AN: Okay, so let me take a moment here to say Oh My Goodness y'all! I am seriously having a hard time actually believing that there are that many of you following and favoriting and reviewing already. It has been amazing! Thank y'all so much! I'll have another AN at the end of the chapter with a bit more, but for now though enjoy.


A couple of hours later and Maura was setting the table for dinner. It had been weeks since she'd cooked a meal they both shared at the same time. Nate came in from his office just as she was finishing off placing the plates on the table in the dining room and ready to pull the chicken out of the oven.

Nate walked over and poured himself a drink. "Can I get you anything?"

Maura turned after she set the dish down she'd just pulled out of the oven. "No, I'm fine thank you."

Nate eyed her for a moment. She knew it was unusual for her to turn down a drink unless one of them had to be a designated driver because they were at a party or function. He simply shrugged slightly and slid his bottle back in its place before heading towards the dining room where she had everything set for dinner.

Maura grabbed the dish with the chicken and followed him. She probably wouldn't have his attention for very long, so she thought it best to get to the matter at hand as soon as she could. She set the dish down in the center of the area between their two places and took her seat.

"That looks nice," he said as he set his glass down on the table and picked up his fork.

"I hope you enjoy," Maura said as she watched him spear a piece of the chicken on his fork and bring it to his plate. She could feel the nervousness setting in and knew that she had better bring the conversation up quickly. "So, I have something that I'd like to talk to you about," she started.

Nate glanced up briefly from where he was helping himself to the green salad she'd prepared. "Alright, what is it?"

She took a quick breath before continuing. "I went to the doctor today."

His fork paused halfway to his mouth as he glanced back at her. "Are you feeling okay? You didn't say anything about being sick."

This was it. This was the moment of no return. "I'm not sick. Well I'm not sick all of the time." Nate's eyebrows creased together ever so slightly. She could tell that he hadn't quite put it together just yet. "I'm pregnant."

He choked ever so slightly on the piece of chicken he'd stuck in his mouth just before her last sentence. He quickly grabbed for his whiskey glass and took a hearty drink to help the food hung in his throat pass. "I'm sorry what?"

"I'm pregnant," Maura stated again, bluntly.

Nate gave an awkward laugh and then tipped his glass back and finished off the contents. A moment later he slid his chair back from the table and stood up. He started to stalk back towards the kitchen.

Maura wondered what he was going to do from there so she stood up and followed him. He had returned to the kitchen and was just grabbing the bottle of whiskey from its place when she entered. She decided it was best to keep her distance and just watch him for a moment.

Nate poured a healthy dose of whiskey into the glass. He polished off half of it quickly before he seemed to realize that she was in the room with him. He just kind of smirked at her. "Well this is a surprise. I thought we had decided against having children."

"Actually, you had decided that you didn't want children. I never said that."

"Well that may be, but I thought you were taking care of this and this kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen."

"As long as you're having sex with someone of the opposite sex there is no birth control that is one hundred percent effective. I'm quite certain that you had some kind of Health or Human Sexuality course in college that explained the particulars of sex and parenting."

He let out some sort of breathy type laugh from his nose and took another swig of his drink. "You like that, don't you? Knowing that you know everything about everything and being able to prove other people wrong." He set his glass down on the counter. "Well at least there's one thing I know. If Jane were a man I'd be asking who the father was right about now. Suppose there's no point in that since she doesn't have the equipment."

It felt somewhat liked she'd just been slapped across the face. Some part of him seemed to think that she'd been having an affair for at least some of their marriage. She wanted to pick up something and throw it for the second time that day, but something else quickly came to her mind. "Unless you've somehow seen my best friend naked, which I highly doubt by what you just said, then you would know that Jane is intersex and could very well be the father of this baby."

The color drained from Nate's face. In a flash though a pink tinge was starting to work its way up his neck from his collar and quickly he turned quite a bright shade of red. His hand was wrapped so tightly around his whiskey glass that his knuckles were turning white and Maura feared for a moment he would actually break it.

Instead though he set the glass down on the kitchen counter and rounded the island. He grabbed his keys and walked to the front door. "I can't deal with this right now. I'll be back at some point." A moment later the front door slammed and he was gone.

Maura walked over to the couch and slumped down on it. She almost felt like she needed to check herself for hives. She hadn't had that kind of reaction to a lie in quite some time, but she almost felt like it would happen with the lie she'd just told. Even though she didn't have the reactions to lying anymore, she still preferred not to lie if there was any way that she could tell the truth.

A part of her wanted to cry, but her body didn't seem capable of producing the tears at the moment. A short time later she got back up. She might as well clean up the dining room and kitchen. It could be hours before Nate made it back and she had certainly lost her appetite.

She gathered up everything from the dining room and started to clean up the kitchen. It was as she was washing the dishes that she glanced out of the window over the sink at the dark guesthouse. Angela had moved out shortly after she had married Nate. As much as she hated having the woman who was like another mother to her so close at times, ever since she'd been married she almost missed having her there. Though, Jane never complained about her mother not being so close at hand anymore and that made movie nights just a little bit better.

Tears finally started to collect in her eyes as she thought about how much her life had changed in the last couple of years. The last fourteen months to be more specific. She and Jane still had a good relationship, but she missed some of the interactions with the family. She had been to family dinner several times since the marriage, but it just wasn't the same.

Maura thought momentarily about picking up the phone and calling Jane, but she couldn't bring herself to do it right now. Jane would instantly hear that something was wrong and want to come over. As much as she wanted her best friend by her side, she wanted the time alone too, to process everything that had happened and how. Plus she wanted to think about how she was going to break the news to her best friend, the woman that she was in love with. How do you tell the woman that you're in love with that you're pregnant and that your husband is leaving you?


AN 2: So, I just want to make everyone aware that I cannot promise regular updates at this time. I am starting a four month long externship in a week and that will not leave a lot of time for writing or even posting. Since I do have a fairly good start on this I hope to be able to keep posting at least once a week if time permits. If I can't do that I hope y'all will stick with me and I will do my best to get this story to completion as soon as I can. Thank you all for already believing so much in this story and thanks Wolves for pushing me to write outside of my comfort zone. Oh, and don't forget to let me know what you thought of this chapter, thanks!