Author's Note: Well I decided to add another chapter. I have a few more ideas for chapters, but it may not be a long fic. Anyway, as always, I own nothing and I'm not a writer. Just having fun! Hope you enjoy.
It had been a couple of weeks since Holly and Gail had found out that Gail was pregnant. The blonde had shown very few signs of being pregnant, except for being a little more tired than normal. Holly had already started reading books and studies, trying to prepare herself for what to expect. She was a doctor, but pregnancy was definitely not her expertise. And of the two of them, Holly was the one who was expected to know things. To know if things were normal or if there was cause to worry. The brunette had yet to be tested on this knowledge until Gail was almost two and a half months pregnant.
They had been sleeping soundly, the alarm not set to go off for another hour. Holly felt Gail stirring but thought she was likely just having an intense dream. But Gail started to moan and then flew out of bed, heading for the master bathroom.
"Gail?" Holly sat up in bed, but was still slightly dazed. Then she heard the sound of her wife throwing up and realized what was happening. She made her way to the bathroom almost as quickly as Gail had. She made it just in time to see her wife heave a second time.
"Oh, baby." The brunette filled a cup with water and grabbed a towel. She sat down on the floor next to her wife and started rubbing the blonde's back.
"Ugh. I feel like my insides are doing somersaults."
"I'm sorry, sweetie. Here, drink some water." Holly continued to rub circles on her wife's back, trying to be as comforting as possible.
"I can't. Swallowing sounds like the worst idea ever right now. I'm pretty sure it would get rejected immediately. Holly, this is worse than being hung over. At least when you throw up after drinking too much, you feel better for a little while. But I feel just as nauseous as when I woke up."
"Well here's a towel if you want to wipe your mouth. You can rinse your mouth out even if you don't want to swallow. Is there anything else I can do? Do you want to move back to the bed? Do you want me to get you some crackers?" Holly felt helpless and hated to see her wife feeling so miserable.
"Ugh, don't talk about food. Ever again. Like until the baby is born. Because just the mention of it makes me want to vomit everything I've ever eaten. I think if I just sit here for the next seven months, I'll be okay." Gail took the glass of water, rinsed out her mouth and spit it into the toilet.
Holly rose up a little to flush the toilet and then sat next to her wife again. "I'll never mention it again. But you can't stay here forever. Why don't you let me help you back to the bed? You will be more comfortable there. We can bring the trashcan in case you need it."
"Ugh. Okay. The churning is starting to subside. Quick, let's go before it comes back." Gail used the side of the bathtub to help her stand up. As soon as she was upright, her head spun and she started to sway forward. Holly quickly grabbed her wife's shoulders in order to steady her.
"Oh god, are you okay? Do you feel dizzy? Do you need to sit back down? You need to drink some water." Holly went into worried-wife mode.
"I'm okay. I just got up too fast. I just want to get back in bed until I have to get ready for work." Gail started to move toward the door. Holly wrapped her arm around her wife's back and held on to her arm with her free hand.
"It's not terminal, nerd. It's just morning sickness. I will be okay."
"I know. I just don't want you to fall. You could hit your head. Maybe you should call in sick today."
As soon as Gail was sitting on the bed, Holly went back for the glass of water and brought the trashcan too.
"No, I can't stay home from work every time I get sick. I'm sure I will feel better in a little while. Stop worrying."
"Worrying is what I do. Even before you were pregnant. Now I just have a new tiny person to worry about. Here drink some water. Just a few sips."
Gail took the glass of water and took a very tiny sip. Her stomach, although not as bad, still felt a little squeamish so she set the glass on the nightstand. "I know. And I love that you want us to be safe, but you are a doctor. You know that morning sickness is completely normal and that plenty of women throw up every morning and then go to work."
Holly sighed and sat down next to her wife. She grabbed the blonde's hand. "I know. I just hate seeing you miserable and I wish there was something I could do."
"You are doing it now. Just be here. But just metaphorically because your alarm would have gone off about ten minutes ago so you need to get in the shower." At the look of hesitation on Holly's face, Gail continued, "Go. I'm fine and I'm just going to lay here until I have to get up to shower."
"Alright, but just yell if you need me, ok? I will be quick." Holly wanted to stay a little longer with her wife, but if she was going to make it in time for the department meeting at 8, she had to start getting ready now.
Holly finished showering and started getting ready. Gail, who was feeling better, started to make her way to the shower. Holly stopped drying her hair so she could watch her wife walk into the bathroom. She looked for any more signs of dizziness but didn't find any. Forty-five minutes later, Holly and Gail were sitting in their jeep outside the station.
"Alright, I'll see you later, babe. Go cut up some dead people." Gail leaned over, grabbed her wife's cheek and gave the brunette a kiss. After a few seconds, Holly leaned back and pulled the blonde's hand down into her lab.
"Nice. Are you sure you don't want to eat a granola bar? I put some in your bag."
"I'm not hungry yet, but thank you. I have to go so I don't miss parade. I love you. Stop worrying."
