~Ryan's POV~

"What's going on with Natalia?" Eric asked, walking into the now empty interrogation room.

"I don't know. She said she was just tired, but I know how she is."

"You may want to go check on her."

"I want to, but she gets snappy when I ask her how she feels."

"Ask Calleigh. I saw her talking to Nat earlier today."

"Okay. Thanks, man."

"Anytime. I've been there before," he yelled after me as I pushed open the door of the interrogation room. I was on my way to see Calleigh, but ran into Natalia before.

"Ryan, I'm heading home."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I just feel nauseous. I'm really sorry, but I can't make it through the rest of the day. I tried though."

"Shh, I know you did." I rubbed my hand up and down her arm. "Just go home and get some rest. I'll be home soon." We kissed quickly, and I aborted my meeting with Calleigh and got back to work.

When I opened the front door of our house, the first thing I saw was Natalia lying on the couch.

I walked over to kiss her, and she looked up at me.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah. I took a nap."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? The whole lab knew something wasn't right."

"Really? Was it that obvious?"

"Babe, you have a certain personality. And when you're sick you just aren't yourself." She sat up and I took that as a cue to put my arm around her and pull her close.

"I'm sorry. Did I miss anything?"

"It's okay, it's not your fault. And not really. Just the usual, 'he lied, we caught him' kind of case."

"I don't even remember what it was about."

"Really, it's not a big deal. Every so often, you're going to have to take off or leave early. Horatio knows that."

"I guess. But I feel bad leaving."

"Don't. And next time you feel sick, tell me please. Did you feel bad this morning too?" She hesitated before she spoke, and I knew immediately that it was true.

"Natalia."

"I didn't want you to make me stay like I knew you would. That's why I just dealt with it and went to work."

"You couldn't even stand the smell of coffee."

"How did you find out about that?"

"Calleigh told Eric and he told me. But that's irrelevant to this. Just promise me that next time you'll take off work for a while."

"I promise. Can we take a walk? It helps my stomach." She had this look in her eyes, and it was impossible for me to say no.

"Yeah. Come on." I took her hand and walked down the street and onto the beach. We stepped onto the wooden sidewalk that lead us along the shoreline and watched the sun slowly disappear behind the horizon.

"Do you remember this spot?"

She smiled. "Of course I do." Holding out her left hand, she let the diamond catch the diminishing rays of sunlight.

I placed my hands on her hips and rubbed circles with my thumbs.

"If I had asked you two years ago if you had ever thought that we would be right here, right now, what would you say?"

"I never would've thought that I'd be standing here with the most beautiful woman, and never in a million years would I have thought that we'd be having a baby in thirty weeks."

"Before, I couldn't picture myself being a mother, and taking care of a child. I still can't."

"Natalia, you have such a motherly instinct. You'll be amazing." I put my forehead on hers and looked down into her eyes, and saw anticipation and excitement looking back at me. Finally, she had come to accept that she was going to be a parent. We were going to be parents.

"I don't look pregnant, though."

"No, you don't. I saw you in your bikini yesterday and there's no baby bump. Yet." I winked.

She laughed and said, "Well, in another ten weeks or so there will be." Nat put her hands over her flat stomach, and I placed mine gently on top of it.

"Which reminds me, there's a staff beach/pool party tomorrow. Do you want to go?"

"Yeah. But beach/pool?

"It's at the new resort about three miles from here? There's a pool right on the beach."

"I'm in." I laughed and kissed her, and at that moment, a raindrop fell and braised my cheek.

And at that moment, a simple kiss became magical. To feel the rain pour down and soak Natalia's hair, to see it curl up just how I liked it, made my heart melt. To know that even when she was at her worst, throwing up, sleeping, whatever it may be, she could still make me fall head over heels for her, gave me the best feeling I could ever ask for. And that feeling, the one that I had wanted my entire life, was love.

~Natalia's POV~

"Ryan! Stop!" I laughed, trying to bat his hands away. He picked me up off the ground and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Put me down!" I bent my head back and he brushed his lips gently over my neck.

"I am not putting you down." He smiled, kissed me, and turned towards the direction of our house. By now our clothes were stuck to our bodies, and the rain was falling out of the sky like a waterfall. We stumbled in the door, soaked and wrapped up in each other's arms.

"I love you," I mumbled, putting my feet on the ground and leaning my body into his.

"I love you, too." I stood on my tip toes to kiss him, and I smiled when I felt his lips connect to mine.

"You are the most beautiful, amazing, perfect woman I have ever met, and I can't wait to have this baby with you."

"Ryan…" I felt the tears well up in my eyes, and I mentally cursed the hormones.

"Don't cry, please. There's nothing to be sad about," he wiped a tear out of the corner of my eye.

"I know. But I'm pregnant and I cry all the time for no reason and I hate it," I rambled.

"Don't worry about it. Yes, I hate seeing you cry, but I love the fact that you're pregnant."

