Chapter 10: May 14, 2006

At nine in the morning the next day, he was in the middle of getting dressed when his cell phone rang.

“Hello?” he said after flipping it open.

“Hey there baby daddy,” came Megan’s voice from the other end. “My parents are off at church, so why don’t you swing by and pick me up and show me a good time?”

“Sure. Be there in twenty,” he said, clicking the phone shut and finishing getting dressed. “I’m off to pick up Megan,” he called towards Tyrone’s room, just in case his roommate was actually awake after the very late night he’d had the night before.

He stepped into the living room, and slipped his shoes on.

“—for dinner?”

He turned, and there was Megan, nine months pregnant and in a yellow shirt and blue jeans, looking disoriented for a moment. Her hair was a mess, like she had just been having sex. She glanced at the calendar and clock on the wall, then at him. Her eyes flipped down, then up his body, realizing what he was doing. “Uh, hi?” he said.

“Never mind me,” she replied quickly. “Is Tyrone up?”

“Not yet. Why?”

“Good. Go pick me up, and I’ll wake him up. It’ll make more sense in a couple of hours.”

“Any chance I can get any more explanation, or is it too much spoilers?”

She considered that a moment. “Okay, I suppose you need to tell me. Anyways, I’m moving most of my stuff out of my house this morning—I don’t have that much, so Tyrone’s car’ll fit most of it. But we’ll be doing that while you bring me back here this morning and give me the loving I desperately need.”

“I thought he was going to go with his family—”

“In the afternoon, silly. You’re not going to leave the house all day, and they’re all at church anyway. He’ll drop me off with his car around lunchtime here out front, and then after I pop back to this morning—like I just did—then you know to come out and get me. Or my stuff, because depending on how horny I get, I might just make myself pop back. I’m not sure yet, because I haven’t done it.” She grinned at his stunned expression. “Get used to it, love, because it’s going to get a lot more like this in the future.”

“Next time, I just won’t ask,” he muttered, shaking his head and turning to go.

“Love you, dear. Give me a good fucking, because I need it.” She giggled and blew him a kiss. “Oh, and leave the door unlocked; it seems I forgot my key!”

His head spinning, he got in his car—directions to her parents’ house still in the front seat—and headed out.

It was easier to find the house in daytime—especially having been there twice already at night—and he pulled into the empty driveway. Once he got out of the car, he took a moment to look over their house; nothing special, just a one-story ranch with an attached garage. He wondered if Megan had any siblings; she hadn’t mentioned any yet. They would have been at graduation too, right?

He took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. He was greeted after a few moments by a smiling, effusive Megan—wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans and looking significantly more put together. “Hey there baby daddy,” she said, sweeping him up for a kiss. “You ready?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” he said, turning to go, then he paused. “You have anything you want to bring? A bag or something?”

“Oh, thanks for reminding me,” she said, pointing to two duffel bags on the floor nearby. “Mind grabbing those? Those are the most important things, in case my parents kick me out for skipping church this morning.”

“Sure thing,” he said, stepping in to grab them. The house was packed with knickknacks—cute little ceramic dolls and other things enclosed in glass shelves everywhere. The bags were hefty, but he would be fine getting them to the car. As he turned, he noticed her fiddling with the handle. “Oh, you told me to tell you to keep it unlocked.”

She looked at him quizzically. “Oh?”

“Your future self is going to be by shortly with Tyrone to get more of your stuff, I think. Let me guess: you’re still not unpacked from college?”

She grinned. “I figured something like this would happen.” She then stepped out, gesturing for him to follow. “I’ve already left a note telling them where I am. You’ll bring me back later tonight, and I’ll have an argument with them, and that’ll be that.”

“You move fast.” He hefted the bags and put them in his trunk.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about; we’ve known each other for years,” she said with a laugh. “Just ... asynchronous ones.”

He sighed, closed the trunk, and climbed in the car.

They barely got to the second stoplight before she said, “Hey, have you had breakfast yet? I’m starving.”

“You have leftovers at my place that you made me take home, remember?”

“That’s for lunch, love. I need something for breakfast. Let’s grab drive-through this time—and it means we won’t be crossing paths with Tyrone.”

His own stomach rumbling, he decided to oblige her, and turned the other way to slide through a fast food place still serving breakfast. By the time they had done that and got back to his place—their place?—Tyrone’s car was gone. Megan brought in the food while Rory grabbed her bags and deposited them in his room. Their room?

Over breakfast, Rory asked thoughtfully, “So does this mean you’re moved in, now?”

She shook her head and talked through her mouthful of egg-cheese-and-sausage sandwich. “No, it’ll be a while before that really happens. But I won’t be spending another night in that other house if I can at all help it. So I guess in one sense, yes, I’m moved in.”

“What a first meal,” he said with a laugh, gesturing at the fast food.

