Chapter Five: Guess What?!
Nick rolled his eyes a little, as Alyssa scurried around the kitchen trying to make sure everything was ready. “Shouldn’t you be slowing down in your state?”
Alyssa stopped and gave him a perplexed expression, “My…state??”
“Pregnant and all, shouldn’t you, you know take a break and slow down?”
“I don’t see you helping me so I can slow down.”
Nick sighed knowing full well anytime he’d try to help her she’d just yell at him and then do it herself. “Okay but you can’t get all hyper critical on me.”
“I promise, it’s just I’m having my first kid and we’re telling my family, so it’s a bit nerve wracking I just want everything to be perfect.”
Nick’s look softened as he walked over and wrapped his arms around her, “It will be stop worrying so much. You’re going to make our kid more neurotic than you are.”
“Funny Nickolas real funny…” Alyssa said rolling her eyes.
“It’s not like it’s going to be that bad you know they’ll react well.”
“I know, I’m actually worried about what your mother would say.” Alyssa replied.
Nick kissed her forehead, “We are not going to worry about that now, this is our time and we are NOT going to let her ruin that ok?”
Alyssa grinned, “You’re surprisingly mature Mr. Carter.”
He grinned back at her, “Just don’t call me that okay, sounds like my dad.”
“Well you are a father now, just your kid hasn’t gotten here yet.”
A few hours later…
“So Alyssa honey, how has work been?” Mary asked as she dished herself up some green beans.
Alyssa looked up and grinned, “Really good, so far this semester I’ve been really impressed by my students, but it’s still early on.”
Lori giggled as she poured wine while everyone busily filled their plates. When she reached for Alyssa’s glass she was stopped by her hand. “None for me thanks.” Alyssa said with a genuine smile.
Lori gave her an odd look it was practically ritual for a Monroe family dinner to have wine, the only time she didn’t was when she was pregnant but Alyssa wasn’t, was she? She shrugged off her suspicions and sat next to Clark and little Jamie. “Oh and Ali, you’ll be happy to know that your nephew recognizes you from a photo now.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope I was standing in the hall with him at home and he pointed a picture of you and said ‘Auntie’.”
Alyssa face beamed, “Smart boy!” She exclaimed, “Actually I have a couple of questions for you and mom.”
“What dear?” Mary said with a slight smile.
“Well I’m doing this research project with my students on how pregnancy is viewed in ancient literature. And well I was wondering if I could get yours and Lori’s experiences to draw in a modern take on pregnancy.” Alyssa explained as Nick smirked a little knowing there really was no research project at all but she was trying to break it to them slowly that there would be another grandbaby around.
“Fire away!” Lori stated eating a little here and there.
“Well when did you first realize that you were pregnant?”
“With which one of the three of you?” Mary countered.
“With Oli, she was the first born and all.”
Mary smiled, “I figured it out when I passed out during the last semester of med school, your father was worried sick, but elated that we were going to have a baby.”
Olivia smiled and chuckled, “I love that story.”
Mary chuckled and sighed, “Clark was planned, we wanted a son, and we got one, we’d been trying for months and then finally it worked out how we’d hoped. Then you Ali, you were the surprise. We’d just sold all the baby furniture and then Valentine’s Day came around and a month later we found out we were pregnant.”
“Wait a second you were conceived on Valentine’s Day?” Nick asked a little shocked.
“Yeah I thought you knew that?” Alyssa replied. “Anyways, how was the pregnancies, like were they hard?”
“Olivia’s was just because she was the first, you freak out over the littlest things when you’re first pregnant.”
“Oh yeah and the odd cravings will gross your man out.”
“Like what?”
Clark wrinkled his nose, “Tobasco on everything, even popcorn. It was nasty.”
“It was good damnit!” Lori defended herself.
Nick laughed a little at the exchange between the couple recognizing how much they were like him and Alyssa. “You two are so hilarious you realize this right?”
Lori rolled her eyes, “Just wait til this one gets pregnant and you’ll see.” She scoffed pointing at Alyssa.
Thinking aloud he shot back, “Believe me I already know.”
