Missing [ST]

Ninety Nine

*Mature Content*

April: Four Months Later

"How about Luca? Levi?" Steven looked up from his phone, the same hope of approval dancing in his eyes.

Leah sighed in frustration for what must've been the hundredth time, and for the same reason; a bombardment of baby names.

"Levi? No, no. Let's stay away from names beginning with L, because all our initials will be the same."

It must've been the wrong response judging by the little smile creeping onto her boyfriend's face, and the delay when he pocketed his phone again, was not an enjoyable one.

"So not only have you secretly been thinking about names for our boy, but you want to be a Tyler too?"

"No, and no. It's not a boy."

Given the silence, and lingering marriage implications, Leah faced the piano properly, and flicked to the Magnetic Rag in her Joplin book.

"Tallarico then? And I think we are. The doctor almost let it slip."

Leah's fingers made an unwanted chromatic, barely making the first line of music. She had just wanted to play the piano in peace, not minding if Steven was there to listen, but talking about baby names and dropping endless hints of a proposal were getting on her nerves.

As for the doctors 'slippage', it wasn't anything like it. Before the latest ultrasound appointment, which marked the pregnancy halfway point at twenty weeks, they had decided not to find out the sex so it would be a surprise when the baby was born. But, according to Steven, he was adamant the doctor started saying a 'b' for boy despite the word being the beat of the heart, and that they'd already told the doctor straight away that the sex was to remain anonymous.

Still, it didn't stop Steven squinting at the printed image that had been pinned proudly on the fridge when they got home and declaring he had found a penis within the baby's outline.

At most, it was a tiny finger in an awkward place, just like how they could see other anatomical features, and the beautiful scan of growing life showed that he or she was a perfectly healthy baby, and would be welcomed to the world in just under four months time.

"Okay fine, marriage can wait, but I am certain that the baby is a-"

"Do you not want a girl?" Leah interrupted, reaching the end of her tether with the one-sided boy name suggestions. "Because you know you decided that, not me, so you're only allowed to be disappointed in yourself if it's a girl."

Big brown eyes stared back at her.

"Can you just quit it? Please? Because you're actually driving me a bit insane."

Dismissing him with her elbows mashed on the piano keys, Leah massaged head in her hands. An array of notes sounded if she moved a fraction, but she didn't care. And when Steven sat down next to her on the seat, an awkward perch on the edge so his thigh was pressed right up against hers, his usual comforting presence was distant.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah." Leah almost laughed it out. "You should be."

She sat up properly, scooching over so it was comfortable for both of them, because she didn't have physical strength to push him off. If she did, she would probably be carefully pulled down with him, tickled to forget about their petty arguing, and with a possibility of it ending up with sex, which come to think of it, wasn't a bad alternative.

"I just have a strong feeling it's a boy."

Leah looked down at the hand that carefully moved to touch her small bump. A gesture that reminded her there had been no kicks yet, at least that she was truly sure matched the descriptions she had been told.