“When you travel through time as much as I have, ‘first’ starts to have almost no meaning,” she commented wryly. “So often, the first time isn’t actually the first—or the first comes in the middle.” She paused, as though thinking of something. A slight frown appeared in the corner of her lips, then she shook her head. “Anyway. It won’t be until tomorrow at the earliest I start unpacking my stuff. And we’ll need to upgrade some furniture. Your bed, in particular, needs an upgrade.”

He thought about that for a moment, watching her wince and rub her belly for a moment, when something dawned on him. “We ... don’t have a nursery, do we?”

“Fun fact,” she said, shaking a finger at him as she talked through her latest mouthful. “Tyrone will be moving out very shortly. I’m sure I’m discussing that very thing with him right now, between him moving all my stuff out to his car. His bedroom will become the nursery. It’ll be a little cramped—trust me, I’ve seen it—but we’ll make do.”

“We have more kids than the one though ... right? How is that even going to work?” He gestured in a random direction. “Normally, I’d think of upsizing from this house or something like that, but that obviously won’t work with your condition, so how do we cram six people in this two-bedroom house without going crazy?”

She smiled. “Four bedroom, two bathroom house, I believe you mean.”

“Uh...”

“I’m a time traveler, Rory. And this house was designed to be easy to expand. There’s a reason I frequently come around to knock on the front door.”

He frowned. “I don’t make enough money to—”

The grin on her face made him pause. “Time traveler,” she said, melody in her voice.

“I could swear I asked you about lottery numbers, and you said no.”

She shook her head. “Nope, I don’t think you’ve ever asked about lottery numbers or anything like that.” A beat. “Oh. A future me, you might have. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“So wait, we’re going to win the lottery?”

She frowned. “Look, just accept that we’ll be fine money-wise and don’t ask too many questions.”

There was something there, again, and his head spun. He tried to remember what she had said when he’d asked about it before—something about it being too hard to remember the numbers? How would she have gotten around that, especially if she couldn’t bring a reminder with her when traveling? “Just one question,” he wondered. She narrowed his eyes, and he continued, “Do your parents know?”

“Goddess, no.” Mischief touched her lips. “The fact of the matter is that all their worrying about my getting a job or whether the baby can be supported is moot. I’d be fine, even if you weren’t around—although with you not around, I never would have gotten knocked up, so—”

“I get it, time travel.” He said with a laugh, getting up from the table and starting to clean up. “So, uh. What do you want to do today?” The look of exasperation and skepticism she gave him made him laugh. “Okay, I meant aside from that.”

“Aside from cuddling? Sex, of course,” she said, laughing. After a few moments, her smile softened, and there was a twinkle in her eye. “I have another surprise for you, too. “ She got up from the table, and walked up to him, giving him a peck on the lips. “And maybe it’ll help you you relax. You’re so ... tense!” She reached up and began to massage his shoulders. “Is there something else that’s going on?”

“No,” he said. “Just the stress of you suddenly moving in like this. Two days ago, I had no idea when we’d meet in real time, and all of a sudden, we’re housemates and Tyrone’s moving out and there’s going to be a baby coming and—it’s a lot, Megan.”

She sighed, wrapping her arms around him and holding him as best she could with a large, pregnant belly. “I know, love. It’ll all settle out.” He gave him another peck on the lips. “Why don’t I go clean up a little and get my surprise ready for you.”

“Does it involve sex?” he wondered.

“In one,” she said with a laugh.

“Then yes,” he smiled, feeling a stirring in his loins at the anticipation.

One more kiss, and then she scuttled away into his room, grabbing some things from her bag, then to the bathroom.

To give her time, Rory took a pass at cleaning up the kitchen—mostly taking out the trash, since the detritus of Tyrone’s party had piled up—and then retreated to the living room to wait, grabbing one of the art books under the coffee table to peruse while he did so. She had made her way back into his room at this point, door closed.

After another five minutes or so, his door opened, and he looked up, setting the book down.

There, marching into the living room, humming Pomp and Circumstance, was Megan, clad again in her graduation robe, her smile beaming at him.

He smiled back at her as she slowly—still humming—marched over to him and reached down a hand. “Hey there,” she said, a sultry tone to her voice. “I kinda feel like I’m graduating in more ways than one—from college, and I’m moving in, I’ve finally really met the man of my dreams, and I’m going to have a baby soon. I think we should celebrate.”

Rory took no time standing up, and she took his hand, leading him back to his—their?—bedroom. Once inside, she closed the door, and embraced him, immediately leading into a kiss. He returned it passionately, his hands finding her belly, rubbing it. She had enjoyed that before, and he figured she would again.

He realized as he did that she was not wearing clothes under the gown.

“Mmm,” she agreed as he rubbed. “You gave me this big belly, you know. It’s your little baby kicking around in here.”