February 27

Justin walked through the store, chattering away to his mother as they did the grocery shopping, his heavily pregnant belly guiding the way down the aisles. God, he couldn't wait to get this kid out of him; it seemed like he'd been pregnant forever, and he ached all over, with his hips and back taking the brunt.

Resting his hands on his lower back, he laughed at something his mother said as she put things into the shopping cart and tried to ignore the dull ache in his lower body, as he just knew that she'd force him to sit down if she found out he'd been lying about it. And, frankly, he'd felt like he'd been far too sedentary the past couple of weeks as it was and he just needed to move.

Now, if only his body would get with the picture.

Sighing, Justin shot an envious look at the cart that his mother was pushing; something that she insisted on doing as it was full to the brim with food, and she didn't want him exerting himself. But, fuck; he'd so love to have something to lean against just for a little additional support. That is, if his stomach didn't get in the fucking way as he was as big as a house and it did with everything these days.

"You know, Justin," his mother said, a wry smile on her face. "I could have done this myself. I am more than capable of buying food that both you and Brian would actually eat. Or, if you were that concerned, Anna could have come with me. You really didn't need to come yourself and should stay off your feet right now. It can't be all that comfortable doing all this walking."

Justin huffed; so, he guessed he hadn't been as discreet as he'd hoped with how he was feeling; not if his mother knew within the first twenty minutes of shopping that he was having difficulties. Then again, it could just be that she knew him that well.

"I know," Justin scowled, crossing his arms low on his chest, so that they were nearly resting on his burgeoning belly. "But if I didn't get out of the house today, I just might have screamed. I swear, Brian has been taking this whole overprotective daddy thing way too seriously. Just last night, I was going to get up to get a drink and he was off the couch and out of the room, getting it for me before I could even sit up."

And that was the absolute truth; Brian had brought new meaning to the term of helicopter parent over the last month or so. And he'd been slowly driving Justin mad with all his do's and don'ts and expectations and rules; and really, it had gotten to the point that Justin had been forced to call in the Calvary and have Ted and Emmett drag him off to do something this morning before he killed him.

"He just worries," his mother said, laughing at Justin's look of utter disbelief; because really, that was the fucking understatement of the year. She shot him a sympathetic look and patted him on the arm. "They always do. Let him wait on you if it will make him feel better. He can't do much for the actual pregnancy itself; and you know what he's like when he's feeling helpless or useless."

Justin sighed again; yes he did. That was the only reason Brian was still breathing on the days that his need to solve everything that stood in Justin's way overruled his sense of self-preservation. He's known that about Brian since the bashing, and even when he was annoyed by it, he also couldn't help but find it endearing.

"I know," Justin huffed, grabbing a couple boxes of Twinkies and tossing them in the cart, deliberately ignoring his mother's exasperated look. And how Brian had gotten her involved in their little war, he didn't know; but he wasn't going to deal with it right now. He needed his Twinkies or Brian was going to die. "I just wish he'd hover just a little less at times. You'd think that I have a terminal illness, and wasn't just pregnant by the way he acts."

"Well, look at it this way," his mother said, pushing the cart down the aisle without saying a word about his addition to it; likely because she knew that he was already on edge and she didn't want to be bailing her pregnant son out of jail because he'd murdered his husband. "It won't be much longer now, will it?"

"No," Justin said, inhaling sharply when Sunbeam kicked a kidney; he rubbed his back and cursed the fact that he had such an active child. "My pregnancy has recently dropped; I have been carrying mid-stomach for most of the pregnancy and now it's started to settle down into the pelvis area. Liz said that's usually a sign that the baby is getting ready to make his or her grand entrance. But she did also warn me that I could still be a couple of weeks out from birth, if not more; most first time carriers drop about two to four weeks prior to giving birth. Still, I'll be glad when it's over. I ache everywhere; and god, I am so tired of peeing every thirty minutes."

Not to mention he was so looking forward to getting a good fucking again; while they'd still found ways to make love, he and Brian had had to be a bit creative with positions; and Brian was always worrying that he'd somehow hurt the baby or cause Justin to go into labor if he didn't take things as gently as possible. Justin had told him numerous times that it wouldn't happen, but the man stubbornly refused to budge.

"I think we all get to that stage eventually," his mother laughed and then looked down at the list in her hand; she cursed under her breath and started walking back towards the end of the aisle. Justin arched an inquisitive brow, but his mother just waved him off. "Be right back. I forgot to grab the flour when we were on the other aisle."

Justin shrugged; and the he took the opportunity to lean against one of the grocery shelves in an effort to relieve some of the strain on his legs, feet and back. Sighing again, he rested his hands on his belly and then looked down with a frown. He ran his hands over his belly, feeling it all over and his frown deepened.

What the hell?

He stood back up and pulled at his shirt, and then let it drape back over his belly, his heart hammering in his chest as he studied it, thinking he had to be wrong with his conclusion because it made absolutely no sense. He pulled out his phone and typed in the code and then activated his camera; he held it out to his side and took a picture of from the side. And then he stared at it again, shaking his head at the impossibility of what he was seeing.

"Is something wrong dear?" his mother asked; Justin startled, his eyes wide as he hadn't even heard her walk up, which was never good considering his current predicament with the stalker situation.

He bit his lip and stared at his mother, trying to decide what to say. His mother, for her part, just stared back, a concerned frown on her face. Finally, Justin bit the bullet and figured he'd just ask, as he really couldn't help but wonder if he was losing his mind.

"Does my stomach look small to you?" he asked, looking down at his stomach; and, again, it'd seemed to have shrunk a bit since the last time he looked at it.

