Love you too, little brother.

[reaches out for her hand] Get me through this.

[she bit her lip, tucking her list away again] H-have you told your p-parents? I h-haven’t told mine… or m-my sisters.

See? Disappointing people already. You’ll be fine.

[pointedly] Love you.

[Though it was only one word, his quick response was more reassuring than just about anything she’d heard before. The confidence in his voice was like a balm to soothe her insecurities and she nodded.] Okay then. I t-think it’ll work well, too. Thank you.

[She blinked at his list for a moment then smiled, obviously relieved.] I w-wonder if we’ve got much overlap in our q-questions. I guess, m-maybe that’s normal? F-for first time parents? Oh goodness…that’s kind of s-scary to say out loud. 

No. No, it seems like these days that when things don’t seem like they can get worse some new unimaginable event happens. 

There’s been a lot of that going around lately, unfortunately. Every single time I open the paper, it feels lie.

[snorts lightly] Yes, because that’s the only possible way I could disappoint our parents. You underestimate me, Drew. 

[Sara adjusted her blouse nervously adding a large sweater over top. She wasn’t showing at all but she had noticed her body starting to change. In addition to being easily fatigued and needing more frequent bathroom breaks, her taste in food had changed a bit. At least she wasn’t feeling nauseated so often anymore. She’d never even known anyone who was pregnant, so she wasn’t sure how much of this was truly normal, but hopefully the healer would be able to shed some light on the subject at their appointment today. Checking her appearance one last time, she moved into the kitchen to see if Andrew was ready. It was early yet, but she didn’t want to be late] 

Hey… I’m r-ready to go when you are. 

[He’d been ready for a while, admittedly, but he didn’t want to rush her in the slightest, and so he’d taken to inventing tasks that needed to be done: mostly, moving things from one cabinet to another and cleaning out not-even-that-old food from the fridge. At her words though, he dropped everything (literally, he dropped it onto the counter beside where he stood) and gave her what he was hoping was a reassuring smile as he crossed over tot he living room to meet her] I am, yeah! Great timing. Do you want to apparate, or–– we should probably go on foot or catch a cab, just until we know how safe that is.

I don’t see why not. 

It doesn’t even seem like it should be possible that it’s a real story. 

I keep waiting for somebody to come forward and say it’s fake but....I don’t see that happening any time soon. Not the way things have been going.

Health value? [looks mildly concerned] Do y-you think it’s bad f-for the baby if I sleep on the couch? Miriam didn’t m-mention anything like that when I was asking her questions, but I can find out. Besides, w-w-what about your health? You’re s-still recovering. [frowns] M-maybe we can compromise? T-take turns or something? Unless t-that’s too much trouble. 

I don’t see why not. 

Fair enough, but I’m not going to let them give you a hard time on our birthday. I’ll start throwing bread rolls or something.

Well I’ll be damned… I can’t believe I didn’t notice. [shakes her head] Well, maybe you’ll be off the hook soon then.