Surprises on Christmas Eve von Tatsuyana (Pierce x Fem!Ben) ================================================================================ Kapitel 1: Surprises on Christmas Eve ------------------------------------- Ben brought some refreshments for her guests. It was Christmas Eve and the clock showed four o’clock in the afternoon. Her whole family was there, including Grandma Verdona. Cooper, Alan, Manny, Kevin and Helen were there as well. Kevin had finally asked Gwen to marry him a few weeks ago after years of dating. Manny and Helen had been dating for three years now. Ben’s cousin Ken, Alan and Cooper were single, though they had had girlfriends. The only one missing was Pierce. He had been called onto a mission three months ago. She had got a message from him that he would be back around five o’clock today. However, that had been yesterday. She hadn’t heard from him today yet. She hoped that nothing had happened and that he would be back today. They had an announcement to make and she had wonderful news for him. At least she hoped he would think of them as wonderful news. Ben’s fingers closed around the ring in her jeans pocket. Their family and friends would be in for a big surprise if everything went according to their plan. It was barely past five when Ben heard the front door of the house opening. She excused herself saying that another guest had just arrived. She just came into the entrance corridor as the door closed. She practically jumped into the man’s arms. “Welcome home, Pierce,” she whispered softly and kissed him with all her passion. She always worried when he went on missions without her. The same applied the other way around. Pierce kissed her back showing that he had missed her. They broke apart after a few minutes. “I’m home,” Pierce replied leaning his forehead against hers. Both of them smiled. They were glad that such long missions were a rare occurrence. Usually they didn’t last longer than a week or two. “If you are tired we can postpone it,” Ben commented knowing Pierce might be tired. Pierce smile at the concern Ben was showing him. “I’m fine. I slept on the flight back. I’ll go upstairs and change into something more suitable,” he answered and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Then he left for the bedroom while Ben rejoined the others in the living room and informed them of who had arrived. Pierce joined them a few minutes later wearing jeans and a sleeveless shirt. They talked about Kevin and Gwen’s engagement, Pierce’s mission, family stuff and events of the year. Now and then someone threw in a joke. Ben took a look at the wall clock in the living room. It had been a present from Gwen when Ben had moved into this house three years ago. The clock showed half past six. She raised herself from her seat. “Pierce, would you mind helping me in the kitchen? I think I need some help with the roast,” Ben requested softly. Pierce recognised the tone of her voice immediately and knew that something was up. Even if she hadn’t used that tone he would have known because he knew that Ben was an excellent cook for he experienced her cooking every day unless one of them went on a mission without the other. “Of course,” Pierce replied and got up as well. Ben announced that dinner was going to be ready in around thirty minutes while the two left for the kitchen. “What’s up, dear?” Pierce asked carefully seeing Ben’s nervous look. Ben knew she needed to word the news carefully. She did not want Pierce to have a heart attack. “Well, I have some news. You must promise me that you won’t raise your voice above normal speaking level. The others don’t know yet,” Ben started slowly. He only nodded which was enough for Ben. They didn’t always need many words to communicate with each other. Pierce was actually a little worried. Had something bad happened while he had been gone? Maybe Ben had a serious illness or someone had tried to hurt her. His mind was racing through the possibilities of what Ben might tell him. “I was with the doctor two weeks ago because I started to feel ill after you left for the mission,” Ben said fiddling with her long hair which she kept in a high ponytail. Pierce didn’t ask and just waited for her to go on. She took a deep breath before she continued. “I’m three months pregnant,” Ben blurted. Pierce just stared. “I beg your pardon?” he asked bewildered. “Is it….?” “Of course it’s yours,” Ben retorted heated. She wasn’t really angry at him for thinking that. They had heard a lot of stories from people who had had a love affair with someone while their partner was gone for a longer period of time. “Are you… happy?” Ben asked carefully after a moment of silence. “Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”Pierce asked amazed while