*Seriously, if you haven't seen the most recent episode, you better turn away right now because this story is going to spoil a HUGE plot point. This is your final warning*

My Friday night:

WHAT?! OMG. I can't even. Please?! Really?! YES! *fangirl fit ensues*

I'm sure the rest of you had similar experiences, and I've been in a writing flurry all weekend because D/L IS HAVING ANOTHER BABY! AHHHHH! I just barely contained my excitement in order to write this. Normally I don't like putting up post-eps out of order (I'm still working on ones for 9.11 and 9.12), but seriously, if ever there was an exception this would be the time!

Oh, and before I forget: I LOVE YOU PAM VEASEY! YOU ARE THE BEST!

Enjoy everybody! :)

The Last Ones to Know

"Was there a bet?!" Lindsay Messer called out to the rest of her colleagues in disbelief. Today had already been quite a day for her, from the shock and surprise of finding out she was pregnant to her husband yelling out the news for the entire lab to hear only a few moments after finding out himself, but now there also seemed to be an office pool related to her pregnancy? She still had a lot to process, but there was one thing that she needed to do immediately.

"You four, get in here right now!" When they all hesitated, she put her hands on her hips and got more forceful. "I'm not kidding, get your butts in here on the double! Don't make me have to come over there!"

She could hear both Danny and Mac snickering behind her, but she paid them no attention, instead watching as Sid and Hawkes made their way into the break room, Jo bringing up the rear as she pushed Adam in ahead of her. When Lindsay was certain she had their rapt attention, she spoke.

"OK, so I just figured it out that I was pregnant earlier today, and I highly doubt that you just started your little betting pool within the last couple of hours, so everyone here who apparently knew that I was pregnant before I did, raise your hand."

Lindsay watched as ever so slowly, the hands of four of the people around her went up.

"Seriously guys, all of you knew before I did?! What…when…how…how did you all know?!"

There was silence and a few shared looks of amusement before Sid spoke up. "Well, it wasn't any one thing between all of us – in fact, we all noticed something different. For me, it was how you've been acting in autopsy. You've been looking green around the gills whenever I've seen you there lately, taking very slow and deep breaths in and out of your mouth like you're trying not to be sick, and you've been running out of autopsy as soon as you can. You had that same look about you the other morning when I asked you if you were feeling alright."

"You never thought that maybe I just had the flu?"

"It may have crossed his mind, but probably not after I told Sid about how you've been going back and forth between hot and cold," Hawkes piped in. "I heard about your little outburst yesterday about being hot and the air vent not working in one of the labs, but for days now, whenever we've been in the office together you've mentioned that it's either too hot or too cold, sometimes both in the same day."

"So does that mean that you two are the ones behind the office pool, and what were you betting on and how many people are involved?" Lindsay questioned, using her best interrogation room voice. When neither man seemed willing to answer those questions, Lindsay went after the easy mark.

"Adam, spill it!"

He looked like a deer caught in headlights, but he did as he was bade. "They're behind it, not me, I swear. I was just a pawn in all this, so please don't hurt me!" As he looked at Lindsay and saw that she still wasn't satisfied, he gave up the rest of it. "The bet was whether Danny could keep his mouth shut when you told him the news. The three of us are in the pool, as you've already figured out, and there's maybe another five of the lab techs…or fifteen." Adam added that last bit with a mumble and purposely avoided Lindsay's eyes.

"And what clued you in, Adam, dare I ask?" Lindsay asked, starting to feel embarrassed that she had been so clueless and that so many people put it together before she did.

"Mood swings."

The embarrassment vanished in a second, only to be replaced with irritation as she gave Adam a very pointed glare for his comment. She watched as he backed away from her, fear making him edge himself back behind Jo and Hawkes for protection. Everyone around her started to laugh, but Lindsay wasn't quite done with her interrogations yet.

"What about you Mac, are you in on this office pool as well?"

"No, but I did just win ten dollars off Christine."

Lindsay's jaw dropped. Not only was the lab betting on her, but now her boss was betting with his girlfriend about her pregnancy?! Scrubbing a hand down her face, Lindsay wished that the floor would just open up and swallow her whole already.

"I just had a feeling that you were pregnant and when I told Christine, she bet me ten dollars that I was wrong. I called her to gloat after I ran into you outside of the bathrooms and you were acting strange, but she insisted that I have proof before she would pay up. And now I have my proof," Mac added with a smirk.

