Ty counted on his fingers. If he was pregnant now, probably about a month in, he’d gotten pregnant sometime around opening day. If he’d gotten pregnant sometime around opening day, he was most likely due sometime around late December or early January. He could certainly live with that, assuming he could find a way to get to the hospital in time. He hadn’t quite ironed out how he was going to manage that one yet. Maybe a rideshare driver would let him into the car, but he wouldn’t count on it.

He closed his eyes and blew out a long, slow breath. It would all be okay. He didn’t need to have it all figured out right now. He had time before he got to the due date before he had to have a plan, and babies tended to throw all but the most basic of plans out the window anyway. He should focus on work and on the fun things about the baby - things like decorating, or clothes.

He could deal with the more anxiety-producing aspects later.

He pulled up a home decor site and started looking through it. He could just go through a decorator like he had for the rest of the house, but he wanted this to be more personal. He didn’t know if he was having a boy or a girl yet and it was far too soon to tell - only June, at this point, and he wouldn’t know until September at the earliest. As he scrolled through beautiful images of girls’ rooms, and rough-and-tumble images of boys’ rooms, he had to wrinkle his nose just a little.

Okay, sure, the girls’ rooms were lovely. And the boys’ rooms had a certain adorable quality to them. Maybe they could wait to encourage destructive tendencies in a son until they knew he had them? And maybe a baby girl didn’t need quite so many ruffles in her life? They’d just collect dust, and babies didn’t need dust.

Carter walked into the apartment then, and Ty’s heart leaped. He’d rather look at Carter than pictures of expertly-decorated baby bedrooms that hadn’t yet made contact with a single soiled diaper or upset stomach.

Carter smiled at him and came to sit on the couch beside him. He had to dislodge Isis to do so, and she batted at his hand, but she kept her claws in so she probably didn’t mean it. “What’s with the cranky lawyer face? Who are you taking down now?”

Ty soothed Isis back into a good mood by scratching the underside of her chin, just the way she liked. “I’m thinking about suing the baby decor industry, actually. And I’ll do it pro bono. Look at all this stuff. They’ve got people trying to force weird ideas about gender onto their kids before they’ve even developed limbs, for crying out loud. And trapping dust in their daughters’ rooms, just to reinforce some bizarre notions of femininity that didn’t even make sense when people basically wore ruffled curtains on the daily —”

Carter laughed and wrapped his arm around Ty. Ty ducked his head and relaxed. He didn’t want to put all of the logistical planning on Carter’s shoulders, but maybe Carter had some suggestions about how to get from the apartment to the hospital. “I know you didn’t sign on for this part,” he said, in a soft voice. “I just - I’m a little worried about how I’m going to get from here to the hospital. No Lyft driver’s going to want someone in labor in their car. That’s messy, you know?”

Carter frowned. “Do you want me to be part of the birth?”

Ty blushed. He couldn’t help it. His family wasn’t big on talking about wants or feelings. “That’s not what matters, Carter. What matters is that it’s not what you agreed to.”

Carter leaned back, just a little. His mouth had a couple of little lines on the side. “Ty, I thought we’d talked about this. We love each other, contract or no contract. We’re going to be fathers. We like to make each other happy. Now come on, out with it. What is it that you want?”

Ty swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

Carter lifted his chin, making Ty meet his eyes. “Don’t be sorry. I saw your dads. I know how you were taught.” He grinned. It looked a little forced to Ty, but he tried to remember to give Carter the benefit of the doubt. “What is it that you, Tyler Cunningham, want here?”

“In an ideal situation, I’d want my husband to be as involved with the birth as possible.” He took a deep breath. “That said, I know you don’t necessarily want kids, not yet, and birth is kind of a gross process. So I completely understand if you don’t want to be part of it. I know you think it’s just the way I was raised, the whole submissive omega thing, but it’s also a matter of being raised to be one selfish son of a bitch. We both were, me and Keegan. It’s really easy for me to throw money around and say, Well, I paid for it, so I get what I want and screw everyone else. I have to make a conscious choice to not be that guy, so this is me. Making that choice. I want you to be happy too. I’ve gotten what I wanted most, and I’ve got a husband I adore to boot.”

Carter stroked Ty’s face then, and Ty rested his head on his shoulder again. Isis let out a little mewl, reminding him that his primary responsibility was giving attention to her, and he petted her. Carter joined in, scratching her on her head, and she purred.

