"Well?" James asked, tapping his fingers against his knee as Rose hung up the phone.

"She says it's completely fine for me to stop taking the pill," Rose said with a grin. "And she said it'll probably take a few cycles for my body to get back to normal. By spring, maybe, I'll be ready to conceive."

"Fantastic," James said, scooping Rose up for a hug. "No harm in practicing, though, eh?"

"You're insatiable!" Rose giggled when James stuck his hands in her back pocket and gave a firm squeeze.

"Oh, you love it," he murmured, giving her earlobe a quick nip. "Besides, we ought to take advantage of being in the privacy of our own home. In ten days we'll be surrounded by family. For a whole week! Gotta keep it quiet there. Here, in our home, we can be as loud as we want."

Rose rolled her eyes at her daft husband, but she didn't stop him when he slipped his hands under the waistband of her jeans to squeeze at her bum without the hindrance of fabric.

Later, as they were curled up under a blanket on the couch, James whispered, "I found a really neat app. Might be useful for us."

"Yeah?" she asked, rolling onto her back to look at him.

He nodded and reached across her for his mobile on the coffee table. He held his phone out in front of them and tapped on a pink heart-shaped icon.

Rose raised an eyebrow when she saw the word woman's calendar flash across the screen.

"You've downloaded a period tracker app?" she laughed, taking his phone from him to scroll through the app and all of its features and functions.

"I-I thought it might be helpful," he mumbled, and Rose sobered when she saw how embarrassed he looked. "Just an idea."

"Hey, I love it," she said, turning to face him. "Really. It's just that most blokes get grossed out by their woman's monthly, is all."

"I'm not most blokes," James scoffed. "Honestly. Why are men such fuckwits about a woman's period anyway? It's a natural, biological process."

"Nah, it's five days of the month where we bleed from their love canal and cut 'em off from shagging," Rose said with a cheeky wink.

James burst into giggles, and Rose beamed at him, glad she could work him through his daft embarrassment.

"Love canal?" he choked out.

"Heard some mates at school call it that years back," Rose said, snuggling her head against his chest as she continued looking through the app. She stopped short when she realized he had already inputted quite a bit of data. "Not sure if I should be creeped out or flattered that you know when I've got my period and how long my cycle is…"

"Let's go with the latter, shall we? But anyways, I thought this app might be a good idea for us to have to keep track of when you're most fertile so we can be sure to shag extra thoroughly on those days."

"You saying we don't already shag thoroughly?" Rose teased, and as she turned to face him, she pressed her thigh between his legs and gave him a slow rub.

His breath hitched before he squeaked out, "Nope. Not at all. Always do a thorough job, don't we?"

"I like to think so," Rose laughed. "And yeah, you're right. That app is a good idea. I'll just go and install that, shall I?"

Rose smirked as she rolled away from him, and flung the blankets off of her, as though to get up and find her phone. She squealed when James caught her around the waist and tugged her back against him.

"Later," he growled, rolling onto his back and pulling her on top of him.

oOoOo

"Ugh," Rose groaned, settling herself back into bed with a heating pad around her abdomen.

"All right?" James asked sympathetically, setting a glass of water on her bedside table.

"Yeah, just period cramps," she sighed. "Well, pre-period cramps. And they're not really cramps, they're… I don't even know. Nausea, maybe? I just feel… bleh."

"Ooh, not even bleeding yet?" he winced, knowing if she was already feeling this poorly this early that this cycle would be a bad one. "Sorry, love. Are you sure you're not coming down with anything?"

James pressed the backs of his fingers to her forehead, but she didn't feel feverish at all.

"Nah," Rose said, rolling over onto her side to spoon his pillow. "Don't think so. Just having a day, I think."

"All right. Well, call me if you need anything," he murmured, bending down to press a kiss to her hair. "Love you."

"Love you, too. Have a good day," Rose murmured, feeling a wave of lethargy fall over her.

She hugged his pillow tighter to her when she heard him leave and sighed into the fabric.

After managing to sleep for another hour and a half, Rose was glad that she awoke feeling at least a little more refreshed than when she first awoke that morning. She was a little hungry, but not hungry enough to leave her comfy bed, so Rose reached for her phone and mindlessly scrolled through it.

She checked her email and social media pages, then opened up a few games but closed them just as quickly, in an odd limbo of feeling restless yet lazy.

When she closed out of her latest game of Candy Crush, she saw the little pink heart icon of the period tracker app she'd installed on her phone a couple months ago. She hadn't checked it or updated it in several weeks, but she really wanted to get into the habit of it since she and James were about to start seriously trying to conceive.

She opened the app, and took a glance at the calendar that popped up on the screen, and froze when she saw that the numbers on last week's row of dates were red.

"Can't be," she muttered, counting backwards in her head, but the app was right; her period was six days late.

Her heart raced. She couldn't be pregnant already, could she? She'd only gone off her pill three months ago; surely her body wasn't back to normal yet?

