AN: Continued thanks to you, my readers, and to my awesome beta, Kerry Blue. Also, continued disclaimers for the show and the songs. And I take no responsibility for getting these songs stuck in your head. At least this next one is a fun song that you could dance around to. :)
Chapter Four: Celebration / Kool & The Gang
A knock came at the door and it opened to reveal Sid. "How is everything in here?"
Lindsay just groaned without raising her head, so Sheldon answered the question. "Everything's fine. Lindsay is just trying to come to terms with things."
"I might have something to help with that." Sid held up a plastic bag emblazoned with the logo of a local pharmacy. "From what I could see, what we're assuming to be the case hasn't actually been confirmed yet, so…"
"You didn't," Lindsay said incredulously as she finally raised her head. "Oh my god, you did! Sid!"
"What?" he asked as he closed the door after him. "I'm a doctor, it's not that big of a deal. And I'm too old to care what the young man at the counter thought. It's probably not the first time he's seen a man come in and buy one of these things anyway. Though I should probably let my wife know about the purchase in case somehow she hears about it, because that could be a little awkward…"
"Stop! Please, you guys, the fewer people that know about this the better. I haven't figured out how to tell Danny yet, and it's not right if everyone knows except him. Besides, you're right, I don't know for sure, so can we stop talking about it like it's a sure thing? Maybe I just have a stomach flu."
"How long have I known you?" Hawkes asked. "Certainly long enough to know the difference between the flu and this. No matter how sick you've ever been, I've never seen anything- even the most decomposed body- make you sick in the morgue except for the last two times you were in this condition. At a scene, sure, we have all had those moments when a smell or a sight catches us a little off guard and we get nauseous, but in the morgue is a different thing and I've never seen you have a problem with it here. Not to mention the fact that you had to run for the bathroom when Sid had done nothing more than open the Y incision to show you something."
"Okay, okay, you can stop laying out the evidence." Lindsay held out her hand. "Just give me the stupid bag."
Sid handed it to her. "Why haven't you taken care of this before now? I can't believe this is the first indication you've had that something was going on."
"I guess I was just holding on to the faint hope that it was the flu or something or that I was just run down." She rubbed her eyes. "It's not like we planned this, like Sheldon and Tessa."
Hawkes sat back in his chair as he realized something. "You've known about this since Tessa and I announced our news, didn't you? I remember that you weren't drinking alcohol that night. Lindsay, that was nearly a month ago! I thought you meant you had been denying the truth for the past week or so."
She shook her head. "No, I honestly didn't know before that. I really did just think I wasn't feeling well, which is why I didn't want to drink any alcohol." Lindsay sighed. "But truthfully, it was your announcement that made the light come on over my head…"
Three weeks ago…
"Are you sure you still want to go in?" Danny asked as he walked hand in hand with Lindsay from their parked car to the bar where the team/family was meeting. "I'm sure Hawkes and Tessa will understand."
"No, I'll be okay. Sheldon sounded like he was really excited and I don't want to miss the big news. I promise, if I'm still not feeling great, we'll leave early. But if this about what I'm guessing it's for, I want to be there."
Danny didn't argue with her anymore, as her mind was obviously made up. And if he had learned one thing about Montana over the years it was that she was stubborn. Not that he had much room to talk. So, he would just watch her and make sure she was doing okay. She really did look better than she had that morning. She hadn't thrown up, but that was touch and go for awhile. And he knew that she hadn't eaten much all day which prompted his next question. "Do you think you can eat something when we get in there? I don't think you've had more than a few crackers today."
"I'm not really hungry. I might make myself some soup when we get home, but for now I'm fine." She reached over with the hand that wasn't holding his and squeezed his arm. "Really, Danny, I'm okay. I probably just caught what Dominic brought home from school last week. At least I haven't been throwing up like he was."
Danny chuckled as they neared the door. "Poor kid. He was so mad that being sick made him miss kickball at recess with his buddies. He said the next day that the team he usually plays with lost for the first time all school year just because he wasn't there."
Lindsay rolled her eyes as her husband held open the door to the bar for her to walk through. "And I wonder where he got that arrogance from. Of course they would have won if he had just been there." Danny grinned unrepentantly.
They were the last to arrive and joined the rest of the group over in the corner of the bar. "Hey, you two," Don greeted. "I didn't know if you guys would make it. Kaile said that Dom mentioned you weren't feeling well, Linds."
"Sheesh, word does get around fast," Lindsay commented as she sat down in the chair that Danny held out for her. She smiled her thanks up at him and then turned back to the group. "I'm okay, just a bit of an upset stomach. I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow, but for now let's just say I won't be trying to steal any of your greasy onion rings, Don." Everyone laughed. Onion rings were a well known weakness of Flack's.
"Okay," Stella broke in, "I can't take the suspense any longer." She turned to Sheldon and Tessa. "What's the big news?"
Sheldon smiled at his wife of less than a year. "Why don't you tell them, honey?"
Tessa couldn't hold back her ear-splitting grin. "Well, since you all deal in evidence, I thought I should bring along some proof with me." She reached in her purse and pulled out a clear evidence bag that Hawkes must have gotten for her which contained an easily recognizable item. "I'm pregnant!" she announced, holding up the bag with the pregnancy test so everyone could see the positive results.
