Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Cecil? You okay, toots? You sound like you're puking again. Can I come in?"

My only answer was the loud sound of retching as I vomited again into the toilet. Fourth night in a row. Always about an hour after dinner, which meant my evening meal was pretty much a waste this week. Thank God for Ian and Luke. I was afraid to handle the baby since I didn't know what was wrong with me.

The door slowly opened, and I looked up through glassy eyes to see Ian's concerned face coming into focus as he came closer. My glasses were on the sink so I wouldn't drop them into the toilet. A safety measure that I'd unfortunately learned from experience on the second night of this pukefest.

Ian grabbed a washcloth from the towel rack and turned toward the faucet from where he knelt in front of the sink. He got it wet and wrung it out before laying the blissfully cold cloth against the back of my neck. He got another one, this time warm, and gently wiped my face and mouth.

He rose after pressing a strangely intimate kiss to my temple, and opened my medicine cabinet before I could warn him to ease it open and beware of the avalanche. It was funny to watch the Ian-shaped blur jump back as a shit-ton of old medicine bottles, boxes of unused over the counter items, extra packs of floss, and unopened toothbrushes shot out all over the counter and onto the floor at his feet.

The nausea was passing, so I reached up and grabbed my glasses, relieved when I could see again. I turned to start picking the shit up, when a box next to the toe of Ian's shoe had me gasping in horror. The morning after pill! Oh, shit. My eyes flitted over the pile and over by the base of the cabinet was a pregnancy test that Luke had teasingly gifted me this morning after hearing me puke for a third night in a row last night.

"What's wrong, toots? You look someone just stole your last piece of Christmas fudge." He followed my eyes and bent to pick up the box by his foot. "Morning after pill? Toots, is this what I think it is?"

I nodded silently, afraid of what he must be thinking. "Remember the day after Joshua came? And I attacked you when I was half awake and horny as billy goat in spring?"

"Yeah, what abou—" His voice trailed off as his eyes landed on the pregnancy test that I was now staring at. "We forgot the condom that morning, didn't we? I remember wondering at the time, because I've never felt that good in my life, but I've also never barebacked. But I passed out and forgot all about it."

I nodded miserably. "Same. It dawned on me later when I was extra sticky in the shower that maybe I'd jumped on that stick shift without a driving glove, so I picked that up to make sure that I didn't end up with two infants in the same year. But... I was like a walking zombie then, you remember? I must have stuck that in there to take later and forgotten all about it. Then Luke gave me that piss test last night as a joke after he heard me puking me three nights in a row. He said something lame like morning sickness doesn't always hit in the morning, and I tossed it in here on the counter. It must have landed there when everything spilled out of the cabinet of disasters."

Ian pulled me up and wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. "There's only one answer, toots. Piss on the stick, and let’s find out if there's a reason for your puking besides a medical problem. Because I was honestly about to call Colin over here if you refused to see a doctor. Four nights is excessive, you know?"

"What if I am?" I mumbled into his chest, inhaling his comforting scent of citrus kissed amber. "I mean, you didn't ask for this. Hmmph. I pretty much took advantage of you, then didn't even have the good sense not to get pregnant? Oh, fuck. I promise I'm not trying to trap you, 90210."

Ian chuckled and pushed back on my shoulders so he could see my face. "Breathe, toots. Nobody's trapped, and you can't take advantage of a willing partner. If anything, it was mutual molestation and I enjoyed every bit of it. If that resulted in us creating a life together, then so be it. We haven't talked about what's going on here or defined our relationship, but it's pretty clear that we're both in it, right?"

I nodded shyly, unsure how to deal with all this coming at me at once.

"Breathe, Cecil. I promise, I'm not going anywhere. I found everything that I never thought I wanted right here with you." He reached down and swatted my ass. "Now get over there and get ready to piss while I get that box open for you. We need to figure this out before we get ahead of ourselves, okay?"

I stopped as I had my zipper halfway down. "You promise you won't be mad if I am? I know that's a lot to ask, but I'm kind of freaking out here."

Ian ripped open the box and pulled one of the two tests out, passing it over after he'd removed it from the plastic. "I promise that I will love our child if you are pregnant. I've been thinking lately about us, and how much I want for there to be an us. All this would do is move up my mental timeline."

It was a sign of my comfort zone with the alpha that I didn't hesitate to whip my dick out and take a whiz in front of him. I put the end of the test into the stream and let it coat it, then set it to the side on the sink while I finished up. By the time I'd put my dick away, zipped up, and washed my hands, a small plus sign had already appeared in the window.

