Half a Heart

-Maria:
After the game, Leo and I just spent some time together alone. I had missed him so much, and the hormones didn't really help, one minute I was crying and the next I was happy go lucky. I sighed, the hormone thing and the morning sickness was the worst things in pregnancy, especially now that I'm going through it myself. Currently we were in bed and Leo was playing with my hair as I rested my head on his chest.

"I'm terrified of giving birth." I blurted out after a while and Leo chuckled.

"Every woman is, amor." he said and I laughed before closing my eyes.

"I think I'm a bit different, I've always been terrified of hospitals, needles and doctors, I guess it has to do with how much I saw my dad being in the hospital, and I generally don't like hospitals, people die in there." I said nervously and Leo turned around so he was facing me and kissed me softly before looking into my eyes.

"I know amor, but I'll be there every step of the way, I won't let you go and besides don't forget that hospitals are also the place where beautiful women such as yourself bring bundle's of joy into the world." he said and I smiled.

"I guess that's one way of seeing it, and I know you'll be there amor, I love you." I said and gave him an eskimo kiss. He laughed and pecked my lips.

"Te amo con todo mi alma." he said and I smiled, I loved how passionate he was. We spent some more time in bed, before we decided to get up. As soon as I got up the wave of nausea hit me and I groaned before moving to the bathroom, Leo coming up behind me. This was the usual routine, every morning, in the afternoon and in the middle of the night. I honestly don't even know how they call this "morning sickness". It should be called 'every time of the day sickness'. After I was done Leo wrapped his arms around me and dragged me to the kitchen.

"You have to eat something mi amor." he said and got me some orange juice. I smiled at him and took a sip as he looked at me, expecting me to eat something. Suddenly I had this weird craving for nutella, that's weird since I've always hated nutella, or chocolate with hazelnuts in general.

"Do we have some nutella left?" I asked shyly and Leo grinned widely before moving to the pantry and grabbing the jar of nutella and a spoon. I grabbed the spoon and opened the jar, grabbing a spoon full and eating, closing my eyes.

"This is so good." I said and Leo laughed and went to make himself something to eat. This was my first "craving", actually this was the first time in a while that I'd enjoyed eating without feeling sick. After breakfast, Leo wanted to take me out shopping and even though I protested, I couldn't resist him when he said he wanted to check out some stuff for the baby. If there was one thing I loved to do it was shopping for baby clothes or anything baby related, everything was just so cute. We arrived at the mall and Leo wrapped his arm around my waist protectively and dragged me to the mall quickly, as the photographers were snapping pictures rapidly.

"I hate that I can't take you anywhere without having to sneak and run around." Leo said and pinched the bridge of his nose. I walked up to him and kissed him softly, he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back.

"I love you Leo, and I don't care about that, in fact I love spending time with you and I accepted a long time ago that this would happen, don't beat yourself up for it." I said and he smiled, kissing my forehead.

"Mama was right, you're the best thing that ever happened to me and I can't believe I almost lost you." he said and I just shook my head and kissed him.

"You never lost me." I whispered and he grinned, he grabbed my hand and we walked into a store where they sold baby items. Leo went to check out the furniture and I automatically went to the clothing. I smiled at the tiny shoes and tiny clothing and put a hand on my stomach, if I was sure of the gender I'd go mad over these clothes. However since we didn't know yet, we'd decided on sticking to neutral colours and neutral furniture. I grabbed a body with "I love daddy" printed across it and smiled, this was definitely something I'd get. I grabbed the matching set of pacifiers as well. I knew Leo would love this. I grabbed some "I love mommy" things as well and some tiny socks and other neutral clothing. I walked to the furniture section and found Leo.

"Amor, what do you think about this?" He asked me and pointed to a brown crib, it was huge and adorable. I nodded and he smiled, calling someone who worked there to help us with buying the crib. After he arranged everything, he took one look at what I got and an adorable smile spread across his face when he saw the body and matching pacifiers.

"That's adorable mi amor, I can't wait until the baby'll join us." he said and I smiled.

