Luna nodded. “I don’t — wait, let me think.” Luna sat for a moment. She dug her fingers into the mud and thought about what this meant, to her, Luna, Waterfolk. Pregnancy meant that you had to look for a nesting spot. A place to rest. A place to have the baby. A place to nurse the baby until you could move again. And wasn’t that what her plan already was, nesting?
It was a good plan.
Beckett, without even knowing, was giving her a nest.
She only had to get there.
And she had to get him there.
Safely.
And she had no idea if the baby would make it. So many didn’t, so she had to go with the flow.
She was good at that. It was in her DNA. Trouble was she was surrounded by stiff-neck, land-dwellers who would want to stop everything and fix it. She looked up in their faces, they were worried and afraid.
She would need to make sure she stayed strong. And kept Beckett safe. That was the only thing to do.
She took a deep long breath, stood, and swiped the gravel off the back of her legs. “We won’t tell Beckett. Not yet. Not until he comes back in three months.”
Sarah, crouched beside her in the rain, asked, “Are you sure?”
Chickadee said “It seems like something he ought to know, even if it—”
Luna said, “You said so yourself, he’ll come back. He’ll get himself arrested. I need him. I have to keep him safe. I owe him that. Even if it means keeping this from him. That’s my decision. No one can tell Beckett.”
Dan said, “I think he deserves the right to hear about this, but also, so far, he has terrible decision-making skills. And worse where Luna is concerned. So, I guess I agree with Luna. For what it’s worth. New friend and all.”
Sarah nodded. “New friend vote, I agree with Dan and Luna — yes. And oh Luna, I’m so—a baby, really?”
Dan reached down and squeezed her hand.
Chickadee squinted her eyes. “Fine, I’m in agreement. We won’t tell him until he comes home in three months.”
They nodded at each other solemnly.
Until Dan said, “But seriously, what am I going to tell Army?”
“Tell him I’m fine, it was something I ate.”
