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It had been a long day. Not necessarily a bad day, just…a long one. They’d made it to a new city and Jennifer had been practically tourist-drunk the second they landed--taking him to every corner of the city as quickly as possible as soon as her feet touched solid ground. Granted, she’d been going a little stir-crazy in the long trip to it, so it wasn’t completely unfounded, but this seemed like a new level of giddy; as if she thought this was going to be the last city they were going to go to. She’d somehow manage to drag him to three museums, though, found four markets, and almost stumbled right into the middle of a very serious, very “below board” discussion between gentlemen that Duke only vaguely recognized and wanted to keep it that way.
Duke could hardly keep up. It seemed like as soon as he was starting to get into whatever it was they were doing, Jennifer was off on something new. He was almost impressed by how easily she’d rallied back to her usual self after her bout with morning sickness. But when she finally, finally asked to go home, Duke all but picked her up and carried her back, determined to not let her get distracted from the new goal of going home.
She had convinced him to grab a to-go meal from a restaurant before going all the way home, but that was the only deviation from his essential beeline straight back to the Rouge, and was one that he was more than willing to make. After all, it meant he didn’t have to do anything else that night, other than convince his often night-owl wife to finally just rest for a minute. She’d unfortunately been doing less and less of that, even without the voices in her head keeping her up anymore--ever since she’d stopped her meds, it’d seemed like she yawned more often than not. And once they were sharing a bed, he came to learn that she struggled almost as much as he did with falling and staying asleep. She hadn’t said anything about whether or not this was strange for her, and it wasn’t as if she was never without a fairly compelling reason to be sleepless since they’d gotten together. But at least then she’d been willing to talk to him about the deeper reasons; now she just kept using the excuse that she was reading pregnancy books. And that would be fine, if Duke wasn’t almost convinced that they were part of the problem, if not just contributing to it.
They’d eaten their food curled up on the couch while she played some movie Duke had never heard of on her laptop for them. She talked the whole time, making fun of it and making comments, but Duke hadn’t minded. He was just happy he could finally lie down. They’d stopped staying in hotels since the hotel with the Biggest Bathtub In The World--more on Jennifer’s insisting than anything else; “A hotel’s nice, but it’s not home.”
And Duke was only too happy to comply, even if he did point out that at a hotel, they’d’ve had room service and pay per view. Jennifer simply pointed out that then they wouldn’t be in their bed or in their own space. Duke was sure he could’ve come up with an argument for that if he wanted to, but instead “chose” to let her have that one. Besides, Jennifer had reasons beyond that as well, and he knew it, even if he wasn’t sure what they were.
Since they’d found out that they’d be parents, and in particular after the events of his business that he’d completed the night she told him, Jennifer had noticed that there had been a vague tension following Duke around. It wasn’t obvious, and sometimes it didn’t seem like it was there at all, but even then and only if someone really, really knew him and knew what to look for, it seemed like all it would take was a sudden argument across the street from them, or a surge in the crowd that would separate them, however briefly, and Duke was back to being tense and poised to do... something.
Jennifer had gotten very good at picking up when one of those moments would start to happen in Duke. She would just take his hand absently and give it a long, firm squeeze until he looked at her. When he did, she knew that he’d start to say that he was fine, or some other platitude to keep Jennifer calm or to distract her from him, so before he could even start, she’d give him the same small smile she’d given him in the safe house before the events at the lighthouse.
“I know you, Duke.”
Once he understood her meaning without her even having to say a word, his responses would vary; a smile, a responding squeeze, a kiss of some sort; but the meaning was still understood.
She was safe, and with him.
And while he was forever grateful to the powers that be for that, if she nudged him one more time, he was going to lose his mind.
“Duke?” she whispered, nuzzling closer to him and wrapping her arm around his waist, drawling his name in the dark. It was almost tempting, and the kisses she started placing on his shoulder and down to his neck weren’t helping that feeling, as she kept saying his name, slowly getting louder and drawing it out for longer, “Duke...”
He grunted, turning his head slightly towards her, “Mmhm?”
“The baby needs pie.” She grinned, kissing his cheek.
Duke turned his head and groaned into the pillow, “The baby does not need pie, the baby is barely anything right now.”
Jennifer giggled into his neck, still kissing his shoulder down to the back of his neck and repeating the circuit slowly and steadily. As tempting as that was, Duke pushed on, “If the baby needs anything it’s for their mom to go to sleep.”
She nuzzled his back, “Oh c’mon; I saw that bakery just outside the marina--”
“The one that was a twenty minute walk away?”
“It was not twenty minutes.”
“Fine, distance aside, it is also two in the fucking morning; it’s not open.”
She paused, seeming to consider this before trying again, “Well, I’m sure we have all the ingredients to--”
“No.” He said as firmly as his exhaustion would let him, “No. No. Just. Jen. Jennifer. Please. Go to sleep.”
