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Her fingers twitched, they were doing it again. Allison folded her arms across her chest. It had been going on for fifteen minutes, they bickered like an old married couple, two point four children, Allison’s brain added, bitchily, she had an excellent visual imagination, a little girl with Nathan’s curls, and Jack’s blue eyes, or maybe Nathan’s green eyes and Jack’s dark blond hair.She snapped back to reality, they were still bickering. And suddenly there it was in front of her. So big, and red, and shiny. It had a pretty metallic sheen to it, almost begging her to push it. She could entirely understand why Fargo felt so compelled to touch. What harm could possibly come…An image flickered in her head of blond hair and green eyes.The wave that broke over both of them was sparkly and blue, and just for a second they were both bathed in this gorgeous light.They turned to stare at her, slack jawed in disbelief.Allison touched the fingers of her errant, button-pushing hand to her lips and giggled. Jack Carter had been through a lot of shit since he’d arrived in Eureka as the town sheriff. Occasionally, he liked to remind himself that he had once held a proper job, one where he made a difference, catching felons and protecting witnesses, lately it seemed as though his role was protecting felons, and that was just unacceptable to him.That the biggest barrier to his enforcement of something that looked like the law was the tall, dark, handsome genius that was both the bane of his existence, and his secret crush, did not help in the slightest. So Jack threw himself headlong into flirting with said genius’ ex-wife and bickering, no fighting, with the genius over everything.Denial was not just a river in Egypt.Nathan Stark told himself that Mr Everyman Average just annoyed him beyond endurance, and Nathan’s short fuse, and lack of tolerance for fools was legendary.But Mayberry gave as good as he got, and the bickering, fighting that they did was sometimes the highlight, annoying distraction in Nathan’s day.A wave of blue light hit as Nathan was noticing that Jack’s eyes were really the most incredible shade of cerulean blue, while the Sheriff’s random thought was to wonder whether Nathan’s children would win out the genetic lottery and be as smart as they were gorgeous.The wave hit, for a few seconds those images of children and happy families burned themselves into the brains of both men, and the carefully constructed barriers crumbled. Blue eyes looked into green with something that looked a lot like love. Green eyes went soft and gentle, and far more expressive of emotions than the blue had ever seen them.The spell broke and they turned towards the source.“Allison.” Said Carter. “What did you do?”
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A month since the blue sparkly wave, and they were eyeing each other warily from time to time, but so far nothing had happened. Jack was convinced something was going to come back to bite them both in the ass just because nothing had happened and because this was Eureka where weird things happened every day, but Nathan was skeptical.Nathan watched what he ate and drank, exercised almost obsessively, so the loosening of his belt a notch caused him a flash of anxiety. An anxiety that Jack picked up on. “Hah, so there is something.” Jack’s blue eyes were positively dancing, and that was what brought Nathan up short.Dancing blue eyes… Nathan Stark was not a sentimental man. Not by anyone’s stretch of imagination. Appreciating the beauty of Jack’s eyes, and when had he started thinking of Carter as Jack? At what point had his thoughts become a sequence of Hallmark greetings cards?The device concerned was supposed to measure random probability, which made little useful sense to Nathan, which was why he was so quick to dismiss the old project in the first place. Fargo’s subsequent discovery that the device was about random improbability, sent Nathan straight to the pharmacy.An hour later he requested the Sheriff’s presence in his office.Two hours later, Jack walked into Nathan’s office and stared around. “Stark?”“In here.” Jack followed the voice through the half open door that he belatedly realised was there on the back wall, and entered Nathan’s private sanctum. Instinct led him to the small shower room.Nathan was sitting on the closed toilet, bent over, head down, elbows resting on his knees. For a moment Jack stared at this very vulnerable looking position wondering what the hell could have taken the wind out of Nathan’s sails so effectively (and quietly pondering whether he could replicate it any time soon). Nathan’s right hand waved at the bathroom counter next to the basin, and Jack turned round.Jack was a father, he knew what they were, but his brain was stuttering on the pink line across each tiny plastic window. Because that was impossible. Jack made a strangled garbled sound as his brain homed in on the possibility. Nathan looked up then, and Jack then homed in on the fear in the scientist’s eyes.“Random improbability.”“You’re pregnant.” muttered Jack, weakly. This was Eureka, it didn’t even begin to matter how impossible this was, it was improbable, and that was totally random.
