"You don't look so good." Kimberly blankly pointed out as she watched Marie put her scrubs on.

Marie grabbed her black Puma shoes from the locker and sat down on the bench to put them on. "I'm just stressed and exhausted."

Kimberly bit her lip and debated internally about asking Marie about tonight's dinner party and if she should bring anything. Ever since Marie had the argument with her Uncle Jim, she hadn't been in a very nice mood. Everything little thing seemed to bother her. A few days ago, a newly employed nurse had given her the wrong chart of one of her patients. When she found out, Marie flipped out completely and had filed a complaint against that unfortunate young nurse to the chief of staff. Which, inevitably, resulted in her getting fired.

Marie took notice of Kim's silence and knew she wanted to say something. "I know that silence, so just say what you are thinking of saying. I promise I won't bite." She let out a small laugh that reassured Kim.

"Well good, is it okay if I bring a date to your dinner party." Kim blurted out instead of easing herself into asking Marie. "Oh and if you want me to bring anything?"

Confusion shadowed Marie's exhausted yet graceful features. "Um…yeah sure. Who is he? And you can bring desert from that bakery on 32nd street."

"Cool, then I will bring Tiramisu." Kim shut her locker. "His name is Ryan, I met him in my yoga class about a month ago. We have been on two dates and I really like him."

Marie rose her brow. "Since when do you take yoga classes?"

Kimberly smirked and leaned against her locker. "Since you decided to be Miss Cardiologist Diva. Seeing you all stressed and irritable made me all stressed out that some of my hair is falling! Granted I have thick hair, but now its becoming thin. Even Ryan had noticed it on our second date!" Kim complained as Marie shrugged on her lab coat.

She never really paid much attention to the way she was with Kim. It made her feel guilty about it and maybe she should watch herself a little bit more. "Look, I am really sorry. Just so much is going on that I lost myself." Marie swept up her hair into a pony tail and looked over at Kim. "Forgive me? I will make it up to you."

"I think you should take this yoga class with me." Kim placed her hands in her lab coat pockets and looked down as she pondered Marie's apology. Somehow she need to get Marie to tell her what was going on because it seemed that she was bottling up everything and that wasn't good. Especially for Marie and her history of depression. "But yes, I forgive you and will be expecting a pair those Manolo's I showed you the other day from my Barney's catalog."

Marie laughed and made a mental note to call Alfred later on. "Deal."

They both walked out of the locker room and decided to do their rounds together. Not completely satisfied with scoring a new pair of Manolo's, Kim was still very worried about Marie. From the corner of her eye she saw Marie sigh as she checked through her email on her Blackberry.

"But that doesn't mean I am not worried about you. What is going on? Did you have an argument with Bruce?" Kim decided to just get on with it and ask.

Marie shook her head and put her phone in her pocket. "No, quite the contrary. We have been enjoying ourselves lately."

Kim was now confused. Then why was she so irritable? "And yet you're not happy and glowing."

Marie looked around and shoved Kim into a vacant room. She didn't really want to tell anybody until she confirmed it but, now she had the over powering feeling to tell Kim what was going on with her.

"I think I'm pregnant." Marie blurted out as she shut the door closed.

Kim stumbled onto the bed. "You think or you are?"

Marie began to pace the room in a panic. "I don't know! I skipped and I never skip my time of the month, hence I am pregnant."

"Well have you taken a test?"

"No. I am too scared to confirm this! I am not ready! Bruce and I are not ready." Marie stopped pacing and sat down on the bed next to Kim. Both of them laid down and stared up at the dull white ceiling.

"You know there is a slight possibility that you might not be." Kim tried to reassure Marie but she knew that that was not going through her head. 'I'm pregnant' was what was flashing in Marie's head.

"And there is a slight possibility that I am." Marie took the pillow and placed it on her face. "What should I do?" Her voice was muffled by the pillow as she hid behind it.

"I don't know, go down to the third floor and take a blood test." Kim obviously suggested.

"No, I need to know now and that is going to take an hour." Marie tossed the pillow to the side and ran her hand across her face. "I need to take one of those quick ones."

"Then, I am coming with you to get one." Kim got up and headed toward the door.

Marie sat up and thought for a few moments. This was just too surreal to grasp. It could not even wrap around her mind.

"No, I have one." Marie pulled one out of her pocket. Thankfully it was discreetly packaged and it was able to fit in her lab coat. "I bought one last night and I couldn't bring myself to take it."

Kim was taken back. She could tell that Marie was really scared and nervous about this. Marie was usually the brave one, but this situation seemed to scare the wits out of her. Marie didn't say anything and headed into the bathroom to take it. Kim sat back down on the bed an waited for her to come out and give her the results.

Ten minutes later, Marie came out looking very pale.

"So what did it say?" Kim grasped onto the blue sheets.

Marie sighed. "It came out positive."

Kim tried to hide her shock and surprise, but it was evident on her blank stare. "What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know, I just don't know." Marie sat beside Kim and tried to figure out her mixed feelings about this sudden pregnancy.

