Little Packages Ch. 13

(Daddy/Ben. October. two months after Kitten discovers she's pregnant)

I paused at the edge of the bedlam and smiled, thinking of just how much my life had changed since the first time I came to New York Comic-Con just a few years ago. Then I was lonely, only just climbing out of a cycle of depression with no guarantees I would make it.

Now? Now a slim hand gripped mine, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"You've come a long way, Daddy," she said. Unlike previous years when she had much more extravagant costumes, she didn't have time to put together one of her more elaborate ones this year. Fortunately, my wife has some talents, so some quick shopping got her a black belly shirt, cargo pants, gloves, boots and a funky belt with accessories. Ta-da...one Kim Possible cosplay.

"Psychic powers come with the pregnancy, Kitten?" I asked.

"Nah, but the kid's probably a mutant, so I'm getting her vibes and she's letting me know what you're thinking," she said. "Or I could just be your wife and know you pretty well at this point."

"Fair enough," I said as we walked past the enormous signs advertising this year's hot TV shows, video games, movies, comics and entered the main floor of the show. Kitten started referring to the baby as a girl almost as soon as she told me she was pregnant. She was barely two months along, so I have no idea how she knew. It would be months before an ultrasound would be able to say what she was carrying.

I'd insisted she not tell people, which she reluctantly agreed to. But I'm half convinced she went with Kim Possible because the outfit showed off her belly. She insisted that she was beginning to show. I was skeptical but smart enough not to say anything. The one thing that I could say for sure was that her breasts were a bit larger. And, delightfully, more sensitive.

We hadn't planned to go to comic con this year. With Kitten's new pregnancy, I was fighting the urge to cover her in bubble wrap and not let her leave the house for the next nine months. But events slowly conspired against us.

First was Susan. Kitten had been working with her production and design company since shortly after we got back from our honeymoon. They were working on costuming for some fantasy show on one of the streaming services. Unlike Kitten's first two jobs, she didn't need to go on set...at least not right away. She could stay home, design costumes on her computer and even make some of the outfits herself when digital images just wouldn't do.

It was a good set-up, and Susan's a good boss. However, the producers and the showrunner were coming to New York for a progress report. That meant Kitten had to go to be there and help with the presentation.

It was the week leading up to the Comic-Con, so it was tempting to tag along, but it seemed cruel to go running around a Con while Kitten was working. She'd say it was fine, but I also knew she'd be very pouty about it later. Plus, I was trying to give her some space. She might be my little girl, but she was also a young woman trying to make a go of it in a competitive field.

That's when weird thing number two happened. I got an email from one of the con organizers, asking if they could give me a call. After replying "sure," I got a phone call minutes later. She introduced herself as Carol Jesmin and was responsible for lining up guests for some of the panels at the con.

"Well, that's great," I said. "But unless you're doing a panel on Canadian infrastructure policy, I'm not sure how I can help."

"Well, you can, actually," she said. "We're doing a panel called 'Love at the Con' about people who met and fell in love at the event. We've done speed dating here before, and it was fun. But we thought it might be nice to show that it can happen; you can meet and fall in love at a con.

"And, well, we all knew about your proposal video a couple of years ago, but a little birdie tells me you got married this summer."

I would bet serious money she was friends with Susan. Loads of money. Vast sums of it.

"And we think it would be fun. We have a few other couples lined up; you just talk a bit about yourselves, your geeks, etc. It'll be very casual and a lot of fun, I promise. What do you say?"

If I mentioned it to Kit I knew she'd be all over it, even if I wasn't thrilled with the idea.

"We hadn't planned on attending this year. She's busy with work..."

"Oh, but she's already in New York, um, so I hear," she said. Hopefully, the CIA wasn't recruiting her for spy work anytime soon. "I'm sure she'd be able to squeeze away for a few hours. Plus it's on a Saturday so she won't be busy. I promise, it'll be a lot of fun," she said.

I was doomed. If Kitten didn't already know, she soon would. All that was left now was to negotiate the terms of surrender.