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“You want to terminate Peanut.”Nathan’s green eyes were glistening. Jack gulped, Nathan Stark, Nobel, PhD, PhD, PhD was not a sentimental man. If Nathan’s eyes were watering there was too much Hot Sauce on Nathan’s jerk chicken lunch. Until Allison’s ill fated foray into what they should be doing about Nathan’s situation.Two months in. that was definitely a pink line. As though the seven previous tests, and the ultrasound and the thorough investigation by Fargo into what had actually happened with the machine of random improbability didn't count.Nathan wondered why he was knocked up and not Jack, Fargo’s unfortunate knack for saying the exact wrong thing had led him to declare that it was the way they were standing, meaning that the wave had struck Jack first, and Nathan second. Nathan’s newly awakened sensitivity misinterpreted Fargo's statement which caused the aforementioned waterworks, and Jack to discover that he was about to become a father for the second time.They had just managed to get through that minor crisis.Then Allison had to offer the opinion that Nathan was male, his body was not designed to bear a child, and that they had best get rid of it before it became a problem.Jack glared at her. Baby had a pet name already. He really did not want to have to explain to her how many levels of wrong the word termination offered, and he really didn’t want another armful of weeping Nathan because apparently “cry me a river” was not just a song title, and Jack had just changed into his last clean, dry, uniform.Besides, there was an ultrasound, and a Peanut.Which made Jack just a little sentimental and lip quivery himself.Termination. Not happening. They would get through this somehow.In the interests of clarity, Jack told Zoe and Jo. Okay, he told them before Fargo could spread it far and wide, because there was a fair chance they would kill him if they found out secondhand.Since Nathan was moving in with him, hardly going to keep it a secret.
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“Get that cheeseburger out of my face.”Jack pushed his plate to one side as Nathan gagged and turned a bit green, then bolted for the toilets at the back of Cafe Diem. Leaving Jack to the curious stares of the surrounding customers.“Is Dr Stark feeling OK?” Vincent appeared with a Vinspresso and Nathan’s ginger and camomile tea, while Jack tried to think of a reassuring and information free response. Having the whole of Eureka know that Nathan was pregnant with Jack’s child was more than enough information. Morning sickness didn’t cover it. Some days the whoop-whoop began at five am, and continued almost unabated until Nathan dragged his exhausted body into Jack’s bed, curled up and to all practical purposes, passed out. “He’ll be fine.” He said, getting to his feet “I’m sorry Vincent, but I think I’m going to have to pass on the cheeseburger for today.” Jack picked up their drinks, “can I get these to go, and would you put by another gallon of your chicken soup for me please.”By the time Nathan returned, white as a sheet and shaking, to their table, Jack had drinks to go, and concentrated on steering his scientist back towards the Jeep. Nathan would not be in today, and maybe not tomorrow either. Jack was taking two personal days, he had a pregnant lover to care for.That in the month and a bit since Jack had moved Nathan into the bunker, ostensibly for SARAH to be able to monitor Nathan’s condition, but really because however it had happened, however batshit crazy this was, Nathan Stark was carrying Jack Carter’s child, and Jack did not shirk his responsibilities, yet duty had taken a back seat to emotion when faced with a vulnerable Nathan.Nathan wanted their baby too, and it was his body and his health he was risking to do that. Jack had never thought of Nathan Stark as being especially tactile, it became clear quite quickly how inaccurate that assumption was. Nathan was almost touch starved.It occurred to Jack when he had time to think about it, that a large part of the reason why Nathan was the way he was, was the automatic distance that Nathan put between himself and others. He expected to be wanted for his brain, and his looks, but not to be loved just because he was Nathan. Jack found that sad, that even Allison viewed Nathan in terms of his value to herself. That Nathan had a heart to break over Callister’s death had no meaning for her. As far as Jack was concerned, Nathan’s son had died. Allison had not seen the love that Nathan had for his child, not biology, but every other way that mattered. She hadn’t seen the raw pain and grief flowing out of the man as he still fought for control not wanting to give too much away.Jack had come to the reluctant realisation that Allison Blake, for all her beauty, accomplishments and easy charm, did not see Nathan Stark as a human being. He felt a little queasy at the logical conclusion, Allison saw Nathan in terms of how he benefited her. Tall, dark and handsome genius scientist with three doctorates and a Nobel prize. How they looked in the mirror together mattered as much to her as the kudos she would receive from her family. Nathan’s wishes and feelings didn’t matter a damn to her. She had already proved that, separating Kevin from the only father he had ever known without a second thought for Nathan’s feelings, or even Kevin’s.Jack put Nathan’s tea on the table in front of the couch, his tired pregnant scientist was curled up under the blanket that Jack kept there for that purpose. Nathan was half on his side, head resting on his folded right arm, his other arm under the blanket, and Jack didn’t need to check to see, knowing Nathan’s big hand would be curved protectively over his small baby bump.Jack was getting a different view of Dr Nathan Stark, and it added up to something that warmed Jack’s heart.
