What Goes Around, Comes Around

Expecting

Fourteen hours. That was how much sleep he'd gotten in total during the grueling, one week assignment. Rubbing his eyes, Alex unlocked the door and entered the house, dropping his bags to the floor with a thud. Soft footsteps approached the foyer and he grinned as his wife, Audrey, came into view. It quickly turned into a frown as he noted the dark circles, worse than his own, under her eyes.

"Late night, honey?" Alex asked as his wife gave him a kiss on the cheek. They had learned long ago to avoid hugging right after a mission, just in case there were injuries to aggravate, but it felt nice to have someone to come home to again. Ever since Jack died, he had been alone. Until the day he met his wife.

"No," Audrey hummed. "I've just been feeling really tired lately, no matter how much I sleep."

Alex's frown deepened, wrapping an arm around her waist as they walked to the kitchen. "Are you coming down with a cold or something? Do you need a doctor? Or Snake to come take a look at you?"

She shook her head, reaching for a jar of pickles. "No, I'm sure everything's fine. Probably just need some extra rest from the couple of overtime shifts I picked up at the hospital a few days ago."

He hummed noncommittally. Something was off but he couldn't pinpoint it right now. Not as tired as he was. "Maybe you should get some more sleep then," he suggested. "I need some shut-eye too. Come to bed with me?"

His wife laughed, swatting his arm lightly. "It's the middle of the day! Not everyone can sleep with the sun still shining. Besides, I've got some errands to run. Do you have any injuries?"

"Not this time," Alex replied casually. "Can't say the same for the other guy though."

Smiling, Audrey finally gave him a tight hug. "I'll wake you for dinner then?"

"Sure," Alex replied, letting her go as he headed towards their bedroom. Rifling through his drawers to grab a fresh set of clothes, he heard the front door open and close as his wife left the house. Fifteen minutes later, he was showered and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

True to her word, Alex was woken at dinnertime. They had a nice and quiet meal of pasta and salad, just enjoying each other's company. Because of Audrey's hectic schedule at the hospital and Alex's adrenaline-filled missions that he got called in for at the drop of a hat, it was moments like these that they treasured most. The knowledge that they were both safe, with nothing to worry about for the time being. Peace was hard to come by in their lives and they cherished it whenever they could.

"Go and relax," Alex said when they finished eating. "I'll wash the dishes."

"Are you sure?" Audrey asked. "You've just gotten off a mission. If anyone needs rest, it's you."

"Yes, I'm sure," Alex insisted, smiling and making shooing gestures.

Shrugging, his wife went to the living room, curling up on the sofa to read a book. However, a few minutes later, Alex was staring at her with wide eyes as she screamed at him for being so loud and disruptive with the clanging of the pot he was washing. Eyes darting around, he searched for an escape, only to catch sight of the jar of pickles. Now that he was more awake, his brain was functioning enough to make a few connections. The fact that his wife had never liked pickles, for one. She only needed a single night of sleep to recover from overtime shifts, for another. And she was rarely ever this emotionally volatile, even when she was on her period. That checked the boxes of strange cravings, tiredness, and mood swings. All of them unusual and sudden.

On a hunch, Alex inched towards the jar of pickles and presented it to his wife. The effect was instantaneous. Audrey calmed down mid-rant and opened the jar in delight, wandering off back to the living room. Yep, definitely cravings and mood swings. Breathing a sigh of relief, Alex continued washing the pot, more carefully now to reduce the sound. The more he thought about it as he finished up the washing, the more he suspected that his wife was pregnant. If she was... Well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. He was just thankful that the rest of the night passed without incident.

The next morning, Alex woke to the sound of Audrey retching into the sink. He sighed. His suspicion was getting more and more likely. Getting up, he padded over to the bathroom and held her hair, rubbing her back comfortingly as she continued retching.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked when she was done.

Audrey nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's been happening for a few days though so I'm thinking of seeing a doctor."

Alex was silent. Then, he said carefully, "Do you think you could be pregnant?"

She opened her mouth to refute the thought but paused with a frown, thinking over the past month. "That... might be possible. I didn't realize before but the signs are there."

Two hours later, they had finished breakfast and Alex returned from the pharmacy with a pregnancy test for his wife. He paced their spacious bedroom floor as he waited for Audrey to come out of the bathroom with the results. What would he do if the test came back positive? They were both so young. And too many complications came with his job. A child wasn't feasible. It wasn't safe. Did he want a child? Did Audrey? Could they even manage everything that - ?

