A/N: And we're back! This little chapter of Wayne and Grace's story follows a few weeks after the previous chapter; my one-shot, Her Diamonds, takes place in between the two. Also, in case it wasn't obvious already, this entire universe is AU from the end of season one onwards. Please make sure that you have thoroughly brushed your teeth before reading this, as I am not – I repeat, NOT – responsible for any cavities. Enjoy!
Grace was working on a report for her boss in her home office when the phone rang. She grabbed the receiver without even looking at the Caller ID and answered automatically.
"Grace," she recognized the voice as that of one of the nurses from her doctor's office, "it's Sheila from Dr. Grossman's office. Do you have a minute?"
Grace was thrown by the fact that her OB/GYN's office was calling her in the middle of the day. "Um, sure, Sheila, is everything okay?"
Sheila put on her most reassuring voice. "Everything's fine, Grace; your lab tests came back and Dr. Grossman would like to discuss them with you in person. Can you come in later this afternoon? She has a slot available at 4:30, shouldn't take more than a half-hour."
Grace checked her calendar and didn't see any conflicts. "Sure, 4:30 is fine, I'll see you then." She shot a quick email to her boss to let her know that she had a personal matter to attend to later that day, but that she'd have her report ready by 4PM. After sitting back and considering the possibilities for a minute, she opted not to call Wayne and tell him about the appointment. If the meeting really only took a half-hour, she'd be there and back well before he was due home anyway; no point in worrying him unnecessarily. She set her phone to send calls to voice mail, took several deep breaths to banish any momentary panicky thoughts over things she couldn't worry about until later, and dug into finishing her report. She hit the "send" button on her email at 3:55 that afternoon, then gathered her purse and keys, and headed out the door.
Twenty minutes later, Grace walked into her doctor's office and approached the front desk to sign in. Sitting in one of the oversized armchairs in the waiting room, her brain went into overdrive trying to determine what Dr. Grossman could possibly need to talk to her about that was urgent enough for a face-to-face meeting. She'd been in this very office barely a week before, going through the annual exam rigamarole, and Dr G. (as she sometimes referred to herself) had pronounced that everything looked fine, giving her blessing to Wayne and Grace's plans to try to start a family later in the summer.
Sheila interrupted her thoughts. "Grace? Dr. G is ready for you. Come on back." She followed the nurse through the maze of hallways and realized she was being directed to her doctor's actual office, and not one of the exam rooms. Sheila gestured for Grace to have a seat in front of the desk. "She'll be with you in a minute."
Five minutes later, Dr. Grossman arrived and settled down at her desk, an impish smile on her face. "Hi Grace, sorry I'm a little late, my 4PM appointment ran a little bit long. How are you feeling this afternoon?"
"I'm fine, a little nervous though about the test results. What lab tests did you run?"
"Let me ask you a question, Grace. Have you been on any medications in the last couple of weeks? Antibiotics, maybe?"
Grace went completely pale at the implication of that question. Covering her mouth with her hands, she breathed in deeply to keep from beginning to hyperventilate. "I was diagnosed with a mild case of strep about a month ago, and I had to take penicillin for five days. I was all done with that when I came in last week, so I didn't think to mention it."
Dr. Grossman's smile went from impish to knowing. "And the fact that your last period was more than a month ago?"
"A really big case fell apart a few weeks ago, I told Sheila that I chalked it up to stress."
Dr. Grossman leaned back in her desk chair and appraised her patient. "We included a pregnancy test among the lab test requests; it's standard procedure when a patient comes in and indicates that she's ready to start a family. I don't think I have to tell you that yours came back positive."
Grace buried her face in her hands. "Oh my God, ohmyGod. .God."
"I take it this is a little bit of a surprise?"
Grace shook her head. "I know exactly when it happened. While I was recovering from the strep, we were pretty careful, but we went to Las Vegas for our anniversary that weekend, and we got a little … carried away."
This time, Dr. Grossman's smile shifted from knowing to kind. "It happens. You aren't the first, and you definitely won't be the last. By my calculations, you're about six weeks along, which would put your due date around March first. We'll probably end up adjusting that estimate once we do your first ultrasound. Obviously, you need to stop taking your birth control. Are you still doing yoga?" Grace nodded, mutely. "I want you to back off your yoga practice until after your first trimester. You're going to need some time to get used to being pregnant and all the myriad ways the hormones are going to change your body. After the 12-week mark, if you want to try a prenatal class, I can make some recommendations."
Over the course of this conversation, Grace had gone from pale to green. "I've been taking my pills this entire time!"
"Grace, please try to relax. You were on a pretty low-dose combination of hormones anyway, so there's really nothing to worry about. I know that you and Wayne were hoping to start trying in a month or two; how do you think he's going to react to this news?"
Grace choked out a rueful laugh. "He wanted to start trying last month. If I had to guess, he'll be thrilled."
Dr. Grossman nodded sagely. "And you? How do you feel about this?"
"I'm a little scared. I thought I wouldn't get pregnant until at least this fall, that we'd have more time to get used to the idea of starting a family. I'm still relatively new to my team at work; how do I tell my boss?"
"All those feelings are totally legitimate, Grace, but right now, try not to focus on the big picture yet. I would suggest not telling your boss until you get closer to starting to show, which probably won't be until you're at least 16 weeks along. You are, unfortunately, learning the hard way the most important lesson of becoming a parent: children operate on their own schedule, and no one else's." Grace laughed heartily and visibly relaxed. "Go home. Share this news with your husband. Give it a few days to sink in. I want to see the both of you sometime early next week, so we can plan out your appointment schedule and address any more questions you have. Okay?"
