75. Surprises

Nicole grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge before sitting down in the kitchen chair. She brought her leg up to rest on the edge of the chair as she laced it up before doing the same with the other one.

“Going running with your dad?” Waverly asked with a ‘good morning’ smile as she entered the kitchen and sat down across from her wife. Nicole had been up for at least half an hour already, but she didn’t want to disturb Waverly since it was a Saturday morning, and the woman had been a little more tired lately. Most likely due to all the planning she had been doing in preparation of the summer classes she was about to begin teaching.

“Yep. We haven’t gone in a couple of weeks.”

Waverly rolled her lips in between her teeth as the corners of her mouth quirked up slightly.

“What?” Nicole questioned with an eyebrow barely lifted. She opened the water bottle and took a sip, allowing the cool liquid to wake her up a little more.

“I just think it’s great that you and your dad are so close now.”

Nicole shrugged. “It helps that he lives here.”

“Yeah well, that was expected. After your mom passed away, there wasn’t really anything else tying him down there. And it was obvious how much he wanted to have a relationship with you.”

“Yeah.” Nicole smiled as she looked down at the kitchen table. “Sometimes I wish I was able to have that with my mom.”

“Hey, she loved you. And yeah your relationship wasn’t perfect, but if she were still here I bet she’d be just as accepting as your dad is now.”

Nicole nodded as her smile grew a little more. “You’re right.” When her watch lit up with a new notification, she looked at it and noticed that it was a message from her dad. “He’s here.” She stood up and grabbed her water. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours. You going to be okay here by yourself?”

“I’m sure I’ll find something to do.” Waverly shrugged as she playfully sighed.

“Well if you feel like cleaning the bathroom, I wouldn’t be opposed,” Nicole said hopefully, but only got a narrowed gaze in return, which wasn’t exactly what she was going for.

“Yeah right. It’s your turn.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll do it when I get home.” Nicole rolled her eyes in jest before leaning down to kiss the top of Waverly’s head. “Bye, love.”

“Have fun.” Waverly smiled as she watched the redhead walk out the door.

---

Nicole jogged through the wooded path with her eyes on the trail ahead, keeping herself focused. These morning runs were starting to become a routine thing ever since her dad had moved to Purgatory, and it reminded her of when they used to go on runs like this when she was a kid. Of course, back then Nicole hated it because it was something he did with Natalie, but now that she was older, it felt like something that was solely theirs.

She glanced over to her right, but didn’t see her dad beside her like he had been for the past couple of miles. Instead, he was about 75 feet back and struggling to catch his breath. She turned around and ran back towards him. “You okay dad?” She asked in concern.

Nathan waved her off and shook his head, as if telling her not to worry, and she guided him over towards a nearby rock to sit on. “These runs were way easier when I was 20 years younger,” he chuckled.

“Honestly, same.” Nicole laughed in a similar manner. “But I’m glad we’re still able to do it. And you’re getting better at it.”

He looked up at her and smiled while patting the top of her knee a couple times. “I’m glad we are too.” His smiled slowly faded as he looked down at the ground in preparation for the change in subject. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

Nicole paused for a moment and studied his face. “Are you gay?” She deadpanned, and her dad immediately started laughing, causing her to laugh as well.

“No, no.” He shook his head. “But I am married.”

Nicole’s laughter quickly died down. “What?” She wasn’t sure if she had heard him correctly. In fact, she was pretty sure she hadn’t, which was why she was asking him to repeat himself.

“Yeah, um, Sheila and I got married.”

The news was surprising to say the least, and Nicole wasn’t sure how to even process the information. And her face shifted in ways that showed it. “Okay,” she eventually said. It was the only thing she could think to say at the moment.

“We got married at the courthouse in the city a few weeks ago. Decided we didn’t want to do the whole ceremony thing since we’d both already done that.”

Nicole was suddenly reminded of her mom, and the thought of her dad being married to another woman was finally starting to sink in, and she really wanted it to go back to above the surface.

