Set in the time skip in chapter 10.

JACKSON

Waking up during the brutish winter was consistently due to one or two things.

Functioning alarm clocks were a thing of the past and now that it was the coldest time of the year, the sun came up at an hour that was significantly more tolerable for a natural wakeup call. It was a frequent contender for ending my rest in the morning but it wasn't the only contender. Just as often, April was more than enough to get me up, intentionally or unintentionally. She was a bit of a restless sleeper. She could fall asleep curled up against me but there was rarely a time where she would wake up in the same position. Normally she liked to sleep on her stomach, but now she was scared to do so with the baby inside of her.

This particular morning when my eyes finally bank themselves open and awake, the back of April's elbow is the first thing that I see. I let out a huff of amusement as I squint past it to examine the position that she's gotten herself into. She's half on her back and half on her side, a throw pillow tucked under her hips and one leg above the covers. There was no way she should be comfortable like that, if nothing else, from the sheer brutality of the cold temperature outside that seeped into the house. Being up this far north and close to the lake during the winter was brutal enough years ago. But now without any kind of heater, the best that we could hope for was keeping the doors shut, a small accumulation of body heat, and the fireplace for the daytime. An extra blanket was on the bed now from before, but there's only so much of a difference it can really make.

Judging from the little whiny noise that her nose made as she inhaled, April was still asleep. She was just as quiet as she was still during the night, despite her many attempts to deny the fact that she snored. It rarely woke me up. It did occasionally make it a little more difficult to fall asleep after she did, though.

I leaned forward slightly and placed a small kiss on her elbow. April didn't move or respond to it. Letting out a small huff of amusement, I played another just beside it and a third a little higher up her arm. This seemed to wake up her nerves a little more before as she gave a small shift and pulled the sheets slightly as her hips turned. Eventually, I can hear a sigh fall from her lips that indicated that she was awake.

"Good morning," I murmured, wrapping my arm gently around her growing waist and pulling her closer to me.

"Mm," she grunted out. "Hi."

My hand stretched across the growing bump on her stomach. Now that there was beginning to be some visible proof of the wonderful little life that she was carrying inside of her, I was obsessed with her body. April had always been beautiful and I had always enjoyed her body, even when I hadn't really known her – she was all soft curves, supple breasts that fit pleasantly in my hands and sensitive everywhere in a way that would make any guy absolutely crazy when they fell into bed with her. But this is different, a much deeper appreciation. The growing curve was the most important part of her. Her cheeks had softened a bit and her nipples were a few shades of pink darker than before, but it was her belly that I was truly obsessed with.

April was small and skinny which was perhaps the only reason that the little bulge in her stomach seemed to stick out as much as it did. The dead of winter and she couldn't have been more than four months along, yet my hand could easily sculpt outwore our child was and hold it. Slipping my hand under her shirt, she squealed in protest from the temperature of it.

"No, no," she protested, squirming away from me and the leg on top of the covers kicking out. Shifting onto my back to free my other arm, I take advantage of it and pull her on top of me with her back pressed against my chest, both cold hands pressed against her stomach. "You're so cold!"

"Because someone's a blanket hog," I replied, blowing a stream of cold air across her ear.

"Not fair," April whined. "Let me at least get under the covers."

"You did that all too yourself," I chuckled but loosened up my grip enough so that she could adjust and pull the sheets over the both of us, pulling them up high so that she was covered to her shoulders. "I don't know how you manage to fall asleep the way you do."

"I think being pregnant is supposed to excuse any kind of weirdness," she brushed off.

"Well, what if you were weird before you were pregnant? What then?" I teased.

April groaned dramatically. "Then I need an extra patient partner." She decided. "Also, you are kind of the worst body pillow. You're too hard and muscular." Another adjustment was given against me and I can't help but grunt as her ass shifted right across my crotch. It's hard to know whether that was intentional or not but it's a sure fire way to wake a certain part of me up.

"Alright, alright," I conceded and let her go. She slipped off of me, curling right up against me. My hand didn't hesitate to find its way to her stomach again.

"You're not expecting to feel anything there, are you?" She asked, hazel eyes looking up at me. "I can't yet."

"No," I shook my head. "It's just impossible to keep my hands off of you," I confessed.

"I'm fat and bloated," she whined.

"Uh-uh." I clucked my tongue. "Don't talk shit about my baby mama. Or my baby."

