Author's Note: Remember when I promised to update constantly? I am SO SORRY that it's taken me this long. I didn't want to make myself a liar, but real life (and the first chapter of a novel) have taken a lot out of me. I hope that this update somewhat makes up for the long wait. Feel free to leave your thoughts.
Disclaimer: If Shonda has one thing going for her, it's that she DOES remember to write the episodes every week, so I'm obviously not her...
Olivia stared at the file in front of her, soaking in its contents despite the mental exhaustion that she was feeling. At fourteen weeks pregnant, she should have been at home and sleeping long before the current hour of midnight, but she and her people had just wrapped up their ongoing case by sending a suspect and a confession of murder to David, and her mind was still going a mile a minute. She had tried to coerce herself into believing that she would leave and go home after reading through just a few more files, but she knew that she wouldn't. She was a dedicated person, through and through, and while many people didn't understand why she found so much happiness in her daily work, she knew that she wouldn't be anywhere if not for the people she had met through it. It was the one thing she would not readily sacrifice without questioning someone's motives when it came to her pregnancy.
She knew that Jake worried. Hell, she worried sometimes, too. There hadn't been any bleeding, and she was past the point of miscarriage being an imminent concern, but her blood pressure had been high at her last checkup, and while the doctor had said that that could have been brought on by temporary stress, Olivia knew that nothing about her stress was temporary. She worked a job that required her full attention most days. She had spent more than one night on her sofa after working until two or three in the morning. Until the previous day, she had been privately helping Mellie run her very public campaign. Nothing about her life was calm or peaceful. Nothing about her life screamed that she was capable of commitment. But she was. She just wasn't quite sure if she was ready to let go of her professional control the way that she knew she needed to.
It helped that Quinn hovered constantly. The younger woman made sure she was eating and resting each day. She often volunteered to interview clients when Olivia seemed more tired than usual. Olivia was also fairly certain that she reported to Jake, but she wasn't going to call her out on it. No, when it came to the workplace, Quinn wasn't the member of her team making her nervous; Huck was.
Huck was her family, always had been, and she normally would have told him long before she was in danger of showing and certainly long before her pregnancy was on the cover of every tabloid, but she hadn't. She had a reasonable explanation; Huck had lost his family, and he was dealing with the fact that Kim wouldn't let him around their son. It just seemed cruel to throw the fact that she and Jake would soon be welcoming a child of their own in his face, even if it wouldn't seem that way to either her or Jake. That didn't make it any easier to keep it a secret.
There was a knock on her door, and Olivia glanced up in surprise. She had been relatively certain that Quinn and Huck had already left. She sighed internally as she waved in a concerned Quinn, gesturing for her to close the door behind her.
"I, uh, have my paperwork for the last case to be given to David," the younger woman offered. "I also figured you might be hungry, since we haven't eaten since lunch. Jake said you have a craving for salads, so I got you a chicken caesar from that little bistro that Huck makes fun of you for liking so much." She paused. "And by I, I mean I brought it up here after Jake dropped it off downstairs."
"I'm worrying him," Olivia sighed, causing Quinn to arch an eyebrow. "Let me guess. He's still downstairs waiting to drive me home, and he's not going to leave until I'm in the car with him?"
"Good guess," Quinn confirmed with a smirk. "Huck has his information for David, too, if you wanted to get it and just drop it off on your way in tomorrow."
"Yeah, yeah, of course," Olivia agreed.
"Also, Mrs. Grant's campaign manager called. She got the Senate seat," Quinn informed her.
"I'll call to congratulate her in the morning," Olivia reassured her friend.
Quinn nodded, turning for the door, but something seemed to stop her before she could pull it open. She spun back around, smiling lightly. "He knows, Liv." When Olivia glanced up in confusion, she elaborated. "Huck knows. He knows about the baby." She paused, allowing the information to sink in. "He's a trained assassin. He pays attention to the details. You've been wearing loose-fitting dresses for almost a week. There are photographs of you at a maternity clothing store on every single tabloid in this country, and while we know better than to believe anything those say, the facts are adding up. He also knows Jake. You know how happy Jake has been lately? He knows you're the only one who makes Jake that happy, and you're also the only one who makes Jake that concerned. He knows, Liv. All you're doing now is avoiding telling him so that he won't be hurt, but he's not hurt. He's happy for you. Let him be publicly happy for you before it kills us all." With that, Quinn opened the door and headed for her office to gather her things.
Olivia paused for a moment out of pure shock before standing to do the same. She did so in a daze before heading for her office door and making her way towards the front door. She changed her mind at the last moment, turning around and heading towards Huck's office.
She knocked lightly on the door. She didn't need to; she knew from living with Jake that Huck had known she was coming as soon as she had neared the door. Still, she knocked. It seemed only appropriate for the situation.
"Liv," Huck greeted mildly. "Shouldn't you be at home? It's late."
"You know, don't you? About the pregnancy?" She only paused for a moment, waiting for his quick nod. "I didn't keep it from you to hurt you. I just didn't know how to tell you. With what's going on with you and Javi and Kim..."
"Liv, what's going on in my life doesn't keep me from being happy about what's going on in yours." Huck looked her straight in the eyes. "You and Jake are good for each other. He's happy with you. The people who have been in his position, they're-they're haunted. You saw it with your father. You see it with me. We are broken. He was too. But somehow, you and that baby have put him back together." Huck smiled then, a genuine smile that she couldn't help but return. "You're my family. He is too. I can be happy for my new family while grieving for my old one."
"Thanks, Huck," Olivia replied with a sniffle. "Sorry, it's the hormones."
"It's fine," Huck responded. "You should go home, though. Babies need more sleep than their workaholic mothers."
"I'm not a-oh, all right," Olivia sighed, turning around. "Good night, Huck. You should go home too." She turned for the door before turning back. "Hey, Huck? Kim'll come around. She'd be an idiot not to."
"She's no idiot," Huck stated softly, causing Olivia to smile.
"Exactly." She headed for the front door, finally making her way towards the elevators and riding down to the ground floor.
Jake was leaning against the car, his hands buried in his jeans pockets. He removed one and held it up. "I know you think that I'm being overprotective, but I worried about you a long time before you were pregnant and I'll worry about you a long time after, because I love you and that's what you do when you love some-mmph."
Olivia smiled against his lips before pulling away. "I love you," she whispered. "You make me feel safe and you make me so happy, and you've never once asked me to change, even though I know I have tendencies that must drive you insane. And sometimes I just need to be reminded of how lucky I am that I have you. Thank you for putting up so often with my thanklessness."
"It's no problem, babe." Jake wrapped an arm around her shoulders and headed towards the other side of the car. "You're worth all of it and more."
"And that won't change in ten years?" Olivia murmured.
Jake looked in her eyes seriously after he had settled her in the passenger seat. "That won't change ever."