“Before we got to know each other, objectively speaking, you’re right. I wanted to spend my baseball years focusing on the team, and on baseball. I wouldn’t have had much interest in a kid, although I’d have done my duty because I’m not an asshole. But I’m excited about this, Ty. I’m excited because it’s you. I’m excited because it’s our baby. I’m excited because we’re doing this together. We’re starting a family and this baby is going to be the start of something amazing. Is it earlier than I’d planned when I was down in the minors? Sure. Life sometimes throws you curveballs and that’s okay. I wouldn’t trade any of this.” Carter kissed the side of his head.

“Really?” Ty’s heart swelled so much he couldn’t catch his breath.

“Really. Even getting Madoffed, because I probably wouldn’t have had a chance to meet you otherwise.” Carter turned bright red. “That’s a stupid thing to mention but here we are. Now - let’s take a look at these rooms.”

Ty moved his laptop over so Carter could see too. “Is it awful to admit I don’t want to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl until the day they’re born?” He bit his lip. “I get finding out makes it easier for a lot of people, you know, picking out clothes and all that, but we’ve got the next eighteen years to load the poor thing up with our gender expectations. When it’s born, it’s not going to get a lot out of clothing besides ‘I’m warm,’ or ‘I’m not warm.’ It’s not going to care about pink or blue, ruffled or not.”

“Right?” Carter snickered. “And all of this construction stuff in this room - yeah, a lot of boys get fixated on construction equipment. So do a lot of girls, I guess. I don’t know. We live in freaking New York. There’s always construction equipment somewhere nearby. Maybe let them show an interest - or decide the noise is too much - before we fill their room with it? Jesus.” He shook his head and scrolled away from one themed bedroom. “There has to be a place that doesn’t design nurseries based on gender.” He opened up a new tab and started a search.

Ty could feel his body relaxing. His jaw unclenched and his heart rate dialed back to a normal pace. “God. What would I do without you?”

Finding furniture places that sold gender-neutral nurseries was harder than it sounded, but between the two of them they managed to find a few choices they liked. “The big question is where are we going to put the nursery?” Carter turned to Ty and licked his lips. “Do we want to continue living apart, or do we want to get a place, you know, together?”

Ty stared at Carter. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Living together, buying a place together, made everything so much more real. Sure, he had strong feelings for this amazing man who’d gone so far to make him so happy. He loved him. He liked the idea of living together, even if Carter would be traveling for a good part of the year.

But Ty’s apartment was his. He’d bought it, himself. He’d chosen the decor. It was steps from the office. He knew the restaurants. He didn’t need a car to get anywhere, he was happy with it.

He would be happy anywhere with Carter, wouldn’t he?

“Are you sure that’s something you want to do?” He looked up into his husband’s eyes. “It’s a huge step.”

Carter laughed. “We really are going about this whole thing backwards, aren’t we? Yeah. I do want to do this. I want to be your husband. I want to be the father of your baby. I want to come home to you. I want your cats to be our cats. I want to have the same mailing address. It’s fast, it’s sudden, and it’s a little unusual, but if we’re going to raise our kid together we should probably at least try to live together.”

Ty sat in stunned silence. Then, almost like it was an alien creature, a smile bubbled up from deep inside of him and spread across his face. “This is amazing.” He laughed and leaned back against the cushions. “I never thought I could be this kind of happy. I have to be dreaming. I have to be. It doesn’t make sense.”

Carter gave him an odd look and grabbed Ty’s hands in his. This drew a disgruntled sound from Isis, who jumped down in a huff and trotted off toward the bedroom. “Ty. We can do this. We can have this. We can be happy together, I promise.”

“Where do you want to live?” Ty hunched over the keyboard and found a real estate website.

“I’m not hugely picky,” Carter said after a moment. “I’m okay with staying in the city, I’m okay with leaving it. It should be safe, have decent plumbing, and I should be able to get back and forth to the Stadium easily.”

“And to the Hellion Club,” Ty pointed out.

Carter hummed. “I mostly only go to the Hellion Club in other cities. Before we got married, I went to the New York one a lot, but now I only go there to meet up with specific people.” He took Ty’s hand again. “In other cities, I go because I want to get out around other people like me. It’s a social thing. You can’t just walk up to people in a bar and say, ‘Hey, are you an alpha too?’ It would be weird.”

“Probably get you punched,” Ty agreed. He had to chuckle at the thought.

“Right. So I go to a Hellion Club, because sometimes you just want to let your hair down and be yourself. I’m not flirting with the house omegas, I’m not getting into any wild and crazy shenanigans. It’s just to get out and not be alone for a little while.”

Ty blushed at himself. “I’m not really all that jealous,” he said after a moment. “I’m just - well, that place always made me uncomfortable.”

