Notes: Apologies for the later post, REAL McRollers. I'm a bit under the weather. (Maybe more than a bit.) Thank you for your patience and your always amazing support.
Mari and Sammy – Thank you for the feedback and the love and the offers of help. La famiglia!
Hope you enjoy!
'Til Morning (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
Catherine was sitting at her desk when her phone buzzed, and she smiled to see the grinning face of her best friend appear on the caller ID.
She accepted the call and said, "Hey, what's up?"
"It's been, like, two weeks since I've seen you," Carrie said without preamble. "Unacceptable. You want to grab lunch today?"
Catherine laughed. "You do know we've gone much longer than two weeks without seeing each other, right?"
"But now we don't have to. How about 12:00?"
"I'd love to, but …" she glanced at her watch and bit her lip, "can we make it 12:30? I've gotta run a quick errand first."
"I can meet you at the Palace and go with. What's the errand?"
Catherine paused, but only for a second before exhaling in relief. "Yeah, actually, that'd be great. I'll um … I'll tell you about it when I see you."
"Ooh, mystery errand. Now you've got me all intrigued."
Catherine laughed at that.
"I'll see you later," Carrie said.
"Later." After ending the call, Catherine bit the tip of her thumb thoughtfully, the other fingers curled around her phone. With an excited smile, she set the phone down and turned back to her laptop to finish up her report.
At noon, Catherine met Carrie in the Palace parking lot. She had barely slid into the Impala before Carrie asked, "So what's the errand? Where are we going? Need to pick up some Cubs shirts for Game 7?"
Catherine smiled. "No. Cubs shirts are ready. We were instructed to wear the same ones we wore yesterday."
"Ah, of course, because they won yesterday so naturally you have to wear the same shirts again," she teased.
"You know Mom and Grandma Ang."
"I do," Carrie said with a nod and a fond smile. "So where–"
"I need to go to CVS." Her eyes danced. "My period's late. I need to get a pregnancy test."
Carrie's jaw dropped. "Wh–? You–? Oh my GOD!" she cried, hitting Catherine on the arm.
Catherine laughed at her best friend's reaction.
"Does Steve know? What am I asking, of course you told him. Better question: how excited is he?"
"Very," Catherine said, grinning.
"This is HUGE! How many days late are you?"
"Six."
"Six?" Carrie asked, incredulous. "And you haven't taken a test yet?"
"I thought we should wait a week. It could just be that my period is irregular since I'm off the pill."
"That makes sense, but I'm surprised you waited this long to get a test."
"I know. Steve wanted to run right out the first day."
Carrie snorted. "Of course he did."
"Frankly, so did I, but I did some research …"
"Of course you did," Carrie interjected.
"… and I read that the tests are more accurate if you wait a week, despite what they advertise. Much less chance of a false negative." She shrugged. "A week seemed reasonable and I knew if I got the tests before now I wouldn't have been able to wait."
"Now that I believe." She grinned, staring at Catherine. Her eyes dropped to her best friend's midsection, and she flapped her hands excitedly. "Eeeeeeeee!"
Catherine laughed. "Don't 'Eeeeee' yet, I still have to take the test."
"It's gonna be positive. I know it's going to be positive because I have been sending all kinds of positive vibes your way ever since I found out you were trying." She took a breath and settled back into her seat. "Okay," she said, rubbing her hands together then placing them on the steering wheel. "Let's go get a pregnancy test." She looked back at Catherine and grinned. "Or three."
Catherine laughed again. "You sound like Steve."
"Hey, great minds …"
Ten minutes later, Catherine and Carrie stood in front of an array of home pregnancy tests at CVS, studying the different brands.
"Why are there so many?" Carrie asked. "They all work the same, don't they? Pee on a stick, wait for the results."
Catherine picked up a box, scanning the side. "There are some small differences in sensitivity level, wait time, and whether the display is a line or digital."
Carrie picked up a different one, reading the name. "Oh, this is you guys. Rapid Result. Or this is Steve, anyway. One minute to results."
