A...pleasant surprise?

James eye twitched when Mariah mentioned his mother had told her. "Oh man..no no she wouldn't tell dad otherwise my phone would be blowing up right now." He said relaxing. He figured his dad would be laughing like crazy. There was something about their humor that just wasn't right. When he found out that Zoe was more intentional and that James was just an accident, a miracle baby, his dad had a good laugh about that.

And him having his own kid when he and Mariah decided not too he could see his dad enjoying that. "i love my dad but there are times when i wonder if he's not a bit touched in the head." He said holding Mariah. He moved a bit so he could hold her completely. "You'll make a great mom. if its a little girl she'll have all the self confidence in the world." James said

OOC-I had this thought that maybe what causes them to change their mind is when they see the first sonogram of their baby. What do you think?

IC-Mariah couldn't help but smile a little when James talked about his father. "Your father's sense of humor is what has helped him survive this world. It is so screwed up out there James that if you can't just laugh about things you'll go crazy. Like, take this day for example...one day...not now but years from now, you and I will laugh about this."

As he held her she looked up into his eyes and smiled at his comment. She kissed him. "Sorry about beating you with a pillow."

OOC: I think that makes the most sense, seeing the kid would hit them pretty good

IC:

James thought about it and figured Mariah would be right. This definitely wasn't planned but he wasn't sure if he'd laugh about it after telling his kid how they were conceived. He looked down at Mariah and returned her kiss. "Meh it's alright, not hte hardest thing you've beaten me with." He joked.

"So..i take it i can take it out of my pants since we're cool now. I mean it is no pants Thursday and i have a schedule to keep." He said jokingly.

OOC-Ready to jump ahead a little?

OOC: Seemed like a good way to jump ahead yeah. So straight to the incident itself? or after the fact with the blackmail?

OOC-No, I wasn't thinking quite that far yet. We need for her to lose the baby first and I wanted to play that out to really show her devastation and depression. Maybe we could jump to when they go to the doctor and see the sonogram and their feelings about having a baby start to change. What do you think?

OOC: Yeah that works for me. Would it be safe to assume news of this pregnancy would spread or would they keep this hidden?

OOC-No, we can assume others know about it.

IC- Neither Mariah nor James got any sleep that night. When the sun rose the following morning they decided that they needed to just face this pregnancy and child head on. They headed over to his parent's house where Mariah apologized to Alex for her reaction to the news while James told his dad that Mariah was pregnant. With all of that out of the way they all sat down and Alex answered any questions they might have at that point. She gave Mariah a short list of things she could no longer do or eat and also suggested that they make an appointment with Dr. Hall at SHIELD HQ for a checkup. Mariah decided that she needed a few days to really absorb all of this before actually going to see the doctor.

Meanwhile, news of Mariah's pregnancy somehow got out among their group and soon everyone knew. They all knew that neither of them had wanted children and so none of them were sure if they should congratulate them or not. Needless to say it was a rather awkward evening when they all got together. Mariah and James went about their lives as if trying to get rid of the pregnancy by ignoring it. However, Alex finally made an appointment for Mariah and several days later she and James found themselves in the office. The doctor asked Mariah a lot of questions before performing an exam and ultrasound. Suddenly, an image of the inside of Mariah's uterus appeared on the screen. Mariah looked at it, but was not able to make out anything. Finally, Doctor Hall pointed at a small shape that looked like a jelly bean at first but then Mariah started to make out the shape of a head and arms. Doctor Hall smiled at them.

"That's your baby."

OOV-Do I had a thought today regarding James. What if after Mariah is sent to kill Sam Wilson (though I don’t think we’ve established a reason why Ibrahim would want him dead yet) and arrested James decides to step in for her on the Avengers team while she is recovering emotionally and that leads to a permanent place for him on the team. Just let me know what you think about that.

OOC: We can definitley do that

IC:

After enduring his fathers laughter about the situation James was growing used to becoming a father. After a long chat in private he even picked up a few books on the topic. he wasn't sure how news spread to the others about the pregnancy and it was Jayden that broke the silence about it much to the others annoyance. He was grateful his mother was helpful and helped with getting the appointments set up.

James was holding Mariah's hand making sure nto to make jokes, Andrew's advice, during the appointment. When the image showed up James had no idea what he was looking at and was glad the doctor pointed everything out. He watched the screen a moment longer, "Ok..its hitting me that we're going to have a kid now." he admitted.

Mariah just stared at the screen as Doctor Hall pointed out the outline of their baby. It was so small and innocent looking but it was apart of her and apart of James. Suddenly she felt extremely protective of it. She wanted to shield it from the dangers of the world. In that moment she knew how Steve felt.

She looked at James and he would see this was hitting her too. The doctor printed off a copy of the picture and gave it to them before stepping out.

“We’re going to be parents...”

James took a shaky breath looking at the image nodding slowly at the realization. He wasn't sure what awaited them in the future but he knew they'd face it together as a family. His opinion of this had turned around, he wanted to become a father and raise their child to be proud and strong. His own parents had their own struggles and knew they would have their own but he was certain everything would turn out alright.

"So..the next number of months are going to be something." He said looking to Mariah. "you're going to be a mom Mariah."

Mariah looked up at James when he stated that she was going to be a mom. A new kind of panic suddenly came over her that she had never experienced before. She was going to be a mother. She stood up and began to nervously pace. "I have no idea how to be a mother James. I never had one. I don't have maternal instincts. I have soldier instincts."

James leaned back as Mariah just started to pace and wondered if this was going to be a regular thing. "Mariah..my dad was an orphan and raised two kids and didnt kill anyone. I think you'll be fine." James said. Yeah he was certain Mariah had killed someone but he was certain she'd make a great mom. "what was the first thing you felt when you saw our kid?" he asked.

Mariah sighed a little and stopped pacing and thought about James' question. She walked back over to the table and picked up the picture of their baby. She looked at it and felt that same protective feeling come over her.

"I felt an overwhelming need to protect it from the horrible things in this world."

James nodded upon hearing Mariah's answer, "i think that alone should make you feel good about how motherly you are. THink of how protective Steve is of you, he feels the same way you feel about our child. Its just someting new, i'm positive we'll adjust." he said getting up to walk over to her. He took her hand in his own, "By the time they come out into the world we'll have our feelings straight. Sure we might not know what we're doing or know that the right answer is but we'll get there."

OOC-Do you want to play out the pregnancy thing more or jump to the attack?

OOC: ooo..i think we can jump to the attack, dont need to emotionally build ourselves up lol

OOC-New thread