Chapter 10

December 24th

Livia gazed at the pregnancy test. She had managed to buy one from the hotel gift shop while Dave was elsewhere, as she didn't want to get his hopes up. She had been feeling nauseated and had thought maybe she was getting ill until it occurred to her for the first time that she might be pregnant.

While she and Dave had been hoping not to have children for at least another couple of years this was certainly a better time than when she'd had that pregnancy scare when they first bonded a year ago.

She had apparently forgotten to take one of her birth control pills or more than one if this pregnancy test was at all accurate. She'd been having so much fun with Dave that it was quite possible she had forgotten to take at least a couple of her pills and that had been enough to get her pregnant, because they've been having sex like crazed monkeys ever since they'd met.

Well, it looked like Dave was soon going to have the child he had been wanting, as she would never even consider getting an abortion and she knew that Alifair would be thrilled when she was told.

Livia remembered how Alifair had been disappointed when told that no she wasn't pregnant back when she and Dave had first bonded, but at the time neither she or Dave had been ready to have a child. Now though, while she would've preferred to wait a few more years she felt more ready to look after a child than she had a year ago, even though she was only 26 years old, nearly 27 true, but still really young.

She knew that Dave would hire a nanny to feed and change their child and do everything necessary to take care of a baby, which meant that the parents would get more sleep and alone time than normal. There were advantages to having money to burn and Livia needed to learn to depend on more than just herself.

"Everything OK in there?" Dave asked after knocking on the bathroom door.

His voice sounded concerned.

The worry in Dave's voice was obvious and Livia realized that she had been standing there looking at the pregnancy test for over 15 minutes, so it was no wonder Dave was worried.

"Everything is fine Dave," Livia promised finally opening the bathroom door and walk straight into his arms. "I'm sorry I worried you. I didn't mean to."

"So long you're OK," Dave said as he hugged Livia close to him. "What took you so long in the bathroom as usually you're pretty fast unless you're taking a shower or something."

"This!" Livia said, producing the pregnancy test from her pocket that she had shoved it into before she'd exited the bathroom.

Dave took the test slowly and gazed at the little plus symbol on one end.

"You're pregnant?" Dave asked his voice beginning to get excited.

"Apparently so," Livia said. "I've been feeling mildly nauseated for awhile now at different times of the day too, but I haven't actually thrown up, which is why it took me awhile to come to the conclusion that I might be pregnant not ill."

"But you were taking birth control pills," Dave said.

"Yeah, I was, but I could easily have forgotten one or more of them considering how busy we've been touring the sites, shopping, skiing and everything else we've been doing. With the way we've been making love like crazed monkeys several times a day it's not surprising if one of those times created a baby. As you pointed out months ago, it only takes once of you spurting your seed into me without some sort of preventive to create a baby. Besides, we both know that over-the-counter birth control isn't always effective and it might be I didn't forget a pill at all. We have been making love a lot. We were just lucky when we bonded like we did that I didn't get pregnant that time, but this time we weren't so lucky."

"Well, is it done deal, so we'll accept what comes," Dave said. "I know we talked about waiting at least another couple of years…"

"It's OK Dave, while I did want to wait at least another year, preferably two, it's happened and I feel more ready to be a mother to whatever swims in here then when we first met," Livia said patting her stomach gently. "I know you'll hire a nanny to help look after a little one and they'll take a lot of the pressure off both of us. We'll certainly get more sleep than we would have if we had to do it all ourselves."

"How long have you been feeling nauseated?" Dave asked.

"You think me being nauseated was actually morning sickness, even if it was really mild," Livia said immediately understanding what Dave was getting at.

"Exactly," Dave agreed.

"I would say at least a month, maybe six weeks," Livia said thinking about it. "I'll need to go to the doctor to be any closer than that. I didn't notice for awhile actually because my nausea didn't prevent me from doing what I've always done, so I just ignored it and thought distantly that I was maybe coming down with a stomach bug."

"But it never developed past mild nausea, or I would've noticed," Dave said, sounding rather ashamed that he hadn't noticed that his mate was ill at all.

"Hey, there's no reason to feel guilty, as I didn't mention it on purpose, as I didn't want to ruin our time together with my problems unless they got much worse," Livia told him noticing Dave's change in tone instantly. She kissed his cheek and snuggled into his arms and Dave tightened his arms slightly around her in response.