Alyssa’s eyes grew wide, “Nick! You weren’t supposed to say anything.”
“Wait, what?” Olivia got a perplexed expression on her face, “Don’t tell me you’re?”
Alyssa sighed, “I was trying to break it nicely, but oh no Mr. Blunt over here had to ruin that idea.”
Nick smiled innocently, “Sorry, you know I love you right?”
Mary smiled wide, “So you really are pregnant?”
“About 5 and a half weeks now, yeah.”
Clark shook his head and chuckled, “You had to knock up my baby sister didn’t you?”
“Hey now you’re gonna be an uncle.” Nick reasoned.
“Yeah I am sorry we didn’t wait until after we got married but we didn’t exactly plan this either.” Alyssa replied.
“I thought you were on the pill?”
“I was on the placebo week, and well yeah, guess it was the right time.”
“Well honey I’m happy for you as long as you both are happy.”
“Are you kidding me, Mary this is exactly what we needed right now, yeah we’re both busy but it makes us actually take time to take care of things with our relationship so in a way it’s a really good thing it’s happening now.”
“You seem awfully calm and pleased about this Nick.” Angela remarked.
“I’m just really happy with my life and how things are going right now.”
Later that night…
Alyssa relaxed against the pillows as she scribbled notes on a student’s rough draft on what they needed to improve on for the final copy.
Nick walked in from the bathroom running a towel through his fresh from the shower hair wearing a pair of boxers and a tee shirt. He saw her furiously writing and shaking her head and grinned at her. “Grading?”
“More like commenting on the rough drafts.”
He tossed his towel just inside the bathroom door and walked over to the bed sitting sideways on it just watching her smirking slightly.
She looked up raising her eyebrows a little as if to silently ask ‘what the hell are you staring at?’ She shook her head and flipped another page trying to make sense of one of her student’s reasoning.
His smirk grew a little larger as he kept watching her seeing how long it would take before she threw something at him for staring.
Alyssa sighed and set the papers aside and looked up, “What?”
He relaxed and turned to lay back against the pillows next to her. “Nothing just wanting to annoy you.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder. “Assbag.”
He laughed at her comment, “It’s been years since you’ve called me that.”
“Well you haven’t been one to me for a while. I think the last time was when you surprised me with a certain blonde at the airport.”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Yeah, yeah and I really deserved it at the time. I’m really glad I got past that.”
“Everyone makes mistakes, which leads me to my next topic. How are we going to tell your parents?”
He looked up at the ceiling thinking for a moment. “No idea, I really don’t want to bring my mom all the way out here just to say hey you’re going to be a grandmother.”
Alyssa grinned, “I know how you feel honey. I’m scared shitless what this is going to be like for the next 18 years.”
“I know but we’re a family now. No matter what we have something that ties us together forever.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged, “Well you never know where the future will take us, I know I want to be with you forever….”
“But?”
“We can’t know what will happen tomorrow let alone 10-15 years from now.”
“True, but do you think we’ll still be together?” She asked not liking the icy fingers of doubt that were creeping up her spine. She had doubts like these occasionally but she didn’t know he did too.
He saw the semi-frightened look on her face and then it hit him. He quickly ran over what he’d said in his mind and she was right to be scared it sounded as if he was getting cold feet about marrying her. “God I hope so, or else we did something completely wrong to fuck it up.” He said trying to reassure her.
“Don’t scare me like that. God Nick.” She scoffed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sounded like that.”
She sighed a little and cut her eyes over to him, “It’s bad enough that I…” She began but stopped herself.
“What?”
She looked away not wanting to let on that she was afraid of him cheating on her. Ever since the Brandon debacle of the year before she’d been fully expecting it to happen. “Nothing.”
He turned to her making her look at him. “Don’t shut me out, tell me.”
“It’s really nothing, just my own neurosies.”
He pulled her into a sensual kiss nibbling along her bottom lip making her sigh into the kiss. A moment later he broke it placing his hand on the back of her neck. “Did that help any?”
“Hmmm maybe, but I think maybe one more time just to make sure…” She replied with a cheeky grin.
He grinned back at her and pushed her back against the bed making her giggle at him.
