Hey hey!

Thank you first of all for reading this. This story was inspired by the Major Crimes fic 'The Other Woman' ( s/10677020/1/The-Other-Woman), a wonderful story by the amazing writer Miss Shannon ( u/1235673/Miss-Shannon). I really hope you guys enjoy this, and please let me know what you think!

/

She groaned as her alarm woke her at 6.30. She sighed and turned over to turn it off, her stomach flipping unpleasantly. She brushed her hand over it and frowned. She had thought the stomach bug that had been pestering her for the past few weeks was gone by now. Just as she was about to get up and take a shower, her phone beeped, indicating she had gotten a new message. A crime scene. Great. She had hoped for a slow day at the office to catch up on some paperwork. She grabbed her phone and responded that she would be there within half an hour. She quickly grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt and took a quick shower. Even though she was in a hurry, she took more time than usual to put on her make-up, trying to cover up her pale face and the dark circles under her eyes as good as possible. After having given herself a quick look of approval, she went into Ellie's room to wake her up and tell her goodbye. She put on her jacket and grabbed her bag and keys, making her way out of the apartment.

She arrived at the crimescene 35 minutes after she had send the text, only having stopped to buy herself a cup of tea at her favorite coffee shop. Ginger lemon. Jo hoped it would still the queasy feeling in her stomach that hadn't lessened since she got up. She showed her badge to the police officer before ducking under the police tape and making her way over to Flack and Danny, who were comparing notes they had gotten from any witnesses. Flack noticed her first, lifting his hand to greet her.

'Hey.' She responded.

'What do we have?' She asked looking around the crime scene. They were at an old, abandoned parking lot, with only one car occupying the scene.

'Victim is in there.' Flack said, pointing at the car.

'It's not completely clear what the cause of death is, though, but Sid and Hawkes are working on it.' Jo nodded and she saw Sid and Sheldon walking around the car, taking pictures. At that time Mac came walking towards them, stopping to stand next to Jo, which caused her to tense up involuntarily.

'Victim's in there?' He asked. Flack nodded. Mac followed his gaze and motioned for Jo to come with him.

'It's not pretty.' Danny warned them.

'Body's been in there for a while.' Mac looked like he didn't care but Jo couldn't help but scrunch her nose. Her stomach still hadn't settled and she was not looking to make it worse. As they were standing in front of the car listening to Sid's description of what they had found yet, Jo tried her best not to look at the victim inside. Danny had been right, it wasn't pretty. Sid suspected the body had been in there for about two to three months. He wasn't exactly sure because the heat inside the car had sped up some of the decomposition. Hawkes came over to them, two assistant ME's following him.

'Hey guys.' He greeted them before turning to business.

'We can examine him better if we take him down to the morgue. Shall we take him out?'

'Sure. Watch out though, the moment I open this door it's going to smell like hell.' As he and Hawkes walked over to the car's door, Jo tried to prepare for what was about to happen. But as the door opened and the smell hit them, she quickly pressed her hand to her mouth and nose, stepping back while trying not to gag as she felt acid making its way up her throat. Mac looked at her a little surprised, as she has never been so affected by a crime scene, but she doesn't notice because she is taking deep breaths to keep the nausea down. She must look pretty terrible, because Sid and Sheldon are also looking at her worriedly.

'Are you okay Jo?' Sid asks. She nods slowly as she drops her hand.

'Yeah, I'm fine.' She smiles, hoping to make it look a little reassuring.

'I just had no idea it would be so bad.' Sid gives her a look as if he doesn't believe her, but he drops the subject and she is glad the others do too. She watches as the ME's lift the body on a platform and drive it into the van. Glad the body (and especially the smell that came from it) is away from her, she starts processing the crime scene, collecting as much evidence as possible.

