May, 2022:

      "Damn, that was hilarious!" Kyra giggled. "I don't think anybody saw that coming, I know I didn't. I'm pretty sure Gus just about pissed himself, as hard as he was laughing."

      "Yeah, I almost had to excuse myself there for a minute," Danny added. "I mean, seriously! Who woulda thought that anyone would seriously consider turning a fucking faerie dragon into a dracolich!? But I guess we should've known to expect things to be a bit left of center when Doug told us that he didn't feel like DM-ing tonight, and that he'd asked you to take a turn."

      "Because y'all didn't take into account that the dragon cultists were actually too stupid to realize that the faerie dragon was playing them like violins," Aidan replied, as she dropped her dice back into the old silver-plated censer that she used in place of a dice bag. "He was pissed off because they killed his ranger friend, and decided that was his best chance to get revenge."

      As she dropped the censer into the Aerosmith tote bag that already contained her gaming books, Aidan glanced around the game shop, which had quieted considerably since everyone had wound up their games so the shop's owner, Paul, could prepare for closing. Both groups of Magic players had wrapped up nearly an hour earlier, and of the eleven members of their Forgotten Realms group, only four still remained; Aidan, Kyra, Danny, and Aidan's ex-boyfriend, Travis, who she had remained friends with after the split. She had even developed a cordial relationship with his subsequent girlfriend, Michelle; readily agreeing when he had asked that she be allowed to join the group, and even attending their recent wedding. Travis, in turn, had gone out of his way to be pleasant to Ashley on the occasions that Aidan had brought him to the shop during one of his visits, and had even told her that he thought that she and Ash were much better suited to each other than the two of them had been.

      "Kinda makes you wonder what sort of 'revenge' a two-foot intelligent lizard with butterfly wings thinks it might be able to accomplish," Travis chuckled, as he fastened the straps of his battered leather bookbag. "I mean, its breath weapon is basically just jumped-up laughing gas, not fire or poison, or anything else lethal."

      "True, but if the target actually fails their save against the breath, they're pretty much useless for awhile," Danny pointed out. "So while the cultists are stoned out of their faces, he could always do something like lock them in and set the place on fire, or bite chunks out of them and let them bleed out. He might not be that big, but he is a dragon, and they have some wicked teeth and claws, y'know."

      Travis nodded in acknowledgement of Danny's argument, then turned his attention to the next table, which was still loaded with the remnants of several varieties of carry-out food. "Does anybody care if I snag the rest of the curry?" he inquired. "I can take that to work for lunch tomorrow."

      "Knock yourself out, dude," Kyra responded. "You know that Aidan and I both hate the stuff, and I'm pretty sure Danny has his eye on the leftover riblets, so I think you're..." Her face took on a startled expression as she allowed the sentence to trail off. Then she practically shrieked, "Criminy on a cupcake, woman! What in the name of Elminster are you doing!?"

      The three men turned to follow Kyra's gaze, and saw that Aidan had picked up a styrofoam bowl from a stack on the snack table, filled it with several breaded rings from one of the containers, and slathered them with a rather excessive amount of dip. She was in the process of dropping one into her mouth when Kyra spoke, and glanced around the room with a puzzled expression before chewing the drippy mess and then swallowing before responding.

      "Whaddya mean, what am I doing? I'm eating, which is about half of what we've been doing all evening. How is that suddenly weird?"

      "Hon, it's not the fact that you're eating that's just a tad bit freaky," Travis stated. "It's what you're eating."

      Aidan glanced down at the bowl in her hand and said, "Yeah, maybe I overdid it a bit with the dip, but I was just checking out what was left, and these looked pretty good."

      Her confusion increased as everyone else stared at her for several seconds before turning their eyes back to Travis. Then Kyra's jaw dropped, and Danny whistled and said "Whoo, boy!", while Paul simply shook his head.

      "Aidan, stop for just a second and actually think about what you're eating," Travis calmly suggested. "That's what's left of Doug's calamari. As in squid. And the last of Sara's spinach-artichoke dip. Both of which you normally despise, thus the confusion. And although I have to admit this may not be quite as bizarre as the peanut butter, avocado and pepper jelly on raisin toast that Shell scarfed down for lunch this afternoon, it does run a pretty close second."

      As she considered his words, and remembered the reason why Michelle had opted out of that night's game, her eyes widened, and her mouth worked for several seconds before she managed to stammer, "Wait, what!? But I... But we... You really think...?"

      "What I think is that you might want to make a Walgreens run on the way home," Travis declared. "Because I'd be just about willing to put money on the probability that you've brought home a...  Well, let's call it a 'souvenir' of your trip to Florida."

      Aidan dropped the bowl into the trash and quickly finished collecting her things, then said her goodbyes to the others, telling Kyra that they would talk whenever she got home. Tossing her bag into the back of the car, she drove through town to Wal Mart, making a quick circuit of the store to pick up the items she thought she might need, then heading straight home, where she managed to irritate both cats by going straight to the bathroom instead of stopping to pet them and distribute treats.

