Hadley gave me a look as we ate breakfast together almost two weeks after that little hospital incident.

Immediately my guard went up.

Not that I hadn't been on pins and needles the day I found out Hadley was pregnant and Death decided to pay us a visit. I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around the entire thing.

A guy showing up out of the blue, telling me I had to face all of my fears? Death showing up and basically announcing that my wife, our unborn child and I had a bounty on our heads?

Would you believe it?

I wanted desperately to believe that this was some sort of joke, that I had somehow hallucinated the entire thing. That would certainly make everything a whole hell of a lot easier.

The one time I had brought that up to Hadley, though, she had burst into tears, called me an asshole and claimed that I didn't have enough trust in her.

I'd been so alarmed I'd sort of just stood there in the middle of the kitchen and looked at her in amazement until she stopped crying. And then she threw her arms around me in a furiously tight hug and that was that.

I had no idea what to expect with this whole pregnancy thing, but it was certainly turning out to be a bit more difficult than I had originally thought.

Hadley wasn't usually an emotional person. Whenever she usually got even the slightest bit infuriated it was accompanied with all the fires of Hell, but I could count on one hand the number of times I'd seen her cry. Now I was lucky if she managed to go a few hours without her sobbing buckets of tears.

Her shoelaces broke? Tears.

Her toast burnt? Tears.

She didn't wash her favorite bra? Tears.

This had happened so many times I quickly learned to just pull her into my arms and wait until she stopped.

And not only was that a handful to deal with, but there was also the fact that I had the notion that this Havoc person would immediately be after my hide, and for the past few weeks there had been...absolutely nothing.

When I say absolutely nothing, I mean it - a big, fat nothing.

There were no strange occurrences or anybody showing up in the apartment, demanding I shout out everything I was afraid of. Hadley was perfectly fine, the baby was perfectly fine, I was perfectly fine. Everyone was perfectly fine.

Hell, even work was going smoothly for the both of us. I'd had no cancellations or technical difficulties and almost every shot I'd taken had come out completely perfect. Hadley hadn't had any cases that made her want to rip her hair out, which was definitely saying something.

So why wasn't anything happening?

It wasn't as if I wanted something terrible to happen or anything. I just wanted to get this the hell over with.

I'd had enough of looking over my shoulder at every turn and corner of the streets. Waking up drenched in sweat because of some inexplicable nightmare. Randomly checking up on Hadley during the day or going to see if she was all right whenever she went to lay down for a nap.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" I asked Hadley, a little wary for the answer.

Hadley shrugged, picking at a bit of leftover eggs on her plate. "I was just wondering..."

"Clearly."

"You shut your mouth, Archer Morales."

I fought back one dramatic eye roll and leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms. "What were you wondering, miele?"

She blew out a sigh and slumped backwards in her chair. "If something was happening, you'd tell me, wouldn't you?"

I just stared at her.

She stared back, completely serious.

"That's kind of a dumb question, Hadley. If something was happening of course I'd sure as hell tell you," I said, trying to keep the disdain out of my voice. "You're the expert on this, not me."

"Like I said, I was just wondering," she said with a scoff. "I'm no expert on this, either. I'm just as confused as you are."

That, admittedly, caught my attention wholeheartedly.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that this isn't how I've known Havoc to operate," Hadley explained, standing up, heading to the sink with the breakfast dishes. "Last time when he showed up to warn me you had that accident almost immediately afterwards."

I thought about that for a long moment.

"So he's...planning something?" I asked slowly after a moment.

Hadley crossed her arms over her stomach, leaning against the kitchen counter. "I don't know, Archer. And I think that's what scares me most."

Me and her both.

"Hadley." I push back from the table and pull her into my arms, holding her tightly. "You're an idiot if you think I'm going to let anything happen to you."

She snorts out a laugh into my shoulder. "Oh, how I love your abrasive charm."

"Wouldn't have married me if you didn't."

