Legend

We expand

We settled into married life easily; it wasn't so different from when we'd been living together because we'd been committed to each other then too. Damian had a few of the photographs from the wedding--one of me getting ready, the moment in the ceremony when he dried my eyes, and one of us waltzing--framed and he put them in his office. But then he brought the first one home, since although he liked looking at it, he didn't want others to see me putting on my stockings. The other two were romantic enough to satisfy his heart. I also framed a couple of them for my desk, and our relatives also asked for some prints.

Time passed pretty quickly. We were getting ready to apply for our first patents at work, and Tony and I were working on another article. At home, it was with relief that it turned out Nicholas was a small cat and continued to ride on Damian's shoulder around the house, to the delight of both. Dick and Barbara got engaged; they had learned from our experience and actually did elope, which frustrated Bruce no end, so he threw his considerable expertise into planning an elaborate reception for them. The holidays were delightful and there was nothing to mar them this year. We had my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, although Bucky and Emma started alternating these holidays between us and Peter's new family. Nora was reunited with her little sister Jane and their mom when they came over to spend Christmas with us. Nora was learning a lot and was helping Alfred out in the kitchen. Meals got more novel. Jane was quieter and not as exuberant as her sister, but whip-smart and still determined to become a pilot. Bruce set up some appointments with her at flight schools and informational interviews with some pilots, both commercial and private. Damian and I had been going to spend New Years Eve at home, but we got invited to a party with a younger crowd and decided to attend. I'd been getting a reputation for being fashion forward, and had been receiving offers from a few designers to dress me for social events. Damian liked the idea, and so did I--I couldn't wear most of the dresses more than once, and some of them fell from style very quickly, so the allure of borrowing a gown for events was powerful. Damian was proud of me and encouraged me with frequent jewelry gifts. Right after we'd gotten back from our honeymoon, Bruce had given me the rest of his mother's jewelry, a diamond fringe necklace and matching earrings, a set of necklace, earrings and rings with diamonds and carved emeralds, beautiful peridot earrings, a ruby ring, a sapphire necklace, and a surprisingly modest engagement ring and wedding band. Our fingers were the same size.

We didn't have a lot of time on our anniversary that we could take away from our jobs, so we too the weekend and went out to California for a few days where I dusted off my rusty surfing skills and Damian took some lessons. The real celebration was much more private, the removal of my IUD. We were ready to start a family. "It's weird," I confessed to my husband. "I've spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying hard to prevent pregnancy. It's a little hard to wrap my head around unprotected sex."

Damian chuckled. "Finally, my boys get the opportunity to show what they're made of. Literally." I laughed and he tickled me, and we ventured into territory previously unknown to us. It took us five whole months of very frequent trying before I conceived.

And then I miscarried in the third month. We were crushed. It was too early to know what sex the baby had been.

After a period of mourning, we decided we were ready to try again, and that summer got the glad news that I was pregnant again. And I miscarried again, at the same time as my first miscarriage. My doctors put the brakes on further efforts to conceive while they studied the situation. Not that we were trying, the second miscarriage had been devastating.

A few months later, the doctors felt that they had some answers. The news was rather daunting; my mutations were coming into play. Pregnancy in enhanced and superhuman women was a rare thing, mostly due to the work of a hero, so the pool of knowledge was rather shallow. However, there had been a woman in China and one in Spain who had strength and durability mutations who had miscarried after three months. Their doctors found that their uterine muscles were correspondingly stronger and, like all other enhanced muscle, had less flexibility than normal tissue and the muscles were larger than normal. So I had a uterus that had more muscle, stronger muscle, and less capability to grow and expand. The takeaway was that without medical assistance, the uterus could only expand so far; it wanted to stay in its normal state. But there were some medications, including a special class of strong muscle relaxants, that had enabled the woman in Spain to have a successful pregnancy. The baby had been premature, but hadn't suffered any health issues. The news was sobering. I'd have to go on bed rest after my third month, which would have a big impact. I gave Tony the report to see if it would be possible to work something out. He listened, then patted my hand. "Whatever you need," he said simply. "It might be a good time to start transitioning you to more of a supervisory role anyway. You've got a great crew. Let's start interviewing for someone to take over your role, and we'll bring you into starting to supervise Avenger Tech too. I've been doing that, and I could use some help. You can do that from home, a lot, Skyping meetings if you have to. And we have a company policy of six months' parental leave after the birth, so you'd be eligible for that anyway."