“I wasn’t sure if you knew or not, so I thought I’d tell ya.”

That sparked Nicole’s attention. “Why would I know that?”

“Because of your friend.”

She was confused now. “My friend? Which friend?”

“Xavier. He saw us at the courthouse. I think he was there on official business. We engaged in some casual conversation and told him we were getting married but didn’t tell anyone about it. I thought he would’ve told you.”

“No,” Nicole shook her head. “He didn’t.”

“Oh.” The word was short, and it was accompanied by a subtle head nod. “Well, uh, how do you feel about it?” He wasn’t good with feelings, but he was trying.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just really surprised right now.” Nicole blew out a breath. “You’ve been together for a couple of years now, but I guess I never imagined you two getting married.” She shrugged. “I never thought about you marrying anyone else after mom.

“Me neither. But, Sheila is special. She makes me really happy, and I know your mom would want that for me. Hell, she even told me herself.”

“She did?”

“Mhm,” he nodded. “Told me not too long before she passed that I deserved to be happy with someone else if the opportunity ever came up. I refused her blessing at the time because I couldn’t even imagine being with anyone but her.”

“So, what changed?” She was more curious than anything.

He looked at her for a moment before looking around, as if searching for the words in the trees around them. “It gets lonely.” He looked back at Nicole with a small smile. “And nobody should be.”

Nicole nodded in understanding and pressed her lips together as she looked down at the dirt underneath her shoes.

“But you know, nobody else will ever replace your mom. I love Sheila, but I’ll always love your mom. She’s a part of what molded me into the man I am today.”

“Good,” Nicole said, and the shadow of a smile flickered across her face. “Hey, why don’t we start heading back. Maybe we can get some lunch together?”

Her dad nodded. “That sounds like a plan.”

“And you know, you’re still not off the hook for getting married without telling me first.” She firmly pointed her finger in his direction.

“Yeah, I figured.” He sighed playfully, and followed her down the trail back to the car.

---

The next day, Nicole met up with Dolls for lunch, except it was on a different day than they normally did, considering neither of them had work that day. This time, it was more impromptu. After they had ordered their food, Nicole leaned back in her chair and looked at him with a quirked eyebrow while he sipped his soda.

“What?” He finally asked.

“My dad told me that he and Sheila got married.”

He raised his eyebrows, as if in surprise. “Oh, wow. Congratulations to them.”

Nicole narrowed her gaze. “He told me you ran into them.”

Dolls paused for a moment as he pressed his lips together. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” Nicole shook her head and leaned forward in her chair to lessen the space between them. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It really wasn’t any of my business.”

“They’ve been married for weeks and I had no idea.”

“Nathan should have told you sooner, I agree with you on that. Hell, he should’ve told you before he did it. But it would’ve been worse if that news had come from me.”

Nicole exhaled as she relaxed back into her chair. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“Are you mad at him?”

“A little.”

He nodded. “What does Waverly have to say about it?”

“I haven’t told her yet. I’ve been trying not to think about it too much.”

“She’s always been your rock. I know she’ll help make it at least a little better.” 

Nicole nodded. “Yeah. She always makes things better.” She looked down at the table and smiled to herself.

“Alright now, don’t go getting all soft like that on me.” He chuckled lightly.

“It’s Waverly. She makes me soft.” Nicole shrugged, and Dolls shook his head as he laughed.

“She sure does.”

---

Waverly went to the bathroom for the eighteenth time that day just to check, like she had been the past few days. Still nothing. She smiled to herself, but quickly pushed the emotions down, not wanting to get too excited just in case it was a false alarm. Her period was rarely ever late, one or two days at most, but it had been four days and still nothing. Not even the slightest hint that it was about to come. But again, she tried not to let herself get too excited.

After rushing to the nearest store, Waverly made a beeline for the family planning aisle and grabbed a few pregnancy tests — five of them, just to be on the safe side. Just as she was scanning her items at the self-checkout station, her phone started ringing and Nicole’s name — well, the name ‘wifey’, anyways — popped up on the screen.