So making jokes was a good sign that maybe we could make it through this with some sanity left. But that was still a far stretch.

"Well, I should probably leave for work now," Hadley said, pulling away from me after a few moments. "I'm going to be late."

"Sadly, so should I," I agreed. "I've got a shoot in a half hour at Central Park Zoo."

Hadley raised her eyebrows. "The zoo? Why on Earth would someone want their pictures taken at the zoo?"

"Yeah, that part got me, too."

A few days ago I'd gotten a frantic call from a woman who desperately needed to have pictures taken for last minute holiday cards. I'd asked her if she knew where she wanted the photo shoot, and the first place she suggested was Central Park Zoo.

I wasn't all that fond of zoos, but I went along with it only because she'd already sent in a downpayment.

So now I was off to the zoo to meet this woman, Hailey, her husband, Dean, and their two daughters.

"Will you be home tonight?" Hadley asked.

"I've got a lot of editing to do, so I'm not going anywhere."

"Good."

I turned to go grab my camera bag from my office, but pulled up short for a moment. I didn't know what it was, but something made me turn around back to Hadley.

"What?" she said, looking confused.

Before I could stop myself I reached out, grabbed her face in my hands, pressed my lips against hers.

When I pulled away, her eyes were glassy and she had a dazed look on her face.

"What was that for?"

"You know, I'm not really sure."

"Huh."

We both shrugged and left it at that.

I slipped into my jacket, pulled on my shoes, grabbed my camera bag from my office and then left. The sooner I got this photo shoot over with, the better. If I hadn't said it before, I'll say it again. I hated zoos.

I took a taxi over to Central Park and made my way to the zoo with a few minutes to spare before the photo shoot was set to begin. Right by the front gates I noticed a rather frazzled looking woman chasing after two identical little girls with bouncing blonde curls, who were running around and more or less reaking havoc on unsuspecting passersby.

I almost stopped short and watched the display with my mouth hanging open in horror.

This was what Hadley and I had to look forward to if we had a daughter?

"Hi." A man with graying hair and a wary smile approached me. "Are you Archer Morales?"

"I am," I said, shaking the man's hand.

"Dean Carter. Uh, forgive me for asking, but...how old are you?" Dean Carter shot me an apologetic look. "It's just that you look pretty young."

"I'm twenty-six."

"And business is good for you?"

Considering the fat check I just got last month from doing a model's work portfolio? I was doing pretty well.

"Just fine."

Dean Carther turned and waived to his wife, who had somehow managed to round up the little girls.

"Hi," Hailey Carter said, reaching out to shake my hand. "You must be Archer."

"Right." I gestured towards the zoo. "Shall we?"

"Of course."

Dean was kind enough to pay the fare for my entrance, and after we handed over our tickets, Hailey marched off, intent on finding the perfect spot she had in mind for the photo shoot.

"Sorry about Hailey," Dean said to me as we walked. "She's a little headstrong when it comes to things like this."

I fought back a smile.

"Not a problem," I said.

Dean glanced down at my left hand, the gold band on my ring finger.

"You're married, huh?"

"Yes," I said. "Almost two years in June."

Dean grinned and nudged my shoulder. "It sometimes gets harder as the years go on, I won't lie. But it also gets better too."

I imagined Dean was quite right about that.

Hailey Carter's perfect spot turned out to be this little rest area right outside - ironically - the penguin house. Relatively untrampled snow covered the area. The pine trees covered with frost in the background set the scene pretty well.

All in all, not too bad.

"I hope this is okay," Hailey said, looking at me anxiously. "I thought this little spot was perfect, and I - "

"No, this is fine." I gave her a reassuring smile. Well, as much as I was capable of giving. "The lighting should be good enough."

"Perfect!" Hailey whipped open her rather large handbag and pulled out a tattered, checkered blanket, spread it out on the ground in the middle of the snow-covered grass. "There. I thought this would look nice, too."

