Manchester, 2025

It had broken Simon's heart when he had to leave you again, it always did, but this time more than any, leaving you heavily pregnant for an unspecified amount of time nearly ended him.

You kept him updated with every scan, note from the doctor and everything you were doing on secret facetime calls on burner phones he wasn't supposed to have.

You showed him the crib you built all by yourself, whoever said they were difficult to build must've been building a different one because it was a cinch.

"I was supposed to do that for you, lovie.." Simon sighed, voice muffled by the signature black balaclava.

You agreed, but countered with the fact that there would be plenty of other things for him to do once the baby was actually here.

His mission lasted well past your due date, which suited funnily enough as your baby wasn't too keen on making their appearance just yet.

Though eventually, nature took its course and you gave birth to your baby, a healthy weight, ten fingers, ten toes, perfect.

You pondered over whether to break the news while Simon was still overseas or give him a surprise upon his return home.

Family and friends rallied around you to support you since you were home alone with a new baby and time swept you up and before you knew it, your baby was a month old and you'd yet to tell Simon.

You were unsure whether to be grateful or worried for Simon's silence, obviously in the thick of the mission without a spare minute to call home, or perhaps he'd dashed his burner phones for the time being.

When he got in contact with you again, he told you he was coming home, and you didn't quite know how to feel. You loved him, and you loved the baby he'd given you, but you were a little worried about how he'd react to not being told, not that it was anybody's fault of course, famously, babies have terrible timing.

The day came, and you'd asked Soap very nicely to drop Simon off from the airport, since you still had that wretched baby car seat to install in Simon's Range Rover.

Almost selfishly, Simon had simply forgotten that time had passed, especially three entire months, envisioning you about to burst at the seams, still pregnant with his child. Though he snapped out of it when he actually shook himself out of his military thinking and brought himself back into the real world.

Baby will be at least a month old if my thinking's right.. he thought to himself.

There's no way they could've held Baby in an extra month.. no, no that's stupid.

He unlocked your front door silently, a pet peeve you had with him, wishing he'd make more noise so he didn't startle you by creeping up behind you on accident, though you thought it would come in handy as to not startle the baby.

He put his bag down by the door, toed off his boots and shed his balaclava and hoodie, padding softly through the house.

"Love?" he didn't raise his voice because he knew, he could see that a baby was now living here, the cradle in the living room, toys scattered around, baby gro's on an airer in the hall.

He came to stand in the doorway of your shared bedroom, watching as you dozed peacefully. He crossed the room to you, seeing a distinct lack of baby bump.

He leaned down and kissed your forehead, looking to the foot of the bed, seeing tiny arms flailing under their blanket as the little one kicked up a fuss.

"Lovie.." Simon gently woke you, "got a little surprise for me eh?" he smiled as you opened your eyes.