Fic: Due Process (2/4)

[melyanna]

Part I

When Ainsley got home, she did as Cam had suggested and called her mother. Her mother was shocked to hear Ainsley's news, but once that moment had passed she was already making changes to her flight to get there as soon as possible. As it happened there was an open seat on a flight late that afternoon, so the conversation was brief.

Afterward, Ainsley sent a text to Cameron asking him to come to the house after his meeting was done. She didn't expect a reply, and in fact she stretched out on the couch and took a nap. The sky was getting dark before she awoke again, and that was only because the doorbell was ringing.

Feeling more rested, if not actually better, Ainsley got up to answer the door, finding Cameron on the other side. He looked at her in concern, much as he had the previous night once he'd gotten past the shock of seeing her pregnant. She still felt a little guilty that she hadn't told him about that at any point before he showed up, but it had been almost a year since they'd talked.

"Come on in," she said, stepping aside.

"I was glad to get your message," he replied, coming inside and taking his hat off. "Round about three o'clock I remembered I'd left all my stuff here."

Ainsley nodded, smiling a little. His bags were all still in her living room.

"I called Mom," she told him, walking to the coffee table to retrieve the watch she'd taken off before her nap. "She changed her flight. She'll be here in an hour and a half."

"Do you want me to drive you to the airport to pick her up?"

She nodded. "I was going to ask you to."

He put his hat back on. "I'll take you to dinner first. I don't know about you but I'm starving."

"I was taking a nap," she explained. "I haven't been awake long enough to be hungry, but I will be once we get somewhere with food."

Cam grinned at her. It was the first time he'd done that since arriving. "There's my girl," he said, something he hadn't said to her since she was a kid. "You're always hungry."

On the way to the airport they stopped at a little café that had good sandwiches but better soups. The weather was turning colder and Ainsley wanted something hot. Over dinner, they decided that Cameron should just cancel his hotel reservation and stay with her. "Seth may be coming back to town on Friday but he's staying somewhere else," she told him quietly.

"Hey, I'll throw all his stuff out on the lawn for you if you want," Cam replied.

Ainsley just smiled and continued eating her soup.

They met Ainsley's mother in the terminal, where she was shocked to see Cameron after so many years, and as pleased about his rank as his own mother had been when he'd been promoted to bird colonel. Agatha Hayes was in her late sixties, but aside from her fully silver hair, she didn't look much different than she had years ago when Cam had spent his weekends in her house.

Once they'd gotten home, the three all hung around in the kitchen getting Agatha up to speed on what had happened. Ainsley had told her part of the story but not all the details, as her mother had been rather anxious to get to D. C. to see her. They had only just begun to discuss her options when Ainsley yawned hugely, and both Cam and Agatha urged her to go to bed.

Ainsley didn't put up a fight, just got a small glass of water. When she was finished with it, she told Cameron where he could find sheets and blankets, since he would be sleeping on the couch, intentionally this time.

Mrs. Hayes laid a hand on Ainsley's belly. "You two okay?" she asked.

"We're fine, Mom," Ainsley replied, kissing her mother on the cheek. "Good night."

As she walked past Cam to leave the kitchen, she grasped his hand. He squeezed back, but he was surprised when she kissed his cheek too, lingering long enough for him to catch faint whiffs of her shampoo.

He and Agatha waited until they'd heard Ainsley reach the top of the stairs before saying anything. "She does seem to be holding up well, all things considered," Agatha remarked quietly. "She's never been the type to fall apart completely, but I was expecting her to be a little less calm. I was expecting iambic pentameter at least."

Cam snorted softly. "She wasn't so together last night," he said. "She was crying through the whole process of digging through Seth's records, but then, that didn't stop her either."

Agatha shook her head. "I can't believe Seth would do this to her. Their relationship wasn't perfect by any means, but I thought he loved her more than this."

