Morning After Sickness

Lacey was awakened by Danny's gentle nuzzles against her throat long before he whispered, "Good morning. Rise and shine, sleepyhead."

She cracked open a single eye and noted the murky interior of his bedroom. She could barely detect any hint of the sunlight filtering in through his white, vinyl blinds. One glance at the digital clock on his nightstand revealed the reason that was the case. The bright, digital numbers read 5:23, as in a.m. She balked inwardly at the realization and upon assimilating that it was much too early to be awake, Lacey closed her eyes again and responded to Danny's cheerful greeting with a disgruntled scowl.

"Go back to sleep, Danny."

"Can't. I'm too excited to sleep."

"Oh yeah? Excited about what?" she croaked without opening her eyes, "Because the only good reason you could possibly have for waking me up at this hour would be to tell me place is on fire. And I don't smell smoke, so I'm going back to sleep."

Far from deterred by her surly tone, Danny chuckled and trailed a warm path of kisses across her collarbone. Lulled by his caresses, Lacey arched her neck to provide him with more access as he settled against her body. His arousal was prominent between them when he whispered into her skin, "Does it count if I'm on fire?"

Under different circumstances, Lacey might have responded to his cheesy come on and shifted the covers to make room for him underneath but at that particular moment, she was gradually becoming aware of the damp ends of Danny's hair as they trailed across her flesh and the clean, fragrant scent of his dewy skin, attesting to his recent shower. He had obviously been up for some time now, despite the ungodly hour, and was clearly refreshed. Lacey, on the other hand, was only half awake with puffy, sleep crusted eyes, tangled hair and morning breath. She couldn't quite ignore the disparity between them. Consequently, before Danny could take his exploration any further, she scooted from beneath him and flipped the blankets over her head.

"Nope. Nuh-uh. You can't seduce me right now," she told him, "I'm not sexy. Come back after I've showered and gargled and preferably when there's sunlight."

She heard his answering laugh rumbled against her ear through the covers. "Oh, you're way sexy this way. Trust me. You're all warm and soft and you smell like sex."

Lacey grimaced at the description. "In other words, you're saying I stink," she paraphrased bluntly, batting away his hands when he tried to feel her up under the covers. "I'm serious, Danny! Get away from me! For God's sake, I haven't even brushed my teeth yet!"

He reared back onto his knees to straddle her then and regarded his grumpy bride-to-be with an expression full of impatient expectation. "Well, get to it then, woman. I've got more than six months of abstinence to make up for here."

She peeked at him from beneath the comforter with narrowed eyes, unsurprised to discover Danny grinning down at her with an almost maniacally happy expression. "Why are you so freaking chipper at 5:30 in the morning?" she groused, "It's really annoying."

"Can't a guy wake up smiling?"

"No. Especially because it's you."

"I'm actually a very cheerful person." Lacey snorted at that claim. Danny ignored her skepticism and added smoothly, "Besides, today is our last day together."

Lacey buried her head anew. "And that's what's making you so happy right now? Ugh. You're such an ass. I hate you."

"No, that's not what's making me so happy," he protested with an amused smile, cuddling her through the blankets, "Seeing you in my bed, even if you are being surly as hell, makes me happy. I was just thinking that this weekend went by really fast."

Soured even further by that unhappy reminder, Lacey retorted, "Did you really wake me up at the butt crack of dawn to remind me of that?"

"Actually, I woke you up at the butt crack of dawn because I've been hard for the last two hours," he clarified boldly, adding without a beat as Lacey was left sputtering over his audacity, "and because we only have a limited amount of time together before you have to go back to Green Grove this afternoon. I don't want to waste the time we have left sleeping when we could be putting my bed to much better use." He whipped the covers away from her body then and hooked his hands around her legs with the obvious intention of dragging her closer and climbing between them.

Still resisting his attempts at seduction, Lacey covered her face with a pillow though she was having a harder time keeping her smile at bay. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you kept me up half the night."

Danny bit back a laugh at the pointed reminder that he had spent most of the previous evening tracing every inch of her body with his mouth and hands. "I don't remember hearing you complain about it. Seemed to me like you couldn't get enough of me."

