Elliot nodded his agreement. “It definitely does. Feels like one of those jokes my mom used to tell. Well, not so much a joke as an intended threat whenever I did something bad. She’d say I’d grow up to live in a prison.” He chuckled and gestured at the walls around them. “Guess she was right.” Sing Sing definitely felt more like home than any of the other safehouses they’d resided in, and he definitely agreed with Rae’s sentiment that this place had made them spoiled. He suddenly felt terrible for all the people they’d left behind in the city, as well as all the people trying to make their own way. He bit his lip and nodded. “Definitely a well-deserved reward for all we’ve been through.”
“If they want to learn,” he agreed. And despite how much he wanted their child to like dinosaurs, he would honestly be okay if the little one didn’t have that same appreciation for prehistoric creatures. “If you start teaching it early enough, I’m sure there’s a better chance for it to be a fan of dancing.” His grin returned when Rae continued to ramble, and he shook his head. “It’s cute when you ramble, especially about things like this.”
In the face of such certainty, it was hard to indulge his own insecurities about what was to come in the next several months. For the moment, they were chased away, replaced by a more genuine smile this time. “I have no doubt that we’ll be a fantastic parenting team,” he said.
He snorted. “I’d say you’re entitled to a little mistrust on occasion.” After all, he wasn’t perfect. He made a good many mistakes, and whenever those mistakes risked endangering the people he loved, he always beat himself up the hardest of all. Elliot quirked a smirk when Rae made a remark about her favorite version of his nickname. “Medical Steel is probably the only one you have to share, though,” he teased. “My sexiness and cuddliness are reserved for you.”
With a nod and a deep breath of his own to calm his nerves, Elliot applied the gel to the working end of the probe. He pushed up Rae’s shirt, giving her another smile and warning, “It’s gonna be cold,” before rolling the probe over the swell of her stomach. His eyes flicked to the screen as he searched for what he’d been instructed to search for.