Carter insisted on driving Brand to work the next morning, intent on seeing their baby as soon as he could. Brand normally didn't leave for the office until about thirty minutes after Jax's bus picked him up, but with Carter's enthusiasm, they left as soon as Jax's bus was out of sight.

"Are you sure you don't want to take two cars?" Brand asked for the third time as they locked the house door behind them. "I don't want you to have to drive all the way out just to pick me up. It just seems like a waste of time."

"Time with you is never a waste," Carter said, snaking his arm around Brand to pull him in for a quick kiss before they got into the car. They'd made the decision to not tell Jax until he got home from school and they had pictures of his new brother or sister.

They talked and laughed all the way to the office, which was completely quiet this early in the morning. They had at least thirty minutes before any other staff would arrive, so they had the building completely to themselves.

Carter couldn't help but compare how different this experience was to when he and Aaron had come for their first prenatal appointment with Jax. Aaron had taken at home pregnancy test, but they'd already had so many disappointments, where the pregnancy hormones registered at five weeks but faded within a few weeks. They'd had little hope that this pregnancy would be sticky, they'd been through it so many times. They'd even talked about not trying anymore, it was becoming so heartbreaking. But the pregnancy hormones kept rising, and at ten weeks, Brand told them they could tentatively expect their little one to make it.

Carter couldn't help but experience that same trepidation and cautious hope. Brand wasn't Aaron, he knew that. But he couldn't help but fear that this little one was just a dream, even though they were well past the point when Aaron had lost most of his pregnancies.

Brand took a little while to get the ultrasound machine ready, and Carter watched impatiently.

Finally, Brand turned to him with a smile. "Ready?"

Carter released a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. He jerked his head in a nod.

Brand adjusted the cart so he could see the monitor while lying on the examination table, then rolled his shirt up and his pants down, and spread some goop on his belly. Then he took the wand and pressed it against his lower abdomen, moving it around with a look of concentration on his face.

A minute passed, and nothing changed, though he kept adjusting the wand. Carter must have made a noise, because Brand suddenly looked at him, and smiled reassuringly. "This is surprisingly difficult to maneuver when doing it to yourself." He looked back at the monitor, and a moment later, breathed a worshipful, "There."

Carter's eyes shot to the monitor, and there was his baby. After Brand's description of the baby as "blobby," that's all he'd expected to see: a blob. But he could already tell that this was a baby. Brand had managed to get a full profile, and Carter could see a head, a face, a belly, and legs. The baby twitched, and Carter couldn't hold back the sob of joy that burst from him.

"That's our baby," Carter whispered.

"Babies," Brand corrected him.

"Babies?"

"See that line between the two open areas? That's two amniotic sacs. And that little circle in the second one is the other baby lying with their head toward us."

"Twins?" Carter's brain was having trouble processing that not only was he having another child, but two.

Brand reached over to the machine and pressed a few buttons, and a spiked graph appeared in the lower half, while the machine emitted a fast blub blub noise. "They’re about eight weeks along, and that's their heartbeats," Brand said.

Carter couldn't tear his eyes from the screen. Twins. Brand turned the sound off, and then adjusted the want several times, hitting keys on the machine occasionally. Carter watched in wordless wonder. How had he earned so much joy?

"Can you hand me that roll of paper towels?" Brand asked, and Carter helped him clean the goop off the wand and his stomach so Brand could get up. Brand took his time cleaning the machine up and then he busied himself with something at the counter. He turned around and handed Carter a thin roll of flimsy paper. Photos. Brand had managed to take photos of their babies.

The tears swelled in his eyes yet again, and he brushed them away quickly, fearing he would ruin the photos.

"Aren't they precious?" Brand asked.

"Beautiful," Carter said, pulling Brand's back to his chest, wrapping his arms around his mate as they looked at the photos. "Can they get here already?"

Brand laughed. "Let me enjoy a little bit of the pregnancy process before you start wishing them here. But I agree. I can't wait to hold them in our arms."

A knock on the door startled both of them.

"Am I interrupting anything?" she asked with a soft smile.

Brand and Carter exchanged a look, and then Brand shook his head and beckoned her closer.

"Would you like to see our babies?"

* * *

Carter wanted to run and tell his mother, his son, hell, he wanted to tell everyone that he and Brand were having twins, but he contented himself with staring at the ultrasound photos while he worked, stashing them away as Jax walked in the door. He wanted to tell his son with Brand. It wasn't just Carter and Jax anymore. It wasn't even just Carter and Jax and Brand. There were five of them now.

As Jax practiced piano before they went to pick Brand up from work, Carter suddenly realized he would need to buy a minivan before the twins arrived. Not to mention car seats and cribs. And what room would they put them in?

Carter practically bounced in excitement on the drive to pick Brand up. Jax was oblivious, absorbed into a book in the back seat.

When they walked in to Brand's office, the receptionist recognized them with a big grin. "Congratulations!" she said.

Carter returned her smile with a thanks, and she gestured him to continue back to Brand's office.

"What was she saying congratulations for, Dad?" Jax asked.

"I'll tell you in a minute," Carter promised. "We need to find Brand first."

Brand was still in an appointment, so Carter and Jax waited for him, Jax taking apart Brand's sample male and female omega reproductive system puzzles, Carter's legs bouncing in nervous excitement.

Finally, the door opened, and Brand came to Carter for a hello kiss, and they turned to Jax with giant smiles.

Jax's eyes were wide and too-serious as he turned expectantly toward them. "So are you going to have a baby?" he asked.

Carter and Brand gaped at each other. "How did you know?" Carter asked, a little disappointed his son had co-opted his surprise.

Jax narrowed his eyes. "You are going to have a baby?"

"Actually, we're going to have two babies," Brand said gently.

Jax nodded. "And they'll be my little brothers?"

"Or sisters," Carter said. Jax was still so serious.

Jax made a face. "I'd like brothers better."

"We'll see what we can do…" Carter said, glancing at Brand with concern. Brand seemed a little nonplussed, but unworried.

"Okay." Jax stood. "Can we go home now?"

Carter wanted to ask Jax if he was okay with it, or if he was excited, but he held back his questions until after he could talk to Brand in private.

They drove home in relative silence. Brand squeezed Carter's had reassuringly, but Carter kept his mouth shut, afraid of saying something that Jax might take the wrong way. Was he concerned about not being the center of Carter's attention anymore? Why wasn't he excited?

Halfway home, Jax said from the backseat, "Dad, can I take karate?"

Carter looked back at him in the mirror. He was wearing the same serious expression. "We'll have to talk to Dr. Tyler, bud. But why do you want to take karate?"

"Well, if I have little brothers or sisters, they won't be able to protect themselves until they're big. So I need to learn how to protect them."

Brand stifled a snort and clutched at Carter's arm. Carter felt amused as well, and relieved, now that he had some inkling of the train of thought Jax's mind had been taking.

"I think that's a really good thought, Jax. Why don't you ask Dr. Tyler about it at your next appointment? We don't want to do something that might not be good for your rehabilitation."

Jax nodded and returned to his book. Carter shared another secret smile with Brand, his excitement overcoming his worry again. This was going to be an amazing change for their family.