"It sounds like he fooled a lot of people, Mrs. Hayes," Cameron remarked. He hadn't cared much for Seth, but he never would have thought the man would cheat on Ainsley either.

They were quiet for a little while till Agatha asked what time it was. Cam looked at his watch and replied, "Twenty-one - sorry, nine o'clock."

"You look like you haven't slept in a couple days."

"Well, yesterday I got back from a five-day trip to a planet where there were actual dinosaurs," he said. "There were some jet-lag issues to begin with, and then last night I only got about four hours of sleep."

"Dinosaurs?" Agatha asked.

"Yeah. Long story."

"Then I'll tell you what I used to tell you and Dean whenever you stayed the night," she said. "Get some sleep. You'll thank me in the morning."

"Thanks, Mrs. H.," he teased, but she was right. He needed to get some rest.

They headed up the stairs, Cameron to the linen closet and Agatha to the guest bedroom. On his way back to the living room, Cameron stopped briefly outside Ainsley's door, which was open a few inches. She was already asleep, hugging a pillow to her chest.

A fresh wave of pity hit him, but he turned away from the door, going back downstairs. She would be getting pity from everyone soon enough, so that wasn't what she needed from him. She needed him to be as supportive as he could of whatever decision she made.

In the bathroom downstairs he changed out of his uniform and into something he wouldn't mind wearing in front of Ainsley and her mother in the morning. He made his bed on the couch in the living room and was asleep almost the moment he lay down. It had been a long couple of days.

The next morning, Ainsley woke up to the smell of breakfast being cooked downstairs. Remembering that her mother had come to town the previous night, she managed to get out of bed, pull on a robe, and wander down to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Ainsley," her mother said from behind the stove. "Sleep well?"

Ainsley rubbed at her eyes and yawned. "About as well as I have since I got this big," she replied. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine. You got a good eleven hours of sleep at least," Agatha replied. "Cameron left a while ago."

Ainsley nodded. She wasn't surprised. But before she could say anything else, the phone rang and she went to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Ainsley."

She froze for a moment. She should have been expecting this to happen. "Seth."

Her mother dropped something upon hearing that name. Ainsley turned around and walked away a little. "You cooking?" Seth asked.

"No, Mom decided to come to town earlier than we'd originally planned," she replied coolly. "She's making breakfast."

"I'm glad to hear that, actually," he said. "I'm going to be stuck here another day. I have to reschedule my flight to Saturday evening."

Ordinarily Ainsley would have merely been annoyed. Now she wondered if Seth was really in North Carolina or somewhere with his mistress. She didn't think he was dumb enough to be seen with another woman in his own Congressional district. Unable to come up with a real response to his information, she just said, "Whatever, Seth."

"You mad at me, Ainsley?" he replied, an edge to his voice which was not foreign to her, but at the same time ratcheted up her temper. She was hardly the unreasonable one here.

"No," she replied tersely, belatedly realizing that that was a bald-faced lie. Though "furious" was closer to how she felt about him right now.

"Look, if you go into labor, I'll do whatever I can to get back before the baby's born," he offered.

"Yeah," she said. "I've got a lot of stuff I need to do today."

"So do I." Ainsley clamped down on a vicious thought at that remark. "I'll talk to you later, hon."

"Bye."

Ainsley hung up without hearing whether or not he responded. Feeling incredibly drained from the conversation, she walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. Her mother brought her a plate of pancakes and a glass of milk. "I'm shocked you could keep your cool talking to him."

She picked up her fork and started in. "So am I."

When Cameron got out of his meetings, he went back to Ainsley's to find that Agatha had cooked dinner for them. The two women had been busy during the day. Whole shelves of books, music, and movies were in boxes. Cam spotted some clothing in boxes as well. Ainsley was packing up her husband and throwing him out.

It was more than most politicians' wives did in situations like this, but Ainsley was not the average politician's wife.