The bathroom door opened slowly, cutting off Alex's thoughts. He turned sharply towards his wife. Her smile told him everything he needed to know. "Fuck," he groaned before she had even said anything. Before his reaction had even filtered through his brain.

Her smile instantly fell, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Turning away from him, Audrey asked shakily, "Do you hate it that much?"

"No!" Alex hurriedly backtracked. He ran a hand through his hair. Exhaling loudly, he walked over to his wife and carefully wrapped his arms around her from behind. "No, I don't hate it. I just... I  don't know what to think."

"What do you mean?" Audrey asked stiffly, trying to shrug him off.

Alex sighed again, tightening his hug. "We never prepared for this," he murmured into her hair. "Money is obviously no problem. But are we too young for this? I'm only 25. You're 23 and just starting your career. And our schedules..."

This time, Audrey sighed with a nod. She turned around to face him. After a few seconds of silence, she said thoughtfully, "I'll obviously have to go on maternity leave. My boss won't be thrilled but if the hospital gives me too much of a hassle over this, I could always find a job at another place. Maybe a clinic so the hours are more stable. Or maybe St. Dominic's would hire me. As for our age... Are you worried about our maturity to handle having a child?"

Alex shook his head, leading them towards the bed to sit down. "With our backgrounds and responsibilities, maturity is no issue. But maybe, because of the responsibilities we already have, adding a child into the mix isn't such a good idea."

"Hmm... I think we'll be fine. We're not alone, you know. Even though I've got younger siblings to take care of, they're still old enough to help out with our child. And you've got K-unit and their families that we could call on for help too."

"That's true," Alex admitted. "And it's not like they haven't asked me to take care of their families when they're on assignment." He paused and ran a hand through his hair again. "What about security though? I've got too many enemies. Our child will be completely defenseless until he or she is old enough to start learning survival skills. And you'll be even more vulnerable as long as our child exists."

Audrey was silent. Resignedly, she suggested, "You could train me in some self- defense. And I suppose I'll finally allow Jones to assign some bodyguards for the first few years."

"That'll make her happy," Alex muttered. "And I'll have to talk to Smithers about more security features on the house and cars. Maybe a lockdown mode would be good. Maybe he'll have some ideas on how to baby proof the house while still giving me access to weapons too."

He continued mumbling to himself about the security until his wife kissed him so he would stop talking. From there, they ended up laughing and tickling each other until they were out of breath. Laying with her head on his chest, they let their thoughts wander as they enjoyed the peaceful moment.

"... You know I've never had parents to set an example. Whatever I do know of parenting came from an absent uncle and an assassin who killed that uncle and only spared me because I was his mentor's son. What if I mess up?"

"You won't," Audrey reassured him earnestly with a confident smile, sitting up so they could talk face to face. "Because, despite everything you've been through, there is still love and kindness in your heart. And you may not have had parents of your own, but you've seen plenty of things in your life. You've seen what the Pleasures are like as parents. You've seen how Wolf's family interacts with each other. Those are good examples to follow. And, at the very least, the bad examples you've had will tell you what not to do. Look at the Friend family. Just from that example, you know not to spoil kids too much and not to substitute material things for quality time. And you've already done so well with helping me look after my siblings. The kids from K-unit's families absolutely love you too. Honestly, I think you'll make an amazing father."

"Thanks," Alex said, averting his eyes as he felt his cheeks heat up.

"No, seriously," Audrey insisted, gently turning his head so that he was looking into her eyes again. "You'll be great. Our child will be so lucky to have you as a daddy. If our child turns out to be anything like you, we'll know that we've raised him, or her, right."

Alex looked at his wife in horror at the last bit, shooting up into a sitting position. "Oh hell no! It's going to be an absolute disaster of a nightmare if our child ends up like me!"

"Well, not the whole espionage thing but - "

"No, no, no," Alex said, shaking his head repeatedly. "Audrey, you don't understand! I accidentally made the microwave explode five times and purposely made it explode as an experiment another three times before I was ten!"

"You were a child. I'm sure - "

"I booby trapped the whole house as a prank when I was twelve! And jumped out of a window on the fifteenth floor just because I was curious! I accidentally dropped a drug dealer's barge onto a police  conference! Do you understand how much of a headache we'll be dealing with if our child turns out like me?! Jack was always sick with worry from all the stuff I managed to get involved in!"