I picked it up with shaky hands, staring at it and wondering what exactly my life had come to. "Fuck. I'm going to have two infants in the same year," I commented as I held up the test for Ian to read.

He amazed me when he calmly wrapped his arms around me from behind and pulled me against his chest. He laid his cheek on my head and looked at our reflection in the bathroom mirror.

"Actually, toots? They won't be in the same year. Josh was born in December. Our little peanut will be born in September. See, different years. No problem!"

I snorted and smiled when i saw the happiness shining from his eyes. That alone calmed me more than any words he could have said. He was genuinely happy to be having a baby with me. He was here, and didn't seem inclined to leave. I grinned and met his eyes in the mirror.

"I knew there was a reason not to let a one-nighter stay over."

* * *

The last few weeks had been a blur of nightly puking, my stomach starting to swell, and all that fun bullshit. Today we were finally having the ultrasound. Ian was sitting there excitedly watching the monitor while the doctor measured the size of our peanut, as he insisted on calling it.

I tried not to be grossed out by the icky goop that she'd spread over my swollen belly to run the test. I knew it would clean up well enough. I just hated the texture of the cold gel.

"There you are, guys. He's the perfect size for nineteen weeks. You're almost halfway there, so hold on tight!" She typed a little bit onto her keyboard then pulled back the thingie she'd been rubbing over my gut and wiped it with a cleaning wipe before stowing it away. When Dr. Greene began cleaning the goop off me, I was so relieved that I almost missed her question.

"Why did you wait so long to come in, Cecil? You should have been taking prenatal vitamins from the beginning. But you're doing something right because everything looks perfect."

I blushed and admitted the truth. "Hmmph. I had no idea that I was pregnant. We weren't trying for it, if anything, I was the opposite of trying. But a few weeks ago the puking started, and we took a test that brought us here. This was the first new patient opening that you had available and my friend Tom insisted that I needed to have you for my doctor."

Dr. Greene laughed and shook her head. "I'm assuming we're talking about Colin's husband, Tom?" When I nodded, she smiled affectionately. "Well here's hoping that you cuss a lot less than he did when the twins came. I learned a few new words that day." Ian and I both chuckled, well able to imagine exactly what must have gone down in that delivery room.

"Dr. Greene?" Ian asked. "Can you tell me if it's bad that Cecil didn't get sick until what must have been the beginning of his second trimester? He was in perfect health until the three month mark by our calendar. He's also just now beginning to show. This isn't how it's described in What to Expect When Your Omega is Expecting.”

"Oh, every pregnancy is different. That book is a generalization, but everyone is different. Omegas can get sick at different points of the gestational process, some are sick the whole time, others never get sick at all. As long as he's able to get enough nutrients down when he's not feeling sick, he and the baby will both be fine."

She reached over and pulled two photos from a small printer that was on the lower shelf of the machine. She passed them to me with a smile and patted my knee.

"Rest when you can, and my receptionist will give you a list of recommended foods and the things you need to avoid. Make an appointment three weeks out, and we'll see how you’re doing then. Before I dash out and let you get dressed, do you have any other questions?"

"Just one," I said as I held up the photo. "Did I hear you say he, as in, the baby is a boy? This photo says baby boy Townsend on it, that's for the baby? I have a son?"

She chuckled at my dazed rambling, and nodded. "Yes, dear. You're having a son. Now I'm going to see myself out so you can get dressed. I'm sure you and your boyfriend have a lot to discuss!"

After she left, Ian stepped around between my legs and looked down at me as he shook his head. "I have one problem with that photo, toots."

I looked up at him from where I still lay on the table, worry and dread tightening in my throat. "Um. You didn't want a boy? I mean, the odds were fifty-fifty so..."

Ian shook his head. "Not that. My problem is my son being known as Baby Boy Townsend. We need to fix that. Maybe it's the alpha caveman in me, but I need you and both of our boys to carry my name. Can we see about making that happen?"

I blinked owlishly at him, my brain stumbling over both things that statement had dropped on me. "Both of our boys? Your name? Is this a proposal? For all of us? Me and Josh and Baby Bboy Townsend?"

Ian growled and leaned over to touch his forehead to mine. "It's a shitty proposal when you're lying on a table in a paper gown, but yeah. Will you marry me, toots? And let me adopt Josh with you?"

"Before Baby Boy Townsend arrives?" I asked, teasing him.

"It’s either that, or he gets my name before you do," he said with a rakish grin. “I’d prefer it if we all shared the same name though.”

I rolled my eyes. "Hmmph. I think I need to consult my attorney. I do have one on retainer, you know."

Ian grinned. "You go ahead and do that, toots. I'm pretty sure he'll have my back on this one.”