A/N: Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! And, this may not make much sense to you all, but this is a "Hive Mind Disclaimer": This chapter has a very similar line, almost word for word, to one line on Gene Harlow's WSHAB fic and just so you know, I didn't copy her. Nor did she copy me. We just have kindred, twin minds. And we know it ;) End of disclaimer. Hope you enjoy the next few chapters! Thanks for reading!

"Hi! Is my husband in?" I ask Regina as I enter the station. I place emphasis on the word husband. I don't feel as weird now calling him that. He is my husband and the people who work with him know, and anyway, I'm here on a mission so I have to mark my territory from the get go.

She looks up from her computer screen to me and looks slightly displeased. God, I know she hates me but can she be a little less obvious about it?

"Uh, no, Mrs. Romero. He went out but should be back shortly. Do you want to come in and wait for him in his office?" She asks with a fake smile.

"Actually, that would be great. Thank you! And also, I brought something for you, I mean, for all of you here at the station." Now she looks at me like I just said I'm dropping an atomic bomb on them.

"It's a cake. I brought a Happy New Year's cake for all of you. If you can help me with the door, I can bring it in." I offer and she stands up, and holds the door open while I go to the chair to retrieve the box holding the cake I brought.

"Where shall I put it?"

"Uh… here, come with me Mrs. Romero, please." She directs and I follow her to another room, a small kitchen where there are a few officers having their lunches.

"Guys, Mrs. Romero brought a cake."

"It's for all of you. I made it. I just wanted to say thank you for keeping our town safe. Alex only has great words about you, about all of you." I say looking at Regina who looks uncomfortable and slightly in shock.

"Thank you, Mrs. Romero." One of the men says and the others follow suit.

"Oh! You're welcome, it's nothing really. Enjoy!" I leave them to their lunch and the cake.

"Do you want coffee or anything while you wait for the sheriff?" Regina offers.

"Yes, please. Coffee will be fine, thanks." I answer as she directs me to Alex's office. She then comes back with a coffee mug and gives it to me.

"Here you go. And thank you again, for the cake. That was really nice of you."

"Oh. It's okay. I hope you like red velvet cake and buttercream frosting." I take a sip of coffee.

"I do." She smiles, not so forced this time.

"Oh well! Look at the time! Alex is not back yet and I have a million things to do! I better go." I say standing up and she leads me to the exit.

"Happy New Year, Regina."

"Happy New Year, Mrs. Bates. I mean, Mrs. Romero."

"What's this I hear my wife coming into the station bearing baked gifts for my employees?" I greet her when I find her at the kitchen after I arrive home from work.

She turns around and we hug. I press a kiss on her forehead.

"I just thought I do something nice. You know, for karma and all that. I know your secretary hates me."

"Who? Regina? She doesn't hate you."

She raises her eyebrow at me. "She does. And it's probably my fault in a way. I know sometimes I'm not the easiest person to deal with."

"Sometimes?" I say half-jokingly.

"Well, I'm trying. I don't want the people you work with to think you have a horrible wife."

"They don't think that. I don't think that." I kiss her lips softly.

"Good." She seems to like my answer.

Three days into the New Year and Norma's humor has changed completely. I don't mind her mood swings. That's one of the things about her I found completely fascinating and utterly irritating at the same time ever since I met her. Now that I live with her it's easier to maneuver them. I can keep her calm, most of the times.

But I can't seem to figure what is bothering her so much this time. Maybe she really likes Christmas and since holidays are over she's in a bad temper about it. She hasn't gone to visit Norman yet since we got back from Santa Barbara, so that can't be it.

"Norma?" I find her doing the dishes from our breakfast. "I'm leaving for work."

"Yeah, okay." She doesn't turn around but I go over and kiss her cheek.

"See you tonight." I tell her and leave.

After dinner we go to the living room. I offer to put on one of her favorite movies.

"Yeah, whatever you want." She answers without much enthusiasm.

She does sit next to me, and 20 minutes later, has her head on my shoulder and her legs under her; her favorite relaxing position to watch TV. But before the movie ends she stands up, announcing she forgot to wash her hair and is getting late and she should do it now.

Back in the bedroom, as we get ready for bed, I observe her. She is silently going through all her evening rituals; putting on lotion on her legs, brushing her hair, looking out the window. She always does that even if there are no guests staying at the motel.

Then she takes off her robe, hangs it on the folding screen and comes to bed. I turn off the bedside lamp and settle in, expecting her to want to cuddle and fall asleep, but she surprises me by kissing me with fervent passion and I don't ask her what she wants. Her intention is clear.