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Nathan ached. Everywhere. The steadily increasing size of his baby bump was messing with his ability to dress, the elastic band that was currently holding his pants’ waistband closed was being stretched to its limits, his belt was a thing of the past, his dress shirt was untucked, and whilst keeping his suit jacket on during any tele-conferences concealed his condition from the outside world, some of the downsides of his condition were becoming more apparent, as his internal organs coped with the presence of the unexpected.He felt strange, ungainly, and couldn’t decide if the occasional sharp pain in his side was the baby kicking, or gas.Indigestion seemed ever present. He tired so easily too. Some evenings he was asleep on the couch before Jack had even finished getting the table laid. Jack was worried, he had agreed to go along with this because Nathan had wanted it, and wanted it in the face of rational opposition that said that Nathan’s body was not equipped to deal with it. Despite his extremely average IQ, Jack was not an idiot, he knew that Nathan was struggling more than he let on, that discomfort was a mild description of what Nathan’s body was going through.He hated knowing that Nathan was in a degree of pain, but that Jack could do nothing about that pain. Nathan slumped down on the couch and watched Jack lay the table, rubbing his hand over the place where he had felt that pain before. He was certain it was gas earlier, but now he wasn’t sure.The fluttering movement startled him, and he gasped.Jack was by his side in an instant, wordlessly, Nathan reached out to take his hand, and pressed it to the place on his side. They stared at each other in wonder as Jack felt the fluttering movement, only faint, but definitely there. Tears welled up in Nathan’s eyes, but he was grinning like he’d won another Nobel. Instinctively Jack leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to Nathan’s lips, his free hand sliding round the back of Nathan’s neck.“Peanut” muttered Nathan thickly, wiping his eyes.Jack smiled. He was well aware that Vincent’s under the counter betting book now had two new pages, guess the gender and baby’s name...
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At 21 weeks, Nathan’s elastic solution for his suit pants was no longer viable, baggy tee shirts and sweatpants were his new wardrobe, and he’d had to pass over most of his director duties to Allison, who was still mostly angry with him about his pregnancy and his refusal to let her dictate to him about it, and she was sort of smug because she was practically solely in charge again.Nathan couldn’t have cared less. All he really cared about, right then, was the turkey club sandwich on the plate in front of him. He stared at it, mouth watering, Vincent had a way with turkey that was positively genius, Nathan picked up the sandwich, and bit in, savouring the moisture of the meat, the fresh crunch of the lettuce, the slices of banana.“Banana?” They were five months in, Jack was concerned about the level of discomfort that Nathan was feeling, a little thing like Nathan’s sudden and inexplicable need (to Jack) for banana on everything was small potatoes. Dealing with the pizza guy and the way he handed over the box as though it was about to bite him, because Nathan wanted tuna and banana on his pizza, with curry sauce, Jack had experienced worse. His main concern was keeping Nathan fed, and fast, because Nathan was always fucking hungry.Nathan was eating for two all right. Two armies.Vincent loved to cook, he lived to experiment, and Nathan’s needs and odd cravings were perfectly in his wheelhouse, so mostly Jack took a back seat, allowing Vincent to keep his baby-daddy happy.Another thing that was confusing Jack, what to call Nathan. Nathan was pregnant with his child, despite the lack of sex, they shared a bed, but still hadn’t had sex, and there literally wasn’t a word for any of it.What was going to happen when the doctors took the baby out of Nathan, well that was a whole new ball game too. Jack knew he wanted Nathan and the baby. How to actually impart this fact to Nathan without sounding like an idiot was Jack’s problem.Talking was not their strong point. Jack was scared he would mess it all up, and he guessed that Nathan was worried about that too. So they hung on to each other and said nothing. Nathan knew what he wanted, and what he wanted was Jack, and Zoe, in his life. Zoe had taken the whole pregnant with her dad’s child thing in her stride, and she was kind. Kind to Nathan, kinder than he knew he deserved sometimes. Jack had showed Nathan something different, something he could have, a family, without takebacks, or do overs, There might be compromise but there was also love.It never occurred to Nathan that he already had Jack’s love.Jack was worried. He knew that the strain on Nathan’s body was becoming almost unsustainable, that Nathan was experiencing real pain, but was insistent that he could cope. All to give their miracle baby a better chance of survival.If he hadn’t loved Nathan before, seeing the scientist struggle to hold on day after day, just to give Peanut hope. Jack remembered Callister, knew that this was part of that, that Nathan had lost his son that day, that Peanut was Nathan’s second chance and this was a child of his own, combination of his and Jack’s DNA, not just the result of Nathan’s genius.For all those who thought Nathan was cold and detached, Jack knew different.