This is why we're back at the Con, with one-day VIP passes around our necks and being able to skip the insane line to get into the con. Small blessings for possible future humiliations. I was still slightly annoyed over that bloody video.

Trying to see everything at a Comic-Con of this size over four days is a sizable task. Trying to do it in one day is madness. And if that one day is Saturday - the single busiest day of the con - well, there aren't words in the English language to describe how much of a fool's quest that would be.

Instead, we settled into an easy ramble throughout the con, patiently moving with the flow instead of rushing against it. We moved from Artist Alley to the main show floor, to where cosplayers were hanging out. We'd stop here and there if something caught our eye, but we were content just to take things as they happened. It was a relaxing way to enjoy the con for a change. I didn't need to rush to get the next thing I wanted because everything I needed was holding my hand.

I got in late the night before, and by the time I got to the hotel, and Kitten got there after work, we had about enough time to get something to eat and then pass out. That meant as we were wandering through the Con, Kitten spent most of the time getting me up to speed on how her week was going, even though she'd told me plenty of it during calls and texts. But inevitably there was some new detail to expand on. After the minor disaster in Prague during the summer, she'd had a great week in New York and was bubbling over. I was glad. She deserved it.

Still, I was off a bit. It had been around the edges since I got to the Con. At first, I thought it was just nerves about the panel, but it was something else. Kitten was giving me time, but when we paused to eat some overpriced Con food, she pressed me on it.

"Daddy, is the panel bothering you that much? I think it'll be fun, but we can cancel," she said.

"No, I think.... It's nothing. It's silly," I said.

Kitten took my hand and gave me a look that let me know that answer wasn't going to fly. I collected my thoughts and tried again.

"It's the geek in me, but I've always loved alternate universe stories. One small different decision and you get a whole new world. I'm not sure I believe in God, but I think there could be a multiverse," I said.

"Of course you do," she said, but it was with a smile. Then she clicked in. "You're thinking about the day we met. If something had gone differently and we'd never met."

I nodded.

"I am so unbelievably lucky and happy we found each other. But it was by the slimmest of margins. And maybe somewhere there's a version of me that never found you, and I feel sorry for him, as weird as that is," I said, shaking my head. "I promise I don't obsess about this the rest of the time. But being here, and remembering how we met....maybe I ought to believe in God."

I glanced over at Kitten and recognized the smile. It was the 'Daddy, you're nuts' smile, but it wasn't unkind.

"Well, there's probably a version of me as Ashley out there that's completely off-the-rails, Daddy. I know you kinda get lost in your head sometimes thinking about these things, but maybe instead of worrying about how the Earth-6139 version of you is doing, just be happy that on Earth-DK everything is going great."

"Earth-DK?" I asked.

"Duh. Earth Daddy-Kitten."

I laughed loud enough that others sitting nearby glanced over to see what was so funny. I took that moment to lean over and kiss her. By our standards, it was modest, but when I glanced around, I saw a few scandalized looks. I blew it off, although a small part of me wondered if it wasn't a harbinger of things to come.

As it got closer to 3 pm, we made our way to the panel room. Mercifully, it wasn't the main ballroom; doing this in front of thousands of people instead of a hundred or so would have had me heading to the hills. Carol met us at the door. She was a black woman in her late 20s with significant and impressive hair layered on her head. She also wore a "Shuri is my Queen" t-shirt.

"I'm so glad you came, '' she said, hugging Kitten and complimenting her cosplay. She smiled and shook my hand. "We have about a half dozen couples upfront with you and it's a nice mix. The moderator is an old pro at these kinds of things. She'll keep things from getting out of hand."

After seeing another of the panel's participants, she excused herself and we went inside. I honestly didn't know who would attend this kind of thing, but the room was pretty packed. I'd guess over 100 people were attending. Manageable. I looked at the other panelists. An older couple was doing a Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter cosplay. A young lesbian couple dressed as Amy Pond and a gender-swapped 11th Doctor. Another couple was doing some Anime I didn't know.

Except for me, they were all in cosplay. Ooops.

"Should have let me dress you up, Daddy," Kitten said mischievously, dragging me upfront.