“Hi sweetie pie,” Waverly’s said in a high-pitched voice. She didn’t know why she answered it. She could’ve just let it go to voicemail and then call back again when she wasn’t purchasing the pregnancy tests that she didn’t want Nicole to know about just yet. But something in her convinced her to press the green button.

“Hey baby,” Nicole answered. Waverly could hear her sigh through the phone, and quickly became concerned.

“What’s wrong?” 

“It’s nothing. I’ll just tell you when I get home.” She exhaled slowly, trying not to think about her father’s big news that was still rattling around in her mind. “What are you up to?”

Waverly looked down at the pregnancy tests with wide eyes. “Um, nothing much. Just, you know, hanging out.” She scanned one of the boxes and winced when she realized how loud it was.

“It’s sounds like you’re at the store,” Nicole said, although it sounded more like a question.

“Yes. Yes, I’m at the store. I’m buying some things.”

Nicole paused for a moment before slowly saying, “Okay.” Waverly was being weird, but she decided to just brush it off. “Hey, can you pick up something for dinner tonight?”

Waverly tilted her head. She didn’t even think about how she was going to tell Nicole if she found out that she was actually pregnant, but a nice dinner sounded like a good idea. “I’m on it.”

“Thank you, love. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Do you know what time?”

“Maybe around four?”

“That’s perfect!” Waverly grinned as she looked down at the boxes. “I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah, see you then,” Nicole said with a genuine smile, and they hung up the phone.

Waverly ran back towards the aisles to pick out a few things for dinner and then finished checking out before rushing back home.

After putting the food away, she poured a few glasses of water and chugged them down, as if she was at a frat party surrounded by a bunch of college students cheering her on. She set the last cup down on the counter, slightly proud of herself for her record time, before grabbing the shopping bag and trotting up the stairs to the bathroom.

After taking all five tests, she set them down on the counter and put her timer on. She pulled up her sudoku app, then scrolled through Instagram, then went to YouTube to see if there were any interesting videos to watch — which there weren’t — and then went back to sudoku, all while checking her timer every fifteen seconds. Five minutes had never felt so long. 

When the alarm sounded, she took in a deep breath, or three, until she had worked up the courage to check the tests.

Positive.

Positive.

Positive.

Positive.

And the last one, positive.

Tears instantly formed in her eyes as she gasped through her opened mouth, which had the corners already raising in sheer jubilation. She pulled out her phone, but quickly paused. She didn’t want to tell Nicole that way. She wanted to share the news over a romantic dinner, just like she had planned. She wanted to see Nicole’s face in reaction to the words.

She couldn’t tell Wynonna either, because of course Nicole had to be the first to know. Which meant that she also couldn’t tell anyone else. But she had to tell somebody. She was filled with so many emotions that she could barely contain herself. She wondered if that was because of the pregnancy, and looked down at her abdomen with a smile greater than the one before. The idea that she was going to be a mom was starting to settle in, and she caressed the area where she envisioned a baby growing.

“Well, I guess since you obviously already know, it’s not going to be a shock to you.” A part of her felt silly for talking to something that was barely even the size of a seed, but most of her didn’t care. 

Just then out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something moving past the opened door and the end of her mouth quirked up at the realization that there was in fact someone she could tell before Nicole. She swiped the positive tests from the counter into the paper bag before walking out into to the bedroom.

“Okay, so I need to tell you something, but promise me you won’t tell Nicole.”

Meow.

“Excellent.” She scooped the cat up from the floor and sat down on the bed, placing Calamity in her lap and proceeding to stroke her fluffy back. “So, as you’ve probably noticed, we’ve been trying to make a baby. ...well, not so much that way, although we have been doing that a lot lately.” She smiled to herself. “But we’ve been making a lot of trips to the doctor’s office and such. And, well...” She looked down at the orange tabby and excitedly exclaimed, “We’re having a baby!”

Calamity just stared at her for a moment, probably because she was curious as to why Waverly was looking at her, before laying her head back down in Waverly’s lap, completely unfazed.