The table immediately erupted in rounds of congratulations and hugs were exchanged. Sheldon waved to a waitress and, in an obviously pre-planned move, she brought over a bottle of champagne and another of sparkling grape juice along with a tray of glasses. Hawkes took the bottle of champagne and successfully popped the cork without making too big of a mess. "I know this isn't the usual barroom fare," he said as he poured some of the liquid into several glasses and handed them out, "but I thought I would bring something a little special to celebrate with."
Lindsay waved him off when he offered her a glass. "Sorry, I don't think I'm up to champagne right now, Sheldon."
"Do you want some of the sparkling grape juice then?" Hawkes asked as he set aside the champagne bottle. "I brought it since obviously Tessa can't have any of the alcohol." He poured a glass of the beverage for his wife and then raised an eyebrow in question at Lindsay.
"Um, sure," she said. Danny looked over at her at her hesitation. She obviously didn't know if her stomach would like that either, but he knew she couldn't bring herself to refuse Sheldon in that moment. She could always just sip it, the important thing was just to have a glass in her hand to participate in the toasts that would be coming. It was pretty much family tradition to get together and toast a child being on the way. The other times it hadn't been this well planned, it was more that they were just all together and toasts seemed the appropriate way to celebrate a new member of the family. For his daughters there had actually been two impromptu toasting sessions, one for when everyone found out Lindsay was pregnant again, and later one for when they had found out they were having twins. But leave it to Sheldon to have this planned, and with champagne to boot rather than just mugs or bottles of beer.
"A toast!" Danny declared once everyone had their drinks. It was also part of the tradition that he start the toasts. Another part was to begin the festivities with a variation on the first toast he had given back when Lindsay was pregnant with Dominic. "Here's to Don not having to catch anyone this time. Who knows if his reflexes would still be up to the task." Everyone laughed and/or groaned at the joke.
Don just rolled his eyes before picking up the toasting baton. "Here's to Sheldon and Tessa for making the decision to leap into parenthood. Finally now I'll be able to spoil their kid and then hand him or her back like they've been doing with my daughter." And on the toasts went, some serious, some sentimental, many of them joking. Finally they had gone around the table a time or two and everyone's glasses were empty. In a quiet moment everyone heard a loud rumble and the whole table looked at Don who smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry. I missed lunch because I was running around doing something for my task master of a boss," he explained, pointing a thumb in Mac's direction. "So many of the guys in Homicide think I moved up to a cushy job, but that's because they've never worked directly for Mac Taylor."
"Quit your whining," Mac shot back good-naturedly as he waved a waitress over so Don could order some more food. The onion rings that Flack had consumed earlier had obviously not been enough for him. Everyone knew that Flack didn't really mind working for Mac. Sure, he probably still wished sometimes that he worked back in Homicide and was on the streets more often, but Danny knew that he had accepted the position with Mac because he wanted to be in a less dangerous position since he was the only parent that Kaile had. It was a decision a long time in the making because Danny knew well from conversations with his longtime best friend that every close call on the job since Kaile had been born had scared the other man to no end. He couldn't bear the thought of orphaning his daughter when she already had to go through life without ever having known her mother.
"Just please, don't order any kind of seafood," Tessa pleaded. "I think that was how I realized that I should take the pregnancy test because all of a sudden the food that I love so much was making me nauseous like you wouldn't believe. I don't feel sick at all unless I get a whiff of something out of the ocean, and then I'm a goner. Sheldon even had a tuna sandwich for lunch one day and when he came home and kissed me hello, the smell on his breath sent me running for the bathroom."
"Sounds like someone else I could name," Mac commented wryly. "If I remember correctly we had to put a moratorium for several months on anyone in the lab bringing fish onto the premises if it wasn't case related. And the lab techs were so afraid of ticking Danny off for making his wife sick that whenever something even tangentially seafood related came in as evidence in a case, they ran to let Lindsay know so that she could steer clear of where it would be."
Everyone laughed at the memory as Don took Tessa's request to heart and ordered a burger and fries and a couple others put in an order or two for some more appetizers. Well, most everyone laughed. Danny glanced over at his wife, about to ask if she felt up to having anything, and he noticed an odd, almost stunned look on her face. He draped his arm across the back of her chair and leaned over to speak quietly in her ear. "You okay there, Montana? You look like you just got a shock of some sort."
She blinked and turned to him, staring into his eyes for a moment. He tried to guess what was going on in her brain, but unlike most of the time, he couldn't figure what was going on behind her pretty eyes. Finally she seemed to mentally shake off whatever it was that she was thinking about and smiled at him. "I'm fine. I just realized something, but it's nothing that can't wait until later." Danny was going to press harder, not believing in the slightest her claims to be okay, but his attention was diverted when Don called on him to corroborate a tale of the past.
As conversation moved along throughout the evening, jumping quickly and easily from stories about the job to family tales that had been discussed many times before but were still favorites to reminisce about, Danny forgot about pressing Lindsay on what she had "realized." Weeks later he would think back and wonder why he didn't put two and two together, but then why would he have suspected what she was then suddenly grasping the possibility of? That night had been all about celebrating Sheldon and Tessa's good news and spending time together as friends and family. Realization, for him at least, was still weeks away at that point.
