The apartment was silent, other than a bit of scratching coming from Axel's cage as he dreamt and the sound of Lee's bare feet padding back and forth on the floor as she paced. Like most nights, Lee only had a single light on in the living room. Unlike a typical night, the TV was not on and the light was also on in the second, normally unused, bathroom.

And Lee's heart was pounding as she paced.

Turning her head, she looked at the clock over the black TV. 1:04 am, still two more minutes to wait. So Lee sighed, and went back to pacing, until the clock read 1:06. Then Lee turned, racing in the bathroom.

And stopped dead.

Closing her eyes, Lee took a deep breath and simply stood there for a minute. Despite the fact that she had decided, had told Tarin that she was ready, despite the fact that they had actually been trying, at that exact moment, Lee was still having to fight down a hint of panic.

Finally, though, Lee opened her eyes and looked down at the little stick laying on the counter in the bathroom.

And saw the little blue plus sign sitting on it.

Lee blinked, then grabbed the box, just to make sure it was saying what she thought it was saying. It was a blue plus. The box said...that meant...

With a slight gasp and slight increase in her heart rate again, Lee dropped the box and turned, hurrying toward the bedroom. She didn't bother turning the light on, she more than knew her way around the room. Rushing in, Lee simply jumped on the bed, bouncing across until she had found her husband, hands reaching out to find his face, lips searching for his.

It had been a long time since Tarin had managed to have a nightmare. He’d always thought it had something to do with Lee being close by. This particular night, that theory hadn’t been put to the test, though, Tarin had only been asleep for a little over an hour. Asleep alone in the bed.

A long time ago, Tarin and Lee had decided that they were going to have to establish their own special brand of normal. This was normal. Tarin often went to sleep by himself. Staying too close made it difficult if not impossible for Lee to sleep, so they dealt.

That’s why Tarin was so completely shocked when he felt pressure in the bed. Had it really been long enough that Lee had been able to get tired? He would have sworn he’d just gone to bed….

Suddenly…he was being kissed, with soft familiar hands on either side of his face. Tarin Brooks did what any reasonable man would do under such an assault. He wrapped his arms around the figure and responded in kind.

”You’d better be my wife…or I’m in serious trouble.” he said against those lips, forcing eyes open that really wanted to be shut.

Yup, it was Lee.

”Not that I’m complaining sweetheart, but what’s up? he mumbled stifling a yawn.

She could tell Tarin was tired with the way that his arms wrapped around her, with the way he held her. To start with, it was more just his instinctual reaching out to hold her because she was near by rather than a conscious thought on his part.

But it didn't take long, between the bouncing and the kissing, for Tarin to wake up enough to speak. Which only caused Lee to shake her head while still kissing him because of the first comment he had made.

Then he asked what was up, and Lee couldn't help but smile, if a slightly nervous smile in the dark before sitting up, pulling Tarin up with her. "I think," she almost stammered as she spoke. "Well, I just did a test, and it said...I mean, I think I'm pregnant!"

Well. It turned out that it really was his wife bouncing on the bed and smothering him with kisses. There was probably only one other way Tarin would rather have died, but he was glad when Lee came up for air.

Up he sat…whether he wanted to or not. It was another one of those little things that simply existed in the “Tarin and Lee book of normal” When Lee got excited, sometimes Tarin moved in ways she wanted as opposed to what he necessarily wanted to do.

Then she spoke…and Tarin’s sleepy eyes widened. ”You’re….you’re sure? And you did…a test?” he mimed dumbly. When had Lee gotten a test? And she’d waited until he was asleep to take it? Well, that made sense, he’d have been a wreck the whole time they were waiting and…

….wait. The test had been positive, and Lee was beaming and happy and kissing him like there was no tomorrow. What a change from the last time they’d thought this might be the case. Tarin beamed.

”We’re going to have a baby!” he said, launching himself forwards to hug his wife. She was sturdy….she…they could handle it.

Lee simply nodded as Tarin spoke, as he questioned what she had just told him. He seemed just a little dumbfounded, just like she was feeling shocked after seeing the result.

"I just took took it," Lee said as she looked at Tarin in the darkness of their bedroom. "I double checked the box. It said I am."

Tarin was grinning. Despite how dark it was, despite the fact that Lee could barely actually see him, she could tell that much. They had been talking about this for months, they had been trying to get pregnant for just slightly less time than that. She was happy, she was excited, which is something that Lee had never thought would happen in a situation like this.

