Chapter Ten

Rick Rodgers was a man on a mission.

Ever since the previous night at dinner, his mind spun around the possibility of Kate being pregnant with Nick's child. Though he knew his grandmother's reasoning for suspecting so was circumstantial at best and could easily be explained by several other factors, he just couldn't shake his suspicions that it might be true. After all, Kate's pregnancy might be the first thing that actually made sense about her relationship with Nick.

In Rick's mind Kate and Nick together just didn't add up. When he told her the prior Saturday that she didn't seem to be Nick's type, he meant it wholeheartedly. He had known his brother for nearly thirty years and Nick had never once shown any interest in any girl remotely like Kate.

Rick loved his brother in the same way that he loved Lanie; the irrevocable sibling kind of love. He would never not love his brother, but sometimes he didn't really like Nick. And he had yet to like one of Nick's girlfriends.

In Rick's mind, Nick was attracted almost exclusively to women Rick would classify as bubbleheads. That was to say: girls with not too much substance in the personality department. These women were beautiful in the society approved ways: large breasts, tiny waists, tan skin. They were also almost always blonde and, in his experience, had limited conversation skills—unless you were talking about shopping and spending money.

Nick's relationship with Gina was by far the exception to the rule he'd previously established. Yes Gina was blonde and had an ample cup size, but she was also extremely intelligent, which was the quality in her Rick found the most attractive. Ultimately, her other qualities, including shallowness and lack of compassion, caused the demise of their relationship ended, but Gina was one Rick would not classify as a bubblehead.

Kate, on the other hand, broke all the rules. She was beautiful, but in an organic, no-need-for-makeup way. She was smart and clearly incredibly strong if she had a career in law enforcement. She also did not seem the type that needed a man to complete or fulfill her existence. Thus, Rick was not so much surprised that Nick was attracted to her, but that she was attracted to him.

Maybe if it was a few years into the future—after Nick had gotten all the bachelor playboy desires out of his system. His brother could be a good man and Rick hoped he would be again, but in recent years all the money had gone directly to his head and caused him to make many stupid decisions and act like a complete and utter jerk.

It was plausible, he argued to himself, that Kate had been right. Maybe meeting her caused Nick to settle down; maybe it was love at first sight. That certainly wasn't impossible—it just wasn't likely. Thus couldn't shake the suspicion that his grandmother was right and that Kate was pregnant and that was why he arrived at the NYPD's twelfth precinct shortly after eleven a.m. on Tuesday.

Rick inquired at the welcome desk if Officer Kate Beckett was available or out on patrol. He waited for several moments, observing both the officers and the criminals passing through the lobby, before being told he could proceed up to vice on the second floor. Rick thanked the desk officer and then made his way to the elevator.

Stepping off on the second floor, Rick took a moment to observe his surroundings. Rick had never ventured this deep into a police station before owing to the fact that he had never been arrested or the subject of any investigations. He had interviewed a few officers throughout the course of his reporting career, but those interviews had either taken place on the street or in the lobby area.

The bullpen was, in a word, busy. Dozens of officers and detectives milled about, several of them leading around handcuffed suspects. Rick found the chaos intriguing, but knew he needed to continue on his mission. "Excuse me," he asked the closest officer: a tall Asian man. "Do you know where I can find Officer Beckett?"

"Pretty sure she's in there," he said, gesturing towards a doorway off to their left.

Rick thanked the man with a nod, and soon found himself entering what must have been a break room for it contained several tables, a couch along one wall, and a kitchenette with a refrigerator, microwave, and coffee pot. There, he found Kate standing by one of the tables, her shoulder-length brown hair tucked into a bun at the nape of her neck, dressed in her full police uniform. She was surrounded by two male colleagues; the three of them were laughing.

Rick cleared his throat. "Ah, excuse me, Kate?"

Her eyes shot to him and widened. "R-Rick? What are you doing here?" She walked away from her coworkers and stopped a few feet from him, her expression indicating shock as well as confusion.

"I, um, well I just…I wanted to talk to you and I was, um, well…" Any coherent thoughts he had were lost as he observed her. Navy blue, well-fitting uniform. Utility belt complete with flashlight, pepper spray and, most notably, a service pistol secured in its holster. Rick swallowed hard. "I just…is this job even safe?"

Confused by all his stammering, Kate's brow furrowed. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Should you be doing this when you're pregnant?" he asked her.

