A/N: Dear Mr Marlowe, thank you for letting me borrow these wonderful characters that you have created. And thanks to everyone who is reading this. I hope that you enjoy it. I am still working on my other story but hopefully it won't be delayed too much by this little detour.

Chapter 1: Playing family

She could feel his breath stirring the fine hairs at the nape of her neck, at the same time his hand was rubbing little circles on her abdomen. Even half asleep she knows that it's him, but then who else would be sharing her bed if not her husband.

"Hmmm Kate," Rick groans as he pushes his hips up against her so that she can feel his morning erection, hard against the small of her back. She's the little spoon to his big spoon, their bodies curved so they fit naturally.

She thinks 'why not?' It's the weekend, she's not on call and they have nowhere else to be on this autumn morning. The weather's been a bit colder over the last week, enough of a bite to let you know that winter isn't far off. But here and now, cocooned in their bed it's nice and cozy. Maybe she can make it even cozier.

Kate rolls over onto her other side so that she's facing him and that's when the nausea hits. It's hard to say what triggers these bouts, maybe it's the sudden movement or maybe it's just the fact that her body has woken up now. Whatever the trigger was, now she has to deal with the effects. Her eyes close as she swallows rapidly, fighting back that horrible metallic taste in her mouth that precedes the retching.

"Hey, are you ok?" he sounds concerned but at the moment she's got her hands full just concentrating on not being sick, she can't spare the effort to placate his anxieties as well. He continues to hover over her, unhappy because there's nothing that he can do to make this better for her, she's bitten his head off enough times in this same situation that he knows to just wait it out.

"It's gone now," she finally says when the imminent danger of vomiting all over their bed has passed.

Rick rests his forehead against hers for a second and sighs before he moves so that he's beside her now instead of above.

Supposedly there are women who love being pregnant, they're serene and calm, the archetypal earth mother. Unfortunately Kate is not one of those women. This is her first pregnancy and her body isn't coping well with the changes that it's going through. She's been plagued by morning sickness for the last two weeks; it's so bad that she's taken to carrying around a little vomit bag with her at all times. For someone who has always been fit and well, this is like a betrayal, not being able to count on her own body because things just might go haywire at any moment.

Rick's only other experience of this was when Meredith was pregnant with Alexis. It was a long time ago but he doesn't remember it being so bad. Meredith is a drama queen, she doesn't do things quietly; so he's sure that he would remember it if that pregnancy was as bad as what Kate's going through now.

He'd been sure that something must be wrong, it wasn't natural for someone to suffer this much, was it? They'd been to see her obstetrician so many times that Rick joked that they should put Dr Cranshaw on their Christmas card list. Each time the woman had patiently examined Kate and then said that there was nothing wrong. Her blood work and scan had turned up nothing unusual. So now all they could do was wait and hope that the morning sickness settled a bit once Kate was out of the first trimester.

He pulls her in for a hug, wanting to comfort her but she pushes his arms away and rolls over so that she's not facing him anymore.

"Not now Rick," there's irritation in her voice.

He's a bit stung by her assumption, as if he was insensitive enough that he would still want sex now. Well actually, his body wouldn't mind doing that at all, but he's not a kid anymore to be ruled by his dick. It's just the pregnancy hormones he tells himself, that's why Kate's terse and almost angry with him so often these days.

Rick takes a few deep breaths, pushing back his own angry retort. After all Kate's the one doing all the hard work, he'll be patient with her because it's the least that he can do. By the time he's counted to ten Kate's already up and making her way to the bathroom, the door locks loudly behind her, it's her petty way of letting him know she's still pissed.

It will be ok, he tells himself, you can do this. Just another thirty-one long weeks to go.

By the time he joins her in the kitchen for breakfast her mood has shifted again; he can't keep up with all these changes. She's cheerful as she munches on a bowl of cereal while reading the paper. Kate looks up as he approaches, an apology evident in her eyes.

"Sorry about before," she slides across a bowl of sliced strawberries as a peace offering.

"That's ok honey," he kisses her on the cheek, really he doesn't blame her, she's got plenty of reasons to be grumpy. It's good to see that at least she's having some breakfast today, Kate's never been big but since she fell pregnant there are days where she doesn't manage to keep down any food before dinner, he worries that it's not good for her or the baby.

"I was thinking that we could go shopping for some nursery stuff today. There's that great place over in the village that Ryan was telling us about last week." Ryan doesn't know that's she's pregnant, it's just that ever since Jenny had their twins all that Ryan can talk about is baby stuff.

Rick looks so excited by the idea of getting furniture for the nursery that she feels bad about voicing her worries but she's not keen to buy baby stuff just yet.

"Don't you think that it's a bit early for doing that kind of thing?" Technically she's still in her first trimester and she feels like it's tempting fate to be setting up the nursery already. "Maybe … maybe we should wait until I'm further along?"

Immediately she starts to feel bad because he's got that kicked puppy look on his face. From the moment that they found out she was pregnant Rick has always been the upbeat, positive one and Kate's been the reluctant one being pulled along in his wake. As soon as that little test strip turned positive Rick had rushed out and bought a onesie that said 'I love Mommy.'

"Never mind, I'm just worrying about nothing. Let's go shopping," she tells him.

"Are you sure Kate?"

"Yeah. It's probably best to do it now anyway before I get too big to enjoy it and you'll have to push me around because I'm so swollen that I have cankles."

"You are so going to enjoy this place. The furniture is all wooden and handmade. I checked it out online and they have the coolest cots, there's one that shaped like a tree-house!" his voice gets a bit high-pitched and he's going at five hundred words a minute because he's so excited.

Kate just smiles indulgently, thank goodness at least one of them was excited about this whole thing.

