The mission was going smoothly.

Too smoothly.

That alone should have been a warning.

Slade moved through the corridor like a shadow, rifle steady, timing precise. Two guards already down, security looped, target location thirty meters ahead.

Clean work.

His comm crackled.

He tapped it once.

“Make it quick,” he muttered under his breath.

Silence for a moment.

Then—

“…You’re pregnant.”

The words came out of his mouth before his brain fully processed them.

He stopped walking.

Just stopped.

In the middle of the hallway.

Slowly, very slowly, Slade turned his head toward her like she had just announced the building was on fire.

“…Repeat that.”

She held something up.

A small white stick.

Slade stared at it.

Then at her.

Then back at the stick.

They were in the middle of a mission.

Armed guards.

Active target.

Security cameras.

And she had chosen now to deliver this information.

“…You brought a pregnancy test.”

His voice dropped lower.

“On a contract.”

He blinked once, recalibrating like a system receiving completely unexpected data.

“Positive,” he muttered, reading the result again.

Another pause.

Then he looked up at her.

“…You waited until now to tell me.”

A guard’s footsteps echoed faintly down the hall.

Slade didn’t even look away from her.

“Of all the environments available,” he said slowly, “you chose a hostile operation zone for this announcement.”

Another beat of silence.

Then he exhaled sharply through his nose.

“Fine.”

He handed the test back to her like it was somehow part of the mission equipment now.

“We finish the contract.”

His rifle came back up smoothly.

Then, after a brief pause—

“…and then we’re buying prenatal vitamins.”

He stepped forward again like nothing had happened.

Except his mind was already running entirely different calculations.

Cribs.

Doctors.

Safety.

And suddenly the mission felt a lot less important than it had five minutes ago.