[for Jon]

[onceaqueen]

(dated his first morning back at home)

Rickon was so glad to see his father home again that he refused to sleep anywhere but in his parents' bed, right between them. While Susan slept better having Jon home again (it seemed so long--as everyone knows when you're used to sleeping with someone you love, it's very hard to fall asleep when you're

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[handandahalf]

By now Jon was used to waking up in pain. His leg was healing, but slowly, and the medication Dr. Keller had been giving him for the pain always wore off by morning. He sat up slowly, realizing Susan was not in the bed beside him, listening to see if he could hear where she was in the house.

When he heard the unmistakable sounds of retching from the next room, he was at once surprised and concerned. He thought quickly on what they'd had for dinner last night; nothing out of the ordinary, certainly nothing that should have upset her stomach like this. Rickon stirred beside him and he laid a hand on his son's back, soothing him with soft sounds til he was quiet again, waiting for Susan to return.

When she did, Jon looked at her with a frank, appraising eye. She had been bearing quite a bit of strain since Peter's disappearance and his accident, he knew; he could see she had put on a little weight, and looked far more tired than he was used to seeing her. These could all be attributed to stress-- and yet, when put together with the morning sickness he'd not seen since before Rickon was born, he had to wonder.

[onceaqueen]

Susan felt the weight of Jon's stare almost the moment she came in the door, and she tried to smile a little. "I didn't mean to wake you," she said, sitting down gently on the edge of the bed so she would neither wake Rickon nor jostle Jon. "Did you sleep well?"

It was a silly question; she was sure he hadn't slept any better than she had, if not worse. But it was either ask it or tell him the news, and now that she had put it off so long she was now at the point where she wasn't sure how to go about telling him at all.

[handandahalf]

"You didn't," he assured her, shifting slightly and hissing at the flare of pain in his thigh. He pressed the heel of his hand into his good leg, focusing on that pressure instead of the pain, and took deep breaths until it passed and he could raise his head with a slight smile. "And I slept, which is the important thing."

He reached out, brushing his knuckles across her cheek, sweeping a lock of hair out of the way. "You're not feeling well," he said mildly.

[onceaqueen]

"No, I'm not," she admitted, hesitant, but knowing now was the time to tell him. She'd had to wait and wait, and now she felt a little foolish, but this was good news, she reminded herself--it shouldn't be this hard. Perhaps it was because they had spent so much time apart since his accident; she wasn't sure, but she was finding their conversation, such as it was, almost awkward.

"But it'll pass soon enough. I haven't got anything catching--it's mother's stomach," she said, using Sansa's phrase for it. "I'm pregnant." She held her breath, waiting for his reaction.

[handandahalf]

Jon was so startled at first he scarcely knew what to say-- though the thought had occurred to him this might be the reason, he hadn't actually expected it to be the answer. He opened his mouth and then closed it, then opened it again and froze that way for a few seconds before his face split into a wide grin. "Are you-- truly, Susan? That's--" he broke off with a laugh, running a hand through his hair and flopping back down onto the pillows, looking up at the ceiling, bonelessly happy. He sat back up still grinning, and reached over to pull her close for a kiss. "What timing, to find out just as I came back."

[onceaqueen]

Susan exhaled with relief, and truly smiled about the news for the first time since she'd found out--which Jon's next words reminded her had been quite some time ago, relatively speaking. Her smile faltered just the tiniest bit, but didn't vanish. "I didn't just find out," she admitted. "But I didn't want to tell you until you came home."

[handandahalf]

Jon could feel his eyebrows draw together, his own smile fading just a fraction. "How long have you known?" he asked, more curious than anything else, but worry flashing through his mind at the same time. It wasn't like Susan to keep things from him-- in fact he could scarcely remember the last time she'd done so, or at least the last time he'd discovered she had.

[onceaqueen]

"Almost two weeks," Susan said hesitantly. She'd noticed the slight falter in Jon's smile, and now wondered if her decision had been the best thing. They were still speaking softly, so as not to wake Rickon, still asleep on the bed. "I didn't want to tell you in the clinic with lots of other people about. It didn't seem right."

She reached for his hand. "I didn't realise it til late... I thought being sick and tired all the time was just stress from everything that had happened with the island tricks and you and Peter and your mother... I'm due in April." That felt a bit silly, admitting that she'd been paying so little attention to herself that she was something like two months pregnant and only just found out.

[handandahalf]

Jon nodded, his eyes casting down to Rickon happily drooling over his fist in his sleep. He was still smiling, but didn't quite feel as fervently happy as he had a moment ago. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, and he certainly didn't wish to leave Susan feeling as if he were apprehensive about their expecting another child. Gods knew Jon had hoped they would get pregnant again for some time.