Four days later…
“So are you scared?” Brian asked.
“A little, but it’s a good thing.”
“Fatherhood has a way of changing a man.” Brian explained. “Hell look and me or even Kevin now with them just finding out that she’s almost 4 months pregnant.”
“I heard, from Kev when I called to tell him the good news.”
AJ smiled at Nick, “So three kids now. Just means more kids to spoil!” He added.
“Don’t let Ali hear you say that she does not want to raise a trust fund baby.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well we’re going to set up a trust fund however, they’re not going to know about it until the time is right. Like what Ali’s parents did for her.”
“Smart idea.” Howie agreed. “Need any help with investing you know you can always ask me or Lee, she’s amazing with numbers.”
“You know I will.”
“So how’s the sex life been since conception?” AJ asked with one eyebrow arched.
“It’s been fine, we’ve been really busy so we try to make time for it but if it doesn’t happen everyday then it doesn’t happen.”
“Dude this is from the guy who once said that you MAKE time for it at least once a day.”
“Well with work and the show coming up it doesn’t happen as much as it use to be it doesn’t mean it’s any less good than it has been.”
Brian grinned a little, “Just be careful you and her are at a critical stage right now.”
Nick gave him an odd look, “Critical?”
“Yep, when Leigh and I were expecting Bay I always made it a point to make Leigh feel beautiful. Especially as she got farther along.”
“But why do that?” AJ asked curiously.
“Because with hormones raging like that women are prone to bouts of depression and seriously negative self image. The obstetrician actually took me aside and told me to keep her in good spirits that it helps make the pregnancy easier emotionally on the both of you.”
Nick nodded taking it all in, “Good to know. Is it true that pregnant women get I don’t know freakier than normal?”
Brian chuckled, “To an extent yes, but it’s more that they crave to feel sexy that being pregnant doesn’t mean that you’re not sexually attracted anymore.”
“Yeah I’m actually working on that with her. She’s always had body issues, not so much that she thinks she fat or anything just that she doesn’t seem to get why I think she’s beautiful. She knows she’s pretty but she thinks she’s completely plain.”
“With those eyes? She’s nuts.” Howie joked.
“I know tell me about it!”
Three days later…
Alyssa sighed as she looked around the clean house, her and Nick had spent the past week cleaning the entire palatial pad from stem to stern in preparation for the show to begin taping there that day. “Nick?” She semi-yelled calling him into the room.
“What’s up?” He asked walking in from the office.
“Everything’s ready for dinner tonight?”
“Yep, just go to work already Leslie’s getting in at 3, then everyone else will be here by 5 or 6 knowing Aaron.”
She grinned and gave him a kiss grabbing her laptop bag. “Okay I’ll be home by 4:30 if traffic’s not too bad. I’ll call as soon as I’m out of lecture.”
He smiled back and lead her to the door, “I’ll start on dinner when you’re on you’re way home so it’ll be ready when you walk in the door.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, oh and don’t tell them without me okay?”
“I promise I’ll hold off on the announcement ‘til you get here.”
“Okay, love you, have a good day with the meetings.”
“Love you too, good luck with lecture today.” He replied as she grinned gave him a quick kiss then walked to her car. Nick waved as she pulled out of the driveway then went back into the house just as the phone rang. “Hello?”
“Hey Nick, it’s Les.”
“Hey sis what’s up?”
“Nothing much just sitting at the airport in Toronto. How are you?”
Nick smiled into the phone, “Good, Ali just went to work.”
“How is she?”
“Good, can’t wait to see you.”
“Oh yeah, well there’s this one thing…”
Nick felt a little nervous what that one thing was. “And that would be?”
“Well Mike’s coming out with me, and…we’re engaged.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
OK So finally another update. My health is just been terrible lately with errosive esophagitis (yeah it's painful too yuck!) anyways hopefully i'll be getting better and much more stories to come. hopefully now i can get some work done on sexcapades so we can crank out a new chappy for ya'll. So a huge thank you to Mel and Crys for they're help on this chapter and for pretty much the rest of this story. Anyways as always read and review, and thank you so much for your patience guys!