"Maybe. Or perhaps you shouldn't have cosplayed as a high school student when on a panel with your much older husband," I replied.

She looked at me, tilted her head for a second, then nodded. "Yeah, that's fair. Oh well, we're here now." Then she went to compliment the young women on their Doctor Who cosplay.

The panel itself started fine. The moderator introduced each couple and they described their meet-cute story. They all had to do with meeting at Comic-Con, so it wasn't just Kitten and I. When it was our turn, I let Kitten do a complete babble about how she knocked me down and then waited outside in the freezing cold in a Scarlet Witch cosplay to apologize and things just kept happening after that.

"And Ben, you proposed to Kit here at the con?" the moderator asked. I knew what was coming.

"Yesss," I said. And then they played the video of the proposal. Kitten grabbed my hand under the table. I looked at her and smiled. Really, what's a little embarrassment compared to the reward?

"And you got married this summer?"

"We did!" Kit said, waving her hand with her wedding ring on it to laughter and cheers. And then they moved on to the next couple.

And I thought that would be that. There were questions about finding love at the Comic-Con and tricks to make relationships work. I thought maybe we would get off with just that when a woman in her 20s came up to the mic.

"I'm sorry, I know this is supposed to be light and fun, but I'm really uncomfortable with Ben and Kit being up there. I'm concerned about the power dynamics of a couple where there's such a huge age difference," she said.

There were some hisses and I could feel Kitten tense. I was about to step in to save the poor woman from having her head ripped off when Kitten responded.

"Well, I was well aware of the age difference when I started chasing after him. I knew he was attracted to me, but he didn't want to be a creepy guy, so he did everything he could to discourage my interest.

"But I wasn't having that. We both felt the attraction, but I wasn't letting him chicken out just because of the age difference and what people like yourself might think," she said, unable to resist a slight dig at the rude question.

"Power dynamics in any couple is something to watch out for and is a legitimate concern. But you can have power dynamics based on money, or social standing, or how much Lord of the Rings trivia you know compared to your partner," she said, to laughter. "All I can say is it's never been a problem for us. He's my favourite person to talk to and I'm his. This week, I'm in New York working on something pretty cool that I can't talk about or lawyers will hurt me. But the best part of my day is talking to him when I get back to my hotel."

She paused, realizing she was getting a bit emotional. I looked at the audience and they were engrossed. I turned to her and smiled. She smiled at me and then turned back to face the audience.

"Plus, the sex is spectacular," she added.

For a moment I thought the room might have exploded; such was the volume of shocked noise and laughter. I briefly put my hands over my face and shook my head. Eventually, I put my hands back on the table and looked at Kitten. She had a massive, impish grin on her face.

"Your punishment for that will be told in legends and songs for decades to come," I said to her.

"Ok. When can we get started?" Kitten said, still grinning like a lunatic even as the noise eased up.

The moderator managed to regain some control, but soon the hour was up and we had to leave the room for the next panel. Plenty of people came up to us saying the question was unfair and you could tell how much in love we were, which was nice. The woman who asked the question vanished.

Finally, I looked at Kitten and realized I didn't want to be at the con anymore. Supper and some time alone in the hotel room seemed like a good plan. I mentioned it to Kitten, but had a revision.

"There's a panel at 5 pm that Susan wants me to attend. After that, I am open to room service and some of that spectacular sex and punishment we were just talking about," she said.

I could handle another couple of hours. The panel was in one of the larger rooms and while geographically only a few hundred meters away, it still took 20 minutes to walk in Con terms. The room was mostly full by the time we got there, but our VIP badges let us slip into the back.

Once the presentation started, Kit got quietly excited.

"This is the streaming service our show is going to air on. Maybe they'll talk a bit about it," she said.

After about 40 minutes, that seemed like an optimistic assessment. Lots of talk about teen dramas, horror and supernatural mysteries. But then they called the producers and showrunner of Kit's show up on the stage.

They announced the show was getting ready to start filming, and there was a massive reaction from the crowd. This was news to most of the people in the room. I hadn't heard of the show, but it was more of a YA fantasy series, but one with a sizable fan base given the reaction. Filming was starting in January, but they were happy to announce some of the casting and called out a couple of young actors, again to lots of yells and squealing.