"I can't wait either, even though the birth still scares me." I laughed and Leo just shook his head. We stepped out of the store and Leo insisted on carrying the small bag with the baby clothes, I rolled my eyes and let him have his way. We walked past a store where they were selling suits and I pulled Leo inside.

"Remember what I told you about that polka dot suit?" I asked and he nodded, before dragging me around the store until he found something he liked. I wrinkled my nose at the silver suit and closed my eyes.

"That's ok, but we need to grab you some plain ones as well." I said and he laughed, before allowing me to pick out a black one and a navy one. He went and paid for the three suits and we got out of the store. Leo ended up pulling me to some stores and picking out stuff for me, even though I insisted that these clothes probably wouldn't even fit in about a month. He just rolled his eyes and paid for them. We were about to grab some lunch since I was craving chinese, when my phone rang. I raised an eyebrow and answered.

"Hola?" I answered and waited for the reply.

"Is this Maria Tabrizian?" a man asked and I felt incredibly confused.

"Yes this is she, now what is it?" I asked rather rudely and Leo laughed at my impatience.

"I'm calling on behalf of Amnesty and Unicef, we've heard that you're very interested in this line of work, and since you speak different languages, we'd like to offer you a job here." he asked and my eyes widened.

"But sir, I don't have the right education yet." I said and he chuckled.

"We've spoken with your former headmistress and history teacher from your old school, and they've shown us your work and we're positive that you already have what we're looking for." he said and I smiled, this was unreal.

"I'd be honoured to work for you, but at the moment I'm pregnant, and I don't know when I'll be ready to work." I said and bit my lip.

"That can be fixed, besides for the most part your job will include phone calls and skype interviews, when you feel ready we can start the traveling part." he said and I smiled. By now Leo had come back with our food and was looking at me weirdly.

"Then I'll be happy to work for you, but not right now, I need to be with my fiancé and also spend some time with my child when he/she's born." I said and the man agreed. I hung up and smiled widely and explained it to Leo.

"I'm proud of you querida." he whispered and leaned across the table to kiss me. We had lunch and afterwards Leo got a call from Xavi, and now we were headed to their place.

"Midget!" Ana squealed and I laughed, hugging her tightly. She looked at me weirdly and I sighed.

"I know, I'm huge already." I said and she slapped my shoulder and rolled her eyes.

"No you're not silly, you're just glowing." she said and I rolled my eyes. We got into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Leo sat next to me and wrapped his arm around me. I leaned in to him and closed my eyes, I felt exhausted.

"Do you want to go home mi amor?" Leo whispered to me and I shook my head.

"I'm fine, I just need to rest my eyes for a bit." I said and he nodded, kissing my head gently. After a while I opened my eyes and saw Leo smiling at me.

"You fell asleep there for a couple of minutes." he teased and I rolled my eyes and got up.

"So I heard you went shopping for your baby, do you know if it's a girl or a boy?" Xavi asked and I smiled at him.

"It's to early to tell, but there's something about this baby that makes me think it's a boy, call it mother's instinct." I said and he laughed. I walked over to Anna.

"I'm sorry, I know this is very hard on you, but can I ask you something?" I asked her and she nodded, hugging me.

"Would you consider being my baby's godmother?" I asked and she smiled widely and nodded.

"Thank you." she whispered and I smiled, hugging her again. Leo and Xavi made their way into the balcony where I was with Anna. I smiled at them and Xavi wrapped his arm around Anna whilst Leo wrapped his arms around me. Suddenly I spotted a ring on Anna's finger. My eyes widened and I squealed.

"You're engaged!" I squealed and they laughed and nodded.

"Congratulations!" Leo said and hugged Xavi and Anna. I smiled and hugged Xavi as well before hugging Anna tight and practically jumping up and down.

"I'm so happy for you." I whispered to her and she smiled. I was glad that things were going great for Anna, truth to be told I had been feeling horrible about my pregnancy because she lost her baby, but now it feels ok and I wouldn't want it any other way.