douching didn't actually work, they had finished at least twenty minutes ago and just hadn't bothered getting up until now.

"Maybe it tore after?" Kara croaked, trying to calm her frantic mind.

"Maybe," Danny didn't sound convinced. "But the um, stuff, isn't here..." Danny finally turned, his face flooding with concern when he actually looked at Kara. "Hey, you okay?"

He reached a hand in Kara's direction, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was still naked, but she swatted it away, instead sitting down on the bunk they had just vacated.

They just had unprotected sex.

Possibly more than once.

The timing was terrible — probably the worst possible. Not that Kara tracked her cycle religiously, but she knew her own body well enough to tell that she was about to ovulate. Which, Kara realized glumly, was probably the only reason she let Danny talk her into doing something as stupid as have sex in his cabin where anyone could walk in on them. But damn he was hot and when he gave her that smile, she had melted — in more ways than one. Even now, in full panic mode, Kara couldn't help but notice the nice curve of his butt as he shimmied into his pants.

Pregnant.

She could be pregnant. And, oh dear lord, if she was there would be absolutely no hiding the fact that she and Danny had been playing fast and loose with the frat rules. They could be discharged - dishonorably. Actually, Kara thought that violating the frat rules might be a court-martial able offense. And neither one of them would be able to offer any kind of defense.

Except, that wasn't entirely true. Danny could simply disappear, pretend that he never came near Kara and, unless Kara forced a paternity test, Danny could probably ride this out without destroying his career. Kara, on the other hand, was going to be one of those sailors she had always secretly looked down on. The ones who needed to be evacuated mid deployment for pregnancies that couldn't possibly have happened on land. She had assumed that they didn't care enough about their career to be careful. Now, for the first time, Kara wondered how many of them were just like her.

Her entire life could be ruined.

All because she fell for a handsome guy with a winning smile.

She went from hot to cold to back, stars flashing in front of her face. "I think that I'm going to puke."

She didn't realize that she spoke aloud until Danny's hand settled on her knee. Forcing herself to focus, she realized that he was squatting in front of her, fully dressed now, but still frowning. "You may want to take some deep breaths. You don't look so good."

Kara's first instinct was to bat his hand away, but she restrained herself. After all, it wasn't exactly Danny's fault that the condom was defective. Clearly neither one of them had noticed when the thing broke. She squeezed her eyes closed, once again running through the dates — and once again coming up with the same conclusion. "The timing is bad. Really bad."

"Okay." There was a long pause, as though Danny was also calculating dates. "When will you know?"

"A couple of weeks," Kara said, another wave of panic hitting as she realized that she was going to have to wait weeks to find out for sure, and there was nothing she could do in the meantime. There was certainly no Plan B on the destroyer and while Rios likely had some pregnancy tests tucked away somewhere, Kara certainly wasn't going to out herself looking for them.

"That gives us time to figure things out," Danny replied, moving so he was sitting next to her on the bunk.

His matter-of-fact attitude pissed her off. "There is no figuring this out, Danny. Either I'm pregnant or I'm not and, if I am, my career is over."

He picked up her hand, clasping it between his. "If the kid comes late, they might not notice the, um, overlap."

Kara huffed out a breath, knowing that she was lashing out at him, but unable to stop. "It's only August, Danny. We won't even be back in Norfolk until October. That's six more weeks. I'm pretty sure people are going to be suspicious of an eight pound preemie."

Danny snorted. "Really? Because I know a lot of guys and I doubt that most of them could tell you how much a baby usually weighs."

Conceding that Danny might have a point, Kara muttered, "I suppose I could put in for a transfer. That would make the paperwork harder to track."

"Sure," Danny said easily. "We get married right away and then..."

"Woah!" Kara turned, yanking her hand away to stare at Danny. "Who said anything about getting married?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Danny scowled at her. "If you're pregnant, of course we'll get married. Kids need two parents."

Stung, and furious, Kara stood jerkily. She walked to his locker, slamming it open to use the mirror to start repining her hair. "Kids might need two parents but there's nothing saying that those parents have to be married." She shot him a glare. "And if you think that I'm going to turn into some housewife who stays home with the kids while you're deployed and cooks you dinner when you're home while turning a blind eye to you going out every night picking up some tag chaser at the bar, you have another thing coming."

"Hey, that's not what I was..."

Hair acceptable, Kara slammed the locker shut and spun to face Danny. "Just stay away from me, Danny Green. You've done enough already."

Then, without letting Danny get in another word, she got the hell out of his cabin. It wasn't until she was in her own, blessedly empty, cabin that Kara allowed herself the luxury of hyperventilating. Of all the ways she pictured her future going, an unplanned pregnancy and dishonorable discharge for fraternization hadn't even been on the bingo card. Worse, when Danny tried to help — albeit in a totally stupid way, who got married after two months of sneaking around a destroyer! — she told him to get lost, effectively giving him permission to do the exact thing that Kara was terrified he would do.

Groaning, Kara buried her head in her hands, contemplating the disaster that she was facing. Single, jobless, possibly brought up on charges, and with an infant to support. There was nothing positive about this situation.

Except...

Kara found her hand creeping towards her stomach, allowing herself a moment to imagine what it would be like to have a baby. Kara had always imagined having children someday, although she generally assumed it would be once she was older and doing a desk job or even maybe after she left the Navy. Of all the guys that she had dated, Danny was the only one that made her seriously consider settling down. Kara had even made a point of asking Commander Garnett about how it worked having a child when you were married to someone in the military.

Glumly, Kara now wished that she had kept that thought to herself. Not that Andrea seemed suspicious, and since both Alisha and Maya hung around to listen to the answer, the woman likely assumed it was a more general question of managing a career in the Navy as a woman while still having a personal life. But if Kara was pregnant and things came out later, Andrea would no doubt put two-and-two together.

Yanking her hand away from her stomach, Kara reminded herself that wishes and dreams were pointless. What mattered were facts, and right now the facts were really, really bad. Of course, there was a solution. Even assuming six weeks to complete the weapons test and get back to Norfolk, plus another two before they were given leave, there would still be time for a termination. She knew enough other women who found themselves in a tight spot to understand the practicalities. She would have to keep the secret until they docked, of course. She would have to pay out of pocket to make sure that nothing showed up on her medical records. She should probably get the procedure done in Kansas while pretending to be on a visit to see friends. Hardest might be swearing Danny to secrecy but she could probably get him to do it. Kara knew other women who had abortions due to unplanned pregnancies, and later went on to have both a career and a family. True she never imagined going that route herself, but there was really no other choice. Not if either she or Danny wanted to salvage this disaster.

Recalling Danny's immediate jump to marriage and fudging birth dates, Kara wondered about how Danny would react to the idea of an abortion, but she quickly pushed the idea to the side. Just because Danny mentioned getting married and raising the kid, that didn't mean he actually wanted to. He was probably just throwing that out so Kara wouldn't panic more than she already was. After all, they had only known each other for a couple of months, nowhere near enough time to be thinking about spending the rest of their lives together because of a broken condom.

No, there was no other option.

Because Kara had sworn to herself years ago that she would never, ever be a single mother with no job and that was not going to change.