Emma watched Kyle from her bed in her hospital room. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his entire body was tense. But the look on his face wasn't angry. If she had to define it, she would say it was... contemplative.

"You're pregnant." His voice was flat but there was a touch of disbelief in it, as though he couldn't quite believe it. As though it was hard for him to wrap his mind around the concept. This, of course, didn't tell her if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It didn't reveal how he felt about this. The fact that he was still here after finding out about it was a big deal to her, though. That could only be a good sign.

Right?

"Yes," she said with a tight nod. She wanted to look at him but he wasn't looking at her and she didn't want to stare at him when he was occupied elsewhere. 

"How long?" he asked, reaching up to cup the back of his neck with his hand.

"I'll be six weeks and four days today," she said. "If you mean how long have I known, I've known the past week. I think it happened when we were in Vegas. If you're asking how long until the baby comes, we're due November ninth."

"So you're keeping it?" he asked, locking eyes with her. "The baby?"

The word sounded so foreign in his mouth. Strange. Like even he didn't know what it meant let alone how to say it.

"I -" She was going to say she didn't know. But that would be a lie. And if she wanted things to be better between her and Kyle, she needed to be upfront and honest. She bit her lip from saying anything else and then nodded her head. "Yes. I am." She pressed her lips together. "I know we need to talk about all of this. I'm just not sure where to start."

"Let's start at the beginning," Kyle said as though it was the obvious thing in the world. He reached for the chair at her bedside but then thought better of it and continued to pace up and down the small room. "Where do you see us in a year, Em? In five years? In ten? Because I love being with you. But I can't half-ass relationships. It's why I've avoided them for so long. I've never found anyone worth my time. If I'm in, I'm all in. I want the vacations in the off-season. I want marriage. And yeah, I want a few kids."

Her brow pushed up, surprise on her face. "A few?" she asked.

He nodded. "A few," he told her with certainty. "And I want them with you, Emma. And I know we didn't exactly plan for this child but I'm really looking forward to raising it with you." He stopped pacing and threw her a tentative look, something out of character for him. He was always good at being confident - or, at least, appearing that way. "If that's what you want. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or force you to do something you don't want to do."

"Kyle," she told him. Her eyes were filling up with tears and she cursed this new ability to cry at every damn thing. "Of course I want you to do this with me. I-I don't know if I'd be able to do it alone."

Kyle gave her a disbelieving look. "You're stronger than you realize, Emma," he told her, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The first six months of our relationship, I was paranoid that you were going to leave me because I know I'm not good enough for you. I am nowhere in your league. You're intelligent, beautiful, and graceful. And the crazy thing is, you don't even know it. You have this crazy fear that you aren't good enough, but the fact of the matter is, you're perfect just the way you are. You don't have to try and be the perfect girlfriend because you already are." He reached up to cup the back of his neck. "Honestly, I wished we talked more. Not just about hockey or dance but about us. I want to be more romantic but I worry because you don't really seem that much into it. I want to buy you flowers for no reason and go out to dinner and fancy restaurants. I've wanted to take you home to my family after a week of being together. I want to know what you're afraid of. I want to know more about your mom and what she did to you - just so I can hold you in my arms while you tell me, so you know I'm never ever going to leave. Not now. Not ever."

Emma pressed her lips together, trying to contain her tears. She hated crying. She didn't want to cry in front of Kyle. She didn't think she ever had and she didn't want to start now. But there was no stopping the tears from eclipsing her cheeks.

"Okay," she said with a small nod. "Okay."

His lips curled up. "Okay," he agreed with a nod. "So now what?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, causing the tears to run down her cheeks. Kyle stepped over to her so he could wipe her tears away. 

"Do we stay the way we are?" he asked, kneeling down so he was roughly level with her from her position on the hospital bed. "Do I propose? Do we move in together? What's the next step? I've never done this before."

Emma snorted. "I haven't, either," she said, looking with wide brown eyes. "I don't want you to marry me because I'm having your child, Kyle. I want to marry you because we want to be with each other for the rest of our lives."

"Do you honestly think I'd propose if I didn't want to be with you?" he asked raising his brows.

"I think you're notorious at doing the right thing," she told him, a small smile on her lips. "No matter what that is."

