Moments to Treasure

Dr. Kimber Lee McCoy was never really good at beating around the bush, especially when it was a situation where she could not predict the reaction of the person she had to tell news to. Being a doctor, there were many times in her life when she had to tell people news, some good, and some bad. She always found the best way was to just say it, and prepare for reactions.

So, when she realized that yes indeed, she was pregnant, she thought the best thing to do was to just take the no-nonsense approach and let her husband, Hank know right away. For a moment, she considered waiting a bit to see if he noticed anything, but sometimes her husband, for all his endearing qualities, could be a tad absent-minded. (A common enough problem among geniuses, she believed.) If she waited for him to notice, it might not be until their child was ready to enter school.

She made up her mind to tell him right after she woke up one morning and took the pregnancy test from a kit she had swiped from the clinic she worked at. Since she was the head doctor at the clinic, she thought it was her right to uh, acquire a kit and she really wanted to take the test at home, rather than at work, so she would be able to tell Hank right away, rather than have to wait until she got home.

She got dressed and went downstairs into the kitchen of the mansion. Hank was already awake, or at least not in bed anymore, sitting at the table, yawning and staring into his cup of coffee as if it might hold the cure for the legacy virus, or something equally fascinating. "Good morning," she said. She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kissing the top of his head.

"Morning, love," he mumbled. Well, at least that was what it sounded like to Kimber. It might have been "Burning Dove," or "Mumble Shove," but she was almost certain it was "morning love."

A good sign, she thought. "Good morning to you, handsome."

Another mumble. This one sounded like M-hm. Rather than attempt to translate it, Kimber went over to the refrigerator and got out a bottle of orange juice. She eyed the coffee maker a bit sadly; thinking how long it would be before she had the chance to drink coffee again. Good thing I'm not a caffeine addict!

She poured herself a big glass of juice and walked over to Hank, sitting down across from him. "Do you have any plans?" she asked him brightly.

Hank looked at her, one brow raised. "Uhm..." he began, then stopped and scratched his head. He usually woke up faster than this, but he had been up rather late the night before, working in the lab and as a results was trying to become functional on less than four hours of sleep. This normally might not have been such a problem, except that he was on his third day of trying to get by on less than four hours of sleep. Be careful, some alert part of his mind warned him. You know how Kimber feels about your not getting enough sleep. She does not know you have been up so late the last few nights; she's been falling asleep early. If she realizes you're suffering from sleep deprivation, she's likely to force you to go back to bed. So take it easy, she's asking you questions, she wants to talk; you can handle this, just play it cool. "Uhm... no, nothing springs to mind. And you?"

"Well, I thought I'd take it easy today, get some breakfast and go to the clinic later," Kimber said, her voice overly bright. "Then, I figured in about eight months, give or take, I'd have a baby. How does that sound to you?"

"That sounds fine," Hank said. He mentally congratulated himself for handling the situation so well. She probably does not even realize that I am still not nearly awake as I should be!

Now it was Kimber's turn to raise a brow. He's more out of it than I thought. Gesh, I'll bet he's gotten less than five hours of sleep for the last week or so. "Which sounds fine, honey? Breakfast, the clinic, or us having a baby in eight months or so?"

"All of it," Hank said. Part of his mind started sending up a very loud warning buzz that rang through his brain. She is saying something really important, you moron, it buzzed.

"Even the baby?" She stressed the last word as hard as she could, without screaming it.

Okay, that is the important thing, handle this with extreme care. "Especially the baby," Hank said. He even managed to look up at her and beam. There, that has to work. Sometimes I am so brilliant I even amaze myself.

"That's all you're going to say about it?" Kimber asked, her voice beginning to rise sharply. Either he's in shock or he's still asleep and functioning on complete autopilot.

Oh, you've blown it! He looked at her, "Say about what?"

She stared into his face, the face that a little less than three years ago, she promised to love honor and cherish. A face she felt she sometimes knew better than her own. She studied that face, seeing that under the blue fur, was a set of matching bags. She could have told him she was running off with Gambit to open a petting zoo for mutants and it would have gotten the same results. He had no clue what she had told him. "Oh never mind!" she snapped, bursting into tears. Leaping up from the table, she turned and ran from the room.

This is bad... this is very bad, Hank thought, watching her run. He put down his coffee cup and rose from the table as fast as he could, going after her. He caught up with her, half way up the stairs. "Kimber!"

