The sirens roared as the black SUV's skidded into a parking lot outside a local daycare. Inside the brick red building a father had decided to take the custody battle over the couple's two sons into his own hands. Although the jury was still out on the case, it was clear that the mother would win sole custody of the kids due to the father's history of drugs and alcohol.
Emily had spent the night at Matt's, but neither had slept more than an hour or two all night. This is how it had been for the past two weeks. Every night it started well, a calm dinner an hour of T.V. spent curled up to each other under a warm red fleece blanket, but as soon as the lights went out, they both panicked. Could they really handle a child together? It hadn't even been a year since the world found out they were seeing each other. They weren't married, didn't even live together. Although it was rare for a real conversation to take place between them, it was clear by their wide open eyes at three in the morning, that they were both worried.
It had only been in the past week that Emily also started feeling the physical effects of the pregnancy. Standing up made her light headed, and the smell of food made her vomit. It was hard for Matt just to stand by, watching the love of his life go through such a terrible time, but just seeing the her pregnant glow gave him a certain confidence.
That morning had been tough. After being paged by Cheryl at 6:15 that morning, it had taken the couple over 30 minutes to leave for work. As soon as Emily stood up, the waves of nausea came back. She ran for the bathroom but didn't quite make it, hitting a clean white carpet instead. Worse than the nausea now was the embarasment: she had just thrown up all over the bed room carpet of the first man she could really say that she loved. She ignored the rug and continued to the bathroom where she spent the next 15 minutes on the ground by the toilet, wondering how anyone had ever made it through 9 months of pregnancy. Finally, Matt came into the bathroom bringing a bowl of scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice. Emily had no desire to eat, but afraid she would disappoint Matt, she managed to get down a few bits before getting dressed for work. Matt tried everything he could to try to get her to take a sick day, but Emily refused saying that she would be fine as soon as they started working. After what seemed like hours to the two of them, they hopped into Matt's new car and headed for the office. Although the entire drive was less than ten minutes, it felt like ages to Emily as her stomach seemed to do flips with every rotation of the tire. It was a quite ride except for the dull murmur of passing cars and horns. After pulling into the parking lot of the CNU headquarters, Matt gave Emily a quick kiss on the forehead before they opened the car doors and ran up the steps to where the rest of the team was waiting for them.
"Morning" Lia greeted as the couple approached
"So here's what we've got" began Cheryl as she explained the situation to the team.
Matt and Emily tried their hardest to listen, but it was not the most important thing on either of their minds.
"okay, that's all I have. Lets head out" Concluded Cheryl as she beeped open the locks to the four black SUVs parked nearby.
"Lehman, Flannery you're with me. Duff and Frank, you take the next one" She instructed as she opened the door.
Hesitant to strap in for the next roller costar ride, Emily finally stepped up and into the van.
The caravan pulled out of the parking lot, Duff's van leading.
"Well, it's a twenty minute ride over, so you're welcome to turn the radio on if you'd like" said Cheryl
Matt flipped through some stations, but found nothing of interest, so he turned it back off.
"So, how have you guys been" Asked Cheryl?
"Pretty good," responed Emily, trying to convince herself that she felt fine.
The small talk continued for another ten minutes before Emily had finally had enough.
"Cheryl is there any way you could pull over for just a second."
Cheryl was confused, "What is it?"
Matt seemed to understand though, he quickly looked under his seat and found a grocery bag to give to Emily just in time. Emily was mortified. Throwing up in front of Matt was bad enough, but to throw up in Cheryl's van, that was just horrible.
"Oh my gosh Cheryl, I'm so sorry" Pleaded Emily, still light headed
"Emily, we'll lose the rest of the caravan if we pull over now, but as soon as we get there I'll have someone drive you home. Lia can take over with Matt until I can find someone else."
"Cheryl, I'm fine its just that…well…I'm five weeks pregnant. Its just the morning sickness. We weren't planning on telling anyone yet, but I promise, I can still work!"
"Congratulations Emily, and I assume Matt, but you know the rules as well as I do. You can't do in field work while pregnant" Responded Cheryl, still in a total state of shock.
The shock of the situation sent another wave of nausea over Emily.
"I'm fine" she protested.
"Em, I tried to tell you, I still think you should be at home today." Pleaded Matt
Emily felt attacked. "You know, just because I'm pregnant doesn't change who I am or what I am capable of doing. If I was at home right now, I would just freaking out about the baby all day. This is the best thing for me!"
"But what about the baby" continued
"It'll be fine. I promise!" Pleaded Emily
"Just because Matt and I had one night, now I have to work out of the office while he gets to go get the bad guys?" Continued Emily
Emily sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm just terrified you know"
Cheryl looked at Emily as Emily looked at Matt. "Look, if you keep this child, I know that you and Matt will be great Parents. You'll be fine. I promise."
"What about being partners then, can we still be partners if we have a child together?"
"Well, I'd have to look into it, but I don't see it as being anymore of a problem than it is now. I mean, Matt, you'd have a different partner while Emily was on Maternity, but I don't see a problem with you partnership after that."
They pulled up to the scene and Matt once again gave Emily a kiss on the forehead, whispering, "I love you" into her ear.