      Their moods weren't improved when she re-entered the living room several minutes later to retrieve her phone and carry it back. She made several calls, dividing her attention between the phone and the line of items lying on the sink in front of her, with the last call being to Ashley's number. It rang several times, making her think that it would go to his voicemail, but at the last second she heard him say, "Hey there, darlin'! I wasn't expecting to hear from you tonight, I thought you'd still be at the shop." 

      "Yeah, we hit a good stopping point, and didn't really have enough time to get to the next event, so we wrapped up it a bit early," she informed him. "But the reason I'm calling is because I was thinking about coming out for a few days, and I just wanted to make sure you weren't gonna be too busy."

      "You know I'm never too busy for you, love," he replied. "I have a meeting in the morning that I can't put off, but after that, I'm free as a bird. I'll call Aerin and Bobby as soon as we're done talking and let 'em know you're coming."

      "No, don't say anything just yet, okay?" she requested. "We can do that after I get there. I'd kinda like to have you all to myself for a bit before we get social, if you don't mind."

      "Oh, I'm definitely okay with some one-on-one time," he agreed. "So when should I expect you?"

      "I'm gonna hit the sack pretty soon, so I can be on the road by around six. So barring heavy traffic or car trouble, I should be there by one or one-thirty."

      They talked for a few more minutes, then said their goodbyes when Aidan heard Kyra's car pulling into the driveway. She was putting her phone back into her purse when her roommate walked through the door, looking at her wide-eyed and questioning, "Well?"

      "Take a look for yourself," Aidan responded, motioning toward the bathroom. As Kyra zipped past her, she added, "I've already called Jim and arranged to take vacation for tomorrow, Friday, and Monday. I told him I've had a 'family emergency'."

      "Well, that's... not a lie," Kyra remarked as she rejoined Aidan in the living room. "Have you talked to Ash yet?"

      "Only to let him know that I'm driving up to see him tomorrow. The rest can wait until I get there."

      The two women conversed for a bit longer, then decided that since Aidan planned on leaving for Nashville early the next morning, and Kyra would need to leave for work at around the same time, they should both turn in for the night, to at least try to get a few hours of sleep. Which, for Aidan, was easier said than done, so after packing her bag and exchanging goodnight texts with Ashley, she laid awake staring blankly at the television until the thoughts racing through her brain began to slow down, finally getting to sleep just after midnight. Even then, she was still awake by four-thirty, and pulling out of the driveway by five, eager to reach her destination and see Ashley's reaction to the discovery she would be sharing with him.                                               

        **********************************************************************

      When Ashley maneuvered Evil-Lyn through his front gate just a few minutes after noon, he was surprised to see a familiar blue Taurus parked in the semi-circular driveway, with Aidan sitting on the hood, playing with a small handheld electronic game. She glanced up as he pulled into his parking spot, and he saw her quickly stuff the device into her purse and hop down from her perch, moving to meet him as he stepped out of the car.

      He moved forward to pull her into an embrace, and kissed her thoroughly before saying, "Hello there, darlin'. I wasn't expecting to see you for another hour or so. You should have called, and I would've come straight home from the meeting, instead of making you sit out here and wait."

      "The weather's nice, so it's not a big deal, babe. I got on the road a bit earlier than I originally planned, and I might have... well... bent the speed limit just a wee bit here and there, let's say," she replied, reaching out to brush his hair back from his face. "I just wanted to get as much time with you as I can while I'm here, so the quicker I got here, the better."

      After another leisurely kiss, he strode over to collect her bag from the backseat of the Taurus, while she plucked something from the front before locking the doors. They then entered the house, and spent several minutes being enthusiastically greeted by Sparrow before contiuing through the house to Ashley's bedroom, where he deposited Aidan's bag on top of the dresser before turning back and reaching out to toy with the buttons on her shirt, murmuring, "So, whaddya say we get started on that 'one-on-one time' we talked about, hmmm?"

      Instead of replying to the question, or making her own attempts to divest him of his own clothing, she confused him by stepping back and saying, "No, Ash, not yet."

      "Huh? What's up?" he questioned. "Is something wrong?"

      Aidan dropped a brief glance at the small paper bag she had been clutching since removing it from the car, then looked back up at Ashley and replied, "Well, I guess you could say that's what I'm here to find out."

      He stared in confusion for a few seconds before a look of alarm spread across his face and he blurted, "Oh, shit, babe! Don't tell me that we're having another replay of that bullshit from a couple of years ago! Because if someone is posting messages or pictures I've supposedly ben sending, they're all..."

      Aidan put a finger to his lips to cut off the torrent of words. "No, it's nothing like that, love. I trust you, and I know you wouldn't screw around on me. This is something else. Something that happened when we were in Florida, and I'm not entirely sure how you're going to feel about it."

      Still looking puzzled, he said, "Darlin', we were barely out of each other's sight that whole trip, so what could've happened that I wouldn't already know about?"