But beneath all that, Lee was still feeling a bit of the panic that had been there any time she had even thought about being pregnant in the past ten years. There just wasn't a way to get rid of feelings like that over night.

The smile sliding off her face, Lee just looked at her husband for a moment before swallowing and opening her mouth again. "Just tell me," she whispered. "That this is a good thing, that everything's going to be ok."

It was dark in the room, but Tarin had been sleeping for about an hour. His eyes were pretty well adjusted. Therefore, he could see the exact moment when the smile slipped off of Lee’s face. Oh well, it had been a new record for excitement about pregnancy.

She wanted reassurance. Of course she did. That seemed like a normal reaction in a situation like this.

”Of course this is a good thing Lee…” Tarin said, wrapping his arms around Lee and holding her close.

”Remember last time, when we weren’t sure. We logic’ed it out. If you’re pregnant, then I’m sure everything is going to be okay.”

Somehow Tarin wasn’t sure that his word on the matter wasn’t going to be good enough.

”You want to go to the labs? Or to see Doc Prof? He seemed pretty good at working these things out last time.”

Almost as soon as she had been asking whether this was good, if it was going to be ok, Tarin was wrapping his arms around her, reassuring her. The smile didn't come back to her face, but the frown disappeared. And he was using the logic he had used the last time, when she had thought she had been pregnant but hadn't been: that if she was, her body would handle it, as would that of the baby and everything would be alright.

Then Tarin was asking whether she wanted to go to the Labs, or to go see DocProf. Lee simply sat there, her arms still wrapped around Tarin from when he had leaned forward to hug her. Not that Lee knew what everything did, but the Labs looked like they had a lot more equipment that could possibly be needed in this situation than the mansion had access to. In fact, the Labs had access to a lot more than the mansion had a hope of getting their hands on.

"Yeah, we should probably go see DocProf," Lee said with a slight nod. Despite everything the Labs had, DocProf did know how her powers worked, and had already helped them with a lot.

Pulling back, Lee looked at Tarin, a bit of a smile crossing her face again. "Don't worry, though, I won't drag you there in the middle of the night again."

Lee wanted to go see Doc Prof. Tarin nodded his head, women always had doctors when they were pregnant. A mutant being pregnant easily lent itself to a mutant doctor. She wasn’t scowling anymore, which was good. The beaming from a few moments ago would have been better…but Tarin would settle for good in this situation. It was way better than utter and complete panic.

Lee was willing to wait until morning to go, too. Tarin smiled and nodded his head, things were going much better this time. If Lee was comfortable enough to wait until morning for a doctor, they were good.

”I think that’s a good plan. The Labs are great…but I think that Doc Prof probably as a little more experience dealing with people like us than the people at the labs. We can talk to Slate later though and see what kind of support the lab does have. Then we can go from there.”

Tarin was in agreement that DocProf was probably the better choice for them to go to, though he did mention the idea of talking to Slate to find out what the Labs did have to offer. In the future, after they had already seen DocProf.

That sounded good to Lee, so she nodded and gave Tarin a soft kiss. "We're actually going to have a baby!" Lee whispered as she pulled back, a smile spreading across her face once more. This was just another thing that she was suddenly able to have, another thing that Lee never thought she'd be able to do, that Tarin had given her. A relationship, marriage, and now a kid...

"You probably want to go back to sleep, don't you?" Lee asked, her smile turning a little sheepish as she looked at Tarin in the dark. He'd been tired when he went to bed at midnight, he always was after spending the day with her, and now she'd woken him up not too long after he'd fallen asleep. "Here, I'll curl up with you," Lee said as she moved around on the bed to get under the covers as well. Between her energy and now this, Lee didn't think she'd actually be able to sleep, but she sure could try to.

Ahhh. There was the smile. Tarin grinned and kissed his wife back, then tilted his head and looked at her. Nothing looked different, nothing felt different, Lee was still Lee, but there was a baby there too now. His baby. Tarin looked at the whole situation with new eyes.

Mind. Blown.

These were things he’d never expected to happen, things that had never really been in his life plan. Not until he’d come to New York. Not until he’d met Lee. Now it all seemed so natural, so right. It was a poignant moment and Tarin found himself getting a little emotional. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and nodded his head when Lee pointed out that he probably wanted to go back to sleep.

Women were the ones who were supposed to get weepy when they were pregnant, not their husbands. He was being a giant sap and a poor excuse of a man. Tarin grabbed himself by the proverbial bootstraps and pulled hard.