Well, there was only one way to find out…

Moving with frenetic energy, Rose got herself up and dressed and scarfed down a slice of toast before she made her way to the pharmacy.

Once there, she located the aisle she needed, and balked at the selection. Bloody hell, did they really need to make so many types of home pregnancy tests? She grabbed a handful of boxes from various brands, and she tried to convince herself that the cashier wasn't looking at her funny for buying half a dozen pregnancy tests.

When she got home, she shut herself away in the downstairs loo to take one of the six tests.

Several minutes later, she was nervously pacing in the kitchen as she sipped at her tea—having looked up if it was safe for a pregnant woman to drink tea, just in case—and waited for the test to be done. When the allotted five minutes were up, she took another two minutes to steel herself for whatever she saw.

It doesn't matter what it says, Rose said firmly. She and James had promised each other that they wouldn't let their decision to try for a baby stress or overwhelm them. But, God, the yearning in his voice the night he agreed to try for a baby with her made her ache for the test to come back as positive.

He'd be such a great dad, she mused, swallowing down the last bit of tea in her mug before walking back into the bathroom. She contemplated leaving the test where it was and phoning James to ask him to come home, but she dismissed the idea immediately. What if it came back negative and she pulled him out of work for nothing? No, she wouldn't give him false hope. She wouldn't tell him anything until there was something to tell.

She took a deep breath and flipped the plastic stick over, scanning the test readout screen. A pink plus sign greeted her. Her hands shook, and tears prickled behind her eyes. She set the test down and giggled out a sob. Pregnant. She was—

—Wait. What if that test had been faulty? What if there had been some sort of manufacturing error and that particular test gave a false positive?

Rose fiercely ripped open two more boxes, desperate for them to give her the same result as the first. She took the two other tests and paced in the bathroom this time, impatient for the wait time.

She read the directions for the tests as she waited. Two lines for positive, one for negative; the second would display a plus or a minus symbol.

Ninety seconds early, Rose picked up the sticks, hoping they were done.

Two black lines. Blue plus sign. She was pregnant.

Tears of utter joy stung at her eyes and she let them flow as she grinned goofily at the three positive pregnancy tests sitting on the sink and hovered her hand over her flat belly.

A baby! She and James were going to have a baby! She and her soulmate were going to be parents! She made a baby with her best friend!

She raced out of the room and to the home office to find a pen, but she paused with the tip to her skin. Should she really tell him like this? Surely this news ought to be delivered in person?

But she was so excited to tell him. The look of joy in his eyes when they both finally agreed to try for a baby was still fresh in her mind. The soft reverence in his voice when he told her how much he wanted a baby with her was still burned into her memory.

She was so giddy, and she desperately wanted to share her happiness with her soulmate. Rose nodded to herself, then set about making a sketch for him…

oOoOo

James glanced at his pocket watch impatiently. Rose had been feeling unwell when he left her that morning, and despite her reassurances that it was nothing she couldn't handle, he was anxious to go home to her and care for her.

Well, it was already half-one. Classes were done for the day, and while he still had an exam to write, there was no reason he couldn't do that at home, sitting on the couch beside Rose.

He nodded to himself, then packed up his briefcase and lifted his sleeve to tell Rose he was taking the rest of the day off and he'd be home soon, and as her if she wanted him to pick up anything for her on the way home.

But there was new ink on his wrist, a drawing, and his pen slipped from his fingers.

Rose had drawn the two of them standing side by side, with him holding a tiny bundle in his arms. Beneath the picture, she'd written "it happened."

Blood rushed in his ears as he stared at the drawing on his arm. It happened.Was this… did they… was she…? They'd agreed to start trying for a baby only three months ago. Surely these things took time? Her doctor told her that it might take a few months for her hormone levels to return to normal, and that it might take them several months before successful conception.

Yet here she was, telling him they were pregnant. And, oh, how he ached for it to be true.

He bolted up from his chair, and barely remembered to grab his briefcase, laptop, and car keys before he was sprinting to the car park.

He seemed to get behind every slow-moving vehicle in Oxford, and he grumbled under his breath as he looked at his arm again, making sure he hadn't made up the picture on his skin. He hadn't; Rose's drawing was still there, but beside it was a new word.

James?

He cursed himself for not replying to her in his office, but he couldn't now, not when he was driving.

He broke far too many speed limits in his haste, but he finally turned onto their street and skidded to a stop in their driveway. He left everything in the car as he sprinted into the flat.

"Rose?" he called, spinning around rapidly wondering which room she'd be in.

Rose poked her head out of the downstairs loo, and James glided up to her.

"James, are you…?"

"Oh, Rose, my Rose!" He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in for a tight hug. Joy and hope and love swelled his heart until he was sure it was about to burst. "Is it true? Are we going to have a baby?"

"Yeah," Rose whispered into his neck, holding him just as tightly. "Yeah, c'mere."

Rose pulled away and took his hand to guide him into the bathroom. Three little plastic sticks were sitting beside the sink, and James clutched Rose's hand tightly as he looked down at them all. They all read the same thing: he was going to be a father.

