A short one shot that can be read as a companion piece to Future.

For ankaz123 for her need of shannon/lawson-ism, hope this is good enough :D

Enjoy all...

Shannon couldn't help but continue to constantly keep her eyes flicking down to her left hand. There was nothing new on her hands, just the same old engagement and wedding rings that had been there for the last two years.

Sighing she twisted her rings around, glancing at the clock for the umpteenth time. She wondered where Lawson had gotten to. Smoothing her dress down, her hands ran over her bump. She hated all this waiting around.

It wasn't that she wasn't excited about the new addition to their family, she just missed work. Once her pregnancy was confirmed she was taken off the roads, it wasn't a risk that Kerry and Lawson were willing to take. Especially Lawson! After that she had spent about a week and a half in the ops room with Leon, but she couldn't handle the stress on watching the action without being able to do anything, combined with the pregnancy hormones. It had all come to a head with Lawson was nearly injured in a chase. Leon had thought that Shannon would actually faint…all very un-Shannon like.

So for the past four months she had been on temporary re-assignment to General Duties; however she was still on desk duties which she hated. She was beginning to get claustrophobic and she hated coming home to an empty house.

It seemed that Lawson had been working longer hours. Since she had moved out of TR Shannon had noticed the hours had begun getting longer and longer.

She understood the reasons. She understood the job; they had struggled to find a replacement for her. And as the boss Lawson had taken on more than his share of the slack.

'How hard can it be to replace a sergeant?' she thought to herself.

The TR Unit had been through six sergeants in four months. Apparently no one had lived up to her. No one had the same qualifications as she did. She should have been flattered, but she wasn't. It had even lead to an argument between her and Lawson last night.

*Flashback*

Shannon was sitting at the dining room table late at night, waiting for Lawson to arrive home. She had come home, cooked, cleaned and eaten dinner. Lawson's, as usual, was waiting for him in the oven.

She looked up as she heard the front door slam.

"Shannon?"

"In here," she replied.

"Hey…" Lawson greeted, tossing his keys onto the kitchen bench and leant down to give Shannon a kiss. "How was your day?"

"Same old, same old. Pushing paper."

Lawson smiled. "Dinner in the oven, as usual?"

"Yeah, I'll get it," Shannon told him as she made a move to get up.

"No, I'll get it," Lawson told her, his hand pausing over her bump. "So," he called from the kitchen, "did Bump behave himself today?"

"Yes she did," Shannon called back emphasizing the she. "By the way, Lawson what time do you call this? I wouldn't mind actually having dinner with you once in a while," she told him as he sat down.

"Shannon, you know what the job's like."

"Yes…And I also know that's why you have two sergeants. It's called sharing the load," she told him. "Yes," she continued, seeing Lawson open his mouth in protest. "Yes, I know you're the team leader. But I know Josh can pull his weight and what about the new guy?"

"He's a newbie…He's not up to standards."

"And he's been with you guys for two weeks. He can't be perfect instantly. This is the sixth guy in four months and you've complained about every single one of them."

"But Shan, I've got to ride with them. And they weren't meeting expectations. And neither is this guy," Lawson told her, the conversation becoming heated.

"And why isn't he? Because he's not me?"

"You were what we needed Shannon."

"Yes and how many of these guys have a double degree in psychology and criminology? And is a specialist negotiator?"

"None," he replied meekly.

"Well what do you need to do with this sergeant to help him reach you expectations? Does he have the potential?"

"Well…" Lawson trailed off.

"Laws…you gotta make this work. I'm not coming back for a while," she said pointing down to her swollen tummy. "It also needs to work for us. You need a sergeant that is going to work for the team. We haven't even spoken about if I'm even going to come back."

"What do you mean if?"

"I thought we had discussed this Lawson," Shannon sighed exasperated. "We aren't letting our kids be raised by someone else. What would the point of having kids? I'm not planning on being a helicopter parent, but I don't want our kids to just recognize us by the blue uniform."

"But…"

"No Lawson! There's no point in having kids if we don't raise the," Shannon repeated in a huff. With that she stormed off to their bedroom.

*End Flashback*

Shannon shifted her weight about trying to get comfortable on the couch, eyes glancing up at the clock again.

She hadn't spoken to Lawson last night; he had allowed her to cool off before he came to bed. She had heard him in the shower, but had fallen asleep before he had climbed into bed. Bless him, he had let her sleep.

She had a late start this morning and Lawson had let her sleep in, just leaving a note on the bathroom mirror telling her that he loved her.

Glancing down at her bump she felt a thump, her hand rubbed the spot. Bub obviously wanted to be known, taking after his/her father.

"Hello?" Lawson's voiced echoed through the house.

"Living room," Shannon called back.

"Hey," Lawson acknowledged, "everything ok?"

"Yeah…Good day?"

"Average…I'm just going to grab a shower."

Shannon nodded in reply, knowing that they would soon have to clear the air

…

Lawson came back out a short while later sans his shirt to find Shannon asleep on the couch, arm draped across her abdomen. Lawson smiled as he leant down to pick her up. Shannon started to stir as he made his way to their bedroom and placed her arms around his neck, snuggling in closer. Lawson's grip tightened around her, knowing that this was actually becoming harder the more pregnant she was.

Gently placing her on the bed, he began to tuck her in.

"Lawson?"

Lawson looked up at Shannon's sleepy face.

"We should talk," Shannon told him, motioning with her finger for him to sit down on the bed.

Waiting for Lawson to sit before she moved to look at him.

"Last night…" she started.

"I'm sorry," Lawson interrupted. "I shouldn't have assumed anything about you returning to work."

"I know, I'm sorry too. I just need you to get things sorted at work Lawson. When you're at home I need you to be home…"

Lawson nodded, allowing Shannon to vent.

"You once told me that at the end of the day your uniform comes off, your wedding ring doesn't…I need you to do that Lawson. I need you to leave Senior Sergeant Blake at work," Shannon told him.

"Shan, I know not all my sergeants can be you. And it's a lot of them to live up to…But I need someone to be able to do that job well."

"So what can you do? This running yourself into the ground doesn't help…You need to be alert…I need you to be alert so you'll come home at night…Or after a shift. You need to stay safe. Your team also need you to be 100% there. You need to have their backs."

"I'm sending Garry, the new sergeant, on a negotiating course. He's got the qualifications and the experiences, may be he just needs confidence."

"That's the Lawson Blake I know," Shannon said, shuffling back into his embrace.

Lawson closed his arms around her, kissing the crown of her head.

"We'll take parenthood one day at a time," he told her, rubbing his thumb around in a circular motion on her belly. "And if you decide not to come back, it would be a great loss to the team, but I wouldn't be happier Shan!"

Shannon smiled as she closed her eyes, snuggling closer into Lawson's warm embrace, a huge weight off her mind.