"You're so excited."

"I am." He picked up my hands and held them in his lap. "Aren't you?"

"It's a confusing feeling. I don't really know…exactly what's going on."

"Talk to me."

"Ryan, we're all wet, and it's freezing in here."

"Hold on." He bounced off the couch and flipped the switch for our fireplace, grabbing a blanket on the way back. "Here," he strung the blanket around both of our shoulders and pulled me close.

"Tell me what's bothering you."

"I don't know. It's just stressful, because I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Babe, neither do I."

"But I don't understand why all of this is happening. I don't know why I keep throwing up; I don't know why I can't stay awake during the day. And I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to get through the next seven months, let alone give birth to this baby!"

"Hold on, take a deep breath. We're going to get through this."

"I just….I just don't know what to do." I buried my face in my hands and cried.

"Hey, sweetheart, please don't cry." His voice softened and he hugged me even tighter.

"I'm so scared and confused," I leaned my head into his shoulder.

"I feel the same way. But what exactly are you scared about?"

"I'm scared…that I won't be a good mother. That I'm not going to be able to take care of him or her."

"You will. The only person who knows you better than yourself is me, and I'm telling you that you're more than ready to be a mother."

"I just want to be the mother that I never really had. I grew up with just my father for most of my life, and I don't want this child to go through that."

"This baby will grow up with an amazing mother, and I'll be here right next to you every day and every night. Even when you don't need me, I'll stay right next to you, and do every single thing I can to help you."

I smiled. "Oh my God. You're so amazing, Ryan. Would you seriously stay up with me in the middle of the night, when I have to wake up every two hours to feed the baby?"

"I'll stay up with you right now. You mean the world to me. I'll do everything and anything I can to make sure you and this baby are happy and comfortable. That's all I want."

"Thank you so much." I looked up at him and he wiped the tears off of my face with his thumb, pulling me close and kissing my head.

"I love you more than anything else in the world, and I'll show you that every single day."

"I love you too, baby." I leaned my head up towards Ryan and kissed him, and finally, finally, I felt better. He pressed his lips on my cheek and lingered there for a couple seconds. And right on cue, to ruin the perfectly romantic moment, his phone rang.

"You have got to be kidding me," he mumbled, and pulled it out of his pocket.

"Don't answer it."

"It's my parents. They never call. Hello?" I tried to follow their conversation, but lost track after a couple of words. Instead, I relaxed against Ryan's warm, supportive body and closed my eyes. He absentmindedly stroked my arm, providing a protective feeling like no other.

"What was that about?"

"You know how my dad was in the military, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Every year, there's a huge military ball, with dinner, dancing, everything. They want us to go."

"Why didn't we go last year?"

"We were on our honeymoon. But I think we should really try and make it. This is a really important event to them."

"I'll go. It sounds like it'd be a lot of fun."

"To an extent. Listen, I hate to bring this up…..but my parents don't know about this baby yet. It may be a good time to tell them."

"I don't know. My family has no idea either."

"When are you going to tell them?" he asked, just further reminding me of what I was procrastinating.

"Soon." I didn't really want to talk about my family at the moment. "Will your parents be….happy about it? Because if not…I don't want to make a scene."

"Of course they will. They've been begging us for grandchildren for years."

"Us?"

"My sister and I. She got married about a year and half before we did, but her and her husband don't want kids right now."

"Okay. As long as there's no problem with it, I don't mind." He smiled and kissed my forehead, and I put my hands on his chest.

"Thanks, Ryan, for listening to me during that ridiculous, hormonal, crying rant."

"Anytime. How about we stay in tonight, watch a movie, have a quick dinner. If you're up for it."

I laughed. "I'm totally in for the movie, but the baby's not taking any food tonight." I patted my stomach and Ryan's face lit up.

"Let's shower first."

"I'll go," I volunteered before he could say anything.

"Take your time, babe." I walked into the bathroom, anxious to re-scent my hair with my shampoo instead of the humid, wet smell of southern Florida. But when I stepped into the shower and let the hot water penetrate the layer of invisible grime, I felt a sudden, all too familiar feeling spread through my body.

~Ryan's POV~

"Ryan? I threw up again."

"Seriously? That's the fourth time today."

She looked at me sarcastically.

"Sorry. What, you know, provoked it?"

"I think it was the smell of the mouthwash or the toothpaste."

"Mint?"

"Maybe. You know how it is. Everything makes me nauseous."

"It's all worth it."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's watch a movie now," she smiled, and I loved how Natalia could still be the perky, fun person I knew even after she threw up.

"Titanic's on TV now. Is that okay?"

"I love this movie." She crawled underneath the covers and laid her head on my chest, where it seemed to fit perfectly. Morning sickness, on top of the already present fatigue from her pregnancy, made her extremely weary by the time night came around. After about half an hour, she was completely knocked out. Careful not to wake her, I gave her a gentle kiss and switched off the TV.