Her jaw fell an inch. "When I'm…what?" Had he just said pregnant!? Surely, she had heard him wrong. But what other word sounded like "pregnant"?

Much to her horror, the next voice Kate heard was not Rick's, but instead her colleague several feet away. "You pregnant Beckett? Why didn't you tell us!"

Kate shot her cohort a dangerous look. "I'm not pregnant," she assured him. That definitely wasn't even possible. Turning back to Rick, she folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her gaze. He swallowed hard and took a step back. Good, that was very good. "You thought I was pregnant?"

"Uh…um…well, you see…"

Taking a step forward she challenged, "Why did you think I was pregnant?"

"Well, I, actually it was, see," Rick continued to stammer until he gave up and covered his face with his hands. "God I'm so sorry. Grandma thought and I just…Mother was…and we thought…Sorry?" he said again at her increasingly angry expression.

Kate took a step closer to him and lowered her voice. "I am not pregnant and I would appreciate it if you left; I'm still on duty."

"I, okay, god, I am so, so sorry Kate. Wait! I can make this up to you. Let me buy you a coffee. Ten coffees," he upped his offer at her perturbed look.

"As I said, I'm on shift and-"

"Just go get coffee, Beckett. Oh wait—can you have coffee when you're pregnant?" One of her colleagues chuckled as they walked by. Kate growled under her breath; great, she was going to be hearing about this for weeks!

She turned back to see a pitiful expression on Nick's brother's face. Finally glad she wasn't the only one wrought with guilt, she threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine, you can buy me coffee—but it has to be quick."

"Once again I am extremely, incredibly sorry," Rick said, passing over the Starbucks latte he purchased at the shop across the street from the precinct.

She took the cup with a grumbled thank you. "A shotgun wedding, huh? That's the only reason your brother would marry me?" She guessed, presuming that to be the Palaburn-Rodgers family reasoning. God, the discussion they must have had after she left the prior evening. Had she actually been engaged to Nick she would have been mortified.

"No, no—that's not it," Rick assured her. At Kate's persistent stare, he relented. "Okay, that's kind of it. It's just…Grandma noticed you weren't drinking alcohol and she thought that was the reason you and Nick were engaged. Mother thought the word 'grandbaby' and got extremely excited and the rest just kind of spiraled out of control."

Kate nodded and sipped her coffee, wondering where Lanie had been during this discussion and if she had fueled it on or attempted to diffuse it. "I see."

"It's just…you have to understand. For us, this is quite unexpected. Nick never seemed like he was looking for a serious relationship that would lead to marriage. It's very surprising. And without Nick here to talk about it-"

"Seems odd; I get it," she cut him off. Of course it seemed odd—it wasn't true! But, naturally, she couldn't say that to him. Well, she could have—very easily, in fact, but that would have opened up a larger discussion that she was not prepared to have when she had to return to work in less than five minutes.

Rick looked at her wearing a grimace. "I am very sorry. And I promise to tell my family that you're not pregnant, because you're not."

"No. I am not," she confirmed. Then, after scuffing her shoe against the sidewalk for several moments she told him, "My father was an alcoholic."

If given a year to think about it Kate wasn't sure she could have fully formulated her reasoning for revealing that truth to Nick's brother. She understood why the Palaburn-Rodgers family questioned her lack of alcohol consumption; most people did. In many situations she used the excuse that a family member had been an alcoholic, never naming which family member, and in general people did not ask too many questions after that. She didn't mind explaining her lack of drinking as it was an atypical thing to do but she didn't like speaking about it in great detail, which was why she surprised even herself by confessing to Rick.

Much to Kate's relief, he didn't pepper her with questions. Instead, he merely nodded and said, "I'm sorry to hear that."

They stood in silence for several more moments before Kate informed him she needed to be getting back to work. He walked her back to the precinct and asked, "Oh, hey. Tomorrow's New Year's Eve. Have any plans?"

Kate shrugged. "Working."

"In Time's Square?" he asked with a certain degree of intrigue.

She shook her head with a slight laugh. "No—thank god. I'm just on duty so I'll be inside keeping warm until we get a call…which we inevitably will."

"Right well…Happy New Year, Kate. And I'm sorry again about…being an asshole," he said with a guilty grimace.

For some reason, this unusual apology made Kate feel better. She smiled at him, thanked him for the coffee, and then hurried back inside bracing herself to face the teasing that would inevitably come from all the officers she worked with. Happy New Year indeed.