"We've waited a week, I think we can wait three minutes."
Carrie studied the pictures on the box. "I've never gotten the line thing. Why use lines? Two lines, you're pregnant; one line, you're not. Use a plus or minus if you're gonna do lines, I say. Don't confuse people."
"Some do use plus and minus signs," Catherine said. "And the digital ones are even more clear."
Carrie picked up another box. "This one has one of each. Line and digital. I think that makes even less sense. Why one of each?"
"You got me," Catherine said. She picked a box labeled First Response Gold Digital Pregnancy Test. "No guesswork on the lines. It'll either say Yes or No."
"And McGarrett'll approve of the 'Gold' standard," Carrie teased, putting the combo box back.
Catherine paused, her eyes drifting back to the shelves. After a moment, she grabbed the Rapid Result one as well.
Carrie laughed. "Ha! I knew it!"
Catherine grinned, then her eyes went wide when she heard, "Catherine?" from behind her. She and Carrie whirled around to see Jenna standing a few feet away.
Jenna smiled broadly. "I thought that was you. Hi, Carrie, I …" Her voice trailed off as she noticed the two boxes in Catherine's hands. She looked at Catherine, then at the boxes, then back at Catherine, and back at the boxes. Her eyes widened. "OH!"
"This … um …" Carrie started, taking one of the boxes from Catherine.
"This isn't …" Catherine sighed, shaking her head. "No, I can't do that."
"What?" Jenna asked.
"I can't say this isn't what it looks like. You're too smart to believe that and I don't want to lie to you." She took the other box back from Carrie, quickly glancing around as she stepped closer to Jenna and spoke quietly. "Steve and I are trying to have a baby and …" she smiled excitedly, "I think I might be pregnant."
"Oh my God, oh my God!" Jenna cried, hugging her as enthusiastically as Jacob ever had.
Carrie joined in the hug, wrapping her arms around both and bouncing in place, causing the other two to bounce with her, all laughing.
When they released each other, Catherine looked at Jenna and asked, "Are you on your lunch break? Do you have time to join us for a quick bite?"
Jenna checked her watch. "I could do that. As long as it's fast. I just had a couple things to pick up but I'm all set," she said, holding up a prescription bag.
Carrie nodded to the boxes Catherine was holding. "Then let's go buy these suckers. Maybe they'll let you do the test here," she said, looking around for the restrooms.
"I'm not doing the test here," Catherine said, rolling her eyes.
"I know, I know. You want Steve to be there." She shrugged, a broad grin on her face. "I can't help it, I'm excited!"
"That makes two of us," Jenna agreed.
Catherine smiled. "Make that three."
"Hopefully make that four," Carrie said, poking Catherine's side.
After paying, the three headed to a cafe around the corner. Unsurprisingly, much of the conversation revolved around the pending test.
"It's the longest three minutes of your life," Jenna said. "Sometimes it takes even longer."
"She got one that gives results in one minute," Carrie told her.
"Ohh," Jenna said. "Excellent. When are you going to do it?"
Catherine smiled. "Tomorrow morning." She laughed. "If I can wait that long."
"And you already told Steve?"
Catherine nodded. "As soon as I knew I was late I told him. He wants to know everything."
"That's so wonderful." She grimaced. "I'm sure it won't surprise you to learn I had pretty much the opposite situation."
Both women gave her sympathetic looks but Jenna waved the negative thoughts away.
"I'm so happy for you," she said genuinely. "You and Steve are going to be such amazing parents."
"Absolutely," Carrie agreed.
Catherine smiled, though it was clearly tinged with uncertainty.
"You are," Jenna stressed. "Just look how you are with my kids. And Joan."
"Family parties, little outings, babysitting …" Catherine said. "That's a lot different than having your own child."
"It is," Jenna acknowledged. "But you and Steve are smart and resourceful, and most importantly, you're loving and caring. You both have such huge hearts. You're going to give your child a wonderful home and family."
"Amen to that," Carrie said.