In all seriousness, he offered to haul all the boxes out to the lawn (they were supposed to get a thunderstorm overnight, and he thought that was fitting), but Ainsley declined. The neighbors would obviously figure out what was going on if she did that, and she didn't want anyone calling Seth and telling him that all his belongings had been thrown out of the house. She said she hadn't figured out how she was going to break it to him yet that she was kicking him out, but she was seriously contemplating just letting him be served with the first legal filings.

"Besides," she added, a dark look coming over her pretty features, "I've got something else I've got to do tonight."

While Ainsley went upstairs for something, Agatha quietly said, "Cameron, she's got a doctor's appointment tonight."

"Don't pregnant women usually have lots of appointments this close to the end?"

"This isn't about the baby."

Agatha had to explain to him then why Ainsley would need a last-minute, late-night appointment. If Seth had been sleeping around all this time, then Ainsley needed to be tested for anything and everything that could be transmitted sexually.

Cameron had had a lot of moments in the last couple days when he'd paused long enough to get angry at Seth Conrad for what he'd done to Ainsley. This time, though, he had to leave the room before his mouth got the best of him. There were no words, clean or otherwise, for the rage at the thought of what that man was putting Ainsley through.

He grabbed clothes and changed in the bathroom. By the time Ainsley came downstairs again he was already wearing his leather jacket and his shoes. She looked at him oddly. "You don't have to come."

"I know," he replied. "But if you want me to I will."

For a long time Ainsley just stared at him, standing on the bottom step of the staircase. Cam stared back, not sure if there was something else he was supposed to say. Then he walked to the stairs and wrapped his arms around her. She rested her chin on his shoulder and he rubbed her back. "Anything you need from me, okay?" he said softly in her ear.

She shuddered, and he wondered if she was starting to cry again. But then she pulled back and nodded silently. "Mom's going to be there with me," she said, "but I suppose a little more moral support wouldn't hurt."

Cameron took her hand. "Anything you need from me," he repeated.

The drive to the doctor's office was nearly silent. Cameron drove, meaning Ainsley had to give him directions, but mostly she sat in the back seat with her mother and held her hand. When they got there, the place was deserted except for a nurse and the doctor. The doctor gave her a sad smile. "Ainsley," she said. "I'm so sorry about what's happened."

Ainsley murmured, "Thank you, Doctor Holt."

She looked at Agatha. "I'm going to guess you're Ainsley's mother," she said. "She looks like you."

Mrs. Hayes shook the doctor's hand, and then she turned to Cameron. "Laura Holt," she said.

"Cameron Mitchell," Cam replied, shaking the woman's hand. "I'm an old friend of the family."

"Well, let's head on back," the doctor said.

Cam had really intended to stay out in the waiting room and flip through magazines while Ainsley had this done, but she grabbed his hand. This was likely to be a fairly miserable experience for her, so he didn't blame her. Instead, he came with her to the exam room and helped her get up on the bed. He and Agatha stood on either side of her while the nurse came in with the test materials.

The doctor went through a series of questions about Ainsley's sexual activity. Cam had figured this was a standard practice and was part of the reason he would have preferred to wait outside. She answered all the questions quietly but without hesitation. Afterward the nurse sent her to the bathroom with a sample container.

Agatha went with her, leaving Cam with the doctor and nurse. "Did you stay late at the office for this?" he asked.

The doctor nodded. "Ainsley explained the situation to me. Giving her some privacy for this seemed like the least I could do."

Ainsley and her mother came back after a few minutes, Ainsley with a grimace on her face. "I swear, this kind of thing is the only plus to having a kid sitting on your bladder," she said, holding the specimen jar with two fingers.

"Ainsley, you always have to pee," Cam said, without thinking.

She looked a lot like she wanted to stick her tongue out at him.

The nurse took the sample from her without comment, and Cam helped her back up on the exam bed. Doctor Holt looked down at her chart. "Ainsley, you already had the first blood test for your HIV screening done about six months ago," she said. "We'd have been calling you in for the second test anyway."