Lindsay looked over at her friend and mentor and she wanted nothing more than to smack him for his smugness, boss or not. As she tried to figure out whether she could get away with it, Jo spoke up. "I may have had nothing to do with this, but now that I think about it, you've kinda had this glow about you the past few days. I thought maybe you were using a new moisturizer or something, but now it all makes sense. As the only other person here who's actually given birth before, I can't believe I missed it. And I can myself a detective!"

"I hate all of you, I hope you know that," Lindsay said in exacerbation, throwing her hands up in the air and just giving up.

"Hey, what did I do?" Danny asked from behind her as everybody else just laughed.

Looking over her shoulder, she gave him an incredulous look. "Do I really need to explain your part in all of this, right here in front of all these people?" When Danny started to blush a little and bit down on his bottom lip, Lindsay returned her attention to the culprits before her.

"I'm so glad that you all had your fun at my expense, but please can you just keep it to the normal office baby pools, like whether it's a boy or a girl and the weight, time and date of birth?"

The three guilty parties all nodded in agreement.

"Here, I think you should have this," Sid said as he held out the money to Lindsay.

"No, even if I can't believe how you won it, you did win it fair and square. It's your money, Sid, do with it as you please."

"In that case, who's up for a celebratory drink? I'm buying."

When everyone around her nodded enthusiastically, Lindsay decided to go along with it too. "Alright, but somebody call Flack and tell him to come along and bring Lovato if she's free. I doubt that he'll know about what you've been doing."

"Oh no, he knows about it too – he just didn't want to get involved in the pool, didn't want to risk having you mad at him and coming after him," Sid was ever so gracious to inform her, starting yet another round of snickers and laughs from her friends.

"That's it – will all of you please go, before I change my mind about this celebration that I can't even participate in?! We'll meet back by the elevators in ten minutes, OK?"

Thankfully, everyone did as she asked without another word, and as Lindsay felt Danny try to follow everyone else out of the break room, she quickly turned around and placed her hand in the middle of his chest.

"Not you Messer, you stay right here with me," After one last glance around the room to make sure that they were alone, Lindsay levelled an intense gaze at Danny, feeling him start to squirm almost immediately. "You didn't figure out that I was pregnant before me, did you Daniel? You weren't just feigning surprise for my benefit when I told you?"

Danny's eyes widen in surprise and he started to shake his head. "What?! No babe, I'm just as shocked and surprised as you are. We'd talked about this, we were going to start trying for another baby in a few months, so I had no clue that it was even a possibility. I swear to you, I honestly had no idea that you were…that you are pregnant."

She continued to watch him for several moments, trying to figure out whether he was telling her the truth or not. Eventually, she must have become satisfied with his answer because her face suddenly went from suspicious to hesitant.

"Are you OK with this, Dan?" she whispered to him, tears quickly starting to prick up in the back of her eyes.

Immediately, Danny let one of his hands travel down between them to rest on her still-flat stomach while the other reached up to gently cup her face. "Lindsay, I am more than OK with this. I love you, I love our daughter, and I love the baby that is growing inside you right now, even if I'm still trying to wrap my head around that fact. The baby is a surprise, yes, but so was Lucy and we didn't do too bad with her, now did we?"

"No, but…"

"There are no 'buts,' babe. We're in a good place and we kinda know what we're getting ourselves in for. We'll be just fine, I promise."

She still looked a bit unsure, so he decided to take things a step further.

"Linds, I just yelled out that we are having a baby for the entire lab to hear and somebody just won a good chunk of money based on the fact that he knew that the minute you told me, I wouldn't be able to keep the news to myself. I'm excited for this and I know that you are too, under all the other things that are swirling around that head of yours at the moment. This baby is something that we both wanted, so there's no need to be afraid. I'm not going anywhere, Lindsay, so you better be used to me because you're really stuck with me now."

As the teasing smirk grew on Danny's face, Lindsay could feel a matching one on her own lips. Instead of speaking, she placed one of her hands over the one he already had on her stomach and leaned into him, trapping their hands between their bodies as she rested her head in the juncture between his neck and his shoulder. Understanding her gesture just as clearly as any spoken words, Danny let them have a few more moments to themselves before reminding her of their plans.

"C'mon Linds, let's go celebrate our baby."

The phrase 'our baby' only made her grin grow wider.

Pulling back from him, she kept the hand from her stomach, changing the grip so their fingers could lace together, and then she led them out of the break room.

She couldn't wait to go celebrate their baby.

I'm pretty sure that we're all holding our own celebrations for this new baby. My contribution: another fic! I just gotta type it up and then I'll be sure to send it your way.

But first, another fangirl fit! :)