She seemed to deflate for a moment, sighing against his skin. There was a pause long enough for Duke to believe that she may have actually fallen asleep, only for her to seem to find new purpose as she moved her hand down his side. She gave his hip a squeeze and inched closer to him to kiss just below his ear and nip at his earlobe, becoming flush against his back, “Duke?”
He just sighed in response. She giggled at him and kept kissing wherever she could reach, “Since we’re both up anyway...”
Duke sighed again, “Jennifer. Love and light of my life. Mi reina bella.”
“Yes, dear?” She smiled at the endearments.
“As much as I would love to ravish you--”
She laughed into his shoulders, “‘Ravish ’?”
“--I am so,” he continued undeterred, “so, so exhausted I honestly don’t think I can move right now.”
Jennifer huffed behind him, pausing what she was doing. Eventually she lifted herself up enough to properly kiss his cheek again, “Yeah okay. Get some sleep. Love you.”
He mumbled something back, already falling back asleep, earning a chuckle from Jennifer as she rolled away from him. He whined for a moment, reaching behind him to try to pull her back against him. She caught his hand and rolled back to kiss his cheek again, “I’m just gonna read for awhile, okay? Go to sleep.”
He sighed but let her go. He didn’t feel her get out of the bed, but there was a bright white light for a moment, followed by the muted click of keys on a keyboard and the dimming of the light.
Duke was on the verge of sleep when he heard Jennifer “tsk” lightly. When he didn’t hear anything more, he started to officially go to sleep, only for her quiet exclamation of, “Oh Jesus Chri...no one said anything about chapped nipples!” to pull him back.
Duke yawned, “What?”
“Chapped. Nipples! From breastfeeding!” She exclaimed, gesturing at the screen in exasperation, though Duke hadn’t turned to look at her.
In his exhaustion, all Duke could think to say was, “I’ll still love your nipples even if they’re chapped.”
“Oh who cares about you?” Jennifer snapped half heartedly.
“Fair enough.” He conceded, and adjusting his head on the pillow, deciding that there wasn’t anything more he could add or take from the subject.
“In fact, while we’re on the subject of you...”
Duke sighed, thinking, Oh no.
“How are we going to have sex when I’m the size of a house and with another life form in my belly?”
Duke rolled over and sat up and turned his lamp on to look at her, “Okay so we’re just gonna give up on sleep entirely then.”
“I’m serious , Duke.”
“So am I.” Duke sighed as he flopped onto his back and registered the laptop on his wife’s lap, “How are you even getting internet right now.”
It wasn’t said as a question but Jennifer answered anyway.
“One, it’s not on the internet, it’s a pdf; two, you’re like two years too late to be asking that question.” She answered detachedly, focusing intently on the screen.
“Okay,” Duke yawned, rolling over to her and propping himself up on an elbow and gesturing towards the screen, “Why are you even worrying about this? We have so much time yet.”
“But we don’t.” She insisted, finally looking at him, her worry making her eyes wide, “We still haven’t talked about where we’re gonna put the baby--” she started ticking things off on her fingers, “--if we should actually have a house because there might not be room for you and me and her, how we would baby proof the Rouge if there is room for the three of us, I have no idea how to work a breast pump, and, and! I’m not on any vitamins or medications to make sure that she--” at this Jennifer touched her abdomen to indicate the baby, “--is or that I am as healthy as possible!”
She threw a hand at him as she asked, “Why do you think we went all over the city today?”
“You love history and exhausting me?” Duke tried for levity.
“I was trying to find a drugstore or a clinic or someone who’d be able to finally actually confirm I’m pregnant and give me something to go on for what I need to do to make sure she’s safe!”
Duke thought back on the day, on Jennifer’s boundless energy and distractibility once they reached certain places, the way she never seemed to want to slow down and was on a hunt for something all day. How had he not put that together?
“Okay,” Duke hefted, closing the top of her computer and taking it from her lap despite her brief “Hey!” in protest.
He reached over her so that he was over her and hid the laptop in her nightstand, mumbling, “That thing is obviously not helping.”
“Duke.” She chided.
“ Jennifer,” he responded, mimicking her tone.
“I was reading that.” She scolded.
“And now you’re not and you know what else you’re not? You’re not freaking out.” He shifted so that he was bracing himself on his left hand on the other side of her hip and his legs were moving the pillows around. He folded his left leg under him as he bent his right close to his middle. He moved some of her hair out of her face gently.
“This is not a freakout.” She said sternly, “When it’s a legitimate freakout, trust me, you’ll know.”
“Fine, you were on the verge of a freakout. But now you’re not because the laptop isn’t doing that to you anymore.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, “You did this to me.”