/

A few hours later they are finished, and the team makes their way back to the lab. Jo is glad that the dizzy feeling she had when she got up is gone, but is annoyed the nausea isn't. She opens her car window, hoping that the calm flow of New York traffic and some fresh air will do her good. But when she gets on the elevator to take her to the 34th floor, nothing has changed. It's hot and crowded in there, and that alone would have made Jo feel uncomfortable, no matter what. But after a few moments a man steps into the elevator, carrying a fresh cup of coffee. The smell of coffee usually couldn't seem to do anything bad to her, but today her stomach started sending warning signs as soon as it hit her. She tried to discretely rub her stomach to calm it down while silently praying it would preserve the rest of the elevator ride. As soon as they reach the 34th floor and the doors open, Jo practically jolts out and makes a beeline towards the restrooms. Just in time she pulls up her hair as she empties the little contents of her stomach. After a few moments she pulls away, wiping her mouth with a piece of toilet paper. She washes her hands and mouth and dabs her face with a cold, wet piece of paper. After taking a few deep breaths, she walks into the lab. She's not going to give into this bug now. She has work to do.

/

A few hours later Jo is sitting in behind her desk, her vision swimming. She and Lindsay are discussing what they know about the case so far but she has a hard time concentrating. Lindsay says something about a possible previous victim but she barely hears it.

'Who did you say she was, the other victim?' She asks, interrupting Lindsay in the middle of a sentence.

'Uhm…' Lindsay looks down at the file. 'Kathe Jackson, why?'

'Oh, no reason, I just didn't quite catch what you were saying.' Jo responds, quickly writing down the name. She had a feeling she wouldn't remember it later if she didn't.

'Am I really that boring?' Lindsay chuckles.

'What?' Jo looks back up at her, looking a little confused. 'No, sorry, that's not what I meant.' She says, smiling reassuringly at her. Lindsay frowns as she looks at her friend. She looks a little out of sorts. Not only is she quite pale, she sounds tired and seems to be having a hard time focusing.

'Is everything okay Jo?' she asks, worry lacing through her voice.

'Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry.' Jo answers automatically.

'You sure? You look a little pale.' Lindsay continues, trying to catch a trace off of Jo's face.

'Yeah, yeah, it's just…' She shakes her head a little, but when she looks up at Lindsay's questioning face, she decides to drop the charade.

'I feel sick.' she says, leaning back in her chair and placing her hand over her eyes for a moment. Lindsay looks at her sympathetically. She knows Jo has been walking around with this bug for a while now and she feels bad for her friend that it still hasn't passed.

'Why don't you just go home? We can handle things here.' But Jo shakes her head and straightens in her chair.

'No, I can handle it. I'm not going to let a stomach bug take me down.' she smirks, but it doesn't reach her eyes.

'Are you sure? You've been feeling bad for a while now, maybe you should get yourself checked out by a doctor.' Although Lindsay would never voice her concerns to anybody else, she was worried about Jo. She hadn't been herself for over two months. Then the continual nausea had started. She just hoped it wasn't anything serious.

'Yes, I'm sure.' When Lindsay still stared at her she sighed.

'If it hasn't passed by the end of the week I will go and see a doctor, I promise.' Lindsay nodded, feeling a little more relieved.

'You better.'

She smiled at Jo while standing up from her desk and leaving their shared office. Jo shook her head smiling as she watched her friend leave. Even though she didn't like it when people were worried about her or even knew when something was wrong, she was touched by Lindsay's care and concern for her well-being. And she was right. Jo herself had also thought about seeing a doctor. She couldn't remember ever being sick this long. She grabbed her agenda and started looking for a possible date she could arrange a meeting with her regular doctor. This weekend would be possible. She started going back to find the time she had started feeling unwell. As she went through the pages she suddenly noticed something was missing. She went through the past few weeks again, but still couldn't find one. She started counting. It seemed that she had already skipped two periods and somehow hadn't noticed. Her last period had been just before she slept with Mac. Her heart suddenly started racing. This couldn't be true. She couldn't be pregnant with Mac Taylor's baby.