“I knew you’d take this well.” Waverly leaned down to hug the cat and placed a loud kiss between her ears.

---

As soon as Nicole got home from her time with Dolls, she kicked her shoes off and plopped down onto the couch. She checked her watch — nearly four. She grabbed a small pillow to hug and closed her eyes as she allowed herself to relax.

Just as she was starting to fall asleep, she heard the sounds of Waverly’s slippers shuffling down the stairs and across the floor. Nicole couldn’t help but smile at how cute Waverly was in her slippers. “Hi baby,” she said in a sleepy voice when she saw the brunette.

“Hi,” Waverly replied.

“You seem to be in a good mood.”

Waverly sat down on the end of the couch with a small shrug of her shoulders, and placed Nicole’s legs down over her lap. “I guess I am.”

“Any particular reason why?”

“You know me. Sometimes I’m just naturally in a good mood.” She hoped Nicole would buy that and not press it any further, because she was really close to spilling the beans. She could feel the words right on the tip of her tongue, but had to keep swallowing them down to prevent them from slipping out.

Nicole slowly nodded her head and gave a lazy smile as she closed her eyes and turned her head to get comfortable. “Of course. It’s one of the things I love about you.”

A small smile grew on Waverly’s face and she slid her fingers into Nicole’s hand that was resting on her stomach. “I love you too.”

After a couple of hours when Waverly had finished setting the table, and looking proudly at the job she had done, she tiptoed over to the living room and placed a gentle hand over Nicole’s shoulder to wake her up. “Baby,” she said softly, and Nicole started to stir.

“Something smells really good,” Nicole said in a groggy tone as her eyes slowly opened.

“I made risotto.” Waverly smiled sweetly, and Nicole mirrored her.

“I love the vegan risotto you make.”

“I know,” Waverly replied.

Feeling fully refreshed, Nicole stood up from the couch and stretched her long limbs, careful not to hit her hands on the ceiling fan, and walked over to the kitchen table. She drew her eyebrows together at the fancy place setting and the unopened bottle of wine in the middle of the table. “This looks romantic.” She looked up at Waverly with questioning eyes. “What’s the occasion?”

Waverly shrugged nonchalantly, but her smile was wide. “Well, I have some news.”

“Oh, speaking of news, that reminds me.” Nicole remembered the conversation with Dolls earlier on how Waverly always made her feel better about the things that were on her mind. And this was something she had to get out of her mind, or else it would start to consume her. “Dad and Sheila are married.”

Waverly’s eyes widened. “Wait, what?” 

“Yeah, I was just as surprised. They got married at the courthouse a few weeks ago.” 

“Without telling you?”

“Without telling anyone.”

Waverly suddenly realized how this was probably affecting Nicole. Not just the fact that her dad got married without telling her, but that he remarried another woman. “How are you feeling about him being married to someone else?”

Nicole shook her head as she stared at the bottle of wine. She quickly snatched it from the table and opened it before pouring herself a large glass and gulping it down. She didn’t really want to talk about her feelings towards it, but she also didn’t want to say that because Waverly had asked so sweetly. It took her a minute to notice Waverly looking at her expectantly. “Oh, I’m sorry baby. Do you want me to pour you a glass too?”

The corners of Waverly’s mouth lifted and she subtly shook her head while not once looking away from Nicole. “I can’t.”

Nicole raised an eyebrow. “You can’t have wine?”

Waverly shook her head some more, still wearing that smile, which was a little brighter now.

“Why not?”

“Because.” Waverly pulled her lips into her mouth for a moment while looking into her wife’s eyes. “I’m pregnant.” 

Nicole spit her wine out, and Waverly suddenly realized that she probably should’ve waited until after Nicole had taken a sip to tell her.

“You’re...” Nicole started, but nothing else came out of her mouth. Her eyes were widened with shock.

“Oh, here.” Waverly got up to get the neatly wrapped rectangular present from the counter and handed it over to Nicole. “I had planned on giving you this first but I forgot. I guess things don’t always go according to plan, right?” She chuckled lightly.

