Casey waddled into the squad room; her pregnant belly was so big that no one quite knew how to handle her being at work. She smiled at Olivia, knowing how disapproving she was of Casey refusing to quit working until she was literally in the middle of labor. Casey refused to meet Elliot's eyes, knowing that his level of disapproval was far higher and he was much more verbal. She gave the squad room a dazzling smile and disappeared into her office to review case files that had been piling up on her desk.

She looked up as her door opened slowly and then clicked closed, and she couldn't stop herself from smiling when she looked up to see Alex standing in the doorway. "Alex, is everything okay?"

Alex nodded, her face clearly showing anxiety and fear. "I may or may not have ruined my relationship."

Casey's smile quickly faded and her eyebrows shot up. "What did you do?"

Alex squeezed her eyes shut and sat down on the floor, blocking the door with her body. "I'm pregnant."

Casey wasn't sure how to react, it was happy news but unexpected. And, unexpected news like this, in a lesbian relationship, was never good. "How are you pregnant?"

Alex instantly started crying and shook her head. "A few months ago, while Olivia was out of town for that undercover job, when I first went back to work, I met this guy and he was sweet and gorgeous and wonderful and he gave me all this attention that I was missing because Olivia was gone. And, one thing led to another and we had sex. We used a condom and of course I didn't think anything was going to come of it. But I never told Olivia and now…I'm pregnant. At first I thought something about the cancer was stopping my period but that stick definitely said I'm pregnant and the doctor confirmed it this morning. What on earth am I going to do?"

Casey let out a sigh, "Abortion?" She offered the word with an intense question in her voice.

Alex gazed at her with teary eyes, "Would it be fair of me to give this up when I can't exactly have a happy accident like you two did."

Casey stood up, slowly and awkwardly, and made her way to Alex. She put a gentle hand on her shoulder and whispered, "You need to tell Olivia; only you two can work this out in a way that will offer any sort of resolution."

Alex stood up quickly and shook her head. "I can't do that. Not yet. Please don't tell her, I couldn't bear it if she heard from anyone else."

Casey nodded and watched as Alex slipped back out of her office and walked down the hall without being noticed. She couldn't bear holding in that knowledge, knowing the implications, but she wasn't sure what could possibly be done. Casey didn't even know for sure if she could tell Elliot without him turning around and telling Olivia. They were best friends, partners, practically family and she wasn't sure that he would be able to live with knowing that he was keeping anything from her. She shook her head and decided the best thing to do at this point was just wait and see what Alex was going to do; if she decided to terminate the pregnancy then the issue would be moot, but if she kept the baby…Casey sighed and blinked hard to get the thought out of her head. Just as she was mentally chastising herself for stressing herself out over something that she could neither control nor change, she felt a sharp pain in her hips and her beautiful silk skirt was suddenly soaked. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, thinking she must have peed herself, so she tried to lower herself into a chair for a moment. Just as she was sitting herself down, another pain shot through her and forced a pained moan. She shouted Elliot's name between her labored breathing, hoping that she wouldn't have to go out to the squad room to get him.

Elliot opened the door gently but upon seeing her on the floor he started shouting for Olivia and began helping her stand back up. "Casey, honey why didn't you tell me that your water broke, we should have left right then." He looked over his shoulder and shouted again, "Liv, hurry up!"

Casey laughed at him, thinking to herself how cute it was that he was getting frantic as he waited for Olivia and Casey to meet in the hall. She shooed his hand away from her, silently insisting that she could walk on her own. She walked slowly to the elevator, allowing Elliot to mutter to himself as he swung the go-bag over his shoulder and frantically pressed the button over and over. "Elliot, that isn't going to make the elevator go any faster, it will be okay. I literally just went into labor, the contractions are still pretty far apart and-" She doubled over as she tried to catch her breath, allowing a few labored moans of pain escape her.

The elevator door opened and Elliot scooped Casey up into his arms and pressed the button with his elbow. He refused to put her down, insisting that she couldn't walk, walking as brusquely as he could with a full grown, pregnant woman in his arms.

_._._._

Alex sat with her head hung in her hands; she had no idea what she was going to do. She could hardly just come out and tell Olivia and she couldn't just pretend the issue didn't exist. She knew that this would be an issue that would take serious work to fix, after everything that Olivia had suffered through with her, it hardly seemed fair that Olivia would have to go through this too.

She looked up as Olivia walked in the front door; she dropped her keys on the table and shrugged off her jacket. As she walked over to Alex to kiss her hello, she saw the red rims of her eyes, the marks of dried tears and Olivia's face instantly lit up with worry. "Alex, baby, what's wrong? Do you need to go to a doctor?"

Alex shook her head quickly, "I went to the doctor today."

Olivia furrowed her brow and clasped one of Alex's hands in her own. "What is it?"

Alex gazed into Olivia's eyes, trying to predict how severe the reaction would be. "I'm pregnant."

And Alex instantly regretting letting the words leave her mouth.