The store lives up to the all the superlatives that Rick had heaped on it, even Kate has to admit that it was pretty cool. They've been wandering around it for about half an hour now and Rick seems to want to buy one of everything, she's had to remind him more than once that they're only having the one baby this time so there's really no point in buying two bassinets.

"What do you think? Pretty cool, huh?" He's holding up a giraffe-shaped growth chart, it's designed to go on the wall so that you can mark out your child's height at various ages. "With us as parents the kid is bound to be tall."

"Here's hoping that he gets my good sense as well, and doesn't take after you in that department," Kate teases him. She's not sure why but she has a feeling that this one's a boy, maybe because she'd heard somewhere that boys made the pregnancy harder on the mother and this one has certainly been hard so far.

"I don't mind if the kid takes after you completely because then they'll be perfect." Rick grabs her hand and places a kiss on the back of it.

She plays it all cool and rolls her eyes at him as if she thinks that the sentiment is a bit too sappy but truthfully she can't help but be flattered. He's seen her at her worst and yet he still thinks she's wonderful, perfect. She'd never thought of herself like that, at least not before she meet him.

"Ok put it on the list then," Kate says as she turns and pretends to look at something else, it's just an excuse really, so that he doesn't see her blushing because of his compliment.

It's odd being in a store like this because it's almost exclusively filled with couples. Most of the other women look like they are further along than she is. Kate doesn't even have a visible baby bump yet and she wonders how it will feel when the baby is full term and she has to waddle instead of walk because it will have tipped her centre of gravity so far forward.

There's one woman here who looks practically ready to drop the bundle today, she's so big. The woman has a similar build to herself and Kate wonders if she'll look the same when she's at that stage; all skinny arms and legs and one enormous belly out the front. The woman catches her eye and Kate's embarrassed to be caught staring but really it's not her fault. It's like the baby bump exerts a magnetic pull of it's own, drawing your gaze there whether you want to or not. The other woman just smiles, there's a shared camaraderie in that smile; they're both expectant mothers and one day Kate might be the one catching someone else staring at her baby bump.

"Oh look," Rick's spotted something else on the other side of the shop that they absolutely must have, and she's dragged off to look.

By lunchtime Kate's had enough and called it a day, if she had left it up to him they would have spent all day in that one store. Despite her reining him back, they still have a long list of things that they're going to buy, how one small person could need so much is beyond her. It's so much stuff that she's not even certain that it's all going to fit into the guest bedroom that they're converting into a nursery.

The sales woman seems very happy with them, which is understandable given the fact that they've spent a cool twenty thousand bucks in the space of three hours. Rick's grinning as he happily hands over his credit card and their address so that all of this stuff can be delivered later in the week.

Kate has wandered over to the shop door, just watching her husband as the sales woman flirts with him (she's wasting her time though because he's totally oblivious to it). He's waving his arms about in his excitement; he's probably boring the poor woman with his latest decorating ideas for the nursery, the last that she heard he wanted to go with a spaceship theme.

Kate is still waiting for that joy, that buzz that everyone says that expectant mothers are meant to feel. After all she wants this baby, right? She should be happy but the truth is that she's ambivalent. It's so hard right now, and she's not certain that it's going to get any better once the baby is born.

So she just watches her husband as he makes his way over to join her. He's still grinning like a loon, as proud as punch that he's going to be a father again; and she prays that his happiness will eventually rub off on her.

"Are you ready Kate?" Rick holds out his hand to her.

All he's asking is if she's ready to leave the store, but in her mind the question is 'are you ready to have this baby?'

"Yes," she says, but she's still not sure about her answer to that second question.

Eighteen months ago

"Do you think we're ready to have a baby?" Rick whispers to Kate. Rick's eyes are following Ryan's little boy as the child crawls across the floor towards them. Patrick isn't content like his sister to sit still and play with his toys; he's much more interested in the big people who are gathered to celebrate the twins' first birthday.

"Hmmm," it's not really an answer, just an acknowledgement that she'd heard his question. They're surrounded by friends, so now is not the time to be having this particular conversation. Kate bends to pick up the little boy and then blows a big raspberry on his cheek which makes him giggle, before she balances him on her hip.

She is so confident handling the toddler that she looks like a pro; you would think that she'd already had some of her own. Rick can picture her with their own child, maybe a little hazel-eyed beauty who takes after her mother or a mischievous little scamp just like him. He doesn't press her for an answer now but later that evening he brings it up again.

Kate's rubbing in facial cream as she gets ready for bed, while he's already under the covers waiting for her.

"Do you think that we should start trying for a baby?" he asks her when she comes out of the bathroom.

They have already had the discussion about children before they got married and they both agreed that it was something that they wanted. But then it was just a theoretical thing, something that was going to happen in the future.

They've been married for over a year now, the hiccups of adjusting to married life are behind them, so it's a reasonable question to ask now. It might be a bit tricky with her job, but there might never be a perfect time when you're a cop.

Kate knows that Rick is feeling a bit sentimental at the moment because of the time that they spent with Ryan's kids today. She has to admit that they were pretty damn cute. You only have to spend five minutes with Ryan to know that he thinks the sun rises and shines because of those children. Kate envies him that, and thinks that she might like to feel the same way herself.

Of course they have Alexis; Kate has practically adopted the red-head as her own. But Alexis is growing up and she's going away to college this fall so they'll only get to see her during semester breaks and holidays. Maybe it is time to start trying for a baby, after all Kate isn't getting any younger. Thirty-five isn't that far off and she's well aware of how fertility rates drop off for women as they get older.

She gets into bed and slips into his arms as she kisses him. "Ok, let try."