Thanks to everyone again! And thanks to Eri for the speedy beta ;) :D

Natalie sauntered into the break room, feeling apprehensive, delighted and nauseous all at once. The ride to work had been filled with one-sided conversations and possible scenarios. She wasn't really looking forward to her talk with Mac, that was if she could actually find Mac.

She saw Stella and Danny by the counter, their backs turned to her, bickering over the coffee pot yet again.

"I made it yesterday," he told her.

"That's what you call coffee?"

"That was damn good coffee! Bronx coffee! Doesn't get much better than that."

"Instant is better than yesterday's sludge," she smirked spooning beans into the filter.

"Hey, you guys? Do you know where Mac is? He's not in his office," Natalie asked, looking slightly green in the break room's light. Her hair was tousled as well.

"He's not in today," Danny said, adding an extra spoon of coffee when Stella had turned to Nat.

She saw him in the corner of her eyes, though, and swatted him before taking the extra back out. "Everything all right?"

"Everything's fantastic. And also not. Can I talk to you for a second?" she asked, gesturing to the hall.

"Sure," Stella smiled, snapping the percolator lid shut and putting the coffee jar back in the cupboard before Danny could touch it. He scowled at her as they left, then got the jar back out and added some more. As the door to Mac's office whooshed shut, she asked, "So, what's up?"

Natalie sat down on the chair next to her and put her head in her hands. "Okay, I found something out yesterday…There's lots of ways to say this…"

"'Bun-in-the-oven', 'Up-the-Duff', 'Knocked-up'…?" Stella helped.

"Exactly, so I'm just going to say it-wait! How'd you know?" Nat leant back in the chair, her mouth slightly a-gape.

"Why do you think you've been on lab duty for the past week?" she smirked. "I had my suspicions but thought it would be better for you to find out in your own steam. And if, in fact, it turned out that you weren't pregnant, the labs would probably be better off anyway."

Natalie gave a chuckle, wondering why she wasn't more surprised. Of course Stella had figured it out. "So what do we do?"

"Well, the guidelines stipulate that you can't process any scenes, or handle any of the chemicals in the labs-"

"So I'm pretty much screwed then?" she sighed.

"We already know that," Stella winked, making Nat giggle again. "You can still do the interviews, within reason, and do certain procedures. But the chemicals might have effects on the baby, so we can't risk it."

"That's fair enough, as long as I still have somewhere to go. Steven's already baby-proofing the apartment and is driving me crazy," she rolled her eyes.

"Proud Pops," she smiled. "I'll give Mac a ring and tell him the good news. He'd tell you the same things I just did."

"Can we not tell the guys though? I haven't gone three months yet, unlucky and all that."

"No problem. We can tell them you're on a rotation or something; seeing things from a tech's-eye-view."

"That'd be great," she smiled. "It still hasn't sunk in for me yet. Steven's all ready and raring to go, I'm quivering in the corner scared witless."

Stella stood up, putting an arm around Natalie's shoulders as she got up too. "It'll all come together, don't worry. You'll hold that tiny little thing in your arms and everything will fall into place."

"We'll soon find out," she said, turning to her mentor. "So you'll tell Mac? Where is he, anyway?"

"It's the 22nd," Stella explained, Natalie's expression telling her she hadn't explained enough. "Claire's birthday."

"Oh! Wow."

"He always takes it off. Stays in with the home movies and photo albums. Those pictures on his desk will be different tomorrow."

"It doesn't bother you? Him still being so hung up on his ex?"

"Claire isn't exactly his ex, but she is the love of his life."

"Hmm…we'll see," Nat smirked, slipping out of the office.

Stella smiled as she watched Natalie rejoin Danny in the break room, the smell of strong coffee wafting through the shutting door. She grabbed the phone as she rounded the desk, dialling Mac's number.

"Taylor."

"Hey, it's me."

"Hey, everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. Danny's making the morning's sludge, and Natalie's going to be on lab duty for a bit longer."

"How much longer?"

"Oh, I'd say about seven months."

"Ah…"

"Yeah, she just told me."

"But you already knew, of course."

"Of course. Everything okay your end?"

"Everything's fine."

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Of course, bye." Mac smiled as he hung up, putting the phone on the sofa next to him. He turned his attention back to the photo-album on his lap, turning the page.

There was a gap in the arrangement, the page's subject being his and Claire's wedding. The missing photo was sat on his desk at work, but would be returned to the album tomorrow, and replaced with another. It was what he always did, he'd find another photograph that made him smile and remember a different happy time. He wondered, this time around, whether he should take another picture of him and Claire. He'd moved on: He had a girlfriend and no matter how understanding and amazing she was, it had to be weird to be subjected to his past while she was his future.

A couple of pages down, Stella's face smiled back at him. It was 1997 at her surprise birthday party, organised by Claire. She had been duped to believe she was going for a 'quiet drink' with her friends from work, little did she know, her 'friends from work' would be the entire day shift and some from Narcotics. Sullivan's had never been so busy.

One picture caught his eye. He vaguely remembered Claire telling him how 'close' he and Stella looked, he shrugged it off with a smirk, telling her she was just jealous that he was so 'desirable'.

Mac pulled the plastic sheet back from the page, peeling the photograph off. He looked at the younger versions of himself and Stella standing against the bar, leaning in to hear each other over the music. He had hand his hand on her arm, and had to admit; to the untrained eye it did look quite intimate. A foreshadow to the future perhaps?

The next photo he unstuck was also he and Stella: This one from New Years 2005/2006.

Stella had a metallic cone-party-hat bearing "2006!" on her head to a side, and party-popper string dangling from her corkscrew curls. Mac had his arm around her, popper string on his shoulders and stuffed in his jacket pocket.

It always had been a favourite, although now it held more of a meaning.

From tomorrow, his desk would have one picture of him and Claire: the one of her on his lap at the Christmas party in 2000; and 3 of him and Stella. If that wasn't a symbol of how much he had grown and moved on, he didn't know what was.

Mac couldn't help but wonder what Claire would make of it all. She had made herself clear of how she felt about Stella, even said she saw Stella as the next Mrs. Taylor. That was a long way down the road though. Wasn't it?