“I can see why it would make omegas uncomfortable. There are aspects of it that I find a little, er, unsavory, I guess. But it’s a place that serves a purpose, and I can’t complain about it. The reason I was willing to take drastic measures to stay with the club, though, was because of the social outlet it gives me when I’m on the road. And now I’m doubly glad I did it because I wouldn’t have met you without it.”

“True.” Ty laughed. “On the other hand, you wouldn’t have to put up with Cunningham drama if it weren’t for the Hellion Club, so there’s that.”

Carter laughed. “Okay, top of our list for the new place - no Cunningham drama. In fact, we can keep your relatives out altogether.”

“Even Keegan?”

Carter frowned. “Well, probably not Keegan. I like Keegan.”

“Sure, everyone likes Keegan until he replaces their shaving cream with whipped cream. How does he even manage to do that? I don’t know, but he did.” He pretended to pout, but he had to admit Keegan had come through for him more than once this year. “Fine, he can visit, but I’m not responsible for what happens to his wretched clothes.”

“No. No one is responsible for what happens to his wretched clothes. They’re wretched. Hence the catchy name.” Carter laughed and stood up, offering his hand to Ty. “Let’s hit the sack. We’ve got a day game tomorrow.”

“I know. I’ve got a ticket.” Ty beamed. “I’ve been talking to Ruiz’s wife. She’s actually pretty nice. Young, but nice.”

“Yeah, they’re a young couple. I like them, I think they’ll go far.” Carter led him back to the bedroom. “We’ll stay away from the Upper West side, because that’s where your parents are. Sound good?”

“Perfect.” Ty beamed. He didn’t want to live anywhere near his parents.

He was going to have a home with his husband. They were going to live together, and they were going to raise their child together. Who knew, maybe there would be more children down the road?

Ty shook himself out of it. He wasn’t going to get greedy. His life was already pretty good. He would be happy with what he already had, and not grasp for more. He laid down beside Carter and went to sleep in his arms. Someday, he would be able to do this every night.

He couldn’t wait.

* * *

Carter walked up to the plate. The team was down by two runs. The bases were loaded. A double would tie it up. He’d be content with a double. Hell, a double would be awesome right now. He’d been on the road for three weeks now, and he was sore. The other team’s pitching had limited him to two bloop singles all night, and had kept the rest of the team hitless until now. A double would be fan-frigging-tastic, and nigh impossible to boot.

The pitcher, who was working on his third complete game of the season, stared him down. Carter hated this guy. Harrington was a homophobe of the old school, but he had the chops to avoid ever having to pay consequences for his bigotry. He’d won every pitching award there was, multiple times. He was built like a tank, too, so charging the mound was never going to go well.

The first pitch sailed past Carter before he could see it. The ump, one of those guys who thought he needed to put on a huge show for the audience, flailed around to give the sign. “STEE-rike-UH!” he yelled, loud enough for the TV cameras to pick it up.

Carter rolled his eyes. Umps who needed that kind of attention weren’t usually good umps, but saying so didn’t do a guy any favors. All he could do was dig in and wait for the next pitch.

He got a piece of it, but the ball went sailing off into the left field stands. “STEE-rike-UH!” the ump declared.

“Jesus, Bowman, Harrington’s really getting to you guys tonight.” Garcia, the other team’s catcher, took the ball the ump offered him and threw it back to Harrington. “I mean usually he owns you, but tonight it’s just pathetic. What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re getting old already? Or maybe it’s getting married that made you suck so bad.”

Carter ground his teeth. All catchers talked trash. It was part of the game. Garcia used to play for New York, so he knew how to trash Carter better than a lot of other catchers, but it wasn’t really all that different. Still, something about Garcia mentioning Ty pissed Carter off. Ty was watching at home, damn it. He couldn’t let Ty see him lose. When the next pitch came in, Carter fouled it off toward right instead. The next pitch got fouled into the home team’s dugout and nearly took off the coach’s head.

Carter was warming up. His gut felt more solid. The ache in his shoulders disappeared.

He saw Harrington’s jaw twitch. This time, when the ball came in, it sailed right down the middle of the strike zone. Carter was ready for it.

He knew it was out as soon as he heard it connect. He didn’t gloat or showboat. He jogged around the bases the way he was supposed to and pretended he didn’t hear his team cheering, or the crowd rising to watch his ball sail out of the stadium and into the players’ lot. He hoped it hit Harrington’s car and left a giant dent. Or maybe Garcia’s. Garcia was a nice enough guy, but he should leave Ty’s name out of his mouth.

