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When Dany hears the key in the door, she’s in the kitchen eating horseradish from the jar.
“It’s only me,” Jorah calls.
Dany doesn’t answer, because her mouth is full of horseradish. The cats meow their usual greeting, but Jorah doesn’t stop to pet them, stepping through to the kitchen with a bouquet of daisies. Dany puts the jar down quickly, a little embarrassed to be caught in the act. It’s not like she usually eats condiments, but while she was cooking dinner the urge just overtook her.
“Aw, thank you,” Dany says, taking the flowers, “They’re beautiful.”
“So are you,” Jorah says.
Dany rolls her eyes fondly, putting the daisies in a vase.
“Daenerys,” Jorah says, and he never uses her full name unless he’s being serious, “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“If you think I’ve given up on dinner and am just going to order UberEats, you are mistaken,” Dany says, “It’s in the oven already.”
“No, not that,” Jorah says, “I’ve just… noticed some things lately. About you.”
“Noticed things? Like what?”
“You had that stomach bug, except you had it for weeks. Your breasts have been more sensitive than usual. I can’t remember the last time you had your period. And now you’re eating horseradish with a spoon.”
Dany looks guiltily at the jar.
“I thought maybe you were waiting for the right moment,” Jorah says, “But then I thought maybe you were scared to tell me. And I want you to know you really shouldn’t be.”
He comes closer and puts his arms around her.
“I know it’s a bit of a surprise, but it is a wonderful one.”
Dany’s eyes widen.
“Oh my God,” she says, “You think I’m pregnant.”
“Well, aren’t you?”
“No!” Dany says confidently.
Then she frowns, thinking about everything Jorah’s said. She thought she’d just had food poisoning. The breast tenderness – well, sometimes that happens around her period. Not that she’d had one for a while. And the horseradish… she can’t really explain why she was eating it. It was just a sudden craving.
“At least, I don’t think I’m pregnant,” Dany says, less confidently, “Or I didn’t, until you said all of that.”
“What do you mean? Did you not notice the symptoms?” Jorah asks.
“Of course I noticed,” Dany cries, breaking out of the circle of his arms as she gesticulates, “I just didn’t… put two and two together and get pregnant!”
Jorah puts his hands on his hips.
“What do you think now?”
“I am rapidly reassessing my view of the situation!”
Dany grabs onto the kitchen counter for support, breathing heavily.
“So you could be pregnant,” Jorah says, somewhat triumphantly.
“Yes, I could be pregnant!” Dany hisses, “Why else would I be panicking?”
“Have you done a pregnancy test?”
“Of course I haven’t done a pregnancy test!” Dany says, “Up until two minutes ago, I didn’t think I needed to!”
“Do you have one?”
“No, I don’t have one! If I had one, I would be weeing on it right now!”
Jorah nods.
“I’ll go to the chemist.”
Jorah’s only gone for ten minutes, but it feels like an age. Dany paces up and down the living room, disturbing the cats, her heart beating wildly. She can’t be pregnant. She’s on the pill. But she has been feeling kind of different recently. She pulls out her phone and googles ‘can you get pregnant on the pill’, then ‘pregnancy symptoms’. The results confirm what she already knows – that you can, in fact, get pregnant on any form of birth control, and it does, in fact, look like she might have.
She opens up her calendar and tries to work out the last time she had a period. It was the weekend of Missi’s birthday – she remembers having to ask her for a pad while they were out in a bar. But that was eight weeks ago. And Jorah’s had plenty of time to knock her up since then. There was the time she went to the pub after work with her colleagues, then drunkenly got a cab back to Jorah’s house and jumped on him. (She was embarrassed in the morning, but Jorah didn’t seem to mind one bit.) Or the time she made risotto verde and Jorah jumped on her while they were eating dessert. Or… well. Quite a few other times.
Dany grabs the pregnancy test off Jorah before he’s even through the front door.
“These things are expensive,” Jorah comments.
“Yeah, you know what else is?” Dany says, rushing to the bathroom, “Babies!”
She rips into the box and struggles with the plastic packaging, eventually tearing it open with her teeth. Pregnancy test in hand, she pulls down her knickers and sits on the toilet.
“Oh, sorry,” Jorah says, suddenly materialising in the doorway.
Dany hadn’t thought to shut the bathroom door, but that doesn’t seem to matter right now.
“If I am pregnant, you’re going to see much worse than this,” she says.
Jorah nods, standing awkwardly against the doorframe. Dany tries to summon a stream of urine – and not get it all over her hand – but it’s a delicate manoeuvre, and Jorah is surplus to its execution.
“I can’t go with you watching!” she tells him.
“Sorry, sorry,” Jorah says, pulling the door shut.
“Or listening!”
“I’ll just be in the living room, love.”
“How long do you have to wait?” Jorah asks.
“Two minutes.”
“And how long has it been?”
“One minute.”
It took some awkward wrangling (after which Dany had to wash her hands), but now Dany and Jorah are sitting on the sofa, the test stick on the coffee table in front of them.
“You’ll be a wonderful mother, Daenerys,” Jorah says, taking her hand and squeezing it, “Whenever it happens.”
“And if it’s now?” Dany says.
“We’ll make things work. You can talk to your boss, sort out your maternity leave. And you can come live with me, or we’ll find a new place with room for a nursery. A garden, too, maybe.”
“And you’d be happy with that?”
Jorah moves her hand to his lips and kisses it.
“Nothing – nothing – could make me happier.”
He looks down.
“But if… if you wouldn’t be happy. Whatever you do is your choice, not mine.”
“Jorah…”
“We’ve never really talked about the future. You might not see children in yours. Or even me, for that matter.”
Jorah looks at her, and he looks like he’s trying hard to be stoic. Dany feels a sudden rush of affection for him. Silly man. He’s always worn his heart on his sleeve. Dany wants to tell him how much she loves him, how even after just eight months together she knows she doesn’t want anyone else.
Instead, she says, “I think it’s been two minutes.”
“Do you want to look?”
Dany covers her face with her hands.
“I can’t. You do it.”
Jorah picks up the test stick.
“Well, it’s hard to tell. But it looks like two lines.”
“Let me look at that,” Dany says, grabbing the test.
“What does that mean? Not pregnant?”
Dany stares at the test, at the two faint – but very distinct – lines.
“No,” she says, her voice shaky, “Two lines means pregnant.”
“Does it?”
“Get the instructions,” she says, pointing wildly towards the bathroom.
Jorah goes to the bathroom, returns with the instruction leaflet, and looks at it for what seems like an inordinately long time.
“Two lines… indicates a positive result,” he reads.
“See?” Dany says, “Positive!”
“A positive result means pregnancy hormones are present,” Jorah continues reading, “This indicates you are pregnant, with 99% accuracy if used from the day of your expected period.”
“I’m pregnant,” Dany says, unable to stop the smile that’s blooming on her face.
Jorah looks up from the leaflet.
“You’re pregnant,” he breathes.
Dany’s dumbstruck, tears starting in her eyes.
“I love you so much,” Jorah says, and he drops to his knees in front of her, so he’s in the vee of her legs.
Dany cradles his head in her hands.
“Those are happy tears?” Jorah asks.
Dany nods, unable to speak, and then she pulls him closer and kisses him, her hands on the back of his neck.
“I haven’t given you your kiss today,” she says.
Jorah pulls a face.
“You taste like horseradish.”
Dany laughs and kisses him again.