Brain kissed Aspen’s temple after Annie and Chance walked away. “You’re amazing,” he told her.
Aspen shrugged. “It’s not going to be easy for her. I know that firsthand. But I truly believe she can succeed. She’ll need to be tough and remember that people are on her side. Because when you’re being yelled at, told that you’ll never make it because you’re female, you need all the encouragement you can get.”
“She’s gonna make it,” Brain said with confidence. “From everything I’ve heard about her from Fletch and everyone on his team, once she puts her mind to something, she does it. Including getting engaged to her Frankie, just like she always said she’d do.”
“Yup. And damn if she hasn’t stayed one hundred percent faithful to him, even all these years later,” Aspen added. “You think they’ll last? College can really change people. Not to mention the fact that she wants to join the Army. It will test them.”
Brain turned her around and cuddled her from behind. He rested his chin on her shoulder as they watched their son and the young woman in question on the obstacle course. “You know what? I think they will. When you meet the person for you, sometimes you just know it deep down inside. I think that’s what happened with them.”
“And us,” she said.
“And us,” Brain agreed.
“I think if anyone can do it, Annie can,” Aspen said after a moment. “She’s mature and has had the best examples of how good relationships work with her parents and everyone on her dad’s team. I’m rooting for her and her young man.”
“Me too,” Brain said.
“I love you,” Aspen told him.
“No more than I love you,” Brain returned.
Eight Years Later
Trigger was nervous. He and Gillian had been disappointed so many times. He felt like a failure for not being able to give his wife the one thing she wanted most in the world.
When they’d first been married, neither had wanted kids, happy and content to enjoy each other. Four years ago, they’d both agreed that it was time.
But it hadn’t happened.
At first, racing home to make love to his wife while she was ovulating had been fun. Exciting. Naughty. But when month after month passed, and she still hadn’t gotten pregnant, they’d started to get worried.
Now it was four long years later, and Trigger was worried it was too late. He knew there were other ways they could have children…adoption, fostering, even surrogacy, if it came down to it…but Gillian desperately wanted to have biological children.
They’d both been tested, and the doctors had said it was unlikely Gillian would conceive naturally. That’s when the trips to the fertility clinics had started. And every time an insemination procedure failed, Trigger watched his wife’s world collapse a little bit more.
They’d both agreed this would be their last attempt. Trigger couldn’t keep watching his wife go through the hopefulness of being artificially inseminated, then the agonizing disappointment when the embryos weren’t viable.
Today, they’d find out if the latest, and final, procedure had worked. If any of the implanted eggs had taken.
“Breathe, Di,” Trigger said.
Gillian was holding his hand so tightly, her fingers were white around his own.
She inhaled sharply and nodded. They were in a small waiting room at the fertility clinic. There were cheerful flowers painted on the walls and photos of smiling babies and children in frames. The last time they’d been told the procedure had failed, Trigger felt like those pictures were a painful slap in the face.
“If I’m not pregnant, it’s okay,” Gillian said softly, looking up at him. “I’m okay with it just being us for the rest of our lives. I love you, and I know I’ve been blessed. I have amazing friends, and an even better husband.”
Fuck, Trigger loved her so much. He ached to give her the baby she’d wanted for so many years. “I love you too,” he said softly. He couldn’t say anything else. He was too nervous. Too worked up. Too scared of the disappointment he had a feeling was coming. Gillian would put on a brave face, pretending she wasn’t absolutely devastated. The one thing Trigger hated most in the world was seeing his wife hurting.
The door pushed open and their doctor walked in. Trigger examined her face, trying to see some clue as to what the pregnancy test had shown, but her expression was completely neutral.
“How are you both today?”
“We’re okay,” Gillian said. “How’re you?”
“I’m good. Thanks.”
Trigger clenched his teeth. He just needed this to be done. Needed to know one way or another.
“I won’t keep you in suspense,” the doctor said. “I know this has been a long, hard road for you both. There’s never any guarantees with artificial insemination, and the body’s a strange and wonderful thing. As you know, we implanted five eggs, as we have every time with the hopes that one would become viable.”
Trigger held his breath and felt Gillian squeeze his fingers even harder. He felt as if he were in a long tunnel, watching the doctor from the far end. Her voice seemed to echo around the room and he braced himself to console his wife one last time.
“I double, then triple-checked. As of right now, it looks like two of the eggs are viable. Congratulations—you’re pregnant with twins.”
Trigger’s breath came out with a long, painful whoosh. He stared at the doctor in disbelief.
“What?” Gillian asked, obviously as gobsmacked as he was.
The doctor had a huge smile on her face. “I said, you’re pregnant. It worked! You’ve got not only one child, but two growing inside you.”
“Oh my God…” Gillian whispered.
Trigger’s eyes filled with tears. They’d done it.
“I have to warn you though, you are extremely high risk. You need to take it easy. I’m not comfortable saying both the babies will make it until a few more months pass…but for now, the embryos seem to be right on track.”
Trigger nodded. He’d make sure Gillian took it easy. She wasn’t going to be lifting so much as a finger for the next several months.
He turned to his wife and saw the same look of awe and excitement on her face that he knew was on his own.
She reached up and wiped the tears off his cheeks. “We did it,” she said softly.
Carefully, Trigger took Gillian in his arms and buried his face in the side of her neck. “We did it,” he breathed.
He vaguely heard the door shut quietly behind the doctor, but didn’t move from where he was sitting. Trigger knew he’d have a million questions later, and the shock of having not one, but two babies would hit him, but for now, he needed to hold his wife close.
It had been a long, hard road to get here, as the doctor said. But Trigger couldn’t be happier. He pulled back and put his hands on either side of Gillian’s beautiful face.
“You’ll always be my Wonder Woman,” he told her.
She shook her head, smiling at him. “And you’ll always be my Steve Trevor.”
“Love you, Di,” he told her.
“Love you too.”