This time, I was the one who was moving around as I slithered down her body and beneath the blankets just enough that I could put my face on par with that growing belly. I kissed her stomach over her clothing this time, giving her a break from some of the coldness. Anyone else and it might have been the question of whether she was really pregnant, or if she had just put on weight. But it was a powerful feeling to know that it was my kid that she was growing inside of her. Powerful and humbling.

Her stomach doesn't move beyond the slight rise and fall that came with her breathing, and I was okay with that. There was still months to go down the road together and I was ur that plenty of it would be filled with movement inside of her, that she would let me feel it and let me know when she could feel it. That was a day that I could wait for. But for now, there was still stuff I could do.

"Hey, little guy," I commented, glancing up at April. "Or girl." I amended. "I know that you can hear me in there, even if you can't exactly say or do anything in response. That's okay. You can just listen, 'cause I know your mom and I are going to have to do a lot of listening to you in the future." I rubbed the bottom of the swell of her stomach gently. "Just wanted to check in on you, make sure you know who I am. 'Cause I'm your dad, so you're kind of gonna know me and this voice your whole life. May as well get started with it pretty early." I kissed her stomach softly.

"You're a dork," April murmured affectionately.

"That just means that you're rubbing off on me and our baby is going to be a super-dork." I laughed.

"Don't be mean!" She retorted.

"I'm not," I replied quickly. "We're going to have one of those super-genius babies. You know, done with high school by twelve, college by fifteen. That's going to be our kind of dorky baby." Even if the world that we lived in wasn't that black and white anymore.

April was quiet for a moment before she spoke. "I was the youngest intern in my class."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Moline was small and the schools here weren't so great, so I ended up skipping a grade. Then in college, I did a combined BS-MD program that was in seven years, so I was twenty-four when I graduated med school. People called me fetus. It didn't help that I looked young, too."

"You still do," I commented. "I didn't know that. I guess that just solidifies that our baby is going to be a little genius. What was the rush for?" I questioned curiously.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I guess I was just eager to get my life started. I had things that I wanted to do, plans… even if I didn't really follow through on most of them." Her lips pressed together in a thin line briefly. "Life has a funny way of working itself out.

"What did you want?" Another question, finding myself enamored by every detail of her life.

She fell quiet again, this time longer than before. "Normal. I wanted to have a job that I loved and that inspired me but allowed me to have time to raise kids, too. Two boys and a girl." April smiled fondly as she thought back. "I didn't have a thought about a husband, you know, but… I knew that I wanted three adorable little babies to dote on."

"You can still have that part," I reminded her as I rubbed her belly gently. "You're almost one-third there."

"I guess I am," April smiled down at me as I kissed her belly again. "What about you?"

"I was not the youngest in my class. But I was the best." I chuckled confidently. "I wanted both, too. Love and surgery. I never saw myself with a big family but I definitely saw myself with a family. A girl and a boy always sounded pretty nice. I always wanted to be able to balance both too." I hadn't been too far into the path of having both – secure in my career but still dancing around with relationships, not able to find one woman that I really loved and could see myself settled down with. Not until now.

Life really did have a funny way of working itself out.

"I guess we both got something," she commented. "Gosh, it's so cold."

"C'mere," I murmured as I shifted up again and wrapped myself around her, hoping to pass some of my body heat onto her. Cold had become relatively normal, all things considered.

My nose pressed into the back of her neck and rubbed against the baby hairs there as I drew her in against my chest and let out a content sigh. She was warm even if she complained about being cold. It had been a few days since either one of us showered given how painfully cold that could be and yet somehow, she still smelled good – a much more natural way than the perfumes and other fancy fragrances, just something natural and pleasant. There wasn't a specific word to describe it but all I could associate it with was her.

"Just think, a year from now we'll be cuddling with a little baby between us," April spoke.

"Mmhm," I hummed in agreement. "I'll have to deal with two girls snoring."

"More like I'll be dealing with two boys snoring." She retorted.

I pressed a kiss into the side of her neck. "How about you lay here a little longer, and I'll get a fire going so we can cook some lunch? As nice as it would be to stay in bed with you all day, you're still eating for two." I reminded her.

"Okay," she agreed with a slight nod of her head. "Don't take too long." She requested.

"I won't." I got out of bed, bending down once more to kiss her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too, Jackson."