"You already got tested for HIV, Ainsley?" Cam said.

"It's recommended by the CDC that all pregnant women, whether they're high-risk or not, be tested for HIV," the nurse answered. "There are treatments that can prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, but we can't do anything if we don't know."

The doctor nodded. "Now, Ainsley, your first test came back negative," she said. "You've indicated that you haven't been sexually active in some months, but it's still possible that you could be positive now."

Ainsley's jaw was tight and her back rigid. "Well, let's get the test over with," she told him.

The nurse was putting on gloves, but Holt held up her hand. "I have a big concern we should discuss," she said. "HIV can be passed from mother to child in utero, in which case we might be too late should you be infected, but it can also be transmitted during delivery."

Ainsley frowned. "What are you getting at?"

"I think you should have a C-section as soon as possible," the doctor replied. "It's too risky to wait for the test results to come back."

"How long will the test take?"

"Three, four days, usually," she said. "If I call the lab and explain the situation, they'd probably rush it."

Ainsley was rubbing her hand against her belly, something which Cam had noticed was a bit of a nervous habit. "We can do the instant test tonight, right?"

Doctor Holt nodded. "We'd have the results in twenty minutes, but you know that test isn't as accurate."

"I know," Ainsley replied. "But let's do the instant test, and if it comes back positive I'll let you do the C-section as soon as you want. If the instant test comes back negative and I go into labor before the other results are back, I'll let you do the C-section. But I'd rather have this baby naturally."

The doctor was in the middle of agreeing to that plan when the nurse gently interrupted, "There's also the risk that breastfeeding presents."

Ainsley looked at the woman sharply. "What?"

"If you have the baby before the test comes back, you probably need to avoid breastfeeding," the nurse clarified. "That can transmit HIV as well."

Ainsley started shaking her head. "No," she said, voice trembling. "No. Do you think I didn't do my research on this? I want to nurse my baby!"

"Ainsley," the doctor started, but she cut her off.

"Can we just go ahead and draw blood?" she said. In the last two days Cam had seen enough to realize she was about to start crying. "I'm not agreeing not to nurse my baby tonight."

The doctor and the nurse exchanged glances before the doctor nodded. Ainsley held out her left arm, and as the needle went in she turned away, toward Cam on her right. He took a step forward, resting his arm around her shoulders, and she buried her face against his chest as she began to cry, trying desperately not to shake.

He looked up to see that Agatha had one hand on her daughter's knee and the other rubbing her back. Cameron looked down and grasped Ainsley's right hand in his. Given that he couldn't legally kill her bastard husband for putting her through all this, it seemed like the least he could do.

Ainsley didn't sleep well that night. A combination of everything that had happened racing through her mind and the baby being unusually restless kept her awake for a long time. Part of her didn't mind, because she had an awful lot to think about.

She couldn't have been asleep very long when noises downstairs woke her. She glanced at the clock and saw it wasn't quite six o'clock yet. It was probably Cameron downstairs, so she threw on a robe and went down to find him.

He was fixing himself a bowl of cereal in the kitchen, and when he saw her he smiled softly. "You look a bit rumpled."

"Good morning to you too," she replied. "Did I hear the front door open?"

Cam nodded. "I went for a run," he explained. "I hope you don't mind, but I got your key out of your purse."

Ainsley rolled her eyes. "I'll forgive you this time."

"Can I get you something for breakfast?"

She thought about it for a minute. Pregnancy hadn't been that much of an adventure for her in terms of weird cravings, but that might have been because she'd spent most of her life since puberty hungry for something specific. "What I really want is ice cream, but that probably wouldn't make a very good breakfast."

Cam pursed his lips and shook his head.

"A bowl of cereal is fine."

He went about fixing it for her, and even though he was a guest in her house, Ainsley let him. These days she was more than willing to let an old friend wait on her. "If you're feeling up to it," he said, handing the bowl and a glass of milk to her, "you and your mom and I could go out to dinner tonight. There's a pizza place you've told me about for years."

