Zoe was struggling to do up her pants. “Gorramit,” she muttered, pulling first one side, then the other, but neither wanted to meet in the middle.

“Honey?” Hank asked, turning from his shaving. “You okay?”

“Nothing fits!” Zoe sat down hard on the bed.

“What?”

“Nothing rutting fits me any more!” She lay back, her hair spread out on the blankets.

He approached her cautiously, the foam still sticking to his cheeks. “That’s because you’re pregnant,” he said softly. “Kinda takes women that way. So I’m told.”

“But there ain’t one thing in here that fits me!” She nodded towards her pants. “And these are the biggest I’ve got!”

He sighed. He’d known this moment was coming, and had prepared for it, but it still wasn’t going to make things any easier. “Zo, sweetheart,” he began, “I think you’ve just gotta accept you ain’t gonna get into your normal clothes for the next few months. You got our baby inside you, and he’s growing. He’s gonna be a fine, strong kid, only that means he’s gonna be … well, probably big.”

“Big?” She glared at him. “How big? And it’s all your fault anyway.”

He sat down gingerly next to her. “I know that. And I promise I will never come near you with my lewd and lascivious body ever again. But would you take a moment to try and calm down?”

“Calm …” She hit him, a full fist right on the muscle of his arm. “Calm? Who the hell says I ain’t calm?”

“Um, me.” He rubbed the bruise.

She closed her eyes. “Damn,” she whispered.

“You know, I’m just kinda glad it’s only you that’s pregnant at the moment,” Hank said, his tone light and conversational. “I’d hate to think what it’d be like if Freya and Kaylee were expecting too. ’Cause I get the feeling us guys’d be living in the shuttles.”

“Am I that bad?” she asked, her eyes still closed.

“Yes.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Be worth it at the end.”

“You think?”

“Only if you promise not to hit me again.”

She sat up and put her chin on his shoulder. “Sorry. It’s just …”

“You’re frustra