[Working hard] Or hardly working?

[magic_fratboy]

"Dude, this is not good."

"It'll get better." Tommy insisted as he emerged from the bathroom, tugging on a clean t-shirt, his wet hair slicked back from his face. He'd just come out of a test run with the wine barrel at Mike's workshop, and the 'wet-run' with the barrel full hadn't gone as well as he would have liked.

Two minutes, seven seconds.

He needed under two minutes to ensure his own safety, and two minutes exactly to avoid getting killed, because he wasn't about to fudge the escape. He never had in the past, and he wasn't about to start now.

"You can't know that." Mike insisted from his place on the couch, where he was watching a video they'd made of his day's efforts. "You can't do this stunt if you can't get the time down."

"I'll get the time down, so I'm doin' the stunt." Tommy sighed, ambling into the living room and lowering himself to the floor to stretch out. Instantly, he had two tiny, furry bodies leaping lightly to lay on his chest and his stomach, with Hardeen taking the senior position closest to his head.

"And if go time comes and you aren't ready?"

"I will be." he replied, glancing up at Mike with a chuckle. "Just have a little faith, brother. Anyway, let's wrap this up. I'm takin' Zee to Bardini's tonight...that place we used to go when we were in school? She was talking about needing a place again the other day, so I'm gonna make her forget that shit."

"What, give her a key? She already has one!"

Tommy grinned, rubbing Hardeen behind his ears. "Yeah, she does...but she don't have a key to the mailbox yet. And she's gonna need one if this is her permanent address, know what I mean?"

Comments

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

Ziyah sat in her car, boiling down and stewing in the events everything that had just happened. It was a blur, yet completely vivid as her mind played the words over and over in her head.

Over the past few weeks since meeting with a friend and openly discussing her possible desires to become a mother, it all fell to the back of her head and in the end, it was forgotten and life carried on.

Shitshitshit.. she mumbled with her thumbnail wedged between her teeth, biting nervously. She'd tried to calm herself enough to get upstairs and not look like she'd just seen a ghost, but as she neared the door to the loft, she felt a sudden urge of sickness.

Opening the door, she stepped inside and dropped her things haphazardly before rushing past Mike and Tommy to the bathroom.

[magic-fratboy.livejournal.com]

Tommy felt a sliver of fear as Ziyah walked in, then rushed past them in a hurry to find the bathroom. Sharing a cursory glance with the other man, Tommy got the cats dislodged and got to his feet, following her in just enough time to hear her being sick through the closed door.

Testing the knob to find it open, he walked in and paused in the door for a moment, then moved to grab a washcloth off the towel bar and wet it in the sink. Kneeling beside her, he took the damp, folded cloth and blotted her face before laying it across the back of her neck, holding her against him for a moment. "Let me guess: you didn't learn your lesson with the first lunch wagon?" he quipped gently, stroking her hair soothingly.

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

Shivering from the sudden shock, Zee closed her eyes in attempt to collect herself and leaned lightly into his touch before shaking her head slowly.

'It wasn't the lunch wagon.' she opened her eyes, worry washing through them quickly.

Ziyah had choices. She could tell him right then and there, or simply push it aside until she could calmly tell him. Confusion set in as she reached up to pull herself to her feet and quickly dropped her face, allowing her hair to shield the threat of tears away from him.

[magic-fratboy.livejournal.com]

He felt her fear and her worry, but something she was feeling hit deeper than the bond they shared. It cut through the energies that were part of him and felt like a blade sinking into his chest, painful enough that his breath caught and he hunched with the force of it.

It was several seconds before he could get to his feet and regard her with a much stronger sense of fear than he'd had before. Something was wrong, so wrong that she was questioning things somewhere in her head...

Her faith was shaken by something.

"Zee...what's wrong?"

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

Overcome with a sense wanting to just run, Zee turned her eyes to the mirror and watched Tommy get to his feet. During those few moments he remained on his knees, she only repeated in her head that if she told him now, he would only end up pushing her away. It was in her to believe just that, only because that was all she ever knew--at least that's what she would do.

Tears brimmed and spilled, flowing down the bridge of her nose and resting on her top lip before the others behind them forced them to freefall to the counter where her hand held her up.

'I..I'm so scared, Tommy. But if I don't tell you now, I'm scared I never will.' she paused, turning to show only half her face to him. 'Because if I don't, I'll run..and that's not fair to you.'

[magic-fratboy.livejournal.com]

"Baby...please..." he breathed, shaking his head...but not in confusion or fear. He couldn't draw a breath...she was suffocating under this and so was he, but the pain was getting worse. Hope that simply wasn't there, for whatever reason. A leap, but not of faith, it was a leap of despair...

