Unplanned Pregnancy (T)
Lexa stretched as she pushed her car door closed. Her fingers toyed with the new coffee stains on her collar, little brown dots that littered all the way to her tie. With a long sigh, she loosened the garment and smashed her low-battery car key until her truck beeped in success.
With three kids in college and one on the way to a scholarship, Lexa worked as many shifts as she could.
Late afternoon light reflected on Raven’s bright red EV in front of their garage. Lexa squinted her eyes, trying to remember if Clarke had invited them to dinner, but it could be the two omegas simply catching up. She climbed the steps to the garage door with a light bounce, her gun holder clicking against her belt at each step.
A frown crossed her face when she entered the kitchen. The house was silent beside light sniffing, and Lexa went into alert mode, walking into the living room before taking off her uniform or gun. The alpha bristled at the scene, going to Clarke and Lumi first.
Clarke held their daughter to her chest, tears trailing down their faces. Raven finished a call with a sharp order to “come over, it’s important” and turned to Lexa with red eyes.
Cold ran down Lexa’s spine, her hand on Clarke’s shoulder. “Where’s Anya?”
“She’s coming. And she’s fine,” Raven answered. “That’s not the situation here.”
“Situation? Clarke?” Lexa asked, looking between the omega trio and settling on her wife.
Clarke disentangled from the embrace, cupping Lumi’s cheek to give her a soft peck on her splotchy, red skin. “Hey,” she said to Lexa in a calm tone, which helped Lexa relax.
“What’s going on?” Lexa sat next to her wife and daughter, trying to meet Lumi’s eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s going to hate me,” Lumi exhaled in a ragged whisper, more tears spilling from eyes that matched Lexa’s.
“Who’s going to hate you?” Her patience running thin, Lexa raised her voice.
A firm grasp on her forearm was the message to control her tone. Lexa looked at Clarke in complete loss, unsure of why she was being chastised.
Raven watched the scene with a sad smile.
Clarke murmured something to Lumi, but the teenager shook her head, biting her lip. With a sigh, and a hand holding tight on Lexa’s forearm, Clarke spoke with a longing finality,
“Lumi’s pregnant.”
It didn’t do it at first. It didn’t click in Lexa’s mind that their youngest, their little protégé, their only omega, their sweet girl, her baby, her pup … was pregnant.
When Lexa tried to speak, it was an indignant squeak. She stood, shaking off Clarke’s hand. One look at Raven and realization sank in: Lumi’s girlfriend, Hannah.
The front door slammed open along with the sound of laughter, and Lexa’s nose caught the potent scent of alpha. Mother and daughter.
“Hey guys,” Anya greeted the crowd with both arms full of groceries. “What’s the emergency that couldn’t wait for groceries?”
“Or a shower,” Hannah said. Covered in sweat from soccer practice, Hannah strolled into the room with a young alpha confidence, all cocky grins and swag. Her dirty blonde hair, the same shade as her mother’s, contrasted well with her amber eyes.
It surprised Lexa when Hannah was the first to react to the heavy fog of distressed hormones in the room, her teen smile dropping. Her eyes searched for Lumi on the couch and Lexa snarled.
That was when Anya realized something was wrong.
Lexa focused on the eyes, the smirk, the alpha, and red took her vision.
She ignored Clarke’s shout or Raven’s gasp as she launched forward, fist aimed at a high cheekbone. There was a dry, loud crack at the contact.
Anya dropped the bags at the sudden blow, but Lexa was faster, and a second punch found Anya’s face before she could take a step back.
Hannah didn’t interfere, in a similar shock to the flabbergasted Lumi on the couch as they watched the scene unfold with open mouths as their mothers rolled onto the living room carpet.
With Lexa being more rage than technique, Anya rolled them to get the upper hand, though not without another blow to her stomach.
A broken chair and shattered vase later, Clarke disentangled the alphas, draped on Lexa’s back to hold her arms.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Anya exclaimed with a bloody nose. Raven, unimpressed, went by her side with a frozen peas bag.
“With me?” Lexa snarled again.
Clarke tightened her hold before Lexa could surge forward for another attack.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” Lexa shouted, her braid falling messily around her face. “Can’t you fucking teach your daughter how to use a condom?!”
“I—what?” Anya winced when Raven coaxed the cold package against her face, though her expression was pure confusion.
The alphas turned to look at the couch, where Lumi had been crying again, and Hannah held her with the same confused frown that was between Anya’s brows.
Lexa slumped against Clarke, who released her with a light shove. “That was uncalled for,” Clarke hissed at her mate.
Raven and Anya shared a two phrase conversation, Anya’s eyebrow shooting to her hairline and then down again in a frown.
“I’m sorry,” Anya said, and when she looked at her daughter, Hannah’s eyes were full of tears. “I’m sorry, Lexa,” she repeated after a long pause.
A sharp elbow in her gut forced Lexa’s next words out. “I’m sorry too. I flipped. With Serah and the boys in college, and Lumi’s track scholars—” Another hard elbow and Lexa shut up.