"Okay. Thank you, Dr. Grossman." Grace stood up and got as far as the door before the doctor spoke up again.
"Grace? Congratulations."
Grace climbed into the driver's side of her SUV and sat for a few minutes, trying to process everything she'd learned in the last half-hour. She was going to have a baby. She and Wayne were going to be parents. She was confident in the knowledge that Wayne would be thrilled to hear this news; she just hoped that he would understand her apprehension. Taking a deep breath, she stuck her key into the ignition, started the car and headed for home.
Rigsby got home around 6:30 and was very surprised to find the house quiet and his wife curled up on the couch, apparently asleep. He headed upstairs quietly to change out of his suit into jeans and a t-shirt; he noticed that Grace hadn't started dinner, so he thought maybe they'd go out and grab a bite to eat instead. He eased down on the opposite end of the couch from Grace and started gently tickling her feet in an effort to rouse her. "Grace? Baby, are you okay?"
Grace blinked sleepily. "Huh? Oh, did I fall asleep?" She pulled herself up slowly to a sitting position and rubbed her face in an effort to wake herself up.
"Are you hungry? I thought maybe we could go out, get a bite to eat?"
"Oh, no, actually I'm not very hungry at all. Ugh, I can't believe I fell asleep. I meant to start dinner a half hour ago and I decided to just lay down for a few minutes."
Now Rigsby was getting worried. It wasn't like her to just randomly take a nap early in the evening; it messed with her sleep patterns and she got very grouchy when she didn't sleep well. He reached over to envelop her in a hug and pulled her into his lap. "Babe, is everything okay? You don't seem like yourself tonight, are you feeling all right?"
She reached up to stroke his cheek and smiled. "No, I'm not feeling all right, but everything is fine."
"Grace, that doesn't make any sense. What are you talking about?"
"I got a call from Dr. Grossman's office today."
Rigsby's brow furrowed in puzzlement. "I thought you just saw her last week, and she gave us the go-ahead to start trying next month. What happened? Is something wrong?"
"No, honey, nothing is wrong. You remember that conversation we had in Vegas, on our anniversary?" Rigsby nodded, still clearly confused. "Well, apparently that planning talk was totally unnecessary."
She watched as his confusion slowly melted into understanding and smiled. She squealed as he picked her up off the couch and started spinning her in circles, peppering kisses all over her face and neck.
"Honey, you're making me a little dizzy. Can you please put me down now?" He complied instantly, settling her carefully back on the couch and kneeling at her feet.
"I'm sorry, it's just … we're really going to have a baby?" She cupped his face in her hands and tilted his head up to look her in the eyes. The look of pure love, awe and joy in his eyes washed away any reservations she might have had at this news.
"We're really going to have a baby. Dr. Grossman said I'm about six weeks along, so we have to keep this our little secret for now. Do you think you can keep quiet about this for another six weeks or so?"
Instead of answering her directly, she could tell he was doing a little mental math. "Six weeks? That means … did we make our baby on our anniversary?"
"Sometime that weekend, probably." She squealed in surprise again as he plucked her off the couch, wrapped her legs around his waist and immediately headed for the stairs, kissing her as often as he could while still getting them around the house without bumping into walls.
"Wayne?" Kiss.
"What?" Kiss.
"Are you doing?" Kiss.
He reached their bedroom and gently laid her out on the bed. "You need your rest. Don't worry about dinner; I'll figure something out. You just stay right here and sleep if you need to."
Grace smiled at his protectiveness and drew him down to her for another kiss, this one deeper and more passionate. "Honey, I'm pregnant, not an invalid." She surprised even herself at how easily the words came to her now, despite having known the information barely a few hours.
Rigsby sat down on the edge of the mattress and reached under her t-shirt to stroke her belly. No one but them knew about the tiny bundle of cells growing just under the surface, but soon enough a telltale bump would start to emerge and it would be their little secret no more. He leaned down to kiss her bellybutton and felt her hands start to run through his hair. "Hi, baby," he whispered to her tummy. "I'm your daddy. I just want you to know that your mommy and I love you already." He tilted his head to the side to rest his ear against her belly, knowing in his head that he wouldn't be able to hear anything, but wanting to do it anyway. He saw tears running down Grace's face, a great big smile cutting through the tracks on her cheeks.
"You're going to be the best father. You know she can't hear you though, right?"
He sat back up and gave her a slightly confused look in response. "She? You know something I don't?"
Grace shook her head. "Way too early for that. But it's easier than calling the baby 'it', right?"
He nodded. "Right. We need a code word for the baby. Something that will make sense only to us, and that we can talk about without anyone else figuring it out."
Grace pondered this suggestion for a minute. "Hmm. That's a good idea. How about Peanut?"
"Peanut?"
"That's about how big she is right now, the size of peanut that's out of its' shell."
"Peanut it is, then. Are you and Peanut still not hungry?"
"Actually," she said, smiling shyly, "do you think you could make a cheeseburger and chocolate shake run for us?"
Wayne grinned and squeezed her in a tight hug. "Done." He leaned down to place one final kiss on her belly. "Peanut, be good to your mommy until I get back, okay?"
Grace laughed at his eager acceptance of their nickname for the baby. She reached up for one last kiss before letting him go to pick up dinner.
"I love you," they said to each other in unison.
A/N, part deux: Okay people, really. I don't normally plead for reviews, but I give you the sappiest, most sugary, fluffiest chapter I could come up with (at least until we get around to the baby actually being born, that one is turning out to be a little sappier) and I get ONE REVIEW for this chapter? I could make life more angsty for these two if you'd rather .......