Page 98 of Hollow State

Gideon shrugged. "Someday."

"Yeah, after you get my cottage built." Zadie poked him in the arm.

"You know, things happen, and sometimes babies come when you least expect them," Wynn said.

Zadie bent down, scooped up a handful of grass, and tossed it at Wynn. Most of it fell short. A few pieces landed on her bare feet.

“Some of us know how to use birth control." Zadie tilted her head and smiled.

“Birth control has a known failure rate.” Darwin couldn't let that one go. "Lots of babies⁠—"

"Stop talking," Zadie said. "We don't need to hear your statistical, medical analysis of pregnancy rates, thank you very much."

Darwin lifted both hands. “I'll just say I told you so when it fails.”

Gideon shifted forward. “There should be a rule.”

Zadie groaned. “Here we go.”

“I’m serious.” Gideon glanced around the group. “There should be a limit on how many people can be pregnant at the same time.”

Neve lowered her chin. “Excuse me?”

“Gus panicked when he found out Neve was pregnant.” Gideon took a long sip of his water.

Neve sat up straighter. “He did not. He was just tongue-tied.”

Coulter frowned. “Gus doesn’t panic. He goes quiet and thinks.”

“A general panicking is not a thing,” Quinn said.

“It is when you’re still living under his house,” Gideon said. “Trust me. Shepherd went very still, and Gus said something about operational continuity.”

Scout laughed. “That’s his way of panicking?”

“Then Shepherd said that means we’re down almost four men,” Zadie said.

"How do two pregnant women equal four men down?" Coulter asked. "That math doesn't add up."

“One. Darwin almost never goes on missions for Black Hollow,” Gideon said, pointing toward Darwin, and that was nearly true. He'd been on two since Black Hollow had officially formed. Both times they'd needed a medic, and he hadn't actually gone on the mission. He stayed close in case someone got injured. That was it. "Two. I can't always go now that Darwin and I are running Hyperion as an R&D facility for the government. Add in two pregnant women who are, well, with child. That equals four."

"I'm offended," Scout said. "Working with the government-military again doesn't mean they get to dictate when people have families."

“Was this an actual conversation?” Neve asked. "Or is this Gideon thinking out loud."

“I'm just stating that it makes sense since Black Hollow is an official elite team with the military, and we're all part of it.”

"It makes sense," Neve said. "But it's not something I want to put out there in writing. We can all have babies when we want to."

"Are you going to have more?" Darwin asked.

"Let's see how this one goes," Neve said. "But I'm thinking at my age, this is probably it."

"I'm forty-four." Darwin laughed. "Older than you."

“Well, I'm younger than both of you. Mid-thirties," Wynn said. “So, we can still have more.”

Darwin's breath got stuck in his throat. He coughed while everyone else just laughed. "Maybe."