"Do you ever sleep?" Adriana asked Jack when she woke to find him sitting in bed with his back against the pillows, staring ahead.
He looked down at her. She had been asleep for less than an hour. The pair of them had been up all night.
"Good morning," he said.
"Mhmmm," she said back. "What time is it?"
"Five eighteen," he said after glancing at the clock behind him.
"Too early," Adriana said and closed her eyes. "Did you sleep at all?"
"No," he said.
"Why not?" she asked and rubbed his leg. "You must be tired you..."
She began to giggle.
"Really put in a lot of work last night," she finished saying.
He continued looking at her, his stoic expression unchanging.
"You're dressed," she said and touched his shirt.
She reached for his hand and squeezed it.
"Are you going out?" she asked.
"I left a half hour ago," he said immediately. "Went out. The streets were empty."
"Oh...you went for a walk?" she asked.
"Yes," he said and looked away. "I went to the 24-hour pharmacy down the road."
She looked at the side of his face, examining his profile.
"Oh," she said.
"I purchased pregnancy tests for you," he said.
"Plural?" she asked.
"Well," he said and looked at her again. "Was not sure which was best."
"They're all...pretty much the same," she said.
After a momentary silence, he returned the hand squeeze.
"I understand that I asked you to agree to take a test last night," he said. "But I cannot compel you to take it. It is up to you."
Adriana thought about it for a moment, then sat up and pushed the blankets off of her legs. She sat up on her knees and looked at Jack.
"I'll take it," she agreed.
"Right," he said, with some relief. "I appreciate it."
She touched his cheek tenderly.
"Where are they?" she asked.
He reached over and pulled a bag from bedside table that she didn't see behind him and handed it to her. She could see several boxes in the bag. She reached in and pulled out the first test before setting the bag aside.She kissed his lips and climbed over him.
She walked into the bathroom and opened the box.
"You did not want to take this test last night," he said to her after following her into the bathroom. "You appeared nervous. I could tell you wanted to distract me with all the..."
He struggled to find the right words.
"Acrobatic sex," he settled on.
She smiled and tilted her head.
"What changed?" he said, noticing her mood was entirely different.
"Well," she said. "Right now...I can see that either way we are going to find out. Why not now?"
"You sound at ease," he said.
"Maybe I'm high," she said with a smile. "Still."
He raised his eyebrows. "High?"
"You get me high," she said and wrapped her arms around him and kissed him again.
"I see," he said.
"Last night was..." she said, and he watched, as she still held onto the sides of his arms, her head slowly lean back far enough that he was sure she must have now been looking at the floor.
Slowly she lifted her head up, rolling it to the side as she did.
"Everything is fine," she said. "I feel so free..."
She touched both sides of his face. He could see it in her eyes. She was blissed out.
"What about you? How do you feel?" she asked.
He glanced over at the test she had set by the sink.
"Whatever it says," she said. "It's okay."
She picked up the test and went over to the toilet. Naked, she sat.
"You're going to watch?" she asked.
"If you don't mind," he said. "I would like to see. Everything."
"Okay then," Adriana said and proceeded.
When she was done on the toilet, she sat the test on her knee and wiped. She stood up and sat it on a tissue next to the sink.
"We have to wait three minutes," she said.
He stared down at the test.
"Hey," she said gently. "We are supposed to wait three minutes to look. That's the rule."
"Ah...okay," he said and sat on the rim of the tub and pulled his phone out of his pocket and set a timer. She went over and sat on his knee.
"You do not seem at all nervous," he said to her.
"Are you?" she said, looking for a way in to get him to share his feelings.
"I should not be," he said. "The chances of this were high...it was only to be expected."
"So, you're not surprised," she said.
"We have been having unprotected sex for...ehh...roughly ten weeks," he said. "Nightly. Multiple times each night."
"Okay..." she said. "So, I guess it's not surprising."
"You of course have nothing to be nervous about," he said. "You are an excellent mother."
"So..." Adriana said. "You're worried you wouldn't be a good father?"
His eyes answered for him.
"Do you think I would have unprotected sex all night with someone I didn't think would be a good father?" she asked.
He pressed his lips together.
"Okay... so when I got pregnant with Arsenio it was different," she said, laughing. "I'm much smarter now."
He kissed her shoulder.
"I don't feel sick this morning," she noticed.
They looked into each other's eyes.
"If it's negative," she said. "And you're not ready yet...we could see Dr. Kapoor about contraception."
He blinked slowly and looked ahead at her breasts.
"It will be positive," he said.
She looked at him quietly and they sat until the alarm on his phone broke the silence. Adriana stood up, and Jack stayed seated on the tub, his body feeling frozen as she turned off the alarm. She walked over the sink and looked at the test and then back at him.
"Positive," she said quietly.
