Lanie Parish entered her morgue so engrossed in the autopsy file that she failed to see her best friend occupying her seat, until she almost sat on top of her.
"Lanie! I'm sitting here, you know." commented Kate Beckett as she used her feet to propel the chair backwards, and out of Lanie's reach.
"Kate, I'm sorry! This case is driving me crazy, I've gone over this file a dozen times and I still have no idea what happened." The M.E. Tossed the file down on her desk, before turning to face her friend.
"Have you come to alleviate my frustration? Or you got something else on your mind?" The blood rushed to Kate's face, even though she'd wanted to talk to her friend, now that it was about to happen she wasn't so sure.
"Err – I do have something to talk about.." When she didn't keep talking, Lanie pushed her for more information.
"Well, girl? What's going on?" Kate slowly pushed the chair back towards its rightful place in front of Lanie's desk, stalling for time. Sighing, she stood up, crossing her arms, and leaned up against the autopsy table.
"Its about Castle." Before the second syllable of his name was out of her mouth, Kate was faced with an almost squealing Lanie.
"Did you two do the nasty? Gimme details, darling!" The detective hopped up so she was sitting on the table, gesturing for her friend to take a seat in the chair.
"Look, Lanie, this is private, okay? That means don't tell the boys, or even Castle. You understand?" For the first time since entering the morgue, Lanie took a good look at her friend and could see Kate's nervousness written all over her face.
"Sure thing, girl. Just tell me the details, all of 'em." Reassured by Lanie's promise, Kate forced the words out of her mouth.
"Yes, we did sleep together. It happened a while ago, and a few times since." Before she could get very far, however, Lanie interrupted her.
"Wait! You didn't tell me? I thought you were coming in here to tell me that you two had finally hooked up, not that you hooked up 'a while ago' and you didn't tell me!" Kate cringed at her friend's outburst. She'd meant to tell her, really, there just hadn't been a good time.
"I know, I'm sorry, Lanie. I was going to.. But we wanted to keep it quiet for a bit, while we got things figured out, y'know..." Hearing the sadness in Kate's voice, Lanie instantly regretted yelling.
"Alright, it's all good. Just tell me what you wanted to tell me."
"Well, we've been getting kind of serious, but we haven't talked about anything. And I don't really know where we stand, so I don't know how to talk to him. I don't want to make things awkward between us, but I really need to talk to him, and I just don't know how." The sentence rushed out of Kate in one long breath, trailing off at the end as she ran out of oxygen.
"Woah, woah, woah, girl. Hang out. What do you need to talk to him about?" Concern was etched across Lanie's face, there were very few times that Kate Beckett babbled, and all of them were about something important.
"I'm pregnant, Lanie." The words tumbled out of Kate's mouth, slowly and gently. Silence fell over the room, and the shocked doctor tried to comprehend the words.
"Wha- what?"She managed to choke out after a while. "Are you sure?"
"I took three tests. All of them were positive. But, could you do a test here to be sure?" Jumping off the chair, Lanie bustled around the room, getting the supplies for the test. After getting blood and urine samples for the tests, the two friends sat down to continue their conversation.
"Weren't you careful, hun? I know you paid attention to all the sex-ed lessons in school." Getting scolded wasn't in her plans for the day, but Kate knew that she deserved it.
"It was a heat of the moment thing. We'd just finished up with one grueling case and one thing led to another. It just happened, it was an accident." The pressure of waiting for the test was beginning to affect her, and Kate found herself pacing around the morgue room.
"Are you sure it's his?" Lanie barely had time to get the words out of her mouth before Kate was spinning around and glaring at her.
"Of course I'm sure! He was the only person I've been with in months, you know that, Lanie." She, however couldn't stay angry at her friend, she knew it was something that needed to be asked.
"No, I don't know, girl. You were keeping him a secret from me, who knows who else you were keeping a secret as well?"
"You're right, Lanie, I'm sorry. I just didn't want to face it until we'd figured out what we are. But I can't wait anymore. I need to talk to him." The timer dinged, causing both women to rush towards the computer, looking for the results.
"Sweetie, they're both positive. You are most definitely pregnant." Kate felt Lanie's arms wrap around her, supporting her as faltered. They sat down on the floor, leaning up against the desk. "What are you going to do. I'm here for you, always."
"I don't know, Lanie. What am I supposed to do?" Tears began to fall down her cheeks, the emotional day was taking a toll on her.
"You need to talk to Castle, you have to tell him about this." Kate let her head drop to her knees, hiding her face from Lanie.
"He's going to want to marry me. You know what happened with him and Meredith when she got pregnant with Alexis. I don't want that" An astonished expression filled Lanie's face.
"You mean that after this almost love affair that's been going on between the two of you for the past four years you don't love the man enough to marry him?"
"No, I do. But some day years from now, not now, not out of responsibility."
"You need to talk to him about this, girl, he has a right to be a part of this decision." One thing can be said for Richard Castle, he tends to have the worst timing. This moment only furthered that streak as he opened the doors to the morgue, looking for his partner, and interrupting their conversation.
"Beckett? Lanie? Anyone here?" The two women chuckled as they realized that they were sitting on the floor of the morgue room, conveniently hidden from Castle. Beckett took a moment to compose her face before standing up, and dragging Lanie upright with her.
"Hey, Castle." Lanie took the brief pause as an opportunity to grab the file that she'd previously thrown on her desk, and leave the room. She turned around right before pushing through the doors, just in time to catch the glare Kate shot her way for leaving her alone with Castle.
"Hey, Rick." He could sense a difference in her. The past few days she'd been more distant, but today she was back to being the Kate that he'd seen since the first time that they slept together.
"Hey, Kate. What's up? Why are you hiding on the floor in the morgue on your lunch break?" He asked gently, not wanting to scare away the Kate that was making an appearance today.
"We need to talk." Those are the words that strike fear in everyone's heart, anyone who has ever been in a relationship. Kate saw the color drain out of his face, and realized that perhaps her choice of words were unfortunate. "Rick, its not what you think, I promise. Please, just sit down."
He followed her instructions, sitting in Lanie's chair, waiting for her to prove the wild theories running through his head wrong.
"Rick, there really isn't a tactful way to say this, or even a gentle way. So, I'm just going to say it, okay?" She didn't give him time to answer before she plowed forward. "I'm pregnant, Rick. The baby is yours.
A/N: I'm still working on my other story, but I haven't gotten much response on it, so I ended up starting this!
Please review!
Sya