---Chapter 1---
As the door to Casey's apartment finally opened, a look of pure relief flashed across her face. Every conceivable part of her body was swollen—her feet, her cheeks, her chest, and, of course her stomach. She just wanted to be home.
She dropped her stuff in a pile by the door, knowing full well that actually picking it up later was going to be a bitch. She was just five months pregnant, and her baby bump, although not very large was significant enough to give her trouble during the simplest of tasks.
"Olivia?" She called into the apartment, even though she was almost positive it would be empty. Since they found out Casey was pregnant, Olivia had been working double shifts in case Casey decided she didn't want to go back to work after she had the baby.
To her surprise, Olivia's voice answered "In here, sweetie."
Casey followed the voice until she came upon Olivia in the kitchen, dinner almost completely prepared. As she looked at her partner—her wife—she found herself overcome with emotion. She was sure it was the hormones talking, but pregnant or not, she knew that there was no one else in the world that she would rather see standing there in their sweatpants.
"Hey, Case," Olivia said simply without turning around, "how was your day?"
"Same old, same old," Casey responded, "What are you doing home so early?"
"I got Elliot to cover for me," she began, turning to face Casey, "I wanted to cook you dinner because tomorrow's the day!"
"Day for what?" Casey asked, confused.
"The day you finally let the OB/GYN tell us what we're having."
Casey rolled her eyes. "Liv, I'm fairly certain that what we're having is, in fact, a baby. But if you mean gender, I told you, I don't want to know until he or she comes out."
"What if I just found out?" Olivia pouted.
"Yeah, because that's fair," Casey said sarcastically, "Why are you so set on this, Liv? I mean, it's not like it'll make a difference one way or the other, right?"
"No, Casey. Of course it won't make a difference, it's just that…" Olivia trailed off sadly.
"Just that what, baby?" Casey asked stepping forward, closing the gap between her and Olivia.
"It's just that since the baby isn't, you know, mine, I thought that if I knew, it would help me…I don't know… bond with it or something." She said, looking at the floor.
Casey took Olivia's face in her hands and pulled it up so she was looking her square in the eye, but Olivia still averted her gaze. "Hey, look at me," she said softly, "this baby is just as much yours as he…or she is mine, and don't you ever, ever doubt that for a second, okay?"
Olivia nodded.
"But, if you think it would help, we can tell the doctor to tell us tomorrow." Casey conceded with a sigh.
"Thank you," Olivia almost whispered as she quickly kissed Casey.
Casey smiled. "I'm going to change out of this suit; I'll be back in a minute."
"Okay," Olivia said, turning her attention back to the dinner she had almost completed.
Casey returned in a few minutes, clad in a pair of her favorite maternity sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, her hair tied back in a loose bun.
"Hey, sexy," Olivia said with an exaggerated wink. She was already sitting down at their small kitchen table, food set out and ready to eat.
Casey laughed. "Yeah, right," she said and proceeded to ease into the chair across from Olivia.
"You okay there, babe?" Olivia asked.
"Yeah, fine," Casey breathed as she finally sat, "I just haven't gotten used to steering this thing."
Olivia smiled and they began to eat. They talked lightly about work—nothing that would make either of them upset. Mostly, though they discussed the rest of the work that needed to be done on that baby's room.
"Well, I know we were going to do it green and yellow, but if we find out the sex tomorrow, should we change the color scheme?" Casey asked between mouthfuls of pasta.
"We could, but that might mean that we might have to repaint for the next one." Olivia answered.
"The next one?! Let's get through this one first, okay?" Casey said with a laugh, "but you're right. Plus, I love the green we picked out."
"Of course you do, sweetie. Green is your color."
Casey shrugged and smiled. The two women finished their dinner quickly.
"I'll clean up." Casey offered.
"No, Case, that's ok. It's mostly done anyway. You go sit down, put your feet up, and relax. I'll be in to join you in a minute."
"Ah," Casey sighed, pushing herself up from the table, "I knew there was a reason I loved you."
Olivia cleaned the kitchen in record time and soon joined Casey on their comfortable couch. Casey maneuvered her position so that she was sitting with her head resting on Olivia's chest, with Olivia's arms around her rapidly expanding waist.
"What are we watching?" Olivia asked, rubbing Casey's stomach gently.
"Iron Chef," was Casey's bored reply.
"Case, if you hate it so much then why do you watch it?"
"Once I start I can't sto…whoa!" Casey yelped, putting a hand to her stomach. "Did you feel that?! It just kicked!"
"That was—awesome, Case. Wow," Olivia said in awe, "that's never happened before?"
"Not like that! Usually it's just like a rumbling—kind of like when you're hungry. But this…this was…like a real kick!" Casey sounded excited.
Olivia was silent.
"Liv? Are you okay?" Casey asked after a few seconds.
"Yeah, it's just…I mean, I see you getting bigger and I've seen the sonograms, but that, that was just like the first time that I felt really linked to it, you know?"
Casey smiled inwardly. "I'm glad you finally feel that way, babe."
"You know, Casey, we don't have to find out the sex tomorrow if you don't want to." Olivia told her.
"No," Casey began, "Now I think I really want to. Plus, it'll be nice not to call the baby 'it' anymore. It seems to impersonal."
"Great," Olivia said, "do you want to get ready for bed?"
"I don't know, Liv. I'm not very tired." Casey said, looking up at Olivia.
"I didn't say 'go to sleep', did I?" Olivia said, wiggling an eyebrow.
"Oh!" Casey said, the realization dawning on her, "I thought that you said you were afraid that the baby would feel it." She laughed.
"Yeah, well, I looked it up. It turns out that the baby's oblivious to everything." Olivia said, helping Casey off of the couch
"Told you so." Casey said as she grabbed Olivia's hand and pulled her toward the bedroom.
A/N: The chapter after this will move the rating from "T" to "M", because there will be a teeny bit of smut in the beginning…it's also going to get darker. This chapter was fluffy, I know, but there are problems in the near future for the Novak-Benson household.