“Now is not the time to fight,” Clarke said in a tone lower than Lumi was used to listening to her mother.
“How far along?” Anya had not looked at her daughter again, instead holding the frozen peas to her bloody nose while asking directly to Clarke.
“Ten weeks.”
Anya gulped, cursing under her breath. “We need to talk.” Anya put the bloodied peas down, eyes first on Raven, then on Lexa. “We have the beach house, and I can join Indra’s task force again.”
“She’s under our insurance, and we will update it,” Clarke added, two fingers massaging her temple. She had her migraine face.
“Mom.” Hannah’s voice was unsure and cracked when the four adults in the room looked at her. “I can help. Instead of going to college this fall—”
“You’re going to college,” Raven interrupted firmly. “That’s out of the question.”
“Did you mate?” The teenage couple shook their heads at Lexa’s dry question.
“So they can be separated,” Raven completed for Lexa. Hannah tightened her arm around Lumi.
“I don’t want to leave.” Hannah dared once more, and Raven’s teary eyes burned with constricted fury.
“I pulled in favors I cannot do again to get that shot at your scholarship,” Raven warned. “And you delivered. You’re eighteen. You will go to college.”
Anya’s nose started bleeding again, and Clarke walked her to the closest bathroom.
“Let’s talk tomorrow. I need a scotch.” Lexa didn’t wait to see anyone’s reaction and, hand tight around her gun, walked to the kitchen.
“Hey.” Raven kneeled in front of the couch looking at her daughter and goddaughter. Raven rested one hand on Hannah’s knee and another on Lumi’s. “We will figure things out. You both will study, and we all can help with the baby.”
“Mom, is it ok if I stay here tonight?” Hannah had a hand over Lumi’s shoulder and the younger omega had her face buried into her neck for comfort.
“Don’t even think about it,” Lexa replied while reentering the living room, a full glass in her hand. “That was what got us in this mess.”
“We used condoms…” Hannah said weakly, eyes low under Lexa’s burning gaze.
“She’s sixteen,” Lexa spat back, pheromones escalating.
“Lexa!” Clarke called from the hallway at seeing her mate staring down the terrified young alpha.
“No Clarke, there’s no excuse for this.” Lexa turned and didn’t notice when Lumi started crying again.
“Lex.” Raven stood up, resting a calming hand on Lexa’s shoulder. “Anya and I will stop by after work so we can talk.”
Anya emerged from the bathroom with a tampon stuck in her nose and didn’t meet anyone’s eyes. Hannah’s first tears rolled down at the clear shame in Anya’s posture.
“We’ll talk numbers tomorrow.” Anya opened the front door, leaving the groceries behind. Raven touched Clarke’s shoulder and walked behind Anya, and, hesitantly, Hannah followed her parents.
After the door closed behind Hannah, Lumi failed to swallow a sob and ran upstairs to her bedroom.
“Lexa.”
Lexa cursed at Clarke’s tone.
“I did what I had to,” Lexa defended herself before the accusation.
“You broke Anya’s nose.”
“I doubt it. She’s fine.” Shame crept into Lexa’s cheeks, but she wouldn’t give in. At least not yet.
“You’re going to have to deal with this, Lexa. There’s no punching your way out of this. Lumi wants to keep it, and we will respect her choice.” Clarke touched Lexa’s tense shoulder, her fingers digging into the muscle. “She needs you right now.”
“I… I know.” She touched her mate’s hand.
“So get it together,” a teasing smile made its way to Clarke’s face, “grandma.”
Lexa felt warmth in her cheeks and grunted under her breath. “Too soon.”
“You have a few months to get used to it.”
“I’m not sure if I ever will.”
Lexa waltzed between the living room and kitchen with precision and speed, the toddler on her hip not slowing her for a single second.
“Aden, do you call those balloons? You can do better than that,” she told her son, who raised an eyebrow and continued to blow into colorful balloons. “This arch better be ready by the time the guests are here.”
“He’s turning one.” Jake walked from the garage carrying folded chairs, a chuckle escaping his thin beard. “He won’t remember the balloon arch.”
“But I will!” Lexa called as the front door opened. “Oh, your momma is here,” Lexa whispered to her grandson, watching his light brown eyes sparkle as Hannah walked in, her cadet uniform crumpled. “Say hi to momma.”
“Hey.” Hannah kissed the top of her son’s head, her arms loaded with party supplies. “Where do I put all of this?”
“Octavia and your mom are outside next to the pool,” Lexa instructed as JJ found her watch more interesting than the pacifier hanging around his neck. “I’ll go check the cake.”
“Did Clarke bake it?” Hannah asked on her way to the backyard.
“Lumi helped.” At Hannah’s grimace, Lexa amended, “she’s just helping with the icing. Don’t worry.”