Smoothing his hands over his belly again, he made a small startled cry as he was certain that his shirt was looser than it had been before; there was something seriously wrong here, but he really had no idea what to think as he'd never even heard of something like this. Fear shot down his spine as he clutched at his baby bump, sending his blood pounding through his head and thundering in his ears, a cold sweat breaking across his brow.

"I can't really tell any difference," his mother said, looking utterly flummoxed by the question; and then she just stared at Justin like he'd grown another head as he started pawing at his shirt in an effort to pull it up to get a better look; but it wouldn't cooperate.

"Something doesn't feel right," Justin insisted, his voice pitching higher than usual in his panic; but his mom just shook her head in puzzlement.

And Justin just shook his in exasperation at her lack of reaction, as he knew that something was seriously wrong! His hands began to shake as he continued to struggle with his shirt, the material growing slacker as his stomach continued to shrink. In fact, he could actually feel the baby inside him shrinking, getting smaller with every passing breath, and he didn't know what to do to stop it before it totally disappeared!

"Mom," Justin choked, his hands scrambling over his belly, his sight graying around the edges as he began to hyperventilate; and yet, he knew that there was nothing that he could do to stop it. "Something is really, really wrong here. My belly keeps shrinking. How can you not see it? This is your grandchild for fucks sake! What's going on? What's happening to my baby?"

"I'm just not seeing anything wrong Justin," his mother said, running her hand over his brow as if she was checking for a fever; but he wasn't sick damn it! His baby was disappearing before his very eyes and she wasn't doing a damn thing to help him! "Are you sure it's not just all in your head?"

"No, something is wrong," Justin choked out, the tempo of his heart ratcheting up another notch as he could barely feel the baby fluttering anymore. "I can feel it! It's like it's shrinking; getting smaller and smaller, like my body is absorbing it. Look, don't you see it? I'm half the size I was when we got here and there is all this excess, loose skin. I'm not going crazy!"

Justin reached down and started crying as the bump was almost gone; and he didn't know just how he was going to survive without…

Justin shot up straight out of bed, his breathing harsh and shallow as he scrambled with the blankets; he yanked them off, shivering as the cold early morning air hit his sweat-dampened neck, back and chest; and then he pressed his hands to his baby bump with a sigh of relief. He flopped back against his pillows and tried to get his breathing under control, his hands still cradling his precious Sunbeam, still worried that the bump would disappear at any moment.

Jesus! That had felt so fucking real!

Taking a deep breath, Justin closed his eyes, his heart still thundering in his chest and his body quaking at the vivid dream, and vowed to never eat chili cheese dogs before bed again if this was going to be the result. Pressing his hands tighter to his stomach in an effort to reassure himself that had indeed been a dream, Justin startled as he felt a hand running through his hair, combing it back from his face.

Opening his eyes, he turned and met Brian's sleepy, but worried gaze, and took comfort in the hand that continued to pet him until his breathing and heart rate had returned to normal. Sighing, he scooted closer to his husband and pressed his face against Brian's shoulder, just breathing him in as Brian continued to soothe his worries away.

"Are you okay," Brian finally asked, pressing a soft kiss to his temple.

Justin nodded and took a shuddering breath as the adrenaline started to leech from his body. He pulled away and looked up into Brian's worried eyes and kissed him softly on the lips.

"Yeah," Justin croaked, and then cleared the frog from his throat; he still had his hands attached protectively around his belly, because fuck; that dream was far too vivid and felt too real for him to let go. "I just had a weird, fucking dream, that's all."

Brian nodded and rolled his lips between his teeth as he stared down at Justin's hands, and the way he continued to cradle their child. "What was it about?"

"I…it…I don't know how to describe it," Justin stammered, jumping a bit when Brian moved and his hands joined Justin's on his baby bump. Smiling weakly, Justin struggled to come up with the words to explain his weird dream; but he didn't think that there really was a way to do it, so he just dove in. "In it, I was about eight months pregnant or so."

Brian nodded as Justin paused; he propped his head up on one hand so that he was looking down on Justin. Justin swallowed thickly and then panicked when Brian began to pry his hands from his belly. Brian halted and just stared at Justin, trying to reassure him without words that it was okay and Justin clenched his hands for a moment, but did let them fall away, only to have them replaced by Brian's hand gently stroking it.

Justin took a deep breath and continued.

"The pregnancy had just dropped and I was shopping with my mom, when all of a sudden my stomach started shrinking. Like the baby was getting smaller and smaller, and the pregnancy was going in reverse? Or the baby was being absorbed into me? I don't know. But something weird was going on; and, for some reason, my mom didn't or couldn't see anything wrong. And nothing I did or said could convince her that there was something wrong with Sunbeam; but there clearly was, as every time I looked down at my stomach it was that much smaller."

Brian's brows shot up into his hairline, and he seemed to be at a loss for words as he continued to run his hand over Justin's belly. And well, Justin couldn't really blame him for that, as Justin didn't even know what to say or think about the dream. His doctor, Liz, had told him to expect these kinds of vivid, pregnancy dreams; she even went into the whole anatomy of it and why they occurred, but Justin had just shrugged it off at the time. He'd always been a vivid dreamer and hadn't thought much about she had been saying.

But after this one, and the quintuplets dream, he now had a better idea of what she'd meant; and he really wasn't looking forward to more.

"Like I said, it was weird," Justin finished lamely; he snuggled up to Brian and buried his face into his shoulder, just breathing him in once more.

"Well, try to get some more sleep," Brian said, pressing a kiss to Justin's temple and wrapping an arm around him when he felt Justin tense up. "I'll be right here to watch over you and wake you if need be."