Catherine smiled gratefully, reaching over and squeezing Jenna's hand.
"Excuse me for a minute," Carrie said, standing. She glanced at Catherine, nodding toward the back of the cafe where the restrooms were located. "Are you sure you don't want to just …?"
"Don't tempt me," Catherine said, laughing.
As Carrie walked away, Jenna said, "You wouldn't really … would you?"
"Definitely not," Catherine assured her. "I absolutely want Steve to be there, and I absolutely want to be in my own home when we find out if …" Her voice trailed off as she smiled softly, fighting the urge to touch her belly.
Jenna sighed happily. "Just wait until you feel your baby move inside you the first time. There's nothing else like it in the world."
Catherine smiled at her. "I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of questions."
"I'm here for you. Whatever you want to know."
Catherine smiled gratefully, then bit her lip. "Jenna, I hope you're not upset we didn't tell you we were trying to have a baby. We didn't want to tell a lot of people until we really had something to tell. But we did tell my parents and Mary, Aaron, and Deb. Carrie and Danny actually guessed. And a couple people found out accidentally," she said with a smile, thinking of Max and Grace.
"I'm not upset," Jenna assured her. "I absolutely understand. And I won't say anything to anyone until you and Steve are ready."
"Thank you."
"In fact," Jenna continued as Carrie rejoined them, "I'm not even going to ask you about the results. If you are pregnant, you and Steve should keep that just for you at first. Enjoy it together until you're ready to tell everyone else."
Carrie nodded her agreement, and Catherine looked surprised. "What?" Carrie said. "Of course I'll be dying to know, but Jenna's right. You and Steve should have that to yourselves. At least for a little bit."
Catherine chuckled. "That's very noble of you."
"Thank you," Carrie said proudly, a touch of mirth in her eyes.
"Of course, you know I'd tell you if it was negative, so if I don't tell you anything, you'll basically know it was positive."
Carrie shrugged, sharing a quick conspiratorial look with Jenna. "Well, yeah. But …" She grinned. "I'll wait for official word to start squealing. Publicly, anyway," she added with a wink.
Catherine shook her head, laughing happily, grateful to share this moment with two such close friends.
Steve arrived home after his long afternoon in court and immediately spotted the CVS bag on the coffee table.
Cammie trotted over to greet him as he tossed his keys on the end table, and he rubbed her head affectionately.
"Cath?" he called.
"Hey," she said, coming out of the kitchen. She moved to kiss him, then his attention moved back to the bag.
"You got it?" he asked, keeping one arm around her waist.
"Actually I got two," she said, reaching for the bag and taking out both boxes. "One digital display and one line display."
" 'Results in 1 minute,' " he read from the Rapid Result box. "We're definitely using this one."
She chuckled. "Carrie knew you'd say that." When he raised an eyebrow curiously, she explained, "She called to have lunch today and, well, it was nice to have her with me when I went to the store."
He nodded. "I would've gone with you."
"I know," she said, touching his cheek. "And thank you."
"So …?" he said leadingly, glancing upstairs.
"Tomorrow morning," she said.
He balked. "Tomorrow?"
"A week, we said."
"I know, but …" he motioned with the box.
"It's better to take the test in the morning."
He sighed. "Okay."
"Okay," she said, though quieter.
He studied her face and asked, "What is it?"
She paused, then said, "If I'm not …"
"If you're not, then we keep trying," he said simply. "That's all there is to it."
She smiled gratefully and nodded.
He took the box out of her hand and set both down on the table again. Straightening, he wrapped both arms around her.
"But I got a good feeling," he said and kissed the top of her head. "I really do."
Leaning back, she looked up at him and smiled at his eyes so full of hope and certainty. She stretched to kiss him, then settled back into his arms.
"So …" he said again, and she glanced up to see his grin. "I think you and I are going to have an early night. Because the sooner we go to bed … "
Her expression matched his. "The sooner it'll be morning …"
Hope you enjoyed! Not long to wait now!
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