"Actually," she said, "I was going to ask you when you think your meeting is going to be over." He frowned at her, and she added, "I need to talk to Congresswoman Wyatt and I'd rather not go through her office to make an appointment."

For a long minute Cameron didn't look at her. Then he picked up his cereal bowl, poking it absently with his spoon, and said, "I'm not very good at sneaky stuff."

She wondered about the truth of that, knowing what she knew about his job. "I'm not asking you to do anything illegal or even clandestine. I just need you to pull her aside and tell her that I need to speak to her."

"How's that going to work? I mean, when will you talk to her?"

"Hopefully this afternoon," Ainsley replied. "I want to get this out before Seth gets back on Saturday -"

"I thought you said he'd be back today."

"It's Saturday now. He called yesterday."

Cameron growled, literally, and had the situation been different Ainsley would have smiled. "Anyway," she said, "I want to get this out before he gets back. Of course, he'll probably come back early, but I don't want him back and finding out what I know before I have a chance to tell someone."

"Ain, I really didn't follow that," he replied.

She looked down at her breakfast. "That's okay. I'm never intelligible when I'm nervous."

At that he laughed. "I'll believe that." He paused to look at his watch. "Well, to answer your original question, Congresswoman Wyatt thought we might be done early today. I think she was thinking about skipping out early for the weekend."

Ainsley nodded. "Will you ask her, then?"

Cameron nodded back immediately, reminding her of what he'd told her the night before, but his face was filled with concern too. "You're sure this is what you want to do?" he asked. "I don't think this is something you can back out of."

"Yes," she replied. "I'm sure."

During the first break of the morning, Cameron came up to Andrea Wyatt and quietly said, "Ma'am, may I have a word in private?"

Wyatt seemed quite surprised by this, no doubt because Cameron was there strictly as a technical advisor. The rest of the room was clearing out, so she dispatched an aide to get her a fresh cup of coffee. "How can I help you, Colonel?" she asked once they were alone.

Cam paused a moment, at a loss for where to begin. "I imagine you know Ainsley Hayes," he said. When she nodded, he continued, "She's an old friend of mine. I've actually been staying at her house while I'm in town."

"Oh?" Wyatt replied. "Has she had the baby yet?"

"No, not yet. Any day now." He cleared his throat, then sighed. "Listen, I told her what these meetings are about, and she wants to talk to you."

The congresswoman suddenly looked angry. "Colonel, she's married to one of the members of this committee -"

"I'm aware of that, ma'am," Cam interrupted. "He's the one responsible for Cencal and a couple other companies getting these... generous contracts."

That stopped Wyatt cold. "How do you know that?"

He bit his lips for a moment. "The night before the first of these meetings, I got to her house and found her digging through Seth's email and his financial records," he explained quietly. "She suspected he was having an affair, and she was right. But it wasn't just an affair."

Wyatt sank into her seat. "So you've known this for days and you're just now telling me."

"Listen, ma'am, she asked me not to say anything until this morning. She's pregnant and she just found out her husband has been cheating on her for years -"

"I'm sorry, Colonel," the woman said abruptly. There was an awkward pause. "You said she wants to meet with me?"

Cameron nodded.

"I was thinking of stopping at lunchtime anyway," she continued. "Have her get here at noon."

He nodded again and went to retrieve his phone from his coat pocket. "Yes, ma'am."

Ainsley decided to take a cab to Capitol Hill, knowing Cameron had driven his rental car there that morning. She arrived five minutes early, but he was already waiting for her outside, and escorted her into a conference room in the basement, where Andi Wyatt was waiting alone.

"Ainsley," the tall, red-haired woman greeted. "How are you doing?"

She tried to smile, but it probably came off as more of a grimace. "About as well as can be expected."

Andi nodded and had her sit down in the nearest chair. Cam sat down on her left while Andi sat at the end of the table on her right. "Colonel Mitchell told me some of what's happened," Andi began. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea Representative Conrad was..."