"Not possible. And I love you too. Be safe. Text me later, ok?" Holly wasn't sure why she felt so reluctant for Gail to leave. They did this every morning. And even though she always had a small amount of anxiety that lived in the back of her mind, she could usually keep it from affecting her emotions. Holly was glad that Gail had already turned to open the door because she didn't want her wife to see that her eyes were growing misty.
"Always. Bye, Lunchbox!" Gail called just before she shut the door.
Holly watched the blonde strut inside, something about putting on her uniform made Gail walk differently. More confidently. Holly took a deep breath and tried to summon some confidence of her own. The appearance of symptoms had somehow made the pregnancy seem more real to Holly. Her anxiety level was through the roof. But she was going to have to find a way to control these feelings because there were still seven more months to go.
Holly made her way to the lab and tried to focus on work. At her morning meeting, she took extra notes to keep her mind from wandering. Instead of delegating routine tasks to her intern, she performed them herself. She took her time on the autopsy of a suspicious death even though she knew ten minutes in that it had been an embolism. As much as she tried to keep her worries about her wife out of her mind, Holly could not stop imagining the paleness of her wife's face that morning. She hadn't heard from Gail all morning and even though she knew her wife was probably just busy, she couldn't help but worry about the possibilities.
By the time Holly had finished the autopsy and gotten the body back in cold storage, she had made up her mind. She had to talk to her wife. She knew she could just call, but she needed to see her. Gail had a habit of trying to keep Holly from worrying which meant downplaying any discomfort she may be feeling. Holly needed to see for herself that Gail was okay.
The brunette drove to the station and checked in at the front desk. She was making her way toward the detectives' desks to ask Traci if she knew where Gail was when she saw the blonde round the corner. Gail made that adorable confused face that always appeared when Holly showed up unexpectedly.
"Holly, hey. What are you doing here?" Gail stopped a couple of feet in front of her wife. As affectionate as she was outside the station, the blonde had a fairly strict 'no PDA at work' rule.
"Oh um, I needed to talk to Traci about a case. Give her some results from some tests." Holly averted her eyes. She wasn't very good at lying, but she was especially bad at lying to her wife.
Gail tilted her head, knowing that if she waited long enough, Holly would cave and tell her the truth.
"Okay fine. Come with me." Holly grabbed Gail's arm and lead her into the nearest interrogation room. Once the door was closed, Holly turned and gathered her wife into a hug.
After a few seconds, Gail said, "Holly, what's going on? Is everything okay?"
Without pulling away, Holly mumbled, "I lied about needing to talk to Traci."
Gail chuckled, "Yeah, I gathered that. So what's really going on?"
Holly pulled back and looked in her wife's eyes. The blonde looked a little tired, but the paleness from this morning was gone. The relief she felt came rushing out. "I was worried. I know you said you were okay, but I just kept seeing the image of your pale face from this morning. I was trying to distract myself with lab tests and taking twice as long on an autopsy, but I just needed to see you. I know we've known about you being pregnant for a while, but you haven't had any symptoms and you don't look any different so it hadn't really hit me. But then when you got sick this morning, it was real. You're carrying our baby and I just don't want anything to happen."
Gail was smiling now. "Holly, I'm fine. I promise. I didn't get a chance to text you because the damned computer in the evidence room decided to die so I had to do everything by hand and I just lost track of time. And as adorable as it is that you want to take care of me, we have seven more months to go. I don't want you to be constantly freaked out."
Holly put her hand on Gail's chest. "I know. I promise I'm not going to show up here every day. I think I just needed to see that you were really okay. I'm not ever going to stop worrying completely, but soon it will be normal that you're pregnant. But right now it's still new so I'm being a little crazy."
"You're not being crazy. Okay, you're being a little crazy. But it's alright. I will try to text you more often so you know that I'm okay. Will that help?" Gail was holding her wife's shoulders now.
"Yeah, that would make me feel better. Just promise you won't hide anything from me ok? If you're sick, I want to know. Even if it's not a big deal, I still want to know."
"I promise. Any time I smell ground beef and vomit in the break room trashcan, I will let you know."
Holly smirked, "Ground beef, huh? Is that new?"
"Yeah, let's not talk about it. As soon as we're telling people, I'm going to threaten to de-pants Dov if he doesn't stop cooking in the break room."
"Gotcha. Okay well I'm going to go back to work now. Thanks for letting me be crazy." Holly turned toward the door, but then remembered a question she hadn't asked yet. "Oh, did you eat your granola bar?"
"Lunchbox. You're being crazy again." At Holly's warning look, Gail confessed, "Not yet. I got busy and didn't feel hungry. I'm going to eat lunch in about an hour though. And lucky for you, after this morning, I really don't want anything heavy or greasy so I'll probably get a salad."
"Ok good. Just make sure you eat lunch." Holly stopped to look at her wife. She loved this woman. She loved that she could freak out and hover and Gail didn't feel threatened or annoyed. Holly wrapped both arms around her wife's neck and pulled her in for a kiss.
After a few seconds, the brunette pulled away and whispered. "I love you, you know that?"
Gail smiled, gave her wife one more peck on the lips and then whispered back, "Yeah nerd, I know. Me too.