Duke gave her a confused look before he realized she meant the pregnancy and he unthinkingly huffed out a laugh, “Well, baby, it does take two to--”
“I swear to god if you say ‘tango’...” she scowled at him.
“--have really hot sex.” He adjusted at the last second, smirking at her.
She scowled for only a moment longer before she broke and laughed at him.
He grinned at her and tilted her chin up towards him so he could kiss her, mumbling, “That’s my girl.”
She kissed him eagerly, bringing her hands up to cup his face and keep him close. He bumped his forehead against her briefly as he changed the kiss and it’s intensity slightly. She whimpered against him and again when he pulled away.
He brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers, pressing his forehead to hers and studying her face while she still had her eyes closed, trying to take slow, calming breaths.
“Jen.” He breathed.
She opened her eyes and looked at him and he could see that they were growing red from her trying to keep a cap on her own exhaustion and anxiety. He kissed her cheek and leaned back a little to really look at her.
He moved his hand from her cheek to her neck, “We’ll set sail back for America as soon as I get all the preparations done for it--day after tomorrow at the latest.”
She sighed, her relief clear in the way her shoulders sagged, “Thank you. I know how much this extended trip meant to you.”
He shook his head and moved his hand to press it against her abdomen--gently, as if he were afraid that too much pressure would hurt the baby or Jennifer--mirroring her action earlier, “This takes precedence.”
Her own hand covered his there and she smiled, “She’s got a great dad.”
He smirked at her, “You keep calling them that; a ‘she.’ How are you so sure?”
Jennifer blushed, “Um. It...it was a dream I had.”
Duke quirked an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to continue.
“It...it was my mom. She was in a hospital--not like when she was sick, but like she was visiting someone. And she turned to me, and she was smiling and holding a baby in a pink blanket, and she said, ‘She’s beautiful.’”
She shrugged absently, “And, I don’t know, just since then, when I picture us, it’s with a little girl and it feels...right.”
Duke focused on their hands on her abdomen and, somehow, seeing it. The two of them at a park with a little girl with Jennifer’s bright curious eyes, his nose and hair, and Jennifer’s smile.
A daughter.
“We’ll go to California,” he said absently, “When we go back. We’ll go through the Panama canal and we’ll go see Holly--I’m sure she’ll be over the moon to hear that she’s going to be an aunt.”
Jennifer smiled at him, “She’d love that. Still not ready to go home?”
Duke shrugged, “The Rouge is home. And so are you.”
“That’s not what I--”
“I know what you meant,” he cut her off weakly.
She studied him as he continued, “You were talking about how desperate you were to make sure the baby is safe and that’s why you were pulling me all over the place today.”
Jennifer nodded, already knowing the parallels he was going to draw between them but wanting him to say it.
“That’s what I--I just--I’m not trying to find anything, I--I have to--I need to know you’re safe.” He stammered.
She reached up to hold his face so he couldn’t look away from her, “I know. And you do keep me safe--keep us safe.”
He searched her eyes, finding comfort in how honest and sure she was in him, in how much she genuinely believed in him and trying to let that make him believe it himself. He covered her hand with his where it was on his face and turned to kiss her palm.
“As for all the other things,” Duke continued, coming back to the moment to entwine their fingers next to them, “I don’t have those answers.”
She sighed tiredly, “I don’t need answers I just--”
“But ,” Duke interrupted, “you shouldn’t worry so much; we still have time--even if you don’t think it’s a lot. And we’ll figure this out like we’ve figured everything else out.”
“At the last minute and after one of us has died?” She suggested nervously.
Duke gave her a briefly bewildered look, “I was...I was gonna say ‘together ’ but--”
“Oh no yeah I like yours better.” She nodded.
Duke sighed, smirking, and leaned towards her to kiss her, “You are so--”
“Adorable?” She suggested, already leaning back to rest on the pillows once he kissed her.
He scoffed as she suggested other adjectives, “Delightful? Realistic?”
He finally kissed her, stopping any other ideas or suggestions, and leading her down so that he was properly on top of her. She ran her fingers through his hair, shifting under and against him welcomingly. Duke kissed down her neck, between her breasts to her stomach, only for a loud gurgle from it to startle him.
His head popped back up in surprise as Jennifer covered her face with her hands and started nervously laughing, “Oh god.”
Duke laughed and moved back up to kiss her hands that were still over her face, “You still hungry for pie, love?”
She peeked at him through her fingers, “It’s two in the morning--as you so helpfully pointed out--where are we going to get pie?”
Duke shrugged, climbing off of her and out of bed to grab a pair of pants and a shirt, “I dunno, but I do know that what my wife wants, she gets.”
She followed after him, snagging pajama pants and her father’s old sweater to cover her, “You are so attractive right now.”
He just laughed as she met him in the doorway, taking her hand as they headed out to see what their new city had to offer.