Nicole stared down at the gift, which had an adorable tiny bow on the top, before finally opening it. She gingerly tugged at the wrapping paper until the box was freed, and opened it up. Inside was a positive pregnancy test and her eyes began to water. She blinked a few times causing them to instantly spilled down her cheeks. “I’m...going to be a mom?” Her voice was so innocent and childlike.

Waverly nodded while also starting to cry.

“We’re...going to be parents?” A smile started to form on Nicole’s cheeks.

“Yes baby.”

Her gaze shifted from Waverly to the pregnancy test and then back to Waverly again. “For real?”

“Yes,” Waverly let out a small laugh. “For real. I have an appointment tomorrow with Dr. Shah, but the fact that I’m three days late combined with five positive at-home pregnancy tests is enough proof for me.” She got up and walked over to Nicole before wrapping an arm around her and looking down into her deep, brown eyes. “We’re having a baby.”

Nicole shot up from the chair so quickly that it startled Waverly, and she snatched the brunette off the ground in a tight hug and twirled around in quick circles. “We’re having a baby!” She repeated in excitement, and Waverly giggled. She set Waverly down on the island in the middle of the kitchen and looked at her in a more serious manner. “We’re having a baby.” She said it as if she was finally comprehending the words.

“Yes, we are.” Waverly nodded, and she loosened her arms around Nicole’s neck.

Nicole’s smile slowly dropped as she studied Waverly’s eyes. “I love you.” She locked lips with her wife and passionately kissed her. “I love you,” she said again, but this time there was more breath in her voice. “God, I love you.” She moved her lips down to Waverly’s neck and placed hot kisses all over it.

Waverly looked up at the ceiling as she breathed through her mouth, and slid her fingers up into the back of Nicole’s hair as Nicole ran her hands along her thighs, asking for permission. Waverly spread her legs a little bit to allow Nicole easier access, and Nicole slipped her hand underneath Waverly’s skirt until she felt the dampened fabric. She pushed Waverly’s underwear aside and ran her fingers through the slickness to coat her fingers before gently pushing them inside. And it wasn’t an act of desperation of hunger, but rather one of love and passion. She wanted to feel connected to Waverly in this very intimate way as her heart was filled with an indescribable amount of joy. 

“I love you,” Nicole repeated every so often. They were the only words she ever said, and Waverly felt the conviction in every single one of them. 

As Waverly got closer to the edge, her heart beat faster and she sucked in air more, and she felt felt herself getting closer to Nicole in a way than ran deeper than just the physicality of it all. Nicole continued to hold Waverly with her left arm wrapped around her, and the brunette felt so safe and cared for. And she knew that this feeling of security was just a small glimpse of how Nicole would make her feel not only during the next nine months, but for the rest of their lives. It was a reassurance that she never needed, but benefitted from anyways.

When Waverly fell into her orgasm, she tightened her grip around Nicole as she held nothing back, and enjoyed every second of it. Nicole slowly pulled her fingers back but not all the way out. Instead, she gently circle them around Waverly’s entrance as she peppered her chest with kisses over her the fabric of her shirt. There were more I love you’s sprinkled in there, each one said with the utmost sincerity. Waverly just sat there on the counter as she allowed Nicole to worship her body with a somnolent smile on her face.

“We’re going to have a baby.” Waverly said softly, finally breaking Nicole out of her seemingly never ending cycle of kisses. 

Nicole pulled back and looked into Waverly’s hazel eyes. There was a new light to them that hadn’t been there before, and it captivated the redhead. “We’re going to have a baby,” she said back before placing a small kiss on Waverly’s nose. She then dropped her gaze down to Waverly’s abdomen and envisioned there being a small baby inside, much like Waverly had done before.

“I love you.” The words came out of Waverly’s mouth almost in the exact same way that Nicole had said them before. 

A warm smile formed on Nicole’s face as she placed her lips on Waverly’s forehead and let them linger there for a few moments before leaving a gentle, loving kiss. “I love you too.”