She stopped, turning back to him, her eyes red-rimmed and leaking. "What?"

"Please don't run off like this, whatever is wrong, we can discuss it."

"Nothing is wrong!" Kimber snapped. "Except that your brain is so fogged over from lack of sleep that you can't even listen to a word I'm saying!"

"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed. "I didn't mean to upset you! I did hear what you were saying, I swear I did!"

"You might have heard, but it didn't register!" Kimber's voice was bitter.

"Yes, it did," he protested, defending himself. "You said you were going to have breakfast..." He raised a finger in the air, ticking off that statement. "Then you said you were going to go to the clinic. Then you said in about eight months..." His voice trailed off and his eyes widened. "About eight months," he repeated.

Kimber sniffled and stared at him. Was the news finally sinking in?

"You're... you're..." he sputtered. He raised his hands to his face to rub his eyes, letting go of the banister. That combined with the shock of the news, and the lack of sleep, caused him to lose his balance. He started to fall backwards down the stairs.

"Oh no you don't!" Kimber shouted, springing forward and grabbing his arm to steady him. "You're not going to fall down the stairs and get a concussion to get out of this one, buster!"

He steadied himself, staring at her. "You-you're pregnant?" he asked, a bewildered look on his face.

She nodded.

"How did this happen?" he asked.

She considered letting go of his hand for a moment, hoping perhaps he would fall down the stairs, but changed her mind and hung on. I don't want this baby to grow up without a father; I don't care how much he's pissed me off today. "Well, when a man and a woman are attracted, sometimes they share a very special love. When this happens, the man becomes-"

"Kimber, I know how it happened!" Hank said, a little louder than he intended.

"Then why did you ask me?"

"Because... because..." The last of the lack-of-sleep fog had lifted from Hank's brain when he almost fell down the stairs, but he was still confused. "Because we've been married for three years. You-you're not as young as you used to be-"

"I'm younger than you," Kimber interrupted to remind him. "And men have been known to father babies into their eighties, so this isn't impossible."

"I-I know that... but I guess I just never expected this," Hank admitted. "I mean, Siku is getting ready to graduate from college. I just thought my child rearing days were over."

"Well, think again." She stared at him, an uncomfortable feeling coming over her. "Hank, you... you aren't thinking anything... like that maybe we shouldn't go through with this, are you?"

His eyes widened. "No! I-I just need a moment for this to sink in, Kimber. It-it just came as a shock!"

"Wait till I start puking in the morning. That will be a hell of a shock," Kimber said.

Under the blue fur, Hank paled. "I truly hope you are not thinking that I should watch, that sort of thing, are you? I comprehend that it is customary for couples to share in the entire pregnancy experience, but I really don't think it is necessary for me to watch you engaging in that sort of-"

"No!" Kimber interrupted, before he could continue. "I was just... kidding around." She let go of his arm and sat down on the stairs, looking suddenly tired. "You know, when I realized I had to tell you this, I tried to picture every possible reaction you would have to the news. I never imagined this scenario."

Hank hardly heard her. His mind had wandered away for a moment, thinking of children, babies. Siku in particular. He remembered how adorable she had been, how she had looked at him, her eyes wide when he spoke, as if he were the end-all and be-all of her world. While he was still very close to his daughter, she was growing up. He loved his adult daughter, but there were times when he missed the child she had been. Times when he thought he would trade almost anything to be able to hold her as a baby, and know that she felt there was nothing he could not do. I'll never have that again, he thought. But now I have got another chance. Another child to have and to hold and to help while he or she makes his or her way in this world. And this time, I have someone to share it with. A slow smile spread across his face and he suddenly scooped Kimber up in his arms.

"What the heck?" Kimber protested, startled. However, she was not so startled that she forgot to put her arms around his neck. One of the most important rules in Kimber's life was: Never pass up a chance to snuggle with Hank.

"My dear, when you and I were joined together, I postulated nothing there was nothing on Heaven or Earth that could make me happier. I was erroneous. Today you have brought me beyond happiness, into an establishment of peerless exhilaration!"

Her eyes widened and her arms tightened around him. When he started talking like this, using as many ten cent words as he could fit in a sentence, she knew he was all right. And she knew everything was going to be just fine.