      He became concerned when she opened her mouth to speak, but seemed unable to force the words out. After several attempts, she simply sighed and extended the bag. "Here. It's probably easier just to let you see for yourself."

      He accepted the bag, and reached inside to feel another bag, of the plastic Ziploc variety, and when he removed it to inspect the contents, he goggled blankly for several seconds before he fully registered what he was seeing:

      Three white plastic pregnancy tests, each indicating a positive result.

      "Wait, what!?" he sputtered, which drew a brief laugh from Aidan.

      "Yeah, that was my first response when the idea got thrown at me last night," she chuckled. "I wanted to be as sure as possible, so I bought the multi pack, took two of them last night, and did the third before I left the house this morning. And now I'm kind of hoping to hear your thoughts on the matter."

      "Wow," Ashley breathed, raking his fingers through his hair. "I have to admit, this isn't something I actually saw coming. I thought you were on the pill."

      "Yep, but apparently that claim of ninety-nine percent effectiveness wasn't quite enough," Aidan replied. "And if you think you're the only member of the 'Didn't See This Coming' club, you can think again, because I'm the charter member. But just so you know, I have no intention of trying to force you into anything. If this isn't something you want to deal with, then just say so, and I'll walk away with no hard feelings."

      "Whoa, hold it right there!" Ashley blurted, holding his hand up to silence her. "Did you hear me say that I have a problem with this? No, you didn't, and frankly, it kind of hurts that you'd even think that I'd bail on you."

      "I didn't mean for it to sound like that at all," she reassured him, stepping forward to cup his face in her hands. "There's nothing in the world I'd like more than for us to do this together. But you've never said anything about any interest in having kids, so I just wanted to make it clear that I had no intention of trying to force you into something that you didn't want, because that would make everyone miserable. Especially him. Or her."

      Ashley pulled her into his arms, and stated, "Aidan, we've talked about some of the things that happened when I was a kid, right? About not having my parents around when I was growing up, and all the baggage that created? So there's no way in hell that I'm ever gonna let that happen to any kid of mine, if I have a choice in the matter. Even if I didn't care so much about you, if this had been just a random hookup, I'd still want to be a part of his or her life. So, yeah, I was a bit freaked for a minute, but now that it's starting to sink in, this is actually one of the best days of my life."

      Aidan let out a deep sigh, and he felt her relax in his embrace. "Mine, too," she replied. "I was hoping that you'd be happy about it, but since we've never talked about it, I wasn't sure. But this does kind of change the equation, so the question now is... What do we do about it?"

      Ashley maneuvered her toward the bed, and they both sat down on the edge of the mattress. "Well, this does make it a bit difficult to maintain the long-distance thing, especially when you get to the point where you can't travel, so it looks like one of us is gonna have to relocate," he observed. "You can move in with me, or we could look for place in St. Louis or KC, if you'd rather stay closer to your family."

      "That would be nice," Aidan answered. "But if one of us has to move, I suppose it makes more sense for it to be me. I mean, you actually own property here, and have a business established, where I rent, and just have a job, as opposed to a career. I can look for another job after the baby comes, so it would probably be easier if I move out here. And it's not like I don't know anyone else in town, since Aerin and Bobby are just a few blocks away now."

      "If you're sure you're really all right with that, it sounds great to me," Ashley informed her. "And I'm perfectly willing to fly your mom and sister out here to visit sometimes, so you won't have to go too long without seeing them. And maybe even Kyra on occasion, if you want. And we'll go back to see them, and my folks too, when you're both okay to travel."

      "Well, then, it sounds like we have at least the start of a plan," Aidan observed. 

      "Yeah, I guess it does, at that," Ashley agreed. "And now that we do, I guess I should get my shit together so we can get back on the road tomorrow."

      "What? Why would we do that?"

      "Well, it kind of seems that I should be present when you talk to your folks about our current situation, and the idea of you moving away," he explained. "So here in a little while, we can go see Aerin and Bobby, and see if they're cool with looking after Sparrow for a couple of days, then come back and get some sleep. Then we'll drive back to Missouri tomorrow, let our families into the loop, and figure out what needs to be done before you move in here, like giving notice at your job, getting out of your lease, and all that sort of happy horseshit."

      "Well, it sounds like you've got it all thought out," Aidan mused. "You've just missed one thing."

      "And that would be...?"

      "Our one-on-one time," she answered, reaching for his belt buckle at the same time, which prompted him to begin removing her clothing as well. "I spent a little time researching this on Google while I was having breakfast this morning, and if it was even half-accurate, you're going to be a rather busy fellow for the next little while. It seems that pregnancy can really rev up the libido, so I think we should utilize every opportunity we have, before we're forced to become celibate. In fact, I was thinking..." 

      She whispered into his ear as he finally worked his way out of his jeans, causing his eyebrows to shoot up briefly before a devilish grin curved his lips, and he rolled her beneath him on the bed. "Oh, my. Someone is feeling adventurous today, aren't they? I think I'm going to enjoy this."

      "So am I, love," she declared, as she felt him slide into her. "So am I."