His team high fived him when he got back into the dugout, and he watched as Harrington hit the next batter. He got thrown out of the game for that one, ruining his streak of complete games. Carter beamed to himself as he hit the showers a short time later. He was more than happy to make Harrington’s day a little worse any way he could. Harrington making his own day worse because of Carter’s success was even better.

He showered and changed into street clothes, not that the team allowed “street” clothes after games. What they did on their own time was their business, but if they were representing the team they had to meet dress code. He didn’t mind, not really. It might be a little degrading to have someone telling him how to dress, but he got why they did it. They wanted team members to remember they were on the clock, they were representing the team, and they had to behave like professionals.

Tracy grabbed him once he was dressed. “Reporters are here. They want to talk to you.”

Carter made a face. He’d hit the game-winning run, and reporters usually wanted to talk to the guy who’d done that. It was their job and he understood that. He’d just done an awful lot of talking to the press when news broke about how he’d been caught up in that stupid scam, and now he had a pit in his stomach about the whole thing. “All right.” He rubbed at his face. “Let’s just get it over with, shall we?”

He let Tracy lead him out to another room in the visitors’ locker room, one that got used for press conferences. If the general public had any idea just how big and warren-like these clubhouses and locker rooms were, they’d demand they double as emergency shelters. Carter could remember sheltering in a minor league facility during a tornado back in Nebraska when he was a kid and thinking it was huge, but he hadn’t seen anything yet.

The reporters were all there, a good mix of New York and national press. That was the thing with being on a New York team. Any time you did anything, good or bad, it got national coverage. He took his place at the table beside Tracy and plastered a smile onto his face.

The first question named from Donna Howell, a New York sports reporter. “Carter, thanks for joining us. Did it feel good to hit the game-winning run?”

Carter huffed out a laugh. “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t, Donna. Harrington was a tough opponent all night, the other team played really well and kept us pinned down. It was super frustrating. Any time you can step in and help your team out like that feels good, definitely.”

Bill Duncan, who wrote for one of the national publications, came next. “It’s interesting to hear you praising Harrington. You and Harrington have had some conflicts over the years, haven’t you?”

Carter winced. What was with this guy, anyway? What made a person sit there and think they had the right to just bring that crap up? Harrington was a headhunter. He wouldn’t take it out on Duncan. No, he’d start throwing at Carter’s head. Oh well, the question was out there. “Well, you know, Harrington and I have some important philosophical differences. That doesn’t have any effect on my respect for his talent and dedication as a pitcher. He may be a bigot, but he’s a bigot who does get his job done on the field. We saw that here tonight when he kept our team more or less hitless until the eighth inning.”

Andrew Harris, who had a show on a major news network, stood up. “Hey, Carter, you’ve been having a pretty fantastic season so far and you’ve been on fire this road trip. Does this have anything to do with some off the field changes you’ve made? Like, say, tying the knot this winter?”

Carter blushed. He didn’t like to make his private life public, but the question was out there. “You know what? It probably does. I always used to say I was married to baseball, and I didn’t want to think about getting married or settling down until I was done playing. Then I met Ty. I’ve got to say, marrying him was the single best decision I have ever made in my life. I’m playing better. I’m concentrating better than I was before. I love my team, and I’ve always wanted to support my team and have them succeed. Now it feels like… I don’t know. I know he’s watching the games at home. I know he’s up in the stands during home games, or at least the night games. And I want to make him proud.” He ducked his head a little bit. “I want to make all of our fans proud, of course. With Ty it’s just… I don’t know. It’s more personal.”

Carter didn’t have to answer any more questions, so he was allowed to leave. Tracy followed soon after and caught up to him. “So. That was exciting.” He fluttered his eyelashes at Carter. “Oh, getting married to my amazing husband has made me a better player.”

Carter laughed and nudged Tracy with his shoulder. “Oh my God would you shut up? You’re making it weird.”

“It was already pretty weird.”

“Maybe. You’re making it weirder.” They headed out to the team bus. “I guess with a question like that there isn’t a way for it to not get weird, but still.”

“Right?” They climbed onto the bus and sat together for the drive back to the hotel. “Some of the questions they ask these days are pretty weird. It’s like they want to make baseball into a soap opera for dudes. Why do you want to know about personal issues between my guy and Harrington? Harrington flunked out of third grade and doesn’t know science. There’s your story. Does it really need to be more complicated than that?”

Carter laughed. “Nope. I think you’re right, though. They really do want to sell the drama behind it all. Maybe we should let them bring cameras into the locker room. They can see the drama right there up close and personal. You’ve got a twenty-five man roster and twenty-five individual weird superstitions and rituals. There’s your drama.”

