“You’re going off to war. When you told us what you spent all night doing, I thought, what if something had gone wrong, what if Hermia had trapped him or tricked him and he simply never came back? And instead of crying when I thought that, my hands just instinctively went to my belly. My empty uterus. It’s an instinct, Danny. We want to be pregnant when our man goes off to war.”

“I’m not going to make any bastards,” said Danny. “Period, ever. You think your parents are ready to let you marry a high school kid with no job, who lives in a shanty like this?”

“I don’t care about marriage,” said Pat. “People don’t, they just don’t care about that.”

“The smart people do,” said Danny. “The people who want to raise a family, and not just get pregnant.”

She had her hands inside his waistband and was pushing downward on his pants. He thought of Lana the first time he met her in Stone’s house in DC. His body was responding the same way, only this time he wasn’t surprised and frightened. If anything, he wanted Pat more than she wanted him.

“I love you, too,” said Danny, “but I’m not one of those gods.” And, just as she got his pants down to his thighs, he gated her away, back to her own bedroom.

He wanted so badly to go through that gate after her.

Instead, he ate the gate so Hermia couldn’t use it to get into her house, just in case she decided to start going after his friends. And then, too tired to make a decision about pulling his pants back up or taking them off the rest of the way, he gated himself to his own bed and fell asleep exactly as he was.

He dreamed of her, though. He vaguely remembered dreaming of other things, forgotten things, strange things, he dreamed that she was on the bed beside him, pressing herself against him, naked, whispering to him. “I love you, Danny,” she whispered.

In the dream he held her, explored her body. He tried to kiss her but for some reason she evaded his kiss. He laughed and moved his hand up to her face and still she tried to turn her face away when he went to kiss her. He was ready to explode with desire for her. She didn’t want his kisses, she wanted his baby, and that’s all he wanted, was to give her that.

In the dream his body was poised over her. She was pulling his hips down. Then he kissed her before she could dodge.

It wasn’t Pat.

He opened his eyes.

It was Nicki Lieder, the coach’s daughter.

“I came to see you, the door was unlocked,” she whispered, “and here you were, so ready for me.”