Baby Maxwell.
I muse the idea quietly to myself. Smiling now, still feeling like hell from a wave of nausea, but an inner voice tells me the reason why long before we see the image scans.
I can literally hear Dillon’s jaw drop. Maybe the first time in his life he’s been so quiet for so long. As long as I’ve known him anyway.
“Not a burrito…” The doctor announces gravely, stifling a grin, and the nurse smiles, leaning over to ask if we want to know the sex of our baby, but I shake my head.
Did she just say, baby or babies?
“It’s a gift,” Dillon announces, pushing his huge bulk through everything, nurse, machine, and all to kiss me.
“A gift,” he repeats, and we both share a look that reminds us of what we already knew that magical night just a few months ago.
Had I forgotten? No, but with everything else going on with Dillon’s court case and the business finally closing at the club once it was all exposed, it was easy to get sidetracked.
But we can both see it now, the nurse being careful which images to hold on the screen as she runs the ultrasound paddle over my belly.
The Doctor murmurs his congratulations, apologizing once Dillon growls I’m not his daughter.
“My fiancé,” he adds casually, almost making me shriek, and not from the cold of the ultrasound gel.
Taking my hand in his, and kneeling by the exam table, he spells it out as clear as a tough guy like Dillon ever could.
The nurse moves to leave with the doctor in tow, but he’s oblivious to anything in the room except me.
“I’ve never had a family, Becky. And I never asked about yours, and don’t want to know anything you don’t wanna tell me,” he says quietly.
He’s stroking my fingers gently, only moving his gaze from mine to glance at the tiny screen with a frozen image of our growing baby inside me.
“But I won’t have our child without a proper family from day one. You’ll be my wife as well as our child’s mother,” he adds calmly.
Relieved.
He traces a finger over my lips, and after slowly bring it to his, he presses it to the screen. Our little one’s first kiss from mommy and daddy.
“Are you proposing?” I stammer, feeling a hot flush and some more of those tears of joy welling up in my eyes.
“No,” Dillon says firmly. “I’m telling you. No kid of mine will ever know anything less than a proper family.”
“But you are proposing,” I counter, smiling to myself, knowing just how stubborn the man can be, but wanting him to say it anyway.
“Becky?” he asks, looking at me with puppy dog eyes, a little damp for what will be the only time I see him close to tears.
“Yes?” I ask in reply.
“Marry me. Be my wife, the mother of our child… all our children, and I’ll be the happiest man on earth,” he finally says.
That’s good enough for me, and I squeak a series of “yeses” into his body as he hugs me close.
“Yes, Dillon. Yes, yes, yes.”
Extended Epilogue
Several Months Later
Dillon
It’s not a big deal, but it is the biggest day of my life.
Our new life together as man and wife.
A simple ceremony is what Becky wanted, while I was all for something bigger and better.
Something expensive.
The truth is though, it would’ve been a small crowd either way.
With no family between us, and fewer friends we actually wanted to share our special day with just us.
It’s only all about us from now on, she’s my best friend and I’m hers. We only need to make it official before the highest power and the law.
The local justice of the peace just happened to in church and offered to be the best man when the priest asked if we had one, giving Becky away too in an official capacity.
My own best friend? Well. He’s in prison now, charged with everything I was framed for in the first place.
My own finances and business were fully restored to me, with an easy win case against the authorities pending.
I’m suing everyone. The Government, IRS, and the city prosecutors and probation office for as much as I can, with my attorneys already letting the ink dry on a multi-million dollar defamation settlement I’m told, is guaranteed.
Charlie Sawyer, Matt Diamond, and my probation officer will all be sharing the same yard, with plenty of time to mull over the things they did and how justice comes for those who abuse it. It’s funny how they thought keeping me under their thumb would keep me in check never thinking their plan would backfire when Sawyer was left out of the loop.
I don’t hold a grudge though, I’ve got the best gift of all in Becky, and our baby growing inside her.
We’re in the oldest church I could get booked, with an equally aging organist grinding out the wedding march before I finally take her hand.