He took both her hands in his and squeezed them lightly. "I will be well and walking by then," he said, smiling as though he had no doubt in that assertion. "Spring is a good season." It was in spring they'd first kissed; he remembered, though all seasons looked alike on the island. He wished it did not seem so far away; and wished even more that he were not too tired to banish the lingering worry entirely from his mind.

[onceaqueen]

"Long before then," Susan assured him, and whatever doubts or worries she had about that she put completely aside. Jon had been so worried, and was still worried, about when and if he would ever walk properly again that she wanted to be as reassuring about that as possible. "Sansa's due then as well," she added. "They'll grow up together."

She looked down at Rickon and back up to Jon. "I haven't told him either," she said. "I didn't want to tell him until you were home--maybe we could tell him after breakfast?"

[handandahalf]

He had to grin at that; after hearing how Eddara had taken the news of Sansa and Caspian's coming child, he did not have high hopes for Rickon's reaction. But he nodded, agreeing, "Yes, the sooner the better." He began to shift slowly toward the edge of the bed in anticipation of getting to his feet, and reached for the crutches leaning against the wall nearby. "Eddara, Rickon, Reynald, and soon two more," he said with a slight smile. "My father would love to know of this."

[onceaqueen]

"Your father would have a lap full of grandchildren and still be happy to have more," Susan agreed, passing the crutches to Jon. She thought his mother would have been pleased as well, to know that she was to have another grandchild, and Susan wished she had been paying better attention so that she would have known sooner and been able to tell her before she disappeared. But she didn't want to bring Jon down by mentioning her, so she kept the thought to herself.

Instead, she turned to Rickon and scooped him up into her arms. "Time to wake up, little sleepyhead," she said cheerfully. Rickon was only lightly sleeping by then so it did not take much to wake him. He immediately wanted to reach for Jon to carry him, demanding "Father up!" but Susan distracted him with the promise of breakfast. Susan herself only managed a cup of tea, but felt well enough now that the smell of breakfast for Jon and Rickon did not make her feel ill, and she was glad for it.

After most of it had been eaten and Rickon was contentedly gnawing on a last piece of toast, Susan thought it a good a time as any to bring up the news. "Rickon, Father and I have something to tell you," she began, and though she thought that was an awfully grown-up way to talk to someone who was not quite a year and a half old, she wasn't quite sure how else to say it. Rickon didn't seem to care very much, and kept gnawing his piece of toast. He seemed to be utterly content (for the moment) now that his father was home.

[handandahalf]

Jon wasn't sure how to explain this either, and though a small part of him wanted to let Susan handle it entirely herself, he squashed that little voice firmly and leaned in a little bit toward Rickon.

"Rickon, we-- that is, Mother is going to have another baby. Soon you're going have a little brother or sister." A fine line appeared in Rickon's forehead and he put his hand, still holding the piece of toast, down on the table, looking as if he was thinking very hard. Then he looked around the room, and tilted his head to try and see under the table. When Jon realized what he was doing it was all he could do not to laugh. "No, Rickon, the baby's not here now." He looked at Susan, grinning, asking wordlessly for some help explaining.

[onceaqueen]

Susan had been bracing herself for a squalling tantrum, and the fact that there hadn't been one (yet) made her both relieved and anxious. She couldn't help but smile at Rickon's curiosity, though. "The baby's growing in Mother's tummy right now," she said, "the way you did before you were born, and the way Reynald did in Auntie Jeyne's tummy before he was born." Rickon probably didn't remember that, but he might, as well as he might remember Lyanna with Ygraine, and she wasn't about to mention his grandmother just now for fear of provoking the dreaded tantrum. He missed her, and part of her was glad Jon had been spared his son's inconsolable wailing over Lyanna. "And then this spring, when the baby's grown enough, he or she will be born and be part of our family."

Rickon picked up his toast again and resumed gnawing on it without comment. Susan glanced at Jon, shrugging slighly helplessly, and looked back at their son. "Did you understand what I said, Rickon?" she asked. Perhaps she'd just confused him.

"Down," said Rickon, and climbed down from his chair. (He did not like anyone to pick him up or put him down from the table--he was a Big Boy.) He toddled over to Susan and put his soggy piece of toast on her stomach. It wouldn't stay, given that she didn't exactly have a stomach as yet, and so he let it fall into her lap. "Play now," he said, and toddled off, making hooting wolf-like sounds with Shadow trailing along behind.

Susan gingerly picked up the piece of toast. "Er..."

[handandahalf]

Jon watched the entire display with his lips pressed together, first anxiously in anticipation of Rickon's tantrum, then in amusement as he watched his son process what they were telling him. As he walked off with Shadow in tow, Jon let out his breath in a whoosh and turned to Susan with a cautious grin.

"Well," he said slowly, "that went better than expected." He watched Rickon sit down with some of his toys and felt his mouth curve up in a fond smile. "What will they be like together? It'll be so strange... so wonderful," he murmured, as much to himself as to Susan. He glanced over at her, then leaned over to squeeze her hand.