Lee was going to stay in the room, somehow that vastly improved Tarin’s mood, and as she climbed under the covers, he turned to snuggle up against her.

To snuggle up against them.

Tarin laid there for a few minutes, digesting everything, then said quietly, ”Do you feel any different?”

As Lee moved under the covers, she felt Tarin moving in the bed beside her, turning, then a moment later felt his arms wrapping around her, hugging her to him, so she snuggled even closer to him. It probably would not help her sleep, but it sure did feel nice.

It was quiet for a little while, dark and peaceful, before Tarin asked a question. It was soft, it was short, but it was a big question. Lee simply lay there, a small crease between her brows as she thought. Did she feel any different?

"Honestly," Lee said slowly, her voice little more than a whisper. "I really don't know. I mean, I'm happy, excited, nervous and panicking a bit, but I can't really tell if I feel any different yet through all of that."

Taking a deep breath, Lee snuggled her head into Tarin's shoulder. "What about you?" she asked after a couple moments. "How are you feeling about all of this?"

Tarin nodded his head when Lee pointed out that as of right now all she could feel were all the emotions that went along with being pregnant and expecting it at least a little. Those were the types of emotions Tarin wanted to hear about though. Happy…excited….and nervous were normal. Very normal. Tarin was reminded of their anniversary. Sometimes normal was good, very good.

Lee wanted to know how he felt too.

Tarin cuddled some more, musing over his feelings. Feelings weren’t something he was usually very good at. It was a man thing. At least that’s what he was calling it.

”Stoked? Thrilled?” he tried, then shrugged his shoulders under the covers. Lee knew how he felt about kids, how in the back of his mind he’d always wanted one of his own. They’d covered the topic again and again. Then again when Lee’s parents had come to visit.

Oh man. Tarin started laughing in the dark. ”We’re going to have to call our parents.”

Tarin didn't really have a whole lot to say about it right now. He was happy, but he was also quite tired. Lee knew that. She had been hoping for a little more insight about how exactly her husband had been feeling, though.

”We’re going to have to call our parents.”

Lee blinked into the darkness. "I hadn't even thought about that," Lee admitted slowly. Telling Adele would be good, a very happy conversation she was sure.

But she still didn't exactly get along all that well with her parents. Yes, things were probably better than if she had actually tried talking with them a few years earlier, but that didn't mean things were good.

Despite that, Lee still needed to to tell them about their first grandchild. It simply wouldn't have been fair not to.

Knowing about their grandchild and actually being in its life were two totally different things, though, and Lee would have to wait and see about that.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Rachael shows up here once she finds out, you know."

Tarin grinned a little in the dark when Lee pointed out that she hadn’t even thought about telling their parents. ”Not surprising…you’ve only known that you were pregnant for about ten minutes.” That’s what he was there for, though.

Lee pointed out that Rachel was likely to show up when she found out that her sister was pregnant and Tarin laughed out loud. ”Well, we’ve got the spare room, and I don’t think Matt would mind if we brought her around again. Ohhhhhh.” Tarin said, grinning even more broadly in the darkness.

”I can’t wait to see the look on his face when I tell him….”

Suddenly, it seemed like there was so much to do. They had a second bedroom right now, but soon that was going to change they’d need…a nursery.

”Holy cow. Nine months isn’t very long, is it?”

Yes, Tarin was right and they had only known that she was pregnant for about ten minutes or so, but they had also been thinking about it and trying for months. Not once in that time had Lee thought about the fact that she would have to tell her parents. Or even that she would need to simply talk to them.

Ok, really, why was it Tarin making all the good points? They had gotten an apartment with a second bedroom this time in large part for when their siblings came to visit. The lesser reason had been for her to use it herself.

And then there was the whole thing with Rachael and Matt. Last time her sister had been down, it had definitely looked like there might be something developing between those two, despite the age difference.

And speaking of Matt. "We haven't been to the bar in forever," Lee mused. It was a little strange; while they never went as often as Tarin had before meeting her, they had at one point been considered regulars, and then just kind of stopped going. "Just make sure I'm there to see his reaction. But yeah, it's bound to be great."

Silence. Just comfortable, silence as she lay snuggled up against Tarin. And then he spoke again. Lee shrugged slightly. "It is and it isn't," she replied. "Remember how long it had felt like for our first nine months together?" She asked. "But yeah, we're probably going to have to get moving quickly to make sure we get everything ready in time. But we can worry about that tomorrow, after we see DocProf."