She lifted the pillow to shoot him an ironic look. "Wow, this a new mood for you. What happened to sullen, 'the sky is falling, woe is me' Danny?"

"He's on permanent hiatus. What can I say?" he whispered with a cocky smile as he settled back down against her, "You've inspired me, Porter. I feel like I could do anything."

Just as she opened her mouth to laughingly inform him that he was full of crap, Lacey was suddenly overwhelmed with a bout of nausea so powerful it felt like she was being slammed by a tsunami when it came. As she felt the hot bile rise in her throat, she clamped her hand over her mouth and swiftly scooted from underneath Danny with a mortified squeak. He barely had a minute to determine what was happening before she was darting from the room in a mad dash for the bathroom. Half a second later, he heart the unmistakable and gruesome sounds of violent retching. By the time he arrived in the bathroom to assist her, Lacey had emptied most of the contents left in her stomach and was dry heaving pitifully over the toilet.

Danny draped a nearby towel over her naked back and stooped down beside her to tenderly sweep her hair back from her face. "What can I do for you?"

"A mercy kill would be nice," Lacey managed in breathless hiccups in between the constant, rolling pitches of her stomach.

His lips twitched at her answer. "Besides that."

"Gingerale, please," she managed after a few more episodes of dry heaving, "And Saltine crackers if you have them."

In less than two minutes Danny had located the items she'd requested, though he had to settle on Sprite instead of gingerale, and returned to the bathroom. He found Lacey slumped weakly against the face of the bathtub, looking utterly spent. While most of her nausea had passed she seemed to lack the strength to lift her hand to take the soda and crackers he had brought so Danny settled down beside her and held the soda can to her lips so she could sip, alternating that with feeding her small bites of cracker.

Although she was grateful for his solicitous care, Lacey had a difficult time meeting Danny's eyes as she nibbled. Minutes before, she had been too sick to give much heed to the fact he was witnessing her vulnerable state. Now, however, she was beginning to feel the first stirrings of humiliation and embarrassment as she fully contemplated the picture she must have presented.

"I'll bet you don't think I'm quite so sexy now," she quipped self-deprecatingly, "Nothing like puking up your guts while completely naked. And all before sunrise. Fabulous." She favored him with a chagrined glance. "Sorry if I grossed you out."

"You didn't gross me out and I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. It's my fault you're in this situation in the first place."

Lacey favored him with a wan but affectionate smile. "Yeah, it kinda is, isn't it? Damn you and your determined swimmers, Desai!"

Despite her teasing, however, Danny couldn't bring himself to laugh, not after what he had just seen. It was one thing to know she was sick but quite another to witness it firsthand. "Is it like this for you every morning?" he fretted softly. While he recognized she had been battling bouts of nausea for some time now, he hadn't imagined they were quite that bad, particularly not when she first awakened. Danny couldn't help but think about all the mornings she had woken up in a similar state but had suffered through the misery alone.

"Lately? Yeah, it has been." She shrugged in consideration. "I guess that's why they call it 'morning sickness,' which is kind of a mislabel because it actually happens all freaking day!"

"When will it stop?"

"According to Google, it's supposed to let up in the second trimester but I'm almost there and it only seems to be getting worse for me."

"Maybe that's not normal. Maybe you should see someone." His voice trembled with concern as he added, "Maybe something's wrong with the baby."

"Nothing is wrong," Lacey reassured Danny before he could descend into full-blown panic, "I'm just one of those unlucky women who will likely suffer with morning sickness for their entire pregnancy. Big whoop."

"I still think you should see a doctor," Danny insisted.

She reached up to tweak his nose playfully. "Aww, look at you. You already have this dutiful husband thing down cold, don't you?" He pressed a loving kiss to her temple, his forehead still creased with worry despite her levity. Lacey made yet another attempt to reassure him. "It's okay, Danny. I'll be fine after I swish my mouth with a little water."

After he rose to fill one of the disposable paper cups he kept near the bathroom sink (another brilliant Lacey Porter idea) with tap water, Danny asked somewhat glumly, "I don't guess you're in the mood for breakfast after all of this, huh? I was going to do special requests, whatever you wanted."

