Alexis paced the floor, her fingers twitching. She paused once again behind Lanie. The petite medical examiner waved her off.
"Hovering isn't going to make this go any faster, Babycakes," she said.
Alexis rolled her eyes, but stepped back anyway. She bounced a little on the balls of her feet. Her phone began to ring, startling her. Lanie chuckled, but didn't look up.
"Hey, Sparky, what's up?" Alexis asked. She froze.
"Put Macks on the phone," she ordered. After a moment, she spoke more softly, "Are you okay? Are the kids okay?" Another pause as Macks was given a chance to respond. Alexis dashed from the room.
-
Lanie knocked on the door to the loft later that evening. She found the whole family curled up on the couches in their living room. Bentley's head was in Alexis' lap, and the ten year-old was nearly asleep. A white bandage on his forehead startled the medical examiner and she scanned the room for other signs of injury. Becka and Bethany appeared unscathed, but Johanna was sporting a brace and ice pack on her wrist.
"Dance practice gone very wrong," Macks whispered from her side as he closed the door behind her. He strode over to the couch and kissed his wife on the cheek.
"Your boss is here," he told her. Alexis looked back startled.
"I have those results for you," Lanie said, "the ones you were waiting for when you got the call. I didn't think they could wait." Alexis nodded and motioned for her husband to take her place. The two women stepped through the door into Richard Castle's office.
When Kate had announced that she was expecting for a second time, Rick had purchased the loft next door to his and med plans with a contractor to expand the space. The result was an unheard of amount of space that encompassed half of the floor of the building. When Kate and Rick disappeared, Alexis had left the master bedroom as a shrine to them and she'd essentially done the same with the office.
Stepping into the office was like stepping back in time. A laptop which was now out of date sat at an angle on the desktop. An empty water glass next to it was coated with a thin layer of dust, and a stack of fan letters sat on the corner. A digital picture frame cycled through photos of young Alexis, toddler Johanna and infant Beckett, with Kate in almost every one.
"Well?" Alexis' quiet voice pulled Lanie back to the present. She turned to the redhead with a soft smile.
"I can't believe you're gonna be a mama," Lanie said, wrapping Alexis in a hug. The younger doctor froze.
"Really?" she breathed, astounded, "It was positive?"
"Ran it twice to be sure. Child number 5 is right here." She placed a hand over the one of Alexis' that had already found the spot.
"Five! Lanie, how are we going to handle five kids? We each have years of experience dealing with our own two, so four was okay, but five? And a baby so much younger than them..." Alexis sank into her father's desk chair and sneezed at the resulting dust cloud.
"Breathe, Babycakes," Lanie commanded, "just last week you told me you'd both decided this would be a good time to try for a baby. You've wanted this ever since Beckett started walking. This may be child number five, but it's Baby Number One for you and you finally get to experience the wonders of pregnancy for yourself."
"Somehow, I still never saw myself doing this without my dad and Kate," Alexis admitted. Lanie's heart broke at the quiet words.
"You've got me, and you've got Jenny. It seems like every time I turn around she's telling me they're having another one." This earned a soft chuckle.
"I think they decided five was enough. She told me that those twin boys will be the death of her someday."
Lanie laughed. After having three very sweet girls in Scout, Megan Rose, and Molly, the twin terrors that were Donovan Richard and Declan Javier had been quite a shock for the Ryan parents.
"Are you feeling a little better about this?" Lanie asked. Alexis nodded and stood. She showed Lanie to the door, then crept back into the office saying she needed to talk to someone.
It was Beckett who found her an hour later, curled up around her father's old pillow in the center of the bed. The six year old carefully climbed onto the bed and took the place of the pillow. Alexis hugged the little girl to her and kissed the carrot-colored head.
"Are you okay, Lexie?" Beckett asked. Alexis nodded.
"I'm fine, Nikki Sweet," she assured her sister, "I just needed to tell Daddy something."
"Something happy or sad?" Beckett asked.
"Happy. Very happy." Alexis looked up and saw Macks standing in the doorway. He and his children had never set foot in the room, treating it as a shrine. He smiled at her as she sat up and nudged Beckett to the edge of the bed.
"Go tell your sisters and brother that they need to get to bed. I'll come tuck you in,"
Beckett scampered up the stairs, calling out to the others. Macks drew his wife into a hug, and she melted against him. She loved how he rested his chin on the top of her head in much the same way her father had held Kate in their most tender moments.
"You good, Red?" he asked. Alexis took a deep breath and nodded.
"We're just fine," she whispered before she even registered what she was saying.
"Is that the royal 'we', Lex, or-" Macks' voice stopped as his mind put pieces together, "Are you?"
"Ready to be a daddy again?"
His kiss was all the answer she needed.