She settled next to him, making a soft sound as she turned, her head resting on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her, her stomach hard and round as it pressed against his side. "So."

He shook his head and kissed her warm hair, closing his eyes and inhaling the scent of her shampoo. "How are you, Jules?"

"Fat."

"Pregnant isn't fat. It's fat dispensation. Even fat women aren't fat when they're pregnant."

"Kevin, I've gained nearly fifty pounds. I'm fat."

"How much of it is water?"

"That's not the point."

"And how much of it is baby?"

"Not as much as you'd think, and stop trying to make me feel better." She glared up at him, her lower lip sliding out into a pout. "I'm pregnant and so I'm allowed to be bitchy."

"So pregnancy is bitchy dispensation too? Does that mean if Kitty ever has kids she'll get worse?"

Julia laughed and shook her head, snuggling closer to him. She stilled for a moment and made a low hissing sound. Kevin glanced down at her, concern in his eyes and she smiled, catching his hand and bringing it down against her stomach, letting him feel the pressure as one of the babies kicked. "Wow, huh?"

Kevin nodded, surprisingly lost for words. He let his palm stay there on Julia's stomach as she moved it, tracing bumps and bulges on her abdomen, identifying feet and elbows and knees.

"And this is his butt."

"Okay, I didn't need to know I was feeling up my nephew." He made a mock-horrified face. "Or worse. God, my niece. I feel all dirty now."

Julia smacked him hard and then rolled onto her back, the space between them cool in comparison to the warm heat of her body. "I'm scared, Kevin."

"Of me feeling up my niece or nephew? I was kidding."

She smacked him again then caught his hand, threading his fingers with hers. "I can't tell Tommy. He's sure that everything's going to be fine and that we'll be good at this, you know? Be good parents and a good family, and I just get frightened."

"No reason to be, Jules. You'll be a terrific mom." He turned on his side and looked at her, his head resting on one hand as he disentangled her hold and used the other to trace over her stomach, the shift of her shirt and the skin beneath following the soft pressure of his fingers. "Look at how you put up with all of us without ever losing your head. Hell, look at how you put up with Tommy, and let's face it, he's pretty much a perpetual twelve year old."

She laughed and closed her eyes, a twinge causing her expression to darken as she slowed her breathing to deal with the contraction. "Did you ever want this, Kevin?"

"This?" He asked the word softly, uncertainly. "This as in lying on a bed with a woman that I love and talking about kids? Or having kids? Lying on the bed with the woman I loved and talking about our kids?"

"Just…just kids." Her eyes are still closed, her face turned away from his. "Your kids."

His voice was sad, thick with a sorrow he wasn't sure he could quantify. "No, Jules. I didn't come out until I was nearly eighteen, but I knew. I knew what it was to feel alone and scared and wrong when everyone else was right. And I didn't know what it meant all the time, but I did know it meant that I wasn't ever going to be somebody's dad."

The baby beneath his hand kicked again and she laughed, a strange joy to combat his sorrow. "You'd have been a good dad, Kevin."

"I'd have been a horrible dad. I'm selfish, self-absorbed, entitled, overbearing, demanding and petulant." He leaned in and kissed her cheek. "But thank you for pretending otherwise."

"We're all that way at some point."

"Ah, but I have perfected it to an art form. I am all those things magnified to a scale heretofore unknown by man, but I am the best uncle any kid could ever want. I know how to play dolls and how to play games. I suck at sports, but I'm an excellent cheerleader."

"And you look cute with the skirt and pom-poms."

"That was for homecoming week, and it was opposite day and if you don't stop bringing that up, I'm going to tell Tommy that you showed John Evans what was and what wasn't padding under that football jersey."

She laughed again and moved closer, her stomach pressed to his. He caught her hand again and held it tightly, squeezing as another contraction pulsed through her. "You're going to be the best uncle."

He released her hand and brought his up to her cheek, stroking the freckled skin lightly. He kissed her softly and smiled. "I'll love 'em like they're my own, Jules."

She gave a laugh, the sound mixed with the tears that trailed after his fingers as they grazed her cheeks. "I know you will."