Lacey's eyes widened with interest. "Are you kidding? I'm starving! I could eat my own arm right now! If you're taking requests then I want blueberry pancakes with lots of whipped cream."

Danny blinked at her incredulously. "But I just watched you throw up all your insides," he sputtered in protest.

"Sometimes it's worse if I don't eat," Lacey told him, "Blueberry pancakes will definitely help."

"Ahh...I didn't know that. I keep forgetting that you've known about this for a week already," he murmured to himself, "I'm still getting used to it."

While Danny whipped together a simple breakfast of blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit, Lacey brushed her teeth, showered and dressed for the day. An hour later, they were seated together at the small counter that served as his dining room table and enjoying a quiet breakfast together. Danny was still rather unconvinced that Lacey could tolerate food after what he had witnessed in the bathroom but she seemed to display no ill effects from earlier as she wolfed down her pancakes. He watch her in wary fascination, half expecting her to blow like Mt. Vesuvius at any given moment. After she was done, she patted her full belly in contented satisfaction.

"That was really good. All those hours you spend watching the Food Network are really starting to pay off."

"Based on what I just saw, I obviously need the practice," Danny smirked, "I'm surprised you didn't lick the plate clean too."

"Don't tease me, Desai," she warned him with a frown of mock affront, "I need the nutrients. I'm growing a human being, remember? That's hard work." Danny's smile faltered a bit at the reminder and Lacey noted the shift in his expression with a measure of apprehension. "Hey...you're not mad at me for not telling you about the baby sooner, are you?"

"No. I get why you didn't say anything right away," he sighed, "But, you've already looked up some stuff and started to prepare yourself for what to expect. I still don't know what the hell I'm doing."

"Neither do I. Until last night, I wasn't even sure I was going to have this baby."

"But we are going to have this baby," Danny determined softly, "So I guess we need to discuss our game plan for that."

Lacey pushed her empty plate away with a sullen expression, suddenly filled with dread for what he might say next. "I thought we already did discuss it," she said, "Unless this is your way of saying you've changed your mind about everything."

An instant later she felt Danny reach over to cradle her face. When he brushed her lips gently with his own, Lacey finally summoned the courage to look at him. He regarded her intently, his eyes filled with naked adoration for her. "Nothing has changed for me," Danny told her firmly, "I still want to marry you, Lace. I still want us to be a family. We just need to figure out how we're going to tell your mom."

"And your grandparents," she added solemnly.

"They don't have to know about the baby right away," he considered, "We'll just tell them that we're getting married and let the rest come out later."

In an instant, Lacey's mood shifted mercurially from brooding to buoyant with his words. She had a difficult time hold her happy grin at bay after he was finished speaking. Regarding him with a besotted expression, she entreated softly, "Say that again."

"Say what again?" Danny asked with a puzzled frown, "'Let the rest come out later?'"

She gave his shoulder a light shove. "No! Say the other thing."

As what she was asking for in particular finally dawned on him, Danny leaned in closer to her and nuzzled a kiss across her lips, his own smile began to manifest. "Oh, you mean the part about us getting married?"

Her dimples deepened. "Yeah. That's the part."

Danny kissed her long and slow and deep before sighing into her mouth, "I can't wait to make you my wife, Lacey Porter."

"It only took you 3,330 years to do it."

He rolled his eyes in laughing consternation at the reply. "Oh, you had to bring that up."

"Yep. I had to bring it up. Gonna remind you for the rest of our lives, babe."

At that point, he had to kiss her again. She was too adorable to resist. Somehow, before the kiss was finished, she ended up slipping from her barstool and straddling his lap. "When do you want to do it?" Danny asked her breathlessly when they came up for air again a few seconds later.

"Right now in the middle of the living room is fine," Lacey reminded, already moving from his lap with the intention of tugging him in the general direction of the futon.

Danny threw back his head with a hearty laugh. "I don't mean that. At least, not right now. I meant when do you want to get married?"

"Oh." Lacey paused to consider the question for a long moment before she countered, "Well, when do you want to do it?"

"I asked you first."

"I asked you second."

"Lacey!"

"Danny!"