Ainsley shook her head. "A lot of people had no idea. Including me."

Andi touched her hand briefly before getting down to business. "Ainsley, I need you to tell me what you know."

Ainsley nodded and pulled up the bag she brought with her, getting out the evidence she'd printed off Seth's computer. She'd backed all of it up as well and had a stack of discs in the bag if they were needed. Slowly, she walked Andi through the progression of what she knew and how she'd discovered it.

At the end of the mess of paperwork, Andi pinched the bridge of her nose and looked at Cam, who had remained silent throughout this procedure. "Colonel, could you step outside for a moment?" she asked.

Cameron looked at Ainsley first, and she nodded. He left, closing the door behind himself, and Ainsley turned back to Andi. "What is it?"

"Ainsley, are you sure you want to do this?" Andi asked, a gentleness in her voice which Ainsley had never heard in their many dealings.

She decided not to answer directly. "Can you make the case without me?"

"Not at the moment, but that doesn't mean we won't find something else." The older woman laid her fingers over Ainsley's briefly. "No matter how I handle this, the Democrats are going to rip your husband to shreds."

That much had already occurred to her. Despite everything, including the fact that her marriage had never been what it should have been, she did love Seth. But she was so tired of finding out new things that broke her heart, and part of her just wanted to be done with him, even though she was carrying his child.

"I know it all sounds like I'm taking this fast," she said carefully. "And maybe I am, but.... Andi, what else can I do?"

"You can let us keep investigating," Andi began, but Ainsley cut her off.

"No, I mean how can I let this sit on my conscience?" she said. "How could I go around knowing he's done this and I can prove it and not say anything?"

"Ainsley, the Democrats may go after Conrad but the Republicans are going to come after you," Andi replied firmly. "There are going to be people calling you all kinds of names and they're going to be saying you're doing this because he was cheating on you."

Ainsley was quiet for a moment, just watching Andi. "Is that why you think I'm doing this?"

"I don't know why you're doing this," Andi replied, after a pause of her own. "I wouldn't blame you if you want revenge, but I'd be worried about the appearance of you airing out your grievances like this. On television no question or comment has to be relevant."

Ainsley felt her eyes starting to fill with tears. Annoyed at her hormone levels, she blinked rapidly, trying to hold it all back. "It's the right thing to do," she said. "Seth broke the law. He also broke the vow he made to me, but he broke the law. I have a responsibility to uphold here, even if everyone thinks I'm doing this because of what he did to me."

"As long as you're sure," Andi said.

"I'm sure." Ainsley's voice was quiet, but firm.

Andi took the paperwork and the disc copies. Ainsley trusted she knew how to break the story, and as the papers slid into the congresswoman's briefcase, she realized that her part in this saga was either swiftly coming to a close, or was just about to get much, much worse.

She and Andi exited through different doors, and Ainsley found Cameron waiting for her outside. He shot up from the bench he was sitting on. "You all right?" he asked as she came into the hall.

She nodded. "Andi's taking care of it." For a moment she thought about asking Cam to take her somewhere for lunch, but then she remembered that she didn't know when Andi was going to make her move. It would probably be before the end of the day. "Let's go home," she suggested instead. "I'm hungry."

Cam just put his arm around her shoulders briefly, propelling her down the hall, and chuckled softly.

Once back at Ainsley's house, everyone ignored the television, knowing when the story broke by when Ainsley's cell phone started ringing every few minutes. She took a few calls, but for the most part, she let it go to voice mail.

That night the ladies went to bed relatively early, but Cam stayed up in the kitchen, his laptop out on the island as he read the day's news. So far reactions were splitting pretty evenly down party lines, and so far no one seemed aware of Ainsley's involvement in bringing it all to light.

He had moved on to checking his email, where he had six messages from Vala and twice that number from Admiral Harper, when Ainsley came down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Oh, I didn't know you were still up," he said. "I was just catching up on some stuff."