"You were trained to be - "

"You don't think I'm going to have to train our child to some extent? Our child is going to need it just to survive bearing the Rider name!"

He was nearly hyperventilating now. Just thinking about the amount of trouble his child could get themselves into was giving him a migraine. Ian had practically encouraged his childhood antics. Probably because it helped in his training. But Jack was a saint to have put up with everything, before and after MI6's meddling, and still stayed with him even though it led right to her death. No, he wouldn't think about Cairo. But how he wished she was still here. If she could see him now, she'd probably joke that it was karma coming back to bite him for all the hell he raised when he was younger. Trouble that she often ended up dealing with the aftermath of.

"Hey, it's okay," Audrey said softly, rubbing his back and hugging him. Once he had calmed down, she continued talking. "We'll do whatever needs to be done to keep our child safe but out of the intelligence world. If our child gets into an unholy amount of trouble, I'll know who to blame for those genes, but we'll deal with it together. And we can always call in the cavalry. Whoever gets named godfather and godmother are definitely helping out."

Alex smiled at the playful tones in the last half of her spiel before murmuring, "Wolf and Yassen for godfathers. You can choose the godmother."

"Wolf and Yassen?" she echoed in amusement, raising a slightly concerned eyebrow.

"What? They're good choices," Alex said defensively.

"A soldier with borderline anger management issues and one of the world's most feared assassins are good choices?" Audrey questioned, shaking with the effort of suppressing her laughter.

"... Well, not if you put it that way," Alex admitted. "But they are for security purposes."

Audrey's smile faded. She had only been messing with her husband. She knew those two were good choices. Seemingly not for the same reasons that Alex was thinking of though. "What do you mean?"

Alex bit his nails, deciding how to explain it to her. Sighing, he said seriously, "If the worst happens to us, our child will need someone who has enough influence and connections on the right side of the law to provide protection from whichever of my enemies might decide to go after them. It would also provide a good cover of being a typical military brat which will draw less attention than putting our child under Ben's care. And unless our child chooses to go into military or intelligence, then hopefully, that will be the closest they'll be to espionage."

Staring at him, Audrey tried to figure out how her husband had meticulously planned so far ahead already. "And Yassen?"

Alex grimaced. "Basically the same logic but protecting against the intelligence agencies as well if they decide to do to our child what they did to me. I'm not making the same mistake my parents and Ian made on that front. The downside is that our child won't have a choice but to get involved in espionage and assassination. Then again, our child won't have a choice anyways if it comes down to Yassen taking custody because the intelligence agencies will force service to the country. The difference is that our child will have a better chance at survival with Yassen than the governments."

Audrey nodded in bleak understanding. As much as she wished that they didn't need that line of defense, she knew it was a very likely possibility. She only had to look at Alex to know that authorities didn't necessarily mean what was right. Or even what was humane. After a long silence, she decided to lighten the mood. "So... how are you going to break the news to them?"

Alex stared at her. Then, he moaned. "They are so going to kill me for this."

Laughing, Audrey tossed the phone to him and practically skipped out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Alex just stared at the device, trying to decide which person to call first. He ended up tossing a coin for it.

Half an hour later, Alex had been thoroughly cursed out, nearly grounded until he reminded the other person that he was a married man now instead of the fourteen year old boy at the beginning of their acquaintance, and treated to a despairing monologue that mimicked his own emotional breakdown in listing his past antics. Once the other man had calmed, Alex repeated his question. A gruff acceptance of the new role was given. Then, Alex informed the man of the second godfather and a brief rundown of the contingency plans associated with that. They argued over the identity of the second godfather for three quarters of an hour before the man snarled his acceptance of that and promptly hung up on him.

The second phone call was much shorter and very different from the first. Instead of shouting, there was dead silence on the other end when he delivered his news, including the parts about the identity of the first godfather and the contingency plans. Alex waited nervously for a response. Just when he was about to plead for the other man to say something, he heard a quiet "thank you" before the dial tone sounded.

Running a hand through his hair, he exhaled loudly and face planted onto the bed, glad that the matter of the godfathers was settled. Now, all he had to do was inform Tom, the rest of K-unit, the Prime Minister, Mrs. Jones, Joe, and a whole host of other military and intelligence officials. Joy.