He growled at her but his exasperation only made her giggle. "I'm being very serious here," he maintained sternly despite his threatening smile, "We've never talked about what we want to do. Do you want a big wedding or would you rather go down to city hall and elope? Do you want to do it soon or do you want to wait until after the baby is born? I need to know what you're thinking."

"That I want to be with you," she answered quietly, "That's the only thing that matters to me."

"That's a good answer. Now..." he said, grinning as he rose to his feet with Lacey straddling his waist, "Now, I'm going to do you on the futon." It wasn't very long before Lacey's yelping giggles soon became soft moans of pleasure after he carried her into the living room and spent the next hour showing her how much she mattered to him.

Afterwards, they snuggled against each other and chatted idly about nothing and everything, lazily flipping through the television channels in the hope of finding something interesting to watch besides the news. For the moment, they were content to simply be together, existing in a world where only the two of them existed. Eventually, however, reality intruded and Lacey and Danny became acutely aware that their time together was rapidly dwindling. With great reluctance, they roused themselves from the futon and showered together and made love beneath the spray for the second time that morning. Once they were clean and dressed, they returned to the kitchen to clear away the remains of their breakfast.

As they cleaned the kitchen together, Danny couldn't stop glancing at the clock as he mentally calculated the hours he and Lacey had left. For the past ten weeks or so, Lacey would traditionally leave around noon so that she could arrive in Green Grove at a decent hour and, up until that very moment, Danny had found the arrangement acceptable. Now, however, it seemed unbearable. Not only had they not hammered out any details about their wedding, the baby or even their living arrangements, there was also the more pertinent fact that he simply didn't want to say goodbye to her.

"Maybe you should stay until tomorrow," he considered aloud after he'd finished loading the dishwasher, "We still have so much to talk about and...and I'm not ready for you to leave yet."

Lacey finished folding her drying towel and draped it over the oven door handle. "I'm not ready to leave either," she sighed glumly, "I don't get it. We've been doing this every weekend for nearly three months. I never like saying goodbye to you but...why is this time so hard?"

"I think it's because we've already spent so much time apart," Danny said as he took her into his arms, "and we don't want to do it anymore. So, the only solution I can think of is that you stay."

She tipped a doleful glance up at him. "Unfortunately, you know I can't. I have an eight o'clock Pharmacology class in the morning and you have to be at work after I leave. This was our arrangement, remember?"

"Yeah, I know but that was before."

"Before what?"

"Before I was reminded of how good it feels to fall asleep next to you or to wake up with you the next morning. Today was everything to me, Lace. Please don't go home yet."

She slipped from his hold with a dejected sigh with a torn expression. It was clear that she didn't want to refuse him but she also couldn't give into his request either and Danny knew exactly why that was the case. Part of her was a little exasperated with him for making her feel so conflicted about it in the first place. "Danny, you know I can't make a habit of cutting class."

"I'm not asking you to make a habit of it. I'm asking you to make an exception to the rule."

"Yeah, that's what you say for now," she argued, "But this is how it starts. I love you and I want to stay here with you but I can't afford to let anything interfere with school. Not when I busted my ass to get into this program. It's too important for me to blow off."

His expression became shuttered following her reply. "Fine. Whatever."

"God, Danny, don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad," he retorted in between loudly putting away his stainless steel cookware, "I'm cleaning."

"If you're not mad then why are you slamming pots around?" she demanded crossly. He straightened to regard her with a churlish expression. "You know you're not being fair! Everything can't suddenly change just because we're sleeping together again!"

"I'm not saying it has to!"

"You're still pouting about it."

"I'm not pouting."

Lacey closed the distance between them and reached up to lightly trace his protruding lower lip. "Oh yeah? This looks suspiciously like a pout, Danny."

The feathered caress did much to diffuse Danny's aggravation and tension. "Well, maybe I am pouting a little," he acknowledged with a mildly exasperated eye roll, "I just hate that it has to be this way between us with you living in one state and me living in another. It sucks."

"Yes, it does suck," she agreed after pressing a mollifying kiss to his lips, "But it's temporary, right? Just temporary."

The stirrings of a smile began to ghost the corners of his mouth. "Because we're getting married."

"Yeah. We're getting married," she laughed in affirmation.

