Archive of Our Own

Erica stared at the three pregnancy tests in a neat line on the bathroom counter. All three of them had stopped blinking—could have been one minute ago, could have been one hour; hell, it could have been yesterday—and all three of them read the same thing.

Pregnant.

She sank onto the toilet, unable to take her eyes off the tests. There was a chance it was a false positive, right? There was a chance that she wasn't pregnant?

Even as she thought it, she knew what a stupid idea it was. One false positive, maybe, but three? In a row? No way.

Oh God, she was pregnant.

Someone knocked on the bathroom door. "Babe? You okay in there?" Boyd asked.

"Yeah," Erica said, but her voice was shaky. "I'm, uh..."

"Do you need me to get you something?"

Hysterical laughter burbled in her throat. "Birth control that works would be great."

There was a pause outside the door. "Wait, what?"

She scrubbed her hands over her face. "Just get in here."

The bathroom door creaked open and Boyd sidled inside. He took one look at the three tests on the counter and went, "Oh."

God, the look on his face. Erica had to bite her fist to keep from laughing. "Yeah. Oh."

"That's..." Boyd rubbed the back of his neck. "That's pretty conclusive, isn't it?"

Erica nodded.

Boyd moved over to stand in front of her. "How are you doing?"

"I...I have no idea." Erica scrubbed her hands over her face. She was shaking all over. "I know we talked about kids, but God, that was supposed to be in a year or two or something, not now."

Boyd rested his hands on her shoulders and pulled her forward until she could rest her head on his stomach. "You know, technically we have nine months before they get here. That's pretty close to a year, right?" 

God, he was so good at making her feel steadier. Erica wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could. "Are you okay with this?"

Boyd petted her hair. "Babe, you know I want kids. I'm okay with this, but I'm also not the one who's going to have to carry a peanut that grows into a watermelon. Are you okay with this?"

That broke out the laughter she'd been keeping a lid on, and Erica pressed her face into Boyd's stomach and howled with it. It was ridiculous. She wasn't ready. She was terrified.

But she was also indescribably, incandescently happy.

"We're going to need a bigger apartment," Erica said when she could breathe again.

"What, you don't think we can fit a crib in our living room?" Boyd said.

That set her off again. "Boyd, we can't fit a couch in our living room."

Erica finally looked up at him, at Boyd's warm brown eyes and his big smile, and it hit her how much she loved him and how excited she was to be starting a family with this precious man.

She stood up and hugged him. "We're going to have a baby," she whispered in awe.

Boyd kissed the top of her head and held her close. "Yeah. We're going to have a baby."