In her own way, she was a little hopeful about being pregnant. It would certainly fill a small void in her. Yes, she had Bruce and she loved him with her every being, but a baby just made everything seem better. Some little light would shine in on their world. This was the point where she would put everything that happened before in the past and there was no going back to it. For her and Bruce.

But, on the other hand, she was very weary about his lifestyle. Well, now their life style. She had no idea how he would react, not to mention the pressure it would put on him. A baby just did not fit into Batman's life, because there would always be that constant fear. It was just ludicrous to have a baby in that life. There would be no stability. And of course, Marie would have wanted to get pregnant in a distant future with the hope that Bruce would no longer need to be this other person. That was her hope for the future.

Now, that hope was just not apart of the equation anymore.

Kim looked at Marie and took her hand into her own. "I know you're scared and I would be too, but maybe we should make sure that you are by going down to the third floor and taking a blood test. These little stick things are never accurate."

Marie nodded and decided to go through with it. "You're right and I am going to do this. I have no other choice."

With that she walked out of the room and headed downstairs for the third floor to confirm her sudden alteration to her life plans.

Marie's phone rang as she the nurse was drawing her blood. It was Bruce calling her. She watched it vibrate and did not pick it up, one because she couldn't and two because she just couldn't bring herself to face him just yet.

"Okay, Dr. Spencer I am going to put a rush on this, but it will take about an hour until I get the results and as soon as I do I will page you." The nurse set the two tubes aside and cleaned Marie's arm.

"Thank you." Marie folded her arm upward to stop the bleeding and left.

As she walked out she decided to call him back. After two rings he picked up.

"Hey, you called?" Marie tried to play off dumb so she would not sound nervous.

"Yeah, are you busy?" Bruce asked.

"Nope, I was just checking on some patient stuff that is why I did not pick up." Marie decided to sit down in one of the chairs in the hallway. "What's going on?"

"I wanted to ask you out to lunch later."

"Um…yeah but lets make it a late lunch because I have to scrub in on a surgery at noon." Marie had not even remembered about the surgery until Bruce suggested lunch. The stress coursed once again, but more intensely because she wanted to brush up on a few things from her medical books before she would go scrub in.

"Okay that's fine, I can have that meeting with the board members today rather than tomorrow." Bruce sighed. He was also stressed over the past few days with all these mysterious murders going around and also the fact that he could not find any piece of evidence to lead him to someone who might be involved.

"How is everything going over there?" Marie knew that the stress was also because Fox was no longer their.

"They're good but I wish Fox was here to take care of this. He can ease them out and I just look like an ass sometimes." Bruce chuckled and so did Marie.

"No you are not, its just that you don't possesses Fox's skills. I am sure he will come back." Marie tried to reassure him.

"I hope so." Bruce paused for a minute. Marie had a feeling that he did not just call her for lunch. "Do you know if your Uncle is coming tonight?"

That was it. "I don't know, I haven't spoken to him since our argument and I don't think it's a good idea if he did." Marie leaned her head against the wall and thought about her Uncle Jim and how he would react to her pregnancy. "I haven't even spoken to my Ant Barb, so what does that tell you."

"I think you should give them a call." It sounded more like demand than a suggestion.

"I am thinking about it, but right now I have a lot on my plate Bruce, so can we just not discuss this right now." Marie tried very hard not to sound suspicious. She didn't want to tell him that she might be pregnant.

"Fine, whatever you say but I know how much it means to you for them to be there."

"I know." Marie said.

On the other end she heard a few people come into his office and was relieved because she was very close to telling him everything. "Listen, I have to go. I will see you later today. I love you."

She breathed in relief and she would most certainly have a definite answer by then. "Okay I will see you later and I love you too."

They both hung up and knew that they weren't in a solid place in their relationship.

An hour later she received the page she was waiting for. Marie quickly made her way to third floor to find out her fate. Her hands trembled as she pressed the button in the elevator. A million thoughts raced in her head and she felt that she was about to faint. Things with Bruce weren't going as well as she wanted them to. She was starting to see her Uncle Jim's point, but she shoved that to the back of her mind, because despite all that nonsense, she loved Bruce very much and she would never want to hurt him like Rachel did or like Harvey hurt Marie.

The elevators opened up to the third floor and she headed straight to the lab. Her hands were still shaking at her sides.

"Do you have them?" Marie asked as the nurse came up to her.

The older woman nodded. "Yes and it came out negative. You are not pregnant."

Marie breathed a sigh a of relief at that moment, but she couldn't help but feel that small void within her.

A/N: I am sooooo sorry for (again) taking long to update this! Life got really complicated and since it is crunch time at school, I have had no time to sit down and write, which kinda irritates me that I can't but today I found some time. I will try and update real soon, but I just wanted to update tonight to reassure you that I have not abandoned this and I will finish it. Please review for they always bring a smile to my face and I just love to know what you guys think. :)