Our encounter tonight is fast and hard and passionate.

"Norma. Is something wrong?" I ask her the next day when her mood hasn't improved by the early evening.

"Why?"

"Because you seem distant, preoccupied." I thread the waters of her emotions carefully.

"I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine."

"What do you want from me?" The volume in her voice is rising.

"The same thing I always want from you: the truth. You haven't said anything in hours, you are miles away. Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong! I don't know if anything's wrong. It's just… things. Things that happened… or may not happen."

"What the hell does that even mean?" I speak loudly at her now, louder than I intended to, and instantly regret it.

"I don't want to talk about it!"

She burst out of the room, runs up the stairs and I hear the door being shut.

I know she misses Norman but I hope this has nothing to do with him. I hope she doesn't want him back in the house. I won't allow it. It will be more difficult anyway, now that we've both signed the authorization for his medical care. Doctors will have to agree that he's healthy enough to be released. But I still get anxious thinking that's what she might be thinking about. It might not be a good conversation to have but we'll need to talk about it.

"I went to see Norman today." She tells me the next day over dinner.

"How is he?" I keep the conversation going; trying to find out if her foul mood from yesterday had anything to do with it. Maybe Dr. Edwards had called and given her some bad news ahead of her visit.

"He's still not out of the woods, so to speak."

"What does that mean?"

"It means… it just means he's still in therapy, he's still on meds, nothing's changed. Dr. Edwards thinks he needs more time." She's sniffing now.

"Norma, you might think he's not getting any better, but at least he's getting help. And while he's in there he can't hurt himself or anybody else."

"You've told me that already." She says through gritted teeth.

"Because it's the truth."

"Fine." She takes a bite of food, chews at it angrily and swallows it.

"I think he was happy Dylan went to see him." She mentions as an afterthought.

"That's good. It's important he feels he has his brother's support too."

"I want to ask you something." She says and I stop eating, put my fork down and give her my undivided attention.

"Yes?"

"If something happened to me, would you take care of Norman?"

"What?" I'm instantly scared. Is she sick? I remember her dizzy spells from days before. Has she been threatened again by one of the assholes who live in this town? "Why are you asking me that?" I try to sound calm and collected, although I'm anything but.

"No reason at all. But if I were to die tomorrow Norman would have no one. Aside from Dylan that is, and he's too young and doesn't have any money so... Would you take care of him?" She's close to crying, pleading with her eyes.

"Yes, Norma. I'd take care of Norman. I mean, I would keep paying for his medical insurance if that's what you're asking."

"That would be enough. Thank you."

She keeps eating like she didn't just talked about dying and begged me to take care of her mentally unstable son in her absence.

We finish eating in silence. I help her clear the table and do the dishes. Her hand lingers on my back when she passes by me while cleaning the counter top and table surfaces. It's a nice quiet moment.

"Are you going to watch some TV?" She asks absentmindedly.

"Maybe."

"I'm going upstairs, want to take a bath."

"Okay."

After watching TV for a while, I get bored and head upstairs myself. I change for bed and then she comes into the bedroom. She goes through her nightly routine. But tonight she climbs into bed and instead of lying down she kneels next to me.

"I need to tell you something."

I'm frozen by her words. My worst fears come rushing to the front of my brain as fast scary thoughts: she's sick, she wants to bring Norman back, she's leaving me.

"I'm listening." I manage to say in the calmest voice, even though I'm tampering down the urge to grab her by the shoulders and ask what the hell is going on. But I wait.

"I've been going crazy about something for days now and… I'm sorry I've been angry and distant. I'm also too scared to even go by myself, I thought about it, but then couldn't do it." She is not making any sense to me.

"Norma, please tell me what is going on."

"I'm late." She blurts out.

"Late for what?"

"Late, late." She repeats motioning her hand over her belly and it hits me. I look up to her face and her eyes are wide and scared.

"Oh." Is my only response, the repercussions of what she's saying too grand for me to form another sentence right now, and of course she takes my lack of words as a bad sign and keeps talking fast and desperately.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I was stupid. We never talked about it. Contraception or kids. I don't even know what you want… if you want kids or not. And it's my fault, I should've been more careful. I've been off birth control for a while now, because… well, because there wasn't anybody. And everything with us…" She motions her hands in between us, "happened so fast. And this is not the way we should've had this conversation, not when this might be happening already."

She lowers her head, resting her forehead on her hand. She looks so lost.