He pressed his lips together, biting back and smile that would have eclipsed his face and taken her breath away. He always did that, always seemed to prevent himself from showing when he was happy, but she could read him easily.

"That may be," he told her, "but I'm serious."

"I know," she agreed with a nod. "And you have no idea how much I appreciate that, Kyle. But I don't want this pregnancy to be the reason why you proposed to me. If you want to marry me in the future, I'm open to it. But I promised myself I would never let something else be the reason why I was stuck to someone for the rest of my life. Whether it's kids or history or... I don't know. And I don't want to put you in that same position." Kyle opened his mouth to say something but Emma interrupted, reading him clearly. "I'm not saying you don't want to marry me. I'm not saying that at all. But I want you to ask me because you've been planning to ask me or because the moonlight in my eyes just moves you or because the fireworks are going off at Disneyland. Not because you just found out we're going to have a kid together."

Kyle pressed his lips together to keep from saying anything. He seemed to take her words into consideration before nodding his head. He picked up his eyes to look at her and she saw the understanding in his sky blue eyes.

"I get it," he said, "but I do want to be part of this, Em. I want to be the one to hold your hair up while your puking in the toilet because of morning sickness. I want to watch as your boobs grow the size of melons. I want to run your aching feet and rub cocoa butter on your belly so you don't get stretch marks."

"Stretch marks are genetic more than anything," Emma pointed out.

"Well, I'll love you no matter what," he said, waving the thought away. "I don't want to miss a minute of it."

"That's good, Kyle," she told him, "because morning sickness has definitely hit me and it doesn't come just in the mornings."

"So..." He pressed his brows together. "How can I be part of this?"

Emma tilted her head to the side. "What, exactly, are you asking, Kyle?" she asked, unsure.

"If moving in is too much," he began hastily, his cheeks turning red. He couldn't look at Emma, which Emma found completely endearing. "Maybe you could stay over a few nights a week. When the baby is born, I would hope that you would consider moving in..." He shook his head. "I feel this is coming out wrong."

"Em." He picked his eyes up so they locked with hers and she could easily read the sincerity in the sky blue irises. "I've wanted you to move in after our first six months together. I just didn't want to bring it up because we hadn't talked about it and I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable. If you had told me to wait six months to have sex with you, I would have. Because you're worth it to me. If you told me you just weren't looking for a serious relationship, I would take what I could get until I couldn't take it anymore." His blue eyes flashed into hers, his long fingers curling into fists. "I'm at the point where I can't take it anymore, Em. Something about us, about this -" he gestured between them, stopping his pacing so he could face her in order to emphasize his point - "it has to change. I want it to change - I need it to change. But I can't force you to change how you feel about me."

"You don't have to," she told him. "I promise, you don't. Kyle, I'm crazy about you, too. I've pushed you away because I'm afraid you'll leave. I know you've given me no reason to think that way but I'm being honest." She looked away, taking a breath. "My mom left when I was three. I've told you this. And I told you it didn't matter, that I had moved on, but the truth it, I'm not over it. I don't think I've ever gotten over it even though I think I have. And it's an issue I'm going to struggle with for a very long time. The only constant in my life is my dad. That's the way it's always been. Even my college friends and I have grown apart just because that's the natural progression of life. I don't want that to happen to me and you, Kyle."

"But pushing me away isn't going to help either," he pointed out. "I want to be there for you, Emma. I want to prove that I'm not like your mother or your friends or your ex-boyfriends. I'm going to stay. And I would stay, whether or not you're pregnant. But you have to be willing to give me that chance."

Emma nodded and Kyle stepped to the side of her bed so he looked over her. 

"I know," she told him. "I know." She pressed her lips together. "I don't know how I feel about moving in right away. This pregnancy is a huge change in my life and it's something I'm still getting used to. But..." She rolled her eyes up to meet his. "But I'm open to it. I need that to be enough. For now."

Kyle rubbed his lips together and nodded his head. "It is," he told her. "I need to know that we'll be honest and upfront with things from now on. No matter what, we need to be able to trust each other."

"You're right," Emma agreed. "I'm sorry for hiding things. For Broadway. I just..."

"I know," he said. "I felt that way about telling people about my hockey aspirations." He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "We're in this together now."