23 Weeks:

"Adelaide."

"Are we going to raise some fancy ass British kid? No!"

"Chesney?"

"Is that even a name?"

"Reese?"

"Um… I kinda like it. Write it down."

"Nelson."

"Not bad. Write it down."

"Marina."

"Put it on the list."

"Penelope."

"Did you seriously just suggest that? Next!"

"Layla."

"Pass."

"Sinclair."

"Miss."

"Carina."

"Carina," Charlie repeated awestruck. For the past half hour, Briggs and Charlie had been reading through lists and picking out baby girls' name. They had not made much progress until now. "I think that's the one. Plus, it's Italian."

"I like it. Carina. Carina Demarco will be going places," Briggs said. They had not yet discussed the baby's last name.

"Carina Briggs-Demarco," Charlie tried.

"That's a hell of a name for one kid to remember."

"I want her to have both of our last names."

Briggs had to physically bite his tongue so he wouldn't blurt out, "You could have my last name, too." For a while, he'd been thinking about proposing to Charlie. Not just because of the baby, he had wanted to ask her to marry him weeks before Peanut was even an idea. After everything that happened, he worried that Charlie would say no.

"I think her middle name should be 'Francesca,'" Briggs offered. Charlie beamed. "Francesca's sauce brings the family together like nothing else. It reminds us that we are a family."

"I like it."

"Carina Francesca Briggs-Demarco," Briggs said. I would like it to be Catherine Briggs and Carina Briggs, Briggs thought wishfully. He would find the right time to propose, he just didn't know how long it would take.

"We can stop calling her Peanut now that she's got a fancy new name. Carina."

"Carina," Briggs repeated. "Hello, little Carina. I'm your daddy and I love you very much. I'll always be there to protect you."

"Carina." They couldn't get enough of the name. When they said the name out loud, they got a warm feeling inside that just felt right.

"Johnny will be mad we didn't name her Johnnita."

"That was never even remotely an option."

Briggs opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a loud shout from downstairs. Charlie made a 'we-should-go-investigate' look. Briggs, not being restricted by a human being inside of him, was able to make it downstairs much faster.

Fearing that it might be Sid, Briggs was relieved to see the shouting was coming from Mike and Paige. However, some of the fear returned when he noticed Paige's white shirt was drenched in red.

"You should have been more careful!" Mike shouted. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Mike, please. I am fine now!" Paige argued.

"You almost died. You got stabbed!"

"Whoa, whoa. Will someone please calmly explain what happened?" Briggs asked, acting as an arbiter.

"Paige was working on the Peirce case. She went to his meeting place for introductions; she was undercover as an interested buyer, the usual. Except this man, Peirce, wasn't about to be fooled. He makes all of his buyers shoot up, and Paige refused. He suspected that she was a cop, so he stabbed her."

"You make me sound defenseless, Mike. I put up I good fight and hurt him way worse than he hurt me. His knife managed to make contact with my shoulder. I did not almost die! I don't know why you are being so ridiculous!"

"Oh, I'm being ridiculous? You're the ridiculous one! You know how to fake shooting up, why didn't you just pretend?"

"Because Mike, they were going to make me use their supplies! They already suspected I was undercover!"

"I was in a similar situation, Paige. I know how it is and it ain't easy," Charlie said understandingly.

"They told me that I handled the situation well. We had a major win today, and you are too stupid to see that!" Paige thundered. "I'm barely injured, Mike! I can work tomorrow. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"When Johnny got the call that you had been stabbed… Do you even know how it feels? I thought that you might be dead!" The second the words left Mike's mouth, he regretted it. Paige's eyes filled with tears and bolted out of the room. "Wait, Paige! I didn't mean that!"

Paige slammed and locked the door to her room. Mike pounded helplessly on the outside.

"Paige! I didn't mean that," Mike said softly.

"Get the hell away from my door."

"Let me in."

Silence.

"I don't have to ask. I will kick down this door, Paige. Can you please make it easier for me?"

Wordlessly, Paige swung the door open with an impressive force.

"You think I don't know what it feels like?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"Paige, the second I said it, I regretted it. I wasn't thinking straight, and I know I had no right to yell at you. You were just doing your job, and you did a damn good job. I just freaked out when I thought you were hurt," Mike sighed. A small smile formed on Paige's lips, but she tried to hide it.

"You were kind of a bitch about it though."

"I thought maybe you got stabbed in the stomach and it would be too late to save you."

"I don't need to be saved, Mike. I can save myself."

"I know, I know. I just… You're different, Paige. I can't help but worry."

"What, you think I'm weaker than everyone else?"

"No! It has nothing to do with you, but it has everything to do with the way I feel about you…"

"Oh, yeah? And how do you feel about me?"

Mike looked down and grinned.

"You're beautiful, Paige, and you only get more beautiful every time you speak. You're passionate, driven, and smart. Today when I thought that you might be dead… Let me just say the way that I feel when I am with you is much better than the way that I feel when I'm not."

"Mike…"

"Maybe the timing has always been wrong, or maybe we're the world's unluckiest people, but I've always been rooting for us." Before Paige could even blink, Mike leaned in and kissed her soundly.

"I've wanted to do that for so long."

Paige opened and closed her mouth in shock, but soon recovered from the initial surprise. She closed the gap between the two once more in a fierce kiss.

Charlie and Briggs were suspicious when they couldn't hear talking anymore (they decided to 'listen in' on Paige and Mike just in case things got to the point where lamps started to get thrown), but they knew better to barge in.

"Ten bucks that they're making out."

"C'mon, let's get out of here. You know how annoying it is to be snooped on," Charlie hissed, dragging Briggs back to the kitchen.

"Johnny is gonna be pissed. He had a bet going with Jakes about Paige and Mike. Johnny said it would take them till the end of this month, but Jakes bet till the end of this week. I think the wager was fifty dollars."

"Really? Betting on them hooking up?"

"I may have, um, made a contribution to that bet."

"When did you say they were going to get together?"

"I might have said the day that Mike got back from the hospital…"

A/N: PIKE happiness and yay. I loved writing that chapter. Peanut has a name now!