An excited shriek erupted from Lexa’s chest as JJ saw his mom and other grandma in the kitchen. Or it could have been the cake; the kid was known for his appetite. Unsurprisingly, considering the mix of Lexa and Anya’s genes.
“Ma-ma-ma-ma!” he babbled, pudgy hands in the air toward Lumi. Her icing-smudged cheeks broke into a smile.
“How’s the icing going?” Lexa asked while Lumi continued the somewhat smudged yellow icing.
“Surprisingly good.” Lumi leaned up so she could reach JJ’s cheeks for a kiss. “Mom went upstairs, though. Asked me to tell you to go after her.”
Lexa frowned and passed JJ to Lumi. “Is something wrong?”
Lumi shrugged, one arm around her pup and the other back on the icing.
“I’ll be right back,” Lexa said and made her way upstairs to her bedroom.
Clarke’s ponytail was skewed as she sat on the bed, staring at her phone as if it had offended her ancestors.
“Hey.” Clarke jumped at Lexa’s proximity, but then closed her eyes as her mate hugged her from behind. “You smell like baby powder,” Lexa whispered and nuzzled the fair hairs on Clarke’s nape. “What’s up?”
Clarke closed her eyes for a moment and held Lexa’s hand. “We need to talk.”
“Is something wrong?”
“I’m 45, Lexa.”
“Yeah. And?” Lexa dove into the soft skin of Clarke’s neck again.
“And you’re 48.”
“I’m aware of the inevitability of time, Clarke,” Lexa whispered under her ear. “And JJ is one now. Everyone has a number.”
“Lexa, I’m serious.”
Lexa lifted her head to actually see her mate: with red-rimmed eyes, Clarke bit her lip.
“What’s wrong?”
“Probably. At least very risky, and I’m not sure we can pull it off this time, not to mention—”
Lexa turned to face Clarke, kissing her knuckles to stop the spiraling. That was unusual for Clarke. She almost never rambled. Her MO was to analyze, compartmentalize, get a to-do list.
“Clarke. What’s going on?”
Endless scenarios went through Lexa’s head: Clarke was sick; something happened to the kids; the kids were sick; Clarke’s mom was sick. They all involved someone terminally ill.
Clarke wiped a tear away, the small wrinkles next to her eyes folding in her grimace.
“Does Liam need to be bailed out again? I told Serah—”
“None of the kids were arrested,” Clarke chuckled wetly. “But it’s about the kids.”
“If any of the girls are pregnant again, I will castra—”
“The girls are not pregnant!” Clarke took a deep breath, a tear rolling down and hanging by a thread as she avoided Lexa’s eyes. She blinked it away and looked at her mate. “I am.”
“You’re what?”
“Pregnant.”
“What now?”
Lexa knew the meaning of the word. After four pups, she was naturally familiar with the entire concept.
“You’re 45,” Lexa argued, inherently confused. “You barely get your heats any—”
Oh. Not as frequently, not as intense, but definitely still happening.
Like three months ago, when Lumi and Hannah surprised Lexa and Clarke with a weekend getaway for their anniversary.
“We stopped using protection years ago.” Lexa’s voice was faint. “You said—”
“Don’t you dare turn this on me!” Clarke said with a bite to her tone, and PTSD flashbacks of pregnant-Clarke-moods flashed in Lexa’s mind. “You were the one knotting!”
“You were in heat! You’re my mate!”
“This one is on you.”
“You always say that!”
“And it’s always true—why are you smiling?”
Despite the heat of the argument, Lexa could not stop the grin splitting her face.
“When did you find out?”
“I thought it was menopause,” Clarke breathed, showing her phone with the positive test result. “Or hepatitis.”
“Little hepatitis,” Lexa whispered to Clarke’s stomach. “Are you okay?”
“No sign of red flags. We can do the genetic testing for more details. If… if we’re keeping it.”
The grin withers in Lexa’s face. “What do you want?”
“I… I didn’t plan this.” Clarke threaded a hand through her ponytail and pulled her curls free. White streaked her blonde hair, and Lexa knew her own braid was the same. “I’m exhausted just thinking about it. But then…” She leaned down to place her forehead on Lexa’s shoulder. “Then I see you with JJ, and it makes me want to cry.” She sniffled quietly, and Lexa kissed her forehead.
“I could get a van again,” Lexa offered, heart beating fast in her chest. “And we already have one baby in the house. It will be like with the boys.”
Clarke groaned. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Should we tell people?”
“Not yet.” Clarke leaned back to kiss Lexa’s cheek. “It’s too risky. Let’s wait.”
“Okay. Whatever you want to do.” With a small push, Lexa laid down on the bed and pulled Clarke on top of her.
The party drifted from downstairs: jingles of children’s songs, laughter, the random balloon pop.
“We should get back.” Clarke tried to lift her head, but Lexa gently coaxed her down.
“Not yet,” Lexa whispered. “Let’s stay here a while. Just us.”
Clarke’s entire body relaxed against her mate.
“Just the three of us.”