"Stop." He was begging as he doubled over, holding his chest and clenching his teeth to keep from crying out, speaking through them as he raised a hand to her in silent plea. "Zee...stop, please...whatever it is, just tell..."

There were no more words. He had no breath left to reassure her. Christ, he was going to pass out...

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

She breathed in deeply, forcing her eyes shut hard before whispering the words he need to hear.

'I'm pregnant.'

[magic-fratboy.livejournal.com]

The agony plateaued, leaving him unable to breathe or speak...only hear.

I'm pregnant.

And somehow, through the pain, he managed to speak his sudden, gripping fear.

"Holy shit..."

Fear numbed him quickly with its icy fingers, leaving only shock. He knocked Zee up. She was pregnant.

"Holy shit..."

She was pregnant. With his child. Their baby.

She was having a baby...he was going to be a father.

For the second time in his life, he felt himself fill with the kind of pure hope only humans could feel as the news sank in and he straightened.

And rushed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her off her feet with a sudden peal of laughter.

"Holy SHIT!!" he whooped, spinning her in a small circle before setting her down again. "Oh my God, are you serious, babe? Were havin' a baby?!"

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

She watched him. His emotion moving from exasperated pain to shock and then..happiness? Confusion set in again.

This has to be some sort of dream.. she thought to herself as he pulled her up off her feet in excitement. She looked down at him, wiped the tears from her cheeks after realizing that he wasn't going to take the news and react badly and nodded.

'I'm really serious, Tommy.' she looked up, now on her feet again. 'I haven't been feeling great lately and it wasn't going away so I went to a clinic...You mean you're fine with this? I just..I just wasn't sure since we've only been together for such a short time.'

[magic-fratboy.livejournal.com]

"Zee...baby, baby, baby, this ain't just here and now! This is like...a hundred years in the making!" he beamed, framing her face between his hands as he bent to kiss her. "My ex and I couldn't have kids, and I wanted 'em so badly. And for the record? I married her after I only knew her for a couple of weeks, so just..."

He trailed off, rubbing his chest absently as the ache began to fade with the upswing in her mood. "Zee...what did you think I was gonna do? How did...how'd you think I was gonna react?"

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

Zee swallowed back the last of her worries and displayed a small smile in hearing his happiness unravel. She'd spent so much time worrying when in fact it was the one thing that she'd been subconsciously wanting since Cinzia brought the last package from her mother over.

Then his questions forced her to feel foolish. She knew deep down that Tommy would accept it, and be completely involved. It wasn't in him to run, or even push the life altering event away.

'I don't know. Part of me was scared you'd be freaked--that you'd think things were happening way too fast and just not be able to handle it.' she whispered, almost ashamed to admit her worries.

[magic-fratboy.livejournal.com]

He would have been more upset, but he had too much to celebrate right then. Grinning, he leaned in and kissed her warmly, holding her close as he drew back to rest his forehead against hers.

"Idiot." he teased affectionately, pulling her in to hug her warmly. "I hope it's a girl. With your smile. A little girl who looks just like you."

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

Zee slid her hands around to his back and embraced him warmly, finally feeling a flutter of her own excitement build and a smile spread against his lips.

'I know.' she sighed. 'I haven't had time to think about it really? But I think a daddy's girl would really make me happy.' moving to cup his face while stealing another kiss and hugging him as hard as she could.

[magic-fratboy.livejournal.com]

Every orphanage he'd ever visited, every show he'd ever done with children in the audience, gazing up at him in wonder...and now he was finally going to have one of his own. He'd waited two lifetimes, but he was finally going to have a child of his own.

"So...how far along are you?" he asked, drawing back to grin down at her. "When can we find out the sex? A nursery...we'll turn the guest room into a nursery. I gotta call my folks, tell 'em they're gonna be grandparents...God, there's so much to do! I can't wait!..."

[zee-ali.livejournal.com]

More and more she felt herself get filled with his infectious excitement and chuckled at his ever so adorable babble in getting ready for their child.

'About 7-8 weeks? He gave me a paper with an appointment to go in for something called a sonogram? I have no idea, but he said they would be able to tell for sure then and answer any other questions we have.' she looked up, smirking. Okay he was just being way too cute.

But a wave of nervousness hit her at the mention of his parents, and she looked at him with a playful cringe.

'How will they take the news? I mean they haven't even met me yet, and your mom? Well I'm not exactly the poster child for the perfection that mothers see their sons with...'