Chapter Text
“You- You told Raith BeFore you told ME?!” John sputtered.
“No John,” I sighed exasperatedly, “He told Me! Then I called Murphy and did a test. And THEN I told you.”
“Just exactly how is it that Raith knew before You did? You’re the one who’s pregnant!” Well at least he was back to his usual John-ness, all impassive face and understated emotions. Good thing I can read him better than almost anyone, except Hendricks. But he’s got a couple of decades more experience than I have at reading Marcone’s micro-expressions.
I decided I might try a few ‘feminine wiles’” to mollify my baby daddy. I got in his personal bubble. I didn’t touch him but I got damn close, sitting on my knees, facing him, within range of the arm he’d draped over the back of my couch. Sort of daring him to wrap that arm around me. I dipped my chin a little in order to look at him through my lashes and lowered my voice just a little, to almost a whisper. “Well, Johnny,” I teased. He doesn’t like me to call him Johnny but he loves the husky almost whisper. “It turns out White Court can smell pheromones like a bloodhound.”
I saw his hand flex in my peripheral vision. He really wanted to touch me. I really had to work hard to hide a smirk. “Do I get the whole story?” He was nearing a lusty growl, but fighting it.
I moved a little closer. Sliding off my knees I leaned forward a bit placing my weight onto one hand which now rested on the sofa cushions a bare inch from his thigh. “Remember the night Maggie was conceived?” I asked pretending innocence.
“Yes,” he drew the word out a bit with a speculative tone.
“Well, after Thomas got in from his night shift next morning, he knocked on my door since I was ignoring the alarm and offered me tea and toast for breakfast.”
“He did,” oops, wrong kind of growl coming from between gritted teeth.
“He feels very brotherly toward me. And besides he wanted to dish.”
“Dish?”
“Yes, you know, get some gossip to share at the water cooler or whatever.”
“Okay, and?”
“And he nearly dropped the tea before it made my nightstand.”
“Why?”
“Would you just stop the interrogation and let me tell this my way?”
He made a locking motion with one hand near his mouth.
“Okay then,” I moved again, turning to sit next to him with barely an inch between us but still not touching.
“So Thomas practically screamed at me. ‘You had sex last night!’ And I affirmed that yes, I had had sex the previous evening and very good sex at that.”
John couldn’t hide the smirk. I knew it was stroking his ego, but that’s a small price to pay for preventing him from ventilating my brother.
“We then discussed whether he needed to defend my maidenly honor in any way. I assured him he didn’t. He then offered to give you the shovel talk, but I told him Murphy and the Alphas had beat him to it. And he said that that was when we first started seeing each other but that if I was now sleeping with you that upped the ante. Well, you get the gist of that conversation.”
“Yes,” John was back to almost growling. Good.
“Well, about two weeks ago he started sniffing me over breakfast coffee.”
“Sniffing you?!”
“Yes, that’s what I said. Anyway, he said I smelled different and suggested a pregnancy test. I argued with him, told him he was crazy, that we’d been careful, that he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was, that we’d been -um- intimate for several months and that I had an IUD. He said no form of birth control was fool proof, etc., etc., and we bickered back and forth for a bit before he went to bed. But- well, um- I threw up at the office that morning. So I got to thinking about it and after procrastinating a few more days, I called Murphy and bought the tests and well- you know the rest.”
“So Murphy also knew before I did?” I knew he was teasing now because, as I said, he knew how that had gone down.
“Oh come on, John,” I decided a little pout wouldn’t hurt at this juncture, “Two minutes before you! And only because she came over to hold my hand. I mean, after what happened the last time I was pregnant-“ I blinked rapidly for a second or two.
That did it! I was instantly wrapped into the arms of Chicago’s premiere mob boss. My back was being stroked and he was whispering something into my ear. I didn’t even try to decipher the words. I just blinked back real tears and let myself soak up his warmth. I let out a little gasp and hummed my appreciation of the sensations he was causing. I decided I liked my odds of a repeat performance of that very good sex.