hugging her. “Well, I knew you wanna have kids, but I mean we’re still very young,” Ben rambled nervously. Pierce just shut her up by kissing her passionately. When he pulled back he wore a seductive smirk. “Benjamin Kathleen Tennyson. That’s the best Christmas present I could wish for. I guess that means we’ve got more than one announcement to make,” Pierce stated grinning. Ben blinked once before a smile crept onto her features. After dinner everyone sat on the couches in the living room talking about various things. Ben had secretly put on her ring which matched Pierce’s. The rings were golden. On the outside they were simple, but on the inside they had engravings. Pierce nodded discreetly to Ben showing her that he was ready. Ben got up from her seat and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. Once the chatting had died out she started to talk. “I thank all of you for coming. Apart from Christmas there’s another reason I wanted you all here. Pierce and I have an announcement to make,” Ben explained with a smile. Pierce raised himself and went to stand next to Ben. The pair got confused looks. Especially Kevin, Manny and Ben’s parents looked confused. Ben gave a scary smirk. “Pierce and I started dating when I was around sixteen and two years ago he asked me to marry him to which I answered with a yes,” Ben revealed and they showed their golden wedding bands. Pierce slung one arm around his wife and smiled broadly. “We beat you to it,” Pierce commented cheekily referring to the other two couples in the room. There was silence in the room. The first to recover was May. “How did you manage to date each other for five years and marry without anyone noticing?” Max asked stunned. Sandra agreed with her father-in-law. “Well, at first we had one hell of a time to keep it a secret,” Pierce admitted grinning. “But after I moved out it became easier,” Ben added with a small laugh. When Ben had still lived with her parents she had had to think of an excuse every time she went on a date with Pierce. “Geez. I can’t believe you beat me to marrying,” Gwen said pretending to be offended. Ben snickered at her cousin’s behaviour. She knew that Gwen wasn’t really mad at her. She looked at Pierce who had moved behind her and had encircled her waist with his arms. He gave her an encouraging nod. “Well, I’ve also beat you to giving Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona great-grandchildren,” Ben said grinning. “Yeah, but that was because of Big Chill,” commented Kevin who had finally found his voice again. Ben gave a small sigh. “I wasn’t referring to that incident. I’m three months pregnant,” she deadpanned. “You’re what?” Helen yelled surprised. “Pregnant,” Ben replied. “You mean…?” Manny enquired unsurely. “Yeah. Ben and I are going to be parents in about six months,” Pierce stated proudly. Everyone could see that he was happy about it. “I can’t believe I never saw it. I mean you actually make the perfect couple,” Cooper groaned earning a few chuckles from said couple. “Well. Congratulations, I guess,” Alan said while getting up from his seat and hugged the married couple. Everyone else congratulated them as well after they had finally grasped the situation. The rest of the evening was spent talking about the plans Pierce and Ben had for the coming year. It was well past midnight when the last guest had left. They would be back for celebrating into the new year in about a week. Pierce and Ben had just finished cleaning up the last remains and were lying on a couch in the living room. “I’ll ask headquarters to give us office jobs for the next few months,” Pierce said while stroking his wife’s hair. “Yeah. Looks like the Ultimatrix has to take a break for a while. Although Azmuth said the transformations wouldn’t harm the baby and it would be protected by an energy field created by the Ultimatrix, but the stress of fighting might be too much,” Ben added with a small yawn. “Then you’ll have to leave the fighting to me or our friends,” Pierce commented with a smirk knowing well that his wife didn’t like to watch from the sidelines. “Excepts for emergencies, where the Ultimatrix is needed,” Ben muttered showing how tired she was. But after the sixth month I’m gonna do only office jobs until the baby’s at least four months old.” Pierce made an agreeing noise. The stayed for a while like that content to be in each other’s presence. “Come on. Let’s go to bed,” Pierce suggested giving Ben a sweet kiss. Ben just got up and waited for Pierce to do the same. As soon as he was on his feet he picked Ben up bridal style. She didn’t protest since she was really tired and let her husband carry her to bed. End I hope you enjoyed reading it. 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