While they talked about how excited they were to work on the show and how much it meant to them, some storyboards flashed up on the screen.

"We've been in New York all week working with the costume designers and here are some of the designs we have so far, which we think are amazing," the showrunner said. And then images began rotating on the screen.

"Those are my costumes!" Kitten whispered excitedly.

The crowd reacted positively and the young actors said all the right words about how amazing the costumes looked. Kitten was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Not bad, eh Kit," said a voice from behind us. We turned around and Susan stood there with a big smile on her face. Kitten hugged her.

"Did you know about this?" she asked.

"I suspected. The producers loved the design work but had to talk to some people. This is some test marketing to see the reaction to the show and the costumes. Based on the cheers, I think we're in good shape," Susan said.

Everyone involved in the show waved and walked off stage and the cast from the next show being promoted walked on. Susan and Kit were still talking about making plans about the next costumes and tweaks to improve things. There were no words to accurately describe the joy I felt watching Kitten succeed at something she worked so hard at.

"There's a party tonight at one of the bars in Soho celebrating the shows. You're both invited. Do you want to come?" Susan asked.

It was Kitten's big moment and, of course, I would go if she wanted to, although a Soho party filled with young actors sounds like something that would not fit well with me.

Fortunately, Kitten came to the rescue.

"Can I give my apologies or say that I'll try and show up later? I am tired and I haven't seen my husband all week. For a newlywed, that's practically an eternity," she said.

Susan looked amused and shook her head.

"Most people would be climbing over tables to get into an inclusive party. You just want to get back to your hotel and order room service with your husband," she said.

"Among other things," Kitten said, wrapping her arm around my waist and making her eyes large. "It's been a whole week, Susan. A. Whole. Week."

Susan rolled her eyes and then waved her hand at us. "Go on, get out of here, you freaks. I'll extend your apologies. But I still expect to see those adjustments in my email Monday morning, no matter how tired you are."

Kitten nodded and then dragged me off before Susan changed her mind. She was still buzzing from seeing her designs on the screen and people's reactions.

"So, not a bad day, Kitten," I said as we held hands and made our way towards the con exit. There were still a couple of hours left, but we had other priorities now.

"Only about to get better, Daddy," she said, giving me her best sultry look.

****

"Oh, that's the stuff," Kitten said, after she finished sucking hard.

"I think it's done, Kitten," I said.

"Nope, there's still more," she said, popping another rib into her mouth, trying to find more meat to suck off the bone and consume.

So far, Kitten's pregnancy had been reasonably undramatic, which was good. She might have been disappointed that her sex drive hadn't suddenly kicked into overdrive, but it was already pretty high. There had been some morning sickness, but nothing catastrophic.

However, her food cravings had kicked into full gear during her week in New York. Right now it was amusing because she is in New York. Whatever she's craving can be acquired relatively quickly because you can get anything in this city. That's what happened tonight. Nothing on the room service menu worked to satisfy her craving. Some quick Googling later, and she found a ribs place in Brooklyn. Thankfully, they understood a pregnant woman's cravings and the food got here shortly before cannibalism became a serious option.

I was more concerned about what would happen when we returned to Kingston tomorrow. Because if this craving for ribs continued, I would have to start shopping in bulk because it's not like anyone delivered to us in the middle of nowhere.

Finally, Kitten gave up, after demolishing her rack of ribs and part of mine, and flopped back on the bed, the t-shirt she was wearing moving invitingly up her thighs. She'd stolen my Batgirl t-shirt to go and answer the door when the delivery driver arrived. Before that, she'd been parading around naked after her shower while we waited for the delivery driver. She was lucky the driver knocked when he did. A man can only take so much.

"Mmmmm, the kiddo was hungry," Kitten said, rubbing her tummy.

I sat on the bed and began rubbing one of her feet. She groaned.

"Are you going to blame everything on the baby for the next seven months?" I asked. I leaned down and took one of her toes in her mouth. She began squirming as well as groaning.