“It’s not a superstition,” Ruiz challenged. “It’s science. If you move my glove and change its orientation, all of the mojo will drain out the bottom and I’ll start to suck. I’ll have to go play ice hockey or something like that.”

Tracy scoffed. “Do you even know how to play ice hockey?”

“No! Why do you think I’m so uptight about how I set my glove on the stairs, coach?”

Everyone on the bus laughed. Ruiz wasn’t picky about the orientation of his glove. They all knew guys who were, though. They’d played with them, or against them. Maybe they’d worked with them in winter ball or something. Some guys refused to wash their cap all season, or had to fidget with their batting gloves in a certain set pattern before each at bat. All baseball players had a ritual or superstitious practice they engaged in before they played.

“Maybe Ty is your superstitious practice,” Tracy suggested.

“Gross.” Hoffman made gagging sounds from the seat behind him. “Now that is something that needs to be kept out of the clubhouse. I got a lot of vices, but I’m no voyeur.”

Carter threw a wadded up piece of paper at him. “Dude. You couldn’t handle the awesome.”

They ribbed each other for the whole drive back to the hotel, and Carter lost a little bit of the tension in his shoulders by the time they arrived. Tracy followed him up.

“Are you still getting pestered by that Sebastian Britton jerk?”

“I haven’t personally heard from him. Ty said he gets occasional voice mails, but deletes them without listening to them. Seems reasonable to me, but you know. Details, right?”

Tracy nodded slowly. “It definitely looks like the police over there wanted to charge him. If they can find enough evidence they might ask for an extradition. And they’re actively looking for that evidence right now.”

Carter shuddered. “Ty dodged a bullet when he said no to Sebastian. He’s a smart guy.”

“He is.” Tracy took a deep breath. “Why do you think his parents are so keen for him to marry that jerk anyway? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the whole thing with him and you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see the fact that his ex is a monster.”

“Meh. They’re friends of the family, they want their grandchildren to be raised with people who are like them. It’s understandable. I’m a stranger. They have no idea who I am and they don’t know what my values are. They just want their way of life to continue.”

“Okay, but their way of life is weird.” Tracy made a face. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t judge, but it seems to me that if Tyler has already said no it’s not going to do any good to sit there and try to ram something through, you know? More to the point, this guy already dumped Ty once. And is under suspicion of murdering his last husband.”

“They don’t know that. I’m not sure they’d care, though. All they seem to know is that the guy they always wanted to marry Ty is suddenly single again. That’s what matters to them.”

“I see.” Tracy stroked his beard. “Well, I don’t pretend to understand, but it doesn’t matter if I do or don’t I guess. You don’t think they’d hurt him, do you?”

“No. Not at all. I think they’d see it as vulgar.” Carter took a deep breath. “And as for Sebastian, I think he’d only hurt Ty if he got something out of it. Right now, he’s getting something out of stringing his parents along. I’m not sure what yet.”

“So if we can figure out what he got out of hurting his ex, we can figure out what he’s hiding.” Tracy grinned and snapped his fingers.

Carter tilted his head to the side. “Tracy, I appreciate you helping out with this. I do. But we’re baseball players. We’re not detectives. We don’t know for sure that he did hurt his ex, never mind killed him. We should leave this to the professionals and focus on keeping Ty safe.”

“It’s all bound up together, Carter. Can’t you see that? There’s no part of me that doesn’t think Britton killed his husband. And my guess is that it involved whatever shady crap he got up to with his old job.” Tracy bit the inside of his cheek. “And we need to figure out what exactly Britton gets from Ty now, since he’s sniffing around.”

Carter stretched his neck out. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. I want to say he’d get to be with the most amazing guy in the world, but we already know he doesn’t see it that way. And we know it’s not going to happen because I’m not letting him anywhere near Ty, so…”

“Right.” Tracy huffed out a little laugh. “I wonder if he’s sniffing around just to try to get a decent lawyer on the cheap? Because his husband would definitely defend him for free, right?”

“Probably not. Lawyers aren’t supposed to defend family. Something about conflict of interest.” He scratched his stubbly chin. “But that doesn’t mean Sebastian understands that, or accepts that. He’s definitely got an issue with entitlement.”

“It’s totally feasible.” Tracy licked his lips. “I know a guy or two. I’ll have them look into some stuff. I’ll tell you what I find out, okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, thanks, Tracy.” Carter didn’t know if he should be grateful or terrified. He’d settle for both until he knew more.