"Norma." I say reaching out for her. "First of all, it's not your fault and it's not only your responsibility. I was there. I should've asked. I could've been more careful too." I move her hand away from her face and place my index finger under her chin, lifting her head up, making her look at me.

She's crying now, tears silently running down her face. I'm trying to understand why she is not happy about the possibility of being pregnant. Does she not want more kids?

"And you're right; we didn't have that conversation before and it seems fitting, we always did things backwards, so let's have it now. I want you to know I've been safe with everybody else, so you know, you're safe."

"Me too, I've been careful too. And I've had tests done after…" She stops and looks at me sadly.

At the reminder of her attack at the hands of Keith I try to lighten up the mood quickly.

"Well, we already established that we were stupid about not using any kind of contraception."

She looks at me incredulously and somehow chuckles nervously through her tears.

"And I had never wanted to have kids…" Her face drops. "Because I've never met anyone who I wanted to have kids with. But I'm not opposed to the idea of having kids with you."

She tries hard to hold back more tears but her chin is trembling and her eyes water even more. At her silence I search for an answer on her face.

"None of my ex-husbands were happy about me being pregnant." She finally whispers and I understand now her hesitancy, her worry, her fear of the worst.

"I think they felt cornered. In John's case it was, I trapped him into marrying me, and we were so young we didn't know what we were doing. Sam just tolerated it. Now I just got scared… that you would be mad, or that you would leave me."

"I'm not. And I would never. Do you honestly think I would abandon you, or my kid?"

"No, I know. I'm sorry, you're right. I was just freaking out. I still am. This is not something that I planned, I promise you."

"We didn't plan it no. But we also didn't plan to get married and look how well that turned out." She smirks at me. "And just so you know, in case you didn't before, I love you and would love a child, our child, too." I pull her to me and we fall back into the mattress, me holding her close to me, my arm around her shoulders. She rests her head on my chest and drapes her arm around my stomach.

"Why you asked me earlier, during dinner, if I would take care of Norman?"

"Because if I am pregnant, and something happened to me during childbirth, I wanted to know you'd take care of Norman."

"God, you are so dramatic!"

"And you're just figuring that out?"

I press a kiss into her hair. "Umm, how late are you?"

"Eight weeks."

I count back in my head. "So, Florida, huh?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"It seems fitting too."

"How so?"

"The hurricane. You're a force of nature yourself. I can't think of a more perfect scenario."

"Shut up. It might just be a false alarm, you know?"

"We'll go first thing tomorrow morning and find out."

"You're going with me?" She exclaims a little surprised.

"Of course I am."

She kisses me and pulls me on top of her.

"Um Norma, do you think is safe to do this now?"

"I think it's a little late to be asking that."

We laugh together. She's right. And I do hope she's pregnant. Nothing would make me happier than a little blonde girl running around the house.

I called her a force of nature and she is. She came into this town like a hurricane, no, like a tornado without warning. I watched her from afar, the way you do a tornado, afraid of its intensity but drawn to its power. And then I got caught up in her winds, she swiftly picked me up and swallowed me whole. But instead of violently destroying me inside her strong columns of air, she breathed life into me.

We wake up very early. Take turns in the bathroom. Get dressed. Go down to the kitchen. She offers to make breakfast but my stomach is in knots. I don't want to eat anything right now. She makes toasts for herself and sits down to have them with her coffee. I drink mine too. Then we head out, together, and get in the SUV.

"How long it takes?" I ask her after a few minutes of sitting in the waiting room.

"The technician said the results should be ready in about an hour."

"I didn't know it was that fast."

"They're just reading hormone levels on my blood sample. I don't think that's too difficult to do." She says scrunching up her nose in the most adorable way.

After a while we hear her name being called.

"Mrs. Bates"

She goes to the counter, collects an envelope from the person seating behind it and motions for me to follow her outside.

"That's it? They didn't tell you anything."

"That's because I can read. And so do you." She mentions nonchalantly and I chuckle. "Where do you want to open this?"

"Uh, here?" I look around the sidewalk and shrug.

"Okay." She proceeds to unceremoniously open the envelope and I keep my eyes on her face as she reads. Then her whole face crumbles into a cry, and then a smile, and she hands me the papers. I scan my eyes over it quickly until I see the words: 'Pregnancy Test Results – Positive'.

I look at her, my own smile mirroring hers now.

"You're pregnant."

"That's what it says, yes."