"You're finally going to be my wife. Mrs. Daniel Aran Desai. Lacey Nicole Desai. I like how that sounds."

Lacey tested the name on her tongue several times, stumbling a bit in the beginning because it sounded so foreign on her tongue. "It's not quite as smooth as Lacey Nicole Porter. That's going to take some getting used to. Lacey Desai. It almost sounds like a lingerie brand. It doesn't even feel like I'm talking about myself."

"Maybe I should change my name to Danny Porter instead," Danny half joked, "I don't know if you're ready for the stigma that comes with having the Desai name."

"It's your name, Danny," Lacey countered firmly, "There's no stigma attached to that and I would be honored to have it."

"Right. Tell that to the tabloids."

"I'm serious. You shouldn't be ashamed of who you are. You aren't your father."

He straightened and favored her with an expression full of challenge. "Are you sure about that? Because sometimes, I'm not. Sometimes, I'm afraid of what might live inside of me, Lacey."

She met his eyes with unwavering conviction. "I'm not afraid. You're a good person and you're good for me. Don't ever let yourself doubt that."

"I hope to God you're right," he sighed finally, bringing his hands low to rest at the base of her abdomen, "For our kid's sake, if nothing else. I don't want him or her to have the kind of childhood that I had. I want to be a better father to this baby than my father was to me."

"Speaking of your father..." Lacey hedged in messy segue, "Have you spoken to him since...well, you know...since...?"

"You mean since he got away with being an accomplice in my mother's murder?" he finished for her bluntly, "No. Not so much."

"Do you want to talk to him?" she asked carefully.

"No. He can rot in hell for all I care!"

"You're not even the slightest bit interested in hearing his side of things?" she pressed further, "I'm not saying that you have to forgive him or anything, just that maybe you give him the opportunity to explain himself. The man fell in love with his sister and carried on a secret affair with her for years! Either he really is that depraved or his childhood was royally screwed up."

"I think he's that depraved, just like Tara was," Danny replied tautly, "I don't need to hear his 'side' of things. You can't explain away murder and incest, Lacey."

"But he didn't murder your mother. Tara did. And, he saved your life that night in the cabin," she considered softly, "But you haven't said a single word about how any of that makes you feel and that concerns me."

She knew that she was probably pushing her luck by pursuing the topic at all, knowing full well how touchy Danny could be when it came to his father. Still, Lacey held her ground and did so anyway if for no other reason than her righteous certainty that Danny needed to air out his emotions, no matter how complicated and volatile they might be. Unfortunately, it was still his first inclination to repress his feelings rather than deal with them head on and, in Lacey's estimation that was no way to live.

"Talk to me," she urged when he remained silent, "Tell me what's going on in your head right now."

He swept her with an aggravated glower. "I don't even know why we're having this conversation at all, Lacey. Vikram Desai is not in our lives and he never will be again."

"But he's still your dad, Danny. You spent your entire life seeking his approval and now you act as if he doesn't matter to you at all."

"He doesn't."

However, there was a flash of pain and uncertainty in the depths of his dark eyes that made Lacey doubt his denial. "I don't believe you."

"He stood by and allowed his sister to get away with murder for seventeen years!" Danny argued vehemently, "He doesn't get a pass for that just because he grew a conscience at the last possible second and wouldn't let Tara shoot me! That doesn't erase the fact that he allowed her to hold me at gunpoint in the first place!"

"He killed her to protect you, Danny," Lacey reminded him quietly, "Maybe that's not what he intended but that's what happened. Are you really going to tell me that doesn't resonate with you, even a little bit?"

Danny crossed his arms in a stubbornly defensive pose, unwilling to entertain her speculation for even a split second. "No. Are we done talking about this now?"

"All I'm saying is that I think you need closure. How are you ever supposed to heal if you won't acknowledge your demons?"

His expression gradually softened as he recognized that she was speaking out of love for him and nothing else. "Listen, I appreciate the fact you're so concerned about me," he told her, "I really do. But my father is not a subject I want to discuss, Lacey. Not ever. Not even with you."

"Okay."

"Okay." Hoping to take the sting out of what she most likely viewed as him shutting her out and restore the good humor that had existed between them only moments earlier, Danny said, "We should probably come up with a plan for what we're going to tell your mom when I come next weekend."

