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They were home a couple of days before they contacted Alex. They decided to go into the office before they went for a ultrasound appointment. She had been putting off this appointment before Adonis knew about the baby. She’d been so uncertain and afraid then, and ever since, things had been happening quickly.

So finally she was going in to find out the sex of the baby.

And Adonis was going with her.

It had been such a lovely time, and part of her was waiting for it to be taken away. Part of her was scared to get the scan done. Because what if something was wrong? What if this lovely tower they were building fell down?

It would be unbearable.

She held his hand as they drove over to the clinic, and then when they walked in.

He was stoic, for his part, and she wanted to dig into his brain.

They had been getting along great. They had no problems. He was taking care of her, which was totally in keeping with his character, and they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. But there was something… There was something that she found unnerving about the way things were between them right now, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Maybe it was that they were getting along too well? Maybe it was that things were too easy? The sex was too good? She couldn’t explain it. It just felt like there was a piece missing and she couldn’t be certain what that piece was, or what would happen when that piece was restored.

She squeezed his hand because if she didn’t hold on to him she was going to fall over.

It was a private clinic, and there was no waiting. They were in their own room, and the doctor came in almost immediately.

She took Esme’s vitals, and then told her to get undressed.

She did, and put on a hospital gown while the doctor stepped out of the room for a moment, and Adonis watched her closely. Normally, when she was naked he was looking at her with desire, but she could see a hint of worry in his eyes.

“I always feel worried before an appointment,” she said.

“I’m fine,” he said.

She knew that he wasn’t.

But there was no point arguing with him.

She lay down on the table, a blanket in her lap and the hospital gown pulled up over her stomach, waiting for the doctor to return. When she came back, she smiled warmly at the two of them. “We’re going to do an anatomy scan, and you can find out the gender of the baby if you would like.”

“I would,” Esme said.

The doctor nodded and squirted some warmed gel onto her stomach. One of the reasons that she had picked this clinic was that the doctor herself would do the measuring, and tell them everything that she saw while they were in the room. She didn’t want to wait.

“Okay,” the doctor said, “here we go.”

She put the Doppler on Esme’s stomach, and it took a moment, but then a watery sound filled the room. Rhythmic and beautiful.

Esme nearly cried. The baby’s heartbeat. She held her breath for it every time.

Adonis looked stunned, and even though she wanted to watch the images of the baby on the screen, she found herself continually looking back at her husband. He was riveted by the images there. She hadn’t actually seen the baby since it was nothing more than a zygote, but she had heard the heartbeat at every appointment since. The development was…astonishing. It was really beginning to look like a child. She could recognize the shape of the head, the slope of the baby’s nose. Its mouth.

Her eyes welled up with tears. There were miracles in the world; she knew it. She had experienced more than her share. But this was something else entirely. To think that one night with Adonis had created this child. The two of them had let their passion burn into something hot and bright, and it had resulted in this.

No, neither of them had been expecting it. Neither of them could’ve said that they wanted it. But it was beautiful all the same. Truly, gloriously beautiful.

“And let’s see if baby is going to show us…” The doctor hunted around, prodding Esme’s stomach a bit with the Doppler. “Here we are,” she said. “Congratulations. It’s a boy.”

Esme looked at the screen, at the proof that they were having a son. It would’ve been impacting and amazing no matter what the gender of the baby was, but it was nice to know. To begin to see that little life, and how their family might look. She had thought that they would only have one child, but maybe they would have more. They were truly married now. Their firstborn would be a son. But then maybe there would be a baby brother or sister. The idea of that, the image of that, made her feel warm all over. It made her feel overwhelmed by joy.

It was just so beautiful.

She couldn’t read Adonis’s features. They were set in stone. As much of a wall as she had felt she had run into over the past week, this was something else. It looked like he was stunned into silence. It looked like he didn’t know what to do next.