I hug her, wrapping my arms tightly around her, and she does the same. She's crying into my shoulder now, probably wetting my work shirt too but I don't care. I caress her hair and close my eyes as I breathe in her scent and in the news we've just received.

"I'm sorry, your shirt."

"That's ok. Come on, let's go." I grab her hand and lead her back to the car.

I drive back to the house. She's been holding my hand the entire ride and with her other, the papers. We grin at each other every time I have to stop at a light. We arrive at the house and I park next to her car. She takes off her seatbelt and turns to look at me.

"What are we going to do now?" She asks.

"We're going to have a baby."

"I mean about money. There's the house, and now there will be my doctor's appointments and Norman's treatment and the hospital for the baby's birth. Right now the motel is not bringing in anything…"

"Shhh, Norma, don't worry. You still have the money I gave you and I have my savings. I was a bachelor living a very frugal life. I didn't have big splurges. I don't make a lot as a sheriff, but I do save, and I've been saving for a long time. And you, and Norman, and the baby will all be in my health insurance so you don't have to worry about that either. We'll be fine. I don't want you to worry about anything."

"I love you."

She leans over the seats division and kisses me softly placing her hands on both sides of my face.

"I love you too."

I can't help it and reach my hand to touch her belly. I smile looking at her still flat stomach and imagine how big she will get, and how much I will love it, knowing she's carrying my child inside her.

She places her hand on top of mine. "You should go to work now."

"I should. I'll see you later today."

"Yes. I'll be here."

She opens the door and gets out but before she leaves I have to ask her something.

"Norma?"

"Yes?"

"Would you like a boy or a girl?"

She smiles broadly.

"What do you want?" She asks back.

"Me? I'd like a little girl. But if it's a boy I'll take it too."

She laughs.

"Well, you better. We won't be able to return it."

I nod at her. I like her amused expression.

"So?"

"So what?"

"Boy or girl?"

"I like boys. Maybe because that's the only thing I've known." She ponders her next answer a little. "I want a healthy child that looks like you." She finishes triumphantly.

I don't have a better reply to that so I let her go. She closes the door and starts walking up the big steps towards the house. I look at her and think I also won't mind if it's a boy or a girl, a healthy child too, but in one thing we're not in agreement. I want the kid to look like her.

Arriving home after the day's work I find Norma reclining on the sofa and many of the Christmas decorations already taken down. The living room is looking a little messy, something that is a very uncommon sight at the Bates house.

"Hi. How are you feeling?" I go over to the sofa, sit down in the little space she makes moving to the side, and kiss her hello.

"Fine. Just got a little dizzy and had to stop for a while." She gestures towards the mess around her.

"I'll help you. You don't have to take all this down by yourself."

"Okay." She grins.

"I don't want you to overdo it."

"Alex, I'm pregnant not sick." She raises an eyebrow for emphasis.

"Okay, but I still get to take care of you." I peck her lips once more and she smiles.

"I can't believe I'll have a child that's 20 years in age apart from my other two sons." She then says with a sigh.

"I know this wasn't planned, but are you happy?"

"Yes, I'm very happy. I'm a little anxious that's all. You?"

"Ecstatic." We both grin widely. "Did you make the doctor's appointment?"

"Yes, it's for next Thursday at 11."

"Great, I'll get out of work and meet you there."

"You're going?"

"I'm planning on going to every one of your doctor's appointments, if that's ok with you?"

"Yes! Again, this would be a first for me, but yes, I'd love to have you there."

"Ok, it's settled then."

"Do you remember what you told me the day we got married?" She asks and I'm not sure which one of the many things I said that day she's referring to. "That it was not forever." She clarifies.

"Yeah, but I was trying to not let you know I wished it was."

"Well, you turned out to be a pretty good roommate so I think I'll keep you around."

"I'm glad." I laugh and she joins in.

"I didn't mention it before, but your wedding ring has an inscription on the inside. Have you seen it?"

"No, I haven't taken it off since you gave it to me." I take the ring off my finger and read the inside of it. 'Forever. All my love, Norma.'

"So we're in this forever, huh?" I tell her putting my ring back on my finger.

"Yeah, I think so."

"And kid here?" I say touching her belly.

"Kid is stuck with us forever too."

We laugh. I look at her and she looks happy and radiant. I move my head down, until my nose is very close to hers, and give her an Eskimo kiss. Then we lock lips and kiss softly and invitingly, until her phone rings. Norma reaches for it, answers it and stops smiling.

"Dylan? What is it? What's wrong?"

TBC…