I didn’t need to watch the movie. It was burned into my brain. My eyes were focused on Oliver, who was tearing up before the video even started. 

Is this on?

My hands had been shaking, but thankfully we had a tripod for the camera. I hadn't wanted to do it. Hadn't wanted to consider the idea that Jen might not live to see our baby girl grow up.

Oliver leaned into me, seeking the comfort I was more than ready and willing to give. He held it together pretty well until the part where Jen mentioned him, as I knew he would. Of course, Jen hadn't known about Oliver specifically, but she had talked about the person who would come after her up to her last day. She had been determined that at some point I would move on. But until Wyatt, Jen had been my only. We'd had the perfect love at first scent whirlwind romance. We waited to have Chloe, and there were definitely times I wish we hadn't, that we had started sooner to give Chloe more time with her mom. And maybe they would have found the tumor sooner if she had. But none of that was the path life took us on. And I happened to love the path I was on, even if it wasn't what I could have ever imagined.

...someday, he'll find someone to help him take care of you. They won't be me, and they won't take my place. They'll build a new place in your heart and daddy's. I already have a place for them in my heart because I know they will love you both as much as I love you...

Oliver was biting his knuckle, trying to hold back the sobs. I paused the video before the lullaby.

"She... was... beautiful..." Oliver sobbed.

"She really would have liked you," I told him.

"I wish I could have met her," he whispered when his sobs calmed down.

"Me too." I pulled him down to be my little spoon and pulled him as close to me as I could. "She was right."

"About?"

"You have built a place in both our hearts. It sucks that Jen left us, but we needed you, Oliver, and I didn't realize how much, even once we got together, until I almost lost you."

"I'm sorry," he apologized for the hundredth time.

"Well don't let it happen again," I admonished playfully. Today had been heavy. I hadn't gone through so many emotions in such a short time span since losing Jen.

"I don't think she left you," Oliver said suddenly.

"What?"

"Jen. She loved you both so much, I can't imagine, that if there were any way possible, that if there is any kind of afterlife, she must be here. She could never leave you."

Tears pricked at my eyes, and my voice was rough as I said, "You think?"

"I know." Oliver turned in my arms to kiss me sweetly. "If I can love you two halves as well as she loved you, then I will have accomplished something good in my life."

* * *

"Are you sure we should make Chloe wait?" I asked for the third, or maybe tenth, time.

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Wyatt, you've been at this parenting thing longer than I have. Do you really want to deal with toddler-like tantrums right away if the tech says we're having a boy?"

"I know, I know," I conceded. "But she's just so excited."

"And she will be just as excited whenever we do tell her, but we will be more prepared to deal with the outcome."

I kissed his fingers, clasped in my own. "What did I do without you?"

"I honestly have no clue." Oliver sighed in exasperation.

My knee jiggled nervously and Oliver pressed his hand to my thigh. "Why are you the nervous nelly? You've been through this before."

"And I was much worse then, let me promise you."

"Everything is going to be fine," Oliver assured me. "Every checkup has been perfect. Today is the day we get to finally see our little baby. Think on the good things."

"I am." My knee started jiggling again. "It's just that I'm thinking a million miles a minute and there are good thoughts and worried thoughts and the sky is falling thoughts and it's really hard to filter through them."

He shut me up with a kiss.

"Oliver Moore?"

He pulled back with a smile. "That's us. Are you ready, alpha?"

His use of alpha calmed me in a way nothing else had. I could do this. Millions and millions of other alphas had gone through this before me. Billions. Every one of them had survived. You would think that as a vet and how familiar I was with animal reproduction that dealing with human reproduction would have been a cakewalk. Especially since I'd done this before. But that was as far from the truth as possible.

I focused on my breathing as I followed Oliver back and watched them take his weight before they guided us into a small room with an examination table and a tall stool next to it, with a large ultrasound machine on the other side. The room was painted a calming sea green, but none of that would calm me. Not until someone told me that both my baby and my omega were fine. Hell, I probably would be a mess until the pregnancy was over. Done. But we were only half way through. 

I could do this, I promised myself as the technician finally entered the room.