"Okay."
"And I need you to not panic."
"That's not a promising start."
She almost smiled. Almost. "I know. I'm sorry. I just..." She took a deep breath. "I've been feeling off. Tired, nauseous, just... wrong. I thought it was stress. The situation, the sessions, everything that's been happening."
"That would make sense."
"It would. Except..." She pulled her hand from mine and pressed it against her stomach. "I'm late. My period. I'm never late."
The words hit me like a physical blow. Late. Never late. The implications crashed through my brain in a cascade of realizations.
"How late?"
"A week. Almost two."
"Have you..."
"I took a test this morning. While you were on the phone with Kirill." She finally looked at me, and her eyes were bright with tears she was fighting to hold back. "It was positive."
Positive.
The word hung in the air between us, impossibly heavy. I couldn't speak. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but stare at her while my brain tried to process what she was telling me.
A baby. Keira was pregnant. With my child.
"Rodion?" Her voice was small, uncertain. "Say something. Please."
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My mind was a hurricane of emotions I couldn't untangle—fear, wonder, protectiveness, something that might have been joy if it wasn't so tangled up with terror.
A baby. In the middle of a war. With enemies circling, waiting to strike. The timing couldn't possibly be worse.
But beneath the fear, something else was rising. Something warm and fierce and utterly unexpected.
"You're pregnant," I finally managed.
"Yes."
"With my baby."
"That's generally how it works." A ghost of her usual sharpness, buried under layers of anxiety.
"Keira." I took her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me. Her eyes were wide, scared, searching mine for a reaction she couldn't predict. "This is... I don't..."
"I know the timing is terrible. I know it complicates everything. I know—"
I kissed her. Cut off her words with my mouth, poured everything I couldn't say into the contact. When I finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard.
"I'm not upset," I said. "I'm... I don't know what I am. Terrified. Overwhelmed. But not upset."
"Really?"
"Really." I pressed my forehead against hers. "A baby, Keira. Our baby. I never thought..." I stopped, swallowed hard. "I never thought I'd have this. Any of this. And now..."
"Now we have to figure out how to keep it safe." Her voice was steadier now, the therapist in her reasserting control. "The timing is dangerous. If Cormac or the Petrovics find out I'm pregnant—"
"They won't find out. No one will know except us. Not until the threat is neutralized."