"You should always feel free to mention even something like mild nausea to me though," Dave told her his guilt fading, because Livia was right. She hadn't mentioned it, and it wasn't just up to him to notice if she was ill.

"If I had started throwing up, you either would've noticed or I would've told you," Livia said. "Why don't we concentrate on the positive and that is, we can expect a baby sometime in the next few months. It's certainly a wonderful Christmas gift."

"That's true. It's the best Christmas gift you could have given me," Dave said immediately cheering up. "To find out that we're going to have a baby on Christmas Eve just makes my Christmas."

"I'm glad it does," Livia told him warmly, "but now let's go have some breakfast. I'm starving."

"Do you want to eat here at the restaurant here or do you want to go somewhere outside the resort to get ourselves some breakfast? Anything you want is yours," Dave said. "I'm going to spoil you even more rotten and the baby too once they come."

"Well, we had dinner at the resort restaurant last night, because you know jet lag, so I say we get a recommendation from the corsage and eat wherever he recommends."

"OK with me!" Dave said excitement overtaking him to where he was suddenly grinning from ear to ear, picking Livia up and spinning her around while holding her securely so he wouldn't drop her.

"I am so happy about this that you're going have my son or daughter. It's a dream come true!" Dave exclaimed.

"Put me down Dave!" Livia laughed.

"Your wish is my command my lady," Dave said, immediately setting his mate back on her feet.

Since Livia's tone was playful, Dave knew he wasn't in trouble.

"I'm happy about this as well," Livia assured him just in case Dave was thinking that she regretted getting pregnant this soon. "It might've been an accident, but that doesn't matter. I can't believe I'm pregnant and I'm only 26!"