Lacey tapped her chin in thoughtful consideration. "I thought maybe we could take her out for a nice dinner, get her all liquored up and then spring it on her that we're getting married. That sounds like a great plan," she finished up just as Danny's amused laughter rang out.

"I was thinking something a little more traditional," he said after his burst of mirth had passed.

"Traditional? Like what?"

"Like maybe I could ask your mother for permission to marry you."

She guffawed at the suggestion. "Yeah, right."

"I'm being serious. Technically, I should really ask your father's permission but since your relationship with him is somewhat shaky-,"

"-Try nonexistent and filled with hostility-,"

"-your mom is the next best option."

Lacey peered at him in quizzical wonder. "You seriously want to ask my mother for permission to marry me?"

"It's the respectful thing to do," Danny considered, "Plus, it might lessen her desire to kill me when she finds out about the baby."

"Ahh, I see now. This is self-preservation at its best."

Danny ducked his head sheepishly at the assumption but didn't deny it. "So what do you think?"

"I like the idea," Lacey admitted after a beat of silence, "It's romantic in an old world kind of way. She'll get a kick out of it for sure. Plus, I don't think my mom is going to be nearly as upset as we think she's going to be. Maybe she'll even be happy about the baby. God knows my family could use some good news after everything that's happened in the last year."

Her attempt as hopeful optimism didn't mislead Danny in the slightest. "You're grasping at straws right now, aren't you?"

Lacey slumped forward in defeat. "Yeah, I am. Is it that obvious?"

"Kind of. I think we should just accept the fact that your mom is likely going to be furious when we tell her but, she's going to get over it, Lacey. Eventually."

"Yeah, maybe..."

"And, if she doesn't, we'll deal with it."

"What if she won't forgive me?" Lacey fretted miserably, "I've always been the good, obedient daughter. She has all these expectations for me and I know she'll be disappointed when we tell her. What if she kicks me out?"

"She's not going to kick you out. But, even if she did, we already decided we were going to get an apartment together anyway," Danny reasoned, "In fact, we can start looking for a place next weekend."

"That's another thing. It's going to cost you so much money to break your lease, Danny," Lacey groaned in consternation, "You just got this place. I know how much you love it."

"I love you more."

They paused to exchange brief, enamored smiles before Lacey asked, "What about your job? You're going to have to quit. You're changing your entire life around for me."

"I actually think I might have the job part covered," he told her, "We have a couple of sister stores about thirty miles outside of Green Grove. I can talk to my manager and see if it's possible for me to get transferred to one of those. It would be a pretty hefty commute but I could keep my job."

"That's sounds great and everything but, regardless of whether you can keep your job or not, 9 bucks an hour isn't going to go very far to maintain the expenses for a two bedroom apartment, Danny," Lacey argued, "Not to mention how much it's going to cost us when the baby is born." The more she contemplated their future, the more anxious she became. Lacey nibbled pensively at her lower lip. "Maybe I should look for work too."

Danny was shaking his head in adamant disagreement long before she had even finished voicing the consideration. "No. Absolutely not! I don't want you to have to do that," he said, "First of all, you're pregnant. The last thing you need is to be busting your ass at a minimum wage job. Second of all, you need to focus on school. Let me worry about our finances."

"That's very sweet but also vaguely caveman like of you, Desai," Lacey replied in a thoughtful tone, "While I appreciate your determination to take care of me, I am not some damsel in distress in need of rescue or some delicate, wilting flower! I can pull my own weight!"

"I know that and I'm not implying otherwise. But you said yourself how important it is for you to concentrate on school. I want to help you to do that, Lacey. That's all."

"And what happens when the money runs out?" she challenged, "Because you have to know your savings aren't going to last forever!"

"I already told you last night. If it comes down to it, I'll sue Vikram for my inheritance if I have to. No matter what, I'll make sure that you and the baby have what you need."

"I'm not worried about me and the baby. I'm worried about you. You're the one making all of the sacrifices and uprooting your life right now. What do you get out of this?"

"That's simple," he sighed, pulling her into the circle of his arms for a sweet, searching kiss, "I get to be with you."