He whooped out a laugh before he grabbed her around the waist to spin her around wildly. His heart throbbed with utter elation as Rose giggled in his ear.

"Oh, Rose," he murmured, setting her on her feet. He moved a hand from the small of her back until his fingertips brushed across her still-flat belly. "We're going to have a baby. We made a baby!"

The tenderness and awe in his voice made her eyes prickle, and she couldn't help but cup his cheeks and pull him down for a gentle kiss.

"Rose," he rasped when they pulled apart, and Rose's heart clenched when she saw his eyes were shining with moisture.

She reached up to cup his cheeks, and she stroked his skin softly as he nuzzled into her touch.

"I'm so happy," he whispered, leaning towards her until his forehead was resting against hers. "Oh, I'm so happy!"

"So am I," she answered, slowly rubbing the tip of her nose across his. "I'm so… I didn't expect to get pregnant this soon. How lucky are we, eh?"

"The luckiest," James said, tilting his head to the side to brush his lips across hers.

oOoOo

James sat beside Rose, skimming through pamphlets and brochures as Rose gave her obstetrician—Doctor Ashwood—her medical history. He felt like they'd been there for hours, and if he hadn't been assured numerous times that this was routine, he would've been panicked that something was wrong with Rose or their baby.

"Okay, time for the last test," the doctor said happily. "Well, second to last. Pap smear. Would you, er, would you prefer privacy for this exam?"

James glanced up from reading the information about a nine-week-old fetus when he felt the doctor's eyes on him.

"No, he can stay," Rose said immediately. "It's nothing he hasn't seen before. Unless, er, unless you're uncomfortable with it, James?"

"Nope," he said. "As you said, it's nothing I haven't seen. Quite familiar with it, actually. S'why we're here, after all."

"Nutter," Rose mumbled, feeling her cheeks flame as the doctor smirked at the two of them.

"But your nutter," he said sweetly, and she couldn't help but grin at him.

James excitedly showed Rose the pamphlets he'd been skimming through as the doctor situated herself between Rose's thighs for the pap test. He read her all the facts about how big their baby was and how it would continue to grow over the next few months and about the changes Rose should be expecting of her body as it grew to accommodate their child.

"All right, I'm finished here," Doctor Ashwood announced several minutes later. "Now, for the final test. Would you like to see an ultrasound of your baby?"

James's lungs hitched and he heard Rose suck in a sharp breath.

"We-we can? Already?" he asked, reaching out for Rose's hand.

The doctor shrugged. "Don't see why not. I'm judging you to be eight to nine-ish weeks along. Should be big enough for us to hear a heartbeat, even."

James bounced his leg in nervous anticipation as the doctor grabbed a wand probe, a few cords, and her laptop. After taking a few minutes to set up her equipment, the doctor smeared a bit of clear gel over Rose's abdomen and rolled her probe around, staring intently at her computer.

Rose clasped his hand tightly and they waited with bated breath for the doctor to say something. Just when James was about to ask if something was wrong, the doctor beamed up at them from behind her laptop, and she spun her computer around to face them.

"There's your baby! Here's the head, and the body. Can just about make out the elbows, fingers, and toes," she announced, tracing her finger across the screen as she pointed out their baby's features. "And…"

The doctor pressed a button on the laptop, and the room was filled with a fast whump-whump-whump sound. James's ears rang when he realized it was their baby's heartbeat.

"Our baby," he whispered hoarsely, leaning in close to the computer monitor. "Rose, our baby!"

"I see that," she whispered, her voice thick with tears. "Its heart is racing though!"

"Oh, that's normal," Doctor Ashwood assured. "One hundred and sixty beats per minutes. Very strong. Very healthy. Would you like a print out of the scan?"

"Yes, please," they said in unison, their eyes still glued to the computer screen.

And hour later, they were sitting on their sofa together, reading through all of the pamphlets and leaflets James had taken as they tried to absorb as much information as they could about what the coming months would hold for them. It was slow going, though, as they constantly got distracted by the sonogram photo and the short video clip of the ultrasound their doctor gave them.

"Y'know, we may want to start looking for a new flat," Rose suggested that night as she twirled her chopsticks through her Chinese takeaway. "I love our home. I really, really do. But I want the nursery to be on the same floor as our bedroom."

"Yeah, I agree," James sighed. He glanced around at their living room. He loved their flat. It was filled with such fond memories and firsts: the first time he made love to Rose, the place he asked her to become his wife, the place they conceived their first child. But even as his eyes skated across the place they'd made their home, he knew that these walls were just that: walls. Rose was where his home was, and now it was Rose and their child. Wherever they were, that was where his home would be.

"Shall we start browsing?" he asked, standing up to both clear their takeaway boxes and fetch his laptop.

Rose nodded, and he cleaned up their dinner then found his computer and snuggled in beside his wife again to start browsing for the place that would be their child's home.