"Yeah, I know we both preferred to wait awhile longer to start a family, but it happened and there's no going back in time," Dave said, even as he has escorted his mate towards the door to their suite so they could go to breakfast.

~~~Dave and Livia~~~

"So we need to see a doctor as soon as we get back from our vacation," Livia said. "Have my pregnancy confirmed and the doctor can also tell us how far along I am I could be as much as two months. The only reason I'm willing to go to a doctor at all is because I want to know the sex of the baby and to make sure they're healthy, as you already know I loath doctors and the reason why, so I won't bother to repeat myself."

"Healer," Dave corrected quietly. "You already know I deeply sympathize with your loathing of doctors. I really can't blame you for your feelings, but I'm very glad you're willing to go to a healer, so they can tell you if the baby is healthy or not. Doctors and healers might go into basically the same profession, but a healer is totally different from a regular doctor, though you'll have to ask Alifair for the details. All I really know is a healer is a witch that specializes in helping the sick much like a doctor, but that's it, since I've never needed a healer for any reason. It's much like your friend being a nurse, except they usually never go to a regular college. I'm sure your friend Alifair knows someone that's part of the supernatural community. We need one that specializes in pregnancy and birthing babies."

"What's the difference except one has magic and the other doesn't?" Livia asked quietly, since they were sitting in a very busy café like place eating their breakfast.

Livia could actually understand why the place was so packed as it was clear the food was good. That there were even two cops sitting at the counter eating their breakfasts just demonstrated how good the place really was. Places cops frequented for food were always very good and a place you needed to try.

"A healer can help you in ways that a regular doctor can't. I know they can help ease your birthing pains without the use of drugs. You'll have to ask Alifair what else they can do," Dave said. "This is a discussion for another time, though, as this is not the place."

"You're right," Livia said, as the waitress refilled their drinks. Dave had a coffee while Livia had orange juice. "I've going to miss my coffee while I'm pregnant," Livia added with a sigh, taking a sip of orange juice. "Unfortunately, I've heard that caffeine is bad for a pregnant women, though I might have to ask the healer Alifair recommends about that."

"I know a woman goes through a lot to have children, but hopefully, the healer won't recommend you not drink any caffeine at all until after the baby is born or it's going to be a long nine months," Dave said "I know how hard you are to wake up in the morning and that you need several cups of coffee to really function."

"If the healer does recommend for me to stop drinking caffeine, that isn't going to encourage me to want anymore children after this," Livia warned him.

"Let's not put the cart before the horse," Dave said.

Livia changed the subject knowing that she and Dave would be talking about it again once she saw healer once they got back home.

"Well, we can worry about my pregnancy later as we really can't do anything about it now anyway," Livia said. "Let's finish breakfast and then get to the activities we plan for today."

"Just promise to tell me if you start feeling queasy or sick. Like you want to throw up," Dave requested.

"I will," Livia promised. "I did tell you about the pregnancy just as soon as I was sure of my conclusion."

"Yeah, you did," Dave agreed immediately relaxing. "How in the world did you slip off to buy a pregnancy test without me knowing?"

"You were busy talking to that guy in the lobby for a few minutes, so I took the opportunity and bought it at the hotel gift shop. I probably wasn't gone more than 10 minutes or so," Livia explained.

"No, you're right. I never noticed you had disappeared, as I was too busy having a conversation with the manager of the resort," Dave said.

"If you had noticed, you probably would have assumed I'd gone to the bathroom and that I'd be right back, since women always seem to be slipping off to relieve themselves," Livia said.

"Likely true," Dave admitted. "It doesn't really matter that you managed to slip away for a few minutes. All that matters is you're pregnant and carrying our child."

"And let me tell you, I'll never buy anything at that gift shop again as the prices were ridiculous," Livia said with a sniff and a grimace.

"They mark up the price of everything in a place like this, so this is not the type place to buy a pregnancy test or anything really. I know you hate places that overcharge you no matter how much money we have."

"Yeah, I definitely do, but this was important that I find out if I was pregnant or not and I didn't want to tell you until I was sure, so the gift shop was the only option, so I didn't want to waste the only opportunity I might have until we got home," Livia said.

"Then I suggest you never buy anything at an airport as they also jack up their prices," Dave told her in a teasing tone. ''The only good thing about buying things like wine in an airport is that there are no duties and taxes on what is considered luxury goods. It is a good place to buy things like bottles of wine or perfume with the understanding that these items are tax exempt, including import taxes and are going to be taken out of the country."

"You might not pay taxes on stuff from an airport, but if they mark up their prices that much I'm sure they get their money back," Livia said cynically.

"Which is why it's mostly not worth it, except for stuff like alcohol and perfume but anything else no," Dave said. "And the problem with alcohol is you are limited to one liter due to the quantity available."

The two finished their breakfast and Dave paid the bill before they got up and left.

"That was a good breakfast, but then you know the food is good when cops eat there," Livia said. "I'm sure that's just as true here in France as it is in Canada."

"Cops are people no matter where you go, so I would say your theory is probably good, as after all, cops can't afford to eat anywhere too expensive on a regular basis, since as public servants, they don't make a lot, and that would be as true here as it would be anywhere else in the world," Dave said, as he took his mate's hand.

"So where to next?" Livia asked Dave.

"I thought maybe we could try water skiing next, though I'm sure there's some kind of short training course involved before we get to the actual skiing, but you're athletic enough that you should pick it up quickly and so should I since I've also never tried it either," Dave said.

"Sounds fun, I'm more than willing to give waterskiing a try, but I only hope I don't go into a vision," Livia agreed without arguing.

"Try not to worry about it," Dave suggested.

"I'll try, but it's always a concern and I've already had few visions since our vacation began, though I admit I've mostly been vision free. However, it would be just my luck to have a vision when I was speeding through the water and that's a good way to have an accident, and perhaps drown," Livia said.

"I won't say an accident can't happen, but you're not going to drown because you're not by yourself without anybody else to watch you and rescue you if necessary. Even people who don't have your ability can have an accident when they're attempting a sport for the first time due to clumsiness or because they don't listen to instructions and so don't know what they're doing," Dave said. "With your ability to see the future, you just need to make sure you're with someone whenever you attempt something that could be dangerous just because you suddenly go into a vision, as it could prevent a tragedy or at least the accident the way you were severely injured."

"That's a very good point," Livia said quietly. "Let's go, as I'm looking forward to attempting water skiing. I trust you to stop me from drowning if I do go into a vision. The good thing is, I usually have at least some warning before I do actually go into a vision, which should help prevent any accidents. I'm usually at least partially aware when I do go into a vision like that one you saw me go into in the master bathroom in Montréal."

Dave said nothing simply hailed a cab and they were quickly on their way.

~~~Dave and Livia~~~