Ainsley shook her head. "I couldn't sleep," she replied. "The baby's wide awake."

Cameron watched her as she walked through the kitchen and got a glass of water, his eyes mostly on her stomach. Her pajamas were rumpled and she moved awkwardly when she walked back to his side. "Did Vala send you anything interesting?" she asked.

"I wonder sometimes why the base doesn't restrict her internet access," Cam said. "Today's best is a link to a website about me."

"About you?"

"Yep. You'd figure there'd be a site for Sheppard, but..." He trailed off, staring at the website Vala had linked him to. "Wait, there's an affiliate."

Ainsley giggled, covering her mouth with her hand to muffle the noise, and she leaned against him. "Oh, that's too much."

"Yeah, it is." Cameron closed up the laptop and looked at her. "So this may seem like an odd time to ask, this but - Do you know if you're having a boy or a girl?"

She looked at him for a moment and started giggling again. He wasn't sure what had brought this on, but he wasn't going to complain. Given the choice, he'd rather see her laughing than crying, and he'd seen too much of the latter lately. "I don't," she said, once she was able to talk again. "Just didn't seem like a big deal."

"Well," he replied as she leaned away from him, "I guess you'll find out soon enough."

She started to say something in agreement, but then Cameron did something he hadn't done since that first night, when Ainsley was already asleep. He turned on his stool and laid his hand against her belly.

Immediately he knew what she'd meant earlier about the baby being awake. Every few seconds he felt a pressure against his hand. Without thinking much about it, he ran his palm over her stomach, feeling the baby moving.

He was about to pull away when Ainsley grasped his other hand and pressed it against her belly too. He just stared for a long time, listening to the sounds of them breathing. Her body was so warm, and there was something amazing about feeling her child kicking within her.

Cam looked up and saw how wide her eyes were. Her breathing was a little labored, and as he realized how very close they were he licked his lips without thinking about it. Her hand tightened on his, and what happened next was unbelievably wrong. In the days and weeks to come he'd blame it on his own tiredness, on the emotional strain that had been on them both, but the truth was he did it because he wanted to.

It wasn't like he'd never thought about kissing her before, but this time he actually did it, cupping the back of her neck and pulling her down to him. She smelled of mint and soap, and her skin was smooth and warm. At first it was just lips brushing against lips, but then his thumb brushed her ear and she whimpered. That tiny sound was enough to shred his remaining restraint, and he tugged her closer.

The kiss turned sloppy, open-mouthed and heated, but Cameron kept one hand against her belly. Ainsley leaned into him, her hands on his shoulders as he threaded his fingers into her hair. One of them made a throaty noise - he couldn't tell which - and all he could think about was how much he didn't want to stop.

The heater came on, and the sudden sound made Ainsley try to pull away. Cam resisted mindlessly, his mouth trailing wet kisses down her neck when she turned her head away. She moaned loudly, her own resistance starting to melt, and he realized what he was doing. As quickly and gently as he could, he pushed her back, trying to get her out of his reach. Her lips were red and wet now and he had to look away.

"I - I don't - I - should -" she stammered, and Cam was stunned mostly because Ainsley couldn't get a complete sentence out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry," he said, almost reflexively. "I - that - I'm sorry."

He met her eyes cautiously, and for a long time they just stared. He couldn't get his brain around all the permutations of how wrong this was. She was married; she was pregnant and probably had some interesting hormonal issues; he was taking advantage of her emotional distress. Yet at the same time, part of his brain stubbornly rejected any feeling of guilt.

She mumbled something about getting to bed. He saw her blush and flinch once the words were out of her mouth, belatedly realizing that that might sound like an invitation. Cameron wished her a good night's sleep, saying he was exhausted as well. He wasn't sure she believed him, but she made her way upstairs, leaving him alone in the kitchen.

It was a long time before he even tried to get to sleep.

Part III