The woman definitely knew what she wanted, that was for sure.

I pulled out my prized camera - a Nikon D3200 Hadley had given me for my twenty-first birthday - and turned the thing on, checked to make sure I had the proper space on my memory card, everything was tuned to the right settings.

"Hey!"

There was a gentle tugging on my pant leg. I looked down into the bright blue eyes of one of the little girls who was staring up at me with a wide, toothy smile

I wasn't stupid. I knew I could handle little kids. I'd spent enough time around my three little sisters when they were younger, not to mention with the plethora of cousins I had.

But now that the fact that I was going to be a father was weighing heavily on my shoulders...I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do.

Act the same? Be stern and disapproving? What?

"Hi," I said slowly, a little nervous

"Watch'a doing?" the little girl asked cheerily

"Getting my camera ready," I said. "I'm going to take pictures for your family."

The little girl frowned, her nose crinkling in a sort of adorable way.

"Oh, I don't like pictures. They always get my bad side."

I couldn't help bursting out laughing.

"Brie!" Hailey called out to her daughter. "Stop bothering Archer! He's working."

"Oh, no, it's fine," I said without thinking. "Not a problem."

Okay...where had that come from?

"Do you have kids?" Hailey asked, looking a little sheepish.

"Er..." I cleared my throat, my face suddenly very hot. "My wife and I...we're expecting our first sometime in April."

Hailey and Dean exchanged knowing, affectionate smiles.

"Good luck," they both said in unison.

I fought back another nervous laugh. That was nice of them. Hadley and I needed all the luck in the world

The photo shoot went much better than I was expecting, considering we were right next to the shitty smelling penguin house and the two little girls weren't feeling all that cooperative.

Despite her rather frazzled air, Hailey Carter was photogentic. Just about every shot I got of her looked good, if I had to say so. She looked well together with Dean, and when Brie and her sister Chelsea were thrown into the mix, the results were pretty damn good.

All together I took about two hundred photos over the course of an hour, with a good bunch of outtakes - Chelsea picking her nose, Brie rolling in the snow, Dean and Hailey reprimanding them - but the Carters were going to be pleased with what they got.

"Thank you so, so much for doing this," Hailey said, clasping my hand after she looked through a few samples on my camera. "They turned out amazing."

"You're welcome," I said with a slight smile.

That was one of the best things about my job - the slap happy looks people got when they saw that they moments they wanted had been perfectly captured. It was one of those things that made my job worth while.

"You have a talent," Dean said.

"Thank you."

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" Chelsea, one of the little girls, was tugging frantically at my pant leg. Must be a sister thing. "I have something for you!"

I bent down on one knee to her level, unable to resist the rather urgent look on her face.

"What do you have for me?" I asked.

"This." She dropped a pale blue rock into my hand that was almost perfectly rounded and as smooth as water. "It's pretty, so I thought you might like it."

I wasn't sure of what I was supposed to do with a rock, but Chelsea seemed so adamant about the entire thing that I didn't want to disappoint her by tossing it aside or something.

"Thank you," I said.

"Do you like it?" Chelsea asked, looking frantic.

"I love it. It's perfect."

"Will you keep it?"

I tucked the rock into my jeans and gave my pocket a pat. "I promise."

Chelsea gave a wide, happy smile and then threw her arms around me in a hug. I was so startled I just stayed stock still for a moment. She was so tiny and fragile comapred to my much, much larger frame, I was afraid to hurt her by returning the hug.

But she was skipping off to go laugh and joke with her sister before I could even comprehend the situation enough to do something about it.

Dean and Hailey handed over my last payment for the session, and I gave them instructions on how to download the proofs they'd be receiving within the next few days online.

"By the way," Hailey said, catching my arm as I made to head towards the zoo entrance.

I glanced back over my shoulder. "Yeah?"

"You'll be a great father."

I left the zoo and Central Park with a different mindset after that comment.